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A49883 The world surveyed, or The famous voyages & travailes of Vincent le Blanc, or White, of Marseilles ... containing a more exact description of several parts of the world, then hath hitherto been done by any other authour : the whole work enriched with many authentick histories / originally written in French ; and faithfully rendred into English by F.B., Gent.; Voyages fameux. English Leblanc, Vincent, 1554-ca. 1640.; Brooke, Francis. 1660 (1660) Wing L801; ESTC R5816 408,459 466

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and Tapacura under the obedience of Bengale Westward is Orixae where is the Diamond mine and the deserts of the Kingdom of Deli Southward the maine Indian sea The Kings of Bengale were able to conquer the Kingdom of Deli were not the great deserts of Damida and the Inpenetrable Forrests of Sacara interposed the two limits Southward on the one side is the Cape Sogora or Sagagora and of the other that of Castigan or Catigan at the third mouth of the Ganges over against the Kingdom of Verma where are the mines of Chrysolites Sardonix and Topases Verma hath formerly belonged unto the Kingdom of Bengale the people are very civill and given to trade And all Nations have free traffick as Persians Greekes Abyssins Chineses Guserates Malabares Turkes Moores Jewes Ruffes or Georgians and many others There is great commerce of Jewells and other Merchandises brought by the Mouth of Ganges streight to Bengale going up six miles by land but above twenty by water by reason of the ebb and flow which as I have already said is different from other seas the smallest tides falling out at the full of the Moone but when the water is at the lowest 't is three fadome deepe round the Walls of the Town so that ships safely enter the Haven and are there very numerous 'T is thought there are fourty thousand families in the Town and the King dwells in a stately Pallace built of brick with faire gardens unto it The Town is pleasantly seated The King keepes a great Court followed by a gallant Nobility and his chiefest guard consists of women as the custom is in Jave Sumatra and Fransiane they put more trust in them then in men they march very gravely are very valiant and expert horseriders and vaulters use the Cimitere and buckler and battle axes very dexterously you must take a care to come neer them in their March for they will abuse you calling you Gueriaer which signifies bold villain the King maintains a great many of them in his Pallace and the handsommest are richly attired The Sun once set 't is forbidden to any man to come neere the quarter the Seraglio is kept in it lookes upon a faire garden on the side of a pleasant river where the Ladies walke at night and 't is death for any man to be found there The Captain of the guard carries in his hand a poysoned nosegay which as it were by chance he puts to the nose of any person he hath a mind to kill and he dies within two houres or thereabouts or else he causes his hands and feet to be cut off This customary law is with more rigour executed upon the inhabitants then upon strangers If the women are surprized in their amours they run no danger and men are very seldom exempt from punishments One of those women being caught with a slave was brought before the King weeping to excuse her fault she said that had she not consented to that act the strangling of her matrix had killed her which the King took for an excuse and sentenc'd the slave to death who was a Knight of Malta and married his wife richly to a Lord of his Court. The King of Bengale is an Idolater as generally all the Eastern are he is valiant of Person and can draw into the field a great Army both of horse and foot wanting not wherewithall to maintain them for his Countrey is rich in gold silver and jewels he can draw forth two thousand Elephants caparison'd their teeth are shodd with steele and they will carry as many men as those of Narsingue they use hand-guns muskets swords javelins hallebards and pikes The Bengalians are the gallantest Persons of the East both men and women both sexes go richly apparel'd and perfumed All other Nations of the Indies flock thither to spend their money and chiefly to buy young slaves to attend and guard their women and manage their businesse they are bought and sold as horses are here they buy them young the safer to geld them the Parents being poore do not scruple to sell their children to strangers for three score four score and a hundred Ducates more or lesse for they are sure their children run no hazardous fortune they being instructed in all manner of Vertues The Law is that if a slave return to his father they are both enslaved to the master untill redemption The King of Bengale hath many Kings tributary to him as the King of Apura who payes him fifty Elephants yearly twelve pearls of the weight of a Miticale he yields this for the ransome of six Towns this King had taken of him in open war he made the King of Dimali tributary to him also for assisting his enemy King Apura and makes him pay 50. horses with 50000. cherats or crowns yearly The King of Orixa payes him tribute too and many more Gentiles and Mahometans although he himself in some manner acknowledges the great Mogull he hath an Army ever ready to draw into the field upon an instant the Nobility being generally tributary and released from that duty are obliged to serve their Prince upon his first summons with a certain number of horse and other necessaries And when they are engaged and obliged to it the war once ended the King rewards them with money and favour imbracing them as his children and after a solemn feast prepared for them dismisses them home to repose The Kings benign and gratefull entertninment so highly obliges them that they spare nothing for their Princes service The Climate is very temperate and well air'd that makes them live long witnesse the Moor of Bangale aged three hundred and thirty years in 1537. the oldest of the Countrey never knew him but old and of the same growth and remembred Cambaye without a Mahometan his hair chang'd colour four times from black to white and he lost his teeth as often and still they came again he had about 700. wives in his life time he was an Idolater for a 100. years together and was the rest of his time a Mahometan he was maintained by the Soldan of Cambaye since by the Governour of Diu although the Bengaliens lye under the Torrid Zone they are cooled with much rain that falls from May to mid August it rains from mid-day to mid-night the other twelve hours there falls none and that 's the time they have to travell and trade in Such is the disposition of the air under the Torrid Zone otherwise she would be dis-inhabitable for the great heats as the Ancients believed being not acquainted with the Countrey nor the rains besides many other reasons as the nights being of the same length with the dayes the winds and other causes daily observed The Bengalians are curious and delicious in their diet they feed much upon preserves and sweet-meats for having all sorts of spices green they confect of all sorts the husk of the nutmegs makes an excellent conserve so doth the long
or falls amongst the Mountains which so compresse it that it seems a shot or lightning in quicknesse and thunder in horrid noyse till having crossed Egypt and entertained some Rivers of Nubia branching it self into many streams which compose the so much celebrated fair and fertile Countrey of Delta comes to render it self into the Mediterranean at mouthes and sluces which our Ancestors took for seven others nine at this day the most known and remarkable are those of Damiete Rosete heretofore called Heracleotique and Pelusiaque which compose the two sides of the triangle As to the surfluxes and inundations which fertilize all Egypt and serve instead of fructiferous rains from June to September laying the Countrey like an Archipelagus covered with innumerable little Islands wherein stand their habitations more excelse then the rest which is a piece of water I leave to Philosophers to search the causes who in all ages were much perplext and much divided some attributing it to the dissolving of snows from the Ethiopian mountains where snow never fell others to anniversary winds forcing the waters to remount and so overflow others with more probability to the continual rains of the torrid Zone in this season as I my self have seen it happen all along this Zone to the Indies both East and West Yea there are some who go further for a cause and will have it proceed from winds and furious tempests which at this season rage about the Cape of good Hope swelling the Sea which by certain secret Subterranian channels communicates it self with the Ethiopian Lakes which makes Nile and other Rivers taking birth from thence to surfeit But howsoever it is and whencesoever it proceeds certainly the effect is altogether admirable the encrease lasting fourty daies as likewise the decrease and some say the River Noir or Cambra or Senega do the same The course of this River from birth to dissolution is esteemed to be nine hundred leagues in right line and windings and bosomes considered to be above two thousand which is the longest course of any River in the Universe except the Plate and Maragnon in Brasile CHAP. IX Of the Town of Bagamidri and the coronation of their Kings TO return to our voyage I shal tell you that Bagamidri is a Town in Ethiopia in three degrees of altitude beyond the line in a fair champion upon the River Zuama which disbanks as Nile do's For the kingdom of Bagamidri it reaches to the Tropick watered by Zuama called by the inhabitants Zimbada which crosses the deserts of Manica where are dismal Mountains and goes til it ingulphs it self in the Oriental and Meridian sea composing a most commodious shore where vessels take in fresh-water and fuel Here are abundance of wild goats and small Buls and Cows so fierce that he must be very skilfull that takes them they have little horns which grow but skin-deep mooving them as their ears as I observed in another place This River of Zuama is by the Portugalls called Rio del Spiritu sancto for the content they receive who saile upon it Moreover in passing or bathing in this River there ought great caution to be had and to be well arm'd against the Crocodiles which are here in great numbers nor is the danger on land much lesse for the Tigars of which there are great Troupes and will very sawcily dismount you either from Horse or Mule Towards the West the Countrey borders on Mancigonge Eastward on Cafates to the North it lyes on Gidada which some call the Countrey of Amazons South-ward on Monopotapa The Town of Bagamidri is called Imperial by reason the King of Tigrai or Tigremahon having received his first Crown at the place of his election receives the second here This Ceremonie was first instituted in the time of St. Abiblicanus who lived in a cave near the Town in so high repute that the King who then reigned would have the honour to be crown'd by so great a Saint since which time there is an Ordinance that all the Kings of Tigray shal be crown'd here as the several Crowns of our Emperours were received at Aix Milan and Rome and the third he receives from the hand of the Grand Negus his Soveraign who hath onely a crown of silver whereas the King of Tigray hath his of inestimable value Here I shal tell you by the way that in Tigramahon I saw a Church of one intire piece wrought in a Rock near to Tecassin which they call the Church of Creatures for that 't is dedicated to the four Evangelists In the lower Ethiopia there is the like which they call the Maiant Calassen that is the Seat of Eternity For the Kingdome of the Amazons they report it to be betwixt the country of Damut and Gorage or Goraga and Gongara where they recount many things not unlike the stories of our Ancestors as that the women have the authority are exceeding valiant and excellent Archers that they cut off their right breast to draw a how the better with other things of that kinde There is mention made of the like women in many other parts of the world Some say the word Amazon is derived from a country belonging to the Negus or Monopotapa near Mancinconge where the women are of great courage though the men are Masters and Preste John makes use of them in his warres In this country stands the faire city Felucia or Falacia where they say is a sumptuous Tombe of a Princesse called Agagina built all of a black marble clear and transparent as glasse The people of these countries are of severall complexions according to the place that gives them breath For under the line they are neither white nor black but of a swart tawny colour though the world affords not a more temperate climate then they are under They who live Westward from the countrey of Agagne to Ambian are intirely black and four degrees from the Line troubled with excessive raines for three moneths together But they of the Province of Zembre are more white and very docile especially the women who are passably beautifull and gracefull and good Christians though they were the last that received the faith since the Eunuch baptized by Saint Philip planted it in the better part of the Provinces of Ethiope and as some will have in Arabia the happy it self and as far as Tuprobane CHAP. X. Of the Mansion of Preste John and his Justice A History upon this subject BEing at Bagamidri some of us more curious then the rest of our company agreed to go see the Court of the Grand Negus or King of the Abissins and to this purpose leaving them that had no such desire we took a side-way towards the towns Barra and Barua where we were told the Prince most commonly resided Following on this road and having crossed many Provinces and Kingdomes at length we arrived at Barra the chief town of the Country where we found a numerous multitude of people