ijS AN TIE NT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



' Joan Dilerey relates a curious ftory of .fome American fiihers. 

 ' One night, it being a perfcd calm, they obferved a Mermaid co- 



* ming into their velTel, and they fearing it to be fome mifchievous 



* fifh, in the fright, one of them cut, with a hatchet, the creature's 



* hand off, which fell within board, and the creature, itfelf funk im- 

 ' mediately, but came foon up again, and gave a deep figh, as one 



* feeling pain. The hand was found to have five fingers and nails, 

 ' like a man's hand. 



' In the laft age, one of the Dutch herring bufles caught a Mer- 

 ' maid in their nets. The man, who was taking out the herrings, 

 ' was fo confounded when he came to it, that, in his fright, he 

 ' threw it into the fea. He repented too late of what he had done, 



* when he obferved clearly that it had a head and body like a 

 ' Man.' 



Afier the foregoing relations from reading and hearfay, the 

 author, Mr Valentyn, declares what he faw himfelf on his voy- 

 age from Batavia to Europe, in the year 17 14. * In 12° 38' 

 ' fouth latitude, on the firfl day of May, about eleven o'clock in 

 ' the forenoon, I, the captain, puifer, and mate of the watch, and 

 ' a great many of the fhip's company, it being very calm and the 



* fea fmooth as glafs, faw, about the diftance of thrice the length 6f 



* the fhip from us, very diftindly, on the furface of the water, 



* feemingly fitting with his back to us, and half the body above the 



* water, a creature of a grizlifh or gray colour, like that of a cod-fifti 



* fkin. It appeared like a failor, or a man fitting on fomething ; and 



* the more like a failor, as on its head there feemed to be fomething 



* like an Englifh cap of the fame gray colour. He fat fomewhat 

 ' bent, and we obferved him to move his head from one fide -to the 

 ' other, upwards of five and twenty times 5 fo that we all agreed 



' that 



