At
That End Of It Are The Alps, Which Begin From The Mediterranean, In The
Narbonese Country, And End In
Dalmatia, to the east of the Adriatic sea.
Opposite to the Alps, on the north, is Gallia-belgica, near which
Is
the river Rhine, which discharges itself into the Britanisca sea, and to
the north, on the other side of this sea, is Brittannia[66]. The land to
the west of Ligore, Liguria, is AEquitania; to the south of which is
some part of Narbonense, to the south-west is Spain. To the south of
Narbonense is the Mediterranean, where the Rhone empties itself into that
sea, to the north of the Profent[67] sea. Opposite to the wastes is the
nearer[68] part of Spain, to the northwest Aquitania, and the
Wascan[69] to the north. The Profent[67] sea hath to the north the Alps, to
the south the Mediterranean, to the north-east the Burgundians, and to the
West the Wascans or Gascons.
$ 12. Spain is triangular, being surrounded by the sea on three sides. The
boundary to the south-west is opposite to the island of Gades, Cadiz; that
to the east is opposite to the Narbonense, and the third, to the north-
west, is opposite to Brigantia, a town of Gallia, as also to Scotland[70],
over an arm of the sea, and opposite to the mouth of the Scene or Seine. As
for that division of Spain which is farthest[71] from us, it has to
the west the ocean, and the Mediterranean to the north, the south, and the
east. This division of Spain has to the north Aquitania, to the north-east
Narbonense, and to the south the Mediterranean.
Sec. 13. The island of Brittannia extends 800 miles in length to the
north-east, and is 200 miles broad. To the south of it, on the other side
of an arm of the sea, is Gallia-belgica. To the west of it, on the other
side of another arm of the sea, is Ibernia or Ireland, and to the north
Orcadus[72]. Igbernia, Ibernia, Hibernia, or Ireland, which we call
Scotland, is surrounded on every side by the ocean; and because it is
nearer the setting sun, the weather is milder than it is in Britain. To the
north-west of Igbernia is the utmost land called Thila[73], which is
known to few, on account of its very great distance.
Sec. 14. Having mentioned the boundaries of Europe, I now proceed to state
those of Africa. Our ancestors considered this as a third part of the
world; not indeed that it contains so much land as the others, because the
Mediterranean cuts it, as it were, in two, breaking in more upon the south
part than on the north[74]. And because the heat is more intense in the
south, than the cold in the north, and because every wight thrives
better in cold than in heat, therefore is Africa inferior to Europe, both
in the number of its people, and in the extent of its land[75]. The eastern
part of Africa, as I said before, begins in the west of Egypt, at the river
Nile, and the most eastern country of this continent is Lybia.
Ciramacia[76] is to the west of lower Egypt, having the Mediterranean on
the north, Libia Ethiopica to the south, and Syrtes Major to the west.
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