it is the biggest and most populous so prove consequentially that England for the generality of people is the best Countrey in the world especially for its natives to live in Now this being an observation for what I know not hitherto made good by induction and instance as I intend to doe it I hope it will please the Reader as much as if I gave him a particular account of other Countreys and governments and leave it to his own reflexion to State the comparison Though London within the walls cannot vie for bigness with many cities of Europe yet take the city and suburbs together according as it hath been surveyed by Mr. Morgan in breadth from St. Georges Church in Southwarke to Shore ditch and in length from Limehouse to petty France in Westminster and it is in a vast proportion larger in compass of ground and number of houses then any city whatsoever in Europe This I shall demonstrate first by compareing it with some cities of Holland and then with the most considerable cities of the other Countries of Europe which I shall set down in an alphabeticall order with the number of the houses they severally contain When London and suburbs was surveyed some years agoe by Mr. Morgan there were reckoned to be in it 84000 houses besides hospitalls Almeshouses and other buildings that payed no chimney money to the King Now if those were added and the vast number of new houses that have been built since that survey upon modest computation London may be reckoned to countain 100000 houses I know the French doe vapour and would perswade the world that Paris is much bigger then London And the Hollanders will scarce believe that London hath more Houses then the 18 Cittyes in Holland that have voyces in the States for say they Amsterdam Stands upon a 1000 Morgens land and London Stands but upon 1800 To both which I answer that it is very true that Paris takes up a great spot of ground but then you must consider that in Paris there are severall hundreds of Monasteries Churches Coledges and Cloysters some of them haveing large Gardens and that in Paris there are 7500 Palaces and Ports for Coaches which have likewise great Gardens whereas London is very thick built and in the Citty the Houses have scarce a Yard big enough to sett a Pump or House of conveniency in but the weekely bills of Mortality will decide this Question and plainely give it to London and so doth Mons la Cour and Sir William Pette in his last Essayes dedicated lately to our King makeing it appeare that London is bigger then Paris Rhoan and Rochell altogether and as for Amflerdam I doe appeale to all knowing men that have seen it that although it be true that it Stands upon 1000 Morgens Land yet there is not above 400 Morgens built and this I prove thus that the large Gardens on the Heeregraft Kysersgraft and Princegraft and the Burgwalls of Amsterdam take up more then a third part of the Citty then reckon the Bastions and the space of Ground betweene the Wall and the Houses and all the Ground unbuilt from the Vtricks-Port to the Wesoper-Port Muyer-Port and so to the Seaside and you will find it to be near 300 Morgens land There are 2 Parishes in the Suburbs of London viz Stepney and St. Martins in the feilds the later being so big that the last Parlement divided it into 4 Parishes either of them have more Houses then Rotterdam or Harlem and there are severall other great Parishes as St. Margrets Westminster St. Giles in the feilds Toolyes and St. Mary Overs the which if they stood apart in the Country would make great Cittyes wee reckon in London and the Suburbs thereof to be at least 130 Parishes which containe 100000 Houses now if you reckon 8 persons to everie house then there are neare 800000 soules in London but there are some that say there is a million of soules in it I shall now set downe the Cittyes Alphabetically and their number of Houses as they were given to me not only from the Surveyours and Citty Carpenters but from the Bookes of the Herthmoney and bookes of the Verpoundings where such Taxes are payd and first I shall begin with the 18 Cittyes that have Voyces in the States of Holland Cittyes Houses DOrt 5500 Harlem 7250 Delph 2300 Leyden 13800 Amsterdam 25460 Rotterdam 8400 Tergoe 3540 Gorcom 2460 Schiedam 1550 Brill 1250 Schonehoven 2200 Alckmaar 1540 Horn. 3400 Enckhuysen 5200 Edam 2000 Monekendam 1500 Medenblick 850 Purmerent 709 Cittyes in Germany and in the 17 Provinces Cittyes Houses ANtwerp 18550 Aix la Chapell 2250 Arford 8440 Berlin 5200 Bonn. 410 Bresack 1200 Breme 9200 Breda 3420 Bolduke 6240 Bergen op Zome 2120 Brussels 19200 Cologne 12000 Cleave 640 Coblins 420 Castells 1520 Dresden 6420 Disseldorpe 620 Dunkirk 2440 Emden 2400 Francford 10200 Groningen 8400 Guant 18200 Harford 1420 Hanover 1850 Heidelberg 7520 Hamburg 12500 Lubeck 6500 Louain 8420 Lypsick 3240 Lunenburg 3100 Cittyes in France Cittyes Houses AVinion 12400 Amiens 5200 Bullion 1400 Bomont 800 Burdeaux 8420 Calis 1324 Cane 2147 Chalon 1850 Diepe 1920 Lyons 16840 Montruill 820 Monpiller 5240 Marsellis 9100 Nantes 4420 Nemes 3120 Orlians 10200 Orange 354 Paris 72400 Rochell 4200 Roan 11200 Tolonze 13200 Valance 458 Lewardin 5860 Mayance 2420 Malin 8000 Middelburg 6200 Madelburg 1120 Mastricht 5600 Munster 1240 Nurenberg 18240 Osenburg 2200 Osburg 8420 Oldenburg 620 Praag 18640 Passaw 560 Ratisbone 6540 Strasburg 8560 Spire 540 Stockholme 6480 Solsburg 12460 Vtrick 8240 Viana 4520 Vean 340 Wormes 1200 Westburg 2420 Cittyes in Italy Cittyes Houses BOlonie 12400 Florance 8520 Janua 17200 Luca. 1650 Legorne 3560 Milan 18500 Napells 17840 Pesa 2290 Padua 8550 Rome 31200 Sena 1820 Venetia 24870 Veterba 620 Valentia 1520 Cittyes in Savoy Cittyes Houses CHambray 852 Salé 320 Turin 8540 Nece 500 St. John de Latteran 420 Remes 340 Moloy 270 Cittyes in Switserland Cittyes Houses BErne 4270 Ball. 5120 Geneve 4540 Losana 2100 Solure 500 Zurick 6200 Morge 210 Vina 320 St. Morrice 300 Cittyes in Denmark Cittyes Houses COpenhagen 8220 Elsenore  Cittyes in Sweedland Cittyes Houses NOrthoanen 600 Stockholme 7500 Vpsall 8200 FINIS
THE Travellours Guide AND HISTORIANS Faithful Companion Giving an Account of the most Remarkable things and matters Relating to the Religion Government Custom Manners Laws Pollicies Companies Trade c. in all the principal Kingdoms States and Provinces not only in Europe but other parts of the World more particularly England Holland Flanders Denmark Sweeden Hamburg Lubeck and the principal Cities and Towns of the German Empire Italy and its Provinces Rome France c and what is worthy of Note to be found and observed in them As to Rivers Cities Pallaces Fortifications strong Towns Castles Churches Antiquities and divers Remarks upon many of them Instructions how we ought to behave our selves in Travelling The Prises of Land and Water Passages Provisions and how thereby to avoid many Ilconveniencies With a Catalogue of the chief Cities c. And the number of Houses every one of them are said to contain With many other things worthy of Note Being the 16 Years Travels of William Carr Gentleman sometimes Consul for the English at Amsterdam in Holland THE PREFACE TO THE READER AS Histories Travels and the description of the Laws Manners Customs and divers Rarities in Empires Kingdoms and States have taken up the Care and Industry of Judicious Men in all Ages carefully to Collect and Compile them to increase a knowledge in those that have not the like Advantages of being abroad as well as to be a light and guide to those that shall make their Advances in the like nature so they more particularly redound to the Advantages of those that Trade or have concerns of any moment in Foreign Countrys by letting them be sensible how they ought prudently to manage their Business conformable to the constitution of the Government they happen to be Negotiated under for want of a true notion of which many Errors and Prejudices have ensued as well in greater as lesser Affairs so that Wise Men have blushed to find themselves insensibly mistaken for want of seasonable Directions that would easily have set them right and amongst others that may prove exceeding useful you are presented with one by a Learned Gentleman sometimes a Consul for the English Nation at Amsterdam who made it his Business for Sixteen Years to visit all the Remarkable Places in Europe and has given such an exact Account of them in all Material Particulars that no Hist r an has as yet come up with him in an even line but are behind by many degrees laying a perpetual obligation even upon the Countryes themselves for being so faithfully particularized England indeed is but lightly touched on yet so as many things of weight and moment are in this Book revived as it were from Oblivion and Transactions of former Reigns impartially related The Vnited Provinces owe much to this Ingenious Pen which has lively drawn every thing that is Rare and Note-worthy in their Laws Customs raising Taxes Shipping their Bank East-India Company Frugality Wars and Trade in most parts of the known World with many Remarkable Deliverances that Common-Wealth has in late years been Blessed with from the Insults and Tyranny of France c. And by what Pollicies they have defeated their Enemies and Enriched themselves The same or to the like purpose in this Book is considered in Denmark Sweeden the Spanish Netherlands and the principal Towns of the German Empire Italy and other Places with particular Remarks on France and the Affairs of that Kingdom all of it being Interwoven with many Curious Relations of divers Strange Things where a Digression is any ways propper or that they may fall in smoothly without infringing too much on the Patience of the Reader it being in the whole Serie like a curious Lanskip pleasing at once to all Capacities unless to such as nothing that is Ingenious or Reasonable is taking who many times cavel at things before they will give themselves leave any ways materially to consider them This Famous Piece was written indeed in Holland but now comes over speaking English that this Nation might not be ignorant of so laboured a Work the Remarking of which in so many sundry Nations without borrowing or that but a very little from any Historians that had lightly touched on them before must beyond all per adventure require as well as it did a large time great Cost and Industry and indeed the Authors stile and method speaks him no less than a man fitly qualified for such an undertaking not leaving any thing unpried into that is propper to be a link in the Chain of his Discourse for though the Volumn boasts not of largeness in the number of Sheets yet in what it treats on it is very Copious a great deal of sense being comprized in few words which is the propperest way of Writing and most pleasing to the Judicious But least I should be taxed with Indiscretion in Elaborating in Commendation of that which is capable of Recommending it self I shall Conclude in a few Words You have in it besides what has been mentioned an Account of all the Remarkable Cityes of Europe whereby their largeness may be gathered from the number of Houses they contain set down over-against them with the Distances of Places Bridges Fords or Passages of Rivers and many Antiquities with other things so that it may be termed the Students Library the Travelors Guide the Souldiers Companion the Merchants Magazine and the States-mans Consulter And so recommending you to the Serious Perusal of it I am Reader Your very Humble and Obliged Servant E. T. Some Necessarie REMARKS for such as Entend to TRAVEL Thro the Province of HOLLAND AS they that confine themselves to their own countrie have not the opportunitie to see and observe Rarities in other parts of the world so such as goe into forrain places rather wander at Random then travel who hane not the Curiositie to Commit to memorie or writing such things they meet with both for thier own and others Satisfaction as may Demonstrate the fruits of their travels I Confesse all Travellers are not of alike Temper Some delight themselves in contemplation of the curiosities of Arts som are taken with the varieties of the works of nature others speculate with a kind of Reverence the decays and ruins of Antiquitie others studiously inform themselves with the transactions of Modern tymes others with thee Gouvernment and Politie other speculate the strange customs and fashion of the places they passe thro To be short everie one labors to entertain the reader with those objects and rarities of forain parts his Genius and inclination is most affected with As to my self although during the space of 16 yeaves travel I might have inlarged according to the curiositie and opportunitie I have had in the rehearsal of many rare and exquisite things verie observable yet my chiefe aime was to make such remarks as might most contribute to the common good of humane society and civil life in taking notice of the Government and Politie of the several States
Englands subjects is evident for in the yeare 1674 at the opening of the waters after a great frost there departed out of Rotterdam 300 Sail of Englesh Scotch and Irish Ships at once with an Easterly wind And if a reason should be demanded how it coms to passe that so many English Ships should frequently com to that haven It is casilie answered because they can ordinarily Load and unload and make returns to England from Rotterdam before a Ship can get clear from Amsterdam and the Texel And therfore your English Merchants find it Cheaper and more commodious for trade that after their goods are arrived at Rotterdam to send their goods in boats Landward in to Amsterdam This citie is famous as beeing the place where Great Erasmus was born whose Statue of Brasse stands erected in the Market place And although the buldings here are not so superb as those of Amsterdam Leyden or Harlem yet the places worth the seeing are first the Great Church where Several Admirals Lay Stately Entombed here you see their Admiraltie East Indie and Stathouses together with that caled hot Gemeen Lands Huis From Rotterdam you may for 5 stivers have a boat to bring you to Delph but before you com thither you passe thro a faire village called Overschie where the French and English youths are trayned up in litterature as to the Latin and Dutch tongue Booke keeping c from thence in the same boat you com to Delph which is famous for making of Porceline to that degree that it much resembles the China but onely it is not transparent In Delph is the great Magasin of Arms for the whole Province of Holland Their churches are verie large in one of which are Tombs of the Princes of Orange Admiral Tromp and General Morgans Ladie and in the Cloyster over against the Church you have an Inscription in a Pillar of Brasse shewing after what manner William the 1 that famous Prince of Orange was Shot to death by a miscreant Jesuist with his deserved punishment Delph hath the 3 d voyce in the States of Holland and sends its Deputies unto the Colledge of the States General and to all other colledges of the Commonwealth They have also a Chamber in the East-Indie Companie as shal be more largely spoken to when we shal com to treat of the State of the said Companie From Delph you may by boat be brought to the Hague for 2 Stivers and an halfe Which is accounted the fairest Village in the world both for Pompous buildings and the largenes thereof Here the Princes of Orange hold their Residence as also the States General and the Councel of State Here you have the Courts of Justice Chancerie and other Courts of Law Here you see that Great Hall in which many Hundreds of coulers are hung up in Trophie taken from the Emperor Spaniard and other Potentates with whom they have waged war There Councel Chambers are admired by all that see them Many faire Libraries they have belonging to particular men The Princes Pallace is a most superb building And there are many costlie Gardins adjoyning to the Hague together with that to the Princes house in the Woad in which house are in a large Hall the most rare and costly Pictures of Europe there also are those magnificent and unparalled Gardins of the Heer Bentham of Amesland and others I might here speak of the splendor of the Prince of Orange his Court of his noble virtues and valour of the most virtuous and Beautiful Princesse his royal confort but I dare not least I should infinitely fal short of what ought to be and which others have alreadie don before me and therfore leaving the Hague I shal onely tel you that from thence you may for 7 Stivers have a boat to bring you to Leyden Leyden is a faire and great citie and the Universitie is verie famous beeing frequented by 1000 of Students from all parts as Hungarie Poland Germanie yea from the Ottomans Empire it self who pretend to be grecians besides the English Scots and Irish who this years were numbred to be above 80. The most remarkable things here to be seen I shal summarilie set down As the place called the Bergh formerly a Castle belonging to the Prince of Liege in Flanders The Stathowse the Vniversitie Schooles specially that of the Anatomie which excels all the Anatomie Schooles in the world a Book of the rarities whereof you may have for 6 Stivers their Physick Garden and the Professors Closet are al ravishing in rare Curiosities But as to their Colledges they are but two and verie small not ro be compared with the smallest Hals in Oxford neither have they any endowments their maintenance being onely from the charitable collections of the Ministers of Holland neyther are any Students to remain longer there then til they attain the degree of Batchelers of Art One of the Curators beeing demaunded by me why so rich a Commonwealth as Holland is did not build and endow Colledges after the manner of Oxford and Cambridge answered they had not so many able and publick spirited men as are in England and to deal plainly with you said he had we such Colledges our Burgemasters and Magistrates would fil them with their own and their friends sons who by leading a lazie and idle life would never becom capable to serve the Common-wealth and therefore he judged it much better to put them to Pension in Burgers howses leaveing them to the care of the Professors who are verie diligent in keeping the Students at their exercises both at Publick lectures and in their private howses also where they cause them Punctually at their appointed houres to come to their examinations and lectures besides those they have in Publick Thier churches are rare so are the walks round the citie and the fortifications verie pleasing to behold Here you have the River Rhine running through the citie and falling into it from Catwyckop Zee Leyden is verie famous in historie for the long Siege it held out against the Spaniard From hence for twelve stivers and an half you are brought to Harlem by water being twelve English miles Harlem is famous in that Costor one of their Burgers first invented the Art of Printing This Costor beeing suspected to be a Conjurer was fain to flee from Harlem to Cologne in Germany and there Perfected his Invention having in Harlem onely found out the way of printing on one side of the Paper The first book he ever printed is kept in the Stathouse for those that are curious to see it Here is one of the fairest and largest Churches of the 17 Provinces in the wals whereof there remain to this day sticking canon Bullets shot by the Spaniards during the Siege thereof In this Church are three Organs as also the model of the three Ships that sayled from Harlem to Damiater seasing the Castle in which the Earl of Holland was kept prisoner and brought him away to Holland In the
one further I have compared the Bank of Venice with Hamburg and find both those Banks fall very much short with the bank of Amsterdam There are many other particulars I could name as Arguments to prove the great Riches Trade of Amsterdam as those vast Quantities of Wynes Brandewynes they sell in the North Eastseas those vast Countryes adjoyning thereunto from whence they bring Hemp Pitch Tar furnish France Italy Spain with the same they likewise have much Ingrossed the Copper Iron of Sweedland I will say no more of her stores Magazins but shall in the next place say some thing of her Churches Charitie to the Poore I will not speake much of her Churches but only that they are in General large and well built In one of them the States have Spared no cost to exceed the whole world in 3 things Viz an Organ with sets of Pipes that counterfit a Corus of Voyces it hath 52 whole stops besides halfe stops hath 2 rowes of Keyes for the feet and three rowes of Keyes for the Hands I have had people of Quality to heare it play who could not believe but that there were men or Women above singing in the Organ untill they were convinced by goeing up into the Organ Roome The second is such a large Carved Pulpet Canapie as cannot be found elsewhere in the world The third is a Screene of brasle The Stathouse in this Citty is a wonderfull superb Building on the uppermost part of which is a large Magazin of Armes The Copper Statues that stand on top of the Stathouse are very large peeces Exellently cast Espetially that called Atlas who hath a Globe of the world on his back that will hold 30 Barels of water for me to speake of the several rarityes of Pictures Carved works marble in this Stathouse of the Globes Celestiall Terrestriall that are on the floor of the great Hall would make a Booke of it selfe I therefore will speake of their Almeshouses of the Government of the poore of their Prisons houses of Correction This Citty is said to have 20000 poore Every day at Bed board The Almeshouses are many look more like Princes Palaces then Lodgings for poore people First there are houses for poor Ouldmen Women then a large square Palace for 300 Widdowes then there are Hospitals for Boyes Girles for Burgers Children for strangers Children or those cald Foundlings all these boyes girles have Every sonday other dayes of Worship 2 doites given them by the Fathers of these Houses the which the Children put into the Deacons sack when they gather for the Poore in the Churches Then there is an Hospital for fooles a Bedlam There are Houses where Common Beggers Gamesters frequenters of Taphouses are Kept hard at work There is also a House called the Rasphouse where petty Theeues such as slash one another with Knives such as beg with cheating devises women with fained great Bellyes men pretending to have been taken by the Turk others that pretend wrack at sea such as beg with a Clapper or a Bell as if they could not speake or heare such as these are kept hard at work Rasping Every day 50 pounds between 2 of them or Else are beaten with a Bulls Pissel if yet thy rebel wont work they are set in a Tub where if they doe not pump the water will swell over their heads Then there is a House where whores are Kept to worke as also disobedient Children who live Idle take no course to maintain themselves likewise Women commonly drinking themselves drunck and scolds Althese sorts of Hospitals Almeshouses are Stately Buildings richly adorned with Pictures their Lodgings very neat cleane In some of the Boyes Girles Hospitals there are 1500 in some 800 in some 500 in a House Then they have Houses where a man or a Woman may have their Dyet washing Lodging for his life giving a small summe of money These are called Brouders houses the Almes Children of this citie are held in such Veneration respect that a man had as good strike a Burgemasters Child as one of them These Children are permitted to travel in any of the Treckscuts freely without money These Hospitals are Governed by Men women as are of an unspotted life reputed to be rich devout pious it is very observable that the Women Governe their Women Hospitals better then the men do theirs yea it is a General observation in this Country that where the Women have the direction of the purse Trade the husband seldom prove Bankrupts it being the propertie of a true borne Hollands-wife presently after marriage to apply her selfe wholly to ber Business but I forbear to say any more of the Duch Houswives for feare of displeasing our English Dames not so much addicted at least not so Generally bred up to Industry but to returne to the Acts of Charitie of Amsterdam the which is so Extraordinary that they surpas al other Cittyes in the World for they are dayly houerly giveing to the poore Every House in Amsterdam hath a Box hanging in a Chaine on which is written Think on the Poore so that when any merchant sels Goods they commonly conclude no bargain but more or less is put in the Poores Box These Boxes art Lockt up by the Deacons who once a quarter goe round the Citty take the Money out of the Boxes Then twice a week there are men belonging to the Hospitals that goe round the Citty ring a bell at every House to Know what the Master or mistris of the House will give to the Box who Generally give not less then 2 stivers Then every first Wedensday of the moneth the Deacons in their turne goe round the Citty from House to House to receive what every house Keeper will give to the Poore Then on the week before the Sacrament is given a Minister with an Elder goes round the City to every House where any members of the Presbiterian Religion live there ask if any Differences be in the familie offering their service to reconcile them alsoe to Instruct prepare such as are to receive the Sacrament At this tyme a Minister may be seen to goe into a Taphouse or Taverne for which at another tyme he would be counted a wyne biber the worst of Reprobates At this tyme while these Ministers Elders goe about the City on their Visiations the people take an Occasion to give to the Poore And here I ought not to omit telling you of their great Charitie to the distressed French Protestants who are here in great Numbers They maintaine no less then 60 French Ministers unto many handicraft Tradesmen and makers of stuffs Cloath they lend sums of Money without Intrest to buy Working Tooles materials for their work but this is no other then they formerly did
or take or sinck any other Shipp of the enimies also what pensions a wounded seaman shal have if maimd or disabled in the States service c. The Lords of the Admiralty follow the same methodes which the States General observe as to their land obligations goe throw this great charge by the good management of their Credit for tho it be true that they are indebted great summes of money yet they never want a supply nay Moneyes are often forced upon them by rich Merchants who send in their moneys and only take the Admyraltyes obligations with which they afterward pay their Customes when their Shipps arive at which tyme the Admiralty allowes them Intrest for the tyme they have had their money this is it that makes the Admiraltyes Obligations more valued then ready money for it saves the trouble of telling such is the Credit of the Admiralty that when they have occasion for any Goods the people strive to furnish them rather take their Obligations then money because they get Intrest all other assignments upon the Admiralty are very punctually payd without Exchequer Fees no they are sworne Officers who are forbid to receive any moneyes for fees being contented with the sallary they have of the States And their Methodes used at the Custome House for loading or unloading Shipps are very easy in so much that the Women Generally have the chargeing dischargeing the Shipps at the Custome House which is a great politie in the States to make Trade easy for the Incouragement of the Merchants And the Admiralty are very Gratefull Generous unto their Commanders if any of their Admiralls or Captains are Kild at sea have dove any Considerable service they then Eternise their memories with lasting Trophies of honor as you may see by those Stately Monuments of Trump Vpdam de Ruiter the Eversons others nor are they sparcing in bestowing large Gifts Pensions on the Widdowes Children of those as have served them faithfully Valiantly in the wars whilst the Treacherous Cowards meet with the severity they deserve I might here in the next place in large tel you of the Exellent methodes they have in building preserveing their Shipps when built but I shall refer you to that Exellent peece written by the Heer Witsen on that subject And shall now in the next place say some thing of their famous Company called the East-India Company of the Netherlands This Company is said to be a Commonwealth within a Commonwealth it is true if you consider the Soveraigne Power Priviledges they have granted them by the States General likewise consider their riches Vast Number of subjects the many Territories Colonies they possess in the East-Indies they are said to have 30000 men in constant pay above 200 Capital Shipps besides Sloopes Catches Yachts This Company hath by their Politick contrivances sedulons Industry possessed themselves of many Colonies formerly belonging unto the Spaniards Portugeeses diverse Indian Princes as good Christians have been at great Charge in Planting the Gospel of Christ in many parts there Printing in the Indian Language Bibles Prayer Bookes Catechismes for the Instruction of the Indians maitaineing Ministers Schoolemasters to inform those that are converted to the Christian faith And now because I have said that this Company is so considerable as it were a Commonwealth apart I will demonstrate it to be so first by their power Riches strength in the Indies secondly what figure they make in Europe this verie briefly for if I should speake of every particular as to their posessions in the Indies it would swell into many Volumes But I will only begin with them at the Cape of de Bonne Esperance where they have built a Royall Fort in which they maintaine a Garrison of souldiers to defend their Shipps which come there to take in fresh Water from thence let us take a view of them in the Iland of Java where they have built a faire City called Battavia fortified it with Bastions after the Mode of Amsterdam This City is the place of Residence of their grand Minister of State called the General of the Indies he hath allowed him 6 Privie Councellers in Ordinary 2 extraordinary These governe the concernes of the Company throughout the Indies They make peace war send ther Ambassadors to all parts thereof as occasion requireth This General hath his Guards of Horse Foot all sorts of Officers servants as if he were a soveraigne Prince the whole Expence whereof is defraied out of the Companys stock This General hath much of the Direction of Bantam and other parts of the Iland of Java From whence let us take a view of them in their great possessions in the Moluceas Ilands those of Banda where they are become so formidable that they looke as if they aimed at the soveraingtye of the Southseas They have also a great Trade in China Japan from whence let us return to the Ilands of Sumatra on the coast of Bengale where they have several Lodges In Persia they have likewise great Commerce are so considerable that they wage war with that mlghty Monarch if he wrongs them in their trade They also have several Colonies Lodges on the coast of Malabar Cormandel in the Country of the Great Magul King of Galcanda But principally let us behold them in the rich Iland of Zylon where they are Masters of the plaine Country so that the Emperor or King of that Iland is forced to live in the Mountains whilst this Company possess the City of Colomba other the most considerable Garrisons of that Iland It is said that the Company hath there in their pay 3600 Souldiers at least 300 Gunus planted in their Forts Garrisons In a word they are not only masters of the Cinamon but of all other Spices except Pepper that they would also have had it bin for their Intrest to Ingrosle but they wisely fore saw that the English would be a Block in their way therefore they contented themselves to be masters the Mace Cynamon Cloves and Nutmegs with which they not only serve Europe but many places in the Indies I will say no more of them in the Indies But let us see what figure they make in Europe And first to begin with them in Amsterdam where they have two large Stately Palaces one being in the ould part of the City and the other in the new In that of the ould part of the City they keep their Court and there sits the Resident Committie of the Company where alsoe they make the sales of the Company goods There for six yeares the grand Councel or assembly of the 17 doe meet and after six yeares are expired the grand Councel of the 17 doe assemble at Middelburg in Zealand for two yeares and then againe returne
Magistrates of the Citty take out of the Merchants Bank a Sufficent stock of money to supply the Lumbert a Banck that Lends out money and is Governed by 4 Commissioners chosen out of the Magistrates who sitt in Court every day in the Lumbert which is a large pile of Building 3â—0 foot long containing several Chambers and magazines under one Roof in these several Chambers the Commissioners have Officers sitting to lend money upon all sorts of Goods even from a paires of shooes to the richest Jewell c. This is a great convenicence for Poore people yea for Merchants also who some tymes may want money to pay a bill of Exchange and prevents the Cheatting and Extraordinary Extortion used by the Pawne brokers in England France and other Countryes And besides the Poore have their Pawns safely and well preserved neither are they punctually sould when the yeare is out or denied under the pretext of being mislaid as the Poore are often tymes served by the wicked Pawn broakers There is also another convenience in this Lumbert viz an Exellent way they have of discovering Thieves and the stollen goods They publish two generall open sales of the Goods pawnd twice a yeare that such as will may redeeme their goods and paying the Intrest may have them although the time be relapsed Thus much as to the Lumbert I was once according to my duty to waite upon our present King at the Bank of Merchants where shewing his Majestie the way of keeping the Journall Book of the Bank which is of a prodigious bigness his Majestie was Extreamly pleased with the Contrivance of preserveing it from fire saying that the course they tooke might be of great use for the preserving Patents and the deeds of Noblemens Estates This contrivance which perhaps may be thought usefull or imitable I shall therefore discribe it It is a large firestone shaped like a Chest and set upright in a stone wall having a large brass doore of a Vast thicknes with flops to fall over and Cover the Lock and Hinges into this chest the Booke is drawn upon Rouls it being of such a Bulk and waight as cannot be handed in by a man and there it is so securely preserved that although the house should be burnt the Booke in al probabilitie would be safe Should I here give an account of the Vast summes of money that dayly are written of in this Bank I might probably be thought to speake at Random but this I may bouldly affirme that it farr Exceeds all the Bankes in Europe both for Riches and Business and their Credit is such that the Italians French Germans and English have great summes in the same neither was ever any man refused his money in the worst of times A second Tax is what ariseth from the just and laudable Establishment of a Register A Tax which I think most men will be willing to submit to Except such as designe to cheat and defraud their Naibours and live by such like sins and Confusion and for the most part die with the curse of the people This Register in Holland begitts such assurance and Safetie in dealling that in purchasing of houses or land a Childe tho overreached in the Value yet cannot be cheated as to the title The methodes of which Register I have by me for the use of our King and Parlement when they please to Command it The third and last Tax is that of sealed paper as it is practised in Holland The Method of which I likewise keep by me for his Maiestie and Parlements Commands There are many other things might be spoken as to the Government of Amsterdam but I may not tyre your patience However one considerable thing I would not passe by touching the Melitia There are in Amsterdam 60 Companyes of Foot the least of them haveing 200 men some 300 which in a modest account amounts at least to 15000 men in which number neither Jews nor Anabaptists who carry no Armes are reckned only they are obliged to Contribute to the maintenance of the 1400 Souldiers who are kept in Constant pay as a Guard for the Citty and towards the night watch or Ratelwatch who walke the streets the whole night to keepe good Orders and tell us every halfe houre what a Clock it is There are also upon every Church Tower Trumpetters who sound every halfe houre and if any fire breakes out in the Citty they give a Signall on which side of the Citty the fire is and ring the Firebell and they have Exellent wayes on a suddain in such sad accidents to Quench Fire but I may not inlarge any longer but hasten out of Holland And yet before I leave Amsterdam I must vindicate her from a malitious aspersion cast upon her by the Ignorant they accuse her to have very rudely and uncivilly affrouted the Duke of York beeing there Anno 1681 All which is very false True the English Phanaticks of Amsterdam were so malitiously wicked as to spread severall lyes of his Sacred Person and stird up the Canalie as much as they could to affront his Highnes but as for the Magistrates they payd him verie great respects first sending me to the Hague to know what day his Highnes would please to honor their Citty with his presence that thereby they might be prepared to receive his Royall person with all the honor emaginable being resolved to Treat his Highnes in their Stathouse and that the Burgers should be in their Armes also giveing out orders for Coaches and the Admiraltys Yagts to attend his Highnes when ever he pleased to come but his Highnes by Collonel werden let me know that I should attend the Burgemasters and thank them for their kind presentation but his Highnes was resolved to see theit Citty incognito and therefore desired the Burgemasters not to put themselves to any maner of Trouble Notwithslanding the Magistrates Commanded their Yatchts to lye ready the halfeway Harlem and Vice Admiral de Ruiter Dirick Tulp and others went out in their Coaches to meet his Highnes and conduct him into the Citty at which tyme our English Phanaticks Especially those called Monmouths twelve Apostels did all that they could to stir up the rude multitude to affront his Highnes crying out to them This is he that brought the last war upon you and with his Jesuits would cut all the Protestants Throats But the next day after his Highnes was com into the Citty Burgemaster Valkenier the great Solon of Amsterdam sent for me and tould me that although the Burgemasters which are the Soveraignes of the City give no Visits to strange Princes unless they be Crouned heads yet said he I have a great Ambition to pay a Visit to the Duke of York upon severall respects first as being the brother of so great a King and as he is our Statholders Vnckell and Father in law and therefore said he you shall procure me Audience in the privatest maner imaginable for I designe to goe
with you to him without so much as a footman attending me here upon I waitted upon the Earle of Peterborow and Collonel Werden and Collonel Porter to desire them to aquaint his Highnes with the Burgemastrs designe whereupon his Highnes turnd to me and said Mr. Carr when the Burgemaster pleaseth whereupon I went immediately to the Burgemaster and attended him to his Highnes quarters the newes whereof comeing to the Cittizens they gathered together in great Multitudes to see whether this great man their Petty God did humble himself so far as to pay a Visit to his Highnes whereas the other Burgemasters only sent a Secretary and one of there Pensionaries to Visit the Duke of Monmouth and all Ambassadors have no other Complement but by Secretaries or Pensionaries After the Burgemaster had had a long houres Audience with the Duke in a Roome a part I attended the Burgemaster to his Daughter Pelicorns house the which was neare his Highnes Lodgings for the Tumult of the Burgers was so great that the Burgemaster did not care to pas by them and being come into his daughters Parler he began to speake to me after this maner Sir I never in all my life met with a Prince so generally Experienced in all things a Prince that hath far penetrated into the affaires of Europe and hath the right measures of the present State of our Country and discourses as if he sate in our Councell but above all I was mightly pleased to heare him declare himselfe so freely touching Liberty of Conscience commending the wisdome of our State in Opening their Gates to all tender Consciences and that is it said his Highnes that makes you so considerable and enticeth the Rich Merchants of other places to come live amongst you whereas the folly of the Spanish Inquisition hunts away the chiefest of their Traders the Jewes and others For my part said his Highnes I never was for oppressing tender Consciences in England for nothing more disturbs the peace and quiet thereof then forceing men by Penal Lawes to become all of one Religion To conclude said the Burgemaster do but Remark this one thing and remember it if you outlive me viz that if ever this great Prince come to be King of England he will alter all the Measures of Europe and possiblie become the Arbiter thereof After which discourse the Burgemaster said let me now present you mijn Heer Consul with a Glasse of Rhenish wyne to his Highnes health and pray when you have an Opportunitie to speake with his Highnes assure him that he hath in Amsterdam a true and faithfull freind and moreover he said when I speake next with our Statholder the Prince of Orange and our Pensionarie Fagel I will doe his Highnes Justice and thus wee parted but the civil deportment of this Burgemaster was not all for other great ones of the Citty did their part also as Vice-Admiral de Ruiter with at least 30 Captains of the Admiralty Chamber of Amsterdam attended his Highnes to shew him the Men of warr and Magazins of the Admiralty likewise Sir Dirick Tulp and the Heer Peter van Dam and others the Bewinthebbers of the East-India Company attended his Highnes to the East-Indie House where was spread a Banquet of Sweetmeats and rich Wines and they offered his Highnes a present but his highnes would not accept of any only two large Bookes in which were Painted all the Beasts Fishes and Foules and likewise all the Plants Flowers and Fruites of the East-Indies and because his Highnes had tasted the Mum in the East-Indie Magazine and liked it the Company caused twelve Caskes to be neatly hoopt and gave me them to be sent after his Highnes to Brussels And I know it was the resolution of the Bewinthebbers to have spared no cost if his Highnes would have accepted of a Treat in their house by all which you see that the Magistrates and chiefe men in Amsterdam were not guilty of Rudenes to his Highnes but it was the Canalie And now haveing said so much good of the States Government and of Amsterdam in particular it will not be amisse to take notice of some Bad customes and practises now in vogue in Holland and leave it to the reader to Judge what they may portend There are tollerated in the Citty of Amsterdam amongst other abuses at least 50 Musick houses where lewd Persons of both sexs meet and practise their villanies There is also a place called the Longseller a Tollerated Exchange or publick meeting house for whores and Rogues to Rendevous in and make their filthy Bargains This Exchange is open from six a clock afterdinner untill nine at night Every whore must pay three stivers at the dore for her entrance or admission I confess the Ministers preach and exclaim from the pulpit against this horrible abuse but who they be that Protect them I know not yet I have heard some plead for the tolleration of these wicked meetings upon pretext that when the East-India fleets come home the Seamen are so mad for women that if they had not such houses to bait in they would force the verie Cittyzens wives and Daughters but it is well known that as money does countenance so Discipline might suppress that abuse The ould severe and frugall way of Liveing is now allmost quite out of Date in Holland there is very littell to be seene of that sober modestie in Apparell Diet and habitations as formerly In stead of Convenient Dwellings the Hollanders now build Stately palaces have their delightfull Gardens and houses of pleasure keep Coaches waggons and sleas have very rich furniture for their horses with Trappings adorned with silver Bells I have seen the Vanitie of a Vintners sonne who had the bosses of the bit and Trapping of his horse of pure silver his footman and Coachman having silver fringd Gloves yea so much is the humour of the women altered and of their Children also that no Apparel can now serve them but the best and richest that France and other Countryes affoards and their sonns are so much adicted to play that many families in Amsterdam are ruined by it not that England is lesse Extravagant then the Duch who as I said before got such great Estates by their frugalitie whilest they were not addicted to such prodigalitie and wantoneste as the English are whose excesse I can not excuse neverthelesse the grave and sober people of Holland are very sensible of the great alteration that now is in their Country and as they say Paracelsus used to cure his patients of their disease with a full belly so a good Burgemaster desirous to convince his Amsterdammers of their dissolute kind of life invited the Thirty six Magistrates and their wives to a feast who being come and the Ladyes big with Expectation of some rare and Extraordinary Entertainment sat down at table where the first course was Buttermilk boild with Appells Stockfish Buttered Turnips and Carrots lettice Salade and red Herrings
only smale beare without any Wyne At this the Ladies startled and began to whisper to their husbands that they Expected no such Entertainement but upon removeing of the Dishes and plates they found underneath printed verses Importing that after that manner of liveing they began to thrive had inlarged their Citty The second course consisted of Bocke de kooks quarters of Lamb rosted Rabits and a sort of pudding they cal a Brother here they had Dorts and English beare with French wyne yet all this did not please the dainty Dames but upon removing away the plates another Dish of poetrie appeared which acquainted them that after that modest and sober way of Liveing they might keep what they had gott and lay up some thing for their Children Then comes in the third course made up of all the rarities of the season as Patridges Pheseants and all sorts of foule and English pasties with plenty of Rinish and other sorts of wyne to moisten them this put the ladyes in a frolick and Jolly humour but under their plates was found the use and Application in verses telling them that to feed after that manner was Voluptuous and Luxurious and would Impaire their health and wast their Estates make them neglect their Trade and so in Tyme reduce their Stately and new built flourishing Citty to their ould fishing towne againe After this was brought in a Banquet of all sorts of sweet meats piled up in piramides and delicate fruite with plenty of delitious wynes and to conclude all a set of Musick and maskers who danced with the young Ladyes but at parting like the hand writing to Belteshazzar upon the wall every one had a printed paper of moralities put into their hand shewing them the causes of the ruine of the Roman Commonwealth according to that of the Poët Nullum crimen abest facinusque libidinis exquo Paupertas Romana perit with an Exellent aduice to them that if they did not quit the Buffoneries and apish modes of the French and returne to the Simplicitie plaineness and modestie of their Ancestors and founders their Common-wealth could not long last but all the thanks the good ould Burgemaster had for his kind and Chargable Entertainement in thus feasting his Countrymen was to be floutted at and pasquild The sparkes of Amsterdam saying in all places that the ould man being now past the yeares of pleasure himselfe would have none others to take theirs And here I shall put a period to what I thought fitt to observe of the States of the Vnited Provinces only I will beg leave to say something to the Hollander by way of advise viz That now they are in a prosperous condition Rich and at ease They would looke back and remember what God in his Infinite goodnes mercy did for them in the dayes of their greatest calamities for my owne part I cannot but admire the great providence of God in preserveing them from being devoured by their many Enimies they had in the last warr besides their enimies at home some of which particulars as they then happened give me leave to relate At the tyme when the French came to Inuade the Territoryes of the States General it then looked as if God had markd out the way for the French to March by sending such a wonderfull drye season that the Rivers of the Rhine Beta Wall and other Rivers were fordable so that the French only waded throw and became so Victtorious that in a little space of tyme what by the Treasons of some and the Ignorance and cowardise of others Intrusted with the Militia and Garrisons the French became Masters of above 40 Cittyes and Garrisons at which tyme there was nothing to be heard of in the States Dominions but confusion and miserie even in the strong and rich Citty of Amsterdam it self who at this tyme beheld the French Armie like a mighty Torrent comeing within sight of the Citty and at the same tyme wanting water in their Canalls and Burgwalls to ply their Sluces and such was the scarcity of Raine that a payle of fresh water was worth 6 pence Thus heaven seemed to frowne on them as well as the French Armie by the shutting up as it were the Conduits of Heaven and yet a worse thing had like to have fallen out for at the same tyme the Divisions grew so high amongst the Magistrates in the Stathouse that it was putting to the Question wheather or no they should not goe and meet the French King with the Keyes of their Citty to save it from fire and Plunder now nothing in all probabilitie could save this rich Citty from falling into the hands of the French but an immediate hand from Heaven and it had undoubtedly come to passe had not providence caused the French to make a stand at Muyden two howers from Amsterdam at what time the Valiant Roman of Amsterdam Scout Hasselaer like a true father of his Country opposed the French party in the Councell calling out to the Burgers from the Stathouse to take Courage and rather choose to dye like old Battavians with their swords in their hands then tamely and Treacherously to yeald up their Citty to the mercy of the French as some of the Magestrates were about to doe this so Incouraged the Burgers that with great Courage they mand ' the walls and heaven then assisting them with a suden and plenty full raine that they plyd their sluces and drouned the Lands round the Citty 3 and 4 foot high in some places which caused the Victorious French Armie to make a quick retreat as farr as Utrick else the Monsieur had payd deare for seeing of Amsterdam Thus was Amsterdam delivered by the hand of Heaven A second was when that Bloody Duke of Luxenburg who gloryed and thanked God that he was borne without pitty or remors of Conscience took the opportunitye of an exceeding hard frost to march his Armie over the Ice as it had been drye ground burning in his way the three faire Villages of Bodygrave Swammerdam and Goudse-sluys Acting there a move cruell Tradigie and worse then ever did Turk for they Generally fave the Country people for Ransom but this cruell Prince caused strong Guards to surround the villages and burnd men Women and Children together Thus he began his march with a designe to burne Leyden Hague Rotterdam Delph and all the rich Country of Rhineland and this he might have done in all probabilitie for first the Governor of Newsluce who commanded the post that should have stopt the French Treacherously delivered up the fort without firing a Gunn and the handfull of Troopes then under General Koningsmark were so Inconsiderable that they joyned to the Souldiers under Pain and Vin the Governer of new Sluce were not Able to make head as could oppose Luxenburgs Armie and at the same tyme the good Prince of Orange was with the States Armie at Charle le Roy. Now was Leyden ready to meet the French with the Keyes
but one night in the territories of the Bishop of Osnabrug From Cleave I went to a small town called Rhinberg but a very strong fortification belonging to the Elector of Cologne which lies at two miles distance from the citie of Wesel that belongs to the Elector of Brandenbourg Through Disseldorpe scituated on the Rhine and the Residence of the duke of Newbourg I went next to Cologne a very large city called by the Romans Colonia Agrippina and the French Rome d' Allemagne Cologne is an Imperial citie and a Republick though for some things it does Homage to the Elector of that name and receives an oath from him It is much decayed within these hundred years having been much priest ridden a misfortune that hath undone many other great cities The Jesuits have had so great influence upon the Magistrats that they prevailed with them to banish all Protestants who removed to Hambourg and Amsterdam so that Cologne is become so dispeopled that the houses dayly fall to ruine for want of inhabitants and a great deal of corn and wine now grows within the walls upon ground where houses formerly stood I dare be bold to affirm that there is twice the number of inhabitants in the parish of St. Martins in the fields then there is in Cologne and yet it contains as many parish churches monasteries and chappels as there are days in the year The streets are very large and so are the houses also in many of which one may drive a Coach or waggon into the first room from the streets but the streets are so thin of people that one may pass some of them and not meet ten men or women unless it be Church men or Religious sisters The most considerable inhabitants of the citie are Protestant Merchants tho but few in number and they not allowed a Church neither but a place called Woullin a mile without the citie the rest of the inhabitants who are lay men are miserably poor There are no less than 3000 Studâ—nts in Cologne taught by the 〈◊〉 gratis who have the priviledge to beg in musicall notes in the day time and take to them selves the liberty of borrowing hats and cloaks in the night but if in the Jesuits Schools there be any rich Burgemasters sons who have parts they are sure to be snapt up and adopted into the societie Formerly before the matter was otherwise adjusted in the diet of Ratisbonne there have been designs of voteing Protestant Magistrats into the government again but so soon as the Jesuits come to discover who of the Magistrats were for that they immediately preferred their sons or daughters and made them chanons abbots or chanonesses and so diverted them by interest It 's pity to see a city so famous for traffike in former times now brought to so great a decay that were it not for the trade of Rhenish wine it would be utterly forsaken and left wholy to the Church men The continuall alarms the Magistrats have had by forreign designs upon their liberty and the jealousies fomented among themselfs as it is thought by the Agents and favourers of France and especially the Bishop of Strasbourg have for severall yeares kept them in continuall disquiet and necessitated them to raise great taxes which hath not a litle contributed to the impoverishing of the people especially the boars round about who tho the Countrey they live in be one of the most pleasant and fertile plains of Germany yet are so wretchedly poor that canvas cloaths wooden shoes and straw to sleep on in the fame room with their beasts is the greatest worldly happiness that most of them can attain unto The Elector of Cologne is a venerable old man Bishop of four great bishopricks viz Cologne Liege Munster and Heldershime He divides his time betwixt his devotion and experimental studies being punctuall in saying of mass every morning and constant in his Elaboratory in the afternoon for he is much addicted to chymistry and leaves the administration of Government to his Cozen the Bishop of Strasbourg To speak of all the miracles of the three Kings of Cologne and the vast number of saints who were removed out of England and interred there would be but tedious and perhaps incredible to the reader as well as wide of my designe I shall therefore proceed From Cologne I took water on the Rhine and advanced to the citie of Bon and so forward to Coblints the residence of the Elector of Trier over against this city on the other side of the Rhine stands that impregnable fort called Herminshine built on a high rocky hill as high again as Windsorcastle and on the north side of it the River Mosel falls into the Rhine over which there is a Stately stone bridge This Prince governs his subjects as the other Spirituall Electors doe that is both by temporall and spirituall authority which in that Country is pretty absolute The chiefe trade of this Countrey is in wine corn wood and Iron The next Countrey I came to was that of the Elector of Mayence who is likewise both a secular and Ecclesiasticall Prince and governs his subjects accordingly He is reckoned to be wholely for the Interests of the French King who notwithstanding of that pretends a title to the citadel of Mayence As I was upon my Journey to Mayence by land I made a turn down the Rhin to visit the famous litle city of Backrack and some towns belonging to the Landgrave of Hessen but especially Backrack because Travellers say it much resembles Jerusalem in its scituation and manner of buildings The Burgemaster of this city told mee that the whole Country about Backrack does not yield above 200 fouders of wine a year And yet the Merchants of Dort by an art of multiplication which they have used some years furnish England with severall thousande of fouders Here I shall take the liberty to relate a strange story which I found recorded in this Countrey tho I know it to be mentioned in History There was a certain cruel and inhumane Bisshop of Mayence who in a year of great scarcity and famine when a great number of Poor people came to his gates begging for bread caused the Poor wretches men women and children to be put into a barn under pretext of relieving their necessities but so soon as they were got in caused the barn doors to be shut fire set to it and so burnt them all alive And whil'st the poor wretches cried and shreeked out for horrour and pain the Barbarous miscreant said to those that were about him harke how the Rats and mice doe crie But the just Judgement of God suffered not the fact to pass unpunished for not long after the cruel Bishop was so haunted with Rats and mice that all the guards he kept about him could not secure him from them neither at table nor in bed At length he resolved to flee for safetie into a tower that stood in the midle of the Rhine but the Rats
pursued him got into his chamber and devoured him alive so that the Justice of the Almighty made him a prey to vermine who had inhumanely reckoned his fellow Christians to be such The tower which I saw to this day is called the Rats-tower and the story is upon record in the city of Mayence On my Journey from thence I came to the litle village of Hockom not far distant famous for our Hockomore wine of which though the place does not produce above 150 fouders a year yet the Ingenions Hollanders of Dort make some thousand fouders of it goe of in England and the Indies From Hockom I proceeded to Francfort a pleasant city upon the river of Maine called formerley Teutoburgum and Helenopolis and since Francfort becaus here the Franconians who came out of the Province of Franconia foarded over wfien they went upon their expedition into Gallia which they conquered and named it France and I thought it might very well deserve the name of Petty-London because of its Priviledges and the humour of the citizens It is a Hansiatick and Imperiall town and Common-wealth the Magistrats being Lutherans which is the publick established Religion though the Cathedrall church belongs to the Roman Catholicks who also have severall monasteries there The citie is populous and frequented by all sorts of Merchants from most parts of Europe part of Asia also becaus of the two great faires that are yearely kept there Many Jews live in this city and the richest Merchants are Calvinists who are not suffered to have a Church in the town but half an houres journey out of it at a place called Bucknam where I have told seventy four Coaches at a time all belonging to Merchants of the city It was in ancient times much enriched by Charle le maigne and hath been since by the constitution of the Golden bull amongst other honours Priviledges its appointed to be the place of the Emperours Election where many of the ornaments belonging to that August ceremonie are to be seen It is strongly fortified having a stately stone bridge over the Maine that joynes it to Saxe-housen the quarter of the great master of the Toutonick order The government is easy to the people they not being taxed as other cities are and had it not been for the Alarmes the French gave them during the last war they had not been much troubled but being forced to keep three or four thousand men in constant pay to defend their fortifications the Magistrats were constrained to raise money by a tax Besides that of the Emperour they are under the protection of some neighbouring Princes as of the Landgrave of Hessen Cassells Landgrave of Armestadt the Count of Solmes and the count of Hanau who are either Lutherans or Calvinists amongst whom the Late Elector Palatine was also one but whether the present who is Roman Catholick be so or not I cannot tel This city takes great care of their poor and in their charitie to poor travellers exceed Holland I have seen a list of seaven thousand whom they relieved in one year Their great hospitall is a large court or palace where the English Merchants formerly lived in the time of Queen mary's persecution of the Protestants who when they were recalled by Queen Elisabeth were so generous as to give the whole court with all their Packhouses and lands to the poor of the city It was my fortune to be there in that cold Winter in the year 1683. and saw a ceremonie performed by the Wine coopers of the citie who are obliged by law that when ever the Maine lyes fast frozen over for eight days together to make a great Fouder fat Hoops and Staves and set it up compleat upon the Ice It was very good diversion to see so many hands at worke and to observe the jollity and mirth of the many thousands of spectators who wanted not plenty of Rhenish wine to carouse in I had the curiositie afterward to goe to the court of the Landgrave of Armestadt a Lutheran Prince who lives in part of the richest soyle in Germany His Highness is a very courteous and obligeing Prince to Strangers and his subjects are in a pretty good condition again though they have been great sufferers by the last war between the Landgrave of Hessen and this familie From thence I went to Heidleberg a city I had been formerly in in the life time of that wise tho unfortunate Prince Elector elder brother to Prince Rupert Here I had the Honour to pay my dutifull respects to the Elector the son of that great Prince whose commissary I had the honour to be for two years together in Amsterdam This Prince since my being there is lately dead and left behind him the reputation of having been a Zealous thorough paced Calvinist and so constant a frequenter of the church that some Sundays he went thrice a day to Sermon but never failed if in health to be once a day at least at the garrison-church where he took particular notice of such officers as were absent He was married to a most virtuous lady the Royall sister of the King of Denmark and his brother Prince George During his life time the university of Heidleberg flourished exceedingly so that the number of students was so great that Chambers and lodgings in the citie were scarce and Spanhemius was about quitting Leyden to return to his professors place in Heidleberg but how matters stand since his death I am as yet ignorant This Countrey is called the paradise of Germany for its fruitfulness in wine corn and all sorts of fruit I my self have seen growing in one plain at the same time vines corn chestnuts almonds dates figs cherries besides severall other sorts of fruit And as the Countrey is fertile in yeelding the fruits of the Earth so the people are carefull in providing store room for them This I take notice of because of the prodigious Rhenish wine fats which are to be seen there amongst which there are seaven the least whereof holds the quantitie of 250 barells of Beere as I calculated but the large and most celebrated fat is that which goes by the name of the great Tun of Heidleberg and holds 204 fouders of wine and cost 705 L. Sterling in buildiug for which one may have a very good house built This fat I have seen twice and the first time was when the Elector treated the French Ambassadours that came to conclude the match betwixt his daughter and Monsieur the French Kings brother who married her after the death of our Kings sister his first wife at which treat there happened an adventure that I shall here please the Reader with In a gallery that is over this fat the Elector caused a table to be placed in the midle exactly above the bunghole of this Monstrous vessell and to be covered with a costly banquet of all sorts of sweet meats The day before all the wine being emptied out of this Tun into
the Roman Catholick Lutheran and Calvinist but especially betwixt the two latter and therefore entertained Doctor Duris at her court in Cassels who wrote severall pieces upon that subject of reconciliation and with lome of his friends had a conference with a learned priest that came from Rome to forward the project whereupon the Doctor published his book of the Harmoney of Consent which is highly esteemed in Germany From this Princes court I directed my journey to Hanover taking Lambspring in my way a place where there is a convent of English Monks and there I met with a very aged worthy and harmeless Gentleman St. Thomas Gascoigue a Person of more integrity and pietie then to be guilty so much as in thought of what miscreants falsly swore against him in the licentions time of plotting the Lord Abbot and severall of the Monks I had seen there formerly This monastery is very obliging to all strangers that travell that way as well as to theire own Countreymen and is highly respected by the neighbouring Princes of all persuasions as the Princes of the house of Lunenburg the Landgrave of Hessen and Elector of Cologne who as Bishop of Hildersheim is their ordinary The town of Lambspring is Lutheran though under the government of the Lord Abbot and his chapter who constantly choose Lutheran Magistrats and Officers for the civill administration and live together in that love and unitie that as yet there hath never the least debate happened amongst them and indeed this harmoney is now to be observed in most parts of Germany where different Religions are professed When I considered so many goodly faces both of Monks and students in that Abbey I could not forbeare to make a serious reflexion on the number of the English whom I had seen in the colledges and Cloysters abroad as at Rome Rattesbonne Wirtzburg in Lorraine at Liege Louvain Brussels Dunkerk Ghent Paris and other places besides the severall Nunneries and withall on the loss that both King and Kingdome suffered thereby when so many of our natives both men and women should be constrained to spend their own Estats and the benevolence of others in a strange Land which amounts to more money than at first one may imagine and this thought I confess made me wish it were otherwise I would not have the Reader to mistake mee here as if I espoused or pleaded for any particular party No I plead onely for the sentiments of humanity without which our nature degenerates into that of brutes and for the love that every honest man ought to have for his Countrey I am asmuch a friend to the Spanish Inquisition as to the persecuting of tender Conscienced protestants provided there be no more but Conscience in the case and I could heartily with that Papists and Protestants could live as lovingly together in England as they doe in Holland Germany and other Countries for give mee leave to say it I love not that Religion which in stead of exalting destroys the Principles of morality and humane societie I have met with honest men of all persuasions even Turks and Jews who in their lives and manners have far exceeded many of our Enthusiastick professors at home and when ever this happened I could not forbeare to love the men without embraceing there Religion for which they themselves are to account to their great master and Judge In my progress towards Hanover I touched at Hildersheim a city whose Magistrates are Lutheran though Roman Catholicks have the Cathedrall Church and severall monasteries there The court of Hanover makes another kind of figure than that of Cassels it being the court of a greater Prince who is Bishop of Osnaburg duke of Brunswick Lunenburg Hanover c. Here I had the honour to kiss the hands of the Princess Royall Sophia youngest sister to the late Prince Rupert Her highness has the character of the Merry debonnaire Princess of Germany a lady of extraordinary virtue and accomplishments and mistriss of the Italian French High and low dutch and English languages which she speaks to perfection Her husband has the title of the Gentlemen of Germany a gracefull and comely Prince both a foot and on horseback civill to strangers beyond compare infinitely Kind and beneficent to people in distress and known in the world for a valiant and experienced Soldier I had the honour to see his troops which without controversie are as good men and commanded by as expert Officers as any are in Europe Amongst his Officers I found brave Steel-hand Gordon Collonel of an Excellent Regiment of horse Grimes Hamilton Talbot and others of our Kings subjects God hath blest the Prince with a numerous offspring having six sons all galant Princes of whom the two eldest signalized themselves so bravely at the raising of the siege of Vienna that as an undoubted proofe of their valour they brought three Turks home to this court prisoners His Eldest son is married to a most beautifull Princess sole heiress of the duke of Lunenbourg and Zell his elder brother as the lovely Princess his daughter is lately married to the Electorall Prince of Brandenbourg He is a gracious Prince to his people and keeps a very splendid court having in his stables for the use of himself and children no less than fifty two sets of coach horses he himself is Lutheran but as his subjects are Christians of different persuasions nay and some of them Jews too so both in his court and army he entertains Gentlemen of various opinions and Countries as Italian abbots and Gentlemen that serve him and many Calvinist French Officers neither is he so bigotted in his Religion but that he and his Children goe many times to Church with the Princess who is a Calvinist and joine with her in her devotion His Countrey is good having gold and silver mines in it and his subjects live well under him as doe those also of his brother the duke of Lunenbourg and their Cozen the duke of Wolfembottel which are the three Princes of the house of Lunenbourg of whom it may be said that they have alwayes stuck honestly to the right side and befriended the interests of the Empire so that no by respect neither honour nor profit could ever prevail with them as it has with others to make them abandon the publick concern From this Princes court I went to Zell the residence of the duke the elder brother of the familie This Prince is called the mighty Nimrod becaus of the great delight he takes in horses dogs and hunting He did mee the honour to let mee see his stables wherein he keeps 370 horses most of them English or of English breed His dogs which are also English are so many that with great care they are quartered in severall apartments according to their Kind and qualities there being a large office like a brewhouse employed for boyling of malt and Corn for them It is this valiant Prince who tooke Tieves from the French and made
the Mareshall de Crequi prisoner he is extreamely obliging to strangers and hath severall brave Scottish Officers under his pay as Major General Erskin Graham Coleman Hamilton Melvin and others His Lieutenant General is one Chavot a Protestant of Alsatia an excellent and experienced commander who did mee the honour to treat mee three days at his house where with all his Scottish and English Officers whom he had invited wee liberally drank to the health of our present King having as he told us served under his Majestie when duke of York both in France and Flanders where he gained the reputation both for skill and conduct in the wars not onely from Mareshall Turin a competent Judge but also from all other General Persons who had the honour to know him that fame hath made better know'n in the world than the encomium which that generous Gentleman ingenuously gave and which heere I spare to relate I shall adde no more concerning this Prince his Officers or Countrey but that he with the other two Princes of the house of Lunenbourg Hanover and Wolfenbottel can upon occasion bring into the field 36000 Soldiers whom they keep in constant pay and such men as I never saw better in my life After some stay at the Court of the duke of Zell I went to Hambourg a famous Hansiatick town It is a republick and city of great trade occasioned partly by the English Company of Merchant adventures but much more by the dutch Protestants who in the time of the Duke of Alba forsook the low Countries and seltled here and the Protestants also who were turned out of Cologne and other places in Germany who nevertheless are not now allowed publick Churches within the citie but at a place called Altena a village belonging to the King of Denmark a quarter of an houres walk distant from Hambourg This Commonwealth is Lutheran and governed by four Burgemasters twenty four Radtsheres and a common Council of all the Burghers who have above 40 schellings per annum free hold The symbole or Motto under their Armes is da pacem domine in diebus nostris and in their Standart are these letters S. P. Q. H. The people here grone under heavy taxes and impositions The State becaus of continuall Alarms they have from the King of Denmark or other neighbours and the intestine broiles that frequently happen here as well as at Cologne where the Burgemasters are often in danger of their lives from the mutinous mobile being sorced to maintain six or seaven thousand men in pay besides two or three men of war to guard their havens from pirats I shall not name all the wayes of imposing taxes which this Commonwealth uses becaus in most they imitate the methods of the States Generall as to that which have bin mentioned before I shall onely take notice of some peculiar customes they have wherein they differ from Holland When a Barber shoe maker or any other Artizan dies leaving a widow and Children another of the same trade is not admitted to set up for himself as a master unless he compound with the widow for a piece of money or else marry her or a daughter of hers with her consent If any man cause another to be arrested for debt or upon any other suit the plaintif must goe along with the Officer who arrests the party and stay by him untill the prisoner be examined by the sheriff so that if the sheriff be not to be spoken with that night the plaintiff must tarry with the prisoner all night untill the sheriff examine the matter and see cause of discharging or committing the party but this a plaintiff may doe by a procuration Notariall If a prisoner be committed for debt the plaintiff must maintain him in prison according to his qualitie and if the party lye in prison during the space of six yeares at the expiration of that time the prisoner is discharged and if during the time of his imprisonment the plaintif doe not punctually pay the prisoners allowance at the months end the prisoner is set at liberty and nevertheless the plaintiff must pay the Gailer the last months allowance This state is severe in the execution of Justice against thieves murders and cheats There is no pardon to be expected for murder and a Burgemaster himself if guilty cannot escape The punishment for Murder is here as in Sweden breaking malefactors on the wheele pinching their breasts and Arms with hot Pincers speeting them in at the fundament and out at the shoulder they have also cruel wayes of torturing to make prisoners confess And are very carefull not to be cheated in their publick revenue their accisemen and collectors being punished as in Holland They take a very good course not to be cheated in their accise for all the mils of the Countrey are in the hands the State so that no baker nor brewer can grind his own corn but must have it ground at the States mills where they pay the accise There is a Generall tax upon all houses and that is the Eight penny which nevertheless does not excuse them from chimney money The States here as at Genoa in Italy are the publick vintners of whom all people must buy their wine which they buy from the Merchants or otherwise import it in their own ships In their ceremonies of burying and Christening they are ridiculously prodigall as for instance If one invite a Burgemaster he must give him a ducat in gold if a Raedtsheer that is an Alderman a Rixdollar to every Preacher Doctor of Physick Advocat or Secretary halfe a Rixdollar and to every Schoolmaster the third part of a Rixdoller The women are the inviters to Burialls weddings and Christenings who weare an Antick Kind of a dress having mitered caps as high again as the Miter of a Bishop The Churches here are rich in revenues and ornaments as Images and Stately Organs wherein they much delight They are great lovers of Musick in so much that I have told 75 masters of severell sorts of Musick in one Church besides those who were in the Organ gallery Their Organs are extraordinarely large I measured the great pipes in the Organs of St. Catharins and St. James's Churches and found them to be 3 foot and 3 quarters in circumference and 32 foot long in each of which Organs there are two Pipes 5 foot and 8 inches round The wealth and trade of this citie encreases dayly They send one year with another 70 Ships to Greenland and have wonderfully engrossed that trade from England and Holland and it is beleeved that small and great there are belonging to this Commonwealth five thousand sayl of Ships After Amsterdam Genoa and Venice their bank is reckoned the chiefe in credit but in trade they are accounted the third in Europe and come next to London and Amsterdam Hambourg is now become the Magazine of Germany and of the baltick and northern seas They give great priviledges to the Jewes and to all
strangers whatsoever Especially the English Company of Merchant Adventurers whom they allow a large building where they have a Church and where the deputy governour Secretary Minister and the other Officers of the Company live to whom they yearly make present of Wine Beere Sheep Salmond and Sturgeon in their seasons And so much of Hambourg From Hambourg I went to Lubeck which is also a Commonwealth and Imperiall town It is a large well built city containing ten parish Churches the Cathedrall dedicated to St. Peter being in length 500 foot with two high spires all covered with brass as the rest of the Churches of that ciry are In former times this city was the place where the deputies of all the Hansiatick towns assembled and was once so powerfull as to make war against Denmark and Sweden and to conquer severall places and Islands belonging to those two Crowns nay and to lend Ships to England and other Potentates without any prejudice to their own trade wherein they vied in all parts with their neighbours but it is now exceedingly run into decay not onely in territories but in wealth and trade also And the reason of that was chiefely the inconsiderate zeal of their Lutheran Ministers who perswaded the Magistrates to banish all Roman Catholicks Calvinists Jews and all that dissented from them in matter of Religion even the English Company too who all went and setled in Hambourg to the great advantage of that city and almost ruine of Lubeck which hath not now above 200 Ships belonging to it nor more territories to the State than the city it self and a small part called Termond about eight miles distant from it The rest of there territories are now in the possession of the Danes and Swedes by whom the burghers are so continually allarmed that they are quite tired out with keeping guard and paying of Taxes The city is indeed well fortified but the government not being able to maintain above 1500 Soldiers in pay 400 Burghers in two Companies are obliged to watch every day They have a large well built Stathouse and an Exchange covered on the top whereof the globes of the world are painted This Exchange is about fifty yards in the length and but fifteen in breadth over it there is a Roome where the skins of five Lions which the Burghers killed at the city gates in the year 1252 are kept stuft The great market place is very large where a monumentall stone is to be seen on which one of their Burgemasters was beheaded for running away without fighting in a sea engagement The people here spend much time in their Churches at devotion which consists chiefely in singing The women are beautifull but disfigured with a kind of Antick dress they wearing cloaks like men It is cheap living in this town for one may hire a palace for a matter of 20 L. a year and have provisions at very reasonable rates besides the air and water is very good the city being supplied with fountains of Excellent fresh water which Hambourg wants and good ground for cellerage there being cellars here fourty or fifty foot deep I had the curiosity to goe from Lubeck to see the Ancient city of Magdeburg but found it so ruined and decayed by the Swedish war that I had no encouragement to stay there I therefore hastened to Berlin the chiefe residence of the Elector of Brandenbourg at whose Court I mett with a very Ingenuous French Merchant who tould me that he and divers other Merchants were designed to have lived in England but were discouraged by a letter sent from London by a French man that was removeing from thence to Amsterdam for these following reason which I coppied out of his Letter First because the Reformed Religion is persecuted in England as it is in France the which I tould him was a great untruth for it is apparent that they have been all along graciously admitted and received into his Majesties Dominions without interruption allowed the free exercise of their owne forme of worship according to the Doctrine discipline of the Churches of France nor can they who converse with the French Ministers either in France or Holland be Ignorant that the chiefest part if not all those Ministers are willing to complye with the Church of England and it is Evident that most of the Dutch and French Protestants so called in Holland make use of Organs in their Churches A second thing was that both the bank of London and the Bankers Gouldsmiths were all broak the which I tould this Frenchman was not true altogether for there are many able Bankers whome I named as Alderman Fowles Alderman Hornbey Alderman Duncomb Alderman Founs Mr. Thomas Cook Mr. Rob Vyner Mr. Childe Mr. Endes Mr. Evans and others well known to the world by their solid dealling neyther was the Bank as he called the Chamber of London broak only it had been under the management of a bad Person whose designe was to bring it into disgrace besides there is the East-India Company an unquestionable securitie for those as have money to dispose of together with another undeniable securitie which is Land Thirdly he saith that in England there is no Register and therefore many frauds in purchases morgages which begett teadious suites and renders both dangerous to trust Fourtly that if a man would purchase land he cannot being an Alien untill Naturalized Fiftly that in England there are so many plots and Confusions in Goverment that the Kingdome is hardly quiet twenty yeares together Sixtly that false wittnesses were so common in England and the crime of perjury so slightly punished that no man could be safe in life or Estate if he chanced to be in trouble Lastly he said that the English are so restless and quarrelesome that they not only foment and cherish Animosities amongst one another but are Every foot contriving and plotting against their lawfull soveraign and the Goverment By such surmises and insinuations as these the French and Germans are scared from trusting themselves and fortunes in England and therefore settle in Amsterdam Hamburg and other Cittyes where there are Banks and Registers This I say is one cause why there are now to be seene at Amsterdam such vast numbers of French and Germans who have much inriched that Citty and raised the rents of the houses 20 percent and the silkeweavers grow also verie rich keeping so many Almes Children to doe their work and having all their labour without any charge only for the teaching them their trades which hath lessened the revenues of the French crown and will in tyme greately increase the number of the States subjects and advance ther publick Incomes To say the truth the inconstancy and wantonnesse of the English nation especially of late tymes when no other cause could be given for it but to much ease and plenty is not only wondered at but reflected upon by foreigners yet I am morally certaine that could the people of England be once
againe united in love and affection as they are bound to be in duty and Intrest and would they be as willing to contribute to their own hapines as heaven hath been kind and liberal in bestowing the meanes of it with a good and gratious Prince solicitous for preserveing the same to them could wee be so blest as wee have great reason to Expect wee may under the Auspicious reigne of him whose royall Virtues are dreaded by none either at home or a broad but such as are the disturbers of publick and lawfull Authoritie Having made this digression I return to Berlin It is a city lately enlarged with fair streets and palaces The Magistrates of the place are Lutherans which is the publick established Religion in all the Electors dominions though he himself and his Children be Calvinists He is lookt upon to be so true to that persuasion that he is reckoned the Protector of the Calvinists and indeed he sollicited the Emperour very hard for a toleration of the Protestants in Hungary His chaplains as most of the Lutheran ministers also endeavour to imitate the English in their way of preaching and his highness is so much taken with English divinity that he entertains divines for translating English books into the German tongue as the whole duty of man and severall others He has a large and Srately palace at Berlin and therein a copious library enriched with many manuscripts medalls and rarities of Antiquity He may compare with most Princes for handsome guards being all of them proper well bodied men and most part Officers who ride in his guards of horse As he is know'n in the world to be a valiant and warlick Prince so he maintains in pay an Army of 36000 men besides five or six thousand horsmen who in time of war are modelled into troopes with which body during the late war with Sweden his highness in Person beat the Swedes out of his Countrey Hee keeps his forces in strickt Discipline obliging all the Officers if Protestants on Sundays and holy days to march their severall Companies in order to Church but if a superiour Officer be of a contrary persuasion then the next in commission supplies his place This custome is Religiously observed by all his highnesses garrisons whilest he himself with his Children being five sons two Daughters and two Daughters in law goe constantly to the Calvinist Church adjoyning to the Court. Amongst other acts of publick pietie and charitie this Prince hath established and endowed some Religious houses or Nunneries for Protestant young ladies where they may live virtuously and spend their time in devotion as long as they please or otherwise marry if they think fit but then they lose the benefit of the Monastery There is one of these at Herford in Westphalia where I was and had the honour to wait upon the Lady Abbess the Princess Elisabeth eldest sister of the Elector Palatine and Prince Rupert who is since dead Nothwithstanding the late wars with Sweden and that by the prevalency of France in that hasty treaty of peace concluded at Nimwegen his Electorall Highness was obliged to give back what he had Justly taken from that crown yet his subjects flourish in wealth and trade his highness having encouraged manufactures of all sorts by inviting Artizans into his dominions and estalished a Company of tradeing Merchants to the West-Indies which will much advance navigation amongst his subjects And in all humane probabilitie they are like to continue in a happy condition seing by the alliances his highness hath made with the Protestant Princes of the Empire and especially the house of Lunenbourg they are in no danger of being disturbed by their neighbours I told you before that the Prince of Brandenbourg was married to the Daughter of the duke of Hanover so that so long as that alliance holds the families of Brandenbourg and Lunenbourg will be in a condition to cast the ballance of the Empire they both together being able to bring into the field 80000 as good men as any are in Europe When I parted from Berlin I made a turn back to Lunenbourg in my way to Swedland where I found severall of my Countrey men Officers in the garison who shew'd mee what was most remarkeable in the city as the Saltworks which bring in considerable summes of money to the duke of Lunenbourg the Stathouse and Churches in one of which I saw a communion table of pure ducat gold From thence I went into the Province of of Holstein and at a small sea port called Termond of which I spake before I embarked for Sweden He that hath read in the histories of this last age the great exploits of Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedes perhaps may have a fancy that it must be an excellent Countrey which hath bredsuch warriours but if he approach it he will soon find himself undeceived Entering into Sweedland at a place called Landsort wee sailed forwards amongst high rocks having no other prospect from Land but mountains till wee came to Dollers which is about four Swedish that is twenty four English miles from Stockholm the capitall citie of the Kingdome upon my comeing a shore I confess I was a litle surprised to see the poverty of the people and the litle wooden houses they lived in not unlike Soldiers huts in a leaguer but much more when I discovered litle else in the Countrey but mountanous rocks and standing lakes of water The Reader will excuse mee I hope if I remarke not all that I may have taken notice of in this Countrey seing by what I have already written he may perceive that my designe is rather to observe the manner of the inhabitants living then to give a full description of every thing that may be seen in the Countrey they live in However I shall say somewhat of that too having premised once for all that the ordinary people are wretchedly poor yet not so much occasioned by the Publick taxes as the barrenness of their Countrey and the oppression of the nobles their Landlords and immediate superiours who till the present King put a stop to their violences tyrannically domineered over the lives and fortunes of the poor peasants From Dollers I took waggon to Stockholm changing horses three times by the way by reason of the badness of the rode on all hands environed with rocks that hardly open so much as here and there to leave a shred of plain ground At two miles distance upon that rode the citie of Stockholme looks great becaus of the Kings palace the houses of Noblemen and some Churches which are seated upon rocks and indeed the whole citie and suburbs stand upon rocks unless it be some few houses built upon ground gained from the rivers that run throw the town Stockholme has its name from a stock or logg of wood which three brothers threw into the water five miles above the city making a vow that where ever that stock should stop they would build a
castle to dwell in The stock stopt at the Holme or rock where the palace of the King now stands and the brothers to be as good as their word there built their castle which invited others to doe the like so that in process of time the other rocks or holmes were covered with buildings which at length became the capital citie of the Kingdome It is now embellished with a great many Stately houses and much emproved from what it was 400 yeares agoe as indeed most cities are for the Stathouse then built is so contemtible and low that in Holland or England it would not be suffered to stand to disgrace the nation The Council Chamber where the Burgemaster and Raedt sit is two rooms cast into one not above nine foot high and the two rooms where the sheriffs and the Erve colledge which is a Judicature like to the Doctors Commons in England sit are not above eight foot and a halfe high The Kings Palace is a large square of stone building in some places very high but an old and irregular fabrick without a sufficient quantitie of ground about it for gardens and walks It was anciently surrounded with water but some yeares since part of it was filled up to make a way from the castlegate down into the old town In this Palace there are large rooms but the lodgings of the King Queen and Royall familie are three pair of stairs high the rooms in the first and second story 's being destin'd for the Senat Chamber and other courts of Judicature The Kings library is four pair of stairs high being a room about fourty six foot square with a closet adjoyning to it not half the dimensions When I considered the appartments and furniture of this Court I began to think that the French Author wrote truth who in his Remarks upon Swedland sayes that when Queen Christina resigned the Crown to Carolus Gustaphus the father of this present King she disposed of the best of the furniture of the Court and gave away a large share of the Crown lands to her favorites in so much that the King considering the poor condition she had left the Kingdome in and seeing the Court so meanely furnished said that had he know'n before he accepted the Crown what then he did he would have taken other measures There are many other Stately palaces in Stockholme belonging to the nobilitie but many of them for want of repairs and not being inhabited run to ruine severall of the nobles who lived in them formerly having lost the estates that maintained their ancient splendour as wee shall see hereafter being retired unto a Countrey life There are also some other magnificent structures begun but not finished as that Stately building intended for a Parliament house for the nobles and two or three Churches but what I most wonder at is the vault wherein the late King lies buried is not as yet covered but with boards for it is to he observed that the Kings of Sweeden have no tombs and monuments as in England and other Countries but are put into copper coffins with inscriptions on them and placed one by another in vaults adjoyning to the Gray Friers Church These vaults are about Eight in number having turets over them with vains of Copper gilt carved into the ciphers of the severall Kings who give them their names by being the first that are interred in them The vault of the late King is not yet finished no more then the fabricks above mentioned which perhaps may be imputed to the late troubles of Swedland The number of the inhabitants of Stockholme are also much decreased within these few yeares partly by reason of the removal of the Court of Admiraltie and the Kings Ships from that citie to Charles-crown a new haven lately made about 200 English miles from thence which hath draw'n many families belonging to the fleet and Admiralitie from Stockholme to live there and partly becaus many of the nobilitie gentry and those that depended on them are as I said before withdraw'n from Stockholme to a retired life in the Countrey Nevertheless the ordinary sort of Bourghers who still remain are extreamly poor seing the women are fain to worke like horses drawing carts and as labourers in England serving masons and bricklayers with stone bricks and mortar and unloading vessells that bring those materials some of the poor creatures in the summertime toyling in their smocks without either shoes or stockings They performe also the part of watermen and for a small matter will row passengers 40 miles or more if they please The Court here is very thin and silent the King living frugally seldome dining in publick He eats commonly with the two Queens his mother and consort who is a virtuous Princess sister to the King of Denmark She is the mother of five Children three sons and two daughters with whom she spends most of her time in retirement The King is a goodly Prince whom God hath blessed and endowed with accomplishments far beyond what might have been expected from his education wherein he was extreamly abused being taught litle more than his mother tongue He is gracious Just and valiant constant at his devotion and utterly averse from all kind of debauchery and the unfashionable vanities of other courts in playes and danceing His Sports are hunting and exerciseing of his guards and he rarely appeares publickly or gives audience to strangers which is imputed to his sense of the neglect of his education He is a Prince that hath had a very hard beginning in the world which hath many times proved fortunate to great men and indeed if wee consider all the circumstances of his early misfortunes how he was slighted and neglected by his nobles who would hardly vouchsase to pay him a visit when he was among them in the Countrey or to doe him homage for the lands they held of the Crown and how by the Pernicious councels of the French and the weakeness or treachery of his governours he was misled into a war that almost cost him his Crown having lost the best of his territories in Germany and Schonen and most of his forces both by sea and land If I say these things be considered it will probably appeare that hardly any Prince before him hath in a shorter time or more fully setled the Authority and prerogative of the Crown then he hath done in Sweden for which he stands no wayes obliged to France as he was for the restauration of what he lost during the war He is now as absolute as the French King and makes Edicts which have the force of Laws with out the concurrence of the Estates of the Kingdome He hath erected two Iudicatures the one called the colledge of Reduction and the other of inspections the first of which hath put his Majesty in possession again of all lands alienated from the Crown and the other called to account all persons even the heires and executors of those who had
is commonly high drinking the Pape or Parson is master of the Ceremonies And here give mee leave to tell a short story of one of them A Pape comeing to Christen a Child in a Church and finding a Scottish man to be Godfather was so transported either with Zeal or his cups that when he came to exorcise the Child which is a rite used in their Office of Administring that Sacrament He neglected the forme prescribed by the liturgie and in an extemporary prayer begg'd that the devill might depart out of the Child and enter into that Scottish Heretick for so they call the Presbyterians of that nation The prayer of the Pape so incensed the Scot that he vowed revenge and watched the Pape with a good cudgell next day as he crossed the Church yard where he beat him and left him all in blood lying on the ground and crying out murder For this fact the Scot was had before the Justice who asking him how he durst be so bold as to lay his profane hands upon the man of God He who knew very well what use to make of the devill he had got foaming at the mouth and cunningly acting the demoniack made answer that the Pape might thank himself for what he had met with for since he had conjured the devill into him he spared no body neither wife nor Children nor would he spare the Justice himself and with that sell a mangling and tearing the Magistrat that he was fain to betake himself to his heeles crying out O! the devill save mee and so the Scot marched home no man daring to lay hold on him for fear of being torn to peeces by the devill But the Justice recollecting himself sent for the Pape told him that the Scot was a cunning rogue and bid him goe home get a plaister for his head and be silent least if the matter came to the Bishops ears he might be censured for goeing against the rubrick of the liturgie The famous Universitie where their Clergy are bred is Vpsall eight Swedish miles from Stockholme There are commonly 150 or 200 Students there but no endowed colledges as in other Counrries The library is so meane and contemptible that the libraries of many Grammar Schools and of privat men in England or Holland are far better stored with books then it is Upon viewing of it and that of the Kings Palace I called to mind the saying of a French man upon the like occasion That Swedland came behind France and England in the knowledge of men and things at least 800 yeares yet some Swedes have been so conceited of the antiquity of their Countrey as to bragg that Paradice was seated in Sweden that the Countrey was turned into such heaps of rocks for the rebellion of our first parents and that Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel in a Countrey three Swedish miles distant from Vpsall A French man standing by and hearing this Romantick story as I was told fitted him with the like telling him that when the world was made in six days at the end of the creation all the Rubbish that remained was throw'n together into a corner which made up Sweden and Norway And indeed the French seeme to have no great likeing to the Countrey what ever kindness they may have for the people for a French Ambassadour as an author of that Countrey relates being by order of Queen Christina treated in a Countrey house 4 Swedish miles from Stockholme and upon the rode goeing and comeing with all the varieties and pleasures that the Countrey could affoard on purpose to make him have a good opinion of the same made answere to the Queen who asked him upon his return what he thought of Sweden that were he master of the whole Countrey he would presently sell it buy a farme in France or England which under favour I think was a litle tart and sawcy Having stayed a considerable time in Swedland and most part at Stockholme I set out from thence to goe to Elsenbourg by land and went a litle out of my way to see a small city called Eubrone famous for a coat of Arms which it got in this manner A certain Masculine Queen of Denmark who had conquered a great part of Sweden comeing to this city asked the Magistrates what was the Arms of their city who having told her that they had none she plucked up her coats and squatting upon the Snow bid them take the marke she left there for their Arms It 's pity she did not give them a suitable motto to it also What that figure is called in blazonerie I know not but to this day the city uses it in their Armes and for marking their commodities This Queen came purposely into Sweden to pay a visit to a brave woman that opposed a King of Swedland who in a time of famine would have put to death all the men and women in his Countrey above sixty years of age The Countrey all the way I travelled in Swedland is much of the same qualitie of the land about Stockholme untill I came neare the Province of Schonen which is called the store house and Kitchin of Sweden where the Countrey is far better It was formerly very dangerous to travell in this Province of Schonen becaus of the Snaphances who were a kind of bloody robbers now utterly destroyed by the King so that it is safe enough travelling there Entering into Schonen I saw twenty nine of these rogues upon wheeles and elsewhere in the Countrey ten and twenty at severall places The King used great severitie in destroying of them some he caused to be broken upon the wheele others spceted in at the fundament and out at the shoulders many had the flesh pinched off of there breasts and so were fastened to stakes till they died and others again had their noses and both hands cut off and being seared with a hot Iron were let goe to acquaint their camerades how they had been served The King is very severe against Highway-men and duellers In above a hundred miles travelling wee found not a house where there was either French wine or brandie which made mee tell a Swede of our Company who was travelling to Denmark that I would undertake to shew any man 500 houses wherein a traveller might have wine and other good accommodation in the space of an hundred miles upon any rode from London There are severall small towns and fertile land in this Countrey of Schonen lying upon the Sound at the narrowest part whereof lies Elsenbourg burnt down by the Danes in the last war Here I crost over to Elsenore the passage being but a league broad The King of Denmark has a casâ—le at Elsenore which commands the narrow passage of the Sound where all Ships that enter into or come out of the Baltick sea must pay toll Having visited this casâ—le and stai'd about a fortnight with the English Consul and Sâ— John Paul late resident at the Court of
Swedland I went to the danish Court at Coppenhaguen Copenhaguen is the capitall city of Zeeland Jutland or Denmark and place of residence of the King It stands on a flat encompassed with a pleasant and delightfull Countrey much resembling England The streets of the city are kept very neat and cleane with lights in the night time for the convenience and safetie of those who are then abroad a custome not as yet introduced into Stockholme where it is dangerous to be abroad when it is dark The Kings men of war lye here very conveniently being orderly ranged betwixt Booms after the manner of Amsterdam and neare the Admiralty house which is a large pile of building well furnished with stores and Magazines secured by a citadell that not onely commands the city but also the Haven and entrey into it The Court of Denmark is splendid and makes a far greater figure in the world then that of Sweden tho not many yeares agoe in the time of Carolus Gustaphus the father of the present King of Swedland it was almost reduced to its last when the walls of Copenhagen saved that Crown and Kingdome That siege was famous caried on with great vigour by the Swede and as bravely maintained by the Danes The monuments whereof are to be seen in the canon bullets gilt that still remain in the walls of some houses and in the steeple of the great Church of the town The Royall palace in Copenhaguen is but small and a very ancient building but his Majesties house Fredenburg is a stately fabrick of Modern Architecture and very richly furnished Denmark is at present a flourishing Kingdome and the King who hath now made it hereditary surpasses most of his predecessours in power and wealth He hath much enlarged his dominions aswell as Authority and by his personall and Royall virtues no less then the eminent qualities of a great many able ministers of State he hath gained the universall love of his subjects and the esteeme of all forreigne Princes and States The Court it much frequented every day but especially on Sundays where about eleven of the clock in the morning the Nobility forreigne Ministers and Officers of the Army assemble and make a glorious appeareance There one may see many Knights of the order of the Elephant of Malto but I never saw any order of the like nature as that of Sweden that King rarely appearing in his George and garter but on days of publick audience I have observed at one time above 150 coaches attending at the Court of Denmark which are ten times more than ever I saw together at that of Sweden The King is affable and of easy access to strangers seen often abroad by his subjects in his gardens and stables which are very large and well furnished with all sorts of Horses He is a great lover of English horses and dogs and delights much in Hunting as his eldest son the Prince with his brothers doe in cockfighting in so much that the English Merchants can not make a more acceptable present to those Princes then of English game-cocks The standing forces of Denmark are well disciplined men and commanded by good Officers both natives and strangers both French and Scots as Major General Duncan and Major General Veldâ—n both Scottishmen whom I saw at Copenhaguen The Soldiers aswell as courtiers are quartered upon the citizens a custome which is likewise practised in Sweden and tho somewhat uneasy yet not repined at by the people who by the care and good government of the King find trade much advanced For his Majestie by encouraging strangers of all religions to live in his dominions and allowing the French and dutch Calvinists to have publick Churches hath brought many tradeing families to Coppenhaguen and by the measure he hath taken for settling trade in prohibiting the importation of forreigne manufactures and reforming and new modelling the East and West India Companies hath much encreased commerce and thereby the wealth of his subjects so that notwithstanding the new taxes imposed upon all coaches waggons Ploughs and all reall and personall estates which amount to considerable summs of money the people live very well and contented There are commonly about eight thousand men in garison in Coppenhaguen and his Majesties Regiment of foot guards who are all cloathed in red with cloaks to keep them warm in the winter time is a very handsome body of men and with the horse guards who are bravely mounted and have their granadeers and Hoboyes make a very fine shew His Majestie hath caused severall new fortifications to be built upon the Elb and other rivers and hath now in his possession that strong Castle called Hilgueland at present commanded by a Scottishman The Queen of Denmark is a most virtuous Princess sister to the present Landgrave of Hessel-Cassel and in persuasion a Calvinist having a chappell allowed her within the Court though the publick religion of the King and Kingdome be Lutheran The Clergie here are learned many of them having studied at Oxford and Cambridge where they learnt the English language and amongst the Bishops there is one Doctor King the son of a Scottishman But seing it is my designe rather to observe the condition of the people then to be punctuall in describing all the rarities that are remarkeable in the Countries I have been in I shall conclude what I have to say of Denmark by acquainting the Reader that the people of that Countrey live far better then the Swedes and aswell as most of their adjoyning neighbours and that there are severall places both there and in Norway which have the names of English towns as Arundale Totness London c. When I fist began to write this treatise I had some thoughts of making observations upon the severall governments of other States and Dominions where I had travelled some years before I was in the Countries I have been speaking of as of the rest of Germany Hungary Switzerland Italy and France but that was a subject so large and the usefulness of it to my present designe so inconsiderable that by doeing so I found I could neither satisfie the curious by adding any thing materiall to those many who have already obliged the publick by the remarks of their travells in those places or make my discontented Countrey men more averse then they are already from removing into those Countries where I think few of them will chuse to transport themselves for the sake of liberty and Propertie tho England were even worse than they themselves fancy it can be All that remains to be done then is to conclude this treatise with an obvious and popular remark that those Countries where cities are greatest and most frequented by voluntary inhabitants are alwayes the best to live in and by comparing the city of London with all other cities of Europe and demonstrating by the surveys I have made which I think will hardly be contradicted or confuted that of all the capitall cities of Europe