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Description of the yle Citharee, vulgarly called Cerigo.
Chap. 2.
THis Ile of Cerigo, as writeth Bordon in his Isolary, was first called Scothera,* 1.1 but as saieth Aristotle, Porphiris, for the beautiful marbers which are there. And yet Plinie and diuers others do cal it Cithere, by the name of Cithere the sonne of Phaenis, & presently is called Cerigo. Within this yle Venus after her birth made her first habitation, & (within a temple erected for her) was worshipped & reuerēced as a goddesse & princesse of the same. She regardeth towards ye west ye cape Malee, distāt frō it according to the opiniō of the moderne mariners 30. myles. But Pliny,* 1.2 & Strabon make therof but 5. miles distāce, wherein me thinketh they haue greatly erred, for experiēce sheweth the distāce to be much greater. There are diuers ports, which neuer¦thelesse are very straight & dāgerous, & this yle is round about so ful of woods & mountaines that she is almost desert & vnha∣bited, but towards the castel, where the Proueditor dwelleth, & in certain smal villages of no account: the circuit is 60. thousād paces, aboūding (as reciteth the said Bordon) of wild asses,* 1.3 whi∣che haue in their head a stone, hauing the vertue against the fal∣ling sicknes, paine in the flanks, & to laye vppon a woman that cannot be deliuered of child.