thy son at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the path of the fullers field c. And in the Fourth Book of Kings in the Eighteenth Chapter Verse Seventeen The King of Assyria sent a great host against Jerusalem and when they were come up they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool which is in the high way of the fullers field Before Mount Zion towards the South at the other side of the Rivulet Kidron lieth the Mount of Transgression in the Fourth Book of Kings Chap. 23. called Mashith between this and Mount Olivet is a Valley through which goeth down the Road by Bethania to Jericho c. This is higher and steeper than any hereabout There you see still some old Walls of the Habitation wherein the Concubines of Solomon did live after whom the King ran in his old Age and they did so possess him that they turned his Heart from God Almighty after their Gods and so he did that that did not please the Lord God as you may read in the First Book of Kings Chap. 11. Verse 4. Underneath the Mount was the Valley Benhinnem wherein the Kings of Jerusalem did build a Temple to the Idol Moloch and did worship him viz. Solomon Achaz Manasseh c. whereof we read in several places in the Holy Scripture Levit. xviii 21. Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch And also Jerem. vii 30. And they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to pollute it And they have built the high places of Tophet which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire which I commanded them not neither came it into my heart therefore behold the days come saith the Lord that it shall no more be called Tophet nor the valley of the son of Hinnom but the valley of slaughter for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place And also 2 Chron. xxviii 2. Ahaz made molten images for Baalim and burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnon and burnt his children in the fire after the abominations of the Heathen The holy Prophet Amos doth also make mention of these abominable Idolatries in his Fifth Chapter which Luke in the Seventh Chapter Verse Forty third of the Acts doth thus explain Ye took up the Tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan c. which the holy Prophet calleth Sicchuth and Chiun But the Heathen called them Jupiter and Saturn the Devourer of Children and so he is also painted This Statue was hollow within of cast Brass whereinto they did put the Children and burnt them alive and did believe they served God in it as Abraham when he would sacrifice his Son Isaac they had also Kettle Drums and other Musical Instruments which they played on that the Parents might not hear their Children cry wherefore Christ gave unto Hell it self and its perpetual flames the Name of the Valley Benhinnon calling it Gehenna to give us warning and exhortation that we hate false and abominable Idolatries introduced contrary to his Command worse than the Devil himself Besides this there is little else seen hereabout only above on the steepness and highest part of the Mount many little Tents and Habitations as if they hung at it which in these times are not inhabited either by Turks nor Moors in the Valley you see the Rivulet Kidron where over they brought our Lord Christ bound as a Prisoner from Mount Olivet this proceedeth only from Rain Water near to the place Gethsemane and runs without by the Town from South to West Beside this Brook did King Asa burn the Images of Priapus as Josias and Hezekiah the Idols of Baal all Incenses and Uncleannesses that are found in the Temple of the Lord. Further towards the East you see from the top of Mount Zion the Fountain and Pool of Siloah below in the Valley called by Josephus Tiropaean which divideth this and the Temple Mount and becometh to be very narrow between them and extendeth it self from the Rivulet Kidron towards the North to the place of Skulls where it groweth so large again that the lower Town of Jerusalem by Isaiah in his Tenth and Zacharias in his Ninth Chapter called The daughter of Zion and Jerusalem was situated therein Out of which near to the Gate of the Fountain of Siloha which is now walled up the way goeth up to the Gate of Zion into the upper Town through which two our Lord Christ was brought a Prisoner to the Houses of Hannas and Caiaphas This Valley hath been since the Desolation so filled up that no depth at all appeareth in our Days but only without the Fountain Gate by the Fountain Siloah that is very rich of water where is still the Pool wherein the Blind Man washed his Eyes that were anointed with Clay and Spittle St. John ix 6. according to the Command of our Lord and did see Just by it are still the two Hills whereof Josephus maketh mention with a very steep Cliff very rocky on both sides one whereof towards the East called the Rock of the Pidgeons hath a great Cave out of which the Fountain springs and runs off immediately below through a Channel that goeth so strait and smooth through the Rock as if it had been made on purpose Near to this Fountain and Gate of Siloha stood the Tower of Siloha that killed Eighteen Men as we read in St. Luke Chap. xiii Without between the Fountain and Stream of Kidron they shew a great Mulberry-Tree fenced in below this stands in the place where the holy Prophet Isaias was buried whom the King Manasse ordered to be cut in pieces with a wooden Saw as being an Heretick This may suffice of Mount Zion its situation and some adjacent places As we went about and came to one of the places the Monks did shew the Pilgrims in each of them the Number of the Years for the Pardon 's laid there by his Holiness as in some Seven Years and Seven Indulgences but in some others as in the place where the Holy Ghost was sent where Christ did eat the Passover with his Disciples and washed their Feet and where he at several times appeared when the Doors were shut and where also as Nicephorus saith the Virgin Mary after the Resurrection of Christ her dear Child did dwell for Fourteeen Years c. full Absolution and Indulgences from all Sins and Facts for ever Now that all those that come there may receive it more worthily the Monks exhort them to kneel down before every of such places and to pray the Lord's Prayer and Ave Maria with Devotion and that when they have done so they need not to doubt but that they have fully received the Absolution that was given for that place by his Holiness After they had thus prayed in several places some of our Company rejoiced mightily
Tythimalus Paralius and also a kind of Conyza Diosc out of one Root there spring up several Stalks whereof some grow upright but the greater part of them lie down upon the ground and so shoot new Roots which afterwards sprout out into new Stalks it beareth long Olive-leaves which are thick fattish and somewhat woolly and have a strong and equally sweet smell for the rest as the Flowers it is very like unto the great one You find there also the lesser and greater Medica which the Moors to this day still call Fasa Likewise so great and many Squills that the Inhabitants weed them up chiefly those that grow near their Gardens and fling them up in high heaps like Stones There also groweth Securidaca minor Tribulus terrestris by the Inhabitants called Haseck and a kind of Echium which groweth by the way as you go to St. Jame's Church which from thence is situated upon an ascent at a Mile's distance Hereabout and in other adjacent places groweth a great quantity of Sugar-canes so that there is yearly sold a great many Sugar-loaves that are made thereof These are as high and big as our Canes and not much differing from them but within and down towards the Root where they are best they are full of this pleasant Juice wherefore the Turks and Moors buy a great many of them being very pleasant to them to chew and eat for they are mightily pleased with Sweet-meats whereof they have variety Before they begin to eat or chew them they stript off the long Leaves and cut away what is tasteless so that only the juicy and good remaineth which is hardly two Foot Of the thus prepared Canes they carry many along with them through the Streets and cut off one piece after another skale them and so chew and eat them openly every where in the Street without shame for they are principally near the Root very tender and feel as mellow between your Teeth as if it were Sugar it self So the Turks use themselves to Gluttony and are no more so free and couragious to go against their Enemies to fight as they have been in former Ages The Sugar Canes do not grow there from Seeds neither are they propagated by the Root but by the Canes themselves whereof they lay into the Ground some green pieces of two or three Joints long and that they may grow the sooner they bore prety large holes in between the Joints when they begin to grow they sprout out in the Joints and grow up into great Canes and so bring in good profit There also by the Rivers are found Anthillis marina Visnaga the first Apocymum and Oleander with Purple Flowers by the Inhabitants called Defle and a delicate kind of Scabiosa Melisra Maluca and if you go to the Gardens you see Heliotropium majus Convolvulus folio acuto Vitis nigra Phaseolus Turcicus with yellow Flowers which still retain the ancient Name of Lubie Lysimachia lutea and wild Vines called Labruscae whereon nothing groweth but only the Flowers called Ocnanthe and also a Shrub like unto the Polygonus of Carol Clusius which climbs up into high Trees and hang down again from the Twigs and I very believe they are the same with Ephedra whereof Pliny maketh mention in the 7 th Chapter of his 26 th Book When I went farther with an intention to consider the Plants that grew in the Country first came before me some Sycomors whereof chiefly Dioscorides and Theophrastus make mention and tell us of two sorts and when I called these things to mind I light of one of the second sort of Sycomors whereof abundance grow in Cyprus wherefore these wild Figg-Trees might be called the one the Cyprish Sycomore-Tree and the other the Aegyptian Sycomore-Tree according to the places where they are most frequent and fruitful I found a great many of them the Moors and Arabians call them Mumeitz they are as great and as high as the white Mulberry-Trees and have almost the same Leaves but they are only somewhat rounder and are also whole at or about the sides they bear Fruit not unlike to our Figg-Trees only they are sweeter and have no little Seeds within and are not so good wherefore they are not esteemed and are commonly sold only to the poorer sort of People they grow in all Fields and Grounds as you may see by the Words of the second Book of the Chronicles in the 9 th Chap. Vers 27 th And the King made Silver in Jerusalem as Stones and Cedar-Trees made he as the Sycomore-Trees that are in the low Plains in abundance Zacheus did climb upon such a one when he had a great mind to see our Saviour Essaias also maketh mention of them in his 9 th Chap. Vers 10. and Amos in his 7 th Chap. Vers 14. where he saith of himself I was a Herds-man and a Gatherer of Sycomore-Fruit These two sorts are very like one another in Stem Leaves and Fruit only as the Fruit of the one comes more out of the great Stem and great Twigs so that of the other does the same but not out of the Stems and Twigs immediately but out of Twigs or Sprouts without Leaves of the length of five or six Inches whereon they grow sometimes very thick and in a bunch together These Trees bear Fruit three or four times yearly which are small of an Ash colour oblong round like Prunes and are found upon the Trees almost all the Year long Hereabout also grow many Thorns whereof is made mention in the Scriptures by the Inhabitants called Hauseit and by the Arabians Hausegi but the Latins call them Ahamnus and also white Poplars still to this day called Haur by the Arabians There also groweth a great and high Tree which beareth delicate Leaves and Flowers pleasant to look upon by the Inhabitants called Zensetacht but by Rhazes and Avicenna Astirgar Astergir and Azadaracht whereof you see here and there several planted in the Streets to make a pleasant Shade in the Summer the Fruit thereof remaineth upon them all the Year long until they put out again a new for they are hurtful and kill the Dogs if they eat thereof Near the Town upon the Highlands where you see abundance of Corn-fields and abundance of pleasant Olive-Trees that reach quite up to Mount Libanus are found Polium montanum Pecten veneris ferrum equinum Chamaeleon niger with its sharp pointed and black Roots and Leaves very like unto the Leaves of Carlina whereof the Stalks are of a reddish colour a Span long and of the thickness of a Finger whereon are small prickly Heads of a blewish colour not unlike to these of the little Eryngium Another fine Plant grows thereabout called Sathar in their Language but when I consider its beautiful Purple-coloured Flowers and its small Leaves which are something long withall I rather judge it to be the Hasce of the Arabians or the true Thyme of Diosc which we call Serpillum Romanum It
hath so pleasant an Acrimony as any Spice can have wherefore the Inhabitants use it very much whole or in pouder at home and abroad with and without their Meat chiefly for to correct an ill digestion of their Stomach This Herb is never found in our Apothecaries Shops they take another in its room which hath lesser and greener Heads and is rather the first Satureia of Diosc brought from Candia There are also two sorts of Clinopodium whereof the lesser and tenderer considering its long Stalks Leaves and Flowers which grow in good order and at equal distances one over the other may very well be taken for the true one of the Diosc There are also Ilex minor Sabina baccifera Terebinthus and many more In the Town are found several strange Plants one called Musa whereof the Stalks are from nine to twelve Foot high which are smooth and without they are inclosed in their Leaves and often quite surrounded like our Reeds of a fine shining Green at the top thereof the Leaves spread themselves out and look like a great bush of Feathers for they are very long and so broad that the biggest Person may lie upon them with his whole Body very well These Leaves have a rib in the middle which keepeth them up streight and so strongly that although the Wind breaketh them at the sides in several places yet notwithstanding they remain upright These Trees bear their Fruit no more but once wherefore they are cut down and so the Root shoots out several other Stalks about a Foot distant from the old one which grow up again and bring forth Fruit which groweth on a thick Stalk in great numbers they are almost shaped like the Citruls round and bended only they are less smooth without environed with a thick rind which is first yellow but when they are kept a few days it grows black it is easily separated when they are new within they are whitish full of Seeds sweet and good to eat but they fill mightily and are apt to gripe wherefore as Theophrastus mentioneth in the 5th Chapter of his 4th Book Alexander the Great forbid his Army to eat them when he went into the Indies There groweth but very little of this Fruit about Tripoli but it is brought from the Neighbouring places plentifully We also find there another Tree not unlike unto our Privett by the Arabians called Alcanna or Henne and by the Grecians in their vulgar Tongue Schenna which they have from Egypt where but above all in Cayro they grow in abundance The Turks and Moors nurse these up with great care and diligence because of their sweet-smelling Flowers and put them into earthen Pots or wooden Cases or Boxes to keep them in the Winter in Vaults from the Frost which they cannot endure And because they hardly begin to sprout before August they water them with Soapsuds but others lay Lime about the Root to make it put forth the earlier that it may flower the sooner because of the pleasantness of the Smell of the Flowers which is somewhat like Musk They are of a pale yellow colour and stand in Spikes of the length of a Span but not very close so that Leaves appear between them Their Twigs are also of the same colour whereof many sent to us to cleanse the Teeth with them as it were with a Brush when they are bruised a little at the ends They also as I am informed keep their Leaves all Winter which Leaves they powder and mix with the Juice of Citrons and stain therewith against great Holydays their Hair and Nails of their Children of a red colour Which colour perhaps may be seen with us on the Mains and Tails of Turkish Horses The Powder is greenish and so common with them that you see in their Batzars whole Bags full thereof standing before their Shops which come from Aegypt and Africa from whence whole Ship-loads are sent through Turky as I have seen my self in this Harbour several from whence the Turkish Emperor hath yearly a great Revenue The Arabians burn their Spodium out of the Root thereof as Avicen remarks in his 17 th Chapter This being thus it appeareth that there is no small difference between these two ours and theirs I am of opinion that theirs which is mentioned in the first Chapter of Solomon's Song is liker to that which Dioscor describeth then our Ligustrum Thereabout is also found within and without the Gardens a peculiar sort of Mallows by them called Chethince which is very large and high and like other Trees spreads its woody Twigs and soft Boughs that are covered with a brownish Bark amongst the rest I saw one as big as a Man 's middle the Leaves thereof are of a dark Green long and at the sides towards the point crenated its Flowers are rather bigger than other Mallows of a blew colour their Seeds I did never see Hard by I found another Outlandish Doschet Flower which was almost decay'd so that it had neither Leaves Flowers nor Seeds It was about three Foot high the Stem and Twigs were hairy hollow within as other Stalks of a green colour inclining somewhat to yellow which had at top many other shoots each of them had behind like unto other Tree-stems its proper Joint This is so juicy quite through that it drops almost with Milk which is sharper than any Spurge I made great inquiry of them about it but could have no certain accompt thereof but as it seemed to me it is very like unto Xabra and Camarronus of Rhazes by the Arabians called Tanaghut and Sabeam and may be taken according to that Author's description for it Further hereabout chiefly in the Town upon the Cisterns and Conduits I found Adiantum by the Apothecaries called Capillus Veneris and in old Walls the Apollinaris I also found in the Shops in their Batzare two sorts of Roots whereof one was rounder which may be the Bulcigeni of the Venetians which are called Thrasi at Verona where they gâ—w as the learned Malthiolus testifieth many of these are sent out of Aegypt to Tripoli and sold there chiefly to eat in June by the Name of Habel Assis and Altzis this being true and they being very like both in Name and Quality to the Grains of Altzelem of the Arabians they must be the same although Rhazis reckoneth these amongst the Fruits The other called by them Hakinrigi and Hakeuribi is somewhat longer not unlike to our Doronicum there is also a great many of them to be sold they are hard of a sweetish Taste with a piercing bitterness and in their bigness and white Nerves which spread themselves under ground in the Gardens round about like unto the wild Angelica of Tragus so like to the Haronigi Serapionis and to the Durungi and Durunegi of Avicenna according to their Description and so uniform that they must be taken for the same Then I found also in their Shops abundance of the Seeds of Sumach whereof they
noble Root called Rhubarb And moreover they sell several sorts of precious Stones viz. Garnats Rubies Balasios Saphirs Diamonds and the best sincerest Musk in little Gods These precious Stones are hid by the Merchants in the great Caravans that come from India and they bring them secretly because they dare not pay Custom for them that the Bashaws Sangiachs and others may not rob them of them on the High-ways for they use to do so if they find any I will cease to discourse any longer of these and other Drugs and several Merchandises which the Merchants convey thither from forreign Places daily and from thence to other places again because it is none of my Business to deal in them With the Spices are sometimes by the Merchants brought from the Indies delicate Canes which are very long solid or full within flexible and bright without of a yellowish Colour they are almost every-where alike thick only a little tapering but few Joynts far distant from one another and are hardly seen in them There are two sorts of them great and small ones the great and stronger ones are used by old and lame People instead of Crutches to walk with but the lesser which are very like the former are made into Arrows and Darts for which they are very fit the Turks wind them about with Silk of many sorts of Colours which they are very proud of when they make their entries You find also in the Shops another sort of Canes to be Sold which are small and hollow within and smooth without a brownish red Colour wherewith Turks Moors and the Eastern People write for to write with Goose-Quills is not in use with them wherefore these may be esteemed to be the true Syringas or Fistularis of Dioscor Besides these there is another bigger sort of Canes almost of the same Colour but full of Joynts the Pilgrims that go to see their Mahomet bring these with them from Mecha and the People of that Country carry them along with them on Horseback instead of short Pikes chiefly the Arabians for they are long strong and light and yet solid or full within with these they come running on upon their Enemies or else they lifting it up above the middle in one of their Hands fling it at them with such force that they penetrate deeper with their sharp Iron wherewith they are tipt before and behind then their Arrows Theophrastus maketh peculiar mention of them in his fourth Book and the 11 th Chapter and Pliny in his Sixteenth Book and the 36 th Chapter We see very few of these in our Country for the Christians are forbidden under great Penalties to carry any of them the same it is with any other Arms that they make use of in their Wars out of the Country if any doth and is found out he exposes himself to infinite Troubles and Dangers as did happen to one in my time which after a Scimiter was found about him was very highly accused and fined Seventy Ducats to be paid in two days time and if he had not paid it they would certainly have circumcised him and made him a Turk Besides these above-mentioned Champs there are a great many more without and within the City where also all sorts of Merchandises are Sold viz. Quibir the Great Sougier the Little Gidith the New Atich Old c. And besides all these they have a great Exchange called Batzar by the Inhabitants which is in the middle of the Town and is bigger then Friberg in Bavaria in it there is many Alleys and each of them divided for several Wares and handy-craft Trades first the Grocers and Mercers then those that sell Tapestry and other soft Woollen Cloaths and also Turkish Machyer Camlet Taffety and other Silks and Cottons delicately wrought There are also good Cardavon delicate Furrs of Martins and chiefly Wild Cats whereof abundance runs about in these Countries There are also Jewellers that sell all manner of Jewels precious Stones Pearls c. All sorts of Handy-craft Tradesmen as Shoe-makers Taylors Sadlers Needle and Pin-makers Painters Goldsmiths Brasiers Locksmiths c. that have their Shops in the Batzars where they work but their work is chiefly that of the Goldsmiths Painters and Locksmiths is so silly that it is by no means to be compared with ours There are also Turners Fletchers that make Arrows and Darts and Bow-makers that have besides their Shops small Butts that any body that goes by may exercise himself or try his Bow before he buyeth it These Bows are sometimes plain Work and some inlaid with Ivory Buflers Horns c. which maketh them of a differing Price The Archers wear a Ring upon their right Thumbs as our Merchants wear their Seals wherewith they draw the String on when they are going to shoot these are made of Wood Horn or Silver and some are set with Precious Stones Besides these you find in great Batzars some Barbar-Surgeons which when they have no body to trim use to go about the Streets with their Instruments and a Flask of Lather to look out for Work if they find any that will be trimed they do not come back to their Shops but go to Work in the Streets or in the next Champ if any be near and there begin to Lather him and shave all the Hair of his Head save only one long Lock which he leaves to hang down his Back There are also places where they sell Slaves of both Sexes old and young which are sold dearer or cheaper according to their Strength or Handsomeness c. But in all these Countries I saw neither Wheel-wright nor Cart-wright because neither Waggons nor Carts are in use with them Neither could I find for all it is so great a City a Gunsmith that understood how to mend the least fault in a Gun-lock because there is a great Trade daily driven in these Batzars you shall find there at all times of the day a great number of People of several Nations walking up and down which makes a Crowd as if you were in a Fair. Amongst them you will often see drunken Turks which use to push People that do not give them the way immediately chiefly if they be Christians but the Christians are not afraid of them for all that but prepare themselves when they perceive some of them to approach among the People and stand upon their Guard to be even with them and when the Turks come and push them they make them rebound again to one side or to one of the Shop-boards Sometimes also the Turks will lean themselves backwards against the Shops and when they see a Christian go by they let him fall over their Legs and so laugh at them but then the Christians again when they perceive this they kick up the other Leg of the Turk whereon he rests and so make him fall down himself For it is usual with the Turks to try the Christians what Metal they are made of whether they have
it up into little Barrels to send into other Countries the latter they use themselves mix it sometimes with Water and give it to drink instead of a Julep to their Servants sometimes they put it into little Cups to dip their Bread in it as if it were Honey and so eat it Besides these they have other sweet Drinks which they prepare out of red Berries called Jujubes or of Cibebs which when boiled in Water with a little Honey the Inhabitants call Hassap and others called still by the old name of Berberis of which they bring great quantities down from Mount Libanus Among other Liquors they have a special one called Tscherbeth which boiled of Honey tasteth like unto our Mead they have another made of Barley or Wheat by the Ancients called Zychus and Curmi these two last make the Turks so merry and elevated that as our Clowns do when they drink Beer they sing and play on their Hautboys Cornets and Kettle Drums which their Musicians make use of every Morning when the Guards are relieved All these Liquors are sold in their great Batzars where they have Baskets full of Ice and Snow all the Summer long whereof they put so much into the Drink that it maketh their Teeth chatter and quake again Thus much I thought convenient to mention of their Liquors or Drinks Concerning their Food their Bread is nourishing and good and so white chiefly at Halepo that none is like it in all Turkey so they have several sorts of it of several shapes and mixtures whereof some are done with Yolks of Eggs some mixt with several sorts of Seeds as of Sesamum Romish Coriander and wild Garden Saffron which is also strowed upon it Meat is cheap with them and very good by reason of the precious Herbs that grow thereabout chiefly upon Mount Tauri which extendeth itself very far Eastwards from whence they have abundance of Cattel as Rams Weathers and Sheep with broad and fat Tails whereof one weigheth several Pounds They have also great store of Goats which they drive daily in great Numbers through that City to sell their Milk which every one that hath a mind to it drinks warm in the open Streets among them there are some that are not very big but have Ears two foot long so that they hang down to the Ground and hinder them from feeding when one of them is cut off which is commonly done they turn themselves always upon that side that the other Ear may not hinder them from feeding They have no want of Beefes and Bufles for they are very common there and the Butchers kill the Beasts in the Fields without Town where they have their Slaughter-houses thereabout are a great many Dogs that live of the Offels and have their young ones in Holes and Cliffs where they bring them up and these become so Ravenous and Wild that they run about in the Night after their Prey as I am informed like Wolffs in our Country And this may very well be for the Turks do not only not kill any Dogs but rather carry them home when they are young and there feed them till they are grown up and able to shift for themselves and they believe that they do a deed of Charity that is very acceptable to God Almighty like unto the Divines in the Indies called Banians which serve the Birds in the same manner as these do the Dogs and Cats These Wolves are more like to our Dogs both in Shape and Bigness and so says Pliny that the Wolves in Aegypt are less and lasier then these towards the North being there are no Inns in Turkey where as with us Travellers may Lodge and have their Diet therefore there is a great many Cake-shops kept in the Batzars where all manner of Victuals are cleanly dressed viz. Butchers Meat Fouls and all sorts of Sauces and Broths and Soups where every body buys what he hath a mind to according to the capacity of his Purse Among the rest nothing is so common as Rice which they boyl up to such a stiffness that it crumbleth A great many other sorts you shall see in Copper Basons upon their Shop-boards prepared after the same way amongst the rest peculiarly a very common one called Bnuhourt made of Barley and Wheat which were first broke on a Mill and perhaps dryed and so boyled with or without Milk into a thick Pap. Dioscorides in the 83d Chapter of his Second Book maketh mention of this by the name of Crimnon and also Avicen and Rhasas ad Almans in Synonymis calleth it Sanguick and Savick The Turks provide themselves with good store of this chiefly in War-time by Water and by Land that when they want Provision they may make use of it instead of Bread Besides these they have more Dishes amongst them I remember one called Trachan when it is dressed it is so tough that you may draw it out like Glue this they make up into little pieces which being dryed will keep good a great while and is very good and pleasant Food after it is boyled wherefore they lay up great Stores of this in their strong Fortifications as we do of Corn that in case of necessity they may eat it instead of Bisquets or other Food That such sorts of Foods by the Latinists called Pùls have been very well known to the Ancients and that in case of necessity they use to make a shift with it Pliny testifieth in his Eighteenth Book and the Eighth Chapter They have also all manner of Poultry in great plenty viz. Pullen Snipes Partridges with red Bills Woodcocks c. but very few Fishes because they have only a small Rivolet which is full of Turtles so that at Halepo they are very scarce Neither do they esteem them much because most of them drink Water instead of Wine which is prohibited by their Law wherefore there are but very few brought thither from foreign places as Antiochia and the great River Euphrates c. distant from thence two or three miles Besides this they have little By-dishes as Kal Colliflowers Carrots Turneps French-Beans Besides Trees and Codded Fruits and many more but yet they are not so well skilled in the dressing of them as we are in our Country Lastly They put also up with their Cheese Cibebs Almonds dryed Cicers Pistachio's and crack'd Hasel-nuts which although they are carried thither from our Country are better tasted and pleasanter than ours They have many sorts of Preserves very well done with Sugar and Hony very artificially chiefly those they carry about to sell upon Plates very well garnish'd made up and set out with several Colours and Shapes very beautiful to behold For the rest they live very sparingly and bring the Year round with small and little Expences for they do not make so great Feasts nor have so many Dishes nor bestow so great Cost as we do in our Country In these Eastern Countries they eat upon the plain Ground and when it is Dinner-time
whereof he maketh mention in his Index where he interpreteth the Arabian words For a kind of this may also be taken because it affords a delicate purple colour that Alga that is found in the Seas near Candia and is described by Theophrastus in his Fourth Book and Seventh Chapter Lastly Among the rest I did also enquire after the Amomum and thought because they were near unto the Confines of Armenia that therefore they might easily have it by the Caravans which come daily from those parts yet I was forced to run a great while after it till at length I got a little Stalk thereof in one Shop They call it by the name of Hamama But of the other so called by Dioscor which is like unto it and therefore may easily be taken for the right one they had a great deal These two small Shrubs although they are very like to one another yet for all that they may be distinguish'd by their Stalks and different colours Wherefore Dioscorid bids us if we will not be imposed upon to pick out the bigger and smoother with its noble Seed and to leave the small This Stalk which I found about the length of a Finger is almost of the colour of the Bark of the Cinnamon-tree and also in its acrimony and good odour although it was old still very strong At the top had been several woody Stalks close to one another whereon I believe had been the Flowers and Seeds But the Twigs of the other sort which are crack'd and bended are of a brown colour which at the top divide themselves into other less ones like a Tree whereon grow several Stalks with little Heads like unto the Masaron or Marum Syriacum from Crete wherein is no great strength nor odour Thus much I thought convenient to mention of strange Plants chiefly of these the ancients make mention of and so I conclude the first part of my TRAVELS Here endeth the First Part. THE SECOND PART OF THE TRAVELS OF Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff INTO The Eastern Countries Wherein is treated of his Journey from Halepo through the famous Town of Babylonia to Badgee what he saw by the way and what did befal him in going and coming by Water and by Land With a brief account of the high Mount of Libanus of the strange Plants and Inhabitants thereof THE SECOND PART OF THE TRAVELS OF Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff INTO THE Eastern Countries Wherein is treated of his Journey from Halepo through the Famous Town of Babylonia to Bagdet what he saw by the way and what did befal him in going and coming by Water and by Land VVith a brief Account of the high Mount of Libanus of the strange Plants and Inhabitants thereof CHAP. I. How I departed from Halepo to the Famous City of Bi r and how I sailed from thence on the Euphrates to old Babylon AFter I had stay'd a good while in Halepo and had seen and understood the Trade and Merchandices of the Inhabitants together with that of all the other Nations viz. Grecians Armenians Georgians Arabians Persians and Indians which come and go daily with their Caravans and very well observed and understood their Manners and Customs and had also Collected a fine parcel of foreign and undescribed Plants I resolved to go farther Eastward into Mesopotamia Assyria and Babylonia c. as the ancientest and most fruitful Countries that ever were where the ancientest People and the most Potent Monarchs did inhabit But these Countries lying far off and the Way that leadeth thither passing through vast Desarts and Wildernesses and therefore the Voyage being so much the more difficult and dangerous to attempt and accomplish I first look'd out for a trusty Companion to take as my Assistant and met presently with an experienced Dutchman that had lived a great while in Halepo who granted my request being as desirous to go this Voyage as my self to go along with me We agreed presently and began to consider which was our best Way to take But that we being Strangers might not be taken to be Vagabonds or Spies they being very suspicious from whence they might presently take occasion as the Turks use to do to lay great Avarias or unjust Taxes upon us which the Christians that deal to these Parts have often to their great Loss and Damage experienced we did consider and found that the Trading here was very great so that they did not only deal from hence into Armenia Egypt and Constantinople for from thence come the Caravans through Natolia in about a Months time but also very much into Persia and India Wherefore we thought best to profess our selves Merchants that so we might Travel the more safely with other Merchants in order thereto to buy some Merchandices that would Sell in those Places and to carry them along with us That we might put this in execution my formerly mentioned Friend Hans Vlrich Raft from Vlm took great Pains to furnish me at my Desire and Request with several fit Commodities for those Places upon account of my Patron Mr. Melchior Manlich which I got pack'd up immediately to go with them to the Famous City Bagdet situated upon the Tigris where is a great Staple and Deposition of Merchandices that are to go farther for Persia and India But seeing that seldom any Merchants go from Halepo further into these Countries so that our Habits are very rarely seen there we cloathed our selves as is usual in the common Turkish Habit that every body might not presently look upon us as Strangers first we had long blue Cabans which are button'd before quite down and cut out about the Neck not unlike to those of the Armenians and white Drawers made of Cotton that hung down to our Ankles and were drawn in and tied about our Bodies and also Shirts after the same Fashion and without Collars We also fitted our selves with white Turbants with a blue Brim such as Christians usually wear and put on yellow Shooes which were painted before guarded with Nails and with Horse Shooes behind Besides this we put on a kind of a Frock made of a certain course Stuff called Meska in their Language which is common among the Moors They are generally made of Goats and Asses Hair pretty narrow without Sleeves and short reaching only to our Knees But these Stuffs being not all alike the finest thereof chiefly that which is striped white and black is taken for Cloaths and the courser for Tents and Portmantles wherein they carry their Provision through the Desarts and also keep their Camels and Mules meat hanging it about their Necks This puts me in mind of the plain cloathing which the ancient Inhabitants of these Countries chiefly the Israelites when they mourned for their deceased Relations or when they repented of their committed Iniquities and turned from them and prayed God to forgive them their accumulated Transgressions used to put on as we read in the 37th Chapter of Genesis where Jacob lamented the Death of his Son Joseph
of the Country brought under the subjection of the Turkish Emperour Orpha is a Town of very good Trade they deal in Tapestry of several sorts some whereof are made there and sent out to us there is also a great Deposition of Merchandices which are brought thither from Aleppo Damascus Constantinople and other places to go to Carahemit Five Days Journey distant from hence and so to be carried further into Media Persia the Indies c. yet all these Goods are brought thither in Caravans by Land because there is no Navigable River belonging to it Some say that this Town was anciently called Haran and Charras from whence the Patriarch Abraham departed with his Wife Sarah and his Brother's Son Lot according to the Command of God Gen. Chap. 12. and went forth to go into the Land of Canaan which the Lord had promised to give him and there is a plentiful Well still to this Day called Abraham's Well where the Servant of Abraham whom he sent into Mesopotamia to the Town of Nahor to fetch a Wife for his Son Isaac from his own Kindred did first see Rebecca when she gave him and his Camels some Water to drink out of this Well And so did afterwards the Patriarch Jacob when he fled from his Brother Esau at this same Well make himself known to Rachel the Daughter of Laban his Mother's Brother when he removed the Stone from the head of the Well and so let her Sheep drink The Water of this Fountain hath a more whitish troubledness than others I have drunk of it several times out of the Conduit that runs from thence into the middle of the great Camp and it hath a peculiar Pleasantness and a pleasant Sweetness in its taste To the same did also come the Son of the Pious Tobias conducted by the Angel Raphael whom his Father sent to Rages now called Edessa as is above-mentioned to call in a Debt from Gabel as you may read in the 11th Chapter of his Book when they returned by the way of Haran which is half way to Nineve After the Jews had done their Business there with good Success we went on in our Travels again and came again into the high and rough Mountains where we spent also the next Day with great trouble and hardship until we came again to the great River Euphrates into the Town Bi r whereof I have made mention before And although we had no more but two half Days Journey to Aleppo yet the Jews my Fellow-travellers had Business in the Famous Town Nisib which is situated on this side the River on the borders of the lesser Armenia so that we were bound to go thither so we put out again on the 6th of February after their Sabbath and went through very fruitful and well cultivated Corn-Fields to Andeb towards Evening It is a pretty big Town but not very strong It lieth on two small Hills very pleasantly so that you may see it plainly and distinctly as soon as you come from out of the Valley by the Lake into the Fields Yet notwithstanding that it is so pleasantly situated and looketh so stately at a distance it is but pitifully built when you come within it In former Ages this Town hath been several times besieged by the Kings of Persia by whom it was taken at last and kept so long until the Roman Emperour Galienus Odenatus Palmyrenus took it from King Sapor together with the Town Orpha and laid it to the Roman Empire again But in these our Times to our grief it is brought again together with all the Country under the Ottoman Slavery The Inhabitants have very little Trade they live for the most part upon their Estates by cultivating their Grounds and chiefly from the Fruits of Vineyards and Orchards which are planted with Pomgranates and Figs c. so thick that from the great quantity of Trees they may have the more Fruit that you would at a distance rather take them to be Woods of wild Trees than of fruitful ones So they send Yearly many sorts of Fruits but chiefly Cibebs into the Eastern Countries by great Caravans whereof I have met many After we had staid here and I had lost a whole Day for their Business sake we broke up again directly for Aleppo and having passed for several Miles through rough bad hilly ways we came at length into a plain delicate and fruitful Country so fruitful of Wine and Corn that on all my Journey I have seen none like unto it This did almost extend it self to Aleppo where we arrived early with the help of the Almighty God in very good health on the 10th Day of February At my arrival because my Comrade Hans Vlrich Krafft with the rest were not there then present presently some French Merchants which I had cured of several Distempers before my departure came to me and carried me home with them desiring me to live with them untill my Business which caused me to come back were done wherein really they did me a very great Kindness For I having very well torn my Cloaths which never came from my Back in half a Years time I had there an Opportunity to rest my self and to procure my self some new ones I thank the Almighty God for his many Mercies and Favours bestowed on me and the Assistance he graciously afforded me in this Voyage returning him Praise Honour and Glory c. CHAP. XI Of the Turkish Physicians and Apothecaries Of my Comrade Hans Ulrich Krafft of Ulm 's hard Imprisonment Of the great Danger that I was in in the two Towns of Aleppo and Tripoli Of the murdering of some Merchants and what else did happen when I was there AT my return to Aleppo where my Business obliged me to stay a while I came to understand that during my absence several Italians and French-men were in their Sickness but very slightly served by the Jews their Physicians wherefore I did not only soon recover my former Acquaintance and Practice by them but might have also stept into great Business with the Turks for I was presently so well known that I had much to do to excuse my self with Discretion to get off of them that I might escape their Anger and Displeasure which I must have got if I had served them never so faithfully which I knew several had before me found by experience Wherefore at the instance of several good Friends I only cured two great Persons whereof one was a Georgian and at that time Sangiack of Jerusalem which were very well pleased with me and requited me accordingly The Physicians generally in these Parts agree before hand for the Cure with their Patients for a certainty according to the Condition of the Patient and his Distemper and have security for their Money but yet it is not paid to them before the Patient is cured They have a great many Physicians but they are very unskilful chiefly the Turks which know none but their own Language and so cannot
therefore is also this Worldly Mount Zion together with its strong Building and Fortification which was rather a Type of the true Rock in Zion Christ our Lord and his Heavenly Kingdom and Holy Church that was built thereon so ruined and desolated that the greatest and highest part thereof before the Town except a Turkish Mosche some Tile Houses and a few Acres of it lieth quite like a Desart covered with Rocks and Stones So it is come to pass what Micah in his Third Chapter and the Twelfth Verse predicted Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest And Jeremiah in his Lamentations Cap. 5. Verse 18. saith The mountain of Zion which is desolate the foxes walk upon it And Isaiah in his Thirty second Chapter Verse 14. The Palaces shall be forsaken the multitude of the City shall be left the forts and towers shall be dens for ever a joy of wild asses a pasture of flocks The great Castle of the Turks is situated at the top of the inward part of the Mount towards the West Side near the Fishgate which is also newly built and very well surrounded with Walls and Ditches under the Gate are several great Guns to frighten the Christians that come thither in great Flocks chiefly against great Feasts from all Nations Armenians Georgians Abyssins Latinists c. for they fear that else the Town might be taken from them again Within the Fort near the Fishgate is still a strong high Tower built up with great Free-stone which is quite black through Age wherefore some say that it did anciently belong to the Fort and was built by one of the Kings of Juda. So much I thought convenient to mention of Mount Zion concerning other famous places that are to be seen upon and about it I will only mention the chiefest thereof First as you go out of the New Gate of Mount Zion there is a long Street wherein on the Left Hand is an ancient Church of the holy Apostle James the Greater Brother of John which Helena the Mother of Constantine the Emperor as also many more did build on the Market Place of the upper City where he was beheaded The Armenians that have possession thereof did conduct us into it shewed us the Building and the place where the holy Apostle was beheaded with the Sword as you read in the Acts of the Apostles the 12th Chapter by Order of Herod Agrippa to whom he was delivered out of spite as a seditious person by the High Priest Abiathar Then we came to the place of the Habitation of Hannas whereto Christ our Lord was first of all brought a prisoner and bound or fetter'd wherein was nothing observable only a large Court and in it an old Chapel called the Angels which we soon left and went out of the Gate of Mount Zion to the Habitation of Cayaphas where we saw an Orange-tree planted in the place where the holy Apostle Peter did warm himself when he denied our Saviour the third time further within a Chapel called St. Salvators where in former Ages was the Place of the High Priest where Christ was severely accused by Cayaphas and by his Servants mocked spit upon and beaten wherein is an Altar whereon the great Stone of the Grave still lieth that stopped the Door of the Sepulchre which is very like unto the Rock of the Grave in its breaking That the Habitation of the High Priest was in the upper City Josephus does testifie in the Seventeenth Chapter of his Second Book of the Desolation of Jerusalem where he saith thus When the rebellious Jews that had the lower Town in possession with the Temple did undertake to possess themselves also of the upper Town they did assault it with all might and power and at last take it then they drove out the Soldiers which had the Chief Priests and Men in power with them out of the upper Town set the Habitation of Ananias the High Priest on fire and burnt it Before this on the top of the Mount stands on the Plain a large Church which the Franciscan Monks had not long ago in possession and lived in it wherefore their Father did call himself a Guardian of the holy Mount Zion But after that the Turks did about Twenty years agon possess themselves of it and kept it to themselves and made a Mahumetan Mosche of it the Monks were forced to flie and take the Habitation where they now live instead thereof Of this Church or Mosche we saw only the outside of the Habitation of Caiaphas for no Christian is allowed to go into it It was built many years agon by Helena Mother of Constantin the Emperor as Nicephorus testifieth in the Thirtieth Chapter of his Eighth Book wherein is also included the Habitation the Disciples were locked up in for fear of the Jews and also the paved Dining-Room or Hall wherein Christ with his Disciples did eat the Passover where he also washed their Feet and sent the Holy Ghost after his Ascension to them where also James the Lesser was Elected Overseer and first Bishop of Jerusalem In this Temple which is above a thousand paces distant from Golgotha or the place of a Scull was for some time kept the Stone-Pillar whereto Christ our Lord and Saviour was tied and whipped Near unto this in the place of the Palace of Caiaphas the same Queen Helena ordered a Church to be built for the Holy Apostle Peter and many more whereof mention is made at large in the above quoted place This Mount extendeth its self towards the South out before the City and hath on the other side where it is highest other higher ones about it distinguished with Ditches and Valleys viz. towards the West Mount Gihon at the bottom whereof Solomon was anointed King by the Priest Zadock and the Prophet Nathan as we read in the First Chapter of thr First Book of Kings upon this at the top towards the Road of Bethlehem lieth the Field of Blood in their Language called Hakeldemas that was bought for 30 Silver Pieces to bury the Pilgrims there where you see still to this day here and there large and deep holes and one among the rest very big one wherein are still to be seen several whole Bodies lying by one another A deep Valley separates this Mount from Mount Zion which beginneth at the Fish-gate and goeth down to the Brook Cedron in it is a Conduit by the upper Pool called Asuia in the Third Chapter of Nehemiah which is pretty large yet without any Water which receiveth its Water from the high Spring of Gihon this was covered by King Hezekias and laid down to the Town of David as we read in the Second Book of Chronicles Chap. 32. The holy Prophet Isaiah Chap. 7. Verse 3. mentioneth it when she Lord said to him Go forth now to meet Ahaz thou and Shear-jashub
strange Origanum Tragoriganum Roman Mother of Time Spicanardi and a peculiar sort of Coniza c. At the foot of the Mount they shew us first a great Church between the Rivolet Cedron and the Valley of Josaphat which was so covered with Earth that you could see nothing of it but the Entry and before it without a large place three steps deep This Church was built by Helena Mother of Constantine the Emperor and called the Sepulchre of our Lady the Mother of God to go into it you must go down 44 steps Within it toward the right there is a small Chapel where they say our Lady was Buried and therefore by the Benevolence of the Pope there is distributed and given to the Pilgrims full forgiveness of all Transgressions and Punishments for ever Some are of Opinion That this Church did formerly stand even with the Ground and that after the Devastation of Jerusalem when part of the Valley of Josaphat was filled up it was covered thus over This Church stands as Nicephorus saith in his 8th Book and the 30th Chapter on that place where the Village Gethsemane stood whereby the Garden was whither our dear Lord Christ did just before his Passion go with his Eleven Disciples after he had Eaten the Paschal Lamb with them and given Thanks according to his usual Custom over the Rivolet of Cedron to regain us that which was formerly lost by our Ancestors in the Garden There he left his Eight Disciples while he went to Pray as the Scripture telleth us when he took with him Peter James and John the two Sons of Zebedeus and began to mourn to quake and to tremble and said to them My soul is sorrowful unto death stay here watch with me and pray that you enter not into temptation and he withdrew from them about a Stones cast where he kneeled down fell three times on his face and prayed to his Heavenly Father where he wrestled with Death and Sweat a bloody Sweat so that an Angel must come down from Heaven at last to Comfort him This place is underneath a great Rock that hangeth over a great Cave just at the Entry of the Valley of Josaphat This Valley is still where it cometh down from the Mount of Olives pretty deep and is called by the holy Prophet Joel the Valley of Judgment as you may read in his 3d Chapter 14 Verse which words of Joel give us to understand that the Lord as he was when he came first upon Earth in this Valley taken Prisoner Bound and carried away to the place of his bitter Suffering Crucifixion and Dying so he shall in his second and glorious coming appear in this Valley of Judgment again to Judge all people of the whole Earth c. that then the Impious shall see whom they have pierced Zacharias speaks also of it in the above-mentioned place As you go from thence to the Mount of Olives you see below towards your left hand near unto the Bridge of the River Cedron an old square Building like unto a Steeple This altho it is believed to this day not only by Christians but also by the Turks and Moors to be the Grave of Absalom as you shall see them fling Stones into it as they go by to revenge his Undutifulness shewn to his Father King David yet notwithstanding he was not Buried there as we read in the 2d Book of Samuel the 18th Chapter Vers 17. And they took Absalom and cast him into a great pit in the wood and laid a very great heap of stones upon him Yet for all this when Absalom was alive as you may farther read in the before-mention'd Chapter he erected a Column in the Kings Dale for he said I have no Son therefore this shall be for a remembrance of my Name and called this Pillar after his Name and it is still called to this day Absaloms Place Of this Pillar writes also Josephus in the 7th Book of his Antiquities and the 10th Chapter saying And Absalom did erect a Kingly Column of Marble in the Valley Genes chap. 14. it is called the Kings Valley that is two Furlongs from Jerusalem Just by this Pillar beginneth a very steep Foot-Path which parts a little above it into two one whereof goeth Southward at the bottom of the Mount of Olives towards Bethania and Jericho c. down through the Valley that is made by this and the other part of the Hill called Mashit in the 4th of the Kings Chap. 23. but the other goeth over the height of the Mount of Olives out by Bethania to the House of Mary and Martha A little higher on this Hill did our Saviour sit over against the Temple when he foretold his Disciples that shewed him the glorious Buildings thereof That not one Stone should remain upon another that should not be thrown down And did also tell them at length the terrible and prodigious Signs that should come to pass before the Desolation of Jerusalem and the end of the World To this day we still see into the Turkish Mosque with its large Paved Court-yard over the Walls thereof so perfectly that you may distinguish almost the Persons that walk there From thence when you go up to the Hill which is very steep and rough there is a large Plain from whence our dear Lord Jesus Christ was taken up and ascended into Heaven as you may see by the words of the Holy Evangelist St. Luke in his first Chapter of the Acts Verse 9. where he saith And he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight And Verse 12. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath-days journey On this place as Nicephorus mentioneth did Queen Helena also afterward Build a stately Church which now is so decayed that there is no more to be seen of it but a New built Chapel in a large Yard surrounded with a Wall Just by it on a Hill of the Mount towards the North and Galilea there is an old decayed Building which was formerly as my Guide informed me an Inn for the Galileans where commonly did take up those that went to Jerusalem from Galilea Wherefore they are of opinion that some of them were there in the time of Christ that also were Spectators of his Glorious Ascension as it doth appear by the Words of the two Angels that spoke to them and said You men of Galilea why stand you here gazing up into Heaven c. But if you duly consider these words you will find as you read it in the Second Chapter of the Acts Verse 7. that the Apostles themselves were these Galileans where it is written Behold are not all those which speak Galileans and how hear we every man in our own tongue c. So did also the holy Angels speak to the Apostles after the same manner and called them Galileans rather to bring them as Elders of the Christian Church off their worldly thoughts
Bethlehem there are some Valleys very well tilled with Corn and Wine and among the rest a very pleasant and fruitful one that beginneth immediately by the Church and Fountain and runs down towards Jericho and Jordan This is below pretty wide full of Olive and Fig-trees it also bringeth forth some comfortable Herbs viz. some strange Origanums Tragoriganum Roman Serpillum which the Arabians call Sathar Absintium Santonicum which groweth every where in the holy Land this hath small ash-coloured Leaves very like unto them of ours and many small Stalks full of small yellowish Seeds it is of an unpleasant Smell very bitter with a saltish sharpness wherefore it is reputed to be the Scheha of the Arabians from whence our Worm-seed cometh In this Valley were the Shepherds to whom the Angels of the Lord did appear and declared to them the saving Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ saying Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord c. and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men In that place which is about half a League below Bethlehem is still a Church which also Queen Helena did build as Nicephorus testifieth in the Thirtieth Chapter of his Eighth Book this is for the greatest part fallen in so that nothing more but a small Arch is to be seen of it Hard by it did stand the Tower Ader as St. Jerom writes whereby Israel did erect a Tent as you may read in Genesis and looked after the Sheep with his Twelve Sons This is in our time so demolished that it lieth quite in Ruins Beyond it in another Valley not far from Bethlehem they shew still to this day a large Orchard full of Citron Lemon Orange Pomegranate and Fig-trees and many others which King Solomon did plant in his Days with Ponds Canals and other Water-Works very pleasantly prepared as he saith himself in the Second Chapter of Ecclesiastes Verse 5. I made me gardens and orchards and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits I made me pools of water to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees This is still in our time full of good and fruitful Trees wherefore it is worthy to be seen for their sakes and also for the Ditches sake that are still there Wherefore I really believe it to be that same whereof Josephus maketh mention in his Eighth Book of the Jewish Antiquities and the Seventh Chapter saying And the King rode in a Chariot cloathed in white and it was his Custom to ride early in the morning to a place called Hetten a hundred Furlongs from Jerusalem where he had a Garden with Water-pools and Works very pleasant and rich Thither went the King for his pleasure and did always use great diligence and consideration in all things and took delight to see every thing neat and handsom c. After we had seen the chiefest places within and without near and a far off of Bethlehem we returned to Jerusalem again by another way that was near as far again about and went over the Mountains of Judea which have first as you come from thence very good and fruitful Valleys full of Vines and Corn but the nearer you come to Jerusalem the higher and rougher are the Mountains In this way half a League from Nebeleschol the Friars shewed us a Well very rich of Water just by the Road that goeth down to Gaza this runneth into a small Rivulet wherein the holy Apostle Philip did baptize Candaces Chamberlain to the Queen of Aethiopia by it is nothing else to be seen but a small Church and a Fish-pond From thence we came over high rough and steep Hills into the Deserts where St John the Baptist did lead his life in his young Age there is nothing to be seen but a very ancient Chapel and hard by it a delicate Spring on the top of the Hill where we went up to refresh our selves a little with eating and drinking of what we had taken along with us About the Roads grow many Trees by the Inhabitants called Charnubi the Fruit whereof is called St. John's Bread in our Country and is brought to us in great plenty From thence we had still a very rough and hilly way to the Church and Habitation of Zachary whither the Virgin Mary did come climbing over the Hills to give Elizabeth a Visit c. before it a League distance nearer to the Town at the end of the Valley Raphaim whereof the holy Scripture maketh often mention viz. in the Fifteenth and Eighteenth Chapters of Joshua and in the First of the Chronicles and the 12th Chapter stands in a very pleasant and fruitful place the Church of St. John the Baptist and by it before you come quite to it falleth down the Spring of Nephthaah that is very rich of Water This Church is very ancient but yet pretty well built and hath on the Left Hand as you go in a deep and hidden Cave wherein Elizabeth did hide her self with John her Child that it might not be slain with the Children of Bethlehem by the Servants of Herod whereof you may read more in the Proto-Evangelium of St. Jacob where it is thus written When Elizabeth did hear that among the rest of the Innocents which Herod had commanded to be killed her Son John was also searched for she did climb up the Hills and looked about her where she might hide him but when she saw no place there where she could do him she sighed and cried out with a loud voice saying O ye hills of Gad take both the Mother and the Child for she could not ascend them the Hill did open it self instantly and took them into it c. But how afterwards Herod did search for John and how he did threaten and exhort his Father Zachary to tell him where his Son was and also how his Servants did kill Zachary not being satisfied with his Answer for it in the Porch of the Temple is at length related in the Books of the Martyrs of the Learned and Reverend Ludowich Rabus As you come from the before-mentioned Church nearer to the Town of Jerusalem there is still seen a large Pillar that is of great Antiquity and lieth very high between the Mountains on a high Hill five Furlongs off of Jerusalem wherefore some take it to be Ruines of the Fortification of Betzura but as far as one can understand by the Books of Maccabees that is situated more towards the East behind Mount Olivet Just before it within stands in the Valley that is full of pleasant Olive Trees a very old yet well built Church called the Holy Cross whereof some Greek Friars are possessed they pretend that in that place the Tree did stand that was made use of for the
Cross of Christ this we did soon leave and went over a small height through the Gate of Hebron again into Jerusalem and made our selves ready to return the next day again to Joppe towards our Ship And so we rewarded the Father Guardian their Interpreter and others that had conducted us for their Faithfulness and Services done us according to our Ability to their full content and satisfaction wherefore the Father Guardian did freely give to each of us a Certificate under his usual Seal that we had seen all the holy places which were named in it This done we went away and came the next day to Rama towards Joppe By the way I found some Lentiscus's from whence the Mastich cometh Arbutus Ilex and a strange sort of Willows by the Inhabitants called Sassaf but by Theophrastus Elaeagnus some Olive-Trees Palm-Trees White Mulberry-Trees Sumach-Trees and Styrax from which cometh a fweet smelling Gum called by the same Name that is brought from thence into our Country Spartium Lycium which is a strange Shrub and the Juice thereof retaineth the same Name and is found sometimes in our Apothecaries Shops the King and Prophet David maketh mention thereof under the Hebrew Name Hadhadd by which also the Arabians call it their Speech running much upon the Hebrew Hereabout grow also very many Fruits called Siliquae by the Latines and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Greeks but by the Inhabitants Charnubi whereof many are brought out to us and are very well known by the Name of St. John's Bread These are so common in these Countries that they esteem them less than we do the worst Fruit we have wherefore they give them to the Cattle to eat Wherefore it is probable that the prodigal Son desired to fill his Belly with these Fruits which as it appeareth by the Greek Text the Hogs did eat and yet could not have enough of them to satisfie his Hunger Besides these I found also by the way many Turpentine-Trees by the Inhabitants called Botin and Albotin which are very common in France chiefly about Montpelier they have small green Kernels that are of a reddish Colour and hollow within and are oftentimes basely sold and used by the Apothecaries for the true Carpabalsamum for these and others above-mentioned as we read in the Eighth Chapter of Nehem. the Israelites did take Bows and made themselves Tents of them to live in during their great Feast of Tabernacles I saw also chiefly between Rama and Joppa some white Barbery Trees which I took first for Paliurus the third kind of Rhamnus unto which they are very like except the Fruits whereby I did discern them first and besides they are much higher and their Branches covered with a white Bark Now although they are not to be taken for the same yet they are very like unto the second Paliurus whereof Theoprastus maketh mention in the Fourth Chapter and the Fourth Verse Among the Corn I did find a strange Origanum Serpillum Smilax aspera Triones of Theophrastus whereof I have made mention above After we had made our selves quite ready to sail for Tripolis whither we had about Forty German Miles we went aboard the Ship and set Sail with a fair Wind. But this did not last long for as soon as we were out at Sea there arose one that was so contrary to us that we hardly reached the Confines of Tirus and Sidon the Fourth Day where we arrived in our former Voyage at night as I have said before I saw nothing of any Buildings on the Shoar but some small Houses in the place where formerly the Town Sarepta did stand which as you may read in the Fourth Chapter of St. Luke and in the Third Book of Kings Chap. 17. was situated near unto Sidon or as Josephus writes in his Eighth Book of the Jewish Antiquities Chap. 13. between Tyrus and Sidon in the Country of Phaenicia wherein the holy Prophet Elias during the great scarcity did live a great while with a Widow and did restore her dead Son to life again Departing thence the night befel us before we gat over against Sidon but we went so near the Town that we could see the Houses and some Rocks butting upon them by Moon-light From thence the nearer we came to Tripolis the more the wind was for us so that we arrived there on the First of October in the year 1575 in very good health and condition Wherefore I give eternal Thanks Glory and Praise unto the Almighty God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen CHAP. XXIII How I took ship at Tripolis in Syria and sailed back from thence to Venice and travelled home again to my own Relations at Augspurg AT my Arrival at Tripolis when I hoped that something might have been done for the Good of Hans Vlrich Krafft whom I left in Prison behind as is above-mentioned towards his Deliverance that we seeing we came out together might have remained together a while longer and have ended our Journey to our content I found there was not only nothing done to the purpose but his Cause came to be worse and worse so that it was even or odd whether I should not have been cast into Prison also and beaten severely to boot When thus he was detained in Prison I received a Letter and Command as well from his Adversary as from my own Friends desiring me to take the Cause in hand earnestly to bring them both to an Accommodation and that if I would do so I should do him greater service than if I should stay a whole year longer at Tripoli expecting his Deliverance Now although many means were used after my Departure for his Liberty yet they proved all fruitless unsuccessful and vain so that he was forced to spend three intire years miserably in this severe Turkish Imprisonment untill at length he was miraculously delivered Wherefore I got every thing ready for my Departure and went aboard the Ship called the St. Matthew on the Day of St. Leonhard being the Sixth Day of November in the year 75 having first taken my leave of the above-mentioned my dear Friend Hans Vlrich Krafft whom I loved as my own Brother and the next day we put out having a very good wind So our Navigation proceeded in the beginning very successfully and we discovered on the Third Day early the great Island of Cyprus But when we approached unto it a Hurricane arose suddenly and blew so fiercely upon us that it wound our great Sail round about our main Mast so that it was a wonder to me that it did not bring it by the Board or as it would if the Seamen had not struck it down immediately turn the Ship over and sink her These Winds arise from a Wind that is called by the Greeks Typhon and Pliny calleth it Vertex and Vortex but as dangerous as they are as they arise suddenly so quickly they are laid again also The Seamen pretend that one shall
sooner perceive them in the Ship below because they come up from the depth of the Sea than above Deck After this had continued about a quarter of an hour it was quite over so that it was perfectly calm and the Sea very quiet So our Seamen hoisted up their Sail again and steered towards the Capo del Graeco with an intention to run in still before Sun-set into the Harbour of the Metropolis called Famagusta but before we were aware of it another Wind arose that did send us back again so we stood out at Sea and went on with it so well that we passed the Island that is One hundred and sixty Italian Miles long Not long after the Wind did change and it came to be foul Weather and so contrary to us that we went on but very slowly and we were forced to drive upon the Sea only for several Days until at length we came before the Land of Pamphylia and Lycia which came in sight now and then nearer to the Island of Rhodes then arose a Northerly Wind that helped us into our true Road again and blew so fresh that in a few hours we went by that mountainous Island Scarpanthus and afterwards by Solomons Point of the Isle of Candia out towards the South which is Forty Leagues further and we had been almost quite thrown over into Africa if we had not sheltered our selves under the next Mountains so we got clear of the Noise and Turbulency of the Wind and Sea but instead of that our Ship came so near unto the Shoar of Candia that we feared every moment to have been shipwracked which had certainly befaln us if our Nacchier that manageth the Sails with his Seamen who wrought very hard until they brought the Ship out at Sea again had not had not for two days and nights done their utmost endeavour When we kept thus out at Sea foul Weather befel us again and contrary and rough Winds blew afresh so that it was very dangerous sailing wherefore our Master as well as the Men thought it best to get into a Harbour but finding that it was very dangerous to get in there they went back again to the Island Calderon which lieth not above a German Mile from Candia to land there and to stay for better Weather This Island is small and so rough and sandy within that it cannot be inhabited but yet being full of Bushes those of Candy turn chiefly in the Summer their Cattel into it Here I found a kind of Mandrake with blue Flowers in great quantity and also very many Oxycedri like unto our Juniper Bushes which are almost as high as our Pine-trees When we during this hard Weather were in this Island Calderon for shelter we saw sometimes Clouds in the shape of a Pillar that came down from the Skies to the next Mountaâ—n and so extended themselves sloping down into the next Sea Pliny makes mention also of them in his Forty ninth Chapter of the Second Book When this did touch the Sea it began to suck as it were through a Spout so fiercely that the Water began to move in that place as if it were in a storm so that we could not only hear the Noise but also see the great motion thereof In the beginning it was pretty clear but the longer it remained there the darker it grew until at length it arose up again and ascended into the Skies like unto a thick Cloud Wherefore it may very well be that sometimes Worms Frogs Fungusses Snails Muscles c. may fall down with the Rain chiefly in those places that are near to the Sea for I have my self seen it many times in my Travels between Bononia and Florence on the high Mountains where I have found several of them When the Wind blew fair for us again and we had sufficiently provided our selves with Wood and fresh Water we hoisted up our Sails again and came away and at length not without great labour and changing of the wind we got out before the Island of Candy which is about Two hundred and fifty Italian Leagues long into the open Sea with an intention to go strait away for Venice In the mean time one of our Seamen did catch on a Hook that he had baited with some meat a large Fish by the Latins called Lamia but this Fish being of some hundered Weight in bulk he brought him upon the hook by degrees to the Ship then they fastened a Rope about his Gills and so drew him up very safely When they did cut it open to salt it I found that its Bones were but very small and not harder than a Cartilage They gave us now and then some of it to eat but it was so much salted that we could not eat it so that at last they were forced to leave it Soon after one of the Pilgrims that was a Priest at Lille in Flanders got a Bloody Flux so violently that he was in danger of his life so I took care of him and gave him what Physick I had by me in the Ship When we came to the Island of Cerygo else called Cithera belonging to the Venetians lying near to the Morea from whence Paris took away the Queen of King Menelaus and carried her to Troy upon a sudden a Hurricane arose towards Night with Blowing Thundering and Lightening so that we at several times did despair of our Lives For when the Waves swelled as big as large Rocks and pressed very hard upon our Ship so that they did fling it now on this and then on the the other side again with great violence so that not only our Goods Arms Trunks and Boxes were tumbled up and down in the Ship but that also we were forced to take great care of our selves during this Tempest that we might not tumble over board we were in great danger But how terribly soever this looked in the dark night yet it still increased for in a little-while after the place that held the Cannon Bullets that were near unto the Steerage where I had my Cabin broke open so that the Bullets ran up and down over all the Ship according as she rolled Soon after the beating of the Waves knocked off the Garland that was behind at the outside of the Ship and left some Nails about a Finger thick that held it in the Wood with such a power that one might hear it almost all over the Ship After all this the great Sail was also torn off and fell down into the Sea so that we thought no less than that we were all lost for then the Ship was wholly left to the mercy of the roaring Waves that flung her and tossed her about like a Foot-ball from place to place which you may deduce from thence that the Guardian that held himself fast to the Main Mast upon the Deck was sometimei above a Mans depth under Water so that every moment we expected to be overturned and so drowned Yet in all this Calamity we
A COLLECTION Of Curious TRAVELS VOYAGES In Two Tomes The First containing Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff's Itinerary into the Eastern Countries as Syria Palestine or the Holy Land Armenia Mesopotamia Assyria Chaldea c. Translated from the High Dutch by NICHOLAS STAPHORST The Second taking in many parts of Greece Asia minor Egypt Arabia Felix and Petraea Ethiopia the Red-Sea c. from the Observations of Mons Belon Mr. Vernon Dr. Spon Dr. Smith Dr. Huntingdon Mr. Greaves Alpinus Veslingius Thevenot's Collections and others To which are added Three Catalogues of such Trees Shrubs and Herbs as grow in the Levant BY JOHN RAY Fell. of the Royal Society LONDON Printed for S. Smith and B. Walford Printers to the Royal Society as the Princes Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1693. To the Honourable S r ROBERT SOVTHWELL PRESIDENT TO THE COUNCIL AND FELLOWS OF THE Royal Society These TOMES OF Curious Travels and Voyages ARE Most Humbly Dedicated AS A Monument of GRATITUDE THE BOOKSELLERS TO THE READER THese Two Tomes of Travels and Voyages containing great Variety both as to the several Countries the Observations and Authors of them we think it proper to give the World a short account of them The first is Rauwolf a Person very famous for his Skill in Natural Products and in the Practise of Physick whose Itinerary into the Eastern Countries being written in High Dutch was grown very rare valued as a Manuscript and much desired by some learned Gentlemen who are justly esteem'd to have a delicate Taste and fine Judgment in the choice of Books and Subjects therefore being informed that the High Dutch Copy of these Travels was only to be found in the Arundelian Library at Gresham College we freely undertook the Charge of having it translated and printed in our Language which is here performed with great care and diligence The Plants collected by the worthy Author Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff in his Itinerary were curiously preserv'd by the late Isaac Vossius in four large Volumes and justly esteem'd by that great man as the most noble Rarity and Ornament of his Bibliotheque which when it came to be sold to the Vniversity of Leyden was particularly valued by the Great Heer van Beverning for these Volumes of dry'd Plants collected by our Author in his Travels of the Eastern Countries and tho' some perhaps may give a slight Character of him for a Mistake or two about Prestâ—r John and the Unicorn yet if they consider that he only relates what he accidentally heard of them from others they ought to take that part only as a Story told him upon the Road as he himself indeed delivers it But this may very truly be said of Rauwolff that whatever he writes upon his own Observation or Knowledge is most faithful and sincere therefore it was not without Reason that Carolus Clusius and the two Bauhines all very good Judges depended so much upon him and made such frequent and honourable mention of this Itinerary But because some might think that the aforementioned Journey of Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff was consinâ—d to too narrow a compass of Ground and to some Countries not much frequented as Armeâ—ia Mesopotamia Assyria Babylonia Judea c. we therefore consulted a Friend how to render the Piece more useful to the Publick who advised us to extend it to many other places of the Levant where Rauwolff never travell'd as Greece Egypt and other adjacent Countries bordering near the Sphere of Rauwolff's Itinerary This being thought most serviceable to the Republick of Learning we immediately concluded to supply and enlarge Rauwolff with a Second Tome out of some of the most renowned Travellers of those parts of the World such as Bellonius Alpinus Veslingius Mr. Greaves Mr. Vernon and many others of great Fame and Reputation for their excellent Observations in the Levant as Dr. Smith Dr. Huntingdon Dr. Spon Sir G. Wheeler c. To these we have added something of Arabia Felix and Ethiopia which curious persons may be desirous to read being taken from Original and Authentick Voyages Lastly We prevail'd with Mr. Ray to draw up three Catalogues at the end containing the Trees Shrubs and Herbs growing in the Levant part of the World together with their various synonimous Names which do much illustrate and beautifie the whole But before we take Leave a Point of Honour of Candor and Ingenuity ought not to be forgotten which is a decent acknowledgment of the Writings from whence the several parts of the Second Tome were extracted for the benefit of the Reader these were Clusius's Edition of Monsieur Belon's Itinerary by Plantine at Antwerp The Egyptian Observations of Alpinus printed at Padua and Venice The Pyramidographia of Mr. Greaves The Collections of Voyages and Travels by Ramusio Hakluyt Purchas and Thevenot The Philosophical Transactions published by Mr. Oldenburg at London and afterwards by Dr. Plot at Oxford To which we may add some of the most learned Missionaries of the Church of Rome into foreign Countries such we mean only as applied themselves to Topographical and Philosophical Observations as Father Alvarez Father Lobo Father Tellez and Father Vansleb who setting aside the business of their Calling and Mission are not only worthy of entring the List of Gentlemen Travellers and Virtuoso's but of appearing in a Protestant Kingdom From all these we fetcht Materials for the forming and raising our Second Volume which we cannot but hope will prove beneficial and grateful to the Publick seeing we had no other design in it than purely that of pleasing and instructing as well as of enlarging the Empire of Knowledge Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff TO His Honoured Cousins and Friends HANS WIDTHOLTZ CHRISTOPH CHRISTEL AND NICHOLAS BEMER Honoured and Dear Cousins THE Ancient Philosophers were wont not unfitly to compare the study and pursuit of Ingenious Arts and Sciences to the practise of Merchandizing for as Merchants fear no Dangers neither spare any Pains or Cost in travelling to foreign Countries by Sea and Land that they may procure and bring thence to furnish their Store-houses such Goods and Commodities as they chiefly deal in So those who make the attainment of Skill in the forementioned Liberal Arts their principal End and the study thereof their Delight are not deterred from prosecuting this Design by any distances of Places by Winter or Summer fearing neither Rain nor Snow nor the traversing of horrid Desarts or the wild and roaring Seas nor wasting or weakening their Patrimonies if at last they can but arrive at those places where they may gain the acquaintance and familiarity of eminently-learned Masters able to instruct them in those Arts and Sciences to the Knowledge and Comprehension whereof they aspire or where they may inform themselves of the Constitutions and Customs of famous Nations and of other things subservient to their Intentions We have an Instance of this in the Wise Philosopher and famous Law-giver Solon who as Plutarch in the Description of his Life remarketh travelled through
suppose And this is no Disgrace to them but rather reputed to be an Honour because they conclude from thence that those that keep many Wives behave themselves diligently according to their Laws Wherefore they sooner trust them prefer them before others in Places and Salaries and esteem them to be true Tschelebiis that is Noble-men Although these and other Turks have several Wives that are not all equal in their Birth and Extraction yet they all have in Family Affairs their equal share and power and they all are equally provided for with Meat Drink Cloaths c. and they have also their Work and Business equally among them And that because they bring their Husband no Portion but he must rather buy them from their Parents sometimes for a considerable Sum of ready Money and give them Cloaths and other Necessaries to boot Wherefore the Matrimonial tye which they call Chebia is more in the power of the Husband than the Wife so that he may Marry one three times and reject her again but further he must not go except he will be accounted a scandalous base Fellow As you may perceive by the words of the Turkish Emperour Bajazet which he did send to Temyry who is also called Tamerlan saying that he had better to take a Wife again after he was three times divorced from her than to go to War with him which scornful Language he might well have forborn For Tamerlan did not only beat him in a cruel and bloody Battle but took him Prisoner and carried him about in an Iron Cage like a Wild Beast of the Forest But that I may return from whence I digressed the Marriages of the Turks are never look'd upon to be ratified before they are married by one of their Priests Their Wives must agree together and live peaceably and amicably and must not resist their Husbands except he maketh inequality among them If any should appear which happens very often they do not forbear to complain of their Husband to the Cadi or Judge So that daily very strange Transactions which are not strange to him come before him If so be that the Husband is convicted and the Wife absolved they are divorced immediately in the same hour The Turkish Women are pretty handsom and well shaped very Civil in their Discourses and other Behaviour When any of them is married and carried to her Bridegroom's House their Relations go along with her that are invited to the Wedding and begin to make a noise immediately in the Streets and extol their Voices more and more as they go along that you may hear them a great way off The Turks that are of some Condition and rich and able Men have at their Weddings several Diverting Shews in the Day-time they have Dancing Running Actings Singing Jumping and Leaping and Dancing on the Ropes c. After Sun-set and at Night they let off Rockets and Fire-works of several sorts made artificially These are let off in publick and open places that every one may see them and they last often till break of Day The Rope-dancers have three Ropes one above the other whereof the uppermost is the longest upon every one of them they have their peculiar Lessons which they perform exactly and dexterously with Dancing Jumping Running Gesticulating going upon Stilts c. which is pleasant to look upon Their Children when they are married soon forget their Parents they dare not see them again in a great while nor do they desire to do it When they have Children born they do not justly Circumcise them on the Eighth Day but let them be 8 9 or 10 Years old until they can make their Confession There are some chiefly among the Arabians that imitate their Patriarch Ishmael who was not circumcised until the Thirteenth Year of his Age. It is commonly performed in the House of their Parents If Rich Mens Sons are circumcised they make a Feast and roast a whole entire Bullock into his Belly they put a Wether and into his Belly a Pullet into the Pullet's Belly an Egg and so they roast them all together what remaineth they give to the Poor When the Children grow up and begin to go they cloath them in loose flying Coats of fine Stuff woven of several colours which are pleasant to look upon and they put upon the Heads of those that are not yet circumcised coloured Caps which are wrought with Flowers and very common to be sold in their Batzars After they are circumcised they begin to wear white Turbants which are made of Cotton and rolled about their Caps after a peculiar manner and are commonly Twenty Yards long They have still another strange Custom which Young and Old Men and Women use in these Countries viz. They make a thin Paste of Galls and calcined Copperas to beautifie themselves and to keep their Eyes from Rheums with it they blacken their Lips and make a Ring round about their Eyes in the same manner as our Ring-doves have about their Necks These Paintings they have had Anciently and some of them they have prepared of Stibium or Antimony Of these Paintings of the Eye we read in several places chiefly that I may not mention others in the 23 d. Chap. of Ezekiel the 40 Verse where the Lord says by the Prophet And lo they came for whom thou didst wash thy self paintedst thy Eyes and deckedst thy self with Ornaments Concerning the Education of their Youth they only learn in Schools to Read and to write the Arabian Alphabet the Characters or Letters whereof are common both to the Turks and Arabians although their Languages are very differing Besides these there are other Schools wherein the Young Men are Instructed in the Emperour's Laws and those that go on in their Learning and take it well are soon called to high Offices as Cadi's and Cadileschiers But in Liberal Arts and Sciences such as we teach in our Countries they are not Instructed for they have not only none of these Learned Men but esteem learning of these Sciences a Superfluity and loss of Time they rather love old Rhimes and Ballads that speak of and commend the Mighty Deeds of their Ancient Emperours and other Champions or other Fancies that make Foreign Nations or any of their Enemies ridiculous And such things they put either themselves into Rhimes or else hear those that have been put into Rhimes by others already which they say daily with peculiar Actions out of Town in pleasant Greens where also other Divertisements are performed with Singing Dancing Leaping c. So that they are rather pleased with the Reading of these frivolous silly Writings than to learn Arts and Sciences Which you may evidently see in that they do not esteem nor will admit of that Noble Art of Printing Books that might inform them in any thing Which the Clerks whereof there is a great number up and down in the Cities like very well because they daily take a great deal of Money for the Writings of their
a reddish Seed in the Figure of our male Balsam these are brought from Aegypt and by some thought to be the true Acacia Diosc whether it be so or no I cannot well tell because I never saw the Plant. Very near it in untilled places groweth Galega Sisynrichium Theophrasti which is very curiously delineated in the Book of Rempert Dodon de herbis floribus coron There is also found another fine Plant by the Inhabitants called Tharasalis which hath seven or eight waved Leaves which stand about a round Stalk almost as it is to be seen in Sisynrichium only they are a great deal broader and not so long when the Stalk thereof which is not above a cubit long is grown through and above them it gets at top a white Flower not very unlike unto the low blew Flower de Luce which blow early in the Spring it has a roundish Root like unto that of Narcissus and also has many long white Fibres Not far from thence when you get upon the Hill there groweth in the rough places others viz. Bistorta still by the Inhabitants called Zuph a fine sort of Verbacum Scorzonera with purple Flowers Saffron with small little Leaves and a delicate yellow Flower also Arisarum Homaid and Arum called by them Carsaami whereof there are four sorts among the rest a strange one with long Ears wherefore they call it in their Language Ovidne There also are about the Rivers some Anemones of several sorts and of several colours very beautiful as red purple colour yellow c. all which they call with a common name Sakaick and give an additional Name according to the colour to it viz. Schackaick achmar Sakaik assar Aserack c. that is to say red-yellow of a Violet colour c. which would be too long and tedious to describe all here Chiefly if I should at length relate the common ones as Wild Rue Asphodelus albus Rheseda Plin. Flos solis foliis minoribus serpilli Wild Onions and other innumerable more As you come down by another way back again nearer to the Corn-Fields you find other fine Herbs as the wild new Harmala a delicate sort of Astragalus foliis hedysari minoris and by it another which is very like unto Astragalus of Dioscor so that I really believe it to be the same There appear a great many of them upon the the heighth it is a low Herb with a long brownish Root as big and long as the Roots of Horse-radish which puts out at the sides some strong Fibres which are almost blacker and harder to cut than the Root it self Some of them go downwards and others the greater part upwards and bended like unto Horns These contain together with their sweetness also a dryness they shoot out at the top into several Branches of the same colour yet not above the length of a Finger which encline towards the Earth where out grow nine or ten small Leaves like Lentil-leaves not very unlike to those of Orobus and distributed after the same manner Between them sprout out purple-brown Flowers after them come long and thick and full Bladders whereof some are as big as those of the Colutea All these and several other Herbs have I preserved and glued to some Paper with great and peculiar care so that they are to be seen in their natural colours so exact as if they were green About the River up a Hill I found a tender and fragrant Herb with long and white Roots of a pretty acrimonious taste its Leaves were like unto our Coriander only somewhat rounder and not so much cut but only a little about the edges I found no Stalks nor Flowers for it was early in the year and about Easter which is the time of their first springing these they called Zarneb Melchi and the Inhabitants dig so many of these Roots that they send yearly several Chests-full into Persia where they use them as I am informed very frequently in Pains of their Backs and all other accidental Pains As far as I can see when I look upon the Leaves I reckon it to be the third sort of Daucus of Diosc A little lower as you come to the plow'd Fields I found also the second kind of Chondrilla of Diosc with round Roots of a smooth and dark-yellowish colour perhaps at the top half an inch thick and five or eight long whereon at the end where it is thinnest hangs another round Root of the bigness of a Chestnut which are so full of Milk that they are ready to crack at top where it is divided into three parts sprout out many long and small Grass Leaves together which lye flat upon the Ground between them come out yellow Flowers like unto these of auricula muris each whereof hath its peculiar Stalk Not far from it yet in rougher and stonier Ground groweth another Chondrilla which is like unto that former in all parts only the Leaves thereof are broader and more woolly and of an Ash-colour very like unto the Holostium of Montpellier As you go to the Grand Signior's Garden about a small mile from the Town at the Road I found a good many Plants viz. Draba Diosc call'd Orobanche Halinu Spina solstitialis a kind of Carduus Mariae Wild Cucumbers by them called Adiural hamar Xyphium Peplium Heliotropium tri coccum Caroli Clusii and also his Paronychia Hispanica and his third Lichnis with pale and red purple-coloured Flowers Coris Mathi. with yellow Flowers two delicate sorts of Geraniums and upon old Walls I found a little Rauckel with pale-colour'd Flowers Umbilicus Veneris and a great many more I cannot leave unmentioned those that are growing round about in the Fields and chiefly amongst them a Medica with dissected trifoliated Leaves and many more whereof some have long and straight and others many bended Pods in a cluster together I also found one with many white and hoary Heads which looked almost like unto Lagopodium and another little one with green-colour'd Pods pressed together so long and broad as those of Senna which were a great Ornament to the whole Plant. And also thereabout are found many sorts of Corn-flowers quite differing from ours Papaver erratic in their Language called Schuck of which they make a Conserve with Sugar and use it in Coughs Papaver corniculatum with stately purple Flowers I found also there Eryngium with blewish Tops and starred Heads Two sorts of Henbane whereof one that groweth in the Fields hath red and purple-colour'd Flowers the other which I found in the Town upon the old Walls had white ones by the Latines call'd Apollinaris Much thereabout in the Corn grew the less Melampyrum by them called Paponesck which at the top beareth thick yellow flowers very like unto the Melampyrum Tragi Item the second kind of Wild Cumin with yellow flowers and long bended pods Poterion Math. by the Inhabitants called Megasac which they stick up in their Chambers to keep them from being bewitch'd A delicate
by Pliny in Book VI. 26 and 27 Chap. between the Tigris and Euphrates those two great Rivers of Paradise whereof is made mention in the Second Chapter of Genesis which two Rivers not far below it meet together and are there united The Town Traxt is surrounded with Ditches and very well defended by two strong Citadels that lie on each side thereof so that it is as it were a Key and Door-way into the Kingdom of Persia to which it doth also belong as others not far from thence viz Orthox Laigen which lie on the Road toward Media and also Goa which lieth a League and a half at the other side of the Tigris and Axt two Leagues further still in the way to Persia The next Day the 25th of October we spent in bespeaking of Camels and Asses to load our Goods upon and after we were quite ready we broke up the Day following early in the Morning with the whole Caravan to travel to Bagdet In the beginning the ways were very rough of the Stones and Ruines that lie still from thence dispersed But after we were passed the Castle and also the Town of Daniel the dry Desarts began again where nothing was to be seen but Thorns neither Men nor Beasts neither Caves nor Tents so that a Man that knoweth the ways never so well hath enough to do to find them through it which I did often observe in our Guide or Caliphi who did several times because there was neither way nor mark neither of Men nor Beasts to be found very much doubt which way to turn himself and so he did more than once turn sometimes towards one then toward the other side the whole Caravan By the way we saw in the Plain many large ancient high and stately Buildings Arches and Turrets standing in the Sand which is very fine and lieth close together as you find it in the Vallies here and there whereof many were decayed and lay like Ruines some to look upon were pretty entire very strong adorned with Artificial Works so that they were very well worth to have been narrowlier looked into Thus they stand solitary and desolated save only the Steeple of Daniel which is entire built of black Stones and is inhabited still unto this Day this is in height and building something like unto our Steeple of the Holy-Cross Church or of St. Maurice in Augsburg on which as it stands by it self you may see all the Ruines of the Old Babylonian Tower the Castle-Hill together with the stately Buildings and the whole Situation of the Old Town very exactly After we had travelled for Twelve Hours through desolate places very hard so that our Camels and Asses began to be tired under their heavy Burdens we rested and lodged our selves near to an ascent we and our Beasts to refresh our selves and so to stay there till Night and to break up again in the middle thereof that we might come to Bagdet before Sun rising The mean while when we were lodged there I considered and viewed this ascent and found that there was two behind one another distinguished by a Ditch and extending themselves like unto two parallel Walls a great way about and that they were open in some Places where one might go through like Gates wherefore I believe that they were the Wall of the Old Town whereof Pliny says that they were 200 Foot high and 50 broad that went about there and that the places where they were open have been anciently the Gates whereof there were a Hundred Iron ones of that Town and this the rather because I saw in some places under the Sand wherewith the two ascents were almost covered the Old Wall plainly appear So we found our selves to be just lodged without the Walls of that formerly so Famous Kingly City which now with its Magnificent and Glorious Buildings is quite desolated and lieth in the Dust so that every one that passeth through it in regard of them hath great reason to admire with astonishment when he considers that this which hath been so Glorious an one and in which the Greatest Monarchs and Kings that ever were Nimrod Belus and after him King Merodach and his Posterity to Balthasar the last have had their Seats and Habitations is now reduced to such a Desolation and Wilderness that the very Shepherds cannot abide to fix their Tents there to inhabit it So that here is a most terrible Example to all impious and haughty Tyrants shewn in Babylon which may be sure that if they do not give over in time and leave their Tyranny ceasing to persecute the Innocents with War Sword Prison and all other cruel and inhumane Plagues as these did the People of God the Israelites that God the Almighty will also come upon them and for their Transgressions punish them in his Anger for God is a jealous God that at long run will not endure the Pride of Tyrants nor leave unpunished the Potentates that afflict his People wherefore be sure he will also in them verifie the Prophecies which he hath uttered by the Prophet Isaiah in his 12th Chapter and Jeremiah in the 51st against those insolent and haughty Babylonians As I passed by I found some Thorns growing in the Sand viz. the Acacia called Agul whereon chiefly in Persia the Manna falls whereof I have made mention before above all I found in great Plenty some strange kinds of Cali of Serap of Coloquints and when Evening fell in and the Night did approach our Mockeries that drove the Asses made themselves ready again for our Journey which kept every thing together in good Order and were so quick in loading and unloading that they were ready in less than a quarter of an Hour By the way I saw again several Antiquities but the Night falling in I lost them so we went on a-pace in darkness so that we did arrive at Bagdet by some called Baldac two Hours before Day In the Morning which was the 27th of October I and one of my Comrades took our Lodging at an Eminent Merchant's House that belonged to Aleppo and was lately come from the Indies he received us kindly and very readily and kept us for four Days when we took a Shop in the great Camp of the Turkish Bashaw in the other Town on the other side of the Tigris which we went into CHAP. VIII Of the Famous City of Bagdet called Baldac of its Situation strange Plants great Traffick and Merchants of several Nations that live there together with several other things I saw and did learn at my departing THE Town Bagdet belonging to the Turkish Emperour is situated on the most Easterly part of his Dominions on the rapid River Tigris and the Confines of Persia in a large Plain almost like unto Basle on the Rhine it is divided into Two Parts which are rather bigger than Basle but nothing near so pleasant nor so well built for the Streets thereof are pretty narrow and many Houses so miserably built
that some of them are down to the first Story and others lie quite in Ruines The case is the same with the Churches which for age look black and are so much decayed that you shall hardly find a whole one whereon are still several Old Arabian or rather Chaldean Inscriptions to be seen cut out in Stone by the means whereof many Antiquities of the Town might have been truly explained but I could not only not read them but could get no body that could interpet them to me There are some Buildings that are worth seeing as the Camp of the Turkish Bashaw and the great Batzar or Exchange beyond the River in the other Town and the Baths which are not to be compared with those of Aleppo and Tripoli for they are at the bottom and on the Walls done over with Pitch which maketh them so black and dark that even in the Day time you have but little Light There being two Towns one of them which lieth on this side is quite open so that you may go in and out by Night without any molestation wherefore it should rather be called a great Village than a Town but the other that lieth towards Persia on the Confines of Assyria is very well Fortified with Walls and Ditches chiefly towards the Tigris where there are also some Towers two whereof are within by the Gates that lead towards the Water-side to guard them and between them are the old high Walls of the Town whereon on the top are stately Writings with Golden Letters each whereof is about a Foot long to be seen the true meaning thereof I would fain have learned but for want of Understanding and Interpreters I could not obtain it but was forced to go without it Near unto it there is a Bridge made of Boats that reacheth over the Tigris into the other Town which in that place is about as broad as the Rhine is at Strasburg and because of its rapid Stream so dark and dull that it is a dismal sight to look upon it and may easily turn a Man's Head and make him giddy This River runneth not much below the Town into the Euphrates and so they run mixt together into the Persian Gulf by the Town Balsara which is six Days Journey distant from thence Eastward These two Towns as is said at the River Tigris were many Years agon built out of the ruinated City of Babylon whereof the one on the other side of the River is accompted to be the Town of Seleucia of Babylon and that on this side which is more like unto an open Village is believed to be the Town Ctesiphonta Strabo in his Book XV. doth testifie this when he writes thus of them That Babylon hath formerly been the Metropolis of Assyria and that after its devastation the Town of Seleucia situated upon the Tigris near which was a great Village wherein the King of the Parthians did keep his Residence for the Winter Pliny maketh also mention thereof in his Sixth Book and in the 26th and 27th Chapter viz. that the two Towns of Seleucia of Babylon and Ctesiphonta were built out of the Ruines of the Old City and that the River Tigris runs between them In the Town Seleucia stands in a large place the Castle which is without guarded neither with Walls nor Ditches nor is quite finished within Before it lie some Pieces of Ordnance in the Road which are so daubed with Dirt that they are almost quite covered In it dwelleth the Turkish Bashaw who when he understood that two Strangers were come into his Camp sent for us and had us before him by his Men along with us went freely an Armenian whom we had known formerly at Aleppo to assist us and to be our Interpreter to give the Bashaw a good and sufficient account of us When we came into the Room of the Bashaw which was but very ordinary yet spread with delicate Tapestry and well adorned and appeared with accustomed Reverences he asked us sitting in his Costly yellow-coloured long Gown by one of his Servants in French which he did not understand very well from what places we came what Merchandises we had brought with us and whither we intended to go After we had punctually answered him to each Question yet he was not satisfied but bid us to withdraw and stay until we heard his Answer We understood his meaning very well that it was only to scrue a Present out of us yet we would not understand it but shewed him our Pass subscribed both by the Bashaw and the Cadi of Aleppo to try whether that would give him Content So he took it and read it over and looked very diligently upon their Seals as they use to seal after they have dipped it first into Ink so that all but the Letters is black When he found them right and did not know any more to say to us he let us go then we made him his Reverence again and so we went backwards out of his Lodgings for if you turn your Back to any one although it be a far meaner Person they take it as a great uncivility rudeness and disparagement This Bashaw keeps a great Garrison in the Town of Bagdet because it lieth on the Confines of Susiana Media c. which are Provinces belonging to the King of Persia and the Grand Signior hath nothing more towards the East of it to command His greatest Dominions are the Wildernesses of the Desart Arabia whereof the Turk hath one Part but the other and the bigest belongs to the King of Arabia After the Bashaw had given us leave to go we went to our Lodgings again and bought by the way in the Batzar some Provision to eat and to boil for Supper for in these Countries are no Inns to be found whereinto one may go and find a Dinner ready prepared for Chance-Customers as in our Country is done except one would go into a Cook 's Shop whereof there are a great many in the Batzars but every one boileth for himself what he hath a mind to without Doors before his Lodgings where there is a Chimny for that purpose so that in the Morning and at Night when it is time to eat you see every where in the Allies of the Camp several Fires When we went to eat we were forced because in these Chambers is neither Table nor Stools nor Bench to sit down on the Ground and also lie upon it all Night so that our Cloaks were very useful to us to serve us instead of a Bed chiefly in the Winter to keep us warm yet the Winter is not very severe in those Countries which you may conclude for that our March-Flowers Narcissus's Hyacinths Violets c. were here full in Flowers in the Month of December and that the Farmers went to Plough at that time wherefore I judge that their Winter is like unto our Spring When we lived at Bagdet I found by our Catering that the Scarcity was still very considerable and it
sort of Manna as big as a double Fist which is very common here and is brought from Armenia as they told me It is of a brown colour a great deal bigger and firmer and not so sweet as that of Calabria yet very good and pleasant to eat Within it are several red Grains so small that one taketh no notice of them when one eats it It looseneth the Body very well but not so much as ours wherefore the Inhabitants eat great pieces thereof in the Morning as the Country-men on the Mountains of Algaw eat Cheese But whether the Arabians make mention thereof if it be not the Manna Alhagiezi whereof Avicen in his Second Book the Second Treatise and the 758th Chapter maketh mention I know not neither what it is to be reputed The Town Mossel is as above-said for the greatest part inhabited by Nestorians which pretend to be Christians but in reality they are worse than any other Nations whatsoever for they do almost nothing else but rob on the High-ways and fall upon Travellers and kill them Therefore being that the Roads chiefly to Zibin to which we had Five Days Journey and for the most part through sandy Wildernesses are very dangerous we staid some Days longer expecting more Company that we might go the surer CHAP. X. Which way we went through Mesopotamia by the way of Zibin and Orpha to Bi r not without a great deal of danger and afterwards how we passed the great River the Euphrates and came at last into Syria by Nisib to the Famous Town of Aleppo AFter our Journey had been deferred for four Days we broke up on the 11th of January several Hundred strong and went on for the whole Day without eating with all speed until the Sun set at Night when we encamped on an ascent near a small Village to keep our Beasts and Goods safe and to refresh our selves and them We watched all Night long and went continually three and three together round about our Camp by turns The next Day we proceeded on again in our Journey with all speed rather for a good Fountain or Spring 's sake as they do in these Countries in the vast Desarts than to reach a good Inn where we arrived late at Night and encamped near it to stay all Night to rest A little after when we were at Supper some of the Curters came to us into our Camp spoke to us kindly and asked us whether we did want any thing that they could help us to but we soon perceived them to be Spies that were sent by their Companions to see what Strength we were of But when they perceived that we were not pleased with them they did not stay but went away and we composed our selves to rest but kept a good Guard as we had done the Night before About Midnight when we were in our first Sleep our Watch-men perceived a great Number of the Curters to approach wherefore they awaked us with a great shouting to alarm us the sooner and to bring us into good Order and to frighten our Enemies and to drive them away But they did not only not mind us but made all haste they could up to us and that so near that we could see them although it was dark before our Camp by their Heads But when they found us in a good Order and Condition to oppose them and did hear that our Gunners and Archers which were ready to let fly at them called with a loud Voice to them tahal tahal Harami that is Come hither come hither you Thiefs c. they halted for a little while and were so afraid of us that they turned their Backs and run away Afterwards when we feared nor expected their Assaults any more they came quickly again a second time in a far greater Number than before They led before them one Camel and several Horses which in the dark we could only discern by their Heads looking against the Sky in their Hands without doubt that we might look upon them to be Travellers or else that we might not be able to discern their Number But notwithstanding all this their first Assault was still in fresh Memory wherefore we did not tarry but drew soon up in our former Order again wherein I was the left-hand Man in the first Rank again with my Scymeter drawn and had before armed my Breast with several sheets of Paper that I had brought with me to dry my Plants in expecting their assault every Moment But when they made a halt again fearing their Skin as much as we did ours and did neither shout nor move up towards us one of ours provok'd them and did shoot at the Camel and did hit it so that it gave a Sign thereof but the rest forbore to fire So they Staid a little while and then went off a Second time So we kept awake all the Rest of the Night and kept a good Watch and went on our Journey again early the next Morning about break of the Day and came again to wide and dry Heaths where we saw neither Men nor Beasts and so we went on till Noon where we encamped in a large Place which was surrounded with Walls and Ditches pretty well just like unto a Fortress whereof there are several in these dangerous Places to be seen When we stayed there two Curters came again to us into our Camp and spoke to us pretending that they came to demand the Toll that was due there it being their Place but our Merchants soon perceived that they were not in a right Cause wherefore they would allow them nothing which put these two into such a Passion that they drew their Swords and would have at us but our Friends did not stay idle neither but took their swords away and laid on with dry Blows at them and so flung them out of our Camp After this Hubbub was over we dined and that the rather that we might not be too much weakned by our hard travelling and so be the less able to resist these Robbers for want of Strength if they should fall upon us which we were not wont to do before Night chiefly in great Desarts for there we used to get up presently after Mid night and travel all Day long with all Speed without eating which I had often experimented before wherefore I used to provide my self always with Bread and when I had a mind to eat it I did either stay behind or go before for no body eats openly by the way in the sight of others except he has a mind to run a Hazard because that most of them are very hungry and so eager at it that they will assault one another for it and take it away from their very Mouths After we had refreshed our selves and fed our Beasts which useth to be done also but once aday we broke up with our Caravan and went on again We quickly saw some Mountains before us where when we approached them towards the Evening there
Lord heard him and let Rain fall down upon the dry and barren Earth From this Mountain the presumed holy Order of the Carmelites taketh its Name which was first there endu'd with several Priviledges by Pope Innocent the Third and Albert the Patriarch of Jerusalem in the Year 1205 and afterwards when they were encreased to a great number under pretence of greater Holiness confirmed by the Name of the Brothers of our Lady by Pope Honorius the Third in the Year 1226. These pretend to be Followers of the Doctrine of Cyrillus wear daily black girded Coats and over it when they say Mass white Monks Habit. Some years ago without doubt have a great many of this Order lived here about as still to this day doth appear by their Cloisters and Churches which by Age are so mightily decay'd that they are left deserted and uninhabited This Mountain is also round about towards the Sea Coast very bare and rough that we may very well say with the holy Prophet Amos That the Pastures of the Herdsmen shall look miserably and the top of the Mountain dry up The Town Hayphe lieth at the bottom of the Mount Carmelo is pretty large but very ill Built and the Houses are so decay'd that half of it is not fit to be Inhabited Salidinus King of the Saracens who in his time carried on long and heavy Wars against the Christians and was almost hardly able to resist them caused the Walls of it and also that of Caesarea in Palestina and others of less strength to be pull'd down that his Enemies might not find any place of Reception against him Out of this Port as we are afterwards informed was a little time before taken away a pretty large and richly Loaden Ship by some Pirates which vexed the Inhabitants very much and being that the Christians chiefly were suspected by them they had a great desire to revenge it upon them again so that we had not our Master been very honest should have suffer'd for the loss they had sustained After we had lain there at Anchor till after Midnight not without danger as you must imagine our Master made haste to get out to Sea although it was very calm in hopes to get good Weather After they had wrought very hard a good Wind arose behind us towards the Morning and drove us along so that we got soon about and passed the Point of the Mountain and saw the Country of the other side which was above on the height so Pleasant Green and Shady that there in a Village resides a Turkish Sangiach for Pleasure sake Not far from thence lieth the Castle of the Pilgrims in the Sea by the Inhabitants call'd Altlit where most of them touch that take their way through Galilaea and Nazareth to Jerusalem This hath been in former Ages so well Fortify'd with Walls and Bastions that it was thought to be Impregnable but now it is on two sides towards the Sea so demolish'd and destroy'd that one may very reasonably guess that it hath been formerly taken by Storm The Wind still increasing more and more we went on with such a swiftness that although two little Ships persued us towards Morning yet they were forced to leave us and so we soon passed the Castle and came towards Dor three Leagues distance from thence it lieth near Mount Carmel in the Country of Phoenicia as Josephus testifieth and it is so decay'd that there is nothing more extant than a large and high Tower which the Inhabitants still call Dortaite In this Country when the Jews took Canaan the Land of Promise they let the Inhabitants remain as you may read in the first Chapter of the Judges At a League distance from thence you see the Ancient and Famous Town Caesarea of Palestine situated on the Sea on a high Bank which King Herod did renew and call'd it after the Emperor Caesarea which still to this day among the Turks and Moors retaineth its ancient Name Kaesarie In this Town did live the Pious Centurion Cornelius who was Baptiz'd there with his whole Family by Peter the Apostle who was called thither from the Town Joppe There did also live Philip the Evangelist one of the seven Deacons into whose House the Holy Apostle Paul did go and staid there some days where also the Prophet Agabus did foretel him That he was to be made a Prisoner at Jerusalem Now although this Town in those days was very well built as one may still see by the important and stately Antiquities that are still remaining there yet now in our times it is in Walls and Buildings so mightily decay'd that it is hardly fit to be Inhabited much less to be Defended or to make any Resistance And for all that it is still pretty large but so lonesom and depopulated that we could hardly see any body in the large and broad Streets thereof as we passed by For some Leagues before or about it I saw nothing remarkable only a Turkish Mosque or Church in the height upon a hilly shore where tbey meet to Worship their Mahumet When the Evening broke in we had still 10 Leagues to Sail to the Port or Harbor of Joppe where the Pilgrims use to go ashore to Travel by Land to Jerusalem yet the Wind drove us on with such a force that we got into it two hours after Sun-set CHAP. II. A short Relation of my Travels by Land from the Harbor of Joppe to the City of Jerusalem IN the Morning early as soon as the day did appear which was the 13th day of September 1575 we got on shore and dispatched immediately some to the Town of Rama two Leagues distant from thence to get us a safe Conduct or Pass from the Sangiach and to bring along with them some Mockeri or Ass-driving Carriers to provide us Carriage to Jerusalem In the mean while we stay'd upon the high Rocky shore where the Town Joppe did stand formerly which at this time was so Demolish'd that there was not one House to be found where the Pilgrims at their arrival could shelter themselves save only three large Vaults which went very deep into the Hill and extended themselves towards the Sea Into these are sometimes the Pilgrims let in but being that at that time a great deal of Corn was laid up there whereunto they still daily added on purpose to supply Constantinople during the scarcity it was forbidden that any Body should be let in The Town Joppe by the Inhabitants call'd Japha is by its old Name very well known to us by the Books of the Prophets and Apostles c. where we Read That the Prophet Jonas when the Lord bid him to Preach to the Ninevites Desolation and Destruction for fear did retire thither and there took Ship where he was thrown out into the Seas in the great Storm and Tempest and swallow'd up by a great Fish and after he had been there for three Days and Nights he was vomited out again And we
give us demonstration thereof If I say this worldly Jerusalem because of its unbelieving Inhabitants that would not acknowledge the Blessed Messias nor adhere to his Doctrine to their Salvation is quite rooted out and instead thereof the way of the Heavenly Jerusalem opened to us Heathens by the holy Apostles How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation This way to our Lord Christ hath for many years past been shewed us sincerely by the Ministers of the holy Word of God but we do not only not much care for it but seek rather other by ways that lead us to Idolatry Sin and Vices nay to our utter ruine Wherefore it is to be feared that if we do not repeat in time and return to God again that he will come upon us with his wrath as he hath already begun and deliver us up into the Hands of our Adversaries that we may fall by their Swords as Ezekiel doth threaten us in his Thirty ninth Chapter and to punish us according to the Deserts of our Sins Wherefore we ought to lay to heart the terrible Example of the Jews and turn from our evil ways that we may avoid the Punishments that befel them We see that those who were formerly the People of God are now come to be so blind and full of Errors and of so depraved a Life that there is hardly any like them to be found even among the Infidels and Impious Wherefore they are by all Men despised and hated chiefly by the Turks which hate them more than any other Nation so that they would not let them live among them if the Turkish Emperor had not for a great Sum of Money given them a peculiar freedom And besides all this now adays their Towns and Countries are inhabited by Turks Moors and Arabians that do not love to till or cultivate the Ground but will rather starve than take pains to get a good Livelihood by their Hand-Labour And although the Country about Jerusalem is very rocky rough stony and ill managed yet notwithstanding they will not endeavour to mend and improve it but find out the fruitful Lands that are here and there and over-run the Country like Grashoppers so that you may observe it yearly to decay more and more Seeing then that there is but little Tillage about the City therefore the product of the Earth there is but very small so that they must have almost all Necessaries brought them from other places The Town of Jerusalem which is still pretty large but very ill built hath within its Walls which the Turkish Emperor caused to be built about Twenty Years ago large places that lie desolated and are so full of Stones and Rocks that one can hardly walk in them The Gardens even those that are within the City and are but ill managed are surrounded with Mud Walls not above Four Foot high so that one may climb over them without any difficulty These are washed down again by Rain in a very little time so that they want mending continually Their Habitations are also little and and low have Clay-Walls and many of them are decayed some lie quite in a heap The Churches of the two Apostles that of St. John and St. Peter are in the same Condition as also the Prison where St. Peter was kept the Habitation of Veronica which the Cordeliers shew us for them and a great many places more In some Streets chiefly near to their Bazar or Exchange are very old Vaults part whereof are decayed and broken part filled up with Dust which runs out into the Streets wherefore chiefly in the Summer the Dust lieth so thick in them that you may see every step in it as in Snow or Sand. All which sheweth that the Turks destroy or ruin more than they build wherefore they are deservedly called Turks that is to say Destroyers The present Town as to the Extent of its Walls is not much less than the old one was wherefore one should admire considering how it is built now how it was possible it should hold so many People as it is said were in it at the time of its Desolation viz. a Million of Men or as Josephus and Eusebius say Three Millions Jerusalem was formerly surrounded with very steep Cliffs deep Ditches and Valleys chiefly on three Sides towards the South East and West so that one could not easily get up to it but only on the North Side where the Town was low lying in a Plain therefore did Titus first attack it in a place near the Village called Scapas Seven Miles distant from it and afterward advanced and took it which the holy Prophet Jeremiah did foretel many years before in the First Chapter and Twelfth Verse saying Out of the North an Evil shall break forth upon all the Inhabitants of the Land These Ditches and Valleys are now quite filled up with the Ruins of the broken Walls and Buildings so that one may go into the Town as into an open Village without any hinderance or pain But when the Grand Signior after he had taken it saw that the Town was open and that the Christian Pilgrims came thither in great numbers from all places and Countries he feared that they might make themselves Masters of it again as they had done some years agone wherefore he ordered it to be surrounded again with new Walls which although they are very high yet they are so thin and slight that they are not able to withstand the least violence But as the Town was anciently built four square so it is now built more round chiefly towards Mount Calvaria which formerly was without the Town but now is Walled in so that you may still see two corners one whereof is towards Galilee where the Gate of that corner is which is still open and almost one of the handsomest through which you go to Nazareth distant three days Journey as also to Caesarea Philippi which is now called Balbec where still are to be seen some very fine Antiquities and also towards Damascus which is six days Journey distant from Jerusalem and from thence 6 days Journey more to Aleppo the greatest Town for Trade in all Syria Jeremiah maketh mention of this Gate in his 31st Chapter and the 38th Verse Behold the days come saith the Lord that the City shall be built to the Lord from the Town of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner And also Zacharias in his 14th Chapter and in the 2d Book of Chronicles the 26th Chapter and 9th Verse It is said Vzzia built Towers in Jerusalem at the Corner-Gate and at the Valley-Gate c. The second corner Mount Zion maketh where it doth end toward the South whereon as also on the Mount Moriah the City is rising towards the North. The old City had twelve Gates as you read in the Revelation The 1st the Fish-gate which was also called the Gate of Hebron because the Road of Hebron went through it which is about seven or eight
hours walking distant from it 2. The Old-Gate 3. The Prison Gate whereof Nehemiah maketh mention in his 12th Chapter through which our Saviour Christ carried his Cross 4. Rayn-Gate 5. The Gate of Ephraim before which St. Stephen was Stoned to Death as you may read in the 2d Book of the Ecclesiastical History in the 1st Chapter 6. The Gate of Benjamin where the holy Prophet Jeremiah was taken and Imprisoned as he saith himself in the 37th Chapter 7. Corner Gate 8. Horse-Gate 9. Valley-Gate through which they went into the Valley of Josaphat 10. Dung Gate through which the Water carried out all the Soil into the Valley of Josaphat and about this River is still to this day a great stink 11. Sheep-Gate 12. Fountain-Gate which is now Walled up The Prophet Nehemiah maketh mention of them in his 3d 8th and 12th Chapter so that it is not needful to say any more These Gates are so mightily decayed that there is not to be seen the least of the old Buildings The Turks have instead of them built others in the New raised Wall but yet not half so many in number whereof some according as the Town is enlarged in some places and contracted in others are displaced others are erected again in the same places according to the Old Streets viz. 1. The Fish-Gate which is still standing towards the West behind Mount Sion and over against Mount Gihon as you may conclude out of the words of the 2d Book of Chronicles in the 33d Chapter and 14th Verse Manasses built a Wall without the City of David on the West-side of Gihon in the Valley even to the entring in at the Fish-Gate This Gate hath its Name because they brought many Fishes from the Sea-side through this Gate into the City So is also still standing on the outside of the Valley Tiropaeon which distinguished the two Mounts Sion and the Temple Mount called Moriah the Gate of the Fountain which hath its Name because it leadeth towards the Fountain of Siloha which Nehemiah in his 2d Chapter Verse 14 calleth the Kings Pool Through this was our dear Lord Christ the true promised Siloha brought a Prisoner bound from the Mount of Olives over the Brook Kidron into the House of Hannas and Caiphas in the upper Town as we read in the 12th Chapter Verse 37. that by the Fountain-Gate they went up to the City of David The same way also the two Disciples Peter and John were sent to bespeak the Paschal Lamb by Christ where they met the Man with the Pitcher of Water The Sheep or Beast-Gate is also still standing by Moriah the Mountain of the Temple which the Turks have taken to themselves and have built on it a Turkish Mosque or Temple because that God Almighty hath done many and great Miracles on this Mount and besides Mahumet did find himself again on this Mount after he had been carried up as his lying Writings tell us through the Heavens before God by the Angel Gabriel Wherefore they take this Mount to be Holy so that none that is not Circumcised and so Unclean dare approach or come near it nor take the nearest way without over the height of the Mount as Nehemiah did as you may see in the before quoted place so that the Christians must take a further way about and from the Gate Siloha go below through the Valley of the Brook Cedron between this and the Mount of Olives to the Beast-Gate which hath its Name because the Beasts that were to be offer'd in the Temple were driven through it Near the Gate you see still the Sheep-pond which is large and deep yet hath but little Water in it wherein the Nathineens used to wash the Beasts and then to give them to the Priests And also immediately within towards the North a Conduit which was the Pool by St. John the Evangelist in the 2d Verse of his 5th Chapter called Bathesda erected by King Ezechia that had five Porches wherein lay a great multitude of impotent folk that waited for the moving of the Water Through this Gate is the straight way over the Brook Cedron by the Mount of Olives toward Bethania down to Jericho on the River Jordan into the Valley of Josaphat wherefore this also being nearer now in these days is called the Valley-gate There is also still the Corner-gate in its old place where the North and East Walls meet on large and high Rocks and 〈◊〉 called still by some the Gate of Naphthali This I thougâ— convenient to say of the City of Jerusalem in the gâ—nerâ— of its Buildings Fruitfulness and adjacent Countries what Famous and Holy Places are within and without the City thereof I intend to treat in particular CHAP. IV. Of Mount Sion and its Holy Places MOunt Sion very famous in holy Scripture hath round about it steep sides high Rocks deep Ditches and Valleys so that it is not easie to climb up to it only on one side towards the North where it buts upon the lower Town so that the Castle and Town of David situated on it was very strong and almost Invincible as you may read in the 48 Psalm vers 2. The joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion on the sides of the north the City of the great King God is known in her places for a refuge for the Kings were assembled c. Seeing then that the Castle and the upper Town Millo vvas so vvell fortified vvith Tovvers and Walls that it vvas not easily to be taken the Jebusites after that Canaan the vvhole Land of Promise together vvith the Tovvn of Jerusalem vvas taken did defend themselves in it against the vvhole force of Israel for a long time although they often attempted to take it and called the Tovvn of Jerusalem after their Name Jebus until the Kingly Prophet David came vvho took it by force and after he had rebuilt the upper Tovvn and joined the Castle vvith it into one Building and surrounded it vvith Walls he called it after his ovvn Name The City of David and kept his Court there and gave also Lodgings to his Hero's and Officers vvhereof Vriah vvas one vvho had his Lodgings near to the Kings Palace vvherein the King vvalking on the Roof of his House savv the fair Bathsheba his Wife and committed Adultery vvith her These their Habitations as they are still built in these Days have instead of Thatch or Tiles plaister'd Roofs so that one may walk on them as you may see here that King David walked on it And also in the Second Chapter of the Book of Joshua where is said That when the Two Spies sent into the Land of Promise to Jericho came into Rahab's House and the King sent to search after them they went at her request up to the Roof of the House where she hid them with the Stalks of Flax which she had laid in order upon the Roof But seeing there is nothing so strong in in this World that is not transitory
King Solomon did begin to build a House for the Lord at Jerusalem many years afterwards This was formerly very high surrounded with deep Ditches and Cliffs so that it would make a Man giddy to look down from the top into the depth Wherefore Pompey and Titus took a great deal of pains before they could get upon it to take and destroy that glorious and well-built Temple which was in the last Desolation as well as before in the first burnt by Nabuhcodonosor demolished and razed to the Foundations as Christ foretold them Mark xiii That there should not be left one stone upon another that should not be thrown down because they did not acknowledge the gracious time of their visitation And that all hopes might be taken away from the Jews to return and to build the Temple again to re-establish their Worship Hadrian the Emperor to prevent all ordered in the year of Christ 134 all to be broken down that was left and to root it up to demolish all heighths to fill up all Ditches to level Cliffs and to make the Ground even all over he did also alter the Name and Religion of the Inhabitants and instead thereof introduced the Heathenish Idolatry In the place of the Grave of Christ he built a Temple for the Idol Jupiter on Mount Calvaria another for the Idol Venus and another at Bethlehem to the Idol Adonis and at last in the place where formerly in the Temple of Solomon did stand the Sanctum Sanctorum he erected his own Image on a high Column for his memory which was still standing in Hieronymus's time The heighth of this Mount cannot be observed any where else now then without by the Fountain Siloah and in the Valley of Benhinnon and so it did remain desolate to the times of the great Emperor Constantine After that when the Jews undertook to rebuild the Temple at the Charge of Julian the Apostate who would make Christ a liar the Lord having said that their House should be left unbuilt a great Earthquake when they had opened the Ground to lay the Foundation did move and shake the whole place to that degree that every thing was turned upside down and abundance of Jews did perish in it But when the Jews did not matter this but endeavoured to go on with the Work in hand the next day Flames of Fire broke out of the Ground and fiery Beams struck down from Heaven which destroyed more than the Earthquake and burnt all their Tools viz. Saws Axes Shovels Hammers c. When the Jews would not leave their Error for all this the night following some small glittering Crosses like Stars fell down upon their Cloaths which they could not wash off the next Morning nor get out by any means and an Earthquake and such a violent Hurricane came upon it that it dissipated all tâ— Mortar and other Materials into the Air so that frightened and full of fear they were forced to confess that Christ whom their Ancestors Crucified was the true and only Lord and God Seeing that the Temple together with the Mount it stood upon are razed and desolated so that one can hardly now discern what they have been anciently every one that goeth by because the Lord did not favour his own House where his Name was sanctified hath reason to be astonished at it and to call to mind the strange anger of God against those that leave the Lord their God and adhere to other gods serve and adore them Now adays the Turks have taken possession of this Mount and all the Ground whereon Solomon's Temple did stand and have built a Mahumetan Mosche on it which Homar the Third after the great Impostor Mahomet built when he had taken the holy Land and the City of Jerusalem This is not very large nor high but fine and covered with Lead hath a great Court Yard about it paved with white Marble and here and there Orange and Date Trees are planted in it which is very pleasant about the sides thereof are some high Towers and Gates one whereof is vastly bigger than any of the rest which is near to their Batzar or Exchange which is very old high and hath very good Workmanship in it wherefore the Franciscan Monks shew it instead of the Gate of Solomon's Temple before which lay the Man that was lame from his Mother's Womb that begged Alms from Peter and John to whom Peter said Silver and gold I have none but such as I have give I thee In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk At the end of the Gate of this Yard as commonly in all their Church Porches hung some Lamps I could have willingly gone in before them to see the Rock and Fountain whereof Ezek. in his Forty seventh Chapter maketh mention together with the inward Building but because according to their Mahumetan Laws all those that are not circumcised are accounted to be unclean therefore going into their Churches is forbid to Christians if any one is catch'd â—ithin he is in danger of his life or else he must deny his Faith and be made a Mamaluck or Renegado In this Court-Yard is still another Gate called the Golden Gate by the Franciscans but because it stands just over against the Mount of Olives therefore it is to be taken to be the Gate Sur or rather as Nehemias ch iii. Ezek. xlvii and 2 Chron. xxxi say For the Gate of the Stairs which Semaia the Son of Sahamia the Keeper of them did build through which our Lord Christ did go into the Temple on Palm-Day to drive out the Buyers and Sellers Now altho this is walled up in the New Town Wall so that you cannot go either out or in yet considering its ancient Arches it looketh rather like a Church than a Town-Gate In the middle of the Yard stands a Turkish Mosche or Temple called the Rock this is esteemed very much by the Turks and next to those of Mecha and Medina reputed to be the most holy Because God Almighty hath wrought many great Miracles there and that there Mahomet as they falsly write of him in their Books called by God to be the last and greatest Prophet did ride from Mecha to that of the holy Rock of the Temple of Jerusalem which is Forty Days Journey on a very swift Beast called Elmparae conducted thither by the Angel Gabriel who at his arrival did help him off of his Beast tied it up and then led him by the Hand into the Temple where he found many Prophets standing together in a Circle which God had resuscitated for his Honor and to receive him and to acquaint him with new good Tidings and what God had prepared for him I suppose ever burning Flames of Fire among the rest he did also find Abraham Moses and Jesus the Son of Mary each of them presenting him first Moses with a Fatt of Wine Abraham with a Fatt full of Milk and Jesus with a Fatt of Water Then
Liberty for a Sum of Money or else agree with him for a certain time and so make a Contract with him concerning their Liberty which commonly these do that intend to persevere in their Christian Religion or undertake to get something by their Handy-work that when the time is past or the Money paid the Justice may according to the Instrument before made by him at their Request declare him Free and give him a Pass to shew upon the Road that he may not be molested Other ways to get their Liberty there are but very few except their Master should happen to Dye which commonly in their last Will declare that their bought Servants after the opening of it shall have their Liberty Sometimes it happens that from others they buy false Letters which are soon found out in these Countries and so by the help of them get away Clandestinely But yet that but a few Slaves come from thence to us again the chief reason is not as many think Because the Turks press them to change their Religion for although they sometimes threaten them as they use to do or treat them somewhat more hardly than is usual in their Servitude as Christians also do very often but rather their Secure and Impenitent Life which they lead forgetting God and his holy Word to that degree that they know not how to give an Account of their Christian Faith and Religion nay what is more they know not the difference between these two Religions which are so vastly differing although they would if they did know it rather suffer Death than be seduced from the true Religion and precipitate the Soul together with the Body into Damnation When then the knowledge of the Truth is gone and Faith almost if not quite Extinguished so that there is but little hope left of their Salvation they daily forsake their Religion as fast as Worm-eaten Fruit falls from the Tree begin to think how to compensate their bodily suffering they may lay up and get Money by Robbing and Burning and so get Privileges to live according to their own Will and Pleasure like Beasts in daily Uncleanness and when they are harden'd in it they come at last to such a degree of Sottishness and Brutality that as St. Peter saith they believe the chief good of this World to consist in Voluptuousness wherein they perish at length and must expect the Wages of Unrighteousness with the rest When the Turks have Conquered one or more which they discern at first by their Fore-finger which these that have a mind to turn use to shew to them first as a Token by lifting of it up over their Heads chiefly in their Mosques they rejoyce in them mightily and are clearly of Opinion That this their Work is precious and good before God and that their Religion is confirmed and upheld by the assenting of many wherefore they soon meet together to confirm these Turn-coats with their usual Ceremonies and so to make them true Turks First they lay before them a Cross whereon they must trample three times spit upon it and repeat every time some words after them taken out of the Alcoran so the Christians that will be made Turks pronounce them after them When this is done three of them are ready with their Bows and shoot together up and give them before the Arrows fall down again Turkish Names Then if they be Men they set them up upon high Horses put them on their best Clothes and Dress them neatly and so lead them for two days together through all the Streets that every body may see them and know them to be such as do adhere to their Religion and so to be free to walk and deal among them without any hinderance If they are of an higher degree and of great Authority sometimes Ride along with them some Turkish Gentlemen of Quality in their best Dress accompanied by many Janizaries who fire here and there in the Streets for Joy but chiefly in those places where they spy Christians They have with them all sorts of Musical Instruments viz. The Drums great Drums and little Drums which they beat at that same time both above and below Hautboys and others They also carry in this their Procession long Streamers upon long Poles almost like unto them that we see in the Cross-walks in our Frieries and besides the Rabble that run before and behind make such a noise that one cannot hear the other When all this is over they Circumcise them at last on the third Day and then they reckon such an one to be a true Musulman that is A Circumcised one who hath leave to go to their Mosques without being hindered to buy their Books and Writings and to Read them which must not be sold to others that are not of their Religion upon pain of great punishment that they may not come into unclean hands or to be trod upon as Writings of no Worth Their Jewes whereof there are a great many among them and are called by them Choifut or Chifoutler excel ours in Cheating and Cozening by far and there is no doubt but they would oftentimes renounce their Religion to make profit But the Turks envy them more than we Christians they do not Trust them they reckon them not worthy to Eat with them as they do with us Christians nor Marry with them much less will they receive them as any thing related to their Religion except it be that before for some days they have frequented the Christian Churches and there are Baptized and have often Eaten Pork that unclean Meat that is also forbidden unto them When they have done thus they proceed with them after the same manner as is before said Concerning the Christians that live among the Turks as the Surians Armenians c. they have here and there in great Trading Cities their peculiar Streets which they Inhabit and they are commonly without in the Suburbs and thereabout also small and low Churches where they perform their Devotions When they begin to be decayed of Age or are burnt by Fire or destroyed in War time if they will have them built up again they must have leave first of the Turkish Magistrate and lay down a good Sum of Money which grants nothing except you grease them well The Turks to save Charges suffer no Bells nor Clocks neither in their own nor other Temples nor will they give leave to the Christians to Ring to Church with them so that all day long you neither hear a Bell Toll nor a Clock Strike Instead thereof the Turks have according to their Alcoran their Five Hours set which their Priests call out from the high Steeples and in the Exchanges with a loud Voice and with stopped Ears and cry Alla Haickbar that is God is true and then Leila hillalla Mahammet rasur alla each of them he repeats twice to call the people to their Devotions But the Christians have a Servant that at the Hours of Prayers and Sermon goeth
St. Paul That a Priest shall be a Husband of one Wife They give the Lords Supper to Young and Old alike in Leavened Bread in both kinds and they confess their Sins like unto the Jacobites to no body but only God The Portuguese that go to the Indies know them very well and love them for being good Soldiers and are glad if they will live among them and go out and in with them CHAP. XVIII Of the MARONITES BEsides all these there is also a sort of Christians who first after Maro the Heretick were called Maronites who believed that their is but one Nature Understanding and Work in Christ according to the Opinion of Macharius the Heretick whom he followeth diligently but since they have by degrees left this and are returned to the Popish Religion again And although they are still of it yet they give the Sacrament in both kinds to the Lay-men as almost all other Nations do according to the Words of the Institution of our Lord Christ In all other Points they follow the Roman Religion more than any other Nation Their Priests wear over their Clothes black hair Vestments They live for the most part in Syria but chiefly upon the Promontory of Mount Libanus where upon they have a Monastery within a days Journey of Tripoli called our Ladies which is situated underneath a large Rock wherein their Patriarch dwelleth whom they respect very much and kiss his Hands with their Knees bended c. whereof I have made mention here before The Patriarchs are still to this day chosen by the Commons and afterwards confirmed by the Pope and so this when he after the Decease of his Predecessor came into a Dispute with one of his Competitors concerning the Election did presently unknown to his Adversary go to Rome and so obtained in person the Patriarchal Seat from the Pope The Common People are in their Shape and Habits so like unto the Surians and their Neighbours the Arabians that except by their Turbants none can know them from each other They are a Couragious and War-like People very well provided with Guns and other Arms as well as their Confederates the Trusci And because they are not subject nor pay any Contribution unto the Turkish Sultan therefore they still keep their Bells and other Priviledges They speak the Arabian Language and their Books are also written as many as I could see of them in their Churches with Arabian Characters or Letters which they always kiss with great reverence when they take them up or lay them down according to the Custom of all other Eastern People or Nations as well Heathens as Christians They keep a very severe Order and never Eat Flesh and on their Fasts neither Butter nor Eggs but live upon Fruits as Beans Pease French-Beans and such other common Victuals But yet if any Merchants or Pilgrims come from Tripoli or any other places they let them want neither for Meat nor Drink nay they shew themselves to every body so benevolent as I have found it three several times and civil that one would wish to stay some time with them These live not continually in the Temple of Mount Calvaria but go often thither on Pilgrimages CHAP. XIX Of the Latinists or Papists THE Latinists or Papists living at Jerusalem in the often before-named Temple are Friers of the Order of the Lesser Franciscans they chiefly possess the Holy Sepulcher of our Lord Jesus Christ which they keep in very good order and read their Hora's diligently wherefore their Father stileth himself Guardian of the Holy Sepulcher and Mount Sion Besides this they are possessed of more Holy Places as at Bethlehem the Stable wherein our dear Lord Christ did lye in the Manger with the Ox and the Ass In the Mountains of Judea the Temple of St. John the Baptist In Bethania the Sepulcher wherein Lazarus had lain four days when Christ raised him from the Dead and here and there many others These as all know are dispersed in a great many places and Kingdoms nay almost through all the World Their Head is the Pope of Rome who pretends to be the Vicegerent of Christ and taketh upon himself so much Power as to prescribe to all Men Laws according to his own pleasure which Christendom finds every day to its great grief Wherefore in the mean while they are grown into so many Divisions Idolatry and Ceremonies that they out-do quite all the before-named Nations But being that they are in these our times so very well described that thanks to God they are very well known to every body therefore I forbear to write more of them and will only before I conclude make mention of these Brethren that live at Jerusalem only in a few Points and say that these that live in the Monastery at Jerusalem are about 20 in number more or less according as they go and come and among them are Spaniards Italians French-men and Germans c. that commonly are sent thither by Kings and Princes but being that they have more Churches and places in and without Jerusalem to provide for their Father Guardian distributeth them sends some to Bethlehem to look after the Manger of Christ others upon the Hills of Judea to the Mount of Olives and towards Bethania c. but before all others always two and two into the Temple of Mount Calvaria to stay there for 14 days together But being that the Temple is always Lock'd up that the Priests that are within it may not want for Food as well as others that are with them therefore three holes one bigger than the other are made in the great Door of the Church that through them all Necessaries of Meat and Drink may be conveyed to them These that are thus Locked up in the Temple do but look diligently after the Holy Sepulchre and Read their Hora's with Singing and Praying and to look after the Lamps but chiefly those that hang in the Sepulchre of Christ to illuminate it There are about twenty of these Lamps one better and clearer than the other they belong for the most part to great Persons as Kings and Princes whereof they have their Yearly Revenue that is sent them by their Brethren but chiefly from Italy and the Italian Princes and the most Catholick King of Spain But from Germany England and also now Cyprus the Isle since it hath been taken by the Turks they complain they have nothing as they had in former Ages and the Most Christian King of France doth also already begin to forget them which they have found some years since and the number of the Pilgrims doth also decrease which formerly used to flock thither in great numbers and sometimes to reward them besides Meat and Drink very Nobly which they find very prejudicial to them seeing they have no Revenues of any other Lands or the like They receive the Pilgrims that come in to them very kindly and treat them very well with Meat and Drink and shew
them all the Holy Places and keep them so long until they have seen every thing to their satisfaction and are willing to depart They are but very meanly Clothed like unto Poor Mendicants they live very privately and keep their concerns very close because of the Arabian Horse-men or Beduins that fall upon them daily and Ravage these Countries continually wherefore they are in great danger When they come you must at least give them Meat and Drink if not other Booty as I saw my own self at Bethlehem when I first arrived there that twelve Horse-men with Guns Arrows and Darts very well Armed came to the Gates of the Temple and they were forced to satisfie them before they would leave them and to give them good words besides So that they are not only sufficiently plagued by them but also by the Sangiachs and Cadis the Turkish Magistrates at Jerusalem who have continually their Eyes over them that are well to pass for Covetousness is so great with them that if they can but hear of one that hath Money they study Night and Day how if possible they can they may right or wrong make him punishable So they lately accused the Eastern Christians falsely and punished them in some hundred Ducats whereat the Bassaw of Damascus under whose Command Jerusalem is did wink in hopes to have a great snack out of it CHAP. XX. Of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem the Order of the Johannites HAving made mention of these I remember still an other Order that is The Johannites or Knights Templars of Jerusalem which did first begin in the Reign of Baldewin de Burgo the second of that Name and the third King of Jerusalem This Order is more Secular than Divine and therefore quite differing from all the rest for they need not to say Mass nor perform any other Devotion but when they have heard Mass and said so many Pater-Nosters and Ave-Maries they have sufficiently discharged their Office This Order was first Invented by His Holiness the Pope to that end and indued with many Priviledges that they might resist and oppose the Turks and that all Infidels and Hereticks might by them and their Adherents by force of Arms be driven and routed out of the Roman Empire And that he might promote this design of his more earnestly he took in those chiefly that were well Born and had great Revenues as Princes Counts and other Noblemen So it hath often happened formerly chiefly when Popery was in a flourishing condition that along with the Pilgrims that had a mind to see the Holy Places and to go to the Land of Promise many Persons of Quality came moved thereunto out of great Zeal together with them to see them also and to take upon them the Order of that Knighthood in the Sepulchre of our Lord Christ as the proper place for that purpose And besides that other considerations there were which moved them to it viz. The high Title and the Authority of the Place and great Priviledges whereby they hoped to be still preferred to greater Dignities Now as every one of them had laid before them to consider these Points and Articles which every one must promise and take an Oath to keep them strictly some great and potent Men found it so severe and hard as you may see by that that followeth that they were not only astonished at it but refused openly to take it upon them But what is laid before them that are made Knights and also what Ceremonies are used in it I thought convenient to mention here briefly If there be one or more of them ready for it that have at the instance of the Guardian according to the Ancient Custom been at Confession and also received the Sacrament sub una Specie under one Species on Mount Calvaria they are with great Ceremonies conducted from thence into the holy Sepulchre whither are also conveyed some other things that belong thereunto viz. A fine Book a Sword richly tipped with Gold with a red Velvet Girdle a Chain weighing about a hundred Hungarian Ducats whereon hangeth a Golden Cross of this Form and Shape a pair of Spurs with red Velvet Straps which are laid down one by another upon the Altar of the Sepulchre As soon as the Gentleman cometh into it they begin immedidiately to say Mass and after that they Sing without some Latin Psalms In the mean while the Gentleman lyeth down upon his Knees in the Sepulchre before the Guardian until the Friers have done Singing Then the Guardian bids all that stand about to say Our Father and an Ave-Mary on behalf of the Gentleman that is to be Knighted When this is done he admonisheth the Gentleman before he taketh the Oath to consider upon what condition he is admitted there When this is done he bids the standers by Pray for him once more and then admonisheth the Gentleman again and telleth him also That hereafter he must be in all things subject and obedient to the Roman Church That he must fight and resist the Turks and Lutherans as Enemies and Hereticks so long as his Blood and Heart is warm Then the Guardian asketh him further whether he doth receive all these Points as they are written word by word in that Book and ordered by his Holiness the Pope and subscribed by his own Hand and whether he will Swear by the holy Sepulchre to keep them Whereupon he consents to it presently and promiseth with great eagerness and joy to keep it with all his Heart and thanketh God that he hath made him worthy of this Blessing and for having made him capable of it After this the Monks begin again a long Song and then the Guardian taketh up the three Pieces the Chain Sword and Spurs and puts them on upon him and so adorneth him as beginning Knight At last he taketh also the Book and puts it before him and telleth him once more what he is about and what he is going to Swear When he hath understood it he kneeleth down again and puts out his two Fingers which the Guardian puts upon the red Cross in the Book and readeth to him the Oath the Contents whereof are these First That upon his Conscience he do Swear there to these following Words Not with a false Heart but that he doth confess out of Zeal with great eagerness and with a clean Heart and also Swear by Gods Omnipotence the See of Rome and his Holiness the Pope that he is a good Catholick Educated in that Religion from his Infancy to that present hour and that he never will go from it so long as he liveth but will always Defend and Protect the Roman Church against the Lutheran and their Adherents with Words and Deeds so long as his Heart is warm and that he will never be in a place where any evil is taught or spoke of his Holiness the Pope Secondly That he doth Swear by Gods Omnipotence and the Pope at Rome and the Cross
26.27.28.29.30 * I guess them rather to have been Cormorants no Eagles having long Necks * Rauwolff was here too credulous and facil to suffer himself to be abused and imposed upon by these Relaters for that there neither are nor ever were any Animals with more Heads than one naturally I do confidently affirm * Too soon for that there are no such Creatures in the World as either Unicorn or Griffin I am as sure as I can be of a Negative Nay Dr. Brown hath well demonstrated that there cannot be such a Creature as the common Pictures of him represent the Unicorn I cannot again but wonder as the credulity of so curious and inquisitive a Man as Rauwolff in believing the idle Stories of such a vain and lying Fellow Though Jerusalem might be situate in the highest part of Judea yet are not the following places of the Scripture a sufficient proof of it For because it was the Capital and supreme Town in regard of Greatness Multitude of People Strength Jurisdiction and other Privileges tho its site were not higher than that of other Towns yet might People well enough be said to go up thither it being highest in respect of Dignity tho not of place So we make no scruple to say in common speech that whosoever travels up to London goes up thither and whosoever travels from thence goes down into the Country let his Habitation be never so much higher situate then London Yet was Jerusalem situate on a Hill which is enough to verifie all those Expressions tho that Hill were not the highest in Judea * James the Son of Alpheus one of the Apostles was usually called James the Lâ—ss but it was not he that was Elected first Bishop of Jerusalem but James the Just who was called the Lord's Brother and was none of the Apostles These Measures you may rely on as exact to half a foot (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Emperour Constantine in a Letter to Eusebius de Vita Constantini lib. IV. cap. 39. aâ—ud Theodoritum Histor. Eccles lib. 1. cap. 16. v. etiam Socrat Scholast Hist. Eccles lib. 1. cap. 16. (b) V. Socratem ibidem Et Theophanem in Chronographia XXV anno Constantini (c) The Itallan word Rione is a manifest corruption of the Latin word (d) In Panegyrico quem Romae dixit Anthemio Augusto bis consuâ—i (e) Hoeresi LXIX quae est Arianorum Sect. 2. where he says a sad dismal fire was kindled by Arius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which seized almost upon all Romania or Vniversum Romanorum Imperium as Petavius renders it but especially the Eastern parts of it (f) Pag. 144 152 155. (g) Pag. 139. (g) V. Gillium de Bosp Thraecii l. 111. c. 12. c. (h) Pag. 169 Num. 3. (i) Pag. 121 (k) Vid. Historiam Politicam Constantinopoleos apud Crusium in Turco-Graecia pag. 9. (l) This was an old error for thus writes Dionysius Byzantinus in his little book of the Bosphorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (d) Les voyages de Seign Villamont (e) Sands Travels * The Air of Aegypt is confessed by the Ancients to be often full of Vapors which appears both by the great dews that happen'd after the Deluge of Nilus for several months as also in that I have discovered at Alexandria in the Winter time several obscure Stars in the constellation of Vrsa major not visible in England the which could not be discerned there were there not a greater refraction at that time than with us and consequently a greater condensation of the medium or Air as the Opticks demonstrate (b) These proportions of the Chamber and those which follow of the length and breadth of the hollow part of the tomb were taken by me with as much exactness as it was possible to do which I did so much the more diligently as judging thâ—s to be the fittest place for the fixing of measures for Posterity A thing which hath been much desired by learned men but the manner how it might be exactly done hath been thought of by none I am of opinion that as this Pyramid hath stood three thousand years almost and is no whit decayed within so it may continue many thousand years longer and therefore that after-times measuring these places by me assigned may hereby not only find out the just dimensions of the Englâ—sh foot but also the feet of several Nations in these times which in my Travels abroad I have taken from the Originals and have compared them at home with the English Standard Had some of the ancient Mathematicians thought of this way these times would not have been so much perplexed in discovering the measures of the Hebrews Babylonians Aegyptians Greeks and other Nations Such parts as the English foot contains a thousand the Roman foot on Cossutia's Monument commonly called by Writers Pes Colotianus contains nine hundred sixty seven The Paris foot a thousand sixty eight The Spanish foot nine hundred and twenty The Veneâ—ian foot 1062. The Rhinland foot or that of Snellius 1033. The Bracio at Florence 1913. The Bracio at Naples 2100. The Deran at Cairo 1824. The greater Turkish Dike at Constantinople 2200. * As appears by a fair and ancient Monument brought from Smyrna to my very worthy Friend Mr. Rolt Esq which stands in his Park at Woolwich Plin. lib. 36 cap. 7. (c) Which may also be confirmed by Bellonius's Observations who describing the Rock out of which upon Moses's striking it there gushed out waters makes it to be such aspeckled kind oâ— Tâ—baick Marble Eit une grossâ— pierre massive droicte de mesmegrain de la couleur ba que (d) The compass of the Scapus of this Column at Alexandria near the Torus is 24 English feet The compass of the Scapus of those at Rome is fifteen English feet and three inches By these proportions and by those Rules which are expressed in Vitruvius and in other Books of Architecture the ingenious Reader may compute the true dimensions of those before the Pantheon and of this at Alexandria being in my calculation the most magnificent Column that ever was made of one entire Stone (e) Six feet 488. 1000. (f) Two feet 218.1000 In the â—eiteration of these numbers if any shall be offended either with the novelty or tediousneâ—s of expressing them so often I must justifie my self by the example of Vâ—ug â—g Nephew to Timurlane the great for so is his Name and not Tamerlane and Emperor of the Moguls or Tartars whom we term amiss the Tartars for I find in his Astronomical Tables the most accurate of any in the East made about 200 years since the same course observed by him when he writes of the Grecian Arabian Persian and Gelalean Epocha's as also of those of Caâ—aea and Turkistan He expresseth the numbers at large as I have done then in figures such as we call Arabian because we first learned these from them but the Arabians themselves fetch them higher acknowledging that they received this useful invention from the Indians and therefore from their Authors they name them Indian Figures Lastly he renders them again in particular Tables Which manner I judge worthy the imitation in all such numbers as are radical and of more than ordinary use For if they be only twice expressed if any difference shall happen by the neglect of Scribes or Printers it may often so fall out that we shall not know which to make choice of whereas if they be thrice expressed it will be a rare chance but that two of them will agree which two we may generally presume to be the truth (a) Sands in his Travels writes That they are seen to rise oâ— Good Friday A Frenchman at Grand Cairo who had been present at the resurrection shewed me an arm which he brought from thence the flesh shriveled and dryed like that of the Mummies He observed the Miracle to have been always behind him once casually looking back he discovered some Bones carried privately by an Egyptian under his Vest whereby he understood the Mystery * An Argument intended by me and for which I made a collection of several Antiquities in my Travels abroad but these and would only these have unfortunately perished at home amidst the sad distractions of the time
and in the Book of the Prophet Jonas of the Ninevites who believing the Prophet's Words denouncing their Destruction within Forty Days and repenting of their Sins put on Sackcloth and prayed to God for forgiveness The like we read of the King and Prophet David after he had numbred his People Item in the 10th Chapter of Luke and other places c. that they put on Sackcloth and did repent in Ashes It is therefore very probable that those were very like unto them that are still in use When we had thus accoutred our selves for the Voyage and provided us with all Necessaries viz. Cloths Merchandices Provision of Biskets and Drink and did stay only for some Fellow-travellers we were still doubtful whether it were more convenient for us to go by Land with Caravans which go from hence and Damascus very strong to Bagdet through great Sands and Desarts in Fifty Days more or less according as the Weather proveth Or whether we should go by Water either upon the Tigris or the Euphrates there being good Opportunity to go in Company with others But it happening that we met with some Armenian Merchants Servants that did live at Halepo who were also provided with Goods and had a mind to go into the same Countries we did readily embrace this Opportunity partly because they understood the Turkish and Arabian Languages which two are chiefly spoken in Syria and partly because some of them had been four times already in the Indies wherefore we put our Goods to theirs and loaded a great many Camels together to deliver them to us at Bi r to ship them there upon the Euphrates And that we might pass every where in the Turkish Dominions we took a Pass from the Bashaw and Cadi and so we began our Travels to Bi r distant Three Days Journey the 13th of August Anno 74. By the way we were so strange to one another that in our new Fashioned Cloaths we did hardly know one another among them all After we had the first Day a rough Road and travelled through many Desarts and uninhabited Places we reached at Night a little Village where we encamped and pitched our Tents We put all our Packs in a circle round about us and without them our Beasts as it is usual in great Caravans to defend us from the Assaults of the Moors in the Night A little after Midnight we heard a great Caravan of many Camels and Asses to go by very near to us which after it was passed we broke also up and followed them when the Day Light appeared we saw several plow'd Fields more than the Day before and also here and there in some pleasant Places many Tents of the Arabians which were fixed together as it were in a Camp ranged very orderly into Streets After we had that Morning travelled very hard so that our Beasts under their heavy Loads began to be tired in the great Heat we rested behind a little Chapel to refresh our selves and to feed our Camels in the mean time some poor Women came down from the High-lands to us to gather the Dung of our Camels to burn it instead of Wood whereof they were in great want When the great Heat was over and we had staid there for two Hours we went on again and came before it was Night to a little Village lying in a Valley near which upon the Height the Arabians had formed a great Camp We went up to them and pitched our Tents in the Plain by them and kept as abovesaid a good Watch. They came quickly to us spoke kindly to us and their Wives brought us Water and good Milk but after we saw that they were very naked and hungry and in their shape like to our Gypsies we did not trust them at all but kept a very good Watch all that Night These are Vagabond People that are used to Idleness from their Infancy and will rather endure Hunger Heat and Cold than get any thing by their Handy-work or Till the Fields or Plant Garden-herbs for their Maintenance although they might do it in several fruitful Places in their own possession So you find here a great Number of them by the sides of these sandy Desarts that have no where any Habitation but live in their Tents like as the Beasts do in Caves and go like unto the Gypsies from place to place until they light on one where they may live a great while with their Cattle and when all is eat up want driveth them from thence to look out for another On the 15th early before break of Day we were up in the cool of the Day with an intention to reach to Bi r that Night but our Camels were grown so faint by reason of the excessive Heat and the great Burthens that they fell down several times wherefore we looked out for a convenient place where we might stay all Night and found at last a Village near which we pitched our Tents eat some Gourds and Biskets and so went to rest Two Hours before break of the Day we began our Journey again and came early in the Morning to the great River called Euphrates we went over with our Goods and Chattel and fixed our Tents before the Town near the River on the other side to stay for a Barge that was to come from Armenia to go from thence to Babylon which is now called Felugo By the way I saw no Herbs of any worth except the Galega in our Language called Goats-rue which grew plentifully on the dry Heaths and near to the Road the first sort of Apocynum by us called Dogs-bane very like unto the great Celandine in its Leaves and Pods I also saw whole acres of Turkish Corn called Sesamo and others all sown with Cotton and also a kind of Esula very full of Milk wherewith the fallow Grounds were so filled up that at a distance you would have taken it for good Corn. Seeing that the Scammony that uses to be brought to Halepo is wont sometime to be very sharp therefore it may very well be that they adulterate it with this Esula Near the Town grew abundance of Acacia called Schack and Schamuck as is above mentioned which are here in Stem and Fruit greater and larger than ever I saw any any where The Town Bi r is situated on the other side of the great River Euphrates in Mesopotamia near the high Hill Taurus just like Tripolis near the Libanus or our Losanna on our Alps It is neither big nor strong but pretty well defended by a Castle that lyeth on a high Rock above the River not easily to be taken There is a very pleasant Country round about it and very fruitful which chiefly on this side of the River where it is plain is very well Tilled and Sown with Corn which they did just thrash out when we came with little Waggons drawn by Oxen and here and there are very good Villages But beyond the River it is more hilly which kind
the Brothers of St. Jacob are known by the Scallopshells The same is also with their Camels for on the lower part of one of their Forefeet you may see as many small Chains hung as they have been times there in Caravans so that you also may soon discern them And that I may return to my purpose again near to the Turkish Moschèe of the Holy Rock is also an other Church which by the Christians when they were in possession of Jerusalem was called the Virgin Mary's Church which is very well built rather bigger then the Turkish and stands without towards the South on the place of the great Porch of the Israelites which is several times mentioned in the Scriptures Viz. Joh. 10. Math. 21. where it is called the Temple and Porch of Solomon where Christ did Preach and drove out the Buyers and Sellers c. Underneath it is a great Cave so wide that some hundred Horse may with ease be drawn up in Battalia therein This is also in the Possession of the Turks and the Christians dare no more come in here then in the other By this Prohibition Viz. That the Mahumetans shall admit into their Churches or Porches thereof no Strangers which according to their Laws are not Cleansed and Washed you may easily see that the Turks have taken many Ceremonies and Laws from the Jews and according to their depraved understanding and mind Transcribed them into their Alcoran So we see that anciently they have their Circumcision Offerings Washings Fasts at certain times of the year marrying more then one Wife not Eating any thing that is Unclean or Pork or what is suffocated not having Bells not drinking Wine as the Levitical Priest must not do derived from the Jews But this last Law concerning not drinking of Wine is not only not kept for they drink thereof without mixture let it be as strong as it can more than ony other Nation It being then true that they choose the Fatt with Wine presented them by Moses as is before said to their own Ruin and Destruction wherefore I pray that God may fulfil their Prophecy Amen CHAP. VI. Of the Saracens and Turkish Religion Ceremonies and Hypocritical Life with a short hint how long time their Reign shall last after Mahomet 's Decease SEing I have here above made mention amongst the rest of the Places and Churches of Jerusalem of the Turkish Moschèes and also of Mahomet their Prophet I cannot but also Relate something of theit Hypocritical and Superstitious Life and belief as I have observed in my Travels and during my stay among them chiefly something of their outward Ceremonies good Works wherewith they think to fulfil the Laws to cleanse themselves from their manifold Sins and Transgressions and to obtain Gods Mercy and Love Wherefore they strive that they may be found always busie in these good Works whereof they reckon the chiefest to be Alms Pilgrimage Fastings to make Offerings to abstain from certain Food or Drinks frequent Washing Praying upon which two last they look most of all as the true means by which if they keep them diligently they may be freed and absolved from their Sins according to the Promises of their dear Prophet Mahomet Such and the like have also the Jews had in the Old Testament where without doubt their Prophet being by his Mother an Ishmaelite had them also But seeing that he also Attributeth to these Absolution and Satisfaction for our Sins and also consequently Salvation and everlasting Life Therefore all those that follow and believe his Doctrine miss the only Mediator and Saviour Jesus Christ of whom as well as of his Holy Word they else have a good Opinion as appeareth by their Alcoran in whom God the Father Almighty will only be known Invoked and Adored As St. John saith in his 5th Chap. 23. He that Honoureth not the Son Honoureth not the Father that hath sent him And Chap. 14. vers 9. where Jesus saith He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and in the 4th Chapt. of the Acts it is said verse 12. There is no Salvation in any other for there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved wherefore although Mahomet doth greatly Command and Teach that we must Adore the only God yet they do not know the true God that will only be Adored and Honoured in his Beloved Son and besides Mahomet will not allow that God hath a Son and much less That Christ is the true God in whom we shall believe For in his Diabolical and Blasphemous mind and thoughts he hath this precaution that if God should have a Son he might come to be Disobedient unto him as happeneth sometimes chiefly amongst them to worldly Princes which would expose all Creatures in Heaven as well as on Earth unto great Danger So he denieth the Deity of Christ and Esteemeth him to be no more as Arius doth then a great Saint and meer Man So he hath the same Opinion with Macedonius of the Holy Ghost whom and Christ he sometimes maketh but one person And so the Turks know no more by the Instruction of their Cursed Prophet of the true living God that is one in his Essence and three in Persons then when they Adored the Fire water and other Elements nay Heaven and Earth as also the Persians have done before they come over to the Saracens and adhered to the Doctrine of their Mahomet And besides they have no more comfort in our Lord Christ then the Jews because they do not believe that Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary and Messenger of God was Crucified Dead and Buried but that another that was very like him suffered instead of him because he was Seated in Heaven where into God received him and that he was to return again at the End of the World a great deal higher then that he could be so shamefully killed by the Jews that impious people wherefore the Turks admire it very much that so many Pilgrims of all Nations come to see the Grave of Christ with so great a Devotion which is not his And although the Turks prefer their Mahomet before Christ and also do not believe right neither of his Essence nor of his person so that therefore all their Worship with what Devotion soever performed is null and in vain because it is not in Christ Yet for all that they Praise and Esteem Christ very high and Extol him far beyond any Man as one that was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary and that hath here on Earth carried on his Doctrine and confirmed it with powerful Miracles Wherefore they Esteem the Books of Moses and the other Writings of the Prophets but chiefly the Four Evangelists which they call the Book Jugilis and the Books of Moses Thresit as true and Godly And sometimes they pretend so fairly that an ordinary Man that is not well instructed in the Chief Articles of Christianity although there is so
great a difference might easily be seduced and perswaded Besides the Turks will not allow neither to Jews Moors nor Christians nay not to their own Nation to say any thing ill of Christ nor to Curse him but if any body should presume to do it the soles of his Feet are struck very severely with many blows and he is Fined besides according to his Ability So their Prophet Mahomet commends the Holy Scripture very much and saith that it containeth Truth and Happiness If they would but often look into it as their Alcocan teacheth them in several places to read in it and mend their Lives according to it they might easily be brought to the right way again but he himself doth not stand by his words but falleth off again from them afterwards and speaketh quite otherways of the holy Scripture and that so differing that he quite contradicts himself For as he did commend it before so now he discommendeth it again when he saith That it hath been because it is too difficult to be kept long since quite out of Doors chiefly in those parts where is written That we must do good to our Enemies leave all for his sake love God with all our heart c. and our Neighbor as our own self And that therefore he Mahomet was peculiarly and purposely chosen by God Almighty to bring down with him the Alcoran and communicate it to the World that was then drown'd in Lusts Sin and Vices to reform and bring it to rights again Besides this he knew very well how to disguise his Tricks and how to behave himself in his Life and Conversation devoutly and discreetly towards the People and how to blind them under this pretence that they did believe him and receive him the sooner to be a great Prophet and Messenger from God When he found that he had got a good Party and a great many Adherents that impowered him he Studied daily more and more to order his Laws so that they might be acceptable and pleasing to all the World And thus he got in a great many places such a fame that to our Grief in these times he hath seduced and possessed a great part of the World with his Erroneous and Poisonous Doctrine the Turks closely adhering to this Doctrine therefore their Hearts are so blinded with darkness that they cannot have any true knowledge either of God the Father or the Son or the Holy Ghost and so they miss of the right way that would bring them to the Knowledge and Acknowledgment of their Sins and consequently to the Remission thereof and so make them Children of God and Heirs of Life Everlasting But on the contrary they remain Impenitent and persist in their sinful Life with such a Confidence and Security that they know not when they commit Sins as to take a Mans Property and Goods away by force to destroy his House and Lands to undermine his Life and Livelihood and also to contaminate themselves with Uncleanness Whoredom Sodomy Not to keep an Oath that hath been taken to Revenge themselves from whence Results Envy Hatred Anger Contention Murder c. as we hear what Injustice and Violence the Grand Signior committeth daily upon our Brethren and Sisters that border upon his Dominions which we need not to wonder at because if they fall out amongst themselves they try all Unjust means to Revenge themselves Wherefore they accuse their Adversaries often falsely because they dare not offer any violence before their Judges and so bring them to Damage Trouble and Pains But when they have committed one of these or the like Facts and have a mind to free themselves of it or to be Absolved they go after their own invented Devotion to good Works Alms Prayers Fasting Redeeming of Captives c. to make satisfaction to God for their committed Sins as their Alcoran teacheth them And so they lead a Life of good outward Conversation and are very diligent in their Devotion chiefly in going to their Prayers at the five Customary hours of the Day when they leave their VVork and go to Church And seeing that in these Countries they have neither Clocks not VVatches to tell them the time of the Day and Prayers instead of them they have their Priests called Meitzen by them on the Steeples which are ordered to cry out the Hours with a loud Voice that you may hear them as far almost as the Ringing of a Bell even throughout the whole Town The first Hour of Prayers is an Hour and half before Day-light The second is about Noon The third which the Arabians call Latzera is about Three a Clock in the Afternoon The fourth is at Sun-set and the fifth when after the Sun is down the Twilight or whitishness of the Skies is gone and the Stars appear clearly Sometimes two of these Priests sing together which is common in great Towns and they sing almost as with us they sing a Ballad so that while the one is singing the other may fetch his breath and so they sing by turns until the Song is at an end When I came first into these Countries and hear'd them Sing about that time in the Morning I believed the Turks did it that they might brisk themselves up to go to Work until I heard them do the same at other hours in the day time and understood they were their Priests So they Sing about Five a Clock at Night very well and sometimes something longer because of the Sick that live near which desire it of them to make them cheerful and to have a good heart which we need not to wonder at for their Clergy which are not Wiser or more Learned than the Lay-men know not how to comfort them or to make them joyful much less how to give good and wholsome Instruction out of the Word of God although they believe it to be true how to obtain forgiveness of Sin and Gods Mercy Love or Commiseration but think it to be sufficient if they Admonish them that lye a dying to think of God and to Pray to him that he may have Mercy upon them and afterwards to wash their Body to cleanse them quite from all Sins according to the Law of their Mahomet which they highly esteem and that the rather because they serve not only the Living but also the Dead wherefore the Turks wash themselves daily chiefly at the Hours of their Prayer when they are a going to Church and that very carefully and diligently viz. Their Hands Privy-Members Head Neck Feet nay the whole Body according as they are Contaminated or become Unclean So in consideration of their Sins they have three sorts of washing whereof one is that of the whole Body which these must make use of that are not Married and contaminate themselves with Concubines wherefore the Baths are kept continually in an equal heat and are open to any body both by Day and Night that these that have occasion to wash their whole Body may not