NEW ATLANTIS. 



citeth. For assuredly such a thing there was. But 

 whether it were the ancient Athenians that had the 

 glory of the repulse and resistance of those forces, I 

 can say nothing: but certain it is, there never came 

 back either ship or man from that voyage. Neither 

 had the other voyage of those of Coya upon us had 

 better fortune, if they had not met with enemies of 

 greater clemency. For the king of this island (by 

 name Altabin) a wise man and a great warrior, know 

 ing well both his own strength and that of his enemies, 

 handled the matter so, as he cut off their land-forces 

 from their ships ; and entoiled both their navy and 

 their camp with a greater power than theirs, both by 

 sea and land ; and compelled them to render them 

 selves without striking stroke : and after they were al 

 his mercy, contenting himself only with their oath that 

 they should no more bear arms against him, dismissed 

 them all in safety. But the Divine Revenge overtook 

 not long after those proud enterprises. For within 

 less than the space of one hundred years, the great 

 Atlantis was utterly lost and destroyed : not by a great 

 earthquake, as your man saith, (for that whole tract 

 is little subject to earthquakes,) but by a particular 

 deluge or inundation; those countries having, at this 

 day, far greater rivers and far higher mountains to 

 pour down waters, than any part of the old world. 

 But it is true that the same inundation was not deep ; 

 not past forty foot, in most places, from the ground : 

 so that although it destroyed man and beast generally, 

 yet some few wild inhabitants of the wood* escaped. 

 Birds also were saved by flying to the high trees and 



l The translation says, of the mountains: silvestres habitatores qttidam 

 montium. 



