Dominion some wars daily grow in amongst them euen to the extirpation of a whole Nation As wee found freshly when wee passed by one of those Princes called Hiderbeague all whose people were deuored by the sword or carried away captiue by Cobatbeague and himselfe remained onely with some twenty soules in certaine poore Holdes in a Rocke The precise summe which I receiued of the Florentine I set not downe to preuent the scandales of diuers who measuring euery mans mind by the straightnesse of theirs will beleeue no act which doth not symbolize with themselues but so much it was that being thirty daies vpon the way to the Confines then fifteene from the Confines to Casbine where wee attended one month the Kings arriuall it was not onely sufficient to giue vs aboundant meanes for that time but to cloth vs all in rich apparell fit to present our selues before the presence of any Prince and to spend extraordinarily in giftes by which wee insinuated farre into the fauour of those which had the authority of that Prouince during our abode and expectation of the Kings comming In which time wee were well vsed more by the opinion which they had that the King would take satisfaction by vs then by their owne humors being an ill people in themselues and onely good by the example of their King and their exceeding obedience vnto him The Gouernour visited me once Marganabeague maister of the Kings house whom I had won vnto me by presents came oftentimes to see me besides as it seemed being more inwardly acquainted with the Kings inclination fitted himselfe more to that then others did which knew it lesse And now that Iam in Persia speak of the kings absence since he is both one of the mightiest Princes that are and one of the excelleÌ„test for the true vertues of a Prince that is or hath bin and hauing come to this greatnesse though by right yet through the circumstances of the time the occasions which then were solely his owne worthinesse vertue made way to his right besides the fashion of his gouernmeÌ„t differing so much from that which we call barbarousnesse that it may iustly serue for as great an Idea for a Principality as Platoes Common-wealth did for a Gouernment of that sort I hold it not amisse to speake amply first of his person the nature of his people the distribution of his gouernment the administration of his iustice the condition of the bordering Princes the causes of those warres in which he was then occupied that by the true expression of those this discourse may passe with a more liuely and more sensible feeling His person then is such as a well-vnderstanding Nature would fit for the end proposed for his being excellently well shaped of a most well proportioned stature strong and actiue his colour somewhat inclined to a man-like blacknesse is also more blacke by the sunnes burning his furniture of his mind infinitly royall wise valiant liberall temperate mercifull and an exceeding louer of Iustice embracing royally others vertues as farre from pride and vanity as from all vnprincely signes or acts knowing his power iustly what it is and the like acknowledgement will also haue from others without any gentilitious adoration but with those respects which are fit for the maiesty of a Prince which foundeth it selfe vpon the power of his state general loue and awfull terror His fortunes determining to make proofe of his vertue draue him in his first yeares into many dangerous extremities which he ouercomming by his vertue hath made great vse of both in the excellent increase of his particular vnderstanding and generall tranquility strength of his countrey propagation of his Empire For the lawes and customes or both of that kingdome being such that though the king haue a large increase of Issue the first borne only ruleth to auoyd all kind of cause of ciuill dissention the rest are not inhumanly murthered according to the vse of the Turkish gouernment but made blind with burning basons haue otherwise all sort of contentment and regard fit for Princes children Xa-Tamas King of Persia dying without Issue Xa Codabent his brother was called blinde to the kingdome who had Issue Sultan Hamzire Mirza the eldest who succeeded him and this present King called Abas In the fathers time Sinan Basâ—a began the enterprise of Persia which the Turkes euer reserue in their times of peace with the Christians to keepe their souldiary in action and their armes from rusting Before he could attempt any important action hee was called to the port and aduanced to be principall Viseire and Mustapha Bassa was appointed his successor whose industry and valour was accoÌ„panied with good fortune in a short space taking Vannes and Tiphelis two strong fortresses importing much for the entrance of Scieruan which he with the like felicity conquered Notwithstanding Synan taking aduantage of some sinister accident happened him by ouer-sight which is euer most incident to those which sway all things with a happy course of fortune and being his enemy bearing his suppositions also against him by the strength of his authority caused him to be re-called in the faire course of his victory and being within some few dayes trauell of Constantinople whether the cause grew from the pride of his heart which despised to liue after such an iniury receiued from his enemy whose fortune being so great gaue him neither meanes nor hope of reuenge or else for feare of death disgrace together at the Port he poisoned himselfe Into whose place was aduanced Osman Bassa a great Souldier borne of that Mamaluckes bloud who had been last Sultan of Egypt in great estimation with the generalty of the Turkes and as much with the Prince himselfe not only through his owne valour which in truth did merit it but by his mothers fauour who was great with the Prince and with the Sultana his mother He instantly acquitted all disorders growne either by the death or negligence of Mustapba and intending vtterly to subdue all Persia and to extinguish the reigne of the Sophies iudging that the shortest way was to begin with the best parts went presently against Tauris and though he were long impeached from taking of it both by the resolute valour of the Defendants which was all the obstacle in the place the walles being only of mud without art or strength and by continual attempts of the king of Persia sometimes in person though he saw nothing but most by his eldest son to succour it Finally after many victories and sometimes losses his fortune concurring with his obstinate resolution he got the place in which he had no sooner established a meet garrison and an order of gouernment in the countrey about it which followed the fortune of the place but hauing all his care fixed vpon his designe for the through accomplishment of his prosperous begun victory he also died as it is said poysoned by Cicala Whiles the mother cried
Aduocates should euer be resident there who receiuing those relations presenteth them to the Viseire and hee to the King The Viseire sitteth euery morning in counsell about the generall state of all the Kings Prouinces accompanied with the Kings Councell Aduocates resident and the Secretaries of State there are all matters heard and the opinions of the Councell written by the Secretaries of State then after dinner the Councell or such a part of them as the King will admit present those papers of which the King pricketh those hee will haue proceed the rest are cancelled which being done the Councell retire them againe to the Viseirs and then determine of the particular businesse of the Kings house The King himselfe euery Wednesday sitteth in the Councell publikely accompanied with all those of his Councell and the fore-said Aduocates thither come a floud of all sorts of people rich and poore and of all Nations without distinction and speake freely to the King in their owne cases and deliuer euery one his owne seuerall Bill which the King receiueth pricketh some and reiecteth other to be better informed of The Secretaries of State presently record in the Kings Booke those which he hath pricked with all other acts then by him enacted the which booke is carried by a Gentleman of the Chamber into his Chamber where it euer remaineth and woe bee to his Viseire if after the King hath pricked Bill or Supplication it bee againe brought the second time When he goeth abroad to take the aire or to passe the time in any exercise the poorest creature in the world may giue him his Supplication which hee receiueth readeth and causeth to bee registred and one request or complaint is not ordinarily brought him twise and though these bee great waies wise waies and iust waies to tye vnto him the hearts of any people yet the nature of those is so vile in themselues that they are no more nor longer good then they are by a strong and wisely-tempered hand made so The Countrey not being inhabited by those nobly-disposed Persians of which there are but a few and those few are as they euer were But being mightily wasted by the inundation of Tamberlaine and Ismael afterward making himselfe the head of a Faction against the Ottomans and by that reason forced to re-people his Countrey to giue himselfe strength of men against so potent an Aduersary calling in Tartars Turcomans Courdines and of all scum of Nations which though they now liue in a better countrey yet haue not changed their bad natures though as I said so carefull and true Princely a regard of the King for the establishment of good and iust orders for the gouernement of this Countrey in equity generall security and tranquility had beene of sufficient ability to haue bound the hearts of people vnto him Yet knowing what his were and to leaue no meanes vnacted which might both assure them more and himselfe with them because he knew that their owne dispositions which were euill would neuer rightly iudge of the cause of many rigorous examples that had passed which by that fault in them had ingendred him hatred amongst them to purge their minds from that sickenesse and gaine them the more confidently hee determined to shew that if there were any cruell act brought forth it did not grow from himselfe but from necessity Wherfore hee displaced by little finding particular occasions daily against some or other all the whole Tymarri of his estate as though from them had growne all such disorders as had corrupted the whole gouernment sending new ones and a great part of them Gheylaners to their possessions with more limited authority and more fauourable to the people the old ones part he casherd part he distributed in Gheylan and Mazandran which he had new conquered so that by that Art the people began to rest exceeding well satisfied and himselfe the more secured those which succeeded them being bound to his fortune and those which were remoued also being disposed in the new conquered Prouinces which they were bound to maintaine in security for their owne fortunes which depended onely vpon their preseruing them for the King When all these things were done and the King began to thinke himselfe throughly established for a long time both from intrinsicke and extrinsicke dangers The Turkes forces being so occupied in the warres of Hungary that hee had no leasure to looke to his increasing the Tartarres of Corrasan his friendes by the old hospitality which hee had receiued from their King and if not his friends yet cold enemies such as would bee long resoluing before they would attempt any thing to his preiudice There fell out a new occasion to trouble both the peace of his minde and Countrey if it had not beene preuented with great dexterity celerity and fortune For Ferrat Can not regarding his benefites done to the King knowing too well his owne worthinesse and attributing vnto that the successes of all the kings fortunes and for so great causes not being able to limit his mind within any compasse of satisfaction not resting contented with the place of Generall nor Gouernment of Gheylan nor with the honour to be called the Kings Father but despising that Haldenbeague should bee Viseire and not himselfe all which had giuen the king all began to take counsell to innouate and alter things with the Bassaes of Seruan and Tauris So dangerous are too great benefites from a subiect to a Prince both for themselues and the Prince when they haue their minds only capable of merit and nothing of duty These practises of his were most dangerous for which hee did more assure himselfe to haue layd a strong foundation for the discontentment of those Timari which the King had sent into his Gouernement and so had they beene questionlesse if Oliuer di-Can through his true zeale to his Maisters seruice and perhappes a little enuy at the others greatnesse had not made him so watchfully diligent that hauing gathered his intentions by very momentuall circumstances hee gaue the King from time to time notice of them which at the first were negligently receiued and rather taken as matter of emulation then truth But when those very same aduertisements euer continued and Oliuer di Can was not at all terrified from sending of them neither by the kings neglecting them nor rebuke and that Mahomet Shefia was also secretly arriued in the Court with more particular and certaine aduice that the Bassa of Seruan had sent a great summe of money to Ferrat which was receiued on a certaine day and in a certaine place The king hereupon presently sent Xa-Tamascoolibeague his chiefe fauourite to will Ferrat Can for very important affaires for the determining of which his presence was requisite to repaire to the Court which hee excused through his indisposition which he said to bee such that he could not possibly trauell so that persisting in that deniall when Xa-Tamas Coolibeague perceiued that he would not be
perswaded he returned with all expedition to the king who assuring himselfe the more by the denial of the former related accusations instantly commanded his guard of twelue thousand Courtchies to be in a readinesse with which and a thousand of the Xa-Hammagaes he vsed such celerity that he preuented the newes of his comming and was sooner arriued at Ferrats house then he had almost opinion that his messenger had beene returned yet although amazed with his owne guiltinesse and the kings sudden comming he made shift to make great shew of the indisposition which hee had so long counterfeited The king as soone as he came vnto him said that hee had taken a great iourney to visit him in his sicknesse and to bring him the cure thereof and hauing commanded all out of the Chamber but themselues onely alone as the king himselfe told me he vsed such like speeches vnto him Father I do acknowledge that first from God then from you these fortunes which now I haue haue receiued their being And I know that as a man I may both erre in my merit to God and in my well deseruing of your seruice But my intention I can assure you is most perfect in both the time of my establishment in my estate hath beene so small that I could scarce vse it sufficiently to performe my generall duty towards my people ouer whom by Gods permission I am appoynted much lesse to prouide for euery particular satisfaction as I mind and will doe which you principally as a Father to me both in your yeares and my election should haue borne withal But since some ill spirit hath had power to mis-leade your wisedome so far as to make you forget your great vertue you shall once receiue wholesome counsell from me as I haue done often from you And because that all counsels as well in publicke as priuate deliberations require a reposed spirit free and pure from wrath feare all perturbation or perticular interest for a troubled mind is more apt to erre then to aduse iustly and hath more need of proper medicines for it selfe then it hath properly in it selfe to apply any comfort to others and is fitter to receiue then to giue counsell from which as from a great and violent current are caried all those errours and disorders which are brought vpon rash deliberations the which haue euer long repentances and disasters as the perpetuall memories of their hauing bene and are most of all detestably blameable when such an imprudency is accompanied with that infinite damage as to thinke of alteration in a state which cannot proceede without in-iustice seeleratenesse bloud and a thousand mischiefes an act in it selfe wonderfull difficult wonderfull wicked and proceeding from an incomparable vile quality But hee that can restraine himselfe from being transported by vntemperate apetites and can dominate his passions and giue a iust rule to himselfe to his cupidities and desires doth euer giue the best time to all deliberations by mittigating heat and fury and so altereth all counsell from that nature which it receiueth from an vnquiet and troubled mind Which if you had done you would not haue entred into a thought onely of so dangerous an action against your selfe nor so dishonourable as to haue machinated the ruine and trouble of your owne King Friend Country which though it be palesated it is but to my selfe only who rather desire to chastice you as a friend with good admonition then by rigour Therfore though it be euer incident to all men to haue this great defect to feare chiefely nearest dangers and to esteeme much lesse then they ought of the future Yet bee you most assured that the perill which you might feare from my person is much lesse then that which you had throwne your selfe into if you had or should prosecute your enterprizes From my person you shall neuer except by great constraint from your selfe looke for any thing of other condition then a true Princely loue and a Royall regard of your seruices In the other course you called against my will vpon your selfe the rigor of Iustice and fury of the sword which in the warre consumeth all alike And because in that aduersity which a mans minde bringeth vpon himselfe the feares and terrours are euer greater then the euils which concurre with them be you of good comfort without the feeling onely of any such conditioned thing and call strength from your minde to your body that you may endure to go with me to Hisphaan where you shall haue cause to digest all these melancholies Ferrat neither excused nor confessed but indifferently answered the king as sory to haue giuen cause of offence and infinitely reioycing as hee seemed that the king had so royally pacified himselfe with him and not daring to refuse to go with the king desired him to vse some few daies in the visiting of the Countrey in which time hee hoped that God and the comfort of his presence would raise him from his infirmity The king certainly as I before said was by all necessity in the world either forced to execute him or to recōcile him perfectly vnto him for any midle course had but made him desperate and aggrauated all sort of perill which he might haue feared from him his seruices already done his valour and vertue were of great moment to perswade the king to the easier way being ioyned to his owne excellent mind which I haue seene the rarest proofes of that may bee brought forth by Prince or man liuing But Ferrat Can who knew that true iustice neuer weigheth offences and deserts but seuerally and without intermingling them together rewardeth the one and chasticeth the other and that benefites are more easier forgotten then iniuries feeling the weight of his offence and measuring the kings heart by his owne gaue the wickednesse of his minde power ouer his vertue And though hee seemed altered to all good intentions yet his heart was still swollen with that poyson which shortly brought him to destruction The king hauing staid some eight or ten dayes in the Countrey was sooner hastened thence then hee thought by the newes of the Queenes death who was deceased by a sudden and violent sicknesse after his departure so that with great speede taking Ferrat with him and leauing Lieu-tenant in the Countrey for Ferrat Mahomet Shefia he returned to Hisphaan where after some dayes spent in sorrow for his great losse hee sent to Alexander the other Can of the Georgians to demand his daughter by that meanes to binde againe that league which might haue beene dissolued by the death of the other Queene In that Embassage went Xa-Tamas Coolibeague who returned with the Lady within few moneths In the meane time the brother to that king of Corasan who had so royally and carefully brought vp the king of Persia when he fled from the wrath of his father rebelled against his brother slue him and all his children but onely one whose tutors fled with
highly and as much offended as his brother had yet wanting the same courage to receiue the iudgement which he had to offend fled to the port of the Kings Tent and there prostrated himselfe on the ground whence being called by Oliuer Di-Can he denyed to die any where but there that the King when hee should come forth might tread vpon that bloud which had so vilely and vndeseruedly offended him which being brought to the King by a Page that wished well to Zulpher and had some good hope of the Kings nature that hee might doe the poore Prince some good after a little pause the King came forth and beholding Zulpher lying grouelling on the ground pittied him and despising withall his little valour Behold said he to those which stood by how weake a foundation reputation hath which is not erected from a mans owne vertue This man was so great yesterday that you all honored him and now lyeth despised before you all through his owne wickednesse He hath bene aduanced by me for his brothers vertues and with the death of his brother he doth shew you all that no worthinesse of his owne but that which abounded in his brother if hee could haue made good vse of it gaue him courage also to seeme capable of those honours which I bestowed on him Zulpher God forgiueth mee as great sinnes hourely which I commit against him as thy fault can be to me and since it hath pleased him that I hold so great a place by him here I will also vse the example of his infinite goodnesse for the patterne of this mercy and referre my vengeance to him and giue thee time to repent and the rather because thy abiectnesse taketh all apprehension from me of cause to doubt thee Hee neuer dareth hurt a King which feareth to die And remember that this is the first day of thy life in which thou must take more vertuous waies then thou hast hitherto walked in that I may haue honour by the mercy which I haue shewed thee and profite by thy good seruices and thy selfe maist cast away farre from thee by honest and good deedes the shamefull memory which men will haue of thy past wicked Treason This was the end of that great and foule conspiracy which gaue great hope to the Kings enemies and ending by such a prouidence was the meanes of the Kings greater and better security which could neuer haue bene perfect so long as so great a man had liued both hauing cause to feare by that giuing continuall cause to be feared Next day the King marched farther into the Countrey and so daily aduanced on without obstacle the keyes of all their Townes meeting him by the way and at the last an Embassage from the whole state with a generall submission which when hee had receiued hauing spent some time in the setling of such a gouernement as was securest for himselfe and hauing receiued the yong Rrince sonne to the first King and diuers others of the principall of the Countrey hauing left order with Xa-Endibeague whom hee left there with the best part of his Army which he increased afterwards to 30000 men to extirpate all those which were likeliest either through their obligation to the vsurper or through their owne particular interest to make innouation he returned with that yong Prince and those prisoners into Persia. The most part of this time I was at Casbin courteously vsed by Marganobeague the Maister of the Kings house and not amisse by any When the King was come within sixe miles of Casbin he stayed there some three dayes to the entent to make his entry with such an estimation of his victory as was fit for so great and happy a successe of fortune and in truth I thinke that hee did it most to declare the greatnesse of it to vs that were strangers by such a strange demonstration The night before hee entred there were 30000 men sent out of the Towne on foote with horse-mens staues vpon which were fastened vizards of so many heads All those in the morning when we were commanded to meet him the Gouernour hauing proâ—ided vs horses we found marching in battell aray towards the Towne and before the two heads of the King and his sonne foure Officers of Armes such as they vse bearing in their hands great Axes of shining Steele with long helues after those battalions followed the Xa-Hammadagacs horse-men after those a number of Gentlemen of the Kings Court after those a 100 spare-horses with as many of the Kings Pages after those the prisoners accompanied with Bastan-Aga then a great rancke of his chiefe Princes amongst whom were all the Embassadours which vsed to bee resident in his Court then followed the yong Prince of Corazan accompanied with Xa-Tamas-Coolibeague the Kings principall fauorite and then the King himselfe alone and after him some fiue hundred Courtiers of his Guard Marganobeague was with vs and making vs large passage through all those Troupes When we came to the King we alighted and kissed his Stirrop my speech was short vnto him the time being fit for no other That the fame of his Royall vertues had brought me from a farre Countrey to be a present spectator of them as I had beene a wonderer at the report of them a farre off if there were any thing of worth in mee I presented it with my selfe to his Maiesties seruice Of what I was I submitted the consideration to his Maiesties iudgement which he should make vpon the length the danger and the expence of my voyage onely to see him of whom I had receiued such magnificent and glorious relations The Kings answere vnto me was infinite affable That his Countrey whilst I should stay there should be freely commanded by mee as a Gentleman that had done him infinite honour to make such a iourney for his sake onely bid mee beware that I were not deceiued by rumors which had peraduenture made him other then I should finde him It was true that God had giuen him both power and mind to answere to the largest reports which might bee made good of him which if hee erred in the vse of hee would aske counsell of me who must needs haue much vertue in my selfe that could moue mee to vndergoe so much and so many perils to know that of another And that hee spake smiling willing me to get on horse-backe which when I had done he called Haldenbeague his Viseire and Oliuer Di-Can his Generall and commanded them to take my brother and me betwixt them and my company was disposed by Marganobeague amongst the rest of the Kings Gentlemen of his Court and in that ordâ—r the King entred Casbin and passing to the great place he alighted with the cheifest of his Princes Officers whoÌ„ he caused to bring vs with them went into a kind of banquetting house in which there were staires to ascend by into a Tarras where the King â—ate down the greatest of those Princes
Iudges Aduocates and his Maiesties Councell appointed for the good of the Prouince hauing euer taken those direct waies which were fit for his Maiesty and benefite of the Prouince if the Gouernour in his particular acts had taken counsels with his particular appetites and executed them according to the same neither he nor any of the Councel were blameable neuer hauing heard a voice onely to that effect which those men also who were a great number falling downe vpon their faces confessed to the King and that their long silence had giuen the Gouernour the more boldnesse to vse the vtermost of extortion and tyrannous exaction vpon them The Gouernour denied some maintained other to bee done vpon iust causes but all so confusedly and with so vnstable a fashion of proceeding as hee bewrayed his owne guiltinesse notwithstanding the king stayed his iudgement either of him or the causes vntill another day of hearing In the meane time hee appoynted Marganobeague Bastan-Aga and one Maxausebeague which is as it were Treasurer of his house to take some secret wayes to finde the true carriage of the Gouernour during the whole time of his function Which they did with great vprightnesse and dexterity And hauing related what they had approuedly found there were so many and so great causes brought against him I meane of wresting of Money bribery monopolizing and such things as more could not bee imagined which had beene small matters in a Princes state whose fauours and graces are priuiledged aboue the common good of the people and who change by their owne conniuence their Royall estate to a tyranny of fauourites and a few Counsellors who concurring in the spoyle of the people concurre also in so cruell a suppression of their iust cryes that their lifting vp their voyces for Iustice is as great a sinne as almost a perfect Rebellion and the same Iustice which should protect them against inique oppression inflicteth seuere chastisement onely for presuming to palesate such oppressions A miserable calamitie for the poore flocke where the Sheepheards heareth the wooll and the Brambles rent the flesh But this King whom wee call barbarous though from his example wee may learne many great and good things knowing that the true care of a Prince must bee euer the publique good and the capablenesse of his ruling would bee iudged by his true Iustice and election of his Ministers and distribution of his fauour vpon the worthiest which also should make a worthy vse of it The next day that hee sate in iudgement hee called the Gouernour then hauing told him that hee which had liued with him in the time of his greatest calamity must needes bee so well acquainted with the inwardnesse of his disposition that all the world would imagine as Princes euer are examples of good or euill to their subiects so they are most to those which are neereliest conuersant with them And according to that opinion hee had giuen him his authority for the great fauour and confidence hee reposed in him that hee knew well the errour which they had both committed the one not making a true iudgement of the others disposition That the transgression of Lawes and Orders in any State was the first naturall corruption which grew in it to prouide for which good Princes did both watchfully industriate themselues and dispersed part of the care which grew too great for themselues to the trust they had in the vertue of their Ministers who should euer as the very greatest and truest causes beware of those courses of Iustice which should bee of least terrour and procure themselues and their Princes most hatred which was to pill the subiects goods a thing of no example but to euill and of infinite odiousnesse especially when there was no iust cause why any sort of punishment should bee inflicted And because these acts of so great a Minister as hee was both for the place hee held of authority and fauour with him might giue the world cause to suspect his owne inclination the which since no former example could make him knowe hee would now shew the world and teach him that the wickednesse of Princes and great Men are worse in the example thâ—n in the fault since by the euill custome of the world to follow them they generate great corruptions by the imitation of others And because in a man of his place there could bee no more wicked acts then hee had committed nor in a Prince nothing more proportionable with his place nor fitter for his security then the chastisement of such wicked acts And if hee should pardon so great extortions and scelerate wronges as hee had inflicted vpon the poore people committed to his charge besides that hee should verifie the worst suspicions men might haue of him he should by so ill a president trouble the mindes of his whole state cast many good men and their goods into ruine multiply the like or worse scandals oppressing the causes of Iustice and so draw into the world without shame or feare all sort of excesses this should bee his iudgement That all his Goods and Lands should bee sold for the satisfaction of those men whom hee had spoyled And if any thing wanted since the King by giuing him that Authority was partly the cause of those excesses hee condemned himselfe to pay the residue out of his Treasury That if any thing aduanced it should be giuen to his Children with a grieuous Edict that no succour should bee ministred vnto himselfe For that since Death was a concluder of his offence shame and the memory of it hee should not dye but goe during his life with a great yoke like a Hoggesyoke about his necke haue his Nose and Eares cut off and haue no charitable releefe from any but what hee gained with his owne hands that he might feele in himselfe the misery which poore men haue to get and what a sinne it is to rent from them by violent extortion the birth of their sweat and labour This Iudgement strooke a mighty amazement into all the great men present and gaue an infinite ioy and comfort to the people The Turkes Embassadour which was there after he had stood silent a great while as a man halfe distracted sware publikely that hee saw before his eyes his maisters ruine being impossible that such fortune and vertue as the king was accompanied with could receiue any obstacle That night hee made Marganobeagus Gouernour of Casbin beeing well admonished by that great example of his duty Constantino a braue yong Gentleman being a Christian of Georgia hee called Mirza and gaue him the gouernement of Hisphaan and mee also hee called Mirza telling mee that hee would prouide condignely for mee And because hee had an vrgent occasion to goe post to Cassan I should receiue his pleasure by Marganobeague who brought mee the next morning a thousand Tomanas which is sixteene thousand Duckets of our Money fortie horses all furnished two with exceeding rich
your wisedome and the execution to his great prouidence and your Maiesties infinite vertue And laughing vpon me sonne said he haue I not said true of your mind When he had ended I beseeched his Maiestie to vouchsafe to heare me once more which he said was needlesse the day faâ—e spent therefore since euery man had already spoken their opinion he would also say somewhat of his owne and referre the farther deliberation of things vntill an other time The proposition which Mirzâ— Antonio saith he made vnto me is questâ—onlesse in iâ—selfe such an one as I must not only thanke him for propounding it by which it hath receiued life but I must also prouide for the execution of it that the life which it haâ—h may be vsed to good purpose The force of the Turke consisteth in cauallerie infantery gallies artillery munitions money And the cause why they proceeded not in their warre against this state in my fathers time was not eyther the death of Osman Bassa nor their diuersion into Hungary but that ancient art by the which they euer carried their warres which hath beene alwaies to offend and preuent an enemie to vse exceeding celeriâ—ie in all their enterprises to haue their forces in perpetuall readinesse not to attempt two enterprises at one time and if it were possible not to be troubled with theÌ„ at one time not to spend the benefit of time and their men treasure vpon matters of small importance and not to continue a waâ—re long with any to auoid by such a meanes the informing by practise any Prince or his people in the exercise of armes Which if it haue otherwise hapned in Hungary it proceedeth rather from the obstination of the Princes Christian then from any part of his owne desire I said the king want footmen artillery and money which I must make readie the Turks neuer hauing aduantage vpoÌ„ my people through thâ—ir vaiour but onely by that defect Gallies I haue none therefore since they must be necessary for some purpose of which the warres may bring forth the occasion and perhaps also of necessitie and I can only hope for them of the Portugeses it will be an ill counsell to offend them in any point and then afterward vpon a new treatie to relie vpon them in so great a case and in which my necessitie may also concurre For the Turks present state and the iudgement of his future it is a thing facile to make and hard to erre in since by the ordinarie course of the working causes of mutations of states when a gouernment doth proceed from suffering the first abuses to confirme them in the most part of the state a few intelligent instruments are not sufficient to beare the weight of the disorders and to correct them being the nature of men when they flie from one extreeme to runn headâ—ong without any mediocritie into another by which the Turks extreeme obedience is become a direct despisablenesse of his person and authority And this Princes incapacity must be in this point the ruine of their state diffusing the like infection into the members for such as is the Prince such are his greater ministers such are his people Then whether I giue my selfe time or no time for what belongeth vnto him that may perhaps be all one since his being as he is or worse sheweth facilitie enough for the well proceeding of any enterprise fundamentally designed against him Yet many times generall rules faile in particular subiects and a new Prince may can reforme those disorders but the time in truth which my owne wants force me to take and not these arguments which are no other then arguments shall shew that I am not defectiue in those points in which he is But that which I begin shal haue the extract of it from sound counsell and the ending from as perfect vertue if I or my people haue it For the flame of our warre once breaking forth beleeue it will not be so facily extinguished both because great Princes difficilly speak of peace while they feele themselues able to make warres and the diuersity of our religion will striue with a more mortall rancor then contraries Therefore I must strengthen my selfe by all possible waies to beare the furie of it which must be done by the inabling and augmentation of my forces changing the orders of my owne militia to such as are properest for the enemy which I propound to my selfe establishing the gouernment of my countrie in such a sort that the generall abundance may without the feeling of a heauie exaction replenish my treasures cause plentifull prouisions of artillerie armes and munitions and adde to these internal powers of my owne those of the Princes eyther by protection or league of which the first sort I meane I haue alreadie the Georgians being all vnder my protection but it is a weake helpe I being bound by that condition to defend them vpon my charge and they vnable to assist me except vpon the same also And though it be true that they bring me a fashion of reputation yet is it such a reputation as hath no essentiall point of foundation but onely serueth me by ignorance of the quality in which they are vnto me rather then in the substance and strength Leagues are vsually of more appearance then effect and of more splendor in the beginning then of profit or durablenesse in the end so many accidents causing disunion suspition or some other ill quality amongst confederates yet when a league is made for preseruation against the common perill rising from a potent enemie and when diuers bodies are moued to one end and with one consent and not one bodie with diuers consents and euerie one of these hauing particular respect to a diuers end and when if there be any thing acquisited the distribution of the members of that bodie is such vpon whom the acqueit is to be made that there is no possible pretendence from one to the others getting I doe not see but that such a league must bring substantiall reputation and generall commoditie that wil not be subiected to any common accident of dissolution For the Tartars which I haue as subiected if I were Oliuer Di-Chan Haâ—denheaguâ— â—r Basâ—an-Agâ— I could thinke of few better meanes to assure my selfe of their rebellions then those which they haue propouÌ„dâ—d except one addition of suffering them to enioy their ancient order lawes and their particular course of iustice But as I am borne with a mindâ— of another constitution I can secure them better by giuing them to their owne naturall Prince and him to them For to whose father I was â—o much bound that through the royalty of his disposition I hold my life had the beginning of what I am I can do little for the son no gratefull act at all for the memory of the father if I cannot giue him a kingdom which is the least part of what I am To conclude as
fauour or benefite Therefore since being too secure doth but giue way to danger and the knowledge of the worst is the best meanes to preuent all that may be ill let not your desires of promouing this great and good businesse blind you from foreseeing all sorts of preoccupations which we both haue taâ—ed of and you alone may perchance find greater but not beholding too fixed and stedfastly what the King in equitie and the truth of the cause should doe penetrate into the soule of the actioÌ„ the stability or mutablenesse of his nature his ordinarie or forced inclinations Finally into his present humours or â—uture likely pretences and then present him with those reasons which your best iudgement shall haue prouided for him in fit time and with a wel vnderstanding dexteritie The factioÌ„s of the Court you must make your selfe learned in and beare your selfe wisely and vprightly betweene both you hauing no streÌ„gth to adde power to any of both but any of those hauing power to subuert you so that by shewing to vnderstaÌ„d those that are against you you shall but make them your more apparant enemies and by depending absolutely vpoÌ„ the other procure no assured strength to our selfe but a demonstration without effect whensoeuer they shal ioyn together for their owne interesses which often happeneth betweene factions in Courts you shal be left a pray to those which hate you whose reuenge shal be certaine the others faith nothing The corruptions of all Courts giuing a licence to great men to serue their turnes vpon lesser in all thinges and more then for that to regard them in nothing Besides the ordinarie dispositions of such is to winke at our priuate friends mischiefe and as you must not declare your selfe soly for the one nor wholy against the other so you must not couertly beare them both in hand that you are theirs such artifice being of the poorest and weakest condition nothing being able to be hid from the spying eyes in Court and such an illusion once perceiued is so farre without remedie as euery man will hate you and no man trust you You must then beare your selfe equally to all keeping all friends and making no enemies depending vpon no man but your owne vertue and worthinesse and his affection which in the perfection of his owne royall minde is onely to be preserued by honest wayes In cases of your businesse you shall need vse no such diligence as frame partialities factions being alreadie made and animated and armed watching with the verie strength of their desires to aduance their Honours by the good or ill successe of it You must bee constant against rumors and beware to bee noted a willing bearer of such reports as may either touch any in Honour or otherwise to be taken for an offence and may giue your selfe cause of suspition for any of those bring extrinsicke danger or intrinsicke errours from both which you must liue free and vnattained You shall heare many speake sometimes through their owne imperfections sometime to proue yours and sometimes to please as they thinke the companie but you must know that all hearts are not of one complexion and you shall hazard euer to Card ill that play to please one by displeasing another since benefits euer bee more easily forgotten then iniures and though the respect of common friendship and almost societiere quire otherwise yet such wrongs are without meanes of reuenge and good turnes are without memorie of recompence You must auoide inconstancie and the very appearance of lightnesse as a dangerous downefall for where it is there is neither vnderstanding or iudgment to discerne the actions of others nor grauitie to measure that which properly belongeth to your selfe besides the world by taking notice of your infirmitie will alwayes feare volubilitie in all your actions Finally though I am most assured vertue hath so great power in your minde and your owne vnderstanding so full of all good thinges that you may be an example to my precepts Yet I will say this not as needing but in the necessitie of my loue which desireth more then it doubteth of Giue your selfe deare Brother to learne of the best fashion your selfe to the most worthie examples which you haue seene aspire to nothing for vanitie or ostentation neglect no good thing for feare and mingle equally awfulnesse to offend and diligence to proceed worthily in all your actions And you shall haue fauour from the King loue from the best hatred from none securitie from all honour from the effects which will proceed from your doings and God will blesse you with his mercie directing your wayes to his glorie to good ends and so to good example among these misbeleeuers with whoÌ„ for a time it is your fortune to liue and to raise from this place a long lasting glorie and reputation to your selfe and name for euer And this was all my exceeding sorrow could force it selfe to vtter and the King returning also whom my Brother must follow interrupted the course of any longer discourse of mine or his answer But when I came to Casbin though I knew his mind both by nature and learning as plentifully furnished as a Gentleman might be who had hopefull conditions in himselfe and all the additions which the tender care of friendes and his owne diligently well-spent time could giue him Yet vnderstanding well in how dangerous a sea his young years were to nauigate and that no addition of prouidence could be superfluous firmely to support his owne securitie and the maine end of our great businesse hauing compiled as well as the shortnesse of the time of my abiding in that place would suffer me and as much as I could bring to any sort of fashioÌ„ out of so imperfect a mould as that of my little vnderstanding these remnants of the chiefe properties of aâ—l estates to giue him the better light how clearly to see into that wherin he was and to helpe the way of his businesse according to the motiues which it was like he might receiue by the commaundement of some of our Princes from hence desiring him with all to remember that Court carriages were riddles which though seene could not bee resolued without exceeding patience and well iudging experience And that by no meanes hee should flie from his owne vertue to make his foundation vpon the Kings fauor Princes euer hauing this imperfection almost inseparable to their greatnesse to be infinite voluble and as their minds are large so they easily ouerlooke their first fauours which they purposed and can as hardly loue truly as acknowledge a benefite their disposition being to be easily glutted with the present and hope better of the future especially hauing no other necessity in the constaÌ„t carrying of their affections then their owne satisfactions And these other trifles which I lent him I did wish him to ouerlooke as grounds only for his spirit to discourse more largely vpon desiring by them to point vnto him that exercise which the cause that wee were entred in made not onely fittest for his minde to vse but most necessarie our fortune hauing then giuen into our management the good or ill of diuers states according to the successe of our employment And since there is a certaine iudgement of the euent of things according to the perfect or imperfect disposition of the body by which those things are to be effected his iudgement would bee the better to discourse and discerne what the proceeding of this businesse was like to be by vnderstanding the principal elements by which the body of all estates are compacted and then by dilating with himselfe the good or defectiue mixture in euery particular state which hee knew by his owne experience and others relation Those Elements which giue both matter and being to those huge bodies were Counsell Force and Reputation The Forme were the Lawes which Aristotle calleth Mens sine appetitu The Organ by which this worke and the whole body moueth to his end is the Prince and his Ministers But because the time I had was so short as I could but briefly speake of all these I did conclude them in the Discourse which I gaue him of these three maine foundations Counsell Force and Reputation FINIS A 〈…〉 â—he course of 〈◊〉 s Turkes â—ouernment happy dâ—lirance from â—ger A hard distresse â—â—â—ard diâ—esse â—â—strange preâ—â—ence â—â—strange and â—â—traordinary â—â—ndnesse of a â—â—orentine The means which K. Abâ— setled the quâ— et of Persia. â—he kings graâ—â—us speech Ferrat The Kings Triumphant entry into Cabin after his victory â—ir Anthony herleis first â—utation and â—eech to the â—ing The Kings anâ—were Sir Anthony Sherâ—â—is present to the King of Perâ— A memoâ— punishmâ— extortioâ— The King of Persiacs iudgement vpon aâ— Extortioner Sir Anthony â—â—ade a Mirza The rich present sent him by the King â—ir Antâ—ony â—herâ—â—es perâ—wasiue to the 〈◊〉 to â—â—ke warre â—gainst the 〈◊〉 The Vsciveâ— diâ—swaâ—ue 〈◊〉 position 〈◊〉 Persian â—â—nerall his â—â—swere to the 〈…〉 s disswaâ—e The great Chamberlaiâ— speech The Kings censure conciuâ— on oâ—â—he comultation Thâ— Kings 〈…〉 the câ—nsultaâ— tion The Persian Vâ—â—câ—â—rs complement with Sir Anthony Sâ—eâ—â—â—y The proud message deliuered by the Turks Embassador to the King of Peâ—siâ— The King of 〈◊〉 his answer to the Turkâ— Embaâ—â—ador The King of Persia agreeth to the perswasion of Sir Anthony Sherley Sir Anthony Sheâ—ly câ—â—firmeth the King in hiâ— purposâ— of sending to the Pâ—inâ—es of Christâ—nâ—â—m â— King of 〈◊〉 Reâ—â—â—on to emâ—y Sir Aâ—â—â—â—ny Sâ—â—lâ—y as Embassaâ—â—r Sâ—r A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the â—n 〈◊〉 〈…〉 â—he Persian â—agnifiâ—ence their soâ—mne feasts Two great fortunes which befell the king during his feast 1. The submission of the Tartars to his Crowne 2. The rich present with the allâ—â—nâ—e of the great Mogâ—r offâ—â—ed to the Pâ—â—sâ—â—â— The comming of two Friers to insinuate with Sir Anthon Sherlâ—y The enterprise of â—ur Aâ—tiâ—â—â— Slâ—â—â—â— oâ—ertâ—â—o vne by his owne Instâ—â—ment The causeâ— for whiâ—â— the Kâ—ng of â—â—â—sâ—a detaâ—ned Sir Robert Sâ—â—rley The abâ—se wiâ—h the tâ—ue and â—roper vâ—e oâ— studies Sâ—r Anton Sherleys comâ—â—ndation of his brothe Sir Robert Sâ—erley Sir Robert Sâ—erleys answere to the King of Persia. Sir Anthonie Sheâ—leyâ— instructions and aduice to his brother Sir Robert Sheâ—ley when he left him in Persia. The bond of Nature and â—â—oud Negotiation with Princes Factions of the Court. Factions Rumors Speeches Inconstancie
required to present vs vnto him they did not onely deny vs as bound vnto it by the lawes of hospitality in respect of their promise as they themselues said but called fifty other Ianizaries of Damasco their friends to defend vs if the Cady should haue offered violence And now that I haue had occasion to speake of the Ianizaries of Damasco which by likely-hood of that they presumed to do in that point must bee men of great authority both in power and estimation It will not bee amisse to vse so fit an opportunity to discourse of the Turkes whole gouernement of those parts which I did not behold with the eies of a common Pilgrime or Merchant which passing onely by goodly Citties and Territories make their iudgement vpon the superficiall appearance of what they see but as a Gentleman bred vp in such experience which hath made me somewhat capable to penetrate into the perfection and imperfection of the forme of the State and into the good and ill Orders by which it is gouerned And though it bee true that my weakenesse in iudging may rather doe harme then good to such as will fauour me with too much beleefe yet it will euer bee a helpe of some feeling to those which know lesse Our duties being to further all and chiefly those who haue most need The Originall of the Turkes many haue written well of the maintaining of their state hath bene their Subects true and deuote adherence to their religion without Schisme or Faction and obedience to their Princes They increase the same religion also which continually instigateth them to the propogation of it and the reason of their beginning which was Armes they induced by a confidence in them haue euer desired to vse them And to detaine such a stirring disposition from ciuil dissentions their Princes haue euer with forraigne enterprises led them to the exercise of them The meanes of the preseruation of their States so great and so many acquisted haue bene the securest of any other the Princes personally inhabiting of the most dangerous and ruinating and possessing by Colonies actually though in another name the rest So that where the Dominion ioyneth with the power of the Christian Princes his presence keepeth those parts from danger of innouation Where hee is further separated his Tymarri which are certaine to whom he distributeth so much land for their desert in vertue which was their first institution and by that tenure are bound to finde him their persons and so many horses in his warres they I say hauing their estates soly depending vpon his gouernment assuring him from all perill of alteration And besides to strengthen himselfe the more hee hath not onely destroyed the Noble bloud of the Countries but in most places the Citties Townes and Houses to remoue from the very memory of men by the renewing of those spectacles the apprehension of their former condition of liuing and since the gouernment of those states were so far separated least the minde of him to whom he gaue such an administration might lift it selfe vp to higher thoughts he changeth them continually from time to time without any prefixed order and giueth them by the ancient forme which the vertuouser Princes enacted but to men of great merite besides so dissolueth all strength from their supreme authority in case of absolutenesse that without a speciall commission for some speciall cause the Bassa hath nothing to do with the Souldiory but those are ordered in their function by either one Agam or Sarda the Bashawes ends directing themselues to the ciuill gouernment from the iust administring of which they were learned heretofore by terrible examples not to decline their faults being brought speedily to the Court the emulation of which as speedily presented them to the Prince the maine point of whose estate droue him to execute rigorous remedies to confirme his awfulnesse and obedience by which hee did subsist among his Subiects Those Ianizaries of Damasco amongst other Garrisons were appointed as those of Cairo against the inuasions of the Arabs who are through all those Prouinces a people dispersed liuing in Tents without a certaine place of abode remoouing their habitations according to the seasons and their owne commodities part of which who are remoued on that side of Euphrates which is of Mesopotamia now called Diarbeâ—h are peaceable to the Turke and not much infestious to Trauellors their King being a Saniacke of the Turks and by that title holding Ana and Der two Townes vpon the Riuer which pay him his stipend The other vpon the other side towards Egypt through all Arabia Petra and Deserta and spreding as far as the limits of Arabia Felix being in multitudes and not possible bee brought to a quiet and wel-formed manner of liuing are dangerous to strangers and continuall spoylers of those parts of the Turkes Dominions which euery way border vpon them for the safety of which as I said those two garrisons of Caeiro and Damasco were instituted the first of 12000 the other of 1500 Ianizaries Neither must it bee thought since these of Damasco doe not onely defend that part but are also distributed through other Citties of Soria As Aleppo Antiochia further in Ierusalem also that 1500 men are able to sustaine and answere well to such a charge But these being both Ianizaries and by great seruices heretofore done proceeding also to be Tymarrie haue many followers which do augment mightely their number and euery yeare were accustomed besides those which staied to preserue the countrey to send great troupes not onely warlikely but pompously prouided into Hungary but now that through the incapacity of this Prince presently reigning there are extreame corruptions growne through all the members of his estate his subiects generally taking example of his weakensse and particularly his great ones making their profite thereof As vertue is generally forgotten so they which haue authority are so farre from industriating themselues to replant it that they making a commodity of the ill are euer desirous it should increase to increase with it their gaine For as places of gouernement and of all sort of administration were anciently giuen vnto those who by their worthinesse grew to a condigne estimation with the Prince This time hath brought things to another condition that now men are weighed by the aboundance of their fortune not of their vertue who buying their authority of the Prince like Merchants must make their profite of the people vnder their charge wherein they rather desire to be vile base and offenders then to haue them of better fitter and honester spirits the gaines being small if the people were good by a iust caring for them and greatest as they are by punishing by extortion and oppression and also as ill as they are by many wrongs which the people also finding and withall that mischiefe increaseth rather then diminisheth taking example from so great patternes adde by those more wickednesse to the badnesse of their owne
dispositions And as they are all made a prey to the greatest so euery one according to his power doth deale with the lesser like a forrest of wilde beasts liuing all vpon rapine without any sence of humanity more then an appearance This violent humour in them hath brought disobedience Couetousnesse and Luxury dissoluing the bonds of all respect our willes euer carrying vs from our selues from all awfulnesse and all Lawes when they are ouer-maistered by those two mighty enemies to perticular men much more then to generall states So that the Princes commandement is no more esteemed in any part farre remoued from his owne presence then it fitteth with the honour and profite of him to whom it commeth From whence haue growne so many and so dangerous rebellions so huge wasts in Countries and caused through all those parts those Ianizaries which were appointed for the safety of the prouinces and had their first priuiledges not onely for a reward to their vertues but to binde them by such rewardes to answere the Princes confidence in them to obey no authority which calleth them to other warres but by combining themselues in a strength together to tyrannize the Countries committed to their charges in such a sort that they are not onely Princes as it were ouer the people but do also terrific the greater Ministers And though this be a great weakenesse in the very Basis of so huge an estate which can by no meanes be held together but by such an vnite compaction as may iustly and euer moue by the heads intentions lest it should sway this way or that way and so either breake or bend by his owne great weight or bruise it selfe which in so ouer-growne a body must come to dangerous vlcers where no care is taken for the curing of the parts Yet it doth not onely shew that Gods iudgement hath determined it a short time of continuance by that one great signe but by many other as their negligence of the maintaining of a strenth by Sea which did as it were knit together many great parts of it farre diuided and gaue an essentiall strength in force and reputation to his whole state His want of necessary prouision for the warres in all those parts not speaking of those for peace sithence the ruine of the Prouinces for the most part and the misery of those poore flocke of people which doe liue in the parts inhabited are onely the meanes to giue him peace Yet the negligence of the Princes Christian will not make vse of these extreame defects of his to amplifie their Dominions to eternize their Honours and that which is the greatest to glorifie God which hath made them Princes onely to execute his iudgements none of which now can bee more iustly inflicted vpon any then vpon that great blasphemer against his Holy one and tyrant of the world giue peace to their inique passions which giue cause to the very earth to sigh to all good hearts to groane and kindle Gods indignation against them and their people and turne first their aspects to that which they owe to God and then to the true ambition of a Prince to doe great and iust things which with their honour might also bring profite to their present estates and are of such a condition that the effecting of them is vtterly without danger or difficulty seeing with the very sight of a compleat Armie his Souldiary in those parts would be terrified through their inability to resist and the people who cannot change possible to worse fortune would all follow those Ensignes which their extremity doth already force them to wish for And let all iudgement giue themselues but a small time of truce with other passions and wee shall see not onely what shame it is to the very Name of Christianity to suffer that great Sepulcher of our Redemption to bee possessed to our eternall ignominy by his professed enemies who vouchsafed to giue his deerest bloud to buy vs from perdition Religion is that which euer moueth the blindest hearts of men to the most resolute enterprises and an awfull loue hath euer beene the strongest band to binde men to their Princes to their Countrey and to common society Romulus when his people fled before the Sabines so that the victory shewed it selfe vndoubtedly on their side and ouerthrow on his the very remembring them of leauing Iupiter and the rest of the Gods in the Capitoll to the possession of their enemies was sufficient to turne that desperate fortune And when the French had sacked and burnt a great part of Rome the same awfull reuerence to their Gods and loue to their Countrey could binde them rather to re-build their ruinated Citty then to go to Vejes a Towne ready and magnificently builded But we can leaue in the Turkes possession not onely the Countrey of our Sauiour which should be deerer vnto vs then our owne for his great name sake but this the Sepulcher of his precious bloud which he gaue freely an oblation to giue vs by that sacrifice that which is aboue all eternall life without compunction of loue or Religion So much are our hearts hardened against the appearing mercies of God which hath made him for a great a weake enemy to giue vs corage by such an vnhoped fore-signe to produce that supreme act of our duties Where are those generous spirits of the fore-passed Princes and men which against all humane reason to reuenge iniuries and wrongs done to the holy name of God thrust themselues into most dangerous enterprises onely trusting in the true worthinesse of their cause which they iudged God would miraculously prosper being vndertaken with so good and true hearts for him The successes of which also we may reade to haue beene most prosperous God striuing in mercy with mans intentions And though it be true that the dayes of Visions and such apparant Miracles are finished yet let vs not by too great precisenesse mistake the things which indeed are but take this for a great miracle in regard of our manifold sinnes which deserue all bitter vengeance and no good that God yet hath pleased whilst we deuoure one another in this poore small flocke of Gods Church and by our cruelly resoluing to our ciuill destruction do open the breach for the common enemy to enlarge his power and greatnesse by his onely breath to shake him with such infection that his ouerthrow is most facille if we will vse the time pointed vnto vs by his mercifull finger which also may turne vnto vs as heauy a iudgement if we do not with the best councell and most desirous affection of our hearts and soules embrace the beames of his compassion But since Princes hearts are in the hands of God and he turneth them either for their own chastisements or for those of the people to a certaine secret point of direction from the which they cannot diuert as those which are too great iudgements for me to penetrate into I will leaue them
and speake of my Ianizaries rare disposition vnto me who did not onely performe their promise in defending me in Antiochia but deliuered me safely from them into our English Consuls hands in Aleppo from whom and from all the Merchants there abiding I receiued such an entertainment with so carefull so kinde and so honourable a respect as I must needs say they were the onely Gentlemen or the most benigne Gentlemen that euer I met withall For my company being so great that it was no light burthen vnto them besides gaue an occasion to the Turkes condition of getting to make quarrels for that end so that they were not onely at expence by defraying me and mine but at more by preseruing vs from oppression amongst them I had not beene fully one moneth expecting a commodity of passage by carrauan into Persia but that the Morizell arriued who presently had the aduice of my being at Aleppo And though that Hugo de Potso threatned as much as an ill mind and great purse could make him hope to preuaile against me by and questionlesse had raised some great trouble against me if he had come safe to Aleppo Yet euer the first prouidence which saued me before determined so well also for me then that foure miles from Aleppo he dyed By which meanes I was preserued from perill and those honest Merchants my friends from great trouble Neither do I speake of these strange escapings with a vaine ostentation of pride as though I would haue the world iudge more of my person then of a most ordiry fellow but onely to example to other how much it pleaseth God to fauour good intentions that those which put themselues into the worlds dangers may euer arme themselues with them as the onely preseruatiue against all sort of Inconueniences For though in the corruption of our nature generally and weakenesse of our faith wee cannot possibly hope to be defended by such a strong working hand as God vseth for the safety of his Saints yet no question good intentions haue such a sympathy with Gods owne disposition that he will both assist them which haue them for their better incouragement and for others example being one of the chiefe means by which he instructeth the world After 6 weeks staying in Aleppo a wearisome time to my selfe being drawne from thence continually by the instigation of my desire which longed for the accomplishment of the end that I proposed to my selfe and as chargeable a time for my friends which would needs make me a burthensome guest vnto them the Tafterdall which is the Treasurer and the great Cady which is as it were the Lord chiefe Iustice of Babylon arriued at Aleppo from thence to go by the riuer of Euphrates to the place of their regiment With those as diuers others went so did I also for the more security of my voyage their company being euer defended besides with the respect of their persons with a good company of Ianizaries to Birr which is the place of imbarkment Diuers of our Merchants brought me and left me not vntill I was boated Thirty dayes we were going vpon the riuer to Babylon resting euery night by the shore side In all which way we found few townes onely Racha Ana Derrit and otherwise as little habitation except here and there a small village and one of better reputation which is the landing place thirty miles from Babylon called Phalugium To tell wonders of things I saw strange to vs that are borne in these parts is for a Traueller of another profession then I am who had my end to see and make vse of the best things not to feed my selfe and the world with such trifles as either by their strangenesse might haue a suspition of vntruth or by their lightnesse adde to the rest of my imperfections the vanity or smallnesse of my iudgement But because I was desirous to certifie my selfe truly of the estate of the Turke in those parts through which I passed vnderstanding where wee lodged one night that the Campe of Aborisci King of those Arabies which inhabite the desert of Messopotamia was a mile off I hazarded my selfe in that curiosity to go into it and saw a poore King with a ten or twelue thousand beggerly subiects liuing in tents of blacke haire-cloth yet so well gouerned that though our clothes were much better then theirs and their want might haue made them apt ynough to haue borrowed them of vs we passed notwithstanding through them all in such peace as we could not haue done being strangers amongst ciueller bred people That day as it happened was the day of Iustice amongst them which was pretty and warlike Certaine chiefe Officers of the Kings mounting onâ— horse-backe armed after their maner with their staues targets bowes and arrows and so giuing iudgment of all cases which the people brought before them The King gaue vs good words without any kinde of barbarous wondring or other distastfull fashion But when wee returned to our boat wee found the maister of his house maister of our boat with a sort of his Arabs and in conclusion we were forced to send his maister three verstes of cloth of gold for beholding his person This is that King of the Arabs which I said before was a Saniake of the Turkes and for that place held of the Turke Ana and Dirr two Townes vpon the riuer As soone as we came to Babylon hauing put the stocke which I had all into Iewels and Merchandize to carry the fashion of a Merchant at the Dogâ—na which is the Custome-house all whatsoeuer was stayed for the Bassa and as I perceiued not so much for any great vse which hee meant to make of those things as for the suspition which he had of me and mine extraordinary company bearing much cause thereof with it and because I gaue out I had more goods coming with the carrauan by land to bind me not to start from thence In the meane time by very necessity hauing left me nothing in the world what extreme affliction I was in by that means for the present and in what iust cause of feare for the future euery man may easily iudge I had my brother with mee a yong Gentleman whose affection to me had onely led him to that disaster and the working of his owne vertue desiring in the beginning of his best yeares to inable himselfe to those things which his good minde raised his thoughts vnto I had also fiue and twenty other Gentlemen for the most part the rest such as had serued me long onely carried with their loues to mee into the couse of my fortune I had no meanes to giue them sustenance to liue and lesse hope to vnwrap them from the horrible snare into which I had brought them being farre from all friends and further from counsell not vnderstanding the language of the people into whose hands I was falne much lesse their proceedings onely thus much I knew they were Turkes
to keepe those straights to giue impeachment to the passage of that other Army but indeed to protract time onely and to expect the euent of his other counsels The other Cans rebelled easily and desiroâ—sly imbraced Ferrat Cans proposition hasted the Army towards Casbin which they entred without difficulty both by the nature of the place which is not of any strength and conueyance of Ferrat There were many daies spent in Counsell and at last it was concluded since the suppression of the King was certaine being abandoned by him which was his onely Captaine and Counsellour by so great a part of his strength and vpon the confidence which Ferrat gaue them to mutine the rest that it would proue too dangerous to call in those forces of the Turkes which were in readinesse for their succour Not knowing whether they should so easily free themselues of them againe if they were once entred They feared the Turkes purposes and as much feared to know them therefore to auoide the danger of being compelled to experience them they determined to write to the Bassa of Tauris that the war was so certaine to bee finished by themselues that they would reserue his fauour till a more vrgent opportunity and with that deliberation a principall man was dispatched with a present for the Bassa Of this the King had present aduice by a confident messenger and also that few nights after the principals of the Army were to meete together at Ferrats house inuited to a great banquet which being vnderstood by him electing fiue thousand of his best men and best horsing with great and close iourneies he came to Casbin where hauing secretly disposed his people in the Mountaine couered with the quarter of Ferrats troupe hee expected the signe which was to bee giuen him The Prince as it was appointed failed not of comming nor hee of his signe to the King nor the King to accomplish his resolution For Ferrat hauing protracted the banquet the most part of the night when the whole company was heauy with wine and sleepe the King was receiued into the house with three hundred men where without any vp-roare he slew all those which were inuited to the number of three score and ten the seruants and Pages being so suddenly taken hold of and with such dexterity that without any mouing of other rumors the same fashion of feast of singing and of dancing continued all the night and in that space all the rest of those people which the King had with him were appointed in the breaking of the day to make the greatest shew and the greatest noise that they could vnder the foote of the Mountaine as though all the Army had beene there marching to the Towne When the Alarum beganne to bee hot in the Towne and euery man fell to his Armes and repaired to Ferrats lodging where they supposed their Princes to haue bene the King hauing disposed his three hundred men which were shut fitly in the house and Zulpher hauing his fiue thousand all in a Troope in the great place the threescore and ten Cans heades were shewed all laced vpon a string and hung out of a Tarras vpon which the King presently shewed himselfe accompanied with Ferrat Can whereas the Maiesty of the King the terrour of the sight represented before them the feare of the Army which they saw as they thought at hand Zulpher and Ferrat Cans power amongst them which they perceiued turned against them their being destitute of Commanders and the guiltinesse of their owne consciences for their rebellion stroke them into so dead an amazement that they stood ready rather to receiue all mischiefe then that they had either courage or mindes or counsell to auoide it The King as though he had a while aduised with himselfe what he would both say and do at last after a good pause seeming that his royall mercy had preuailed against his iust indignation hee told them that the wickednesse of their vniuersall conspiracy against him was such that hee was distracted in himselfe what to say or doe against them for though they might excuse themselues vpon those Princes which had seduced them yet they knew that the others authority had no more force vpon them then their own willing obedience which called as great a punishmeÌ„t vpon the one as the other What cause they should haue generally to desire such an innouation of gouernement as they by their owne conuenence had erected amongst them he could not deuise his Grand-father Father and Brother hauing euer guided the Helme of their State with that integrity of iustice and that vniuersall satisfaction that it was not to be wished of any to find more tranquility for those which desired to liue onely quietly nor more iust measure of honour or due reward then was magnificently giuen to those which had deserued them and why they should haue lesse hope of him he knew not neuer hauing made willingly any other demonstration of his minde then such as might be proportionable to their best expectations But since his true feeling of humane frailty made him well vnderstand how easie mens mindes are to be abused by others artifice and their owne corruption hee to oke so great a compassion of the calamity into which they had either wilfully or misled by others errors cast themselues that if he could haue any confidence that they would truely repent of their past wickednesse and bend their mindes to serue him with a perfect heart hee could also easily perswade himselfe to change the seuerity of the iudgement which they had merited into mercy forgiuenesse and forgetfulnesse of their offence and content himselfe that this iniurious great disorder which had hapned as all other of that kind do through the ignorance of many and malice of few should also be expiated by the bloud of those few who had already concluded the greatnesse of their vsurped authority and their long hopes with a short and iust death This being spoken by the King with courage and maiesty and being so far from that which their guilty consciences did cause them to apprehend facily brought forth the ordinary effectes of a multitude which being easily inclined to hope more then they should and to suffer lesse then is fit as though the King with his royall mercifull speech had giuen them as great a present good as if hee had discharged them from the terrour of the punishment of almost an vnpardonable offence cryed out let the King liue let the King liue we are all King Abas his slaues and will not suffer to liue any of his enemies and there was more trouble to defend the poore people of Casbin from sacking by them their Towne euer hauing bene a wel-disposed harbour for the Rebels then to turne their heartes and armes to the Kings part Besides the succours which the Kings of Gheylan and Mazandran had sent the Rebels were with great difficulty saued and returned to their countries by the King of Persia
euer so ready against his State in all occasions especially now that his Maiesties vertue and fortune ministred to the Turkes will too great maine causes First to stop the course of his too fast rising greatnesse which hee could by no reason willingly suffer Then to recouer his reputation which his Maiesty had taken from him by assubiecting the Tartars which were vnder his protection And if with both these hee saw his subiects also fall from him to his Maiesty in so great troopes it might bee a mighty effectuall working-reason to hasten him to a conclusion vpon indifferent tearmes of those warres in Hungary his Maiesty being much more dangerous vnto him not onely through his power the reputation of his late victories and such a floud of fortune ioyned to his great vertue and wisdome but also by the symbolizing of religioÌ„ which would more facilitate an entry into his state then the sword when there should grow no more mutation in the maine points of gouernement lawes nor orders but the person of the Prince onely The obstinate warres and resistances of the progresse of the one and the other betweene the Turkes and the Christians grew from the maine alterations of all Lawes Orders and forme of gouernment with the vtter ruine of the conquered being so diuerse in all those and more in the principall point of religion by which he was euermore assured of vs generally infestuous to the very apprehension of his Subiects But his Maiesty from whom there was none of these generall dangers was questionlesse the more perticularly feared by him And euer hee that is feared wrongeth his iudgement if hee liue into great and carelesse security I concluded it would please his Maiesty to pardon me that I said so much that if I had erred it was in my iudgement not in my zealous affection vnto him neither had I presumed to looke into such high matters if his Maiesty by his discourse had not directed my sight which if it had bene amisse his Maiesties benignity and great wisedome could pardon the fault for the true affection which caused it He answered that he was so far from mis-liking my liberty of speech that he thanked me for it desiring me to continue it For Princes said hee are indeed more then men when they find faithfull friends which will freely aduise them and lesse them men when they are without such the brightnesse of their greatnesse so dimming their sight that they haue much more neede of helpe then priuate men who being conuersant in all things gather experience of euery thing which a Prince cannot haue Nature onely bringing forth a man his perfection following by his owne vertue learning and experience the two first a Prince might haue the last hardly and euer vnperfect Which made him euer carefully desire such friends as might minister a faithfull helpe to that defect but because we are now in iourney we shall leaue those things for a more reposed time to be spoken of at Hisphaan where we shall haue leasure enough both to deliberate and resolue of some good things and with that called some other who entertained him with discourses of Hunting and Hauking in which he is much delighted and vseth them with great magnificence Neuer going to any of those sports but that he carrieth forth aboue fiue hundred dogges and as many Hauks nothing rising before him but it is game For flies he hath sparrowes for Birds Hobbies and Marlins for the greatest sort some Hawke or other and for Roe-deare Eagles hee hath particular Agaes for his Hawkes and Dogges and other Officers to them a great number The next day I singled out Oliuer Di-Can with whom after a few complements I communicated the Kings discourse with me of his first troubles and latter fortunes extolling his Maiesty as it was fit and besides giuing the greatest honour to himselfe without flattery that I could deuise then I told him of my answere to the King and on purpose I said I feared that it might turne to my harme being newly planted in the Kings fauour subiect to the enuy of the Court and wanting a tongue to speake for my selfe and that to entermeddle in so great and perrilous matters it could not choose but awake some couered malice to take occasion to worke me some damage But my confidence was such first in the Heroycke minde of the King himselfe then in the generous disposition of his excellency that I should bee protected from perill for this fault as I would preserue my selfe with more cautel heereafter Hee answered me that the Kings affection vnto me was such that no man durst lift vp a thought against me which the Court knew well For himselfe as he knew not the conditions of our Courts so I might mistake those of theirs if enuy bare so great a sway with vs wee had lighter Princes and men of more presumption In this Court there was not a Gentleman but the King the rest were shadowes which moued with his body But in this which I had said to the King if I had entended it to moue him to warre in so fit a time against the Turke I had done well and assured mee that both he and Xa-Tamas-Coolibeague would with all their powers concurre with me to bring it to an essentiall deliberation though said he there be three dogges Haldenbeague Bastan-Aga and Courtchy Bassa that will mainely oppose themselues against it yet in the conscience of my duty which I owe to his Maiesty I assure my selfe that there is no secure way either for the preseruation of his person or state but that Therefore since you haue begunne in so happy an houre to breake the Ice of so great and so good an enterprise follow it without feare since God will prosper your good intention in it and we will second you with all the strength and industry which wee haue This was all which I desired to be assured of some friend especially such a one as might haue both opinion and credite of wisedome and fauour with the King For being a stranger if I had vndertaken the bearing of so weighty a businesse my selfe alone I should hardly haue escaped the being ouer-weighed with it knowing that the best propositions haue euer oppositions mens humours neuer concurring all to one end and the nature of men being alwaies opposite to a strangers aduancement Which since it must proceed in such a place from a speciall act of his owne vertue which could neuer be produced without a subiect to worke by the next way to wash away insensibly such a growing reputation was to keep me from any other meanes of establishment then bare Fauor which as it is very transitory in priuate men so is it much more in Princes the volubility of whose natures maketh them easily glutted and most mutable in their kinds of satisfaction and if once I had declined in the height of my fortune I knew there was no bayting place â—etweene mediocrity and precipitation so
dangerous are the â—aies of Princes and all men so foolish to striue to runne â— them The Kings entrance into Hisphaan was there of the same fashion that it was at Cassan differing onely in this that for some two English miles the waies were couered all with Veluet Sattin and cloth of Gold where his â—orse should passe After hee had bene setled there foureâ—eene daies remembring what Oliuer Di-Can had said vnto me I determined to loose no more time but to try the vttermost of my fortune in bringing to a resolution that enterprise the imagination of which had cost mee so much time and so much danger and was the chiefe mouing-cause at the first and now the onely mouing cause of comming thither And I was the more encouraged to do it by the fresh memory of God his mighty prouidence ouer me past and by the exceeding great fauour of the King which I knew to be his great worke who moueth the hearts of Princes to make them instruments of his iudgements which by all apparant demonstrations I conceiued determined against the Turke Therefore taking the opportunity of the Kings being alone with me and my brother in a Garden with my Interpreter onely and Xa-Tamas-Coolibeague I spake vnto him to this effect That my affection growne onely vpon the fame of his Maiesty had guided me from a farre Countrey into his presence by which I found his royall vertues so far exceeding the relation which I had heard that as I did admire them so I had a kind of forceable mouing in my nature to desire condigne fortunes to accompany them Besides my particular obligation to his Maiesty was so great that I was bound not onely to say what I thought fit for his seruice but to do as much as my life might accomplish for the same More-ouer being emboldned by his royall gracious answer vnto me vpon the way which I did take for a kind of commandement I would presume to say some-thing more largely then I did then of that which I tooke to concerne his Maiesty as much as any thing else could Neither would I speake any thing of other condition then such as he in his great iudgement should find so well grounded that nothing could bee added either to the iust cause honour vtility or facility of the enterprise which I would propose And because I would cleare all clouds which might hang about it my selfe which propounded it was such that I was onely a shadow which by the vrging of my owne nature and delight should follow the body of his victories rather then haue or hope for any other perticular interest in them my selfe For the first points There could no deliberation bee grounded vpon a greater foundation of equity then that which had his end onely directed to the recouery of that which was by force and violence vsurped from his State nor nothing more honourable for a Prince then to bee able without hazard not onely to reuenge priuate and publicke wrongs but to recouer their members againe to his seates by his wisedome and vertue which haue bene separate either by the defect or fortune of his Predecessors All this both publicke and priuate profite followed so great an encrease of State increasing in all points the force of his State and his poore Subiects which were throwne out of their possessions either through their true deuotion to his Maiesty which could giue them no peace vnder another gouernement or through the extreme tyranny of the Turke should be recouered againe to their owne with his infinite glory and vtility The facility shewed it selfe diuers waies principally in his owne fortune wisedome and vertue against which there was no likely resistance especially when there was no equall obstacle then the reputation of his late victories ioyned with the other would find or make a way through all difficulties then his Militia which was fresh and vncorrupted then the incapacity of the Turke his corruptions of gouernment want of obedience sundry rebellions and distractions from any possibility of being able to make any potent resistance against his Maiesties proceedings by his warres in Hungary which his Maiesty might assure the continuance of if it pleased him to inuite the Princes Christian to his amity which hee should offer vpon that condition by which also hee should receiue one other worthy benefite fit for such excelling parts as hee was most richly aboundant in not to conclude the true knowledge of them in that one corner of the world but with making these great Princes knowne vnto himselfe hee should make his owne worthinesse like-wise knowne vnto them Neither as I said at the first to his Maiesty though these were great points to moue so high a spirit intending to glory and great things as his was that they were so important as other were For these might either be deferred or not at all acted being bound vnto them by no greater necessity then his owne will counselled by good reason But his case was such that hee must resolue both for the security of his estate and person to make or endure a warre As I was proceeding Haldenbeague the Viseire Bastan-Aga and Oliuer Di-Can came in the King presently called them and told them what I was propounding vnto him vpon which the Viseire swelling against me answered instantly Your Maiesty may now perceiue that true which some of your seruants haue beene bold to tell you at the first comming of these Christians and many times since that they were sent to disquiet your Maiesties tranquility of your state and to embarke you in dangerous enterprises for others interresses For what likely-hood was there that a Gentleman of quality without some great disaster fallen him should take such a voyage so full of dangers and expences vpon a fame of a Prince spread by ordinary Merchants Since I know hee could neuer haue spoken with men of better quality in those parts which could haue knowne your Maiesty And if it were true that such a motion onely had brought him why should hee not giue time to the growing of his better fortunes by your Maiesties Munificencies and fauours without drawing himselfe into the danger to bee a perswader of a perrilous enterprise then which hee cannot bee so ignorant as to vnderstand no way to bee so precipitious for himselfe But because it is inioyned him hee must do it without regard to your Maiesty to whom hee is onely newly bound for present benefites which hee careth but to enioy vntill he hath intangled you in his designes and then will hee relye vpon those to whom hee oweth greater obedience for more permanent benefits and greater through so great a merite God keepe your Maiestly from giuing care to his perswasions which carry nothing with them but extreme peril The Turke hauing bene a heauy neighbour to your Maiesties state when it was found through a long peace and when your Predecessours were aboundant in money which is the heart of the warres
will vouchsafe to make vse of him If he do it as a stranger he hath no hope but in the merit of his owne vertue which must be discerned and rewarded by his maiesty if he serue as a Prince of his Maiesty as now by his great magnificency hee beareth the title and place the same vertue must euer confirme and aduance his fauour and the same king must iudge and reward it And this I haue said in a double duty first to maintaine the act of his Maiesties great iudgment which cannot mistake it selfe in the distribution worthily of his fauors then in that of hospitality to answere iustly for a Gentleman come to our home where wee are all bound to defend him from wrong especially bearing about him so great a priuiledge as a true affection to our king But now to speake of the proposition the Viseirs obiections against it as I do thinke them worthy of so wise a man yet because particular factions doe sometimes blinde men both in councelling and deliberating So questionlesse his great iudgement hath beene much clouded with some of those which haue made him erre directly in the iudgement of some things and to misconceiue of the maine purpose generally of the proposition For no mans intention is to be iudged to stretch beyond possibility So that whatsoeuer was propounded to his Maiesty as necessary honourable and profitable for him and his state included withall that well-vnderstanding intention that it would please his maiesty to prouide in the firmnesse of his wisedome and councell condignely for it if he want treasure to gather it if he want munition Artilery to make quantity of both which must indeed require a time for the act not the resolution vpon the act Without which his Maiesty as he shal haue no great cause himselfe his Ministers will be lesse diligent in the expedition of all such prouisions of which to say the truth that huge masse of money is of least importance his Maiesty beeing able to make in the time of this Turkes distraction and if his whole power were also vnited a sufficient Army of his Timarri and such as hee already payeth vpon the Frontier to proceede with any great designe against him For admit hee should vpon the mouing of the Kings Armies come to any foule conditions of peace in Hungary as it is vnlike that hee will yet there must bee so much time betweene the proposition and concluding of the peace and remouing of his Army thence and transporting it hither that any great thing will bee first effected before any obstacle will appeare against it But in reason hee should rather endure any vnreasonable losse this way then the least there For besides that his principall parts are altogether disposed on that side in so much that the danger of Hungary doth extend it selfe to Constantinople Wee are euen of the selfe same or little different religion so that the warres cannot proceed with a mortall hatred and desire of extirpation which beareth with it so much the lesse danger and as it is the more facile to be satisfied so easier and lesse perillous conditions will euer end it That Tauris Tistis Vannes are strong places I do not denie it but withal I know that the strength of no place can maintain it selfe against the power furie and the ordinarie miseries brought by the wars without a certaine succour which I cannot see how they can be confident of The Tartars you say are newly conquered and will rebell with such a great opportunitie surely I take that opportunitie the onely direct meanes to answere them nothing breeding discontentments to a dangerous breaking forth so much as idlenesse and the continuall sight of that which they take to be their oppression Therefore his Maiestie hauing an Armie of thirty thousand men there and from thence drawing forth thirtie thousand Tartars of the best able for the warres the Prouince must be most assured the meanes and chiefe actors of innouation being in his Maiesties Armie and their wiues children and parents in pawne with their countrey for their true seruing his Maiestie in his warres which he did think so necessarie for the King to vndertake that he made no difference betweene putting his state in extreme perill and the not vndertaking of them counselling his Maiestie to doe in that point as all wise Princes vse to doe not onely to haue regard to the present euils but to the future and to repaire them with all industrious prouidence because that by seeing them and preuenting them a farre off the remedie might be applied with great facilitie and good effect but by expecting them vntill they beare downe all by their great waight with them their cure will be taken vsed out of time the sicknesse being growne to incurable tearmes as the Physitions say of the Hecticke seauer which in his first entrance into the bodie is easie to be cured and hard to be knowne but through the continuance of time with the rancor of the disease by not hauing known it applied remedie in the beginning it changeth the first order and groweth it selfe facile to be knowne and impossible to be remedied so doth it occurre in matters of state for fore-seeing with wise prouidence the euils which rise toward it there is no difficultie in auoiding them but when from either neglect or ignorance of preuenting them they palisate themselues to euery mans vnderstanding there is no more remedie familiar with our reason securely auailable against them Which maketh me bee bold to say that since the inconueniences which his Maiestie must suffer by the Turke are so apparant he must resolue and strengthen his minde and meanes to remoue them and not to giue them greater power to follow him by auoyding a warre since you may know that the warre cannot be absolutely taken away but deferred only with the enemies aduantage Neyther will I euer be aduised by that which is alwaies in the mouth of the wise men of these daies which is to enioy the benefit of time but will say and euer thinke that Euery Prince and euery man should make vse of his owne vertue and wisdom seeing time driuing euery thing before it doth ordinarily produce as often good as ill ill as good And why it should at any time diminish the reputation of his Maiesties greatnesse to inuite the Princes Christian to so honourable and great an action I cannot discern when it is one of the greatest foundations of a Princes reputation to raise himselfe to the greatest enterprises in which his iudgement may not be mistaken in the possibilitie of effecting them And since it is necessary for his Maiestie to combine himselfe with them for his owne strength and reputation if eyther he attempt the Turke or be attempted by him why should it not bee more honourable and more facile for him for the accomplishment of his ends to speake vnto them in their necessitie if there be any of eyther
and what iustice had his king to detaine them If none other but by the potencie of his armes the same point of iustice he had also to preserue what he had alreadie gotten and to vindicate also those vniustly detained from him If he will breake the truce made betweene my father and him and continued by my brother and me vpon so manifest vniust causes as the warre was neuer prosperously prouoked against our state by his predecessors nor himselfe but through some strange accident errour or our owne disunion so beleeue that it will now breake forth to his owne destruction Yet I doe not denie but that I had rather both to preserue what I haue and to recouer what my ancestors haue lost by equitie then bloud and by the force of reason rather then of armes which if I cannot I will certainly amend by vertue what I haue erred in by cunctation My power and glory is yet soundly whole and more increased through the merit of Modestie which was neuer yet despised by the greatest which haue beene among men and is esteemed by God himselfe Wresting of actes could not deceiue others which as they were made to God so the iudgement of their breaking or abusing would euer be in God and his memorie care and power For Mahomet-Aga himselfe though he had forfeited the priuiledges of an Embassador by executing vnder that title a contrarie office if I should said he presently and condignly punish you both the memory of your present fortune into which pride and folly hath throwne you and my glory would be darkned and the punishment would be followed with a sodaine forgetfulnesse but if I free you as I will from your punishment though I cannot from the fault I shall be an eternall memorie to the world of clemencie and leaue you a great precept eyther of more iudgement or lesse imployment vntill you can make your selfe fitter for such a one as this to which you haue beene vnworthily elected As I said before if he had vsed the opportunities which he had discreetly he might haue done his Master a notable seruice and honoured himselfe much Tor the kings great discontentment with those of Ormus the strong opposition of most of his counsell to any proposition against the Turke did facilitate a way for him to haue fashioned the king to any condition of firmer tearmes with his Master then they had hitherto stood in And though it was not likely that there could haue beene mediated a restitution of those Courdines yet the losse of them had beene smal being a people euer vnstable in any certaine habitation neither hauing vnderstanding of good nor care of ill proper ministers onely of rapine and to possesse vnproper places for ciuiller inhabitants and he might easily haue procured a restraint that none other hereafter should haue done the like if he had propounded it from his Master disobliged him to the king of Persia and restored the peoples minds to their first dependance being a Nation though otherwise of doubtfull faith both through their owne nature and situation of their countrie yet more inclined to the Turke then any both by the bond of the same religion and hatred to the Persians The next morning the king came vnto me and after some other discourses he told me he had well considered of my proposition which though otherwise he had no great inclination vnto both because of the great separation by distance and difficult meanes of correspondencie which could be made betweene the Princes Christian himselfe besides the small necessitie he had of them God hauing giuen him so ample so rich and so warlike a dominion and if he had their owne disunion amongst themselues gaue him small hope of any great good effect in what he should propound vnto them Besides the derogation from his own greatnesse to be a demander of their amitie whose predecessors had sought it of his by diuers meanes and vpon great conditions Yet to shew me how deare an estimation he held of me he was contented not to see what belonged to himselfe but onely to regard my satisfaction which he willed me to determine of and assured me of the effecting of it whatsoeuer it was And after I had giuen his Maiestie thanks which were conuenient for so high a fauour I told him that I had propounded nothing but that which the future experience and present reason of things would proue not onely infinitely auaileable but also necessarie for his honour profit and securitie to which counsell I was readie and desirous to adde my owne perill which could by no other meanes bring an answerable benefit to the greatnesse of itselfe but onely in the true estimation which I made of the merit of his Maiesties vertue and my infinite affection to his seruice The necessitie of his state I knew eyther counselled him to prouide for a warre or to make a warre Priuate cogitationâ— hauing their progresse of such a conditioÌ„ that they may take as themselues wâ—ll eyther more of lesse of fortune but those which had raised their thoughts to the sublimitie of dominion are no more in their owne power hauing no meane to step vpon betweene the highest of all and precipitation For his Maiestie to sleepe longer called vpon by so maine reasons which did euidently demonstrate vnto him the ineuitable danger if not raine of his state and contrariwise the certaine addition which his maiestie might make to his glory and state would seeme to those that did not rightly vnderstand the excellencie of his Maiesties heart such a weakenesse in him as is incident to those which haue not power to temper felicitie from glutting themselues with the abundant fruites of present prosperitie though they haue a patient forced vigour to withstand aduersitie That the Turke was to bee vanquished his owne Rebelles had shewed which haue ouercome with small forces his great power in sundrie encounters If his Militia hath had heretofore more vigour and valour it is now changed through pleasure ease and surferinges by their Princes example with great corruptions which a more vertuous Prince may reduce to their soundnesse his Maiesties wisedome should worke immediately vppon the present generall defect and errour Neyther should hee make a proportionable concurrence betweene his factes and wisedome if he did loose time in doubtfull deliberations in such a case which did euidently shew him that if he might securely continue in peace yet that peace was more pernicious vnto him then warre leesing so many fayre occasions of propagating his Empyre and making his estate eternally inuincible and to dangerous to bee attempted againe by the Turke when there should bee so equall a ballance of potencie as would bee betweene them but by the recouerie of his owne if his desire and fortune and vertue disposed no more vnto him then that which was iustly his owne and was vniustly deteyned from him For those rebellions of the Turkes they were likely rather to increase
There is none so proper an Executor of any enterprise as hee which is the first deuiser of it I humbly thanked his Maiestie for his confidence and excused my inhabilitie to performe so great a charge Many men being more fitte to propound then to execute That requiring a particular valour and experience which I had not Notwithstanding since I would not giue his Maiestie cause to suspect that I had intimated such a thing vnto him as either was so dangerous to carry or impossible to effect that I durst not for those causes vndertake it I would onely beseech of his Maiestie one of his Princes either to be my superior or equall in the Ambassage or such a one as might be aâ—solutely my inferior for a testimony onely of my assured comming from his Maiestie The first I did require because equall authority where there is the selfe same power is commonly pernitions to all actions being impossible to fit two minds of so 〈◊〉 a temper that they should not haue some motions of dissenâ—â—â—g Yet if I must be ioyned through the gratious fauour 〈◊〉 Maiesty who had no more end of his honouring me thâ—n my affection had in seruing him I desired it might 〈◊〉 a noble man whose mind being made to greatnes could not feele the ill working of a sudden alteration The last I required not that such a one could hold any condition in the former reason but as an Armor against enuie and malice beeing a thing incident and almost certaine in all mens natures to behold with sore eyes the new growne felicitie of others and to exact a sharpe account of their fortunes especially in home they haue seene either inferiour or in equalitie with themselues All which hee promised commended my reason and prouidence in that point and offering also presents of great valew and worth to accompanie his Letters which should be goodly Carpets Swords and Daggers couered with Gold and Iewels Plumes according to their Countrey fashion and other things worthy to be esteemed both for the price and rarenesse Then he told me I must recouer my selfe strengthen my minde and come abroad that hee might feast mee before my departure And though it is likely that the disposition of the World euermore inclined to detraction then to a generous beholding of mens actions will in the iniquitie of that nature hardly beleeue the magnificent fashion of that King held towards me then in all points and confirmed by his infinite Royall fauour continued and increased to my brother now Yet the act he did doth plainely demonstrate part of the one and amongst Honourable minds I shall be beleeued for the rest And though that viper of malice which I so much feared did bite me in a maine member of my Honour and infeebled it so much that it remained lame from being able to passe forward in that pase of reputation which so great a labour so many dangers so great an enterprise and so pious an action merited yet it is impossible that malice it selfe much lesse the infusion of it in wicked spirits can take from me the true knowledge to this time and memorie to posteritie that I was a zealous author of so Christianlike a purpose They much mistaking my mind which iudged it rather capable and desirous of apparant then the true substance of things though it be true that euerie man will contend for both when both are his right For thirty dayes continuallie the King made that feast in a great garden of more then two miles compasse vnder tents pitched by certain small courses of running water like diuers riuers where euerie man that would come was placed according to his degree either vnder one or other Tent prouided for abundantly with meate fruite wine drinking as they would some largelie some moderatelie without compulsion A roialty and splâ—ndor which I haue not seene nor shall not see againe but by the same King Our Princes abhorring such vaine expences desiring rather to haue the power of dominion then to make those sorts of ostentation but such is and hath beene anciently the custome of that Country as the holy Booke of God sheweth vs. And if with so great authority itâ—were needfull or comely to produce other histories there are diuers which speake also of many magnificences of those Kings and of that amongst the rest therfore it is euer to be praised for the constant antiquite if not for the reason of the expence The ioy of the feast was much augmented by two great fortunes which gaue themselues at that time to the King which were these The Tartars of Buckehawrd which haue euer beene of greatest reputation amongst all those of the Orient both for their valour in armes and wealth moued vnto it through their owne diuisions the Captaines of which being of validity and proper industrie to enflame the ciuill dissentions and vnfit to temper their alternate good successes It being the condition of troubles and disorders to giue most power and authority to those of the worst sort and most mischieuous spirits whereas to appease them requireth great art and reposed spirits wearied with the vexation of their owne troubles in such a state of things as produced nothing but disorders amongst the factious a desperate rage amongst the vanquished and no authority amongst the victors â— neither the vigour of the lawes standing none almost of the Princes liuing when all these extremities could not bring them to consent to the erecting of their owne estate as it first was of an absolut principality yet by the fame of the king of Persiaes iustice in gouernment the felicity which followed all his enterprises they were brought to consent vnitely in one to send and deliuer themselues and their Country vnder his subiection And the great Moghor King of Labor moued by the like fame sent a great Ambassador to desire a marriage between his eldest sonnes daughter and Cephir Micza a eldest sonne to the King of Persia with a mighty present and as mighty offers both of ready money to pay 30000. men in any warre which the King of Persia should vndertake for seuen yeeres Such a quality hath prosperity when it beholdeth a man or State with affectionate eyes to intruâ—e it selfe vpon him or it though themselues would not anâ— somtimes in things which the wisdom of men holdeth impossible to be intimated and â—nfeasible to be executed which maketh wise men often rather to desire them then to hope for them In this time came vnto me a Portingal Frier named Alphonso Cordero of the order of the Franciscans Secular and an other Armenian Frier of Ierusalem with a message from an other Frier of better estimation called Nichola Di-Meto the effect of which was this that hee had beene Inquisitor generall of the Indies and his time being finished as also hauing receiued commandement from the Pope and King of Spain to return for som other important causes to the
had minds fit for such imployment qualities also fit for such minds I was vrged to take that fellow the king content to let him go But would bestow on him no more then 50. Tomans for the whole expense which he called also cast away Him I left to bring the appointed present after me and the letters to the particular Princes which were then readie at my departure not sealed and the present not throughly prouided my selfe desiring to free my selfe from the Court where euery occasion was receiued by those which were contrarie to the enterprise to hinder it After I had taken my leaue of the king the morning before my departure he came to finde me againe at my house and after a little other speech he said vnto me that my absence from him would exceedingly griue him his affection to me being true and his hopes of me many If he had beene furnished of any sit to haue vndergone the mannagement of this affaire he would neuer haue enioyned me to so much trauaile and so many perils but that I knew his Court to be ignorant of the language and properties of â—ur parts and since he was prouoked by me to send thiâ—her he knew that I would be contented with my labour to keepe him and his from all sorts of scorne That my brother was young and therefore the more to be tendered and not euery day to be exposed to new labours his loue to vs both made him carefull in that point but more particularly his infinite desire of my returne which hee thought would be more assured by so deare a pawne And by daily relation which I should receiue of his royall vsage I should also be daily inuited to returne howsoeuer If I met with such fortunes as would be worthy to make me stay from him or such accidents as had power to hinder me by their necessitie the company of my brother should giue him great satisfaction in my absence And if the worst should happen vnto me he did desire euer to haue a subiect so neare vnto me vpon whom he might make a declaration vnto the world both of what qualitie his owne minde was and of what condition his true and royall affection towards me was Before I could answere this infinite fauourable and and gracious speech of his my Brother whose mind euer disposed him to the best things hauing by his owne nature and excellent spirit which in his younger yeares he bettered with higher studies not as many who vnder a magnificent title loue slouthfull idlenesse but vsing them in their true propertie to confirme our ordinarie weaknesse against the tempests of fortune and to learne by the goodly precepts of wise men that which the frailtie of mans constitution blindeth from our sight and to esteeme onely good that which is honest and euill those things which do participate with viciousnesse And though hee might arâ—ogate as mâ—ch to the Nobiâ—itie of his bloud as the best borne Gentleman may yet euer making estimation of that and other such qualified ornaments as were without the minde neither to be accounâ—ed amongst the speciall good or ill things which a man should truly behold in himselfe he hath and doth contend more with himself to be worthie of the best titles then to be esteemed by those he hath contemning equally riches and superfluitie and pouertie which groweth by a mans owne vice being stedfast and iust in good things and constant against all feare and if he bee guided by the height of his minde to striue with more feruour then warinesse for glorie and reputation the best iudging sort of the world know that the couetousnes of that point of eternitie is the last appetite which the wisest men dispoile themselues of Neyther am I induced to celebrate so much the memorie of so many vertues as I know in him because he is my brother but absolutely am led vnto it without fauour or ambition by the perswasion onely of a good conscience for the sole merite and reward of the same That minde I say of his euer counselled by such thoughts apprehending that his staying with the king might be of wonderfull effect to keepe his minde constant in the resolution which hee had taken and gessing at many occasions which might happen in my absence the well vsing of which might confirme him more some also if they were not tempered might coole his resolutions which he knew to be taken rather to satisfie me and with an intent to see the successe of the proceeding of things then a more constant determination answered the king presently thus That our two soules were so vnitely conioyned that our willes were diuided in nothing our affections to his Maiestie and our desires to serue him were the same and such as they could not be separated from his commandements And though the promise of fauours from him which could command did bring euer with it the force of necessitie yet we both were so cleare in the iudgemeÌ„t of the royall disposition of his Maiestie that he would neither absolutely will nor seeme to desire of vs any thing but that which should bee honourable for his authoritie and conuenient for our obedience to bee done by vs. The parting of both our bodies from his presence was nothing in respect of our best parts which euer should attend his Maiestie with vowes and profers and wishes which were worthy to proceede from his true seruants and friends And as worthy of his infinite vertues But because hee did desire to haue one of vs which was himself to remaine with him he would doe it and giue his Maiestie so much greater occasion to loue vs both by that effect of vertue which he should proue in him tempering the necessitie of his passion for his Maiesties satisfaction better purposes which time such occasions as must needs be brought forth should shew his Maiestie Neyther did he incline at all to doe this for any feeling which he would haue in that point of his Maiesties munificences promised but onely for the sensiblenesse of doing well which hee thought and knew he should do by obeying his Maiestie in that commaunding request Hee did confesse notwithstanding that the world could not lay vpon him a greater aduersitie then to be separated from me yet he would neuer bee so broken with any fortune though it should rise from other causes as to loose the least title of the dignitie of his minde His yeares were but few but neyther gray heires nor wrinckles should with so wise an vnderstanding iudgement as his Maiesties giue more authoritie to any then the good fruites proceeding from an honest and vertuous spending of the time which a man hath passed hee did desire no more fauour with his Maiestie for his staying then his other merits should bee worthie of yet because hee was left alone without other comfort then what his owne heart gaue him hee would bee confident that his Maiestie would not