my leaving of Constantinople I went to take my leave of Monnsieur de la Haye the French Ambassador he asked me if I had met with no Affront during the time that I had been there and when I told him that I never had so much as my Hat once strucken off which they often do Hats offending their sight he told me that I had had good luck and that I might brag that I had come better off than any other ever had The Turks improve not Sciences much The Turks Learning and it is enough for them to learn to Read and Write they often study the Alcoran which comprehends all their Law both Civil and Canon some besides apply themselves to Astrology and few to other Sciences The Turks beastly in their Love. They are very Amorous but with a brutish Love for they are great Sodomites and that is a very ordinary Vice amongst them which they care so little to conceal that their Songs are upon no other Subject but upon that Infamous Love or Wine They are very Covetous and therefore their Friendship is easily gained by Money or Presents by means of Money one may receive all sorts of Civility from them and there is nothing but what may be obtained at the Grand Signior's Court for Money Money makes Heads flie off and in fine Money is the great Talisman there as well as elsewhere For the common sort of People provided you 'll give them Drink enough they are wholly at your service Thus you have a short account of the chief of their Manners we must now speak of the Prince that Governs them CHAP. XLV Of the Grand Signior The Prince of the Turks THE Turks are all to subject to one sole Prince whom they call Sultan and other Nations the Emperour of the Turks or the Grand Signior because of his great Power This is an Hereditary Empire and hath never gone out of the Ottoman Family since first it entred into it that Race being held in such Veneration by the Turks that they would do any thing rather than to submit to an Emperour of another Line in prejudice of the true Heirs Sultan Mahomet IV. his Age. The Grand Signior who Reigns at present is called Sultan Mahomet the Fourth of that Name Son to Sultan Ibrahim in the Year 1655. that I was at Constantinople he was about Fifteen or Sixteen Years of Age He seemed to me to be of a low Stature Tawny and Melancholick He hath a Scar on the left Cheek which his Father made who being on a time half Drunk Mahomet IV. wounded in in the Cheek by his Father Sultan Ibrahim fell a Dancing and having commanded his Son to come and Dance with him the little Boy made answer I am not a fool to Dance I am a Fool then replied Sultan Ibrahim all in rage and with that gave him a stab with his Cangiar or Dagger in the left Cheek and had Killed him if his Wives had not prevented it Others say that it was by a Bottle he threw at him he gave him that Scar. The Ceremony of Instalment of the Grand Signior When a Grand Signior dies then his Son succeeds him and if he have no Son his Brother takes place and pitches upon a day when he goes by Water to the Mosque of Youp which is at the bottom of the Port This Mosque hath a Cloister in the middle whereof there is a Tribunal of Marble raised upon Marble Pillars The Grand Signior mounting upon this Tribunal the Mufty after some Prayers girds him with a Sword and that being done he makes his entry into Constantinople with Cavalcade This Ceremony with them is like the Coronation of our Kings and he ends his Cavalcade at the Serraglio The Brothers of the Grand Signior put to Death No sooner hath he taken possession of the Empire but he bethinks himself of the means to make it durable and for that end puts all his Brothers to Death still provided he himself have Male Children for if he have none it seldom happens that he dispatches his Brothers for fear of depriving the Empire of a Successor of the same Race and of putting an end to the Ottoman Family which would be a very great sin However Sultan Amurat did otherwise for without any consideration of Race or Heirs though he had no Children he put to Death all his Brothers except Sultan Ibrahim the Father of Mahomet the present Emperour who was so well hid by his Mother making the cruel Prince believe that his Brother was dead that she delivered him from his Rage When then they have a mind to dispatch their Brothers their Custom is to cause them to be Strangled with a Silken Halter or Bow-string making a scruple of Conscience to put them to death by the Sword and so to shed the Imperial Blood. Besides as I said before Persons of Quality are seldom Beheaded Persons of Quality are strangled but commonly Strangled when they are condemned to Die. If they put them not to Death they are shut up so close that no Body can tell what is become of them and whilst I was at Constantinople I could not find any Man who could certainly inform me whether the Grand Signior had any Brother alive or not The reason which obliges the Grand Signior to these Fratricides The cause of the Death of the Brothers of the Grand Signior is not only that he may have none to dispute the Crown with him but also that he may render himself Master of the Militia who are so Insolent when any Brother of their Prince remains in being that they daily importune the Emperour demanding extraordinary Largesses or Augmentations of their Pay and if it be refused them they 'll threaten and cry publickly God preserve to us your Brother alive Thereby intimating that if he satisfie them not they can Dethrone him and put his Brother in his place When that Pretext is taken from them they reverence their Prince but though that be a necessary piece of Policy yet it is very Inhumane When once the Grand Signior is well settled in his Throne The Grand Signior's Diversion he minds nothing but his Pleasures and many are employed upon that account He hath always a great many Buffoons who study nothing else but to invent some piece of Folly that might give him Diversion Girls have not the least share in his Pleasures all the Bashas make it their business to find out Beauties for him so that in a short time his Serraglio is well stocked with the fairest Many have written at large how the Grand Signior spends his time in the Serraglio his daily Exercise his way of Eating and Drinking Bed and the like which are very hard to be known there being no Witnesses but Eunuches who never come out of the Serraglio and some Itchoglans For my part I know none of these particulars more than these Gentlemen have mentioned and therefore I
indeed they know not at all how to use them For I know a French Merchant who one time meeting with Arabs they stript him stark naked and before they left him made him shoot off his Fire-lock and Pistols which they suffered him to keep They have also Bucklers made of the Skin of a Fish called the Sea-man They have pretty Horses Arabian Horses that are small but indefatigable and run so fast that they seem to flie where they alight they leave them without making them fast to any thing and these Horses stir not from the place where they have been left The food of the Arabian Horses And indeed when they find them for their purpose they are careful to feed them with Camels Milk Butter Camels flesh dried in the Sun and Wheat all which things make them very strong Those who have any competent Estate keep a Camel to save their Life in time of danger They feed him from a Colt with Camels Milk Butter Camels flesh dried in the Sun and Wheat and give him nothing else to eat which makes them very strong and swift as well as their Horses The Arabs of different Tribes are many times in Wars one with another and the Scheik el Kebir marches at the head of them When one of them kills another in time of peace if the Friends apprehend the Malefactor they carry him before the Scheik el Kebir who condemns him to death or to pay so much to the Relations of the deceased according as they desire it but commonly those of the same Family revenge the death of their Relation and they are so obstinate in their revenge that they 'll keep it an Hundred Years the Mother ever now and then shewing her Children the Bloody Shirt of their Father When any one of them dies he is buried in the same place where he Expired and some Stones put upon his Grave They told me a great many things more of their Customs as among others If an Arab marry a Maid he kills a Camel or two according as he is able to make a Feast and gives so much to the Maid If at any time after a near Relation of the Maids who was absent when the Wedding was made happen to come and be displeased with the Marriage he pays back the Husband what Money he gave to his Kinswoman the Camel which he killed and breaks the Marriage though the Maid be deflowred Though these People be Musulmans yet they make no other Prayers than now and then to say Bismillah that is to say in the Name of God. To conclude they have a wonderful slight in stealing and one of the Scheiks who went with me to Mount Sinai told me that if he pleased he could in the Night-time kill the Bey of Suez in his Bed in spight of all his Guards and though all his Doors were shut And a little before I came to Caire three Arabs contending together which of them was the nimblest Rogue one brag'd that he could steal all that was in the Kitchin of the Basha the other thinking that to be but a small matter said that he would steal the Basha's Signet or Seal and the third offered to do more than they both saying he would kill the Basha in his Bed. The first made a shift to slip into the Kitchin and in the Night-time carried all away not leaving so much as a Skillet the second thronging in among those who one day entred into the place where the Basha was Sealing got pretty near to him and the Basha having sealed something and offering the Seal to some body to hold this Knave stretched out his hand and having received it shortly after disappeared The third went so far that he slid into the Basha's Appartment and entring into his Chamber in the Night-time came to his Beds-side where having drawn his Cangiar his hand was up to have stabbed him when a little Boy who was in the Bed and saw the glittering light of the Cangiar cried out so loud that the Basha starting up avoided the blow Immediately Servants came in and seized the Villain who was next day Empaled for it CHAP. XXXIII Of Suez and the Red-Sea BEing come back to Suez we went and thanked the Bey for his kindness and seeing there was no Caravan ready to set out we had time enough to consider Suez and the Red-Sea This Sea which many think is so called because its Water is Red others more rationally because the Sand of it is Red is no Redder than any other Sea neither in its Water nor Sand only I observed as I went to Mount Sinai some Mountains all over Red upon the sides of it but I believe the reason why it is called Red is That the Translators of the Greek into Latin having in the Greek found the Erythrean Sea have taken that word in Greek for Red not considering that it is the Name of an ancient King called Erythra who hath given his Name to that Sea Erythra which Name reaches a good way beyond the Gulf of Arabia comprehending all the Sea that is betwixt the Eastern Coast of Africa and the Indies See Arrian's Navigation of the Erythrean Sea. This Sea in the holy Scripture is called Yam Souf that is to say the Sea of Rushes because the Banks of it are full of Rushes And the Arabs call it Buhr el Calzem Buhr el Calzem Clysma as if one should say the Sea of Clysma because of the Town named Clysma which was heretofore built at the most Northern point of that Sea which is a Gulf of the Ocean growing narrower and narrower the more Northward it runs and during the space of five days that I kept along the Coast of it in going to Mount Sinai I could not observe it to be any where above eight or nine Miles over This Sea ebbs and flows like the Ocean Two Galleys that belong to Haly Bey Trade on it and many Ships also which for the most part belong to Beys of Aegypt but every Year some of them are lost because being narrow and full of Rocks the Ships want Sea-room It was a Sea of great Trade before the discovery of the way to the East-Indies by the Cape of Good Hope by which the Portuguese English Dutch and others sail now to the Indies and bring us the Drugs Spices Pretious Stones Pearls and many other Commodities which for the most part came formerly only by Aleppo or by the Red-Sea and were unloaded at the Port of Cossir from whence they were carried to the Town of Chana Cossir Chana lying upon the Nile and from thence conveyed down the River to Caire and so to Alexandria Strabo observed this way and passage when he writes that Coptos Coptos where situated a Town of the Thebais the Ruines whereof are still to be seen betwixt Cossir and Chana was a place of Traffick common to the Arabs and Indians There are very good Oysters taken in this Sea as
go up by Ladders and are stowed three or four together in one the rest lye upon the Ground but all horridly bad for being very numerous and lock'd in in the Night-time they do their needs where they are in Pots which raises a noysome stench besides when one has a mind to sleep some fall a talking and others a quarelling and fighting making constantly a hideous din which seems to me a Hell upon Earth In the morning this Prison is opened and those that are to work are let out who are conducted to their Labour by men that take care of it they are employed in building and other works of that nature and I have known Knights of Malta of noble Families there who have been made serve as Labourers some carrying Sand and others Stone and they were thus used to oblige them to ransom themselves the sooner and at the higher rate They who can get any thing by their own industry pay so much a day to their Master and so are not forced to work Many of them keep taverns and these live the best of all for they get money and work not but yet they must give their Master part of their Profit None but slaves sell Wine at Tunis it is all white and grows in great plenty in the Countrey about but they put Lime to it to make it intoxicate They sell their Wine cheap and it is the custome that if you go to a Tavern and call for a quart of Wine they will set Bread before you and three or four dishes of Meat or Fish with Sallads and other appurtenances and when you are to go you only pay for the Wine and at a reasonable rate too besides these Slaves have power to beat the Turks if they are rude and insolent in their Taverns and to pull of their Turban and keep it till they have payed their reckoning if they refuse to do it The Slaves who neither work nor gain any thing cannot step out of the Bath without leave from the Keeper thereof who gives them a man to wait on them to whom they ought at least to give three pence for his pains and he is to answer for them Our Knights were of the Number of those last for having written to Malta that they were forced to work the Turks that were slave at Malta were severely Bastonadoed who immediately wrote to Tunis that if they continued to make the slaves of Malta work at Tunis they would be Cudgeled to death in Malta and since that time they are no more put to work CHAP. LXXXXII Of the Dey and other Officers of Tunis MVstafa who was Dey in the year 1657. was the sixth Dey Before they had Deys the Basha commanded in name of the Grand Signior and lived in the Castle but has been turned out ever since the Moors made an Insurrection and made one Osman their first Dey This Dey is almost absolute The Dey of Tunis absolute Coins money which consists in little square pieces of Silver of the value of Maidins and obeys the Grand Signior no farther than he thinks fit nay and sometimes puts to death those whom the Grand Signior sends if the business they come about displease him as it happened to a Chiaoux sent from the Grand Signior a little before I was there And indeed when the Ambassadours of the Franks complain to the Grand Signior of the Corsairs of Barbary all the answer they have is that they must make reprisal upon them and that they are Subjects whom the Grand Signior cannot command At present the Basha of the Grand Signior is so much a slave there The Grand Signior Basha can do nothing at Tunis that he cannot stir abroad out of his House without leave from the Dey of whom he must send to ask it every time he goes out which costs him besides above an hundred Piastres that he must give to the Deys Guards and that is the reason he goes seldom abroad They have a Bey there also made by the Grand Signior his business is to go into the Countrey and gather the Caradge and other the Grand Signiors Dues which he pays in to the Basha who sends it to Constantinople but this Bey has a part in it himself gives part to the Dey and the rest to the Basha When a Dey dies his Children conceal his Death least another Dey should be chose against their will and in the morning every one coming as the custome is to wish the Dey a good day his eldest Son tells them how his Father before his Death The establishment of the Dey The death of the Dey declared to him such a one for his Successour who is commonly his Kiaya or some other Friend of theirs for they make a compact with him whom they would have to be Dey before they make any Declaration then his friends joyn with him and immediately the Imam going up to the top of the Minaret of the Mosque in the Castle publishes the death of the Dey he never goes up thither but at the usual hours unless it be at the death of a Dey and therefore whenever he is seen there at an unusual hour it is known that the Dey is dead and then a man speeds through the City on Horse-back crying God save Dey such a one and all shut up shop and stand to their Arms until the Forts be put into the hands of the Officers of the new Dey for fear some other in the mean time should usurp the Dey-ship When it is generally known who is Dey all the Cadys and others who stand in need of his favour bring him Presents but in the Night-time and in great Dishes covered with Fruit or Meat under which there may be five six seven or eight Purses so that the first night he receives above two hundred Purses in Presents They bring them in the night-time that they may not be perceived least it should be said that he was corrupted by Bribes and if they were brought to him by day he would refuse them and fall into a great Passion against him that should offer to bring him a present they come then in the Night-time and only kiss his Vest having one or more Servants carrying dishes of Fruit or Meat with the present at the bottom and as they kiss his Vest they whisper to him what they have brought in these Dishes After all the Dey keeps no great Court nor carrys it out with any great Majesty but shews himself familiar enough with every Body I saw him once as he was coming back from a Mosque in the City he walked on foot was cloathed in a scarlet Justacors lined with Samour and had but a small Retinue The Dey cannot procure that his Son should succeed him after his Death having asked Don Philippo the reason of that he told me it was because when Young-men find themselves all of a sudden advanc'd to so great power they fall into such debauched courses that they render
Bottles with a good deal of straw and two of these Chests make a Mules load They have also store of Capers Capers which they send also into all parts They preserve another thing in Vinegar which I never saw done any where else Preserved Grapes and that is Grapes which they gather half ripe and the time of gathering them they take to be when the Sparrows begin to peck them they put these Grapes into Bottles with good store of Vinegar which so macerates them that they lose their hardness yet no so as to become too soft or lose their Greenness only they look a little yellowish These Grapes preserved in Vinegar have a certain sweet acidity which is not unpleasant especially in the great heats and therefore they send great quantities of them into the Indies Rose-water They have also abundance of Roses from which they draw so much Rose-water that they furnish all the Indies with it They have a great deal of Corn but they give much of it to the Horses to be eaten in the blade because they say it would not come to maturity for want of water There is a great deal of Opium made at Schiras and round the Town there are large fields sowed with White Poppies A powerful Chan of Schiras In former times Schiras was Governed by a Chan who was the first of Persia and his Government reached as far as Lar Bender and the Isle of Ormus nay he was so powerful that in the Reign of the great Schah Abbas there was a Chan or Schiras called Imem-Couli-Chan who spent as much as the King and kept no smaller Family in so much that the King commanded him to spend a Mabmoudi less a day that there might be some difference betwixt their Expences Schah Sâ—fi grand Child of Schah Abbas and Father to Schah Abbas who Reigns at present put that Chan and all his Children to death because he was afraid that being so powerful he might play him some trick and after him there have been some Chans in Schiras but at present there is none a Vizier commands there as the Kings Farmer to whom he yearly pays out of his Government a thousand Tomaâ— which make a hundred and fifty thousand Crowns CHAP. III. Of the Road from Schiras to Bender and first to Lar. WE parted from Schiras Monday the sixteenth of March half an hour after Eight in the Morning having let the Caravan set out an hour and half before We took our way Southwards and past near the Lime-Kilns the way was good and in a lovely cultivated Plain Half an hour after Nine we had on our Left Hand a large Village called Oudgeval by which runs a Rivulet about half an hour after Ten we struck off a little to the Right Hand Oudgeval marching full South over Land all white with Salt where nothing grows but Abrotanum foemina An hour after we crossed over a Bridge of ten Arches under which a little River runs Abrotanum foemina It is called Poulifesa in coming to it you go along a Causey and find such another on the farther side the water that runs underneath is as salt as Sea-water Poulifesa about Noon we entered into a great Plain covered with green Grass where having Travelled till half an hour after One a Clock we came to a wretched Kervanseray standing all alone it is called Baba-Adgi from the name of its Founder who lies buried hard by and is five Agatsch from Schiras Baba-adgi close by this Kervanseray there is a little Spring which makes a great marish in that Plain but the water being naught they drink of another a little farther off which is very good water We parted from that place Tuesday the seventeenth of March half an hour after Six in the Morning and marched South-East in a great green Plain full of Heath where we saw on both hands several Villages and a great many Flocks of Sheep feeding having Travelled there till half an hour after two in the Afternoon we arrived at a Kervanseray standing by it self and called Mouzeferi seven Agatsch from Baba-Adgi near to it there is a Spring of very good water Mouzeferi behind the Kervanseray there are several vent-holes by which one may see the water run and Fish playing therein whereof some are pretty big We parted from thence on Wednesday the Eighteenth of March half an hour after five in the Morning and kept our way Southward going up Hills and down Hills covered with Turpentine-Trees and Heath this Heath is like Tragacantha and has a Carnation-Blossome divided into four or five Leaves bearing a kind of Wooll Turpentine-Trees Tragacantha Erigerum Paira and perhaps it is your Erigerum we were troubled with this rough and stony way till Noon that we arrived at a great Kervanseray called Paira which stands alone by it self and is four Agatsch distant from Monzeferi A few steps from that Kervanseray there is an artificial Canal drawn from a River a little beyond and parallel to it that River comes from the Mountains of Orostan which are above thirteen or fourteen days Journy from thence and runs as far as Tadivan a great Village Tadivan upon the way to Lar six Agatsch from Paira it afterwards loses it self in the fields which is not to be wondered at because these people having scarcity of water when they can command a River they so let it blood by drawing it off to water their Grounds that they reduce it to nothing nevertheless in those places where that River is in its strength it is seven or eight Fathom broad the water of it is clear and good and runs rapidly in a fair bed of Sand where there is not a stone to stop its course it is full of Fish Rose-Laurels and Planted on the sides with Rose-Laurels and such like Trees so that there can be nothing more charming to the sight The Canal that passes near to Paira is cut from it a little above this place and waters many Sowed fields which being done about four Agatsch lower it falls again into the same River from which it was never far distant but in all its course it runs through high ground whereas the River rowls with a great noise in a very deep precipice We parted from that place Thursday the Nineteenth of March at four of the Clock in the Morning and held our way South-Eastwards having met now and then with very stony ways we found afterwards a fair way where on each hand we saw good Corn-Land with a great many Villages where there were many Gardens full of Trees About eight a Clock in the Morning we arrived at a fair large Kervanseray Chafer called Kervanseray Chafer from the name of a Village close by it on the River-side which at this place is dwindled away almost to nothing this is a great Village and nothing to be seen in it but Gardens with long Walks in them
Prince being sensible of the power of that Body that set Bounds as it pleased to his own thought he could not be Absolute without breaking it and as they say resolved to do so but he could not keep his Design so secret but that they discovered it Whereupon they took him by force out of the Serraglio carried him Ignominiously to the Seven Towers flouting and jearing him by the way when they had him there Strangled him and set up his Uncle Mustapha in his place Not many Years since Sultan Osman Strangled by the Janizaries and also Sultan Ibrahim they also put to Death Sultan Ibrahim the Brother of Osman and Father of the present Grand Signior whom they apprehended in the Serraglio and carried him to the Seven Towers where they Strangled him and put in his place his Son Mahomet now Reigning However though they sometimes attempt against yet they so respect the Blood of their Prince The respect of the Turks for the Race of Othoman and have so great a Veneration for the Race of the first Othoman or Osman that they never so much as dream of altering the Succession from that Family Whilst I was at Constantinople they raised a Sedition which put the present Grand Signior into great fear and thus it happened Monday the Twenty eighth of February One thousand six hundred fifty five the Grand Signior having heard the Complaints of Homer Basha A Sedition of the Janizaries and other Soldiers and other Officers that came from Candie wherein they alledged that no Succours had been sent them sent for the Mufti the Grand Visier the Janizary Aga and the six Beuluk and Galar or Collonels of Horse who being all come into his presence he told the Grand Visier that he would have the Town of Candie taken to which the Grand Visier making no other Answer but Sir your Will be done The Grand Signior demanded the Seal from him And having instantly received it because the Grand Visier carries it always about him he sent for his Capidgiler Kiayasi Capidgiler Kiayasi The Grand Signior's cunning to draw Hussein Basha to Constantinople Caymacam Zornesan Mustapha Basha made Keeper of the Seal during the vacancy of the Charge of Grand Visier The Janizaries authors of the Sedition who is as the Liuetenant of the Guard of his Gate and having put the Seal into his hands he commanded him to carry it with all Expedition to Hussein Basha General of the Turkish Army in Candie for the Grand Signior thought by this Dignity to draw him to Constantinople and there to cut off his Head and for that very reason Soliman Basha Grand Visier was the same day made Mansoul that is to say turned out of Place And Zornesan Mustapha Basha was made Caymacam or Deputy to discharge the Office of Visier until the coming of Hussein Basha Nevertheless this Man flattering himself with hopes of being himself made Grand Visier so soon as he was in his Serraglio sent a Letter to the Capidgiler Kiayasi wherein he commanded only him to Act according to the Instructions that he should have from him but the Capidgiler Kiayasi making no account of these Orders kept on his way imagining that it was but a Trick put upon him and no Order from the Grand Signior Tuesday the first of March two hundred Janizaries came from Candie who having served five or six Years there without any Pay or the Cloth that is their due were come to Constantinople to make their Complaints to the Janizary Agasi who sent them to the Kiaya Bey Kiaya Bey who is Liuetenant General of all the Foot They went then to the Kiaya Bey and having represented to him how long they had served and what Pay and Cloth was in Arrear to them complained also that more than one half of them were strucken out of the Muster-Roll The answer the Kiaya Bey gave them was Rascals withdraw and be gone else I 'll cause you all to be Strangled and thrown into the Sea you keep soaking in Taverns and come and make such Complaints to me You are a pack of Rogues that break open and rob poor Peoples Houses in the Night-time Away I say else I 'll make you smart for it The poor Men extreamly surprised at this discourse and not knowing what to do went streight to the Atmeidan where they met with several Dgebedgis and Topgis who were likewise discontented that their Pay was kept from them so that there were about four Hundred got together but they acted nothing till Friday when Janizaries Spahis Topgis and Dgebedgis all together to the number of above five Thousand assembled at the Atmeidan in the Afternoon and there took an Oath that they would be revenged of the wrong that was done them Saturday the Fifth of March there were above ten Thousand got together in the same place among whom their was a Spahi named Gelep Assan Aga who had but six Aspres Pay but was a Man of Wit spoke well and was so cunning that he got himself made Chief of the Assembly Dragoman Gelep Assan Aga is made Head of the Seditious Ayac Divan Kzlar Agasi Nazin Escref and presently after Ehamlu Mahomet Aga and Enden Zade Mahomet Aga Spahis declared themselves to be of the Party who altogether resolved to oblige the Grand Signior to give an Ayac Divan or Publick Audience The Kzlar Agasi or Keeper of the Grand Signior's Women and the rest of the Eunuchs of the Serraglio having intelligence of this Riot deputed the Nazin Eschref Chief of the Emirs to know of these Men what their Design was This Man having spoken to them they gave him their Reasons in Writing to be presented to the Grand Signior Whereupon he returned to the Serraglio with a design to act according to their intention but the Kzlar Agasi who would by no means have that come to the ears of the Grand Signior said to him What would you do thou art Mansoul and so turned him out After that he sent the Nichangi Basha to pray the Seditious that they would declare their Design bid them disperse and assure the Janizaries that they should have their Cloth and Pay But hardly had they heard this when they began to throw stones at him and would have cut him in pieces saying That they very well knew he was not come from the Grand Signior but from the Arabs to wit the Eunuchs However Gelep Assan hindred them from killing him and they were content to detain him The Kzlar Aga being informed that they detained the Nichangi Basha Ahtcherif sent again Taoukgi Mustapha Basha with an Ahtcherif or Letter under Signet saying That it was the Grand Signior's wherein he prayed God that the Bread and Salt which they had eaten in his Service might do them good beseeching them to withdraw that to give them satisfaction he had turned out of Place those who had done them wrong as the Janizary Aga and Kiaya Bey then all cried
relating to the Kingdom of Aethiopia which I shall here give the Reader an account of CHAP. LXIX Of Aethiopia Aethiopia AEThiopia or the Countrey of the Abyssins called in Arabick Abesch from whence comes the word Abyssin is a great Empire being above seven months travel in Circuit on the East-side it is bordered by the Red-Sea and Zanguebar on the South with Zeila Avousa Naria c. On the West by the Countrey of the Negros and Nubia and on the North with the Countrey of Nubia and Bugia Greyn Mahomet because to come from Aethiopia into Aegypt one must cross Nubia down the Nile About an hundred years ago Greyn Mahomet King of Zeila of which the Inhabitants are all Moors Invaded Aethiopia and forced the King to save himself on a Mountain from whence he sent to demand assistance of the King of Portugal The King of Portugal assists the King of Aethiopia who immediately sent it him but hardly was he who commanded these Auxiliaries entered the Countrey when he resolved to return back again finding that they ate raw Flesh there However his brother Don Christopher had more Courage and would not return without doing some Exploit he marched up into the Countrey with about three hundred Musqueteers Fought Vanquished and killed the Moorish King and then Re-established the lawful King of Aethiopia For reward of which Service the king of Aethiopia gave Lands and Estates to all the Portuguese that stayed within his Dominions and their Off-spring are still in that Countrey The Father of this present King was a good Catholick but he dying some thirty odd years agoe the Queen his Wife who was a great Enemy to the Jesuits and no Catholick and who suffered impatiently that they should govern as they pleased the late King her Husband wrought upon her Son that succeeded him A persecution of the Roman Catholicks in Aethiopia to Persecute all the Roman Catholicks in such a manner that the Jesuits were obliged to make their Escape and he put to Death all the Capucins whom he found Since that time three Capucins more were put to Death at Schouaken for the King of Aethiopia knowing that they had a mind to come into his Kingdom sent to the Governour of Schouaken praying him to put to death those three Religious Franks The Governour of Schouaken caused their Heads to be immediately struck off and sent them to the King of Aethiopia who as a reward made him a Present of three Bags of Gold-Dust promising him as many Baggs of Gold-Dust as he should send him Heads of Franks and fifteen or sixteen years since two others have been put to Death in the Province of Oinadaga whose names were Father Fioravanti and Father Francesco In short this King is a declared Enemy to all Franks whom he accuses of being Hereticks and of having conspired to put the Crown upon the Head of one of his Enemies so that a Frank who would go into that Countrey The belief of the Aethiopians must pass for an Armenian or Cophte for the King and all his People are of the Cophtish Religion They believe but one Nature in Jesus Christ At the end of eight days they Circumcise as the Jews do and Baptise a Fortnight after Before the Jesuits went thither they Baptised none before they were thirty or forty years of Age. They say Mass as the Cophtes do but their Church-Books are in the Aethiopick Language The Patriarch of Aethiopia depends on the Patriarch of Alexandria Their Patriarch depends on the Patriarch of Alexandria and when the Patriarch of the Abyssins dies they send Deputies to Alexandria to entreat the Patriarch to send them another and he Convocating his Clergy chuses out the fittest among them whom he sends but is never any more heard of in Aegypt till he be Dead After all the Ambassadour told us that most of the People of the Countrey are Catholicks in their Heart Sennar Naria There are four Kings that pay Tribute to the King of Aethiopia to wit The King of Sennar who pays his Tribute in Horses Sennar is a very hot Countrey The King of Naria who pays his Tribute in Gold. The King of Bugia and King of Dangala Naria is a good Countrey and in that Countrey are the Mines out of which they have the Gold that passes on the Coasts of Soffala and Guiney These Mines are not deep as in many other Countreys From that Countrey also comes the Civet I think it will not be amiss here to say somewhat of Civets which are so rare in our Countrey as that they deserve to be taken notice of where one can find them They are called Civet-Cats come from Naria as I just now said and are taken in Snares The Jews in Caire keep many of them in their Houses where for buying a few drachms of Civet one may see them It is a Beast almost as big as a good Dog Civet it hath a sharp Snout small Eyes little Ears and mustachios like a Cat the Skin of it is all spotted black and white with some â—â—â—…wish specks and hath a long bushy Tail almost like a Fox It is a very wild Creature and I believe the bite of it would put a body to no small pain The Jews keep them in great square wooden Cages where they feed them with raw Mutton and Beaf cut into small Pieces The way of getting Civet When they would get from them that which is called Civet and is the Sweat of this Beast that smells so sweet they make him go back with a stick which they thrust in betwixt the Bars of the Cage and catch hold of his Tail when they have that fast they take hold also of his two hind Legs pulling him half out of the Cage by the Door which falls down upon his Back and keeps him fast there then another opens a certain Cod of Flesh that these Beasts have which is shaped like a split Gyserne and with an Iron-Spatula scrapes all the Sweat off of it within The Males have that piece of Flesh betwixt their Stones and Yard which is like a Cats The Females have it betwixt their Fundament and Privities and it is emptied of the Sweat but twice a Week each Beast yielding about a drachm at a time by what I could discern When that Sweat or Excrement is taken out it is of a whitish grey but by little and little in some short space it turns to a very brown colour It smells very sweet at a distance but near hand it stinks and causes a Head-ach There are as many kinds of Civet-Sweat as there are of Civet-Cats for it is more whitish greyish or yellowish and dryer in some than in others and yet they mingle all together There is no pure Civet to be had After all it is in vain to think to have pure Civet for the Jews falsifie it and if a Man imagine it to be pure because he has seen it
Provinces of Judostan to those which his Father left him died in the Year 1604. Gehanguir Selim his Eldest Son was immediately Crowned by the Name of Gehan-guir and having Reigned Three and twenty Years and enlarged the Conquest he died in the Year 1627. After his death his Grandson Boulloquoy Reigned about Three Months Bulloquoy but he was strangled by Order of Sultan Corom a Rebel Son of Gehanguir Corom who having made sure of the Empire Chagehan took to himself the Name of Chagehan in the Year 1628. Seeing Blood and Rebellion raised him to the Throne he had experience of the same disorders amongst his Children which he had caused to his Father for through their jealousie his Empire was almost always in confusion Auranzeb and at length fell into the hands of Auranzeb the Third of his Four Sons who Reigns at present In mounting to the Throne this Prince imitated the crimes of his Father for he put to death Dara his Eldest Brother imprisoned Mourad his other Brother who confided in him and clapt up his own Father in Prison The death of Chagehan who died Five or Six Years after about the end of the Year 1666. The Great Mogul is certainly a most Powerful Prince The Power of the Mogul as we may Judge by his Riches Armies and the number of People that are within the extent of his Empire His yearly Revenues they say mount to above Three hundred and thirty French Millions The Canon Name The Registred Forces of the Mogul which is a Register containing a List of his Forces makes it appear that that Prince entertains Three hundred thousand Horse of which betwixt Thirty and Thirty five thousand with ten thousand Foot are for a Guard to his Person both in time of Peace and War and are commonly quartered in those places where he keeps his Court. This Empire extends from East to West above Four hundred Leagues and from North to South above Five hundred and that vast space excepting some Mountains and Deserts is so full of Towns Castles Burroughs and Villages and by consequence of Inhabitants who till the Land or emprove it by manufactures and the commerce which that Country affords that it is easie to judge of the Power of the King who is Master thereof The true bounds of his Empire are to the West The bounds of Mogulistan Macran or Sinde and Candahar to the East it reaches beyond the Ganges to the South it is limited by Decan the great Sea and the Gulf of Bengale and to the North by the Tartars The exageration of many Travellers concerning the extent of the Countries of this great King of the Indies was the cause that I made it my business to consult the most knowing Men that I might learn what they thought of the greatness of it and what now I write is their Opinion They affirm not as some do that when the Mogul makes War The true Forces of the Mogul he sends Three hundred thousand Horse into the field They say indeed that he pays so many but seeing the chief Revenues or to say better the rewards of the Great Men consist particularly in the pay which they have for more or fewer Troopers it is certain that they hardly keep on Foot one half of the Men they are appointed to have so that when the Great Mogul marches upon any expedition of War his Army exceeds not an Hundred and fifty thousand Horse with very few Foot though he have betwixt Three and four hundred thousand Mouths in the Army Besides I was informed by any Indian who pretends to know the Map of his Country that they reckon no more but twenty Provinces within the extent of Mogulistan in the Indies and that they who have reckoned more have not been well informed of their number since of one Province they have made two or three This Indian had a list of the Princes Revenues calculated for the twenty Provinces and I made no doubt of the truth of his System Twenty Provinces or Governments in Mogulistan but I had rather call them Governments and say that every Government contains several Provinces I shall observe the Revenues of the Governments in the discription I give of them and shall call each Government a Province that I may not vary from the memoires which I have and as I entered the Indies by the Province of Guzerat so I shall describe it before the others CHAP. IV. The Province of Guzerat Guzerat THe Province of Guzerat which was heretofore a Kingdom fell into the Possession of the Great Mogul Ecbar about the year 1565. He was called into it by a great Lord to whom the King of Guzerat Sultan Mamoet gave the general Government thereof when being near his death he trusted him with the tuition and regency of his only Son in the Year 1545 or 1546. during the Reign of Humayon the Father of Ecbar Government The ambition of that Governour who was envied by all the great Men of the Kingdom of Guzerat that were his declared Enemies and against whom he resolved to maintain himself at the cost of his own lawful Prince made him betake himself to the King Mogul under pretext of soliciting his protection for his Pupil named Mudafer who was already of Age but not yet of sufficient Authority to maintain his Guardian against the faction of the great Men whom he had provoked Mudafer King of Guzerat Ecbar seizes Guzerat Ecbar entered Guzerat with an Army and subdued all those who offered to make head against him and whom the Governour accused of being Enemies to his King But instead of being satisfied with one Town which with its Territories had been promised him he seized the whole Kingdom and made the King and Governour Prisoners That unfortunate Prince being never after able to recover it again not but that having made his escape he attempted once again to have reestablished himself but his efforts were in vain Mudafer kills himself for he was overcome and made Prisoner a second time so that despair at length made him destroy himself Guzerat a pleasant Province This is the pleasantest Province of Judostan though it be not the largest The Nardaba Tapty and many other Rivers that water it render it very fertile and the Fields of Guzerat look green in all the seasons of the Year because of the Corn and Rice that cover them and the various kinds of Trees which continually bear Fruit. The most considerable part of Guzerat is towards the Sea on which the Towns of Surrat and Cambaye stand The Ports of Surrat and Cambaye whose Ports are the best of all Mogulistan But seeing Amedabad is the Capital Town of the Province it is but reasonable we should treat of it before we speak of the rest Departure from Surrat to Amedabad The Boats on the Tapty incommodious February the First I parted from Surrat to go
Conventual Cordeliers and their Church is called St. Francis of the Jacobins who have St. Peters Church of the Jesuits who have St. Benet's Church and of the Capucius who have the Church of St. George By the Sea-side there is the finest Fish-market in the World it is a Street with Fish-mongers shops on both sides who have so great quantity of Fish upon their Stalls that it would surprise a man to see it There one may find all sorts of fresh Fish and at a very cheap rate The Greeks keep many Taverns or Publick Houses in Galata which draw thither many of the Rabble from Constantinople who are very insolent in their drink and very dangerous to be met with Going up from Galata you come to Pera which is likewise separated from Galata by Burying-places it is a kind of a Town where Christian Ambassadors dwell only the Ambassadors of the Emperor King of Poland and Republick of Ragousa having their residence in Constantinople The French Ambassador is very commodiously lodged in Pera having a fair large Palace which is called the Kings House and has on all hands a good Prospect looking one way towards the Serraglio of the Grand Signior over against which it stands upon a higher ground than the Serraglio Pera lying very high The Houses of Pera are handsome and hardly any body lives there but Greeks of Quality From Pera to Tophana there is a great descent and Tophana lies upon the Rivers side over against the Serraglio It is called Tophana that is to say the House of Cannon because it is the place where Guns and other Pieces of Artillery are cast and that gives the name to all that Quarter which is a kind of little Town The Houses of Galata Pera and Tophana are built in so good order that as these places stand some higher and some lower they represent a kind of Amphitheater from whence with ease and pleasure the Port and Sea may be seen CHAP. XXI Of Leander's Tower Scudaret the Princes Isle and the Black Sea. THough the Countrey about Constantinople be not so delightful nor so well peopled Iscodar as in France yet it is not without pleasant Walks you must take a Caique and go to Scudaret called in Turkish Iscodar and it is a good mile over to it You pass by the Tower of Leander which stands betwixt the Serraglio and Scudaret and you may go into it if you please This Tower is built upon a Rock in the Sea and is pretty strong there are several great Guns mounted in it which may batter the Port of Constantinople and the two mouths of the Bosphorus of Thrace and of the Propontis or as they say of the Black and White Seas there is a Well of excellent good fresh Water in this Tower but I cannot tell why they call it Leander's Tower. From thence you go to Scudaret which is a Village in Asia upon the Sea-side over against the Serraglio of Constantinople where the Grand Signior hath a sttately Serraglio and very lovely Gardens A little lower on the same side over against the seven Towers stands Chalcedon a Town anciently Famous and celebrated by the Fourth general Council that was held there but at present it is no more but a pitiful Village The Princes Isle which is four hours going from Constantinople is another Walk where the Air is excellently good though this Isle be not great yet it is very pleasant and contains two little Towns of Greeks The Chanel of the Black Sea is a rare place to take the Air upon this is the Bosphorus of Thrace which coming from the Black Sea to Constantinople enters into the Propontis and mingles its Waters with the White Sea at the broadest place it is about a mile over and is twelve miles in length Going from Tophana towards this Chanel you see to the left-hand on the side of Europe a great many lovely Houses and Gardens when you have entered into the Chanel you have on both sides the most charming and delightful Prospect in the World nothing offering to your view but stately Houses and Gardens full of all sorts of excellent Fruits Upon the side in Asia I saw a very pretty Castle where Sultan Ibrahim the Father of Sultan Mahomet who Reigns at present was hid for the space of twenty years to avoid the Death which Sultan Amurath put his other Brothers to This Castle is covered with many very high Trees that hinder it from being seen which is the reason as those who live there told us that few come to see it Along both the shores there are also a great many good Villages where one may have whatsoever is needful They take in this Chanel great quantities of good Fish of several sorts especially Sword-fish Sword-fish which are great and so called because on their Snout they have a long broad bone like a Sword or rather a Saw there are many Dolphins to be seen there which follow Boats playing and leaping out of the Water Six miles from Constantinople there are two Forts on this Sea the one in Europe and the other in Asia which serve for Prisons for Persons of quality and were built to put a stop to the Cosacks who were it not for that would often come and make Booty even in Constantinople seeing notwithstanding these Forts they sometimes give the alarm to that City In three or four hours time one comes to the end of the Chanel or Bosphorus of Thrace where the Black Sea begins In the middle of this mouth which is very narrow there is a little Isle or rather Rock distant on each hand from the main Land about fifty paces where being come you may go up to the top of it and there see a Pillar of white Marble which is called the Pillar of Pompey because they say it was raised by Pompey in memory of his Victory after that he had overcome Mithridates Close by this Rock and round it there are several others scattered here and there in the Water which many take to be the Cyanean Isles or Symplegades On the main Land of Europe side over against the Rock of Pompey's Pillar there is a Village on the Water-side with a Tower on the top whereof there is a Light for the convenience of Vessels that by mistake they may not run foul of the Rocks and be cast away for that 's a very dangerous Sea and many shipwrecks are made in it every year so that the Greeks call it Maurothalassa that is to say the Black Sea Maurothalassa not because the Waters of it are black but because Storms and Tempests rise on it so suddenly that they cause many losses and though the Weather be never so fair yet Vessels are often surprised there in a moment for besides that this Sea is not very broad there are several Currents in it caused by the Danube Boristhenes Tanais and many other smaller Rivers that discharge their Waters into it which occasion so many Eddies
four times When they pray they may be all Naked except their privy parts and so may their Slaves both Men and Women but Free-women are not permitted to do so for they are to be covered all over when they pray unless it be one half of the Cheek and Chin. This is the difference betwixt the Ceremonies of the Men and of the Women when they pray the Men lift up their Hands to their Shoulders say Allah ekber and then lay them on their Navil the Women lift them up but half way to their Shoulders and then lay them upon their Breasts saying their Prayers as the Men do and performing their Ablutions in the same manner Great Devotion of the Turks When Prayers are ended all both Men and Women bow first to the right side and then to the left as saluting the two Angels Kerim Kiatib In short none can be more Devout than they are for when they are in the Mosque they pray so affectionately that they turn neither this way nor that way what ever may happen And in my time a Fire breaking out one Night of the Ramadan in Constantinople at the hour of Prayer a Renegado told me next day that those who were at that time in the same Mosque where he was which was not far from the place where the Fire was consulted which was best not to break off their Prayers or go and put out the Fire and at length they resolved upon the latter The Reverence of the Turks in their Mosques They are never seen to Prattle and Talk in their Mosques where they carry themselves always with great Reverence and certainly they give us a Lesson for Devotion There are but few who go not every day to Prayers at least to those of Noon Quindy and Ackscham for many perform the other two at Home nor does Travelling excuse them for when they know that it is about the hour of Prayer they stop in the Fields near to some Water and having drawn Water in a tinned Copper-Pot which they carry always purposely about with them they do the Abdest then spread a little Carpet upon the ground without which they never Travel and say their Prayers upon it They have Chaplets also which they often say for most part have them always in their Hand whether it be at Home or abroad in the Streets talking with their Friends Buying or Selling or drinking Coffee and at every Bead they turn they say Allah which is the Name of God. CHAP. XXXVIII Of the Charity of the Turks and the Pilgramage to Mecha Charity of the Turks THE Turks Fourth Command is Charity by that Command they are obliged to give yearly to the Poor the fortieth part of their Goods if they have poor Kindred they ought to prefer them before others if they have none they should give their Charity to their poor Neighbours and if they have no poor Neighbours they give it to the first they meet This Command is not ill observed among the Turks for they are very charitable and very willingly help the wretched without minding Religion whether they be Turks The reason why there are few Beggars among the Turks Christians or Jews I will not say that the Charity alone of the Rich hinders the beggary of the Turks there are in my opinion other causes for most part of the Turks have pay from the Grand Signior they live at a cheap rate and make good chear of a small matter so that a little Pilau a bit of Meat and a small portion of water will make to them a considerable Feast Charitable Donations of the Turks But after all they perform great acts of charity some in their life-time relieve the Poor with their Goods and others at their death leave great Estates for the founding of Hospitals building of Bridges Kervanserrais or Inns for the Caravans bringing Water to the High-ways and such other publick Works nay many of them see them done in their own life-time others again at their death give their Slaves their liberty They who can't be charitable with their Purses do good with their Hands employing themselves in mending the High-ways filling the Cisterns that are there standing by the Waters when they are out that they may shew Travellers the Foard and all this for Gods sake refusing money when it is offered them for they do it as they say for the sake of God and not for the sake of Money Their Charity extends also even to Beasts and Birds The charity of the Turks toward Beasts and all Market-days there are a great many who go and buy Birds which they presently set at liberty saying that the Souls of these Birds will come at the Day of Judgment and declare in the presence of God the kindness that they have received from them and indeed they cannot endure to see a Beast kept in pain for when they kill their Pullets they cut of their head at one blow and if they saw a man kill any after the French way they would not forbear to cudgel him nay they reckon it cruelty to kill a Louse or Flea with the nail they do no more but give them one or two turns betwixt the finger and thumb and then throw them away dead or alive There are others who at their death leave considerable Means for the feeding so many Dogs or Cats so many times a week and give the money to Bakers or Butchers for performing that charity which is faithfully and punctually enough put in execution and it is very pleasant to see every day Men loaded with meat go and call the Dogs and Cats of the Foundation and being surrounded with them distribute it among them by commons I could here give an hundred Instances of the charity of the Turks towards Beasts An instance of the charity of the Turks toward Beasts I have seen them often practice such as to us would seem very ridiculous I have seen several Men in good garb stop in a street stand round a Bitch that had newly puppied and all go and gather stones to make a little wall about her lest some heedless person might tread upon her and many such like Examples but it is not my design to trouble the Reader with such trifles In fine Sultan Amurath who in all appearance had no Religion and who made so slight a matter of the life of a man that if a day past wherein he had not put some body to death he was out of humour this cruel Prince I say was affected with that superstitious and bestial compassion for seeing a man one day stop at the corner of a street in Constantinople to dine on a piece of Bread and a bit of roast Meat which he had bought hard by and hold his Horse that was loaded with Goods he had to sell by the bridle he ordered the Horse to be unloaded and the load put upon the Master's back obliging him to continue so all the while that
and continually study the Alcoran The chief of their Ecclesiasticks is the Mufti Mufti for whom they have as much respect as the Romans have for the Pope he is not Elected by an Assembly of their Ecclesiasticks but the Grand Signior prefers whom he pleases who is always a knowing Man in their way and much versed in the Alcoran fot it is he who is consulted about matters of Conscience and he gives his Decisions in little Writs which are called Fetua This Mufti is Married as the rest of the Turks are They have a great veneration for the Mufti and when he goes to see the Prince so soon as the Grand Signior perceives him he rises up advances some steps and salutes him very respectfully They hold that it is not lawful by their Law to put a Mufti to death A Mufti ought not to be put to death and nevertheless Sultan Amurat who knew no other Law but his own Will having a mind to put one to death sent for him and asked him who had made him Mufti he answered That his Majesty had done it Then replied Sultan Amurat if I made thee Mufti I may very well unmake thee and caused him to be strangled Sultan Mahomet at present who in my opinion traces pretty well his Uncles foot-steps put do death one called Hodgiaza Efendi A Mufti strangled whilst I was at Constantinople they seized him at his house and having put him into a Caique or Boat carried him to Bursa and it was some time before they knew at Constantinople whether or not he was put to death some said that he was strangled about the Isles that are before Constantinople and then thrown into the Sea others that he was still alive at Bursa where I was informed he had been strangled and buried in the Convent of the Dervishes It is to be observed that they strangled him rather than cut off his head because it would have been a great sin to shed his blood and besides Persons of Quality who deserve death are commonly strangled among them He was accused for what I could learn of having contrived the Death of the Grand Signior and the setting his Brother upon the Throne He was a very riged Man as I understood at a Visite which the French Ambassadour whom I had the honour to accompany made to him He was a great Enemy of all Christians and had resolved to leave the Greeks but one Church in each Town There is only one Mufti whose ordinary Residence is at Constantinople and because he cannot dispatch all the affairs of Conscience in the Empire which is of a vast extent and many whereof require expedition the Cadilesquers perform the Office of Mufti out of Constantinople every one in their several Jurisdictions Cadilesquers for they study the Canon aswel as Civil Law. For want of Cadilesquers they have recourse to the Moulla who is the chief of the Cadis Moulla Cady and seeing there are places where there is neither Cadilesquers nor Moulla but only a Cady this Cady discharges the Office of all and is Judge in all matters As for those who do Duty in the Mosques they are called Danischmend who are they whom the Franks call Talismans and their Chief is called Imam who is as the Parson of the Parish Talismans Imams and reads Prayers aloud in the Mosques at the usual hours They who go up to the top of the Minarets to call the people to Prayer are named Muezins Muezins There are also Hodgias who are old Men of integrity Hodgias very knowing in the Alcoran and expert in worldly Affairs they are Councellors and Doctors of the Law they sometimes perform the Office and even Preach on certain Festivals These Hodgias are often consulted about Affairs of Importance and they are in great reputation among the People who have great respect for them They have also several sorts of Religious Dervishes among whom the Dervishes are the most familiar and polite I shall speak of the others when I discourse of Aegypt The Dervishes live in common and have their Superiors as our Religious have they go very mean in their Apparel and wear on their heads a Cap of white felt The Dance of the Dervishes much like to our Night-caps Every Tuesday and Friday these Religious make a Dance which is pretty pleasant to see On the days they are to dance they assemble in a great Hall which is their Mosque the middle whereof is Rail'd in square leaving a space all round for those that are without within this enclosure which is pretty large is the Keble where there are two Pulpits joyned together upon a foot-stool into the one goes the Superiour turning his back to the South and his Vicar into the other which is on the Superiour's right Hand then over against them at the other end of the Hall without the Rails there is a little Scaffold on which are several Dervishes that play on Flutes and Drums the other Dervishes being within the Rails I got upon the Scaffold of the Musicians being in company with another French man who was acquainted with them When they have altogether sung some Prayers the Superiour reads a little of the Alcoran explained in Turkish then the Vicar reads a few words of the Alcoran in Arabick which serve as a subject to the Discourse that the Superiour afterward makes to them in Turkish Having ended his Sermon he comes down from his Pulpit and with the Vicar and the rest of the Dervishes takes two turns about the Hall while one of the Dervishes sings some Verses of the Alcoran in a pretty pleasant tone after that all their Instruments play in consort and then the Dervishes beg in their Dance They pass before the Superiour salute him very humbly and then making a leap as those do that begin to Dance at a Ball they fall a turning round with their naked feet the left foot serving for a Pivot or Spindle to turn upon for they lift it not from the ground but they raise the other wherewith they turn so dextrously that one will sooner be a weary of looking on than they of turning though for the most part they be old Men and have long Garments This turning is performed to the sound of Drums and Flutes When they stop the Superiour who during the Dance sits with his Vicar at the feet of their Pulpits rises up then making two steps bows towards the South and the Dervishes bowing also pass before him humbly salute him and begin again to turn and that for four times the last being the longest of all They turn as fast as Windmills with the strongest wind run and always keeping time and though their arms be stretched out their eyes sometimes shut and they follow one another at a pretty near distance turning all round the Rails yet they never touch one another but when the Musick ceases stop short where-ever they are without making the least
occasioned by People that fall asleep with a Pipe in their Mouth that sets fire to the Bed or any combustible matter as I said before He used all the arts he could to discover those who sold Tobacco and went to those places where he was informed they did where having offered several Chequins for a pound of Tobacco made great entreaty and promised secrecy if they let him have it he drew out a Cimeter under his Vest and cut off the Shopkeepers Head. They tell a very pleasant adventure of his upon this occasion Being one day in disguise at Scudaret he went into the Boat that passes over to Constantinople wherein there were several People and amongst others a Spahi of Anatolia who was going to Constantinople for his Pay. A story of Sultan Amurat upon the prohibition of Tobacco No sooner was this Blade come into the Boat but he fell a smoaking and no body durst say any thing to him save Sultan Amurat who drawing near asked him if he did not stand in Awe of the Grand Signior's Prohibition The Spahi very arrogantly made answer That the Grand Signior led a brave life on 't that he delighted himself with his Women and Boys and making himself Drunk in his Serraglio that for his share all he had was Bread that Tobacco was his Bread and that the Grand Signior could not hinder him to smoak and with that asked him if he would take a whiff Sultan Amurat told him softly that he would and having got the Pipe from the Spahi went and hid himself in a corner of the Boat smoaking with as much circumspection as if he had been afraid some body might see him When they were come to Constantinople both together went into a Caique to go into Galata each pretending to have Business there When they were come a shoar Sultan Amurat invited the Spahi to go drink a cup of Wine in a place where he knew it was good and the other condescended The Emperour led him towards the place where his Servants staied for him for when they Disguise themselves they appoint their Servants to meet them at a certain place and being pretty near he thought because he was very strong that he was able alone to arrest the Man and therefore took him by the Collar The Spahi much surprised at that boldness and remembring he had been told that Sultan Amurat often disguised himself he made no doubt but that it was he so that seeing himself undone he quickly took up his Mace that hung by his Girdle and with it gave Sultan Amurat such a Blow over the small of the Back that he beat him down and then fled Sultan Amurat being mad that he missed of his design caused it to be Published that he acknowledged the Fellow who had given him the Blow to be brave and that if he did appear he would greatly reward him but the other mistrusting his Promise kept out of the way He plaied so many Pranks of that nature that they were enough to fill a Book CHAP. XLVI Of the Grand Visier and other chief Officers of the Turkish Empire THE Grand Signior as I said before meddles but little or not at all with Affairs and if any apply themselves to Business it is only in matters of great Consequence For if he concerned himself in smaller Affairs he must shew himself too often which he would take to be Prejudicial to him and a Diminution of his Majesty But he hath his chief Minister who is the Grand Visier for he hath commonly seven Visiers whereof the first hath all the Authority and does all Grand Visier It is he that giveth ordinary Audiences to Ambassadours who during the whole time of their Embassie have but two Audiences of the Grand Signior one at their Arrival and another when they depart and these neither but audiences of Ceremony wherein they treat of no Business He hears their Proposals and gives them their Answer It is he that takes care to pay the Armies desides Law-suits condemns Criminals and manages the Government In a word all the Affairs of the Empire rest upon his Shoulders he discharges the Office of the Grand Signior and only wants the Title This is a very heavy Charge and a Grand Visier has but very little time to himself nevertheless all ardently aspire to that Dignity though they be almost sure to Die within a few days after For when a Grand Visier continues six Months in Office he is a Man of parts and most commonly with their place they lose their Lives Because in discharging that Office they raise themselves a great many Enemies some out of Envy others as being the Friends and Relations of those whom the Grand Visier has disobliged for Justice can never be rendred without Murmurings and Discontents and if they who are discontented have any credit with the Grand Signior they use it to get the Grand Visier turned out and put to Death and if they have not credit enough to make him lose his Life they think it enough to get him made Maasoul Maasoul that is to say turned out of place and it is many times the Custom after that to give him a Government But when he is on the way to go to it his Enemies growing more powerful by his absence so bestir themselves that they obtain a Warrant for his Death immediately thereupon a Capidgi is sent after him who having overtaken him shews him the Order he has to carry back his Head the other takes the Grand Signior's Order kisses it puts it upon his Head in sign of respect and then having performed his Ablution and said his Prayers freely gives up his Head The Capidgi having Strangled him or caused Servants whom he brought purposely with him to do it cuts off his Head and brings it to Constantinople Thus they blindly obey the Grand Signior's Order Great respect to the Grand Signior's Orders their Servants never offering to hinder the Executioner though these Capidgis come very often with few or no Attendents at all for they think they make a happy end when they Die by Orders from the Grand Signior believing themselves to be as good Martyrs as those who die Fighting against the Enemies of their Religion However now a days there are a great many who are not such Fools and I fancy that of late they begin to be undeceived of that pretended Martyrdom The cause of the frequent Rebellions in Asia for they receive not now such news with a serene Countenance Hence it is that there happens frequent Rebellions in Asia which are only made by discontened Bashas who know that their Enemies are preparing Death for them upon their arrival at Constantinople Hussein Basha However Hussein Basha who so long Commanded the Turks in Candia did not at all desire the Office of Visier for though it was several times offered unto him yet he would never accept of it very well perceiving that that Dignity was
Grand Signiors Gate Capidgi comes from Capi which signifies Gate These Men keep the Gates of the Serraglio and stand round the Grand Signior when he gives Audience it being their part also to introduce others into the Princes presence and hold them by the arms so long as they are there When the Grand Signior has a mind to have the Head of any Man that is out of Constantinople he sends a Capidgi for it they are in all three thousand and have a Head called the Capidgi Basha though sometimes they have more than one according as the Grand Signior pleases Their Head-attire is a Cap The Head-attire of the Capidgis Solaques old Soldiers who ought to succeed to the Officers with a Cone half a foot long fastened to it before The Solaques are also of the Infantry and are the Grand Signior's Garde du corps or Life-guard for they attend the Grand Signior when he goes abroad in the City These Blades when they march in Ceremony wear a Doliman with Hanging-sleeves tuckt up under the Girdle so that one may see their Shirts which are always clean and neat their Cap is of a pretty stuff ending in a point in which they stick Feathers in form of a Crest they have a Bow hanging over their Arm and the Quiver full of Arrows on the right Shoulder always ready to draw an Arrow if it be needful They are called Solaques that is to say left-handed Men because when they are to shoot their Arrows Solaque a Left-handed Man. those who are on the Grand Signior's right Hand draw the Bow-string with the left that they may not turn their back upon him But the chief of the Infantry are the Janizaries who are partly Children of Tribute Janizaries though they take but a few at present brought to Constantinople where the wittiest are shut up for seven years time in the Serraglio to learn their Exercises and according as they have Parts and Courage they are preferred to Places but the duller sort are made Janizaries Aagemoglans or Bostangis Every fifth year this Tribute is collected The Janizaries are then partly Children of Tribute partly Volunteer Renegadoes who are very numerous and some few natural Turks This Militia was first instituted by Othoman or Ozman Son of Ortogule The Institution of the Janizaries the first Emperour of the Turks It is a body of Men so powerful not only for their number for besides the Janizaries of the Port who are twelve thousand and are dispersed over all the Provinces of the Empire there are others in very great numbers but also for the Privileges anciently given to them and the great Union that is among them calling one another Brothers and not suffering the least injury to be done to the meanest of their Body who do whatsoever they please and none but their Officers dare to lift up a hand against them upon pain of death so that they seem to be sacred and really I know no Order of Militia in the World that is so much respected for love nor money cannot save the life of a Man that hath beaten a Janizary Seeing they can beat any man upon a just ground and no body dare touch them Ambassadours and Consuls entertain some of them to march before them and when a Frank would go into the City or Countrey without fear of being abused he takes one of the Ambassadour's Janizaries with him or the first he finds who for some Aspres to be pay'd him at his return goes before with a Cudgel in his hand wherewith he soundly drubs those that offer but to cast a cross look at the Frank. Head-attire of the Janizaries The Habit of the Janizaries differs not from that of other Turks but they have another kind of Head-attire for on their head they wear a Cap hanging down behind and shaped like the Sleeve of a Casaque in one end of which they put their head and the other hangs down their back like a large Livery-hood on the forehead they have a Cone half a foot long fastened to this Cap which is of Silver gilt and set with counterfeit Stones This Cap is called Zercola Zercola a Cap of Ceremony for the Janizaries and is their Cap of Ceremony but commonly they wear a woollen Cap wreathed about with a Turban in a manner peculiar to themselves Their Pay is two three four five or six Aspres a day some more and some less The Janizaries Pay. and besides their Pay they have a Piece of Cloth yearly Every new Grand Signior adds an Aspre to their Pay. The Janizaries of the Port The Janizaries Lodgings who as I said before are twelve thousand in number live in two Inns or Colleges containing an hundred and threescore Chambers and they are thirty forty or fifty in a Chamber those who would lodge elsewhere may but they are still of such a Chamber so that they are divided into Chambers which they call Oda Oda Oda Basha Chorbagi Vikil Hardge and every Chamber hath three Officers an Oda Basha that is to say Chief of the Chamber a Chorbagi who is a Captain and a Vikil Hardge which is to say the Steward The Chorbagis wear a Cap of fine Stuff with fair large plumes of Feathers placed in form of a Crest just like the Solaques Kiaya Bey Lieutenant General of the Janizaries That Aga of Janizaries is the General of the Foot. The way of punishing a Janizary Azapes over this is the Kiaya Bey or Lieutenant General of the Janizaries and over him the Aga of the Janizaries who is General of the whole Body and is a Muteferaca but he has no power to punish any one in his Lodging only when Justice is demanded against a Janizary he enquires what Chamber he belongs to then sends for his Oda Basha into whose hands he delivers him and he carries him to his Chamber where he causes him to be punished in the Night-time for Soldiers can neither be beaten nor put to death in publick If he hath not deserved death he has blows on his feet and if he be guilty of death he is strangled then put into a Sack and thrown into the Sea All Soldiers are served in this manner There are also the Azapes who are as it were the old Troops and are indeed Pioniers they were instituted before the Janizaries though they be inferiour to them There are many more Foot-Soldiers Dgebegis Topdgis Chiaoux as the Dgebegis or Cuirassiers Topdgis or Gunners and others but having spoken of the chief I shall now proceed to the Horse and first to the Chiaoux who are much like the Exempts des gardes in France their Office is very honourable for they execute most part of the Grand Signior's Commands and of his Bashas and are sent on Embassies to Foreign Princes they wear Caps above a foot in diameter and yet they are not round but long and flat above This kind of Cap is the Cap of
animate them the more after the Quindy he ordered the Bostangi Basha to go and Strangle such as he found The Bostangi Basha immediately went about the execution of his orders and half an hour after the Kzlar Agasi strangled was thrown out at a window a little beyond the Kieusk a little after the like was done to the Capi Agasi But after that the Seditious finding that the work was not continued according to their desire called to the Grand Signior Great King order the rest to be thrown out also Then the Grand Signior rising from his Throne swore by his Faith by the Law and by Mahomet that they could find no more but those two but that upon the word of a King those that were found should be delivered up unto them so bowing down his head he dismissed them and they having wished a thousand blessings to the Emperour departed draging the two dead Bodies with them by the feet to the Atmeidan where they hang'd them up by the feet upon the Elme before the New Mosque The Bostangi Basha was in search of the rest all the night long And then again on Monday morning the Seventh of March being returned to the Etmeidan as formerly a Greek who thrust in among them to Plunder if they came to that thinking he might easily pass for a Turk being known to be a Christian was immediately killed From thence they went to the Atmeidan whither were brought them three more strangled who were hang'd up with the rest The Kiaya Bey strangled himself to wit Hisouf Aga Giadgiou Ibrahim Aga and the Asoda Basha and the Kiaya Bey who gave occasion to all this strangled himself the same day Tuesday the Eighth of March Mahimut Chiaoux Basha was brought Wednesday they brought Mulklu Khadun the Wife of Chaban Kalfa who after she had been strangled was put all but the Head in a sack and hang'd up as the rest The Treasurer strangled It was said that she had got great Riches from the Queen-Mother The same day Habidgi Oglu High Treasurer was put to death in the Seven Towers whither he had been carried the Sunday before Chiaoux made Visier The Customer strangled Thursday the Tenth of March Chiaoux Basha was made Visier who immediately caused Assan Aga Master of the Custome-house to be brought to the Serraglio and strangled there he had hid himself in a house near to his own confiding in a Slave of his a Renegadoe who betrayed him and if the Grand Signior could he would have saved him for a recompence of the Slave's Treachery The Customer much regretted he took from him the Pay which he had The Body of the Master of the Custome-house was not carried with the rest to the Atmeidan and he was much regretted by all the Poor both Turks and Christians to whom he was very charitable He had done a great many publick Works at vast Charges as bringing of Water paving of High-ways and the like and was a Renegadoe Armenian Friday Bilal Aga and Chaban Kalfa strangled Friday the Eleventh of March Bilal Aga and Chaban Kalfa were strangled Saturday in the Afternoon the Twelfth of March all these dead Bodies were interred Saturday the Five and Twentieth of March Zornesan Mustapha Basha Captain Basha who had been made Caymacam before the Visirate of Chiaoux Basha was declared Mansoul and made Beglerbey of Erzeram Cara Mustapha Basha was made Captain Basha in his place Deli Bulhazer strangled Tuesday morning the Eight and Twentieth of March Deli Bulhazer was strangled Saturday the First of April Saale Efendi Tershane Emin Top Capelu Mustapha Aga and Mehmar Mustapha were strangled The Grand Visier dies Wednesday the Six and Twentieth of April the Grand Visier Chiaoux Basha died of a Fever I was told when he was in health that some had foretold he should not enjoy his Prosperity Fifty Daies and indeed he died on the Eight and Fortieth day of his Visirate but I believe he was poysoned for I heard that his Body was all black and blew after his death He had been Visier once already five years before and had put to death the Grand Signior's Grandmother and several other Persons of Quality in the space of about two months that he was in Place and then was made Mansoul Two hours after More changes in Court. him the Defterdar died A few days after the Captain Basha was made Mansoul and declared Basha of Aegypt Kienen Basha was made Captain Basha in his place and the Seal was sent to the Basha of Aegypt because Egriboyun Basha of Damascus who had been sent for to be Visier was sick and in the mean time Hisouf Basha was made Caymacam who three weeks after was declared Mansoul and Kaidar Zade named in his place Monday the Eighth of May they desired the Grand Signior to put out the Toug against Sedi Ahmet Basha a Rebel in Asia Abmet Basha a Rebel in Asia Toug who made Inrodes even to Scudaret The Toug is a Horses Tail fastened to the head of a Pike It is never put out but in extreme necessity and then all the Militia must take the Field A great many Sheep were then sacrificed and on Tuesday the Ninth of May it was put out and planted in the first Court of the Serraglio near the Dgebe Hane But the Grand Signior having held Council it was alledged by some that they could not march against Ahmet Basha without being at a vast Charge in putting all the Forces in good condition and it being the time when the Venetians were coming to the Dardanelles they would have none to send against them if all were sent that way whereupon the Grand Signior in a rage having asked Who was the Author of putting out the Toug And some saying Gelep Assan Aga with other Lords put to death that it was Gelep Assan Aga he was immediately put to death with Chamlu Mahomet Aga Pouscht Osman Aga and Cara Casch Mahomet Aga Commissary of the Fish-Markets and the Toug was ignominiously put up again a thing never done before The Night following Janizaries straugled fifty or sixty Janizaries were strangled and cast into the Sea and we heard the Guns go off as fast as they threw them into the water Wednesday the Tenth of May Resvan Beglerbey of Asia was Beheaded before the Grand Signior's Chamber This Gelep Assan Aga of whom we have been speaking had fairly raised his Fortune having in a very few days made above four hundred Thousand Crowns of the Presents which were sent him from all hands and especially from the Grand Signior's Mother who daily presented him After that Sedition he was environed with Bashas who with great submission made their court to him but he knew not how to carry fair in so great prosperity I thought fit to relate this Story at length according as I received it from a French Renegadoe who was present at all and daily gave me an account of what passed
a low Valley the Garden of the same Salomon Hortus Conclusus The Mount Anguedy called Hortus Conclusus because it is on both sides shut in by two high Hills that serve it for a Wall. Then returning back towards Bethlehem we passed the Mount Anguedy where the Cave is in which David cut off the Skirt of Saul's Garment And about half a League from thence we saw a Castle upon a high Hill called Bethulia which the Franks maintained forty Years after they had lost the City of Jerusalem then we came to the Well where the Virgin desiring to drink when she fled from the Persecution of Herod and the People of the Country refusing to draw Water for her it swelled of it self up to the Wells mouth Next we went to the place where the Shepherds were when the Angel brought them the joyful Tydings saying I bring you good Tydings and Glory be to God on High which with great Devotion we sung there in an old ruinous Subterranean Church built by St. Helen in that place All the Inhabitants thereabouts are to this day Shepherds because it is a fertile Country We returned to Bethlehem about ten a Clock in the Morning and in the Evening went into the Grott where it is said the holy Virgin hid her self with the Child Jesus to avoid the Tyranny of Herod when he put to death the innocent Babes We carried Candles with us thither for you can see nothing unless you have a light with you This is a round Grott cut in the Rock and in it there is an Altar where the Latin Monks sometimes say Mass They say that the Virgin having in this place shed some of her Milk the Stone became white A Stone become white by the Virgins Milk. as it is at present and that by Gods permission it obtained this Vertue That it makes Womens Milk return to them nay the Turks and Arabs give the powder of it in water to their Females which have lost their Milk and that makes it return again About sixty paces from thence is the House where St. Joseph was when the Angel appeared to him bidding him flee into Aegypt with the Virgin and the Child Jesus CHAP. XLVIII Of the Mountains of Judea and of the Convent of Holy-Cross THursday the twenty fifth of April we parted from Bethlehem about seven a Clock in the Morning and went to the Mountains of Judea Mountains of Judea The Town of Sennacherib passing by the Town of Sennacherib so called because the Army of Sennacherib was cut to pieces there in the Night-time by an Angel. Then after we had ascended a little we passed close by Botirella which we left on our left hand and came to the Fountain where St. Philip Baptized the Eunuch of Candaie Queen of Aethiopia the Brook which runs from that Fountain is called in holy Scripture the Brook of Eshcoll Numb 13. That is to say the Brook of Grapes Brook of Eshcoll Vineyard of Sorec because it runs near to the Vineyard of Sorec Leaving that Fountain to the left hand we went near to the said Vineyard of Sorec that is to say Chosen Vineyard where the Spies whom Moses sent to view the Land of Promise Battir The Desart of St. John Baptist took a great cluster of Grapes then we pass'd by the Village of Battir and from thence by very bad way came to the Desart of St. John Baptist where after a pretty long Ascent we found a very old ruinous Building which heretofore was a Monastery under these ruines there is a Cave where that Saint lived and there you see the Bed whereon he lay which is the hard Rock cut in shape of a Bed. The Bed of St. John Baptist This Grott is on the side of a Hill at the foot of which there is a very stony Valley or Precipice then another Mountain which intercepts the View so that it is encompassed round with Hills There is a Spring of excellent water by the side of this Cave and near to it we Dined Being gone from thence we came to the House of St. Elizabeth where are the ruines of a fair Church that was built by S. Helen that is the place where the Virgin visited St. Elizabeth The House of St. Elizabeth and made the Magnificat which we Sung there Then going down about five hundred paces we found on the right hand the Well of St. John where St. Elizabeth washed his Clouts when he was an Infant Keeping on our way we came to a Village wherein is the House of St. Zacharias The House of Zacharias the Father of St. John Baptist which was converted into a Church wherein on the left hand of the Altar that is at the end of it as you enter is the Room where St. John was Born and where his Father at the Birth of that Son who was blessed from the Womb recovered his Speech and made the Benedictus which we sung there on the other side of the Altar to wit on the side of the Epistle there is a little hole where it is said St. Elizabeth kept St. John long hid to avoid the fury of Herod The Arabs lodge their Cattel many times in this Church When we came out from thence The Village of St. John. The Convent of Holy Cross we passed through the Village of St. John Inhabited by Arabs All the ways in the Hilly Country of Judea are very bad We came next to a Convent of Greeks called Holy-Cross built with very strong Walls we went into the Church which is fair very light and full of the pictures of Saints after the Mosaical way and paved also in that manner The place where the Olive-Tree was cut down of which the Coss of our Lord was made It is covered with a Dome There is a great hole under the high Altar where the Olive-Tree grew that was cut down to make the Cross of our Lord of When we had seen all these things we took our way streight to Jerusalem where we arrived about four a clock in the Afternoon We entered by the Castle-Gate called also the Gate of Bethlehem This Gate is called the Castle-Gate because there is a good Castle in that place CHAP. XLIX Of Bethany Bethphage Mount Sion the Houses of Caiaphas and Annas FRiday the twenty sixth of April we went out by the Gate of Bethlehem about seven a Clock in the Morning and saw first on our right hand at the foot of Mount Sion The Fish-ponds of Bathshebah Mount Sion The Palace of David Aceldama the two Fish-ponds of Bathshebah where she bathed her self and very near over against it but about fifty paces higher upon the same Mount Sion is the Palace of David from whence he saw and fell in Love with her then the Field called in holy Scripture Aceldama that is to say The Field of Blood because it was bought for the thirty pieces of Silver which Judas got for betraying of
very welcome by these Captains who divided us betwixt them Our Monks went on board of Captain Santi and we who were Seculars were taken into the Ship of Captain Nicolo These two Ships were Consorts and had on board each an hundred and forty Men with fourteen Oars aside which they could use in case of necessity setting two Men to each Oar. The Ship we were in had four and twenty Petreras and two great Guns all of Brass besides a great number of Muskets and Blunderbusses and the other was as well armed They had besides a Galliot which they had made of a Sanbiquer they had taken near to Scandaroon and armed with six brazen Petreras and a fair brass chase-Gun having manned her with eighty of their Men forty a piece and that was the same Galliot which had given us the chase the day before One of these Corsairs had been six and thirty and the other forty Months out at Sea. I wondred to see on board the Ship where we were several Slaves Men Women and Children and they told me that they had taken most of them at Castel Peregrino some days before having surprised the Castle in this manner When they had took this Sanbiquer which as I said they turned into a Galliot a Turk about Scandaroon who was taken in her made a Proposal to them that if they would give him his liberty he would put them in a way of taking many Slaves They presently made him a Promise but he not trusting to their Word for all he was a Turk made them Swear it before an Image of our Blessed Lady and another of St. Francis. When they had given their Oath he made them steer their course toward Castel Peregrino which is a pitiful little open Castle betwixt Acre and Jaffa ten miles below Mount Carmel on the way to Jaffa They took their measures so well that they were not at all perceived and having immediately landed they went without any noise to the Habitation where being come they began to appear in their Colours The Surprisal of an Habitation by Italian Corsairs carrying away all living Creatures Men Women and Children and killing all without regard to Age or Sex that would not willingly go along with them insomuch that some Soldiers told me that they had killed young Maids who notwithstanding they had seen others that would not follow killed before their faces chose rather to be put to Death than to be made Slaves They shewed me one of their Officers to whom a Soldier brought a Child four months old telling him Here is a Slave for you who in a barbarous manner taking the innocent Infant by one foot and saying What would you have me to do with this threw it from him as if it had been a stone as far as he could on the ground They made on this occasion above fifty Slaves Men Women and Children The Turk who was their Guide having brought them on board they took off his Chain and he went to look for more never thinking of making his escape either because he trusted to their Oath or else perhaps because he was afraid to have met in that Countrey with the reward of his Treachery They killed more than they took and left not so much as a living Soul in the place and that was the cause of the great allarm they were put into on that Coast when we sailed along it from Acre to Jaffa It was a sad spectacle to see on board this Ship so many poor Women with their Children at their breasts having no greater allowance than a little mouldy Bisket and two glasses of stinking Water a day which was all the Men had also but among others there was one Woman Slave on board with her Husband Brother seven Children and one in her Womb All this together caused a great clutter and nastiness in the Ship nay there was one little Child ill of the Small-pox which made me afraid of catching the same Disease We were no better treated than the Slaves Entertainment on board the Corsairs for they were in great want of Provisions and had so little Water that they were obliged to distribute it by measure giving every one two glasses a day Our Diet then consisted of two meals a day both alike one at noon and the other at night and these were a little mouldy Bisket of all colours which to season and soften it was steep'd in Water that stunck so horridly that it smelt all over the Cabin and getting into our throat as we broke the Bisket with our teeth was like to have turned our stomacks A little Cheese we had also that might have kept along time for it needed a Hatchet to cut it Our Drink was the same stinking Water with a very little coat of Wine upon it and in the night-time we lay upon the deck amidst the Vermine and filth of the poor Wretches our Monks were better accommodated as they told us afterwards However I was not altogether disheartned by this adversity on the contrary was fain to encourage the rest who thought themselves half dead already and apply'd my self to consider what way we might be delivered out of this misery With their two Ships they had a great Saique which they had taken a few days before and some Greeks coming to redeem her had offered a thousand Piastres for her but these Gentlemen demanding fifteen hundred the Greeks went away promising however to come back again which I having understood from the Captain who was as willing to be rid of us as we were to be gone because we lessened his stinking Provisions we prepared to go to Damiette with them The Corsairs would willingly have set us ashoar if we had pleased but we would by no means accept of that offer for fear of having been taken for Corsairs and so immediately burnt alive and it was too fresh in my memory what I had been told of other Franks who having escaped from Shipwreck and coming a-shore thought they came very well off when they were only made Slaves In the mean time the Galliot came up with the Ships Tuesday morning the eight and twentieth of May she had taken a Saycot which was the sail we had seen with her but she let it go as not worth their while to stay for it On Wednesday the nine and twentieth of May about an hour before day a Polaque fell in among us and running foul of our Sanbiquer that was towed at the stern of one of the Ships made a hole in her side The Corsairs were immiediately allarmed and firing some small Shot into the Polaque manned their Boats to take her On the other hand those on board the Polaque who were either drunk or asleep awaking at the knock which their Polaque gave in striking against the Sanbiquer and being sensible of their fault betook themselves in all haste to their Caique and endeavoured to make their escape by rowing but being closely pursued they were soon
Breast or at his Head or Shoulders they lift him up and plant this Stake very streight in the Ground upon which they leave him so exposed for a day One day I saw a Man upon the Pale who was Sentenced to continue so for three Hours alive and that he might not die too soon the Stake was not thrust up far enough to come out at any part of his Body and they also put a stay or rest upon the Pale to hinder the weight of his body from making him sink down upon it or the point of it from piercing him through which would have presently killed him In this manner he was left for some Hours during which time he spoke and turning from one side to another prayed those that passed by to kill him making a thousand wry Mouths and Faces because of the pain he suffered when he stirred himself but after Dinner the Basha sent one to dispatch him which was easily done by making the point of the Stake come out at his Breast and then he was left till next Morning when he was taken down because he stunk horridly Some have lived upon the Pale until the third day and have in the mean while smoaked Tobacco when it was given them This poor wretch carried the Scales and Weights of those who go about to visit the Weights to see if they be just and he had so combined with such as had false Weights that he brought false ones also with him so that the Searchers not perceiving the change of their own Weights thought the other to be just When Arabs or such other Robbers are carried to be Empaled they put them on a Camel their Hands tied behind their Backs and with a Knife make great gashes in their naked Arms thrusting into them Candles of Pitch and Rosin which they light to make the stuff run into their Flesh and yet some of these Rogues go chearfully to Death glorying as it were that they could deserve it and saying That if they had not been brave Men they would not have been so put to death This is a very common and ordinary Punishment in Aegypt but in Turkie it is but very rarely put into practice The Natives of the Country are punished in this manner but the Turks are strangled in Prison CHAP. LXXX Of the Inconveniencies and Ordinary Distempers at Caire Ordinary Inconveniencies that happen at Caire Heat in Egypt Drink in Egypt THE first Inconvenience to be felt at Caire is the excessive Heat which is so intolerable that one can scarcely do any thing and what is worse there is no sleeping hardly there in Summer For when you go to Bed you 'll find the Sheets full of Sand and so hot that I think they could not be more after long warming with a Warming-pan What you drink there is commonly as hot as your Blood for you must not think of Ice Snow or a Well there all that can be done is to put the Water into certain Pots of a white Earth that Transpires much and leave them abroad in the Night-time having done so the Water is indeed pretty cold in the Morning but in the Day-time they put those Pots in Windows which receive any little breeze and there the Water cools a little or at least loses somewhat of its heat and it is a great happiness in that Country to have a Window that lies well for a breeze and a Bardaque or Pot that is Transpirable Besides these Inconveniencies there is that of little Flies or Musketto's which I reckon the greatest of all No Man can believe but he who hath felt it by Experience how uneasie and troublesome these Insects are in Aegypt there are always swarms of them buzzing about People and continually pricking of them so that they make themselves fat and plump with Man's Blood. There is no other remedy against these Gnats but to have a very fine Cloth all round your Bed which shuts very close and for all that some always get in when you go to lie down A pain in the Stomach is very common in that Country and all New-comers are subject unto it who finding themselves in a hot Countrey leave their Breast and Stomach open and will not take Counsel Nevertheless the Air which is subtile and penetrating chills their Bowels and causes dangerous Fevers and Bloody-Fluxes especially in Autumn when the Nile overflows and therefore one must always keep the Stomach warm and well covered There is another Distemper that reigns there also and that is a swelling of the Scrotum and to some I may speak without Exaggerating their Cods swell bigger than their Head which is occasioned by the Water of the Nile and I my self was troubled a little with it for the space of eight days but then it went away of it self To cure this Distemper they make Incision with a Lancet in the swelled Scrotum and let out the Water that is got into it Sore Eyes are very common there and very dangerous in the Summer-time that is caused by the burning heat of the Sun which reflects from the Ground upon the Eyes and scorches them as also from the Dust which is very subtile and salt and is blown into the Eyes by the Wind which is the reason that there are many blind in that Country Whilst I was in Aegypt a French Merchant lost an Eye so and I have known other French troubled with that Distemper who for a fortnight or three Weeks could not sleep because of the sharp pain they felt which made them cry out and roar both Night and Day In the Summer-time you hardly see any abroad in the Streets but who are afflicted with that evil and carry pieces of blew Stuff before their Eyes and certainly you shall find nine of ten whom you meet with such defensives before their Eyes Every one threatned me with that Distemper and yet thanks be to God I never had the least touch of it perhaps I took care to prevent it because in that bad Season every Morning and Evening I washed my Eyes with fair Water and when I returned from Abroad I did the like to wash out any Sand that might have got into them Pains in the Legs are very bad at Caire and a great many have their Legs swollen to a prodigious bigness There is also another Distemper or rather inconvenience for it is more uneasie than dangerous which happens when the Water of the Nile begins to rise there is a kind of Inflammation or Wild-fire that runs over the whole Body which exceedingly torments People by its pricking and stinging and when you drink to ease and refresh your self whilst you are drinking and after you feel such sharp prickings that you would think there were an hundred Needles stuck into you all at once the Provencials call that Des Arelles and it is an Inconvenience that lasts almost three Months Arelles In March 1658. after some days of high Winds a certain Distemper broke out
themselves insupportable to all People forcing all the Women and Boys they meet with so that if a Dey would have his Son to succeed him he must get him made Dey in his own Life-time The Aga of the Customes at Tunis Gillet They have at Tunis also an Aga of the Customes who has a vast Revenue and is a man of great Authority The Moors of Barbary are not altogether Apparrelled like the Turks for instead of a Doliman and a Vest they wear a Wastecoat which they call Gillet and over it a Justacors which reaches down to the knee girt about with a large Girdle on their head they wear a Fez-cap shaped like a Bell and a thick Turban round it They are all Apparrelled after this manner except some Officers as for instance there are six Chiaoux's of Justice who wear a sharp pointed Cap with a Turban about it and a kind of Hanging-sleeve that is interlaced with it behind their back the Oda Bashas go much after the same manner but there is this difference that their Hanging-sleeve ends as it were in a pair of Horns They have no Janizaries but men of pay and generally all Renegadoes so that Italian is very commonly spoken at Tunis and if a Christian would say any thing that he would not have known he should not speak French neither for he might easily be understood and pay dear for it CHAP. LXXXXIII Of the Punishments which are in Vse at Tunis THE Punishments used at Tunis differ according to the quality of the Persons When a Turk in pay deserves Death he is Executed in a Chamber and not Publickly They make him sit down in a Chair and two Christian Slaves pulling each an end of a Cord that is put about his Neck quickly strangle him The Turks of mean condition or Moors are Hanged upon the outside of the Walls they set them upon the Wall put about their Neck a Halter made fast in a hole purposely made in the Wall and then pushing them down they are also soon dispatched As for Maids or Women that have deserved Death they choak them in the Oaze by the Sea-side putting their Head into it and a Man setting his Foot upon their Neck They have other very cruel Punishments for the Renegadoes that turn Christians again They wrap them up in Pitched Cloth put a Cap of the same upon their Head and then make a Fire round them Or otherwise they put them to a crueller Death For they wall them up so that there is nothing but their Head without the Wall and having rubbed over their Head and Face with Honey leave them so exposed for three days and as many nights to the discretion of the Flies which pain them to Death within less time The Slaves are punished with Bastonadoes or they cut off their Ears or Nose according to the quality of the Offence But if a Slave kill his Master or any other Turk they break his Legs and Arms then tie him to a Horses Tail and after they have dragged him so about the Town strangle him giving the Body to the Franks to be Buried but most commonly the Boys take him from the Executioner as they did a French Man a little before I came to Tunis for there are no wickeder Boys in the World than in that Town They snatcht that dead Body out of the Executioners hands in spight of the Mezoar Mezoar who is the Officer whom in Turky they call the Sous-basha and having dragged him about for some time longer they Roasted him a little with Straw which they kindled under him and then threw him into the Ditch out of which the French afterwards took him and buried him in their Burying Place called St. Anthony for the English have one by themselves When I was at Tunis the Franks lived severally in the Houses which they Hired but they were a Building a pretty commodious Oquele where they must all Lodge with their Consuls as in other places of the Levant CHAP. LXXXXIV Our Departure from Goletta and the Continuation of our Voyage AT length our Captain having done all his Business and the Wind offering fair it was time for us to leave Tunis We parted from thence on Wednesday the six and twentieth of March Carthage about eleven a Clock in the Morning and went by Land on Horse-back that we might see somewhat of Carthage We went close by the Ruines of it which are above three Leagues from Tunis and there saw the remains of stately Aqueducts which conveyed water from Zagouan to Carthage many of the Arches whereof are still standin the Road to the Cantre as we said before The Ruines of Carthage signifie but little being only heaps of Stones and some places under Ground where there are great Cisterns nay from these Ruines they daily carry away Marble and other Stones for their Buildings in Tunis and the Country Houses about We came to the Sea-side about three a Clock in the Afternoon and being got on board we stayed still there all that day because our Captain had some Business to do with him that Commanded at Goletta concerning the dues that he is to have from every Ship. Next morning Thursday the seven and twentieth of March we set sail with a good South-east Wind steering away North-north-west but about Noon the Wind slackened a little and the night following it turned Northerly which made us put back again to the Road of Goletta where we arrived on Friday the twenty eighth of March about ten a Clock in the morning Saturday the nine and twentieth of March the Wind veered about to North-east and the night following we had all sorts of Winds At length Sunday the thirtieth of March we had a gentle Gale from South-west and an hour after day we set sail steering our course North but about ten a Clock we were becalmed and about Noon it blew a breez from North which within an hour after changed to North-east and an hour after that to East so that we still kept on our Course Two hours within Night the Wind turned South-south-west and we stood away North-north-east Monday morning the one and thirtieth of March we were becalmed and continued so till Tuesday the first of April when about ten a Clock in the Morning we had a small Gale from North-west and we steered away West towards Sardinia In the Evening two hours after Sun-set the Wind turned Easterly and we stood our Course again North-north-east in the night-time we had a calm which lasted all next day Wednesday the second of April However it always blew a little breez sometimes one way sometimes another though the Sea was still smooth and calm In the Evening from the Maintop head we made a Sail off of Sardinia which followed its Course as we did ours Northward with a gentle Gale from East We were becalmed in the night-time and continued so till next day the third of April when about nine in the morning it blew a
asleep upon the place which he suffered with so much goodness that seeing one of them one time lying in an incommodious posture he raised him calling him by his name that he might lay him more at his ease Not but that familiarity is many times dangerous for it is with him as with the Lion in the Fable with whom it is not good to be too familiar many Examples happen which teach the Persians what is made a proverb of with us that it is not good to play with ones Master the French there have been witnesses of it and had their share of the fear The Prince in a Debauch For upon a time when they were making merry with this Prince the Nazer who was almost drunk speaking to him about the Army that was to be sent against the Tartars and telling the King that if his Majesty pleased he would go and command that Army and do wonders with four thousand men a French Harquebuser being drunk boldly told the King that the best man he could send was a Georgian of the Moorish Law who was present and drank with them for that he was a brave General The King was so incensed at the freedom of that impertinent Counseller that he commanded his belly to be ript up which was about to be put into execution and they were already dragging him out by the heels when the King reflecting perhaps that the man was not in a condition to be taken notice of commanded him to be let alone and set in his place again Perhaps also he considered that he was a Franck They put no Francks to death in Persia For they are very cautious at the Court of Persia in putting of a Franck to death since the time that one day when the Ambassadours of the Duke of Holstein were there a German Watch-maker that wrought for the King being put to death who having well deserved it chose rather to lose his life than to turn Masulman as it was proposed to him and the King wanting a Watch-maker desired to have him that belonged to the Holstein Ambassadours but the Example of that Execution being fresh in memory that Watch-maker refused to serve the King which made the Eatmad Doulet to say that he perceived well enough that that Execution was the cause of it but that for the future no Franck should be put to death Let us now return to our Wine What is done at Audiences In the Audiences which this King gives to Christian Ambassadours or others there is always high drinking and there is nothing else done in these Audiences for affairs are managed with the Ministers of State. Shortly after I departed from Ispahan there came an Ambassadour from the great Mogol I have been informed since that assoon as he entered to his Audience the King caused Wine to be presented unto him which he very humbly refused saying that he had never drank any the King having asked him if he smoaked Tobacco he made answer yes and immediately he caused a Pipe of Tobacco to be brought to him and so dismissed him After all this Prince is not well pleased when any refuses the Wine which he presents to them For his own part he hath so strong a head that after a whole days debauch Chah Abbas a great Drinker having sent for the French they found him as sober and in as good a frame of mind as if he had not drank one drop so that he continued it one day more without intermission Nevertheless sometimes he gets drunk and next day his Courtiers tell him all that he hath said or done for so he will have them do chiefly that he may know if in his Cups he hath given away any thing of consequence as he did one day when drinking with some Francks and Moors he pluckt two Rings off of his Fingers in which were stones of great value and gave them to a Moor of the Company However being one day drunk he gave a woman that danced much to his satisfaction The King keeps his word One of his Presents the fairest Hhan in all Ispahan which was not as yet finished but wanted little this Hhan yielded a great revenue to the King to whom it belonged in Chamber-rents The Nazer having put him in mind of it next Morning took the freedom to tell him that it was unjustifiable prodigality so that the King gave consent that she should onely have a present of an hundred Tomans The woman refused them at first saying she would have nothing but what the King had promised her but being told that if she took not that present she should have nothing she accepted it Much Gold Plate and many precious Stones The riches of the King of Persia The Kings of Persia are very rich in Gold Plate and precious Stones of which they have great plenty as also of all sorts of Arms set and enriched with them for they entertain Workmen constantly in pay who make new pieces and never sell any of them Besides all the Chans and other Lords make them often presents and amongst others regularly once a year in the Neurouz or Spring nay more they still encrease their Treasures with the wealth of those whom they put to death which as I have said is wholly confiscated to the Crown The silks belonging to the King. All the Silks of Persia belong to them they raise a certain Summ of Money from all the Companies of Tradesmen and they have many Lands which they farm out to Countrey-men who take care to plow and sow them and pay the King the fifth part of the revenue and in some places the half A Moula told me one day that they never said prayers upon the Lands that belong to the King because they are Hheram that 's to say excommunicated the King having taken them by force from the poor People for said he he hath not bought them but they onely belong to him by Usurpation The forces of the King of Persia The Corschi The chief Forces of Persia consist in three Bodies of Men or Armies to wit the Corschi the Goulams and the Teufenogi The Corschi are Inhabitants of the Countrey but who are descended of Turks and live in Tents as the Turcomans do They are very powerfull for they can send fifty thousand men into the Field and therefore Scah Abbas Grand-father to the present King did what he could to bring them low raising the Goulams and preferring them to all dignities There are about five and twenty thousand of them in the King's service and their pay is from ten or twelve to fifteen Tomans a year but for the first two or three years they receive nothing Their General is a Corschi and the King cannot put one over them who is not of their Body he is called the Corschi Bassa and they have a great many great Lords among them When the King would put any great man to death he commits the Execution commonly to
much as the means of getting water so that finding himself in that extremity he was willing to come to a composition and offered if they would allow him free passage to return with his people into Egypt but they who would needs carry him and all his Family Prisoners to Yezid according to the orders that were given them refused him these conditions He yielded not for all that but having suffered Hunger and Thirst for some days longer resolved at length to make himself a passage by force or to die in the attempt chusing rather to die with Sword in hand than to fall alive into the power of his Enemies He therefore marched couragiously towards them charged into the thickest of them with extraordinary vigour and did all that could be done to break through but his party being too unequal he was overpowered by number himself and all his men killed and his Wives and Children made Prisoners and carried to Yezid who treated them honourably seeming to be grieved at the death of Hussein They yearly perform a great solemnity for that death I was there in the year one thousand six hundred sixty and five and was witness to the Ceremony It began the fifteenth of July which was the first day of the month Maharram Aaschour or Feast of the death of Hussein and that is there New Years day And seeing that mournful Festival lasts ten days they call it Aascour a word that signifies Ten in Arabick during these ten days all the Persians are Sad and Melancholick many being clad in Black others wearing only a black Girdle What the Persians observe in that Mournful Feast and others a black Turban In all that time no man is shaved they go not to the Bagnios nor commit any debauch and even abstain from their Wives in short they express so much grief in outward shew that one would think some great publick Calamity had befallen them The inferiour sort of people signalize their Zeal by a thousand foolish pranks some bury themselves under ground all day long having nothing out but the Head nay and that too is covered with a Pot and Earth over it others run about the streets almost stark naked having only a bit of black stuff to hide their Nakedness and most part of those Fools daub over all their Body and Face with Soot mingled with Oil others take Bol Armeniack which they dissolve also in Oil and with that Dye themselves Red that they may look as if they were all in a gore of blood and some who are more sincere cut and mangle their Bodies in several places nay and in the Head too so that the blood comes running down on all sides in all these different manners they run about the streets in companies most part with a naked Shable in their hands singing several doleful Verses made upon the death of Hussein and by fits crying as loud as they can Ya Hussein which is the burden of their Song and all this to the tune of some wretched Musick which some of them make with two stones in their Hands that they clap one against another Many publick places in the streets are hung with Black and lighted with several Lamps and there is a Pulpit where a Moula Preaches at a certain hour of the Night and relates the circumstances of the death of Hussein at which the Hearers melt into Tears They have such Sermons also in the Day time to which many persons of Quality resort nay and at Ispahan the King himself is obliged to come clad in Mourning at least the last day which is the Tenth and indeed that is the day of greatest Ceremony because that was the day say they whereon the brave Hussein was put to death Seeing I was at Schiras when I saw the Festival of that day At Schiras the Feast of the death of Hussein it is only what happened in that Town which now I relate All the Quarters of the Town went in Procession and the Processions passed by the Governours House with all their Colours the Rabble naked and besmeared in the manner I mentioned before there came after them a great many Children on Horse-back representing the Children of Hussein who were carried away Prisoners then they had led Horses covered with black and all the Armour of a Horse-man fastened to the Saddle marching next and after them they carried some Coffins covered with black Velvet and a Turban upon each This Procession having passed by the Governours Gate went out of the Town to Consummate the Festival at a Mosque where Khatoun the Daughter of Aly is Interred there they had a Sermon after which they wept and then all returned to prepare the Alms they were to give most of which were Rice and messes of Corn which they Boiled in great Kettles and distributed amongst the poor They say that during these Ten Days the Gates of Paradise are open and that all Mahometans who die then get in without any difficulty Forty days after the last day of the Aaschour that is to say the twentieth of the month of Sefer they have another Feast which they call Serten The Feast of Serten that is to say Head Body because say they that the Head of Hussein being cut off was of it self joyned to his Body forty days after They make great rejoycing that day and there are a great many who do not Shave their Heads from the first day of the Aaschour until this Feast of Serten wherein for the most part they give the like Alms as we mentioned just now The death of Aly is celebrated much after the same manner as that of Hussein his Son but it lasts only a day The Feast of the death of Aly. which is the one and twentieth of the Month of Ramazan they goe in Procession through the Town wherein they carry Standards lead Horses covered with Trophies of Arms and carry a Coffin covered with black Velvet with a Turban upon it and having said some Prayers they all return home and so the Feast is ended The History of the death of Aly Mahomet's Cousin and Son in Law The History of Aly. according as it is related in Persia is that having Married Fatima the Daughter of Mahomet he was killed at Bagdad by a servant of his own called Ebw-Mouldgem-Mourat who had been brought up in his service from his infancy with a great deal of care this Rogue having at a Wedding seen a young Widow named Quetome whose Relations and Husband had been put to death by the command of Aly fell in Love with her and courted her in Marriage she who still thought on the Death of her Husband and Relations that went to her Heart and only expected an opportunity of being revenged made him answer that she would not Marry him unless first he killed Aly which at first he refused retaining still some Sentiments of Affection towards his Master but she persisting in her resolution Love prevailed in the
and Fruits which are got in the Indies and other Countries of the Levant go off here in great plenty and in general all the Drogues that Foreign Merchants buy up to transport into all parts of the World. CHAP. IX Of the Weights and Money of Surrat The weights of Surrat Candy a measure The Man a weight at Surrat The Pound of Surrat Tole Mangelus Caracts Vales. Gongy The Ounce of Paris AT Surrat as elsewhere there are diverse kinds of Weights and Measures That which is called Candy is of twenty Man 's but the most common Weight used in Trade is the Man which contains fourty Serra or Pounds and the Pound of Surrat contains fourteen Ounces or five and thirty Toles All Gold and Silver is weighed by the Tole and the Tole contains fourty Mangelis which makes fifty six of our Caracts or thirty two Vales or otherwise fourscore and sixteen Gengys The Vale contains three Gongys and two Toles a third and a half answers to an Ounce of Paris weight and a Tole weighs as much as a Roupie The Man weighs fourty Pound weight all the Indies over but these Pounds or Serres vary according to different Countries For instance the Pounds of Surrat are greater than those of Golconda and by consequence the Man is bigger also The Serre or Pound of Surrat weighs no more but fourteen Ounces and that of Agra weighs twenty eight The Money of Surrat Great sums of Money are reckoned by Leks Croiels or Courous Padans and Nilâ— An hundred thousand Roupies make a Lek an hundred thousand Lek a Courou an hundred thousand Courous a Padan and an hundred thousand Padans a Nil Roupies of Gold. The great Lords have Roupies of Gold which are worth about one and twenty French Livres but since they pass not commonly in Trade and that they are only Coined for the most part to be made presents of I shall only speak of those of Silver Roupies of Silver The Silver Roupie is as big as an Abassy of Persia but much thicker it weighs a Tole It passes commonly for thirty French Sols but it is not worth above nine and twenty They yearly Coin Roupies and the new ones during the year they are Coined in are valued a Pecha more than those of the foregoing year because the Coiners pretend that the Silver daily wears The truth is when I came to Surrat the Roupies were worth thirty three Pechas and a half and when I left it the same were worth but thirty two and a half They have Roupies and quarter pieces also Abassis The Abassis that are brought from Persia pass only for ninteen Pechas which are about sixteen French Sols and a half There is also a Mogole Silver-Coin called Mahmoudy which is worth about eleven Sols and a half Pecha The Pecha is a piece of Copper-Money as big and thick as a Roupie it is worth somewhat more than ten French Deniers and weighs six of our Drachms Baden They give threescore and eight Baden or bitter Almonds for a Pecha These Almonds that pass for Money at Surrat come from Persia and are the Fruit of a shrub that grows on the Rocks There are also half Pechas The Moguls Money very fine It is to be observed that the Silver Money of the Great Mogul is finer than any other for whenever a Stranger enters the Empire he is made to change the Silver he hath whether Piastres or Abassis into the Money of the Country and at the same time they are melted down and the Silver refined for the Coyning of Roupies CHAP. X. Of the Officers of Surrat THere is a Mufty at Surrat Officers of Surrat Mufty Cady who has the inspection over all that concerns the Mahometan Religion and a Cady established for the Laws to whom recourse is had in case of contest The Great Mogul entertains another great Officer there whom the Franks call Secretary of State and whose duty much resembles that of the Intendant of a Province in France He is called Vaca-Nevis Vaca-Nevis that is who writes and keeps a Register of all that happens within the extent of the Country where he is placed The King keeps one in every Government to give him notice of all that occurs and he depends on no Minister of State but only on his Majesty There are two Governours or Nabad at Surrat Two Governours at Surrat Nabad who have no dependance one on another and give an account of their actions only to the King. The one Commands the Castle and the other the Town and they encroach not upon one anothers rights and duties The Governour of the Town Judges in Civil matters and commonly renders speedy Justice The way of suing for a Debt in the Indies If a Man sue another for a Debt he must either shew an obligation produce two witnesses or take an Oath If he be a Christian he swears upon the Gospel if a Moor upon the Alcoran and a Heathen swears upon the Cow The Gentils Oath consists only in laying his hand upon the Cow and saying that he wishes he may eat of the Flesh of that Beast if what he says be not true but most of them chuse rather to lose their cause than to swear because they who swear are reckoned infamous among the Idolaters The first time one goes to wait upon the Governour as soon as they come they lay before him five six or ten Roupies every one according to his Quality and in the Indies the same thing is done to all for whom they would shew great respect This Governour meddles not at all in Criminal Affaires an Officer named Cotoual takes cognisance of them The Criminal Judge Cotoual In Turky he is called Sousbassa and in Persia Deroga He orders the Criminals to be punished in his presence either by Whipping or Cudgelling and that correction is inflicted many times in his House and sometimes in the Street at the same place where they have commited the fault When he goes abroad through the Town he is on Horse-back attended by several Officers on Foot some carrying Batons and great Whips others Lances Swords Targets and Maces of Iron like the great Pestles of a Morter but all have a dagger at their sides Nevertheless neither the Civil nor Criminal Judge can put any one to death The King reserves that Power to himself and therefore when any Man deserves death a Courier is dispatched to know his pleasure and they fail not to put his Orders in execution so soon as the Courier is come back The Cotoual is obliged to go about the Street in the Night-time to prevent disorders and sets guards in several places If he find any Man abroad in the Streets he commits him to Prison and very rarely does he let him go out again without being Bastonadoed or Whipt Two of the Officers that wait on him about nine of the Clock beat two little Drums whil'st a third sounds two
of Surrat was full of Riches he took measures how he might plunder it But that no body might suspect his Design he divided the Forces he had into two Camps and seeing his Territories lie chiefly in the Mountains upon the Road betwixt Bassaim and Chaoul Sivagy's first Camp towards Chaoul The other towards Bassaim he pitched one Camp towards Chaoul where he planted one of his Pavillions and posted another at the same time towards Bassaim and having ordered his Commanders not to plunder but on the contrary to pay for all they had he secretly disguised himself in the habit of a Faquir Thus he went to discover the most commodious ways that might lead him speedily to Surrat Sivagy at Surrat in the habit of a Faquir He entred the Town to examine the places of it and by that means had as much time as he pleased to view it all over Being come back to his chief Camp Savagy returns to his Camp. he ordered four thousand of his Men to follow him without noise and the rest to remain encamped and to make during his absence as much noise as if all were there to the end none might suspect the enterprise he was about And comes back to Surrat with four thousand men but think he was still in one of his Camps Every thing was put in execution according to his orders His march was secret enough though he hastened it to surprise Surrat and he came and Encamped near Brampour-gate To amuse the Governour who sent to him he demanded guides under pretence of marching to another place but the Governour without sending him any Answer retired into the Fort with what he had of the greatest value and sent for assistance on all hands The Plundering of Surrat Most of the Inhabitants in consternation forsook their Houses and fled into the Country Sivagy's Men entered the Town and plundered it for the space of four days burning several Houses None but the English and Dutch saved their quarters from the pillage by the vigorous defence they made and by means of the Cannon they planted which Sivagy would not venture upon having none of his own Nor durst he venture to attack the Castle neither though he knew very well that the richest things they had were conveighed thither and especially a great deal of ready Money He was affraid that attack might cost him too much time and that assistance coming in might make him leave the Plunder he had got in the Town besides the Castle being in a condition to make defence he would not have come off so easily as he had done elsewhere So that he marched off with the Wealth he got And it is believed at Surrat that this Raja carried away in Jewels Gold and Silver to the value of above thirty French Millions 22 l. of Pearls in the house of one Banian for in the House of one Banian he found twenty two Pound weight of strung Pearls besides a great quantity of others that were not as yet pierced One may indeed wonder that so populous a Town should so patiently suffer it self to be Plundered by a handful of Men but the Indians for the most part are cowards No sooner did Sivagy appear with his small body of Men but all fled some to the Country to save themselves at Baroche and others to the Castle whither the Governour retreated with the first And none but the Christians of Europe made good their Post and preserved themselves All the rest of the Town was Plundered The Christians of Europe defended themselves against Sivagy The Capucins escaped except the Monastery of the Capucins When the Plunderers came to their Convent they past it by and had Orders from their General to do so because the first day in the Evening Father Ambrose who was Superiour of it being moved with compassion for the poor Christians living in Surrat went to the Raja and spake in their favour praying him at least not to suffer any violence to be done to their Persons Sivagy had a respect for him took him into his protection and granted what he had desired in favour of the Christians The Great Mogul was sensibly affected with the Pillage of that Town and the boldness of Sivagy but his Affairs not suffering him to pursue his revenge at that time he dissembled his resentment and delayed it till another opportunity In the Year One thousand six hundred sixty six Auran-Zeb praises Sivagy that he may allure him to his Court. Auran-Zeb resolved to dispatch him and that he might accompish his design made as if he approved what he had done and praised it as the action of a brave Man rejecting the blame upon the Governour of Surrat who had not the courage to oppose him He expressed himself thus to the other Rajas of Court amongst whom he knew Sivagy had a great many Friends and told them that he esteemed that Raja for his Valour and wished he might come to Court saying openly that he would take it as a pleasure if any would let him know so much Nay he bid one of them write to him and gave his Royal word that he should receive no hurt that he might come with all security that he forgot what was past and that his Troops should be so well treated that he should have no cause to complain Several Rajas wrote what the King had said and made themselves in a manner sureties for the performance of his word So that he made no difficulty to come to Court and to bring his Son with him having first ordered his Forces to be always upon their Guard Sivagy's coming to Court. under the command of an able Officer whom he left to head them At first he met with all imaginable caresses but some Months after perceiving a dryness in the King he openly complained of it and boldly told him that he believed he had a mind to put him to death though he was come on his Royal word to wait upon him The boldness of Sivagy in speaking to the King. without any constraint or necessity that obliged him to it but that his Majesty might know what Man he was from Chasta-Can and the Governour of Surrat That after all if he Perished there were those who would revenge his death and that hopeing they would do so he was resolved to die with his own hands and drawing his Dagger made an attempt to kill himself but was hindered and had Guards set upon him The King would have willingly put him to death but he feared an insurrection of the Rajas They already murmured at this usage notwithstanding the promise made to him And all of them were so much the more concerned for him that most part came only to Court upon the Kings word That consideration obliged Auran-Zeb to treat him well and to make much of his Son. He told him that it was never in his thoughts to have him put to death and flattered him with
he orders to be made upon the Water or in the open place Palaces of the great men at Agra This Palace is accompanied with five and twenty or thirty other very large ones all in a line which belong to the Princes and other great Lords of Court and all together afford a most delightful prospect to those who are on the other side of the River which would be a great deal more agreeable were it not for the long Garden-walls which contribute much to the rendering the Town so long as it is There are upon the same line several less Palaces and other Buildings All being desirous to enjoy the lovely prospect and convenience of the Water of the Gemna endeavoured to purchase ground on that side which is the cause that the Town is very long but narrow and excepting some fair Streets that are in it all the rest are very narrow and without Symmetry Square places at Agra Before the Kings Palace there is a very large Square and twelve other besides of less extent within the Town But that which makes the Beauty of Agra besides the Palaces I have mentioned Quervenseras of Agra are the Quervanseras which are above threescore in number and some of them have six large Courts with their Portico's that give entry to very commodious Appartments where stranger Merchants have their Lodgings There are above eight hundred Baths in the Town Baths of Agra and a great number of Mosques of which some serve for Sanctuary Sepulchres of Agra There are many magnificent Sepulchres in it also several great Men having had the ambition to build their own in their own life-time or to erect Monuments to the memory of their Fore-fathers The Sepulchre of King Ecbar King Gebanguir caused one to be built for King Ecbar his Father upon an eminence of the Town It surpasses in magnificnce all those of the Grand Signiors but the fairest of all is that which Cha-Gehan Erected in honour of one of his Wives called Tadge-Mehal whom he tenderly loved and whose death had almost cost him his life I know that the Learned and curious Mr. Bernier hath taken memoires of it and therefore I did not take the pains to be exactly informed of that work Only so much I 'll say that this King having sent for all the able Architects of the Indies to Agra he appointed a Council of them for contriving and perfecting the Tomb which he intended to Erect and having setled Salaries upon them he ordered them to spare no cost in making the finest Mausoleum in the World if they could They compleated it after their manner and succeeded to his satisfaction The beautiful Mausoleum of Tadge-Mehal The stately Garden into which all the parts of that Mausoleum are distributed the great Pavillions with their Fronts the beautiful Porches the lofty dome that covers the Tomb the lovely disposition of its Pillars the raising of Arches which support a great many Galleries Quiochques and Terrasses make it apparent enough that the Indians are not ignorant in Architecture It is true the manner of it seems odd to Europeans yet it hath its excellency and though it be not like that of the Greeks and other Ancients yet the Fabrick may be said to be very lovely The Indians say that it was twenty years in building that as many Men as could labour in that great work were employed and that it was never interrupted during that long space of time The Tomb of King Gehan-guir This King hath not had the same tenderness for the memory of his Father Gehanguir as for that of his Wife Tadge-Mehal for he hath raised no magnificent Monument for him And that Great Mogul is Interred in a Garden where his Tomb is only Painted upon the portal The Air of Agra Now after all the Air of Agra is very incommodious in the Summer-time and it is verv likely that the excessive heat which scorches the Sands that environ this Town was one of the chief causes which made King Cha-Gehan change the Climate King Cha-Gehan prisoner in his Palace and chuse to live at Dehly Little thought this Prince that one day he would be forced to live at Agra what aversion soever he had to it and far less still that he should be Prisoner there in his own Palace and so end his days in affliction and trouble That misfortune though Auran-Zeb imprisoned the King his Father befel him and Auran-Zeb his third Son was the cause of it who having got the better of his Brothers both by cunning and force made sure of the Kings Person and Treasures by means of Soldiers whom he craftily slipt into the Palace and under whose Custody the King was kept till he died So soon as Auran-Zeb knew that his Father was in his Power Auran-Zeb proclaimed King. he made himself be proclaimed King He held his Court at Dehly and no party was made for the unfortunate King though many had been raised by his bounty and liberalities From that time forward Auran-Zeb Reigned without trouble The death of King Cha-gehan and the King his Father dying in Prison about the end of the year One thousand six hundred sixty six he enjoyed at ease the Empire and that so famous Throne of the Moguls which he had left in the Prisoners appartment to divert him with He added to the precious Stones that were set about it those of the Princes his Brothers and particularly the Jewels of Begum-Saheb his Sister who died after her Father and whose death Begum-Saheb Sister to Auran-Zeb as it was said was hastened by Poison And in fine he became absolute Master of all after he had overcome and put to death Dara-Cha his Eldest Brother whom Cha-Gehan had designed for the Crown The Sepulchre of Cha-Gehan That King is Interred on the other side of the River in a Monument which he began but is not finished The Town of Agra is Populous as a great Town ought to be but not so as to be able to send out Two hundred thousand sighting men into the Field as some have written The Palaces and Gardens take up the greatest part of it so that its extent is no infallible Argument of the number of its Inhabitants The ordinary Houses are low and those of the commoner sort of People are but Straw containing but few People a piece and the truth is one may walk the Streets without being crouded and meet with no throng but when the Court is there But at that time I have been told there is great confusion and infinite numbers of People to be seen and no wonder indeed seeing the Streets are narrow and that the King besides his Houshold who are many is always attended by an Army for his Guard and the Rajas Omras Mansepdars and other great Men have great Retinues and most part of the Merchants also follow the Court not to reckon a vast number of Tradesmen and thousands of