America: Being the Latest, and Most Accurate Description of the Nevv VVorld / Containing the Original of the Inhabitants, and the Remarkable Voyages Thither. The Conquest of the Vast Empires of Mexico and Peru, and Other Large Provinces and Territories, with the Several European Plantations in Those Parts. Also Their Cities, Fortresses, Towns, Temples, Mountains, and Rivers. Their Habits, Customs, Manners, and Religions. Their Plants, Beasts, Birds, and Serpents. With an Appendix, Containing, Besides Several Other Considerable Additions, a Brief Survey of What Hath Been Discover'd of the Unknown South-land and the Arctick Region.

by John Ogilby

The Second Book,
CONTAINING
A DESCRIPTION
OF
NORTHERN AMERICA

CHAP. I.
Of the Bounds of America, and of the Division of the Mexican or Northern part thereof.

The Bounds and Division of Northern America.

Having in the first part of this Volume discours’d at large concerning the original of the Americans, and whether that part of the World call’d India Occidentalis, or America, were known to the Ancients, or own its Discovery wholly to the Moderns, as also of all the Discoveries that have been made of the several parts thereof, and by whom, we shall now pass on to the Topographical part, describing every particular Province or Region, by giving an account of their Situation, Temperature, Productions, Nature of the Soil, and Quality of the Inhabitants. America, lying Westward of the Azores, and the Worlds Meridian, is by some suppos’d to consist of one vast Island, and several lesser ones, scatter’d about it: Nor can this supposition be thought vain, if, as many think, it be inviron’d on the North-side, as toward the East, South, and West it is known to be; East and South, by the Atlantick Ocean; and West, by Mar del Zur: But because the North-West Passage, though attempted by many, as Nelson, Davis, Forbisher, Button, Smith, Hudson, and others, hath not yet by any been fully discover’d; so that it is not certainly known whether America be joyn’d to Greenland, and the Arctick Region, by a continu’d Tract of Land, or sever’d by the Ocean: We shall follow the method of those Geographers, who, reputed sufficiently Authentick, have divided this new World into Islands, and two grand Peninsula’s joyn’d together by an Isthmus, or Neck of Land, call’d The Straight of Darien, by some The Straight of Panama, lying almost under the Equinoctial Line, and extending in length from Nombre de Dios Southward above a hundred Miles, and from East to West seventeen Miles over in the narrowest place. Of these two grand Peninsula’s the Northern is generally call’d America Mexicana, from Mexico the chief City of the Province, properly call’d Mexicana; which was heretofore without doubt the most potent, rich, and flourishing of all the Kingdoms of the Indians, at least on the North-side of the Isthmus. In the division of the several Provinces of America, as well those of the Northern as of the Southern Continent, we find so various an account among the several Geographers that have written of them (not any two of them agreeing in one and the same order) that to reconcile the differing methods of so many disagreeing Authors would be an endless work: wherefore we shall pitch upon the surest course, and not omitting the mention of any of the Provinces taken notice of by the said Authors, hereby endeavor to take in whatsoever material hath been observ’d by all of them, and by the way take occasion to shew how one differs from another in the distribution of them. Those therefore of the Northern America (that as near as can be we may bring the design of many into one) seem most fitly describ’d in this following order: 1. Estotiland; 2. Terra Laboratoris, or Nova Britannia; 3. Canada, or Nova Francia; 4. Nova Scotia; 5. New England; 6. New Netherlands, now call’d New York, as being in the possession of the English; 7. New Holland; 8. New Swedeland; 9. Apalchen, now call’d Virginia; 10. Florida; 11. Jucatan; 12. Honduras; 13. Nicaragua; 14. Veragua; 15. Costarica; 16. Anien; 17. Nova Hispania; 18. Guacatimala; 19. Nova Gallicia; 20. Nova Biscaia; 21. Nova Mexico; 22. Cibola; 23. Nova Granata; 24. Tontonteac; 25. Quivira; 26. Nova Albion; to which by most Authors is added California; which being an Island we thought fit to reserve to be spoken of amongst the Islands, as also Terra Nova, or New-found Land; which last lies utmost West, as the other East of Northern America. Some there are also (and particularly Monsieur de Martini) who among the above-mention’d Provinces have inserted Greenland, though doubtless with little reason, since though it be granted that it is not divided by any Sea, yet it is evident, if any credit may be given to all modern Maps and Globes, that the greatest part of Greenland lies in the Hemisphere of the known World; and therefore we have judg’d it most convenient to refer the particular mention thereof to the Description of the Arctick Region.

The Islands of Northern America are 1. Terra Nova, or New-found Land; 2. The Island of Assumption; 3. The Bermudas, or Summer-Island; 4. Hispaniola; 5. St. John Porto Rico; 6. Cuba; 7. Jamaica; 8. The Lucayes; 9. The Caribes, or Antillæ; 10. Margarita; 11. Cubagua; 12. La Trinidad; 13. Tabago; 14. California, the biggest of all the American Islands.

The length of the West-Indies is generally computed to be from the utmost South of Terra Magellanica, to the farthest North of Estotiland, about six thousand English Miles, reaching from six Degrees of Northern, to fifty three of Southern Latitude; the breadth from St. Michael or Piura Westward, to Parabaya, a Town on the Coast of Brasil Eastward, three thousand nine hundred Miles, and the whole compass thirty thousand.

Sect. II.
Estotiland.

That the English have been very great Undertakers of Voyages and Discoveries toward the North-West, appears by the denomination of divers places, both from the Persons which have Sail’d thitherward, and also from such of our own Countrey Names as were thought fit to be there fix’d, as beyond the Arctick Circle are Sir James Lancaster’s Sound, Sir Dudley Diggs’s Cape, Queens Annes Foreland, Cumberland Isles, Davis’s Straight, &c. on this side toward the Arctick Circle, Button’s and Brigg’s Bay, Hudson’s Sea, otherwise term’d Mare Christianum, out of which more Westerly runs a narrow Sea call’d Hudson’s Straight: beyond Hudson’s Sea towards the Arctick Circle is a place call’d New North-Wales; and on this side answerable to it, between Button’s Bay and the Christian Sea, lies New South-Wales; all which places we find generally set down in the American Hemisphere, but in the Geographical Discourses thereof little is said of them, if so much as nam’d. The farthest part of Land Northward, between Hudson’s Gulph and Hudson’s Straight, betwixt fifty seven and sixty Degrees of Northern Latitude, goes generally by the Name of Estotiland, I mean that properly so call’d (for Estotiland is by some as largely taken as Canada, by Cluverius, Golnitzius, Peter du Val, and others, namely for all that Tract of Land extending from that supposed Straight of Anian, which divides America from Asiatick Tartary, as far as the utmost point of Land that shoots toward the Atlantick Ocean) which Southerly towards Terra Laboratoris is bounded with a River vulgarly call’d Rio Nevado, or The Snowy River. Estotiland seems to have deriv’d its Name from its lying more Easterly than the rest of the Provinces, and, according as Nova Britannia is plac’d in some Charts, might very well be taken for the same, though it hath not been so term’d by any Author, but rather Terra Laboratoris, Cortereatis, and Nova Britannia are generally receiv’d to be all one.

First discovery of Estotiland.