Souldiers suspected the business and therefore mad with anger they all jointly rose in Arms for hm swearing they would live and die with him and that he should not present himselfe at Court. It is our duty say they to conserve thy life which hast been so carefull of ours and we have strength and courage enough to resist all the force of thy perfidious Enemies But Ignatius was deaf to al these allurements He chuses rather to die thatn either to reign or to serve the Tartars and studied by all means to sweeten their exulcerated minds alwaies inculcating to them to the true and loyall to their Sovereigns service chusing rather to water that ungratefull Soil of his native Country with the streams of his Blood than either to spill his Enemies blood by the force and pow'r of his Souldiers or retire to the Tartarian king which offered him so fair preferments But many of his Captains fell off to the Tartars following in this not his example but that of many others whom they saw eminently promoted amongst the Tartars Some of those that then fled from the Emperour are now chief Commanders under the Tartarian King in their China Empire some also have obtained the dignity of Princes or Riolets in several Countries for the reward of their Valour and faithfull service against China So efficacious is that wedge which is made of the same wood But although hitherto these Tartarian Warrs had caused great troubles and tempests in the China Empire yet all things now seemed calmed and pacified so as they seemed secure from any further danger for the Western part of Leaotung was strongly fortified and there was a great Army in the Island of Cu and the bordering quarters which hindered the Tartars of the Eastern part of the Countrie which they posessed from further passage But now the chiefest danger was from the Traitors and Theeves which were in the very Bowells of the Country The Theeves in China a chief occasion of its overthrow who finally destroyed it and gave it up in Prey to the Tartars I touched somthing of their Commotions before now we must treat a little more largely of their proceedings that the Reader may see how the Tartars came to subdue and conquer China The first Combination of these Rovers appeared in the remote Country of Suchuen Severall Theeves who having pillaged divers Cities and emboldened by prosperous success ventured to besiege the chief City of that Country call'd Cingtu which they had infallibly taken if that valiant Amazon whom I mentioned before had not come to relieve it with her Army but by her valour they were beaten off with great loss They are defeated but not vâ—â—quished and not being wholly extinguished they retired into the mouÌ„tains to recruit their Forces These were seconded by a like Race of people in the Province of Queicheu who took occasion of rising by reason of an unjust Sentence passed in a Sute betwixt two Grandees of that Country and one of these great persons being offended with the Governors These roving companions first kill'd all the Magistrates which had pronounced that unjust Sentence then they defeated the ViceRoy his Army yet afterwards he routed them again with a new Army but could not extinguish them Besides these Famin augments the Theevs the Famin increasing in the Northern quarters in the Countries of Xensi Xantung by reason of a great inundation of Locusts which devoured all there rise up by this occasion many loose felâ—owes which lived by Rapin. These men at first were few in number and small in strength and only preying in little places they presently fled to the Mountains but finding they got both Meat and Riches with little labour and less cost they quickly got Companions to reinforce them This Sedition being much augmented by the Emperour Zungchinius his notable avarice And the Emperour his avarice who so exhausted the people by Imposts and Taxes as if it had been a year of the golden Age. The Prefects of the Provinces not being able presently to repress the insolency of those people they daily increased in courage and strength Insomuch as in several Countries they had eight very considerable Armies They chose the strongest and valiantest men amongst them for their Commanders and these persons being grown rich and potent by preying deposed now the person of the Ringleader of Theeves The Commanders aspire to the Empire and aspired to no less than to the Empire of China And at first they fought one against another every one laying hold one what he could But at length things were brought to that pass that two of the Commanders being only left alive these two prevailed with the souldiers of those that were killed to follow their Ensignes and Fortune and they knowing well that if they were taken by the Emperors Officers they could not escape a most certain death easily resolved to shelter themselves under the Arms of these two victorious persons The names of the chief Felons The name of one of these chief Brigands was Licungzus the second was called Changhienchungus two notorious bold roguish fellows who lest they should destroy one anothers fortunes by their ambitious emulation they separated themselves far from one another resolving both to persue their prosperous fortunes Licungzus therefore possessed himself of the Northern parts of Xensi and Honan and the other tyrannised the Countries of Suchuen and Huquang But that we may not interrupt our discourse by delivering the Acts of both these together we will first treat of Licungzus his feats being it was he was the cause of the Tartars coming to the Empire which he himself might have possessed if his proceedings had been moderate and human and of the other we shall speak hereafter Therefore in the year 1641. these pilferers having got immense riches in the Province Xensi made an irruption in a vast body into that delicious sweet Provincs of Honan They vex several Provinces and went strait to the chief City called Caifung which they besieged There was in that place a very great and strong Garison who by the benefit of artillerie mouned upon hand-wheeling Chars forced them to quit the siege then they fell upon all the neighbouring Cities Plundring spoiling and burning all they could master Having horded up store of provision of Corn and augmented their Army by a company of Rascally Vagabonds and loytering fellows They besiege the noble City Caifung they returned again to besiege the Metropolitan City but despairing to take it by Force or assaults they resolved to ruin it by a long Siege that they might enjoy the immense Riches of that noble City and though this Town be three great Leagues in circumference yet they rounded it so by their lines as nothing could enter the City this drave them to some straits for although the Purveyer for victualls had brought in good store of provision in the two moneths space in which they
advance the publique good yet both parties pretended the general good but both neglected it Every party endeavouring to extoll and exalt his own Creatures into places of trust and power All which when Zunchinius the Emperour went about to redresse he exasperated the minds of many of the Commanders against him for as soon as he came to the Crown he cruelly persecuted all that favoured the Eunuch and in fine killed this very Eunuch which had been his Predecessors Favourite together with many more of his kind of which Tragedy I will only relate the Catastrophe The Emperour Zungchinius resolving to destroy both the Eunuch and all his power sent him an order to go visit the Tombs of his Ancestors to consider if any of those antient Monuments wanted reparation the Eunuch could not refuse so honorable an imployment which seemed rather an addition to all his honours but he had not gone far upon his journey but there was presented to him from the Emperour a Box of silver gilt with a Halter of Silk folded up in it by which he understood he was to hang himself by the Emperors order which he could not refuse being that kind of death amongst the Chineses is counted honourable when it is accompanied with such formalities But by this occasion the Emperour raised new Factions and more Traitors which held secret correspondence with the Theeves Army Hence it came to pass that no Army was sent to oppose them or if any went they did no manner of action being alwaies hindered by the emulation of others nay it happened often that when they might have taken great advantages yet the occasion was neglected lest the Commanders should increase their Power and Credit by their Victories with the Emperour These Dissentions and Emulations happened so seasonably to the Roving Army of Theeves as that to come to see and conquer was to them one and the self-same thing as I shall declare unto you Whilest these transactions passed in the Court The Theevs take the Province of Xensi Licungzus Conductor of the Theeves having setled all things in the Country of Xensi passed to the East and coming to the famous great River of Croceus finding on body to defend it he passed over with as much facility as it might have been maintained with ease if there had been placed but a handfull of Souldiers For this River runns with a violent rapid course and with as vast a Sea of waters from West to East but being there was no man to defend it they passing it easily presently seizd upon the chief and richest Citie in all those quarters called Kaiangcheu which is situated neer the South bankside of that River and being carried on with a strong gale of Fortune he seized upon all other Cities every one desiring either to free themselves from further vexation or blindly and fondly submitting themselves to any new change of Government For we commonly delight in varieties and novelties and hoping for better we find worse Only the City of Thaiyven made some resistance but being presently subdued was fined with great vast summes of mony for their temerity The Emperour Zungchinius hearing the Theeves had passed the River Croceus and were advanced to the very Confines of Xensi which borders upon the Province where he had placed his Throne Royall Seat he sent an Army under the Lord Marshal of China to hold them at least in play if he could not overthrow them But this Army did just nothing nay most of the Souldiers ran to the Thieving party in so much as the Lord Marshal himself called Colaus Lius seeing Affairs grew so desperate Hang'd himself for fear of further shame and dishonour The Emperour of China is troubled The Emperour hearing of the ill success of his Affairs began to think of leaving the Northern parts where his Royal City of Peking is situated and to pass to Nankuing which is far more Southward but he was disswaded from this intended course as well by his loyal as disloyal Subjects by these that they might give him up more speedily into the enemies hands before their treachery was discovered and by the others lest his flight might trouble the Kingdom more and discourage all his Subjects from giving their best assistance for they thought the City impregnable being fortified with so strong a Garrison nor did they doubt that the Kings presence would draw the forces of the whole Kingdom to him And their Counsel had been good if the Court had been purged of Traytors The Stratagem of the Theef In the mean time the Theeves Conductor who was no less quick and nimble in execution than witty in invention sowing a Fox his tayl to the Lions skin caused many of his Souldiers in a disguised habit to creep into that Princely City and gave them mony to trade in trifling ware till he assaulted the Wals with the body of his Army for then they had order to raise sedition and tumult in the City and considering they were a Company of desperate Fellons of a very low base fortune it is stupendious to think how they could keep so profound secrecy in a matter of so high concernment But to this mine which was prepared in the bowels of the City he held a secret train of Intelligence with the Lieutenant of the City who seeing the Emperours Affairs desperate is said to have dealt with the Conductor of these Brigants about giving up the City unto their power But however it was these Pilferers came in a short time to besiege the Royal City of Peking There was in that City a vast Garrison and as great a quantity of Artillery but on the Quarters upon which the enemy made there assault there was none charged with Bullets but only with Powder Wherefore being secure from any annoy from that side The Royal City of Peking is taken in the year MDCXLIV before the rising of the Sun they entred the Metropolitan City of all China by one of the Gates which was opened to them nor was there any long resistance made even by those that were faithful to their Prince for the Souldiers of the Theef which lay lurking in the City made such a tumult and confusion as none knew whom to oppose in which respect they made a great slaughter so as Licungzus in this Babylonian confusion marched victorious through the City till he came to the very Emperours Pallace where though he found some resistance from the faithfullest Eunuchs yet notwithstanding he presently entred that famous and renowned Palace And that which exceeds all admiration the enemy had passed the first Wall and Precinct and yet the Emperour being alive knew nothing of so strange a passage for the Traiterous Eunuchs which were of most Authority fearing he might escape by flight deferd to admonish him of his own danger or of the taking of the City till they saw he could not possibly evade Who hearing this doleful news he first demanded if
Souldiers were either of his affinity or wholy at his Command and Obedience And therefore it is no wonder if he found an easy admittance into the Country of Fokien of which they presently made him King Pingnan as much as to say Pacifier of the South and they added many other Dignities and Offices of trust that they might more speciously illude him for either they knew his aspiring mind The Tartars deceive the Pyrat and take him Prisoner by meer Art or else his great power and authority was suspicious and formidable to them but yet all the while the General of the Tartars remained in Fokien they never expressed the least diffidence in him but both with favours courtesies presents and honours they studied how further to ingage him and promised the Government of many more Provinces He made himself therefore secure of the Government of all the Southern Provinces but all happened quite contrary to his expectation for when this General of the Tartars who was observed as a little King was to depart to Peking the custom was for all the Officers of the Kingdom to conduct him for some part of his journey to give him an honourable farewell which last duty of Civillity Iquon could not handsomely avoid nor indeed had he any reason to be diffident of any distrust in him so as he left his Navy in the Port of Focheu and accompanied the Royolet with great splendor and magnificence But when he came to take leave and demand Licence to return the General of the Tartars invited him a long to Peking where he promised him yet greater honours from the Kings own person to reward his Merits He endeavoured by all imaginable occasions to excuse this journey but nothing was accepted he was forced by their kindness to accompany them to Peking and so he was taken by Art who by Arms seemed Insuperable He yet lives in Prison in Peking because his Brothers and Kindred hearing of his Captivity presently ceased on the Fleet with which they have much infested China as we shall touch hereafter In the mean time the other Army which had passed the Mediterranean Provinces of Huquang The Tartars overthrown Quangsi Kiansi and Quamgtung invaded the Country of Quangsi But here it was that the Arms of the Tartars which hitherto were held invincible were shewed to be weak and where they least expected opposition there they found the greatest destruction It happened that in this Province of Quangsi the Vice-Roy called Khiu Thomas was a Christian and the chief Commander also of all the Militia of that Country was commanded by Ching Lucas whose family for five Genetations has served the Emperours of China with as much constancy and fidelity as they did Christ These two having gathered many together which fled from all parts into Quangsi after the Tartars had taken many places in the Country overthrew the Tartarians in a set Battail and passing into the confining Province of Quamgtung they recovered all the Western part of it After this that they might have a head to fight for and who might command and govern them in all Occurrences and withall to draw the minds and hands of the Chineses to the common defence of the Country knowing that in the City of Queilin Jungley made Emperour of China which is the head City of Quangsi there was one of the Taiminges Family living who was Nephew to the Great Vanleius they elected him Emperour and called by the name of Jungley This Prince fixed his Imperial seat in the noble City of Chatking in the Province of Quamgtung and hitherto has fought several times with the Tartars with good success And in this Princes Court the chief Eunuch called Pang Achilleus is the greatest favourite and a great Servant of Christ whom he hath long professed to serve both by word and deed for to propagate Christianity he has ever mantained a mission of Jesuites about him by whose painful endeavours many have embraced the Faith of Christ And amongst others the very Mother of this Emperour his Wife The Heir to the Empire becomes Christian and his eldest Son Heir of the Empire called Constantin did all imbrace Christianity May this Man by the prayers of all Christians prove another Constantine to the Empire of China The Emperour himself is not averse from Christiany but hitherto he hath deferr'd his Baptism but yet he permitted his Wife to send a Father of the Society to do homage to the Sea Apostolick as all Europe has heard God of his goodness grant him that felicity which may redound to the universal good of China and Gods greater Glory But it was not only in Quangsi that the Chineses began to resume their courage Theeves infest the Province of Fokien but in the Province of Fokien also for no sooner was the Tartarian Army called back to Peking but a petty Heathen Priest broke out of the Mountains of Fokien with a band of seditious fellows and subduing the Tartarian Garrisons he took the fair City of Kienning and many others from their subjection and others which lay lurking in the Mountains following his example recovered also many other Cities about which time also the friends and Kindred of the Captive Iquon did extremely infest the Sea and making descents upon the Land vexed the Province extremely about the Quarters of Siuencheu and Changcheu At this time the Governour of the Province of Chekiang was Vice-Roy of two Provinces who hearing of these commotions came presently by night in great hast with all the force he could make towards the Mountains of Fokien for he with reason feared lest they should take possession of the passages of those places which if they had done the whole Province had been regained But when this Vice-Roy called Changus found the Mountains and passages clear and no opposition made in such difficult places he then proclamed himself victorious and his enemies perfidious Rebels Changus the Commander of the Tartars besieges Kienning in vain wherefore comming without resistance into the Country he besieged the City Kienning which was defended by Vangus This Siege held some weeks but he never could take the place by force and therefore having lost many of his men by assaults he judged it best rather to block up the place a far of than to besiege it so close and neer But yet by this he hindred other forces from joyning with Vangus so that he was not strong enough to sally out upon them When the noyse of these commotions came to Peking It is at length taken and raâ—â—d the Emperour presently sent a new supply to appease these tumults and this fresh Army comming to joyn with the other brought the City to great streights but yet they could not win it till at length they found means by a rare invention to transport their Canons over the Mountains upon Porters Shoulders by which means they dismantled the Town and put all whatsoever to the Sword to the number
receive victuals from the Emperour Jungley but by Cancheu which is the natural descent of the River and therefore when he heard of Lihuzu's defeat he presently besieged that City with his whole Army But whilst he was besieging this City their came unfortunately a new Army of Tartars from the Emperial City of Peking which had order to recover this Province of Kiangsi and therefore Kinus was forced to raise his Siege to oppose their entrance by the Northern parts of the Country And at first having a vast Army and used to the Tartarian warfare he fought both valiantly and happily but not being able to sustain any longer their redoubled violent assaults he was forced to retire for his security to the Nanchang Kinus besieged by the Tartars the chief City of that Country which City the Tartars durst not venture to take by force but resolved to reduce it by a long Siege for which end they gathered together a Company of Country Clowns to make a large and spacious Trench round about the City to the River and there they placed Ships so as no Provision could possibly enter This City of Nanchang is great and extremely full of inhabitants besides the multitude of Souldiers which defended it at that time so as although Kinus had made great Provision for a Siege yet after some months he came to great want and penury and yet he held it out though many dyed expecting still some succours from the Emperour Jungley which could not be sent because the Souldiers of Quamgtung could never subdue the City of Chancheu by which his succour was to pass wherefore Kinus being brought to great extremity expressed his mind to his Souldiers in these words There is no further hope my faithful Companions but in our own valour and strength we must force our way through the Tartarian Army by dint of Sword be couragious and follow my example And having ordered all affairs Kinus breaks out of the City he suddainly made a Sally out of the Town upon their Trenches where though he found a vigorous opposition yet with great difficulty he passed and forced their Trenches by which means he saved himself and his Army having killed many Tartars for it is constantly reported that Kinus with his Army lives in the Mountains expecting there some good occasion to renew the War The City of Nanchang is destroyed He being thus escaped the Tartars Pillaged the City and put all the Citizens to the sword for it is the Tartars custom to spare all Cities which submit to them and to those which have made resistance before they were taken they are more troublesome but they never spare or pardon those Cities which revolt after they have once been taken In this Slaughter they killed the two Priests which assisted the Christians and their antient and fair Church was burned in the City After this the Tartars easily recovered the whole Country and having appeased all and left new Garrisons in all places the Army returned victorious to the Royal City of Peking In the mean time this Court prepared new Armies to reduce Quamgtung with the other Provinces which acknowledged Jungley for the Emperour of China for the Tutor to the young King of Tartary finding the defections and rebellions in the Southern parts to be very frequent resolved to give those Quarters over to some Tributary Royolets Three Kings created with as many Armies against Jungley the Emperour of China the better to contain those Countries in their duties wherefore in the year MDCXLIX he sent three Armies consisting partly of Tartars and partly of Chineses under three Tributary Princes to govern these Provinces with absolute power and Dominion one of these was King of Fokien another of Quamgtung and the third of the Province of Quangsi but with this condition that first of all they should joyn their Forces to recover the Country of Quamgtung and drive away the Emperour Jungley But we shall say more of this hereafter now having seen the Rebellions of the South let us look a little back on the Rebellions in the North against the Tartars also In these Northern parts the Chineses shewed their desire of Liberty as much as they had done in the South where the Commanders though overthrown yet not taken retired into the abrupt and precipitious Mountains where they held Counsel how they might shake off the Tartars Dominion three of these heads inhabited the thickest and highest places of that mountanous Country the chiefest of which was called Hous this man being strong in men invited the rest to joyn with him to deliver his Country from this miserable thraldome one of them consented the other could not come but sent him two thousand men to assist him Hous riseth against the Tartars so as Hous marched out with five and twenty thousand men which was no contemptible Army if they had been as couragious as numerous He put out a Proclamation in which he challenged the Tartars and threatned them all extremities and to the Chineses he promised all liberty and freedom and upon these hopes many Towns and Cities admitted him very willingly Sigan the Metropolitan of the Country was the only place able to resist him having in its Walls three thousand Tartars and two thousand selected men of China who served the Tartar The Governour of this Town hearing of Hous his motion gathered all things necessary for a long Siege till a new supply of Tartarian Forces could be sent him But when he heard that all the Towns and Cities in the Country did voluntarily submit themselves to Hous The barbarous resolution of a Tartarian Governour to prevent the like effect in his own City he resolved to murder all the Citizens most barbarously nor would he ever be removed from this unhumane sentence till the Vice-Roy commanding and perswading and the Citizens promising all faithful service at length he changed this Tyrannical Counsel But he commanded under pain of death that whereas hitherto the Chineses who loved so much their Hair that they only cut a little of it away about their Temples should hereafter shave it off wholy and totally that so he might distinguish the Citizens from any others if perchance they entred he ordained besides that if any spoke more than two together they should all be presently killed he forbad all men to walk upon the Walls or to walk in the Streets by night or to keep a Fire or Candle in his House by night and finally disarmed all declaring it death to infringe any of these orders These things being thus ordered The chief City called Sigan is besieged he sent out some Scouts to discover the enemies strength who were partly killed and partly came flying back to the City but this Tartarian Governour as well to make an oftentation of his strength as of his security commanded the City Gates to be lest open nor would he permit the Draw Bridge to be raised or pulled up to
Corps as many Servants Women and Horses with Bows and Arrows as may fit to atend and serve them in the next life Though now since they conquered China they have left off this barbarous custome being reprehended and corrected for it by the Chineses themselves After this superstitious Vow advancing his revenging Arms he besieged Leaotung The chiefe City of Leaoyang besieged and taken which was the chief City of the Province of Leaoyang with 50000 men But the City was defended by exceeding many men who generally were all armed with musquets The Tartars had nothing but their Scymetars with Bows and Arrows which they discharge with strange dexterity Art But because they chiefly feared the musquet bullets they resolved by a Stratagem to make that unknown Instrument less hurtfull to them than their Enemies did imagin A Stratagem against musquets For the Tartarian King commanded such as made the first onset to carry a thick hard board for their Shield which was as good to them as a wooden Wall these men were seconded by other Companies who carried Ladders to climb up the Walls and the Horse came up in the Rear In this manner he set upon the City in four quarters and received the discharge of their Musquets against his Wooden wall Then in a moment the scaling ladders being applied before they could charge again they were upon the Walls and enterd the City for such is the quickness and nimbleness of the Tartars in which they excel all Nations and in which also they place their chief art that in a trice they either prevail in their Designs or retire and the little skill the Chineses had in the use of Musquets was no small hinderance to the War For the Tartars quickness and nimblenes not giving them time to charge again being astonished with the suddain inundation of armed men they presently fled which way soever they could but being pursued by the swift Tartarian Horse most of them perished in the taking of this great City This City being taken the Tartar like a Torrent over-run many others of less note Many other Cities taken but amongst others he took that noble City Evamgning and over-runing most speedily the whole Country of Leaotung he entred the Province of Pekin and coming within seven Leagues of the very Imperial City He durst not advance fearing the Enemy might compas or surround him because he heard that a world of men came in to help their distressed Prince But the Tartar struck such a terrour into the hearts of all the Countries he had passed as both Souldier and Citizen leaving their Houses left the empty walls to the Tartarians possession knowing the Tartar to have that custom and practice to destroy and put all to fire and sword that did resist and only pillage the Cities that submitted How the Tartars used their conquered Towns leaving the Citizens alive and under a milder Government By which means having collected a world of Riches he returned to Leaotung victorious And because his Southsayers had perswaded him that the standing of the old Walls were unfortunate he beat them down and compassed them about with new fortifying them with new Munitions and there proclamed himself Emperour of China The Tartar calls himself Emperour of China An. 1618. For although as yet he had taken nothing of China but only the skirts of the Eastern Country of the Province of Leaotung yet in his hopes and aspiring thoughts he had devoured the whole Kingdom wherefore he was called in the China language Theienmingus in the third year of his Reign which was in that of one thousand six hundred and eighteen In this year some in authority about the Emperour Vanley demanded the banishment of the Priests who did then preach the Christian Religion to that Nation But the Emperour who in his heart loved Christianity and those particularly that first planted that Religion amongst them gave no ear for a long while to their Demands But at length overcome by the importunity of a chief Commander who had ever been a sore Enemy to Christian Religion and was called Xinchio it was ordeined and proclamed that all those Fathers that did propagate Christian Religion should be banished the Kingdom Upon which some of them were secretly concealed in several Provinces by some Christian Governours God punished China for their persecution of Christians others being taken were carried in great Cages to Macao where being shut up day and night suffered extremely whilst others also be-being whipt out of the Country rejoyced to suffer somthing for his sake whose name they bore and that which added more affliction to all these miseries was the Emperour Vanley's Prohibition to all his to profess Christian Religion But upon this occasion the Christians of China who from the horrid wilderness of Infidelity had been brought to the pleasant Pastures of Christianity gave illustrious examples of their Faith Constancy but the longer Narration of this glorious persecution is reserved for another place I only touch it here to admire the Divine Providence of God who raised so sharp War against China when they neglected Christian Peace and permited at the same time these Tartars to take so deep a root in this Empire of China as afterward grew to that height as both to extirpate the Royal Family of the Taiminges together with the Kingdom at the very same time they went about utterly to destroy all Christianity But it happened in this as ordinarily it doth for by this very persecution Christian Religion grew to that height and greatness that the Church glories to behold and unless God vouchsafe to lend a potent helping hand the vast Kingdome of China is utterly overthrown In the mean time the Chineses were very solicitous to expell this Enemy from the bowells of their Country and first they selected very chief and eminent men for Commanders and Governours then they gathered an Army of six hundred thousand choise Soldiers The King of Corea also sent to the Emperour of China twelve thousand with this potent Army therefore they went out in the begining of March MDCXIX to give Battail to the Enemy The Tartars resolved to meet them with an undanted courage and for a good while the event and victory was very doubtfull but in the end the Army of China was wholly routed and their chief Commanders with fifty thousand men were all slain The Tartars according to their custome prosecute the victory with all quickness and diligence for the same day they took and sacked two Cities which they burned After this they over-run that whole Country and came to the very Walls of Pekin the Emperours Court but durst not venture to besiege it because they knew besides the infinite number of Canons it contained there was lodged fourscore thousand Souldiers in it But the Chineses confess that there was such a fear and consternation in the City that the King thought to have left that City and gone into the Southern
his Wars and to him it is the Tartars owe all their greatness and Dominion for as he excelled in Counsel and prudence so also he was as eminent in fortitude and fidelity and withall by the strength and force of his reasons and Counsels did ravish the wisest men amongst the Chineses and his Justice and humanity did wholy enthrall and enchant the popularity To all which I adde those fugitive Magistrates who as I related heretofore had fled too the Tartars to avoid the Emperours indignation did not a little promote their cause for these men sometimes by word and example did seduce the hearts of the Subjects and sometimes suggested dangerous but political Counsels to the Tartars against their own Country but by both these means advanced themselves to high and eminent dignities amongst the Tartars The same day some Bands of Souldiers were dispatched with order to proclame Usangueius a Tributary King to this new enstalled Emperour which they performed with great magnificence adding to his name as usually they do the Sirname of Pingsi which sounds as much as Pacifier of the Western world in which quarters they established his Kingdom in the Capital City in the Province of Xensi This Prince considering that he could expect no more honourable Dignity from the lawful Successour to the Empire of China and that the Tartars were come into the Empire in so vast a number that he could never hope to Conquer them found means to dispence with his hitherto uncorrupted fidelity admitting the dignity and submitting to the Emperour and so he that had hither to waged VVar for China against the Theeves Usangueius forced to serve the Tartars now was forced to march against China to subdue its Provinces to the Tartarian Empire And as he was a Great Commander so also by the help of the Tartars he quickly drove out the Theeves from his little Kingdom of Xensi where to this day he reigneth in the Metropolitan City of Sigan But by these honours the Tartars removed him from the practice of Arms who remaining Armed might have proved a dangerous enemy It was hitherto never known what became of Licunzus It is not known what beame of Licungzus some think he was killed by Usangueius in the fight though he never appeared more neither dead nor alive after this fight in which all his forces were dissipated or cut off And with the same facility the Tartars subdued the Provinces of Peking and Xantung where they immensly augmented their Armies by the access of the China's Souldiers and Commanders which submitted to them for the Tartarians admitted all even the Conquered to their Army if they did cut their Hair and wear their habits after the Tartarian fashion for in this Puntillio of Habit and Hair they were so rigorous as they proclamed it high Treason in all that did forbear it VVhich Law did many times endanger them and disturb the whole frame of their Affairs For the Chineses both grieved and fought more valiantly for their Hair and Habit than for their Kingdom and Emperour So as many times they chose rather to dye or lose there heads than obey the Tartars in these Ceremonies of which I could relate many examples unless in this relation I had resolved to be brief But all these little rubs did not hinder but that in less than the space of a year The Tartars subdue several Provinces not counting Leaotung they had conquered Peking Xansi Xensi and Xantung which are the four vast Northern Provinces of China In all which they changed nothing in their Political manner of Government nay they permitted the usual custom of the Philosophers of China to govern the Towns and Provinces they left also the same Examens as were used for the approving of learned men for by this prudent Counsel they wrought this effect that having given the places of honour and trust to men of their own Creation They changed no Laws of the Nation they found they surpassed the very Tartars in fidelity to them yet they kept the Militia in their own hands and the ordering therof yet they stick'd not to admit even to these Offices such of the Country as were faithful to them so as in the Royal City they retained still the same Orders and degrees of Prefects together with the six high Tribunals as they were established in the former Emperours time but so as they were now compounded of Chineses and Tartars In the mean time the news of the Emperours danger came to the Southern parts of China and the Prefects of every City gathering together very great forces marched towards the City of Peking but in their march they received the sad news of the Emperours death and the taking of Peking they therefore speedily called back their Forces and also all their Ships which yearly used to carry Provisions to the Emperours Courts a little after this they received the news how the Tartar was invested in the Kingdom and proclamed Emperour I was then my self in the great City Nanquin Hungquangus Crowned Emperour in Hanquin where I beheld a strange consternation in the confusion in all things till at length having recollected themselves the Prefects resolved to choose an Emperour of the Family of the Taiminges whom they called Hungquangus This man came flying from the Theeves of the Province of Honan and being he was Nephew to that famous Emperour Vanley and Cosen Germain to Zungchinius the last deceased Emperour they Crowned him with great pomp and ostentation hoping for better fortune under his Government As soon as this Prince was chosen he sent an Embassage to the Tartars begging Peace rather than demanding it for he offered them all the Northern Provinces which they had taken if they would joyn in amity with him But the Tartars well understood the Policy of these Prefects and Counsellours which was only to amuse them with a Peace whilst they could resume their strength and force The Tartars admit no Peacâ— And therefore the returned answer that they would not receive as a gift that which they had conquered by force of Arms but seeing they had chosen a new Emperour they migh do well to defend him but as for them they were resolved to have all or nothing Xunchinias his Son appears at Nankuing This Legacy comming to nothing whilst both parties prepare to take the Field appears at Nankuing a young man who gave himself out to be the eldest Son to the late deceased Emperour Zunchinius and he gave no small evidences of this truth and Clame nay he was acknowledged by many of the Eunuchs But the new elected Emperour Hunquangus being strongly touched by the ambition of reigning would never acknowledge him nor admit him but commanded him to be imprisoned and killed as an Impostor though many of the Prefects enraged to hear of this order hindered the execution of the sentence He causes troubles in China But by this accident things grew into a sedition
and the dispute was so high that it gave occasion to the Tartars to take to the Province and City of Nankuing some of the Prefects winking at it if not enticing them underhand to this exploit The Tartars vigilant to lay hold of all advantages hearing of these emulations and divisions presently march out into the Territory of the City of Hoaigan and comming to the East side of the River Croceus they pass over speedily by the help of their Boats on the other side of this River stood the Army of China which was so numerous as if they had but cast off their very shoos they had erected such a Rampart against the Tartars as all the Horse would hardly have surmounted it But it is the resolution and valour in War carries the Trophies not the number of men for hardly had the Tartars set foot in their Boats but the Chineses ran all away as Sheep use to do when they see the Wolf The flight of the Cheneses leaving the whole shore unfenced to their landing The Tartars having passed the River finding no enemy to resist enter the most noble City of Nankuing and in a trice make themselves Master of all the North part of the Country which lyes upon the great River of Kiang which is so vast as it is worthily called the Son of the Sea where it deserves particularly to be noted as a rare thing in the Warfare of the Tartars that before they enter into any Country they chuse and name both the Governours and Companies with all the Officers necessary for all the Cities and places which they aym to take so as in a moment they run like a lightning and no sooner they possess it but it is fortified armed and defended There was one City in these Quarters which made a generous resistance to all their re-iterated assaults called Yangcheu The City Yangcheu resisting the Tartar is taken and burnt where the Tartars lost the Son of a little Royalet This City was defended by that faithful Imperial Champion called Zuuis Colaus but though he had a mighty Garrison yet he was at length forced to yield and the whole City was sacked and both Citizen and Souldier put to the Sword and least the multitude of the dead Carcases should corrupt the Air and ingender the Plague they laid them all upon the tops of the Horses and setting fire both to the City and Suburbs brought all to ashes and to a total desolation By this progress the Forces of the Tartars much entreased The Tartars take several places for the Governours of many places and several Regiments came to submit to his Dominion To all which he commonly continued the same Commands and Offices they were established in before and advanced many of them to higher dignity and so by this humanity with which he treated all that came flying to him and by the cruelty he used to those that resolved to make resistance to the Force of his Arms he gained this that most men resolved to partake of his sweet treaty rather than of his cruelty so he easily conquered all that which lyes on the North side of that River which I named before the Son of the Sea This River being a German Leage in breadth and rising from the West of China holds its course to the East and divides the Kingdom into Northern and Southern Quarters it also divides the Country of Nankuing in the very middle though Nankuing the Metropolitan and Royal City be placed in the Southern part To Master this great City they were to pass this River They gathered therefore together many Ships to Conquer this new Emperial seat and also the new setled Emperour The Fleet of China commanded by the most generous and faithful Admiral called Hoangchoangus lay towards the other side of this River Here the Admiral fought so gallantly and resolutely that he skowred all China and made it appear to the world that the Tartars were not invincible Till at length one of his own Commanders called Thienus born in the City of Leaotung being corrupted by the Tartars shot him with an Arrow to death which Arrow fixed the unconstant wheel of Chinas fortune and lost the whole Empire But the Traytor not contented with this perfidious Act began himself to run away and by his example draw all the rest to imitate this Ignominious Action His impudence passed yet to a higher strain for comming to the Imperial City and finding the Emperour preparing to retire he joyned himself with him as a faithful friend participating of his adversity till he heard the Tartars who passing the River followed the Kings flight with all imaginable diligence were come near him The Emperour Hunquangus is taken and killed and then he took the Emperour Prisoner and delivered him to the Tartarian army in the year MDCXLIV This unfortunate Prince being thus betrayed before he had reigned full one year was sent to Peuking and there upon the Town Walls was hanged publickly in a Bow string which kind of death the Tartars esteem most noble The pretended Son to the Emperour Zunchinius whether he were true or false run the same course of fortune when they had discovered him still alive Prison for they did not onely put to death all those which belonged to the Imperial Family of the Taiminges by Consanguinity but after a diligent search extirpated all they could find which belonged to them even by Affinity for it is a custom in Asia if any one Conquer a Kingdom to root out all belong to the Royal Family After this they divided their Army into two parts the one they sent to Conquer the Mediterranean Provinces of Kiansi Huquang and Quangtung which are all of a marvellous extent the other like a swift Torrent over-run all The Tartars run to the City Hangcheu till they came to the very VVals of the renowned and vast City of Hangcheu which is the head City of the Province of Chekiang Into this City the principal fugitives of the Army of China were retired and those not only of the common Souldier but many great Commanders and Prefects where they resolved to choose a new Emperour called Lovangus of the antient Family of Taimingus But this Prince would never assume the Title of Emperour but contented himself with the Title of King thinking his fall would be less and his death not so bitter as if he fell from the Throne of an Emperour but yet to the end to animate them to fight with more vigour than they had done heretofore he promised them to take that title when they had regained one Emperial City He had not reigned three days a shorter space than their personated Kings use many times to reign in their Tragedies but the Tartars arrive Which the fugitive Souldiers seeing and thinking by this pinch of necessity to force their pay from the King and City refused to fight before they had received their salary It was on this occasion that
of Cheuxan becomes a Kingdom In this Island they are now found threescore and ten Cities with a strong and formidable Army which hitherto hath contemned all the Tartarian Power and Forces and watch for some happy occasion to advance again their Kingdom in China But by this means the Tartars took all the Cities and Towns of the County of Chekiang into their Dominion One only City of Kinhoa whose President was aswel a Native of the place as also the Commander in Chief and my very singular friend sustained the Tartars assaults for some months But to the end the resistance of this City should not be a hinderance to the course of their victories the Tartars divided their Army into three parts The first part marched towards Kiucheu by the Mountains the second went by the City Vencheu and the Sea shore The City of Kinhoa is taken and destroyed into the Province of Fokien and the third obstinately besieged the City of Kinhoa In this Siege the Tartars by reason of great Guns which continually played upon them and by the wise Conduct and courage of their noble Commander suffered many and great losses insomuch as he forced them to pitch their Camp further from the City But at length they also brought Artillery from the chief City by which they made so many breaches in the Walls as being in a manner dismantled they found entrance and burned and sacked it with all imaginable Hostility The Governour blew up himself and all his Family with a Barrel of Gunpowder in his own Pallace least he or his should fall into the Enemies hands The Province of Fokien is invironed with the bordering Countries of Quamgtung Kiansi and Chekiang from all which it is separated by a continual Chain of Mountains which are even in breadth of three days journey to pass over and withall so full of ragged and ruggy Clifts and obscure Vallys as they make the very Paths horrid dark and obscure at Noon day The Tartars take in Fok en very easily Insomuch as without any exaggeration they may well be paralelled either to the Grecian Straits of Thermopolis or to the Asian ruggy and strait passage of Taurus These places might have been easily defended if they had but placed a few Clowns to repel the Enemy or overthawrted the ways by any incumbrances but the very imagination of a Tartar was grown so terrible to them as they fled at the very sight of their Horses leaving therefore these Mountains wholy ungarnished the Tartars found a passage but so very painful and full of difficulties as they were forced to leave much of their Bagage behind them and lost many of their Horses in those fearful precipices but by this means they took the Province of Fokien with as much ease as it might have been defended for they hardly spent as much time in taking it as a man would do to walk the extent of it The King himself whom I named Lunguus as signifying a Warlike Dragon shewed himself a fearful Sheep flying away with a good Army of men if that word of good can be applyed to a numerous multitude that had no hearts King Lunguus slain but his flight served him for nothing for the Tartars following him with their swift and nimbâ—e Horses shot all this heard of silly Sheep to death with Arrows It is thought the King himself was involved in this Massacre for he never appeared nor was heard of afterwards Now because the whole Province submitted it self voluntarily unto him without any resistance it did not only suffer little from the Tartars but he may choose and select Souldiers out of it and having thus again recruited his Army he made another irruption into the Country of Quamgtung and its worth remarking that the other Tartarian Commander who when the Army was divided as I related before had order to subdue the Mediterranean Countries The Provinces of Quantung is taken this man with some felicity and expedition passing victorious through the Provinces of Huquang and Kiangsi entred also on one side of this Country of Quamgtung whilst the other came in by Fokien and because the Town of Nankiung resolved to fight it out they consumed it all by fire and sword So the poor Country of Quamtung oppressed by a double victorious Army was quickly over-run and subdued After the Glorious Trophies one of these victorious Armies enriched with all the rarites of China was called back to Peking but yet they left a Garrison in every City assigning in the name of the King of Tartars both Civil and Martial Officers for the Countries Government The happy success in taking the impregnable Province of Fokien is attributed by wise men to whose judgement I also submit to a more remote and hidden cause which I will briefly relate There was at this time a famous and renowned Pyrat called Chinchilungus this man was born in the Province of Fokien of which we are treating he first served the Porteguise in Macao then he served the Hollander in the Island called Formosa A famous Pyrate in China where he was known to all strangers by the name of Iquon After this he became a Pyrat but being of quick and nimble wit he grew from this small and slender fortune to such a height and power as he was held either Superiour or equal to the Emperour of China for he had the Trade of India in his hand and he dealt with the Portugise in Macao with the Spaniards in the Phillippins with the Hollanders in the Island Formosa and new Holland with the Japonians and with all the Kings and Princes of the Eastern parts in all manner of rich commodities He permitted none to transport the Wares of China but himself or his to whom he brought back the riches and the Silver of Europ and Indies for after he once rather extorted then obtained pardon of the King of China for his Pyracies he became so formidable as that he had no less than three thousand Ships of which he was Lord and Master Nor was he contented with this fortune but aspired privatly to no less than to the Empire But because he knew he never should be accepted of the prefects people as long as there was any of the Emperial Family of the Taiminges alive he hoped by the Tartars means to extinguish them wholy and after this was done then he resolved to display his Banners and Ensigns in so pious a cause as the driving out the common Enemy from the bowels of the Kingdom and no doubt but under this pretext they would all have followed helped and even adored him as their Saviour It was therefore evident that he had secret correspondence with the Tartars and that he favoured them for his own profit And that which made the business more suspicious was that at that time when the Tartars made their irruption into Fokien he was then declared Lord Marshal of the Kingdom and all the Generals Commanders and
farewell he intertained them nobly with a Royal feast and in as Royal a Junck which in China are so magnificent as they resemble rather some gilded Palaces than floating Vessels In this Princely Ship he entertained these Princes in all jollity and mirth untill their Army had advanced a good way before and then he declared to Kengus the Emperours order who presently promised all submission and to return to Nanking with him if he would onely permit him to go to his Ship which expected him in the River to order some little affairs of his own which being granted he no sooner got into his Ship but knowing he could not avoid death by another mans hand Kengus hangs himself he chose rather to be his own executioner and hanged himself Yet for all this the supreme Governour in the Emperours name granted to this Mans Son the same Dignity and Province which had been conferred upon the Father and thus the three Royalets joyning again having passed Nanking and Kiangsi came at length into the Province of Quamgtung to carry on the War against the Emperour Jungley and at their first entrance they took many Cities which were loath to oppose the strength of their Armies onely the City of Quangcheu resolved to try its fortune and strength This City of Quangcheu is a most rich and beautiful place environed with large waters and is the onely Southern Port within the Land to which Boats may have access In this Town was the Son of the Captive Iquon whom I mentioned before besides there was a strong Garrison to defend it and amongst others many fugitives from Macao who were content to serve the Emperour Jungly for great stipends and by reason the Tartars had neither Ships nor skill to govern them and that the Town had both the one and the other it is no wonder if they endured almost a whole years Siege having the Sea open for their relief But they made many assaults in which they lost many men and were ever beaten back and vigorously repelled This courage of theirs made the Tartars fall upon a resolution of beating down the Town Walls by their great Canon which took such effect as in fine they took it the 24. of November MDCL and because it was remarked that they gave to one of the Prefects of the Town the same Office he had before it was suspected it was delivered by Treason The City of Quangcheu is taken and Pillaged The next day after they began to Plunder the City and the sackage endured from the 24. of November till the 5. of December in which they never spared Man Woman or Child but all whosoever were cruelly put to the Sword nor was their heard any other Speech But Kill Kill these barbarous Rebels yet they spared some artificers to conserve the necessary Arts as also some strong and lusty men such as they saw able to carry away the Pillage of the City but finally the 6. day of December came out an Edict which forbad all further vexation after they had killed a hundred thousand men besides all those that perished severall ways during the Siege After this bloody Tragedy all the Neighbouring Provinces sent voluntarily their Legats to submit demanding onely mercy which they obtained by the many rich presents which were offered After this the Royalet marched with his Army against the City Chaoking where the Emperour Jungley held his Court but he knowing himself far inferiour in Forces and unable to resist fled away with his whole Army and Family The Emperour Jungly flyâ— leaving the City to the Tartars mercy But whither this Emperour fled is yet wholy unknown to me for at this time I took Shipping in Fokien to the Philippines and from thence I was commanded to go for Europe by those to whom I consecrate my self and all my labours But I make no doubt but the Emperour retired into the adjoyning Province called Quangsi Now to give the Reader a little touch how the Tartars stand affected to Christianity it deserves to be reflected on that in the Metropolitan City of Quangcheu which as I now related was utterly destroyed there was a venerable person who had the care and superintendency of all the Christians whose name was Alvarus Semedo a Jesuit this Man they took and tyed hand and foot for many days and threatned to kill him every hower unless he would deliver the Christians Treasures but the poor Man had no Treasure to produce so as he suffered much till at length the King hearing of his case took pitty of his venerable gray Heirs and comely person and gave him not onely his life and liberty but a Bible and Breviary The Tartars offer a Church to Christians which is their Prayer Book together with a good sum of Mony for an Alms and finally a House to build a Church for Christians and this is less to be wondred at from him who heretofore was a Souldier under that famous Sun Ignatius whom I mentioned before where he knew what belonged to Christianity and also had seen the Jesuits in the Camp from whence he fled to the Tartars Nor is it onely this Tartar that loves us Christians but in a manner all the rest do love honour and esteem those Fathers The Tartars embrace Christians and many have imbraced our Religion nor do we doubt but many more would follow their example if we could enter Tartary as now it is projecting where doubtless many great things might be performed for the reducing of that Nation to the Faith of Christ and perchance God has opened away to the Tartars to enter China to give Christianity a passage into Tartary which hitherto to us have been unknown and inaccessible About this time also they made War against the Kingdom of Corea Corea revolted from the Tartars for of late years they became also Tributary to the Tartars upon condition that they should still conserve their Hair and habits but now the Tartars would needs constrain them to conform themselves to the Tartarian fashion and therefore all that Kingdom revolted from the Tartars but my departure hindred me from knowing since what has passed But all these glorious victories were much Eclipsed Amavangus dyeth by the sorrowful death of Amavangus which happened in the beginning of the year MDCLI He was a Man to whom the Tartars owe their Empire in China and such an one as whom both Tartars and Chineses loved and feared for his prudence Justice humanity and skill in Martial affairs The death of this Potentate did much trouble the Court for the Brother to this Man called Quingtus would needs pretend to the Government of the Empire and of the young Emperour Xunchius but both the Tartars and the Chineses resisted his clame alleging that being of sixteen year old he was able to govern the Kingdom himself and in conformity to this opinion all the Presidents deposed the Ensigns of their Offices refusing ever to receive them
Captive Priests which they had found in Chains as a present most acceptable to the Tartarian Emperour there I saw then and left them in great veneration and honour in the year MDCL But this victorious Conquerour returning crowned with Laurels One of the Emperours Uncles is ill received was ill received and worse recompensed by his Brother the great Amavangus who was the Emperours Tutor and instead of a deserved tryumph he received an unworthy death for being to make a march of many Months to undergo much labour and many troubles it happened so as he lost more Men in marching than in fighting he was accused of great negligence in governing his Army and being of a generous nature he thought he deserved high praise but no blame and therefore he took his Tartarian Cap and scornfully trampled it upon the ground which is the greatest sign of indignation which they can express upon which fact he was committed to a Prison proper to those of the blood Royal which he accused of any Crime But he scorned to be the first of the Tartarian Family which should suffer this first opprobry in China and therefore before he was carried to this Prison called by the Chinese Coaciang he hung himself miserably in his own Palace He hangs himself A Gallant Prince and worthy of a better fortune Many think this disgrace to have grown from Amavangus his eldests Brothers emulation but I think that Amavangus was affraid that this Man wanting neither courage nor wit would quickly ruin the Tartarian affairs by his rash proceedings And here I will put a period rather then an end to this brief Narration of the Tartars War to the year MDCLI in which year I was sent to Europe by those that may command me In which relation if there be nothing else worthy of admiration yet it seems admirable to consider that in seven years space they conquered more ground in Longitude and Latitude then an Army could have walked in that space of time for they over-run twelve vast Provinces of China besides the immense extents of Leaotung and the Kingdom of Corea VVhat since has past in such vicissitude of fortune I know not but as soon as God shall bless me with a prosperous return into my beloved China or that my friends acquaint me with any new Occurrances by Letters I will procure all Europe shall understand the Issue of these prodigious revolutions FINIS An Addition to the former History taken out of the last Letters from China Written in the years 1651. 52. and 53. AFter the Printing of this our History of the Tartarian Wars returning to Brussels from Amsterdam where I used all possible expedition to bring my Atlas Sinieus to the Press I there received my long desired Letters from China sent by my friends from Rome some of which being dated the 14. of November 1651. were writ by a Sicilian called Father Francis Brancatus who sojurns in the City of Xanchai in the Province of Nanking and reflecting that happily it would not be ungrateful to our Europeans if I made a private relation of publick use I resolved to draw out this little ensuing Narration from those Letters written in severall years The Empire of China is now grown to a more fixed and setled Estate See fol. 165. since the death of Amavangus Uncle to the Emperour who as he was the first Man that suggested to the Tartars the Emperours invasion so also it is to his care and vigilancy they owe the happy success of all and its conservation But yet the opinion framed of him after his death was far different from the authority and power he carried in his life for no sooner was the power of reigning by his death devolved into the hands of his Nephew called Xunchi but that this Emperour though a youth in years began his reign by the approbation of all estates and orders with such maturity of judgement and Councel as he seemed to surpass the gray and hory heads of his wisest Councellors He was no sooner inthroned then he expressed a strange ripeness of judgement and Justice joyned together in the same Action Amavangus suspected and punished after his death for having discovered his Uncles wicked Councels and Designs and traced the obscure track of his abhominable vices which were hid during his life he did so much resent those detestable Acts as he commanded his body to be digged up and his magnificent Sepulcher to be beaten down The veneration of dead mens tombs amongst the Chineses which kind of punishment amongst the Chineses it held to be the greatest that can be inflicted being taught by their Religion to carry all veneration and respect to the tombs of dead persons The Carcass being dragged out they first beat it with Clubs then they scourged it with Rods and finally cutting off the head they made it a spectacle to all Criminal opprobies Thus the splendour of his Tomb was brought to dust and fortune payed him after his death the turn she owed him in his life He punished also all the Officers and Prefects which were privy to his Councels putting some to death and depriving others of their dignities Amongst all which I find the fortune of General Fung to have been very various who though he be no Christian yet being a singular friend protector of my order and particularly known to my self I cannot but rejoyce to hear him restored to his place and dignity after his discovered innocency In the mean time the Emperour Xunchius The Emperour of the Tartars Marriage and their customs growing up to Mans estate and sollicitous to propagate his August off-spring resolved to accomplish his long intended Marriage with the Daughter to the Emperour of the Occidental Tartars In which action the Tartars imitate the European custom for they take a Lady of some illustrious blood or descent But the Emperours of China seem little to value the nobility of blood but select the primest beauty nor will they refuse a person of a mean fortune if she be but graced with beauty In so much as the Wife to the late Emperour of China was Daughter to a Man that got his living by making straw Shoos So King Ahasuerus raised a poor Captive Maid to be Confort with him in his Royal Throne which kind of custom happily the Chineses drew from the Persians or else the Persians had it from them But to return to the subject that caused this little digression The Emperours VVedding was performed with a Pomp and splendor proportionable to such an Empire nor was there any magnificence wanting on the Spouses part for according to the fashion of the Nation she came accompanied with whole Armies of Men and so many Troops of Horse as they seemed innumerable nature seeming to have framed the riches of the Tartars more for warlike affairs than for pleasure Nor is this infinit multitude of Horse incredible for I my self have seen eighty thousand Horse all at
whereupon deposing the person of a Thief he became a General and with a bold attempt presumed to set upon the Tartars and having waged many Warrs against them obtained many singular Victories so as in the year 1368. he finally drove them out of the Kingdom of China receiving for so memorable an action the whole Empire of China as a worthy reward of his Heroical Actions It was he first erected the Imperial Family of the Taiminges and being he was the first Emperour of that Race stiled himself by the name of Hunguus which signifies as much as The famous Warriour After such an illustrious Action it was no wonder if all the Provinces submitted to him both as to one that was a Native of their Country and also because they looked on him as a man who had redeemed them from Thraldome for it is the Nature of the people of China to love and esteem their own as much as they hate and vilify Strangers Wherefore he first placed his Court at Nanking neer to the bank of that great River of Kiang which the Chineses in respect of the huge Mountains of water which it discharges into the Ocean call the Son of the Sea And having speedily ordered and established that Empire fearing no Insurrections from these new redeemed Creatures he was not contented to have chased the Tartars out of China but he made an irruption into Tartary it self and so followed the point of his Victory as that he routed them several times wasted all their Territories and finally brought the Oriental Tartars to such streights as he forced them to lay down their Arms to pay Tribute and even begge an Ignominious Peace This Storm of War fell chiefly on the Tartars of the Province of Niuche whither the Tartars of China being expelled were retired And those Tartars every year either as Subjects or Friends came into China by the Province of Leaotung to traffick with the Inhabitants For being brought to poverty and misery they thought no more of making war against China The Merchandise they brought were several as the root cal'd Ginsem so much esteemed amongst the Chineses and all sorts of pretious skins as those of Castor Martais Zibellens and also Horse-hair of which the Chineses make their Nets and the men though madly use it in tying up their hair as the handsomest dress they can appear in But those Tartars multiplyed so fast as they grew quickly into seven Governments which they called Hordes as much as to say into seven Lordships and these fighting one against another at length about the year of Christ MDL came to erect a Kingdom which they called the Kingdome of Niuche Thus stood China in relation to the Eastern Tartars but to the Western Tartars they payed Tribute masked under the Title of Presents that they might desist from War For the Chineses esteem it very unhansom to make war against any if by any other means their Country can be conserved in Peace and quietness being taught this by their Philosophers But in the mean time being over jealous of the Enemies to their antient riches A great Garrison upon the Wall against the Tartars they never left that great Wall which extends from East to West without a Million of Sorelgers to guard it Therefore this Kingdom of China being thus established in the Taimingian Family A long Peace in China enjoyed a constant Peace and quietness for CCL years and whilst the seven Lords or Governors made Civil wars that renowned Emperour of China known by the name of Vanley being the thirteenth Emperour of Taiminges Family governed happily the Kingdom of China from the year 1573. to the year 1620. with as much Prudence as Justice and Equity But in this time the Tartars of Niuche had so multiplied and spred themselves The Tartars think of invading China as that being incorporated into a Kingdome they became daily more formidable to China And therefore the Governors of the bordering Countries consulted privatly amongst themselves how they might curb and restrain these people within their limits For their Governors have so much Power and Authority that although they live as Slaves to their Prince yet when there is question of a Common and publick good they govern absolutely and uncontroulably unless by some higher Powers their Orders be restrained First therefore the Prefects or Governors The first cause of the Tartarian war did abuse the Merchant's Tartars of Niuche when they came into Leaotung which is a Province confines next to them The second cause Then again when the King of Niuche would have married his Daughter to another King of the Tartars they hindred this marriage by representing some pretended reasons of State The third cause And finally when the King of Niuche suspected nothing from them he conceived his friends they took him by deceit and killed him perfidiously Wherefore to revenge these injuries The first irruption of the Tartars into China the Kings Son gathered a strong Army taking his time found means to get over the great Wall I mentioned and the great River being frozen he presently set upon the great City Kaiyven or as others call it Taxun which lies upon the Confines of Tartary which he took in the year MDCXVI From this City he writ a Letter in Tartarian Characters to the Emperour of China which though writ in Barbarian Characters The Tartars Protestation against China yet contained nothing barbarous By this Letter which he sent by one of their Indian Priests whom they call Lama in a very humble and submissive manner he declared to him that he had invaded his Country to revenge the injuries he had received from the Governors of the neighbouring Provinces But yet that he was ready to restore the City he had taken and depose his Arms if his Complaints might be heard and satisfaction given him The Emperour of China called Vanley having received this Letter though otherwaies of an eminent wisdom and of as great experience yet being now broken with Age in this business seems to have proceeded with less Prudence than that which accompanied the former Actions of his life For thinking it not to be a business of that moment as it deserved to be treated before him in his own Court he remitted the business to the chief Governors and Commanders And these men puffed up with their usual pride thought it not sit so much as to give an answer to the Barbarian King but resented it very highly that any durst be so bold as to complain to the Emperor of any injury receiv'd The Tartarian King seeing they vouchsafed no answer to his just Demands The barbarous and superstitious Vow of the Tartarian King turning his anger into rage vowed to celebrate his Fathers Funerals with the lives of two hundred Thousand of the Inhabitants of China For it is the custom of the Tartars when any man of quality dyeth to cast into that fire which consumes the dead
low Cap which is alwaies garnished round with some pretious skin three fingers broad of Castor or Zibellin and serveth to defend their Temples Ears and Foreheads from colds and other Tempests That which appears above the skin being covered over either with curious red silke or else with black and purple horse-hair which they die and dress most curiously so as their appurtenances being handsomely joyned together makes the capp both commodious and handsom Their Garments are long Robes falling down to the very foot but their sleeves are not so wide and large as the Chineses use but rather such as are used in Polony Hungary only with this difference that they fashion the extremity of the Sleeve ever like a Horse his Hoof. At their Girdle there hangs on either side two Handkerchiefes to wipe their face and hands besides there hangs a Knife for all necessary uses with two Purses in which they carry Tobacco or such like Commodities On their Left side they hang their Scymiters but so as the point goes before and the handle behind and therefore when they fight they draw it out with the right hand behind them without holding the Scabbard with the other They seldome were Shoes and use no Spurrs to their Boots which they make either of Silk or of Horse-skin very neatly drest but they often use fair Pattins which they make three Fingers high In riding they use Stirrups but their Saddles are both lower and broader than ours Their faces are comely and commonly broad as those of China also have their colour is white but their Nose is not so flat nor their eyes so little as the Chineses are They speak little and ride pensively In the rest of their manners they resemble our Tartars of Europe though they be nothing so barbarous They rejoice to see Strangers They no way like the grimness and soureness of the Chines gravity and therefore in their first aboads they appear more human Having thus briefly described their Manners we resume our former discourse and return to the victorious Tartars in the City they had takens In which finding many rich and wealthy Merchants of other Provinces they published a Licence that they might depart with their Goods and withall commanded them speedily to voyd the City Who presently obeying the Order carried away all their Goods and Riches The Tartars perfidiousnes little suspecting the perfideous treachery of the Tartars For they had not gone three miles from the Town but being set upon by the Tartars they were plundred of their Goods and lost all their lives which being done they returned into the fearfull City laden with Riches the Citizens trembling lest they might happily experience the like perfidiousnes But the Tartar considering at how dear a rate he had bought the mastering of that City and fearing also to find the like provision and preparation in other Cities they durst not make any further attempt for they knew well that the Emperour had not only fortified all the antient places but erected also new munititions in the straights of many hard and rude passages And amongst all other strong holds that of Xanghai situated in the Island of Cu was most eminent containing a vast number of men in the Garrison to resist the further progresse of the Tartarian Forces But that which most of all repressed the Tartars was the great valour of the incomparable Commander Maovenlungus who having with his great Fleet taken an Island neer Corea in the mouth of the River Yalo The valiantest Commander of China vexed much their Army in the Rear and was victorious in several Skirmishes against them so that the Tartars bent all their care and thoughts against this their Enemy This renowned person was born in the Province of Evangtung where being near the Portugese of Macao he had much perfected himself in the art of war and he brought with him many great peices of Artillerie which he had recovered from the Shipwrack of a Holland Ship upon the Coasts of that Territorie And because the Emperour of China had declared the City of Ninguyven to be the chief in place of Leaoyang where also he had placed a new Vice-Roy and his Royal Visitor therefore Maovenlungus placed the best part of his Artillarie upon the Walls of this City The Tartars therefore acted nothing till the year 16â—5 and because they resolved to besiege the new Metropolitan City of Ninguyven they first resolved to trie Maovenlungus his fidelitie The faithfulnes of the Commanders in China offering him half of the Empire of China if he would help them to gain it But that noble Soul of his proved as faithfull as valiant by rejecting those Demands with indignation and came presently with his Forces to succour the City Ninguyven which they besieged by which means The overthrow of the Tartars the Tartars having lost ten thousand men were put to the flight and among the rest the King of Tartary's own Sonn was killed Wherefore being furious with anger they passed the frozen Sea and invaded the Island Thaoyven where they killed ten thousand that kept Garrisons there together with all the Inhabitants and by this one Act Their Cruelty having revenged their former discomfiture they returned into Tartary not with a resolution to sit still but with an intention to return with greater Forces By which restraint all things remained quiet till the year 1627. in which the Emperour Thienkius dyed in the flow'r of his age and with him the whole Empire of China seemed to fall to ruin and destruction The Kings of China and Tartary both died and in the same year the King of the Tartars who had cruelly murdered many men himself augmented the number of the dead After Thinkius in the Empire of China succeeded that unhappy Emperour Zungchinius Zungchininius chosen Emperour of China brother to the former of whom more hereafter And after Thienmingus King of Tartary succeeded Thienzungus his Son Thienzungus more milde than his Predecessors who changed the manner of his Fathers Government and by good Counsel began to govern the Chineses in a curteous and sweet manner but though he lived not long yet he served for a good example for his Sonn to Conquer China more by Civilitie and Humanitie than by force of Arms. In this year great Maovenlungus Soldiers being insolent by want of action The Soldiers Insolencies exasperat the Country of Corea grew very troublesom and offensive by their Rapines and Disorders to the Coreans who were friends Allies and particularly they much exasperated the Province of Hienkin insomuch that some of the Inhabitants of that place moved with indignation of several passages secretly treated with the Tartarian King to invade the Chineses Army in the habit and attire of the Inhabitants of Corea from whom they could expect no Treason being leaguerd with them in friendship and amitie promising moreover their best assistance to effect this mischief to him that was a Traitour
both to Country King and the Emperour of China But this Counsel pleased the Tartar and therefore he sent a Vice-Roy with a potent Army The Tartars are brought into Corea to which the Coreans shewed the waies and guided them through all the passages who falling upon the Chineses Armie which suspecting nothing was divided and many stragling up and down the Countrie made a huge Carnage amongst them But when Maovenlungus percieved they were Tartars he presently made head and gathered a Body of an Armie together and vigorously opposed all those sharp assaults But yet at length he was forced to yield the Field and therefore leaving a Regiment or two to hold the Enemie in action whilst his Army retreated he fled to his Ships and to the Island which he had Fortified The Tartars were vexed and grieved both to see their victory so bloody and also that Maovenlungus whom they chiefly aimed at had escaped with most of his Army and therefore enraged with Anger they fell upon the Corean Traitors and killed every man which action the King of Tartary much condemned and then turning their wrath to the four Northern Provinces which border upon Tartary Corea wasted they wasted and destroyed them all in a moment In the mean time the King of Corea gathered an Army to resist the Tartars and Maovenlungus also having recruited his Forces came into Corea to revenge the received loss The victorious Tartars were come within seven Leagues of the principallest City of all Corea But finding the King to have taken the Straights and Passages of the Mountains which lead unto it they desperatly resolved to force their passage The Battel was hardly begun but Maovenlungus after a long march falls in upon their rear and the Tartars finding themselves encompassed before and behind nor any means to escape but by dint of Sword fought most desperatelie sustaining the shock of two Armies And such a Battel was fought as China never saw for it is strange to write yet very true of the three Armies none was victorious but all in a manner destroyed The Fight and slaughter of 3 Armies Of the Tartarian Armie fifty thousand were found wanting The Corean Armie lost seventy thousand and few or none escaped of the Chineses Armie For their Quarter being most commodious for the Tartars flight they there made their most vigorous Charges and so forced their way towards their own Countrie So as none of them all gained the field or could prosecute the course of a Victorie Yet the King of Corea made a shift to rallie so many together again as to take possession of those his Countries which the Tartarians by their flight had left desolate But the Tartars after all the losses ceased not to make frequent inrodes into the Country of Leaotung The Eastern part of Leoatung is under the Tartar and took all the Oriental part of it From thence they made incursions into the other part and carried away great Preys and Booties But they were alwaies so beaten and so defeated as they could never fix a constant habitation For by this time were arrived seven excellent Gunners from the Portugese quarters The Portugese send succour which both by themselves and by teaching the Chineses advanced infinitly the King of China his Affairs especially where that Christian Vice-Roy called Sun Ignatius Commander in chief of whose affairs we shall say somthing hereafter In this conjuncture of affairs the Emperour Zungchinius sent a new Commander called Yvenus into Leaotung A crafty Commander of the China Army with a new Armie and full power to conclude a Peace with the Tartars if they would admit it For the disorders of the times had caused so many needy persons Theevs and Cut-throats that the Emperour grew more anxious how to suppress this great domestick Enemie which seemed to aim at the Kingdoms ruin than he was of the Tartarian Forces This Yvenus was a crafty and subtill wit most eloquent both in speaking and writing who by politick discourses drawn from the nature of this war had wrought so much not only upon the Emperours mind but also upon all the Councill that they esteemed what he concluded as a Law to be observed Wherefore the Chineses put all their confidence in him nor had they been frustrated of their hopes had not this wicked man been more wedded to his own interest and love of Riches than to the publick good fidelitie to his Prince For first he received of the Tartars a vast Summe of gold which wrought so much upon him as that having invited to a Banquet that most Valorous and Faithfull Champion Maovenlungus Maovenlungus poisoned whom the Tartars only feared he there poisoned that great Commander After this he made a most ignominious and shamefull Peace with the Tartars condescending to all that those that fed him with Riches could desire But when the Emperour had perused the Treatie he presently found his Plenipotentiarian had sold him and therefore refused to ratifie or confirm the Articles What should Yvenus act in this exigent That he might force the Emperour to admit them he peswaded the Tartars in the year 1630. to enter China by another Country than that which was committed to his charge promising them for his part he would no way hinder their progresse by his Army The Tartars knew that his avarice had so potent an Ascendent over him as that they need to fear no hurt from him and upon that Confidence admitted of his Counsell Wherefore being secure from all assaults from any Enemie behind them they entered the Province of Peking and besieged the Kings Court The Kings Court besieged Insomuch that his Councel perswaded him to leave the Imperial City and retire to the Southern Provinces but he protested he would rather die than quit the Northern quarters and not only so but he forbid any to depart the Court or Town besieged In the mean time the Tartars make many fierce affaults and as often were valiantly beaten back with great loss and Carnage Yvenus was called to resist the Tartars for as yet his Traiterous Complots were not discovered And lest he should discover his Treason he comes with his Armie neer the very Walls which were of so vast an extent as both the Chinese and Tartars Armie might perfectly be discerned though betwixt them there was a great Intervall But though Yvenus was under the Emperours eye yet he acted little for his only aim was to return home laden with Riches he never desisted to perswade the Emperour to admit his conditions of Peace So that the Emperour finding him evidently to be a Traitor disclosing his intention to none of his Councell nor Governors sends to invite him to a privat Councel of war giving also order that he should be admitted into the Citie by the Walls lest if any Gate should be open the Tartar being so neer might press in upon them but indeed he ordered the business in this manner
he could get away by any means but when he heard that all passages were be set he is said to have left a Letter writ with his own Blood in which he bitterly expressed to all posterity The Emperour having kild his Daughter hanged himself the infidelity and perfidiousness of his Commanders and the innocency of his poor Subjects conjuring Licungzus that seeing the Heavens had cast the Scepter into his hands he would for his sake take revenge of such perfidious Creatures After this reflecting he had a Daughter Marriageable who falling into the villains hands might receive some affronts he called for a Sword and beheaded her with his own hands in the place then going down into an Orchard making a Rope of his Garter he hung himself upon a Prune tree Thus that unfortunate Emperour put a period as well to that Empire which had flourished so long with much splendor riches and pleasure as to his Illustrious Family of Taimingus by finishing his life upon so contemptible a Tree and in such an infamous manner To all which circumstances I adde one more that as the Empire was erected by a Theef so it was extinguished by another for although others were chosen to succeed him as we shall relate hereafter yet because they held a small parcel of the Empire they are not numbred amongst the Emperours His example was followed by the Queen and by the Lord Marshall who is call'd in their language Colaus together with other faithfull Eunuchs So as those pleasant Trees which served heretofore for their Sports and pleasures now became the horrid and surest Instruments of their death And this cruell butchering of themselves passed not only in the Court but also in the City where many made themselves away either by hanging or drowning by leaping into Lakes For it is held by this Nation to be the highest point of fidelity to die with their Prince rather than to live and be subject to another Whilest these things were acting Licungzus enters the Pallace victorious and ascending up to the Chair of State sate himself down in that Imperial Throne but it is recorded that in executing this first Act of Royalty he sat so restlesly and unquietly yea so totteringly as if even then that Royal Chair would foretel the short durance of his felicity The Theefs Tyranny and cruelty The next day after he commanded the body of the dead Emperour to be cut into small pieces accusing him of oppression and cruelty against his Subjects As if he being a villanous Traitour and a Theef after the saccaging and burning so many Provinces and shedding such an Ocean of blood had been of a better disposition So we often condemn others when we do worse our selves and remark yea augment the least faults of others when we either take no notice or diminish our own This Emperour Zungchinius was Father of three Sons of which the eldest could never be found though all imaginable means was used for his discovery some think he found means to fly away others think he perished by leaping with others into the Lake the two others being yet little Children were by the Tyrants command beheaded three days after his barbarous humour not sparing even innocent blood Which disposition he made shortly appear when casting of that veil of Piety and Humanity with which he had for some time charmed the people he commanded all the Principal Magistrates to be apprehended of which he murdered many with cruel torments others he fined deeply and reserved the Imperial Palace for his own aboad He filled that most noble and rich City with ransacking Souldiers and gave it up to their prey and plunder where they committed such execrable things as are both too long and not fit to be related But by this his horrid cruelty and Tyranny he lost that Empire which he might have preserved by curtesie and humanity Amongst the other imprisoned Magistrates there was one a venerable person called Us whose Son Usangueius governed the whole Army of China in the Confines of Leaotung against the Tartars The Tyrant Licungzus threatned this old man with a most cruell death if by his paternal power over his Son he did not reduce him with his whole Army to subjection and obedience to his power promising also great Rewards and Honours to them both if by his fatherly power which they hold sacred he did prevail for his submission Wherefore the poor old man writ to his Son this ensuing Letter It is well known that the Heavens Earth and Fate can cause these strange vicissitudes of Fortune which we behold know my Son that the Emperour Zunchinius and the whole family of Taimingus are perished The Heavens have cast it upon Licungzus we must observe the times and by making a vertue of necessity avoid his Tyranny and experience his liberality he promiseth to thee a Royal dignity if with thy Army thou submit to his Dominion and acknowledge him as Emperour my life depends upon thy answer consider what thou owest to him that gave thy life To this Letter his Son Usangueius returned this short answer He that is not faithfull to his Sovereign will never be faithfull to me and if you forget your duty and fidelity to our Emperour no man will blame me if I forget my duty and obedience to such a father I will rather dye than serve a Theef And presently after the dispatch of this Letter he sent an Embassador to the King of Tartary The Tartars called into China against the Theeves desiring his help and force to subdue this Usurper of the Empire and knowing that the Tartars abound in men but want women he promised to send him some store and presented him with several curious Silks and sent him great store of Silver and Gold The Tartarian King neglected not this good occasion but presently marched with fourescore thousand men which were in Garrison in Leaotung to meet General Usangueius to whom he expressed himself in these words To the end to make our Victory undoubted I counsell you to cause all your Army to be clad like Tartars for so the Theef will think us all Tartars seeing I cannot call greater Forces out of my Kingdom so soon as is required Usangueius thirsting nothing but revenge admitted all conditions little thinking as the Chineses say that he brought in Tygers to drive out Dogs Licungzus hearing the march of the Tartars together with Usangueius The Theeves fly from the Tartars knowing himself not able to resist quitted the Court and Palace as easily as he had taken it but he carried with him all the rich spoyls of the Court and marched away into the Province of Xensi where he established his Court in the noble City of Singan which heretofore had been the seat of the Emperours It is accounted that for eight days space by the four Palace Gates there was nothing seen but a continual succession of Coaches They carry away the Treasures of the Palace Horses
King Lovangus his heart not able to bear such a desolation of the Citie of his people and Subjects as he foresaw King Loving as love to his Subjects gave such an example of his Humanity and Piety as Europ never saw for he mounted upon the City Walls and calling upon his Knees to the Tartarian Captains he begged the life of his Subjects Spare not me quoth he I will willingly be my Subjects victime and having denounced this unto them he presently went out to the Tartars Army where he was taken This Illustrious testimony of his love to his Subjects had not wanted a reward to Crown so Heroick an Action if it met with a generous Soul like that of Alexander or of Caesar VVhen they had the King Prisoner they commanded the Citizens to shut the Gates and keep the VVals least either their own or the Kings Souldiers should enter the City and presently they fell upon the Kings men whom they butchered in a most cruel manne but yet the water destroyed more then there Swords or Arrows for many cast themselves headlong into the great River of Cianthang which is a Liege brood and runs neer the City others leaping and overcharging the Boats in the River were presently sunck Many of the Kings Souldiers drowned oothers flying away full of fear and confusion thrust one another at the River side into that unmerciful Element and by all these many thousands perished The Tartars wanting boats to pass this River having thus expelled or killed the Souldiery they returned Triumphant to the City Hangcheu is taken where they used neither force nor violence by which means this noble City was conserved whose beauty greatness and riches I hope to describe elsewhere not by hear-say but by what I saw the three years space I lived in it and what I found when lately I came from it into Europ This City of Hangcheu hath an Artificial Channel or Dick to pass by water to the Northern parts of China This Chanel is onely separated by the high part of the way like a Cause way from the River which as I said runs on the South part of the City The Tartars therefore drew many Boats out of this Chanel over the Causeway into the River Cienthang and with the help of these Boats they pass the River without resistance and found the fairest City in all China called Xaoking prone enough to submit to their victorious Arms. This City in bigness yields to many others but in cleaness and comeliness it surpasses all it is so invironed with sweet waters as a man may contemplate its beauty by rounding it in a Boat it hath large and fair Streets paved on both sides with white square stones and in the middle of them all runs a Navigable Chanel whose sides are garnished with the like ornament and of the same stone there are also built many fair Bridges and Triumphant Arches the Houses also which I observe no where else in China are built of the same square stone so as in a word I saw nothing neater in all China They took this Town without any resistance and so they might have done all the rest of the Southern Towns of this Province of Chekiang But when they commanded all by Proclamation to cut off their Hair then both Souldier and Citizen took up Arms and fought more desperately for their Hair of their Heads The Chineses defend their Hair than they did for King or Kingdom and beat the Tartars not only out of their City but repulst them to the River Cienthang nay forced them to pass the River killing very many of them In truth had they past the River they might have recovered the Metropolis with the other Towns But they pursued their victory no further being sufficiently contented that they had preserved their Hair resisting them only on the South side of the shore and there fortifying themselves By this means the conquering Arms of the Tartars were repressed for a whole year But the Chinois that they might have a Head chose Lu Regulus of the Taimingian Family for their Emperour who would not accept thereof but would be only stiled the restorer of the Empire In the mean time the Tartars had sent for new forces out of Peking with which they left nere a Stone unturned that they might get over the River Cienthang but all was in vain The drooping Affairs therefore of the Chinois had a breathing nay having gathered together more Forces they promised hemselves greater victories But a desire and emulation of ruling frustrated all their hopes For the Commanders and Presidents which fled the Province of Chekian into the Country of Fokien carried with them one of Taimingas Family called Thangus and this man they chose King in the Country of Fokien which confines with Chekiang This Prince pretended that the K. called Lu. should yield up his right to him both because he had but a few Cities under him and also because he was further removed from the Imperial race then he was But King Lu pretended he was Proclamed by the Army before him and wanted not to set forth his victories over the Tartars By which two contentions the Tartars came to the Crown for these two Royalets would never yield to one another nor so unite their Armies as joyntly to repress the Tartars Since therefore this petty King Lu had onely eight Cities under his cōmand whose Contributions were not able to maintain the necessary pay of his Army he never durst venture to pass over the River but endeavoured only to defend himself But the Tartars sought all means possibly to get over this River yet they durst not venture to pass in Boats because King Lu had many Ships and good store of Artillery which he had caused to come from Sea But the Tartars felicity and prosperous fortune overcame this difficulty for as it happened that year being dryer then ordinary this River towards the South where it runs betwixt high Mountains which break the ebbing and flowing of the Sea had lost much water and of depth and here the Tartars Horse found it passable and because the rudeness of those Mountains The Tartars pass the River and recover the City Xaoking seemed a sufficient Guard to the Country they found no Souldiers to resist but as soon as the Clowns espied twenty of their Horse to have passed the River they presently advertised the Army and they all betook themselves to flight King Lu himself left the City Xaoking and not daring to trust himself to the Continent he took Ship and sayled to the Island called Cheuxan which lyes opposit to the City of Nimpus where he remains to this day safe and keeps still his Regal dignity which Island being heretofore only a retreit for Fishermen and some Clowns now is become a potent Kingdom by reason that many fly from China to this King Lu as to there sanctuary to conserve the liberty of their Hair The Island
of thirty thousand persons as my own friends writ unto me and not content with this they set fire on the Town and brought it all to ashes by which means the stately Church erected by the Christians for the service of God was also consumed by that devouring flame yet the Priests that served in that Church got out miraculously as Lot did out of Sodom which name was appropriated to this City by reason of that infamous vice This City being taken it was no hard matter to recover the Country for some fled to save themselves in the Mountains others ran to the Sea and so when this new Army had pacified all they were called back to Peking where it is not amiss to observe the policy which the Tartars use in the Government and ordering of their Army they are ever calling back some and sending out others in which proceeding they aim at two things first to keep the Countries in awe and subjection by seeing variety of Troops continually passing up and down and secondly to provide for the poorer sort of Souldiers for the wealthy Souldier is call'd back to recreate and ease labours and the poor Souldier seeing his Companion grown rich takes heart and courage to run the course upon hopes of the like good fortune Yet for all these preventions and cautions their Empire was not so established but by frequent rebellions it was often indangered and particularly by one Rebellion which now I will relate which shaked shrewdly the foundations of the new Empire The Kingdom of China is of so vast an extent How the Tartars dispose their Garrisons as it is a business of main importance to distribute judiciously the Armies and Garrisons Now because the Tartars alone cannot suffice to furnish both they are forced to use the help of the Chineses themselves although they have a special care never to leave or place either Commander or Souldier who is a Native of the same Country where they sojourn yet this care could not exempt them from several Treasons and Rebellions yet they distribute and order their Militia with great circumspection for the chief Commander or Governour resides in the Metropolitan City whom all inferiour Officers obey This man maintains alwaies a compleat Army which he commands to march when he hears of any risings Every City has also their own proper Governour with a competent number of Souldiers but those for the most part are Tartars and these are Chines But all this Political and well-established Government could not defend them from Traitors amongst themselves The first man that did revolt from them was one Kinus Governour of the Province of Kiangsi Kinus Gonour of a Province rebelleth This man was born in Leaotung and because it is a Country that borders upon Tartary the King commonly most confides in the Natives of that Province It happened I know not how that this Governour by reason of some corruptions and Avarice of the Visitor of the Country The hatred betwixt the two Prefects disturbs the Country of Kiansi had some difficulties with him which grew by little and little to open hatred and although they both dissembled their private malice as usually they do in China yet at length the flame broke out to the ruin of the Country for being the one was Governour of the Arms and the other of justice there was a necessity of oft meetings feastings also It happened once that whilst they were feasted with a sumptuous Banquet they were also intertained by a pleasant Comedy in which the Actors were attired with the habits of China which were more comely and fairer than those which the Tartars use upon which occasion Kinus turning himself to the Visitor said Is not this habit better graver than ours This innocent speech was interpreted by his corrival Judge as if he had contemned the Edict about changing of Habits and expressed too much love to the Chines Garments before those of the Tartars and of this he sent and Express to advertise the Emperour But the Governour Kinus had a corrupted Secretary which served the Lord Chief Justice who gave him intelligence of all that passed in word or deed in his Masters House And as soon as he had notice that this Letter was sent to the Court he presently dispatched those who intercepted the Packet which the Governour having read went presently armed to the Judges Palace whom he suddainly killed Then presently he with the whole Province revolted from the Tartars and with the great applause of all the Chineses he submitted himself to Jugley the new elected Emperour One onely City called Cancheu which was governed by an incorrupted Tartar refused to submit which was the whole and onely cause that the Tartars did recover the two Provinces Kiansi and Quamtung both which Provinces revolted at the same time with their Commanders and both submitted also to the new elected Emperour Many places revolt from the Tartar Lihusus was Governour of Quamtung at that time who resolved to joyn his Forces with Kinus and so to cast the Tartars out of the Empire which it is believed they might have affected if the Governour of Cancheu which is the Key and entrance into four Provinces had not cunningly undermined all their designs and intentions But this man hearing that Lihuzus had revolted and marched to joyn his Army with Kinus dispatched to him this deceitful Letter The deceipt of the Governour of Cancheu I have not hitherto submitted to Kinus because I knew his forces were not equal nor able to resist the Tartars But seeing thou my most renowned and valiant Captain begins also to march against them my hopes are at an end I am thine and imbrace thy cause whensoever thou shalt come or send I will render my City to thee or thine But in the mean time he sent to all the Governours in Fokien to send him secretly all the possible succour they could raise altogether Lihuzus having received the Letter marched towards him as cheerfully and as confidently But though hee found the Gates of the City open yet he was furiously repelled by the Tartarians opposition which unexpected accident so astonished his Souldiers as many of them perished and amongst the rest it is thought himself was killed for he was never heard of after This reverse and cross fortune did much disturb the progress of the Emperour Jungley's affairs though Kinus in the mean time had many singular victories over the Tartars for when the chief Governour of all the Western parts of China who had placed his chief Seat in Nankuing had gathered great Forces to repress this aspiring mind yet he was several times routed and overthrown by him and if Kinus had pursued the course of his victories he might have come to the very Walls of Nankuing but he was sollicitous of the City of Cancheu which obliged him to a retreit for neither was it safe for him to leave an enemy behind him nor could he
shew he feared nothing But for all this the Commander Hous besieges this City a far off which was three Leagues compass and out of the reach of their Artillery and to the end he might make a shew of greater forces than indeed he had he joyned to his Army a Company of dull headed Clowns by which means he made up a Body of thirty thousand men The Governour of the City seeing such an Army as appeared believed them all to be Souldiers and lest his Citizens should joyn with them he thought again of cutting all their throats but his friends ever diverted him from this outragious cruelty and therefore to divert himself from such horrid projects he used to walk upon the Walls and recreate himself in seeing the Chineses under his colours fight so valiantly against Hous for when he saw this he used to cry out in their Language Hoo Manzu as much as to say O good Barbarians for so the Tartars call the Chinaes as conquering Nations use to expose the conquered to scorn and derision and he crowned this scoff with these words Mauzuxa Manzu as much as to say let the barbarous kill the barbarous yet notwithstanding when they returned victorious he did not onely praise them but gave them Mony and other pretious rewards which were exposed to publick view upon the Walls to animate them to high and generous exploits so as Hous finding no Body stir in the City as he expected could do nothing besides their came new succours to the Tartarian Army which when Hous understood by his spys he presently retired But yet this flight did not serve his turn nor could he wholy escape the Tartars hands for the Horsemen pursuing them fell upon the rear and killed many carrying away great store of Riches which the Commander distributed in such proportion as he gave most to such as were wounded what became of Hous after this action is unknown and therefore I conclude that these Northern revolts produced no other effect but the spoyl Rapin and Plunder of all those Quarters as it had produced the like in the Southern parts The Tartars having happily overcome all difficulties hitherto The Tartars insolencies produced great dangers fell into another by their own insolency from the yeare MDCXLIX the Emperour of the Tartars being now grown up to mans Estate desired to Marry the Daughter of the King of Tayngu who is Prince of the Western Tartars hoping by this match to conserve the friendship of him whose Forces he feared for this end he sent his Uncle to him who was King of Pauang This Prince passed by the impregnable City of Taitung which as it is the last City towards the North so also it is the Key and Bulwork of the Province of Xansi against the irruption of the Western Tartars for it commands all the Souldiers which keep the many Fortifications of those Quarters where a fair Level down extending it self beyond that famous Wall I mentioned heretofore gives a fit occasion for the incursion of the Tartars The Women of this City are held the most beautiful of all China and therefore it happened that some of the Embassadours followers did ravish some of them and also carried away by a Rape a Person of quality as she was carried home to her Spouse which was a thing never heard of heretofore amongst the Chinese The people had recourse for these injuries to Kiangus who governed those Quarters for the Tartars who hearing of this gross abuse sent to that petty Prince Pauang to demand the new Married Lady to be restored and to desire him to prevent future disorders in that nature but he gave a very slight Ear to such complants and therefore Kiangus himself went unto him who was not only slighted but even cast out of the Palace His anger was quickly turned into rage Kiangus riseth against the Tartars which made him resolve to revenge that injury by the Tartars bloud he therefore Musters his Souldiers and presently falls on the Tartars kils all he could encounter the Embassadour himself being let down by the Walls of the Town hardly escaped by swift Horses Then Kiangus displayed a Banner wherein he declared himself a Subject to the Empire of China but named no Emperour in particular because perchance he had heard nothing of the Emperour Jungley by reason of so vast a distance Kiangus gathers great Forces But however he invited all the Chineses to the defence of their Country and to expell the Tartars and many Captains as well as Souldiers came in to him yea even the very Western Tartars against whom he had ever Born Arms being promised great rewards sent him the Forces which he demanded This accident extremely troubled the Court for they knew well that the Western Tartars did both aspire to the Empire of China and also were envious at their prosperous course of fortune they also knew that they were more abundant Men and Horses than they were for from hence it is they bought all their best Horses and they feared that now they should have no more and therefore they resolved to send presently a good strong Army against him before he should gather a greater strength But Kiangus who was as valiant as crafty and one who by long experience knew how to deal with the Tartars first feigned to fly with his Army But in the rear he placed very many Carts and Wagons which were all covered very carefully as if they had carried the richest Treasures they possessed but in real truth they carried nothing but many great and lesser pieces of Artillery with their mouths turned upon the Enemy all which the Tartars perceiving presently pursue they fight without any order and fall upon the prey with great Avidity but those that accompanied the Wagons Kiangus overthrows the Tartars by a stratagem firing the Artillery took off the greatest part of the Army and withall Kiangus wheeling about came up upon them and made a strange carnage amongst them and after this he shewed himself no less admirable in Stratagems than in fortitude and courage He beats the Tartars again when he fought a set pitched field with a new recruited Army of the Tartars in which he obtained so noble and renowned a victory that he filled all the Court at Peking with fear and trembling for by this means victorious Kiangus had gathered so vast an Army as he counted no less then a hundred and forty thousand Horse and four hundred thousand foot all men having recourse to him to defend their Country against the Tartarian Army And therefore Amavangus Tutor to the Emperour thinking it not fit to commit this business to any but to himself resolved himself to go against Kiangus and try the last turn of fortune for the Tartars Amavangus himself goes against Kiangus he therefore drew out all the eight Colours that is the whole Forces that were then in Peking for under these eight colours are comprehended all the Forces
of the Kingdom of China whether they be Natives or Tartars the first of which is White called the Imperial Banner the second is Red the third is Black the fourth is Yellow and these three last are governed and Commanded by the Uncle of the Emperour but the first is immediatly subject to the Emperour of these four colours by several mixtures they frame four more so as every Souldier knows his own colours and to what part of the City to repair where they have ever their Arms and Horses ready for any expedition The Tartars Banners so as in one half hour they all are ready for they blow a Horn just in the fashion of that which we appropriate usually to our Tritons and by the manner of winding it they presently know what Companies and Captains must march so as they are ready in a moment to follow their Ensign which a Horse-man carries tyed behind him though commonly none but the Commander and Ensign knows whether they go this profound secrecy in their exercise of War has often astonished the Chineses for many times when they thought to oppose them in one part they presently heard they were in another Quarter and it is no wonder they are so quick for they never carry with them any Baggage nor do they take care for Provision for they fill themselves with what they find yet commonly they eat Flesh though half rosted or half boyled if they find none then they devour their Horses or Camels but ever when they have leasure they go a hunting all manner of wild Beasts either by some excellent Dogs and Vultures which they bring up for that end or else by incompassing a whole Mountain The Tartars delight in hunting or large Field they beat up all the wild Beasts into a Circle and drive them into so narrow a Compass as that they can take as many as they please and dismiss the rest The earth covered with their Horse-cloath is their Bed for they care not for Houses and Chambers but if they be forced to dwell in Houses their Horses must lodge with them and they must have many holes beaten in the Walls but yet their Tents are most beautiful which they fix and remove with such Art and dexterity as they never retard the speedy march of an Army Thus the Tartars train their Souldiers to hardness for War Out of all these Ensigns Amavangus chose the choicest men to accompany his person And besides he took part of those which he had deputed to follow the three Royalets which he dispatched to the South ordering them to take as many out of the several Garrisons through which they passed as might supply this defect But yet although Amavangus had so gallant and such a flourishing Army yet he never durst give Battail to Kiangus lest he might seem to expose the whole Empire of the Tartars to the fortune of one Battail Amavangus durst not fight with Kiangus So that although Kiangus did frequently offer him Battail yet he ever refused to fight expecting still to hear what reply the Western Tartars would make to his Proposition of his Nephews Marriage for he had sent a Legate to that Tartarian King with pretious gifts as well to demand his Daughter for the Emperour of China as to desire him to afford no succour to the Rebel Kiangus The pretious gifts of Gold of Silk of Silver and of Women obtained whatsoever he demanded and therefore Kiangus seeing himself deserted of the Tartars that he might provide as well as he could for his own affairs he returned to the City Taitung of which he soon repented himself when it was too late for Amavangus calling in an innnumerable number of Pezants in the space of three days with an incredible diligence cast up a Trench of ten Leagues coÌ„pass which he so fortified with Bulworks and Ramparts that in a trice he blocked up that City Then did Kiangus see his errour in granting them leasure to draw their Trench which he knew would debar him from all manner of Provision And therefore being inraged with anger as he was a man full of metal and a great Souldier turning himself to his Souldiers he said If I must dye I had rather dye by the Sword than by Famin and upon this marched out presently to the Enemies Trench with his whole Army Here it was that both the parties fought most obstinately the one to seek his passage the other to hinder his advance so as the fortune was various and the victory doubtful untill an unlucky Arrow transpeirc'd Kiangus and in him all the hope of China perished Kiangus is killed His Souldiers seeing him dead partly run away and partly submitted to the Tartars who received them with all courtesy and humanity for they had cause enough of joy to see they had escaped the danger of losing the Empire and that they had conquered so formidable a Commander But yet they Plundered the City â—aitung and burned the City of Pucheu where the Church of the Christians also perished From hence the Tartars returned to Peking where I saw them enter overloaden with Riches and triumphant Laurels But Amavangus pursued his journey to the Western Tartars where he ratified his Nephew Xunchius his Marriage Xunchius the Emperour Marrys and brought back with him an infinit Company of Horse from the Tartars of the Kingdom of Tanyu In the mean time the three Royalets which went to the Southern Kingdoms to pacify those unquiet Provinces passed their journey by the descent of the River Guei and when they passed through that Province which the Emperour had given the Tartars to inhabit and cultivate after he had expelled the Chineses for their Rebellion most of these Pezants being wholy ignorant of tilling and manuring the ground as having never been used to mannage a Spade or a Plough but their Swords these men I say desired earnestly these Princes that they might accompany them in these Wars and in their expeditions Two of these Princes rejected their Petitions but the third called Kengus without any consent or order from the Emperour listed them amongst his own Troups upon which they joyfully changed their rustical instruments into weapons for War when the Emperour heard of this proceeding he sent word to Kengus to dismiss them but he pretended various excuses and did neglect the Emperours orders He therefore commanded the supreme Governour of all the Southern Quarters who resides ever at Nanking to take Kengus either alive or produce him dead He presently cast about how to compass the Emperours command with all secrecy and received the three Royolets with all sorts of divertisements of Comedies Banquets and the like pleasures as if he had received no distastfull order from the Emperour And when the day was come that they resolved to prosecute their journey by the great River of Kiang the said Governour contrived his business so as he met them again in the River and under pretence of taking his last
persecution against them which God of his goodness did turn so much to their good as they had permission to teach and Preach publickly the Law of Christ But after this Tyrant came into the Country the chief of these Heathenish Priests was apprehended for some words let fall against him and in the presence of the Fathers who by accident were then at audience with the Tyrant he was beheaded And although they had learned of Christ to do good for evill yet knowing the phrenetical anger and fury of this monster who used to punish those that interceded with the punishment of the offender they durst not make any motion for the least favour It is true this cruel Beast loved these Fathers and would often converse with them whom he experienced wise and learned and he would often call them to the Palace to entertain him in discourse but they knowing well his precipitous anger went ever prepared and expecting death and indeed they were thrice deputed to death and the fourth time escaped by Gods particular providence as we shall relate in time and place But he was not contented with the death of one of these same Heathenish Priests but having got together about twenty thousand of the same profession For one Mans fault he kils twenty thousand he sent them all to Hell to visit their Masters whom they had served And then he would applaud himself as if he had done a very Heroical Action saying to them These Men would have taken away your lives but Thiencheu so they call God which signifies the Lord of Heaven has sent me to revenge your cause and inflict due punishment upon these wretches He would often confer also with the Fathers of Christian Religion and that so properly as a man would take him for a Christian He praised and highly extolled the Religion of Christians which he well understood partly by the conferences which he frequently had with the Fathers and partly by reading their Books which for the Instruction of Christians they had writ in the China Language and hath often promised to build a Church to the God of Christians worthy of his magnificence when he once came to be Emperour of China and indeed all the works he erected were very splendid and magnificent but he polluted them all with the blood of the Workmen for if he found they had but committed the least errour or the least imperfection he presently put them to death upon the place He endeavours to take Hanchung On the North part of the Coūtry of Suchuen where it confines with the Province of Xensi lyes the strong City called Nanchung which though it be seated in the County of Xensi yet in respect it is both so strong and of so great an extent it is held to be the Key of both the two Provinces The Tyrant endeavoured by all industry to make himself Master of this important place as being a convenient passage to the rest wherefore in the year MDCXLV he levied a vast Army consisting of one hundred and fourscore thousand men all Natives of the County of Suchuen besides those of his own which had alwaies followed him This numerous Army besieged the Town a long time but found so rigorous resistance that they began to be weary and about fourty thousand of those Souldiers of Suchuen revolted to the Prefects which governed the beleagured City by which means the Army was constrained to return to the Tyrant He kils 140000 men most cruelly without any memorable Action and he being enraged with anger to see them return commanded all the rest of the Souldiers of the Province of Suchuen which were in number one hundred and forty thousand to be all massacred by the rest of the Army This horrible Butchery lasted four days in which slaughter he commanded many of them to have their skins pulled of which he filling with straw and sowing on the head commanded to be carried publickly and visibly into the Towns where they were Born so to strike more terrour into the hearts of the inhabitants and after all this yet he had such a malitious hatred against this Country that they did not rejoyce that he was King as he never ceased to vex and torment it even when it was in a manner left desolate Many unexpert persons without head or guide did take Arms against him but he quickly dispersed them being wholy unexperienced in Military Discipline others that were wiser leaving the City retired into the Mountains which were in a manner the onely Men who escaped his fury After this he called all the Students of the Country to be examined for their degrees He kils all the Students promising to give those honours to whomsoever should deserve them best and the Chineses are so bewitched with the desire of these dignities that they did not conceive the perfidious Stratagem of the Tyrant Their appeared therefore in the publick Hall deputed for that Ceremony about eighteen thousand persons all which he commanded his Souldiers to massacre most barbarously saying These were the people who by their cavilling sophisms sollicited the people to rebellions He kils the Children and exposes the Matrons I have a horrour to relate so many unhumane slaughters and yet I see my self over-whelmed with new ones for what an addition is it to all his related barbarities to tell you that he never spared Children Boys nor Girls no nor Matrons with Child and ready to lye down what an excess of all inhumanity to take the Prefects Wives when their Husbands were condemned but yet alive and to expose these Women to all kind of villanies and then to kill them This was so sensible to many as they rather chose to kill themselves than to undergoe so infamous and publick an opprobry by their honesty I forbear to relate more of such detestable and execrable examples lest I offend the ears and minds of the Reader by such abhominations Let us therefore suppress these impurities and pass to what happened in the year MDCXLVI when the Tartars entred into the Province of Xensi to give him Battail so as he was forced to go out to meet them And to the end he might leave the Country behind him with more security he resolved to cut off all the inhabitants except those which inhabited the North-East Quarters by which he was to pass and therefore must needs reserve these Creatures to assist and furnish his Army with all necessaries and therefore he deferred their death to another time He therefore commanded all the Citizens of what quality or condition soever they were that did inhabit his Metropolitan City of Chingtu to be bound hand and foot He kils 600000. in the City Chingtu which was done by a part of the Army which he had called in and then riding about them which vast multitude is related to have been above six hundred thousand Souls he viewed them all with less compassion than the cruelst Tyger would have
done whilst in the mean time these poor victims with lamentable crys which penetrated the very vault of Heaven and might have moved a heart composed of stone or Rock holding up their hands begged of this outragious Tyrant to spare the lives of his innocent people He stood a while Pensive like an astonished and amazed Creature so as it seemed to be an imperfect Crisis wherin humane nature struggled a little with those bowels and that heart which was composed of all cruelty but presently returning to his beastly nature Kill Kill saith he and cut off all these Rebels upon which words they were all massacred in one day out of the City Wals in the presence of this bloody monster Those Religious persons which are there the Fathers of Christianity resolved to make their addresses for the Tyrant to save their innocent servants lives and though all men judged it a desperate attempt yet they obtained the lives of those they claimed So as they distributed themselves at the City Gates and as their Clients passed bound to the Shambles they mercifully unbound their Shakles and rescued them from death By which occasion also they performed another acceptable Sacrifice to God in Baptizing an infinit number of Children Many Children Baptized which the Souldiers willingly permitted so as the horrid and execrable cruelty of this Tyrant proved as advantagious to these little Angels as Herods slaughter did to the Blessed Innocents They write that in this massacre their was so much blood spilt as made the great River of Kiang which runs by the City to increase and swell visibly and the dead Corps being cast into the River and carried downwards to the other Cities did denounce unto them that they were to expect no better Treaty from this Tyrants hands And it quickly proved true for he dispatched his Army to the rest of the Cities and killed all that he could lay hands on and thus this Tyrant did bring that populous Province of Suchuen into a vast wilderness After this he mustered all his Souldiers into a Field which in China is ever deputed for that end and is called by the Natives Kioochang in this place he delivered himself thus unto them I hope by your valour to obtain the Empire of the world when I have expelled the Tartars but I desire to see you yet quicker and nimbler than hitherto you have been you all know to free you from all burdens and heavy luggage how I sunck threescore Ships full of Silver in the River of Kiang which I can easily recover to reward your pains and merits when I shall once have obtained the Empire he had indeed sunk the Ships and killed the Ship-men to conceal the place but there remains yet a greater encumbrance which retards much our journy and all our enterprises which is your Wives which are a heavy burden to you all Therefore put on a generous resolution There will not be wanting other exquisit Women when we are come to possess the Empire and although as Emperour I ought to have some Prerogative and make a difference betwixt you and my Royal person yet I am content in this to give you all a leading example which may serve as a President He kils all the Souldiers Wives After this Speach of three hundred handsome and beautiful Maids which he kept for his voluptuous pleasures he onely reserved twenty to serve his three Queens and commanded all the rest to be killed upon the place The Souldiers presently followed the example and command of their cruell Tyrant and cut off the heads of innumerable innocent Women as if they had been their mortal enemies Having now no more men in the Province of Suchuen to put to death He burned his Palace in the City of Chingtu he turned his fury and hatred against Cities Houses and Palaces for whereas he had built himself a very stately and magnificent Palace in the City of Chingtu he consumed that and with it a great part of that noble City with fire besides he cut down all Trees and Woods that they might profit no man And thus as he said having purged his Army he marched on into the Province of Xensi to meet the Tartars but as he marched if he found any man remaining alive he commanded him to be killed And not content with all this if he espied any Souldier which marched either too far before or too far behind though the fault were never so little he killed him presently He killed all his sick or weak Souldiers that they might be delivered as he said out of so miserable and ruined a Country I suppress many more passages of his cruelty because I will hasten to the Catastrophe of this Tragedy He was no sooner entred into the Province of Xensi but one of the Emperours Uncles meets him with five thousand Tartars and the Body of the Army marched after him five Horsemen run before the Army as usually they do amongst the Tartars who if they be well received of the enemy they retire and take it as a sign of Peace and submission but if they receive any Act of hostility then they march up to fight These Horsemen were espied by the Tyrants Scouts who presently brought him tydings of their approach But he laughed at the news and jestingly asked them If the Tartars had learned to fly He had at that time many persons tyed before him which he intended to massacre and amongst the rest two of the Jesuits for asking leave to return into Suchuen which was the Country they had undertaken to convert to Christianity But the suddain death of this Archbrigand delivered them all from the imminent danger for at the same time came in his chief Commanders assuring him the Tartar was upon him upon which news he being of a bold and couragious humour burst out of his Tent and without either head-piece or brest-Plate snatched up a Lance went out with a few to view the enemy The Tartars presently assaulted the Tyrant and the first discharged Arrow which was as happy to the Tartars The Tyrant is slain as it was to many others peirced the heart of that monster of Cruelty killing that Man who had an intention to make an end of all Men and who from the base condition of a raskally Theef presumed to take the Sacred Title of King and Emperour The head being down the Tartars easily seized on the body of his Army but many of the Souldiers submitted to them others were killed others run away and the poor inhabitants of the Province of Suchuen received the Tartars as their Saviours The Province of Suchuen is made subject to the Tartars By which means this Province which is the most Western in China and borders upon the Kingdom of Tibet became subject to the Tartarian Empire When they had established Garrisons and all their other affairs in that Country they prepared to return to the Royal City of Peking leading with them the two
one time sent as a present from the Occidental Tartars to the King of China Which boundless power of the Tartars The Tartars subdue the rest of China as it cannot be contained within any limits so also it broke out into the Province of Quamtung which they wholy subdued and out of that like an impetuous Torrent they ran into the Province of Quangsi which they likewise conquered to their Empire So as the King of China called Jungley with his chief favourit the Eunuch called Pang Achileus who professeth Christianity were feign to fly to the confines of Tunking being in a manner excluded the whole Empire In so much as a friend of mine writes out of the Province of Fokien that the King Jungley fearing to fall into the Tartars hands was feign to leave the Land and fly to Sea But upon what Coast that unmerciful Element may have cast him we know not for we hear no news of our Father Andrew Xauerius Koffler who ever followed the Court of King Jungley having had the happiness to have Baptized his Queen his Son and his Mother with many others of that distracted Court. In the mean time whilst one Cang a Royolet amongst the Tartars subdued the Province of Quangsi the Governour of the Country whom they call Colaus fell into the Enemies hands and the Tartars hoping by rewards and promises of dignities to soften the mind of this so gallant a Man The great fidelity of the Governour to his King and so eminent a Philsopher abstained three days from any cruelty or ill usage But he scorned to prefer his life before his alleageance and fidelity to his King and therefore lost his head But yet this generous Action was admired and honoured by those brutish Souls who presently erected a magnificent Tomb in memory of so honourable an Act for although the Tartars sollicit the Chineses to revolt from their Prince yet they honour and praise such as shew themselves constant to him And this memorial I owe unto his memory well for his singular friendship he was pleased to contract with me as also to his eminent vertues of which I my self and the whole Church of Christians in China were both Spectators and Admirers for the space of twenty years And that his name may not perish nor his Country he was Born in the Province of Nanquin in the City Changcho being called Kiu Thomas a name worthy of eternal memory in the Temple of vertue During the saccage of these Provinces news arrives from the Country of Suchuen that the notorious Brigand called Changhienchungus famous for his infamous cruelty and abhominable villanies See fol. 197. was broke out again and wasted all that Province with severall tempests of War for though he seemed to be quite vanquished in the last Battails yet he appeared again to trouble and vex the Empire with new Garboyls and further Designs of War The Province of Fokien also began to grone under the same miserable condition of VVar for the Reverend Father Peter Canevari Native of Genua writes out of the City Changcheu which was besieged the 30. of March 1652. that Quesingus having made a descent from his Ships into that Province had overrun the whole Country taken some Cities and Towns and carried on the War with great terrour to the Inhabitants Insomuch as the Tartarian Commanders kept themselves and their Army in their Forts and other places of strength not daring to appear in the field to oppose them but yet he sayd they expected new Forces and Succours from Peking by which they doubt not but quickly to subdue him This Quesingus who now vexeth this Province of Fokien Quesingus the Pyrat is Son to the famous Pyrate Iquon or Chinchilungo whom the Tartars imprisoned by a slight as I recounted to you in my former History And to let you know what I heard from some passengers of China who in the month of January 1653. were cast in a Ship of China upon the Coasts of an Island called new Holland whither I had been brought before by their Barks and Souldiers as their Prisoner These Men related that a great Army of Tartars was arrived to subdue Quesingus whose Commander thought it fit to joyn art to his great Force and therefore he commanded a handfull of Men to charge the Tartarian Army and presently by feigning flights to retire to more advantagious and surer places But in the mean time he had placed a number of Horse in a deep valley behind a Mountain towards which Quarters the fugitive Troops retired This flight gave courage to the Tartars and the desire of victory made them venture so far from the River Chang where their Ships lay at Anchor as they found themselves environed by the Tartars Army This desperate condition which excluded the Chineses from returning to their Ships caused a very sad and bloody Battail in which there perished above 8000 of the Chineses Army Quesingus defeated whilst Quesingus a spectator of this sad accident from the Mast of his Ships and as they relate was heard to say that he would once more try his fortune against the Tartars but if she proved again adverse unto him he then would submit and shave his Hair like a Tartar Having briefly related the State of the Temporality in this Kingdom it remains I should touch a little of the State of Christianity since these great revolutions In which subject I can onely say that being at Brusels this last June in the year 1654. I received Letters from China in which they gave me notice that the Father Jesuits were very favourably treated by the Tartars yea better than before for they permitted free exercise of the Christian Catholick Religion through an their Kingdoms granting them leave not onely to enjoy their antient Churches but did also liberally contribute to build new ones So by the goodness of God that which endamaged others proved gain to them But I reserve all particulars to a larger relation in a greater volumn which shall continue Trigautius his History of the missions dispatched into China and considering he concludes that History in the year 1610. it shall be my endeavour to produce the rest of those memorable Actions to these our present times FINIS
were absent yet because that Province which used to be most plentifull was lean in Corn they could not make sufficient provision for six moneths siege for such an infinite multitude of people as were retired within the Walls Yet it held out most obstinately for the space of six moneths in which time though they were brought to hard shifts yet hoping alwaies for succour from their Emperor they would never submit to any conditions I dare not relate to what an excesse this Famin came too but it seems it surpassed the Famin of Hierusalem An unheard of Famin. a pound of Rice was worth a pound of Silver a pound of any old rotten skin was sold at ten Crowns dead mens flesh was sold publikely in the Shambles as Hogs flesh and it was held an act of Piety to expose the dead in the Streets for others to feed on who shortly were to be food for others but I will pass over conceal yet more horrible things than I have related This City lies towards the South side of that vast precipitate River which the Chineses call Hoang because the Streams alwaies appear of a yellowish saffron colour because the River is higher than the plain levell downs of a Leagues distance from the Town they built upon the River side a long strong Bulwark of great square stones to prevent all inundations The Emperours Army after long expectation came to relieve the Town and advanced as far as these Bulwarks and having considered the situation of the Country and Enemies Camp it was thought the fittest and easiest way to raise the siege without giving battail to let in the water upon the Enemies Army by some breaches made in that long Wall or Bulwark It was in Autumn when they took this resolution and the River by reason of extraordinary rains was swoln bigger than ever before and they making the Sluces or Inlets too great and the Breackes too wide gave way to such an Ocean of water as it overrun the Walls of the Town which were very stately and high involving not only many of the Enemies in its ruin and destruction The City of Caifung is drowned but also 300000. men and the City it self perished in those floods of water So the antient City which heretofore had been honored by the Emperor's Residence appeared no more a place of pleasure but a vast Pool or Lake for Monsters of the waters to inhabit for the houses of the Town were not over-run with water but also beaten down and also the Church of the Christians together with their Priest who was one of the Society of Jesus it was well known he might have saved himself but being there were many Christians perished he willingly chose to die with those he had gained The destruction of this City happened the ninth of Oct. 1642. about which time this famous Conductor of Theeves took the name of King The General of the Theeves takes the Title of a King with an addition of Xunvang which sounds as much as Prosperous and so was stiled Licungzus the prosperous and having in a manner taken all the Country of Honan into his Dominion he returned into the Province of Xensi He takes the Country of Xensi and wonn it wholy to his subjection When he came to Sigan which is the Metropolitan of Xensi he found some resistance from the Garrison but he took it in three daies and for a reward and encouragement to his Souldiers he gave it to them to pillage also for three daies space and then he gathered up all the Corn of the whole Province as well to keep all the Country in their duty to him as also to leave no Forrage for the Emperours Army And now thinking himself secure of the whole Empire he took the name of Emperour upon him Calls himself Emperour and stiled the Family wherein he thought to establish this Dignity Thienxunam as much as to say Obedient to Heaven By which Title he perswaded the Souldiers and the People that it was by the disposall of the Heavens that he should reign that he might deliver the people from the Emperours Avarice and extirpate those wicked Governours that so much vexed the people and deliver them from all their perfidious Plots For he knew well that this Glorious Title would be very acceptable to them of China who believe that Kingdoms and Empires come only from Heaven and are not gained by any Art or Industry of Man and that his actions might carry a face correspondent to his illustrious Title he began to use the People with all humility and sweetness The Theeves good Government not permitting any Souldier to wrong or iujure them only he persecuted all the Officers call'd Presidents which he could find and all those he put to death and as for those that had been Presidents because he found them rich he made them pay great Fines and let them live remitting all Taxes in the places he subdued severely commanding that the Subjects should be treated with all Civility and Curtesie So as all men applauding and loving so sweet and milde a Government easily submitted to his Power and Dominion but where the Governours use Tyranny there the Subject hath little care of Fidelity There were in the City two Priests which served the Christians that were Jesuits and suffered much in the saccage of the City but being afterwards known for Strangers they were used with all humanity In the mean time a third cause of this Empires ruin grew up in the Court The Prefects Discord was another cause of the ruin of China which was hatched in the Emperour Thienkius his time For that Emperour exalted an Eunuch called Gueio to such a height and power as he gave the absolute Power and soveraign Command into his hands and passed so far as allway to stile him by the name of Father This extravagant power caused much Envy Dissention and the banding one against another amongst the Governours Presidents Commanders and Counsellours and the Eunuch also added much to incense the flame by his indiscreet usage of the favour he possessed for if any man had touched him either in word or writing or expressed less respect unto him in conversation or behaviour or did not flatter the base fellow he would presently give order to put him to death though he were a very eminent person or at least degrade him from all Office or Dignity By which means he exasperated many and amongst the rest he offended the Prince Zunchinius who now by the death of his Brother without issue was come to be Emperour of China This Emperour knew that the Eunuch had moved Heaven and Earth to hinder his coming to the Crown but seeing he could not effect that at least he maintained a seditious faction against the great ones which finally proved the destruction of the Estate For these men banding in two factions studied more how to destroy one another than to