Mikrokosmos A little description of the great world. Augmented and reuised. By Peter Heylyn.

THE PYRENEAN HILLS.

Betwixt Spaine and France, are the Mountaines cal'd Pyrenaei; and that either because they are often strucken by thunder; or because they were once fired by certain shepheards, 880 yeares before Christ, at which time the Mines of gold and siluer ranne streaming downe for so many dayes, that the fame hereof inci∣ted forreiners to make an entry into this country: Or lastly of Pyrene a Nymph, the daughter of one Bebrix, supposed by some fabulous writers to haue been here rauished by Hercules. These hills not only stand as a naturall bound, between the two great and puissant Monarchs of France and Spaine; terminating as it were, the desires and attempts of one against the other, as well as their dominions: but are also that necke of land or Ist∣mus which tieth Spaine to the Continent, the Cantabrian Ocean fiercely beating on the West, and the Mediterranea•• gently washing the East ends of them. The highest part of this conti∣nued ridge of hill, is mount Canus, whereon if one standeth, hee may in a cleere day see both the Seas. It tooke the name of Ca∣nus from the whitenesse or hoarinesse thereof, as hauing on its top for the most part a cap of snow: in which respect the Alpes tooke their name, that in the Sabine dialect being tearmed Al∣pum, which in the Roman was called Album: and so also did mount Lebanon, Leban in the ancient Phoenician language, sig∣nifying white, and Lebanah whitenesse. The barbarous people inhabiting these mountaines, compelled Sertorius in his passage into Spaine, to pay them tribute or custome-money for his pas∣sage through them: at which, when the Souldiers murmured, as a thing dishonourable for a Roman Proconsull; hee replied that

he bought onely time; a commodity which such as aspire to haughty enterprises must take vp at any rates.

The French side of these hills is naked and barren, the Spanish very fertile, and adorned with trees. On this side standeth R••n∣••evalles so famous for the battle betwixt the Frenchmen and the Moores; in which 20000 of the French were put to route; toge∣ther with Rowland, cosen to Charles the great, Oliuer, and other Peere of France, of whom so many fabulous stories are related in old histories. The first that broke the ice was Turpine Arch∣bishop of Rheimes, and one of the 12 Peeres of France, who ta∣king vpon him to write the acts of Charles the great, hath in∣terlaced his story with a number of ridiculous lyes: so that the valour of Rowland, Oliver, and the rest, is much blemished and obscured by those relations, which purposely were faigned to manifest and increase it.

Notes

• Hist. of Sp.
• Brerewood.
• Plutarch.
• Hist. of. Fr.