'Some years travels into divers parts of Africa, and Asia the great. Describing more particularly the empires of Persia and Industan: interwoven with such remarkable occurrences as hapned in those parts during these later times. As also, many other rich and famous kingdoms in the oriental India, with the isles adjacent. Severally relating their religion, language, customs and habit: as also proper observations concerning them.' [‎341] (364/448)

Zejloon.
femper wrens, femper veJHtafolw, femper parata Fittoria&ith Saint ^wbrofe very elesantlv
in its praifes. So excellent ( faith Sir Walter Raleigh J that wherein foever the Earth Na
ture and Sun can moft vaunt that they have excelled, yet flift this Palm be the zreateft
wonder of all their works. ^ This Tree alone giving unto Man whatfoever his Life bee-
geth at Nature s hand. I imagine he means the Coco-tree rather than the Date, which
molt take for the Palme. The Poet alfo notes it, in faying
The noble Palm which high doth rife, • PaJntfqj nobilis
Equals Great Mm with Deities. Tcrtarum Dominos evefait ad Deos;
thence our courfe was by
ZEYLOON, one of thofe five Ifles Ptolomy calls Bar Hp, albeit thinks the
mllippma. to be them, not unknown unto the Ancients if that which Ptolomy called Pani-
garenfis ; and fince him by Arabian Authors Sifuara, Tenarifis, Nankeris and Sarandib
But at this day tis called Chingal by the Inhabitants: who are a very comely People*
having good features, and nothing like the Africans fave in colour. Belides, they are in
gemous, and excel in the Mechanick Arts. The better fort wear filks, but the vulgar
are naked from the wafte upwards. Now this place muft needs be hot, feeins; 'tis fo
near the TEquinodial: fevered from the Continent by a Sea which is not forty
leagues over ; limited from eight to eleven degrees North latitude •, the length is about
feventy leagues, breadth forty, and circuit two hundred and fifty or thereabout Fa
moufed through fome old erroneous conjedures. That this was Paradife; and that Solo-
won had hence his Gold of Ophyr : But in regard all or moft fix the ruins of the one in
Mesopotamia^ and the other in Malacca or thereabouts> that Tradition is of little credit
But that Melee PyfamaiEing of this Ifland, was one of thofe Magi, Wife-men or Kines
(pre-monifhed by that Prophecie of Balaam the Edomite) that as to a King, Prieft and Pro
phet, offer'd Gold, Frankincenfe and Myrrhe unto our Bleffed Saviour ^ fore-told alfo by
the Perfian Sibyl and by a new Star as by the finger of God miraculoufly di reded, is the
Tradition of this places and alfo that at'his return he made known the myfterv of
God's Incarnation for Man's Redemption, and by his laborious teaching, many Pro-
felytes: which fome to this very day maintain for truth. But more certain it is, the feeds
of Chriftian knowledge have there been fown, whence fprung Profeirors > though the
greateft part are fince turned Apoftates, Howbeit, this is obvious in Hiftory, 0 That
Candace's Eunuch baptized by Philip preached Chrifi in many parts of Arabia and fundry
Ifles thereabouts, and /ndia aKo •, as Socotora this, and Taprobane or Sumatra } if Dorothem
Biihop of Tyre who lived in the days of the great Gbnftamine had good Authority for
the reporting it.
In Claudius Cafar's time fome of the Natives of this Ifland having made fome lliift to
crofs over into Mallabar travelled through Perfia unto Rome *, where albeit they pretended
fome knowledge in Afirommy and the Sphere, bewray'd their ignorance by admiring to
obferve the Sun contrary to what it was feen to be at Zeylom, Solem lava oriri mirantur
are the Words of the Hiftorian : which by the Romans might equally be wondred at, fee
ing that thofe Indians by being within the burning Zone have their fliadows on both
fides according as the Sun makes his pirogrefs to either Tropick. Neverthelefs probable
it is, what underftanding thefe Zeylonians had was borrow'd from the Gymmfophifts who
had their light from Zoroafler the moft ancient and in his time the moft excellent Philofo-
pher ; He lived full five hundred years before the Trojan War, faith Snidat, and was the
firft that gave Name to the Magi of Perfia, Zoroafler, Perfo-Medm Sapiens apud cos qui in /
Aftronqmia excelluermt, etiam qui primus dedit Nomen evs Magis qua civilia ttrattarunt: 4
libros fcripfit de Natura: $ de Afirofcopeia, & unum de pretiofes lapidibus, &c. And Picus
.Mirand. ad Ficinum de Dogmatis Chaldaica Theologian Turn Perfarum, Gracomm & Chaldao-
rum in illam Divina & locupletijfma enarravit, tkc. And albeit at Cajhan I had occafion to
fpeak more largely concerning thefe Oriental Philofophers, I {hall here but add that tefti-
mony which Porphyrius gives concerning their definition and the nature of their Learn-
ing, Apud Per fas (faith he) qui circa Divina fmt Sapient es^eorumq-, Cultores, Magi appellant ur.
Hoc enim propria Dialeclo ejus Regionis, Magus fignificat. Howbeit-^ the honour of the firft
European difcovery we owe to Laurentius the Son of Almeyda, who about the year 1500
nrft arrived here, but did not alter the Name from what the Natives called it. At prefent it
is over-run with ftinking weeds of Heathenifm : For, as is faid of another place.
Here, grow thofe heaps of Err our s-^ which we fee Hlcjerrorum cumulus 5 hie, omnis fpui-dtia;
Of all uncleannef dnd Idolatry, Hicf infoelix populus gaudct Indolatria,
So