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

Diod. Sic. lib. 6.

Arist. de Mirandis in Natura auditis.

In like manner, Diodorus Siculus undertakes to prove, That America was known to the Antients; telling a Story, how the Phenicians were driven by a Storm from the Coasts of Africa West-ward, falling at last upon a great and altogether unknown Island, which our late Expositors take for America; Must it therefore be so? Surely not, for it is onely a bare Story, without any Proof or the least Testimony. They endeavor to make Aristotle bolster up their opinion that he had a knowledge of this New-World, which with no small pains they pump from these Words: “Beyond the Herculean Pillars, certain Carthaginian Merchants penetrated the Atlantick Ocean so far, that at last they found a vast, yet un-inhabited Island, producing nothing but Herbage, Plants, and Wild-Beasts, yet interlac’d with many Meandring Rivers, abounding with several sorts of Fish, lying some days Sail from the Continent; they Landing, found a Soyl so fertile, and Air so temperate, that there they setled, and were the first Planters of that Isle. But the Carthaginians having intelligence thereof, Prohibited all Persons whatsoever, upon Pain of Death, to go thither, fearing the place being so much commended, all the People would be ready to flock thither, and desert their own, and so utterly unfurnish and debilitate their then growing Common-wealth.”

Æneid. lib. 6.

But how could the Carthaginians find America, without the use of the Compass? How happen’d it, that they were so taken with the fertility of this their New-found-Land, when the Adjacent Countreys and Fields about Carthage are every where Flourishing, and most Luxurious? So that it may better be suppos’d, that what Aristotle found so long since, may rather be the Canary-Isles, or Great-Brittain, than America. The Greeks having then also made some Inspection into the Brittish-Isles. They would also make you believe, that Virgil the Prince of Latin Poets, had known the New-World in these Verses; Æneid. lib. 6.

There, there’s the Prince, oft promis’d us before, Divine Augustus Cæsar, who once more Shall Golden Days bring to th’ Ausonian Land, Kingdoms that once old Saturn did command, And shall His power to India extend, Beyond the Annual Circle, and beyond The Sun’s long Progress, where great Atlas bears, Laden with Golden Stars, the glittering Sphears;

Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti sæpius audis, Augustus Cæsar, divûm genus, aurea condet Sæcula, qui rursus Latio, regnata per arva Saturno quondam, super & Garamantas & Indos Proferet imperium. Jacet extra sidera tellus, Extra anni Solisque vias, ubi cœlifer Atlas Axem humero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum.

America was not known to the Ancients.

But what of all this? Who finds in any of these Writings, any Marks of America, or the least Description thereof? Though we cannot deny that the Antient Sages and Wise Philosophers of former times might easily make out, and no question did, that the Earth and Sea made the perfect Figure of a Globe; first from the round Shadow of the Earth that Ecclipses the Moon; the different Risings and Settings of the Celestial Luminaries; and the still Variation of the Pole; so that the Earth and Sea making one Ball, they might easily conjecture, that the South-side of the Equinoctial might be Inhabited as well as the North: But all this was more grounded upon Natural Reason and Right Judgement, than any Experience of theirs, or the least certain knowledge thereof, which since these later times had the first happiness to obtain; so laying these Conjectures aside, there have been none more grosly erroneous, and so utterly mistaken in this Point, than some of the Ancients, and especially the Fathers of the Church.

Lactant. l. 3. c. 24.

Lactantius Firmianus, and St. Austin, who strangely jear’d at as ridiculous, and not thinking fit for a Serious Answer the Foolish Opinion of Antipodes, or another Habitable World beyond the Equator: At which, Lactantius Drolling, says, What, Forsooth, here is a fine Opinion broach’d indeed; an Antipodes! heigh-day! People whose Feet tread with ours, and walk Foot to Foot with us; their Heads downwards, and yet drop not into the Sky! There, yes, very likely, the Trees loaden with Fruit grow downwards, and it Rains, Hails, and Snows upwards; the Roofs and Spires of Cities, tops of Mountains, point at the Sky beneath them, and the Rivers revers’d topsi-turvy, ready to flow into the Air out of their Channels!