[34] Edmund Bohun was himself a Writer of considerable Note. The Work by which he is best known is probably that entitled _The Character of Queen Elizabeth_, a sizable Octavo, printed in 1693. His Writings are said to be Voluminous, yet but few of them are met with at this Day. One of the first Gazetteers was by him in a thick Octavo, 1688. He does not, however, call it a Gazetteer, but a Geographical Dictionary. His Descriptions compare singularly with those of the same Articles in Works of later Times: as for Example, he says Columbus discovered America in 1499. All the Notice Boston receives at his Hands is at the Close of an Article on Boston in Lincolnshire--"there is another Place in _New England_ of the same Name." Under the Head of New England he gives it a much larger Notice; calls New England _a Colony_, "and they have built seven great Towns, the Chief of which is Boston, which in 1670, had fifty Sail of Ships belonging to it." He was Author of a Life of Bishop Jewell, and was living in 1700. [Decoration] THE ==Author's Defence==. T_IS_, as I remember, the Learned _Scribonius_,[35] who reports, that One of his Acquaintance, devoutly making his Prayers on the behalf of a Person molested by _Evil Spirits_, received from those _Evil Spirits_ an horrible Blow over the Face: And I may my self expect not few or small Buffetings from Evil Spirits, for the Endeavours wherewith I am now going to encounter them. I am far from Insensible that at this extraordinary Time of the _Devils coming down in great Wrath upon us_, there are too many Tongues and Hearts thereby _set on fire of Hell;_ that the various Opinions about the Witchcrafts which of later Time have troubled us, are maintained by some with so much cloudy Fury, as if they could never be sufficiently stated, unless written in the Liquor wherewith Witches use to write their Covenants; and that he who becomes an Author at such a time, had need be _fenced with Iron, and the Staff of a Spear_. The unaccountable Frowardness, Asperity, Untreatableness, and Inconsistency of many Persons, every Day gives a visible Exposition of that passage, _An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul;_ and Illustration of that Story, _There met him two possessed with Devils, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way._ To send abroad a Book, among such Readers, were a very unadvised thing, if a Man had not such Reasons to give, as I can bring, for such an Undertaking. Briefly, I hope it cannot be said, _They are all so;_ No, I hope the Body of this People, are yet in such a Temper, as to be capable of applying their Thoughts, to make a _Right Use_ of the stupendous and prodigious Things that are happening among us: And because I was concern'd, when I saw that no abler Hand emitted any Essays to engage the Minds of this People, in such holy, pious, fruitful Improvements, as God would have to be made of his amazing Dispensations now upon us. THEREFORE it is, that One of the Least among