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Article MERMAIDS NOT FABULOUS, ← Page 4 of 7 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Mermaids Not Fabulous,
from Batavia to Europe , in the year 1714 . " In 12 deg . 3 8 . min . south latitude , on the first day of May , about eleven o ' clock in the forenoon , I , the captain , purser , and mate of the wat & h , and a great many of the ship ' s company , it being very calm and the sea smooth as glass , saw , about the distance of thrice the length of the ship from us , very distinctly , on the surface of the water , ' seemingly sitting with his back to usand half the bodabove the water
, y , " a creature of a grizlish or grey colour , like that of a cod-fish skin . It appeared like a sailor , or a man sirring on something ; and the more like a sailor , as on its head there seemed to be something like an English cap of the same grey colour . He sat somewhat " bent , and we observed him to move his head from one side to the other * upwards of five and twenty times ; so that we all agreed that it
must certainly be some shipwrecked person . I , after looking- some time , begged the captain to order them to steer the ship more direct towards it , being somewhat on the starboard side ; which was done accordingly ; and . we had got within a ship ' s length of him , when the people on the forecastle made such a noise , that he plunged downhead foremostand got presentlout of our siht
, * y g . But the man who was on the watch at the mast-head , declared he saw him for the space of 200 yards , and that he had a monstrous long tail . " I shall now only mention , that in the year 1716 , the news * papers were every where full of a sea-man , who appeared in the month of January , near Raguza , a small city on the Adriatick Sea , the like
of whom I ' never heard or read of . It had much the resemblance of a man , but it was near fifteen feet long . Its head was very large , and its feet and arms were well proportioned to its body . It appeared for several days running , and commonly came out of the sea about three o ' clock in the afternoon , and walked with monstrous strides * sometimes in one , sometimes in another place , along the shore .
" People from far and near went to look at it ; but they were so much afraid , that they kept a good distance from it , and many looked with spy-glasses . It often carried its hand above its head . The hideous noise that it made could be heard at half a mi | e ' s distance , so that people in the neighbourhood were sore afraid of it . The various accounts given by those who saw it are so uniforml y the samethat there is no room left to question the veracity of the
, story . " Mr . Valentyrt- theii concludes with saying , "If , after all this , there shall be found those who disbelieve the existence of such creatures as a Sea-man or Mermaids , of which we have at least given great reason to believe that there are , let them please themselves ; I shall give myself no more trouble about them . "
To these accounts of Mermaidsgiven by Valentyn may be added What Bartholinus relates in bis Centuria Hisioiiarum Anatomicarum Variarum , printed at Haphnia 1654 , p . 18 S , where he informs us , ' -l hat there was in li is time one of these animals catched upon the coast 3 E
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Mermaids Not Fabulous,
from Batavia to Europe , in the year 1714 . " In 12 deg . 3 8 . min . south latitude , on the first day of May , about eleven o ' clock in the forenoon , I , the captain , purser , and mate of the wat & h , and a great many of the ship ' s company , it being very calm and the sea smooth as glass , saw , about the distance of thrice the length of the ship from us , very distinctly , on the surface of the water , ' seemingly sitting with his back to usand half the bodabove the water
, y , " a creature of a grizlish or grey colour , like that of a cod-fish skin . It appeared like a sailor , or a man sirring on something ; and the more like a sailor , as on its head there seemed to be something like an English cap of the same grey colour . He sat somewhat " bent , and we observed him to move his head from one side to the other * upwards of five and twenty times ; so that we all agreed that it
must certainly be some shipwrecked person . I , after looking- some time , begged the captain to order them to steer the ship more direct towards it , being somewhat on the starboard side ; which was done accordingly ; and . we had got within a ship ' s length of him , when the people on the forecastle made such a noise , that he plunged downhead foremostand got presentlout of our siht
, * y g . But the man who was on the watch at the mast-head , declared he saw him for the space of 200 yards , and that he had a monstrous long tail . " I shall now only mention , that in the year 1716 , the news * papers were every where full of a sea-man , who appeared in the month of January , near Raguza , a small city on the Adriatick Sea , the like
of whom I ' never heard or read of . It had much the resemblance of a man , but it was near fifteen feet long . Its head was very large , and its feet and arms were well proportioned to its body . It appeared for several days running , and commonly came out of the sea about three o ' clock in the afternoon , and walked with monstrous strides * sometimes in one , sometimes in another place , along the shore .
" People from far and near went to look at it ; but they were so much afraid , that they kept a good distance from it , and many looked with spy-glasses . It often carried its hand above its head . The hideous noise that it made could be heard at half a mi | e ' s distance , so that people in the neighbourhood were sore afraid of it . The various accounts given by those who saw it are so uniforml y the samethat there is no room left to question the veracity of the
, story . " Mr . Valentyrt- theii concludes with saying , "If , after all this , there shall be found those who disbelieve the existence of such creatures as a Sea-man or Mermaids , of which we have at least given great reason to believe that there are , let them please themselves ; I shall give myself no more trouble about them . "
To these accounts of Mermaidsgiven by Valentyn may be added What Bartholinus relates in bis Centuria Hisioiiarum Anatomicarum Variarum , printed at Haphnia 1654 , p . 18 S , where he informs us , ' -l hat there was in li is time one of these animals catched upon the coast 3 E