on another t on the third d gim and on the fourth h a but nothing on the ends He that demands the response roles it three times and at each time they observe the Letter that turns up then they look into a Book which they call Fal that 's to say a Fortune-book what these three Letters put together signifie and that is the Response CHAP. XXVII Of the Diseases of the Turks and their Remedies THe Turks are long Liv'd little subject to Diseases The Turks Heath and whence that proceeds and we have many dangerous Distempers that are not known amongst them as the Stone and many more I beleive this great Healthfulness proceeds partly from their frequent Bathings and partly from their Temperance in eating and drinking for they eat moderately and feed not upon so many different things as Christians do for the most part they make no Debauches in Wine The Turks Sober and use Exercises so that they have no Physicians and perhaps that may be one cause of their Health and long Life too When they are sick Who are the Physicians among the Turks they commonly make use of Christian or Jewish Physicians and when there are none to be found they have their recourse to Renegado's amongst whom there are always some Physicians that learn their Skill at the cost of many Besides that the Turks have some Receipts that all know which somtimes succeed and they often enough make use of them The Medicines of the Turks They very willingly use Hony in their Medicines They are commonly Renegado's that let them Blood though there are Turks that can do it very well but with Butcherly Launcets nay some with such Fleems as they use for Horses in Christendom and others with sharp-pointed Canes When they are troubled with a pain in the Head they Scarifie the place where the Pain is and having let out a pretty quantity of Blood The Turks way of Blood-leting they put a little Cotton to the Wound and so stop it or otherwise they give themselves five or six little Cuts in the Fore-head Fire used amongst the Turks for several Distempers They make also great use of Fire as I saw a Man who having the Head-ach caused a red-hot Iron to be applied above his Ear to the place of the Pain which actually seared it then he clap'd a little Cotton upon the Place and so was Cured And for all Diseases in several Members they apply to them a large Match or piece of Stuff or Cloath twisted and well Lighted and patiently suffer the pain till the Match goes out of it self And at Constantinople a Turk told me that he knew one who having a Rheumatism or some such Distemper in the region of his Reins had a mind to apply a burning Match to that part but that fearing it would hurt him the rest Laughed at him so that having at length resolved and bending himself downward that he might the more conveniently apply the Match to his Reins he clap'd it to and suffered the Pain so long and with so much Patience that he burn'd a Nerve and when he had a mind to raise himself upright again he could not but continued ever after bent down in that manner In short it is no Country for Physicians to get Estates in because as I have said they are subject to few Diseases and besides are but very bad Pay-masters to those that Cure them and if the Physicians should prove unsuccessful and the Patient Die they are so far from Paying them that they put them many times to Trouble and somtimes to Charges Physicians are in danger amongst the Turks accusing them of having Killed the Patient as if the Life and Death of Men were in the hands of Physicians and not of God. But let us proceed to their Religion CHAP. XXVIII Of Mahomet and the Alcoran THe Turks Religion is so full of Fopperies and Absurdities that certainly it is to be wondered at that it hath so many Followers and without doubt if they would but hearken it would be no hard matter to undeceive and convince them of the Brutality of their Law Mahomet but they are so resolutely deaf that they have Ears but will not hear and indeed Mahomet took care of that for being a Man of Wit he foresaw very well that his Sect would go down if they once came to Dispute about it and therefore he commanded that whosoever contradicted it should be put to Death So many have written the Life of Mahomet that one can hardly say any thing but what hath been already said and therefore I 'll wave it only I shall observe that Mahomet who was an Arabe and an Illiterate Man for the Turks themselves confess that he could neither Read nor Write having struck in with a Greek Monk called Sergius who had forsaken his Monastery this Monk who had some smattering in Learning made him lay the foundation of that great and damnable Sect which hath hitherto infected a great part of the World. He made use of the Old and New Testament in composing of the Alcoran The Alcoran sent from Heaven in the Month Ramadan The Alcoran in great Reverence but in a very confused manner that so he might draw in both Christians and Jews Nevertheless that Book hath got such great Credit amongst all these People that they say it was Written in Heaven and sent from God to Mahomet by the Angel Gabriel in the month of Ramadan not all at once but chapter by chapter and they have so great reverence for it that they never touch it but presently lift it up to their head before they read it and if a man should sit upon an Alcoran he would be guilty of a great crime If a Christian touched an Alcoran he would be soundly bang'd for that would be a prophanation of the book They say that they gain great indulgences by reading it all over and in the schools when a scholar hath made an end of reading over the Alcoran he treats the rest They say that whosoever reads it over so many times in his life shall after death go strait to Paradise This word Alcoran signifies Reading it is written in most excellent pure and exact Arabick The Turks believe that it cannot be translated into any other language and look upon the Persians as Hereticks purely because they have translated it into Persian This Book contains all their Law both canon and civil but it is full of fables and follics taken for the most part from the Rabbins who are excellent at such ridiculous stuff CHAP. XXIX Of the Belief of the Turks The Belief of the Turks THE Turks believe in and worship one God the Eternal and Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth but they believe not at all the Trinity they believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Breath of God this Breath is in Arabick expressed by the word Rouahh which signifies aswell as in
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
such occasions it is most dangerous to render good Offices to a Man who is in disgrace with the King. He orders many times the Ears and Nose to be cut off Schah Sefi heretofore inflicted that punishment the upon an Ancient Person of Quality who had been in great favour with the Great Schah Abbas his Predecessour This cruel Prince being angry with the good old man who was in his presence Great barbarity commanded a Son of his to cut of his Ears which that unnatural Son presently executed the King commanded him then to cut off his Nose which was likewise done with that the old man finding himself so abused by his own Son and by order of his King whom he had not offended but who acted merely in a brutish Capricio said to the cruel Prince Ah Sir after this I ought not to live any longer cause me to be put to death He had no great trouble to obtain his desire nevertheless that it might not seem to be a favour to him how inhumane soever it was the Prince as if he feared of being accused this of Clemency in granting him death would needs accompany it with this piece of Cruelty that his Son must be the instrument of that sad Office and the Executioner of his own Father He bid his Son then cut off his head and told him that he gave him all his Estate This unnatural and infamous Parricide without delay obeyed that unjust order and cut the head from the Parent who had given him his Life It is remarkable that the chief Persons of Court are not exempt from those storms and that commonly they are the Objects of these cruel Sentences and yet no body murmurs at it Sometimes he is content to take part of their Estates sometimes he takes all and never fails to do so when he puts them to disgrace His nearest Relations soonest feel the effects of this tyrannical Power For the Kings of Persia are so afraid of being deprived of that Power which they abuse and are so apprehensive of being dethroned that they destroy the Children of their Female Relations when they are brought to bed of Boys by putting them into an Earthen trough where they suffer them to starve and when they come to the Possession of the Crown and Scepter it is their first Care and first Act of Royal Authority to cause the Eyes of all their Brothers Uncles Cousins Nephews and other Princes of their Bloud barbarously to be put out which is done with the point of a Cangiar wherewith the Eyes are plucked out whole and afterwards brought to the King in a Bason and seeing the Executioners of this Tyranny are commonly the first whom the King pleases to send on that errand some of them are so unskilfull at it that they butcher them in such manner that several have thereby lost their Lives A Prince without Eyes learned in the Mathematicks At Ispahan I saw one of those Princes at his House whose Eyes had been plucked out he is a very learned man especially in the Mathematicks of which he has Books always read to him and as to Astronomy and Astrology he has the Calculations read unto him and writes them very quickly with the point of his Finger having wax which he prepares himself like small twine less than ordinary packthread and this wax he lays upon a large board or plank of wood such as Scholars make use of in some places that they may not spoil Paper when they learn to design or write and with this wax which he so applies he forms very true letters and makes great calculations then with his Fingers end he casts up all that he hath set down performing Multiplication Division and all Astronomical calculations very exactly Change of VVives Sometimes the King of Persia takes the Wife of one of the Lords of his Court and gives him another for her out of his Serraglio whom many times he takes back and restores the man his own again It may very well be believed though that those whom the King bestows so are neither Begums which is the Title of Queens and Princesses nor the chief Khanums or Ladies of his Serraglio Great Jealousie of the King of Persia For he is extremely jealous of his Wives though he has a vast number of them and his Jealousie is so extravagant that if a man had onely looked upon them he would be put to death without remission wherefore when he takes them with him into the Countrey there are Eunuchs who have power of life and death and with good blows of a Cudgel order all to keep out of the way by which they are to pass from the Palace till they be out of the Town and then they say there is Courouk on that way that 's to say Courouk that it is not lawfull to pass it nay they also pitch tents at the ends of all the Streets that lead into the way to the end that no prospect may be allowed even to the sharpest sighted though otherwise these Ladies be well enough covered in Kagia-vehs upon Camels When the King comes with them to Giolfa all the men must leave their houses and flie into the Countrey none daring to stay at home whilst the Haram is passing but the women and when he is in a tent in the Fields if the fancy take him to send for them they fail not to give notice that there is a Courouk and then all forsaking their tents run away as far as they can The Courouks are troublesome at Ispahan and yet the present King made a great many whilst I was there he hath made no less than forty in three Months time and nevertheless every man was obliged to leave his house whatsoever weather it was cold or hot and flie to the hills if he had no friend living at some distance to whom he might betake himself In former times the Courouk was onely for those places where the King past with his Haram now they make it for some Leagues round the quarter comprehending within it even the adjoyning Villages The Kings of Persia exercise also this tyranny Courouk of Provisions that they make now and then Courouks of Fish poultry and other provisions which they like and when there is such a Courouk of any thing no body dares to sell any unless it be for the King's use in my time there was a Courouk of Fish and Poultry during which it was impossible to have any for love or money and that lasted some weeks How great soever the Power of the Persian Kings may be yet sometimes they moderate it and submit to reason Familiarly of the Kings of Persia They shew great familiarity to Strangers and even to their own Subjects eating and drinking with them pretty freely which this Prince often does as I saw whilst I was at Ispahan and after my departure he sent several times for the French and made them so drunk that they fell
the hopes of a good Government which he promised him Sivagy's pretence if he would go with him to Candabar which then he designed to Besiege Sivagy pretended to consent provided he might Command his own Forces The King having granted him that he desired a Pass-port for their coming and having got it resolved to make use of it for withdrawing from Court. He therefore gave Orders to those whom he entrusted with that Pass-port and whom he sent before under pretence of calling his Forces to provide him Horses in certain places which he named to them and they failed not to do it When he thought it time to go meet them His escape he got himself and his Son both to be carried privately in Panniers to the River-side So soon as they were over they mounted Horses that were ready for them and then he told the Water-man that he might go and acquaint the King that he had carried over Raja Sivagy They Posted it day and night finding always fresh Horses in the places he had appointed them to be brought to and they passed every where by vertue of the Kings Pass-port But the Son unable to bear the fatigue of so hard Riding died upon the Road. The Raja left Money to have his body honourably Burnt and arrived afterwards in good health in his own territories Sivagy's shape and way of living Auran-Zeb was extreamly vext at that escape Many believed that it was but a false report and that he was put to death but the truth soon was known This Raja is short and tawny with quick eyes that shew a great deal of wit. He eats but once a day commonly and is in good health and when he Plundered Surrat in the Year One thousand six hundred and sixty four he was but thirty five years of Age. CHAP. XVII Of Father Ambrose a Capucin Father Ambrose a Capucin FAther Ambrose of whom I have spoken hath by his vertue and good services acquired a great Reputation in the Countries of the Mogul and is equally esteemed of Christians and Gentils And indeed he hath a great deal of Charity for all He commonly takes up the difference that happen amongst Christians and especially the Catholicks and he is so much Authorized by the Mogul Officers that if one of the parties be so headstrong as not to be willing to come to an accommodation by his own Authority he can make him consent to what is just The Authority of Father Ambrose He makes no difficulty to cause a scandalous Christian to be put in Prison and if complaint be made of it to the Governour or Cotoual desiring that the Prisoner may be set at liberty they both send the Petitioner to the Father telling him that it is a matter they are not to meddle with If the Supplicant find favour with them they only offer their Intercession with the Capucin and one day I saw a Man whom he had let out of Prison at the entreaty of the Cotoual severely chid by that Officer because he had incurred the indignation of Father Ambrose Those whose lives are too irregular he banishes the Town and the Cotoual himself gives him Pions to force them out with Orders to conduct them to the place the Capucin shall appoint He employs his interest pretty often for the Heathen and I saw a Pagan whom they carried to Prison for a slight fault delivered at his request He disputes boldly concerning the Faith in the Governours presence and one day he reclaimed a Christian Woman debauched by one of the Queens Secretaries who that she might live licentiously had renounced her Religion and embraced the Mahometan and one Morning he himself went and rescued her out of the hands of that Gentil Indeed his life hath been always without reproach which is no small praise for a Man who lives in a Country where there are so many different Nations that live in so great disorders and with whom his charge obliges him to keep company A Mahometan Festival I thought I had observed in my Book of Persia all the Festivals which the Moors or Mahometans celebrate but they had one in this Town which I had never seen before They call it the Feast of Choubret The Feast of Choubret and believe that on that day the good Angels examine the Souls of the departed and write down all the good that they have done in their life-times and that the bad Angels sum up all their evil actions the same day So that every one employs that day wherein they believe that God takes an account of the Actions of Men in Praying to him doing Alms-deeds and sending one another Presents They end the Festival with Lights and Bon-fires kindled in the Streets and publick places and a great many Fire-works which flie about on all hands whil'st the Rich mutually treat one another with Collations and Feasts which they make in the very Streets or Shops CHAP. XVIII Of the other Towns of Guzerat and the Siege of Diu by the Turks which was defended by the Portuguese BEsides the Towns of the Province of Guzerat whereof I have spoken there are above thirty others on which depend a great many Bourgs and Villages but those which lie near the Sea are the most considerable Broudra is one of the best lying betwixt Baroche and Cambaye Broudra a Town but more towards the East in a most fertile though sandy Country It is a large modern Town and retains the Name of another ruined Town which is but three quarters of a League from it Ragea-pour a Town and has been called Broudra and Ragea-pour It hath pretty good Walls and Towers is inhabited by a great many Banians and seeing the finest Stuffs in Guzerat are made in this Town it is full of Artizans who are continually employed in making of them It hath above two hundred Bourgs and Villages within its Jurisdiction and there is store of Lacca to be found therein because it is gathered in abundance in the territory of one of its Bourgs called Sindiguera Goga a Town The little Town of Goga is on the other side of the Gulf about eight and twenty or thirty Leagues from Cambaye It abounds with Banians and Sea-men Patan a Town Patan lies more to the South towards the great Sea it is a great Town heretofore of much Trade and affords still abundance of Silk-stuffs that are made there It hath a Fort and very beautiful Temple wherein are many Marble-pillars Idoles were Worshipped there but at present it serves for a Mosque The Town of Diu belongs to the Portuguese and lies also in the Province of Guzerat fortified with three Castles It stands at the entry of the Gulf of Cambaye to the right hand in twenty two degrees eighteen minutes Latitude and two hundred Leagues from Cape Comorin Before Surrat and Cambaye came into reputation it had the advantage of most of the commerce that at present is made in those two Towns.
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
W Faithorne sc Monsieur de Thevenot THE TRAVELS OF Monsieur de Thevenot INTO THE LEVANT In Three Parts VIZ. Into I. TURKEY II. PERSIA III. The EAST-INDIES Newly done out of French. Licensed Decemb. 2. 1686. RO. L'ESTRANGE LONDON Printed by H. Clark for H. Faithorne J. Adamson C. Skegnes and T. Newborough Booksellers in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII THE PREFACE IT would be needless without doubt by any Preliminary Discourse to recommend the Relations of TRAVELS to publick Perusal since the universal Approbation they meet with in the World and the eagerness wherewith they are sought after by all People is an Argument convincing enough that they are Delightful at least if not also Profitable However seeing the Credit of Books of this Nature depends chiefly on the Places and Things that are described and the Genius and capacity of the Traveller who observes them As the Title Page gives a general account of the first so for the second the Translator hath borrowed a few Paragraphs concerning the Illustrious Author from the Gentleman who compiled and published the two last Parts of these Relations in Execution of the last Will of him that made them who Dying abroad in his Travels bequeathed them in Legacy to his care and these the Translator doth premise by way of Preface to prepare but not forestal the Readers acceptance and by such a short view and glance of the worthy Traveller who ended his Days in endeavouring to promote Knowledge and improve Learning to shew how great his Abilities were in this kind Monsieur de Thevenot the Renowned Author of these Travels was a Gentleman of a good Family Born the seventh of June 1633. At Eighteen Years of Age he had accomplish'd his Studies in the College of Navarre in the University of Paris and then applied himself to those Exercises which in the breeding of Youth commonly succede to their School Education till having both a desire and liberty to Travel On the Eighteenth of December 1652. he parted from Paris for England He made no long stay in this Country but took the first occasion of Sailing over to Holland where he remained longer His next remove was to Colen and from Colen to Franckfort and Ratisbone that he might see an Imperial Diet there He afterwards crossed the remaining part of Germany and entering Italy by the Mountains of Tirol went first to Verona from thence to Venice from Venice to Loretto and from thence to Rome He stayed a considerable time there because when he was just upon parting Pope Innocent the Tenth Died so that he resolved to tarry a little longer that he might see the Ceremonies and all that happens on such Occasions during a Conclave and at the Coronation of a Pope He left not Rome then till after the Creation of Alexander the Seventh The first part of his Travels over most part of Turkey Egypt the Holy Land c. which he himself put to the Press is an Account of what he had seen in that time until he came back again to Legorn from whence he made another Journey in Italy that he might see all the other Places which he had not visited the time before and made some stay at the Court of Savoy before he returned into France Our Author hath published nothing of these Travels not but that he made a Relation of them which he was at the pains to write out fair But as he was a modest Man and distrustful of his own performances he would not give it to be printed with the first part of his Travels which he himself handed to the Press thinking these were Countreys sufficiently known already It is indeed but his first Essay yet perhaps not inferior to the exactness of more mature time He therein gives you a succinct Account of all that is Curious in every place and a character of the several People In short he says enough to give one a reasonable information of those Countreys and not too much to cloy the Reader with the repetition of what he hath seen before The Publisher of the two last Parts of these Travels has that Relation by him but has as yet taken no resolution what to do with it Our Illustrious Traveller had not been long at home after his first Travels before the same Motives of Curiosity and Learning put him upon preparing for a second Expedition so that privately he withdrew himself from his Friends without taking leave in order to travel over Persia and the Indies which are the Subjects of the two last Parts of his Relations and of the last part of his days for as he was returning again through Persia into Europe he Died at Miana a little place about thirty Leagues from Tauris the twenty eighth of November 1667. his Observations ending but a few days before his Life whose Death not only his Relations to whom he was very dear but even the publick hath reason to bewail as having lost in him an Example of Piety a Model of Vertue and a Treasury of Knowledge Nay Reader you also have cause to Lament this Loss in relation to that Satisfaction you might have had from the last two Parts of his Relations which would have been doubtless Augmented if Providence had granted him longer Life For Monsieur de Thevenot was not only exact in the daily Memoires he made in Travelling of all things he observed in the Countreys he passed through but being a person very inquisitive after the Truth and who would not rest satisfied with every slight Information he address'd himself to as many and as often as possibly he could the better to find out the truth of what he desired to know and dispersed the notices he had given him here and there confusedly among his Memoires so that the Publisher who imployed all imaginable care and pains in compiling them is nevertheless forced to complain of the great Fatigue he underwent in putting them together in the order they should be and are in However it is not to be thought that there is any thing supposititious or altered in these two last Parts no they are only not so full as they would have been had the Author lived to decipher the Short Notes which were clear enough to him though not altogether so intelligible to others And the truth is the ingenious Publisher is so far from Alterations that he would not so much as change that forreign Air and Dress they brought with them from Abroad chusing rather to let them speak in the naked and plain strain of the Author than in the more elaborate Language of the Court and Town which would chiefly be believed for their words-sake And indeed he had reason so to do for a genuine and simple style such as can raise a distinct Idea in the mind of the Reader is the proper style for particular and exact Relations of things and that was the Character of Monsieur de Thevenot in the first Part of his Travels which hath been
Serraglio has his Officers who have a great many under them Most part of these Officers are Eunuchs Officers and generally all Blacks heretofore it was thought enough to geld them but a Grand Signior having one day as he was walking The reason why the Eunuchs have all cut off Whence come the black Eunuchs Abyssia perceived a Gelding covering a Mare so soon as he was come home ordered all that the Eunuchs had remaining to be cut clear off and since that time it hath been the constant custom to cut all off clear to the Belly which is done when they are but about eight or ten years old It is true a great many dye of it but the Bashaws of the Governments that border upon Abyssia or Ethiopia and other Countries of the Negroes cause so many to be gelt that they have enough both for presents of the handsomest to the Grand Signior Eunuchs guard and look to the Women and for attending their own Women These Eunuchs have the sole government of the Serraglio such of them as have the care of the Women who are all lodged in a separate appartment together are so watchful and exact in looking after them that there is no Woman cunning enough to deceive those half men because they know that the Grand Signior is commonly so jealous that a single view of one of his Wives would cost him that saw her his life and when the Sultanas walk in the Gardens of the Serraglio Bostangis In what poscure are the Gardners when the Grand Signior walks with his Wives in the Gardens Great jealousie in the Grand Signior Eunuchs keepers of the Pages Ichnoglans Education of the Pages the Bostangis or Gardners stand round the Walls and holding Staves to which large and long pieces of Cloth are fastned behind them look towards the Sea making in that manner a kind of a Wall betwixt them and the Garden to hinder the Sultanas from being seen from abroad they themselves not daring to look upon them for fear least being perceived by some Eunuch he might make their heads flie off upon the spot this jealousie goes so far that they suffer no Boats to come nearer than four hundred paces of the Garden whilst the Sultanas are there though the Walls be high and there are Sentinels on purpose to fire at them if they do not stand off so that those who have business by Water must somtimes fetch a great compass about The Eunuchs also have the charge of the Ichnoglans or the Grand Signiors Pages who are all youths for the most part of Christian extraction made Mahometans and educated in the Serraglio with great care from eight to twenty years of age some are taught to shoot an Arrow dart the Zaguye sit a Horse well Wrestle Read Write and Sing and the rest any thing else that suits with their talents and inclination but they are all indispensably brought up in the Law of Mahomet if they have parts they rise to great Offices if not after some years they are turned out of the Serraglio and have pay proportionable to the employments they undertake but so long as they live in the Serraglio they are sure of blows with a Cudgel as often as they commit a fault They are divided into Chambers and many of them being thwackt together into one Room they are not a little straitned when they are in Bed Eunuchs watch over them walking up and down the Room least they should slip out of one Bed into another for the Itchoglans are not gelt The chief charge that they can rise to whilst they are Pages in the Serraglio is to be of the number of the forty that come nearest the person of the Grand Signior of whom the chief fourare the Selihhtar Forty Pages waiting on the Grand Signior who carries the Princes Sword The Tschoadar who carries his Yagmourluk or Cloak for rain the Ibrictar who carries always water in a vessel to pour upon his Hands if he have a mind to wash and the Kuptar who carries a Pot with Sorbet to give him to drink when he is dry Four Chief Pages The Selihhtar Tschoadar Ibrictar Cuptar The Old Serraglio The Wives of the last Prince These four always wait upon the Grand Signior when he goes abroad out of the Serraglio and from these Offices they are advanced to the highest places of the Empire Besides this great Serraglio there is another in Constantinople which is called the old Serraglio where heretofore the Prince lodged but which at present serves only for lodgings for the Wives of the Grand Signior that last died whither they are all sent unless it be some whom the Grand Signior now reigning taking a liking to retains in the Serraglio they are guarded very strictly by Eunuchs in this old Serraglio and that till death unless the Grand Signior think fit that they marry some great men of his Court. This Palace is well built it is enclosed within very high Walls which have no opening but the Gate so that it is not unlike to a Nunnery amongst us There is moreover a Serraglio of the Grand Signiors at Pera near to the House of the French Ambassador another Serraglio at Pera. where several Itchoglans are kept under the guard of an Aga who having spent some time there the duller are sent out with pay and the rest come to the Serraglio to be entertained in the Grand Signior's service Besides these Serraglio's the Grand Signior has others in the Country both in Europe and Asia which have all fine Gardens and many Bostangis to look after them who are under the command of the Bostangi Basha or chief of the Gardners Bostangi Basha This is one of the best places of the Empire for the Bostangi Basha has lodgings in the Serraglio and nevertheless he wears a Beard none but the Grand Signior and he doing so for all the rest are shaved as a mark of their servitude Besides he having the Princes Ear whom he often attends when he goes abroad to take the Air either in the Gardens or upon the Water where he sits at the Helm of the Boat or Galiot that carries the Grand Signior there is no doubt but he is in great Power and much considered not only at the Port but over the whole Empire When the Grand Signior puts any person of quality to death at Constantinople he commonly sends the Bostangi Basha to bring him his Head. CHAP. XIX Of the other Serraglios Hans Private Houses and Bezestins of Constantinople THere are also many Serraglios of private persons in Constantinople but they have no beauty on the outside on the contrary they are very ugly and it would seem that they affect to make them have but little show without for fear of giving jealousie to the Grand Signior Ornaments within the Palaces These Palaces are great and encompassed all round with high Walls like our Monasteries they have very lovely Appartments
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
purposely offered him to draw him out of the Isle of Candia where he was beloved of the Soldiers and Country and where being Absolute he raised a great Revenue so having given some jealousie to the Grand Signior he made no doubt but as soon as they had got him out of the Island they would cut off his Head and nevertheless for all his Circumspection he fell into the Snare at last which for many years he had avoided But to return to the Charge of Grand Visier The chief cause why the great men affect to be Grand Visiers considering how greedily they all gape after it It makes me believe what several Turks have told me that the chief thing that makes them desire it is to have the pleasure of being revenged on their Enemies And indeed it is seen that a Grand Visier upon his promotion to that Dignity cuts off a great many Heads but he is to expect hourly the like himself and when he goes to the Serraglio he is in doubt whether ever he come back again Nevertheless the Grand Visier that died last discharged that Office for many Years and ended his days by a Natural Death To do so it requires great Prudence and many Friends every where but chiefly in the Serraglio where it is good to have the protection of the Mother of the Grand Signior and of the beloved Sultana's by means of the Eunuches Friendships are acquired by presents whose friendship is also very considerable the Kzlar Agasi or Guardian of the Maids and some others being in extraordinary favour with the Grand Signior all these friendships are procured by Presents Next to the Grand Visier the other Visiers are the principal Members and Ministers of Council though they commonly Act according as the Grand Visier would have them What the word Cadilesquer signifies The other chief Charges are the Cadilesquers which properly signifies Judges of the Armies and are a kind of chief Justices for they are sovereign Judges both in Civil and Military Affairs Heretofore there were but two Cadilesquer's Cadilesquers one of Anatolia and the other of Romelia or Greece in Europe But after that Sultan Selim Conquered Aegypt he Created a third who is Cadilesquer of Aegypt Cadis They have under them the Cadis who are Judges and as it were Bailiffs or Provosts before them ordinary causes are tryed Marriages made liberty given to Slaves and they make their Writings which they call Heudgets or Decrees The Cadilesquers name the Cadies Heudgets who are afterwards to be approved and confirmed by the Grand Signior Captain Basha The place of Captain Basha or Admiral is also a very considerable Office for he is master of the Fleet at Sea and he is also called Degniz Beglerbey that is to say Beglerbey of the Sea. There are a great many other charges of great Authority which it would be too tedious to mention here it being sufficient to have named the chief These places generally change masters very often and in the space of eight Months that I was at Constantinople there were three Mouftis three prime Visiers and three Captain Basha's The Children of these men are seldome the richer for their Fathers Fortune for seeing it is the common custom to take their Places and Lives from them at the same time the Grand Signior seizes all their Estates the Goods of all Malefactors belonging to him CHAP. XLVII Of the Divan THE word Divan is not only taken for that rising The Divan which is at the end of Halls about half a foot or a foot high and covered with a carpet of which I have spoken before but also for the Council and Assemblie of the Visiers and other Officers who on certain daies meet to consult about affairs of State and other business This Divan is held regularly four days of the week to wit Divan days Saturday Sunday Monday and Tuesday in a Hall appointed for that purpose in the second Court of the Serraglio The Visiers and those who ought to be there fail not to come betimes in the morning those who have place there are the Visiers Cadilesquers Beglerbeys or Vice-Roys the Nischangi Officers of the Divan Beglerbey Nischangi Defierdars who is Keeper of the Seals for he seals all dispatches the Defterdars who are the Treasurers and a great many Secretaries or Clerks who draw all the writings upon the spot the Capidgi Basha and Chiaoux Bashaw keep the door of the Hall There affairs of State are debated all suits are there supreamly decided for any body may be heard there of what Country Quality or Religion soever he be and the poorest man has liberty to ask Justice of the Grand Vizier in Person and to deliver him his Petition which after the Grand Vizier hath ordered to be read he pronounces Sentence according to Equity If it be a Suit for Debt the Vizier upon supplication sends a Chiaoux to fetch the Debtor into Court and the Creditor bringing his witnesses who ought to be two at least the Debtor is obliged to pay him upon the spot or go to Prison and lye there till he have done it If it be for Murder the accusers having good Witnesses the Prisoner is condemned to die and all these things are dispatched with so much expedition The dispatch of Justice among the Turks that a matter no sooner comes to a hearing but it is consulted judged and put into Execution and a Tryal shall not last above four or five hours without Sentence given one way or other nor does so long a delay happen unless it be a very difficult Cause and so the parties are not undone by Lawyers and Pleading as in other Places nor is there any fear that wrong Justice will be administred for at the end of the Hall in the wall near the Seeling there is a Window with black crape hanging before it through which the Grand Signior sees and hears when he pleases all that is said or done in the Divan without being perceived so that the Judges not knowing whether the Grand Signior be at the Window or not are careful not to do partial Justice which would immediately cost them their Life if the Grand Signior knew it and they give him a faithful account of every thing that passes in the Divan A little farther near the Divan Hazna is the Hazna or Treasury where the Grand Signior's Revenue is put It is opened on all Divan Days The opening of the Grand Signiors Treasury but But first the Chiaoux Basha takes off the Seal looking if it be whole and when they have taken out of that Hazna what they had a mind to take or put in what they had to put it is shut again and then the Vizier gives his Seal to the Chiaoux Basha who Seals up the Lock of it Whilest the Divan is Sitting Aga of the Janizaries the Aga of the Janizaries is brought in before the Grand Signior
be the more commodiously done they tell the Aspres upon Boards made for that purpose which they call Tahhta Tahhta that have a ledgeing to keep them from falling except at one end where it draws narrower by which they pour them into the Bagg on these Boards they pick out all the good ones and lay aside the bad They have also pieces of two three four five six ten Aspres c. And this is all the Silver Money they coin at Constantinople so that payments are hardly made in any other Money To an Aspre go six Quadrins Quadrins which are pieces of Copper about the bigness of a French Double they have also half Quadrins which they call Mangours when they say a Purse they understand five hundred Piastres or fourty five thousand Aspres which is the same thing As to their Weights Cantar Rottes Drachms Quirats Medical Oque the Cantar is a hundred and fifty Rottes the Rotte is twelve Ounces the Ounce twelve Drachms the Drachm is sixteen Quirats the Quirat four Grains the Medical is a Drachm and a half the Oque contains four hundred Drachms so that the Oque is worth three Rottes two ninths less CHAP. XLIX Of the Punishments and kinds of Death in Turkey Kinds of Punishments in Turkey .. The way of giving Bastonadoes on the Feet THE most common Punishments in Turkie are blows with a stick either upon the soles of the Feet or the Buttocks They give them on the soles of the Feet in this manner They have a great stick with two holes in it about the middle a large foot and an half distant from one another and through these two holes they put a cord He who is to be Bastanado'd lyes down upon the ground and his feet are put between that cord and the staff then two men take the staff by the two ends and each of them also pull an end of the cord that so he may not stir his feet that are fast betwixt the cord and the staff which they hold up very high In this posture he has no strength to move being only supported by his shoulders and then two other men each with a stick or switch about the bigness of the little finger beat upon the soles of the wretch one after another like Smiths striking upon an Anvil reckoning the blows aloud as fast as they lay them on until they have given as many as have been ordained or till he that hath power say It is enough The rowling of the eyes of him that suffers shews this to be a cruel punishment and there are some after it who for several months cannot go especially when they have received or as they say eaten three or four hundred blows but for the matter of thirty they are not at all disabled When they give them on the Buttocks Blows upon the Buttocks the party is laid upon his belly and receives the blows which are laid on over his Drawers in the same manner as upon the soles of the feet sometimes they give five or six hundred blows but that is the highest and when a Man hath been so handled a great deal of mortified and swollen flesh must with a Razor be cut off of his Buttocks to prevent a Gangrene and he is obliged to keep his bed five or six months without being able to sit up In this manner the Women are punished The Punishment of Women when they deserve it but never upon their soles This is a Correction frequently used by them and for a small fault and sometimes as I have said already they make him who hath received the blows pay so much money a blow Masters give no other Correction to their Servants and Slaves than blows upon the soles of their feet which they have for the least fault they commit The Turks well served and indeed they are wonderfully well served you 'l see their Servants stand in their presence a whole day together like Statues against a wall with their hands upon their belly expecting their Masters commands The Chastisement of School-boys The kinds of Death for Malefactors Christians serve for Hang-men which with the wink of an eye are obeyed School-masters chastise their Scholars with blows upon the soles of the feet instead of the whipping of Christendom The punishments of those who have deserved death are Hanging Beheading Empaling or throwing upon Tenter-hooks or Spikes of Iron When they carry any Man to be Hanged if they meet a Christian by the way they make him the Executioner and a French Merchant being on a time engaged in this office and finding no means to avoid it did what they bid him do and having hanged two asked them if they had no more to be dispatched in that manner whereat the Turks were so incensed that they threw stones at him saying That the Christian would have them all hanged so that it was his best course to make his escape In cutting off Heads they are very dextrous and never miss As for Empaling I shall speak of it in another place because it is not much practised at Constantinople Ganche a Punishment Now the Ganche or throwing upon Hooks is performed in this manner They have a very high Strappado stuck full of very sharp-pointed Hooks of Iron such as Butchers have in their Shambles and having hoisted the Malefactor up to the top of it they let him fall and as he never fails to be catched by a Hook in falling so if he hang by the middle of the body his case is none of the worst for he suddainly dies but if the Hook catch him by any other part he languishes sometimes three days upon it and at length enraged with pain hunger and thirst expires This Torment hath been thought so cruel that the Turks very seldom practice it Those that turn Christians they Burn alive hanging a bag of Powder about their neck and putting a pitched Cap upon their head But Christians that do or say any thing against the Law of Mahomet are taken with a Turkish Woman or go into a Mosque are Empaled though yet there be some Mosques into which Christians may enter at certain hours There are a great many other cases wherein if Christians do not turn Turks they are put to death for a Christian may redeem his life by making himself Turk whatsoever Crime he may have committed but the Turks have no way to save theirs CHAP. L. Of the Grand Signior's Militia HAving treated of the Grand Signior and his chief Officers we must now speak of the Forces that have got him so great a Power which he daily enlarges at the Cost of his Neighbours The Grand Signior keeps always a standing Army both in Peace and War which consisting of Horse and Foot is punctually payed once in two months The Infantry are of several Orders he hath first his Capidgis or Porters Capidgis or Porters who are as it were the Officers and Porters of the
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
Ceremony of those of greatest Quality and of the Grand Signior himself and his Bashas their Chief is called Chiaoux Basha Muteferacas The Grand Signior is the Chief of the Muteferacas Saphis The Pay of the Spahis The Muteferacas are all Persons of Quality and are so many Dead payes for they are not obliged to go to the Wars if the Grand Signior do not go in person he is the Chief of the Muteferacas and he that has the Government of a Place must be a Muteferaca Besides all these there are the Spahis who are ordinary Troopers or Light Horsemen but there are two sorts of them for some receive their Pay every two months aswel as the other Soldiers and that Pay is fifteen twenty or forty Aspres some more and some less They are divided into six Regiments and have each Standards of different Colours Buluk Agasi Timar and a Commander whom they call Buluk Agasi The others instead of Pay have a Timar which is as it were a Commanderie for it is a Pension or yearly Revenue assigned to them upon conquered Territories and these Men are called Timar Spahi Timar Spahi that is to say the Spahis of Timar They are very numerous and obey the Sangiac Bey of the Quarter where their Timar is Sangiac Bey is like a Lord of a Mannor but few of these quarter in Towns Sangiac Bey that is to say Lord of the Colours they are for the most part dispersed in their Timars and are obliged to serve the Grand Signior with so many Horse-men according to the value of their Timar when they are required to it The Grand Signior is Heir to all these Men who are under his Pay if they die without Children but if they leave Daughters behind them he takes only two thirds of the Inheritance and the Succession of the Deceased stands instead of a Son. CHAP. LI. Of the easie way the Grand Signior has in raising and maintaining great Armies FRom what I said before it plainly appears that the Grand Signior may in a few days time raise an Army of two or three hundred thousand Men for when he intends to make War he has no more to do but to send his Orders to all that receive his Pay who so soon as they receive Command fail not to make ready to do what they are enjoined these amount already to a considerable number of Men for a good part of the Grand Signior's Subjects receive his Pay. Besides that he sends for the Bashas Orders for raising an Army Bashas or Governours of Places to come to him and these come in all haste with a great train of Servants who are so many Soldiers and sometimes bring along with them part of the Forces of their Government if they have had orders The Sangiacs come with their Timar Spahis and many of the Troopers have Servants who are so far from being a hindrance as they commonly are in the Armies of Christendom that they do very good service Now it is very easie to make them march and subsist In the Fields for they have but little Baggage The subsistence of Forces and fear not fatigue They can live upon a small matter and provided they have Rice a little Bread Water Coffee and Tobacco they make as good chear as if they were at home and if any of these things be wanting they have patience and are not instantly undone as Christians are when they have no more Wine Thus their Armies never perish with hunger Victuals being brought them in sufficient quantity from all hands for seeing they punctually pay for what they have commit no disorder nor plunder the Countrey all things are brought to the Camp as to a common Market Nay when the Turks are at War with the Persians Merchants travel securely from one Countrey and from one Army to another and trade without any apprehension of being plundered Sultan Amurat led to Bagdad an Army of six or seven hundred thousand Men others say nine hundred thousand Horse and Foot It behoved him to march over Desarts and nevertheless he took such orders that his Army subsisted very well It costs the Grand Signior no more to maintain his Army in time of War than in time of Peace for he keeps none but his own Soldiers and the Bashas and others maintain those whom they have brought with them But it is not the Number alone that makes them gain so many Battels and take so many Towns it is also the Valour and Strength of the Soldiers who being never weakned by fatigue are always in a readiness to fight against the Enemy how fresh soever they may be and when they are engaged fight like Lyons chusing rather to be cut in pieces than to retreat unless the Enemy far exceed them in number But that which chiefly renders them so couragious is the great confidence they put in Destiny for they firmly believe that if they be to die to day they 'l die aswel in their Chamber as in the Field and that if their day be not come a hundred thousand men cannot take their life away from them because it is said in the Alcoran that a Man cannot die till his time be come that no Man can retard it and much less prolong or shorten his life but according as it is written in the Book whereupon they have this Proverb That what is written on a Man's Forehead will certainly come to pass for they say that all Men have their destiny written upon their Forehead This Belief makes them undauntedly expose themselves to all sorts of dangers and even to slight the Plague so that they are not at all afraid to come to and touch an infected Person nor to put on their Cloaths as soon as they are dead They have besides another encouragement to be stout which is the zeal of their Religion for they are very zealous and will freely venture their lives for the defence or enlargement of it believing that they die Martyrs when they die fighting against the Enemies of their Law and shall after death enjoy the delights which Mahomet hath promised them Moreover they blindly obey the orders of their Commanders and go on whither soever they are sent never considering whether or not they shall come off again all these things together makes them run headlong into the greatest dangers of War as chearfully as if they were going to a Feast Sultan Amurat being before Bagdad with a numerous Army and having spent some days without any advantage over his Enemies being mad that any thing could resist him and fearing that he should be forced shamefully to raise the Siege Sultan Anurat's harangue to his Army assembled his whole army and telling the Soldiers what disgrace it would be for them to draw off from thence without doing any thing declared that he would rather perish there with them all than return into his own Countrey with the shame of having done nothing commanded a
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
his Father in the Year of the Hegyra 726. which was the Year of our Lord 1325. it was afterwards taken from the Turks by Tamerlan having totally Routed their Emperour Bajazet whom he made Prisoner This Town stands towards Mount Olympus Mount Olympus which is but about Ten Miles distant It has a pleasant Scituation and so great plenty of fresh Water that the Inhabitants bring it into all the Houses and Hans where it is conveyed in Pipes bigger then ones Leg Plenty of fair Water at Bursa into the Houses of Office and so washes away all the filth and supplies them with clean Water without any necessity of carrying Pots of Water into these places for the Ablution for there they have Fountains on purpose Besides these there are other Waters that run through the Town which are so hot Hot waters at Bursa that they easily boyl Eggs. They have made several fair Bagnios in the place where this Water runs which serves for the Cure of many Distempers so that People come to Bath there above an Hundred Miles off I went thither out of Curiosity and entred into a very lovely Bagnio all adorned with Marble and in stead of the innermost Room where they Sweat there was a very large Bason above Nine Foot deep full of hot and cold Waters mingled together all that please may Bath therein and some take their pleasure in Swiming there There are Steps to go down into it on all sides where one may be as deep as he pleases They bring into it two thirds of cold Water and nevertheless it is still so hot that I was scalded when first I went into it though the hot Water run through the Fields in an open Rivulet There are many fair Buildings in this Town and they reckon above Two hundred lovely Mosques in it and among others they shew'd me the Mosque of the Dervishes and in a little Chappel at the back of it I saw a Tomb which they assured me was the Tomb of the Mufti whom the Grand Signior had caused lately to be Strangled in that Town There are a great many Hans in it also all very Magnificent and constantly Inhabited because this Town is a common passage for Caravans from several places But one must not forget to see the Sepulchres of the first Turkish Emperours and of their Sultanas in so many little Chappels built Dome wise among which is the Monument of a French Sultana as they say but seeing they call all the Europeans Franks A French Sultana they many times confound the French with the rest of Franks They believe she was a most beautiful French Princess that having been taken at Sea was presented to the Grand Signior who was so much in love with her that he allowed her the Exercise of her Religion and yet lay with her though she was a Christian for she never forsook her Faith but lived and died in the same Religion she had been bred up in After her death the Christians of the Country beg'd her Body that they might Bury her after their Way and even offered Money to have that liberty but it was refused them and she was Buried like the other Sultanas Her Tomb is in a little Chappel arched and enclosed with Walls and one may see into it through Windows with Grates I could earnestly have wished the Door had been open that I might have gone in and read a Paper I saw fastned to the end of her Tomb which without doubt was her Epitaph for I observed in the Tombs of the other Sultana's that their Epitaph was cut in the Stone which was not so on this but I had not that satisfaction The length of Bursa The Castle of Bursa This Town is above half a French League in length and not Walled in all places Upon a little Hill in the middle of it there is a Castle which is almost as big as the rest of the Town it is Walled round and no Christian permitted to live in it This Castle is very strong and hath a Bastion that commands the Town which seems to be Impregnable yet the Water that runs into it may be cut off as it passes through the Town The Christians heretofore lost it so for the Turks having Besieged it then held out by the Christians and perceiving that there was no way to take it by Force bethought themselves of cutting off the Water for want of which the Christians forced by Thirst surrendred the place In this Castle are many Ruines of a stately Building which was formerly the Serraglio of the first Sultans of the Ottoman Family but it is all Demolished The People of the Country tell a Story in relation to this Castle which I have thought sit to Relate here They say A Maid built the Castle of Bursa That heretofore there was a Daughter of an Emperour Leaprous all over and by Consequence very Ugly but to make a mends for that very Vertuous who reposing great Confidence in God and finding her Father much dissatisfied that he could not Marry her all Men refusing it because of her Leprosie The hot Waters of Bursa cure Leprosie To ease her Father of that Trouble she begged his leave that she might go wander over the World like a poor Wtetch hoping that God would help her which she having with much ado obtained of her Father who tenderly loved her She Travelled so long till at length she came to the place where the Rivulet of hot Water runs whereof we spake before and there having Prayed as she never failed to do several times a day She saw a Measly Hog come and Wash in the Water which it having continued to do for some days was Cured of its Leprosie The Maid observing this thought that God Almighty had guided her to that place for a Cure wherefore she went into the Water and for some days having Bathed there she was in the end perfectly Cured being as Sound and Clean as if she had never been Leprous She failed not to give God thanks and resolved to stay in that Country which she found had been so healthful to her She therefore acquainted her Father with her Cure praying him to send her Means and People to Build a Place of Retreat for her Having then obtained of her Father all that she desired she Built this Castle which at present is the Castle of Bursa And because the Saracens much incommoded her by their Inrodes she demanded Assistance from her Father who sent her Aid under the Conduct of Roland or Orland a very strong and Valiant Man Roland or Orland who made great Slaughter of the Saracens Close by the Town there is a Hill on the top whereof a Turkish Hermite lives in a Chappel that Chappel is enclosed with good Walls and Iron-Grates but for a small present of Aspres the Hermite let me in and shewed me the Sword of the aforesaid Roland Roland's Sword. which is above seven Inches
that which nourishes the Country and at that Solemnity they yearly Sacrificed a Boy and a Girl upon whom the Lot fell first cutting their Throat and then throwing them into the Nile In memory whereof the Turks at this day make the above-mentioned Figures of a Man and a Woman which they fill with Fire and in this manner they divert themselves during the three Nights allotted for that rejoycing and when the Water is very high there are Men who Swim in the Khalis A Swimmer loaded with Chains with Iron-Chains One of these Swimmers I saw pass by and not without Ceremony Before him went a great Boat full of People of whom some beat the Drum others had Fire-locks to shoot at those who should throw stones and then he came in the middle of twenty Persons that Swam about him His Hands were tied behind his Back and his Feet bound with a Chain of Iron that weighed ten pound weight he stood upright in the Water and discoursed with those that were about him not seeming in the least to move He was followed by five or six Boats full of People ready to take him up if he chanced to sink In this manner he came in the Water from old Caire where the Khalis begins to the place where it ends which is a long League For a reward he has from the Basha a Vest and a thousand Maidins and besides that he goes about the Town with a Box and gets somewhat more In this manner he goes twice on two several days There is another also who Swims in Chains surrounded as the other from end to end of the Khalis and holds in each hand a dish of Coffee with a Pipe of Tobacco in his Mouth without spilling the Coffee He performs this twice and has the same reward as the other had These Swimmers shew only on Fridays so that one may see them once a Week during four Weeks CHAP. LXVII Of the Arrival of the Bey of Girge at Caire WEdnesday the fourth of September Mehmet Bey The arrival of the Bey of Girge who was then Bey of Girge arrived near to Caire and Lodged at Bezeten beyond old Caire in Tents This Bey had been a Slave to one Haley Bey who died very Rich in the year One thousand six hundred fifty five when he was Bey of Girge which is fourteen or fifteen days Journey from Caire up the Nile In his Life-time he had made four of his Slaves Beys of whom this was one and after his death Bey of Girge When Haley Bey died he left behind him Fourscore thousand Camels and about as many Asses and besides that a vast Treasure of Coyned Money and Jewels among which there was a Cup made of a Turkeis worth above an Hundred thousand Crowns This Man lived at a very high Rate and there was not a day but he spent a thousand Crowns in his House at Caire though he were not there but much more when he was His Successor Mehmet Bey I speak of was sent for by two Agas one after another and commanded in name of the Basha who had no kindness for him to come to Caire and account for what he was in Arrear to the Basha for that is a Beyship depending on the Bassaship of Caire The design of the Basha was to draw him to Caire under this pretext then to deprive him of his Beyship and give it to another which was a secret he had discovered to no Man living The Bey who suspected the Basha's design having at first slighted his Commands resolved at length to come but seeing the Basha knew that he came with a great Retinue he sent an Aga to command him back This Aga found him at three days Journey from Caire and acquainted him with his Orders which the other slighted and proceeded on his Journey till he came near to Caire Thursday the fifth of September all the Beys and other Persons of Quality went out to visit him as also all the Militia of the Country The Beys and the Cadilesquer who was no friend to this Basha had laid their Heads together to make the Basha Mansoul in case he gave bad Reception to this Bey because besides that they were all his friends they always stick together against the Basha He made his entry into Caire on Saturday the seventh of September and that I might have a full view of that entry I went to Cara Meidan which is a great Court or Square in the Basha's Palace at the end whereof the Stables are This is a large and spacious place but longer than broad The Basha came down and went into a Kieusk which is about the middle of the length of this place on the right hand as you enter it from the Romeille The Basha staid for him here because the Bey would not go to his Appartment fearing he might not be strong enough for him there Thither came all the Men of the Beys and all the Spahis Chiaoux Muteferacas and in a word all the Militia ready to fight For seeing they knew not the Basha's design and saw on the other hand that the Bey was well accompanied they doubted it might come to blows These Men of the Beys played for the matter of two Hours with the Dgerit or Zagaye which was a great Diversion to me for there I saw them at near distance with safety and ease whereas when they see a Christian abroad in the Fields they many times dart their Dgerit at him After that they drew neatly up into very close Order And at the same time by the Gate opposite to that which goes into the Romeille the Arabs of this Bey entred the place armed with Pikes and Shables four fingers broad every one with his Iron-Hook a finger broad and as big as ones Hand with a Wooden Handle to take up their Pikes without alighting from Horse-back as they run after they have darted them at any Body as they who make use of Arrows have such another Iron-Instrument wherewith they hook up their Arrows from the Ground and both are very dextrous at it These Hooks they carried in their Sleeves and were all very well Mounted and not ill Clad for Arabs They were in number above Three thousand and among them marched the sixteen Caschefs or Bailiffs Caschefs The Toug of the Bey who are Subjects of this Bey and his Sous-basha After these came the Toug of the Bey which is a Horses Tail at the end of a Pike and a large fair pair of Colours Then came above Two thousand Harquebusiers on Horse-back well clad carrying all their Harquebuses before them and their Shables by their sides and of these the last forty had on Coats of Mail Semhin or Serban Vambraces Steel-Caps Neck-pieces and in a word they were all in Mail and followed by the Beys foot who are called Semhin or Serban These are Men who have no Pay but from him receiving none from the Grand Signior They were about four
together all the Viziers Bashas and other chief Officers of his Army commanding them to Draw up their several men in Battel-array and after that allotted the Posts to all the Principal Commanders encompassing his Camp with Horse and placing all his Foot round himself Then he rode on Horseback round about the whole Camp and came into the middle which was so well shut in that no body could go out or in without giving an account to Generals that were posted on the Flanks The same day he caused great heaps of Earth to be cast up in all places where the Cannon of the Town could annoy us and ordered great quantities of Wood and Faggots to be brought which being mingled with he Earth made three Hills in as many places higher than the Walls of Bagdat and upon each of them he caused twenty pieces of Cannon to be mounted which began to play next day by break of day And at the same time he caused a high Tower to be raised before his Pavillion on the top whereof his Majesty mounted and saw as out of a Gallery what was done in his Army and within Bagdat out of danger of the Enemies Guns and there he sent for all the great Men of the Law Justices and Militia to whom he said You Mufti Viziers Beillierbeis Bashas Sangiacks and all the rest of you whom God hath put under my Obedience think not that I am come hither to return back again without taking this place No I am come with this great number of Soldiers faithful to the Law to Conquer or die here and therefore all and every one of you ought to make the same resolution For I am resolved with my own hand to kill the great men that shall not do their Duty and cause the Inferiour to be put to death one by another or by the hands of the Enemy and then will die my self that it may in History be transmitted to Posterity that a Successour of the Great Othoman died here with a Million of men in defence of the Faith. After that softening his Voice a little and treating them with less sharpness Look you said he to them the World is but a small matter or nothing at all he that dies in well doing is well after Death but he who dies killing an enemy of the Faith is more happy in Paradise Look you Fathers for so I call the Old and you Brethren who are of the same Age with me for we are made of the same Matter let us do somewhat that may oblige our great Prophet Mahomet to be our Advocate and that at the day of Judgment he may present us all before the Tribunal of God saying to Him Here are the Faithful who have fought valiantly for the greatest Glory of your holy Majesty and of all your Saints and in the mean time that it may be said in time to come that we have had rest in this World and glory in the next To attain to which it is expedient to labour and not to fear dangers But why should you fear them being called to this Engagement for the sake of our great Prophet who promises us so much favour before the Majesty of the Great God No I do not think you do and if I find that any of you go not willingly to fight I 'll kill him with my own Sword. This being heard by all that were present they put their hand upon their Head and answered all unanimously That they were ready to obey his Imperial Commands And even from thence they began to fight without losing of time and the Grand Signior caused the Pavillions of all the Chirurgeons of the Army to be pitched near to his own ordering all the Wounded men to be brought thither to be Drest which was done and he himself comforted them with very good Words and good Deeds giving to every one forty or fifty Chequins And it was found that in one day he gave to seven hundred Wounded men from whence you may judge whether or not the fight was furious and caused the pay of those that died to be given to their Children or their nearest Relations And during the thirty nine days that the Siege lasted the Town being taken on the fortieth his Majesty made his Prayers every day and every night upon his Knees prostrating himself upon the Ground with Tears in his Eyes And seeing every evening we Carted away a little of the same earth whereof Ramparts had been made to secure us from the Enemies Guns in making our approaches to the Town We were got on the tenth of the Moon of Chaban close by the first Ditches and the Sultan commanded a great many sacks of Earth to be thrown into them which was done with so much diligence and in so great quantities that in four days time they were filled up and three other Mounts were made to the top whereof the Cannon which were mounted on the former were brought from whence we battered down one half of the Walls of Bagdat the other half being buried under heaps of Earth all round where the Cannon could not make a breach A thousand shot were fired into the Town which hit against certain Towers or Steeples that resisted the Bullets and made them rebound without any dammage from them At the Post of the Salictar Basha which was by one of the Mounts there were twelve Guns and three great Cannons Royal which continually played into the Town and battered down a great number of Houses The Grand Vizier had his Post at another Mount with the Romali's from whence they made an assault into the Town and took three Bastions but there he was killed by a Musquet-shot in the Head and three Beillierbeis were Wounded to wit Chus Casinader Hibraim Bassa Beillierbey of Siras Var Varally Bassa who was Beillierbey of Natolia and Queusse Chaban Bassa and seven Alaibeys that is to say Camp-Masters and a great many others killed The sixteenth of the Moon of Chaban the Grand Vizier died the seven-teenth Mustapha Basha who was Basha of the Sea and Caymacan was put in his place and the Grand Signior gave him the Seals The eighteenth there fell so much Rain that we could not keep our Matches lighted and we entred the Town with so great Fury and Impetuosity that the besieged begged Quarter veiled their Standards and Colours as a sign that they submitted to the Discretion of the Sultan At the same time the Kiaya as if one should say the Captain of the Arms or Lieutenant and principal Officer of the Governour of Bagdat went to the Grand Vizier with a Scarfe about his Neck and his Sword wreathed in it which is an Ignominious mark of Submission and begged both in his own and Master's name Aman that is to say Pardon or Mercy and having obtained it the Governour named Bektachkhan came also and the Grand Vizier leaving them both there went to wait on the Grand Signior to whom he related what had happened beseeching him to
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
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
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
and for Successions the Child of the Sister is preferred Succession in Malabar because there is no doubt of the Line by the Female The Sisters even of the Kings themselves have liberty to chuse such Nairs or Gentlemen as they please to lye with The Women have liberty to chuse their Galants and when a Nair is in a Ladies Chamber he leaves his Stick or Sword at the Door that others who have a mind to come should know that the place is taken up no body offers to come in then And this custom is Establish'd all over Malabar The Coronation of the King of Cochin Heretofore the King of Cochin was Crowned upon the Coast though it was possest by the Portuguese but he who ought now to be King would not be Crowned there because it is in the power of the Dutch And he made them answer when they invited him to follow the Custom that he would have nothing to do with them and that when the Portuguese were restored to the possession of that coast he would be Crowned there In the meane time the Dutch have Crowned another Prince who is the Kings Kinsman and have given him the Title of Samorin or Emperour which the King of Calecut pretends to Tanor The true King of Cochin is retired to Tanor which is the first Principality of his House to the Prince of Tanor his Uncle eight Leagues from Cochin They Sail from one Town to the other in little Barks upon a pretty pleasant River The Naires These Naires or Gentlemen we have been speaking of have a great conceit of their Nobility because they fancy themselves descended from the Sun they give place to none but the Portuguese and that precedency cost Blood. A duel betwixt a Portuguese and a Naire for the place The Portuguese General to compose the Debates that happened often betwixt them agreed with the King of Cochin that the Matter should be decided by a duel of two Men and that if the Naire had the better on 't the Portuguese should give place to the Naires or if the contrary happened the Naires should allow the Portuguese the advantage for which they fought and the Naire being overcome the Portuguese take place of the Naires they go stark naked from the girdle upwards The Apparel of the Naires and have no other Cloathing from the girdle to the knee but a piece of Cloath their head is covered with a Turban and they carry always a naked Sword and a Buckler The Naire Women are cloathed like the Men and the Queen her self is in no other dress The Naires have several degrees of Nobility amongst them and the inferiour make no difficulty to give place to those that are above them They have a great aversion to a Caste of Gentiles who are called Poleas Poleas If a Naire come so near a Poleas as to have felt his breath he thinks himself polluted and is obliged to kill him because if he killed him not and it came to the Kings knowledge he would cause the Naire to be put to death or if he pardoned him as to life he would order him to be sold for a Slave but besides that he must make publick Ablutions with great Ceremonies For avoiding any mischance that may happen upon that account The Poleas cry incessantly when they are abroad in the Fields Popo Popo to give notice to the Naires who may be there not to come near If a Naire hear the word Popo he answers crying Coucouya Coucouya and then the Poleas knowing that there is a Naire not far from him turns aside out of the way that he may not meet him Seeing these Poleas cannot enter into Towns The Poleas cannot enter into Towns. if any of them need any thing they are obliged to ask for it without the Town crying as loud as they can and leaving Money for it in a place appointed for that Traffick when they have left it and told so they are to withdraw and a Merchant fails not to bring what they demand he takes the true value of his Commodity and so soon as he is gone the Poleas comes and takes it and so departs Cavalrie are not used in the Wars neither in Cochin No Cavalrie in Cochin nor the rest of Malabar they that are to fight otherwise than on Foot are mounted upon Elephants of which there are many in the Mountains Mountain Elephants and these Mountain-Elephants are the biggest of the Indies The Idolaters tell a false story at Cochin which they would have no body to doubt of because of the extraordinary respect they have for a certain Reservatory which is in the middle of one of their Pagods This great Pagod stands upon the side of a River called by the Portuguese Rio Largo which runs from Cochin to Cranganor Rio Largo The Pagod of Swearing it goes by the name of the Pagod of Swearing and they say that the Reservatory or Tanquie which is in that Temple has Communication under ground with the River and that when any one was to make Oath judicially about a matter of importance he that was to Swear was brought to the Tanquie where a Crocodile was called upon which commonly kept there that the Man put himself upon the back of this Creature when he Swore that if he said truth the Crocodile carried him from one end of the Reservatory to the other and brought him back again sound and safe to the place where it took him up and if he told a lie that the Beast having carried him to one side of the Tanquie carried him again into the middle where it dived under water with the Man and though at present there be no Crocodile in that Reservatory yet they confidently affirm that the Story is true Coulam which is the Capital Town of the little Kingdom of that name is four and twenty Leagues to the South of Cochin Coulam but the King keeps not commonly his Court there Before Calicut was in reputation all the Traffick of that Countrey was at Coulam and then it was a flourishing Town but it is much diminished now both in Wealth and Inhabitants The Haven of it is safe and the Tide runs a great way up in the River There are a great many Christians of St. Thomas at Coulam as well as at Cochin Christians of St. Thomas they pretend that they have preserved the Purity of the Faith which that Apostle taught their Ancestors and there are a great many also in the Mountains that run from Cochin to St. Thomas by Madura Syriack Language In the divine Office they make use of the Sariack Language and most of them are Subjects of the King of Cochin as well as many Families of the Jews who live in that Countrey I have been also told of a little Kingdom called Carghelan that is in those parts where there is also another little Prince Carghelan and so