the Ford, and the Water of itself flies from the Taste of all living Creatures, as once it fell from the Lip of TANTALUS. (g) Thus the Fallen Spirits roving on in confus'd March, forlorn and pale, with fhuddering Horror, and with ghaftly Eyes firft view'd their lamentable Lot, and found no Reft: They pafs'd along through many a dark and dreary Vale, and many a dismal Region, over many a frozen and many a fiery ALP; (b) Rocks, Caves, Lakes, Fenns, Bogs, Dens, and Shades of Death; a Univerfe of Death! which GOD created Evil by a Curfe; Good only for Evil, where all Life dies, where Death lives, and Nature breeds perverfely all monftrous and prodigious Things, abominable and beyond all Expreffion; and worse than ever Fables yet have feign'd, or Fear conceiv'd, G 3 and contended with Minerva, for which the Goddefs turned it into Snakes; which were fo terrible, that they turned all that beheld them into Stones. Perfeus cut off her Head, that it might not deftroy the whole Country; and as he carried it thro' Africa, the Drops of Blood became Serpents: Hence they fay, it is infested with fwarms of Serpents and other venemous Creatures, above other Parts of the World. (f) Gorgonian, of the Gorgons; Lat. Gr. i. e. Cruelty. The Gorgons were fo called from Gorgon, a venomous Beast in Africa; they were the three Daughters of Phæcus, viz. Medufa, Steno, and Euryale: So called from their Savageness; because they killed at the very Sight. (g) Tantalus; Gr. Lat. i. e. moft miferable. The Son of Jupiter and Plota. He killed and dreffed up his Son Pelops to the Gods, at a Feaft: for which they condemned him to Hell; where he was fet in Water to the Chin, with Apples bobbing at his Lips; yet could tafte of neither. (b) Alp for Alps; by a Fig. of Rhet. Lat. i. e. white: because they are always White with Snow, or high; a long Range of lofty and steep Mountains, which parts Italy and Germany and France: It coft Hannibal the Carthaginian General, nine Days before he got to the Top of them; and 15 in marching over them; wherein he loft vast Numbers both of Men and Beasts, tho' he mollified the Rocks with Vinegar, and cut them down with Iron Tools: But Polybius and Livy fay, that the Italians, Gauls, and others paft and repaft them, long before this famous Expedition of Hannibal. ceiv'd, of dire CHIMERAS, (i) HYDRAS, (k) and GORGONS. С Н А Р. III. Satan paffes on his Journey to Hell Gates; finds them Jhut, and who fat there to guard them, by whom at length they are open'd, and difcover to him the great Gulph between Hell and Hea ven. I N the mean while SATAN, the Adversary of GoD and MAN, with Thoughts enflam'd with highest Defigns puts on fwift Wings, and takes his folitary Flight towards the Gates of Hell: Sometimes he fcours the Right-Hand Courfe, fometimes the Left; now flies over the Deep with fteady Wings, then foars up, mounting as high as the fiery Concave: As when a Fleet difcover'd at Sea, hangs as in the Clouds by Equinoctial (m) Winds, failing clofe from (2) BEN (i) Chimeras;Lat.Gr. i.e.Goats, A Chimera was a fabulous Monfter, faid to have had the Head of a Lion, the Belly of a Goat; and the Tail of a Serpent. It was only a Mountain of Lycia, a Branch of the M. Taurus in Afia; whofe Top did caft out Flames, and abounded with Lions, in the Middle there was good Pafture for Goats; and at the Bottom of it were many Serpents. (k) Hydras; Lat. Gr. i. e. Waters. Hydra is a monstrous GAL, and exceffive Water Serpent; feigned with 50 Heads. It is faid, that Hercules tamed this Monster in the Lake Lerna, between Argi and Mycene. (m) Equinoctial, of the Equinox; Lat. i. e. Equal Night and Days. An Aftron. T. Here, the Trade Winds, that blow in September and March; when the Days and Nights are of equal Length. (n) Bengal, Indian. The antient Name was Beng, i. e. Water; for as the Waters overflow fome GAL, or the Islands of TERNATE, (0) or TIDORE, (p) from whence Merchants bring their Spices, they on the trading Flood ply to the CAPE, (q) through the ETHIOPIAN (r) Sea; juft fo afar off G 4 feem'd fome Parts of that Country, the People made their Fields into Beds of 15 Yards fquare, and two Yards high; which they called Ala; hence, came Bengala, i. e. an overflow'd Country. A large Kingdom in the Eaft-Indies, belonging to the Great Mogul, extending upon the Gulf of Bengal, about 160 Leagues in Length, and more in Breadth. One of the most fruitful and pleasant Countries of the World; for all Sorts of Commodities; therefore it is called the Storehouse of Afia; well-watered, and abounds in Canals; thro' it the great River Ganges runs, and discharges itself into the Bay of Bengal. The Rivers abound with Crocodiles, &c. the Inlands with Elephants, &c. The Europeans have a vaft Trade there. This Gulf is 800 Leagues over, thro' it the Europeans fail to and from India. (o) Ternate; Ind. The Chief of the five Malacco or Molucco Iflands in the East Indian Sea, by which the Europeans fail to and from the East Indies, viz. Ternate, Tidore, Machian, Moties and Bachian. They lie near the Line, and abound with Spices. The Arabs first began to trade there, then the Muhammedans; now they belong to the Hollanders, fince they expelled the Portuguese and Spaniards, A. D. 1641. The Natives are moftly Heathen Idolaters. (p) Tidore, or Tidor; Ind. Another of the Malacca Islands, near to Ternate, feparated only from it by a narrow Channel. (q) Cape; Fr. from the Lat. i. e. A Head, a Geogr. T. An high Mountain or Head Land running into the Sea; Here the Cape of Good Hope, upon the Point of Africa to the South, whither the Old Phænicians and others past it or no, is uncertain; but it was firft difcover'd to the Moderns by Bartholomew Dias, a Portuguese, A. D. 1454. Vafq. de Gama arrived at Calecut, May 20. A. D. 1498. It is called by them Cabo de Bona Speranza: Because they had good Hope of a Paffage to the East Indies by doubling that Cape, as afterwards it did appear. The Dutch purchas'd it of their Kings, founded a ftrong Fort there, A. D. 1651, and held it ever fince. Some call it the Cape of Tempefts; because they are very common thereabouts. (r) Ethiopian, of Ethiopia, Lat. Gr. i. e. Burnt in the Face. Heb. Chuf. i. e. Black, from Chus, the Son of Cham, who first peopled it. Ethiopia is a large hot Kingdom of Africa, in the Torrid Zone, therefore the People are Sun-burnt, tawny and black; about 3600 Miles in Length, and 2180 in Breadth. It is about one half of all Africa. Here, the Southern Ocean, which wafheth feem'd the flying Fiend. At laft the Bounds of Hell appear, reaching high up to the Roof, and the Gates were three Times threefold; three Folds were of Brafs, three of Iron, and three of Adamantine Rock; impenetrable, furrounded with circling Fire, and yet not confumed. BEFORE the Gates there fat on each Side a dreadful Shape, one of which feem'd a Woman to the Waift, and fair, but the ended in fcaly Folds like a Serpent, voluminous and vaft, arm'd with a mortal Sting; round about her Middle a Cry of Hell-Hounds bark'd without ceafing, and rung a hideous Peal, with loud and wide CERBERIAN (s) Mouths; yet when they would, if any Thing disturb'd their Noife, crept into her Womb, and kennell'd there, and when not seen, ftill bark'd and howl'd within: Less abhorred than these were those that vex'd SCYLLA, (t) bathing in the Sea that parts CALABRIA (u) from SI washeth it, and thro' which the European Merchants pafs, as they go to and come from the Eaft-Indies, China and Japan, &c. (s) Cerberian; Belonging to Cerberus; Lat. Gr. i. e. A Devourer of Flesh, i. e. As wide as thofe of Cerberus the Dog, that kept the Gates of Hell, who had three, fome fay fifty, and Horace fays 100 Heads; fignify. ing his greedy and devouring Nature. The Fable reprefents Time, which devours allThings; the three Heads, Time paft, Prefent, and to come. (r) Scylla; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. Vexation and Disturbance. Scylla was a frightful Rock in the Sea between Italy and Sicily, fo CILY, called from Scyllio, a Castle on the Italian Shore, upon which the Waves made a Noife, like the Barking of Dogs, which terrify'd Sailors Or Scylla the Daughter of Phorcus, who was poisoned by Circe, and changed from the Waist down into strange and frightful Monsters; wherefore the threw herself into the Sea. (u) Calabria; Lat. from the Gr. i. e. Good and fruitful. A very fine fruitful Country on the Outmoft Part of Italy, facing Sicily, and divided from it by a narrow Strait: It is almoft an Iland, yields Fruit twice in the Year, and is about 60 Miles wide, called now Terre de Laber; i. c. The Land of Calabria, by CILY, (x) nor do uglier follow the Night-Hag, who, when call'd in fecret, comes riding through the Air, drawn by the Smell of Infant's Blood, to dance with LAPLAND (y) Witches, while the labouring Moon is eclips'd by their Charms. THE other Shape (if it might be call'd fo, that had none distinguishable, in Joint, Limb, or Member, or that might be call'd Substance, that feem'd Shadow, for each feem'd either) stood as black as Night, as fierce as ten Furies, (z) as terrible as Hell, and fhook a dreadful Dart; what feem'd his Head, had the Likeness of a kingly Crown on it. SATAN was now near at Hand, and the Monster moving from his Seat, came onward as faft with horrid Strides, fo that Hell trembled: SATAN undaunted admir'd what this by an Abbreviation of the old Name. (x) Sicily. It was fo called from the Sicani and Siculi, who were the antient Inhabitants. Sicily is the largest and noblest Isle in the Mediterranean Sea, facing Italy; and, as Thucydides fays, 20 Furlongs from it; therefore it has been a Bone of Contention between the Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, and other adjacent Nations, in all Ages to this Time. (y) Lapland; from the antient Lupiones, or Loppi; i. e. Silly, fottif, and rude. The Natives call it Lapmark; the Germans, Laplandi: the Muscovites, Lappi; for they are an illiterate People, void of all Arts and Sciences, grofs Heathens. A cold Northern Country in Europe, belonging partly to Sweden, partly to Norway, and partly to Muscovy; very barren and barbarous : For their dreadful Ignorance, Superftition and Malice, the People are branded with Witchcraft and other Diabolical Practices. (e) Furies; Fr. Ital. Sp. Lat. i. e. Madness and Rage; or Heb. Farar;i.e.Revenge. The threeFuries of Hell were imagined to be the Tormentors of the Damned, and painted with Snakes about their Heads, with Eyes (parkling with Fire, with burning Torches in their Hands; tormenting the Souls of the Wicked in Hell: And their Names imply'd Dread and Terror. Aleato; Gr. i, e. Inceffant, without Reft, never ceafing to torment: Megara, Gr. i. e.Envied, hated: Tefiphone, Gr. i. e. A Revenger of Murder and Ebynides; i. e. Difcord and Revenge. |