Samuel Purchas, Purchas his pilgrimes In fiue bookes (1625)
Book 1
16 MAn that hath the Earth for his Mother, Nurse, and Graue, cannot find any fitter obiect in
this World, to busie and exercise his heauenly and better parts then in the knowledge of this
Earthly Globe, except in his God, and that his heauenly good and Inheritance; unto both
which this is also subordinate, to the one as a Booke set forth by himselfe, and written of his
Wisdome, Goodnesse, Power and Mercy· to the other as a way and passage, in which Man
himselfe is a Pilgrim.
The Sea couereth one halfe of this Patrimony of Man, whereof God set him in possession
when he said, replenish the earth and subdue it, and haue dominion ouer the fish of the Sea,
and ouer the fowle of the Aire, and ouer euery liuing thing that mooueth vpon the Earth. And
when the Sea had, as it were, rebelled against rebellious Man, so that all in whose nosethrils
was the breath of life, and all that was in the dry Land died, yet then did it all that time
in|dure the yoke of Man, in that first of ships the Arke of Noah; and soone after the Goad
also, when God renewed the former Couenant, and imposed the feare and dread of Man vpon
euerie beast of the Earth, and vpon euery foule of the Aire, vpon all that mooueth vpon the
Earth, and vpon all the fishes of the Sea...
17 Thus should Man at once loose halfe his Inheritance, if the Art of Nauigation did not
inable him to manage this vntamed Beast, and with the Bridle of the Winds, and Saddle of his
Ship|ping to make him seruiceable. Now for the seruices of the Sea, they are innumerable; it
is the great Purueyor of the Worlds Commodities to our vse, Conueyor of the Excesse of
Riuers, Uniter by Traffique of al Nations; it presents the eye with diuersified Colours and
Motions, and is as it were with rich Brooches, adorned with various Ilands; it is an open field
for Merchandize in Peace, a pitched Field for the most dreadfull fights of Warre; yeelds
diuersitie of Fish and Fowle for diet, Materials for Wealth, Medicine for Health, Simples for
Medicines, Pearles and other Iewels for Ornament, Amber and Ambergrise for delight, the
wonders of the Lord in the Deepe for instruction, variety of Creatures for vse, mul iplicity of
Natures for Contemplation, diuersity of accidents for admiration, compendiousnesse to the
way, to full bodies healthfull euacuation, to the thirsty earth fertile moysture, to distant
friends pleasant meeting, to weary persons delightfull refreshing; to studious and religious
minds (a Map of Knowledge, Mystery of Temperance, Exercise of Con|tinence, Schoole of
Prayer, Meditation, Deuotion, and Sobrietie: refuge to the distressed, Por|tage to the
Merchant, passage to the Traueller, Customes to the Prince, Springs, Lakes, Riuers, to the
Earth; it hath on it Tempests and Calmes to chastise the Sinnes, to exercise the faith of Seamen ... the Sea yeelds Action to the bodie, Me|ditation to the Minde, the World to the World,
all parts thereof to each part, by this Art of Arts, Nauigation....
18 As SALOMONS Iustice, so his Wisdome and Prudence is exemplary, which though in
him supereminent, yet found (as is alreadie obserued) no meanes at home to maintaine the
glory of Salomon, no meanes by Land correspondent to such Magnificence and Munificence,
but addresseth himselfe by Sea and long Voyages to seek it: nor doth he esteeme others eyes
enough, nor others assistance too much, but surueyes his Nauie himselfe, & is glad of Hirams
helpe? Nay, this was not only the subiect of his wisedome, but the furtherer and Purueyor, by
new experi|ments in Minerals, Gems, Beasts, Fowles, Fishes, Serpents, Wormes, Trees,
Fruits, Gums, Plants, Men; Climates, Winds, Seasons, Seas, Lands, Soyles, Riuers,
Fountaynes, Heauens, and Stars; and a World of the Worlds Varieties; of all which
howsoeuer he had receiued the mayne stocke of Wisdome by immediate Gift of God, yet did
he frugally employ his Talent, and thriftily im|prooue that Reuenue, labouring to be more
wise, and trauelling in Wisdome and Knowledge, and Equi|tie; and gaue his heart to search
and find out wisdome by all things that are done vnder the Hea|uen, God humbling him with
this s re trauell, although he excelled in wisdome, all that were before him in Ierusalem. Thus
Homers Vlysses in the Schooles of diuers Nations & Nauigations is trained to that peerlesse
wisdom, & thus Aristotle the chiefest of Natures Schollers, trauelled with Alexan|ders Purse
and Experience to furnish himselfe, and succeeding Ages with Naturall Science and
Wisdome. And our Age which God hath blessed beyond many former, produced as Twinnes
Nauigation and Learning, which had beene buried together in the same Graue with the
Roman Greatnesse, and now are as it were raysed againe from the dead.
19 Hence it is that barbarous Empires haue neuer growne to such glory, though of more
Giant-like stature, and larger Land-extension, because Learning had not fitted them for Sea
attempts, nor wisdome furnished them with Nauigation. Thus the Persian, the Mogoll, the Ab
ssine, the Chinois, the Tartarian, the Turke, are called GREAT, but their greatnesse is like
Polyphemus with one eye, they see at home like purblind men neere to them, not farre off
with those eyes of Hea|uen, and lights of the World, the Learned knowledge, whereof is
requisite to Nauigation. The Chinois at home, is hereby stronger, and so is the Turke: but the
other are braued by euery pett . Pirat on their owne shores: the rest like Ostriches spread faire
plumes, but are unable to raise themselues from the Land: yea, their Lands also (as hath
happened to the Abassine) and Sea-townes taken from them to the downfall of their estate.
One Salomon left greater testimonies of greatnesse, by this his wisdome and helpe of
Nauigation, t en many of the later Ottomans, which possessed all Salomons Territories, and
perhaps a hundred times so much added. But as God giues huge strength and vast bodies to
beasts, yet makes Man by art and reason secure from them, if not wholy their Masters; so to
the good of Christendome, hath hee denied Learning to those Barbarians, and skill or care of
remote Nauigations, which how otherwise they might infest the World, appeares by their
Christian Slaues and vnchristian Pirats, whereof they make vse a|gainst vs, and whereby their
Mediterranean is guarded. But on the Arabian, the Portugals be|fore, the English since haue
put a bridle into the mouth of the Ottoman Horse, and shewed how easie it is to intercept his
Maritime incomes, and if not to smother him (as the Floridans serue the Whale by stopping
the two holes, whereby he breath's) yet to impouerish him by diuerting the riches of the
Persian and Arabian Gulphes.
And hereby is euident that as we haue obserued in Salomons Iustice, and Wisdome, so
Fortitude it selfe here is exercised, hence increased: nor did Alexander thinke it enough to
haue ouercome
20 men, but would also encounter the vnknowne Ocean. Salomons riches made him eminent
and secure, his Nauigations rich. But besides the necessary exercise of Fortitude in the
Mariner ex|posed and opposing himselfe to Step-dame Elements, to Shelues and Rockes from
the Earth, Whirle-pooles, Currents, Billowes and Bellowes of the Sea, Tempests, Huricanos,
Tufons, Water-spouts, and dreadfull Meteors from the Aire: by Sea-fights is the safest
defence of our owne (as the Oracle instructed the Graecians by Wooden-castles, to fortifie
against that World of men in Xerxes his Armie) and surest offence to the Enemy. What
reputation of courage, what increase of State, did the Portugals hereby attaine in Africa and
Asia? cooping vp the Natiues within heir shoares, possessing themselues of diuers petty
Kingdomes, enriching themselues with the richest Trade in the World, and that maugre the
force of the Moores, of the Egyptian and Turkish Sultans? The Sea was the Work-house, and
Nauigation the Anuile... Nor need I name the Belgian Vnited Prouinces, whose Free estate
like another Venus arose out of the Sea, and hath forced Mars to woe this Ladies loue and
amitie, when force could not rauish her; which seemes since not only to contemne that force,
to neglect this loue, but almost wantonly in many of hers, remembers to forget herselfe in
some respects to her quondam best friends, by whose helpe this Neptunian Amazon was
secured at home, by whose ayde and example, that I adde not their Name, her Fortune and
Fortitude hath attempted bo h East and West, yea, hath taken away the name of East and
West out of the World, and three times compassed the Com|passe. Thus hath a little remnant
of Land by Sea-assistance, swelled to this present greatnesse, and filled the remotest Indies
with her Martiall and Mercuriall Designes....
21 Salomon and Hiram together, and both with Ophir; the West with the East, and the
remotest; parts of the world are ioyned in one band of humanitie; and why not also of
Christianitie? Sidon and Sion, Iew and Gentile, Christian and Ethnike, as in this typicall
storie? that as there is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptisme, one Body; one Spirit, one
Inheritance, one God and Father, so there may thus be one Church truly Catholike, One
Pastor and one Sheepfold? And this also wee hope shall one day be the true Ophirian
Nauigation, when Ophir shall come into Ierusalem, as Ierusalem then went vnto Ophir.
Meane while, wee see a harmonie in this Sea-trade, vnited by Nauigation, howsoeuer by
Rites, Languages, Customes and Countries separated. Heauen conspires with the inferior
Ele|ments, and yeelds, as it were, a Sea Card in the Sun and Stars.
49 - CHAP. II. Mans life a Pilgrimage. The Peregrinations of Christ, and the first
Encom|passing the habitable or then inhabited World by the holy Apostles and first
planters of the Gospell.
GOD which in the beginning had made the World, and endowed Man with the Naturall
inheritance thereof, whom also hee made another, a liuing and little World, yea a
compendious Image of God & the World together: did in the ful|nesse of time send his owne
Sonne (by whom hee had made the World and M n) to be made a Man in the World, that he
might make new and recreate the World and Man, now lost & vanishing to perdition. Which
saluation first accomplished in the infinit worth and worthinesse of his person and passion,
He committed to faithfull witnesses, giuing them charge to go into all the world and preach
the Gospel to euery creature, that by those Ministerial conduits (in the cooperation of his
Spirit) his amiable and imitable Example might, as the load-starre of Christians be proposed;
his sauing vertue as heauenly influence infused; his all-couering and al-curing merits imputed
to his beleeuing members by spirituall grace to prepare them to su|percaelestiall Glory,
whither Hee is before ascended as our Priest to make intercession, and as a King in humane
flesh to take possession for Vs, by him made Kings and Priests vnto God.
....
And thus is Mans whole life a Pilgrimage, either from God as Cains, or from himselfe as
Abels, and all the Saints which confessed themselues Pilgrims on the earth, and to seeke
another Country, that is, a heauenly.
50 The Apostles were not all in all places, and sometimes as in consideration of diuine
blessing vpon Pauls Ministery amongst the Gentiles, as of Peters amongst the Iewes, they did
especially employ themselues where they saw their labours most fruitfull, in which respect
some setled their longer abode in certayne Cities, and some scarsly departed from Ierusalem,
whiles others of them went forth and preached euery where, and the Gospell was in all the
World (not vertu|ally, but actually) and was fruitfull, and was preached vnto euery creature
vnder Heauen, that is in Saint Matthewes phrase, to all Nations, or to all sorts of men.
51 And that this was accordingly in the Apostles daies effected, we haue not onely generall
te|stimonies of the Ancients, but the particular Regions and peoples mentioned and
acknowledged elsewhere by that generation, which in the question of Antichrist hence raise a
demonstration, (no lesse still serues them, their Geese are all Swans) that he is not yet comne,
because the Gospel is not yet preached thorow the World. ...
§. VIII. The glorie of Apostolicall Conquests: the hopes of enlarging the Church in this
last Age, by knowledge of Arts and Languages through the benefit of Printing and
Nauigation.
And as the Temple and state of Religion declining was repaired and reformed by godly
Kings, as Ioash, Hezekiah, Iosiah; and Zealous Priests such as Iehoiada; and after the ruines
thereof was rebuilded by Princes and Priests, Zorobabel and Ioshua, Nehemiah and Ezra: so
hath God stirred vp good Kings & Pastors in the declining age of the Church, as Charles the
Great, King Alfred and many others in Histories mentioned; & after the deportation therof
into Mysticall Babylon, when shee seemed in her truest members fled out of the Worlds
easier view into the Wildernesse, hath God raysed vp the Kings of England, Sweden,
Denmarke, and other Christian Princes, States, and Potentates with Religious Bishops and
Ministers to repaire the desolations of Sion, and restore Ierusalem with the Temple, if not to
her first splendour, yet from her late Captiuity, where she had smal pleasure to sing the Lords
song in a strange land, & babble her holies in the vnknown Language of Babylon. As
therefore the first Plantation of the Tabernacle was by miracle and immediate instinct; the
erection of the Temple, and succeeding reparations were by the art and humane in|dustry of
such Heroike spirits as God raysed vp and sanctified in euery age: so the Christian Church
planted by Apostles, hath beene since watered by faithfull Pastors, exalted by pious
Em|perours, depressed by Heretikes and Persecutors, captiued by Popes... Amongst all which
helpes by humane industry, none (in my mind) haue further preuailed then those two, the Arts
of Arts, Printing and Nauigation, both in manner giuen at once to the World by diuine
goodnesse, this for supply of matter, that other of forme, to this Spirituall Reedification of
Gods Sanctuary. And as Hirams Art improouing natural wit by diligent industry, succeeded
the infused Sciences of Bezaleel and Aho|liab; so to that Apostolicall gift of Tongues, in the
foundation of the Church hath succeeded for reformation thereof, the principall Tongues and
Languages of Nations, Ebrew, Greeke, Latine, Syriake, Arabike, and the rest, partly refined,
partly renewed by humane industrie, through the benefit of Printing. For how were the
learned and remoter Tongues buried and vnknowne in these parts, till that Art brought in
plentie, facilitie and cheapnesse of Bookes, whereby Lan|guages became the Keyes, Bookes
the Treasuries and Storehouses of Science; whiles by those men found accesse into these; and
Printing yeelded admittance to both in plentie and varietie...?
63 - And lest so great a blessing procured by Printing, should rest and rust amongst our selues
in this Westerne corner of the World, God hath added that other Art of Nauigation, as that
other Hi|rams assistance to Salomon, and of Nehemiah to Ezra, the Prince and Priest,
learning and power combined. This Art was before obscure and rude, but by the industry of
the Portugals lifted vp to higher attempts, with care of their Kings (employing Astronomie to
her better furniture) enabled to new Discoueries in Africa, and after that in all the East; whose
example the Spaniard following happily encountred a New World, and first of all men
vnlosed the Virgin Zone of the Earth, encompassing the whole Compasse of this vast Globe.
And thus hath God giuen oppor|tunitie by Nauigation into all parts, that in the Sun-set and
Euening of the World, the Sunne of righteousnesse might arise out of our West to illuminate
the East, and fill both Hemispheres with his brightnes: that what the Apostles, by
extraordinary dispensation sent, by extraordinary prouidence protected & conducted into all
parts, by extraordinary gift of Tongues were able to preach to all sorts of men; this latter Age
following those glorious Fathers and Founders (though farre off, non passibus aequis) might
attempt and in some sort attaine by helpes of these two Artes, Printing and Nauigation, that
Christ may bee saluation to the ends of the Earth, and all Nations may serue him; that
according to the Scripture innumerable numbers of all Nations and Kin|dreds, and peoples,
and Tongues, may be clothed with the white robes of the Lambe.
64 ... And as Ierusalem (to return to our similitude) being demolished by the Romans, the
Church became truely Catholike, not looking any more to walls of a Temple, to carnall
Sacrifices, to the petty pinfold of one Nation, to one City, as the Mart & Mother of Christian
Religion and disci|pline, so is it to bee hoped and prayed, that this Mysticall Babylon, which
now by vsur|pation challengeth to bee Mistresse and Mother of the Church, arriuing at that
prophecied irreco|uerable downefall, Catholike-Roman (vniuersall-particular) may no more
bee heard, but true Ca|tholicisme
65 recouering her venerable and primary Antiquitie, may without distracted faction, in free
and vnanimous consent, extend her Demesnes of Vniuersalitie as farre as the Earth hath Men,
and the light of her truth may shine together with the Sun-beames, round about the habi|table
World...
68 As at first the World was peopled by peregrination successiuely from Noahs Arke, and
Babels Tower: so in the worldly vicissitude of all things, a world of peregrinations haue
happened in the World, and that of worlds of men together, in Nationall inuasions, plantings,
supplantings, Co|lonies and new alterations of the face of the world in each part thereof. Thus
the Israelites sup|planted the Canaanites & dwelt in their rooms;as did the Moabites to the
giantly Emims, the Edo|mites to the Horims, the Ammonites to the Zamzummims, and other
Nations to others. To recite these were to recite all Stories in manner of the World: Lazius de
Migrationibus Gentium, and others haue in part vndertaken it. For euen in Palestina alone
how many successions haue beene, of Canaanites, Israelites, Assyrians (after called
Samaritans) and Iewes together? Of those which the Romans placed or permitted, of
Saracens, of Frankes, or Westerne Christians in so many millions as two hundred yeers
space sent out of Christendome thither; of Drusians, Syrians, & a very Babylon of Nations
(none and all) euer since? This Britaine of ours, besides those which first gaue it name
(whose remainders still enioy Wales) hath admitted Romane sprinklings and Colonies, and
after that a generall deluge of Saxons, Iuttes, and Angles; tempests and stormes out of
Den|marke and Norway, and lastly the Norman mixture and combination.