QVAND le Roy Pyrrhus passa en Italie, apres qu’il eut recongneu l’ordonnance de l’armée que les Romains luy enuoyoient au deuant; Ie ne sçay, dit-il, quels barbares sont ceux-cy (car les Grecs appelloyent ainsi toutes les nations estrangeres) mais la disposition de cette armée que ie voy, n’est aucunement barbare. Autant en dirent les Grecs de celle que Flaminius fit passer en leur païs: et Philippus voyant d’vn tertre, l’ordre et distribution du camp Romain, en son Royaume, sous Publius Sulpicius Galba. Voilà comment il se faut garder de s’attacher aux opinions vulgaires, et les faut iuger par la voye de la raison, non par la voix commune.
WHEN King Pyrrhus crossed into Italy, after he had surveyed the formation of the army the Romans were sending to meet him, “I do not know,” he said, “what barbarians these are” (for the Greeks called all foreign nations so), “but the disposition of this army that I see is not in the least barbarous.” The Greeks said as much of the army that Flamininus brought into their country; and so did Philip, when he saw from a hillock the order and layout of the Roman camp in his kingdom under Publius Sulpicius Galba. That shows how we must beware of clinging to common opinions, and must judge them by the way of reason, not by popular report.
I’ay eu long temps auec moy vn homme qui auoit demeuré dix ou douze ans en cet autre monde, qui a esté descouuert en nostre siecle, en l’endroit où Vilegaignon print terre, qu’il surnomma la France Antartique. Cette descouuerte d’vn païs infiny, semble de grande consideration. Ie ne sçay si ie me puis respondre, qu’il ne s’en face à l’aduenir quelqu’autre, tant de personnages plus grands que nous ayans esté trompez en cette-cy. I’ay peur que nous ayons les yeux plus grands que le ventre, et plus de curiosité, que nous n’auons de capacité. Nous embrassons tout, mais nous n’estreignons que du vent.
For a long time I had with me a man who had lived ten or twelve years in that other world which has been discovered in our century, in the place where Villegaignon landed and which he named Antarctic France. This discovery of a boundless country seems a matter of great consequence. I do not know whether I can vouch that some other will not be made in the future, since so many greater men than we were mistaken about this one. I fear that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than capacity. We embrace everything, but we clasp nothing but wind.
Platon introduit Solon racontant auoir appris des Prestres de la ville de Saïs en Ægypte, que iadis et auant le deluge, il y auoit vne grande Isle nommée Atlantide, droict à la bouche du destroit de Gibaltar, qui tenoit plus de païs que l’Afrique et l’Asie toutes deux ensemble: et que les Roys de cette contrée là, qui ne possedoient pas seulement cette Isle, mais s’estoyent estendus dans la terre ferme si auant, qu’ils tenoyent de la largeur d’Afrique, iusques en Ægypte, et de la largeur de l’Europe, iusques en la Toscane, entreprindrent d’eniamber iusques sur l’Asie, et subiuguer toutes les nations qui bordent la mer Mediterranée, iusques au golfe de la mer Maiour: et pour cet effect, trauerserent les Espaignes, la Gaule, l’Italie iusques en la Grece, où les Atheniens les soustindrent: mais que quelque temps apres, et les Atheniens et eux et leur Isle furent engloutis par le deluge.
Plato introduces Solon telling how he had learned from the priests of the city of Saïs in Egypt that long ago, before the Flood, there was a great island called Atlantis, right at the mouth of the Strait of Gibraltar, which held more land than Africa and Asia together. The kings of that country, who not only possessed this island but had extended so far into the mainland that they held the breadth of Africa as far as Egypt and the breadth of Europe as far as Tuscany, undertook to stride over into Asia and subjugate all the nations bordering the Mediterranean as far as the gulf of the Black Sea. To that end they crossed the Spains, Gaul and Italy, as far as Greece, where the Athenians held them off; but some time later the Athenians, and they, and their island were swallowed up by the Flood.
Il est bien vray-semblable, que cet extreme rauage d’eau ait faict des changemens estranges aux habitations de la terre: comme on tient que la mer a retranché la Sicile d’auec l’Italie: Hæc loca vi quondam, et vasta conuulsa ruina / Dissiluisse ferunt, cùm protinus vtraque tellus / Vna foret; Chypre d’auec la Surie; l’Isle de Negrepont, de la terre ferme de la Bœoce: et ioint ailleurs les terres qui estoient diuisées, comblant de limon et de sable les fosses d’entre-deux.
It is very likely that this extreme devastation by water made strange changes in the inhabited parts of the earth, as it is held that the sea cut off Sicily from Italy—These lands, they say, once torn apart by force and vast upheaval, / Sprang asunder, when before the two countries / Had been one—Cyprus from Syria, and the island of Negropont from the mainland of Boeotia; and that elsewhere it joined lands that were divided, filling the channels between them with mud and sand:
Sterilisque diu palus aptáque remis / Vicinas vrbes alit, et graue sentit aratrum. Mais il n’y a pas grande apparence, que cette Isle soit ce monde nouueau, que nous venons de descouurir: car elle touchoit quasi l’Espaigne, et ce seroit vn effect incroyable d’inundation, de l’en auoir reculée comme elle est, de plus de douze cens lieuës. Outre ce que les nauigations des modernes ont des-ia presque descouuert, que ce n’est point vne isle, ains terre ferme, et continente auec l’Inde Orientale d’vn costé, et auec les terres, qui sont soubs les deux poles d’autre part: ou si elle en est separée, que c’est d’vn si petit destroit et interualle, qu’elle ne mérite pas d’estre nommée Isle, pour cela.
And the marsh, long barren and fit for oars, / Feeds the neighboring towns and feels the heavy plow. But there is little likelihood that this island is the new world we have just discovered. For it almost touched Spain, and it would be an incredible effect of a flood to have pushed it back as far as it is now, more than twelve hundred leagues. Besides, the voyages of the moderns have already all but established that it is not an island but mainland, continuous with the East Indies on one side and with the lands under the two poles on the other; or if it is separated from them, it is by so small a strait and gap that it does not deserve to be called an island on that account.
Il semble qu’il y aye des mouuemens naturels les vns, les autres fieureux en ces grands corps, comme aux nostres. Quand ie considere l’impression que ma riuiere de Dordoigne faict de mon temps, vers la riue droicte de sa descente; et qu’en vingt ans elle a tant gaigné, et desrobé le fondement à plusieurs bastimens, ie vois bien que c’est vne agitation extraordinaire: car si elle fust tousiours allée ce train, ou deust aller à l’aduenir, la figure du monde seroit renuersée. Mais il leur prend des changements. Tantost elles s’espandent d’vn costé, tantost d’vn autre, tantost elles se contiennent. Ie ne parle pas des soudaines inondations dequoy nous manions les causes.
It seems that there are movements in these great bodies, as in ours, some natural, others feverish. When I consider the inroads that my river, the Dordogne, has made in my lifetime on the right bank as it flows down, and how in twenty years it has gained so much ground and undermined the foundations of several buildings, I can see that this is an extraordinary disturbance: for if it had always gone at this rate, or were to go on so in future, the face of the world would be turned upside down. But rivers are subject to changes. Sometimes they spread to one side, sometimes to another, sometimes they keep within their banks. I am not speaking of sudden floods, whose causes we can account for.
En Medoc, le long de la mer, mon frere Sieur d’Arsac, voit vne sienne terre, enseuelie soubs les sables, que la mer vomit deuant elle: le feste d’aucuns bastimens paroist encore: ses rentes et domaines se sont eschangez en pasquages bien maigres. Les habitans disent que depuis quelque temps, la mer se pousse si fort vers eux, qu’ils ont perdu quatre lieuës de terre. Ces sables sont ses fourriers. Et voyons de grandes montioies d’arenes mouuantes, qui marchent vne demie lieuë deuant elle, et gaignent païs.
In Médoc, along the sea, my brother the Sieur d’Arsac sees one of his estates buried under the sands that the sea spews out before it; the tops of some buildings still show; his rents and lands have turned into very thin pasture. The inhabitants say that for some time now the sea has been pushing toward them so hard that they have lost four leagues of land. These sands are its advance guard. And we see great dunes of shifting sand marching half a league ahead of it and gaining ground.
L’autre tesmoignage de l’antiquité, auquel on veut rapporter cette descouuerte, est dans Aristote, au moins si ce petit liuret des merueilles inouyes est à luy. Il raconte là, que certains Carthaginois s’estants iettez au trauers de la mer Atlantique, hors le destroit de Gibaltar, et nauigé long temps, auoient descouuert en fin vne grande isle fertile, toute reuestuë de bois, et arrousée de grandes et profondes riuieres, fort esloignée de toutes terres fermes: et qu’eux, et autres depuis, attirez par la bonté et fertilité du terroir, s’y en allerent auec leurs femmes et enfans, et commencerent à s’y habituer.
The other testimony from antiquity to which people try to relate this discovery is in Aristotle—at least if that little book of unheard-of marvels is his. He tells there that certain Carthaginians set out across the Atlantic Ocean beyond the Strait of Gibraltar and, after sailing a long time, at last discovered a great fertile island, all clothed in forest and watered by great deep rivers, very far from any mainland; and that they, and others after them, drawn by the goodness and fertility of the soil, went there with their wives and children and began to settle.
Les Seigneurs de Carthage, voyans que leur pays se dépeuploit peu à peu, firent deffence expresse sur peine de mort, que nul n’eust plus à aller là, et en chasserent ces nouueaux habitans, craignants, à ce qu’on dit, que par succession de temps ils ne vinsent à multiplier tellement qu’ils les supplantassent eux mesmes, et ruinassent leur estat. Cette narration d’Aristote n’a non plus d’accord auec nos terres neufues.
The lords of Carthage, seeing their country being gradually depopulated, expressly forbade anyone, on pain of death, to go there any more, and drove out these new inhabitants, fearing, it is said, that in course of time they might multiply so much that they would supplant the Carthaginians themselves and ruin their state. This account of Aristotle’s agrees no better with our new lands.
A plain witness
A simple man who lived in Brazil is a better witness than clever cosmographers.
Cet homme que i’auoy, estoit homme simple et grossier, qui est vne condition propre à rendre veritable tesmoignage. Car les fines gens remarquent bien plus curieusement, et plus de choses, mais ils les glosent: et pour faire valoir leur interpretation, et la persuader, ils ne se peuuent garder d’alterer vn peu l’Histoire: ils ne vous representent iamais les choses pures; ils les inclinent et masquent selon le visage qu’ils leur ont veu: et pour donner credit à leur iugement, et vous y attirer, prestent volontiers de ce costé là à la matiere, l’allongent et l’amplifient. Ou il faut vn homme tres-fidelle, ou si simple, qu’il n’ait pas dequoy bastir et donner de la vraysemblance à des inuentions fauces; et qui n’ait rien espousé.
This man I had was a simple, rough fellow, which is a condition well suited to bearing true witness. For clever people notice more things, and more carefully, but they gloss them; and to give weight to their interpretation and make it persuasive, they cannot help altering the story a little. They never present things to you pure; they bend and mask them according to the face they saw them wear; and to give credit to their judgment and win you over to it, they are glad to add to the matter on that side, stretching and amplifying it. We need either a very honest man, or one so simple that he has not the wherewithal to build up false inventions and make them plausible, and who is wedded to nothing.
Le mien estoit tel: et outre cela il m’a faict voir à diuerses fois plusieurs mattelots et marchans, qu’il auoit cogneuz en ce voyage. Ainsi ie me contente de cette information, sans m’enquerir de ce que les Cosmographes en disent. Il nous faudroit des topographes, qui nous fissent narration particuliere des endroits où ils ont esté. Mais pour auoir cet auantage sur nous, d’auoir veu la Palestine, ils veulent iouïr du priuilege de nous conter nouuelles de tout le demeurant du monde. Ie voudroye que chacun escriuist ce qu’il sçait, et autant qu’il en sçait: non en cela seulement, mais en tous autres subiects.
Mine was such a man; and besides, he brought me on various occasions several sailors and merchants he had known on that voyage. So I am content with this information, without inquiring what the cosmographers say about it. We would need topographers, to give us detailed accounts of the places where they have been. But because they have this advantage over us, of having seen Palestine, they want to enjoy the privilege of telling us news of all the rest of the world. I would like everyone to write what he knows, and as much as he knows of it—not in this matter only, but in all other subjects.
Car tel peut auoir quelque particuliere science ou experience de la nature d’vne riuiere, ou d’vne fontaine, qui ne sçait au reste, que ce que chacun sçait: il entreprendra toutesfois, pour faire courir ce petit loppin, d’escrire toute la Physique. De ce vice sourdent plusieurs grandes incommoditez.
For a man may have some particular knowledge or experience of the nature of a river or a spring who otherwise knows only what everyone knows; yet to get this little scrap into circulation he will undertake to write the whole science of nature. From this vice spring many great drawbacks.
Barbarous and wild
Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; these peoples live close to nature.
Or ie trouue, pour reuenir à mon propos, qu’il n’y a rien de barbare et de sauuage en cette nation, à ce qu’on m’en a rapporté: sinon que chacun appelle barbarie, ce qui n’est pas de son vsage. Comme de vray nous n’auons autre mire de la verité, et de la raison, que l’exemple et idée des opinions et vsances du païs où nous sommes. Là est tousiours la parfaicte religion, la parfaicte police, parfaict et accomply vsage de toutes choses.
Now, to return to my subject, I find that there is nothing barbarous and wild in this nation, from what I have been told of it, except that each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice. For indeed we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in. There, always, is the perfect religion, the perfect government, the perfect and accomplished practice in all things.
Ils sont sauuages de mesmes que nous appellons sauuages les fruicts, que nature de soy et de son progrez ordinaire a produicts: là où à la verité ce sont ceux que nous auons alterez par nostre artifice, et destournez de l’ordre commun, que nous deurions appeller plustost sauuages. En ceux là sont viues et vigoureuses, les vrayes, et plus vtiles et naturelles, vertus et proprietez; lesquelles nous auons abbastardies en ceux-cy, les accommodant au plaisir de nostre goust corrompu. Et si pourtant la saueur mesme et delicatesse se trouue à nostre goust mesme excellente à l’enui des nostres, en diuers fruits de ces contrées là, sans culture: ce n’est pas raison que l’art gaigne le poinct d’honneur sur nostre grande et puissante mere nature.
They are wild in the same way that we call wild the fruits that nature has produced by herself and in her ordinary course; whereas in truth it is those we have altered by our artifice and diverted from the common order that we ought rather to call wild. In the former, the true, most useful and natural virtues and properties are alive and vigorous; in the latter we have debased them, adapting them to the pleasure of our corrupted taste. And yet in various uncultivated fruits of those countries the flavor and delicacy are found excellent even to our own taste, rivaling ours. It is not reasonable that art should win the point of honor over our great and powerful mother nature.
Nous auons tant rechargé la beauté et richesse de ses ouurages par noz inuentions, que nous l’auons du tout estouffée. Si est-ce que par tout où sa pureté reluit, elle fait vne merueilleuse honte à noz vaines et friuoles entreprinses. Et veniunt hederæ sponte sua melius, / Surgit et in solis formosior arbutus antris, / Et volucres nulla dulcius arte canunt. Tous nos efforts ne peuuent seulement arriuer à representer le nid du moindre oyselet, sa contexture, sa beauté, et l’vtilité de son vsage: non pas la tissure de la chetiue araignée. Toutes choses, dit Platon, sont produites ou par la nature, ou par la fortune, ou par l’art.
We have so overloaded the beauty and richness of her works with our inventions that we have smothered her entirely. Yet wherever her purity shines forth, she puts our vain and frivolous enterprises wonderfully to shame. And ivy comes better of its own accord, / And the arbutus grows lovelier in lonely caves, / And birds sing more sweetly with no art. All our efforts cannot even manage to reproduce the nest of the tiniest little bird, its structure, its beauty and its fitness for use—nor even the web of the puny spider. All things, says Plato, are produced either by nature, by fortune, or by art:
Les plus grandes et plus belles par l’vne ou l’autre des deux premieres: les moindres et imparfaictes par la derniere.
the greatest and most beautiful by one or the other of the first two, the lesser and imperfect ones by the last.
Ces nations me semblent donc ainsi barbares, pour auoir receu fort peu de façon de l’esprit humain, et estre encore fort voisines de leur naifueté originelle. Les loix naturelles leur commandent encores, fort peu abbastardies par les nostres. Mais c’est en telle pureté, qu’il me prend quelque fois desplaisir, dequoy la cognoissance n’en soit venuë plustost, du temps qu’il y auoit des hommes qui en eussent sçeu mieux iuger que nous.
These nations, then, seem to me barbarous in this sense: that they have received very little fashioning from the human mind and are still very close to their original naturalness. The laws of nature still govern them, very little debased by ours. But they are in such purity that I am sometimes sorry that knowledge of them did not come earlier, in the days when there were men who could have judged them better than we.
Il me desplaist que Lycurgus et Platon ne l’ayent euë: car il me semble que ce que nous voyons par experience en ces nations là, surpasse non seulement toutes les peintures dequoy la poësie a embelly l’aage doré, et toutes ses inuentions à feindre vne heureuse condition d’hommes: mais encore la conception et le desir mesme de la philosophie. Ils n’ont peu imaginer vne naifueté si pure et simple, comme nous la voyons par experience: ny n’ont peu croire que nostre societé se peust maintenir auec si peu d’artifice, et de soudeure humaine.
I am sorry that Lycurgus and Plato did not have it; for it seems to me that what we see by experience in those nations surpasses not only all the pictures with which poetry has embellished the golden age, and all its inventions in imagining a happy state of mankind, but even the conception and the very desire of philosophy. They could not imagine a naturalness so pure and simple as we see by experience; nor could they believe that our society could be maintained with so little artifice and human solder.
C’est vne nation, diroy-ie à Platon, en laquelle il n’y a aucune espece de trafique; nulle cognoissance de lettres; nulle science de nombres; nul nom de magistrat, ny de superiorité politique; nul vsage de seruice, de richesse, ou de pauureté; nuls contrats; nulles successions; nuls partages; nulles occupations, qu’oysiues; nul respect de parenté, que commun; nuls vestemens; nulle agriculture; nul metal; nul vsage de vin ou de bled. Les paroles mesmes, qui signifient la mensonge, la trahison, la dissimulation, l’auarice, l’enuie, la detraction, le pardon, inouyes. Combien trouueroit il la republique qu’il a imaginée, esloignée de cette perfection?
This is a nation, I would say to Plato, in which there is no kind of trade; no knowledge of letters; no science of numbers; no title of magistrate or of political superiority; no use of servitude, of wealth or of poverty; no contracts; no inheritances; no divisions of property; no occupations but leisurely ones; no regard for kinship except what is common to all; no clothing; no agriculture; no metal; no use of wine or wheat. The very words that signify lying, treachery, dissimulation, avarice, envy, slander, pardon—unheard of. How far from this perfection would he find the republic he imagined!
Hos natura modos primúm dedit. Au demeurant, ils viuent en vne contrée de païs tres-plaisante, et bien temperée: de façon qu’à ce que m’ont dit mes tesmoings, il est rare d’y voir vn homme malade: et m’ont asseuré, n’en y auoir veu aucun tremblant, chassieux, edenté, ou courbé de vieillesse. Ils sont assis le long de la mer, et fermez du costé de la terre, de grandes et hautes montaignes, ayans entre-deux, cent lieuës ou enuiron d’estendue en large. Ils ont grande abondance de poisson et de chairs, qui n’ont aucune ressemblance aux nostres; et les mangent sans autre artifice, que de les cuire.
These are the ways nature first ordained. For the rest, they live in a very pleasant and temperate stretch of country, so that, from what my witnesses have told me, it is rare to see a sick man there; and they have assured me that they never saw one there trembling, blear-eyed, toothless or bent with age. They are settled along the sea, and shut in on the landward side by great high mountains, with a stretch of about a hundred leagues in breadth between the two. They have a great abundance of fish and meat that bear no resemblance to ours, and they eat them with no other artifice than cooking.
Le premier qui y mena vn cheual, quoy qu’il les eust pratiquez à plusieurs autres voyages, leur fit tant d’horreur en cette assiette, qu’ils le tuerent à coups de traict, auant que le pouuoir recognoistre. Leurs bastimens sont fort longs, et capables de deux ou trois cents ames, estoffez d’escorse de grands arbres, tenans à terre par vn bout, et se soustenans et appuyans l’vn contre l’autre par le feste, à la mode d’aucunes de noz granges, desquelles la couuerture pend iusques à terre, et sert de flanq. Ils ont du bois si dur qu’ils en coupent et en font leurs espées, et des grils à cuire leur viande.
The first man who brought a horse there, though he had dealt with them on several other voyages, so horrified them, mounted as he was, that they shot him dead with arrows before they could recognize him. Their buildings are very long and can hold two or three hundred souls. They are covered with the bark of great trees, fixed in the ground at one end, and supporting and leaning on one another at the ridge, in the manner of some of our barns, whose roofs hang down to the ground and serve as sides. They have wood so hard that they cut with it and make their swords of it, and grills to cook their food.
Leurs licts sont d’vn tissu de cotton, suspenduz contre le toict, comme ceux de noz nauires, à chacun le sien: car les femmes couchent à part des maris. Ils se leuent auec le Soleil, et mangent soudain apres s’estre leuez, pour toute la iournée: car ils ne font autre repas que celuy-là. Ils ne boiuent pas lors, comme Suidas dit, de quelques autres peuples d’Orient, qui beuuoient hors du manger: ils boiuent à plusieurs fois sur iour, et d’autant. Leur breuuage est faict de quelque racine, et est de la couleur de noz vins clairets. Ils ne le boiuent que tiede.
Their beds are of woven cotton, hung from the roof like those in our ships, each person having his own: for the wives sleep apart from their husbands. They rise with the sun and eat immediately after rising, for the whole day, for they have no other meal than that one. They do not drink at that meal—like certain other peoples of the East, of whom Suidas says that they drank apart from eating—but they drink several times a day, and a great deal. Their drink is made from some root, and is the color of our light red wines. They drink it only lukewarm.
Ce breuuage ne se conserue que deux ou trois iours: il a le goust vn peu picquant, nullement fumeux, salutaire à l’estomach, et laxatif à ceux qui ne l’ont accoustumé: c’est vne boisson tres-aggreable à qui y est duit. Au lieu du pain ils vsent d’vne certaine matiere blanche, comme du coriandre confit. I’en ay tasté, le goust en est doux et vn peu fade. Toute la iournée se passe à dancer. Les plus ieunes vont à la chasse des bestes, à tout des arcs. Vne partie des femmes s’amusent cependant à chauffer leur breuuage, qui est leur principal office.
This drink keeps only two or three days; it tastes a little sharp, is not at all heady, is good for the stomach, and is laxative for those not used to it; it is a very pleasant drink for anyone accustomed to it. Instead of bread they use a certain white substance like candied coriander. I have tasted it; the taste is sweet and a little flat. The whole day is spent dancing. The younger men go hunting animals with bows. Some of the women meanwhile busy themselves warming their drink, which is their chief duty.
Il y a quelqu’vn des vieillards, qui le matin auant qu’ils se mettent à manger, presche en commun toute la grangée, en se promenant d’vn bout à autre, et redisant vne mesme clause à plusieurs fois, iusques à ce qu’il ayt acheué le tour, car ce sont bastimens qui ont bien cent pas de longueur; il ne leur recommande que deux choses, la vaillance contre les ennemis, et l’amitié à leurs femmes. Et ne faillent iamais de remarquer cette obligation, pour leur refrein, que ce sont elles qui leur maintiennent leur boisson tiede et assaisonnée.
One of the old men, in the morning before they begin to eat, preaches to the whole barnful together, walking from one end to the other and repeating the same phrase several times until he has completed the round (for these buildings are a good hundred paces long). He recommends only two things to them: valor against their enemies and love for their wives. And they never fail to point out this obligation, by way of refrain: that it is the wives who keep their drink warm and seasoned for them.
Il se void en plusieurs lieux, et entre autres chez moy, la forme de leurs lits, de leurs cordons, de leurs espées, et brasselets de bois, dequoy ils couurent leurs poignets aux combats, et des grandes cannes ouuertes par vn bout, par le son desquelles ils soustiennent la cadance en leur dance. Ils sont raz par tout, et se font le poil beaucoup plus nettement que nous, sans autre rasouër que de bois, ou de pierre. Ils croyent les ames eternelles; et celles qui ont bien merité des Dieux, estre logées à l’endroit du ciel où le Soleil se leue: les maudites, du costé de l’Occident.
In several places, and among others in my house, one can see what their beds are like, and their ropes, their swords, and the wooden bracelets with which they cover their wrists in battle, and the great canes, open at one end, by whose sound they keep time in their dance. They are shaved all over, and remove their hair much more cleanly than we do, with no other razor than one of wood or stone. They believe that souls are eternal, and that those that have deserved well of the gods are lodged in the part of the sky where the sun rises, and the accursed ones in the west.
Ils ont ie ne sçay quels Prestres et Prophetes, qui se presentent bien rarement au peuple, ayans leur demeure aux montaignes. A leur arriuée, il se faict vne grande feste et assemblée solennelle de plusieurs villages; chaque grange, comme ie l’ay descrite, faict vn village, et sont enuiron à vne lieuë Françoise l’vne de l’autre. Ce Prophete parle à eux en public, les exhortant à la vertu et à leur deuoir: mais toute leur science ethique ne contient que ces deux articles de la resolution à la guerre, et affection à leurs femmes.
They have some sort of priests and prophets, who very rarely appear before the people, since they live in the mountains. On their arrival there is a great feast and solemn assembly of several villages (each barn, as I have described it, makes a village, and they are about a French league from one another). This prophet speaks to them in public, exhorting them to virtue and to their duty; but all their ethical science contains only these two articles: resoluteness in war and affection for their wives.
Cettuy-cy leur prognostique les choses à venir, et les euenemens qu’ils doiuent esperer de leurs entreprinses: les achemine ou destourne de la guerre: mais c’est par tel si que où il faut à bien deuiner, et s’il leur aduient autrement qu’il ne leur a predit, il est haché en mille pieces, s’ils l’attrapent, et condamné pour faux Prophete. A cette cause celuy qui s’est vne fois mesconté, on ne le void plus. C’est don de Dieu, que la diuination: voyla pourquoy ce deuroit estre vne imposture punissable d’en abuser. Entre les Scythes, quand les deuins auoient failly de rencontre, on les couchoit enforgez de pieds et de mains, sur des charriotes pleines de bruyere, tirées par des bœufs, en quoy on les faisoit brusler.
He foretells to them things to come and the outcome they are to expect from their undertakings; he steers them toward war or away from it. But this is on condition that if he fails to divine correctly, and if things turn out otherwise than he predicted, he is hacked into a thousand pieces if they catch him, and condemned as a false prophet. For that reason, one who has been wrong once is never seen again. Divination is a gift of God; that is why abusing it ought to be a punishable imposture. Among the Scythians, when the soothsayers had missed the mark, they were laid, shackled hand and foot, on carts full of heather drawn by oxen, and burned in them.
Ceux qui manient les choses subiettes à la conduitte de l’humaine suffisance, sont excusables d’y faire ce qu’ils peuuent. Mais ces autres, qui nous viennent pipant des asseurances d’vne faculté extraordinaire, qui est hors de nostre cognoissance: faut-il pas les punir, de ce qu’ils ne maintiennent l’effect de leur promesse, et de la temerité de leur imposture?
Those who handle matters subject to the guidance of human ability are excusable for doing what they can. But those others, who come to us deceiving us with assurances of an extraordinary faculty beyond our knowledge—should they not be punished for failing to make good their promise, and for the rashness of their imposture?
War and the eating of prisoners
They fight only for valor and eat captives as revenge; our own cruelties are worse.
Ils ont leurs guerres contre les nations, qui sont au delà de leurs montaignes, plus auant en la terre ferme, ausquelles ils vont tous nuds, n’ayants autres armes que des arcs ou des espées de bois, appointées par vn bout, à la mode des langues de noz espieuz. C’est chose esmerueillable que de la fermeté de leurs combats, qui ne finissent iamais que par meurtre et effusion de sang: car de routes et d’effroy, ils ne sçauent que c’est. Chacun rapporte pour son trophée la teste de l’ennemy qu’il a tué, et l’attache à l’entrée de son logis.
They wage wars against the nations beyond their mountains, further inland. They go to these wars quite naked, with no other weapons than bows or wooden swords sharpened at one end, like the tips of our boar-spears. The steadfastness of their battles is a marvel: they never end except in slaughter and bloodshed, for they do not know what routs and panic are. Each man brings back as his trophy the head of the enemy he has killed, and fixes it at the entrance of his dwelling.
Apres auoir long temps bien traité leurs prisonniers, et de toutes les commoditez, dont ils se peuuent aduiser, celuy qui en est le maistre, faict vne grande assemblée de ses cognoissans. Il attache une corde à l’vn des bras du prisonnier, par le bout de laquelle il le tient, esloigné de quelques pas, de peur d’en estre offencé, et donne au plus cher de ses amis, l’autre bras à tenir de mesme; et eux deux en presence de toute l’assemblée l’assomment à coups d’espée. Cela faict ils le rostissent, et en mangent en commun, et en enuoyent des loppins à ceux de leurs amis, qui sont absens.
After treating their prisoners well for a long time, with every comfort they can think of, the man who owns a prisoner calls a great gathering of his acquaintances. He ties a rope to one of the prisoner’s arms and holds him by the end of it, a few paces away, for fear of being hurt by him. He gives his dearest friend the other arm to hold in the same way, and the two of them, in the presence of the whole gathering, beat him to death with their swords. That done, they roast him and eat him together, and send portions to those of their friends who are absent.
Ce n’est pas comme on pense, pour s’en nourrir, ainsi que faisoient anciennement les Scythes, c’est pour representer vne extreme vengeance. Et qu’il soit ainsin, ayans apperceu que les Portugais, qui s’estoient r’alliez à leurs aduersaires, vsoient d’vne autre sorte de mort contre eux, quand ils les prenoient; qui estoit, de les enterrer iusques à la ceinture, et tirer au demeurant du corps force coups de traict, et les pendre apres: ils penserent que ces gens icy de l’autre monde (comme ceux qui auoient semé la cognoissance de beaucoup de vices parmy leur voisinage, et qui estoient beaucoup plus grands maistres qu’eux en toute sorte de malice) ne prenoient pas sans occasion cette sorte de vengeance, et qu’elle deuoit estre plus aigre que la leur, dont ils commencerent de quitter leur façon ancienne, pour suiure cette-cy.
This is not, as people think, to feed themselves on him, as the Scythians did in ancient times; it is to signify an extreme revenge. And here is the proof. They noticed that the Portuguese, who had joined forces with their enemies, used another kind of death against them when they captured them: they buried them up to the waist, shot the rest of the body full of arrows, and then hanged them. They concluded that these people from the other world, being men who had spread the knowledge of many vices among their neighbors and were far greater masters than they of every kind of wickedness, did not take this kind of revenge without good reason, and that it must be more painful than their own. So they began to abandon their old way and follow this one.
Ie ne suis pas marry que nous remerquons l’horreur barbaresque qu’il y a en vne telle action, mais ouy bien dequoy iugeans à point de leurs fautes, nous soyons si aueuglez aux nostres. Ie pense qu’il y a plus de barbarie à manger vn homme viuant, qu’à le manger mort, à deschirer par tourmens et par gehennes, vn corps encore plein de sentiment, le faire rostir par le menu, le faire mordre et meurtrir aux chiens, et aux pourceaux (comme nous l’auons non seulement leu, mais veu de fresche memoire, non entre des ennemis anciens, mais entre des voisins et concitoyens, et qui pis est, sous pretexte de pieté et de religion) que de le rostir et manger apres qu’il est trespassé.
I am not sorry that we note the barbarous horror of such an act; what I am sorry about is that, while judging their faults rightly, we are so blind to our own. I think there is more barbarism in eating a man alive than in eating him dead; in tearing apart by tortures and the rack a body still full of feeling, roasting it bit by bit, having it bitten and mangled by dogs and swine (as we have not only read but seen within fresh memory, not among ancient enemies but among neighbors and fellow citizens, and what is worse, on the pretext of piety and religion), than in roasting and eating him after he is dead.
Chrysippus et Zenon chefs de la secte Stoicque, ont bien pensé qu’il n’y auoit aucun mal de se seruir de nostre charoigne, à quoy que ce fust, pour nostre besoin, et d’en tirer de la nourriture: comme nos ancestres estans assiegez par Cæsar en la ville d’Alexia, se resolurent de soustenir la faim de ce siege par les corps des vieillars, des femmes, et autres personnes inutiles au combat. Vascones, fama est, alimentis talibus vsi / Produxere animas. Et les medecins ne craignent pas de s’en seruir à toute sorte d’vsage, pour nostre santé; soit pour l’appliquer au dedans, ou au dehors.
Chrysippus and Zeno, heads of the Stoic school, did indeed think there was no harm in using our carcass for whatever we needed, and in drawing nourishment from it; just as our ancestors, besieged by Caesar in the town of Alesia, resolved to bear the hunger of that siege by means of the bodies of the old men, the women and other persons useless for fighting. The Vascones, so the story goes, by using such food / Prolonged their lives. And physicians do not shrink from using it in every sort of way for our health, whether applied internally or externally.
Mais il ne se trouua iamais aucune opinion si desreglée, qui excusast la trahison, la desloyauté, la tyrannie, la cruauté, qui sont noz fautes ordinaires. Nous les pouuons donc bien appeller barbares, eu esgard aux regles de la raison, mais non pas eu esgard à nous, qui les surpassons en toute sorte de barbarie.
But no opinion was ever found so unruly as to excuse treachery, disloyalty, tyranny and cruelty, which are our ordinary faults. So we may well call them barbarous with regard to the rules of reason, but not with regard to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarism.
Leur guerre est toute noble et genereuse, et a autant d’excuse et de beauté que cette maladie humaine en peut receuoir: elle n’a autre fondement parmy eux, que la seule ialousie de la vertu. Ils ne sont pas en debat de la conqueste de nouuelles terres: car ils iouyssent encore de cette vberté naturelle, qui les fournit sans trauail et sans peine, de toutes choses necessaires, en telle abondance, qu’ils n’ont que faire d’agrandir leurs limites. Ils sont encore en cet heureux point, de ne desirer qu’autant que leurs necessitez naturelles leur ordonnent: tout ce qui est au delà, est superflu pour eux.
Their warfare is wholly noble and generous, and has as much excuse and beauty as this human disease can admit of. Among them it has no other basis than the mere jealous rivalry of valor. They are not quarreling over the conquest of new lands, for they still enjoy that natural abundance which supplies them, without toil and without trouble, with all necessary things in such plenty that they have no need to enlarge their borders. They are still at that happy stage of desiring only as much as their natural needs require; everything beyond that is superfluous to them.
Ils s’entr’appellent generallement ceux de mesme aage freres: enfans, ceux qui sont au dessouz; et les vieillards sont peres à tous les autres. Ceux-cy laissent à leurs heritiers en commun, cette pleine possession de biens par indiuis, sans autre titre, que celuy tout pur, que nature donne à ses creatures, les produisant au monde.
Those of the same age generally call one another brothers; those younger they call children; and the old men are fathers to all the rest. These leave to their heirs in common this full possession of goods, held undivided, with no other title than the pure and simple one that nature gives to her creatures in bringing them into the world.
Si leurs voisins passent les montaignes pour les venir assaillir, et qu’ils emportent la victoire sur eux, l’acquest du victorieux, c’est la gloire, et l’auantage d’estre demeuré maistre en valeur et en vertu: car autrement ils n’ont que faire des biens des vaincus, et s’en retournent à leurs pays, où ils n’ont faute d’aucune chose necessaire; ny faute encore de cette grande partie, de sçauoir heureusement iouir de leur condition, et s’en contenter. Autant en font ceux-cy à leur tour. Ils ne demandent à leurs prisonniers, autre rançon que la confession et recognoissance d’estre vaincus.
If their neighbors cross the mountains to attack them and win the victory over them, the victor’s gain is glory, and the advantage of having proved the master in valor and virtue. Beyond that they have no use for the goods of the vanquished, and they go back to their own country, where they lack nothing necessary; nor do they lack that great thing, knowing how to enjoy their condition happily and be content with it. These do the same in their turn. They ask no other ransom of their prisoners than the confession and acknowledgment that they are beaten.
Mais il ne s’en trouue pas vn en tout vn siecle, qui n’ayme mieux la mort, que de relascher, ny par contenance, ny de parole, vn seul point d’vne grandeur de courage inuincible. Il ne s’en void aucun, qui n’ayme mieux estre tué et mangé, que de requerir seulement de ne l’estre pas. Ils les traictent en toute liberté, afin que la vie leur soit d’autant plus chere: et les entretiennent communément des menasses de leur mort future, des tourmens qu’ils y auront à souffrir, des apprests qu’on dresse pour cet effect, du detranchement de leurs membres, et du festin qui se fera à leurs despens.
But in a whole century not one prisoner is to be found who would not rather die than yield a single jot of an invincible greatness of courage, by look or by word. Not one is seen who would not rather be killed and eaten than so much as ask not to be. They treat them with complete freedom, so that life may be all the dearer to them; and they commonly entertain them with threats of their coming death, of the torments they will have to suffer, of the preparations being made for it, of the cutting up of their limbs, and of the feast that will be held at their expense.
Tout cela se faict pour cette seule fin, d’arracher de leur bouche quelque parole molle ou rabaissée, ou de leur donner enuie de s’en fuyr; pour gaigner cet auantage de les auoir espouuantez, et d’auoir faict force à leur constance. Car aussi à le bien prendre, c’est en ce seul point que consiste la vraye victoire: victoria nulla est, / Quàm quæ confessos animo quoque subiugat hostes. Les Hongres tres-belliqueux combattants, ne poursuiuoient iadis leur pointe outre auoir rendu l’ennemy à leur mercy. Car en ayant arraché cette confession, ils le laissoyent aller sans offense, sans rançon; sauf pour le plus d’en tirer parole de ne s’armer des lors en auant contre eux.
All this is done for the sole purpose of wringing from their mouths some weak or abject word, or of making them want to run away, so as to gain the advantage of having frightened them and broken their constancy. For indeed, rightly considered, true victory consists in this alone: there is no victory / But that which subdues enemies who confess themselves beaten in their hearts as well. The Hungarians, most warlike fighters, did not in former times press their advantage beyond having brought the enemy to their mercy. Having wrung this confession from him, they let him go unharmed and without ransom, except at most for getting his word not to take up arms against them from then on.
Assez d’auantages gaignons nous sur nos ennemis, qui sont auantages empruntez, non pas nostres. C’est la qualité d’vn porte-faix, non de la vertu, d’auoir les bras et les iambes plus roides: c’est vne qualité morte et corporelle, que la disposition: c’est vn coup de la fortune, de faire broncher nostre ennemy, et de luy esblouyr les yeux par la lumiere du Soleil: c’est vn tour d’art et de science, et qui peut tomber en vne personne lasche et de neant, d’estre suffisant à l’escrime.
Many of the advantages we gain over our enemies are borrowed advantages, not our own. It is the quality of a porter, not of valor, to have stronger arms and legs; agility is a dead, bodily quality; it is a stroke of fortune to make our enemy stumble, or to dazzle his eyes with the light of the sun; and being good at fencing is a matter of skill and technique, which may fall to a cowardly and worthless person.
L’estimation et le prix d’vn homme consiste au cœur et en la volonté: c’est là où gist son vray honneur: la vaillance c’est la fermeté, non pas des iambes et des bras, mais du courage et de l’ame: elle ne consiste pas en la valeur de nostre cheual, ny de noz armes, mais en la nostre. Celuy qui tombe obstiné en son courage, si succiderit, de genu pugnat. Qui pour quelque danger de la mort voisine, ne relasche aucun point de son asseurance, qui regarde encores en rendant l’ame, son ennemy d’vne veuë ferme et desdaigneuse, il est battu, non pas de nous, mais de la fortune: il est tué, non pas vaincu: les plus vaillans sont par fois les plus infortunez.
A man’s worth and value lie in his heart and his will; that is where his true honor resides. Valor is firmness, not of legs and arms, but of courage and soul; it lies not in the worth of our horse or of our weapons, but in our own. He who falls with his courage unyielding, if he has fallen, fights on his knees. He who does not slacken his assurance in the least for any danger of imminent death; who, as he gives up the ghost, still looks at his enemy with a firm and scornful gaze—he is beaten not by us but by fortune; he is killed, not conquered. The most valiant are sometimes the most unfortunate.
Aussi y a-il des pertes triomphantes à l’enui des victoires. Ny ces quatre victoires sœurs, les plus belles que le Soleil aye onques veu de ses yeux, de Salamine, de Platées, de Mycale, de Sicile, n’oserent onques opposer toute leur gloire ensemble, à la gloire de la desconfiture du Roy Leonidas et des siens au pas de Thermopyles, Qui courut iamais d’vne plus glorieuse enuie, et plus ambitieuse au gain du combat, que le Capitaine Ischolas à la perte? Qui plus ingenieusement et curieusement s’est asseuré de son salut, que luy de sa ruine?
So there are also defeats that are as triumphant as victories. Not even those four sister victories, the finest the sun ever beheld with its eyes—Salamis, Plataea, Mycale and Sicily—ever dared set all their combined glory against the glory of the defeat of King Leonidas and his men at the pass of Thermopylae. Who ever rushed with a more glorious and ambitious eagerness to win a battle than Captain Ischolas to lose one? Who has ever secured his own safety more ingeniously and carefully than he secured his ruin?
Il estoit commis à deffendre certain passage du Peloponnese, contre les Arcadiens; pour quoy faire, se trouuant du tout incapable, veu la nature du lieu, et inegalité des forces: et se resoluant que tout ce qui se presenteroit aux ennemis, auroit de necessité à y demeurer: d’autre part, estimant indigne et de sa propre vertu et magnanimité, et du nom Lacedemonien, de faillir à sa charge: il print entre ces deux extremités, vn moyen party, de telle sorte: Les plus ieunes et dispos de sa troupe, il les conserua à la tuition et seruice de leur païs, et les y renuoya: et auec ceux desquels le defaut estoit moindre, il delibera de soustenir ce pas: et par leur mort en faire achetter aux ennemis l’entrée la plus chere, qu’il luy seroit possible: comme il aduint.
He had been charged with defending a certain pass in the Peloponnese against the Arcadians. He found himself wholly unable to do so, given the nature of the place and the inequality of the forces, and concluded that whoever faced the enemy there must of necessity stay there for good. On the other hand, he judged it unworthy both of his own valor and magnanimity and of the Spartan name to fail in his charge. Between these two extremes he took a middle course, as follows. The youngest and fittest of his troop he preserved for the protection and service of their country, and sent them back home; and with those whose loss would matter less, he resolved to hold the pass, and by their death to make the enemy pay as dearly as he possibly could for getting through. And so it turned out.
Car estant tantost enuironné de toutes parts par les Arcadiens: apres en auoir faict vne grande boucherie, luy et les siens furent tous mis au fil de l’espée. Est-il quelque trophée assigné pour les veincueurs, qui ne soit mieux deu à ces veincus? Le vray veincre a pour son roolle l’estour, non pas le salut: et consiste l’honneur de la vertu, à combattre, non à battre.
For soon he was surrounded on all sides by the Arcadians, and after making a great slaughter of them, he and his men were all put to the sword. Is there any trophy assigned to the victors that is not more due to these vanquished? True victory has for its part the fight, not survival; and the honor of valor lies in fighting, not in beating.
Pour reuenir à nostre histoire, il s’en faut tant que ces prisonniers se rendent, pour tout ce qu’on leur fait, qu’au rebours pendant ces deux ou trois mois qu’on les garde, ils portent vne contenance gaye, ils pressent leurs maistres de se haster de les mettre en cette espreuue, ils les deffient, les iniurient, leur reprochent leur lascheté, et le nombre des battailles perduës contre les leurs.
To return to our story: these prisoners are so far from giving in, whatever is done to them, that on the contrary, during the two or three months they are kept, they bear a cheerful countenance. They urge their masters to hurry up and put them to the test; they defy them, insult them, reproach them with their cowardice and with the number of battles they have lost against their own people.
I’ay vne chanson faicte par vn prisonnier, où il y a ce traict: Qu’ils viennent hardiment trétous, et s’assemblent pour disner de luy, car ils mangeront quant et quant leurs peres et leurs ayeulx, qui ont seruy d’aliment et de nourriture à son corps: ces muscles, dit-il, cette chair et ces veines, ce sont les vostres, pauure fols que vous estes: vous ne recognoissez pas que la substance des membres de vos ancestres s’y tient encore: sauourez les bien, vous y trouuerez le goust de vostre propre chair: inuention, qui ne sent aucunement la barbarie.
I have a song composed by a prisoner which contains this point: let them all come boldly and gather to dine on him, for at the same time they will be eating their own fathers and grandfathers, who have served as food and nourishment for his body. These muscles, he says, this flesh and these veins are yours, poor fools that you are; you do not recognize that the substance of your ancestors’ limbs is still in them. Savor them well: you will find in them the taste of your own flesh. A notion with no whiff of barbarism about it at all.
Ceux qui les peignent mourans, et qui representent cette action quand on les assomme, ils peignent le prisonnier, crachant au visage de ceux qui le tuent, et leur faisant la mouë. De vray ils ne cessent iusques au dernier souspir, de les brauer et deffier de parole et de contenance. Sans mentir, au prix de nous, voila des hommes bien sauuages: car ou il faut qu’ils le soyent bien à bon escient, ou que nous le soyons: il y a vne merueilleuse distance entre leur forme et la nostre.
Those who paint them dying, and depict the moment when they are killed, paint the prisoner spitting in the faces of those who are killing him and pulling faces at them. Indeed, to their last breath they never stop braving and defying them by word and look. Truly, here are men who are very wild compared with us: for either they must be so in good earnest, or we must be; there is an amazing distance between their ways and ours.
Les hommes y ont plusieurs femmes, et en ont d’autant plus grand nombre, qu’ils sont en meilleure reputation de vaillance. C’est vne beauté remarquable en leurs mariages, que la mesme ialousie que nos femmes ont pour nous empescher de l’amitié et bien-vueillance d’autres femmes, les leurs l’ont toute pareille pour la leur acquerir. Estans plus soigneuses de l’honneur de leurs maris, que de toute autre chose, elles cherchent et mettent leur solicitude à auoir le plus de compaignes qu’elles peuuent, d’autant que c’est vn tesmoignage de la vertu du mary. Les nostres crieront au miracle: ce ne l’est pas. C’est vne vertu proprement matrimoniale: mais du plus haut estage.
The men there have several wives, and the higher their reputation for valor, the more they have. It is a remarkable beauty in their marriages that the same jealousy our wives have in keeping us from the friendship and goodwill of other women, theirs have in exactly the same measure in winning it for them. Being more concerned for their husbands’ honor than for anything else, they strive and take pains to have as many companions as they can, since that is a testimony to the husband’s valor. Our wives will cry miracle; it is no miracle. It is a properly matrimonial virtue, but of the highest order.
Et en la Bible, Lea, Rachel, Sara et les femmes de Iacob fournirent leurs belles seruantes à leurs maris, et Liuia seconda les appetits d’Auguste, à son interest: et la femme du Roy Deiotarus Stratonique, presta non seulement à l’vsage de son mary, vne fort belle ieune fille de chambre, qui la seruoit, mais en nourrit soigneusement les enfants: et leur feit espaule à succeder aux estats de leur pere. Et afin qu’on ne pense point que tout cecy se face par vne simple et seruile obligation à leur vsance, et par l’impression de l’authorité de leur ancienne coustume, sans discours et sans iugement, et pour auoir l’ame si stupide, que de ne pouuoir prendre autre party, il faut alleguer quelques traits de leur suffisance.
And in the Bible, Leah, Rachel, Sarah and the wives of Jacob provided their beautiful handmaids to their husbands; Livia seconded the appetites of Augustus, to her own detriment; and Stratonice, the wife of King Deiotarus, not only lent her husband for his use a very beautiful young chambermaid who served her, but carefully brought up the children and backed them in succeeding to their father’s dominions. And lest anyone think that all this is done out of a simple and servile obligation to their usage, under the weight of the authority of their ancient custom, without reasoning and without judgment, because their minds are too dull to take any other course, I must cite some instances of their ability.
Outre celuy que ie vien de reciter de l’vne de leurs chansons guerrieres, i’en ay vn’ autre amoureuse, qui commence en ce sens: Couleuure arreste toy, arreste toy couleuure, afin que ma sœur tire sur le patron de ta peinture, la façon et l’ouurage d’vn riche cordon, que ie puisse donner à m’amie: ainsi soit en tout temps ta beauté et ta disposition preferée à tous les autres serpens. Ce premier couplet, c’est le refrein de la chanson. Or i’ay assez de commerce auec la poësie pour iuger cecy, que non seulement il n’y a rien de barbarie en cette imagination, mais qu’elle est tout à faict Anacreontique.
Besides the passage I have just recounted from one of their war songs, I have another song, a love song, which begins in this sense: Adder, stay; stay, adder, so that from the pattern of your coloring my sister may take the design and workmanship of a rich cord that I may give to my love; and so may your beauty and your grace be preferred forever to all other snakes. This first couplet is the refrain of the song. Now I have enough acquaintance with poetry to judge this much: not only is there nothing barbarous in this conception, but it is altogether Anacreontic.
Leur langage au demeurant, c’est vn langage doux, et qui a le son aggreable, retirant aux terminaisons Grecques.
Their language, for the rest, is soft and pleasant-sounding, rather like Greek in its endings.
Three visitors at Rouen
Brought to France, three of them marvel at men obeying a child and at unequal wealth.
Trois d’entre eux, ignorans combien couttera vn iour à leur repos, et à leur bon heur, la cognoissance des corruptions de deçà, et que de ce commerce naistra leur ruine, comme ie presuppose qu’elle soit des-ia auancée (bien miserables de s’estre laissez pipper au desir de la nouuelleté, et auoir quitté la douceur de leur ciel, pour venir voir le nostre) furent à Roüan, du temps que le feu Roy Charles neufiesme y estoit: le Roy parla à eux long temps, on leur fit voir nostre façon, nostre pompe, la forme d’vne belle ville: apres cela, quelqu’vn en demanda leur aduis, et voulut sçauoir d’eux, ce qu’ils y auoient trouué de plus admirable: ils respondirent trois choses, dont i’ay perdu la troisiesme, et en suis bien marry; mais i’en ay encore deux en memoire.
Three of them were at Rouen at the time when the late King Charles IX was there. They did not know how dearly their peace and happiness will one day pay for the knowledge of the corruptions on this side of the ocean, nor that from this contact will come their ruin, which I suppose is already well advanced. Most wretched they were, to let themselves be lured by the desire for novelty and to leave the sweetness of their own sky to come and see ours! The king talked with them for a long time; they were shown our ways, our pomp, the layout of a fine city. After that someone asked their opinion and wanted to know what they had found most remarkable. They replied with three things, of which I have forgotten the third, and I am very sorry about it; but I still remember two.
Ils dirent qu’ils trouuoient en premier lieu fort estrange, que tant de grands hommes portans barbe, forts et armez, qui estoient autour du Roy (il est vray-semblable qu’ils parloient des Suisses de sa garde) se soubmissent à obeir à vn enfant, et qu’on ne choisissoit plustost quelqu’vn d’entre eux pour commander.
They said that, in the first place, they found it very strange that so many tall, bearded men, strong and armed, who stood around the king (it is likely they meant the Swiss of his guard), should submit to obey a child, and that one of them was not chosen to command instead.
Secondement (ils ont vne façon de leur langage telle qu’ils nomment les hommes, moitié les vns des autres) qu’ils auoyent apperceu qu’il y auoit parmy nous des hommes pleins et gorgez de toutes sortes de commoditez, et que leurs moitiez estoient mendians à leurs portes, décharnez de faim et de pauureté; et trouuoient estrange comme ces moitiez icy necessiteuses, pouuoient souffrir vne telle iniustice, qu’ils ne prinsent les autres à la gorge, ou missent le feu à leurs maisons.
Secondly (they have a way of speaking in their language whereby they call men halves of one another), they had noticed that among us there were men full and gorged with all sorts of good things, while their halves were begging at their doors, emaciated with hunger and poverty; and they found it strange that these needy halves could put up with such injustice, and did not take the others by the throat or set fire to their houses.
Ie parlay à l’vn d’eux fort long temps, mais i’auois vn truchement qui me suiuoit si mal, et qui estoit si empesché à receuoir mes imaginations par sa bestise, que ie n’en peus tirer rien qui vaille.
I talked with one of them for a very long time; but I had an interpreter who followed me so badly, and whose stupidity made it so hard for him to take in my ideas, that I could get nothing worthwhile out of him.
Sur ce que ie luy demanday quel fruit il receuoit de la superiorité qu’il auoit parmy les siens, car c’estoit vn Capitaine, et noz matelots le nommoient Roy, il me dit, que c’estoit, marcher le premier à la guerre: De combien d’hommes il estoit suiuy; il me montra vne espace de lieu, pour signifier que c’estoit autant qu’il en pourroit en vne telle espace, ce pouuoit estre quatre ou cinq mille hommes: Si hors la guerre toute son authorité estoit expirée; il dit qu’il luy en restoit cela, que quand il visitoit les villages qui dépendoient de luy, on luy dressoit des sentiers au trauers des hayes de leurs bois, par où il peust passer bien à l’aise.
When I asked him what benefit he gained from his high rank among his people (for he was a captain, and our sailors called him king), he told me it was to march first in war. How many men followed him? He pointed to a stretch of ground, to signify as many as could fit into such a space; it might have been four or five thousand men. Did all his authority lapse when there was no war? He said that this much remained to him: when he visited the villages that depended on him, they cleared paths for him through the thickets of their woods, so that he could pass through quite comfortably.
Tout cela ne va pas trop mal: mais quoy? ils ne portent point de haut de chausses.
All this is not too bad. But what of it? They don’t wear breeches.