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Article ON THE EXISTENCE OF MERMAIDS. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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On The Existence Of Mermaids.
remaining , wmcn wno nan Deen employed to embowel it before , had left , it seems , behind . If I may venture to trespass farther on the patience of your readers , I beg to add to the facts , I have already produced , a singular relation of an amphibious monster , which is related by Padre Feijoo , For the truth of this relation I will not pretend to vouch . I give it , however , in an . exact translation of his own words .
' In the month of June , in the year 16 74 , some young men walking upon the sea-side in Bilboa , one of them , named Francis de la Vega , of about fifteen years of age , suddenly leaped into the sea , and disappeared presently . His companions , after waiting some time , and he not returning , concluded he was drowned . They then made the event public , and sent an account of it to de la Vega ' s mother , who
lived at Lierganes , a small town in the archbishopric of Burgos . At first , she did not give credit to his death ; but her son not appearingat her house , nor in , the city wherein he lived before his misfortune ^ her doubts vanished ! and she gave him up for lost ' About five years afterwards , some fishermen , in the environs of Cadizone day perceived the figure of a man sometimes swimming
, , and sometimes plunging under the water . On the next day they saw the same , and mentioned it as a very singular circumstance to several people . They threw their nets , and baiting the swimmer with some pieces of bread , they at length caught him , and to their astonishment found him to be a very well-formed man . They put several questions
to him in various languages , but he answered none . They then had recourse to another method ; they took him to the convent of St . Francis , where he was exorcised , thinking he might be possessed by some evil spirit . The exorcism was as useless as the questions had been . At length , after some days , he pronounced the word Lierganes . ¦ ' ' It so happenedthat some person belonging to that town was
, present , when he uttered the name , as also the secretary of the inquisition . Pie wrote to his friends at Lierganes , with a view to obtain some particulars relative to this very extraordinary man . He received for answer , that a young man of Lierganes had some time since disappeared on the coast of Bilboa , but nothing had been heard of him since . It was then determined that this marine-man should be sent
to Lierganes ; and a Franciscan friar , who was obliged to go there upon some other business , undertook to conduct bim . It was not however done until the following year . ' When they came within a quarter of a league of the- town , the friar ordered the young man to go before , and shew him the way to his house . He made no answer , but conducted the Franciscan to
his mother ' s house . She recollected him immediately , and embracing him , cried out , This is my son that I lost at Bilboa ! Two of his brothers , who were present , also knew him immediately , and embraced him with equal tenderness . He , however , did not evince the least sensibility , or seem in the smallest degree surprized . He spoke no more at Lierganes than he had done at Cadiz , nor could
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Existence Of Mermaids.
remaining , wmcn wno nan Deen employed to embowel it before , had left , it seems , behind . If I may venture to trespass farther on the patience of your readers , I beg to add to the facts , I have already produced , a singular relation of an amphibious monster , which is related by Padre Feijoo , For the truth of this relation I will not pretend to vouch . I give it , however , in an . exact translation of his own words .
' In the month of June , in the year 16 74 , some young men walking upon the sea-side in Bilboa , one of them , named Francis de la Vega , of about fifteen years of age , suddenly leaped into the sea , and disappeared presently . His companions , after waiting some time , and he not returning , concluded he was drowned . They then made the event public , and sent an account of it to de la Vega ' s mother , who
lived at Lierganes , a small town in the archbishopric of Burgos . At first , she did not give credit to his death ; but her son not appearingat her house , nor in , the city wherein he lived before his misfortune ^ her doubts vanished ! and she gave him up for lost ' About five years afterwards , some fishermen , in the environs of Cadizone day perceived the figure of a man sometimes swimming
, , and sometimes plunging under the water . On the next day they saw the same , and mentioned it as a very singular circumstance to several people . They threw their nets , and baiting the swimmer with some pieces of bread , they at length caught him , and to their astonishment found him to be a very well-formed man . They put several questions
to him in various languages , but he answered none . They then had recourse to another method ; they took him to the convent of St . Francis , where he was exorcised , thinking he might be possessed by some evil spirit . The exorcism was as useless as the questions had been . At length , after some days , he pronounced the word Lierganes . ¦ ' ' It so happenedthat some person belonging to that town was
, present , when he uttered the name , as also the secretary of the inquisition . Pie wrote to his friends at Lierganes , with a view to obtain some particulars relative to this very extraordinary man . He received for answer , that a young man of Lierganes had some time since disappeared on the coast of Bilboa , but nothing had been heard of him since . It was then determined that this marine-man should be sent
to Lierganes ; and a Franciscan friar , who was obliged to go there upon some other business , undertook to conduct bim . It was not however done until the following year . ' When they came within a quarter of a league of the- town , the friar ordered the young man to go before , and shew him the way to his house . He made no answer , but conducted the Franciscan to
his mother ' s house . She recollected him immediately , and embracing him , cried out , This is my son that I lost at Bilboa ! Two of his brothers , who were present , also knew him immediately , and embraced him with equal tenderness . He , however , did not evince the least sensibility , or seem in the smallest degree surprized . He spoke no more at Lierganes than he had done at Cadiz , nor could