For my part, I haue béene verie desirous to vnderstand the vttermost of the bréeding of barnacls, & questioned with diuers persons about the same. I haue red also whatsoeuer is written by forren authors touching the generation of that foule, & sought out some places where I haue béene assured to sée great numbers of them: but in vaine. Wherefore I vtterlie despaired to obteine my purpose, till this present yeare of Grace 1584. and moneth of Maie, wherein going to the court at Gréenewich from London by bote, I saw sundrie ships lieng in the Thames newlie come home, either from Barbarie or the Canarie Iles (for I doo not well remember now from which of these places) on whose sides I perceiued an infinit sort of shells to hang so thicke as could be one by another. Drawing néere also, I tooke off ten or twelue of the greatest of them, & afterward hauing opened them, I saw the proportion of a foule in one of them more perfectlie than in all the rest, sauing that the head was not yet formed, bicause the fresh water had killed them all (as I take it) and thereby hindered their perfection. Certeinelie the feathers of the taile hoeng out of the shell at least two inches, the wings (almost perfect touching forme) were garded with two shels or shéeldes proportioned like the selfe wings, and likewise the brestbone had hir couerture also of like shellie substance, and altogither resembling the figure which Lobell and Pena doo giue foorth in their description of this foule: so that I am now fullie persuaded that it is either the barnacle that is ingendred after one maner in these shels, or some other sea-foule to vs as yet vnknowen. For by the feathers appearing and forme so apparant, it cannot be denied, but that some bird or other must proceed of this substance, which by falling from the sides of the ships in long voiages, may come to some perfection. But now it is time for me to returne againe vnto my former purpose.
[Sidenote: Bishop of Man.] There hath sometime beene, and yet is a bishop of this Ile, who at the first was called Episcopus Sodorensis, when the iurisdiction of all the Hebrides belonged vnto him. Whereas now he that is bishop there, is but a bishops shadow, for albeit that he beare the name of bishop of Man, yet haue the earles of Darbie, as it is supposed, the cheefe profit of his sée (sauing that they allow him a little somewhat for a flourish) [Sidenote: Patrone of Man.] notwithstanding that they be his patrons, and haue his nomination vnto that liuing. The first bishop of this Ile was called Wimundus or Raymundus, and surnamed Monachus Sauinensis, who by reason of his extreame and tyrannicall crueltie toward the Ilanders, had first his sight taken from him, & then was sent into exile. After him succéeded another moonke in king Stephens daies called Iohn, and after him one Marcus, &c: other after other in succession, the sée it selfe being now also subiect to the archbishop of Yorke for spirituall iurisdiction. [Sidenote: King of Man.] In time of Henrie the second, this Iland also had a king, whose name was Cuthred, vnto whome Vinianus the cardinall came as legate 1177. and wherin Houeden erreth not. In the yeare also 1228. one Reginald was viceroy or petie king of Man, afterward murthered by his subiects. Then Olauus, after him Hosbach the sonne of Osmond Hacon, 1290. who being slaine, Olauus and Gotredus parted this kingdome of Sodora, in such wise, that this had all the rest of the Iles, the other onelie the Ile of Man at the first; but after the slaughter of Gotredus, Olauus held all, after whom Olauus his sonne succeeded. Then Harald sonne to Olauus, who being entered in Maie, and drowned vpon the coastes of Ireland, his brother Reginald reigned twentie and seuen daies, and then was killed the first of June, whereby Olauus aliàs Harald sonne to Gotred ruled in the Ile one yeare. Next vnto him succéeded Magnus the second sonne of Olauus, and last of all Iuarus, who held it so long as the Norwaies were lords thereof. But being once come into the hands of the Scots, one Godred Mac Mares was made lieutenant, then Alane, thirdlie Maurice Okarefer, and fourthlie one of the kings chapleines, &c. I would gladlie haue set downe the whole catalog of all the viceroyes and lieutenants: but sith I can neither come by their names nor successions, I surcesse to speake any more of them, and also of the Ile it selfe, whereof this may suffice.