City is taken at one end But these mutations did not so eclipse her as Selechus Nicanor did by envy and policy Anno Mundi 3645 building a City in the conflux of Tigris into Euphrates where Coch first stood and then Alexandriae new naming it Seleucya 50 miles thence 300 stades sayes Marcellien and to add lustre to his owne by the decay of the other illured from Babylon six hundred thousand soules in small time making that late triumphant Empresse of Townes sit naked and disconsolate the reward of her incomparable pride and tyranny Ieremiahs prophesie in the 50 51 then being accomplished The violence done to mee and mine be upon Babylon Behold I am against thee O thou most proud c. The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken her high gates shall be burnt with fire she shall become a heap a dwelling place for Dragons and it shall be said how is Babylon become an astonishment a hissing and a desolation among all Nations Alexander when he took it inricht his coffers with two hundred thousand Talents of gold betrayed by Bagophanes the Eunuch and here Terrarum fatale malum sydus iniquum gentibus as a Critick calls him Alexander the worlds great victor disroab'd himselfe out of his life by quaffing too much Oxe blood to Hercules his emulated Progenitor Anno Mundi 3647 337 before the Incarnation at the age of 32 having troubled the world 12 yeeres and 8 months his death foretold him by a Calanus or Bracman Thus much concerning Babylon not that Al-Cayro in Aegypt neere old Memphis in the same place where Latopolis stood built by Cambyses the Persian and new named El-cayro by Gehoar Leiftenant to El-Cayn the Kalyph as I finde in the first and eight books of Leo's History of Afrique by the Hebrews call'd Mezraim by the Caldees Alcabyr Myzir by the Arabs and Massarr by all Armenians BAGDAT rais'd out of old Babells ruines is in 36 deg 20 min. North in 82 of longitude built in that part of Meso-potamia the Persians call Yrakein the Turks Diarbec the Arabs Iazirey the Armenians Meridin It receives the name Bagdat I suppose from Bag-Deh i. e. a Lordly Citie or from Bawt-dat i. e. a Princely garden some say from Bugiafer the Babylonian Kalyph who disburst two millions of gold to reedifie it after that cruell devastation made there by Almerick King of Iewry But long shee enjoyed not this glory for Chyta a Tartar Prince gives order to Alako his brother to divest her who accordingly sackt it with a barbarous rage and greedinesse cruelly tortured the then Lord or Chalyph Mustaed-zem but in the yeere of our Lord 762. Heg 142. Almansor or Abviapher the Calyph pittied her delapidations and taking a precise time when by a good influence of the heavens it might in future times be fortunate he begun to reare her up againe and builded the Mosq ' in that place where one Bagdet an Eremit had made his hermitage and from whom it may be 't was so called Almansor gave it another name Medina-Isalem i. e. the City of peace or as Ben-Casen thinks Deer-Assla i. e. the Church of peace An ill spirit it seemes hanted it for after shee begun to breath anew and to adorne her head with Majesty another cold Northern blast benummed her Tangrolipix or Sadoc Lord of the Zelzuccian family and father of the Ottemans takes it in despight of the Arab and Persian An. Dom. 1031 Heg 411 and forced her to bow under the yoak of miserable bondage Howbeit once more an Arabian Chalyph re-comforts her Negmeddin-Fidall-ally by name sonne to Emyr-Elmummyn after whom Addaë-daul And Siet Saife-Daddaul did their best to inlarge her and to them according to Acmad-Abu-beker followed Almostacer-bilah sonne to Almoctadi-bila Anno Dom. 1100. Heg 480. all which severall Calyphs were rich and liberall such as spared neither cost nor paine to redintigrate her bulk and memory Ismael-Sophy conquer'd it from Bajazeth but Solyman regained it from Sha-Tahamas from him the Persian King Mahomet sonne to Tamas wrested it Anno Domini 1566. Heg 946. by a neat stratagem he entred unsuspected in disguize of a Merchant fifteene hundred other Noble warriors in like habit driving into Bagdat a Carravan of three thousand Camells but upon the watch-word throwing off their gownes they brandisht their glittering blades in the eyes of the astonisht garrison The Persians kept it till the yeere of our Lord 1605. Heg 985. when it reverted to Turkish thraldome but Abbas could not suffer it for An. Dom. 1625. Heg 1005. most bravely he beat the Turqs thence and the Tartars from Van in Armenia and to this day holds both though ten times the inraged Turqs have attempted to recover it Let us now into the Towne Bagdat at this day scarce equalls Bristow in bulk or beauty the circuit may be three miles and better including fifteene thousand familes It is watered by Tigris call'd Diglat and Dyguilah somewhat broader than the Thames but not so navigable nor gentle In all this City is nothing worthy the present observation save the Bridge the Mosque the Sultans Pallace the Coho house the Buzzar and the Gardens The bridge resembles that at Rohan in Normandyl it has a plain easie passage over 30 long boats concatenated and made to separate at pleasure The Mosque is builded in the West side large round and very pleasantly rais'd of white free-stone brought from Mosul old Ninivy The Sultans house adjoynes the great market it is large but low and neere it are some brasse peeces the Turks left there against their will a little Chappell also Panch-Ally by name is note-worthy memorable in the impression of five fingers Mortis Ally by a trick that he had made in the solid stone there The Coho house is a house of good fellowship in the evening many Mussulmen assemble to sip a sort of Stigian liquour a black thick bitter potion brewed out of Bunchie or Bunnu berries more reputed of in that it increases Venus and purges melancholy but most of all from a tradition they have that Mahomet sipt no other sort of drink save this which was first invented and brewed by Gabryel in the Coho house they also inebriate their braines with Aracc and Tobacco The Buzzar in Bagdat is square and comely The Gardens are sweet and lovely all put together shew no more artificiall strength wealth nor bravery than do many neighbouring and late up-start Townes about her Twelve miles lower is seene a grosse confused Mount by some thought the rubbish of Nimrods Tower slimy bricks and mortar may be digd out of it I rather imagin it the ruine of that monstrous Temple which was erected by Semyramis in honour of Bell or Iupiter Belus Grand-father to Nynus At some distance it Is better perceiv'd than when neerer hand the insensible rising all the way it may bee occasions it what more or more properly can I apply than in our owne tongue what an old Poet warbled in
pens of the Aegyptians and Greeks who for want of true matter invented a thousand Fables The first threfore we can honour as sayes Osorius is Vasco de Gama or Bartolo de Dios Lusitanians anno 1497. from Adam 5467. by importunity of that excellent Prince Iohn 2. coasting hither and so into the Orient The Country is rich and fruitfull in her womb but owned by an accursed Progeny of Cham who differ in nothing from bruit beasts save forme a people by some call'd metonimically Caffarrs or Atheists Anarchy confounds order no Prince of power or policie awing them each Canton commanded by a Captaine not chosen by voice but as force urges it Captain Fitz-Herbert some yeares since ceremoniously devoted the Title to our King in a memoriall new naming two little rising Mounts 'twixt the Sea and Sugar loafe King Iames and Prince Charles their Mounts our now dread Soveraigne Give we an exact Idaea of the Inhabitants The People described Their colour is ugly black are strongly limbd desperate crafty and injurious Their heads are long their haire woolly and crispt no apparell in any place shewing more variety Some shave one side and leave the other long and curled Another cuts all away a little tuft atop excepted a third thinking his invention best shaves here and there the bald scull appearing in many places and othersome not unlike Occasion shave away all save a lock before of no use save ornament Such as have tufts or haire plait brasse buttons spurre-rowells pieces of pewter or what else the mirthfull Sayler exchange for Beefe Mutton Woodsorrell Oestrich egge-shells little Tortoises c. their eares are long made longer by ponderous Bables they hang there some using links of brasse of iron others have glasse-beads chains blew stones bullets or Oyster-shells And such as cannot reach to such jewells rather than be without have singles of Deare beaks of birds Doggs or Cats stones Egg-shells or the like their noses are flat crusht so in their infancie great lips description cannot make them greater quick crafty eyes and about their necks in imitation of the Dutch Commandores chaines have guts and raw-puddings serving both for food and complement eating and speaking both together Yet of late they have got hoopes of iron and long links of brasse grasse wreathes or greasie thongs of stinking leather Their armes are loaden with voluntary shackles of iron Jvory rusty brasse or musty copper The rest of their bodies are naked save that a thong or girdle of raw leather circles them a square peece like the back of a Glove is fastned to it serving to cover their pudenda But I cannot commend their modesty the women upon receipt of any thing returning her gratitude by discovering her shame a curtesie taught them by some ill-bred Boore our men I hope have more civility The grand Seigniors among them have better cloathing a nasty untand hide or skin of a Lyon Leopard Calfe Baboon or Sheep the haire inverted is as a roabe put about their shoulders reaching to their waste thighes and legges never covered their feet fastned to a broad peece of leather tied by a little strap resembling the Roman crepidula not alwayes worne their hands for the most part hold them not that they feare to weare them out but that their feet may have their liberty to steale which with their toes they can doe most daintily all the while looking you in the face as if they knew not how to deceive any Most of the men are Semi-Eunuchs one stone ever being tane away by the Nurse either to dististinguish them from ordinary men or that Mistresse Venus allure them not from Pallas The women also excise themselves not from a Notion of religion but as an ornament Both sex hideously cut and gash and pink in sundry works their browes nose cheeks armes brest back belly thighes and legges in Acherontick order in a word are so deformed that if they had studied to become antick they might be praised for invention Antrae lares dumeta thoros caenacula rupes They have no houses Caves and holes they delight to dwell in or Lyons dennes unfurnished but perfum'd I warrant you a whole Tribe commonly keeping together equally villanous coupling without distinction the name of wife or brother unknowne among these incestuous Troglodites feeding sleeping speaking all together without order or law in the night sleeping round a fire a Centinell regarding the Lyons their adversaries 'twixt whom is such hate and stratagems Vivitur ex rapto that one eat other the Lyon suddenly tearing some of them and they other times trayning the Lyons over cover'd pits which catches them and so retaliating slaying and eating them to day who perhaps were Sepulchres to their friends or parents the day before Other times they dawb and rub their skinne with grease and coale and so indent it drying them in the Sunne by that trick becomming Monsters to all civill eyes that look them upon By what I have said you may imagine their pallats are not very delicate Solinus calls the tawny Africans Agriophagi or Panther and Lyon-eaters we now call them Icthio and Anthropophagi a degree more barbarous than the Lyons of whom 't is said Mortuorum cadavera non gustant quod vivit corripiunt et ex comedunt But these Savages eat men alive or dead as in both kinds many poore men have lamentably made experience of Which whē they faile of dead Whales Seales Pengwins grease or raw Puddings diet them Safety is scarce among themselves for when the frost of old age benums their vigour unapting them to provide their owne food they either eat them or leave them destitute of defence upon some Mountain pittied by none where famine kills them or the ravening Lions With these no violent death nor ' stroying rage Of Lust is halfe so dreadfull as old age Non praematuri cineres nec funus acerbum Luxuriae sed morte magis metuenda senectus The lesse to be admired at for where God is not knowne what villany is unwarrantable Aristotle a Heathen I remember could make it a maxime 1 lib. de coelo Omnes homines Notionem Deorûm habent c. And another Vniversum genus humanum ubique Terrarum colit Deum verum vel falsum Which is beleev'd by most men and I dare not oppose it Notwithstanding though I made all signes and tried each way possible to discover some spark of devotion of the knowledge of God heaven hell or imortality I could not finde any thing that way no place of worship no day of rest no order in Nature no shame no truth no ceremony in births or burials meere brutishnesse and stupidnesse wholly shadowing them The women give suck the Vberous dugg stretched over her naked shoulder the shape of which Soldanias with a landskip of the Table and other Mounts loe here presented A man and woman att the Cape of good Hope Their language is apishly sounded with whom t is thought they mixe
blush not to proffer their Daughters or Neeces to be their bed-fellowes yea to concomitate them at bed and board during his stay the price for such a favour not equalling so high a complement but that were it lesse too much in my opinion for such Pandars and base prostitutes At the end of the prefixed time the woman returnes home well pleas'd so far from shame or losse that they rather accompt her honoured and fit for preferment But 't is dangerous to be wanton elsewhere jealousie on either side inflaming into rage which seldome dyes without one or anothers destruction I cannot but cry out upon them and adjudge them in the civil sorrow of one of their Religion but more temperance who could sigh out at sight of such absurdities Oh miserum cui peccare liceat Adultery they punish rigidly Fornication is more tollerable The young women are carelesly frolick and fearelesly merry the married melancholy and strictly observed idlenesse and heat provokes them to inchastity The men are also effeminate yea wallow in all kind of turpitude and sensuality their females are often in their sight the grape commoves them to wickednesse they delight their gust and pallat with choysest wines waters Rack Ryce and fruits both succulent and restorative and which make Venus predominate but by this their intemperance they abreviate their dayes few exceeding sixty yeeres an old age if you contemplate their lust Deaths best harbinger and the Zone they sweat in bad both both intemperate Of Siam SIAM calld Sobanna formerly a Citie and Kingdome so denominated declining North from the Aequinoctiall 14 deg is famous for power wealth and many sorts of excellencies a great part of Pegu Braama and Cambogia are tributary to him Patania also Iamohay Odjea and many other Territories watered by Ganges acknowledge him his power is great usually warring with 1000 Elephants and 200000 men The Zone is hot the men black and in such torrid places little cloathing is required a Cambolin of pure lawn of a sad colour trebled on and about their naked shoulders some tye a leather skin about their neck and as a badge of devotion gird their middles with a leathern thong and hold a Sumbrero or Umbrella in their hands to lenefie the flaming Sun but weare no Sandals that the scorching sands may so mortifie that the Tallapoi may be thought a wonder They are transcendent Idolaters carving Gods to worship after the shapes of Pan Priapus and other gotish fancies yea and in postures not to bee remembred they have Groves and Altars also whereon they offer flesh fruits flowers and many times when the Tallapoi tells them the Devill is melancholy they warble out harmonious musick and do what they can to make him merry others so sonne as Aurora shewes her golden Trammell runne to their Pagods with a basket of Ryce to be his breakfast hoping there by to prosper that day the happier The Tallapoi preach every Monday in the Market and assemble their auditory by a copper Bason But though they seeme Fryer-mendicants by profession yet what by awe for the very infernall spirits obey their in cantations and what by pollicie for they contemplate humilitie externally much the people have them in singular estimation Nor is it diminisht but agrandiz'd exceedingly by their prediction of future events and mervailous knowledge in things past and present by Magique and Morall observation resolving diswading applauding directing and pleasing all that come unto them as to Oracles from such enthusiastic Notions as Satan prompts them with in a word being Of Gods Interpreters of Phoebus layes The three legd charming Stoole the Claryan Bayes Planets Birds Language and all old assayes Interpres Divûm Qui Numina Phoebi Qui tripodas Clarii lauros quisydera sentis Et Volncrûm Linguas praepetis omnia pennae They have beene in foregoing times wicked Sodomites a sinne so hatefull to nature it selfe that it abhorres it and to deterre these catamits a late Queen rectrix commanded that all male children should have a Bell of gold in it an Adders tongue dried put though the prepuce which in small time not only became not contemptible but in way of ornament and for musick sake few now are without three or foure so that when they have a mind to marry he has his choice of what maid he likes but beds her not till the Midwife present a sleepie ophiated potion during which the Bell is loosed from the flesh and fastned to the fore-skin which hinders not but titulates the unguent is applied and the cure is perfected But to see a Virgin here at virgins yeeres is as a black Swan in regard in green yeers they give the too forward maids a virulent drink whose vertue vyce rather is by a strange efficacy to distend their muliebria so capaciously that Bels and rope ring too too easily and which is worst dull memory compels us write it the women here are not ashamed the better to allure men from sodomitry to go naked to the middle where with a fine trāsparent cobweb-lawn they are so covered that by a base device t is made to open as they go so that any impure ayre gives all to mens immodest viewes denudating those parts which every modest eye most scornes each honest thought most hates to see and think upon The Boyes paint themselves with a celestiall colour from top to toe and as an augmentation of beauty cut gash and pinck their naked skins which in mine contrarying their opinion rather breeds horror than affectation in any Traveller the men affect perfumes and practize complement The soyle is but indifferent for grasse or natures Tapisrtry but in rich stones as Dyamonds Chrysolites Onix stones Magnets Bezarrs lignum Aloes Benjamin Cotton and Mynes of Gold Silver Iron Copper and the like most uberous and made more by Silverplentifull brought from man Iapan and victualls and commodities from other parts and bought here cheaper than in any other places but most memorable in the Cabriz or blood-stone he generated the mervailous vertue being such as Osorius tells us That such time the Portuguizes warred against the bold Sumatrans they descried a Junck or Ship at Sea they made to it and were resisted boording it by Nahodabeg Captaine their inveterate adversary but after long and cruell fight they entred among the naked Indyans slew such as resisted them and amongst them Nahodabeg who to their amazement bled not albeit they had hackt him in forty places they thought it magicall till having taken from his Arme a bracelet of gold wherein set the Cabriz stone they found the reason for that was no sooner removed but that his blood issued abundantly from each wound hee had about him doubtlesse it is a most pretious stone and had it power to expell death also it were more than admirable Of Pegu. PEGU is also a renowned Kingdome of the Orientall Indya Lestarum regio in old writers confined by Syam Ganges and the Ocean a Monarchy
in imitation of those recorded by the Prophet Amos 6.10 or in way of pitty and piety lest the enemy should offer it villany or if buried it would stink an improper thing in a Bannyan and so putrifie the grasse and make Kine unhealthy besides out of their carcasses would issue wormes who would starve when the dead body was consumed a sinne unpardonable The Braminy or Priests to speake in common are of 82 Casts or Tribes the Vertaes are of higher note and fewer their habit is a girdle of an Antilops skinne tied about their middle a thong of the same hide from the necke to the left arme and elsewhere naked some of them weare a threefold thred from the right shoulder to the left arme as a badge of their profession and in memory of the 3 sonnes of the second creation The Cutteries are more prophane men of warre shedders of blood flesh-eaters and libidinous they are for the greater part called Rajas or Kings have six and thirty Casts among themselves from some of which none of them but is descended of these are the Tribes of Dodepuchaes some Chawah some Solenkees some Vaggelaes and some Paramors of long times owners of Indostant till Aladin a patan King of Delly wrested Guzzarat from them and since then most is taken away by the issue of Tamerlange at this day they call themselves Rashpootes or sonnes of Kings and live lawlesse to the Moores the chiefe of which at this day are Rana Radgee Mardout Radga Surmul-gee Raia Berumshaw Mahobet-chan Radia Barmulgee Radgea Ramnagar Radgea Iooh ' Iessingh Tzettersing and Mansuigh c. The Shudderyes or Bannyans are Merchants and contrary to their name which significs harmlesse are the most crafty people throughout India Full of flegmatick feare and superstition they are indeed very mercifull grieving to see other people so hard-hearted to feed upon fish flesh Raddish and such things as have life or any resemblance They will not kill a Louse Flea or Kakaroch or the like for 1000 pound but contrariwise buy their liberty of such Saylers as of necessity must crush them yea they have Hospitalls for old lame sick or starved creatures birds beasts Cats Rats or the like and have no worse men to oversee them than the Pushelans the greatest and best respected sorts of Brammins of all Casts whatsoever they are of Pythagora's doctrinating not only in beleeving the Metempsychosis of the soule of each man into a beast as for example the soule of a drunkard and Epicure into a Swine the lustfull and incestuous into Goats and Dogs the dissemblers into Apes Crocodiles and Foxes the lazie into Beares the wrathfull into Tygers the proud into Lyons the bloud thirsty into Wolves Ounces Snakes the perjur'd into Toads and the like but the soules of good men abstemious pittifull and courteous into Kine Buffalaes Sheepe Storks Doves Turtles c. An opinion memoriz'd by Ovid 15 Metamor Heu quantum scelus est in viscere viscera condi Congestoque Avidum pinguescere corpore corpus Alteriusque animantem animantis vivere leto Parcite vaticinor cognatas caedenefanda Exturbare Animas nec sanguine sanguis alatur Flesh fed with flesh oh what impiety Thy greedy corps with corps to fat thereby One living thing to live by others death Oh spare I warne you to disturbe the breath Of kinsmen by fool-slaughter for your blood With others blood to feed is no wayes good The last Sect or Cast of Gentiles are the Wises a name albeit derived from Wise the youngest sonne of Pourous and Parcootee yet in their tongue properly signifying a labouring man these be of two sorts the Wise and Coolee the first agreeing with the Bannyan in abstinence the other not forbearing to eat any manducable creature the purer sort are subdevided into 36 Casts or Families The conclusion is that all these 4 Casts in time grew so impious and unthankfull that God commanded Ruddery to command a blast of wind to sweep away this wretched generation which accordingly he did that tempest raging so violently that the mountaines and rocks were hurled to and fro like dust or tennis-balls the seas out of their course yea Ganges out of her holy channell wherein all save a few honest men and women left to replenish perished this was the second confusion Soone after God gave them a King propagate from the seed of the Bramyns cald Ducerat who begat Ram a King so famous for piety and high attempts that to this day his name is exceedingly honoured so that when they say Ram Rame 't is as if they should say all good betide you But to shew the imbecillity of mans nature his weak condition and frailty in processe of time the world again grew abominable and treacherous so that Ruddery commands the earth to open and swallow down quick those ungodly wretches a few excepted who the third time peopled the earth with humane inhabitants and then as Bremaw had formerly Vistney the mediator of mercy ascended into heaven leaving cruell Ruddery to over rule this age of Iron at the end of which he also shall be rapt into paradise these 4 ages they call Curtain Duauper Tetrajoo and Kolee Touching the last Iudgement they hold it shall be more dreadfull than the other the Moone to look blood red the Sunne to shed his light like purling brimstone an universall flashing of fire with loudest thundring then a flammy rednesse will orespread the heavens and the 4 Elements of which the world consists shall maintaine a dreadfull fight so long so fiercely one against another that at last all shall be revolved into a dark confusion the soules of such as were good men Ruddery will transport to heaven the wicked perish but the bodies of both rise no more being too incredulous of the resurrection Now albeit these people in a continued series of wilfulnesse and ignorance beleeve that their Shaster or Cabala was immediately from God yet that it is wholly grounded upon tradition and parched out of many Histories Iewish and Gentilisme I have already shewed what is in imitation of the holy Scripture and from the rule and practise of other Nations and we may adde that their burning the dead is borrowed from the 6 of Amos 10. their marriage after death from Cerinthus and Marcyon old hereticks who used to baptize after death in case they were not pre-baptiz'd the thred tripartite hung about their neck is a misterious denotation of the Trinity rice and painting in their forehead is not only as a symbole of Baptisme but in imitation of the Starre Rempham fixed in the brow of the Idoll Moloch or of Iul. Caesar who had one in his forehead as an embleme of immortality And also let us see in how many things they concurre with the rules of Pythagoras to this day famous among them These Bramins or Bannyans in their schooles and other places affect silence for 5 yeeres are not suffered to speake in the Schooles understand one another by
greatnesse Aben Babur Padshaw intituled prince of Maurenahar Balke and Samerchand but in the seventh yeare of his reigne is expeld his Kingdome by practise and conspiracie of Sha-Mahumed called also Sha beg chan who layd claime to the Crowne pretending hee was sonne and true heire of Aben-Mirza-hameth-cheque late Emperour being as hee said by craft stolne from his Nurse and conveighed amongst the Ouzbeag Tartars whence for some offence he had made hee fled with his lawlesse troopes enters Indya and attempts the conquest where after hee had tyrannized long time A.M. 5502. A.D. 1532. A. Heg 912. was in the yeare 1532 of the Mahometan account 912 sore against his will compell'd to trot the knotty path of inevitable destinie leaving no issue so that the Crown descended by right of Inheritance upon the eldest sonne of Aben Babur Homayon by name who suffered no small affliction by the malice and envie of Mirza Kameron his younger brother that confederated with Tzeerchan and by long practise forced him into Persia where he was royally entertained and after three moneths stay sent with great and royall succours back againe This also is remarkable the story of it is painted in Lohor palace that king Badur thirsting after the conquest of Indya disguises himselfe and thirty Noble men in his company in the habit of Kalenders or Friers as if they were upon a Rummery or pilgrimage The better by this craft to espie their advantage but being in Delly the greatest Citie of the Potan King could not so behave themselves but that Tzecander the King discovered them who pardoned them upon condition they would sweare never to attempt the conquest during either of their lives But when both were dead Homayon Baburs son entred dispossest Abram and Shec-Sha-Selym Secanders sonnes of the Diadem Howbeit Tzeerchan a brave Bengalan Prince fights against this new come Tartar foiles his Army neere Ganges forcing him into Persia where hee married the Kings sister and with her and Byram chan and two hundred horse and returnes is reseated in Delly and acknowledged King Homayon son of Babur great-grand-son of Termir-Lan or Tamberlain being re-invested with the Imperiall Title and Diadem of Indostan by meanes of Tamas the Persian King and returned triumphant by the overthrow of Tzeer-chawn the intruding King of Patan who anno dom 1550. and of the Hegira or Mahomitan account 960. died disconsolate Homayon I say after hee had committed his eldest son Abdul Fetta Gelaladin Mahomet a while after sirnamed Eckbar to the trust and care of Beyranghano chawn a discreet and valiant man being in Delly having one evening chawed too much sence confounding Opium hasting to his Orisons upon the watch-word from a high Tower suddenly he slipt downe forty steps or degrees which so bruised him that after three dayes torment he deceased leaving Achbar his son inheritor to his Greatnesse and miseries A.M. 5522. A.D. 1552. A. Hcy. 932 This hapned in the yeare of our Lord God 1552. from which time to this yeare out of our owne and Belgick fragments congested by de Laet I think it partly convenient with our other passages and observations of Indya to present these which to the observant may prove acceptable Ecbar having by help of Beyrangano-Kawn and Chawn-Channa his son dispeld some clouds caused by Abdal-Chawn was with solemnity crowned King or great Mogul in Delly after which hee bent his whole endeavours to enlarge his Territories and make knowne that he was verely the great grand son of victorious Teymerlan In the first taking full revenge of Hemow who had formerly chased Turdichan but three months after by mischance of warre comming under command of Badur chawn his head is cut off and eleuated in Delly and that Province for some time quieted then by Ally Cooclinchan he subdues Doab by some call'd Sanbal a Province surrounded by Ieminy and Ganges fruitfull and well peopled at that time Beyramgano-chan otherwise call'd Byramchan the Persian aging fast and tyred with the fopperies of this world having well discharged the trust repos'd by his old Master and finding Ecbar warie and valiant to regard the dignity of his Empire obtaines leave to spend the residue of his time at Mahomets Sepulcher in contemplation but in his Roomery in the way to Medina at Pathang in Cambaya is wounded to death by an obscure slave of his whose father he had formerly slaine so that by Abdal Radgee his son not fourteene yeares old and much sad company this great Captaine is brought back to Agray and there buried Ecbar laments his death though thought an Agent but nothing can recover him hee labours to forget it and spends some time in building the Castle at Agra formerly of mud but by him pull'd downe so altred that it scarce admits comparison through all Asia t is of durable stone polisht and so spatious that it comprehends three miles circular is built upon the pleasant banks of Shemeny circled with a strong stone wall moated and to be entred by many draw Bridges has foure brave gates many bulwarks and counterscarps to defend it Agray from Surat East seven hundred and seventy miles the Navel of Agraâ— the Moguls territories and Empresse of Indya has 28 degr 37 min. North latit is watered by Ieminy Iomanes in Pliny and Hynamanes in Poliaenus his 8 lib. Semiramidis which from Delly glides hither and commixing with Ganges flowes into the Bengalan Sea Agra was of old call'd Nagra and ere that Dionysia whence some say 't was founded by Bacchus but I beleeve it not partly in that Fettipore till of late no longer than fifty yeares agoe bore away the fame for beauty and grandeur and in that Bacchus sayes S. Augustine was contemporary with Moses in the yeare from Adam 2515 rather from the river Agranis which hence streams into Ganges as Arrian lib. de Indicis has it The shape is semilunary like London the streets long and narrow and nasty of seven miles continuance in part 't is wall'd about the ditch the remainder which too oft smels infectiously From Agra to Lahore through a delicate shade of trees are five hundred miles To Brampore one thousand to Asmeer two hundred to Surat seven hundred and seventy Radgee Rana the most potent and noble Prince of Indya at this time lost his strong and stately Castle Chyttor by treason of Zimet Padsha his substitute not content therewith till he had made many inroades into Gujurat in contempt of the Moguls forces Echar is glad of the occasion hasting with fifty thousand horse to be revenged Some months he spent in besieging it but so fruitlesly that he attempts the conquest by stratagem undermining the Fort and to the admiration and terrour of the besieged blowes it up with powder causing such a breach as himselfe and twenty thousand men immediatly entred pel-mel with such haste fury that Zimet the rebell perceiving treaty of no value gathering in one his Family consum'd himselfe and them in flames to
his desteny and chardges so furiously and so close that in despight he mounts the wall and is so bravely backt by his owne regiment that in small tyme he takes the principall cittadell or fortresse and on many parts of the wall florisht his colours in signe of victory and as a call to Abdulchan to to second him but Abdul poysoned with envy to see a Merchants sonne possessor of so much glory forbeares to succor him so that this heroick Captaine too farre ingaged is assayled by Rustan Atset-chan and fresh troopes so long and with such egernesse that all his company are cut in peeces and Mahomet struck dangerously in his eye yea after as much proofe of dexterity and valour as was possible is taken and imprisoned In this base sort the second tyme has Abdul-chan forfetted Curroon the victory yet keepes the knowledge in his owne breast and goes unpunished whiles Sultan Perwees and Mahobet-chan continue their quest and receiving notice of the siege of Brampore they hast thither with chan Alen Radjea Stertsing and a great Army of Rashpoots but Curroon premonished seeing no good likely to bee done arises and falls towards Bellaguate in the way attempting vainely Hasser but missing it redelivers Rantas also into his enemies hands and once more visits Melec Amber at Rerki in Decan cloathed in his old sad habit of misfortune Hasser five courses from Brampore as you passe to Agray the strongest and in all advantages the best defended Castle through Chandis is built upon the top of a most high and precipitious Mountaine wall'd by Nature and capable to feed and lodge forty thousand horse within are springs of wholsome water by vertue whereof the people are infinitly inriched the earth also is excellently fruitfull in hearbs and corne and what else is requirable for defence or pleasure upon all sides are mounted great Ordinance of brasse about six hundred here placed by the last King of Gusurat but one discommodity is commixed making all the other delights relish unseasonably Wormes ingendring in the legges and thighs of such as drinke the water but lately noted and which only gave Ecbar conquest of this Castle otherwise inexpugnable Iangheer the great Mogul rejoyces at the severall victories his son Perwees and Mahobet-cawn are crowned with and to expresse how well hee took it observing the valour loyalty of Ganna-zied-cawn lately made Viceroy of Kabul calls him to Court expresses his good will in variety of complements and more then so addes five thousand horse to his command and under seale makes him Governour of Bengala of all the Provinces of Indostan most famous rich and populous Bengala is a Province in India spacious noble and fruitfull peopled with Mahometans and Idolaters addict to Mars and Merchandize reasonable in shape and colour well cloathed extreamly lustfull jealous crafty and suspicious the ground is redundant in good Townes Castles fruits flowers corn c. mellowed by Ganges which in two great branches flowes thorow her and 200 miles asunder at 23 degrees commixes with the Ocean Normal and Assaph-cawn cast a squint eye upon Ganna-zied-cawns new glory wishing fit occasion to eclipse it and only for that he was son to Mahobet no other reason caused it they are no trewands in the schoole of mischiefe and in the first place to plot more mischievously and affront Mahobet whose miseries are now broaching they get the old Mogul to command Mahobet without delay to send Ganganna the Captaine unto Agra Meza-Arebdestoa-cawn one of Normals creatures delivers the message and Mahobet loth to shew any example of disobedience though he knew langheer abused and this a meere plot of his confusion lets him go who forth with begins to chatter and spit his utmost malice against Mahobet exhibiting many false complaints and incensing as much as possible the old Mogul against his innocent Champion that hee had most unjustly put to death his sonne and others of his kindred out of malice yea after he had voluntarily left Curroon to serve in the Kings Armie These accusations wrought somewhat in the credulous jealousie and weaknesse of the old Mogul but more when from the seeds of haste and distrust sown by Ganna in the heart of Perwee by his letter he intreats his Father to call Mahobet a detractor of his glory and ambtious to ingulph the Monarchy This so confirmes the Mogul that without more dispute or memory of his former services he beleeves Gangannas reports no longer malicious but presently condemnes him of pride and ingratitude gives his command to Cawn Iehan and commands him home to receive his deservings Frau de perit virtus Mahobet admires the villany of Ganganna and Noormall and thinkes by the purity of his owne conscience it is impossible his Master should really beleeve such imputations till remembring his dotage upon Normal and her inveterate spleen hee grants it but resolves to take another course till time might delucidate his innocency and therefore as his love and dutie bound him hee goes to Prince Perwees to bid farewell but when hee perceived him so strangely altered so coy and stately it welnigh struck him dead with sorrow and amazement an excellent sympathy and union till Ganganna dissolv'd it having beene till then betwixt 'em so that with a sad heart and tormented eyes he leaves the Camp but carries along with him the hearts and courages of all the Army From Brampore hee goes many guesse but none no not himselfe knowes whither his fortune led him at length by advice of his best friends that assured him if hee went to Court hee should at least bee branded with the name of Traytor hee travels to his Castle of Rantampore resolving to purge his honour by letter and proofe to Iangheer and to safegard himselfe from the spite of Normal and all his enemies The discord of Peiwees Mahobet and Normal sounds sweetly in Curroons eares hoping by the confusion of them all to ground stedfastly his owne ambitious practises and perceiving his old Father so taken with fantasmes and apparitions of love he resolves to practise deceit and in the Moguls weaknesse to fix the strength of his conspiracies he presents him by Godgee Iehan a crafty man and Tutor to his two sonnes a letter neatly pend but dictating nothing save hypocrisie and submission hee knew also the greedy appetite of his Father after gold and rarities and therefore addes a pishcash of rare coignes a hundred choise Elephants and some portraits hee borrowed from the Portugals They are all well taken his sonnes respected and word is sent him from Assaph-cawn of hopes to re-ingraft him In the meane time Madoffer-cawn at Lahore receives the government or Provostship of Agra from Cassem-cawns pride who was placed there upon his marriage which Movissan-begem sister to the Queen but is so impatiently digested by that ambitious woman that shee ceast not till she had got him re-established Six yeares past viz. 1618. and of the Heg 998. I told you how Iangheer
985. of ours 1605 by a stratagem Emangoli-cawn Duke of Shyraz overthrew him by to satiate the hungry ambition of Abbas his Master and which is rare considering the great poverty of his Country for the Kings part loaded away with treasure seven hundred Cammells The captiv'd King Ebrahim had his life and a noble pension promist him hee enjoyed them but awhile an unexpected sword of death betraying his hopes without which the Dyadem sat not right upon the head of Shaw-Abbas the soveraigne Nine dayes we staid in Larr a shame it were if in so long time we had noted nothing Lar is from Gumbroon seven small dayes riding from Shyraz foureteene from Babylon twenty a very poore Towne it is as being parcht with the scalding Sun defaced by rage of warre and thrown down by many fearfull Earth-quakes Anno Domini 1400 it shook terribly and made five hundred houses prostrate to its Tiranny Anno 1593. of their account 973. she boasted of five thousand houses but see how vain is the pride of man that very yeere the earth sweld with such a dreadfull tympany that in venting it selfe it made all Larr to quake and in fine would not be supprest but by the weight of three thousand houses turned topsi-turvie quashing to death three thousand men in their destruction The old Castle also on the East side of the Towne it owes its foundation to Georgean Melec though built atop a solid rock groand in a like affrighting downfall and to me it seemed strange a City so strongly so surely founded should be so subject to such unnaturall commotions Whither it be as Democritus dreamt from the gaping Sun-torne earth quaffing in too greedily too much water and like a glutted drunkard overcharging her caverns vomits it up in a forcible and discontented motion or whether as Aristotle teaches from vapors ingendred in the bowels of the earth and loth to bee imprisoned in a wrong orb rends its passage by a viperous horrid motion or whether from subterranean fires the ayre inflamed upon sulphur or such exuberances of nature I dare not conclude but leave such theories to those that study Meteors Let us therefore see what Larr now is Larr the Metropolis of this Province is not wald about in that Art is needlesse the lofty rocks on East and North so naturally defend her besides a brave Castle at the North quarter mounted upon an imperious hill not only threatens an enemy but awes the Towne in a frownig posture the ascent is narrow and steep the Castle of good stone the walls are furnisht with usefull battlements whereon are mounted twelve brasse cannon pedroes and two basilisks the spoiles of Ormus within the Castle wall are raisd a hundred houses stored with men most part soldatts who have there a gallant Armory able to furnish with Lance Bow and Gun three thousand men it is a fort without of a stately frame within is no lesse commendable the Buzzar is also a gallant fabrick the materiall is good chalkie stone long strong and beautifull a quadrant I cannot call it the sides are so unequall t is cover'd atop archt and in piazza sort a kinde of Burse wherein each shop showes ware of severall qualities the Alley from North to South is 170 of my paces from East to West a hundred and sixty the ovall in center is about a hundred and ninty a building to speak of the Asiaticks in some hundreds of miles scarce to be parrelled Neere this Buzzar are coyned the Larrees a famous sort of money shap'd like a long Date stone the Kings name stampt upon pure silver in our money valuing ten pence The Mosques here bee not many one especiall Mosque or Deer it has round either shadowing out Aeternity or from a patterne of the Alcaba the holy Temple in Mecca whose shape they say Abraham had from heaven in some part varnisht with Arabick letters and painted knots garnisht in other parts with Mosaick fancies t is low and without glasse windowes wodden trellizes excellently cut after their invention supplying them the entrance is through a brazen gate neer which is hung a Mirrour whether to admire their tallow faces in or internal deformities I know not some lamps it also has for use and ornament some Prophets rest their bones here take one for all Emeer-Ally-zedday-ameer a long-namd-long-bon'd if his grave bee right long since rotten Prophet the older Prophet the fresher profit zeale and charity oft times worship antiquity but how can I credit them that he was a Mahometan they say if that will not please they sweare hee died a thousand five hundred yeeres ago six hundred yeeres before Mahomet and yet a Mussulman their faith admits no questions nor answers or if it did wee will not trouble it For I see variety of good fruit close by to which I have a better appetite here are the fairest Dates Dactills in Latin from their finger like shape Orenges Lemons Pomcitrons you find in Persia if those will not please you buy here at easie rates Goats Hens Rice Rach and Aquavitae but for their water wee drest our meat with it the people drink it they call it Ob-baroon which in the language of Persia signifies rain-water but with farre more reason I may call it Aqua-Mortis death seeming to bubble in it A base qualified water it is whether that their Tancks or Magazeens are ill made or nastily kept and by that the water is corrupted or whether the raine of it selfe is insalubrious and loathsome I cannot tell but both it may bee makes it so bad as it is so unsapory so ill to the gust as worse water for taste and especially for property can scarce be relished as little of it came in my belly as could be borrowed from extremity of thirst and I suppose I had good reason to forbeare it for it causes Catarrhs breeds sore eyes ulcerates the guts and which is more terrible than the raest it ingenders small long worms in the legges of such as use to drink it and which sort of vermin is not more loathsome to look upon than painfull to the itching disease of them that breed 'em by no potion no unguent to bee remedied they have no other way to destroy them save by rowling them about a pin or peg not unlike the treble of a Theorbo the most danger being this that if in the screwing the worme chance to break it makes them very dolefull Musick for it endangers the leg apt to gangreen and but by lancing hardly curable The water is the naturall cause of this strange malady and seemes to mee to bring the venome from the region where t is generated for commonly the clouds here at Larr are undigested as in the Tornadoes I have formerly spoken of and unagitated by the wind Nor do the clouds distill their raine in drops as is usuall in colder regions but in whole and violent irruptions dangerous both in the fall and no lesse hurtfull in the using
for fruit all so greene so sweet so pleasant as may well be term'd a compendium of sense-ravishing delights or King Abbas his Paradise Monuments should come now to our description Monuments but I found few to feed my eyes upon Rustans Tomb must be one two miles from Spahawn behind the Garden wee last spoke of a Tomb scarce discern'd by shape but by the Gowers Cabala preserv'd from Oblivion To see it wee foot it to the very top of an Imperious Mount where is only a hollow Cave whether cut by Art or Nature scarce discernable His grave is here his Image at a place neere Shyraz from his gigantive shape ingraven of old in a black-marble precipitious mountaine Noctae or Nogdi Rustan a brave Cavalier such time as Artaxerxes Queen Hesters husband wore that Diadem A.D. 3500. but envie the heyre of perdition so burnt in the wrathfull heart of his unnaturall brother Shawgad that when Rustan was hot in chase he fell into a dreadfull pit cover'd with boughes as if it had hatcht no danger but in prosecuting his hate was also slaine by a Dart Rustan flung up to retaliate him Such was the end of valiant Rustan of whom the Gowers the old Persians fable more than we of Bellyanis or Ogero the Dane Neere which and neerer the Citie is Darius or rather Xerxes mount a rising hillock and whence Xerxes viewd the innumerable Army he had in that large Plain weeping upon a meditation that in so few yeeres none should be living a Notion true and sooner than he predicted for what by Themistocles ashore and Leonidas at sea at Salamys and Thermopilae his huge Armie melted away and quickly became numerous Not farre thence ride we to the Acroceraunian hills I meane not those of Epire knowne to Ptolomy hard and loftie Through which bold daring Abbas is forcing passage though he effect it not under twenty yeeres and by th' incessant toyle of 40000 somtimes 200000 men to invite a sweet river to Spahawn that runnes contentedly to it selfe fifty miles thence and is by this I beleeve effected which when it is may well compare with that old wonder intended by vaine-glorious Nero 'twixt Ostia and Avernus now call'd Licola Within Spahawn I found none save that Columne or Pillar of heads of men and beasts erected as a Trophy of the Kings oath and as a Monument of the peoples levity At the base t is twenty foot round and threescore high or there-abouts for to my shame I confesse it I forgot to measure it The occasion this of erecting it Anno 1500. Heg 880. such time as Tamas shaw ruled Persia and Guinza added to the lustre of that Diadem this Citie surfetting with luxurie for Vbi uber ibi tuber sayes Apuleius refus'd not only to contribute reasonably to the Kings occasions at that time troubled with Turk and Tattar but most audatiously with stood his desired entrance a rebellion so insufferable as made him sweare a revenge scarce to be paralleld With fury he assaults in rage enters firing a great part and in all hostile severity pillaging each house and to conclude regarding neither the outcries of old men weak women nor innocent children in two dayes be made headlesse 300000 of those late Spahawnians and from Tamberlan's rigid example at Damascus erects a Trophy this pillar of their heads as a memoriall of their basenes En quò discordia cives perduxit miseros Another followes The Piller of Heades in Spaâ—â—awne Ielphey is the last part wee propos'd concerning this great Citie the scite resembles Pera to Constantinople or Southwark to London the river Syndery interposing T is call'd a Suburb as be Gower-abaut Abbas-ebaut Chanzabaut Azenabaut and Cheigh-Saban Though indeed they are peopled with men of one religion admitting very little mixture Ielphy is govern'd by a peculiar Podestate an Armenian Prince Hodge Nazar by name indeed a Christian Merchant hee and his enjoy freedome of conscience but for mony matters are at the disposition of the avaritious King In Ielphea nam'd from another of that name in Armenia old Ariaramnes I beleeve mentioned by Tortelius the people are numbred ten thousand in Azenabaut foure thousand families Ielphè is by some writ Golfa and Chiulfa but I think I have better hit our Dialect The Jelphelyns are habited like the Persians but differ in face most of these and the Georgians having brighter haire and more modest eyes than the Mahomitans They are generally Merchants and to say truly but Factors for the King who exacts an account at their death and inherits their posessions They professe Christianity taught them erroniously by Iacobus the Syrian Monothelite They have two Protomists one here in Ielphey th' other resides somtimes at Sib neere Tharsus other-times at Ecmeasin not farre from Rivan or Ervan Their religion I have already spoken of An Old Inhabitant of Persia. We entred Spahawn the tenth of April and on May day departed thence for the Court then at Asharaff in Mozendram about foure hundred English miles distant North. Our first nights journey was to Reegue or Reig an houres riding from Spahawne Thence-forward we made by reason of the intollerable heat pale Cynthia and Arcturus our night guides all day refreshing in the Carravans-raws good resting places if gnats forbid it not From Reigue we travell'd to Sardahan sixteene English miles next nght we made Whomg our Manzeil being seven and twenty miles from Sardahan Next night to Towgebawt a house and garden of the Kings for beauty add sweetnesse comparable to any other in Parthya the more observable being seated in a barren cursed sandie soile champaigne and terrible to inhabit in But The blushing Rose growes here the Violet And Parthyan Mirtle in choise order set Hic rosa purpureo crescit rubicunda colore Et Viole omne genus hic est Parthyca mirtus for five hundred paces it every way gives a series of all sorts of Persian fruits and flowers Pomgranads Peaches Apricocks Plums Apples Peares Cherries Chesnuts Damask red and white Roses and other flowers innumerable fructified by a crystall rivolet intermixt with many delicate naturall and artificiall Grottoes Labyrinths Meanders and Volliers with Sudatories or Hummums of good stone pav'd with choise white Marble the Mohull or Summer Lodge bragging of a dozen chambers delicate in view rich in gold imbosments and proud in th'Architect all safeguarded from sand and stealth by a defensive wall that hinders save in one rising hillock in midst of the six descents the affrighting sight of the circumvolving Wildernesse Who calls himselfe a Traveller must not imagine pleasure his Object 't is paine and miserie must entertaine him oftnest Otherwise I could have lull'd my selfe in this last Paradise but on wee must and try the difference From Tawgebagh wee got next night to Bawt six farsangs or 18 miles distant nothing memorable save an old Castle in the way which by Cynthia's palenesse we could hardly discover From Bawt wee got by break of day to
his idiom Miramur periisse homines monumenta fatescunt Interitus saxis nominibus que venit Why wonder we that People die since Monuments decay Yea flinty Stones with mens great Names Deaths tyranies obay To see old Shushan is neither unworthy our labour nor out of our way SHVSHAN is every where famoused It was one of the three royall Pallaces the Medyan Monarchs so much gloried in Babylon Shushan and Ecbatan built by Darius sonne of Histaspis Anno Mundi 3444. as Pliny has it in his 6 lib. c. 28. Some say Laomedan built it such time as Thola judged Israel Others make Cyrus Lord of Pisogard from Pison a branch of Hiddekel or Tigris to bee the Architect in memory of his good successe obteyned in that very place against Astiages the Median Emperour It is spoken of in the 1. ch of Hester That there Ahashuerus An. Mun. 3500. feasted his Liefetenants over a hundred twenty and seven Provinces a hundred and eighty dayes with great cost and triumph Nehemiah and Daniel also remember it to bee in Elam Persia and notwithstanding the many mutations and miseries it had from many avaritious Tyrants yet was it able to smile upon Alexander when hee extracted thence to pay his Soldats and fill his bags with fifty thousand Talents in Bullyon and nine Millions in coyned Gold and well may bee since Cassiodore in his 7. lib. 15. Epist reports for truth that Memnon sonne to Tithon and reckned by some first founder so gloried in his work that hee cemented the stones with gold which made Aristagoras cry out to his men of warre that if they could but master it each poore knave there might then compare with Iove for riches and bravery Some wrangle about the name Shushan and its signification Athenaeus interprets it from her plenty in Lillyes but whence hee fetcht it I cannot tell the Arabic nor Persian have no such meaning as well I may say from Suzan or Shuzan in the Persic tongue a needle or a glasse-bottle But such Synonimaes may not carry it I rather beleeve it is derived from Chus Noahs grand-sonne Susiana from him call'd Chusiana and at this day not much discrepant in the name they call it by Chusistan More probable in that Chus Cams sonne planted a Colony here ere hee journeyed into Arabia and Aethiopia a mistake made the Septuagints imagine Nyle one of those foure streaming from Paradise his sonnes also here-abouts inhabiting Nymrod in Chaldaea Seba in Arabia Havilah in Indya Raamah in Carmania c. Let us dow into Shushan At this day t is called Valdac not farre from the Gulph watered by Chozes or Choaspes which arising from the Jaaroonian Mountains streames hither very pleasantly in many meanders circum-giring and not far from Balsorac Doridatis of old participates with the brackish Gulph of Persia where also Euphrates call'd Phrat and Almacher from Libanus some say from Mount Abas in Armenia say others and Tigris now call'd Diglat and Hiddechel from Taurus or Pariedrus rather imbowell themselves A river of such account which the Persian Emperours that no water but Choaspes no bread but from Assos in Phrygia no wine but the Chalyhonian in Syria no salt but what they had from Memphis in Aegipt could please their pallats Daniel calls it Vlai Pliny Eulaeus an anti-stream glides to Persepolis Shushan was in compasse 120 stades or furlongs so Strabo Policletus numbers 200 above twenty miles English The wall about it quadrangular In building walls houses Temples and the like resembling Babylon From whence Ecbatan it had aequidistancie five hundred short miles Valdac had some forme and beauty till Moses sirnamed Askar Omars kinsman Anno Dom. 641. Heg 21 depopulated it It has now a resemblance of Moful or Ninivie nothing but ruines covering her Of which and other such once noble Cities I may say with King David Psalm 46 Come and behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in all the earth And that we are so neere the old locall place of Paradise let me glance a little into it PARADISE or the terrestriall Garden of Eden Hogea-del-Holan the Indians name it Gan-Eden the Hebre wes call it wherein God placed Adam is much controverted and where it was as much doubted of some making it an Allegorie others a locall place Strange it is to confider the variety Some say it was in the middle Region of the ayre whence they will draw the foure great streames that water Paradise Some place it in the mountaines of the Moone in Aethyop whence Nilus springs othersome in the circle of the Moone some others under the circle and that thence the foure rivers flow gliding under many large deepe Seas and so into Paradise Some think the 4 rivers signifie 4 cardinall vertues the word Paradise a metaphor of delight mans fall the banishment the torryd Zone the fierie sword and such other fanatick fancies as made the brain-sick Hermians and Seleucians sweare there never was a Paradise whose phantasmaes I value not in that the more judicious affirme there was varying meerely in the place Some and those well read imagine it was ten miles about the Province Mesopotamia the precise place Eden to this retaining both name and memory St. Augustine judges it was in the happy Arabia Amongst the Tartars dreames Goropius in Holland hee might have said Vnder the N. pole thinks Postellus In Syria Beroaldus Vpon the banks of Tygris sayes Xenophon Every where before Adam sinned thinks Ortelius Some say it comprehended Meso-potamia Armenia Mount Taurus incircling Shynaar holding afterwards Selencia and Babylon Others carry it further as that it included Nilus and Gangas a too great limit for a Garden six thousand miles distant Nyle arising from Zair in Afrique empties it selfe into the mid-land Sea Ganges from Imaus in Scythia into the Gangetick Sine or Bengalan Ocean The Inhabitants in Ceyloon say Paradise was there and shew Adams footsteps Eves teares c. Some say Aegipt Syria and Iudaea that the tree of knowledge grew on Mount Calvary the second Adam suffering in the same place the first Adam had offended Some dreame it is in a mountaine above the skie where none are but Enoch and Elias We can ascend no higher without troubling our understandings The best is this That Nyle nor Ganges had no being there the Septuagints mistake arising from their suppostion that Pison was Ganges and Gihon Nyle Mesopotamia no doubt was East from Arabia where Moses the Prince and first that ever wrote History compleated his Pentateuch And as questionlesse the Garden of Eden was watered with Euphrates and Tygris who in their severall fluxes one from Libanus th' other from Ararat or Taurus part themselves into foure branches Pison one streaming to Piso-gard in Persia Gibon th' other commixing with Choaspes both runne into the Gulph at Balsora For whereas 't is said Pison compasses the land of Hevilah we must not imagine it that Havilah in Indya whither Havilah sonne of Ioctan sonne
Mozendram Sablestan Maurenahar Sirgian Hery Sigistan Stigias Kalsistan Carmawn Laristan Chusistan Iaziry Keldhan or Ajaman Darbeq Arminy Carkash and Vaspracan The whole Empire is terminated on East West North and South with India Arabia the Caspian and Persian Seas From Candahor equi-distant with Oxus in Bactria to Babylon East and West it stretches foure hundred and forty farsangs Extent of the Empire or of English a thousand three hundred and twenty miles in seventy dayes usually travelled and from Giulphall or Ielphy neere Van in Georgia to Cape Gwader in 25 degrees the furthest part of Gedrosia or Macron on Indus North and South foure hundred ninety and six farsangs or a thousand foure hundred eighty and eight English miles in eighty dayes commonly journeyed from which we may compute the circuit is not lesse than foure thousand miles The North and East is most part fruitfull in grasse in corne in fruit the South and West except where rivolets are sandy mountanous sterile and inhospitable the vehement heat scorches the earth and makes it barren and from whence the soyle yeelds no exhalations the mother of clouds and consequently wants rain to madifie but in stead of it God has blest them with frequent breeses But how miserable so ere it seemes to others The Kings revenue the Persian King makes many happy harvests filling every yeere his insatiate coffers with above three hundred and fifty seven thousand Tomans a Toman is five markes sterlin in our money 1190000 pound sterlin a great revenue the more to be admired at since he extracts it from raw silke customs and cotton not thinking any way meane or dishonourable that brings in money So thought Abbas and thence deriv'd that unkinkly trade of sending into the market his dayly presents of fruits and flowers for without some piscash was no saluting him a kind of thrist His domestick pollicy he not only boasted of I imagin as Ageslaus did of his polt-foot but seemed to complain of the too great nicity of other Kings And no doubt if all the Potentates of the earth were inquired after none would parallell this late old Monach of Persia for startagems in good husbandry for so to respect the man we had best call it He could finely dart his wonder upon such such a Town by report or letter confessing his amazement at sight of some great Elephant or Tower of gold he heard they had acted they dare not reason against it they know the meaning and in pure gold get such a present if rich and heavy then t is dainty work though never so disordered if otherwise then no way praised Ninety wall'd Townes are under his command the Villages are above forty thousand none of which escape his policy for though they practice nothing lesse than gold-smiths work and imagery yet hee salutes them with a false report desiring to see experimentally whether fame had not beene a niggard in their elevation they embrace the complement and returne him in pure gold the Icon of an Elephant Cammell or Dromedary some a Pegasus a Cesterne or Bath some send to gaine his love and some a Babel or representation of such a great Citie as they know will take him by comparison considering which I lesse admire that vast treasure of Mammonisme commonly taken out for ostentation at the receit of Ambassadors or Travellers of note such as in Mosendram our eyes were glutted with In warre no Asiatick Prince was master of more Art or sure experience at home his Genius travaili'd with no fewer fancies none withou its certaine end to agrandise his treasurie A Merchant I may also call him having many thousand factors frugall and skilfull under him all which hee sends through the wide universe with each his stock of money or silke or carpets to make money of some of them returne in three in five some none exceeds seven yeeres to give their account to the Kings infinite advantage if they have loytered or accidentally lost and returne meane profits they had as good behang'd hee is so incredulous and wrathfull but when they come home multiplyed and with increase to his liking he rewards them with large thanks a woman from his Haram a horse a sword a Tulipant but after a small repose packs them abroad againe re-assuring them of his good affection and that after such a voyage they shall end their motion in a happie rest but seldome does it till death or diseases force him to it that they and theirs shall enjoy such necessary summes as conduce to make them fortunate but in event finde that old proverb too too true Pollicitis dives quilibete esse potest Againe from Indostan Tartary and Araby every yeere move towards Persia many Carravans furnisht with rich and rare commodities as Chyna ware sattens silks stones rich Tulipants c. of whose approach hee has quick notice concerning which either hee gives a private command that none shall dare to traffick with them by that forcing them to his owne prices or affronts them upon entring his Dominions with a false alarme as that the passage further is long and hard and dagerous or that the late darth makes the country incapabde to entertaine them by such heathen Mathematicks so startling them that rather than move back to such hazards or go on to incounter such or to incur his hatred they oft times condiscend to any mart sometimes receiving money for their goods or by exchange for what the Persian Emperour can best spare to his owne and others dispersing those new merchandizes at stretcht rates yea at the height of ignoble avarice and having coyne or bullion to prevent its pilgrimage into other regions hee molds it into plate of huge assize or the like too heavie to go farre worke very poore in value rich and ponderous Besides by that law of Persia hee makes himselfe heyre to all that dye puts the young ones to some way of life warre or merchandize none daring to call his title into question hee also expects annuall presents from all men of quality take notice of one mans offring a yeere or two before our being in Persia the Duke of Sherazz was hee that sent it foure hundred sixty and five thousand florens coyned forty and nine goblets of good gold seventy two refined silver and so much of other valuable rarities as in all burthen'd three hundred Camells a gallant present a sure medicine to expell his melancholy But this might all be tollerated were Astraea any where adored but contrarily abhorred bribery aad corruption in Justice renders so brave a Prince too much distempered Quid faciant leges ubi sola pecunia regnat Aut ubi paupertas vincere nulla potest Where money over-rules what good do lawes Or where the poore is crusht without a cause For albeit 't is said that the lawes of the Medes and Persians never alter yet doubtlesse in so many changes as have hapned there their lawes may be corrupted or altered At
One-ewch Charda or Chaharda Fourteene One-dewrt Pounzda Fifteene One-beash Shoonzda Sixteene One-alté Hawda Seventeene One-yedté Hashda Eighteene One-seckez Nouzda Nineteene One-dockoz Beest Twenty Ygarmy Yec-beest Twenty one Ygarmy beer Dota-beest Twenty two Ygarmy eckee Se-beest Twenty three Ygarmy ewch Char-beest Twenty foure Ygarmy dewrt Sounce-beest Twenty five Ygarmy beash Se Thirty  Chehel Forty  Pangoh Fifty  Phast Sixty  Haftat Seventy  Hashtat Eighty  Navat Ninety  Satt One hundred  Da hazatt or hazar One thousand  The Religion of the Persians THE Persian Religion at this day varies not from the Turks in any particle of the Alcoran and yet they account one the other Hereticks and are no lesse zealous and divided in their profession than wee and the Papalins a devision begun Anno Domini 1400 by a Syet of Ardoveil a Citie in Media the better to advance the Sophyan Title to the Crowne derived from Mortis Ally their famous predecessor cosen and sonne in law to Mahumet which Ally albeit hee had just right to sit as Kalyph at Mecca next to Mahomet yet in his despight three other men stept up before him and during their lives kept him in slaverie and withstood him These three Abuboker Omer Ozman are by the Turks most venerably accounted of but by the Persians as appeares by their cursing them in a prayer made by Syet Gunet as impostors doggs and hereticks whereby is sown such mortall hatred betwixt these two potent Monarchs that to Europs good they abominate each other with implacable hatred MAHOMET sonne of Abdar a Pagan and Emma a Jew was borne at Iathreb or Itrarip Iezrab in Postellus now Medyna in Arabia the yeere from the Creation 4544 of Christ our blessed Lord and Saviour 574 Iustinian at that time commanding the Roman Empire and Cozrhoes father to Hormizda the Persians His parents being mean and poore he was forced to serve an apprentiship and with much patience served Zayed-ben-Hartah a rich and famous Merchant who dying left his servant so good a legacie that Mahomet was thought worthy any woman in Mecca but by reason of those incessant broyles commenc't by Cozrhoe and inflamed by the Romans Traffick decayed and most men danc't to the shrill brazen sound of Bellonaes musick Mahomet amongst the rest serving for pay first with Heraclius and then the Persian not caring much who was victor so he was on the safest side by both their confusion to plot some way or other to advance himselfe both in a terrhen dignity and as a Deity nor did he erre in his prediction for what by his great estate and good fortune in the warres he soone threw off the qualitie of a common man and got a companie yea at length an Armie of so many Tattars and Arabians that he dared to assault the infeebled Christians and became victor yea by stratagem mingling with the credulous and gladded Persians upon a watch-word cut asunder and confounded the Persian Armie Which done hee blusht not to extoll himselfe to all his troops deciphering the misery of Persia and horror of Roman bondage acquainting them also with the great discord ' mongst Christians of that inhumane villanie perpetrated upon Mauritius by Phocas then Emperour his detested servant and of Pope Boniface's usurpation of the title of Universall Bishop contrary to the good will of all the World and what Pope Gregory the great had lately branded Iohn the Constantinopolitan Patriack with as the Antichrist in that sixtie six good Bishops of Rome from Lynus seven yeeres after the passion to that Pope then teaching never desired it That hee himselfe was ordained from the begining of the world to eclipse the pride of that Pope to instruct the world in a better and more plausible way than either Moses did the Jewes or Christ the Christians that hee was the Comforter promised yet sayes that he came to give his Law by the sword and not by miracles and to advance the Arabians name and dignitie above all other Kingdomes in the Universe The amazed Savages admire his boldnesse and though some thought basely of him most part hoping hee could effect his promises give credit to him and atttend his revelations But ere he could finish his new moulded work the inraged Persian suddenly steales among them and in memory of their late kindnesse retaliates them so fiercely that Mahomet to save his life posts away leaving the rest to the mercilesse furie of the Persian Mahomet with a sad heart arrives safely in Mecca Mocura and Munychiates in old writers the Arabian Metropolis but when he cals to mind his miserable estate by this last defeat being cheated of his moneys and men yea such men as hee had prepar'd to help forwards his ambition hee consumes in the meditation and by his faint-heartednesse and constant vexing had doubtlesse made Death his executioner had not Satan physicke him Some safer way he intends to take than in Mars his rugged fields so full of cost and blood-shed And therefore in the first place to solace his unquiet spirits inrich himselfe he laies seige to Chodaige or Aediga a woman of great wealth and worship by some thought Queene of Corasan whom after a few amorous assaults he won and of her begot three sonnes and foure daughters named Ebrahim Tajeb and Taher all three dying young Fatyma and Zaynab both married to Mortis Ally Om-Kalthom and Rachya wives to old Abuboker Mahomets stomack grew weak and one sort of meat begun to loath him Chodaige was stale and others fancied him he therefore purpos'd in his Law then in hatching to allow all sorts of carnall liberty and to incourage them by his example solemnly as Ben Casen a writer of his beleife sayes espoused Aysce the beloved child of his sonne in law Abubocher a child though Mahomets wife I well may call her at that time not exceeding six yeeres old yet so pliable to the delights of her wanton husband that hee calls her his best beloved and dictates a whole chapter to her praises so that for her affection to him her courtesie to others her witty conceits her skil in history and language she is intituled Mother of the Faithfull and contrarie to his tenet in his Alcoran in whose grave hoping there also to imbrace her Mahomet desired to be buried as was by old Abubocher afterwards performed His third wife was Miriam or Mamrya of whom he begot Ebrahim Cassen who at the age of six months by the arrow of grim death was directed the inevitable way of his brethren Zaynab the repudiate of Ben-Hartah Mahomets master was Mahomets fourth and last wife concubines hee had above a hundred but in any Author I find not named a Lady of singular perfection and so credulous of his feigned visions and that his epilepsie was caus'd by an Angells glory oft conferring with him that by all Mahomitans she is also named a second Mother of Mussulmen or true beleevers These his bosome friends and
may as justly tax me of neglect I will therefore but name them and reconcile some mens mistakes in misnaming these antique Kings of Persia Cyrus is the first we can deduce a true succession from For albeit they had Kings formerly of which Chederlaomer was one as wee read in Gen. and it may be the same whom the Persian Histories call Cheyomaraz father of Siamech to whom succeeded Owchange Iamshet Zoak Fraydhun Manucher Nawder Afraciab Achemenes some think Bazab Kaycohad Salemon Chozrao Lorazpes yet the succession from him is most incertaine and doubtlesse of no grandeur in that the Assyrian Monarchie begun by Nymrod sonne of Chush sonne of Cham sonne of Noah ecclipsed it and under whose command it lay for above 1300 yeares if Berosus be not counterfetted and from Belochus who deposed Sardanapal the last Assyrian Emperour of Nymrods race and Arbaces the first founder of the Median Monarchie a confederate with Belochus to Cyrus who advanced the Persians to a Monarkique greatnesse by subduing Astiages his Grand-sire transferd the Empire to the Persian as formerly the Medes had the Assyrian 260 yeares This change hapned in the yeare from Adam 3400 after the building of Rome 287 after the first Olympiad 50 and before the incarnation of our Saviour 567 c. Persia made a Monarchy by Cyrus Of Cyrus many memorable matters might be offered but I dare not enter the Labyrinth lest I wander so farre that I may chance to lose my selfe and your patience this only be remembred that this is that Cyrus of whom the Prophet Esay fore-told some hundred yeares ere he was born of him also Nabuchadnezzar prophesied beginning thus Ast ubi Medorum jus regni Mulus habebit c. That a Mule should over-runne Lydia fulfild in Craesus and subvert the Caldean Monarchie the word Mulus had relation to his mixture of bloud his mother beinga Mede his Syre a Persian Hee married Cassandana and by her had Cambyses that reigned after him Cyrus after he had ruled thirty yeares and in that time had added to his Empire Arabia Mesopotamia Syria Capadocia Phrygia Armenia c. hoped also to subject Scythia but neere the river Oxus was slaine by Tomyris the Queene of those parts of Zagathaya but upon ransome his body was delivered and convayed to Pasagard where Alexander found his Tomb but not that wealth he thought it had contained Cambyses ruled the Persian Monarchie but nine yeares of whose reigne is little to be said save that he subdued Aegipt after which he grew so luxurious and tyrannous that all men hated him his death was imputed to divine Justice for at Memphis hee committed sacriledge in the Temple of Apys or Anubys and broke the neck of that apish god set there by the idolatrous Aegyptians but at Damascus fell accidentally upon his owne weapon and dyed by it At his death seven Noble men or Magi of Persia severally contended for the Diadem for smerdis the upstart King was discovered by wanting his eares to be an impostor of which Darius sirnamed Histaspes who by the cunning of his Groome made his horse neigh next morne before the rest mounted the Throne and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or delivery of the Kingdome from the Magi from that time to Alexanders comming was annually celebrated Darius governed happily 35 yeares the last only was infortunate by that overthrow he received at Marathon by Miltiades the noble Athenian This is he who so much favoured the Jewes and Ierusalem his death was caused by losse of that battell at Marathon and that by it hee wanted Anthina's faire daughter This Darius Histasp I imagine to be the same Gustasp who first by imposture as else-where I have remembred made his people fire worshippers To Darius succeeded his son Xerxes by the Persians call'd Ardxer an infortunate Prince for howbeit he was in his time the greatest Emperour in the world and had a worls of men and wealth to obey his humours yet what by too much confidence in them and contempt of other Princes he reaped the greatest dishonour that ever befell any Prince of Persia for albeit he entred Greece with an army of 1800000 men yet could he not prevent an overthrow given him at the straits of Thermophilae by Leonidas the Spartan Generall who had not foure thousand men and by Themistocles the Admirall neere to Salamys was equally opposed and his whole Army confounded Afrer 20 yeeres rule he died and left Arta-xerxes his son his inheritor This Artaxerxes i.e. a victorious conquerour is in Persian story call'd Ard-xer-Bohaman and by Arabian writers Tama-xerxicas this is he that married Atossa or Hester the Jew in which book he is named Ahasuerus at the end of forty foure yeeres happy government he died and Art-axerxes sirnamed Muenon in his place was crowned King some insert Darius Nothus before him Artaxerxes sonne of Artaxerxes and Parisatys daughter of Cyrus ruled Persia forty and two yeeres and at the age of eighty was buried at Persepolis Artaxerxes Ochus his sonne succeeded him who also when he had governed cruelly twenty and six yeeres was hastned but by an untimely death after his Father Arses or Arsamus his sonne investing himselfe with the Persian roabs of rule and majesty Of Arses little can bee said save that he died by the hands of the Eunuch Bagoas his Fathers murderer after his Coronation foure yeere and in his place by meanes of Bagoas Darius Codomanus by Persians call'd Darab-kowcheck i.e. little Darius was saluted King him Alexander the victorious Greek orethrew in three great battells at Arbela Amanus and Granicus the last concluded his life and six yeeres reigne Anno Mundi 3640 Persia subjected by the Greeks of the Olympiad 112 of Rome 420 and before the Nativity 333 yeeres or thereabouts Alexander worthily sirnamed Great two yeeres after died at Babylon foretold by a Calan or Indian Gymnosophist in the three and thirty of his age of his rule twelve yeeres his heart was transfer'd to Alexandria his corps interd at Babylon Alexanders Legacy bequeathing the succession not to his owne issue or kin but to the Worthiest made Pyrrha's bones revive againe discord and pride and envie emulating every of his great Captaines who by this common Motto Virtus mihi Numen Ensis quern gero challenged the Empire and ceased not to lay claime till death and warres fury cut them off Seleuchus Callynicus sonne to Antiochus Theos by survivership after long stormes seeming to steare in that unruly Ocean during whose life and fifty yeers after the Greeks awed Persia Recovered by Arbaces a Parthyan till such time as Arbaces an heroyck Parthian broke that yaok of slavery asunder and for three and twenty yeeres did what was possible to revive the more than halfe dead Persians To Arbaces succeeded Methridates who ruled twenty yeeres after whom Pampasius twelve Pharnaces eight Methridatus Medus Thirteene to whom followed Phraortes call'd by the Perses Pharug-zed Artabanus call'd Ard-Bahaman Methridates
of farre greater extent and power fifty yeeres ago till the Syamite pluckt forceably from her Dyadem many brave and wealthy Seigniories howbeit she is yet commandresse of many Ilands Monym Barongo Nogomello Duradura Cocos c. Pegu by Castaldus supposed that old City Triglipton in Ptolomy has Artique elevation 16 degrees 40 minutes a Citie walld with good stone beautified with many Turrets and parrapets and to issue out and enter in shewes foure faire Gates and twelve posternes prettily built and made more safe by that deep Moat or Trench fild with Crocodiles that circumvolves her the streets are not many but large and broad they are and seldome crooking afore every doore the houses are all low growes a pleasant tree whose fruit and wholsome shade makes them double usefull It is divided into two the new Towne and the old the old is most great and best inhabited The Varellaes or Temples and Sudatories are observable each Varella farcinated with ugly but guilded Idolls that at Dogonnee is not a little memorable for structure and ornament out-braving any other in the Orient the wildernesse about it and antick superstition might chalenge a copious description which I forbeare having other things to denotate This Kingdom is full of al earthly delights blessings of Nature Gold Silver Lead Iron also Smaragds Topaz Rubies Saphyres Garnats Emralds Espinells and Cats-eyes as also Ryce Caravances long Pepper Sugar Benoyn Musk Gum-lack Cotton Callicoes and what else a reasonable man can lust after But all these if they were centuplied are not able to make them truly happy wanting the true pearle that which the godly Merchant bought though to obtaine it he sold all his fraile wealth and possessions for albeit the holy Apostle Saint Thomas brought them blessed tidings of salvation yet they quickly lost the true light delighting to this day in obscure and loathed sinnes the Kyacks fild with base Idolatry insomuch that father Bomferrus an old Franciscan after foure tedious yeeres labour to reduce them to some knowledge of the Church of Rome came home desiring rather as did S. Anthony to preach among piggs than such a swinish generation The truth is they beleeve they know not what and Quaenam est ista simplicitas neseire quod credas sayes Hierom against the Luciferians yet some what if all be true he tells us wee gather from his observation that they beleeve the world consisting of Heaven Sea and Earth had foure Creations and for impiety was foure times destroyed by Fire by Wind by Water and by Earthquakes each Age or World governed by a severall tutelarie Numen or God miserable only in this that he was transitory and not omnipotent nor immortall they reckon that the last destruction of the world death of their last God was thirty thousand yeeres ago and that in Plato's great yeere all shall once more suffer a chaos They imagine a great Lord omniscient omnipotent and immortall lives and rules in Heaven but they do not worship him in that Satan tels them he desires it not they beleeve a revivification of the body after death and co-union with the soule and Bomferrus beleeves it confesse a three-fold receptacle of soules departed Nashac Nishac and Schua Heaven Hell and Purgatory by which that holy Frier convinces us of more ignorance than these Pagans but wee beleeve it never the sooner since the Devill is their instructer yea who dictates their profession Their habit is thin and fine it differs little from that they have in Industant and Syam but in this they varie they weare no beards they dye their teeth black in that Dogs teeth are white whom they hate to imitate they also cut and pluck their flesh to become braver than other Nations I have told you the best of Pegu the worst is also memorable In lesse than a hundred yeeres ago the Peguan Monark was farre more powerfull and formidable than at this present his Dyadem then sparkled with a gallent lustre twelve wealthy Kingdomes at that time acknowledged Pegu their Soveraigne Some of those Provinces are well knowne to us as Syam Auva Kavelan Barmaw Iangomer Tangram Cablan Lawran Meliotalk c. out of which hee yeerely extracted as tribute-money two Millions of crownes and had a Million of men to serve him at all occasions but this hardly could content him for by a two losty conceit of his Monachick greatnesse he grew efflated and to contemne others as too base to fix his eyes upon Tyranny succeeded his pride and decadence or destruction of his Empire Tyranny for the Auvan King when he found no priviledge by being Uncle to the Emperour of Pegu nor that he was his loyall subject he swells with rage and breaks asunder his silver yoak of hated servitude howeit ere hee could ripen his designes the Peguan has notice and so suddenly arrests him that in amazement he acknowleges his fault and begs his mercy but the Peguan King forthwith beheads him and to terrifie others by his example makes no difference 'twixt nocent and innocent his wife his children and forty other whom he most respected concomitating the miserable Auvan King in that sad Tragedy It was terrible Justice no doubt but rather exasperated others to new rebellions the most incenst and greatest in power was the Siam King who seeing his owne incertaine standing any occasion breeding jealousie and the least jealousie bringing death from his conquerour hee suddenly breaks out and with all the forces he could make by money or promises ere the Peguan was return'd from Auva in short time enters Pegu and apparantly made knowne his high rebellion the Peguan threatens terrible things and to effect them opposes the Siamite with an Armie of nine hundred thousand fighting men but that world of men could not contrarie the decree of a more powerfull King for such was the confused haste he made precipitated by furie such the hate his crueltie had defam'd him with and such the affright his uncles Malus Genius as Caesars did Brutus every where opposed him with that in three houres fight his monstrous multitude turne raile and willingly yeeld themselves a prey to the inraged axe of war chosing rather to dy than any way to increase the Paguan's pride so as the Siamite triumphs the Peguan hastens back to raise more men to trie a second fortune The Siamite not willing to ingage himselfe too far returnes the Peguan is almost there as soone as he all the way burning and destroying all he met with the Siam King armes himselfe with the Foxes skin he refused to fight not that he feared but that he knew an easier way whereby to assure his conquest the Pegu darts many fiery defiances calls him rebell coward and what not not dreaming of his stratagems for ere hee could leave his trenches the swift and mighty river Suhan Mean some call it sweld desperately broke ore her bancks and flasht so violent into the Peguan army that for want of boates and others