it.  I might tell you that Marcus Paulus Venetus[28] (whose suppos’d Fables, divers of our later Travellours and Navigatours have since found to be truths) speaking of the King of Zeilan that then was, tells us, that he was said to have the best Rubie in the World, a Palm long and as big as a mans Arm, without spot, shining like a Fire, and he subjoyns, that the Great Cham, under whom Paulus was a considerable Officer, sent and offer’d the value of a City for it; But the King answer’d, he would not give it for the treasure of the World, nor part with it, having been his Ancestours.  And I could add, that in the Relation made by two Russian Cossacks of their Journey into Catay[29], written to their Emperour, they mention’d their having been told by the people of those parts, that their King had a Stone, which Lights as the Sun both Day and Night, call’d in their Language Sarra, which those Cossacks interpret a Ruby.  But these Relations are too uncertain for me to build any thing upon, and therefore I shall proceed to tell you, that there came hither about two years since out of America, the Governour of one of the Principal Colonies there, an Ancient Virtuoso, and one that has the Honour to be a member of the Royal Society; this Gentleman finding some of the chief Affairs of his Country committed to another and me, made me divers Visits, and in one of them when I enquir’d what Rare Stones they had in those parts of the Indies he belong’d to, he told me, that the Indians had a Tradition that in a certain hardly accessible Hill, a pretty way up in the Country, there was a Stone which in the Night time shin’d very vividly, and to a great distance, and he assur’d me, that though he thought it not fit to venture himself so far among those Savages, yet he purposely sent thither a bold Englishman, with some Natives to be his guides, and that this Messenger brought him back word, that at a distance from the Hillock he had plainly perceiv’d such a shining Substance as the Indians Tradition mention’d, and being stimulated by Curiosity, had slighted those Superstitious Fears of the Inhabitants, and with much ado by reason of the Difficulty of the way, had made a shift to clamber up to that part of the Hill, where, by a very heedful Observation, he suppos’d himself to have seen the Light:  but whether ’twere that he had mistaken the place, or for some other Reason, he could not find it there, though when he was return’d to his former Station, he did agen see the Light shining in the same place where it shone before.  A further Account of this Light I expect from the Gentleman that gave me this, who lately sent me the news of his being landed in that Country.  And though I reserve to my self a full Liberty of Believing no more than I see cause; yet I do the less scruple to relate this, because a good part of it agrees well enough with another Story that I shall in the next place have