So that upon a single view and outward observation they may be the monuments of any of these three nations: although the greatest number, not improbably, of the Saxons; who fought many battles with the Britons and Danes, and also between their own nations, and left the proper name of burrows for these hills still retained in many of them, as the seven burrows upon Salisbury plain, and in many other parts of England.

But of these and the like hills there can be no clear and assured decision without an ocular exploration, and subterraneous enquiry by cutting through one of them either directly or cross-wise. For so with lesser charge discovery may be made what is under them, and consequently the intention of their erection. For if they were raised for remarkable and eminent boundaries, then about their bottom will be found the lasting substances of burnt bones of beasts, of ashes, bricks, lime, or coals.

If urns be found, they might be erected by the Romans before the term of urn-burying or custom of burning the dead expired: but if raised by the Romans after that period, inscriptions, swords, shields, and arms, after the Roman mode, may afford a good distinction.

But if these hills were made by Saxons or Danes, discovery may be made from the fashion of their arms, bones of their horses, and other distinguishing substances buried with them.

And for such an attempt there wanteth not encouragement. For a like mount or burrow was opened in the days of King Henry the Eighth upon Barham Down, in Kent, by the care of Mr. Thomas Digges, and charge of Sir Christopher Hales; and a large urn with ashes was found under it, as is delivered by Thomas Twinus, de Rebus Albionicis, a learned man of that country, sub incredibili terræ acervo, urna cinere ossium magnorum fragmentis plena, cum galeis, clypeis æneis et ferreis rubigine fere consumptis, inusitatæ magnitudinis, eruta est: sed nulla inscriptio nomen, nullum testimonium tempus, aut fortunam exponebant: and not very long ago, as Camden delivereth,* in one of the mounts of Barklow hills, in Essex, *Camd. Brit p. 326.

being levelled, there were found three troughs, containing broken bones, conceived to have been of Danes and in later time we find, that a burrow was opened in the Isle of Man, wherein fourteen urns were found with burnt bones in them; and one more neat than the rest, placed in a bed of fine white sand, containing nothing but a few brittle bones, as having passed the fire; according to the particular account thereof in the description of the Isle of Man.* Surely many noble bones and ashes have been contented with such hilly tombs; which neither admitting ornament, epitaph, or inscription, may, if earthquakes spare them, out-last all other monuments. Suæ sunt metis meta. Obelisks have their term, and pyramids will tumble, but these mountainous monuments may stand, and are like to have the same period with the earth. More might be said, but my business of another nature, makes me take off my hand. I am,

Published 1656, by Dan. King.

Yours, &c.

TRACT X.

OF TROAS, WHAT PLACE IS MEANT BY THAT NAME. ALSO, OF THE SITUATIONS OF SODOM, GOMORRHA, ADMAH, ZEBOIM, IN THE DEAD SEA.

SIR,

To your geographical queries, I answer as follows:

1

In sundry passages of the New Testament, in the Acts of the Apostles, and Epistles of St. Paul, we meet with the word Troas; 1 how he went from Troas to Philippi, in Macedonia, from thence unto Troas again: how he remained seven days in that place: from thence on foot to Assos, whither the disciples had sailed from Troas, and, there taking him in, made their voyage unto Cæsarea.

Now, whether this Troas be the name of a city or a certain region of Phrygia seems no groundless doubt of yours: for that it was sometimes taken in the signification of some country, is acknowledged by Ortelius, Stephanus, and Grotius; and it is plainly set down by Strabo, that a region of Phrygia in Asia minor, was so taken in ancient times; and that at the Trojan war, all the territory which comprehended the nine principalities subject unto the King of Ilium Τροίη λεγουμένη, was called by the name of Troja. And this might seem sufficiently to solve the intention of the description, when he came or went from Troas, that is some part of that region; and will otherwise seem strange unto many how he should be said to go or come from that city which all writers had laid in the ashes about a thousand years before.

Troas.] Troas was a small country lying to the west of Mysia, upon the sea. It took this name from its principal city, Troas, a sea-port, and built, as is said, about some four miles from the situation of old Troy, by Lysimachus, one of Alexander the Great's captains, who peopled it from the neighbouring cities, and called it Alexandria, or Troas

Alexandri, in honour of his master Alexander; who began the work, but lived not to bring it to any perfection. But in following times it came to be called simply Troas. The name may be understood as taken by the sacred writers to denote the country as well as city so called, but chiefly the latter.

All which notwithstanding,-since we read in the text a particular abode of seven days, and such particulars as leaving of his cloak, books, and parchments at Troas, and that St. Luke seems to have been taken in to the travels of St. Paul at this place, where he begins in the Acts to write in the first person-this may rather seem to have been some city or special habitation, than any province or region without such limitation.

Now, that such a city there was, and that of no mean note, is easily verified from historical observation. For though old Ilium was anciently destroyed, yet was there another raised by the relicts of that people, not in the same place, but about thirty furlongs westward, as is to be learned from Strabo.

Of this place Alexander, in his expedition against Darius, took especial notice, endowing it with sundry immunities, with promise of greater matters, at his return from Persia; inclined hereunto from the honour he bore unto Homer, whose earnest reader he was, and upon whose poems, by the help of Anaxarchus and Callisthenes, he made some observations as also much moved hereto upon the account of his cognation with the acides and Kings of Molossus, whereof Andromache, the wife of Hector, was Queen. After the death of Alexander, Lysimachus surrounded it with a wall, and brought the inhabitants of the neighbour towns unto it; and so it bore the name of Alexandria; which, from Antigonus, was also called Antigonia, according to the inscription of that famous medal in Goltsius, Colonia Troas Antigonia Alexandrea, legio vicesima prima.

When the Romans first went into Asia against Antiochus, it was but a xwuóros, and no great city; but, upon the peace concluded, the Romans much advanced the same. Fimbria, the rebellious Roman, spoiled it in the Mithridatick wars, boasting that he had subdued Troy in eleven days, which the Grecians could not take in almost as many years. But it was again rebuilt and countenanced by the Romans, and became a Roman colony, with great immunities conferred on it; and accordingly it is so set down by Ptolemy. For the Romans, deriving themselves from the Trojans, thought no favour too great for it; especially Julius Cæsar, who, both in

imitation of Alexander, and for his own descent from Julus, of the posterity of Æneas, with much passion affected it, and in a discontented humour,* was once in mind to translate the Roman wealth unto it; so that it became a very remarkable place, and was, in Strabo's time,† one of the noble cities of Asia.

And, if they understood the prediction of Homer in reference unto the Romans, as some expound it in Strabo, it might much promote their affection unto that place; which being a remarkable prophecy, and scarce to be paralleled in Pagan story, made before Rome was built, and concerning the lasting reign of the progeny of Æneas, they could not but take especial notice of it. For thus is Neptune made to speak, when he saved Æneas from the fury of Achilles.

Verum agite hunc subito præsenti à morte trahamus

Ne Cronides ira flammet si fortis Achilles
Hunc mactet, fati quem lex evadere jussit.
Ne genus intereat de læto semine totum

Dardani ab excelso præ cunctis prolibus olim,
Dilecti quos è mortali stirpe creavit,

Nunc etiam Priami stirpem Saturnius odit,
Trojugenum post hæc Æneas sceptra tenebit
Et nati natorum et qui nascentur ab illis.

The Roman favours were also continued unto St. Paul's days; for Claudius,‡ producing an ancient letter of the Romans unto King Seleucus concerning the Trojan privileges, made a release of their tributes; and Nero elegantly pleaded for their immunities, and remitted all tributes unto them. §

And, therefore, there being so remarkable a city in this territory, it may seem too hard to lose the same in the general name of the country; and since it was so eminently favoured by emperors, enjoying so many immunities, and full of Roman privileges, it was probably very populous, and a fit abode for St. Paul, who being a Roman citizen, might live more quietly himself, and have no small number of faithful well-wishers in it.

Yet must we not conceive that this was the old Troy, or re-built in the same place with it: for Troas was placed about thirty furlongs west, and upon the sea shore: so that, to hold *Sueton. † ἐλλογίμων πόλεων, Sueton. § Tacit. Ann. 1. 13.