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A19384
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Thomas Coriate traueller for the English vvits: greeting From the court of the Great Mogul, resident at the towne of Asmere, in easterne India.
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Coryate, Thomas, ca. 1577-1617.
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1616
(1616)
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STC 5811; ESTC S108719
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14,255
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51
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recordation of the manifold benefits and singular fauours I haue receiued from you hath inioyned mee to send this Letter to your Honour from this glorious Court of the Mogul wherein seeing I relate not the singularities I haue seene in those Orientall Regions I will desist to be farther tedious humbly recommending your Honour and vertuous Lady your well-beloued Sonne Heire-apparant Sir Robert to whom I haue written a few times also his sweet Lady M. Martin also M. Christopher Brooke whom I thanke still for his no lesse elegant then serious verses M. Equinoctiall Pasticrust of the middle Temple M. VVilliam Hackwell and the rest of the worthy gentlemen frequenting your Honourable table that fauour vertue and the sacred Muses to the most Heauenly Clientele of the eternall Iehouah Your Honors most obsequious Beadsman Thomas Coryate From the Court of the great Mogul resident in the Towne of Asmere in the Easterne India on Michaelmas day Anno 1615. I beseech your Honour to speake courteously to this kind Minister M. Rogers for my sake for he euer shewed himselfe very louing vnto me Most deare and beloued Friend Maister L. W. animae dimidium meae From the Court of the most Mighty Monarch called the Great Mogul resident in the Towne of Asmere in the Orientall India Anno 1615. COrdiall salutations in the Author of Saluation Iesus Christ where I writ vnto you last I remember wel euen from Zobah as the Prophet Samuel calleth it 2 Booke 8. chap. ver 3 that is Aleppo the principall Emporium of all Syria or rather of the Orient world but when in trueth I haue forgotten for I keepe not coppies of my Letters as I see most of my Countrey-men doe in whatsoeuer place of the worlde I finde them Howbeit if my coniecture doe not much faile me I may affirme that it was about xv moneths since about a month after I returned vnto Aleppo from Ierusalem after which time I remained there three months longer and then departed there-hence in a Carauan into Persia passing the noble riuer Euphrates the cheefest of all that irrigated Paradise wherehence as frō their original the three other riuers were deriued about foure dayes iourney beyond Aleppo on the farther side of which I entered Mesapotamia alias Chaldea for the Euphrates in that place disterminateth Syria Mesopotamia Therehence I had two dayes iourney to Vr of the Chaldeans where Abraham was born a very delicate and pleasant Cittie There I remained foure dayes but I I could see no part of the ruines of the house wher that faithful seruant of God was borne though I much desired it from thence I had foure dayes iourney to the Riuer Tigris which I passed also but in the same place where I crossed it I found it so shallow that it reached no higher then the calfe of my legge for I waded ouer it afoot Now I wel perceiue by mine occular experience that Chaldea is named Mesopotamia for that it is inclosed with the foresaid riuers Traiecto Tigride I entred Armenia the greater After that Media the lower resided six dayes in the Metropolis therof heretofore called Ecbarana the sommer seate of Cyrus his Court a City eftsoone mentioned in the Scripture now called Tauris more wofull ruines of a City sauing that of Troy Cyzicū in Natolia neuer did mine eies beholde whē I seriously contemplated those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doleful testimonies of the Turkish deuastations I called to minde Ouids verse Ludis in humanis diuina potentia rebus Now I am at the Moguls Court I think you would be glad to receiue some narration thereof from mee though succinctly handled for I meane to be very compendious lest I shold otherwise preoccupate that pleasure which you may here after this reape by my personall relation thereof This present Prince is a verie worthy person by name Selim of which name I neuer read or heard of any more then one Mahometan King which was Suliam Selim of Constantinople that liued about 80. years since the same that conquered Ierusalem Damascus Aleppo Caico c adding the same to the Turkish Empire He is 53. yeares of age his natiuitie daie hauing beene celebrated with wonderfull pompe since my arriuall here for that daie he weighed himselffe in a paire of golden Scales which by great chance I saw the same day a custome that he obserueth most inuioablie euery year laying so much golde in the other scale as coūteruaileth the weight of his body and the same he afterward distributed to the poore Hee is of complection neither white nor blacke but of a middle betwixt thē I know not how to expresse it with a more expressiue significant epitheton then Oliue an Oliue colour his face presenteth hee is of a seemelie composition of bodie of a stature little vnequall as I guesse not without grounds of probabilitie to mine but much more corpulent then my selfe The extent of his Dominion is verie spacious beeing in circuite little lesse then 4000. English miles which verie neere answereth the compas of the Turks territories or if any thing be wanting in geometricall dimension of ground it is with a great pleonasme supplied by the fertility of his soyle and in these two thinges hee exceedeth the Turks in the fatnesse as I haue said of his Land no part of the world yeelding a more fruitfull veine of ground then all that which lieth in his Empire sauing that part of Babylonia where the terrestriall Paradise once stoode whereas a great part of the Turkes Land is extreme barren and sterill as I haue obserued in my peregrination thereof especially in Syria Mesopotamia and Armenia many large portions thereof beeing so wonderfull fruitelesse that it beareth no good thing at all or if any thing there Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur auenae Secondly in the coniunction and vnion of all his Territories together in one the same goodly continent of India no Prince hauing a foote of land within him But many parcels of the Turkes Countries are by a large distance of seas otherwise diuided asunder Again in his Reuenue he exceedeth the Turk the Persian his Neighbour by iust halfe for his Reuenues are 40. millions of Crownes of sixe shillings value by the yeare but the Turkes are no more then fifteene millions as I was certainly informed in Constantinople and the Persians fiue millions plus minus as I heard in Spahan It is saide that he is vncircumcised wherein he differeth from all the Mahometan Princes that euer were in the world Your assured louing Friend till death Tho Coryate From the Court of the Great Mogul resident at the Towne of Asmere in the Eastern India on Michaelmas day Anno 1615. I Do enioy at this time as pancraticall and athleticall a health as euer I did in my life so haue done euer since I came out of England sauing for three dayes in Constantinople where I had an Ague which with a
Temple or in some Barbers house neere to the temple 5. Item to M. Iohn Donne the author of two most elegant Latine Bookes Pseudo martyr and Ignatij Conclaue of his abode either in the Strād or elsewhere in London I thinke you shall bee easily informed by the meanes of my friend M. L. W. 6. Item to M. Richard Martin Counsellor at his chamber in the middle Temple but in the Terme time scarce else 7. Item to M. Christopher Brooke of the city of Yorke Councellor at his chamber in Lincolnes Inne or neere it 8. Item to M. Iohn Hoskins alias Acquinoctial Pastitrust of the citie of Hereford Councellor at his chamber in the middle Temple 9. Item to M. George Garrat of whose beeing you shal vnderstand by Master Donne aforesaide 10 Item to M. VVilliam Hackwell at his chamber in Lincolnes Inne 11 Item to Master Beniamin Iohnson the Poet at his chamber at the Blacke Friars 12. Item to Maist. Iohn Bond my countreyman chiefe Secretarie vnto my Lorde Chancellour 13 Item to M. Doctor Mocket resident perhappes in my Lord of Canterburies house at Lambeth where I left him 14 Item to M. Samuel Purkas the great collector of the Lucubrations of sundry classical authors for the description of Asia Africa and America Pray commend mee vnto him and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maister Cooke by the same token that he gaue me a description of Constantinople and the Thracius Bosphorus written in Latine by a Frenchman called Petrus Gillius which Booke when I carried once in an afternoone vnder mine arme in walking betwixt our English Ambassadors house in Pera on the opposite side to Constantinople and the Flemish Ambassadors house I lost it very vnfortunately to my great griefe neuer found it againe 15 Item to M. Inigo Iones there where Maister Martin shall direct you 16 Item to M. Iohn Williams the Kings Goldat his house in Cheapside 17 Item to M. Hugh Holland at his lodging where M. Martin shall direct you 18 Item to M. Robert Bing at Yongs ordinarie neere the Exchange 19 Item to M. William Stansby the Printer of my Crudities and Crambe at his house in Thames street also to his childlesse wife 20 Item to all the Stationers in Paules Church-yard but especially those by name Mast. Norton Mast. Waterson M. Mathew Lownes M. Edward Blount and M. Barrat c. God bless thēall me too that I may one day after the finall consummation of my fastidious peregrinations in the world see and salute them all in health and welfare Per me Thomam Coryatum Odcombiensem PRay remember my verie humble dutie to my Lord Byshop of Bathe and Welles generous M. Doctor Montacute and tell his Lordship that before I returne towards the Persian court out of this Orientall India I resolue by Gods permission to write such a Letter vnto him after I haue throughly surueighed so much of this country as I meane to do as shall not bee vnworthy to bee read to the Kings most excellent Maiesty You are like to heare newes of his Lordships abode in Kings street neere VVestminster A Distich to the Traueller All our choice wits all see thou hast engrost The doubt yet rests if they or thou haue most FINIS To his Louing Mother BY this present Letter I am like to minister vnto you the occasion of two contrary matters the one of comfort the other of discomfort of comfort because I haue by the propitious assistance of the omnipotent Iehouah performed such a notable voyage of Asia the greater with purchase of great riches of experience as I doubt whether any English man this hundred yeares haue done the like hauing seene and very particularly obserued all the cheefest things in the Holy-land called in times past Palaestina as Ierusalem Samaria Nazareth Bethlehem Iericho Emaus Bethania the Dead Sea called by the Ancients Lacus Asphaltities where Sodome and Gomorrha once stood since that many famous and renowned Cities and countries Mesopotamia in the which I entred by the passage of the riuer Euphrates that watered Paradise in which the Citty of Vr where Abraham was borne both the Mediaes the higher and the lower Parthia Armenia Persia through al which I haue trauailed into the Eastern India being now at the Court of the great Mogull at a Towne called Asmere the which from Ierusalem is the distance of two thousand and seauen hundred miles and haue traced all this tedious way afoote with no small toile of bodye and discomfort because that beeing so exceeding farre from my sweet and most delicious Natiue soyle of England you will doubt perhaps how it is possible for me to returne home againe but I hope I shall quickly remoue from you that opinion of discomfort if at the least you shall conceiue any such because I would haue you know that I alwayes go safely in the company of Carauans from place to place A Carauan is a word much vsed in all Asia by which is vnderstood a great multitude of people trauelling together vpon the way with Camels Horses Mules Asses c. on which they carry Merchandizes from one country to another and Tents and Pauillions vnder which instead of houses they shelter themselues in open fields being furnished also with all necessary prouision and conuenient implements to dresse the same in which Carauans I haue euer most securely passed betwixt Ierusalem and this Towne a iourney of fifteene months and odde dayes whereof foure wanting a VVeeke spent in Aleppo and two and fiue od dayes spent in Spahan the Metropolitan Citty of Persia where the Persian King most commonly keepeth his Court the occasion of my spending of sixe moneths of the foresaide fifteene in those two Citties was to waite for an opportunity of Carauans to Trauaile withall which a traueller is not sure to finde presently when he is ready to take his iourney but must with patience expect a conuenient time and the Carauan in which I trauelled betwixt Spahan and India contained 2000. Camels 1500. horses 1000. and odde Mules 800. Asses and sixe thousand people Let this therefore deer Mother minister vnto you a strong hope of my happy returne into England Notwithstand all these lines for prouision for your Funerall I hope for to see you aliue and sound in body minde about foure yeares hence to kneele before you with effusion of teares for ioy Sweet mother pray let not this wound your heart that I say four yeares hence not before I humbly beseech you euen vpon the knees of my heart with all submissiue supplications to pardon me for my long absence for verily I haue resolued by the fauour of the supernal powers to spend 4. entire yeares more before my returne and so to make it a Pilgrimage of 7. yeares to the end I may very effectually and profitably contemplate a great part of this worldly fabricke determining by Gods special help to go from India into the countrey of Scythia now called Tartaria to