proportion which as yet remaineth As for that true estimation which is so much spoken of beyond Sea and vaunted of in Historie almost nothing remaineth at this present but bare report For of those which in some good measure seeme to hold up their heads and appeare by their Deputies in their assemblies they are seldome of one minde as being in truth unable unlesse with much adoe to bring up the charges and contributions necessary and incident for the defence and maintenance of their leagues privileges and trade in forren parts and at home Maidenburg is one of these Hanse-towns and the Countie wherein it standeth is also Maidenburg It is one of the most ancient townes of Germany and containeth in circuit about three miles The streets are very large but durtie and the houses built partly of stone and partly of timber many of them being ancient and faire The wals are strong and upon them are mounted many good peeces of brasse Ordnance It hath ten Churches the Inhabitants for the most part being Lutherans It standeth upon the river Elve over which it hath a faire and large bridge of timber The Emperour this summer laid siege to it which upon composition he afterwards raised Hamburg standeth in the land of Holst upon the River of Eâ—â—â— also It is foure miles in compasse and of great strength and much resorted unto by forren Nations for traffique of Merchandize In it are nine Churches and many large streets which are very durtie in foule weather The greatest part of the Inhabitants are Brewers for here are said to bee 777. Brewers forty Bakers two Lawyers and one Physitian for most of their quarrels and contentions as they beginne in drinke so they end in drinke And being sicke and ill at ease their physicke is to fill their guts with Hamborow Beere if that helpe not their case is desperate It is one of the Hanse-townes also and the people are Lutherans Stoad being neither faire nor great standeth within the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Brâ—me but not subject unto him by reason it is one of the Hanse-townes It standeth about two English miles from the river of Elve and hath a small creeke called the Swing which runneth through the citie into the river and beareth small barques for transportation of Merchandize In it are foure Churches and a Monastery of Lutheran Friers It was this last yeere taken by the Emperour Of other goodly Cities there are a farre greater number some by inheritance belonging to the Temporall Princes and some to the Spirituall In criminall causes they inflict most sharpe torments and unusuall kinds of death a signe of the cruelty of their Natuâ—â—â— They were the inventors of Printing of Guns and of â—lockes things of notable use for mankind The people is divided into foure sorts Husbandmen they beare â—o office Citizens Noblemen and Prelates The laâ—â— thâ—ee sort make the Assembly States of the Empire Oâ— Prelates the Archbishops Electors have the chiefest place The Archbishop of Ments is Chancellour for the Empire the Bishop of Colen is Chancellour of Italy and the Bishop of Treuers is Chancellour of France The Archbishop of Saltzburg is of greatest jurisdiction and revenue The Bishop of Maidenburg writeth himselfe Primate of Germany Breme and Hamburg had jurisdictions next follow above forty other Bishops the Great Master of the Dutch Order and the Prior of the Knights of Ierusalem then seven Abbots and they likewise are States of the Empire Of secular Princes the King of Bohemia is principall who is chiefe Tasier the Duke of Saxonie Marshall the Marquesse of Brandburg high Chamberlaine the Earle Palatine Sewer Besides thesâ— places there are thirty other Dukes amongst whom the Arch-Duke of Austria holdeth the highest place and of these Dukes the King of Deâ—marke by his tenure of the Dukedome of Holsatia is reckoned to be one The Marquesses Lantgraves Earles and Barons are innumerable It is thought that the Empire receiveth every way above seven millions which is a great matter yet besides ordinary the people not over pressed as in Italy doe pay other great subsidies to their Princes in times of danger The Empire was bound at least wise accustomed to furnish the Emperour when hee went to Rome to bee crowned with twenty thousand footmen and foure thousand Horse and to maintaine them for eight moneths and therefore it was called Romanum subsidium The revenues of the Cities and Lay-Princes have beene greatly augmented since the suppressing of Popery and bringing in of new impositions which taking their beginning from Italy evill examples spread farre quickly passed over to France and Germany In times of necessity great taxes are laid upon the whole Empire and levied extraordinarily And that they may bee gathered with the greater ease Germany is parted into ten divisions or circuits which have their particular assemblies for the execution of the Edicts made in the generall Diets of the Empire As concerning their multitudes it is thought that the Empire is able to affoord two hundred thousand Horse and Foot which the warre before spoken of may prove to be true As likewise the forepassed warres of France and Belgia which were ever continued in those two Provinces for the most part with German souldiers Their forces may the better be transported from place to place by reason of the commodiousnesse of many faire and navigable rivers At one time Wolfang Duke of Bipont led into France an Army of twelve thousand footmen and eight thousand horsemen in behalfe of the Protestants and at the same time the Count Mansfield was leader of five thousand horsemen of the same Nation in behalfe of the Catholikes William of Nassaw had in his Armie eight thousand German horsemen and ten thousand foot-men the Duke of Alva had at the same instant three thousand What should I speake of the numbers that entred Flanders with Duke Casimere Or those that entred France under the same Leader in the yeere of our Lord 1578. Or to what end should I make mention of that Armie whereof part served Henrie the fourth part the league But to prove that this Nation must be very populous seeing that warres are continually open in some one or other part of Christendome and no action undertaken therein wherein great numbers of Germans are not waged and entertained To speake nothing of the Netherlands who in times past have resisted the whole power of France with an Armie of fourescore thousand men or of the Swissers who in their owne defence are thought able to raise an Army of one hundred and twenty thousand souldiers I will only put you in minde of that expedition which they made out of their owne Territories into Lumbardie in defence of that State against Francis the French King with an Armie of fifty thousand foot-men The best foot-men of Germany are those of Tirol Swevia and Westphalia the best horse-men those of Brunswicke Cleveland and Franconia But plainly the best horsemen of Germany
is brought out of Germanie The Countie is so populous and so replenished with buildings in all places that here are credibly affirmed 29237. Cities Townes and Villages to be numbred Others say 780. Castles and walled Townes and 32. thousand Villages Here is also plentie of Fowle and great store of Fresh-water Fish by reason of the great Lakes which are found in many places of this Kingdome The people are for the most part Lutherans and their language is more than halfe Polish They are a free people and after the death of their King they may make choice of whom they will to be their Governour So did they lately chuse Matthias And for their more strength and better securitie against the Romanists they linked themselves with the Silesians their next neighbours in a perpetuall and firme bond of amitie offensive and defensive against all men whatsoever The people of Bohemia live in great plentie and delicacie they much resemble the English the women be very beautifull white-handed but luxurious and that with libertie of their husbands also They are divided in opinion of Religion the Protestants of the Augustane Confession being so potent that they were able to chuse a King and to put out the Emperour Their Kingdome is meerely elective although by force and faction now almost made hereditary to the House of Austria which it seemes it was not when as within these two Ages that State made choice of one M. Tyndall and English Gentleman father to M. Doctor Tyndall Master of Queenes College in Cambridge sending over their Ambassadors to him and by them their presents which story is famously knowne in Cambridge Their chiefe Citie Prague is one of the greatest of Christendome as being three townes in one each divided from other by the River Multaw and all three conjoyned by a goodly woodden bridge of foure and twenty arches by it runnes the famous Elve which receives two others into him in that Country Eger and Wattz The Kingdome hath many mighty men of estate into whose Lordships the Countrey is altogether divided and not as others into Shires and Counties The King hath three silver Mines and one of gold some pearles are there found also The tinne Mines there were first found by an English Tinner who fled thither for debt and is the best of Europe next our English All the Nobilitie and Gentrie are by their tenures obliged when their King is in the field to wait upon him on horsebacke completely armed which are enow to make an Army of twenty or thirty thousand This service the Protestants promised to King Fredericke of late but the tenth man appeared not They serve willinger on horsebacke than on foot and are rather for a Summer service than to lie in the field all Winter and yet are every way better souldiers than the Germans The Protestants were suffered to plant and increase there by the craft and plot of Cardinall Glessel who was governour to the Emperour Matthias his pretence was that they would bee a sure bulwarke against the Turke should spare the service and lives of the Catholikes this was his pretence but his plot was an expectation of some stirres to be raised by them which some lay he did in hatred of the house of Austria whom hee desired to see set besides the cushion others imagine it was but a tricke to make the great men of the Protestants to forfeit their Estates Howsoever the plot tooke and the Cardinall after the taking of Prague being invited to a banquet by the Elector of Mentz was by him sent prisoner to Rome where he remained two yeares but was afterward both inlarged and rewarded And this was one of the secrets of the Mysterie of iniquitie Moravia lying on the East of Bohemia so named of the River Mora for the bignesse thereof affordeth more corne than any Country of Europe It aboundeth also with good and pleasant wine like unto Rhenish and is wonderfully replenished in all parts with faire Cities Towns Villages all built of stone or bricke It is very mountainous and woody but the South part is more champian It containes two Earledomes one Bishopricke divers Baronies two good Cities and foure or six faire Townes The people be very martiall and fierce especially the mountainers who stood so stoutly to King Frederick at the battell of Prague that had all the rest of the Army done so the Kingdome had not beene lost It is a free State like Poland and may make choice of whom they will to be the Lord whose stile is to be called Margrave of Moravia And for that informer times the Emperour and Matthias his brother offered them some wrongs concerning religion they have sithence contracted a league offensive and defensive with the Nobility of Hungarie and Austria as well against the invasions of the Turke as the oppressions of the Romanists Amongst these Provinces Silesia and Lusatia are as large as Bohemia but in strength and numbers of people farre inferiour These two Provinces with Moravia are incorporate to the Crowne of Bohemia Silesia lies on the East of Bohemia Poland on the South of it to which it sometimes belonged Hungaria and Moravia on the East It is two hundred miles long and fourescore broad It is a most delicate and a plentifull Country finely divided in the middle by the faire River Oder on which stand foure or five handsome Cities the chiefe of which is Breslaw the Bishop whereof is for his revenue called the golden Bishop here is also an Vniversity Niesse is also another Bishopricke who now is a Cardinall The people especially of the Cities be civill and generous nor is there any where a more gallant or warlike Gentry which the Turke well tried in the warres of Hungarie for very sufficient serviters they be both on horse and foot and they are able to levie great numbers The government is Aristocraticall that is by the States yet in most things a dependant upon the will of the King of Bohemia It was sometimes divided amongst fifteene Dukes but all their families being extinct nine of those Lordships are escheated to the King of Bohemia the other six still remaine amongst three of the heires of the ancient owners The two Dukedomes of Oppelen and Ratibor in this Country were by this present Emperour given to Bethlem Gabor in consideration of his relinquishment of the Crowne of Hungaria For which two Dukedomes and for the lands of the old Marquesse of Iegerensdorff in Lusatia who being prescribed by the Emperour and beaten out by the Duke of Saxony fled to Bethlem Gabor who had newly married his neece that is the sister to the present Elector of Brandenburgh whose fathers brother this Iegerensdorff was For these lands I say came part of the discontents still depending betweene Bethlem Gabor and the Emperour T is reported that if King Frederick would have laid downe his right to Bohemia the Emperour would have beene content to have made him King of Silesia
well maintained there is the house of Piety called Il monte della pieta which by ordinary Revenues and gifts may dispend yeerely 60000. Crownes wherewith amongst other charitable workes it maintaineth thorow the Kingdome two thousand Infants It is one of the regions belonging to the Kingdome of Naples It is bounded with the River Iano and the Terrhene and Ionian Seas it is in compasse above five hundred miles and is divided into two Provinces the one lieth on the Terrhene Sea where in ancient times the Brutians did inhabit and that part is properly called Calabria the other lieth on the Ionian and called Magna Graecia It is divided into the higher and lower Of the higher the chiefe seat is Cosenza of the lower Catanzara Cosenza is a large Citie Catanzara a strong Betweene the Cape of the Pillars and the Cape Alice is Corone a place of very wholesome aire Vpon this territorie Anno 1551. the Navie of the Great Turke landed and made some stay which was the cause that moved Charles the fifth to fortifie this Citie It is a thing worthy to be noted how much the Inhabitants of this country in former ages exceeded the numbers of this present for in those dayes this Citie sent more men against the Locrians than the whole Kingdome of Naples is now able to afford being numbred to an hundred and thirty thousand A little above that doe inhabit the Sabarits who were alwayes able to arme thirty thousand At Tarent beginneth the Country of Otranto in ancient times called Iapigia It containeth all that corner of land almost invironed with the Sea which lieth betweene Tarent and Brundusium In it as Strabo writeth were once thirteene great Cities but in his time onely two Tarent and Brunduse The aire is very healthfull and though the superficies of the soile seeme rough and barren being broken with the plough it is found to bee excellent good mold It is scarce of water neverthelesse it yeeldeth good Pasture and is apt for Wheat Barley Oats Olives Cedars excellent Melons Oxen Asses and Mules of great estimation The people are in their manners dangerous superstitious and for the most part beastly The Gentlemen lovers of liberty and pleasure scoffers at Religion especially at that which we terme the reformed and yet themselves of their owne great blasphemers For outward shew they live in great pompe and make the City more stately because they are not permitted to live in the Countrey yet as they dare they bitterly grone under the Viceroyes controll who exerciseth the Spanish pride amongst them so that in these dayes they come nothing neere their native glory nor customary wantonnesse In this Country is bred the Tarantola whose venome is expelled with Fire and Musicke as Gellius reporteth out of Theophrash his History of living creatures There are likewise bred the Chersidi serpents living both on the land and in the Sea yea there is no part of Italy more cumbred with Grashoppers which leave nothing where they come but would utterly consume in one night whole fields full of ripe corne if Nature by sending the birds called the Gaive into those quarters had not provided a remedie against this misery The place at all times of the yeare endureth much dammage by Haile Thunder is as usuall in Winter as in Summer This Province is situated betweene two Seas The Citie is seated in an Island like unto a ship and joyned to the Continent with bridges where the tide setteth violently on the other side the two Seas joyne together by meanes of a trench cut out by mans hand and is of largenesse sufficient to receive a Gally Where the Citie now standeth was before a rocke and is holden to be the strongest fortresse of the Kingdome From thence along the shore lieth Caesaria now ruined by them of Gallipoli Gallipolis is seated on a ridge of land running into the Sea like a tongue On the furthest point whereof standeth the Citie and is of great strength by reason of the situation being fenced with unaccessible rocks well walled and secured by a Castle with which motives of encouragement in the warres betweene the French and the Arragons the citizens thereof to their great honour continued ever faithfull to the fortunes of the Arragons It hath beene counted one of the chiefest Cities of Italy it is now by their civill dissentions almost desolated the cause as I take it wherefore the aire thereabouts is become so unhealthfull an influence incident to all great Cities For as nothing doth better temper the aire than the frequencie of Inhabitants because by husbandry and industry they drie up Fennie and unwholesome places prune such woods as grow too thicke and obscure with their fires purge noysome exhalations and with their high buildings extenuate grosse vapours So on the contrary there is nothing apter to breed infection than desolation for so the places are not onely deprived of the aforesaid helps but even the houses and their ruines are receptacles of infection and matter of corruption Which appeareth to be true by the ruines of Aquilea Rome Ravenna and Alexandria in Aegypt For which inconvenience the Grecians never built huge Cities Plato would not that his should exceed 500. families and Aristotle wished that all his people might at once heare the voice of one Crier This Province extendeth from the confines of Brunduse to the River Fortore It is divided into two territories the one at this day called Bari and by the Latines Peucetia the other Puglia and by them Dawnia divided each from other by the River Lofanto In the second part it comprehendeth Capitanato containing in it many great Cities places of trade and Fortresses of good account Amongst the number whereof is Mansredonia built by K. Manfredi in a high place healthfull with a convenient and safe harbour It lieth under the hill Gargano at this day called S. Angelo because of the appearing of S. Michael who is honoured there with great devotion It should seeme that in this hill all the riches of Puglia are heaped together it hath plenty of water an element rare in this Province The Sarazens finding the opportunitie of the situation thereof did there fortifie therein maintained themselves a long time for in truth there is no place better to molest the Kingdome and to command the Adriatike Sea Puglia is another Province of this Kingdome it is bounded with the River Fortorie and the River Tronto in which circuit are contained many people Towards the Sea it is a fruitfull Country in the middest rough and mountainous and the coldest Region in the Kingdome The wealth thereof consisteth in Cattell and Saffron The Country of Malsi is divided with the River Pescara the Governour thereof resideth in San-Severino This Province hath no famous place upon the Sea-coast but in the Inland Benevento was given to the Church by Henry the fourth in recompence of
and consequence For the River Vistula arising in the extremest bounds of Silesia watereth all Poland the lesse and part of the Greater Mazovia and Prussia and then it falleth into the Baltike Sea below Danske whither it transporteth the greatest quantity of Rye Corne Honey and Wax of the whole Kingdome a journy of foure hundred miles From another coast the most famous River Duina arising out of the Lake Ruthenigo and parting Livonia into equall portions falleth into the Sea about Riga a City of great concourse There are in Prussia and Livonia many Lakes amongst which one is called the New-Sea 100 miles long in Livonia is a Lake called Beybas more than 400. miles long from thence spring the Rivers which running by Pernovia and Narâ—e make two notable Havens for traffike Betweene these two Cities stands Rivalia giving place to neither in beauty Samogithia is more rude and barbarous than the other Provinces and Podalia more barren which is not to be attributed to the nature of the soile for it is plentifull of those Commodities which the climate under which it lieth can afford but to the cruelty of the Tartars which so vex it with continuall inrodes that the Inhabitants are driven either to flie for feare or to bee led away captives by these barbarous people The riches of Poland are the abundance of Corne and all sorts of graine which grow there in such plentifull sort that in it selfe it never suffered want but evermore as in the yeare 1590. and 1591 it releeved not onely the bordering Nations oppressed with famine and scarcity but also yeelded some portion of releese to the wants of Genoa Tuscanie and Rome It floweth with Honey and Wax And whereas in all these Northerly Nations of Poland Lituania Russia Muscovia there are no Wines growing in stead thereof Nature hath bestowed upon them incredible quantities of Honey whereof these people doe brew an excellent kinde of Beverage The Bees make Honey either in Woods where they finde the trees made hollow by rottennesse or mans industry or in Hives set in open field by the Country people or in holes of the earth or in any place where they can finde never so small a liking It aboundeth with Flax Hempe with Sheepe with Cattell tell and with Horses Amongst the beasts of the wood are sound wilde Oxen wilde Horses and the Buste which cannot live out of the Wood of Nazovia The riches of the land consist in the Salt-pits of Bozena and Velisca in the territory of Cracovia The Revenues of the Kingdome for the most part are equally divided between the Noblemen he Gentlemen for no man is left so rich by inheritance that hee may exceed others above measure and the greatest Revenue of all exceedeth not five and twenty thousand Ducats Onely the Dukes of Curland and Regimount exceed this meane For although they are feodaries of the Kingdome and acknowledge the King as their superiour yet are they not as lively members of the State they come not to the Diets of the Kingdome they have not their voices in the election of the Prince neither are they accounted as naturall Lords of the Kingdome but for strangers as in truth they are the Duke of Curland being of the house of Ketlert and the Duke of Regimount of the family of Brandenburge All Prussia did belong to the Dutch Knights who had their Great Master resident there but he not being able to withstand the force of the Polonians yeelded himselfe feodarie to King Casimere Afterwards when Albert of Brandenburge their Great Master became a Protestant hee was created Duke of Prussia and the Country was divided into two parts the one regall mediately holden of the Crowne the other Ducall allotted to Albert and his successors to hold by fealty In the Kings parâ—ition stand Marieburge Torovia Culma Varnia and Daâ—â—keâ— in the Duchie which yeelded an hundred and twenty thousand Ducats yearely the chiefe Towne is Regimount the Germans call it Conningsburgh and there the Duke keepeth his Court. The Government of Polonia is altogether elective and representeth rather an Aristocracie than a Kingdome the Nobility who have great authority in the Diets chusing the King and at their pleasure limiting him his authority and making his soveraignty but a slavish royalty These diminutions of Regality beganne first by default of King Lewis and Iagello who to gaine the succession in the Kingdome contrary to the Lawes one for his daughter and the other for his sonne departed with many of his Royalties and Prerogatives to buy the voyces of the Nobility Whereupon by degrees the King of Poland as Stanislaus Orichovius confesses is little more than the Mouth of the Kingdome which speakes not but what his Councell prompts him The great Officer whom they call the President of their liberty and Guardian of it is still joyned with the King as it were to Tutor him and to moderate his desires The power royall there is no more but what King Sigismund assumed in full Parliament at Petricovia Anno 1548. which was to conclude nothing but by advice of his Councell To give instances of the power of these great Counsellours they made void the testament of King Casimire forbade King Iagello to warre upon the Knights Hospitalers unto whom in his expedition into Lituania they adjoyned the Bishop of Cracovia limiting their King to doe nothing but with his approbation Casimire the third had foure Commissioners joyned with him Without their leaves the King cannot chuse his owne wife for which reason King Iagello was by them perpetually perplexed Appeales the supreme marke of Soveraignty are not made to the King but to the States King Alexander Anno 1504. was faine to remit the disposing of the publike treasure unto the Lord Treasurer to which Officer Iagello Anno 1422. could not but grant the royalty of coining monies also Well therefore as Cromerus reporteth might Queene Christina complaine That her Husband was but the shadow of a Soveraigne They have neither law nor statute nor forme of government written but by custome from the death of one Prince to the election of another the supreme authority resteth in the Archbishop of Gesna who is President of the Councell appointeth the Diets ruleth the Senate and proclaimeth the new elected King Before King Stephen erected new Bishops Palatines and Castellanes in Livonia few other besides the Archbishop of Leopolis and his thirteene Suffragans eight and twenty Palatines and thirty of the chiefest Castellanes were present at the election of the new King They hold an assembly of the States every yeare for two causes the one to administer Justice in Soveraigne causes unto which are brought appeales from all the Judges of the Country the other to provide for the safety of the Common-weale against their next Enemies the Tartars who make often incursions upon them In the time of their Diets these men assemble in a place neere unto the Senate-house where they chuse two Marshals by whom
of round fish as Lamprey Conger Haddocke so likewise in divers seasons divers other sorts as Mackerels in the end of the Spring and Herrings in the beginning of Autumne as wee have in England c. And this Countrey must needs be well stored with Fish for besides the benefit of the Sea the Lakes and Ponds belonging only to the Clergie which at the most have but one third of France are reported to be one hundred fifty five thousand The Rivers also of France are so many as Boterus reporteth of the Queene Mother she should say here were more than in all Christendome but we hold her for no good Cosmographer True it is that the Rivers here are many and very faire and so fitly serving one the other and all the whole as it seemeth Nature in the framing of our bodies did not shew more wonderfull providence in disposing Veines and Arteries throughout the bodie for their apt conveyance of the bloud and spirit from the Liver and Heart to each part therof than she hath shewed in the placing of these waters for the transporting of all her commodities to all her severall Provinces Of all those these are the principall the Seine upon which standeth the Citie of Paris Roven and many other It hath his head a little above Chatillon in the North-west of Lingonois and receiveth nine Rivers of name whereof the Yonne the Marn and the Oyse are navigable that is doe carry Boats with saile The Soane whereupon standeth the City of Amiens Abbevile and many other It hath his head above S. Quintin divideth Piccardy from Artois and receiveth eight lesser Rivers The Loire hath standing upon it the Cities of Orleans Nantes and many other his head is in Auvergne it parteth the middle of France his course is almost two hundred leagues it receiveth seventy two Rivers whereof the chiefe are Allier Cher Maine Creuse Vienne all navigable The Garond upon which standeth Bourdeaux Thoulouse and other Cities it hath his head in the Pereney Mountaines it divideth Languedocke from Gascoine it receiveth sixteene Rivers whereof Iarne Lot Bayze Derdonne and Lisâ—e are chiefest And lastly the Rhosne upon which standeth the Citie of Lions Avignon and divers others It hath his head in the Mountaines the Alpes dividing Dolpheny from Lyonnois and Province from Languedocke it receiveth thirteene Rivers whereof the Seane the Dove Ledra and Durance are the chiefest All the other Rivers carry their streames into the Ocean Some at S. Vallery Seine at New-haven Loyre beneath Nantes and Garona at Blay only the River of Rhosue payeth his tribute to the Mediterranean at Arles The Seine is counted the richest the Rhosue the swiftest the Garond the greatest the Loyre the sweetest for the difference which Boterus makes of them where he ornits the Garond and makes the Sâ—ane a principall River is generally rejected The Ports and Passages into France where Custome is paid to the King were in times past more than they be now the names of them at this present are these In Picardie Calais Bologue Saint Vallerie In Normandie Diepe Le Haure de Grace Honnesleux Caen Cherbrouge In Bretaigne S. Malo S. Brieu Brest Quimpercorentine Vannes Nants In Poiâ—tow Lusson les sables d'Olonne In Rochellois Rochell In Xantogne Zonbisse In Guyenne Bourdeaux Blay Bayonne In Languedocke Narbonne Agde Bencaire Mangueil In Provence Arles Marseilles Fransts In Lâ—onnois Lions In Burgogne Ausonne Laugers In Campagne Chaumons Chalons Trois In the Territory Metzin Metz Toul Verdun In all thirty seven Of all these Lions is reputed to be the most advantagious to the Kings Finances as being the Key for all Silkes cloaths of Gold and Silver and other Merchandize whatsoever which come or goe from Italy Swisserland and all those South-east Countries into France which are brought to this Towne by the two faire Rivers of Rhosne and Sâ—â—n the one comming from Savoy the other from Burgundie and here meeting For profit next to Lions are Bourdeaux Rochell Marseilles Nants and Newhaven But for capabilitie of shipping I have heard that Brest excelleth and for strength Caâ—aâ—â— especially as it is now lately fortified by the Spaniard which was not let long since to be called The goodliest government in the world at least in Christendome There are requisite in all Ports to make them perfect these foure things 1. Roome to receive many and great Ships 2. Safe Riding 3. Facilitie of repelling forren force 4. Concourse of Merchants The most of the French Ports have all foure properties except only the last which in the time of these civill broiles have discontinued and except that wee will also grant that Calais failes in the first The Cities in France if you will count none Cities but where is a Bishops See are onely one hundred and foure there be so many Arch-bishops and Bishops in all as shall in more fit place be shewed But after the French reckoning calling every Ville a Citie which is not either a Burgade or a Village we shall finde that their number is infinite and indeed uncertaine as is also the number of the Townes in generall Some say there be one Million and seven hundred thousand but they are of all wise men reproved Others say six hundred thousand but this is also too great to be true The Cabinet rateth them at one hundred thirtie two thousand of Parish Churches Hamlets and Villages of all sorts Badin saith there be twentie seven thousand and foure hundred counting only every Citie for a Parish which will very neere agree with that of the Cabinet and therefore I embrace it as the truest By the reckoning before set downe of two hundred leagues square which France almost yeeldeth wee must compute that here is in all fortie thousand leagues in square and in every league five thousand Arpens of ground which in all amounteth to two hundred millions of Arpens which summe being divided by the numbers of the Parishes sheweth that one with another each Village hath one thousand five hundred and fifteene Arpens which measure is bigger than our Acre We may if we will abstract a third because Bodin will not admit France to be square but as a Lozenge For in matter of such generalitie as this men doe alwayes set downe suppositions not certainties If a man will looke thorowout all France I thinke that some Castles excepted he shall not finde any Towne halfe perfectly fortified according to the rules of Enginers The Citie of Paris seated in a very fruitfull and pleasant part of the I le of France upon the River of Sein is by the same divided into three parts that on the North towards Saint Denis is called the Burge that on the South towards the Fauxburges of S. Germaines is called the Vniversitie and that in the little I le which the River there makes by dividing it selfe is called the Vilâ—e This part no doubt is the most ancient for saith my Author Lutetia is a City of the Parisians
upon the neighbourhood of Sicily can hardly maintaine If more there are they pertaine to private men Besides which certaine Phaluccoes they have vessels they be twice so bigge as a wherry and rowed by five men which they send out for scouts and to discover the booty The expeditions which they make are little better than for bootie either in the night time landing on the maine of Africa and surprizing some villages or scowring along the coast and taking small and weake barkes out of which they take the men and goods and turne the hulke adrift with wind and weather Lorraine THis was once a Kingdome of it selfe containing all those Countries lying betwixt the Rivers Rhine and Scheld and the mountaine Vogesus wherein are Brabant and Gelderland Lutzenburg Limburg and the Bishopricke of Leige These were at severall times taken away from it some given by the Emperours to the younger families and some to the Church That which is now left to the Duke was of his ancestor Lotharius called by the Latines Lotharij regnum or as the Germans speake Lotars-ricke is bounded upon the East with Alsatia upon the South with Burgundie towards the West with Champaigne and towards the North with the Forest of Arden The length is foure dayes journey and the breadth three In it are many goodly Rivers as the Meuse Mosel c. And fine Townes as Nancie where the Duke commonly resideth Saint Nicholas and five others of good esteeme upon the Frontier and Inland whereof Pont Musson is an Vniversity It yeeldeth Wine and Wheat sufficient for the provision of its owne Inhabitants and affordeth Cattell Horse and River-fish in some good measure to the defects of their neighbours In manners and fashion they resemble their neighbours the French and the Germans both whose languages the most can speake In courtesie and civility they strive to imitate the French in drinking the Germans Yet not here the one so punctually as the French nor the other so inordinately as the Dutch They are good souldiers free of disposition and rather subtill than politike The Duke of Lorraine is of the best and ancientest bloud of Europe as descended from Charles the Great He also claimes to bee King of Ierusalem And for such Courts as these petty Princes maintaine you shall finde therein many fine Gentlemen His counsels are mostly directed by the Iesuits and his favourite Count de Boulla Surely his Riches cannot be great for of commodities nothing of value can bee said to arise therein save certaine workes or cups of Cassidony-stone some horses linnen cloth and manufactures and those vented into France and Germanie What to thinke of the silver mines therein I cannot shew Those that have estimated with the most have not related of above seven hundred and eight thousand crownes of yearely Revenue ordinary viz. five hundred thousand of rent and royaltie two hundred thousand from the Salt-pans and from the fishing of the Rivers and Lakes two thousand pounds sterling But others more probably allow him twelve hundred thousand crownes which might be more would he put his people to it Nancie is exceedingly well fortified after the moderne fashion and inlarged of late by addition of a new Towne and that also fortified And in former ages as it resisted the whole forces of Charles the Great Duke of Burgundie so this people also but united with the Switzers gave him three fatall overthrowes in the field Of any great Expeditions which they should particularly make of themselves I never read neither that any of their Neighbours have much affrighted them With the Switzers and the House of France they have alwayes held good correspondencie and Alliance So that if the Arch-Duke should quarrell with them on one side they have the Low-Countrimen their friends on the other And as for the King of Spaines neighbour-hood by reason of the proximity of the French Countrey of Burgundie it may alwayes be supposed that in regard of the Alliances before spoken of the one will bee loth to prejudice the other to neithers boast of advantage As for other petty Princes they stand in as much need to take care for their owne preservations as to invade anothers for that in truth this Prince exceedeth most of them in meanes forces friends and circuit of Territory This Principalitie gives titles of honour first to the Duke of Barre which is now united to the Dukes owne Family to six Counts or Earles and to seven Lords or Barons Hungarie HVngarie is a Noble Kingdome I call it Noble because whole volumes might be writ and yet extenuate the worth but not relate the troubles thereof Externall with the enemie of Christendome Internall by reason of confused dissention For sometime the glory of the Kingdome elateth them sometime private revenges divide them sometime the Nobility doth tyrannize over them and sometime the generall cause exciteth compassion For the plenty wherewith it aboundeth of all things both for use and pleasure it may be numbred amongst the most fertile Kingdomes of Europe In it are found fruits of as much variety and goodnesse as in Italy Corne sufficient to sustaine the Inhabitants Wine to furnish their neighbours Poland Silesia Moravia Bohemia Fish in such plentie that strangers borrow of their abundance from them and out of Valachia before the losse of Agria in 96. were Beeves driven into Italy and all parts of Germanie which now finde a present want in their former provision thorow the Turkes stopping of that passage The Hungarian Horse by nature are not improper for warre being couragious strong hardy and swift but for want of management they fit no service but travell to which the Italian Hackney-men and Almain Coach-men finde-them excellent Hungarland is divided by the River Danubius into two parts the one mountainous and therefore called the upper Hungarland abounding in Gold Silver and Copper-Ore the other nether Hungarland plaine without hils and called for the fertility thereof the Store-house of Italy and Germanie The Metropolitan Citie of that part of Hungarland that obeyeth the Emperour is Possonium or Presbâ—rgh which the Hungarians call Posonie little and not very beautifull no more than are Sirigonium Cassovia Niâ—ria Tervanio or any other Cities of Hungarland a reason whereof may be that the Gentlemen have their Houses in the Countrey and the Citizens are more studious to build for use than for pompe In confineth toward the North with Poland and Moravia on the East lieth Transilvania and Valachia on the South Bulgaria Servia Bosnia Sclavonia and Croatia and towards the West it is joyned to Stiria and Austria two thirds of it possessed by the Turke The Inhabitants be of stature and complexion not unlike the English but in habit resembling the poore Irish in Warre strong valiant and patient covetous above measure yet having rather desire than art to enrich themselves permitting of negligence the Germans to inherit in their Cities and to Trafficke their Merchandize a
the middest of a Lake and is in the Maps falsly called Echyed And those be the Countries of Hungaria which lying neere to the Turke and further from the Emperor did for their owne safeguard voluntarily at first put themselves under the protection of Bethlen Gabor whom with the Transilvanians they also elected for their Prince And now follow those seven Counties which the same Prince hath by the sword and conquest taken from the German Emperour which lie next in situation unto those before mentioned The first of these is that of Szâ—atmar lying neerer to Transilvania and touching both upon Maramaros and Szolnok aforesaid The chiefe Towne gives name to the Shire being a very strong one and served by a most plentifull Country about it The next Country so conquered is Zabolczi whose Burrough Towne is Debrecen situate in a large and most fertile levell of an hundred English miles long and broad and adorned with a goodly College of Students This County from the Southerne parts of Hungaria subject to the Turkes reaches over the goodly River Tibiscus fifty English miles right out ascending from the East to the South and West in which parts be the townes and villages of the warlike Hayduks so famous in the Turkish History a free people they held themselves all Gentlemen in service of no Lord but of their Leaders in time of warres and those are still of their owne Nation yet all bound to serve in the Armies of the Prince of Transilvania They live by their owne private Lawes and are most stiffe for the Calvinist Religion Next come those Counties which lie in the midst of these aforenamed The first of which is Bereghez whose Metropolis is Berekszas and this is the driest and barrennest Country of Hungaria Here is the Fort of Echyed so built in the midst of Lakes and Bogs that there is no approach to be made within foure miles of it either by horse or foot but by one bridge onely This makes it have the name of the strongest peece of all Bethlen Gabors Dominions perhaps of the whole world and therefore chosen by him to keepe the Crowne of Hungaria in when he had it in his custody Anno 1622. All these three Countries aforesaid conquered from the Emperour together with these former which belong unto him by Election lie situated in the forme of a ragged Triangle betwixt Transilvania and the River Tibiscus the first line whereof is made up by the County Maramaros out of which Tibiscus flowes originally The second line is either made by the River of Maros Marusius which falls â—nto the Tibiscus neere IÃ ppa a towne of the Turkes dominions although the better and evener line be made by the County Belenges The third line of this Triangle towards the West ends at the Castle of Tokai under whose walls the River Brodogh falls into the Tibiscus From this Castle we beginne to account the other foure conquered Counties which lie on Hungaria side and in respect of Transilvania are beyond the Tibiscus The first of which lying beyond Tibiscus and Brodogh is called Vgocz or Vngh of a River of that name whose chiefe towne is Vnghar the second is Hommona where the Iesuites have a College This Country touches upon Poland The second of these conquered Counties a member also of this latter is called Zemlen as its chiefe City also is Its second City is Saros Patak where the Palatine or Earle-marcher of that part of Hungaria subject to Bethlen Gabor usually keepes his residence Ennoblished it is besides with the greatest College belonging to the reformed Religion in all those parts wherein namely are fourescore Fellowes three hundred Schollars a Master and foure Readers all maintained by their owne setled Revenues like ours in England and all planted in a dainty aire a rich and most delicate Country The third conquered County is Porsod whose Metropolis is Tokay aforesaid which with its Fort and Castle was in consideration of 60000. pounds rendred by the Emperour unto Bethlen Gabor in the yeare 1628. August the 10. which its new Lord hath since re-edified This towne is overlookt by that which they call The golden Mountaine three English miles in height and seven in compasse which beares a wine of a more delicate and rich race than the Canaries and inestimable plenty too here and all abouts the Country This Country confronts upon the Turkish Territories and beyond Rudabaneya in the west parts begins the dominion of the Emperour The fourth of these Counties of his beyond Tibiscus and the utmost bounds of his conquests is called Abavyvar whose Metropolis is Cassovia the fairest and richest of all those parts and newly walled and fortified by the Conquerour Inhabited it is by the Hungarian and German Nations both of which here have their severall Churches Here likewise is a College as there also bee at Geonez and Sepsi two neighbour Cities Here also is the Bishopricke of Lelesz which being popish was upon request delivered up unto the Emperours disposing in that late treaty of Pacification And these be the goodly dominions of Bethlen Gabor in Hungaria which on the East are bounded with Transilvania on the West with the Turkish parts of Hungaria on the North with Poland and on the South with the Counties of Heves Torn and Genevar c. all subject to the Emperour As for his two Dukedomes of Oppelen and Ratibor in Silesia they being farre distant and chargeable to hold hee made a faire surrender of them into the Emperours hands in that treaty of Peace concluded betwixt them Anno 1624. What Revenues and Certainties may bee raised from hence is not to bee ghessed at in these troublesome times in which seasons quiet possession is to bee accounted the chiefe part of the Revenues seeing the subject is then rather to bee releeved than oppressed The Forces which hee is able to raise from hence with his owne pay and money must needs be very great seeing that with them hee hath not onely defended himselfe and gained upon the Emperour but so farre pressed upon him as to set so many townes on fire in Austria it selfe that by the light of those Bonefires the Emperour might reade a Letter in his owne Bed-chamber in Vienna Bethlen Gabor finally both for his valour and fortune is more dreaded by the Emperour than any other Christian King or Potentate of Europe And now for that this Prince hath so arrested the incroching greatnesse of the Emperour Ferdinand in those parts that he may well be called The scourge of the house of Austria he is therefore most mortally hated by all the Papists of Christendome who are sottishly addicted unto that Family Hence those scornes and slanders of him that he was basely borne that he was a Turke in Religion yea Circumcised and an hundred other Iesuiticall knaveries And for that hee hath not still beene ready to doe as we would have him in England since these infortunate warres of Bohemia even we good Protestants have thought that hee
conjectured out of Tacitus who reporteth that in the beginning of the siege it contained two hundred thousand soules At this day it numbreth not above five thousand inhabitants although many Pilgrims daily resort thither for devotion sake It was once strongly and fairely walled but now weakely and therin it sheweth nothing now so famous as the Sepulchie of our Lord Christ whose Temple encircleth the whole mount of Calvarie situated upon a plaine plot of ground high round and open at the top from whence it receiveth light but the Sepulchre itselfe is covered with an Archt-Chappell cut out of the maine Marble and left unto the custodie of the Latine Christians Whosoever is desirous to see this Sepulchre must pay nine crownes to the Turke so that this tribute is yearely worth unto him eight millions of Ducats One hundred and eight foot distant from this Tombe is the Mount called Calvarie whereon our Saviour Christ was crucified by the treacherous Iewes In this place are many other religious Reliques And the pilgrims which come thither are alwaies lodged according to their owne professions that is to say the Latines with the Franciscans without the Citie by Mount Sion the Grecians are lodged with the Caloieran Greekes dwelling within the Citie by the Sepulchre And so every other Nation Abassines Georgians Armenians Nestorians and Maronits who all have their proper and peculiar Chappels Those Franciscans which follow the Latine Church and are for the most part Italians were wont to create the Knights of the Sepulchre and to give testimoniall unto pilgrims of their arrivall there Without this Citie is the Valley of Iehosaphat and therein the tombes of the blessed Ladie and S. Anne The territorie adjoyning is exceeding fruitfull in Vines Apples Almonds Figs and Oyle the Mountaines are no lesse stored with all sorts of Trees wilde Beasts and Spiceries Besides Ierusalem standeth Bethlem now destroyed and shewing nothing worth looking on save a great and stately Monasterie of the Franciscans within which is the place where Christ was borne Rama is now likewise ruinated the Arches and Cesternes yet remaining by the witnesse of Bellonius his owne eye are greater than those of Alexandria but not so thicke Gaza is now a Turkish Sangiak-ship the soile about fertile and the inhabitants Grecians Turks and Arabians In holy Writ this Region is called Edom and by other Authors Nabathea Toward the sea and Iudea the soile is fertile but towards Arabia desart and barren Some say it is inexpugnable for its Desarts and want of water yet is it stored therewith but hidden and knowne to none but the natives Of old they were a turbulent unquiet and seditious people and so at this day they are like to the villainous and roguish Neighbours the Arabians Next bordereth Phoenicia as part of Syria exposed to the sea and bordering upon Galile Of old it had many famous Cities as Tripolis Beritus Sydon Tyrus Ptolemais Capernaum Emissa and others Amongst the which Tyre and Sydon were most famous Tyre was a goodly Citie a Colonie of the Sydonians and round about encircled with the Sea untill Alexander in his siege joyned it to the continent At this day it hath two harbours that on the North side the fairest and best thorowout the Levant which the Cursores enter at their pleasure the other choked with the ruines of the Citie So is it and Sydon now the strong receptacles of the stiffe-necked Drusians A generation they say descended from the reliques of those Noble Christians who under the conduct of Godfrey of Bullen descended into those parts and being by time driven unto harder fortunes betooke themselves to the Mountaines from whence they could never be expulsed neither by the Saracens nor yet by the Turkes Allowed they are libertie of Religion and no other tribute imposed upon them than is upon the naturall Subject the one being no good Christians and the other worse Mahumetans Sydon was once no lesse famous now contracted into a narrow compasse shewing only in her ruines the foundations of her greatnesse The Inhabitants are of sundry Nations and Religions as the Tyrians yet governed by a succession of Princes whom they call Emirs And whose Seigniorie augmented by armes and tyrannie stretcheth from the River of Canis to the foot of Mount Carmel containing a large extent of ground and therein many Cities whereof Saffet is the principall The Grand Seignior doth much envie him for suffering the Florentines to harbour and water within his Port of Tyrus which he is glad to excuse by the waste of the place and inabilitie of resistance But the truth is that hee is a strong rich and potent Lord in these parts partly presuming upon the strength of his invincible Forts and partly upon the advantage of the Mountaines yet having besides in continuall pay fortie thousand souldiers â—ome Moores some Christians and if the worst should 〈◊〉 â—hee hath the Sea at hand and the Florentine to friend with whom he knoweth that a massie Treasure will worke â—o small effects towards the purchase of some rich Seigniorie To conclude he is too strong for his neighbours and able to make a long defensive Warre against the Turke if his tyrannie could assure him of fidelitie in this people Acon or Ptolomais is strongly fortified triangular-wise two parts whereof lye upon the Sea the third toward the land The soile about is very fruitfull and delicious The Citie adorned with a beautifull Hospitall strong and well bulwarked once belonging to the Teutonicke Knights It hath also a very faire Haven capacious of any ships comming from the South now under the Sanzâ—ack of Saffet and usurped with the rest of that Province by the foresaid Emir of Sydon In this wofull Towne dwell not above two or three hundred Inhabitants and those in patcht up ruinous houses Beritus is an ancient Citie once an Episcopall See now famous for Trafficke and Merchandize as the Mart-towne whereunto all the ships comming from Europe doe arrive It is situated most safely and almost inexpugnable NOw following mine Author and having finished this tedious discourse of this great Empire by the patience of my Reader I will once turne backe againe and relate the Originall the manners the discent and the Religion of this warlike and infidelious people composed partly of Natives lineally descended from the Scythians and Tartars and partly of Apostata and Renegado Christians Generally the Natives have broad visages correspondent to the proportion of their members faire and tall and somewhat inclined to grossenesse Their haire they regard not save onely that of their beards They are of a grosse and dull capacitie wayward slow and lazie hating husbandrie and yet above all people in the world covetous and desirous of riches yea selling all places of Justice and Government to their best Chapmen Amongst one another exceeding courteous and as servile toward their superiours in whose presence they keepe admirable silence and
their libertie of Trafficke carrying so heavie a hand toward them that they would faine give them occasion to leave Macao of their owne wâ—ls and retire backe into India from whence they came The Kingdome of Siam VPon the borders of China to speake nothing of Cauchinchina because wee know nothing worth relation of that Territory joyneth the Countrey of Siam accounted one of the greatest amongst these great Kingdomes of Asia It tooke its name of the Citie Siam situated upon the entrance of the River Menon it is also called Gorneo It reacheth by Fast and West from the Citie Campaa to the Citie of Tavaâ— in which tract by the Sea-coast are contained five hundred leagues whereof the Arabians once usurped two hundred with the Cities of Patan Paam Ior Perca and Malaco now in the possession of the Portugals From the South toward the North it reacheth from Sincapura situate in degrees to the people called Guconi in nine and twentie degrees The Lake Chimai is distant from the Sea six hundred miles the upland circuit stretcheth from the borders of Cauchinchina beyond the River Avan where lieth the Kingdome of Chencra Besides the Lake of Chimai the Rivers Menon Menam Caipumo and Ana which cause greater fertilitie of Graine thorow the whole Region than a man would beleeve are all his The better part of his Kingdome is environed with the Mountaines Ana Brema and Iangoma the residue is plaine like Aegypt abounding with Elephants Horse Pepper Gold and Tinne In the West part are huge Woods and therein are many Tygers Lions Ounces and Serpents It containeth these Provinces Cambaia Siam Muantai Bremo Caipumo and Chencra The Inhabitants of Lai which border upon the North of the Provinces of Muantai and Caipumo and are divided into three Principalities are under his obeysance The first is that of Iangoma The second of Currai The third Lanea neere Cauchinchina They inhabit a plaine and wealthie Countrey into which the Gueoni Marke Paul calleth their Countrey Gangigu descending from the Mountains to hunt for men make oftentimes cruell butcheries amongst them The people of Lai for feare of those Anthropophagi acknowledge the soveraigntie of Siam but they often rebell and obey as they list The wealth of the Countrey may be conjectured by the fertilitie for being situated in a Plaine and watered with most famous Rivers like another Aegypt it cannot but abound with plentie of all good things It bringeth forth Rice graine of all sorts Horses Elephants infinite store of Cattell Gold and Tinne Silver is brought thither by the people of Lai By reason of this plentie the people are drowned in pleasure and wantonnesse They follow husbandrie but take no great delight in manuall occupations which causeth the Kingdome to be poore in merchandize Amongst many other Cities three are famous Cambaia seated upon the River Menon which rising in Chinae is so hugely augmented by the falling in of many Rivers that his owne Channell not sufficing for receit thereof it rendeth the earth to disgorge it selfe into a thousand Islands making a second Meoâ—is more than threescore miles long Meican signifieth the Captaine Menon the mother of waters The second is the Citie of Siam whose statelinesse giveth the name to the whole Countrey It is a most goodly Citie and of admirable Trafficke which may the better bee imagined by the writing of a certaine Jesuite who reporteth that besides the naturall Inhabitants there are more than thirtie thousand Arabian housholds The third Citie is called Vdia greater than Siam consisting of foure hundred thousand families It is said that two hundred thousand Boats belong to this Citie and the River Caipumo whereon it is seated This King to shew his majestie and magnificence keepeth a Guard of six thousand Souldiers and two hundred Elephants of these beasts he hath thirtie thousand whereof hee traineth three thousand for the Warre This is a very great matter if you weigh their worth and their charges in keeping His Government is rather tyrannicall than King-like for he is absolute Lord over all the demeanes of the Kingdome and either setteth them out to husbandmen or giveth them to his Nobles for maintenance during life and pleasure but never passeth the right of inheritance Hee bestoweth on them likewise Townes and Villages with their Territories but on condition to maintaine a certaine number of horsemen footmen and Elephants By this policie without any peny pay or burthen to the Countrey he is able to levie twentie thousand horsemen and two hundred and fiftie thousand footmen Upon occasion he can wage a greater number by reason of the largenesse of his Kingdomes and the populousnesse of his Townes For Vdia only the chiefe seat of his Kingdome mustered fiftie thousand men And although he be Lord of nine Kingdomes yet useth he no other Nation in the Warre but the Siamits and the Inhabitants of the two Kingdomes of Vdia and Muantai All honours and preferments are bestowed upon men of service in this Kingdome In times of peace they have their warlike exercises and in certaine pastimes which the King once a yeare exhibiteth at Vdia are shewed all military feats of armes upon the River Menon where more than three thousand vessels which they terme Paraos divided into two squadrons skirmish one against another Upon the land run the Horses and Elephants and the footmen trie it out at sword and buckler with point and edge rebated the remainder of their dayes they spend in not and wantonnesse Their borders toward the East reach to Cauchinchina betweene whom are such huge Woods Lions Tygers Leopards Serpents and Elephants that they cannot infest one another by armes Toward the Lake China they border upon the Chinois Toward the Sea they affront the Arabians and Portugals The one tooke from them Paiam Paam Ior and Peam the other Malaca and the Territory adjoyning so betweene them they bereaved him of two hundred miles of land and contenting themselves with the command of the Sea-coasts and with the customes arising upon the carrying out and bringing in of merchandize they abstaine from further invasion of the Inland Provinces and hold it good policie to keepe firme peace with this King and his Countries Towards the West lieth the Kingdome of Pegu like a halfe Moone betweene the Mountaines of Brama and Iangoma Towards the North lie the Gudoni inhabiting the barren and sharpe Mountaines betweene whom and Siam dwell the people of Lay. This people is subject to the crowne of Siam for feare of these Canibals of whom if it had not beene for his protection they had long agoe beene utterly devoured Not forty yeares since the King made a journey against them with twenty thousand horse their horse are small but excellent good in travell five and twentie thousand footmen and ten thousand Elephants part imployed for service and part for carriage No kingdome hath greater store of these beasts or doth more use them An innumerable number of Oxen Buffals
mountaines have naturally wanted there hath Art supplied the defect either by military Fosses as in that great bank or trench upon New-market heath which served for a boundarie to the kingdome of the East-Angles and by raising up wonderfull and stupendous wals as namely in that wall of China which where the hils brake off was continued and fortified for six hundred miles together and that admirable Roman wall in the North of England even crosse the Iland from Sea to Sea for the keeping out of the Picts To conclude mountaines and wals made good by the natives preserve them in safety but being once mastered and overpassed by the Conquerour give way to a fatall and a sudden inlargement to his Empire and set a small period to the others liberty When Hannibal had once passed the Alpes within a little after he presented his Army before the gates of Rome When Tamerlane had wonne the wall of China he did what he list afterwards in the Country the Brittains losing their wall could not hinder the Picts from setting up their kingdome and surely since the Spaniard hath gotten the passage over the Alpes and made himselfe master of the Valtoline hee hath in expectation swallowed up all Germany and in a manner besieged even France it selfe Of those other fortifications of nature Marishes Wildernesses and Sandy desarts I have lesse to say T is well knowne what advantage the Irish Kernes have made of their bogges and woods Two famous Cities in Europe are built in marishes namely Venice in Italy and Dort in Holland and both of them be called maiden Cities for that hitherto they could never be ravished never conquered La Fert one of the strongest townes in France is thus situated and in our Barons warres have many sheltred themselves in the I le of Elie. He that is to beleaguer townes thus situated fights not against men but nature Marishes admit no drie lodging for the foot no approaches for the horse no sure ground for Ordnance or heavie carriages The towne feares no undermining and a marish finally is not except by long siege and famine otherwise to be conquered but as heretikes be and that 's with faggots and when that way approaches be made over it the towne is ours and Empire is inlarged Amongst Woods and Wildernesses those of Hercynia and Ardenna have of old beene famous and were sometime bounders to the unlimited Roman Empire it selfe nor have they beene conquered by force but by time As for Desarts and Sands I will mention no more but those vast Desarts of Arabia which the Turke cals his but cannot conquer An unknowne Sea and solitude of heath and Sand is said to keepe the two mighty Empires of the Chinois and great Mogor from incroaching one upon another In such sands have whole Armies and Caravans beene buried over these they travell as at Sea by observing the starres and by Card Compasse Of all the rest before named these be the surest fortresses and the most insuperable no Army that 's wisely led dares venture to march over the hot sands of Lybia Desarts afford no towns for shelter no food for men no pasture or so much as water for horses all must be brought with them and he that shall thinke to inlarge his Empire by making an invasion this way shall finde it worse than a long suit for a dribling debt the charges will amount to more than the principall To conclude this tedious discourse man looks upon the world upon Seas Rivers Mountains Marishes c. as upon things set there casually or by chance but God made them there upon most wise designe here he casts up a mountaine and that barres a conquerour here he powres out a River and in passing of that overthrowes an Army there plants he a wood and by dressing an ambush in it gives away a victory and upon changing the fortune of the field Empires take their beginnings or periods lawes and religions their alterations the pride and policies of men are defeated that his owne power and providence might onely be acknowledged For by helpe of these naturall causes sayes God silently unto Tyrants and conquerours as at first he said unto the Sea Hitherto shall thy proud waves goe and no further Of Travell LAstly sithence Plato one of the Day-starres of that knowledge which then but dawning hath since shone out in cleerer brightnesse thought nothing fitter for the bettering of our understanding than Travell aswell by having a conference with the wiser sort in all kindes of learning as by the Eye-sight of those things which otherwise a man cannot attaine unto but by Tradition A sandy foundation either in matter of Science or Conscience Let me also in this place be bold to informe you that all purpose to Travell if it be not ad voluptatem solùm sed ad utilitatem argueth an industrious and generous minde Base and vulgar spirits hover still about home Those are more Noble and Divine that imitate the Heavens and joy in motion Hee therefore that intends to Travell out of his owne Countrey must likewise resolve to Travell out of his Countrey fashion and indeed out of himselfe that is out of his former intemperate feeding disordinate drinking thriftlesse gaming fruitlesse time-spending violent exercising and irregular misgoverning whatsoever He must determine that the end of his Travell is his ripening in knowledge and the end of his knowledge is the service of his Countrey which of right challengeth the better part of us This is done by preservation of himselfe from Hazards of Travell and Observation of what he heares and sees in his Travelling The Hazards are two of the Minde and of the Body that by the infection of Errours this by the corruption of Manners For who so drinketh of the poysonous cup of the one or tasteth the sower liquor of the other 〈◊〉 the true rellish of Religion and Vertue bringeth â—ome a leaprous Soule and a tainted body retaining nothing thing but the shame of either or repentance of both whereof in my Travell I have seene some examples and by them made use to prevent both mischiefes which I will briefly shew And first of the better part Concerning the Travellers Religion I teach not what it should be being out of my Element nor inquire what it is being out of my Commission only my hopes are he be of the religion here established and my advice is he be therein well setled and that howsoever his imagination shall be carried in the voluble Sphere of divers mens discourses yet his inmost thoughts like lines in a Circle shall alwayes concenter in this immoveable point Not to alter his first Faith For I know that as all innovation is dangerous in a State so is this change in the little Common-wealth of a Man And it is to be feared that he which is of one Religion in his youth and of another in his manhood will in his age be of neither Wherefore if
and short that it cannot ripen the clusters of the vine It bringeth forth a race of excellent horse fit for journies in regard of their ambling paces but not commendable for indurance It breedeth the injurious Wolfe and the Fox as also all other creatures tame and gentle necessary for life but of lesser growth except the Grey-hound Almost all the woods are replenished with Deere and those so fat that they can frant runne for fatnesse with Bores Hares in great abundance Goats Fallow-Deere Hedg-Hogges and Moales are seldome seene but Mice infinite it aboundeth also with Falcons Merlins Eagles Cranes and in the Northerly parts with Swannes Storks are very rarely heard of thorow the whole Island but such as are there found are blacke Pies and Nightingales are altogether wanting By reason of the Sea their famous Rivers and spacious Lakes it is served with most excellent Fish and that peculiar to this Island onely For to let passe many other in Vlster the Ban being a most faire and cleare water and arising out of the Lake of Eaugh is the most plentifull River for Salmon that is to be found thorowout all Europe For plenty and varietie the like is to be reported of Sineus and Erno a Lake by Camdens report thirty miles long and fifteene broad Report saith that this was once a delicate plot of ground and well inhabited but for the bestiall abuse of the people it was suddenly swallowed in the waters And to prove this true men say that in faire seasons the Turrets and tops of houses are in the bottome to bee discerned The Island became subject to the Crowne of England about the yeare of our Lord 1175. Henry the second then reigning At what time Roderic King of Conaght intituling himselfe King of Ireland inforced the residue of those petty Roytelets to crave assistance of the King of England under whose protection they voluntarily yeelded their obeysance It hath fifty Bishopricks whereof Armach is a Primacy and Metropolitan of the whole Island Cassils is another Archbishopricke authorized by Pope Eugenius and hath under it nine suffragan Bishops Dublin is another and Toam another It is divided into foure Provinces viz. Leynster which Eastward respecteth EnglaÌ„d Mounster which lieth towards France Southward Conaght exposed to the West And Vlster situated in the Northerly part of the Island Some adde a fifth placed in the middest and terme it Meath Every one now is subdivided into Counties and each Countie into Baronies and hundreds and every Barony into Parishes consisting of Manors Townes and Villages after the manner of England â— That parcell of territorie which anciently was termed the Pale is about the quantity of Yorke-shire in England and is a Country at this day inhabited by Noblemen and Gentlemen descended of Engliâ—â— race being civill men and have continued their obediencâ— to the Crowne of England and retained their English language since the first conquest This people doe commonly marry within themselves and not with the meere Irish who could never in their sundry rebellions draw the said inhabitants to joyne with them by flattery or expell them by force The first Colonies planted therein were composed of worthy and noble Englishmen and especially seated in Dublin and other Cities and borough townes thorowout the Realme whose progeny having the mannagement of the affaires of the kingdome subdued by degrees the greatest part of the Irish and brought them under subjection to the Crowne of England And so long as they and their posterity were imployed as principall Officers in time of warre and peace being men throughly informed of all passages within the Kingdome and acquainted with the dispositions of the people the Realme was worthily governed and duly increased in civility and yeelded some profit to the crowne without charge Other English Colonies at sundry times have there beene since planted and especially by our late and moderne Soveraignes in the Provinces of Mounster and Vlster by the name of Vndertakers whereupon it groweth that the Realme is now inhabited with English and Irish descended of English race and with the meere and ancient Irishmen unto whose Nobilitie and Gentry the sir-names of Mac or O are commonly added Vpon the Conquest Henry the second established the lawes of England then being divided into kinds viz. the Common law as that the elder should inherit his fathers lands and Custome law that by the particular custome of Manors and Townes lands should be divided by the custome of Gavelkinde amongst all his sonnes or that the youngest sonne onely should inherit the same by the custome of Borough-English whereunto is to bee added a third viz. the Statute law He and his successors held the possession thereof with 〈◊〉 soveraigne royalty and kingly prerogatives by the nâ—me of Lords of Ireland untill the day of king Henry the eighth who by act of Parliament was acknowledged intituled and entred King of the said kingdome and so continueth it unto this day being governed as a distinct kingdome by a Lieutenant for Authority Traine Furniture Provision c. farre surpassing any Deputation thorowout Christendome wherein Courts of Parliament are have there beene held conâ—â—sting of the three Estates of the kingdome in the same forme as is used in England by commission from the King under the great seale of England authorizing the Viceroy or Deputie to summon a parliament there and to give the Royall assent unto such acts as are agreed upon in that Parliament wherein the King and his Councell of Estate of England are to bee informed by certificate under the great seale of Ireland by force of a Statute made in Ireland in the tenth yeare of Henry the seventh And after the kings allowance the bils to be enacted and propounded in the Parliament there So the Lord Deputy by force of the said Commission gives the Kings royall assent to such acts as are agreed upon in the said Parliament there So as I said before Ireland is not onely governed by the Common lawes of England by certaine ancient customes of that realme and this and by divers statutes here and there also upon occasion enacted but also the like Courts and formes of Iustice are there according to the said lawes used and administred And also the Iudiciall records are made in Latine and the Iudges and Lawyers doe plead in English as is accustomed in England For the studying of which Lawes the Irish Gentlemen doe send their sonnes to the Innes of Court in England being alwayes such as are descended of English race and not of meere Irish who are allowed to practise in England after they are called to the Barre as Englishmen are also allowed to practise in Ireland Neither the Nobility nor Commons of Ireland have any suffrage in the election of the Viceroy or blazing of Soveraigne Magistrates but all is done by the King and such as are especially authorized And the inhabitants of Cities and Borough-townes in Ireland by their charters which they have from the
command all So that Adams wisdome gave them titles and his superioritie prescribed subjection but how to mans use for mans sustenance for mans necessitie and lastly for mans delight Thus doth oile make a cheerefull countenance and wine a gladsome heart Thus did the Kings table furnish it selfe in this sense the songs of David praise God for his many blessings Thus were incense and odours provided and the love of brethren compared to the dew of Hermon and the costly ointment on Aarons vestures which blessed allowances make mee to remember a speech of Sir Roger Williams to an idle Spaniard boasting of his country citrons orenges olives and such like Why saith he in England wee have good surloines of beefe and daintie capons to eat with your sauce with all meat worthy the name of sustenance but you have sauce and no sustenance and so mich God dich you with your sustenancelesse sauce Canaan had neighbourly meetings feasts of triumphs and times of private rejoycings Spaine dares not nor can bid you welcome Idle jelousies private hate or hatefull pride feare of expences and vaine-glorious speeches will quickly debarre you from the pleasure of invitation from the freedome of conversing one with another which cannot savour the noble entercourses of mutuall amitie Canaan had the Temple furnished as God commanded the Priest obedient to the King the Prophets in estimation and the Feasts orderly celebrated Spaine is polluted with worse severitie than Paganisme hath invented viz. the cruell Office of Inquisition wherewith the Kings themselves have beene so over-awed by the insolence of the Clergie that some of them have not spared to commit repentant error to please the Pope Canaan was a receptacle of strangers and Princely solemnities Spaine hateth all men commits them to fire and sword and cannot order one solemne Festivall unlesse at a Kings Coronation a Princes mariage or a Cardinals jollitie where yet an Italian invention shall fill a table with painted trenchers and dishes of China but a hungry belly may call for more meat and he never the neerer Canaan had cities of refuge cities of store cities of strength cities for horses and all for the Kings magnificence to all which the wayes lay ordered and men passed to and fro without danger and want In Spaine you must have a guide yea sometime a guard and are so farre from expecting releefe after your dayes travels that if you have not a Borachio before your saddle and made your provision on the backe of an Asse you may happen to be tired for want of sustenance and faint with Ismael for lack of water Canaan had beautifull women and the Scripture sets it downe as a blessing of God But Spaine must mourne for strange disparity and either lament that her women are painted like the images of the grove or sit in the high-way as Thamar did to deceive Iuda For in truth they are for the most part unpleasing swartish or else by comming to be Curtizans dangerous and impudent Thus as yet Salomon must sit without compare and his kingdome unmatchably triumph with a noble prerogative But what must we thinke of France sayes one is not your breath now almost spent and will you not be satisfied with the goodliest kingdome of the world The answer shall not be peremptory nor derogate from the merit of its least worth of vertue yet are they traduced for many defects and I beleeve will fall short to our expectation at least I am sure dare not abide the touch of triall In Salomons Court the Queene of Saba commended the obedience of the Princes the sitting of the Kings servants the ordering of the Palace and the multitude of the provisions daily brought in In France the Princes contest with the King the Clergie affront the Princes beare downe the States the Pages mocke the Gentlemen and the Gentlemen are proud of nothing but slovennesse unbeseeming familiarity and disorder So that with much adoe the mechanicall man stands bare to the King and the Princes sit at meat like Carriers in an Hostry without reverence silence or observation and a vile custome having got the upper hand hath depressed the Majestie of such a place which indeed reduced to uniformity would much augment the glory of Europe A wise State and potent Kings have built Navies and travelled themselves in person to view them raising customes from their Merchants loving and maintaining good Mariners and Pilots contracting leagues with remote Princes and making the confirmation of them honourable and advantagious But France wanteth shipping is carelesse of Navigation can raise no good Sailers seldome attempteth voyages or discoveries and consequently hath its Cities and Merchants conversing without forme or noble condition For in Paris they dare talke of the Kings mistresses intermeddle with all tractates of Parliaments and State call any Prince Hugonet who dares onely say That Nostre Dame is but a darke melancholike Church and finally justifie very monstrous and abusive actions So that to tell you of their inconstant and refractorie dispositions at all times would sooner discover their loathsome effusions of Christian bloud than prevent the customary and mischievous practices of this people As for the Court by reason of inveterate disorders it is a meere map of confusion and exposeth many actions more ridiculous than worthy of imitation The Husbandman he is termed a Peasant disparaged in his drudgery and servile toilsomnesse liveth poore and beastly is afraid of his owne shadow and cannot free the Vineyards from theeves and destroyers Yea all the Countrey swarmeth with Rogues and Vagabonds whose desperate wants drive them to perpetrate many hainous murthers although for the most part the Provosts of every government are very diligent The cause as I conjecture for that the passages are toylesome and disordered yea many times dangerous to which may be added the much connivencie at notorious crimes with many particulars choaking the breath of happinesse from giving life to a glorious kingdome indeed if the reciprocall duties betweene Prince and Subject were but moderately extended But now to produce England shall we say that it is matchlesse or faultlesse Surely no we have no doubt our imperfections as well as other Nations But certainly by that time the Reader in the ballance of judgement hath poysed the differences of plenty and scarcity of necessaries and abilities for Peace and Warre the one for life the other for defence I make no question but for the first when he hath read the censure of the Pope how that England was verè hortus delictarum vere puteus inexhaustus his Holinesse if he might have it for catching had no reason but to conclude Ergò ubi multa abundant de multis multa possunt extorqueri For the second how ever France and Spaine have beene alwayes accounted the ballances of Europe yet hath England stood as the beame to turne the Scale which particularly to prove I will never goe about by recitall of our Ancestors
that of the Sunne is the best and the halfe Crowne Those of silver are the Livres or Franc which is two shillings sterling The quart d'escu which is one shilling six pence The Teston which is halfe a sous lesse The peece of ten sous which is one shilling sterling the halfe quart d'escu the halfe Teston and the peece of five sous that is six pence sterling Those of Brasse is the price of six Blanks which is three pence that of three blanks three halfe pence The sous of twelve deniers the liard of foure deniers the double of two and lastly the denier it selfe whereof ten make one penny sterling This baser and smaller kind of money hath not beene used in France but since the beginning of the civill warres The Teston is the best silver It remaineth I speake of the Administration and Execution of Iustice and of those places and persons where and by whom it is done I will therefore beginne with their assemblies as the highest and greatest Court of all which well resembleth the Parliament of England the Dyet of the Empire or the Councell of â—â—e Amphythrions in Greece There are three especiall causes of calling these Assemblies The first when the succession of the Crowne was doubtfull and in controversie or when it was to take order for the Regency during the Kings Captivity or Minority or when they had not the right use of their wits Hereof yee have examples Anno 1327. Saint Lewis an Infant and Charles the sixth An. Dom. 1380. a Lunaticke and 1484. Iohn a prisoner For all which occasions Assemblies were called to determine who should have the Regency of the Realme in the meane while The second cause is when there is question of reforming the Kingdome correcting the abuses of Officers and Magistrates or appeasing troubles and seditions The third cause is the want and necessitie of the King or Kingdome in which case the Estates are exhorted to give subsidies subventions aids and gratuities For in former times the Kings contenting themselves with their Domaine and impost of such wares as came in or went out of the land the two most ancient and most just grounds of Finances were not accustomed to levie and impose upon their Subjects any tax whatsoever without the consent of the three States thus assembled The next Soveraigne Court for so the French call it is the Court of Parliament The true Temple of French Iustice Seat of the King and his Peeres And as Haillan cals it the Buttresse of Equity This Court very much resembleth the Star-Chamber of England the Arcopage of Athens the Senate of Rome the Consiglio de' dieci of Venice There are no Lawes saith Haillan by which this Court is directed it judgeth according to equity and conscience and mitigateth the rigour of the Law Of these Courts of Parliament ye have eight in France That of Paris the most ancient and highest in preheminence which at first was ambulatory as they call it and ever followed the Kings Court whithersoever it went but since Philip le Bel it hath beene sedentary in this Citie That of Grenoble was erected Anno 1453. That of Tholouse Anno 1302. That of Bourdeaux Anno 1443. That of Dijon in the yeare 1476. That of Roven in the yeare 1501. That of Aix the same yeare And lastly that of Bretaigne at the yeare 1553. Anciently all Arch-Bishops and Bishops might sit and give voices in this Parliament of Paris but in Anno 1463. it was decreed that none but the Bishop of Paris and Abbot of Saint Denis might sit there except he be of the Bloud for all these are privileged The Presidents and Counsellors of the Court of Parliament of Paris may not depart the Towne without leave of the Court by the ordinance of Lewis the twelfth in the yeare 1499. The Senators ought alwayes to bee present because things are carried with more Majesty when the Court is full To this Parliament they appeale from all other subalterne Courts throughout the Realme as they doe in Venice to the Consiglio grande Neither can the King conclude any warre or peace without the advice and consent hereof or at least as Haillan saith he demandeth it for fashion sake sometime when the matters are already concluded The Parliament of Paris consisteth of seven Chambers the Grande câ—ambre and five others of Enquests and the Tournelles which is the chamber for the criminall causes as the other six bee for the civill It is called the Tournelles because the Iudges of the other Chambers sit there by turnes every three moneths the reason whereof Bodin giveth that it might not alter the naturall inclination of the Iudges and make them more cruell by being alwayes exercised in matter of condemnations and executions There be of this Court of Presidents Counsellors Chevalliers of honour Procureurs Advocates Clerks Sergeants and other Officers of all sorts not so few as two hundred Besides this Court there are also other Courts for the administration of Iustice in this Citie as the Chatellet of Paris with a Lieutenant civill and another criminall and the Hostel de Paris with a Prevost and other inferiour Officers which is as ye would say the Guild-Hall of the Citie So have ye throughout the Realme certaine places as all Cities in generall where there be Chatellets like our places of Assise and in them a Lieutenant civill and criminall to judge and determine all causes reall and personall and here many Lawyers and Procurers as our Counsellors at Law and Atturnies who plead before those Lieutenants and Prevosts and certaine Counsellors which are the Iudges in these Courts whereof the number is incredible in France Insomuch as you may well say of them as is said of Sienna There be more Readers than Auditors so here be more Pleaders than Clients This Chiquanery Petti-fogging multiplicitie of Pleaders came first from the Popes Court when his seat was at Avignon as my Author saith who in the same place cals these Advocates The Mice of the Palace The processes and suits in these Courts throughout France are innumerable wherein wee come nothing neere them and yet there is no want of these in England For I have heard of 340. Nisiprius between parties tried at one Assize in Norfolke as many I thinke as in halfe England besides But these are onely twice in the yeare that causes are tried at Assises in our Country whereas here they are tried every day in the yeare that is not festivall So that it is not much unlikely that here are as many Processes in seven yeares as have beene in England since the conquest There are besides these Courts of Chatellets in Cities the Courts also of Bailywicks and Sheriffalties who as Haillan saith keepe Courts in each Province and judge in all matters civill and criminall Here is also the Privie Councell or Councell of affaires of the Counsellors among which are his foure Secretaries he calleth certaine every morning at his rising to whom he
communicates apart his principall and most importing affaires where are read all letters which come from other Princes and such like publike businesse and after a conclusion what is to be done the dispatch thereof is committed to the Secretaries The other is the Great Councell or Councell of Estate which at first was as it were a member of the Parliament and consisted of the Princes of the Bloud and Nobility having only to deale in the matters of the policy generall of France or of warres or of the enacting and publishing of Edicts But the faction of Orleans and Burgundy caused it to bee changed to a choice number of Counsellors provisioned of 1000. crownes pension apeece yearely Of this Councell the Chancellor is chiefe for neither the King himselfe nor any Prince of the Bloud comes there This is the Court of which the Frenchman saith every time it is holden it costs the King a thousand crownes a day And now saith Haillan he cannot keepe them so cheape so infinite is the number of them growne Where he also complaines that this Conseil d' Estat which was wont only to determine publike affaires as the establishment of justice the Reglement of Finances and redressing of common grievances is now so charged with private contentions as the glory thereof is much diminished The Chancellor anciently served as a Secretarie and so was called in the old Charters of France where hee is likewise called the Grand Referendaire The Secretary doth signe and the Chancellor doth seale The Secretary is next in office who at first were called Clerks They are either of the Finances which have their place among the Officers of the Finances before remembred or of Affaires which we heare speake of Of these are foure which are called principall Governours and Lieutenants generall of Cities and Provinces are as it were Vice-royes and Regents of those places committed to them and indeed the persons sustaining these charges are much more Noble than those of the Secreâ—aries as being for the most part conferred upon the Princes of the Bloud and Peeres of France The Governours of Cities were in old time called Dukes and they of Provinces Counts They were at first only in Frontier Provinces but now since the troubles of France they have had the command over Cities and Countries even in the midst and bowels of the Land So that now saith Haillan France is become a Frontier to it selfe on every side There are but few Cities whereof anciently there were Governours as Rochel Calais Paronne Bologne Mondidier Narbonne Bayonne and two or three others Others that had keeping of some small Castle or Fort was onely called the Keeper or Captaine at most But now saith Haillan lib. 4. every paltry fellow that hath the keeping of a Pigeon-house must forsooth be called My Lord the Governour and my Mistresse his Wife My Lady the Governesse The Governour of Daulphenie hath greatest privileges for hee giveth all Offices in his Province in other places they can give none except they have it by expresse words in their Patent The Governour may not be absent above six moneths in a yeare but the Lieutenant must never be absent without leave of the Prince except teh Governour be present There is yet an Office whereof I must remember you which is one of the chiefest in France either for honour or profit called grand Maistre des Eaues Forests All matters concerning the Kings Chases Forests Woods and Waters whatsoever are determined by him by the Grand M. Enquesteur and by their Reformateur at the Table of Marble under him are infinite sorts of Officers and divers others As the particular Master of each Forest their Lieutenants Overseers of the sale of woods and the other Officers here specified But I will not load this short Relation with reckoning up all the divers and infinite sorts of Officers where with France herselfe seemeth tâ— be over-loaden as partly ye have heard already and yee shall reade in Bodin how hee complaines not only of the multiplicitie of Offices in generall but also that even the Councell of Estate is surcharged with number where you may likewise observe how he approves the Privie Councell of England erected some foure hundred and odde yeares since where are never saith he above twentie by whose sage direction the Land hath long flourished in Armes and Lawes And for the execution of Lawes and administration of Iustice yee may remember what hath beene said before that the Lawes are good and just but not justly executed Where Haillan comparing the time saith Then great ones were punished but since only pettie fellowes and great ones goe Scot-free Th'ensnaring Lawes let Crowes goe free While simple Doves entâ—ngled bee HAving thus related of the Topography and Policie of France it remaineth I speake somewhat of the Oeconomie that is of the people of France comprised under the three Estates of the Clergie the Nobilitie and Comminaltie of the severall humour profession and fashion of each of them which is the third and last branch of this Relation The Church Gallicane is holden the best privilege of all those of Christendome that have not yet quit their subjection to the Pope It hath alwayes protested against the Inquisition It is more free from payments to the Pope than the Church of Spaine as also to the King For here in France they only pay the Disme but in Spaine the King hath his Tertias Subsidio Pilâ— and Escusado in all a moitie of the Church living Indeed it is reported of this Catholike King that he hath founded many Abbeyes and Religious Houses but what saith his Subject He steales the sheepe and gives the Trotters for Gods sake In this Church of France are twelve Archbishopricks one hundred and foure Bishoprickes five hundred and fortie Archpriories one thousand foure hundred and fifty Abbeys twelve thousand three hundred and twenty Priories five hundred sixtie seven Nunneries one hundred and thirtie thousand Parish Priests seven hundred Convents of Friers and two hundred fiftie nine Commendums of the Order of the Knights of Malta There are saith the Cabinet du Roy three millions of people that live upon the Church of France where he particularly setteth downe in each Diocesse the number of all sorts of Religious people as also the number of their Whores Bawds Bastards and Servants of all sorts And why not saith he as well as the Magitians undertake in their Inventory of the Diabolike Monarchie to set downe the names and surnames of 76. Princes and seven millions foure hundred and five thousand nine hundred twentie and six Devils The Church hath for all this rabble to live upon these two things First her Temporall Revenues and secondly her Spirituall which they call the Baise-mani Of her Temporall Revenues divers men judge diversly The Cabinet who in all his computations makes of a Mouse an Elephant saith that they are fourescore millions of crownes the yeare besides the Baise-mani which is as
but Paper and a few Sols and doublesse of Brasse that made it so swell in all scarce eighteene pence sterling Hee is Oftentator a Craker who comming to such as have great horses to sell makes them beleeve he will buy some And at great Faires drawing to their shops that sell apparell cals to see a sute of an hundred pounds and when they are agreed of the price fals out with his boy for following him without his purse Such a one was the Gallant who in the middest of his discourse with many Gentlemen suddenly turned backe to his Lackie and saith Fetch me my Clocke it lies in my lodging in such or such a place neere such or such a Iewell The Lalero bethinks himselfe that it is in his pocket which hee knew well enough before presently he puls it out not so much to shew how the time passeth whereof he takes little care as the curiousnesse of worke and the beauty of the case whereof hee is not a little bragge and enamoured To speake thus particularly of all his severall humours and customes would be very prolix and not much necessary I will onely referre you to the fourth of Tullies Rhetorick where he speaketh of a bragging Rhodomonte and to the first Booke of Horace Satyres speaking of an endlesse and needlesse Prater a fastidious irksome companion Where you shall see the French naturall very lively and admirably well described I will only speake of his impatience and precipitation in deliberations of Warre or Peace and such other affaires of greatest importance and so end To this effect Bodin saith of him The French is of so sudden and busie disposition that he quickly yeelds to that a man demands being soone tired with messages to and fro and other delayes peculiar to the Spaniard And in another place The Spaniard had need of a more ready dispatch than he hath and the French of more moderation in his actions and passions And whereas Commines saith of us that we be not so craftie in our treaties and agreements as the French I thinke saving the credit of so great an Author he might better have said so head-strong and precipitate But where he saith that he that will treat and determine matters with us must have a little patience I yeeld unto him hee hath good reason so to say for his Countrey-men the French can endure no delay they must propound conclude all in one day By this haste of theirs they lost more saith Bodin by one Treatie at Cambrey Anno 1559. to the Spaniard than he had before got of the French in fortie yeares by warre Navarre TO the Title and Armes of France wee see these of Navarre annexed notwithstanding that this Kingdome lies Westward of the Pâ—rencan mountaines touching upon Arragon on its South and Biscar on its North part two of the Spanish Provinces The old Inhabitants were the Vascones the Berones c. The present name of Navarre it hath either from the Spanish word Navas signifying a Campagnia or woodlesse champaigne Country or field naturally fenced with trees round about of which divers are in this Kingdome or else from Navarrin a towne in the mountaines and a chiefe Fort against the Moores of old time About the yeare 716. Garcia Ximenes freeing it from the Moores gained it the honour of a petty Kingdome which his Ancestors so well increased that within three hundred yeares after Sancho the great wrote himselfe King of Spaine for Leon he held by force Arragon had beene before united by marriage and himselfe obtained Castile in right of his wife out of other parts hee had driven the Moores also But this union himselfe againe disjoynted by a division of 〈◊〉 amongst his owne sonnes Navarre thus againe dissevered came about the yeare 1483. unto Katherine Countesse of â—â—ix and Bigorre and Princesse of Bearne who unhappily marrying with Iohn Earle of Albret a French Counâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 those three of his wives also lost the Kingdome to the Spaniard The quarrell was this Lewis the twelfth of France falling at warres with the Spaniards Venetians and Germans was seconded by this Iohn of Albret and both for this opposed and excommunicated by the Pope Iulius tâ—e seâ—oâ—d Navarre being by a Bull exposed to the Invader Vpon this hint Ferdinand of Spaine puts in demands passage thorow Navarre for his Army pretended against the Moores which upon deniall of his request he turnes upon Navarre and before the slow succours could come out of France carries the whole Kingdome not so much as a box on the eare being given in resistance Thus the Spaniard gaâ— the possession though Henry of Albret sonne to Katherine and Iohn aforesaid retaines the title from whom also the French King challengeth it as being descended of this Henry and his wife Margaret of Valois Sister to King Francis of France from whom came Ioan Albret Queen of Navarre whose husband was Anthony Duke of Burbon whose son was Henry the great King of Navarre first and of France afterward whose sonne in Lewis the thirteenth the present King of France The chiefe Citie of Navarre is Pampelona the strength is made use of by the Spaniard as a Bulwarke against France there being but two passages thorow the Pyrenean mountaines out of this kingdome into Bearne in France which he easily keepes fortified Belgia Netherland NExt lyeth the seventeene Provinces called the Low-Countries the Netherlands or Germania Inferior concerning whom the world can but wonder how any Prince would neglect such a benefit and inheritance of goodnesse greatnesse and wealth which united with the love of the Inhabitants would have exceeded Spaine for Revenues multitude of people Cities shipping and all things else tending to worldly felicitie In observing the distraction whereof a discreet Reader may truly learne the inconstancie of worldly prosperitie most commonly procured by Princes themselves in following ill counsell and youthfull distemperature The Region containeth the Dukedomes of Brabant Limburk Luzzenburg and Gâ—lderland the Earledoms of Flanders Artoys Hennalt Holland Zealand Nemours and Zâ—â—phâ—â— the Marquesaâ—e of the Empire the Lordships of Friesland Mâ—eâ—â—lin Virech Over-isel and Groning East Friesland belongeth to a Prince of its owne who ever disclaimed to bee united to the residue belike to prevent all claime that either Empeâ—our or King might by cavill lay thereunto They invented the Art of Printing restored Musicke framed the Charioâ— devised the laying of colours in Oyle the working of colours in Glasse the making of Tapestrie Sayes Searges Woosteds Frisadoes and divers sorts of Linnen-cloth with innumerable other small trifles all sorts of Clocks and Dials and the Mariners Compasse In these Provinces are numbred two hundred and eight great Townes munited with wals ramparts ditches warlike ports draw-bridges and in which are continuall guards either of the Burgers of Souldiers lying there in garrison according to the proximitie of the enemie the importance of the place of necessitie of the time The Villages or Dorps are six thousand
three hundred beautified with Churches imbatteled and of many severall fashions besides Granges Castles Religious houses Towers and Gentlemens Manours The aire seemeth moist yet not prejudiciall to the health of the inhabitants for in the Campaine of Brabant men live an hundred yeares and glory in the same as if the promise were fulfilled in them to haue their dayes long in the Land which the Lord God hath given themâ— The Emperour Charles had an intention to erect it into a Kingdome but the difficultie consisted herein that every of thâ—se Provinces being governed by peculiar customes prerogatives and privileges would never have yeelded unto one Royall Law common to all especially those that had the largest privileges for which cause he gave over his determination It is seated commodiously for all the Provinces of Europe and containeth in circuit about a thousand Italian miles The aire of later times is become much more wholesome and temperate than in times past whether it be by reason of the increase of Inhabitants or industry of the people who spare no charge to amend whatsoever is amisse Whosoever shall consider what commodity they raise by the fishing and traffike onely may well say that no Nation through the whole world may compare with them for riches For Guicciardine writeth that of their Herring-fishing they make yearely 441000. pound sterling their fishing for Cod 150000. pound sterling and of their fishing for Salmon more than 200000. crownes which is of sterling money 60000. pound The continuall riches that groweth in the Country of other sorts of fish taken all the yeare is infinite The value of the principall Merchandize yearely brought in and carried out is likewise infinite the aforesaid Author esteemeth it to be about foureteene millions one hundred and thirty crownes whereof England only bringeth to the value of five millions and two hundred and fifty thousand crowns It is a wonder to see how that the Inhabitants of all these Provinces especially of Brabant and Flanders understand and speake two or three languages and some foure or more according to their entercourse with strangers yea in Antwerp you shall heare the women speake Dutch French Italian Spanish and English The Countrey is everywhere bettered by navigable Rivers and those not empty handed but affording delicate water and excellent fish It is reasonably beautified with woods affording materials to build withall and pleasure for hunting It is smally or not at all mountainous except about Namurs Lutzenburg and Henalt fruitfull of corne grasse and herbs fit for medicine in some places of Brabant and Gelder-land full of heath yet not so barren but cartell are well sustained there their flesh having an exdinary sweet taste It is free from those creatures which are either noysome or dangerous to man and wanteth none of those blessings wherwith the God of all blessings indoweth a country but a noble Prince unity of Religion and a quiet Government Which if it might please the Almighty to regrant it would questionlesse shine as the Sunne amongst the inferiour Planets with the rest of their adjacent neighbours in treasure potencie content and ordinary felicitie For their Forces at Land of them it may truly be reported that they have not only made their parties good against the potent wealth and exact discipline of the Spanish but have also at all times prevented the intimations intrusions and underminings of all their neighbours and lately regained the freedome of their ancient libertie even to point of admiration That where all other Nations grow poore by warre they only thrive and become rich For the store of shipping they are also immatchable In the yeare 1587. the King of Denmarke upon some pretences of displeasure arrested one with another 600. in the Sunds at one time In 88. upon short warning they rigged to the narrow seas 100. good men of warre And if suggestion deceive not at this day Holland Zealand and Freesland are said to rejoyce in the possession of 2500. good ships from 150. to 700. tun a peece In regard whereof other nations professing the same religion and accommodated with like advantages may first observe to what height of courage and confidence this people is growne by good order and faithfull dealing who in truth being but two or three small shires have for forty yeares space resisted and beaten the forces of a mighty King who keepes Millan Naples and Sicil under great bondage in despight of all the Italians for valour and policie notwithstanding proclaiming themselves to be the sole Minions of the habitable world But truth is These petty Princes have not now those daring spirits which they had in former times when the Visconti Neapolitans Fortibrachio Francis Sforza with other Lords and Common-weales were of power to invade the territories of the Church and inforce the Romans themselves to thrust their Pope Eugenius out of Rome to save their citie from sacking The Country now representeth unto all Christendome nothing more livelier than a Schoole of Martiall Discipline whereunto all Nations resort to learne and see the practice of Armes and the models of Fortifications Whereupon no few considerations are to be observed first into what follies and extremities Princes run by inuring their people to the assiduitie of warfare and secondly what great advantages a small or weake Estate gaineth by fortifying places and passages for surely there is nothing that sooner undoeth a great Price than to be forced to besiege a Towne which is excellently defended because herein he consumeth his time and most commonly loseth his reputation As did Amurath before Belgrade Soliman before Vienna Charles the fifth before Mets Francis the first before Pauie Maximilian before Padoa The Catholikes before Rochel The Protestants before Saint Iohn de Angeli And Albert before Oastend This manner of defence grew in use first in Italie by occasion of the comming of Charles to the Conquest of Naples whose manner of warfare together with the terrour of his Ordnance never before that time practised in Italie gave the Inhabitants occasion to raise their wits to the utmost of resistance Then followed the famous overthrow of the Venetians at Caravaggio where in an adverse battell they almost lost all they held upon the sinne Land By which examples Princes being instructed in the danger that came by fields so foughten the most part afterward turned all their imaginations of defence from the field to fortresses And the first that put this in practice to his highest commendation was Prosper Collouna who at two severall times most honourably defended the Duchie of Millaâ—ne against the French only by shutting them from victuall wearying them with all manner of distresses and opposing them to the want of all things requisite for an Armie Whether the Netherlands borrowed this discreetnesse from the Italians or more lately provided for their best safeties being by long time beaten with the rod of experience I will not here dispute but sure I am that by this manner of
discipline they only of all Christendome have made best use thereof As the people to whose glory industry patience and fortitude and that in a good cause too much honour and commendation can never be attributed The States of the Low-Countries ALL the seventeene Provinces of Netherland were sometimes under one Lord but privileges being broken and warres arising the King of Spaine the naturall Lord of all these Low-Countries was in the treaty of peace Anno 1606. inforced to renounce all pretence of his owne right to these confederate Provinces Since when we may well handle them by themselves as an absolute and a free State of Government as the Spaniard himselfe acknowledged them The Provinces united are these Zeland Holland Vtrich Over-Isell Zutphen Groningen three quarters of Gelderland with some peeces of Brabant and Flanders This union was made Anno 1581. The Fleets and Forces of which Confederation are from the chiefe Province altogether called Hollanders The first of these is Zeland whose name given it by the Danes of Zeland in Scandia notifies its nature A land overflowed with the Sea Broken it is into seven Ilands whereof those three to the East beyond the River Scheld and next to Holland are Schowen Duvelant and Tolen the other foure be Walcheren Zuyd-beverlant Nort-beverlant and Wolferdijck 1. T'land van Schowen is seven of their miles about parted with a narrow fret from Nort-beverlant The chiefe towne is Zierickzee the ancientest of all Zeland built 849. The Port sometimes traded unto is now choaked with sand which they labour to cleare againe 2. Duveland so named of the Doves foure miles about hath some townes but no City 3. Tolen called so of the chiefe towne as that was of the Tolle there payed by the boats comming downe the Scheld 4. The chiefe of the seven is Walcheren ten miles compasse so named of the Walsh or Galles In the middle of it is Middleburgh the prime Citie of Zeland and a goodly Towne other Cities it hath as Vere Armuyden and Flushing all fortified 5. Zuyd-beverlant Nort-beverlant so named of the Bavarians The first is now ten miles about The Cities are Romerswael much endangered by the Sea and divided from the Island and Goesse or Tergoose a pretty and a rich towne 6. Nort-beverlant quite drowned in the yeare 1532. but one towne 7. Wolferdijck that is Wolfers-banke hath now but two Villages upon it Zeland hath ten Cities in all The land is good and excellently husbanded the water brackish Their gaines comes in by that which brought their losses the Sea Their wheat is very good some store they have the Cowes but more of Sheepe great store of Salt-houses they have for the refining of Salt of which they make great merchandize The Zelanders were converted to the faith by our Country-man Willebrord before Charles the greats time HOlland so named either quasi Holt-land that is the Wood-land which woods they say were destroyed by a mighty tempest Anno 860. the roots and truncks of which being often here found or quasi Hol-land Hollow and light land as it is indeed But most likely it is that the Danes also comming from Olandt in their owne Countrie gave name to this Province as they did to Zeland also The whole compasse is not above sixtie of their miles the breadth in most places is not above six houres travelling with a Wagon and in some places scarce a mile over The whole is divided into South-Holland Kinheymar West-Freesland Waterlandt and Goytland The chiefe Towne is Dort but the goodliest and richest is Amsterdam one of the greatest Townes of merchandize in the whole world they have almost twenty other Cities strong and elegant At Leyden there being a College and Vniversity Their banks mils and other workes for keeping out the Sea be most admirable vast and expensive Three of the foure Elements are there and in Zeland starke naught then Water brackish their Aire foggie their Fire smokish made of their Turses for which they are said to burne up their owne land before the day of Iudgement The men are rather bigge than strong some accuse them to love their penny better than they doe a stranger Their women are the incomparable huswives of the world and if you looke off their faces upon their linnen and houshold stuffe are very neat and cleanly At their Innes they have a kinde of open-heartednesse and you shall be sure to finde it in your reckoning Their land is passing good for Cowes they live much upon their butter and they bragge mightily of their cheeses As for flesh-meat I thinke that a Hawke in England eats more in a moneth than a rich Boore nay than a sufficient corporall Burger does in six weekes The industry of the people is wonderfull so many ditches have they made thorow the Country that there is not the most Iâ—land Boore but he can row from his owne doore to all the Cities of Holland and Zealand The Dutchman will drinke indeed but yet he still does his businesse he lookes still to the maine chance both in the City and Country by Sea and Land they thrive like the Iewes every where and wee have few such drunkards in England too many wee have apt enough to imitate their vice but too too few that will follow them in their vertue THis Duchie lies on the East of Holland and Brabanâ— touching also upon Cleve and Iuliers It hath two and twenty Cities and good Townes whereof Nimwegen Zutphon Ruremond and Arhneim are the chiefe Some peeâ—es the Spaniard here hath â— and the whole Country having heretofore beene infeâ—ted with the warres makes â— a little to come behinde his fellowes The land and people differ not much from those of Holland saving that towards Cleveland it is more mountainous the Champian is very rich pasturage for grazing THis touches Gelderland upon the South West-Freesland upon the North Westphalia upon the East and the Zuydersee on the West The chiefe Citie is Deventer others of the better sort be Campen Zwol Steinwick Oetmarse Oldenzeel Hesselâ—â— Vollenhoven c. This Countrey was of old inhabited by the Franks or Frenchmen of which there were two tribes the Ansuarii which gave name to the Hanse-townes whereof Deventer was first and the Salii which tooke name from the River Isala upon which Deventer stands and these gave name to the Salique Law which you see did rather concerne these Countries than France it selfe and was made by a barbarous people in an age as barbarous though this onely was pretended to barre women from the crowne of France and to hinder our Kings and occasion those warres and bloudsheds THe Bishopricke of Vtrecht hath Holland on the North and Gelderland on the West The circuit is but small yet hath it five pretty Cities whereof Vtrecht it selfe is large delicate and rich inhabited by most of the Gentry of Holland Much harassed hath it beene but now well recovered since it came into the union GRoningen
Lusatia is on the South bounded with Silesia t is neere upon two hundred miles long and fifty broad it lies betweene the Rivers Elve and Viadrus and is divided into the Vpper and Lower both given to Vratislaus as Silesia also was King of Bohemia by the Emperour Henry the fourth Anno 1087. It still retaines the honour of a Marquisate Gorlitz is the chiefe Citie and a faire one Bandzen Sutaw Spremberg and Tribel bee neat and well peopled Townes The people as in Northerly situation they are neerer to the Germans so are they like them more rough mannerd than the Silesians and Bohemians Their Countrey is fruitfull enough and there may upon necessity be levied twenty thousand foot as good as any in that Kingdome All these incorporate Provinces use the Sclavonian tongue Sâ—ria is rich in Mines of Silver and Iron threescore miles broad and an hundred and ten long Carinthia a hilly and woody Countrey is seventy five miles long and fifty five broad Carniola with the bordering Countries up to Tergisâ—e is an hundred fiftie miles long and forty five broad They are plentifull of Corne Wine Flesh and Wood. The Country of Tirol is full of Mines of Silver and Salt-pits and is eighteene German miles long and broad The territories Swevia Alsatia and Rhetia doe pay little lesse than two millions and a halfe of ordinary revenue and so much extraordinary besides the eighteene Cantons of Rhetia are under the same jurisdiction They are so well peopled that upon occasion they are able to levie an hundred thousand footmen and thirty thousand Horse I know no other Province in Europe able to say the like And therefore the Emperour is not so weake a Prince as those ignorant of the State of Kingdomes doe suppose him to be reporting his Territories to be small unprovided of necessaries poore in money and barren of people But this is certaine that as he is Lord of a large dominion fertill rich and infinite of people so let every man thinke that by the neighbourhood of the Turke bordering upon him from the Carpathian Mountaines to the Adriatike Sea the forces of a mightier Prince may seeme small be overlaid For what Prince is there bordering upon so puissant an enemie but either by building of fortresses or by entertaining of Garrisons is not almost beggered I will not say in time of warre but even during the securest peace especially considering that the forces of the Turke are alwayes ready strong and chearefull yea better furnished in the time of peace than any other Nation in the hottest fury of warre Wherefore it stands him upon who is a borderer upon so powerfull an enemie either for feare or jealousie to be ever watchfull to spare no charges as doth the Emperour retaining in wages continually twenty thousand souldiers keeping Watch and Ward upon the borders of Hungarie These aske great expences and yet lesse than these are not to be defraied for the strengthning of other places besides other expences not meet here to bee spoken of To conclude with the State of the Empire though it cannot be said to be hereditary nor to have which is strange any chiefe City appropriate to the residence or standing Court of the Emperour as Rome sometimes was yet for neighbourhood and conveniences sake the Emperours have in this last age beene chosen out of the house of Austria yea when there have beene severall brothers of them they have all lookt for the Empire one after another and have had it too And for the same reasons have the Bohemians made choice of the same person yea and sometimes the Hungarians also the Austrian being the ablest Prince to defend them against the Turks So that Bohemia though in possession of the Emperour yet is no more part of the Empire than Hungaria is but a Kingdome absolute of it selfe free to chuse a King where it pleases So that the Emperour in Germany is to be considered two wayes first as a German Prince secondly as the German Emperour First as a Prince he hath by inheritance the lands and honours of his family such bee Austria Alsatia Tirol Styria Carinthia Carniola with some parts of Rhetia and Swevia and these dominions are like other principalities subjects of the Empire and for them the Emperour is his owne subject Secondly as a German Prince though not by inheritance but by election may the Emperour be considered when he is King of Bohemia Which though it be an independant kingdome yet being included within Germany and the King of Bohemia by office chiefe Taster to the Emperour and one of the seven Electors of the German Empire as having the casting voice if the other six be equally divided nay and with power to name himselfe if he be one of the two in election in consideration hereof may he thus also be brought within the Empire But yet neither of these wayes can the Emperour or Empire so properly be considered Thirdly therefore to speake of him as the German Emperour is to consider of him as Lord of those portions and States of the Empire properly so called And those be either the States or Imperiall Cities of Germanie The States and Princes of Germanie are naturally subjects to the Emperour yea and officers to his person too which is a part of their honour so the Palsgrave is chiefe Shewer and Brandenburgh Sword-bearer c. They are also as subjects to be summoned to the Imperiall Diets their lands are to be charged towards the Emperours warres made in defence of the Empire But yet on the other side the German Princes bee not such subjects as the Lords of England and France but much freer Lorraine is a member of the Empire and yet will not that Duke suffer the Emperour to have any thing to doe in his dominions and if any other Prince should take up Armes against the Emperour as Saxonie did in the case of Luther yet cannot the Emperour escheat their lands as other Princes may serve their Rebels by his owne private power without the consent of the other Electors Princes in a Diet. So that the German Princes be subjects and no subjects The Emperour is as it were the Grand Land-lord who hath made away his right by lease or grant but hath little to doe till the expiration or forfeiture The second member of the Empire be the Imperiall and Hanse-townes in which because they have lesse power the Emperour hath more than in the Princes Estates Theâ—e acknowledge the Emperour for their Lord but yet with divers acceptions For first they will stand upon their owne privileges and for them will deny any request of the Emperour Secondly they depend and trust unto their owne private confederacies amongst themselves as much as to the Emperour as the Switzers and Grisons leaguers amongst themselves and the Princes of the lower Creitz or circle of Saxony amongst themselves in defence of which the King of Denmarke as Duke of Holstein being one
for shipping but Savona had a better if the jealous Genoise had not choaked it The people are wittie active high minded tall of stature and of comely personage They build stately At home they live sparingly abroad magnificently Genoa is now the Metropolitan Citie of the Province and by reason of situation was holden to be one of the Keyes of Italy The people thereof were once very famous for their manifold victories and great command by sea insomuch that wrastling with the Venetians they had almost bereaved them of their estate and taken their Citie But Fortune favouring the Venetians and crossing the Genoise even to their utter undoing ever since this Citie hath declined and that not only in regard of their former defeature and their continuall and civill discords but also for that they have given over their trafficke and care of their publike good and have betaken themselves to live by usury retaile and mechanicall Trades altogether regarding their private benefit whereupon not being of puissance as in former ages to make good their actions they were forced to put themselves under the protection sometimes of the Kings of France and sometimes of the Duke of Millaine and now under the Spanish This hath sometimes beene much more potent and Mistres not only of divers lands in Tuscany as also of the Ilands of Corsica and Sardinia upon the Coast of Italy but of Lesvos Chios and other Ilets in the Greekish Seas of Pera likewise hard by Constantinople of Capha and other places in the Taurica Chersonesus These last places they have lost to the Turkes Sardinia to the Arragonians their possessions in Tuscanie to the great Duke nothing is now left them but Liguria and Corsica Liguria is on the East divided from Tuscanie by the River Macra touching the Apenine hils on the North and on the South open to its owne Sea The length is about fourescore miles the breadth threescore and five It hath some halfe dozen of eight good Townes besides Genoa which Citie being six miles in compasse is for the wealth and buildings called Genoa the proud The people are many whereof eight and twenty Families of Gentlemen out of whom the Councell of foure hundred is chosen The men noted for hastie chopping in of their meat are therefore of bad complexions the women better and in this freer than the rest of Italy that they may be made Court unto whence the proverbe Genoa hath a Sea without fish Mountaines without grasse and Women without honestie They are governed by a Duke but hee is no other but a Maior chosen every yeare and directed by a Councel of 16. Their several factions have brought them to this passe They are great Bankers and mony Masters and seldome is their Protector the King of Spaine out of their debt Their Merchants hold up one another by Families Their Revenues are about 430000. crownes Their force is nothing so great as when they conquered Sardinia Corsica and the Baleares or as when they were able to maintaine seven Armies in the warres of the Holy Land or set forth an hundred threescore and five Gallies in one Fleet. They must by law have alwayes five and twenty Gallies in their Arsenall foure of which are still to scoure the Coasts In Genoa they have a Garrison of the Ilanders of Corsica and there of Genoise Some troopes of horse they keepe to guard their shore But their best strength was five yeares since seene to be the King of Spaine The State of Venice IN the very bottome of the Adriaticke called at this day the Gulfe of Venice is a ridge of Land reaching from the Lime-kils called by them Fornaci to the mouth of the River Piane in forme of a Bow and containeth in length thirty five miles and in bredth two where it is broadest and in some places no more than what an Harquebuze can shoot over This ridge is parted and cut what by the falling of Rivers the working of the Sea into seven principall Ilands the Ports of Brondolo of Chiozzo of Malamoco of the three castles of Saint Erasmus the Lito Maggiore or great shore and the Treports Betweene that part of this ridge which is called Lito and the Continent standeth the Lake of Venice in compasse ninety miles In this Lake is seated the City of Venice upon threescore and twelve Ilands distant from the shore two miles and from the firme land five divided with many Channels some greater some lesser It was begunne to be built in the yeere 421. the five and twentieth of March about noone It increased in people with the report of the Hunnes comming into Italy and more afterwards by the desolation of Aquily and the bordering Cities as Padoa and Monselice destroyed by Agilulfus King of Lombardy Some are of opinion that anciently the Lake reached up as high as Oriago which standeth upon the Brent which being true then was Venice ten miles distant from the Continent The City amongst many other Channels which doe incircle it is divided by one maine Channell for his largenesse called the Grand Canale into two parts whereof the one part looketh South-west the other North-east This Channell in his winding maketh the forme of the letter S. backward And it is the more famous for the admirable prospect of so many most curious and goodly Palaces as are built all the length of it on either side to the astonishment of the beholders Some report that the Channell was the bed of the old River Brenta which it made before the course thereof was turned by making the banke of Leccia fusina and so broke out and emptied it selfe by the mouth which is called the three Castles On the middle of this Channell standeth the bridge of Rialto built first of wood but in our time re-edified and built of stone and that with such excellency of workmanship that it may justly bee numbred amongst the best contrived Edifices of Europe This Bridge joyneth together the two most and best frequented parts of the City the Rialto and Saint Markes Many lesse Channels fall into this which are passed over either by Bridges or Boats appointed for that purpose The City hath in circuit seven miles and yeeldeth an inestimable Revenue About the City especially North-ward lie scattered here and there in the Lake seventy five other Ilands the chiefe whereof are Murano and Burano both for circuit building and number of Inhabitants Especially Murano abounding all over with goodly Houses Gardens and a thousand other objects of delight and pleasure Here are these so famous Glasse-houses where so many admirable inventions in that kinde are made in Gallies Tents Organs and such like whereof the quantity yeerely vented amounteth to 60000. Crownes Now the City of Venice which from her Infancy hath maintained her selfe free and as a Virgin for one thousand and three hundred yeeres and that hitherto hath beene untouched with any injury of War or Rapine amongst
other advantages required in the situation of a City hath those two which are required in a well seated City whereof having already discoursed in the site of England wee will here surcease further to dilate of The safety then of this City groweth from the Waters and the situation thereof in the Water where neither it can be well approached or assaulted by Land for the interposition of the Water betweene it and the Land nor yet by Sea for that the streames are not navigable but by Vessels of the lesser size onely for greater ships riding out of the Channels where the Water is somewhat deepe would drive and riding within the Channels with every turning water should bee on ground So that a Navie of lesser shipping would doe no good and greater shipping cannot well there be mannaged In conclusion these Waters are rather made for the places and entertainment of peace than for motions of warre We may adde to these difficulties which nature and the situation doe present another as great which ariseth from the power and provisions of the City which are ever such as will better inable the Inhabitants to offend another in those Waters than any man can invent to offend them All which young Pepin tasted to his losse Who with his ships and men fild all the Coast From the Fornaci to the greater shore And Laid a bridge to passe his ventrous boast From Mâ—lamocco all the Channellore Even to Rialto yet for all this boast Hee 's faine to flie with shame the Seas doe drowne His men His bridge the waves have beaten downe And lastly wee may adde the continuall Art and care which the Seigniorie doth use ever to augment something to the fortification of this their Citie and State The whole Dominion of the Venetian Seigniorie is divided into firme land and Sea By the firme land we understand all that which they possesse in Lombardie in Marca Trâ—visâ—â— and in Friuli for that all those parcels doe make one continued country passable from one to the other without helpe of Sea Wee will terme that Sea which confineth with the Lake Sea-ward or that which cannot be approached without passing by Water This State is againe divided into Continent and Island On the Continent they have Istria Dalmatia Sclavonia Albania or at least some parts thereof The Islands stand partly within the Gulfe not farre distant from the Continent and part of them are without the Gulfe which are Corfu Cephalonia Zante Candia Cenigo Tine and other in the Adriatique The State of the firme Land containeth one of the Marquisats of Italie to wit Trevisa which besides the head Citie whereof it taketh its name hath also in it the Cities of Feitre Belluno and Câ—nâ—da It hath moreover two of those Cities which are of the first ranke of the Cities in Italie namely Venice and â—resâ—la Nor let it seeme strange to any man that Treckon â—râ—scia amongst the said Cities considering that for largenesse of Territorie it giveth place to no Citie thorow Italâ—â— containing in length one hundred miles and in bredth fiftie considering also the number of Inhabitants and the entrade it yeeldeth to the Seigniorie besides the private revenue of the Citie it selfe In all which few other Cities come neere it There is also in the firme Land the Citie of Verona called so for its superemment conditions as Verâ— una and is the first of the second ranke of Cities of Italie The Citie of Padoa which for goodnesse of soile exceedeth Bolognia it selfe There are also the Cities of Bergamo Vicenza and Crema There is againe the State of Friuli with two honourable Cities Vdine where the Lieutenant of the State resideth and Cividal besides a number other populous Townes little inferiour to Cities Lastly there is the fruitfull Polesine with the noble Citie of Rovigo therein with other places of good respect If wee consider the water there are few States of Italy that have more abundance in that kinde either for standing Waters or Rivers In the Territorie of Bergamo is the Lake of Iseo in the Country of Brescia the Lake of Idro In the Veronesse and Brescian is the Lake of Guardo It is also watered with many great Rivers that not only serve to make the fields fruitfull but also to fortifie the place And those Rivers are Oglio Chiese Navilio Mincio Seri Mela and Garza which indeed is rather a Mountaine Bourne than a River c. The Countrey of Polesine and Padoa are so stored with Lakes and Rivers that therein is no Burg or place which standeth not within five miles of some fresh Water And all this Countrey of the firme Land whereof I have spoken is also for aire exceeding wholesome and temperate as the complexions and cheerefull countenances of the Inhabitants can well witnesse together with the quicknesse of their apprehension and wit as well for matter of Armes as Learning Touching the Land this State hath in it many parts that are very diverse in qualitie some-where exceeding happy and fruitfull but lesse industrie in the people other-where the people are exceeding industrious but the ground defective Againe some parts there are where both the people are exceeding carefull industrious and the soile also good Of the first sort is the Territorie of Crema of Padoa of Vicenza of Trevisa and the Polesine Of the second sort is the Countrey of the Bergomasche the Veronise and Friuli Of the third sort is the Country of Brescia And touching the first it is almost incredible what the riches and increase is of those grounds what fresh Meadowes what fruitfull arable what abundance of Cattell of Flesh of all things that come of Milke what plenty of Corne of Pulse of Fruit Wood Flax Linnen and Fish Amongst all which particularities the Padoan doth notwithstanding excell which for goodnesse of soile doth carrie the praise from all the rest of Lombardie The wealth of this Territory may hence be conjectured that it hath the richest Bishopricke and Prebendaries of Italy It hath one of the richest Abbeies of Saint Benet in Italy which is Saint Iustina It hath one of the most beautifull Convents of the same order viz. that of Praxa It hath the richest Monastery belonging to the Austen-Friers which is that of Caudiana It hath two of the greatest Churches that may bee found in Italy which are Saint Iustina and Saint Anthony with one of the greatest Customes of salt in Europe In the time of the Roman Common-wealth no City of the Empire had more Knights of Rome than had Padoa For that as Strabo testifieth there were sometimes counted five hundred of them at once Which must needs proceed from the extraordinary goodnesse of the soile and the greatnesse of private livelihoods But at this day the greatnesse of the Venetian Nobilitie hath in great part diminished the Nobilitie of other Cities Amongst which Aquileia in old time tooke in compasse twelve miles and made an hundred and twenty thousand Citizens
Candie In which respect it standeth fitly both to hinder an enemie that would assault the Islands and Continent within the Gulfe and to releeve Candie if it were distressed It also â—eth fitly to defend all the Westerne parts and to molest the East It standeth in so excellent a Seat for the defence of Italy that it may properly be termed the Bastion thereof It standeth well also for the conquest of Greece bordering upon it as it wereâ— strong mount or Cavallier I standeth opportunely for the receit releeving and uniting of the Forces and Navies of Christendome against the Infidelt And albeit the Island be not very plentifull in graine yet thorow the vicinitie thereof to Puglia and Epyre and the facile transportation it hath to Venice and Sicill it cannot want any necessaries The experience whereof hath beene manifested both in the time of the Romans and in our dayes also The Roman fleet made head alwayes at Corsu There also in the civill warres betwixt Caesar and Pompey did ride M. Bibuluâ— Pompey's Generall And in our memorie the forces of the league concluded by Paul the third and Pius the fifth did there assemble and from thence set forward The Island was of so powerfull an estate that it armed 6â— Vessels to Sea It aboundeth with excellent Oyle Wine Wax Hony and fruits of all sorts All which commodities it hath in that goodnesse proportion that better in the same kind are not to be found through the whole earth It hath in length 60 miles 20 miles over and in circuit an hundred and twenty It hath three places of great importance to wit the old Citie neere the old Seat of Pagiopili the new Fort and thereto adjoyning the Castle Saint Angelo besides sixty eight Townes Next in order is Cephalonia containing in compasse an hundred threescore and six miles It hath two hundred Townes with Havens belonging unto them Two whereof Argostoli and Guiscardo are most famous the third is Nallo It yeeldeth store of Graine Oyle Sheepe Cheese Wooll Honey and Currans and these in such plenty that thereby it receiveth great and yearely Revenues Candia is likewise one of the most renowned Islands of the Mediterranean It containeth in length two hundred sixty miles in breadth fifty and in compasse in regard of the many promontories it maketh almost six hundred It yeeldeth great plenty of Wine with us called Malvesies Cheese and Honey It is seated so conveniently and with such advantage for marine occurrances that Aristotle censured it to be Lady of the Sea His reason because it lieth very neere the middle betweene Europe Asia and betweene Greece the Islands of the Archipelago which in a manner Court her as their Mistresse and Soveraigne It lieth from Constantinople three hundred and fifty miles from Alexandria and Soria five hundred from Caramania Epire and Cyprus three hundred from Afrike two hundred There remaine behinde two other Islands Cerigo and Tine Of which Cerigo containeth in compasse sixty miles In situatian it is mountainous having one good City seated on the top of a Hill It hath two Havens the one called Delphino the other Tine That looketh North this South It hath besides divers creeks but narrow and unsafe with the ancients it was of good esteeme for Leon of Sparta considering well the seat and quality of the place wished that either it had never beene or being it had beene drowned as soone as it had beene made Which wish as things afterwards fell out wrought him a great opinion of wisdome and foresight For Romaratus who banished from Sparta and sojourned with Zerxes counselled him to bring up all his Navie unto this Island if hee meant to impatronize himselfe of Greece as hee might easily have done if hee had followed that counsell as in few yeares after did Nicius Generall of the Athenians in the warre of Peloponnesus In our time it is called the Lanthorne of the Archipelago Tine is in the middest of Archipelago six miles from Delos round about which Delos lie the Cyclades in number fifty three It hath in circuit forty miles with one great and populous Citie and by reason of the Site which is on a Hill very strong very many Townes it hath besides And herewith endeth the Sea-Dominion of the Venetian In all which there are little lesse than three hundred and fiftie thousand soules Which number perhaps is greater than a man at first would beleeve especially if he consider withall how some of these parts as Sclavonia are not very fruitfull and many of the Islands are barren besides the terrour of the Turkish incursions Insomuch that if their Countries were under any other Lord than the Venetian they would surely be defarted But the Seigniory with entertaining peace with all their Neighbours with building of Forts maintaining of Garrisons in places of necessitie and with exceeding expence of money keepe and maintaine their people in this sort as at this day we see them inhabited Fame reporteth the Venetians to be exceeding rich But besides opinion there is great reason why they should be so indeed First they are Lords of a large Territory both by Land and Sea but chiefly on Land where they have Cities of the best ranke of Italy with large and opulent Territories adjoyning unto them and full of people industrious and thriftie They have also rich Bishoprickes wealthy Abbeyes with the fattest and most commodious benefices of Italy Families both for Nobilitie and Revenue worshipfull and Buildings for State and Magnificence singular Besides which they have also very wealthy commonalties Amongst which to omit many Brescia alone hath eighteene thousand crownes of yearely Revenue and Asola which is but a Towne subject to Brescia ten thousand Another reason is the great advantage which the Venetian hath for Trafficke both in drawing unto himselfe other mens commodities and in venting his owne I call his owne commodities whatsoever is growing or made within the State or whatsoever Trade besides he hath ingrossed or by prescription of time appropriated to himselfe This advantage is marvellous great throughout the whole State of Venice for that the firme Land on every side is full of navigable Rivers and Lakes Besides it is for the greater part a plaine Countrey so that the conveyance of all sorts of Merchandize by Cart or by Horse is very easie They are also in possession of the Valleyes and passages of the Rhetian Giulian and Carmian Alpes by which lieth all the Traffick betweene Italy and Germanie The State of the Sea is full of excellent large and safe Harbours especially Dalmatia and Sclavonia The Islands have the like especially the greater ones as Corsu and Candia But the flower of gaine and emolument to this State is the Trafficke of the great Sea of Soria and Aegypt which the Venetian had altogether in his hand especially so much of the ancient Trafficke for spice which hath beene and yet is of reasonable good consequence unto them In summe all the
Overland trade of Cloves Nutmegs Ginger Cinamon Pepper Wax Sugars Tapestries Cloths Silkes and Leather with all the commodities of the East doe passe this way and are uttered from hence into the greatest part of Italy and a good part of Germanie The greatnesse of this Trade may the better be perceived by the greatnesse and multitude of private shipping belonging to Citizens and other Strangers Merchants of Venice and other Haven Townes belonging to the State As also by the multitude and wealth of the said Merchants and of the great stirring and bartering that is there every day In which kinde the Merchants only of the Dutch Nation in Venice doe dispatch as much as were thought sufficient to furnish a whole world To which purpose I may not omit to note that Cities of Trafficke have three degrees of difference For either the Trade lieth by the Ware-house that dispatcheth by grosse or by open shops that doe retaile or by both Of this first sort are Lisbon Civil Antwerpe Amsterdam Hamburgh Danske Noremberg and in Italy Naples Florence and Genoa Of the second sort are all the other Cities of France and Germanie And amongst the Cities of Italy Millan is herein the chiefest where there are to be seene shops of all wares so rich and well furnished that they may well serve for Magazins to many Cities In both sorts Venice goeth beyond all the Cities of Italy For there are open shops of infinite number and the Ware-houses there doe farre passe all other in Italy So that this Citie doth Trafficke by way of shop as much as any other Citie and by Ware-houses more And to conclude putting both together it is the Citie of greatest Trafficke in Europe and perhaps of the World And over this whereas wealth doth arise to every Citie by three wayes first by profits of Dominion secondly by recourse from places to Iustice and thirdly by Merchandize Venice is by all these wayes continually inriched First the Revenue of the whole is brought to Venice both of the firme Land and of the Sea Secondly all Appeales and suits of importance through the whole State doe come thither and thirdly Venice is as it were the center of the East and West the Store-house of all that is produced by Sea or Land and in summe the receit of the whole wealth of Asia and Europe To set downe precisely the Revenue of the State is no easie matter but a man may be bold to say that it is held to bee the greatest of any Prince Christian except those of Spaine and France But whatsoever it be certaine it is they doe lay up every yeare a great Masse over and above their expences notwithstanding their incredible charge they are at in the Arsenall in the building of Gallies in Fortifications in Garrisons and Stipends To this the Venetian hath beene for these many yeares in continuall peace with all Princesâ— during which intermission they have set all their study to the augmenting of their Revenues whereby it is now credible that having some yeeres since discharged their debts and disburthened themselves of the interests of the said monies they have saved together great quantity of treasure Besides which treasure in ready coine they have another treasure of no small consideration and that is the wealth of the City and the private substance of particulars with the Revenues of the greater Schooles or as they terme them Halls which the Common-wealth in her need may use as her owne For that in occasions some doe give voluntarily others doe lend frankly or upon light use And in the warre of Cambray they gathered five hundred thousand Crownes upon the sale onely of certaine offices amongst them Now the Venetian Territorie for the extent of it hath in length somewhat above one thousand miles and the breadth thereof answereth not to the length But whensoever they are drawne unto service they wage forren forces And hereupon they have alwaies amongst them ten bands of Albanesses and Croatians They keepe moreover in entertainment certaine Colonels of the Swisses and Grisons with divers Captaines besides out of the State of the Church In former times they have beene able to draw unto their service such a Potentate as a Duke of Vrbine unto whom they committed the Lieutenancie and leading of their Armies making as secure an use of his forces as of their owne But above all things they have alwaies made right excellent use of their leagues and confederacies with other States In the league which they made with Amadis de â—aâ—nte called commonly the Greene Count and with Theobald Earle of Champaine with Lewis Earle of Blois Baldwine Earle of Flanders and Boniface Marquesse of Montferrat they first recovered Zara and then entred upon the protection of Constantinople wherein they got for themselves three eights of the whole Conquest and in particular the Cities of Gallipoli Modoni Conone and Durazzo with all the Ilands in those Seas saving a few which lie before Morea Amongst which Ilands Candy and Corâ—â— fell to their shares the greatest part whereof they inseffed to their private Gentlemen The Citie of Constantinople it selfe remained to the Emperour but not without a proportionable consideration made to the Seigniorie In the league made with Azzo Visconti and the Florentines against Martin Scala they possessed themselves of Trevegi Bassane and Castilbaldo Being confederated with Mathias Corvinus King of Hungary and G. Scanderbeg Prince of Albania they made head against the Ottoman power In another league contracted with the Florentines against the Visconti they inlarged their Dominions within Lombardy Lastly in the confederation which they had with Francis the first King of France they re-entred upon Brescia and Verona With their Money they have also not a little advanced their affaires Of Emanuel Paleologus they bought Lepanto Napoli and Malvalia Of George Belsichius they had the Towne of Scùtary in pawne of money lent him Neither have they beene wanting to helpe themselves with honourable pretences In the warres which Charles the eighth King of France made upon Italy the Venetians undertooke to stand Head and Protectors of the common liberty and in that pretence made all Italy arme against him And because indeed this State may and is rightly held for one maine Fort of Italy and Christendome beside against the Turkish invasions therefore have they had also in their assistance from time to time the forces of the Church and of the King of Spaine of whom the danger hath alwaies beene accounted common and as neere unto themselves Now on the firme land they have a continuall Ordinance of twenty and eight thousand Foot with Captaines Ensignes and all other Officers inrolled and paid They have besides to the number of foure thousand Musketeers men well trained to that kind of Weapon For which occasions they have also their times of Musters yeerely partly to approve their experience and partly to render such rewards as are due to the best deservers Of this multitude
boughs and leaves having great flocks of Cattell which they preserve with much care These are the chiefe the residue are not worth the reading for nothing can be spoken unto but their barrennesse or fertility their poverty or riches blessings and curses peculiar more or lesse to every of these Nations The Xeriffe AMongst all the Potentates of Africkâ— I doe not thinke that there can any one be found to excell this Prince either in wealth or power His Dominion containeth all that tract of Mauritania which the Romans called Tingitana and stretcheth from the promontorie Bayadir or Tanger and from the Atlantike Ocean to the River Mulvia In which progresse is contained the best portion of all Africke the best inhabited the pleasantest the fruitfullest and most civill Herein amongst others are the famous Kingdomes of Fez and Marocho the one divided into seven Provinces the other into eight The Countrey is divided into Plaines and Mountaines the Mountaines are inhabited with a fierce people rich in pastures and Cattell and possessing a great part of the lesse and bigger Atlas Betweene the greater Atlas and the Ocean lieth the Plaine Countrey and therein the Royall Citie of Marocho distant foureteene miles from Atlas watered with many Springs Brookes and Rivers In times past this City contained one hundred thousand housholds and was the chiefest of Africke but by little and little it is decayed and now lieth more waste than inhabited In the Kingdome of Marocho besides others is Tedsi a Towne of five thousand hoâ—sholds and Tagoast of eight thousand Taradent giveth place to none for Noblenesse and traffike though for largenesse and circuit It is situated betweene Atlas and the Ocean in a plaine sixteene miles long and little lesse broad abounding with Sugar and all kinde of provision The good regard and continuall abode which Mahumet Xeriffe made in this place did greatly augment ennoblish this Towne Being past Atlas you enter into most batle plaines wherein how fruitfull the soile is of Sugar Olives Cattell and all good things can hardly be spoken Fez. THe Kingdome of Fez likewise containeth divers Provinces excellent well peopled Amongst them is Alga a territory of eightie miles long and sixty broad Elabut is an hundred miles long and sixty broad Eriffe is a Province wholly mountainous therein are said to bee three and twenty branches of the Mount Atlas inhabited for the most part with savage and barbarous people Caret is drie and rockie more like Lybia than Barbarie Now because the glory and Majesty of this Kingdome consisteth especially in the City of Fez I thinke it not amisse to describe the situation thereof It is divided in two parts a little distant one from another the one is called the old Town the other the new A little River likewise divideth the old Towne into two parts the East part is called Beleyda containing foure thousand housholds the West part is commonly called old Fez and hath fourescore thousand and upward standing not farre from the new Fez which likewise hath eight thousand Old Fez standeth partly upon hils partly on plaines and hath in it fifty Mahumetan Temples of admirable largenesse All of them have their fountaines and pillars of Alablaster and Jasper Besides these there are six hundred of a lesse sort amongst which that which is commonly called Carucen is most beautifull built in the heart of the City and containing halfe a mile in compasse In breadth it containeth seventeene Arches in length an hundred and twenty borne up by two thousand five hundred white marble pillars under the chiefest Arch where the Tribunall is kept hangeth a most huge Lampe incompassed with an hundred and ten lesser Under the other Arches hang very great Lamps in each of which burne an hundred and fifty lights They say in Fez that all these Lamps were made of the Bels which the Arabians brought out of Spaine who not onely made prey of Bels but of Columnes Pillars Brasse Marble and whatsoever was rich first erected by the Romans and afterwards by the Gothes There are in Fez above two hundred Schooles two hundred Innes and foure hundred Water-mils every one driven with foure or five wheeles There are also divers Colleges among which that which is called Madarac is accounted for one of the most finest peeces of workmanship throughout all Barbarie There is likewise 600. Conduits from whence almost every house is served with water It were a long labour to describe their Burse they call it Alcacer it is a place walled about having twelve gates and divided into fifteene walkes where Merchants meet to dispatch their businesse under Tents Their delightsome Gardens and pleasant Parkes with the Rillets and waters running thorow them I can hardly describe For the most part the King keepeth his Court at Fez wherein he hath a Castle Palaces and Houses adorned with rare workmanship rich and beautifull even to his hearts desire He hath a way under ground from the old Towne to the new For greatnesse and statelinesse thereof by the grant of former Kings it injoyeth this strange privilege not to indure any siege unlesse the Citizens shall thinke their Prince for strength and force able and equall to cope with his Enemy if not without reproach of treason they may yeeld their City before the enemie approach within halfe a mile of it This have they done that so goodly and so flourishing a City should not suffer spoile under pretext of unprofitable temporizing It is of no lesse moment for situation store of Corne Oyle Flax and Cattell than for pleasantnesse of territory and plenty of Water The Wals are very strong and defended with many Bulwarkes The Inhabitants are very thriftie given to traffike and especially to the making of Cloths of Wooll Silke and Cotten The Kings eldest sonne is called the Prince of Mequivez Though the Kingdome have no good Havens upon the Mediterranean Sea yet great store of Englishmen and Frenchmen resort to Alarach Aguer and other Ports in the Ocean whereof some belong to the Kingdome of Fez and other to the Kingdome of Marocho They carrie thither armor and other wares of Europe which they barter for Sugar and other commodities But how the Kingdomes of Fez and Marocho two severall principalities with their dependances became subject to one Crowne I thinke it worthy relation because a more strange and memorable accident hath not happened in our age About the yeare 1508. a certaine Alfaique borne in Tigumedet in the Province of Dura beganne to grow in reputation a man of a reaching wit and no lesse ambitious than learned in the Mathematickes his name was Maâ—umet Ben-Amet otherwise called Xeriffe by his owne commandement This man deriving his pedigree from Mahumet and emboldned by the civill warre of Africke and the differences of the States and Common-weales thereof wherein in those daies the Portugals were of no small puissance began to dreame on the conquest of Mauritania Tingitana Which the better to
hand or any other metall except in some chamber where their warme Stoves be your fingers will freeze fast to it and draw off the skin at parting when you passe out of a warme roome into a cold you shall sensibly feele your breath to wax thick and stifling with the cold as you draw it in and out Divers not onely that travell abroad but in the very markets and streets of their Townes are monstrously pinched yea killed withall so that you shall see many drop downe in the streets many travellers brought into the Townes sitting dead and stiffe in their sleds And yet in Summer-time you shall see such a new hue and face of a Countrey the Woods so fresh and so sweet the Pastures and Meddowes so greene and well growne and that upon the sudden with such variety of flowers and such melody of Birds especially of Nightingales that a man shall not lightly travell in a more pleasanter Countrey Which fresh and speedy growth of the Spring seemeth to proceed from the benefit of the Snow which all the Winter time being spread over the whole Countrey as a white robe keepeth it warme from the rigour of the frost and in the Spring-time when the weather waxeth warme and the Sunne dissolveth it into water it doth so throughly drench and soke the ground being of a sleight and sandy mould and then shineth so hotly upon it againe that it even forceth the Herbs and Plants to shoot forth in great plenty and variety and that in short time As the Winter season in these Regions exceedeth in cold so likewise I may say that the Summer inclineth to overmuch heat especially in the moneths of Iune Iuly and August being accounted the three chiefest moneths of burning heat in those places much warmer than the Summer in England To returne to our relation of the soyle and climate for the most part it is covered with Woods and Lakes these Woods are the branches of Hircinia spreading it selfe through all the North and perhaps more in this Province than in any other Here grow the goodliest and tallest trees of the world thorow which for their thicknesse the brightnesse of the Sun-beames can hardly pierce An unspeakable quantity of Rozin and Pitch distilleth out of these trees and here is the never-wasting Fountaine of Wax and Hony For without any industry of man the Bees themselves build their Hives in the Barks and hollownesse of trees Here is all plenty of Cattell and wilde Beasts Beares Martins Beasts called Zibellini Wolves and blacke Foxes whose skins doe beare highprices Of the timber of these trees āre squared all necessaries aswell for buildings as all other uses the Wals of the Cities are framed of beames cut foure-square fastned together filling all the chinks vacant places with earth And of these beames likewise they build platformes of such height and thicknesse that they beare the weight of great Ordnance how massie soever They are subject to fire but not easily shaken with the fury of battery For Waters Moscovie may well be called the mother of Rivers and Lakes witnesse Duyna Boristhenes Volga Duyna Onega Moscua Volisca and the famous Tanais the Lakes of Ina upon which standeth the great Novograde Voluppo and many others The abundance of these Waters doe make the ayre colder than is requisite for the increase of Cattell or growth of Plants and although cold is thought more wholsome than heat yet are their Cattell of small growth thereby and many times their fruits come not to ripening and the earth being drowned with the waters for the most part becommeth light and sandie and then either with too great drought or too much moisture it destroyeth the fruit Winter in some sort lasteth nine moneths little more or lesse in seasonable times the soyle bringeth forth plenty of graine and feeding for Cattell It also bringeth forth Apples Nuts and Filberds other kinds of fruits they scarcely know Of Fish they raise their greatest gaine as having greatest abundance of that commodity they dry them in the frost and wind as in Norway and other Northerly Nations and they lay it up for store as well in their Townes of Warre as for their private Families The Kingdome is not full of Merchants because by nature the Inhabitants are idle And that Province cannot abound with Merchants where Arts and Artificers are not favoured And againe the government is absolute mixed with a kind of tyranny enforcing slavish prostitution So that in the chiefest and best ordered Townes of Novograde and Mosco many strange and fearefull concussions have beene practised Concerning which you have whole Commentaries from whence you may take notice how he once nailed an Ambassadours Hat to his head because he abated him of that reverence appropriate to so great a Majesty How Sir Tho. Smith was entertained with a contrary satisfaction and welcome How Mosco is compared to the grand Caire for spaciousnesse of ground multitude of houses and uncomlinesse of streets so that as the one is patible of stinke corruption and infectious aire so this other is not free from beastlinesse smoke and unwholesome smels They have not the use of the Sea because it is not lawfull for a Moscovite to travell out of his Princes Dominions such and such store of wares as they have as Skinnes Rosin and Wax they barter for Cloth and divers other commodities which the Armenians bring to Astrachan by the Caspian Sea and the English to Saint Nicholas by the Bay of Graduicum This Government is more tyrannicall than of any other Prince in the World for he is absolute Lord and disposer of the bodies and goods of his subjects Therefore Mahumet the Visier was wont to say That the Moscovite and the great Turke amongst all the Princes of the earth were only Lords of their owne Dominions and in that regard thought the journey of King Stephen of Poland would prove full of danger and difficulty The Kingdome is divided into foure parts by them termed Chetferds those governed by foure Lieutenants not resident upon their charges but attending on the Emperours person wheresoever he goeth and there holding their Courts but especially at Mosco the prime seat of the Empire where from their under-Deputies they receive the complaints of the Provinces and informe the Kings Councell of the businesse and from them againe receive instructions for amendment or reformation For you must note that the great Duke doth not trust any particular Nobleman with any eminent place of honour or dignitie but placeth therein a certaine Duke of meanest ranke and no great capacitie adjoyning with him in commission a Secretary to assist him or to speake more properly to direct him for in execution the Secretary doth all And being thus united they have authority over all persons in criminall and civill causes in levying of Taxes and Subsidies in mustring of Souldiers and commanding them to all services imposed by the Emperour or his Councell And to prevent all
wealth As may be ghessed by that That 1589. out of Siberia onely by way of custome were collected foure hundred threescore and six timber of Sables five timber of Martrons one hundred eightie cases of black Foxes besides other commodities To these may be added Seisures Confiscations and Incomes of like nature whereof I will shew you some cases As by coyning his Plate into money in shew of want thereby to colour some new taxations so did Theodor Iuanowich And as by suffering every man to give unto Monasteries what pleaseth him that the wealth being stowed in grosse the Prince may come by it the readier to satisfie his pleasure So did Iuan Vasilowich wringing from some Bishops and Monasteries one hundred thousand rubbles from some fortie and from others fiftie c. For the subtile Friers are content without noise to part from somewhat rather than by clamour to indanger the losse of the whole By forestalling homebred commodities and ingrossing the forren as Silkes Cloth Lead Pearle To give out monopolies for staying of Sables till the Emperors be vented By rent corne and provision of victuall hee hath some yeares raised two hundred thousand rubbles Of rent wood hay c. thirtie thousand rubbles But the most Unchristian abuse is that in every great towne he hath a Caback or Tap-house to sell Aqua-vite Mead Beare c. wherein besides the vice of drunkennesse many foule faults as it cannot otherwise fall out are committed The poore labouring man and artificer many times spendeth all from his wife and children Some will lay 20 thirty or forty rubbles into the Caback vowing themselves to the pot till the stock be spent and all this as the drunkard will vaunt for the honour of Hospodare viz. the Prince For for hindering this base and ungodly profit none may dare to call or intreat him out of the Caback Of these some yeeld eight hundred some nine hundred some a thousand some three thousand rubbles by yeare Sometime he will cause his Botarens or Nobles to feigne themselves robbed and then will he send for the Aldermen of the Citie to finde out the fellon and upon an Ignoramus he will sesse the Citie upon colour of misgovernment eight thousand nine thousand or ten thousand rubbles Iuan Vasilowich sent into Permia for certaine loads of Cedar wood whereof he knew none to grow in the Countrie The Inhabitants returned word that they could finde none whereupon he sessed the Countrie at 12060 rubbles So sent he to the Citie of Mosco to provide a Colpack or measure full of live fleas for a medicine They returned answer that the thing was impossible whereupon he praved or beat out of their shins seven hundred rubbles for a mulct So at another time he praved thirty thousand rubbles from his Nobilitie because he missed of his game when he went on hunting Which they againe praved out of the Monsicks or common people of the Countrie as the manner is Besides in their Diets or Parliaments they are reputed of no degree or order For therein the Nobilitie and Clergie onely have voices In all their supplications and petitions to any of the Nobles or chiefe Officers they subscribe Kelophey slaves and so doe they of the Nobilitie to the Emperor So that if a poore Mousal meeteth any of them upon the way hee must turne himselfe about and not dare to looke this Magnifico in the face but conge to the ground with his head as Priests doe to their Wafer-cakes As for the quiet enjoyment of their lands besides the taxes customes feasings and other publike exactions practised by the Emperour himselfe and permitted unto his Nobles Messengers and Officers you shall see Yammes thorow-fare townes of halfe a mile and a mile long stand uninhabited by reason of these ungodly pressures So that in the way towards Mosco betweene Vologda and Yeraslâ—ve which is some what more than an hundred English miles there have beene in sight fiftie Villages at least of the foresaid length quite disinhabited And this is the reason that the people doe not give themselves to thrive nor to trades as in former times whereby honest labour is much decaied and the present quantities of Merchandize nothing answerable to the former reckoning As well you may perceive in this one Historie wherein I will shew you two rare accidents how three Brethren Merchants did rise up to great wealth and in what manner they were fleeced They traded together in one stocke and were found to be worth three hundred thousand rubbies besides lands stocke and other commodities They that knew them report That they set ten thousand men on worke all the yeare long in making of salt carriages by cart and water hewing of wood and such like labours besides five thousand bond-slaves at least to inhabit and till their land They had all manner of Artificers Physitians Surgeons Apothecaries Dutchmen belonging unto them And for custome paid unto the Emperor came the true cause wherfore they were the longer permitted to enjoy their thrift twentie three thousand rubbles per annum besides the maintayning of certaine garrisons on the borders of Siberia which were neere unto them Now if any man object how these men could come to such an estate of wealth under such an exactious Prince First he must understand that their dwelling was in Wichida a thousand miles from Mosco and the eye of the Court Secondly that forbearance is no quittance For the Emperour was well content to use their purses untill such time as they had perfected their designes in Siberia and that by burning and cutting downe woods from Wichida to Permia a progresse of a thousand Versts they had made the land habitable But at last He envying disdayning that a Monsick should grow to be so great a man against the rules of their policie first began to pull from them sometimes twentie thousand rubbles and sometimes more and then the greatest part of their Inheritance So that at this day their Sonnes are well eased of their stocke and have but small part of their Fathers substance Neither is this State content to tyrannize ouer their bodies goods and lands but he doth the like ouer their wits and capacities For for any extraordinarie perfection in any common Art much lesse in learning you shall never see them excellent from which they are kept of purpose as they are also being no Boiardi Gentlemen from all militarie practice And because they should prove utterly unapt for any profession save servilitie they are forbidden to travell so that you shall never meet with a Russe in forren Countries except it be some Ambassadour or perhaps some stragling companion who hath narrowly escaped the watch on the borders The penalty upon taking is no lesse than confiscation of all his goods Neither will they suffer any stranger willingly to enter their Countrie further than the necessitie of venting their commodities and taking in of forren doth inforce them Their capitall punishments are hanging rodding
was afterwards driven many yeres together to victuall the Countrie especially the great Townes out of his owne Countrie of Russia And againe when he first conquered the Countries he committed no lesse an error in suffering the Natives to keepe their possessions and to inhabit all their Townes onely paying him a tribute under the government of his Russe Captaines whose conspiracies and attempts were the losse of these places The like fell out at the Port-Towne of Narve in Liesland where his Son Iuan Vasiliwich built a Towne and a Castle on the other side of the River called Ivangorod to keep the Countrie in subjection which so fortified was thought to be invincible When it was furnished for reward to the Architect being a Polonian he put out both his eyes to disable him to build the like againe But having left all the Natives within their owne Countrie without abating their number and strength in due order the Towne and Castle not long after was betraied to the King of Sweden Therefore I conclude that that Prince whose Kingdome is able to afford him an hundred and fiftie thousand Horse to be bravely furnished if he can bring into the field but the third part I speake of war and not of incursions Some more modest in writing affirme that the Moscovite could levie an hundred and fiftie thousand Horse if necessitie to defend himselfe forced him thereunto And that Iohn the third in the voyage of Astrachan entertained an hundred twentie thousand Horse and twentie thousand foot The same King invading Livonia in the time of King Alexander levied a mightie Army and notwithstanding maintained another upon the borders of the Kingdome The great Duke Iohn adjoyning to his troops of Horse certaine thousands of shot most Strangers which yeelded him notable service in the defence of his Cities And to make good the aforesaid proportion of Cavalrie the Englishmen who by reason of their intercourse in those Countries are best acquainted with these Relations doe write that the ordinarie number of souldiers entertained in continuall pay is this first hee hath his Dowrancie viz. Pensioners or guard of his person to the number of 15000. horsmen with their Captaines other Officers that are alwaies in a readinesse These 15000. are divided into three sorts the first are cheife Pensioners they receive some an hundred some fourescore rubbles a yeare none under seventie The second sort receive betwixt sixtie and fiftie none under fortie The third and lowest sort receive thirtie a yeare some 25 some 20 none under 12. the whole summe ariseth to fiftie five thousand rubbles by yeare Besides these 15000 Horsemen being the guard of the Emperours owne person when himselfe goeth to the wars resembling the Roman praetorian souldiers there are 110. men of speciall account for their Nobilitie and trust chosen by the Emperour who are bound to finde 65000. Horsemen with all necessaries meet for the wars after the Russian manner For the which service they are yearly allowed for themselves and their companies the summe of 40000. rubbles These 65000. are bound to repaire to the field every yeare towards the borders of the Chrim Tartars except they be otherwayes appointed whether there be wars with the Tartar or no. And because it should not prove dangerous unto the State to intrust so great a power to Noblemen first as they are many viz. 110. so are they changed by the Emperour at his pleasure Secondly they have their maintenance of the Emperour being men otherwise borne but to small Revenue Thirdly for the most part they are about the Emperours person being of his Councell either speciall or at large Fourthly they are rather pay-masters than Captaines to their Companies themselves not going forth ordinarily to the wars save when they are directed by speciall command So the whole number of horsemen alwayes in readinesse and continuall pay are fourescore thousand few more or lesse If he need a greater number which seldome hapneth then he entertaineth those Gentlemen which are out of pay If yet he want he giveth charge unto his Noblemen that hold Lands of him to bring into the field everie man proportionable number of his Servants called Rolophey viz. such as till his Lands with their furniture the which service being done presently they lay downe their Weapons and returne againe to their servile labours Of Footmen in continuall pay he hath twelve thousand all Harquebushers whereof five thousand attend about the citie of Mosco or where the Emperour shall abide and two thousand called Stremaney strelsey or Gunners at the stirrop about his own person at the Court or House where himselfe lodgeth The residue are placed in Garrisons till times of service and receive for their salarie every man seven rubbles a yeare besides twelve measures apeece of Rice and Oates Of mercenary souldiers being strangers 1588 he had three thousand Polonians Of Chyrchasses who are under the Polonians about foure thousand Of Dutch and Scots 150. Of Greekes Turkes and Swedens all in one band a hundred or thereabouts These they imploy only upon the Tartarian side and against the Siberians as they doe the Tartar souldiers whom they sometime hire but only for the present on the other side against the Polonian and Sweden Concerning their arming they are but sleightly appointed The Common Horseman hath nothing but his Bow in his case under his right arme and his Quiver and Sword hanging on the left side except some few that beare a case of Dags or a Iavelin or short Staffe along their Horse side The Noblemen ride better and richer appointed their Swords Bowes and Arrowes are of the Turkish fashion and practise as the Tartars to shoot forwards and backwards as they flie or retire The Footman hath nothing but his peece in his hand his casting-hatchet at his backe and his sword by his side provision of victuall the Emperour alloweth none either for Captaine or Souldier neither provideth any except peradventure some corne for their money Every man is to bring sufficient for himselfe for foure moneths and if need require to give order for more to be brought after him to the Campe from his Tenant that tilleth his Land or some other place for diet and lodging every Russie is prepared a Souldier before-hand for though the Chiefe Captaines carry tents with them after the fashion of ours with some better provision of victuall than the rest yet the common sort bring nothing with them save a kinde of dried bread with some store of meale which they temper with water and so make it into a ball or small lumpe of dough and this they eat raw in stead of bread their meat is Bacon or some flesh or fish dried after the Dutch manner If this Souldier were as hardy to execute as he is able to beare out toyle and travell or as apt well trained as he is indifferent for his lodging and dyet he would farre exceed the servitors of other Provinces For every Souldier
in Russia is a Gentleman and none Gentlemen but Souldiers so that the son of a Gentleman is ever a Gentleman and a Souldier withall bound unto no other profession but meere Souldierie It is thought that no Prince in Christendome hath better store of munition which may partly appeare by the Artillery-house at Mosco where are divers sorts of great Ordnance all of Brasse very faire and to an exceeding great number Upon his frontiers lie the Tartars Precopenses those of the Taurica Chersonesus the Circassi and the Nagayans These people inhabit a Countrey seven daies journey distant and are governed by Dukes after the manner of the Helvetians He hath received great injury of the Precopenses without hope of amends because they are confederate with the great Turke and by him furnisht with Harquebusiers and Ordnance and have in their Kingdome many strong places fortified with Turkish Garrisons and therefore he thinketh it hard and dangerous to invade them being backed by the Turke whose power he should likewise stirre up against him It is the custome of the Precopi often used to make inrodes into the Provinces of the Great Duke as likewise of the Polonian to carry away whatsoever commeth to hand If the Great Duke have vanquished the Tartars of Câ—ssan and Astrachan let him attribute that Conquest to his great Ordnance which they wanted But the Precopi have the use of Guns and worth all the rest the favour and protection of the Turkish Emperor who thirsting to open a way into Moscouy or the Caspian sea assayed not many yeares 〈◊〉 to dig a trench from Tanais to Volga but his forces were put to flight by the Moscovites in feare of their utter destruction if the Turke had brought that designment to effect This was a device of greater courage than wisdome for the Moscovites not onely defeated his Navy taking part thereof but also put all his Land-forces to the Sword consisting of fourescore thousand Tartars five and twenty thousand Turkes and three thousand Ianizars As we have said before the Circassi live much after the manner of the Swissers they endevour not to inlarge their owne bounds but serve for wages sometime under the Turk sometime under the Persian sometimes under the Moscovite from whose Dominions they are so farre disjoyned that they stand in no feare of their severall greatnesses The Nagayans are more to be dreaded for their sudden inrodes and furious incursions than for jealousie of their forces or that they are able to raise or undertake any royall voyage Of late times they threatned the Moscovite but their fury was soon appeased by sending them presents It is the best course to hazard our money rather than our forces against the thefts spoyls of these barbarous Nations for when they have neither City nor strong place to subdue thereby to keepe them in subjection what can you terme the Warre made against them but labour with losse and charge without profit But to prevent all mischiefes the Duke is forced to keepe great troopes of Horse in Curachan Casan and Viatca against these Nagaij as also a great Garrison in Culagan upon Tanais against the Precopi But the mightiest of them all is the Chrim Tartar whom some call the Great Cham who lieth South and Southeastward from Russia and doth most annoy the Countrey by often invasions commonly once every yeare sometimes entering very far within the Inland parts In the yeare 1571. hee pierced as farre as the City Mosco with an Army of 200000. men without battell or resistance for that the Russe Emperour then Iuâ—n Vasiliwich leading forth his Army to encounter him mistooke the way The City he tooke not but fired the suburbs which by reason of the buildings consisting for the most part of wood kindled so quickly and went on with such fury as that it consumed the greatest part thereof almost within the space of foure houres where by fire and prease 800000. people or more were reported to have perished at that season Their principall quarrell ariseth about certaine Territories claimed by the Tartar but possessed by the Russe The Tartar alleageth that besides Astrachan and Cazan the ancient possession of the East Tartar the whole bounds North and West-ward so farre as the Citie of Mosco and Mosco it selfe pertaineth to his right which seemeth to be true by the report of the Russes themselves that tell of a certaine homage done by the Russe Emperour every yeare to the great Chrim the Russe Emperor standing on foot and feeding the Chrims horse sitting on horse-backe with Oats out of his owne Cap in stead of a Boule or Manger and that within the Castle of Mosco And this homage they say was done till the time of Basilius who surprizing the Chrim Tartar by a Stratagem undertooke by one of his Nobility was content to change this homage into a tribute of Furs which afterwards also was denyed whereupon they continue their quarrels the Russe defending his Countrey and Conquests and the Chrim invading him once or twice a yeare sometime about Whitsontide but oftner in Harvest What time if the great Chrim come in person he bringeth with him an Army of one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand men otherwise they make short and sudden rodes with lesser numbers running about the list of the borders like wilde-Geese invading and retyring as they see advantage And now being entred thus farre not without occasion into the manners of these Tartars I thinke it not amisse somewhat to discourse of their rights their Arming their Religion and Customes Their common practice being very populous is to make divers armies and so drawing the Russe into one or two places of the frontiers to invade at some place unsuspected and without defence Their order of fight is much after the Russe manner that is to thrust on all together without discipline in a hurry as they are directed by their Generall save that they are all Horse-men and carry nothing else but a Bow a sheafe of Arrowes and a Cemiter after the Turkish fashion They are very expert Horsemen and use to shoot as readily backward as forward Some will have a Horse-mans staffe like a Boare-speare besides their other weapons The common Souldier hath no other armour than his ordinary apparell viz. a black Sheepe-skin with the wooll-side outward in the day time and inwards in the night time with a Cap of the same But their Morseis or Noblemen imitate the Turke both in Apparell and Armour When they are to passe over a River with their Army they tie three or foure Horses together and taking peeces of wood they binde them to the tailes of their Horses and so sitting on the poles they drive their Horses over At handy strokes they are counted farre better men than the Russes fierce by nature but more hardy and bloody by continuall practice of war as men never inured to the delights of peace nor any civile practice Yet their subtiltie is
Potentate Howsoever it be two things in his Kingdome are worthy consideration the one is Numbers which may be imagined by the spaciousnesse of his Dominions the other their Discipline because he keepeth them in continuall pay For as discipline rather than rash valour is to be wished in a souldier so in armies a few trained and experienced souldiers are more worth than many strong and raw bodies the one may well be compared to Eagles Lions and Tygers which obtaine principalitie amongst other beasts not because they exceed them in hugenesse of bodies for then should they be a prey to the Elephant Horse and Bufall but because they excell them as well in agility of bodie as incourage This Potentate the Moscovite termeth the Caesar of Kataia and the Turke Vlu-chan that is the Great Prince And not without reason for in magnificence of Court amplenesse of Dominion abundance of Treasure and number of Souldiers he goeth farre beyond all the Kings and Potentates of Asia and raigneth in such Majestie that his subjects foolishly call him The shadow of Spirits and the Sonne of the immortall God His word only is a Law wherein consisteth life and death He maintaineth Justice with admirable severitie except for the first fault for which the offender is grievously whipped for every other fault he is cut in peeces by the middle herein it should seeme they imitate the opinion of the Stoicks concerning the equalitie of offences A theefe is likewise slaine if he be not able to repay nine fold as well for a farthing as a pound The first Sonne is heire to the Crowne and installed with these ceremonies The chiefe of their seven Tribes clothed in white which is their mourning colour cause the Prince to sit upon a blacke woollen cloth spread upon the ground willing him to behold the Sunne and to feare the immortall God which if hee doe performe he shall finde a more plentifull reward in heaven than in earth if not that peece of black cloth shall scarcely be left him whereupon to rest his wearied body in the field besides a thousand other miseries that shall continually attend him Then they set the Crowne upon his head and the Great Lords kisse his feet sweare fealty and honour him with most rich presents Then is his name written in golden letters and laid up in the Temples of the Metropolitan Citie He hath two Councels the one for War wherein are twelve wise-men the other for Civill affaires consisting likewise of as many Counsellours These manage all things belonging to the government rewarding the good and punishing the evill taking speciall care to see those preferred who have done best service either in War or Peace to his Countrey or Emperour and others severely punished who beare themselves carelesly and cowardly in the charges unto them committed In these two points that is in rewarding and punishing consisteth so high a policie of good government that it may well be said That the greatest part of these barbarous Princes by these two vertues only have imprinted so majesticall a reverence in the hearts of their barbarous subjects For what other face of good Government see you in the Turke Persian Mogor or Xeriffe Whom reward they but Captaines and Souldiers Where use they liberalitie but in the field amongst weapons Surely they built the foundation of their States upon no other ground-works neither expect they for peace and quietnesse but by victory and strong hand yea they keepe no meane in disgracing base minds and cowards and in honouring high spirits and valiant souldiers Never was there any Common-weale or Kingdome that more devised to honour and inrich the souldier than these Barbarians and the Turke more than all the rest The Tartars Arabians and Persians honour Nobilitie in some good measure but the Turke rooteth out all the Families of Noblemen and esteemes of no man unlesse he be a souldier committing the fortunes of the whole Empire to the direction of slaves and men base borne but with a speciall care of their good parts and sufficiencie Let us returne to the Tartar and his forme of government Astrologians are in great request in those Provinces for M. Paul writeth that in the Citie of Cambula are fiftie thousand When Cublay-Cham understood by them that that Citie would rebell against him he caused another to be built neere unto it called Taindu containing foure and twentie miles besides the Suburbs There are also great store of Fortune-tellers and Necromancers in the Kings Palace of Xandu As also in China they are in high esteeme Ismael King of Persia enterprised few matters without their counsell and it is no wonder that it is of such repute in those places for betweene the Chaldeans and the Assyrians it tooke the first originall in those Countries The Turkes cannot abide it The Roman Emperors did more than once banish it and the professours thereof out of their governments I would to God the like might be done amongst us Christians for it is nothing else but a branch of Paganisme As part of these Tartarians inhabit Cities and are called Moores part live in the Fields and Mountaines and are termed Baduin so some of these people dwell in Cities as the Kataians Bochars and those of Shamercand others wander thorow the plaines and are divided into Hords being five in number as aforesaid Those Tartars who are farre situated from the residue and inhabit that remote Scythian promontory which Pliny calleth Tabin lying upon the fret of Anian are also dispersed into divers Hords wandering up and downe the Countrey and are in a manner all subject to the Great Cham of Kataia Certaine Writers affirme that these Hords issued from those ten Tribes of Israel which were sent into captivitie of Salmanasser King of Assyria beyond the Caspian mountains In remembrance whereof untill this day they retaine the names of their Tribes the title of Hebrewes and Circumcision In all other rites they follow the fashions of the Tartarians Some men likewise say that King Tabor came out of these parts to turne unto Judaisme Francis King of France Charles the fifth and other Christian Princes and for his pains in the yeare 1540. by the commandement of the said Charles was burnt to ashes at Mantua Turkie SVch shares of the Worlds vastnesse hath it pleased the Almightie to cast into the lap of this great Potentate commonly called the Gran Seignior that for wealth Territories and command of souldiery hee would have you to understand that all other Princes come short of him are terrified when his Armies are united to particular destructions Compound the ambiguitie by your owne discretions For Countries he possesseth Asia minor now Natolia with all the Regions within the Propontis and the Hellespont Which places in times past made the Crownes of Kings to shine with Gold and Pearle As Phrygia Galatia â—ithynia Pontus Lidia Caria Paphlagoâ—ia Lycia Magnesiâ— Cappadocia and Comogena Neerer the Caspian Georgia Mengrelia Armenia All
Sinan Bassa and Cicala the one his Admirall at Sea the other Visier of his Army than of the conquest of a Kingdome because by their industrie the honour of the Empire flourished and he being a corpulent man presumed to follow his pleasures fatting himselfe with all the delights that luxurie and incontinencie could invent At last this lumpe was extinguished and Achmat the first of that name is left at this present to manage the Horses of this Phaëtonticall Chariot Let no man therefore wonder at this excesse of Dominion considering how thirteene of their Princes successively have delighted in Armes and prosecuted warres in person a president from the worlds creation not to be matched by any the Commanders of the first foure and bravest Monarchies Thus much for satisfaction of admiration Now to the forme of Government which is meerely tyrannicall and different from all other as guided by the heads and strengthened by the hands of slaves who thinke it as great an honour so to be stiled and so to live as they doe with us who serve in the highest places of Princes Courts No man is master of himselfe much lesse of his house wherein he dwelleth or of the field which he tilleth except certaine families in Constantinople to whom for some good service immunitie was granted by Mahumet the second No more surety hath he of his life be he never so great longer than Durante beneplacito of the grand Seignior who disposeth thereof and of his fortunes by no other Rule than that of his will For although these great slaves attaine to immensive riches yet are they but the Collectors thereof for his Treasurie whither at their decease it returneth all except what it pleaseth him to bestow upon posterity who never are preferred to eminent place except and that of late yeares and desert plead rising fortunes Insomuch that when a Sister or a Daughter of a Sultan is given to wife to a Beglerbeg the children begotten on them doe seldome rise above the degree of private Captaine so carelesse are they of Nobility knowne parentage kindred or hereditary possessions These slaves are either the sonnes of Christians tithed in their childhoods Captives taken in the warres or Renegadoes such as have willingly quitted their Religion and Countries to fight against both and are to the Christians the most spightfull and terrible adversaries These children they call Iemoglans and are brought up under severe Tutors in divers Seraglioes distinguished by Wards like those in Hospitals according to their seniorities where all are brought up liberally and taught to write to reade to handle their weapons yea many of them to converse in secrets of State All of them thrice every weeke within the courts of their houses learne and exercise some military discipline rise every morning before day wash their bodies in cold water and then repaire to Church After they have performed these duties they are allowed a small breakfast and then are they againe to follow their Bookes or severall dispositions At mid-day at foure of the clocke in the after-noone and two houres within night before they goe to bed they must againe to pray and he that is missing at any of the prefixions is sure to have many bastinadoes on the soles of his feet They never have liberty to walke abroad no not so much as to approach the gates of their College no nor suffered to speake with any Christian or stranger It should seeme that they remove from Chamber to Chamber according to their Antiquities and Proficiencies For those of the first Chamber or Ward are first preferred yet not according to Senioritie but according to the worth of his calling and the worthinesse of the person The meanest place that at first these young Gentlemen for such is their resemblance attaine unto is to attend the grand Seignior in his Seraglio as a Page or Groome of his Chamber and those are they that are of extraordinary capacities and dexterity of wit and therefore called to great places of honour and dignitie The residue being alike brought up in their youths are either preferred to be Chauses Ianizars Spaheioglans and Silistarspaheis or taken into the Port or Gardens to servile drudgeries an inferiour offices as to fetch Hey Wood and such like provision for the Stables the Court and the Kitchins Out of the first ranks come the Beglerbegs The word signifieth Lord of Lords They were but two the one of Greece the other of Natolia but now by reason of their many conquests they are also accounted to be many Next under the Bassa their office is to command all the Horsemen in those Countries wherein they are appointed to serve The Sanziaks are Governours of Cities and Colonels of the foot and command all officers of warre and peace within their territories The Chauses goe on Embassies and execute commandements They are as Purâ—evants or under-Sheriffes Attend on the Emperour on Horse-backe and on the Courts of Justice carrying a weapon on their shoulders resembling a Mace and can also solicite the causes of Clients These are as it were the heads of this imperious government The hands are the Spachi Ianizars the maine nerves and supporters of this admired bodie The Spachi are Horse-men weaponed for the most part at once with Bow Mace Launce Harquebush and Cemiter whereof they have the severall uses agreeing with their fight flights or pursuments Of these there are reckoned to bee two and thirty thousand the one halte of them are called Spachioglans and ride on the right hand of the Sultan when they are in the field and the other are termed Silistarspachies and march on the left hand Of the Timariots in place convenient But out the Ottoman Empire both in the Field the Court and the City insomuch that the Sultans themselves have beene afraid of their insolencies yet terme they the Emperour Father for no knowne friend besides have they to relie on and hee againe in time of war committeth his person to their trust valour and fidelity In the Citie sixteene thousand are said to be continually abiding who are there imployed Constables for keeping of the peace and observation of good orders for Clerks of the Market to look to the prices and wholesomnesse of victuals for arresting of offenders and warding of the gates Some are appointed to guard the houses of Ambassadours or of such particular Christians who will bee at the charge either about the Citie or in their travels towards whom they shew themselves both civill and faithfull Notwithstanding amongst themselves as I said before they are very insolent and mutinous in regard of their great multitudes and many privileges so dangerous is an armed Souldier in a rich and peaceable City For whereas their first privileges were given them for safety of the Provinces as rewards of their abstinence and vertues as also to re-answer their benefactors confidence In these daies their insolencies are become so exorbitant
transported out of Creet into Poland and Germany is carried thorow this Country whereof the Vaivod receiveth a massie impost Of those Countries which at this day the Turks terme Natolia THat which the Turkes at this day terme Natolia or Turcia major once Asia minor comprehendeth the Provinces of Pontus Bithynia Asia it selfe Lycia Galacia Pamphylia Cappadocia Cilicia and Armenia the lesse and in these Provinces of ancient times flourished the States and Kingdomes of the Trojans of Mithridates of Craesus of Antigonus of the Paphlagonians of the Galathians of the Cappadocians and Phrygians All which at this day are not sufficient to satisfie the onely ambition of the Turkish tyranny The Inhabitants for the most part are Mahumetans and naturall Turkes of simpler natures than the Turkes of Europe and nothing so cruell as the Renegado Christians Yet are there many Christians among them in many of these Regions following the Rites of the Greeke Church Among these Turkes there is no acknowledgement of Superioritie Bloud or Nobility but all are equall slaves to the Grand Seignior over whom he appointeth Beglerbegs and Sanziaks They are either a kinde of idle or lofty people for they are smally industrious and were it not for their slaves their grounds would generally lie unmanured Pontus and Bithynia are now united under one name and called Bursia Here once reigned the great King Mithridates and here stood the famous Cities of Chalcedon Nicomedia Apamaea Prusia Nice and Heraclea Ponti Asia propria now Sabrun is the peculiar Province of Asia minor containeth in it many famous Provinces as Phrygia major minor Caria Mysia c. In Phrygia minor stood that Noble citie of Troie famous at this day saith Bellonius an eie-witnesse for its very ruines of wals gates circuit and marble sepulchers found upon the wayes without the wals Pamphilia now Caramania is one of the old seven Sangiakships of Turkie and yeeldeth 8000. ducats of yearly revenue In this Country as also in Cilicia are woven those fine cloths which we call Chamblets watered and unwatered they are made of the haire of Goats so fine and white as no Silke can surpasse them in those two properties Cappadocia now Amasia is a goodly Country and the seat of the Turks eldest Son In it are many goodly cities as Trapezond once the seat of the Comneni Emperors of Trapezond whose Name and Progenie ahumet the second utterly extinguished Cilicta now part of Caramania is a good Country the Inhabitants are given to pasturing of Goates for lucre of their fleeces of which they make their Chamblets but otherwise neither given to Fishing Navigation nor Husbandrie At the foot of Mount Taurus saith Bellonius are divers small Villages and excellent pastures about them which for the fertilitie thereof should seeme to be one of the Turkish Races from thence he culleth out every yeare six hundred horse of service which they highly esteeme and name Caramanni Armenia minor is a better soile and more populous than Cappadocia and round about incircled with tall huge broken and wooddie mountaines Arabia triplex THe three Arabiaes are likewise a parcell of the Empire which is a marvellous great Country included between two huge bosomes of the sea in manner of a Peninsula viz upon the West and East with the Arabian and Persian gulfes upon the South with the Ocean and upon the North with Syria and Euphrates The Inhabitants are indifferently called Arabians Saracens or Moores Those are the true Arabians which live out of Cities in Tents dispersed over Syria Aegypt and Africke these give themselves to feed cattell and droves of Camels Those which inhabit Cities are called Moores and were once of such puissance that they not onely subdued Syria Persia and Troglodytica but likewise Aegypt a great part of Africke and almost all Spaine with the Iland of Sicilie and the Kingdome of Naples Two hundred yeares they kept possession of these peeces but of some part of Spaine 700 even untill the dayes of our fathers And further this accursed generation at this day is not onely spread over all the Southerne coast of Asia viz Persia East India and the Islands of the Indian Sea but are likewise advanced with great prosperitie unto divers wealthy Kingdomes famous Cities worthy Mart-townes yea overall the South-coast of Africke Under this people the Turkes were first called into Asia to beare armes Of their manners we have spoken elsewhere In their Religion they are Mahumetans for in this Countrie that false Prophet first opened his superstitious Wardrobe This is a vast Countrie full of Desarts yet well inhabited with populous warlike multitudes especially toward Euphrates and the Mountaines of Arabia felix whither Merchants resort The residue towards the West is sandy by which if a man be to travell he must have the Starres to his guide company for his safeguard and provision for his diet Otherwise he shall surely lose his way surrender his goods to the theevish Arabes or starve in the Desart for want of food To secure the which passages as well against those who live on the side of Euphrates towards Aegypt as through all Arabia Petrea and Deserta the Grand Seignior entertaineth the king of those Arabians which inhabit Mesopotamia And for this his service as a Turkish Sanziak hee holdeth Ana and Dir two townes situated upon the said river He is a poore King but accompanied with 10. or 12. thousand beggerly subjects living and lying intents of course blacke Hair-cloth which forces notwithstanding these wilder ones are so infinite in multitudes and so unpossible to be brought unto a more civill manner of living that for their danger toward strangers and the continuall spoiles which they commit upon those parts of the Turkes Dominions which every way border upon them necessitie inforceth him also to maintaine two other garrisons the first of twelve thousand in Cairo the other of one thousand five hundred in Damasco Wherein it is to be noted That sithence those of Damasco doe not only defend that peece but are also distributed thorow other cities of Soria as Aleppo Antiochia and Ierusalem one thousand five hundred men were not able to sustain and answer to such a charge unlesse by being both Ianizars and Timariots also they have many followers and attendants Who as else where I have shewed you are not onely mightie in reputation and powerfull in number but also every yeare accustomed to spare and cull out strong troops warlikely and pompously provided to send into Hungarie For surely without this order all the passages of the Caravans which yearely come from Balsara and the Red-sea would become so infectious that neither Bagdet nor Damasco could receive the commodities of those parts to the annuall losse of two millions of Entrado to the grand Seignior Amongst these it was that Sir Anthony Sherly travelled and found them so well governed that without any wrong offered he passed thorow them all
yet make they abundance thereof and very good for the use of strangers dwelling in the Country They make three harvests yet have they neither Peares Apples Cherries Nuts nor any other fruits common with us these are brought them from Damascus Some fruits as Oranges and the Apple of Paradise they have and preserve upon the trees all the yeare long It did once yeeld Balme not now but is stored with Honey and Sugar Canes so is it with Goats Swine Hares Partridges and Quailes as also Lions Beares and Camels And in many places so pestred with Rats and Mice that if it were not for certaine Birds devouring those Creatures it were impossible to have any Harvest Iordan runneth thorow the middest of the Countrie whose water is most delicious and therein strangers are accustomed to wash themselves In its course it maketh two lakes the one in Cana of Galilie the other at Tyberias which is called Genazereth and at last disgorgeth it selfe into the Mediterran Sea Upon the bankes thereof grow Withies Tamarisk and many other sorts of shrubs and weeds of which the Arabians make their darts weapons launces and writing pens The former of these two lakes is especially filled when the Snowes dissolve and runne from Libanus In the Summer it is drie and bringeth forth abundance of shrubs and flags wherein Lions and divers wilde beasts do shroud their carcasses The Lake of Genazereth runneth most cleerely and yeeldeth divers sorts of fish as Carps Pikes c. It is not so broad but that a man may see from one side unto the other as consisting of sixteene miles in length and six in breadth The plaines round about are barren for the abundance of bushes which hinder the husbandman from manuring the ground Yet the Iewes industrie doe much amend it and dwell about the bankes thereof for the fishing sake Mare mortuum otherwise the Lake Asphaltites so called of his bituminous favour was a place once woody and full of salt pits which for the pleasantnesse thereof was resembled to Paradise and therein stood Sodome Gomorrah and the three other Cities which for their sinne against Nature were therein drowned and burnt by the doome of God At this day it sendeth forth smokes and fogs as from an infernall furnace wherewith the whole valley adjacent for halfe a dayes journey is made barren It neither yeeldeth Fish nor Fowle and whatsoever creature is cast therein though bound hand and foot it swimmeth on the face of the water The land was once most populous as appeareth by the muster of David who numbred thirteene hundred thousand men able to beare armes besides the Tribe of Benjamin As long as they continued their upright and religious obedience to the service of God the Land prospered but assoone as they forgot God they suffered many miseries and those perpetuall untill they were cleane destroyed and forced to flye every way For to speake nothing of ancient time the 73. yeare after Christ Ierusalem was taken and destroyed by Titus with the slaughter and captivitie of infinite thousands In the yeare 136. it was restored by Aelius Adrianus new named Aelia and given in possession to the Iewes In the time of Constantine and Helena his mother it fell into the hands of the Christians so continued untill the yeare 609. at what time it was sacked by the Persians but left unto the Christians and so continued untill the dayes of Henry the fourth at what time it was againe taken by the Sultan of the Sarazens and the Christians cleane banished In the yeare 1097. in a generall Councell for the deliverie of the holy Land the Crossed Knights were instituted throughout Christendome and Godfrey of Bulloigne chosen Generall of three hundred thousand footmen and one hundred thousand horse These Knights did many famous acts recovered the land instituted a Monarchie and sometime with good fortune and sometime with losse continued the defence thereof untill the yeare 1290. in which yeare it was utterly subdued by the Soldan of Aegypt In whose possession it continued until the yeare of our Lord 1517. and then was it overcome by the Turkish Armies who at this day retaine it in miserable servitude And so it resteth peopled with men of divers Nations and Sects as Saracens Arabians Turkes Hebrewes and Christians whereof some follow the Latine Church some the Greeke as the Grecians Syrians Armenians Georgians Nestorians Iacobites Nubians Maronites Abassines Indians and Aegyptians every one having their peculiar Bishops whom they obey Galilie upon the North is environed with the steepe hils of Libanus Antilibanus upon the with West Phoenicia upon the East with Celosyria and upon the South with Samaria and Arabia the desart The soile is most fruitfull yeelding all sorts of trees and divided by Iordan upon whose bankes stand very many townes and villages and so well watred either with mountain-torrents or springs that no part thereof lyeth unmanured The Countrie is more famous for that in it standeth amongst the rude Mountaines the small village of Nazareth the place of our Lords conception and at this day there is a small Chappell archt and built under ground whereinto a man must descend by staires Here some say the Angell appeared unto Mary and foretold her that she should conceive and bring forth our Lord. The Inhabitants are Arabians short and thicke men rudely apparelled and weaponed with bows swords and daggers In this region likewise standeth the Mount Thabor whose North part is inaccessible and whereon our Lord was transfigured Samaria lyeth in a most delicate plot of Palestine but in bignesse not comparable to Iudea or Galilie The soile is partly mountainous partly champian pleasant fruitfull and very well watred with fresh and sweet water The Citie is now ruinated But Naplos for pleasure and delight is inferiour to none other It is situated upon the side of a hill the eighth part of a mile from whence a man may behold the ruines of a great Temple neere unto that Well where as men say Christ fate when he asked water of the Samaritan woman Iudea far excelleth any part of the residue of Palestine at this day enioyeth its ancient fertilitie The tribe of Iuda so named it and in it as in the rest of Palestine were very many worthy Cities whereof Ierusalem was the chiefe feate of their Princes the receptacle of the Patriarks Prophets and Apostles the originall place of our Faith and the glory of the Christian world By the Barbarians at this day it is called Godz or Chutz It standeth on an eminent place as whereunto a man must every way ascend S. Ieroms opinion was that it stood not only in the heart of Iudea but in the very center of the World as having Asia on the East Europe on the West upon the South Lybia and Africa and upon the North Scythia Armenia Persia with the residue of the Pontique Nations What the glory hereof hath beene may be
frequent his Dominions Without the which inticements peradventure they might be unwilling to hazard their estates from farre Nations amongst such barbarous and unsure customers For sure hee was that his Neighbours could not and the Portugals would not supply those necessities which concerned the life and essence of an intire Estate THE FIFTH BOOKE Of India commonly called Asiatica or East-India INdia is a spacious portion of Asia the most Noble part of the World and far exceeding any other apportionment comprehended under one name Tartarie only excepted As that which without other addition lifteth up her Title alone to challenge all the Territories betweene China and Persia A conteinue almost twelve hundred leagues yet divided into many Kingdomes Amongst whom he is principall that most obtaineth by force and popularitie The Region is most wholesome to inhabit by the favour of the Westerne winds but in regard of its spaciousnesse subject to diverse Temperatures As in some places to heat viz. towards the Equator In some to temperatures or rather to cold as towards the North. But generally for goodnesse of situation health and fertilitie it is farre better than any other Countrey And therefore seldome or never feeleth famine or scarcitie the misery whereof is prevented by the benefit of Rivers as in Aegypt For the two great Rivers of Indus and Ganges water it thorowly which being divided into a thousand brookes insulteth of two Summers temperature of Aire with duplicitie of increase And that wee are but Adventurers for those delicacies which shee vtlipendeth and yet not admitted to the understanding of one halfe of her worth yet hath it its Desarts scorching Sands places infested with wilde Beasts and unpeopled by reason of impenetrable woods And although the Region wanteth Wheat yet aboundeth it with divers sorts of fruits of Pulses of Barley and Rice Vines they haue none but rare and therefore brew their Beverage of Barley and Rice Fruit-trees and trees fit to make linnen cloth of they have in abundance and out of the Palme they produce Wine Vinegar and fruit to eat The particular of their Silkes Bombasies Elephant Serpents Spices Stones and divers famous Rivers being well knowne I will not stand to recite The natures and fashions of the Inhabitants briefly I will who being diversly dispersed into divers Regions and Principalities doe diversly differ in language visage habit manners and religion Both men and women imitate a noble pompe as not incountred abroad nisi mâ—gna comitante caterva using many odours in their baths and washings nor are they without oiles and perfumes jewels pearls and other ornaments befitting the businesse they intend Of whom the foure principall Nations that inhabit this tract are the Indians viz. the Natives and they for the most part are Gentiles The second are the Iewes and they are dispersed here as else-where over the whole face of the earth The third are the Mahumetans whereof some are Persians and some Scythians now called Mogors living in the upland Countries The fourth are the Moores or Arabians who within these two hundred yeares usurping upon the maritime coasts of the Country have built them places and Cities very fit for Trafficke and expulsed the Natives into the more Inland Countries And now of late besides those ancient Christians which Saint Thomas converted there reside many Portugals natives and Mâ—sticos who are daily converted by the industry of the Iesuits to the Christian beleefe who have taught them to baptize Children and to fast Wherein they are now tedious observants as all barbarous people are the best maintainers of customes and ceremonies especially where the Roman Church instructeth The Portugals intruded by armes prayers and policie Their purchases I account to be so farre from the name of a Conquest as was the possession of the English from the Crowne of France when they held nothing but â—alais in Picardie Howbeit for state and ostentation every third yeare a Vice-Roy is sent to Goa from whom and from whence all inferiour deputations have their directions and governments Here he hath his Councell his Nobles his Chancery and Iustices as is used in Portugal from whence in Civill cases the parties may appeale to Portugal but in Criminall no one person except he be a Gentleman He is very magnificent in State and never goeth abroad unlesse to Church and then attended with musike and accompanied with all the principall Gentlemen and Burgers of Goa on horsebacke with a guard of souldiers before behinde and on each side It is a place of great honour and profit For besides the presents which the bordering Princes round about Goa send them at their first entrances for contraction of peace and friendship by their Embassies they have also the management of the Kings revenues and treasure with absolute allowance from his Majestie to give spend and reward as best pleaseth him When a new Vice-Roy arriveth the time of the former being expired hee presently dispatcheth his Lieutenants with sufficient authoritie in their Masters name to receive the possession of the Government of India and to prepare the Palace Whereupon the old Vice-Roy maketh quicke and cleane riddance of all Vtensils neither leaving one stoole in the Palace nor one peny in the Treasury So that these great Officers by reason of their short time of imployment have enough to doe The first yeare to furnish their house with necessaries The second to gather treasure and to respect the causes that moved them to come into India The third and last yeare to prepare themselves and to settle their businesses in order left they be overtaken and surprised by the approach of a new successour The like is to be understood of all the Captaines in the Forts and of all other Officers thorowout these Indies The Great Mogor IT shall alwayes beene beleeved that the territory lying betweene Ganges and the 〈◊〉 Indus hath evermore beene subject to great and mighty Monarchs For to be silent in matter of more ancient memory about the yeare of our Lord 1300 there reigned in the Kingdome of Delos and Arabian Prince of the fâ—â—t of Mahumet named Sanofaradin as Iohn Barros reporteth of so great power strength that he enterprised the conquest of Asia Upon which resolution forsaking these Regions in which Indus and Ganges take heir beginnings with a mighty Army by little and little he subdued those Princes and people which did oppose against him untill he pierced to the bounds of Canora where it beginneth at the River Bate about Chaul and stretcheth betweene Bate the Gulfe of Bengala to Cape Comerine When he had wonne so large and famous a territory resolving to returne to Delos he left Abdessa his Lieutenant in Canora This man encouraged by the victories of his Master and presuming upon his owne good fortune bereaved the Gentiles of the greater part of Canora and hauing gathered a most mighty and populous Army compacted of Gentiles Mahumetaâ— and Christians after he had reigned twenty
shoulders of these slaves In a word as a lawfull and just Prince hath a great regard and singular care to have the liking and love of his people by which being guarded and environed as with a strong rampire hee is able to withstand all attempts so contrariwise tyrants knowing themselves hatefull to their subjects imploy their whole study how to win the favour of their souldiers and slaves thereby to represse innovations at home and invasions from abroad Seeing therefore the safety and foundation of their greatnesse is built on the entertainment of their Souldiers as their Naiors their Ianizars free or bond strangers or subjects yea whatsoever they be it must needs follow that onely actions of warre may be the end and scope of their cogitations as likewise that they be very prodigall to keepe their estates very well furnished and appointed with souldiers and provisions And these reasons I take to be sufficient inducements to beleeve the reports of this King of Cambaia and these other barbarous Indian Princes For besides that I spake of before it is reported that with this army did march a thousand peeces of Ordnance among which were foure Basiliskes every one drawne with an hundred yoke of Oxen five hundred Wagons laden with Gun-powder and Bullets two hundred armed Elephants five hundred Chests full of Gold and Silver to pay souldiers wages besides many Princes and petty Lords with their Followers Merchants Victualers Artificers and their Seruants numberlesse Notwithstanding this his incredible preparation hee was twice overthrowne by Marhumedio once in the Territory of the City of Doce and another time at Mandao from whence disguising his apparell to save his life he fled to Diu. Being out of danger and feare he sent Ambassadors to Soliman with a present esteemed worth 60000. Crownes desiring his aid in these warres But afterward weighing in his minde that these affaires required speedier succours hee contracted a league with those Portugals which were neerest adjoyning to make them his friends and partners of the Warre the composition was that he should permit them to build a Castle in the Iland of Diu. Now to speake of Marhumedius his fortunes were not much unlike to those of Tamerlan for as this Prince brought terror and feare upon the inhabitants of Persia and Asia so did that no lesse innovation and trouble upon India and the Orient This defeated in battell Bajazet Emperour of Turkes that overthrew Badurius King of Cambaia and his army farre greater than his owne both of them had the sirname of Great When the Mogors understood of the riches of India and the fertility thereof they never ceased by a continuall course of victory their armes and invasions till they had made themselves Lords of the Provinces lying betweene Caucasus and the Sea Ganges and the River Indus In this tract are contained seven and forty Kingdomes For Adabar the successor of Marhumedius won Madabar with the better part of Cambaia Of what goodly consequence this Province is may bee imagined by the famous City of Madabar Campana so called for situation upon the top of a high hill rising in the midst of a spacious plaine and Cambaia a City consisting of an hundred and thirty thousand houses as likewise by the populous host of King Badurius his warlike provision for such an army and plenty of graine to sustaine such multitudes I assure you the world affords not a soile for all necessaries for the life of man as Rice Corne Pulse Sugar Oxen Sheepe Pullen of all sorts and Silke more richer or plentifull than this Province wherein also there are reported to be sixty thousand Burroughs which number certainly is very great and admirable Guicciardine writeth that in Netherland within the Territory of the seventeene Provinces are contained two hundred and eight walled Townes and an hundred and fifty Burroughs enjoying the rights and privileges of Cities and six thousand three hundred Villages having Parish Churches In Naples are a thousand eight hundred of these some are Townes some but Castles In Bohemia are seven hundred and fourescore Townes and thirty two thousand Villages In France as Iohn Bodine writeth are two thousand seven hundred Boroughs having Parish Churches besides those in Burgundie which in those times were not numbred amongst the Townes of France I write this to induce a true and absolute judgement of the power of any Province by the number of Parishes for I know that that ought to be made according to their greatnesse but yet their number maketh much to the purpose as in both which Cambaia may carry the credit and esteeme of a most spacious populous and puissant Kingdome Acabar also conquered the rich Kingdome of Bengala so that a man may truly say that in this part of the Orient there are three Emperours one in Cambaia the other in Narsinga and the third in Bengala whereof Cambaia and Bengala farre exceed all the other Provinces in fertility of soile and concourse of Merchants both riotously abounding in Sugar Cotton-wooll Cattell Elephants and Horses In Bengala also groweth long Pepper and Ginger The first is watered and cut as it were into two halfes by the River Indus the other by Ganges having two famous Mart-townes Satagan and Catagan The great Mogor doth likewise possesse the Kingdomes of Citor Mandao and Delly wherein he keepeth his Court. He hath infinite store of Horses Elephants and Camels as also all sorts of Artillery and warlike furniture by meane whereof he is growne fearefull to the whole Inhabitants of the East It is written of him that he is able to bring into the field three hundred thousand horse and that there are within his Dominions fifty thousand Elephants Some man perhaps will aske how it commeth to passe that this Prince being so mighty and his neighbours so naked unarmed and poore doth not get into his possession the Dominion of the rest of India and the Orient In this as in the former unlikelihoods the wisest man is soonest answered There are many obstacles one is that as the spirit and body of man cannot endure in continuall travell and motion for that is onely proper to God and Nature so a continued and open passage is not evermore given to the ambitious apprehensions of Kings and Princes Great Empires seldome feare forren invasions yet oftentimes faint they under their owne weight It is not destinied unto great things to stand alwayes at the highest much lesse to increase they have their floud but upon a remedilesse condition that there follow an ebbe They are lifted on high but by the irrevocable decree of Nature that a fall succeed yea and that themselves by themselves decline The greater they are the more subject to mutabilitie the larger the harder to hold and mannage they move but slowly and of what effect celerity is in warre who knoweth not The greatest conquest carrieth the greatest envie with it and greatest care to conserve what is got and yet not care but long continuance perfecteth these
people comparable to Italie but they forget that as it is long so it is narrow and nothing wide or spacious neither that two third parts have not one navigable River a want of great consequence neither that the Apenine a Mountaine rockie and barren doth spread it selfe over a fourth part thereof Let them nor deceive themselves nor condemne anothers plenty by their owne wants nor measure others excesse by their handfuls For fertility doth France in plenty of Graine or Cattell give place to Italy or England for Cattell for Wooll Fish or Metall Or Belgia for number or goodlinesse of Cities excellency of Artificers wealth or merchandise Or Greece for delectable situation commodious Havens of the Sea or pleasant Provinces Or Hungarie for Cattell Wine Corne Fish Mines and all things else But I will not stand upon these discourses only let me tell you that Lombardy containeth the third part of Italy a Province delightsome for battle-plaines and pleasant Rivers without barren mountaines or sandy fields and to be as full of people as the whole halfe of Italy besides Yea what may bee said of Italy for profit or pleasure that may not bee spoken particularly of France England Netherland and both the Panonies Wherefore since the Country is not onely large and spacious but united populous plentifull and rich at least let it bee beleeved and accounted for one of the greatest Empires that ever was The Government is tyrannicall for thorowout the Kingdome there is no other Lord but the King they know not what an Earle a Marquesse or a Duke meaneth No fealty no tribute or toll is paied to any man but the King He giveth all magistracies honors He alloweth them stipends wherewith to maintaine their estates and they dispatch no matter of weight without his privity His vassals obey him not as a King but rather as a God In every Province standeth his portraicture in gold which is never to be seene but in the new Moones then is it shewed and visited of the Magistrates and reverenced as the Kings owne person In like manner the Governours and Judges are honoured no man may speake to them but upon their knees Strangers are not admitted to enter into the Kingdome left their customes and conversation should breed alteration in manners or innovation in the State They are onely permitted to trafficke upon the Sea-coasts to buy and sell victuall and to vent their wares They that doe trafficke upon the Land assemble many together and elect a Governour amongst them whom they terme Consull In this good manner strangers enter the Kingdome but alwaies waited on by the Customers and Kings Officers The Inhabitants cannot travell but with a licence and with that neither but for a prefixed season and to bee sure of their returne they grant no leave but for traffickes sake and that in Ships of an hundred fifty tun and not above for they are jealous that if they should goe to sea in bigger vessels they would make longer journies To conclude it is a religious Law of the Kingdome that every mans endevours tend wholly to the good and quiet of the Common-wealth By which proceedings Justice the mother of quietnesse Policy the mistresse of good Lawes and Industry the daughter of peace doe flourish in this Kingdome There is no Country moderne or ancient governed by a better forme of policy than this Empire by vertue whereof they have ruled their Empire 2000. yeares And so hath the State of Venice flourished 1100. yeares the Kingdome of France 1200. It is a thousand two hundred yeares since they cast off the yoke of the Tartars after their ninety yeares government For their Arts Learning and Policy they conceive so well of themselves that they are accustomed to say that they have two eyes the people of Europe but one and the residue of the Nations none They give this report of the Europeans because of their acquaintance with the Portugals with whom they trafficke in Macoa and other places and the renowne of the Castidians who are their neighbours in the Philippinae Printing Painting and Gun-powder with the materials thereunto belonging have beene used in China many yeares past and very common so that it is with them out of memory when they first began Their Chronicles say that their first King being a great Necromancer who reigned many thousand yeares past did first invent great Ordnance and for the antiquity of Printing there hath beene Bookes seene in China which were printed at least five or six hundred yeares before Printing was in use with us in Europe and to say when it first began it is beyond remembrance But not to make our Readers beleeve reports beyond probability or credit we must needs informe the truth That the Arts and Manufactures of China are not comparable to ours of Europe Their buildings are base and low but one story high for feare of earth-quakes which makes them take up more roome on the ground than in the ayre no marvell then if their Cities be great Their Painting is meere steyning or trowelling in respect of ours Their Printing is but stamping like our great Letters or Gaies cut in wood for they cut many words in one peece and then stampe it off in paper This makes their Printing very difficult and chargeable and therefore so little used Of liberall Arts they know none but a little naturall Rhetoricke which he that there excels in is more beholding to a good wit and a fine tongue than to the precepts of his Tutor Their great Ordnance be but short and naught Finally they are a people rather crafty than wise their common policy is made up of warinesse and wilinesse By the multitudes of people before spoken of you may imagine the state of his forces for herein all other provisions take their perfection But to speake somewhat in particular The power of this Prince remembring his countenance and nature detesting all invasions is more ready and fit to defend than offend to preserve rather than to increase His Cities for the most part are builded upon the bankes of navigable Rivers environed with deepe and broad ditches the walls built of stone and bricke strong above beleefe and fortified with ramparts and artificiall bulwarks Upon the borders toward Tartarie to make sure worke against such an enemy they have built a wall beginning at Chioi a City situate betweene two most high mountaines and stretching it selfe toward the East six hundred miles between mountaine and mountaine untill it touch the cliffes of the Ocean Upon the other frontiers you may behold many but small holds so built to stay the course of the enemie untill the Country forces bee able to make head and the Royall Army have time to come leasurely forward for in 400. great Townes hee keepeth in continuall pay forces sufficient upon the least warning to march to that quarter whither occasion calleth Every City hath a Garrison and Guard at the gates which at nights
and there tending Brasilia never give over untill I had shewed you the streight of Magellan with the description and relation of the people and Pentagones inhabiting all those tracts I could shew you nothing but heathenisme barbarisme and men of strange and uncouth behaviours No better can be related of Quivira Florida Norumbega Terra Labratoris Estotilant c. Provinces in themselves good fertill and all situated towards the North. Virginia THe Natives call it Aphalchen It lyes betweene Florida and Norumbega the West part is yet undiscovered but the East is bounded with the Mar del Noort Discovered it was Anno 1584. at the directions of Sir Walter Raleigh and named Virginia by our Virgin Queene Elizabeth The soile is said to be marvellous good for Corne and Cattell wonderfull hopefull for Mines of Copper and Iron plentifull in materials for shipping as Timber Pitch and Tarre here be Cedars and Vines also Oyle sweet Gummes and Simples for Dyars with many other most usefull Commodities The more to blame they that bring us nothing from thence but Tobacco which now begins to be so base and low prized that it is scarcely worth the costs and labour The Northerne parts of Virginia be called New England better discovered and inhabited Both Plantations have severall Townes and Forts of the English upon them Nova Francia THis lyes parted from Virginia by Norumbega and had the name from the French Discoverer Iaques Cartier some hundred yeares since Though the soyle be none of the fruitfullest and the people none of the civillest yet have the French-men here gone forward with their plantation especially about Canada the chiefe Towne of it a place much spoken of within these two yeares for those two rich prizes of Furres and Bevers with which it seemes the Countrey aboundeth though of a courser wooll than the Russian lately fetcht from thence by Captaine Kirke our Countriman THE SEVENTH BOOKE America Magellanica Or Peruana MAgellanica is the sixth part of the World which as it is least knowne so without doubt it containeth many large Provinces and those five in number viz Castella del Oro Popaiana Brasilia Chile and Peru Whereof Peru is so famous that sometime under that name all that huge tract is contained and named Peruana The Islands thereof are Iava major and Iava minor Timore the Moluccae Los Romoros and the Islands of Salomon It is separated from New Spaine by a narrow peece of ground not above seventeene miles in breadth called the Streight of Darien It containeth threescore and foure degrees and extendeth on the South-side the Line to fiftie two and on the North-side to twelve That which by the Spaniards at this day is bounded betweene Villa de la Plata and the Province Quito in length from North to South seven hundred miles and in breadth from East to West about one hundred is properly Peru A fruitfull sound populous and well inhabited Countrey wherein as well for those beatitudes as for the riches thereof being infinite the Vice-Roy of that Division keepeth his residence It divideth it selfe into three parts The Plaines the Sierras mountaines and the Andes The Plaines lye upon the Sea-coast and are out-stretched in length by the space of one thousand and five hundred miles in breadth they are not above threescore and where they are narrowest thirtie These Plaines are gravelly full of desarts and for the most part barren especially where freshets and lakes are wanting being never releeved with raine nor showers Those grounds that lye nigh the bankes of the Rivers are very fruitfull by reason of the discent of water all the Winter distilling from the mountaines and rockes which are not past seven or ten miles asunder the residue further off the husbandmen doe enforce with great industry by letting in sluces and digging of channels to their plentifull harvest of Cotton-wooll and Corne. The Inhabitants of this tract are a base people cowardly and poore sleeping and living under trees and reeds and feeding upon fish and raw flesh The Mountaine Countrey is extended from North to South about one thousand miles being distant not above twentie leagues from the Sea and in some places lesse They are very cold and subject to continuall snow wanting wood and incumbred with Lions Wolves blacke Beares Goats and a certaine beast like a Camell of whose wooll they worke them garments and other utensils These Mountaines are full of inhabitants fertill and batefull especially where the aire is indurable and the Inhabitants more wittie couragious and civiller than the residue The Andes are likewise mountaines but lying in one continuall ridge without valleys extending from North to South Betweene which and the former lyeth Callao a Province full of Mountaines also subject to cold yet very populous Thus much of the nature in generall of these halfe known places of the soile and people of their forces little can be spoken by reason of their subjection to the Spaniard and inforced ignorance in matters of armes and policy It is rich in gold and silver more than any Country in all the World as may appeare by the yearely quantities thereof brought from thence Yet say the Inhabitants that in respect of the remainder it is no more than if a man should take a few graines out of a sacke full of Corne. Which surely may carry some presumption of truth considering what Authors write of Atabalipa his ransome offered and performed in those daies when Avarice was not in halfe so much request as now it is It wanteth no good thing that God hath created for the use of man either for pleasure or necessity Onely in this it is dispraisable that for the greater part it bringeth forth Inhabitants of savage irreligious and inhumane behaviour delighting in devouring of mans flesh with other uncleane and undressed viands Summer and Winter beginneth with them as with us upon the Hils but in the plaine land it is cleane contrary For when it is Summer in the Hils it is Winter in the plaines So that there the Summer beginneth in October and continueth till April Which for the exceeding strangnesse I have the rather noted to see a man upon one day in the morning in one and the same Country travelling from the Hils to be well wet with raine and before night to arrive in a pleasant sun-shining-Country where from the beginning of October that is all their Summer long it seldome or never raineth so much as to lay the dust in the high waies But then it is sultry hot in the Plaines and when any small due falleth then is it faire weather on the Hils Yea when the South-west winds blow in the plaine Country which in other places are commonly moist and causes of raine there they are of cleane contrary effects Castella Aurea OR golden Castile is that part of the firme â—anâ— so called by the Spaniards which stretcheth from the City Theonima and Panama even to the bay of Vrava and Saint Michael and
seated in an I le of the Seine We may distinguish it thus into Transequana Cisequana and Interamnis The part beyond the Seine that on this side the Seine and that in the I le incompast with the River It is reputed not onely the Capitall Citie of France but also the greatest in all Europe It is about the wals some ten English miles these are not very thicke the want whereof is recompenced with the depth of the ditch and goodnesse of the Rampart which is thicke and defensible save on the South side which no doubt is the weakest part of the Towne on which side it is reported that the Lord Willoughby offered the King in foure dayes to enter at such time as he besieged it Whereunto the King condescended not by the counsell of the old Marshall Biron who told him it was no policie to take the bird naked when hee may have her feathers and all On the other side especially towards the East it is very well fortified with Bulwarke and Ditch faire and moderne The Ramparts of the gates S. Anthony S. Michel and S. Iames and elsewhere were made 1544. This Bastile of Saint Anthonie was built some say by the English and indeed it is somewhat like those peeces which they have built elsewhere in France as namely that at Roven howbeit I read in Vigner his Chronicle that it was builded by a Provost of Paris in the time of Edward the third of England at what time our Kings began their first claime and had as yet nothing to doe in this Citie So in this Towne the Chastelet was built by Iulian the Apostata the Vniversitie was founded by Charlemaigne Anno 800. who also erected those of Bologna and Padoa The Church of Nostre Dame was founded Anno Dom. 1257. If you would know the greatnesse of the great Church of our Lady the roofe thereof is seventeene fadome high it is foure and twenty fadome broad threescore and five fadome long the two Steeples are foure and thirty fadome high above the Church and all founded upon piles The Towne-house was finished by Francis the first Anno 1533. with this inscription over the Gate S.P.E.P. that is For his well-deserving Senate People and Burghers of Pariâ— Francis the first most puissant King of France commanded this House to be built from the foundation and finished it and dedicated it to the calling of the Common Councell and governing the Citie in the yeare aforesaid This is as you would say the Guild-Hall of the Towne The Hostel Dieu in Paris was augmented and finished in 1535. by Antoine de Prat Chancellour in this Citie his pourtraict with Francis the first is upon the doore as yee enter This is as we call it at London the Hospitall The Palace de Paris was built by Philip le Bel 1283. purposing it should have beene his Mansion-house but since it hath beene disposed into divers Courts for the execution of Iustice just like Westminster Hall which likewise at first was purposed for the Kings Palace Here you have such a shew of Wares in fashion but not in worth as yee have at the Exchange Here is a Chappell of the Saint Espirit built by Saint Lewis 1242. Here are all the seven Chambers of the Court of Parliament which was first instituted by Charles Martel father to King Pepâ—â— Anno 720. but of them all the great Chamber of Paris is most magnificently beautified and adorned by Lewis the twelfth At the entry is a Lion couchant with his taile betweene his legs to signifie that all persons how high soever are subject to that Court. The Chamber also of Compts built by this Lewis is a very faire roome at the entry whereof are five pourtraicts with their Mots The first is Temperance with a Diall and Spectacle her word Mihi spreta voluptas I despise pleasure Secondly Prudence with a Looking-Glasse and a Sive her word Consiliis rerum speculor I prie into the counsell of things Iustice with a Ballance and a Sword her Mot Sua cuique ministro I give to every man his owne Fortitude with a Tower in one arme and a Serpent in the other her word Me dolor atque metus fugiunt Both paine and feare avoid mee And lastly Lewis the King with a Scepter in one hand and holding Iustice by the other and this written for his word My happy Scepter in calme peace doth flourish While I these Heaven-bred Sisters foure doe nourish The buildings of this Citie are of stone very faire high and uniforme thorowout the Towne only upon the port N. Dame our Ladies Bridge which is as it were their Cheapside Their building is of brick-bat all alike notwithstanding the fairest Fabrick in the Towne and worthily is the Kings Castle or Palace of the Louvre at the West It is in forme quadrangular the South and West quarters are new and Prince-like the other two very antique and prison-like They were pulled downe by Francis the first and begun to be re-built but finished by Henry the second with this inscription The most Christian King Henry the second began to repaire this time-ruined Edifice The Vniversitie in times past was wont to have by report above thirty thousand Schollers of all sorts but many of these children such as our petty Schooles in the Countries are furnished withall The streets both in the Citie Vniversitie and suburbs are very faire strait and long very many of them the shops thicke but nothing so full of wares nor so rich as they of London in comparison whereof these seeme rather Pedlars than otherwise But for number I suppose there be three for two of those The Faulxbourges are round about the Citie ruined and utterly desolate except those of Saint Germaines which was very fairely builded and was very neere as great as the faire Towne of Cambridge The benefit of this Towne is very great which it hath by the River as by which all the commodities of the Country are conveyed whereupon Monsieur de Argenton reports of it Of all the Townes that ever I saw it is environed with the best and fertilest Country And he there reports that for twenty moneths that hee was prisoner he saw such an infinite company of boats passe and repasse but that he was an eye-witnesse he would have thought it incredible which he also after proves by the maintenance of the three Armies of the three Dukes of Burgundie Guiennae and Bretaigne which consisted of an hundred thousand men against the Citie of Paris wherein they had besieged Lewis the eleventh and yet neither the Campe nor Towne had any want of victuals Some say this Towne was builded in the time of Amazias King of Iuda by some Reliques of the Trojan warre and that it was called Lutece à Luto because the soile in this place is very fat which is of such nature as ye cannot well get it out it doth so staine whereof they have a By-word It staineth like the durt of