which some exorbitant members burthen themselues and make others by lighting heauy worthily therefore by the Sun of our Great Britaine at the first rising of his morning brightnesse dispersed from our Horizon But how farre is Loanda from Britaine And yet our scope is to bring Loanda and all the World else into our Britaine that our Britaines might see the in and outside of the same Loando is reported as some affirme of Egypt and Nilus to bee the issue of the Oceans sand and Coanzo's mire which in processe of time brought forth in their disagreeing agreement this Iland In Congo the King is Lord Supreme and none hath power to bequeath his goods to his kindred but the King is heire generall to all men CHAP. X. Of Loango the Anzichi Giachi and the great Lakes in those parts of the World §. I. Of Loango IT followeth in the course of our Discouerie to set you on shore in Loango the Northerly neighbour of Congo right vnder the Line whose Countrie stretched two hundred miles within Land The people are called Bramas the King Mani Loango sometimes as report goeth subiect to the King of Congo They are Circumcised after the maner of the Hebrews like as also the rest of the Nations of those Countries vse to be They haue aboundance of Elephants and weare cloathes of Palme Andrew Battell liued amongst them two yeares and a halfe They are saith he Heathens and obserue many Superstitions They haue their Mokisso's or Images to which they offer according to the proportion of their sorts and suits The Fisher offereth fish when he sueth for his helpe in his fishing the Countrey-man Wheat the Weauer Alibungo's pieces of cloth other bring bottles of wine all wanting that they would haue and bringing what they want furnishing their Mokisso with those things whereof they complaine themselues to be dis-furnished Their Ceremonies for the dead are diuers They bring Goats and let them bleed at the Mokisso's foot which they after consume in a Feasting memoriall of the deceased party which is continued foure or fiue dayes together and that foure or fiue seuerall times in the yeere by all of his friends and kindred The dayes are knowne and though they dwell twenty miles th ende yet they will resort to these memoriall-Exequies and beginning in the night will sing dolefull and funerall songs till day and then kill as aforesaid and make merry The hope of this maketh such as haue store of friends to contemne death and the want of friends to bewayle him makes a man conceiue a more dreadfull apprehension of Death Their conceit is so rauished with superstition that many dye of none other death Kin is the name of vnlawfull and prohibited meat which according to each kindreds deuotion to some Family is some kinde of Fish to another a Hen to another a Buffe and so of the rest in which they obserue their vowed abstinence so strictly that if any should though at vnawares eate of this Kin he would dye of conceit alway presenting to his accusing conscience the breach of his vow and the anger of Mokisso Hee hath knowne diuers thus to haue died and sometimes would when some of them had eaten with him make them beleeue that they had eaten of their Kin till hauing sported himselfe with their superstitious agony he would affirme the contrary They vse to set in their Fields and places where Corne or Fruits grow a Basket with Goats-hornes Parrats feathers and other trash This is the Mokisso's Ensigne or token that it is commended to his custodie and therefore the people very much addicted to theft dare not meddle or take any thing Likewise if a man wearied with his burthen lay it downe in the high-way and knit a knot of grasse and lay thereon or leaue any other note knowne to them to testifie that hee hath left it there in the name of his Idol it is secured from the lime-fingers of any passenger Conceit would kill the man that should transgresse in this kinde In the Banza or chiefe Citie the chiefe Idol is named Chekoke Euery day they haue there Market and the Chekoke is brought forth by the Ganga or Priest to keep good rule and is set in the Market-place to preuent stealing Moreouer the King hath a Bell the strokes whereof sound such terrour into the heart of the fearfull thiefe that none dare keepe any stolne goods after the sound of that Bell. Our Author inhabited in a little Reed-house after the Loango manner and had hanging by the wals in a Cloth-case his Piece wherewith hee vsed to shoot Fowles for the King which more for loue of the Cloth then for the Peece was stolne Vpon complaint this Bell in forme like a Cowbell was carried about rung with proclamation to make restitution and he had his Peece the next morning set at his doore The like another found in a bagge of Beads of a hundred pound weight stolne from him and recouered by the sound of this Bell. They haue a dreadfull and deadly kind of tryall in Controuersies after this manner There is a little Tree or Shrub with a small Root is called Imbunda about the bignesse of ones thumbe halfe a foot long like a white Carrot Now when any listeth to accuse a Man or Family or whole Street of the death of any of his friends saying That such a man bewitched him the Ganga assembleth the accused parties and scrapes that Root the scrapings wherof he mixeth with water which makes it as bitter as gall hee tasted of it one Root will serue for the tryall of a hundred men The Ganga brewes the same together in Gourds and with Plantine stalkes hitteth euery one after they had drunke with certaine words Those that haue receiued the drinke walke by till they can make Vrine and then they are thereby freed Others abide till either Vrine trees them or dizzinesse takes them which the people no sooner perceiue but they cry Vndoke Vndoke that is naughty Witch and hee is no sooner fallen by his dizzinesse but they knocke him on the head and dragging him away hurle him ouer the Cliffe In euery Liberty they haue such Tryals which they make in cases of Theft and death of any person Euery weeke it fals out that some or other vndergoes this tryall which consumeth multitudes of people There be certaine persons called Dunda which are borne of Negro-Parents and yet are by some vnknowne cause white They are very rare and when such happen to be born they are brought to the King and become great Witches They are his Councellors and aduise him of lucky and vnlucky dayes for execution of his enterprises When the King goes any whither the Dundas goe with him and beat the ground round about with certaine Exorcismes before the King sits downe and then sit downe by him They will take any thing in the Market not daring to contradict them Kenga is the landing place of Loango They haue
except they would haue digged it vp must bee redeemed Some Cities and Prouinces compounded at certaine summes which was payd to the King as extracted out of his Mynes Some zealous and couragious Magistrates made complaint by Libels to the King but themselues therefore punished One Fumocean of the Prouince of Vquam was cruelly beaten and cast in close prison whom his Prouince so honored euen then that they published his worthie acts in bookes they made his picture to bee sold through all the Prouince that all men might priuately honour him as a Saint and erected vnto him some publike Temples with tapers and odours continually burning But the Eunuches to the extreame distaste of all the subiects continued in their tyrannicall exactions or robberies rather throughout the Kingdome into one of whose hands the Iesuites fell with their presents The Magistrates hate them and they insult ouer the Magistrates At Nanquin are also some thousands of these Eunuches in the Palace one being chiefe ouer the rest Some of them are so arrogant that they looke for apprecations of a thousand yeeres life which is the custome to the Queenes and Kings children whereas to the King they say Van van siu that is ten thousand yeeres as Daniel to Nabuchodonosor O King liue for euer besides the bending of the knee as to the chiefe Magistrates The King will for light causes sometimes cause his Eunuches to be beaten till they die vnder the blowes When Ricius was dead they coffined him after the China fashion till they could find some place for his burial which till that time was at Macao whither they sent their dead Pantogis put vp a petition to the King in behalfe of Ricius his corpes This storie will be I hope acceptable as shewing the manner of obtaining any thing at the Kings hand I IAMES PANTOGIA a stranger of a most remote Kingdome moued with the vertue and fame of your Noble Kingdome haue in three yeeres saile with much trouble passed hither aboue 6000. leagues In the twentie eight yeere of VANLIE for so as we they account their yeres by the Kings reigne in the twelfth Moone I with MATTHEVV RICIVS came into your Court where wee presented some gifts and haue since beene sustained at the Kings charge The nine and twentieth yeere of VANLIE in the first Moone we petitioned your Maiestie for a place of residence and haue many yeeres enioyed the Royall bountie In the eight and thirtieth of VANLIE the eighteenth day of the third Moone RICIVS died I a Client of the Kingdome of the great West remaine a fit subiect of pitie The returne into our Countrey is long c. And I now after so many yeeres stay suppose that we may be numbred to the people which followeth your Royall Chariot that your clemencie like that of YAO may not containe it selfe in the Kingdome of China alone c. So proceeds hee to set forth the good parts of Ricius and with a long supplication to beg a place of buriall some Field or part of a Temple and he with his fellowes should obserue their wonted prayers to the Lord of Heauen for thousands of yeeres to him and his Mother This Libell was written with peculiar forme Characters Seales many Rites herein necessarily obserued Before any be offered to the King it must be viewed of some Magistrate and they got this to be allowed by one which is Master of Requests which sent it presently to the King They must also haue many Copies thereof to shew to those Magistrates to whom it appertaines which they did one of them affirming That Ricius deserued a Temple also with his Image to bee there set vp This message he sent them by another for when they fauour a cause they shew great strangenesse The King commonly answers the third day except hee mislike for then hee suppresseth and sends it to the Magistrate that had presented it who shewes which of the sixe is the peculiar Court which iudgeth of these things This being sent to the Rituall Tribunall Their answere is sent to the King within a moneth which there is a short space and repeating the Petition verbatim and the Kings command to the peculiar Office answeres what the Law sayth in that case and concludes the Petition to bee agreeing to Iustice and earnestly pleads and sues for confirmation The King sends this answere to the Colao which subscribed his approbation which being sent againe to the King hee subscribed with his owne hand Xi that is Fiat or be it done which the third day after was deliuered them §. IX Of the Magistrates Courts and Gouernment THat which the Philosopher wished That Kings might be Philosophers and Philosophers Kings is in part fulfilled in China where all the Gouernment is in their administration which haue attained thereto not by birth fauour wealth or other Mediators but their Philosophicall proficience and degrees of which we haue spoken Of these there are two Orders one of the Court which besides their Offices in that Citie moderate euen all those of the second sort which are Prouinciall Magistrates abroad in the Cities or Prouinces Euery two moneths there is a new booke printed at Pequin of all their Names Places and Degrees First of the Officers of Court There are sixe Tribunals or chiefe Courts the first called Li pu pu signifieth Tribunall which is the Court of Magistrates who are hence nominated throughout the Kingdome which nomination is guided by the excellencie of their writings aforesaid And all beginning with inferiour Offices come by Degrees prescribed by the Lawes in order to the higher except Iniustice cast them lower or quite degrade them which makes him past hope of regayning his dignitie The second Tribunall is Hopu or the Treasurie which receiueth and payeth out the Kings reuenues The third is Lypu the Court of Rites whence are ordered matters of Sacrifices Temples Priests Schooles Examinations Festiuall dayes Gratulations to the King Titles Physicians Mathematicians Embassages with their Letters and Presents for they thinke vnworthy the Maiestie of their King himselfe to write to any The fourth Court is called Pimpu to which are subiect all Militarie Matters and Charges and Examinations The fifth is Cumpu that hath the handling of publike Aedifices as the Palaces of the King of his Kindred of the Magistrates the Nauie Bridges Walls of Cities and the like The sixt is Himpu of criminall Cases Prisons and Imprisonments All the publike affaires depend of these Courts which haue their Officers and Notaries in euery Citie and Prouince which informe them of all things One in euery of these Courts is President called Ciam who hath his two Cilam or Assistants one at his right hand the other at the left These are accounted the highest Dignities in the kingdome Next to these euery Court hath their seuerall Offices and ouer each many Officers besides Notaries Apparitors and others Besides these Courts there is another the greatest in
hundred Concubines The voyage from Saint Thomee vsed by the Portugals is by Negrais where on the left hand stood a Varella all guilded seruing for a Sea Marke the Sunne shining thereon causing it to bee seene farre off Neere thereto is the Iland of Flies so called of the store of Flies caused by the multitude of Fishes there salted Thence Balby passed to Cosmi the Territory whereof is full of Woods and these full of Tygres wild Swine Parrats Apes and other Creatures Cosmi is in sixeteene Degrees one third part the Houses are of Canes couered with thatch much annoyed with Tygres which enter often into the Towne and deuoure Men or Beasts From hence they passe in Paros or Barkes by diuers Villages alongst the Riuer to Iaccubel a great Citie and a little beyond to another called Tegiatden Dian is a great Towne a little further where they make Barkes or Vessells as bigge as Galeasses hauing on both sides quite through roomes for Merchandize and in the midst a kinde of dwelling-house where they trade they passed further by Bedagiamana Lagapala Purdabin Gungiebin where they anchored in the midst of the streame for feare of the Tygres which in the water sometime assault men Coilan a Citie foure square each square three miles Tuuagnedan another Citie full of Varellas or Temples and Images Leuagon a pleasant Citie full of Palme-trees Siluanpedi where many victualling Barkes are made and serue for dwelling and victualling downe to the Sea Dala where the Kings stables for his Elephants were Dogon the most Religious Meccao where they vn-laded their goods to passe by Land to Pegu All this way is by fresh Riuers with swift Tides the houses on both sides many built vpon Timbers ascended by Ladders to preuent Tygres for which cause also some keepe Buffals in their houses the sent of whom the Tygres cannot endure All this way they vse Manini in stead of mony made of glasse The Varellas or Temples in this way are innumerable of diuers fashions This King held himselfe the greatest King in the World and cause himselfe to bee entituled The liuing God vpon earth which the LIVING GOD in heauen auenged on him as you shall heare Caplan is the place where they find Rubies Spinels and Saphires digged out of high Hils to which none may haue accesse but by leaue It is six dayes iourney beyond Aua. The Buffals in these parts are of Ash-colour so great that they are like Elephants In any great solemnitie the foure white Elephants went before the King with furniture all of gold their teeth also in a iewelled sheath Hee hath much artillery but wants men to manage them much materialls for shipping but wants Shipwrights and Mariners His iewells are inestimable Balby saw him weare two Rubies each as bigge as two Dates but not so long of admirable lustre Hee so abounded with wealth that a hundred ships fraughted with Rice seemed to diminish nothing of the plentie The fields are said to yeeld three haruests in a yeere and of Gems the store is beyond estimation and almost maketh them there short of the estimation of Gems But this wealth then wanting no store had when Fernandes writ this 1598. a contrary vicissitude of no store but of want euen of those things which Nature exacteth as necessary props of life Scarcely of so many millions were left seuen thousand persons Men Women and Children to participate in the Kings imprisonment or siege in his Tower and those feeding on mans flesh the Parents requiring of the Children that life which before they had giuen to sustayne their owne and now layed them not in their bosome but in their bowels the Children became liuing Sepulchres of their scarce-dead Parents The stronger preyed vpon the weaker and if their flesh was eaten vp before by their owne hunger leauing nothing but skin and bones to the hungrie assault of these Raueners they ripped the belly and deuoured their inward parts and breaking the skull sucked out the braynes raw Yea the weaker sexe was by the strength of famine armed with no lesse butcherly despight against whomsoeuer they could meet in the streets of the Citie with their kniues which they carryed about them as Harbengers to their teeth in these in-hospitall inhumane-humane banquets And thus did the besieged Citizens while the King endured in his Tower no small part of like misery besides the indignitie so to bee by his owne Vassals straitned and after slaughtered But such is the iust hand of the King of Kings who regardeth not persons but as Hee sheweth Mercy to the Mercifull so doth He reserue Vengeance for Crueltie and Tyrannie Pardon me Reader if on this spectacle I cause thee with my selfe to stay a while and wonder The Sunne in his daily iourney round about this vast Globe saw Few equall that I say no more to this Peguan Greatnesse and yet in a small space He that is higher then the highest hath abated and abased this Magnificence lower then the lowest of his Princes §. II. Of the destruction and desolation of Pegu AFter the death of that Braman Conqueror his sonne in the second moneth of his succeeding reigne hearing that the King of Aua his Tributarie and Vncle was plotting some Conspiracie committed to prison fortie of his Nobles Partners in that new Proiect bringing them al with their Parents Wiues Children Friends and Acquaintance into a Wood set fire thereon commanding to cut them in pieces whosoeuer escaped out of the flame This kindled another fire in the hearts of his discontented Subiects which was not quenched but with his ouerthrow Hee warred on his Vncle the King of Aua with no great aduantage till they both agreeing to trie it by single combate on Elephants Pegu obtained the Conquest Their fight was first with Harquebusses after with Darts lastly with Swords By the helpe of his Elephant Pegu preuailed yet so as their perished aboue two hundred thousand of the three hundred thousand hee led forth in this Expedition and almost as many of the Auan side Of his Elephants teeth which dyed in this battell were made little Images or Idols In the meane time the Siamite with an Army marched to the borders of Pegu divulging rumors That he came to succour his Lord against the Auan Rebel The King enraged hereat sent presently part of his Forces to take him and present him Captiue but the Souldiers refused to follow the Generall in this enterprise and returned to their owne houses The King after his returne sent to Siam by faire speeches to perswade him to come to him he refused his presence but denied not his wonted Tributes Hereupon the King after two yeres prouision for the war made that vnhappy Expedition in the former Chapter mentioned And there the waters taking part with the Siamite he tried once and againe the like fortunes of warre He sent his brother the King of Iangoma and his owne Son twice which did much harme to the Siamites and receiued no
more vnhappy tense when they were there was a Citie great strong and very faire with walls of Stone and great Ditches round about it with many Crocodiles in them There are two Townes the old in which the Merchants abide and the houses are made of Canes called Bambos and the new for the King and his Nobilitie the Citie is so subiect to fire that euery day Proclamation is made to take heed to their fire The Citie is square with faire walls hauing in each Square fiue Gates besides many Turrets for Centinels to watch made of wood and gilded very faire The Streets are strait as a line from one Gate to another and so broad that ten or twelue men may ride a-front through them On both sides at euery mans doore is set a Coco-tree yeelding a faire shew and comfortable shaddow that a man might walke in the shade all day The houses are made of Wood and couered with Tiles The Kings house is in the midst walled and ditched about and the houses within of Wood sumptuously wrought and guilded And the house wherein his Pagode or Idoll standeth is couered with Tiles of Siluer and all the walls are guilded with Gold Within the first gate of the Kings house was a large roome on both sides whereof were houses made for the Kings Elephants Among the rest hee had foure white Elephants a thing rare in Nature but more precious in his estimation For this is part of his Royall Title The King of the white Elephants And if any other hath any he will seeke by fauour or force to haue the same which some say was the cause of the quarrell betwixt him and the King of Siam Great seruice was done vnto them Euery one of these white Elephants stood in an house guilded with Gold and were fed in vessels of Siluer gilt One of them as hee went euery day to the Riuer to bee washed passed vnder a Canopie of Cloth of Gold or Silke carried by sixe or eight men as many going before playing on Drums or other Instruments At his comming out of the Riuer a Gentleman washed his feet in a Siluer Bason There were of blacke Elephants nine Cubits high The King was said to haue aboue fiue thousand Elephants of Warre There was about a mile from Pegu a place builded with a faire Court in it to take wilde Elephants in a Groue which they doe by the female Elephants trained to this purpose and anointed with a certaine Oyle which causeth the wilde Elephant to follow her When the Hunts-men haue brought the Elephant neere to the Citie they send word thereof and many Horse-men and Foot-men come out and cause the female to take a streight way which leadeth to the place where shee entereth and hee after her for it is like a Wood. When they are in the gate is shut and they get out the female The wilde one seeing himselfe alone weepeth and runneth against the walles which are made of strong trees some of them breake their teeth therewith Then they pricke him with sharpe Canes and cause him to goe into a strait house and there fasten him with a rope and let him fast three or foure dayes and then bring a femall to him with meat and drinke within few dayes taming him When they goe into the Warres they set a frame of wood vpon their backes bound with great Cordes wherein sit foure or six men which fight with Guns Darts Arrowes and other weapons All Authors agree that no beast commeth so neere the reason of a man as the Elephant yea they seeme to goe before some men in conceit haughtinesse desire of glory thankefulnesse c. The Peguans are beardlesse and carrie pinsers about them to plucke out the hayres if any grow They blacke their teeth for they say a Dogge hath white teeth The men of Pegu Aua Iangoma and Brama weare balls in their yards which they put in the skinne being cut and weare for euery childe one till they haue three and may take them out at pleasure the least as bigge as any Wall-nut the biggest as bigge as a little Hennes Egge They were inuented to preuent Sodomie which they vse more then any people in the world Abusing the Male-Sexe causeth the women also to weare scant clothes that as they goe their thigh is seene bare to prouoke men to lust Both these were ordained by a certaine Queene for those causes and are still obserued If the King giue any one of his Balles it is a great Iewell accounted they heale the place in sixe or eight dayes The Bramans that are of the Kings bloud pricke some part of their skinne and put therein a blacke colour which lasteth alway If any Merchant resort thither hee shall haue many maydes saith Linschoten offered him by their parents to take his choyse and hauing agreed with their parents hee may for the time of his abode vse her as his slaue or his Concubine without any discredit to her Yea if hee come againe after shee is marryed hee may for the time hee stayeth there demaund her in like sort to his vse And when a man marrieth hee will request some of his friends to lye the first night with his Bride There are also among them that sow vp the priuie part of their Daughters leauing onely passage for Vrine which when they marry passe vnder the Surgeons hand for remedie Gasper Balby and Got. Arthus tell of another custome of their Virgins if that name may bee giuen them For saith hee Virgines in hoc regno omnino nullas reperire licet Puellae enim omnes statim à pueritia sua medicamentum quoddam vsurpant quo muliebria distenduntur aperta continentur idque propter globulos quos in virgis viri gestant illis enim admittendis virgines arctiores nullo modo sufficerunt Their money is called Ganza and is made of Copper and Leade which euery man may stampe that will Gold and Siluer is merchandise and not money The tides of the Sea betweene Martauan and Pegu by Caesor Fredricke are reputed the greatest wonder which hee saw in his trauels being so violent that the ayre is filled with noyse and the earth quaketh at the approach of this watery element shooting the Boats that passe therewith as arrowes which at a high water they suffer not to anchor in the Channell which would betray them to the deuouring iawes of the returning tide but draw them toward some Banke where they rest in the ebbe on dry land as high vpon the Channels bottome as any house top And if they arriue not at their certaine stations they must backe againe whence they came no place else being able to secure them And when it encreaseth againe it giueth them their calls or salutations the first waue washeth ouer the Barke from stemme to sterne the second is not so furious the third raiseth the Anchor In Negrais in Pegu diuers people dwell in Boates which they call
foure hundred men one of that company onely escaping These exploits made Carualius his Name terrible to the Bengalans insomuch that one of the Arracans Commander of fiftie Arracan Ships dreaming in the night that hee was assaulted by Carualius terrified his fellowes and made them flie into the Riuer which when the King heard cost him his head But this Day had an end and this Sun was set in a Cloud For whiles the King of Arracan hauing lately atchieued so great matters in Pegu and added Sundiua and the Kingdome of Baccala intended to annexe Chandecan to the rest of his Conquests the King of Chandecan thought to purchase his peace with Carualius his head which hee treacherously accomplished sending for Him that they might ioyne together against Arracan and watching his oportunitie tooke Him in his Palace with others of his companie after that inuading and spoyling his ship Britto remayned in his Fort at Sirian against whom in the yeere 1604. the King of Arracan sent a fleete of fiue hundred Frigats and fortie Caturs vnder the conduct of his eldest sonne with fifteene thousand men The Portugals had eight ships well prouided and one hundred and eightie Souldiers in the Fort. Neere to Negrais the Armadas met the Portugall obtayning the victorie slaying and drowning almost one thousand of the enemies This at Sea and waiting a better oportunitie in the Riuer they left not one Vessell to carrie newes thereof to Arracan The Prince with his Souldiers sought to returne by land but Penurie pursued him separated his companie and betrayed Him to two hundred and fiftie Portugals and Peguans which to these straights had added the locall straights of a certaine passage where the Prince with some of the chiefe yeelded redeemed at a great summe as before is mentioned and couenants of Peace on both sides ratified by Oath One of the Articles was the deliuerie of Sundiua for the performance of which Britto sent his sonne Marke with two Captaines to take possession which all were treacherously dispossessed of their liues and three thousand Portugals captiued Hee prepares for a new siege but in the midst of these designes that part of his Palace where the white Elephant stood and his chiefe Oratorie were fired with lightning which some Talipois interpreting of Diuine vengeance for breach of Oath went to the King and told him these things presaged further disasters It so presaged indeed to Them who for this presage were presently to the number of thirtie of the chiefe of them slaine Twelue hundred ships so wee call them all by a generall name though not comparable for the most part to our Europaean the King of Arracan set forth in this new expedition of which seuentie fiue were of greater burthen each hauing twelue Peeces of Ordnance and well furnished the rest Fusts or Frigats In this Fleete were thirtie thousand Souldiers and Sea-men Pataneans Persians and Malabars of them eight thousand with Hand-gunnes and three thousand fiue hundred greater Peeces of diuers sorts The King himselfe his sonne and best Souldiers were therein accompanied with the King of Chocor Britto sent forth that Nauie which hee had but twelue ships in all vnder the command of Paulus Regius a famous Sea-Captaine which meeting them at the Cape of Negrais the Admirall of Arracan Marucha was with his Fust taken and slaine and the Night parted the Fight or rather renewed the Fight many of the Arracan ships mistaking and warring vpon their fellowes to the losse of diuers ships and in the whole fight of almost two thousand men Foure dayes after the fourth of Aprill they encountred the second time and the Portugall Admirall runne her selfe vpon pyles vnder the water whence shee could not bee freed and when another Portugall ship came to relieue them Rhogius would not bee perswaded to stirre till fire entring the Gunners roome blew vp him and his companie and the other Captaine which moued him to remoue The Portugall ships betooke them to their Fort whither the King of Tangu had sent his sonne with sixe hundred Horse eighteene Elephants and sixteene thousand Men to besiege it But both these and the Arracan forces doing their vtmost in May following were forced to depart without effect leauing the Towne and Fort in a deformed case and most of the people wounded Yet greater was Arracans losse onely twelue greater and two hundred and fiftie lesser of those twelue hundred ships remayning the rest drowned forsaken or burnt partly by the Portugals partly by themselues wanting men to guide them Most of the Ordnance they buried in the Sands Ten thousand men they lost in the siege The Portugals lost of their Nation besides helpes eightie sixe ten Captaines and the Admirall The next yeere their Fort was fired and their dwelling Houses Temple Household and Prouision Britto himselfe escaped hardly with his wife His courage yet remayned and resolued to build it in an higher and stronger place Easily had Arracan with this aduantage effected his designes had not the Portugals elsewhere molested him and taken Dianga And thus farre haue wee followed the Iesuite Iarric in these Arracan affaires If with iarring from truth in any place I haue named my Author nor can accuse or excuse him Further he cannot guide vs But where his Intelligence failes Floris helpes The last Act of this Tragedie was reserued to the King of Aua who tooke Sirian as before Master Floris hath told vs slue all the Portugals and was reported to spit this Philip de Britto He settled the affaires of Pegu and sought what hee could to reduce them from their dispersions to their natiue Habitations But you are wearie of warre and bloud in which you see all these Kings embrued it is time to entertaine you elsewhere and though as tragically yet with differing Obiects pleasing at the least with varietie CHAP. VII Of the Great Mogor or Mogoll §. I. Of the Mogors Countries and MELABDIM ECHEBAR THe Great Mogor according to Boterus hath vnder his subiection seuen and fortie Kingdomes which lie betweene Indus and Ganges on the East and West and betwixt Imaus and the Ocean contayning all that which the Ancients called India intra Gangem or India Citenor Hee is called of the people the Great Mogor for the same cause that the Ottoman-Turkes are called Great The style of him that was King when the Iesuites imparted to vs these Relations was Mahumeth Zelabdim Echebar King Mogor or Mogoll for so they call him in the Countrey and not Mogor as the Iesuites This Mogoll seemes to argue their Tartarian Originall from the Moai Tartars of which see our Tartarian Relations The true Mogors or Mogols liue on the hither side of Indus in the Kingdome of Quabul or Cabul which is vnder the brother of Echebar against whom Anno 1582. hee led a strong Armie in which the Iesuites say were fiue thousand Elephants armed These weare plates of Iron on their foreheads carrie foure Archers or else
had fiue hundred dishes well dressed Generall Best weary of sitting so long in the water had leaue to depart an houre before the Rest the Captayne of the Dutch house tooke his bane either with hote drinkes or cold sitting so long in the water and soone after dyed The King gaue the Generall a New Title calling and charging his Nobles to call him Arancaia Pule that is the honourable white man Iune the second They were entertayned with a fight of foure Elephants and a wilde Tygre which was fastened to a stake and yet so fastened on their Trunks and legs that he made them roare and bleed extreamly Sometimes wild Elephants fight before Him which would soone kill each other but that tame ones are fastned to them which draw them backe fourescore or a hundred men helping And for their taming they vse to set one wilde betweene two tame This King sent to his Majestie a Present and a Letter in forme for painting and writing very curious the words thus interpreted PEDRVCKA SIRIE SVLTAN King of Kings Renowmed for his warres and sale King of Samatra and a King more feared then his Predecessours feared in his Kingdome and honoured of all bordering Nations in whom there is the true image of a King in whom raignes the true methode of Gouernment formed as it were of the most pure mettall and adorned with the most fine colours whose seate is high and most compleat like to a Chrystall Riuer pure and cleere as the choisest Glasse from whom floweth the pure streame of Bounty and Iustice whose presence is as the finest Gold King of Priaman and of the Mountayne of Gold viz. Solida and Lord of nine sorts of Stones King of two Sumbreroes of beaten Gold hauing for his Seates Mats of Gold His furniture for his Horses and Armour for Himselfe being likewise of pure gold His Elephant with teeth of Gold and all prouisions thereunto belonging His Lances halfe Gold halfe Siluer his small Shot of the same a Saddle also for another Elephant of the same mettall a Tent of Siluer and all his Seales halfe Gold halfe Siluer his Sepulchre of Gold whereas his Predecessours had all these halfe Gold halfe Siluer his seruices compleat of Gold and Siluer A King vnder whom there are many Kings hauing taken Othe King of Aurow all the Countrey of Priaman Tecoo Barouse being subdued by Him is now vnder His command Seuentie Elephants and much prouisions carried by Sea to make his warres in Aurow where God gaue Mee more Victorie then Any of my Predecessours This great King sendeth this Letter of Salutation to IAMES KING OF GREAT BRITAINE viz. England Scotland France and Ireland to signifie the great content Hee hath receiued by His Highnesse Letter deliuered by the bands of Arancaia Pule Thomas Best His Maiesties Embassadour at the receipt whereof His Eyes were surprised with a coelestiall brightnesse and his Spirits rauished with a Diuine Ioy the opening thereof rendred a sauour more fragrant then the most odoriferous Flowers or sweetest perfumes in the world For which cause I the Great King of Samatra doe professe my selfe to bee of One heart one minde and of one flesh with the most Potent Prince IAMES King of England and doe earnestly desire that the League begunne may bee continued to all Posterities And herein I take my greatest Felicitie there being nothing in the world more pleasant or ioyfull to Mee And for a testimony of my desire that the League and Amitie begunne may bee continued betwixt Vs I haue returned this Letter vnto your Maiestie making also My Prayers vnto the Great God for the Continuance of the same And it shall bee My greatest Honour to receiue Memoriall from so Great a Potentate and so Remote a Nation And for a pledge of My Loue and Honour and Continuance of our League I send your Maiestie a Creese wrought with Gold the hilt thereof being beaten Gold with a ring of Stones an Assagaya of Swasse halfe Copper halfe Gold eight Purslan dishes small and great of Camphire one piece of Sowering stuffe three pieces of Calico Lawne Which your Maiestie accepting as from a Brother I shall rest satisfied and much honoured And so with my prayers to the Great God Creator of Heauen and Earth for your Maiesties long life with Victorie ouer your Enemies and Prosperitie in your Land Giuen at Our Palace at Achi the 1022. yeere of Mahomet by the Accompt of the Moores This Letter for the strange swelling forme and because it contayneth a pettie Inuentorie of the Kings Wealth and some knowledge of the adjoyning Kingdomes I haue thus verbatim expressed This King of Achi is a proper gallant man of warre they are Master Coplands words of two and thirtie yeeres of middle size full of Spirit strong by Sea and Land his Countrey populous his Elephants many whereof wee haue seene a hundred and threescore or a hundred and fourescore at a time His Gallies and Frigats carry in them very good Brasse Ordnance Demicanon Culuerin Sakar Minion and the like His building is stately and spacious but not strong his Court at Achi pleasant hauing a goodly branch of a maine Riuer running about and thorow his Palace which branch Hee cut and brought sixe or eight miles off in twentie dayes whiles wee continued at Achi. Samatra is very Mountainous the people courteous Without the Kings Chop no Stranger may haue ingresse or egresse Hee desired the Generall to commend Him to the King of England and to intreat Him to send him two white Women For said Hee if I beget one of them with Child and it proue a Sonne I will make Him King of Priaman Passaman and of the Coast from whence you fetch your Pepper so that you shall not need to come any more to Mee but to your owne English King for these Commodities He is cruell he plucked out one of the eyes of a Nobleman for looking on one of the Kings women washing in a Riuer Another wearing a Shash beyond his degree had his head cut round so farre as that too large some he boyles in scalding Oyle some are sawne in pieces spitted aliue their legs cut off or otherwise tortured It is reported that in his Predecessors time when Malacca was besieged the Portugals putting on shore here by the ozie and myry landing were made an easier prey to an Ambush of Achiners in the Reeds which tooke many of them who by the Kings command had all of them all their Priuities presently cut away To returne to M. Copland on the third of Iuly 1613. the Kings Armada of a hundred and twenty or two hundred Frigats and Gallies arriued from Ioar which Kingdome Laxamar the Generall had then subdued to this King with the Kingdome of Siak bringing both those Kings with two of their brethren and some Dutchmen prisoners to Achi. At Tecoo they stayd eleuen weekes and bought a hundred and twenty tunnes of Pepper burying fiue and twenty men which got their
forme as he appeareth to them which is of diuers sorts They offer Bread Smoke Fruits and Flowres with great deuotion Any one may cut off his arme which stealeth Mais Enciso with his Armie of Spaniards seeking to subdue these parts vsed a Spanish tricke telling the Indians That hee sought their conuersion to the Faith and therefore discoursed of One God Creator of all things and of Baptisme and after other things of this nature lesse to his purpose he told them That the Pope is the Vicar of Christ in all the world with absolues power ouer mens Soules and Religions and that hee had giuen those Countries to the most mightie King of Spaine his Master and hee was now come to take possession and to demand gold for tribute The Indians answered That they liked well what he had spoken of one God but for their Religion they would not dispute of it or leaue it And for the Pope he should be liberall of his owne neither seemed it that their King was mightie but poore that sent thus a begging But what words could not their Swords effected with the destruction of the Indians §. II. Of Vraba Carthagena and the Superstitions of Dabaiba THe soyle of Vraba is so fatned with a streame therein that in eight and twentie dayes the seeds of Cucumbers Melons and Gourds will ripen their Fruits There is a Tree in those Countries whose leaues with the bare touch cause great blisters the sauour of the wood is poyson and cannot be carried without danger of lift except by the helpe of another herbe which is an Antidote to this venomous Tree King Abibeiba had Palace in a Tree by reason of the moorish situation and often inundation of his Land Vasques could not get him downe till he began to cut the Tree and then the poore King came downe and bought his freedome at the Spaniards price Carthagena was so called for some resemblance in the situation to a Citie in Spaine of that name Sir Francis Drake tooke it The Indians thereabout vsed poisoned Arrowes the women warre as well as the men Enciso took one who with her owne hands had killed eight and twenty Christians They did eate the Enemies which they killed They vsed to put in their Sepulchres gold feathers and other riches Betweene Carthagena and Martha runneth a swift Riuer which maketh the Sea-water to giue place and they which passe by may in the Sea take in of this water fresh It is called of the Inhabitants Dabaiba the Spaniards haue named it Pio Grande and the Riuer of Saint Iohn it passeth with a Northerne discouerie into the Gulfe of Viaba before mentioned They which dwell on this Riuer obserue an Idoll of great note called by the name of the Riuer Dabaiba whereto the King at certaine times of the yeere sends slaues to be sacrificed from remote Countries from whence also is great resort of Pilgrims They kill the slaues before their God and after burne them supposing that odour acceptable to their Idoll as Taper-lights and Frankincense saith Martyr is to our Saints Through the displeasure of that angry God they said that all the Riuers and Fountaines had once failed and the greatest part of men perished with famine Their Kings in remembrance hereof haue their Priests at home and Chappels which are swept euery day and kept with a religious neatnesse When the King thinketh to obtaine of the Idoll Sunne-shine or Raine or the like he with his Priests gets vp into a Pulpit standing in the Chappell purposing not to depart thence till his suit be granted They vrge their God therefore with vehement prayers and cruell fasting the people meane-while macerating themselues also with fasting in foure dayes space not eating nor drinking except on the fourth day onely a little broth The Spaniards asking what God they worshipped thus they answered The Creator of the Heauens Sunne Moone and all inuisible things from whom all good things proceed And they say Dabaiba was the Mother of that Creator They call them to their Deuotions with certaine Trumpets and Bels of gold The Bels had clappers like in forme to ours made of the bones of Fishes and yeelding a pleasing sound as they reported which no doubt was a pleasing sound and musicke to the Spaniards couetous hearts howsoeuer it agreeth with the nature of that metall to ring in the eares One of them say they weighed sixe hundred Pensa Their Priests were enioyned chastitie which vow if they violated they were either stoned or burned Other men also in the time of that fast likewise contained themselues from those carnall pleasures They haue an imagination of the soule but know not what substance or name to ascribe vnto it to which yet they beleeued was assigned futured ioyes or woes according to their demerits pointing vp to Heauen and downe to the Center when they spake thereof Many of their Wiues for they might haue many followed the Sepulchres of their husbands They allow not marriage with the Sister of which they haue a riduculous conceit of the Spot which they account a Man in the Moone that for this Incest was thither confined to the torments of cold and moysture in that Moons-prison They leaue trenches on their Sepulchres in which they yeerely powre Mays and some of their Wine to the profit as they thinke of the Ghosts If a Mother die while she giueth sucke the poore nursling must not bee Orphan but bee interred with her being put there to her brest and buried aliue They imagined that the Soules of their great men and their familiars were immortall but not others and therefore such of their seruants and friends as would not be buried with them they thought should lose that priuiuiledge of Immortalitie and the delights of those pleasant places where was eating drinking dancing and the former delicacies of their former liues They renue the funerall pomps of these great men yeerely assembling thither with plentie of Wine and meats and there watch all night especially the women singing drerie lamentations with Inuectiues against his Enemies if he dyed in the warres yea cutting the Image of his Enemy in pieces in reuenge of their slaine Lord This done they fall to drinking of Mays Wine till they be weary if not drunken Yet after this they resume their Songs to his commendation with many dances and adorations When day appeareth they put the Image of the deceased into a great Canoa a Boat of one Tree capcable of threescore Oares filled with drinkes herbes and such things as in his life he had loued which some carrie vpon their shoulders in Procession about the Court and set it downe there againe and burne it with all the contents After which the women filled with Wine and emptied of all modestie with loose haire secrets not secret and varietie of Bacchanal gestures sometimes goe somtimes fall somtimes shake the weapons of the men and conclude with beastly sleeping on the ground The young men
a very great Crocodile shewing himselfe aboue water and swimming downe the streame in our way whereupon the Ferriman entring the Riuer to the calues of his logs he stands vpon one of them muttering to himselfe certaine words and withall tying knots vpon a small Coard he held in his hand to the number of seuen which Coard hee left hanging on a bush thereby and confidently pusht vs and our Horses ouer the Crocodile lying all this while still in our sight not able as he said to open his iawes so hauing ferried vs ouer he made haste to returne and vntie the Coard affirming that if the Crocodile should be starued by the power of this Charme his Charme would from thenceforth lose its power and effect Arrecan borders vpon Bengala and participates in its plenty from whence there commeth yeerely shipping to the Coast of Choromandel The King is by Religion a Gentile but such a one as holdeth all meates and drinkes indifferent he marrieth constantly his owne sister and giueth for reason the first mens practice in the infancy of the World affirming that no Religion can deny that Adams Sons married Adams daughters He is very kind to Strangers giuing good respect and entertainment to Moores Persians and Arabians which liue in his Countrey professing publikely the practice of their Mahumetan Superstition Hee hath also diuers times inuited the Dutch and English to resort vnto his Countrey but the Dutch by good experience hauing had sometimes a Factory there the English not by their example but true knowledge of the little Trade and lesse benefit auoyd his importunity yet continue good correspondence with him and his people as knowing it a plentifull Country and not inconuenient to supply themselues with many necessaries if difference with other Nations should enforce them to that extremity Betwixt this King and the Mogull there is continuall Warre both by Sea and Land defensiue on the King of Arrecans part securing his owne Countrey that bordereth vpon Bengala From thence confronting in small skirmishes the opposite party but any set or great battle I haue not heard of to haue beene fought betwixt them In which warres he giueth so good entertainment to strangers that I haue knowne diuers Hollanders that hauing expired their couenanted time of seruice with the East Indian Company and so purchased then freedome haue gone to serue this King and receiued good countenance and content in his employment of them Pegu borders vpon Arrecan and is a most plentifull and temperate Country yet hardly recouered from the desolation where with warre plague and famine had within few former yeeres infested it which is most visible in the vast Country the Cities being alwayes first and best replenished , and that all other places may the better bee so it is death to export a woman from thence and certaine profit to bring them The King is a Gentile by his Religion agreeing in all points of opinion and pactice with the Kings of Arrecan Tannassery Syam all of them in probability receiuing their Rudiments from the Chineset who without question sometimes commanded those Countries their vicinity resemblance in Phisiognomy and conformity in many customes being my best reasons to goe along with these thus farre that are of opinion the Chineses sometimes Monarchised as farre as Madagascar The King which now reigneth was Nephew to the last notwithstanding he had children which this hath supprest and hath in his time recouered from the King of Syam what hee had enforced from his Predecessor amongst others the town and Kingdom of Zangomay and therein an Englishman named Thomas Samuel who not long before had beene sent from Syam by Master Lucas Anthonison to discouer the Trade of that Country by the sale of certaine goods sent along with him to that purpose which Thomas Samuell together with all other strangers was by the King taken from Zangomay and carried to Pegu where not long after Samuel dyed the King seising vpon what he had by Inuentory with purpose as by the sequell to giue account thereof to the lawfull Proprietors The Kingdome of Pegu beginng to bee better established Merchants of diuers Nations began to repaire thither againe about their negotiations where some of Musulipatnam by conference with Moores that were Samuels associates vnderstood his death and the Kings taking his goods into his hands with the probability of recouery if sought after which they making knowne to the English at their returne to Musulipatnam it happened that Master Lucas Anthonison who imployed Samuel from Syam to Zangomay was then Agent at Musulipatnam who apprehending this encouragement consulted with his assistants and resolued to send two English with a Letter and Present to the King and some small aduenture to beare the charge of the Voyage and make tryall of the Trade which tooke place and they embarquing at Musulipatnam the tenth of September arriued at Siriam the Port of Pegu the third of October following whose entertaynment I giue you in their owne words as I finde them written in their Letters to Musulipatnam The King hearing of our comming sent foure Galliots with Presents to the Ambassador and vnto vs sending vs word that he did much reioyce at our comming into his country These Gallies hauing 50 oares of a side with eight Noblemen in them caused our Ship to come to an anchor before the town of Siriam the 7. of October the King of Pegues Brother being chiefe Gouernour sending two Noblemen abord of our Ship writing our names our age of yeeres the cause of our cōming we assuring them that we were messengers sent from Musulipatnam by our chief Captain hauing a Present a Letter vnto the King which when his Highnesse shall be pleased to receiue shall vnderstand the effect of our businesse and the cause of our comming The tenth day of October wee were sent for on shoare by the Kings Brother who sitting in a large house of Bamboson in great state bedeckt with Iewels in his eares with Gold Rings with rich stones on his fingers being a white man and of very good vnderstanding demanding of vs the question the Noblemen before did and we answering him as wee did before because that our speeches should be found alwayes as one we gaue him at that time a fine for a Present to the intent that he might speake and write to the King his Brother in our behalfe that we might haue accesse vnto the King the sooner that our businesse might haue effect The eight of Nouember the King sent for vs and the Kings Brother prouided for vs a Beate with six men to rowe and also a Nobleman with vs to Pegu to be our Guard hauing Narsarcan and Hodges Ismael with vs vnto which Nobleman we gaue a Present for in this place heere is nothing to bee done or spoken or any busines performed without Bribes Gifts or Presents Arriuing in Pegu the eleuenth of Nouember hauing our Present with vs Bany Bram
Sadduces was diminished if not worne out after the destruction of the Temple till in the yeere 4523. or after Scaliger 4515. and Anno Dom. 755. one Anan and Saul his son renued that Doctrine because he had not receiued his expected promotion to the degree of Gaon He wrote bookes against the other Iewes The like did one Carçasnai But of these Sadduces too much §. V. Of the Hessees OF the Essees Essens or Hessees followeth in the next place Their name Scaliger deriueth of a word which signifieth Rest or quietnesse and silence both which well agreed to their institution He disproueth that opinion of Eusebius and others that therein followed him which thought these Iewish Heretikes were Christian Monkes and Catholikes Such Catholikes let Baronius and Bellarmine boast of as the Authors of their Monkes for so they would haue them which you may beleeue as well as before the Floud Enosh and after Elias Iohn Baptist the Nazarites and Rechabites were Monkish Votaries as the Cardinall would haue you As for these Essees hee makes no small adoe against the Centuries g for vnderstanding Philo of Iewish and not of Christian Monkes But the loue to Monkery hath dazeled the eyes of men too much and euen their Historie which followeth will conuince that opinion of falsehood Besides Christianity should haue small credit of such associates Indeed the later Monkes are much like them in superstition and idolatrie though farre behind in other things But he that will see this Argument disputed let him reade Scaliger his Confutation of Serarius the Iesuite He sheweth also that the Ossens Sampsaeans Messalians and diuers heresies amongst the Christians sprang from these Essees That the Egyptian Essees of which Philo speaketh out of whom Eusebius first collected that conceit and that Philo himselfe had no skill in the Hebrew but knew onely the Greeke tongue that Paulus the Eremite in Thebais was the first Author of Monasticall liuing But now to come to our Historie of these men These Essees Hessees or Essens are placed by Plinie on the West of dead Sea a people solitarie and in the whole world most admirable without women without money a Nation eternall in which none is borne the wearinesse of others fortunes being the cause of their fruitfull multiplyings Philo in that booke which he intituled that all good men are free saith that there were of them aboue foure thousand called Essaei quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Holy not sacrificing other creatures but their mindes vnto God Some of them are Husband-men some Artificers for necessitie not for abundance they make no weapons of war nor meddle with Merchandize They haue no seruants but are all both free and mutually seruants to each other They liue perpetually chaste sweare not at all nor lye esteeming God the giuer of all good and Author of no euill Their societie is such that one garment one house one foode one treasurie one getting one spending one life is in common to them all carefully prouiding for their sick and holding the elder men in place of parents Iosephus who himselfe liued among them doth more largely describe them He reporteth that they were by Nation Iewes auoiding pleasures and riches as sinnes accounting continence and contentednesse great vertues They marrie not but instruct the children of others respecting them as their kindred in their manners not denying the lawfulnesse of marriage but the honestie of women He which becommeth one of their fraternitie must make his goods common Oyle and neatnesse they shunne yet weare alwaies a white garment They haue officers for their common prouision They haue no one certaine Citie but in each many of them haue their houses to strangers of their owne Sect they communicate their goods and acquaintance and therefore carry nothing with them in their iourneyes but weapons for feare of theeues and in euery Citie haue of the same Colledge an especiall Officer which prouideth for strangers The children vnder tuition of Masters are alike prouided for nor doe they change their rayment till the old be worne They neither buy nor sell but mutually communicate Deuout they are in the seruice of God For before the Sunne riseth they speake of no prophane or worldly matter but celebrate certaine Prayers as praying him to rise Then by their Officers are each appointed to their workes till the fifth houre at which time they assemble together and being girded with linnen garments wash themselues with cold water Then doe they goe into their dining-roome as into a Temple where no man of another Sect may be admitted and there staying with silence the Pantler sets them bread in order and the Cooke one vessell of broth The Priest giueth thankes as after dinner also Then laying aside those their holy garments they plie their worke till the Euening and then suppe in like manner There is neuer crying or tumult they speake in order and obserue euen without the house a venerable silence In other things they are subiect to their ouerseer but at their owne choice may helpe and shew mercy to others To their kindred they cannot giue without licence What they say is certaine but an Oath they hate no lesse then periurie They studie the writings of the Ancient thence collecting such things as may benefite the manners of the minde or health of the bodie They which are studious of their Sect must a yeeres space endure tryall and then after that probation of their continencie must bee probationers yet two yeeres longer and then vpon allowance of their manners are assumed into their fellowship making first deepe protestation of Religion towards God and iustice towards men to keepe faith to all but especially to Princes and if they shall come to rule ouer others not to abuse their power not to exceede others in habit not to steale not to keepe any thing secret from them of their owne Sect or cummunicate it to another although vpon perill of life not to deuise new doctrines to keepe the bookes of their owne opinions and the names of the Angels Offenders they put from their fellowship and hee which is thus excommunicate may not receiue foode offered of any other but eating grasse and hearbs is consumed with famine except they in compassion receiue him againe in extremitie They giue no sentence of iudgement being fewer then an hundred If ten sit together one speakes not without consent of the rest They may not spit in the midst or on the right hand They will not so much as purge Nature on the Sabbath and on other daies do it very closely for offending the Diuine light and couer it with an instrument in the Earth and that in the most secret places and are washed after They are of foure rankes according to the time of their profession and the yonger sort of these are so farre inferiour to the rest that if one of these do touch them hee washeth himselfe
gaue the gouernment of Korarrazin to Altuntar one of his Captaines In a fourth iourney into India hee ouerthrew Gulkand a Pagan King who seeing himselfe vanquished with the losse of fiftie thousand men fearing a beautifull wife which he had should come into his enemies hands slew her and himselfe also In a fifth expedition hee ouercame Gipal and Iaudebal two Indian Kings and returning to Gaznehen built a stately Temple or Mosque as a Thankesgiuing for his victories and then entering into Persia tooke Rey and Hispahon in Hierak now the seate of Ahas the Persian King from Maiudu Daule whom hee dispossessed of his Kingdome At this time were great quarrels among the Daules in Persia Kermon and Diarbek and Mocheraf preuayling against Sulton called himselfe King of Kings A. H. 411. Gelala another of the Daules was the yeere after made King of Bagadet A. H. 416. Mocharaf dyed at Bagadet and the yeere after the Turkes tooke fired and spoyled Bagadet This made them call Gelala againe to their succours who not long before was defeated at Bagadet and forced to flee to Basora and now entring went to the Chalifes house to kisse his foot A. H. 419. But the Turkes which hee brought with him falling to mutinie for their pay the Chalife was forced to become pay-master Mamud amidst his conquests dyed A. H. 421. and Mahamed his sonne succeeded and the next yeere followed Kader the Chalife which had enioyed without great ioy in it his place fortie one yeeres and Kahem his sonne succeeded Masud the other sonne of Mamud warred vpon his brother whom by treacherie of Issuf and Amir Aly traytors to their Master hee tooke and put out his eyes Hee that loued the treason rewarded the Traytors the one with yrons in a dungeon the other with more open and yet more close ayre in hanging Thus hee ruled Karason Gazneken and Hierak and sent Altuntax Gouernour of Koarrazin against Taquin who held Samarkand and Bokara which warres were bloudie But A. H. 424. his Garrisons in India and the Countrey of Gibal reuolted in recompence of which hee subdued Gerion and Taberstan Togotel or Togozelbek and Iakarbek Salinquis two Turkish Captaines subdued many of his Townes in Karasan and forced Alaon Daule and Abusale out of their Gouernments whereupon Masud returning was by other of his enemies ouerthrowne Herewith enraged hee put many Turkes to death which had fought in this last battell but faintly on his part and making an expedition into India by treacherie was taken of his followers and soone after slaine his blinde brother Mahamed recouering the state but not his eyes and therefore resigning to his sonne Hamed who againe was dispossessed by Moadud the sonne of Mafud But the Turks in Karasan and Maurenahar would not acknowledge him and in the 435. of the Heg. had the victorie against his armie Other Turkes also going out of Turquestan spoyled the Countries of Garmeer and Kandachar This seemes a truer storie of the Turkes beginning of greatnesse in Persia then that which is vsually receiued and is thus by Mirkond a Persian Historian deliuered Moadud hauing relieued Lahor which his Vassals in India rebelling had besieged marched against the Turkes but dyed in the way A. H. 441. At Bagadet matters had continued in confusion They had reuolted from Gelata Daule and proclaimed Abulganiar King but hee refused and the Turkes soone after fired the Towne and spoyled it This continued till A. H. 428. when the cold was so extreame that the riuer Degile or Tygris was frozen twelue dayes together and the Snow lay three spans deepe there A. H 434. Ebrahem Nealy Saliuqui a Turke entred Persia in the Prouince of Hierak and tooke Amedon Tokzelbek before mentioned tooke Rey and spoyled all Persia with a victorious Armie Hee also through the dissentions of the sonnes of Abulganiar after their Fathers death found meanes to encrease himselfe And the Chalife of Damascus forced Kahem the Chalife of Bagadet to flee to Tokzelbek for succour whereupon hee entred Bagadet and put all to fire and sword rifling the very Sepulchers to search for Treasures He tooke Malek Rhaym the successour of Abulganiar whom before hee had helped to winne Scyras and the best part of Persia and imprisoned him where hee dyed And thus the Empire of the Daules being deadly sicke soone after dyed Abd Rachid also the successour of Maodud was so pursued by Tokzelbek that at last in a Fort he was through the corruption of his Guard by money taken and murthered Then did hee marrying a sister of the deceased proclaime himselfe King But not long after being in a publike place to receiue the salutations which they are accustomed to make in those parts ten of the chiefe men conspiring together slew him Kahem or Alkahem dyed A. H. 467. and Almoktady Byla was Chalife the fortie eight in order In his time the Turkes and Ferrogozad the other sonne of Masud came to composition Almostazer Byla succeeded his Father in the Caliphate A. H. 487. in whose time Bagadet hauing beene ruined by the ouerflowing of Tygris the situation was changed and it was new built on the other side of the riuer towards the East where it now stands in a more commodious seat hauing had twentie fiue Chalifes since the foundation by Abuiafar and yet not one of them dyed in it Hee liued in peace and dyed A. H. 512. This storie is thus told by Zacuth In his time the Astrologers fore-told an exceeding deluge not so great as in the dayes of Noah because then said they were seuen Planets in coniunction with Pisces whereas now there were but sixe Saturne being excluded This made the Inhabitants of Bagded afraid because of the low situation and caused them to stop the passages of the waters The Ismaelites which of deuotion performed their Pilgrimage were most of them drowned The Calipha for this cause arayed the Astrologer which fore-told this in royall apparell Almostarched Byla Fazele his sonne succeeded hee warred against some Princes of Persia and seized vpon some Prouinces of Masul Saliuqui King of Karason but Masud had the better and slew the Chalife A.H. 529. His sonne and successour Rached Bila sought to reuenge his death but hauing conquered a great part of Persia was slaine also by Masud A. 532. He following his victories made himselfe Master of Bagadet and placed Almoktafy Bila in the Califate who taking aduantage of Masuds death which hapned soone after marched into Persia and recouered that which Masud had vsurped which he enioyed peaceably and dyed A. H. 555. And now the Chalifes became great Potentates againe His sonne Almostanget Byla Issuf succeeded the fiftie three Chalife After his death which was through heate by shutting the doore when he was in the Bath succeeded A. 566. Almostanzy Benur Elah Acen and hee dying A. 577. Nacer held the place fortie seuen yeeres vnder whom Bagadet did greatly flourish During his gouernment the Saliuquis were vanquished by the Koarrasmians Altahar Byla Mahamed
gouernement of Aleppo and Damasco with the adioyning parts of Syria by that meanes to encroach vpon the Egyptian Caliph which accordingly they in short time did But these their haughtie attempts were stayed and being now in the flowre were cut shorter by that fortunate Expedition of the Christian Princes of the West agreed vpon at the Councell of Claremont and performed by Gualter Sensauier Peter the Hermite first and principall mouer hereof Godfrey Duke of Lorraine with his two brethren Eustace and Baldwin of the honourable house of Buillon Hugh surnamed the Great brother to Philip the French King Raymond and Robert Earles of Flanders Robert of Normandie sonne to William the Conquerour Stephen de Valois Earle of Chartiers Ademar the Popes Legate Bohemund Prince of Tarentum and others conducting as the most receiued opinion is three hundred thousand Souldiers in defence of the Christian Faith against the Turkes and Saracens which both ouerthrew the Turkes in the lesser Asia and recouered also the holy Land The Principalitie or as some stile it the Kingdome of Antioch was giuen him by common consent to Bohemund Prince of Tarentum the Kingdome of Ierusalem to Robert who hearing of his Fathers death refused it in hope of England and Godfrey of Buillon was saluted King The Turkes and Saracens seeking to recouer that which they had lost lost also themselues a hundred thousand of them being slaine in one battell the like successe had the Turkes after against Conrade the Emperour at Meander leauing for trophees and triumphall arches to the Christians huge heapes or hills rather of their bones Hereunto helped the dissentions among the Turkes and diuisions of their state among diuers brethren The Egyptians also paied tribute to the Christians which Dargan the Sultan detaining hee was by Almericus the King of Ierusalem ouerthrowne in battell Noradine the Turke King of Damasco sent thither also Saracon to aide Sanar the Sultan before expulsed to recouer his state from this Dargan but hee hauing won certaine Townes kept them to himselfe so that Sanar betooke him to the patronage of Almericus who ouerthrew Saracon in battell and after besieged and tooke Alexandria and Pelusium seeking also to conquer Egypt to himselfe but indeed as the euent proued so subuerted his owne state For Sanar sought helpe of Saracon and for feare of both their forces Almericus left Egypt Saracon moued with ambition treacherously slew the Sultan and by the Caliph was appointed Sultan the first of the Turkes that euer enioyed the same to whom Saladine his Nephew succeeded Hee not respecting the Maiestie of the Caliph as the Sultans before had done strucke out his braines with his Horse-mans Mace and rooted out all his posteritie the better to assure himselfe and his Turkish successours in the possession of that Kingdome vnder whom it continued to the time of the Mamalukes Noradine also the Turke being dead the Nobilitie disdaining the gouernement of Melechsala his sonne yet but a youth betrayed that state vnto Saladine And thus did he hem in the Kingdome of Ierusalem on both sides and not long after Aleppo was betraied vnchristianly into his hands by a traitor which gouerned the same for the Christians Neither was it long before he had through discord and treason amongst the Christians obtained Ierusalem it selfe Anno 1187. and after Ascalon and Antioch also Neither could the Christians of the West euer recouer the possession of that Kingdome the cause continuing the same which before had lost it viz. dissention and treacherie as the examples of Richard and Edward first of those names Kings of this Land doe shew About 1202. yeeres after Christ the Tartars of whom in their due place hauing conquered East West North and South among others ouerthrew that Togrian Kingdome of the Turkes in Persia one hundred and seuentie yeeres before founded by Tangrolipix The Turks which remained driuen to seeke shelter from this violent storme fled out of Persia into Asia the lesse where Cutlu-Muses his successours their Country-men enioyed some part of the Countrie And there many of them arriuing vnder the conduct of Aladin the sonne of Cei Husreu descended also of the Selzuccian Family in Persia taking the opportunitie offered by the discord of the Latines with the Greekes and the Greekes among themselues seized vpon Cilicia with the Countries thereabout and there first at Sebastia and afterward at Iconium erected their new Kingdome bearing the name of the Aladin Kings or Sultans The Tartars vnder the conduct of Haalon sent by Mango the great Cham hauing conquered and starued the Chaliph of Babylon as is before ouerthrew the Turkish Kingdome of Damasco and raced Aleppo the other arme of this faire and farre spreading Tree being surprized by the Mamaluke slaues who after Haalons departure recouered Syria and Palaestina and were againe with great slaughter dispossessed of the same by Cassanes a Tartarian Prince who repaired Ierusalem and gaue it to the Christians of Armenia and other the Easterne Countries But Cassanes retyring into Persia to pacifie new broiles the Sultan recouered the same the Christians of the West neglecting the iust defence thereof specially through the pride and contention of Boniface the Pope contrarie to his name filling a great part of Europe with faction and quarrells §. III. Of the Ottoman Turkes their originall and proceedings THe Turkes in Asia paid tribute to the Tartar Cham till succession in the bloud of Aladin failing this Kingdome was diuersly rent euery one catching so much as his might could bestow on his ambition The greatest of these sharers was one Caraman Alusirius who tooke vnto himselfe the Citie Iconium with all the Countrie of Cilicia and some part of the frontiers of Lycaonia Pamphylia Caria and the greater Phrygia as farre as Philadelphia all which was after him called Caramania Next neighbour and sharer to him was Saruchan of whom Ionia Maritima is called Saruchanili The greatest part of Lydia with some part of the greater Mysia Troas and Phrygia fell to Carasius called of him Carasi-ili some part of Pontus and the Countrey of Paphlagonia fell to the sonnes of Omer which Countrey is called Bolli These all were of the Selzuccian Family But the foundations of farre higher fortunes were then laid much lower by diuine prouidence exalting Ottoman of the Oguzian Tribe or Family who then held one onely poore Lordship called Suguta in Bythinia not farre from Olympus giuen before to his father Erthogrul in meed of good seruice which he increasing by winning somewhat from the weaker Christians his neighbours afterwards erected into a Kingdome which hath deuoured so great a part of the world as is at this day subiect to the Turkish greatnesse When the Tartars chased as is said the Turkes out of their Persian Kingdome which Tangrolipix had there established one Solyman a Turke of the Ogusian Tribe reigned in Machan ouer a small Realme which for feare of those Tartars he also forsooke and with a
Christians more vnnatural against his brother but most most vnnatural and monstrous against his sonne Selym. His conquests were in Cilicia Caramania and Peloponnesus Selym not content to haue thrust his father out of the Throne aspired to a further effect of aspiring ambition depriuing him of life from whom himselfe had receiued it To this end he corrupted a Iew Baiazets Physician whom Knolles calleth Hamon but Menauino an eye-witnesse nameth him Vstarabi who with the powder of beaten Diamonds poysoned him and for reward when hee claymed Selyms promise had his head stricken off in the Tyrants presence So much did he hate the Traytor whose treason he so much loued The body of Baiazet was embalmed and interred at Constantinople in a beautifull Sepulchre neere to the Meschit which himselfe had built and Priests were appointed which should euery day pray for his soule Two of his Pages did Selym put to death for wearing blacke and mourning apparell for their Masters death and three others whereof Menauino was one hardly by intreatie of Selyms daughters and some Bassaes escaped This Viper that spared not his father proceeded with bloudie hands to make an end of the rest of his Ottoman-kindred beginning with fiue sonnes of his brethren and adding the remnant as hee could bring them into his power And hauing thus founded his Throne in bloudie cruelties of his owne at home no maruell if abroad his proceedings were no lesse cruell and bloudie towards his enemies Of whom the first which offered himselfe after his domesticall warres appeased was Ismael the Sophie who with thirtie thousand Persian Horse-men gaue battell to Selym notwithstanding his three hundred thousand Turks where was fought in Armenia neere Coy a terrible and mortall battell betwixt them the Turkes at last very hardly preuailing by helpe of their great Ordnance but so little cause had they to reioyce of their victorie that this is reckoned among the dismall and disastrous dayes termed by the Turkes The onely day of Doome The next yeere he entred againe into the Persian Confines and there tooke Ciamassum ouerthrew Aladeules the Mountaine King who raigned in Taurus and Antitaurus and slew him But his most fortunate attempts were against Campson Gaurus the Egyptian Soldan and his forces of Mamalukes whom by his multitudes notwithstanding their fame and valour not inferiour to any Souldiors of the world hee ouercame the Soldan himselfe being left dead in the place August 7. 1516. Neither had Tomumbeius his Successor any better successe but succeeded as wel in his fortune as to his Scepter who by treason of his owne and power of his enemy lost both his life and Kingdome all Egypt and Syria therby accrewing to the Ottoman Selym from thenceforth purposing to turne his forces from the Sunne-rising against the Christians in the West came to his owne Sunne-set the period of his raigne and life a miserable disease as an angrie Pursuiuant exacting and redemanding his bloudie cruell spirit an implacable officer of that implacable Tyrant to Tyrants and Prince of Princes Death who at last conquered this Conquerour or rather if his Epitaph written on his Tombe say true conueied him hence to seeke new Conquests His disease was a Canker in the backe eating out a passage for his viperous soule which made him rot while he liued and become a stinking burthen to himselfe and others He died in September 1520. hauing before bequeathed bloudshed and desolation to the Christians and ordained Solyman his sonne and heire executour of that his hellish Testament And further to excite him thereunto had left him the liuely counterfeit of himselfe with sundrie bloudie Precepts annexed His title therein written was Sultan Selym Othoman King of Kings Lord of all Lords Prince of all Princes Sonne and Nephew of God Wee may adde Heire apparant to the Deuill that breathed his last in bloud resembling him that was a Murtherer from the beginning CHAP. IX A Continuation of the Turkish Warres and Affaires together with the succession of the Great Turkes till this present yeere 1616. §. I. Of SOLYMAN the Magnificent SOLYMAN sir-named the Magnificent succeeded his Father Selym in place and surmounted him exceedingly in exploits Belgrade which ominous name did presage happinesse vnto him in his Warres and proceedings was the beginning of his Conquests wonne by the Turkes August 29. 1521. Rhodes receiueth him on Christmasse day 1522. but withall exileth both Cheere Christmasse and Christians Hee inuadeth Hungarie and in the field discomfiteth and killeth Lewes and slayeth or captiueth two hundred thousand Hungarians in that expedition 1526. Hee entereth Hungarie the second time 1529. and after some butcheries therein marcheth to Vienna in Austria where he lost fourescore thousand of his Turkes and then with shame anger returned In the yeere 1532. he returneth with an Armie of fiue hundred thousand men to whom Charles the fifth opposed himselfe and the Christian forces in greater numbers then hath in many ages been seene mustering in his Armie at Vienna two hundred and threescore thousand men whereof fourescore and ten thousand Foot-men and thirtie thousand Horse-men were old Souldiers to whom Solyman did not nor durst not bid battell Poore Hungarie rues in meane while whether he getteth or loseth in Austria being made his thorow-fare as he went and came After this he trieth his successe against the Persian where hee taketh Tauris and Babylon with the Countries of Assyria and Media Anno 1534. each of which had sometimes beene Ladie of the World At incredible costs he prepared a Fleet in the Red Sea 1537. and taking Aden and Zibyth two petie Kingdomes in Arabia by his forces besieged Dium a Castle of the Portugals in the East-Indies but without his wished successe For the Portugals still retaine their Indian-Seas and Traffique and not onely freed that their Castle from Turkish bondage but had meanes to fortifie it better by the Ordnance which the Turkes in their hastie flight had left behinde A more dangerous plot did Solyman meane while contriue against Christendome preparing his forces to inuade Italy and to that end was come to Aulona an Hauen in Macedonia with two hundred thousand Souldiers where Barbarussa and Lutzis Bassa his great Admirall met him with his Fleet to transport his Armie But Solyman first employed these Sea-forces on the coast of Italy and tooke Castrum his Horse-men which he had sent ouer in great Palendars carried away the people cattell and substance betwixt Brundusium and Tarentum fortie miles space all the countrey of Otranto terrified with feare of a greater tempest But the Venetians turned it from the rest of Italy vpon themselues notwithstanding their league by vnseasonable exacting of that Sea-courtesie the vayling of the bonnets or top sayles of some Turkish Gallies vnto them as Lords of that Sea for which neglect some of them were sunke Auria also the Emperours Admirall had surprised some of the Turkes stragling Fleet and
therein an hundred twentie seuen Pillars the workes of so many Kings threescore foot in height and sixe and thirtie of them very curiously wrought The Temple was foure hundred twentie fiue foot long two hundred and twentie broad of the Ephesians holden in such veneration that when Croesus had begirt them with a straight siege they deuoted their Citie to their Goddesse tying the wall thereof with a rope to the Temple It was enriched and adorned with gifts beyond value It was full of the workes of Praxiteles and Thraso The Priests were Eunuches called Megalobyzi greatly honoured and had with them sacred Virgins Some call these or else another order of Diana's Priests Estiatores and Essenae that is Good fellowes after the appellation of this bad age which by yeerely courses had a peculiar diet assigned them and came in no priuate house All the Ionians resorted to Ephesus at Diana's festiuall which with daunces and other pompe they solemnized with their wiues and children as they had done before at Delos the Temple had priuiledge of Sanctuarie which Alexander extended to a furlong Mithridates to a flight-shot Antonius added part of the Citie But Augustus disanulled the same that it should no longer bee a harbour for villaines This the Romans finde saith a Roman Pope relating this Historie among whom are so many Sanctuaries as Cardinals houses in which theeues and ruffians haue patronage which make the Citie otherwise quiet and noble a denne of theeues A lake named Selinusius and another which floweth into it were Diana's patrimonie which by some Kings being taken from her were after by the Romans restored And when the Publicans had seized the profits Artimedorus was sent in Ambassage to Rome where hee recouered them to Diana for which cause they dedicated to him a golden Image in the Temple In the midst of the lake was the Kings Chappell accounted the worke of Agamemnon Alexander not onely restored the Ephesians to their Citie which for his sake they had lost and changed the gouernment into a popular state but bestowed also the tributes which before they had paied to the Persians vpon Diana and caused them to be slaine which had robbed the Temple and had ouerthrowne the Image of Philip his father therein and such of them as had taken Sanctuarie in the Temple he caused to be fetched out and stoned While hee staied at Ephesus hee sacrificed to Diana with very solemne pompe all his Armie being arranged in battell array But this Temple of Diana together with their Diana is perished But neuer shall that Truth perish which Paul writ in his Epistle to them for obseruing which by Christ himselfe in another Epistle written by S. Iohn they are commended and which in a Councell there holden was confirmed against the Heresie of Nestorius and Celestius But alas that golden Candlesticke as was threatned is now almost by Greekish superstition and Turkish tyrannie remoued thence a Bishop with some remnants of a Church still continuing The Ephesians were obseruers of curious Arts which not onely Luke mentioneth but the prouerbe also confirmeth Ephesiae literae so they called the spells whereby they made themselues in wrestling and other conflicts inuincible The summe of those Magicall bookes burned by them Luke rateth at 50000. pieces of siluer which Budaeus summeth at 5000. Crownes The many Temples of Venus at Ephesus are not worth memorie Memorable is the History of an Ephesian maid who when Brennus inuaded Asia promised him her loue which he much desired and withall to betray the Citie to him if hee would giue her all the Iewels and Attire of the women which the Souldiers were commanded to doe who heaped their gold so fast vpon the Damosell according to their command that shee was therewith couered and slaine The Asiarchae which Luke nameth Beza saith were certaine Priests whole office it was to set forth publike playes and games in honor of their Gods as also were the Syriarchae The Ephesians as all other Ionians were much addicted to nicenes and sumptuousnesse of attire for which other their delicacies they grew into a prouerbe The Ionians had other places and Temples amongst them famous for deuotion and antiquitie such as no where else are to be seene as the Temple and Oracle of Apollo at Gemini Myus had a small arme of the Sea whose waters by the means of Meander fayling the soyle brought forth an innumerable multitude of fleas which forced the Inhabitants to forsake their Citie and with bagge and baggage to depart to Miletus And in my time saith Pausanias nothing remaineth of Myus in Myus but Bacchus Temple The like befell to the Atarnitae neere to Pergamus The Persians burnt the Temple of Pallas at Phocea and another of Iuno in Samos the remaines whereof are worthy admiration the Erythraean Temple of Hercules and of Pallas at Prienae that for antiquitie this for the Image The Image of Hercules is said to be brought in a ship which came without mans helpe to the Cape where the Chians and Erythraeans laboured each to bring the same to their owne Citie But one Phormio a Fisher-man of Erythraea was warned in a dreame to make a rope of the haires cut off from the heads of the Erythraean Matrons by which their husbands should draw the same to the Towne The women would not yeeld but certaine Thracian women which had obtained their freedome granted their haire to this purpose to whom therefore this priuiledge was granted to enter into Hercules Temple a thing denied to all other the Dames of Erythraea The rope stil remaineth and the Fisher-man which before was blinde recouered his sight In this Towne also is Mineruaes Temple and therein a huge Image of Wood sitting on a Throne holding with both hands a Distaffe There are the Graces and Houres formed of white Marble At Smyrna was the Temple of Aesculapius and nigh to the Springs of the Riuer Meles a Caue in which they say Homer composed his Poems Thus much Pausanius The Ionian letters were more resembling the Latine then the present Greeke are and were then common as in our first Booke is shewed in our Phoenician Relations At Miletus a mad phrensie had once possessed their Virgins where by it came to passe that they in great multitudes hanged themselues Neither cause appeared nor remedie Needs most they goe whom the Deuill driues Whom neither the sweetnesse of life bitterternesse of death teares intreaties offers custodie of friends could moue Modestie detained from proceeding in this immodest butcherie and which is more to be wondred at a Posthume modestie which could not be borne till they were dead For a Law was made That the naked bodies of such as had thus strangled themselues should bee drawne through the streets which contumely though it were but a Gnat to those Camels which with the halter they swallowed yet strained they at it and it could
to the youths men of riper age as masters of Manners The children come not in the Fathers sight till fiue yeeres of age or as Valerius Maximus hath till seuen and especially learne truth they were taught by these Prefects the rules of Iustice not by bare rules but by examples for which cause also Augustus would haue the Senators children present in the Court Yea a good part of the day was to this end spent by those Prefects in hearing and deciding such cases as fell out amongst these their schollers about thefts reproaches or other wrongs Next to Truth and Iustice they learned Sobrietie Abstinence Continence and Temperance wherein they were well furthered by the examples of their Masters neither might they eat but in their presence and with their leaue and that not of the choisest fare but bread and cresses whereto they added drinke from the next riuer They planted in them a hatred of vices especially of lying and in the next place of debt which cannot but bee attended with much disquiet and therefore wisely did Augustus command to buy him the pillow of a Roman Gentleman that died incredibly indebted as if there had therein rested some sleeping power whereon one so much indebted could take any rest Ingratitude was as little gratefull as the former and by the Persian lawes ingratefull persons were subiect to accusation and punishment as not Xenophon onely but Marcellinus also hath marked howsoeuer Seneca findes such a law onely amongst the Macedonians which perhaps was hence borrowed They hated such as forsooke their friends and country-men in need Their awfull respect to their parents was such that they might not sit in the mothers presence without her leaue the father had tyrannicall power ouer his children for life and death That which was vnto them vnlawfull in deed was not permitted in obscene and filthy words to bee spoken Thus were the Noble-mens children brought vp neere the Palace gates and in the Prouinces neere the gates of the Deputies or Gouernours For bodily exercise they learned to shoot to cast darts to ride and manage vnruly horses and to fight on horse-backe And this was their education till seuenteene yeeres of age at which time they were of the second ranke of Springals and youths and for ten yeeres after did not repaire home at nights but lay and abode in this Court or Colledge When the King went on hunting halfe of them attended him in armour Their dyet was the same but somewhat larger as is before related of the children and in hunting if it continued two dayes had but one dayes allowance They vsed to run long races of thirtie or fortie furlongs they exercised the sling leaping and wrestling the King propounding rewards to the Victor The helpe of these were vsed by the Magistrates against robbers murtherers and the like wicked persons as also of the Men which was the third order the Seminary of Magistrates and Souldierie of the Persians till they were fiftie yeeres old or somewhat more at which age they were freed from musters and forraine employments but at home were employed in publike and priuate iudgements None might attaine this honour in Age but by those degrees before expressed nor might any haue that education but the children of the rich which were able to beare the charge It was vnlawfull amongst the Persians to laugh in loud manner openly or openly or by the way to doe the easements of nature by siege vrine or vomit or to make water standing §. V. Of the Persian Luxurie and Marriages Funerals c. BVt this ancient Persian discipline and sobrietie with wealth and loosenesse were afterwards corrupted especially in drinking to represse which the Kings made an order Est. 1. that none should bee compelled to forget their health in remembring of healths or other Bacchanal deuices whereof would GOD wee had lesse cause to complaine The vse of Harlots were also added to their drinkings which when the Embassadors sent to Amyntas King of Macedon to demand Earth and Water which was the Persian custome when they exacted full subiection and possession extended to Matrons Alexander his sonne sent young men armed in womens habite amongst them which quenched their hot flames of lust with their bloud Hence haply it was that Assuerus would needes make shew of Vashti the Queene in his magnificent Feast which occasioned her depriuation and Esters succession Amidst their cups they consulted of warre and weightie affaires but some say they decreed not till afterwards The Persians vsed banquettings vnder Arras hangings before the time of Attalus from whom the Romans first borrowed the vse of them of his aula or hall hanged therewith calling them aulaea But the wals of the richer Persians were hanged with them the floures spread with costly carpets their cupboards furnished with rich plate their bodies shining with curious costly ointments their kitchin stored with garlick as a preseruatiue against serpents and venemous creatures their chambers swarmimg with Concubines yea mothers daughters and sisters wedded and bedded with them their second seruices celled in Scripture The banquet of wine when after the belly full farced with meats with which they dranke water they had other tables set with wine on which they gaue a new onset as a fresh enemy these and the like excesses would glut our Reader Loth were I to bring him to their mourning rites in which they shaued themselues their Horses and Mules they vsed sackcloth and entred not the Court they couered the face of such as incurred the Kings anger as we reade of Haman Their executions were flaying crucifying burning burying aliue stoning cutting asunder c. This pertaineth to their religion their diuination by lots as before Haman they perhaps the Magi cast Phur that is a lot from day to day and from month to month to see which would be the most lucky and fatall time for his mischieuous plot against the Iewes Their mariages they celebrated in the Spring and on their mariage day the husbands eate nothing but an Apple or the marrow of a Camel The Persians are accounted authors of making Eunuches which Petronius Arbiter and M. Seneca impute to the curiositie of their lust which might thus be longer serued of them They vsed in salutation to vncouer or put off the Tiara Here I might lade you with the Persian wardrobe the length and varietie of their garments and I might tell you of their earings and Iewels painting of their faces long haire of their kissing salutations if they were equall and of the knee of the superiour by the inferiour and adoration of the chiefe of their womans womanly detestation in the eagerest degree of hatred and indignation the fingering of wooll of their inhumane crueltie to the kindred of those which had committed some grieuous crime to punish all for the offence of one The Persians made banquets to their gods and gaue them the first fruits thereof
and Peloponnesus for feare of a second returne of Techellis The remainder of Techellis his power as they fled into Persia robbed a Carauan of Merchants for which outrage comming to Tauris their Captaines were by Ismaels command executed and Techellis himselfe burnt aliue but yet is this Sect closely fauoured in Asia §. III. Of their Rites Persons Places and Opinions Religious WE haue now seene the Proceedings of this Sophian Sect both in Persia and Turkie both here kept downe and there established by force To weare red on the lower parts of their body were to these Red-heads scarsely piacular Touching Hali they haue diuers dreames as that when they doubted of Mahomets successor a little Lizard came into a Councell assembled to decide the controuersie and declared that it was Mahomets pleasure that Mortus Ali or Morts Ali should be the man He had a sword wherewith hee killed as many as he stroke At his death he told them that a white Camell would come for his body which accordingly came and carried his dead body and the sword and was therewith taken vp into heauen for whose returne they haue long looked in Persia For this cause the King kept a horse ready sadled and kept for him also a daughter of his to be his wife but she died in the yeere 1573. And they say further that if he come not shortly they shall be of our beleefe They haue few bookes and lesse learning There is often great contention and mutinie in great Townes which of Mortus Ali his sonnes was greatest sometime two or three thousand people being together by the eares about the same as I haue seene sayth Master Ducket in Shamaky and Ardouill and Tauris where I haue seene a man comming from fighting and in a brauery bringing in his hand foure or fiue mens heads carrying them by the hayre of the crowne For although they shaue their heads commonly twice a weeke yet leaue they a tuft of hayre vpon their heads about two foot long whereof when I enquired the cause They answered that thereby they may bee the easier carried vp into heauen when they are dead In praying they turne to the South because Mecca lyeth that way from them When they be on trauell in the way many of them will as soone as the Sunne riseth light from their horses turning themselues to the South and will lay their gownes before them with their swords and beads and so standing vpright doe their holy things many times in their prayers kneeling downe and kissing their beades or somewhat else that lieth before them When they earnestly affirme a matter they sweare by God Mahomet and Mortus Ali and sometime by all at once saying Olla Mahumet Ali and sometime Shaugham bosshe that is by the Shaughes head Abas the young Prince of Persia charged with imputation of treason after other Purgatorie speeches sware by the Creator that spread out the ayre that founded the earth vpon the deepes that adorned the heauen with Starres that powred abroad the water that made the fire and briefly of nothing brought forth all things by the head of Ali and by the Religion of their Prophet Mahomet that hee was cleare If any Christian will become a Bosarman or one of their superstition they giue him many gifts the Gouernor of the Towne appointeth him a horse and one to ride before him on another horse bearing a sword in his hand and the Bosarman bearing an arrow in his hand rideth in the City cursing his father and mother The sword signifieth death if hee reuolt againe Before the Shaugh seemed to fauour our Nation the people abused them very much and so hated them that they would not touch them reuiling them by the names of Cafars and Gawars that is Infidels or Mis-beleeuers Afterwards they would kisse their hands and vse them gently and reuerently Drunkards and riotous persons they hate for which cause Richard Iohnson caused the English by his vicious liuing to be worse accounted of then the Russes Their opinions and rites most-what agree with the Turkish and Saracenicall Their Priests are apparelled like other men they vse euery morning and afternoone to goe vp to the toppes of their Churches and tell there a great tale of Mahomet and Mortus Ali. They haue also among them certaine holy-men called Setes accounted therefore holy because they or some of their ancestors haue beene on pilgrimage at Mecca these must be beleeued for this Saint-ship although they lie neuer so shamefully These Setes vse to shaue their heâ—ds all ouer sauing on the sides a little aboue the Temples which they leaue vnshauen and vse to braide the same as women doe their hayre and weare it as long as it will grow Iosafa Barbaro at Sammachi lodged in an Hospitall wherein was a graue vnder a vault of stone and neere vnto that a man with his beard and hayre long naked sauing that a little before and behind he was couered with a skinne sitting on a peece of a matte on the ground I sayth hee saluted him and demanded what hee did he told mee hee watched his father I asked who was his father He quoth he that doth good to his neighbour with this man in this Sepulchre I haue liued thirty yeeres and will now accompany him after death and being dead be buried with him I haue seene of the world sufficient and now haue determined to abide thus till death Another I found at Tauris on all-Soules day in the which they also vsed a commemoration of Soules departed neere to the Sepulchre in a Church-yard hauing about him many birds especially Rauens and Crowes I thought it had beene a dead corpse but was told it was a liuing Saint at whose call the birds resorted to him and he gaue them meat Another I saw when Assambei was in Armenia marching into Persia against Signior Iausa Lord of Persia and Zagatai vnto the City of Herem who drew his staffe in the dishes wherein they are and sayd certaine words and brake them all the Sultan demanded what he had sayd they which heard him answered that he said hee should be victorious and breake his enemies forces as hee had done those dishes whereupon he commanded him to be kept till his returne and finding the euent according he vsed him honourably When the Sultan rode thorow the fields he was set on a Mule and his hands bound before him because he was sometime accustomed to doe some dangerous folly at his feet there attended on him many of their religious persons called Daruise These mad trickes he vsed according to the course of the Moone sometimes in two or three dayes not eating any thing busied in such fooleries that they were faine to bind him Hee had great allowance for his expences One of those holy men there was which went naked like to the beasts preaching their faith and hauing obtained great reputation hee caused himselfe to bee immured in a wall forty
the Mountayne and left a spacious way by which they with all their substance passed Westward Hence it is that the Tartars ascribe some happinesse to the number of nine and hee that will offer a present to any Tartarian Signor must offer nine things which custome they vse in their tributes vnto this day as Master Ienkinson found by experience to his cost Cangius after many aduentures and many lawes which of him were called Iasack Cangis Can hauing first perswaded his twelue sons wherein I thinke his nephewes were also reckoned to concord bidding each of them to bring him an arrow which together none of them ; asunder the least of them might easily breake hee dyed This Historie of Cingis or Cangius I haue thus fully related for knowledge both of the beginnings of their State and Religion and if these Visions seeme fabulous yet might Cingis in his subtilty deale with them as Mahomet with his Arabians or Numa with the Romans the one making Gabriel the other Aegeria Authors of their policies and what hee in part pretended might by Fame and Time be augmented Although I see not but that this History of Cingis may as well be credited as that of Alexander in Iosephus to whom appeared one in the habite of the Iewish High Priest commanding him to vndertake that enterprise with promise of assistance for which cause he whom the World worshipped as a King and as a God did worship himselfe prostrate before Iaddus the High Priest And the same Author also saith that the Pamphylian Sea diuided it selfe to giue way vnto his Macedonian Souldiers hauing no other way to destroy the Empire of the Persians To returne to our Fryer with whom we began he reporteth that Cingis after his victorie against the Naimani warred vpon the Kythayans where hee was ouerthrowne and all the Nobles except seuen slaine Hauing breathed himselfe a while at home hee inuaded the Huyri a Christian people of the Nestorian Sect whom they ouer-came and receiued of them Letters of which before they were ignorant After them he subdued the Saroyur Karanites and Hudirat This done he waged Warre against the Kythayans or Cathayans whose Emperour he shut vp into his chiefe Citie where Cingis besieged him till that Victuall fayling in his Campe he commanded that they should eate euery tenth man of the Armie They of the Citie fought valiantly with Engines Darts Arrowes and when Stones wanted they threw Siluer especially molten siluer But by vnder-mining the Tartars made way from the Armie into the middest of the Citie where they issued vp and opened the gates by force and slew the Citizens This is the first time that the Emperour of the Kathayans being vanquished Cingis Cham obtayned the Empire The men of Kaytay are Pagans hauing a speciall kinde of writing by themselues and as it is reported the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament They haue also recorded in Histories the liues of their fore-fathers and they haue Eremites and certayne houses made after the maner of our Churches which in those dayes they greatly resorted vnto They say that they haue diuers Saints also and they worship one God They adore and reuerence Christ Iesus our Lord and beleeue the Article of eternall life but are not baptized They doe also honorably esteeme and reuerence our Scriptures They loue Christians and bestow much almes and are a very courteous and gentle people They haue no beards and they agree partly with the Mongals in the disposition of their countenance There are not better Artificers in the world Their Countrey is exceeding rich in Corne Wine Gold Silke and other commodities Of their writing Fryer Bacon from the Relations of W. Rubruquis which liued in his time and Rubruquis himselfe as in the Manuscript thereof appeareth testifie that it was done with pencils and in characters as the Chinois and Iaponites still vse The Iugres write from the top to the bottome of the page and from the left hand to the right the men of Tebeth as wee doe those of Tangat from the right hand to the left but multiply their lines vpwards The Cathayans saith Rubruquis are little men and speake thorow the nose They are good artificers the sonne succeeding in the fathers trade Their Physitians deale with hearbes but not with vrines There were amongst them Nestorians who had a Bishop residing in Segni Their bookes were in Syriake themselues ignorant of that tongue They were drunkards vsurers and some of them had many wiues They washed their lower parts when they entred their Churches they feast and eat flesh on Fridayes as the Saracens Their Bishop visits them scarce once in fiftie yeeres And then all their Males euen infants also are ordred Priests The Idolaters amongst them are more moderate some of which weare yellow broad cowles some are Eremites and leade an austere life in woods and hills Cathaya had not then any vines but they made drinke of Rise wherewith they also tooke a kinde of Apes which would drinke themselues drunken with that pleasant liquor out of whose neckes they tooke the bloud wherewith they died purple After the conquest of Cathay Cyngis sent his sonne Thossut Can for so they termed him also against the people of Comania whom hee vanquished Another sonne he sent against the Indians who subdued India Minor These Indians are the blacke Saracens which are also called Aethiopians Thence hee marched to fight against Christians dwelling in India Maior whose King was commonly called Presbyter Iohn who by a stratageme repelled them out of his dominion In trauelling homewards the said Armie of the Mongals came vnto the Land of Buirthabeth the inhabitants whereof are Pagans and conquered the people in battaile This people haue a strange custome When any mans father dieth hee assembleth all his kindred and they eat him They haue no beards but with an iron instrument plucke out the haires if any grow Cyngis himselfe went vnto the Land of Kergis which they then conquered not And in his returne home his people suffered extreme famine and by chance finding the fresh entrailes of a beast they cast away the dung sod it and brought it before Cyngis and did eate thereof Heereupon Cyngis enacted That neither the bloud nor the entrailes nor any other part of a beast which might bee eaten should be cast away saue onely the dung Hee was afterward slaine by a thunderclap leauing behind him foure sonnes the first Occoday the second Thossut Can the third Thiaday the name of the fourth is not knowne §. III. Of OCCODAY the next Emperour and CVINE CAN. CYNGIS being dead Occoday was chosen Emperour He sent Duke Bathy his nephew the sonne of Thossut Can against the Countrey of Altisoldan and the people called Bisermini who were Saracens but spake the Language of Comania whom hee subdued Thence they marched against Orna a Port Towne on the Riuer Don where were many Gazarians Alanians Russians and Saracens which he drowned
their loyaltie being as yee haue seene prodigall of preferment and life The Souldiers betake themselues to Handy-crafts or Seruice of great Men making shew of themselues on Muster and Pay-daies Their Weapons as their courage ridiculous for offence or defence I haue seene many Gunnes saith Pantogia in their Souldiers hands but none whose barrell was aboue a span long a little Ordnance on their walls but little seruiceable Militarie men are little esteemed in so long peace where they feare no enemy nor care for encrochments that which some say of their extending their Dominions to the Indies in former times being a fable and disagreeing with their Chronicles which are studlously continued foure thousand yeeres to these times Neither doe they conceiue the rest of the world worth the conquering Maruellous also is the Symmetrie of all the Magistrates the members of this great Body both with the Head and each other both in reall obedience and complementall Rites The inferiors whether priuat men or Magistrates seldome speaking to their superiors in the Court or elsewhere but on their knees and with honourable termes how meane soeuer knowne before their Degree No man also enioyeth any place aboue three yeeres except he be a new confirmed by the King but vsually is preferred to a greater but in another Region to preuent acquaintance an occasion of vniustice or popular affection And all the Pucinsu Naganzasu Cifu Ciceu Cihien and the like principall Officers must euery third yeere appeare solemnly at the Court at Pequin at which time diligent inquisition is made of all Officers in the Kingdome with great rigour euery one rewarded according to his desert I haue obserued that the King himselfe dares not alter any of those things which in this Inquisition are constituted In the yeere 1607. foure thousand Magistrates in this publike Disquisition were condemned as appeared by their names published in a Booke some for couetous corruption vsurping publike or priuate goods these were wholly depriued some for rigorous seuentie were so serued a third sort were such as were old sickly or remisse these might vse the ensignes of Magistrates but liue a priuate life the fourth were rash and unadvised which were put into inferior Offices or sent to places of easier gouernment The last ranke was of such as gouerned not themselues or their families in good order and such were also for euer depriued The like Inquisition euery fift yeere is obserued concerning the Officers of Court and Militarie The Iesuites were acquainted with one great Magistrate which was thrust into an inferior Office three yeeres space onely for being too often at Feasts and too much addicted to Chesse-play No man may beare Office except Militarie in that Prouince where he was borne Thus the Militarie men haue spurres of fidelitie and the other want occasions of corruption for which cause also his house-hold seruants and children may not stirre out of doores whiles he executes his Office but when he goes out he seales vp his doores both priuate and publike hauing all necessarie seruices performed by such as are appointed thereto by the State None weare any Weapons in the Cities not Souldiors or Captaines nor men of Learning but then when they goe to their Masters Exercises or Warres onely some attend the chiefe Magistrates with weapons Nor hath any weapons at his house except some iustie Blade for feare of Theeues when he trauailes and further then scratching or pulling off the haire they manage no quarrels esteeming no iniurie a mortall indignitie and him the wisest and most valiant that flyes the furious and offers no wrong When the King dies none of his bloud but the heire onely may stay in the Citie Royall or remoue out of the Cities where they are confined on paine of death And when any contention ariseth amongst them one of the chiefe of them which is their Gouernor decides it if with others not of the bloud Royall the publike Magistrate When the King preferreth any Magistrates to some higher dignitie if they haue verie well deserued they are requested to leaue their Bootes behind which are kept in the publike Chests together with verses in their prayse and are honoured with gifts If they be of supereminent worth a publike Marble Pillar is erected with inscription of their deserts Yea there are two whom Temples are built at publike charge and their Images as like as the workemen can make set on the Altars with a yeerely reuenue and certaine men appointed to keepe perpetuall odours and lights there burning supplications excepted in manner as they doe to their Idols The Cities are all full of these Temples sometime by fauour more then merit to which at certaine times they goe and exhibite kneelings with meat-offerings and other things In some Prouinces vpon speciall occasions they alter their course as to preuent Pyracies and Robberies Some were constituted with Commission extended into diuers Prouinces some bordering parts of all those Prouinces obeying him as Vice-Roy As at Canceu one superior to the Vice-roy of the Prouince hauing part of Chiansi Fuchien Canton and Vquam subiect hauing out of euery Prouince two Regions all adioyning together assigned to him Although they haue no Nobilitie employed in Magistracie yet there are some descendents of those Captaines and Great men which helped Hum-vn in expelling the Tartars which are borne Noble called Quocum as we haue elsewhere shewed These are capable of Militarie places One head of one of these families resides at Nanquin which liues in great magnificence carried on eight mens shoulders his Gardens Palaces household Furniture Royall Ricius was entertained in his Garden wherein besides other rarities he saw an artificiall Mount made of vnpolished Marbles which in the hollow places thereof contayned Chambers Halls Stayres Trees Ponds and other Deuices this increasing both delight and wonder that it was of Labyrinthian forme in a little space of ground detayning the steps two or three houres in passing the many Mazes thereof The coolenesse of this place was conuenient both to their Studies and Feasts §. X. Of their Punishments Diuine and Humaine and a Catalogue of their Kings WHen the King preferreth any to the dignitie of a Manderine or to a higher Office their custome is to put vp a Libell or Supplication inferring their insufficiencie with many modest refusals yet loth to be beleeued and that the King should accordingly refuse them as sometimes against their will hee doth and certainely would if this officious forme of deprecation be omitted by them Notwithstanding all prouisions to the contrarie they are couetous cruell and exceedingly addicted to bribes and where they finde not as it often happens they make Lawes sometimes contrarie to others alway for their owne will and aduantage None may execute the sentence of death but by speciall commission from the King And therefore the Malefactors are consumed in the prisons But they haue authoritie with certayne Canes to beat men on the legs thighs and hammes in such
storie is not yet because I haue done thus in other Nations and haue so worthy a patterne in this as the Worthy of our Age Iosephus Scaliger pardon mee to trouble thee with this Chronicle of their Kings The first was Vitey a Gyant-like man a great Astrologer and Inuenter of Sciences hee reigned an hundred yeeres They name after him an hundred and sixteene Kings whose names our Author omitteth all which reigned two thousand two hundred fiftie and seuen yeeres all these were of his linage and so was Tzintzon the maker of that huge wall of China which killed many of the Chinois of whom hee tooke euery third man to this worke For which cause they slue him when he had reigned fortie yeeres with his sonne Aguizi They ordained King in his stead Auchosau who reigned twelue yeeres his sonne Futey succeeded and reigned seuen yeeres his wife eighteene his sonne three and twentie then followed Guntey foure and fiftie Guntey the second thirteene Ochantey fiue and twentie Coantey thirteene Tzentzey sixe and twentie and foure moneths Anthoy sixe Pintatcy fiue Tzintzumey three and seuen moneths Huy Hannon sixe Cuoum two and thirtie Bemthey eighteene Vnthey thirteene Othey seuenteene Yanthey eight moneths Antey nineteene yeeres Tantey three moneths Chitey one yeere Linthey two and twentie yeeres Yanthey one and thirtie yeeres Laupy one and fortie yeeres Cuythey fiue and twntie yeeres Fontey seuenteene yeeres Fifteene other Kings reigned in all one hundred seuentie and sixe yeeres The last of which was Quioutey whom Tzobu deposed who with seuen of his linage reigned threescore and two yeeres Cotey foure and twentie yeeres Dian sixe and fiftie yeeres Tym one and thirtie yeeres Tzuyn seuen and thirtie yeeres Tauco with his linage which were one and twentie reigned two hundred ninetie and foure yeres Bausa a Nunne wife of the last of them whom she slue one and fortie yeeres Tautzon slue her and reigned with his posteritie which were seuen Kings one hundred and thirtie yeeres Dian eighteene yeeres Outon fifteene yeeres Outzim nine yeeres and three moneths Tozon foure yeeres Auchin ten yeeres Zaytzon and seuenteene of his race three hundred and twentie yeeres Tepyna the last was dispossessed by Vzon the Tartar vnder whom and eight of his Tartarian successours China endured subiection ninetie and three yeeres Gombu or Hum-vu expelled Tzintzoum the last of them He with thirteene successours haue reigned about two hundred and fortie yeeres There computation of times is more prodigious then that of the Chaldaeans after which this present yeere of our Lord 1614. is in their account from the Creation 884793. CHAP. XIX Of the Religion vsed in China §. I. Of their Gods and Idols in former times HOw much the greater things are reported of this so large a Countrey and mightie a Kingdome so much the more compassion may it prouoke in Christian hearts that amongst so many people there is scarce a Christian who amongst so ample reuenues which that King possesseth payeth either heart or name vnto the King of Heauen till that in so huge a Vintage the Iesuites of late haue gleaned a few handfulls to this profession Before wee come to the Narration of their gods I thinke it fit to deliuer what our ancienter Authors haue obserued of their Religion and then to come to the Moderne They were before the Tartarian Conquest giuen to Astrologie and obserued Natiuities and gaue directions in all matters of weight These Astrologers or Magicians told Farfur the King of China or Mangi that his Kingdome should neuer be taken from him but by one which had a hundred eyes And such in name was Chinsanbaian the Tartarian Captaine which dispossessed him of his state and conquered it to the great Can about 1269. This Farfur liued in great delicacie nor did euer feare to meet with such an Argus He brought vp yeerely two hundred thousand Infants which their Parents could not prouide for and euery yeere on certaine of his Idoll-holy-dayes feasted his principall Magistrates and all the wealthiest Citizens of Quinsay ten thousand persons at once ten or twelue dayes together There were then some few Nestorian Christians one Church at Quinsay two at Cinghianfu and a few others They had many Idoll-Monasteries They burned their dead the kinsmen of the dead accompanied the corps clothed in Canuas with Musicke and Hymnes to their Idols and when they came to the fire they cast therein many papers wherein they had painted Slaues Horses Camels c. as of the Cathayans is before reported to serue him in the next world They returne after their Funerall Rites are finished with like harmony of Instruments and Voyces in honor of their Idols which haue receiued the soule of the deceased They had many Hospitals for the poore where idle persons were compelled to worke and poore impotents relieued Odoricus affirmeth that at Kaitan or Zaiton hee found two Couents of Minorite-Fryers and many Monasteries of Idolaters in one whereof hee was in which as it was told him were three thousand Votaries and eleuen thousand Idols One of those Idols lesse then some others was as big as the Popish Christopher These Idols they feed euery day with the smoake of hot meates set before them but the meate they eate themselues At Quinsay a Chinian conuert led him into a certaine Monastery where hee called to a Religious person and said This Raban Francus that is this Religious French-man commeth from the Sunne-setting and is now going to Cambaleth to pray for the life of the great Can and therefore you must shew him some strange sight Then the said Religious person tooke two great baskets full of broken reliques and led mee into a little walled Parke and vnlocked the doore We entred into a faire greene wherein was a Mount in forme of a steeple replenished with Hearbs and Trees Then did hee ring with a Bell at the sound whereof many Creatures like Apes Cats and Monkeyes came downe the Mount and some had faces like men to the number of some thousand and two hundred putting themselues in good order before whom he set a platter and gaue them those fragments Which when they had eaten he rung the second time and they all returned to their former places I wondred at the sight and demanded what creatures they were They are quoth he the soules of Noble-men which we here feed for the loue of GOD who gouerneth the World And as a man was honourable in his life so his soule entereth after death into the body of some excellent beast but the soules of simple and rusticall people possesse the bodies of more vile and brutish creatures Neither could I disswade him from the opinion or perswade him that any soule might remaine without a body Nic. di Conti saith that when they rise in the morning they turne their faces to the East and with their hands ioyned say God in Trinitie keepe vs in his Law §. II. Of their present Gods and Idols THeir Religion
Doer or his Posteritie The Ancients made no question of the Soules immortalitie speaking often of the Dead as liuing in Heauen But of the punishments of wicked men in Hel not a word The later Professors teach that the Soule dies with or soone after the Bodie and therfore beleeue neither Heauen nor Hel. Some of them hold that good mens soules by the strength of vertue hold out some longer time but of bad men to die with the bodie But the most common opinion taken from the Sect of Idolaters and brought in fiue hundred yeeres since holdeth that the World consisteth of one substance and that the Maker thereof together with Heauen and Earth Men Beasts Plants and the Elements doe make vp one bodie of which euery Creature is a distinct member thence obseruing what loue ought to be amongst all things and that Men may come to become one with GOD. Although the learned men acknowledge one supreame Deitie yet doe they build him no Temple nor depute any place to his worship no Priests or Ministers of Religion no solemne Rites no Precepts or Rules none that hath power to ordaine or explaine their Holies or to punish the Transgressors They doe Him no priuate or publike deuotions or seruice yea they affirme that it belongs to the King only to do sacrifice and worship to the King of Heauen and that it is treason for others to vsurpe it For this cause the King hath two Temples very magnificent in both the Royall Cities the one consecrate to Heauen the other to Earth in the which hee was wont himselfe to sacrifice but it is now performed by some principall Magistrates which slay there many Sheepe and Oxen and performe other Rites many to Heauen and Earth in his stead To the other spirits of Hills Riuers and the foure Regions of the World onely the chiefe Magistrates doe sacrifice nor is it lawfull to priuate men The Precepts of this Law are in their nine Bookes before mentioned Nothing in this Sect is moee generall from the King to the meanest then their yeerely Obits to their Parents and grand-fathers which they account obedience to Parents though dead of which afterwards The Temple they haue is that which in euery Citie is by the Law built to Confutius in that place where there Schoole or Commencement house is This is sumptuous and hath adioyning the Palace of that Magistracie which is ouer the Bachellors or Graduates of the first degree In the chiefe place of this Temple or Chappell is placed his Image or else his name in golden Cupitall Letters on a faire Table besides which stand other Images of his disciples as inferiour Saints Into this Temple euery new and full Moone all the Magistrates of the Citie assemble with the Bachellors and adore him with kneelings wax-lights and incense They do also yeerely on his birth-day and other appointed times offer vnto him meat-offerings or dishes with great prouision yeelding him thanks for the learning they haue found in his Bookes as the cause of their Degrees and Magistracies But they pray not to him for any thing no more then to the dead in their Obits There are other Chappels of the same Sect vnto the Tutelare spirits of each Citie and proper to euery Magistrate of the Court Therein they binde themselues by solemne oath to obserue the Lawes in their function and that at their first entrance heere they offer meates and burne odours acknowledging diuine Iustice in punishing periurie The scope of this Sect of the learned is the publike peace and well ordering of the priuate and publike state and framing themselues to Morall vertues wherein they doe not much disagree from the Christian veritie They haue fiue concords in their Moralitie in which as Cardinall vertues they comprise all Humanitie the duties namely of Father and Child Husband and Wife Master or Superiour and those vnder them Brethren amongst themselues and lastly Equals and Companions They condemne single life and permit polygamie This precept of Charitie to doe to others as one would bee done to is well handled in their Bookes and especially the pietie and obseruance of Children to their Parents and Inferiours to their Superiours Longobardus saith that euery new and full Moon-day a little before Sun-rising in all the Cities of this Kingdome and in all the streets at one and the same houre they make publication of these sixe Precepts First Obey thy Father and Mother Secondly Reuerence thy Elders and Superiours Thirdly Keepe peace with thy Neighbours Fourthly Teach thy Children Fiftly Fulfill thy Calling and Office The last prohibiteth crimes Murther Adulterie Theft c. Many mixe this first with other Sects yea some hold not this a Sect but an Academie Schoole or Profession of Policie and gouerning the priuate and publike State §. IIII. Of the Sect Sciequia THe second Sect is called Sciequia or Omitose in Iapon pronounced Sciaccu and Amidabu the characters to both are the same the Iaponites call it also the Totoqui Law This was brought into China from the West out of a Kingdome called Thiencio or Scinto now Indostan betweene Indus and Ganges Anno Dom. 65. I haue read That the King of China mooued by a dreame sent Legates thither which brought thence Bookes and Interpreters which translated those Bookes from hence it passed into Iapon and therefore the Iaponders are deceiued which thinke that Sciaccu and Amidabu were Siamites and came into Iapon themselues Perhaps they then heard of the Apostles preaching in India and sending for that had this false doctrine obtruded on them These hold that there are foure Elements whereas the Chinois foolishly affirme fiue Fire Water Earth Metals and Wood not mentioning the Aire of which they compound this Elementary World with the creatures therein They multiplie Worlds with Democritus and with Pythagoras hold a Metampsychosis or passage of Soules out of one body into another They tell of a Trinitie of Gods which grew into one Deitie This Sect promiseth rewards to the good in Heauen to the euill threatens punishments in Hell extolleth Single life seemes to condemne Marriage bids fare-well to house and houshold and begs in Pilgrimages to diuers places Their Rites doe much agree it is the Iesuites assertion with the Popish their Hymnes and Prayers with the Gregorian fashion Images in their Temples Priestly Vestments like to their Pluutalia In their Mumsimus they often repeate a name which themselues vnderstand not Tolome which some thinke may be deriued from that of Saint Thomas Neither in Heauen or Hell doe they ascribe eternitie but after certaine spaces of yeeres they allow them another birth in some other Earth there allowing them penance for their passed sinnes The seuerer sort eate not flesh or any thing that had life but if any delinquish their penance is not heard the gift of some money or the mumbling ouer their Orisons being they promise of power to free from Hell These things made a faire shew but their corruptions
timely and quick passage and be borne againe in richer Families And therefore they seeke no corners but execute their bloudy parricides publikely Yea greater abominations then these are here perpetrated vpon as sleight grounds many laying violent hands vpon themselues both in desperation and impatience and in malice also so to hurt their enemies Thus they say many thousands both of men and women euery yeere drowne themselues in Riuers hang themselues sometimes at their aduersaries doors or poyson themselues whereupon their kindred complaine to the Magistrates on those which gaue cause or occasion to these extremities which sometimes are seuere in these cases to the accused It may be reckoned among their cruelties which in the Northerne Prouinces is practised the gelding of their Male-Infants so to make them capable of the Kings seruice none other being admitted to attend or speake with Him and the whole sway of the Kingdome being in great part in these vn-manly hands of ten thousand scarce any but Plebeian illiterate seruile in condition and conditions impotent impudent of weake both conceit and performance Neither is this a little crueltie that the Magistrates are thought to kill as many against the Lawes as the Lawes themselues by execution of iudiciall sentence by their custome of beating men with Canes in manner at their owne lust This makes men that they are not Masters of their owne but are in continuall feare to be vndone by calumny and tyranny The Choinois are also a fraudulent and treacherous people They contemne strangers scorning to learne any thing out of their bookes as being vnlearned and rude yea all the Characters whereby they expresse the name of strangers are compounded of such as signifie beasts hauing indeed a beastly and diabolicall conceit of them When Embassadors come to them from Neighbour-Countries to pay their tributes or for other busines they are very suspiciously intreated entertained as captiues all the time of their iourney not permitting them to see any thing They shut them vp like beasts in stables within their Palaces neuer admit them the Kings presence themselues dealing with few of the Magistrates and all their businesse being ordered by Officers thereto assigned Nor may any natiue trauell out of the Kingdome without diuers cautelesse Petreius the Portugall Embassador died in prison at Canton They will not suffer strangers which haue staid long in China in some places the custome is nine yeeres to returne from thence Their Souldiers are base meere mercinaries not regarding honor where they are not rewarded with honor alike vile in estimation and action the most part slaues thereto by their owne or parents wickednesse legally condemned except at times of employment being Porters Horse-keepers or of like seruile drudgerie Their Captaines and Commanders haue some shaddow of dignitie but the substance we haue before rightly attributed to them who can punish these as the meanest Long nayles are some say accounted a Gentlemanly signe as of hands not employed to labour Their exceeding pride in which they are not exceeded of any appeared in this that they thought the Iesuites must needs attaine the Popedome at their returne into Europe as hauing so much bettered their learning by the Chinois Authors But These haue since euen by the opinion of learning obtained a better estimation It were tedious to tell of their opinions touching the Creation All being a rude and vnformed Chaos Tayn say they framed and settled the Heauen and Earth This Tayn created Pauzon and Pauzona Pauzon by power of Tayn created Tanhom and his thirteene brethren Tanhom gaue names to all things and knew their vertues and with his said brethren multiplied their generations which continued the space of ninetie thousand yeeres And then Tayn destroyed the world for their pride and created another man named Lotzitzam who had two hornes of sweet sauour out of which presently did spring forth both men and women The first of these was Alazan which liued nine hundred yeeres Then did the Heauen create another man Lotzitzam was now vanished named Atzion whose Mother Lutim was with child with him only in seeing a Lions head in the ayre This was done in Truchin in the Prouince of Santon he liued eight hundred yeeres After this Vsao and Hantzui and Ocheutey with his sonne Ezonlom and his nephew Vitei the first King of China they say were the inuenters of their many Arts In the later Epistles from China dated 1606. and 1607. little is there to further this Historie As for their tales of Miracles in those and the Iaponian Epistles bearing the same date wherein Ignatius Loyolaes picture is made a miracle-worker I hold them not worth relation The Chinois beleeue as is there reported that there is a certaine spirit which hath power of the life and death of children that are sicke of the measells and therefore when their children are sicke thereof they hang a glasse before the dore of the chamber where he lyeth that the spirit comming to destroy the child seeing his Image in that glasse should not dare to approach neerer Their Baptisme cured the disease a new remedy for measels a new vertue of Baptisme Their order for the Poore may be a patterne vnto Christians they suffer none to beg nor to be idle If any be blinde yet hee is set to some worke as grinding in a Querne or such like of which sort after Boterus account there are foure thousand blind persons that grinde still in Canton alone If they be impotent that they cannot worke their friends if they be able must-prouide for them if not they are kept in Hospitalls out of which they neuer passe and haue all necessaries prouided them by Officers appointed in euery Citie to this businesse Common women are confined to certaine places and may not goe abroad nor dwell in the Citie for infecting others and are accountable to a certaine Officer of their euill earnings which when they are old is bestowed on their maintenance Their dwelling is in the Suburbs of Cities They are great Sodomites although they haue many Wiues and Concubines which they buy of their Parents or in the Markets in like manner as the Turkes They are not by Law prescribed to obserue this or that Sect and therefore they haue many Sects some worshipping the Sunne some the Moone some nothing and all what themselues best like as is in part before shewed They take their oathes as here by kissing a booke with thrice drinking of a certaine liquor Antony Dalmeida saith that in saying Masse they were so thronged with the people that they were almost trodden vnder foot And of a Chinian Priest contrarie to the zeale elsewhere in any Religion they were inuited to dinner and feasted together with many other of their Priests that vsed them kindly §. VIII Of their Temples IT followeth now that we speake of places Religious amongst the Chinois of which their Temples challenge the first place their Sepulchres the next Of
their Monasteries we haue already spoken Their Temples as their other structures come short of the Europaean magnificence yet are they many and that about Paquin it selfe For howsoeuer the King hath little deuotion to any Religion at all yet his Mother is verie zealous repaires and builds Temples in diuers places and in one Monasterie sustaineth aboue a thousand Ministers of her Holies so that this kind elsewhere contemned is in the Royall Citie better respected Hence they haue a Prouerbe In the Citie Royall Ho-xam so they call their Priests in the Prouinces the Magistrates are worshipped We haue mentioned the Temples dedicated to men of Merit and publike Benefactors Such an one is in the confines of the Prouince of Conton erected to the Honor of One which for the benefit of Trauellers made a passage ouer a steepe and vnpassable hill diuiding the rocks as Annibal did the Alpes where are such Precipices as cannot but strike horror to the passenger yet they are safely carried without descending from their chayres borne on men shoulders On the top of this hil is a Temple built to the Colaus that made this way with his Image therein and odours burning perpetually the walls and floore thereof adorned with many Poems and inscriptions to his praise cut in Marble This Mountaine is one daies iourney standing betweene two great Riuers whereby there is continuall traffique betwixt this of Canton and the other Prouinces there being aboue three thousand Porters or bearers of Burthens which carrie those wares besides Beasts of carriage and that with great fidelitie a rare vertue in other parts of China When they haue passed out of Canton ouer this Mountaine they come into the Riuer which is called the Sonne of the Sea for the largenesse but in Winter which is their driest season full of shoalds the cause of much shipwrackes But lest my Relation stay or bee wracked in these shoalds let vs take view of that which the King bestowed on the Iesuites for their Residence and for the Bariall of Matthaeus Ricius to whom our China Relations are so much indebted It was aboue a quarter of a myle from one of the Citie gates built by an Eunuch who now was condemned for some crime and lest his Palace which he had here builded with the expence of aboue 14000. duckats which in China is a great summe in that cheapenesse of all things far beyond Europae an computation should fal into the hands of spoilers the goods of Eunuchs in this kingdome vsually becomming his which first can catch them he consecrated his Palace and made it a Temple maintaining therein one Priest Such Palaces many of the Magistrates haue neere to the Cities as retyring places and Tusculanes for their Muses The portraiture of this whole House with the Garden and other appurtenances Trigantius hath set forth in picture being after the China building with the doore Southwards and so running a great length into the North with foure great Halls one beyond another in the middle parts and on each side Chambers and other roomes beyond all the Garden the pillars of Timber bearing vp the roofe the walls and pauement of Bricke The outmost of these Halls was conuerted into a Temple or Idoll-Chappell in which was a great Altar of Stone and Bricke cunningly fretted painted red a colour forbidden to priuate houses and vpon the midst thereof fate a huge Monster of Earth gilded from top to toe of massie quantitie The Chinois call it Ti cam the God as they fable of the Earth and Treasures as Pluto in the Poets In his hand was a Scepter on his head a Crowne not vnlike those vsed by our Kings On each side stood foure ministers of the same matter on both sides of the roome two great Tables and on each of them fiue Kings or great Officers of Hell On both the wals were painted the same Officers or Iudges sitting on their seuerall Tribunals giuing sentence on wicked men euery one according to the condition of his Court Before them stood many Deuils more terribly formed then with vs The paines of Hell also were so deciphered that could not but strike terror to the beholders some rosted in yron beds some fried in scalding oyle some cut in pieces or diuided in the middle or torne of dogs or otherwise tortured The first of those Iudges examined the faults which they said hee saw in a certaine glasse Those which he found guiltie were sent to the other Iudges according to the qualitie of the crimes One of these was Iudge in cases of Transmigration which sent the soules of cruell men into Tygres of vncleane persons into Swine and the like or if their crimes were smaller into the poorer sort There was a great Ballance in one of the Scales a man laden with sinnes in the other one of their hypocriticall prayer-bookes which counterpoysed the other Scale and freed the sinner There ran through the midst of Hell a discoloured Riuer which carried away many For ouer it were two Bridges one of Gold the other of Siluer by which those passed ouer which had been deuout Idolaters carrying in their hands ensignes of the same these were guided by the Priests which led them through the midst of Hell to faire and pleasant Groues and Gardens In another part were painted the dungeons of Hell with horrible Serpents flames Deuills To the brazen gates thereof there comes an Idolatrous Priest which in despight of all the Deuils deliuers his mother from those flames There was no infernall punishment painted but had such an inscription Hee which shall pray to such an Idoll a thousand times shall be free from this punishment The Iesuites beat the earthen Idols to dust and burnt those of wood wherein the Chinese Conuerts were the forwarder because the Countrey custome is to fill the hollow bellies of these Images with deuoted money or iewells They demolished the Altar and plastred ouer the pictures and in place thereof erected the Image of Christ No priuate man may erect a Temple by Law which yet the mightie Eunuchs transgresse A little before this exchange of Idols into Images after their distinction and a silly one it is some tooke their last leaue of Ti cam one kneeling and bidding it farewell another chasing said Thou masse of dung and earth if thou hast no power to maintaine the Temple and thy selfe what helpe may I looke for at thy hand neither art thou worthy of any honour at mine Others said that this had sometime borne the name of some other Idoll and therefore was auenged for that change At Xauceum is the Temple of Nanhoa vpon a goodly Hill and nigh to it a Monasterie in which are maintained one thousand of their Religious Regulars the lands adioyning being theirs They tell that about eight hundred yeeres since liued one Lusu in great austeritie alwayes girded with a chaine next to his flesh which vsed to grinde as much rice as might
receiuing principall supportation by the aduen uring Souldier and Merchant Honor and Gaine breaking through all Obstacles and opening all parts of the World to euery part As obliged therefore to the Iournalls which borrowed of that Societie haue led mee alongst the Indies Gratitude thrusteth me forth an Orator and Patron not so much for their Persons or personall Actions which I know not and can wee know any either Men or Societies free from personall Euills or is it so rare that in Merchants of all sorts Couetousnesse and priuate Ends should haue place yet herein I doe not I cannot accuse no more then excuse them but for the Societie and iust Grounds of this Indian Aduenture which some affirme gainefull to the Aduenturers but with publike detriment to the State I haue aduentured on this Stage and opposed and exposed my selfe to Imputation For the Generall Equitie thereof it is consonant to all kindes of Lawes to the Law of GOD who hath giuen the Earth to the Sonnes of Men each Man being by naturall Inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hauing an vniuersall Tenure in the Vniuerse of Nature which by mutuall Offices insinuateth a Generall Good of Nations which flourish most in communâ—cating their Superfluities by Exchange for Necessaries and concurreth with the Lawes of this Kingdome which being placed in the bosome of the Ocean hath enacted many Prouisions for the maintenance of Nauigation which yeelds vs woodden Walls and moueable Fortresses in defending our Selues or offending the Enemie And particularly let it be no disparagement vnto this Action that it was Nobly borne the Daughter of a famous Mother in Israel Renowmed ELIZABETH who by her Letters Patents for the Honour of her Realme of England for the increase of her Nauigation for the aduancement of the Trade of Merchandise and for other important Causes and Reasons first conceiued and gaue first breath to this Societie Blush Englishman if thou hast true English bloud in thee that darest on rash Surmises Censure I had almost said Examine the Constitutions of that Cyrus Arsaces Augustus I want a Name that more then they All if not in Founding yet in Grounding Establishing Adorning the English Nation Happie ELIZABETH the Virgin-Mother of thy Countries Peace Religion Arts Armes Mother to thy distressed Neighbors ; Mother to so many famous Expeditions in and about the World and the same the Mother of the Indian Traffique Happie ELIZABETH in thy Glorious Successor that when our Sunne was set no Night ensued succeeding if not with Masculine Excellence exceeding in Fatherly Care as well as in the Royall Throne In his dayes our Peace before subiect to the infirmities of Conception Birth Infancie hath growne to her Mature and flourishing age Religion hath not since Salomons dayes found so Royall and Learned a Defender of the Faith Arts elsewhere diffused combined in that Heroike Center haue proclaimed Him King of a larger extent of Learning then the Muses professed Admirable almost miraculous are his Armes who without Armies poyseth and ballanceth the Westerne World in an euen Counter-poyse like herein to that OMNIPOTENT MAIESTY which being vnmoueable moueth all things But alas why doe I eclipse so brightshining Prayses with my interceding intercepting praysings obscure Candles before This Sunne long may he shine in Our or That Other descended shall I say to the Lower no exalted to the Highest Hemisphere Pardon Reader if when I looke vp to the Authors of this Attempt Two so bright Lights haue dazeled my weaker eyes and made mee almost lose my selfe in this Maze of more then Humane Worth Yet this thou seest Two propositions beyond Castor and Pollux are the Badge of our Indian Ship and the Glorie of our Nation is the glorie of this Action Queene ELIZABETH and long and farre may He flourish the Maiestie of King IAMES Neither can the English bee charged with annoying eyther Christian or Heathen except in Necessarie Defence or Iust Reuenge Neyther a doe they shut vp the Seas to the Inhabitants They plant Factories not Fortresses on the Land whereby Others ouer-awe the Natiues proue vnfriendly to their Friends seeke to eat out other aduenturing Nations and make prey of Christians and Ethnikes vnprouoked And is it not a profit to our Nation to vent Clothes Iron Lead and other Commodities To set on worke so many of all Trades and Professions To employ so many Mariners To build so many so able so capable Ships To enrich the Kings Coffers and publike Treasurie in Customes Imposts and other Duties Yea that by enriching the priuate Aduenturers the State hath so many more seruiceable Members for the good of the whole Bodie And is it not for the Honor of our Nation that the English Name hath pierced the remotest Countries and filled the Indians with admiration of the English That Asia clothes vs with her Silkes feedes vs with her Spices cures vs with her Drugges adornes vs with her Iewels and almost adores the English Valour That Turkie is made so neere whiles our Indian Ocean makes our way to the Persian the Mogoll the Iapan Monarchs Awfull Names of Greatnesse not heard of by our Ancestors now delighting in our new Amitie These and other mightie Easterne Potentates entertaining Commerce of Letters and Embassies with Great Britaines Greatest Soueraigne And is it not for the Honor of our Nation that the Mariner Merchant and Souldior here together conspire the English Glorie Euery one in this Action as it were trayned in all three Functions and becomming at once a Mariner in so long Nauigation a Merchant where a little Stocke promiseth great Gaine and in necessarie Defence by Sea and Land an exercised Souldior Oh how doth my Soule honour those glorious Exploits in the Indian Ocean by those two worthie Generalls Best and Downton in the yeares 1612. and 1614. the Sea becomming an Amphitheatre where the Easterne World might bee Spectators of the Westerne Worth the Asian Shores filled with Troupes to behold the Tragicall Euent of those Terrible Fights which all with all the Numbers Gallantrie Malignitie Subtletie Iniquitie Indignation Resolution Preparation and strength of the Countrey serued to encrease the english Victory and Glory The Storie is fitter in another place but the Honor which there was gayned by our Nation hath filled the Mogols huge Dominions with Admiration pierced to the Persian Court where our Nation hath since procured Priuiledges and extended beyond the large Extents of India Yea the Persian Gulfe hath beene awed and the Arabike or Red Sea tamed in requitall of the Turkes and Buluches Trecheries not by inuading Violence but Christian Iustice GOD Himselfe hath honored this Action also with prosperous successe rewarding the English with Honor and Profit their Aduersaries with Losse and Confusion besides farre fewer Casualties by shipwrack or other Disasters then Other aduenturing Nations haue sustained Neither are we able only with these Nautike long Armes to reach the Worlds remotest parts but at
Hermites reputed very holy Many Iuglers also and Witches which shew deuilish tricks They neuer goe forth without praying Euery Hill Cliffe Hole or Den hath his Pagodes in it with their Furnaces hard by them and their Cisternes alwayes full of water with which euery one that passeth by washeth his feet and then worshippeth and offereth Rice Egges or what else their deuotion will affoord which the Bramene eateth When they are to goe to Sea they will feast their Pagode with Trumpets Fires and hangings fourteene dayes before they set forth to obtaine a good voyage and as long after their returne which they vse to doe in all their Feasts Marriages Child-births and their Haruest and Seed-seasons The Indian women in Goa when they goe forth haue but one cloth about their bodies which couereth their heads and hangeth downe to the knees otherwise naked They haue rings thorow their noses about their legs toes neckes and armes and seuen or eight bracelets vpon their hands according to their abilitie of glasse or other metall When the woman is seuen yeeres old and the man nine they marry but come not together till the woman is able to beare children Mr. Fitch mentioneth the solemnitie of these marriages and the cause to be the burning of the mother when the father is dead that they might haue a father-in-law to bring them vp To leaue Goa with this Iland The Canaras and Decanijns weare their beards and haire long without cutting as the Bramenes They except from food Kine Hogs and Buffles They account the Oxe Cow or Buffle to be holy which they haue commonly in the house with them and they belmeere stroke and handle them with all friendship in the world feed them with the same meat they eate themselues and when the beasts ease themselues they hold vnder their hands and throw the dung away they sleepe with them in their houses hereby thinking to doe God seruice In other things they are as the Bramenes For those are the Laitie these are the Spiritualtie When they take their oathes they are set within a circle of ashes on the pauement and laying a few ashes on their heads the other on their breasts sweare by their Pagodes to tell the truth The Canarijns and the Corumbijns are the rustickes and Countrey-husbandmen the most miserable people of all India their Religion is much as the other They couer onely their Priuities and eate all things except Kine Oxen Buffles Hogs and Hens flesh Their women binde a cloth about their Nauell which reacheth halfe way the thigh they are deliuered alone by themselues without other helpe their children are brought vp naked till they be seuen or eight yeeres old without any trouble about them except washing them in a little cold water and liue to be an hundred yeeres old without head-ache or losse of teeth They nourish a cuffe of haire on their crownes cutting the rest When the man is dead the wife breaketh her glasse-jewels and cutteth off her haire his bodie is burnt They eate so little as if they liued by the ayre and for a penny would endure whipping In Salsette are two Temples or holes rather of Pagodes renowned in all India one of which is cut from vnder a hill of hard stone and is of compasse within about the bignesse of Village of foure hundred Houses with many Galleries or Chambers of these deformed shapes one higher then another cut out of the hard Rock There are in all three hundred of these Galleries The other is in another place of like matter and forme It would make a mans haire stand vpright to enter amongst them In a little Iland called Pory there standeth a high Hill on the top whereof is a hole that goeth downe on the Hill digged and carued out of the hard Rocke within as large as a great Cloyster round beset with shapes of Elephants Tygres Amazons and other like worke workemanly cut supposed to be the Chinois handy-worke But the Portugals haue now ouerthrowne these Idol-Temples Would God they had not set new Idols in the roome with like practice of offerings and Pilgrimages as did these to their Pagode I once went into a Temple of stone in a Village and found nothing in it but a great Table that hung in the middle of the Church with the Image of a Pagode thereon painted hellishly disfigured with many hornes long teeth out of the mouth downe to the knees and and beneath his nauell with such another tusked 〈◊〉 horned face Vpon the head stood a triple crowne not much vnlike the Popes It hung before a wall which made a partition from another Chamber like a Quire close without any light in the middle whereof was a little doore and on each side of it a furnace within the wall with certaine holes thereby to let the smoake or sauour of the fire to enter into that place when any offering should bee made Whereof wee found there some Rice Corne Fruits Hens and such like There issued thence such a filthy smoake and stinke that it made the place black and almost choaked such as entred We desired the Bramene to open the doore which with much entreatie he did offering first to throw ashes on our fore-heads which wee refused so that before hee would open vs the doore we were forced to promise him not to enter beyond the doore It shewed within like a lime-kill being close vaulted without hole or window neither had the Church it selfe any light but the doore Within the the said Cell hung an hundred burning Lampes and in the middle stood a little Altar couered with Cotton Cloth and ouer that with Gold vnder which as the Bramene told vs sate the Pagode all of Gold of the bignesse of a Puppet Hard by the Church without the great doore stood within the earth a great fouresquare Cisterne hewed out of freestone with staires on each side to goe downe into it full of greene filthy and stinking water wherein they wash themselues when they meane to enter into the Church to pray In the euening they carried their Pagode on Procession first Ringing a Bell wherewith the people assembled and tooke the Pagode out of his Cell with great reuerence and set it in a Palamkin which was borne by the chiefe men of the Towne the rest following with great deuotion with their vsuall noise and sound of Trumpets and other Instruments and hauing carried him a prettie circuit brought him to the stone Cisterne washed him and placed him againe in his Cell making a foule smoake and stinke and euery man leauing his offering behind him intended to the Pagode but consumed by the Bramene and his family As we went along by the wayes we found many such shapes vnder certaine couertures with a small Cisterne of water hard by and halfe an Indian Nut hanging thereby to take vp water withall for the Trauellers to wash and pray By the said Pagodes doe stand commonly a Calfe of stone and two little
Men departed doe most of all enter into these beasts They haue many bookes of their superstition neere the Augurall discipline of the Hetrurians and fond fables of the Graecians and diligently conceale the same from vulgar knowledge except some Bramene Proselyte doe detect those mysteries They beleeue one God maker of Heauen and Earth but adde that he could haue no pleasure in so weighty a charge of gouerning the world and therefore hath delegated the same to the Deuill to reward euery man according to his workes Him they call Deumo they name GOD Tamerani The King hath in his Palace the Chappell of Deumo carued full of Deuils and in the middest sitteth this Image of metall in a Throne of the same matter with a triple Crowne like the Popes and foure hornes with teeth eyes and mouth wide and terrible hooked hands and feet like a Cocke In each corner of this square Chappell is a Deuill set in a fiery Throne wherein are many Soules the Deuill putting one with his right hand into his mouth and taking another from vnder him with his left hand This Idoll is washed by the Bramenes with sweet water incensed and worshipped euery morning Somtime in the weeke they sacrifice on this manner They haue an Altar strewed with flowers on which they put the bloud of a Cocke and coales of fire in a siluer Chafing-dish with much perfumes incensing about the Altar and often ringing with a little Bell of siluer They hold in their hands a siluer Knife with which the Cocke was killed which they dip in the bloud and put into the fire with many Apish gestures All the bloud is thus burned many Waxe-candles burning meane-while The Priest hath on his wrists and legs as it were Morrice-bels which make a great noise a certaine Table hanging at his necke and when he hath ended his Sacrifice he taketh his hands full of Wheat goeth backward from the Altar on which hee alwaies fixeth his eies to a certaine Tree and then hurleth the Corne vp ouer his head as high as he can after which he returneth and vnfurnisheth the Altar The King of Calicut eateth no meate before foure principall Bramenes haue first offered thereof to the Deuill which they do lifting both their hands ouer their heads and shutting their fists draw back the same with their thumbe presenting of that meate to the Idoll and then carrie it to the King on a great Leafe in a Treene Platter The King sitteth on the ground at his meate without any thing vnder him attended with Bramenes standing foure paces off with their hands before their mouthes in great reuerence And after the King hath eaten those Priests carry the Relikes into the Court where they clap thrice with their hands whereat presently certaine Crowes resort thither to eate the Kings leauings which Crowes are hereunto accustomed and may not bee hurt of any When the King marrieth a wife one of the principall Bramenes hath the first nights lodging with hee for which he hath assigned him by the King foure hundred or fiue hundred Ducats The King and his Gentlemen or Nayros eate not flesh without license of the Bramenes The King committeth the custodie of his Wife to the Bramenes when he trauelleth any whither and taketh in too honest part their dishonest familiaritie But for this cause the Kings Sonne succeedeth not in the Crowne but his sisters Sonne as being certainly of his blood These sisters of the King choose what Gentleman they please on whom to bestow their Virginitie and if they proue not in a certaine time to be with child they betake them go these Bramene-stallions The Gentlemen and Merchants haue a custome to exchange Wiues in token of great friendship Some women amongst them haue sixe or seuen Husbands fathering her children on which of them shee best pleaseth The Men when they marry get others to vse them if they bee Virgins fifteene or twentie dayes before they themselues will bed them This Author affirmeth that there were a thousand Families of Christians in Calicut at the time of his being there a hundred and twentie yeeres since If a Debtor breake day with his Creditor and often disapoint him hee goeth to the principall of the Bramenes and receiueth of him a Rod with which he approcheth to the Debter and making a Circle about him chargeth him in the name of the King and the said Bramene not to depart thence till he hath satisfied the Debt which if he do not he must starue in the place for if he depart the King will cause him to be executed The new King for one yeeres space eateth neither Fish nor Flesh nor cutteth his Haire or Nailes vseth certaine Prayers daily eateth but one meale and that after he hath washed neither may hee looke on any man till he hath ended his repast At the yeeres end hee maketh a great Feast to which resort aboue ten thousand persons to confirme the Prince and his Officers and then much Almes is giuen Hee entertaineth tenne thousand Women in diuers Offices in his Palace These make to the King after his fasting yeere is out a Candlemasse Feast each of them carrying diuers lights from the Temple where they first obserue many Idoll idle Ceremonies vnto the Palace with great Musicke and other iollitie §. II. Of the King of Calicut OF the election and erection of the Zamoryn we haue spoken in the beginning of the Chapter let vs here adde out of Castaneda concerning his deuotion Hee saith that this King of Calicut is a Bramene as his Predecessors also And for that it is a custome that all the Kings die in one Pagode or Idoll Temple hee is elected for that cause For alwaies there is and must be in that House a King to serue those Idols and when hee that serueth there dieth then must the King that then raigneth leaue his Empire and goe serue in that place as the other did another being elected to succeed him in the Kingdome And if any refuseth to forsake his Court for the Pagode they enforce him thereunto The Kings of Malabar be browne men and goe naked from the girdle vpward and from thence downward they are couered with cloth of Silke and of Cotton adorned with Iewels For their Children the Sonnes inherit not but the Brother or if there bee none the Sisters Sonne When their Daughers are ten yeeres old they send out of the Kingdome for a Nayro and presenting him with gifts request him to take her Virginitie which hauing done hee tieth a Iewell about her necke which she weareth during her life as a token that from thenceforth she hath free power of her bodie to doe what she will which before she might not After their death these Kings are carried forth into a plaine Field and their burned with sweet wood very costly their kindred and all the Nobilitie of the Countrey being present which done and the ashes buried they shaue themselues without leauing
any haire except on the browes and eye-lids euen on the least child and for the space of thirteene dayes cease to eate Botels his lips are out that doth it and all that time is an Inter-regnum wherein they obserue if any will come in to obiect any thing against the new future King After this hee is sworne to the Lawes of his Predecessor to pay his debts to recouer whatsoeuer belonged to his Kingdome being lost which Oath he taketh hauing his Sword in his left hand and in the right a Candle burning which hath a Ring of Gold vpon it which he toucheth with two of his fingers and taketh his Oath This being done they throw or powre vpon him a few graines of Rice with many other Ceremonies and Prayers and he worshippeth the Sunne three times after which all the Caymailes or principall Nobles sweare their fealtie to him handling also the same Candle The thirteene dayes ended they eate their Betele againe and Flesh and Fish as before the King except who then taketh thought for his Predecessor and for the space of one whole yeere as is before obserued in part out of Barbosa eates no Betele nor shaueth his beard nor cutteth his nailes eateth but once a day and before hee doth it washeth all his bodie and obserueth certaine houres of Prayer daily The yeere being ended he obserueth a kind of Dirige for his Predecessors soule whereat are assembled 100000. persons at which time hee giueth great Almes and then it confirmed All these Malabar Kings haue one speciall Man which is the chiefe Administrator of Iustice who in matters of gouernment is obeyed no lesse then the King himselfe The Souldiers are Nayros none of which can be imprisoned or put to death by ordinarie Iustice but if one of them kill another or else kill a Cow or sleepe with a Countriewoman or speake euill of the King the King after information giues his Warrant to another Nayro who with his Associates kill him wheresoeuer they find him hewing him with their Swords and then hang on him his Warrant to testifie the cause of his death These Nayros may not weare their Weapons nor enter into combate till they be armed Knights although that from the Age of seuen yeeres they are trayned vp in Feates and practice of Armes He is dubbed or created by the King who commandeth to gird him with a Sword and laying his right hand vpon his head muttereth certaine words softly and afterward dubbeth him saying Haue a regard to keepe these Bramenes and their Kine These are the two Great Commandements of the Bramene Law The King sometimes commits this Ceremonie to their Panicall or Master in the Feats of Armes whom they euer honour as their Father and next to the King most reuerence They teach them to Run Leape Fencing and managing of Weapons and anoint them with Oyle of Gergelin to make their sinewes pliant for all winding and tumbling gestures They begin to goe to Schoole at seuen yeeres olde In fight they are valorous and account it no shame to flee but will doe it in policie and yet when they yeeld themselues to any mans seruice they bind themselues to die with him and for him which they faithfully performe fighting till they bee killed They are great South-sayers haue their good and bad Dayes worship the Sun the Moone the Fire and the Kine and the first they meet in the morning The Deuill is often in them they say it is one of their Pagodes which causeth them to vtter terrible wordes and then hee goeth before the King with a naked Sword quaking and cutting his flesh saying with great cries I am such a god and I am come to tell thee such a thing and if the King doubteth he roreth lowder and cutteth himselfe deeper till he be credited The Fortugals haue much eclipsed the greatnesse of the King of Calicut and caused many other alterations in all the East in this last Age of the World Of whose exploits Castaneda Barrius Maffaeus Oserius and others haue written at large Our English-Indian Societie haue setled a Factory at Calicut touching the conditions and condition whereof you may reade at large in Roger Hawes his Iournall deliuered amongst other our Pilgrimes He telleth of the perfidiousnesse of this people how hardly they could get in debts they chusing rather to spend much in bribes then to pay debts Ours made vse of ther Superstition to Iustice for vnderstanding that they would neither eate nor wash whiles the English were in their houses they would threaten not to depart till they were payd hauing meane while Nayros for their Guard Thus Iniustice made them iust and vncharitablenes charitable For rather then be long troubled with their company most of them would pay part of their debts so that they got fifty Fanos kind of Coine of one 100. of another but one notwithstanding their three dayes abode would pay nothing it seemes equally prophane superstitious and vniust §. III. Of their differing Sects BArbosa reckoneth eighteene Sects that haue no mutuall conuersation nor may marrie but in their owne rankes or order Next to the King and Bramenes he placeth the Nayros which are Gentlemen and Souldiers and are not professed Nayros notwithstanding their bloud till they be by their Lords or by the King made Knights or Souldiers And then hee must neuer from that time goe without his Weapons which commonly are a Rapier and a Target and sometimes Peeces or Bowes They neuer marry but lye with such of the Nayros Women or Daughters as like them leauing his Weapons meane while at the doore which forbid any man else although it be the goodman himselfe to enter till he hath ended his businesse and be gone And if one of the common people once touch a Nayro it is lawfull for the Nayro to kill him and he is also vncleane and must be purified by certaine washings And for this cause they cry as they goe in the streets Po Po that the baser Raskality may giue place They haue a Pit of standing Water at their doores hallowed by the Bramenes wherein euery morning they wash themselues although it bee greene slimie and stinking imagining thus to be clensed of their sinnes They are brought vp altogether to Feats of Armes and Actiuitie from their Child-hood admirably able to wind and turne themselues and are very resolute and desperate binding themselues by oath to liue and die with their King or Lord. No Nayro's women may enter into Calicut but one night in the yeere when the Citie is full of Lights and then they goe with the Nayros to behold and gaze their fill They intend nothing but their lust and thinke that if they die Virgins they shall neuer enter into Paradise The Biabari are another sort and are Merchants Gentiles and enioy great priuiledges The King cannot put them to death but by sentence of the principall of themselues They were the only Merchants before the
the Portugall Fort in Ternate he kept a Sow which some of the deuouter Mahumetans killed He getting the chiefe Priest accessorie to the fact into the Castle at his deliuerie made his face bee greased with Bacon by the Iaylor which caused the people to ofter abuse to some Portugals Menesius in reuenge cut off the hands of two of them the third had his hands bound behinde him and was bayted with two dogges on the Sea-shore which his implacable enemies transported him into like dogged humour though he were not with Hecuba transformed into the shape insomuch that fastening with his teeth on one of their eares he held fast till his strength fayling hee sunke into the Sea with the Dogge and was drowned In Celebes they eate mans flesh The King of the Moluccas was wont to send condemned persons to Celebes to be deuoured Nicolaus Nunnes writeth That Celebes is very large and contayneth many and great Ilands the Soyle is exceeding fertile the Inhabitants comely and tall rather ruddie then blacke They haue many Kings which is cause of many contentions Three of them were conuerted Peter Mascarenia in a Letter dated a thousand fiue hundred sixtie nine speaketh of a King of Sion in Celebes which was baptized and his subiects therefore rebelled against him one Towne onely except and that hee and the King of Sanguim did take vp a Crosse on their owne shoulders which the chiefe Men had before hewen of a faire piece of wood and helped to erect the same and then with the multitude kneeling downe worshipped it Southward of Celebes is situated a little Iland where Sir Francis Drake graued his ship This Iland is throughly growne with Woods in which euery night certayne fierie Flyes made such a light as if euery Twigge or Tree had beene a burning Candle Here they found Batts as bigge as Hennes and plentie of Cray-fishes so great that one vvould suffice foure men to their dinner they digged themselues holes in the earth like Conies At Macassar in this Iland is an English Factorie In this Iland some are Moores some Ethnikes They enuenome their Arrow-heads which are made of Fish-bones with an incurable poyson There are Priests which conforme or rather deforme themselues to the habit of women nourishing their haire on the head and plucking it out of the face They gild their teeth and vse broken wanton effeminate gestures They are called Becos and marrie one another For them to lye with a woman is capitall and punished with burning in pitch These Men-Monsters Women-Deuils much hindered the Portugals Conuersions §. III. Of the Iauas and other adioyning Ilands NOt farre from hence is Iaua of which name M. Paulus and Nich. di Conti reckon two great Ilands ascribing to the one two thousand and to the other three thousand miles in circuit The lesse is neere to the firme Land of the South Continent where Beach and some other Prouinces are named by Paulus and Vertomannus of Heathenish superstitions The lesse Iaua had in the dayes of M. Paulus eight Kingdomes in sixe of which himselfe had beene which hee nameth Felech wherein the rurall Inhabitants were Idolaters the Citizens Moores the Idoll-worshippers eate any flesh whatsoeuer of man or beast and obserue all day what they first see in the morning Basma the second acknowledged the Great Chams soueraigntie but payed him no tribute Here were certayne Vnicornes headed like Swine footed like an Elephant with one horne on their foreheads with which they doe not hurt any but to that end vse certayne prickles that grow on their tongues They delight also in the myre like Swine Here are little Apes much resembling men in their countenance which they vsed to preserue with certayne Spices hauing flayed off their skins and left the haire growing in those parts where Nature causeth men to be hayrie and sell them to Merchants to be carried ouer the World as the bodies of little men happily the onely true Pygmies the world yeeldeth In Samara the third of those Kingdomes none of the North-starres can bee seene They are Man-eaters and Idolaters but not so brutish as in Dragorian the next Kingdome where if a man bee sicke his kinsmen consult with their Sorcerers who enquire of the Deuill Whether he shall escape or no And if the answere bee Negatiue they send for certayne men specially designed to that villanous mysterie which strangle him and then they dresse and eate him amongst the kindred euen to the very marrow in his bones For say they if any flesh should remayne it would putrifie and wormes would breede thereof which after for want of sustenance would perish whereby the soule of the dead partie would be much tormented The bones they burie safely that no beast should touch them such dread haue they of beasts and crueltie in a more then beastly crueltie and such a care to obserue humanitie and pietie in a most impious inhumanitie Lambri the next Kingdome hath in it some men with tayles like Dogs a span long The last is Fanfur where they liue of bread made of pith of Trees the wood whereof is heauie and sinketh to the bottome if it be put in water like Iron and therefore they make Lances thereof able to pierce Armour for it is three fingers thicke betwixt the hollow and the barke To let passe Pentan Sondar and other Idolatrous Ilands and come to Iaua maior This Countrey is very rich but in times past of most abominable custome Nic. Conti saith That they feede on Cats Rats and other vermine and were most vile murtherers not sticking to make triall of the good cutting or thrust of their blades on the next body they met with and that without punishment yea if the blow or thrust were deliuered with fine force with much commendation Vertomannus affirmeth of them That some obserue Idols some the Sunne or Moone others an Oxe and many the first thing they meete in the morning and some worship the Deuill When men were old and not able longer to worke their children or parents carryed them into the Market and sold them to others which did eate them And the like they vsed with the younger sort in any desperate sicknesse preuenting Nature with a violent death and esteeming their bellies fitter Sepulchres then the earth accounting others fooles which suffered the wormes to deuoure so pleasant foode For feare of these Man-eaters they stayed not long there It seemeth that they haue much left their brutish customes since wonne to more ciuilitie by trading of the Moores and Christians especially such as are of the Arabian law although as our owne Countrey-men report which haue there liued a mans life is valued to the murtherer at a small summe of money They are a prowd Nation If a man should come in where they are set on the ground after their manner and should sit on a Chest or high thing it were as much as his life were worth The King of Bantam breaking
wherof being eaten causeth laughing dalliance and makes one as it were drunken and maruellously prouoketh to lust In the Kingdome of Tunis is placed the Lake Tritonia where Minerua is said to haue shewed her selfe the Inuenter of Spinning and of Oyle and therefore worshipped Ezzab is the most Easterly part of the Tunetan Kingdome the chiefe Prouince whereof is Mesrata The Inhabitants are rich and pay no Tribute There grow Dates and Oliues and they traffique with the Numidians to whom they carry the Wares which they buy of the Venetians The Great Turke swayeth with his Ottoman Scepter at this present this Kingdome of Tunis and all Africa from Bellis de Gomera to the Red Sea except that little which the Spaniard hath At this day they are Mahumetan and haue beene about these nine hundred yeeres past from the time of Hucba The Inhabitants of the Cities differ much from the Mountayners and ruder Rustickes For they are studious especially in matters of their Law as in times past they were also in Philosophy and the Mathematickes But these last fiue hundred yeeres their Princes and Doctors haue prohibited many Sciences as Astrologie and Philosophy according to the Mahumetan custome they vse much washing and resorting to the Temples They are very faithfull in their promises and exceeding iealous They goe through the World as Merchants and in many places are entertayned as Readers and Masters in diuers Sciences and are well esteemed in Egypt Aethiopia Arabia Persia India Turkie The younger sort yeeld much reuerence to their Elders and Parents and will not hold discourse of loue or sing loue-songs in their presence But these Citizens are very proud and reuengefull The Lords esteeme more of their beasts then of their common people The Country people in the fields and mountaynes liue hardly in labour and want They are beastly theeuish ignorant vnfaithfull Their women before they bee married may liue as wantonly as they list yea the father maketh hatefull loue to the daughter and the brother is vnlouingly louing to the sister The Numidians are trayterous homicides theeues and for reward will doe any thing Such also are the Libyans without any kind of Letters Faith or Law without Heauen or Earth liuing if that may be called a life like wild beasts for ignorance like Deuils for wickednesse like Dogges for pouerty These things reporteth Leo of them who liued among them which may prouoke vs to thankefulnesse to that Great God who hath giuen Vs such abundance for body and soule in things present and future temporall and eternall CHAP. IX Of the Kingdome of Tremisen Algier and other places ancienty called Mauritania Caesariensis §. I. Of Tremisen and of the ancient Maurusij THe Kingdome of Telensin or Tremisen beginning Westward from the Riuer of Zha and Muluia Eastward it bordereth on the Great Riuer Southward vpon the Desart of Numidia and Northward vpon the Mediterran Sea It was by the Romans called Mauritania Caesariensis the name came of the Inhabitants called Mauri and of the Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some say of their colour because it is obscure and darke They were supposed to come hither first with Hercules out of India More likely it is that they descended of Phut the sonne of Cham Gen. 10.6 Plinie mentions a Riuer named Fut in these parts descending from Atlas Salust saith they came with Hercules who being dead in Spaine as the Africans report his Armie being gathered of many Nations was diuersly diuided The Medes Armenians and Persians of that number sayled into Africa of which the Persians dwelt neere the Sea their ships with the keeles turned vpwards seruing them for houses and mixed themselues with the Getuli entitling themselues Numidians The Libyans adioyned themselues to the Armenians and to the Medi whom by corruption of Language they called Mauri These Getulians and Libyans he saith were before very rude wandring vp and downe without Law or Ciuility liuing like beasts lying and feeding on the ground which testimony of Salust Mela in like words confirmeth But of these and other African people let them which please learne of that Author and of such as haue written Notes vpon him as Gruterus Glarianus Riuius Ciacconius Putschius and others Vitruuius nameth Mauritania Maurusia Ortelius testifieth That in ancient Coines it is read Mauretania and so Tacitus readeth Ptolemey diuideth it into Mauritania Caesariensis which Victor Vticensis calleth Maior and Tingitania Pliny ascribes this diuision to Caligula Dion to Claudius Caesar of whom it was sirnamed Casariensis of the Mother Citie Caesarea where hee planted a Roman Colony before called Iol the Royall Seat of Iuba a man famous for that hee first reigned ouer both these Mauritania's but more famous for his Learning whereby he still liueth in the learned Monuments of Pliny and others Authour of much of our African report Hee in his childhood was led in triumph at Rome his father Iuba the successour of Bechus had before slaine himselfe in the Ciuill Warres Augustus restored him to his Fathers Kingdome to which he left his sonne Ptolomey borne of the daughter of Antonius and Cleopatra whom Caligula slue and then diuided Mauritania into two Prouinces whereof this is called as is said Caesariensis of the Colonie of Claudius Caesar That which Procopius hath written of the originall of these Maurusij as he termes them although in our first Booke mentioned here also so may seeme to deserue Relation When Iosua or Iesus the sonne of Nun or Nane had inuaded the Land of Canaan the people fled into Egypt and there multiplying , pierced into Africa replenishing with people all that Coast vnto the Pillars of Hercules vsing a semi-Phoenician Dialect For all the Sea-coast from Sidon to Egypt was anciently called Phoenicia They built the Towne Tinge in Numidia where they erected two Pillars of white stone neere a great Fountayne wherein was ingrauen in Phoenician Letters Wee flee from the face of Iesus the Thiefe the Sonne of Nane These are supposed the first Inhabitants of Africa and for that cause Antaeus their King which encountred in single combate with Hercules was said to bee the Sonne of the Earth Afterwards when the Phoenicians came hither with Dido they were here receiued for kindreds sake and permitted to build Carthage which after grew so mighty that it subdued and expelled the Maurusij themselues The Romans made the Carthaginians and other Africans Tributaries and caused the Maurusij to inhabit the furthest parts of Africa but in processe of time they obtayning many victories against the Vandals seated themselues in Mauritania till Iustinian remooued them Thus farre Procopius Paulus Diaconus recordeth also the same History sauing that he sayth the Egyptians would not receiue them and therefore they passed into Africa The Maurusij in the time of Iustinian were destroyed and captiued in such multitudes that a Maurusian slaue was valued at the price of a sheepe The Author of
this was Salomon an Eunuch according to a Prophesie which they had amongst them that one without a beard should destroy them But captiuity could not much empare their happinesse whose very freedome was misery For they liued in small base cottages exposed to the Summer Sunnes and Winter snowes sleeping except a few of the better sort on the bare ground alway wearing the same garment howsoeuer the season differed and that torne and ragged wanting bread and all other necessaries neither grinding nor boyling that Corne they had Thus miserable were their bodies and their soules more For they had neither feare of God nor reuerence of Men nor respect of pledge nor regard of oath nor peace with any but where feare constrained them They had their women Prophetesses which diuined by their Sacrifices a thing vnlawfull for their Men to attempt Of the numbers of their wiues they bragged that the Christians which had but one wife might feare the losse of their children they which might haue fifty wiues need not misdoubt Issue and Posteritie And yet they were by many wars brought to small numbers and a few Tribes or Families Leo sayth that after the Romanes were expelled the ancient Gouernours called Beni Habdalguad of the Family of Magraua repossessed these parts who were after dipossessed by Ghamrazen Sonne of Zeijen whose Posterity reigned here almost three hundred and eightie yeeres But they were much vexed by the Kings of Fez and Tunis It was in later times called the Kingdome of Telensin or of Tremisen stretching in length from East to West three hundred and eighty miles in breadth not aboue fiue and twenty The Kings could neuer satisfie the Numidians couetise whose friendship they haue with great cost sought It hath two frequented Hauen-townes Oram and Mersalcabir both taken and holden by the Spaniards They were taken in the time of Ferdinando King of Spaine for which cause Abuchemmen the Telensin King was expelled by his owne Subiects and Abuzeijen placed in his roome which he could scarcely warme before he was slaine by Barbarussa the Turke who conquered this Kingdome But Abuchemmen sought to Charles the fift for aide by whose helpe he recouered his Kingdome and payed a Tribute to the Emperour But Habdulla his Successor detayned the Tribute and submitted himselfe vnto Soliman the Great Turke Algier remayned to Barbarussa §. II. Of BARBARVSSA of Algier and the parts adioyning THis Barbarussa or Barbarossa was a meane fellow of base condition who in his youth sold Cheeses in Spain for his liuing by his industry attained to great matters There were of them two Brethren born at Mytilene in Lesbos their Mother a Christian their Father a Renegate Grecian Horucius Barbarussa and this Hariadenus Barbarussa They first stole a Galliot and so committing themselues to Sea by Piracy vnder Camales a Turkish Pirate they grew rich and from one Galley came to haue a Nauie of their owne with which they scoured the Coasts of Barbary At the same time two brethren contended for the Kingdome of Algier one of which requested ayde of Horucius who so helped him against his brother that he helped himselfe to the Kingdome by the murther of the King his Patron and Alley which he did not long enioy being taken and slaine of the Spaniards and his head sent into Spaine But Iris Brother Hariadenus succeeding him became mighty both by Sea and Land to the great dammage both of the Mores and Christians and Soliman moued by his fame sent for him and made him Admirall of all the Turkish Seas and Sea forces vnder whom hee grew dreadfull not to these parts of Barbary alone which he subiected to the Turke but to those Countries of Christendome which are washed with the Mediterran euen Rome it selfe quaking for feare of a second Hannibal who after so many ages should by Sea from Africa auenge the angry Ghost of old Carthage In the yeere 1538. the Pope Emperour and Venetians had with ioynt forces set forth a Nauy of aboue two hundred and fifty Sayle against him but by mutuall discords the wonted aduantage of the Turkes against the Christians they made themselues both sport and spoyle to this Turkish Pyrat The Sea could no longer endure the successe of this Barbarian but mad to see the Christians vnchristian madnesse and vnwilling to submit his proud waues to the base thraldome of this base Turke swelling with indignation conspired with the Neighbour Element which pretended equall quarrell for so often darkening his light and poysoning his breath with those hellish smokes and for vsurping those thunders which had wont to be the ayrie priuiledge of his middle Regions these both agreed in their disagreeing with tempestuous furie to spoile the Spoilers the windes from the Acroceraunian Hills and the Seas on the Dalmatian shore so girt in the Turkes with their equall vnequall siege that twentie thousand of them were captiued and shut vp in Neptunes prisons to become foode to his Familie and the new Conquerors on euery shore made their markets of Turkish commodities and by wracks testified to the Earth that they had wrecked themselues on her and their enemies And yet did Barbarussa recouer himselfe by new forces and hauing won Rhegium came to Ostia where he rode three dayes the Romanes trembling meanewhile and readie to leaue Saint Peter alone to locke out the Turks if they came So much more fortunate were his proceedings then of Haly Bassa who in the fight at Lepanto lost his life and Nauie whereof eightie fell to the Seas share and an hundred and thirtie saile to Don Iohn and his Partners the greatest blow that euer the Turke at Sea receiued and had the greatest Homer to sing it But me thinkes I feele some Cynthius pulling me by the eare and asking if the Pirats haue robbed me of my Religion the most proper subiect of my Discourse Truly that irreligious Crue while they seeke to win other things care not to lose that But this Algier hauing beene of old and still continuing a receptacle of Turkish Rouers could not be passed ouer especially in these Piraticall times without some obseruation being also the gate whereby the Turkish forces first entred into Barbarie Iohn Leo writeth a little otherwise of Barbaussa and Algier The Moores call this Citie Gezeir the Spaniards Algier and of old was called Mesgana of that African Familie which founded it It contayneth about foure thousand Families the buildings very sumptuous Innes Bath-stones and Temples very beautifull euery Occupation hath a seuerall place by it selfe It hath adioyning Playnes very pleasant and fertile one whereof is fiue and fortie miles long and almost thirtie broad For many yeeres it was subiect to the Kingdome of Telensin but hearing that Bugia was gouerned by a King they submitted themselues to him paying him a Tribute otherwise in manner free Then did they build themselues Gallies and molested with Piracies the Spanish Ilands of Majorica Minorica
lothsomenesse the prize of Beautie The Kingdome of Brocall extends to Gambea which Riuer is so great deepe and strong that the Sea in thirtie leagues from the mouth which opens it selfe fiue leagues in disgorging his full stomacke can scarcely subdue it vnto his salt qualitie Some thinke it proceedes from the same Fountayne with Niger whence these peoples are called Negros some that this and Zanaga proceed from the same head Midway betwixt both is the Greene Cape Alongst both sides of this Riuer dwell the Mandingae a perfidious and Idolatrous Nation which haue certaine Inchanters called Bexerini to performe their Priestly Holies The Riuer is sayled vp a hundred and threescore Leagues horrible Precipices and Cataracts forbidding further passage by water they call this fall a Bow for the obliquitie of the fall suffering men to passe vnder without wetting Many fertile and pleasant Ilands are contayned in the diuided armes of this streame The Inhabitants haue Shippes of good â—ignesse and strength Not farre hence to the South is Cape Saint Marie from which to the Riuer of Dominico is thirtie leagues peopled by the Arriari and Falopi Here is also the Riuer Casamanqua inhabited on the North by the Iabundi on the South the Benhuni to whom on the East adioyne the Casangae the King is subiect to the King of Iarem and hee to another more within Land and so in degrees vnto the Monarch of Mandinga whose chiefe Citie is Songus aboue a hundred leagues Eastward from the Cape of Palmes to this King the most of the former are subiect The Casangae worship an Idoll called China which is nothing else but a bundle of staues or poles pitched into the ground and fastened together with paste made of the meale of Rice and Millet which they sprinkle with the bloud of sacrificed Kine and Goates Some hang on the top thereof two or three skuls of Dogges The Temple to this goodly Deitie is some shadie Tree and there they offer also Millet and the Wine of Palmes To secure their Seede they sticke one of these poles in the ground The Portugals buy slaues in these parts sold by reason of the Kings vnreasonable tyrannie The Burami adioyne to the Casangae on both sides the Riuer Iarim or Dominico as farre as Rio Grand Here also they buy slaues The men and women file their teeth the women to keepe their tongues in order euery morning take a draught of water into their mouthes and there hold it till Dinner or Breakfast time meane-while doing their houshold businesse not spitting eating or talking The chiefe Towne of the Burami is eight leagues from the Hauen where the chiefe King to whom the rest are subiect resides Their Houses are of Earth couered with leaues The Bijags inhabit neere the great Riuer a fierce warlike robbing people possessing also seuenteene Iles the Portugals haue there the Towne of the Crosse The Beafares also in these parts are dispersed of whom the King of Guinala carrieth the greatest state and pompe at whose death all his Wiues and Seruants and dearest Clients and the Kings Horse are slaine and intombed with him to serue him in the other life The like vsage is in very many of these Guinean Kingdomes to which they adde further cruelty in the manner for they cut off their toes and fingers and beate their bones as it were in a Morter three houres longer then which they could not out-liue this torture and then in the sight of those which were to vndergo the like fate thrust them into the neck with a sharpe stake so finishing their blinde Martyrdome On the other side the Riuer is Biguba a Portugall Towne the best they haue in these parts the Natiues are Beafares whose King being dead the strongest is his Heire the cause of much Warre Betweene this and Cape Sierra Liona so called of the Lyon-like roring made there by the waues if not of the Thunders and dreadfull storme are the Mallusians Bagasians and Cozolines In these parts Grapes and Sugar-canes grow wilde store also of Cotton Brasill Wood of seuen colours Graines called Malegetta of the name of the Region long Pepper Millet besides Waxe and Iuory Out of their Palmes they draw Wine and Oyle and a certaine excellent Sope forbidden as is also the long Pepper for the excellence to bee carried into Portugall They haue Apes called Baris exceeding great and so industrious that being brought vp in the house they supply the roome of a seruant going on their hinder feete beating things in the Morter fetching water home in Vessels which yet if none bee ready to take from them they will cast downe and breake and then howle Heere is store of Iron better then ours but their best Commoditie is Gold but no Forreiners know the Mines whence they haue it The Portugals called their Castle here built Saint George of the Mine in the fift degree of Northerly latitude In Sierra Liona are thirteene Riuers which fall into the Sea On the Riuer Das Piedrus the Portugals haue a Towne Capor and Tambassire two other Riuers fall from the Hils Machamala in which is a great Rocke of most pure Chrystall Two of these Riuers Tagaris on the North and Bangua on the South of this Lion-hill make it a Peninsula in some places so neere that they carry their Boates by Land from one to the other The Inhabitants are the Cumbae and the Natiues called Capi these more ingenious then other Guineans They haue their Kings which administer Law hauing to that purpose round Galleries not farre from their Palaces called Funkes where is a high Throne for the King and lower Seates on both sides for his Counsellors called Solatequis Their Lawyers or Aduocates they call Troens which weare parti-coloured garments wouen with feathers hold staues in their hands whereon they leane whiles they pleade and haue Vizors to hide their blushing if any such cause happen in the Kings presence who hauing heard the pleading of these and the aduice of the Counsellors pronounceth sentence In the Creation of a Solatequis the rite obserued is this they place the person to be created in a faire seate of wood and then the King strikes his face with the inwards of a Goat that the bloud and filth runnes downe his brest then sprinkles him with meale and after puts a Cap on his head When the King dies his Sonne Brother or next Kinsman succeeds but before his full Regalitie they bind him at his house and lead him bound to the Palace there whip him after this they loosen him attire and leade him to the Iudgement Seat where the eldest Counsellor makes an Oration concerning his right and dutie which ended he puts a Hatchet into his hand which they vse in Executions and after this all acknowledge subiection No lesse strange is their custome for their Maydens In euery City or Village they haue a house seuered like a Monasticall Cloyster from the rest
friends and the broath eaten and then they hang it by the Fetisso They make solemne oathes and promises on this manner they wipe their faces shoulder brests and all their bodies on the soles of your feet thrice saying Iau Iau Iau stamping kissing the Fetissos on their armes and legs The land is all the Kings and therefore they first till his land and then by composition for themselues They begin on a Tuesday and when the Kings worke is done haue a feast in honour of their Fetisso to prosper their Husbandrie §. V. Obseruations of the Coast and In-land Countries out of BARRERIV'S and LEO and of the cause of the Negros Blacknesse ANno 1604. certaine Iesuites were sent into these parts the chiefe of which was Balthasar Barrerius who conuerted some of those Negro's to the Romish Christian profession One of which was the King at Sierra Liona Christened with the name Philip his Father a man of an hundred and thirtie yeeres about the faine time finishing his life A Letter of this Philip vnto King Philip of Spaine is published by Iarrie in which hee desireth more Priests to bee sent into those parts offers him to build a Castle at the Cape and concludeth with wishing him as many yeeres as the Heauen hath Starres and the Sea Sands The King of Bena gaue great hopes of his Conuersion which were suddenly dashed by meanes of a certaine Mahumetan for so farre hath that Pestilence infected who making a flattering Oration of two houres long inclined the King to his faithlesse Faith This Kings Dominion extendeth nine dayes journey and containeth seuen of their pettie Kingdomes Wee haue before spoken of the Mandingae neere to Gambea These haue of late yeeres embraced Mahomet and by Armes and Merchandize the vsuall meanes sought to propagate it to others beeing excellent Horse-men and couragious vsually placed in the fore-front Their Priests are called Bexerini which write Arabicke Amulets to secure such as weare them in battell These Preach to the people and drawinge forth parchment rolls spread them with great deuotion on the Pulpit and standing a while with eyes fixed to Heauen as it were in Diuine conference presently will them to thanke GOD and his Prophet for the pardon of all their sinnes then reades hee his Scrolls the people tending two houres together without once stirring their bodies or turning away their eyes One of them is chiefe ouer the rest who hath taught the King of Bena a certaine Inchantment or Witchcraft to make the Deuill the instrument of his Reuenge vpon any offender which makes him dreadfull to all Two of the Portugals confessing the experiment thereof vpon themselues The like appeared in a huge Serpent which they call the King of Serpents of most beautifull dolours as bigge as a mans thigh which the King played withall without any harme The Iesuite speakes of one Man which had threescore and twelue Sonnes and fiftie Daughters which multiplied beyond credit All the kindred mourne at the death of the great Men assemble to the corpse and offer of which offerings one third is the Kings the second the nearest kinsmans which is charged with the Funerall the third is put into the Graue together withall that Gold which they haue treasured for this purpose through their whole life hiding it closely from the knowledge of all so that if they die suddenly their Gold is perished with them Yea their Sepulchres the Iesuites report are kept secret and made in the channels of Riuers diuerting the streame till it bee made to preserue these treasures to the vse of the dead At the yeeres end they renue the memorie of the deceased with mourning and festiuall solemnitie the more drunkennesse the greater honour They haue Idols of wood and straw and their Chinas before mentioned made of Poles in forme of a Pyramis within which are many white Pismires that come not forth and it is vncertaine what they eate Before these they will adiure their Seruants to fidelitie wishing that Serpents Lizards or Tygres may teare them if they runne away which they feare with religious awe and dare not flee vpon any hard vsage Euery Kingdome hath a place sacred to the Deuill such an one was the Iland Camasson a league from the shore where all that sayled by offered Rice Oyle or some other thing The King once a yeere sacrificed Goates and Hens which were there kept there being no feare of stealing them where none durst aduenture to set foot on land And now leauing the Coasts of Guinea Benin Melegete and the other Regions of the Negros adjoyning to the Sea we will looke backe againe into the In-land Countries wherof Gualata is an hundred miles distant from the Ocean and hath already beene mentioned The next thereunto in Leos Relations is Gheneoa which is not the same with Guinea before mentioned if Leo had true intelligence but is situate betwixt Gualata Tombuto and Melli and in one place bordereth on the Ocean where Niger falleth into the Sea They had great Traffique with the Merchants of Barbarie They haue Gold vncoyned and vse also Iron money There is neither Towne nor Castle but one where the Prince with Priests Doctors and Merchants reside Those Priests and Doctors goe apparelled in white the rest in blacke or blue Cotton In Iuly August and September Niger ouer-floweth it Izchia the King of Tombuto conquered it and kept the King prisone rat Gago till his death Melli is the head Citie of a Kingdome which hence taketh name and hath in it great store of Temples Priests and Readers or Professours which reade in the Temples because they haue no Colledges They are more ingenious then other Negros and were the first that embraced the Mahumetan Law Izchia also subdued them Tombuto was founded in the yeere of the Hegeira 610. And it is situate within twelue miles of a branch of Niger There are many Wells to receiue the ouerflowing waters of that Riuer Salt is brought them fiue hundred miles from Tagazza and is very deare I at my being there saith Leo saw a Camels burthen sold for fourescore Duckats The King had many Plates and Scepters of Gold some whereof weighed thirteene hundred pounds They which speake to him cast Sand ouer their heads as Cadamosto obserued at Budomel The King would admit no Iewes into his Citie and hateth them so extreamely that hee would confiscate the goods of such Merchants as held Traffique with them Hee greatly honoured men of Learning and no Merchandize yeelded more gaine then Bookes There were many Iudges Doctors and Priests to whom hee allowed their stipends The people vsed much Dauncing in the streets from tenne to one of clocke at night They mingle Fish Milke Butter and Flesh together in their Gallimaufrey kinde of dyet neither toothsome nor holsome Hamet King of Marocco conquered the same Kingdome 1589. and also Gago and other Countries of the Negros extending his Empire sixe moneths journey from Marocco by
Solemnities Pompes Holies and Religious Rites were their Inuention And therefore saith he Homer brings in Iupiter feasting with the Aethiopians The reward of their pietie was the Immunity of their Region from forreine Conquests Macrobius interpreteth Iupiters Banket with the Aethiopians of that Ocean which Antiquitie imagined to bee vnder all the Torrid Zone that the fiery bodies of the Starres supposed to bee nourished with moysture might there quench their thirst So would those good men drowne a great part of the African and American World in hospitality to the Starres by their imagined middle earth Ocean which experience hath now sufficiently confuted Cambyses attempted and lost his Armie and Semiramis entred but soone returned Hercules and Dionysius ouer-ran the rest of the World the Aethiopians eyther for their deuotion they would not or for their strength could not conquer The Egyptians some say were Colonies from hence yea Egypt it selfe the dregges of that soyle which Nilus carrieth out of Aethiopia The Aegyptians borrowed of the Ethiopians to esteeme their Kings as Gods and to haue such care of their Funerals the vse of Statues and their Hieroglyphicall Letters Pierius and others haue written therof at large Their best men they chose for their Priests he among them who when the God is carried about shall be possessed with some Bacchanall furie is chosen King as by diuine appointment and is of them worshipped as a God His gouernment is gouerned by Lawes They doe not put a Malefactor to death but an Officer is sent to him with the signe of death whereupon he goeth home and slayeth himselfe One would haue fled out of his Countrey but the Mother of the Malefactor killed him because he would not after his Country manner kill himselfe The Priests in Meroe exercised this authoritie as is before said ouer their Kings and would send them word that the Oracles of the Gods commanded them to die neither might they reiect the diuine dispensation and thus with arguments not with armes they perswaded them to a voluntary death But in the time of Ptolomeus Secundus King of Egypt King Ergamenes well skilled in the Greeke Sciences and Philosophie reiected that Superstition They say that the custome yet till Diodorus time remayneth that if the King bee maymed or by some accident want any member his Courtiers also will depriue themselues of the same Yea when the King dyed his friends thought it good fellowship to dye with him esteeming that death glorious and the surest testimony of friendship The Aethiopians dwelling neerer to Arabia armed their women in their warres till they attained to a certaine age the most of which ware a Ring of Brasse in their lip They which dwelt further vp into the Countrey were diuersly conceited of the Gods For some they thinke immortall as the Sunne Moone and the World some mortall as Pan Hercules Iupiter for their vertues exalted to that dignitie Strabo tels it in the singular number that they thought that God to bee immortall which is the cause of all things Their mortall God was vncertaine and wanted name but they most commonly esteemed their Kings and Benefactors for Gods Some that inhabit neerer the Line worshipped no Gods and were much offended with the Sunne and hiding themselues in the Fennes cursed him when hee did rise These things you may reade gathered out of Diodorus and Strabo in Coruinus Boemus Draudius and Thamaia with some other additions Sardus saith that the Aethiopians were Circumcised as were also besides the Iewes Egyptians and Arabians the Trogloditae Macrones Creophagi and Inhabitants of Thermodoon As we haue shewed of the Macrobij or long-liued Aethiopians so there were others called Brachobij of their shorter liues whereof were reckoned two sorts the Sidonij neere to the Red Sea and the Erembi which some take for the Trogloditae They liue not aboue forty yeeres Plutarch out of Asclepeiades reporteth the like saying that they were old men at thirty yeeres The same Author telleth that they and the Arabians could not indure Mice and that the Persian Magi did likewise esteeming them Creatures odious to God Alexander ab Alexandro writeth concerning the education of their Children that the Aethiopians seared their new borne Infants in the foreheads to preuent the distillations of Rheumes from the braine And when they are somewhat growne they make tryall of their forwardnesse by setting them on the backes of certaine Fowles on which if they sit in their flying without feare they bring them vp very carefully but if they shrinke and quake with feare they expose them as a degenerate issue vnworthy education Their Letters they wrote not side-wayes after the Greeke or Hebrew manner but after the present Chinian custome downwards They had seuen Characters euery of which had foure significations What manner of writing they now vse appeareth in Damianus à Goez or of Zaga Zabo rather an Aethiopian Bishop in his Treatise of their Religion done into Latine by Damianus but more fully in Iosephus Scaliger de Emendatione Temporum who hath lent vs a long Tractate in that language and writing with the same words expressed in Hebrew and Latine Characters and the interpretation of them also into Latine in foure seuerall Columnes He that listeth to reade some Philosophicall speculations of Nature in these Aethiopians wherein they differ and wherefore from others let him reade Coelius Rhodiginus of that Argument hee sayth that they were expert in naturall Magicke Nicephorus writes that Alexander the Great sent Assyrian Colonies into Aethiopia which many Ages after kept their owne Language and like enough their Religion The Nations of Aethiopia which are farre distant from Nilus are said to liue a miserable and beastly life not discerning in their lust Mother Daughter or any other name of kinred Of their ancient exploits wee haue no continued Historie About the time of Christ it appeareth that Candace was Queene of Ethiopia Shee was a manly Virago as Strabo testifieth who liued at the same time and followed Aelius Gallus in this Expedition Hee forced Candace to send her Ambassadours to Augustus for peace which shee obtayned Sextus Victor mentioneth this Ethiopian ambassage Plinie saith the name Candace continued to the Ethiopian Queenes many successions whence perhaps Diesserus collecteth that Ethiopia was gouerned onely by Queenes Dioclesian relinquished that part of Ethiopia which the Romanes held beyond Egypt as not able to beare the charges Iustinian sent his Ambassadours vnto Hellistans the Ethiopian King and to Esimiphaens King of the Homerites his Arabian neighbour to aide him against the Persian This Hellisthaeus had warred against the Homerites for quarrell of Religion because they were many of them Iewes and others Gentiles himselfe being a Christian and because they made many forrages into the Christian Countries He so farre preuailed as hee made that Esimiphaeus a Christian their King whose yoke they shooke off soone
of the Election they had been inclosed to kisse his hand and sweare fidelity cloathed in the habite of the Knights of St Anthony the same oath is giuen also by the Kings his Vassals foure of which are present at the Election the Counsellors Prelates and others according to their place After this fires are made on the Towres of the Mount to giue notice of this Election which being seene by the neerer Cities they also by the like fires as it were proclaime the same in a moment through all the Empire which is confirmed by Posts sent thence on Dromedaries by the Abbot of the Abbey of the Holy Ghost one of the Electors and the Councell vnto the Citie of Saba and the mother of the New-Elect if she be liuing and to his neere kindred to come and reioyce with him The next day the Emperour goeth in black habite to the Palace where the Princes are and saluteth them with kinde embracements one by one with his Bonnet in his hand which is done in the next place by the Prelates whom in honour of their Ecclesiasticall dignities the Princes re-salute standing with their heads vncouered The tributarie Kings follow not with embracements but kissing their hands rendring their salutations and after them the Embassadors The Emperour hauing remained sometime in priuate talke with them goeth to the Abbey of the Holy Ghost and putting off his black habite is clothed in Scarlet and being on horsebacke attended with his Family the Abbots and Counsellors passeth to the Abbot of the Holy-Crosse where the two Abbots of that Abbey meet him and after oath giuen to preserue the ancient customes present him with the keyes of the Treasurie and Library the Emperour bestowing as much of the said Treasure as he pleaseth After all other ceremonies the Counsellors of the Court come to the hill with 12000 Knights of Saint Anthonies Order which are the Emperours Guard and the eldest Sons of the King to conuey him solemnly to Zambra the Citie where Court and Councell reside where with all solemnity and magnificence he is likewise receiued and conducted into the Palace and placed on his Throne of twelue steps with acclamations of long life and happinesse on all hands Fiue dayes Festiuall being here passed in al publike reioycings he goeth to Saba to take the oaths of all his subiect Kings in person whereof onely foure had been present at the Election and one holding the Crowne another the Scutchion of the Armes of that tributarie King he sweareth on the Scepter which is a golden crosse true fidelitie and obedience and the Emperour puts on the Crowne againe on his head and the said Scutcheon with his Armes he giueth into his hand and licenceth him to depart to his Pauillion without the Citie These Kings are truely Kings and succeed in the inheritance of their Fathers receiuing the tribute of the subiects of their seueral Kingdomes and are not Deputies or Vice-Royes at the meere pleasure of the Emperour but if one bee vpon iust cause displaced his sonne succeedeth and therefore the Prete is called King of Kings The eldest sonne of euery of the Kings attend alwayes on the Emperour and haue attending on them ten seruants of the sonnes of the Nobles of their Kingdomes The Emperour is bound by ancient custome to take a wife of the posteritie of those three Magi which adored Christ in his infancie whom the Aethiopian and Romane Tradition calleth Kings by the names of Gaspar Melchior Balthasar of which the Aethiopians say that Melchior was of Arabia and Balthasar of Persia which being forced by persecution of Arrians came into Aethiopia in the time of Iohn the Saint which raigned after Philip the 7 and receiued of his hands the Kingdomes of Fatigar and Soa the former giuen to the posterity of Balthasar the other to the linage of Melchior The Fryer addeth That all the legitimate descendents of these three Families are born with a starre on one of their sides and that at the Jubile in the time of Gregory the thirteenth 1575. there were three of those three Families at Rome with that naturall ensigne of the supernaturall miraculous Star Yea the legitimate Mahumetans in Arabia Persia remaining of those kindreds haue the same signe as Don Iohn sware to him that he had seene The Councell gouerneth according to the 127. Statutes made by the first Philips and Iohn the Saint Nothing is punished with death but treason vnder which name they also comprehend murther adultery of this mortall sentence the Lyons are the Executioners which in euery Citie are kept for that purpose Some Italians had been found guilty of the sin against Nature a thing for which the Aethiopians as some of the ancients for Parricide had no Law as not thinking any would so far degenerate and therefore knew not how to punish them but it was committed to the Latine Councell which adiudged them to bee burned a punishment not knowne before in those parts yet fitting to those vnnaturall burnings The fault and punishment being of equall trangenesse the Emperour would not haue it executed there but sent them to Goa to the Portugall Viceroy for that purpose Heresie and Apostasie are likewise punished with death That Latine Councell was instituted by Alexander the third for causes and persons of Europe to be tryed and iudged by Iudges of their owne resident at the Court as the Grand Councell is and chosen of each Nation two of the Venetians Florentines and Portugals the two former come thither by the way of Cairo Andrew Ouiedo a Iesuite sent thither by the Pope with the title of Bishop of Hierapolis and after Barretus his death his Successor in the Patriarch-ship of Aethiopia was Author and Counseller to the Emperour of this Institution and by him made President of the same This man Botero Maffaeus and others say had miserable entertainment with the residue of his society but by Fryer Luys from the relation of Don Iohn tels That he liued and dyed in great honour amongst them as he doth elsewhere magnifie exceedingly their respect to the Romane Papacy and Religion Credat Iudeus Apela Cui bono is the rule of my faith to Fryers and Iesuites in their Relations In Naturall and Morall Histories which serue not to the building of Babylons Towre I receiue them with attention with thanks and if need be with admiration in some things but when them come with Slime in stead of Morter and would get Rome a Name I remember their Vowes and Profession and yeeld no further attendance That Claudius which was then Emperour and his Successor Adamas were of Scismaticall and Tyrannicall quality as other Historians affirme Frier Luys not onely denies but extolleth their good parts He which now is Emperour was elected An. 1606. and called himselfe Zaraschaureat a sprout or bud of the linage of Dauid assister of Saint Peter and Saint Paul He is a man haughtie and valorous and was therefore chosen
longer then the wings are wet nor swimme fast hauing exchanged finnes for wings So haue I seene men thrice worse that haue two Trades than such as haue been skilfull and thriftie in one Lerius addeth the like wonder of certaine Birds so tame that they would light vpon the hatches and suffer themselues to bee taken These are the same Birds which pursue those flying fishes wiser to hunt them then to saue themselues as bigge as Crowes in feathers in flesh little bigger than a Sparrow and farre lesse then the fish which they take and deuoure These Seas are also subiect to great and tedious calmes which not onely hinder the Voyages but end the liues of many Giouanni da Empoli saith in his returne out of India they were heere detained foure and fifty dayes in which they scarce sailed aboue sixe leagues and in thirty fiue dayes they cast ouer-boord threescore and sixteene of their company very few suruiuing in their ship which likewise happened to other ships their Consorts so that they had vtterly despaired had not God sent a Portugall ship that way bound to relieue them And would God the like examples many might not be produced amongst our own Betweene 17. and 32 degrees of Northerly Latitude men are subiect to gripings and haue need to keepe themselues warme To returne to our discouerie from Iago where we left where the Negro's were wont to bring slaues to sell to the Portugals for Beads and other trifles and Cottons with other base commodities and them not such alone as they tooke in warre but their fathers and mothers thinking they did them a benefit to cause them thus to be conueyed into better countries they brought them naked The Iles of Arguin are sixe or seuen inhabited by the Azanhagi where the King of Spaine hath a Fortresse concerning the trade whereof you may reade the letter of Melchior Petonoy §. II. Of the Canaries Madera and Port-Santo FVrther into the Sea are the Canaries which are commonly reckoned seuen Canaria Teneriff Palma Gomera Hierro Lansarrotte and Fuerte Ventura : Thauet addes three others more Lobos Roca Gratiosa S. Clara Alegrança and Infierno The Inhabitants were so grosse before they were discouered that they knew not the vse of fire They beleeued in one Creator of the World who punisheth the euill and rewarded the good herein they all consented in other things disagreed their weapons were stones and staues They shaued their heads with sharpe stones like flints Iron they had not Gold they respected not The women nursed not their children but commonly committed that office to their Goats They as much delighted in dancing as the birds which beare their name in singing They were vnknowne from the times of the Romane Empire at which time they were called Fortunatae till either an English or French ship by mis-fortune lighted on them An 1405. Io. Bentacor conquered them and after him Anno 1444. Henry the Infanta of Portugal that Day-starre which by his industry made way to the present Sun-shine of Discoueries whereby the World in her last dayes hath fullest view of her selfe Galuano calleth that Frenchmen Io. Betancourt and saith hee was sent by Iohn the second of Castile An. 1417. who being slaine in the action his sonne sold them to Peter Barba a Spaniard and hee to Don Henry Hee saith the people were Idolaters and did eate their flesh raw for want of fire They tilled their ground with Oxe and Goats-horns They had many wiues but deliuered them to their Superiours to haue the first vse of them before they lay with them Don Henry conquered the rest which Betancourt had not possessed Their former gouernment was by an hundred and ninety persons which ruled also in matters of Religion prescribing to the people their faith and worship They had in highest name of authoritie a King and a Duke To slay a beast was esteemed the basest office in the world and therefore committed to their prisoners they which did this liued separate from the people Thus was it in the Gran Canaria In Gomera they vsed for hospitality to let their friends lye with their wiues and receiuing theirs in like courtesie and therefore as in India the Sisters Sonne inherited In Tenarife they had two Kings one dead another aliue when a new King was crowned some man to honour his entrance offered himselfe to voluntary death when the King was buried the noblest men caried him on their shoulders and putting him into the graue said depart in peace O blessed soule Theuet affirmeth that the Canaries are so called of the Canes and Reeds that grow there that they worshipped the Sun Moone and Planets Of these Ilands Thomas Nichols an Englishman hath composed a Treatise extant in Mr Hakluyts Voyages Tom. 2. Part. 2. He saith they dwelt in Caues supposed to descend of such as the Romans in Africa had exiled and out their tongues out for blasphemie against thiir gods The Pike or high Hill of Tenarife is after Theuets measure foure and fifty miles Tho. Byam a friend of mine told me that he had seene it eight and forty leagues into the Sea in cleere weather One of our Nation hath written a Tractate of his obseruations of these Ilands Heere before the conquest were seuen Kings which with their people dwelt in Caues Their buriall was to be set vpon their feet naked in a Caue propped against the wall and if hee were a man of authoritie he had a staffe in his hand and a vessell of milke standing by him I haue seene saith Nichols three hundred of these corpses together the flesh dryed vp the body light as parchment I my selfe saw two of those bodies in London Canaria Tenerife and Palma haue one Bishop who hath twelue thousand Ducats Reuenue which place was not long since possessed by Melchior Canus a great Writer in defence of the falling Babylon They pay to tht King fiftie thousand Ducats Hierro or the Iland of Iron is by a multitude of Authours affirmed to haue it in no fresh water but what falleth from the leaues of a certaine Tree which is alwayes greene and couered with clouds and vnderneath the same is a Cisterne to receiue the water for the vse both of men beasts throughout that Iland A whole wood of such Trees wee mentioned in Saint Thomas Iland which yeeld from their dropping leaues Rilles of water downe all sides of the Hill where they grow In this Iland heere is but one and that very ancient differing in this if we beleeue Sanutus from those of St Thomas they alwayes this onely afternoone being couered with that cloud which continueth till two houres before day and then the bodie boughs and leaues of the tree sweat out that liquor till two houres after Sun-rising it is in 27. degrees Lewis Iackson saith that he saw this tree being in this Iland Anno 1618. that it is as bigge as an Oake
the barke like hard beame six or seuen yards high with ragged boughs with the leafe like that of the Bay-tree white on the bottome greene on the other side It beareth nor flower nor fruit situate in the dectiuitie of a Hill withered in the day dropping in the night a cloud hanging thereon yeelding water sufficient for the whole Iland which he saith if report deceiued him not Sir Edward Skory heard of many fewer 8000 soules and aboue 100000 beasts It fals into a Pond made of Bricke floored thicke with stone by pipes of lead conuayed from the tree thither and thence diuided into diuers Ponds thorow the Iland fetched vp hill by barrels The Pond holds 20000 tunnes and is filled in a night Thus he related to me Hierro and Gomera and Lancarato are in the hands of priuate men Madera standeth in two and thirty degrees it is the greatest of all the Atlantike Iles. It was discouered by one Matham an English man who arriued there by tempest Anno. 1344 together with a Woman whom he there buried and on her Tombe did write his comming and the cause thereof with his and her names and was occasion to the King of Spaine to discouer that and the Canaries It was called Madera of the wildernesses of Trees there growing Heere is a Citie called Fouchal The I le containeth in compasse a hundred and forty miles The woods which gaue name to the Iland were fiered and burnt so furiously that the people for a time were forced to go some space into the Sea from the violent heat which caused such fatnesse to the soyle that at first it yeelded threescore fold since halfe so much The excellent Wines were of Vines first brought from Candie They bring foorth more grapes saith he than leaues and Clusters of two three and foure spans long At first the Pigeons suffered themselues to be taken not knowing and therefore not fearing a man Forty miles from the I le of Madera is the I le of Puerto or Porto Santo called of all Saints day in which it was first discouered Anno 1428. It was taken by Sir Amias Preston 1596. Heere are such store of Conies bred of one shee-Cony brought hither great with yong that the Ilanders were out of hope almost to withstand and amend their damages by them sustained A little Iland neere to this breedeth nothing else And now we can accompany our Portugals no further But before I left these Ilands I thought fit to feast you with some obseruations of an eye-witnesse elegant spectator and learned Gentleman Sir Edmund Scory §. III. Extracts taken out of the Obseruations of the Right Worshipfull Sir Edmund Scory Knight of the Pike of Tenariffe and other rarities which hee obserued there TEneriffe is the pleasantest of the Canary Ilands This Iland hath beene called Niuaria by reason of the Snow which like a Collar enuironeth the necke of the Pike of Teyda The name of Tenariffe was imposed by the inhabitants of the Palme Iland for Tener in the Palmesian language signifies Snow and Iffe an Hill It is situate in the Atlanticke Ocean fourescore leagues from the Coast of Affricke It is in forme triangular extending it selfe into three Capes and stands within eight and twenty degrees of the equinoctiall The great mountaine of Teyda commonly called the Pike of Tenariffe is a Mountaine which begets I know not whether a greater attention when you come to it or when you behold from a farre off but in both very great The Base of it beginneth at the Port-towne of Gara-chico from whence it is two dayes iourney and a halfe to the top of it The point of which though it seeme as sharpe as a Sugar-loafe which figure of all other it doth most resemble yet is there a flat of an acre in breadth on the top of it in the midst of that flat a gulph out of which great stones are with like noise fire and smoke many times cast forth Seuen leagues off this way may bee trauelled vpon Asses or Mules the rest on foot and with great difficultie All the Countries lying about the ascent of the Hill for ten miles vpwards are ouer-growne or rather adorned with the goodliest trees in the world of diuers sorts by reason of the multitude of Springs which intermingling one with another and with the addition of the violent winter Raines descend in huge torrents downe into the Sea In the midst of this hill is the cold intolerable in the top the heat and so likewise in the bottome Through all the cold Region you must cast your iourny to trauel on the South side and in the day time through all the hot Region which is within two leagues of the top on the North side and in the night time Euery man carrieth his owne portion of victuals and Borrachocs of Wine Your time of approach to the top must bee about Midsommer for the auoiding of the torrents caused by the snowes and about two of the clocke in the morning and so you may abide there vntill sun-rising but no longer The Sun being exalted aboue the Horizon of the Ocean seemeth far lesse then when you are on the lower ground and seemes to whirle it selfe about in manner of a Gyre The streame that commeth out of the East a little before his rising can be compared to nothing more properly then to the breath of an hot Ouen and so commeth on his course through an vnclouded Heauen being of a pure blue Christalline colour without the least spot in it When you are on the top of this Hill all the Iland lyeth subiected like a plaine and leuell plot of ground vnder you although there are in this Iland not so few as twenty thousand sharpe deformed and vneuen Rockes and all the edges of that plaine ground seemeth to bee lifted or fringed with Snow which indeed is nothing else but the white Cloudes which are many furlongs below you Neere the top of this Mountayne it neuer reigneth neyther was there euer any wind stirring thereupon The same is reported of the Hill Olympus All the vpper part of this Mountayne is afflicted with barrennesse wanting the generatiue benefit of the lower and middle Regions of the Aire for no manner of tree shrub or leafe beautifieth the head thereof but it resteth disgraced with an vnseemely baldnesse out of which towards the South side doe the veines of Brimstone issue downe into the necke thereof where the Region of Snow is among which the Brimstone is interueined in diuers places In the Summer time the fires doe ofter breake forth from out the hole in the top of this Hill into which if you throwe a great stone it soundeth as if a great weight had falne vpon infinite store of hollow Brasse The Spaniards merrily cal it the Deuils Caldron wherein the whole prouision of Hell is boyled But the naturals the Guanches themselues do say that it
same things not else-where found in India They make their teeth white with an herbe which all the day they chew in their mouthes CHAP II. Of Cumana and Paria §. I. Of the People and strange Creatures in Cumana CVmana is a Prouince named of a Riuer called Cumana where certayne Franciscans Anno 1516. built them a Monasterie and the Spaniards were very diligent in the fishing for Pearles About that time three Dominicans went fourescore miles West from thence to preach the Gospell and were eaten of the Indians which hindered not but others of the same order founded them a Monasterie in Ciribici neere Maracapana Both these Orders tooke paines with the Indians to conuert them and taught their children to write and read and to answer at Masse and the Spaniards were so respected that they might safely walke alone through all the Country but after two yeeres and a halfe the Indians whether for their too much imployment in the Pearle-fishing or for other cause rebelled and killed a hundred Spaniards slue the Friers one of which was then saying Masse and as many Indians as they found with them which the Spaniards of Domingo soone after reuenged The losse of Cumana hindered their Trade for Pearles at Cubagua and therefore the King sent Iames Castilion to subdue them by force which hee did and began the Plantation of New Caliz for the Spaniards to inhabit there Cubagua was called by Columbus the Finder the Iland of Pearles situate in twelue degrees and a halfe of Northerly Latitude and containes twelue miles in circuit This little Iland is exceeding great in commoditie that accreweth by those Pearles which hath amounted to diuers millions of gold They fetch their Wood from Margarita an Iland foure miles to the North and their Water from Cumana which is two and twentie miles thence they haue a Spring of medicinall Water there in the Iland The Sea there at certaine times of the yeere is very red which those Pearle-oysters by some naturall purgation are said to cause There are Fishes or Sea-monsters which from the middle vpwards resemble men with Beards Haire and Armes The people of Cumana goe naked couering only their shame At Feasts and Dances they paine themselves or else anoint themselues with a certaine Gumme in which they stick Feathers of many colours They cut their haire aboue the Eares and will not suffer it to grow on any places of their bodies esteeming a bearded man a Beast They take great paines to make their teeth blacke and account them women which haue them white They blacke them with the powder of the leaues of a certaine Tree called Gay these leaues they chew after they are fifteene yeeres old they mixe that powder with another of a kinde of Wood and with Chalke of white shels burned in manner as the Easterne Indians vse their Betele and Arecca with Chalke of Oysters and this mixture they beare continually in their mouthes still chewing it that their teeth are as blacke as coales and so continue to their death They keepe it in Baskets and Boxes and sell it in the markets to some which come farre for it for Gold Slaues Cotton and other Merchandize This keepeth them from paine and rotting of the teeth The Maides goe naked only they bind certain bands hard about their knees to make their hips and thighes seeme thicke which they esteeme no small beautie The married Women liue honestly or else their husbands will diuorce them The chiefe men haue as many Wiues as they will and if any stranger come to lodge in one of their houses they make the fairest his Bed-fellow These also shut vp their Daughters two yeeres before they marrie them all which time they goe not forth nor cut their haire After which there is made a great feast and very many bidden which bring their varietie of cheere also wood to make the new Spouse a house A man cuts off the Bridegroomes haire before and a woman the Brides and then they eate and drinke with much excesse till night This is the lawfull wife and the other which they marry afterwards obey This. They giue their Spouses to be defloured to their Piaces so they call their Priests which these reuerend Fathers account their Preeminence and Prerogatiue the Husbands their honour the Wiues their warrant The men and women weare Collars Bracelets Pendants and some Crownes of Gold and Pearls the Men weare Rings in their Noses the Women Brooches on their brest whereby by at first sight the sexe is discerned The Women Shoot Runne Leape Swim as well as the Men their paines of trauell are small they till the Land and looke to the house whiles the men Hunt and Fish They are high-minded treacherous and thirstie of reuenge Their chiefe weapons are poisoned Arrowes which they prepare with the bloud of Snakes and other mixtures All of both sexes from their infancy learne to shoot Their meat is whatsoeuer hath life as Horse-leeches Bats Grashoppers Spiders Bees Lice Wormes raw sodden fried and yet their Countrey is replenished with good Fruits Fish and Flesh This Diet or as some say their Water causeth spots in their eyes which dimme their sight They haue as strange a Fence or hedge for their Gardens and possessions namely a threed of Cotton or Bexuco as they call it as high as a mans Girdle and it is accounted a great sinne to goe ouer or vnder the same and he which breakes it they certainly beleeue shall presently die So much safer is their threed wouen with this imagination then all our stone-wals The Cumanois are much addicted to Hunting wherein they are very expert and kill Lyons Tygres Hogs and all other foure-footed Beasts with Bowes Nets Snares They take one Beast which they call Capa that hath the soles of his feet like a French shoo narrow behinde broad and round before Another called Aranata which for the Physnomie and subtiltie seemes to be a kinde of Ape it hath mouth hands and feet like a man a goodly countenance bearded like a Goat They goe in Heards they bellow loud runne vp Trees like Cats auoid the Huntsmans Arrow and cast it with cleanly deliuerie againe at himselfe Another Beast hath a long snout and feedeth on Ants putting his tongue into a hollow Tree or rather place where the Ants are and as many of them as come thereon hee licks in The Friers brought vp one till the stinke thereof caused them to kill it snouted like a Foxe rough-haired which voided in the excrements long and slender Serpents which presently dyed This Beast stinking while he liued and worse now dead yet was good food to the Indians They haue one which will counterfeit the voice of a crying child and so cause some to come forth and then deuoure them The like is written of the Hyana That shee will call the Shepheards by their names and then destroy them when they come forth They haue Parrots as
where they were well refreshed But a disease worse then the French Poxe there warred vpon them called Pori Yet did Pizarro hold on his resolution he passed ouer to Puna where the Gouernour intreated the Spaniards well till the abusing of their Wiues caused the Indians to take Armes and so made their riches become a prey to the preuayling Spaniards There had Pizarro the first intelligence of Atabaliba The Gouernour of this Iland to satisfie his iealousie cut off the Noses the Members and the Armes of his Eunuches or Keepers of his women Pizarro sent to Tumbez sixe hundred Prisoners which the Gouernour of this Land had taken of the party of Atabaliba who at that time mayntained Warre against his Brother Guascar about the Souereigntie and this Gouernour had taken Guascars part This ciuill discord was much to the Spaniards aduantage Pizarro sent three Messengers to Tumbez to demand peace and safe entrance but they notwithstanding the freedome of their Captiues deliuered them to the Priests to bee sacrificed to their Idoll of the Sunne Hee taketh Tumbez and sacketh the Temple and Citie From thence he proceeded in his way to Caximalca and Guascar sent some vnto him with great promises to demand his aide against his Brother Atabaliba soone after Atabaliba sent one to him to charge him to returne to his ships Pizarro answereth That hee came not to hurt any but for their good as his Emperour had giuen him in charge nor could he now being the Embassadour of the Pope and Emperour Lords of the World returne without great dishonour before he had seene his Royall person and communicated to him such instructions as might be good for his body and soule As he passed the Prouince of Chira the Lords thereof prouoked him against Atabaliba who had lately conquered their Countries And on the Riuer of Chira hee founded the Colonie of Saint Michael for the safe keeping of his spoyles and for his ships Hee marcheth on to Caximalca and sendeth Messengers on horse-back to giue him notice of his comming This strange Beast made the Indians afraid but Atabaliba was nothing mooued therewith more mooued to see those bearded men giue him so little reuerence Atabaliba sent Pizarro a paire of shooes cut and gilded that as hee pretended he might know him others thought that hee might bee knowne and designed to imprisonment or slaughter The next day the King was carried as in solemne triumph vpon mens shoulders garded with fiue and twentie thousand Indians in rich pompe and magnificence Vincentius de Valle Viridi a Dominican Frier holding in one hand a Crosse in the other his Breuiarie or as some say a Bible came before him with great reuerence and blessing him with the Crosse said Excellent Lord it behoueth you to know that God in Trinity and Vnity made the World of nothing and formed a man of the Earth whom hee called Adam of whom wee all haue beginning Adam sinned against his Creator by disobedience and in him all his Posteritie except Iesus Christ who being God came downe from Heauen and tooke flesh of the Virgin Mary and to redeeme Mankind dyed on a Crosse like to this for which cause wee worship it rose againe the third day after forty dayes ascended into Heauen leauing for his Vicar in Earth Saint Peter and his Successours which wee call Popes who haue giuen to the most puissant King of Spaine Emperour of the Romans the Monarchy of the World Obey the Pope and receiue the faith of Christ and if yee shall beleeue it most holy and that most false which yee haue yee shall doe well and know that doing the contrary we will make warre on you and will take away and breake your Idols therefore leaue the deceiueable Religion of your false Gods This preaching of the Frier might well seeme strange to Atabaliba which it seemes hee learned of the Mahumetans and not of the Apostles He answered that hee was Free and would not become tributary to any nor did acknowledge any greater Lord then himselfe and for the Emperour he could be pleased to be the friend of so great a Prince and to know him but for the Pope he would not obey him which gaue away that which was not his owne and tooke a Kingdome from him whom hee had neuer seene As for Religion hee liked well his owne and neyther would nor ought to call it in question being so ancient and approued especially seeing Christ dyed which neuer befell the Sunne or Moone And how saith hee doe you know that the God of the Christians created the World Frier Vincent answered That his Booke told it him and gaue him his Breuiarie Atabaliba looked on it and in it and saying it said no such thing to him hurled it on the ground The Frier tooke it vp and went to Pizarro crying Hee hath cast the Gospels to the ground Reuenge it O Christians seeing they will not our friendship nor our Law or to vse the words of a Spanish Captain there present in his relation thereof Come forth Christians come forth and come to these Enemies Dogs that wil not accept the things of God and the Cacique hath cast our holy Law to the ground Francisco di Xeres who was Pizarroes Secretary writeth that the Frier would haue opened the book because Atabaliba could not and he in disdain smote him on the arme and obiected to the Spaniards their abuses and robbing of his Caciques saying hee would not depart thence till all were restored Pizarro commanded to bring forth the Standard and the Ordinance the Horsemen in three Bands assailed Atabaliba's people and slue many hee himselfe arriued with his Footmen which layed about with their Swords all charged vpon Atabaliba slaying them which carried him whose Roome was presently supplyed by other till at last Pizarro pulled him downe from his Litter by the clothes All this while not one Indian fought because they had no commandement or as Xeres sayth for feare and amazement to see their Cacique so vsed and therefore no Spaniard was slaine and many Indians perished vpon the thrust for so the Frier had bidden them fight for feare of breaking their Swords neither were any wounded but onely Pizarro by one of his owne thrusting at Atabaliba in his taking and wounding Pizarro therewith in the arme Thus are the Indians chased their King with other great spoyles remayning with the Spaniards of which Xeres reckoneth 80000. Castilians in hold and 7000. Markes euery Marke being eight ounces in Siluer of the houshold Plate of Atabaliba And in Caxamalca they rifled houses full vp to the roofe of Garments besides Armour and Weapons of which some were Axes and Pole-axes of Gold and Siluer §. II. The huge Treasures taken by the Spaniards THe next day the Spaniards scowred about for spoyle and found fiue thousand Women of the Kings with much treasure Atabaliba was much grieued with his imprisonment especially in regard of the chaine which they
of the hearbe burning in the fire till they became senselesse Their Priests most vsed this which comming to themselues after this sleepie fume deliuered the Oracles of their Zemes or Deuils which sometimes spake by them Now concerning the Zemes which could foretell that which they could not auert and the Superstitions of Hispaniola the Spaniards had beene long in the Iland before they knew that the people worshipped any thing but the Lights of Heauen but after by further conuersing and liuing amongst them they came to know more of their Religion of which one Ramonus a Spanish Heremite writ a Booke and Martyr hath borrowed of him to lend vs It is apparant by the Images which they worshipped that there appeared vnto them certaine illusions of euill Spirits These Images they made of Gossampine Cotten hard stopped sitting like the Pictures of the Deuill which they called Zemes whom they take to be the Mediators and Messengers of the great God which they acknowledge One Eternall Infinite Omnipotent Inuisible Of these they thinke they obtayne raine or faire weather and when they goe to the warres they haue certaine little ones which they bind to their fore-heads Euery King hath his particular Zemes which he honoureth They call the eternall God by these two names Iocanna and Guamanomecon as their Predecessors taught them affirming That he hath a Father called by these fiue names Attabeira Mamona Guacarapita Liella Guimazoa They make the Zemes of diuers matter and forme some of Wood as they were admonished by certaine Visions appearing to them in the Woods others which had receiued answere of them among the Rocks make them of Stone some of Roots to the similitude of such as appeare to them when they gather the Roots whereof they make their bread thinking that the Zemes sent them plenty of these Roots They attribute a Zemes to the particular tuition of euery thing as sometimes the Pagan and now the Popish Romanes some assigned to the Sea others to Fountaynes Woods or other their peculiar charges When the Boitij consult with the Zemes they goe into the House dedicated to him and with the powder of the herbe Cohobba snuffed into their nosthrils are distracted after which returning as out of a tran e he telleth That the Zemes had spoken to him and vttereth his Reuelations They say That a certaine King called Guamaretus had a Zemes whose name was Corochotum wh ch often vsed to descend from the top of the house where Guamaretus kept him close bound the cause of his breaking loose was either to hide himselfe or to goe seeke for meate or else for the act of generation and that sometimes being offended that the King Guamaretus had not honoured him diligently hee was wont to lie hid for certaine dayes In this Kings Village were some children borne with two Crownes which they supposed to be the issue of this Zemes. And when this Village was burned by the Enemie this Zemes brake his band and was found a furlong off without any harme He had another Zemes called Epileguanita made of wood being in shape like a foure-footed Beast which went often from the place where he was honoured into the woods When they perceiued that he was gone a great multitude gathered together to seeke him with deuout Prayers and when they had found him brought him home religiously on their shoulders to the Chappell dedicated vnto him But after the Spaniards comming into the Iland hee fled for altogether and could neuer be found whereby they diuined the destruction of their country They honoured another Zemes in the likenesse of a woman on whom waited two other like men One of these executed the office of a Messenger to the Zemes that had authoritie of Clouds Winds and Raine are at command of this woman the other performed the like to the Zemes of the waters that fall from the Hils that being loosed they might breake into flouds and ouerflow the Countrey if the people doe not giue due honour to her Image Let vs adde to this Relation of the Zemes of Hispaniola an accident in Cuba A Mariner being sicke was there left on shore who recouering grew into fauour with the King and was employed in his warres with great successe against the Enemie He attributed his victories to the Virgin Mary whose Picture hee had in his bosome The King by his perswasion reiected his Zemes and dedicated a Chappell and Altar to this Picture whither hee and all his Family resorted a little before the Sun-set bowing their heads and saying Aue Maria Aue Maria further they could not say They beset the same with Iewels and many Earthen pots some with sundry meates some with water round about the Tabernacle which they offered in stead of sacrifice as before they had done to their Zemes. Being demanded why they did thus they answered Lest it should lacke meate For they beleeue that Images may hunger and doe eate and drinke They told of this Picture That being carried with them into the warres as they vse to bring their Zemes with them into the battle This made the Zemes of the enemy turne his backe yea a woman a lye or a Deuill descended in the sight of them all to play the Bellona for her followers and in a contention betwixt them whether the Zemes or this Ladie were more excellent two young men of each side were bound and whether Deitie should loosen her party that should be their God Both inuoke the Deuill appeared in vgly shape and by and by a faire Virgin whereat the Deuill vanished doe you beleeue it and the Virgin with touch of a Rod loosed her mans hands which were found on the other aduerse party being now double bound Thus can the Deuill transforme himselfe into an Angell of Light at Loretto in Hispaniola and where else soeuer hee can bee entertained the name of Saints and promise of Heauen shall further his Hellish designes They had festiuall Solemnities in Hispaniola to their Zemes whereunto the Kings summoned their Subiects by publike Cryers and they neatly dressed after their manner painted with diuers colours of hearbs resorted thither with their armes thighes legs adorned with shels to make Musicke in their dancing Thus they presented themselues before the King who sate drumming at the entrance of the Gate When they were to sacrifice they purged themselues first thrusting downe a sacred hooke into their throat and by vomit emptied their bodies After they went into the Kings Court and all sate in a Ring about the Idoll crosse-legged like Taylors and wry-necked for reuerence praying that their Sacrifice might be accepted The women in another place when the Priests gaue warning fell to dancing and singing in manner as is before expressed the prayse of their Zemes and offered Cakes in baskets concluding with Songs in prayse of their ancient Kings and Prayers for future prosperitie After this both Sexes kneeled downe and offered their Cakes which the Priests
and monstrous shapes of men denyed 385 Monomotapa or Benomotapa Empire 759. Their Mines Religion and Rites 759. 760 Moores who and why so called 224 Two Sects of Moores 275 Moores in China 457. vid. Saracens Arabians Moores where now inhabiting and how dispersed 757. 758 Moone why called a great light 10 11. Her greatnesse and excellence ibid. Dimas his iourney thither 16. Worshipped of the Chaldees 51. at Carrae 66. By the Iewes 107. By the Arabians 227. At Diopolis 241. By the Persians 393. Tartars 431. 432. Chinois 470. 471. Goa 545. Brasilians 918. Boorneo 578. 579. By Negroes and others 709. Why the Saracens vse the signe of the Moone on their Steeples 230. 231. The moone seeke the day of her coniunction 305. Iewish Fables of the Moone 193 194 Mahomets Fables of the Moon 252. 253. The New-Moone-Feast when it began with the Iewes 106. 107. How obserued 106. 196 Moneths how reckoned by the Iewes 106. Their names ibid. They haue in some places no names 107 Money of Salt and Paper 750. Money of Ganza 612 Money of Almonds 619 Money by whom inuented 335 The effects of it 336. Monasteries of the Turkes 308. In Tartaria 416. 431. In China 465. 471. Of Saint Francis in Goa 546 Monkes 541 Monoemugi 757 Monuments vid. Sepulchers Mopsus a Lydian 80 Mountaines of Armenia 343. 344 Mountaines of Crystall 412. Mountaine of Pardons by Mecca 269. 270 Burning mountaines 612 Mount Moriah 94. Sinai 225 The Mountaine of Health 271. Morboner a Sect of the Iewes 135 Doctor Mortons commendation 95 Mordecay why hee worshipped not Haman Morduit-Tartars Moratui Iland 578 Morabites a Sect in Africa 626 Morauia and Moldauia 416 Morse or Sea-Oxe described 913 914 Moses what hee did on Mount Sinai 155. Iewish opinions of him 156. He receiued the first Alphabetarie letters in the Table of the Decalogue 82. Moses chaire 132. First Pen-man of Scripture his excellencie 175. Pseu-Moses a Coozener 143. Moses Aegyptius vid. Rambam The Turkes opinion of Moses 302. his wife 729. Mosco destroyed by the Tartars 422 Moscouites of Mesech 37 Moschee or Mosquita vid. Temple Mossinaeci a beastly people 330. Mosambique 785. Beastly Rites of some neere them ibid. Moslemans Religion 265. 266. Mosleman women disrespected 265 Mosull supposed to be Niniue 67 Famous for Cloth of gold silke fertilitie c ibid Mosse foode to the Deere of the Samoeds 432 Moth interpreted Mire 77 Mourners doore in the Temple 99 A Sect 135. Funerall mourning of Iewes 206. Of others vid. Funerall Muaui son of Abusofian the seuenth Emperour of the Muslims 1021 Muaui son of Iezid the ninth Chalifa 1022. Muaui the Chaliph his Acts 234 seq Mufti of the Turkes and their Authoritie 320. 321 Mulli and Muderisi 312 Muleasses King of Tonis 672 Muley Hammet his Stile and Letter to the Earle of Leicester 696 Mummia 226. 632. How made in Aethiopia 748 Murther amongst the Turkes vnpardonable 300. Selfe-murther 633. Musa Alhadi the 25. Chalifa strangled by his mother 1028. Musarab Christians 1024 Muske of a Beast 564 Muslim what it signifies 1013 Muslim Empire falleth in pieces 1036 Musulipatan or Musulipatnam 994 Described 995. Mustapha his Acts 286. The succession of Mustapha twice 293 294 seq Mustaed-Dini chiefe Priest or Mufti of the Persians 391. Musteatzem last Chalif of Bagdet 237. 242 Mutadids equitie and cruelty 1033 Mutars Sect in Persia 370. 391 Mutasim the 29. Chalifa his strength of body 1030 Mutewakkels crueltie to Muhammed 1031 Mutezuma King of Mexico 860 861 Myiodes Myiagrus 81 Mydas his Storie 331 Mylitta Venus 56 Myrrhe in Arabia 231 Mysia 334. The Mysians for their great Deuotion called Smoke-climers 334. Matters famous in Mysia 334. 335 N NAamah first Inuentor of making Linnen and Wollen and vocall Musicke 29 Naaman a Scenite Arabian 227 Nabathea and Nabathaeans 227 230 Nabathitae 222 Nabunanga King of Iapon 856 857 Nabuchodonosor his Babylonish garments 48. His Pensile Gardens 49. Nabuchodonosor in Iudith vncertaine 60 Nabopollasar ibid. Not the same with Nabuchodonosor 62 Nabonidus the same with Darius Medus 63 Naboth Iewish Dreames of his Soule 187 Nafissa a Queane Saint at Cairo 652 Nagayan Tartars 423 Nairos Knights or Souldiers in India their Rites 553. 554 Naida supposed to be built by Cain 29 Naicks Indian Gouernours 993 Naimaini 404. 405 Nakednesse of Adam 22. Iewish Dreames of Nakednesse 180 181. 183 Nanquin a City of China 439. 466 Nastacia the Empresse made a Saint 974 Nations their beginning 37. seq Natitae and Natophantae certaine Priests 58 Nature what it is 13 Nature of man first infected now infecting 25 Natolia described 325. Now called Turkie ibid. Nailes long in China 469. Accounted a Gentleman-like signe ibid. Nauigations of the Ancients 684. The first Inuentor of Nauigations 82 Naugracot supposed the highest part of the Earth 35 Nazareth 90 Nazarites 133 Nazareans Iewish Sectaries 133 Necromancie 369 Neerda and Nisibis 63 Negapatan the situation and description thereof 557. seq The Bloudy and Beastly Rites there ibid. Negroes a description of the land of Negroes 709 sequitur Whence called the Land of Negroes 709. Many Nations 711. Strange kinde of Negroes 712. 713. The cause of the Negroes Blacknesse 721. 722. Their Coasts and Inland Countries 721. sequitur Negro Slaue made King of Egypt and Syria 1037 Neriglossoorus 62 Neru and the Rites there 605 Nero his Superstitions 69 Nestorians in Cathaya their Rites 404 409. In Ergimul 416. In Egrigaia and Tenduc 429. 430. At Quinsay 442. 443 Nethanims or Gibeonites 123 New Moone vide Moone New yeeres day of the Iewes 107. 196. Their Dreames of that Day 197 New yeeres day of the Chinois 463 Newberies Trauels 579. 580 New Granada 816 New World why called America and West Indies 791 New England 829. 830 New Wales 830 New Britaine 829 New-land of King Iames 814 815. seq New France 823. 824. Late Plantations of New France 825. 826. seq New Mexico 855 New Spaine 858 seq Newfoundland 821. sequitur Diners Voyages thither 822. Plantation there by the English 822. 823. seq Nicaragua described and how situate 887. Their Bookes Sacrifices Priests Processions Confessours ibid. Their Feasts Marriages Punishments Lake and Riches 888 Nicaraguas questions 889 Nicostrata Author of the Latine Letters 82 Nififa in Barbary 700 Nigritarum terra 709 Niger his course 709. 710. sequitur Niguas little Wormes great trouble 818 Nilus Riuer a large Discourse thereof 627. sequitur The cause and time of the ouerflowing 628. The shallownesse in some places ibidem The falls thereof 727. 740. Stayed by the Prete 731. The Spring of Nilus 740 Nilus diuerted 1042 Nimrod 37. 44. A Tyrant 45 Author of Idolatry 45. 46 Ninias supposed Amraphel 61 Niniue built 45. Taken by Arbaces the Mede 61. By Cyaxares 66. Described 65. Who built it ibidem The ruines thereof 138 Ninus first Deifier of his Father Belus 46. His History examined 65. His Exploits 65. 66 His Sepulchre ibid. Nine a