When Noe at the commandment of God had made & entred the Arke,* & the flud∣gates of Heauen were opened, so that the whole face of the earth, euery trée & Mountaine was couered with abundāce of water, he straitely commanded his sonnes & their wiues, yt they should with reuerence & feare behold the iustice and mighty power of God, & that during the time of the floud, while they remained in the Arke, they should vse cōtinēcie, & absteine frō carnall copulation with their wiues: & many other preceptes he gaue vnto thē, & admonitions, touching the justice of God, in reuenging sinne, & his mercie in deliuering the, who nothing deserued it. Which good instructions & exhortations notwithstanding, his wicked sonne Cham disobeyed,* and being persuaded that the first child borne after the flood (by right & law of nature) should inherit & possessed all the dominion of ye earth, he, contrary to his fathers commandement, while they were yet in the Arke, vsed cōpany with his wife, & craftily went about, thereby to disin∣herit the offspring of his other two bréethren, for the which wicked and detestable fact, as an example for contempte of Almightie God, and disobedience of parents, God would a sonne shuld be borne, whose name was Chus, who not only it selfe, but all his posteritie after him, should be so blacke & lothsome, that it might remaine a spectacle of disobedience to all the World. And of this black & cursed Chus came al these blacke Moores which are in Africa, for after the wa∣ter was vanished frō off the face of the earth, and that the land was drie, Sem chose that part of the land to inhabit in which now is called Asia, and Japhet had that which nowe is called Europa wherin we dwel, and Africa remained for Cham, & his blacke sonne Chus, & was called Chamesis,* af∣ter ye fathers name, being perhaps a cursed, dry, sandy, & vn∣fruteful groūd, fit for such a generatiō to inhabit in. Thus you sée, yt the cause of ye Ethiopians blacknesse, is the curse & infection of bloud, & not the distemperature of the clymate, which also may be proued by this example, that these black men are found in all partes of Africa, as well without the Tropicks, as within, euen vnto Capo d'buona Speranza Southward, where, by reason of the Sphere, should be the same temperature as is in Spayne, Laddigna, and Sicilia, where all be of very good complexions. Wherefore I con∣clude, that the blacknesse procéedeth not of the hotenesse of the Clime, but as I sayd, of the infection of blood, and therefore this their argument gathered of the Africans blackness, is not able to destroy the temperature of the middle Zone. We may therefore very well be assertayned, that vnder the Equinoctiall, is the most pleasant and delectable place of the worlde to dwell in, where, although the Sunne for two houres in a yeare, be directe ouer their heads, and therefore the heate at that time somewhat of force, yet by∣cause it commeth so seldome, and continued so small a time, when it commeth, it is not to be wayed, but rather the moderate heat of other times is all the yeare to be re∣membred. And if the heate at any time should in the short day ware somewhat vrgent, the coldnesse of the long night there, would easilie refreshe it, according as Honte∣rus sayth, speaking of the temperature vnder the Equinoc∣tiall.
