What is the Cordil that Edward Topsell describes?
Your link says:


  [...] whereof the Latines derive or rather borrow their Cordulus, and
  Cordyla [...].


Wikipedia says about this:


  The genus Cordylus (Sauria: Cordylidae) includes a wide variety of small- to medium-sized spiny lizards from Africa, collectively called girdle-tailed or girdled lizards.



Tropical girdled lizard (Cordylus tropidosternum)
Source: Wikipedia