AD. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1592. 



hanged himselfe. Campoful. lib. 5. cap. 7. Also Jocasta 

 the daughter of Creon, Auctolia daughter of Simon, 

 Anius King of the Thuscans, Orodes King of the Par- 

 thians, and an infinite number of others. Concerning 

 whom reade Plutarch stat. lib. 2. and other authors &c. 

 To these may be added that sentence, Love descendeth, 

 &c. So that you see, it is no lesse proper to a man 

 entirely to love his children, then for a bird to flie : that 

 if our writers at any time have confessed the Islanders to 

 be men (much lesse to be Christians,) they must, will 

 they nill they, ascribe unto them this love and affection 

 towardes their children : If not, they doe not onely take 

 from them the title and dignitie of men, but also they 

 debase them under every brute beast, which even by the 

 instinct of nature are bound with exceeding great love, 

 and tender affection towards their young ones. 



I will not adde against this shamelesse untruth most 

 notable examples of our owne countreymen : I will omit 

 our lawes of man-stealing, more ancient then the Islanders 

 themselves, being received from the Noruagians, and are 

 extant in our booke of lawes under the title Manhelge 

 cap. 5. Whosoever selleth a freeman (any man much 

 more a sonne) unto strangers &c. 



Now if any man be driven to that hard fortune, that 



he must needs commit his owne sonne into the hands of 



some inhabitant or stranger, being urged thereunto by 



famine, or any other extreame necessity, that he may not 



be constrained to see him hungerstarved for want of 



sustenance, but keepeth his dogge still for his owne 



eating, this man is not to be sayd, that he esteemeth 



equally or more basely of his sonne then of his dogge : 



whether Islanders or any other countreymen do the 



same. 



The occasion The Germane or the Danish mariners might perhaps 



of this slander, i^^^ amongst US certaine beggars laden with children (for 



we have here a great number of them) who in jesting 



[I. 583.] maner for they are much given to trifling talke, might 



say : Give me this, or sell me that : and when the stranger 



174 



