Philippi Lausbergii Cyclometriae Novae Libri Duo. Middleburg, 1616,
4to.[100]

This is one of the legitimate quadratures, on which I shall here only
remark that by candlelight it is quadrature under difficulties, for all the
diagrams are in red ink.

A TEXT LEADING TO REMARKS ON PRESTER JOHN.

Recherches Curieuses des Mesures du Monde. By S. C. de V. Paris, 1626,
8vo (pp. 48).[101]

It is written by some Count for his son; and if all the French nobility
would have given their sons the same kind of instruction about rank, the
old French aristocracy would have been as prosperous at this moment as the
English peerage and squireage. I sent the tract to Capt. Speke,[102]
shortly after his arrival in England, thinking he might like {71} to see
the old names of the Ethiopian provinces. But I first made a copy of all
that relates to Prester John,[103] himself a paradox. The tract contains,
_inter alia_, an account of the four empires; of the great Turk, the great
Tartar, the great Sophy, and the great Prester John. This word _great_
(_grand_), which was long used in the phrase "the great Turk," is a generic
adjunct to an emperor. Of the Tartars it is said that "c'est vne nation
prophane et barbaresque, sale et vilaine, qui mangent la chair demie crue,
qui boiuent du laict de jument, et qui n'vsent de nappes et seruiettes que
pour essuyer leurs bouches et leurs mains."[104] Many persons have heard of
Prester John, and have a very indistinct idea of him. I give all that is
said about him, since the recent discussions about the Nile may give an
interest to the old notions of geography.

"Le grand Prestre Jean qui est le quatriesme en rang, est Empereur
d'Ethiopie, et des Abyssins, et se vante d'estre issu de la race de Dauid,
comme estant descendu de la Royne de Saba, Royne d'Ethiopie, laquelle
estant venue en Hierusalem pour voir la sagesse de Salomon, enuiron l'an du
monde 2952, s'en retourna grosse d'vn fils qu'ils nomment Moylech, duquel
ils disent estre descendus en ligne directe. Et ainsi il se glorifie
d'estre le plus ancien Monarque de la terre, disant que son Empire a dure
plus de trois mil ans, ce que nul autre Empire ne peut dire. Aussi met-il
en ses tiltres ce qui s'ensuit: Nous, N. Souuerain en mes Royaumes,
vniquement ayme de Dieu, colomne de la foy, sorty de la race de Inda, etc.
Les limites de cet Empire touchent a la mer Rouge, et aux montagnes d'Azuma
vers {72} l'Orient, et du coste de l