of the Reins and Bladder For it quenches or allays the inordinate heat of the Kidneys and an excellent Vehicle for carrying off the slimy dregs out of those Vessels through the Bladder so that the Egyptians by the frequent use thereof are absolutely freed from the Stone It is also useful against pains in the Limbs arising from heat especially against the Gout applyed by way of Plaister The Blossoms Candied with Sugar are a powerful Remedy against the Heat of the Kidneys and cleanse and free the Uretories from vicious and slimy foulness The green Pipes first decocted in water and then dryed in the shade and lay'd in Sugar or Honey are used commonly by Women and Children against the same Distempers taking the weight of half an Ounce at a time The Plant by the Arabians in Egypt call'd Elhanne Elhanna and by the Physicians Alcanna grows with many Branches like a little Shrub The Leaves resemble those of the Olive being shortish but something broad of a fresh and flourishing green The Blossoms grow as those of the Elder-tree and used by the Women as a comfortable refreshment in their Baths A decoction of the Leaves prevents the falling off of Hair and drives away Vermin the Egyptian Women with the Juyce of the Leaves and Branches paint their Nails in the manner of a Semi-circle which remains long without wearing off Of the stamped powder of the Leaves which they call Archenda mixt with water is made a Gold colour wherewith they stain their Hands and Feet which yellow tincture they hold for a great Beauty Lablab a Tree with many Branches climbing and spreading like a Vine Lablab but in Leaves Blossoms and Form resembling the Roman Bean. Twice a year that is in Lent and Harvest it bears long and broad Cods or Shells which contain in them Black and Brown reddish Beans streaked as the Roman This continues many times without sensible decay a hundred years carrying both Winter and Summer green Leaves The Egyptians use the Beans for food which are no less pleasant than the European The Women drink the Decoction of it for their Moneths and it is good against the stopping of the Urine and the Cough Melochia is an Herb growing a Cubit high with thin and limber Twigs Melochia The Leaves are like those of a Beet but smaller long and sharp-pointed The Blossoms are little and colour'd like Saffron the Seeds little and black in a Husk like a Horn. The Seed is us'd to prevent Swooning-fits and ripens all hard Swellings though this be common yet is nothing more acceptable to the Palate for they boyl it either alone in water or in Pottage as we dress Beets at Feasts they both garnish and season their Dishes with it which is very pleasing yet notwithstanding this repute it agrees not over-well with many for it yields but slender nutriment and a flimy juice breeding in such as eat much of it great stoppings and Costiveness in their Bowels The taste also is something flashy and flat unless quicken'd with Juice of Lemons The Decoction of the Leaves is very good against the Cough and half an ounce of the Seed makes a sufficient Purge Sesban is a Sprout with a prickly Stock Sesban shooting up to the height of a Myrtle Tree the Blossoms are yellow the Husks or Cods long and like those of Fenugreek so also is the Seed and hath an attractive power like the Fenugreek Seed The Egyptians commonly make Hedges or Fences between their Grounds with this Bush Sophera is a Plant two Cubits high and leaved like the Myrtle Sophera it bears scentless yellow Blossoms with few Seeds which are said to be poisonous Absus is an Hearb with Leaves like the common Clover or Three-leav'd Grass Absus the Blossom white or straw-colour'd the Seed black and the Stalk prickly The Plant known to the Egyptians by the Name Sempsen Sempsen but by the Greeks and Latines call'd Sesamus grows upright a foot and half high the lower Leaves are more indented or nicked than the higher and are very like those of Nightshade The Blossoms are small and white followed by small Cods holding a Seed like Line-seed out of which Oyl is pressed which the Arabians call Zeid Taib that is Good Oyl because it is so wholesom a Food that it is sold dearer than the Oyl-Olive The Leaves The use of it Seed and Oyl moderately hot and moist in the second degree of an extenuating quality are by the Egyptians us'd against many Diseases The Countrey people heretofore fed thereon and grew fat with it but now the Oyl is chiefly us'd to take away Freckles and Spots in the Skin and to anoint Sores The Plant Berd or Papyrus Berd or Papyrus groweth upon the Nile having a reedy or stringy Root with many streight Stalks six seven or more Cubits high above water at the end of which is a multitude of long and very small Threeds seeming as a Blossom The Leaves are Triangular soft below at the Stalk broad and at the end sharp in form of a Cross-barr'd Dagger Surgeons there use the Juyce of the Leaves to cleanse and enlarge the Orifices of Sores and with the Ashes of the tops of the Stalks close and heal up the Wounds The Roots in former times serv'd in stead of Writing-Tablets The use of them the Juyce of the Stalks wrought into thin Leaves the Antients wrote upon as we now adayes do upon our Paper made of old Linnen and probably from this Plant took the name Papyrus There is a signature of a Sprig or Stalk of this Plant Carv'd upon several Obelisks whereby they signifyed the great abundance of all things because this Plant served them formerly in stead of all necessary Commodities for before the Planting of Corn was known in Egypt the people lived on this Plant making thereof Cloaths Boats all manner of Houshold-stuffe Garlands for the Gods and Shooes for the Priests But at this day by the carelessness of the Inhabitants and the importing of our European Paper thither it is by them esteemed of no worth at all There grows also a kinde of Cucumers in several places in Egypt Chate nam'd Chate differing onely from ours in Europe in greatness clearness and softness of the Leaves which are smaller whiter softer and rounder they have a very pleasant taste and are light and easie of digestion The Inhabitants account them very wholsom either eaten boyled or raw and Physicians use them against burning Feavers and several other like Distempers There grow also several kinds of Melons Abdellavi one call'd Abdellavi much differing from ours another kinde Chajar of an unpleasant and watery taste but the Seed is held to be more cooling Batechia El Mavi than of the rest A third sort call'd Batechia El Mavi bigger than ours yellow of Skin and hath within nothing but Seeds and sweet water which they drink in great abundance against Thirst and to allay
stand two large Portugal Houses each having an exceeding great and tall Tree call'd Talbassero before the Door whose interwoven Boughs that afford a pleasant shade make a delightful Arbor whereinto they frequently go and eat and sleep there North-East from thence appears Magar Magar where the King of Cayor many times keeps his Residence Emboul and seven miles farther Eastwards Emboul where the Kings Palace is divided from the City with Pallisado's interweaved with Bands and Palmito-Boughs and on the in-side Planted with many Vines Before the Court lieth a great Plain The Court of Rayer where they use to break and exercise Horses set round with Trees Into this none may enter but such as are appointed because the King 's chiefest Wives therein have their particular Apartments yet about it at the distance of a Musquet-shot many persons dwell in small Huts or Tents making a reasonable Livelihood by petty dealing with the Servants and Attendants of the Court. Ten miles from the Palace they have Embar Embar a Town set apart onely for the Reception and Entertainment of all such as come of the Blood-Royal and may have any hopes to the Succession of the Crown Three or four miles farther Bey-hourte upon the Shore of the River Zenega is a large Hamlet termed Bey-hourte where the King's Customers and Receivers reside for the Collection of all his Revenues of all sorts thither brought to them About three miles from hence Westwards The Fort of the French the French have a Fort which they maintain to support the Trade they drive there but they pay to the King Sixteen in the Hundred for Hides whereas the Portugals pay but Ten and but a little for other Wares In this Tract we arrive at Baool Lambay whose Metropolis is Lambay where the King usually resides about two miles from whence towards the North-West lieth Sangay Sangay where sometimes the King takes his Divertisements Four miles removed Eastward stands Jamesil Jamesil and about five and fifty miles to the In-land the City Borsalo Borsalo But the Royal City of the whole Kingdom of Zenega is Tubakatum Turbakatum the Court and Chamber of the Great Jalof ¶ THese Countreys are usually infested with sultery heats The Air or temper of the Climate so that the depth of their Winter is warmer than May with us yet have they stormy and wet Weather Travaden or Stormy weather or Rains which they call Travaden that is Tempestuous accompanied with much Thunder and Lightning these begin on the Sea-Coast for the most part in June and continue till September though sometimes accidental Storms happen in October and May but without Rain These sudden Gusts arise commonly out of the South-East but the stiffest and strongest out of the East-South-East which too often prove dangerous to the Sea-men The most unhealthy time here is in October for then the Air parches with Heat but when the Winds begin to blow those Breezes temper and cool the Air and so continues till towards May. ¶ SEveral Rivers water this Countrey the Chief of which are those of Zenega and Gambea both after many meandring Courses discharg'd their full Streams into the Atlantick Ocean Ortelius believes that Zenega is the same which Ptolomy nam'd Daras or Darade but Lewis Cadamost maintains it to be the Niger of the Antients and makes it a bordering Limit to Negro-Land But that Opinion seems altogether impossible because like the Nyle Niger overflows and fertilitates the Countreys it passes through whereas Zenega leaves all lying about it very lean and barren Zenega hath as many Names as it runs through Countreys Several Names Marmol l. 8. c. 3. for the Jaloffs call it Dengueh the Turkornols Maso the Caragols name it Colle the people of Bagano Zimbala those of Tombut Iza but the Portugals not knowing its proper Name stil'd it Zenega from the Name of a Prince with whom upon their first coming into these Parts they contracted a League of Amity Johannes Barros derives this Stream from certain Lakes lying in the East The Head-Fountains by Ptolomy nam'd Chelonides the greatest whereof at present is call'd Goaga and the other Nuba The Course of it is very long and straight almost in a right line till about seventeen miles above Cape de Verde disemboguing into the Ocean In Zenega though not so full of Water as Gambea many Islands appear Islands of Zenega the greatest part whereof are full of Serpents and Wilde Beasts Nor is it much profitable otherwise to such as inhabit near being not passable in many places by reason of huge Rocks causing great and unusual Cataracts like those of the Nyle which some of the Inhabitants call Huaba others Burto that is a Bowe because sometime the Water is carried up into the Air by the force of the Wind in the manner of a Bowe Many other great Rivers run into this A strange Vertue of two Rivers especially one coming out of the South and seeming to have Red-Water between these two they say is such a strange Antipathy that whoever drinks the Water of one and presently that of the other findes himself necessitated to vomit yet neither of them produce this effect single nor both together after they have mingled their Streams and run in one Channel Several kinds of Fishes and other Creatures breed herein as the Hippopotamus or Sea-Horse Crocodiles and Serpents with little Horns yet notwithstanding all these inconveniencies the Water hath a Prolifick Quality foecundating Cattel that drink of it ¶ SIx miles Southward flows Borsalo full of great dry Sholes or Sands The River Borsalo on both sides several Villages shew themselves Fountain-Springs supply'd with fresh Water from a clear Spring that rises on the Easterly Shore A Tree four fatsiom thick by a Tree above four Fathom thick For the River Water by the flowing of the Sea is brackish near forty miles ¶ NOt far from Punto Sereno floweth a small River call'd Rio de la Grace being a Border to the Kingdom of Ale before whose Mouth lieth a Shelf many times overflow'd by the Sea from which as soon as dry fresh and sweet Water continually springs Somewhat more Southerly runs Bassangamar full of great Rocks The River Bassangamar The next is Rio des Ostro's or Oyster-River The River of Oysters deep enough for the coming in of Ships Between Borsalo and Gambea the Countrey all along is plain but full of high Trees yet wholly void of Inhabitants About three miles from Jandos Northwards The Lake Eutan is the Lake Eutan six miles long and half a mile broad In time of Rain it abounds both with Water and Fish but in a dry Season so empty that they can go over dryshod The bottom for the most part covered with Simbos or pieces of Horn and Glass which in Angola they use for Money Not far distant from hence is a Well of ten Fathom deep
Wall of Elephants-Teeth in stead of Stone and there hanging upon Poles remain till they be quite rotten These Islanders also have particular Heads and chief Officers Government chosen by most Voices Several other Rivers pay their tributary Waters to increase the swelling Current of Zair the most eminent are Umbre Brankare and Barbale Umbre by Sanutus call'd Vambere rises in the North out of a Mountain in Negro-Land and loseth it self on the East-side in the Zair Brankare as Pigafet or Bankare as Sanutus calleth it taketh the original out of the same Mountain and after a long course discharging his Meandring Stream into the Sea saith the same Sanutus but Pigafet from the information of Edward Lopez averrs it mingleth with Zair on the Easterly Borders of Pango not far from the Foot of the Crystal Mountain The River Barbele so call'd by Linschot or Verbele by Pigafet springs out of the same Lake which the same Author makes the Head-Source of Nylus to flow from after which it shooteth through the Lake Aquilumde and visiting the City of Pango it enlargeth the Zair with the addition of its Water Southward of the Mouth of the River Zair shoots out a Promontory The Cape of Padron call'd in Portuguese Cabo de Padron who above a hundred years since erected a small Chappel and set up a Cross and about five miles from Padron is the Residence of the Earl of Sonho where the Netherlanders Trade A little way within Padron lieth St. Pauls Point affording a convenient Road for Ships A mile and a half from thence lieth a Creek call'd Pampus Rock Pampus Rock More on Southwards you come to the Rivers Lelunde or Lolongo Ambris Enkekoquematari Loze Onza Libonge Danda and Bengo Lelunde running between Zair and Ambris The River Lelunde hath its Head-Spring in the same Lake with Coanza or Quanza so passing close by the Foot of the Mountain where the Royal City St. Salvadore stands runs down from thence with many windings West-North-west to the Sea into which it falls with a strong Current but in the Summer so shallow that 't is not passable with Vessels of any Burden The Blacks frequent it with Canoos notwithstanding the hazard of Crocodiles which in great abundance breed there Next you come to Ambris Ambris lying in six Degrees South Latitude a great River and full of Fish but Rocky at the entrance yet passable enough for small Boats It hath the same original with Lelonde taking likewise its course not far from St. Salvadore the Water seems muddy caused by the swiftness of the Stream at whose Edges begins the Dukedom of Bamba Thirty miles up this River is a Ferry A Ferry where every Traveller for his passage over must pay a certain Toll to the King of Congo On the South Banks of it many people inhabit who get their Living by making Salt boyl'd of Sea-water in Earthen Pots and proves gray and sandy yet they carry it to Pambo and several other Places and drive a great Trade therewith Enkokoquematari is the next Enkokoquematari whose beginning lies undiscover'd to the Europeans and the whole in a manner of no use great Flats and Sands stopping up the Mouth so that it will not bear a small Boat and within so scanty of Water that a Canoo can hardly make way Loze Loze another mean Brook yet up in the Countrey passable for a Boat About twenty miles upward you must pass a Ferry where all Travellers for going over must pay Custom to the Duke of Bamba Onza or as Pigafet Onzoni is Fordable and not to be Sail'd by any Vessels because of its shallowness Lihongo Lihongo by some call'd Lemba can boast neither greater depth or better qualities Danda The River Danda. a little more Southward hath at the Mouth five or six Foot Water 't is full of Fish and feeds many Crocodiles and Sea-Horses and affords on each side fruitful Grounds somewhat high on the South-side but on the North for half a mile low Grounds Bengo The River Bengo by some taken for a Branch of Danda with Quanza another lying makes the Island Lovando it affords good Sailing with Sloops about fourteen miles upward and in the Mouth sometimes seven or eight Foot Water notwithstanding the Flats of Sand. It comes a great distance out of the Countrey and so inundates in the time of Rain viz. March April and May that with the violence of its Stream it sometimes carrieth away much of the Earth on one side which either joyns again on the other or else driven into the Sea The Winter there bears almost an equal temper with our Summer The Climate of Air. so that the People alter nothing of their Apparel nor require the warmth of Fire at that Season of the Year for the difference between Winter and Summer is scarely discernable onely the Air so long as it Rains is a little Cooler but the wet Season once past the Heat is almost intolerable especially two hours before and after Noon The Winter commences in mid March The Seasons of Rain and the Summer in September in the former the great Rains begin and continue March April May June July and August during which time they have scarce a clear day the lesser Rain in September and November The Summer on the other side is exceeding hot and dry This Countrey Congo is watry from the several Rivers hath great store of Water so that the Inhabitants are very curious in their choice of it for they will not drink the usual and every where to be had but take care for the freshest and best as appears by them of St. Salvadore who make not use of such as the adjoyning Plains afford them but cause their Slaves to fetch other more sound and healthy as they suppose out of Fountains a little lower on the North-side The Lands in the time of Rain by the muddiness of the water The King of the Land are made exceeding fruitful and fit to bring forth all manner of things The Dukedom of Batta and other lying round about hath fat and fertile ground affording all manner of Provision The Territory of Pembo especially about Saint Salvadore because of the fresh and serene Air abounds with rich Pastures Plants and produceth many flourishing and thriving Trees Here grows a kind of Grain by the Inhabitants call'd Luko Luko not unlike our Rye but smaller this they Grind into Meal by a Hand-Mill and make Bread of it Abundance also of Mille which the Natives call Mazza Manputo Mille or Mazza or Portuguese Corn as also Mais or Turky-Wheat wherewith they fat their Hogs and Rice in such plenty that it hardly bears any price Lemmons Oranges and Pome-Citron-Trees grow in every corner bearing fruit of a pleasant yet brisk taste also Bananasses Dates Coco-Nuts and Palm-Trees besides others producing Colas which the Inhabitants chaw as the Indians Betel
a Dance by them call'd Quimboara in which they say the Devil certainly enters one of them and out of him informs them of future and answers to past events But now many of them by the endeavour of the Portugal Jesuites The Angolians become Christians have been brought to the Catholick Religion especially in the year fifteen hundred eighty four at which time many thousands receiv'd Baptism insomuch that in Fifteen hundred and ninety there were above twenty thousand Families of Angolians found that were Christians and in the same year fifteen hundred more were converted the Portuguese to this day labour very much in the same good Work Every Sova hath a Chaplain in his Banza or Village to Christen Children and Celebrate Mass which on many works effectually to their confirmation though others in publick appearing Christians yet in private adhere to their damnable Idolatry The Supervising and Command of Lovando Sante Paulo Government of the City Lovando Sante Paulo by the Portuguese and the rest of Angola subject to the King of Portugal in matters of State lies in the hands of a Governor two Bradores or Burgesses and one Ovidor or Chief Justice for matters Criminal and two Judges call'd Jeuses with one Secretary The King of Portugal hath great Revenues from Angola The Revenues of the King of Portugal from Angola partly by the yearly Tributes of the Sovasen and partly by the Customs and Taxes set upon Exported and Imported Goods and Slaves This Revenue for all Rights and free Transportation to Brazil Rio dela Plata and other places is said to amount to a great summe of Money yearly which in Lisbon is Farm'd to one or more by the name of Contractadore who keeps his Factor in Lovando in the nature and with the authority of Consul deciding all matters of Trade and Money-businesses He hath to attend him one Secretary two Notaries and two Porteras or Door-keepers The Church-Government of the Portuguese in Lovando a Bishop manages Church-Government who is Suffragan of him of the Island of Sante Thombe by reason that Island prescribes antiquity and as shewing the first claims to be there the Mother-Church of the Christians The Island of LOVANDO BEfore the City Lovando Sante Paulo in eight degrees The Island Lovando and eight and forty minutes South-Latitude lies the Island of Lovando five miles with its North-Point to the West of the River Bengo making a good and convenient Haven for Shipping The whole being not above seven miles in length but in the broadest place it is not above half a League over insomuch as those that Sail by in a Ship may easily see the Sea run between it and the main Land Pigafet supposes it to have begun from the setlings of Sand and Mud thrown up there in heaps by force of the two greater Waters of Bengo and Quansa The whole spot appears an even Champaign but very dry and Sandy onely in some places may be seen a few Bushes and Brambles and on the North-side here and there some Haw-thorn Shrubs The Land by the Sea-side shoots down so steep and sloaping that the Sea not above a Musket-shot from the Shore hath above seven or eight and twenty Fathom Water and a mile from thence a Line of a hundred Fathom can reach no ground Pigafet places on this Island seven Towns Towns call'd Libar by the Inhabitants call'd Libar or Libata but Linschot will hardly allow them Villages however the Portuguese attribute to the best the title of Sante Esprit Here are two Churches or Chappels for the exercise of Religion and the Portuguese have divers Gardens and Orchards wherein grow Oranges Lemmens Citrons Pomegranates excellent Figs Bananos Coco-nuts Grapes and other Fruits but Corn is so great a stranger to it that they are compell'd to fetch Supply from other places This little Tract produces the great Tree by the Natives call'd Ensada by Clusius the Indian Fig-Tree by Linschot in Portuguese Arbor de Raiz that is the Rooting-Tree It springs up commonly with one thick body to a great height at the top shooting forth many branches from which pendulously descend several small Strings of a Golden colour which once touching the ground take fast root and spring up again like new Plants and in short time increase to a large Bulk from whence as the former fall new Pendulums that rooting again spread and so ad infinitum so that sometimes one single Tree will extend its bounds above a thousand paces and seems like a little Wood or Thicket The great Sprouts with so many close Boughs deny the Sun-beams a peeping place to view the inside of those vaulted Cavities whose redoubled Mazes yield three or four times reiterated Ecchos to such whose retirements draw them thither for divertisement and shadow The Leaves of the young Boughs resemble those of the Quince-Tree being of a whitish green and woolly The Fruit within and without red springs between the Leaves of the young Branches like an ordinary Fig. Very credible eye-witnesses report that under one of these Trees three thousand men may shelter Under its outermost or first Bark Of its Bark Clothes are woven they find somewhat like a Thred or Yarn which being beaten cleans'd and drawn out at length the common People make Cloth of This Tree grows also in Gon and the Indies where the Inhabitants by cutting away the thin Boughs make Arbors under them for cooleness and shade It seems contrary to the ordinary rules of experience Pigafet and therefore strange that digging here two or three hands breadth deep very swift Water rises at the time of the Seas flowing whereas digging at the time of ebb it cometh forth salt or brackish The Islanders use Canoos of the bodies of Date Trees joyn'd together in which they fight at Sea Formerly the Jages abode here but the Portuguese drove them out in the year Fifteen hundred seventy eight and pursu'd them to Massingan at the same time raising a Fort there for their security Under this Island are the Simbos taken up Here is the fishing of Simbos which carry'd to Congo and other places go for current Money so that this place may justly be term'd the Mint of Congo This Island obeys the King of Congo although by report The Island Lovando is under Congo beyond it he doth not possess one foot of ground Southward of Bengo upon the main Land however by that he claims to himself all the Revenue of the Fishery aforesaid and hath his Governor to oversee the same and take the King 's due which is indeed what he pleases and by compute amounts to eleven thousand Duckets Annually And although on all the Shores of Congo these fashion shells are found yet those of Lovando have the highest esteem by reason of their thin and shining black or gray colour This Island makes the Haven before the City Lovando Barra de Korimba where lieth two Entrances one on the South
call'd Barra de Korimba formerly bearing above five Fathom water but is at present almost fill'd up and choak'd with Sand on the other side of this Entrance heretofore the Portuguese had two Batteries but the force of the water hath almost wash'd them away About two miles from Barra de Korimba on the main Land Punto de Palmarinho appears a little Promontory in Portuguese call'd Punto del Palmarinho A mile and a half more Southerly lieth the Sleepers-Haven Sleepers-Haven and also the Clay-Ovens or Lime-Kilns where the Portuguese burn Lime and Oyster-shells Four miles and a half from Sleepers-Haven you come to the River Quansa where formerly stood a Fort of the Netherlanders which we mention'd before call'd Moll 's The Territory of Quisama or Quissamba THe Territory of Quisama or according to Pigafet Quissamba The Territory of Quisama lieth on the South-side of the River Quansa and spreads thence twenty miles upward and more This Countrey as the rest comprehends divers Dominions It is divided into diver Dominiens of all which Motchima claims the rule as chief Lord viz. Zourube Godgo Zautatsa Molunua Katakahajo and Zuino The Natives here need not complain of Nature as a Step-mother the Land without any great labour producing abundance of Mille for Bread besides other useful Plants and Trees as particularly The Alikonda eight or ten Fathom round but very porus and weak Trees Alikenda fit for no use but to make Trays to hold water their innermost Bark some convert into a kind of Thred whereof they make Aprons or Coats to wear about their bodies The Portugueses Quacumburez which the natives call Quisamo Trees Quacumburez never grows bigger than a mans Waste with few Leaves but thick and large the Wood so tender that a strong man with a Sword may cut it quite in two out of the rifts in the body flows a great deal of juyce like Milk but of so poysonous and destroying a quality that if any one should get the least drop thereof in their Eyes they would instantly grow blind The same juyce pour'd into the water will immediately cause the Fish to swim at the top as if they were dead The Blacks hold the shadow of this Tree poyson and will not be perswaded to rest under it for they say that the juyce is so great a corrosive as 't will gnaw their bowels in pieces without possibility of help or Antidote as hath been experienc'd by a Lord that was poyson'd with it by his Slaves The Beasts breeding in these Parts Beasts are Hogs Goats Bucks Sheep wild Cows Elephants Tygers and Leopards In short the same conveniences may be had here as in Ilamba and Enraka Fresh Water they have none Want of Water save such as is gather'd in the time of Rain and preserv'd in Troughs made of hollow Trees and the Places where they keep them are reserved by the Fetisies command with so strict a secrecy that if by misfortune any fall into the Enemies hand he will rather be cut in pieces than be brought to discover them In the Lordships of Zuina Salt-Mynes Gungo and Katta Kabajo great Mountains lift up their Heads whose open'd sides shew many Salt-pits which those Blacks subject to the Sovasen under whose power they are may freely fetch out by their Slaves paying the appointed Custom This they dig out in Pieces of a Dutch Ell long and a Hand broad every one weighing eighteen or twenty Pounds as clear as a piece of Ice or Crystal and as white as our best Salt and of so good a savor that a little Piece put in a Pot or Kettle give both the Liquor and Meat a pleasant seasoning From the bowels they dig Iron Iron-Mynes but enough onely to make Arms and Implements for Tillage or Husbandry The best Trade of these Quisamites consists in the fore-recited Salt and Mille Trade which they exchange for Slaves to be employ'd in the digging of it for they work not themselves out of an opinion of their noble Extract And not onely the Blacks but the Portuguese also buy great quantities of it for their People no other being to be got unless from Lovando The Blacks of Lovando appropriate to themselves the whole Countrey on the South-side of Quansa for twenty Leagues The Island of LIBOLO IN the next place follows The Territory of Libolo towards the South Libolo bordering with one Point to the East on the Empire of Monopotapa but in the South at Rio Longo near Benguelle 'T is parted into many Sub-divisions thirty of which the Portuguese brought under some years ago and keep them still in strict Command and obedience reaping great advantage from Cattel which are the same here as we mention'd before in other parts of Angola and exceeding them in nothing but plenty of Bees and Honey More we cannot inform you of from hence for that they lie as yet undiscover'd to our European Merchants The Countrey of BENGUELA or BEGALA THis Countrey Modern Geographers place at the Sea-Coast and make it spread from the River Quansa to Cabo Negro in the heighth of sixteen Degrees though others will have it go farther than Rio Longo in eleven Degrees and four Minutes South Latitude The Places Rivers Bays and Villages lying at the Sea-Coast within that compass may be these About three miles from the South Point of Quansa lieth Maysotte-Bay before which a small Rock hides it self Three miles and a half forward you arrive at Cabo Ledo And five from thence appears Cabo de tres Puntas Cabo Ledo And two miles yet Southerly Cabo Falso And five beyond that another Six miles and a half from Cabo St. Bras lieth Hens-Bay Hen-Bay so call'd from the abundance of Hens thereabouts and between both Benguella Viella that is Old Benguela a Champaign and very fruitful Countrey The Hen-Bay contains about a mile and a half in breadth holding ten or twelve Fathom Water with muddy Ground On the South-side stands a great Village on a Hill where large Cows Sheep Hens and Elephants-Teeth may be had yet they have no fresh Water Three miles and a half from this Bay lieth Rio Longo Rio Lengo otherwise call'd Rio Moreno in eleven Degrees and four Minutes South Latitude so shallow at the Mouth that a small Boat cannot go in or out without difficulty In former times the Portuguese attempted to enlarge the Entrance into this River but by reason of its shoalness the strong Water-falls and great numbers of Rocks they found it not feasible Five miles from Rio Longo appears a great Village nam'd Manikikongo upon the Ascent a high Mountain where the Portuguese once had a Store-house and bought Cows Hogs and Elephants-Teeth for Linnen and East-India pressed Clothes The Inhabitants here are very earnest for Musquets and Powder Eleven miles from Manikikongo runs the Salt River Katon-belle dividing it self in two or three Branches being free from all Winds
Island of that name exceeding those her two neighbors of St. James and St. George living all three near at the Mouth of the River Meginkate Over against St. Georges Island but at the distance of an English mile you may see a Point call'd Cabo Ceira being a hanging Islet joyn'd to the Main-Land of Africa by a small Istbmus overflow'd at high-High-Water but at other times passable on Foot The Countrey of Mozambike is very fertile in producing many sorts of Fruits Plants as Rice Citrons Oranges and Mille which the Blacks are compell'd to guard and defend against Elephants by the kindling of Fires whereof these Beasts are very much afraid There groweth also a certain Plant call'd Pao or Wood of Antak which creeps along the ground and is very like the Herb Aristolachia or Heart-Wort The Fruit is long small with green Seeds or Grains The Roots have a strange vertue in curing a Disease call'd Antak which seizes on the Foreigners by conversing with the Blacks and can be expell'd by no other Medicine The Inhabitants make Wine of Mille which they call Huyembe or Pembe Here is no want either of tame or wild Fowl Animals nor of Stags or Harts wild Hogs Cows Oxen and Elephants which last are so numerous that the Inhabitants dare not travel without fire to defend them from their assaults Wild Hens breed in the Woods being speckled with many small white and gray spots their Heads are much less than our common Hens with a short Comb but thick and of a high colour and not onely the upper part of the Head but also part of the Neck cover'd with a blue Skin like a Turky Many Silver Gold and other Mynes are found in the Countrey The People have short Curl'd Hair The Constitution of the Inhabitants great Lips long Visages and very large Teeth They go stark naked onely a blue little Clout before their Privacies They Paint ther Bodies with divers Colours but account it the greatest Ornament to have streaks of a certain red Earth They make in each Lip three holes in which they hang Bones Jewels and other things But this Fashion and Trimming eminent People onely use They feed in general upon all sorts of Fruit Food and Flesh of Beasts yet they eat also the Flesh of Men taken Prisoners in the Wars but they esteem the Flesh of Elephants as the choycest Dainty They are revengeful and treacherous dull of understanding and inured to labour like Beasts not grutching to be Slaves Every Lordship or Province produces a several Language Language yet it proves no hindrance to their converse one with another Their Riches consist in Gold Riches found in the Rivers Ivory Ebony and Slaves yet are so fearless of any attempts to be made upon them that they debar no Foreigners to come into their Havens the Portuguese onely excepted Their Weapons of War are Arrows Battel-Axes but can neither boast any number of People nor extent of Land The Inhabitants are according to Linschot some Heathens and some Mahumetans but Pyrard averrs they have neither Religion nor Laws but that they are onely Kaffers The Island MOSAMBIKE THe Island Mosambike half a Mile from the Main Land contains about three quarters of a League in length a quarter in breadth the whole compass not exceeding a League and a half with a white Shore It extendeth South and North along the Main Land between which and this Isle and Fort appears the Bay serving for a convenient Haven Land-lockt from all Winds being very large and carrying eight or ten Fathom Water Within a Stones-throw of which the Ships ride at Anchor This Island hath the Main Land on the North and two other uninhabited small Islets on the South the one nam'd St. James or Jago and the other St George but neither affording any conveniency not being inhabited being wholly overgrown with Shrubs and Bushes Some place two Cities upon Mosambike-Isle affirming the one to be plentifully peopled by Portuguese and the other with Blacks but Pyrard makes the whole so fully inhabited that it seems but one Town comprehending within its Circuit a very large and strong Fort together with five or six Churches Chappels and Cloysters From the Description of the Navigation to the East-Indies made by Verhoeven in the Year Sixteen hundred and seven it appears that the City of Mosambike is very large having good Walls fine Houses and some Churches and Cloysters wherewith agrees Paul van Caerden in the Journal of his Voyage to the East-Indies Moquet allots to the City not above two hundred Houses but Linschot leaves all the places open and unwall'd except the Castle where the Portuguese Governor with his Soldiers have their Residence Garias de Silva Figueora in his Persian Embassy comprises in the City an hundred and fifty Houses but most of them built of Wood Straw and Palm-Tree Leaves For the deciding these different Relations we may suppose that the first Writer who placeth two Cities here mistook two Villages for Cities and Linschot himself mentions the Dwellings severally making one part of the old Fort commonly call'd Fortarez a Velha and another of some Houses close by it Others may have taken a great number of Houses standing close together to be a City however it is we may modestly guess that at the time of these Writers things were found thus There is a Cloyster of St. Domingo with a rich Hospital said to have been a Castle in former time built by the Kings of Portugal into which those of that Nation are put coming sick from Sea Besides St. Anthony St. Dominick and St. Gabriel's Church all lying without the Fort they have another Nossa Seniora do Balvarte built close under the Fort. The Air being generally more than warm proves very unwholsom Air. insomuch that few live there any while free from dangerous Distempers which no doubt are much augmented by the want of fresh Water there being onely one small Spring of little consequence in a Thicket of Palm-Trees so that most of them drink salt Water mingled with a little of that fresh This great Drought sufficiently declares that the Land proves barren Unfruitfulness of the Soyl. and unfit to produce any thing Yet provident Nature hath recompenced the want of all other Provision with Coco-Nuts Oranges Citrons Ananassed-Figs and other Indian-Fruits but these onely in manured and well cultivated Gardens They have neither Wheat nor Rice growing but all brought from the Main Land or from Goa and the East-Indies so also Raisins or Grapes and Spanish-Wines with several other Necessaries both for benefit and sustenance so that it is much dearer living here than in any other Place possessed by the Portuguese in this Coast Here breed great Herds of Oxen Cows Sheep Beasts with Tails as big as a fifth part of their Bodies Bucks Goats and Swine whose Flesh hath gain'd such an esteem that the Doctors oftentimes order the Sick to eat it and forbid them
and Mandihoka and here and there a Vine The Inhabitants are Portuguese but few in number being but about thirty or forty Mulato's Negro's and Slaves three thousand which work in the Sugar-Mills and plant Rice Tobacco Mille and other Fruits The Island of Anaboon or Anabon ANabon or Anaboon which signifieth New or Good Year so call'd perhaps by the Portuguese because discover'd on a New-years-day it lieth in one Degree and fifty Minutes South-Latitude or as others in one Degree and a half about five and twenty Miles from St. Thomas and five and forty from Cabo de Lopez Gonzalves on the Main Coast It takes in Circumference according to Pyrard about five or six French Miles and in length not above half a Mile The Harbor appears at the North-side but very dangerous by reason of the Shoals and Rocks This Island hath a wholsom Air many Fountains Springs and Brooks with fresh Water onely a little brackish at the New and Full-Moon by reason of the high flowing of the Sea It rises with Mountains whose aspiring tops seem to kiss the Clouds and are commonly cover'd with Snow The Hills and Dales prove fruitful in all sorts of Plants and affords the Eye a pleasant and delightful sight The Shores of the Brooks stand beset with Palm-Trees out of which the Inhabitants extract the often mention'd Palm-Wine Ignames Injames Potato's Banano's Ananassen Orange-Trees Tamarind-Trees Sugar-Canes and Cotton-Trees also Rice Maiz or Turkish Wheat several sorts of Turkish Beans black Physick-Nuts and many other Trees and Plants There are many wild Swine Stags Goats Hens Pigeons black and white Cranes and other Fowl The adjoyning Sea produces many sorts of Fishes and Oysters Mercator and some others make this Island waste and desolate contrary to the truth for 't is inhabited though but meanly there being some years ago a few Portuguese with fifty or sixty Blacks which all liv'd by tilling the Ground and Fishing The Netherlanders found in the Year Sixteen hundred and five in their Voyage to the East-Indies under the Admiral Matelief two hundred Blacks on this Island The Town stands surrounded with a Breast-work for Defence and contains about a hundred Houses built of Canes besides some few of Wood belonging to the Portuguese The Blacks go stark naked both Men and Women Clothes having onely a Cotton Cloth before their Privacies The Women carry their Children on their Backs and when they will give them Suck they throw their Breasts over their Shoulders for they have them very great The Portuguese have the Command of it who send thither a Vice-Roy Government All the Inhabitants both Blacks and others embrace the Christian Religion Religion converted by the endeavor of the Portuguese The Island of St. Thomas THe Island of St. Thomas in Portuguese St. Thomee because first of all discover'd on that Saints Day yet Thevet calls it Santas Honore and the Barqarians Ponkas it lieth in the Ethiopian Sea right under the Equinoctial Line which comes through the City and the great Church and therefore no Latitude hath been ascribed to it and not far from the Cape of Lopez Gonsalvez It bears an Oval form about thirty Miles in Circumference and in length and breadth twelve Miles The chief City call'd Pavosan or Pavaose through which run two small Rivers hath its situation on an even place on the North-side of the Bay somewhat more longer than round and about half a days walking in compass containing about fifteen hundred Houses every one ten Stories high On that side towards the Sea-coast defended with some Breast-works of Stone which the Portuguese Governor raised in the Year Sixteen hundred and seven commanding every one that passed backwards and forwards by the City to bring one Stone towards the Building The Houses are erected of white and hard Wood like Oak which grows there on the Spot before behind and also on the top cover'd with Planks made fast together There stand onely on the whole Island three Stone Houses in one of which the Governor dwelleth The City boasts of three Churches whereof the biggest is intitled Conceptio or The Church of the Conception of the Virgin Mary next the Church of Isabella whereto adjoyns an Hospital and the Church of St. Sebastian a small one standing by the Castle But several other Churches stand without the City as St. Anthonies two Musquets shot distant and somewhat nearer St. Johns then you may see the Church of Maitre de Dios or The Mother of God about a Mile from the City towards the South-east and about two Miles from it towards the East Trinitado or The holy Trinity and about three Miles towards the South-east the Church of St. Anna. The Castle of St. Sebastian Castle St. Sebastian seated on an out-lying Corner at the North-side of the City and of the Bay is a handsom Building of Stone to the heighth of twenty five Foot and both of it self and by the conveniency of the place whereon it stands seems almost impregnable The Garrison within consists of a hundred Soldiers well stor'd and provided with Ammunition and Victuals besides continual Supplies are and may be brought thither by Sea without hindrance The Ground is moistned by several Brooks and Rivers of clear and fresh Water to their great enriching On the middle of this Island rises a Woody Mountain continually cover'd with Snow whence divers Brooks and Streams draw their originals The Air is very hot and untemperate moist unwholsom inimical to the People of Europe who seldom attain there to the age of fifty years whereas the Natives a People that have but little Blood oftentimes arrive to above a hundred Some affirm that a young Man in his growth coming thither shall never grow bigger but always remain at his first Stature and that a dead Corps laid in the Ground will rot and decay in four and twenty hours The cause of this unwholsomness hath been imagin'd to proceed from the over-great Heats and damp Fogs Some have reported that this malign intemperature doth not spread over the whole but confin'd chiefly to the City and occasion'd by the low situation thereof for from the rain-Rain-water which falls down abundantly from the Hills to the Valleys are exhal'd noysom Vapors which afterwards fall down in the Evenings and Mornings with an offensive influence whose fume or dewy stream receiv'd into the Body corrupts and irritates the Blood for the avoiding which direful hazards at those times the Portuguese there resident keep within their Houses But this Air loses some of these ill qualities in June July and August by reason of the South-east and South-west dry and cool Winds which blowing over from the Coast of Ethiopia refresh the Countrey and clear the Air to the great advantage of Strangers although the Natives receive detriment thereby These Islanders as all others under the Equinoctial have two Winters not in respect of Cold but onely of Moistures one in March and another in September at which
which Seamen pull up and fetch for Fuel and Coloquintida which grows in so great quantities that it cannot be destroy'd There are many Tortoises very good in taste and so big that the Sea-men who touch at this Island for fresh Water are compell'd to hale them Aboard with Ropes They come every night in June and July out of the Sea to the Land when the Inhabitants casting them upon their backs by reason of their weight they cannot turn themselves again The Countrey hath many Rocks but little Water The Goats they kill for their Skins which they send yearly to Portugal in great quantities Their Inhabitants are Blacks who live there very soberly without Recreation fetching their Water in Leather Sacks made of Goats Skins in the Year Sixteen hundred twenty three they were onely nineteen persons eight Men seven Women and four young Girls Ilha de Mayo a Rocky and dry Land with little Grass affords onely some few Figg-trees which by the heat of the Climate and dryness of the Ground never bear any ripe Fruit for though the Figgs have a promising colour yet they are insipid or tastless But Goats or Cabriets or Sheep breed so numerously that above five thousand Skins are carry'd thence yearly They have also some little Horses Asses Oxen and Cows Turkeys and Hens of the bigness of a Pheasant with white and black mix'd and speckled Feathers but all wild and in a manner untameable There are many Salt-Pans which after they have let in the Salt-Water being shut up the heat of the Sun consolidates and brings to a Gray-Salt but 't is a toilsome work to gather it and yet more troublesome to get on Ship-board because the Boats are not without great danger of being swallow'd up by the Whirlpits The Inhabitants are Whites and Blacks usually sent thither from St. Jago In the Year Fifteen hundred and five they were two hundred and five and twenty Whites and Blacks Old and Young Exiles and Slaves but in the Year Sixteen hundred twenty and eight there were onely fifty besides Women The Inhabitants have neither Corn nor Clothing unless brought them from St. Jago but there are many Goats which the Portuguese and Blacks there resident catch up with Dogs partly for the Skins and partly for the Flesh St. Anthonio has many Woods and therein several sorts of Fruits as Oranges Lemons Dates Pomegranates Sugar-Canes Bakovens and Melons One Orchard lieth in this Island of which nothing can be seen from Sea but a high Palm-Tree which the people of the Ships in the Bay of St. Vincent discern plainly and commonly send their Boats to barter Knives and other such small Toys for Fruit with the people who have a Portuguese Governor their number generally about five hundred most of them Blacks who from another Orchard bring the Fruits upon Asses to the Shore side to sell to the Sea-men In the latter end of December they have great ripe Citrons Lemons and Oranges many Bananoes but unripe Potatoes and Melons very large and singular good The Island Goree THe Island Goree lieth in fourteen degrees and fifteen minutes North-Latitude about a Stones throw from the firm Land of Cape de Verd in South South-East about half a Canon shot in length and a Musket shot in breadth This Island hath one little Bay with a Road for Ships from whence the Sea-men go Ashore no other place affording that conveniency neither hath it any Brooks or Rivers of fresh Water but fetch all they use from Cape Verd. In the Year sixteen hundred and seventeen King Biram of Cape Verd gave it to the Netherlanders who in a little time erected a Fort there The Fort SNASSAO ORANGE upon the Island GOEREE Het FORT NASSOU van Binnen met ORANJE op â— EILANT GOEREE INSULAE CANARIAE alias FORTUNATAE dictae In the Year Sixteen hundred sixty three both these Forts together with the whole Island were taken by Captain Holmes so the Royal African English Company but the year following on the four and twentieth of October by Admiral de Ruyter regain'd It was at that time possess'd with about sixty English Souldiers under Sir George Abercromy Chief Governor of the Island all which with convenient Boats for their hire were carry'd to the River Gamboa Then both the Forts together with the whole Island was left possessed with about an hundred and fifty Hollanders Commanded by Johannes Cellarius who presently caus'd the fall'n Batteries to be made up raising the upper Fort with a Breast-Work of three Foot higher and fully repairing the lower The Canary Islands or Islands of the Canaries THe Canary Islands by the consent of most eminent Geographers are held to be the Insulae fortunatae or Fortunate Islands of Ptolomy and Pliny though Ptolomy placeth them not far enough to the North setting the most Northerly part of them but at sixteen degrees North-Latitude whereas they extend to the thirtieth degree and therefore we may suppose that they mistook them for the Islands of Cape Verd last before mention'd Some will that the Canaries receiv'd that name from the Spaniards who attributed to all the proper Denomination of the most Eminent which they call'd Canary from the many Dogs found at the first discovery thereof Can signifying a Dog in Spanish whereas the name of Canary was known a long time before by Pliny and Ptolomy the Moors of Barbary call it Elbard from the Pike-Mountain of Teneriff Ptolomy computes the number of these Islands to six and names them Gramage lib. 9. c. 3. Apropite Here or Autolala Pluitalia Casperia Canaria and Centuria Pliny makes the same number but differences their names thus Ombrio great and small Junonie Capraria Niraria and Canaria There are that make Ombrio and Junonie the same with Porto Santo and Madera Pluitalia for Lancerote Casperia or Capraria for Fuerte-ventura Canaria for the Grand Canary which still holds its name At this day the Canary Islands the Holy Haven and Madera being included are seven and known to all by the same names viz. As the Island of Palma Fierro or Ferro Gomere Teneriff Grand Canary Fuerta-Ventura Lancerota or Lanceroto to which number Purchas adds Lobos Rocha Gravosa Santa Clara Alegranca and Inferno by Sanutus reckon'd in this order Vecchio Marino Sante Clare Rocho Gravosa and Alegoranca Ortelius brings among them one that he calleth Selvaia or Savage the most Northerly of all plac'd in the same rank with that of Alegranca and besides Gravosa and Coro which Thevet calleth the Heart Island But these small Spots are of such little concern that many do not so much as name them These Canary Islands whereof Lasaretto Fuerte-Ventura Grand Canary Situation and Teneriff are the chiefest they have their scituation between six and twenty degrees and thirty minutes and twenty degrees and thirty minutes North-Latitude opposite to Cape Nun in Morocco seventy or eighty Miles from the Main-Land of Barbary and nine or ten distant from each other They were for many
Measles and Small Pox as in asswaging Malignant Feavers and tough Distempers of Agues In Nubia and the Kingdom of the Abyssines Zorafes or Giraffes is a Beast called Zorafes or Giraffes as big as a two-years old Heifer having a Neck like the Glave of a Javelin or Half-Pike and a head resembling a Gazell with Legs short behind and long before hair'd and brindled like an Ox the Ears like a Hart and Breast smooth and shining which the Africans say is generated of two Species he wanders solitarily through the Woods flying from men and not to be taken but young ¶ HAving treated thus far of Beasts We shall now briefly present you with some Plants and Vegetables referring their full discourse to the places where naturally produced Though Africa be in some places very fertile yet a great part of the Country lyes waste and unmanured full of Barren Sands or abounding with Serpents in such manner that the Peasant dare not Till the ground unless Booted but the manured parts afford a rich crop to the industrious Husbandman yeilding oftentimes an hundred fold encrease The chief Grain of Africa is Wheat Rye Barley Rice and Maiz and besides the Trees growing there that are in common with Europe are divers others not found amongst us such are the Cassia Egyptian Fig-tree the Inhabitants term it Guimeiz the Date Cotton Coco and Balsam-tree Sugar-Canes and the like Productions with which they drive a great Trade with us in Europe Among others in the Wildernesses of Lybia Ettalche a Tree Biledulgerid and Negro-land grows the Tree call'd Ettalch guarded round with Prickles having leaves like the Juniper shrub from under the Bark issues a Gum whose body and smell resembles Mastich which the Merchants often cheat with by adulterating so selling it for Mastich Of the Tree Argan or Erguen Argan an Oyl is made by the Inhabitants whereof more at large in the Description of Hea a Province of Marocco In the Countrey of Lyme Aud-Altassavijt is found the Aud-Altassavijt which is tough like Hemp and will not break with hachelling but yields at every blow a pleasing sound Other parts of Africa afford no small number of Herbs and Plants all which we shall set forth in their due place especially in the Description of Egypt There is also the Root by the Inhabitants call'd Terfez Terfez A Root but Kamha by the Physitians resembling an Earth or Ar-Nut but bigger and very sweet gather'd by the Arabians in the Desarts of Biledulgerid pleasing their palates like confected Fruits Another Root yeilding a very sweet and pleasing scent is found on the Western parts on the Sea-shore which the Merchants of Barbary carry to sell among the Negroes who use it as a Perfume onely by sprinkling it about the house An African * A Mudde is three Bushels English or thereabouts Mudde which in Mauritania is sold for half a Ducket which the Merchants vend again among the Negroes for eighty or a hundred Duckets and sometimes dearer There is another Root call'd Addad not unknown to the African Women Addad whose acid Leaves and Root are of so poysonous a faculty that a little of their water distilled gives a quick dispatch by sudden death to their Husbands or any other that they are weary of On the West-side of Mount Atlas is the Root Surnag Surnag having a special vertue to incite Venus The Inhabitants report that it will devirginat Maids couching to Urine on the Leaves and after will much dis-affect them with Tympanied infirmities There is also Euphorbium whereof more at large in Barbary ¶ HEre are two sorts of Pitch the one natural or Stone Pitch Pitch The other Artificial and thus made They erect a great Oven with a hole at the bottom in which they put the Branches of Pine or Juniper chop 't in peices then the Ovens mouth close stop'd a fire is made underneath by the heat whereof the Pitch is extracted out of the wood running through the bottom of the Oven into a hole underneath it in the Earth whence they take it out and put it into Bladders or Leathern Bags All the Salt in the most part of Africa as Leo saith is dig'd out of Salt-pits Salt being white red and gray Barbary 't is true hath plenty of Salt Biledulgerid is reasonably well stored but in Negro-land and the innermost Parts of Ethiopia a pound of Salt is sold for half a Ducket They use no Salt-cellar nor set it on the Table but each having a piece in his hand lick it at every Morsel In a Lake in Barbary near the City of Fez all the Summer is found a well-concocted and coagulated Salt but such as border on the Sea make Snow-white Salt of Sea-water Atlas on that side where Biledulgerid borders on the Kingdom of Fez Antimony produces great quantity of Antimony and sundry other have veins of Sulphur Mines of Gold and Silver but above all the rich Mines of Gold and Silver those especially in Negro-land Guinee and Ethiopia deserve admiration ¶ MArmol relates from Aben-Gezar Marmol Los Hechizos that certain Stones are found in the Land of Lyme call'd by the Spaniards Los Hechizos and by the Arabians Hajar Acht which have divers signatures representing several parts of a Man as a Hand and Foot Face Head and Breast many like the Heart but some the whole compleat Figure of a Man in just proportions The most perfect of these Stones they assuredly believe to have an occult and wonderful faculty irritated by the help of Spels and Sorcery to introduce and bring the Bearer thereof into the favour of Princes In the steep Mountains Alard and Quen between Nubia and Zinchamque The Stone Beth. a Stone is found call'd Beth which as they say will make those Speechless that long gaze upon it ¶ AFrica also brings forth Eagles differing in size colour and properties Eagles whose greatest the Arabs call Neser and bigger than a Crane having a very short Beak Neck and Legs yet mounts exceeding high till for want of Feathers he betakes himself to his Nest where the Eaglets feed him Divers parts of this Countrey Parrots especially Guinee and Ethiopia yield Parrots of several sorts and colours Whereof more at large when we come to those parts The Mountains of the upper Ethiopia Griffons Marmol specially that of Beth as Marmol says shew Griffons which the Arabians enstile Ifrit Great store of strange Creatures Hippo-potamus and other Amphibious creatures some Amphibii as the Hippo-potamus or Sea-Horse the Sea-Cow the Crocodile Tortoises Ambare and others of the same nature using both Water and Land are found in the Lybian wildes and Sea-coasts of Africa Serpents Serpents c. Venomous Creatures Reptiles and strange Insects are produced in the Wilderness of Biledulgerid Negro-land and upper Ethiopia ¶ HItherto we have lightly touch't several things as first that Africa is for the most part
Sea-god or rather some Antike Prince Oceanus Xenophon Ogygia from †An Egyptian King Ogyges Herodotus names it from the Nile Potamitis that is River-land Lucian in Greek Melambolos from the darkness of the Soil several Writers and the bordering Moors stile this Region Ethiopia or the Land of Chus Homer will have it to be Hefestia from Hefestes or Vulcan The Modern names the Modern Turks call it El-Kebit or Cover'd-land the Arabian Mesra the Caldeans Mesrai the Assyrians Misri the Moors Gabara and Mesra the Romans from Augustus Caesar Augustanica but the antient Inhabitants call it after Ham the Son of Noah Hamia Lastly the Jews stile this Countrey Mizraim from Mizraim the Son of Ham being there the first Plantet The later Assyrians call the Egyptians Egoptes and the Mahumetans call the Christians there El-hibit and Elcupti sometimes leaving out the Article El contracting to Cupti or Ecupti but the Moors call them plain Giptu or Gibitu Herodotus makes Egypt a Present from the Nile Egypt covered with water being all Sea formerly so conjecturing from the various shells found on Summits and more rising grounds from the brackishness of the water in Pits Ponds and Trenches from the dusky soil much differing from the Neighbouring Territories but more especially from the Nile Pillar whereon formerly flowing eight Degrees prognosticated fertility when in his time rising to * Heretofore sixteen Cubits was the most it attained to as is to be seen in that Image of Nilus having sixteen Children playing about it brought from thence and Dedicated by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace but since that at Cairo it hath usually risen 23. particularly in 1610. Mr. Ge◠Sandys sixteen gave but a doubtful conjecture of a plentiful Harvest Such and the like instances not improbable intimate that the greatest part of Egypt especially where descending from the Mountains about Gran Caire it stretcheth down towards the Sea lying annually under the overflowing of the Nile rais'd its depress'd Morass from the sediments of these pudly inundations the River leaving in his retreat the fertile plunder brought from the High Lands upon the Low Countreys which mud and marling slime filling up stagnated ponds and plashes when dry'd into a swarf improv'd the soil for manuring and better confirm'd for Plantation It is to be supposed that much of it was then covered with water Most Writers with Aristotle concur in this assertion and Homer also seems to hint the same mentioning onely Thebes of this most rich and populous Countrey The Boundaries of Egypt according to the variety of Writers The Boundaries are diversly set forth Scaliger with some few placing part of Arabia with the Gulf on the East the Ethiopian Wildes and Mountains to the South the Desarts of Lybia Westward and the Mid-land Sea North. Others prescribe different limits But Ptolomy though he would seem not to meddle much in this matter yet when more nearly considered we may find him in some manner agreeing with the former bounding it Westward with Marmarica and the inner Lybia to the East with the Red Sea and part of Judea Southerly with Ethiopia and on the North with the Mid-land Sea by which Description he hath rectifyed the mistakes of sundry antient Geographers who accounted Egypt as we have said a part distinct from the other three the then known Regions of the World The Africans themselves who should know their own Countrey best bound Egypt on the South with Nubia on the North with the Mediterranean now the Sea of Damasco the Arabian Gulf washing the East and Alvahat fronting the West But Maginus a very able Geographer gives it for borders the Desarts of Arabia East the Lybian Mountains and Desarts of Barka and Nubia West Ethiopia or the Abyssines Countrey the Wastes of Bugie and Cataracts of Nile South And the Mid-land Sea North. And herewith in effect agreeth Marmol By all which it may appear that Egypt is encompassed with sandy Desarts but where it touches the Mid-land Sea Easterly towards the Red Sea lyes the Country of * The regal Metropolis was also called Thebes destroyed by Cambyses eighty furlongs long and built all upon Vaults Qua centum portarum sunt ducenti autem per unamquamque Viri egrediantur cum equis curribus Vbi multa in domibus opes reconditae jacent Hom. 11.9 Nor Thebes so much renown'd Whose Courts with unexhausted wealth abound Where through a hundred Gates with Marble Arch To battel twenty thousand Chariots march Thebes whose Wilderness being of three or four days journey in former ages becoming a retreat for divers Recluse Orders of Christians contained many Towns which were far better furnished with Monasteries and Cloysters than Houses ¶ THe Desarts of Barka Westward are a tract of ground of fifteen days journey where stood the Temple of Jupiter Hammon to whom Alexander the Great affecting the honour to be stiled his Son gave a Solemn visit Beyond the Red Sea to the South from Caire is a great Wilderness extending even to Judea and supposed to be the same wherein the Israelites made their wandering peregrination of forty years The ground here is not surfac'd with yellow Sand as that of Sahid in Egypt where the stupendious Pyramids and the Mummies so fam'd among us are to be seen but with a kind of soil whose germinating faculty or moisture being utterly exhausted with perpetual and excessive heats leaves no products unless here and there an inconsiderable shrub Another sandy Desart and more dangerous Mummies found stretches it self between Caire and the well-known Village Delbogui twenty eight days journeys and destitute of all accommodation where many casual Mummies are found supposed to be Travellers perishing there under accumulated drifts of Sand raised by sudden Tempests but now to avoid such eminent hazards all that journey those ways are convey'd in close Wooden Boxes which neither air nor light transpierceth otherwise than through small crannies ¶ THe divisions of Egypt are as various Egypt how divided as the opinions of Authors are differing Jaques Albert reckons thirteen Provincial Jurisdictions by the Inabitants called Kasssiffs or Meltoscemines six of which viz. the Kasssiffs of Girgio or Sahid Manfelout Benesuef Fiam Gize Bouhera or Baera lye toward the West from the Nile the other seven as Garbia Menoufia Mansoura Kallioubith Minio Cherkeffi and Kattia wholly to the Eastward The Kassiffe of Girgio or Sahid Kassiffes thirteen the first of the Western Provinces is a vast tract sub-divided into twelve or fourteen lesser Governments call'd there Kassifillix whereof every one hath its particular Regent or Lieutenant About a hundred years since this was accounted as a distinct Kingdom for the Government whereof a Bassa with the title of Vice-roy was usually sent thither from the Grand Seigneur at Constantinople but of late brought under the Bassa of Cairo who sends thither a Sanjacke as his Deputy The Kassiffe of Manfelout joyns to that of Girgio
more his torrent with impetuous waves Drawn up against his rage A second the Ocean from whence they supposed that superabundance of water came at that season The third was rain because as Democritus writes at that time in the Southern parts great quantities of rain pours down the Trade-winds driving the clouds that way Anaxagoras a great Naturalist holds the melting of the snow in the Ethiopian Mountains as a cause agreeing therein with Euripides Aquam pulchram deserens Fluminis Nili quae extera defluit Nigrorum hominum tunc tumefacit undas Quum Aethiopicae nives liquuntur Then leaving pleasant streams of Nile Issuing from the Negro soil Who annually his Banks o'reflows At Thaws of Aethiopian Snows But Ephorus a Scholar of Isocrates says it proceeds from an abundance of moisture all the Winter retained in Subterranean Caverns which at the approach of the Summer solstice break forth and evaporate like Sweat by an insensible transpiration to such a quantity as produces the rising of the River Contrary to which Lucan l. 10. says thus Vana fides veterum Nilo quod crescat in arva Aethiopum prodesse nives non Arctos in illis Montibus aut Boreas testes ubi Sole perusti Ipse color populi calidisque vaporibus Austri Adde quod omne caput fluvii quodcunque soluta Praecipitat glacies ingresso Vere vanescit Prima tabe nivis Slight antient Saws that Nile his banks o'reflows From melting swoln of Ethiopian Snows No Boreas hoars those hills their people tan'd With sweltring Southern Windes and scalding Sand No streams in brimmers from their Fountains post Till Spring dissolves the hoards of Winter frost Kircher in his Enquiries upon this subject first makes the natural scite and disposition of the Ethiopian Mountains a prime and the condition of the Channel a second cause but after coming more home to the point he gives two more probable One when their mouths are so obstructed they cannot discharge their Water Another when the Channels receive more than they are wont or can contain This later happens either through molten Snow or the falling of excessive Rain Thales one of the seven Grecian Sages asserts the former opinion Anaxagoras and most other Philosophers the second and in truth the belief that the increase of Rivers proceeds from violent Rains hath obtained the greatest credit being manifest not onely in Countreys lying under the North-Pole but even in Mountainous parts under the Line such as tâ—â— Hills of Andes in America and the Mountains of the Moon in Africk These great Rains come not from the Clouds driven thither by annual Windes but from those exhaled in Ethiopia it self which are so much the greater as the Sun-beams there in a perpendicular line have the greater vigour to attract for which reason at the Suns coming out of Gemini the matter causing Nile to overflow is onely preparing but when the Sun enters Cancer then the Nile and other Rivers pass over their Banks among whom the great African River Niger then passing between mighty Mountains in West-Ethiopia dischargeth himself into the Ocean With this of Kircher agrees Odoardo Lopez saying Odoardo Lopez there Rains fall from the beginning of March till August not by drops as with us in Europe but pouring down as it were by whole Payls or Buckets full with such impetuousness that they cause all streams to swell above their Banks The reasons of the overflowing of Nile being thus shewn Kircher starts up two new Difficulties viz. Why the mentioned Rains fall the Sun passing the Northern Signs and not at any other time The second Why the Rains which fall in the Moors Countrey do not cause the same overflowing Or why Egypt onely in the overflowing of Nile should so much participate of it as to seem no Land but all Main Sea As to the first it is to be observ'd Why the Rain falls in the Moors Countrey when the Sun is in the North. that a constant effect cannot be produced without a certain and constant cause Now the Position of the Sun and natural Scituation of the Ethiopian Mountains are the chiefest and greatest cause of these Rains and the overflowing of Nile and some other Rivers for wise and provident Nature hath made these Mountains especially those between the Equinoctial and the Winter Tropick in 22 degrees of Southern Latitude and which encompass the Southerly Ethiopia on the East South and West to be as hollow or concav'd Burning-glasses which lying to the Sun in his Northern Latitude fitly gathers and so concenters his Beams that they reverberate such a fiery heat as makes extraordinary Exhalations by which abundance of thick Clouds are consequently engendred which crouded and thrust together by the Trade-windes at that time always Northerly and beaten towards the capacious Receptions of the aforesaid Mountain Convexities are dissipated thence at length by the fervent cold descending from the tops of the Hills and so are dissolved and come pouring down in hideous Showres or rather in Streams Floods or Rivers of Rain from whence it appears that Nature hath set them as Receptacles of Vapors and Clouds for how much the scituation of Mountains not onely in Ethiopia but also in other parts of the World conduce to the breeding of Windes and Rain is not strange to any who have made search into Natural Causes To the second 't is answer'd Why the Nile overflowâ— onely in Egypt and not in the Moors Countrey That the Channels of Nile are the cause of its overflowings For as the Channels of Rivers running between the sides of Mountains are deeper so they can swallow the greater quantity of waters because the Mountains hinder their overflowing and running away On the other side where the Channels are shallow and go through flat places and wide extended Grounds with Banks low the more overflowing they are subject to The great Mountains therefore pouring down waters between their narrow Openings and Precipices into the Nile makes it flow far and near over its shallow Channels not able to contain that abundance And for this reason all the flat Grounds in the Moors Countrey are subject to the like Nilian overflowings As therefore the natural Scituation and Position of the Mountains which are so conjoyn'd as we before said and the Plains surrounded by them serving for a Laboratory as it were The shallowness of the banks in Egypt a cause of the overflowing of Nile to make Rain in is an infallible cause of Showres at set-times So also must the Natural Position and Constitution of the Channel of Nile be held for a certain cause of his overflowing Now the reason why these Rains fall when the Sun is in the Northerly Signs Why it rains when the Sun is in the Northern Signs must be attributed to Annual Winds call'd by the Portuguese General or Trade-Windes which at the Suns entrance into Capricorn come blustering out of the North and turn the Clouds to Rain but when the
Bocchir by others Bicchieri Bocchir or Canopus and formerly call'd * This City was so call'd from Canobus Menelaus his Pilot there buried by his Master who on these Coasts had suffered Shipwrack Zacit Annal. 2. Canopus perhaps from the Egyptian Idol Canopus which in this Precinct of Land was call'd Phtenuti and there antiently worship'd Of this place thus speaketh that Prince of Latine Poets Virgil Georg. Lib. 4. Nam quia Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi Accolit effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum Et circum pictis vehitur sua rura Phaselis Where happy people plant Canopus Soyl And dwell near spreading Streams of flowing Nile And through their Countrey painted Vessels glide c. Through the World noted for luxurious Practices and varied forms of Effeminacy whereof the Satyrist thus Luxuria quantum ipse notavi Barbara famoso non cedit turba Canopo Canopean Banquets now seem poor and small Juven Sat. 25. Rome beggars boasts at Feasts more prodigal For within Canopus stood the Temple of Serapis to whose Festivals resorted all sorts of people from Alexandria men and women mixt in painted Barges chanting down the Nile Love-Songs behaving themselves with all sorts of looseness beyond the bounds of Modesty concerning which Statius brings in Pampinius thus excusing himself Non ego mercatus Pharia de puppe loquaces Delicias doctumve sui convitia Nili Infantem linguaque simul salibusque protervum Dilexi I bought no Songs nor pleas'd with boys so vile Lib 5. That imitate all Vices of the Nile Chanting with shameless gestures on the Decks Amongst whom saith Seneca who so avoided vice yet could not escape infamy the very place administring suspicion and therefore worthily buried in its own Desolations After that is to be seen the Tower and Cape of Bocchir lying in a dangerous place where many Ships sayling from Syria are bilg'd in the night falling short of the Haven of Alexandria adjoyning as it were hereto two Castles appear call'd The Castles of Bocchir here also is the Sea Bocchir and below it the Towns Casar and Athacon About this City but chiefly towards Cario there groweth in the Ditches a Plant call'd The Egyptian Plomp or Lotus Lotus a Plant. in such an abundance that the Leaves resembling those of the Water-lillies cover the whole Channel The Egyptians call the Flower with its Stalk Arais el Nil the Leaf with the Stalk Bush-nyl and the Root Biarum This Plant hath the property of growing exactly as high as the Water in the Ditches and opens his Flowers not underneath the Water but above it 't is certainly true that it turns about with the Sun though the Antients disputed it This Plant for its near resemblance to a Water-lilly Prosper Alpinus was deceiv'd in taking it for the very same though afterwards in his Book of Forrain Plants he retracted his opinion Every Leaf hath a single Stalk growing out of the Root which is thick long and round in shape resembling a small Pear the biggest sometimes as large as a Hens Egg On the outside black and full of Fibres within yellowish and very pelpy and hard and sharp in taste on the tongue The Flowers are large like white Water-lillies as we said whereof every one grows on the top of a green and round Stalk smelling like a Pink After the Flowers follow round green Cods containing in distinct bags a sort of Seed not unlike that of a Cabbage After the Earth hath drunk up the Water of Nile and is dried up immediately the Leaves Flowers and Fruit wither and dye The Flowers of this Lotus were in former times The use of the Lotus as well heretofore as now as Heliodorus writes wreathed in the Triumphant Garlands of Conquerors Now adays the Juice of the Flowers and knobby Cods mixed with Sugar by the Arabians call'd Sharbet Nufar is used against all inward heats Thus made they mingle Sugar and Water which hang'd over the fire they suffer to boyl till it come to the consistence of a Syrup then taken off and cooled the pure Juyce of the Lotus is put into it The Egyptians in the Summer eat the raw Stalks with the Heads being very sweet moistening and cooling very much A little further up in the Countrey there is the small City Natumbes Natumbes half a days journey from Rosetta and lying on the opposite shore Next is the old City Fuoa or Foa formerly call'd Nicy seated on the Banks of Nile Fuoa five and forty Miles Westward of Rosetta very populous but the Streets within are narrow having great Suburbs famous for Beautiful Women Ladies of Pleasure residing there assuming to themselves so much more than the usual freedom allow'd to modest Women they Entertain and are Entertain'd publickly by their Gal-lants at Night returning home to their always indulgent and kind Husbands without the least rebuke or once questioning Where hast thou been About a Mile from Fuoa lyes the Island now nam'd Gezirat Eddeheb The Golden Island but formerly Nathos or The Golden Island Here are many Villages Mechella and stately Palaces but not to be seen at a distance by reason of the shadow of surrounding Trees Here also is the rich but ill fenced City Mechella or Maquella A little forward on the River stands the un-walled City Derota Derota and Michellat Cays as also Michellat Cays on a high Hill In Derota was heretofore a stately Church and the Citizens flourish'd in wealth and abundance The Countrey so abounding with Sugar that they pay yearly to the Sultan for the freedom of making and refining it a hundred thousand Gold Saraffies or Turkish Crowns But within the last Century of years this place is much decayed and the Citizens impoverish'd ¶ ELbeahrye or Beheyra the second part of Egypt The second part of Egypt and its extent extends from the Mid-land Sea to the Easterly Arm of Nilus running to Damiata and beginning from the Borders of Rosetta and ending at Faramide wherefore the Egyptians call it Sealand and the Italians Maremma In this Quarter of Egypt is first on the East of Beheyra the Cape or Point of Brule in former times known by the name of Pineptimi and by Ptolomy taken for one of the Nilian Mouths it is enclosed in the form of a Haven and receives the water shooting out of the Eastern Arm of the Nile Not far from thence lyeth Damiata or Damiette by Nicetas in his Journals of Emanuel taken for Tamiathim but by the Antients for Pelusium and by Stephanus for Tamiates Guilandinus will have it be Tanis spoken of in the Holy Scripture but Auchard distinguishes Tanis and Damiata making Tanis the same with Tenex or Tenez which hath given the name to the Tanitian Mouth Others will not onely have Pelusium as we said but also the antient Heliopolis to be the now Damiata which error and mistake is very great since Pelusium according to general consent is seated near the Mid-land
Sea whereas Heliopolis lyes up within the Land many Miles from the Sea Damiata lyes in a bottom Damiata about two Miles from the Mediterranean on the shore of Nile which runs through and waters it on both sides on whose Banks there stands a Fort upon one side but on the other are onely Houses for having no Walls the lowness of its scituation makes it strong and tenable enough by reason thereof it becomes also most delightful and fertile the Inclosures and Gardens abounding with Trees of Cassia Limons Vines Musae and all manner of other delicious Fruits which here according to their several kinds are more delighted with the soil than all the rest of Egypt for by the Trenches here which is so no where else after the retreat of the Nile the waters are let in to moisten the thirsty Lands in the time of Drowth In these Trenches grows a Weed that moves to and fro upon the water resembling that we call Ducks-Meat or Ducks-Madder without Stalk or Root shooting downward onely many small strings and threds The Leaves are of a pale green like those of Dogs-tongue but shorter broader thicker whiter more bristly and stinging This Plant is the true Stratiotes Milfoyl or Souldiers-Herb of the Antients having Leaves like Houseleek Water House-leek and is therefore call'd by the Egyptians Hay-alem-Emovi that is Water House-leek The juice or powder good to stop Blood It has no smell and in taste is choaky and dry The Egyptians use the Leaves for the same Diseases The juice or powder good to stop Blood for which we take Mallows The Bedori or Countrey-women use the Juice or Powder of the dry Leaves daily a quarter of an Ounce The Leaves cure wounds against all immoderate Fluxes of Blood The Countreymen cure all Wounds with the Leaves The Leaves cure wounds which they apply stamped or crushed in a strange manner Next in the East stands Tenez Tenez or Tenex by Burchard call'd Taphnis and taken for Tanis in Holy Scripture The Lake Stagnone being in the Land of Goshen Adjacent thereto is the Lake by Mariners as Pinetus reports call'd Stagnone or Barathra by the Inhabitants Bayrene and by Montegarze in his Travels Marera This Lake is very dangerous because of the Sands whereof some appear above and others treacherously sculking underneath The next in course is Arrise Arrise formerly Ostracine and in many old Maps Ostraca and Ostraci then comes Pharamide by some stil'd Pharamica and formerly Rhinocura and by Strabo placed on the Coast of Egypt and Syria Burchard thinks it is Pharma which he saith is large and well built but in a manner deserted by the Inhabitants overpowr'd by the encrease of Serpents From thence passing Southward by the point of Nile towards Cairo Seru. Rascaillis there are two antient places call'd Seru and Rascaillis near Neighbors There is here Masura or Masur Masur formerly Miscormus near a branch of Nile call'd by the Inhabitants Batsequer Here Lewis the Ninth King of France was taken Prisoner in the Battel which he fought against the Soldan of Egypt After Masura followeth Demanora and many other places of which the most worthy of note is Fustatio or Fostat Fustat that is A Pavilion It is a small place lying on the Nile and call'd by the Inhabitants Misreatichi that is The Old City which name by good right it challenges in respect of Cairo whose Founder was an Arabian Commander named Hanier sent thither by the Califfe his Master on the side of Chargni Mevy Cambri lyes Mevy Cambri betwixt Damiata and Grand Caire after which may be reckon'd Caracania Bulgaite Abessus and Souba Having passed the forementioned places we now come to enter the third part of Egypt call'd Sahyd otherwise according to Sanutius Thebes from Thebes once the Court and Seat of the Egyptian Kings who afterwards removed to Memphis and from thence to Alexandria and afterwards to Cairo This Province extends it self from the borders of Buchieri to Cairo and so to Assue The City CAJRVS De Stadt CAIRUS Cairo then taken for Memphis The various names of Cairo which was reputed the most antient of all Cities is call'd by the Egyptians or Coptists Monphta by the Armenians Messor by the Chaldeans Cabra by the Hebrews one while Moph otherwhile Noph or Migdal that is Wrath then again Maphez but commonly Mizraim which last name also the later Hebrews as we have said have given to the whole Countrey The Turks call it Mitzir or Missir and Alcaire Marmol Marmol and others say that Cairo is deriv'd from the Arabian word Elcahira which signifies a Society or Cloister some will have it from the Arabian and Persian Mercere or rather from the word Mesre adding moreover that an Egyptian King nam'd Mohez on the highest place of Mercere made a Bulwark and built a Castle to strengthen it against all incursions of Enemies and call'd it by his Daughters name Caireth This place at length grew so great that the first name Mercere was utterly forgotten and the name Caireth received and now known to us in Europe by no other name than that of Grand Cairo Leo Africanus Leo. Afr Marmol and others Marmol and others consent in one opinion that this City is not antient being founded by Gehoar-El-Quitib the Subject of a nameless Caliph from all which it may be concluded that the old Memphis is either quite ruin'd or had another scituation Memphis is an Egyptian word and has its derivation from Monphta The Original of the word Memphis as we said which in the Egyptian Tongue signifies The Water of God and by the Grecians chang'd into Memphis For what cause or how the City got this denomination Opinions are various one not improbable may be this Kircher Chorogr Egypt p. 27. When the Sons of Cham began to send Colonies into these parts some say they pitched their first Tents upon the Memphian Hills the Lower parts generally as afore-mentioned lying under water as a Lake but afterwards as the Ground became more dry the City was Built by Mizraim the Son of Cham upon the Shore of Nilus calling it by his own name Mizraim afterwards the Countrey and City by the fruitful overflowings of the River becoming more fertile they conceive it was call'd Monphta that is The Water of God and by variation of Dialect corrupted to Memphis Herodotus affirms in his second Book Herodot Enterpe that Memphis was Built by the first Egyptian King Menes who is held to be the same with Mizraim This Memphis now Cairo was divided into four parts viz. Bulach Charaffa Old Cairo and Grand Cairo the two first were generally accounted among the Suburbs of Grand Cairo but are now as also Old Cairo so ill furnish'd with Houses that they seem rather Villages than Cities It containeth in its circuit Beauvau the mentioned places with their Suburbs according to Beauvau is thirty Leagues though
go thither on foot without any Money or Provision for whom the Grand Seignior causes many Camels to be furnish'd to be ready in case of sickness faintness or weariness Each person must provide himself of all Necessaries even to Water The order of setting forth because in the whole way there is scarce any to be found Before the Caravan sets forth all the Pilgrims and Waggons are to be viewed and searched which in good order passing quite through Cairo from the Castle where the Bashaw dwells draw forth out of the City-gates into an open Field where they wait one for another and sometimes above eight days are spent before they are all gotten together Before the Caravan march the Troops of Horse or Cavalcade follow'd by the chief Bakers Cooks Smiths Sutlers and other Artificers each having a Camel laden with Necessaries needful for their Journey Then follow the Horses of the Hamiragh or Superior Commander some of which carry Vessels of water others several necessary things to be used on the way After these Horses two Camels who are to draw Waggons or Chariots accompanyed with a great number of other Camels some with Burthens and some without in time of need to carry the poor and those that are Sick as we mentioned before after that a great number of other Camels belonging to persons of Quality and many Musquettiers and Pilgrims on foot following the Janizaries that are bravely set out with Musquets and with Plumes in their Turbants then the Commander of the Carravan and other Voluntier Votaries Last of all a small Pavilion of Silk stitch'd with Gold is carried upon a Camel by which he so becomes infranchis'd and for ever after freed from bearing burdens and honored with a stately Caparison thrown over him at the Tomb of Mahomet from thence attended with many other Camels in great number all in a rich and curious manner Equipped and Harnessed In this Order these Votary Travellers set on together under the conduct of the Hamiragh towards Mecha and from thence back to the Grave at Medina which they perform in threescore days time Beyond Mecha which is under the Turks obedience an Arabian Prince rules by the name of Seriffe which all assume that derive themselves from Mahomet's Stock and by Records and Writings can shew their Relation by Consanguinity This Prince commands ten thousand Horse and twenty thousand Foot Souldiers wherewith suddenly upon report of the Pilgrims approach to his Borders he goes out to the Mountains and there stays till the Pilgrims return which is twenty days after which flying of this Seriffe is for fear of the Turks by this means preventing any snare that may intrap him or otherwise The Grand Seignior has from this Seriffe Presents sent from the Seriffe to the Grand Seignior several Presents every year sent to himself as a Golden * Panser is a Brigandine or Coat of Mayl Panser and to his Children and Brethren a hundred and fifty thousand Duckats In return whereof the Grand Seignior bestows upon him four hundred pieces of very fine Silk Cloths and three or four pound of Balsam the Governor of Cairo and the Commander or Hamiragh of the Pilgrims each of them half a pound There are also two other Hamiraghs with many Pilgrims one from Damascus and the other from Arabia Felix to whom he gives some Balsam but very little From Mecha all these Pilgrims Travel to the Mountain Arafat The Place where the Pilgrims Sacrifice at the foot of which lyeth a place by them call'd Maura where they Sacrifice in remembrance of the Sacrifice of Abraham made there Supposed to be where he Offer'd his Son Isaac as they believe ¶ THe Soil especially about Cairo produces great variety of Plants and the Gardens and Orchards are full of many fruitfull Trees of all sorts In the Fields about Cairo Bammia grows the Plant Bammia It shoots forth four or five Stalks aloft resembling Cassia in Leaves and Flowers though somewhat differing in bigness and hardness The Flower hath five Leaves of a pale yellow colour the Fruit is five and sometimes ten corner'd and not much unlike wild Cucumers The Fruit Leaf and Seed of what use in Dyet and Physick The common people when it is green boyl it Seed and all with some Flesh in Broath and eat it the Seed is dressed like Pease and Beans with us the Leaves are very cooling and used in Physick against several Diseases BAMMIA MOSCH This Plant shoots forth upon strait round and hairy Stalks where from one and the same joynt grow two Leaves one small the other great having long Stalks beset with whitish hairs The Leaves in shape resemble Lousyweed and different from those of Bammia onely in bigness The Flowers are almost like the Bammian and shoot forth between the Body and Stalk of the Leaves succeeded by round blackish Cods which include a small black bitterish Seed smelling as strong as Musk. The whole Plant is hot almost in the first degree having a slimy Moisture The use of it the Leaves boyled in water and applyed in form of a Plaister or Pultiss to a Wound or Sore though it makes the party faint and weak yet hath good Operation Of the Seed which is more hot and drying are made Purging Pills for Women to suppress the rising of the Mother But put upon the fire and the vapor taken up into the Body draws down the Menstrua About Cairo and in many other places of Egypt grows the Tamarinde Tree Tamarinde which in brief although the East-Indies and Arabia is the proper Countrey thereof for its manifold uses in Egypt we will here describe The Egyptians call it Derelsides the Arabians inhabiting Egypt Tamer-hendi that is the Indian Plant because it is brought over from the East-Indies to Arabia Felix or from Ethiopia or the Moors Countrey This Tree is as big as the Damesin Tree full of Branches The form of it and has leaves like the Mirtle the blossoms are white resembling Orange Flowers out of the middle of which shoot forth four white thin strings whence proceed thick Husks first green but when ripe of an ash-colour where are rugged thick Seeds with a black tartish pelp The Leaves alwayes follow the Sun The Leaves turn after the Sun and therefore are call'd Heliatropes or Sun-followers for when the Sun sets they up of themselves and at its rising open again This turning of the Leaves is observed in many Egyptian Plants So do the Acatia Abrus Absus and Sesbus viz. The Acatia Abrus Absus Sesbus and this Tamarinde These Leaves which fall not off in Winter are somewhat sharp and not unpleasant to the taste us'd to kill the Worms in Children Moreover the same infused a Week in Spring water Their use maketh a Purge the Arabians conserve the small and green as also the large and ripe Husks and their Pelp in Sugar which Travellers take with them when they
enclosed the Dead Body committing it to the fire till it were consumed to ashes while in the same flames this Linnen shrowd as if it had onely been wash'd became more white and refined by the fire Salmas Exercitat Plinian Kircher tells us that himself had in his Lamp a Wiek of * Kircher de Lucernis Aegyptiorum Asbeston burning two years without any loss or alteration All the difficulty to make a perpetual lighted Lamp consists in extracting Oyl out of the Abestion which who can do may easily perfect the rest Several Chymists have in vain attempted and spent much fruitless time and labour about it for the Oyl either affords no fire more resembling water than Oyl or else it is so thick that it is altogether uncapable of affording flame whereby it appears that the mystery of extracting such an Oyl far surpasseth humane Skill and Industry And if any should yet say that the two fore-mention'd examples and as several Authentick Writers affirm that the manner of making such Lights was known to the Antients and consequently by our sublimer Wits or Virtuosie might now be again recovered it may be answered that the above-mention'd Lamps were not perpetual but onely long-continuing Lights which might naturally be thus effected The Inclosed Air by continuance of time being incrassated by the fatness of the Bodies long pent up may easily as a new Coal draws Air by an Antiperistasis get a flame So in the Winter Water in Cisterns by the circum-ambient Air becomes warm Such * Igâ—is fatuus flames many times appear glimmering in Church-yards and fat marshy grounds The like is also asserted by the Workers in Mines that they seldom open a new Vein but there burst out such flames seeming of themselves consistent Notwithstanding all these disputes The Egyptians had perpetually enduring Lamps that the Egyptians have had perpetual burning Lights in their Sepulchral Caves under-ground which indeed were not made of Asbeston but supplyed from another Fountain appears by several Arabian and other expert Writers who were Eye witnesses Their words are to this purpose The Egyptian Sages who were of a sublime spirit and singularly experienc'd in the course of Natural-causes * Salmuth in his Comment upon Paâ—cirollus de rebus perditis affirmeth that one Podocaterus a Cyprian shewed at Venice some incombushble Cloth and his Materials were from Cyprus where indeed Dioscorides placeth them the same is ocularly confirm'd by Vives upon Austiâ— and Maiolus in his Colloquies And thus in our days do men practice to make long lasting Snasts for Lamps out of Alumen Plumâ—sum and by the same read in Pausanias that there always burnt a Lamp before Miuerva's Image Schianga an Arabian Historian did place by the Corps of the Dead in token of their acknowledgment of the Immortality of the Soul several Lamps or Tapors which they so far as was possible sought with a discontinued durance to animate in this manner There are many places in Egypt that afford plenty of Bitumen and Petrole or Stone-oyl which the Learned among them who were great Naturallists discovering lay'd from these Wells secret Channels or Pipes to the Sepulchres where they set in a convenient place a Lamp with a Wiek of Asbeston which moistened and fed thereby continually and the Wiek of it self unconsumable it must of necessity follow that the light also endured perpetually Here comes to minde that which Schianga an Arabian in his History of Egyptian Remarks asserted being in English thus There was in Egypt a field with Ditches full of Pitch and Bitumen from which their Learned men all Naturallists lay'd certain Pipes to the Caves under ground wherein they placed a Lamp joyn'd to the Pipes which Lamp had a Wiek incombustible like the * Salamanders Wool is not desumed from any Aâ—imal but a Mineral substance Metapliorically so call'd from the received opinion of its incomâ—uâ—ibleness Salamanders Wool by which means they burned being once kindled perpetually because of the continual influx of Bitumen The intent of the Egyptians setting these Lights near the Sepulchres seems to signifie that as the nature of fire is like the Operations of the Gods so also the Numens appointed for the protection of the Corps thereby as by a visible similitude of their own likeness for the continual glorifying of the Soul are drawn thither as they believe Perhaps some will wonder Why the Egyptians so carefully Bury their Corps and ask for what cause the Egyptians have with such diligence taken care to preserve their Corps from perishing and to adorn them with such exquisite Ornature To resolve which Quaere it is to be observed first that the Egyptians firmly believed that the first state of the world after the course of six and thirty thousand or as others of forty thousand years must return to its pristine state and condition again Secondly that according to that Position the Government of the Seven Superior Tutelar Guardians of Egypt at every seven thousand years end return to the first again so continuing for the space of * Annus Platonicus or Maginus nine and forty thousand years viz. when the Sabbath or Rest of all things shall come That the change of these Rulers caus'd the alteration of the condttion of the Body That the Soul which after the course of seven thousand years transmigrating from one Body to another should return to its own Body left in the Grave but clean from all corruption and protected by the presence of the Gods yet still advanc'd till having travell'd through all the Heavenly Residencies at length it is brought to the Great * Protoplastus that is Deus for although the Heathens did multiply to themselves such innumerable orders of Deities yet they ended in one onely God as Virg. Aen. lib. 1. O Socii neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum O Passi graviora dabit Deus his quoque finem Dear Friends for we have many dangers past And Greater God these too will end at last Examplar or Idea of it self and so live eternally and unchangably happy The Egyptians then believing this and being wonderously diligent to lead an honest and vertuous life seem to insinuate by their Embalming of their Corps and to desire that those Souls after this their departure may finde their next transmigrated habitations worthy of their deserts till they be fully united with God for it is certain that the Egyptians from the beginning of all Memorials have so constantly maintained the Souls Immortality The Egyptians have always strongly maintained the Immortality of the Soul that not onely themselves believed it as delivered to them from Antiquity but have taught and inculcated this Doctrine also to their other Neighboring Idolaters though learned Among others Pythagoras who first brought this Opinion among the Greeks Thus far of the Pyramids and Burying-places of the Antient Egyptians We shall now return to describe the other Cities lying in Sahid and begin
first with the Island Michias ¶ IN the midst of Nile not far from Cairo Island Michias over against the Old City Miffrulhetich lyes the Island Michias or El-Michias that is Measure-Isle or Mark-Island because within it was set the Mark whereby they took the measure of the Rivers overflowing and the height and lowness of his waters and thereby made a judgement of the consequent fruitfulness indifference or infertility of the following Year This Island contains about fifteen hundred Families having at one end a fair Palace erected by a Soldan and a large Mosque or Temple at the other end standeth a round Building alone with a four-square Well or Cistern eighteen Cubits deep into which the nile-Nile-water at the time of the overflowing is conveyed in the middle of the Well stands an upright Pillar divided by marks into so many Cubits as the Well is deep where attend certain Officers by command of the Councel who give notice of the increase which some Children with yellow Bands about their Heads to that purpose appointed make known by an Out-cry through all the streets of the City and Suburbs admonishing the people to fear God and are by them in return presented with Gifts During the rising of Nilus in Cairo and most other Cities there is so great a Noise and Joy made with Drums and Trumpets all along the City that it seems to be in a Tumult and Uproar Opposite to Miffrulhetich lyeth Geza Geza joyning to Michias that severs it from Cairo it shews many stately Palaces erected by the Mamaluckes and other curious and pleasant Buildings together with a sumptuous Temple by the Nile Many Handy-crafts men and other Traders come daily from Cairo hither to work and trade returning at night to their own homes Those that would visit the Pyramids can go no nearer way than through this City which on one side is surrounded with a sandy Desart reaching quite to them Not far from Grand Caire stands Muhallaca a little old Town near which the great Lake Maeris The Lake Meris which Diodorus placed ten Stadia or Furlongs from Cairo Antiquity gave it in compass two hundred and fifty or four hundred and fifty miles whereas at this day it is but eight leagues At the increase of Nile Sanatus this Lake is in some places fifty fathom deep receiving great store of water which the Inhabitants make good use of It hath two Rivulets one by which it receives water from Nile and the other where it runs out of the Lake and moistens the thirsty grounds in Summer time They say King Maeris from whom this Lake took his Name caused it to be digg'd with Spades and in the midst of it erected a Sepulchre for himself and his Queen wherein two fair Pyramids each forty paces high were set with the tops out of the water upon either of which he placed a Marble Statue The Revenue of the Fish of this Lake which amounted daily to a Talent of Silver the King allowed to his Royal Consort to buy her Pins This agrees with what Herodotus writes in his second Book in these words The Lake Maeris is in compass a thousand six hundred Stadia or Furlongs Herodot Euterpe and sixty paces which compass is as much as all Egypt is in length on the Sea-coast It reaches far to the North and South and is in depth fifty paces That it was digg'd and made by mens hands appeareth in that about the middle there stand two Pyramids that rise fifty paces above the water and as much under it so that each Pyramid is an hundred paces high Upon either of them is a Stone-Image sitting upon a Throne The water of this Lake comes not from a Spring being sometimes very dry but is supplied by Trenches out of the Nile six moneths it is furnish'd from them A Talent is 250 l. sterling and other six moneths makes returns into it which later six moneths the Revenue of Fish amounts every day to a * Talent of Silver but in the former onely to twelve Minae or Pounds Adding that the Inhabitants asserted this Lake went under the Earth Westward as far as the Sandy Syrtes in Lybia where it anew breaks forth near the Mountain which hangs over Memphis About six leagues from Cairo Changa at the Entrance of the Wilderness which runs towards Mount Sinai lyeth the City Changa heretofore very great and beautified with stately Houses and Temples but so much spoiled and wasted by Wars that it hath lost its antient splendor Here is a double Thorow-fare the one towards Syria the other to Arabia but no water other than what from the overflowing of the Nile is preserv'd in Sluices and Ditches Hence towards the East standeth Suez Suez by Ptolomy call'd The City of Brightness upon the utmost Border of the Arabian Gulf about three days Journey from Cairo Livy Sanutus Bellonius as Livy Sanutus and others affirm though Bellonius placeth it much nearer This is one of the most commodious Havens on the North-side of the Red-Sea and the Moors bring hither out of India all manner of Spices Gems Pearls Amber Musk and other costly Merchandize which are carryed by Land to Cairo and so to Alexandria whither the Venetians English Dutch and other Nations come to traffique Divers place this City with Ptolomy in Egypt Ptolomy Maginus Geograph but others as Maginus in his Geography in Trogloditis a part of Arabia but it seems rather to belong to Egypt because it is now under the Command of the Turkish Bassa of Cairo It is environed with a sandy and barren Desart which reaches some miles distance utterly desolate and void of all things It is supported by the Revenues arising from Commodities of other Countreys brought thither all the water they use is conveyed thither two miles off upon Camels and is nevertheless so brackish that it breeds many Diseases On an adjacent Hill stands an inconsiderable Castle with old ruinous Walls More to the In-land South from Nile lyeth Bethsames Bethsames by some held to be the old Heliopolis More Southward Muhaisira close to the Nile stands the decayed City Muhaisira and on the other side Southwards also lyes Benesuait or Benesuahid Benesuahid A hundred and eighty miles from Grand Caire upon a rising ground is the City Munia built in the time of the Mahumetans by one Chalib Munia belonging to the Califfe of Bagdet This City had formerly many neat Churches and other handsom Structures insomuch that there yet appear divers Ruines of the antient Egyptian Building Not far from Munia lyeth Fyum formerly call'd Abydus Fyum and by some Abutick Here it is said that Joseph the son of Jacob was first buried whose Bones Moses afterwards when the Children of Israel departed out of Egypt carryed with then into Canaan Close by Fyâ—m yet stands the great and old City Manfloth or Menf-loth erected by the Egyptians destroyed by the Romans
the heat of the Stomach Liver and Kidneys and also to abate the Tertian Ague The more noble Turks Arabians and Egyptians who live delicately drink this water onely with Sugar and mixt with rose-Rose-water Musk and Amber in Summer time for their daily Drink yet not without damage to the Stomach and Liver because of the over-great Cooling if it be too much us'd The Egyptians keep this Fruit the whole year good in Cellars which as a rarity they set upon the Table for Strangers to eat Here also groweth a kind of limber Grass Nejem El Jalib creeping in the Earth with white tartish and sweet Roots as our Couch-grass On the ends of the Stalks stand four Ears with small Seeds in them over against one another from whence the Egyptians took occasion to name it Nejem El Jalib that is Cross-grass The Seed is held for a special Remedy to dissolve the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder The decoction of the Root is with good success given inwardly against the Measles and Small Pox and doth bring down the stopped Terms There groweth also a Tree call'd Atle Tamaris-Tree or Atle very like the Tamaris-Tree which Dioscorides names Mirica and Tamerix and is found in several places of Italy and Germany though no where in Egypt The Egyptian Atle shoots up to the bigness of a great Olive-Tree and in the Countrey of Sahid grows as big as a great Oak The Leaves are like those of the Tamaris but longer smaller and full of green Hairs The Fruit is hard woody or sticky without Kernels and seems to be the same with Nut-Galls The Wood of it they use for Fuel for want of other The use of it and also make thereof a kind of Charcoals which all Egypt and Arabia burn The Leaves open Obstructions of the Milt or Spleen so do Cups Cans and Pots made of the Wood. In several places of Egypt and especially about Alexandria The Dadel-Tree unknown to us are great Woods of Dadel-Trees which the Arabians from the name of the Fruit call Dachel The Dadel-Tree of which there are Male and Female hath every other year abundance of Fruit but the Female affords no Fruit unless her Branches be plash'd with those of her Mate Many to make the Female fruitful Alpinut strow the Matter that lyes in the Bag or Receptacle out of which the Blossom and Fruit comes upon her Branches And probably if the Egyptians did not so they would bring bring forth no Fruit or if they did they would never come to any perfection But Veslingus seems to reject this Observat in Alpin ascribing the great fruitfulness of it to the Soil being Sandy and Nitrous For he affirms that he hath seen the Earth in the Dadel-Tree Wood oftentimes thick cover'd with a white Down or Callow like Cellar Walls where we finde our Saltpetre which by the sultry South windes from Negro-land and the Barren Arabia is in great abundance driven up hither and falling on the tops of the Dadel-Trees not onely makes them flourish but also pregnant The Roots are so small thin and short that it is a wonder how it supports it self being so great especially when so often charged by strong assiduous gusts for contrary to other Trees this tapers downwards and the slenderest part of the Stock is nearest the Foot which hath made some suppose that the Plant though large receives no nourishment from the Earth by the Root but from the Air. There is no Tree more profitable or turns to a greater account than this for of the Stock or Body they make Beams and Rafters for Floorings of Houses and of the Boughs and Branches they make divers sorts of Wooden Ware which they call Cuffaz Of the Leaves Sayls and Mantles and of the Bark they make Tow and Cordage for Ships The Fruit affords not onely a most delicious Food but good Physick The Arabians as we said call this Tree Dachel a Bough of it with Dadels on they call Samarrhich the Bag or Cod Dux a young unripe Dadel Tella a greater Nin one half ripe Ramich perfectly through ripe Bellan a dryed one Tamar a rotten one Rotob and the Leaves Zaaf In the Stock where the Branches shoot out lyes a white Bag full of Pelp or Juice which many when a Tree either falls or is cut down pull out and eat raw as a provocative to Venus it not differing much in taste from our Artichoaks There also you may see in some Orchards a Tree Cotton-Tree by the Arabians in Egypt call'd Gottne'l Ssegiar whereon the Cotton groweth It rises ten Cubits high the Wood hard the Leaves have five deep indentings the Fruit is a Nut as big as an Apple cover'd with a green Skin full of Milk white Wool or Cotton which by the opening of the Fruit as it ripens endeavors to thrust it self out within which is one onely dark brown hidden Seed There is * Lasting but a year an Anniversary Plant that also bears Cotton and differs from the afore-mention'd in slenderness of Stock and form of Branches and Leaves this grows not in Egypt but plentifully in Candy Cyprus Apulia and Syria which from thence the Egyptians transport for they use not their own Cotton being but scarce but the other in all cases and particularly in stead of Lint for Wounds as also to stench Bleeding The Juice or Extract of the Seed is very Sovereign in all Agues and Burning Feavers and good to expel what ever corrodes and gripes the Stomach and Bowels There is also another Tree Carneb or St. Johus Bread bearing Fruit Semi-circled like a Hunters Horn call'd here Saint Johns Bread by the Arabians Carob or Carneb that is The Mother Horn with whom the Fruit onely is in use out of which they draw an exceeding sweet Honey wherewith in stead of Sugar they preserve the Cassia Fistula Tamarine Ginger and other Fruits green Moreover that Honey is very much us'd by them in Clisters by reason of its solubility The Sant Sants or Acatia the true Acatia of the Antients groweth in Egypt in a Tract of Land far from Sea by Mount Sinai The Body of the Tree hath a Bark black rough and prickly The Leaves are small and slender closing at the setting and opening again with the rising Sun The Fruit lyes in a flattish Cod or Husk like those of a Lilly of a Thumb breadth and sometimes a span long From the green Cods stamped in a Stone-Mortar Juice of Acatia they extract a Juice by decocting made thick and hard The use of it of which the Tanners in Cairo use a great quantity to make a gloss upon their wrought Hides It hath also an astringent quality to stop the sharp Defluxions causing sore Eyes and to dissipate the like hot Goutish Distillations falling in the Joynts This Egyptian Plant sends forth also from the Body a Gum Gum-Arabick by the Apothecaries call'd Gum-Arabick though others think
the Souls of the wicked they supposed to go into more vile and despicable Creatures as the dull Hippotames Horses Asses and the like And that both Gods and Kings walked up and down under such disguises to punish Vices and encourage Vertue where-ever found ¶ EGypt also hid within its Bowels great Quarries of all sorts of Marble as appears by the sumptuous Burying-places under Ground Spiers Needles and other stately Works erected in antient Times with such variety of Stone as we have already mention'd ¶ THe Air especially about Cairo and further towards the South The Air in Egypt Hot. because so near the Line is when the Sun casts his Beams perpendicularly from Cancer very Hot during which time of violent Heat all the people dwell in places under ground and in Cairo in the midst of every House are Wells containing water which not only cools their Mansions but refreshes themselves They contrive also in their Houses very great Pipes or Funnels which stand right up into the Air from the midst of the House with a broad Mouth like a Bell standing open to the North wherein the cool Air entring is sent down to the lowermost retiring Rooms under Ground For shade also in the Streets every Dwelling hath a broad Penthouse And for refreshment of their scorched Bodies they use bathing for the commodiousness whereof they have curious Bannia's of sweet and clear Water from the River Nile without mixing any Herbs or Medicinal Ingredients The Hot Air is cooled by Nilus and the Anniversary Winds The Heat also is somewhat moderated by the overflowing of Nilus at that Time and the continual blowing of cool Northerly Winds otherwise the Heat there is so vehement that neither Man nor Beast could be able to live In Winter the Air is Hot and Dry sometimes a little cool but generally very Hot and most obnoxious to the Head of all parts of the Body The Air of the Nights is cold which after Sun-rising becomes a little Warm at Noon very Hot but at Night again Cold so that its inequality breeds many Diseases ¶ THe Year may also very well though in a different way from us The Seasons of the Year are with the Egyptians fourfold be divided into four Seasons The first is Spring March or April in which the Weather is temperate They have also every Year two Summers but contingent divided into an unhealthy and intemperate and a healthy and temperate The first Summer The first being the unhealthful continues to the middle of June and the rising of the Nile The second Summer begins from the Nile's rising The second Summer and continues till September and the Decrease The Harvest consists of two other Moneths Harvest but the Brumall Season beginneth on December and continueth to March or April Winter Thus is the Year divided the Reason whereof we will a little search after First Then they placed the Spring as before is said because at that Time the Air is of a moderate and milde Temper and the Trees begin to bud and grow The first Summer causeth many Diseases and the Ground to bring forth The Spring ended the first Summer begins very hurtful both to Man and Beast during the whole time of whose continuance very hot and tedious Winds blow call'd by them Campsien from Campsi a Commander who was overwhelm'd under a great heap of Sand by these Winds and smother'd with his whole Army in the Desarts of Africa Such is the violence of these impetuous Gusts sometimes that it so raises the Sand that for three five seven or nine Days the Air is darkn'd and the Sun cannot be seen for those Atomy Clouds At this time rage many mortal Sicknesses but chiefly Soreness of the Eyes for the hot South-winds as we said How this comes to pass so drive up the scortching Sand that they seem to bring with them shining Flames the which driven through the Air hurts and prejudiceth the Body and in the Eyes breeds prickings and inflamations And that time many mortal Feavers and Phrensies rage which dispatch men in few Hours In fine all Bodies are thereby so Distempered that they abhor Food continually burning with unquenchable Thirst against which the Water of Nile is the only Remedy Strangers all this Season retire to places under Ground where they remain till other cool North-winds arise from the Midland-Sea which afford a present Comfort to their inflamed and afflicted Bodies wonderfully cooling the Air. After this followeth the second Summer not so Hot because the Northerly Winds daily renew fresh and cooling Breezes and the Nile overflows his Banks What Alterations of Air happen are not sudden but come leisurely and therefore it is a healthful and wholesome Time Now the Husbandmen live at Ease because the Ground while covered with the Nile cannot be either Plowed or Tilled passing the Time in Shows Sports and other signs of Joy with Feastings and Mirth Then comes Seed-time and Harvest at the Decrease of the Nile in which are Wheat and other Fruits sown which becomes soon Ripe and are suddenly Reaped This Season is temperate and free from Sicknesses The following Winter-Moneths the Air is colder and consequently more wholesom It Rains seldom in the In-land Parts It Rains seldom in Egypt and about Cairo and what is is rather a Dew or misling than a Shower At Alexandria and Damiata and upon all Places lying near the Sea are many times great Rains but seldom or never is there any Ice Snow or Hail seen because the Air is not cold enough for it This as to the Temperature of the Air. ¶ NOw concerning the Temper and Constitution of the People Several kinds of Egyptians you may observe three sorts of Inhabitants in Egypt viz. Citizens dwelling in Cairo and other Cities wandring Arabians that live in Tents and lastly Ploughmen or Husbandmen which dwell up the Countrey Most of the Citizens are Sanguine but the Bodies of the Ploughmen and Arabians are hot and dry so are many Townsmen but the continual drinking the Nile Water often use of cooling Food or Diet and the immoderate use of Venus mightily lessen and alter the Heat and Drought Besides their continual use of Baths of sweet Water so cools them that many of those dry tan'd Complexions become Sanguine especially Women and Eunuchs They have cold Stomachs and full of Flegm proceeding from the constant using of cooling Diet as also by the over-great Heat of the Air whereby the natural Heat extracted or exhaled the Stomach is left Raw and Cold. The Egyptians are general very Gross and Corpulent The form of their Bodies especially the People of Cairo most of the Men there being so Fat that they have much Greater Thicker and Larger Breasts than Women but the Arabians are Meagre and Slender so are the Husbandmen and not only so but also hairy sweaty and almost scorched and burnt by the Sun They do all follow Venus
immoderately they are by Nature very Wakeful and little inclining to Sleep of a chearful Spirit yet delighting in an Idle and Lazy Life only the Arabians and Farmers take Pains or else they must Starve ¶ THis Countrey is very subject to several and dangerous Diseases Egypt is much subject to Land-Sicknesses partly because of the intemperate Air partly by the immoderate use of Women and partly because the Poor there which are numerous are necessitated to use foul unwholesom Food and muddy and corrupt Water The chief Diseases afflicting them are Blear Eyes Scabs Leprosie and Mortal Phrensies Small Pox pain in the Limbs and Joints Ruptures Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder Consumption Obstructions or Stoppings Weaknesses of the Liver Spleen and Stomach Tertian Agues Consuming Quartanes and all manner of Maladies of the Head It is true other people are subject to the like but not so continually nor grievously and therefore properly may be call'd The Plagues of Egypt In Alexandria in Harvest-time many malignant and mortal Agues reign by drinking the tainted and foul Water which the Townsmen from year to year keep in their Wells under their houses In Winter they are troubled with sore Eyes but the Inhabitants of Cairo much more among whom it reigns so Epidemically that scarce half of them escape the Distemper There also rages that most terrible Egyptian Disease by the Arabians call'd Dem El Muia which in few hours suddenly possesses the Brain like an Apoplexy and bereaving them of sense and understanding in few minutes irremediably kills them Every year once are the Egyptians surprized with this Sickness of which multitudes dye At the same time Children are much afflicted with a malignant kind of Pox bred by the venomous Damps raised from the corrupt Water of Caleg Malignant Childrens Fox in Alexandria which is a Branch or rather a Trench cut from the Nile into Alexandria Every year Whence they arise when the Nile is risen eight or ten Cubits it falls into this Trench and runs from thence through the whole City and at the recess of Nile this Water then in the Caleg remaining without current or motion at length corrupts and first becomes green then black and in the end sends forth a very noisome Stench which corrupting sends forth venomous Vapours whereby the Air is polluted and that Infection bred and therefore all the Children which dwell thereabout for that cause are carried thence to other places Many other Diseases are in Egypt which are bred by the eating Ox and Camels Flesh and rotten Salt Fish taken in Pools and Lakes and mouldy stinking Cheese by them call'd Gibnehalon whereby is ingendered much thick Blood Choler adust Grossness and soft and crude Humours The Cause of the Dropsie The Dropsie here is very frequent and such as have it have Legs which by the abundance of hardness and gross Swelling are blown and puffed up like the Legs of Elephants though indeed they feel no Pain but are only unwieldy to walk One main Cause of these Distempers proceeds from the too frequent Use of Colocasie Beets Bammia and Melochia Herbs breeding thick and tough Flegm Many of the better Sort also have a Weakness in their Joynts and Limbs Why the Egyptians have weak Joynts and feeble Limbs like Childrens Rickets relaxed either by immoderate Venery or the too frequent Use of Sweat-Baths Alpin Medicin Egypt But the meaner Sort get it by wearing the same Clothes in Winter and Summer and going bare-foot and bare-legg'd And are troubled with the Stone The Stone is no stranger among them being bred from the Sediment of the Water of Nilus which as all Water causing Urine comes to the Kidneys but the more Earthy Part remaining like Dregs behind by the extraordinary Heat of the Body becomes dry and in a little Series of time is turned into Stones There are also many of a Melancholy Temper Sad spirited People in Egypt which are generally accounted Holy Men For the vulgar perswade themselves that they live without Sin leading their Lives in great Sanctity the better to mind Sacred Mysteries retiring from the World into desart and barren Places The Mahumetans look upon them as Santons because they seem to contemn Riches and slight the vain Pleasures of the World They live single giving Hospitable Entertainment to all Strangers of what Religion soever They reprove Vice very sharply affirming the World to be nothing but a Vale of Misery and Trouble In a sad and morose Reservation they denounce great Punishments to Man for Sin and so macerate and mortifie their Bodies by a vowed Abstemiousness and Labour that they are little better than the dried Mummies The Pestilence is very frequent in these Parts Egypt is much afflicted with the Pestilence and prevails against them the more because they seek no Remedy for it falsly conceiting that God hath certainly appointed and ordained every ones Death aforehand and the manner of his Dying so that he that must die in the Wars cannot die of the Pestilence and those onely can die of the Pestilence that are aforehand destined of God for it For this cause as we said no Egyptian will go about to avoid the Place nor shun converse with the Infected and the Clothes and other Houshold-stuff of such as dye of that Distemper are instantly sold in the open Market by Out-cry which none are afraid to buy by which mad obstinacy in this their foolish Perswasion the Plague in Cairo in the space of six or seven Moneths sometimes sweeps away above five hundred thousand People This dreadful Malady commonly begins in their first Summer When it commonly begins in Egypt continuing till the cool Northern Winds arise and then it begins to abate That which begins in the first Moneths is the worst of all especially if it come over out of Barbary for then it sometimes almost depopulates whole Cities leaving them destitute of Inhabitants But if it comes later it is so much the milder and ceaseth the sooner But although it rage never so fiercely At the Suns entrance into Cancer the Pestilence ceases in Egypt yet at the Suns entrance into Cancer it wholly ceaseth which by them is accounted no small Blessing for from thence forward as if never any such infectious Disease had been the City and all things in it are from a depth of miserable despair reduced into a secure safe and healthful condition Neither while the Contagion lasted did any other Diseases appear among the People Now the reason of this so sudden Cessation seems to be caused by the even and constant temper of the Air How this comes to pass by the blowing of the Anniversary Northwinds which then begin to rise and oppose the moist Nature of the South-winds call'd as we said Campsien which cooling as well the Air as Mens Bodies taking away the Cause the infectious Heat the Effect ceaseth Very seldom or never doth the Plague begin here
Funeral-Cloaths of Mummies made either of Paper Wood or burnt Brick or the like Matter as is declared in the Description of the Mummies But generally the whole Body of this Learning was cut upon Stone and set up in several Places in Egypt as upon Temple-doors Obelisks or Images of the Gods that they might remain Remarks to all Posterity They make * Mercurius Trismegistus Hermes the first Inventer of these consecrated Figures whom the Arabians called Adris He was a Priest and the greatest Wise-Man in all Egypt and flourished in the time of Abraham under the Government of the first Egyptian King Mizraim This Hieroglyphical Learning was so highly Esteemed by the Egpptians ever since its first Beginning Was in high Esteem that the Priests who only understood it might teach it to none but those of their own Order Moses himself according to the Scriptures was indued with all the Wisdom and Learning of the Egyptians which according to the Exposition of Philo Judaeus chiefly consisted in this Divine Philosophy When it was destroyed which since the Conquest of Egypt by Cambyses is so wholly lost that there is scarce any Remainders to be found ¶ A At present the Native Egyptians speak Arabick or the Morisk Language so do the Coptists only their Church-Service or Liturgies are celebrated in the Coptick with an Arabick Explanation The Jews at Cairo for the most part speak a mixt Language a meer Gally-maufry hasht together of all usual Tongues now call'd Lingua Franca ¶ THe Number of Souldiers in Pay The Soldiery which the Grand Signieur maintains to keep under the Countrey they variously Report formerly they were no more than twelve Thousand but at this day as well Horse as Foot 15100. ten Thousand seven hundred Horsemen Jaques Albert. which they call Mottaferagas Chiauses Arabgis Geoumelli and Tuffegis and four Thousand four hundred Footmen that is Janizaries Topigi and Azapi besides the San-jaks and Cherkes which last watch the Banks of Nilus to prevent the Arabians from cutting off or stopping the Water at the time of the overflowing besides these there are to garrison Castles and Forts two Thousand two hundred as also trained Soldiers raised in the several Cassiffes at the pleasure of the Divan of Cairo and maintained at their own Charge ¶ OUr Purchas says Egypt is guarded by an hundred Thousand Soldiers call'd Timariotts who are bound to serve the Turk in all Places where he pleaseth to use them Villamont accounts twenty Thousand Spahies and Breves and five and twenty or thirty Thousand Janizaries and Natives all bravely appointed in Habit and Arms. The Baron of Beauvan reckons five Thousand Spahies who do nothing but Ride through Cairo two Thousand Mottafaragaes or Mattaferagaes two Thousand Chiaous or Chiaus fifteen Thousand Janizaries all Foot-Soldiers Prince Radzovill relates That there lye in Cairo usually six Thousand Horse and as many Foot to prevent the Robberies of the Arabians and that the Cavalry consists partly of Turks partly of Mammelucks and Circassians but all the Infantry wholly of Janizaries ¶ THe Mottaferagaes are at this day three Thousand three hundred Jaques Albert. having no other Commander but the Bashaw who is of their own choosing the Chiaus three Thousand five hundred commanded in chief by the Aga but secondarily by one chosen out of themselves whom they call Chiaussi Tihaiassi The Seraquegies Gioumelli and Tuffegies are each of them twelve Hundred under their proper Leaders which they call Boullouk the Seraquegies bear Yellow Colours the Geoumelli Red and the Tuffegies Green and White If at any time a Boullouk offend he receives both Tryal and Punishment of the Aga. The Janizaries are above three Thousand with a peculiar Aga who only may punish them but no otherwise than in secret They guard the uppermost side of the Castle of Cairo The Arabgies and Topigies each five or six Hundred all Cannoneers under the Aga of the Janizaries though they have also a distinct Commander their Post is the Gate of the Castle of Cairo on the side of the Way from Romeilla Out of this Soldiery by the Command of the Divan residing at Cairo a certain number is drawn according as the danger of any Place requires but for Defence of the Countrey against the Incursion of the Arabs two Thousand two hundred twenty and three are always in readiness as a flying Army to assist the Soldiers quarter'd in and maintained by the Countrey and always lying in the Field under rich and curious Tents The Cassiff of Sahid or Girgio The Soldiery of every Province hath by the Command of the Divan of Grand Caire an Hundred Mottaferagaes an Hundred Chiauses an Hundred Janizaries and two Hundred Spahies at the publick Charge keeping as many in Pay upon their own Account These continually scout Abroad laying hold of all opportunities to fight with and cut off the Arabians that lurk in the Mountains for Spoyl Manfelut maintains six and twenty Soldiers Mottaferaga's and Spahies and as many Natives in Arms which as the other lye always in the Field Benesuef hath a Hundred and forty Fium a Hundred Spahies and fifty Janizaries Gize hath a Hundred Spahies all which constantly keep the Field to free the Countrey from the Plundring Arabians Baera hath two Hundred Mottaferagaes and Spahies Along the Channel that runs from the Nile to Alexandria the Provincial Governor keeps some Soldiers to hinder the Arabians letting out of the Water In Gaobia are fifty Soldiers to preserve the small Channel call'd Tessos from being cut off by that Wilde Nation Into Menousia the Divan sends a Hundred Spahies and the like into Mansoura whose Provincial Governor is bound to keep the like number at his own Cost and Charges In Callioubieh a Hundred in Minio seventy five together with thirty of the Provincials providing in Cherkeffi five and forty all at the Cost of the Countrey Besides all which Alexandria Rosetta Damiata and Suhez each receive sixty Soldiers ¶ EGypt besides these Military Guards hath several Castles and Fortifications Castles and Forts partly on the Sea-Coast and partly more In-Land There are four Castles in Alexandria one Great call'd Pharaillon and another smaller standing close by it at the Mouth of the New Haven and the two other lye on the other Side of the Old Bridge one Great call'd Rouch and the other smaller a Member as it were of the first Next these four stands another call'd Boukier In Rosetta are two one at Broules the other on the Sea-Point towards Damiata There are two or three also in the Dominion of Cattia by the Side of Gaza And in the Way towards Mecha two small days Journey from Cairo stands the Castle Aseroust through which the Caravans pass also a small Church of the Greeks The next is that of Lacaba Magazines in the Road to Mecha and further about half Way between Cairo and Mecha the Castle of Hazalem Over and above these Castles there are three
other parts of the Body sometimes only by the Skin and hanging many days they so languishing in great torture die or else ty'd with a Rope about the Middle and with four Nails fasten'd to a Cross against the City Wall they are flead alive or bray'd to pieces in a Mortar Those that have committed any crime at Sea Sea-Justice are ty'd to the Mast or Steerage and shot to death with Arrows or else his hands and Feet cut off and set before the Mouth of a Cannon Usual Punishments and so shot all to pieces To drag them in pieces with four Ships to which they are ty'd and then cast the Quarters into the Sea is a usual Punishment so it is to cut off limb by limb or joint by joint but to tye them up in a Sack Light Punishments and draw them is held a gentle and milde Sentence 'T is capital to lift up the Hand against a Janizary or to commit Adultery with a Mahumetan Woman But this later is connived at because they believe that all sins by washing in the Bath or by once plunging into the Sea are washed away Their Lodging is very mean Their Houshold-stuff being only a Mattress in stead of a Bed which they lay upon a floor of Boards They sleep in their Drawers or Calsoons they have neither Chairs Stools or Tables but hang their Cloaths upon Pins in the Wall Those of Quality sit at Meals and all other times upon pieces of Tapistry cross-legg'd on the Ground but poor People have a great Matt made of the leaves of a Date or Palm-tree The Men wear next their Skin a large Linnen Frock and Drawers The Habit of the Men. and over that a loose Coat of Cloth or Silk buttoned before with great Gold or Silver Buttons and hangs down almost to the knee Their Sleeves reach but to their Elbows so that turning up their Shirt upon them their Arms are for the most part half way bare or naked and instead of Stockins the great men of the Court and other People of quality sometime wear small Turky-Leather Buskins They wear Turbants made of red Wooll wound up in a piece of Cotton five or six Ells long Their Slippers are piked at the Toe of yellow or red Leather shod under the Heel with Iron having no Lappets which they slip off at the door of any house whereto they enter as a great point of Civility They wear at their Girdles three very fine Knives that is two great and one small in a silver Scabbard a foot long adorned with Turkoyses and Smarag'd or Emeral'd Stones so rich sometime that they stand them in above a hundred Escues When they make water they stoop down to the ground How they make water for it is held a shameless thing to urine standing as the Christians do And the reason may be because if the least drop of their water fall upon them they are polluted and must forthwith wash themselves The Women are Habited almost like the Men The Habit of the Women onely having a fine Linnen Cloth on their Heads in stead of a Turbant Their Semaires come but to half their Thighs the rest naked Rich Women wear commonly five or six Pendants in each Ear with Bracelets of Jewels on their Arms and Silk Garments They paint the ends of their Fingers blue with an Herb call'd by them Gueva perhaps our common Woad When they go along the City in the Streets they cast over all a Cotton Cloak which hangs down to their Feet and tie a string of Pearls upon their Foreheads and a fine Kerchiff before their Eyes so that they cannot be known as they go up and down the Streets All their occasions lie within the house where they have a several apartment by themselves wherein none but Women may visit each other the Master of the House himself being at such times excluded to prevent all occasions of jealousie They are curious in the beautifying themselves according to the Fashion of their Countrey painting their Eye-brows and Eye-lids and colouring their Hair black with burned Antimony The usual Food of the Countrey is commonly Rice Their Food Cuscous Mutton Veal some Beef and Fowl When ever they slaughter any Beast they say over each I kill thee in the Name of God then turning themselves to the South they cut the Throat quite through like the Jews that it may bleed the more else they count it unclean and dare not eat of it Their Drink at Meals is either clear Water or Sorbet for Wine is forbidden them by the Alcoran And in the mornings when Tradesmen and Merchants meet about business they go to the Publick Coffee-Houses which Liquor they drink having a great opinion of it smoaking abundance of Tobacco spending much of their time there In stead of Table-Cloths they use red Turky-Leather Carpets and wipe their fingers on their Handkerchiffs in stead of Napkins Onely at Solemn Festivals the great ones wipe upon a blue Cloth fixed to the Carpet Their Cups and Dishes are of Tin or Earth Their Cups or Vessels for none may use Silver onely the Sultans they are all of Massy-Gold Liquid things they eat with wooden Spoons a Foot long Gaming is unlawful among them so that they neither play at Dice Cards Balls Bowls nor any other Sport usual with us Sometime they will play a Game at Chess but not for money Bathes are much used Great use of Baths besides their frequent Washings enjoyned before Devotion so that every place almost is filled with Bannia's Every City hath also many Free-Schools or Mesquites for the instructing of Youth to Read Write and cast Accompts but no further The principal Book they learn is the Alcoran which when a Scholar can read well his School-fellows lead him in his best Habit along the Streets and set forth his Commendation through the City for beyond this none learn Thus having shewed you the Manners and Customs of the People we shall now in short give an account of the nature of the Soyl and what Beasts and Plants it produces ¶ THere are in Barbary very many Springs and Rivers The Rivers the chiefest of which take their Rise in and Fall down from the greater Atlas though some others claim distinct Originals all which disembogue either into the Great Atlantick or Midland-Sea The Waters springing from Atlas relish of that Earth whence they arise and are for the most part thick and sedimenty especially on the Borders of Mauritania The whole Coast of Barbary lying on the Ocean The Scituation of it Atlas and the utmost Southerly Parts of the Territory of Sus as far as the Streights of Gibraltar is very fruitful in the Production of Wheat and Barley full of Meadow-Ground and luxurious in Herbage to feed up Cattel The other on the Midland-Sea How the Soil of Barbary is at the Mediterranean Sea from the Streights to the Eastern Borders of Tripolis is
of Morocco's Concubines to the number of eight hundred under the Guard of Eunuchs but now the Residence and Seat of the Governours Without the City lie several Sconces and Redoubts made of Loam and cast up when the Castle was Besieg'd in the Year Sixteen hundred and sixty Within these Cities are several Mosques with inclosed Yards round about and without divers Mesquites The Houses especially in Old Sale are very small and slightly built Their Houses though here and there some are richly set out with Carv'd Work and Marble Pillars Generally they are but one Story high without any Windows to the Street or other opening than the Door all their Light descends from a Loover in the midst about which the Chambers are placed the whole Edifice flat-rooft for conveniency of Walking Morning and Evening for the benefit of the cool refreshing Air. The Haven is very spacious The Haven but shallow having at low Tyde not above a Foot or a Foot and a half Water though at full Sea eleven or twelve Before the Haven lyeth a Barr passable at High Water with loaden Barks and Ships either out or in whereas when the Tyde is out they must remain at the Rivers mouth and unload their Goods into small Boats out of which Landed they carry them through the Gate Sidimusa Ducala upon Asses and Camels into the City This shallowness of the Haven compels the Corsaires or Pyrates of this Place to use light Vessels that draw little Water which proves better for the Chace and more advantageous in their Pyracies and also in escaping Ships of greater Burden whereas they of Algiers Tunis and Tripolis from the convenience of their Haven put to Sea in greater Vessels The Revenue consists in Tributes and Customs of Exported and Imported Merchandise The Revenue all which pays ten in the Hundred The Countrey People under its Jurisdiction pay the tenth of all their Land-Fruits for a Tribute And the Pyrates by their Robberies against the Christians bring no small Advantage These Cities are now Govern'd by an Alcaide The Government who with his chosen Councel manage all Affairs either Martial or Civil In the Election of a new Governour or Deputy they proceed with no regularity the Commons or Plebeians sometimes setting up one from among themselves or if it were possible below themselves as they did some few Years since when without the consent of the King or Nobles running together upon the Governours death without any the least appearance of Reason they set up in this mad fit an Ass-driver and by their own Authority impowered him but he soon after his Advancement using the same severity rough handling and menaces to his new Subjects as towards his old Slave the Ass they no longer pleased with his so rigorous Government kickt him out of the Saddle and left him to conduct by those stern Rules his old Servant Other great Alterations often happen in the chusing of Governours insomuch that sometimes it hath been known that there have been three new Governours in a Moneth so often turned out either out of the Peoples hatred to them or for their own Misgovernment and yet their whole Jurisdiction reaches no farther than over a few little Cities and some wandring Advars that is Arabs This City hath from the first Foundation been subject to Commotions and Alterations but more especially since the coming of the Andaluzian Moors that were driven out of Spain as will presently appear During the continuance of the Moors in Spain which was from the Year Seven hundred and twelve for then they made their Conquests for Six or seven hundred Years they kept possession all which time the Kings of Spain made it their Master-piece to drive them out especially Ferdinando the Fifteenth for he taking into serious Consideration the great mischief by them done to the Christians and the continual Wars wherewith they infested them in the Year Fourteen hundred ninety two set fiercely upon them who seeing themselves in a straight and even brought under the power and obedience of Ferdinando seem'd to embrace Christianity though scarce in outward appearance they were such however it gain'd them a breathing while and gave them opportunities of endeavour at least to distract that State so that in the Year Sixteen hundred and ten Philip the Third King of Spain by an Edict published the Sixteenth of January banisht them out of his Kingdom The Andaluzian Moors driven out of Spain and for fear of incurring the penalties thereof above a Million of Men Women and Children of all Sexes departed within the time limited the greatest part of whom taking Ship passed into Barbary But others spread themselves into the East about Constantinople some came into France with the consent of the King who allotted them a place to dwell in conditionally they observ'd the Roman Catholick Religion wherein by performance of their Articles they so fixed themselves that at this Day some Families of them are to be found in Provence and Languedoc Such of them as pitched at Salee were admitted with freedom by the King of Fez and Morocco believing they might be useful to instruct his People in many Trades and Handicrafts Here a while they lived Peaceably yielding equal Obedience with the other Subjects but they soon started aside and with the Money which in great quantities they brought from Spain bought Arms and some Ships wherewith they apply'd themselves to Roving and Pyracy at Sea pretending at first to take from none but the Spaniards in revenge of their inflicted Banishment though indeed and in truth their malice raged upon all the Christians 'T is true at the beginning they play'd fast and loose under pretence of Trading and Merchandise setting up Spanish Flags and Colours in their Masts and Sterns and acting all in the name of Spaniards The Andaluzjans beginning to take from the Christians as they were by Birth and Language by which they did great Robberies but at last this Trick growing stale they pull'd their Vizards off and declared themselves openly Pyrates and Enemies to all Christians Whatsoever Prizes they took they pay'd to the King of Morocco as a Tribute seven or ten in the Hundred as well of Prisoners as of Merchandise Thus for a time they continued their Subjection to the King of Morocco but still waiting an opportunity to throw off the yoak and indeed they wanted not a specious pretence for under the colour of furnishing their Ships they got into their hands the best Arms in Salee of which possessed and instigated by the natural Ambition of the Countrey they were bred in they brought to pass those Designs they had been so long secretly contriving For first they made themselves Masters of the Alkassave They rise up against the King of Morocco or Castle of Salee and by that means of the City which done they disarm'd the Moors banish'd the Natives and expell'd all the King of Morocco's Officers and for their Assistance
other Mountains viz. Equebdenon or rather Mequeb Huan a large one boasting seventy two small Villages before the Spaniards had Casafa but since that much thinner of Inhabitants Benisahia reaching Eastward from Casafa to the River Nokor in Length eight miles and containing about an hundred and eighteen Villages Besides Azgangan Beneteuzin and Guardan remarked onely for their Monuntainous Qualities ¶ THis Dominion The Constitution of the Territories though it hath many yet wants some Necessaries for humane Sustenance particularly Water many Places having no other than the Rain-water they can catch The whole Countrey except the Hill Benesahid being dry and barren like the Desarts of Numidia ¶ THe Desarts feed abundance of all sorts of Cattel the chiefest Riches of the Inhabitants So also the Mountains Echebdeaon Benesahid and Azgangan But those Mountains about Meggeo inclose in their Bowels much Iron which they barter or exchange with the Merchants of Fez for Oyl ¶ MOst of the Inhabitants are very generous The Manners or Customs of the Inhabitants milde and affable especially the Citizens of Meggeo and the People of Benesahid And such is their Temperance that they drink no Wine although their Neighbors of Erriff make great quantities CHAUS CHaus The Borders of the Territory of Chaus by Marmol call'd Cuz the seventh and last Province but not the least of this Kingdom being in effect a third part of the whole having on the East the River Zha or Ezaha to the West that of Guraigura in Length from East to West near forty six miles and in Breadth about forty It s Bigness For it contains all the Parts of Atlas over against the Moors Countrey a great part of the Plains of Numidia and the Mountains bordering upon Lybia Teurert is placed among the chiefest Cities of this Jurisdiction Teurert scituate on a Hill near the River Zab fronting on the North the Desart of Garet to the South looking on the Wastes of Adduhra on the East those of Angah bordering on Telensin and in the West on the Wildes of Tafrata adjoyning to Tezza Hadagia Hadagia a little Town erected at the Conflux of the Rivers Melule and Muluye first spoil'd by the Arabians of the Desart Darda and afterwards during the Wars of Teurert utterly demolish'd But the Turks have re-peopled and beautifi'd it so that now it flourishes no less than at any time heretofore Garsis formerly Galafa erected upon a Rock near the River Muluie Garsis five miles from Teurert fortifi'd with a Castle and made a Store-house for Corn by the Marin Kings The Wall and all the Houses built of Black Touch. Dubdu a very Antient City Dubdu in the heighth of twenty five Degrees North Latitude upon a high Mountain principally inhabited by the People of Zenete Meza or Tezar a strong Town two miles from Mount Atlas twelve from Fez. Meza forty from the Great Ocean and seven from the Midland-Sea in former times was accounted the Third of the whole Kingdom having a far greater Mosque than any in Fez and five thousand Houses all meanly built except the Palaces of the Nobility and Colledges which carry more state The Jurisdiction of this City is very great and comprises several Mountains upon which several People dwell Sophroy a little City at the foot of Mount Atlas Sophroy four miles Southward of Fez close by the Road leading to Numidia Mezdaga another small place three miles West from Sophroy Mezdaga and four to the South from Fez environ'd with a good Wall but the Buildings very slight yet each house necessarily accommodated with a Fountain of Water Benihublud of old call'd Beuta distant from Fez three miles Benihublud and water'd with several Streams flowing from the adjacent Hills Hamlisnan otherwise nam'd Ain el Ginum that is The Fountain of Idols Hamlisnan because in old time the people meeting in the Temple scituate near a standing-Pool did commit all sorts of uncleanness Menhdia or Mehedia seated upon Mount Arden Menhdia about three miles from Hamlisnan formerly in the Civil Wars of the Countrey laid waste but since Peopled anew and repair'd by the Arabians Tezerghe a small City built in form of a Castle by a Rivers side Tezerghe at the foot of Mount Cunâ—igelgherben Umengiveaibe and Gerceluin two old decay'd Towns Vmengiveaibe Gercelum the first not far from Atlas the later near the Mountain Zis now of little note but heretofore strongly wall'd by the Kings of the Marin Family ruling in these Parts ¶ WIthin this Tract of Land are two great Plains the one call'd Sabblelmarga that is The Field of Contention being forty miles long and ten broad having neither Houses or Towns but a few small Huts lying here and there dispersedly the other vulgarly nam'd Azagari Commaren ¶ Mountains here be Matgara or Matagara two miles from Teza Mountains difficult to be climb'd up by reason of the narrowness of the way Cavata no better condition'd than the former yet contains fifty Villages with two fair Springs that feed and supply two Rivers Megeze shewing forty Villages Baronis noted onely for the Name Beniguertenage reasonably Peopled Guceblen otherwise call'd Guibeleyn thirteen miles in Length and two in Breadth neighboring upon Dubdu and Banyasga Benirifften and Selelgo or Ciligo out of which runs a River with so strong a Fall downwards that will drive before it a stone of an hundred weight The River Subu also takes his Rise from hence being the greatest in all Mauritania There also appear the Mountains Benyazga and Azgan which last in the East Butteth upon Selelgo West on the City Sophroy South on the Mountains above the River Muluye and to the North on the Plains of Fez Mount Miabir that is Hundred-pit Hill upon whose top stand some old Buildings near which there lieth a deep Hole or Pit that they can find no bottom of it by Fathoming Cunaigelgherben or Condigetherben not far from Miabir but altogether without Inhabitants partly by reason of the vehement and sharp Cold and partly for the multitudes of Lions and Leopards there breeding upon whose top riseth a high Rock frequented with infinite Flights of Crows and Ravens whence some imagine the Mountain took Name Kunai-gel-gherben properly signifying a multitude of Ravens The passage by it is dangerous in regard oftentimes out of the North so strong Drifts of Snow rowl from thence that Travellers have been buried under them without hopes or possibility of recovery Yet the Neighbouring Arabs called Beni Essen usually frequent them for the coolness of the Water and refreshment of the Shades The Mountains Benimerasen and Mazetraze Mezitalze the last from West to East about ten miles in length and four miles in breadth borders upon Temesne Mount Zis thirty four miles long and fourteen broad Butting East on Mazetraze West on Tedle and Mount Edis South on part of Numidia called Segelmesse and North on the Plain of Edeksen and Guregra
call'd The Ornament of the World But soon after the Vandals under their King Genserick in the Year after Christ's Nativity Four hundred forty two reduced it to great misery which yet once more it recovered and remained a City of good estimation till suffering under the Gothish Devastations but at length finally destroy'd by the Arabians and made a heap of Ruines as it still continues The chief and greatest remaining Antiquity of this once so famous Place is a Water-course Vaulted over with high Arches through which it runs into the City although many remainders of the old Fortifications may yet be seen and some ruined Structures The Village Marsa which we mention'd before is the onely place that keeps up the memory of Carthage being built in part of its Ruines and a poor piece of the Skeleton of that once so glorious Body so true is that of the antient Poet Sic patet exemplis Oppida posse mori ¶ THe Valleys lying round about have a very sweet Air The Condition of the Countrey because continually cleared by fresh Breezes that come from the Sea and are full of Orchards Planted with great variety of Fruit of a pleasant taste and very large especially Peaches Pomegranates Olives Figs Citrons Lemmons and Oranges wherewith the Markets of Tunis are plentifully furnisht the rest of the Ground also being exceeding Fertile though circumscribed in narrow Limits for on the North lieth the Mountain Thesea and the Lake of Goletta and on the East and South the Plain of Byserta the rest between Carthage and Tunis for almost three miles dry and barren Land ¶ THe Ground about Arriane produceth some Wheat and St. Johns Bread Plants or Vegetables but about Naples nothing but Flax and about Kammart many Sugar-Canes ¶ SOme wild Beasts are found hereabouts as also a sort of Gray Partridges Beasts and others with black Feathers on their Breasts and Wings the remaining part Ash-coloured with the Bill and Feet much shorter than the Partridges here with us In the Lake of Goletta are Birds by the Moors call'd Louze and by the Turks Kalckavensi having Legs two Foot and a half long and all their Feathers Milk white THE DOMINION and CITY OF BYSERTA or BESERTA SOme take Byserta now a small Village for that Ituqua of Ptolomy or Utica of Caesar and Titus Livius famous by the Death of Cato who having in behalf of the Pompeyan Faction undertaken the Defence of this City when he could no longer hold it chose rather to lay violent hands on himself than fall into the Power of Caesar Marmol takes it for Porto Farnia which he says the people of Barbary call Garelmetha although some stick not to say that it hath been and is known by the Name of Mazacharus or Kallefort as being a Member of the French Garrisons in Africa However it is the Moors give it the Name of Bensart or Benserth that is Son of the Lake for Ben signifies Son and Serte A Lake from whence it is easily corrupted to Byserta It stands on the Mediterranean-Sea between Razamuza by the Antients call'd The Point of Apollo and The Mouth of the River Bagrada ten French miles from Tunis where there is a great Lake much frequented by Fishermen formerly containing within the Walls six thousand Families but now Garrison'd by the Turks who keep there two great Prisons for Slaves besides Store-Houses for Merchandise and two strong Fortifications or Sconces for the Security of the Haven Westward of the Lake lies a great Plain call'd Mater Plains of Water belonging to Byserta but bordering on Goletta Not far distant is Choros formerly call'd Clypea or rather according to Davity Kurobis because Clypea is the true Quippia and the modern Kalibbie seated on the River Magride about two miles from Tunis formerly in the Civil Wars of the Countrey laid waste but re-built and peopled by a sort of Alarbes call'd Benicheli intermixt with others so that at present it shews the face of a well-inhabited Town The Haven of Farine is famous onely by the fatal Wreck of St. The Haven of Farine Lewis King of France in his return back from the Holy Land and two great Rocks lying at its Mouth ¶ THis Countrey hath abundance of fresh Water in all Quarters The Constitution of the Countrey which afford great variety of Fish in the Lake are usually taken Dorads or Dolphins of five or six pound weight and from the end of October to the beginning of May great quantities of a Fish call'd by the Natives Elft by the Spaniards Jachas and by the Moors of Barbary Giarrafas The great Plain of Mater is a fat and marly Soyl which would yield a good Return to the painful Husbandman if he might reap the Profits free from the Incursions and Thieveries of the Arabs Choros also is not backward in a Fertile Return according to the quality of its Soyl which yields vast and lofty Groves of Olive-Trees for the great benefit of the Inhabitants ¶ THe People go almost naked Their Cloathing wearing onely a Barrakan or short Apron a half Turban a Cloth about their Necks but bare-footed and bare-legg'd ¶ THeir Food is a kind of Couscous made of Meal Their Food Eggs Salt and Water which they dry and can keep a whole year Their Bread is a sort of Cakes call'd Obs Baked on the Hearth and their Drink made of Raisins and Wine Lees boyl'd together The poorer sort have no Beds but sleep upon Mattresses of Sedge laid on the Ground The more noble have in their Chambers long and narrow Divisions higher than a Man made fast to the Walls with very fine Wicker-work which they climb up to by a Ladder when they go to sleep ¶ THe Houses and Churches are whited once a year on the out-sides Their Houses but the in-sides are slovenly enough In their Kitchins if so we may call them Fire is a stranger all their Victuals being drest and boyl'd in a sort of moveable Ovens They are much inclined to Sorcery wearing Papers Written with small Characters Sticht in Leather on their Necks and on the Heads of their Horses when they draw into the Field to Fight believing that they will free them from all Diseases and Mishap URBS and BEGGIE URbs and Beggie two several Territories comprehend these Cities Urbs Beggie Hain-Sammin and Kasba with some great Plains The City Urbs formerly Turridis The City Vrbs founded by the Romans on a delightful Plain eight and thirty miles on the South of Tunis shews yet many Remainders of Antiquity as Marble Images Borders upon the Gates with Latine Inscriptions and Walls of thick Square-hew'd Stone together with a Castle betwixt which and two adjacent Villages runs a River of fresh Water convey'd in a Trench of pure white Stone to the City Beggie also built by the Romans about six miles from the Mediterrane Beggie and twenty to the Westward of Tunis by a High-way leading from
of Epaphus Son of Jupiter others would force the Name Lybia from the Arabick word Lebib which signifies Excessive Heat Now the Arabs call this Land Zaahara Zaara or Sarn that is The Desarts ¶ THe migrating Arabs The Arabian division of Lybia that so often in great companies shift their eaten up Stations for fresh Pasturage roving through this Lybia divide it now into three parts according to the diversity of the Soyl and varieties of Places to which they progress for the Sandy bearing neither Shrub nor Grass they call Tehel the Stony or Gravel Countrey Zaara and all that which is Morass or Boggy being always green Azgar And lately it hath been divided into ten Cantons Other Partitions into ten Territories or Desarts or Desarts in which there are some populous places the first that which belongs to the Lybick Nun to the Desart of Zenega or Zanaga Tagaza Zuenziga Hayr or Terga Lempta Berdoa Augele Serte and Alguechet every one so call'd from their Metropolis Cluverius on the other side brings the Desarts Lempta Hayr Zuenziga Zanhaga and the Kingdom of Targa and Berdoa under Biledulgerid and extends Sarra all the length of the Kingdom of Gaoga quite to Gualata ¶ MOst of the People of Lybia have their Dwelling-places about the River Zenega Where the People of Lybia have their chiefest dwelling-places a branch of the River Niger that they may the better drive their Trade and hold Commerce with the Negro's ¶ THis Lybia The Air. or Sarra hath so excellent and wholsom Air that it not onely excludes all Diseases from the Inhabitants but makes a Cure on all others that have long despaired of their recoveries of health so that from Barbary and other adjacent Countreys they thither repair and suddenly shaking off their weakness and Malady they return sound and able ¶ THe Soyl is very hot and dry The Water and hath great scarcity of Water none to be found but here and there in Pits or Wells and them for the most part brackish for in some places they travel six or seven days finding no Water so that the Merchants Trading from Fez to Tombut or from Telensin to the Kingdom of Agadez Bottle it up in Goat-skins and carry their provision of Liquor on Camels Backs But though the Way be much more troublesome which goeth from Fez to Gran-Cayre through the Wilderness of Lybia they have the benefit of a great Lake in their passage where the People of Ceu and Gorhan dwell Ieo Eerst Decl. Marmel lib. 1. cap. 14. and lib. 8. cap. 1. But in the other Road from Fez to Tombut they find some Springs covered over with Camels Hides out of which they draw their Water as in little Buckets with the Shank-bones of the same Creature The Merchants adventure more by Land than ours at Sea putting themselves oft in greater dangers especially if they set forth in Summer for then usually arise in those Countreys Southern Winds which raise abundance of Sand that new congealed drifts cover those Pits so deep that all Marks are lost whereby they may recover them again scarce guessing where they were they often fainting with thirst perish there as may appear by many of their dead Bodies found in the Way by following Travellers To prevent which misery in this necessitous exigent no other means being left they kill their Camels and squeeze the Water out of their Bowels and Maws which when they set forth they Tun up in their Bellies in such a quantity as would suffice them ten or twelve days this they refresh themselves withall and oft save their lives till they find some formerly known Pit yet in many places Camels Milk may be had ¶ THis Countrey is scatteringly inhabited and but thinly peopled The Soyl of the Countrey In the Rainy Season when wet Weather begins which commonly happens in mid August and continues to the end of November but sometimes stretching out a Moneth or two nay almost three Moneths longer then the Countrey flourishes with Grass and Herbage and the Temperature makes Travelling very pleasant and well accommodated for then there is neither scarcity of Water nor Milk the necessity of which at other times makes the whole Countrey a Map of misery But if those that observe their times to Travel set forth upon the advantage of the expected Season if then it happens as sometimes it falls out a general or second Drought then not onely Travellers are put to run the risque but the Inhabitants lose the Product of the whole year ¶ THere are some barren Mountains which bear nothing but inconsierable Shrubs Briers and Thorns The Vegetables The most fertile Soyl of all Lybia Manured produces onely Barley and but a few Dates by which we may judge the sterility of that Countrey Their chief support are Camels which there they have in abundance whose Flesh and Milk supplies sufficiently what their barren Earth and droughty Air denies them ¶ THey have also Adimmain Beasts not unlike Sheep The Animals See p. 24 which we have before mentioned and Ostriches But the People have also added to their other suffering viz. sudden incursions of wild Beasts and deadly biting Serpents preying both on Men and Cattel but most of all they are miserably infested with Locusts which in vast Armies clouding the Skie in their speedy March from Arabia and other Eastern parts take up their Quarters in those Desarts which what-ever they yield though little they utterly destroy enabling them for greater expeditions and their second flights to the Fare and Plunder of richer Countreys Barbary and Spain But a worse mischief when they are gone they leave behind them viz. their Spawn which produceth a more ravenous and greedy generation who heavy and unweildy not fit for flight sit down on the Trees and Plants and eat not onely the Leaves but the Bark and Rinds making all over a Famine which the Arabs call Jarat Yet the Inhabitants of the Arabian Wilds are hard enough for them though they spoyl theirs as other Countreys making them quit scores by eating the Eaters which they esteem savoury balances of the accounts of their losses ¶ HEre are five sorts of People Sects or Tribes as Zanaga's Guenazeries Several sorts of People in Lybia or Zerenziga's Terga's Lempta's and Bardoa's some of which are call'd Habexes others Breberians Natives of the Countrey one part reaching in Villages amongst Morass and Fenny Grounds and the others flitting from place to place for fresh Pasture for their Cattel like the wandring Arabs ¶ MAny of the Inhabitants are Meagre The Constitution of the Inhabitants Lean and more or less Deformed yet their so seemingly weak Constitution gives them strength and good health to the sixtieth year of their age The Women are something gross but their Arms and Legs their supporters are slender like Sticks or Tabletressles they are rather Brown than Fair their Speech and Behaviour Comely ¶ Both Sexes are naturally
seem to have appearance of Truth because the chiefest Geographers of this Age hold Gambea and Zenega to be two Branches of the Niger Yet some will have it Original Leo p. 1. that the Niger taketh its Original out of a Lake Eastward of the Desart Seu gliding from thence to the West and in the Atlantick disburthens its self But the Arabian and African Geographers assert that Niger is a Branch of the Nyle which running under ground after a great distance shews his so long-lost Streams again And that the Niger proceeds from the same Head or Fountain they also affirm from these Evidences First that they both breed one and the same sorts of Fish especially the Hipopotamus or Sea-Horse and overflow the Ground inriching the Neighboring Countreys near the same time and in the same manner as the Nyle The Antients themselves among whom Pliny make Nylus and Niger to be of one Nature or Quality and adde moreover that it produceth Reeds and the Papyrian or Paper-Plant as Nylus doth which the Egyptians used to write on as we on our Paper The Modern Geographers make Niger to take its Original out of a Lake call'd The Black Lake bordering on the Kingdoms of Medra and Vanque and make it also serve for a Boundary between the Abyssine or Prester-Johns Countrey and Negro-Land Afterwards it cuts through the Countreys of Biafar and Nubia diving about eighteen miles under ground and at last appears again and makes the great Lake of Borna lying upon the Borders of four Kingdoms From thence it floweth through these Realms Guangara Biafara Kassena Zegzeg and Kano and makes another great Lake call'd Sigisma or Guarda which in the South moisteneth the Kingdoms of Mandinga Guber and Gago and in the North that of Kano and Agadez gliding out of this Lake it runs to the West then rushing towards the North close by the Kingdom of Tombut and in the South hard by Melli spreads it self into a third ample Lake Niger parts into four Branches from thence branching into four Rivers near which losing its own Name Niger receives four new Denominations The first of which is call'd The River of Saint-John which in the Bay of Arguin falls in the Ocean whose Mouth makes the Haven Tofia The second running direct West which we have so often mention'd is Zenega The third gliding by degrees also West is call'd Gambea but the last Branch of Niger parts instantly into two other Branches one of which is call'd Sante Domingo and the other which taketh its Course to the South in Portuguese Rio Grande Each of these Branches boast of whole Kingdoms bordering their Banks as Guihala and Biguba according to the Name of those Rivers Rio Grande or The Great River distinguishes it self from the other Rivers in eleven Degrees Latitude and after having dispatch'd two Branches more from its own which are call'd Guinala and Biguba between the Islands of Bisegos falls into the Sea Sante Domingo otherwise call'd Jarim The River Sante Domingo is held by some for the eminentest River of the whole Coast because of the abundance of Slaves sold near its Banks It seems to be a Branch of Rio Grande which near the Bay call'd Esteirs Katerina ends its Progress in the Sea Many of the other Rivers gliding down from the In-land water the Coast of Negro-Land and fall into the Ocean But of these in their own particular place as of the other Rivers being Arms of Niger as Zenega and Gambea shall be treated of in the Kingdom Zenega between which they are included All these foremention'd Branches and Sub-branches swell and over-flow in the same manner and near the same time with the Nyle when the Sun in their Zenith enters Cancer all the benefit the Nyle brings to Egypt the like accommodation the Niger with other Rivers brings to Negro-Land Niger together with other Rivers beginning from the fifteenth of July rises forty days and retreating as long all which time till it draw within its circumscribed bounds the Low-Lands Plains and level Countrey becomes a Sea all places covered with Water as in Egypt where also during that time the Travellers are Rowed up and down in Boats The equal over-flowing of this River with the Nyle Isaac Vostius de Nili aliorum fluminum is not occasioned by the vicinity of the Springs of those Rivers belonging to the Nyle as the received Opinion but because their Head Fountains lie almost the same distance from the Equinox as we have declared at large Concerning the temper of the Air condition of the Soyl Vegetives Animals and the Constitution Modes and Manners of the Inhabitants their Riches their Policies in Government and several Religions of the Negro's Countrey in general shall here briefly be declared and as to what belongs to the materials of every Kingdom shall also in particulars be handled but observe that their Plants Beasts Men and Languages differ very much from neighboring Countreys under the Equator though the temperature of the Air and all the mutations thereof as Heat Cold Wind and Rain are not unlike but in a manner one and the same By the over-flowing of Niger Zenega and Gambea as also by the Rains Negro-Land is moistened and made exceeding fruitful in all manner of terrene Products especially Mille and Rice both being the chiefest Bread-corn of the Inhabitants The Countrey is in some parts plain and others Hilly but about the Banks of the River Niger it is very level and watered by several standing Pools left there by the retreating River which are planted about with shady Groves Recesses for ravenous Beasts and Elephants This Dominion fosters not onely tame but also wild Beasts in great numbers The Natives are very black but the Features of their Faces and their excellent Teeth being white as Ivory make up together a handsom Ayre and taking comeliness of a new Beauty they are well Limm'd and much addicted to Venus Their Languages are divers Their Language Gualata Tombut the In-land Guinee Melli and Gago there all these use onely one Tongue call'd Sungai but in the Kingdom of Kano Kalsene Zegzeg Guangura and Guber they have another call'd Guber and another in the Kingdom of Borno which is like that of Gaoga Likewise those of Nubia have a peculiar Speech of their own a Maslin of the Arabick Chaldee and some Coptick or Egyptian Besides along the Sea-Coast their Dialects differ every three or four miles distance but on the Coast of Guinee a particular Language Of which more hereafter As for their Governments Their Government some of them know none neither ever scarce heard of any but live in a confused Ataxy sway'd on all occasions like tumultuous Herds and at other times like tame Cattel feeding and following their idle pleasures But the rest are all Monarchical living under Laws Order and Princes Leo Eerst Decl. In the first place the King or rather Emperour of Tombut to whom they pay Tribute and
acknowledge as their Supream Ruler over these fifteen Kingdoms in the In-land as Gualata Guinee Melli Tombut Gago Guber Agadez Kano Kasena Zegzeg Zanfara Guangura Burno Gaogo and Nubia besides the King of Burno reigns over another Moiety acknowledging no Superior the rest of the In-lands are subject to the Gaogo's but in times past they were all absolute Kings doing Homage nor Fealty to no other Also the whole Sea-Coast of Negro-Land from Cape de Verde to Lovango stands divided into several Monarchies The Religion of the In-land Negro's Their Religion most of them antiently worshipped one God call'd Guighime that is Lord of Heaven this Perswasion of theirs not being inculcated by any Priests who study Rites and Ceremonies imposing a reverential awe on their Disciples and Proselytes but Instinct and the meer dictates of Nature which brings as soon to the acknowledgment of a Deity something not subordinate but infinitely supream governing all After this they were instructed in the Mosaick Laws which they long and zealously observed till some of them being converted to the Christian Faith wholly ecclipsed the Jewish then Christianity flourishing many years till Mahumetanism at last over-spreading all Asia and these parts of Africa they being still greedy of Novelty fell into Apostacy drinking in the poyson of this new and dire Infection so that Christianity is in a manner extirpated some few Professors of the Gospel after the Coptick or Egyptian manner yet remaining in Gaoga But those Southern People that inhabit the Coast from Cape de Verde to the Kingdom of Lovango sticking to their first Tenets are still all Idolaters as hereafter in particulars shall be declared THE KINGDOM OF GUALATA THe Kingdom of Gualata whose Inhabitants are call'd Benay's hath received its Denomination also from its Metropolitan possessing three great and populous Villages and some delightful Gardens and Date-Fields lying twenty and five miles from the Atlantick Observe these and the forementioned are for the most part Spanish Miles sixty Southward of Nun and about thirty to the Northward of Tombut Fenced in on every side with the rising Banks of the River Zenega or Niger Sanutus sets down in this Dominion a place call'd Hoden lying in the In-land six days Journey from Cabo Blanko in nineteen Degrees and a half Northern Latitude where the Arabians and Karavans that come from Tombut and other places of Negro Land travelling through the same to Barbary stay and refresh themselves ¶ THis Countrey which produceth nothing but Barley and Mille The Plants or Vegetables hath also great scarcity of Flesh yet the Tract of Land about Hoden abounds with Dates and Barley and hath plenty of Camels Beeves and Goats but their Beeves are a smaller Breed than ours of Europe This Countrey abounds in Lyons and Leopards terrible to the Inhabitants and also Ostriches whose Eggs they account a Dainty ¶ BOth Sexes are very Black they are Civil and Courteous to Strangers The Constitution and Manners of the Inhabitants like their Neighbors in the Lybick Desarts the Inhabitants of the City Gualata live very poorly whereas those of Hoden live plentifully having Barley-bread Dates and Flesh and supply their want of Wine by drinking Camels Milk and other Beasts ¶ BOth Men and Women in Gualata have their Heads and Faces commonly cover'd with a Cloth Their Cloathing and the Men of Hoden also wear short white Jackets but the Women think it no shame to go stark naked covering their Heads onely with a Caul of Hair dy'd red Their Language Their Language is call'd Sungai These Arabs of Hoden also like others never continue long in a place but rove up and down with their Cattel through the adjacent Wildes ¶ THose of Lybia Their Trade so long as the Countrey of Negro's stood under their Jurisdiction had formerly planted the Royal Residence of their Kings in Gualata which brought great Concourse of Barbary Merchants thither but since the Countrey fell into the hands of a powerful Prince call'd Heli the Merchants forsook this place and settled their Staples at Tombut and Gago But the people of Hoden still drive a Trade in Gualata and resort also thither in great numbers with their Camels laden with Copper Silver and other Commodities from Barbary and other Countreys to Tombut and many places in Negro-Land bringing no worse Returns from thence than Gold The King of Gualata Anno 1526. being in Battel overcome by the King of Tombut upon Articles paying him a yearly Tribute was restored to his Throne ¶ THese People Their Government though govern'd by Kings are not under the Prescript of any Laws nor have Courts of Judicature in their chief Towns there to summon and punish Malefactors but live in a rambling manner promiscuously every one endeavoring to be his own Judge and Arbitrator their Will being their Law ¶ THe Gualatans onely worship Fire Their Religion but those of Hoden extracted from the Arabs are a sort of Mahumetans professed Enemies to Christianity THE KINGDOM OF GUINEE OR GENOVA THis Kingdom The Kingdom of Genova which many call Guinea though not the same differing from our present Guinee lies by the Sea which reacheth along the Coast from Cape Serre Lions to Cape Lopez Gonzalves by the African Merchants call'd Gheneva Leo 7. Decl. by the Arabians according to Marmol Geneua and by the Natives Geuni or Genii ¶ IT hath for its Northern Borders The Borders the Kingdom of Gualata where the Wilderness runs ninety Miles long on the East that of Tombut and on the South Melle and runs in a Point to the Atlantick at the place where Niger falls in the same Ocean along whose Banks another Angle runs above eighty French Leagues This whole Countrey notwithstanding the vasteness of its Extent boasts neither Cities Towns nor Fortresses but one single Village yet that so large that not onely the Kings keep their Courts and Royal Residence there but also there is a University where Scholars Commence and the Priests receive their Orders and several Dignities besides a settled Staple for the Merchants of this Kingdom ¶ YEt this Place of so great Concourse hath but mean Buildings Their Houses onely small Huts and Hovels of Loam and thatched rang'd in a round order the Doors or Entries so low and narrow that they are forc'd to creep in and out which we may suppose are no statelier built because they expect annually in July August and September to be under water with the overflowing of the Niger then in prepared Vessels and Boats made for that purpose in which the King first loads the Furniture and Houshold-stuff of his low-rooff'd Palace then the Scholars and Priests their University-Goods and next the Merchants and Inhabitants their Moveables and last of all the Water increasing themselves as if they entred the Ark and at the same time the Merchants of Tombut come thither and joyning Fleets traffick with them on the Water This
Serre-Lions This River taking its course Northward of the Point of Serre-Lions is at the Mouth twelve miles broad but on the North-side half way choaked up with divers Shelves of Sand which divide it into three Channels one runs along the North-side the other in the midst but the great Channel Coasts by the South which is the deepest of all The Portugals pass onely in the two small Channels with Boats for in the third or great Channel they dare not venture Also between the Island Tasso lying in this River and the South there be many small Currents passable with little Vessels but not with great Ships Another call'd Bangue glides on the South-side of Serre-Lions into the Sea as Mitombo on the North-side so that the Mountain by these two Rivers lieth inclosed in manner of a hanging Island and maketh the prominent Point call'd The Cape of Serre-Lions as we have often said Cabo de Serre-Lions but so narrow that the Blacks take their Canoos upon their Shoulders and carry them over On both Shores of this River lie several Towns and Countreys those to the North-side are call'd Bolm which signifies Low but they on the South are in their Language named Timna On the outermost Point to the Mouth stands the Town Serboracasa and on another Point lying on a yellow sandy Bay a mile and a half distant they have the first place where the Ships which frequent this Coast take in fresh Waters The Countrey about Serboracasa is call'd Serbore Serbora extending from the Sea to the Town Bagos A mile Eastward of Serbore beginneth another Dominion Observe the Miles on these Coasts are all Spanish or Potugal either formerâ—â— mention'd or hereafter following govern'd by one Semaura an ill natur'd man and for every small trifle picks a quarrel with the King of Serbora Eight or ten Paces within the Shore is the second Watering-place The second Watering-place where the Water drills easily down the side of a little rising Ground About two miles farther lies a flat Shore full of Trees and between them a small open place through which a Brook descends from above which at low Water runs away over the Beach A Musquet-shot distance thence into the Land stands a Town where Don Andreas Brother of the King of Bolm-berre resides here the River hath a strong Current which two miles and a half upwards splits it self into three Branches one to the North-East having red Sand hath Water enough to bear great Ships but the middlemost by reason of the shallowness Shelfs of Sand and Cliffs may onely be passed with Skiffs and small Boats Three miles from the first Watering-place appears Bagos Bagos a Town seated under the shadow of a little Wood and a mile and half Eastward upon a prominent Point you see Tomby a pleasant Seat Tomby where the English usually lie with their Ships at Anchor After that the Island Tasso is seen a far off seeming to be firm Land Thirty two miles up the River lieth the Kingdom of Mitombo The Kingdom of Mitombo on whose South-side the Village Os Alagoas is scituate Os Alagoas whither the Blacks will let no White People besides the Portugals come all others they anticipate with Skiffs and Floats The Islands De los Idolos Bravas c. ALong the Coast of Serre-Lions lie several Islands particularly twelve miles and a half Southward of the Cape de Virgen those of Tamara and Veu Usvitay commonly call'd Los Idolos which West and by South from the Point appear as joyn'd to the Continent but afterwards shew themselves as they are in truth Islands which afford all sorts of fresh Provisions to the Seamen and good Tobacco The people are self-will'd and mistrustful and will not suffer any Dutchmen to come into their Towns The most advantageous Commodities vented there are Salt and Brandy to for which they have in Exchange Elephants-Teeth and Gold To the South end of Serre-Lions near the Islands Banannes appears to Ships sailing by a very high Mountain raising his Head into the Clouds call'd Machamala whereof we shall have occasion to speak more largely in a short space Near the South-end of Serre-Lions half a mile in the Sea lie the Islands Bravas being a high Land full of Trees the biggest having a Spring of fresh Water Five miles from hence lie on the South-East against the Point three other little Islets call'd Sombreras Between the Sombreras and Bravas is the place where Jacob le Maire in the Year Sixteen hundred and fifteen found four Rivers among which the Westermost having large Banks had depth and breadth enough for great Ships The next running in between the Trees they might stand on either side of the shore and not be able to see Land on the other thereabouts it was wild and waste without any signs of inhabiting but they saw many wild Beasts as Elephants Buffles Boars Civet-Cats and such like The third had a Bank that hinder'd the coming in of Ships Three or four miles upward lay a low Land full of Lemon-Trees whose Fruits notwithstanding it was in the time of the Rain hung most of them ripe upon the Trees The fourth was a small River within the Point of the Island Sombreras whose Water is deep and Salt where the Sea-men coming on Shore found Crocodiles Turtles and Oisters on the Trees The afore-mention'd Bay here and there hath Shole-water Furna de Sante Anna. about five six seven or eight Fathom and muddy Ground which runs between the Sombreras-Islands Easterly and Furna de Sante Anna whence come many Rivers amongst which the chiefest is Gambea Twelve miles upward of Gambea being as far as it is Navigable with small Vessels lies a Place call'd Kancho in the height of seven Degrees being very low Land whereto adjoyn some Islands ¶ THis Countrey of Serre-Lions according to the Description of Jarrick many take for the healthfullest place of all Guinee and the Air much wholsomer than that of Portugal so that seldom any die by other infirmity than that of Old Age. The same Air as Jarrick adds is much better for a mans health than in many places of Europe being neither too cold nor too hot by reason of the cool Winds which blow there continually which is worth observation considering the nearness of its scituation to the Equinoctial And truly under the favor of that Author we may question his Assertion seeing in the Summer viz. in June and July it is there dark and close rainy Weather with South and South-West Winds as also because the Rain-water in all the neighboring parts of Serre-Lions and along the Sea-Coast is of so unwholsom a quality that where-ever it falls on the bare Body it causes Swellings and Blotches on the Skin and breeds a sort of strange Worms in the Cloathes besides the River-water in April is very offensive and dangerous to drink by reason the Ground through the Summer excessive heats and the stench of
Lords Government but own for their Superior the King of Quoia whose Predecessors subdued them by Arms by the Assistance of the Folgia's as hereafter we shall more fully declare Fourteen miles from Rio de Galinas to the South-East appears Cabo Monte in five Degrees and three and forty Minutes North Latitude THE KINGDOM OR COUNTREY OF QUOIA THis Kingdom scituate by Cape de Monte containeth especially two Countreys viz. Vey-berkoma and Quoia-Berkoma Vey-berkoma that is the Countrey of Vey Vey-Berkoma the Antient Name of the Inhabitants is that Tract which lieth at Cape de Monte near the River Mavah below which lieth Dauwala wherein the same River Northward of the Cape hath its Exit into the Sea The Antient Inhabitants as we said Vey are by Wars reduc'd to a small number possessing onely a parcel of ruin'd Villages or Towns insomuch that their Name is almost forgotten Another People nam'd Puy-monou Puy-Monou dwelt antiently before the Wars and Conquest of the Countrey by the Karou's in the Island Boebelech and along the Banks of the River Mavah But few of this Posterity are at present to be found being for the most part by Inter-marriages with the Karou's so united as if but one in Name and Nature Quoia-Berkoma begins at the Sea-Coast of the New-River or Rio Novo Quoia-Berkoma by the Inhabitants stil'd Magwibba and extends to Rio Paulo a Boundary between this and the Territory of Gebbe shooting out into the Land above twenty miles This Kingdom boasts great numbers of Towns and Villages most of them pleasantly seated on the Banks of the River Magwibba The first appearing in five Degrees and three and forty Minutes-North Latitude Cape de Monte. by the Inhabitants is call'd Wachkongo and by the Portugals Cabo Monte although the Countrey both on the West and East is low and over-grown with Bushes This Point to Ships sayling out of the West shews its self in the shape of a Helm but coming near it appears long with a gap in the middle Westward of this is the Road where the Ships Ride that put in to trade upon this Coast Half a mile upwards from Magwibba on the left side Jegwonga stands a Village call'd Jegwonga where the King Flamboere settled his Royal Mansion when he first left Tomvy but at present he resides on the Island Massagh in the Lake Plizoge whither he retired to avoid the hazards of the people of Dogo that invaded his Territories On the other side of the River stands the fair Town Fachoo Fachoo signifying I watch the Dead which Flamboere fortifi'd and retir'd to as a place of security upon intelligence that the Land of Folgia would make War upon him though afterwards he found it but a rumor A mile and half farther up Figgia on the same side Figgia discovers its self being formerly the Dwelling of Figgi one of King Flamboere's Brothers A mile beyond that Cammagoereia on the same Shore is seated Cammagoereia and half a mile from thence the handsome Town Jerboeffaia where the Prince of Quoia who commands the Countrey round about keeps his Court opposite to this last King Flamboere about a year since began to lay the Foundations of a new Town From thence going along the Sea-Shore lie dispersed some Salt-Towns where the Inhabitants boyl Salt out of Sea-Water In the Vales of Tomvy water'd by the River Plizoge stands a great Town or Village beset with Trees sprung up out of the Rubbish of its decayed Walls From thence to Cape de Monte lye some forsaken and wasted Villages On a Branch of the River Menoch or Aguado is scituate Faly-hammaia and two miles farther another call'd Flomy-Seggaya The Region of Quoia hath the benefit of four excellent Rivers The Countrey of Quoia is watered by four Rivers the first in the West Magwibba or Rio Novo the second Mavah the third Plizoge the fourth Menoch or Aguado The River Magwibba in Summer bears two miles and a half in breadth The River Magwibba but in Winter is broader and fuller of Water It runs from the Sea up into the Land taking a North-Easterly Course up into the Countrey in the Mouth of it are so many Banks or Shelves as great Bars that make it dangerous to be passed with small Boats although the English Portuguese and French have and still venture over it in their little Skiffs As far as Davarouia it may conveniently be passed with reasonable Vessels being very deep and four hundred foot wide but above that place by the interposition of divers Rocks which cause great Water-falls there is no passing The second call'd Mavah The River Mavah or Maffah on whose Shore formerly the Puy-monou dwelt springs from a Mountain four and twenty miles within the Countrey The Channel is wide and deep making its Exit into the Sea in the broken Land of Dauwala almost a mile Northward of Wach-kongo or Cape de Monte. Between these two Rivers along the Sea-Coast here and there they say stand certain Towns where the Inhabitants make Salt The third Plizoge meets with the Sea a mile Northward of Cabo de Monte. The River Plizoge This is sometime in dry weather very empty of Water but so continues not long being soon fully replenisht Three miles from this River appears a great Lake a mile and a half broad wherein stands the Island Massagh the Courtly Residence of the present King Flamboere on whose South-side flourish many stately Palmito-Trees The fourth Menoch or Rio Aqâ—ado The River Menoch cometh out of the Countrey above the Hondous and six or seven miles Eastward of Cape de Monte poures into the Sea It is a deep and wide River yet unpassable because of several Water-falls Cliffs and Shelves of Sand that choak it It hath on both sides Red-wood Trees Having thus given you the Scituations of Towns and Rivers in this Kingdom we will now proceed to describe the Vegetables or Plants Beasts and then the Customs or Manners of the People but by the way in regard Gala-Vy Hondo Konde Quoias Manou and Folgia lying round about participate of the same qualities with Karou already mention'd or at least with very small difference we will give you a cursory glimpse of these in particular and then carry on our intended method Gala-vy a member of Quoia shews the original source of Mavah Gala-vy near a great Wood of eight or ten days Journey in length It bears the Names of Gala-vy from its Inhabitants sprung at first from Galas but being driven out of their Countrey by the People of Hondo sought new Habitations in those places whence they were neither call'd Vy as those with whom they intermixt nor Galas their old Name but Gala-Vy that is half Galas and half Vy On the Borders of Hondo and Manoe beyond the fore-mention'd great Wood dwell the right Galas who are under the Jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Manoe and have a Prince
entituled Gallafally The next is Hondo inhabited by the Hondo-Monou Hondo scituate by the side of this Wilderness more North-Easterly then Gala-vy and contains within it the peculiar Lordship of Dogo Neighboring to these dwell the Konde-Quoia's or High-Quoia's Konde-Quoias that differ in Speech from the Maritime Quoia's Afterwards you arrive at the Kingdom of Folgia and Manou or Manoe Folgia and Manou which last is a Potent State holding in subjection most of the Countrey round about two small Rivers encompass it viz. Rio Junk and Arverado the former Folgia East and by North above Rio Junk the dividing limit between them which with the other in about five Degrees North Latitude pour into the Sea Karou whose Inhabitants took their Name from Karou-Monou The Countrey Karou is a peculiar Territory now included in Folgia by Conquest but heretofore had a Prince of their own and a Countrey large and free from any slavish yoke At the Coast of Cape Saint Anne and along to Cabo Monte and Cabo das Palmas The Winter-Season the Rain begins with May and continues to October during which time they have great and terrible Thunder and Lightning with furious North-Westerly Gusts of Wind however this continual Showering so fills and pinguifies the before-cleft and parched Earth as adapts it for the bearing of Rice and other Fruits and Grains for the whole face of the Ground is covered with Water that there can be no stirring for common converse except in Boats During this time also the Sea sets hard all along the Shore towards the North-East so that Ships which between July and September happen to fall below Cape de Monte can very hardly and not without great labour get about to the South Besides this Race makes mountainous Billows roll to the Shore so that it is in effect impossible to approach the same in Boats without danger of splitting There blows also upon this Coast a Land and Sea-Wind the first begins after midnight and continues till high-Noon the last rises after two and holds till Midnight But these Seasons once over from October to May the Weather proves pleasant and dry till endammaged by the fiery heat of the scalding Air. ¶ QUoia Berkoma Plants with the adjacent Fields are by the before-mention'd Rains so impregnated that they produce all sorts of Grain and Plants in great abundance Bonde for first there grows a great Tree call'd Bonde in height exceeding all other Trees in the Wood and scarce fathomable by six or seven Men the Bark full of great Thorns the Wood soft of which they make Canoos Stools Spoons and Dishes the Roots lying generally four or five Foot above the Earth they cut out into Planks and Boards for Doors to their Houses and many other uses with the Branches and young Sprouts Hedging the Towns because being stuck into the Ground they grow and make a Quickset-Fence the refuse of the Wood they burn and with the Ashes make a lixiviated Liquor which boyled up with old Oyl of Palm makes an excellent and very useful Sope. The Tree Bassi grows high Bassi and two or three fathom thick having a Russet-Bark which they use in Dying to give a Russet-brown Tincture as of the Trunk they make Boats and such like Utensils Kaey is also thick and high Kaey of whose hard Wood being not apt to rot they also make Canoos but the Barks and Leaves for their Medicinal Vertues they use in Physick Billegoh Billegoh a tall thick Tree whose Wood exceeds that of most Trees in hardness and of notable use in Physick The Bossy hath a dry Bark Bossy and soft Wood like the Bonde yielding also a kind of Pot-Ashes and bearing yellow Fruit good to eat and tart in taste The Mille shoots very high Mille. the Wood soft the Root like the Bonde growing above the Ground the Blacks use it in charming Potions The Borrouw grows but to an ordinary height and bigness Borrouw but upon the Bark stick crooked Thorns like the Talons of a Fowl these being chopt yield a yellowish white Juyce the like do the thick Leaves beaten and pressed which taken inwardly is an effectual Purge and so certainly good that 't is commonly used when other Remedies will not work The Wood is damp and unfit either for Service or Fewel Mammo a thick and high Tree bears a Fruit white within and of a tart taste Mammo much us'd in Physick and buried under the earth remains good a whole year Quony a high and thick Tree with a rough Bark which they use in Philters or other charming Potions mixed with water they make mortars of the wood Quony because tough and not easily split wherein they stamp Rice It bears a venomous Excrescence full of Juyce wherein the Blacks dip their Arrows that from thence contract a mortal Poyson Hoquella rises to a great heighth bearing Shell-Fruit a foot and a half long Hoquella inclosing flat Beans the Bark and Leaves have a Physical Quality and therefore in much use But the Ashes of the Shells burnt make a most useful Lye Domboch bears Fruit pleasant and frequently eaten The Bark bruised Domboch and the Juice mixt in a convenient Vehicle makes an Excellent Purgative Medicine but the wood they convert into Boats Sugar-chests and such like Kolach a Tree of ordinary size bears Fruit like Plumbs Kolach very agreeable to the Palate whose Bark also is of use in Physick Bongia rising to a more than common size and bigness Bongia of no use but in the Bark and that onely for Physick and to give a yellow tincture in Dying Duy in Growth like the former produces round Apples Duy a profitable and wholesome Food both to man and beast The Bark steeped in Wine and other Drinks make them great Cordials The Bark of Niaukony tastes hot in the mouth like Pepper Niaukony and hath won the esteem of a more than common Remedy in many Diseases The Palmito-Trees grow here frequently which young are call'd Quan Palmito-Tree have many branches with long thorns and small long Leaves which hatchel'd serves them in stead of Hemp to make Nets and Ropes grown up to the heighth of a man it bears a kind of Nuts which are as big as Olives of which the Palm-Oyl is made When it is shot up forty or fifty foot high and proportionally large the branches fall off so that it stands naked like a Maste onely with Branches and Leaves at the top the undermost by degrees still falling off while upwards new ones grow thus full grown it is call'd Tongoo and when very old affords Wine Oyl and Hemp in one year This Wine which the Blacks call Mignoll they draw out by boaring a hole in the body of the Tree where the Leaves at first began to sprout out of which the Wine distills into a Pot or Pitcher hanging on a hook in colour it resembles
into a little Pot or Horn and filled up with the Urine of a young man that had never known a woman This done they scrape in a little Bonda that is red Dying-weed Lastly daubing the four sides of the Pot with Mannoone chawed in the mouth it is ready to be set on the fire which must be made under the open Heaven in the morning at Sun-rise or in the evening at Sun-set of green Wood. As soon as the water begins to boil the Bollimo takes a piece of Domboo being a Tree that bears fruit like a Medlar and puts it under the Seething Pot in the mean time trying whether the Ingredients have boyl'd enough and repeating secretly the names of the suspected persons or of other matters How this Sorcery-water is used to which the Witchcraft must be applied When all is ready the Bollimo takes the arms or legs of the suspected persons and washeth them clean with fair water At length he puts his Divining-Staff which is bruised and tufted at the end into the Pot and drops or presseth the water out of it upon the arm or leg of the suspected person muttering these words over it Is he guilty of this or hath he done this or that if yea then let it scald or burn him till the very skin come off Now if the person remain unhurt they hold him innocent and proceed to the trial of another till the guilty be discovered and this is done so long till the name of the guilty or the person be found out The Criminal thus found is without any long procrastinating put to death The manner of which according to the variety of Places is different but the most usual thus The Executioner takes the Offender and leads him with his Hands tied behind and his Eyes blind-folded either into an open Field or a Wood whither being come the Offender upon his Knees his Head bowed down he first runs through the Body with an Assagay or Simiter and afterwards chops off his Head with an Axe for they do not believe he is dead till his Head be cut off The Carcase cut into four quarters after great lamentations they leave in the Field as a Prey to the Beasts and Fowl but the Friends take away the Head as a great Present and boiling it in a Kettle drink up the Broth but hang the Scull by their Fetisso or Idol The like Trial is also made of other Offences among the Blacks in Quoia and also in Gala Hondo Bolm Cilm and many other Places so that every one had need to be circumspect and careful to prevent suspicion especially the Women who are for every trifling Caprichio of their Husbands brought in question of their Honesty Now if one of the King's Women lash out The Punishment of chief Women for Adultery or go abroad after other Men and the King be enraged against it then he causeth them to be so possessed that if they touch any Masculine person small or great they suddenly fall into a kind of Epileptick Fit according to which three Wives of the present King Flamboere suffered one of which receiving her Daughters Child not knowing it was a Boy fell into a Swoon and might therein have died if the other Women had not run to the King and beseeched him that the Bollimo might release her from the Curse But because this is an extraordinary thing no other but the King himself may put it in execution and that very seldom ¶ ANd as the Men have the Marks of Belli The Marks of Nesogge so here the Women have a Mark of Obligation which they call Nesogge which first took original from Goula and done in manner following They bring ten twelve or more Maids of full Age as also Women into a peculiar place in the Wood not far from the Town where first Huts are made for them then a Woman comes out of Goula whom they call Soghwilly to be the chiefest in this Work of the Garnoer or Vala Sandyla as they term it This Soghwilly or Priestess gives the Assembly Hens to eat with the Obligation to stay with her in that place which she names Sandy-Latee that is Hens of the Agreement After that she shaves off their Hair and the next day brings them to a Brook in the Wood where the aforesaid Soghwilly by Incision cut out the Mother not without great pain and terror then washing and healing the Wound with green Herbs which sometimes requires ten or twelve days time They stay there afterwards three or four Moneths to learn Dances and Verses of Zaudy which are not onely difficult to learn but contain very little that can be sung with honesty by any that do but pretend to be chaste and modest During their abode together in recess they go as naked as they were born their Clothes being taken away at the first coming of the Soghwilly When the time draws near that they shall be brought from thence they make a kind of Garments of the Rind of Trees Dy'd red and yellow and their Friends are permitted to bring them Arm-Rings Beads Bells to put about their Legs when they Dance and other things to adorn themselves at their coming forth When they enter the Town or Village where the People gather together as if it were some Holiday the Soghwilly leads to the Sporting-place where one sits Drumming with two Sticks on a round hollow piece of Wood. By the ill-tun'd Musick of which if so we may call it Instrument the Simodiuno or Sandi-Simodiuno that is Children of Sandy every one understands his time and they all seek to exceed one another in Dancing This Solemnity ended they make these Women to swear by Noe-Soggo that is by their Faithfulness and thenceforth all people must give credit to their words They have no select Days set apart for their Ceremonies They have no Holy-days nor do they keep holy the seventh but the first Day of the New-Moon when they see it appear for then they do no manner of work neither do they any work in Planting on that day when any one drinks Quony nor when any one dies in the same Town for they believe if they should that the Mille and Rice would grow red seeing as they say it is a day of Blood but they may freely go a Hunting Thus far we have thought fit to give an account of what concerns the Kingdom of Quoia now we shall for the better connexion and understanding of what before is mention'd and that which is yet to be related give you the Narrative in what manner the Karou's were dispossest of their Countrey by the Folgia's and Vey Puy and Quoia-Berkoma subjected A Relation in what manner the Karou's subdued by force of Arms by the assistance of the Folgians the Countreys of Vey Puy and Quoia-Berkoma THe Karou's when they inhabited by Rio Junk and Aquado The Contention and Quarrel between the Karous and Folgians had for their Prince one Sogwalla whose
a Trench over against the Town Myne by the Inhabitants call'd Dana cut out of the Rocks being enough to contain a thousand Pipes or more whereinto all the waste water falling from the two beforemention'd places and from the Souldiers Courts of Guard gathereth together This Trench without doubt cost the Portugals a very tedious and heavy labour By this water drawn from hence the Inhabitants are furnish'd as also the King of Fetu with his Army when in War supply'd and now accommodates the Dutch with marvellous plenty The conveniencies for Merchandise Provision of Food necessary Ammunition for Wars and other Commodities are in great abundance within this Fort for that the Ships coming out of the Countrey readily unload and go back again there being a Key for Landing or Shipping of all sorts of Commodities at a Water-Gate made for that purpose The Dutch suffer'd great prejudice so long as the Portugal's possess'd this Fort because they endeavour'd by all means to hinder their Trade with the Blacks whereupon they consulted and design'd to get it from them yet always were frustrated in their attempts till the year Sixteen hundred thirty and seven at which time the Castle was in a mean condition by reason of great disagreement among the Portugal's Then the General of Guinea and Angola being acquainted by the Kaboseroe's or Chief people of the Myne that the time was to undertake somewhat about it This Intelligence he communicated by Letter to the Commissioners of the West-India Company who provided nine Ships well Man'd Arm'd and Victual'd which in the Year Sixteen hundred thirty seven the Five and twentieth of July under Collonel Hans Koin went forth from Farnambuck to the African Coast and soon arriv'd there in safety whereof he sent notice to General Yperen who resided in the Town Moure two miles lower by Letter to this effect That he was there by Command of Grave Maurice and the Council furnish'd with Souldiers to undertake the Enterprise He desir'd therefore to know where was a fit place to Land upon the Enemies Quarters and to advise with him in what manner the Enterprise might be prudently accomplish'd That he would endeavour to win the Blacks with all possible Perswasions great Promises and Rewards to assist the Company and withal would watch the English who lay upon the Road and labour to prevent all other Impediments That they must keep all secret that the Enterprise might not be disappointed and in the interim he would be upon the Road before Albine or Assine to expect an Answer While thus Koyn ply'd upon the Coast the Negroes come with eighteen Canoo's to his Fleet and ask for Netherlandish Merchandise to barter for Elephants-Teeth But when 't was answer'd they had no Wares the Blacks began greatly to doubt but the Dutch to assure them friendship according to the custom of the Countrey let some drops of Sea-water fall into their eyes wherewith for the present satisfi'd they departed At length the Fleet appearing before Albine and Assine the Blacks came again with their Canoo's to Trade but our men put them off with delays for three or four days whereupon the Blacks said that these of Fetisson had understood by their Guardian God that seven bigger Ships were at hand at whose coming their Wares would fall in Price Koin who little regarded that and had somewhat else in his mind wrote Letters again almost of the same Contents whereto for answer he receiv'd Orders to remove with his Fleet before Commendo which was speedily perform'd and immediately inquiry made for the fittest place to Land to this purpose they sent out a Scout who returning brought intelligence that there was no Landing between the Myne and Cape de Kors but onely a Musquet-shot from the Myne where the Salt-River at low Water was not knee deep that the Mountain of St. Jago might be easily attempted with small Shot and that the Line was unfit to be long defended That the fresh River which lay about half a mile from the Myne had excellent Water and that the way from Cape de Kors to the Myne was very fit to March on in good order with the Souldiers After much courting at length and opening to them their whole design they gat the Youths of Commendo with Gifts and promises to furnish them with Water and other Provision whereupon on the Four and twentieth of August they went off to Cape de Kors They land at Cape de Kors and there Landed with great Canoo's and on the Twenty fifth day being Tuesday drew in good order to the Myne being about eight hundred Land-Souldiers and Five hundred Mariners drawn up in three Companies Coming about Noon to the fresh River the Souldiers rested and refresh'd themselves some Scouts were sent for discovery who brought intelligence that they discern'd about a thousand Blacks lye at the hanging of a Hill who having discover'd pursu'd them with a great cry upon this were sent out four Musquetteers who venturing too far were lost and their heads by the Blacks according to the manner of the Countrey cut off and carried in triumph But a greater force falling in soon put them to flight and possess'd the Hill whence the other were driven On Wednesday the six and twentieth those of Commendo drew our Mariners to the Town of Myne which they assaulted and took all their Cattel The Commander in Chief bending his whole thoughts to take the Castle caus'd in this interval two Passages to be made by cutting up the Bushes on the Mountain St. Jago the one leading towards the Shore by which to bring the Ammunition for the Souldiers and the other upon the top of the Mountain near the Fort. On Thursday were brought two Pieces of Ordnance with a Mortar-Piece to Mount St. Jago with which they made eight or ten Shot besides as many Granadoes but they fell short whereas by the shooting of the Enemy from the Castle two Centinels were kill'd Then the Negroes of Commendo approached towards the Town of Myne but driven back by the Enemies great Shot The Castle Summon'd quickly retreated Hereupon the Commander sent a Drummer to summon the besieg'd to surrender to which the Governor return'd That it was not in his power to consent without conferring with the Commanders of the Army and the Citizens and requir'd three days time but that was deni'd granting onely to the next day however nothing was then done for the Governor of the Fort the day being spent held the Gates shut and would not admit the Drummer Then the Forces from Mount St. Jago making a fierce Attacque though with little Success and battering with their Cannon a Messenger came forth requiring the Letter sent before by the Drummer but that was deni'd Whereupon after a short Consultation Messengers were sent to treat of an Agreement during which Treaty the Blacks of Commendo were requir'd to lay down Arms and to use no force to the Husbandmen of the Myne The Articles offer'd by the
Garrison were refus'd Articles of Agreement but those accepted that the Beleaguerers propos'd being to this effect They shall all with their Wives and Children without reproach or abuse go forth safe with Life and Limb. Every one shall take their Apparel but no Money either Gold or Silver The Victor shall retain all the Merchandise and Slaves except twelve which the owners may keep All the Church-Ornaments and Utensils except of Gold and Silver they shall take away with them The Portugals Mulattoes and all their Housholds provided with necessary Sustenance shall be carried to the Island St. Thome The Governor of the Fort and Souldiers shall forthwith depart out of the Fort and leave all the Ammunition for War and the rest of the Merchandise to the Victor The Souldiers shall depart without Colours or Sword and neither have lighted Match nor Bullets Thus was this renowned Castle won and lost in four days The Booty The Booty of Ammunition and Arms found therein were thirty Iron Pieces of Ordnance nine thousand weight of Spice eight hundred great Iron Balls ten Fat 's of small Bullets and three hundred Stone Bullets six and thirty Spanish Swords besides Bowes Arrows and other Utensils of War As soon as the Garrison was drawn out and come over to the Island St. Thomas the Dutch took possession with an hundred and forty Men. A former attempt had been made against this Castle but succeeded unluckily the manner this The Dutch Admiral with his Fleet on the six and twentieth of August The fruitless attempt upon the Castle of Myne One thousand six hundred twenty five came into Serre-Lions to refresh his Men being most of them sick of the Bloody-Flux where he found three other Ships who had lay'n there two Moneths undergoing great Misery Sickness and other Calamities The People of both the Parties being refreshed and cured determined to win the Castle of Myne being about fifteen Ships and Ketches with which they set forth the five and twentieth of September from Serre-Lions and were the ninth of October upon the Grain-Coast between Rio St. Paulo and Rio Junk in five Degrees and an half North Latitude where they sent a Ketch to the General for the Netherlands West-India Company at Moure to acquaint him with their coming and that they intended to come with their Fleet before Kommony and to Land there Being come on the twentieth of the same Moneth before Kommony The coming to Kommany they understood that the General was gone to Akra the uttermost place of the Gold-Coast and not expected back again for three or four days This delay the Admiral and his Council of War thought would give too fair opportunity to the Enemy and therefore resolved to Land the Soldiers but this resolution was deferr'd by advice of those of the Fort of Nassau till the coming of the General because of his great Interest with the Kings of Fetu Sabou and Kommony in whose Favour much did consist But immediately after his arrival which was on the four and twentieth it was concluded the next day to go on with the Design Four Ships therefore were order'd to lie close before the Castle of the Myne to amuse the Enemy by continual Shooting for three days They Land at Terra Pekine till the other Soldiers might in the mean time draw up without interruption The five and twentieth they Land in Terra Pekine about twelve hundred Soldiers and Mariners with an hundred and fifteen Blacks brought from Maure with the General who about Noon came within a mile of the Castle of Myne and from thence after two hours rest drew within shot of it where they were saluted presently with some great Guns but without hurt and so sate down before the Castle behind a Hill with resolution that night to Entrench and make their Approaches In the mean time while the General went to the pitch of the Hill to view the Castle the Soldiers being tir'd with heat and thirst ran from their Arms and gat themselves to rest without suspicion of any Enemy Were fallen upon by the Enemy but as soon as the Commanders were come upon the top of the Mountain they were unawares fall'n upon by about two hundred Blacks who like mad furious Men fell in and made great slaughter and destruction amongst them which bred such a terrour and consternation amongst them that they threw away their Arms and leaping into the Water were drown'd There remained slain The number of the slain together with those that were drown'd three hundred seventy three Soldiers sixty six Mariners and most of the superior and inferior Officers The General wounded the General himself wounded came to extream distress and carried out of the Fight the rest fled to Kommany whither also the Ships steered their course and by this means was that Design utterly overthrown But now we return to the remainder of the precedent success Presently after the taking of this Castle the Victors sent a Canoo with Letters to the Portugal Governor of Atzin thereby requiring him to surrender that Place But he well knowing they could not come up to him in that season of the year answer'd That he would keep the Fort for the King and expect our Forces Then by advice of the whole Council of War the Redoubt upon St. Jago was repair'd as also a Battery that was fall'n adjoining to the Works of the Castle from whence they may scowre the Shore of the River and relieve the Sea-Battery On the West-side of the Castle stands a pretty large Town The Town Myna at the Myne close built by the Portugals call'd Del Myn but by the Blacks Dana or Dang extending far in length but lieth so low that at a Spring-Tide the Sea in some places runs through the Streets And on the other side runs the Salt-River Benja which not onely hinders the passage out of the Town but makes the adjacent Countrey very Moorish This River formerly was ten or eleven Foot deep at low Water but now so shallow that it is not passable for Ketches which draw four Foot Water This Town is naturally very strong being as we said shut up between the River and the Sea so that the Enemy hath no other approach than at the end of Kommany where the Portugals as a Security from the Blacks had rais'd a Stone-wall from the Sea to the River and made a Battery About half a mile from St. The River Vtri Jago floweth the River Utri but full of Cliffs and altogether unpassable yet affords this Commodity that not onely the Blacks from the Town daily fetch thence their Water but also the Ships there being within two miles no Springs to be found The Countrey hereabout yields little Fruit The constitution of the Countrey therefore most of their Food is Mille to make Bread of Safoe or Wine of Palms Sugar Ananae's Injame's Potatoe's Wine of Bordean are brought to them from Fetu Abrembe Commendo Akane
round about and not inclosed yet they are commonly built in places of Defence for they stand on high Hills encompassed with Woods and have no other comings to them but through small Paths which are easily to be defended Their Houses are very sleight and little better than Hog-Styes Houses or at the best like the Tents in Forts or Bulwarks being erected in the following form Four Trees or Posts to a Man's heighth are set in a Square in the Earth How they are made and next those other Posts laid and bound fast round about this Draft are many small Sticks placed one by the other and bound so close together that they cannot put a hand between them and Plaister'd from the top to the bottom with Loam of yellow Earth to the thickness of almost half a Foot which the heat of the Sun dries so hard as a Stone within the House in stead of Painting or Whitening they lay another Stuff of red white or black Earth which made thin with Water they daub over with a Straw-wisp The Roof and is the chiefest Pride and greatest ornament of their Habitations The Roof consists of two four-square pieces made of Palm-Tree Leaves standing sloaping aloft and bound close together when it rains The Going 〈◊〉 but ordinarily set open with two sticks in fair Weather that the Sun may shine into their Houses The Entrance or Door is a square hole made at one side with a Shutter of Rushes before it which can be open'd and shut The Floor being made fast with a cord or rope of Mille-straw The Floor compacted of Red-earth laid very flat and even with a round hole in the middle to set the Pot with Wine de Palm in when they drink with one another Commonly such a House is built in eight or ten days and one may buy it for twenty Shillings or little more Three or four of these Huts always stand together in a square with a Yard in the middle where the Women boyl their Meat hedg'd about with Straw of Mille to the heighth of a Man In this manner the Houses stand all in a heap onely parted by the aforemention'd Straw of Mille and no farther distant from one another than that one man can go between so that the Passages are meerly narrow Alleys and very slippery in the time of Rain by reason of the fatness of the earth but they dry up again in Sun-shiny Weather as hard as stone The Mansions of the Braffo The Houses of the Braffo or Governor stand commonly by the Market and hath none other adjoyning thereto but onely those of his Wives and Children they are somewhat larger and bigger than those of the common people and cover'd with Straw of Mille. His People and Guards have every one a particular Chamber In the middle of his Court stands a square Hut open round about but cover'd on the top wherein he sits in the day-time with his Nobility that come to speak with him Before the Court-Gate stands always two Pots in the Ground with fresh Water for their Fetiso to drink out of The best of their Houshold-stuff is commonly one or two wooden Chests Their Houshold-stuffe bought of the Whites wherein they Lock all they possess so that little can be seen in their Houses They have some Kalabasses which they call Akoffo made of the Straw of Mille wherein they commonly carry their Wares and other Goods to sell Their Arms such as Shields Assagays or Launces hang on the Wall for Ornament The remaining part of their Goods consists in a Mat to sleep on two or three stumps of wood for Stools a Pot or two to boyl in two or three Kalabasses to drink Palm-Wine out of and a great Kettle to wash themselves in Along the whole Coast the Inhabitants use light and nimble Boats Canoos or Sloops by them call'd Ehem by the Portuguese Almades and by the English and others Canoos with which they go some Leagues to Sea and row up the Rivers from one place to another How they are made They are made of one entire piece of Wood or the body of a Tree cut long-ways with Cutting-Knives then made hollow on the sides and narrow above with a flat bottom and without any covering over head the Ends before and behind narrow and close together as a Hand-bow and almost in the same fashion the Head somewhat lower the Sides a finger thick and the Bottom two And after the hollowing they burn the Wood with Straw to prevent Worms and cleaving by the Sun At each End the Canoo hath a Bowe like a Galley The Shape a foot long and a Knob a hand thick whereby the Blacks carry them in and out of the Water upon their shoulders for they suffer them not to lie soaking in the water but set them upon Props to dry by which means they both preserve them from rotting and make them more pliable and swift in the using Behind they have a Rudder like an Oar being a long Stick with a round leaf at it The common ones The Bigness wherewith they go out a Fishing are generally sixteen foot long and one and a half or two foot broad Those made for the Wars and to carry Beasts or other Wares are five and thirty and forty foot long five broad and three foot high some so large that fifty or sixty men may stand in them with their Arms which sort are made about Cape de tres Puntas because there grows mighty large Trees being seventeen or eighteen fathom in thickness Fol 4 5 3 Fol 4 5 4 Furthermore for the prevention of Mishaps and as good Omens of a happy Voyage they deck them with several Fancies and Conceits as the Ears of Mille and other painted Emblems and Devices Some when they go a long Journey kill to the Honour of their Fetisi a Sheep or Buck and hang the same open'd at the head of their Canoo for a show The Inhabitants of Mongoba Konda-Quoia Ruono-Monou Places where no Canoos are used and some others in Gessymonou use no Canoos but the Korredebo's near Rio de Galhinas or Maqualbary and such as have many Lakes in their Countrey pass over in Canoos All others make Bridges which they fasten on the other side of the River to Trees and bind them fast with small Ropes which serve in stead of Railes to hold by that by the swinging they may not fall off These Bridges they make how wide soever the Rivers be and go with heavy burthens over them and by reason of their shaking call them Jenge Jenge and extraordinarily necessary by reason of the fierce Cataracts of Water falling from the high Cliffs sufficient to bear down fixed Bridges and altogether unpassable by Canoos The men of all degrees go habited either in Linnen The Cloathing of the Men. or Cotton Cloth girt round about their middle and hanging down to their Knees They have a great fancy in Shaving their
beating of the Sea against the Shore the Landing proves very dangerous When the Merchants have done and are ready to depart they must pay to the King two Musquets and five and twenty Pound of Gun-Powder or for want of that in Silk-Worms the worth of nine Slaves to the Carte to the Foello or Captain of the Whites and to Honga the Captain of the Boat to each of them a like Present Provisions for the Whites may be had here for a reasonable Price that is a Cask of fresh Water and a Sag of Wood for two yellow Armlets a Kof or Chest of Salt for three five Hens for four a Pot of Beer for one In time of Wars none are exempted from Service The Wars but very old Men and Children their disorderly manner of Fight you have before describ'd as also their Barbarism to the Slain and Prisoners and Method of Triumphing with their Heads and therefore we will not here repeat and cloy you with the same things again The King of Arder hath absolute and Soveraign Power over his Subjects Dominion and according as they reckon State carries a Majestick Splendor both in Clothes and Servants his Subjects tendring him great respect He Creates Noblemen and Courtiers at his pleasure and punishes Offenders not any daring to contradict Every Town as Jakkijn and Ba hath their Fidalgos or Noblemen to preside it in the King's Name who exacts a great Revenue from the Inhabitants by Order from the King When the King dies Funeral for two or three moneths after two sit waiting by him and some Servants are Strangled as an ostentation of Power not in expectation of Service in the other world The Crown descends to the Eldest or Youngest Son after their Fathers Decease and takes all his Father left but his Wives whom all but his own Mother to whom extraordinary respect is shown he imploys in his works of several kinds The Goods of the meanest sort after their decease falls to the Noblemen whose Vassals they were Their Religion consists in no appointed Meetings or setled Form Their Religion though they have Fetiseros or Priests for every Person of Quality hath his own Chaplain and if any be sick in their Family the Fetisero comes and taking Oxen Fetisero's or Priests Sheep and Hens for a Sacrifice cuts their Throats and with the Bloud besprinkles their Fetisi or Sant that is sometimes no more than an old Earthen Pot or Basket Every Family hath a Meeting once in six moneths at which their Priest offers Sacrifice to their Fetisi or Sant put under a Pot with Holes and then they enquire of what they desire to know If the Fetisi be unsatisfied the Priest can get no words from him if otherwise he hath an answer by a gracile or small-piped voice as if it came from the Fetisi whereas indeed it is a counterfeited sound by their Priests Then the Inquirer takes a Bason fill'd with Beer and Meal and gives to the Priest then suddenly somewhat in the Pot under which the Fetisi sits leaps whereupon all promising obedience to the answer and drinking a draught out of the Bason depart They believe another life after this but not for all for they say that a man after death perisheth and his bloud congeals so that none must expect any Resurrection saving those that are slain in the Wars which they averre to have found by experience and that the Bodies slain in the Wars lie not two days in the Graves But more probably this seems a cheat of their Fetisero's who in the night steal the bodies from their resting-places to make the people believe they were risen and gone to another life and to this end to make them the more stout and valiant in the Wars Sixteen miles Eastward of Little Arder Rio Laga Rio de Lagas empties his Waters into the Sea before which a Shelf lyeth that choaks the whole River except at the East-side where they may Row in with a Boat but not without danger to overset in a rowling Sea This Flood goeth in at North or North-west and so passes to a Town call'd Curamo lying on the South Curamo from which Cotton-Cloathes are brought to the Gold-Coast and with good Profit Traded for by the Europeans there The Kingdom of ULKAMI or ULKUMA ULkami or Ulkuma a mighty Countrey The Kingdom of Vlkami spreads Eastward of Arder between that and Benyn to the North-East From hence they send many Slaves partly taken in the Wars Their Trade and partly made such as a punishment for their offences to Little Arder and there sold to the Portuguese to be transported to the West-Indies The Boys in this Region are Religion or Worship according to the Mahumetan manner Circumcis'd but the Girls when they attain the Age of ten or twelve years they put a Stick up their Privacies whereon Pismires taken out of the Fields are set to eat out the Flesh The Monarchy of BENYN THe Kingdom of Benyn Borders of the Kingdom of Benyn or Benin so call'd from its chief City Great Benyn borders in the Northwest on the Kingdom of Ulkami Jaboc Jejago and Oedobo in the North on that of Jaboc eight days journey above the City Benyn in the East on the Kingdom of Istanna and Forkado and in the South on the Sea How far this Principality of Benyn spreads Bigness from South to North is as yet unknown by reason several places continue so full of great Woods that they cannot be Travell'd but it hath from East to West about a hundred Spanish Miles This Kingdom boast many good Towns Latbâ— though little at present known as lying eight or nine days journey beyond the City of Benyn besides an innumerable number of Villages and Hamlets sprinkled as Beauty-Spots on the Verge of the River but the rest of the Countrey not Inhabited so overgrown with Brambles and Bushes as makes it unpassable save onely where some narrow Paths lead from Town to Town Twenty miles or thereabouts up the same River near its Head-Spring stands a Town call'd Gotton Gotton considerable for its length and extent Nine or ten miles from which The City of Benyn but more into the Countrey Northward Benyn shews its self a City of that largeness as cannot be equall'd in those Parts and of greater civility than to be expected among such Barbarous People to whom better known by the name of Ordor It confines within the proper Limits of its own Walls three miles Bigness but taking in the Court makes as much more The Wall upon one side rises to the height of ten Feet double Pallasado'd with great and thick Trees with Spars of five or six Foot laid Crossways fasten'd together and Plaister'd over with Red Clay so that the whole is cemented into one intirely but this surrounds hardly one side the other side having onely a great Trench or Ditch and Hedge of Brambles unpassable with little
and beautifi'd with exquisite Imagery each Cloth holding about two Spans and a half in Square which a Weaver with his greatest diligence may well spend fifteen or sixteen days in Working to finish it The second sort call'd Sokka are less by one half than the Kimbes yet many that have little handl'd their Work would easily mistake the one for the other for both are high and Cutwork with Images or Figures upon them but the turn'd side gives the distinction by the Courseness or Fineness Six of the foremention'd Pieces make a Garment which they know how to Colour Red Black or Green The two other sorts of Cloathes are a wearing for Common People being plain without Images or Figures yet have their distinctions one being closer and firmer wrought than the other These are many times Slash'd or Pink'd from the middle to the knees as old fashion'd Spanish Breeches were wont with small and great cuts Every man by promise or injunction is bound to wear a Furr-skin over his Cloathes right before his Privacies viz. of a tame Cat Otter Cattamountain great Wood or wild Cat or of an Agali or Civet Cat with whose Civet they sometimes also anoint themselves Besides these they have very fair speckl'd Skins call'd Enkiny of high Price among them which none may wear but the King and his peculiar Favorites Some Persons of high Degree when they Travel wear six or eight Skins for Garments others as the King and his greatest Nobility cause five or six Skins to be sew'd together interlac'd with many white and black speckl'd Tails of the foremention'd Enkiny Cross-wise in the midst of the Skin they set commonly round Tufts made of the aforesaid Furr and white and black Parrets Feathers and at the edges Elephants Hair spread round in winding-Trails Every one also wears a String about his middle made of the peeling of Matombe Leaves of which there are two sorts one call'd Poes-anana and the other Poes-anpoma with which they tye their Cloathes fast Besides they have two Girdles one above another that is one of fine Red or Black Cloath slightly Embroyder'd in three or four places the other of Yarn wrought in Flowers and fastned together before with double Strings call'd Pondes These Girdles are commonly three or four Inches broad wherefore the Cloathes sent thither out of Europe with broad Lists serve to be Embroider'd and Quill'd to make such Girdles Some wear Girdles of Bulrushes and young Palm Branches others of peelings of a Tree call'd Catta and in other places Emsande which they Weave and Pleit together of the same peelings Match for Guns is made which stand the Portugals in good stead Between the upper and lower Girdle they set several sorts of Ornaments and about their Necks white and black Beads the latter they call Insimba Frotta and the white Insimba Gemba but the last bears the greatest value Others wear Triangular Breast-Chains brought thither out of Europe Their Ornament and by them nam'd Panpanpane some Ivory cut in pieces and some sort of flat Scalops which they polish very smooth and round and wear them strung as Neck-Laces On their naked legs they put Brass Copper or Iron Rings about the bigness of the smallest end of a Tobacco Pipe or else trim them with black and white Beads On their Arms they wear many Rings of several fashions and light which they temper in the Forging with Oyl of Palm Over their Shoulders they hang a Sack about three quarters of a yard long sew'd together onely a little opening left to put in the hand Upon their Head they have an artificial Cap made to sit close And in their Hands either a great Knife Bowe and Arrows or a Sword for they never go without Arms. The Womens Clothes which come a little below their knees are made of the same with the Mens over which they sometimes put some fine European Stuff or Linen but without any Girdles The uppermost part of the body and the Head remains always naked and bare but on their Arms Legs and Necks many Rings Beads and other Toys Their usual Diet is fresh and smoak'd Fish especially Sardyn Food which they take with a Hook and Boyl with Herbs and Achy or Brasilian Pepper People of Quality eat with their Fish Massanga or small Mille first stamp'd with a Pestle then Boyled with Water and so Kneaded together They Swear by the King speaking these words Fyga Manilovanga Their Oath or Swearing but the highest Oath is the Drinking of Bondes Root and never used but when something is presently to be undertaken or perform'd The Bondes is onely a Root of a Tree of a russet Colour very Bitter Bondes Root or Adjuration Root and astringent and gets as they say by enchantment of the Ganga or Conjurer perfect power and vertue This Root they scrape with a Knife and put into a Pot of Water of which the accused Party takes about a Pint and half administred by a person appointed by the King for that purpose In like manner if any weighty or criminal matter either of Sorcery or Theft be laid to any ones charge and it cannot be ascertain'd by the Oracle of Ganga or their Conjurer they forthwith condemn the suspected person to drink of the Bonde-drink which is perform'd in this manner The Complainant must go to the King How the Bonde-drink is drank and beseech him to appoint an administrator of the Bondes for which he pays the King his due These Bonde-givers are about eight or ten persons appointed by the King and his Nobility who meeting under the open Heaven in a broad way sit down upon the ground and about three a Clock in the afternoon begin their work for by that the Complainers must be there who coming with their whole Retinue and Generation the Bonde-givers admonish to bring to light the righteousness of the Matter without any siding or partiality which he adjures them to with an Oath by their Fetisies which they have standing round about them Then also appears the Accus'd with his Family for seldom one person alone but commonly the whole Neighbourhood is accus'd these meet and standing in a row come by course one by one to the Bonde-givers who have a little Drum upon which they continually Beat and receiving about a Pint and a half of Liquor they retire to their places again After this one of the Bonde-givers riseth up with certain sticks of a Bacoven tree in his hands which he flings after the Accus'd requiring him to fall down and if he have no guilt to stand up and make Water in token of his Innocency Then the Bonde-giver cuts the Root before them all that every one may walk up and down over it In the doing whereof if one or other of them chance to fall then the standers by set up a loud Cry and the party fall'n lieth like a possess'd man speechless but with horrible Convulsions in all his Limbs not enduring his body
Fighting they defend themselves from the Enemies Arrows with the flat Sides thereof in stead of a Shield and turn every way with such readiness that they void all the Shafts aimed at them They wear also Ponyards in Scabbards of Serpents-skins in Belts of Elephants-hides three Fingers broad and two thick Some have Shields made of Wood cover'd with the Skin of the Beast Dant They worship the Sun as their chief Deity in the Shape of a Man Religion next to that the Moon in the Figure of a Woman But besides these every one hath his peculiar Idol When they go to Battel they sacrifice to their Idol out of which their Devil speaks very plain and tells them what they must do The Anzikos live under a peculiar King call'd the Great Makoko Government whom they report to possess thirteen Kingdoms making him one of the most Puissant in Africa The Jages have three Governors the first entitul'd Singe the second Kobak and the third Kabango of which every one leads a distinct Army They maintain continual Wars against other Blacks and eat as is before-mention'd all the Slain but sell the Prisoners and in defect of Buyers kill and eat them also Such as desire to List themselves in their Companies must first receive the usual Marks viz. knock out the two upper and the two lower Teeth before and make a hole through the middle of their Noses into which they thrust Feathers There are at present no Jages to be found of the first Race but those that now assume that Name derive their Extract out of the several Countreys wherein they have Warred and been Victorious being chosen thereto in this manner So soon as they have won a Battel The Jages how they are bred they search among the Prisoners for the handsomest Youths of whose Courage they make tryal by shooting at them by and over their Heads Wherein if any discover a fear of the Arrows as Cowards and unfit for Service they knock on the Head and eat but those that appear fearless and undaunted they make holes through their Noses and Ears knock out their Fore-teeth and so bring them up to all Savage Cruelty who by practice at last stray so far from Humanity that they exceed the natural Jages These possess not only this Countrey of Ansiko but wander almost through all Africa although now they have their chief Residence here and in the South-East of Angola The Natural Jages as the Ancientest People of Angola relate are not the Indigene of that Countrey but came many years since with an Army of an hundred thousand out of Serre-Lyons and over-ran the whole Coast beyond the Kingdom of Benguella But finding themselves too weak to make further way and not willing to return they setled hereabouts but not contented with that Resolution they ranged till they came to the Kingdom of Monomotapa who overcame them in a Fight and made them retreat Others contradict this averring it improbable at least that the Jagos should first come out of Serre-Lyons and conquer as far as the Kingdom of Benguella a Tract of above seven hundred Leagues wherein they must pass so many Kingdoms great Rivers and Mountains The Jurisdiction of KAKONGO KAkongo takes beginning in the North at the River Lovango Lovize Boundaries of the Kingdom of Kakongo in about fourteen Degrees and a half South Latitude and borders in the South and West at the Kingdom of Goy and ends at the River Sambo some Miles up in the Countrey The Chief City is pleasant and well built Chief City abounding with all sorts of Provisions From Kakongo Southwards all the Countrey by the Sea-coast for thirteen Miles and for two Miles and a half Northward of the before-mention'd River Lovango Lovize lies very low but afterwards grows Mountainous beyond this rising still higher The Blacks call it Kaskais but the Europeans the Highland of Kaskais about which place a Mile Southerly a great Water falls into the Sea This Kingdom can shew onely one good River The River of Kakongo call'd also Kakongo which mingles with the Sea in five Degrees South Latitude gliding some eighteen Leagues through the Countrey A Mile Southward of this Stream lieth the Village Molemba The Village Molemba upon a great Bay making a convenient Haven or Road for Ships The Countrey thereabouts call'd Little Kaskais spreads the Bay of Cabinde in five Degrees and five and twenty Minutes South Latitude being both before and all along the Coast very Rocky and full of Cliffs yet between the chief City and the River Sonho full of Woods pleasant Fields and high Mountains but cannot boast any Fertility because for the most part untill'd although so Populous that it dares number Inhabitants with Lovango it self The Natives are treacherous Constitution of the Inhabitants revengeful turbulent and quarrelsom yet shew but little Spirit in the Wars all their Neighbours especially those of Goy continually infesting them without fear of revenge and perhaps would utterly destroy them but that the King of Lovango interposes in their behalf whose Mediation in such Cases prevails much with all his Neighbors Trades and Handicrafts are common with these People and those of Lovango Trade such are Husbandry Fishing and dealing in Clothes black stitch'd Caps broad Irons Beetles Hammers or Mattocks Tobacco Red-wood or Takoel and Linnen which Commodities they carry to Congo Sonho and other Places and there exchange for Slaves The Merchandises brought thither out of Europe and desired by the Inhabitants are one and the same with those Vented in Lovango but the Presents given for the permission of Trade are less Their Customs Shape Cloathing Riches Administration of Justice Inheritance Government and Religion differ little or nothing from what we have already described we will not therefore nauseate the Reader with a needless Repetition The King of Cakongo may not touch or wear any European Wares A Command on the King nor dares any habited therewith touch him because forsooth commanded by the Moquisie In all other things agreeing with Lovango At the River Sonho the Kings of Lovango and Cakongo keep a continual Watch to receive the Custom of the travelling Merchant and to observe that none should act any thing prejudicial to the Countrey At the side of the River Cakongo lieth the Territory of Serre or Sarri The Territory of Sarri subject to the King of Cakongo but was some years since for a Mutiny and Rebellion against him in a manner totally laid waste Upon the Edge of this and near neighboring to Goy The Territory of Lemba a Territory call'd Lemba claims a situation being a High-land comprehending onely one Village of the same Name whither the Whites come to Trade for Elephants-Teeth Slaves and Copper the last of which they bring from more adjacent Mynes that produce every year no small quantities The Dominion of GOY. GOy borders in the West upon the Shore on the South
and Pride The King's State though falling short of Congo whose Princes have been instructed to bear a Majestick Port by the Portuguese so long resident among them The Treasure and Riches of this great Prince consists chiefly in Slaves The King's riches Simbos of Lovando Boesies or small East-India Horns and some Clothes things with the Whites of a small value but by them esteem'd more than the best Gold or Silver He keeps continually a mighty and very numerous Army upon his borders His power to prevent the Innovation of an implacable Enemy call'd Mujako who lives Northward from him of whom we have as yet no other knowledge than to guess him powerful in regard he could never be subdu'd by Makoko In the Desarts of this Kingdom inhabit those little men mention'd before to shoot and kill the Elephants and sell their Teeth to the Jages as they again to those of Congo and Lovango who exchange them for other commodities with the Portuguese and other Europeans The Kingdom of GIRIBUMA or GIRINGBOMBA THis Principality hath its scituation to the North-East of Makoko The Kingdom of Giringboâ—nba and the King thereof very powerful holding as his Tributaries fifteen other great Lords yet willingly never drawn to quarrel with his neighbours especially of Makoko with whom he holds a firm allyance which is the easier maintain'd because they all agree in their heathenish Superstition East South East from the great Makoko you arrive at another mighty Kingdom call'd Monimugo and by others Nimeamay whose Jurisdiction reaches to the borders as some say of the Kingdoms of Mombase Quiloe Soffale as in the Description of those Countreys shall be more spoken of at large POMBO THe Countrey properly call'd Pombo lieth more than a hundred Leagues from the Sea Coast and as some say touching upon Aethiopia superior Abysine Others divide Pombo into divers Kingdoms stretching themselves as far as a great Lake perhaps the Lake Zambre between both the Seas But the certain place where this Lake arrives is altogether unknown which no White ever yet heard of or hath seen onely the Portuguese relate that a certain Kaffe of Mosambique which travel'd cross through the main Land of Saffola to Angola came by it Both the Portuguese and Blacks that live in Lovango The trade of the Portuguese to Pombo Congo and Lovando Saint Paul drive a great trade here by their Servants sent thither with Merchandize who chiefly for Slaves Which is drove by Slaves or Fombo's Elephants Teeth and Panos Limpos barter and exchange Canary Malago or Medera-Wines great Simbos Boxes and other Commodities These Servants or Pomberos have yet other Slaves under them sometimes a hundred or a hundred and fifty which carry the Commodities on their heads up in the Countrey as we have heretofore related Sometimes those Pomberos stay out a whole year and then bring back with them four five and six hundred new Slaves Some of the faithfullest remain oftentimes there sending what Slaves they have bought to their Masters who return them other Commodities to trade with anew The Whites are necessitated to drive their Trade in this manner Why the Whites cannot go to Pombo by reason according to their relation it is impossible for them to wade through the badness of the ways and undergo so great hunger and trouble as attends that Journey besides the unwholesomeness of the Air which causes extraordinary swellings in the heads of the Whites Their journey from the Sea-Coast out of Lovango and Lovando Saint Paul to Pombo proves very toilsome to the Blacks themselves because there be many Rivers which sometimes after the Rain grow so deep but they stop the other hazards often arising by the barbarous Jages This Province owns for its supream Lord and Governor the great Makoko The Dukedom of AMBUILLA or AMBOILLE EAstvvards of Quingengo one days Journey The Dukedom of Ambuilla begins the Dukedom of Ambuila or Amboille in the North and North-East divided by the River Loze from Oande On the East side this Dukedom hath the Territory of Quitere Quiandange and to the South Kanvangombe where the Rivers Danda and Loze as some say take their original This Principality hath many pleasant Fields Trees and Fruits and abounds with Cattel as Goats Sheep Hogs and Cows It was never subject to Congo It is not subjected to the Kingdom of Congo but vies with it for wealth and magnitude holding in subjection above fifteen Domiâ—ions whereof the five chiefest are Matuy-Nungo Pingue Hoiquyanbole Ambuibe and Lovando the other not nam'd This Countrey affords many Slaves and the Trade driven there is in Pombo The Kingdom of ANGOLA or rather DONGO THis Countrey by the Portuguese call'd Angola Angola is the name of the Governors and not of the Countrey lies between the River Danda and Quansa the name of Angola belongs not properly to the Land but is the Title of the Prince who assum'd and continues it from the first King thereof who fell off from Congo to whom it belong'd by right of inheritance the right name being Dongo although formerly It is rightly call'd Dongo and still by some call'd Ambonde and the Inhabitants Ambond's It spreads in the West to the Sea Coast and then from Danda or Bengo Borders to the River Quansa a tract of about fifteen miles but runs about a hundred miles up into the Countrey Jarrik gives it for borders in the North the Kingdom of Congo in the South that of Mataman in the East Malemba or Majemba and in the West the Sea where it spreads saith he from the River Quansa about ten degrees South Latitude and ends at the Sea near Cowes-bay a tract of five and thirty Leagues Pigafet adds to it all the Countreys from Cowes-bay before-mention'd to Cabo Negroe a tract of about fifty more This Kingdom of Angola for so we shall stile it is water'd by divers Rivers as Bengo Quansa Lukala and Kalukala The River Quansa for Danda and Bengo are included before in Congo The River Quansa lying in nine degrees and twenty minutes South-Latitude four miles and a half Southward off The Sleepers-Haven or six miles from Cape de Palmarinko and five to the Northward of Cape Ledo It s original hath an uncertain original for it is reported that no Whites have ever been so far as where the same rises But the common opinion holds that it comes out of the great Lake Zambre by many made the head of the Rivers Zaire Nyle Niger and many others It hath been liken'd to the River Lukar Course in Spain being at the entrance about half a League wide and at the Northside deepest to come in with Ships It carries but twelve foot in depth at high-high-water ebbing and flowing about four foot but within they find water enough yet Navigable no higher than the Village Kambambe by reason of the strong water-falls It runs up from the East to the West very
and hath fifteen and sixteen Foot Water so that the great Ships may come before it About the North Point of Katon-belle lieth the Good Bay Good Bay so call'd by reason of its ground of Anchoring The Countreys upon the Sea-Coast are fruitful and low but the In-lands high and overgrown with Woods A mile and a half from Katon-belle you discover a fresh River that falls into the Sea but in the times of Rain The Bay of Benguella having good Ground for Ships to ride at an Anchor reaches from one Point to the other a mile and a half in breadth On the North-side stands the Foot of Benguelle built four-square with Pallizado's and Trenches and surrounded with Houses which stand in the shadow of Bananos Orange Lemon Granate-Trees and Bakovens Behind this Fort is a Pit with fresh Water Here lie seven Villages that pay to those of Bengala the tenth part of all they have for Tribute The first Melonde the second Peringe both about a League from the Fort Under Benguelle are seven Villages and a mile one from another the other five are Maniken Somba Maninomma Manikimsomba Pikem and Manikilonde of all which Manikisomba is the biggest and can bring three thousand Men into the Field Here formerly lived some Portuguese which afterwards out of fear of the Blacks fled to Massingan but were most of them kill'd in the way On the West Point of the Bay of Benguelle is a flat Mountain call'd in Portuguese Sombriero from its shape representing afar off a three-corner'd Cap and by it an excellent Bay having at the South-east-side a sandy Shore with a pleasant Valley and a few Trees but no Water fit to drink Four miles from thence they have a Salt-Pan which produces of gray Salt like French Salt as much as the adjacent Countreys can spend In Bengala is a great Beast The Beast Abada call'd Abada as big as a lusty Horse having two Horns one sticking out in his Forehead and another behind in his Neck that in the Forehead is crooked but smooth rises sloaping before and very sharp but at the Root as thick as an ordinary Man's Leg being many times one two three or four Foot long but that in the Neck shorter and flatter of colour black or a sad gray but being fil'd appears white the Head not so long as the Head of a well-shaped Horse but shorter and flatter with a Skin Hair'd like a Cow and a Tail like an Ox but short a Mayn like a Horse but not so long and cloven Feet like a Deers but bigger Before this Beast hath attained the full growth the Horn stands right forward in the midst of the Forehead but afterwards grows crooked like the Elephant's-Teeth When he drinks he puts his Horn first in the Water for prevention as they say against Poyson The Horn they report to be an excellent Medicine against Poyson The Horn is good against Poyson as hath oftentimes been proved but they find more efficacy in one than another occasioned by the timely and untimely killing of the Creature The trial of their goodness the Portuguese make in this manner They set up the Horn with the sharp end downwards on a Floor and hang over it a Sword with the Point downwards so as the Point of the one may touch the end of the other If the Horn be good and in its due season or age then the Sword turns round of it self but moves not over untimely and bad Horns The Bones of this Beast ground small and with Water made into Pap they prescribe as a Cure against inward Pains and Distempers being applied outwardly Plaister-wise The Kingdom of MATAMAN or rather CLIMBEBE THe Kingdom of Mataman Name commonly so call'd took that Denomination from its King the proper and right Name according to Pigafet being Climbebe or Zembebas Its Borders Borders as the same Author Linschot Peter Davitius and other Geographers hold in the North upon Angola Eastwards on the Westerly Shore of the River Bagamadiri to the South it touches upon the River Bravagul by the Foot of the Mountains of the Moon near the Tropick of Capricorn which the chiefest Geographers make a Boundary between this Kingdom and those Mountains and the Countrey of the Kaffers to the West along the Ethiopick-Sea that is from Angola or Cabo Negro in sixteen Degrees South Latitude to the River Bravagul a Tract of five Degrees and fifteen Minutes every Degree being reckon'd fifteen great Dutch Leagues or threescore English Miles Two Rivers chiefly water this Kingdom Rivers viz. Bravagul and Magnice the first takes its original out of the Mountains of the Moon Linschot or the River Zair and unites its Waters with those of Magnice springing out of a Lake by the Portuguese call'd Dambea Zocche and falling in the South-east into the Indian-Sea The Places of this Kingdom coasting the Sea are these Next the Black Cape right Eastward you may see the beginning of the Cold Mountains Mountains of the Moon on some Places for the abundance of Snow with which they lie cover'd are call'd The Snowy Mountains Then you come to the Crystal Mountains Crystal Mountains that shoot Northerly to the Silver Mountains and to Molembo by which the River Coari hath its course and makes a Border to the Kingdom of Angola At the Southerly Coast of Cymbebas near the Sea Calo Negro in sixteen Degrees and sixty Minutes South Latitude appeareth Cabo Negro or The Black Point so denominated because of its blackness whereas no other black Land can be seen from the one and twentieth Degree South Latitude On the top of this Point stands an Alabaster Pillar with an Inscription but so defaced by the injuries of Time and Weather that it is hardly legible and formerly upon the Head of it a Cross raised but at present fall'n off and lying upon the Ground The Coast from hence spreads a little North-east and East-North-east The spreading of the Coast The Countrey round about shews nothing but barren and sandy Hills without green and high sandy Mountains without any Trees More Southerly in the heighth of eighteen Degrees you come to a Point by the Portuguese call'd Cabo de Ruy piz das Nivez or Cabo de Ruy Pirez having to the Northward a great Inlet with sandy Hills and the Shore to the Black Point but Southward a High-land altogether sandy and reacheth to nineteen Degrees Farther to the South in nineteen Degrees and thirty Minutes lies a Bay call'd Golfo Prio and Prias das Nevas with double Land and full of Trees afterwards you come to the open Haven of Ambros in the one and twentieth Degree then going lower to the Southward the Sea-Coast resembles what we mention'd in the North shewing high white sandy Hills barren Land and a bad Shore A good way to the Westward of Cabo Negro lies a great Sand in the Sea in Portuguese call'd Baixo de Antonia de Viava or The
split Quill at the end which being blowed yields a low sound Conney and Badger-Islands NOrthward of the Great Cape lie three Islands in the Sea viz. Conneys Badgers and Fransh Island The Conneys Island so called from the many Rabbits breeding in the Cliffs and on the Shore lieth before the Mouth of Table-Bay a League or thereabouts from the Land five Miles Southward from Badger-Isle It contains a Mile and a half in compass but more over-grown with Bushes than the Badger which receiv'd its name from the abundance of Rock-Badgers there found Neither of these have any fresh Water Spilber Voyage 1601. and although the Ground be sandy and full of Bushes yet they bear many good Herbs and Flowers and abound with Cattel The Conneys were first brought thither by the Dutch in the year One thousand six hundred and one The Sheep carried thither first by the English grow extraordinary fat and increase exceedingly so that some have been found whose Tails were five and twenty Inches thick and nineteen pound in weight with four and thirty pound of Swet about the Kidneys besides the Fat that came from their Flesh but the Meat gives no satisfaction in the eating by reason of the exceeding fatness There are many Pinguins and thousands of Meuwen and yet for all this plenty they both lie desolate and not inhabited A little Northerly lies the Fransh-Island equal in all things to the aforemention'd and as them without Inhabitants THE EMPIRE OF MONOMOTAPA THis Empire The Empire of Monomotapa by Joseph Barras call'd Benomotapa and by Sanutus Benomotaxa lies up within the Countrey before the Kingdom of Sofale near the Sea inclosed between Rio de Spirito Sancto or Magnice and the great River Quama both which by some are taken for two Branches of Zambere It spreads Southerly towards the Cape de Bona Esperanza Borders having in the North for Borders the Kingdom of Monimuge or Nimeamae and the River Quama in the East the Sea-coast of Sofala in the West and South the River Magnice and the neighboring Mountains Others Cluverius conterminates it in the East South and West with the great Ocean in the North with Congo the Abyssines and Zanguibar It s Length The bigness between the Lake Ro and the Ethiopick Sea together with the Mountains of the Moon Cluverius reckons to be four hundred Dutch Miles and the Breadth between the Head-Fountains of Nilus and the Cape of Good Hope three hundred Dutch Miles For all the little Kingdoms from the River Magnice to the Cape of Good Hope are said to acknowledge the Prince of Monomotapa for their Supreme Lord. But the whole Compass of this Countrey is accounted by many but seven hundred and thirty five French Miles The Imperial and Royal Court being the Chief City is call'd Banamatapa Chief City although by Vincent le Blank Madrogam lying six days Journey from a great House call'd Simbaoe or Zimbaoch and five Miles from Safale towards the West The Houses have almost sharp Roofs very large built of Wood or Earth Houses very finely and whited without and within The Palace of the Emperor carries a vast extent The Kings Palace having four Eminent Gates and very many large Chambers and other convenient Apartments guarded round about with Watch-Towers and within hung with Cotton Hangings of divers Colours wrought with Gold and richly Embossed as also overlaid with Tin gilt or as others say cover'd over with Plates of Gold and adorn'd with Ivory Candlesticks fastned with Silver Chains The Chairs gilt and painted with several Colours The four chiefest Gates of the Court richly Embossed and well defended by the Life-Guards of the Emperor whom they call Sequender The Emperor keeps a great Train of Servants who all attend in good order bowing of the Knee when they speak to him His Meat is serv'd up to his Table in Pourcelane round beset with Gold Branches Other Principal Cities are Zimbas a Mile and half from Sofale Tete where the Portuguese Jesuits have their Residence Sena c. Certain War-like Women like the ancient Amazons The Residence of the Amazones do possess a peculiar Territory appointed for them by the King although Sanutus appropriates to them a particular Kingdom upon the Borders of Damout and Gorage more towards the South Not far from Monomotapa is the Province of Chitambo The Kingdom of Chitambo wherein stands the City Tamburo This Kingdom hath the benefit of a temperate Air Air. and enrich'd with luxurious Valleys which though not Inhabited in all Places affords Provision of Cattel and Fruits sufficient to store both themselves and Neighbours nor is it destitute of pleasant Woods stor'd with variety of Fruit-Trees Plants and in some places abundance of Sugar-Canes that grow without Planting to the increase whereof the Rivers and Brooks that besprinkle the Countrey do not a little help The greatest Wealth of the Countrey consists in Oxen and Cowes Beasts with them more highly esteem'd than Gold or Silver They have no Horses nor other Beasts for Carriage besides Elephants which flock together by whole Herds in the Woods They shew a Beast call'd Alsinge resembling a Stag or Hart and Ostriches as big as Oxen. There grows upon Trees call'd Koskoma a Fruit of a Violet Colour and sweet in taste of which whoever eats plentifully it purges them so violently that a Bloody-Flux and at length Death follows upon it Here are found several Gold Mines in the Bowels of the Earth Gold Mines and also in some of their Rivers for which the Inhabitants dive in the Stream and take it up with the bottom from the Mud and so pick it out which Gold-diving they also practice in divers great Lakes spread far and near in this Kingdom for which cause the King of Monomotapa is not without reason call'd by the Portuguese The Golden King All the Inhabitants have short and black curl'd Hair The Constitution of the Inhabitants and as Linschot saith are of a middle Stature though Pigafet makes them a kind of Giants They are well set of a sound Body of Complexion black very apprehensive and quick of Understanding much addicted to War and apt to make Insurrections upon any trivial cause Their usual Food is salt Beef Milk and a little Verjuyce and Oyl of Sesamos Their Bread made of Rice Mille or of the Root Ignamees which they boyl in Basons The Drink of the Common People Milk but of the King and the Grandees Wine of Honey or Meath which they preserve in Ox-horns or Wine of Palm made delicious with Manna Amber and Musk. The King bestows every day in Perfumes two pound of Gold which certain Merchants furnish him with For the Torches and Lights which he uses are mix'd with sweet Odours which he causes to be born before him in the night being set in a richly Embroider'd Pavilion carry'd by four Noble-men follow'd by a great Train and cover'd over with a Canopy in
by one of its chiefest Mouths near the Kingdom of Melinde The Portuguese Writers will have this River Quilmanzi to be the same with Zebee which rises out of Maria a Territory in the Abyssynes from a place call'd Boxa and from thence running South with a swift course into the Kingdom of Gingiro Other Portuguese affirm That it lieth no more than a thousand Paces from Melinde being a very great River flowing out of the Abyssine Countrey but that they could never attain the full knowledge thereof because those that were sent to discover it were driven back and assaulted by the Inhabitants The Air is very Unhealthy Feaverish and Corrupt Air. and no less unwholsome are the products of the Earth caus'd partly from the Moorassness of the Grounds and partly from the multitude of Rivers and Lakes which makes this Countrey a great pack of Islands The Inhabitants are black having short curl'd Hair The constitution of the Inhabitants they go from the shoulders down to the middle naked but have their nether parts cover'd with party colour'd Clothes or wild Beasts Skins the Tails whereof especially among people of Quality hang down behind The Blacks on the Sea-Coast and of the near adjacent Islands Food live upon Fruits the flesh of wild Beasts and milk of the Cattel which they breed especially the Moors call'd Beduines who dwell a little deeper into the Countrey and Trade with the Kaffers Gold is none of the least advantages drawn from this Countrey Riches wherewith it so abounds for which onely they get a supply of all other necessaries The Natives of the Main-Land are Idolaters Religion but the Islanders almost all Mahumetans extracted from certain Arabians exil'd from their Countrey for introducing of some Heresie in their Religion as following the Doctrine of one Zaid Nephew of Hocem Son of Haly whereupon they were call'd Emossayders The Islands of QUIRIMBA OVer against Zanguebar L'Ambassade de D. Garvas Figuerra en Perse lie the Islands of Quirimba extending above fifteen miles along the Coast to the out-lying Point call'd in Portuguese Cabo del Gabo They are not all of one equal bigness nor alike distant from the Main-land and sever'd one from another by Channels so small and shallow that at low-Water they may be Waded over And although each Island hath its particular name yet the Portuguse call them all Quirinba The Islands were formerly inhabited by the Arabians as may plainly appear by the Ruines of the Houses and Mosques being built by people less barbarous than those that have their Residence there at this day of Lime Stone and Tiles like the Cities of Quiloa Monbaza and Melinde But since the Portuguese began to set forth their Ships to the East-Indies the Souldiers and Mariners out of a natural hatred and antipathy to all Mahumetans thought it not enough to rob them burn their Houses and Mosques and to carry them away for Slaves but with a sweeping Rage sparing neither Age nor Sex destroy'd all of the remainder These Islands many years since lay waste and void of people till some Portuguese from the Main-Land wafted themselves over thither and planted them and so became subject to the Governor of Mayambique about three and thirty miles from thence from whence every year cometh a Judge to decide Controversies The Lord of every Island hath his House built of Stone and Lime wherein resides his Wife Children and Slaves of both Sexes as also Friends and Servants whom they hire to have their assistance against the Negro's of the Main-Land which by their living so near are ready enough to do them a mischief And therefore both themselves and Slaves are Arm'd with Muskets Pistols and other Weapons Most of these Islands are not above half a mile or a mile in compass but very fruitful full of Palmito-Trees Oranges Figs Grapes Herbs and Pome-Citrons and excellently accommodated with fresh Water They have besides many Oxen Cows Goats and an infinite number of Fowl among which Wild-Pigeons and Turtle-Doves but Corn Rice Drugs dry'd and confected Fruits are brought to them from Ormus The Island of Quirinba is the biggest and was the first Peopled yet hath onely twenty five Houses inhabited by Portuguese and Mesties they stand not close together but lie scatter'd here and there two or three together Every one of these little Islands hath their own Governor which every three year are chang'd From Gou they receive a Dominican Priest who celebrates Mass and performs all other Sacred Duties to which end there stands a Cloyster in the midst of the Houses whither all those of these Islands come to do their Devotion The second of these Islands call'd Oybo Oybo is not so big as Quirinba but the Air more temperate and fresher so that a man may well say that the whole makes one pleasant Garden moisten'd and besprinkled in many places with the best and most wholsomest Waters in the world The other Islands have no Road nor Haven where Ships can come to an Anchor because in the deepest Channel at a low Ebb there is not three Foot water Over this Island Oybo a Portuguese Commands who dwells in a great and handsome House with Chambers below and above and behind it a Garden incompass'd with a Stone-Wall of two Fathom high with Spiers at the top so that it may seem in stead of a Bulwark This with assistance of his Houshold Family who are all Arm'd may be defended against any Incursion of the Blacks from the Main-Land if they should offer to attempt it but they live in good Peace one with another because of their mutual Trade The Kingdom of MONGALO and ANCHE or ANGOS UPon one side of the River Quama lieth Mongalo a Tract of Land inhabited by Mahumetans or Moors They have abundance of Gold brought thither from Monomotapa not far from thence you see the River Ango by Pigafet call'd in Italian Agnoscia by Moquet in French Angoche but by Barbosa Angos The Countrey produces great store of Mille Rice and Cattel The Inhabitants are of a middle Stature but very black they go with the upper part of the body naked but cover'd from the Girdle downward with Cotton and Silk Clothes Some wear Turbants upon their heads and others Caps made of Silk Stuff They use a peculiar form of Speech though many of them speak Arabick Language These Moors of Angos are all Merchants Trading in Gold Ivory Cotton Silk Their Customs Clothes and Kambain Beads or Bracelets The Cotton Silk Cloth and Beads they receive from the hands of the Merchants of Quiloa Mombaze and Melinde which bring them thither in small Baskets or Almides cut out of the whole Wood. They own no Governor unless one who speak their proper Language and by profession a Mahumetan yet all their care doth not keep them from a mixture of Heathenism The Kingdom of MOZAMBIKE A Little beyond Angos appeareth the Kingdom of Mozambike so call'd from the
from the River Mareb it visits the Kingdom of Denghini the Moors Bagihos or Fuches and at length pours its Water by the City Jalak into the Nyle The Rivers Anquet and Maleg lying furthest and most Southerly The Rivers Anquet and Maleg arise in Damut so flowing through Bizamo and joyning their Streams make the Westerly Channel of the Nyle yet retain the name of Maleg for eighty Miles till meeting with the middle Current of the Nyle they lose their less known resuming its more famous Name In the South of Abyssinie two other well-known Rivers discover themselves The River Haoax the one call'd Zebe and the other Haoax which latter by Godignus call'd Oara springs out of a vast Mountain upon the united Borders of Xaoa and Ogge whence flowing North-East and increased by the conjunction of the River Machi passeth into Adel or Zeila and so through the midst of Gurrule with a full Stream insomuch that Godignus hath not feared to affirm it to surpass the Nyle in Plenty of Water onely it reacheth nothing near so far for it hath not as the Nyle and other Rivers its Out-let into the Sea but is trencht away by the Husbandmen of Adel into many Brooks and Rivulets for the watering of their Grounds because it seldom raineth in that Conntrey The other call'd Zabee beginneth in the Kingdom of Narea The River Zabee and shoots at the beginning to the West with a strong Current Thence it floweth Southwards and encompasseth the Dominion of Gingiro Afterwards passing to the South and as Godignus will have it by Mombaza floweth into the Sea But Johannes Barros asserts it to be Oby having near Melinde its Out-let into the Sea changing the name into Quilmanzi The before-mention'd Godignus reckons five Lakes of eminency in those Parts Lakes viz. Aicha Dambeabahar or Bar-dambea Zella Zacala and Zoay Aicha the smallest of all lieth in the Kingdom of Angote Dambea-bahar The Lake Bar-dambea or Bar-dambea is so call'd by the Abyssines partly for its bigness and partly from its Situation in the Kingdom of Dambea but Ptolomy stiles it Coloe and Joannes Barros and Mercator Barcena In the common Maps it hath two Names that to the South part Zambre and the North part Zaire where they say the River Zaire which parts Congo and Angola taketh its original lying in thirty Degrees and a half South Latitude and receiveth a great increase of Water out of many several Streams and Brooks which pour down out of the circumadjacent Mountains Plains and Woods It reacheth according to Godignus in length sixty Italian Miles four of which make a German Mile and in breadth five and twenty But Balthazar Tellez a Portuguese Jesuit makes its greatest length on the South-side to be twenty and the breadth taken in the midst and broadest place ten or twelve Spanish Miles They say this Lake can shew eight and twenty Islands viz. Deck which contains twenty Acres of Land the others less Upon seven or eight of which there are Jesuits Cloysters now by length of time much decay'd Most of these little Spots are fruitful producing Oranges Lemons Pome-citrons and other Fruits The Water of the Lake is light very clear healthy to drink and full of Fish besides Sea-Horses which come on Land and devour the Fruits of the Field to the great prejudice of the Husbandmen And therefore there is a Reward appointed to all that kill them who have also a further advantage in selling their Flesh accounted a good Food and their Skins to make Alenga's far more useful to such as ride than Spurs because they jerk hard and strike better But here breed neither Efts Lizards nor Crocodiles though they abound in other places of the Nyle perhaps because these Creatures love not a clear Water and rather chuse troubled and muddy Streams Therefore the Cattel feed in safety upon these Shores and the People inhabit there without any disturbance The Abyssines of these Islands pass this Lake with small Boats made of the Plant call'd Papyrus by the ancient Grecians of which also the Egyptians formerly made Boats and used the Leaves in stead of Paper whereof we have treated more largely before in Egypt This Lake about the Summer Solstice increases for from the vast Mountains of Dambea pour down exceeding many great Streams Dambea whereby it would swell exceeding high if it did not find an Out-let into the greatest Channel of the Nyle Many have thought that the Nyle takes its original out of this Lake but without good ground it being rather a Receptacle for it to pass through However it is certain That this Lake affords it a convenient Supply by the way Into one of these Islands the Emperor banishes Rebels and Out-laws and in another strengthned with a Fort keeps part of the Treasure of the Empire The Lake Zella Zella or Zoay lieth in the Kingdom of Oecie or Ogge on that side towards the Kingdoms of Adel and Mombaza The Lake of Xacala Xacala or Sacala lieth not far from that of Zella and each about a days Journey in length Sanutus sets in the beginning of Amara on the East-side the Lake of St. Stephen two Miles long and half a Mile broad and an Island in it in which stands St. Stephen's Cloyster This Empire hath many and very high Mountains viz. Mountains In the Kingdom of Tigre between Fremona and Dambea one call'd Lamalmon Balthazar Tellez and another adjoyning call'd Guca It is half a days Journey to climb up to the top by an Ascent going always round and turning by steps like a pair of winding Stairs but with very dangerous Precepices and steep falls On the top lieth a great Plain a Mile about where the wearied Travellers and Caravans bait and rest themselves because the next day they have a very troublesom and dangerous way to go through very small narrow and sharp and on each side so steep that the sight cannot reach the depth By these narrow Paths coming to the bottom you meet with Lamalmon three hundred Cubits high like a continaul Hewn Rock which out in the Countrey seems a high and strong Castle where the Passage is narrow and troublesom yet Nature hath provided it with certain Steps in manner of winding Stairs which run up from one side to the other very steep and exceeding dangerous to climb up Aloft upon this Mountain also is a Plain about half a Mile in compass and a Musket-shot broad The People in this Mountain live in safety without fear of being assaulted by their Enemies and richly provided of Fresh-water and Victuals From the top of this Mountain they have the Prospect of the whole Kingdom of Tigre Northwards and North-Westwards lieth a Ridge of Mountains which all together make as it were a great Fence or Inclosure The Kingdom of Amara appears full of craggy steep Mountains among which the Ape-Hills are not the least There are also certain Ports call'd Aquisagi hewn in the
Fort stand several Habitations among which the House of the French Governor with a great Garden planted with all sorts of Pot-herbs and Fruits But in the year Sixteen hundred fifty six this Fort was burn'd down by accident yet immediately rebuilt and a good Garrison plac'd therein The French maintain great Wars against the Inhabitants of the neighboring Territories marching into the Mountains burning down their Huts and Villages and taking away their Cattel In the year Sixteen hundred fifty one Flacourd being then Commander in Chief for the French King with forty French and as many Negroes arm'd with Shields and Lances destroy'd the Countrey of Franhere and laid all the Huts and Houses in Ashes carrying away many Cows and Oxen and both Men and Women so that by this means all the Glory of the Roandrians came to nothing This cruel Usage rais'd in the Inhabitants a mortal hatred against the French Hatred of the Inhabitants against the French increased afterwards by the selling of some Men and Women Slaves by their Governor Pronis to the Netherland Governor of the Island Mauritius The Territory of MANATENGHA or MANAMPANI and the Valley of AMBOULLE THis Territory of Manatengha or Manampani so call'd from the great River of the same Name running through it lieth in three and twenty Degrees South Latitude being a very delightful spot of Land A little more to the Northward at the Mouth of the foresaid River the Valley of Amboulle shews it self This River The River Manampani lying with its Mouth under the Tropick of Capricorn takes its original out of the Valley of Amboulle and receiveth out of the Mountains Encalida Hiela and Manghaze additional Streams sending its Current afterwards into the East In the Valley of Amboulle stands a great Town also call'd Amboulle This Valley produceth many wholesome Roots and Plants especially white Ignames and Sesamos whereof the Inhabitants make Oyl which they call Menaehil They have very good and fat Oxen and Cows besides some considerable Mines of Iron Near the Town Amboulle rises a Hot Bath whose Water they have reported to bear a heat sufficient to boyl an Egg hard in four and twenty hours and by the Inhabitants accounted a powerful Remedy against the Gout or Sciatica The Natives employ their time in Forgeing and Making Asagayes Employment Lances or Darts and other neat Iron-work The People of Amboulle are Govern'd by a Voadziri that is A great Lord call'd Rabertau being rich in Cattel and all necessary Provision of Victual But his Authority seems small for upon a scarcity of Provision his Subjects will tumultuously force him to supply their Wants But afterwards when the Crop in the Field comes to be cut he repays himself four-fold All the People of this Valley live in so great liberty that their Countrey is a Refuge and Shelter for all Rogues and Vagabonds Westward of Amboulle lieth Izame The Territory of Izame a small place but rich in Iron-Mines and Menachil or Oyl of Sesamos The Inhabitants being about eight hundred are the most undaunted and Warlike of the whole Island yielding Obedience to a Voadziri related in Blood to the forsaid Robertau VOHITSBANG THe Territory of Vohitsbang reacheth from the River Manatengha in three and twenty Degrees and a half to the River Mananghare and Borders upon Anradsahock and Fangaterre containing within it a Lordship call'd Manacaronha lying at the River Mambondrou This Countrey boasts several Rivers as first Manatengha Rivers which with four Mouthes viz. Vinangadsimo Manamaza Sagandacan and Vinangavarats pours it self into the Sea D' Aviboule by the French call'd St. Giles four French Miles from Manatengha D' Andraghinta two Miles higher Sandrivinangha a Mile further issuing out of the Mountain of Viboullo Monambondrou three or four Miles from thence Massianash fifteen French Miles from Aviboulle where they find a good Bay for Barques by the French call'd Ance de Borgne that is The crooked Bay Four Miles more Northerly lies Mananghare which hath seven Mouthes but all stopp'd up with great Rocky Cliffs It cometh out of Itomampo lying towards the West but augmented by three other fair Rivers Janghainou Itamampou and Mangharak all which uniting with this lose their Names This Coast from the River Manhafia to Sandravinangha stands inviron'd with the high Mountains of Viboulle full of Woods Dates and Honey and affording some Gold And indeed the whole Tract though very Mountainous yet produces abundance of Honey Oxen Sugar-canes Ignames Rice and other Provisions for Food besides many Iron Mines The Inhabitants are all Black of Colour The Constitution with bushy curl'd Hair upon their Heads living in a perpetuated Contention upon ancient Feuds or old Quarrels Manners intayl'd both to Memory and Revenge from the Parents to the Children They are so great Thieves that sometimes they will take away the Children and Slaves of their Neighbors and nearest Kindred in Blood to carry and sell them in far distant Places They have an innate Enmity to the Zafferamini as believing That by their Skill in Writing certain Characters they can bewitch bring Sicknesses upon and at last kill them At the Mouthes of Manatengha live none but Ompizees or poor Fisher-men They make their Clothes for the most part of peelings of Trees Cloathing which they call Fautastranou and Avo or else they buy Cotton Clothes in Carnossi or Ampatre Their Arms are Wooden Shields cover'd with an Oxes Hide Arms. and an heavy Assagay or Lance. They have as many Governors as Townships Religion but none of them have any Religion yet they eat no Swines Flesh by Custom and are Circumcis'd The Dominions of ITOMAMPO IKONDRE VATTEMANAHON MANAMBOULE and ANACHIMOUSSI ITomampo lieth in a Valley surrounded with high Mountains Itomampo about three small Miles in compass where they Forge excellent Steel Ikondre Ikondre a small and Hilly Countrey in twenty two Degrees and thirty Minutes South Latitude stands in the East and East-North-East divided by high Mountains from Itomampo and borders in the South upon Vattemanahon and Michicore and on the North and North-West touches Manamboule Vattemanahon borders East and North-East-wards on Ikondre Vattemanahon and on the Head-springs of the River Itomampo and Madreri West and South on the Countrey of Machicore It appears a wild Countrey having been laid waste in the Wars Manamboule hath Limits in the East and East-North-East on the River Itomampo Manamboule in the North on Anachimoussi in the West at Alfissack in the South on the great Mountains where the River Jonglahe takes its Rise from thence running Westwards from Mozambike into the Sea Anachimoussi Anachimoussi a Tract of about four small days Journey in length abutteth in the East at the River Jonghaivou which cuts it through the middle in the South on Manamboule in the West on the great Mountains in the North on the River Mangharak and the Lordship of Eringdrane Several Rivers glide through and
hour of the Morning with an empty body which they can discern by the shadow of a Man in the Sun standing straight upright for they measure the shadow with their Feet which they call Liha or Pas which being nine of their own Feets length is the time of the Circumcision Then the Drums beat and the Circumciser puts on his Garments and binds a Fillet of great strong white Cotton-Yarn to his left Arm to scour his Knife At last every Father takes his Child in his Arms and going a Procession through the Lapa passing in at the Western Door and out again at the Eastern ten by ten one after another twice After some short pause they begin two other for the Oxen which are for the Sacrifice and with the left hand of the Child touch their right Horn as they lie upon the ground with their Feet ty'd together Then all the people are bid to clear the place and a large Ring made whereupon the Circumciser appears with his Knife to cut off the Fore-skin of every Child which the Uncle of the Child receives and lays into the white and yealk of a Hens-Egg which he holds in his hand but a Rhoandrian or Anakandrian kills the Cattel and cuts for every Child a Hens throat and lets the Blood drop upon every Wound and another puts upon it the Juyce of a certain Herb call'd Hota a kind of Clover-Leaf If the Child be a Slave and hath no Uncle then the Fore-skin is thrown upon the ground This day they keep so holy that no Sport is made nor none then drink beyond the measure of hillarity The Priests call'd by them Ombyasses and by the Moors Marabauts are of two sorts that is Ombiasses Ompanorats and Ombyasses Omptifiquili the Ompanorats are Scribes who can write Arabick very Expertly they have many Books wherein are some pieces of the Alcaron most of them understand the Arabian Tongue which they teach together with Writing Several Offices are conferr'd upon the Ombyasses Ompanorats which very much agree with the Church-Offices among Christians as Male Ombyasse Tibou Mouladzi Faquihi Catibou Loulamaba Sabaha Talisman Male is a Clerk which onely teacheth to Write Ombyasse a Master of Arts Tibou an under Deacon Mouladzi a Deacon Faquihi a Priest Catibou a Bishop Loulamaba an Arch-Bishop Sabaha a Pope These People cure the Sick make Hiridzi or Talismans or Massasser-Robes which are certain Charms or Spells written with Arabick Letters which they sell to the Grandees and Rich men with promise that they shall be freed from a thousand Mischiefs Sicknesses Thunder Fire Enemies yea from Death it self though they know not how to preserve themselves from it These Cheaters make great gain of those Letters receiving for them Beasts Gold Silver Clothes and all Conveniencies The people stand in great fear of these Ombyasses and hold them for Sorcerers and Witches as also the Grandees of the Countrey make use of them against the French but without any effect alledging that their Sorcery can do nothing upon them because they eat Swines-Flesh and are of another Religion It chanc'd that these Ombyasses close under the Fort of the French to drive them away had brought Baskets full of Papers written with Arabick Letters Eggs laid upon a Friday fill'd over with Characters and Arabick Writing Earthen Pots never yet set upon the Fire written upon within and without Biers to carry the Dead written upon Canoos Girdles Scissers Pinsers of Iron to pluck the Hairs out In brief nothing was omitted that they thought expedient for the Work yet without any other effect than the Pastime of the French at their ridiculous Vanity These Ombyasses Ompanorats are the usual Physitians who visit the Sick and give them Medicines being Decoctions of Herbs and Roots They also Cure Wounds and write Charms with Arabick Characters which moisten'd with Water they hang about the Necks and Middles of the Sick to expel all Sicknesses and evil Influences They make likewise Geomantick Images to find out the time of the Disease and to discover the Remedies fit for the Malady If the Sick recover not as they expect they acquaint him that he wants somewhat and so set upon the Work anew either till he die or grow well of himself The Ombyasses in the mean time get both from the Patient and his Friends all they require as Gold Silver Corral Cows Clothes Girdles and other things The Ombyasses Ompanorats among the People of Matatane keep publick Schools to teach Children The Omptifiquili are commonly Negro's and Anakandrians which undertake the practice of Geomancy or Soothsaying in the Countrey Language call'd Squili and do such like Feats as in Europe the Books of Geomancy express onely they erect their Schemes or Work upon a Plank strew'd over with Sand whereupon they make Figures with their finger setting down the Day Hour Moneth Planet and Signs that have Dominion over the Hour according to which they Presage Strange things are attempted in this Art yet they seldom hit upon the truth but rather judge blindly by guess nevertheless they are esteem'd by all There is another sort of Ombyasses among the Negro's which the Sick also send to yet can neither Write nor Read but make onely Geomantick Figures and use Crystals Topazes Eagle-Stones Amethysts and others which they call by the general name of Filaha making the people believe God sends them these Stones by the Thunder to work Cures by which perswasion hath taken so deep root in the hearts of the Islanders that they cannot be drawn to believe the contrary They have great glistering Crystals but foul and cloudy which they say are Terachs that is having others within when they make Figures they have one of these Stones in the corner of their Tables saying That it hath power to bring activity into their fingers Vincent le Blank and Casper de Saint Bernardino Government set down six Kingdoms in this Island which Kings continually wage War one against the other But Marcus Paulus Venetus affirms That in his time it was govern'd by four Cheques but at this day every Territory hath a peculiar Lord or Dian who usually sets over every Town under his Jurisdiction a particular Philoubei that is Bailiff of the Town In the whole there is not a foot breadth of Land but belongs to some Lord or other so that it is an error and mistake to say that every one may make use of as much Land as he will There are not found in this whole Island any written Laws but all is done according to the Law of Nature being three-fold Massindili or the Princes Law Massinpah the natural Law of particular people which is no other than their own way and Massintane the Law or Custom of the Countrey The Princes Law or Massindili is a compound word of Massin that signifies Law or Custom and Hadili that signifies Command being nothing else but arbitrary Will grounded nevertheless upon Reason consisting in the doing every one Right to determine
fifty Mills which every one had their Moneths to grind and could make every Year twelve or fourteen Tun of Sugar In the Year Sixteen hundred and ten there were sixty one Mills which the Hollanders ruin'd so that ever since they have for the most part been able to do nothing for want of Coppers and Slaves to work The Corn never attains to its full growth because the over-fatness of the Soil and the exceeding Moisture hinders the due Ripeness There are many Vineyards which have all the Year Grapes both white and red ripe and unripe also sweet and soure Oranges Lemmons Citrons Pomegranates Coco-Nuts Figs Water-Melons Peaches Olives Almonds and such like but the Fruits never grow to a full perfection because these Plants have need of a closing and drying Coolness which here they want The want of Corn Nature hath supply'd to the Inhabitants by Roots as Potatoes or Ignames their usual and chiefest Food of which they have four sorts one call'd Benyn the second Achorere the third Maniconge and the fourth Saffranee according to the Places from whence brought to this Island The two first are the best the one for its sweetness and the other for its longest keeping good The next is Mandihoka but they eat little of it rather sending it to Angola In Brasile they plant much of it onely the Root grows nothing near so thick there as in these places And here you must observe That the Juyce must be prest out of the Brasilian Mandihoka being so hurtful and poysonous that if any one should chance to eat of it unpress'd he would run the hazard of his Life But on this Island they immediately dry it as it is Grownd without pressing of which none get any hurt or damage by eating Banano's also Bakovens Kussu-Apples two or three sorts of Jojoos or small Beews and Turky-Wheat or Maiz may be had there and Pesigos a Fruit growing on a Tree of the same name somewhat hairy on the out-side which must be cut off and then you have a little Meat over a soft Stone yet pleasant to the taste and of a cooling quality Another Fruit call'd Kola of the bigness of a Walnut grows on very high Trees in a light green Shell or Cod It consists chiefly in four or five sharp red Kernels lying close together they taste like a raw Chessnut but somewhat bitterish yet a draught of Water after it makes it seem sweet They drive a good Trade herewith to Lovando St. Paulo whither they carry it by Shipping Neither do they want Palmito-Trees out of which the Inhabitants make Wine and out of the Kernel of the Fruit extract by Decoction Palm-Oyl which they send over to Angola Of the Cotton growing there the Inhabitants make sad and light blue colour'd Clothes like those of Benyn but nothing neer so good however transported to Lovando St. Paulo they yield sufficient profit Lastly Cabbith-Trees call'd Musen and by the Egyptians Mauz and by the Islanders Abellance which in a Years time grows very high Besides Pot-herbs Cabbages Turneps Sallads Lettuce Parsley They cannot complain of want of Cattel having Swine Cows Sheep Goats Rams and some small Horses Nor of Fowl Turkeys Geese Turtle-Doves Hens Moor-Hens Sparrows Linnets Paraquetoes and several other sorts of Birds breeding there in abundance Neither are the Sea or Rivers less kind yielding several sorts of Fish In short This Island might with reason enough be term'd a happy Habitation if the Air was but of a good temper The offensive Vermin are of three sorts Wasps much bigger than ours in Europe grievously tormenting all that go into the Woods upon any occasion Pismires which eat up all they find even to the grown Sugar-Canes but they die upon the change of Weather And Rats great Enemies also to the Sugar-Plants The Inhabitants are of two sorts Portuguese which first found this Island desolate and inhabited the same and Blacks sent thither from Angola to work Those which are born on this Island of a Portuguese Father and Mother though they have liv'd there a long time are white like the Portuguese but the Children of a Portuguese-Man and a Black-Woman are Brown or Yellow and therefore call'd Mulatos There us'd every Year to be sent from Lovando St. Paulo thither about five thousand young Blacks for Slaves The Native Portuguese go clothed like their Countreymen Apparel and the Negro-Merchants with their Families follow the same Mode but the Slaves as well Men as Women go naked onely with a Clout or Palmito-Leaf before their Privacies They make Bread of Potatoes Food and drink Palm-Wine or Water or Goats Milk In the time of great Heat five or six Families come together to eat their Meals in company in Caves under Ground where every one brings his own Food and his own Houshold-stuff The Commodities carried from thence to other Places consist chiefly in Muscovado-Sugar yearly made to the quantity of a hundred thousand Arabe every Arabe being thirty two Pounds being pack'd in Leaves and brought over to Europe the afore-mention'd Cotton Clothes the Fruit Kolas and such like The Merchandise transported thither by the Portuguese and others were Linnen of several kinds all sorts of colour'd Yarn Says Silk Stockings French Serges mix'd Hair-Says Axes Chopping or Hewing-Knives Iron Salt Linseed Oyl Red Copper in Plates Copper Kettles Rosin Pitch Tar Ropes Earthen Sugar-pots of bigness to contain twenty or thirty Pound weight Brandy and all sorts of Strong-waters Canary-Wine Olives Capers fine Flow'r Butter Cheese and such like The Revenues which the Portuguese have yearly from this Island Revenues amount to a considerable Sum For all Exported Goods must pay the Tenth of every thing for Custom to the King either in Ready Money Sugar Palm-Oyl or Clothes Of Slaves brought from one place to another they give one out of ten Those which fish with a Net at the Shore answer every fifth Fish And for the Fishing with a Canoo in the Sea for every eight days they must pay the Value of three Pence Nay every Plant which the Countrey produceth must pay somewhat to the King All the Inhabitants are Christians Religion except some Slaves or Merchants which have not constant Habitations there The Archbishop of Lisbon sends thither a Suffragan-Bishop to supervise Church-Affairs who holds his Episcopal See in the Principal City The Civil Government is manag'd by a Commander in Chief sent thither by the Crown of Portugal He keeps his Residence in the Chief City Pavoason attended with a Judge to administer Justice to the People The Inhabitants Government as well in the City as the Countrey bring all their Differences before the Governor and Judge to be decided but may appeal from thence to Lovando St. Paulo They are also bound to furnish the Governor the Castle and other Places of Guard with Fire-wood and to Build or Repair his House at their own Charges and also all Bridges and to keep all Roads and Ways clean and
good During the War between the Crown of Portugal and the States of the United Provinces this Island was in the year Sixteen hundred forty one on the second day of October overcome in the following manner Jol whom we mention'd before landed with his People two Miles from Pavoason by a Sugar-Mill at St. Anns where he took his Repose that Night and the next day the Ships came under the Castle and the Soldiers march'd thither by Land where arriving they found all void either of People or Garrison onely the place was Fortifi'd by six Pieces of Ordnance From thence having reduc'd it they went to the great Fort surrounded with a Wall of twenty eight Foot high where after a long Fight for want of Ladders to scale the Walls they were necessitated to Retreat with the loss of many Men But the City Pavaoson they easily gain'd being void of Citizens Soldiers and all moveable Goods Afterwards the foremention'd Fort was surrendred by the Governor who with eighty Garrison-Soldiers Blacks Whites and Mulatos march'd out and with five and twenty Soldiers of the Kings Band were Shipp'd over to Lisbon In the Fort came to the Victors hands six and thirty great Pieces of Ordnance of which twenty were of Brass abundance of Powder Match and Bullets but Victuals scarce for one Moneth The City and Fort thus taken the Admiral Jol caused the Portuguese to be call'd into the City again to Treat with him upon Equitable Concerns whereupon two of the chiefest came and bought off the Destruction of the Mills and preservation of their Canes for five thousand and five hundred Crusadoes and ten thousand Arohas of Sugar But the Kings Revenue and Treasure came to the Victors Formerly in the year Sixteen hundred and ten this Island had been master'd by the Dutch the City burnt and the Plunder consisting of a thousand Chests of Sugar a great many Elephants Teeth Silk Woollen Cloth and one and twenty Pieces of Ordnance Shipp'd away But the Admiral himself and the Vice-Admiral together with seventeen Seas and all the Land-Officers except one and the number of a thousand poor Soldiers died there as hath been already mention'd Ilha Rolles ANother small Island in Portuguese call'd Ilha Rolles lieth to the Southward of St. Thomas about three Musket-shot distant with a convenient Passage between both and good Anchorage for Ships Onely there appear between this and Ilha del Cabres seven Rocks above Water which the Portuguese Sea-men call Los Sette Pedros The Island Ilha del Cabres IN the next place you come to Ilha del Cabres or Goats-Isle about two Musket-shot from St. Thomas with a Channel for Ships between The Countrey rises Mountainous and full of Wild Lemon-Trees The Island Caracombo BElow the River Gaba or Gabon not far from the Aequinoctial-Line Linschet writes of it in Gniuee lieth the Island Caracombo whose Soil produceth many unknown Fruits Beasts and Fowl There are oftentimes an hundred Birds-Nests upon one Branch of a Tree made there by a wonderful Art to keep the Serpents from them The Women are yellow and impudently immodest prostituting themselves before any Spectators Some Ships riding at an Anchor at a certain time under this Island there came off from it in a Barque eight and twenty Men to the Ship side with a Drum and a hollow Stick in stead of a Pipe Four or five of them went aboard whereof one whose Countenance Breast and Arms were white held a green Branch with a Clock and a Bird whom the Master entertain'd with Victuals wherewith they seem'd highly pleas'd Afterwards a Pot of Palm-Wine was set before them out of which they drank to one another At length some of the Sea-men went with them ashore to Barter as they had desir'd Iron against Ivory and coming into the Village they saw a Hut of about three Foot high with a Roof but somewhat open at one side where stood a Crock cover'd with a Net which they would suffer no body to touch or to see what was within On a Stick close by stood a Childs Scull with a Bone in the one Eye and by that lay several other Bones both of Fishes and Beasts on the Ground whence they guess'd it to be a Burying-place These People have neither Faith nor Religion yet Circumcise their Children The Island of St. Matthias MOre towards the West in one Degree and fifty Minutes South-Latitude you arrive at St. Matthews Isle so call'd by the Portuguese from the day of its Discovery A small Spot desolate and not inhabited though heretofore some Portuguese dwelt upon it It hath one Brook of very good fresh Water Ilhas das Ascension or Ascension-Island TOwards the South appeareth Ascension-Isle in Portuguese Ilhas das Ascension It lieth eight Degrees and a half Southward of the Line one hundred and ninety Spanish Miles North-West from St. Hellens but larger and full of Mountains It hath no fresh Water at all nor one green Branch or Leaf but all wither'd dry and scorch'd Onely infinite numbers of Fowl as big as Geese frequent it because they find plenty of Fish to feed upon The Island of St. Hellen. HELENâ— The Air seems very temperate and healthful insomuch that sick Men Air. brought ashore there in a short time recover Yet the Heat in the Valleys is almost intollerable whereas the Mountains have as great an excess of Cold. It rains there commonly every day in Showres five or six times so that want of Water causes not the Barrenness of the Soil For besides the Rain it hath other good and wholesom Water particularly in the Church-Valley whither Sea-men come for Fresh-Water as also to two neighboring Places And further notwithstanding the general accusation of Sterility the Ground of its own accord brings forth Pease and Beans wild that for want of Gatherers falling make a new Increase also whole Woods of Orange Lemon and Pomegranate Trees all the year through laden both with Blossoms and Fruits very good Figs abundance of Ebony and Rose-Trees Besides in the Valleys Parsley Mustard-seed Purslain Sorrel and wild Roman Cummin-seed The Woods and Mountains are full of Goats very large Rams and Wild Swine but difficult to be catch'd When the Portuguese did first discover this Place they found neither four-footed Beasts nor Fruit-Trees but onely Fresh-Water The Fruit-Trees they brought thither afterwards which so increas'd since that at present all the Valleys stand full of them to the great wonder of the Beholders seeing the Island is seldom frequented and not at all Inhabited Lastly Partridges Pidgeons Moor-hens and Peacocks breed here numerously whereof a good Marksman with his Gun and not otherwise may soon provide a Dinner for his Friends On the Cliff-Islands at the South side of this are thousands of grey and black Meawes or Sea-Pies and also white and colour'd Birds some with long and some with short Necks who lay their Egs on the Rocks and so unaccustomed to fear that they suffer themselves to be taken
up with the Hand and gaze at their Surprizers till knock'd on the head with Sticks From the Salt-Water beating against the Cliffs a Froth or Scum remains in some Places which the heat of the Sun so purifies that it becomes white and good Salt Some of the Mountains yield Bole Armoniack and a fat Earth like Terra Lemnia The Sea will answer the pains of a patient Fisherman who must use an Angle not a Net because of the foul Ground and beating of the Sea The chief are Mackrels Roaches Carps but differing in colour from those among us Eels as big as a Mans Arm and well-tasted Crabs Lobsters Oysters of as good a rellish as our English and very good Mussles Yet all these Conveniences have not brought thither any setled Colony the King of Portugal as they say not permitting any of his Subjects to dwell there lest they should appropriate it to themselves The Cape de Verd or Salt-Islands THe Cape de Verd Islands are so call'd for their nearness to Cape Verd on the Main Coast of Africa but the Portuguese name them Ilhas Verdes Green Islands because the Sea thereabouts is always cover'd with green Weeds so thick that one can scarce discern the Water and the Ships can hardly Sail through them They are also commonly known by the name of the Salt-Islands because of the many Salt-Pans especially in Ilha del Sal Boavista Mayo and St. Jago Some take them for the Gorgons in the Atlantick Sea spoken of by Mela others for the Gorgades of Pliny an ancient Dwelling-place as the Poets feign of three Sisters the Daughters of Forkus viz. Medura Sthenio and Euryale and some stick not to believe that they were antiently call'd Hesperides from the neighboring Cape of Hespiere mention'd by Ptolomy They lie over against the Main Coast of Africa Situation between Cabo Blank and Cabo Verd from the nineteenth to the fifteenth degree of North-Latitude about two and forty Miles from the Shore Writers differ about their number very frequently Number for some reckon them twelve others eleven some nine but most agree upon ten generally known by the corrupt Portuguese names as follows Ilha del Sal Ilha Bovista Ilha Mayo Ilha del St. Jaga Ilha del Fogo Ilha del Brava Ilha del St. Niklaos Ilha del St. Lucie Ilha del St. Vincent and Ilha del St. Antonio besides some other nameless Islands The most Westerly is St. Antonio next those of St. Vincent and St. Lucie and the most Easterly Boavista All these or at least some of them are said to have been discover'd in the Year Fourteen hundred and forty by a Genoes call'd Anthonio Nolli thou Jarrik affirms the Portuguese had that honor six years after whereas Sanutus gives it to a Venetian call'd Lovis Extracted out of the House of Cadamosto sent abroad by the Infanta of Portugal to discover new Countreys The Salt-Island Salt-Island or Ilha del Sal lies with its South end on the North-Latitude of sixteen degrees and eight and thirty minutes and with the South-East Point in sixteen degrees and forty minutes It shews coming out from the Canaries or out of the North afar off very high like a Hill but nearer appears low On the North side runs a River and in the South-West a small Haven and close by that another small Island A Musket shot to the Southward of the West Point where by a long Sandy Valley fresh Water cometh out of the Mountains is a good Road for Ships Buena The Island Boavista or Boavista that is a pleasant sight perhaps for its pleasant appearance afar off at Sea they make its North Point eight Miles and its South seven Miles from the Salt-Island It may be distinguish'd at Sea from the Salt-Island by the many white Banks on the North Coast which the other hath not on that side twenty Miles some have guess'd but none know certainly its circumference There is a long River which runs from the North end North-East and North-East and by East a whole Mile and some hold that it runs into the Sea with mighty Breaks to the great hazard of adventuring Ships without a skilful Pilot. IN SULE PROMONTORII VIRIDIS Nispanis ISSAS DE CABO VERDE Belgis DE SOUTE EYLANDEN There shoots also another Rieff from the South-Point with some Rocks above and some under Water about a Mile and a half long East and East and by North from the Point Under the South-West Point where the Shore spreads West South-West and East North-East is a good Haven wherein Ships may Ride in fifteen or sixteen Fathom Water very good ground Mayo lieth eight or nine Miles South South-Westward from Boavista being the least of all and not above seven Miles in circuit It hath within some sharp Mountains and on the North side a Plain a Mile broad where a Rieff at the North-East Point shoots a good way from the Shore and likewise another to the Westward both which make a dangerous passage for Ships The common Harbor stands at the South-West side of the Shore where Ships Ride in fifteen or sixteen Fathom Water with a Sandy bottom and have the West Point of the Island North and by West and the South end of the Island St. Jago South-West On the North side lieth behind a black Point a convenient Harbor neighbour'd on the East side by a Village of ten or twelve houses The Island of St. Jago the famousest and biggest of all those of Cape de Verd Island St. Jago contains in length about twelve Miles spreading North-West and South-East at the South-East Point you come into the Road of the Island Mayo being five Miles broad From the South-East Point the Shore spreads two Miles South-West where the City Praya signifying The Strand hath its scituation on a convenient place between two Mountains on a little rising Summit surrounded with two Rivers which falling into the Sea make two Harbors one call'd Porto de Praya a spacious Bay where a hundred Ships may Ride at Anchor in fourteen Fathom Water within Musquet Shot of the Shore with a defence from the Winds Beyond Porto de Praya towards the City lieth an Out-Point in Portuguese call'd Cabo de Tubarao and North-Westward from this Cape the other Haven by the Portuguese call'd Porta Riebeirra Korea very convenient because lying between two Mountains whose middle shoots thorow by a River which takes original two Miles from thence and falls into the Sea by a Mouth a Bowe shot wide not far off which more Northward appears St. Maries Haven Jarrik places in this Island a City call'd St. Thomas seated conveniently but that 's uncertain yet the Town of St. Jago may be seen being the Metropolis of this and the other Islands and the residence of the Portugal Bishop Somewhat more Westerly on a Point a Fort or Castle shews it self two Miles from Porto de Praya and North-Westward from thence you come to Porto de Canisos
Ilha del Fogo or The Island of Fire Island del Fogo because of its Vomiting Smoke and Fire out of its highest Hills lieth in fourteen degrees and twenty minutes North-Latitude twelve Miles North-Westerly from the South-West Point of St. Jago On the West side you discover another Road with a Castle adjoyning Built at the foot of a Mountain but the Haven affords little conveniency by reason of the strong Current before it Those that Sail out of the East and intend for this Harbor must make to the Northward about the Countrey or else they will scarce fetch it for the Wind blows very hard and the ground is deep and runs down sloaping so that indeed none can be had but under the Castle Four Miles South-Westward from del Fogo Island del Brava lieth Ilha del Brava or The Desolate Island having on the West side a convenient Entrance for those that will take in fresh Water But the Haven lies to the South-East with fifteen Fathom Water so that an East-India Man may Ride there with his Starne moved towards the Shore Above the Haven stands a Hermitage with people South-Westward from Ilha Brava Island St. Nicholas in the Altitude of twelve degrees and almost thirty minutes appears a dry place two Ships length and one broad St. Nicholas-Isle seventeen Miles from the Salt-Island sets its North-West end in sixteen degrees and twenty minutes at the West end three Miles broad and at the East a Mile and a half and seven or eight long M. Figuredo places the Haven at the South side giving it the name of Porto de Berguira with an Islet at the entrance and to the North-West lieth beyond the Point the Haven Fuoor Fole St. Lucie Island St. Lucie a high and Hilly Island eight or nine Miles long with its South end in the Altitude of sixteen degrees and eighteen minutes At the South-East end are two small Islands as on the East South-East end the Haven with a fine Sandy Shore On the South-West towards St. Vincent lies another Harbor of twenty Fathom Water Thirty Miles Westward from the Salt-Island Island St. Vincent and two Miles West from St. Lucie lieth St. Vincent in the Altitude of seventeen degrees five Miles long It hath at the North-West side a half Oval-Bay a Mile and a half wide and surrounded with high Mountains The high Mountains of St. Anthonys-Isle defend this Bay from the West and North-West Winds so that it seems the most convenient Haven among all the Islands yet the coming to it is dangerous by reason of the strong Winds blowing impetuously from the high Mountains The South end of St. Vincent hath a little fresh Water but elsewhere cannot be had one drop St. Anthony Island St Anthony the most Northermost of all in seventeen degrees North-Latitude two Miles and a half from St. Vincent hath two high Mountains the one almost as high as the Piek of Teneriff in the Canary-Islands but both most commonly cover'd with Clouds There live about five hundred Inhabitants on this Island At the North-West end stands a Village of about twenty Huts wherein dwell about fifty Families as well Negro's as Whites Govern'd by a Captain Priest and Schoolmaster all which speak very good Portuguese but they live very poorly At the Northside is a Road in the Latitude of sixteen degrees and fifty minutes North-Latitude The unwholesomeness of the Air in all these Islands Air. breeds generally in the Inhabitants Burning-Feavers Belly-Ach and the Bloody-Flux Their Scituation being between the Equinoctial and Tropick of Cancer affords the Inhabitants two Summers When the Sun enters into Cancer which is in June it Rains there continually with Storms of Thunder Lightning and Wind which continues till the middle of October which Jarrik seems to affirm where he writes That it doth Rain there in August September and October and the Air about the middle of June gets a remarkable change growing damp and foggy with Mists out of the Sea The Portuguese find these Islands wild and desolate Plants but most of them now are Till'd and bare Rice Mayz Tares Oranges Lemons Citrons Bananoes Ignames Potatoes Cucumbers Cotton Pomegranates all sorts of Figs Coco-Nuts and Vines which bear Fruit twice a year The principal Cattel breeding here are Goats and Sheep Beasts but they have a few Oxen and Cows Fowl and Poultry increase even to admiration such are Hens Crains Turtle-Doves Turkicocks Morehens Quails and Birds which the Portuguese call Flamingo's that is Flemmings with white Feathers red Quills and a Body like a Goose Their greatest Wealth consists in Goat-skins and Salt Riches which they send in great Parcels from the Islands Del Sall Boavista Mayo and St. Lago by Shipping into Europe This as to the general we will now descend to particulars The Inland of Del Sal lies almost cover'd with Stones but without either Plants or Trees onely towards the South-East Point hard by a white Sandy Bank are seventy two Salt-Pans Many Turtels and Fish are taken between the Cliffs out of which the Slaves decoct a Train-Oil all out of the Salt-Water for they have no fresh In short such is the sterility as affords no other refreshment but poor Goats yearly kill'd in great numbers for their Skins Two Miles from the Road on the South side of the Countrey is a Pond of Salt-Water nine or ten foot deep into which a Brook runs with very clear water but not held to be very wholsome because brakish St. Jago yields all sorts of Fruits having indeed a very fruitful Soyl Trees of Cedar Colcoes Oranges and the like all along beautifie the Banks of the River Ribeira Korea They have also Rice Maiz Mille Cotton and Sugar-Canes The European Herbs and Plants sent thither grow very well there but must be every year renew'd All the Wine they drink Lisbone furnishes them with but other Provisions they can spare to their Neighbors The Cattel there breeding are Oxen Horses Asses and Goats besides Hens Ilha Brava produces Figgs Mulberries and other Fruits also Mille Maiz Water-Melons and many others Some Goats but they may not be sold without leave of the Governor of St. Jago On the Island St. Nicholas are but few Trees It feeds many wild Cats and Goats close by the Shore is fresh Water in a Pond which in time of Rain flows over the Shore into the Sea St. Lucie appears Mountainous with many Woods and some fresh Water At the West side hath no other Inhabitants than Mice and Tortoises At the Watering-place of the Island St. Vincent fresh Water may be had out of Wells but not very pleasant Below on the highest Mountain there floweth a Brook whose Waters are fresh and well tasted all the rest sulphurous and brackish and for that cause unfit to drink The parch'd ground bears little but stones being every where so bare that there is neither Leaves nor Grass to be found but onely a few Shrubby Bushes
hundred and fourteen set forth a Fleet to scour the Seas and also chase away the Pyrates that sculking sheltered in those Parts and in the same Spot raised a new Fortress which with the assistance of the Citadel Larache kept all the neighboring Coast and Countrey in awe and also improved the Haven for safer riding of Shipping Mequinez Mequinez and by some call'd Mecknesse and Mechnase and by the English Mikernez seventy Spanish Miles from Salee twenty from Mahmore twelve from Fez and six from the Great Atlas close by a River it is an old City by Ptolomy as Marmol says Leo Afric call'd Silde formerly furnish'd with Six thousand Houses and very strong Walls fair Churches Three Colledges twelve great Bannia's large and spacious Streets and a commodious Stream Tifelfelt Tefelfelt or Tefelfelt a small City Ptolomy's Tamusige in a Valley four Miles distant from Mahmore and three from the Ocean now nothing but Ruines and a Receptacle for wilde Arabs and the like Robbers Gemaa el Hamem Gemaa el Hamem or Gemei Elchmen or Elchmel is an old City on a Plain four Miles from Mequinez Southward East from Fez and three from Mount Atlas but much harm'd by the late Wars insomuch that the Churches and Houses stand all bare the Roofs lying on the Floors which confusion makes it rather a Den of Thieves than a City being nothing else but lurking holes for those inhumane Purchasers Hamis Metagare or Kamis Metgare Hamis Metagare close by the way that goeth from Morocco to Fez between the City Gemaa el Hamem and Fez four Miles from either of them lay formerly waste and uninhabited but afterwards by the Moors banisht out of Granada Peopled and brought to its pristine State and Condition Beni Becil or Beni Basil another City lately wasted by the Wars Beni Becil but now Repaired situate between Fez and Mequinez on the Banks of the small River call'd Heud Nye which with the Fountain Ain Zork half a Mile above the aforesaid City takes it Original out of the same Place Makarmede by Marmol taken to be the Erpis of Ptolomy Makarmede lyeth six Miles from Fez Eastward and is wasted by the same Civil Wars Habad or Rabat by some call'd Hubbed is a Castle Habad environ'd with strong Walls built by Mahumetan Priests opposite to Sale so standing that from thence they have a large Prospect of all the adjacent Countrey The Opinion is that this Town or Citadel formerly was large and very Potent but now in a low and miserable condition Inhabited by Moors and wilde Arabs that only live from hand to mouth by Forrage and Plunder having no Commerce pretending Vassalage to the Kings of Morocco Zavie or Zaquie held to be Ptolomy's Volusse built by Joseph the Second Zavie a King of the Marine Family lyeth four Miles from Fez almost wholly Ruin'd the chief remaining part being now converted into an Hospital Halvan or according to some Chanban a Wall'd Village Halvan lying two Miles Eastward from Fez at the River Sebu or Subu having without the Walls a Hot Bath with very fair Inns. But the most Eminent City of all is Fez call'd by the Mahumetans The City Fez. Western-Court and by some held to be Silde by others the Volubilis of Ptolomy This City was first founded Anno Eight hundred and one by one Idris the natural Son of Idris by his Handmaid he being a dispossessed Arabian Patriarch The Original of the Name Fez is by some brought from the Arabian word Fez signifying Gold because at the first breaking of the Ground to lay the Foundation there was Golden Oar found but others will have it from the River Fez which Waters the City It stands remoted from the Sea a hundred Miles The Form of it with rough and almost inaccessible ways to it The Form is a Quadrangular Oblong hedg'd in on every side with Suburbs all encompast with high and stately Walls wrought artificially with Brick and Free-Stone fortifi'd round about with Towers but few Redoubts according to the Modern but onely Flanker'd at the Gates which are in all eighty six some of them Water-Gates a Stream running through them So near surrounded with Hills that there remains no more Level but what the City stands upon It is divided into twelve Wards or Precincts containing sixty two spacious Markets set with Artificers and Tradesmens Shops round about above two hundred Eminent Streets together with a great number of cross and by-Lanes all which are adorn'd on both sides with large and stately Edifices besides seven hundred Mosques a great number of Colledges Hospitals Mills and common Bannia's This as to the general we shall now make a more particular Inquisition The River Fez which Paulus Jovius calls Rhasalme passes through the City in two Branches one runs Southward towards New Fez and the other West each of these again subdividing into many other clear running Channels through the Streets serving not onely each private House but Churches Inns Hospitals and all other publick Places to their great Conveniences Round about the Mosques are a hundred and fifty Common-Houses of Easement built Four-square and divided into Single-Stool-Rooms each furished with a Cock and a Marble Cistern which scowreth and keeps all neat and clean as if these Places were intended for some sweeter Employment Here also are two hundred and fifty Bridges Like London-Bridge before the Fire many of which are built on both sides that they are not onely Thorow-fares but of all Trades there There are eighty six publick Springs or Wells which afford the Citizens abundance of Water besides six hundred other in Palaces Hospitals and great Buildings The Houses are artificially built of Bricks The Houses and Stones their Fronts Carved out with all sorts of Imagery the Rooms and Galleries of Brick and Tile and pourtray'd with Flowers and variety of Colours and for the greater lustre they shine with a rare Varnish The Cielings and Beams of the Rooms are commonly Gilt Carv'd and Painted with delightful Colours the Roofs are flat and artificially laid with Pavements which in Summer are cool Reposes Here their Houses are two or three Stories high with Galleries the middle of the House lying always open with Rooms on each side having high and broad Doors furnish'd to the whole Length with a great Press or Chest of Drawers in which they lay up their Habits or what ever else they have a great esteem for The Galleries rest upon Pilasters made either of Brick or Marble painted and varnished over after the manner of a Piazza or Terrast-Walk Many Houses have Stone Cisterns ten or twelve Cubits long six or seven broad and six or seven Foot deep handsomely painted and varnished over under which stands a Marble Trough receiving the redundant Water of the Cistern They are kept pure and clean though never kept cover'd but in Summer when Men Women and Children bathe in it The Houses have also
commonly peculiar Turrets something elevated from the rest in which when they go abroad they secure their Wives who to pass the time with more content from thence have a full Survey of the whole City Of the seven hundred Mosques there The Churches above half a hundred are very spacious and of great Reception and stately built on Marble Pillars mingled with Stone Fountains on the Tops They are built after the manner of our Churches in Europe vaulted with Wooden Arches but the Floors are cover'd with matted Rush so close and neatly joyn'd together that the Seams can hardly be seen nor any dust come through And the Walls also in the same manner matted above six foot high The most Eminent Mosque in this City The chief Church is call'd Karuven which Gramay says is half a Mile in Compass with thirty Porticoes every one of an extraordinary Heighth and Breadth with a Roof of an hundred and fifty Cubits long and eighty Cubits broad The Tower or Steeple of it whence they daily cry aloud and set up certain Flags to give notice to call the people to the Sala or their Divine Service is exceeding high and being built not Square but Quadrangular Oblongo stands supported in Breadth with twenty and in Length with thirty Marble Pillars under which are always above four hundred Vessels of Water to wash in before Prayers Round about stand several Cloisters each of forty Cubits in Length and thirty in Breadth wherein all sorts of Church Utensils as Oyl Lamps and Mats are kept There are in that Church above nine hundred Arches with Marble Pillars at each of which hangs a lighted Lamp About a Mile from hence lieth New-Fez a glorious Structure New-Fez built by one Jacob son of the First Abdullach of the Marine Family in a rich and delightful Plain one Arm of the River on the Northside runs into the City and the other makes its Entry on the Southside taking a view of the Castle and the Colledge of King Abuhinam who nam'd it The White City but the common People New-Fez Founded at the first onely to be the nearer to the King of Telesin who at the beginning of his Reign had been his great Enemy He divided it into three parts the first allotted to be the Kings Palace It was divided into three Parts and a Residence for the Children and Brothers of the King wherein were contained many Gardens stately Mosques and Chambers for Accounts and Receipts of the Revenue Round about were Mansions for Artificers in the midst Dwellings for Receivers Treasurers Labourers Notaries Accomptants and Secretaries Near the Treasury-Chamber was the Goldsmiths Row and other Conveniences for the Assay-Master and Master of the Mint The second Part he set out for a Palace for his Courtiers Officers and chief Men contain'd within a Line of Fifteen hundred Paces from East to West and adjoyning to a Market set round about with Shops of Merchants and Artificers The third Part was at first the Quarters of the Kings Life-Guard but now is for the most part Inhabited by Jews and Goldsmiths This New City hath no fewer Mosques Baths and Colledges than the Old Here is an ingenious Water-Work the Invention of a Spaniard having many great Wheeles each of which turn but once round in four and twenty Hours and convey Water out of the River into Cisterns from whence again through Leaden-Pipes the Palaces Gardens Mosques Baths and Colledges are all plentifully served This City was brought to full Perfection in an Hundred and forty Years being environ'd with strong Walls and accommodated with Conveniences and Ornaments fit for a City except the fore-mentioned Water-Work which it had not of divers Years after being only contented with Water brought thither from a Spring ten Miles distant through Pipes by the contrivance of a Genoese ¶ THe Mountains of this Province are Zalagh Zarhon Tagat and Gereygure Zalagh somewhat more than half a Mile distant from Fez Northward The Mountains of Fez. beginneth on the East-side of the River Subu and extending four Miles Westward on which is scituate Lampte a fair Town supposed by Marmol to be the Bobrise of Ptolomy Zarhou call'd by the Inhabitants Zarahanum appearing first in the Plains of Eceis or Aseis three Miles from Fez and stretching eight Miles Westward It is properly under the Jurisdiction of Mequinez and contains forty Hamlets or Villages lying among the Green Olive-Trees wherewith it is every where abundantly shadowed Titulit standing on the top of it was formerly the Chief City of this Territory two Miles in Compass but by King Joseph of the Race of the Almoraviden utterly destroyed and hath ever since remain'd waste only that fifteen or twenty Alsakues or Priests reside there in so many Houses standing about the Mosque Some report there yet remains a City commonly call'd Elkazar-Pharon that is Pharaoh's Palace but by Geographers Kazar Zarahanum being three Miles from Titulit with a small River on each side and shadowed round about with Groves of Olive This City was ruined the same time with Titulit there being at present no other Remainder of it but a Market-place call'd Larbaa el Haibar frequented every Wednesday by the People of Fez and Mequinez But Dar el Hamare which Marmol thinks is The Epitiane of Ptolomy stands here yet without any injury and well Peopl'd though the Inhabitants are mightily terrifi'd with Lions coming thither frequently to seek Prey At the Foot of this Mountain near the way from Mequinez to Fez appear the Ruines of Gemae formerly call'd Gotiane destroyed by King Abu-saiid of the Benimerin Race Tagat or Togat two Miles West from Fez and extending from West to East two Miles as far as the River Bu Nacer Guerygure is very populous close to Atlas three Miles from Fez between the Plains of Eceis and Adhasen Here rises the Head of the River Aguber that after a short Western Course joyns with the Stream Beber ¶ IN this Province also six Miles from Fez lie the Plains of Eceis or Aseis full of Villages and Inhabitants and Beniguarten Vale containing about two hundred Residences of the Arabs This Jurisdiction produceth great abundance of Grain The Quality of the Soil of the Territory of Fez. Cotton and Flax even to admiration as also variety of Fruits especially Figs Almonds Olives and large Grapes Horses Camels Oxen Sheep Goats Deer and Hares breed here in great numbers But this Plenty of all Necessaries is attended with a great Inconvenience for the Air of the Countrey ten Miles in Length and five in Breadth Westward from Old Fez is infectious and unhealthful causing in the Inhabitants a pale yellow Colour and casting them into malignant and other mortal Diseases The whole Countrey is full of Gardens wherein grows Flax Melons Citrons Beets Herbs and all sorts of such Plants in such vaste quantities that it is said that the Gardeners in Summer bring five thousand Waggons with Fruit and Herbs to Market and
Corpse and draw the Bowe-string as far as they can to signifie that they would fight against his Enemy and if he were slain in the Wars or kill'd by any malicious Person they would with such force take vengeance And lastly a Man or a Woman is left by the Corpse to keep it and take care to beat away the Flies and Vermine which otherwise might annoy the body When the nearest Relations have finish'd their Ceremonies and come from the house immediately some Women of her Acquaintance apply themselves to the Widow to lament and condole with her and falling down at her feet use these words Bqun e Bqun e that is Be comforted or Cease your lamentation After the accomplishment of these sorrowful Complaints the men carry the Corpse upon a Biere to the Grave commonly made near the Sepulchres of their Ancestors in some Tombouroi or desolate Village and there inhume it not above knee-deep casting into the Ground after him Mats Kettles Basons Beads or what other Wealth he possest himself with or was presented after his death and then fill up the Hole with Earth covering it over with a painted Mat fasten'd with Pins and an Iron close by setting up a Pole whereon if it be a Mans Corpse they hang his Clothes and Arms in the manner of a Trophy but if it were a Woman some Pewter Porringers or Dishes are made fast with a Pin to the Ground And with all convenient speed the Friends erect a Hut over the Grave as a defence from the Rain and also for a Monument that their Memories may not altogether be forgotten The Kings Kindred are buried in an Island call'd Masach lying in a Lake belonging to the River Plizoge where King Flans-Sire Father of the present Reigning King Flambore in his life kept his Royal Seat and now lies Entomb'd If any of the Friends have been absent or in a Journey upon his return he comes to the House of the Deceas'd though it be two or three moneths after and falling down at the feet of the nearest Kinsman to the Deceas'd bewails his loss If he meets any of his Acquaintance of the near Friends to the Deceas'd he embraces him and salutes him with these words Clau e Clau e that is Lament Lament and then talk together of their Affairs When any Nobleman dies one or two of his Slaves or Slavesses are put to death at the Grave to be his Attendants in the Elizian Fields others wait at the Grave to whom the Friends of the Dead carry Presents of Bracelets Beads Coral Rice Tobacco the Fruit Kola and a Hen boil'd with Rice which they may dispose as they please Though this destroying and killing of Slaves and Slavesses was an old Custom here yet it is not much practis'd of late and those of the Slaves that can run away or defend themselves with weapons in their hands are free Therefore when an Eminent Person is dying all his Slaves get away where they cannot be found though the danger of their Lords Death is conceal'd as much as possible The Run-away-Slaves when they come again are rail'd at and upbraided with these or such like words You will eat of your Lords Cost but not die with him who excuse themselves saying Life is sweet and no man would willingly leave or have it taken away against his will The chiefest of the Friends at the beginning of the Mourning make a Vow of Abstinence swearing by a holy Token which they call Bolly-Gowe with lifting up of hands that they will keep it for a common Person eight or ten days and for a Lord a moneth or longer in which time they may not eat any Rice nor drink out of any whole Vessel or Cup but onely out of a Potsheard or a little hole made in the ground neither do the Men sleep with their Wives nor may wear any Painted or Colour'd Clothes but onely Black or White cut with flashes shaving their Hair and sleep upon the bare ground When the time is expired they come to the Bolly-Gowe and discharge themselves with up-lifted Hands from the aforesaid Promise and Vow with assurance that they have kept the same Lastly a Funeral-Banquet is prepared for which the Women boyl Rice and the Men go into the Woods a Hunting and bring home what they catch which they boyl and eat and so the whole Ceremony concludes Those that have fasted are gratifi'd with Presents every one according to his quality that is common persons one with a Bason another with a little Garment or Salt-Basket or a piece of Iron or Mat but persons of account with a Staff Iron or other Goods which with them are highly esteemed If the acquaintance of the Deceased have any suspicion that he died not a natural Death they neither wash the Dead nor lament till the doubt be resolved for they say if any should mourn before it would be impossible to bring to light the guilty person because the Spirit of Envy over-hearing it would not give any intimation of it The Enquiry is performed in thismanner They take the Corps or in stead of that a piece of his Cloathes with pairings of his Nails and some of his Hair sewing it up like a Pudding mixed with scrapings of Bondu or red Dying-wood this Roll they put into a Mortar where they stamp it Then two eloquent Men are elected who stand with two Iron Bills or Halberds before the Staff-bearers and clashing their Bills ask the Dead what he died of and whether God took him away or no if yea then the Staff-bearers nod as if they were half asleep but if not they shiver and shake In like manner they do upon the other Question of Who did it Where is he and In what manner was it done At length they receive answer that he died a violent Death being kill'd by some Bolly for Bolly is with them all manner of Medicinal Herbs but the Herb that is venomous or poysonous is call'd Sovach But if Bolly hath kill'd him then the Names of most Physical Herbs are recited till they have found which of them was used concluding however at last that Sovach hath kill'd him Then is asked whether he was kill'd by a Man or a Woman and at last is asked concerning the place of his dwelling and person The guilty person being found immediately they are chained to a great Block and asked if he or she will acknowledge the Fact If they can be brought to no acknowledgment then is given to them Quony or else upon acknowledgment of the Fact are cruelly put to death This Quony is a Rind or Bark of a Tree so call'd which in the presence of Friends by the suspected person is pull'd off that the Sap or Juice may be used without any deceit The outermost scurf of the Bark they pare off and beat in a Mortar with Water which after the setling affords a very tart Juice of which they give to those that are taken three or four Kalabasjes
or Quarts to drink in the Morning and not at any other time In the mean time they conjure and perswade themselves that if the Captive be guilty of the Crime he will die or else not At last vomiting the Quony he is held to be quit but if he cannot do that though at first he brings up a little Froth he dies and the Body is either burnt or else cast into the River But if it happen that they cannot receive any answer or but such as is uncertain and Amphibological resting thereon though with much dissatisfaction they forthwith without farther enquiry interre the Corps Yet nevertheless they go to a Jakehmo or Soothsayer a vagrant sort of People who have no certain Dwelling-place but rove up and down and before they answer any question run about distractedly one with a certain kind of Pots or Cups another sounding a Horn the rest with Tabers or little Drums making a great noise and hurliburly seeking and calling for the Sovahmo from whom when they have received any information concerning the guilty person then they proceed to the trial with the Quony in the manner aforesaid ¶ IN Right of Inheritance or possessing of Goods this method is observed The Inheritance When the Man dies and leaves behind him some Children that are under Age the elder Brother takes the possession of all the Slaves Wives Children moveable and not moveable Goods of his Father except his own Mother Thus taking upon himself the government of the Family after time of mourning finished he draws to the place of Exercises before the King in presence of all his acquaintance with his Father's Bowe in his hand and his Quiver of Arrows at his back one end of the Bowe he sets upon the Ground holding the other end in his hand in that posture he declareth openly that resolving to be valiant and to follow his Father's course he will now give a proof before all the Spectators After he hath shewed his skill and activity he presents himself before the King in the same posture as before saying He is resolved to bear the burthen of his Family to give the Children under Age an Example to Till the Ground to defend the Right of his Family and what else befits him After the Decease of this Son the next eldest Brother takes all But if the eldest Son live and have Children then his younger Brothers and their Children have onely so much of the Estate as shall keep them till they come to Manhood and maintain the Slaves or Slavesses given him in his Father's life-time for it is the custom in that Countrey that people of ability bestow upon their Children as well Sons as Daughters from their Infancy some Slaves But if the Father dies leaving onely Daughters either his Father's Brother if living or else his Father's Brother's Son that the Name may not be extinct shall inherit But if there be no Male-issue of the Father's side the King is Heir and takes as well Slaves as Goods and Women to him allowing a sufficient maintenance to some trusty Person for the bringing up of the Children ¶ THe Quoia's speak not onely their own Timnian Their Language Hondian Mendian and Folgian Languages but also those of Gala and Gebbe The People of Gebbe and Folgia differ in Speech but little however the Folgian being the smoothest and the noblest is call'd Mendi-ko The Lordly-Tongue partly as we said for its Elegancy and Smoothness partly because of the Dominion the Folgia's hold over the Quoia's and Gebbe-Monou that is the People of Gebbe for Monou in that Idiom signifies People They of Konde-Quoia or High-Quoia differ in Dialect from the Quoia's near the Sea ¶ IN the Head of the Constellation Taurus Signs of their Summer and Winter-Seasons are five Stars near the Pleiades which they call Manja-Ding that is Lords-Childe upon which they look to know whether it be Midnight They have no Hours or past Midnight but know not how to divide Time into Hours nor how to reckon the Age of the Moon Those that dwell in Daula look upon these five Stars appearing in the Evening to the West as a Sign of a Raining-time ¶ THe Authority and Greatness of Quoia Their Strength and Power is at present supported more by Wisdom and Policy than by Power because the subjected Countreys of Cilm Bolm and Bolmberre are accounted more powerful than it This the Parable of King Flamboers Brother nam'd Cia-Haddo seem'd to hint to Flamboere's eldest Son threatning Massakoey Lord of Bolm to take his Countrey There was said he in antient time a Fowl with a very fine red Head and Neck but beyond that thin of Feathers and a small Train but for his beautiful out-side appearance was by other Birds chosen King This Bird sensible of his own defects kept in a Bottel and when the Council of Fowls was assembled put the Head and Neck onely out till at length by course of time the great Sacrifice was to be made to the Idol Belli in the Wood which none but the King in Person might perform at which time compell'd to dissert his Bottle his poverty and wants were discover'd to his great damage Thus far Cia-Haddo And without doubt he discover'd a great Prudence in that witty Apothegm for to prevent discovery it is not permitted to the People lying Northwards to pass through the Easterly Countreys nor for those of the East to go with their Ambassadors or Merchants through the West Countrey and this as we said that they should not discover the Secrets and Conveniences or Inconveniences of the State therefore they of Quoia keep them at distance and traffick for Eastern Wares at reasonable Rates which they vent to the West in Exchange for such as are fit for Barter and Exchange with European Merchants for such Commodities as yield ready Truck with those of the East In like manner also the People of the Upper Countreys prohibit the Quoians to travel through their Land for it is a particular favour that the King of Quoia may take to Wife the Daughter of the King of Manou and at his pleasure pass through the Folgian Territories ¶ WE will next proceed to their Government The Government and first begin with Quoia-Bercoma at present Commanded by a King with the Title of Dondagh his Name Flamboere the Fourth Grandson of one Bokwalla formerly Prince of the Karou's who by the assistance of the Folgians conquering the Veyes after a tedious War laid here the Foundations of a Potent Monarchy to his Successors invited thereto by the fertility of the Soil and an innate ambition and thirst of Soveraignty This acquired Grandeur hath been supported with such Policy that the Inhabitants at all publick Meetings and Solemnities to this day Sing He descended from above This King like his Ancestors holds in subjection Folgia The King of Quoia holds subject the Folgia's the Region of Cape de Monte and the adjacent places formerly
of a Bason The Vines which afford those excellent Wines grow all about the Island within a Mile of the Sea such as are planted farther up are not esteem'd nor will they thrive in any of the other Islands Concerning the Guanchio's or antient Inhabitants he gave this full account The third of September about twelve years since he took his Journey from Guimar a Town for the most part inhabited by such as derive themselves from the antient Guanchio's in the Company of some of them to view their Caves and the Corps buried in them a favour they seldom or never permit to any having the Corps of their Ancestors in great veneration and likewise being extremely against any molestation of the Dead but he had done several Eleemosinary Cures among them for they are very poor yet the poorest think themselves too good to Marry with the best Spaniard which endeared him to them exceedingly otherwise it is death for any Stranger to visit these Caves and Bodies The Corps are sew'd up in Goat-skins with Thongs of the same with very great curiosity particularly in the incomparable exactness and evenness of the Seams and the Skins are made very close and fit to the Corps which for the most part are entire the Eyes clos'd Hair on their Heads Ears Nose Teeth Lips and Beard all perfect onely discolour'd and a little shrivell'd likewise the Pudenda of both Sexes He saw about three or four hundred in several Caves some of them standing others lying upon Beds of Wood so hardned by an Art they had which the Spaniards call Curay to cure a piece of Wood that no Iron can pierce or hurt it These Bodies are very light as if made of Straw and in some broken Bodies be observ'd the Nerves and Tendons and also the String of the Veins and Arteries very distinctly By the relation of the most antient of this Island they had a particular Tribe that had this Art onely among themselves and kept it as a thing sacred and not to be communicated to the Vulgar These mixt not themselves with the rest of the Inhabitants nor Marry'd out of their own Tribe and were also their Priests and Ministers of Religion But when the Spaniards conquer'd the Place most of them were destroy'd and the Art perisht with them onely they held some Traditions yet of a few Ingredients that were us'd in this business they took Butter some say they mixed Bears-grease with it which they kept for that purpose in the Skins wherein they boyl'd certain Herbs first a kind of wild Lavender which grows there in great quantities upon the Rocks secondly an Herb call'd Lara of a very gummy and glutinous consistence which now grows there under the tops of the Mountains thirdly a kind of Cyclamen or Sow-bread fourthly wild Sage which grows plentifully upon this Island These with others bruised and boyl'd up with Butter rendred it a perfect Balsom This prepar'd they first unbowel the Corps and in the poorer sort to save Charges took out the Brain behind after the Body was thus order'd they had in readiness a Lixivium made of the Bark of Pine-Trees wherewith they washt the Body drying it in the Sun in Summer and in the Winter in a Stove this repeating very often Afterward they began their Unction both without and within drying it as before this they continu'd till the Balsom had penetrated into the whole Habit and the Muscle in all parts appear'd through the contracted Skin and the Body became exceeding light then they sew'd them up in the Goat-skins as was mention'd before The Antients say that they have above twenty Caves of their Kings and great Personages with their whole Families yet unknown to any but themselves and which they will never discover Lastly he says That Bodies are found in the Caves of the Grand Canaries in Sacks quite consumed and not as these in Teneriff Antiently when they had no knowledge of Iron they made their Lances of Wood hardned as before mention'd They have Earthen Pots so hard that they cannot be broken Of these some are found in the Caves and old Bavances and us'd by the poorer People that find them to boyl Meat in Their Food is Barley Parched and then Ground with little Stone-Mills and mingled with Milk and Honey which they always carry with them in Goat-skins at their Backs To this day they drink no Wine nor care for Flesh they are very ingenious lean tall active and full of courage for they will leap from Rock to Rock from a very prodigious heighth till they come to the bottom sometimes making ten Fathom deep at one Leap in this manner First they Tertiate their Lances which are about the bigness of a Half-Pike and aim with the Point at any piece of a Rock upon which they intend to light sometimes not half a Foot broad in leaping off they clap their Feet close to the Lance and so carry their Bodies in the Air the Point of the Lance comes first to the place which breaks the force of their fall then they slide gently down by the Staff and pitch with their Feet on the very place they first design'd and so from Rock to Rock till they come to the bottom But their Novices sometimes break their Necks in the learning He told also and the same was seriously confirm'd by a Spaniard and another Canary Merchant there in the Company That they Whistle so loud as to be heard five Miles off and that to be in the same Room with them when they Whistle were enough to endanger the breaking of the Tympanum of the Ear and added That he being in Company of one that Whistled his loudest could not hear perfectly in fifteen days after He affirms also that they throw Stones with a force almost as great as that of a Bullet and now use Stones in all their Fights as they did antiently Thus far Mr. Sprat Gomere IN the West of Teneriff lieth Gomere in six and twenty Degrees and a half North-Latitude a barren Island yet producing Wine and Sugar Palma THe Island of Palma the most Westerly of all the Canaries lieth twelve Miles Northward of Ferro and four from Gomere in eight and twenty Degrees North-Latitude It is small but exceeding fruitful hath plenty of Pasture affords many Grapes and Coleworts Sugar and other Fruits and abounds with Cheese and Milk but the chiefest Trade consists in Wine Ferro or Iron-Isle THe Island call'd by the Spaniâ—rds Hierro by the Portuguese Fierro and by the Italians Ferro which all signifie Iron lieth four Miles from Gomere in six and twenty Degrees and forty Minutes North-Latitude and held by some undoubtedly to be the Pluitalia of Ptolomy or Ombron or Pluvialia of Pliny and Solinus It comprehends some Towns of which the chief possesseth a Cloyster and a Church of St. Francis it hath little Water and that which they have is brackish and unsavory but this inconvenience and want receives a strong supply from a
Tree always cover'd with thick Mists or Clouds except in the hottest time of the day this Mist casts so great a dew upon the Tree that from the Leaves drop constantly pure clear Water twenty Tuns in a day falling into two Stone Cisterns each of twenty Foot square and sixteen Hands deep made for that purpose on the North-side of the Tree When the Spaniards at the Conquest hereof found no Springs Wells nor Rivers of fresh Water they stood amazed and asked the Inhabitants whence they gat their Water they answer'd That they preserv'd the Rain-water in Vessels for the Tree they had cover'd with Canes Earth and other things in hope by this means to cause the Spaniards to leave the Island But this subtilty did them little good for a Woman had discover'd the Secret to a Spaniard that was her Gallant who disclos'd it again to the Spanish Commanders In brief this Tree affords so much Water that it not onely furnisheth the Inhabitants and their Cattel but also Ships which by accident come thither This Tree which the Inhabitants call Garoe and the Spaniards Santo that is Holy attains a competent bigness having always green Leaves like the Lawrel but not much bigger than those of a Nut-Tree and a Fruit like an Acorn in the Shell with a very sweet and Spicy Kernel and for defence and presenvation they have enclos'd it with a Stone-Wall Here grows some Corn Sugar-Canes much Fruit and Planâ—â— in great abundance besides many Cattel affording the Inhabitants much Milk and Cheese The small Islands lying near and about the Canaries as Vecchio Marino Rocha Graciosa Santa Clare Alegranca Inferno and Salvaies little can be said of them but onely that Salvaies is the most Northerly Vecchio Marino or Vecchi Marini lying between Lancerote and Forteventure Santa Clare a little Northward of Lancerote and smaller than Graciosa Alegranca more Northward than the three former But all these deserve rather the name of Rocks or Cliffs than Islands The Description of these Islands Linschot and others add as a Wonder a certain Island call'd St. Borondon or Porondon a hundred Leagues or thereabouts from Ferro which such as have by accident seen greatly praise as being full of Trees very delectable fruitful and inhabited by Christians whose Language and Descent is not known but never any have been able to find upon Design Many Spaniards have attempted to discover it but in vain whereupon some have believ'd that it never appears to those that seek after it Others are confident that it appears onely upon some certain Days or is constantly cover'd with Clouds or that by a special power of the Sea Ships are driven from it Santo Port or Holy-Haven THe Island of Santo Port or Holy-Haven being situate in the Atlantick Ocean opposite to the Cape of Cantyn in the Kingdom of Morocco in two or three and thirty Degrees and thirty Minutes North-Latitude Ortelius held to be the Cerne of Ptolomy others the Ombrio or Pluvialia of Pliny but more probably it seems to be the Pena of Ptolomy from the Latitude It containeth five Miles in compass and was first discover'd in the Year Fourteen hundred twenty eight by two Portuguese Noble-men Jan Zarco and Tristan Vaz being then uninhabited and desolate but soon after Peopled and provided of all Necessaries They have no Haven there but one very convenient Bay This Island bears Corn and other Grain and breeds also Oxen wild Hogs and an infinite number of Coneys besides as good Honey and Wax as can be had in the most fam'd Places There grows also a Tree from which issues a Gum by the Apothecaries and Druggists call'd Dragons-Blood The Island of Madera LOwer to the South appears an Island by the Spaniards call'd Madera Ortelius Syntagm and by the Portuguese Madeira Gramay Afr lib. 9. because at the first Discovery they found it overgrown with Wood distant about thirty Miles from Santo Port and sixty from the Canaries in thirty Degrees and one and thirty Minutes North-Latitude between the Straights of Gibraltar and the Canaries The Form resembles a Triangle Cadam Sanuâ— holding in compass according to Sanutus an hundred and forty Italian Miles and five and thirty Dutch Miles long from East to West and six broad In the Year Fourteen hundred and twenty John Gonzalves and Tristan Vaz both Portuguese sent forth by Henry the young King of Portugal to discover new Countreys first took notice of it whither being come and seeing it as we said overgrown with Wood thought it little worth but an accident happening amongst the Wood uncover'd this fruitful piece of Ground that Nature had so long kept hidden and by burning clear'd it of that which had hinder'd the inhabiting it By this means the Portuguese gain'd it but underwent many hazards therein before they could make any advantage from it in regard the Fire raged so furiously as that it forced them for a time to forsake the Place The burning continu'd seven years among the thick Trees but at length the Fuel failing the Fire extinguish'd of it self whereon immediately planting and manuring it 't is become at this day one of the best and delightfullest Places that can be found The Discoverers at the beginning divided it into four parts that is into Monchrico or Manchico Santo Cruize Fonzal and Camerade Lobes that is The Chamber Wolves so call'd because at their first coming on Shore they found a great Cave resembling an Arch'd or Vaulted Room under a Point of Land reaching into the Sea where were the prints of the footings of Sea-Wolves The chiefest Places of this Island are the Head-City Funzal or Funhial the Seat of the Bishop comprehending a Collegiate-Church three other great Churches two Cloisters of the Order of St. Francis one for the Men built by the King of Portugal and the other for Virgins built by Gonzalves Governor of the Island and a Colledge for the Jesuits Manchico or Manchrico shewing a fair Church nam'd Santa Cruize and a Cloister of St. Bernard Moquet affirms that the whole contains many Castles six and thirty eminent Parish-Churches five Cloisters four Hospitals and two and twenty Hermitages In the Year Sixteen hundred twenty five there were computed in this Island six thousand ninety six Houses which at this day are increased to a greater number The Air keeps so even a temperature that neither Heat or Cold invade it with excess the Ground enriched by many excellent Springs of fresh Water and besides fertilitated with the advantage of seven or eight small Rivers so that every part lies carpetted with a pleasant Verdure or beautifi'd with the delightful prospect of various Fruits always flourishing on their natural Stems and gather'd as well please the Palate as the Trees refresh the Body by their cooling shade But especially it affords an excellent Wine better in the second and third year than in the first The Earth though Mountainous affords plenty of Corn that multiplies sixty fold Cadamast computed the