traveller, who had explored Africa or the Indies, and, could, on his return, satiate curiosity with nothing more awakening than that which passed daily at home, would naturally be considered an ignorant pretender, by the itching ears that listened to his narration. They would hold him for a fool who had shut his eyes against the truth, who had groped his way blindfold through regions teeming with prodigies, and had been able only to record a common-place fact-the very simplicity of which made it scarcely, credible! But of this danger there was little fear. The Jesuits, and other missionaries, ever indefatigable in the prosecution of their crafty enterprises, added the sanction of religion to the most monstrous absurdities; and brought in the vile and deformed puppets of monkish fraud and superstition, as the miraculous, or ordinary operations of nature. Numbers also of lay-travellers quoted them as decisive authority for their narrations; and many, not content with the marvels they had thus received, added somewhat on their own account, though they liberally surrendered all the credit to the inventive or credulous missionary. Not that they were themselves sparing or scrupulous about the assertion of extraordinary facts to which they pledged their reputation; but they seemed willing to obtain more implicit credence by delivering part of the miraculous narrative through the medium of sanctified lips. When they entered the unexplored regions which they feigned to describe, they followed most commonly the extravagances of Pliny; contriving, perhaps, to garnish his recitals with a fringe of more modern texture. They picked up all the fabulous traditions of the East, amplified and coloured: then, by an easy transition, suited to the taste of the times, brought among the occurrences of the passing day, what they had received only as the vague rumours of the past. Wherever there grew a wonder, thither they hurried with delight. They accounted true all that was essentially absurd; and argued, as we have seen, that its absurdity guaranteed its truth. This method of yielding up the reins to imagination, was attended with the natural effects. The mental opium-eaters of the period became fantastic and superstitious; credulous as they were ignorant. Many of them, originally knaves, concluded their career by becoming bigots; called in torture as their auxiliary, and illumined the impious shrines of the Inquisition with the flames of hell, We shall proceed now to exemplify our observations, and hope to bring our readers to the great moral deduction, that they who once lose sight of veracity, know not where to stop. They are cast upon a limitless ocean, without helm or compass. They sail with a steady breeze onward and onward, till the rock menaces, and the gulf yawns: till the powers of the mind are enfeebled and perverted, and at last utterly overwhelmed. Christoforo Borri, a Jesuit of Milan, whose travels in Cochin-China were translated and published in 1704, by Awnsham and Churchill, is thus recommended in the preface of these editors. "His relation," they remark," is not like those of travellers who just pass through a country, or merchants that touch at ports upon the business of trade, and consequently deliver very fabulous accounts, either to make their travels the more surprising, or for want of knowing better, taking things upon hearsay, and not understanding the language to get certain information. This father, on the contrary, frequently conversing with all sorts of people, and having a settled residence there for years, had the opportunity of knowing what he writ."-" In fine, the relation is curious though short, and seems to carry all the air of truth imaginable, besides the general approbation it has always received in all parts, which is the greatest recommendation that can be given it." With this encouragement from sensible persons of the eighteenth century, we proceed with our extracts; and beg to assure the reader that we shall give him nothing but the literal facts which are gravely recorded, and as gravely maintained. "It remains that we show," saith the veracious Father Borri, "how God, acting conformably to the mean vulgar people of Cochin-China, who were used to see phantoms, visions, and apparitions-the Devil often appearing to them-was pleased to show some miracles, to the end that, declining in their opinion of diabolical prodigies, they might own the only Lord and singular worker of true wonders." The devils, he asserts, appear so often in the human form, as not to arouse apprehension. They are even courted to their society; and this feeling is carried so far as to occasion a numerous cortège of Incubi and Succubi." And among great people, those husbands account themselves happy who know their wives have such familiars." "It happened in my time, that a woman of great quality, mother to two sons who were Christians, envied by her neighbours, not so much for her beauty, as for her dishonest familiarity with the devil, positively refusing to become a Christian, came to die in labour, and by the assistance of the devil brought forth two eggs. Now it being held as certain among them, that the devil, her Incubus, was god of the rivers, they did not bury the body in a cave, building a chapel over it, as is the usual custom; but carrying it in solemn procession to a river, cast it into the deep, together with the two eggs, saying,' Let her go to the lord of the river."" "But," adds the good father," they who, by the grace of God, carried away with them any bit of Agnus Dei, were never more molested by the devil. Yet with this difference, that those who were not Christians saw the Incubus come to the bed's side, but had not power to lay hold on, or touch the persons; whereas the Christians perceived he could not come near their chamber-door, which occasioned several to be baptized."+ Father Dominic Fernandez Navarette, a Spanish Dominican friar, who, in 1646, became resident in China, tells us, that the bird of paradise has neither feet nor wings. Father Dominic viewed them carefully and could observe neither. They alight only on trees, moving as the wind wafts them by means of long tails of various colours, and as fine as can be imagined. If the wind fails, they fall; and having a long bill, are precipitated head foremost into the ground, where they stick and are taken. The intestines are drawn out, dried, and preserved for their beauty. "They look," says Father Dominic, " very glorious, and are beyond all nosegays." He presented a couple to a great lady who had done him considerable courtesies. "I inquired," he continues," after their nests, and how they hatched their eggs. They answered me, that the hen laid her eggs upon the cock's back, and there hatched them. I * Account of Cochin China, vol. ii. p. 834. fol. + Ibid. p. 793. made several objections, but they could give me no more satisfaction. It is certainly so; it seems, indeed, impossible, but is easy to him that made all things." Another singular bird, called Tabon, lays an egg bigger than itself. After it is laid, the bird digs a hole above a yard in depth, deposits the egg, and fills up the hole. The sun then takes the rest of the trouble; hatches the egg, and leaves the young bird to grope its way up to daylight. The moment it accomplishes this arduous undertaking, it trots off to the sea to pick up sea-weed. Father Dominic is certainly surprised at their not being stifled by the heat and weight of the superincumbent stratum, and at their strength in breaking through it. But, as he sensibly observes, "these are prodigies of the Almighty's working." One of these eggs is enough to satisfy a good stomach, and the staler they are, the better. If they have chickens in them, nothing can be finer or more delicious. "In Congo," says a Capuchin missionary,* " Capuchin missionary," are sparrows which, in rainy weather, turn red;" and he adds, on the authority of Father Francesco da Pavia, that, on the way to Singa, are certain large white birds, with long beaks, necks, and feet, that dance as soon as they hear music. A bird, not unlike a sparrow, which at a distance appears black, but on approaching turns blue, at day-break almost distinctly articulates the name of Jesus Christ: other birds then join in concert, being excited by a cross of stars in the heavens; by a cross on the mountains, which got there heaven knows how; by the earth, which bears a fruit called Nicefo,' marked also with a natural cross. Another bird, supported by the testimony of Father Capravi, sings in right Etruscan, Va dritto,' go right; and a third warbles in the language of the country, "Vuichi, vuichi," honey, honey. There is likewise a dark yellow bird, bigger than an eagle, that cries like a child." This might be a fitting ornament for the nursery. In Java, the cassuary will swallow iron and burning coals, and keep them undigested a full twelvemonth in its bowels.+ In Brazil, the bats are as large as crows, and in the island of Catighan they are as big as eagles, very good eating, and taste much like a hen. George Spilbergen, 1614, captured two birds with heads like sheep, and combed like a cock; two ells in height, and three ells from the tip of one extended wing to the other. Along the Nile are little birds about the size of thrushes, that haunt the jaws of crocodiles. The cause appears to be this. Crocodiles devour beasts and fishes, and hence remnants of flesh and fish stick to their teeth, become putrified, and procreate worms. The crocodile leaves open his mouth, the bird enters and eats his fill. But at last, finding his teeth fairly picked, the monster, ungrateful to his benefactor, endeavours to devour him. The bird, however, is armed with a little stiletto growing from its head; and this it instantly thrusts into the traitor's throat, forces open the jaws, and frees itself from durance. Antonio Galvano, a Portuguese, tells us, that in New Spain there are certain small birds named Vicmalim Father Jeronimo Merolla da Sorrento; An. 1682. + Nieuhoff's Voyages. "They be greatly esteemed to work gold with. They die or sleep every year in the month of October, sitting upon a little bough in a warta and close place. They revive or wake again in the month of April, after the flowers be sprung, and therefore they call them the "reviving birds." The celebrated Ferdinando Mendez Pinto reports, that the kingdom of Chintaleubos, which is eight days' journey across, was dispeopled by the infinite multitude of birds that covered it. Of alligators, Father Dominic F. Navarette relates, that he saw one seven fathoms long, and three fathoms thick; in whose cormorant bowels were found three men's heads, a number of daggers and bracelets, and other things in use among the Moors. "I who have seen many," says he, "believe this was a terrible one to behold." He was informed of an herb, by means of which a man might play with the alligator, and get upon its back without peril. This fact is confirmed by Gemelli Careri,† who terms it Bonza, or Nang kau ragan; but he describes it as a fruit growing on a cane. It prevents the approach of the monster, as, he assures us, was proved upon a dog. This fruit or herb it must have been, which enabled Charles Waterton, Esq. of Walton Hall, Yorkshire, to bestride a crocodile, and use the fore-legs for a bridle. Mr. Waterton asserts, that it was hunting with Lord Darlington's hounds; but we entreat his permission to think otherwise. Notwithstanding this herb, Father Dominic, on being invited to be present at such a performance, thankfully declined the favour, under the presumption that it contained some superstitious practice. Now here we humbly propose a query. Could Mr. Waterton (himself, we take it for granted, a good Catholic,) have recourse to preservatives rejected by a Jesuit missionary? This is a very important question, and ought to be speedily resolved. The adventurer's father once saw an alligator as big as the mainmast of a large ship, and he took it, very naturally, for a tree which the river had floated upon an island. It had four eyes, two above, and two below. This, he assures us, is common to the genus. They swallow pebbles also, he adds, by way of ballast, and are without the appendage of a tongue. Their tails, as Mr. Wafer notices in his voyage to the Isthmus of America, are exceedingly good eating; they have no passage for excrement, according to Gemelli Careri, but vomit from their mouths the little superfluity that remains in the stomach. It is often to be dreaded after death. A negro was employed by a Frenchman to skin one of them, and having entirely flayed all but the head, in order to keep it whole, untied the muzzle, when the crocodile opening his mouth, caught hold of the finger and bit it off.|| "Crocodile is derived from crocus, which means saffron," (observes M. Beaumgarten, a German noble who, in 1505-6, travelled in the East,)" either because it is of that colour, or because it mortally hates the smell of that plant." And perhaps, in the same style of etymology, alligator may come from alli, a sort of pale green flower, which Mr. John Nieuhoff, a Dutch Purchas, vol. ii. p. 1693. +"Giro del Mondo," Parte 3. p. 346. Vide" Wanderings in South America," p. 231. 4to. § Giro del Mondo, Parte 3. || Labat, Afrique Occidentale, vol. iii. p. 152, et seq. traveller in the East Indies during the seventeenth century, found betwixt Anojol and Jacatra, " either because it is of that colour, or be cause it mortally hates the smell of that plant." In the river Zaire, in Egypt, are found mermaids-the upper part woman, as we all know, and the lower, fish. Its head is round, and its face like that of a calf. It has a large ugly mouth, little ears, and round full eyes. Upon its back is a perforated skin, which seems to have been designed for a lady's mantle, and so contrived as either to open or shut. Its bones staunch blood, and the Capuchin Merolla da Sorrento has eaten of this creature very frequently. It tastes like swine's flesh; lives upon herbs growing by the water's edge, and permits only its human part to be visible. Columbus himself is said to have seen three mermaids at once, with an extraordinary fish, as large as a whale, which had on its neck a shell like that of a tortoise. Its head, resembling a hogshead, was lifted out of the water.t "The paradox touching the Amazons," writes Master Hartwell, " mentioned in this book, I do not see why it should be counted a paradox to believe that there is such a notion, considering how many authors both Greek and Latin, both historiographers and cosmographers, both divine and profane, have acknowledged that notion, and the country wherein it inhabited." And then the aforesaid Master Hartwell goes on to prove how very probable the narration was which we are about to detail. The King Monomotapa, in Congo, maintains legions of warlike women, who are the very sinews and strength of his military power. These women burn their left breasts with fire, that they may be no hindrance to them in shooting, after the manner of the ancient Amazons; and their weapons also are bows and arrows. They are very nimble and swift, lively and courageous; extremely expert as archers, but especially venturous and resolute in battle. They enjoy, by the king's favour, certain countries where they dwell by themselves. The worthy William Davies, also, barber-surgeon of London, who quitted England on the 28th of January, 1597, relates that "Morria is a small low island, lying in the river of Amazones, the highest part of the West Indies. This island is altogether inhabited by women, having no man kind amongst them; they go altogether naked, using bows and arrows for the killing their food. The hair of their heads is long, and their breasts hang low. And whereas many here in England do imagine that they have their right breast seared and cut off, it is no such matter now: what hath been in times past I know not,"§-which is a very sagacious observation. He had seen three score of these women shooting at fish. He had also seen very good oysters and muscles growing upon trees, and had eaten many a hundred of them. So also did Obwer Noore, a Dutchman, in 1665, in Guinea. The Voyage to Congo,"-Purchas, vol. i. p. 12. +"Life of Columbus by his Son." "A Report of the Kingdom of Congo, &c. drawn out of the writings and discourses of Odoardo Lopez (1578), a Portuguese, by Philippo Pigafetta. Translated out of Italian by Abraham Hartwell." See the Preface. §"A Collection of Voyages and Travels, compiled from the Library of the Earl of Oxford." |