it matters nothing; as there are people who would even deny that
such cities as Rome, Constantinople or Cairo, exist, merely because they
themselves have not happened to see them."

But what are such incredulous persons, he continues, to make of the
circumstance recorded by Albert Herport in his account of India[1], that
a sea-man was seen in the water near the Church of Taquan, on the
morning of the 29th of April 1661, and a mermaid at the same spot the
same afternoon?--or what do they say to the fact that in 1714, a mermaid
was not only seen but captured near the island of Booro? "five feet
Rhineland measure in height, which lived four days and seven hours, but
refusing all food, died without leaving any intelligible account of
herself."

[Footnote 1: Probably the _Itinerarium Indicum_ of ALBRECHT HERPORT.
Berne, 1669.]

Valentyn, in support of his own faith in the mermaid, cites numerous
other instances in which both "sea-men and women" were seen and taken at
Amboina; especially one by an office-bearer in the Church of Holland[1],
by whom it was surrendered to the Governor Vanderstel.

[Footnote 1: A "krank-bezoeker" or visitant of the sick.]

Of this well-authenticated specimen he gives an elaborate engraving
amongst those of the authentic fishes of the island--together with a
minute ichthyological description of each for the satisfaction of men of
science.

[Illustration: THE MERMAID (From VALENTYN)]

The fame of this creature having reached Europe, the British Minister in
Holland wrote to Valentyn on the 28th December 1716, whilst the Emperor,
Peter the Great of Russia, was his guest at Amsterdam; to communicate
the desire of the Czar, that the mermaid should be brought home from
Amboina for his Imperial inspection.

To complete his proofs of the existence of mermen and women, Valentyn
points triumphantly to the historical fact, that in Holland in the year
1404, a mermaid was driven during a tempest, through a breach in the
dyke of Edam, and was taken alive in the lake of Purmer. Thence she was
carried to Harlem, where the Dutch women taught her to spin; and where,
several years after, she died in the Roman Catholic faith;--"but this,"
says the pious Calvinistic chaplain, "in no way militates against the
truth of her story."[1]

[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Beschryving, &c_., p. 333.]

Finally Valentyn winds up his proofs, by the accumulated testimony of
Pliny [1], Theodore Gaza, George of Trebisond, and A