te A: _Ulys. Aldrovandi Ornitholog._ lib. 20. p.m. 344.]

I find a great many very Learned Men are of this Opinion: And in the first
place, _Strabo_[A] is very positive; [Greek: Heorakos men gar oudeis
exaegeitai ton pisteos axion andron;] i.e. _No Man worthy of belief did
ever see them_. And upon all occasions he declares the same. So _Julius
Caesar Scaliger_[B] makes them to be only a Fiction of the Ancients, _At
haec omnia_ (saith he) _Antiquorum figmenta & merae Nugae, si exstarent,
reperirentur. At cum universus Orbis nunc nobis cognitus sit, nullibi haec
Naturae Excrementa reperiri certissimum est._ And _Isaac Casaubon_[C]
ridicules such as pretend to justifie them: _Sic nostra aetate_ (saith he)
_non desunt, qui eandem de Pygmaeis lepidam fabellam renovent; ut qui etiam
e Sacris Literis, si Deo placet, fidem illis conentur astruere. Legi etiam
Bergei cujusdam Galli Scripta, qui se vidisse diceret. At non ego credulus
illi, illi inquam Omnium Bipedum mendacissimo._ I shall add one Authority
more, and that is of _Adrian Spigelius,_ who produces a Witness that had
examined the very place, where the _Pygmies_ were said to be; yet upon a
diligent enquiry, he could neither find them, nor hear any tidings of
them.[D] _Spigelius_ therefore tells us, _Hoc loco de Pygmaeis dicendum
erat, qui [Greek: para pygonos] dicti a statura, quae ulnam non excedunt.
Verum ego Poetarum fabulas esse crediderim, pro quibus tamen_ Aristoteles
_minime haberi vult, sed veram esse Historiam._ 8. Hist. Animal. 12.
_asseverat. Ego quo minus hoc statuam, tum Authoritate primum Doctissimi_
Strabonis I. Geograph. _coactus sum, tum potissimum nunc moveor, quod
nostro tempore, quo nulla Mundi pars est, quam Nautarum Industria non
perlustrarit, nihil tamen, unquam simile aut visum est, aut auditum.
Accedit quod_ Franciscus Alvarez _Lusitanus, qui ea ipsa loca peragravit,
circa quae Aristoteles Pygmaeos esse scribit, nullibi tamen tam parvam
Gentem a se conspectam tradidit, sed Populum esse Mediocris staturae, &_
AEthiopes _tradit._

[Footnote A: _Strabo Geograph._ lib. 17. p.m. 565.]

[Footnote B: _Jul. Caes. Scaliger. Comment. in Arist. Hist. Animal._ lib.
8. sec. 126. p.m. 914.]

[Footnote C: _Isaac Causabon Notae & Castigat. in_ lib. 1. _Strabonis
Geograph._ p.m. 38.]

[Footnote D: _Adrian. Spigelij de Corporis Humani fabrica_, lib. 1. cap.
7. p.m. 15.]

I think my self therefore here obliged to make out, that there were such
Creatures as _