Chap. XII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 



259 



' that it muft certainly be fome fhipwrecked perfon. I, after look- 



* ing fome time, begged the Captain to order them to fteer the fliip 



* more d'lvett towards it, being fomewhat on the ftarboard fide ; 



* which was done accordingly ; and we had got within a fliip's 



* length of him, when the people on the forecaftle made fuch a 

 ' noife, that he plunged down, head foremoft, and got prefcntly out 



* of our fight. But the Man who was on the watch at the mall- 

 ' head, declared he faw him for the fpace of two hundred yards, 



* and that he had a monftrous long tail. 



' I fhall now only mention, that, in the year 1716, the News 



* Papers were every where full of a Sea Man, who appeared in the 



* month of January, near Raguza, a fmall city on the Adriatick Sea, 



* the like of whom I never heard or read of. It had much the re- 

 ' femblance of a Man, but it was near fifteen feet long. Its head 



* was very large, and its feet and arms were well proportioned to 



* its body. It appeared for feveral days running, and commonly 



* came out of the fea about three o'clock in the afternoon, and walk- 



* ed with monftrous ftrides, fometimes in one, fometimes in ano- 

 ' ther place, along the fhore. People* from far and nigh went to 



* look at it ; but they were fo much afraid, that they kept a good 

 ' diftance from it, and many looked with fpy-glafTes. It often car- 



* lied its haftd above its head. The hideous noife it made could be 



* heard at half a mile's diftance, fo that people in the neighbourhood 



* were fore afraid of it. The various accounts given by thofe who 

 ' faw it are fo uniformly the fame, that there is no room left to 



* queftion the veracity of the ftory.' 



Mr Valentyn then concludes with faying, ' If, after all this, 

 ' there fhall be found thofe, who difbelieve the exiftence of fuch 

 ' creatures as Sea Men or Mermaids, of which we have at leaft gi- 



K k 2 * ven 



jt* 



