A TREATISE OF THE SITUATION, CUSTOMS, AND PEOPLE OF GERMANY.
The whole of Germany is thus bounded; separated from Gaul, from Rhoetia
and Pannonia, by the rivers Rhine and Danube; from Sarmatia and Dacia by
mutual fear, or by high mountains: the rest is encompassed by the ocean,
which forms huge bays, and comprehends a tract of islands immense in
extent: for we have lately known certain nations and kingdoms there, such
as the war discovered. The Rhine rising in the Rhoetian Alps from a summit
altogether rocky and perpendicular, after a small winding towards the
west, is lost in the Northern Ocean. The Danube issues out of the mountain
Abnoba, one very high but very easy of ascent, and traversing several
nations, falls by six streams into the Euxine Sea; for its seventh channel
is absorbed in the Fenns.
The Germans, I am apt to believe, derive their original from no other
people; and are nowise mixed with different nations arriving amongst them:
since anciently those who went in search of new dwellings, travelled not
by land, but were carried in fleets; and into that mighty ocean so
boundless, and, as I may call it, so repugnant and forbidding, ships from
our world rarely enter.
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