by the English Consul stayed a time to gain the Company of a Caravan which consists of a great mix'd 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 withal if they travelled single or but few together with these he set forwards to that City anciently called Nineveh in Assyria which we find in the Prophecy of Jonah was sometimes a great and excellent City of three days Journey Jonah 3. 3. but now so exceedingly lessen'd and lodg'd in Obscurity that Passengers cannot say of it This was Nineveh which hath now it's old Name changed and is called Mozel From hence they journeyed to Babylon in Chaldaea scituated 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 is called Bagdat From this place they proceeded thorough both the Armenia's where he saw the Mountain Ararat where the Ark of Noah rested after the Flood Gen. 8. From hence they went forward towards the Kingdom of Persia to Uzspahan the usual place of Residence for that great King then called Sha Abbas or King Abbas a victorious Monarch and though of a bloody and tyrannick Disposition yet very kind and respectful to the English Next they went to Seras anciently call'd Sushan where the great King Ahasuerus kept his Royal and most magnificent Court as you may read in Esther 1. From hence for you must think his Shoos were made of running Leather he journeyed to Candahor the first Province North-East under the Subjection of the Great Mogol and so to Lahore the chiefest City but one belonging to that great Empire and afterwards to Agra the Mogol's Metropolis or chief City And here it is very observable that from Lahore to Agra it is 400 English miles and that the Country betwixt both these great Cities is rich being a pleasant and flat Campania and the Road-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 stayed 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 always very apt and in little time shewed much Proficiency The first of these 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 always the Habit of that Nation and speaking their Language In the first of these viz. the Persian Tongue he terwards made an Oration to the Great Mogol which for the rareness of the Language and the honour of our great perambulating Traveller we have transcribed verbatim as followeth HAzaret Aallum pennah salamet fooker Daruces ve tehaungeshta hustam kemia emadam azwellagets door ganne az mulk Inglizan ke kessanaion pethee mushacas cardand ke wellagets mazcoor der akers magrub bood ke mader hamma iezzaerts dunmast Sabebbe amadane mari mia boosti char cheez ast an valbe dedane mobarreckdeedars Hazaret ke seete caramat ba hamma Trankestan reesedast ooba tamam mulk Musulmanan der sheenedan awsaffe Hazaret daveeda amadam be deedane astane akdus musharaf geshtam duum bray deedane feelhay Hazaret kin chumn iauooar der heech mulk ne dedam sen in bray deedane mamwer daryaee shumma Gauga ke Serdare hamma daryaha dumiest Chaharum een ast keyer fermawne alishaion amayet fermayand ke betwanam der wellayetts Uzbeck raftan ba Shahre Samarcand bray zeerat cardan cabbre mobarrec Saheb crawncah awsaffe tang oo mosacheere oo der tamam aallum meshoor ast belkder wellagotte uzber eencader meshoor neest chunan che der mulc Inglisan ast digr bishare eshteeac daram be dedane mobarrec mesare Saheb crawnca bray een Saheb The awne samanche foeheer de shabr stambol boodam ycaieb cohuu amarat deedam dermean yecush bung nasdec shaht mascoor coia che padshaw Eezawiawn che numesh Manuel bood che Saheb crawnca cush mehmannec aseem carda bood baad as gristane Sulteri Baiasestra iange aseem che shuda bood nos dec shahere Bursa coimache Saheb crawn Sultan Baiasetra de Zenicera tellaio bestand oo der cases nahadond een char chees meera as mulche man ium baneed ta mia as mulc Room oo Arrac peeada geshta as door der een mulc reseedum che char hasorr pharsang raw dared beshare derd oo mohuet casheedam che heech ches der een dunmia een cader mohuet ne casheedast bray deedune mobarrec dedaret Hasereret awn roos chee be tacte shaugh ne shaughee musharaf fermoodand The same in English LOrd Protector of the World all hail to you I am a poor Traveller and World-seer which am come hither from a far Country namely England which ancient Historians thought to have been scituated in the farthest Bounds of the West and which is the Queen of all the Islands in the World The cause of my coming hither is for four Respects first to see the blessed face of your Majesty whose wonderful Fame hath resounded over all Europe and the Mahometan Countries when I heard of the fame of your Majesty I hastened hither with speed and travelled very chearfully to see your glorious Court secondly to see your Majesties Elephants which kind of Beasts I have not seen in any other Country thirdly to see your famous River Ganges which is the Captain of all the Rivers of the World the fourth is this to entreat your Majesty that you would vouchsafe to grant me your gracious Pass that I may travel into the Country of Tartaria to the City of Sarmacand to visit the blessed Sepulchre of the Lord of the Corners viz. Tamberlain whose Fame by reason of his Wars and Victories is published over the whole World perhaps he is not altogether so famous in his own Country of Tartaria as in England Moreover I have a great desire to see the blessed Tomb of the Lord of the Corners for this cause for that when I was at Constantinople I saw a notable old Building in a pleasant Garden near the said City where the Christian Emperour that was called Emanuel made a sumptuous great Banquet to the Lord of the Corners after he had taken Sultan Bajazet in Fetters of Gold and put him in a Cage of Iron These four causes moved me to come out of my Native Country thus far having travell'd on foot through Turky and Persia so
a Seat for him to sit the dead hath his Hair newly embroydered his Body washed and anointed with sweet Powders He hath all his best Robes put on and is brought between two men to his Grave and set in his Seat as though he were alive He hath two of his Wives set with him with their Arms broken and then they cover the Vault on the top These People are very kind one to another in their health but in their sickness they do abhor one another and will shun their company At the end of four months the Gaga's decamped marching thorow divers Countries destroying all wheresoever they came In this condition continued Andrew Battel amongst them for the space of above a year and a half being highly esteemed of the great Gaga because with his Musquet he had killed divers of the Negroes his Enemies At last they coming within three days journey of Massangano where the Portugals had their Fort afore-mentioned he made means to get thither again with some Merchant Negroes that came to the Camp to buy Slaves At that time there was a new Governour come to Massangano named Sienor Juan Continho who brought Authority to conquer the Mines or Mountains of Cambamba and to perform that Service the King of Spain had given him seven years Customs of all the Slaves and Goods that were carried thence to the West-Indies Brasil or whithersoever This Gentleman was so bountiful at his coming that his Fame was spread thorow all Congo and many Mulatoes and Negroes came voluntarily to serve him And being some six moneths in the City he marched to the Outaba of Tombe and there shipped his Souldiers in Pinnaces and went up the River Coanza and landed at the Outaba of Songo sixty miles from the Sea This Songo is next to Demba where the Salt Mines be In this place there is such store of Salt that most parts of the Country are perfect clear Salt without any earth or filth in it and it is some three foot under the Earth as it were Ice They cut it out in Stones of a yard long and it is carried up into the Country being the best Commodity that a man can carry to buy any thing whatsoever From thence the Governour sent a Pinnace to Messangano for all the best Souldiers that were there so the Captain of that Castle sent Battel down amongst a hundred Souldiers more whom the Governour kindly entertained and made him a Serjeant of a Portugal Company Here he continued with them two years acting very valiantly in divers bloudy Battels against several Potent Lords that opposed the Portugals during which time the Governour died and another Captain was substituted in his room who was so cruel to his Souldiers that all his Voluntary men left him and by these means he could go no further At this time there came news by the Jesuits that Elizabeth Queen of England was dead and that King James her Successor had made Peace with Spain whereupon he made a Petition to the Governour who granted him Licence to go into his own Country and so he departed with the Governour and his Train to the City of S. Paul After six months stay about some necessary businesses he prepared for his Journey homewards but the Governour denied his Promise and instead of permitting him to come into England commanded him within two days to provide himself to go to the Wars again Battel startled at his perfidiousness resolved to try one bout more for his deliverance so the same night he departed from the City with two Negro Boys that he had which carried his Musquet six pounds of Powder a hundred Bullets and that little Provision of Victuals which he could make In the morning he was some twenty miles from the City up along the River Bengo there he stayed certain days and then passed Bengo and came to the River Dande being to the Northwards Here he was cruelly put to his shifts being forced to live a month in a Wood betwixt the foresaid Rivers for fear of a Pursuit From thence he went to the Lake of Casausa about this Lake he stayed six moneths and lived onely upon dried Flesh as Buffeloes Deer Mokokes Impolanca's and Roe-bucks and other sorts which he killed with his Musquet and dried the flesh as the Savages do upon an Hurdle three foot from the ground making underneath it a great Fire and laying upon the flesh green Boughs which keep the smoke and heat of the Fire down and dry it He made his Fire with two little Sticks as the Savages use to do Sometimes for variety he fed on Guinney Wheat which his Negro Boy would get of the Inhabitants for pieces of dried flesh In this manner he lived six months with dried Flesh and Fish and seeing no end of his misery he wrought means to get away which he effected after this manner About the Lake are many little Islands full of Trees called Memba which are as light as Cork and as soft of these Trees he built a Gingado with a Knife he had of the Savages in the fashion of a Boat nailed with wooden Pegs and railed round about because the Sea should not wash him out and with a Blanket that he had made a Sail and prepared three Oars to row withall The Lake was eight miles over and issued out into the River Bengo so he entered into his Gingado with his two Negro Boys and rowed into the River Bengo coming down with the Current twelve Leagues to the Bar Here he was in great danger because the Sea was great and being over the Bar he rowed into the Sea and then sailed afore the wind along the Coast which he knew very well minding to go to the Kingdom of Longo which is toward the North. Being that night at Sea the next day he saw a Pinnace come before the wind which came from the City and was bound to San Thome being come near him he found the Master was his great Friend for they had been Mates together who for pity sake took him in and his two Boys and set them on shore in the Port of Longo where he was well entertained of the King because he killed him Deer and Fowls with his Musquet Here he continued the space of three years during which time he took a Survey of the Country the Nature of the People their Rites and Manners all which he delivered to Posterity in writing as followeth Here is great store of Palm-Cloaths of sundry sorts which is their Merchandise and great store of Victuals Flesh Hens Fish Wine Oyl and Corn. Here is also very fine Logwood which they use to dye withall it is the Root of the Logwood which is the best and Molangos of Copper Here is likewise great store of Elephants Teeth but they sell none in the Market-place The King hath ten great Houses and is never certain to be found but in the Afternoon when he cometh to sit and then he keepeth always one House
day they were in a like Sleep conveyed to their Irons again after which he caused them to be brought into his Presence and questioned where they had been which answered by your Grace in Paradise and recounted all the Particulars before mentioned Then the old man answered this is the Commandment of our Prophet That whosoever defends his Lord he makes him enter into Paradise and if ye will be obedient to me and hazard your Lives in my Quarrel ye shall have this Grace This so animated them that they swore to be obedient to his Commands and he was thought happy whom the old man would command any thing though it cost him his Life so that other Lords and his Enemies were slain by these his Assassines which exposed themselves to all Dangers and contemned their Lives These men the Italians call Assassines whence we use the Phrase to Assassinate the name importing as much as Thieves or Cut-throats such a one was he who murdered the Count of Tripolis in the Wars for the Holy Land and such a one was he who so desperately wounded our Edward the First at the Siege of Acon with a poysoned Knife whose Venome could by no means be asswaged till his vertuous Wife proposing herein a most rare Example of conjugal Love sucked out the Poyson which her love made sweet to her delicate Pallate so sovereign a Medicine is a Wife's Tongue anointed with the Vertue of lovely Affection and indeed it is no wonder that Love should do Wonders which is it self a Wonder This Aladine thus playing the Tyrant and robbing all which passed that way Vlan in the Year 1262. sent and besieged his Castle which after three years Siege they took slew him and ruined his Paradise not being able for want of Victuals to hold out longer Paulus Venetus reporteth that in a City called Samarchan subject to the Nephew of the Great Cham of Tartary the Brother of the Great Cham named Zagatai governed that Country who being persuaded to become a Christian the Christians thorough his Favour built a Church in honour of St. John Baptist with such Cunning that the whole Roof thereof was supported by one Pillar in the midst under which was set a square Stone which by favour of their Lord was taken from a Building of the Saracens Zagathai's Son succeeded after his Death in the Kingdom but not in the Faith from whom the Saracens obtained that the Christians should be compelled to restore that Stone and when they offered a sufficient valuable Price the Saracens refused to receive any other Composition than the Stone but the Pillar lifted up it self that the Saracens might take away their Stone and so continued About the Year of our Lord 400. one Agilmond was King of the Lombards inhabiting Pannonia now called Hungary This King one morning going a hunting as he was riding by a Fish-pond he spied seven Children sprawling for Life which one as saith Paulus Diaconus or it may be many Harlots had been delivered of and most barbarously thrown into the Water The King amazed at this Spectacle put his Boar-spear or Hunting-pole among them one of the Children's hands fastned to the Spear and the King softly drawing back his Hand wafted the Child to the Shore This Boy he named Lamissus from Lama which in their Language signified a Fish-pond He was in the King's Court carefully brought up where there appeared in him such Tokens of Vertue and Courage that after the Death of Agilmond he was by the Lombards chosen to succeed him In the time of the Emperour Frederick Barbarossa Anno 1161. Beatrix the Emperour's Wife coming to see the City of Millain in Italy was by the irreverent People first imprisoned and then most barbarously handled for they placed her on a Mule with her Face towards the Tail which she was compelled to use instead of a Bridle and when they had thus shewn her to all the Town they brought her to a Gate and kicked her out To revenge this Wrong the Emperour besieged and forced the Town and adjudged all the People to die save such as would undergo this Ransome Between the Buttocks of a skittish Mule a bunch of Figs was fastened and such as would live must with their hands bound behind run after the Mule till with their Teeth they had snatched out one or more of the Figs. This Condition besides the hazard of many a sound Kick was by most accepted and performed Since which time the Italians when they intend to scoff or disgrace one use to put their Thumb between two of their Fingers and say Ecco la fico which is counted a Disgrace answerable to our English Custom of making Horns to that Man whom we suspect to be a Cuckold Giraldus Cambriensis who wrote an History of Ireland reporteth that in his time in the North of England a knot of Youngsters took a Nap in the fields As one of them lay snorting with his Mouth gaping as though he would have caught Flies it happened that a Snake or Adder slipt into his Mouth and glided down into his Belly where harbouring it self it began to roam up and down and to feed on the young man's Entrails The Patient being sore distracted and above measure tormented with the biting pangs of this greedy Guest incessantly prayed to God that if it stood with his gracious Will either wholly to bereave him of his Life or else of his unspeakable mercy to ease him of his Pain The Worm would never cease from gnawing the Patient's Carcass but when he had taken his repast and his Meat was no sooner digested than it would give a fresh onset in boring his Guts Divers Remedies were sought as Medicines Pilgrimages to Saints but all could not prevail Being at length schooled by the grave Advice of some sage and expert Father who willed him to make his speedy repair to Ireland where neither Snake nor Adder would live He presently thereupon would tract no time but busked himself over Sea and arrived in Ireland He had no sooner drank of the Water of that Island and eaten of the Victuals thereof but forthwith he killed the Snake avoided it downward and so being lusty and lively he returned into England When David Bruce was King of Scotland in the beginning of his Reign for the better proof of exercising Justice among them that coveted to live by truth and to have more ready occasion to punish others that meant the contrary he commanded that Saddles and Bridles with all other such Instruments and Stuff as pertained to Husbandry should be left abroad both day and night without the doors and if it chanced that any of them were stollen or taken away the Sheriff of the Shire should either cause the same to be restored again or else to pay for it out of his own Purse During the time whilst such strait punishment was executed against Offenders it fortuned that a Carle of the Countrey because he durst not steal other mens goods stole his
judged the fire to begin to run from the Mountain in a direct line the flame to ascend as high and as big as one of the highest and greatest Steeples in your Majesties Kingdoms and to throw up great stones into the Air I could discern the River of fire to descend the Mountain of a terrible fiery or red colour and stones of a paler red to swim thereon and to be some as big as an ordinary Table We could fee this fire to move in several other places and all the Countrey covered with fire ascending with great flames in many places smoaking like to a violent Furnace of Iron melted making a noise with the great pieces that fell especially those which fell into the Sea A Cavalier of Malta who lives there and attended me told me that the River was as liquid where it issues out of the Mountain as water and came out like a torrent with great violence and is five or six fathom deep and as broad and that no stones do sink therein I assure your Majesty no Pen can express how terrible it is nor can all the art and industry of the World quench or divert that which is burning in the Country In forty days time it hath destroyed the Habitations of twenty-seven thousand Persons made two hills of one one thousand paces high apiece and one is four miles in compass as your Majesty will see by the draught that I take the boldness to send herewith it was the best I could get but hath nothing of the progress into the Sea the confusion was so great in the City which is almost surrounded with Mountains of fire that I could not get any to draw one but I have taken care to have one sent after me for your Majesty Of 20000 persons which inhabited Catania 3000 did onely remain all their Goods are carried away the Canons of Brass are removed out of the Castle some great Bells taken down the City Gates walled up next the fire and preparation made all to abandon the City That Night which I lay there it rained ashes all over the City and ten miles at Sea it troubled my Eyes This fire in its progress met with a Lake of four miles in compass and it was not only satisfied to fill it up though it was four fathom deep but hath made of it a Mountain I send also to your Sacred Majesty a Relation in Print which the Bishop gave me wherein the beginning is related and several curious passages I most humbly beseech your pardon for the hindering your Majesty so long from your better employments and I beseech you Great Sir ever to believe I love and reverence your Person above all expressions for I am Your Majesties most obedient most humble and most faithful Subject and Servant WINCHELSEA Naples the 27. of April 7. of May 1669. The Relation that was sent Enclosed ON Friday the 18th of March 1669. the Sun was observed before its setting to appear of a pale and dead colour which being contrary to what it ever appeared before to us struck no small terror into the Inhabitants all objects appearing also of the same colour with a Paleness received from that of the Sun The same Night happened in this City as well as the whole Country hereabouts a terrible and unusual Earthquake whose strange and unequal motions joyn'd with horrible roarings from Monte Gibello exceedingly frighted the Inhabitants but was so extraordinarily violent in the Country adjacent that the People were forced to abandon their houses and to flie into the Fields to avoid the danger threatned them from the falling of their houses The Village of Nicolosi was of all others the most dreadfully handled by this furious Earthquake the Houses and other Buildings being shaken all in pieces and buried in their own ruines the poor People who had preserved their lives by a timely flight with such little of their Goods as their hasty fears would permit them to carry out with them continued a Night or two in the Fields beholding with grief and astonishment the ruine of their Habitations but observing that by these violent concussions the Earth began to open in several places and to threaten them with inevitable ruine they fled though with much trouble and amazement to this City These shakings of the Earth being so frequent and violent that the People went reeling and staggering with much difficulty supporting one another from falling insomuch as what with their want of sleep the pains they were forced to take in travelling and the great terrour imprinted on them by what they had seen and suffered they appeared at their arrival in this City as so many distracted people wholly insensible of what they did This dreadful convulsion of the Earth was immediately followed on Monday March 11 about 10 at night by three terrible Eruptions much about the same time and at a little distance one from the other These said Eruptions were observed to be on the side of Monte Gibello about two miles beyond the Mountain called Mont Pilen from whence with a terrible noise it threw up its flames with such fury and violence about a hundred yards in height its noise not roaring onely inwards from the belly of the mountain as before but violently cracking like Peals of Ordnance or Thunder from the side of it throwing out vast Stones some of them of 300 pound weight which being as it were shot thorough the Air fell several miles distant from the place whilst the whole Air was filled with smoak burning cinders and ashes which fell like a fiery rain upon the Country In the mean time issued from the side of this prodigious mountain a vast torrent of melted and burning matter which like an inundation drowned as in a flood of fire the Country on this side of it This burning River ran down upon the mountain Monpeleri which opposing its divers course it divided it self into two streames which encompassed the said mountain one of them taking its way by La Guardia the Convent of Saint Ann and Malpasso the other by the Towns of Onpileri and Falicchi which in few hours were wholly destroved and lost not so much as any sign of them remaining with several lesser Villages and Farms and with them the famous Image of the blessed Lady of the Annuntiata which though highly reverenced thoroughout the whole Island esteemed the wonder of Sicily and the whole world and to which the People with much devotion resorted in pilgrimage from the remotest Parts was also swallowed up and consumed by this dreadful torrent This fiery and burning deluge immediately spread it self to about six miles in breadth seeming to be somewhat of the colour of melted and burning Glass but as it cools becomes hard and rocky and every where in its passage leaves Hills and Pyramides of that matter behind it At the same time Monte Gibello from its top raged with dreadful flames which with its noise and concussions of the earth
still continuing added not a little to the terrour of the People who ran with cries and lamentations about the City and Country expecting nothing but to be swallowed up or consumed by fire having no other apprehensions but of death and a general Conflagration The two torrents of fire forward destroying all things in their way and by Wednesday March 13. had on the West side branched it self into several streams and over-ran Campo Rotundo St. Pietro and Mostorbianco with La Pitielli and St. Antonino and on the East part ruin'd the lower part of Mascalucia and Le Placchi taking its way towards this City On Tuesday the 14th the Wind came Eastward on which day fell abundance of Rain which abated not the progress of the fire which on the East side had from Mascalucia made its way to St. Giovanni di Galermo the lower part whereof it destroyed and Passing on seemed to threaten this City on one side as did that on the West side the other As the fire approached the Religious every where appeared with much devotion carrying in Procession their Reliques especially those of St Agatha the famous Mattyr of Catania in which they reposed no small confidence followed by great multitudes of People some of them mortifying themselves with Whips and other signs of Penance with great complaints and cryes expressing their dreadful expectation of the events of those prodigious fiery inundations Whilst the People were thus busied in their Devotions and astonished by their Fears news was brought to the Magistrates of the City that a considerable number of Thieves and Robbers had taken the opportunity of this general distraction to make a prey of the already distressed People and that they had murthered several of them for their Goods and that it was to be feared that the City of Catania it self might run some danger from the great numbers of them which were about the Country and from thence take their opportunity to get into the Town Whereupon consultation being had for prevention of further mischief from them the Commander of the Castle was ordered with a considerable number of Horse and a party of Spaniards to secure the Country and City against these Robbers who immediately sent out several parties with his Provost-Marshal with order to seize upon all suspected Persons and such as were not able to give a good account of themselves and for such as were taken in the fact robbing to execute them by Martial Law without any further tryal and accordingly caused three pair of Gallows to be set up for their speedy Execution one before the Gate Di Aci a second in the Market-place and a third before the Gate Della Decima setting strong Guards upon the Gates of the City and causing all suspected houses to be searched an account to be given in of all Lodgers and such Persons to be secured as could any ways fall under a suspition The poor People out of the Country being by this prodigious calamity stript out of all their Estates and reduced to great extremity fled most of them for refuge to this City with great lamentations moving the Charity of the Magistrates who were readily inclined to give them the best assistance they were able and the Citizens moved by their complaints and sufferings freely opened their doors filling their Houses with as many of those distressed People as they could possibly receive the Bishop and all Persons of Quality and Estate contributing largely for their support till better order could be taken for the disposing of them The City of Messina also and several other Cities informed of this extraordinary calamity sent hither large supplies of Provisions offering their best assistance to this place in case of extremity All the Elements seemed at this time to make War upon us and to conspire together for the punishment of the Inhabitants the Air was continually darkened with Clouds and Smoak agitated by great and violent Winds and oftentimes showred down great Rains insomuch as the Sun from the beginning of these Irruptions very seldom appeared to us and when it did with extraordinary paleness for a little time only and as it were abhorring so dreadful a spectacle soon hid its face again under a thick cloud The Sea ran much higher than it was wont to do and by his extraordinary roaring and in some places overflowing its banks added not a little to our consternation the Land every where infested with Thieves insomuch that till by the extraordinary care taken by the Magistrates and Officers severe Execution was done upon such as were apprehended in the fact no Person was able to stirr abroad without danger of his life whilst the fire by this prodigious overflowing of the Mountain threatened to take possession of all On Friday the fifteenth the stream of fiery matter which destroyed the lower part of St. Giovanni di Galermo divided it self into two parts one of its branches taking its way towards Mosterbianco the other threatning the City of Catania but this last was observed to move with the more slowliness than before having in twenty four hours time scarcely gained one mile On the eighteenth being Monday the Torrents being still seen to draw nearer to this City the Senate with Monsegnier Camluchi the Bishop of this place followed by all the Clergy secular and regular and an infinite number of People went in solemn Procession out of this City to Monte de St. Sofia carrying out with greatest Devotion their choicest Reliques and upon an Altar erected in view of the Mountain exposed them where they celebrated Mass and used the Exorcisms accustomed upon such extraordinary Occasions all which time the Mountain ceased not as before with excessive roaring to throw up its Smoak and Flames with extraordinary violence and abundance of great stones which were carried through the Air some of them falling within their view though at ten miles distance from the Eruption the ashes which proceeded from thence were scattered in great abundance as well on this City as on the Countrey adjacent every where in the Fields with Cinders and the heat of the said ashes destroying the grass which obliged the People to drive away their Cattel to a farther distance which otherwise would have perished for want of food These streams of ruine daily crept nearer and nearer to this City but by uneven and irregular motions according as it was more or less supply'd from its Fountain but on Wednesday the twentieth we perceived that that Branch of it which seemed most to threaten this City from St. Giovanni di Galermo was wholly extinguisht and the other which bent its course towards Mosterbianco ran but slowly and gave us some hopes that its fury also was near spent but the other Torrent which had before overflown Mosterbianco continued its motion with as much violence as ever being in breadth above a Musquet shot over but in probability could not easily overflow to the Westwards which was defended by its Rocky scituation another Branch
Of the great Friendship betwixt Damon and Pithias two Pythagorean Philosophers 271. Another of Christian Friendship 272. The admirable love and affection betwixt Titus and Gisippus two Noble Young men the one of Rome the other of Athens 273. Of Mount Aetna and the fiery irruption there in the year 1669. 287. HISTORIES AND OBSERVATIONS Domestick and Foreign The miraculous and strange Adventures and Deliverances of one Andrew Battel of Leigh in Essex IN the Year of our Lord 1589 one Andrew Battel of Leigh in Essex accompanied with Abraham Cock of Lime-house and accommodated with two Pinnaces of 50 Tuns apiece intending a Voyage to the River of Plate upon the Coast of Brasil were much necessitated for Victuals so that returning Northwards upon the Isle of S. Sebastian going on Land he with four others were taken Prisoners by certain Negro's belonging to the Portugals who sent him to Angola in Africa where he continued in their Service several years when desirous of freedom he attempted an Escape in a Holland Ship but being discovered he was clapt in Prison for two months and then banished to the Fort of Massangano where he lived a miserable life for the space of six years But this nothing daunting his Resolution he with ten other banished men practised an Escape having gotten a Canoo for that purpose and furnished with Musquets Powder and Shot wandering in great misery several days through the extremity of Heat and want of Victuals and Water being forced divers times to make their way through their Opposers with Musquet shot yet e're they could get into a place of security the Captain of the City from whence they came overtook them to whom they were forced to yield and being carried back again for their welcom home were clapt up in Prison with Collars of Iron and great Bolts upon their Legs After three months hard Imprisonment he with four hundred more banished Portugals were by Proclamation for ever destined to the Wars and accordingly he served in many bloudy Fights where whosoever gained all that fell to his share was onely Penury Hardship Wounds and Scars Having thus had his share in Land Service he with sixty more Souldiers were sent in a Frigat with Commodities to Bahia de Tare twelve degrees Southward to trade with the Savages and having made a prosperous Voyage were sent out the second time to the Morro or Cliff of Benguala where they lighted into the hands of the Gaga's a most warlike People and the greatest Canibals or Man-eaters in the world yet by reason of their Commodities and for that they helped the Gaga's against their Enemies they in five moneths space made three gainful Voyages from thence to the City of San Paulo but coming the fourth time the Gaga's were gone up far higher into the Country Being loth to return without Trade they determined that fifty of their Company should follow them and the rest stay with their Ship in the Bay of Benguala Amongst those fifty was Andrew Battel one who marching up the Country were by a great Negro Lord detained whilest such time as the Gaga's were gone clear away into another Land Then did he force them to march with him against his Enemies untill he had clean destroyed them Nor would he then suffer them to depart but upon promise to come again and leave one of their company in pawn with him untill their return Hereupon it was determined to draw Lots who should stay but upon further thoughts they agreed amongst themselves to leave the Englishman and to shift for themselves fearing to be all detained Captives So Battel was fain to stay per force having with him a Musquet Powder and Shot they promising the Negro Lord to come again in two moneths for his redemption But that time expired and none of them returning the Chief of the Town would have put Battel to death and in order thereto stripped him naked and were ready to cut off his Head when one of the chief amongst them interposing his Execution was deferred upon hopes of the Portugals coming and he set loose to walk at liberty But finding no security of his life amongst them he resolved to run away to the Camp of the Gaga's and having travelled a whole night the next day he came to a great Town called Cushil which stood in a mighty overgrown Thicket the People whereof great and small came round about him to wonder at him having never seen a White Man before Here he sound some of the great Gaga's Men with whom he went to their Camp at a place called Calicausamba The Captain of the Gaga's welcomed him kindly continuing in that place for four moneths together with great abundance and plenty of Cattel Corn Wine and Oyl and great triumphing drinking dancing and banquetting with Mans flesh for as I told you before these Gaga's are the greatest Canibals or Man-eaters in the world Their Captain warreth all by Inchantment and taketh the Devils counsel in all his Exploits Such of his Souldiers as are faint-hearted and turn their backs to the Enemy are presently condemned and killed for Cowards and their Bodies eaten They neither sow nor plant nor bring up any Cattel more than they take by Wars When they take any Town they keep the Boys and Girls of thirteen or fourteen years of age as their own Children but the Men and Women they kill and eat These little Boys they train up in the Wars and hang a Collar about their Necks for a disgrace which is never taken off till he proveth himself a Man and brings his Enemy's Head to the General and then it is taken off and he is a Freeman and is called Gonzo or Souldier This maketh them desperate and forward to be free and counted Men. When their chief Captain undertaketh any great Enterprize against the Inhabitants of any Country he maketh a solemn Sacrifice to the Devil in the morning before the Sun riseth He sitteth upon a Stool having on each side of him a Man Witch then he hath forty or fifty Women which stand round about him holding in each hand a wild Horses Tail wherewith they do flourish and sing Behind them are great store of Drums and other Instruments which always play In the midst of them is a great Fire upon the Fire an Earthen Pot with white Powders wherewith the Men-witches do paint him on the Forehead Temples and thwart the Breast and Belly with long Ceremonies and Inchanting Terms Thus he continueth till Sun is down then the Witches bring him his Weapon which is fashioned like a Hatchet and put it into his Hand bidding him be strong against his Enemies for his Mokiso which is the Devil is with him Presently there is a Man-child brought which forthwith he killeth then are four Men also brought before him two whereof as it happeneth he presently striketh and killeth the other two he commandeth to be killed without the Fort. When they bury the dead they make a Vault in the ground and
to have Christian Burial but a Learned Divine a Jacobine by Religion made so excellent an Oration to the Pope against the unkind Parents of the deceased Lovers that Obsequies were granted and Burial given them and an aged Woman a Servant to Lucretia who had been the means of their private Marriage was by Authority of Justice burned alive because she had not advertised the Parents thereof A third Story as dismal as the two former here followeth Damoiselle Geneviefue Daughter unto Monsieur Megrelim a Gentleman in ordinary in the Court of Francis the second King of France espoused her self by Word only and without Knowledge of any in her Fathers House to one that was School-master unto her Brethren named Medard a Picar by Nation born in Laon a young man of passable Handsomness and of indifferent Knowledge for his time being about twenty three years old After some space being thus contracted she found her self to be with Child and fearing the Displeasure of her Parents especially of her Mother who was a very severe Woman she forsook her Father's House and the goodly City of Paris accompanied with none but her Troth-plighted Husband the School-master Travelling thorough the Country they made their stay in a great Burrough Town of Champaign where likewise he became School-master taking great Pains to supply their Necessities Within some few Months after their residing there Medard died and she five days after the death of her Husband one Evening after Supper in a publick place declared to all such as gave Favour to her the whole History of their fore-passed Love her Marriage by promise her Extraction want of Government and the Injury done by her to her Servants desiring very heartily Pardon both of God and them so feigning as if she intended to go to Bed with her young Infant which was about six Weeks old she went and hanged her self that Night on a Beam-end of a poor Cottage which they had taken upon hire Certain Observations upon Kings of several Nations A Menophis one of the Kings of Egypt being blind was assured by some of his Wizards that if he washed his Eyes with the Urine of a Woman which had never known any but her own Husband he should be restored to his Sight After a long Search and many vain Tryals he met with one whose Water cured him whom he took to Wife and causing all the rest whom he had made Tryal of to be brought together to a Town called Gleba Rubra he set the said Town on Fire and burnt both it and all the Women therein assembled Sesostris another King of Egypt was a Prince of so great Wealth and Substance that he brought in Subjection all his neighbouring Kings whom he compelled in turns to draw his Chariot It hapned that one of these unfortunate Princes cast his Eye many times on the Coach-wheels and being by Sesostris demanded the cause of his so doing he replyed that the falling of that Spoke lowest which but just before was in the height of the Wheel put him in mind of the Instability of Fortune which the King considering of would never afterward be so drawn in his Chariot And indeed he found the same quickly after to be true by woeful Experience for leading his Army against the Scythians whom in conceit he had already conquered he found himself deceived in his Expectation These Scythians marvelled that a King of so great Revenues would wage War against a Nation so poor with whom the Fight would be doubtful the Victory unprofitable but to be vanquished a perpetual Infamy and Disgrace so joyning Battels Sesostris was discomfited and pursued even to his own home by the Enemy learning him by that to moderate his Prosperity and to beware of Fortunes Instability Charles the second King of Navarr was a Prince much given to Voluptuousness and sensual Pleasure which so wasted his Spirits that in his old Age he fell into a kind of Lethargy to comfort his benummed Joynts he was bound and sowed up naked in a Sheet steeped in boiling Aquavitae The Chyrurgion having made an end of sowing him and wanting a Knife to cut off the Thred took a Wax Candle that stood lighted by him but the Flame running down by the Thred caught hold on the Sheet which according to the nature of Aquavitae burned with that Vehemency that the miserable King ended his days in the Fire Ewen the third also King of Scotland was a Prince much addicted or rather wholly given over to Lasciviousness insomuch that he made a Law that himself and his Successors should have the Maiden-head or first Nights lodging with every Woman whose Husband held Land immediately from the Crown and the Lords and Gentlemen of all those whose Husbands were their Tenants or Homagers This was it seems the Knights Service which men held their Estates by and continued in force till the days of Malcolm Conmor who marrying Margaret Sister to our King Edgar Atheling at her Request abolished the same and ordained that the Tenants by way of Commutation should pay unto their Lords a Mark in Money which Tribute the Historians of that Nation say is still in force Roderick the last King of the Goths in Spain had for the Governour of one of his Provinces an honourable Person named Count Julian whom he sent upon an Embassy to the Moors of Africa and in the mean time defloured his Daughter Cana which the Father took in such indignation that he procured the Moors amongst whom he had gotten much credit to come over into Spain This request they performed under the Conduct of Musa and Tariffe and having made a full Conquest subjected it to the Great Caliphs or Mahometan Emperours It is recorded that at the first coming of Tariffe into Spain a poor Woman of the Country being willingly taken Prisoner fell down at his feet kissed them and told him that she had heard her Father who was letter'd say that Spain should be conquered by a People whose General should have a Mole on his right shoulder and in whom one of his hands should be longer than the other He to animate his Souldiers against the next encounter uncloathed himself and shewed the mark which so encouraged them that they now doubted not the Victory Roderick had in his Army 130000 Foot and 25000 Horse Tariffe had 30000 Horse and 180000 Foot The Battel continued seven dayes together from morning to night at last the Moors were victorious What became of King Roderick was never known his Souldiers took one arrayed in the Kings Apparel whom upon examination they found to be a Shepherd with whom the King after the Discomfiture had changed clothes It is recorded also in Rodericus Toletanus that before the coming of those Saracens King Roderick upon hope of some Treasure did open a part of the Palace of long time forbidden to be touched but found nothing but Pictures which resembled the Moors with a Prophecy that whensoever the Palace was there opened the
far have I traced the World into this Country that my Pilgrimage hath accomplished three thousand miles wherein I have sustained much labour and toil the like whereof no mortal man in this World did ever perform to see the blessed Face of your Majesty since the first day that you were inaugurated in your glorious Monarchal Throne In answer to this Oration the Mogol told him that concerning his Travel to the City of Samarcand he was not able to do him any good because there was no great Amity betwixt the Tartarian Princes and himself so that his commendatory Letters vvould do him no good also he added that the Tartars did so deadly hate all Christians that they vvould certainly kill him vvhen he came into their Country So that he earnestly dissuaded him from the Journey if he loved his Life and Welfare and at last concluded his Discourse vvith him by a Sum of Money that he threw dovvn from a Windovv out of vvhich he looked into a Sheet tyed up by the four Corners and hanging very near the Ground a hundred Roopas vvhich amounts to the value of tvvelve pounds and ten Shillings of our English Money the Mogol 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 vvas the Reason as vvas supposed that he gave him not a more plentiful Revvard However this Money was very welcom to Mr. Coriat at that time for as he wrote in a Letter to his Mother he had then but twenty shillings sterling left in his purse by reason as he wrote of a mischance he had in one of the Turks Cities called Emert in the Countrey of Mesopotamia where a miscreant Turk stripped him of almost all his Monies So that you see our Pilgrim or World-seer was often-times put hard to his shifts such straights did his curiosity of seeing bring him often unto and all for the itch of a little Fame which engaged him to the undertakings of those very hard long and dangerous Travels For he was a man of a very coveting Eye that could never be satisfied with seeing as Solomon says Eccles 1. 8. though he had seen very much and some were perswaded that he took as much content in seeing as many others in the enjoying of great and rare things He was a man that had got the mastery of many hard Languages as besides the Latin and Greek which he brought out of England with him he attained to the Persian Arabick and Indostan Tongues in which last he was so perfect that when at Agra he lodged at Sir Thomas Row's the Ambassadour's house where there was a Woman a Laundress belonging to the House that was so tongue-valiant that she would sometimes scold brawl and rail from the Sun-rising to the Sun-set one day he undertook her in her own Language and by eight of the clock in the morning he so silenc'd her that she had not one word more to speak Now had he had Wisdom to husband and manage these Languages as he had sklil to speak them he had deserved more Fame in his Generation But his knowledge and high attainments in several Languages made him not a little ignorant of himself he being so covetous so ambitious of praise that he would hear and endure more of it than he could in any measure deserve being like a Ship that hath too much Sail and too little Ballast yet had he not fallen into the smart hands of the Wits of those times he might have passed better since many thousands more and therefore he was not alone in this have entred into strange attempts to be talked of Now as he was very ambitious of Fame so the least seeming undervaluing did much trouble him as when upon a time one Mr. Richard Steel a Merchant and Servant to the East-India Company came from Surat to Mandoa the place then of the Mogol's residence where Mr. Coriat then was with the English Ambassador This Merchant had not long before travelled over Land from East-India through Persia and so to Constantinople and so for England who in his Travel homeward had met with Tom Coriat as he was journeying towards East-India Mr. Steel then told him that when he was in England King James then living enquired after him and when he had certified the King of his meeting him on the way the King replied Is that Foolyet living which when our Pilgrim heard it seemed to trouble him very much because the King spake no more nor no better of him saying That Kings would speak of poor men what they pleased At another time when he was ready to depart from Agra Sir Thomas Row gave him a Letter and in that a Bill to receive ten Pounds at Aleppo when he should return thither The Letter was directed to one Mr. Libbaeus Chapman there Consul at that time in which that which concerned our Traveller was thus Mr. Chapman when you shall hand these Letters I desite you to receive the Bearer of them Mr. Thomas Coriat with Courtesie for you shall find him a very honest poor Wretch and farther I must intreat you to furnish him with ten pounds which shall be repayed c. Our Pilgrim liked the Gift well but the Language by which he should receive it did not at all content him telling the Ambassadour's Chaplain That his Lord had even spoiled his Coursie in the carriage thereof so that if he had been a very Fool indeed he could have said very little less of him than he did to write Honest poor wretch and to say no more of him was to say as much as nothing And furthermore he then told the Chaplain that when he was formerly undertaking his Journey to Venice a Person of Honour wrote thus in his behalf unto Sir Henry Wootton then and there Ambassadour My Lord Good wine needs no Bush neither a worthy man Letters Commendatory because whithersoever he comes he is his own Epistle c. There said he was some Language on my behalf but now for my Lord to write nothing of me by way of Commendation but Honest poor wretch is rather to trouble me than to please me with his Favour And therefore afterwards his Letter was phras'd up to his mind By which may be seen how tender he was to be touched in any thing that might in the least measure disparage him O what pains this poor man undertook to make himself a Subject for present and after Discourse being troubled for nothing at the present unless with the fear of not living to reap the fruit he was so ambitious of in all his undertakings Now for his Religion that he was a true Christian Protestant not tainted with travelling those Pagan and Mahometan Countreys may appear by these two Examples In each great City where there is a Concourse of People their Mosquits or Mahometan Churches at the four corners of them have high and round but
of honourable Love and therefore give due thanks to God if there remain among you any token of the ancient Wisdom of your most Noble Progenitors But I shall not stay you long in my preamble but come to the matter It is not unknown to you all wherefore I came to this City and how that happening into the house of Chremes I found there his Son Gisippus of my own age and in every thing so like each other that neither his Father nor any other man could discern of us the one from the other but by our own means or shewing insomuch as there were put about our Necks Laces of sundry Colours to declare our Personages What mutual agreement and Love hath been always between us during this eight years that we have been together ye all be witnesses that have been beholders and wonderers at our most sweet Conversation and consent of Appetites wherein was never any discord or variance And as for my part after the Decease of my Father notwithstanding that there was descended unto me very large Possessions fair Houses with abundance of Riches also I being called home by the importunate Letters of my Allyes and Friends which be of the most noble of all the Senators offering me the advancement to the highest dignities in the Publick-Weal as also the loving Letters from my tender Mother wherein she accuseth me of unkindness for my long tarrying especially now in her most discomfort Yet could not all this once remove me from my dear Friend Gisippus and but by force could not I nor yet may be drawn from his sweet company I choosing rather to live with him as his companion and fellow yea as his Servant rather than to be Consul of Rome Yet this my kindness hath he well requited or as I may say redoubled delivering me from the death yea the most painful death of all other I perceive you wonder hereat noble Athemans and no marvel for what Person should be so hardy to attempt any such thing against me being a Roman and of the Noble blood of the Romans or who should be thought so Malicious to slay me who as all ye be my judges never trespassed against any Person within this City No no my Friends I do not suspect any of you I perceive you desire to know what he was that would presume on such an enterprise It was Love noble Athenians the same Love which as your Poets feign did wound the most part of the Gods who constrained Jupiter to transform himself into a Swan a Bull and divers other likenesses The same Love that caused Hercules the vanquisher and destroyer of Monsters and Gyants to spin on a Wheel sitting amongst Maidens in Womens Apparel The same Love that caused to assemble the Princes of Asia and Greece in the Fields of Troy The same Love I say against whose Assaults may be found no resistance hath suddenly and unawares stricken me to the heart and that with such force that I had immediately dyed had not the incomparable Friendship of Gisippus holpen me I perceive you would fain know who she is that I loved I will no longer delay you noble Athenians it is Sophronia the Lady whom Gisippus had chosen for his Wife and whom he most intirely loved But when his most gentle heart perceived that my love was in a much higher degree than his towards that Lady and that it proceeded neither of wantonness nor any corrupt desire or fantasie but in an instant by the only look and that with such fervency as made me so captivated in Cupids thrall that I desired Death rather than life he by his wisdom perceived as I doubt not but that ye now do that it was the very provision of God that she should be my Wife and not his whereto he giving place and more esteeming true Friendship than the love of a Woman whereunto he was induced by his Friends and not by violence of Cupid constrained as I am hath willingly granted to me the interest that he had in the Lady and it is I Titus that have really wedded her I have put the Ring on her Finger I have undone the Girdle of shamefac'dness what will ye more I have lain with her confirmed the Matrimony and made her a Wife This Oration instead of applause was received of the Auditors with a general murmuring and disdainful looks on Gisippus whereupon Titus proceeded thus I wonder noble Athenians what should make you thus to grudge at Gisippus who knew he might find in Greece another Lady as fair and as rich as this he had chosen and one perchance that he might love better But such a Friend as I was having respect to our likeness the long approved concord also my Estate and condition he was sure to find not one also the Lady suffers no disparagement in her blood nor hindrance in her marriage but is much rather advanced no dispraise to my dear friend Gisippus Also consider noble Athenians that I took her not my Father living when ye might have suspected that as well her Riches as her Beauty should have thereto allured me but soon after my Fathers decease when I far exceeded her in Possessions and Substance when the most notable men of Rome and of Italy desired my alliance ye have therefore all cause to rejoyce and thank Gisippus and not to be angry and also to extoll his wonderful kindness towards me whereby he hath won me and all my blood such friends to you and your City that ye may be assured to be by us defended against all the World which being considered Gisippus hath well deserved a Statue of Gold to be set on a Pillar in the midst of your City for an honourable Monument in the remembrance of our incomparable Friendship and of the good that thereby may come to your City But if this perswasion cannot satisfie you but that ye will imagine any thing to the damage of my Friend Gisippus after my departure I vow to God Creator of all things that as soon as I shall have knowledge thereof I shall forthwith resort hither with the invincible Power of the Romans and revenge him in such wise against his Enemies that all Greece shall speak of it to their perpetual dishonour shame and reproach And therewith Titus and Gisippus arose the Athenians for the present dissembling their Malice for the fear they had of Titus Soon after Titus being sent for by the Authority of the Senate and People of Rome prepared to depart out of Athens and would fain have had Gisippus to have gone with him offering to divide with him all his Substance and Fortune But Gisippus considering how necessary his counsel should be to the City of Athens would not depart out of his Countrey though he most earnestly desired the Company of Titus Thus Titus with his Lady is departed towards the City of Rome where at their coming they were of his Mother his Kinsmen and of all the Senate and People most
joyfully received And there lived Titus with his Lady in Joy inexplicable having by her many brave Children and for his Wisdom and Learning was so highly esteemed that there was no Dignity or honourable Office within the City that he had not with much favour and praise atchieved and occupied But to return to Gisippus who immediately upon the departure of Titus was so maligned at as well by his own Kinsmen as by the Friends of the Lady which he to their seeming most shamefully abandoned leaving her to Titus that they spared not daily to vex him with all kinds of reproach that they could devise or imagine and first they excluded him out of their Council and prohibited from him all honest Company but not being therewith satisfied they finally adjudged him unworthy to enjoy any Goods or Possessions left him by his Parents whom he as they supposed by his undiscreet Friendship had so distained wherefore they despoiled him of all things and almost naked expelled him out of the City And thus was Gisippus lately Wealthy and one of the most Noble men of Athens for his kind heart banished his own Country where as a man dismai'd wandring hither and thither finding no man that would succour him atlast remembring in what pleasure his friend Titus lived with his Lady for whom he suffered these damages concluded to go to Rome and declare his misfortune to his friend In short with much pain cold hunger and thirst he came to that City where enquiring for the house of Titus at the last he came to it but beholding it so beautiful large and Princely he was ashamed to enter it being in so simple and mean Array standing by therefore that in case Titus came forth out of his House he might present himself to him He being in this thought Titus holding his Lady by the hand came forth of his Palace and taking their Horses to solace themselves saw Gisippus but beholding his simple Apparel regarded him not but passed forth on their way wherewith Gisippus was so wounded to the heart thinking Titus had contemned his fortune that oppressed with mortal heaviness he fell in a swoon but being recovered by some that stood by thinking him to be sick forthwith departed intending not to tarry any longer but as a wild Beast to wander abroad in the World and so passing forwards he for weariness was constrained to enter into an old Barn without the City where casting himself on the bare ground with weeping and dolorous crying he bewailed his fortune but most of all accusing the ingratitude of Titus for whom he suffered all that misery the remembrance whereof was so intolerable that he determined no longer to live in that anguish and dolour and therewith drew his Knife purposing to have slain himself but the wisdom which he by the study of Philosophy had attained withdrew him from that desperate act And in this contention between wisdom and will fatigate with long Journeys and watch or as God would have it he fell into a deep sleep His Knife wherewith he would have slain himself falling down by him In the mean time a bloody Thief which had robbed and slain a man was entred into the Barn where Gisippus lay intending to lie there all that Night who seeing Gisippus bedewed with Tears and his Visage replenished with Sorrow also the naked knife by him judged that he was a man desperate and so overwhelmed with grief that he was weary of his Life which the said Ruffian taking for a good occasion to escape took the Knife of Gisippus and putting it in the wound of him that was slain put it all bloody in the hand of Gisippus being fast a sleep and so departed Soon after the dead man being found the Officers made diligent search for the Murtherer at last entring into the Barn and finding Gisippus asleep with the bloody Knife in his hand awaked him laying unto him the death of the man and the having of the bloody Knife Gisippus hereat nothing dismai'd desiring death more then life and to die rather by the Laws then by the violence of his own hand wherefore he denied nothing that was laid to his charge but desired the Officers to make haste that he might be shortly out of his life Quickly Report hereof came to the Senate that a man was slain and that a Stranger a Greek born was found in such form as is above mentioned wherefore they forthwith commanded him to be brought into their presence sitting there at that time Titus being then Consul or in other such like Dignity The miserable Gisippus being brought to the Bar with Bills and staves like a Felon it was demanded of him if he slew the man that was found dead he nothing denied it but in most sorrowful manner cursed his fortune naming himself of all others most miserable At last one demanding of what Country he was he confessed to be an Athenian and therewith cast his sorrowful Eyes upon Titus with much indignation breaking forth into fighs and abundance of tears Titus now marking him very well perceived it was his dear friend Gisippus and thinking he was brought in despair by this misadventure he rose out of the place where he sate and falling on his knees before the Judges said that he had slain the man for old malice that he bare to him and that Gisippus being a stranger and all might perceive that he was a desperate Person who to abbreviate his sorrows confessed the act whereof he was innocent to the intent that he would finish his sorrows with death wherefore Titus desired the Judges to give sentence on him according to his merits But Gisippus perceiving his friend Titus contrary to his expectation to offer himself to death for his safeguard more importunately cryed out to the Senate to proceed in their judgment on him that vvas indeed the very offender Thus they of long time with abundance of tears contended which of them should die for the other whereat all the Senate and People were wonderfully abashed not knowing what it meant Now it happened that the Murtherer was in the prease at that time who perceiving the marvellous contention of these two Persons which were both innocent and that it proceeded of an incomparable Friendship was vehemently provoked to discover the truth wherefore breaking through the prease and coming before the Senate spake in this wise Noble Senators I am here come to accuse my self having lived a lewd Life for many years It is not unknown to you that Titus is of noble bloud and one approved to be always a man of excellent Vertue and Wisdom and never was malicious This other Stranger seemeth to be a man full of simplicity and that more is desperate for some evil which hath befallen him I say to you Fathers they both be innocent I am the Person that slew him who was found dead by the Barn and robbed him of his mony and when I found in the Barn this Stranger