Badrapor I left the road of Ahineli and by another way more towards the left hand went to dine under certain Trees near a small Village of four Houses which they call Bamanen coppa After dinner we continu'd our way and foarded a River call'd Irihalè not without being wet by reason of the smallness of my Horse and having travell'd near two Gau's one Gau consists of two Cos and is equivalent to two Portugal Leagues we lodg'd at night in a competent Town the name whereof is Dermapora In these Towns I endeavor'd to procure me a servant as well because I understood not the Language of the Country for though he that carry'd my Goods could speak Portugal yet he could not well serve me for an Interpreter because being by Race a Pulià which amongst them is accounted vile and unclean they would not suffer him to come into their Houses nor touch their things though they were not shie of me albeit of a different Religion because they look'd upon me as a Man of noble Race as for that I found much trouble in reference to my dyet For these Indians are extreamly fastidious in edibles there is neither flesh nor fish to be had amongst them one must be contented onely with Rice Butter or Milk and other such inanimate things wherewith nevertheless they make no ill-tasted dishes but which is worse they will cook every thing themselves and will not let others either eat or drink in their vessels wherefore instead of dishes they gave us our victuals in great Palm leavs which yet are smooth enough and the Indians themselves eat more frequently in them then in any other vessels Besides one must entreat them three hours for this and account it a great favor so that in brief to travel in these Countries requires a very large stock of patience The truth is 't is a most crafty invention of the Devil against the Charity so much preach'd by our Lord Jesus Christ to put it so in the heads of these people that they are polluted and become unclean even by touching others of a different Religion of which superstition they are so rigorous observers that they will sooner see a person whom they account vile and unclean though a Gentile dye then go near him to relieve him November the four and twentieth In the Morning before day the Brachman Nangasà and the Ambassador's other Men being in haste advanc'd before but I desirous to go more at my own ease remain'd alone with my Pulià and the Hackney-master as I might well enough do since the High-ways of Naieka's Country are very secure The road lay over pleasant clifts of Hills and through Woods many great streams likewise occurring I descended the Mountain Gat by a long precipice some of which I was fain to walk a foot my Horse having fallen twice without any disaster and by a third fall almost broke my Knee to pieces I din'd after I had travelled one Gau and a half in a good Town called Colùr where there is a great Temple the Idol whereof if I mis-understood not is the Image of a Woman the place is much venerated and many resort to it from several parts in Pilgrimage After dinner my Horse being tired I travelled not above half another Gau and having gone in all this day but two Gau's went to lodg at a certain little village which they said was called Nalcà l Certain Women who dwelt there alone in absence of their Husbands courteously gave us lodging in the uncovered Porches of their Houses and prepared supper for us This Country is inhabited not onely with great Towns but like the Mazandran in Persia with abundance of Houses scattered here and there in several places amongst the woods The people live for the most part by sowing of Rice their way of Husbandry is to overflow the soil with water which abounds in all places but they pay as they told me very large Tributes to the King so that they have nothing but the labour for themselves and live in great Poverty November the twenty fifth I travelled over great Mountains and Woods like the former and foarded many deep Rivers Having gone three Cos we din'd in two Houses of those people who sow Rice whereof the whole Country is full at a place call'd Kelidi In the Evening my Pulià being very weary and unable to carry the heavy load of my baggage further we stay'd at some of the like Houses which they call'd Kabnà r about a mile forwards so that the journey of this whole day amounted not to a full Gau. November the twenty sixth I pass'd over clifts of Hills and uneeven and woody places At noon I came to a great River on the Northern bank whereof stands a little village nam'd Gulvari near which the River makes a little Island We went to this Island by boat and foarded over the other stream to the far side Thence we came by a short cut to Barselòr call'd the Higher i. e. within Land belonging to the Indians and subject to Venk-tapà Naieka to difference it from the Lower Barselòr at the Sea-coast belonging to the Portugals For in almost all Territories of India near the Sea-coast there happens to be two places of the same Name one call'd the Higher or In-land belonging to the Natives the other the Lower near the Sea to the Portugals where-ever they have footing Entring the Higher Barselòr on this side I came into a fair long broad and strait Street having abundance of Palmeto's and Gardens on either hand The soil is fruitful and well peopled encompass'd with weak walls and ditches which are pass'd over by bridges of one or two very great stones which shew that there is good and fair Marble here whether they were dig'd thus out of the Quarry or are the remains of ancient Fabricks It stands on the South side of the River which from the Town Gulvà n fetches a great circuit seeming to return backwards and many Travellers without touching at the Upper Barselòr are wont to go to the Lower Barselòr by boat which is soon done but I was desirous to see both places and therefore came hither Having din'd and rested a good while in Higher Barselòr I took boat and row'd down the more Southern stream for a little below the said Town it is divided into many branches and forms divers little fruitful Islands About an hour and half before night I arriv'd at the Lower Barselòr of the Portugals which also stands on the Southern bank of the River distant two good Cannon-shot from the mouth of the Sea having travell'd this day in all one Gau and a half The Fort of the Portugals is very small built almost in form of a Star having no bad walls but wanting ditches in a Plain and much expos'd to all sort of assaults Such Portugals as are married have Houses without the Fort in the Town which is prety large and hath good buildings I went directly to the House of Sig
this day driven out 't is subject to Venk-tapà Naieka A Musket-shot without Mangalòr on that side is a small River which is pass'd over by a ruinous stone bridg and may likewise be forded 't is the boundary of the Portugals jurisdiction The above-said mile is through cultivated fields and then you come to Banghel which is a rich soil and sometimes better peopled then at present whence the Houses are poor Cottages of earth and straw It hath been but one strait street of good length with Houses and Shops continu'd on both sides and many other sheds dispers'd among the Palme-to's The King's House stood upon a rais'd ground almost like a Fort but is now wholly destroy'd so that there is nothing left standing but the posts of the Gate for when Venk-tapà Naieka took this Territory he demolish'd what-ever was strong in it The Bazà r or Market-place remains although not so stor'd with goods as it was in the time of its own King yet it affords what is necessary and much Areca or Fofel whereof they make Merchandize sending the same into divers parts that of this place being better then others here are also in the Bazà r some Gold-smiths who make knives and cizzers adorn'd with Silver very cheap and other like toys of which I bought some and having seen all that was to be seen return'd on foot as I came though somewhat late to Mangalòr December the second This Morning I went to see Olaza which is about the same distance from Mangalòr as Banghel is but the contrary way towards the South and stands on the other side of a great River which was to be pass'd over by boat The Queen was not here and seldom is but keeps her Court commonly in another place more within land yet I would not omit to see Olaza the rather because in the Portugal Histories it gives name to that Queen as being that Land of hers which is nearest and best known to the Portugals and perhaps the richest and fruitfullest which she now enjoyes I found it to be a fat soil the City lying between two Seas to wit the Main-sea and the Bay upon an arm of Land which the Port incloses so that the situation is not onely pleasant but might also be made very strong if it were in the hands of people that knew how to do it It is all open saving on one side towards the mouth of the Haven between the one Sea and the other where there is drawn a weak wall with a ditch and two inconsiderable bastions The Bazà r is indifferent and besides necessaries for provisions affords abundance of white and strip'd linnen cloth which is made in Olaza but course such as the people of that Country use At the Towns end is a very pleasant Grove and at the end thereof a great Temple handsomely built for this Country and much esteem'd Olaza is inhabited confusedly both by Gentiles who burn themselves and also by Malabar-Moors About a mile off Southwards stands the Royal House or Palace amongst the above-said Groves where the Queen resides when she comes hither sometimes 'T is large enclos'd with a wall and trench but of little moment In the first entrance it hath a Gate with an open Porch where the Guard is to stand and within that a great void place like a very large Court on the far side whereof stands the House whose inside I saw not because the Court was not there yet for this place it seem'd to have something of wild Majesty behind it joyns to a very thick wood serving both for delight and security in time of necessity The way from the Palace to the City is almost wholly beset with Houses Having seen as much as I desir'd I stay'd not to dine but return'd to Mangalòr there being always a passage-boat ready to carry people backwards and forwards December the third Arriving not timely enough to hear Mass in the Church Del Rosario I went to San Francesco where I heard Mass and a tolerably good Sermon made by an old Father call'd Francesco dos Neves In the Evening I prepar'd to go to see the Queen of Olaza at her Court which was the design of this litle peregrination And not finding Sig Paolo Sodrino my friend at Mangalòr I was help'd to a boat by Sig Luis Gomes a Native of Cananòr but who had liv'd long at Mangalòr I went up the River which comes from the Territories of Olaza but another more Northern different from the above-mention'd little one over which I pass'd by a bridg to Banghel and falling into the Port of Mangalòr I took with me also a Brachman call'd Narsù a Native of Mangalòr to serve me for an Interpreter with the Queen although my Christian Servant spoke the Language well partly that I might have more persons with me to serve me and partly because the Bachman being a Gentile known and vers'd in this Court might be more serviceable to me in many things than my own Servant so having provided what was needful and prepar'd victuals to dine with upon the River by the way which is somewhat long I determin'd to set forth the next Morning December the fourth Before day-light I took boat at Mangalòr in which there were three Water-men two of which row'd at the Prow and one at the Poop with a broad Oar which serv'd both for an Oare and a Helm Having pass'd by Bronghel we enter'd into the great Northern River in which on the left hand is a place where passage-boats laden with Merchandize pay a Tole to the Ministers of Venk-tapà Naieka to whom the circumjacent Region is subject Rowing a great way against the stream the water whereof for a good space is salt at length we stay'd to dine at a Town call'd Salè inhabited for the most part by Moors and situate on the right bank as you go up the River This Town with others round it is subject to an Indian-Gentile Lord call'd Ramo Rau who in all hath not above 2000 Pay-gods of yearly Revenew of which he payes about 800. to Venk-tapà Naieka to whom he is Tributary Nevertheless he wears the Title of King and they call him Omgin Arsù that is King of Omgiù which is his chief place Having din'd and rested a while we continu'd our Voyage and after a good space enter'd into the State of the Queen of Oloza to whom the Country on either side the River belongs The River is here very shallow so that though our boat was but small yet in many places we struck against the ground at length about Evening we arriv'd at Manèl so they call the place where the Queen of Olaza now resides which is onely a Street of a few Cottages or Sheds rather then Houses but the Country is open fair and fruitful inhabited by abundance of little Houses and Cottages here and there of Husband-men besides those united to the great Street call'd the Bazà r or Market all which are comprehended under the name of Manèl
with abundance of little canes sometimes whitish with salt and sometimes cover'd with thickets of Shrubs Iune the twenty second We travell'd again till Noon and as we were reposing in these Plains which were all cover'd with small dry grass a little sparkle falling from some of the Cameliers who according to their custom stood sucking the smoke of Tobacco set this grass on fire and the flame increas'd so suddenly that we had much ado to save our Goods from burning but at length we extinguish't it by casting cloths and thick coverings upon it for water the place afforded none and we had only enough for drink Departing thence two or three hours before night we quarter'd in another place call'd Ehathuer where two or three men whom we met with their laden Camels inform'd us that the great Cafila which went so many days before us from Bassora had incounter'd many difficulties and was stopt by Emir Nasir who besides taking a great sum of money from them also constrain'd many of the people to go to Mesched Hhussein to fight with the Qizilbasci with whom he was now at enmity in which conflict which prov'd little successful to the Arabians the chief Leader of the Cafila was slain his Son succeeding him in his Charge with other like news which made me doubt of the good estate of our Francks who went along with that Cafila Iune the twenty third the twenty fourth and the twenty fifth We travelled and rested at our usual hours during which dayes we had the Iland Geuazir of the Chaldean Lake on our right hand and on the last of them we reposed at a place wherein grew certain low and thin plants which to me seemed to be Juniper Iune the twenty sixth We travelled from day-break till two hours before Noon and then rested near certain Pits where we had on the right hand afar off Mesched-Ali the place where anciently stood the City of Kufa and where Ali the Son-in-law of Mahhammed was slain the name Mesched-Ali signifying the place of the Martyrdom of Ali whom they hold a Martyr And though the City of Kufa is no longer in being yet upon account of the said Sepulchre venerated by Mahometans and adorned with a noble Fabrick the place is frequented and inhabited when we passed by it was in the power of the Qizilbasci whereas it used to be in that of the Turks whilst they were Masters of Baghdad From hence we continued our Journey till two hours within night Iune the twenty seventh We set forth by day-light and at Noon rested near a water which rising out of the ground runs under a thicket of Canes where we stayed all day The next day setting forth and resting at our accustomed hours we passed over many dry Lakes which seem'd to have had water in them at some time of the year Iune the nine and twentieth Two or three hours before Noon we rested by a water near the ruines of an ancient great Fabrick perfecty square with thirteen Pillastres or round Columns on each side without and other compartiments of Arches within which were many Chambers with a Court of no great bigness and uncover'd The Arabians call this Fabrick Casr Chaider I could not conjecture whether it had been a Pallace or Temple or Castle but I incline to believe it a Palace rather then any thing else In this place we had within half a dayes journey on the Right Hand Mesched-Hhussein which signifies the place of the Martyrdom of Hhussein and where Hhussan the Son of Ali and Muhhammed's Daughter was slain and buried by his Emulators which place in the Country call'd Kierbela being inhabited and adornd with the said Sepulchre which the Moors visit as Holy a very sumptuous Fabrick after their mode was now in the Hands of the Qizilbasci into which it fell with the other Territories of Baghdad which is but a little distant from thence Here we stay'd to pay a Gabel to Emir Nasirben-Mahhanna Lord of these Desarts or rather to Sceich Abitaleb his Son for Sceich Nasir being now old and devoted to a Spiritual Life as he that had been in pilgrimage at Meka had resign'd the Government to his Son and both of them were now remaining in Tents about a League from the place where we rested towards the North-East Iune the thirtieth In the Morning the two Capigi's that were in our company went separately to carry their Letters and Presents from the Serdar to the Sceich namely Ibrahim Aga to the present and Mahhmud Aga to the preceding Serdar who as they said was poyson'd either by others or by himself for fear of worse because he had not been diligent enough in the war of Baghdad yet this his Capigi having been sent to several other places could not come hither sooner to the Sceich After dinner in the absence of the Capigi the Sceich's Men came to demand a Gabel and after I had pay'd them as much as they requir'd to wit twelve Piastres for onely two Chests and two or three more Piastres of free-gift nevertheless they open'd all my Trunks breaking some for haste turning all things topsie-turvy and taking away for the Sceich and themselves some things of value which they lik'd a rich Persian Turbant of Silk and God a piece of fine checker'd Silk to make Cassocks withall after the Persian Mode many dishes of rare Porcellane beautifi'd with Gold and colours an Harquebuse belonging to my Servant much curious Paper of Iapan and India besides many other toyes which I remembâ—r not telling me that they would buy them notwithstanding that I told them that they were not things to be sold but onely such as I carry'd for my own use and service Moreover they made me by force that is refusing to hear any of my Reasons to the contrary but saying that the Sceich commanded so though in truth I ought not pay twenty Piastres to my chief Camelier their Friend alledging that the same were for the Guide which he would have hired at Cuvebeda which Guide I neither hir'd nor made use of and if I had I ought to have pay'd onely half at most the said Camelier having other Carriages besides mine and all of Merchandize But they were resolv'd to do a kindness to the Camelier who was an Arabian and a Thief like themselves and gave not this money to any Guide but kept it for his own use Hereby the Readers may observe how we Christians are us'd by these Barbarians in their own jurisdictions At length they would have taken for the Sceich a Sword and Changiar or Arabian Ponyard the hilts and garniture whereof were Silver-gilt and which belong'd sometimes to Sitti Maani my Wife Whereupon being no longer able to suffer so many insolencies I resolv'd to go to the Sceich my self and present him a Letter from the Basha of Bassora which he had writ to him in commendation of me Accordingly leaping upon a Mule of Aga's who was already return'd and highly angry with the
are so extremly hot as that the wind when it blows but gently receives such heat from the parched ground that the reflection thereofis ready to blister a Man's Face that receives the breath of it And if God did not provide for those parts by sending a breeze or breath or small gale of wind daily which some-what tempers that hot sulphureous Air there were no living in that Torrid Zone for us English who have been used to breathe in a temperate Climate and notwithstanding that benefit the Air in that place is so hot to us English that we should be every day stewed in our own moisture but that we stir very little in the heat of the day and have cloathing about us as thin as we can make it And no marvel for the coldest day in the whole year at noon unless it be in the time when those Rains fall is hotter there then the hottest day in England Yet I have there observed most strange and sudden changes of heat and cold within few hours as in November and December the most temperate months of their year as before and then at mid-night the Air was so exceeding fresh and cold that it would produce a thin Ice on the water and then as we lay in our Tents we would have been very glad of the warmth of a Rugg upon us and the noon of that following day would be so extream hot as that it was troublesom then to keep on the thinnest cloathing Sometimes there the wind blows very high in those hot and dry seasons not long before the Rain begins to fall raising up into the Air a very great height thick Clouds of Dust and Sand which appear like dark Clouds full of moisture but they deceive like the brook in Iob Iob 6. 15. that hath no water in it These dry showers which Almighty God threatens to send among a people as an heavy judgement Deut. 28. 24. When he will make the Rain of a Land powder and dust most grievously annoy all those amongst whom they fall enough to smite them all with a present blindness filling their Eyes Ears Nostrils and their Mouths are not free if they be not also well guarded searching every place as well within as without our Tents or Houses so that there is not a little key-hole of any Trunk or Cabinet if it be not covered but receives some of that dust into it the dust forced to find a lodging any where every where being so driven and forced as it is by the extream violence of the wind But there is no place nor Country under Heaven nor yet ever hath been without some discommodities The Garden of Eden had a Serpent in it Gen. 3. He that made all things by his Absolute Command hath so mixed and tempered and ordered all things here below by his infinite Wisdom that either too much Heat or too much Cold either the barrenness of the Soyl or the unwholsomness of the Air or some thing else ministers matter of exception more or less against every place that the Sons of Men might hence learn that there is no true and perfect content to be found in any Kingdom but in that of Heaven For while we are here trouble and peace mourning and joy comfort and discontent come all of them by courses and succescessions so that there is no weeding up of those Tares no removing of those Annoyances from the Life of Man And so having observed what is Truth and what is enough to be said of the Inconveniences and Annoyances as well as of the Commodities and Contentments which are to be found in those parts I come now to speak of the People that inhabit there And because many particulars will necessarily fall within the compass of this part of my Observatious which would more weary my Reader if they should be presented unto him in one continued Discourse I shall therefore as I have begun break this into Sections and proceed to speak SECTION V. Of the Inhabitants of East-India who they are Of their most excellent Ingenuity expressed by their curious Manufactures their Markets at Home to buy and sell in and their Trade abroad THe Inhabitants in general of Indostan were all anciently Gentiles called in general Hindoes belonging to that very great number of those which are called Heathens which take up almost two thirds of the number of the People who inhabit the face of the whole Earth But of this more hereafter There are some Iews but they are not many here and there scattered and lost as it were in those other great numbers of People the greatest company of Iews now to be found together in any one place of the world as I have been made to believe from the observation of others are to be seen at Grand Cairo in Egypt whither they are returned and where setled to take their fill of their fore-Fathers Flesh-pots For the Inhabitants of East-India ever since they were subdued by Tamberlain they have been mixed with Mahumetans which though they be by farr in respect of their number less than those Pagans yet they bear all the sway and command all in those Countries There are besides these now become as it were Natives there a great number of Persians and Tartars who are Mahumetans by Religion that there inhabit very many of which the Mogol keeps for Souldiers to serve on Horse-back called there Haddees There are of both these many daring stout hardy and valiant Men. For the Persians there are many of them comely Persons not so swart as those of East-India But for the Tartars I have there seen and I have seen many of them they are more to be commended for their Valour than Beauty a square stout strong People having platter Faces and flat Noses There are many Armenians and some Abissins amongst them who wear the Livery of Christ in being called Christians the greatest part of whose Christianity lies in their Name Those Armenians there make some wine to sell of Raisons Sugar and other ingredients that is strong and heady and luscious tasted too much by many Christians that come thither as by those too that make it Of the green Grapes there though they have abundance and they great and sweet and good yet they make no Wine at all The Mahumetans in obedience to a Precept of Mahumets which forbids Wine neither make nor drink it and others are not suffered there to make it of those green Grapes for fear as I suppose they should make and drink too much of it To those I have named of other Nations that are to be seen in East-India there are besides some few almost of every people in Asia and many Europeans of divers parts that use to stir from their own fires to be found amongst them and among that great variety of People and Nations there to be observed I have taken special notice of divers Chinesaas and Japanesaas there and those I have seen of them for the generality are
the wind which was pretty stiff although not much favourable to our course However we went onwards plying from the coast of Arabia to that of Persia and on Saturday morning as we drew near the Arabian shore we saw three small Islands situate near one another and not far from a certain Cape the name of which and the Islands they could not tell me so as that I might set it down truly whereby I perceiv'd how it comes to pass that many names of places in these parts are very corruptly written in Geographical Charts for in the Countries themselves where commerce is had for the most part with rude and ignorant people few of them know how to pronounce the same aright On Sunday we went from our Ship to recreate our selves in the Dolphin our companion where the Captain entertain'd us liberally all day In the mean time we had a good fresh gale and sailing directly in the middle of the gulf we beheld both the coasts of Arabia Felix and Persia and in the latter discern'd a famous white Rock which standing in the midst of a low sandy shore looks like a little hill made by hand We pass'd the Cape which they call in Persian Com barick that is small sand and the next night we left behind us the point or peak of Giasck On Monday the Sea being calm the Captain and I were standing upon the deck of our ship discoursing of sundry matters and he took occasion to shew me a piece of a Horn which he told me himself had found in the year 1611. in a Northern Country whither he then sail'd which they call Greenland lying in the latitude of seventy six degrees He related how he found this horn in the earth being probably the horn of some Animal dead there and that when it was intire it was between five and six feet long and seven inches in circumference at the root where it was thickest The piece which I saw for the horn was broken and sold by pieces in several places was something more then half a span long and little less then five inches thick the colour of it was white inclining to yellow like that of Ivory when it is old it was hollow and smooth within but wreath'd on the outside The Captain saw not the Animal nor knew whether it were of the land or the sea for according to the place where he found it it might be as well one as the other but he believ'd for certain that it was of a Unicorn both because the experience of its being good against poyson argu'd so much and for that the signes attributed by Authors to the Unicorn's horn agreed also to this as he conceiv'd But herein I dissent from him inasmuch as if I remember aright the horn of the Unicorn whom the Greeks call'd Monoceros is by Pliny describ'd black and not white The Captain added that it was a report that Unicorns are found in certain Northern parts of America not far from that Country of Greenland and so not unlikely but that there might be some also in Greenland a neighbouring Country and not yet known whether it be Continent or Island and that they might sometimes come thither from the contiguous lands of America in case it be no Island This Country of Greenland is of late discovery and the first Christian that discover'd it or went thither was this Captain Woodcock in the year above-mention'd and he gave it the name of Greenland upon this account because whereas the other Northern Countries thereabouts are destitute of grass whence the white Bears and Wolves which inhabit them live upon dead Whales and other like things he found this green and full of Grass although it be always cover'd over with Snow so that when the Animals there mind to feed they hollow the snow with their feet and easily find the grass which is kept continually fresh under the same The English now yearly sail thither where they take abundance of Whales and some so vast that when they open the mouth the wideness is above three Geometrical paces or fifteen foot over Of these Whales the English make Oyle drawing it onely out of the fat of their paunch and they make such plenty that out of one single Whale they say they often get 19 20 and 21 Tun of Oyl This Greenland by what Captain Woodcock saw who discover'd it from the end of seventy six degrees to seventy eight and a half the cold not suffering him to go further was un-inhabited he not having found any person there but only wild beasts of many sorts The Company of the Greenland Merchants of England had the horn which he found because Captains of ships are their stipendiaries and besides their salary must make no other profit of their Voyages but whatever they gain or find in case it be known and they conceal it not all accrues to the Company that employes them When the Horn was intire it was sent to Constantinople to be sold where two thousand pounds Sterling was offer'd for it But the English Company hoping to get a greater rate sold it not at Constantinople but sent it into Muscovy where much about the same price was bidden for it which being refus'd it was carry'd back into Turkey and fell of its value a much less sum being now proffer'd then before Hereupon the Company conceiv'd that it would sell more easily in pieces then intire because few could be found who would purchase it at so great a rate Accordingly they broke it and it was sold by pieces in sundry places yet for all this the whole proceed amounted onely to about twelve hundred pounds Sterling And of these pieces they gave one to the Captain who found it and this was it which he shew'd me On the 25. of Ianuary sailing in the main Sea with the prow of the Ship South East and by East and as I conceive at a good distance from the Country of Macran which I conjecture to be part either of the ancient Caramania or else of Gedrosia and at this day having a Prince of its own lyes upon the Sea Coast between the States of the Persian and those of the Moghol we discern'd behind us three or four Ships which seem'd to be Frigots or Galliots but towards Evening we lost sight of them The same day and the other before began to be seen in the Sea abundance of certain things which I took to be Snakes or at least fishes in the form of Snakes being exactly of the form of large Eeles long and round and according to the motion of the water seem'd crooked as they floated along the Sea Nevertheless demanding of intelligent persons what they were I understood that they were neither those Animals nor yet living things but onely a kind of excrement of the Sea in that shape void of all motion saving what the agitated water gave it although by reason of the motion of the ship they seem'd to move contrary to us
no knowledge of these marvellous rains which render it not onely habitable but also fertile and most delitious Now for that the Country is in some parts so scarce of water many Cities and inhabited places have no other but the rain-water gather'd in these great Cisterns which are so capacious that one of them suffices a City for a whole year and more And it not onely affords drink to men and animals but also they wash clothes and beasts in it when occasion requires and make use of it to all purposes whereby it comes to pass that in some places the water they have is not over clear and the rude Indians care not for such delicacies but 't is enough for them if they have what is barely needful The Cistern or Lake of Surà t hath a great Trench adjoyn'd to it on one side long large and deep over which certain small bridges are built and it falls into another less Cistern a good way off which though but small here comparatively would yet be a very large one in our parts 't is built with many sides of stone like the former as also the banks of the Trench are Between the great Lake and the less upon the Trench stands a small Cupola or arched Structure made for the sepulture of some principal Mahometans of the Country and as they say of two brethren who kill'd one the other and of their Wives 'T is no long time since this Cistern was made according to the common report by a private man of this City but sufficiently wealthy whose Daughter they say or rather one descended from him is still living and I know not by what sinister hap of fortune very poor so that she hath scarce bread to eat Wherein I observ'd a great ingratitude of the Citizens of Surà t in suffering his heir to want food who for their publick benefit had been at so great expence This Poole of Surà t is call'd Gopi Telau that is the Poole of Gopi which was his name who made it at his own charge And although the King who in those dayes rul'd over Guzarà t did what he could to have it call'd after his own name yet that of the Builder has been justly retain'd by the vulgar and remains to this day 'T is not improbable that this Gopi who made this Piscina of Surà t is the same whom Giovanni di Barros in his second Decade of Asia frequently mentions with the title of Melik and relates to have been in those times a little above a hundred years ago a great friend to the Portugals styling him often Lord of Barocci and once in the last book Lord of Surà t but I rather believe that he was onely Governour of either of these Cities under the then Mahometan Kings of Cambaia as he speaks that is of Guzarà t of which Province Cambaia is a principal and in a manner the Maritine City more known then the rest to the Portugals by trade whence they have given its name to the whole Kingdome although not Cambaia but Ahmedabà d more within land is properly the Royal Seat 'T is therefore possible that Melik Gopi mention'd by Barros made this Cistern when he was Governour of Surà t it being the work and expence of such a person Nor do the vulgar mistake in saying that he was a private man since under the Mahometan Princes who never allow any hereditary Lord in their Territories the Governours of their Cities and all other Ministers whom they choose indifferently out of all sorts of people and not seldome out of the lowest plebeians and are always removable at pleasure may with reason be call'd private persons although advanc'd to whatever high dignity On an other side of the City but out of the circuit of the houses in an open place is seen a great and fair Tree of that kind which I saw in the sea coasts of Persia near Ormùz called there Lul but here Ber. The Gentiles of the Country hold it in great veneration for its greatness and age visiting and honoring it often with their superstitious ceremonies as dear and dedicated to a Goddess of theirs call'd Parveti whom they hold to be the Wife of Mahadeù one of their greatest Deities On the trunk of this Tree a little above the ground they have rudely engraven a round circle which really hath not any feature of a humane countenance but according to their gross application represents that of their Idol This face they keep painted with a bright Flesh-colour and this by a sacred rite of Religion as the Romans also dy'd the face of Iupiter with Vermillion as Pliny testifies Round about it are fastned Flowers and abundance of a plant whose leaves resemble a Heart call'd here Pan but in other places of India Betle These leaves the Indians use to champ or chaw all day long either for health's sake or for entertainment and delight as some other Nations for the same reasons or rather through evil custome continually take Tobacco And therewith they mix a little ashes of sea-shels and some small pieces of an Indian Nut sufficiently common which here they call Foufel and in other places Areca a very dry fruit seeming within like perfect wood and being of an astringent nature they hold it good to strengthen the Teeth Which mixture besides its comforting the stomack hath also a certain biting taste wherewith they are delighted and as they chaw it it strangely dyes their lips and mouths red which also they account gallant but I do not because it appears not to be natural They swallow down onely the juice after long mastication and spit out the rest In Visits 't is the first thing offer'd to the visitants nor is there any society or pastime without it He that is curious to know more of it may consult the Natural Historians who have written of the exotick Simples of India particularly Garcias ab Horto Christopher Acosta Nicolaus Monardes translated all together into Latin by Carolus Clusius I shall onely add that the fame I had heard in Persia of this Indian Masticatory especially from an Italian Fryer who had been in India and told me 't was a thing not onely of great nutriment and very good for the stomack but moreover of an exquisite relish made me desirous to try it As for its other qualities I can say nothing but there is no great matter in the taste nor should I make much difference of chawing these leaves of Pan or those of our Cedars But to return to my Relation Those flowers and leaves about the Idol's face carv'd in the Tree are frequently chang'd and fresh constantly supply'd and those which at times are taken away are given as a sacred thing to the people who come from all parts to visit it In the same rude sculpture of a humane face they have put certain eyes of Silver and Gold with some jewels which were given by some persons who foolishly believ'd themselves cur'd of maladies of the eyes by virtue
harder and thicker of a very lively green being broken they send forth Milk like that of immature Figgs which is very pernicious to the flesh wherever it touches The Fields were full of Olive-trees Tamarind-trees and other such which in India are familiar About noon having travell'd twelve or as others said fourteen Cos we arriv'd at Ahmedabà d and our journey from Cambaia hither was always with our Faces towards the North East Being entred into the City which is competently large with great Suburbs we went directly to alight at the house of the English Merchants till other lodging were prepar'd for us where also we din'd with them After which we retir'd to one of the houses which stand in the street which they call Terzi Carvanserai that is the Taylers Inn. For you must know that the Carvanserai or Inns in Ahmedabà d and other great Cities of India are not as in Persia and Turkey one single habitation made in form of a great Cloyster with abundance of Lodgings round about separate one from another for quartering of strangers but they are whole great streets of the City destinated for strangers to dwell in and whosoever is minded to hire a house and because these streets are lockt up in the night time for security of the persons and goods which are there therefore they call the Cavanserai Notwithstanding the wearisomness of our journey because we were to stay but a little while at Ahmedabà d therefore after a little rest we went the same Evening to view the market-place buying sundry things It displeas'd me sufficiently that the streets not being well pay'd although they are large fair and strait yet through the great dryness of the Earth they are so dusty that there 's almost no going a foot because the foot sinks very deep in the ground with great defilement and the going on Horse-back or in a Coach is likewise very troublesome in regard of the dust a thing indeed of great disparagement to so goodly and great a City as this is I saw in Ahmedabà d Roses Flowers of Iasmin and other sorts and divers such fruits as we have in our Countries in the Summer whence I imagin'd that probably we had repass'd the Tropick of Cancer and re-enter'd a little into the temperate Zone which doubt I could not clear for want of my Astrolabe which I had left with my other goods at Surà t On Tuesday following which to us was the day of Carnaval or Shrove-Tuesday walking in the Morning about the Town I saw a handsome street strait long and very broad full of shops of various Trades they call it Bezari Kelà n that is the Great Merkat in distinction from others than which this is bigger In the middle is a structure of stone athwart the street like a bridge with three Arches almost resembling the Triumphal Arches of Rome A good way beyond this bridge in the middle of the same street is a great Well round about which is built a square Piazzetta a little higher then the ground The Water of the Well is of great service to all the City and there is always a great concourse of people who come to fetch it Going forwards to the end of the Market we came to the great Gate which stands confronting the street and beautifi'd with many Ornaments between two goodly Towers 't is the Gate of a small Castle which they call by the Persian word Cut. Nor let it seem strange that in India in the Countries of the Moghòl the Persian Tongue is us'd more perhaps then the Indian it self since the Mogholian Princes being originally Tartars and of Samarcand where the Persian Tongue is the natural of the Country have therefore been willing to retain their native Speech in India in brief the Persian is the Language of the Moghols Court most spoken and us'd in all publick writings Near this Castle Gate in a void place of the street are two pulpits handsomely built of stone somewhat rais'd from the ground wherein 't is the custome to read the King's Commandments publickly when they are be proclaim'd Thence turning to the right hand and passing another great Gate and through a fair Street we came to the Royal Palace for Ahmedabà d is one of the four Cities amongst all the others of his Dominions where the Grand Moghòl by particular priviledge hath a Palace and a Court and accordingly he comes sometimes to reside there This Palace hath a great square Court surrounded with white and well polish'd walls In the midst stands a high Post to shoot at with arrows as is also usual in the Piazzaes of Persia. On the left side of the Court as you go in are the King's Lodgings a small and low building What 't is within side I know not for I enter'd not into it but without 't is as follows Under the King's Windows is a square place inclos'd with a rail of colour'd wood and the pavement somewhat rais'd within which when the King is there are wont to stand certain Officers of the Militia whom they call Mansubdà r and they are almost the same with our Colonels their Command extends not to above a Thousand Horse nor are they all equal but from a thousand downwards some have more some less under them Within this inclosure of the Mansubdary under the King's Balconies stand two carv'd Elephants of emboss'd work but not large painted with their natural colours and in the front of the Royal Lodgings are other such Ornaments after their mode of little consideration Some said that a while ago in one of the Balconies stood expos'd to publick view an Image of the Virgin Mary plac'd there by Scià h Selim who they say was devoted to her and to whom perhaps it was given by one of our Priests who frequent his Court out of a desire to draw him to the Christian Faith but the Image was not there now and possibly was taken away by Sultan Chorrom his Son reported an Enemy of the Christians and their affairs since his coming to the Government of those parts of Guzarà t The station of the greater Captains and of higher dignity then the Mansubdary as the Chans and others of that rank is in the King's Balconies or near hand above there within the Rooms The inferior Souldiers that is such as have onely two or three Horses stand upon the ground in the Court without the above mention'd inclosure In the front of the Court is another building with an inclosure also before it but less adorned 't is the place where the King's Guard stands with all its Captains And the same order I believe is always observ'd in the Moghòl's Court in whatsoever place or City he happens to be Within this Court is another on the left hand surrounded with other buildings for necessary Offices but not so well built nor polish'd Having seen what we could of the Royal Palace we return'd by the same way we came to the street of the great Market From whence we went to see
discovering the Goods and Mony of the Citizens particularly that he had tortur'd and undecently mangled many Women of quality and done other like barbarities whereby he render'd himself very odious to the people Concerning Asaf Chan it was said that he was held in custody by the King as suspected of Rebellion although his affairs were spoken of with much uncertainty and that the King was hastning to come against his Son but was not yet far off and mov'd slowly March the one and twentieth Conceiving the return of the Portugal Cafila from Cambaia to Goa to be near hand and desiring to make a Voyage with the same since in regard of the greatness of my luggage and the length of the way I could not go by Land and 't was not safe going by Sea by reason of the continual incursions of the Mahabar Pirates I dispatch'd a Messenger to Daman a City of the Portugals a little way from Surà t to F. Antonio Albertino Rector of the Colledge of Jesuits with the Letter which their above-mention'd Father had given me in Cambaia and giving him account of my self and my intention I desir'd him to send me from Daman one of those Light Vessels which they call Almadiae and are of that swiftness that they are not at all afraid of Pirates to carry me from Surà t to Daman where I desir'd to meet the Cafila For I could not go by a Boat of Surà t since the Mariners of Surà t would not have taken my Goods aboard which were in the English Ships without first carrying them into the City to make them pay Custom whereby I might have been put to a great deal of trouble of going backward and forward as also upon the account of the Moorish Books which I had with me and reliques of Sig Maani Wherefore to prevent these intricacies I pray'd the Father to send me a Boat from Daman to take me in not at the City but at the Port where the Ships ride and where I intended to be with my Goods ready upon the shore of Sohali And to the end this Portugal Boat might come securely and not fear I sent him two safe Conducts one from the English and the other from the Dutch although there was no necessity of them because Boats come many times secretly from Daman without such safe Conduct to sell Commodities to the English Ships March the fifteenth Was the first day of the Feast of the Indian-Gentiles which they celebrate very solemnly at the entrance of the Spring with dancings through the street and casting Orange Water and red Colours in jest one upon another with other festivities of Songs and Mummeries as I have formerly seen the same in Sphahan where also reside constantly a great number of Banians and Indian-Gentiles Yet the solemnity and concourse of people was greater then in Persia as being in their own Country and a City inhabited in a great part by Gentiles and wealthier persons Otherwise I saw nothing at Surat during these three Festival Days but what I had seen already at Sphahan and have mention'd in my Writings from that place March the eighteenth Being invited to the Dutch House we there saw the Contract of Sig ra Mariam the Daughter of the abovesaid Armenian or Syrian Merchant Resident Ahmedabad with Sig r Guiglielmo a Dutch-man which was follow'd by a sumptuous Dinner at which were all the Christian Dames of Europe that liv'd at Surat to attend upon the Bride namely one Portugal Woman taken in the last Ships which were surpriz'd by the Dutch and married likewise to a Dutch-man Mary Bagdadina Wife to another Hollander and with them also my young Mariam Tinatin and another born in India and contracted to a Dutch-man of which Nation many upon the encouragement of certain priviledges granted them by the State marry Wives in India of any kind either white Women or black and go to people New Batavia which they have built in Iava Major near a place which they call Giacatora and they that cannot light upon Free-women for Marriage buy slaves and make them their lawful Wives to transport thither At this entertainment were present also the President of the English with all those of his Nation all the Dutch Merchants the Brides Brother Sig Alberto Scilling my self and in short all the Europaean Christians that were in Surat March the one and twentieth A Post came to the Dutch Merchants from Agra with fresh News that Sultan Chorròm had besides the former given a new sack to the said City and the Souldiers committing the like and greater Cruelties exasperated perhaps at their being valorously repuls'd in assaulting the Castle with loss of many of their Companions March the two and twentieth This Morning the Messenger whom I had sent to Daman return'd to Surat with the answer which I expected F. Antonio writ me word that there was but one of those Light Vessels belonging to Daman and it was now at Surat being lately come thither the Master of which was one Sebastian Luis wherefore he advis'd me to agree with him for my transportation and in case he were already gone then I should advertise him thereof at Daman and they would speedily send him back for which purpose they kept the safe Conducts which I had sent for security of the Vessel But having presently found the abovesaid Sebastian Luis I have agreed with him to bring his Boat out of the River to the Sea-side and take me in at the Port which is some distance from the mouth of the River where I have appointed to meet him to morrow morning It remains onely that I take leave of the Dutch Commendator and the English President from whom I have receiv'd infinite Obligations during all my residence here particularly to the Sig r Commendator the remembrance whereof shall continue with me during Life I hope God willing to write to you speedily from Goa and in the mean time humbly kiss your Hands LETTER II. From Goa April 27. 1623. I Now salute you my dear Sig Mario from Goa in India indeed I am but no Indian Having pass'd through the Syrian and afterwards the Persian Garb I am again transvested into our Europaean In Turkie and Persia you would not have known me but could not mistake me in India where I have almost resum'd my first shape This is the third transformation which my Beard hath undergone having here met with an odd Barber who hath advanc'd my mustachios according to the Portugal Mode and in the middle of my chin shaven after the Persian Mode he hath left the Europaean tuft But to continue my Diary where I left off in my last Letter which was about my departure from Surà t March the three and twentieth Having taken leave of all Friends a little after Dinner I set forth to depart but met with so many obstacles in the Dogana or Custom-house that they detain'd me till almost night before I could get away The occasion was this In the Pass given me
hand to take it up he bows himself three times to the earth doing reverence to it after their manner Moreover I have heard that this Ibrahim Adil-Sciah who now reigns some years ago poyson'd his own eldest Son as suspected of being likely to become one day a disturber of the Common-wealth and the publick quiet being displeas'd with him onely because he once with too much freedom perswaded him to deny the Moghòl the accustom'd Tribute saying that with the Tribute alone which he pay'd voluntarily he durst undertake to make a mighty war upon him and never pay him Tribute more which if true was certainly in this Prince a strange effect of fear This Adil-Sciah hath marry'd one of his Daughters to Cutb-Sciah and with Nizam-Sciah he constantly maintains and frequently renews alliance so that they are all three fast friends and firmly united together I have also heard that Adil-Sciah uses to wear his Beard very long contrary to the other two who are shaven after the mode of Persia and India They say the present Ibrahim Adil-Sciah is infirm by reason of a great hurt receiv'd by a Wolf in his hips so that he cannot ride on Horse-back and hence perhaps it is that he is so peaceable and timerous infirmities undoubtedly much dejecting the spirits of Men. All these three Princes are Moors as I said before although their Countries abound with innumerable Gentiles Cutb-Sciah alone as I have heard is Sciani of the Sect of the Persians but the other two I conceive are Sonni as the Turks and the Moghòl which yet I affirm not because I have not perfect certainty thereof The King of Persia cherishes all these three Princes sufficiently and they have great correspondence by interchangeable Ambassies and Presents all which is onely in reference to make greater opposition to the Moghòl upon whom they border and whose greatness is equally prejudiciall to them all And so much may suffice concerning them April the fifth We set sail again and in the Afternoon pass'd by the City Dabùl which belongs to the Dominions of Adil-Sciah and stands hid amongst Hills in a low Plain so that 't is scarcely seen After which we pass'd within two Leagues of a Point or Promontory which the Portugals call Dabùl falso because it deceives such as come from far by Sea making them take it for the Point of Dabùl to which it resembles At Night we cast Anchor near another shore which they call the Gulph or Bay or as the Portugals speak A Enceada dos Bramanes because the Country thereabouts is inhabited by many Brachmans April the sixth We set sail and first pass'd by Ragiapùr then by Carapetan About two hours before night we cast Anchor in an Enceada or Bay which they call Calosi or Calosci not far from the Point of Carapetan April the seventh In the Morning we pass'd by Tambona which was the â—ountry of the Mariners of our Ship and toward Evening by the Rocks which the Portugals call Los Illeos quemados that is The burnt Rocks because they appear such by their colour and inequality and we continu'd sailing all Night every Ship going as they pleas'd without caring for the company of the Fleet now that by reason of the great nearness of Goa we were in safety April the eighth Arriving before Day at the shore of Goa we began to enter into the salt River or Rio as they speak of salt water which the Portugals call Barra di Goa upon the mouth of which River which is sufficiently broad stand two Forts one on each side with good pieces of Artillery planted upon them to defend the Entrance 'T is to be known that the City of Goa at this day the Head of all the Dominion of the Portugals in India is situate here in one of these Islands of which as I said before there are innumerable upon all the Coast of India made by the several Rivers which divide them from the main-land The City is built in the inmost part of the Island toward the Continent and therefore the whole Island is plentifully inhabited with Towns and places of Recreation and particularly upon the River which is on either side adorn'd with Buildings and Houses surrounded with Groves of Palm-Trees and delightful Gardens The greatest part of the Island is inclos'd with a Wall with Gates at the places for passage continually guarded for security against the attempts of Neighbours and also to prevent the flight of Slaves and Thefts since onely that River being cross'd you enter presently into the Territory of Adil-Sciah and the Moors but 't is otherwise toward the Sea-side for all the Coast which is beset with other small Islands and Pen-insula's for a good space belongs to the Portugals being inhabited with Towns and divers Churches The City which lyes on the right hand of the River as you enter into the inmost recess is sufficiently large built partly on a Plain and partly upon certain pleasant Hills from the tops whereof the whole Island and the Sea are discover'd with a very delightful prospect The buildings of the City are good large and convenient contriv'd for the most part for the benefit of the wind and fresh Air which is very necessary in regard of the great heats and also for reception of the great Rains of the three Moneths of Pausecal which are Iune Iuly and August which not upon account of the heat although it be very great at that time but greatest of all in May when the Sun is in the Zenith but of the great Rain the Portugals call the Winter of the Earth Nevertheless the buildings have not much ornament or exquisiteness of Art but are rather plain and almost all without beautifyings The best are the Churches of which many are held here by several Religions as Augustines Dominicans Franciscans discalceated Carmelites and Iesuits with double and very numerous Covents and indeed half of the Religious that are here would suffice for a City bigger then Goa But besides these there are also many of Secular Priests and Parishes and Chappels and lastly the See or Cathedral which nevertheless is neither the fairest nor the greatest Church of that City there being many others that exceed it The See of Goa at the time of my being there was not finish'd but scarce above half built and thence seem'd to me small and less stately but having since seen the intire design of the structure I conceive that when 't is finish'd 't will be a very goodly Church The people is numerous but the greatest part are slaves a black and lewd generation going naked for the most part or else very ill clad seeming to me rather a disparagement then an ornament to the City Portugals there are not many they us'd to be sufficiently rich but of late by reason of many losses by the incursions of the Dutch and English in these Seas they have not much wealth but are rather poor Nevertheless they live in outward appearance with
which a Man sits with his legs stretch'd forth or half lying along upon cushions and so is carry'd very conveniently Moreover the Palanchini and the Andòr differ from one another for that in the latter the Cane upon which they carry is strait as it is likewise in the Nets but in the Palanchini for greater ease of the person carry'd that he may have more room to carry his head upright the said Cane is crooked upward in this form ☊ and they bend Canes for this purpose when they are small and tender and these are the most convenient and honourable carriages and because there are not found many good Canes and fit to bear such a weight therefore they are sold dear at a hundred or six score Pardini a piece which amount to about sixty of our Crowns Besides as well the Palanchini as the Andòr and the Nets are cover'd for avoiding the Rain with dry Coverlets made of Palm leaves to wit those of the Indian Nut and other such Trees sufficiently handsome which being cast over the Cane hang down on each side having two windows with little shutters They keep out the water very well and the Coverlets may be taken off when one is minded to go uncover'd and carry'd by a servant Yet I never saw any go uncover'd in Goa either in Andòr or Nets but out of the City in the Country many I have spoken more at length of these Carriages because they are unknown in our Countries although I remember to have seen in Italy the Effigies of a Net or Rete engraven in certain Maps of the World and if I mistake not amongst the ways of travelling in Brasil where I believe they are us'd and indeed this mode of Carriage is very usual in India not onely in Cities but also in journeys and those of sufficient length wherefore to make experience of it I was minded to have my self carry'd this day after the manner which I have describ'd nor must I omit that the Men who bear such Carriages are satisfi'd with a very small reward Going in Palanchino in the Territories of the Portugals in India is prohibited to Men because indeed 't is a thing too effeminate nevertheless as the Portugals are very little observers of their own Laws they began at first to be tolerated upon occasion of the Rain and for favours or presents and afterwards become so common that they are us'd almost by every body throughout the whole year On the tenth of August I believe the Sun was in the Zenith of Goa returning from the Northern signes and passing to the Southern yet for the day and precise hour I refer my self to a better Calculation according to the good Books which I have not here with me On the eleventh of the same Moneth I saw at Goa a Carnero or Weather without horns which they told me was of the Race of Balagà t not great but of strong limbs harness'd with a velvet saddle crupper head-stall bridle stirrups and all the accoutrements of a Horse and it was ridden upon by a Portugal Youth of about twelve years old as he went and came from his own House to the School of Giesù which low School of Reading and Writing the said Fathers keep for more convenience of Children not at the Colledge which stands in the edge of the City where the higher Schools are but at the Church of Giesù which is the Profess'd House and stands in the middle of the City whither the abovesaid Youth rode daily upon his Martin and I observ'd that the beast being us'd to the place knew the way so well that he went alone at night from the House to the School to fetch the Youth without any body holding or guiding him before the servant which drove him as they do many Horses I took the more notice of this trifle because it seem'd a new thing to ride upon such creatures for although in our Countries Dogs and Goats are sometimes seen with saddles and Horse furniture running leaping and capring yet 't is onely for sport and with puppets upon the saddle but this Martin was ridden upon by such a boy as I have mention'd although the beast was but of a very ordinary bigness On the sevententh of August the Gentile-Indians kept a kind of Festival to which a great number of them came to a place in Goa which they call Narvè or as the vulgar corruptly speak Narvà as it were for pardon or absolution and many came in pilgrimage from far Countries to wash their bodies here plunging themselves into the Arm of the Sea Men and Women together all naked without any respect at all even persons of quality and casting Fruits Perfumes and other things into the water as it were in Oblation to the Deity of the water of this place with other Ceremonies Devotions and the like which I relate not more particularly because I was not present at them because the great Rain kept me from going to see them as it also was the cause that the concourse of the Gentiles was not very great Nevertheless I could not but speak thus much in general of it as being a considerable thing amongst them This Feast and their Devotion lasts two days but the first is most remarkable August the one and thirtieth A Galeon coming from Mascà t being the first Ship that came to Goa this year since the Rain and the shutting up of the mouth of the Port brought News how Ruy Freyra having been a few Moneths before at Mascà t with the little Fleet which he had of sixteen Ships was gone to attempt Sohèr which place being formerly abandon'd by the Portugals was now fortifi'd by the Persians with a strong Garrison and that after he had landed he assaulted the Fort but could not take it though many Moors were slain in the encounter and about twenty five Portugals amongst which were three or four Captains Men of Valor and Esteem in which action some conceiv'd that Ruy Freyra had not done well in hazarding and losing so many people upon a place of small importance but he continuing to besiege it it was deliver'd to him upon Articles the Garrison which was within marching away with their Arms and Baggage after which he raz'd the Fortifications and attempted another place of that Coast of Arabia which they call Galfarcan and having taken it out of indignation as I believe for the many good Souldiers which they had kill'd of his at Sohà r and to cast a terror left no person alive sparing neither sex nor age Which cruel manner of proceeding I cannot approve because on the one side it will alienate the minds of the people of that Country and on the other it will incite Enemies to fight against more obstinately and valorously as knowing they are to expect no quarter This is as much as hath been done hitherto in those parts about Ormùz the doing of greater matters requiring new and greater supplies from the Vice-Roy but they say likewise
themselves to him with this Embassie which they sent to him and the disgrace of their pass'd defeat 't was no strange thing that being become insolent thereupon as 't is the manner of the Barbarians and designing to carry it high over them he not only shew'd no great liking of the Embassie but made little account of it and in a manner despis'd it that so he might keep himself and his affairs in greater reputation October the thirtieth Sig Gio Fernandez being resolv'd to depart the next day sent some Horses before upon this with some of his Family The same Evening one from Goa brought News of the arrival there of some Portugals of the Fleet which came this year from Portugal consisting of four great trading Ships two Shallops and four Galeons of Warr which last come in order to be consign'd to Ruy Freira for the War of Ormùz the loss of which place and the deliverance of Ruy Freira out of prison being already known at the Court of Spain but not the loss of the Ships of the Fleet the last year The Portugals arriv'd in Goa according to the abovesaid intelligence came in one of the Galeons of the Fleet which is coming which being separated from the rest toucht at Mozambique and there being old and shatter'd was lost onely all the People and Goods were sav'd and came in other Ships to Goa and being the rest of the Fleet delayes so long 't is conceiv'd to have held a course without the Island of Saint Lorenzo which uses to take up more time They relate also that the Marriage between Spain and England is concluded and that the Prince of England is now in Spain being come thither incognito before the conclusion of the Marriage which was shortly expected It being already very late I shall not longer deferr concluding this Letter because it is requisite for me to go and take a little rest that I be may fit for my journey to morrow Morning if it please God to whom I heartily commend you and with my accustomed affection kiss your Hands From Onòr October 30. 1623. LETTER V. From Ikkeri Novemb. 22. 1623. I Write to you from Ikkeri the Royal City and Seat of Venk-tapà Naieka whither I am come and where I am at present I shall give you an account of the Audience which our Ambassador hath had of this King who in my judgment should rather be call'd a Regulus or Royolet although the Portugals and Indians give him the honor of a Royal Title being he hath in effect neither State Court nor appearance befitting a true King I shall describe to you every particular that is not unworthy your Curiosity and adjoyn some other of my Relations and Descriptions of the Idolatrous Gentiles their vain Superstitions and Ceremonies about their Idols Temples Pagods What I shall now set down mine own Eyes have witness'd to and I shall not fear being too tedious in describing things perhaps over minutely in these Letters since I know you are delighted therewith and out of your great erudition can make reflections upon the Rites us'd in these parts of the world which in many things are not unlike the ancient Aegyptian Idolatry For I am perswaded to believe not without the authority of ancient Authors that the worship of Isis and Osiris was common to Aegypt and this Region as in Philostratus I find Apollonius affirming that in India he saw the Statues not onely of the Aegyptians but also of the Grecian gods as of Apollo Bacchus and Minerva But to return to the particulars of my journey October the one and thirtieth After one a clock in the Afternoon we departed from Onò with Sig Gio Fernandez in a Mancion or Barge and the rest of the Family in a less Boat Vitulà Sinay who was to go with us we left in a readiness to set forth after us I know not whether by water or by Land We row'd up the River which runs Southward to Onòr against the stream making use both of Sail and Oars and a little before night having gone about three Leagues we came to Garsopà and there lodg'd This place was sometimes a famous City Metropolis of the Province and Seat of a Queen in which State as likewise in many others upon the Coast of India to this day a Woman frequently hath the sovereignty Daughters or other nearest Kinswomen begotten by what ever Father succeeding the Mothers these Gentiles having an opinion as 't is indeed that the Issue by the Woman-side is much more sure of the blood and lineage of the Ancestors then that by the Man-side The last Queen of Garsopà fell in Love with a mean Man and a stranger into whose power she resign'd her self together with her whole Kingdom In which act setting aside her choosing a Lover of base blood upon which account she was blam'd and hated by the Indians who are most rigorous observers of Nobility and maintainers of the dignity of their ancestors in all points as to giving her self up as a prey to her lover she committed no fault against her honor for in these Countries 't is lawful for such Queens to choose to themselves Lovers or Husbands one or more according as they please But this Man who was so favour'd by the Queen of Garsopà having thoughts as ignoble as his blood in stead of corresponding with gratitude to the Queens courtesie design'd to rebell against her and take the Kingdom from her which for a while he executed having in process of time gain'd the affection of most of her most eminent Vassals The Queen seeing her self oppress'd by the Traytor had recourse to the Portugals offering them her whole State on condition they would free her from imminent ruine But the Portugals according as they had alwayes in India done by their friends whereby they have been many times the ruine of others and themselves too did not succour her till it was too late and then very coldly On the other side the Traytor as his ill Fate or rather God's just anger would have it call'd to his assistance against the Queen and the Portugals his Neighbour Venk-tapà Naieka now Master of those Countries Venk-tapà Naieka taking advantage of the occasion enter'd suddenly into the Kingdom of Garsopà with great diligence and force so that shortly becoming Master of the whole Country and the City Royal having driven out the Portugals who came to defend it he took the Queen Prisoner and carry'd her to his own Court where being kept although honourably she ended her dayes afterwards in an honourable prison But the Traytor under-went the punishment of his crime for Venk-tapà Naieka caus'd him to be slain and for more secure keeping that State in his power caus'd the City and Royal Palace of Garsopà to be destroy'd so that at this day that lately flourishing City is become nothing but a Wood Trees being already grown above the ruines of the Houses and the place scarcely inhabited by four
once a year which would cause a great destruction of both sides They call this term of time or manner of revenge Amocò so that they say the Amocò of the Samori lasts one day the Amocò of the King of Cocin lasts all the life and so of others Of the Malabars who live mixt with the Nairi in the Maritime Parts and are Moors in Religion and all other Customs I heard onely this Remarkable That by a receiv'd and universal practise amongst the Women they will never lie under the Men in the Act of Coition which because a thing extraordinary I would not omit to mention December the twenty third A good while after Sun-rise we departed from Calecut but had the wind all day against us and made but little way At night we cast Anchor because there is seldom wind enough for sailing in the night time and being we coasted along the shore we might cast Anchor at any time we pleas'd December the twenty fourth We had the wind contrary again making very little way so that we cast Anchor many times and in the Evening because it was Christmass-Eve the Litanies were sung in all the Ships and afterwards we had Collations of Sweet-meats and celebrated the Feast as well as the place afforded In our Ship some Souldiers who were employ'd to make a sort of sweet fritters of Sugar for sport put into many of them certain powders which caused giddiness so that almost all the Souldiers that ate of them after the Collation seem'd drunk and were constrain'd to betake themselves to sleep which they did all night much more then that time and place requir'd for had Enemies come the greatest part of the Souldiers being in this manner I know not how we should have done December the twenty fifth By break of day we arriv'd at Cananòr where we presently landed to hear the divine Offices Cananòr is a little place upon the shore but near a Promontory which makes a kind of Haven The City is surrounded with walls not very strong and well made but in some places I know not by what negligence decay'd It hath four Churches to wit La Sede or the Cathedral La Misericordia which is a Confraternity and much like our Monte della Pieta Santo Spirito and other such it hath correspondence with an other There are of them in all the Plantations of the Portugals and they do many good works for almost all the pious works which amongst us are done by divers Houses and Societies this one place of La Misericordia do's amongst the Portugals as keeping of things Deposited transmitting Bils of Exchange safe relieving the poor the sick and imprisoned maintaining expos'd Children marrying young Maids keeping Women of ill Lives when converted redeeming Slaves and in short all works of Mercy whereof a City or Country can have need A pious thing indeed and of infinite benefit to the Publick the rather because they are in all Territories of the Portugals and hold correspondence together even those of India with those of Portugal so that they all seem but one body extending its members and influences incredibly profitable to several Countries This pious Place is govern'd by Secular Confreres to which Confraternity none are admitted but worthy Persons upon certain decent Conditions and to a set number So that the good Works which they do and the great sums expended therein every year accrew to the benefit not only of the Confreres but of the Publick in general with much Charity so that I do not account my time lost in making this little Digression The third Church of Cananòr is San Francesco where the Fryers of that Order reside and the fourth if I remember right is Santa Maria della Vittorià Without Cananòr is an entrench'd Fort contiguous to the walls of the City and under the Portugals jurisdiction But about a musket-shot distant or more is a great Village which they call the Bazà r where all sorts of Provisions and other Merchandizes are sold the Building is like that of Calecut and perhaps better yet this is under the jurisdiction of the Gentiles though the Inhabitants are in great part Malabar-Moors and by derivative Authority from a King of this Country whom they call the King of Cananòr and who resides far from the Sea 't is govern'd by a famous Malabar-Moor nam'd Agà Begel whose House I saw but not himself having spent this whole day in walking up and down Cananòr and the Bazar of the Gentiles for I dined with our Captain on shore in the House of a Portugal married there At night having viewed all and bought abundance of dried Indian Figgs and many Vessels of Conserves of the Pulp of young Indian Cane or Bambù which is very good to eat after this manner of green Pepper Cittrons and other Fruits wont to be pickled by them in Vineger and vendible here very good and in great plenty at length we returned a Ship-board December the twenty sixth We set sail from Cananòr but for three dayes together sailed but little by reason of the accustom'd contrary wind and our casting Anchor frequently as well in the day time as the night December the twenty ninth We passed before Cagnarotto whence some Men came in a Boat from the King of Banghel who lives there in Sanctuary with the King of that place his Friend and Kinsman to visit and present our General in the Name of their Lord. December the thirtieth About noon we entred the Port of Mangalòr I had a desire to go to Carnate to see that Queen and had already given Money for a Boat to carry me thither being I might sooner and better go so then with a Palanchino but this journey was disappointed as well as my former I know not by what unhappy destiny for I understood that the Fleet was by all means to depart from Mangalòr the next day so that I could not have time to go and return and if I lost the opportunity of this Fleet God knows when I should have another of passing to Goa whither other considerations of my business required me to repair as soon as might be So I deferr'd my going to Carnate but with no small regret for being deprived of the knowledge of that Queen who was reported to me for a Lady of great Worth and Valour Whilest we stayed ashore I went to the Church of San Francesco to visit those Fathers where I found the General of our Fleet Sig Luis de Mendoza whom I had never seen before I found him a very compleat and gallant Cavalier and having been bred in the Court of Spain the Queens Page a much better Courtier then other Portugal Cavaliers of India who have not seen other Countries are wont to be December the one and thirtieth I heard Mass in the fore-noon and dined a shore with the Brother of Signor Tomè de Barrios my Friend in Goa at the House of the Padre Vicario of Mangalòr named and known to
Officer who pretends the King 's Right to them as shipwrackt goods yet most conclude that the case will not be so judg'd but that they will be restor'd to the owners upon payment of some small matter to those that sav'd them May the three and twentieth I visited the above-mention'd Bishop now arriv'd in Goa at the Colledge of San Paolo Novo He was call'd Dom Ioanno da Rocha and nominated but not consecrated Bishop of Heliopoli On the twenty sixth I visited in the Covent of our Lady della Gratia F. Fra Manoel della Madre di Dio formerly known to me in Persia and now Prior of the Covent of Sphahan who the day before arrived at Goa in a Shallop which had been long expected and judg'd lost having been seven moneths in coming from Mascat He said he came about Affairs of his Order and the Covents of Persia for besides that which I left at Sphahan they have since made one at Sciraz and another at Bassora and daily multiply yet with-all it was rumored that he was sent by the King of Persia to treat with the Vice-Roy about According the matters of Ormuz and I believe it although he spoke nothing of it himself otherwise me-thinks 't is not likely they would have let him come out of Persia without the King 's express Licence or that the King would have granted it in time of Warr unless he had come about some particular business of his He informed me that all my friends in Persia were well and so did a Letter of F Fra Giovanni to his Provincial at Goa wherein mention was made of me giving me intelligence of the well-fare of all my Friends and how Sitti Laali my Cousin had brought forth a Son whom she had nam'd Avedik from Chogia Avedik his Father's Uncle which News was stale for I knew it before my coming out of Persia and indeed all the Letters F. Manoel brought were of a very old date to me he brought none because my Friends there conceiv'd I was gone out of India into Europe May the seven and twentieth A Ship of the Portugal Fleet that was coming from Mozambique arrived in the Port of Mormogon it entred not into the River of Goa because the mouth of the River by reason of the lateness of the season was unsecure and began to be stopped for every year all the mouths of the Rivers and Ports of this Coast are fill'd with sand during the time of Rain wherein the West wind blows very tempestuously and are open'd again in September when the Rain ends The Port of Mormogon as I have elswhere said is in the same Island of Goa in the other mouth of the more Southern River where sometimes old Goa stood by which goods are convey'd by Boat from the Ships to the City but by a longer way going behind round the Island May the twenty eighth In the Evening at the time of Ave Maria the Bells of almost all the Churches of Goa saving that of the Jesuits were rung for the Beatification of two Fryers of the Order of San Domenico whereof this Ship had brought News May the twenty ninth Another Portugal Ship of the Fleet arrived and within two or three dayes after all the other Ships expected from Mozambique and in one of them the Jesuit design'd Patriarch into Aethiopia whither he with two Bishops whereof one was dead by the way and many other Jesuits was fent at the instance of the King of the same Country who they say is called Sultan Saghed and professes himself a Roman-Catholick already with great hopes of reducing all that Kingdom to the Church in short time As for the progress which the Jesuits affirm daily to be made in those Countries being I know nothing of them but by the information of others I refer you to their Annual Letters and it suffices me to have touched here what I saw concerning the same to wit the expedition of this Patriarch Bishops and many Fathers who were sent thither by several wayes attempting to open a passage into those Countries lest such Commerce might be hindred by the Turks who are Masters of some of those Passes So that the F. Visitor of the Jesuits told me they had this year sent many people for Aethiopia not onely by the Arabian Gulph and the Territories of the Turks bordering upon it but also by Cascem a Country of Arabia govern'd by Arabians themselves by Mozambique and Mombaza Countries of the Portugals in the Coast of Africk by Cafaria Angola and Congo that so by these several wayes they might send enough being the King demanded at least two hundred of their Fathers And 't is manifest that if the Conversion goes forward as they presuppose the Country is so large that there will be work enough for a greater number of Fathers and Religious Catholicks Iune the second We accompany'd with a solemn Cavalcade Sig Andrea de Quadro from the House of his God-father Sig Gasparo di Melo Captain of the City to the Jesuits Colledg where by the hands of the same Fathers was given him the degree of Master of Arts that is of Philosophy the said Fathers having by Apostolical Authority jurisdiction in India to confer the said degree and that of Doctorate for which reason I here have taken notice of this action Iune the seventh I visited in the said Colledge the Patriarch of Aethiopia one of the society nam'd Don Alfonso Luigi de Santi he told me much News from Rome and of several of my Relations whom he knew but it was stale News The Patriarch and his Fathers had been inform'd of me both by the Fathers of Goa and by a Portugal Souldier call'd Pero Lopez whom I knew in Persia and who went to Rome with my Letters where he lodg'd many dayes in my House from thence pass'd into Spain and at length return'd into India and came from Mozambique to Goa in the same Ship with the Patriarch To gratifie whose desires of seeing me upon their informations I visited him he not onely shew'd me many courtesies and offers of serving me with like ceremonious words but himself and all his Fathers enter'd into an intimate Friendship with me condition'd to hold mutual correspondence of Letters from Aethipia to Rome and where ever else I should happen to be We discours'd of many things and he inquir'd of me concerning his Voyage and how Fathers might pass at any time into Aethiopia from other parts particularly from Aegypt I inform'd him of the Aethiopick Language and some good Books for learning it c. Iune the sixteenth If I mistake not in Computation for which I refer my self to better diligence which I shall use with their Ephemerides of this year in case I can procure the same the Moors were to begin their Rasandhan or Fast of their 1633 year of the Hegira Iune the twenty fourth Being in a Window to see the careers of the Cavaliers who ran in the Street before the
of all the rest of the Country and the fear of Bassora it self for the Persians fought valorously and slew many of the Defendants but at length by the help of the Portugals who from the adjoyning River did great mischief with the Artillery of their Ships to the Persian Camp the Qizilbasci were repuls'd with loss or rather of themselves being wearied with the length of the attempt or else re-call'd into Persia for other services they drew off and departed Nor did they return again till the following year as I have said about the time of my arrival at Bassora upon the occasion of displacing Mansur and establishing Muhhamed the Son of Mubarek Prince of Hhaveiza when I found the new Ali Basha abroad with his Army and three Portugal Ships to with-stand them and the City of Bassora not without fear because the Persian Army much exceeded theirs both in number and quality of Souldiers March the sixteenth News came to Bassora that the Armies were very near and almost fac'd one another and Sig Consalvo de Silveira Chief Commander of the Portugal Squadron of Ships at Bassora told me that having heard that the Persians intended to bring seven pieces of Artillery by Sea to Durec a neighboring Port of theirs to Bassora to be imploy'd in the War he had sent forth two of his Ships and one of those lighter Frigots which they call Sanguisei to meet and intercept those Gunns which would be a notable piece of service March the seventeenth Chogia Negem who might well know things as he that was imploy'd in much business by the Basha inform'd me that the Persian Army consisted of 30000 men and that there were seven Chans in it which to me seem'd not probable because if the Chan of Sciraz with his people was not sufficient 't was possible his Brother Daud Chan whose Government is near him and the Chan of Locistan might be come but that others more distant should be there for the sole war of Bassora there was no necessity and consequently no ground to believe He told me further that now the waters were high there was no danger nor could the Persians make much progress by reason of the great River which they were to pass and many over-flow'd Lands and Trenches full of water wherewith Bassora was now fortified But when the waters came to be low as they would be within three moneths then Bassora would be in danger that as for defence by the Portugal Ships the Persians might pass over the great River by a Bridge much higher and further from Bassora either at Hhella which is in their Hands or at Baghdad it self or some where else without the Portugals being able to hinder them that if they came but with Provision for a few dayes the Country on the West side of the River on which Bassora stands was not so desart but they might have forrage enough for a great Army If this be true as it may be then considering the power of the Persians their manner of warring the situation strength and forces of the City of Bassora I am confident that at the long run it will not scape the Persians Hands so long as he holds Baghdad although in case of need the Grand Emir of the Desart who is now Mudleg surnamed as all his Predecessors were Aburisc that is he of the Plume or Feather should come to assist the Basha who can now hope for no aid from the Turk since the taking of Baghdad He also related to me concerning Baghdad that the place was betray'd to the Sciah by Bekir Subasci call'd otherwise Dervise Mahhammed whose Father who pretended to render himself Tyrant thereof the Sciah caused publickly to be slain upon his entrance into it but kept the Traytor with him and us'd him well That besides Baghdad he took Kierkuc and Mousul by his Captains and march'd beyond Hhella into the Country of Emir Aburisc even to Anna and Taiba within a little way of Aleppo which was thereupon in great fear and that he left a Garrison at Anna. But after the Sciah and the main of his Army was retir'd into Persia Emir Aburisc who was alwayes confederate with the Turk making an excursion with his People about the Desart recover'd Taiba and Anna killing seventy Qizilbasci whom he found there in Garrison after which he turn'd his arms against Emir Nasir ben Mahanna Lord of Mesched Hussein but not so great a Prince as himself and made great destruction of his People and Country Finally He added that a potent Army of Turks had since fallen upon Persia and Baghdad and had already recover'd Mousul and Kierkuc which last News I rather suspect to be dispers'd to animate the People of Bassora then hold for true because on the other side it was reported for certain that the Sciah was reposing his Forces at Ferhabad which could not consist with the so near approach of the Turks against him March the nineteenth An eminent man of Bassora nam'd Scaich Abdassalam muster'd a great company of his kindred friends and followers with whom he intended to go to the assistance of the Basha Amongst them were muster'd about â—00 Christians of S. Iohn arm'd with Arquebuzes and other weapons like the rest but all in my judgment as much Moors as Christians little Souldiers and of no esteem in comparison of the Qizilbasci March the two and twentieth In the Piazza before the Basha's House I saw a wild Ass or little Onager which was kept there for pleasure It was of the shape of other Asses but of a brighter colour and had a ridge of white hair from the head to the tail like the mane of a Horse in running and leaping it seem'd much nimbler then the ordinary sort of Asses March the three and twentieth A Portugal came from the Basha's Camp to Bassora bringing News that the Qizilbasci were return'd home to their own Countries and that in such haste that they had left much Cattel Goods and Meat ready dress'd in the Camp where they had quarter'd Which so unexpected departure of the Persian Army could not happen through any disturbance given them by that of the Basha but perhaps they were re-call'd for some other war or service of greater necessity as that of Ormuz or against the Turks or against the Moghol at Candahar which the Sciah had lately taken March the four and twentieth I took the height of the Sun in Bassora at noon and found him decline 28 degrees 48 minutes from the Zenith He was this day according to the Ephemerides of David Origanus in 4 degrees 4 minutes 57 seconds of Aries and according to the Meridian of the said Ephemerides declin'd from the Aequinoctial North-wards degrees but according to our Meridian of Bassora calculating by proportionall parts 1 degree 38 minutes and 32 seconds which added to the 28 degrees 48 minutes of the Sun's Declination from the Zenith amount to 30 degrees 26 minutes 32 seconds So that the Zenith of Bassora
Land of Canaan sometimes like the Garden of the Lord flowing with milk and honey being then enriched with a very great variety and abundance of Gods good Creatures and in the dayes of David so populous that there were numbred in it at one time thirteen hundred thousand fighting men 2 Sam. 24. 9. besides Women and Children and others unfit to draw swords which was a most wonderful thing to consider that such a spot of ground in comparison not above one hundred and sixty miles in length from Dan to Bersheba and not above sixty miles in breadth from Ioppa to Iordan should be able to bear and feed such a numerous people and now the very self same tract ofearth either for want of manuring or which is rather to be conceived for the want of the blessing of Almighty God which once shined upon it but is now long since with-drawn from it For a fruitful Land the Lord makes barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein Psal. 107. 34. is now become unable to sustain one in an hundred of such a number From Sidon they got a passage by Sea unto Alexandretta now called Scanderoon in the extreamest bottom of the Mediterranean Sea which is one of the unwholsomest places in the world where I have often heard that no stranger that was born far from it comes to continue there for the space of one moneth but is sure to meet with a sickness which very often proves mortal At this place his English Companion left him and turned his face towards England and he presently took his way towards Aleppo in Syria about seventy miles or more distant from Scanderoon which is as much renowned for wholsomness as the place before-named for being unwholsome and therefore it is called sweet-air'd Aleppo Here he being kindly received by the English Consul stayed a time to gain the company of a Caravan which consists of a great mixt multitude of people from divers parts which get and keep together travelling those parts for fear of the incursions and violences by Thieves and Murtherers which they would undoubtedly meet withall if they travelled single or but few together With these he after set forwards towards and to that City anciently called Niniveh in Assyria which we find in the Prophesie of Ionah was sometimes a great and excellent City of three dayes journey Jonah 3. 3. but now so exceedingly lessen'd and lodg'd in obscurity that passengers cannot say of it This was Niniveh which now hath its old name changed and is called Mozel From hence they journied to Babylon in Chaldea situated upon the River Euphrates once likewise so great that Aristotle called it a Country not a City but now it is very much contracted and 't is called Bagdat From this place they proceeded through both the Armeniaes and either did or else our Traveller was made to believe that he saw the very Mountain Ararat whereon the Ark of Noah rested after the Flood Gen. 8. And from hence they went forward towards the Kingdom of Persia and there to Uzspahan the usual place of Residence for that great King then called Sha Abbas or King Abbas And after they went to Seras anciently called Shushan where the great King Ahasuerus kept his Royal and most Magnificent Court Esth. 1. From hence they journied afterwards to Candahor the first Province North East under the subjection of the Great Moghol and so to Lahore the chiefest City but one belonging to that great Empire a place as I have been often told by Tom Coryat and others of very great trade wealth and delight lying more temperately out of the Parching Sun than any other of his great Cities do And to this City he wanted not Company nor afterwards to Agra the Moghol's Metropolis or chief City And here it is very observable that from Lahore to Agra it is four hundred English miles and that the Country betwixt both these great Cities is rich even pleasant and flat a Campania and the rode-way on both sides all this long distance planted with great Trees which are all the year cloathed with leaves exceeding beneficial unto Travellers for the shade they afford them in those hot Climes This very much extended length of way 'twixt these two places is called by Travellers the Long Walk very full of Villages and Towns for Passengers every where to find Provision At Agra our Traveller made an halt being there lovingly received in the English Factory where he stayd till he had gotten to his Turkish and Morisco or Arabian Languages some good knowledge in the Persian and Indostan Tongues in which study he was alwayes very apt and in little time shewed much proficiency The first of those two the Persian is the more quaint the other the Indian the vulgar Language spoken in East-India In both these he suddenly got such a knowledge and mastery that it did exceedingly afterwards advantage him in his Travels up and down the Mogol's Territory he wearing alwayes the Habit of that Nation and speaking their Language In the first of these the Persian Tongue he made afterwards an Oration to the Great Mogol bringing in that Story of the Queen of Sheba 1 Kings 10. in which parts of that Sacred History the Mahumetans have some knowledge and he told him that as the Queen of Sheba having heard of the Fame of King Solomon came from far to visit him which when she had done she confessed that though she had heard very much of him and many things beyond her belief yet now seeing what she did acknowledged that she had not heard half of that which she now saw concerning the Wisdom and Greatness and Retinue and Riches of Solomon So our Orator told the Mogol that he had heard very much of him before he had the Honour to see him when he was very far off in his own Country but now what he beheld did exceedingly surmount all those former Reports of him which came to his Ears at such a distance from him Then larding his short speech with some other pieces of Flattery which the Mogol liked well concluded And when he had done the Mogol gave him one hundred Roopus which amounts to the value of twelve pounds and ten shillings of our English Money looking upon him as a Derveese Votary or Pilgrim for so he called him and such as bear that name in that Country seem not much to care for money and that was the reason I conceive that he gave him not a more plentiful Reward After this he having got a great mastery likewise in the Indostan or more vulgar Language there was a Woman a Landress belonging to my Lord Embassadors House who had such a freedom and liberty of Speech that she would sometimes scould brawl and rail from the Sun-rising to Sun-set One day he undertook her in her own Language and by eight of the Clock in the Morning so silenced her that she had not one word more to speak I shall have occasion
called by the Inhabitants Indostan so much abounds in all necessaries for the use and service of man to feed and cloath and enrich him as that it is able to subsist and flourish of it self without the least help from any Neighbour-Prince or Nation Here I shall speak first of that which Nature requires most Food which this Empire brings forth in abundance as singular good Wheat Rice Barley with divers more kinds of good Grain to make Bread the staff of life and all these sorts of Corn in their kinds very good and exceeding cheap For their Wheat it is more full and more white than ours of which the Inhabitants make such pure well-relished Bread that I may say of it as one sometimes spake of the Bread made in the Bishoprick of Liege it is Panis Pane melior Bread better than Bread The ordinary sort of people eat Bread made of a coarser Grain but both toothsom and wholsom and hearty they make it up in broad Cakes thick like our Oaten-cakes and then bake it upon small round iron hearths which they carry with them when they journey from place to place making use of them in their Tents It should seem to be an ancient Custom in the East as may appear by that Precedent of Sarah when she entertained the Angels who found her in her Tent She took fine meal and did kâ—â—ad it and made Cakes thereof upon the hearth Gen. 18. 6. To their Bread they have great abundance of all other good Provision as of Butter beating their Cream into a substance like unto a thick Oyl for in that hot Climate they can never make it hard which though soft yet it is very sweet and good They have Cheese likewise in plenty by reason of their great number of Kine and Sheep and Goats Besides they have a Beast very large having a smooth thick skin without hair called a Buffelo which gives good milk the flesh of them is like Beef but neither so toothsom nor wholsom These Buffeloes are much employed in carrying large skims of water for they are very strong Beasts which hang on both sides of them unto Families that want it their Hides make the most firm and excellent Buff. They have no want of Venison of divers kinds as Red-Deer Fallow-Deer Elks which are very large and strong and fiercâ— Creatures Antilops Kids c. but their Deer are no where imparked the whole Empire being as it were a Forrest for them for a man can travel no way but he shall here and there see of them But because they are every man's Game that will make them so they do not multiply to do them much hurt either in their Corn or other places To these they have great store of Hares and they have plenty of Fowls wild and tame as abundance of Hens Geese Ducks Pigeons Turtle-Doves Partridges Peacocks Quails and many other singular good Fowl They have variety of Fish all which by reason of their Plenty and because many of the Natives eat no kind of Flesh at all nor of any thing that hath or may have life and those that feed on such things eat not freely of any of those living Creatures they are all bought there at such easie rates as if they were not worth the valuing They do not cut their Chickens when they be little to make Capons and therefore they have no Creatures of that name but men their Eunuchs called there Cogees or Capons in their Language so made when they be very young and then deprived of all that might after provoke jealousie and therefore they are put to be attendants on their women the great men of that Nation keeping many of them a soft tender people tener Spado as Invenal cals one of them that never come to have any Hair on their Faces But to return again to their Provisions the Beeves of that Countrey differ from ours in that they are none of them very large and those they have have each of them a great bunch of grisly flesh which grows upon the meeting of their shoulders The flesh of their Beeves is much whiter than the flesh of ours and very sweet tender and good Their Sheep differ from ours by their great fleshy Bob-tails which severed from their bodies are very ponderous Their Wool is generally coarse but their flesh is not so Now to season all their good Provisions there is great store of Salt and to sweeten all abundance of Sugar growing in that Countrey which after it is well refined may be there had at a very low rate out of which they make very pure white Sugar-Candy which may be had there at a small easie Price likewise Their Fruits are every way answerable to the rest the Countrey abounding in Musk-Melons very much better because they are better digested there by the heat of the Sun than these with us They have many Water-Melons a very choice good Fruit and some of them as big as our ordinary Pompions and in shape like them the substance within this Fruit is spongy but exceeding tender and well-tasted of a colour within equally mixed with red and white and within that an excellent cooling and pleasing liquor Here are likewise store of Pome-granats Pome-citrons here are Limons and Oranges but I never found any there so good as I have seen elswhere Here are Dates Figs Grapes Prunelloes Almonds Coquer-nuts of which I observed something before and here they have those most excellent Plums called Mirabolans the stone of which Fruit differs very much from others in its shape whereon Nature hath curiously quartered several strakes equally divided very pretty to behold many of which choice Plums they write are very cordial and therefore worth the prizing are there well-preserved and sent for England They have to these another Fruit we English there call a Planten of which many of them grow in Clusters together long they are in shape made like unto slender Cucumbers and very yellow when they are Ripe and then taste like unto a Norwich Pear but much better Another most excellent Fruit they have called a Manggo growing upon Trees as big as our Walnut-trees and as these here so those Trees there will be very full of that most excellent Fruit in shape and colour like unto our Apricocks but much bigger which taken and rolled in a man's hands when they are through ripe the substance within them becomes like the pap of a roasted Apple which then suck'd out from about a large stone they have within them is delicately pleasing unto every Palat that tasts it And to conclude with the best of all other their choice Fruits the Amana's like unto our Pine-Apples which seems to the Taster to be a most pleasing Compound made of Straw-berries Claret-wine Rose-water and Sugar well tempered together In the Northermost parts of this Empire they have variety of Pears and Apples every where good Roots as Carrets Potatoes and others like them They have Onions and Garlick and some Herbs
THE TRAVELS OF Sig. Pietro della Valle A Noble ROMAN INTO EAST-INDIA AND Arabia Deserta In which the several Countries together with the Customs Manners Traffique and Rites both Religious and Civil of those Oriental Princes and Nations are faithfully Described In Familiar Letters to his Friend Signior MARIO SCHIPANO Whereunto is Added A Relation of Sir ROE's Voyage into the EAST-INDIES LONDON Printed by I. Macock for Iohn Martin and Iames Allestry and are to be sold at their Shop at the Bell in St Paul's Church-yard 1665. Imprimatur White-hall Iune 4. 1664. WILL. MORICE TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROGER Earl of ORRERY c. My Lord IT is not more commonly then truly observ'd That the Preeminence of Excellent Things is universally attended with a proportionable Result of Benefit to those of Inferior Degree And the same may with equal verity be affirm'd of the Glory of Great Personages Your Names serve not onely to distinguish you or by the Addition of Titles to give you higher rank in the State but like the Sun communicating Light and Life together they animate and beautifie what-ever is irradiated by them Which general Consideration though it could not give me any particular Right yet it may in some sort warrant the sutableness of dedicating this Transcript to your Lordship's Name A Name which besides having been able to revive and support a long-depressed Interest in a Considerable Kingdom is so highly celebrated upon the account of other Performances as scarce to find a Parallel among those of your own or any other Orb. Nor is it a little ground of Confidence to me that what I present is neither wholly my own in any sort nor any of it otherwise then as an Interpreter nor lastly one of those refined Pieces of Invention which while your Protection is implored do with-all folicite your Iudgment But of that kind of Writings which containing Descriptions of Countries and their Customs can onely please by the Variety of the Relations and the Veracity of the Relator He whom I have interpreted was a Noble Roman Persons of which Quality as they have greater Curiosity so they have far more Advantages in reference to making of Observations in Forreign Countries than they whose chief business is Traffick and was carried onely by his own curious Genius into those Oriental parts of the World whereof he here gives an Account which is so full of delightful Variety and considerable Remarks that as after his Return his Person was dignifid with an Honourable Office in the Court of his own Prince so since his Death his Travels have no less happily travell'd and been naturaliz'd in some other Languages The other Piece hath been judg'd fit to be adjoyned as one of the Exactest Relations of the Eastern parts of the World that hitherto hath been publish'd by any Writer either Domestick or Forreign having been penn'd by one that attended Sir Thomas Roe in his Embassy to the Great Mogol Than whom 't is acknowledg'd by one of that Country that trades most into those parts none ever gave a more faithful Account thereof It remaines onely that as by this action I have tâ—ough with all the Modesty that becomes mâ— assum'd an Interest in a Great Name so 〈◊〉 also testifie the Honour and Veneration I bear to Great Worth and Rare Accomplishments which I shall do summarily and yet in the utmost importance of the words by professing my self My Lord Your Lordships in all Humble Respect and Observance G. Havers P. Scipionis Sgambati è Societate Jesu PETRO â VALLE PATRICIO RomanÌ„o Ob cineres Conjugis ex ASIA revectos AeNeadum soboles Albani sanguinis haeres Aeneae proavi quà m bene facta refers Ille senem ex Asia fertur vexisse parentem Ex Asia conjux est tibi ducta comes Par utrique fides esset nisi quòd tua major Est pietas Italûm gloria VALLIADE Ille senem extinctum Siculâ tellure reliquit Tu Romam extinctae conjugis ossa vehis THE TRAVELS OF Peter Della Valle Sirnamed The Traveller Containing a DESCRIPTION of the EAST-INDIES c. LETTER I. From Surà t March 22. Anno 1623. IN the beginning of this year at my departure from Persia I writ last to you from aboard the Ship call'd the Whale in which I was newly embarqu'd upon the coasts of that Country and had not yet begun my Voyage Since which time having sail'd over a good part of the Ocean arriv'd at the famous Countries of India travell'd and view'd no inconsiderable portion thereof by conveniency of the same Ship which brought me hither and is ready to set sail speedily towards Muchà in the Arabian Gulph and the rather for that a German Gentleman a friend of mine is embarqu'd in her with an intention to travel from thence in case he can get passage to see Aethiopia with this Letter which I recommend to him to get transmitted into Italy if possible from those Ports of the Red Sea or by the way of Cairo where they trade or by some other conveyance I come again to give you an Account of my Adventures and the Curiosities which have hitherto afforded delicious repast to my alwayes hungry Intellect To begin therefore Upon Thursday the 19 of Ianuary having dispatch'd and taken order for what was needful a little before day after the discharge of some Guns as 't is the custome at going off from any Coast we began leisurely to display our sails moving but slowly because we waited for the ship-boat which was still at shore upon whose return we unfolded all our Canvase and though with a small gale directed our course between the Islands of Ormuz and Kesom passing on the outer side of Ormuz next Arabia in regard the shallowness of the Channel towards Persia afforded not water enough for such great Ships as ours We were in company only two English Ships namely the Whale which was the Captain-ship in which I was embarqu'd commanded by Captain Nicholas Woodcock and another call'd the Dolphin which had for Captain Master Matthew Willis At noon being near Lareck and no wind stirring we cast Anchor without falling our sails and our Captain sent his long boat a shore to Lareck with two Grey-hounds which the English of Combrù had given him to catch what game they could light upon Towards night we set sail again but though the wind somewhat increas'd yet because the boat was not return'd we struck sail a little and staid for it discharging also several musket-shots to the end those that were in it might hear and see where we were And because 't was one a clock in the night and the Boat was not yet come we doubted some disaster might have befaln it in regard of the multitude of those Arabian Thieves call'd Nouteks which rob upon that Sea and frequently reside in this Island of Lareck Yet at length it return'd safe and sound and brought us abundance of Goats whereupon we again spread our sails freely to
whilst we saw them left behind And they told me that the nearer we came to India we should see more of these things The next Evening our Captain who was a little more merry then ordinary because the Captain of the Dolphin dining with us that day he had drank pretty freely in conversation discoursing with me as he was wont after Supper spoke very frankly to me concerning their affairs of Ormuz In conclusion he told me that their Treaty with the Persians stood thus That if they would deliver to the English the Fortress of Ormuz with half the revenues of the Custom-house and the City as they desir'd from the beginning then the English would people Ormuz and restore the trade as formerly keeping the same continually open with Persia and that for this purpose and also for guarding that Sea against the Portugals and other Enemies they would keep four ships in Ormuz That when this were agreed upon the English would transport a good number of people from England and whole Families with Wives and Children to dwell in Ormuz as the Portugals did before and then they would prosecute the War against the Portugals at Maschat and every where else But if these things were not agreed to they would make War no longer against the Portugals nor car'd they for the Traffick of Persia upon other terms Now should these Treaties take effect they would in no wise be advantagious for the Catholick Religion and were there no more to be fear'd the Portugals would thereby be for ever excluded from recovering Ormuz yea all the rest which they possess in those parts would be in great danger Imanculi Beig who was General of the Persians in the late Wars and with whom the English treated in Combrù concérning this affair Captain Woodcock said inclin'd to the bargain but it was not known what the Chan of Sciraz and which is more important the King would do On one side I know the Persians insisted much upon having Ormuz wholly to themselves accounting it a small matter to have gain'd with so much War and loss of men onely the half or rather less then half the Fortress being deducted which the English demanded for themselves so that the Persians would have but the same interest there as the King of Ormuz had with the Portugals and no more They conceive also that they have done little and perhaps ill should they make no greater acquisition in having onely chang'd the Portugals in Ormuz for the English and Christians for Christians that upon easier terms it might be hop'd that perhaps the Portugals after the loss of Ormuz would agree with the Persians now there was no more to lose and onely give the Persians that which the King of Ormuz a Mahometan like themselves injoy'd Moreover to the Persian no doubt the friendship of the Portugals would be more profitable in regard of the many States which they possess in India from whence they may with more facility and certainty maintain the accustomed Commerce with Persia. But on the other side to see the Portugals so worsted and the English more fortunate at least and couragious if not more strong 't is a clear case that Ormuz will never be reinhabited nor Trade set on foot again unless some Nation of the Franks which have ships and strength at sea reside there things which the Persians wholly want there being neither Mariners nor Timber in Persia about that Sea wherewith to build ships and the loss resulting to Persia by the tinguishing of this Traffick the charge of maintaining the Fortress of Ormuz without any profit and the continual danger of losing it every hour unless the English guard the Sea with their ships and help to defend it these and other like considerations may not improbably induce the King of Persia contented to have demonstrated his power and valor and chastis'd his Enemies the Portugals according to his desire to grant the English as much as they demand For he should not yield it to them upon force but out of his liberality and for his own profit give them that freely which to retain to himself as things now stand would not onely be of no advantage but of loss Peradventure he may also imagine now in the pride of his victory that as with help of the English he has driven the Portugals out of Ormuz so 't will be easie for him to expel the English too either by the help of others or else by his own Forces alone should they not comply with him However because these Treaties with the Persian are manag'd by the Company of Merchants who also made the War and not by the King of England and hitherto 't is not known whether their King approve the fact or no and will prosecute or let fall the enterprize therefore for a total conclusion besides the consent of the King of Persia they also wait the determination of the King of England and the greatest hope I have of the defeating of these projects so prejudicial to the Catholicks is this alone that the English King will not meddle in them and perhaps also prohibit his Subjects so to do as a person whom we know to be a Friend to Peace most averse from all kind of War especially with the King of Spain while the Match of his Son with the Daughter of Spain is in agitation In the mean time we began to find the Sea sufficiently rough being got wholly out of the Persian Gulph and enter'd into the open Sea term'd by the Ancients Mare rubrum and by us at this day the Southern Ocean and having pass'd not onely the Cape of Giasck but also that of Arabia which the Portugals vulgarly call Rosalgate as it is also set down in the Maps but properly ought to be call'd Ras el had which in the Arabian Tongue signifies Capo del fine or the Cape of the Confine because 't is the last of that Country and is further then any other extended into the Sea like that of Galicia in our Europe which for the same reason we call Finis Terrae On Saturday the 28. of Ianuary having taken the meridional altitude of the Sun according to daily custom and made such detraction of degrees as was necessary we found our selves twenty three degrees five minutes distant from the Equinoctial towards the North whence by consequence we had pass'd the Tropick of Cancer twenty six minutes and a half according to the opinion of the Moderns who reckon the Sun 's greatest declination where the Tropicks are twenty three degrees thirty one minutes and a half distant from the Equinoctial During the succeeding dayes we sail'd with a brisk but favourable wind and with a Sea not tempestuous but something rough Every day about the hour of noon the Sun's altitude was infallibly observ'd not onely by the Pilots as the custom is in all ships and the Captain who was a good Seaman and perform'd all the exercises of Art very well but which
him but sent him a Letter in justification of my self with all the civil expressions I could devise At first he was something backward to receive it doubting perchance that I had written angerly to him in regard of my preceding visit yet at length upon the request of some mediators whom I made use of he took it read it and remain'd very well satisfied with my proceedings in which there was nothing but gentleness The Commendator likewise being one of an excellent nature us'd all means he could to give the President satisfaction and to shew him that what he had done with us was to no ill end he went purposely to visit him carrying Sig Alberto with him to the end he might justifie himself too both of them intreated and both of them took the blame upon themselves in fine so much was done and said that the President was reconcil'd with all And because it was insisted on my behalf that he would admit a visit from me he consented upon this condition that this first time should not be simply my visit but his invitation which accordingly he made to us to come all together that night to supper with him where he treated us very splendidly and every thing ended in jollity and friendship as at first And all the while that I stay'd at Surà t he oblig'd me continually with sundry demonstrations of his affection particularly by often sending his own Coach to me with his Interpreter who is an Armenian Christian and a Catholick call'd Scander Brother to F. Agostino Bagiezzi of Alingia a Dominican my acquaintance in Persia which Interpreter being skill'd in the Country and conversing with me in the Persian Tongue carry'd me frequently abroad to see sundry things As for the Hollanders the caresses and civilities which they have done and still continue to me are so numerous that I shall have them in remembrance as long as I live But 't is time now to speak a little of this City and the curiosities which here and elsewhere I have lately seen The City of Surà t is of a handsome greatness and for these Countries of sufficiently good building 'T is very populous as all other Cities and places are in India which every where abounds with people The Inhabitants are partly Gentiles and partly Mahometans and if I am not deceived the former are the greater number However they live all mixt together and peaceably because the Gran Moghol to whom Guzarà t is now subject having sometimes had a distinct King although he be a Mahometan but not a pure one as they report makes no difference in his Dominions between the one sort and the other and both in his Court and Armies and even amongst men of the highest degree they are of equal account and consideration Yet the Mahometans as the Masters especially those of the Mogholian Race which now is the Imperial in these parts seems to have some little more of authority But forasmuch as I have formerly survey'd and observ'd the manners of the Mahometans both in Turkey and Persia I now turn my mind to those of the Gentile-Idolaters in India which are more new to me and with such observations in reference to both as shall seem worthy of notice I shall not fail to acquaint you In the first place I shall give you the relation of a Nuptial Pomp which I saw one day pass by my house in this manner A long train of men with Drums and Trumpets before them march'd in the day time first carrying cover'd baskets full of sundry things which were either a Present sent from the Bridegroom to the Bride or rather the attiring of the Bride which uses to be publickly shewn in the East Then follow'd on foot likewise some black Women-slaves well cloth'd being given to the Bride either by the Father or the Husband Lastly to conclude the Pomp came a Palanchino a kind of Litter wherein persons of quality are wont to be carry'd in India It was not of the ordinary form which hang downwards upon one pole between the bearers before and behind but it was to be carry'd on high upon poles by four men one at each corner and it was cover'd all over with silk yet no body was within it so that I know not what it serv'd for unless haply it was intended to transport the Bride to her Husband this different fashion being for greater solemnity made use of in such an occasion as Marriage At night the married couples pass'd by and according to their mode went round about the City with a numerous company They were four all very small Children two boys and two girls for in India most Marriages are made at that age and because they were not big enough to ride on Horse-back alone therefore they were held up by so many well-grown men who sat upon the saddle Before them went many Torches and Musical instruments with a great troop of people on foot accompanying them But the persons of quality follow'd in Coaches of which there was a good number and going one by one they made a very long train whereby it was known that the married Children were of considerable quality Of remarkable things without the City there is on one side a very large Cistern or Artificial Pool surrounded with stone-work and contriv'd with many sides and angles at which there are stairs leading down to the surface of the water In the midst stands a little Island which cannot be gone to but by boat or swimming The Diametre of this Artificial Lake is two good furlongs which in our parts would seem a competent largeness but here 't is not much and this Fish-pond of Surà t is not accounted among the greatest but the least in India where indeed they are numerous and the most magnificent and goodly structures or rather the only structures in this Country which have any thing of magnificence or handsomeness They are made in divers places by Princes Governours of Countries or other wealthy persons for the publick benefit and as works of Charity because the soil sutable to the Climate is sufficiently hot and aboundeth not in water Rivers are not in all places and other running waters and springs there are scarce any especially in the more in-land parts remote from the Sea Rain likewise very seldome through the whole year saving in that season call'd by them Pausecà l which signifies The time of rain being about three moneths beginning about the middle of Iune and during which time the Rain is continual and very great whence some upon this account call these three moneths Winter although the weather be then hottest as well in India as in all the rest of the northern Hemisphere And this no doubt proceeds from the Providence of God since were it not for this great rain India would be in regard of the great heat and drought at this time unhabitable as likewise the whole torrid Zone in which most of India lies was believ'd by the Ancients who had
Knight-hood although it be that Cross than which there cannot be a greater Cognizance of Christian Religion albeit 't is worn by those Knights as a token of Nobility too 'T is enough that the Jesuits think their opinion abundantly confirm'd by the two abovesaid Reasons namely that it is rather a sign of Nobility then a Cognizance of Religion And although the same is conferr'd with many superstitious Ceremonies yet they will not have it taken away alledging for example that the Crosses of our Knights however Ensignes of Nobility are given with many Ceremonies and Rites of our sacred Religion the more to authorize them Whence it appears that the use of this Ribban may be without scruple permitted to the Indians provided these superstitious Ceremonies be lay'd aside and especially the End in which alone consists the sin changing it in that manner as the ancient Christians chang'd many Festivals and superstitions of the Gentiles into Festivals of Martyrs and other pious Commemorations And this may be done by applying e. g. the signification of the three Braids to the most Holy Trinity or in some such manner turning it to a pious and lawful use Nevertheless those of the contrary party impugn this opinion with no bad Reasons they say 't is a thing in it self of its own nature wholly unlawful to Christians as being perfectly a Gentile-superstition which is prov'd by the Ceremonies and words us'd in conferring it and that for the three Braids 't is well known they hold and wear them in honour of three of their chief false Gods and that although they be Ensigns of Nobility in the wearer yet they are withall and principally a manifest Cognizance of their Religion as Crosses are amongst our Knights wherewith who ever hath the same on his breast not onely ostentates his Nobility but also firmly profess the Christian Faith That the Gentile-Kings having honour'd with this Ensign some Mahometan their Vassal and remaining a Mahometan is no more then as if in our Countries we should grant to some Jew the priviledge of wearing a black Hat without becoming a Christian which may be done by way of dispensation and yet it cannot be deny'd but that the wearing a black one or a yellow is besides the matter of credit a Cognizance also of the Religion or Sect which a man professes Many other Reasons they alledge which I do not well remember and which no doubt will be narrowly examin'd at Rome What the determination will be I shall know more certainly at Goa and for the present thus much may suffice concerning the Opinions and Rites of the Indian-Gentiles Now in pursuance of the Narration of my Travells I am to tell you that after the seeing of the Temple and visiting the Brachman abovesaid the same day which was Saturday the 25th of February upon occasion of a Cafila or Caravan which was setting forth from Cambaia to Ahmedabà d which is the Royal Seat and Head of the whole Kingdom of Guzarà t we namely Sig Alberto Scilling and my self with our attendants were desirous to see that City and since the insecurity of the wayes allow'd us not to go alone we resolv'd to go with the Cafila And because at the same time another Cafila was setting forth for Surà t in which some of the Hollanders residing at Cambaia went with their goods which they carry'd thither in order to be shipt we all went out of the Town together and in a place without the Gate and the Suburbs were the wayes divided under the shade of certain great Trees of Tamarinds which the Indians call Hambelè where also are certain Sepulchres and a Mahometan Meschita or Temple unroof'd and without walls about saving a little wall at the front and a place markt where prayers are to be made of which sort of Meschita's many are seen in India especially in the Country we entertain'd our selves a good while with the Dutch being diverted with Musick singing and dancing by the same Women which we had the night before at our house At length taking leave they took their way towards Surà t and Sig Alberto and I with our company towards Ahmedabà d going a little out of the way to see another very famous Temple of Mahadeù The Fabrick is small and inconsiderable within there is no other Idol but that of Mahadeù which is no other but a little column or pillar of stone thicker below then at top and which diminishing by degrees ends at the top in a round Whatever 't is that would signifie thereby the name of Mahadeù they in their language is properly interpreted Great God But we had enough to laugh at when we heard that this Idol was held by the Country people for a worker of miracles and amongst other of his miracles they relate that he grows every day and becomes bigger hourly affirming that many years since he was no higher then a span or little more and now he is above two and perhaps three and thus he continues increasing every day a folly not to be believ'd but by such fools as themselves Having seen this Temple we overtook our Cafila at a Town call'd Saimà three miles distant from Cambaia where we all lodg'd that night The next Morning being Sunday the Cafila which consisted of above a hundred Coaches besides foot-men and horse-men and great loaden Wagons set forth three hours before day and staying not to rest any where according to the custom of the East which is to make but one bout of a days journey having travell'd fifteen Cos by noon or little later we lodg'd at a Town call'd Mà ter where we saw an infinite number of Squirrels leaping amongst the trees every where they were small white and with a tail less and not so fair as those of our Countries On Monday about two hours before day we resum'd our Voyage When it was day we saw upon the way every where abundance of wild Monkies of which almost all the Trees were full They put me in mind of that Army of Monkies which the Souldiers of Alexander the Great beholding upon certain Hills a far off and taking to be Menintended to have charg'd had not Taxilus inform'd them what they were as Strabo relates We found abundance of people too upon the way begging alms with the sound of a Trumpet which almost every one had and sounded and most of them were arm'd with Bows and Arrows two things sufficiently uncouth for beggars and indeed not be suffer'd by Governours since these Ruffians under pretext of begging rob frequently upon the way when they meet persons alone and unarm'd which having weapons themselves they may easily do This County was almost all woody the ground unmeasurably dusty to the great trouble of Travellers the High-ways were all enclos'd on the sides with high hedges of a plant always green and unfruitful not known in Europe and having no leaves but instead thereof cover'd with certain long and slender branches almost like our Sparagus but bigger
Religion call'd Melik Amber administers the State in his stead and that with such authority that at this day this Territory is more generally known and call'd by the name of Melick's Country then the Kingdom of Nizam-Scià h Nevertheless this Melik Amber governs not fraudulently and with design to usurp by keeping the King shut up as I have sometimes heard but according as I have better understood since from persons inform'd nearer hand he administers with great fidelity and submission towards the young King to whom nevertheless they say he hath provided or already given to Wife a Daughter of his own upon security that himself shall be Governour of the whole State as long as he lives This Melik Amber is a Man of great parts and fit for government but as they say very impious addicted to Sorcery whereby 't is thought that he keeps himself in favour with his King and that for works of Inchantments as to make prodigious buildings and with good luck that the same may last perpetually and succeed well he hath with certain Superstitions us'd in those Countries committed most horrid impieties and cruelties killing hundreds of his Slave's Children and others and offering them as in Sacrifice to the invok'd Devils with other abominable stories which I have heard related but because not seen by my self I affirm not for true The Ambassador of this Nizam-Scià h in Persia is that Hhabese Chan an Abyssine also whom I saw at my being there Of strange things they relate that Nizam-Scià h hath I know not where in his Country a piece of Ordnance so vast that they say it requires 15000. pound of Powder to charge it that the Ball it carries almost equals the height of a Man that the metal of the piece is about two spans thick and that it requires I know not how many thousand Oxen besides Elephants to move it which therefore is useless for war and serves onely for vain pomp Nevertheless this King so esteems it that he keeps it continually cover'd with rich cloth of Gold and once a year comes in person to do it reverence almost adoring it and indeed although these Kings are Moors yet they still retain much of the ancient Idolatry of the Countries wherein Mahometism is little or not yet universally setled The second of the three pety Kings whose Country joyns to that of the Moghòl but borders upon the Sea Eastward in the Gulph of Bengala is he who for the same reasons mention'd concerning Nizam-Scià h is call'd by the hereditary sirname of Cutb-Scià h which some erroneously expound Polo d' i Rè the Pole of Kings being deceiv'd by the Arabick word Cutb which signifies the Pole and is us'd by the Arabians and Persians to denote supream excellency understanding e. g. by Polo de i Savii ò di Sapienza The Pole of Wise-men or of Wisdom the wisest Man in the world by Polo di Santità o della Legge The Pole of Sanctity and the Law the greatest pitch and the highest observer of the divine Law and so in all other like Cases but I say I believe they are mistaken and there seems to me more truth in the exposition of others who interpret Rè de i Cani King of Dogs from Cutb which in the Language of India signifies a Dog because he was Master of the Dogs to that supream King Under his jurisdiction is Gulcondalà r where I think he hath his Royal Seat and Mislipatan a famous Port in the Gulph of Bengala Lastly the third of the three Reguli is he who hath his Seat in Visapor and reigns in the Country of Telongane bordering upon the Portugals Territories at Goa more Southwards then the two before mention'd Some will have Visapor and Goa belong to the Province of Dacà n and that Telenga much more remote toward the South The truth is India and the Provinces thereof is very confus'd forasmuch as the Indians themselves being illiterate cannot distinguish it aright and the Portugals have all their knowledge thereof from the vulgar of the ignorant Indians whose Language they understand not well and extreamly corrupt in pronuntiations therefore I cannot speak any thing certain concerning the same as neither have the Portugal Writers been able to do though persons very exact and sufficient But to return to my purpose the proper name of him that now reigns is Ibrahim but his hereditary sirname as the others is Adil-Scià h or Idal Scià h which signifies not giusto Rè a Iust King as some think from the Arabick word Adil denoting Iust but rather in my opinion as some others say Rè delle Chiavi King of the Keys from Adil or Idal an Indian word importing Keys he having been in times pass'd Superintendent of the Keys of the Treasury perhaps or Archives under the supream King Sometimes these Princes have been call'd Nizam-maluk Adil-Chan and so the other 's with the words either Melek or Chan in stead of Scià h which is all one for Melek or Maluk as some corruptly read signifies a King in Arabick as Chan doth also in Turkish and Scià h in Persian And because these three Languages are sufficiently familiar and almost common to the Moors therefore they have us'd sometimes one word sometimes another but in later times it seems that those who now rule rejecting the words Melek and Chan are better pleas'd with the Persian Title Scià h as being perhaps more modern to them whence they are ordinarily call'd now Nizam-Scià h Cutb-Scià h and Adil-Scià h which are the three Princes of whom I undertook to give an account as persons whom I shall have frequent occasion to mention in these Writings And to leave nothing unsaid I shall add that Nizam-Scià h or rather his Governour Melik-Ambar makes war frequently and bravely against the Great Moghòl upon whom he borders Cutb-Scià h I know not whether he actually makes publick war against him but at least he fails not to assist his Neighbour Nizam-Scià h with money The same doth also Adil-Scià h but secretly and by under-hand not daring through I know not what mean fear declare himself an enemy to the Moghòl I say mean fear because not bordering upon him for the two other Princes lye between them and being able as they say upon occasion to bring into the field a hundred thousand men he seems justly chargeable with timerousness and cowardice since me-thinks he that hath a hundred thousand men at his command ought not to fear the whole world or if he doth he is a very Poltron But indeed Adil Scià h fears the Moghòl yea he fears and observes him so much that he payes him an annual Tribute and when the Moghòl sends any Letter to him which is always brought by some very ordinary common Souldier or Slave he goeth forth with his whole Army to meet the Letter and him that brings it who being conducted to the Palace sits down there whilst Adil-Scià h stands all the time and the Letter being lay'd upon a Carpet on the pavement before he offers to put forth his
Fire-works throughout the City And in favour of them the chief Portugals went the same night up and down the streets in a great Troop clad in several disguises after the manner of a Mascherade I also bore a part in the solemnity out of my devotion to the new Saint and according to the liberty which every one took of habiting himself as he pleas'd I put my self into the garb of an Arabian Gentleman of the Desart which was accounted very brave and gallant I accompany'd with Sig Antonino Son of Sig Antonio Paraccio my friend a youth of about twelve years old who was one of those who went in the day time to the Vice-Roy and I cloth'd him in a Persian Habit of mine which I had brought from Persia or rather like a noble Chizilbase Souldier very odd and brave so that we two were a sufficiently delightful spectacle to the whole City May the one and twentieth In the Morning the Bare-footed Fathers sung in their Church a solemn Mass in gratiarum actionem for the above-said Canonization of Santa Teresia upon whose praises an Augustine Father made an eloquent Sermon the Vice-Roy and a multitude of people being present thereat May the three and twentieth The Sun entring into Gemini I observ'd that the Rain begun in Goa and it happens not alike in all the Coast of India for it begins first in the more Southerly parts of Capo Comorni and follows afterwards by degrees according as places extend more to the North so that in Cambaia and other more northern parts it begins later then in Goa and the further any place lyes North the later it begins there Whence it comes to pass that in the Persian Ephemerides or Almanacks they use to set down the beginning of Parscecal or the time of Rain in India at the fifteenth of their third moneth call'd Cordad which falls upon the third of our Iune because they have observ'd it in the more Northern parts of India as in Cambaia Surà t and the like where the Persians have more commerce then in other more Southern places In Goa likewise for the most part the beginning of the Rain is in the first days of Iune yet sometimes it anticipates and sometimes falls something later with little difference 'T is observ'd by long experience that this Rain in India after having lasted some days at first ceases and there return I know not how many days of fair weather but those being pass'd it begins again more violent then ever and continues for a long time together By this Rain as I observ'd the heat diminisheth and the Earth which before was very dry and all naked becomes cloth'd with new verdure and various colours of pleasant flowers and especially the Air becomes more healthful sweet and more benigne both to sound and infirm The arm of the Sea or River which encompasses the Island of Goa and is ordinarily salt notwithstanding the falling of the other little fresh Rivers into it with the inundation of great streams which through the great Rain flow from the circumjacent Land is made likewise wholly fresh whence the Country-people who wait for this time derive water out of it for their Fields of Rice in the Island of Goa and the neighbouring parts which being temper'd with this sweet moisture on a suddain become all green Iune the first I spoke first to the Vice-Roy of Goa Don Francesco da Gama Count of Bidigucira Admiral of the Indian Sea and Grand-son of that D. Vasco de Gama who discover'd East-India in which this Don Francesco was sometimes Vice-Roy and was once taken captive in Africa with King Sebastian I delay'd seeing him so long because I was busi'd for a Moneth after my arrival in changing my Habit and providing a House so that I went not abroad besides that the Vice-Roy was likewise employ'd many days after in dispatching the Fleets which went to China and Zeilan and after they were gone he retir'd to a place out of Goa to recreate himself for many days so that I had no opportunity sooner I presented to him two Letters from Rome which I brought directed to his Predecessor in my recommendation one from Sig Cardinal Crescentio and the other from the Duke of Albaquerque then Ambassador at Rome for the Catholick King and he without reading them in my presence said that without that recommendation he should have express'd all fiting Civilities to me and that he was glad to see and know me with many other Complements and courteous offers He had no long discourse with me because many other Portugal Gentlemen of the Council and other persons of the Government expected to have Audience but when I went away he told F. Morigad the Jesuit his Confessor who introduc'd me that at a more convenient opportunity he desir'd to talk with me more at length of the things of Persia and that he would send for me and in the mean time desir'd a writing in discourse which I had made a few days before concerning the Warrs of Persia of which his said Confessor who had seen it had given him notice wherefore I gave it to him with my own hand as I had written it in my Native Tuscan Tongue and F. Morigad gave him the Translation of it made by himself into the Portugal Tongue being the Vice-Roy did not understand the Italian Iune the ninth In the Colledge of the Jesuits was pronounc'd as 't is the custom every year a Latin Oration for the Inchoation of the Readings which the vacations being ended with the hot weather begin again with the Rain and cool weather Letters from some Banians were brought to Goa signifying that the Moghòl had enounter'd with his Rebel Sultà n Chorròm and routed him and that Sultà n Chorròm after his defeat was retir'd to a strong hold in the top of a Mountain which they call Mandâ— and that his Father had besieg'd them there Iune the four and twentieth being the Feast of Saint Iohn Baptist The Vice-Roy with many other Portugal persons of quality as 't is the yearly custom in Goa rode through the City in Habits of Masquert but without Vizards two and two alike or three and three and having heard Mass in the Church of Saint Iohn he came into the street of Saint Paul which they are wont to call La Carriera de' Cavalli and is the best place in Goa Here after many Companies of Canarine Christians of the Country had march'd by with their Ensignes Drums and Arms leaping and playing along the streets with their naked Swords in their Hands for they are all Foot at length all the Cavaliers run two carriers on Horse-back one downwards from the Church of Saint Paul towards the City and the other upwards running matches of two to two or three to three according as their attire agreed with their Morisco Cymiters and at last they came all down marching together in order â—â—d so went to the Piazza of the Vice-Roys Palace and so the solemnity ended
I stood to see this shew in the same street of Saint Paul in the House of one whom they call King of the Islands of Maldiva or Maladiva which are an innumerable company of small Islands almost all united together lying in a long square form towards the West not far from the Coast of India of which Islands one of this Man's Ancestors was really King but being driven out of his Dominion by his own people fled to the Portugals and turn'd Christian with hopes of recovering his Kingdom by their help Yet the Portugals never attempted any thing in his behalf and so he and his descendents remain depriv'd of the Kingdom enjoying onely the naked Title which the Portugals being now ally'd to him still give him and because many Merchants Ships come from those Islands to trade in the Ports of the Portugals they force the said Ships to pay a small matter of Tribute to him as their lawful Sovereign of which though the Governours of Ports to whom upon necessity he must entrust purloin above half from him nevertheless he gets at this day by it about three thousand Crowns yearly and therewith supports himself The like Fates have befallen many other Princes in India who hoping in the Portugals have found themselves deluded Wherein Reason of State is but ill observ'd by the Portugals because by this proceeding they have discourag'd all others from having confidence in them whereas had they assisted and protected them as they ought and might easily and with small charge have done upon sundry fair occasions they would by this time have got the love of all India and themselves would by the strength and help of their Friends undoubtedly have become more potent as also without comparison more fear'd by their Enemies Iune the nine and twentieth This year the Moors began their Ramadhan according to the Rules of my Calculation Iuly the five and twentieth being the Feast of Saint Iames the Protector of Spain was solemnis'd with the same gallantry of Cariers and Dresses as are above describ'd saving that the Vice-Roy heard Mass in the Church of St. Iames. In the Evening I went with Sig Ruy Gomez Boraccio a Priest and Brother of Sig Antonio Baroccio to the Church of Saint Iames which stands somewhat distant without the City upon the edge of the Island towards the main Land of Adil-Scià h which is on the other side of a little River or Arm of the Sea For which reason the Island is in this as well as many other dangerous places fortifi'd with strong walls and here there is a Gate upon the pass which is almost full of people going and coming from the main Land and is call'd by the Indians Benastarni by which name some of our Historians mention it in their writings concerning these parts as Osorius Maffaeus c. which Gate as likewise many others which are upon divers places of passage about the Island is guarded continually with Souldiers commanded by a Captain who hath the care thereof and for whom there is built a fine House upon the walls of the Island which in this place are very high forming a kind of Bastion or rather a Cavaliero or mount for Ordnance not very well design'd but sufficiently strong wherein are kept pieces of Artillery for defence of the place We went to visit the said Captain who was then Sig Manoel Pereira de la Gerda and from the high Balconies of his House and the Bastion we enjoy'd the goodly prospect of the Fields round about both of the Island and the Continent being discernable to a great distance The Captain entertain'd us with the Musick of his three Daughters who sung and play'd very well after the Portugal manner upon the Lute after which we return'd home About the Church of Saint Iames are some few habitations in form of a little Town which is also call'd Santiago and the way from thence to the City is a very fine walk the Country being all green and the way-sides beset with Indian Nut-trees which the Portugals call Palms and their fruit Cocco the Gardens and Houses of Pleasure on either side contributing to the delightfulness thereof being full of sundry fruit-trees unknown to us as also because in Winter-time the very walls of the Gardens are all green with moss and other herbs growing there which indeed is one of the pleasantest sights that I have seen in my days and the rather because 't is natural and without artifice The same happens I believe not in this Island onely but in all the Region round about In the field adjoyning to the City near the ruines of a deserted building once intended for a Church but never finish'd is a work of the Gentiles sometimes Lords of this Country namely one of the greatest Wells that ever I beheld round and about twenty of my Paces in Diametre and very deep it hath Parapets or Walls breast-high round about with two Gates at one of which is a double pair of stairs leading two ways to the bottom to fetch water when it is very low Iuly the six and twentieth I went out of the City to a place of pleasure in the Island where was a Church of Saint Anna to which there was a great concourse of people because it was her Festival This Church stands very low built amongst many Country dwellings partly of the Islanders who live there and partly of the Portugals who have Houses of Pleasure there to spend a moneth for recreation The place is very delightful amongst Palmetoes and Groves of other Trees and the way leading to it is extreamly pleasant all cover'd with green After I had heard Mass here Sig Giovanni da Costa de Menecas a Friend of mine whom I found there carry'd me to dine with him at the House of a Vicar or Parish-Priest of another Church not far distant and of small Building which they call Santa Maria di Loreto where we spent the whole day in conversation with the said Vicar and other Friends At night because it rain'd I caus'd my self to be carry'd home in one of those Carriages which the Portugals call Rete being nothing else but a net of cords ty'd at the head and feet and hanging down from a great Indian Cane in which Net which is of the length of a Man and so wide that opening in the middle for the two ends are ty'd fast to the Cane 't is capable of one person a Man lyes along very conveniently with a cushion under his head although somewhat crooked to wit with the feet and head advanc'd towards the Ligatures and the middle part of the body more pendulous under the Cane which is carry'd upon the shoulders of two men before and two behind if the person be light or the way short two Men onely bear it one before and the other behind These Nets are different from the Palanchini and the Andòr for in these from the Cane hang not nets but litters like little beds upon
that Ormùz and Kesciome are extreamly well fortifi'd by the Moors September the six and twentieth Sig Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa Ambassador in Persia from the Catholick King in my time who by reason of sundry accidents and the oppositions of the Portugals to him as to a Castilian as himself saith or as other say because it was his own mind to do so since the year before being sent away in a Petache or Shallop according to his own desire he return'd back for fear of a tempest though without reason had never return'd home into Spain to his King but when I arriv'd in India I found him at Goa where we became acquainted together and coming to visit me one day amongst other things whereof we discours'd he told me that he had heard a while since that the Prior of Savoy to wit the Duke of Savoy's Son who is a Prior was made Vice-Roy of Sicily and Generalissimo of that Sea for his Catholick Majesty Which was News to me and as a rare and unaccustom'd thing for the Spaniards to place Italians in governments of States in Italy I was not unwilling to take notice of September the thirtieth At evening the Dominicans with the Fryers of the Society del Rosario made a goodly Procession in Goa with abundance of Coaches and Images cloth'd after their manner and richly adorn'd with many Jewels all the streets where it pass'd being strew'd with green herbs and flowers and the windows hung with Tapistry and rich Carpets to which shew which is yearly made for the Feast of the Rosary which is upon the first Sunday of October the whole City was gather'd together This great Procession they make the Eve before the Feast after Vespers and in the morning of the Feast they make another less one onely about the Gate of the Church but with the same pomp and besides with the most Holy Sacrament October the tenth The Vice-Roy of Goa dispatch'd Sig Gio Fernandez Leiton my Friend Ambassador to the Gentile-Prince whose Dominion in the Kingdom of Province of Canarà more Southernly then Goa borders upon Onòr and the other Territories of the Portugals in those maritime parts This Prince Venk-tapà Naieka was sometimes Vassal and one of the Ministers of the great King of Vidià -Nagà r which the Portugals corruptly call Bisnagà but after the down-fall of the King of Vidià -Nagà r who a few years ago by the Warrs rais'd against him by his Neighbours lost together with his life a great part of his Dominion and became in a manner extinct Venk-tapà Naieka as also many other Naieki who where formerly his Vassals and Ministers remain'd absolute Prince that part of the State whereof he was Governour which also being a good Souldier he hath much enlarg'd having seiz'd by force many Territories of divers other Naieki and pety Princes his Neighbours and in brief is grown to that reputation that having had Warr with the Portugals too and given them a notable defeat he is now held for their Friend and for the establishment of this Friendship they send this Embassage to him in the Name of the King of Portugal the Ambassador being styl'd Ambassador of the State of India and though he is sent by the Vice-Roy nevertheless as their custom is he carries Letters written in the name of the King himself to do the more honour to Venk-tapà Nieka to whom he is sent This is the first Ambassador sent to this Prince in the King of Portugal's Name for before in Occurrences which fell out an Ambassador was sent only in the name of some one of those Captains and Governours of the Portugal Territories which had business with him and this was sent in answer to an Ambassador of his who hath been long at Goa negotiating with the Vice-Roy the establishment of the said Friendship The Ambassador of Venk-tapà Naieka is a Brachman call'd Vitulà Sinai and having taken his leave of the Vice-Roy the two Ambassadors departed together at this time I having been some dayes before inform'd of this intended Embassie and being desirous to see some Country of the Gentiles where themselves bore sway and observ'd their Rites without any subjection to Christians or Moors or Princes of different Religion as in those Lands which I had hitherto seen I offer'd my self to accompany my Friend Sig Gio Fernandez Leiton in this Embassie and he hath been pleas'd to testifie very great liking of my company So that I am to take Ship with him within three days which will be the thirteenth or fourteenth of this present moneth of October I hope I shall find matter wherewith to feed our Curiosity and to give you an entertainment In the mean time I heartily salute all our Friends at Naples and most affectionately kiss your Hands From Goa October 10. 1623. LETTER IV. From Onòr Octob. 30. 1623. BEing departed from Goa and arriv'd at this Port of Onòr I shall give you some account of what hath hapned in my observation during the few days since the last that I writ to you October the tenth which because I understood lay still at Goa with the two Ships which were to go thence for Persia I have thought fit to send this to accompany it and I hope you will receive both of them together and that not without some small delectation with my News inasmuch as I am pleas'd in writing to you from several places and when I can get opportunity from those very places which afford the novelties and matters whereof I write which therefore may possibly be more grateful in the reception as being native of the Country I took Ship with our Portugal Ambassador and Sig Gio Fernandez Leiton about Evening October the fourteenth and departing from Goa we remov'd to a Town call'd Pangi in the same Island but lower near the place where the River enters into the Sea and whither the Vice-Roys use to retire themselves frequently to a House of Pleasure which they have there besides many other like Houses of private persons upon the River likewise and where also at the mouth of the Sea or Bar as they speak which is a little lower almost all Fleets that depart from Goa are wont to set sail We might have perform'd this journey by Land along the Sea-cast passing along the other Lands of Adil-Scià h till we came to those of Venk-tapà Naieka But to avoid expences and occasions of disgustwith many Governours of those Territories subject to Adil-Scià h who sometimes are little courteous and impertinent the Vice-Roy would have us go by Sea and for more security sent five of those light Frigats or Galeots which the Portugals call Sangessis to accompany us as far as Onòr where we were to land So that we were in all ten Ships or Galeots to wit one which carry'd the Portugal Ambassador and us an other in which the Naieka's Ambassador the Brachman went three others laden with the baggage of the two Ambassadors and particularly with Horses and other
took divers strong places and perform'd other exploits in India for the service of his King with great valour I would not depart without first visiting him and making my self known to him This Prelate is call'd Frà Don Sebastiano di San Pietro and is an Augustine Fryer We discours'd above an hour together concerning things of India Persia and other matters and I recommended to him with the F. Confessor the Augustine Fathers of his Religion in Persia giving him an account of their necessities and how he might help them Night being come I went to make a Collation in the House of Sig ri Barocci and when it was grown dark I return'd to imbark in the Ship which expected me and went to the Town of Pangi to find Sig Gio Fernandez and my other Companions who were very glad at my return with the Vice-Roy's Licence so favourable and courteous to me because they were loath to have gone without me and so I slept with them that night in the same House My charge Marià m Tinatin went not with me this journey because it was not expedient being I was to return to Goa but stay'd still in the House of Sig ra Lena da Cugna onely Cacciatùr went with me to serve me October the fifteenth A little before night we were ready to set sail had not we been necessitated to stay for certain Mariners till the next Morning when we went to hear Mass in a Church of Saint Agnes belonging to the Augustine Fryers and standing in the Island of Goa after which being imbark'd we stay'd a while longer waiting for the Brachman Ambassador for what reason I know not unless perhaps he was minded to make us stay for him as we had made him stay for us At length being got out of the mouth of the River we continu'd sailing all night but with a small wind Our course was always Southward almost directly and we coasted along the land at a little distance October the sixteenth In the Morning we discern'd four Ships of Malabar Rovers near the shore they call them Paroes and they go with Oars like Galeots or Foists we gave them chase for above an hour intending to fight them but we could not overtake them onely we lost much time and much of our way Night came upon us near certain Rocks or uninhabited little Islands which they call Angediva which signifies in the Language of the Country Five Islands they being so many in number We found fresh water in one of them they are all green and have some Trees We set sail from thence the same night but had little or no wind and violent rain October the seventeenth Continuing our course the next day with a very small gale we saw the bound of the States of Adil-Scià h and Venk-tapà Naieka which is onely a brackish River such as are frequent upon the Coast of India The wind was but small still so that all this day we could not arrive at Onòr but when it was night because 't is no good entring into the Port of Onòr in the dark and with ebbing water as it was now we cast Anchor and remain'd all night under an uninhabited small Rock which they call the Rock of Onòr After mid-night the Tide began to flow but yet we stirr'd not October the eighteenth About break of day we mov'd along and by the help of Oars finish'd the remainder of the way arriving at Onòr in good time This whole Voyage from Goa to Onòr is not above eighteen Leagues but it took us up so much time because we had onely a very small wind Onòr is a small place by the Sea-side but a good Port of indifferent capacity which is form'd by two arms of Rivers which I know not whether both from one or several heads running one Southward and the other Northward meet at the Fortress and are discharg'd with one mouth into the Sea The habitations are rather Cottages then Houses built under a thick Grove of Palms to wit those which produce the Indian Nuts call'd by the Portugals Coco and by the Arabians Narghil But the Fortress is of a competent circuit though the walls are not very well design'd being just as the Portugals found them made by the people of the Country It stands upon a high Hill of free stone and being very capacious not onely the Captain lives there but most of the married and principal Portugals have Houses in it very well accommodated with Wells Gardens and other conveniencies The streets within the Fortress are large and fair besides a great Piazza sufficient to contain all the people of the place in time of a siege There are likewise two Churches one dedicated to Saint Catherine and the other to Saint Anthony but ordinarily there is but one Priest in Onòr who is the Vicar of the Arch-Bishop of Goa and therefore in Lent other religious persons always go thither Out of the Fort in the Country is the Bazar or Market but a small one and of little consideration nothing being found therein but what is barely necessary for sustenance of the inhabitants Our Ambassador Sig Gio Fernandez lodg'd with us not in the Fort but without in the House of a private man and I believe it was because he had rigorous Orders from the Vice-Roy against the Captain and Commission to redress many Disorders which he had committed in his Government especially to compose matters between him and the people of the Country as also between him and the Vicar betwixt whom there were great Disorders the fault of which was charg'd upon the Captain When we were setled in our House first the Vicar call'd F. Henrico Rabelo and afterwards the Captain call'd Sig r Don Christoforo Fernandez Francisco with almost all the principal persons of the place visited Sig Gio Fernandez who presently beginning to treat of business and presenting to the Captain the Vice-Roy's Letters and Orders the Captain being terrifi'd therewith on the one side and on the other oblig'd by the civil terms of Sig Fernandez forthwith offer'd himself ready to give the Vice-Roy satisfaction in whatever he commaded and began immediately to put the same offer in effect releasing one whom he held Prisoner and performing other things which Sig Fernandez appointed him October the nineteenth The Captain inviting the Ambassador and all the company to dine in the Fort we went first to visit him and afterwards to hear Mass in Saint Catharine's Church which is the Vicar's See which being over the Ambassador visited a Gentlewoman who was a Kinswoman of the Vicar's and then retir'd in private with the Captain not without manifest signes that his re-pacification was rather upon necessity then out of good-will Causa mali tanti foemina sola fuit The original of most of the Disorders between the Captain and the Vicar they say was occasion'd by the Captain 's Wife who had banish'd out of Onòr a servant of his whom he had employ'd as his Instrument to other
Letters to those formerly written to the King of Banghel certifying him of Ventapà 's Resolute Mind that he must either accept of the Agreement or must speak no more of any and that he onely expects at Ikkeri this his last Resolution before his return to Goa He hath written the same to the Vice-Roy of Goa and the dispatches being seal'd he hath order'd both Curriers to depart and also a Brachman call'd Mangasa together with the Currier to the King of Banghel sending likewise with them a Christian of Barselòr nam'd Lorenzo Pessoa who was at Ikkeri with Montegro that he might either in Mangalòr Banghel or other places thereabouts procure Mariners for a Ship remaining at Barselòr unprovided of Men giving the said Pessoa a Licence to hire some which he had obtain'd of the Ministers of Venk-tapà Naieka to levy them in his Territories if need were Being by this time sufficiently inform'd of remarkable things in Ikkeri I am desirous of divers others especially to see the person of the Queen of Olaza whose History and many valiant exploits I read when I was in Persia for which I have a fair opportunity by accompanying these Men sent from the Ambassador of whom when I have taken leave I shall God willing depart tomorrow LETTER VI. From Mangalòr Decemb. 9. 1623. HAving already seen in Ikkeri as much as was there remarkable and being very desirous of seeing Barselòr Mangalòr and also principally the Q. of Olaza whose Dominion and Residence is contiguous to Mangalòr as well for that she is Sovereign of those parts a matter in other Countries not ordinary and a Princess famous in our dayes even in the Indian Histories of the Portugals as because she is a Gentile in Religion as likewise all her Subjects are whence I conceiv'd I might possibly see some considerable curiosity there I lay'd hold of the occasion of going thither in company of these Men who are sent by the Ambassador by whose favour being provided of a good Horse in regard there were no Palanchino's to be hir'd in Ikkeri and a Man to carry my baggage upon his Head I prepar'd to set forth the next Morning November the three and twentieth Before my departure from Ikkeri I was presented from Vitulà Sinay of whom I had before taken leave with a little Book written in the Canara-Language which is the vulgar in Ikkeri and all that State It is made after the custom of the Country not of paper which they seldom use but of Palm-leavs to wit of that Palm which the Portugals call Palmum brama i. e. Wild-palm and is of that sort which produces the Indian Nut for so do those commonly in India where Palms that produce Dates are very rare In the leavs of these Palms they write or rather ingrave the Letters with an Iron style made for the purpose of an uncouth form and that the writing may be more apparent they streak it over with a coal and tye the leavs together to make a Book of them after a manner sufficiently strange I being desirous to have one of these Books to carry as a curiosity to my own Country for ornament of my Library and not finding any to be sold in the City had entreated Vitulà Sinay to help me to one but he not finding any vendible therein caus'd a small one to be purposely transcrib'd for me there being not time enough for a greater and sent it to me as a gift just as I was ready to take Horse What the Book contains I know not but I imagine 't is Verses in their Language and I carry it with me as I do also to shew to the curious divers leavs not written and a style or Iron Pen such as they use together with one leaf containing a Letter Missive after their manner which was written by I know not who to our Ambassador of whom taking leave with many complements as also of Sig Carvaglio the Chaplain Montegro and all the company I departed from Ikkeri a little before noon going out at the same Gate whereat I had enter'd and having no other company but a Veturino or Hackney-man and a Pulià who carry'd my luggage without any other servant for as for Galà l the Persian aliàs Cacciatùr I was constrain'd to dismiss him for some uncommendable actions and send him back from Ikkeri to Goa I will not omit to tell you that this my brave God-son whom I had brought so carefully out of Persia and trusted so much and who alone of all my ancient servants remain'd with me one day cunningly open'd a light box or basket Canestri the Portugals call them wherein I kept my Clothes and which after the fashion of the Country was not of wood but of hoops lin'd with leather and clos'd with little Pad-locks like those which are us'd at Rome for Plate and they are thus contriv'd that they may be of little weight because in these parts carriages and baggages for travel are more frequently transported upon Mens shoulders then upon beasts backs and one of these baskets or Canestri is just a Man's load Now the good Cacciatùr having open'd mine without hurting the lock or medling with the linnen which he found therein took out onely all the little mony which I then had and had put into it to avoid carrying its weight about me it was in one of those long leathern purses which are made to wear round the waste like a girdle and was full of Spanish Rialls a Coyn in these parts and almost in all the world current enough His intention I conceive was to leave me as they say naked in the Mountains in the center of India and peradventure to go into some Territory of the Gentiles or Mahometans there to pass a jovial life upon my expence But it pleas'd God the theft being done in my Chamber where none but he resorted we had vehement suspition of him and therefore the Ambassador making use of his Authority caus'd him to be laid hold on and we found the theft in his breeches ty'd to his naked flesh and thus I recover'd my money I was unwilling any hurt should be done to him and withall to keep him longer nevertheless that he might not go into the Infidel-Countries lest thereby he should lose his Religion and turn to his native errors I sent him away with some trusty persons to Goa giving him Letters also to Signora Maria but such as whereby they might know that I had dismis'd him and that he was not to be entertain'd there though otherwise indempnifi'd By this Story you may see how much a Man may be deceiv'd in his trusting how little benefits prevail upon an unworthy nature and withall you may consider to what misfortunes a Stranger is subject in strange Countries so that if I had had nothing else being thus depriv'd of all I should have been left to perish miserably amongst Barbarians But leaving him to his Voyage I departed from Ikkeri and having pass'd the Town
held wholly desperate although to encourage others to the expedition he still kept up the report The same Ship brought news how Ruy Freira whilst he was at the Siege of Ormùz with his few Ships sent two to the streight of Mecha to see whether they could get any booty which might serve to support his forces another to Sindi to fetch provisions and advertise the Mogul's Ministers there not to send any Ships into Persia otherwise he should take them yet neither those of Mecha nor this of Sindi ever return'd to him neither did this Captain send him any thing from Maschà t so that he was constrain'd to remove his quarters Besides during his being before Ormùz he had sent some other Ships to fall upon the Country of those Arabians whom they call Nactrilù living upon the Coasts of Persia in the gulf above Mogostà n and that this enterprize succeeded well enough they having made great destruction and taken much spoil but afterwards the Captains of the same Ships being greedy of prey contrary to the order of Ruy Freira and against the judgment of one of them who was the head of all the rest little obedience is an ordinary thing among the Portugals and causes infinite disorders design'd to set upon another place whose Governour who was an Arabian Sceich at first attempted to make them forbear with good words saying that he was their Vassal c. but when he saw that courtesie prevail'd not against their rapacity he got his men together and made head against them so that assaulting them in a convenient place as they were out of order he defeated them killing many and amongst those divers Captains and Soldiers of valour which was no small loss It was further related that during the Siege of Ormùz the besieg'd being in great streights for all other things and which was most important of water also which within fail'd them and was corrupted yet Ruy Freira could not hinder them from ferching plenty of very good water as often as they pleas'd at a place of the Island without the Garrison which they call Trumbà k where not through want of Soldiers for he might have had Arabians enough and others of those Countries but for want of money to pay and support them he could never place a guard to prevent the enemies from fetching as much water as they pleas'd They said lastly that Ruy Freira was at Massà t soliciting for aid and preparing to return to Ormùz as soon as he should be provided of what was needful By the same Ship a Jew came from Sindi who had lately dwelt in Ormùz and came to Sindi by sea from Guadèl which is a Port of the Kingdom of Kic and Macran and was come to Guadal by land from Sphahà n He was a sagacious person and affirmed to me for certain that the Prince of Kic and Macran was a friend and obedient to the Persians and that there passed through his Country infinite Cafila's of Merchandize which came from India to Guadèl by Sea and from thence were transported into Persia upon Camels and that this way was not only frequented since the taking of Ormùz which was declined during that War but was also very secure and afforded much profit to the said Prince of Macran because at Guadèl he received divers Customs of the abovesaid Merchandizes and before this pass was open he had no profit at all Yet this Jew could not tell me whether this friendship and obedience of the Macranite to the Persian was because the Prince who raigned there was dead and succeeded by his younger Brother who many years ago had fled into Persia to this Scià h as I have elsewhere mentioned in this Diary or else because the two Brothers ne'r agreed together and that he who raigned still either for his own interest upon account of the said pass of the Cafila's or through fear since the taking of Ormùz or perhaps forced by War or other like Accidents had disposed himself to be friendly and obedient to the Persian Ianuary the twenty fifth The Jesuits of the Colledge of Saint Paul this day being the Feast of their Colledge began to make part of their Solemnities which were to be made for joy of the Canonization of their Saints Ignatio and Sciavier the Celebration of which was deferred till now that more time might be allotted for preparation They came forth with a Cavalcade of all their Collegians divided into three Squadrons under three Banners one of which represented the Asiaticks one the Africans and another the Europaeans those of each Squadron being clothed after the manner of their respective Countries Before the Cavalcade went a Chariot of Clouds with Fame on the top who sounding her Trumpet with the adjunction of Musick published the News of the said Canonization Two other Chariots accompany'd the Cavalcade the hindermost of which represented Faith or the Church the other in the middle was a Mount Parnassus with Apollo and the Muses representing the Sciences professed in the said Colledge both which Chariots were also full of very good Musick and many people Moreover they remov'd from place to place amongst the Cavalcade five great Pyramids upon wheels drawn by Men on foot well cloth'd after the Indian fashion Upon the first were painted all the Martyrs of the Order of Jesuits upon another all the Doctors and Writers of Books upon another figures of Men of all such Nations in their proper habits where the said Order hath foundations to represent the Languages in which the Fathers of it preach Another had abundance of Devises relating to all the Provinces of the said Religion and lastly another had all the Miracles both of Sant ' Ignatio and San Francesco Sciavier All of these Pyramids had Epitaphs Statues and other Ornaments both at the pedestal and at the top so that passing in this manner through the principal streets of the City they planted and left the said Pyramids in several places one before the See or Archiepiscopal Church one before the profess'd House of Giesù one before the Church of San Paolo where at first they kept the Colledge but by reason of the badness of the Air remov'd it from thence yet the Church remaining to them which was sometimes much frequented and magnificent but at this day is but meanly provided for so that they are still in contest with the City about it who unwillingly consent to this changing of the Colledge The last they left before the new Colledge the Church whereof they are wont to call San Rocco and by the other Name also but the Jesuts resolute to keep their Colledge by reason of the fairness of the place notwithstanding the opposition of the Augustine Fryers who by long and intricate suits use their utmost endeavor to hinder them from it onely to the end not to have them Neighbours under pretext that they deprive them of the fresh Air and the prospect of the Sea The Jesuits I say resolute to abide there prevailing
and â—haveiza namely that Mansur Brother to the deceased Mubarek being some years ago sent by Sciah-Abbas to Hhaveiza as Prince thereof after he was well possess'd of the State became not well affected to the King of Persia though his Benefactor and indeed the Arabians cannot indure to be subject but desire liberty above all things Now in order to recovering his Liberty he held much correspondence with the neighboring Basha of Bassora the Turk's Vassal and of a contrary faction to the Persian who was then Efrasiab Basha who from Aga of Segmeni as he was at first in the same City his native place had made himself Basha by force and endeavour'd to establish the dominion of that State in his own House being tolerated and indeed favour'd by the Turk although half a Rebel both because he carry'd himself well in the Government and because he might not proceed to deny him that little obedience which he gave him in words Nor was it easie to chastise him in these Confines of the Enemies at such a distance from Constantinople or to make any other change in the City of Bassora where he was so powerful The Persian understanding the friendship which Mansur held with him contrary to the custom of the other Princes of Haveiza who us'd to make war against Bassora and that in short Mansur was not obsequious and devoted to him as he desir'd when he went upon the Expedition of Baghdad he sent for him to come with his people to the Persian Camp to that war and appointed Imamculi Chan Sciraz to march to Baghdad by Hhaveiza and by all means to bring Mansur with him The Chan perform'd the command of the Sciah and coming near Hhaveiza stay'd many dayes for Mansur importuning him frequently to come forth and go along with him Mansur put him off so long with words and promises that at length the Chan thought good to go away without him yet arriv'd at Baghdad so late that the Sciah had taken the City before but in conclusion Mansur stirr'd not Thereupon the Sciah after his return from the enterprize of Baghdad to Sphahan sent several Messengers to Mansur to come to his Court to all which Mansur answer'd that he would go speedily but never went Wherefore the Sciah being incens'd against him sent him word to come speedily by all means otherwise he would send to take off his Head To which Mansur answer'd that if the Sciah were minded to cut off his Head he might come in person to do it That he knew very well how to defend it with his sword That he was resolv'd not to go into Persia and That if the Sciah was King in Persia himself was King in Hhaveiza and that he did not value him Hereupon the Sciah commanded the said Imamculi Chan to march into Hhaveiza with a great power taking with him Mubhammed the Son of Mubarek who had been educated in the Persian Court and establishing him Prince there either to bring away Mansur Prisoner or else to kill him Accordingly a little before our arrival at Bassora the Chan enter'd Hhaveiza with an Army and the said Muhhammed Mansur apprehending that most of the Grandees and the People would obey the Sciah and accept of Muhhamed for their Prince to avoid being taken or slain fled with about 500 that were faithful to him to Bassora where Ali Basha the Son of Esrasiab who had succeeded his dead Father or rather intruded into the Government by force before his Father expir'd receiv'd him courteously and gave him a piece of Territory belonging to the jurisdiction of Bassora in the Confines of Hhaveiza where he might live with his followers The people of Hhaveiza in the mean time agreed with the Chan and receiv'd Muhhamed for their Prince being ready to obey the Chan in this and what-ever else he should command yet upon condition that no Qizilbasci should enter into Hhaveiza whereunto the Chan assented Concerning Occurrences since our arrival at Bassora News came that the Chan after he had established Muhhamed in Hhaveiza was advanc'd forwards with his Army towards Bassora and was already enter'd into the State by a place which they call Qarna intending perhaps to take certain Garrisons in those borders and also to make further progress Whereupon the Basha went out against him with all his Forces and three of the five Portugal Ships which as I said he kept in Pay the City of Bassora in the mean while being in great fear of the Persian Army As for other things more particularly pertaining to the State of this City he told me that after the taking of Ormuz the Sciah sent an Embassage to the then Basha of Bassora Esrasiab to tell him that he requir'd no more from Bassora but onely to have his Coyn stamp'd there his Name us'd in the Acclamations of the People and in the Prayers of the Meschita's as King of the Country instead of that of the Great Turk and that the People of Bassora should wear their Turbants after the Persian manner that as for the rest he should leave Esrasiab to rule in that State as absolute Lord have the same confirm'd to his Issue and be protected against the Turk or any other without paying any Tribute but remaining in perfect Liberty Esrasiab who was a prudent man well knowing the wayes of the King of Persia made no account of these offers and thought not fit to adventure the safety of the State which he possess'd upon uncertain hopes but trusting in the aid of the Portugals whose Ships might be of great use to him in that place which the Persians in order to offend Bassora must pass by force namely either the Sea or at least the great River the Persians having no Vessels fit to contest with such Ships he rejected the Proposition of the Sciah and presently re-manded the Ambassador with a strict Order immediately to depart both the City and the State lest he should secretly corrupt some of the Grandees who might afterwards pervert the people who are half Sciani's of the sect of the Sciah telling him in brief that he was the Great Turk's Vassal and so would die and that he was prepar'd for War is the Sciah pretended any thing from him The Sciah finding he could do nothing upon Bassora by fair means commanded the Chan of Sciraz as his nearest Minister to that Country and the most potent to march thither with an Army and attempt to take the same by force Accordingly the Chan's Army came in which I know not whether himself was in person or some other General and by the way of Sciuscter and other places belonging to the Sciah near Hhaveiza enter'd into the State of Bassora which entrance was the year before my arrival there to wit 1624. Yet he did not besiege the City as it was reported at Goa nor yet come near it but only besieg'd a Garrison in the Frontiers call'd Qaban which was in danger of being lost to the great hazard
is distant from the Aequinoctial 30 degrees 26 minutes 32 seconds to which the Elevation of the North-Pole at the same is equal March the one and thirtieth Return'd the two Portugal Ships above-mention'd to have been sent abroad by the General to intercept the Persian Artillery of which design they fail'd because the Persians having notice thereof stirr'd them not of the Port. Yet they took three Persian Barques call'd Terrats with much wealth in them and a rich Moor who offer'd a thousand Patacches for his Ransome but they would not accept it All the other Moors in the Vessels they killed with two young children lest as they said if they should have carry'd them into a Country of Moors the Basha would have releas'd them However in seem'd to me a great Cruelty although it be no new thing among the Portugals who upon all occasions commit the like and greater in India April the seventh The Basha return'd with all his Army to Bassora the fear and danger of the war being now over by the departure of the Persians He enter'd into the City betimes in the Morning with great pomp and the salutations of the Artillery April the thirteenth F. Basilio di San Franceso a Bare-footed Carmelite having finish'd the building of the little Church and Covent of his Order which he had founded at Bassora made a solemn Feast adorning both the Church and the whole Oratory of the Covent very sumptuously and with a great concourse of Christians both Europeans and Orientals of several Nations he celebrated the dedication of the said Church intitling it Nostra Signora de ' i remedii The evening before he had caused many Bone-fires to be made all the Portugal Soldiers contributing to the joy with many volleys of Arquebusses Moreover to honour the said Father the Basha sent about five hundred Moorish Soldiers to the Covent to do the like and caus'd many great Pieces to be shot off at the Castle so that the Feast was celebrated generally by the whole City both Christians and Moors with great concourse and applause The next night the Basha himself with all his Court went to see the Church and the Covent where also at his departure he left an Alms the Father receiv'd him with all due honour and gave him a sumptuous Banquet with which both as to the manner and ceremonies according to the fashion of the Country both the Basha and all the rest were much satisfi'd The General of the Portugals with all the Captains of Ships and most principal Persons of the Fleet and in short all the Europeans then in Bassora were present at this entertainment only I by reason of an indisposition had the displeasure to be absent Mass was sung by the F. Prior of the Augustines who assisted all the day to honour the feast and the F. Provincial of Maniglia who was a Passenger with us preacht The same day there came to Bassora to the Basha a Capigi from the Serdar or Veâ—ir of Constantinople newly created whose Predecessor was said to have been put to death by the Great Turk for having us'd little diligence in the affairs of Baghdad The said Capigi brought the Basha a Robe or Vest-ment as their custom is as a Present from the Vezir and news that the Turkish Army was already moving towards Baghdad and was very near it having re-taken Monsul and Kierkuc which are open places and expos'd to the force of any Attempter But that this should happen so soon to me seem'd very strange especially if the new Serdar was sent from Constantinople the same year as he could not be before May or April at the soonest and being of necessity to pass by Aleppo and get together not only much provision but also Soldiers from very remote Countries and wait for them besides providing grass and hay for the horses as every year they are wont to do in May it was not possible that he should be so foward by this time Considering too that in all the Expeditions of late years it hath been seen that the Turkish Army never arrives at the Confines of Persia the same year that it is dispatch't from Constantinople but must always winter the first year either at Aleppo or in Mesopotamia or at most when it is nearest in Erzirna the second year it arrives at the confines of Persia to make War yea it oftentimes arrives there so late in the year and so near Winter that it scarce do's any thing Now that this new Serdar was dispatcht from Constantinople the same year and not the preceding seem'd credible because I never heard of his wintring at Aleppo or any where else 't was likely that the new Serdar lately created at Constantinople as he uses to be in March and sometimes sooner understanding the danger of Bassora presently dispatch't the said Capigi to confirm the mind and courage of the Basha which Capigi travelling by the shortest ways and with great speed as the business requir'd might well arrive at Bassora from Constantinople by the time above-mention'd In brief I suspected the credit of so near approach of the Turkish Army waiting till effects should manifest the truth of the matter April the twenty third News came to Bassora that the King of Persia had straitly charg'd the Chan who governs Bagdad for him and also his friend in the Desart Emir Nasir by all means to intercept the Cafila which was preparing at Bassora to go to Aleppo or at least to hinder its going This intelligence so terrifi'd the Merchants who were upon the point to depart that they deferr'd their journey and in their own name dispatch't a Messenger to Emir Nasir to know whether it was true and whether he would permit them secure passage or no. That it was true on one hand I conceiv'd not unlikely for it being of great importance to the Sciah to have the trade of India by Sea brought into his own Country which since the taking of Ormuz he hath lost and the said trade being diverted to Bassora where for want of Ships to contest with the Portugals he cannot hinder it which is the reason why he was so desirous to take Bassora namely that so the Portugals might be depriv'd of all ports and passes and be necessitated to come with the traffick of India to some place of his Territories without his rendring Ormuz to them I say it seem'd likely that he should endeavour to hinder the traffick of Bassora to Aleppo by land which would amount to the same thing for the Merchandises of India cannot be all absum'd at Bassora but remaining there little or nothing must be from thence dispers'd to Aleppo and elsewhere Upon this account the Sciah rais'd a great War both against the Portugals and the people of Bassora whose chiefest subsistence is from this trade On the other side I conceiv'd it might not be true because Emir Nasir draws great profit from the Cafila's which pass from Bassora to Aleppo and though
the truth whereof our chief Camelier went to Cuvebeda where the Spies of these Thieves use to reside and at night he brought us word that it was true and that therefore it behov'd us to go back again Whether it was true or onely an Invention of his for some end of his own I cannot affirm but the next day early we return'd to Cuvebeda and lodg'd without the Town at somedistance from the place where we had been before Two dayes after we were perswaded to lodg within the Town for more security from the Thieves and to deceive their Spies by making shew as if we resolv'd not to go further which might divert them from their design The same did the two Capigi that were with us for besides the former whose Name was Scervanli Ibrahim Aga there came another with him call'd Mahhmad Aga who had been sent by the preceding Serdar to Bassora Lahhsa and divers other adjacent places and had not dispatch'd his business in order to his return before now Iune the thirteenth After a long contest with our chief Camelier about hiring certain Arabian Guides which he pretended necessary to get money of us and I refus'd as superfluous since we knew the way without them and they could do us no good against the Thieves At length the business resting half undecided being I said if he would not go without those Guides I would return back to Bassora which he was loth to hear of because of restoring my money without speaking a word more about it he determin'd to proceed from Cavebeda and travelling all night we pass'd by the Pits of Ganeniat Iune the fourteenth Three hours before noon having travell'd till then we rested a while near certain Pits and setting forwards again in the Evening travell'd till mid-night and then we rested The next day rising early we travell'd till about noon till coming to a little bitter water we stay'd there to repose Here the great wind which blows continually in the Desart allaying the great heat of the Season having before much shatter'd our little Pavilions now broke them all in pieces so that we could no more make use of them Which indeed was a great inconvenience but for the future we had no other remedy but when we rested to ward off the Sun-beams with little sheds made of our Cloths fastned upon three Chairs wherein the Women and I were carry'd though they scarce suffic'd to cover three or four persons Yet in the night when there was no need of shadow we slept more pleasantly and coolely under the fair Canopy of the Starry Heaven After noon we proceeded further till an hour before night and then took up our lodging near another water Iune the sixteenth Having travell'd from break of day till noon and then rested two hours we proceeded again till night lodging in a place where the multitude of Gnats suffer'd us to sleep but little The next Morning early we pass'd by a great dry Lake which yet seem'd to have water in it at some time of the year and an hour before noon rested in a place full of Hornets very troublesome both to Men and beasts At the usual hour we set forwards again and journey'd till night Iune the eighteenth Rising before day-break we pass'd by at a distance leaving it on the right hand a place inhabited by Arabians which they call Argia govern'd by one Hhasan Aga Curdo a Fugitive from his own Country and by Alliance with the Arabians become great amongst them The Capigi Ibrahim Aga had a Robe to present to him from the Serdar but being we could not go to Argia by reason all the Passages were then overflown with water and the Cameliers had no mind to it in regard of a Gabel which would be requir'd there of us we repos'd our selves about noon in the place where we were Having pass'd Argia a good way the Capigi got one to swim over the waters and to advertise Hhasan Aga of the Serdar's Present which he had for him and would have deliver'd himself had the way been passable he also desir'd some Arquebusiers to accompany us over the Desart In expectation of an Answer we stay'd in this place all day where I saw upon the ground abundance of Sea-shels shining within like Mother-of-Pearl some whole and some broken I wonder'd how they came there so far from Sea I saw also many pieces of Bitumen scatter'd up and down which is produc'd in that brackish soil by the overflowing of the water at some time of the year I have a piece of it by me to shew Being suspicious of some Arabian Maedi's that is Vagrants or Vagabonds so call'd because they abide with Droves of Buffles sometimes in the Desarts and sometimes in Cities and are different from the Bedavi or Beduvi that is Deserticolae who are the noblest amongst them never residing in walled places but wandring about the Fields with black Tents as also from the Hhadesi who live in Cities and Stable-houses and are therefore accounted by them the ignoblest and meanest but indeed are of a middle condition between both the other sorts for moâ—e security we remov'd a mile further and took up our station under a little Hill near some ruins of building which we discover'd afar off and I walkt on foot to behold near hand In the revolutions of Baghdad the above-said Hhasan Aga Lord of Argia was visited by the Persians the Sciah sending a Tag to him as he uses to do to great Persons whom he intends to invite to be or declare themselves of his Party and he carri'd himself in such sort that his fidelity became something suspected to the Turks insomuch that a Basha had an intention to kill him but did not do it perhaps because he knew not how to effect his purpose wherefore to keep him still faithful as I believe since it was not possible to punish him the Serdar sent him by this Capigi the above-mention'd Present Iune the nineteenth Our removal hence being still deferr'd in expectation of the answer of Hhasan Aga I went in the forenoon to take a more diligent view of the ruins of the above-said ancient building What it had been I could not understand but I found it to have been built with very good Bricks most of which were stampt in the midst with certain unknown letters which appear'd very ancient I observ'd that they had been cemented together in the Fabrick not with lime but with bitumen or pitch which as I said is generated in these Desarts whence the Hill upon which these ruins are is call'd by the Arabians Muqeijer that is Pitchy In the evening two men came from Hhasan Aga to the Capigi with Letters and an Answer that he would send him some provisions but they departed discontented because the Capigi gave them nothing Iune the twenty first We set forth by day-light and journied till Noon and after two hours rest continued our way till night over Lands sometimes moorish
Countries and they told me that no Tartars are call'd Uzbeghi but those of the Countries of Balch Buchara and Sarmacand who at this day are divided under two Princes Brethren one whereof hath his Seat at Balch and is call'd Nedhir Muhhammed Chan on whom depends an inferior Prince nam'd Bahadar which signifies Gallant or Stout and sirnam'd Ielan Tusc from his spoyling and killing his Enemies in war for in their Language Ielan signifies to Spoil and Tusc to Kill The other Brother nam'd Imanculi Chan hath under him Buchera Sarmacand Tosc-Kiend Endigian or Endigan with other Territories and both of them border upon those of the Persian Empire and reign in the Countries anciently call'd Sogdiana Bactriana and perhaps also Hircania but by the Moderns Giagata Maurenucher and Turkistan The same day after dinner I took leave of the Consul with all my other Friends and was by his Servants and many others of the Italian Nation accompany'd out of the City Before we mounted our Camels I was desirous to see in the Suburbs of Aleppo the Churches of the Oriental Christians which stand in a Street call'd Giudeida not from the Jews as some who skill not of Languages erroneously imagine but from the Arabick word Gedida which signifies New perhaps because this place of he Suburbs was built more lately then others Here a little out of the Street on the right hand I found four Churches all together led unto by one Gate onely from the Street but the place being spacious enough within conveniently divided and separated about the Court or Yard Two of them belong'd to the Armenians the greater a fair one indeed call'd Santi Quaranta or the forty Saints and the less Della Madonna or our Lady One of the other two call'd San Nicolo belong'd to the Greeks and the other which is the least of all to the Maronite Catholicks call'd Sant ' Elia. In another place a good distant from this I saw alone by it self another Church hansome and large for the Country built after our manner with three Naves or Ifles upon Pillars it belong'd to the Syrian Jacobites and was call'd Sitaa Assedi or Santa Maria. This Church hath adjoyning to it a good House with a little Garden and other conveniences according to the use of the Country wherein lives the Patriarch of the Jacobits calld Heda for whom I had brought from Bassora a Letter of F. Basilio di San Francesco a discalciated Carmelite wherein he invited him to a mutual friendship and correspondence from which he might draw some benefit to the service of God by reason of his skill in the Arabick and his residence here in behalf of the Christians of the Country This Letter I had gotten presented to the Patriarch and transmitted his answer to F. Basilio but had never visited him as the Father desir'd me in order to second his Letter and settle a friendship between them because he liv'd far from the Venetian Consul's House where I resided and all the while I remain'd in Aleppo I was lame of one foot by a hurt caus'd by walking in ill shoos that day when we were in danger of being assaulted by thievs so that I could not walk and was not wholly cur'd when I departed Nevertheless hapning to be so near his Church now I would not omit to visit him I found him a very compleat civil and courtly man according to the mode of the Country he had not the fame of being learned but yet was accounted wise and generous He told me he was glad of F. Basilio's Letter and residing at Bassora and building a Church there so peaceably and with so much favour of the Turks as he advertis'd him and that he would continue correspondence with him He also shew'd me two fair Books of the Gospels written in large Parchment-sheets with excellent Syrian Characters one of them as I remember written four hundred years ago the Letters whereof were all either of Gold or Silver and this Book they say was found by the Turks in Cyprus when they took the Island and carri'd to Constantinople from whence it was afterwards redeem'd with money and brought hither Indeed no Manuscript could be more goodly or rich with gold and miniature it had also a velvet Cover adorn'd with Silver gilt but made by themselves the ancient Cover which they said was set with jewels of great value being taken away by the Turks 'T is the custom of the Orientals to make great account of Books so fairly written and richly adorned as likewise S. Ierom reports they us'd to do in his time though himself being a Scholar was better contented as he saith with his schedules of a less fair Character but correct The other Gospel which the Patriarch shew'd me was more ancient namely four hundred and fifty years old but written with ordinary ink and few miniated Figures this he told me they bought lately at Cyprus for two hundred Piastres He added that the Church of Aleppo was not his Patriarchal See although under his jurisdiction but it was near the City of Mousul which is in the place of the ancient Niniveh After much more discourse he caus'd very good Sherbets of Sugar with snow to be given us to drink as the custom is and offer'd us a Collation of fruits which we receiv'd not because it was already late and time to be gone At last at my taking leave he pray'd me to do reverence to his Holiness in his name and so when he had given me many benedictions as their manner is I left him and departed Being come to the place where the Camels with the Women waited for me I took leave of all those friends that had accompani'd me thither and chose not the direct way to Alexandretta which the Caravans commonly use but one somewhat longer hard by Antioch out of a desire to see the remains of that ancient City which I had not yet seen After a short travel we rested till the Moon arose and then proceeded all the remainder of the night in bad and uneven ways August the twenty fourth We pass'd by some Villages and places cultivated with Olive-trees which I was joyful to see not having beheld any for many years About Noon we rested amongst certain ruins of Stone-buildings which had once been very magnificent and seem'd to be the remains of some noble City in ancient times Here the Archbishop Isciva-jahab's men the one nam'd Abdisciva and the other Hendi overtook me with his Letter I receiv'd them and carri'd them with me as I had promis'd The said place is call'd Hhalqa which signifies a Circle because 't is a great Plain almost surrounded with Hills Three hours after Noon we set forth again we pass'd by another Village belonging to the Territory of Hhalqa and at night took up our Quarters near a running Water under another Village call'd Harta At midnight the Moon rising we set forth again and travell'd all the remainder of the night
calk the Ship and that spongy Rind that looks like our Hemp when it is a little bruised will make Cordage and Sails and the very large Nuts that grow upon it of which are made many excellent drinking Cups when it is newly gathered hath a milky white substance that is tender tasting like an Almond round about of a good substance within it and within that a very pleasant Liquor that is wholsom as well as savoury which may for a need serve those which sail in this Ship for meat and drink Now well stored with these Nuts and other good Provisions after six days abode there the breaches our Ship had lately received in fight being repaired and our men well-refreshed we put again to Sea the sixteenth day and a prosperous gale following us were carried happily a second time under the Aequinoctial without the least heat to offend us the twenty day fourth of the same Month. Our Course was for the Iland of Zocotora near the mouth of the Red Sea from whence comes our Aloes Zocotrina but an adverse gale from the Arabian shore kept us so off that we could by no means recover it We passed by it the first of September Missing that Fort we proceeded on our Voyage and the fourth of September made a solemn Funeral in memory of our late slain Commander when after Sermon the small Shot and great Ordnance made a large Peal to his Remembrance On the sixth of September at night to our admiration and fear the Water of the Sea seemed to us as white as milk which did not appear only so in the body of the Sea but it looked so likewise in Buckets of water which we did then draw out of the Sea Others of our Nation passing on that Course have observed the like but I am yet to learn what should be the true reason thereof it being there very far from any shore and the Sea so deep as that we could fetch no ground The twenty first We discovered the main Continent of Asia the Great in which East-India takes up a large part The twenty second we had sight of Deu and Damon places that lye in the skirts of India principally inhabited and well-fortified by Portugals and the twenty fifth of September we came happily to an Anchor in Swally-Road within the Bay of Cambaia the Harbour for our Fleet while they make their stay in these remote Parts Then after a long and troublesom and dangerous passage we came at last to our desired Port. And immediately after my arrival there I was sent for by Sir Thomas Row Lord Embassadour then residing at the Mogol's Court which was very many miles up in the Countrey to supply the room of Mr Iohn Hall his Chaplain Fellow of Corpus Christi Colledg in Oxford whom he had not long before buried And I lived with that most Noble Gentleman at that Court more than two years after which I returned home to England with him During which space of my abode there I had very good advantage to take notice of very many places and persons and things travelling with the Embassadour much in Progress with that King up and down his very large Territories And now Reader I would have thee to suppose me setting my foot upon the East-Indian shore at Swally before-named On the banks whereof amongst many more English that lie there interred is laid up the body of Mr Thomas Coryat a man in his time Notus nimis omnibus very sufficiently known He lived there and there died while I was in those parts and was for some Months then with my Lord Embassadour during which time he was either my Chamber-fellow or Tent-mate which gave me a full acquaintance of him That Greek-travelling-Thomas they which know his story know why I call him so formerly wrote a Book entituled Coryats Crudities Printed in the beginning of the year 1611. and then ushered into the World by very many Copies of excellent Verses made by the Wits of those Times which did very much advantage and improve if not enforce the sale thereof doing themselves much more honour than him whom they undertook to commend in their several Encomiasticks And if he had lived he would have written his last Travels to and in and out of East-India for he resolved if God had spared him life to have rambled up and down the world world as sometimes Ulysses did and though not so long as he yet ten full years at least before his return home in which time he purposed to see Tartaria in the vast parts thereof with as much as he could of China and those other large Places and Provinces interposed betwixt East-India and China whose true Names we might have had from him but yet have not He had a purpose after this to have visited the Court of Prester Iohn in Aethiopia who is there called by his own people Ho Biot The King and after this it was in his thoughts to have cast his eyes upon many other places which if he had done and lived to write those Relations seeing as he did or should such variety of Countries Cities Nations Things and been as particular in them as he was in his Venetial Iournal they must needs have swoln into so many huge Volums as would have prevented the perishing of Paper But undoubtedly if he had been continued in life to have written them there might have been made very good Use of his Observations for as he was a very Particular so was he without question a very Faithful Relator of things he saw he ever disclaiming that bold liberty which divers Travellers have and do take by speaking and writing any thing they please of remote parts when they cannot easily be contradicted taking a Pride in their feigned Relations to over-speak things being resolved in this case Not only things to do but or'-do Speaking writing all and more too I therefore for my part believing this Relator to be none of those have taken some things from his trust and credit in this my following Discourse And because he could not live to give an account unto the world of his own Travels I shall here by the way make some litle discovery of his footsteps and flittings up and down to and fro with something besides of him in his long peregrinations to satisfie very many yet living who if they shall please to read this Discourse may recall that man once more into their remembrance who while he lived was like a perpetual motion and therefore now dead should not be quite forgotten In the year 1612. he shipt himself from London for Constantinople now called by the Turks Stombole where he took special notice of all things there most observable In which place he found very great respect and encouragement from Sir Paul Pinder then and there Embassadour to whose House he had free and welcom access whensoever he pleased Being there for some time he took his opportunities to view divers parts in Grecia and in
and the Mogol's Stamp which is his Name and Titles in Persian Characters put upon it The Coyn there is more pure than in any other part of the world being as they report made of pure Silver without any Allay so that in the Spanish Money the purest of all Europe there is some dross They call their pieces of Money Roopees of which there are some of divers values the meanest worth two shillings and three pence and the best two shillings and nine pence sterling By these they count their Estates and Payments They have another Coyn of inferiour value in Guzarat called Mamoodies about twelve pence sterling both the former and these are made in halfs and some few in quarters so that three pence is the least piece of silver current in those Countries and very few of them to be seen That which passeth up and down for exchange under this rate is Brass or Copper Money which they call Pices whereof three or thereabouts countervail a Penny Those Pices are made so massie and thick as that the baser metal of which they are made put to other uses is well-nigh worth the Silver they are rated at Their Silver Coyn is made either round or square but so thick as that it never breaks nor wears out They have pure Gold-Coyn likewise some pieces of great value but these are not very ordinarily seen amongst them I have now done with this Section wherein I have related much of the Commodities and Riches as before of the Provisions and Pleasures which are to be found in that vast Monarchy and I conceive nothing but what Truth will justifie And now lest that place I have describ'd should seem to be an earthly Paradise I must acquaint my Reader that the Contents there found by such as have lived in those parts are sour'd and sauc'd with many unpleasing things which he must needs know when he takes notice SECTION IV. Of the Discommodities Inconveniences and Annoyances that are to be found or met withall in this Empire AS the Poets feigned that the Garden of the Hesperides wherein were Trees that bare Golden Apples was guarded by a Serpent So there are stings here as well as fruits all considered together may not unfitly be resembled by those Locusts mention'd Rev. 9. 7 8 10. verses Who had the Faces of Men and the Hair of Women and Crowns as of Gold on their Heads but they had too the Teeth of Lyons and the tayls of Scorpions and there were stings in those tayls Here are many things to content and please the enjoyers of them to make their life more comfortable but withall here are Teeth to tear and stings to kill All put together are nothing but a mixture made up as indeed all earthly things are of good and bad of bitter and sweet of what contents and of what contents not The Annoyances of these Countries are first many harmfull beasts of prey as Lyons Tygers Wolves Jackalls with others those Jackalls seem to be wild Doggs who in great companies run up and down in the silent night much disquieting the peace thereof by their most hideous noyse Those most ravenous Creatures will not suffer a Man to rest quietly in his Grave for if his Body be not buryed very deep they will dig him thence and bury as much of him again as they can consume in their hungry bellies In their Rivers are many Crocodiles and Latet anguis in herba on the Land not a few over-grown Snakes with other venemous and pernicious Creatures In our Houses there we often see Lizards shaped like unto Crocodiles of a sad green colour and but little Creatures the fear of whom presents its self most to the Eye for I do not know that they are hurtful There are many Scorpions to be seen which are oftentimes felt which creep into their houses especially in that time of the Rains whose stinging is most sensible and deadly if the Patient have not presently some oyl that is made of Scorpions to annoint the part affected which is a sudden and a certain cure But if the man can get the Scorpion that stung him as sometimes they do the oylie substance it affords being beaten in pieces suddenly applyed is a present help The sting of the Scorpion may be a very fit resemblance of the sting of Death the bitterness and anguish whereof nothing can asswage and cure so well as a serious consideration and a continual application of the thoughts of dying Facilè contemnit omnia qui cogitat se semper moriturum that man may trample upon every thing whose meditations are taken up with the thoughts of his Change He cannot dye but well who dyes daily daily in his preparations for death though he dye not presently The Scorpions are in shape like unto our Cra-fishes and not bigger and look black like them before they are boyled They have a little round tayl which turns up and lyes usuallyupon their backs at the end whereof is their sting which they do not put in and let out of their bodies as other venemous creatures do but it alwayes appears in their tayls ready to strike it is very sharp and hard and not long but crooked like the talon of an Hawk The abundance of Flyes like those swarms in Egypt Exod. 8. 21. in those parts did likewise very much annoy us for in the heat of the day their numberless number was such as that we could not be quiet in any place for them they being ready to fly into our Cupps and to cover our Meat as soon as it was placed on the Table and therefore we had alwayes some of the Natives we kept there who were our Servants to stand round about us on pupose while we were eating with Napkins to fright them away And as in the day one kind of ordinary Flyes troubled us so in the night we were likewise very much disquieted with another sort called Musqueetoes like our Gnats but some-what less and in that season we were very much troubled with Chinches another sort of little troublesome and offensive creatures like little Tikes and these annoyed us two wayes as first by their biting and stinging and then by their stink From all which we were by far more free when we lodged in Tents as there we did much than when we abode in Houses where in great Cities and Towns to add unto the disquiets I before named there were such an abundance of large hungry Ratts that some of us were bitten in the night as we lay in our beds either on our Toes or Fingers or on the tips of our Ears or on the tops of our Noses or in any part of our Bodies besides which they could get into their Mouths The winds in those parts as I observed before which they call the Mont soone blow constantly one way altering but few points six months Southerly and six months Northerly The months of April May and the beginning of Iune till the Rain falls
they may look towards Medina neer Mecha in Arabia where their great Seducer Mahomet was buried who promised them after one thousand years to fetch them all to Heaven which term when it was out and the promise not fulfilled the Mahometans concluded that their Fore-fathers mis-took the time of the promise of his coming and therefore resolve to wait for the accomplishment of it one thousand years more In the mean time they do so reverence that place where the body of Mahomet was laid up that whosoever hath been there as there are divers which flock yearly thither in Pilgrimage are for ever after called and esteemed Hoggees which signifies Holy men And here the thing being rightly and seriously considered it is a very great shame that a Mahometan should pray five times every day that Pagans and Heathens should be very frequent in their devotions and Christians who only can hope for good answers in prayer so negligent in that great prevailing duty For a Mahometan to pray five times every day what diversions soever he hath to hinder him and for a Christian to let any thing interrupt his devotion for a Mahometan to pray five times a day and for one that is called a Christian not to pray some believing themselves above this and other Ordinances five times in a week a moneth a year But this will admit less cause of wonder if we consider how that many bearing the Names of Christians cannot pray at all those I mean which are prophane and filthy and who live as if there were no God to hear or to judg and no Hell to punish Such as these can but babble they cannot pray for they blaspheme the Name of God while they may think they adore it I shall add here a short story It happened that I once having some discourse with a Mahometan of good quality and speaking with him about his frequent praying I told him that if himself and others of his profession who did believe it as a duty to pray so often could conclude their Petitions in the Name of Jesus Christ they might find much comfort in those their frequent performances in that great duty He answered that I needed not to trouble my self with that for they found as great comfort as they could desire in what they did And presently he would needs infer this Relation There was said he a most devout Mussleman who had his habitation in a great City where Mahomet was zealously professed that man for many years together spent his whole day in the Mosquit or Church in the mean time he minding not the world at all became so poor that he had nothing left to buy bread for his family yet notwithstanding his poor condition he was resolved still to ply his devotions and in a morning when he perceived that there was nothing at all left for the further subsistence of himself and houshold took a solemn leave of his wife and children resolving for his part to go and pray and dye in the Mosquit leaving his family if no relief came to famish at home But that very day he put on this resolution there came to his house in his absence a very beautiful young man as he appeared to be who brought and gave unto his wife a very good quantity of Gold bound up in a white Napkin telling her that God had now remembred her husband and sent him his pay for his constant pains taken in his devotion withall charging her not to send for her husband for though he had taken such a solemn leave of her that morning yet he would come home to her again that night and so he departed from her The woman presently bought in some necessaries for her house for they had eaten up all before and further made some good provision for her husband against his coming home in the evening for so he did and finding all his family very cheerful and merry his wife presently told him that there had been such a one there as before described and left so much gold behind him with that fore-mentioned message delivered with it Her husband presently replied that it was the Angel Gabriel sent from God for the Mahometans speak much of that Angel and he further added that himself had nothing to bring home unto her but a little grett or sand which he took up in his way homeward and bound it in his girdle which he presently opening to shew her it was all turn'd into precious stones which amounted unto a very great value in money The seventh part of which as of his gold likewise he presently gave to the poor for said he a Mussleman is very charitable and then inferr'd that if we do not neglect God God will not forget us but when we stand most in need of help will supply us Unto which conclusion we may all subscribe leaving the premises which are laid down in that story unto those that dare believe them The Mahometans say that they have the Books of Moses but they have very much corrupted that story in ascribing that to Ishmael which is said of Isaac Gen. 22. as if Ishmael should have been sacrificed not Isaac of which more afterward They say that they have the Book of Davids Psalms and some Writings of Solomon with other parcels of the Old Testament which if so I believe are made much to vary from their Original They speak very much in the honour of Moses whom they call Moosa Calim-Alla Moses the publisher of the mind of God So of Abraham whom they call Ibrahim Carim-Alla Abraham the honoured or friend of God So of Ishmael whom they call Ismal The Sacrifice of God So of Iacob whom they call Acob The blessing of God So of Ioseph whom they call Eesoff The betrayed for God So of David whom they call Dahood The lover and praiser of God So of Solomon whom they call Selymon The wisdom of God all expressed as the former in short Arabian words which they sing in Ditties unto their particular remembrances And by the way many of the Mahometans there are called by the names of Moosa or Ibrahim or Ismal or Acob or Eesoff or Dahood or Selymon so others are called Mahmud or Chaan which signifies the Moon or Frista which signifies a Star c. And they call their women by the names of Flowers or Fruits of their Country or by the names of Spices or Odours or of Pearls or precious Stones or else by other names of pretty or pleasing signification As Iob named one of his daughters Iemimah which signifies Clear as the day the second Keziah which signifies pleasant as Cassia or sweet Spice And the name of the third Keren-happuch signifying The Horn or strength of beauty Iob 42. 14. But I 'll return again to that people that I may acquaint my Reader with one thing of special observation and 't is this That there is not one among the Mahometans of any understanding which at any time mentions the
near unto thinking that all the souls both of men and women after they leave their bodies make their repose in other Creatures and those Souls as they imagine are best lodged that go into Kine which in their opinion are the best of all sensible creatures and therefore as before they give yearly large sums of money unto the Mogol to redeem them from slaughter And this people further conceit that the Souls of the wicked go into vile Creatures as the Souls of Gluttons and Drunkards into Swine So the Souls of the Voluptuous and incontinent into Monkies and Apes Thus the Souls of the Furious Revengeful Cruel People into Lions Wolves Tygres other beasts of prey So the Souls of the Envious into Serpents and so into other Creatures according to peoples qualities and dispositions while they lived successively from one to another of the same kind ad infinitum for ever and ever by consequence they believing the immortality of the World And upon that same mad and groundless phansie probably they further believe that the Souls of Froward Peevish and Teachy Women go into Wasps and that there is never a silly Fly but if they may be credited carries about it some Souls haply they think of light Women and will not be perswaded out of their wild conceivings so incorrigible are their sottish errours The day of rest which those Hindoos observe as a Sabbath is Thursday as the Mahometans Friday Many Festivals they have which they keep solemnly and Pilgrimages the most famous briefly spoken of before in those short descriptions of Nagraiot and Syba observed in my first Section Now there are a race of other Heathens I named before living amongst those Hindoos which in many things differ very much from them they are called Persees who as they say originally cameout of Persia about that time Mahomet and his followers gave Laws to the Persians and imposed a new Religion on them which these Persees not enduring left their Country and came and setled themselves in East-India in the Province of Guzarat where the most part of them still continue though there are some of them likewise in other parts of India but where-ever they live they confine themselves strictly to their own Tribe or Sect. For their Habits they are clad like the other people of that Empire but they shave not their hair close as the other do but suffer their beards to grow long Their profession is for the generality all kinds of Husbandry imploying themselves very much in Sowing and Setting of Herbs in Planting and Dressing of Vines and Palmeeto or Toddy-Trees as in Planting and Husbanding all other Trees bearing fruit and indeed they are a very industrious people and so are very many of the Hindoos as before I observed and they do all very well in doing so and in this a due and deserved commendation belongs unto them For There is no condition whatsoever can priviledge a folded arm Our first Parents before their fall were put into the Garden of Edemto dress it Certainly if idleness had been better than labour they had never been commanded to do work but they must labour in their estate of innocency because they were happy and much more we in our sinful lost estate that we may be so It was a law given before the Law that man should eat brâ—ad by the sweat of his brows and it is a Gospel-precept too that he who will not work should note The sluggard desireth and hath nothing saith Solomon because he doth nothing but desire and therefore his desires do him no good because his hands refuse to labour That body therefore well deserves to pine and starve without pity when two able Hands cannot feed one Mouth But further for those Persees they use their liberty in meats and drinks to take of them what they please but because they would not give offence either to the Mahometans or Banians or other Hindoos amongst whom they live they abstain from eating Beef or Swines flesh It is their usual manner to eat alone as for every one of them to drink in his own Cup and this is a means as they think to keep themselves more pure for if they should eat with others they are afraid that they might participate of some uncleanness by them Alas poor Creatures that do not at all understand themselves and their most miserable condition for to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure Yet I observed before the Mahometans and Gentiles there are very strict in this particular so that they will not eat with any mixt company and many of the Gentiles not eat with one another And this hath been an ancient custom among Heathens It is said Gen. 43. 32. that the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews for that was an abomination to the Egyptians For those Persees further they believe that there is but one God who made all things and hath a Soveraign power over all They talk much of Lucifer and of other evil spirits but they say that those and all Devils besides are kept so under and in aw by two good Angels that have power over them as that they cannot hurt or do the least mischief without their leave and license As many of the Hindoos ascribe to much unto water as before so these to fire and the reason of it is this because they have had this tradition from many ages and generations past that their great Law-giver whom they call Zertoost was rapt up into Heaven and there had fire delivered unto him which he brought down thence and he ever after commanded his followers to worship it and so they do and further they love any thing that resembles fire as the Sun and Moon and therefore when they pray in the day time they look towards the Sun and so towards the Moon in their night-devotions and from that so over-high esteem they have of fire they keep fires continually burning in their Eggarees or Temples in Lamps fed with Oyl which are always attended by their Priests and they talk of many of these which have burned without extinginshment from many foregoing generations And by the way that wild and mad phansie of theirs that their Zertoost did fetch fire from Heaven is as certainly true as that ancient Fiction and Fable of Prometheus that he did steal fire thence But to proceed their Priests they call Daroos or Harboods above both which they have a Chief or High-Priest they call the Destoor who not often appears openly but when he doth he meets with much Reverence and Respect given unto him by the common people and so do those other Church-men which are his inferiours unto all which they allow free maintenance for their more comfortable subsistance Those Church-men by their Law are commanded to dwell near and to abide much in their Eggarees or Temples to give advice or direction to any that shall repair unto them for it They observe divers Feasts and immediately
great MOGOL Y E IMPERIALL STANDARD OF THE GREAT MOGOL And now that my Reader may see the Great Mogol in a Portraiture which was taken from a Picture of his drawn to the life I have caused that to be here inserted which presents him in his daily unvaried Habit as he is bedeâ—kt and adorned with Jewels he continually wears for the fashion of the Habit in which he is here presented it is for the fashion the Habit of that whole vast Empire so that he who strictly views this may see the dress of the Men throughout that whole great Monarchy After this I have set up the Royal Standard of the Great Mogol which is a couchant Lyon shadowing part of the Body of the Sun And after that I have caused his Imperial Signet or Great Seal to be laid down before my Reader 's Eyes where in nine rounds or Circles are the Names and Titles of Tamberlane and his lineal successors in Persian words which I shall make presently to speak English and as I conceive no more in English than what is fully expressed in those original words This Seal as it is here made in Persian words the Great Mogol either in a large or lesser figure causeth to be put unto all Firmaunes or Letters Patents the present Kings Title put in the middle and larger Circle that is surrounded with the rest the impression whereof is not made in any kind of Wax but Ink the Seal put in the middle of the Paper and the writing about it which Paper there is made very large and smooth and good and in divers colours besides white and all to write on And the words on the Mogol's Seal being imboss'd are put upon both sides of his Silver and Gold Coin for there is no Image upon any of it And the like little Signets or Seals are used by the great Men of that Country and so by others of inferiour rank having their Names at length engraven on them with which they make impressions or subscriptions by by Ink put on them to all their acts and deeds which round Circle is their Hand and Seal too For Timur lang or Tamberlane he was famous about the year of Christ 1398. in the last year of the Reign of Richard the Second King of England And he the first of the Race of those great Monarchs hath a Title which speaks thus 1. Amir Timur Saheb Ceran that is the great Conqueror or Emperor Timur or Tamberlain Lord possessor of the Corners or of the four Corners of the World 2. The second his Son was called Mirath-Sha the King and Inheritor of Conquests or the Inheritor of his Fathers Conquests 3. The third his Son was called Mirza Sultan Mahomeds The Prince and Commander for Mahomet or The Defender of the Mahometan Religion For this King as it should seem was the first Indostan Emperor that professed Mahometism which Tamberlane his Grand-father was a great Enemy to and therefore ever strongly opposed it But this third Monarch of that Line and all his Successors since have been Mahometans 4. The fourth his Son was called Sultan Abusaid The Prince and Father or Fountain of Beneficence 5. The fifth his Son was called Mirzee Amir Scheick The Imperial Princely Lord. 6. The sixth his Son was called Baba Padsha The King the Father or The King the Father of his Country 7. The seventh his Son was called Hamashon Padsha The King Invincible 8. The eighth his Son was called Achabar Padsha The great King or Emperour that is most mighty or The King most mighty 9. The ninth his Son was called Almozaphar Noor Dein Gehangeir Padsha Gaze The most warlike and most victorious King the Light of Religion and the Conquerour of the World Here are very high Titles taken by Tamberlane and his Successors and the lower we go the greater still they are but the last of them swells biggest of all calling himself amongst other Phantsies The Conquerour of the World and so he conceits himself to be As they write of Thrasyllus the Athenian who believed that all the Ships on the Sea were his own and therefore he would call them My Ships when ever he saw them floating on the waters and thus the Great Mogol imagines all the Kings Nations and People of the World to be his Slaves and Vassals And therefore when the Grand Signiour or Great Turk sent an Ambassador to the Great Mogol who came unto him attended with a great train and retinue and after when he was ready to take his leave desired of the Mogol to know what he should say to his Master when he was returned Tell thy Master said the Mogol that he is my Slave for my Ancestor conquered him The Mogol feeds and feasts himself with this conceit that he is Conquerour of the World and therefore I conceive that he was troubled upon a time when my Lord Ambassador having business with him and upon those terms there is no coming unto that King empty-handed without some Present or other of which more afterward and having at that time nothing left which he thought fit to give him presented him with Mercators great Book of Cosmography which the Ambassador had brought thither for his own use telling the Mogol that that Book described the four parts of the World and all several Countries in them contained The Mogol at the first seem'd to be much taken with it desiring presently to see his own Territories which were immediately shewen unto him he asked which were those Countries about them he was told Tartaria and Persia as the names of the rest which confine with him and then causing the Book to be turn'd all over and finding no more to fall to his share but what at first he saw and he calling himself the Conquerour of the World and having no greater share in it seemed to be a little troubled yet civilly told the Ambassador that neither himself nor any of his People did understand the Language in which that Book was written and because so he further told him that he would not rob him of such a Jewel and therefore returned it unto him again And the Truth is that the Great Mogol might very well bring his Action against Mercator and others who describe the World but streighten him very much in their Maps not allowing him to be Lord and Commander of those Provinces which properly belong unto him But it is true likewise that he who hath the greatest share on the face of the Earth if it be compared with the whole World appears not great As it was said of the Lands of Alcibiades that compared with the Globe of the whole Earth they did not appear bigger then a small tittle The Mogol's Territories are more apparent large and visible as one may take notice who strictly views this affixed Map which is a true representation of that great Empire in its large dimensions So that although the Mogol be not Master of the whole World yet hath he
into a mortal flux of blood which in few dayes put an end to his life in his City Lahore Neque enim lex justior ulla est Quam necis artifices arte perire sua Achabar Sha thus dead Sultan Coobsurroo his Grand-Child then aged about twenty years took his opportunity at the first bound and ascended the Regal Throne at Lahore where by a general Acclamation of that very great and populous City he was pronounced and acknowledged King His Father the late Mogol was thus acknowledged at Agra Two great Armies were presently levied and met together to decide the Controversie and the generality of the people within that Empire thinking it meet that the Father should be King before the Son clave by far more to him then to his Son by which means Sultan Coobsurroo was defeated and taken Prisoner and a very great many of young Gallants with him whereof his Father immediately after caused to be impaled or put upon Stakes that most cruel and tormenting death eight hundred in two several ranks in one day without the City Lahore and then carried his Son most disgracefully through them bidding him to behold the men in whom he trusted His Son told him that he should have serv'd him so and spared the other who did nothing in that action but upon his Command his Father replyed that he could serve him so presently if he so pleased his Son will'd and desired him so to do telling his Father that he had no joy at all to live after the beholding of so many gallant men dead Notwithstanding the King spared his Life casting him into Prison where his Eyes were sealed up by something put before them which might not be taken of for the space of three years after which time that seal was taken away that he might with freedom enjoy the Light though not his Liberty And after his Father had taken him out of Prison he kept him alwayes near about him but with a very strong Guard upon him so that he following the King his Father in his Progresses we sometimes saw him And once he called my Lord Ambassadour to him as we passed by him asking him many Questions as how far distant our Country was from them and what we brought thither and what we carryed thence and how the King his Father had used him since his arrive there whether or no he had not bestowed upon him some great gifts The Ambassadour told him that his business there was to obtain a free Trade for his Nation the English and that being granted him he had reward enough The Prince replyed that this could not be denyed us we coming so far to trade there with him and the Prince further asked him How long he had been there the Ambassadour told him About two years the Prince replyed again that it was a very great shame for the Successor of Tamberlane who had such infinite Riches to suffer a Man of his quality to come so far unto him and to live so long about him and not to give him some Royal Gift and he further added that for himself he was a Prisoner and therefore could do him no good but would pray for him and so he departed For that Prince he was a Gentleman of a very lovely presence and fine carriage so exceedingly beloved of the common people that as Suetonius writes of Titus he was Amor Deliciae c. the very love and delight of them Aged then about thirty and five years He was a Man who contented himself with one Wife which with all love and care accompanied him in all his streights and therefore he would never take any Wife but her self though the Liberty of his Religion did admit of Plurality It was generally believed to be the intent of his Father for he would often presage so to make this Prince his first-born his Successor though for the present out of some jealousie he being so much beloved of the people he denyed him his Libeâ—ty His Father's Love brings upon him the extream hatred of his Brother Caroom the Mogol's third Son who then lived in very great Pomp and Splendor at that Court aiming at that Empire to which end he put many jealousies into his Father's Head now grown in years concerning his Brother Coobsurroo and that his Father might live more secure and out of all present fear of him if he so pleased upon which insinuations partly by force as I observed before and partly by intreaty of Friends about the King he was by the King put into the Cruel Hand of his Brother Caroom who told his Father that he would have both his Eyes upon him and further so provide that he should never have cause to fear him any more and he was as good as his word for presently after he had gotten possession of him though his Father had given him as great a charge as possibly he could to use him well and to keep him honourably and by no means to hurt him which was all promised by Caroom to be faithfully observed he caused his Second Brother Sultan Parveen to be poysoned and not long after that strangled that most gallant Prince his eldest Brother which did so trouble his Father that the grief thereof as it was strongly believed shortned his dayes who not long after this much against his mind made room for that Murderer to succeed him in that Empire who lay'd the foundation of his high Advancement in the Blood of his Brothers and rather then he would have missed it would certainly have made a way through the Blood of his Father likewise All Laws of honesty and of Nature were by him thrown down trampled under foot forgotten and made void to compass and gain his most unjust ends as if he resolved to practise that Language which Polynices out of the height of Ambition spake in the Tragedy Pro Regno velim Patriam Penates Conjugem flammis dare Imperia Precio quolibet constant bene Sen. Trag. Fire on my Gods Wife Country for a Crown An Empire can the dearest price weigh down I shall add but a few things more to this Relation before I conclude it And one shall be to give my Reader a taste but very briefly SECTION XXIX Of the manner of the style or writing of that Court. WHich I shall here insert and in some measure shew by the Copy of a Letter written by the Great Mogol unto King Iames in the Persian Tongue here faithfully translated which was as follows UNto a King rightly descended from his Anceâ—tors bred in Military Affairs clothed with Honour and Justice a Commander worthy of all Command strong and constant in the Religion which the great Prophet Christ did teach King Iames whose Love hath bred such an impression in my thoughts as shall never be forgotten but as the smell of Amber or as a Garden of fragrant flowers whose Beauty and Odour is still increasing so be assured my Love shall still grow and increase
the power of inchantments and words which he spake fast and bravingly that the said Child or Woman saw in the Oil in their hands whatever was desir'd yea certain Spirits spoke to them and answered to questions although the By-standers heard and saw nothing but only the Woman or Child related what he or she saw and heard He also caused two persons to sit upon the ground one opposite to the other and giving them four Arrows into their hands which both of them held with the points downward and as it were in two right lines united one to the other Then a question being put to him about any business he fell to murmur his inchantments and thereby caused the said four Arrows of their own accord to unite their points together in the middest though he that held them stirred not his hand and according to the future event of the matter those of the right side were placed over those of the left or on the contrary I know well that such things are not difficult to be done by the art of the Devil nor yet to gain belief the Devil being naturally a Lyar but because the severity in our Countries makes such pranks very rare I therefore mention these here August the ninteenth Being ready to depart from Aleppo to Alexandretta there to go aboard a small French Ship which was ready to set sail the great Dutch Ships being already gone before I could be ready though I hoped to find them in Cyprus and perhaps to imbarque in a Elemmish Ship called the Neptune for more security with a Caravan of the same French When I sent my Goods aboard I hid the Coffin of Sitti Maani in a great Ball of Cotten Yarn and as such it passed at the Custom-house being seal'd wit this mark P †V N 6. the Letter denoting my Name and the figure signifying the number of trunks and bundles that I carri'd with me being set upon every one of them after the Mercantile fashion By this means the said Coffin was happily convey'd both in and out without being understood what it was either by the Turks or Mariners of the Ship who otherwise would undoubtedly through their vain Auguries have scrupled to carry it August the twenty second I was visited in the Consul's House by Metran Iscivaiab or Isciva-jahab Archbishop of Mufarquin a Syrian Nestorian who had been sometimes a great intimate to F. Fra. Tomaso de Novara and joyn'd with him in the reduction of that Nation to the obedience of the Catholick Church He told me he was very desirous to go to Rome and in a manner offer'd himself to accompany me though I was to depart the next day but because he said he had not his Patriarch's Letters for that purpose but expected them shortly therefore according to the prudent judgment of other persons who had inform'd me of his affairs namely that there was little likelyhood of his having Letters of much importance from the Patriarch and that his desire of going to Rome was chiefly upon hope to get something there I counsell'd him by no means to get to Rome without his Patriarch's Letters inasmuch as the same would render his reception undoubtedly more favourable He came to be of my opinion and said he would follow me as soon as his Letters arriv'd but in the mean time he desir'd me that I would carry with me two men of his Nation who were honest persons and would serve me in the voyage Whereunto I readily consented both to do him a kindness and because I wanted Servants having but two and not knowing where to get others that were trusty and fit for my purpose I offer'd him also my House at Rome and my Person likewise in what-ever it might be useful to his service remembring the Obligation I had to his whole Nation for the sake of Sitti Maani Giecride my dear and esteem'd Wife who was of it With these and other the like Complements to him and the Priest Rezqallah who brought him and who was Son of the Priest Ioseph Elbani a Maronite who read Arabick to me when I was before at Aleppo he departed giving me many benedictions after their manner and leaving a great Frienship establish'd with me August the third In the Morning I went to see the Synagogue of the Jews at Aleppo fam'd for fairness and antiquity Their Street is enter'd into by a narrow Gate and lyes so much lower then the rest that it is descended to by a considerable number of steps After I had gone through many of their narrow Lanes which they contrive so purposely to hide the goodness of the Building from the Turks I came at length to the Synagogue which is a good large square uncover'd Court with cover'd Walks or Cloysters round about upheld by double Pillars dispos'd according to good Architecture On the right hand of the entrance is a kind of great Hall which they make use of for their Service in the Winter when it is cold or rains as they do of the Court in Summer and fair weather In the middle of the Court four Pillasters support a Cupoletta under which in a high and decent place like our Altar lyes the volume of the Law and there also their Doctor and principal Rabbi stands reading in a kind of musical tone to whom all the people alternatively answer They stand in very great number dispers'd in the Court Cloysters and Hall with their bonnets on their Heads and promiscuously like us in our Churches Men and Women together though I have sometimes seen it otherwise in Italy yet they are mixt in such order that those of one family Men and Women stand all together and I believe too they have their peculiar places and benches to sit upon Moreover the right fide of the Synagogue was fill'd with Jews origiginaries of the Country from ancient time but the left with Europaean Jews who although inhabitants and marry'd at Aleppo yet are originally adventitious and these are all Spaniards and speak Spanish for their natural Language yea many of them were born and bred up if not Spain or Portugal at least in Italy Germany or other Countries of Christendome I was carry'd to see this Synagogue by a Jew nam'd Baruch or in our Language Blessed whom I had known at my last being at Aleppo He was born and bred in Mantua a man well qualifi'd danc'd play'd and sung competently well and upon these accounts came to my familiarity We sat together a good while in the Synagogue amongst his fellow-Jews beholding their Ceremonies and after I had seen enough I went away and left Baruch at his devotions As I went home I pass'd by the Carvanserai or Market of Silk as they call it because in times past Silk and other Persian Commodities were brought thither more then to other places but now it is little frequented Here buying some few things of certain Uzbeghi Tartars newly come to Aleppo with a Caravan I enquir'd concerning their
pure white and fine Callico-laune which they there make likewise is for the most part the height of all their bravery the collars and some other parts of their upper coats being set off with some neat stitching Upon their heads they wear a long wreath of cloth about half a yard broad usually white but sometimes of other colours Which cloth worn for their head-covering is sometimes inter-woven in spaces with threds of coloured silk or silver or gold and when not so one end of that wreath of cloth worn by Gallants is usually thus inter-woven and so put upon their heads that its gayness may appear This head-covering of theirs they call a Shash which incircles their heads many times and doth mervellously defend them from the violence of the Sun And because this covering must needs keep their heads hot they provide for this as well as they can by shaving the hair continually from off them And they have girdles made of the same wreaths of cloth for the better sort thus inter-woven which come twice at least about them made very trim with that kind of weaving especially on both ends which hang down directly before them And thus have I presented a Mahometan there in his proper dress whose habit will more visibly appear together in the Mogols Picture portrayed and after put into this discourse Now for the Mahometan women because I had never sight of those of the greatest quality I cannot give such an account of them in respect of the Habits For these unless they be dishonest or poor come not abroad but for the fashion of their Garments they do not differ much from those the men wear for they wear Coats and Breeches one very like the other only women bind their long hair with Phillets which hand down behind them They wear likewise upon their heads Mantles or Vails usually made of white Callico or of their Pintado's which hang down over their other Garments Further the women have their Ears boared not only in their flaps but round about them wherein they wear very little Pendants those of the richer sort are made of flat narrow and thin pieces of Gold or Silver those worn by the poorer sort made of Brass or Iron kept bright so that all are in the same fashion they bestow some work upon the edges and ends of those Pendants And those women have the lower part of their left Nostrils pierced wherein they wear a Ring when they please of Gold or Silver or of some other baser Metals Those Rings of Gold have little Pearls fastned to one end of them and that Pearl is dril'd through that both ends of the ring may meet in it And doubtless the women of the greatest quality though I saw it not are bedeck'd with many rich Jewels This I have observed in some of those of the better sort I there saw that they did wear great broad hollow Rings of Gold enamel'd and some made of Silver or Brass upon their wrists and upon the small of their legs to take off and on two or three of them upon each Arm and Leg which make a tinkling noise very probably such Ornaments as the Jewish women were threatned for Isaiah 3. where Almighty God tells them that he would take away their tinkling Ornaments about their feet the Bracelets and the Ornaments of their legs their Rings and Nose-jewels For my Lord Embassadour and his Company we all kept to our English Habits made as light and cool as possibly we could have them His waiters in red Taffata Cloaks guarded with green Taffata which they always wore when they went abroad with him my self in a long black Cassock and the colours and fashion of our garments were so different from theirs that we needed not wheresoever we were to invite spectators to take notice of us And now the Constancy there observed by the Natives of both sexes in keeping to their old fashions in their Habits exampled to them by their Predecessors in many foregoing Generations and by them still continued is the great praise of this people as the commendation of every Nation in the World almost besides ours still constant to their ancient fashions in their Apparel SECTION XII Of their Language their Books their Learning c. THE Language of this Empire I mean the Vulgar bears the name of it and is called Indostan it hath much affinity with the Persian and Arabian Tongues but the Indostan is a smoother Language and more easie to be pronounced than the other a Language which is very significant and speaks much few words They write it as we to the right hand It is expressed by letters which are very much different from those Alphabets by which the Persian and Arabian Tongues are formed The Persian there is spoken as their more quaint and Court-tongue The Arabian is their learned Language both written backward to the left hand like the Hebrew from whence they borrow many words which come so near it as that he who is a good Critick in the Hebrew may very well guess at the meaning of much in both those Languages The Persian is a Language as if it consisted all of Guttural letters as some in the Hebrew Alphabet are called filling the mouth in the pronunciation of them for as the words in that Language are full of sense so in their speaking they are full of sound For the Latin and Greek by which there hath been so much knowledg conveyed into the World they are as ignorant of them both as if they had never been and this may be one great reason why there is so little learning amongst them But for the people themselves they are men of very strong reason and will speak ex re nata upon any offered occasion very exceeding well and doubtless they are a people of such strong Capacities that were there literature amongst them they might be the Authors of many excellent works but as the case stands with them all that is there attainable towards Learning is but to read and write And here by the way let me insert this that I never saw any Idiot or natural Fool nor any deformed person amongst them in any of those parts For Logick and Rhetorick which are so instrumental the first to enlarge and the second to polish discourses they have none but what is Natural They say that they write some witty Poems and compose many handsom Annals and Stories of their own and other adjacent Countries They delight much in Musick and have some stringed but many more Wind-instruments They have the use of Timbrels likewise but for want of pleasing Airs their Musick in my ears never seemed to be any thing but discord Their Books are not many and those are Manuscripts That rare and happy invention of Printing which hath been the advancement of so much learning within Christendom is not known without it They have heard of Aristotle whom they call Aplis and have some of his Books as they
say in the Arabian Tongue in which Language they further say they have many Books written by Avicenna that ancient Physitian who was born in Samarchandia one of the most fam'd places within the Tartarian Empire the Country as they believe where Tamberlain the Mogols great Ancestor drew his first breath Some parts or fragments they have of the old Testament of which more when I shall come to speak of their Religion Many amongst them profess themselvs to have great skill in judicial Astrology that great Cheat which hath been very anciently and often put upon as the Sacred Story witnesseth the people inhabiting the East and South parts of the World I call it a Cheat because there is and must needs be so much uncertainty in it all things here below being ordered and over-ruled by the secret and unerring providence of Almighty God which frustrateth the tokens of the Lyars and maketh Diviners mad that turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledg foolish Esay 44. 25. First these Diviners are mad when things fall not out according to their bold predictions And secondly they have been and not without cause esteemed as mad-men in foretelling things which they could not know and much less bring to pass And therefore I have heard a great Master in and a publick Professor of Astronomy who could see as far into Constellations and observe as much from them as any other often say that he would go by the very self same rules that others did to predict things to come and would write that which was quite contrary to what they observed yet what he wrote should as often fall to be as true as what they foretold Yet notwithstanding the truth of these premises the great Mogol puts so much confidence in his Astrologers that he will not undertake a journey nor yet resolve to do any thing besides of the least consequence unless his Wizards tell him it is a good and a prosperous hour to begin and set upon such an undertaking and at the very instant he hath his directions from them he sets upon the thing he undertakes and not before SECTION XIII Of their Physitians Diseases Cures When they begin their year How they measure their time c. HEre are those which pretend unto much skill in Physick though for ought I could ever there observe the people make but little use of them they fearing more Medicum quam Morbum and therefore do believe the Physitian to be the more dangerous disease The common Diseases of that Countrey are Bloody-Fluxes with others that come not to blood Hot-Fevers Calentures which seize on and fire the head and brain more than other parts These many times put our men at Sea into very high distempers especially while they are under the Torrid Zone which makes the poor creatures visited with them sometimes to conceit the spacious Sea and Waves therein to be great Fields full of Haycocks and if they were not sometimes happily prevented would leap over-board to tumble in them For ordinary Agues such as are so common among us and for those two torments rather than diseases when they are felt in extremity the Gout and the Stone they have the happiness to be ignorant of them But sometimes they are visited with an inflammation or an extreme Burn̄ing such as is spoken of Deut. 28. 22. or rather with a most grievous Pestilence which on a sudden sweeps away many thousands when it comes into great populous Cities This Pestilence makes the bodies of Men there which are visited with it like an House which on a sudden is covered all over with fire at once The City Amadavar at our being there with the King was visited with this Pestilence in the moneth of May and our Family was not exempted from that most uncomfortable visitation for within the space of nine dayes seven persons that were English of our Family were taken away by it and none of those which dyed lay sick above twenty hours and the major part well and sick and dead in twelve hours As our Surgeon who was there all the Physician we had and he led the way falling sick at mid-day and the following mid-night dead And there were three more that followed him one immediately after the other who made as much haste to the Grave as he had done and the rest went after them within that space of time I named before And as before I observed all those that dyed in our Family of this Pestilence had their Bodies set all on fire by it so soon as they were first visited and when they were dying and dead broad spots of a black and blew colour appeared on their Breasts and their flesh was made so extreme hot by their most high distemper that we who survived could scarce endure to keep our hands upon it It was a most sad time a fiery Tryal indeed But such is the goodness of Almighty God that he makes the miseries of Men here Aut tolerabiles aut breves either sufferable or short so that if the thing imposed be extreme heavy to be born it continues not long as this most grievous visitation most violent for the time like a mighty storm and then blown away For here the mercy of God suddenly stept in betwixt the living and the dead so that not onely in our Family but also in that great City the Plague was stayed All our Family my Lord Ambassadour onely excepted were visited with this sickness and we all who through Gods help and goodness out-lived it had many great blisters fill'd with a thick yellow watery substance that arose upon many parts of our bodies which when they brakè did even burn and corrode our skins as it ran down upon them For my part I had a Calenture before at Mandoa which brought me even into the very Iaws of Death from whence it pleased God then to rescue and deliver me which amongst thousands and millions of mercies more received from him hath and shall for ever give me cause to speak good of his Name There are very few English which come thither but have some violent sickness which if they escape and live temperately they usually enjoy very much health afterward But Death made many breaches unto my Lord Ambassador's Family for of four and twenty Waiters besides his Secretary and my self there was not above the fourth Man returned home And he himself by violent Fluxes was twice brought even to the very brink of the Grave The Natives of East-India in all their violent hot diseases make very little use of Physicians unless it be to breathe a Vein sometimes after which they use much fasting as their most hopeful remedy The foul Disease is too common in those hot Climates where the people that have it are much more affected with the trouble it brings than with the sin or shame thereof The people in East-India live up to our greatest Ages but without all question they have more old people than we