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LAstly, we must blow vp this Mountaine Ararat it selfe, or else wee must digge it downe, and carry it out of Armenia; or find it elsewhere, and in a warmer Coun∣trie, and (withall) set it East from 〈◊〉〈◊〉: or else wee shall wound the Truth it selfe [unspec 10] with the weapons of our owne vaine imaginations.
Therefore to make the mistaking open to euery eye, wee must vnderstand, that Ararat (named by Moses) is not any one Hill, so called, no more then any one Hill among those Mountaines which diuide Italie from France is called the Alpes: or any 〈◊〉〈◊〉 among those which part France from Spaine is the Pyrenian; but as these being continuations of many Hils keepe one name in diuers Countries: so all that long ledge of Mountaines, which Plinie calleth by one name Taurus, and Ptolomie both* 1.1 Taurus, Niphates, Coatras, Coronus, Sariphi, vntill they encounter and crosse the Mountaines of the great Imaus, are of one generall name, and are called the Moun∣taines of Ararat or Armenia, because from thence or thereabout they seeeme to arise. [unspec 20] So all these Mountaines of Hyrcania, Armenia, Coraxis, Caspij Moschici, Amazonici, Heniochi, Scythici, (thus diuersly called by Plinie and others) Ptolomie cals by one name Caucasus, lying betweene the Seas Caspium and Euxinus: as all those Mountaines which cut asunder America, euen from the new Kingdome of Granado, to the streight of Magellan, are by one name called Andes. And as these Mountaines of Ararat runne East and West: so doe those maruailous Mountaines of Imaus stretch themselues North and South; and being of like extent well-neere, are called by the name of I∣maus, euen as Plinie calleth these former hils Taurus, and Moses the hils of Ararat. The reason of seuerall names giuen by Ptolomie was, thereby the better to distinguish the great Regions and Kingdomes, which these great mountaines bound and disseuer; [unspec 30] as Armenia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, Susiana, Persia, Parthia, Caramania, Aria, Margiana, Bactria, Sogdiana, and Paropanisus: hauing all these Kingdomes either on the North or South side of them. For all the mountaines of Asia (both the lesse and the greater) haue three generall names, (to wit) Taurus, Imaus, and Caucasus: and they receiue other titles, as they seuer and diuide particular places and regions. For these mountaines which sunder Cilicia from the rest of Asia the lesse on the North side, are called Taurus; and those mountaines which part it from Comagena (a Pro∣uince of Syria) are called Amanus: the mountaines called Taurus running East and West, as Imaus doth North and South. Through Taurus the Riuer of Euphrates for∣ceth her passage, leauing the name of Amanus to the mountaines on her West banke; [unspec 40] and on her East side the mountaines are sometimes knowne by the name of Taurus, (as in Ptolomies three tables of Asia) and sometimes Niphates: (as in the fourth) re∣taining that vncertaine appellation so long as they bound Armenia from Mesopota∣mia: and after the Riuer of Tygris cutteth them asunder, they then take the name of Niphates altogether, vntill they separate Assyria and Media; but then they call themselues Coatras, though betweene the vpper and nether Media, they doe not ap∣peare, but altogether discontinue. For at Mazada in Media they are not found, but runne through the Easterne Media by pieces: in the middle of which Region they call themselues Orontes, and towards the East part Coronus; out of the Southerne part whereof the Riuer of Bagradus riseth, which diuideth the ancient Persia from [unspec 50] Caramania: and then continuing their course Eastward by the name of Coronus, they giue to the Parthians and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 their proper Countries. This done, they change themselues into the mountaines of Sariphi, out of which riseth the Riuer Margus, af∣terward yeelding her selfe to Oxus: (now Abia) and drawing now neere their wayes