were seven weeks compleat under the torrid

zone.

Between the tropics we faw (almost every day) different kinds of fishes, in greater abundance than elsewhere; as the great Leviathan, whom God hath made to take his paftime in the fea; grampuffes, or leffer whales, fharks, turtles, or tortoifes, dolphins, bonitoes, albicores, porpoifes, flying fishes, with many others. Some whales we faw of an exceeding greatnefs, who in calm weather often arife and fhew themselves on the top of the water, where they appear like unto great rocks, in their rife, spouting up into the air, with noise, a great quantity of water, which falls down again about them like a fhower. The whale may well challenge the principality of the fea; yet I fuppofe he hath many enemies in this his large dominion; for inftance, a little long fish, called a thresher, often encounters with him, who by his agility vexeth him as much in the fea, as a little bee in fummer doth a great beaft on the shore.

The shark hath not this name for nothing; for he will make a morfel of any thing he can catch, master, and devour. Thefe fharks are most ravenous fishes; for I have many times observed, that when they have been fwimming about our fhips (as oftentimes they do) and we have caft overboard an iron hook, made ftrong for this purp fe, fattened to a rope ftrong like it, baited with a piece of beet of five pounds weight, this bait hath been pre

B 4

fently

fently taken by one of them; and if by chance the weight of the fish, thus taken, in halling him up, hath broken out the hook's hold, not well fastened, (as fometimes it did) fo that he fell again into the fea, he would prefently bite at any other bait, and fo bite 'till he was taken: Not much unlike many vile men, who think they may fafely take any thing they can finger and get; and having been fastened in, and efcaped out of many fnares, will take no warning, but be still nibbling and biting at what they like; not once confidering, that there is a hook within the bait, that will take them at last, and hamper them, to their unavoidable deftruction. This fea-shark is a fish as bad in eating as he is in quality, a very moist watry fish, yet eaten at sea, (because any fresh thing will there go down) but no good food. This fish turns himself on his back to take his prey, by which he gives warning to many other little fishes, who ever swim about him, to avoid his fwallow. Thofe fishes that thus keep him company, are called by the mariners, pilate fishes, who always fhape their courfe the fame way the shark takes, and by confequence (nature having made them fo wary) he becomes their guard, not they his food. And there are other fishes, they call fucking-fish, that stick so close to the body of the thark, as a tick on the shore doth to the body of a beast, and fo receive their nourishment from him, and he must be contented, for while he is fwimming up and

down,

down, he cannot poffibly free himself of them. Many of these sharks grow to a very large greatnefs; they have a broad round head, in which are three rows of teeth, very ftrong and fharp, by which they are able to take off the leg of a man at one bite; as fome have found, by woeful experience, while they have been carelessly fwimming in these hot feas, where these fharks moft ufe; and certainly, were they as nimble as they are mifchievous, would do very much hurt.

The turtle, or tortoife, is one of those creatures we call amphibia, that lives fometimes in the fea, and fometimes on the fhore; he is marvellously fortified by nature, dwelling (as it were) continually under a strong roof, which moves with him, and covers (when he will) his whole body; therefore teftudo, which fignifies a tortoise, fignifies also the roof or vault of an house, which covers all within it. Those concave backs, (like bucklers, but of an oval shape) that cover these creatures, are many of them so exceeding ftrong, that they will bear off the weight of a cart wheel. These tortoises increase by eggs, (as I have been often told) are very good to eat; the fubftance within them (whether you call it flesh or fish) first boiled, and after minced with butter, taftes like buttered veal. Their fhell makes (as is very commonly known) excellent good combs, cups, or boxes; and further, it is used by them in Eaft-India, to make or adorn little or great cabinets.

The

The dolphin, is a fish, called for his swiftnefs the arrow of the fea, differing in this one particular from all other fishes I ever obferved, in that he hath many little teeth upon the top of his tongue. He is very pleafing to the eye fmell, and taste; of a changeable colour, finn'd like a roach, cover'd with many fmall fcales, having a fresh delightfome scent above other fishes, and in taste as good as any. Thefe dolphins are wont often to follow our fhips, not fo much I think for the love they bear unto man, (as fome write) as to feed themielves with what they find caft over board; whence it comes to pafs that many times they feed us for when they fwim clofe to our ships, we often strike them with a broad inftrument, full of barbs, called an harping-iron, fastened to a rope; by which we haul them in. This dolphin may be a fit emblem of an ill race of people, who under sweet countenances carry sharp tongues.

Bonitoes, and albicores, are in colour, fhape, and taste, much like unto mackarel, and as good fish as they; but they grow to be very exceeding large.

The porpoifes, or hog-fish, are like the former, very large and great, but better to look upon than to tafte; they ufually appear at fea in very great fhoals or companies; and are (as if they came of the race of the Gadaren fwine, that ran violently into the fea) very fwift in their motion, and like a company marching in rank and file; they leap or mount

very

very nimbly over the waves, and fo down and up again, making a melancholy noise when they are above the water; these are usually, when they thus appear, certain prefagers of very foul weather.

The flying fishes have fkinny wings like unto bats, but larger; they are stiffened and ftrengthened with many little bones, fuch as are in the back fins of perches, by which they fly, but a little way at a time; they have (mall bodies, like unto pilchards, and appear when they fly in marvellous great companies; and fome of them often fly into our hips, by which we have tafted they are excellent good fish. Of all other, the flying fishes live the most miferable lives; for being in the water, the dolphins, bonitoes, albicores, and porpoifes, chace, perfecute, and take them; and when they would escape by their flight, are often times caught by ravenous fowls, fomewhat like our kites, which hover over the water. These flying fishes are like men profefling two trades, and thrive at neither.

I could further enlarge, but my business is not to write an history of fishes; yet in thofe we have named, as in thousands more which inhabit that watery main, I defire with David to admire and fay, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works!" manifold and wonderful indeed; as he that will take notice may obferve every where, but in an especial manner (because they are more rare) in the great variety of strange creatures, which the fea, that womb

of