it Seeing that if the Astrologer lit upon a past Accident for once I attribute it as the Learned Persons of this Country of the Sun do meerly to Chance which sometimes may produce a Truth among thousands of Lyes From the Mathematicks they pass to Grammar learning withal at the same time to write and speak well and among all the other Dialects the Attic there prevailes in regard that they have not had any Commerce with Foreign Nations whence proceeds the Corruption of Languages whereby it comes to pass that they have preserv'd the purity of their own as have also some Villages of Greece in Europe where they speak the pure litteral Greek for that living at a distance from the Sea and in a Country of difficult access they enjoy the same good Fortune For which besides the Testimony of Davity I have also the Authority of the Reverend and Learned Papa Michael of Epirus who but lately assur'd me at Venice that he had met with such in his Travels By this time their Judgments being rightly inform'd they become more fit to read Philosophy which they learn in the last place They have also their bodily Exercises being taught at the same time to handle their Arms both Rapier and Back-sword to shoot with their Bows and to ride the manag'd Horse in a place appointed for that purpose where also are admitted the Manufacture Apprentices They never teach Logick nor Rhetorick alledging that those two Sciences are as natural to a Man as to goe or to make use of his Hands and that no man can arrive to be an exquisite Logician or a perfect Orator that has not an excelling Genius that way However they give their Scholars certain general Precepts very much agreeing with the Maxims of the Epicureans They also read and expound in their Schools Aristotle Plato Socrates Epicurus Democritus Thales Diogenes and all the ancient Philosophers of which we have only the Names and whose writings they preserve leaving to their Scholars to choose what Opinion they think most probable They also permit them to read the Poets though very much incens'd against them for their Invention of Fables concerning Deities that never were For by the Converse which I had among them I found that their knowledge in Philosophy was altogether bounded by Sence which they take for the only Rule of their Reasoning the Extravagancies of which are to be moderated and corrected by themselves being perswaded that what cannot be apprehended by the Sence is not at all nor can be the object of our Meditations To which when I answer'd that the contrary was taught in our Schools that is to say that Reason corrected the Sence they lookt upon it as ridiculous as if a Blind man should go about to correct his Guide They generally believe the Eternity of the first matter not being able to conceive how any thing should be made out of nothing that the World with all its varieties was produc'd by the sympathy and antipathy of the first Body's which as they had no beginning will have no ending They make some Bodies moveable of themselves others by the impulse of those only in a void space They acknowledge no other Cause but one which is the Material For all which Opinions of theirs I do not here produce their several Reasons as designing at present only a Historical Relation which else would require a larger Volume by it self which perhaps I may hereafter put to publick view If any one begin to broach new Opinions they cite him before the Council who examine them and if they find them ill grounded the Person is not commanded to recant but only to hold his Peace under the Penalty of being put into the number of the Scandalous a List of whose names is affix'd to the Door of the Temple there to remain to perpetuity an affliction which next to exile they stand most in fear of Their Library more spacious than the Vatican is so much the more Curious by how much it is furnish'd with an infinite number of Authors of which we know not so much as the Names and such as liv'd before Aristotle Those they call the ancient Authors for the Modern they esteem to be those that wrote after their settlement which is above Two thousand years ago They shew'd me also Translations of Egyptian Books which make the World to be much more ancient than we believe it to be our Chronology being no more than a Great Grand Child of theirs As for Printing tho' they well know what it is yet they make no use of it so that all their Books are in Munuscript either in Parchment or Paper in the Greek Language in regard they know no other unless it be the Tartarian which by what means some of them come to understand I shall relate in due place They distinguish their Books according to the Quality of the Subjects And if any Author of their own writes any thing new his Book is not admitted into this Noble Society of Volums till it has had the Approbation of the Council of Thirty Private Men may have it before but few care for it till then so great a veneration they have for the Judgment of that most noble Assembly all composed of learned and chosen Men the flowre of Philosophers as are also the two hunder'd and seventy Among the Legislators I saw the Pentateuch of Moses translated by the care of Alexander and sent to his Master Aristotle as some Lines under his own hand at the end of Deuteronomy witness I ask'd them their Sentiments concerning that Law to which they answer'd that they had a great esteem for the Moral part dislik'd his Sacrifices condemn'd his Ceremonies and for his Historical part some they deem'd probable the rest very improbable One of the Company added that he was a Philosopher that he had too enigmatically describ'd the Generation of the World and of the Creatures therein to a blockish sort of People uncapable to apprehend it by methodical Reasoning That he believ'd with Moses that man was produc'd out of the Earth and that without doubt he had borrow'd that Opinion from the learning of the Egyptians among whom he confesses himself to have had his Education At length I came to the Book which was left by the French man of whom I have already made mention They kept it apart not knowing where to range it because they did not understand it I found it to be a New Testament Whereupon they earnestly requested me to translate it for them if I thought it worth my while Upon which I pull'd out a Greek Testament out of my Pocket that had been my Vade Mecum in all my Travels and by way of prevention instead of a Translation said I here is the Original which you may read at your leisure because I do here present it to your Library At which they were overjoy'd and gave me a thousand Thanks After which they led me into the Apartment
A VOYAGE INTO TARTARY CONTAINING A Curious Description of that Country with part of Greece and Turky the Manners Opinions and Religion of the Inhabitants therein with some other Incidents By M. Heliogenes De L' Epy Doctor in Philosophy Primi Mortalium quique ex his geniti naturam incorrupti Sequebantur eamdem habeant ducem legem commissi melioris arbitrio Sen. Ep. XC London Printed by T. Hodgkin and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers Hall. 1689. The Priestess of the Son presented w th a Casket of Gold by a youth in the Temple TO THE Right Honourable THE EARL OF CLANRICARDE My Lord THE Good Fortune which has always attended me by Sea and Land in my last Travels into the Levant incourages me to presume that that same Providence which more especially assigns certain Genius's to watch over the safety of such Persons which it culls out for the Execution of the greatest Enterprises cast an Eye upon me from the very Moment that I departed from London with a Resolution to find your Lordship out in whatever part of the World you were That Providence doubtless it was which having snatch'd me from the gaping Jaws of Dragons in France and deliver'd me from several dangers and hazards which I ran both upon the one and the other Sea diverted also from my Heart the Sharp pointed Dagger of a Megera which Hell it self had vomited up to overwhelm me at Venice This Providence it was that staid a small Vessel at Marseilles for seven Months together till the day that I arriv'd to embark my self for Smyrna to be there before your Lordship was to depart in pursuance of other Voyages quite contrary to the Advantage of your Affairs and which I could never discover At length being happily return'd home under the Conduct of your successful Patronage after I had travell'd Six thousand nine hundred Miles by Sea or by Land in four Months time I flatter'd my self that in Dedicating to your Lordship this little Piece which departs from my Study upon a Voyage to the Republick of the Curious it might find the same Good Fortune as the Author of it Tho' indeed a stronger Reason oblig'd me to procure it this Honour that is to say the Grandeur of a Name which has preserv'd it self untarnish d in the Nobility of your Family for many Ages even till this very day in your own Illustrious Person For you are descended from that Great Hero who assisted William the Conqueror to lay the Foundations of a Monarchy which the Sword of your Ancestors has ever since upheld with the hazard of their Lives Witness that Thunder-bolt of War the Deceased Earl your Father who for having taken up Arms in the defence of the King his Master had lost his Head had not the Vengeance of Heaven crusht the Tyrant who had condemn'd him by the means of a small number of Judges and Jury Men that then acknowledg'd no other Law than Absolute Power And your Lordship the true Off-spring of so many Hero's tracing their Glorious Examples declar'd your self against your best Friend so soon as he appear'd to be an Enemy to the King his Father whose Arms your Prowess caus'd to be redoubted both in Flanders and wherever else the Honour of his Commands carry'd you I could say much more but that your Modesty obliges me to silence But to what purpose should I be multiplying words when your own Actions themselves sufficiently Proclaim the rest as well as your Person which alone attracts the Affection and Esteem of all that have the advantage to know those excellent Qualities with which God has endow'd your Lordship and of which I wish your Lordship a happy and long Enjoyment Accept therefore I beseech your Lordship this small Present as a Testimony of my Respect in the Quality of Your Lordships Most humble and most Obedient Servant De L' Epy. THE PREFACE I Had written in my time several Volumes upon several Subjects which afterwards I threw into the Fire as well for that they dislik'd me for I am a very severe Censurer of my own works as for that I did not think them proper for the Genius of the Age more inclin'd to trifles than to serious things Nevertheless I was merciful to the Memory of my Adventures not so much for any Esteem which I had of them but that I might leave my Children settl'd in a Foreign Country the Consolation of knowing whence they came and by what Accident they happen'd to be born Afterwards understanding by the Conversation which I had had with the Booksellers that Books of Travels were agreeable to the Palates of most Readers the Inclination which I have had all my life to be serviceable to Mankind made me resolve to publish this small Part of mine at least to give some few hours Divertisement to the Publick by reading them with this Promise that if this small Essay find acceptance they shall have the whole Journal entire The Impression was begun in French the last year at what time finding my self oblig'd to return into the Levant upon the occasion which I have hinted in the preceding Epistle I desir'd the Printer to stop his Press till my return because I desir'd to oversee it In the mean time he had caus'd my Copy to be Translated into English which I view'd and found faithfully done After which having restor'd him his Translation to do what he pleas'd with it he desir'd me to answer some Objections which had been made in my absence In the first Place they will hardly believe the Shipwrack which I suffered in my Third year nor the manner how I escaped Nevertheless there is nothing more certain than what I have said of it besides other Circumstances which I have omitted which would seem yet more incredible All the City of Lyons which is the Place of my Nativity was at that time fully possess'd of it I was there lookt upon as another Moses Neither am I so old but that there are still Persons alive that can testifie the same 2. They will have Heliopolis to have been in Aegypt I confess it but that is not the Heliopolis I speak of But as there are at this time several Cities of the same name as Frankfort upon the Maine Frankfort upon the Oder Lyons upon the Saone and Lyon le Saulnier or Lyons where the Saltpits are besides Leiden which the Latins call Lugdunum also Chalon upon the Saone and Chalons upon the Marne Valence in the Dauphinate and Valence in Spain Why must it be deny'd but that besides Heliopolis in Aegypt there may be that other of which I have given the Relation in Tartary They who never saw more than their own Village never imagin that Steeples are of any other fashion than their own Lactantius and St. Austin laught at those who by the dictates of sound sence affirm'd there were Antipodes And a German Bishop was accus'd for a Heretick before Pope Zachary
of all Human Wisdom I soon forgot the tiresome hardships of the Sea. So soon as I cast my Eyes upon the ancient Pyraeum so ill treated by Time that it does not preserve so much as its Name chang'd into that which it carries at present by reason of the ill-shap'd figure of a Lyon. In the same Place we hir'd Post-Horses to visit Athens distant from the Port about five Miles So soon as I arriv'd there I began to look for the rugged Ruins of that Famous Piece of Antiquity Wherein I found great Assistance from the knowledge of the Learned Demetrius to whom I was recommended by his Friends at Venice Neither was my own Skill in the Greek unprofitable to me For though the Vulgar Greek differs very little from that in the Schools the Corruption of this is not so great but that it may be understood when it is spoken according to the Pronunciation of the Country Besides that it is as common among Persons of Quality as Latin among the Polonians Moreover they told me that there is no other Greek to speak properly than that In regard that what is call'd Vulgar Greek is a kind of Pedlars French which differs according to the several Jurisdictions of the Country that it was the same in the time of Demosthenes that then besides the four Dialects most known there were some other in use among the Vulgar People but that the Orators in their publick Pleadings made use of the common Speech which was understood by the ordinary sort although they did not speak it which they confirm'd to me by the Letters of private Persons written at that time and which were afterwards found in the Ruins of old Walls Their Books also were written in that sort of Greek which we call for that Reason Literal and which is the very same that the Preachers at this day make use of in their Sermons In a word that Person is deem'd to write and speak best among them who comes nearest the Language of the Ancient Authors which is at this day the only Standard of the Language as the Paragon in Italy and the Parisian in France in respect of the other Provinces where though it be not spoken yet it is understood by the meaner sort The Citadel or Acropolis seated upon a Rock commands the City and is seen at Sea. Being not permitted to go in I could see no more than the outward side of it but my Friend told me that there was a noble Piece of Antiquity viz. the Temple of Diana However all that we could meet with of the Ancient Ornaments of that City built many Ages before Rome was only certain small Towers erected in honour of those who had been Victors in the Olympick Games and some Portico's of ruin'd Temples among which there is one which resembles that of Virile Fortune which is now the Egyptian St. Mary's at Rome upon the Banks of Tiber in the Flesh-market They shew'd me also a certain piece of carv'd Work representing Diana in her hunting Habit attended in a Wood by her Nymphs It was a wonderful Piece of Workmanship and the Inscription gave us to understand that it was wrought by the hand of Phidias having been digg'd but a little before we came thither out of the Ruins of the Areopagus which does not now stand within the compass of the City that is now reduc'd within a lesser compass They also shew'd me the place of the Temple or Altar Erected to the unknown God. Several Statues are digg'd up out of the Earth every day of which not one that I have seen comes near to those of Italy Thereupon being amaz'd to see so few Signs of its ancient Splendor they made me answer that I might see them in other Places whither the War had transplanted them or else Barter in Traffick Indeed there was one Piece which I saw the last time I was at Venice in the House of Signor Michele Peruli an Athenian Merchant which had been sent him as a Present representing in Bass Relief a young man stark naked holding a * Or else a Horn-Owlet for the word signifies the same Jack-daw in his Right hand The botom of the Sculpture was adorn'd with a Palm-tree upon the Trunk of which a certain kind of Beetle was engrav'd in a creeping Posture The Cornish comes forth as far as the Statue and is raised by two borders between which at the Top these words are to be read in Greek Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some will therefore have to be the Son of the Great Demosthenes The Piece is good from the Belly downward but the Head is not very extraordinary and the left hand is broke off Every Body knows that the Statue of Venus which formerly stood upon Mount Pincius at Rome and is now to be seen in the Galleries of Florence leave being given to the Grand Duke by the present Pope to remove it thither was the Work of an Athenian whose name is engrav'd at the bottom of the Statue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kleomenes the Son of Apollodorus an Athenian made this A favour which the Dukes Predecessors could ne'er obtain though from Popes of the same Family So cautious they were of parting with any of the Ornaments of their City whereas the present Pope suffers them to be daily taken away notwithstanding all the grumbling of the Romans So that all that remains at this day of the Athenian Antiquity is their Olive Trees and their Wit. These Olive Trees encompass it round and are the chief Revenue of the Athenians Their other Fruits are very Excellent and it may be the best in the World. But as for the Inhabitants they are no less naturally Witty and Ingenious than ever so that if they were but well manur'd by Education they would prove as Good Poets Orators Philosophers Statuaries or other Artists whatever as ever were known at the time when it flourish'd in its highest Splendour The Turks have the same respect for them as the Romans had who suffer them to live according to their own Laws and to be govern'd by their own Magistrates for the Grand Signior is contented only with sending thither one of his Favourite Eunuchs who receives the Duty impos'd without farther concerning himself with their Affairs besides that his Garrison is very inconsiderable The Bishop is Judge of the Differences between the Diocesans who generally submit to his Determination for fear of Ecclesiastical Censures They trade into Italy with their Commodities for which they receive in exchange Cloth and all manner of Iron Tools Their Women are handsome and richly clad in their Garments embroider'd with Gold down to their very Shooes which their Husbands though poor willingly let them have for fear of a greater mischief The Citizens of Quality wear a long black robe with short Sleeves but their Priests are habited much like the Ministers of the English Church only the Sleeve is not gathered into Pleats In the City they always