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I mention these Voyages of our Englishmen, not so much to prooue that Torrida Zona may bee, and is inhabited, as to shew their readinesse in attempting long and dangerous Nauigations.
By which occasion and meanes of his povertie and sicknes, which cruelly afflicted him in a strange contrie, he deferred for a longe space his embassage, till, havinge gotten upp a little money by makinge of seacardes, he began to practize with Kinge Henry the Seaventhe, the father of Kinge Henry the viij’th which nowe reigneth; to whome he presented a general carde, wherein these verses were written, which I will rather here put downe for their antiquitie then for their elegancie: Terrarum quicunque cupis foeliciter oras Noscere, cuncta decens doctè pictura docebit Quam Strabo affirmat, Ptolomæus, Plinius atque Isidorus: non vna tamen sententia cuique Pingitur hîc etiam nuper sulcata carinis Hispanis Zona illa, priùs incognita genti, Torrida, quæ tandem nunc est notissma multis.
Et quoniam per cattos capi non possunt, capiuntur per canes maiores. Corpora mortuoram non sepeliuntur ibi, nec cadauera quaelibet bestiarum operiuntur, quod ad aeris aestum carnes in breui tempore consumuntur, nam et tota insula consistit sub zona torrida.
For Captaine Windam made a Voyage with Merchandise to Guinea, and entred so farre within the Torrida Zona, that he was within three or foure degrees of the Equinoctiall, and his company abiding there certaine Moneths, returned, with gaine. Also the Englishmen made another Voyage very prosperous and gainefull, An. 1554. to the coasts of Guinea, within 3. degrees of the Equinoctiall.
Pingitur hic etiam nuper sulcata carinis Hispanis zona illa, prius incognita genti, Torrida, quae tandem minet est notissima multis. Pro Auctore, sive Pictore. Janua cui patria est nomen, cui Bartholomaeus Columbus de Terra-rubra, opus edidit istud, Londiniis Ann. Dom. 1480, atque insuper anno, Octavo decimaque die cum tertia mensis Februarii. Laudes Christi cantentur abunde.
Wee also among vs in England, haue blacke Moores, Æthiopians, out of all partes of Torrida Zona, which after a small continuance, can well endure the colde of our Countrey, and why should not we as well abide the heate of their Countrey?
Therefore I gather, that vnder the Tropickes is the hotest place, not onely of Torrida Zona, but of any other part of the world, especially because there both causes of heate doe concurre, that is, the perpendicular falling of the Sunne beames two monethes together, and the longer abode of the Sunnes presence aboue the Horison.
This reptile is probably the torrida dipsas of antiquity. Europeans now call it the leffah.