But, Sir, though I be very backward to admit strange things for truths, yet I am not very forward to reject them as impossibilities, and therefore I would not discourage any from making further Inquiry, whether or no there be Really in _Rerum natura_, any such thing as a true Carbuncle or Stone that without Rubbing will shine in the Dark. For if such a thing can be found, it may afford no small Assistance to the Curious in the Investigation of Light, besides the Nobleness and Rarity of the thing it selfe. And though _Vartomannus_ was not an Eye witness of what he relates, that the King of _Pegu_, one of the Chief Kings of the _East-Indies_, had a true Carbuncle of that Bigness and Splendour, that it shin'd very Gloriously in the Dark, and though _Garcias ab Horto_, the _Indian_ Vice-Roys Physician, speaks of another Carbuncle, only upon the Report of one, that he Discours'd with, who affirmed himself to have seen it; yet as we are not sure that these Men that gave themselves out to be Eye-witnesses speak true, yet they may have done so for ought we know to the contrary. And I could present you with a much considerabler Testimony to the same purpose, if I had the permission of a Person concern'd, without whose leave I must not do 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,