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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	king_n	lord_n	person_n	2,832	5	4.9191	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27515	The history of the late revolution of the empire of the Great Mogol together with the most considerable passages for 5 years following in that empire : to which is added, a letter to the Lord Colbert, touching the extent to Indostan, the circulation of the gold and silver of the world, to discharge it self there, as also the riches, forces, and justice of the same and the principal cause of the decay of the states of Asia / by Mons. F. Bernier ... English'd out of French.; Histoire de la dernière révolution des Etats du Grand Mogol. English	Bernier, François, 1620-1688.; Oldenburg, Henry, 1615?-1677.	1676 (1676)	Wing B2044; ESTC R16888	130,833	407

not to demand any Customs So great was once the power of Emir-Jemla his Father in this Kingdom which time hath not yet been able to root out The fourth is that the Hollanders scruple not to threaten him sometimes to lay an Embargo upon all the Merchants Ships of the Country that are in that Port and not to let them go out untill their demands be granted as also to put in protestations against him which I have seen actually done upon the account of an English Vessel which they had a mind to take by force in the Port of Maslipatan it self the Governour having hindred it by arming the whole Town against them and threatning to put fire to their Factory and to put them all to death A fifth is that the Portugueses as poor and miserable and decayed as they are in the Indies yet stick not to threaten that King also with War and that they will come and sack Maslipatan and all that Coast if he will not render them that place of St. Thomas which some years ago they chose to put into his hands rather than to be constrained to yield it up to the Dutch Yet for all this I have been informed in Golkonda by very intelligent persons that this King is a Prince of very great judgment and that whatever he so does and suffers is only in policy to the end to provoke no body and principally to remove all suspition from Aureng-Zebe and to give him to understand that he hath in a manner no share any more in the Kingdom But that in the mean time a Son of his that is kept hid grows up the Father watching for a fit time to declare him King and so to laugh at the agreement made with Aureng-Zebe Of this time will shew us more in the mean time let us consider somewhat of the Interests of Visapour The Kingdom of Visapour hath also not been wanting to support it self though the Mogol do almost continually make war against it not so much as if he of Visapour were able to bid head to the Mogolian Forces but because there is never any great effort used against him For it is not very frequent there no more than 't is elsewhere for Generals of Armies to desire the end of a War there being nothing so charming as to be in the head of an Army commanding like little Kings remote from the Court It is also grown to a Proverb that Decan is the Bread and Life of the Souldiers of Indostan Besides the Countrey of Visapour is on the side of the Mogol's Dominions of a very difficult access upon the account of the searcity of good Waters Forrage and Victuals and because Visapour the Capital City is very strong and situate in a dry and steril Countrey there being almost no good Water but in the Town And lastly because there are many Fortresses in that Countrey seated on Hills hard to climb Yet notwithstanding all this that State is much shaken if considering that the Mogol hath taken Paranda the Key as 't were of that Kingdom as also that fair and strong Town Bider and some other very important places But principally because the last King of Visapour died without Heirs Males and he that now calls himself King is a Youth whom the Queen Sister of the King of Golkonda hath raised and taken for her Son a favour for which he hath made an ill return having shew'd no esteem for this Queen after her return from Mecca under the pretext of some ill demeanour in her on a Dutch Vessel that carried her to Moka Lastly because that in the disorders of that Kingdom the Heathen Rebel Seva-Gi above discoursed of found means to seize on many strong Holds mostly seated on steep Mountains where he now acteth the King laughing at the Visapour and the Mogol and ravaging the Countrey every where from Suratte even to the gates of Goa This notwithstanding if he wrongs Visapour one way he helps to support it another forasmuch as he is resolutely bent against the Mogol preparing alwayes some Ambush and cutting so much work for his Army that there is no discourse no apprehension but of Seva-Gi insomuch that he hath come and sacked Suratte and pillaged the Isle of Burdes which belongs to the Portuguese and is near the Gates of Goa The seventh particular which I learn'd at Golkonda when I was come away from Dehli is the death of Chah-Jehan and that Aureng-Zebe had been exceedingly affected therewith having discover'd all the marks of grief that a Son can express for the loss of his Father That at the very hour of receiving that news he went towards Agra that Begum-Saheb caused the Mosquee and a certain place where he was at first to stop before he entred the Fortress to be hung with richly embroider'd Tapisseries That at his entring into the Seraglio she presented him with a great Golden Bason wherein were all her Jewels and all those of Chah-Jehan and in short that she knew to receive him with so much Magnificence and to entertain him with that dexterity and craft that she obtained his pardon gain'd his favour and grew very confident with him To conclude I doubt not but most of those who shall have read my History will judge the wayes taken by Aureng-Zebe for getting the Empire very violent and horrid I pretend not at all to plead for him but desire only that before he be altogether condemned reflexion be made on that unhappy custom of this State which leaving the succession of the Crown undecided for want of good Laws setling it as amongst us upon the eldest Son exposeth it to the Con quest of the strongest and the most fortunate subjecting at the same time all the Princes born in the Royal Family by the condition of their Birth to the cruel necessity either to overcome or to reign by destroying all the rest for the assurance of their power and life or to perish themselves for the security of that of others For I am apt to believe that upon this consideration the Reader wil not find Aureng-Zebe's conduct so strange as at first it appear'd However I am perswaded that those who shall a little weigh this whole History will not take Aureng-Zebe for a Barbarian but for a great and rare Genius a Great States-man and a Great King A Letter to the Lord COLBERT of the Extent of Indostan the Circulation of Gold and Silver coming at length to be swallowed up there as in an Abyss the Riches Forces Justice and the principal Cause of the decay of the States of Asia My Lord SInce it is the custom of Asia never to approach Great Persons with empty hands when I had the honour to kiss the Vest of the Great Mogol Aureng-Zebe I presented him with eight Roupies as an expression of respect and the illustrious Fazel-kan the prime Minister of State and he that was to establish my Pension as Physitian with a Case of Knives garnished with Amber

met with To all this were added four Damaskin'd Swords with as many Poynards all cover'd with Jewels as also five or six Harnasses of Horses which were much esteem'd being also very fine and rich the stuff being raised with rich Embroidery set with small Pearls and very fair Turcoises of the old Rock It was observ'd that Aureng-Zebe beheld this Present very attentively that he admired the beanty and rarity of every piece and that several times he extolled the Generosity of the King of Persia assigning to the Ambassador a place among his chief Omrahs And after he had entertained him a while with a discourse about the inconveniencies and hardships of his Voyage he dismist him and made instance that he should come every day to see him During the four or five Months that the Ambassador staid at Dehli he was always splendidly treated at Aureng-Zebe's charge and the greatest Omrahs presented him one after another and at last he was very honourably dismissed For Aureng-Zebe had him apparell'd with another rich Serapah or Vest to which he added considerable presents for himself reserving those he intended for his King 'till he should send an Ambassador expresly which sometime after he did Notwithstanding all these testimonies of honour and respect which Aureng-Zebe had shew'd to this Ambassador the same Persians above-spoken of gave out that their King had sensibly reproached him in his Letters with the Death of Dara and the imprisonment of Chah-Jehan as actions unworthy of a Brother and a Son and a Musulman and that he had also hit him with the word A●m-Guire or Conquerour of the World which Aureng-Zebe had caused to be engraven on his Coyn. But 't is hard to believe that the King of Persia should do any such thing to provoke such a Victorious Prince since Persia is not in a condition to enter into a War with Indostan I am rather apt to believe that Persia hath work enough to keep Kandahar on the side of Indostan and the Frontiers on the side of Turky Its Forces and Riches are known it produceth not always such great Kings as the Chah-Abbas Valiant Intelligent and Politick knowing to make use of every thing and to do much with small expences If it were in a condition of undertaking any thing against Indostan or really sensible of Piety and the Musal-Man Faith why was it that in these last troubles and Civil Wars which continued so long in Indostan the Persians sat still and looked on when Dara Chan-Jehan Sultan Sujah and perhaps the Governour of Caboul desired their assistance and they might with no very great Army nor great expences have seized on the fairest part of India beginning from the Kingdom of Caboul unto the River Indus and beyond it and so made themselves Umpires of all things yet notwithstanding there must needs have been some offensive expressions in those Persian Letters or else the Ambassador must have done or said something that displeased Aureng-Zebe because two or three daies after he had dismissed him he made a rumour to be spread-abroad that the Ambassador had caused the Ham-strings of the presented Horses to be Cut And the Ambassador being yet upon the Frontiers he made him return all the Indian Slaves which he carried along with him of which he had a prodigious number Mean while Aureng-Zebe was not so much concern'd nor troubled himself so much with this Ambassador as Chah-Jehan upon a like occasion did with him that was sent to him from the Great Chah-Abbas When the Persians are in the humor of Rallying against the Indians they relate these three or four little Stories of them They say that Chah-Jehan seeing that the Courtship and promises made to their Ambassador were not able to prevail with him so as to make him perform his salute after the Indian Mode he devised this artifice he commanded to shut the great Gate of the Court of the Am-kas where he was to receive him and to leave only open the Wicket through which one man could not pass but very difficultly by stooping and holding down his Head as the fashion is when one maketh an Indian Reverence to the end that it might be said he had made the Ambassador put himself in a posture which was something lower than the Indian Salam or Salute but that that Ambassador being aware of this trick came in with his Back fore-most And that Chah-Jehan out of indignation to see himself catch'd told him Eh-Bed-bakt Thou Wretch dost thou think thou comest into a Stable of Asses such as thou art And that the Ambassador without any alteration answered Who would not think so seeing such a little Door Another story is this That at a certain time Chah-Jehan taking ill some course and fierce answers return'd to him by the Persian Ambassador could not hold to tell him What hath Chah-Abbas no other men at his Court that he must send to me such a Fool as thy self And that the Ambassador answer'd He hath many better and wiser men than me but to such a King such an Ambassador They add that on a certain day Chah-Jehan who had made the Ambassador to Dine in his Presence and sought some occasion to affront him seeing that he was busie in picking and gnawing of Bones asked him smiling Eh Eltchy-Gi My Lord Ambassador What shall the Dogs eat And that he answer'd readily Kichery that is a dish of Pulse which is the Food of the meaner sort of People and which he saw Chah-Jehan eat because he loved it They say also that Chah-Jehan once asked him What he thought of his new Dehli which he was building in comparison of Hispahan and that he answer'd aloud and with an oath Billah Billah Hispahan doth not come near the dust of Dehli which Chah-Jehan took for a high commendation though the Ambassador mocked him because the dust is so troublesome at Dehli Lastly they relate that Chah-Jehan one day pressing him to tell him What he thought of the Grandeur of the Kings of Indostan compared to that of the Kings of Persia He answer'd That in his opinion one could not better compare the Kings of India than to a large Moon of 15 or 16 daies old and those of Persia to a small Moon of 2 or 3 dayes And that this answer did at first please Chah-Jehan but that soon after he perceived that that comparison did him but little honour the Ambassadors sense being that the Kings of Indostan were decreasing and those of Persia increasing Whether these points are so commendable and such marks of wit every one is free to judge as he seeth cause My opinion is that a discreet and respectful gravity is much more becoming Ambassadors than rallery and roughness especially when they have to do with Kings who will not be rallied with witness an accident that befell this very Ambassador for Chah-Jehan was at length so weary of him and his freedom that he called him no otherwise than Fool and one day gave secret

such as our Pont-neuf is where hundreds of men are found pel-mel together with their Horses Mules and Camels where one is stifled with heat in Summer and starved of cold in Winter if it were not for the breathing of those Animals that warm the place a little But it will be said we see some States where the Meum and Tuum is not as for example that of the Grand Seignor which we know better than any without going so far as the Indies that do not only subsist but are also very powerful and encrease daily 'T is true that that State of the Grand Seignor of such a prodigious extent as it is having so vast a quantity of Lands the Soil of which is so excellent that it cannot be destroyed but very difficultly and in a long time is yet rich and populous but it is certain also that if it were cultivated and peopled proportionably to ours which it would be if there were propriety among the Subjects throughout it would be a quite different thing it would have people enough to raise such prodigious Armies as in old times and rich enough to maintain them We have travelled through almost all the parts of it we have seen how strangely it is ruin'd and unpeopled and how in the Capital City there now need three whole Months to raise five or six thousand men We know also what it would have come to ere this if it had not been for the great number of Christian Slaves that are brought into it from all parts And no doubt but that if the same Government were continued there for a number of years that State would destroy it self and at last fall by its own weakness as it seems that already it is hardly maintained but only by that means I mean by the frequent change of Governors there being not one Governor nor any one man in the whole Empire that hath a penny to enable him to maintain the least thing or that can almost find any men if he had Money A strange manner to make States to subsist There would need no more for making an end of the Seditions than a Brama of Pegu who killed the half of the Kingdom with hunger and turned it into Forests hindring for some years the Lands from being tilled though yet he hath not succeeded in his Design and the State have afterwards been divided and that even lately Ava the Capital Town was upon the point of being taken by an handful of China-fugitives Mean time we must confess that we are not like to see in our dayes that total ruine and destruction of this Empire we are speaking of if so be we see not something worse because it hath Neighbors that are so far from being able to undertake any thing against him that they are not so much as in a condition to resist him unless it be by those succours of strangers which the remoteness and jealousie would make slow small and suspect But it might be yet further objected that it appears not why such States as these might not have good Laws and why the people in the Provinces might not be enabled to come and make their complaints to a Grand Visir or to the King himself 'T is true that they are not altogether destitute of good Laws and that if those which are amongst them were observed there would be as good living there as in any part of the world But what are those Laws good for if they be not observed and if there be no means to make them to be executed Is it not the Grand Visir or the King that appoints for the people such beggarly Tyrants and that hath no others to set over them Is it not He that sells those governments Hath a poor Peasant or Tradesman means to make great journeys and to come and seek for Justice in the Capital City remote perhaps 150 or 200 Leagues from the place of his abode Will not the Governour cause him to be made away in his journey as it hath often hapned or catch him sooner or later And will he not provide his Friends at Court to support him there and to represent things quite otherwise than they are In a word this Governour hungry as well as the Timariots and Farmers that are all men for drawing Oyl out of Sand as the Persian speaks and for ruining a world with their heap of Women-harpies Children and Slaves this Governor I say is he not the absolute Master the Super-intendant of Justice the Parliament the Receiver and all It may perhaps be added that the Lands which our Kings hold in Domaine are no less well tilled and peopled than other Land But there is a great difference between the having in propriety some Lands here and there in a great Kingdom which changes not the Constitution of the State and Government and the having them all in propriety which would alter it altogether And then we in these parts have Laws so rational which our Kings are willing to be the first to observe and according to which they will that their particular Lands shall be governed as those of their Subjects are so as to give way that Actions of Law may be laid against their own Farmers and Officers so that a Peasant or Tradesman may have means to obtain Justice and to find remedy against the unjust violence of those that would oppress him Whereas in those parts of Asia I see almost not any refuge for those poor people the Cudgel and the Hammer of the Governour being in a manner the only Law that rules and decides all Controversies there Lastly It may be said that 't is at least certain that in such States there is not such a multitude of long-lasting sutes of Law as in these parts nor so many Lawyers of all sorts as amongst us It is in my opinion very true that one cannot too much applaud that old Persian Saing Na-hac Kouta Beter-Ez hac Deraz that is Short Injustice is better than long Justice and that the length of Law-Sutes is unsufferable in a State and that it is the indispensable duty of the Sovereign by all good means to endeavour a remedy against them And 't is certain that by taking away this Meum and Tuum the root would be cut of an infinite number of Law-processes and especially of almost all those that are of importance and long and perplexed and consequently there would not need so great a number of Magistrates which our Sovereigns do employ to administer Justice to their Subjects nor that swarm of men which subsist only by that way But 't is also manifest that the remedy would be an hundred times worse than the Disease considering those great inconveniences that would follow thereupon and that in all probability the Magistrates would become such as those of the Asiatick States who deserve not that Name for in a word our Kings have yet cause to glory upon the account of good Magistracy under them In those parts some Merchants excepted Justice is only among the meanest sort of people that are poor and of an unequal condition who have not the means of corrupting the Judges and to buy false Witnesses that are there in great numbers and very cheap and never punished And this I have learn'd every where by the experience of many years and by my solicitous enquiries made among the people of the Country and our old Merchants that are in those parts as also of Ambassadors Consuls and Interpreters whatever our common Travellers may say who upon their having seen by chance when they passed by two or Porters or others of the like Gang about a Kady quickly dispatching one or other of the parties and sometimes both with some lashes under the sole of their feet or with a Maybalé Baba some mild words when there is no wool to sheer who I say upon sight of this come hither and cry out O the good and short Justice O what honest Judges are those in respect of ours Not considering in the mean time that if one of those wretches that is in the wrong had a couple of Crowns to corrupt the Kady or his Clerks and as much to buy two false witnesses he might either win his process or prolong it as long as he pleased In conclusion to be short I say that the taking away this Propriety of Lands among private men would be infallibly to intoduce at the same time Tyranny Slavery Injustice Beggery Barbarism Desolation and to open a high way for the ruine and destruction of Mankind and even of Kings and States Aud that on the contrary this Meum and Tuum accompanied with the hopes that every one shall keep what he works and labours for for himself and his Children as his own is the main foundation of whatever is regular and good in the World Insomuch that whosoever shall cast his eyes upon the different Countries and Kingdoms and taketh good notice of what follows upon this Propriety of Sovereigns or that of the People will soon find the true source and chief cause of that great difference we see in the several States and Empires of the world and avow that this is in a manner that which changes and diversifieth the Face of the whole Earth FINIS THe Relation of a Voyage into Mauritania in Africk by Roland Frejus of Marseilles by the French King's Order 1666. To Muley Arxid King of Tafiletta c. For the establishment of a Commerce in the Kingdom of Fez and all his other Conquests With a Letter in Answer to divers curious Questions concerning the Religion Manners and Customs of his Countries Also their Trading to Tombutum for Gold and divers other Particulars by one who lived five and twenty years in the Kingdom of Sus and Morocco Printed at Paris 1670. Englished 1671. 8 Price 1 s 6 d. Sold by M. Pitt at the Angel near the Little North-Door of St Paul A Roupy is about half a Crown So that the six Kourours would make about seven Millions and an half English Money

there to be sold and to buy for the money a quantity of Indian Stuffs and so to return without paying likewise any Impost at all But as to the Ethiopian Embassy that deserves to be otherwise taken notice of the King of Ethiopia having received the news of the Revolution of the Indies had a design to spread his Name in those parts and there to make known his Grandeur and Magnificence by a splendid Embassy or as malice will have it or rather as the very truth is to reap some advantage by a present as well as the rest Behold therefore this great Embassy He chose for his Ambassadors two persons that one would think were the most considerable in his Court and the most capable to make such a design prosper And who were they the one was a Mahumetan Merchant whom I had seen some years ago at Moka when I passed there coming out of Egypt over the Red-Sea where he was to sell some Slaves for that Prince and to buy of the money raised thence some Indian Commodities And this is the fine Trade of that Great Christian King of Africa The other was a Christian Merchant of Armenia born and married in Aleppo known in Ethiopia by the name of Murat I had seen him also at Moka where he had accomodated me with the half of his Chamber and assisted me with very good advice whereof I have spoken in the beginning of this History as a thing taking me off from passing into Ethiopia according to my first design He also came every year to that place in that Kings Name for the same end that the Mahumetan did and brought the Present which the King made every year to the Gentlemen of the English and Dutch Company of the East-Indies and carried away theirs Now the King of Ethiopia sutably to his design and the desire he had of making his Ambassadors appear with great splendour put himself to great expences for this Embassie He gave them thirty two young Slaves of both Sexes to sell them at Moka and thence to make a sum of Money to bear their Charges A wonderful largess Slaves are commonly sold there for twenty five or thirty Crowns a piece one with another A considerable sum Besides he gave them for a Present to the Great Mogol five and twenty choice Slaves among which there were nine or ten very young proper to make Eunuchs of A very worthy Present for a King and he a Christian to a Mahumetan Prince It seems the Christianity of the Ethiopians is very different from ours He added to that Present twelve Horses esteem'd as much as those of Arabia and a kind of little Mule of which I saw the Skin which was a very great Rarity there being no Tyger so handsomely speckled nor Silken Stuff of India so finely so variously and so orderly streaked as that was Moreover there were for a part of the Present two Elephants Teeth so prodigious that they assured it was all that a very able-bodied man could do to lift up one of them from the ground Lastly an Horn of an Oxe full of Civett and so big that the aperture of it being measur'd by me when it came to Dehli it had a Diameter of half a Foot and somewhat better All things being thus prepared the Ambassadors depart from Gondez the Capital of Ethiopia situated in the Province of Dambea and came through a very troublesome Countrey to Beiloul which is a dispeopled Sea-Port over against Moka nigh to Babel-mandel not daring to come for reasons elswhere to be alledged the ordinary way of the Caravans which is made with ease in forty dayes to Arkiko and thence to pass to the Isle of Masoua During their stay at Beiloul and expecting a Bark of Moka to waft over the Red Sea there died some of their Slaves because the Vessel tarried and they found not in that place those refreshments that were necessary for them When they came to Moka they soon sold their Merchandise to raise a stock of Money according to order But they had this ill luck that that year the Slaves were very cheap because the Market was glutted by many other Merchants yet they raised a sum to pursue their Voyage They embark'd upon an Indian Vessel to pass to Suratte Their passage was pretty good they were not above five and twenty daies at Sea but whether it was that they had made no good provision for want of stock or what else the cause might be many of their Slaves and Horses as also the Mule whereof they saved the Skin died They were no sooner arrived at Suratte but a certain Rebel of Visapour called Seva-Gi came and ranscked and burned the Town and in it their house so that they could save nothing but their Letters some Slaves that were sick or which Seva-Gi could not light on their Ethiopian Habits which he cared not for and the Mules Skin and the Oxes Horn which was already emptied of the Civett They did very much exaggerate their misfortune but those malicious Indians that had seen them arrive in such a wretched condition without provisions without habits without money or Bills of Exchange said that they were very happy and should reckon the Plunder of Suratte for a piece of their best Fortune forasmuch as Seva-Gi had saved them the labour of bringing their miserable Present to Dehli and had furnisht them with a very specious pretence for their beggarly condition and for the sale they had made of their Civet and of some of their Slaves and for demanding of the Governour of Suratte provisions for their subsistance as also some Money and Chariots to continue their voyage to Dehli Monsieur Adrican chief of the Dutch Factory my friend had given to the Armenian Murat a Letter of recommendation to me which he deliver'd himself at Dehli not remembring that I had been his Host at Moka It was a very pleasant meeting when we came to know one another after the space of five or six years I embraced him affectionately and promised him that I would serve him in whatever I could but that though I had acquaintance at the Court it was impossible for me to do them any considerable good office there For since they had not brought with them any valuable Present but only the Mules Skin and the empty Oxes Horn and that they were seen going upon the streets without any Paleky or Horses save that of our Father Missionary and mine which they had almost killed cloathed like Beggars and followed with seven or eight Slaves bare-headed and bare-foot having nothing but an ugly Sharse tyed between their Legs with a ragged Cloth over their left Shoulder passing under their left Arm like a Summer-Cloak since I said they were in such a posture whatever I could say for them was insignificant they were taken for Beggars and no body took other notice of them Yet notwithstanding I said so much of the Grandeur of their King to my Agah Danechmendkan

who had cause to hearken to me as managing all forreign affairs there that Aureng-Zebe gave them Audience received their Letters presented them each with an embroider'd Vest a silken embroider'd Girdle and a Turbant of the same gave order for their entertainment and dispatched them in a little time and that with more honour than there was ground to expect For in dismissing them he presented them each with an other such Vest and with 6000 Rupies for them all which amounteth to about 3000 Crowns of which the Mahumetan had four thousand and Murat because a Christian but two thousand He also gave them for a Present to their Master a very rich Ser-apah or Vest two great silver and guilt Trumpets two silver Tymbals a Poynard cover'd with Jewels and the value of about twenty thousand Francs in Golden and Silver Rupies to let their King see Money coyned as a Rarity he had not in his Countrey But Aureng-Zebe knew very well that these Rupies would not go out of the Kingdom and that they were like to buy commodities for them And it fell out so for they laid them out partly in fine Cotton Cloth to make shirts of for their King Queen and their only lawful Son that is to be the Successor partly in filken stuffs streaked with Gold or Silver to make Vests and Summer-Drawers of partly in English Scarlet to make two Arabian Vests of for their King also and lastly in Spices and in store of courser Cloth for divers Ladies of his Seraglio and for the children he had by them all without paying any duty For all my friendship with Murat there were three things that made me almost repent to have served them The first because Murat having promised me to leave with me for 50 Rupies a little Son of his that was very pretty of a delicate Black and without such a swelled Nose or such thick Lips as commonly the Ethiopians have broke his word with me and let me know that he should take no less for him than 300 Rupies For all this I had thoughts of Buying him for rarities sake and that I might say a Father had sold me his Son The second because I found that Murat as well as the Mahumetan had obliged themselves to Aureng-Zebe that they would employ their interest with their King that he might permit in Ethiopia to rebuild an old Mosquee ruined in the time of the Portugals and which had been Built for a Tomb of a great Dervich which went from Mecha into Ethiopia for the propagation of Mahumetanism and there made great progress They received of Aureng-Zebe two thousand Rupies for this engagement This Mosquee had been pulled down by the Portugals when they came with their succors into Ethiopia which the then King who turn'd Catholick had asked of them against a Mahumetan Prince Invading his Kingdom The third because they desired Aureng-Zebe in the name of their King to give them an Alcoran and eight other Books which I well remember were of the most reputed in the Mahumetan Religion Which proceeding seemed to me very unworthy of a Christian Embassadour and Christian King and confirmed to me what I had been told at Moka that the Christianity of Ethiopia must needs be some odd thing that it savours much of Mahumetanisme and that the Mahumetans increase exceedingly in that Empire especially since the Portugals that came in there for the reason lately expressed were either killed upon the death of the King by the Cabal of the Queen Mother or expelled together with the Patriarch Jesuite whom they had brought along from Goa During the time that the Ambassadors were at Dehli my Agah who is more than ordinary curious made them often come to him when I was present to inform himself of the State and Government of their Country and principally to learn something of the source of the Nile which they call Ababile of which they discoursed to us as a thing so well known that no body doubted of it Murat himself and a Mogol who was returned out of Ethiopia with him had been there and told us very near the same particulars with those I had received of it at Moka viz. That the Nile had its Origine in the Country of Agaus that it issued out of the Earth by two Springs bubling up near to one another which did form a little Lake of about thirty or forty paces long that coming out of this Lake it did make a considerable River and that from space to space it received small Rivers increasing it They added that it went on circling and making as 't were a great Isle and that afterwards it tumbled down from steep Rocks into a great Lake in which there were divers fruitfuls Isles store of Crocodiles and which would be remarkable enough if true abundance of Sea-calves that have no other vent for their Excrements than that by which they take in their food this Lake being in the Country of Dambea three small daies journey from Gondar and four or five dayes journey from the source of the Nile And lastly that this River did break out of this Lake being augmented with many River-waters and with several Torrents falling into it especially in the Rainy Season which do regularly begin there as in the Indies about July which is very considerable and convincing for the inundation of the Nile and so runs away through Sonnar the capital City of the King of Fungi Tributary to the King of Ethiopia and from thence passeth to the Plains of Mesre which is Egypt The Ambassadors were not wanting to say more than was liked on the subject of their Kings Greatness and of the strength of his Army but the Mogolian did not over-much agree with them in it and in their absence represented to us this Army which he had seen twice in the field with the Ethiopian King on the head of it as the most wretched thing in the World They also related to us divers particulars of that Country which I have put in my Journal one day perhaps to be digested and copied In the mean time I shall insert here three or four things which Murat told me because I esteem them very extravagant for a Christian Kingdom He said then that there were few men in Ethiopia who besides their lawful Wife had not many others and himself owned that he had two without reckoning her which he had left at Aleppo That the Ethiopian Women did not so hide themselves as they do in the Indies among the Mahumetans nor even as among the Gentils That those of the meaner sort of People Maids or Married Women Slaves or Free were often together pell-mell night and day in the same Chamber without those jealousies so common in other Countries That the Women of Lords did not stick much to go into the House of a simple Cavalier whom they knew to be a man of Execution That if I had gone into Ethiopia they would soon have obliged me to