OF THEIR TOWNS, PARTICULARLY OF AMAUROT.

"He that knows one of their towns knows them all, they are so like one another, except where the situation makes some difference. I shall therefore describe one of them, and it is no matter which; but none is so proper as Amaurot; for, as noņe is more eminent, all the rest yielding in precedence to this, because it is the seat of their supreme council, so there was none of them better known to me, I having lived for five years altogether in it.

"It lies upon the side of a hill, or rather a rising ground. Its figure is almost square; for from the one side of it, which shoots up almost to the top of the hill, it runs down in a descent for two miles to the river Anider; but it is a little broader the other way that runs along by the bank of that river. The Anider rises about eighty miles above Amaurot, in a small spring at first; but, other brooks falling into it, of which two are more considerable, as it runs by Amaurot it is grown halfa-mile broad; but it still grows larger and larger till, after sixty miles' course below it, it is buried in the ocean. Between the town and the sea, and for some miles above the town, it ebbs and flows every six hours with a strong current. The tide comes up for about thirty miles so full that there is nothing but salt water in the river, the fresh water being driven back with its force; and above that for some miles the water is brackish, but a

little higher, as it runs by the town, it is quite fresh; and, when the tide ebbs, it continues fresh all along to the sea.96 There is a bridge cast over the river, not of timber, but of fair stone, consisting of many stately arches; it lies at that part of the town which is farthest from the sea, so that ships without any hindrance lie all along the side of the town. There is likewise another river that runs by it, which though it is not great, yet it runs pleasantly, for it rises out of the same hill on which the town stands, and so runs down through it, and falls in the Anider. The inhabitants have fortified the fountain-head of this river, which springs a little without the town; that so, if they should happen to be besieged, the enemy might not be able to stop or divert the course of the water, nor poison it; from thence it is carried in earthen pipes to the lower streets; and for those places of the town to which the water of that small river cannot be conveyed, they have great cisterns for receiving the rain-water, which supplies the want of the other. The town is compassed with a high and thick wall, in which there are many towers and forts; there is also a broad and deep dry ditch, set thick with thorns, cast round three sides of the town, and the river is instead of a ditch on the fourth side. The streets are made very convenient for all carriages, and are well sheltered from the winds. Their buildings are good, and are so uniform that a whole side of a street looks

96 The Thames is the original of the river of Amaurot.

like one house.97 The streets are twenty feet broad; there lie gardens behind all their houses; these are large, but inclosed with buildings that on all hands face the streets; so that every house has both a door to the street, and a back-door to the garden; their doors have all two leaves, which as they are easily opened, so they shut of their own accord; and, there being no property among them, every man may freely enter into any house whatsoever. At every ten years' end they shift their houses by lots. They cultivate their gardens with great care, so that they have both vines, fruits, herbs, and flowers in them; and all is well ordered and so finely kept, that I never saw gardens anywhere that were so fruitful as theirs are. And this humour of ordering their gardens so well, is not only kept up by the pleasure they find in it, but also by an emulation between the inhabitants of the several streets, who vie with one another in this matter; and there is, indeed, nothing belonging to the whole town that is both more useful and more pleasant. So that he who founded the town seems to have taken care of nothing more than of their gardens; for they say the whole scheme of the town was designed at first by Uto

97 The remark on the regularity of the buildings was made by the ancients on the cities erected by Hippodamos, the architect of the Peiræus. With respect to the width of the streets, since twenty feet were accounted sufficient, we may infer that in those times the space between the houses in English cities was small indeed ;--exactly as it is now in Cairo and other cities of the East.

pus; but he left all that belonged to the ornament and improvement of it, to be added by those that should come after him, that being too much for one man to bring to perfection. Their records, that contain the history of their town and state, are preserved with an exact care, and run backwards seventeen hundred and sixty years. From these it appears, that their houses were at first low and mean, like cottages, made of any sort of timber, and were built with mud walls, and thatched with straw. But now their houses are three stories high, the fronts of them are faced either with stone, plastering, or brick; and between the facings of their walls they throw in their rubbish; their roofs are flat, and on them they lay a sort of plaster which costs very little, and yet it is so tempered that it is not apt to take fire, so it resists the weather more than lead does. They have abundance of glass among them, with which they glaze their windows; they use also in their windows a thin linen cloth that is so oiled or gummed, that by that means it both lets in the light more freely to them, and keeps out the wind the better.

OF THEIR MAGISTRATES.

Thirty families choose every year a magistrate, who was called anciently the Syphogrant, but is now called the Philarch; 98 and over every ten sypho

98

Translated, this word would signify "a lover of rule:" and this, no doubt, was the sense in which Sir Thomas More would

grants, with the families subject to them, there is another magistrate, who was anciently called the Tranibore, but of late the Archphilarch. All the syphogrants, who are in number two hundred, choose the Prince out of a list of four, whom the people of the four divisions of the city name to them, but they take an oath before they proceed to an election that they will choose him whom they think meetest for the office; they give their voices secretly, so that it is not known for whom every one gives his suffrage.99 The prince is for life, unless he is removed upon suspicion of some design to enslave the people. The tranibors are newly chosen every year, but they are for the most part still continued. All their other magistrates are only annual.

"The tranibors meet every third day, and oftener if need be, and consult with the prince, either concerning the affairs of the state in general, or such private differences as may arise sometimes among the people; though that falls out but seldom. There are always two syphogrants called into the council-chamber, and these are changed every day. It is a fundamental rule of their government, that no conclusion can be made in anything that relates to the public, till it has been first debated three several days in their council. It is

have it understood. But there were officers at Athens, both civil and military, who were denominated Phylarchs, from pXov and ȧpxý. Pollux. I. 128. III. 53. VIII. 87, 94, 114. Conf. Plat. Rep. VIII. 5, 180. Stallbaum.

99 Vote by Ballot.