make a red Powder to excite the Appetite of the Stomach These and more strange and unknown Simples I did find at Tripolis But because it would be too tedious to describe them all therefore I have only made mention of those that Authors have described CHAP. V. Which way I travelled from Tripolis further to the two Famous Cities of Damant and Halepo AFter I had rested for several Weeks in Tripolis and had observed that City its Building and pleasant Situation and moreover the Manners Customs and Habits as well of the low as high ones I propounded to my self to Travel to Aleppo which is almost the biggest and the most Famous Trading City of Syria which lies five or six days Journey towards the North-east of Tripolis And when I met with some Companions to Travel with me we stored our selves with Provisions viz. Bread Cheese Eggs c. for our Journey and so set out of Tripolis the 9 th of November Anno 73. By the way we met with a great deal of Rain which commonly begins at that time of the Year and continueth almost all the Winter long This kept us so much back that we reached not to Damant which is in the mid-way from Tripolis to Aleppo before the fourth day There we lodged in one of their great Champs called Carvatscharas where we had a Chamber assigned us in which we found neither Table nor Chairs nor Bench nor Bed only upon the Floor was laid a Stromatzo twisted of Canes which was to serve us instead of them all There we bought in their Bazar some Victuals according to our pleasure and staid there all Night long The Town which some take to be the Old Apamia is pretty big and pretty well built it lies in a Valley between Hills so that you can see nothing of it the Castle only excepted which lyeth on the Hill and guardeth it very well before you are just come to it Round about it there is many Orchards and Kitchen-Gardens which they Water out of the River Hasce which is pretty large and runs through the Town The Water they lift up with Wheels for that purpose fixed in the River that pour it into Channels that carry it into the Gardens and so Water them in the great heat of the Sun to refresh them These Gardens had been worth my seeing but my Fellow-Travellers were in hast and so we put on the next Morning for Aleppo By the way we saw very good Corn-Fields Vineyards and Fields planted with Cotton which is brought from thence and sold to us under the Name of the place where it grew and also Silks and other Goods that are bought there at the first hand In these Countries are a great many Wild Asses called Onagri the Skins of them are very strong to wear and as they prepare them finely frockt on the outside as Strawberries are or like the Skin of the Sepia or Cuttle-Fish wherefore they commonly make their Scabbards for their Scymitars and Sheaths of their Knives thereof Their Blades are watered on both sides very subtilly they are made of good Metal well hardened and so sharp chiefly these that are made in Damascus that you may cut with them a very strong Nail in pieces without any hurt to the Blade They wear rather Knives than Daggers which they tye to their Girdles with finely wrought Tapes by their backs When we went on and came to the Promontory of Mount Libanus we saw abundance of Villages by the way which for the most part are inhabited by Christians viz. Syrians Maronites c. with whom we did Lodge sometimes over-night these entertained us very civilly and gave us such Wine to drink as grew on the Mountains than which I hardly remember I ever drank better Amongst the rest of the Villages we came to one called Hanal lying high in a Fruitful Country where as I am informed in former days a very fine City stood which is so desolated and in process of time decayed to that degree that in our days there is almost nothing of it left but a small Village and here and there in the Fields some small Ruins of Old Houses We went on further between the Mountains where we spied a little Town upon the Hills and above it a strong Castle which it 's said the French did formerly build that lyeth in a very convenient place between the Mountains so that you must go just by it but because it is haunted with Evil Spirits and Hobgoblins it remaineth unrepaired and uninhabited We left it on our left hand and came out into a spacious Corn-Field well tilled where on our left we saw the Town Sermin at a great distance and near to it and about it great Woods of Pistacio-Trees which are gathered there and sent to Tripolis and so by the Merchants to us Some of them grow also near the High-ways chiefly in the Village of Basilo where we stayed all Night In our way we found nine or ten Champs called Caravatscharas these are open Inns where the Caravans and Travellers go in commonly towards Evening to stay there all Night they are free to any body but you find neither Meat nor Drink there if you will have it you must bring it along with you and must be contented to lye upon Straw if you can have it upon the lower Wall which goes round about the sides on purpose to give to Horses Asses and Camels their Food upon it They are generally three Miles distant from one another they are large and stately and as strong in Walls as Castles commonly built four-square and have within a large Yard and round about it are Stables which are quite open just like Cloisters Some of them have a Garrison of Nine or Twelve Janisaries to keep the Roads clean and to protect the Travellers from Assaults of the Inhabitants and Arabians When we had travelled over several rough Mountains and came almost near to Halepo we saw at last the City just like Damand of the bigness of Strasbourg at the Gates we dismounted because in Turky no Outlandish Man hath liberty to Ride through a City and so we went into it and I went into the French Fundique to take my Lodgings as all Germans use to do CHAP. VI. Of the Situation of the Potent City of Halepo of the Buildings thereof and also of the delicate Fruits and fine Plants that grow there within and without Gardens THE Town of Halepo which is the greatest and most Potent in Syria anciently called Nerea is in some places well Fortified with Ditches and Walls only they are not quite round it so that one may the same it is with Tripolis at any time of Night go in and out Neither are the Gates as used in our Country chiefly in Cities of Account beset with Souldiers but you will only see two or three waiting at the Head-Gates where the High-ways go through which are rather there to take Custom than to keep the Gates neither have they
hours walking distant from it 2. The Old-Gate 3. The Prison Gate whereof Nehemiah maketh mention in his 12th Chapter through which our Saviour Christ carried his Cross 4. Rayn-Gate 5. The Gate of Ephraim before which St. Stephen was Stoned to Death as you may read in the 2d Book of the Ecclesiastical History in the 1st Chapter 6. The Gate of Benjamin where the holy Prophet Jeremiah was taken and Imprisoned as he saith himself in the 37th Chapter 7. Corner Gate 8. Horse-Gate 9. Valley-Gate through which they went into the Valley of Josaphat 10. Dung Gate through which the Water carried out all the Soil into the Valley of Josaphat and about this River is still to this day a great stink 11. Sheep-Gate 12. Fountain-Gate which is now Walled up The Prophet Nehemiah maketh mention of them in his 3d 8th and 12th Chapter so that it is not needful to say any more These Gates are so mightily decayed that there is not to be seen the least of the old Buildings The Turks have instead of them built others in the New raised Wall but yet not half so many in number whereof some according as the Town is enlarged in some places and contracted in others are displaced others are erected again in the same places according to the Old Streets viz. 1. The Fish-Gate which is still standing towards the West behind Mount Sion and over against Mount Gihon as you may conclude out of the words of the 2d Book of Chronicles in the 33d Chapter and 14th Verse Manasses built a Wall without the City of David on the West-side of Gihon in the Valley even to the entring in at the Fish-Gate This Gate hath its Name because they brought many Fishes from the Sea-side through this Gate into the City So is also still standing on the outside of the Valley Tiropaeon which distinguished the two Mounts Sion and the Temple Mount called Moriah the Gate of the Fountain which hath its Name because it leadeth towards the Fountain of Siloha which Nehemiah in his 2d Chapter Verse 14 calleth the Kings Pool Through this was our dear Lord Christ the true promised Siloha brought a Prisoner bound from the Mount of Olives over the Brook Kidron into the House of Hannas and Caiphas in the upper Town as we read in the 12th Chapter Verse 37. that by the Fountain-Gate they went up to the City of David The same way also the two Disciples Peter and John were sent to bespeak the Paschal Lamb by Christ where they met the Man with the Pitcher of Water The Sheep or Beast-Gate is also still standing by Moriah the Mountain of the Temple which the Turks have taken to themselves and have built on it a Turkish Mosque or Temple because that God Almighty hath done many and great Miracles on this Mount and besides Mahumet did find himself again on this Mount after he had been carried up as his lying Writings tell us through the Heavens before God by the Angel Gabriel Wherefore they take this Mount to be Holy so that none that is not Circumcised and so Unclean dare approach or come near it nor take the nearest way without over the height of the Mount as Nehemiah did as you may see in the before quoted place so that the Christians must take a further way about and from the Gate Siloha go below through the Valley of the Brook Cedron between this and the Mount of Olives to the Beast-Gate which hath its Name because the Beasts that were to be offer'd in the Temple were driven through it Near the Gate you see still the Sheep-pond which is large and deep yet hath but little Water in it wherein the Nathineens used to wash the Beasts and then to give them to the Priests And also immediately within towards the North a Conduit which was the Pool by St. John the Evangelist in the 2d Verse of his 5th Chapter called Bathesda erected by King Ezechia that had five Porches wherein lay a great multitude of impotent folk that waited for the moving of the Water Through this Gate is the straight way over the Brook Cedron by the Mount of Olives toward Bethania down to Jericho on the River Jordan into the Valley of Josaphat wherefore this also being nearer now in these days is called the Valley-gate There is also still the Corner-gate in its old place where the North and East Walls meet on large and high Rocks and 〈◊〉 called still by some the Gate of Naphthali This I thougâ— convenient to say of the City of Jerusalem in the gâ—nerâ— of its Buildings Fruitfulness and adjacent Countries what Famous and Holy Places are within and without the City thereof I intend to treat in particular CHAP. IV. Of Mount Sion and its Holy Places MOunt Sion very famous in holy Scripture hath round about it steep sides high Rocks deep Ditches and Valleys so that it is not easie to climb up to it only on one side towards the North where it buts upon the lower Town so that the Castle and Town of David situated on it was very strong and almost Invincible as you may read in the 48 Psalm vers 2. The joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion on the sides of the north the City of the great King God is known in her places for a refuge for the Kings were assembled c. Seeing then that the Castle and the upper Town Millo vvas so vvell fortified vvith Tovvers and Walls that it vvas not easily to be taken the Jebusites after that Canaan the vvhole Land of Promise together vvith the Tovvn of Jerusalem vvas taken did defend themselves in it against the vvhole force of Israel for a long time although they often attempted to take it and called the Tovvn of Jerusalem after their Name Jebus until the Kingly Prophet David came vvho took it by force and after he had rebuilt the upper Tovvn and joined the Castle vvith it into one Building and surrounded it vvith Walls he called it after his ovvn Name The City of David and kept his Court there and gave also Lodgings to his Hero's and Officers vvhereof Vriah vvas one vvho had his Lodgings near to the Kings Palace vvherein the King vvalking on the Roof of his House savv the fair Bathsheba his Wife and committed Adultery vvith her These their Habitations as they are still built in these Days have instead of Thatch or Tiles plaister'd Roofs so that one may walk on them as you may see here that King David walked on it And also in the Second Chapter of the Book of Joshua where is said That when the Two Spies sent into the Land of Promise to Jericho came into Rahab's House and the King sent to search after them they went at her request up to the Roof of the House where she hid them with the Stalks of Flax which she had laid in order upon the Roof But seeing there is nothing so strong in in this World that is not transitory
the Christians that came ashore lest they should go up to Mecha and Medina to ransack and burn them Cap. Walter Payton in the year 1613 found great Hospitality and Ingenuity in some Ports of Arabia Felix nearer the Persian Gulf especially at Doffar a very good Road for Ships and a fair City where the Arabians presented his Crew with Bullocks Sheep Hens Goats Sugar-Canes Plantans and Coco's This Cape stands in 16 degrees 38 min. of N. Lat. and is free from the Turkish Yoke Capt. Edward Heyns anchored before Moha or Mocha in Arabia Felix An. Dom. 1618. the Governour sent him as Presents a young Bullock two Goats Mangoes Limes Cucumbers Water Melons Quinces Rack made of Rice c. He went freely ashore and found it a very neat populous and flourishing Town built of Brick and Stone curiously plaister'd over like Paris two Stories high with flat Roofs and Terrasses on the top whereon they build Summer-houses with Canes and Matts wherein they sleep and receive the fresh Breefes in the great heats They excus'd the Cruelty to Sir H. Middleton laying it on the cruel Governor at that time Of the Ways and Roads between Egypt and Ethiopia IN the month of October an Ambassador of Ethiopia came to Caire with several Presents for the Grand Signior and among others an Ass that had a most delicate Skin if it was natural for I will not vouch for that since I did not examine it This Ass had a black List down the Back and the rest of its Body was all begirt with white and tawny streaks a finger broad a piece The Head of it was extraordinarily long striped and partly coloured as the rest of the Body Its Ears like a Buffles were very wide at the end and black yellow and white Its Legs streaked just like the Body not long ways but round the Leg in fashion of a Garter down to the Foot and all in so good proportion and symetry that no Lynx could be more exactly spotted nor any Skin of a Tyger so pretty this may be the Zembra The Ambassador had two more such Asses which dyed by the way but he brought their Skins with him to be presented to the Grand Signior with the live one He had also several little black Slaves of Nubia and other Countries confining on Ethiopia Civet and other costly things for his Present These little Blacks serve to look after the Women in the Seraglio after that they are gelded The Ambassador was an old man and had the end of his Nose part of the upper and under Lip cut off but was otherwise a shapely man and of a very good presence He was cloathed after the Cophtish fashion wearing a Turban like them and spoke very good Italian which gave me the opportunity of conversing with him He told me his name was Michael that he was a Native of Tripoly in Syria and that he had made three or four Voyages into Christendom That eighteen months before he had parted from Gontar the Capital City of Ethiopia and was so long retarded by the way because of the contrary Winds he met with on the Red Sea by which he came That of an hundred Persons whom he had brought with him of his own Servants and the Slaves he was to present to the Grand Signior thirty or forty were dead If he had come by Land he had not been so long by the way for from Gontar to Schouaquen it is about six weeks Journey and from Schouaquen to Caire forty or fifty days by Camels but he could not take that way because of his Train He told me many things relating to the Kingdom of Ethiopia which I shall here give the Reader an account of But first of the ways of passing out of Egypt into Ethiopia The Merchants setting out from Grand Caire are carried up the Nile against the Stream as far as Monfallot and thence travelling in Caravans first come to Siint and so in order to the following Towns Wack three days Journey Meks two days Scheb three Sellim three Moschu five Dungala five accounted the Metropolis of Nubia then they come into the Kingdom of Sennar From Dungala they travel to Kshabi three days Journey Korti three more Trere three Gerry one Helfage one Arbatg three Sennar four From Sennar in fourteen days they arrive at the Confines of Habessinia the Entrance is called Tshelga The passage by Sea is various for the Merchants embark in several Ports on the Red Sea as Suesso Gidda Alcossir and so coast it to Suaquena and Matzua The safest way of travelling into the Kingdom of Prester John is with some Metropolitan or Ambassador Some land at Baylar a Port belonging to the King of Dengala in amity with the Habessins but the Journey thence by Land is tedious and infested by the Gallons 'T is but three months travel by Land from Grand Caire to Gontar the chief City of Ethiopia Of Ethiopia By Michael of Tripoly Ambassador from the Habessine Emperor to the Grand Signior EThiopia or the Country of the Abyssins called in Arabick Abesch from whence comes the word Abyssin is a great Empire being above seven months travel in circuit On the East side it is bordered by the Red Sea and Zanguebar on the South with Zeila Avousa Naria c. On the West by the Country of the Negros and Nubia and on the North with the Country of Nubia and Bugia because to come from Ethiopia into Egypt one must cross Nubia down the Nile About an hundred years ago Greyu Mahomet King of Zeila of which the Inhabitants are all Moors invaded Ethiopia and forced the King to save himself on a Mountain from whence he sent to demand assistance of the King of Portugal who immediately sent it him but hardly was he who commanded these Auxiliaries enter'd the Country when he resolved to return back again finding that they ate raw Flesh there However his Brother Don Christopher had more Courage and would not return without doing some Exploit He marched up into the Country with about Three hundred Musqueteers fought vanquished and killed the Moorish King and then re-established the lawful King of Ethiopia For reward of which Service the King of Ethiopia gave Lands and Estates to all the Portuguese that stayed within his Dominions and their Offspring are still in that Country The Father of this present King was a Catholick but he dying some thirty odd years ago the Queen his Wife who was a great Enemy to the Jesuits and no Catholick and who suffer'd impatiently that they should govern as they pleased the late King her Husband wrought upon her Son that succeeded him to persecute all the Roman Catholicks in such a manner that the Jesuits were obliged to make their escape and he put to death all the Capucins whom he found Since that time three Capucins more were put to death at Schouaken for the King of Ethiopia knowing that they had a mind to come into his Kingdom sent to the
been the most potent Monarchs of the World not only to observe their Lives Manners and Customs but chiefly to gain a clear and distinct knowledge of those delicate Herbs described by Theophrastus Dioscorides Avicennas Serapio c. by viewing them in their proper and native Places partly that I might more exactly describe them especially the most strange and rare partly also to provoke the Apothecaries to endeavour to procure those that are necessary for them to have in their Shops I strove always to put this my desire into execution but was forced to defer until in the Year of our Lord 1573. I found an opportunity by my honoured Brother-in-Law Mr. Melchior Manlick Senior which was very convenient He received me presently having before a design to increase the number of them that were employed in his Trade and fitted me out for my Voyage that I might go with the first Company that should Travel for Marseilles and then from thence further in one of their Ships to Tripoli situated in that part of Syria which is called Phoenicia After that my honoured Friend Mr. Frederick Rentzen of that same City was come to me we set out the 18 th of May Anno 1573. from Augspurg towards Lindaw designing to go through Piedmont to Milan and Nissa and so further the same day we came to Mindelheim a very pleasant Town with a princely Castle situated upon the Mindel then belonging to the Baron of Frundsberg The 19 th at Noon we came to Memmingen a very pleasant City of the Empire and at Night to Leutkirch The 20 th we rode thorough Wangen another Imperial City situated in Algaw where they drove a very good Trade with fine Ticking and Linnen Cloth about Noon we arrived at Lindaw an Imperial City situated in the Boden sea where there is a very great Depository or Staple of all sorts of Commodities or Merchandises some have called this the German Venice because it is in like manner situated in Water and hath also a great Trade After Dinner we crossed the Lake towards Fuzach a Village not far from Bregentz towards the Rhine The 21 st about breakfast-time we came to Veldkirch a very pleasant Town situated upon the Yll belonging now to the House of Austria but formerly to the Counts of Montfort By the way I saw several fine Plants viz. Saxifraga Aurea Caryophyllata Alpina a fine sort of Bellis-major Crista galli with white Flowers and Auricula Ursi with brown Flowers c. At Night we came to Mayenfeld belonging to the Grawpunters upon the Rhine which runs by the Town and there runs into it a River called Camingen which slides down between high Rocks where the Famous warm Bath from an adjacent Abby called Pfeffers riseth which may be numbered amongst the Wonderful Waters in regard of its Admirable Operation in strengthening lame and contracted Members and hath this Property beyond other Baths that it loseth its self from October till May and then it cometh on again powerfully The 22 d. we came at Night to Chur a very Ancient City where also is a deposition of Goods that are brought thither from Germany by Pack-horses over the Mountains A Seat of that Bishop lyeth half an hours going from the Rhine wherefore this Bishoprick is accounted the Chief of all the Bishopricks of the Rhine or the Pfaffen gaste called by others because it is situated near the first beginning of the Rhine according to the Ancient Proverb Costentz the biggest Basil the pleasantest Strasburg the noblest Spires the devoutest Worms the poorest Mentz the worthiest Trier the ancientest and Collen the richest The 23 d. we rode to Tusis an Ancient Village belonging to the Grawpunters the Name whereof shews its Original for the Rhetians are descended from the Tuscans who under the Conduct of one Rhaetus of old took Possession of those Countries not far off upon a high Mountain is still situated a ruined Castle called Realt or which is righter Rhoetia alta derived also from the Rhetians The 24 th at Noon we came by the Splewerhill into a Village called Splugi not far from the beginning head or source of the Rhine Thence we passed over the Hill and came at Night to a little Village called Gampolschin situate in a Valley of the same Name where we rested Monday the 25 th at Noon we came to Claeven or Clavenna a very Ancient Town belonging to the Bunts which had Anciently a strong Castle which was demolished by the Grawpunters themselves Anno 1524 after it was cunningly taken from them by Castel de Maess and John Jacob de Medicis in which bustle the Town was also ruined for the Gates and Walls were beaten down that no Enemy might after that lodge himself there again From Claeven we went to Riva upon the Lago di Como where the Water Addua runs into the Lake and yet notwithstanding adds no Water to it nor taketh any from it but only runs strait through it and so doth the Rhine through the Lake called the Boden-Sea From thence we travelled to Gera upon the same Lake where we lay all Night on the Bank I saw some purple-coloured Lillies a sort of Lilium Saracenicum with small Leaves and in the old Walls the Cymbalaria The 26 th about Noon we came to Como a very glorious and pleasant City from whence the Lake hath its Name to this day From thence we rode the same Night to Milan the Metropolis of that Dukedom What strange passages have been committed in this Town before it was possessed by the Emperour Charles the Fifth after the Decease of the last Duke Francis Sfortia is related sufficiently in History The 27 th we rode through Binasco a pleasant Village where the very learned and famous Andreas Alciatus Doctor in Law and Professor of several Universities in France and Italy hath built a very Glorious Palace And in the Evening passing by the great Park in which in the Year 1525. was fought that bloody Battel between Francis King of France and the Emperour Charles the Fifth's Officers in which the King himself was made Prisoner and many of his Men kill'd the same Night arrived at Pavia an Ancient Glorious City situated on the River Tesin where the Kings of the Longobards did formerly keep their Courts and afterwards Charles the Great the first German Emperour did institute an University which hath brought up many Eminent and Learned Men since The 28 th departing from Pavia we passed the River Padus or Eridanus which is believed to be the biggest River in Italy to Vogera a pleasant Village situated on the River Stafora there we began to take Post and had Eighteen Stages to Nissa By Noon we arrived at Dertona a pretty Town yet not very full of People by reason of the many Wars and intestine Quarrels in which it was engaged belonging to the Duke of Milan In this Country I found whole Acres sown with Woad and there
I saw the White Poplar also Millefolium flore luteo and further upon the Hill Brotho the Cineraria and the Stoechas Citrina Cotinus Plinii and many more fine Plants At Night we came to Alexandria della Paglia that is to say of Chaff When heavy and long Wars did arise between the Emperour Frederick the First and the Towns of Lombardy by Instigation of Pope Alexander the Third the Towns of Lombardy did agree to compile this City out of several Villages in the Year 1168. and did Fortifie it the Year next ensuing and called it after the Pope's Name Alexandria But the Imperialists called it Alexandria of Straw which Name it doth retain to this day yet we did not stay there but rode the same Night to Bellizona a strong place which perhaps formerly had its own Princes which did sell it from Uri and his Relations because they could not defend it from the Duke of Milan in the Year 1422. and yet it cost a great deal of Blood until the Switzers got it into safe possession in the Year 1500. The 29 th at Noon we came to Ast a considerable City belonging to the Dukedom of Milan where the King of Spain keeps a Garrison which had just then received the new Governour of Milan and conducted him into the City Not far off lyeth Carmagnola belonging to the King of France and to the Markgraviat of Saluzo where is kept a French Garrison as at Moncalier which is very near it the Duke of Savoy hath a Garrison and so Garrisons of three Eminent Princes lye very near one another That Night we lodged in a pitiful Village called Baieron The 30 th we rode through Racones and Savigliano two small Villages and at Night came to Coni. The last of May after we had broke our Fast in a Village called Limona we came to Mount Brothus where we saw many pleasant Vineyards and so by Tenda into another Village called Sorgo where we staid all Night The first of June we reached to Nizza in the Morning a City with a strong Cittadel upon the Tyâ—henian Sea belonging to the Duke of Savoy which the Turkish Admiral Barbarossa did for a long time Besiege with great fury and yet was forced to leave it although he had the City in his possession in the Year 1543. Thither also came Francis King of France and the Emperour Charles the Fifth to Pope Paul the Third to have Peace made between them There-about I espied some fine Plants but chiefly two sorts of Papaver Corniculatum with large and stately Flowers yellow and brown and also the Ladanum latifolium and upon the Hill towards Villa Franca a Convolvulus with white and purple-striped flowers and with long and cut leaves The Second we went from thence with more Company passing through the Villages of Antibo Cacabo Luc Brignola c. where I found in the Shops a sort of very delicate preserved Prunes called in English Prunella's which would be very useful in burning Fevers against the Thirst in great quantity to Marseilles which maketh Thirty French Miles or Leagues and we rode so fast onward during this Journey that we arrived there in Nineteen days after our departure that is on the fifth day of June by the way I saw Convolvulus foliis aâ—utis Rubia Tinctorum Stoechas a fine Seseli Peloponnesiacum Thymelaea Cistus with white and purple flowers and also a kind of Ladanum of the learned Carolus Clusius with small Rosemary-leaves Terebinthus Ilex Coccifera Aspalathus and the Polemonium Monspeliensium of Rembert Dadonaeus called Trifolium fruticans Ruscus Lentiscus Calamintha montana some common Thistles and others In Marseilles where I was lodged in my forenamed Kinsman's House to stay until the Ships were ready I met with one John Ulrich Kraft Son of John Kraft one of the Privy Council at Ulm who was arrived there a few days before also with the same intention to go along with us about his own Business we staid together and while the Ships were fitting out we made our selves acquainted with the Physicians and Apothecaries but above the rest with one experienced Man Jacob Renaud a great lover of Plants who shewed me in his Garden many pretty and strange Simples viz. Scammonium verum Ambrosia Moly Ammi Aloes c. and a great many dryed and laid between Papers I found also about the City Trifolium Asphaltites Lactuca marina Dentillaria Tragacantha Guilhelmi Rondeletii a great Scabiosa with white flowers Gratiola Gnaphalium marinum Medica marina Polygonum marinum Eryngium marinum Coris Monspeliensium another sort of Tamariscus and of Consolida with yellow sweet flowers which I also found between Nimes and Pont du gard an old strong and fine Building upon which I did find Ruta Sylvestris a sort of Verbascum foliis dissectis Papaver corniculatum flore flavo I also found there-about Chondrilla Viminea growing chiefly in the Vineyards Conyza major Vermicularis fruticans Carduus tomentosus not unlike to Leucacantha Nepa Lobelii in adversariis novis I also found Tartonrayre Aster atticus luteus Psyllium Seseli Aethiopicum fruticans Jujubes red Valeriana Corruda Rembert Dodon the first kind of Catanance Dioscor which I first spied by its dryed leaves just like to a Vulture's Claw and many others not needful to be here related After that the Ship Santa Croce was laden victualled for three Months and provided with Guns and all other Necessaries for a three Months Voyage we two went with our Master Anthony Reinard with some others belonging to him in a Frigat the first day of September in the Year 1673. to our Ship which lay at Anchor with several other laden Ships near the adjacent Islands with an intention to set Sail the next day The next day about two in the Afternoon when God sent us a good Wind we hoisted up our Sails and went on When our Patron began to exhort his Men to agree together and to be obedient to him which they all faithfully promised then we went to Prayers and recommended our selves to the protection of God Almighty In the first setting out before we got to Sea our Ship came so near to another that they touched almost and had not the Seamen in time got them off we might have suffered Ship-wrack When this was over and we out of danger we sailed on with full Sails six of us and advanced so fairly that we lost the sight of Land before Night and could see nothing but Sky and Water Not long after most of us began to be Sea-sick and to bring up what we had eaten some days before but I and my Camrade Kraft purged our selves that Night so well that we were very fresh again the next Morning Some of the rest remained sick for seven days after and not one of us although we were 48 but was sick and found an alteration after our Shipping off After we had sailed two days with a favourable Wind by the Latins
chiefly for Persons of Quality where they may wash themselves apart from others without any disturbance Besides these there is still another Room where there is a very great Marble Trough in which every one may wash himself after his Sweat there are several Pipes laid in it that you may temper your Water according to your own desire All these Rooms are heated with the same Fire and the Turks and Moors which two Nations have almost the same Religion and Ceremonies go into them very frequently but chiefly the Women which flock to them in great numbers for they never meet any where else but here and at the Graves of their Relations wherefore they keep these sumptuous Buildings the like whereto are hardly any where else found in very good repair As soon as you come into the Hot-house and are grown a little warm one of the Servants which are generally black Moors meets you and lays you backwards down upon the Floor and stretcheth and snaps all your Joints after such a manner that they crack again then he kneeleth down upon your Arms which he puts upon your Breast one over the other and holds them so for a good while together with his Knees then he bendeth forwards and stretcheth with both his Hands keeping you still like a Prisoner under him your Head upwards So it happened once when some of us went in together and were treated by the Moor after this manner that he sprained the Neck of one of my Companions so that he could not turn his Head in several Days after it when this is done he turns you round upon your Belly toucheth and stretcheth your Joints again in such a manner as if he did malax a Plaister at length he stands upon your Shoulder-blades and bending himself down he rubs you all over your Back with his Hands then he lifteth you up and goeth away Then when you lay your self down to rest you or to sweat he maketh a Paste to take of your Hair for they wear no Hair upon their Body saving only their Arm-pits he taketh Quick-lime by the Arab's called Rils and a little Sarnick Arsnick that is Orpiment powders them and mixeth them with Water and anoints your Hair with it and looks very often after it until he finds that the Hair begins to come off then he washeth it perfectly off again before it can hurt you when this is done he takes a fine white Cloth dips it in Sope-suds and rubs your whole Body over with it The before mentioned Cloaths are white like unto Cotton but the Threads are harder which the Pilgrims bring with them from Meca being made of the Bark of Trees that bear Bdellium and they make Ropes of them as also of the Fibers of the Leaves of Palm-Trees and of the covering of the Fruit of the same Tree which is of the bigness of a Wall-nut by putting it on a Distaff and so spinning it out Lastly They wash Peoples Heads and mix sometimes with their Lees chiefly for Women an Ash-coloured Earth called Nalun which cleanseth the Head and makes the Hair grow long They have also another Earth called Jusabar which the Women eat frequently so as breeding Women in our Country use to eat sometimes Coals or other things These their Baths are as free to strangers as Germans French and Italians c. as to Moors and Turks but they must have a care not to come into those where the Women are if they will not run the hazard of their Lives But that you may know where the Women are they commonly hang a Cloth over the Door towards the Street that if any Man should intend to go in there when he seeth this he may find himself another entrance Further concerning their Traffick there are in the Town because there is there a very great Deposition of all sorts of Merchandizes that are brought thither from great distances a great many Merchants chiefly French and Italians which have two Wise Understanding and Grave Presidents of which the one that liveth here is a French Man and the other at Alepo a Venetian called Consuls to assist their Country-men with good Counsel They are sent thither by their Government and confirmed and have great Priviledges given them of the Turkish Emperor to let the Merchants with their Commodities lodge with them and to defend them against any assault of the Turks and Moors that they may trade and deal without disturbance These Consuls wear still their usual Habits made of Red Satin Velvet or Damask c. very richly adorned and they bring along with them Taylors Shoe-makers but chiefly their Physicians Apothecaries Barber-Surgeons and Ministers c. and have besides them their Interpreters skilful in the Turkish and Arabian Language chiefly the Consul of Venice because he must stay there but three Years when they are expired the Dogue sends another in his place When the new one is arrived at Tripoli he dare not go on shore before the other gives him a visit of Reception in the Ship To these two Consuls there are given two large Buildings called by them Fondiques situated near two Gates of the City which lead towards the Haven and the Sea-shore that they may the easier send their Goods in and out There are all day long a great many Moors with their Asses that stand waiting for an opportunity to conduct Merchants and Seamen with their Goods in and out These two Houses are large and have abundance of Vaults and Chambers so that there is room enough to lodge both Merchants and their Goods With the French are also lodged those from Genua Florence St. Luck Germans and Dutchmen c. as also with the Venetians those of Candia Corfu c. that are under their Master's Jurisdiction These Fondiques have no more then one large Gate where Janisaries keep watch when their Masters the Consuls go out they are accompanied with a multitude of Merchants and their Servants and they are in great Authority with the Turks and Moors even beyond the Bashaw himself They always take along with them their Janisaries which go before with great and long Cudgels and beat the People out of the way even the Turks themselves The Merchants have daily great Conversation with the Jews for they know a great many Languages and the Prizes of all Merchandizes how to buy and to sell them wherefore they always help to conclude Bargains in Merchandizes pay the Money and give Bills of Exchange wherefore they have their Broakage I have seen chiefly three sorts of their Silver Coins viz. Aspers Medin and Saiject which are very good and pass through all Turky When great Sums are paid they do not tell the whole but only part of it and weigh it and so take the rest proportionably by the same weight Of Gold Coins they have only Ducats which are made of fine Gold and are very limber besides these you hardly see any other Coins but Venetian Ducats French Testons Joachims Thalers of which
Cod-pieces which they do not suffer others to wear that they may wash themselves without hinderance their Private parts Feet Arms Necks or any other parts to cleanse themselves as often as their Laws shall direct them These Drawers they tie about their middle with some Strings or Bands about their naked Body and let their Shirts hang down over them When they have occasion to make Water they untie their Drawers again sit down and cast their Cloaths round about them like Women turn themselves from the South to which they turn when they are going to pray If they see a Man make his water standing they immediately conclude him to be a Christian and none of their Faith They commonly sit with their Legs laid one over the other which they do every where in the East wherefore they have neither Chair nor Table but instead thereof they have a paved place two or three steps high which is arched over head which they keep very clean and cover it with Tapestry or Serge or Mats finely twisted with several colours according to their Ability wherefore to save them the Turks pull of their Shoes and leave them at the Chamber-door Their Shoes are like unto those our Lacques use to wear and like Slippers easie to be put on and off they commonly are of a white or blew colour painted before underneath defended with Nails before and with Horse-shoes behind these are worn by young and old Men and Women rich and poor Besides these they also wear sometimes wooden Shoes which are to be sold every where they are about three Inches high and in the middle underneath carved out to distinguish the Soals from the Heels painted with several colours the same wear the Women which have almost the same Garments with the Men and have also Drawers which sometimes are so long that they hang out before their Coats they are commonly made of fine Cotton of several colours and laced at the sides You very seldom see any Turkish Women either in the Streets or in the Markets to buy Provision or in their Churches where only the chiefest of them come and that but seldom where they have a peculiar place separated from the Men. They have also in their Houses secret places and corners where they hide themselves immediately if any body should come to see their Housholds When they go abroad which is very seldom you see three or four of them together with their Children which are all one Man's for according to their Law they are allowed to take as many as they can maintain Their Faces are all covered with black Vails whereof some are of fine Silk and some of Horse-hair which the poorer sort wear and over their Head they put some white Scarfs made of Cotton which are so broad that they cover not only their Heads but their Arms and Shoulders they look in them almost like our Maids when to keep themselves from the Wet they put a Table-cloth or Sheets over their Heads But because the Turks are very Jealous therefore their Wives seldom meet in the Streets or Markets but only in the Hot-houses or when they go to visit the Tombs of their deceased Parents or Relations which generally are out of the Town near the High-ways When they go thither they take along with them Bread Cheese Eggs and the like to eat there which was called Parentalia by the Latins just as the Heathens used to do in former Ages and sometimes they leave some of their Chear behind them that the Beasts and Birds may eat it after they are gone for they believe that such good bestowed upon the Beasts is as acceptable to God as if it were bestowed on Men. Their Graves are commonly hollow covered at the top with great Stones which are like unto Childrens Bed-steads in our Country which are high at the head and feet but hollowed in the middle they fill them up with Earth wherein they commonly plant fine Herbs but chiefly Flags they also put some green Myrtles in little Air-holes that are round the Tombs and they are of opinion that their Relations are the happier the longer these remain green and retain their colour And for the sake of this Superstition there are in several places of the Town Myrtles to be sold that stand in Water that they may remain fresh which the Women buy to stick up at the Graves of their Relations Their Burying-places are always out of Town near the High-ways that any body that goeth by may be put in mind of them and pray to God for them which is the reason that so many Chappels are built about their Burying-places that People that go by chiefly the Relations of the deceased may go into them to pray to God on their behalf When any of them dieth they wash him and put on his best Cloaths then they lay him on a Bar or Board and strow him with Sweet-smelling Herbs and Flowers leaving only his Face bare that every body may look upon him that knoweth him as he is carried out If it be a Tschelebii that is a Noble Person they put his Helmet and his other Ornaments at his Head his Friends and Acquaintance which go before and follow the Corps keep no order but hang upon one another as if they were fudled and go merrily and shouting along to the Grave as also do the Women who come behind and hollow so loud that you may hear them a great way off CHAP. IV. A Description of the Plants I gathered at Tripoli COnsidering that I undertook this Journey into the Eastern Countries not only to see these People and to observe their Manners c. but also and that principally diligently to enquire and to search out the Plants that were growing there I cannot but shortly describe those I found about Tripoli during my stay there and will begin with such as grew on the Sea-shores which were Medica marina Gnaphalium marinum Leucoium marinum Juncus maritimus Peplis Scammonium Monspeliense which the Natives call Meudheuds but Rhasis in his Book ad Almans calleth it Coriziala Brassica marina which spreads its Roots above the Sand for some Cubits round and has instead of round Leaves rather square ones A kind of wild white Lillies by the Latins and Greeks called Hemerocallis which did not only grow on the Sea-shore but also in Islands thereabout in great plenty with a great many others which I forbear to mention here being common Behind the Custom-house near the Harbour I found in the Ruines of the old Wall that are left of that City Hyoscyamus and hard by it in the Sand an Herb not unlike unto Cantabrica secunda Caroli Clusii saving only the Stalks and Leaves which are woolly But the Ricinus groweth there above all in so great plenty that you can hardly make your way through it the Inhabitants call it still by its old Arabian Name Kerva If you turn from thence to the High-way towards your Right-hand you see the
any Arms. But in the middle of the City there is a Castle on a high Hill which is strong large surrounded with Walls and Ditches and well beset with a good Guard Concerning their other Buildings which are flat at the top and covered with a sort of Pavement that one may walk on the tops of them they are like unto them of Tripolis Amongst the rest there is a very Magnificent Building which they say hath cost a great deal of Money which hath for its Entrance a very low and small Door so that one must bend himself very low that will go into it but when you come in you find there delicate large Halls high open Arches very pleasant and cool to sit underneath in the Summer Water-works Orchards and Kitchen-Gardens where among the rest was one of these Ketmy's Besides these there was also some fine Mosques with Steeples which were round and small but very high some of them had a Balcony at the top like unto a Garland whereupon the Waits are and their Priests go about at the time of Prayers to call People in But for other stately Buildings that might be erected for the Memory of some Potent King or Prince there is none Without the City they have here and there some Country-Houses among the rest one built for the Turkish Emperour at four Miles distance from the City where he used to be sometimes chiefly when he is at War with the Sophy King of Persia that he may presently assist his Army in case of Necessity This is very large but not built so stately as so great a Monarch deserveth In the great Garden is a Chappel built by the River that runs through it upon Pillars where the Great Sultan used to hold Conferences with his Privy-Councellors and Visier-Bashaws It happened in the Reign of Solyman the Great as the Gardiner did relate to us that when they were assembled to consult whether it was more profitable to him to suffer the Jews in his Provinces or to root them quite out After every one had given his Opinion and the most of them were of the Opinion that they ought not to be tolerated because of their insufferable Usury wherewith they oppressed his Subjects And after the Emperour had heard every ones Sentiment he gave them also to understand his and that in this instance viz. He bad them look upon a Flower-Pot that held a quantity of fine Flowers of divers colours that was then in the Room and bid them consider whether each of them in their colour did not set out the other the better and that if any of them should decay or be taken away whether it would not somewhat spoil the Beauty of the rest After every one had heard the Sultan's Opinion and did allow of it to be true the Emperour did begin to explain this and said The more sorts of Nations I have in my Dominions under me as Turks Moors Grecians c. the greater Authority they bring to my Kingdoms and make them more famous And that nothing may fall off from my Greatness I think it convenient that all that have been together so long hitherto may be kept and tolerated so still for the future which pleased his Council so well that they all unanimously agreed to it and so let it remain as it was Without the City of Halepo are abundance of Quarries where they dig great Free-stones of a vast bigness almost as white and soft as Chalk very proper for Building There are also about the Town some Walks or Grotto's under Ground which are above an English Mile long which have the Light let into them by holes made near the High-way so that a Man must be very careful chiefly at Night that he may not fall into them or that he may not be trapan'd by the Moors that live in them in great numbers The Ground about it being very Chalky it causeth to the soles of our Feet chiefly at Night although one be very well provided with strong shooes a very considerable dryness and heat as one may also see by the Moors that for the most part go bare-foot which causeth the soles of their Feet to be so shrifled that into some of their crevises you may almost put your little Finger Yet notwithstanding that Halepo is surrounded with Rocky Hills and the Valleys thereof are Chalky they have no want of Corn as Barley Wheat c. but rather it is very Fruitful and their Harvest beginneth commonly in April or May But they have but few Oats and less Grass or Hay for the dryness is so great and it is so Sandy and the Hills are so rough and full of Bushes that they make but very little Hay Wherefore they feed their Cattel with Barley and with Straw which is broken in pieces by threshing Waggons that are drawn by Oxen. The Valley is also full of Olive-Trees so that Yearly they make several Thousand Hundred Weight of Oyl for to make Soap There is also a great quantity of Tame and Wild Almond-Trees of Figgs of Quince and white Mulberry-Trees which are very high and big Pistacies-Trees which they call Fistuc are hereabout very common they have underneath very strong stems which have outwardly an Ashen-colour'd Bark and are adorned with handsome Leaves of a sad green colour like unto their Charnubis and behind them grow many small Nuts like Grapes in Clusters together In the Spring when they first put out they send forth long shoots which the Moors gather in great quantity for their Sallad and dress them as we do Asparagus There are also abundance of delicate Orchards that are filled with Oranges Citrons Lemons Adams-Apples Sebesten Peaches Morelloes and Pomgranats c. and amongst them you find sometimes Apples and Pears but very few nor so many sorts nor so big nor so well coloured as ours There grow many Mirtles which bear roundish Berries of the bigness of our Sorbus or Services of a blewish Grey colour very good to eat which have white Seeds of the shape of our jumping Cheese-magots they propagate them diligently because they are beautiful and remain long green to put about their Graves Moreover there are many Sumach-Trees which they plant for their Seeds sake which is much used by them But Cherries Amelanchier and Spenleny I have not seen there and very few Gooseberries or Currans Weychseln they have but very few wherefore they esteem them and keep them choice as a Foreign Plant to shew them to others and to present great Persons with them This may suffice of Trees Concerning their Garden Plants those that are common are Endives Lettice Kel or Coleworts Colliflowers Caulorapa Rauckelen Apium Tarcon whereof Rhases describeth two sorts one with long small Leaves by us called Taragon and the other with broad Leaves which I reckon to be our Lepidium by the Inhabitants called Cozirihan Ravos Serap or our Hartichokes But beyond all they plant Colocasia in such plenty as we do Turneps whereof they have
Prophet Mahomet and others which maketh them generally very Rich and wear greater Turbants than the rest that they may be distinguished from others Their Paper is generally smoothed and glazed and they comprehend their Letters in very few Words When they will make them up they fold them up until they come to be no broader than an Inch the outward crevise of the Paper they fill all along with Wax within and so glue it as it were to the other or else they take any other Paste made for that purpose and so imprint their Name upon it with their Seal that is done over with Ink so that nothing remaineth white but the Letters These Seals are generally made at Damasco where the best Artists live that cut in Steel and they put nothing more in it but their Name They do not make any use of Paper that is writ on although they have great quantity thereof neither to put things up in nor for any other use and yet if they find any of it in the Street they do not let it lye but take it up carefully fold it together and put it into the next crevise they meet with for they are afraid that the Name of God may be written on it Instead thereof the Grocers make use of great Leaves of Colocasia whereof they have great store CHAP. VIII Of the great Trading and Dealing of the City of Halepo as also of several sorts of their Meats and Drinks of their Ceremonies and their peculiar way of sitting down at Meals HAving heretofore treated of the Buildings and Situation of that Excellent Town of Halepo and of the Customs Manners and Offices of the Turks as much as I could apprehend of it I cannot but speak before I leave it of the Dealings and Merchandisings that are daily exercised there which are admirably great For great Caravans of Pack-Horses and Asses but more Camels arrive there daily from all Foreign Countries viz. from Natolia Armenia Aegypt and India c. with Convoys so that the Streets are so crouded that it is hard to pass by one another Each of these Nations have their peculiar Champ to themselves commonly named after their Master that built it viz. Champ Agemi Champ Waywoda Champ Abrac Sibeli Mahomet 's Bashaw and which are kept for them that they may make them their Inns and live in them and to keep or sell their Merchandises according to their pleasure So among the rest of the Nations there are French-men and Italians c. which have also there their peculiar Buildings which as is before said are called Fundiques wherein some live together and others chiefly the Italians that are married live without in Lodgings they have very small Habitations and live sparingly like the Turks In these Champs you meet with several sorts of strange Merchandises before all in Champ Agami where you have all sorts of Cotton-works viz. Handkerchiefs long Fillets Girdles which they roll about their Loins and Heads and other sorts by the Arabians called Mossellini after the Country Mussoli from whence they are brought which is situated in Mesopotamia by us Muslin with these do the Turkish Gentlemen Cloath themselves in Summer There is delicate Tapestry Artificially wrought with all manner of colours such as are sometimes brought over by us From Persia they bring great quantity of an unknown Manna in Skins by the name of Trunschibil which is gathered from a prickly Shrub called by the Arabians Agul and Albagi which is the reason that it is mixt with small Thorns and reddish Chaff This Manna hath Grains something bigger than our Coriander-seeds so that to all appearance it is very like unto our Manna which we gather from the Larix It might also very well be taken to be the same that the Israelites did eat had not God the Almighty fed his People and maintained them Miraculously and Supernaturally But that it falls upon Thorns is also attested by Serapio and Avicen in those Chapters where they treat of Manna which they call Theceriabin and Trangibin and that very learned and experienced Botanist Carolus Clusius saith the same in his Epitome of Indian Plants I found some of these Shrubs that grew about Haleppo which were about a Cubit high which shout out into several roundish Stalks and divide and spread themselves from the Stem into several Sprigs like unto a Flower part whereof were quite over-grown with Epithymum as Thymus used to be and had abundance of long thin and soft Prickles from whence grew out flesh-coloured reddish Flowers that bore small red Cods very like and of the same shape with the Cods of our Scorpioides whereof I have found many at Montpelier wherein are Seeds of the same colour The Root thereof is pretty long of a brown colour its leaves long like unto those of Polygonum of an Ash colour those that grow at the bottom of the Thorns are of a warm and dry Quality The People use the Herb for a Purge they take a handful thereof and boyl it in Water Besides this they have another Manna like unto that that cometh to us from Calabria by the way of Venice and is the concreted Saccarine Exudation of the Ornus Among the rest they also shew costly Stones by the Arabians called Bazaor which are oblong and roundish and smooth without and of a dark green Colour The Persians take these from a peculiar sort of Bucks and use the Powder against mortal and poisonous Distempers There are some that are very like unto these in Form and Figure but not to be compared for Goodness Wherefore a Man must have great care that he be not cheated But there are some Proofs to know whether they are good or no which a Merchant communicated to me as infallible Take Quicklime and mix it in Pouder with a little of this Stone and with Water make them up into a Paste when that is dry grind it if it then remaineth white it is esteemed false but if it turns yellow it is good and brought from Persia They also bring hither Turkey Stones that grow almost only in their Country and their King the Sophy has an incredible Treasure of them together Lately so many of them were brought to us that the Prices fell very much but when the King heard of this he immediately forbid that any should be Exported in seven years time that so they might come to their former Price again which seven years as I am informed are now expired There are also put to Sale many Chains of delicate Oriental Pearls which are for the greatest part taken or found in the Persian Seas near to the Island called Bahare scituated not far from that great trading City of the Turkish Batzora or Balsara From India they bring hither many delicate Spices Cinnamon Spicnard Long Pepper Turbith Cardamoms Nutmegs Mace and China Roots which the Arabians make more use of then of Guajacum and delicate China Cups and Dishes Indico and in very great quantity they bring that
whereof he maketh mention in his Index where he interpreteth the Arabian words For a kind of this may also be taken because it affords a delicate purple colour that Alga that is found in the Seas near Candia and is described by Theophrastus in his Fourth Book and Seventh Chapter Lastly Among the rest I did also enquire after the Amomum and thought because they were near unto the Confines of Armenia that therefore they might easily have it by the Caravans which come daily from those parts yet I was forced to run a great while after it till at length I got a little Stalk thereof in one Shop They call it by the name of Hamama But of the other so called by Dioscor which is like unto it and therefore may easily be taken for the right one they had a great deal These two small Shrubs although they are very like to one another yet for all that they may be distinguish'd by their Stalks and different colours Wherefore Dioscorid bids us if we will not be imposed upon to pick out the bigger and smoother with its noble Seed and to leave the small This Stalk which I found about the length of a Finger is almost of the colour of the Bark of the Cinnamon-tree and also in its acrimony and good odour although it was old still very strong At the top had been several woody Stalks close to one another whereon I believe had been the Flowers and Seeds But the Twigs of the other sort which are crack'd and bended are of a brown colour which at the top divide themselves into other less ones like a Tree whereon grow several Stalks with little Heads like unto the Masaron or Marum Syriacum from Crete wherein is no great strength nor odour Thus much I thought convenient to mention of strange Plants chiefly of these the ancients make mention of and so I conclude the first part of my TRAVELS Here endeth the First Part. THE SECOND PART OF THE TRAVELS OF Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff INTO The Eastern Countries Wherein is treated of his Journey from Halepo through the famous Town of Babylonia to Badgee what he saw by the way and what did befal him in going and coming by Water and by Land With a brief account of the high Mount of Libanus of the strange Plants and Inhabitants thereof THE SECOND PART OF THE TRAVELS OF Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff INTO THE Eastern Countries Wherein is treated of his Journey from Halepo through the Famous Town of Babylonia to Bagdet what he saw by the way and what did befal him in going and coming by Water and by Land VVith a brief Account of the high Mount of Libanus of the strange Plants and Inhabitants thereof CHAP. I. How I departed from Halepo to the Famous City of Bi r and how I sailed from thence on the Euphrates to old Babylon AFter I had stay'd a good while in Halepo and had seen and understood the Trade and Merchandices of the Inhabitants together with that of all the other Nations viz. Grecians Armenians Georgians Arabians Persians and Indians which come and go daily with their Caravans and very well observed and understood their Manners and Customs and had also Collected a fine parcel of foreign and undescribed Plants I resolved to go farther Eastward into Mesopotamia Assyria and Babylonia c. as the ancientest and most fruitful Countries that ever were where the ancientest People and the most Potent Monarchs did inhabit But these Countries lying far off and the Way that leadeth thither passing through vast Desarts and Wildernesses and therefore the Voyage being so much the more difficult and dangerous to attempt and accomplish I first look'd out for a trusty Companion to take as my Assistant and met presently with an experienced Dutchman that had lived a great while in Halepo who granted my request being as desirous to go this Voyage as my self to go along with me We agreed presently and began to consider which was our best Way to take But that we being Strangers might not be taken to be Vagabonds or Spies they being very suspicious from whence they might presently take occasion as the Turks use to do to lay great Avarias or unjust Taxes upon us which the Christians that deal to these Parts have often to their great Loss and Damage experienced we did consider and found that the Trading here was very great so that they did not only deal from hence into Armenia Egypt and Constantinople for from thence come the Caravans through Natolia in about a Months time but also very much into Persia and India Wherefore we thought best to profess our selves Merchants that so we might Travel the more safely with other Merchants in order thereto to buy some Merchandices that would Sell in those Places and to carry them along with us That we might put this in execution my formerly mentioned Friend Hans Vlrich Raft from Vlm took great Pains to furnish me at my Desire and Request with several fit Commodities for those Places upon account of my Patron Mr. Melchior Manlich which I got pack'd up immediately to go with them to the Famous City Bagdet situated upon the Tigris where is a great Staple and Deposition of Merchandices that are to go farther for Persia and India But seeing that seldom any Merchants go from Halepo further into these Countries so that our Habits are very rarely seen there we cloathed our selves as is usual in the common Turkish Habit that every body might not presently look upon us as Strangers first we had long blue Cabans which are button'd before quite down and cut out about the Neck not unlike to those of the Armenians and white Drawers made of Cotton that hung down to our Ankles and were drawn in and tied about our Bodies and also Shirts after the same Fashion and without Collars We also fitted our selves with white Turbants with a blue Brim such as Christians usually wear and put on yellow Shooes which were painted before guarded with Nails and with Horse Shooes behind Besides this we put on a kind of a Frock made of a certain course Stuff called Meska in their Language which is common among the Moors They are generally made of Goats and Asses Hair pretty narrow without Sleeves and short reaching only to our Knees But these Stuffs being not all alike the finest thereof chiefly that which is striped white and black is taken for Cloaths and the courser for Tents and Portmantles wherein they carry their Provision through the Desarts and also keep their Camels and Mules meat hanging it about their Necks This puts me in mind of the plain cloathing which the ancient Inhabitants of these Countries chiefly the Israelites when they mourned for their deceased Relations or when they repented of their committed Iniquities and turned from them and prayed God to forgive them their accumulated Transgressions used to put on as we read in the 37th Chapter of Genesis where Jacob lamented the Death of his Son Joseph
was almost like unto the Sea so that at Night pretty late we arrived at Juppe a pleasant and well built Town belonging to the Turks and it is also divided into two Parts whereof one lieth in the middle of the River on a high Ground at the Top whereof is a Fortress so the Town is pretty well defended The other which is rather bigger lieth on the lest in Mesopotamia wherein are many fine Orchards belonging to the Houses full of high Date-Trees c. wherefore the Merchants spent half a Day there to buy Dates Almonds and Figs to carry with them into the Inns the same they did at Idt another great Town of the Turks on the Right-hand of the Euphrates situate on a high Ground where we arrived on the 20th of October at Night in very good Time and gave them instead thereof Soap-balls Knives and Paper c. After which goods they have often enquired of us and we have given them sometimes some Sheets of white Paper which they received with great Joy and returned us many thanks for them After our Merchants had sufficiently stored themselves with these Goods and our Master had pay'd the Duty for his two Ships he put off about Noon on the 21st of October and went away About the Evening we saw at this Side of the River a Mill and also the next Day another whereby were several old Walls Doors and Arches c. Whereby I conjecture that formerly there stood a Town These two Mills as I was informed were two Powder-Mills that make Gun-powder for the Turkish Emperour and send it to him in Caravans together with other Merchandizes through the Dominions of the King of Arabia wherefore he must as well as other Merchants pay Duty for that Liberty and Toll or Custom The Gun-powder is not made from Salt-Peter as ours is but out of another Juice which they take from a Tree that is reckon'd to be a kind of Willow known to the Persians by the Name of Fer and to the Arabians by Garb as I have mentioned above Besides this they take the small Twigs of these Trees together with the Leaves and burn them to Powder which they put into Water to separate the Salt from it and so make Gun-powder thereof yet this is nothing near so strong as ours Pliny chiefly testifieth this in his 31st Book and 10th Chapter where he saith that in former Days they have made Niter of Oak-Trees which certainly he hath taken these to be for they are pretty like Oaks but that it hath been given over long before now Which is very probable chiefly because the Consumption thereof was not so great before they found out Guns as it is now since they have been found out Further on the Water-side on the high Banks I saw an innumerable many Coloquints grow and hang down which at a distance I could not well know until they called them by their ancient Arabick Name Handbel whereby they still to this Day are known to the Inhabitants After we had navigated a great way several Days one after another through even Grounds and in a good Road we arrived at length on the 24th Day of October at Night near to Felugo or Elugo a little Village called so and with it the whole Province CHAP. VII Of Old Babylon the Metropolis of Chaldee and its Situation and how it is still to this Day after its terrible Desolation to be seen with the Tower or Turret and the old ruined Walls lying in the Dust THE Village Elugo lyeth on the place where formerly Old Babylon the Metropolis of Chaldee did stand the Harbour lyeth a quarter of a League off whereinto those use to go that intend to travel by Land to the Famous trading City of Bagdet which is situated further to the East on the River Tigris at a Day and a half 's distance At this Harbour is the place where the Old Town of Babylon did stand but at this time there is not a House to be seen whereinto we could go with our Goods and stay till our departure We were also forced to unload our Merchandises into an open Place as if we had been in the midst of the Desarts and to pay Toll under the open Sky which belongeth to the Turks This Country is so dry and barren that it cannot be tilled and so bare that I should have doubted very much whether this Potent and Powerful City which once was the most Stately and Famous one of the World situated in the pleasant and fruitful Country of Sinar did stand there if I should not have known it by its Situation and several ancient and Delicate Antiquities that still are standing hereabout in great Desolation First by the Old Bridge which was laid over the Euphrates which also is called Sud by the Prophet Baruch in his first Chapter whereof there are some Pieces and Arches still remaining and to be seen at this very Day a little above where we landed These Arches are built of burnt Brick and so strong that it is admirable and that so much the more because all along the River as we came from Bi r where the River is a great deal smaller we saw never a Bridge wherefore I say it is admirable which way they could build a Bridge here where the River is at least half a League broad and very deep besides Near the Bridge are several heaps of Babylonian Pitch to pitch Ships withal which is in some places grown so hard that you may walk over it but in others that which hath been lately brought thither is so soft that you may see every step you make in it Something farther just before the Village Elugo is the Hill whereon the Castle did stand in a Plain whereon you may still see some Ruines of the Fortification which is quite demolished and uninhabited behind it pretty near to it did stand the Tower of Babylon which the Children of Noah who first inhabited these Countries after the Deluge began to build up unto Heaven this we see still and it is half a League in Diameter but it is so mightily ruined and low and so full of Vermin that have bored holes through it that one may not come near it within half a Mile but only in two Months in the Winter when they come not out of their holes Among these Insects there are chiefly some in the Persian Language called Eglo by the Inhabitants that are very poysonous they are as others told me bigger than our Lizards and have three Heads and on their Back several Spots of several Colours which have not only taken Possession of the Tower but also of the Castle which is not very high and the Spring-well that is just underneath it so that they cannot live upon the Hill nor dare not drink of the Water which is wholesome for the Lambs This is Romance From this Tower at two Leagues distance Eastward lieth the strong Town Traxt which was formerly called Apamia mentioned
Maronites that have lived long before in these Mountains with whom he hath lately renewed the old Confederacy again as I know very well and their Patriarch himself was with him before I was called to cure him of his Distemper He also leaveth no Stone unturned to get in with others and to make them his Confederates so he hath already secured to himself the Syrians which are also Christians yet not without gross Errors by paying to them a yearly Pension These speak also Arabick and are very like unto them in Shape Manners Fashion and Cloaths and I sound two of them among our Seamen that confirmed this to me After we had gone on a great while and were passed by the Point of the Promontory of Baruti which extendeth it self far into the Sea our Ship-Master who was a Turk and understood the Arabian Language shewed me a Village lying beyond it called Burgi and told me that that was also inhabited altogether by Harani Quibir that is great Robbers and Murtherers as they always call these People But I being better informed before-hand I prayed by my self that God would be pleased to let the poor Slaves that live in hard Servitude under the Turks who were these they call Harani and I do not at all question but they would soon take their Refuge to them to make themselves free of their Servitude as those might easily do that live about these Countries in Syria We saw also upon the Shoar some ancient Towers and among them chiefly two which are renewed again wherein the Trusci keep Watches to observe the Pirates but the others whereof there are a great many not above a League distant from one another are for the greatest part by Age decayed Some say that they were formerly built by the potent Emperors that if any Nation should rise up in Rebellion they might immediately give notice thereof to Constantinople These gave notice before Guns were invented in the Night by a flaming Fire and by Day-time by a great Smoak And they still keep to this in many places altho Guns are now invented In the Afternoon we were becalmed and so our Journey went on but slowly we saw late at Night a small Village called Carniola upon the height and soon after at the Foot of the high Mount of Libanus Southward of the City of Sidon by the Inhabitants still called Scida which is not very great but as far as I could see very well built and defended by two Castles one whereof is situated towards the North on a high Rock the other on a little Hill Those that are going to Saphet which is a Days Journey distant from it land there Before we could reach it Night befel us and brought contrary Winds which hindered us so much that we could hardly reach the glorious and rich Town of Tyrus now by the Inhabitants called Sur which lieth in a manner close to it until the next Morning This is still pretty large and lieth on a Rock in the Sea about Five hundred Paces distant from the Shoar of Phenicia In former Ages Alexander the Great did besiege it for Seven Months and during the Siege he filled up the Streight of the Sea and did join it to the Continent and after he had taken it he laid it into Ashes so that Punishment was inflicted on the Inhabitants which the Prophet Esaias denounced against them Four hundred years before On the Confines of Tirus and Sidon that Cananean Woman came to Christ on behalf of her Daughter that was possessed of an unclean Spirit whereof the Lord seeing her Faith did deliver her immediately Just before it we heard a great noise of large running Springs which rise within the Country with so great a vehemency that they drive several Mills Within a large distance from thence we saw a very fine new House called Nacora Two Miles farther near Mount Saron within Southward we saw a large Village called Sib without it in the Sea round about were several Banks and Rocks behind which we hid our selves the Wind being contrary and staid for a more favourable one in the mean while some of our Men got out among the Rocks to catch Fish and to find Oisters where they also gathered so much Sea-salt that they filled up a great Sack with it Between this and Mount Carmelo which are Eight Leagues distant and run out a great way into the Seas lieth almost in the middle thereof as it were in a Half Moon the famous Town of Acon anciently called Ptolemais on a high Rocky Shoar which some years ago when Baldewin the Brother of Gotefrid first and Guidon after him did possess themselves of the Holy Land was not without great Loss of many Men taken by them from Saladine King of the Saracens in Aegypt which had after some obtained Victories surrendered it self again a second time after a long Siege This Town hath very good Fields of a fertil Soil about it and is at this time together with the Land of Promise and others to the great grief of the Christians subjected under the Yoak and Slavery of the Turkish Emperor The next Day the Wind favouring us we hoisted up our Sails and got out at Sea with less danger to get before the Point of the Mountain but our Design was frustrated for about Noon a contrary Wind arose which did not only hinder us in our Course but violently drove us back again so that we were forced to have recourse to our old Shelter behind the Rocks again After Midnight when it began to be calm and another Wind arose we put out two hours before Break of Day and went all along the Shoar towards the Town Hayphe formerly called Caypha or Porphyria Four Leagues beyond Acon lying just within Mount Carmel where on the Evening when we came very near it several Frigats came out of all sides to surround us As soon as the Master of our Ship perceived them he did not like it wherefore he let fall his Sails and exhorted his Men to ply their Oars warmly to get clear of them When they saw they could not reach us they left their Design and went back but we landed without on that Mount Carmelo to put out again in the Night This Mountain is very high and famous in Scripture for we read in the Third Book of the Kings and the Eighteenth Chapter that the holy Prophet Elias called before him upon the Hill the People of Israel the Four hundred and Fifty of Baal's Priests and and the Four hundred of Hayns to chide them for their Idolatry where also God heard him and consumed his Sacrifice by Fire that came down from Heaven but the Priests of Baal were not only not heard by their Idols but kill'd as Idolaters near the River Kison and also in the Fifth of the Epistle of James that after the Heavens had been lock'd up for the space of three years and a half Elias did pray to God on this same Mount and the
below Bagadet and at length fall into the Persian Gulf by the Town Balsora or Batzera They are pious and honest People innocent but very zealous in their Religion and receive Strangers readily that come to them and give them Lodging as I have often found it in my Travels They are also very much inclined to help and assist the poor Slaves that are under Turkish Confinement and ready to help them out Their Merchants whereof there are many amongst them are dispersed not only over all Turkey but also Persia the Indies and many other Countries wherefore they have in all chief Towns of Trading as Antiochia Alepo situated in Coelosyria Orpha c. their peculiar Ware-houses and Churches and also in Jerusalem whither they go in great numbers the beautiful Church of St. Jacob the Greater and also below near to the place of Sculls another Chapel locked up c. and have commonly before their Chancels large Hangings behind which the Priests keep separated from the People These although they agree in very many Points and Articles exactly with those of the Reformed Religion yet notwithstanding they have some Errors worth to be rejected and some scandalous Customs besides So you may see them here and there cry over the Graves of their deceased Friends for to give them Visits they go out in the morning early the greater part of them old Women and there they make such Mourning and and Howling that the Travellers that come by for their Graves or burying places are generally out of Town near the High Ways may hear them a great way off There you shall see them sit some folding their Hands over their Heads and looking mournfully others fetching great Sighs beating on their Breasts others spreading themselves over the Graves as if they would embrace their Friends and take them in their Arms. In the mean while their Priests go about among them Reading and Praying and sometimes they speak to some of them When they have done mourning thus and cast Sorrows from their Hearts sufficiently they sit down together eat drink and be merry They do not at all esteem the Popes of Rome but have their own Prelates which they honour with great and peculiar Reverence neither do they believe any Indulgences nor Purgatory Their Priests go in plain Habits they have Wives as well as their Laymen they let their Hair and Beards grow they keep on Easter-day a great Feast and soon after beginneth their Lent which they keep strictly and therein as also on Wednesday and Friday all the year round they eat neither Eggs nor Flesh nor any thing else that ever had life in it only Saturdays and Sundays they are allowed them to refresh themselves other Feasts and Holydays they do not keep any at all In all these points they rather agree with the Abyssines than the Romans and also in these following viz. That they eat not of unclean Meats that are forbidden in the Old Testament they admit to the Communion young and old without distinction they baptize their Children in the Name of the Holy Trinity they believe the Articles of our Christian Faith they Preach Sing Pray and perform all their Devotion in the Vulgar Tongue that every one may understand it they use for the Interpretation of the Word of God the Writings of John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen they dare not no more than all the other Nations that live amongst the Turks except the Maronites make use of any Clocks to call People to Church in place whereof they have strong wooden Tables or some House-Doors prepared several in each Street whereon they strike several Strokes with a great Cudgel and so call People to Church CHAP. XV. Of the NESTORIANS TOwards the East are other People which esteem themselves Christians and among the rest chiefly the Nestorians called after the Heretick Nestorius who was a Bishop at Constantinople Some of their Priests live upon the Mount Calvaria in the Temple and there are a great many Adherents to this Sect most of them living in Mesopotamia Chaldaea and Assyria but chiefly in the mountainous Country of the Curtans called Carduci by Ptolomy which they almost quite possess and have poisoned with their base and obnoxious Error as if it were by an infectious Air for in passing through I have found many of them in their Cities as Hapril Carcuck Mosel formerly called Ninive They are strong and warlike People but full of Vices and from their Infancy given to robbing They inhabit towards North and East as is before said upon the Armenians and Medes and they are a very ancient People whereof chiefly Xenophon maketh mention under the name of Carducci and are called to this day Curters They speak their peculiar Language which neither the Arabians Armenians nor Turks do understand they are of a Brownish Colour like unto the Surians and Maronites and wear the same Cloth or Habiliments that one cannot readily discern or distinguish one from the other save only by their flesh-coloured Lists in their Turbants The Grand Signior is their Head whom they obey and they are kept and respected very well by the Turks partly that he may not give them occasion for an Insurrection because they are upon the Borders and partly because Mahomet hath charged them to be kind to them before others and that the rather because he had a Friar of their Sect called Sergius for his Tutor who did baptize him and counselled and assisted him to make such Laws and to give them to his Adherents and so you may still see that they agree more than any other Sect with the Saracens For whereas they believe that in Christ according to his two Natures are two distinct persons one of the Godhead the other of the Manhood They will not allow any more than Mahomet the Virgin Mary to to be the Mother of God but the Mother of Christ according to his human Nature They have a Prelate in stead of the Pope whom they call Jacelich They bless and give the Sacrament as the Surians do and use in their Spiritual Services the Chaldean Language else they speak the common of their Provinces viz. in their own Country as is abovesaid their own Language in Chaldea and Mesopotamia commonly the Arabian and Saracen Language So in Assyria beyond the River Tigris where the two mighty Princes the Turk and the King of Persia do border upon one another the Language of the Turks Persians and Medes altho they are quite differing These and other Languages the holy Apostles did understand and in them they did speak on the Day of Pentecost when they received the Holy Ghost as you may read in the Second Chapter of the Acts Verse 5. where it is thus written And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men out of our every nation under Heaven each whereof heard the Apostles speak in his own Language wherein he was born as that of the Parthians Medes Elamits or Persians that of those also
the North-west along the Haven-side for above the Hill where the three Walls begin lies an open Champaign-country except that here and there at considerable distances Farm-houses are scattered The Haven runs in from the West and so opens East At the East end of Galata is Tophana where they cast their great Guns Pera and Galata have about six Gates to the Seaward The whole tract of Ground was anciently before the times of the Emperor Valentinian who enclosed and fortified Galata with Walls and Towers stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the other side of the City to the North which is the reason of its Name seated on higher Hills and whose ascent is more steep and difficult Our modern Geographers such as Mercator and Ortelius who herein follow Ptolemy place Constantinople in the Latitude of 43 degrees and 5 minutes the Arabian and Persian Astronomers as Abulfeda Nassir Eddin Vlugh Beigh and so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Chrysococcas translated out of the Persian Tables place it more Northerly in 45. But by latter and better observation it is found that they have erred in assigning the Latitude of this City as of several other places To salve these differences there is no just ground of pretence to say that the Poles are moveable and have changed their situation since their time whereas it may better be imputed to their want of due Care or to their taking things upon trust from the Reports of Travellers and Seamen not having been upon the places themselves which certainly is to be said for Ptolemy whose Observations as to places more remote from Alexandria are far from being accurate and true The learned Mr. John Greaves as I find in a manuscript Discourse very worthy of being printed which he presented to the most Reverend and Renowned Archbishop Usher took the height of the Pole at Constantinople with a brass Sextant of above 4 feet radius and found it to be but 41 degrees 6′ but by the Observation we made in our Court-yard at Pera with a good Quadrant we found but 40 degrees and 58 minutes of North Latitude There is no place between the Propontis and the Walls of the City except just at the Seraglio point which may be two hundred paces in length where they have raised on a Platform a Battery for great Guns but from the point to the end of the Haven West the space to the Gates is unequal in some places about twenty paces broad in others three or four times as many more The distance between Constantinople and Chalcedon upon the opposite Bithynian shore may be about three or four miles In the Walls are engraven the Names of several Emperors who reigned toward the declension of the Graecian Empire as Theophilus Michael Basilius Constantinus Porphyrogenitus by whose care and at whose expence the several Breaches caused in them by the Sea or by Earth-quakes were repaired Kumkapi or the Sand-gate lies toward the Propontis this the Greeks call in their vulgar Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contoscalium of the little Scale or Landing-place Here formerly was an Arsenal for Gallies and other â—ll Vessels it being a convenient passage over 〈◊〉 Over this Gate was anciently engraven a curious Inscription still preserved in that excellent Collection published by Gruterus Jedicula Kapi or the Gate of the seven towers so called from its nearness to that Acropolis is that I guess which the Greeks formerly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the golden Gate and by some late Latin Writers Chrysea in Luitprandus Carea by a a mistake either of the Transcriber or Printer for Aurea for so certainly it must be mended Over this Gate was this Inscription Haec loca Theudosius decorat post fata Tyranni Aurea secla gerit qui portam construit auro cited by Sirmond in his Notes upon Sidonius This Gate is in the twelfth Region and was also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from its beautiful and curious Structure The Gun-gate formerly called Roman-gate not because it leads towards the Continent of Romania or Thrace but from St. Romanus where the last Christian Emperor was killed at the Assault which the Turks made to force their way into the City by it Near Adrianople-gate is a fair large Mosch called Ali-bassa upon a hill accounted the highest in the City The distance between tower and tower in the upper wall to the landward may be about ninety of my paces the space between that and the second wall about eighteen paces over The place where the Lyons Leopards and such-like wild Creatures are kept where I saw also several Jackals was formerly as the Greeks told me a Christian Church dedicated to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Blessed Virgin where this Verse is still legible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no tide or running back of the Water on any side of the Bosphorus into the black Sea as some have imagined whose mistake might possibly arise hence that the Wind being at North and blowing hard the Current sets more violently at such times against the several Headlands jetting out into the Channel which admits of several turnings and so the Waters are forced back to some little distance or else because when the South-wind freshens and grows boisterous it makes a high rolling Sea in the Propontis and Bosphorus and being contrary to the Current gives a check to it so that it becomes less sensible and is easily stemmed Where it is narrowest the distance seems to the Eye to be scarce a mile over from one shore to another where broadest not much above a mile and a half unless where it runs into the deep Bays which by reason of their shallowness only harbour Boats The Channel certainly is natural and not cut by Art as some have idly fancied not considering how the Euxine Sea should discharge it self otherwise of those great quantities of Waters poured into it by the Ister and Tanais now called Don and the other Rivers whereby it becomes less Salt even very sensibly to the taste than several parts of the Mediterranean The Fish by a strange kind of instinct pass in vast shoales twice a year Autumn and Spring through the Bosphorus that is out of one Sea into another of which the Greeks who live several months of the year upon them take great numbers and supply the Markets at easie rates the Cormorants and other ravenous Water-fowl which the Turks will not suffer to be destroy'd or otherwise molested preying also upon them The Weather in some months is very inconstant great Heats and Colds hapning the same day upon the change of the Wind. The Winters at Constantinople are sometimes extraordinary severe I have heard it related by several old Greeks as a thing most certain that the Bosphorus was frozen over in the time of Achmed and that a Hare was coursed over it It hapned thus that upon a thaw huge Cakes of Ice came floating down the Danube into the black
Sea and were driven by the current into the Bosphorus where upon the return of the Frost they were fixed so hard that it became passable In the year 1669. there was Ice in the Haven to the great amazement of the Turks and some were so frighted at this unusual Accident that they look'd upon it as a dismal Prodigy and concluded that the World would be at an end that year The Aguglia or Obelisk in the Hippodrome is betwixt fifty and sixty foot high The Historical Pillar in basso relievo raised in honour of the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius may be in height about an hundred seven and forty feet Alexus Comnenus lies buried in the Patriarchal Church against the Wall and his Daughter Anna Comnena the Historian who lived about the year of Christ 1117. They pretend to shew there the Relicks of St. Anastasia who suffered Martyrdom under the Emperor Valerianus and of St. Euphemia Virgin and Martyr who lost her life most gloriously for Christ's holy Religion at Chalcedon under Dioclesian In Sancta Sophia there are Pillars so great that a man can scarce fathom them at twice At the end of the Gallery that joyns the other two each about thirty of my paces wide there is a piece of transparent Marble two or three inches thick In the North Gallery upon the Pavement is a reddish sort of a Marble-stone brought as the Turks and Christians relate from Palestine on which they fable That the Blessed Virgin used to wash the Linnen of our Saviour I observed but one Step from the Body of the Church to the Bema or place where the Altar formerly stood The great Mosch at Chasim-bassa on Pera-side to the West was formerly a Church dedicated to St. Theodosia Gianghir a Mosch so called upon a Hill at Fondaclee near Tophana In Constantinople there are several narrow streets of Trade closed up with Sheds and Pent-houses which I suppose were in use before the Greeks lost their Empire and are the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Chrysaloras's Epistle p. 119. But besides these places several Trades have their distant quarters The Streets are raised for the most part on each side for the greater convenience Not far from Suleimania is the House of the Aga or General of the Janizaries which so often changes its masters Pompey's Pillar as the Franks erroneously call it is of the Corinthian Order curiously wrought about eighteen foot in height and three in diameter Beshiktash a Village within three or four miles of Constantinople towards the Bosphorus where lies buried the famous Pyrate Ariadin whom the Christian Writers call Barbarossa who built here a handsome Mosch having two rows of Pillars at the entrance The Captain Bassa usually before he puts to Sea with his Armata of Gallies visits the Tomb of this fortunate Robber who had made several thousand Christians Slaves and makes his Prayers at the neighbouring Church for the good success of his Expedition They reckon in the City above a hundred publick Baths every Street almost affording one They are esteemed Works of great Piety and Charity there being a continual use of them not only upon the account of Religion but of Health and Cleanliness For their Dyet being for the most part hot spiced meats in the Winter and crude Fruits in the Summer their Liquor Fountain-water or Coffee to which we may add their lazy kind of life for walking is never used by them for digestion or otherwise in the way of diversion frequent bathing becomes necessary There are several Receptacles of Water under Ground and one particularly under the Church of Sancta Sophia as I was informed but I did not think it worth my Curiosity to descend into it These were of great use to the poor Greeks in the last fatal Siege but the Turks are so secure that they do not think that they deserve either cost or pains to keep the Waters sweet or the Cisterns in repair The Aquaeducts which answer to those glorious Aquaeducts near Pyrgos and convey the Water to the great Cistern near Sultan Selim's Mosch are in that part of Constantinople which lies between the Mosch of Mahomet the Great and Sha zade The Turks began to besiege Constantinople on the fifth of April and took it the twenty ninth of May on Whitsun-Tuesday morning 1453. or as the Turks reckon in the year 857. of the Hegira or flight of Mahomet the 22d day of the first Jomad The Chappel where Ejub Sultan is interred at whose Head and Feet I observed great Wax Candles is enclosed with latten wire grates for the better accommodation of such religious Turks as come to pay their respect to the memory of this great Musulman Saint In the middle of the Area there is raised a Building sustained by excellent Marble Pillars ascended by two several pair of stairs where the new Emperor is inaugurated and where he usually goes in Biram time An Account of the City of Prusa in Bithynia and a Continuation of the Historical Observations relating to Constantinople by the Reverend and Learned Tho. Smith D.D. Fellow of Magd. Coll. Oxon. and of the Royal Society MOntanea formerly called Nicopolis according to Bellonius or rather Cios the Bay hence called Sinus Cianus lies in the bottom of a Bay about fourscore miles from Constantinople and is the scale or landing-place for Prusa from which it may be about twelve miles in the middle way to which is the Village Moussanpoula Prusa now called by the Turks Bursia the chief City of Bithynia is seated at the foot partly and partly upon the rising of the Mount Olympus which is one of the highest Hills of the lesser Asia It s top is covered with Snow for nine or ten months of the year several streams of Water flowing down the Hill continually accounted very unwholsome from the Snow mixed with it In the upper part of the City to the North-west lies the Seraglio which is walled round but the Emperors not residing here since their acquists in Thrace or scarce making visits to this Imperial City and none of their Sons living heâ—e of late according to the former policy of the Turkish Emperors who did not permit their Sons when grown up to be near them but sent them to some honourable Employment accompanied with a Bassa and Cadi to instruct them in the Arts of War and Government it lies now neglected and despoyled of all its Ornaments In this part also are the Sepulchres of Osman the Founder of the Family which now reigns and his Son Urchan who took the City near a Mosch formerly a Christian Church dedicated to St. John and where was formerly a Convent of Religious built by Constantinus Iconomachus where I saw the figure of a Cross still remaining upon the Wall Here hangs up a great Drum of a vast bigness such as they carry upon the backs of Camels and I suppose is one of those which they used in the taking of the place In the lower part
many foreign Countries to acquire the knowledge of their Government and Polity their Laws and Constitutions in order to the qualifying and enabling himself to accomplish his design of giving Laws to his own We read also in Diogenes Laertius that Plato did travel to Megara to visit Euclide to Cyrene to see Theodorus Mathematicus into Italy to encounter the Pythagorean Philosophers and also into Egypt to converse with the Priests and Sages there so mightily cried up in the World and to acquaint himself with their Learning and Mysteries Moreover that he intended a Journey into Asia had he not been hinder'd by a War then newly commenced After the same manner Galen writes of himself That he sailed to Lemnos Cyprus and Palestina of Syria on purpose to see foreign Plants and rare Oares and Minerals To relate what great Troubl◠and Dangers those that have written of Exotick Plants to this day have sustained and incurred in their foreign Peregrinations would not be grievous to me did I not fear that it would extend this Dedication to too disproportionate and tedious a length wherefore I will omit it and briefly touch what concerns my self mine own Inclinations to travel and proceedings in pursuance thereof Although I dare not compare my self with those Excellent and Incomparable Persons newly mentioned nor boast of any high Vnderstanding Experience or Learning so far as I know my self yet to confess the Truth I am forced to own that from my Infancy I alwaies had a great desire to Travel into foreign parts and to enquire out Learned and Famous Men that I might get something of them to encrease my Stock of Knowledge From whence it did proceed I having chiefly before all other Faculties a great inclination to the Study of Physick and finding that it required the assistance of a great many Sciences more and especially Skill in Botanicks that after serious and mature deliberation with the Consent of my Parents and Relations and at their Expences I did leave the German Universities and travelled into France and Italy where the Knowledge and Practise of Medicine doth chiefly flourish where also several rare Plants of great use in Physick do naturally grow to acquaint my self with which and to gain the knowledge of them I have taken abundance of pains and chiefly at Montpellier where in company with the highly learned Jeremias Martius Doctor of Physick I wander'd over several Hills and Valleys in many places but chiefly the high Mountain Ceti situate near Frontignan on the Sea-shore c. by which means I gathered several hundreds of Simples and kept them by me as a Treasure But when I began to consult Authors concerning them finding a great many others no less useful and advantageous in Physick that were said to grow in Greece Syria and Arabia c. I was highly therewith pleased chiefly when I found also those fruitful places of the Eastern Countries described which several Authors and above all the Holy Scriptures have mentioned and from thence I was enflamed with a vehement desire to search out and view such Plants growing spontaneously in their Native places and propounded also to my self to observe the Life Conversation Customs Manners and Religion of the Inhabitants of those Countries And although I did not then immediately put this my design in execution but delay'd for several years doing mean while what Service I could to my Native Country yet I embraced the first opportunity that offer'd it self of accomplishing it For when my deceased Brother-in-law Mr. Melchior Manlich wished me to take a Voyage into the Eastern Countries to find out their Drugs and Simples and other things convenient and profitable for his Trade and did promise me requisite Charges and a considerable Salary I immediately accepted his agreeable Offer and readily embraced so often-desir'd an opportunity and addressing my self instantly to the Magistrates of this City for I was then in their Service craved Leave to go which I had no sooner obtained but I began my Travels into the Levant What I saw learned and experienc'd during the space of Three years for so much time this Journey took me up not without great danger and trouble I consigned all in good order as it occurred daily in a Pocket-Journal to keep as a Memorial of my Life But after I returned home again being desir'd nay continually importun'd by several Gentlemen and others my very good Friends to communicate this my Itinerary to them and to make it publick At last after many Refusals not being able any longer to resist their Solicitations I was prevailed upon to comply with their Desires to publish it in Print Wherefore I looked my Itinerary over again and whatever Curiosities I had observed I did transcribe into a peculiar Diary which I divided into three parts according as I travelled into several Countries and committed it to the Press that I might communicate Copies thereof to my Friends It is not Vain-glory that hath prompted me to do this but rather the Profit and Pleasure it may afford the Reader that those who have no opportunity to visit foreign Countries may have it before their Eyes as a Map to contemplate and that others may be excited further to enquire into these things and induced by reading this Account to Travel themselves into those parts whereof I have written to observe that more narrowly and exactly wherein I have been too short But if any shall object and say That I might have spared this Labour and Trouble and employed it to better purposes and that the present State Condition Situation and Manners of the World have been so fully surveyed and described by others that there is hardly a corner of it left unsearched To this I answer That what others have written I have not transcribed into this Work but what I have seen experienc'd observ'd and handl'd my self is only mentioned here But if any one hath already out of the like Books printed before learned all these things so that nothing here propounded is new to him I confess this my Labour is of no use to such an one neither have I written it for him But he that by daily experience observeth how Wars Plagues Distempers and other Accidents may and do mightily alter Kingdoms Countries Cities and Towns so that what was praised formerly as glorious and beautiful lyeth now desolate and in Ashes and what then was accounted barren and waste may be now become fruitful and glorious he will confess that still in our times a great many things remain to be search'd and enquir'd into which others before us never did nor could observe treat of or publish Pursuant to this the wise Solon before mentioned said That he grew old continually learning many things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Julian the Law-giver was wont to say That if one of his Feet were in his Grave yet he should be desirous to learn If this my Work doth not make or improve Divines Lawyers or Physicians for which
purpose I never intended it yet I hope some way or other it may be as well useful as pleasant to them and others for whosoever shall read in this my Itinerary how the glorious and strong City of Jerusalem is now ruin'd and become a heap of Stones and great Babylon laid in Ashes and other famous places in like manner destroyed and desolate the Land of Promise also changed into a barren Ground he may thence collect that the Wrath of God is a consuming Fire that he hath not only not spaâ—ed the Jews his elect and peculiar People which he chose for his Inheritance but also destroyed that once fruitful Land flowing with Milk and Honey which tho' it self did not sin yet he hath cursed with Barrenness for the Transgressions of its Inhabitants Psal 107.30 and turned the holy City into a desolation and solitude the due consideration whereof would be an effectual Motive to provoke Christians to amend their Lives and Manners for if this was done in the Green Tree the chosen People of God what will become of the Dry if once the wrath of the Lord be kindled Moreover he that by this Book is instructed in the Manners Customs Laws and Orders of the People of the East and what Tricks and Cunning they make use of in time both of Peace and War will know the better how to behave himself in all his Necessary Occasions of Traffick and Dealings with them Further this Book also teacheth a Christian how to behave himself in his Slavery if it should befal him towards his Master without any detriment to his Soul or Conscience and how by convenient means he may procure his Liberty again You may also see here how many Sects of Religions there are in these places and how there are many good and well-disposed People which are not far from the true knowledge of God and might easily be brought to embrace the Orthodox Christianity I hope also that this my Work will not be very unacceptable to Apothecaries and Physicians containing Descriptions of many useful Herbs of which I had willingly added the Cuts but was forced to forbear at present for several Reasons not needful here to be related but I hope it may be done afterwards when Time and Opportunity shall serve You will likewise find here several strange Stories both pleasant to read and which may give occasion to higher Considerations So that I am in good hopes I shall not have taken all these Pains and used this Diligence altogether in vain Now Honoured Gentlemen and Cousins to return to you Sith it hath been always used by Writers both ancient and modern to dedicate their Books to some person or other I also in compliance with this laudable Custom have thought fit to dedicate this my Itinerary to you not only because of that Relation we stand in to each other by reason of consanguinity but also to acknowledge my Obligations and declare my Gratitude for the many Favours Good-turns and Friendly Offices done me by Mr. Leonhart Christel our dear Uncle of pious Memory in whose Steps you Mr. Nicholas Bemer and Christopher Christel the Heirs as well of his Virtues as his Estate do tread when he was alive and do still at present receive of you three my Honoured Kinsmen which my well-meaning Dedication I hope you will favourably accept and own and acknowledge as your Cousin Your most humble Servant Leonhart Rauwolff THE CONTENTS PART I. Chap. I. WHich way I went first of all from Auspurg to Marseilles and from thence shipped over the Seas towards Tripoli of Syria situated in Phenicia pag. 1 Chap. II. Of the famous City of Tripoli of its fruitful Neighbourhood and great Trade and also of the splendid Baths and other magnificent Buildings to be seen there Their ways of making Rusma Pot-ashes Soap c. p. 19 Chap. III. Of the Turks of high and low Conditions Men and Women Of their Employments Offices Manners Customs Cloaths as much as I could at Tripoli during my abode understand see and learn thereof p. 35 Chap. IV. A Description of the Plants I gathered at Tripoli p. 47 Chap. V. Which way I travelled from Tripolis further to the two famous Cities of Damant and Halepo p. 57 Chap. VI. Of the Situation of the Potent City of Halepo of the Buildings thereof and also of the delicate Fruits and fine Plants that grow there within and without Gardens p. 61 Chap. VII Of the high Places and Authority of Bashaws what great Courts they keep and how they administer their Offices as also of their way of living of their Priviledges of their Manners and Conversation p. 69 Chap. VIII Of the great Trading and Dealing of the City of Halepo as also of several sorts of their Meats and Drinks of their Ceremonies and their peculiar way of sitting down at Meals p. 83 Chap. IX A short and plain Relation of Plants which I gathered during my stay at Halepo in and round about it not without great danger and trouble which I glued upon Paper very carefully p. 100 PART II. Chap. I. HOW I departed from Halepo to the famous City of Bi r and how I sailed from thence on the Euphrates to old Babylon p. 121 Chap. II. Which way we went into the Ship and sailed to Racka and how the Son of the King of Arabia with his Retinue came to our Ship to demand his Customs What else we saw by the way and what we did suffer from the Arabians and their Mendicants p. 131 Chap. III. Of the City of Racka and of its Situation and also something of the Departure of the King of Arabia and of his League with the Turkish Emperor and also of the trouble we had with the Custom-house Officer or Publican p. 146 Chap. IV. Of the Inhabitants of the Mountains and the great Wilderness we came through to Deer of their ancient Origination and miserable and laborious Livelihood p. 153 Chap. V. Of our Voyage to the famous Town Ana in which we passed again through great Sandy Wildernesses for the performance whereof we must provide our selves with Victuals and be very careful in our Navigation Some relation of the Inhabitants of their Cloaths and other things we did observe and see by the way and what else did happen unto us p. 161 Chap. VI. Which way we travelled from Ana further to Old Babylon by some ancient Towns called Hadidt Juppe Idt and saw more pleasant fruitful and well cultivated Fields on each side than before p. 169 Chap. VII Of old Babylon the Metropolis of Chaldee and its Situation and how it is still to this day after its terrible Desolation to be seen with the Tower or Turret and the old ruined walls lying in the Dust p. 174 Chap. VIII Of the Famous City of Bagdet called Baldac of its Situation strange Plants great Traffick and Merchants of several Nations that live there together with several other things I saw and did learn at my departing p. 179
After we were thus gone along by Creet we came on Friday just over against the City of Candy it came to be so calm and so warm that we could hardly perceive we were come above three or four Miles We going thus slowly some of our Company jumped out into the Sea to wash themselves but the Mate of our Ship run a Fish through with a long Spear for that purpose called Lischa and so pulled it out this was delicately Coloured and very pleasant to look upon his Back was Blew and his Belly White and Glisning above a Yard long of a tender Flesh and very good to Eat This seems to have been a Tunny Just over against it is a Monastery of St. Francis in which is a very good Apothecaries Shop and a delicate Garden filled with strange and useful Plants There is also not far off a good and safe Port called Calisme where we would willingly have taken in Water but because it lay thirty Miles before us and the Wind Sirocco contrary to us began to blow again and hindred us in this Enterprise we steered on Saturday towards the South that we might reach it the next Morning About Noon when we turned again to the Porto we saw another Ship on the Left and because we did not know how to trust her we looked to our great Guns of which we had thirteen and got them ready and also the rest of our Arms c. But the longer we looked upon the Ship the further we perceived her go from us When we came within twelve Miles of the Port and hoped to make it the Wind changed and the Tramontana blew from the North vehemently so we went on in our right Course to the Islands Calderon and Christiana so that on Monday we passed the furthest Point of Creet called Caput Salomonis where we saw on the hight another Island scituated sixty Italian Miles from Rhodus called Scarpanthos and also Carpathos where Night befel us But when we expected to go forwards with this Wind we lost it and it changed into Graeco again contrary to us and so we could not go on further but were forced to cross up and down and to weather the Point On Monday we saw a Ship that came directly down upon us wherefore we went to meet her and put our Flag at the top of our Main-mast But when we came nearer we knew her to be a Marsilian called Santa Maria de Lacura Bursa they did send out one of their Boats to tell us that they came seven Weeks agone from Tripoli and that they wanted Biscuits very much and therefore desired us to let them have some of ours to which we willingly agreed and let them have what they would and so they were very well pleased While this was done a good Wind arose again serving us both called Tramontana so that we could go forwards and they homewards and so we parted Then our Master ordered three Guns to be discharged which they answered with two so we went on and lost the sight of one another in half an Hours time Here is to be observed that of the four Cardinal and four side Winds five were for us for we could go on as well with the Tramontana and the Midi called North and South as with the three other called North-West West and South-West and so we had three contrary ones Syrocco Levantino and Graeco which were contrary to us in our going during this Wind we went on with such speed that on the 24 th of September in the Evening we saw the great Island Cyprus five hundred Miles beyond Candy But because we had steered too much on the Right we were forced to spend all that Night and the next Day before we could come to Cyprus The same Morning we saw the high Mountain Libanus in Syria two hundred Miles distant from us and so at Night we got into the Harbour of Salamine here is made the best Bay-salt that is in the World Here we also discharged three Guns for Joy of our safe Arrival and some of us Landed together with our Master to take in Water and to enquire after our Friends and Acquaintance No sooner were we Landed but we met with two travelling Turks with an Italian that understood their Language they spake to us by their Interpreter and conducted us to their Colonel who was encamped near the Market-place of Salamine upon a Hill where one might see a great way off into the Sea After an Hours walk we came in sight of him and saw about thirty Tents and amongst them his also where we saw some curious Tapestry spread and him sitting in the midst with a delicate white Turbant and a long red lined Caban He held in his Hand a long Iron like a Grater we use to grate Bread withall only it was a great deal smaller The Turkish Persons of Quality have generally such Irons in their Hand in the Summer-time which they put in between their Back and Cloaths to scratch their Backs when they itch About him sat some more Gentlemen bended down and others kept Centinel without his Tent with Guns and Scymmeters well provided Amongst the rest there was one of a good Presence covered with a Tiger's Skin that held a great Iron Club in his Hand Upon his desire we went to him with the usual Reverences according to their Custom bending our Head and the whole Body downwards and laying the Right-hand upon our Breasts Our Master also pulled off his Shoes went in and sate down with the rest before him but we two set our selves down without upon two Seats that were brought us Then the Lord began to ask our Master by his Interpreter from whence we came how long we had been a coming what Merchandizes we had brought and whether we designed to make any Sale there which Questions our Master answered Then he began to enquire after News Viz. Where-about the Spanish Armada was at present and how strong it was reputed whether the King of Spain had made any Leagues with other Princes and how the King of France did agree with his Hugonots how strong the City of Rochelle was and whether the King took it by violence or whether they submitted themselves voluntarily After this Conference had lasted for half an Hour he dismissed us with great Civility giving us leave to go about our Affairs So we went off with the usual Ceremonies and went the same Evening into the Market of Salamine to enquire after our Friends but we found this Market-Town and also all the Neighbourhood so strangely spoiled that there were but very few whole Houses standing But being that we found none of ours nor having any business there we returned to our Ship I found nothing by the way but a few Caper-bushes with some Paliurus's and Kali After our Men had filled Water enough out of the Well by the Harbour we went aboard the Ship again hoisted up our
Sails and departed in the Night But in going thence for Tripoli we had for the most part contrary Winds which hindred us so much that we did not arrive there until the last day of September Thanks Honour and Glory be to the Almighty God that mercifully did protect us from all Dangers and Mischiefs and bought us safely into this Harbour CHAP. II. Of the Famous City of Tripoli of its fruitful Neighbourhood and great Trade And also of the splendid Baths and other magnificent Buildings to be seen there Their ways of making Rusma Pot-Ashes Soap c. BEfore Tripoli near the Sea-shore we saw five Castles like high Towers distant from one an other about a Musquet-shot where some Janisaries are kept in Garrison to cover the Ships in the Harbour which is in some measure surrounded with Rocks and to defend that Custom-house and the several Ware-houses where you may see all sorts of Goods brought from most parts of the World from any hostile Attempt or Assault but after the Sun was set and Night began to approach we made what haste we could to the Town which was an Hours going distant from us Some Turks went with us no other ways armed but with good strong Cudgels which as I was told they commonly carry to keep off the Wolves called Jacals whereof there are a great many in these Countries that are used to run seek and pursue after their Prey in the Night While we were a talking of them some came up pretty near us but as soon as they saw us they turned and ran away When we came to the Gate of the Town we found it shut up wherefore one of our Friends that met us to make us welcom called to some French Men that were in their Inn in their Language called Fondique which is near the Gate and reacheth quite to the Wall of the Town and desired that one of them would take the Pains to go to the Sangiacho to desire him to let the Gate be opened to let us in which they were willing to do But in the mean time that we staid before the Gate another that was an Enemy to our Friend ran also away and bespoke some Turks and Moors to set upon us which they were very willing to do and came with all speed through another Gate that is never shut along the Wall to us fell unawares upon us struck at us and took hold of us chiefly at our good Friend for whose sake all this was done others drew their Scymmeters upon us so that I thought we should have been all cut to pieces While this was a doing the Gate was opened and some French Men and their Consul himself came to our assistance and spoke to these Fellows earnestly exhorting them to desist and to let the Cause be decided by the Sangiacho and Cadi which at length they did So we came after this unfriendly welcome in the Croud into their Fondique where we remained all that night The Consul was very much displeased at this considering that such like Proceedings would be very troublesome to them wherefore he made great Complaints and Enquiries until at length he found out who was the Author thereof The next Morning we went to our Friends Houses in order to stay a while with them in the mean time we walked sometimes about in our own Cloaths to see the Town which is situated in the Country of Syria called Phoenicia which reached along the Sea-shore to Berinthus Sidon Tyrus and Acon as far to the Mountain of Carmelus The Town Tripoli is pretty large full of People and of good account because of the great Deposition of Merchandizes that are brought thither daily both by Sea and Land it is situated in a pleasant Country near the promontory of the high Mountain Libanus in a great Plain toward the Sea-shore where you may see abundance of Vineyards and very fine Gardens enclosed with Hedges for the most part consisting chiefly of Rhamnus Paliurus Oxyacantha Phillyrea Lycium Balaustium Rubus and little Palm-Trees that are but low and so sprout and spread themselves In these Gardens as we came in we found all sorts of Salletting and Kitchin-herbs as Endive Lettice Ruckoli Asparagus Seleri whose tops are very good to be eaten with Salt and Pepper but chiefly that sort that cometh from Cyprus Taragon by the Inhabitants called Tarchon Cabbages Colliflowers Turneps Horse-raddishes Carrots of the greater sort of Fennel Onions Garlick c. And also Fruit as Water-melons Melons Gourds Citruls Melongena Sesamum by the Natives called Samsaim the Seeds whereof they are very much used to strow upon their Bread and more but chiefly the Colocasia which is very common there and are sold all the Year long I have also found them grow wild about Rivulets but could never see either Flowers or Seeds on them I found also without the Gardens many Dates and white Mulberry-Trees which exceed our Aspen and Nut-Trees in height very much and also Pomgranat-Trees and Siliqua which the Grecians call Xylocerata the Arabs Charnubi Also Olive and Almond-Trees and Sebesten the Fruit whereof are to be had at Apothecaries Shops by the same Name Poma Adami Matth But in great plenty there are Citrons Lemons and Oranges which are as little eaten there as Pears or Crabs here Between these Gardens run several Roads and pleasant Walks chiefly in the Summer for they afford many shady Places and Greens where you are defended from the Heat and the Sun-beams and if passing through you should have a mind to some of the Fruits you may either gather some that are fallen down or else pull them from the nearest Trees without danger and take them home with you Without at the Sea-shore near the Old Town of Tripoli which together with many more as Antiochia Laodicea c. in the Year of our Lord 1183. was so destroyed by an Earthquake that nothing but a few Marks remain there were more Spring-gardens which some of the Merchants still remember But these were a few Years agone by the violence of the Seas so destroyed and so covered with Sand that now you see nothing there but a sandy Ground like unto the Desarts of Arabia Yet at Tripoli they have no want of Water for several Rivers flow down from the Mountains and run partly through the Town and partly through the Gardens so that they want no Water neither in the Gardens nor in their Houses The New Town in it self is of no strength for it is so meanly walled in that in several places in the Night you may get in and out But within there is a Citadel situated upon an ascent near the Water where a Garrison of a few Janisaries is kept They have low Houses ill built and flat at the top as they are generally in the East for they cover their Houses with a flat Roof or a Floor so that you may walk about as far the Houses go And the Neighbours walk over the tops of their
they have so many that they often do not only pay with them great Sums and their Bills of Exchange but turn them also into their own Coin So that there is abundance of Jews through all Turky in any Trading-Town but chiefly in Alepo and in this Town of Tripoli where they have built a very large Habitation and a delicate Synagogue These Jews have the Revenues of Customs of the Grand Signior in their hands so that nothing can be brought in or out but it must go through their hands which is very troublesome to the Merchants Those that buy any thing of them must have a special care that they be not cheated for they are full of it insomuch as they confess of themselves that no body can get any thing by them except he will be a greater Harmani that is cheat than they that dare to sell Wall-nuts for Nutmegs or Myrobolans Concerning the Merchandizes if one will see several sorts of Goods they are to be found in the Carvatscharas or Champen whereof I have made mention before but chiefly in the Batzaren or Houses where they buy and sell or Exchanges These Exchanges are wide and long and partly arched partly covered with Timber that you may walk and trade there without being wetted they have Shops on both sides which are also kept by Handicrafts Tradesmen as Shoe-makers Taylors Sadlers Silk-embroiderers Turners Copper-smiths Cutlers Woollen-drapers Grocers Fruiterers Cooks and many more which are very orderly distributed and placed in their several Streets and Places They also drive a great Trade in Silk and there are a great many that deal in nothing else but Silk which is convey'd thither from the adjacent places for Mount Libanus is inhabited by a numberless People that live by spinning and working of Silk but chiefly they of Damascus where is such plenty of Silk that a Merchant may quickly lay out in it many thousand Ducats Because of the great abundance of white Mulberry-Trees by the Natives called Tut which grow there so high and large that they have plenty of Leaves to feed their Silk-worms But the Mulberries thereof are white and they carry them about in Baskets to sell to ordinary People So there is in the Batzars many Silk-workers which make all sorts of Embroidery as Purses Buttons and Girdles or Sashes of several colours which they tie about their Loins these are at work before their Shops that every one may see them When they work or tie two Threads together they hold the Work oftener with their great Toe then pin it to any thing and the same do the Turners which sitting to it hold their turning Irons as well with their Toes as with their Fingers Further at a certain time of the Year there is brought from Damascus and other adjacent places to these Batzars so great a quantity of large and well-tasted Cibebs a kind of Raisins having but one or no Stone that several Ship loads are sent from thence to us These and the like Goods are daily brought and found in their Batzars as rare Tapestry and delicately wrought Silks with Flowers and Roses of several colours some of which look like pure Gold But of all the Trades-men there are not so many of one sort as of them that only deal in Soap and Pot-ashes for of these Ashes besides Soap several Ship-loads are yearly sent from thence to Venice which they use for making of Glase as well as Soap These Ashes are made chiefly of a Herb called by the Arabians Schivan whereof there are two sorts which amongst others I have pasted upon Paper one whereof is not unlike to our little Kali it is a thick and knobby Plant with several small Sprigs growing out of it which have several full Buttons at the top and underneath small pointed Leaves just like the lesser Kali as I said before tasting somewhat sharp the Leaves thereof are underneath white and on the other side of the colour of Ashes The other sort becometh also many Stalks which are full of knots like our Equisetum and underneath them appears a Woody and Ash-coloured Root Both these Herbs grow thereabout in great quantities and are burnt into Ashes upon the high Mountains in burning thereof there settleth an Oily Matter underneath towards the bottom which united with the Ashes is almost as hard as a Stone when it is cold at the top thereof a part of the Ashes remains unmix'd and loose therefore it is not so good as the rest These ashes are brought down from the Mountains upon Camels backs by the Moors to some Merchants that drive a great Trade with them for partly they send away into Foreign parts and partly they make Soap of them some more some less according to every one's Capacity and Pleasure The way they make their Soap in Syria I am informed is this viz. They take commonly Twelve hundred weight or twelve Centners of these Ashes which in the Summer they divide into Eight and in the Winter into Four parts because the Soap is sooner boil'd up in Winter for the Heat being then included by the outward Cold is more vehement then in Summer Of this they take first one part and make it into a good sharp Lye which they pour into a very large Kettle or Caldron made of Stone with a large bottom made of a Copper-plate and very thick wherein they have before put Sixteen hundred weight of Sallet-Oil and let it simper for twenty four Hours pouring daily in more Lye of another part But before it is quite boil'd up which in Winter requireth perhaps five Days and in Summer nine or ten they take an Hundred weight of Quick-lime and mixing it with the Ashes draw a Lye from it which they put two days before it is quite enough into the Caldron more or less according as they find it thick or thin But if it should happen that there should be too much of the Lye in the Kettle they have a Cock coming out of the Copper-plate whereby they let out as much of the Lye as is convenient When it is almost boil'd up they take out with a Copper-kettle that holds eight or ten Pounds the thicker part of the Soap that swimmeth on the top and pour it upon the Floor which is covered with Lime or Chalk beaten to Powder let it lie there for one Day in the Winter and two Days in the Summer and it grows so hard that they can walk over it then they make it smooth cut it into square pieces and put their Mark upon it CHAP. III. Of the Turks of high and low Conditions Men and Women of their Imployments Offices Manners Customs Cloaths as much as I could at Tripoli during my abode understand see and learn thereof THE City of Tripoli is as well as a great many more of the adjacent Towns and Provinces subject to the Turkish Emperor wherein he hath his Officers as in all other places that they may be ruled according to his Pleasure and
also great plenty They are also very well provided with Horse-raddishes Garlick and Onions which the Inhabitants still call Bassal Of Pumpions Citruls and Cucumis anguinus which they call Gette they plant as many as they have occasion for but many more Angurien an Indian Muskmillion Water-mellons which they call Batiechas but Serap Dullaha they are large of greenish colour sweet and pleasant to eat and very cooling wherefore they esteem them to be their best Fruits but chiefly those which have more red than white within they are very innocent and harmless and keep so long good that they sell them in their Batzars all the Winter long Moreover there are three sorts of those Plants which the Arabians call Melanzana Melongena and Beudengian as Ash coloured Yellow and Flesh coloured which are very like one another in their Crookedness and Length and like unto the long Gourds There are two other sorts which are called Bathleschain viz. oblong and round ones which are much bigger of a black colour and so smooth and glazed that they give a Reflection They eat these oftener boiled chiefly after the way which Averrhöes mentioned than raw Without their Gardens are two other strange Plants which also being they eat them commonly with others may be reckoned among the Kitchin-Herbs whereof one is called by them Secacul which I found about the Town in shady places and among Trees and in the Corn its Roots are of an Ashen colour without and white within smooth mellow or tender of one Inch thick and one and a half long it hath instead of Fibers little knobs like unto Warts and a sweet taste not unlike to our Carrots in Stalk Herb or Head saving only the Flowers which are yellow the Herb-women carry them strung upon Strings about the Streets to sell them The other sort is also very plentiful and is found in dry and rough places which the Inhabitants to this day with Serapio called Hacub whereof he maketh mention in his 295 Chapter under the Name of Hacub Alcardeg whereof they cut in the Spring the young Shoots or Sprouts that grow round about it boil and eat it as we do Sparagus corruptly called Sparrowgrass the whole Plant is very like to our Carlina only this hath bigger higher and more prickly Heads whereon appear Flesh-coloured Flowers It being that it is every way like it and that also the Root hath the same Vertue for if you steep it in Water and drink of it it maketh you vomit and fling up therefore I am of opinion that without doubt it must be the true Silybum Dioscoridis Besides this there grow also in the Road and on old Walls such plenty of Capers that they are not at all esteemed they take these Flowers before they open and pickle them and eat them for Sauce with their Meat I had almost forgot another Herb which I found in their Gardens that beareth roundish smooth Stalks about two Foot high the Leaves are two and two equally distant from one another and one above the other they are long crenated at the sides like unto our Mercurialis between them sprout out in harvest time yellow Flowers which produce long aculeated Cods which open themselves when they are ripe within them are six distinctions and in each of them little black Seeds placed in very good order the Herb is of a sower taste like Sorrel wherefore it is to every body chiefly the Jews known which boil the Leaves thereof with their Meat to eat them Wherefore some take it to be Olus Judaicum Avicennae and others take it for Corchorum Plinii whether it be or no I suspend my Judgment They have abundance of Pulses in these Countries which they feed upon so that you see several in their Batzars which sell nothing else but them Among the rest you will find abundance of Phaseoli or Kidney Beans little and great ones very white and many sorts of Cicer which they call Cotane and with Avicenna Hamos Whereof they have as many as we have Pease in our Country and boil them for their daily Food and oftentimes they eat them raw chiefly if they be roasted till the outward Shell falls off they often call for them thus dressed when they are a drinking in their Coffee-houses and have them brought to Table with Cheese after their Meals instead of Preserves or Fruit as Cibebs Hasel-nuts and the like for they eat very mellow and have a fine saltish Taste They dress the Orobus after the same manner which they call now Ades and Hades but whether right or no I leave to the Learned they are somewhat less and rounder and not unlike the Cicers in their colour only that these are reddish and white and the other white and yellow These put me still in mind of another strange Plant by the Arabians called Mas whose Leaves and Cods are prety like our Phaseolus and the Cods contain little round Seeds something less than our Pease of a dark green colour and are so smooth and shining that they reflect again Serapio maketh mention of them in his 116 Chapter under the Name of Mes. And Avicennas in his 488 Chapter under the Name Meisce and the very learned and experienced Botanist Carolus Clusius calleth it in his Epitome of the Indian Plants by the Name of Mungo The Turks love these Pulses very well chiefly to eat them among their Rice So much I thought convenient to mention here of their Kitchin-Herbs and Fruits that grow in Gardens and about Halepo of others that belong not to the Kitchin I shall make mention hereafter In this City of Aleppo the Merchants buy great store of Drugs brought from several parts by the Caravans as Rheubarb Galbanum Opoponax Styrax Laser Sagapenum Scammony c. CHAP. VII Of the high Places and Authority of Bashaws what great Courts they keep and how they administer their Offices as also of their way of living of their Priviledges of their Manners and Conversation THE City of Halepo which some considering the Name and Situation believe to be the Town Chalibon of Ptolomaeus situated in Chalibonitis is subject unto the Turkish Emperor together with all the adjacent places wherefore he keepeth a Bashaw in it which is to rule it and the whole Province according to his Will and Pleasure Now as the Bashaws are almost the chiefest and highest under the Emperor so they keep according to their Station and Dignity their Courts as great as the Princes do in our Country according as they have great or small Provinces So they have under them their chief Commanders as Sangiacks Bolucs-bashaws and others which are continually with them go with them to their Temples or any other place where-ever they have a mind to go in great flocks both on Foot and on Horse-back which by their several Habits are to be distinguished but chiefly the Bolucsbashaw which as Captains have an Hundred Janisaries under them which in costly Cloaths and high Heads with Feathers run on Foot
like Lacqueys by their Master They have also besides their Court as well as the Emperour himself peculiar Lodgings for their Concubines which they either have pick'd up here and there out of Towns and Countries or else taken in time of War by Sea and Land from Christians and other Nations wherefore they keep many Eunuchs to attend them constantly They take great delight in Hunting and go often several Days Journeys after it If they take Wild Boars they give them because they are by their Laws forbid to eat them to the Christians which maketh the Turks often to mock them in the Streets crying out and calling them Chansir quibir that is great Boars or Hog-eaters Although the Bashaws are great Persons that Command over Cities and Countries yet they are rckoned to be like others but Slaves to their Master that have nothing of their own that they can bequeath to their Heirs or Posterity after their decease as our Princes can because the Emperour after their decease taketh Possession of all their visible Estates and allows only to their Children an Annuity Nay if their Sultan Commands them to go from one place to an Inferiour one or to leave their Dignity quite and clean they must obey immediately if they will not run themselves into greater Inconveniencies or Dangers This is the Reason that such Persons although Rich seldom build great Buildings so that you see none in all the Country except it be a Chappel or a Champ which they build to be remembred by They rather keep their Riches in Gold and Silver which can be hid and so secretly given to their Posterity They bestow but very little upon Jacks for they are too Covetous neither have they many Work-men that are able to set them These Bashaws being altogether for their own Advantage that strive to get Wealth their Subjects must needs suffer very much under them but chiefly Strangers that live there to Traffick as Italians Frenchmen c. whereby between them and the Bashaws that mind their own and not the Publick Good arise often great Differences and they must have suffered great damage if their Soveraigns to prevent these things and that their Subjects may deal securely had not taken care to send them discreet and prudent Men which are called Consuls endued with great Priviledges from the Grand Signior to hear their Complaints and to protect them against any Assaulters It happened in my time while I staid there that great Differences arose between the Consul of Venice and the new Bashaw who was sent thither instead of the deceased one in the Year 75. the 6 th day of March who came in to take Possession with a great number of Horse and Foot At his Arrival the Consul of Venice went accompanied with a great number of Merchants in great State to meet him to bid him Welcom and presented him with Fourteen Cloaths Richly wrought of Silk desiring him to take his Country-men into his Protection that they might Trade and deal safely under him The Bashaw looking upon the Cloaths behaved himself very unkindly and looking upon them to be very inconsiderable he not only refused them but answered the Consul very scornfully So it often happens that these great Persons come to differ and pursue their Differences so far that at last it must be brought before the Emperour and his Court. If they find that the Bashaw is in the wrong he is immediately punished not regarding his great Authority according to the default either in Money or else if it be a great Crime he must lose his Life for it which is the oftner done because they depend very much upon Traffick which bringeth the Emperour in yearly a very great Revenue Yet notwithstanding they are punished so severely sometimes the Pride and Ambition of the Bashaws is so great that to uphold their Greatness they will not cease to strive by any means after Riches and great Wealth which their Subjects not to speak of Strangers find daily whom they squeeze and press chiefly if they find them Rich to that degree that they cannot come to any thing nor thrive under them Moreover they draw after the decease of their Rich Subjects for the most part the greatest share of what they leave into their own Purses so that such Persons do not take Pains nor bestow any great Cost to build their Houses or to till their Grounds as we do in our Country They have commonly in Market-Towns and Villages low Houses or Halls whereof many are so covered with Hills that you cannot see them before you are quite at them When you come into them you find neither Chairs nor Stools nor Tables only a couple of pieces of Tapestry spread whereon they sit after their fashion and instead of Feather-Beds whereof they make no use at all they have Mats and Quilts which they fold together in the Day and hang them up in a corner at Night they spread them out again to sleep on them They have no occasion for Sheets to cover themselves as we do nor for any Towels neither for instead of them they use long pieces of Rags which they hang about their naked Necks or hang them at their Girdles We see sometimes in their Houses above all in the Country several strange-shaped Earthen Vessels which cover whole sides of the Wall in their Rooms which their Relations use to Present them with at their Wedding which to please them they use to put up and to keep there rather for their Remembrance than to make any other use of them In their Kitchen they have very few Utensils perhaps a few Pipkins Pans and Trenchers for they boyl all their Victuals in one Pot together that their Maids may not have many to cleanse or to put up Concerning their Cloaths they bestow not very much upon them although they be well to pass for they love Money so well that they will rather spend a whole day in contending for a Penny than pay it willingly Wherefore a Man that will Travel through these Countries must have his Purse well stored and keep it very close that no body may know its worth but chiefly he must have a care of the Jews which are not to be trusted if you will escape great danger They will not only do nothing for you without Reward but if they suspect you to have any Money they will endeavour to get it from you Wherefore those that take a Pilgrimage into the Holy Land and go in pitiful Cloaths are not much troubled by them The Courtiers of the Bashaws and amongst the rest chiefly the Eunuchs and Dwarfs c. whereof they have several go in their Taffety and Sattin Cloaths which are long and very well trimmed wherewith their Master furnisheth them being Gifts from others which he distributeth among them The Souldiers Spahees Janisaries c. commonly have blew woollen Cloaths from the Court and they live of their Pay that is 4 5 6 7 or 8 Medins which
suppose And this is no Disgrace to them but rather reputed to be an Honour because they conclude from thence that those that keep many Wives behave themselves diligently according to their Laws Wherefore they sooner trust them prefer them before others in Places and Salaries and esteem them to be true Tschelebiis that is Noble-men Although these and other Turks have several Wives that are not all equal in their Birth and Extraction yet they all have in Family Affairs their equal share and power and they all are equally provided for with Meat Drink Cloaths c. and they have also their Work and Business equally among them And that because they bring their Husband no Portion but he must rather buy them from their Parents sometimes for a considerable Sum of ready Money and give them Cloaths and other Necessaries to boot Wherefore the Matrimonial tye which they call Chebia is more in the power of the Husband than the Wife so that he may Marry one three times and reject her again but further he must not go except he will be accounted a scandalous base Fellow As you may perceive by the words of the Turkish Emperour Bajazet which he did send to Temyry who is also called Tamerlan saying that he had better to take a Wife again after he was three times divorced from her than to go to War with him which scornful Language he might well have forborn For Tamerlan did not only beat him in a cruel and bloody Battle but took him Prisoner and carried him about in an Iron Cage like a Wild Beast of the Forest But that I may return from whence I digressed the Marriages of the Turks are never look'd upon to be ratified before they are married by one of their Priests Their Wives must agree together and live peaceably and amicably and must not resist their Husbands except he maketh inequality among them If any should appear which happens very often they do not forbear to complain of their Husband to the Cadi or Judge So that daily very strange Transactions which are not strange to him come before him If so be that the Husband is convicted and the Wife absolved they are divorced immediately in the same hour The Turkish Women are pretty handsom and well shaped very Civil in their Discourses and other Behaviour When any of them is married and carried to her Bridegroom's House their Relations go along with her that are invited to the Wedding and begin to make a noise immediately in the Streets and extol their Voices more and more as they go along that you may hear them a great way off The Turks that are of some Condition and rich and able Men have at their Weddings several Diverting Shews in the Day-time they have Dancing Running Actings Singing Jumping and Leaping and Dancing on the Ropes c. After Sun-set and at Night they let off Rockets and Fire-works of several sorts made artificially These are let off in publick and open places that every one may see them and they last often till break of Day The Rope-dancers have three Ropes one above the other whereof the uppermost is the longest upon every one of them they have their peculiar Lessons which they perform exactly and dexterously with Dancing Jumping Running Gesticulating going upon Stilts c. which is pleasant to look upon Their Children when they are married soon forget their Parents they dare not see them again in a great while nor do they desire to do it When they have Children born they do not justly Circumcise them on the Eighth Day but let them be 8 9 or 10 Years old until they can make their Confession There are some chiefly among the Arabians that imitate their Patriarch Ishmael who was not circumcised until the Thirteenth Year of his Age. It is commonly performed in the House of their Parents If Rich Mens Sons are circumcised they make a Feast and roast a whole entire Bullock into his Belly they put a Wether and into his Belly a Pullet into the Pullet's Belly an Egg and so they roast them all together what remaineth they give to the Poor When the Children grow up and begin to go they cloath them in loose flying Coats of fine Stuff woven of several colours which are pleasant to look upon and they put upon the Heads of those that are not yet circumcised coloured Caps which are wrought with Flowers and very common to be sold in their Batzars After they are circumcised they begin to wear white Turbants which are made of Cotton and rolled about their Caps after a peculiar manner and are commonly Twenty Yards long They have still another strange Custom which Young and Old Men and Women use in these Countries viz. They make a thin Paste of Galls and calcined Copperas to beautifie themselves and to keep their Eyes from Rheums with it they blacken their Lips and make a Ring round about their Eyes in the same manner as our Ring-doves have about their Necks These Paintings they have had Anciently and some of them they have prepared of Stibium or Antimony Of these Paintings of the Eye we read in several places chiefly that I may not mention others in the 23 d. Chap. of Ezekiel the 40 Verse where the Lord says by the Prophet And lo they came for whom thou didst wash thy self paintedst thy Eyes and deckedst thy self with Ornaments Concerning the Education of their Youth they only learn in Schools to Read and to write the Arabian Alphabet the Characters or Letters whereof are common both to the Turks and Arabians although their Languages are very differing Besides these there are other Schools wherein the Young Men are Instructed in the Emperour's Laws and those that go on in their Learning and take it well are soon called to high Offices as Cadi's and Cadileschiers But in Liberal Arts and Sciences such as we teach in our Countries they are not Instructed for they have not only none of these Learned Men but esteem learning of these Sciences a Superfluity and loss of Time they rather love old Rhimes and Ballads that speak of and commend the Mighty Deeds of their Ancient Emperours and other Champions or other Fancies that make Foreign Nations or any of their Enemies ridiculous And such things they put either themselves into Rhimes or else hear those that have been put into Rhimes by others already which they say daily with peculiar Actions out of Town in pleasant Greens where also other Divertisements are performed with Singing Dancing Leaping c. So that they are rather pleased with the Reading of these frivolous silly Writings than to learn Arts and Sciences Which you may evidently see in that they do not esteem nor will admit of that Noble Art of Printing Books that might inform them in any thing Which the Clerks whereof there is a great number up and down in the Cities like very well because they daily take a great deal of Money for the Writings of their
noble Root called Rhubarb And moreover they sell several sorts of precious Stones viz. Garnats Rubies Balasios Saphirs Diamonds and the best sincerest Musk in little Gods These precious Stones are hid by the Merchants in the great Caravans that come from India and they bring them secretly because they dare not pay Custom for them that the Bashaws Sangiachs and others may not rob them of them on the High-ways for they use to do so if they find any I will cease to discourse any longer of these and other Drugs and several Merchandises which the Merchants convey thither from forreign Places daily and from thence to other places again because it is none of my Business to deal in them With the Spices are sometimes by the Merchants brought from the Indies delicate Canes which are very long solid or full within flexible and bright without of a yellowish Colour they are almost every-where alike thick only a little tapering but few Joynts far distant from one another and are hardly seen in them There are two sorts of them great and small ones the great and stronger ones are used by old and lame People instead of Crutches to walk with but the lesser which are very like the former are made into Arrows and Darts for which they are very fit the Turks wind them about with Silk of many sorts of Colours which they are very proud of when they make their entries You find also in the Shops another sort of Canes to be Sold which are small and hollow within and smooth without a brownish red Colour wherewith Turks Moors and the Eastern People write for to write with Goose-Quills is not in use with them wherefore these may be esteemed to be the true Syringas or Fistularis of Dioscor Besides these there is another bigger sort of Canes almost of the same Colour but full of Joynts the Pilgrims that go to see their Mahomet bring these with them from Mecha and the People of that Country carry them along with them on Horseback instead of short Pikes chiefly the Arabians for they are long strong and light and yet solid or full within with these they come running on upon their Enemies or else they lifting it up above the middle in one of their Hands fling it at them with such force that they penetrate deeper with their sharp Iron wherewith they are tipt before and behind then their Arrows Theophrastus maketh peculiar mention of them in his fourth Book and the 11 th Chapter and Pliny in his Sixteenth Book and the 36 th Chapter We see very few of these in our Country for the Christians are forbidden under great Penalties to carry any of them the same it is with any other Arms that they make use of in their Wars out of the Country if any doth and is found out he exposes himself to infinite Troubles and Dangers as did happen to one in my time which after a Scimiter was found about him was very highly accused and fined Seventy Ducats to be paid in two days time and if he had not paid it they would certainly have circumcised him and made him a Turk Besides these above-mentioned Champs there are a great many more without and within the City where also all sorts of Merchandises are Sold viz. Quibir the Great Sougier the Little Gidith the New Atich Old c. And besides all these they have a great Exchange called Batzar by the Inhabitants which is in the middle of the Town and is bigger then Friberg in Bavaria in it there is many Alleys and each of them divided for several Wares and handy-craft Trades first the Grocers and Mercers then those that sell Tapestry and other soft Woollen Cloaths and also Turkish Machyer Camlet Taffety and other Silks and Cottons delicately wrought There are also good Cardavon delicate Furrs of Martins and chiefly Wild Cats whereof abundance runs about in these Countries There are also Jewellers that sell all manner of Jewels precious Stones Pearls c. All sorts of Handy-craft Tradesmen as Shoe-makers Taylors Sadlers Needle and Pin-makers Painters Goldsmiths Brasiers Locksmiths c. that have their Shops in the Batzars where they work but their work is chiefly that of the Goldsmiths Painters and Locksmiths is so silly that it is by no means to be compared with ours There are also Turners Fletchers that make Arrows and Darts and Bow-makers that have besides their Shops small Butts that any body that goes by may exercise himself or try his Bow before he buyeth it These Bows are sometimes plain Work and some inlaid with Ivory Buflers Horns c. which maketh them of a differing Price The Archers wear a Ring upon their right Thumbs as our Merchants wear their Seals wherewith they draw the String on when they are going to shoot these are made of Wood Horn or Silver and some are set with Precious Stones Besides these you find in great Batzars some Barbar-Surgeons which when they have no body to trim use to go about the Streets with their Instruments and a Flask of Lather to look out for Work if they find any that will be trimed they do not come back to their Shops but go to Work in the Streets or in the next Champ if any be near and there begin to Lather him and shave all the Hair of his Head save only one long Lock which he leaves to hang down his Back There are also places where they sell Slaves of both Sexes old and young which are sold dearer or cheaper according to their Strength or Handsomeness c. But in all these Countries I saw neither Wheel-wright nor Cart-wright because neither Waggons nor Carts are in use with them Neither could I find for all it is so great a City a Gunsmith that understood how to mend the least fault in a Gun-lock because there is a great Trade daily driven in these Batzars you shall find there at all times of the day a great number of People of several Nations walking up and down which makes a Crowd as if you were in a Fair. Amongst them you will often see drunken Turks which use to push People that do not give them the way immediately chiefly if they be Christians but the Christians are not afraid of them for all that but prepare themselves when they perceive some of them to approach among the People and stand upon their Guard to be even with them and when the Turks come and push them they make them rebound again to one side or to one of the Shop-boards Sometimes also the Turks will lean themselves backwards against the Shops and when they see a Christian go by they let him fall over their Legs and so laugh at them but then the Christians again when they perceive this they kick up the other Leg of the Turk whereon he rests and so make him fall down himself For it is usual with the Turks to try the Christians what Metal they are made of whether they have
by Pliny in Book VI. 26 and 27 Chap. between the Tigris and Euphrates those two great Rivers of Paradise whereof is made mention in the Second Chapter of Genesis which two Rivers not far below it meet together and are there united The Town Traxt is surrounded with Ditches and very well defended by two strong Citadels that lie on each side thereof so that it is as it were a Key and Door-way into the Kingdom of Persia to which it doth also belong as others not far from thence viz Orthox Laigen which lie on the Road toward Media and also Goa which lieth a League and a half at the other side of the Tigris and Axt two Leagues further still in the way to Persia The next Day the 25th of October we spent in bespeaking of Camels and Asses to load our Goods upon and after we were quite ready we broke up the Day following early in the Morning with the whole Caravan to travel to Bagdet In the beginning the ways were very rough of the Stones and Ruines that lie still from thence dispersed But after we were passed the Castle and also the Town of Daniel the dry Desarts began again where nothing was to be seen but Thorns neither Men nor Beasts neither Caves nor Tents so that a Man that knoweth the ways never so well hath enough to do to find them through it which I did often observe in our Guide or Caliphi who did several times because there was neither way nor mark neither of Men nor Beasts to be found very much doubt which way to turn himself and so he did more than once turn sometimes towards one then toward the other side the whole Caravan By the way we saw in the Plain many large ancient high and stately Buildings Arches and Turrets standing in the Sand which is very fine and lieth close together as you find it in the Vallies here and there whereof many were decayed and lay like Ruines some to look upon were pretty entire very strong adorned with Artificial Works so that they were very well worth to have been narrowlier looked into Thus they stand solitary and desolated save only the Steeple of Daniel which is entire built of black Stones and is inhabited still unto this Day this is in height and building something like unto our Steeple of the Holy-Cross Church or of St. Maurice in Augsburg on which as it stands by it self you may see all the Ruines of the Old Babylonian Tower the Castle-Hill together with the stately Buildings and the whole Situation of the Old Town very exactly After we had travelled for Twelve Hours through desolate places very hard so that our Camels and Asses began to be tired under their heavy Burdens we rested and lodged our selves near to an ascent we and our Beasts to refresh our selves and so to stay there till Night and to break up again in the middle thereof that we might come to Bagdet before Sun rising The mean while when we were lodged there I considered and viewed this ascent and found that there was two behind one another distinguished by a Ditch and extending themselves like unto two parallel Walls a great way about and that they were open in some Places where one might go through like Gates wherefore I believe that they were the Wall of the Old Town whereof Pliny says that they were 200 Foot high and 50 broad that went about there and that the places where they were open have been anciently the Gates whereof there were a Hundred Iron ones of that Town and this the rather because I saw in some places under the Sand wherewith the two ascents were almost covered the Old Wall plainly appear So we found our selves to be just lodged without the Walls of that formerly so Famous Kingly City which now with its Magnificent and Glorious Buildings is quite desolated and lieth in the Dust so that every one that passeth through it in regard of them hath great reason to admire with astonishment when he considers that this which hath been so Glorious an one and in which the Greatest Monarchs and Kings that ever were Nimrod Belus and after him King Merodach and his Posterity to Balthasar the last have had their Seats and Habitations is now reduced to such a Desolation and Wilderness that the very Shepherds cannot abide to fix their Tents there to inhabit it So that here is a most terrible Example to all impious and haughty Tyrants shewn in Babylon which may be sure that if they do not give over in time and leave their Tyranny ceasing to persecute the Innocents with War Sword Prison and all other cruel and inhumane Plagues as these did the People of God the Israelites that God the Almighty will also come upon them and for their Transgressions punish them in his Anger for God is a jealous God that at long run will not endure the Pride of Tyrants nor leave unpunished the Potentates that afflict his People wherefore be sure he will also in them verifie the Prophecies which he hath uttered by the Prophet Isaiah in his 12th Chapter and Jeremiah in the 51st against those insolent and haughty Babylonians As I passed by I found some Thorns growing in the Sand viz. the Acacia called Agul whereon chiefly in Persia the Manna falls whereof I have made mention before above all I found in great Plenty some strange kinds of Cali of Serap of Coloquints and when Evening fell in and the Night did approach our Mockeries that drove the Asses made themselves ready again for our Journey which kept every thing together in good Order and were so quick in loading and unloading that they were ready in less than a quarter of an Hour By the way I saw again several Antiquities but the Night falling in I lost them so we went on a-pace in darkness so that we did arrive at Bagdet by some called Baldac two Hours before Day In the Morning which was the 27th of October I and one of my Comrades took our Lodging at an Eminent Merchant's House that belonged to Aleppo and was lately come from the Indies he received us kindly and very readily and kept us for four Days when we took a Shop in the great Camp of the Turkish Bashaw in the other Town on the other side of the Tigris which we went into CHAP. VIII Of the Famous City of Bagdet called Baldac of its Situation strange Plants great Traffick and Merchants of several Nations that live there together with several other things I saw and did learn at my departing THE Town Bagdet belonging to the Turkish Emperour is situated on the most Easterly part of his Dominions on the rapid River Tigris and the Confines of Persia in a large Plain almost like unto Basle on the Rhine it is divided into Two Parts which are rather bigger than Basle but nothing near so pleasant nor so well built for the Streets thereof are pretty narrow and many Houses so miserably built
and chuse them for their Servants being in their Business very faithful diligent and careful as I have known many of them These and many more Nations as Turks Moors Armenians Curters Medians c. which every one of them have their peculiar Language are at Bagdet in great Numbers but chiefly the Persians so when I was there there arrived a Caravan of Three Hundred with Camels and Horses c. with an Intention to go to Mecha to give Mahomet a Visit which they think after Hali and Omar who were his Companions and did live in that City to be a very great Man These Persians have a peculiar Language so much differing That neither Turks nor Arabians nor other Oriental Nations can understand them and so they are forced to make them understand their meaning by Signs or an Interpreter as well as I and other Strangers They also have their peculiar Characters They sit well on Horse-back and have on long and wide Drawers which serve them also for Boots and are very well furnished with Scymeters Bows and Darts instead of Spurs they have as it is the Fashion in those Parts pointed Irons which are about an Inch and a half long and are sowed to the hind part of their Shooes They are also called Red Turks which I believe is because they have behind on their Turbants Red Marks as Cotton-Ribbands c. with Red Brims whereby they are sooner discerned from other Nations They may also be distinguished by their grey woollen Coats which have commonly Three Plaits behind and come hardly down to their Knees They are a strong and valiant People of a noble Countenance and Mind very Civil and in their Dealings upright They are very wary in their Undertakings which you may see by this that before they conclude a Bargain they take up more time to consider than others to two or three which I have several times observed Among other Merchandices they have delicate Tapestry of several colours and several sorts of Cotton-Work in which they are great Artists and well skilled but as for others as Gold and Silver working c. they understand little and a great deal less of Gilding wherefore they take any thing that is glossy for Gold They love the Christians that are Artists and Ingenious in these sorts of Works and shew them all Civilities But as for the Turks because great and bloody Wars arise often between them they hate them very much and call them Hereticks 1. Because they will not esteem nor receive Hali and Omar which they denominate Caliphi as the greatest and highest Prophets or Legates of God that have after Mahomet given more certain and better Laws Wherefore they esteem them a great deal higher nay worship them like Gods 2. Because that they as circumcised Men esteem their Women to be unclean and reckon them to be Members that are not to be saved and therefore exclude them out of their Churches so that they may not appear there publickly which by the Persians according to their Laws and Ordinances after they have spoke some Words after them are received as blessed Ones and admitted to come to their Churches From whence arise between these two Nations great Quarrels and Differences sometimes but yet they do not fall upon one another nor make Incursions in time of Peace so violently on the Frontiers as they do in Hungary probably that one may because Negotiation goeth further into Persia and bringeth in great Custom to the Grand Signior trade the safer into these Parts It is cheap and very good travelling through these Countries into the Indies and the Customs and Duties are very easy Further I understood from others that here and there in Persia live several Christians and that most of them are of the perswasion of Prester-John whom they call Amma and which way they are brought to it I am thus informed That formerly about Twelve Years agone it did happen that the King of Persia made a League with Prester-John against the Turks which came then very hard upon him and gave him his hands so full that he was forced to seek for help by Strangers Now when Prester-John thought it very inconvenient for him to make a League with a King that was not of his Religion he sent him a Message again that he could make no League with him except the chiefest of the Articles were that he and his Subjects would receive his Religion then he would not only do him all Friendship that in him lay but also assist him with all his Might and Power which at length was agreed upon Whereupon he did send him one of his Patriarchs and some of his Priests which in process of time had this Effect that now even at this Day there are above twenty Towns in Persia where the most of the Inhabitants are addicted to the Religion of Prester-John They have also as I was told several Books of the Holy Scripture and chiefly among the rest some of the Epistles of St. Thomas which they call Aertisch And besides that their Patriarch hath brought it to that pass that they are no more so zealous in their Superstitions and are of Opinion that Circumcision is not necessary and that so much the rather because their Enemies the Turks and Jews have it And for the same reason they do not abhorr the forbidden Beasts but eat Pork c. nor refuse to drink Wine and that as before said because their Adversaries are forbid it by their Law So that the Christian Faith doth in Persia encrease daily more and more and they begin to be Christened with Fire according to their Fashion and in the Name of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost whom they notwithstanding according to their Opinion rather believe to be a Creature than the Third Person of the Trinity and that he doth only proceed from the Father and not from the Son But that those that are Christians may be discerned they wear a blue Cross on the inside of their left Leg a little above the Knee They also administer the Sacrament of the Holy Supper or Communion and give it as well to the Young as to the Old ones in both kinds but before they go to it they must have their Feet washed wherefore there are little Rivolets led through the Churches where they sit down and some of the chiefest of the Town come to them and wash their Feet and when that is done they give unto one another a Kiss of Love then they read the Words of Christ's Institution and so go to receive it they do not come to Confession before And they endure no Images in their Churches but instead of them they make use of Harps Pipes and other Instruments wherewith they make Musick but chiefly at the King's Court at Samarcand where his best Musicians are which Town as they say was built by Sem the Son of Noah and called after his Name What else is to be said concerning the Points of their
read also in the Acts of the Apostles in the 9th and 10th Chapter from Peter the Apostle That he lay or tarry'd for a while at the House of Simon the Tanner where he raised the Sister Tabitha from the Dead c. Joppe at that time was very well Built and Fortify'd which doth appear because a good many of the Jews did at the time of the Desolation of Jerusalem retire thither to defend themselves against the Might of the Romans although it was but in vain for being that the time of the punishment that was to befal them was at hand the City therefore was two several times one after another besieged and taken and demolish'd and as Josephus testifieth about 12600 Jews were killed in it We also read That after the time of Gotfrid de Boullion when the Christians lost again the Land of Promise that then this Town also was retaken again by the Infidels and razed to the Foundations so that now there are no Antiquities at all to be seen And I should have doubted very much whether there did ever stand such a Town there had not I seen some large pieces of the Ancient Town Walls still remaining which are so near to the Sea that there is hardly room to go at the outside of them Hard by this I suppose was the Habitation of Simon the Tanner where Peter sojourned because the Evangelist St. Luke saith That it was near to the Sea shore Above it on the height stand two Towers where some Watchmen attend to look after the Vaults and Ships in the Harbor that they may not be assaulted by the Pirates this Harbor although it is surrounded with Rocks and Banks yet it is but very slightly secured and very narrow and shallow so that Ships of any great bulk or heavy Laden cannot ride in it Near to them growth the Hemerocallis which I have also found about Montpelier and Aigemort near to the Sea And also in the adjacent Moist and Mashy Meadows I found a delicate kind of Limonium which hath about ten or twelve Aspleniun or Ceterach Leaves on both sides these proceed from a long Root of a brown colour without and red within between them sprout out two three-square Stalks about a Cubit high with a great many Joints that have three long small Leaves and are adorned at the top with beautiful and stately blue and purple coloured Flowers they are of a dryish Nature and the Inhabitants use to eat them in Sallads Presently after Dinner our Men returned and brought along with them the Pass and the Carriers our Master of the Ship left some of the Crew in his Caramusala to look after it in our absence We Mounted and went away and came soon into the plain Fields where Jonathas slew Apollonius the Captain as is said in the 1st of Maccabees the 10th Chapter Soon after we saw a pleasant Village call'd Jasura and when we came a little nearer a Camp of a great Turkish Lord who sent as soon as he espy'd us on the Road and found that we were Pilgrims some of his Men to us to call us before him and also to tell us That he was one of them to whom the Grand Sultan had given Charge of the Temple and the Mount Calvaria with strict order to let no Pilgrim in before they had paid a certain sum of Money So we went along with them and appeared before him in his Tent put our Right Hand on our Breast bended our selves forwards and made him according to their Custom his Compliments After he had look'd upon us a great while he bid his Men to receive the Money of us so each of us paid him Nine Ducats that had their full weight except the Grecian who paid only Five and at their Request we staid with them all Night because their Master intended to send a Janizary with us the next day to let us into the Temple This Lord who was an Eunuch had a great many Offices for in these Countries they are by the great ones as Bashaws Sangiachs Cadees c. so much esteemed that in their absence they make them Stewards over all their Goods and Chattels Wives and Children c. At that time he was there to gather great quantity of Corn from these fruitful Countries it being Harvest time and to send it from thence to Joppe to go by Sea for Constantinople After Midnight we mounted again and came early in the Morning to the Town Rama and went into the House of the Pilgrims which Philip Duke of Burgundy bought and gave it to the Pilgrims as their Inn. This is very large and hath a great many Arched Chambers within and a fine Well within the Inner Court is a pretty large place all grown over with green Aloes the Juice whereof is brought over to us in large pieces from the Eastern Countries and is very useful in many tedious Distempers Nicodemus did also bring with him together with Myrrh to the quantity of 100 pounds to the Grave of Christ our Lord to Bury his Body decently according to the Jewish fashion as you may read in the 19th Chapter of St. John Here we staid almost three days and had all along enough to do to agree with the Cadi Subashaw Clerks Janizaries and Paityfs c. about our free passage so Unjust Malicious and Infidel a People are they that one would hardly believe it The Town is situated on an Ascent in plain Fields as is before said which extend themselves for two Leagues to the Hill of the City of Jerusalem These Fields are very Fruitful and very well Tilled and Sown with Corn Cotton and Indian Millet Hereabouts do also grow Indian Muskmelions in great quantity by the Arabians called Batiere which are very pleasant and well tasted chiefly those that are red within so that in all my Travels I hardly met with the like The Town is pretty large but very open like unto a Village very pityfully built where one may still see here and there some signs of old Building From thence Northwards within half a League lieth the Town Diospolis formerly called Lidda where Peter did visit the Saints and cured one named Aeneas that had had a Palsie for Eight Years Nothing else is to be seen there but the Church of St. George whom the Turks chiefly honour as a Knigt and Hero before all other Saints After they had quite tired us during this time with their continual Impertinencies we agreed with them and went away early in the Morning and came in good time over the Plain to the Mountain of the City of Jerusalem to which we had still Four Leagues to travel By the way there appeared presently on the Mountains several Arabians and ran before us in great Clusters to cut us off in our way with such violence that we were almost forced to come to our defence and to push through them by force for our Janizaries had already flung their Iron Club into the Back-side of
one of them and had almost spoiled him When they found us to be in earnest they took something to drink of us and let us alone So we must before we arrived at the old destroyed and ruinated Jerusalem where there is no Joy nor Hopes to get any thing as is in the Heavenly One soon one after another pay them just like Boys that have lost their Game and run the Gauntlet After we had endured all these Brushes we went on and came to the middle of the way of the Mountains where it was very rough and stony into a small Village called Anatoth lying on a heigth where we rested a little and watered our Beasts at a very rich Spring that runs through it by an ancient little Church down the Hill this is situated as Josephus writes in his Tenth Book and Tenth Chapter of his Antiquities or ancient History within Twenty Furlongs of Jerusalem There was born the holy Prophet Jeremias as you may see in his First Chapter and it is also called by Esaias a pitiful Village which together with the Town Rama did formerly belong to the Inheritance of the Children of Benjamin Thither went also Abiathar when King Solomon did depose or exclude him from his Priesthood to live on his own Ground A little before it they shewed us at the top of the heigth or Silo of Mount Ephraim some Relicts of the Grave of the holy Prophet Samuel where we could look about for several Leagues round which was of Ramaâ—ha or Arimathea as also Joseph the Just whom helped to take Christ down from the Cross and did put him into his own new Grave The Town was underneath the Mountain where the Prophet Samuel was buried at first but carried up to Silo after the Town was taken Just when you come to Jerusalem Nicopolis lieth on the Left Hand upon the Heighth formerly called Emmaus from Jerusalem Threescore Furlongs distant as the Scripture telleth us whither Christ did accompany the two Disciples and explained the Scriptures to them and at last made himself known to them We left it and went up to Jerusalem which is now called Gotz by the Arabians and Turks The Road is very rough and rocky so that we saw very little but on each side in the Valleys many delicate large Olive Trees and some few Vineyards The City lieth on the heighth of the Mountains as the 125th Psalm testifieth It is not to be seen until you come over the bare and rough Mountains intercepting the Prospect of it on this side Just before it without on the top of Mount Gihon are to be seen still some Antiquities of the Town Helia which Adrian the Emperor built after the Desolation of Jerusalem and called it after his own Name Helia This was first taken by Cosröe King of Persia in the time of the Emperor Heraclius who did overcome him again and afterwards by Homar the Third King of the Saracens who demolished it afterwards it was more contracted and somewhat built again in its old place In these days it is as well as all that Country under the Dominion of the Turkish Emperor Before it we dismounted for no outlandish Man hath permission to ride into their Towns and went under the Gate Hebron to stay there for the Father Guardian to whom we had by one of our Carriers given notice of our Arrival and also desired him to get us License from the Sangiach to come in In the mean time some Mendicant Friars came out of the Monastery and received us very kindly Soon after the Ermin came also riding with his Clerk and asked us from whence we came how many there were of us and what our Names were And after they had written it down and every one had paid him his due to have safe conduct to see the holy Places the Ermin promised it us and put his Right Hand upon his Head which is the fashion in these Countries and bended forwards to let us know that we might confide in his Promise Then they let us pass and the Friars conducted us in towards the Left Hand through some small Streets or Lanes into the Monastery which is behind on the Town-Wall towards the West This although it is not large and spacious yet is it very handsom and strong-built we went into lodge there as all Pilgrims do that come there where Father Jeremy of Brixen a Brother of the Order of the Minorites of St. Francis a Guardian of the holy Mount Zion which had been President of this Monastery of Jerusalem and of the other of Bethlehem for Eighteen Years together received us very kindly There are but very few Monks in it and they are of all sorts of Nations as Italians Spaniards French and Germans yet of the last named I found not one when I arrived there These lead the Pilgrims about together with an Interpreter or Truschemant that understands the Arabian and Turkish Language and shew them the holy Places as well within as without the City But before we went out the Father Guardian admonished us that we must have a care and not go to the Graves of the Heathens which are almost throughout Turkey without the Towns near to the Highways for if one or more should before he was aware of it which may easily happen go to them the Turks would be very much offended at it partly because they take any one that is not circumcised to be unclean and so they fear that they might make them also unclean partly because they are very jealous of their Wives wherefore they permit them not easily to walk or appear in the open Street except they have a mind to go into the Bath or Pagnio or to visit the Graves of their deceased Parents or Relations and where Women are present every one had best to come away to avoid Danger After he had said this he went on saying That if any should be among us that were come over the Sea hither that could not bring very good proof that they did appear before his Holiness the Pope at Rome and were there absolved by him that such were in his Holinesses Excommunication and therefore could not be admitted to see those holy Places much less obtain the Indulgences which in former Ages had been left with them out of great kindness of the Popes to be distributed among the Pilgrims wherefore he desired that every one might shew him their Certificates All these Points he used to propound to every one that cometh there in course as I had heard before of several that had been there formerly that they were very glad to see Pilgrims arrive and that they used to shew the holy Places to them also that bring no Recommendation from his Holiness the Pope hoping that they will recompense them at their Departure Wherefore I did not much mind this Excommunication but let that remain in its ancient Credit but my Comrades two whereof were Priests that used to say Mass were very much astonish'd
therefore is also this Worldly Mount Zion together with its strong Building and Fortification which was rather a Type of the true Rock in Zion Christ our Lord and his Heavenly Kingdom and Holy Church that was built thereon so ruined and desolated that the greatest and highest part thereof before the Town except a Turkish Mosche some Tile Houses and a few Acres of it lieth quite like a Desart covered with Rocks and Stones So it is come to pass what Micah in his Third Chapter and the Twelfth Verse predicted Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest And Jeremiah in his Lamentations Cap. 5. Verse 18. saith The mountain of Zion which is desolate the foxes walk upon it And Isaiah in his Thirty second Chapter Verse 14. The Palaces shall be forsaken the multitude of the City shall be left the forts and towers shall be dens for ever a joy of wild asses a pasture of flocks The great Castle of the Turks is situated at the top of the inward part of the Mount towards the West Side near the Fishgate which is also newly built and very well surrounded with Walls and Ditches under the Gate are several great Guns to frighten the Christians that come thither in great Flocks chiefly against great Feasts from all Nations Armenians Georgians Abyssins Latinists c. for they fear that else the Town might be taken from them again Within the Fort near the Fishgate is still a strong high Tower built up with great Free-stone which is quite black through Age wherefore some say that it did anciently belong to the Fort and was built by one of the Kings of Juda. So much I thought convenient to mention of Mount Zion concerning other famous places that are to be seen upon and about it I will only mention the chiefest thereof First as you go out of the New Gate of Mount Zion there is a long Street wherein on the Left Hand is an ancient Church of the holy Apostle James the Greater Brother of John which Helena the Mother of Constantine the Emperor as also many more did build on the Market Place of the upper City where he was beheaded The Armenians that have possession thereof did conduct us into it shewed us the Building and the place where the holy Apostle was beheaded with the Sword as you read in the Acts of the Apostles the 12th Chapter by Order of Herod Agrippa to whom he was delivered out of spite as a seditious person by the High Priest Abiathar Then we came to the place of the Habitation of Hannas whereto Christ our Lord was first of all brought a prisoner and bound or fetter'd wherein was nothing observable only a large Court and in it an old Chapel called the Angels which we soon left and went out of the Gate of Mount Zion to the Habitation of Cayaphas where we saw an Orange-tree planted in the place where the holy Apostle Peter did warm himself when he denied our Saviour the third time further within a Chapel called St. Salvators where in former Ages was the Place of the High Priest where Christ was severely accused by Cayaphas and by his Servants mocked spit upon and beaten wherein is an Altar whereon the great Stone of the Grave still lieth that stopped the Door of the Sepulchre which is very like unto the Rock of the Grave in its breaking That the Habitation of the High Priest was in the upper City Josephus does testifie in the Seventeenth Chapter of his Second Book of the Desolation of Jerusalem where he saith thus When the rebellious Jews that had the lower Town in possession with the Temple did undertake to possess themselves also of the upper Town they did assault it with all might and power and at last take it then they drove out the Soldiers which had the Chief Priests and Men in power with them out of the upper Town set the Habitation of Ananias the High Priest on fire and burnt it Before this on the top of the Mount stands on the Plain a large Church which the Franciscan Monks had not long ago in possession and lived in it wherefore their Father did call himself a Guardian of the holy Mount Zion But after that the Turks did about Twenty years agon possess themselves of it and kept it to themselves and made a Mahumetan Mosche of it the Monks were forced to flie and take the Habitation where they now live instead thereof Of this Church or Mosche we saw only the outside of the Habitation of Caiaphas for no Christian is allowed to go into it It was built many years agon by Helena Mother of Constantin the Emperor as Nicephorus testifieth in the Thirtieth Chapter of his Eighth Book wherein is also included the Habitation the Disciples were locked up in for fear of the Jews and also the paved Dining-Room or Hall wherein Christ with his Disciples did eat the Passover where he also washed their Feet and sent the Holy Ghost after his Ascension to them where also James the Lesser was Elected Overseer and first Bishop of Jerusalem In this Temple which is above a thousand paces distant from Golgotha or the place of a Scull was for some time kept the Stone-Pillar whereto Christ our Lord and Saviour was tied and whipped Near unto this in the place of the Palace of Caiaphas the same Queen Helena ordered a Church to be built for the Holy Apostle Peter and many more whereof mention is made at large in the above quoted place This Mount extendeth its self towards the South out before the City and hath on the other side where it is highest other higher ones about it distinguished with Ditches and Valleys viz. towards the West Mount Gihon at the bottom whereof Solomon was anointed King by the Priest Zadock and the Prophet Nathan as we read in the First Chapter of thr First Book of Kings upon this at the top towards the Road of Bethlehem lieth the Field of Blood in their Language called Hakeldemas that was bought for 30 Silver Pieces to bury the Pilgrims there where you see still to this day here and there large and deep holes and one among the rest very big one wherein are still to be seen several whole Bodies lying by one another A deep Valley separates this Mount from Mount Zion which beginneth at the Fish-gate and goeth down to the Brook Cedron in it is a Conduit by the upper Pool called Asuia in the Third Chapter of Nehemiah which is pretty large yet without any Water which receiveth its Water from the high Spring of Gihon this was covered by King Hezekias and laid down to the Town of David as we read in the Second Book of Chronicles Chap. 32. The holy Prophet Isaiah Chap. 7. Verse 3. mentioneth it when she Lord said to him Go forth now to meet Ahaz thou and Shear-jashub
King Solomon did begin to build a House for the Lord at Jerusalem many years afterwards This was formerly very high surrounded with deep Ditches and Cliffs so that it would make a Man giddy to look down from the top into the depth Wherefore Pompey and Titus took a great deal of pains before they could get upon it to take and destroy that glorious and well-built Temple which was in the last Desolation as well as before in the first burnt by Nabuhcodonosor demolished and razed to the Foundations as Christ foretold them Mark xiii That there should not be left one stone upon another that should not be thrown down because they did not acknowledge the gracious time of their visitation And that all hopes might be taken away from the Jews to return and to build the Temple again to re-establish their Worship Hadrian the Emperor to prevent all ordered in the year of Christ 134 all to be broken down that was left and to root it up to demolish all heighths to fill up all Ditches to level Cliffs and to make the Ground even all over he did also alter the Name and Religion of the Inhabitants and instead thereof introduced the Heathenish Idolatry In the place of the Grave of Christ he built a Temple for the Idol Jupiter on Mount Calvaria another for the Idol Venus and another at Bethlehem to the Idol Adonis and at last in the place where formerly in the Temple of Solomon did stand the Sanctum Sanctorum he erected his own Image on a high Column for his memory which was still standing in Hieronymus's time The heighth of this Mount cannot be observed any where else now then without by the Fountain Siloah and in the Valley of Benhinnon and so it did remain desolate to the times of the great Emperor Constantine After that when the Jews undertook to rebuild the Temple at the Charge of Julian the Apostate who would make Christ a liar the Lord having said that their House should be left unbuilt a great Earthquake when they had opened the Ground to lay the Foundation did move and shake the whole place to that degree that every thing was turned upside down and abundance of Jews did perish in it But when the Jews did not matter this but endeavoured to go on with the Work in hand the next day Flames of Fire broke out of the Ground and fiery Beams struck down from Heaven which destroyed more than the Earthquake and burnt all their Tools viz. Saws Axes Shovels Hammers c. When the Jews would not leave their Error for all this the night following some small glittering Crosses like Stars fell down upon their Cloaths which they could not wash off the next Morning nor get out by any means and an Earthquake and such a violent Hurricane came upon it that it dissipated all tâ— Mortar and other Materials into the Air so that frightened and full of fear they were forced to confess that Christ whom their Ancestors Crucified was the true and only Lord and God Seeing that the Temple together with the Mount it stood upon are razed and desolated so that one can hardly now discern what they have been anciently every one that goeth by because the Lord did not favour his own House where his Name was sanctified hath reason to be astonished at it and to call to mind the strange anger of God against those that leave the Lord their God and adhere to other gods serve and adore them Now adays the Turks have taken possession of this Mount and all the Ground whereon Solomon's Temple did stand and have built a Mahumetan Mosche on it which Homar the Third after the great Impostor Mahomet built when he had taken the holy Land and the City of Jerusalem This is not very large nor high but fine and covered with Lead hath a great Court Yard about it paved with white Marble and here and there Orange and Date Trees are planted in it which is very pleasant about the sides thereof are some high Towers and Gates one whereof is vastly bigger than any of the rest which is near to their Batzar or Exchange which is very old high and hath very good Workmanship in it wherefore the Franciscan Monks shew it instead of the Gate of Solomon's Temple before which lay the Man that was lame from his Mother's Womb that begged Alms from Peter and John to whom Peter said Silver and gold I have none but such as I have give I thee In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk At the end of the Gate of this Yard as commonly in all their Church Porches hung some Lamps I could have willingly gone in before them to see the Rock and Fountain whereof Ezek. in his Forty seventh Chapter maketh mention together with the inward Building but because according to their Mahumetan Laws all those that are not circumcised are accounted to be unclean therefore going into their Churches is forbid to Christians if any one is catch'd â—ithin he is in danger of his life or else he must deny his Faith and be made a Mamaluck or Renegado In this Court-Yard is still another Gate called the Golden Gate by the Franciscans but because it stands just over against the Mount of Olives therefore it is to be taken to be the Gate Sur or rather as Nehemias ch iii. Ezek. xlvii and 2 Chron. xxxi say For the Gate of the Stairs which Semaia the Son of Sahamia the Keeper of them did build through which our Lord Christ did go into the Temple on Palm-Day to drive out the Buyers and Sellers Now altho this is walled up in the New Town Wall so that you cannot go either out or in yet considering its ancient Arches it looketh rather like a Church than a Town-Gate In the middle of the Yard stands a Turkish Mosche or Temple called the Rock this is esteemed very much by the Turks and next to those of Mecha and Medina reputed to be the most holy Because God Almighty hath wrought many great Miracles there and that there Mahomet as they falsly write of him in their Books called by God to be the last and greatest Prophet did ride from Mecha to that of the holy Rock of the Temple of Jerusalem which is Forty Days Journey on a very swift Beast called Elmparae conducted thither by the Angel Gabriel who at his arrival did help him off of his Beast tied it up and then led him by the Hand into the Temple where he found many Prophets standing together in a Circle which God had resuscitated for his Honor and to receive him and to acquaint him with new good Tidings and what God had prepared for him I suppose ever burning Flames of Fire among the rest he did also find Abraham Moses and Jesus the Son of Mary each of them presenting him first Moses with a Fatt of Wine Abraham with a Fatt full of Milk and Jesus with a Fatt of Water Then
as you may chiefly in St. Mark Chap. 17. V. 20. clearly see where he writes And they led him out to crucifie him And in the Thirteenth Chapter to the Hebrews Vers 12. where it is plainly writ that Christ suffered without the Gate But when afterwards the Emperor Adrian did rebuild and enlarge the desolated Town he did also surround with a Wall the place where our Lord Jesus Christ did suffer which was without towards the North-West beyond the Mount Moria so that now it is situated almost in the middle of the City of Jerusalem and becuse of this Inlargement he call'd the Town after his Sirname Helia We staying a great while at the Gate before they did open it unto us several Oriental Christians to wit Greeks JACOBITES Armenians c. came to us to visit their Priests and to perform their Devotion in it so that about Three-score went in with us The Building of the Temple is very large of strong Walls and so thick that it taketh away the Light within it is richly covered with Grey Marble within and without and supported by some Marble Pillars about a Fathom and a half thick so strongly that one may conclude from thence that neither Labour nor Costs were spared in its Building Yet the Turks notwithstanding the holy Places and the Costliness of the Building have in some places spoiled and demolished some part of the Walls thereof so that now they are no more like to the old ones that were before and besides as the Guardian told us half of it is hardly remaining Yet it is still very large and so well closed up again that one can hardly perceive the Loss thereof As we went through we passed by the Grave of Christ in a glorious large Chapel called our Ladies which the Franciscans have in possession and is hung with Tapestry very well wrought Within it is a great Altar on each side whereof is to be seen a Nick artificially made of white Marble the Windows whereof are very well guarded with Iron Bars in that towards the Left Hand is kept a piece of the Column whereon Christ was whip'd it is of a reddish Colour three spans long and four over In the other on the Right there is a small Crucifix in the middle whereof is in-laid a small piece of the true Cross of Christ From thence we went further into their Vestiary which hath several large Rooms where we staid until the Franciscans had put on their usual Habits to go their Rounds with us and to shew us the holy places with the usual Ceremonies When they had made themselves ready we came out again into the Church and left the Chancel of the Grecians that is in the middle and the holy Grave upon our Right Hand and went to the Left to another Chapel whereby the Grecians have an Altar without by which in the Marble Floor are two Holes to be seen wherein they pretend that Christ was detained prisoner until they had fixed the Cross for him on the place of the Sculls This Chapel is within very deep and so dark that when you go into it you believe that you go into a Cave where the Romanists believe as I understood by a French Man of their Convent who was in a Priest's Habit and as we went about standing before the Altar did tell us what they had done to Christ our Lord in every place that they did detain Christ there as in a place where into they threw the Dust to mock him until his Cross was got ready for him Just by the Chapel behind the Chancel they shew on a high Arch another place where the Soldiers did share Christ's Cloaths amongst them and cast Lots for his Coat Somewhat farther about they shew a pair of Stairs of Twenty nine Steps which we descended and came into a great Chapel of Queen Helen situated underneath Mount Calvaria wherein is still towards the Right Hand of the Altar a glorious and beautiful high Seat of Marble whereon the Queen used to sit when she had a mind to overlook the Workmen to see whether they went on right for she loved Building mightily as appeareth still to this day by the number of her mighty Buildings Behind this Seat are eleven Steps which go further down Mount Calvaria where the Cistern hath been wherein Queen Helen found the Cross of Christ Underneath on the Altar 't is true there stands one but it is new and therefore to be supposed to be put there of late years At the bottom of the Stairs do also appear very plainly the cracked Rocks as it is mentioned in Scripture And the rocks rent And these Rents or Cracks are a foot wide and so deep as to reach from the top to the bottom of the rocky Mount of Calvaria When we came up into the Church again they shewed us at the bottom of Mount Calvaria a Chapel that was locked up and in it underneath the Altar a large blackish Stone with some reddish Spots upon it in the shape of a piece of a Pillar which was brought thither from Pilate's House of Judicature whereon our Lord did sit when the Soldiers did put the Crown of Thorns on his holy Head and did salute him as a King with their Knees bended and did also mock him spit in his Face and whip him This Crown was twisted out of Thorns called by the Arabians Nausegi and Athausegi and by the Grecians and Latinists which have kept the same Name Rhamnus whereof there are three sorts the first of which is the true one which is also common in France and Italy which doth not only grow without but also within the Town of Jerusalem plentifully this puts out early in the Spring into long thin and pliable Twigs with a great many long and strong Prickles Just by it cometh out above from the Chancel of the Grecians a path up to Mount Calvaria which they forced from the Georgians as they did before from the Armenians by giving Money to the Turks Which is very common in these Countries for if one hath any Business to be done by the Turks it cannot be easier obtained than if you bribe them more than your Adversary wherefore it happeneth very often that such places are taken away from one Nation and given to the other Underneath this Way or Gallery you ascend nineteen Steps to go up to Mount Calvaria where we saw two Chapels one behind the other which were open and had a very delicate Floor artificially inlaid wirh Flowers of several Colours the like whereof is hardly to be seen any where else At the top of the Stairs we left our Shooes and went in and attended the Priest which did also there as he had done in other places before give us a short account of what had been done to our Lord Jesus Christ in these places viz. that in the hindmost Chapel his Hands and Feet had been extended and sharp Nails drove through them and so with
must find great Passions within his Breast as you also read in the last Chapter of St. Matthew Verse 8. of the Women where you find these Words And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy This I found also in my Heart and Mind so that it was as if I saw our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Almighty God to humble himself and to become obedient to his Heavenly Father even to Death nay to the Death of the Cross to bring us miserable sinful Men to Rights again and to deliver us clearly from all Debts and Punishments and so to procure us the only and true Indulgences After we had seen Mount Calvaria the Sepulchre of Christ our Lord and other places we went into the Vestiary again to eat our Supper After Supper they led us up into the Gallery which is in the round Building over against the holy Sepulchre to stay there all Night but some of the Eastern Christians sung below in the Church others did grumble together and played with their sweet sounding Cymbals which were made of pure Metal about the bigness of a large Walnut-shell so pleasant Tunes or Musick that I rather looked on them and minded their Musick than slept The next Morning my Comerades after they had been at Confession and received the Sacrament upon Mount Calvaria came to me into the Church again with an intention to go round once more So we saw the holy places once more and at last also the Chapel which we left the day before at the Foot of the Hill on our Left Hand belonging to the Grecians they let us in very willingly because of our Chaplain who was also a Grecian and shewed us in it at the furthest part where it was pretty dark a large and deep Crack of the Rock afterwards also on each side some fine and high Tombs of some Kings viz. that of Gottefrid de Boulion and others which were for some time possessed of the Land of Promise these stand on delicate Columns cut out of curious grey Marble whereon are some Epitaphs which I thought to set down here underneath together with a short Relation when they did take the Land of Promise and the famous City of Jerusalem how long they were possessed of it and how many Kings did succeed one another in it Plants observed by Monsieur Belon to grow about some of the Holy Places Near Jerusalem on the Mounts Hills and Valleys Adrachne seu Arbutus folio non serrato Picea Aria Ilex cocci-glandifera Terebinthus Lentiscus several sorts of Cislus Capparis Spinâ—sa Paliurus or Christ's Thorn Fig-trees Olives Almonds a sort of Wild Peach Jujubes or Zizyphus Esculus or Dwarf-Oak Alaternus White Mulberry for the Silk-Worms the Inhabitants trading a little in Silk and Kermes which they gather from a Holm Oak Sesamum Gossipium seu Xylon Thymbra Marum Origanum Heracleoticum Tragoriganum Salvia Stachys Ruta Sylv. Trifolium Asphaltites a rare fort of Hyâ—scyanâ—us on the Walls of Jerusalem Azadarach Arbor in Palestinâ secundum D. Monconny Between Mount Sinai Mount Oreb and Suez Oenoplia a sort of Zizyphus Arbor Lanigera or Cotton-Tree Glans seu Nux Vnguentaria call'd Balâ—nus Mirepsica Alcanna a Species of Ligustrum of great use and sale for Dying and Colouring Senna Rose of Jericho or Hiericho a sort of Thlaspi Colocynthis Ambrosia or Oak of Cappadocia Some Plants mentioned by Breynius and taken out of Rauwolff's Hort. Sic. or else found in those Countries where Rauwolff Travelled Acaciae similis Mesopotamica minutissimis foliis siliquâ integrâ contortâ crassâ obtusâ sive siliqua Nabathaea nobis Azadirachta foliis ramosis majoribus Syriaca sive vulgaris flore caeruleo maj Perlato falso Sycomorus Italorum Bellon Astergir Rhasis incolis Zenselacht Rauwolff Horminum Syriacum tomentosum foliis Coronopi sive profundè laciniatis Breyn. Horminum rarum foliis laciniatis Rauwolff in Herbar vivo Lapathum Rotundifolium montis Libani semine maximo Breyn. Ribes Arabum Rauwolf Lycium Buxi foliis angustioribus Syriacum Breyn. Lycium Dioscoridis Rauwolff in Herbar Hadhad Arabibus Zaroa incolis montis Libani ejusdem In Syria Palestinâ observavit Rauwolffius Lycium Buxi foliis rotundioribus Syriacum vel Persicum Breyn. Hoc Lycium apud Rauwolffium cum priore confunditur Marrubium villosum Syriacum sive montis Libani Breyn. Melanthium Syriacum minus frutescens latifelium Rutae flore fructu tricapsulari Breyn. Ruta vocaâ—a Harmala J.B. Melilotus minima Syriaca Nephel sive Nephal Ibenbaithar Malasesae Plantago angustifolia minor lanuginosa Syriaca Cretica pediculis capitulis maturiâ—ate ad terram inflexis Breyn. Leontopodium Alpin Exot. Leontopodium Creticum C.B. Plantago angustifolia pâ—niculis Lagopi C.B. Plantago quinquenervia cum globulis albis pilosis J.B. Catanance Dioscoridis Rauwolff in Herbario vivo Satureia frutescens Arabica folio fimbriato hirsuto Breyn. Sathar Arabum Rauwolff Tithymalus vel Tithymalo affinis aphyllos dictus major latifolius flore sanguineo aviculae capitulum repraesentante Breyn. An Planta lactaria Xabra Camarronum Rhasis Rauwolff Jacea maxima Hicrosolymitana Alpin Exot. Marum Syriacum foliis incisis CHAP. IX Here follow some Epitaphs of the Christian Kings of Jerusalem together with a short Relation of their Reigns and mighty Deeds IN the Year of our Lord Christ 1096 when Henry the Fourth was Emperor of the West and Alexius the Grecian Emperor at Constantinople in the East Pope Vrban the Second called a Council at Claremont in France where they consulted together which way the Land of Promise might be delivered again from the Hands of the Infidels Where it was concluded and agreed upon to take the Field in common and for their General they chose Gottefrid de Boulion Count of Bâ—nonia in France Along with him went many Princes Counts and Noblemen viz. Baldwin and Eustachius his Brethren and many more and brought together an Army of Six hundred thousand Foot and One hundred thousand Horse so they went in several Parties through Hâ—gâ—ria Greece c. till they had passed the Hellespâ—nt and came into Asia the Lâ—ss now called Natâ—lia and belonging to the Turks where they joyn'd again and took some Towns to wit Nicea Tarsus and also Antiochia situated in Caelosyria Yet in these Actions were a great many Christians slain by the way others were taken Prisoners some were starved a great many died of Sicknesses that came by changing of the Air in these hot Countries so that in three years time for so long dured this March there were hardly Forty thousand Men as some write left of the aforenamed Sum that did arrive in the Land of Promise These went with their Master and General Gottefrid de Boulion before the City of Jerusalem wherein were a greater number of the Infidels to defend it yet they surrounded the City and took it in a little time and killed a great number of them When they had taken the Town on the 15th Day
of July in the Year 1099 and had reduced it they laid down their Armors and Arms and went to visit the Holy Sepulchre with great Devotion and chose there unanimously their General King of Jerusalem who at their request undertook the Government would not be called King nor Crowned with a Golden Crown in that place where our Saviour that Arch-King had worn one of Thorns After he had obtained this Victory he also subdued some adjacent Towns viz. Joppe called Jassa Porphria situated at the Foot of Mount Carmel by the Arabians and Turks called Hayphe Tiberias and the Consines of Galilea He also overcame with a handful of his Men the Captain of the Sultan who had a great number of Men with him and killed above Thirty thousand of them But as nothing is lasting in human Affairs he died in the Eleventh Month of his Reign and was buried in the above-mentioned Chapel and upon his Tomb-Stone is still to be read this following Epitaph Hic jacet inclitus dux Gottefridus de Boulion qui totam istam terram acquisivit cultui Christiano cujus anima regnet cum Christo Amen After his Decease the Christians unanimously chose his Brother Baldewin King of Jerusalem in his place He overcame with a small number of Men th◠King of Egypt that was Two and twenty thousand strong and killed the greatest part of his Men. And when he died in the Eighteenth Year of his Reign they chose Cousin Baldewin of Burgo the Second of that Name King This was a great Warrior and did many Heroick Deeds with few Men against the Heathens he overcame and took Prisoner Gatzim the Turkish Prince of the Lesser Asia with a great number of Men but soon after in the Fifth Year of his Reign he was beaten in a Battel by the King of the Parthians and carried away Prisoner In the mean time the Venetians and Genoueses came with Two hundred and seventy Ships and dispersed and beat the Armada of the Saracens and sunk many of their Ships and took also the strong Town of Tyrus so that both by Sea and Land there was abundance of Blood shed When the Enemies saw this that they set the King at liberty again in the Eighteent Month of his Imprisonmenth for a Sum of Money after that he did execute in the six following Years of his Reign in order to an Enlargement of his Kingdom many glorious and famous Deeds He overthrew the King of the Ascalonites who was assisted by the Egyptians and fell upon Jerusalem in one single Battel and also beat the King of Damascus in three several ones as you may see by his Epitaph here underneath written Rex Baldewinus Judas alter Machabaeus Spes patriae vigor ecclesiae virtus utriusque Quem formidabant cui dona tributa ferebant Cedar Aegyptus Dan homicida Damascus Proh dolor in modico clauditur hic tumulo In the Year 1131 the Crown was presented to Fulcon Count of Andegavia and Son-in-law to the before-said Baldewin who also obtained several Victories against the Persians and Turks But in his time there arose some Differences among the Christians and some Conspiracies which proved afterwards very disadvantageous to him he lost also Edessa a City in Mesopotamia which King Baldewin the First had conquered before which the Turks took by force from him This King left two Sons Baldewin and Alamric and after he had reigned Eleven Years he fell dead when he hunted a Hare on full speed After him his Son Baldewin the Third was Crowned who also died in the Twenty fourth Year of his Reign after he had fought several Battels and taken some Towns Then his Brother Alamric came to the Crown who was a great Warrior so that he was very fit for this Dignity he obtained many Victories against Sultan Saladin But afterwards when the Scales were turned he died also after his return from Egypt in the Year 1178 his Son Baldewin the Fourth and the Seventh King undertook the Government of the Kingdom in the Thirteenth Year of his Reign This although he was leprous yet he managed his Business very well and defended his Dominions courageously and gloriously against the Infidels And because he would not be married by reason of his Distemper therefore he married his Sister Sibylla to a Marquis of Monteferrato called William She was brought to Bed in the first year of a Son and called him after his Uncle Baldewin But when William died he married her again to Guido of Lusignan Count of Joppe with this condition that after his Decease he should Rule the Kingdom for his Son-in-law and be his Guardian so long until he came at age But he behaving himself very ill in the mean while the King grew so angry with him that he would by no means suffer him to live in his Dominions and ordered another to fill up his place one Raymond a Count of Tripoli Soon after the King died before his Son was quite Twenty Years old and was also buried in the Temple of the holy Sepulchre Within Eight Months after did also die the true Heir of the Crown the Son of Sibylla his Sister and was also buried by the other Kings so that we find still on three several Tomb-Stones that stand close one behind the other viz. Septimus in tumulo puer hic regnum tumulatus Est Baldewinus regum de sanguine natus Quem tulit è mundo sors primae conditionis Vt Paradysiacae loca possideat regionis So by the Incitation of his Mother Guido was proclaimed the last King Raymund the Count of Tripoli was extremely disgusted at this Election being that the Kingdom was already recommended to him wherefore he resolved to go to war with him and that he might be strong enough for him he made a League with Sultan Saladin to his own Grief and Ruine For when the Sultan saw these Differences between them two he raised suddenly a great Army and took Jerusalem and the whole Country by force of Arms. So the Kingdom of Jerusalem after the Christians had been possessed of it Eighty eight Years and Nineteen Days was retaken again by the Infidels not without great Loss and Damage Not long after the Infidels did pull down the Walls of the City turned the Churches into Stables saving the Temple of Solomon and spoiled the holy Sepulchre of our Lord Christ which in all the other Wars did still remain intire so that only one side of the Rock thereof is now to be seen This was done by the Infidels on purpose to shew us the foolish Zeal we have to conquer and visit the holy Grave and City as if Christ were still in it This and other places had been quite demolished also had it not been for the Eastern Christians the Armenians Surians c. which did stop their Fury by giving of them a great Sum of Money and so redeemed it CHAP. X. A Common Account of several sorts of Christians but chiefly of them that are
all the changes and varieties that happen in the Current Near the Euripus and opposite to the Town they shew a Port which they say was Aulis and it is not improbable for it must be thereabouts Between Negropont and Athens is a high Hill called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 formerly very dangerous but now guarded by Albaneses It is part of Mount Parnasse and near it on the left hand lies Mount Pentelicus from whence the Athenians anciently fetch'd their Stone and now there is a Convent of Caloieri's there one of the richest of all Greece In going from Athens by Sea I embarqued in a Port which lies just by Munichia That which they call Porto Pyraeo lies behind it a mile distant which is a large Port able to contain 500 Vessels There are the Ruins of the Town yet remaining and of the Walls which joyn'd it to the City of Athens I sailed by Porto Phalero the ancient Haven of Athens which is rather a Road than a Port. I saw an Island called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Athenians had anciently Mines I went ashore on the Promontory of Sunium to view the Remains of the Temple of Minerve which stood on it Hence I sailed among the Isles of the Archipelago Macronesia Thermea Serphanto Siphanto till I came to Melo From Melo I sailed through the Cyclades to come hither I pass'd by Andros Tenos Mycone Delos Nuxia and Paros I saw at a distance We sailed near the Northern Cape of Scio and the Southern of Mytilene or Lesbos and so came into the Gulf of Smyrna Within this Gulf stands Burla near some small Islands which is judged to be the ancient Clazomenae Foja which is the same with the ancient Phocaea Near this the River Hermus discharges it self into this Gulf. In this my Journey I had some misadventures My Companion Sir Giles Eastcourt died by the way At Sea I was plunder'd by the Serphiotes where I lost all my Letters and yours among the rest which you sent to my Lord Ambassador at Constantinople and Consul Rycaut whom I find here a very civil and knowing Gentleman and am much obliged to him for his Favours I have been as curious as I could in taking the Latitudes of some remarkable places As I find them I shall give them you Gr. m. Athens 38. 5. Corinth 38. 14. Sparta 37. 10. Corone 37. 2. Gr. m. Patras 38. 40. Delphos 38. 50. Thebes 38. 22. Negropont or Chalcis 38. 31. I desire you to present my humble Services to the Gentlemen of the Royal Society I am c. Some Plants observ'd by Sir George Wheeler in his Voyage to Greece and Asia minor IN the Scoglio or Island of St. Andre on the Shore of Istria Scorpioides Limonii foliis floribus luteis Limonium reticulatum Syderitis spinosa Draba caerulea Cretica Convolvulus rectus argenteis foliis Polium Creticum c. On the Rocks near Pola in Istria Cassia Poetarum Trifolium Saxatile hirsutissimum Genista montana arborescens Tordilium sive Seseli Creticum Tragoriganum Creticum vel potius Satureia hyberna nostras Polium Rorismarini foliis Salvia fruticosa Abundance of Samphire and a curious bulbose Plant crested with little Flowers striped with white and Cinnamon colour Near Mortaro thirty miles from Zara Planta lactescens Altheae foliis 't was not blown it might either be a Tithymal an Apocinum or Campanula major lactescens Lobel Eryngium luteum monspeliense c. On the great Rock near Clissa After verbasci foliis Jacea incana seu argentea Alpin in Exot. Lotus odoratus Horminum creticum Satureia citrii odore Aster montanus folio odorato forsan Aster montanus luteus glabro Salicis folio Bauhin Libanotis Ferulae facie Linum flore luteo Hieracium flore incarnato Thlaspi Saxatile folio Poetarum Caucalis platyphylla Colum. Caucalis magno flore fructu Planta Equiseti frutescentis facie on the Steeple and hard Walls perhaps a Species of Tithymal 't was without leaves but full of joints with abundance of yellow scaly knobs by pairs between which issue forth three or four little Tetrapetalose Flowers Of this I saw an Arborescent one near Troy On the Mountain near Lesina in the Island of Pharos Aconitum Lycoctinum flore Delphinii vel Napelli Species Aloe in Flower Asphodelus minor Junci folio fistulosâ non bulbosâ radice Malva Romana rubra Juniperus major seu oxycedrus Genista Spartium Septimo Bauhini simile the Root is hot of a Spicy taste Pilosella major pilosissima c. In the Island of Corfou Thymus capitatus Dioscoridis Lysimachia Hysopi folio Scabiosa caule altissimo flore nigrescente fortè peregrina Bauhin Cyperus gramineus miliaceus Scammonea Acarna flore patulo rubente Centaurium maj album Centaurium rubens Spicatum Centaurium ramosum rubens Centaurium ramosum album Vitex flore caeruleo albo Consolida regalis foetida Glicyrrhiza Pulegii Species erecto caule latifolia incana hirsuta With many others mentioned before In the Island of Zant The Curran Grape White and yellow Melons A large thin-skin'd Lemon without either Seed or Stone as also the Curran Grapes are Genista seu spartium foliis argenteis Convolvulus Sagittariae foliis Prunella spinosa Coris Matthioli Gossipium seu Xylon Glaux Dioscoridis Cistus plantaginis folio Cicer Creticum c. In the Isle of Cerigo Dictamnus falsus Chamaedrys Alpina minima hirsuta Thymi capitari secunda species foliis minoribus densius Stipatis Salvia pomifera seu gallifera Staechas citrina That Species of Thyme is in Dr. Plukenet's Phytographia Tab. 116. F. 4. In the Isle of Tenos or Tine Limonium caule sinuato Frutex Spinosus Jaceae albae capitulis Stachys parva foliis argenteis Genista spinosa floribus rubris Near the Ruins of Troy Quercus glande majore Gossipium Sesamum Anguria Tragacantha Tartonreira Massiliensium seu Thymelaea incana Sericea longifolia latifolia Pastinaca echinifera Colum. Jacea lutea capite spinoso Papaver corniculatum flore tricolore Pancratium in flower Verbascum marinum laciniatis foliis Near Constantinople Abrotanum humile flore Chamaemeli Serpilli species foliis Satureiae Androsaemum flore thecâ omnium maximis Guajacum Patavinum On Mount Olympus near Bursa or Prusa Abies conis sursum spectantibus foliis subtùs argenteis Cistus laurinis foliis Aster montanus Linariae folio flore flavo Coris seu Hypericum foliis crispis Hypericum foliis hirsutis margine crinifero Aster Conyzoides Gesn Astragalus Matthiol flore caeruleo Pyrola frutescens Arbuti folio Gentianella verna Senecio incana pinguis Cerinthe minor Cistus argenteis foliis Cymbalaria Italica Calamintha montana praestantior Elichryson sive Gnaphalium comâ aureâ Gramen junceum Echinatum Millefolium nobile odoratum Hypericum seu Ascyron magno flore Panax Heracleum Gnaphalium repens Herba Tuitia Auriculae Affinis Tragacantha Helleborus niger Ephedra seu Polygonum Scandens bacciferum climbing up to the tops of the vast Plane-trees according to Bellonius In our
Turks concerning an impudent hot-headed Persian who publickly in the new Mosch built by the Mother of the present Emperor asserted that Ali was equal to Mahomet But it seems he very luckily made his escape out of their hands at which the Priests and the more zealous Turks were very much scandalized The Greeks have twenty six Churches within the walls of the City besides six in Galata of which I have given an account elsewhere They have also two Churches at Scutari one at Kadikui or Chalcedon So at Staurosis Chingilkui and several other Villages upon the Asian shore of the Bosphorus as at Beshictash Ortakui Chorouch chesme which Church is dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel Jenikui or Neochorion Therapia Bujukdere and other Villages on the Europaean side They have also a Church at Haskui where is their Burying-place and another near the Bagno dedicated to St. Parasceve And at Tatoula about a mile from Pera upon a Hill which from the Name of the Church is thence called by the Greeks and Franks St. Demetrius's Hill Next to the holy Virgin St. Demetrius and St. George have most Churches dedicated to them The Armenians have not if I remember aright above seven Churches they being few in number in comparison of the Greeks The Jews may have in the City and places adjacent between twenty and thirty Synagogues this being the greatest shelter of that accursed and contemptible People in the Grand Signior's Dominions next to Caire and Saloniki and I believe there may be about twenty or thirty thousand Families of them They are of great use and service to the Turks upon account of their Brocage and Merchandise and Industry in several mechanical Trades All these I look upon as Natives or Slaves rather each paying Money for his Head every year The Jews indeed very wisely collect this tax among themselves and according to an Agreement made with the Tefterdar or Treasurer pay a certain sum in gross for their whole Nation residing there by which piece of cunning they are great gainers and spare the Poor among them less able to pay by a contribution of the Rich to make up the sum The English and Dutch Ambassadors have their Chappels in their Palaces common to their respective Nations The Churches and Chappels of the Western Christians of the Roman Communion in Galata are St. Peter's belonging to the Dominicans where is the famous piece of Madonna di Constantinopoli as the Italians call it or of the blessed Virgin holding the holy Child Jesus in her Arms which they pretend to be drawn by the hand of St. Luke celebrated by some of the latter Ecclesiastical Writers to have been a famous Painter Out of respect to this idle Tradition the credulous and superstitious Latines and Greeks of the Roman Communion shew great veneration to it which otherwise hath little in it of Proportion Art or Beauty to derive any Reputation upon the designer or upon his Work St. Francis belonging to the Conventuali Fryars of the Order of St. Francis the ground of this by the wise Conduct and Intercession of Cavaliere Molino the Venetian Bailo after the surrendry of Candia upon the Peace made by the Republick with the Grand Signior was procured to be restored and a handsome Church rebuilt with the large Contributions of Money sent out of Christendome St. Benedict belonging to the Jesuits where is a rich Altar curiously adorn'd with several Figures in Mosaick This Convent was purchased for them by their great Benefactor Henry the Fourth of France St. Mary belonging to the Observantines or Zoccolanti a branch of the Order of St. Francis so called from their going in Zoccoli or wooden Clogs The Capucines have a little Chappel dedicated to St. George hard by the French Ambassador's Palace St. Ann a Chappel frequented by the Perots St. Paul and St. Anthony were both taken away some years since from the Christians and turned into Moschs The former of which is now known by the name of Arab Giamesi or the Mosch of the Arabians Our Interpreters mentioned also to me the Church of St. John which the Turks have seized upon for their use St. George which the Jews are possest of and St. Sebastian which was used to be visited chiefly on Holy-days The North Wind blows for the most part at Constantinople which must be ascribed to its nearness to the Euxine Sea which bears that point from it So that for want of a Southwardly Wind Ships have been forced to lye a month or two sometimes near the month of the Hellespont this was taken notice of long since by Eunapia◠in the Life of Aedesius who ascribes the seldom blowing of the South Wind to the situation of the Mountains whereas it is checked and overpowered by the exuberance of the Vapors continually sent forth from the black and great Sea as the Greeks call it in comparison of the Mediterranean Vide ad finem Codini de Origin Constantinopol Edit Paris pag. 80. The Hellespont is about forty miles in length and at the Castles of Sestos and Abydos the streight may be about three quarters of an English mile over or less The length of the Propontis is about a hundred and fifty miles both Shores may be seen in the middle of it In it are Cyzicus an Island near the Asian Shore to which it is joyned by two Bridges It still retains its ancient name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is the Seat of a Bishop being inhabited by a considerable number of Greeks Proconnesus not far from the former now as for some Centuries past called Marmora from the excellent Quarries of Marble there found the Marmor Cyzenicum also being famous in the time of Pliny Besbycus now called by the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Good Haven not far from the entrance into the Bay of Montanea to the North-and-by-East the Turks call it Imramle There are several Islands over against the Bay of Nicomedia formerly called Sinus Astacenus according to Strabo about six or seven leagues from Constantinople Prote so called because they approach first to it coming from Constantinople to the South of this Prencipe and Pytis which I take to be the same with Pyrgos that lies inmost toward the Bay Chalcitis in modern Greek Chalce or Chalcis Oxia and Platy to the North-west I have expressed the Turkish names of the lesser and uninhabited Islands elsewhere which perchance were fantastically imposed by some Franks The Seraglio is at the extream point of the North-east Angle of Constantinople where formerly stood old Byzantium within which towards the Haven is a stately Kiosk or Summer-house from whence the Grand Signior usually takes Barge when he passes into Asia or diverts himself upon the Bosphorus at which time the Bostangi bashi who hath the principal care of the Emperor's Palace and hath the command of the Bosphorus sits at the Helm and steers The seven Towers are at the South-east Extremity The only Suburbs are to
near the bottom of the Hill Norad the second the Father of Mahomet the Great lies buried near whereunto was formerly the Metropolitical Church of the Holy Apostles The Bezesten or Exchange seems to be much better and larger than the great one at Constantinople as are the several Caravanserais built for the use and accommodation of Merchants and Travellers in one of which the Rice Chane I took up my quarters Without the City toward the East is the Mosch and Sepulchre of the Emperor Bajazid the first whom the Turks call Jilderim or Lightning and the Greek Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not far from hence is the Mosch of Mahomet the first and his Sepulchre Toward the West upon the side of the Hill is the Mosch of Morad the first whom they call Gazi or the Conqueror near which he lies buried There are in the whole about 124 Moschs several of which were formerly Christian Churches and between fifty and sixty Chanes The Castles built by Osman when he besieged the City are slighted and altogether unfortified the one to the North the other to the South-west At Checkerghe about a mile and a half out of Town are the hot Baths much frequented both by Christians and Turks They are made very convenient to bath in and are covered over that they may be used in all weathers Among others there is a large round Basin where they usually divert themselves by swimming What Opinions the Turks have of our B. Saviour and the Christian Religion I shall briefly shew as they lye dispersed in several Chapters of the Alcoran according to which they frame their Discourse whensoever either Zeal or Curiosity puts them upon this Topick for Mahomet upon his setting up to be the Author of a new Religion finding such a considerable part of the World professing the Doctrine of Christ with all the Mysteries of Faith therein contained was cast upon a necessity of saying something both concerning him and it By which it will appear how great the power of Truth is above Imposture and Subtilty and that as the Devils in the possessed confess'd though against their wills Christ to be the Son of God so this Daemoniack in the midst of all his Forgeries and Lyes and ridiculous and childish Narratives not being able to contradict the universal Belief of the Christians of that and the preceeding Ages founded on the History of the Gospel hath been forced to give testimony to several particulars of it They confess then that Christ was born of a pure spotless Virgin the Virgin Mary chosen by God and sanctified above all the Women in the World and that the Angel Gabriel was dispatched out of Heaven to acquaint her with the news of it That such a kind of miraculous and supernatural Birth never hapned to any besides and that Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and that he wrought mighty Miracles for instance that he cleansed Lepers gave Sight to the Blind restored Sick persons to their Health and raised the Dead That he is a great Prophet sent by God to convert men from the vanity and error of their false worship to the knowledge of the true God to preach Righteousness and to correct and restore the imperfection and miscarriages of human Nature that he was of a most holy and exemplary life that he was the true Word of God the Apostle or Ambassador of God that his Gospel was revealed to him from Heaven and that he is in Heaven standing nigh to the Throne of God They blaspheme indeed with a brutishness and stupidity only befitting Turks the Mysteries of the Holy Trinity and of the Divinity of our B. Saviour and deny that he was put to death and say that another in his shape was crucified by the Jews and that he himself was assumed into Heaven in his body without dying at all and consequently they will not own that he satisfied Divine Justice for the Sins of the World so great an affinity is there between the Heresie of Socinus and profess'd Mahometanism I could never yet see any Turkish Translation of the Alcoran they cry up the elegance of the style which being Enthusiastick and high-flown by reason also of the tinkling of the periods is very delightful to their Ears who seem to be affected with Rythme mightily Though I suppose it is upon a more politick account that they are so averse as to the translating it into their vulgar Language not out of respect to the sacredness of the Original only whose full commanding Expressions they think cannot be translated without a great diminution to the sence but to keep it in greater veneration among the People who might be apt to slight and disesteem it should it become thus common among them It is enough that the Priests and Learned men explain the difficult passages of it to the people and write Commentaries for the use of the more curious and inquisitive The Persians on the contrary think it no disparagement to the Arabick or profanation of the sence to translate this cursed Book into their own Language and Copies are frequent among them The Grand Signior's Women are usually the choicest Beauties of the Christian Spoiles presented by the Bassa's or Tartars The present Sultana the Mother of the young Prince Mustapha is a Candiot the Valide or Emperors Mother a Russian the Daughter of a poor Priest who with her Relations were seized upon by the Tartars in an Incursion which they made into the Muscovites Country She being received into the Seraglio by her beautiful Complexion and cunning Behaviour gain'd the Heart and the Affection of Sultan Ibrahim a man wholly addicted to soft Pleasures and who seldom cared to be long absent from the Womens Apartment but chose to spend his time among them Having the good Fortune to be the Mother of the Prince Mahomet the eldest Son of his Father who now reigns she had all the Honours that could possibly be done her and was the beloved Hazaki or chief Concubine During this height of Splendour and Glory the Court removing from Constantinople to Adrianople distant about an hundred and twenty miles as she was passing in great state attended with her Guards through the Streets of the City in a Coach much like our Carriage-wagons but that they are latticed to let in the Air for no one must presume to stare or scarce look upon the Women much less must they themselves suffer their Faces to be seen in this jealous Country she out of curiosity looking through the holes saw a poor Christian Slave in a Shop where Sugar and such-like Wares were sold Upon her return she sent one of her Eunuchs to enquire for the person and to ask him several Questions about his Country Relations Friends and the time when and how long he had been a Slave His Answers were so particular and satisfactory that she was soon convinc'd of the truth and certainty of her apprehensions when she first cast her Eyes
and disquiets of Life being contented and happy in one anothers Company void of all Ambition and Envy courteous and humane to Strangers that may want their Help and Assistance kindly entertaining them with such Provision as their Folds afford I have met with some Companies of these harmless Wanderers in my Travels The Country lies open without any Enclosures and the Propriety not being vested in any one they travel through the Plains unmolested and find excellent Pasture every where The Turks till no more ground than will serve their necessities being supplied with Corn from Egypt and from Moldavia and Walachia by the way of the black Sea letting vast tracts of Ground lye waste and uncultivated so that their Sloth herein sometimes is justly punished with Dearths They have nothing to shew for their Houses and Possessions but an Hogiet or piece of Paper subscribed by the Cadi if they have acquired them by their Money or that they were their Father 's before them The Dervises generally are melancholy and place the greatest part of their Religion in Abstinence and other Severities Some cut their Flesh others vow not to speak for six or seven years or all their lives long though never so much provoked or distressed Their Garments are made of a course sort of Wool or Goats Hair they are tyed up by the Vow of their Order ever from marrying Several of this Sect in the height of their Religious Phrenzy have attempted upon the lives of the Emperors themselves at whose Government they have taken disgust as Mahomet the Second and Achmet as if such desperate attempts were fatal to Bigots in all Religions They pay a mighty Veneration to any Relick of Mahomet his Banner is still preserved in the Treasury of the Seraglio and is look'd upon as the great Security of the Empire They believe that it was sent from Heaven and conveyed into the hands of Mahomet by the Angel Gabriel as a Pledge and sign of Success and Victory in his Battels against the Christians and all other Enemies of the Musulman Faith It was sent to Candia to encourage the Souldiers to endure the fatigue of that long and tedious Siege and when it was brought thence after the surrender of that City to be deposited in its usual place the Vizier gave several Christian Slaves that row'd in the Galley that was fraught with this holy Ware their Liberty They pretend to have some Rags of Mahomet's Vest to which they ascribe great vertue In confidence of which the Emperor Achmet in the time of a great fire which raged at Constantinople when all other means failed dipt part of them in Water to be sprinkled upon the Fire to rebate the fury of it Next to the Mufti or Cadaleskires are the Mollas of which these four are the chiefest in Dignity The Molla of Galata Adrianople Aleppo Prusa and after them are reckoned these eight Stambol Ephendi Larissa Misir or Cairo Sham or Damascus Diarbekir or Mesopotamia Cutaia Sophia Philippi The Priests have no Habit peculiar to their Profession whereby they are distinguish'd from others If they are put from their Moschs for Miscarriage or Neglect of doing their Duty or if they think fit to resign and be Priests no longer they may betake themselves without any scandal to secular Employments their former Character and Quality wholly ceasing While they remain Priests they counterfeit a more than ordinary gravity in their discourse and walking and affect to wear Turbants swelling out and made up with more cross folds which was all the difference which I could observe by their Head-Attire which is various though I could not find that this was constantly and strictly observ'd In Byram time which is the great Festival of the year at which time every one looks cheerfully and merrily among other signs of mutual Respect they besprinkle one another with sweet Water They indulge to several Sports and some are mightily pleased with Swinging in the open air the ordinary sort of People especially paying only a few Aspers for the diversion The Government is perfectly arbitrary and despotical the Will and Pleasure of the Emperor having the force and power of a Law and oftentimes is above it His bare Command without any process is enough to take off the Head of any Person though never so eminent in Dignity though usually for formality and to silence the murmurings of the Souldiery and People the Sentence is confirmed by the Mufti Sometimes Bassa's who have amassed great Treasures in their Governments are cut off in their own Houses in the midst of their Retinue the Messengers of Death producing the Imperial Command usually sent in a black Purse and not a Sword drawn in their defence Others if they are obnoxious to the least Umbrage or Jealousie tho' dismist the Seraglio with all possible Demonstrations of the Grand Signior's Favour and with rich Presents in order to take possession of Places of great command in the Empire before they have got two or three days Journey from Constantinople have been overtaken and strangled In the Army Commands are given according to merit Courage and Conduct are sure to be rewarded the way lying open to the meanest Souldier to raise himself to be the Chief of his Order But other Preferments depend upon meer Chance and upon the Fancy of the Emperor whether the person be fit or no and they are as soon lost The least ill success or miscarriage proves oftentimes fatal and a more lucky man is put in his place and he succeeded by a third if unfortunate in a design though managed with never so much Prudence and Valour They admit of no hereditary Honours and have no respect to Descent or Blood except the Ottoman Family he only is great and noble whom the Emperor favours and while his Command lasts According to a Tradition that passes current amongst them a Bassa's Son by a Sultana or a Daughter or Sister of the Emperor can rise no higher than to be a Sangiacbei or Governor of some little Province much inferiour to a Bassa and under his Jurisdiction Being born of Slaves for the most part they do not pride themselves in their Birth very few among them being scarce able to give any account of their Grandfathers They have no Sirnames but are distinguished by their possessions and places of abode and enjoying by Law a liberty of having what Women they please they have little or no regard to Alliance or Kindred Their Empire owes the continuance of its Being to the severity of the Government which oftentimes takes place without regard either to Justice or Equity and to their frequent Wars which prevent all occasions of Mutiny and Faction among the Souldiers which happen frequently when unemploy'd So that tho' Ambition may put a warlike Sultan upon enlarging his Territories by new Conquests yet reason of State forces a weak and effeminate Prince such as was Ibrahim to make War for his own security Their Politicks are not owing
Cleopatra's Needles but the Inhabitants content themselves with the general name of Pillars They have no Basis or Pedestals above ground and if they never had they must needs be very deep in the Earth The Draughts I here send you will excuse all farther Description One of them was very well taken by Monsieur Brute a French Druggerman the other by a Dutch Painter who you 'l see has but little commended his Art If you have a fancy upon the sight of 'em to sift out the Hieroglyphick character with which they are engraven perhaps you 'l find it to be the aboriginal Egyptian Letter long since worn out of common use in the Country as the Samaritan so 't is now generally call'd was amongst the Jews and that it bears proportion with the China now in use where each note represents a word or rather an entire signification And moreover that 't is wrought the same way too from the top to the bottom as you have seen in the Board I brought from a Door in the Village Succara which is next to the Mummies the largest piece of Egyptian Writing perhaps at this day in Europe I confess that in the Vaults or Priests Chambers cut out of the Rock close by the second Pyramid the whole Walls are inscribed therewith but I speak of an Original And if all that is there written were but exactly copied it might be then lawful to hope that the Language so long since dead and buried in the House of Bondage might have its resurrection in the Land of Liberty That such vast Monuments might be removed from place to place is difficult indeed but not impossible And if one Archimedes as Athenaeus preserves the Story for us could lanch the vast Ship of Hiero which all the Strength of Syracuse was not able to bring to Sea what might not many great Masters in the same Art perform and upon their own Dunghil too for I may call Egypt the Mother of the Mathematicks Besides some of these Mountains are near the Red-Sea and Suss from Cairo but two or three days from Nile less And how possible it is to convey mighty weights by Water let the Obelisks at Rome declare which were all of them brought from this very Country And that such things may be done by Land too though not by every one is plain enough because we see they have been done At Baalbec which is 14 hours from Damascus for thence I went accompanied with Mr. Anth. Balam and Mr. Jo. Verney both now in England whom I thought fit to name for my Compurgators if you should question the credit of Story There is a Stone about 66 foot long on the North side of the Castle-wall and two more of 60 each And I believe we saw the way they travel'd having left one of their Company though not quite so big in the Road as a Monument thereof to this very day If you have got the piece of this Aguglia for I have nothing here you will thereby best discern its colour and composition 'T is something more lively than the Porphyry of St. John's Font for by that name 't is known at Ephesus much more vivid than those four tall square Pillars at Tadmore in its middle age Palmyra which are each of them but of I think one piece whilst all the rest exceeding many of another sort of Stone are of several pieces and round If you 'l attribute the clearness of their Complexion in part to the Air which corrodes them especially upon the North and East I impose not upon the liberty of your Reason If the Ichnography of them which I desire you to reserve for me wont excuse me from any farther description I beg your pardon that I have said thus much and hazarded my Judgment to demonstrate my Affection how much I am and endeavour to be Your faithful Friend And humble Servant R.H. The Cutts of these Pillars are not prefixt to this Paper because engraven and published elsewhere See Philosoph Trans N. 178. p. 1252. Monsieur Cuper in his Letter to l' Abbe Nicaise informs the World that he had received Letters from Aleppo which say that some English Gentlemen out of curiosity going to visit the Ruines of Palmyra had found 400 Marble Columns of a sort of Porphyry and also observ'd some Temples yet entire with Tombs Monuments Greek and Latine Inscriptions of all which he hopes to get Copies Journal des Seavans N o. 25. An. 1692. A Journey from Grand Caire to Mecha THE day that the Emir-Adge parted from Caire he encamped in Tents close by the City and a few days after he encamped at the Birque which is a great Pond about twelve miles from Caire near to which they encamp This place is the Rendesvouz of all the Caravans The Emir-Adge parted from thence with the whole Caravan Wednesday the eighth of August it being the Custom for the Caravan of Caire to set out Seven and fifty days after the beginning of the Ramadam that so it may be there punctually at the time It is very pretty to see them encamped in the Night-time because of the infinite number of Lamps that are in the Tents and Pavilions Next day the ninth of August the Caravan of the Magrebins parted also from the Birque and there all of Barbary who intend to make the Journey meet and make a distinct Caravan which depends not on the Emir-Adge oâ— Caire but have a Chief of their own That Caravan never sets out but a day after the Caravan of Caire they travel commonly by night and rest in the day time as all other Caravans do that go to other places that so they may avoid the heat which is almost insupportable and when the Moon does not shine there are men who carry Links before the Caravan In all Caravans the Camels are tied tail to tail so that let them but go and there is no trouble of leading them Here I 'll give the Reader an account how many Stages there are betwixt Caire and Mecha how many days they stay in them how many hours travelling there is betwixt them and at what Stages the Waters are sweet or bitter all along the way This little Itinerary I had from a Prince of Tunis who made that Journey whilst I was at Caire From Caire to the Birque it is reckoned four hours Journey there is fresh Water there From the Birque to Misana that is to say Cistern ten hours no Water there From Misana to Kalaat Aadgeroud which is to say the Castle of Sand-pits twelve hours and an half there is bitter Water there From the Castle of Aadgeroud to Navatir seven hours and an half no Water there From Navatir to Rastagara ten hours no Water there and the way bad From Rastagara to Kalaat el Nahhal that is to say the Castle of Palmes fifteen hours there they stay a day and have fresh Water From the Castle of Nahhal to Abiar Alaina fourteen hours only bitter Water