A true REPORT AND EXACT DESCRIPtion of a mighty Sea-monster, or Whale, cast vpon Langar-shore over against Harwich in Essex, this present month of february 1617.  
With a brief touch of some other strange precedent and present occurrents.  
 depiction of a beached whale  
LONDON Printed for H. Holland and are to be sold by C. H. at the Globe in cornhill over against the Exchange. 1617.   

A true REPORT and exact description of a mighty Sea-monster or Whale, cast vpon Langar-shore over against Harwich in Essex, this present month of february. 1617.  
ALthough it is ever to be confessed and acknowledged with thankful hearts, that many and infinite are the blessings and benefits which almighty GOD hath bestowed and powred vpon this our Land of Great britain, especially, since the pure profession and preaching of his gospel amongst us, for the space of 60. yeares and upwards; for the which, blessed bee his Name for ever. Yet in this old and declining age of the World, such and so great is the hereditary perverseness of miserable mankindes natural inclination, that although wee infallibly know, that God is infinite in power, and his ways and judgements are past finding out: Yea, though we generally confess him to be the mighty, eternal, incomprehensible, and onely wise Iehouab, in whose hands and knowledge are all things past, present, and future: Though, Isay, wee confess and profess an external belief that God can and will punish obstinat and stiffnecked sinners in the uprightness of his confounding Iustice: yet wee presuming( because it is said in holy Writ, His mercy is infinite and over all his works) vpon his mercy, that we are altogether forgetful of his Iustice; So that for all, notwithstanding our knowledge, our confession, and profession, we live in atheism, papism, and epicurism, and so many sundry forts of Hydra-headed schisms, that, for the most part, wee spend our times in this wicked World, little better then in bruit-Barbarisme: for I am verily persuaded that God had never fewer true seruants, nor more professors, than are in these our dayes; and surely, it is to bee feared where God hath least, the devill hath most: And wee are so lulled and rocked a sleep in the careless cradle of sensual security, by the Prince of the air( satan) and his two near kinsmen, the World and the Flesh, that wee( as it were) in despite of the eternal GOD, tread and trample his sacred laws, and sanctified Testimonies under our profane, unhallowed and rebellious feet; and with a high hand, and an aspiring heart, and millions varieties of transgressions wee seem to batter the glorious frame of heaven with thundering shot of our abominable Hell-hatched impieties.  
These outrageous enormities daily provoking our most just GOD to power forth the consuming Vials of his incensed heavy indignation vpon all the misgouerned. sons of sinful Men: for as God is infinite in his Mercy so is he infinite in his Iustice: and as our Transgressions are numberless, so are the diuers and several rods and punishments that God useth to scourge us with and inflict vpon us innumerable, sometimes by weak means to accomplish great things and confounded the mighty; and sometimes by elemental causes, as Fire, air, Water and Earth, he shows his universal power vpon offenders: and sometimes by vnauoidable infections of Plagues and pestilential fevers, and many other miserable maladies: whereof, overpassing many other that haue happened by Gods hand in this our age,& looking but a little back, let us remember and recite, with fear and terror, some that haue befallen us of late dayes.  
For example: First, that devouring mortality of the Plague and Pestilence, that in less then a year laid so many thousand souls( above an hundred thousand in London) groaueling in their graues, in the year of our Lord 1603.  
Secondly, in the year of our Lord 1605. That horrible and most execrable Plot of Powder Treason, detected and discovered miraculously by Gods providence, and the wisdom of our most wise King, to the glory of God, the good of this land, and the eternal infamy of the Pope and all his English-adherents.  
Thirdly, the great fires in diuers parts of the land, which haue burned down whole towns of no small account.  
What grievous deluges outrageous Inundations, and vnresistable overflowings of Waters, nor history nor man recording the like( since the general Deluge) whereby many hundreds of Acres of pasture& earable land haue been in a little space turned( as it were) into a main Ocean, that the fishes floating in their new made regiments, haue fed on the drowned carkaises of men, women, children& beasts.  
What a prodigious, and never the like heard of Frost which( being so long, made the earth as hard as our stony hearts) killed the fruits of the Earth, and congealed the Riuers that the Fishes of many waters died. Anno 1608.  
What Droughts causing sterility and barrenness of our fruitful mother Earth we haue had, God in his anger withholding the rain, and shutting the windows of heaven, that the senseless ground hath gaped to heaven for relief, when wee ourselves haue scarce opened our mouths to desire Gods favour, it is sufficiently known to all Estates and degrees.  
What hurts, damages, and irrecoverable losses& hindrances men haue sustained by tempestuous winds and storms both on Land and Sea, when on the Land Churches, and Steeples, Houses, and chimneys, Trees, and diuers other things that were for the necessary use of men, haue been utterly subverted and thrown down, to the utter undoing of soul& the great impoverishing of many; especially in the windy Winter, An. 1612. In which blustering winter was also blown from us on earth( by the blast of Gods iudgments for our sins) our most noble, hopeful,& incomperable Prince henry, whose loss is never enough lamented.  
And to come more nere unto this very instant time, Was there ever heard of such great& so deep. Snows as happened the year 1614. which continued so long, as besides the loss of many Christian people that perished by it, the whole continent was covered so long with such a froze fleece of snow, that the number of cattle which perished in the time for want of food shelter& otherwise were innumerable.  
And besides, to seaue the Land& return to the Water: What great and manifold harms haue been vpon the Sea, the outrageous winds making it( in a maner) altogether vnnauigable: Of the which to writ in every particular were a World of work& beyond my meaning or purpose. But al these aforesaid grievous calamities let us all confess& aclowledge with penitent hearts, to be the true tokens that our merciful God is highly offended with us;& I am perswa●ed that the third part of the people of this kingdom of Great britain, do, and will ever remember whiles they haue a day to live, some one or other of these precedent afflictions, some by loss of friends by death, some by loss of goods by fire, water, or other means: so that there is not nor hath not been( nor I doubt will not bee) any day night, hour or minute, wherein God hath not, doth not or will not poure his vengeance by one means or other, in one place or other, vpon us impenetrable, vnrepenting,& persidious people, whiles we so persist.  
But( Christian Reader) leaving this perambulation or trivial travel( as haply you may term it) I mean to treat of my intended subject: nor will I busy and abuse your eyes& ears with any fond fables of flying Serpents, or as fond delusions of devouring Dragons, of Men or women burn to death miraculously without fire, of dead men rising out of their graues( which is directly against the truth of the revealed will of God in the sacred Scriptures, that any dead body shal arise before the general resurrection) the which& the like lying Pamphlets& Prophesies it is to be wished were by Authority crushed in the cradle& suppressed, rather than published& dinulged in the world to stain paper and fill mens mouths, especially the ignorant multitude, full of false miraculous wonderments: being indeed nothing but mere eoseuing devises of idle brains or jesuitical impostures and delusions, or both.  
Now, to my purpose, for that hath happened this present Winter, the beginning whereof for a good space( God looking mercifully vpon us) was dry, mildred, and very temperate, the like scarce known heretofore: but God seeing us nevertheless to persist in our accustomend sins, turned dryness into wetnesse, mildness into merciless blustering: and besides the damage that is done again by Waters& floods in diuers parts, especially in the West parts of the Land, as is credibly reported, surely this latter part of Winter hath been very intemperate, uncouth and unseasonable; as namely, by a strange kind of warmness without Frost, a continual and continued rain and showering which still came in on Boreas back, for these many daies past: which bitter blasts also haue remained so long Southernly, which is almost incredible, were it not that we knew it) that diuers Ships and Caruils haue waited for a Wind to bring them from Harwich,& other places, about these three moneths: and diuers other of our Merchants Ships of London haue waited as long in the downs and thereabouts to set sail in the main Ocean for to perform their intended voyages, and yet I beleeue are scarce gotten out.  
moreover, what strange, fearful and astonishing thunder-claps and lightning firie-flashes haue over ears and eyes been witnesses unto, within these few dayes; which at the least, going but to natural reason, according to the old proverb wee may say, Winters thunder is Summers wonder.  
But we may justly fear( and so bee the more humbled for our sins) that these fearful accidents are beginning forerunners of the last Day: dreadful unto all the wicked: but as glorious unto all the godly.   

A true Report and exact description of a mighty Sea-monster, or Whale▪ cast vpon Langar-shore near Harwich, this present month of february. 1617.  
AMongst many other prodigious accidents happened this strange, uncouth and unseasonable Winter: On Saturday the first of this present month of february, being a terrible tempestuous day, the Maine-Ocean disgorged her self of a mighty Sea-monster or Whale, I know not whether to term it, the exact description whereof as I received it in a Letter from a reverend and learned divine, Minister of Harwich, is as followeth.  
The length 56. font, the height or depth 9. or 10. foot, the breadth 14. foot, the compass about 36. foot, the tail in compass 16. foot, the length of the nether jaw 12. foot. It appears to be a Male: the skin black and like leather, the flesh in colour and substance like brawn: the eyes huge and being fixed, as it were on the back, with one open spout in the top of the head, and otherwise very monstrous and confusedly composed, as you may see by the true portraiture thereof here presented unto your view, as well as may be contracted in so small a form.  
It appears also to be but a young one, and yet is very fat, and yeeldeth much oil, but is doubtful that it will be of less use it savoureth so strongly by reason as is also conjectured that it was dead diuers daies before the Sea cast it up on our Coasts. I myself and thousands besides haue seen and beholded it, lying at Langar side in Ipwich water over against Harwich town, about a mile and half distant.  
Now whether this Monster of the Sea bee ominous or not, I had rather leave to the wise and learned then myself determine.  
 depiction of a beached whale