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Of the giant Albion, of his comming into this Iland, diuers opinions why it was called Albion:  why Albion and Bergion were slaine by Hercules:  of Danaus and of his 50 daughters.

THE THIRD CHAPTER.

[Sidenote:  Bale. Annius de Viterbo. Diodorus Sicubis.  Pinnesses or gallies. Higinus. Pictonius.] Neptunus called by Moses (as some take it) Nepthuim, the sixt sonne of Osiris, after the account of Annius, and the brother of Hercules, had appointed him of his father (as Diodorus writeth) the gouernement of the ocean sea:  wherefore he furnished himselfe of sundrie light ships for the more redie passage by water, which in the end grew to the number of a full nauie:  & so by continuall exercise he became so skilfull, and therewith so mightie vpon the waters (as Higinus & Pictonius doo write) that he was not onelie called the king, but also esteemed the god of the seas.  He had to wife a ladie called Amphitrita, who was also honored as goddesse of the seas, of whose bodie he begat sundrie children:  and (as Bale reporteth) he made euerie one of them king of an Iland.  In the Ile [Sidenote:  Scrip.  Bri. cent. 1.] of Britaine he landed his fourth son called Albion the giant, who brought the same vnder his subjection.  And herevpon it resteth, that Iohn Textor, [Sidenote:  Ioh.  Textor. Polydor.] and Polydor Virgil made mention, that light shippes were first inuented in the British seas, and that the same were couered round with the hides of beasts, for defending them from the surges and waues of the water.

This Albion being put by his father in possession of this Ile of Britaine, within short time subdued the Samotheans, the first inhabitantes thereof, without finding any great resistance, for that (as before ye haue heard) they had giuen ouer the practise of all warlike and other painefull exercises, and through vse of effeminate pleasures, wherevnto they had giuen themselues ouer, they were become now vnapt to withstand the force of their enimies:  and so (by the testimonie of [Sidenote:  Nichol.  Perot. Rigmanus Philesius. Aristotle. Hum.  Lhoyd.] Nicholaus Perottus, Rigmanus Philesius, Aristotle, and Humfrey Llhoyd, with diuers other, both forraine & home-writers) this Iland was first called by the name of Albion, hauing at one time both the name and inhabitants changed from the line of Iaphet vnto the accursed race of Cham.

This Albion (that thus changed the name of this Ile) and his companie, are called giants, which signifieth none other than a tall kind of men, of that vncorrupt stature and highnesse naturallie incident to the first [Sidenote:  Berosus.] age (which Berosus also seemeth to allow, where he writeth, that Noah was one of the giants) and were not so called only of their monstrous greatnesse, as the common people thinke (although in deed they exceeded the vsuall stature of men now in these daies) but also for that they tooke their name of the soile where they were borne:  for Gigantes [Sidenote:  What Gigantes signifie] signifieth the sons of the earth:  the Aborigines, or (as Cesar calleth them) Indigenae; that is, borne and bred out of the earth where they inhabited.