ttittorie of the Indies KB, i. 



and lay not their nieate too necrc nor too farre off, left 

 it melt away . The like may be feene in another expe 

 rience in candles of tallow or waxe, ifthevvike bee 

 great,it melts the tallow or the waxe, for that the heat 

 cannot confume the moiftnes which rifeth, but if the 

 flame be proporcionable, the waxe melts nor droppes 

 not, for that the flame doth wafte it by little and little 

 as it rifeth. The which feerneth to me the true rcafon, 

 why vnder the Equinocftiall and burning Zone, the vi 

 olence of the heat doth caufe raine,the which in other 

 Regions growes through want thereof. 



vnderjland y that which bath been f or ^ 

 mertyfyoken of the burning Zone. CHAP. 8. 



IF in naturall and phificall things, we muft not fceke 

 out infallible and mathematical! rules , but that 

 which is ordinarieand tried by experience, which is 

 the moft perfeft rule, wee muft then belecve what wee 

 have (aid , that there is more humiditie vnder the bur 

 ning Zone then in other Regions^and that it raines leffe 

 there, when the funneisneereft, muft be taken and 

 vnderftood after one fbrt,as in truth it is the moft com 

 mon and ordinarie. But this is not to hinder the ex 

 ceptions which nature hath given to this rule 5 making 

 fome Regions of the burning Zone extreamely drie. 

 The which is reported of Ethiopia 5 and wee have 

 feene it in a great paitofP^, where all that land or 

 coaftj which they call Plaines, wants raine, yea,land wa 

 ters, except fbme vallies , where rivers f ill from the 

 mountaines-the reft is a fandie and barren (bile, where 

 you (hall hardly finde any iprings, but fome deepe 



H 2 wells. 



