if fastened to the stern as ours are Bir. We came a shoar at Bi r which is a little Town in Mesopotamia upon the side of the River the houses of it beginning below at the Water-side and reaching up to the top of a hill the Castle which seems to be pretty enough is also situated upon an ascent The Walls of the Town are entire and as the houses are built of little square Stones got in the hill which is all of a soft Rock but within there is nothing but Ruines We encamped on the top of the hill without the Town and arrived there half an hour after eight having first payed custom for all Merchants goods at so much a load so soon as we crossed the River The Burying-place of Bi r is on the other side of the River in Syria and they give this reason for it that our Saviour being come as far as Euphrates gave a man a Handkerchief on which his Picture was stamped that he might therewith go and convert the people of Mesopotamia but that this man being curious to see what it was and having unfolded the Handkerchief contrary to the commands of our Lord it flew into a Well and that our Lord knowing this said that that Land was good for nothing and therefore went no farther this is the cause why they will not bury their dead there Others tell this story in another manner which I shall relate when I come to speak of Orfa Friday the fourth of July we parted from Bi r Departure from Bir. about two a Clock in the Morning and took our way a little different from what we had held till we came there for we directed our course East-North-East untill we came to Orfa About nine in the Morning we encamped in a Field near to a hill where heretofore had been a great Town called Aidar Ahmet at present there is nothing of it to be seen and a little Brook runs by it among Reeds Next day being Saturday the fifth of July we set forwards on our Journey about two a Clock in the Morning Tcharmelick and about five a Clock passed by Tcharmelick which was formerly a little Town with a Castle built by one Delivar Basha who was Basha of Diarbeck upon a little eminence with a Han for the convenience of the Caravans and that because of the many Robbers upon that road as there is still at present All was built of stones taken out of the Ruines of Aidar Ahmet but there is no more now remaining but a little of a Castle with a small Village at the foot of it and part of the Walls of the Town whereof two gates are still to be seen the Han which is still entire is very pretty We went on and about nine in the Morning encamped in a place where formerly stood a great Town called Yogonboul Yogonboul at present it is no more but a confused heap of stones amongst which there are some Wells of Rain-water We parted from thence the same day about ten of the Clock at Night and ascended by bad ways Next morning being Sunday the sixth of July at one a Clock in the Morning we travelled along a lovely way made in the Rock two fathom deep a fathom broad and eight fathom long before that way was cut there was no travelling by that road Then we went down an ugly descent which continues as far as the Town of Orfa where we arrived about two a Clock in the Morning and encamped near the Walls The Town of Orfa which is the ancient Edessa is about two hours march in circuit the Walls of it are fair and pretty entire it is almost square Orfa Edessa but within there is hardly any thing but Ruines to be seen and nevertheless it is very populous On the South-side there is an adjoining Castle upon a hill with large and deep Ditches though they be cut in the Rock it is large in compass but full of Ruines and has onely some pittifull old broken Guns on the top of the Castle there is a little square Turret from whence one may see a great way The Chamber of Elias and the People of the Countrey say that Elias lived in that little Chamber On the side that looks towards the Town there are two great Stone-pillars at six or seven steps distance one from another and standing upon their Pedestals they are of Corinthian order Pillars of Corinthian order consisting of seven and twenty lays of stone a piece each lay contains but two stones and each stone is nineteen Inches high being two foot and a half in Diametre The People of the Countrey say that heretofore there were two others like to these and that one of the Thrones of Nimrod was placed upon these four Pillars The throne of Nimrod that from this place to which they bear great reverence Abraham was thrown headlong into the Furnace that was underneath and that at the same instant a Spring of Water gushed out which is running at present and fills a Canal close by it is a great many fathom in length and five or six in breadth whose Water having washed all the Town loses it self under ground at some hours Journey from thence There is so great plenty of Fish in this Canal that they appear in great shoals and I take them to be Carps but they say that if a man should catch any in this Canal and eat of them he would not fail to fall into a Feaver and that 's the reason they suffer no body to catch them unless on the other side of a little Bridge which is at the end of the Canal for they say that being taken beyond that Bridge there is no danger in them Betwixt the Castle and the Canal there is another smaller one distant from the greater about fifty paces whose Waters joyn together at the end of the Channel Seeing the Inhabitants of Orfa fancy all to be miracle in their Countrey they say that it is another source which sprung out of a place into which they threw a slave who seeing that Abraham received no hurt by his fall and that Water gushed out miraculously from the place into which he was precipitated told Nimrod that that man was a true Prophet and not a Sorcerer as he said whereupon he caused him also to be precipitated Had it not been for that Orfa could not have subsisted so long but must have perished for drought for there is no Water in that Town but what comes from those two Sources On the South-side of the Castle there are several neighbouring Hills that command it and especially one which the People of the Countrey call Nimrod Tahhtasi that 's to say the Throne of Nimrod because they believe that his chief Throne was upon the top of that hill there are a great many Grotto's in these hills where they say an hundred thousand of Nimrod's Soldiers quartered Next day I went out of the Town
so he might save the Caffare After Sun-set he sent for me and I crossed the Bridge where the wheels are mentioned by Belon and Pietro della Valle which draw the Water that supplies the whole Town It is the Orontes still that runs there but I cannot tell how many Arches the Bridge has for I crossed it in the Night-time My Moucre was encamped so near that all Night long we had the musick of these wheels which mingling with the Bells of our Mules as they were feeding represented very well the chiming of the Bells of a little Countrey-Church of which the wheels made the base We parted from Hama on Sunday the twenty seventh of April at break of day leaving the Caravan of Powder at Hama where the way to Constantinople strikes off from that of Aleppo we continued our way still Northwards going to the right amongst the hills where hardly had we advanced half an hour before we entered a Plain which on all sides reaches out of sight and abounds in Pasture About Eight of the Clock we passed close by a Village Taibit El-Hama Lachmi called Taibit-El-Hama and about ten we found another called Lachmi but it is forsaken because of the Robberies of the Arabs At eleven we discovered some Trees and from Damascus to that place I had not seen one unless it were in the Gardens of the Towns and Villages and indeed wood is very dear on that road Salisbury-plain not being barer of Trees than that Countrey is Han Scheikhoun A little after towards Noon we arrived at Han Scheikhoun before which we encamped finding our selves better abroad under Tents than within though that Han which stands alone be pretty enough The first entry into it is by a Gate that looks to the West which leads into a large square Court and on the right hand as you enter there is a little door by which you enter into a Stable divided in length by a range of Arches that reach from one end to the other but it is not covered At the other end of the Court almost opposite to this door there is a little house inhabited and on the left hand in the middle of the Wall there is a great Gate which leads into another Court as large as the first where there are half paces covered for Lodging of Travellers Over the Gate of that second Court there is a great square Building of pretty good work in form of a Tower with a Dungeon before it and the Dome of the Mosque is in the middle There the Aga lodges for this is a Castle depending on the Basha of Aleppo Some hundreds of paces Northwards from thence behind a Hillock there is a Village of the same Name with the Han. We parted from that place the same day about ten a Clock at Night and in our way all Night long we found a great many shallow Cisterns dug on little Hillocks for receiving the Rain-water and at the foot of the Hillock there is another opening by which they goe down three or four steps to take the Water we found already the day before some of these which are made for the Arabs and Shepherds Next day being Monday the 28th of April about two in the morning we passed by a ruinated Han called Han Hherte Han Hherte and at break of day arrived at the Town of Marra encamping just before the Han. Marra That Town is at most but a good Village we could hardly find bread in it and there is nothing to be seen on all hands but Cellars and ruined Vaults the best thing is the Han which is well built of Free-stone it is a large square Court round which there is a Portico wherein are Mastabez seeing I often make use of that Term which is the proper word of the Countrey though I have already I think made known what it means nevertheless for the satisfaction of the Reader I tell him once more that a Mastabe is a kind of a half pace that 's to say that the Floor is raised two or three foot from the ground and there the Travellers lodge In the middle of the Court of this Han there is a little Mosque with a Dome covered with Lead at the end of it there is a little Court round which runs a Portico the Roof whereof is supported on each side by two Arches separated by a Pillar between the two close by there is a Bagnio with a large Dome covered with Lead but it is shut and useless for want of Water Next you 'l find a covered street where there is a Coffee-house and five or six Shops on each side and at the farther end are four Arches the remains of an Aqueduct which butted almost in a right Angle upon these four Arches it was carried thither from a Mosque some hundreds of paces distant in the fields where there was a Wheel to draw Water out of a Brook that ran by it which came from the Countrey towards Antioch This Aqueduct brought the Water behind the upper part of the covered street into the Bagnio that is joyned on the one side to the Street and on the other side to the Han it was built of rough Stone as the Arches that still remain are which at the other end are joyned to the great Mosque This great Mosque hath six little Domes the Roofs rough cast and at the end of it there is a pretty fair Minaret The rest of the Town is altogether beggarly It had also another Han of which nothing now remains but the Gate and some Arches which daily run into decay The houses are scattered here and there and no better than Owls-nests the Walls are of Stones two or three foot high piled one upon another without any Art on all hands there are great large Free-stones and pieces of Pillars to be seen some of which still retain some fragments of inscriptions Amongst these Ruines I saw a door about four foot high and half a foot thick with crosses and roses cut upon it it is all of one piece with its hooks which enter into holes purposely made above and below That door is of a greyish Stone very hard as the sides to which it shuts are and it requires no less than two men to open and shut it it is still in case and daily made use of Marra heretofore was a good Town but the Turkish Tyranny is the cause of its desolation they say that the Ruines of a Church built by the Christians when they were Masters of that Town are still to be seen there but because it is at some distance in the Countrey I did not go thither The Francks in this place pay four Piastres for Caffare and we stopt there all that day because the Turks celebrated the Bairam the Moon having appeared the Evening before We parted not then till Tuesday the nine and twentyeth of April at two of the Clock in the Morning about break of
Senjavour'd We parted from Beder the twentieth of November and I travelled thirty three Leagues more with Monsieur Bazon but because he had business at Aurangeabad and I at Brampour we parted the thirtieth of November at the Town of Patry after we had passed the Rivers Manjera Careck and Ganga We found upon our Road the Towns of Oudeguir Rajoura and Patry where the Governours took great care to guard themselves from the Parties of the King of Viziapours Army with whom the Mogul was in War. For my part having taken another Servant I took my way by the Towns of Patou Ner Chendequer Zafravad Rouquera and Melcapour all which six are not so good as one of our ordinary Cities and on Thursday the ninth of December I arrived at Brampour which I have described before In my way from Patry to Brampour I found the Rivers Doudna Nervar Pourna and Tapty and I spent nine and twenty days in that Journey though in another season of the year it be performed in two and twenty I parted from Brampour the Capital City of the Province of Candiche to return to Surrat by the common Road and falling sick of a Cholick by the way I learned a cure for it The Portuguese call the four sorts of Cholicks that people are troubled with in the Indies where they are frequent Mordechin Mordechin The first is a bare Cholick but that causes sharp Pains the second besides the Pain causes a Loosness They who are troubled with the third have violent Vomitings with the Pains and the fourth produces all the three Symptomes to wit Vomiting Loosness and extream Pain and this last I take to be the Cholera morbus These distempers proceed most commonly from Indigestion and cause sometimes such cutting Pains that they kill a Man in four and twenty hours A Remedy for the Cholick The Remedy which is used in the Indies against it is to heat a Peg of Iron about half as big as ones Finger red hot clap it to the sole of the Patients heel and hold it there till he be no longer able to endure it so that the Iron leave a mark behind it The same must be done to the other heel with the same red hot Iron and that Remedy is commonly so effectual that the Pains instantly cease If the Patient be let Blood with that burning his life will be in evident danger and several People have told me that when they let Blood before they burn the heel the Patient infallibly dies just as many days after he hath been let Blood as he was ill before but Blood-letting is not dangerous two days after the Operation There are some who make use of Ligatures for this distemper and bind the Patients head so fast with a Swathing-band as if they had a mind to squeeze out his Brains they do the same with his Back Reins Thighs and Legs and when the Patient finds no good of this Ligature they think him past cure A Flux or Loosness A Remedy for a Flux A Flux alone is also a common and very dangerous distemper in the Indies for many die of it and the least over-heating brings it upon one The Remedy is to take two Drachms of torrified Rhubarb and a Drachm of Cummin-seed all must be beat into a Powder and taken in Limon-water or if that be wanting in Rose-water The common people of the Indies have no other remedy against this distemper but Rice boyled in water till it be dry they eat it with Milk turned sower and use no other Food as long as the distemper lasts the same they use for a Bloody Flux I travelled from Brampour to Surrat with a Banian and a Mula that came from Court. This Mula having represented his poverty to the King obtained a Pension from him of Five hundred Roupies which amount to about Seven hundred and fifty French Livres which was assigned to him upon a Village It is threescore and fifteen Leagues from Brampour to Surrat and we spent a fortnight in the Journey we found many Towns and Castles on our Road and were never an hour without seeing some Bourg or Village and seeing Lions many times happen to be in the way there were Sheds or Cottages under Trees whither the Indians betook themselves in the night-time we crossed also some Mountains and eight Rivers I saw nothing else but what was very common We were put in fear of the Troopers of the Raja of Badur who skulk in the Mountains of Candiche and roam about every where though at present their Master renders obedience to the Great Mogul but we met with none of them and arrived safely at Surrat CHAP. XI Curious Memoires of some miscellanie Things THey fish for Pearl at the Isle of Manar near to Ceilan Pearl-fishing The Isle of Manar which belongs to the Hollanders who took it from the Portuguese They who fish there pay tribute to the Dutch who besides that employ a Bramen to buy up most of the Pearls which these Fisher-men can catch and they have commonly a good penny-worth of them so that the poor people have but little profit of their labour and the Dutch are great gainers The same thing is done at Tutucorim which is over against the Isle of Manar the Pearls that are fished there are more lovely than those which are taken in the Persian-Sea near Bahrein but they are not so big These two Fishings have sometimes been spoilt by throwing into the bottom of the Sea a Drug that chased away the Fish that breed them and hindered them for many years from coming back again and they who did it knowing whither they went fished them there and grew rich before it was known that there was good Fishing in that place The Fishing of Omras was heretofore spoiled in the same manner and it is the same which is now at Bahrein The King of Candis in the Isle of Ceilan is always an enemy to the Dutch The King of Candis the cause of that Enmity is That this Prince having assisted them to drive the Portuguese out of the places they possessed in Ceilan they used him as an Enemy after they had taken Colombo which made him say That he had chased away the Dogs to bring in the Lions they defeated his Forces and he had no way to save his life but by flight He is a learned King understands several Languages and is very liberal it is said in the Countrey that he is vastly rich but that no body but himself knows where his Treasure is because when he thinks fit to go thither to put in or take out any thing he takes no body with him but a Moor whom he kills on his return least he may discover the place where his Riches are It is this Isle of Ceilan which produces the best Cinnamon Cinnamon the Tree from which they have that Bark is streight and pretty like to the Olive-Tree it bears a white Flower of an excellent
Illustrious Author But now as to the Englishing of this Work since the Translator has no body to Vouch for him he must e'en leave it to take its chance with the candid and good-natur'd Reader whom he would nevertheless have acquainted that there were two or three words in the Original either not genuine French or Obsolete which no Dictionary Explained nor any body that he could meet with understood and that these he hath made English as near as he could to the sense of the Context If the more Critical Reader will needs Cavil at the Purity of the Stile besides that the Stile of the Original is Plain and Natural the Translator has this to say for himself that he was somewhat hastened and straitned in time it being thought fit that this Book should overtake the Travels of Sir John Chardin of which the first Part was lately Published that for its Reputation sake it might Travel over the English World in so good Company and give and receive those Mutual Assistances which Travellers are willing to impart to one another The Reader then is not to expect that the Language should be so Accurate nor the Style so well turned as if it had come abroad after many Reviews and Corrections However the Translator dares venture to affirm for himself that in the main he hath not Swerved from the Authors Meaning and that if he has not magnified his Sense so neither has he depress'd it It is hoped the Reader will be satisfied that the Translator had reason to English the following Letter written upon occasion of some words of Oriental Learning that are variously Accepted in the Book of the Coronation of Solyman and in the Second Part of our Authors Travels for since the Publisher of that Part thought fit to Consult a Learned Critick in the Eastern Languages for the Justification of Monsieur de Thevenot who differed from Sir John Chardin in some Points of that sort of Learning and that the Book of the Coronation of Solyman is now Published in English the Translator could do no less than Verbatim to English the aforesaid Letter from the Original that so if any thing be altered in the new Edition or Translation of it the state of the Controversie may appear as it was at first and the Author be Vindicated according to the intent of his Friend who cannot be suspected to have mis-quoted any passage of the Book no more than the Translator to have done what he hath done out of any prejudice to it or its Author who is a Gentleman altogether unknown to him What Errata may be found in the Book the Reader is desired to Correct and not impute them to the Translators Oversight who had not the Correcting of the Sheets A. LOVELL A LETTER FROM Monsieur de la Croix SECRETARY and INTERPRETER TO THE FRENCH KING Touching some Points of Oriental Learning Contained in the SECOND PART of these TRAVELS I Shall Answer Sir in as few words as I can the Note you did me the Honour to write to me touching the apprehensions you had that some words of Oriental Learning to be found in the Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot may be found fault with because you meet with them in another signification in the Treatise called the Coronation of Solyman but let me tell you Sir that Apprehension seems to me to be inconsistent with the Justice you owe to that illustrious Traveller and that since you are not ignorant of the talents he possessed it is your part to believe that what he hath written must be right and whatever clashes therewith censureable His First Travels into the Levant gained him the Knowledge of the Turkish rnd Arabick Languages and his second of the Persian These three Languages which he was so much Master of and which are indispensably necessary for the understanding of Oriental Books together with his skill in History Mathematicks Astronomy Botanicks and other Natural Sciences wherein he excelled render'd him so accomplish'd in all Oriental Learning as you must needs have found by his private Memoires that there are but few in the Western Parts who come near him in that and none but may reap Profit from his Instructions Nor do I in the least doubt but that he who hath written the Book of the Coronation of Solyman is of the same opinion and for instance I cannot think he 'll maintain that the word Mehter which he attributes to the High Chamberlain of the King of Persia and makes a Superlative by the signification he gives it is Arabick when he finds that our Author affirms it to be a Persian word and Comparative seeing its Superlative is Mehterin which signifies the Greatest I am very confident also he will be ready to confess that Toboat is an Arabick and not a Persian word and that he 'll acknowledge if he understand Arabick or Persian that that word which signifies Coffins hath not the Character of Persian Plurals which commonly end in Ha or in An but of Arabick As to the word Divan beghi which he says is corrupted from Divanum Begh no sence can be made of that Proposition Divanum Begh having never been used neither in Turkish nor in Persian and is indeed Non-sense On the contrary Divan beghi which signifies as our Author says Lord of the Divan is very good Turkish and exactly agreeable to the Syntax of that Language Nor have you any greater cause of fear for the two words of Turban and Munedgim you take notice of to me as made use of by our Author The Author of the Coronation of Solyman may say what he will but he would have done very ill to have written Dhulbant that would be a word as monstrous in a French or English Book as in the Mouth of him that should pronounce it Turban is now a vulgar European word established by Custome and Dhulbandt a Persian word provided it were written according to its true Orthography for it ought to be written Dulband And when a European speaks his own Language and would be understood he ought not to use Exotick words when his own Country Language can do the thing so as a Man speaking French or English would render himself ridiculous should he say Chimichir instead of Cimeter though the one come from the other But there is more to be said as to this for the word Dulband signifies not in Persian what in French or English is meant by Turban as the Author of the Coronation of Solyman thinks and instead of blaming Writers who understood not the language and of saying that the King's Cap was tied round in manner of a Dhulbandt with a fine Cloth he ought to have said since he pretends that Persian words are to be used that the King's Cap was tied in manner of a Destar which is the Turban by a Dulband or fine Cloth seeng the Dulband is but a part of the Turban which in Persian is called Dester as in Turkish Sarick and only
within adorned with Gold and Azure and the Floor they walk upon covered with fine Carpets which is the reason that men commonly put off their Shoes when they enter them for fear of spoiling the Carpets The Walls are faced with pure Tiles like China In all the Halls and Chambers they have a rising half a foot or a foot high from the Floor Divans which they call Divans and these are covered with richer Carpets than the rest of the Room with embroidered Cushions set against the Wall upon these Divans they rest receive visits and spend the best part of the day In all Palaces the Womens appartment is separated from the rest of the Lodgings and no Man enters it unless the Master of the House or some Eunuch Hans There are also many great buildings in the City in form of the Cloysters of Monks which they call Hans they consist for the most part of a large square Court in the middle whereof there is a Fountain with a great Bason and Arches all round the Court under which all along the Walls are the Doors of the Chambers which are all alike and have each of them a Chimney These Arches support a Gallery that ranges all round the Court as that below The Lodgeings of Merchants and this Gallery has also Chambers on the side like to those that are underneath these Hans are for lodging of Merchants If you would have a lodging room there you must speak to the Porter of the Han who keeps all the Keys and for opening it as they call it you give him a Piastre or half Piastre and for every day you stay there one two or three Aspres according to the rate that is set you may hire a Ware-house for goods in the same manner These Hans are very well built and the chief Walls are of Free-stone The fairest in Constantinople is that which called Valida Hhane the Han of the Sultana Mother because the Mother of the present Grand Signior built it It is a very convenient place for strangers who always find a House ready to hire and at an easie rate so that having a Quilt some Coverings Carpets and Cushions you have a furnished House to lodge in and these Hans yield a very considerable revenue to those to whom they belong The Houses of Constantinople mean. As to the Houses of Constantinople they are very ordinary and almost all of Wood which is the cause that when Fires happen as they do very often they make great havock amongst them especially if a wind blow there were three Fires in Constantinople in the space of eight months that I so journed there Constantinople much Subject to fire the first hapned on the day of my arrival and burnt down eight thousand Houses the other two were not so great In the time of Sultan Amurat such a fire raged there for three days and three nights as ruined one half of the Town it is true the Houses being but little and built more of Timber than any thing else they are soon rebuilt again and for a small matter Baltadgis For putting a stop to these fires there are men called Baltadgis that 's to say Hatchet-men who have a constant pay from the Grand Signior When a fire breaks out in any place they beat down the neighbouring Houses with Hatchets beginning sometimes twenty or thirty Houses from the fire for the fire runs so fast that it is soon up with them these fires most commonly are occasioned by Tobaco for the Turks easily fall asleep with a lighted Pipe in their mouths Causes of fire and seeing they smoak when they are in Bed it is very easie for the Fire that falls out of their Pipes to take on materials that are so prepared to receive it These accidents of fire are sometimes also occasioned by the Souldiers who raise a fire with design to rob Houses whilst the people are labouring to quench it The streets of Constantinople are very ugly being for the most part narrow crooked up-hill and down-hill There are several Market-places in the City but one must see the great Bezestain Great Bezestain which is a very large round Hall built all of Free-stone and enclosed with very thick Walls the Shops are within round the Hall as in Westminster-Hall and in these Shops the most costly Goods are to be sold There are four Gates into this Hall which are very strong and shut every night no body lies there and all the care they take is to shut their Shops well at night The litle Bezestain There is another Bezestain in the City but less where Goods of smaller value are to be sold CHAP. XX. Of Cassumpasha Galata Pera and Tophana HAving said enough of Constantinople we must now pass over to Galata which is as it were the Suburbs of it Galata is separated from Constantinople by the Port that is betwixt them there are on both sides a great many Caiques and Permes which will carry you over for a very small matter Caiques-Permes and land you where you have a mind to be Caiques are small Boats and the Permes are little slight Boats or Wherries and so tick'lish that by leaning more to one side than another it is an easie matter to overset them You may go to Galata by land if you 'll fetch a compass round the Port which is very spacious having crossed a little River of fresh water that discharges it self into the Harbour you go towards Galata and by the way you first find the Ocmeidan or field of Arrows it is a large place where the Turks practise Archery Ocmeidan and come in procession to make their Prayers to God for the prosperity of their Armies and for whatsoever they stand in need of Then you come to Cassumpasha which seems to be a great Village there by the water side is the Arsenal where Gallies Maones and Ships are built it contains sixscore arched Docks or Houses where Gallies may be put under cover or new ones built The Capoudan Basha Capoudan Basha or Admiral has his lodgings in the Arsenal where he commands and all who belong to the Sea depend on him In the same Arsenal is the Bagnio for the Grand Signiors slaves which is very spacious From thence you come to Galata separated from Cassumpasha only by the burying places that are betwixt them Galata is a pretty large Town over against Constantinople from which it is separated by the Port or Harbour it belonged hererofore to the Genoese and then was pretty considerable there is still a large Tower to be seen in it which they long held out against the Turks after they were Masters of Constantinople the Houses are good and well built many Greeks live there and it is the usual residence of the Francks In Galata there are five Monasteries of religious Francks to wit of the Cordeliers and their Church is called St. Marie of the Observantines or
occasioned by People that fall asleep with a Pipe in their Mouth that sets fire to the Bed or any combustible matter as I said before He used all the arts he could to discover those who sold Tobacco and went to those places where he was informed they did where having offered several Chequins for a pound of Tobacco made great entreaty and promised secrecy if they let him have it he drew out a Cimeter under his Vest and cut off the Shopkeepers Head. They tell a very pleasant adventure of his upon this occasion Being one day in disguise at Scudaret he went into the Boat that passes over to Constantinople wherein there were several People and amongst others a Spahi of Anatolia who was going to Constantinople for his Pay. A story of Sultan Amurat upon the prohibition of Tobacco No sooner was this Blade come into the Boat but he fell a smoaking and no body durst say any thing to him save Sultan Amurat who drawing near asked him if he did not stand in Awe of the Grand Signior's Prohibition The Spahi very arrogantly made answer That the Grand Signior led a brave life on 't that he delighted himself with his Women and Boys and making himself Drunk in his Serraglio that for his share all he had was Bread that Tobacco was his Bread and that the Grand Signior could not hinder him to smoak and with that asked him if he would take a whiff Sultan Amurat told him softly that he would and having got the Pipe from the Spahi went and hid himself in a corner of the Boat smoaking with as much circumspection as if he had been afraid some body might see him When they were come to Constantinople both together went into a Caique to go into Galata each pretending to have Business there When they were come a shoar Sultan Amurat invited the Spahi to go drink a cup of Wine in a place where he knew it was good and the other condescended The Emperour led him towards the place where his Servants staied for him for when they Disguise themselves they appoint their Servants to meet them at a certain place and being pretty near he thought because he was very strong that he was able alone to arrest the Man and therefore took him by the Collar The Spahi much surprised at that boldness and remembring he had been told that Sultan Amurat often disguised himself he made no doubt but that it was he so that seeing himself undone he quickly took up his Mace that hung by his Girdle and with it gave Sultan Amurat such a Blow over the small of the Back that he beat him down and then fled Sultan Amurat being mad that he missed of his design caused it to be Published that he acknowledged the Fellow who had given him the Blow to be brave and that if he did appear he would greatly reward him but the other mistrusting his Promise kept out of the way He plaied so many Pranks of that nature that they were enough to fill a Book CHAP. XLVI Of the Grand Visier and other chief Officers of the Turkish Empire THE Grand Signior as I said before meddles but little or not at all with Affairs and if any apply themselves to Business it is only in matters of great Consequence For if he concerned himself in smaller Affairs he must shew himself too often which he would take to be Prejudicial to him and a Diminution of his Majesty But he hath his chief Minister who is the Grand Visier for he hath commonly seven Visiers whereof the first hath all the Authority and does all Grand Visier It is he that giveth ordinary Audiences to Ambassadours who during the whole time of their Embassie have but two Audiences of the Grand Signior one at their Arrival and another when they depart and these neither but audiences of Ceremony wherein they treat of no Business He hears their Proposals and gives them their Answer It is he that takes care to pay the Armies desides Law-suits condemns Criminals and manages the Government In a word all the Affairs of the Empire rest upon his Shoulders he discharges the Office of the Grand Signior and only wants the Title This is a very heavy Charge and a Grand Visier has but very little time to himself nevertheless all ardently aspire to that Dignity though they be almost sure to Die within a few days after For when a Grand Visier continues six Months in Office he is a Man of parts and most commonly with their place they lose their Lives Because in discharging that Office they raise themselves a great many Enemies some out of Envy others as being the Friends and Relations of those whom the Grand Visier has disobliged for Justice can never be rendred without Murmurings and Discontents and if they who are discontented have any credit with the Grand Signior they use it to get the Grand Visier turned out and put to Death and if they have not credit enough to make him lose his Life they think it enough to get him made Maasoul Maasoul that is to say turned out of place and it is many times the Custom after that to give him a Government But when he is on the way to go to it his Enemies growing more powerful by his absence so bestir themselves that they obtain a Warrant for his Death immediately thereupon a Capidgi is sent after him who having overtaken him shews him the Order he has to carry back his Head the other takes the Grand Signior's Order kisses it puts it upon his Head in sign of respect and then having performed his Ablution and said his Prayers freely gives up his Head The Capidgi having Strangled him or caused Servants whom he brought purposely with him to do it cuts off his Head and brings it to Constantinople Thus they blindly obey the Grand Signior's Order Great respect to the Grand Signior's Orders their Servants never offering to hinder the Executioner though these Capidgis come very often with few or no Attendents at all for they think they make a happy end when they Die by Orders from the Grand Signior believing themselves to be as good Martyrs as those who die Fighting against the Enemies of their Religion However now a days there are a great many who are not such Fools and I fancy that of late they begin to be undeceived of that pretended Martyrdom The cause of the frequent Rebellions in Asia for they receive not now such news with a serene Countenance Hence it is that there happens frequent Rebellions in Asia which are only made by discontened Bashas who know that their Enemies are preparing Death for them upon their arrival at Constantinople Hussein Basha However Hussein Basha who so long Commanded the Turks in Candia did not at all desire the Office of Visier for though it was several times offered unto him yet he would never accept of it very well perceiving that that Dignity was
purposely offered him to draw him out of the Isle of Candia where he was beloved of the Soldiers and Country and where being Absolute he raised a great Revenue so having given some jealousie to the Grand Signior he made no doubt but as soon as they had got him out of the Island they would cut off his Head and nevertheless for all his Circumspection he fell into the Snare at last which for many years he had avoided But to return to the Charge of Grand Visier The chief cause why the great men affect to be Grand Visiers considering how greedily they all gape after it It makes me believe what several Turks have told me that the chief thing that makes them desire it is to have the pleasure of being revenged on their Enemies And indeed it is seen that a Grand Visier upon his promotion to that Dignity cuts off a great many Heads but he is to expect hourly the like himself and when he goes to the Serraglio he is in doubt whether ever he come back again Nevertheless the Grand Visier that died last discharged that Office for many Years and ended his days by a Natural Death To do so it requires great Prudence and many Friends every where but chiefly in the Serraglio where it is good to have the protection of the Mother of the Grand Signior and of the beloved Sultana's by means of the Eunuches Friendships are acquired by presents whose friendship is also very considerable the Kzlar Agasi or Guardian of the Maids and some others being in extraordinary favour with the Grand Signior all these friendships are procured by Presents Next to the Grand Visier the other Visiers are the principal Members and Ministers of Council though they commonly Act according as the Grand Visier would have them What the word Cadilesquer signifies The other chief Charges are the Cadilesquers which properly signifies Judges of the Armies and are a kind of chief Justices for they are sovereign Judges both in Civil and Military Affairs Heretofore there were but two Cadilesquer's Cadilesquers one of Anatolia and the other of Romelia or Greece in Europe But after that Sultan Selim Conquered Aegypt he Created a third who is Cadilesquer of Aegypt Cadis They have under them the Cadis who are Judges and as it were Bailiffs or Provosts before them ordinary causes are tryed Marriages made liberty given to Slaves and they make their Writings which they call Heudgets or Decrees The Cadilesquers name the Cadies Heudgets who are afterwards to be approved and confirmed by the Grand Signior Captain Basha The place of Captain Basha or Admiral is also a very considerable Office for he is master of the Fleet at Sea and he is also called Degniz Beglerbey that is to say Beglerbey of the Sea. There are a great many other charges of great Authority which it would be too tedious to mention here it being sufficient to have named the chief These places generally change masters very often and in the space of eight Months that I was at Constantinople there were three Mouftis three prime Visiers and three Captain Basha's The Children of these men are seldome the richer for their Fathers Fortune for seeing it is the common custom to take their Places and Lives from them at the same time the Grand Signior seizes all their Estates the Goods of all Malefactors belonging to him CHAP. XLVII Of the Divan THE word Divan is not only taken for that rising The Divan which is at the end of Halls about half a foot or a foot high and covered with a carpet of which I have spoken before but also for the Council and Assemblie of the Visiers and other Officers who on certain daies meet to consult about affairs of State and other business This Divan is held regularly four days of the week to wit Divan days Saturday Sunday Monday and Tuesday in a Hall appointed for that purpose in the second Court of the Serraglio The Visiers and those who ought to be there fail not to come betimes in the morning those who have place there are the Visiers Cadilesquers Beglerbeys or Vice-Roys the Nischangi Officers of the Divan Beglerbey Nischangi Defierdars who is Keeper of the Seals for he seals all dispatches the Defterdars who are the Treasurers and a great many Secretaries or Clerks who draw all the writings upon the spot the Capidgi Basha and Chiaoux Bashaw keep the door of the Hall There affairs of State are debated all suits are there supreamly decided for any body may be heard there of what Country Quality or Religion soever he be and the poorest man has liberty to ask Justice of the Grand Vizier in Person and to deliver him his Petition which after the Grand Vizier hath ordered to be read he pronounces Sentence according to Equity If it be a Suit for Debt the Vizier upon supplication sends a Chiaoux to fetch the Debtor into Court and the Creditor bringing his witnesses who ought to be two at least the Debtor is obliged to pay him upon the spot or go to Prison and lye there till he have done it If it be for Murder the accusers having good Witnesses the Prisoner is condemned to die and all these things are dispatched with so much expedition The dispatch of Justice among the Turks that a matter no sooner comes to a hearing but it is consulted judged and put into Execution and a Tryal shall not last above four or five hours without Sentence given one way or other nor does so long a delay happen unless it be a very difficult Cause and so the parties are not undone by Lawyers and Pleading as in other Places nor is there any fear that wrong Justice will be administred for at the end of the Hall in the wall near the Seeling there is a Window with black crape hanging before it through which the Grand Signior sees and hears when he pleases all that is said or done in the Divan without being perceived so that the Judges not knowing whether the Grand Signior be at the Window or not are careful not to do partial Justice which would immediately cost them their Life if the Grand Signior knew it and they give him a faithful account of every thing that passes in the Divan A little farther near the Divan Hazna is the Hazna or Treasury where the Grand Signior's Revenue is put It is opened on all Divan Days The opening of the Grand Signiors Treasury but But first the Chiaoux Basha takes off the Seal looking if it be whole and when they have taken out of that Hazna what they had a mind to take or put in what they had to put it is shut again and then the Vizier gives his Seal to the Chiaoux Basha who Seals up the Lock of it Whilest the Divan is Sitting Aga of the Janizaries the Aga of the Janizaries is brought in before the Grand Signior
very welcome by these Captains who divided us betwixt them Our Monks went on board of Captain Santi and we who were Seculars were taken into the Ship of Captain Nicolo These two Ships were Consorts and had on board each an hundred and forty Men with fourteen Oars aside which they could use in case of necessity setting two Men to each Oar. The Ship we were in had four and twenty Petreras and two great Guns all of Brass besides a great number of Muskets and Blunderbusses and the other was as well armed They had besides a Galliot which they had made of a Sanbiquer they had taken near to Scandaroon and armed with six brazen Petreras and a fair brass chase-Gun having manned her with eighty of their Men forty a piece and that was the same Galliot which had given us the chase the day before One of these Corsairs had been six and thirty and the other forty Months out at Sea. I wondred to see on board the Ship where we were several Slaves Men Women and Children and they told me that they had taken most of them at Castel Peregrino some days before having surprised the Castle in this manner When they had took this Sanbiquer which as I said they turned into a Galliot a Turk about Scandaroon who was taken in her made a Proposal to them that if they would give him his liberty he would put them in a way of taking many Slaves They presently made him a Promise but he not trusting to their Word for all he was a Turk made them Swear it before an Image of our Blessed Lady and another of St. Francis. When they had given their Oath he made them steer their course toward Castel Peregrino which is a pitiful little open Castle betwixt Acre and Jaffa ten miles below Mount Carmel on the way to Jaffa They took their measures so well that they were not at all perceived and having immediately landed they went without any noise to the Habitation where being come they began to appear in their Colours The Surprisal of an Habitation by Italian Corsairs carrying away all living Creatures Men Women and Children and killing all without regard to Age or Sex that would not willingly go along with them insomuch that some Soldiers told me that they had killed young Maids who notwithstanding they had seen others that would not follow killed before their faces chose rather to be put to Death than to be made Slaves They shewed me one of their Officers to whom a Soldier brought a Child four months old telling him Here is a Slave for you who in a barbarous manner taking the innocent Infant by one foot and saying What would you have me to do with this threw it from him as if it had been a stone as far as he could on the ground They made on this occasion above fifty Slaves Men Women and Children The Turk who was their Guide having brought them on board they took off his Chain and he went to look for more never thinking of making his escape either because he trusted to their Oath or else perhaps because he was afraid to have met in that Countrey with the reward of his Treachery They killed more than they took and left not so much as a living Soul in the place and that was the cause of the great allarm they were put into on that Coast when we sailed along it from Acre to Jaffa It was a sad spectacle to see on board this Ship so many poor Women with their Children at their breasts having no greater allowance than a little mouldy Bisket and two glasses of stinking Water a day which was all the Men had also but among others there was one Woman Slave on board with her Husband Brother seven Children and one in her Womb All this together caused a great clutter and nastiness in the Ship nay there was one little Child ill of the Small-pox which made me afraid of catching the same Disease We were no better treated than the Slaves Entertainment on board the Corsairs for they were in great want of Provisions and had so little Water that they were obliged to distribute it by measure giving every one two glasses a day Our Diet then consisted of two meals a day both alike one at noon and the other at night and these were a little mouldy Bisket of all colours which to season and soften it was steep'd in Water that stunck so horridly that it smelt all over the Cabin and getting into our throat as we broke the Bisket with our teeth was like to have turned our stomacks A little Cheese we had also that might have kept along time for it needed a Hatchet to cut it Our Drink was the same stinking Water with a very little coat of Wine upon it and in the night-time we lay upon the deck amidst the Vermine and filth of the poor Wretches our Monks were better accommodated as they told us afterwards However I was not altogether disheartned by this adversity on the contrary was fain to encourage the rest who thought themselves half dead already and apply'd my self to consider what way we might be delivered out of this misery With their two Ships they had a great Saique which they had taken a few days before and some Greeks coming to redeem her had offered a thousand Piastres for her but these Gentlemen demanding fifteen hundred the Greeks went away promising however to come back again which I having understood from the Captain who was as willing to be rid of us as we were to be gone because we lessened his stinking Provisions we prepared to go to Damiette with them The Corsairs would willingly have set us ashoar if we had pleased but we would by no means accept of that offer for fear of having been taken for Corsairs and so immediately burnt alive and it was too fresh in my memory what I had been told of other Franks who having escaped from Shipwreck and coming a-shore thought they came very well off when they were only made Slaves In the mean time the Galliot came up with the Ships Tuesday morning the eight and twentieth of May she had taken a Saycot which was the sail we had seen with her but she let it go as not worth their while to stay for it On Wednesday the nine and twentieth of May about an hour before day a Polaque fell in among us and running foul of our Sanbiquer that was towed at the stern of one of the Ships made a hole in her side The Corsairs were immiediately allarmed and firing some small Shot into the Polaque manned their Boats to take her On the other hand those on board the Polaque who were either drunk or asleep awaking at the knock which their Polaque gave in striking against the Sanbiquer and being sensible of their fault betook themselves in all haste to their Caique and endeavoured to make their escape by rowing but being closely pursued they were soon
come up with and of one and twenty Turks that were in it twelve leaped into the Sea to swim though the nearest land was above six miles off and the nine that remained were brought on board the Ship I asked them how they came to be so negligent in looking after their Vessel and they told me that thinking themselves to have been near the mouth of the Nile before Damiette they were fallen asleep which was the worst excuse they could have made seeing they ought to have been afraid that their Polaque might have run a-ground There were some Bales of Soap in that Polaque The same day the Corsairs finding that the Greeks to whom the Saique that they had taken belonged came not again resolved to burn her but knowing that the more mischief they did the harder it would be for us to get a-shore I prayed the Captain not to burn her and at my request having taken away all her Sails and Rigging they let her go a drift and not long after we saw her run a-shore In the same manner they unrigg'd our Sanbiquer and having set her a drift also she was cast away in our sight After that we steered our course toward Damiette to take in fresh water at the mouth of the Nile This resolution made us greatly rejoyce for good fresh water would have been at that time a great Treat for us besides that being near to the place where we desired to be we hoped still to find some expedient of getting safe a-shore We stood in as near as we could and next day being Thursday the thirtieth of May about ten a clock in the morning we were got before the mouth of the Nile and the Galliot went in to take fresh water in spight of the Guns of the Fort Our Ships had a mind to do the like and put out a white Flag that they might see whether they would let us come a-shore or ransome any of the Slaves they had on board We expected with great impatience that they should have put out a white Flag on the Castle and were making ready to go quickly to Damiette with all safety when as ill luck would have it he that look'd out from the main top-mast head made four Sail Immediately they changed their white Flag into a red though I offered to tell them that it was ill done to fall foul of those Sails which perhaps only stood in because they had seen white Colours abroad but they made answer that seeing the Castle had not put out a white Flag they were no ways obliged so that they gave chase to those four Vessels and the Castle fired several Shot at us without any effect unless perhaps they served to give warning to those Saiques to make away as fast as they could Three of them made their escape and the fourth wich was a Saycot run a-shore and all that were on board got to land and saved themselves Our Caiques were manned out who finding in her nothing but Wood wherewith she was loaded and the Reys all alone who was a Greek they left her there and him in her and so came back to the Ships Next day being Friday the last of May having by break of day made a Saique we gave her the chase also till about noon While we were in pursuit of her we heard four Guns and our Corsairs thinking it might be some other Corsair come upon the Coast who was in chase of some Saycot made all the speed they could with Sails and Oars after the Saique for our parts our wishes were contrary to theirs for we always prayed to God that they might not come up with her still reckoning that the less mischief they did the better it would be for us however they laboured so hard that they gained ground on her and manned out their Cayque to Board her then they who were in the Sayque finding that they could not make their Escape surrendred themselves and another Saycot seeing this though she was above six miles off of us came without being pursued and Surrendred of her own accord in hopes of better usage and both these two were only loaded with Carob Beans Towards the Evening the Galliot which had been out a Cruising as she daily did came up with our Ships and told us that they had met with a Turkish Galliot and having laid her a thwart the Hass they met with stout resistance the Turks who were on board of her having a naked Sword between their Teeth and a Musquet in their hands so that finding they could do no good on her that way they left the Head and set upon her on the Stern but they found as hot service there as they had done before and were even in danger of having been taken by the Turks They Boarded her again the third time but could make nothing on 't on the contrary the Turks were like to have mastered them so that having three of their Men Killed and seven wounded they were fain to come off with Disgrace During that Engagement they had fired some shot with their Chase-Gun which were the Guns we had heard in the Morning and if the Ships had stood that way from whence they heard the Guns as the Maximes of their trade required they would have easily taken that Galliot but being unwilling to save a certain for an uncertain Booty they missed of that fair hit This Engagement afflicted us because it made our condition worse and worse nevertheless we prayed our Captain to let go that Saycot which had voluntarily surrendred to the end that she going to Damiette we might go with her and that these men might tell a-shoar that they had been obliged to us for having begged their Saycot for them This Saycot being of small value they easily granted our desires and having taken out of her ten Sacks of Carobs they set us on board and let her go on Saturday the first of June We entreated the Captain also to give us that Turk who had put them upon the exploit of Castel Peregrino for seeing they had promised him his Liberty before an Image of the Virgin as their Soldiers told us he might tell all People at Damiette that we had procured him his freedom not daring to tell the real cause of it and so would have put us out of all danger but they made us answer that they would carry him back to his own Countrey which made some of the Soldiers murmur a little saying they could not fail of falling into some mischance seeing they falsified their Promise made before the Image of the Blessed Virgin. We went then in that Saycot which came from Cyprus and was bound for Damiette and were not as yet out of danger for if these Greeks had been malicious Rogues they might have taken an opportunity to throw us over Board not only to make themselves satisfaction for the small matter that was taken from them by the little Goods we had but also in revenge
Prayers of the Hermites who at that time lived by it and chiefly of St. Macharius because the Pirats of that Sea much infested them Bahr el Malame it is called Bahr el Malame that is to say Mare Convicii There you may find a great many petrifications of Wood and some Bones converted into Stone which are pretty curious On the side of that Sea to the West The Mountain of Eagles Stones Dgebel el Masque is the Mountain of Eagles Stones called Dgebel el Masque where digging in the Earth and especially in time of heat and drought they find several Eagles Stones of different bigness so called because the Eagles carry them to their Nests to preserve their young ones from Serpents they have many Vertues and the Monks say that there are commonly many Eagles to be seen there You must make as short a stay there as you can for fear of the Arabs From the Mountain of Eagles Stones you go making a Triangle to the fourth Monastery and all the Journey from Ambabichoye to this Monastery Dir el Saydet is performed in one day This Monastery is called Dir el Saydet that is to say the Monastery of our Lady it is very spacious but a little ruinous It hath a fair Church and Garden but the Water is brackish and nevertheless there are more Monks in this Monastery than in the other three because the Revenue of it is greater and they have some Relicks also From this Monastery you go to the Lake of Natron Birquet el Natroun called Birquet el Natroun only two Leagues distant from it this Lake is worth ones Curiosity to see and it looks like a large Pond frozen over upon the Ice whereof a little Snow had fallen It is divided into two the more Northern is made by a Spring that rises out of the Ground though the place of it cannot be observed and the Southern proceeds from a great bubbling Spring the Water being at least a Knee deep which immediately as it springs out of the Earth congeals and makes as it were great pieces of Ice and generally the Natron is made and perfected in a Year by that Water which is reddish There is a red Salt upon it six or seven Fingers thick Natron then a black Natron which is made use of in Aegypt for Lye and last is the Natron much like the first Salt but more solid Higher up there is a little Well of Fresh-water which is called Aain el Goz and a great many Camels come dayly to the Lake to be loaded with that Natron From this Lake you go to another where there is Salt at Whitsontide made in form of a Pyramide Pyramidal Salt. Melhel Mactaoum and therefore is called Pyramidal Salt and in Arabick Melh el Mactaoum From the said Lake you return and Lodge in one of the Monasteries and next day come back to the Nile where you must stay for a passage to Caire or Rossetto if you have not retained the Boat that brought you CHAP. LXXII Of Aegypt the Nile Crocodiles and Sea-Horses AEGypt called by the Hebrews Mis Raim Aegypt Masr and by the Arabs at present Masr and in Turkish Misr is bounded on the East by the Red Sea and the Desarts of Arabia on the South by the Kingdoms of Bugia and Nubia The borders of Aegypt on the West by the Desarts of Lybia and on the North by the Mediterranean Sea. This Country lies so low that the Land cannot be seen till one be just upon it and therefore those that sail to it ought to be upon their Guard. Aegypt has no Ports on the Mediteranean fit for Ships except Alexandria and the Bouquer which is rather a Road than a Port The course of the Nile in Aegypt The River of Nile runs through the length of it and having its Course from South to North discharges it self into the Mediterranean by two mouths upon the sides of which stand two fair Towns to wit Rossetto to the West and Damiette to the East two miles below which it mingles its Waters with the Sea and by that division makes a Triangular Isle in Aegypt This Triangular Island was by the ancient Greeks called Delta because in Figure it resembles the Character Δ. The Delta of Aegypt One side of that Triangle is beat by the Mediterranean Sea on the North and the other two are bounded by the two branches of the Nile which divide at the point of this Triangle so that the three points or angles of this Triangle are the first at the place where the Nile divides it self into two the second at Rossetto and the third at Damiette The first Angle is at an equal distance from the other two to wit from Rossetto and Damiette and from that Angle it is five or six Leagues to Caire so that the Nile has only those two mouths which are Navigable for great Vessels for though there be some others yet they are no more but Rivulets The breadth of the Nile This River is broader than the broadest part of the Seine but it is not very Rapid unless it be at its Cataracts where it falls from so great a height that as they say the noise of it is heard at a very great distance When it overflows it seems to be a little Sea. The water of it is very thick and muddy but they have an Invention to clarifie it For in that Country An invention for clarifying the water of the Nile they make use of great Vessels of white Earth holding about four Buckets full of Water when they are full of Water they rub the inside of the Vessels with three or four Almonds at most until they be dissolved and in the space of a quarter of an Hour the Water becomes very clear and for that end most of those who bring Water to Houses have a Paste of Almonds wherewith they rub the Vessels as I have said After all this Water is so wholesome that it never does any harm though one drink never so much of it because it comes a great way over Land to wit from Ethiopia So that in so long a course and through so hot a Country the Sun has time to Correct it and cleanse it from all Crudities and indeed it is sweated out as fast as one drinks it In short The number of Villages upon the Banks of the Nile they have no other Water to drink in Aegypt and therefore most of the Cities Towns and Villages are upon the sides of the River and there are so many Villages that you no sooner leave one but you find another and all the Houses in them are built of Earth This River abounds not much in Fish and we had but one good Fish of the Nile at Caire which they call Variole and that is rare too Variole Crocodiles but there are a vast number of Crocodiles in it which perhaps is the cause of the scarcity of the
considerable Town of Traffick and in former times was very strong it had a fair Castle which was a long time agoe demolished by the Turks who much ruined the Town also The Air is very bad here and so is the Water too there is no Wine to be found in this place but onely Brandy Many of our Caravan fell sick during the time we stayed there for my part I was taken with a looseness that soon after was followed by a Feaver which I carried with me to Ispahan where both held me above a Month and the Watch-maker that went with me fell into a Quartane-ague shortly after he arrived at Ispahan The Armenians have a Church in Hamadan but kept in bad order There is commonly a Chan who commands in that place but at that time there was none there onely a Deroga to whom the King sent a present of a Vest The ceremony of a Khalat or King's Vest while I was there There was no other Ceremony in it but that the Deroga went out about eight or nine a Clock in the Morning by the King's Gate so called because by that Gate they go to Ispahan and then advanced to a House about a quarter of a French League distant where he put on the Vest which the King sent him being of Cloath of Gold and presently returned to the Town amidst a Body of fifty or sixty of the chief Inhabitants on Horse-back who marched almost all a breast without any order whilst they were in the Fields Having stayed eight days at Hamadan we bargained with a Muletor for five Abassis for every saddle-Horse and for our Goods at the rate of eleven for the hundred Patmans of Tauris A hundred Patmans of Tauris are about six hundred weight the hundred Patmans of Tauris are near six hundred weight and that was a cheap bargain But the Muletor who perhaps repented what he had done resolved to stay for the Caravan with which we came and was not to depart till eight days after and we being told that there was an Aga come who guarded Butter and other Provisions that were going to the King we sent for his Muletor who furnished us with Saddle-horses for six Abassis and for our luggage we payed at the rate of fifteen Abassis for the hundred Patmans of Tauris To this beginning of a Caravan many others joyned who were as weary as we of staying at Hamadan so that all together we made a Caravan strong enough not to be afraid of Robbers For though they say there are none in Persia yet at that time there were several gangs of them abroad because the Chan of that quarter being dead there was no other as yet sent in his place We parted from Hamadan on Saturday the twentieth of September at five a Clock in the Morning and having past through a good part of the Town we went out by the King's Gate or the Gate of Ispahan taking our way Eastward We crossed several fair Waters and about seven a Clock a Bridge of five Arches under which runs a Rivulet that in the Winter-time swells high Having travelled one hour more over little hills we found two ways and not knowing which of the two to take because we were got a great way before the Caravan we were obliged Monsieur Jacob three Turks and my self to stay sometime for it After we had waited there above half an hour to no purpose we thought it not fit to return back for fear it might have taken another way and therefore at a venture all five of us took the way to the left hand Nischar and continued on till we came to a Town called Nischar by which we knew the Caravan was to pass We arrived there about three a Clock after Noon and took shelter in a wretched Kervanserai without the Town that was all ruinous All the furniture we had was a Coverlet which we spread under us that we might not lye upon the bare ground and a leathern Vessel which they call Matara to hold water in Matara for my man and all our baggage was with the Caravan We took patience however and in the mean time immediately after the Caravan had passed the Bridge it held along the River-side and came to lodge at a Village called Boulousch Kisar Boulousch Kisar Next day being Sunday the one and twentieth of September it parted from thence About two a Clock in the Morning and about six arrived at Nischar Having there payed a due of four Bistis a load it went on without stopping and we having joyned it again half an hour after nine encamped under Trees near a Village called Haran Haran where our Moucres gave us warning to keep good guard in the Night-time The truth is in the Day-time several Passengers stopt and at a distance considered our Arms and two hours after Night a man passing near to us and making no answer when he was asked who came there my man advanced towards him but then the Robber who came onely to see how Affairs stood said that he belonged to the Caravan which was immediately contradicted by some of our Company who told him that if he came that way again they would fire upon him Next day being Monday the two and twentieth of September we parted from that place about two of the Clock in the Morning and proceeding on still Eastward in good way we passed by several great Villages which we found every quarter of an hour almost and being come to a River above two fathom over which they call the River of Dizava we marched up it about half an hour and then having past over entered into a spacious Plain of which in two or three hours time we passed over a great part and came to a Town called Dizava so hid among Gardens which take up the whole breadth of the Plain that as a Curtain they not onely intercept the view of the Town but also of part of the Plain which reaches a good way beyond it An hour before we arrived there and being very near it we were fain to fetch a great compass to pass a Rivulet that was broad deep and very full of mud and then came to a little point which gave us a passage into Dizava where we kept marching on still along great Lanes made by Gardens on both hands that were well walled but without any Habitation and Dizava lies so hid that not a House of it is to be seen till you be in it though you were never so nigh so that he who did not understand the Map of the Countrey would think himself near a Forest for it is of a pretty large extent We past through a considerable part of the Town which is very ill built and about ten a Clock came to a good Kervanserai The ignorance of our Moucres was the cause of that compass we fetcht and besides all their Beasts both saddle and carriage Horses were so bad that it was impossible
the other we lodged in the greater which is all built of great thick Flints of several colours cemented with good Plaister and the Vaults are of Brick the different colours of these Flints make a pretty pleasant Mosaick Work. The Water thereabouts is good for nothing and therefore there is no habitation there We parted from thence the same day at seven a Clock at Night and on Thursday the first of October one thousand six hundred sixty and four about two a Clock in the Morning arrived at Ispahan where I went and lodged with the reverend Fathers Capucins The Reverend Father Raphael of Mans a person of extraordinary vertue and capacity and of a most exemplary life was their Guardian Arrival at Ispahan he had two Religious with him to wit the reverend Father Valentine of Anger 's and the reverend Father John Baptista of Loche CHAP. III. Of Persia in General BEfore I enter into the description of what I have observed at Ispahan I think it will not be impertinent to give the Reader a general notion of Persia which is a Kingdom onely strong because environed with Mountains and barren Desarts that defend it against the attempts of its most powerfull Enemies And indeed the forces that are entertained therein of whom I shall speak in the Chapter of the Court or if you will the Armies that have been raised there in our days are so inconsiderable in respect of so vast a Countrey that the Persians are not to be reckoned amongst formidable Powers The cause of that weakness is the scarcity of money in those Countreys which cannot suffice to set on foot great Armies and far less to maintain them this want of money proceeds from the small trade the Persians drive having but few Goods amongst them proper to be exported to wit some Silk which is made in the Gheilan and Mazendaran Carpets and wrought Stuffs and hardly any thing else considerable In so much that it may be said of Persia that it is as a Kervanserai that serves for passage to the money that goes out of Europe and Turkey to the Indies and to the Stuffs and Spices that come from the Indies into Turkey and Europe whereof it makes some small profit in the passage The soyl of the bordering Countreys speaking generally is very bad The soil of Persia in general not onely by reason of the many Mountains but also of the want of water and wood in most places thereof there being no other Trees but fruit-Trees that are enclosed within Gardens for there are none to be found in the Fields though the Countrey People seem to be carefull and diligent enough in cultivating sowing and planting all the Land that is good It is true the great pains they take in making Gardens and cultivating them for the benefit they make of the Fruit which are exceedingly much eaten in Persia makes them a little neglect the rest of their grounds for after we had past Curdistan I saw in several places very good Land and Hills which in my opinion would be very fruitfull if they were well cultivated and manured Nay in many of these places there is plenty of excellent good water wherewith in my Judgment they might water their grounds by making Ditches through them as they do in other parts And nevertheless I cannot tell why they are desart and full of Liquorice or such like shrubs and no Trees growing in them There are so many Brooks in several Countreys of Persia that I believe the ways are very bad to travel in in the Winter-time for though we were about the end of Summer yet we passed some which were full of thick mud at the bottom The Mazandaran indeed is a very lovely Countrey Mazandaran abounding with Plants Fruit and Wood as well as Europe and good reason why for it is watered by many Springs and Rivers which having run through the Countrey fall into the Caspian Sea that is near it The chief Town of that Countrey is called Eschref Eschref and in it there is a Royal Palace where one may have all imaginable Recreations Lovely Gardens Large Gardens full of flowers with many Ponds and Fountains in these Gardens lovely Houses and artificial Mounts for taking the fresh Air all covered with Flowers with little Buildings on the top to repose in In a word it is a very pleasant place And indeed this is the onely lovely Province of all Persia and yet it hath its inconveniences The Air of Mazandaran for in Winter it is very cold there and the ways very bad In the Summer the Air is so malignant that most of the Inhabitants are obliged to remove to other Places and all the People of that Countrey look yellowish and tawny Venomous Creatures The cause of that bad Air is the vast number of Serpents and other insects that swarm there which in the Summer-time dying for want of water because most Springs in that Season are dried up cause a corruption and infection which fills the Air with contagious Vapours CHAP. IV. Of what hath been observed in Ispahan Ispahan ISpahan is the Capital City of the Province of Irac which is part of the ancient Parthia and generally of the whole Kingdom of Persia for in this Town the King holds his ordinary residence The Air of it is extremely dry therefore what the Earth produces for the food of man is easily preserved there all the year round I cannot tell but it may be attributed to this disposition of the Air what commonly happens that all the Bodies whether of Men or Beasts an hour after they are dead swell extremely which may be occasioned by this so dry an Air that penetrating into the Bodies drives out the humidity which being extravasated betwixt the Flesh and Skin endeavours to break out and so puffs them up until it hath found an Issue when the parts of it have been sufficiently subtilized The hands and feet likewise swell at the end of all Sicknesses which continues some weeks before the cause of it be discussed Nevertheless in time of Rain there are great damps so that the effects of the humidity are to be seen on all things not onely at Ispahan but also all over Persia in so much that all Instruments of Iron rust where ever they may be kept even keys in ones Pocket as I several times found by experience The truth is it rains there very seldom unless it be in Winter And whilst I was there the first Rain that fell was on the eleventh of December But likewise when it rains the Houses crumble and fall away in pieces and the Snow rots the Terrasses if they be not paved with Bricks and seeing most of them are of Earth the Snow must be thrown off assoon as it falls upon them In the year one thousand six hundred sixty and five there was a great Rain in all that extent of Countrey which reaches from Bender Abassi and Bender Cougo
every where they have no Stalk but embrace the Stem Towards the head of the stem about the uppermost but one of the sets of Leaves See the following Cut. or somewhat higher out of the main stem betwixt the two Leaves a stem sprouts out as big as the shank of a Tulip and long as ones Finger from the end whereof other small stalks spring forth about fifteen in number each of which bears a Flower on the top all these Flowers together making a kind of Posie before they blow they are about the bigness of a Brass Farthing and are like a flat Button or of the same bigness and figure as some little white round Bones flat above which are to be found in the Thornback-Fish they are round below that is to say the Leaves of which it is made up joyn and make the upper side flat when they are open they look like very small Emonies These Flowers on the outside are of a dull sullied White The Flowers of Kerzehreh inclining to a Violet-colour and very sleeked in the inside the bottom is White and the point of each Leaf Purple at the bottom there is a small Pentagone Figure all Yellow whereof each Angle answers to the middle of one of the Leaves of the Flower and out of the middle of each side of that Pentagone grows as it were a Tooth White below and of a Purple colour at the top and each Tooth answers to the interstice betwixt every two Leaves the Flower may be like the Flower of a Bramble This Plant is full of a very tart Milk which immediately dries betwixt the Fingers and turns to little threads It is commonly said in Persia but I never saw the experiment of it that if a man breath in the hot Wind which in June or July passes over that Plant The bad effects of Kerzehreh Badisamour Poyson-wind A Remedy against the Badisamour it will kill him so that if one take hold of him by an Arm or a Leg and pull it it will come off like boyled Flesh and they call that Wind Badisamour which in Persian Language signifies a Poyson-Wind They add that the way to prevent it is when one feels a hot Wind and likewise hears the noise of it for it makes a whistling noise quickly to wet a Cloak or some such thing and wrap it about the Head that the wind may not pierce it and besides to lie on the ground flat on ones Face till it be over which is not above a quarter of an hour They say that that Plant is very Venemous and that therefore they call it Kerzehreh and an Armenian one day would have had me believe that if a drop of the Milk of Kerzehreh touched a mans Eye he would lose it for good and all but I was not willing to try the experiment The Connar The Cherzehre The Armenians call that Plant Badisamour but one of them very rationally told me that they had no reason to give it the name of that Pestiferous Wind and far less to attribute to it the cause of the bad effects thereof seeing the same Plant is found in many places where the Badisamour Wind rages not as at Lar and beyond it and that Wind rages only from Conveston to Bender Nay many people of Schiras told me that the Plant is to be found two Leagues from that Town where that Wind rages not and I have seen it in many places upon the Road from Carzerum to Benderick This is a good reason to prove that that Plant causes not the aforesaid Wind but it does not sufficiently prove that with that Wind it does not cause these bad effects for it may very well be said that if that hot Wind reigned in places where there were no such Plant it would not perhaps be so mortal because it may be that being already very bad of it self the malignity of it is encreased by passing over these Plants whose smell and noxious qualities it carries along with it but what in my opinion may serve to convince us of the contrary betwixt Mosul and Bagdad there being no such Plants at least I never saw nor heard there were any the Wind which in those quarters is called the Samiel is as pestiferous and mortal there as in the places where that Plant is to be found it is therefore impertinent to attibute to it the bad effects of that Wind and the rather that that Plant grows all over the Indies where it is not known what the Wind Samiel is Besides what the Armenian told me that that Plant is called Kerzehreh that is to say Asses-Gall for the reason alleadged before I found in a Dictionary Turkish and Persian that Kerzehreh signifies besides a Tree of Poyson and that man assured me that it was Poysonous if but smelt too But he gave an Original to the Wind Badisamour that had no soliditie at all for he said that it blew from the Sea A bad cause of the Badisamour and that upon that Coast the Sea often casts a shoar a kind of a Fish whereof he could not tell the name and that that Fish being out of the Sea dies and corrupts so that the Wind passing over it brings along with it that stench which renders it pestiferous A Portuguese Gentleman who lived for several years at Bender Congo near which are many Kerzehreh Trees told me this particular of it Some particularities of the Kerzehreh that that part of its Root which looks to the East is Poyson and that that which looks to the South is the Antidote and that of the Wood of that Plant they make good Coals for Gun-powder We found besides in many places Konar a Tree and chiefly all a long the Road from Dgiaroun to Benderabassi a Tree which they call Konar the Trunk of it is so big that it will require two men to grasp it round two or three Foot high it looks just like a Rock or like many Roots twisted together and is very knotty and whitish as to the rest both in shape and height it much resembles a Pear-Tree the Branches of it spread far and make a great shade the Bark of them is white as well as the inside which hath a Pith in the Heart like an Elder-Tree at all the knots where little Branches or Leaves sprout out there are two large long prickles which are strong and red bending a little down towards the ground and are not directly opposite to one another The Leaves are of the length and breadth that are marked in the following Figure They are of a varnished green colour on the one side and on the other of a pale and whitish green and have Veins like Plantain Leaves This Tree bears a Fruit which is ripe in March and in shape much resembles a little Apple of the same colour but no bigger than a Service or small Cherry There is little of it to be Eaten for the stone is much bigger than that