my renewed the work many years after,
and absolved in it a more opportune place.

That Isthmus of Corinth was likewise undertaken to be made navigable by
Demetrius, by Julius Caesar, Nero, Domitian, Herodes Atticus, to make a
speedy [591]passage, and less dangerous, from the Ionian and Aegean seas;
but because it could not be so well effected, the Peloponnesians built a
wall like our Picts' wall about Schaenute, where Neptune's temple stood,
and in the shortest cut over the Isthmus, of which Diodorus, _lib. 11._
Herodotus, _lib. 8. Uran._ Our latter writers call it Hexamilium, which
Amurath the Turk demolished, the Venetians, _anno_ 1453, repaired in 15
days with 30,000 men. Some, saith Acosta, would have a passage cut from
Panama to Nombre de Dios in America; but Thuanus and Serres the French
historians speak of a famous aqueduct in France, intended in Henry the
Fourth's time, from the Loire to the Seine, and from Rhodanus to the Loire.
The like to which was formerly assayed by Domitian the emperor, [592]from
Arar to Moselle, which Cornelius Tacitus speaks of in the 13 of his annals,
after by Charles the Great and others. Much cost hath in former times been
bestowed in either new making or mending channels of rivers, and their
passages, (as Aurelianus did by Tiber to make it navigable to Rome, to
convey corn from Egypt to the city, _vadum alvei tumentis effodit_ saith
Vopiscus, _et Tiberis ripas extruxit_ he cut fords, made banks, &c.)
decayed havens, which Claudius the emperor with infinite pains and charges
attempted at Ostia, as I have said, the Venetians at this day to preserve
their city; many excellent means to enrich their territories, have been
fostered, invented in most provinces of Europe, as planting some Indian
plants amongst us, silkworms, [593]the very mulberry leaves in the plains
of Granada yield 30,000 crowns per annum to the king of Spain's coffers,
besides those many trades and artificers that are busied about them in the
kingdom of Granada, Murcia, and all over Spain. In France a great benefit
is raised by salt, &c., whether these things might not be as happily
attempted with us, and with like success, it may be controverted, silkworms
(I mean) vines, fir trees, &c. Cardan exhorts Edward the Sixth to plant
olives, and is fully persuaded they would prosper in this island. With us,
navigable rivers are most part neglected; our streams are not great, I
confess, by reason of the narrowness of the island,