only of one man, who fell into the water and was drowned. It was taken March 4, 1590.

18. Cimon understanding that the Persian navy lay about Cyprus, he set sail towards them, and with two hundred and fifty ships he boldly gave battle to three hundred and forty: the victory in clined to the Athenians, one hundred ships were taken, some sunk, and the rest got into Cyprus: the soldiers fled all out of them, and leaving them without guards, those also fell into the hands of the Athenians. Cimon, not content with this glorious victory, set forth with his whole navy against the land-army of the Persians also, which lay upon the banks of the river Eurybas: he caused all the Persian ships he had taken to sail foremost, and those to be all stuffed with the most valiant of his soldiery, with Persian tiaras, and other the like habits upon them. The Persians on land, deceived with the figure of their ships, and the habit of their friends, and not knowing of any land-forces of the Greeks.near them, took them for their own fleet but lately parted from them, and now returned. When night came, Cimon landed his men, breaks in upon the camp of the Persians, filling all places with tumult and slaughter: the Persians in this confusion fled to the ships, and were there cut off, not being able to discern against whom they fought. When a great carnage was made, and the gross of the army was scattered here and there, Cimon thought of his retreat to his ships, which he had beforehand taken care of: for he had ordered his soldiers to repair forthwith to that place, where they should behold a burning torch advanced in the air: he gave a sign, and the soldiers ceased their plunder, and returned safe into their ships: so that Cimon obtained two noble victories in one day, by sea and land.

19. Amilcar was sent by the Cartha ginians against the Greeks that lived in Sicily, with three hundred thousand foot, two thousand long ships, besides those that were for burden, and such as

(17.) The Triumphs of Nassau, p. 115. ioth, 1, 11.p. 250.-(19.) Ibid. p. 230.

were appointed for the carriage of tributes, the number of which was three thousand. Thus appointed, Amilcar laid siege to Himera, to the relief of which came Gelo the Syracusan with fifty thousand foot and five thousand horse. Being come, he bethought himself how to destroy all the forces of the enemy without endangering himself, which design an accidental thing did much further: for whereas he had determined to fire all Amilcar's ships, it was also told him, that such a day Amilcar did solemnly sacrifice to Neptune: also a prisoner was taken, who told him, that Amilcar had given order to them of Selynuntis to send him a number of horsemen well appointed, to be with him upon the same day. Gelo therefore sent out his horsemen that way, and having ordered they should all night cross the country, in the morning's first light they should, as if Selynuntians, come to the camp, where, as soon as received, they should kill Amilcar as he sacrificed, and then carry fire from the altars amongst all the ships: he had also ordered a watchman to give himself notice of all that passed. His horsemen had performed all as he required it; and having also received the sign agreed upon, he with his whole army fell in upon the Carthaginian army at land, who came out of their camp to encounter him: but while they were eagerly fighting, the flames shewed themselves on high from their vessels, and it was cried in their army, that Amilcar was killed, and all their ships on fire. Dispirited with this bad news, they were slain on heaps. Gelo would give no quarter, so that fifteen thousand of them were slain upon the place, the rest fled to a fortress, but being ready to die for thirst, they soon yielded themselves.

being often defeated by the Austrians and Moravians, soon became discontented with this kind of government. A goldsmith named Premislas then assembled a company of volunteers, and devised the following stratagem. Having provided a great number of helmets and bucklers, made of the bark of trees, and painted so as to resemble silver, he ranged them on poles during the night near a wood, in view of the enemy's camp; when day appeared the enemy imagined that they saw Polish troops filing off, and advanced to give them battle. Premislas seeing them coming, caused the helmets and bucklers to be removed so as to represent a retreat into the forest, and in this manner drew the enemy into an ambush where they were almost all killed: at the same time he attacked those who remained in the camp, and put them to the rout. The Poles, in gratitude for so splendid an action, declared Premislas prince of Poland, who thereupon assumed the name of Lese.

CHAP. XLIV.

Of the secret Ways of Dispatch, and the Delivery of Messages by Letters, Cyphers, and other Ways.

SECRECY and celerity are of special importance for the right conduct and management of all sorts of affairs; but in military matters they are of that absoJute necessity, that scarce any thing of moment can be effected without them. Various ways have the ancients and others invented, whereby they might convey their intelligences and advice with both these; a taste whereof we have in the following examples.

1. Aleppo is so called of Alep, which signifies milk, of which there is great abundance thereabouts. There are here also pigeons brought up after an incredible manner, who will fly between Baby

lon and Aleppo (being thirty days journey distant) in forty-eight hours space, carrying letters and news (which are fastened about their necks) to merchants of both towns, and from one to another. These are only employed in the time of hasty and needful dispatch: their education to this tractable expedition is admirable, the flights and arrivals of which I have often seen in the time of my wintering in Aleppo, which was the second winter after my departure from Christendom.

2. The city of Ptolemais iu Syria was besieged by the French and Venetians, and it was ready to fall into their hands, when the soldiers beheld a pigeon flying over them, with letters to the city; who thereupon set up so sudden and great a shout, that down fell the poor airy post with her letter: being read, it was found that the sultan had therein sent them word that he would be with them, with an army sufficient to raise the siege ;" and, that "they might expect his arrival in three days." The Christians having learnt this, sent away the pigeon with others instead of the former, which were to this purpose: that "they should see to their own safety, for that the sultan had such other affairs as rendered it impossible for him to come in to their succour." These letters being received, the city was immediately surrendered. The sultan performed his promise upon the third day; but perceiving how matters went, returned to his other employ

ments.

3. Histæus the Milesian being kept by Darius at Susa, under an honourable pretence, and despairing of his return home, unless he could find out some way that he might be sent to sea, he purposed to send to Aristagoras, who was his substitute at Miletum, to persuade his revolt from Darius; but knowing that all passages were stopped and studiously watched, he took this course: he got a trusty servant of his, the hair of whose head he caused to be shaved off, and then, upon his bald pate, he wrote his

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mind

mind to Aristagoras, kept him privately about him till his hair was somewhat grown, and then bid him haste to Aristagoras, and bid him cause him to be shaved again, and then upon his head he should find what his lord had wrote to him.

4. Harpagus was a great friend to Cyrus, and had in Medea prepared all things in as good forwardness as he could: being therefore to send his letters to CyIus, to hasten his invasion upon that country, he thought it the safest way to thrust it into ine belly of a hare: so by this unsuspected means his letters went safe to Cyrus in Persia, who came with an army, and made himself master of the empire of the Medes.

5. The ancient Lacedæmonians, when they had a purpose to dissemble and conceal their letters, which they sent to their generals abroad, that the contents of them might not be understood, though they should be intercepted by the enemy, they took this course: they chose two round sticks, of the same thickness and length, wrought and planed after the same manner. One of these was given to their general when he was about to march, the other was kept at home by the magistrates. When occasion of secrecy was, they wound about this stick a long scroll, and narrow, only once about, and in such manner as that the sides of each round should lie close together then wrote they their letters upon the tranverse junctures of the scroll, from the top to the bottom. This scroll they took off from the stick, and sent it to the general, who knew well how to fix it to that stick he kept by him; the unrolling of it did disjoin the letters, confound and intermix them in such a manner, that although the scroll was taken by the enemy, they knew not what to make of it, if it passed safe, their own general could read it at pleasure. his kind of letter the Laceda monians called Scytale.

6. I have read in the Punic history, of an illustrious person amongst them (whether it was Asdrubal, or some other, I do not now remember) who in this manner used to conceal such letters as be sent about matters of secrecy. He took new tables, which were not yet covered with wax, and cut out his letter upon the wood, then (as the manner was) he drew them over with wax; these tablcs, as if nothing was writ upon them, he sent to such as beforehand he had acquainted with the use of them, who upon the receipt of them took off the wax, and read the letter as it was engra ven upon the wood. Demaratus used this way of writing.

7. The way by pigeons to give intelligence afar off with wonderful celerity, is this: they take them when they sit on their nests, transporting them in open cages, and return them with letters bound about their legs like jesses, who will never give rest to their wings, until they come to their young ones. So Taurosthenes by a pigeon, stained with purple, gave notice of his victory at the Olympic games the self-same day to his father in gina.

But

8. There are books of epistles from C. Cæsar to C. Oppius and B. Cornelius, who had the care of his affairs in his absence. In these epistles of his in certain places there are found single letters without being made up into syllables, which a man would think were placed there to no purpose; for no words can be framed out of these letters. there had been a secret agreement betwixt them of changing the situation of the letters, and that in writing they should appear one thing, but in reading they should signify another. Probus the grammarian hath composed a book with curiosity enough, concerning the occult signification of the letters in the epistles of Cæsar. Suetonius saith of Cæsar, that any thing of privacy he wrote by notes or characters, that

P. 156

s, by so transposing the order of the letters, that no word could be made out of them. But if any man would understand and imitate this practice of his, he must know, that he changed the fourth letter of the alphabet, that is, he set down D for A, and so throughout all the rest of the letters.

9. Artabasus, an illustrious person amongst the Persians, after the departure of Xerxes, was left with Mardonius in Europe; he had taken Olynthus, and was now set down before Potidea: here there was intelligence betwixt him and Timoxenus, an eminent person in the town, and the device they had to convey letters to each other was this: they wrapped their letters round about the upper part of an arrow, and then glued on the feathers of the arrow upon it, and so their arrows were to be shot to such a place as they had mutually agreed upon. They had done this for some time, till they were casually betrayed; for Artabasus directing his arrow to the wonted place, it chanced to light upon the shoulder of a Potidean that was accident ally there: divers, as the manner is, ran to the wounded man, and plucking out the arrow, perceived the letters that were fastened to it, and carried them to the magistrates of the city, whereby it came to pass, that Timoxenus the traitor was discovered.

10. Antigonus, who had wintered in Mesopotamia, came to Babylon, and having there joined with Seleucus and Python, he determined to march out against Eumenes, who had fortified the river Tygris from its fountain to the sea, and indeed all the country bordering upon it, in which manner he waited the approach of the enemy; but forasmuch as the guard of a place of so greata length required a multitude of soldiers, Eumenes had obtained of Percestus, that he should send for some thousands of

archers for him out of Persia; which was done in such manner, that most of the Persians, though distant thirty days journey, did yet hear of the edict of

Peucestus upon that very day it was given out, and that through the artificial placing of their watches: for whereas Persia is interrupted with valleys, and full both of many and high rocks, the strongest voices that were to be found amongst the inhabitants were placed upon the tops of these; so that the command being heard in divers places at once, they transmitted it immediately from one to the other, till such time as it was gotten to the utmost end of Peucestus's satrapy.

11. Octavianus Cæsar, when he wrote to his friends any thing of secrecy or matter of importance, his manner was to take the next letter in the alphabet to that which should have been made use of, saith Don Cassius; and Suetonius saith, that as oft as he wrote by notes and characters, he used B for A and C for B, and in the same order all the rest as they follow, only instead of X he used

a double AA.

12. The Roman spies who were sent into Persia, at their return brought a long piece of parchment that had letters wrote upon it within, which was given them by Procopius; but, for the better concealment of it, it was put into a sheath or scabbard of a sword, and so carried safe without suspicion.

13. Diognetus the Milesian was in love with Polycrita of Naxos; and for love of her he betrayed his countrymen and their counsels: for when they had besieged Naxos, he sent a young girl with a letter to Polycles, brother of Polycrita, and governor of the city; wherein he shewed the way how he might entrap and slay the Milesians. This letter was written upon a plate of lead rolled up, and baked in a loaf of bread, aud so conveyed to the governor.

CHAP. XLV.

38 2

is reported to be so fertile, that it yieldeth to those who manure it a million of gold in revenue; but when it comes to cast forth its enflamed entrails, it often makes as much havoc in one day alone, as it brings profit in many years: "And it seems," saith Montaigne, that fortune does sometimes so narrowly watch the last days of our life, as in one moment to overthrow what for many years she hath been erecting; repaying our past and light pleasures with weighty miseries, and forcing us to cry out with Laberius, Nimirum hâc die unâ plus vixi; "I have certainly lived too long, at least by this one unhappy day*."

1. Horrible was that tragedy which the West Indies beheld in the persons of seven Englishmen ; the relation of it take as followeth: The aforementioned seven being in St. Christopher's Island, had prepared themselves for a voyage of one night, and had taken with them provision for no longer a time; but a tempest intercepted their return, and carried them off so far into the sea, that they could not return home in less than seventeen days; in which time they were so sparing of their one night's pro-, vision, that they made it serve them to the fifth day; that past, they must wrestle with mere famine, which was so much the more grievous to them, in regard the sun was extremely hot, that dried up their parched throats, exhaling the saltness from the troubled sea. They had now little hope of retrieving themselves from their woeful situation; and were therefore forced to cast lots amongst themselves to see whose flesh and blood should satisfy the hunger and the thirst of the rest. The lot fell upon him who first gave the counsel; who was not only unaffrighted at this hard fortune, but encouraged the rest, who had a kind of horror as to what they were about: he told them, that "fortune was a favourer of the bold; that there was no possibility of escape, unless they immediately stayed their flying life by human flesh that for his part he was well content, and that he thought himself happy he

7)

could serve his friends when he was dead." With such words as these he so persuaded them, that one (drawn out by lot also) cut his throat; of whose carcase each of them was so desirous of a piece, that it could scarcely be divided so quickly. They fell to the flesh with eager teeth, and sucked out the blood into their thirsty stomachs. One only was found amongst them, who, being nearly related to the dead person, resolved to endure all things rather than pollute himself with the blood of his friend; but the next day his famine drove him into such a madness, that he threw himself overboard into the sea. His associates would not suffer so delicate a repast as his carcase to be so unseasonably snatched from them. But his madness had already so vitiated his blood and the flesh all about the veins, that in the whole body there was scarce any thing found fit to eat, save only his bowels. At last it pleased God to shew then mercy in this their wandering and distress, and brought their small ship to the isle of St. Martin, in which they were kindly received by the Dutch garri son, and sent back to the rest of their friends, where they had scarce set foot on the shore, but they were accused of murder; but inevitable necesssity pleading in their behalf, they were set free by the magistrate.

2. In the year 1610, one Pickman, a Fleming, coming from Drontheim in Norway, with a vessel laden with boards, was overtaken with a calm, during which the current of the sea carried him upon a rock or little island towards the extremity of Scotland: to avoid a wreck, he commanded some of his men to go into the shallop, and to tow off the ship: coming near the island, they saw something which was more like a ghost than a living person, a body stark-naked, black and hairy, a meagre and deformed countenance, and hollow and distorted eyes; he fell on his knees, and joining his hands together, begged relief from them; which raised such compassion in them, that they took him into the boat.

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