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

Drakes Account of the Countrey.

Drake and his Company brought home this Description of the Countrey and its Inhabitants, viz. That the Countrey was exceedingly well stor’d with Deer, Grazing up and down the Hills by thousands in a company; That the Men generally went naked all over, the Women using onely a piece of a Mat, or some such thing instead an Apron; That their Houses were built onely of Turf and Osier, yet so wrought together, that they serv’d very well to keep out the Cold; in the midst of it was their Hearth where they made their Fire, and lay all round about it together upon several Beds of Bull-Rushes. What their Towns Were, or whither they had any, is altogether unknown.

The Third Book,
CONTAINING
A DESCRIPTION
OF
PERUANA
OR,
Southern America.

CHAP. I.

Situation and Form of Southern America.

Having compleated our Description of Mexicana, or Northern America, being that great Peninsula which lies Northward of the Isthmus, or Straight of Darien, together with all the Islands on the North side of the Equinoctial Line, we come now to the Southern Part, otherwise call’d Peruana, from Peru the chief Kingdom thereof, being the other great Peninsula, which lies Southward of the aforesaid Straight: It is generally resembled to the form of a Pyramid revers’d; the Basis whereof, that is to say, the more Southerly parts of it towards Magellanica and the Straights, extend themselves largely both East and West, becoming more sharp and streight towards the North, and those parts by which it is joyn’d to Mexicana: in the whole it is suppos’d to contain a Circuit of seventeen thousand Miles at least, and is water’d with four of the greatest Rivers of the World, besides abundance of lesser Streams, which issuing from the Andes and other Mountains of the Countrey, do run from all Parts both into the North and South Sea, much fertilizing the Countreys through which they pass; the four principal are these following:

The chief Rivers thereof.

1. Orellana, so call’d from the first Discovery thereof by Franciscus de Orellana, otherwise the River of Amazons, from a Generation of warlike Women, who (as the Tradition goes) inhabited certain Countreys lying upon the Banks thereof. This riseth in the Province of Peru, and runneth a Course of little less than five thousand Miles, discharging it self at last into the North Sea, through a Channel, as some say, of threescore Leagues broad, and yet with such a violent Current or Stream, that it is said to keep its natural colour and taste almost thirty Miles in the Sea.