elding in precedence to this,
because it is the seat of their supreme council; so there was none of
them better known to me, I having lived five years altogether in it.

It lies upon the side of a hill, or rather a rising ground: its figure
is almost square, for from the one side of it, which shoots up almost to
the top of the hill, it runs down in a descent for two miles to the
river Anider; but it is a little broader the other way that runs along
by the bank of that river. The Anider rises about eighty miles above
Amaurot in a small spring at first; but other brooks falling into it, of
which two are more considerable than the rest. As it runs by Amaurot, it
is grown half a mile broad; but it still grows larger and larger, till
after sixty miles course below it, it is lost in the ocean, between the
town and the sea, and for some miles above the town, it ebbs and flows
every six hours, with a strong current. The tide comes up for about
thirty miles so full, that there is nothing but salt water in the river,
the fresh water being driven back with its force; and above that, for
some miles, the water is brackish; but a little higher, as it runs by
the town, it is quite fresh; and when the tide ebbs, it continues fresh
all along to the sea. There is a bridge cast over the river, not of
timber, but of fair stone, consisting of many stately arches; it lies at
that part of the town which is farthest from the sea, so that ships
without any hindrance lie all along the side of the town. There is
likewise another river that runs by it, which though it is not great,
yet it runs pleasantly, for it rises out of the same hill on which the
town stands, and so runs down through it, and falls into the Anider. The
inhabitants have fortified the fountain-head of this river, which
springs a little without the towns; that so if they should happen to be
besieged, the enemy might not be able to stop or divert the course of
the water, nor poison it; from thence it is carried in earthen pipes to
the lower streets; and for those places of the town to which the water
of that small river cannot be conveyed, they have great cisterns for
receiving the rain-water, which supplies the want of the other. The town
is compassed with a high and thick wall, in which there are many towers
and forts; there is also a broad and deep dry ditch, set thick with
thorns, cast round three sides of the town, and the river is instead of
a ditch on the fourth side. The st