to learn what should be the true reason thereof it being there very far from any shore and the Sea so deep as that we could fetch no ground The 21. we discovered the main Continent of Asia the Great in which East-India takes up a large part The 22. we had sight of Deu and Damon places that lye in the skirts of India principally inhabited and well fortified by Portugals and the 25 of September we came happily to an Anchor in Swally-Road within the Bay of Cambaya the Harbour for our Fleet while they make their stay in these remote Parts Then after a long and troublesome and dangerous passage we came at last to our desired Port. And immediately after my arrival there I was sent for by Sir Thomas Row Lord Embassadour then residing at the Mogol's Court which was very many miles up in the Countrey to supply the room of Mr. John Hall his Chaplain Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford whom he had not long before buried And I lived with that most Noble Gentleman at that Court more than two years after which I returned home to England with him During which space of my abode there I had very good advantage to take notice of very many places and persons and thing travelling with the Embassadour much in Progress with that King up and down his very large Territories And now Reader I would have thee to suppose me setting my foot upon the East-Indian shore at Swally before named On the banks whereof amongst many more English that lye there interred is laid up the body of Mr. Thomas Coryat a man in his time Not us nimis omnibus very sufficiently known He lived there and there died while I was in those parts and was for some Months then with my Lord Embassadour during which time he was either my Chamber-fellow or Tent-mate which gave me a full acquaintance of him That Greek-travelling-Thomas they which know his story know why I call him so formerly wrote a Book entituled Coryats â—rud 〈…〉 ies Printed in the beginning of the year 1611. and then ushered into the World by very many Copies of excellent Verses made by the Wits of those Times which did very much advantage and improve if not enforce the sale thereof doing themselves much more honor than him whom they undertook to commend in their several Encomiasticks And if he had lived he would have written his last Travels to and in and out of East-India for he resolved if God had spared him life to have rambled up down the world as sometimes Ulysses did and though not so long as he yet ten full years at least before his return home in which time he purposed to see Tartaria in the vast parts thereof with as much as he could of China and those other large Places and Provinces interposed betwixt East-India and China whose true Names we might have had from him but yet have not He had a purpose after â—his to have visited the Court of Prester John in Aethiopia who is there called by his own people Ho Bâ—ot The King and after this it was in his thoughts to have cast his eyes upon many other places which if he had done and lived to write those Relations seeing as he did or should such variety of Countries Cities Nations Things and been as particular in them as he was in his Venetian Journal they must needs have swoln into so many huge Volumns as would have prevented the perishing of Paper But undoubtedly if he had been continued in life to have written them there might have been made very good Use of his Observations for as he was a very Particular so was he without question a very Faithful Relator of things he saw he ever disclaiming that bold liberty which divers Travellers have and do take by speaking and writing any thing they please of remote parts when they cannot easily be contradicted taking a Pride in their feigned Relations to overspeak things being resolved in this case Not onely things to do but or'-do Speaking writing all and more too I therefore for my part believing this Relaton to be none of those have taken some things from his trust and credit in this my following Discourse And because he could not live to give an account unto the world of his own Travels I shall here by the way make some little discovery of his footsteps and flittings up and down to and fro with something besides of him in his long peregrinations to satisfie very many yet living who if they shall please to read this Discourse may recall that man once more into their remembrance who while he lived was like a perpetual motion and therefore now dead should not be quite forgotten In the year 1612. he shipt himself from London for Constantinople now called by the Turks Stombole where he took special notice of all things there most observable In which place he found very great respect and encouragement from Sir Paul Pinder then and there Embassadour to whose House he had free and welcom access whensoever he pleased Being there for some time he took his opportunities to view divers parts in Grecia and in the Hellespont took special notice of those two Castles directly opposed to each other called Sestos and Abydos which stand on the several banks that bound that very narrow Sea which Places Musaeus makes famous in his very antient Poem of Hero and Leander He desired much to see where those seven Churches sometimes famous in Asia the Less stood but since their sin so darkned their light and God removed their Candlesticks from them as before he threatned those Places lye so in the dark that it cannot be well discovered where they once were Onely Smyrna is famous at this present day for Trade but not Religion and Ephesus and some others of them keep their names still though they left and lost their Faith and profession of Truth with the rest He saw what yet remains of the Ruins of sometimes great Troy but Jam Seges est ubi Troia fuit That place which was once so populous as if it had been sow'n with People And seeded thus had after born Millions of men now 's sow'n with Corn. And O jam periere Ruinae the very Ruins of that place are almost all gone to Ruine The most observable thing there yet remaining is part of an exceeding great House which is continued by Tradition to have been sometimes a part of the famous Palace of great King Priamus From Smyrna he found a Passage to Alexandria in Egypt Egypt that is called by some in regard of the Plenty it produceth the Granary or Storehouse of the World And in Egypt near Gran-Câ—iro antiently called Memphis he observed what remains of the once fam'd Pyramids Returning thence back to Alexandria with one Englishman more they found a pass by Sea to Jatta antiently called Joppa and there they met some others going to Jerusalem which is about twenty English miles distant
A Voyage to EAST-INDIA Wherein Some things are taken notice of in our passage thither but many more in our abode there within that rich and most spacious Empire Of the Great Mogol Mix't with some Parallel Observations and inferences upon the storie to profit as well as delight the Reader Observed by Edward Terry then Chaplain to the Right Honorable Sr. Thomas Row Knight Lord Ambassadour to the great Mogol now Rector of the Church at Greenford in the County of Middlesex In journeying often in perils of waters in perils of Robbers in perils by the Heathen in perils in the Sea 1 Cor. 11. 26. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters yea than the mighty waves of the Sea Psal 93. 4. Digitis a morte remotus Quatuor aut Septem Ju. Sat. 12. Qui Nescit orare discat navigare ubique Naufragium London Printed by T. W. for J. Martin and J. Allestrye at the Bell in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1655. To the Reader READER THere was never age more guilty than this present of the great expence and waste of paper whose fair innocence hath been extreamly stubber'd by Errors Heresies Blasphemies and what not in these bold times which like so many the foulest of all blots blurs hath defiled very much of it so true is that of the Poet Tenet insanabile multos Scribendi Cacoëthes Ju. Certainly there hath been of late abundantly more printed than ought than should if what follows in this discourse lay under the guilt of any such just exception it should feel the fire not the press The summe substance of what here follows as a description of that Empire I long since composed shortly after my return from East-India and then presented it in writing unto the late King when he was Prince of Wales in the year 1622. with this short following Epistle Most Renowned Prince I Have nothing to plead for this high presumption but the Novelty of my subject in which I confesse some few have prevented me who bv traveling India in England or Europe have written somewhat of those remotest parts but like unto poor Tradesmen who take up Wares on trust have been deceived themselves and do deceive of others For my self I was an eye-witnesse of much here related living more than two years at the Court of that mighty Monarch the great Mogol who prides himself very much in his most famous Ancestor Tamberlane in the description of whose Empire your Highnesse may meet with large Territories a numerous Court most populous pleasant and rich Provinces but when all these shall be laid in the Balance against his miserable blindnesse your Highnesse shall have more cause to pity than envy his greatnesse I am not ambitious to make this my Relation publick and therefore if it consume more paper it shall not be my fault As it is in a fearfull boldnesse 't is offered to your Princely hands and if it may be any way pleasing and usefull I have my reward if not my most humble desires to have ministred something this way unto your Highnesse shall be my comfort Thus Reader thou hearest when this Relation was first written and into what hands it was then put And although there be now a very great space of time 'twixt the particulars then observed and their publication now which may make thee look upon that which is here brought forth as an untimely birth or as a thing born out of due time Therefore know which may give thee some satisfaction herein that for the commodities and discommodities of those remote parts for the customes and manners of that people for their Religion and policie with every thing beside wherein thou mayest desire information which lies within the vast compasse of that huge Monarchy expressed in the Map and further described in this following discourse time not making that people at all to varie from themselves thou mayest look upon it now as if it hath been taken notice of but immediately before it was here communicated and if it prove usefull now I shall be very glad that it was reserved even for this present time wherein it might do some good Yet notwithstanding this it should never have been brought by me into this more open view especially in such a scribling writing age as this where there is no end of making many books and many of those written to no end but what is evil and mischievous but that the Printer who had gotten my Original Copie presented as before desired to publish it And because so I have revised and in some particulars by pertinent though in some places very long digressions which I would intreat the Reader to improve so enlarged it that it may if it reach my aim contain matter for instruction and use as well as for relation and novelty So that they who fly from a Sermon and will not touch sound and wholesom and excellent treatises in Divinity may happily if God so please be taken before they are aware and overcome by some Divine truths that lie scattered up and down in manie places of this Narrative To which end I have endeavoured so to contrive it for every one who shall please to read it through that it may be like a well form'd picture that seems to look stedfastly upon everie heholder who so looks upon it But here Reader let us sit down and wonder that in these dayes which are called times of Reformation manie choise books are often published which contain in themselves and declare unto others very much of the minde of God yet are laid aside as if they were not worth the looking into and in their stead Romances and other Pamphlets ejusdem farinae of the like kinde which do not inform but corrupt rather the mindes of those which look so much into them teaching wickednesse while they seem to reprove it are the books O times which are generally call'd for bought up read and liked When a Traveller sometimes observed the women in Rome to please themselves in and overmuch to play with their Curs and Monkeys he asked whether or no the women of Rome did not bear Children to delight themselves withall The storie is so parallel to what I before observed that he who runs may make Application and therefore I forbear to do it As for that I have here published I know habent sua fata libelli that books have their Fates as well as their Authors and therefore this Relation now it is got into the World must take its chance whatsoever its successe or acceptance be But however I shall never be of their minde who think those books best which best sell when certain it is that they are not to be valued by their good sale but good use Which while some may make of this others who love to carp and censure and quarrel so as to make a man an offender for a word may put harsh interpretation upon some passages they may find in this
extenuated by the multitude of offenders which live under the guilt thereof that nothing can more aggravate it With men commoness pleads for favour with God it pleads for judgment the Leprosie of the whole body being by far more loathsome then that which appears but in a part thereof and so much of this I will now proceed to take notice of other particulars which follow in this relation As SECTION XII Of their Language their Books their Learning c. THE Language of this Empire I mean the Vulgar bears the name of it and is called Indostan it hath much affinitie with the Persian and Arabian tongues but the Indostan is a smoother language and more easy to be pronounced than the other a language which is very significant and speaks much in few words They write it as we to the right hand It is expressed by letters which are very much different from those Alphabets by which the Persian and Arabian tongues are formed The Persian there is spoken as their more quaint and Court-tongue The Arabian is their learned language both written backward to the left hand like the Hebrew from whence they borrow many words which come so neer it as that he who is a good Critick in the Hebrew may very well guess at the meaning of much in both those languages The Persian is a language as if it consisted all of Guttur all letters as some in the Hebrew Alphabet are called filling the mouth in the Pronunciation of them for as the words in that language are full of sense so in their speaking they are full of sound For the Latin and Greek by which there hath been so much knowledge conveyed into the world they are as ignorant of them both as if they had never been and this may be one great reason why there is so little learning amongst them But for the people themselves they are men of very strong reason and will speak ex re natâ upon any offered occasion very exceeding well and doubtless they are a people of such strong Capacities that were there literature amongst them they might be the Authors of many excellent works but as the case stands with them all that is there attainable towards learning is but to read and write And here by the way let me insert this that I never saw any Idiot or natural Fool nor any deformed person amongst them in any of those parts For Logick and Rhetorick which are so instrumental the first to enlarge and the second to polish discourses they have none but what is Natural They say that they write some witty Poems and compose many handsome Annals and Stories of their own and other adjacent Countreys They delight much in Musick and have some stringed but many more winde Instruments They have the use of Timbrils likewise but for want of pleasing Airs their Musick in my ears never seemed to be any thing but discord Their Books are not many and those are Manuscripts That rare and happie invention of Printing which hath been the advancement of so much learning within Christendom is not known without it They have heard of Aristotle whom they call Aplis and have some of his books as they say in the Arabian tongue in which language they further say they have many books written by Avicenna that ancient Physician who was born in Samarchandia one of the most fam'd places within the Tartarian Empire the Countrey as they believe where Tamberlain the Mogols great Ancestor drew his first breath Some parts or fragments they have of the old Testament of which more when I shall come to speak of their Religion Many amongst them profess themselves to have great skill in judicial Astrologie that great Cheat which hath been very anciently and often put upon as the Sacred Storie witnesseth the people inhabiting the East and South parts of the world I call it a Cheat because there is and must needs be so much uncertainty in it all things here below being ordered and overruled by the secret and unerring providence of Almighty God which frustrateth the tokens of the Lyars and maketh Diviners mad that turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish Esay 44. 25. First these Diviners are mad when things fall not out according to their bold predictions And secondly they have been and not without cause esteemed as mad-men in foretelling things which they could not know and much less bring to pass And therefore I have heard a great Master in and a publick Professor of Astronomie who could see as far into Constellations and observe as much from them as any other often say that he would go by the very selfesame rules that others did to predict things to come and would write that which was quite contrary to what they observed yet what he wrote should as often fall to be as true as what they 〈…〉 old Yet notwithstanding the truth of these premises the great Mogol puts so much confidence in his Astrologers that he will not undertake a journey nor yet resolve to do any thing besides of the least consequence unless his wizards tell him it is a good and a prosperous hour to begin and set upon such an undertaking and at the very instant he hath his directions from them he sets upon the thing he undertakes and not before It is strange to consider what ignorance or despair in this â—case may not put men upon may not put men into ignorance in that King thus besotted with an high opinion of his Astrologers So despair in Saul another King long before him who after he had lost the favour of God grew desperate and resolved that if God would not answer him Sathan should And therefore he said in his distress unto his servants 1 Sam. 28. 7. Seek me out one that hath a familiar spirit The condition of Saul was at this time exceeding sad as appears by his complaint v. 15. The Philistins make war against me and God is departed from me and answers me no more either by Prophets or Dreams and what shall I do I confess that the loss of God is the greatest of all losses For as his favour to a believing Soul in the want of every thing besides is enough because his loving kindnes is better than life it self Psal 63. 3. So the gaining of every thing the world can afford with the loss of Gods Countenance makes profit loss a Chaire of State uneasy an hereditary and much more a usurped Scepter so unweildy as that it cannot be managed with comfort Here Saul a King is so perplexed in his thoughts when as Almighty God had taken his loving kindnes from him that he asks the question what shall I do Not what thou did'st wretched Saul against the streame of thine own Conscience to seek unto those whom thou had'st but of late condemned and punished to take a course which thou knowest to be divellish Miserable Saul how couldst thou hope to find God at thy Command
by many and the reason is because they do and will contradict it we have cause therefore to bless God for good Laws to direct and lead some as to constrain and bind others for there is no hope in this case to work Convictions upon many such as the Psalmist calls the beasts of the people who would defraud us if they could of all our just rights For doubtless if we were left wholy to their curtesie we might expect no more probably not so much from them as Micha gave his Levite Judg. 17. 10. ten Shekels of Slver by the year and a little clothing and victuals Now those Shekels were rated diversly some at fifteen pence others at twenty pence and the highest rate of them was two shillings and six pence the Shekel but which of these Micha gave his Chaplen I cannot tell neither can I say what our people in this Nation left to themselves would generally give their Minister by a voluntary gift But doubtless it would go very hard with many with most who if they were left altogether unto their peoples feeding would speed little better than a yong Welsh-man of the university of Oxford somtimes did and I am very certain that the relation is true who after he had gotten a lambe-skin upon his Shoulders being Bacheler of Arts presently went into the Countrey for preferments as he said and what he found was but four Pounds a year as he told me for reading prayers in a Church with liberty in the Belfary to teach a few Children out of which he was to provide himself of food and cloathing and all other necessaries I meeting him some half year after he told me how he sped and that it was but small but small I asked the poor man further how he did make a shift to live he told me that he had been sick of an Ague the greatest part of that time could take but little food and if it had not been so with him his preferment would have starved him And thus certainly would it be with many others if they were left for their livelihood meerly to mens curtesies Who think the bread of the Church sweet and therefore would eat it up all from us and leave us with their good will no part thereof and happily they may find or imagine it sweet in their mouths but in their stomacks it will proove hard of digestion Honey in the one Gravel in the other we leave these to God the righteous judge who complaines that he is rob'd and wrong'd in the injury done to us Mat. 3. 8. And will find a time to reckon with men for all these arrerages and therefore if repentance and restitution in this case when wrong hath been done and after-reformation prevent it not they will one day find enough mould in the grave and enough fire in Hell The Athenians as Valerius reports though they were Heathens yet when Phydias was to make for them the jmage of Minerva which Goddesse as they call'd her was in very high esteem amongst them and when that work-man told them that he would make it for them either in Marble or Ivory they heard him thus far but when he further advised them to have it made in Marble because that would be cheapest they presently commanded him silence and put him out of doores And if Heathens could not endure to entertain the thoughts of cheapness though but in the making of an Idoll let them of this Nation blush and have their faces covered with shame whosoever they be that love to serve God as they call it but to be at as little cost in that service as possibly they can as if they studied Jeroboams Politicks whose Policie eat up his Religion who after he had usurped his Kingdom did invent this taking snare to fasten the people unto him in giving them some seeming immunity in the profession of Religion telling them that it was too much for them to go to Jerusalem to sacrifice 1 King 12. 28. though they were commanded so to do by Almighty God and therefore he set up Calves one in Dan and the other in Bethel that they might stay at home and serve God better cheap with more ease and doubtlesse as they were perswaded with no less safety Again further for that people they do so highly prize those books in which their lawes are written that they know not how sufficiently to esteem and value them and therefore will not presume to touch them without much reverence What shall I say as to this unto very-very many of this Nation and such as have long lived under the Ministry of the word but having profited nothing by it know not how to put any valuation on it and therefore esteem it a trouble a burden rather then a blessing or benefit and consequently would be very well content so they might be freed from all charge to the publishers thereof if the whole book of God were served as that roll was written by Baruch from the mouth of Jeremiah the Prophet Jer. 36. Cut all in peaces and burnt in the fire Such as these will never be perswaded to follow that most excellent counsel which Solomon gives Prov. 23. 23. Buy the truth but sell it not Buy it of God by Prayer buy it of Books by reading buy it of Orthodox men by hearing buy it of other good Christians by conferring buy it over and over again you cannot over buy it Non Priamus tanti There is nothing in the world to be weighed against it to be compared with it But sell it not for a world Yet there are a great many dunghil men of the earth who with Aesops cock prefer a Barly Corne before the Pearle and therefore are most unwilling to part with a Penny for that most rich commodity It is strange further to consider as I observed before and is very true that Mahometans should never see their Alcoran though but a fardle of falshoods and fooleries or hear any part of it read without a shew of great attention affection and reverence and Heathens do so likewise at the hearing of their precepts and all of them give honour and maintenance which is comfortable and without grudging unto those that be their Teachers though they lead them quite out of the way and men dare to usurp the names of Christians and yet would be content I would not be uncharitable in this sad assertion would be content I say so they might be at no charge for hearing the truths of God If there were no book of God at all extant no Gospel no Minister to declare and publish it But the time will one day come when people if ever they return to a right knowledge of themselves who have manifested so much thrift in the profession of Religion shal rue and repent the time that ever they did so When they may desire to see one day more of the Son of man one day more of the Gospels which they so slighted
thou hast somewhat of the carriages of this people in life Now after death some of them talk of Elyzian fields such as the Poets dream'd of to which their Souls must passe over a Stix or Acheron and there take new bodies Others of them think that ere long the World will have an end after which they shall live here again on a new earth Some other wilde conceivings of this people follow afterward Some Bramins have told me that they acknowledge one God whom they describe with a thousand eyes with a thousand hands and as many feet that thereby they may expresse his power as being all eye to see and all foot to follow and all hand to smite offenders The consideration whereof makes that people very exact in the performances of all moral duties following close the light of Nature in their dealings with men most carefully observing that Royal Law in doing nothing to others but what they would be well contented to suffer from others Those Bramins talk of two books which noâ— long after the Creation when the World began to be peopled they say were delivered by Almighty God to Bramon before spoken of one of which books they say containing very high and secret and Mysterious things was sealed up might not be opened the other to be read but onely by the Bramins or Priests And this book thus to be read came after as they further say into the hands of Br 〈…〉 of whom likewise something before and by him it was communicated unto Ram and Permissar two other fam'd Prophets amongst them which those Heathens do likewise exceedingly magnifie as they do some others whose names I have not Now that book which they call the Shester or the book of their written word hath been transcribed in all ages ever since by the Bramins out of which they deliver precepts unto the people They say that there are seven Orbi above which is the seat of God and that God knows not small and petty things or if he do regards them not There have been Philosophers of the like minde who madly thought that Almighty God had no regard of humane affairs For which very thing Tully though an Heathen doth most highly condemne them The Peripateticks housed the Providence of God above the Moon and thought that it had no descent beneath the Circle thereof to intend inferiour things and businesses The Atheists in the Psalm who say that there is no God inferre from hence how can God see what do the Epicures in Job say lesse or Eliphaz speaking in their names Job 22. how can God know can he judge through the dark clouds the clouds hide him that he cannot see and Chap. 24. 14 15. he brings in the murderer and adulterer acting their parts with much boldnesse confidence and presumption upon this false ground that no eyes see them for if they did believe the contrary then certainly they would not dare to do what they do which shews that there is a very Atheisme in the hearts of most men which makes them not afraid to do that in the presence of an all-seeing God which for fear or shame they durst not do in the sight of a little Childe Averroes a Spanish Phisician that he might seem to be mad with reason by reason goes about to exempt and with-draw smaller things from the sight and providence of God as if it were most injurious to bring down the Majesty of God so low thinking that the knowledge and understanding of God would become vile if it were abased by taking notice of mean and inferiour objects A very strange opinion as if a looking-glasse were deformed because it represents deformities Or the Beams of the Sun defiled because they fall upon dunghils and other filthy places or the Providence of God vilified who though he hath his dwelling so high yet he abaseth himself to behold the things in heaven and in earth Psal 113. 6. As he spake the word in the beginning so all things were made Gen. 1. thus ever since he sustaineth and beareth up all things by the power of that word Heb. 1. His Creation was the Mother to bring things forth his Providence the Nurse to bring them up His Creation a short Providence his Providence a perpetual Creation The first setting up the frame of the house the second looking to the standing and reparations thereof And therefore I will bring in Tully again to gain-say and condemne those forenamed mad opinions who in his first book de naturâ deorum tells us that the Providence of God reacheth usque ad Apium For 〈…〉 que perfectionem to the husbanding of Bees and Pis 〈…〉 irâ—s And in his eight book on the same subject where speaking against the Epioures and Atheists of that age he saith curiosus plenus negotii Deus that God is a curious God exquisite in all things and full of businesse So far he an Heathen could see and so much say But a Christian that knows more can speak further that God is not a carelesse an improvident God or a God to halves and in part above and not beneath the Moon as the Syrians dreamed upon the mountains and not in the valleys but he is a God in lesser as well as in greater matters Who beholds at one view all places and all persons and all things And as our times are in Gods hands so he takes notice of every thing done by us in every minute and moment of our time He knowing all things not as they appear but are simplici notitia as the Schools speak with a sure certain exact knowledge Thus he takes notice of every sin that is committed and of every circumstance in sinning He saw the â—ins of the whole World in the book of his eternity long before the foundations of the World were laid He sees them in every mans breast before his hands commit them I knew thee saith God before thou camest forth of the Womb Jer. 1. 5. And God tells Israel that he knew what they meant to do long before they came out of the land of Egypt the consideration whereof may curb and confound all those that say God shall not see This Providence of God did reach to the handfull of Meal and the cruise of Oil in the poor Widows house 2 King 4. And so it reacheth to the Calving of Hindes to the feeding of young Lions and Ravens to the falling of Sparrows on the ground to the numbring of our hairs as to every thing beside But to return again to that people the Hindoos I spake of and these circumscribe God to place and further conceit that he may be seen but as in a mâ—st afar off but not near They further believe that there are Devils but so fettered and bound in chains as that they cannot hurt them I observed before the tendernesse and scrâ—ple which is in very many of that people in taking the lives of any inferiour and meeâ—ly sensible I of
Tamberlane and his successors and the lower we go the greater still they are but the last of them swels biggest of all calling himself amongst other phansies the Conqueror of the world and so he conceits himself to be As they write of Thrasyllus the Athenian who believed that all the ships on the Sea were his own and therefore he would call them my ships when ever he saw them floating on the waters and thus the great Magol imagines all the Kings Nations and people of the world to be his Slaves and Vassals And therefore when the Grand Signiour or great Turks sent an Ambassador to the great Mogol who came unto him attended with a great train and retinue and after when he was ready to take his leave desired of the Mogol to know what he should say to his Master when he was returned tell thy Master said the Mogol that he is my slave for my Ancestor Conquered him The Mogol feeds and feasts himself with this conceit that he is Conqueror of the world and therefore I conceive that he was troubled upon a time when my Lord-Ambassador haveing businesse with him and upon those terms there is no coming unto that King empty handed without some present or other of which more afterward and having at that time nothing left which he thought fit to give him presented him with Mercators great book of Cosmography which the Ambassador had brought thither for his own use telling the Mogol that that book described the four parts of the world and all several Countreys in them contained the Mogol at the first seem'd to be much taken with it desiring presently to see his own Territories which were immediately shewen unto him he asked where were those Countreys about them he was told Tartaria and Persia as the names of the rest which confine with him and then causing the book to be turn'd all over and finding no more to fall to his share but what he first â—aw and he calling himself the Conqueror of the world and having no greater share in it seemed to be a little troubled yet civily told the Ambassadour that neither himself nor any of his people did understand the language in which that book was written and because so he further told him that he would not rob him of such a Jewel and therefore returned it unto him again And the truth is that the great Mogol might very well bring his action against Mercator and others who describe the world but streighten him very much in their Maps not allowing him to be Lord Commander of those Provinces which properly belong unto him But it is true likewise that he who hath the greatest share on the face of the earth if it be compared with the whole world appears not great As it was said of the Lands of Alcibiades that compared with the Glob of the whole earth they did not appear bigger than a small tittle The Mogols Territories are more apparent large and visible as any one may take notice who strictly views this affixed Map wch is a true representation of that great Empire in its large dimensions So that although the Mogol be not master of the whole World yet hath he a great share in it if we consider his very large Territories and his abundant riches as will after more appear whose wealth and strength makes him so potent as that he is able whensoever he pleaseth to make inroades upon and to do much mischief unto any of his Neighbours but I leave that and come now to speak SECT XXIII Of the Mogols policy in his government exercised by himself and substitutes c. ANd it is that indeed which is the worst of â—ll governments called by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arbitrary illimited Tyrannical such as a most severe Master useth to Servants not that which a good King administreth to Subjects Which makes it very uncomfortable for those that live as subjects there under the command of others taller than themselves by their swords length or so to be fixed in any part of the World Where no Laws resist The sword but that it acteth what it lists As in that Empire where the King measureth his power by his sword or Launce in making his will his guide and therefore any thing lawfull that likes him which carriage of his might very well become that Embleme of illâ—mited power which is a sword waved by a strong arm and hand and the word siâ— volo sic jubeo or thus will I have it and if any there be so far discontented as to make any the least question at what he doth he hath a far stronger argument still in readinesse than all the force of Logick can make and that is very many thousands of men that are â—â—ouâ— and able Souldiers whom he keeps continually in arms and pay that can make any thing good which he shall please to command There are no Laws for Government kepâ— in that Empire upon record for ought I could ever learn to regulate Governours there in the administration of Justice but what are written in the breast of that King and his Substitutes and therefore they often take liberty to proceed how they please in punishing the Offender rather than the offence mens persons more than their Crimes aegrotum potius quam morbum Yet ever they pretend to proceed in their wayes of judicature which is the right progresse in judgement secundum allegata probata by proofs and not by presumptions The great Mogol will sit himself as Judge in any matters of consequence that happen nere unto him And there are no Malefactors that lye more than one night in prison and many times not at all for if the party offending be apprehended early in the day he is immediately brought before him that must be his Judge by whom he is presently either acquitted or condemned if he be sentenced to be whipt he hath his payment and that usually with very much severity in the place often where he received that sentence If condemned to dye he is presently which as I apprehend it is a very hard course though used anciently among the Jews carried from his sentence to his execution which is done usally in the Bazar or Market-place And this round and quick Justice keep the people there in such order and awe as that there are not many executions Murder and Theft they punish with death with what kinde of death the Judge pleaseth to impose for some Malefactors are hang'd some beheaded some impaled or put upon sharp stakes a death which hath much cruelty and extream torture and torment in it some are torn in places by wilde Beasts some kill'd by Elephants and others stung to death by Snakes Those which are brought to suffer death by Elephants some of which vast Creatures are train'd up to do execution on Malefactors are thus dealt withall First if that overgrown Beast be commanded by his Rider to diâ—patch that poor trembling Offender presently
4. 17 18. And therefore said the same Apostle Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared unto the glorie which shall be revealed I reckon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a Metaphor either taken from accountants that put many particulars into one entire summe or else from Logicians who draw certain or infallable conclusions from foregoing premises Thus I reckon or I conclude when I compare profit and losse together as what I shall certainly gain and what I may happily loose by the profession of the Gospel when I have put all crosses and incumbrances in the one Scale and the recompence of the reward in the other it amounts all to this that the eternal wâ—ight of the Crown doth exceedingly outweigh the momentary weight of the Crosse Thus it is with all men who in their greatest pressures can see further than earth as that first Martyr professing the Gospel Stephen did who died not upon a bed of Down but under a shower of stones yet could out of that terrible and thick storm look into Heaven and so do others who can behold whatsoever they feel with the eye of Faith and this is like that Tree which Moses cast into the bitter waters of Marah and it made them sweet Exod. 15. But as for others I have named and shall further name to behold their sufferings and torments onely with the eye of sense it must needs make their tortures however they bear them out out of measure to torment I have been told by some who were eye-witnesses whom I dare credite and therefore I dare relate it of strange kindes of death executed by the command of the King of Japan upon his subjects where some are Crucified or nailed to a Crosse Others rather roasted than burnt to death Thus there is a stake set up and a Circle of fire at a pretty distance made round about it the condemned person being naked is so fastned to that stake as that he may move round about it and so doth as long as he is able to stir till his flesh begins to blister then he falls down and there lyes roaring till the fire made about him puts him to silenâ—e by taking away both his voice and life Now they say that one great reason why they put men there unto such exquisite torments is because they hold it a thing of the greatest dishonour there for any man to dye by the hand of an Executioner therefore they are usually commanded when they are sentenced to dye to rip up or cut open their own bellies and those who will not so do are tormented in dying Hence most of that people when as they have received that hard command to prevent death by dying call for their friends about them eat and seem to be merry with them then in the close of the meal and in their presence commit this sad slaughter upon themselves as first those poor wretches make themselves naked to the middle he or they who are to dye then the most wretched self-murderer who is to act that bloudy part strikes a sharp Knife into the bottom of his belly then rips himself up and after gives himself one other cut cross his belly and when he hath done both these if after he can but wipe his bloudy knife upon a white paper or Napkin that is laid by him he is believed to part with his life with a very great deal of honour and immediately as he is made to believe goes to Fakaman whom they say is the God of War So much power the Devil hath in those dark places of the World to make the people there do what he please Oh 't is a misery of all miseries here to be a drudge a bond-man a slave to the Devil as those and so infinite multitudes more professing Christ are by obeying Satan in his most unreasonable commands and yet will not be made sensible of that their basest bondage But to return again to the place froÌ„ whence I have made some excursion when I was in India there was one sentenced by the Mogol himself for killing his own father to dye thus first he commanded that this Paricide should be bound alive by his heels fastned to a small iron Chain which was tied to the hinde leg of a great Elephant and then that this Elephant should drag him after him one whole remove of that King from one place to another which was about ten miles distant that so all his flesh might be worne off his bones and so it was when we saw him in the way following that King in his progresse for he appeared then to us a skeliton rather than a body There was another condemned to dye by the Mogol himself while we were at Amadavar for killing his own Mother and at this the King was much troubled to think of death suitable for so horrid a crime but upon a little pause he adjudged him to be stung to death by Snakes which was accordingly done I told you before that there are some Mountebanks there which keep great Snakes to shew tricks with them one of those fellows was presently called for to bring his Snakes to do that execution who came to the place where that wretched Creature was appoinâ—ed to dye and found him there all naked except a little covering before and trembling Then suddenly the Mountebank having first angred and provoked the venomous Creatures put one of them to his Thigh which presently twin'd it self about that part till it came near his Groin and there bit him till bloud followed the other was fastned to the outside of his other Thigh twining about it for those Snakes thus kept are long and slender and there bit him likewise notwithstanding the wretch kept upon his feet nere a quarter of an hour before which time the Snakes were taken from him But he complained exceedingly of a fire that with much torment had possessed all his Limbs and his whole body began to swell exceedingly like Nasidius bit by a Lybian Serpent called a Prester of whom Mr. May in his Translation of Lucan the ninth Book thus writes His face and cheeks a sudden fire did rost His flesh and skin were stretch'd his shape was lost His swelling body is distended far Past humane growth and undistinguish'd are His limbs all parts the poyson doth confound And he lies hid in his own body drown'd Now much after this manner did the stinging of those Snakes work upon that wretch about half an hour after they were taken from him the Soul of that unnatural Monster left his growing Carkasse and so went to its place And certainly both those I last named so sentenced and so executed most justly deserved to be handled with all severity for taking away the lives of those from whom they had receiv'd their own Some of our family did behold the execution done upon the later who related all the passages of it and for
God the happiness of his countrey and the good of himself and Relations to consider that here where there is so much light and truth light to guide and truth to settle men in the way of life and Salvation there should be so much wavering wandering and wickedness For aske among the Heathens who hath done such things the Virgin Israel hath done very filâ—hily or an horrible thing as if the Prophet had said in other language Strumpets Harlots Prostitutes who sell their Souls with their Bodies had done but their kind but for Israel whom I have esteemed as a Virgin for England which I have owned above all the Nations of the earth to do such and such things who would have thought it Nay further as before considering all the means that we of this Nation have had above all the Nations in the world beside to teach us to know God and the great variety of mercies we have enjoyed to provoke us to love God that have had the wind and Sun of all other people the Sun shines not upon a Nation if we be considered collectively and together worse than we are It was sometimes prophesied of Jerusalem that Jerusalem should become so bad that it should justifie Sedome Ezek. 16. we of this Nation considered as before are a people that justifie Jerusalem oh what proficients have we been in the School of Satan when as those sins which the Apostle would not have so much as named among Christians have been so common amongst us so that we may boldly say how that Sodome and Gomorrah and those other Cities which Almighty God overthrew in anger and repented not those Cities which suffer the just and eternall vengeance of Almighty God lie not in Ashes for greater sins than have been committed amongst us But I can take no pleasure to be long raking in filthiness and corruption I will therefore make hast to give over this unpleasing unsavoury and nauseating discourse The rather because I know that neither counselling nor declaming against the sins of the present times doth much good This I believe that if I were filled with a spirit of false-hood and could prophesie of wine and strong drink my book would want no buyers to read and like it but I shall leave that discourse unto those that have not heard of Death in the Pot for my part I shall desire to be inrolled in the number of those who can wish with the Prophet Jeremy that their heads were waters and their eyes fountains of teares c. and that they had in the wilderness a lodging place that they might set down and weep day and night for the sins of the Nation and places where they live that they might sit down and weep and weepe over and over again those sins figh and cry for the Abominations they must needs take notice of by which retirement they might be freed from seeing and hearing and from vexing their Souls from day to day at the unlawfull deeds and filthy conversation of others and have better leisure to think themselves out of this wicked world Oh what cause have we of this Nation to beleeve that judgment is near when the Lord hath tryed us every way and all hath done us no good As fâ—rst God hath been exceeding good unto us in many favours so that it might have been said of England as one speaks of Israel that the Lord made that people a president of his love and favour that all the Nations of the world might learn by them from their example what God could do and what he would do for a people whom he loved but we have not been bettered by these benefits and doubtless if many amongst us had not been so blinded with light and sick of being well the body of this Church and state had never received such wounds as seeme incurable Oh if we had not sinn'd away our mercies God would never have taken away any of his loving kindnesses from us but our offences have been marvellously increased by our obligations there being no sins of so deep a die as thosewhich are committed against mercy The Lord hath tryed us otherwise his judgments have been in the land and the keenest of all temporall judgments the sword and the sharpest of all swords that which peirceth deepest because drawn amongst our own selves which hath made us our own spoylers our own prey yet we the inhabitants hereof have not learn'd Righteousness we have been encouraged by peace and we have slighted that and we have felt the sword of war and that hath done us no good Saevior armis Libertas nocuis Liberty as it hath been abused having given us deeper more dangerous wounds than ever the sword could So that neither the Majestie of God nor the Mercy of God the Goodness of God nor the greatness of God the favour of God nor the frown of Almighty God hath wrought upon us to reform us Now all these particulars put together they may give us great cause to feare what we shall be made to feel the weight of many sad conclusions which for the present we will not regard as that sin committed and unrepented of ever leaves a venome and a sting behind it and therefore that to sin is not the way to prosper that the longer a reckoning runs one the greater still the Summe and that the further compass a blow fetcheth about the heavier still it lights I shall speak it again under how many sad discouragements have many able sober minded and orthodox Ministers of the Gospel laboured in these later times who as if they had not enemies enough abroad find them at home in their own house their own coat proprijs pennis configimur wounded we are by our own quills by some who are excellent at close bites and though they speak us fair can open their mouths as wide against us as any others and then when we deserve nothing but well As the Athenians by their Ostracisme would punish desert and Crown ignorance But vessels that are most hollow and empty make the greatest sound and noyse And as love thinketh no evill So envy can speak no good we need not wonder at this when we consider that men of the highest deservings have many times had the worst usage And then if we find such dealing from amongst our selves we need not marvel at any thing we suffer from others from any from all that do not think well of us that do not love us and for that reason which Martiall expresseth in this Epigram Non amote Sabidi nec possum dicere quare Hoc tantum possum dicere non amote I do not love I love not Sabidie My reason of dislike I know not why When the Cynick was asked what beast did bite soarest and worst he answered of tame beasts a flatterer and of wild beasts a Slanderer many a good man sometimes feeles the â—eeth of both these of the tame beasts who when they creep into their