the fire made men beleeue that they which would not cause their children to passe through the fire should lose them and easily perswaded them thereunto as a thing easie saith the Rabine for they did not burne them although herein both diuine and humane testimonies make me beleeue the contrarie From hence saith hee descended the customes obserued by women in holding and mouing their children ouer the fire or smoke They had their diuersities of Processions and when they hallowed a tree to an Image one part of the fruit thereof was offered and the other eaten in the house of the Idoll the like they did with the first fruits of euery tree making men beleeue that otherwise the tree would become vnprofitable They had their magicall enchantments in the planting or grafting of trees with obseruations of the starres incenses words but this most Diabolicall that in the houre when one kinde was to be ingrafted into another the science which was to bee ingrafted should bee holden in the hand of some beautifull woman and that some man should then carnally but vnnaturally haue knowledge of her the woman in that instant putting the science into the tree They vsed also to make circles when they planted or sowed and went about the same some fiue times because of the fiue planets some seuen in regard of the Sunne and Moone added to that number For this cause the Iew not vnprobably thinketh that mixtures in garments seedes and the like were forbidden by the Law of Moses with other rites any way resembling these They further worshipped Deuils beleeuing that they appeared to men in the formes of Goates and therefore called their Deuils Kids and held it vnlawfull to sheare or to eate their kids but especially they abhorred the killing of Kine but performed much worship to them as they also doe in India to this day They sacrificed Lyons Beares and wilde Beasts as is mentioned in the Booke Zeuzit They held bloud in much abomination accounting it a great pollution and yet did eat it because they said it was the food of Deuils and they which did eat it should haue communion with them and that they would come to such and reueale vnto them things to come Some whose nicer stomackes could not indure to eate it receiued the same when they killed a beast in a Vessell or in a ditch and did eate the flesh of that Sacrifice being placed about that bloud thinking that the Deuils did eate the bloud and that thus by this as it were eating at the same table was entertained betwixt them and the Deuils mutuall familiaritie and societie They beleeued also that in their sleepes the Deuils came and reuealed secrets vnto them Concerning a menstruous woman their custome was that shee should sit alone in a house and that the places where shee set her feet should be burned whosoeuer talked with her was vncleane yea if he but stood in the wind of her the wind from her did pollute him Likewise these Zabians thought whatsoeuer went from their bodies was vncleane as nailes haire bloud and therefore Barbers and Surgeons were holden polluted and after cutting off their haire vsed much washing for expiation But it needeth some expiation that I insist so long in these narrations and haue need of some Barber or Surgeon to ease me of superfluities if that can be superfluous which fitteth so to our proiect and in the iudgement of the learnedst of the Iewish Rabbines in many ages seemed the cause of so many prohibitions in Moses his Law lest they should conforme themselues in religious obseruances to these superstitious Zabians But let vs now returne to Diodorus who affirmeth that the Chaldaeans numbred fortie three thousand yeeres vntill the comming of Alexander since first they had begunne their obseruations of the Starres These yeeres Xenophon de aequiuocis interpreteth of moneths for so sayth he the Chaldaeans reckoned their antiquities in other things they kept their computation according to the Sunne But of their fabulous antiquities wee haue heard before where wee haue also touched that one beginning of Idolatrie did arise of this curious and superstitious Starre-gazing especially in the Countries of Aegypt where not at all vsually and in Chaldaea where diuers moneths together they haue neither raines nor cloudes Strabo diuideth the Chaldaeans into sects Orcheni Borsippeni and others diuersly opinionate of the same things Borsippa was a Citie sacred to Diana and Apollo Plinie addeth the Hippareni Daniel reckoneth vp foure kind of Wise-men among the Chaldaeans the first are called Chartummim which were Enchanters Ashaphim Astrologers Mecashpim Sorcerers or Iuglers deluders of sense and Chasdim Chaldaeans which howsoeuer it were a generall name of that Nation yet was it appropriated vnto a certaine sect and profession of learning among them which seemed to excell the rest and were their Priests Philosophers and Mathematicians as you haue heard In the seuen and twentieth verse of the same chapter are mentioned also Cachimim Wisards which by coniectures and casting of lots did ghesse of things to come and Gazrin of the word gazar to cut these opened and diuined by the entrals of sacrifices The vanitie of their diuinations appeareth in that Prophet howsoeuer they haue beene renowned therefore among the Heathens as in the foretelling of Alexanders death and before that when Darius had changed his Scaberd into the Greeke fashion the ruine of that Empire by the Greeks When Faustina the Empresse wife to M. Antonius had fallen in loue with a Fencer or sword-player and being sicke confessed the same to her husband the Chaldaeans were sent for who gaue counsell to kill the Fencer and that shee should wash her selfe in his bloud and then accompanie with her Husband which was done and Commodus begotten who in qualities resembled that Fencer vpon this occasion as the people reported though others esteemed him a Bastard Plutarch sheweth how vainely the Romans depended on their predictions Thus Iuvenal reproues them Chaldaeis sed maior erit fiducia quicquid Dixerit Astrologus credent à fonte relatum Ammonis Ioues Oracles no greater credit haue Then sooth-saying of Chaldaee coozening knaue Many Edicts were after made against them Otho Heurnius laboureth to bring the Grecian Philosophie from the Chaldaeans yea Aristotle himselfe as hee had receiued the the Persian and Indian Philosophie by tradition of Pythagoras and Democritus and the Aegyptian and Iewish learning from Plato so was hee instructed sayth hee in the Babylonian sciences by Callisthenes But Caelius Rhodiginus and Iosephus Scaliger thinke them rather corrupters of learning whereof they had no solid knowledge and that the Greekes attained thereunto by their owne industrie without borrowing of the Chaldaeans Peucer deemeth them too Philosophicall the peruerters of Religion into Theoricall speculations of Nature and confuteth their fiue kinds of prognosticating But their estimation could not haue beene such in Daniels time if they had not beene
in his Image Male and Female created hee them And he called their name ADAM yet after this is mention of Adams solitarinesse and forming of Eue out of his side that is cutting the female part from the Male and so fitting them to generation Thus doth Leo Hebraus reconcile the Fable of Platoes Androgynus with Moses narration out of which he thinketh it borrowed For as hee telleth that Iupiter in the first forming of mankinde made them such Androgyni with two bodies of two sexes ioyned in the brest diuided for their pride the nauill still remaining as a skarre of the wound then made so with little difference is this their interpretation of Moses §. III. Of the Iewesses Conception and Trauell and of Lilith WHen a Iewish woman is great with Childe and neare her time her chamber is furnished with necessaries and then some holy and deuout man if any such may bee had with Chalke maketh a circular line round in the chamber vpon all the walls and writeth on the doore and within and without on euery wall and about the bed in Hebrew Letters Adam Chaua Chuts Lilith or after the Iewish pronuntiation Lilis that is Adam Eue away hence Lilis Hereby they signifie their desire that if a woman shall bee deliuered of a sonne GOD may one day giue him a wife like to Eue and not a shrew like Lilis This word Lilis is read in the Prophet interpreted a Skritch-Owle but the Iewes seeme to meane by it a diuellish Spectrum in womans shape that vseth to slay or carry away Children which are on the eight day to be Circumcised Elias Leuita writeth that hee hath read that a hundred and twentie yeeres Adam contained himselfe from his wife Eue and in that space there came to him Diuels which conceiued of him whence were ingendred Diuels and Spirits Fairies and Goblins and there were foure mothers or dammes of Diuels Lilith Naemah Ogereth and Machalath Thus is it read in Ben Sira when GOD had made Adam and saw it was not good for him to bee alone hee made him a woman of the earth like vnto him and called her Lilis These disagreed for superioritie not suffering Caesarue priorem Pompeiusue parem Lilis made of the same mould would not be vnderling and Adam would not endure her his equall Lilis seeing no hope of agreement vttered that sacred word IEHOVA with the Cabalisticall interpretation thereof and presently did flie into the Ayre Adam playning his case GOD sent three Angels after her viz. Senoi Sensenoi Sanmangeleph either to bring her backe or to denounce vnto her That a hundred of her Children should dye in a day These ouertooke her ouer the troublesome Sea where one day the Aegyptians should bee drowned and did their message to her shee refusing to obey they threatned her drowning but she besought them to let her alone because shee was created to vexe and kill children on the eight day if they were men if women children on the twentieth day They neuerthelesse forcing her to goe Lilis sware to them That whensoeuer she should finde the name or figure of those Angels written or painted on Schedule Parchment or any thing shee would doe Infants no harme and that she would not refuse that punishment to lose a hundred children in a day And accordingly a hundred of her children or young Diuels dyed in a day And for this cause doe they write these names on a Scroll of Parchment and hang them on their Infants neckes Thus farre Ben Sira In their Chambers alwayes is found such a scroll or painting and the names of the Angels of Health this office they ascribe to them are written ouer the chamber doore In their Booke Brandspiegel Printed at Cracouia 1597. is shewed the authoritie of this Historie collected by their Wise-men out of those words Male and Female created hee them compared with the forming of Eue of a Rib in the next Chapter saying That Lilis the former was diuorced from Adam for her pride which shee conceiued because she was made of earth as well as hee and GOD gaue him another Flesh of his flesh And concerning her R. Moses tels that Samael the Diuell came riding vpon a Serpent which was as bigge as a Camell and cast water vpon her and deceiued her When this Iewesse is in trauell shee must not send for a Christian Mid-wife except no Iewish can bee gotten and then the Iewish women must be very thick about her for feare of negligence or iniurie And if she be happily deliuered of a sonne there is exceeding ioy through all the house and the father presently makes festiuall prouision against the Circumcision on the eight day In the meane time ten persons are inuited neither more nor fewer which are all past thirteene yeeres of age The night after her deliuerie seuen of the inuited parties and some others sometimes meet at the Child-house and make there great cheere and sport all night Dicing Drinking Fabling so to solace the Mother that shee should not grieue too much for the childs Circumcision §. IIII. Of the Iewish manner of Circumcision THe Circumciser is called Mohel who must bee a Iew and a Man and well exercised in that facultie and hee that will performe this office at the beginning giueth money to some poore Iew to be admitted hereunto in his children that after his better experience hee may be vsed of the richer And this Mohel may thence-forwards bee knowne by his thumbes on which he weareth the nayles long and sharpe and narrow-pointed The circumcising Instruments is of stone glasse yron or any matter that will cut commonly sharpe kniues like Rasors amongst the rich Iewes closed in siluer and set with stones Before the Infant be Circumcised he must be washed and wrapped in clouts that in the time of the Circumcision hee may lie cleane for otherwise they might vse no prayers ouer him And if in the time of Circumcision for paine he defileth himselfe the Mohels must suspend his praying till he be washed laid cleane again This is performed commonly in the morning while the child is fasting to preuent much fluxe of bloud In the morning therefore of the eight day all things are made readie First are two seates placed or one so framed that two may sit in the same apart adorned costly with Carpets and that either in the Synagogue or some priuate Parlour If it bee in the Synagogue then the seat is placed neere the holy Arke or Chest where the Booke of the Law is kept Then comes the suretie or God-father for the child and placeth himselfe at the said seat and neere him the Mohel or Circumciser Other Iewes follow them one of which cryeth with a loud voyce That they should bring presently whatsoeuer is needfull for this businesse Then come other Children whereof one bringeth a great Torch in which are lighted twelue waxe Candles to represent the twelue Tribes of Israel after him two
the barke like hard beame six or seuen yards high with ragged boughs with the leafe like that of the Bay-tree white on the bottome greene on the other side It beareth nor flower nor fruit situate in the dectiuitie of a Hill withered in the day dropping in the night a cloud hanging thereon yeelding water sufficient for the whole Iland which he saith if report deceiued him not Sir Edward Skory heard of many fewer 8000 soules and aboue 100000 beasts It fals into a Pond made of Bricke floored thicke with stone by pipes of lead conuayed from the tree thither and thence diuided into diuers Ponds thorow the Iland fetched vp hill by barrels The Pond holds 20000 tunnes and is filled in a night Thus he related to me Hierro and Gomera and Lancarato are in the hands of priuate men Madera standeth in two and thirty degrees it is the greatest of all the Atlantike Iles. It was discouered by one Matham an English man who arriued there by tempest Anno. 1344 together with a Woman whom he there buried and on her Tombe did write his comming and the cause thereof with his and her names and was occasion to the King of Spaine to discouer that and the Canaries It was called Madera of the wildernesses of Trees there growing Heere is a Citie called Fouchal The I le containeth in compasse a hundred and forty miles The woods which gaue name to the Iland were fiered and burnt so furiously that the people for a time were forced to go some space into the Sea from the violent heat which caused such fatnesse to the soyle that at first it yeelded threescore fold since halfe so much The excellent Wines were of Vines first brought from Candie They bring foorth more grapes saith he than leaues and Clusters of two three and foure spans long At first the Pigeons suffered themselues to be taken not knowing and therefore not fearing a man Forty miles from the I le of Madera is the I le of Puerto or Porto Santo called of all Saints day in which it was first discouered Anno 1428. It was taken by Sir Amias Preston 1596. Heere are such store of Conies bred of one shee-Cony brought hither great with yong that the Ilanders were out of hope almost to withstand and amend their damages by them sustained A little Iland neere to this breedeth nothing else And now we can accompany our Portugals no further But before I left these Ilands I thought fit to feast you with some obseruations of an eye-witnesse elegant spectator and learned Gentleman Sir Edmund Scory §. III. Extracts taken out of the Obseruations of the Right Worshipfull Sir Edmund Scory Knight of the Pike of Tenariffe and other rarities which hee obserued there TEneriffe is the pleasantest of the Canary Ilands This Iland hath beene called Niuaria by reason of the Snow which like a Collar enuironeth the necke of the Pike of Teyda The name of Tenariffe was imposed by the inhabitants of the Palme Iland for Tener in the Palmesian language signifies Snow and Iffe an Hill It is situate in the Atlanticke Ocean fourescore leagues from the Coast of Affricke It is in forme triangular extending it selfe into three Capes and stands within eight and twenty degrees of the equinoctiall The great mountaine of Teyda commonly called the Pike of Tenariffe is a Mountaine which begets I know not whether a greater attention when you come to it or when you behold from a farre off but in both very great The Base of it beginneth at the Port-towne of Gara-chico from whence it is two dayes iourney and a halfe to the top of it The point of which though it seeme as sharpe as a Sugar-loafe which figure of all other it doth most resemble yet is there a flat of an acre in breadth on the top of it in the midst of that flat a gulph out of which great stones are with like noise fire and smoke many times cast forth Seuen leagues off this way may bee trauelled vpon Asses or Mules the rest on foot and with great difficultie All the Countries lying about the ascent of the Hill for ten miles vpwards are ouer-growne or rather adorned with the goodliest trees in the world of diuers sorts by reason of the multitude of Springs which intermingling one with another and with the addition of the violent winter Raines descend in huge torrents downe into the Sea In the midst of this hill is the cold intolerable in the top the heat and so likewise in the bottome Through all the cold Region you must cast your iourny to trauel on the South side and in the day time through all the hot Region which is within two leagues of the top on the North side and in the night time Euery man carrieth his owne portion of victuals and Borrachocs of Wine Your time of approach to the top must bee about Midsommer for the auoiding of the torrents caused by the snowes and about two of the clocke in the morning and so you may abide there vntill sun-rising but no longer The Sun being exalted aboue the Horizon of the Ocean seemeth far lesse then when you are on the lower ground and seemes to whirle it selfe about in manner of a Gyre The streame that commeth out of the East a little before his rising can be compared to nothing more properly then to the breath of an hot Ouen and so commeth on his course through an vnclouded Heauen being of a pure blue Christalline colour without the least spot in it When you are on the top of this Hill all the Iland lyeth subiected like a plaine and leuell plot of ground vnder you although there are in this Iland not so few as twenty thousand sharpe deformed and vneuen Rockes and all the edges of that plaine ground seemeth to bee lifted or fringed with Snow which indeed is nothing else but the white Cloudes which are many furlongs below you Neere the top of this Mountayne it neuer reigneth neyther was there euer any wind stirring thereupon The same is reported of the Hill Olympus All the vpper part of this Mountayne is afflicted with barrennesse wanting the generatiue benefit of the lower and middle Regions of the Aire for no manner of tree shrub or leafe beautifieth the head thereof but it resteth disgraced with an vnseemely baldnesse out of which towards the South side doe the veines of Brimstone issue downe into the necke thereof where the Region of Snow is among which the Brimstone is interueined in diuers places In the Summer time the fires doe ofter breake forth from out the hole in the top of this Hill into which if you throwe a great stone it soundeth as if a great weight had falne vpon infinite store of hollow Brasse The Spaniards merrily cal it the Deuils Caldron wherein the whole prouision of Hell is boyled But the naturals the Guanches themselues do say that it
with English bodies the ground as fertile as any they say in the World Ambergreece Pearle Cedars and other vnknowne Timbers store of Whales and other Commodities which would bee tedious to rehearse which I hope and pray may further prosper to the profit of this and the Virginia Plantations From hence and thence I am now passing in an English Ship for England where to passe away tediousnesse of the Voyage I will entertayne my Reader with a Discourse of the more then tedious and fastidious Spanish cruelties CHAP. XV. Of the Spanish cruelties in the West Indies and of their peruerse Conuersion of the Indians vnto Christianitie FOr as much as the Papists doe vsually glory in the purchase of a New World vnto their Religion and would haue men beleeue that since this Scripture-Heresie hath made new Rome to tremble now no lesse then Hannibal did her Pagan-mother they haue a new supply with much aduantage in this Westerne World of America and they make this their Indian Conuersion one of the Markes of the truenesse and Catholicisme of their Church which hath gained if Posseuine lye not an hundred times as much in the New World towards the West South and East by new Conuerts as it hath lost in the North parts by Heretickes where through both the Hemispheres saith Hill these thousand yeeres nay as farre as the Sunne shineth there is no tongue nor people nor climate which hath not in some measure such a measure perhaps as he measured his truth and wit withall in this assertion the Catholike Roman Religion I would we could borrow the height of this Hill whereon to stand and ouer-view so many parts of the World yet vnknowne and learne of this Giant Atlas how easily may this Mute become a Liquid which beareth thus the Hemisphere of his Roman Heauen on his mounting shoulders a new Geographie But his impudencie is already sufficiently whipped and exposed to the Worlds derision by Him the neerenesse of whose presence doth now so much glad me after so long and farre a Pilgrimage His learned Pen hath shewed the like bold brags of Bristow and Stapleton his Masters and prooued them Fables For further confutation whereof it shall not be amisse to obserue the proceedings of the Spaniards in these parts And herein we will vse the witnesse of men of their owne Romish Religion Iosephus Acosta a Iesuite writeth that the Indians conceiue an implacable hatred against the Faith by the scandall of the Spaniards cruelties and that they haue baptized some by force Vega accuseth them of baptizing without making them know the faith or taking knowledge of their life And how could it otherwise be when we find it recorded of sundry of their Preachers that baptized each one of them aboue an hundred thousand and that in few yeeres In so much that as is storied by Surius it is to be found among the Records of Charles the fift that some old Priest hath baptized seuen hundred thousand another three hundred thousand Some of these were so good Christians that they still continued as Nunno de Guzman writeth to the Emperour the Sacrifices of humane flesh Ouiedo writeth that they haue but the name of Christians and are baptized rather because they are of age then for deuotion to the faith and none or very few of them are Christians willingly He that will read what they lately haue done in Spaine with the remnants of the Moores may perhaps satisfie himselfe with the reasons of Frier Fonseca in defence thereof But for the poore Indians Bartholomaeus de las Casas a Dominike Frier of the same Order with Fonseca and after a Bishop in America hath written a large and vnanswerable Treatise of the enormous cruelties and vnchristian Antichristian proceedings in the New World the summe whereof is this That the Indians were a simple harmelesse people loyall to their Lords and such as gaue no cause to the Spaniards of dislike till they by extreame iniuries were prouoked they are also docible and pliant both to good doctrine and liuing To these Lambes sayth he the Spaniards came as cruell and hungry Tygres Beares and Lions intending nothing those forty yeeres hee wrote this Anno 1542. but bloud and slaughter to satisfie their Auarice and Ambition insomuch that of three Millions of people which were contayned in Hispaniola of the Naturall Inhabitants there scarce remayned at that time three hundred and now as Alexandro Vrsino reporteth none at all onely two and twenty thousand Negros and some Spaniards reside there Cuba and the other Ilands had indured the like miserie and in the firme Land ten Kingdomes greater then all Spaine were dispeopled and desolate and in that space there had not perished lesse then twelue Millions by their tyrannie and he might truly say that fifty Millions had payed Natures debt In the Iland Hispaniola the Spaniard had their first Indian habitations where their cruelties draue the Indians to their shifts and to their weake defence which caused those enraged Lions to spare neyther man woman nor childe they ripped vp the great bellied women and would lay wagers who could with most dexteritie strike off an Indians head or smite him asunder in the middle they would plucke the Infants by the heeles from their Mothers brests and dash out their braines against the stones or with a scoffe hurle them into the Riuer They set vp Gibbets and in honour of Christ and his twelue Apostles as they said and could the Deuill say worse they would both hang and burne them Others they tooke and cutting their hands almost off bid them carry those Letters their hands dropping bloud and almost dropping off themselues to their Countrimen which for feare of the like lay hidden in the Mountaines The Nobles and Commanders they broyled on Gridions I once sayth our Author saw foure or fiue of the chiefe of them thus roasted which making a lamentable noyse the nicer Captaine bade they should be strangled but the cruell Tormentor chose rather to stop their mouthes so to preuent their out-cryes and to continue their broyling till they were dead They had Dogs to hunt them out of their couerts which deuoured the poore soules and because sometimes the Indians thus prouoked would kill a Spaniard if they found opportunitie they made a Law that a hundred of them should for one Spaniard be slaine The King of Magua offered to till the ground for them fifty miles space if they would spare him and his people from the Mynes The Captaine in recompence deflowred his Wife and hee hiding himselfe was taken and sent into Spaine but the ship perished in the way and therein that admirable graine of Gold which weighed in the first finding being pure so many thousand Crownes as in the first Chapter of the eight Booke is mentioned In the Kingdome of Xaraqua in Hispaniola the Gouernour called before him three hundred Indian Lords which he partly burned in a House and
a line thence drawne to the Caspian Sea and that Isthmus which is betwixt that and the Pontike Sea secondly the great Chams Countrey from thence to the Easterne Sea betwixt the frozen Sea and the Caspian thirdly That which is subiect to the Turke all from Sarmatia and Tartaria Southwards betweene Tygris and the Mediterranean Sea fourthly The Persian Kingdome betweene the Turke Tartar India and the Red Sea fiftly India within and beyond Ganges from Indus to Cantan sixtly The Kingdome of China seuenthly The Islands These diuisions are not so exact as may be wished because of that variety vncertainty in those Kingdomes Many things doth Asia yeeld not elsewhere to be had Myrrhe Frankincense Cinamon Cloues Nutmegs Mace Pepper Muske and other like besides the chiefest Iewels It hath also Minerals of all sorts It nourisheth Elephants Camels and many other Beasts Serpents Fowles wilde and tame as in the ensuing Discourse in their due places shall appeare yet doth it not nourish such monstrous shapes of men as fabulous Antiquitie fained It brought foorth that Monster of Irreligion Mahumet whose Sect in diuerse Sects it fostereth with long continuance of manifold Superstitions It hath now those great Empires of the Turke Persian Mogore Cathayan Chinois it had sometimes the Parthian and before that the Persian Median Assyrian Scythian and first as it seemeth before them all the Babylonian Empire vnder Nimrod which is therefore in the next place to be spoken of CHAP. X. Of Babylonia the originall of Idolatrie and the Chaldaeans Antiquities before the Floud as BEROSVS hath reported them COnfusion caused diuision of Nations Regions and Religions Of this Confusion whereof is alreadie spoken the Citie and thereof this Countrey tooke the name Plinie maketh it a part of Syria which hee extendeth from hence to Cilicia Strabo addeth as farre as the Pontike Sea But is vsually reckoned an entire Countrey of it selfe which Ptolomey doth thus bound On the North it hath Mesopotamia on the West Arabia Deserta Susiana on the East on the South part of Arabia and the Persian Gulfe Luke maketh Babylonia a part of Mesopotamia Ptolomey more strictly diuideth them whereunto also agreeth the interpretation of the Land of Shinar that it was the lower part of Mesopotamia containing Chaldaea and Babylon lying vnder the Mount Sangara In this Countrey was built the first City which we read of after the Floud by the vngratefull World mooued thereunto as some thinke by Nimrod the sonne of Cush nephew of Cham. For as Caines posteritie before the Floud were called the sonnes of Men as more sauouring the things of men then of God more industrious in humane inuentions then religious deuotions so by Noahs curse it may appeare and by the Nations that descended of him that Cham was the first Author after the Floud of irreligion Neither is it likely that he which derided his old Father whom Age Holinesse Fatherhood Benefits and thrice greatest Function of Monarchy Priesthood and Prophecie should haue taught him to reuerence That he I say which at once could breake all these bonds and chaines of Nature and Humanitie would be held with any bonds of Religion or could haue an eye of Faith to see him which is inuisible hauing put out his eyes of Reason and Ciuilitie Had hee feared God had he reuerenced man had hee made but profession of these things in some hypocriticall shew hee could not so easily haue sitten downe at ease in that Chaire of Scorning whence we read not that euer hee rose by repentance From this Cham came Nimrod The mightie hunter before the Lord not of innocent beasts but of men compelling them to his subiection although Noah and Sem were yet aliue with many other Patriarches As for Noah the fabling Heathen it is like deified him The Berosus of fabling Annius calleth him Father of the gods Heauen Chaos the Soule of the World Ianus his double face might seeme to haue arisen hence of Noahs experience of both Ages before and after the Floud The fable of Saturnus cutting off his Fathers priuities might take beginning of that act for which Cham was cursed Sem is supposed to be that Melchisedech King of Salem the figure of the Lord and the propagator of true Religion although euen in his posteritie it failed in which Abrahams Father as witnesseth Ioshua serued other gods Iaphets pietie causeth vs to perswade our selues good things of him Cham and his posteritie we see the authors of ruine Philo and Methodius so are the two bookes called but falsly tell That in these daies they began to diuine by Starres and to sacrifice their children by Fire which Element Nimrod compelled men to worship and that to leaue a name to posteritie they engraued their names in the brickes wherewith Babel was builded Abraham refusing to communicate with them and good cause for he was not yet borne was cast into their Brick-kill and came out long after from his Mothers wombe without harme Nahor Lot and other his fellowes nine in number saued themselues by flight Others adde that Aram Abrams brother was done to death for refusing to worship the Fire Qui Bauium non odit amet tua carmina Maeui To come to truer and more certaine reports Moses saith That the beginning of Kimrods Kingdome was Babel and Erech and Acad and Calne which three some interpret Edessa Nisibis Callinisum And whereas commonly it is translated in the next words Out of that Land came Ashur and built Niniueh Tremellius and Iunius read it Out of this Land hee Nimrod went into Ashur or Assyria and built Niniue and Rehoboth Calah and Resen But most vsually this is vnderstood of Ashur the sonne of Sem who disclayming Nimrods tyrannie built Niniue which after became the chiefe City of the Assyrian Empire to which Babylon it selfe was subiected not long after Xenophon de Aequiuocis if his authority be current saith That the eldest of the cheife families were called Saturni their Fathers had to name Coelum their wiues Rhea and out of a piller erected by Semiramis to Ninus alleageth this inscription My Father was Iupiter Belus my Grandfather Saturnus Babylonicus my great Grandfather Saturnus Aethiops who was sonne of Saturnus Aegyptius to whom Coelus Phoenix Ogyges was Father Ogyges is interpreted Noah therefore called Phoenix because of his habitation as is thought in Phoenicia not farre from whence in Ierusalem Sem raigned Saturnus Aegyptius may be the name of Cham of whose name Egypt is in Scripture tearmed the land of Cham. Saturnus Aethiops is Cush Nimrod Babylonicus the father of Belus who begat Ninus But this cannot be altogether true For Niniue hath greater antiquitie then Nimrods Nephew howsoeuer the Greeke Histories ascribe this to Ninus and Babylon to his wife Semiramis except we say that by them these two Cities formerly built were enlarged and erected to that magnificence which with the growth of the Assyrian Empire
Messias is come represented that Scepter by the holy Ghost in Iacob promised to Iuda and therefore not only vnder the Kings and Iudges did exercise iudgement but also when there was no King or Iudge in Israel Of their qualitie it is thus written They appointed none said R. Iohanan but men of wisedome stature and of goodly presence and of old age and cunning in exorcismes and vnderstanding the seuenty Tongues that they might not need interpreters Their Stature and comlinesse Rabbi Selomoh saith was required to acquire them reuerence and skill in enchantment to conuince such Wizards There were required the whole number of seuenty and one in determining the going to Warre in adding to a Citie or the reuenues of the Temple or in conuenting the ordinarie Iudges of the Tribes To constitute one of this number they vsed imposition of hands R. Iudas saith of fiue A Wolfe Lyon Beare Leopard and Serpent were to be slaine by the three and twent e. The great Colledge called Sanhedre ghedola consisted of seuenty and one the lesse of three and twenty That odde number aboue seuenty was to supply the roome of Moses which was ouer those first seuenty Hereby Galatinus gathereth that in the Councell that condemned Christ there was the whole number of seuenty and one which is true if Herod had not before disanulled that society The greater Sanhedrin ordained the lesse for those seuenty ordained all the Sessions of Judges which in other Cities and Places ruled the people and to this Court of the seuenty in Ierusalem they were all subiect The place where they sate was called Gazith that is Carued whereof this Court had the name as the Starre-chamber with vs Other Courts or houses of Iudgement they had diuers of the three and twenty One of them sate in the Gate of the Mountaine of the Temple another in the Gate of the Court others in euery Citie And when there was a controuersie it was first brought to that Citie or Towne and so to the rest if occasion required in order to that in the Gate of the Mount after to that in the Court-gate and last to the Gazith Consistory in which they sate from Morning till Night On Sabbaths and solemne dayes they sate on the Wall But when Herod obtained the Scepter he slew Hercanus and his sonne Antigonus which had beene King and Priest and also all of the seede Royall and burnt the Genealogies of their Kings And further to establish his Throne in blood hee killed the Scribes and Doctors of the Law and caused all the Sanhedrin to be done to death Because the Rabbanan they are the words of the Talmud had said according to Deut. 17. From among thy brethren thou shalt set a King ouer thee He slew the Rabbanan or Masters reseruing only Baba the sonne of Bota whose eyes hee after put out And therefore the Sanhedrin perished for as is said fiue or at least after R. Ismal three were necessary to the ordination by the imposition of hands But there were by Herods permission other Iudges instituted to be vnder the King like the former Colledge but had no authority of sentence in waighty and criminall causes and therefore they said to Pilate It is not lawfull for vs to put any man to death as some thinke But others maintaine the contrary Betramus taketh a middle course that the Iewes might examine and condemne but then were to present the condemned party to the Roman Magistrate for execution except in the cause of stoning wherein they tooke more libertie as in the Acts of the Apostles by Stephen and Paules example appeareth After their false sentence pronounced against Christ they were expelled from the Consistory Gazith fortie yeeres before the destruction of the Temple and afterwards by the commaundement of the Romanes were all slaine They being expelled Gazith held their Consistory at Hamith another place in Ierusalem but saith R. Abdimi with the place they lost their power in criminall Iudgements which might not bee giuen but in Gazith So do the Rabbines interpret the words Deut. 17.10 According to the words which they of that place shew thee thou shalt doe They had inferior punishments with the whippe for smaller offences In which the Law had stinted them at forty stripes and they abated one of that number for feare of exceeding as Paul saith Hee had fiue times receiued forty stripes saue one The whippe was of Calues leather as Drusius affirmeth Betramus saith that they had in each City seuen Iudges in money matters whereof three were principall two Leuites and one of the rest from whence the number is said to be but three They had also ten Aediles Taskers or Iudges of the Market one of which was of the Priestly Stocke They had in Ierusalem an vnder-Prouost or Captaine of the Temple In other Cities of their dispersion they had Synagogues and Magistrates as at Alexandria Antiochia Sardis and other Cities where they had obtained priuiledges and immunities That which is spoken of their threefold Consistory consisting eyther of 3. or 23. or 71. Buxtorfius thus relateth that that of 3. was appointed in such habitations which had vnder the number of 120. House-holders and that it behooued alwaies two of the three to agree in their sentence The other of twenty three was in greater Townes or Cities and dealt in greater matters the former in money matters this in criminall and in the Gates of the City and was called the lesse Synedrium The greater was at Ierusalem where the wisest was chosen to bee President of the Councell as successour to Moses Caput Curiae so they called him and Nasi the wisest of the other 70. was adioyned as his Colleague called Ab-beth-din The Father of the Consistory These two sate alone somewhat separate from the rest which made a halfe circle so that these two might see them all The manifold mutations of their State by the Babylonians Persians Macedonians Egyptians Sytians Romans and ciuil wars amongst themselues did both then change the face of Gouernement and haue made it now to vs obscure and vncertaine §. IIII. Of the Iewish Excommunications NOW concerning the Iewish Excommunications Drusius hath obserued that the Iewes had three kinds and degrees of Excommunications Niddui Herem Samatha the first signifieth a Remouing the second Anathema the third the same which the Apostle calleth Maran-atha by the first they are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which is an example Gen. 4.4 excommunicated from the Ecclesiasticall Assemblies Hee which was thus Excommunicated was called Menudde and the denouncers Menuddim There were foure and twenty causes for the which it was inflicted If any died therein without repentance they iudged him worthy of stoning and therfore stoned his coffin whereof they giue example in one Eleazer the sonne of Henoch They might enter the Temple when they were excommunicated but that they might enter the Synagogue is vnlikely Thus they write
Passeouer Pentecost or Whitsuntide the Feast of Tabernacles These were chiefe to which were added the Feast of Trumpets of Expiation and of the Great Congregation To these we may reckon the seuenth yeeres Sabbath and the yeere of Iubilee These Feasts GOD had prescribed to them commanding that in those three principall Feasts euery male as the Iewes interpreted it that were cleane and sound and from twenty yeeres of their age to fiftie should appeare there where the Tabernacle or Temple was with their offerings as one great Parish Deut. 16. hereby to retaine an vnitie in diuine worship and a greater solemnitie with increase of ioy and charitie being better confirmed in that Truth which they here saw to be the same which at home they had learned and also better strengthened against the errors of the Heathen and Idolatrous feasts of Diuels To these were after added vpon occasions by the Church of the Iewes their foure Feasts in memory of their calamities receiued from the Chaldeans their Feast of Lots of Dedication and others as shall follow in their order They began to celebrate their Feasts at Euen so Moses is commanded From Euen to Euen shall yee celebrate your Sabbath imitated in the Christian Euen-songs on holy Euens yet the Christian Sabbath is by some supposed to begin in the morning because Christ did rise at that time As for the causes of Feasts many they are and great That the time it selfe should in the reuolution thereof be a place of Argument to our dulnesse This is the day which the Lord hath made let vs reioyce and be glad in it And what else is a festiuall day but a witnesse of times light of truth life of memory mistresse of life A token of publike thankfulnesse for greatest benefits passed a spurre to the imitation of our Noble Ancestrie the Christian Worthies a visible word to the Ethnicke and ignorant which thus by what we doe may learne what we beleeue a visible heauen to the spirituall man that in festiuall ioyes doth as it were open the vayle and here fides is turned into a vides whiles in the best exercises of Grace he tasteth the first fruits of Glory and with his Te Deums and Halleluiahs begins that blessed Song of the Lamb whiles time it selfe puts on her festiuall attire and acting the passed admonish the present ages teacheth by example quickneth our Faith strengthneth hope inciteth charitie and in this glimpse and dawning is the day-starre to that Sunne of Eternitie when time shall be no longer but the Feast shall last for euerlasting These the true causes of festiuall Times CHAP. V. Of the Festiuall dayes instituted by God in the Law AS they were enioyned to offer a Lambe in the morning and another in the Euening euery day with other Prayers Prayses and Rites so had the SABBATH a double honour in that kinde and was wholly sequestred and sanctified to religious duties Which howsoeuer it was ceremoniall in regard of that seuenth day designed of the Rites therein prescribed of that rigid and strait obseruation exacted of the particular workes prohibited and of the deadly penaltie annexed yet are we to thinke that the Eternall Lord who hath all times in his hand had before this selected some time proper to his seruice which in the abrogation of Ceremonies Legall is in Morall and Christian duety to be obserued to the end of the World euen as from the beginning of the World he had sanctified the seuenth day to himselfe and in the Morall Law giuen not by Moses to the Iewes but by GOD himselfe as to all creotures is the remembrance of that sanctification vrged Friuolous are their reasons who would renue the Iewish Sabbath amongst Christians tying and tyring vs in a more then Iewish seruitude to obserue both the last and first dayes of the weeke as some haue preached and of the Aethiopian Churches is practised Neither can I subscribe to those who are so farre from paying two that they acknowledge not the debt of one vpon diuine right but onely in Ecclesiasticall courtesie and in regard of the Churches meere constitution and haue thereupon obtruded on many other dayes as Religious respects or more then on this which yet the Apostles entituled in name and practice The Lords day with the same spirit whereby they haue equalled traditions to the holy Scriptures Thus Cardinal Tolet alowes on the Lords day iourneying hunting working buying selling Fayres Fencing and other priuate and publike workes by him mentioned and saith a man is tyed to sanctifie the Sabbath but not to sanctifie it well a new kinde of distinction the one is in hearing Masse and ceasing from seruile workes the well-doing it in spirituall contemplations c. Another Cardinall is as fast as he is loose affirming That other holy daies also binde the Conscience euen in cases voide of contempt and scandall as being truely more holy then other daies and a part of diuine worship and not onely in respect of order and politie But to returne to our Iewish Sabbath Plutarch thought that the Sabbath was deriued of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to keepe Reuell-rout as was vsed in their Bacchanals of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is interpreted Bacchus or the sonne of Bacchus as Coelius Rhodiginus sheweth out of Amphithaeus and Mnaseas who is therefore of opinion That Plutarch thought the Iewes on their Sabbaths worshipped Bacchus because they did vse on that day to drinke somewhat more largely a Sabbatizing too much by too many Christians imitated which celebrate the same rather as a day of Bacchus then the Lords day Bacchus his Priests were called Sabbi of this their reuelling and misse-rule Such wide coniectures we finde in others whereas the Hebrewes call it Sabbath of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth To rest because of their vacation to Diuine Offices and not for idlenesse or worse imployments And for this cause all the festiuall solemnities in the Scripture are stiled with this generall title and appellation as times of rest from their wonted bodily seruices Likewise their seuenth yeere was Sabbathicall because of the rest from the labors of Tyllage In those feasts also which consisted of many daies solemnitie the first and last were Sabbaths in regard of the strictnesse of those daies rest Luke hath an obscure place which hath much troubled Interpreters with the difficulty thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our English reades it The second Sabbath after the first Isidore saith it was so called of the Pascha and Azyma comming together Chrysostome thinkes as Sigonius cytes him it was when the New-Moone fell on the Sabbath and made a double Festiuall Sigonius when they kept their Passeouer in the second Moneth Stella takes it for Manipulus frugum alledging Iosephus his Author Ambrose for the Sabbath next after the first day of the Easter Solemnitie Hospinian for the Octaues or last
day of the same Maldonatus for the Feast day of Pentecost which was the second of the chiefe Feasts But Ioseph Scaliger saith That the second day of the Feast was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the sixteenth day of the Moneth called Manipulus frugum and the Sabbaths which fell betwixt that and Pentecost receiued their denomination in order from the same Secundo-primum Secundo-secundum c. And hence doth Luke call that first Sabbath which fell after that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second day of the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this we shall haue occasion to say more when we come to the Samaritans The name Sabbath is also taken for the whole weeke But I list not to stand on the diuers significations of the Word Iosephus and Plinie tell of a Riuer in Syria in the kingdome of Agrippa called Sabbaticus which on other daies ran full and swift on the Sabbath rested from his course Petrus Galatinus alledgeth the ceasing of the Sabbaticall streame for an argument of the abrogation of the Iewish Sabbath The Iewes were superstitiously strict in the obseruation of their Sabbath Ptolomey without resistance captiuating their Citie and themselues by this aduantage as did Pompey afterwards And in the dayes of Matathias father of Iudas Maccabeus a thousand were murthered without resistance till that by him they were better aduised Which appeared by the Pharises that cauelled at the plucking and rubbing of a few eares of Corne by the hungrie Disciples and at their Master for healing on that day though by his Word which their superstition the Iew that fell into a Priuie at Maidenbourg An. 1270. on his Sabbath and another at Tewksburie 1220. and were the one by the Bishop of the place the other by the Earle of Glocester constrained to abide the Christian Sabbath whence on their owne they would not be freed testified to the world by a stinking penance and the later leauing also his stinking superstitious soule behinde to seale his deuotion They added of their owne fasting that day till noone their Sabbath daies iourney which was saith Saint Ierome by the institution of Barachibas Simeon and Hellis Rabbines not aboue two thousand paces or two miles Thus did this holy ordinance which GOD had instituted for the refreshing of their bodies the instruction of their Soules and as a type of eternall happines vanish into a smoky superstition amongst them The Sacrifices and accustomed rites of the Sabbath are mentioned Num. 28 Leu. 23. 24. Where we may reade that the daily burnt-offering and meate-offering and drinke-offering were doubled on the Sabbath and the Shew-bread renued c. The sanctification of daies and times being a token of that thankefulnesse and a part of that publike honor which we owe vnto GOD he did not onely enioyne by way of perpetuall homage the sanctification of one day in seuen which GODS immutable Law doth exact for euer but did require also some other part of time with as strict exaction but for lesse continuance besides accepting that which being left arbitrarie to the Church was by it consecrated voluntarily vnto like religious vses Of the first of these the Sabbath we haue spoken of the Mosaicall Feasts the New-Moones are next to be considered The institution hereof we reade Numb 28. and the solemne Sacrifice therein appointed so to glorifie GOD the Author of Time and Light which the darkened conceites of the Heathens ascribed to the Planets and bodies Coelestiall calling the Moneths by their names Besides their Sacrifices they banquetted on this day as appeareth by Dauid and Saul where the day after was festiuall also eyther so to spend the surplusage of the former daies sumptuous Sacrifice or for a further pretext of Religion and Zeale as Martyr hath noted Sigonias maketh these New-Moone daies to bee profestos that is such wherein they might labor the Sacrificing times excepted but those couetous penny-fathers seeme of another minde When say they will the New-moone be gone that we may sell Corne and the Sabbath that we may sell Wheate And Esay 1. the Sabbaths and New-moones are reckoned together Their PASSEOVER called of them Pasach so called of the Angels passing ouer the Israelites in the common destruction of the Aegyptian first-borne For Pasach the Grecians as some note vse Pascha of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer fitly in regard of the body of that shadow Christ himselfe who was our Paschal Lambe in his suffering sacrificed for vs The institution of this Feast is set downe Exod. 12. as Hospinian hath noted in the yeere after the creation of the world 2447. after the stoud 791. after the promise made to Abram 430. It was celebrated from the fifteenth to the one and twenty day of the moneth Abib or Nisan those two daies being more specially sanctified with a holy Conuocation and abstinence from worke except the dressing of their meate the other being obserued with vnleauened bread and the foureteenth day being the Parasceue or preparation in the euening of which foureteenth day as some men hold opinion after Sun-set in the twy-light others in the fourth houre or fourth part of the day as containing three houres space before the going downe of the Sun the Paschal Lambe was slaine about which time the ninth houre Christ the true Pascha yeelded vp the ghost hauing eaten the Passeouer on the night before which was the true time and was then altred by the Iewes which corruption continued to the destruction of their Temple Christ suffered saith Scaliger on the third of Aprill the fourth yeere compleate after his Baptisme From which ninth houre the Iewes began their Vespera or Euening and therefore it was inioyned them inter duas Vesperas to kill the Passeouer In these Vespers as also in the Eeuen of euery Feast and Sabbath after the euening Sacrifice they which do any worke saith the Iewish Canon shall neuer see good signe of a blessing which was the cause that they hastened so much the death of the theeues which were crucified with Christ This Lambe or Kidde was chosen a male of a yeere old the tenth day of the Moone which they kept till the foureteenth day tyed after their traditions to the foote of some bench or fourme so to minister occasion to their children of questioning about it to themselues of Preparation and Meditation and to espie in this meane while if any default were in the Lambe It was first a priuate Sacrifice to be performed in euery house after in that place onely where the Tabernacle or Temple was they were dispersed by companies according to Iosephus not fewer then tenne sometime twentie in a companie with Christ there were thirteene and of these sacrifices and companies in time of Cestius were numbred two hundred fiftie six thousand and fiue hundred so that reckoning the least number there were ten times so many
Sadduces was diminished if not worne out after the destruction of the Temple till in the yeere 4523. or after Scaliger 4515. and Anno Dom. 755. one Anan and Saul his son renued that Doctrine because he had not receiued his expected promotion to the degree of Gaon He wrote bookes against the other Iewes The like did one Carçasnai But of these Sadduces too much §. V. Of the Hessees OF the Essees Essens or Hessees followeth in the next place Their name Scaliger deriueth of a word which signifieth Rest or quietnesse and silence both which well agreed to their institution He disproueth that opinion of Eusebius and others that therein followed him which thought these Iewish Heretikes were Christian Monkes and Catholikes Such Catholikes let Baronius and Bellarmine boast of as the Authors of their Monkes for so they would haue them which you may beleeue as well as before the Floud Enosh and after Elias Iohn Baptist the Nazarites and Rechabites were Monkish Votaries as the Cardinall would haue you As for these Essees hee makes no small adoe against the Centuries g for vnderstanding Philo of Iewish and not of Christian Monkes But the loue to Monkery hath dazeled the eyes of men too much and euen their Historie which followeth will conuince that opinion of falsehood Besides Christianity should haue small credit of such associates Indeed the later Monkes are much like them in superstition and idolatrie though farre behind in other things But he that will see this Argument disputed let him reade Scaliger his Confutation of Serarius the Iesuite He sheweth also that the Ossens Sampsaeans Messalians and diuers heresies amongst the Christians sprang from these Essees That the Egyptian Essees of which Philo speaketh out of whom Eusebius first collected that conceit and that Philo himselfe had no skill in the Hebrew but knew onely the Greeke tongue that Paulus the Eremite in Thebais was the first Author of Monasticall liuing But now to come to our Historie of these men These Essees Hessees or Essens are placed by Plinie on the West of dead Sea a people solitarie and in the whole world most admirable without women without money a Nation eternall in which none is borne the wearinesse of others fortunes being the cause of their fruitfull multiplyings Philo in that booke which he intituled that all good men are free saith that there were of them aboue foure thousand called Essaei quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Holy not sacrificing other creatures but their mindes vnto God Some of them are Husband-men some Artificers for necessitie not for abundance they make no weapons of war nor meddle with Merchandize They haue no seruants but are all both free and mutually seruants to each other They liue perpetually chaste sweare not at all nor lye esteeming God the giuer of all good and Author of no euill Their societie is such that one garment one house one foode one treasurie one getting one spending one life is in common to them all carefully prouiding for their sick and holding the elder men in place of parents Iosephus who himselfe liued among them doth more largely describe them He reporteth that they were by Nation Iewes auoiding pleasures and riches as sinnes accounting continence and contentednesse great vertues They marrie not but instruct the children of others respecting them as their kindred in their manners not denying the lawfulnesse of marriage but the honestie of women He which becommeth one of their fraternitie must make his goods common Oyle and neatnesse they shunne yet weare alwaies a white garment They haue officers for their common prouision They haue no one certaine Citie but in each many of them haue their houses to strangers of their owne Sect they communicate their goods and acquaintance and therefore carry nothing with them in their iourneyes but weapons for feare of theeues and in euery Citie haue of the same Colledge an especiall Officer which prouideth for strangers The children vnder tuition of Masters are alike prouided for nor doe they change their rayment till the old be worne They neither buy nor sell but mutually communicate Deuout they are in the seruice of God For before the Sunne riseth they speake of no prophane or worldly matter but celebrate certaine Prayers as praying him to rise Then by their Officers are each appointed to their workes till the fifth houre at which time they assemble together and being girded with linnen garments wash themselues with cold water Then doe they goe into their dining-roome as into a Temple where no man of another Sect may be admitted and there staying with silence the Pantler sets them bread in order and the Cooke one vessell of broth The Priest giueth thankes as after dinner also Then laying aside those their holy garments they plie their worke till the Euening and then suppe in like manner There is neuer crying or tumult they speake in order and obserue euen without the house a venerable silence In other things they are subiect to their ouerseer but at their owne choice may helpe and shew mercy to others To their kindred they cannot giue without licence What they say is certaine but an Oath they hate no lesse then periurie They studie the writings of the Ancient thence collecting such things as may benefite the manners of the minde or health of the bodie They which are studious of their Sect must a yeeres space endure tryall and then after that probation of their continencie must bee probationers yet two yeeres longer and then vpon allowance of their manners are assumed into their fellowship making first deepe protestation of Religion towards God and iustice towards men to keepe faith to all but especially to Princes and if they shall come to rule ouer others not to abuse their power not to exceede others in habit not to steale not to keepe any thing secret from them of their owne Sect or cummunicate it to another although vpon perill of life not to deuise new doctrines to keepe the bookes of their owne opinions and the names of the Angels Offenders they put from their fellowship and hee which is thus excommunicate may not receiue foode offered of any other but eating grasse and hearbs is consumed with famine except they in compassion receiue him againe in extremitie They giue no sentence of iudgement being fewer then an hundred If ten sit together one speakes not without consent of the rest They may not spit in the midst or on the right hand They will not so much as purge Nature on the Sabbath and on other daies do it very closely for offending the Diuine light and couer it with an instrument in the Earth and that in the most secret places and are washed after They are of foure rankes according to the time of their profession and the yonger sort of these are so farre inferiour to the rest that if one of these do touch them hee washeth himselfe
dye before the eight day he is circumcised at the graue without any prayers but a signe is erected in memorie of him that GOD may haue mercie vpon him and raise him at the day of the Resurrection In some places all the people stand except the God-father because it is written All the people stood in the Couenant But to pursue the rest of their niceties grounded vpon such interpretations would bee endlesse We will follow the childe home if you be not alreadie wearie and see what rout is there kept Ten must bee the number you haue heard of the inuited ghests and one or two of these learned Rabbins who must make a long prayer and Sermon at the table although others meane while are more busied in tossing the cups of Wine I was once present saith Buxdorsius at one of their Circumcision feasts and one of their Rabbins preached on Pro. 3.18 Wisedome is a tree of life but more woodden or ridiculous stuffe I neuer heard in all my life This feast they obserue by example of Abraham who made a great feast when the childe was weaned their Kabal peruerts it when hee was circumcised The Circumciser abideth sometime with the Mother lest the bloud should againe issue from the childe The mother keepeth within sixe weekes whether it bee a male or female all which time her husband must not so much as touch her or eate meate in the same dish with her If a female child bee borne there is small solemnitie onely at sixe weekes age some young wenches stand about the Cradle and lift it vp with the child in it and name it shee which stands at the head being God-mother and after this they iunket together §. V. Of the Iewish Purification Redemption and Education WHen the fortie dayes are accomplished before the wife may accompanie or haue any fellowship with her husband shee must bee purified in cold water and put on white and cleane garments Their washing is with great scrupulositie in a common watering or in priuate Cisternes or Fountaines which must bee so deepe that they must stand vp to the necke in water and if it bee muddie in the bottome they must haue a square stone to stand on that their whole feete may stand in cleere water and that the water may passe betwixt their toes for the least part not couered with water would frustrate the whole action and for this cause they lay aside all their haire-laces neck-laces rings they diue vnder the water so that no part may bee free from the same Some Iewesse must stand by for witnesse hereof which is twelue yeers old and a day at least They redeeme their first-borne in this sort when the child is one and thirtie dayes old his Father sendeth for the Priest with other friends and sets the child on a Table before him adding so much money or monies-worth as amounteth to two Florens of gold or two Dolars and a halfe My wife saith he hath brought me forth my first-borne and the Law bids me giue him to thee Doest thou then giue me him saith the Priest He answereth Yea. The Priest asketh the Mother if she euer before had a childe or abortion If shee answere No then the Priest asketh the Father Whether the childe or the money be dearer to him he answereth The childe then doth the Priest take the money and lay it on the head of the Infant saying This is a first begotten child which God commanded should be redeemed and now saith hee to the childe thou art in my power but thy parents desire to redeeme thee now this money shall be giuen to the Priest for thy redemption And if I haue redeemed thee as is right thou shalt bee redeemed If not yet thou being redeemed according to the Law and custome of the Iewes shalt grow vp to the feare of God to marriage and good workes Amen If the father dye before the childe be one and thirtie dayes old the mother hangeth a scroll about his necke wherein is written This is the first-borne and not redeemed and this child when he commeth of age must redeeme himselfe The Iewish Chachamim or Wise-men haue left no part of life vnprouided of their superstitious care as we haue seene concerning the birth and circumcision of their children with the Purification of the mother and Redemption of the first-borne To proceed with them they enioyne the mother while she giueth sucke to eate wholesome food of easie digestion that the Infant may sucke good milke so that the heart and stomacke be not stopped but may come so much more easily to obtaine wisedome and vertue For God hath great care of children and hath therefore giuen a woman two brests and placed them next her heart yea in the dangerous persecution vnder Pharaoh Exod. 1. hee caused the earth to open it selfe and receiue their Male children and created therein two stones from one of which the Infant sucked milke and from the other honie till they were growne and might goe to their Parents yea and if you beleeue their Gemara can you choose a poore Iew hauing buried his wife and not able to hire a nurse for his childe had his owne brests miraculously filled with milke and became nurse himselfe Yea Mardochaeus saith their Medrasch sucked the brests of Hester and for this cause did she after her exaltation so preferre him The conclusion is if she giue grosse food to her Infants she shall be cast into hell She must not go naked brested nor too long fasting in a morning nor carrie her Infants or suffer them to goe or be naked lest the Sunne hurt them if it bee in the day or the Moone in the night and that they may soone learne that the earth is filled with the Maiestie of diuine glory and for this cause must they beware that they neuer goe bare-headed for this were a signe of impudencie and ill disposition And as religiously they must prouide that they be alway girded with a girdle for the girdle distinguisheth betwixt the heart and the priuities and in his morning prayer he saith Blessed be thou O God which girdest Israel with the girdle of strength which if he should not haue a girdle on would be in vaine Their Mothers therefore sow their girdles to their coats with great care they auoid going bare-foot especially in Ianuary and February When they can speake they are taught sentences out of Scripture and to salute their Parents with good-morrow good-Sabbath c. and after seuen yeeres they adde the name of God God giue you good-morrow c. but they must not name the name of God but in a pure place These teach them the names of things in the vulgar and some Hebrew names among that so they may not commonly be vnderstood for pure Hebrew they cannot speake except their most learned Rabbines onely Their Children must not conuerse with children of Christians and their Parents make all things
bee shaue their heads on the Friday and very religiously cut their nayles beginning with the fourth finger of the left hand and next with the second then with the fifth thence to the third and last to the thumbe still leaping ouer one in the right hand they begin with the second finger and after proceed to the fourth and so forth These parings if they treade vnderfoot it is a great sinne but hee which burieth them is a iust man or which burneth them Now must they also whet their kniues and put on their Sabbath-holy-day-rayment to salute Malchah the Queene so they terme the Sabbath The Clarke goeth about and giueth warning of the Sabbath and when the Sunne is now ready to set the women light their Sabbath-Lampes in their dining roomes and stretching out their hands toward it say ouer a blessing If they cannot see the Sunne they take warning by the Hennes flying to roost The cause why the women now and at other feasts light the Lampes is Magistrally determined by the Rabbins because Eue caused her husband to sinne yea with a cudgell belaboured him and compelled him to eate which they gather out of his words The Woman gaue mee of the tree to wit a sound rib-rosting and I did eate Now after they had eaten the sunne which before shined as it shall doe in the other life diminished his light and for dimming that light shee lightens this And for three causes you shall beleeue their Talmud women dye in trauell for forgetting their dough wherewith to make Cakes with Oyle Exod. 25. for neglecting their termes and not lighting the Sabbath-Lampes which their Cabalists gather out of three letters of the name of Eue or Chauah These lights are two or more according to condition of the roome They begin their Sabbath thus soone and end it also later then the iust time in commiseration of the Purgatory-soules which begin and end with them this Sabbaths-rest being the whole weeke besides tormented in that fire Iudas himselfe in honour of the Christian Sabbath from Saturday Eeuen-song obtained like priuiledge witnesse Saint Brandon in the Legend can you refuse him who found him cooling himselfe in the Sea sitting vpon a stone which hee had sometime remoued out of a place where it was needlesse into the high-way So meritorious euen in Iudas is any the least good worke There did Iudas acquaint Brandon with this Sunday-refreshing of the hellish prisoners and desired his holy company to scarre away the diuels when they should after Sunday Eeuen-song come to fetch him againe which for that time Brandon granted and performed The Iewes will not quite emptie any place of water that on the Sabbath these fierie soules may finde where to coole them Two Angels attend them home from the Synagogue one good and the other euill which if they finde all things well that is Iewishly prepared for the Sabbaths honor the good Angell saith It shall be so the next Sabbath and the euill Angell will he nill he answereth Amen If otherwise the good Angell is forced to say Amen to the euill Angels denunciation of the contrary They feast it with much ceremonie pronouncing their blessing on the wine with looking on the Lampe to repaire that fiftieth part of their eye-sight which they say in the weeke time ordinarily is wasted they couer the bread meane-while that it should not see the shame thereof in that the Wine is blessed for the Sabbaths vse before it This good cheare on the Sabbath is of such consequence that for this cause in their Talmud is reported that a Butcher in Cyprus which still reserued his best meates for the Sabbath grew by Diuine reward so rich that his Table and all his Table-furniture were of gold You may receiue with like credite the Legend of Ioseph following who buying continually the best Fish to honour the Sabbath with it found in the belly of one of these Sabbath-fishes a Hat-band of Pearles worth no lesse then a Kingdome The Table remaineth spred till the next night The Lampes must not bee put out nor the light thereof applyed to the killing of fleas to reading or writing c. The good man must honour that night with more kindnesse to his wife then on other nights therefore eate they Leekes before Therefore also they marry on the Sabbath and the children then conceiued must needes be wise and fortunate If a Iew trauell and on Friday Eeuening be further from his home then a Sabbaths-dayes-iourney he must there abide be it in the midst of a Wood or Wildernes till the Sabbath be past They sleepe longer on the Sabbath morning so with their greater pleasure to honour it They then vse more prayers in their Synagogues and reade seuen Lectures of the Law They now also reade the Prophets They stay here till noone and no longer lest by longer fasting and praying they should breake the Propheticall commandement Thou shalt call my Sabbath a delight After dinner also they reade in their Law for on a time the Sabbath and the Law put vp their complaints to God for want of a companion and learner and the Israelites were giuen as a companion to the Sabbath and on the Sabbath a learner of the Law But for all this they talke not more busily all the weeke through of Vsurie buying and selling then on the Sabbath and haue their trickes to deceiue God Almighty Their Eeuen-song they haue soone done that they might returne and while the day yet lasteth make an end of their third banquet by which they are secured against Hell and against Gog and Magog They conclude it with blessings and singings till it bee late to prolong the returne of the soules into Hell for presently after they haue ended there is proclamation through hell to recall them to their dungeons In these Songs they call vpon Elias to come so iustly are they deluded who scoffingly imputed vnto Christ the calling of Elias But their Elias being busie as he sometime said of Ahabs Baal and not comming then they request him to come the next Sabbath But he it seemeth is loth to leaue his place vnder the Tree of life in Paradise where he standeth say they enrolling their good workes in the keeping of the Sabbath When this their deuotion is done the women in haste run to draw water because the Fountaine of Mirriam Num. 20. flowing into the Sea of Tiberias doth from thence emptie it selfe in the end of the Sabbath into all Fountaines and is very medicinable After this doe the Iewes make a diuision betweene the Sabbath and the new weeke The Householder lighteth a great Candle called The Candle of Distinction at whose light he vieweth his walls blesseth a cup of Wine and a little siluer boxe full of sweet spices powreth a little of the Wine on the ground and applieth the boxe to euery ones nose to smell to thus to remedie the stinke which is caused at the
of those which haue since succeeded them in habitation in sinne in iudgement And where might wee better stay or what part of the world can yeeld such varietie and multiplicitie of obiects to both the eyes of the minde Curiositie and Deuotion No where such manifold alterations and diuisions of state so diuersified a Map of Nature so multiplied rites of Religion in such differing sects of Heathens Hebrewes Mahumetans Christians No where Antiquitie shewing a grauer countenance no where the Monuments of such mercies the spectacles of such iudgements such consolations such desolations such ambition of Potentates and forraine sutors from the East the West the North the South such Miracles such Oracles such confluence of Pilgrims looking as farre opposite as Sampsons Foxes with as fierie diuisions whether in differing heresies of one or differing names of diuers Deuotions both Catholike and Hereticall Iewes Saracens and Christians concurring in visiting adorning adoring these places with Titles and Rites of Holinesse How often hath this country emtied our Westerne world with Armes and Armies to recouer it and the Easterne in like manner to retaine it How often hath it brought Armies of Angelicall spirits out of the highest Heauens to couer these Hilles with Chariots and Horses of fire round about the holy men of GOD How oft But what speake I of Men or Angels GOD himselfe loued the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of the world and IESVS CHRIST the Angell of the Couenant true GOD and perfect MAM here was borne here liued practised died ascended and hence he sent his Apostles to bee Fathers of men that the sonnes of men might bee made the heires of GOD co-heires with himselfe After the Iewes for reiecting him were reiected out of both the heauenly and earthly Canaan this countrey was inhabited partly by Roman Colonies there planted for securitie of the countrey by the Roman Emperours partly by such Syrians as submitted themselues peaceably to the Roman Empire both that Ethnike before Constantine and after in farre more flourishing estate vnder the Christian Emperours till the daies of vn-christian Phocas This was the murtherer of Mauritius his Lord the vsurper of the Empire the exalter of the Roman See vnto the Ecclesiasticall Supremacie with as good right as himselfe had to the state a monster of mankinde vnder whom the Empire was neere an vtter ouerthrow as by the Hunnes Auares and other Nations in the West so especially by the Persians in the East whose Emperour Chosroes ouerthrew that Armie which had conspired against Mauricius and in the fourth yeere of Phocas ouer-ranne Mesopotamia and Syria in the next yeere after carried much prey and many captiues out of all Syria Palestina and Phoenicia in the seuenth yeere of his raigne possessed Armenia Galatia Paphlagonia and spoiled all as farre as Chalcedon Yet saith Cedrenus Phocas did more harme at home then the enemy in the field At the same time the Iewes made a commotion at Antioch and slew besides many other Citizens Anastasius the Patriarch in despight also putting his priuitiues in his mouth But the Iewes paid much bloud for this butcherie and Phocas also himselfe the chiefe Butcher was most mercilesly butchered presently after by Heraclius his successour They tell of a Reuelation to a certaine Holy man that GOD had made Phocas Emperour because hee could not finde a worse man by whom to punish that people which I mention that the world might see what a good Mid-wife Rome then in trauel had to helpe her babe Antichrist into the world But to returne to the Storie Heraclius could not withstand the Persian insolence but lost in his first yeere Apamea and Edessa and in the next Caesarea from whence they carried many thousands into captiuitie in the fourth Damascus was taken and in the fifth Ierusalem where by reason of the Iewish crueltie who bought all the Christians they could to slaughter them there were slaine ninetie thousand Zacharias the Patriarch together with the holy Crosse and exceeding store of captiues and spoile were carried into captiuitie The next yeere they ouercame Egypt Africa and Ethiopia Chosroes neglects all ouertures of peace made to him by Heraclius except they would deny their crucified God and worship the Sunne He also caused the Christians in his dominion to become Nestorians the cause perhaps why almost all the farre Easterne Christians to this day are or at least are called Nestorians Against him Heraclius continued a six yeeres expedition in which hee ouerranne his countries ouerthrew his Armies sacked his Cities Castles and Palaces and at last assisted his eldest sonne Siroes whom Chosroes sought to dis-herit against him who tooke him and hauing before exposed him to all contumelious insultations and almost starued him in a darke prison and slaine all his other children in his sight with abominable tyrannie shot his tyrannicall father to death So died Chosroes a successour of Sennacherib in the dominion of many the same countries subiection to the like blasphemous impietie and reward by like parricide Heraclius in the ninteenth yeere of his raigne visiteth Ierusalem restoring the captiued crosse and Patriarch by restitution of Siroes He banished thence all the Iewes prohibiting by Edict that none should come neere it by three miles §. II. Of the Saracens and Turkes in Palestina THe Saracens had done good seruice in rhese wars against the Persians which in the time of Heraclius began a new Religion and Empire vnder Mahomet the founder of both the second after whom Omar ouerthrew Theodorus the brother of Heraclius in battell and after him another Theodorus and Boanes his Generals forced the Emperour to abandon Syria carrying the holy crosse from Ierusalem to Constantinople In the 26. of Heraclius hee entred Ierusalem hypocritically and pseudoprophetically clothed in a homely garment of Camels haire and sought out the place of Salomons Temple there to erect another subduing soone after the whole Persian State and a great part of the Roman Anno Dom. 641. did Homar build his Temple at Ierusalem with incredible costs in matter and workmanship enriching the same with many and large possessions and reuenues in the Musaike worke of the inner and outward part thereof expressing in Arabike letters the Author time and charges of the building The forme whereof is thus described by William Archbishop of Tyrus The Church-yard was square about a bow-shot in length and bredth compassed with a high wall hauing on the West square two gates one on the North and another on the East on the South was the Palace On euery of these gates and on the corners were high steeples on which at certaine houres the Priests after the Saracenicall manner called them to prayers In this compasse none were suffered to dwell nor to enter but with bare and washed feet Porters being assigned to that purpose In the midst of this square was another somewhat higher whereto they ascended by staires in two places on the West
vnto the Ottoman Family herein disagreeing while some wil haue Magog others Tubal the Author of their Nation Leunclauius reciteth and refuteth the same He writeth the name Iurki alleaging Herodotus for his Author and citeth many Authors to proue that they descended of the Vnui or Vngri which were called Turkes of which there were two sorts one Westerly in Pannonia another Easterly neere Persia called by the Persians Magores he concludeth that the Vnni or Iurchi came from Iuchra or Iuchria whence the name Iurchi might easily be deflected to Iurchi beyond Tanais and first after they had forsaken their owne Countrie settled themselues neere Moeotis from whence they passed to Chazaria and some went Westward to Pannonia some Eastward to Armenia and thence into Persia Many probable Arguments might bee brought to proue that they descended of the Scythians whose wandering shepheardly-life both the name and their practice in old times and in some places still expresseth The first Expedition and militarie employment which I haue read of the Turkes except what the feare of them compelled the Persians vnto as in their Historie wee shall after see was vnder Varamus a rebellious Persian aboue a thousand yeeres since when Cosroes was King of Persia and Mauritius the Roman Emperour at what time many of them were slaine and many taken which confessed that famine had forced them to those warres for which cause they marked themselues with a blacke Crosse a Ceremonie which they said they had learned of the Christians thinking thereby to expell hunger This hungrie Nation hath since beene a greedie and insatiate deuourer of Nations Another expedition of theirs which some reckon the first was in the yeere 755. or after another account 844. at which time passing through the Georgian Countrie then called Iberia they first seized on a part of the greater Armenia which their posteritie holdeth at this day called of them Turcomania In this wide and spacious Countrie they romed vp and downe without certaine habitation a long time with their Families and Heards of cattell like the ancient Scythian Nomades and the Tartars and the same Turcoman Nation at this day Their language also as Megiserus in his Turkish Grammar sheweth hath great affinitie with the Tartarian as also with the Persian neere whom and sometimes as now will appeare amongst them they liued But from the Arabike it differeth altogether Yet in their holies they most vse the Arabike by reason of the Alcoran written in that language likewise they vse the Arabike Letters and Prickes The beginning of their greatnesse is thus by Christian Historians related §. II. Of the Turkish Kingdome in Persia and their other Conquests WHen as the Saracens Empire grew now vnweldie through her owne greatnesse and the Soldans which were wont to conquer for the Chaliph began now to share with him in his large Dominion Mahomet then Sultan or Soldan of Persia was for this cause hardly beset with the Chaliph of Babylon assailed also on the other side by the Indians He sought to strengthen himselfe against these enemies with the new friendship of these Turkes of whom hee obtained for his aide three thousand hardie Souldiers vnder the conduct of Togra Mucalet the sonne of Mikeil a valiant Captaine and chiefe of the Selzuccian Tribe or Familie whom the Greekes commonly call Tangrolipix and some Selduc or Sadoc By the helpe of this Tangrolipix Mahomet the Persian Sultan ouercame Pisasiris the Caliph The Turkes after this warre desiring leaue to passe ouer the Riuer Araxis to their Country-men were both denied and threatned if they againe should seeke to depart Whereupon they withdrew themselues into the Desart of Carauonitis liuing there and thence making roades into the Countries adioyning Mahumet sent against them twentie thousand men which by a sudden surprize in the night Tangrolipix defeated and furnished himselfe with their spoiles And now durst Tangrolipix shew his face in the field where his Armie was increased by the resort of lawlesse persons seeking after spoile Mahomet on the other side impatient of his losse put out the eyes of the Captaines which had the leading of the Armie and threatned to attire the Souldiers that had fled in womens apparell and raising another great Armie set forward against Tangrolipix who was now fiftie thousand strong and was presently made stronger by those threatned Souldiers who fled from their Lord vnto him They met at Ispahan a Citie of Persia and there Mahomet falling with his Horse brake his necke vpon which mischance both Armies comming to agreement by common consent proclaimed Tangrolipix Sultan in his stead and so made him King of Persia and the Dominion thereunto pertaining which was done Anno 1030. Tangrolipix opened the passages of Araxis to the rest of his Countrie-men whom hee exalted to the highest places of command so bridling the Persians and he and his receiuing in their new Conquests the yoke of the Mahumetan Religion Ambition inciting him to further exploits he warred also vpon Pisasiris the Chaliph and after diuers ouerthrowes slue him and seized on his state Hee sent Cutlu-Muses his Kinsman against the Arabians by whom hee was discomfited whereat aggrieued hee went against them himselfe but with like successe Hee sent Asan his brothers sonne to inuade Media who in that enterprise was slaine he sent againe Habraime Alim his brother with an Armie of an hundred thousand men who tooke prisoner Liparites Gouernour of Iberia who came to aide the Emperours Lieutenant in Media whom Tangrolipix frankely set free and sent his Embassadour to the Emperour proudly demanding him to become his subiect Such haps and such hopes had Tangrolipix the first Turke that euer was honoured with a Diademe His sonne and successour Axan tooke Diogenes the Emperour of Constantinople prisoner in the field But Cutlu-Muses with his Cousin Melech who in his Fathers dayes had fled into Arabia rebelling and taking armes against him as Axan was readie to ioyne battell with them the Caliph who retained the highest place still in their superstition although dispoyled of his Temporalities setting aside all his Pontificall formalitie whereby he was bound not to goe out of his owne house thrust himselfe betweene these Armies and with the reuerence of his place and person together with his perswasions moued them to desist and to stand to his arbitrement which was that Axan the Sultan should still enioy his Dominions entirely And that Cutlu-Muses and his sonnes aided by him should inuade the Constantinopolitan Empire and should be absolute and onely Lords of whatsoeuer they could gaine thereof There was neuer any thing to that impietie more commodious nor to our Religion more dangerous For by this meanes Cutlu-Muses with his sonnes in a short time conquered all Media with a great part of Armenia Cappadocia Pontus and Bithynia which their designes were much furthered by treasons and dissentions in the Greeke Empire Axan the Sultan also gaue to his Kinsman Ducat and Melech the
gouernement of Aleppo and Damasco with the adioyning parts of Syria by that meanes to encroach vpon the Egyptian Caliph which accordingly they in short time did But these their haughtie attempts were stayed and being now in the flowre were cut shorter by that fortunate Expedition of the Christian Princes of the West agreed vpon at the Councell of Claremont and performed by Gualter Sensauier Peter the Hermite first and principall mouer hereof Godfrey Duke of Lorraine with his two brethren Eustace and Baldwin of the honourable house of Buillon Hugh surnamed the Great brother to Philip the French King Raymond and Robert Earles of Flanders Robert of Normandie sonne to William the Conquerour Stephen de Valois Earle of Chartiers Ademar the Popes Legate Bohemund Prince of Tarentum and others conducting as the most receiued opinion is three hundred thousand Souldiers in defence of the Christian Faith against the Turkes and Saracens which both ouerthrew the Turkes in the lesser Asia and recouered also the holy Land The Principalitie or as some stile it the Kingdome of Antioch was giuen him by common consent to Bohemund Prince of Tarentum the Kingdome of Ierusalem to Robert who hearing of his Fathers death refused it in hope of England and Godfrey of Buillon was saluted King The Turkes and Saracens seeking to recouer that which they had lost lost also themselues a hundred thousand of them being slaine in one battell the like successe had the Turkes after against Conrade the Emperour at Meander leauing for trophees and triumphall arches to the Christians huge heapes or hills rather of their bones Hereunto helped the dissentions among the Turkes and diuisions of their state among diuers brethren The Egyptians also paied tribute to the Christians which Dargan the Sultan detaining hee was by Almericus the King of Ierusalem ouerthrowne in battell Noradine the Turke King of Damasco sent thither also Saracon to aide Sanar the Sultan before expulsed to recouer his state from this Dargan but hee hauing won certaine Townes kept them to himselfe so that Sanar betooke him to the patronage of Almericus who ouerthrew Saracon in battell and after besieged and tooke Alexandria and Pelusium seeking also to conquer Egypt to himselfe but indeed as the euent proued so subuerted his owne state For Sanar sought helpe of Saracon and for feare of both their forces Almericus left Egypt Saracon moued with ambition treacherously slew the Sultan and by the Caliph was appointed Sultan the first of the Turkes that euer enioyed the same to whom Saladine his Nephew succeeded Hee not respecting the Maiestie of the Caliph as the Sultans before had done strucke out his braines with his Horse-mans Mace and rooted out all his posteritie the better to assure himselfe and his Turkish successours in the possession of that Kingdome vnder whom it continued to the time of the Mamalukes Noradine also the Turke being dead the Nobilitie disdaining the gouernement of Melechsala his sonne yet but a youth betrayed that state vnto Saladine And thus did he hem in the Kingdome of Ierusalem on both sides and not long after Aleppo was betraied vnchristianly into his hands by a traitor which gouerned the same for the Christians Neither was it long before he had through discord and treason amongst the Christians obtained Ierusalem it selfe Anno 1187. and after Ascalon and Antioch also Neither could the Christians of the West euer recouer the possession of that Kingdome the cause continuing the same which before had lost it viz. dissention and treacherie as the examples of Richard and Edward first of those names Kings of this Land doe shew About 1202. yeeres after Christ the Tartars of whom in their due place hauing conquered East West North and South among others ouerthrew that Togrian Kingdome of the Turkes in Persia one hundred and seuentie yeeres before founded by Tangrolipix The Turks which remained driuen to seeke shelter from this violent storme fled out of Persia into Asia the lesse where Cutlu-Muses his successours their Country-men enioyed some part of the Countrie And there many of them arriuing vnder the conduct of Aladin the sonne of Cei Husreu descended also of the Selzuccian Family in Persia taking the opportunitie offered by the discord of the Latines with the Greekes and the Greekes among themselues seized vpon Cilicia with the Countries thereabout and there first at Sebastia and afterward at Iconium erected their new Kingdome bearing the name of the Aladin Kings or Sultans The Tartars vnder the conduct of Haalon sent by Mango the great Cham hauing conquered and starued the Chaliph of Babylon as is before ouerthrew the Turkish Kingdome of Damasco and raced Aleppo the other arme of this faire and farre spreading Tree being surprized by the Mamaluke slaues who after Haalons departure recouered Syria and Palaestina and were againe with great slaughter dispossessed of the same by Cassanes a Tartarian Prince who repaired Ierusalem and gaue it to the Christians of Armenia and other the Easterne Countries But Cassanes retyring into Persia to pacifie new broiles the Sultan recouered the same the Christians of the West neglecting the iust defence thereof specially through the pride and contention of Boniface the Pope contrarie to his name filling a great part of Europe with faction and quarrells §. III. Of the Ottoman Turkes their originall and proceedings THe Turkes in Asia paid tribute to the Tartar Cham till succession in the bloud of Aladin failing this Kingdome was diuersly rent euery one catching so much as his might could bestow on his ambition The greatest of these sharers was one Caraman Alusirius who tooke vnto himselfe the Citie Iconium with all the Countrie of Cilicia and some part of the frontiers of Lycaonia Pamphylia Caria and the greater Phrygia as farre as Philadelphia all which was after him called Caramania Next neighbour and sharer to him was Saruchan of whom Ionia Maritima is called Saruchanili The greatest part of Lydia with some part of the greater Mysia Troas and Phrygia fell to Carasius called of him Carasi-ili some part of Pontus and the Countrey of Paphlagonia fell to the sonnes of Omer which Countrey is called Bolli These all were of the Selzuccian Family But the foundations of farre higher fortunes were then laid much lower by diuine prouidence exalting Ottoman of the Oguzian Tribe or Family who then held one onely poore Lordship called Suguta in Bythinia not farre from Olympus giuen before to his father Erthogrul in meed of good seruice which he increasing by winning somewhat from the weaker Christians his neighbours afterwards erected into a Kingdome which hath deuoured so great a part of the world as is at this day subiect to the Turkish greatnesse When the Tartars chased as is said the Turkes out of their Persian Kingdome which Tangrolipix had there established one Solyman a Turke of the Ogusian Tribe reigned in Machan ouer a small Realme which for feare of those Tartars he also forsooke and with a
Christians more vnnatural against his brother but most most vnnatural and monstrous against his sonne Selym. His conquests were in Cilicia Caramania and Peloponnesus Selym not content to haue thrust his father out of the Throne aspired to a further effect of aspiring ambition depriuing him of life from whom himselfe had receiued it To this end he corrupted a Iew Baiazets Physician whom Knolles calleth Hamon but Menauino an eye-witnesse nameth him Vstarabi who with the powder of beaten Diamonds poysoned him and for reward when hee claymed Selyms promise had his head stricken off in the Tyrants presence So much did he hate the Traytor whose treason he so much loued The body of Baiazet was embalmed and interred at Constantinople in a beautifull Sepulchre neere to the Meschit which himselfe had built and Priests were appointed which should euery day pray for his soule Two of his Pages did Selym put to death for wearing blacke and mourning apparell for their Masters death and three others whereof Menauino was one hardly by intreatie of Selyms daughters and some Bassaes escaped This Viper that spared not his father proceeded with bloudie hands to make an end of the rest of his Ottoman-kindred beginning with fiue sonnes of his brethren and adding the remnant as hee could bring them into his power And hauing thus founded his Throne in bloudie cruelties of his owne at home no maruell if abroad his proceedings were no lesse cruell and bloudie towards his enemies Of whom the first which offered himselfe after his domesticall warres appeased was Ismael the Sophie who with thirtie thousand Persian Horse-men gaue battell to Selym notwithstanding his three hundred thousand Turks where was fought in Armenia neere Coy a terrible and mortall battell betwixt them the Turkes at last very hardly preuailing by helpe of their great Ordnance but so little cause had they to reioyce of their victorie that this is reckoned among the dismall and disastrous dayes termed by the Turkes The onely day of Doome The next yeere he entred againe into the Persian Confines and there tooke Ciamassum ouerthrew Aladeules the Mountaine King who raigned in Taurus and Antitaurus and slew him But his most fortunate attempts were against Campson Gaurus the Egyptian Soldan and his forces of Mamalukes whom by his multitudes notwithstanding their fame and valour not inferiour to any Souldiors of the world hee ouercame the Soldan himselfe being left dead in the place August 7. 1516. Neither had Tomumbeius his Successor any better successe but succeeded as wel in his fortune as to his Scepter who by treason of his owne and power of his enemy lost both his life and Kingdome all Egypt and Syria therby accrewing to the Ottoman Selym from thenceforth purposing to turne his forces from the Sunne-rising against the Christians in the West came to his owne Sunne-set the period of his raigne and life a miserable disease as an angrie Pursuiuant exacting and redemanding his bloudie cruell spirit an implacable officer of that implacable Tyrant to Tyrants and Prince of Princes Death who at last conquered this Conquerour or rather if his Epitaph written on his Tombe say true conueied him hence to seeke new Conquests His disease was a Canker in the backe eating out a passage for his viperous soule which made him rot while he liued and become a stinking burthen to himselfe and others He died in September 1520. hauing before bequeathed bloudshed and desolation to the Christians and ordained Solyman his sonne and heire executour of that his hellish Testament And further to excite him thereunto had left him the liuely counterfeit of himselfe with sundrie bloudie Precepts annexed His title therein written was Sultan Selym Othoman King of Kings Lord of all Lords Prince of all Princes Sonne and Nephew of God Wee may adde Heire apparant to the Deuill that breathed his last in bloud resembling him that was a Murtherer from the beginning CHAP. IX A Continuation of the Turkish Warres and Affaires together with the succession of the Great Turkes till this present yeere 1616. §. I. Of SOLYMAN the Magnificent SOLYMAN sir-named the Magnificent succeeded his Father Selym in place and surmounted him exceedingly in exploits Belgrade which ominous name did presage happinesse vnto him in his Warres and proceedings was the beginning of his Conquests wonne by the Turkes August 29. 1521. Rhodes receiueth him on Christmasse day 1522. but withall exileth both Cheere Christmasse and Christians Hee inuadeth Hungarie and in the field discomfiteth and killeth Lewes and slayeth or captiueth two hundred thousand Hungarians in that expedition 1526. Hee entereth Hungarie the second time 1529. and after some butcheries therein marcheth to Vienna in Austria where he lost fourescore thousand of his Turkes and then with shame anger returned In the yeere 1532. he returneth with an Armie of fiue hundred thousand men to whom Charles the fifth opposed himselfe and the Christian forces in greater numbers then hath in many ages been seene mustering in his Armie at Vienna two hundred and threescore thousand men whereof fourescore and ten thousand Foot-men and thirtie thousand Horse-men were old Souldiers to whom Solyman did not nor durst not bid battell Poore Hungarie rues in meane while whether he getteth or loseth in Austria being made his thorow-fare as he went and came After this he trieth his successe against the Persian where hee taketh Tauris and Babylon with the Countries of Assyria and Media Anno 1534. each of which had sometimes beene Ladie of the World At incredible costs he prepared a Fleet in the Red Sea 1537. and taking Aden and Zibyth two petie Kingdomes in Arabia by his forces besieged Dium a Castle of the Portugals in the East-Indies but without his wished successe For the Portugals still retaine their Indian-Seas and Traffique and not onely freed that their Castle from Turkish bondage but had meanes to fortifie it better by the Ordnance which the Turkes in their hastie flight had left behinde A more dangerous plot did Solyman meane while contriue against Christendome preparing his forces to inuade Italy and to that end was come to Aulona an Hauen in Macedonia with two hundred thousand Souldiers where Barbarussa and Lutzis Bassa his great Admirall met him with his Fleet to transport his Armie But Solyman first employed these Sea-forces on the coast of Italy and tooke Castrum his Horse-men which he had sent ouer in great Palendars carried away the people cattell and substance betwixt Brundusium and Tarentum fortie miles space all the countrey of Otranto terrified with feare of a greater tempest But the Venetians turned it from the rest of Italy vpon themselues notwithstanding their league by vnseasonable exacting of that Sea-courtesie the vayling of the bonnets or top sayles of some Turkish Gallies vnto them as Lords of that Sea for which neglect some of them were sunke Auria also the Emperours Admirall had surprised some of the Turkes stragling Fleet and
the Persians losse and with lightnings to shew that indignation against the Turkes which in their thundering Dialect they aloud vttered there grew such horror to their mindes from aboue and such sicknesse to their bodies from those putrified carkasses beneath that Mustapha was forced to remoue missing forty thousand of his first Musters After hee had fortified the Armenian Castle of Teflis his Armie being driuen to shifts for lacke of victuals ten thousand of his forragers were slaine by the Persians who were recompenced with like slaughter by Mustapha that came vpon them whiles they were busie about the spoyle and spoyled the spoylers In passing ouer the Riuer Canac he lost fourescore thousand Turkes which the Riuer seemed to take for Custome as it had many of the Persians in the late conflict whereof his violent current was a greedy and cruell exactor Mustapha erected a Fortresse in Ere 's and tooke Sumachia chiefe Citie of Siruan Derbent offering her selfe to the Turke and then returning into Natolia But Emir Hamse Mirise the Persian Prince recouered after his departure both Ere 's and Sumachia slew and captiued the Tartars thirtie thousand of whom were newly come to the Turkes ayde He rased Sumachia euen with the ground The next yeere Mustapha fortified Chars in three and twentie dayes wherein they were hindered with Snowes on the fiue and twentieth of August although it standeth in fortie foure Degrees Anno 1580. Sinan Bassa was chosen Generall for the Persian Warre who as hee departed from Teflis lost seuen thousand of his people besides such as the Georgians and Persians together with the spoyle carried away This was earnest the rest was but sportfull shewes of warre in trayning his Souldiers after which he returned In 1583. Ferat Bassa was sent Generall but little was done till Osman Bassa a new Generall 1585. tooke Tauris the ancient Ecbatana as Minadoi is of opinion But the Persian Prince carried with indignation reuenged this losse on the Turkes with his owne hands slaying Caraemit Bassa Generall in the place of Osman then sicke and gaue his head as opima spolia to one of his followers and afterwards at Sancazan slew twentie thousand Turks Osman dyed of sicknesse and the Persian Prince the Morning-starre of that Easterne State was soone after murthered In that dismall yeere 1588. Ferat tooke Genge fifteene thousand houses seuen Temples and fiue and twentie great Innes were burned in Constantinople the tumultuous Ianizaries not suffering the fire to be quenched An Impost was leuied of the subiects to satisfie the pay due to the Souldiers for the Persian warre which raised these stirres Yea the Priests disswaded the people from those new payments and perswaded them to maintaine their ancient Liberties shut vp their Meschits intermitted their Orisons and the great Turke was forced to call in his Mandates and deliuer the Authors of that counsell wherof the Beglerbeg of Grecia was one to the Ianizaries furie who made Tennis-balls of their heads In the 1592. Wihitz chiefe Citie of Croatia was yeelded to the Turke The next yeere Siseg was besieged but relieued by the Christians who slew eighteene thousand Turkes and tooke their Tents yet was it soone after taken by the renewed forces of the Turkes Sinan tooke Vesprinium in Hungarie and Palotta but their losse was farre greater then their gaines which continuing and a broyle of the Ianizaries added thereto brought Amurath into malancholy and sicknesse whereof he dyed the eighteenth of Ianuarie 1595. Transyluania Valachia and Moldauia hauing before reuolted from him to Sigismund who was entitled their Prince This Amurath in a letter to Queene Elizabeth entituleth himselfe By the Mercie of God free from all sinne with all height of Grace made possessor of great blessednesse aboue the 72. Lawes of the world §. III. Of MAHOMET the Third MAHOMET his sonne succeeded who inuiting his nineteene brethren to a Feast sent them to learne his fathers death in the other world accompanied thither with ten of Amuraths women from whom issue was feared which with drowning them he preuented Much adoe he had with his Ianizaries at home much losse in his Dominions abroad for which cause he sent for Ferat Bassa out of Hungarie and strangled him and sent Sinan his emulous corriuall in his roome whom the Transyluanian Prince ouerthrew in battell and after chased him ouer a Bridge which he made a mile in length for his Armie to passe ouer Danubius with great losse of his people His Bridge the fire and water diuided betwixt them and the conceit of this ill successe as was thought procured his death soone after In the yeere 1597. Mahomet in his owne person enterprised these warres and not farre from Agria on the sixteenth of October fought a cruell battell with the Christians wherein had not Couetousnesse rightly called the root of all euill hindered had beene atchieued the most glorious victorie against those Barbarians that euer Christendome was blessed with Mahomet himselfe for feare seeing his Ordnance an hundred fourescore and tenne great Peeces taken and his men slaine in multitudes fled with Ibrahim Bassa towards Agria shedding teares by the way which he wiped off his bloudie face with a piece of greene silke supposed to be a piece of Mahomets garment carried with him as a holy Relique But whiles the Christians were now halfe Conquerours by greedie turning to the spoile their victorie was wholly lost and twentie thousand of them slaine who had slaine threescore thousand Turkes Mr. Barton the English Embassador was present in the fight and Mr. Thomas Glouer also who in a large iournall of this Expedition testifieth that the great Turk was in great feare but being animated by some about him he tooke his bow and arrowes and slew three Christians therewith Those former reports hee mentioneth not Not long after the Bassa of Buda was taken and the Bassa of Bosna with some thousands of Turkes slaine Anno 1599. Yet did not all his losses in the West by the Christians vexe the Great Sultan so much as a rebellion raised in the East which many yeeres continued Cusabin Bassa of Caramania rose in armes against his Master and hauing now done great matters his Souldiers before false to their Prince became now also false to him hee flying was after taken and tortured to death His rebellion out-liued him and was maintained by one called the Scriuano who ouerthrew Mehemet Bassa in the field and the second time in the yeere 1601. ouerthrew him with his Armie of fiftie thousand and foraged all the Countrey almost as far as Aleppo proclaiming himselfe the defender of the Mahumetan faith and soon after gaue the Bassa a third ouerthrow The Turkes Embassadour sent into Persia to demand the Sophies sonne in hostage for the assurance of the peace betweene those two Monarchs was for his proud message put to the Bastinado and grieuously threatned sent backe to the Grand Signior The Scriuano's proceedings was much furthered by the dissentions betweene
therefore the fugitiue Stone The Cyzican Towers yeelded a seuen fold Eccho The Mysians for their great deuotion were called smoke-climers a fit name for all superstitious They had in honour the Nymph Brythia vnder colour of religion the Parians cousened the Lampsacens of a great part of their territory Of this City was Priapus aforesaid a man monstrous in lusts admirable in his plentifull issue hated of the men howsoeuer of the women beloued and by them exiled to a wilde life in the field till a grieuous disease sent amongst them caused them by warning of the Dodonaean Oracle to recall him Fit seruitour for such a god Hence the tale of his huge Genitals and of his Garden-deitie Offering to rauish a Virgin at the time of her wedding he was seared by the braying of an Asse a creature for this cause consecrated to sacrifices Lettice most sutable to such lips A little hence standeth Abydus where was a famous Temple of Venus in remembrance of their libertie recouered by a Harlot Ouer against the same on Europe side was Sestus chaunted by the Poets the guard of the Hellespont one of the keyes saith Bellonius of the Turkish Empire the Castles being for that purpose well furnished the Straits not aboue seuen furlongs ouer Here did Xerxes ioyne Asia to Europe by a bridge professing warres not against the Greekes alone but against the Elements To Mount Athos did this Mount Atheos write his menacing Letters To the Hellespont hee commanded three hundred stripes to be giuen and fetters to be cast in with reuiling speeches for the breach of his new-made bridge which the Sea disdaining the stopping of his passage and infringing his libertie had by tempest broken In Mysia was that famous Pine-tree foure and twentie foot in compasse and growing intire threescore an ten foot from the root was diuided into three armes equally distant which after gathered themselues close into one top two hundred foot high and fifteene cubits Apollo Cillaeus had a Temple dedicated to him at Cilla another was erected at Chrysa to Apollo Smynthius and twentie furlongs thence another to Diana Astirma another with a sacred Caue at Andira to the mother of the Gods this Caue reached vnder the earth to Palea a hundred and thirtie furlongs Attalus reigned in these parts who furnished the Library of Pergamus with two hundred thousand Volumes for the writing wherof those parchment skins were inuented therefore called to this day Pergamenae Of this name Attalus were three of their Kings the last of which made the Romans his heires Heere was that cruell Edict of Mithridates published to murther the Romans whereby many driuen to seeke helpe of Aesculapius in his Temple at Pergamus found him either vnmercifull or vnskilfull to cure them although his Physick-shop was in this Citie Here were inuented by King Attalus Tapestrie hangings called Aulaea of Aula his hall which was hanged therewith Here was also a yeerely spectacle of the Cock-fight The Mysian Priests abstained from flesh and marriage They sacrificed a Horse whose inward parts were eaten before their vowes South-wards from hence along the Sea-coast trendeth Aeolis whereunto adioyneth LYDIA called anciently Asia and the Inhabitants Asiones It was called Maeonia of Manes their first King who begat Cotys and he Attys and Asius of whom some say Asia taketh name Cambletes a Lydian King saith Athenaeus was so addicted to gourmandize that in the night he did teare and eate his wife and finding her hand in the morning in his mouth the thing being noysed abroad he killed himselfe The same Author telleth of King Andramytes that he made women Eunuches for his attendants that the Lydians were so effeminate that they might not endure the Sun to looke vpon them for which cause they had their shadie bowers that in a place therefore called Impure they force women and maidens to their lust which Omphale who had indured this violence comming after to bee their Queene reuenged by as vniust iustice For assembling all the seruants or slaues shee shut vp among them their masters daughters permitting them to their pleasures Shee was daughter of Iardanus of the posteritie of Attis who set Hercules his taske to spin amongst her maides Her husband Timolus deflowred Arriphe in Diana's Temple Of him haply was named the hill Timolus which yeelded golden sands to the Riuer Pactolus Halyattis was after a long succession the Lydian King father to Croesus whose Sepulchre was an admirable Monument being at the bottome stone else where earth built by men and women slaues and hired persons It is sixe furlongs in compasse and two hundred foot and a thousand and three hundred foot broad All the daughters of the Lydians prostitute themselues and thereby get their liuing and dowrie These were the first inuenters of coyning money the first Hucsters and Pedlers the first players at Dice Balls Chesse in the time of Attys the first driuen to this shift by famine which when they knew not otherwise to redresse they deuised these games passing the time of euery second day with these pastimes then beguiling their emptie bellies and according to their ominous inuention now not so much the companions as the harbengers and forerunners of emptinesse although some contrarie to their first originall vse them to ease their fulnesse Thus did the Lydians liue if Herodotus be beleeued two and twentie yeeres eating and playing by course till they were faine to diminish their multitudes by sending Colonies vnder Tyrrhenus vnto that part of Italy which of him receiued that name Here on the winding streames of Meander or nigh thereto was situate Magnesia not that by Harmus whose Inhabitants worshipped the Dyndimene Mother of the Gods But the old Citie and Temple perishing and a new builded the Temple was named of Diana Leucophryna exceeding that of Ephesus in workmanship but exceeded in greatnesse and multitude of oblations And yet this was the greatest in Asia except the Ephesian and Dindymene Of Tralles a neighbouring Citie was Metrodorus the Priest of Iupiter Laryssaeus In the way from thence to Nyssa is a Village of the Nyssaens Acharaca There is the Plutonium compassed with a Groue and the Temple of Pluto and Iuno and the Caue Charonium admirable to the view ouer-hanging the Groue which it threatneth seeming to deuoure it They say that sicke men which are deuoted to those Gods goe thither and in a street neere the Caue stay with such as are expert in those mysteries who sleeping for them inquire the course to cure them by dreames These inuoking diuine remedies many times lead them into the Caue where abiding many dayes with fastings and sweatings they sometimes intend to their owne dreames by the counsells of the Priests To others this place is pestilent and inaccessible Here are yeerely festiualls solemnized and then most of all are these deuotions practised Youths and striplings naked and anoynted draw or lead a Bull into the same
and others attribute this to Guine and say that these slaues became his disciples first and after Souldiers to his sonne Aidar against the Christian Georgians This Aider Erdebil or after Iouius Harduelles forsaking as some say the world led a streight life in continency and austerity and was therefore admired as a Prophet and resorted to out of all parts of Armenia and Persia comming to Tauris to see him Hee inueighed against the common opinion concerning Mahomets successors as Guine and Sophi had done shutting vp heauen to all sauing Hali his followers For so the Persians vse to say in their prayers Cursed be Ebubeker Omar and Osman GOD be fauourable to Hali and well pleased with him Vsuncassan moued with his fame gaue him in mariage his daughter Martha begot of the Christian Lady Despina daughter of Calo Ioannes Emperour of Trapezond both of them by this alliance strengthning themselues against the Turke Aidar had by this Martha Ismael whom she trayned vp in the principles of Christian Religion Iacob successor of Vsuncassan iealous of the multitude of Aidars disciples and the greatnesse of his fame caused him to be secretly murthered persecuting all his professed followers with fire and sword Ismael then a child fled into Hyrcania to one Pyrchales a friend of his fathers who afterwards ayded him to the recouering of his patrimonie Boterus saith that Iacob after the murther of Aidar committed his two sonnes Ismael and Solyman to Amanzar a Captayne of his to be conueyed to Zalga a strong mountaynie place but he brought them vp liberally with his owne children and in his last sicknesse gaue them horse and two hundred Ducats with aduice to repaire to their mother where taking vpon him the protection of the sect of Hali and the reuenge of his fathers death his enterprises succeeded prosperously Giouan Maria Angiolelio saith that Iacob being poysoned 1485. the Signiorie was possessed by a kinseman of Iacobs called Iulauer after whose three yeeres raigne succeeded Baysingir two yeeres after Rustan seuen yeares who sent Solimanbec against Sechaidar the father of Ismael who made challenge to the State in right of his wife the daughter of Vsuncassan who slew him in the field Rustan would also haue killed the mother and her sonnes had not entreatie of his Nobles preuented it He committed them to ward in the Iland of the Armenians in the Lake Astumar whither he sent for them againe after three yeeres but they for feare fled to Ardouil there liued closely for a time Rustan was slaine by Agmat through his mothers procurement who loued that Agmat who abode Sultan fiue months was slaine by Rustans Souldiers And Aluan the kinsman of Vsuncassan was Signior whom Ismael slew A certaine Merchant who abode a long time in Tauris and trauelled thorow the most part of Persia skilfull of the Turkish Persian and Arabian languages either seeing himselfe or learning of them which did see in the time of Ismael relates this history somewhat otherwise whom as learning of the Persians themselues the Persian affaires we may reckon worthy to be followed Hee saith that this Sechaidar in Ardouil was this head of thy Sophian Sect and had three sonnes and three daughters by the daughter of Vsuncassan He was a zealous enemie against the Christians oftentimes with his followers repayring into Circassia doing the people much damage which when in the daies of Sultan Alumut hee attempted as before times he was by Alumuts order forbidden at Darbent further passage but seeking to make way by force he was by the forces of Alumut taken and his head on the top of a Lance presented to Alumut and by his command giuen to the Dogges to bee eaten the cause why the Sophians are such enemies vnto Dogs killing all they finde This newes comming to Ardouil his three sonnes fled one into Natolia another to Aleppo Ismael the third to an Iland in the Lake of Van in which is a Citie of Christian Armenians where he abode foure yeeres in the house of an Armenian Priest being then about thirteene yeeres old who vsed him courteously and instructed him in the rudiments of Christian Religion A yeere after he went from Arminig to Chillan where he kept with a Gold-smith his fathers friend In this time hee had intelligence by mutuall writing with his friends at Ardouil and with this Gold-smith hauing gathered together eighteene or twentie men of their Sect secretly to take a strong Castle called Maumutaga and hidden in ambush two hundred horse-men of his friends in Ardouill suddenly slaying the Guard and possessing himselfe of the Castle he entred a Towne not farre from the Castle killing the Inhabitants and carrying the spoile to the Castle This Castle was verie rich because it was a principall Hauen of the Caspian Sea and so strong that when Alumut had newes hereof hee was disswaded from sending any power thither to besiege him Two daies iourney from hence is Sumachi which with his power now encreased he also took and diuided the spoiles euery where to his Souldiers which with fame of this liberalitie came from all parts vnto him He sent also into Hiberia three or four daies iourny from thence which was then gouerned by seuen great Lords three of which Alexander Sbec Gorgurambec and Mirzambec with many promises of present spoiles and future exemptions from tribute hee won to his side receiuing from each of them three thousand horse so that he was now growne fifteene or sixteene thousand strong Alumut with thirtie thousand valiant Souldiers went to meet him between Tauris Sumachia and hauing passed a great Riuer ouer which were two Bridges he presently caused them to be broken Ismael arriuing there the next day with great diligence found a passage thorow the streame and with his whole forces in front in the breake of the day assailed Alumut his armie little suspecting such a good morrow that Alumut with a few companions hardly escaped The pauilions horses and other bootie Ismael bestowed on his Souldiers and then hasted to Tauris where entring without resistance hee made great slaughter killing all the race of Iacob opening his Sepulchre and the Graues of other Noble-men which had been at the battaile of Darbent against his father and burning their bones three hundred harlots he caused to be cut asunder in the middle hee killed all the Dogs in Tauris and because his mother had married to one of those Nobles which were in the battaile of Darbent he caused her head to bee stricken off in his presence In this while many Townes Cities Castles and Lords submitted themselues to him and weare his red-coloured Turbant but the Castle Alangiachana whereto were subiect eighteene Villages of Christians which vsed yeerely to send to Rome two men from the Patriarch to the Pope of whose faith they were speaking Armenian hauing some bookes but quite lost the vse of the Italian language this Castle I say held out for Alumut vntill his death While
Ismael was Sultan in Tauris the Sultan in Bagadet Murat Can son of Iacob with an army of 30000. marched against him and in a plaine meeting with Ismael was there ouerthrown not seuentie persons escaping to Bagadet with Murat Can the place bearing witnes of the slaughter buried vnder many new hils of bones All these things were done An. 1499. And while I was in Tauris many came from Natolia Caramania and Turkie to serue him of whom they were graciously entertained An. 1507. our Author being then in Malacia saw with his eyes the Sultan Alumut conueyed prisoner by Amirbec who with foure thousand men going from Mosull neere to the sometime-Niniue to Amit where the Sultan kept with promise and profession of his succour being admitted the Citie tooke him and cast a chaine about his necke whose head Ismael smote off with his owne hands He was presented to him by Amirbec in the Country of Aladuli against whom Ismael was now warring where taking the Citie Cartibirt he cut off the head of Becarbec sonne of Aladuli Lord thereof with his owne hands From thence returning to Tauris hee had almost done as much to his two brethren whom hee had left Gouernours in his absence for transgressing their Commission but with much intreatie of his Lords spared their liues yet confined them to Ardouill not to depart from thence The next yeere hee pursued Murat Can who was come to Syras a Citie not inferiour to Cairo in Egypt with thirtie sixe thousand men but male-content and therefore many of them flying vnto Ismael Whereupon Murat Can sent two Embassadours with fiue hundred followers with offer of Vassallage vnto him Ismael cut them all in pieces saying That if Murat Can would be his Vassall hee should come in person not by Embassage Murat Can had closely sent Spies to obserue the sequell of his businesse and being hereof by them aduertised fled For many of his Nobles had alreadie put on the red Turbant of whom he feared to bee taken as Alumut had beene and therefore with three thousand of his most faithful he fled vnto Aleppo but the Soldan of Cairo not admitting him he went to Aladuli who entertained him honourably and gaue him his daughter to wife Ismael after great slaughter in Siras and Bagadet was forced to returne to Spaan with his Armie For Ieselbas the Tartar had taken all the Countrie of Corasan and the great Citie of Eri which is in compasse betwixt fortie and fiftie miles well peopled and full of Merchandize He had taken also Straua Amixandaran and Sari on the Caspian shoare and with intent to beguile Ismael desired leaue to passe thorow his Countrey to Mecca on Pilgrimage Ismael with deniall and other sharpe words repelled his suit and abode a yeere in Spaan to withstand his enterprises After he returned to Tauris where were great triumphs solemnized in his honour This Sophi is so loued and feared saith this Merchant that they hold him as a God especially his Souldiers of which some goe into the warres without Armour holding it sufficient that Ismael will succour them others because they content themselues to die for Ismael goe into battaile with naked breast crying Schiak Schiak that is God God And they forget the name of God alway naming Ismael they hold That hee shall not die but liue euer And where other Mosulmans say La ylla yllala Mahamet resullalla the Persians say La ylla yllala Ismael vellilalla reputing him a God and a Prophet I haue learned that Ismael is not contented to be called or worshipped as god Their custome is to weare red Bonnets with a certaine thing like a girdle large below and straighter vpwards made with twelue folds a finger thick signifying the twelue Sacraments of their sect or those twelue brethren nephewes of Ali. Ismael was of faire countenance of reasonable stature thicke and large in the shoulders shauen all but the mustachees left-handed stronger then any of his Nobles but giuen to Sodomie At his second comming to Tauris hee caused to take twelue of the fairest boyes in the City to serue his lust and after gaue to each of his Nobles one for the like purpose before tooke ten of the best mens sonnes for the same intent Thus farre haue wee had commerce with this namelesse Persian Merchant in Ramusius his shop who sometime attended on his Court and Campe Others adde hereutto that he sent Embassadours to all the Mahumetan Princes of the East to receiue that Red-hat Ensigne together with his Sect as did his sonne Tammas after him when Nizzamulucco onely accepted thereof But it is the common opinion that the greatest part of the Mahumetans in Soria and of Asia Minor are secretly of that Sect Ismael after this warred and wonne vpon the Zagatai Tartars and other adiacent Nations that hee left vnto his successours a verie great estate reaching from the Caspian Sea to the Persian and betweene the Lake Iocco and Tygris the Riuer Abbiam and the Kingdome of Cambaya more then twentie Degrees from East to West and eighteene from North to South Hee ordained a new Lyturgie and forme of Praier differing from the ancient Such was his authoritie that they would sweare By the Head of Ismael and blesse his name saying Ismael grant thee thy desire Vpon his Coyne on the one side was written La illahe illalahu Muhamedun resulalallahe And on the other Ismaill halife lullahe that is Ismael the Vicar of GOD. The Iewes at the first had this Ismael in such admiration that they foolishly reckoned Ismael to be their promised Messias gratulating themselues in this conceit thorowout the most part of Europe celebrating festiuall Solemnities with mutuall Presents in testimonie of their ioy which yet was soone dashed none hating the Iewes more then Ismael He lieth buried at Ardouil in a faire Meskit with a sumptuous Sepulchre made by himselfe in his life time where is a faire Stone Hospitall erected by him for strangers allowing to all trauellers three daies reliefe for horse and man freely Ardouil is in latitude thirtie eight degrees The life of Ismael had beene answerable to the bloudie presages in his ominous birth for he came forth of his mothers wombe with both his hands shut and full of bloud for which cause his father would not haue brought him vp but commanded him to be slaine but they which carried him away moued with compassion secretly nourished him three yeeres and after presented him to his father who then acknowledged and receiued him with loue and kindnesse for this his bloudie and warre-like spirit dwelt in a louely and amiable bodie adorned with all the Ensignes of beautie Hee died Anno 1524. HONGIVS his Map of PERSIA PERSICUM REGNUM §. IIII. Of SHAVGH TAMAS the Persian troubles after his death SCHIACH THECMES or Shaugh Tamas succeeded and reigned aboue fiftie yeeres Hee liued deuoutly and yet for their Law reconcileth both verie voluptuously
and Peloponnesus for feare of a second returne of Techellis The remainder of Techellis his power as they fled into Persia robbed a Carauan of Merchants for which outrage comming to Tauris their Captaines were by Ismaels command executed and Techellis himselfe burnt aliue but yet is this Sect closely fauoured in Asia §. III. Of their Rites Persons Places and Opinions Religious WE haue now seene the Proceedings of this Sophian Sect both in Persia and Turkie both here kept downe and there established by force To weare red on the lower parts of their body were to these Red-heads scarsely piacular Touching Hali they haue diuers dreames as that when they doubted of Mahomets successor a little Lizard came into a Councell assembled to decide the controuersie and declared that it was Mahomets pleasure that Mortus Ali or Morts Ali should be the man He had a sword wherewith hee killed as many as he stroke At his death he told them that a white Camell would come for his body which accordingly came and carried his dead body and the sword and was therewith taken vp into heauen for whose returne they haue long looked in Persia For this cause the King kept a horse ready sadled and kept for him also a daughter of his to be his wife but she died in the yeere 1573. And they say further that if he come not shortly they shall be of our beleefe They haue few bookes and lesse learning There is often great contention and mutinie in great Townes which of Mortus Ali his sonnes was greatest sometime two or three thousand people being together by the eares about the same as I haue seene sayth Master Ducket in Shamaky and Ardouill and Tauris where I haue seene a man comming from fighting and in a brauery bringing in his hand foure or fiue mens heads carrying them by the hayre of the crowne For although they shaue their heads commonly twice a weeke yet leaue they a tuft of hayre vpon their heads about two foot long whereof when I enquired the cause They answered that thereby they may bee the easier carried vp into heauen when they are dead In praying they turne to the South because Mecca lyeth that way from them When they be on trauell in the way many of them will as soone as the Sunne riseth light from their horses turning themselues to the South and will lay their gownes before them with their swords and beads and so standing vpright doe their holy things many times in their prayers kneeling downe and kissing their beades or somewhat else that lieth before them When they earnestly affirme a matter they sweare by God Mahomet and Mortus Ali and sometime by all at once saying Olla Mahumet Ali and sometime Shaugham bosshe that is by the Shaughes head Abas the young Prince of Persia charged with imputation of treason after other Purgatorie speeches sware by the Creator that spread out the ayre that founded the earth vpon the deepes that adorned the heauen with Starres that powred abroad the water that made the fire and briefly of nothing brought forth all things by the head of Ali and by the Religion of their Prophet Mahomet that hee was cleare If any Christian will become a Bosarman or one of their superstition they giue him many gifts the Gouernor of the Towne appointeth him a horse and one to ride before him on another horse bearing a sword in his hand and the Bosarman bearing an arrow in his hand rideth in the City cursing his father and mother The sword signifieth death if hee reuolt againe Before the Shaugh seemed to fauour our Nation the people abused them very much and so hated them that they would not touch them reuiling them by the names of Cafars and Gawars that is Infidels or Mis-beleeuers Afterwards they would kisse their hands and vse them gently and reuerently Drunkards and riotous persons they hate for which cause Richard Iohnson caused the English by his vicious liuing to be worse accounted of then the Russes Their opinions and rites most-what agree with the Turkish and Saracenicall Their Priests are apparelled like other men they vse euery morning and afternoone to goe vp to the toppes of their Churches and tell there a great tale of Mahomet and Mortus Ali. They haue also among them certaine holy-men called Setes accounted therefore holy because they or some of their ancestors haue beene on pilgrimage at Mecca these must be beleeued for this Saint-ship although they lie neuer so shamefully These Setes vse to shaue their heâ—ds all ouer sauing on the sides a little aboue the Temples which they leaue vnshauen and vse to braide the same as women doe their hayre and weare it as long as it will grow Iosafa Barbaro at Sammachi lodged in an Hospitall wherein was a graue vnder a vault of stone and neere vnto that a man with his beard and hayre long naked sauing that a little before and behind he was couered with a skinne sitting on a peece of a matte on the ground I sayth hee saluted him and demanded what hee did he told mee hee watched his father I asked who was his father He quoth he that doth good to his neighbour with this man in this Sepulchre I haue liued thirty yeeres and will now accompany him after death and being dead be buried with him I haue seene of the world sufficient and now haue determined to abide thus till death Another I found at Tauris on all-Soules day in the which they also vsed a commemoration of Soules departed neere to the Sepulchre in a Church-yard hauing about him many birds especially Rauens and Crowes I thought it had beene a dead corpse but was told it was a liuing Saint at whose call the birds resorted to him and he gaue them meat Another I saw when Assambei was in Armenia marching into Persia against Signior Iausa Lord of Persia and Zagatai vnto the City of Herem who drew his staffe in the dishes wherein they are and sayd certaine words and brake them all the Sultan demanded what he had sayd they which heard him answered that he said hee should be victorious and breake his enemies forces as hee had done those dishes whereupon he commanded him to be kept till his returne and finding the euent according he vsed him honourably When the Sultan rode thorow the fields he was set on a Mule and his hands bound before him because he was sometime accustomed to doe some dangerous folly at his feet there attended on him many of their religious persons called Daruise These mad trickes he vsed according to the course of the Moone sometimes in two or three dayes not eating any thing busied in such fooleries that they were faine to bind him Hee had great allowance for his expences One of those holy men there was which went naked like to the beasts preaching their faith and hauing obtained great reputation hee caused himselfe to bee immured in a wall forty
dayes there to abide without any sustenance but when this time was expired and some wondered one more nose-wise then the rest smelled the sent of flesh the Sultan hearing it committed him and his disciple to the Cadilasher who by torments caused them to confesse the coozenage for thorow a hole which was made in the wall by a caue he had broth conueyed to him and therefore they were both put to death In the yeere 1478. Chozamirech an Armenian being in his shop in Tauris an Azi or Saint of theirs came to him and willed him to deny his Christian faith he answered him courteously and prayed him not to trouble him but when he persisted hee offered him money the Saint would not haue the money but importuned his first sute Chozomirech sayd hee would not deny his Christian faith whereupon the other plucked a sword out of a mans scabard which stood by and with a wound which hee gaue the Armenian in the head killed him and ranne away But the Armenians sonne complayning to the Sultan procured his apprehension at Merin two dayes iourney from Tauris and being brought before him he with a knife killed him vvith his owne hands and caused him to be cast on a dung-hill for the dogges to eate saying Is this the way to encrease the faith of Mahomet But when some of the more zealous people went to one Daruiscassun which was in guarding of the sepulchre of Assambei the former Sultan and as it were Prior of the Hospitall and requesting of him obtayned the body to burie it the Sultan hearing it sent for him and sayde to him Darest thou countermand my commands Away and kill him which was suddenly dispatched Hee further to be reuenged of the people committed the Towne to the sack which for the space of three or foure houres was done And then he forbad further spoyle and fined the Towne in a great summe of gold Lastly hee caused the Armenians sonne to come before him and with many kind words comforted him This long history I haue inserted to shew the extremity of blind zeale and religious fury in the seculars and votaries of these Persians if iustice should not withstand their rage Before is mentioned the commemorations of their dead which is thus performed ouer their Sepulchres Thither resort great multitudes of men and women olde and yong which sit on heapes with their Priests and with their candles lighted the Priests eyther reade or pray in their language and after cause to bee brought somewhat to eate in the place the place containeth betweene foure and fiue miles the pathes which leade thither are full of poore people which beg almes some of whom offer to say some prayer for their benefactors The sepulchres haue stones vpon them engrauen with the names of the buried parties and some haue a Chappell of stone thereon At Merdin he saw a naked man which came and sate by him and pulling forth a booke read thereon and after drew neere and asked him whence he was hee answered a strangerâ— I also am a stranger saith he of this world and so are we all and therefore I haue left it with purpose to goe thus vnto mine end with many words besides touching meekenesse and the deniall of the world He said I haue seene a great part thereof and finde nothing therein that contents me and therefore haue determined to abandon it altogether To this Merdina man cannot passe but by a way made of stone continuing a mile at the head therof is a gate and way to the Towne and within the Towne is another hill with a like way of fiue hundred pases in height There is an Hospitall for entertainment of all strangers made by Ziangirboi the brother of Vsuncassan and if they be of better sort they are entertained with carpets spread for them worth an hundred ducats a peece and victuals for all commers We might heere take further view of their stately Temples their great and populous Cities and other things worthy obseruation if that our Turkish History had not related the like also among them especially touching the persons and places religious For the rest I referre the Reader to other Authors The present King Abas more as it seemeth in policie to secure himselfe of factions and against the Turke then conscience is a great persecutor of that sect of Mahomet which followeth the interpretation of Vssen and Omar This hee labours to extirpate and make odious hauing in vse once a yeere with great solemnitie to burne publikely as maine heretikes the images of Vssen and Omar Then doth he cause his great men publikely in scorne of their institution to goe with a flagon of wine carried by a footman and at euery village or where they see any assembly of people to drinke which himselfe also vseth not for loue of the wine but to scandalize the contrarie religion Yet are there of the greatest exceeding precise Turkes if they durst shew it In a Letter of Iohn Ward written in Tauris May 14. 1605. this King is blamed for making slaues of poore Armenians and forcing many to Mahumetisme pulling downe Churches and vsing more rigour then the Turke §. IIII. Of Natures wonders and the Iesuits lyes of Persia THe wonders of Nature in these parts are neere Bachu a fountaine of oyle continually running and fetched into the farthest parts of Persia and another neere Shamakie of Tarre whereof we had good vse and proofe in our ship Hereabouts you shall haue in the fields neere to any Village in the night two or three hundred Foxes howling Kine they haue like ours and another sort great boned and leane as hard sauoured as those which Pharaoh dreamed of In Persia groweth great abundance of Bombasin cotton this groweth on a certaine tree or brier not past the height of a mans waste with a slender stalk like to a brier or carnation Iuly-flower with very many branches bearing on euery branch a fruit or cod round which when it commeth to the bignesse of a Wall-nut openeth and sheweth forth the cotton which groweth still like a fleece of wooll to the bignesse of a mans fist and then being loose is gathered the seeds are flat and blacke as big as pease which they sow in their fields and plowed ground in great abundance I had thought I had ended this Chapter and our Persian Expedition but our good friends the Iesuites would needs entertaine your wearie eyes with reading an exploit of theirs related by one sometimes their fellow Catholike now I hope our fellow Christian For the credit of this honest and loyall of their honest returne not with a non est and loyall with a â—â—e all societie was a French pamphlet by them dispersed a little before the Powder-treason amongst their Catholike friends in England reporting the miraculous conuersion of the King of Persia by one Campian a Iesuite an English-man that had expelled a Deuill out of a possessed partie and commanded the Deuill
That such parts of Armenia as the Saracens now possessed and the Tartars should recouer from them might returne to the Crowne of Armenia Mangu-Can answered after deliberation with his Nobles to the first That himselfe would bee a Christian and perswade other his subiects but force none thereunto and to the rest in order that his requests in all should be fulfilled and to that end hee would send his brother Haolon into those parts as is before alreadie shewed Thus was Mangu baptized by a Bishop then Chauncellor of Armenia and all his houshold and many Nobles of both sexes But before Ierusalem could bee recouered Mangu died and Cobila or Cublai Can succeeded in whose time M. Paulus was an eye-witnesse of the Tartarian proceedings who affirmeth That this Cublai exceeded in power not his predecessours onely but all the Kingdomes of Christians and Saracens although they were ioyned in one Before hee obtained the Soueraigntie hee shewed himselfe a valiant Souldier but after hee was Emperour hee neuer fought field but once against Naiam his vncle who was able out of the Prouinces wherein he gouerned to bring together foure hundred thousand Horse to whom Caidu should haue added a hundred thousand Horse more These both conspired against their Master and Lord Cublai but before their forces were ioyned Cublai stopping the passages that none might passe to carrie newes suddenly assembled within ten dayes iourney of Cambalu three hundred and threescore thousand Horse and an hundred thousand Footmen With this power riding day and night he came suddenly on his enemies and hauing first consulted with his Diuiners after their manner gaue the on-set and tooke Naiam prisoner whom hee strangled betwixt two Carpets lest the Earth should drinke or the Sunne should see the bloud of that imperiall family Naiam had beene secretly baptized and now also had the Crosse for his Banner which occasioned the Iewes and Saracens to scoffe at the Christians but Cublai vnderstanding hereof called them all before him and said that the Crosse would not helpe such wicked men as Naiam who was a Traitour to his Lord say yee not therefore that the GOD of the Christians is vniust to forsake his followers for hee is the chiefe Bountie and Iustice Cublai by his Captaines conquered the Kindomes of Mien Bengala Mangi c. HONDIVS his Map of TARTARIA TARTARIA CHAP. XII A Continuation of the Tartarian Historie and the question discussed whether Cathay and China be the same and the iourney of BENEDICT GOES by land from Labor §. I. Of the Tartarian Succession to our dayes AFter Cublai can succeeded Tamor Can sonne to Cingis the eldest sonne of Cublai in whose time Haithon which then liued saith That there were besides three great Tartarian Princes but subiect to the great Can Chap◠which ruled in Turquestan who was able to bring into the field foure hundred thousand Horsemen armed Hotchtay in the Kingdome of Cumania who was able to arme six hundred thousand horsemen to the wars but not so resolute as the former Carbanda the third ruled in Tauris able to assemble an Army of three hundred thousand Horse well prouided And all these liued in the Westerne bounds of the Tartarian Empire euerie way inferiour in wealth and numbers to the Southerly and Easterly parts thereof Tarik Mircond a Persian in his Catalogue of the Cans or Tartarian Emperours calleth Cublai by a transposition of the syllables Vlaku For thus doth hee recite their names with the yeeres of their coronations Chinguis in the yeere of the Hegira 602. Otkay Khaon 626. Gayuk Khaon 643. Manchu Khaon 644. Vlaku Khaon 657. Haybkay Khaon 663. Hamed Khan or Nicudar Oglan 680. Argon Khon 683. Ganiaru Khon 690. Budukhan 693. Gazunkhan 694. Alyaptukhan 703. Sulton Abuzayd Bahader Khan 716. These from Cublai or Vlaku are the Cans or Vice-royes of Persia and those parts adioyning and not the great Cans themselues But of these and of Tamerlane and his issue wee haue before related at large in the fourth Persian Dynastie I haue seene the transcript of a letter sent by King Edward the Second written 1307. in the first yeere of his reigne October 16. to Diolgietus King of the Tartars against Mahomet and in behalfe of William Liddensis Episcopus and others to preach to his people But these Tartars it seemeth were of the neerer Mahumetans and not the great Can of Cathay Since Tamor Can we haue not so continued a Historie of their Empire and Emperours as before and yet wee haue had succeeding testimonies a long time of their State and Magnificence but neither so diligent obseruers nor so exact Writers as the former besides that their Histories seeme in some things more fabulous Of this later sort are Odoricus a Frier which liued three yeeres in the Emperors Court and trauelled as farre as Quinsay who died in the yeere 1331. Sir Iohn Mandeuile our Country-man spent many yeere in those Countries a few yeeres after Odoricus and writ the Historie of his Trauels in the reigne of Edward the third of England Echiant Can being then Emperour of the Tartars in which if many things seeme not worthy credit yet are they such as Odoricus or some others not of the worst Authors had before committed to writing and haply by others after his time in those dayes when Printing wanted foisted into his booke Once hee setteth downe the distances and passages of Countries so exactly as I thinke he could not then haue learned but by his owne Trauels After his time Nicholo di Conti a Venetian trauelled thorow India and Cathay after twentie fiue yeeres returning home and going to Eugenius the fourth then Pope to bee absolued because hee had denied the Christian Faith to saue his life his enioyned penance was truly to relate to Poggius tht Popes Secretarie his long peregrination This was in the yeere 1444. About the same time Iosafa Barbaro a Venetian in the yeere 1436. had learned of a Tartarian Embassadour which had beene at Cambalu and returning by Tana was entertained of the said Iosafa some particulars touching the great Cham and Cathay some part whereof he heard after confirmed by the mouth of Vsun-cassan the mightie Persian King in the yeere 1474. So that from the yeere 1246. thus farre we haue continued succession of the Cathayan Historie besides that which an Arabian hath written in this Historie of Tamerlane now extant in English §. II. The question discussed whether Cathay be the same with China I Am the more curious in naming these Authors lest any should thinke that which is written of this people to bee fabulous all these in a manner concurring in the most substantiall things and because many confound the Countries and affaires of China and Cathay The cause of both which opinions may bee because that in these last hundred yeeres and more in which more of the World then euer before hath been discouered yet nothing of moment is found out of this
storie is not yet because I haue done thus in other Nations and haue so worthy a patterne in this as the Worthy of our Age Iosephus Scaliger pardon mee to trouble thee with this Chronicle of their Kings The first was Vitey a Gyant-like man a great Astrologer and Inuenter of Sciences hee reigned an hundred yeeres They name after him an hundred and sixteene Kings whose names our Author omitteth all which reigned two thousand two hundred fiftie and seuen yeeres all these were of his linage and so was Tzintzon the maker of that huge wall of China which killed many of the Chinois of whom hee tooke euery third man to this worke For which cause they slue him when he had reigned fortie yeeres with his sonne Aguizi They ordained King in his stead Auchosau who reigned twelue yeeres his sonne Futey succeeded and reigned seuen yeeres his wife eighteene his sonne three and twentie then followed Guntey foure and fiftie Guntey the second thirteene Ochantey fiue and twentie Coantey thirteene Tzentzey sixe and twentie and foure moneths Anthoy sixe Pintatcy fiue Tzintzumey three and seuen moneths Huy Hannon sixe Cuoum two and thirtie Bemthey eighteene Vnthey thirteene Othey seuenteene Yanthey eight moneths Antey nineteene yeeres Tantey three moneths Chitey one yeere Linthey two and twentie yeeres Yanthey one and thirtie yeeres Laupy one and fortie yeeres Cuythey fiue and twntie yeeres Fontey seuenteene yeeres Fifteene other Kings reigned in all one hundred seuentie and sixe yeeres The last of which was Quioutey whom Tzobu deposed who with seuen of his linage reigned threescore and two yeeres Cotey foure and twentie yeeres Dian sixe and fiftie yeeres Tym one and thirtie yeeres Tzuyn seuen and thirtie yeeres Tauco with his linage which were one and twentie reigned two hundred ninetie and foure yeres Bausa a Nunne wife of the last of them whom she slue one and fortie yeeres Tautzon slue her and reigned with his posteritie which were seuen Kings one hundred and thirtie yeeres Dian eighteene yeeres Outon fifteene yeeres Outzim nine yeeres and three moneths Tozon foure yeeres Auchin ten yeeres Zaytzon and seuenteene of his race three hundred and twentie yeeres Tepyna the last was dispossessed by Vzon the Tartar vnder whom and eight of his Tartarian successours China endured subiection ninetie and three yeeres Gombu or Hum-vu expelled Tzintzoum the last of them He with thirteene successours haue reigned about two hundred and fortie yeeres There computation of times is more prodigious then that of the Chaldaeans after which this present yeere of our Lord 1614. is in their account from the Creation 884793. CHAP. XIX Of the Religion vsed in China §. I. Of their Gods and Idols in former times HOw much the greater things are reported of this so large a Countrey and mightie a Kingdome so much the more compassion may it prouoke in Christian hearts that amongst so many people there is scarce a Christian who amongst so ample reuenues which that King possesseth payeth either heart or name vnto the King of Heauen till that in so huge a Vintage the Iesuites of late haue gleaned a few handfulls to this profession Before wee come to the Narration of their gods I thinke it fit to deliuer what our ancienter Authors haue obserued of their Religion and then to come to the Moderne They were before the Tartarian Conquest giuen to Astrologie and obserued Natiuities and gaue directions in all matters of weight These Astrologers or Magicians told Farfur the King of China or Mangi that his Kingdome should neuer be taken from him but by one which had a hundred eyes And such in name was Chinsanbaian the Tartarian Captaine which dispossessed him of his state and conquered it to the great Can about 1269. This Farfur liued in great delicacie nor did euer feare to meet with such an Argus He brought vp yeerely two hundred thousand Infants which their Parents could not prouide for and euery yeere on certaine of his Idoll-holy-dayes feasted his principall Magistrates and all the wealthiest Citizens of Quinsay ten thousand persons at once ten or twelue dayes together There were then some few Nestorian Christians one Church at Quinsay two at Cinghianfu and a few others They had many Idoll-Monasteries They burned their dead the kinsmen of the dead accompanied the corps clothed in Canuas with Musicke and Hymnes to their Idols and when they came to the fire they cast therein many papers wherein they had painted Slaues Horses Camels c. as of the Cathayans is before reported to serue him in the next world They returne after their Funerall Rites are finished with like harmony of Instruments and Voyces in honor of their Idols which haue receiued the soule of the deceased They had many Hospitals for the poore where idle persons were compelled to worke and poore impotents relieued Odoricus affirmeth that at Kaitan or Zaiton hee found two Couents of Minorite-Fryers and many Monasteries of Idolaters in one whereof hee was in which as it was told him were three thousand Votaries and eleuen thousand Idols One of those Idols lesse then some others was as big as the Popish Christopher These Idols they feed euery day with the smoake of hot meates set before them but the meate they eate themselues At Quinsay a Chinian conuert led him into a certaine Monastery where hee called to a Religious person and said This Raban Francus that is this Religious French-man commeth from the Sunne-setting and is now going to Cambaleth to pray for the life of the great Can and therefore you must shew him some strange sight Then the said Religious person tooke two great baskets full of broken reliques and led mee into a little walled Parke and vnlocked the doore We entred into a faire greene wherein was a Mount in forme of a steeple replenished with Hearbs and Trees Then did hee ring with a Bell at the sound whereof many Creatures like Apes Cats and Monkeyes came downe the Mount and some had faces like men to the number of some thousand and two hundred putting themselues in good order before whom he set a platter and gaue them those fragments Which when they had eaten he rung the second time and they all returned to their former places I wondred at the sight and demanded what creatures they were They are quoth he the soules of Noble-men which we here feed for the loue of GOD who gouerneth the World And as a man was honourable in his life so his soule entereth after death into the body of some excellent beast but the soules of simple and rusticall people possesse the bodies of more vile and brutish creatures Neither could I disswade him from the opinion or perswade him that any soule might remaine without a body Nic. di Conti saith that when they rise in the morning they turne their faces to the East and with their hands ioyned say God in Trinitie keepe vs in his Law §. II. Of their present Gods and Idols THeir Religion
timely and quick passage and be borne againe in richer Families And therefore they seeke no corners but execute their bloudy parricides publikely Yea greater abominations then these are here perpetrated vpon as sleight grounds many laying violent hands vpon themselues both in desperation and impatience and in malice also so to hurt their enemies Thus they say many thousands both of men and women euery yeere drowne themselues in Riuers hang themselues sometimes at their aduersaries doors or poyson themselues whereupon their kindred complaine to the Magistrates on those which gaue cause or occasion to these extremities which sometimes are seuere in these cases to the accused It may be reckoned among their cruelties which in the Northerne Prouinces is practised the gelding of their Male-Infants so to make them capable of the Kings seruice none other being admitted to attend or speake with Him and the whole sway of the Kingdome being in great part in these vn-manly hands of ten thousand scarce any but Plebeian illiterate seruile in condition and conditions impotent impudent of weake both conceit and performance Neither is this a little crueltie that the Magistrates are thought to kill as many against the Lawes as the Lawes themselues by execution of iudiciall sentence by their custome of beating men with Canes in manner at their owne lust This makes men that they are not Masters of their owne but are in continuall feare to be vndone by calumny and tyranny The Choinois are also a fraudulent and treacherous people They contemne strangers scorning to learne any thing out of their bookes as being vnlearned and rude yea all the Characters whereby they expresse the name of strangers are compounded of such as signifie beasts hauing indeed a beastly and diabolicall conceit of them When Embassadors come to them from Neighbour-Countries to pay their tributes or for other busines they are very suspiciously intreated entertained as captiues all the time of their iourney not permitting them to see any thing They shut them vp like beasts in stables within their Palaces neuer admit them the Kings presence themselues dealing with few of the Magistrates and all their businesse being ordered by Officers thereto assigned Nor may any natiue trauell out of the Kingdome without diuers cautelesse Petreius the Portugall Embassador died in prison at Canton They will not suffer strangers which haue staid long in China in some places the custome is nine yeeres to returne from thence Their Souldiers are base meere mercinaries not regarding honor where they are not rewarded with honor alike vile in estimation and action the most part slaues thereto by their owne or parents wickednesse legally condemned except at times of employment being Porters Horse-keepers or of like seruile drudgerie Their Captaines and Commanders haue some shaddow of dignitie but the substance we haue before rightly attributed to them who can punish these as the meanest Long nayles are some say accounted a Gentlemanly signe as of hands not employed to labour Their exceeding pride in which they are not exceeded of any appeared in this that they thought the Iesuites must needs attaine the Popedome at their returne into Europe as hauing so much bettered their learning by the Chinois Authors But These haue since euen by the opinion of learning obtained a better estimation It were tedious to tell of their opinions touching the Creation All being a rude and vnformed Chaos Tayn say they framed and settled the Heauen and Earth This Tayn created Pauzon and Pauzona Pauzon by power of Tayn created Tanhom and his thirteene brethren Tanhom gaue names to all things and knew their vertues and with his said brethren multiplied their generations which continued the space of ninetie thousand yeeres And then Tayn destroyed the world for their pride and created another man named Lotzitzam who had two hornes of sweet sauour out of which presently did spring forth both men and women The first of these was Alazan which liued nine hundred yeeres Then did the Heauen create another man Lotzitzam was now vanished named Atzion whose Mother Lutim was with child with him only in seeing a Lions head in the ayre This was done in Truchin in the Prouince of Santon he liued eight hundred yeeres After this Vsao and Hantzui and Ocheutey with his sonne Ezonlom and his nephew Vitei the first King of China they say were the inuenters of their many Arts In the later Epistles from China dated 1606. and 1607. little is there to further this Historie As for their tales of Miracles in those and the Iaponian Epistles bearing the same date wherein Ignatius Loyolaes picture is made a miracle-worker I hold them not worth relation The Chinois beleeue as is there reported that there is a certaine spirit which hath power of the life and death of children that are sicke of the measells and therefore when their children are sicke thereof they hang a glasse before the dore of the chamber where he lyeth that the spirit comming to destroy the child seeing his Image in that glasse should not dare to approach neerer Their Baptisme cured the disease a new remedy for measels a new vertue of Baptisme Their order for the Poore may be a patterne vnto Christians they suffer none to beg nor to be idle If any be blinde yet hee is set to some worke as grinding in a Querne or such like of which sort after Boterus account there are foure thousand blind persons that grinde still in Canton alone If they be impotent that they cannot worke their friends if they be able must-prouide for them if not they are kept in Hospitalls out of which they neuer passe and haue all necessaries prouided them by Officers appointed in euery Citie to this businesse Common women are confined to certaine places and may not goe abroad nor dwell in the Citie for infecting others and are accountable to a certaine Officer of their euill earnings which when they are old is bestowed on their maintenance Their dwelling is in the Suburbs of Cities They are great Sodomites although they haue many Wiues and Concubines which they buy of their Parents or in the Markets in like manner as the Turkes They are not by Law prescribed to obserue this or that Sect and therefore they haue many Sects some worshipping the Sunne some the Moone some nothing and all what themselues best like as is in part before shewed They take their oathes as here by kissing a booke with thrice drinking of a certaine liquor Antony Dalmeida saith that in saying Masse they were so thronged with the people that they were almost trodden vnder foot And of a Chinian Priest contrarie to the zeale elsewhere in any Religion they were inuited to dinner and feasted together with many other of their Priests that vsed them kindly §. VIII Of their Temples IT followeth now that we speake of places Religious amongst the Chinois of which their Temples challenge the first place their Sepulchres the next Of
more vnhappy tense when they were there was a Citie great strong and very faire with walls of Stone and great Ditches round about it with many Crocodiles in them There are two Townes the old in which the Merchants abide and the houses are made of Canes called Bambos and the new for the King and his Nobilitie the Citie is so subiect to fire that euery day Proclamation is made to take heed to their fire The Citie is square with faire walls hauing in each Square fiue Gates besides many Turrets for Centinels to watch made of wood and gilded very faire The Streets are strait as a line from one Gate to another and so broad that ten or twelue men may ride a-front through them On both sides at euery mans doore is set a Coco-tree yeelding a faire shew and comfortable shaddow that a man might walke in the shade all day The houses are made of Wood and couered with Tiles The Kings house is in the midst walled and ditched about and the houses within of Wood sumptuously wrought and guilded And the house wherein his Pagode or Idoll standeth is couered with Tiles of Siluer and all the walls are guilded with Gold Within the first gate of the Kings house was a large roome on both sides whereof were houses made for the Kings Elephants Among the rest hee had foure white Elephants a thing rare in Nature but more precious in his estimation For this is part of his Royall Title The King of the white Elephants And if any other hath any he will seeke by fauour or force to haue the same which some say was the cause of the quarrell betwixt him and the King of Siam Great seruice was done vnto them Euery one of these white Elephants stood in an house guilded with Gold and were fed in vessels of Siluer gilt One of them as hee went euery day to the Riuer to bee washed passed vnder a Canopie of Cloth of Gold or Silke carried by sixe or eight men as many going before playing on Drums or other Instruments At his comming out of the Riuer a Gentleman washed his feet in a Siluer Bason There were of blacke Elephants nine Cubits high The King was said to haue aboue fiue thousand Elephants of Warre There was about a mile from Pegu a place builded with a faire Court in it to take wilde Elephants in a Groue which they doe by the female Elephants trained to this purpose and anointed with a certaine Oyle which causeth the wilde Elephant to follow her When the Hunts-men haue brought the Elephant neere to the Citie they send word thereof and many Horse-men and Foot-men come out and cause the female to take a streight way which leadeth to the place where shee entereth and hee after her for it is like a Wood. When they are in the gate is shut and they get out the female The wilde one seeing himselfe alone weepeth and runneth against the walles which are made of strong trees some of them breake their teeth therewith Then they pricke him with sharpe Canes and cause him to goe into a strait house and there fasten him with a rope and let him fast three or foure dayes and then bring a femall to him with meat and drinke within few dayes taming him When they goe into the Warres they set a frame of wood vpon their backes bound with great Cordes wherein sit foure or six men which fight with Guns Darts Arrowes and other weapons All Authors agree that no beast commeth so neere the reason of a man as the Elephant yea they seeme to goe before some men in conceit haughtinesse desire of glory thankefulnesse c. The Peguans are beardlesse and carrie pinsers about them to plucke out the hayres if any grow They blacke their teeth for they say a Dogge hath white teeth The men of Pegu Aua Iangoma and Brama weare balls in their yards which they put in the skinne being cut and weare for euery childe one till they haue three and may take them out at pleasure the least as bigge as any Wall-nut the biggest as bigge as a little Hennes Egge They were inuented to preuent Sodomie which they vse more then any people in the world Abusing the Male-Sexe causeth the women also to weare scant clothes that as they goe their thigh is seene bare to prouoke men to lust Both these were ordained by a certaine Queene for those causes and are still obserued If the King giue any one of his Balles it is a great Iewell accounted they heale the place in sixe or eight dayes The Bramans that are of the Kings bloud pricke some part of their skinne and put therein a blacke colour which lasteth alway If any Merchant resort thither hee shall haue many maydes saith Linschoten offered him by their parents to take his choyse and hauing agreed with their parents hee may for the time of his abode vse her as his slaue or his Concubine without any discredit to her Yea if hee come againe after shee is marryed hee may for the time hee stayeth there demaund her in like sort to his vse And when a man marrieth hee will request some of his friends to lye the first night with his Bride There are also among them that sow vp the priuie part of their Daughters leauing onely passage for Vrine which when they marry passe vnder the Surgeons hand for remedie Gasper Balby and Got. Arthus tell of another custome of their Virgins if that name may bee giuen them For saith hee Virgines in hoc regno omnino nullas reperire licet Puellae enim omnes statim à pueritia sua medicamentum quoddam vsurpant quo muliebria distenduntur aperta continentur idque propter globulos quos in virgis viri gestant illis enim admittendis virgines arctiores nullo modo sufficerunt Their money is called Ganza and is made of Copper and Leade which euery man may stampe that will Gold and Siluer is merchandise and not money The tides of the Sea betweene Martauan and Pegu by Caesor Fredricke are reputed the greatest wonder which hee saw in his trauels being so violent that the ayre is filled with noyse and the earth quaketh at the approach of this watery element shooting the Boats that passe therewith as arrowes which at a high water they suffer not to anchor in the Channell which would betray them to the deuouring iawes of the returning tide but draw them toward some Banke where they rest in the ebbe on dry land as high vpon the Channels bottome as any house top And if they arriue not at their certaine stations they must backe againe whence they came no place else being able to secure them And when it encreaseth againe it giueth them their calls or salutations the first waue washeth ouer the Barke from stemme to sterne the second is not so furious the third raiseth the Anchor In Negrais in Pegu diuers people dwell in Boates which they call
beene expelled the Hospitall But alacke for pitie of so rufull an accident a Hawke had beene admitted thither for the cure of his lame legge which being whole hee inhospitally slue many of these co-hospitall weaker Fowles and was therefore expelled this Bird-Colledge by the Master thereof For Men they had not an Hospitall that were thus hospitall to Fowles They haue certaine Religious persons called Verteas which liue in a Colledge together and when I went to their House they were about fiftie in number They ware white cloth were bare-headed and shauen if that word might bee applied to them who pull off their haire on their heads and faces leauing onely a little on their crowne They liue on almes nor receiue they but the surplusage of the daily food of him that giueth them They are wiuelesse The Orders of their Sect are written in a booke of the Guzarates writing They drinke their water hot not for Physike but deuotion supposing that the water hath a Soule which they should slay if they dranke the same vnsodden For the same cause they beare in their hands certaine little brushes with which they sweepe the floore before they sit downe or walke lest they should kill the soule of some Worme or other small creature I saw their Prior thus doing The Generall of this Order is said to haue an hundred thousand men vnder his canonicall obedience and is newly chosen euery yeere I saw amongst them little boyes of eight or nine yeere old resembling the countenances of Europe rather then of India by their parents consecrated to this Order They had all in their mouth a cloth foure fingers broad let thorow both their eares in a hole and brought backe againe thorow their cares They would not shew me the cause but I perceiued it was lest some Gnat or Flie should enter thither and so bee slaine They teach that the world was made many hundred thousand yeeres agoe and that God did then send three and twentie Apostles and how hath sent the foure and twentieth in this third age two thousand yeeres since from which time they haue had writing which before they had not The same Author in another Epistle saith That the most of the Inhabitants of Cambaia are Banians They eat no flesh nor â—ill any thing yea they redeem the beasts and birds maymed or ficke and carry them to their Hospitals to be cured In Guzarat he had seene many Gioghi a religious Order of Monks which yeeld to none in Penance and Pouertie They go naked in cold weather they sleep on the dung-hils vpon an heape of ashes with which they couer their head and face I saw the place where one of these Gioghi kept in the middest of the Citie Amadeba to whom in conceit of holinesse resorted more numbers of people then to the shoares of Lisbon at the returne of the Indian Fleet. This Gioghi was sent for by the Prince Sultan Morad sonne of the Mogor and refused to come bidding that the Prince should come to him It is enough that I am holy or a Saint to this end Whereupon the Prince caused him to be apprehended and being soundly whipped to bee banished This people killeth not their Kine but nourisheth them as their mothers I saw at Amadeba when a Kow was ready to die they offered her fresh grasse and draue he Flies from her and some of them gaue this attendance two or three dayes after till shee was dead A league and a halfe from this Citie I saw a certaine Coemiterium or burying-place then which I had neuer seene a fairer sight wherein had beene buried one Cazis the Master of a King of Guzarat who had erected this fabrike and three other were buried in another Chappell The whole worke and pauement was of Marble contayning three Iles in one whereof I told foure hundred and fortie pillars with their chapiters and bases of Corinthian worke very royall and admirable On one side was a Lake greater then the Rozzio at Lisbon and that building was curiously framed with faire windowes to looke into the Lake Balbi telleth of a certaine Temple at Cape Bombain not farre from Chaul which is cut out of a Rocke ouer the said Temple growe many Tamarinds and vnder it is a Spring of running water whereof they can finde no bottome It is called Alefante is adorned with many Images a receptacle of Bats and supposed the worke of Alexander the Great as the period of his Peregrination And hereto agreeth the report of Arrianus in his Periplus of many memorials and monuments of Alexanders Expedition to these Parts as old Chappels Altars Camping-places and great Pits These hee mentioneth about Minnagara which Ortelius in his Map placeth here-away Linschoten affirmeth the same things of their Pythagorean errour and addeth that they sometimes buy Fowles or other beasts of the Portugals which meant to haue dressed them and let them flie or runne away In the High-wayes also and Woods they set pots with water and cast Corne or other graine vpon the ground to feed the Birds and Beasts and to omit their charitable Hospitals before mentioned if they take a Flea or a Louse they will not kill it but put it in some hole or corner in the wall and so let it goe and you can doe them no greater iniurie then to kill it in their presence which with all intreatie they will resist as being a hainous sin to take away the life of that to which God hath imparted both soule and body and where words will not preuaile they will offer money They eate no Radishes Onyons Garlike or any kind of Herbe that hath red colour in it nor Egges for they thinke there is bloud in them They drinke not Wine nor vse Vinegar but only Water They would rather starue then eat with any but their countrey-men as it happened when I sailed from Goa to Cochin with them in a Portugall Ship when they had spent all their store the timefalling out longer then they made account of they would not once touch our meat They wash themselues euery time they eate or ease themselues or make water Vnder their haire they haue a star vpon their foreheads which they rub euery morning with a little white Sanders tempered with water and three or foure graines of Rice among it which the Bramenes also do as a superstitious ceremony of their law They sit on the ground in their houses vpon Mats or Carpets and so they eate leauing their shooes which are piked and hooked at the doore for the which cause the heeles of their shooes are seldome pulled vp to saue labour of vndoing them The Moores amongst them will sometimes abuse the superstition of these Cambayans to their owne couetousnesse bringing some Worme Rat or Sparrow and threatning to kill the same so to prouoke them to redeeme the life thereof at some high price And likewise if a malefactor be condemned to death they will purchase his life
Hermites reputed very holy Many Iuglers also and Witches which shew deuilish tricks They neuer goe forth without praying Euery Hill Cliffe Hole or Den hath his Pagodes in it with their Furnaces hard by them and their Cisternes alwayes full of water with which euery one that passeth by washeth his feet and then worshippeth and offereth Rice Egges or what else their deuotion will affoord which the Bramene eateth When they are to goe to Sea they will feast their Pagode with Trumpets Fires and hangings fourteene dayes before they set forth to obtaine a good voyage and as long after their returne which they vse to doe in all their Feasts Marriages Child-births and their Haruest and Seed-seasons The Indian women in Goa when they goe forth haue but one cloth about their bodies which couereth their heads and hangeth downe to the knees otherwise naked They haue rings thorow their noses about their legs toes neckes and armes and seuen or eight bracelets vpon their hands according to their abilitie of glasse or other metall When the woman is seuen yeeres old and the man nine they marry but come not together till the woman is able to beare children Mr. Fitch mentioneth the solemnitie of these marriages and the cause to be the burning of the mother when the father is dead that they might haue a father-in-law to bring them vp To leaue Goa with this Iland The Canaras and Decanijns weare their beards and haire long without cutting as the Bramenes They except from food Kine Hogs and Buffles They account the Oxe Cow or Buffle to be holy which they haue commonly in the house with them and they belmeere stroke and handle them with all friendship in the world feed them with the same meat they eate themselues and when the beasts ease themselues they hold vnder their hands and throw the dung away they sleepe with them in their houses hereby thinking to doe God seruice In other things they are as the Bramenes For those are the Laitie these are the Spiritualtie When they take their oathes they are set within a circle of ashes on the pauement and laying a few ashes on their heads the other on their breasts sweare by their Pagodes to tell the truth The Canarijns and the Corumbijns are the rustickes and Countrey-husbandmen the most miserable people of all India their Religion is much as the other They couer onely their Priuities and eate all things except Kine Oxen Buffles Hogs and Hens flesh Their women binde a cloth about their Nauell which reacheth halfe way the thigh they are deliuered alone by themselues without other helpe their children are brought vp naked till they be seuen or eight yeeres old without any trouble about them except washing them in a little cold water and liue to be an hundred yeeres old without head-ache or losse of teeth They nourish a cuffe of haire on their crownes cutting the rest When the man is dead the wife breaketh her glasse-jewels and cutteth off her haire his bodie is burnt They eate so little as if they liued by the ayre and for a penny would endure whipping In Salsette are two Temples or holes rather of Pagodes renowned in all India one of which is cut from vnder a hill of hard stone and is of compasse within about the bignesse of Village of foure hundred Houses with many Galleries or Chambers of these deformed shapes one higher then another cut out of the hard Rock There are in all three hundred of these Galleries The other is in another place of like matter and forme It would make a mans haire stand vpright to enter amongst them In a little Iland called Pory there standeth a high Hill on the top whereof is a hole that goeth downe on the Hill digged and carued out of the hard Rocke within as large as a great Cloyster round beset with shapes of Elephants Tygres Amazons and other like worke workemanly cut supposed to be the Chinois handy-worke But the Portugals haue now ouerthrowne these Idol-Temples Would God they had not set new Idols in the roome with like practice of offerings and Pilgrimages as did these to their Pagode I once went into a Temple of stone in a Village and found nothing in it but a great Table that hung in the middle of the Church with the Image of a Pagode thereon painted hellishly disfigured with many hornes long teeth out of the mouth downe to the knees and and beneath his nauell with such another tusked 〈◊〉 horned face Vpon the head stood a triple crowne not much vnlike the Popes It hung before a wall which made a partition from another Chamber like a Quire close without any light in the middle whereof was a little doore and on each side of it a furnace within the wall with certaine holes thereby to let the smoake or sauour of the fire to enter into that place when any offering should bee made Whereof wee found there some Rice Corne Fruits Hens and such like There issued thence such a filthy smoake and stinke that it made the place black and almost choaked such as entred We desired the Bramene to open the doore which with much entreatie he did offering first to throw ashes on our fore-heads which wee refused so that before hee would open vs the doore we were forced to promise him not to enter beyond the doore It shewed within like a lime-kill being close vaulted without hole or window neither had the Church it selfe any light but the doore Within the the said Cell hung an hundred burning Lampes and in the middle stood a little Altar couered with Cotton Cloth and ouer that with Gold vnder which as the Bramene told vs sate the Pagode all of Gold of the bignesse of a Puppet Hard by the Church without the great doore stood within the earth a great fouresquare Cisterne hewed out of freestone with staires on each side to goe downe into it full of greene filthy and stinking water wherein they wash themselues when they meane to enter into the Church to pray In the euening they carried their Pagode on Procession first Ringing a Bell wherewith the people assembled and tooke the Pagode out of his Cell with great reuerence and set it in a Palamkin which was borne by the chiefe men of the Towne the rest following with great deuotion with their vsuall noise and sound of Trumpets and other Instruments and hauing carried him a prettie circuit brought him to the stone Cisterne washed him and placed him againe in his Cell making a foule smoake and stinke and euery man leauing his offering behind him intended to the Pagode but consumed by the Bramene and his family As we went along by the wayes we found many such shapes vnder certaine couertures with a small Cisterne of water hard by and halfe an Indian Nut hanging thereby to take vp water withall for the Trauellers to wash and pray By the said Pagodes doe stand commonly a Calfe of stone and two little
any haire except on the browes and eye-lids euen on the least child and for the space of thirteene dayes cease to eate Botels his lips are out that doth it and all that time is an Inter-regnum wherein they obserue if any will come in to obiect any thing against the new future King After this hee is sworne to the Lawes of his Predecessor to pay his debts to recouer whatsoeuer belonged to his Kingdome being lost which Oath he taketh hauing his Sword in his left hand and in the right a Candle burning which hath a Ring of Gold vpon it which he toucheth with two of his fingers and taketh his Oath This being done they throw or powre vpon him a few graines of Rice with many other Ceremonies and Prayers and he worshippeth the Sunne three times after which all the Caymailes or principall Nobles sweare their fealtie to him handling also the same Candle The thirteene dayes ended they eate their Betele againe and Flesh and Fish as before the King except who then taketh thought for his Predecessor and for the space of one whole yeere as is before obserued in part out of Barbosa eates no Betele nor shaueth his beard nor cutteth his nailes eateth but once a day and before hee doth it washeth all his bodie and obserueth certaine houres of Prayer daily The yeere being ended he obserueth a kind of Dirige for his Predecessors soule whereat are assembled 100000. persons at which time hee giueth great Almes and then it confirmed All these Malabar Kings haue one speciall Man which is the chiefe Administrator of Iustice who in matters of gouernment is obeyed no lesse then the King himselfe The Souldiers are Nayros none of which can be imprisoned or put to death by ordinarie Iustice but if one of them kill another or else kill a Cow or sleepe with a Countriewoman or speake euill of the King the King after information giues his Warrant to another Nayro who with his Associates kill him wheresoeuer they find him hewing him with their Swords and then hang on him his Warrant to testifie the cause of his death These Nayros may not weare their Weapons nor enter into combate till they be armed Knights although that from the Age of seuen yeeres they are trayned vp in Feates and practice of Armes He is dubbed or created by the King who commandeth to gird him with a Sword and laying his right hand vpon his head muttereth certaine words softly and afterward dubbeth him saying Haue a regard to keepe these Bramenes and their Kine These are the two Great Commandements of the Bramene Law The King sometimes commits this Ceremonie to their Panicall or Master in the Feats of Armes whom they euer honour as their Father and next to the King most reuerence They teach them to Run Leape Fencing and managing of Weapons and anoint them with Oyle of Gergelin to make their sinewes pliant for all winding and tumbling gestures They begin to goe to Schoole at seuen yeeres olde In fight they are valorous and account it no shame to flee but will doe it in policie and yet when they yeeld themselues to any mans seruice they bind themselues to die with him and for him which they faithfully performe fighting till they bee killed They are great South-sayers haue their good and bad Dayes worship the Sun the Moone the Fire and the Kine and the first they meet in the morning The Deuill is often in them they say it is one of their Pagodes which causeth them to vtter terrible wordes and then hee goeth before the King with a naked Sword quaking and cutting his flesh saying with great cries I am such a god and I am come to tell thee such a thing and if the King doubteth he roreth lowder and cutteth himselfe deeper till he be credited The Fortugals haue much eclipsed the greatnesse of the King of Calicut and caused many other alterations in all the East in this last Age of the World Of whose exploits Castaneda Barrius Maffaeus Oserius and others haue written at large Our English-Indian Societie haue setled a Factory at Calicut touching the conditions and condition whereof you may reade at large in Roger Hawes his Iournall deliuered amongst other our Pilgrimes He telleth of the perfidiousnesse of this people how hardly they could get in debts they chusing rather to spend much in bribes then to pay debts Ours made vse of ther Superstition to Iustice for vnderstanding that they would neither eate nor wash whiles the English were in their houses they would threaten not to depart till they were payd hauing meane while Nayros for their Guard Thus Iniustice made them iust and vncharitablenes charitable For rather then be long troubled with their company most of them would pay part of their debts so that they got fifty Fanos kind of Coine of one 100. of another but one notwithstanding their three dayes abode would pay nothing it seemes equally prophane superstitious and vniust §. III. Of their differing Sects BArbosa reckoneth eighteene Sects that haue no mutuall conuersation nor may marrie but in their owne rankes or order Next to the King and Bramenes he placeth the Nayros which are Gentlemen and Souldiers and are not professed Nayros notwithstanding their bloud till they be by their Lords or by the King made Knights or Souldiers And then hee must neuer from that time goe without his Weapons which commonly are a Rapier and a Target and sometimes Peeces or Bowes They neuer marry but lye with such of the Nayros Women or Daughters as like them leauing his Weapons meane while at the doore which forbid any man else although it be the goodman himselfe to enter till he hath ended his businesse and be gone And if one of the common people once touch a Nayro it is lawfull for the Nayro to kill him and he is also vncleane and must be purified by certaine washings And for this cause they cry as they goe in the streets Po Po that the baser Raskality may giue place They haue a Pit of standing Water at their doores hallowed by the Bramenes wherein euery morning they wash themselues although it bee greene slimie and stinking imagining thus to be clensed of their sinnes They are brought vp altogether to Feats of Armes and Actiuitie from their Child-hood admirably able to wind and turne themselues and are very resolute and desperate binding themselues by oath to liue and die with their King or Lord. No Nayro's women may enter into Calicut but one night in the yeere when the Citie is full of Lights and then they goe with the Nayros to behold and gaze their fill They intend nothing but their lust and thinke that if they die Virgins they shall neuer enter into Paradise The Biabari are another sort and are Merchants Gentiles and enioy great priuiledges The King cannot put them to death but by sentence of the principall of themselues They were the only Merchants before the
then they goe out of the Citie passing by the Riuers side to the burning-place where is prepared a great square Caue full of Wood. Here is made a great Banquet the woman eating with ioy as if it were her wedding-day and after they sing and daunce till the woman bid to kindle the fire in the Caue then she leaueth the Feast and taketh her husbands neerest kinsman by the hand and goeth with him to the banke of the Riuer where she strippeth her of her cloathes and iewels bestowing them at her pleasure and couering herselfe with a cloth throweth herselfe into the Riuer saying O wretches wash away your sinnes Comming out of the Water shee rowleth herselfe into a yellow cloth and againe taking her husbands kinsman by the hand goeth to the said Caue by which is erected a little Pinnacle on which she mounteth and there recommendeth her children and kindred to the people After this another woman taketh a pot with oyle and sprinkleth it ouer her head and therewith annoynteth all her bodie and then throweth it into the Furnace the woman going together with the same Presently after the woman the people throw great pieces of Wood into the Caue so that with those blowes and the fire she is quickly dead and their great mirth is on a suddaine turned into great lamentation and howling When a Great man dyeth all the women of his house both his wife and slaues with whom hee hath had carnall copulation burne themselues together with him Amongst the baser sort I haue seene saith Master Frederike the dead man carried to the place of buriall and there set vpright the woman comming before him on her knees casteth her armes about his necke while a Mason maketh a wall round about them and when the wall is as high as their neckes one comming behind the woman strangleth her the workeman presently finishing the wall ouer them and this is their buriall Ludouicus Vertomannus relateth the same Funerall Rites of Tarnasseri as in other parts of India sauing that there fifteene or twentie men in their idolatrous habit like Diuels doe attend on the fire wherein the husband is burned all the Musicians of the Citie solemnizing the Funerall pompe and fifteene dayes after they haue the like solemnitie at the burning of the woman those diuellish fellowes holding fire in their mouthes and sacrificing to Deumo and are her intercessors to that Diuell for her good entertainment The cause of burning their wiues is by some ascribed to their wonted poysonings of their husbands before this Law by others that the husband might haue her helpe and comfort in the other world Odoricus telleth of a strange and vncouth Idoll as bigge as Saint Christopher of pure Gold with a new band about the necke full of precious stones some one whereof was of value if he valued iustly more then a whole Kingdome The roofe pauement and seeling of the walls within and without the Temple was all Gold The Indians went thither on pilgrimage some with halters about their neckes some with their hands bound behind them some with kniues sticking on their armes and legges and if after their pilgrimage the wounded flesh festered they esteemed that limbe holy and a signe of their Gods fauour Neere to the Temple was a Lake where-into the Pilgrims cast Gold Siluer and Gemmes for honour of the Idoll and reparation of his Temple At euery yearely Feast the King and Queene with the Pilgrims and People assembling placed the said Idoll in a rich Chariot and with a solemne procession of Virgins two and two in a ranke singing before him and with Musicall Instruments carrie him forth Many Pilgrims put themselues vnder the Chariot wheeles where they are crushed in pieces More then fiue hundred persons vsed thus to doe whose carkasses were burned and ashes kept for holy Reliques Otherwise also they will deuote themselues to such a martyrdome in this manner The parents and friends assemble and make a Feast to this Votarie and after that hang fiue sharpe kniues about his necke and so carrie him before the Idoll where he taketh one of his kniues and cryeth For the worship of my God I cut this my flesh and cutting a piece casteth it at the face of the Idoll and so proceeding at the last sayth Now doe I yeeld my selfe to death in the behalfe of my God and being dead is burned as before Our Country-man Sir Iohn Mandeuile reporteth the same Historie of their Idoll-Procession and the ashes of those voluntary Martyrs which they keepe to defend them against tempests and misfortunes He also sayth That some Pilgrims in all their peregrinations not once lifted vp their eye-lids some at euery third or fourth pace fell downe on their knees to worship some whipped others wounded themselues yea killed themselues as is before said Nicolo di Conti reporteth the same in his time Neither is this bloudy custome yet left as Linschoten affirmeth by report of one of his chamber-fellowes that had seene it They haue sayth he a Waggon or Cart so heauie that three or foure Elephants can hardly draw it which is brought forth at Faires Feasts and Processions At this Cart hang many Cables or Ropes whereat all the people hale and pull of deuotion In the vpper part of the Cart standeth a Tabernacle and therein the Idoll vnder it sit the Kings wiues playing on Instruments And while the Procession passeth some cut pieces of their flesh and throwe at the Pagode some lay themselues vnder the wheeles of the Cart with such euent as you haue heard Gasparo Balby relateth the same and addeth That the Priests which haue care of this Idoll and certaine women are consecrated to these deuotions from their Cradles by their Zeale-blind parents And the women prostitute their bodies to gaine for the Idoll whatsoeuer they can get ouer and aboue their owne maintenance This filleth the Citie with Strumpets there being of this Sacred you may interpret it Cursed crue foure hundred in one place of the Citie These haue their place in the Idoll-procession some of them in the Chariot which is drawne by men euery one accounting himselfe happy that can touch or draw the same This he sayth was at Negapaton He further affirmeth That not farre from the Citie of Saint Thomas is the Towne Casta where the the Wife is not burned as at Negapatan but a great Graue being made for the deceased Husband they place the liuing Wife by the dead corps and their neerest kindred cast earth vpon them both and stampe thereon They which marry wed in their owne degree as a Smith to a Smiths daughter and they powre out their prayers at the Image of some Kow or a Serpent called Bittia di Capella Their Bramenes burne Kowes dung and if they intend any warres with other Nations they anoint their Nose and Forehead with those ashes not washing themselues till the euening They which sacrifice themselues to the Pagode
euery one hath a peece of a leafe of the Bonanas Tree then is set before each a peece of Sagu bread after that a dish made of the leafe of another Tree with a little sodden Rice and Flesh-pottage which they hurle by handfuls into their mouthes deuouring rather then eating the same In the meanewhile the Gentlemen arise with their weapons and exercise themselues in Martiall games with Daunces The quarrell betwixt these Ilanders grew about the cutting of certayne Trees from whence it is come to cut and kill one another with cruell butcheries They exercise Sea-fights in their Caracorae or Galeots with great dexteritie with great showts and cryes the Gentlemen dancing on the hatches very actiuely They are very bloudie and barbarous yet bury the heads of their enemies with sweet odours If any of their friends die the women make a shrill and lowd crie to call him againe which not effected they prouide a great feast whereunto all the kindred and friends are inuited They burie them almost after our fashion in a white sheet the corps being carried on mens shoulders the men first and women after following A Censer is there left fuming all the day and might and in the night they keepe a light burning in a little house which they haue set ouer the graue In the morning and euening all of all sorts come and say their prayers a long while together at the graue and being asked wherefore they said that the dead should not arise againe They haue a play with the Ball exercised by many of them not as amongst vs with the hand but with their feete tossing the same vp into the ayre and taking it one of another with admirable sleight Thus haue we related from Dutch testimonies In Banda the Hollanders are reported to haue foure Factories and three Castles They are farre more feared of the Natiues then loued They raysed a Fort neere to one of their Mesgids or Temples to the prophanation as they thought of their holy ground and of the Sepulchres of their dead which for this cause they spared not Hence did the Bandeses burne with indignation which yet they concealed and with goodly protestations desired the Dutch Generall Verhauf which was there at that time with many ships to come into their House or place of Councell This was compassed with Trees and Bushes in the midst hauing a faire round place where they sate vpon Mats their chiefe Magistrate being the Sabandare Verhauf promised to come and when hee was by one of his Countrey-men that had long continued there admonished of the trecherie of this people Hee yet scorned to feare and with some three hundred followers at the appointed houre marched thither The Xeriff one of Mahomets kindred wearing as note hereof greene in his Turbant which had before inuited him to this assembly with all lowly semblance meetes him tells that in such armed troupes they shall not dare to speake their mindes He presently commands his Souldiers to stay tooke with him some two and fortie chiefe men entred and sate downe with the Bandese Senate crosse-legged a Bandese and a Hollander together and so through all the companie At the watchword each Bandese stabbed his neighbour Dutch and presently the Generals head was smitten off and carried out to his Souldiers now busie in playing or altogether idle their peeces lying on the ground and in this case they were suddenly assaulted by an ambush hidden there in the Thickets and were in great danger to haue lost their Fort. The English in their ships might see the fight In another place the Hollanders turned one of their Mesgids into a Fort. The offended Bandeses offered their slaues libertie to dispossesse them they refused till a Iauan Merchant then there with his Iunke offered his ten slaues aboard his Iunke to giue the onset Thus they went about three hundred each man with a fire-brand in one hand and a creese in the other aduentured on the shot and soone fired the Fort ouer their heads slaying euery man These Ilands of Banda are subiect as some but vntruely report to the King of Botone with whom one M. Richard Welding an Englishman was in great fauour The king had a sonne which was mad whom a certaine Italian vndertaking to cure was sent to attend him in the other World his patient dying vnder his hand M. Welding had serued him in his warres and gotten victories for him and honour for himselfe and his Nation It is reported that lately neere to the Hollanders Fort in Banda there issued a great fire out of the Sea which continued a good space and was likely to haue fired the Hollanders Fort the Natiues wayting for such oportunity but by shifting of the winde it escaped The Sea in that fired place was many many fathomes deeper then it had beene before But our English haue since this was published enioyed not only commerce but Forts and Dominion by voluntary subiection of the Bandaneses themselues the cause of great warres twixt the Dutch and ours the particulars whereof you may see at large in my Booke of Voyages The Hollanders and the Spaniards are in continuall warres for these Molucca Ilands They droue out the Portugals by force about ten yeeres since but the Spaniards haue succeeded in the quarrell which yet is managed on both parts so as the Natiues haue the worst For they both weare out the Country people in warres which betweene Tidore and Ternate are ancient by these bellowes kindled into continuall flames that there are scarsly sufficient to gather their Cloues Machian yeelds the most store in the third yeere which is most plentifull about 1800. Bahars on other yeeres almost eleuen hundred The Spaniards haue a Castle on Ternate another on Tidore in Gelolo also and Battachina two others but the Hollanders haue three in Terenate and as many in Tidore one in Amboyna one in Battachina in Batchame one in Botoone two Bulwarkes in Mechame three in Moutter one besides their other Indian Forts and all their Factories They haue their wiues also to helpe man if that name may bee giuen to women their Fortresses in some places Their Sea-force and Land-vices being added make them dreadfull to the Spaniard hatefull to the Indians and for their insolence distastefull to the English vnder pretence of I know not what conquest stiffely denying terribly threatning disgracefully deprauing the English vnder whose name they haue yet borne themselues in many places of the Indies and with mayne force and violence binding the Natiues to their owne trade and that at lower prices and harder conditions which makes them loue the more liberall though imperious and proud spirit of the Spaniard more then that accounted fordid dealing of the Flemming in the Moluccas and Banda Ilands Before we leaue these Moluccas and their dependant Ilands we may conclude with a Tragedy wherein blind superstition and beastly cruelty were principall Actors When Menesius was Gouernour of
DIODORVS and others §. I. The names of Aegypt and of the Riuer Nilus AFter our generall view of Africa Egypt may justly challenge the principall place in our African discourse as being both in situation next to Asia whence we are lately come and consequently from thence first peopled besides that Religion our Load-Starre hath heere found the soonest and solemnest entertainment And not in Religion alone but in Policie Philosophie and Artes the Grecians which would seeme the first Fathers of these things haue beene Disciples to the Egyptians as Am. Marcellinus and D. Siculus Plutarch and many others affirme Hence Orpheus Musaus and Homer fetched their Theologie Lycurgus and Solon their Lawes Pythagoras Plato Anaxagoras Eudoxus Democritus Daedalus here borrowed that knowledge for which the World hath euer since admired them Let it not then be imputed to me as a tedious officiousnesse If I longer detaine the Reader otherwise delighted with the view of those rils which hence haue flowed among the Greeke and Latine Poets and Philosophers in Surueighing these Aegyptian Fountaines and Well-springs whence haue issued especially a deluge of Superstition that in elder times drowned all the neighbouring parts of the World Nor let it be tedious vnto vs to behold in this Historicall Theater those Egyptian Rarities the sight whereof hath drawne not Philosophers alone but great Princes too and mightie Emperors to the vndertaking of long and dangerous journeyes As Seuerus who though hee forbad Iudaisme and Christianite yet went this Pilgrimage in honour of Serapis and for the strange sights of Memphis Memnon the Pyramides Labyrinth c. Vespasian also and others did the like The name of Egypt saith Iosephus is Mesre of Misraim the sonne of Cham as the Egyptians themselues are called Mesrai So the Arabians at this day call it as Leo affirmeth but the Inhabitants they call Chibth This Chibth they say was he which first ruled this Countrey and built houses therein The Inhabitants also doe now call themselues thus yet are there not now left any true Egyptians saue a few Christians the Mahumetans hauing mingled themselues with the Arabians and Africans These Christians are hereupon called Cophti of their Nation as Master Brerewood obserueth not of their Religion which is the same with the Iacobites And the Egyptians in some ancient Monuments are tearmed Aegophti and the name Aegyptus which some deriue from Aegyptus brother of Danaus is likelier to come of that Chibth or this Aegophti and all these names may seeme to borrow their originall from Koptus a chiefe Citie in Egypt as both Scaliger and Lidyat are of opinion quasi Ai Koptus the Land of Koptus so is Aethiops of Ai and Thebeth or Thebais Ignatius the Patriarch of Antioch in an Arabicke Epistle written to Scaliger calleth Egypt the Land of Kopti where he speaketh of Aera Kopti or the computation of yeeres by those Koptite Christians reckoned from the nineteenth yeere of Dioclesian at which time hee destroyed the Christian Churches and slue an hundred and forty foure thousand Martyrs in Egypt and other seuen hundred thousand exiled The Turkes call both the Countrey it selfe and principall City Cairo by the name of Misir Thus singeth an olde Pilgrime in written Rimes without name of the Authour In Egypt is a Citie faire That height Massar or else Kare Egypt was before called if wee may beleeue Stephanus and others Aeria and otherwise also by the names of Aeria Potamia Ogygya Melambolos Haephestia Ethiopia Some adde Hepia as Nilus was also called Melas of the blacknesse The Riuer was first called Oceanus then Egyptus and after that Nilus and Triton Egypt hath on the East the Gulfe and some part of Arabia on the South the fals and Mountaynes of Aethiopia on the West the Desarts of Libya on the North the Mediterranean Sea all which Nature hath set not only as limits but as fortifications also to this Countrey Nilus is by Ouid called aduena for his forreine Springs by Tibullus fertilis which supplyeth the place of showres to Egypt whereupon Claudian sings Egyptus sine nube ferax imbresque serenos Sola tenet secura poli non indiga venti and Lucan Terra suis contenta bonis non indiga mercis Aut Iouis in solo tanta est fiducia Nilo Egypt no raines nor Merchandise doth need Nilus doth all her wealth and plenty breed Hereupon the Romanes accounted it their Granary and the Turke Selym when he conquered it said he had now taken a Farme that would feed his Gemoglans without it the earth is sand perhaps had not beene earth nor is there aboue one Well of sweet springing water nor brackish in all Egypt The water of Nilus is sweet wholesome and yeelds no mystie vapours This Riuer runneth through the midst thereof sixty miles from Cairo making by diuision of himselfe that Delta to which some appropriated the name of Egypt refuted by Iupiter Ammon whose Oracle sayth Herodotus reckoned all that Egypt which Nilus ouerflowed Ptolemaus numbreth three of those Deltas Touching the head of Nilus Bredenbachius affirmeth that many Soldans haue sent men on purpose furnished with skill and prouision for the Discouery who after two or three yeeres returning affirmed that they could find no head of this Riuer nor could tell any certainty but that it came from the East and places not inhabited both of like truth And before the Soldans Sesostris Cambyses Alexander Nero are reported to haue made search for the head of this Riuer Neros men by the helpe of the Aethiopians passed farre vp to large vnpassable Marishes full of weeds the extents vnknowne Later Geographers relate that Nilus ariseth out of a Lake in twelue degrees of Southerly latitude out of which not onely this Riuer runneth Northwards into the Mediterranean but Zaire also Westward Zuama and Spirito Sancto Eastward into the Ocean as is said all ouerflowing their Territories in the same time and from the same cause What this cause should be many both old and later Writers haue laboured to search Herodotus Diedorus Pliny and Solinus haue lent vs the coniectures of Antiquity herein Fracastorus and Rhamusius haue bestowed their Discourses on this Subiect as Goropius also and others of later yeeres haue done The most probable cause is the raines which Goropius in his Niloscopium deriueth from a double cause For the Sunne in places neere the Line doth shew more mighty effects of his fiery presence exhaling abundance of vapours which in terrible showers he daily repayeth except some naturall obstacle doe hinder as in some places of Peru where it seldome or neuer raineth And hence it is that the Indians both East and West and the Africans reckon their Summer and Winter otherwise then in these parts of the World for this time of the Sunnes neere presence with them they call Winter in regard of these daily stormes which hee seemes to
and in the dayes of Moses their Priests Wisemen and Southsayers confirming their deuotions with lying Miracles as the Scriptures testifie of Iannes and Iambres and Hermes Trismegistus of his Grandfather and himselfe The Grecians ascribe these deuotions to Osiris and Isis of whom the Historie and Mysterie is so confused that Typhon neuer hewed Osiris into so many pieces as these vaine Theologians and Mythologians haue done They are forsooth in the Egyptian throne King and Queene in the Heauens the Sunne and Moone beneath these the Elements after Herodotus they are Bacchus and Ceres Diodorus maketh Osiris the same with the Sunne Serapis Dionysius Pluto Ammon Iupiter Isis the Moone Ceres and Iuno Appollodorus makes her Ceres and Io. Antonius and Cleopatra stiled and figured themselues the one Osiris and the other Isis In Macrobius and Seruius she is the nature of things He Adonis and Atis Plutarch addeth to these Interpretations Oceanus and Sirius as to Isis Minerua Proserpina Thetis And if you haue not enough Apuleius will helpe you with Venus Diana Bellona Hecate Rhamnusia and Heliodorus neerer home maketh Osiris to be Nilus the Earth Isis So true it is that An Idoll is nothing in the world and Idolaters worship they know not what Stampellus interpreteth Osiris to be Abraham and Isis to bee Sazeb whom Moses calleth also Ischa Orus Apollo or Horapollo saith Isis is the Starre called of the Egyptians Sothis which is the Dog-starre therefore called Isis because at the first rising of that Starre they prognosticated what should happen the yeere following The like was in vse amongst the Cilicians who obserued the first rising of that starre from the top of Taurus and thence saith Manilius Euentus frugum varios tempora dicunt Quaque valitudo veniat concordia quanta c. Thence they foretell what store of fruits or want What times what health what concord they descant Tully in the first Booke of his Diuination reciteth the same out of Heraclides Ponticus of the Cei But the Egyptians had more cause to obserue that Starre because Nilus doth then begin to encrease And therefore from thence they began to reckon their Tekuphas or quarters of their yeere as the Iewes from Nisan But to search this Fountaine further you may read the Egyptian opinion in Diodorus how that the World being framed out of that Chaos or first matter the lighter things ascending the heauier descending the Earth yet imperfect was heated and hardened by the Sunne whose violent heat begate of her slimie softnesse certaine putride swellings couered with a thinne filme which being by the same heat ripened brought forth all manner of creatures This muddie generation was say they first in Egypt most fit in respect of the strong soyle temperate ayre Nilus ouerflowing and exposed to the Sunne to beget and nourish them and still retayning some such vertue at the new slaking of the Riuer the Sunne then more desirous as it were of this Egyptian Concubine whom the waters had so long detained from his sight ingendring in that lustfull fit many Creatures as Mice and others whose fore-parts are seene mouing before the hinder are formed These new-hatched people could not but ascribe Diuinitie to the Author of their Humanitie by the names of Osiris and Isis worshipping the Sunne and Moone accounting them to be gods and euerlasting adding in the same Catalogue vnder disguised names of Iupiter Vulcan Minerua Oceanus and Ceres the fiue Elements of the World Spirit Fire Ayre Water and Earth These Eternall Gods begot others whom not Nature but their owne proper Merit made immortall which reigned in Egypt and bare the names of those coelestiall Deities Their Legend of Osiris is that he hauing set Egypt in order leauing Isis his wife Gouernour appointing Mercurie her Counsellour the inuenter of Arithmeticke Musicke Physicke and of their superstition made an Expedition into farre Countries hauing Hercules for his Generall with Apollo his brother Anubis and Macedon his sonnes whose Ensignes were a Dog and a Wolfe creatures after for this cause honoured and their counterfeits worshipped Pan Maron and Triptolemus and the nine Muses attending with the Satyres Thus did hee inuade the world rather with Arts then Armes teaching men Husbandry in many parts of Asia and Europe and where Vines would not grow to make drinke of Barley At his returne his brother Typhon slew him rewarded with like death by the reuenging hand of Isis and her sonne Orus The dispersed pieces into which Typhon had cut him shee gathered and committed to the Priests with injunction to worship him with dedication vnto him of what beast they best liked which also should be obserued with much ceremonie both aliue and dead in memorie of Osiris In which respect also they obserued solemnely to make a lamentable search for Osiris with many teares making semblance of like ioy at his pretended finding whereof Lucan singeth Nunquamque satis quaesitus Osiris alway seeking saith Lanctantius and alway finding To establish this Osirian Religion she consecrated a third part of the Land in Egypt for maintenance of these superstitious rites and persons the other two parts appropriated to the King and his Souldiers This Isis after her death was also deified in a higher degree of adoration then Osiris selfe One thing is lacking to our tale which was also lacking a long time to Isis in her search For when shee had with the helpe of waxe made vp of sixe and twentie parts which she found so many Images of Osiris all buried in seuerall places his priuities which Typhon had drowned in Nilus were not without much labor found and with more solemnitie interred And that the Deuill might shew how farre hee can besot men the Image hereof was made and worshipped the light of this darkenesse shining as farre as Greece whose Phallus Phallogogia Ithiphalli Phallophoria and Phallaphori issued out of this sincke together with their Membrous monster Priapus Yea the Egyptians hauing lost their owne eyes in this filthy superstition bestowed them on the Image of Osiris his stones which they pourtrayed with an eye Athenaeus telleth of Ptol. Philadelphus in a solemnitie wherein hee listed to shew to the world his madnesse or as it was then esteemed his magnificence a place worth the reading to them who are not heere glutted with out tedious Egyptian Banquet He among many sumptuous spectacles presented a Phallus of gold painted with golden crownes of an hundred and twentie cubits length hauing a golden starre on the toppe whose circumference was sixe cubites This was carried in a Chariot as in others the Image of Priapus and other Idols Of Typhon the Poets fable that after the Gods by the helpe of mortall men had slaine the Giants the Earth in indignation for rhe losse of that her Giantly brood lying with Tartarus brought forth Typhon which exceeded all the former for his height surmounted the Mountaines his head reached to the Starres one
Priest vnto the Church which was very homely couered with base twigs or boughs not much better then the Priest their hoste his Tent in which a man might not stand vpright Enquiring after the disposition of the people they learned that they were vtterly ignorant of buying and selling of fraude and stealing They neither had nor cared to haue gold or siluer and when he offered ten pieces of gold to the Priest hee refused it onely was content to accept a little rayment The Hammientes are not much distant in place or differing in name from the Ammonians which built their houses of Salt digging the salt-stones out of the Mountaynes which they with morter apply to their buildings Mela ioyneth to these aforesaid the Atlantes which curse the Sunne at the setting and rising as bringing damage to them and their fields A practice not vnlike to the women of Angola at this day who as Andrew Battle which liued there testifieth salute the New Moone when they first see her by holding vp their hinder parts naked against her as the cause of their troublesome menstruous purgation These Atlantes haue no proper names nor feede of such things as haue life He affirmeth of the Garamantes that they had no wiues but liued in a beastly communitie The Augila acknowledge no other Gods but Ghosts or Soules departed by which they sweare with which they consult as Oracles to which they pray at their Tombes receiuing answeres by dreames The women the first night of marriage are prostituted to all that will see them the more the greater honour but after must obserue their owne husbands The Trogleditae dwell in Caues and feede on Serpents and rather make a sound or noyse then humane voyce they vsed Circumcision they named not their Children by their Parents names but by the names of sheepe or other beasts which yeeld them nourishment Their wiues and children saith Agatharchides are common onely the Kings wife is proper yet if any had lyen with her his punishment was but the losse of a sheepe In their Winter they liue on bloud and milke which are mixed and heated together at the fire In their Summer they kill the scabbed and diseased of their Cattell They entitle none with the name of Parents but the Bull and Cow the Ram and Ewe and the Male and Female of the Goates because of these they receiue their nourishment and not from their Parents They goe naked all but the buttocks Such as want that skin which others circumcise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they depriue of the whole flesh so farre as the circumcision should haue extended Their funerall Rites were to tye the necks of the dead to their legs and couer them with heapes of stones setting a goates horne on the top with laughter rather then mourning Their old men which can follow the flockes no longer they strangle with an Oxe-taile which medicine they minister likewise to those that haue grieuous diseases or maymes And vnto these doth Plinie adde the Blemmyae with faces in their brests the Satyres Aegypanes Himantopodes and other monsters scarce worthy Relation or credit These parts I haue thus ioyned in one Discourse as liuing for the most part a wilde life as the Arabians and Tartars doe at this day and for Religion hauing nothing notable that I finde but as you haue heard Procopius writeth of the Blemyes and Nobatae that Iustinian placed them in Egypt about Elephantina that they before obserued the Greekes deuotions Isis also and Osiris and Priapus and sacrificed to the Sunne which Rites the Emperour prohibited But hee mentions no such Monsters The Arabians which vnder Elcain about the foure hundred yeere of their Hegeira gaue a Ducat a man to passe into Africke are Lords and Inhabitants of the Desarts to this day liuing as wee say a dogs life in hunger and ease professing Mahumets sect The Adrimachidae liued neere to the Egyptians both in situation and custome The Nasamones had many wiues with which they had companie publikely The first night of the marriage all the guests had dealing with the Bride and rewarded her with some gift The Guidanes had a more beastly custome whose women glorying in their shame ware so many frindges of leather as they had found Louers The Malchyes ware the haire on the hinder part of their head as the Iaponians now doe The Auses vsed the contrarie whose Virgins in the yeerly feast of Minerua diuided themselues into two companies and skirmished with staues and stones If any Virgins dyed of the wounds they accounted them false Maides The most martiall Virago of the companie they arme and crowne and place in a Chariot with great solemnitie They vsed not marriage but had women in common the childe being reckoned his with whom shee chooseth to liue To adde a word of the Cyrenians they held it vnlawfull to smite a Cow in honour of Isis whose Fasts and Feasts they solemnely obserued and in Barca they abstayned both from Beefe and Hogs flesh They seared the crownes or temples of their children to preuent the distilling of the rheume In their sacrificing they first cut off the eare of the beast as first fruits and hurled it ouer the house Their gods were the Sunne and Moone The Maxes shaue the left side of their heads leauing the haire on the right side The Zigantes feede on Apes whereof they haue plentie The Megauares make no account of Sepulchres in stead whereof they couer the corps with stones and set vp a Goates horne on the stone heape They haue many skirmishes for their pastures which are ended by the mediation of old Women who may safely interpose themselues and end the fray or battell if you will so call it When men are so old that they can no longer follow the herds they strangle him with a Cowes taile if he will not preuent them by doing it himselfe The like medicine they administer to such as are dangerously sicke Of the Macae Caelius thinkes the Roman Priests borrowed their shauen crownes Other things which our Authors adde of these people and others adioyning as seeming too fabulous I list not to expresse Silius Italicus in his Poems and Aldrete in his Antiquities of Spaine and Afrike expresse diuers of their ancient Rites and Names and that which seemes to vs most fitting shall in this Historie be inserted This part of the World as least knowne to the Ancients yeelded both Poets and Historians most matter of their Fables in explayning whereof Aldrete hath written in Spanish very learnedly as also of the later times when the Romans Vandals and since the Arabians haue preuayled CHAP. VIII Of that part of Barbarie now called the Kingdome of Tunis and Tripolis §. I. The name Barbarie the Kingdome of Tunis and Antiquitie of Carthage ALl the Tract of Land betweene Atlas and the Sea stretching in length from Egypt to the Straits is called Barbaria either of Barbar which signifieth to murmure because such seemed the
speech of the Inhabitants to the Arabians or of the word Bar which signifieth a Desart doubled It comprehendeth both Mauritania's Africa minor Libya exterior besides Cyreniaca and Marmarica whereof wee haue spoken The Inhabitants some fetch from Palestina some from Arabia It was conquered by the Romans and taken from the Greeke Emperors by the Vandals and from them againe by the Saracens and Arabians and is now partly subiect to the Turke partly to the Xeriffe It is vsually diuided into foure Kingdomes Marocco Fesse Tremisen and Tunis for of Barca is said alreadie The Cities of Barbarie it is Ios. Scaliger his testimonie speake Arabike but not pure nor yet so degenerate as the Italian is from the Latine but the Countrie people vse the old African tongue nothing like the other HONDIVS his Map of Barbarie BARBARIA The Kingdome of Tunis contayneth all that which the Ancients called Africa Propria or Minor and Numidia Antiqua the Romanes perhaps vaine-gloriously vaunting or ambitiously ayming at the Empire of the Vniuerse stiling their first footing and possession in Asia and Africa by the name of the whole which others haue beene forced to distinguish by adding Propria or Minor So they called Attalus his Legacie Asia and this Prouince yea Carthage it selfe had that name Africa The soyle is fertile especially the West-part The Inhabitants are sound and healthfull seldome vexed with any sicknesse Hereof are reckoned fiue parts Bugia Constantina Tunis Tripolis and Ezzab This Ezzab is the most Easterly part hauing many Townes and Regions amongst which some account Mesrata From these parts vnto Capes is the Tripolitan Region The chiefe Towne is Tripolis wherein the great Turke hath his Bassa or Vice-roy a receptacle of the Pyrats which roue and rob in those Seas in the yeere 1551. wonne from the Knights of Malta by Sinan Bassa From Capes to Guadilbarbar is the Tunetan Territorie From thence vnto the Mountayne of Constantina is that Region hereof bearing name and from thence to the Riuer Maior about an hundred and fiftie miles space doth Bugia extend it selfe so called of Bugia the principall Citie sometime adorned with Temples Hospitals Monasteries and Colledges of Students in the Mahumetane Law Here is also Necaus a very pleasant Citie and Chollo very rich Constantina is an ancient Citie contayning eight thousand Families many sumptuous buildings a great Temple two Colledges and three or foure Monasteries much resorted to by Merchants Euery trade hath their peculiar streetes A little from the Citie is a hote Bath hauing in it abundance of Crabfishes or little Tortoyses which the women take for euill spirits and ascribe vnto them the cause of their sicknesse or ague if any befall and therefore kill white Hens and set them on an earthen vessell with their feathers enuironing the same with little Wax-candles and so leaue them neere to this Bath or Fountayne How euer it fare with their Feuer their meat shall not stay long but some or other that see the womens deuotion will enuy the euill spirits so good cheere and for that time will be the spirits themselues to dresse and eate their prouision Not farre hence is a Marble building with Images grauen therein the people haue a conceit that it was sometime a Schoole and those Statues the Schollers by Diuine judgement so transformed for their wickednesse In this Region is situated Bona sometime called Hippo famous through our Christian World for the most famous of the Fathers that since the Apostles dayes haue left vs their writings Aurelius Augustinus a name fitting to him which indeed was Aureus Augustissimus Bishop of the See while hee liued and yet liuing in his Workes a Bishop not of Hippo but of the Westerne Church Wittie Learned Wise and Holy Father that hast with Thee carryed these Titles from Hippo where after Thee the Arrian Vandals and since the Saracens haue liued and Lorded and at this day is possessed of such as haue no possession of Wit Learning Wisedome or Holinesse but haue testified their banishment of all these by ascribing them to Fooles and Mad men whom they honour and admire as Saints This Bona then brooking this name better contayneth now three hundred Herthes and a sumptuous Mosque to which is adjoyned the house of the Cadi Tunis is now a great Citie since the ruines of Carthage neere vnto which it standeth Carthage as the more ancient deserueth first Relation of which wee may yet say with Salust Silere melius puto quà m parum dicere wee may not say much and a little will bee too little for such Greatnesse It was built threescore and twelue yeeres before Rome as the common account goeth by Dido and her Phoenicians an emulous competitor with Rome for the Empire of the World It contayned saith Orosius in the circuit of the walles twentie miles Linier Epitome sayth foure and twentie all engirt with the Sea except three miles space which had a wall of squared Stone thirtie foot broad and fortie cubites high The Tower Byrsa enuironed aboue two miles and had in it the Temples of Iuno Aesculapius and Belus Of the greatnesse of their name and power those three Punike warres are witnesses in the second of which Anniball whom his father Hamilcar then Generall in Spaine had caused to sweare at the Altar of Iupiter neuer to hold friendship with the Romans he then being but nine yeeres old as Aemilius Probus or as other will haue it Cornelius Nepos reporteth he I say passed ouer the Pyrenaean Mountaynes through France and ouer the Alpes into Italy with an Armie of an hundred thousand foot-men and thirtie thousand Horse The Riuers Ticinus and Trebia the Lake Trasimenus running with Roman blood by three ouerthrowes of Scipio Sempronius and Flaminius the Romane Consuls witnessed the Punike might But the victory at Cannae against Varro did pierce the brest and had rent the heart of Rome had Anniball known to haue vsed the victory as well as to haue gotten it There did Rome seeme to breath her last the Sunne the Wind the Dust helping the Carthaginian with Natures forces yea the Riuer Gellus against Nature stayed it selfe as congealed indeed whether with wonder feare of necessitie accepting a Bridge or Damme rather of Roman bodies for a passage to the African Armie These were golden dayes to Carthage when three bushels of Gold-Rings taken from the fingers of the slaine enemies were sent hither as a present A swoune meane-while did Rome sustaine and easily in fiue dayes might Hanniball haue dined in the Capitoll and poore helpe could shee finde when she reuiued had not Capua with feasting the Conquerour detayned Rome from Conquest when they despoyled the Temples for Armour armed their slaues and bestowed their priuate state on the publike Treasurie all which could not make Fabius fight with Annibal but by not fighting he learned to ouercome knowing that a shield was better
the mountaines which happily they atchieued Yea the Portugals wearied with the warres which they were forced to maintayne in defence of those places they held in Africa the expences so much surmounting the reuenue abandoned them to the Seriffs And now the want of enemies procured enmitie betwixt the Brethren who trying that valour against each other which before they had exercised ioyntly against their enemies the issue was that the younger in two battels hauing ouercome the elder and at the second which was Anno 1544. hauing taken him prisoner confined him to Tafilete Hee now sole Monarch of Marocco conuerts his forces against the King of Fez to try if he could bee his Master in the field as hee sometimes had beene in the Schoole and failed not of his attempt but hauing once taken and freed him the second time because he had broken promise he depriued him and his sonnes of estate and life He also by meanes of his sonnes took Tremizen which soone after was recouered from them by Sal Araes Vice-roy of Algier and Fez also added by an ouerthrow of the Seriff to the Turkes conquest who gaue the gouernment of Fez to Buasson Prince of Veles But he in an vnfortunate battell with the Seriff lost his life and state Mahomet going after to Taradant was by the way slaine in his Pauilion by the Treason of some Turkes suborned thereunto by the King of Algier of whom all but fiue in their returne were slaine by the people Anno 1559. Mulley Abdala the Seriffs sonne was proclaymed King Some write that by occasion of a Rebellion in Sus hee sent to the bordering Turkes for aide who first helped after murthered him and hauing sacked Taradant and ouer-runne the Countrey two moneths together were in their returne by the Mountainers cut off Mully Abdala hauing raigned fifteene yeeres dyed leauing behind him thirteene sonnes the eldest Abdala commanded the rest to be killed but Abdelmelech the second brother escaped into Turkie and Muley Hamet the third brother esteemed of a simple and quiet spirit not any way dangerous to the state was spared The other tenne were put to death in one day at Taradant where they had beene brought vp This Abdela dying left behind him three sonnes Muley Mahomet Muley Sheck Muley Nassar the two younger escaped into Spaine where Sheck is yet liuing and turned Christian Nassar returned in the foureteenth yeere of Muley Hamets Raigne and had almost driuen Muley Sheck then Gouernour of Fez vnder his Father to his heeles had not superstition more preuayled with Nassars followers then Allegeance For when Lent came his Souldiers would needs home to keepe their Easter at their owne houses for feare whereof Nassar hastily giuing battest was there slaine Abdelmelech before fled into Turkie now came backe with Turkish forces and got the Kingdome from Mahomet who fleeing or as others write sending for succour to Sebastian King of Portugall obtained it In the yeere 1578. Fiue thousand Germans were entertayned in the Portugall pay for the expedition and great forces were leuyed the Pope sending Stukely that English Traytor falsely termed Marquesse of Ireland with fixe hundred Italians to Sebastian who the foure and twentieth of Iune tooke Sea and the next day with a Fleet of one thousand and three hundred sayle or as Doglioni hath it setting in order his Armada of fiue hundred sayle and blessing his Royall Standard with thirtie sixe thousand Footmen and foure thousand Horse set forth towards Africa Where Abdelmelech being sickly had assembled an Armie of fifteene thousand Footmen and foure and fortie thousand Horse men On the fourth day of August they joyned battell and the Duke of Auero with his Portugals made a great impression into the Moores host which Abdelmelich labouring beyond his naturall force to withstand saued his people but lost his life not by the Sword of the enemy but by the weakenesse of his body deliuered vp to death His brother Hamet ruled the Armie as yet ignorant of what had befalne and made such slaughter of the Portugals that the Duke of Auero the King of Portugall and other great Personages there fell and Mahomet himselfe was drowned in fleeing ouer a Riuer Thus remayned Hamet victorious and at one time had the dead corpes of three Kings in his Tent Such is the furie of Waire the force of death trampling vnder foot the meanest and triumphing ouer the greatest Stukely among the rest receiued due wages for his treacherie and disloyaltie to his Countrey slaine out of his Countrey by the barbarous Barbarian To Abadelmelech was Master Edmund Hogan employed in Embassage by the Maiestie of our late Soueraigne Anno one thousand fiue hundred seuentie seuen and with all good Offices entertayned To Hament his Successour was from the same Sacred Maiestie sent Ambassadour Master Henry Roberts Anno one thousand fiue hundred eightie fiue who was there Lieger three yeeres This Muley Hamet in a Letter to the Earle of Leicester thus begins In the name of the mercifull and pitifull God The blessing of God light vpon our Lord and Prophet Mahomet and those that are obedient vnto him The seruant of God both mightie in warre and mightily exalted by the grace of God Myra Momanyn the sonne of Myra Momanyn the Iarif the Hozeni whose Kingdomes God maintayne Vnto the right famous c. In an Edict published in behalfe of the English hee stileth himselfe The seruant of the Supreame God the Conquerour in his cause the successor aduanced by God c. He flayed off the skin from the carkasse of Mahomet drowned in the battell as is said and filled it full of Straw and sent it through all Prouinces of his Kingdome for a spectacle He raigned seuen and twentie yeeres He sent an Embassage into England Anno a thousand sixe hundred and one performed by Abdala Waecad Anowne His people did so feare him that Abdala Creme his Customer hauing one onely Sonne who in an idle businesse and busie idlenesse would needs feed his curious eyes with the light of the Palace where the Kings Concubines were caused him to bee strangled before his face He gouerned the Alarbes which are supposed to bee of Arabian Race and said to vse the Arabike Language Inhabitants of the plaine and Champaine Countries of Marocco Fez and Sus in peace and subiection receiuing their tents duly paid The Brebers or Mountainers are the Natiues and ancient Inhabitants chased by the former into strong Cities and the Naturall Forts of Hils as our Progenitors serued the Britaines forcing them to the Mountaines of Wales and Cornwall a people of another Language called Tamaset and disposition whom hee could not so easily tame and therefore in policie hee drew them into forreine Expeditions especially against the Negros thereby extending his Empire so farre that way as by Camell it was sixe moneths iourney from Marocco to the extremest bounds Likewise he vsed them to goe with the Carauans
Rials and with vs eight Shillings for that by him the furious spirit of Nilus is slacked and cooled being detayned in the way by many Sluces for that purpose made The great Turke denying this the Abassine caused those Dammes to be broken and by drowning Egypt in vncouth manner forced that great Monarch to composition Aluarez denies both the Mountaynes of Luna and the melting of Snow which is supposed the cause of this Riuers hastinesse and ascribeth the ouer-flowing of Nilus to the extreme raines in Ethiopia whose Fountaynes diuers Portugals haue seene hee saith in Goyame The Turke notwithstanding hath by warring vpon him erected a new Beglerbegship in his Dominions Aluarez liued there sixe yeeres and was once within thirtie miles of Nilus but in all his trauels neuer saw that Riuer So little accesse haue the Ethiopians barred out by vnpassable passages vsually to the same Andrea Corsali reporteth that the Prete Dauid was of oliue colour but shewed his face but once in the yeere hauing at other times his face couered for greater state and therefore also spake to none but by an Interpreter The Inhabitants are branded with fire which they vse not for Baptisme but in obseruation of a custome of Salomon who so marked his slaues as they affirme Friar Luys giueth another reason thereof saying that when the world groned vnder Arrianisme the Abassine Emperour caused his Subiects to brand themselues with a threefold marke or stampe in the forehead to testifie their faith of and in the Trinitie which now since their commerce with the Roman Christians is in manner wholly left except in the ruder and more vnciuill parts of Barnagasso the borders of the Empire The same Author saith that in Ethiopia are Elephants the Rhinoceros and besides other beasts the Vnicorne in the Kingdome of Goyame and in the Hills of the Moone but seldome seene onely the horne is found which he casteth in manner as the Hart. There are also he saith birds of Paradise and such store and varietie of flowers all the yeere long that their Eunuchs are alway decked with them There is one flower not any where else known called Ghoyahula much resembling a Mary-gold but exceeding faire in varietie and excellency of colours fragrant smell abundance of leaues in the flower and with a more rare qualitie beginning to open at noone and so by little and little opening more and more till midnight alway the sent encreasing with the opening after midnight it shuts by little and little till noone denying by the same degrees her pleasing offices to both senses of Sent and Sight He tells also of a little Bird to which Nature hath committed the tuition of this Flower which all the time that it is open flyes about it driues away things offensiue sings sweetly and spreads her selfe thereon with other things very strange I dare not affirme very true He mentioneth also a bird called the Rhinoceros of the ayre much bigger then an Eagle and hauing a bow-fashioned bill or beake foure foot long and a horne betweene the eyes with a black line alongst it It is a cruell fowle and attends on battells and camps The Portugalls had sight of one at the Red Sea when Soliman the Eunuch had his Nauie in the Red Sea The horne is of the same propertie with that of the Vnicorne and Rhinoceros There are fishes also called Rhinocerotes of the Sea many of which are paid the Prete for Tribute Many many other Ethiopian rarities wee might obserue out of this Authour but if it deserue credit the Hill Amara after his description may furnish you for and beyond all the rest of Ethiopia as a second earthly Paradise CHAP. V. Relations of Ethiopian rarities collected out of Friar LVYS a Spanish Author §. I. Of the Hill Amara THe hill Amara hath alreadie beene often mentioned and nothing indeed in all Ethiopia more deserueth mention whether wee respect the naturall site or the employment thereof Somewhat is written thereof by Geographers and Historians especially by Aluarez whom we haue chiefly followed in the former Relations of this Countrie as an eye-witnesse of the most things reported but neither they nor he haue any thing but by relation sauing that he passed two dayes iourney along by the said Hill and that also had almost cost him his life But Iohn de Baltasar saith our Friar liued in the same a long time and therein serued Alexander which was afterwards Emperor and was often by commandement of the same man when he was Emperor sent thither out of his Relations Friar * Luys saith hee hath borrowed that which here we offer you And here we offer you no small fauour to conduct you into and about this place where none may come but an Ethiopian and that by expresse licence vnder paine of leauing his hands feet and eyes behind in price for his curiositie and not much lesse is the danger of such as offer to escape from thence Aluarez himselfe being an eye-witnesse of some such cruell executions inflicted for that offence This Hill is situate as the Nauill of that Ethiopian Body and Centre of their Empire vnder the Equinoctiall Line where the Sunne may take his best view thereof as not encountring in all his long iourney with the like Theatre wherein the Graces and Muses are Actors no place more graced with Natures store or furnished with such a store-house of bookes the Sunne himselve so in loue with the sight that the first and last thing hee vieweth in all those parts is this Hill and where Antiquitie consecrated vnto him a stately Temple the gods if yee beleeue Homer that they feasted in Ethiopia could not there nor in the world find a fitter place for entertainment all of them contributing their best store if I may so speake to the banquet Bacchus Iuno Venus Pomona Ceres and the rest with store of fruits wholsome ayre pleasant aspect and prospect secured by Mars lest any sinister accident should interrupt their delights if his garrisons of Souldiers were needfull where Nature had so strongly fortified before onely Neptune with his ruder Sea-deities and Pluto with his black-guard of barking Cerberus and the rest of that dreadful traine whose vnwelcome presence would trouble all that are present are all saue Charon who attends on euery feast yea now hath ferried away those supposed deities with himselfe perpetually exiled from this place Once Heauen and Earth Nature and Industrie haue all beene Corriuals to it all presenting their best presents to make it of this so louely presence some taking this for the place of our Fore-fathers Paradise And yet though thus admired of others as a Paradise it is made a Prison to some on whom Nature had bestowed the greatest freedome if their freedome had not beene eclipsed with greatnesse and though goodly starres yet by the Sunnes brightnesse are forced to hide their light when grosse and earthly bodies are seene their noblenesse making
from a great Serpent and when two other Hares came thither that Hare for their entertainment killed a Deere which was then the onely Deere that was and strewing the haires of that Deeres hide euery haire proued a Deere He said they worshipped towards a certaine Hoope or Sphere doubled a crosse which was set vpon an heape of stones in their houses They had a house without the Towne for the Women in the time of their naturall sicknesse to keepe in where no men might come But of their opinions and ceremonies in Religion who fitter to be heard then a Virginian an experienced Man and Counseller to Opochancanough their King and Gouernour in Powhatans absence Such is Tomocomo at this present in London sent hither to obserue and bring newes of our King and Country to his Nation some others which haue beene heere in former times being more silly which hauing seene little else then this Citie haue reported much of the Houses and Men but thought we had small store of Corne or Trees the Virginians imagining that our men came into their Countrey for supply of these defects This Man therefore being landed in the West parts found cause of admiration at our plenty in these kinds and as some haue reported began to tell both Men and Trees till his Arithmetike fayled For their numbring beyond an hundred is imperfect and somewhat confused Of Him Sir Thomas Dales man being our Interpreter I learned that their Okeeus doth often appeare to them in His House or Temple the manner of which apparition is thus First foure of their Priests or sacred Persons of which he said he was one goe into the House and by certaine words of a strange Language which he repeated very roundly in my hearing but the Interpreter vnderstood not a word nor doe the common people call or coniure this Okeeus who appeareth to them out of the Aire thence comming into the House and walking vp and downe with strange words and gestures causeth eight more of the principall persons to be called in all which twelue standing round about him he prescribes to them what hee would haue done Of him they depend in all their proceedings if it bee but in a hunting Iourney who by winds or other awefull tokens of his presence holds them in a superstitious both feare and confidence His apparition is in forme of a personable Virginian with a long blacke locke on the left side hanging downe neere to the foot This is the cause why the Virginians weare these sinister lockes which some thinke I haue heard Sir Thomas Dale and Master Rolph of that opinion was first by our Men in the first Plantation little aboue thirty yeeres since borrowed from these Sauages a faire vnlouely generation of the Loue-locke Christians imitating Sauages and they the Deuill this Virginian so admiring this Rite that in arguing about Religion he obiected to our God this defect that hee had not taught vs so to weare our haire After that he hath stayed with his twelue so long as he thinkes fit he departeth vp into the ayre whence he came Tomocomo auerred that this was Hee which made Heauen and Earth had taught them to plant so many kinds of Corne was the Author of their good had prophesied to them before of our mens comming knew all our Countrey whom he made acquainted with his comming hither and told him that within so many moneths he would returne but the Deuill or Okeeus answered that it would bee so many more neyther at his returne must he goe into that house till Okeeus shall call him He is very zealous in his superstition and will heare no perswasions to the truth bidding vs teach the Boyes and Girles which were brought ouer from thence Hee being too olde now to learne Being asked what became of the soules of dead men he pointed vp to Heauen but of wicked men that they hung betweene Heauen and Earth This Tomocomo hath Matachanna one of Powhatans Daughters to wife The vulgar are held in great awe by their Ignorance and when any of them haue got a good Deere some of the greater will pretend Okeeus his name and cause it to be brought to His House and then share it at their pleasure They hold it a disgrace to feare death and therefore when they must dye doe it resolutely as happened to one which had robbed the English and by Powhatan vpon complaint made to Him was fetched sixscore miles from the place where he lurked and by this Tomocomo in the presence of the English executed his braines being knocked out shewing no signe of feare or dismayednesse They vse to make Blacke Boyes once in fourteene or fifteene yeeres generally for all the Country this hapned the last yeere 1615. when all of a certaine age that haue not beene made Blacke Boyes before are initiated in this Ceremonie They vse to make some at other times by themselues as before is shewed of Rapahannok out of Captaine Smith and Master White which then mistooke it for a Sacrifice Some foure moneths after that Rite they liue apart and are fed by some appointed to carry them their foode they speake to no man nor come in company seeme distracted some thinke by some Deuillish apparition scarred certaine to oblige them to that Deuillish Religion as by a Hellish Sacrament of the Deuils institution and will offer to shoot at such as come nigh them And when they come into company yet are for a certaine time of silent and strange behauiour and will doe any thing neuer so desperate that they shall be bidden if they tell them they shall bee old men if they goe not into the fire they will doe it There is none of their men but are made Blacke Boyes at one time or other Let vs obserue these things with pitty and compassion and endeuour to bring these silly soules out of the snare of the Deuill by our prayers our purses and all our best endeuours This may be added that their young people haue in manner no knowledge and the vulgar little of their Religion They vse also to beguile them with their Okee or Image of him in their houses into whose mouth they will put a Tobacco pipe kindled and one behind that Image drawes the smoke which the siluer vulgar and children thinke to be done by their God or Idoll They haue a certaine herbe called Weysake like Liuerwort which they chew and spit into poysoned wounds that are thereby healed in foure and twenty houres In finding out their medicinall Roote it is the Relation of Master George Percie six of them hold together by the armes and so goe singing and withall searching and when they haue found it sit downe singing crossing the Root with their hands for a good space then gather chew and spit He thus describeth their dances One stands in the middest singing and clapping hands all the rest dance about him shooting hollowing stamping with antike gesture like
charmes were the cause that made the earth bring forth her fruit and that he might the easier perswade them he retired himselfe once or twice a yeere to a certain house accompanied with two or three of his friends where he vsed inchantments If any man offered to see what he did it cost him his life Euery yeere he offereth a man in the time of Haruest which was kept for that purpose and taken of such Spaniards as had suffered shipwrack on that Coast They which further desire to know the riches and commodities of these Countries may resort to the Authors in this Chapter mentioned Sir Francis Drake in the yeere 1586. besides his worthy exploits in other places tooke the Forts of S. Iohn and Saint Augustine whence he brought Pedro Morales and Nicholas Burgoignon whose relations concerning that Countrey Master Hackluit hath inserted among other his painfull labours Dauid Ingram reported many strange things which he saith he saw in these parts Elephants Horses and beasts twice as big as Horses their hinder parts resembling Greyhounds Buls with eares like Hounds beasts bigger then Beares without head or necke but hauing their eyes and mouthes in their brests and another beast Cerberus he cals him Colluchio which is saith he the Deuill in likenesse of a Dogge and sometimes of a Calfe with many other matters wherein he must pardon me if I be not too prodigall of my Faith He tels also of punishment of adultery by death the woman cutting the adulterers throat and the neerest kinsman hers after many prayers to the Colluchio and a further punishment in that they haue no quicke bodie buried with them to attend them into the other world as all others haue But they that list to beleeue may consult with the Author Anthony Goddard another of Ingrams company left by Sir Iohn Hawkins going another way at Panuco yeelded himselfe to the Spaniards with whom was Miles Philips and Iob Hortop whose discourses of their disaduentures with the Spaniards and Indians Master Hakluit hath published and hath Goddards also written CHAP. VIII Of the Countreys situate Westward from Florida and Virginia towards the South-Sea §. I. Of Cibola Tigues Quiuira and Noua Albion WE haue hitherto discouered those parts of this Northerne America which trend along the North Sea which the English and French Nations haue most made knowne vnto vs further Westward the mid-land countreys are not so well knowne yet following our Spanish guides wee here present them from their relations to your view When as Cortez had conquered Mexico as after followeth to be related he was made Admirall of the South-Seas but the gouernment of Mexico and New Spaine was with the title of Vice-roy giuen to Antonio de Mendoza These two partly in emulation of each others glory partly in hope of enriching themselues sought to discouer vnknowne Lands the one by Sea the later both by Sea Land The Viceroy sent as he himselfe testifieth Francis Vasquez de Coronado and Frier Marco de Nisa with Stephen a Negro by land out of whose relations we haue inserted that which concerneth our purpose Marke the Frier and Stephen set forth with certaine Indians in this Discouerie and Stephen going before came to Ceuola as Marke related where hee was slaine the Frier followed with his Indian guides and passed thorow one place where was small store of Victuall because it had not there rained as the Inhabitants affirmed in three yeares space The Indians call him Hayota that is a man come from Heauen Hee passed on further led by the same of Ceuola which with other sixe Cities were reported to be vnder the gouernment of one Lord and to haue houses of stone consisting of diuers stories where were many Turqueses with many other strange reports of their Markets multitudes and wealth But because the Frier came not there for feare of the Negros entertainment let vs listen to Francis Vasquez who came saw and ouercame An 1540. He went with his Army from Culiacan which is 200. leagues from Mexico and after a long and tedious iourney he at last arriued in this Prouince and conquered almost with the losse of himselfe the first Citie of the seuen which he called Granado Twice he was striken downe with stones from the wall as he offered to scale the same He saith that their houses were of foure or fiue stories or lofts to which they ascended on ladders and that they had Cellers vnder the ground good and paued But those seuen Cities were small Townes all standing in the compasse of foure leagues all called by that generall name of Ceuola or Cibola and none of them particularly so called but hauing other peculiar names they were of like building In this Towne which he conquered stood 200. houses walled about and 300. others not walled The Inhabitants had remoued their wiues and wealth to the Hill Hee reporteth of beasts there Beares Tygres Lions and Sheepe as bigge as horses with great hornes and little tayles Ounces also and Stagges That which the Indians worshipped as farre as they could learne was the Water which said they caused the Corne to grow and maintained their life Hee found there a garment excellently embroidered with needle-worke Vasquez went hence to Tiguez to Cieuic and to Quiuira as Lopez de Gomara reporteth This way is full of crooke-backed Oxen. Quiuira is in 40. degrees and the Countrey is temperate They saw Ships in the Sea which bare Alcatoazes or Pelicans of Gold and Siluer in their Prowes laden with Merchandise which they tooke to be of China or Cathay The men in these parts cloath and shoo themselues with leather they haue no bread of any kind of graine their chiefe food is flesh which they often eate raw either for custome or for lacke of wood They eate the fat as they take it out of the Oxe and drinke the bloud hot which of our buls is counted poison and the flesh they warme for they seethe it not at a fire of Oxe-dung They rather may be said to rauin then to eate it holding the flesh with their teeth cut it with rasors of stone They goe in companies as the Scythian Nomades Tartarian floords and many other Nations following the seasons and best pasturings for their oxen These Oxen are of the bignesse and colour of our Buls but their hornes are not so great They haue a great bunch vpon their shoulders and more haire on their fore-part then on the hinder and it is like wooll They haue as it were a horse-mane on their backe bone and much haire and very long from their knees downwards They haue great tufts of haire on their foreheads and haue a kinde of beard vnder their chins and throats the males haue very long tayles with a great knob or flocke at the end so that in some respect they resemble a Lyon in other the Camels Horses Oxen Sheepe or Goats They push with their hornes and in their rage
a farre Countrey and their King returned againe and said he would send such as should rule them And he hath now sent these Spaniards saith he Hereupon he counselled them to yeeld themselues Vassals to the Emperour which they did at his command though with many teares on his part and theirs at this farewell of their libertie Mutezuma presently gaue to Cortes in the name of tribute a great quantitie of Gold and other Iewels which amounted to sixteene hundred thousand Castlins of Gold besides Siluer §. III. The conquest of Mexico CORTES had hitherto a continuall victory in Mexico without any fight but newes was brought him of Pamphilo de Naruaes who was sent yywith eighty horse and some hundreths of Spaniards by Velasques to interrupt the proceedings of Cortes who leauing two hundred men in Mexico with 250. other came suddenly in the night and took Neruaes prisoner and returned to Mexico with Naruaes his company now his followers also where he found his men exceedingly distressed by the Citizens for a murther committed in the great Temple at a solemn Feast where in a religious dance they were slaine for the rich garments and Iewels they ware by the Spaniards Cortes came in good time for the reliefe of his men and Mutezuma caused the Mexicans to bridle their rage which presently was renued and when Mutezuma was againe by his Guardians the Spaniards caused to speake to the people a blow of a stone on his temple wounded him whereof three dayes after he died Cortes had some thousands of the Tlaxoltecas to help him but was driuen to fly from Mexico with all his Spaniards and Indians which he did closely in the night but yet an all-arme was raised and the bridges being broken much slaughter of his people was made by the Mexicans and all his treasure in manner lost They pursued after him also and had two hundred thousand in the field when it was Cortes his good hap to slay the Standard-bearer whereupon the Indians forsooke the field This battell was fought at Otumpan At Tlazcallan he and his were kindly entertained they had prepared before 50000. men to goe to Mexico for his helpe and now they promised him all offices of loyaltie and seruice With their helpe he subdued Tepeacac and built certaine Brigandines and Frigats which were carried many leagues on the backs of those Indians and there fastned and finished without which he could neuer haue wonne Mexico In Tezcuco certaine Spaniards had been taken sacrificed and eaten which Cortes now reuenged on them Eight thousand men had carried the loose pieces and Timber of this Nauie guarded with twenty thousand Tlaxcalans and a thousand Tamemez or Porters which carried victuals attending They calked them with Towe and for want of Tallow and Oyle they vsed Mans Grease of such as had been slaine in the Warres For so the Indians vsed to take out the Grease of their Sacrifices Cortes had here nine hundred Spaniards of which fourescore and sixe were horsemen three cast Pieces of iron fifteene small Peeces of Brasse and a thousand weight of Powder and 100000 Indian Souldiers on his side Hee made a fluce or trench aboue twelue foot broad and two fathome deepe halfe a league long in which forty thousand men wrought fifty dayes He lanched his Vessels and soone ouercame all the Canoas of the Lake or which were reckoned in all fiue thousand The Spaniards brake the Conduits of sweet water wherewith the Citie was wont to be serued Quabutimoc now the new King of Mexico receiuing incouragement from the diuellish Oracle caused to breake downe the Bridges and to exercise whatsoeuer wit or strength could doe in defence of his City somtimes conquering sometimes as is the doubtfull chance of warre conquered Cortes had in Tezcuco ordained a new King a Christian Indian of the royall bloud who much assisted him in this siege The Spaniards being Lords of the Lake and of the Causeys by helpe of their Galliots and Ordnance they fiered a great part of the Citie One day the Mexicans had gotten some aduantage and thereupon celebrated a Feast of Victory The Priests went vp into the Towers of Tlalelulco their chiefe Temple and made there perfumes of sweet Gummes in token of victory and sacrificed forty Spaniards which they had taken captiues opening their breasts and plucking out their hearts sprinkling their bloud in the Aire their fellowes looking on and not able to reuenge it They slew likewise many Indians and foure Spaniards of Aluarado's company whom they are in the open sight of the Armie The Mexicans danced dranke themselues drunke made bonefires strucke vp their Drummes and made all solemne expressings of ioy Dread Disdaine and all the Furies that Passion or Compassion could coniure vp had now filled the Spaniards hearts and their Indian partakers and Cortes that hitherto had hoped to reserue some part of the Citie now did the vtmost that Rage and Reuenge could effect helped no lesse within with Famine and Pestilence then with Sword and Fire without At last Mexico is razed the Earth and Water sharing betwixt them what Fire had left and all which had sometime challenged a lofty inheritance in the Ayre Their King also was taken all that mighty State subuerted And as the Mexicans before had prophecied That the Tlaxantleca's should againe build the Citie if conquered for them if conquerors for the Spaniards It was re-builded with a hundred thousand houses fairer and stronger then before The siege lasted three moneths and had therein two hundred thousand Indians nine hundred Spaniards fourescore Horses seuenteene Peeces of Ordinance thirteene Galliots and sixe thousand Canoas Fifty Spaniards were slaine and sixe Horses Of the Mexicans a hundred thousand besides those which died of hunger and Pestilence This was effected Anno 1521. on the thirteenth day of August which for that cause is kept festiuall euery yeere For the Description of the Country wherein Mexico is situate Cortes in his second Narration to the Emperour saith it is enuironed with hils He telleth of some hils also in his iourney wherein diuers of his people died with cold in the middest is a plaine of 70. leagues compasse and therein two lakes which extend the circuit of fifty leagues the one salt which ebbeth and floweth an argument for Patritius his opinion that saltnesse is a chiefe cause of that vicissitude of ebbing and flowing in the Ocean the other fresh When the Water of the salt Lake increaseth it runneth like a violent streame into the fresh Lake which when it increaseth is repaired againe by the like issue of this into the former Nunno di Gusman hath written his expedition into Mechoacan and other Countries of New-Spaine 1530. subduing and taking possession for the Emperour Hee found some of them Sodomites others Sacrificers of mens flesh and some closely practising this butcherie after they had professed themselues Christians none of them which durst looke a Horse in the face but were afraid that that Beast
Voyages relateth It is time for vs to passe beyond the Darien Straits vnto that other great Chersonesus or Peruvian AMERICA RELATIONS OF THE DISCOVERIES REGIONS AND RELIGIONS OF THE NEW WORLD OF CVMANA GVIANA BRASILL CHICA CHILI PERV AND OTHER REGIONS OF AMERICA PERWIANA AND OF their Religions THE NINTH BOOKE CHAP. I. Of the Southerne America and of the Countries on the Sea-coast betwixt Dariene and Cumana §. I. Of the great Riuers in these parts and of Dariene THis Peninsula of the New World extending it selfe into the South is in forme somewhat like to Africa and both to some huge Pyramis In this the Basis or ground is the Northerly part called Terra Fuma from whence it lesseneth it selfe by degrees as it draweth neerer the Magellan Straits where the top of this Spire may fitly bee placed On the East side it is washed with the North Ocean as it is termed On the West with that of the South called also the Peaceable It is supposed to haue sixteene thousand miles in compasse foure thousand in length the breadth is vnequall The Easterne part thereof betweene the Riuers Maragnon and Plata is challenged by the Portugals the rest by the Spaniard From the North to the South are ledges of Mountaines the tops whereof are said to be higher then that Birds will visit the bottomes yeeld the greatest Riuers in the World and which most enrich the Oceans store-house Orenoque Maragnon and Plata seeme to be the Indian Triumuiri Generals of those Riuer-Armies and Neptunes great Collectors of his watery tributes Orenoque for ships is nauigable a thousand miles for lesse Vessels two thousand in some places twentie miles broad in some thirtie Berreo affirmed to Sir Walter Raleigh That a hundred Riuers fell into it marching vnder his name and colours the least as bigge as Rio Grande one of the greatest Riuers or America It extendeth two thousand miles East and West and commandeth eight hundred miles North and South Plata taking vp all the streames in his way is so full swolne with his increased store that he seemeth rather with bigge lookes to bid defiance to the Ocean then to acknowledge homage opening his mouth fortie leagues wide as if he would deuoure the same and with his vomited abundance maketh the salt waters to recoyle following fresh in this pursuit till in salt sweates at last he melteth himselfe in the Combate Maragnon is farre greater whose water hauing furrowed a Channell of sixe thousand miles in the length of his winding passage couereth threescore and ten leagues in breadth and hideth his Bankes on both sides from him which sayleth in the middest of his proud Current making simple eyes beleeue that the Heauens alway descend to kisse and embrace his waues And sure our more-straitned world would so far be accessary to his aspiring as to style him with the royall title of Sea and not debase his greatnesse with the meaner name of a Riuer Giraua some what otherwise writeth of these Riuers that Plata called by the Indians Paranaguaeu as one should say a Riuer like a Sea is twenty fiue leagues in the mouth placed by him in thirty three degrees of Southerly latitude encreasing in the same time and manner as Nilus Maragnon hee saith is in the entrance fiue leagues and is not the same with Orellana so called of Francis Orella the the first Spaniard that sayled in it and Amazones of the fabulous reports as Giraua termeth them of such women there seene which hee sayth hath aboue fifty leagues of breadth in the mouth and is the greatest Riuer of the World called by some the fresh Sea running aboue fifteene hundred leagues vnder the Aequinoctiall Thus much Hee though lesse then others yet more then can bee paraleld in any other streames This Southerne halfe of America hath also at the Magellane Straits contracted and as it were shrunke in it selfe refusing to be extended further in so cold a Climate The manifold riches of Metals Beasts and other things in the beginning of the former Booke haue been declared and in this as occasion moueth shall bee further manifested The Men are the worst part as being in the greatest parts thereof inhumane and brutish The Spanish Townes in this great tract and their Founders are set downe by Pedro de Cieza Herera and others I rather intend Indian Superstitions then Spanish plantations in this part of my Pilgrimage Of the Townes of Nombre de Dios seuenteene leagues from Panama the one on the North Sea the other on the South and of Dariene wee last tooke our leaues as vncertaine whether to make them Mexican or Peruvian being borderers and set in the Confines betwixt both The moorish soyle muddie water and grosse Ayre conspire with the heauenly Bodies to make Dariene vnwholesome the myrie streame runneth or creepeth rather very slowly the water but sprinkled on the house-floore engendreth Toades and Wormes They haue in this Prouince of Dariene store of Crocodiles one of which kinde Cieza saith was found fine and twentie foot long Swine without tailes Cats with great tailes Beasts clouen-footed like Kine otherwise resembling Mules sauing their spacious eares and a trunke or snowt like an Elephant there are Leopards Lyons Tygres On the right and left hand of Dariene are found twenty Riuers which yeeld Gold The Men are of good stature thinne haired the Women weare Rings on their eares and noses with quaint ornaments on their lips The Lords marry as many Wiues as them listeth other men one or two They forsake change and sell their Wiues at pleasure They haue publike Stewes of women and of men also in many places without any discredit yea this priuiledgeth them from following the warres The yong Girles hauing conceiued eate certain herbs to cause abortion Their Lords and Priests consult of warres after they haue drunke the smoke of a certaine herbe The Women follow their husbands to the warres and know how to vse a Bow They all paint themselues in the warres They neede no Head-pieces for their heads are so hard that they will breake a Sword being smitten thereon Wounds receiued in warre are the badges of honour whereof they glory much and thereby enioy some Franchises They brand their prisoners and pull out one of their teeth before They will sell their children are excellent Swimmers both Men and Women accustoming themselues twice or thrice a day thereunto Their Priests are their Physicians and Masters of Ceremonies for which cause and because they haue conference with the Deuill they are much esteemed They haue no Temples nor Houses of deuotion The Deuill they honour much which in terrible shapes doth sometimes appeare vnto them as I saith Cieza haue heard some of them say They beleeue that there is one God in heauen to wit the Sunne and that the Moone is his wife and therefore worship these two Planets They worship the Deuill also and paint him in such
a great Banquet for him brought in the last seruice which was a Cup full of molten Gold which they forced him to drinke saying Now glut thy selfe with Gold This Baldiuia had entred Chili with foure hundred Horse and easily conquered that part which had beene subiect to the Kings of Peru but the other which was the richer part held out The Spaniards sent them word they were the Sonnes of God and came to teach them the Word of God and if they would not yeeld to them they would shoote fire among them The Indians would try this argument in the field and there the great Ordnance so well pleaded the cause that they beleeued and subiected themselues The Spaniards imployed them in the Mynes whence they gathered such plenty of Gold that others had twenty thousand but Baldiuia himselfe had three hundred thousand Pezos by the yeere The Indians after perceiuing the Spaniards to be but mortall men rebelled and whereas they had vsed to carry grasse into the Fort for the Spaniards Horses they conueyed in the same Weapons by which meanes being assisted by their fellowes without they wonne the Forts and when Baldiuia would haue recouered it he lost himselfe as you haue heard Euer since this hostility hath continued and the Araucans are the Lists and Barres to the Spanish Conquests Their Countrey to consider Arauco by it selfe is but small about twenty leagues in length neither could the Inguas or Kings of Peru conquer it their manner of Warre is much like the Christians in pitched Battels placing their Bowmen among their rankes of Pikemen To speake of other Townes which the Spaniards haue built in this Coast is not our purpose When they sacked Baldiuia Anno 1599. they feasted the Spaniards with the like golden Cups powred hot downe their throats they cut off the Images heads triumphing ouer the Spaniards Gods as they termed them They were then at the siege of Imperiall another Spanish Citie hauing before taken Baldiuia They plucke out the hearts of the Spaniards which they kill and drinke in their skuls Lately the Hollanders haue not only taken the Bay and Towne of All Saints on the Easterne shore of Brasil but are also reported to haue done much harme to the Spaniards in Peru the particulars whereof partly I haue expressed in the second part of my Pilgrimes after the Relation of the Amboyna Tragedy partly haue left to more full discouery by Time the Mother of Truth Likewise since the last Edition of this Worke that Expedition of Mayre and Schouten round about the Globe hath beene published and in the second Booke of my Pilgrimes is extant in which the Coasts of Terra Australis are best notified But let mee giue the Reader warning that Sir Francis Drake had discouered those Straits in 57. being forced by tempest out of the South Sea thorow them and named that Elizabeths Iland in Anno 1578. which these Hollanders called Barneuelts as in an old Map in his Maiesties priuy Gallery dedicated to Queene Elizabeth is yet to be seene CHAP VIII Of the Conquest of Peru by the Spaniards and of their Ingua's or Emperours §. I. Of PIZARRO his Discouery and taking the King of Peru FRancis Pizarro was the Bastard sonne of Gonzallo a Captaine in the Kingdome of Nauarre he was borne at Trusiglio and exposed at the Church doore and none being found that would giue him the brest he was nourished by sucking a Sow for certaine dayes at last his Father acknowledged him and when hee was growne set him to keepe his Swine which being one day strayed and lost hee durst not returne home for feare and therefore went to Siuill and thence passed to the Indies In this Swinish education hee had not so much as learned to reade Hee went to Vraua with Alonso de Hoieda with Valuoa to the Discouery of the South Sea and with Pedrarius de Auila Gouernour of Golden Castile to Panama In this Citie were diuers which affâ—cted Golden Discoueries Pedrarius intended Nicaragua but Diego di Almagro Hernando Luche or Luques a rich Priest and this Pizarro now growne rich agreed to ioyne their Purses and best industry to search Southwards where they had heard was store of wealth They prouided a Nauie and two hundred and twenty Souldiers and Almagro with Pizarro in the yeere 1525. or as Benzo hath it 1526. set forward Almagro and he parting company Pizarro offering to land his men was wounded and forced to retire to Panama Almagro in another place had better successe the Indians vsing him kindly and giuing him three thousand Ducats of Gold But seeking to land in that place of Pizarro's misfortune hee was set vpon by the Indians and lost in fight one of his eyes They meet at Panama and hauing cured their wounds repaire their forces and with two hundred men and many slaues set sayle and land in another place but a re repelled to their ships by the Inhabitants and goe to Gorgon a little Iland sixe miles from the Continent where Pizarro stayed whiles Almagro went backe for better supply At his returne Pizarro and his company were almost starued but being refreshed and all of them now together attempting the Indian shore were repelled with losse to the I le which they called Galli Almagro is againe sent backe for new aide the Souldiers would haue passed with him and cursed this Land and their Couetousnesse Pizarro and his Company agree to search further and hauing sayled fiue hundred miles came to Chira a Prouince of Peru and taking some of the Inhabitants to learne them the Spanish Tongue returned to Tumbez Hauing learned of the Indians the great wealth of those parts he set one Peter a Candian on shore who was kindly entertayned of the Gouernour that shewed him a Temple dedicated to the Sunne wherein were vnspeakable riches which when he related to Pizarro at his returne the Spaniards goe backe with these newes to Panama His two fellowes Almagro and the Priest called after the Foole because he had spent his estate on this businesse and at last was excluded by his companions agreed with Pizarro to goe to Spaine to get license for this Conquest and borrowed one thousand and fiue hundred Ducats to set him forth Pizarro seekes and obtaynes this Facultie onely for himselfe neuer mentioning his Partners and with Letters Patents returneth to Panama with his foure Brethren Hernando Gonzalo Iohn and Martin di Alcantara his Brother by the Mothers side His two Partners were not a little grieued when they heard how things passed but after much stirre Almagro and Pizarro became friends and agreed to communicate Purses and Titles Pizarro goes before with a hundred and fiftie Souldiers taking order that Almagro should follow with all the strength he could make and Lands in Peru a Riuer so called which gaue name to those mighty and rich Prouinces because the Spaniards by this way discouered them They went by land enduring much misery by the way to Coach
like is noted in the East Indies at the Hils of Balegate where that Ridge parteth Winter and Summer in the same neernesse to the Sunne at the same time and a few miles distant The Raines in the Hils are cause why they call it Winter and the deawes or mysts in the Plaines so that when the Raines fall most in the Hils it is cleere weather in the Plaines and when the deaw falleth in the Plaines it is cleere on the Hils and thus it commeth to passe that a man may trauell from Winter to Summer in one day hauing Winter to wash him in the morning and ere night a cleere and dry Summer to scorch him Yea in some places sayth Alexandro Vrsino within sixe miles space both heate and cold are intolerable and enough to kill any man From Saint Helen to Copiapo it neuer raineth which Coast extends forty miles in some places fiftie in breadth and twelue hundred leagues in length §. II. Of the first Inhabitants their Quippos Arts Marriages ABout the point of Saint Helena in Peru they tell that sometimes there liued Giants of huge stature which came thither in Boates the compasse of their knee was as much as of another mans middle they were hated of the people because that vsing their women they killed them and did the same to the men for other causes These Giants were addicted to Sodomie and therefore as the Indians report were destroyed with fire from Heauen Whether this be true or no in those parts are found huge and Giantlike bones Cieza writes that Iohn di Holmos at Porto Vicio digged and found teeth three fingers broad and foure long Contrariwise in the Valley of Chincha they haue a Tradition that the Progenitors of the present Inhabitants destroyed the natiue people which were not aboue two Cubits high and possessed their roomes in testimonie whereof they alledge also that bone-argument Concerning the Indians conceit of their own originall we haue mentioned their opinion of a floud and the repeopling of the World by them which came out of a Caue They haue another Legend that all men being drowned there came out of the great Lake Titicaca one Virococha which stayed in Traguanaco where at this day is to bee seene the ruines of very ancient and strange buildings and from thence came to Cusco and so beganne Mankinde to multiply They shew in the same Lake a small Iland where they faine that the Sunne hid himselfe and so was preserued and for this reason they made great Sacrifices vnto him in this place both of Sheepe and Men. They held this place sacred and the Inguas built there a Temple to the Sunne and placed there Women and Priests with great treasures Some learned men are of opinion that all which the Indians make mention of is not aboue foure hundred yeeres which may bee imputed to their want of writing In stead of writing they vsed their Quippos These Quippos are Memorials or Registers made of cords in which there are diuers knots and colours signifying diuers things these were their Bookes of Histories of Lawes Ceremonies and accounts of their affaires There were officers appointed to keepe them called Quipocamayos which were bound to giue account of things as Notaries and Registers They had according to the diuersitie of businesse sundry cords and branches in every of which were so many knots little and great and strings tyed to them some red some greene and in such varietie that euen as wee deriue an infinite number of words from the Letters of the Alphabet so doe they from these kinds and colours And at this day they will keepe account exactly with them I did see sayth Acosta a handfull of these strings wherein an Indian woman did carrie as it were written a generall confession of all her life and thereby confessed herselfe as well as I could haue done in written paper with strings for the circumstances of the sinnes They haue also certaine wheeles of small stones by meanes whereof they learne all they desire by heart Thus you shall see them learne the Pater-noster Creed and the rest and for this purpose they haue many of these wheeles in their Church-yards They haue another kinde of Quippos with grains of Mays with which they wil cast hard accounts which might trouble a good Arithmetician with his Pen in the Diuisions They were no lesse wittie if not more in things whereto they apply themselues then the men of these parts They taught their young children all Arts necessary to the life of men euery one learning what was needfull for his person and family and not appropriating himselfe to one profession as with vs one is a Tayler another a Weauer or of other Trade Euery man was his owne Weauer Carpenter Husbandman and the like But in other Arts more for ornament then necessitie they had Gold-smiths Painters Potters and Weauers of curious workes for Noblemen and so of the rest No man might change the fashion vsed in his owne Countrey when hee went into another that all might be knowne of what Countrey they were For their Marriages they had many Wiues but one was principall which was wedded with Solemnitie and that in this sort The Bridegroome went to the Brides House and put Ottoya which was an open Shooe on her foot this if shee were a Mayd was of wooll otherwise of Reeds and this done he led her thence with him If she committed Adulterie shee was punished with death when the Husband dyed shee carried a mourning Weed of blacke a yeere after and might not marry in that time which befell not the other Wiues The Ingua himselfe with his own hand gaue this woman to his Gouernours and Captaines and the Gouernours assembled all the young men and Mayds in one place of the Citie where they gaue to euery one his Wife with the aforesaid Ceremonie in putting on the Ottoya the other Wiues did serue and honour this None might marry with his Mother Daughter Grandmother or Grand-childe and Yapangui the Father of Guaynacapa was the first Ingua that married his Sister and confirmed his fact by a Decree that the Inguas might doe it commanding his owne children to doe it permitting the Noblemen also to marrie their Sisters by the Father side Other Incest and Murther Theft and Adulterie were punished with death Such as had done good seruice in warre were rewarded with Lands Armes Titles of honour and Marriage in the Inguas Linage They had Chasquis or Posts in Peru which were to carrie tidings or Letters for which purpose they had houses a league and a halfe asunder and running each man to the next they would runne fifty leagues in a day and night §. III. The Regall Rites Rights Workes and of RVMINAGVI and ALVARADO WHen the Ingua was dead his lawfull heire borne of his chiefe Wife succeeded And if the King had a legitimate Brother he first inherited and then the Sonne of the first Hee
foure or sixe yeeres olde to ten the greatest part of Sacrifices were for the affaires that did import the Ingua as in sicknesse for his health for victory in warre at the Coronation or giuing him the Royall Roll. In this solemnitie they sacrificed two hundred Children The manner of Sacrifice was to drowne and bury them with certayne Ceremonies sometimes they cut off their heads anointing themselues with the bloud from one eare to another They did likewise sacrifice Virgins of such as were brought from their Monasteries The common sort as you haue heard being like to dye would sacrifice their owne Sonne to the Sun or Viracocha desiring him to be so content and spare the Fathers life Xeres relateth that they sacrificed their Children and with their bloud anointed their Idols faces and their Temple-doores and sprinkled the same also on the Sepulchres of the dead and that those which are sacrificed goe thereunto voluntarily with Dances Songs and Mirth When they sacrificed they obserued the heart and other the inward parts for diuination and if they saw a good signe after their bad construction they danced and sung with great merriment if a bad they were very heauy but good or bad they would bee sure to drinke deepe They eate not their humane Sacrifices but sometimes dryed them and preserued them in Coffins of Siluer It were an endlesse toyle to reckon vp all the Superstitions of Peru in which were so many Nations agreeing in disagreeing from truth yet disagreeing in their diuersified errours To let passe Paucura which fat Sacrifice and eate their Captiues and euery Tuesday offer two Indians to the Deuill and the drunken Prouince of Carapa where they eate little and drinke much at once drinking in and pissing out the Mitimaes which are early at their meate and make but one drinking in the day which lasts from morning till night by Bacchus Priuiledge enioying without controll any woman they like The Canari put their Wiues to the drudgery abroad whiles themselues spin weaue tricke vp themselues and performe other womanish functions at home The Galani make their Captiues drunke and then the chiefe Priest cutteth off their heads and sacrificeth them Generally in the Mountaines they were more cruell but all obserued bloudy beastly Diabolicall Ceremonies the recounting whereof must needs weary the patientest Reader CHAP XII Of their Feasts Sepulchres and other Peruuian Superstitions §. I. Of their Kalender and Holy-dayes BEfore we speake of the Peruuian Festiuall times it is not amisse to take some more generall view of their Kalender They diuided their yeere into so many dayes iust as we doe and into so many Moneths or Moones To make the computation of their yeere certaine they vsed this industrie Vpon the Mountaynes about Cusco there were twelue Pillars set in order and in such distance as euery moneth one of these Pillars did note the rising and setting of the Sunne They called them Saccanga by meanes whereof they taught and shewed the Feasts and the Seasons fit to sowe and reape and for other things They did certaine Sacrifices to these Pillars of the Sunne Euery Moneth had his peculiar name and Feasts They sometimes began the yeere in Ianuary but since an Ingua called Pachacuto which signifieth a Reformer of the Temple began their yeere in December by reason as it seemeth of the Sunnes returne from Capricorne their neerest Tropicke I reade not of any weekes they obserued for which they had not so certaine a rule as the Sunnes course was for the yeere and the Moones for the Moneth They obserued in Peru two kinds of Feasts some ordinary which fel out in certain moneths of the yeere and others extraordinary which were for certaine causes of importance Euery Moneth of the yeere they made Feasts and Sacrifices and had this alike the offering of a 100. Sheepe but of vnlike colour and forme according to the Moneth In the first Moneth they made their first and principall Feast therefore called Capacrayme that is to say a rich and principall Feast In it they offered a great number of Sheepe and Lambes in Sacrifice and burnt them with sweet wood then they caused Gold and Siluer to bee brought vpon certaine Sheepe setting vpon them three Images of the Sunne and three of the Thunder the Father the Sonne and the Brother In these Feasts they dedicated the Inguas Children putting the Guaras or Ensignes vpon them and they pierced their eares then some old man did whip them with Slings and anoint their faces with bloud in signe that they should be true Knights to the Ingua No stranger might remayne in Cusco during this moneth and this Feast but at the end thereof they entred and were made partakers of the Feasts and Sacrifices after this manner The Mamacomas or Nunnes of the Sunne made little loaues of the flower of Mays dyed and mingled with the bloud of white Sheepe which they did sacrifice that day Then they commanded that all strangers should enter who set themselues in a certaine order and the Priests which were of a certaine Linage descending from Liuqui Yupangui gaue to euery one a morsell of these small loaues saying that they gaue it them to the end they should bee vnited and confederate with the Ingua and that they aduised them not to speake or thinke any euill against the Ingua but alwayes to beare him good affection for that this piece should be a witnesse of their intentions and if they did not as they ought would discouer them They carried these small loaues in great Platters of Gold and Siluer appointed for that purpose and all did receiue and ate those pieces thanking the Sunne and the Ingua This manner of Communicating they vsed likewise in the tenth moneth called Coyarayme which was September in the Feast called Cytua They likewise sent of these loaues to all the Guacas of the Realme whither the people assembled to receiue them to whom they said that the Sunne had sent them that in signe that hee would haue them honour Him and the Caciques This continued from the time of Ingua Yupangui whom we may call the Peruuian Numa till the Spaniards substituted in place thereof their Masse a masse of more monstrous absurdities in their Transubstantion Bread-worshipping God-eating which they can also vse to combine Subiects not to their Inguas or lawfull Princes but against them as our Powder-traytors did then the former notwithstanding the fairest pretexts of Christian and Catholike Titles Vega pag. 2. lib. 8. c. 1. tels of the Corpus Christi Solemnities in Cuzco obserued by the Spaniards carrying in Procession sumptuous Herses with Images in them of Christ our Lady c. attended by the Indians their Caciques and Nobles honouring the Feast after their wonted Pagan Rites viz. Some clothed with Lions skins their heads enclosed in those of the beasts because they say the Lion was beginner of their stocke others with the wings of the great
from other fishes being halfe a span straight vp erected from his mouth the greatest foure foot long a scole of these followed them neere one thousand leagues knowne to bee the same by some hurts wherewith they had marked them The Bonitos are like Mackrils but greater some as bigge as a man could lift The Sharkes haue their mouthes vnder their bellies that they cannot bite their prey without a halfe turne and the helpe of his tayle These are the most rauenous and some hold ominous they haue found in their bellies Hats Caps Shooes Ropes ends and whatsoeuer hanged by the Ships sides they haue thirteene rowes of teeth They spawne not but whelpe like the Dogge or Wolfe and at night or towards stormes receiue their young into their mouthes for safetie I haue seene them sayth Sir Richard go in and out being aboue a foot and halfe long Little fishes alway accompany them and feed on the scraps they are lesse then a Pilchard streaked blacke and white as in coloured Liueries keeping on the head fins and backe of the other Another obseruation of this our Author is the Scuruie or Scorbute whereunto they are much subiect in Nauigations neere the Line the cause he ascribeth the weaknesse of the stomacke in immoderate heate salt meates specially fish Calmes and the Sea-water which could not but infect the World if it were not otherwise affected and moued with Windes Tides and Currents an instance whereof he sheweth in the Queenes Nauie in the yeere of our Lord 1590. at the Asores many moneths becalmed the Sea thereby being replenished with seuerall sorts of Gellies and formes of Serpents Adders and Snakes Greene Yellow Blacke White and some partie-coloured whereof many had life being a yard and halfe or two yards long And they could hardly draw a Bucket of water cleere of some corruption withall In twentie yeeres wherein he vsed the Sea hee could giue account of two thousand consumed with this disease In this Voyage they were forced for want of fresh Water to distill Sea-water which they found wholsome and nourishing I might follow our Authour in his Obseruations of these Seas which he sayth vnder the Line is best to crosse in Ianuary February and March and of the Ilands of Cape Verde elsewhere by vs obserued being in the height of these Ilands where now we are discouering which he sayth are the most vnwholsome in the World and had halfe his people on this Coast sicke of shaking burning frenzie-feuers a man can scarcely goe on the Earth though well shod when the Sun shineth and the Breeze which in the afternoone cooles them from the North-east pierceth them also with sudden cold so that the Inhabitants goe thicke clothed with Caps and Kerchers besides their Hats their Suites of thicke cloth and Gownes well lined or furred to preuent danger Sleeping in the open Ayre or in the Moone-shine is there very vnwholsome The Moone shining on his shoulder on the Coast of Guinee left him with such paine that for twentie houres space he was like to run mad But what Moone-shine hath made mee lunatike to run from these American Ilands to those and the Coast of Africa Patience Reader and I will bring thee backe in a fresher pursuit In Dominica where we were last on shore it is related by one which wrote the Earle of Cumberland his Voyage to Port Rico that they haue their seuerall Houses to other vses priuate but haue a common Hall or Dyet for to eate in together as Lycurgus instituted to preuent Riot amongst his Spartans The Maydes in this Iland are said to weare no Garters and the first night of their Marriage they tye them so hard that the flesh hangs ouer In Tortuga they tolled certaine Spaniards ashoare vnder pretence of Traffique and then ate them §. III. Of Boriquen Iamaica Cuba and the Lucayae BOriquen or Saint Iohns is three hundred miles long and seuenty broad trauersed with a rough Mountayne which yeelds many Riuers The Spaniards haue there some Townes The Earle of Cumberland in the yeere 1597. hauing by his Sea forces stayed the going of fiue Carikes to the Indies whereby the King of Spaine lost three Millions and the Merchants foure times as much sayled to Saint Iohn Port Rico in this Iland and tooke it with diuers Forts here was a Bishops See and Cathedrall Church with a Fryery foure hundred Souldiers in pay besides three hundred others It was accounted the Mayden Towne and inuincible and is the Spanish Key and their first Towne in the Indies He brought from thence neere fourescore cast Peeces and much other wealth This Iland was first conquered by Iohn Ponce and by him inhabited the Naturals were altogether like in Religion and manners to the Inhabitants of Hispaniola and so were the Plants and Fruits also Ouiedo hath written hereof largely in his sixteenth Booke There growes the Tree called Legno Santo more excellent then Guaiacan for the Neapolitan and many other diseases there is also white Gumme good for Ships in stead of Pitch and there are Bats which the Inhabitants did eate These Ilands are not so well peopled as in former times and many of them are retyring places of Rebels and Fugitiues which take this shelter against the Spanish cruelties Hispaniola is the next Iland of name but shall haue a place by it selfe as a Map and Summarie of all the other Iamaica is almost as large as Boriquen It is extremely subiect to the Vracani which are such terrible gusts of Winde that nothing can resist them They turne vp Trees ouer-turne Houses transport the Ships from Sea to Land and bring with them a most dreadfull and horrible confusion They raigne or tyrannize rather in August September and October The Inhabitants are of quicker wits then the other Ilands Cuba is more Northerly and extendeth it selfe three hundred leagues in length and twentie in bredth full of Mountaynes Woods Fennes Riuers Lakes both salt and fresh This Iland hath had many names giuen by the Spaniards Fernandina Ioanna Alpha and Omega The Woods are replenished with Swine and Kine the Riuers yeeld Golden Sands It hath sixe Spanish Colonies Saint Iago a Bishops See is the chiefe Towne in the Iland and Hauana is the chiefe Port of the Indies Ouiedo reckons two things most admirable therein one a Valley trending betweene two Hils three leagues which produceth abundance of stones enough to lade many Ships of a perfect round forme like Bullets The other a Fountaine whence Bitumen or a certaine Pitchie substance floweth and floteth euen to the Sea excellent for pitching of Ships In this Iland the common people were prohibited the eating of Serpents as being reserued for Royall Dainties and the Prerogatiues of the Kings Table Columbus sayling by this Iland lighted into a Nauigable Riuer the water whereof was so hot that none might endure his hand long therein He espied also a Canoa of fishermen which after a strange fashion
sheweth forth certaine beautifull colours in stead of flowres round stones of Golden Earth in stead of Fruits and thinne Plates in stead of Leaues From this Iland was yeerely brought foure or fiue hundred thousand Duckets of Gold They imagine some Diuine Nature to bee in Gold and therefore neuer gather it but they vse certaine Religious expiations abstayning from women delicate meates and drinkes and all other pleasures There is an Iland a little from Hispaniola which hath a Fountaine in it comming by secret passages vnder the Earth and Sea and riseth in this Iland which they beleeue because it bringeth with it the leaues of many trees which grow in Hispaniola and not in this Iland the Spaniards call the I le Arethusa Ouiedo mentions a little Iland betweene this and Iamaica called Nauazza halfe a league from which are many Rockes in the Sea about fiue foot couered with water out of which issueth and spouteth aboue the water of the Sea a spout of fresh water as great as a mans arme that it may bee receiued and taken sweet and good This was seene by Stephano della Rocca a man of good credit The I le of Hispaniola is much infested with Flyes or Gnats whose pricking causeth wonderfull swelling also there is a Worme called Nigua which creepeth into the soles of mens feet and makes them grow as bigge as a mans head with extremitie of paine for which they haue no remedy but to open the flesh sometimes three or foure inches and so digge them out The Gnats are so troublesome that the Inhabitants doe therefore build low Houses and make little doores which they keepe close and forbeare to light Candles Nature hath to this disease ordained a remedy namely certaine Creatures called Cucuij which is a kind of Beetles These haue foure lights which shine in the night two in the seate of his eyes and two which he sheweth when hee openeth his wings The people get these and bring them to their houses which there doe them a double seruice they kill the Gnats and giue so much light that men may see to reade and write Letters by the light of one and many of them seeme as so many Candles They had but three sorts of foure-footed Beasts and those very little Now men are exhaust and Beasts multiplyed in so strange manner that one which was Deane of the Conception carrying a Cow thither shee was aliue six and twentie yeeres after and her fruitfull generation was multiplyed in the Iland to eight hundred They are now growne wild as their Dogges also They kill their Kine for the Hides fiue and thirtie thousand were transported to Spaine when Acosta returned in the yeere of our Lord 1587. Ants haue beene as noysome to Hispaniola as Grashoppers in many parts of the World in the yeere 1519. and two yeeres after they ruined their Farme-houses and spoyled their Oranges Cannafistula and their fruit-trees They could keepe nothing in their houses which was fit to be eaten from them and if they had continued in like quantitie they would haue dishabited the Iland and left it desolate But they chose by lot a Saint to whose tuition they might commit themselues in that extremitie which fell vpon Saturninus who was faine to become their Patron against the Pismires These Ants were little and blacke another sort were enemies to these and wrought against them and chased them out of their holds and were not hurtfull but as good Benefactors if Ouiedo say true of them as I can beleeue of Saturninus Other sorts there are many of which some become winged and fill the Aire with swarmes which sometimes happens in England On Bartholomew day 1613. I was in the Iland of Foulenesse on our Essex shore where were such cloudes of these flying Pismires that we could no were flie from them but they filled our clothes yea the floores of some houses where they fell were in a manner couered with a blakee Carpet of creeping Ants which they say drowne themselues about that time of the yeere in the Sea Ouiedo tels of other Ants with white heads which eate through wals and timbers of houses and cause them to fall There are some Caterpillers a span long and others lesse but more venemous There are Wormes which doe so much harme in Timber that a house of thirty yeeres in this Iland would be ruinous and seeme as old as one of a hundred in Spaine and those which could not be old when hee wrote this seemed as if they had stood 150. yeeres Many other small creatures this our Author mentions but my Relations would be too great if I should follow him §. II. Of their Idols Songs and Dances Priests Oracles Superstitious Opinions and Customes BEfore the Discouerie of this Iland by Columbus and the Spaniards these Ilanders of Hispaniola were forewarned thereof by Oracle Their Cacikes and Buhiti that is their Kings and Priests reported to Columbus that the Father of Garionexius the present King and another Cacike would needs be importunate demanders of their Zemes or Gods of future euents and therefore abstayned fiue dayes together from all meate and drinke spending the time in continuall mourning The Zemes made answere That there would come not many yeeres after vnto that Iland a strange Nation clothed bearded armed with shining Swords that would cut a man asunder in the middle which should destroy the ancient Images of their Gods abolish their Rites and slay their children To remember this Oracle they composed a mournfull Dittie which they call Areito which on some solemne dayes they vsed to sing Their Priests were Phisicians and Magicians or Diuinours Ouiedo sayth that they danced at singing of their Areiti or Ballads which word I vse because it hath that deriuation which argueth dancing aswell as singing These dances are generall thorow America In this Iland they danced sometimes men alone and sometimes women alone but in great Solemnities they were mixed and danced in a circle one leading the dance the measures whereof were composed to the Areito of which one sang a Verse and all the rest followed singing and dancing and so thorow euery Verse of the same till it was ended which sometimes continued till the next day Anacaona the widow of the Cacique Caonabo entertained the Spaniards with a dance of three hundred Maids Thus these Areitos were their Chronicles and Memorials of things passed as we read of the Bards in these parts They vsed sometimes Drummes or Tabers to these dances made onely of wood hollow and open right against that place where they did strike In some places they couered them with Deere skins but here were no beasts in this Iland that could yeeld any for such purpose They had Tobacco in Religious estimation not onely for sanitie but for sanctitie also as Ouiedo writeth the smoke whereof they tooke in at the Nose with a forked Pipe fitted to both nosthrils holding the single end in the smoke
Towres of the wall fell thereby the people ranne into the fields and Acraus the Hill there fell into the Sea a blacke and vnsauoury smoke ascending thence The Riuer also vanished for a farsang An. 246. Omar inuaded the Romans and carried thence seuentie thousand captiues others also in other places Mutewakkell hauing prayed and preached before the people the last Friday in Ramadan at his returne reproued his Sonne Mustansir and threaned him and his Mother who thereupon set his Seruants to kill him A principall cause hereof was Mutewakkels hatred to Ali Sonne of Abutalib which Mustansir could not beare Hee reigned fourteene yeeres ten moneths and three days He tooke away the temptation from men and the World was ordered Muhammed Abugiafar Mustansir Billa was priuately inaugurated the same day of his Fathers death and publikely the day after He continued sixe moneths A Persian Carpet with the Image of a King being haply brought before him he would needs force one to read the Letters therein wrought which were I Syroes Sonne of Cosroes slue my Father and reigned but sixe moneths Some say he was poysoned A fearefull Dreame also of his Fathers threatning him with short Reigne and fire after it terrified him He had made his two brethren resigne their partnership of the couenant Ahmed Ahulabbas Mustain Billa Sonne of Muhammed Sonne of Mutasim was enthronized in his place and imprisoned Mutaz and Muaijad An. 249. the Turkes killed Vtamaz which ruled all vnder Mustain An. 250. Iahia Sonne of Omar of the Posteritie of Ali arose at Cufa but was slaine in battell They which had slaine Mutewakkell slue also Iaaz whereupon Mustain fledde to Bagdad and the people created Mutaz Chalifa Mutaz sent his brother Ahmed to besiege Mustain at Bagdad whose Generall Abdalla made his Peace with Ahmed The same yeere Hasen of the Posterity of Ali possessed himselfe of Tabristan and another Hasen the Talibite of Ali his Posteritie arose in the Region of Dailam and besieged Mecca but both were put to flight and this last died An. 252. Mustain resigned the Chalifate and was committed to custodie where by Mutaz his procurement he was slaine He reigned two yeeres and nine moneths Muhammed Abu-Abdalla Mutaz Billa was the thirteenth Abasian Chalif Hee deposed his brother Muaijad from the partnership of the couenant and imprisoned him and perceiuing that the Turks would haue him set at liberty he caused him to be strangled in clothes that the Iudges could perceiue no signe of violent death in him An. 253. the Turkes killed Wasif for their stipends the Keeper of the Port whose Sonne Salih procured the deposition of Mutaz and starued him to death hauing reigned foure yeeres six moneths and three and twentie dayes He was a man giuen to his pleasures and negligent of gouernment A. 254. Ahmed Sonne of Tulan was made Gouernour of Egypt Muhammed Abu-Abdalla Muhtadi Billa Sonne of Watic Sonne of Mutasim succeeded . An. 255. He forbade the vse of Wine and reiected Singers and Iesters exiled Soothsayers refused the Lions and hunting Dogges in the Imperiall Tower and tooke away Tributes He also tooke on him to bee present at Iudgements and Accounts and sate euery Munday and Thursday to attend the people hauing a Booke before him Habib rebelled at Basra saying falsly that he was Ali Sonne of Muhammed of the Posteritie of Ali. He gathered together the Rihi which liued like Lions he was an Astrologer of bad Religion Hee continued to the yeere 270. Musa killed Salih the killer of his Master An. 256. Muhtadi Billa was slaine that yeere by the mutinous Turkes hauing reigned eleuen monethes and some dayes Ahmed Abulabbas Mutamid Alalla Sonne of Mutewakkel was created the same day at Samarra An. 256. the Rihi tooke foure and twentie Ships of the Sea and slue all that were in them and Habib with eighty thousand men did much spoyle He got the victory in diuers fights against Mutamids Armies He tooke Basra and slue twenty thousand Inhabitants at his entrance He preuayled also A. 258. and slue Muflish neyther could Muaffic Billa whom Mutamid had made Gouernour of the East and partner of the league preuayle against him Hee made the People beleeue that hee knew all secrets and could doe things miraculous An. 259. Iacob Sonne of Allit rebelled at Nisabur and possessed himselfe of Tabristan Habibs Souldiers slue fifty thousand at Ahwaz and threw downe the wals He and Iacob made great stirres and ouerthrew Mutamids Captaines Iacob put to flight Muhammed Sonne of Wasil and tooke his Castle in which were forty Millions of Staters Hee tooke Wasit Mutamid with his partner went against him and put him to flight But Habid preuayled in diuers battels he continued spoyling and victorious till Anno 267. at which time Muaffic Billa sent his Sonne Mutadid who chased him tooke his Citie Mabia which he had builded ruined the wals and filled vp the Ditches and freed out of his Prison fiue thousand Muslim women Muaffic pursued them to the Citie which they had builded with fiue Walls and as many Ditches and draue them out of it and got rich spoyles Habib had fortified Mahbar and had three hundred thousand Souldiers with him there Muaffic seeing it could not in short time be taken builded another Citie Muaffikia ouer against it he built also a Temple there stamped Coines inuited Merchants and by degrees preuayled An. 268. Lulu rebelled against Ahmed the Gouernour of Egypt and got Muaffics fauour whereby Ahmed was cursed in all Pulpits For Muaffic ruled all and Mutamid enioyed only the title his name on coines and to pray in Pulpits An. 270. Habib was taken and executed his head carried about for shew Muaffic was surnamed Nasir Lidinilla that is the Helper of Gods Religion for killing Habib The same yeere Ahmed dyed when death approched he lift vp his hands saying O Lord haue mercy on him which knew not his owne quantitie and shew thy selfe mercifull to him when he dieth He left three and thirty Sonnes He was a man of much iustice and almes and gaue euery moneth 300000. pieces of Gold in almes A thousand pieces of Gold daily were designed to his Kitchin and to Ecclesiasticke persons euery moneth hee gaue as much And whiles he gouerned Egypt two Millions and two hundred thousand pieces of Gold were carried to Bagdad to be giuen to the poore and to learned and good men Hee left in his treasury ten Millions of Gold Hee had seuen thousand Slaues and as many Horses eight thousand Mules and Camels three hundred Horses for warre all his owne proper goods The Rent of Egypt in his time was three hundred Millions of pieces of Gold He is said to haue executed with adding those which dyed in Prison eighteene thousand His Sonne Hamaruias succeeded in all which he had in Egypt and Syria An. 273. Muhammed Sonne of Abdurrahman King of Spaine dyed his Sonne Mundir succeeded An. 278. Muaffic Billa dyed and
they are sowre and hang too high h Creation i Of the Angels k Belzebub said he was made of fire therefore better thē he which was made of earth Azoar 17. l Paradise The Turkes Paradise a beastly carnall one l Of Hell m Of Purgatorie n Of the Prophet Mahomet o Mahomet guiltie of his witchcraft often speaketh of it that he may not bee thought such a one p Of the Prophets in Scripture q Such tales as these of Abraham Salomon c. you shall finde both in the Iewish and Popish Legends as if the Iew Papist Mahumetan had contended for the whetstone which any one that readeth shall finde r Alexander Mahomets fittest Saint to follow ſ Of the Resurrection and last Iudgement Morals and Iudicials t Azoar 33.34 u See more in the Title of Women following x Pilgrimage to Mecca y Contrarie to which is the word common in Scripture for that which is lawfull in common vse Mecha saith Scal. alwaies in the Alcoran is called Haram and the Pilgrims Hurmun that is votaries z Abraham Author of pilgrimage rites His oathes Inheritances and Iust dealing Courtesie Mortall Sentences Sententias loquitur Carnifex Washings and Prayer Almes Tradition Meates vncleane Drinkes and Games Women Marriage Diuorce Swearing Forcing to baleeue Vsurie Repentance Friendship Infidels a Magdeburgenses in Centuria 7. haue so gathered some heads of this headlesse Monster the same is done by Cantacuze nas in summula sectae Sarac. c. but not thus fully b Anonymi in Alcoran Annotat c M. Bedwels Mahammedis imposturae in the preface c Relat. Master Harb a F. Sansov Bellar. lib. 3. b Ierusalem was rased of them An. 1219. yet durst they not destroy the holy sepulchre because of that Testimony of Iesus in their Alcoran yea they kisse the Gospels in reuerence especially Luc. 1. missus est Gabriel which they will often reiterate Vitr. l. 3. They call it not Ierusalem but BEITAALMIKDAS that is the house of the Sanctuary and Cudsi Mubarrak that is the blessed Sanctuarie Bed Trud. c The Turkes reckon Greene the Prophets colour h Arab. Nob. in Consut. Alcor i Of Mahomets Lent k Richardus Confut. Alcor l Pietro Messia tradotto per F. Sanso vino lib. 4. cap. 1. m Bell. Obseru lib. 3 cap. 9. Methodij Constitut in Bib. Pat. vbi Abucara disput cont Sar. See of this in the next Chapter and in the second Chapter Cateches Myst pro aduenis ex Secta Mahom. Thesaur sapientiae diuinae in salute om gent. procuranda Easterne languages Arabike Authors Moslemans Creed Mosleman Precepts are Circumcision Fiue houres Prayer Almes Fast Pilgrimage Fighting Note Washings Order of visiting the sicke of Wils Restitutions and Burials Mescuites or Moschees and their Ceremonies in them Mosleman women dis-respected Hence some ascribe to the Turites falsly that women haue no soules Easterne attire A note for trauellers in these parts not to prouoke them without liberty in vrine c. a cause of quarrell often to Christians a Ap. Breidenbach Sup. cap. 5. b Pilgrimage to Mecca M. Hak. tom 2. c Vertoman lib. 1. cap. 14. d Alcorr Italie m Pilgrimage to Mecca Hak. n L. Bar. with the Carouan of Damasco trauelled two and twentie houres of foure and twentie o Description of the Mosquita at Mecca p The house of Abraham described q Of this stone see sup c. 2. r Vertoman lib. 1. cap. 15. A. D. 1503. ſ The Pilgrims going to the Mountaine of Pardons t Barthema saith Isaac u Description of Medina the word signifies the people x In Barthema it is said that it was a graue fossa vnder the earth and there were also Hali Othman Bubecher and Homor with the bookes of their ordinanes and Sects y Which some are reported to doe indeed after their so holy pilgrimage-sights not further polluting their eyes m They pretend visions and miracles c. But haue not Antichrist and all Idolaters their miracles faith hath euer relation to the word of God n Agg. 2.12 13 o Caluino-Turcismus Giff. Turec Papismus D. Sut. p Because at Trent nothing might bee decreed but what was first sent and ordered from Rome hence grew this Prouerbe q When the Soldans raigned in Egypt they had a Ceremonie after the Pilgrimage to cut in pieces a Camel which had carried their Alcoran in great solemnitie to the Soldans Palace euery particle of the beast and of his furniture being esteemed and reserued as a holy Relique the same is now performed saith Dousa at Constantinople The like was in Beniamins dayes at Bagedat I know not what Camel superstition is often ment oned in the Alcoran Mecca and the Temple Rabe like to the house at Loretto in Angel legends The blacke stone Zam Zam Ismaels Well Mahumetan sacrifices Lying Tradition Territorie of Mecca Balsam brought from Gilead to Cairo thence to Mecca Scerif of Mecca Medina Mohameds birth and life a Arab. Nob. ref b Leo. l. 1. c Odmen 12. Hali. 4. ye Alhacen fiue m neths and twenty dayes Moaui 17. yeeres Iezid three yeeres eight moneths who say that the Prophet commanded not to blame but to pray for and to obey rulers though wicked for yee shall haue mercy they punishment d Ref. Ara. Nob. e G. Bot. Ben Curio calleth these Sects Melici followed in Africa Asafij professed in Arabia and Syria Arambeli in Armenia and Persia Buanisi in Alexandria and Assyria all foure are followed in Cairo lib. 5. 1. f Scal. E. T. l. 4. g 68. Sects Sarrac h Moreb Neb. l. 1. c. 70. l. 3. c. 18. 24. i God is a co-worker in euery worke of whom and in whom all things are and moue not a sparrow nor a haire from our head falleth to the ground without diuine prouidence Vid. Zanch. de Nat. D. 5. c. 1. c But two principall factions Mahumetan at this day d I. Leo. l 3. e What difference herein betweene the Mahumetane our Seperatist f Tronchi g In Itinerario Assassines of these see l. 2. c. 22. h A. Zach. Chro. Serac i Leo lib. 4. k Io. Bot. Ben. l Fr. Richard cap. 13. m This difference is in the Latine translation not in the Arabike as Erpenius hath obserued t Sup. c. 2. Io. Bot. Ben. a Lib. 18. c. 30. b Turci quasi Teucri Richer de reb. Turc Mart. Barletius de Scodrensi expug lib. 1. mention this opinion Andr. à Lacuna c Lonicer Chr. Turc to 1. l. 1. d Pom. Mela. l. 1. c. vlt. Plin. l. 6. c. 7. e Laon. Chalcondyl lib. 1. Io. Bapt. Egnatius Nic. Euboic Sagun Ep. Knolls c. f I. Leunel hist Musulm g P. Bizar hist Pers lib. 5. h Knoll Turc Hist Hieron Megisarus Ling. Turc. Institut literae sunt ijs 31. a Hist Musulman lib. 1. Theodor Gaza de Orig. Turcar. Epist. Io. Bapt. Egnat de Orig. Turc But see also sup c. 2. which is more likely For I read
all the face of the Earth and hath assigned the bounds of their habitation passed thither by some place where the Continent of our World ioyneth with America or where the Ilands thereof are found fit Mediatours for this passage being not farre distant from the Land And this on the North parts of the World where they place that fabulous Streight of Anian not yet certaynly discouered may be so besides that on the South men might passe from the Coasts of Malacca to Iaua and so to the South Continent and from thence by the Magellane Streights into America Groneland is found to bee the same Continent with Estotiland on the North. Some Negro's by force of tempest it is probable haue passed hither because in Careca some haue beene found betweene Saint Martha and Cartagena Of whom Iohn di Castellanos writeth Son todos ellos Negros comocueros c. They are all sayth hee as blacke as Rauens And of this minde is Botero and those French Worthies Du Bartas and Philip Morney It is not likely that the beasts could otherwise passe but by the Continent or by Ilands not farre off from the Continent or from one another Master Brerewood a man learned and iudicious in his Posthume worke of Languages and Religions affirmeth that America receiued her first Inhabitants from those parts of Asia where the Tartars first inhabited For those parts of America being most replenished which respect Asia and there being no token of the Arts or industry of China India or Cataya in many things also they seeming to resemble those old Tartars and their Countrey being eyther not at all or least of all other seuered from the North parts of America he concludeth as aforesaid A man may with like probable coniecture bring them from the Samoyeds bordering Northward from Russia and the Laplanders which by Northerne Ilands whereof there are some daily discouered might by passing from one to another seate themselues in Greenland Gronland Estotiland and other parts neere to or vpon America For the Inhabitants of the one are much like to the other And thus by many wayes Gods Prouidence might dispose Inhabitants to these parts that wee speake not of the South vnknowne Continent which is supposed to extend it selfe to the Line and from the Ilands of Asia might easily receiue and conuey Inhabitants hither As for Genebrards deriuation of the Americans from the ten Tribes prooued by the dreames of Esdras elsewhere alledged with like truth for the Tartars and some inscriptions out of Thenet they which will may beleeue Heere also ariseth another question how these beastes could passe from the parts of the knowne World where none such are knowne to which it may be answered That God hath appointed to euery Creature his peculiar nature and a naturall instinct to liue in places most agreeing to his nature as euen in our World , Non omnis fert omnia tellus Euery Countrey hath not all Creatures the Elephant Rhinoceros Riuer-horse Crocodile Camell Camelopardalis and others are not ordinarily and naturally in Europe nor the Zebra in Asia or Europe and the like may be said of many other Creatures Now as in the Arke it selfe the Cradle of Man and stall of Beasts wee must not onely obserue Nature and Art for the making and managing thereof but a higher and more powerful hand euen so in dispencing the creatures which came from thence they chose places by their owne naturall instinct and man disposed by his industrie according as he had vse of them but most of all the secret and mighty prouidence of God co-working in those works of Nature and industry and in likelihood infusing some more speciall and extraordinarie instinct in that replenishing and refurnishing of the World Assigning them their seasons and bounds of habitation hath thus diuersified his workes according to the diuersities of places and sorted out to each Countrey their peculiar creatures As for the comming by ship it is for the beasts improbable for the men by any great numbers or of any set purpose vnlikely except as before is said seeing in all America they had no shipping but their Canoes The beasts also haue not bin found in the Ilands which are in the Continent And if any hereunto will adde a supposition that there might be some Ilands or parts of the Continent in times past which is now swallowed by the mercilesse Ocean so that then there might be a way which now is buried in the waues as some suppose of Plato's Atlantis placed at the mouth of the Streits or Hercules Pillars which yet they would haue to be America and some of the Sea betwixt Douer and Callis once one firme Land as they doe imagine I list not to contradict them As for the Indians owne report of their beginning which some ascribe to a Fountaine others to a Lake others to a Caue or what other opinion they conceiue thereof we shall more fitly obserue in their proper places discoursing of their Religions and Opinions Now for he first certain Discouery of this New World the World generally ascribeth it to Columbus and worthily but Columbus himselfe is said to haue receiued his instructions from another §. II. Of Christopher Colon or Columbus his first Discouerie and three other Voyages THis Historie is thus related by Gomera and Ioannes Mariana A certaine Carauel sayling in the Ocean by a strong East winde long continuing was carried to a Land vnknowne which was not expressed in the Maps and Cards It was much longer in returning then in going and ariuing had none left aliue but the Pilot and three or foure Mariners the rest being dead of famine and other extremities of which also the remnant perished in few dayes leauing to Columbus then the Pilots host their Papers and some grounds of this Discouerie The time place countrey and name of the man is vncertaine some esteeme this Pilot an Andaluzian and that he traded at Madera when this befell him some a Biscaine and that his trafficke was in England and France and some a Portugall that traded at the Mina some say hee ariued in Portugall others at Madera or at one of the Azores all agree that he dyed in the house of Christopher Columbus It is most likely at Madera This Relation as it hath no witnesses to proue it the whole company being dead nor any good circumstances so Benzo and Ramusius plainely affirme it to be a fable and a Spanish tricke enuying a Forrenner and Italian that glory to be the first finder of the Indies And the most sincere and iudicious of the Spaniards themselues esteeme it but a tale as appeares by the testimonie of Gonzalo Fernando de Ouiedo in his Summary and more fully in his generall Historie of the Indies They shew and so doth he which then liued in the Court of Spaine Peter Martyr another cause that moued Columbus to this Discouery and not that Pilots papers or
reports For he being a Mariner vsed to the Sea from his youth and sayling from Cales to Portugall obserued that at certaine seasons of the yeere the windes vsed to blow from the West which continued in that manner a long time together And deeming that they came from some coast beyond the Sea he busied his minde so much herewith that he resolued to make some triall and proofe thereof When he was now forty yeeres old hee propounded his purpose to the Senate of Genua vndertaking if they would lend him ships he would find a way by the West vnto the Ilands of Spices But they reiected it as a dreame Columbus frustrate of his hopes at Genua yet leaues not his resolution but goeth to Portugall and communicates this matter with Iohn the second King of Portugall but finding no entertainment to his suites sendeth his brother Bartholomew Columbus to King Henry the seuenth of England to sollicite him in the matter whiles himselfe passed into Spaine to implore the aide of the Castilians herein Bartholomew vnhappily lighted on Pirats by the way which robbed him and his company forced him to sustayne himselfe with making of Sea-cards And hauing gotten somewhat about him presents a Map of the World to King Henry with his Brothers offer of Discouerie which the King gladly accepted and sent to call him into England But hee had sped of his suite before in Spaine and by the King and Queene was employed according to his request For comming from Lisbone to Palos di Moguer and there conferring with Martin Alonso Pinzon an expert Pilot and Fryer Io. Perez a good Cosmographer hee was counselled to acquaint with those his proiects the Dukes of Medina Sidonia and of Medina Caeli which yeelding him no credit the Fryer counselled him to goe the Court and wrote in his behalfe to Fryer Fernand di Telauera the Queenes Confessor Christopher Columbus came to the Court of Castile Anno 1486 and found cold welcome to his suite at the hands of the King and Queene then busied with hot warres in Granada whence they expelled the Moores And thus remayned hee in contempt as a man meanely clothed without other Patron then a poore Fryer saue that Alonso di Quintaniglia gaue him his Dyet who also at last procured him audience with the Archbishop of Toledo by whose mediation he was brought before the King and Queene who gaue him fauourable countenance and promised to dispatch him when they had ended the warres of Granada which also they performed Thus Columbus is set forth with three Caruels at the Kings charges who because his treasure was then spent in the warres borrowed sixteene thousand Duckets of Lewes de Sanct Angelo and on Friday the third of August in the yeere of our Lord 1492. in a Vessell called the Gallega accompanyed with the Pinta and Ninna in which the Pinzons Brethren went as Pilots with the number of an hundred and twenty persons or thereabouts set sayle for Gomera one of the Canary Ilands and hauing there refreshed himselfe followed his Discouery After many dayes hee encountred with that Hearbie Sea whereof before we haue spoken which not a little amated and amazed the Spaniards and had caused their returne had not the sight of some Birds promised him land not farre off He also first taught the Spaniards to obserue the Sunne and Pole in their Nauigations which till his Voyage they had not vsed nor knowne But the Spaniards after three and thirty dayes sayling desperate of successe mutined and threatned to cast Columbus into the Sea disdayning much that a stranger a Genuois had so abused them But he pacified their enraged courages with milde speeches and gentle promises On the eleuenth day of October one Rodorigo di Triana espyed and cryed Land Land the best Musicke that might be especially to Columbus who to satisfie the Spaniards importunity had promised the day before that if no Land appeared in three dayes hee would returne One the night before had descryed fire which kindled in him some hope of great reward at the Kings hand when hee returned into Spaine but beeing heerein frustrate hee burnt into such a flame as that it consumed both Humanitie and Christianitie in him and in the agony of indignation made him leaue his Countrey and Faith and reuolt to the Moores But thee Columbus how can I but remember but loue but admire Sweetly may those bones rest sometimes the Pillars of that Temple where so diuine a Spirit resided which neyther want of former example nor publike discouragements of domesticall and forren States nor priuate insultations of proud Spaniards nor length of time which vsually deuoureth the best resolutions nor the vnequall Plaines of huge vnknowne Seas nor grassie fields in Neptunes lap nor importunate whisperings murmurings threatnings of inraged companions could daunt O name Colon worthy to be named vnto the Worlds end which to the Worlds end hast conducted Colonies or may I call thee Colombo for thy Doue-like simplicitie and patience the true Colonna or Pillar whereon our knowledge of this New World is founded the true Christopher which with more then Giant-like force and fortitude hast carried Christ his Name and Religion through vnknowne Seas to vnknowne Lands which we hope and pray that it may be more refined and reformed then Popish superstition and Spanish pride will yet suffer Now let the Ancients no longer mention Neptune or Minos or Erythras or Danaus to all which diuers authors diuersly ascribe the inuention of nauigation Mysians Troyans Tyrians vaile your bonnets strike your top-sayles to this Indian-Admirall that deserueth the top-saile indeed by aspiring to the top that sayling could ayme at in discouering another World Let Spaniards French English and Dutch resound thy name or His Name rather whose Name who can tell that would acquaint Thee and the World by thee with newes of a New-World But lest we drowne our selues in this Sea of Extasie and Admiration let vs goe on shoare with Columbus in his new discouered Iland And first mee thinkes I see the Spaniards yesterday in mutinie now as farre distracted in contrary passions some gazing with greedie eyes on the desired Land some with teares of ioy not able to see that which the ioy of seeing made them not to see others embracing and almost adoring Columbus who brought them to that sight some also with secret repinings enuying that glory to a stranger but byting in their byting enuie and making shew of glee gladnesse all new awaked out of a long trance into which that Step-mother-Ocean with dangers doubts dreads despaires had deiected them reuiued now by the sight of their mother-earth from whom in vnknowne armes they had beene so long weaned and detayned On shoare they goe and felling a tree make a Crosse thereof which there they erected and tooke possession of that New World in the name of the Catholike Kings This was done on the eleuenth of October Anno 1492.
* Amos 4.12 b Psal. 103.1 b Of the Iewes Arba-canphos and Zizis they call this garment Talish vid. El. Thisb rad Talith vid. R. Mos M. N. l. 3. c. 33. c Num. 15.38 Fringes and Phylacteries d Of their Tephillim e The foureteene first verses in Exod. 13. 4 5 6 7 8 9. of Deut. 6. Pagn f Deut. 6.6 8. g Eccles 4.17 h Exod. 3. 5 i Num. 24.5 k Psal. 5.7 l Psal. 26.28 It seemeth 1. Cor. 11.4 that they prayed bare headed but in the booke Musar cap. 4. It is said a man ought to couer his head when hee prayeth because he standeth before God with fear and trembling and Cap. 6. he giueth a reason why a man is bare a woman couered because saith he Eue first sinned m Grounded on Deut. 10.12 Now Israel what doth God require of thee they reade not Mahschoel but Meahschoel hee râ—quireth an hundred And in the Treatise Porta lucis is hereof a Cabalisticall speculation that hee which any day shall misse any of his hundreth benedictions he shall not haue one blessing to his minde c. See P. Ric. de Coelest Agric. lib 4. n Zephan 3.20 o Hos 14.3 p Obad. ver 21. q Monster praecept Mes cum expos Rab. r Echad Å¿ They may not say it within foure cubits of a graue nor in sight of an vnclean place where dung or vrine is except they be hardned and dryed vp or else couered They must not stirre their eyes or fingers It is a preseruation against diuels Munster t Ezek. 1.7 u Tract Sanhedrin x 1. Kin. 22.22 y Vict. de Carben lib. 1. cont Iud. cap. 8. P. Ric. praec. affirmat 19. z Psal. 72.19 * Mor. Neb. l. 3. cap. 64. Buxdorf c 6 7. a Relation of Religion in the West b Deut. 11.13 c Leuit. 26.10 d Talmud tract Sotah cap. 1. e Prou. 6.26 f They may not drinke any wine with the Gentiles because it is doubtfull whether it hath beene offered to Idols or no and though it be alleaged that the Gentiles now doe not serue Idols yet because it was determined by a certaine number of Rabbines till by a Counsel of so many that decree bee disanulled it must stand Elias Thys rad Nesech g Robin good-fellow or the spirit of the buttery among the Iewes Concerning Angels it is thus writen in the booke Aboth fol. 83. from the earth to the firmament all is full of troupes and rulers and below are many hurtfull and accusing creatures which all haue their abode in the ayre no place being free of which some are for peace some for warre some prouoke to good some to euill to life and death c. Drus lib. 7. praet They say the Angell Raeziel is Gods Secretarie of which name are two Cabalisticall bookes Elias Thys Samael is the Diuell Euerie one hath two Angels one at his right hand the other at his left Rambam M. N. lib. 3.23 h Hee that leaues nothing on the Table shall not bee prosperous Sanhed C. helek i Psal. 39.10 11 k Scholae pulsator among the Iewes is as our Sexten They will not admit of bels because it is an inuention of the Christians because sayth Carbensis they are baptised they vse this prouerbe therof Hee which ringeth a bell let him fall in the dunghill and hee which hangs on the Bel-rope may he hang in hell Vict. Carb lib. 1. cap. 11. l Psal. 84 4. 144.15 145.5 m Iosh 7.6 n Deut. 6.4 a Tract Rabba Kama c. 7. b Exod. 15.22 c Li. Musar c. 4 d Princip sap ap Drus e The deuouter Iewes fast euery Munday and Thursday Vid. Buxdor syn cap. 9. Drus praet in Luc. 1.8 18.2 f Li. Musar 26. g In Thisb rad sacar h In their Synagogues they might do this but not in their Schooles See c. 12. Sup. §. 3. i The manner of the Law-Lectures k The folding of the wood of Life l Prou. 3.18 m Praecentor n Psal. 34.4 o Psalm 99.9 Legem legebant primuÌ„m Sacerdos deinde Leuita postreme Israel nam tres erant qui eam legebant Drus ex li. Musar Women haue a Synagogue apart from the men p Zach. 12.2 q This preparation or Parasceue they obserue before the Sabbath and other feasts Tertullian calls them caenae purae r Exod. 16.25 Å¿ Orach chaijm cap. 2. t Gen. 3.12 u De Sab. c. 21. x Like to this is the storie of Turnus and R. Akiba in the Talmud Tract Sanhed cap. 7. y De Sab. c. 16. z Dicunt cabalistae quòd qui vxorem suam cognoscit in media nocte noctis Veneris adueniente Sabbato non aliter prospera erit ei generatio tales n nunquam caerebunt haerede bonos procreabunt filios tales dicuntur Eunuchi quibus Deus etiam dat bona temporalia quia sicut tunc Tipheret copulatur vxori Malcut ratione Sobbati sic vir tunc de influxis Tipheret participabit Archang. in Cabal quem consule de Tiphereth Malch pag. 769. a Esa 58.13 b Minhagam Pag. 13. c Math. 27.47 d This holy wine they sprinkle about their houses and themselues as effectuall against diseases and diuels e Math 12 11. f Iob. 9 they accused Christ for anointing the eyes of the blinde c. yet they except the danger of life Thanchuma 8.1 Imeden fol. 41. Aquiba saith one may raise the dead by Necromancie except on the Sabbath and Misuoth 100. he determineth a Sabbath iourney out of towne for within though as wide as Niniue it had none at 2000. cubites which there is a measured mile g V ct Caroâ—ns l. 1. Buxdorf Syn. Iud. a Of their Tekuphas see sup c. 4. b Scal. Em. Tem. l. 7. p. 592. c Their order of celebrating the Passe-ouer at this day d Thus curious were the Roman women in the tites of Bana Dea not leauing a Mouse-hole vnsearched lest some male Mouse might marre the solemnitie e Hac nocte pas legunt historiam de exitu Aeg. bibunt 4 Cyathos vini post coenam frangunt panem dant partem suam vnicuique in mensacum tantasanctitate ac si ipsum Pascha mactassent Phil. Ferdinand praec. 19. f Abundans cautela non nocet g Pentecost h So the Primitiue Church neither fasted nor kneeled all the dayes betweene Easter Pentecost in token of ioyfull hope of the resurrection Iust Mart. quaest. 115. Amb. ser 61. Hier. Aug. c. perhaps in imitation of this Iewish rite applyed to that mystery i Tabernacles k The last day they may kindle fire from another not strike fire with stone or mettal nor quench it although to saue their good nor blow it with bellowes but with a reede they may with many trifling obseruations else mentioned by Munst Praecept Mos cum expos Rab. l Palme and Willow and Pome-citron and Myrtle the cause hereof Rambam deliuers Moreb Neb. p. 3. c. 44. m Psal. 96.12 n Bux de
abbreuiat beb o Num. 14.9 They say also that on that day God fore-sheweth how much it shall rayne all the yeere following of plenty also and dearth c. and direct their prayers accordingly p New-Moon day q New-yeeres day Vict. de Carben l. 1. c. 16. Where hee rehearseth these ceremonies sayth some R R. beleeue the world began in March r Psal. 69.28 P. Ric. de Coelest Agricult l. 3. Reuchlin l. 1 c. 1 de verbo Mirifico Å¿ Gen. 22.18 t Mich. 7.19 u Reconciliation x Hospinian ex Lombardo y Buxdorf c. 20 Vict. Carben l. 1. c. 17. addeth that the men and women that morning curse the first Christian they meete and therefore will waite two or three houres for some to whome they owe some speciall grudge to bestow their curse vpon him in these words God make thee my Cocke this yeere z Esa 1.18 a Ant. Margar. b Vict. Carben l. 1. coÌ„t Iud. c. 11. c Shall bee called a sinner li. Musar fol. 18. d Saying I haue sinned against God this my brother and done thus and thus if hee oweth him money he payeth it to his heires if he knoweth none hee confesseth it and leaues it in the Court Ibid. e Yet he being mercifull c. Their fiue humiliations at the feast of Reconciliation f Manent 24. horas in Synagoga putant Deum illis remittere omnia peccata praeteri ta superioris anni Ben. Kat. praet 313. g Pirke c. 46. h Exod. 23.8 i The feast of the Law finished k Hospinian â—x M. Lombard l Hospinian m Syn. Iud. Buxdorf Hos 2.7 Buxdorf Syn. Iud. c. 26. d. * They ground these absurdities on Moses his words Exo. 23.19 a The knife may not after be vsed except heated red hot in the fire three houres and three dayes hidden in the earth three times put into water Vict. Carb l. 1. c. 12. b Nine houres saith Carbens This they gather out of Num. 31.23 b Exod. 22.31 Leuit. 22. c Tunc temporis aiunt infirmitas muliebris eam inuasit cum surrexisset de terra volucres aduolarunt sanguinemque virginitatis eius in terram occuluerunt ideoque deus mandauit sanguinem auium mactatarum tegere d Gen. 32. e Lib. Praecep 124. vid. Drus praet pag. 2. f Exod. 22.17 Deut. 22.29 g Lib. Musar cap. 6. h Fol. 364. Syn. Iud. c. 28. k Drus vbi sup. l Cap. 14. m Idqne aiebat Iudaeaster quia semen viri album mulieris rubrum n Pirke siue cap. R. Eliezer c. 11. Brandspigel c. 34 o Gen. 2.22 p Vid. Eli. Thil. vad Chapha q In token that they shall multiply like the Starres in number r Ierem. 31.22 Å¿ Psal. 147.14 t Psal. 45.10 u Ruth 3 9. Ezek. 16.8 x Some superstitiously engraue therein Good fortune commeth or the Planet Iupiter which they would borrow from Leahs words Gen. 30.11 vid. Munster ibid. The R. saith Victar Carbens marketh diligently whether she put forth her fore-finger for the Virgin Mary say they ware the Ring on her middle finger and therefore all Iewesses refuse that and vse the fore finger x Prou. 14.10 y Com. sup Aboth fol. 83. ap Drus z Rambam M. N. lib. 3. cap. 50. a Vid. Drus praet lib. 6. in 1. Cor. 7.2 Idem vid. ap R. Ab. ben Kattan pr. 150. P. Ric. in praec. neg 81. horam non minuet id est debitum coniugale idque secundum vetustam Talmud traditionem otio vacantes quotidie mecanicus operarius his in hebdomade Afinarius qui sarcinulas nectat semel qui portat per camelos semel in mense nauta semel in dimidio anni Com sup. Aboth 10. Drus praet pag. 285. b Musar cap. 6. c Vid Drus pag. 376. d Musar 74. e Vid. sup c. 8. f Drus praet l. 7 g Vid. Eli. Thisrad get Drus praet pag. 13. Bux Syn. c. 28. h Drus praet pag. 221. Buxd. Syn. ca. 30. For this they alleage Leuit. 12.4 i Adhuc bebdomadae cursu ad eam accedere imo iuxta iuniorum Talmudeorum decreta tangere non permittitur P. Ric. ad praec. neg 111 k Sup. cap. 14. l Phil. Ferdinandus pr. 1. m P. Ricius ad pr. affir 49. Buxdorf c. 33. Iewish beggers Cap. 34. Diseases of the Iewes Cap. 35. Iewish penances n Ceremonies about the sicke o And about the dead in the house p At the graue They may not bury the corps in silke or needle worke Iuch f. 54. no not a Prince for this were waste and a worke of the Gentiles Officium Lugentium ex lib. precationum heb. Mahzor vid. Genebrard q After the buriall r Esay 25.8 Å¿ In rad Chibut Hakebac Sup. cap. 13. a Act. 1.6 b Ben-Cobas Cozabh or Cuzibha c Gen 49.10 Hag. 2. Dan. 9.23 d Cantic 7.5 e Sanhed c. 11. f Hosh 3.4 g Malac. 4.2 h Dan. 12.3 i Ioel. 2.31 k Ierem. 5.14 l Cap. 12. ver 1. m Ezek. 38.22 n Obad. 18. o Vict Carb l. 8. cap. 15. p Esa 35.6 q Iob. 40.10 Of these huge creatures see the same huge reports and hideous vanities 4. Esdras 6.49 r Baua Basia cap 5. Å¿ Rad. Iuctma t Bechoros cap. vlt. Vid Hieron à sancto fide contra fudaeos l. 2. Homers Poliphemus and Guids iourney of Phaeton were pettie matters the Iewes scorne such pedling u Like the fish in the Legend of Saint Brandon x Cholm cap. 3 y Iob. 40.15 Psal. 104.26 z Psal. 45.10 Tract Sanhed c. Hesek tract de Idolot de Sabbato a This was not Elias the Prophet mentioned in the Scripture but a Talmudicall Rab. and therfore no sure ground to Scheltco his positions in his Treatise of the end of the World Englished by T. R. Vid Genebrard Chron. in iaitio b Ioh. 3.13 a Rom. 11. 25 26. b P. Mart. in Rom. c. 11. c Tom. 2. Hom. 12. in Marc. de verbis Dom. circa ficum * De generali nouiss ludaeor. vocatione d Impediments of the Iewes conuersion e Luth. in Mich. 4.1 2. See also a whole booke of his Cont. Iudaeos vbi haec fusius f Relation of Religion of the West parts g Apr. 1577. h Rel. West i Ibid. k Vict. de Carben. cont Iug. l. 1. c. 4 5. Rel. West l Gen. 1.28 m Heb. 13.4 n 1. Tim. 4.1 4. a An. Dom. 595. alij 604. Plat. Bonifac. 3. à Phoco Imp. magna tamen contentione obtinuit vt sedes B. Petri c. b P. Bizar Hist Pers l. 6. Mar. Sanut Torsel Geor. Cedreni Hist compend c G. Tyrens l. 1. saith 36000. G. Tyren l. 1. c. 2. a Lib. 8. c. 3. Tantum reuerebantur Saraceni Templum domini quantuÌ„ Christiani sepulch Ies Christi Sanutus Tor l. 3. p. 11. c. 12. Ber. Breid 1483. L. Suthenens Adrichomius c. b Thus Tyr. but others ascribe it to Axan and tell of very honourable