were absent yet because that Province which used to be most plentifull was lean in Corn they could not make sufficient provision for six moneths siege for such an infinite multitude of people as were retired within the Walls Yet it held out most obstinately for the space of six moneths in which time though they were brought to hard shifts yet hoping alwaies for succour from their Emperor they would never submit to any conditions I dare not relate to what an excesse this Famin came too but it seems it surpassed the Famin of Hierusalem An unheard of Famin. a pound of Rice was worth a pound of Silver a pound of any old rotten skin was sold at ten Crowns dead mens flesh was sold publikely in the Shambles as Hogs flesh and it was held an act of Piety to expose the dead in the Streets for others to feed on who shortly were to be food for others but I will pass over conceal yet more horrible things than I have related This City lies towards the South side of that vast precipitate River which the Chineses call Hoang because the Streams alwaies appear of a yellowish saffron colour because the River is higher than the plain levell downs of a Leagues distance from the Town they built upon the River side a long strong Bulwark of great square stones to prevent all inundations The Emperours Army after long expectation came to relieve the Town and advanced as far as these Bulwarks and having considered the situation of the Country and Enemies Camp it was thought the fittest and easiest way to raise the siege without giving battail to let in the water upon the Enemies Army by some breaches made in that long Wall or Bulwark It was in Autumn when they took this resolution and the River by reason of extraordinary rains was swoln bigger than ever before and they making the Sluces or Inlets too great and the Breackes too wide gave way to such an Ocean of water as it overrun the Walls of the Town which were very stately and high involving not only many of the Enemies in its ruin and destruction The City of Caifung is drowned but also 300000. men and the City it self perished in those floods of water So the antient City which heretofore had been honored by the Emperor's Residence appeared no more a place of pleasure but a vast Pool or Lake for Monsters of the waters to inhabit for the houses of the Town were not over-run with water but also beaten down and also the Church of the Christians together with their Priest who was one of the Society of Jesus it was well known he might have saved himself but being there were many Christians perished he willingly chose to die with those he had gained The destruction of this City happened the ninth of Oct. 1642. about which time this famous Conductor of Theeves took the name of King The General of the Theeves takes the Title of a King with an addition of Xunvang which sounds as much as Prosperous and so was stiled Licungzus the prosperous and having in a manner taken all the Country of Honan into his Dominion he returned into the Province of Xensi He takes the Country of Xensi and wonn it wholy to his subjection When he came to Sigan which is the Metropolitan of Xensi he found some resistance from the Garrison but he took it in three daies and for a reward and encouragement to his Souldiers he gave it to them to pillage also for three daies space and then he gathered up all the Corn of the whole Province as well to keep all the Country in their duty to him as also to leave no Forrage for the Emperours Army And now thinking himself secure of the whole Empire he took the name of Emperour upon him Calls himself Emperour and stiled the Family wherein he thought to establish this Dignity Thienxunam as much as to say Obedient to Heaven By which Title he perswaded the Souldiers and the People that it was by the disposall of the Heavens that he should reign that he might deliver the people from the Emperours Avarice and extirpate those wicked Governours that so much vexed the people and deliver them from all their perfidious Plots For he knew well that this Glorious Title would be very acceptable to them of China who believe that Kingdoms and Empires come only from Heaven and are not gained by any Art or Industry of Man and that his actions might carry a face correspondent to his illustrious Title he began to use the People with all humility and sweetness The Theeves good Government not permitting any Souldier to wrong or iujure them only he persecuted all the Officers call'd Presidents which he could find and all those he put to death and as for those that had been Presidents because he found them rich he made them pay great Fines and let them live remitting all Taxes in the places he subdued severely commanding that the Subjects should be treated with all Civility and Curtesie So as all men applauding and loving so sweet and milde a Government easily submitted to his Power and Dominion but where the Governours use Tyranny there the Subject hath little care of Fidelity There were in the City two Priests which served the Christians that were Jesuits and suffered much in the saccage of the City but being afterwards known for Strangers they were used with all humanity In the mean time a third cause of this Empires ruin grew up in the Court The Prefects Discord was another cause of the ruin of China which was hatched in the Emperour Thienkius his time For that Emperour exalted an Eunuch called Gueio to such a height and power as he gave the absolute Power and soveraign Command into his hands and passed so far as allway to stile him by the name of Father This extravagant power caused much Envy Dissention and the banding one against another amongst the Governours Presidents Commanders and Counsellours and the Eunuch also added much to incense the flame by his indiscreet usage of the favour he possessed for if any man had touched him either in word or writing or expressed less respect unto him in conversation or behaviour or did not flatter the base fellow he would presently give order to put him to death though he were a very eminent person or at least degrade him from all Office or Dignity By which means he exasperated many and amongst the rest he offended the Prince Zunchinius who now by the death of his Brother without issue was come to be Emperour of China This Emperour knew that the Eunuch had moved Heaven and Earth to hinder his coming to the Crown but seeing he could not effect that at least he maintained a seditious faction against the great ones which finally proved the destruction of the Estate For these men banding in two factions studied more how to destroy one another than to
Corps as many Servants Women and Horses with Bows and Arrows as may fit to atend and serve them in the next life Though now since they conquered China they have left off this barbarous custome being reprehended and corrected for it by the Chineses themselves After this superstitious Vow advancing his revenging Arms he besieged Leaotung The chiefe City of Leaoyang besieged and taken which was the chief City of the Province of Leaoyang with 50000 men But the City was defended by exceeding many men who generally were all armed with musquets The Tartars had nothing but their Scymetars with Bows and Arrows which they discharge with strange dexterity Art But because they chiefly feared the musquet bullets they resolved by a Stratagem to make that unknown Instrument less hurtfull to them than their Enemies did imagin A Stratagem against musquets For the Tartarian King commanded such as made the first onset to carry a thick hard board for their Shield which was as good to them as a wooden Wall these men were seconded by other Companies who carried Ladders to climb up the Walls and the Horse came up in the Rear In this manner he set upon the City in four quarters and received the discharge of their Musquets against his Wooden wall Then in a moment the scaling ladders being applied before they could charge again they were upon the Walls and enterd the City for such is the quickness and nimbleness of the Tartars in which they excel all Nations and in which also they place their chief art that in a trice they either prevail in their Designs or retire and the little skill the Chineses had in the use of Musquets was no small hinderance to the War For the Tartars quickness and nimblenes not giving them time to charge again being astonished with the suddain inundation of armed men they presently fled which way soever they could but being pursued by the swift Tartarian Horse most of them perished in the taking of this great City This City being taken the Tartar like a Torrent over-run many others of less note Many other Cities taken but amongst others he took that noble City Evamgning and over-runing most speedily the whole Country of Leaotung he entred the Province of Pekin and coming within seven Leagues of the very Imperial City He durst not advance fearing the Enemy might compas or surround him because he heard that a world of men came in to help their distressed Prince But the Tartar struck such a terrour into the hearts of all the Countries he had passed as both Souldier and Citizen leaving their Houses left the empty walls to the Tartarians possession knowing the Tartar to have that custom and practice to destroy and put all to fire and sword that did resist and only pillage the Cities that submitted How the Tartars used their conquered Towns leaving the Citizens alive and under a milder Government By which means having collected a world of Riches he returned to Leaotung victorious And because his Southsayers had perswaded him that the standing of the old Walls were unfortunate he beat them down and compassed them about with new fortifying them with new Munitions and there proclamed himself Emperour of China The Tartar calls himself Emperour of China An. 1618. For although as yet he had taken nothing of China but only the skirts of the Eastern Country of the Province of Leaotung yet in his hopes and aspiring thoughts he had devoured the whole Kingdom wherefore he was called in the China language Theienmingus in the third year of his Reign which was in that of one thousand six hundred and eighteen In this year some in authority about the Emperour Vanley demanded the banishment of the Priests who did then preach the Christian Religion to that Nation But the Emperour who in his heart loved Christianity and those particularly that first planted that Religion amongst them gave no ear for a long while to their Demands But at length overcome by the importunity of a chief Commander who had ever been a sore Enemy to Christian Religion and was called Xinchio it was ordeined and proclamed that all those Fathers that did propagate Christian Religion should be banished the Kingdom Upon which some of them were secretly concealed in several Provinces by some Christian Governours God punished China for their persecution of Christians others being taken were carried in great Cages to Macao where being shut up day and night suffered extremely whilst others also be-being whipt out of the Country rejoyced to suffer somthing for his sake whose name they bore and that which added more affliction to all these miseries was the Emperour Vanley's Prohibition to all his to profess Christian Religion But upon this occasion the Christians of China who from the horrid wilderness of Infidelity had been brought to the pleasant Pastures of Christianity gave illustrious examples of their Faith Constancy but the longer Narration of this glorious persecution is reserved for another place I only touch it here to admire the Divine Providence of God who raised so sharp War against China when they neglected Christian Peace and permited at the same time these Tartars to take so deep a root in this Empire of China as afterward grew to that height as both to extirpate the Royal Family of the Taiminges together with the Kingdom at the very same time they went about utterly to destroy all Christianity But it happened in this as ordinarily it doth for by this very persecution Christian Religion grew to that height and greatness that the Church glories to behold and unless God vouchsafe to lend a potent helping hand the vast Kingdome of China is utterly overthrown In the mean time the Chineses were very solicitous to expell this Enemy from the bowells of their Country and first they selected very chief and eminent men for Commanders and Governours then they gathered an Army of six hundred thousand choise Soldiers The King of Corea also sent to the Emperour of China twelve thousand with this potent Army therefore they went out in the begining of March MDCXIX to give Battail to the Enemy The Tartars resolved to meet them with an undanted courage and for a good while the event and victory was very doubtfull but in the end the Army of China was wholly routed and their chief Commanders with fifty thousand men were all slain The Tartars according to their custome prosecute the victory with all quickness and diligence for the same day they took and sacked two Cities which they burned After this they over-run that whole Country and came to the very Walls of Pekin the Emperours Court but durst not venture to besiege it because they knew besides the infinite number of Canons it contained there was lodged fourscore thousand Souldiers in it But the Chineses confess that there was such a fear and consternation in the City that the King thought to have left that City and gone into the Southern
low Cap which is alwaies garnished round with some pretious skin three fingers broad of Castor or Zibellin and serveth to defend their Temples Ears and Foreheads from colds and other Tempests That which appears above the skin being covered over either with curious red silke or else with black and purple horse-hair which they die and dress most curiously so as their appurtenances being handsomely joyned together makes the capp both commodious and handsom Their Garments are long Robes falling down to the very foot but their sleeves are not so wide and large as the Chineses use but rather such as are used in Polony Hungary only with this difference that they fashion the extremity of the Sleeve ever like a Horse his Hoof. At their Girdle there hangs on either side two Handkerchiefes to wipe their face and hands besides there hangs a Knife for all necessary uses with two Purses in which they carry Tobacco or such like Commodities On their Left side they hang their Scymiters but so as the point goes before and the handle behind and therefore when they fight they draw it out with the right hand behind them without holding the Scabbard with the other They seldome were Shoes and use no Spurrs to their Boots which they make either of Silk or of Horse-skin very neatly drest but they often use fair Pattins which they make three Fingers high In riding they use Stirrups but their Saddles are both lower and broader than ours Their faces are comely and commonly broad as those of China also have their colour is white but their Nose is not so flat nor their eyes so little as the Chineses are They speak little and ride pensively In the rest of their manners they resemble our Tartars of Europe though they be nothing so barbarous They rejoice to see Strangers They no way like the grimness and soureness of the Chines gravity and therefore in their first aboads they appear more human Having thus briefly described their Manners we resume our former discourse and return to the victorious Tartars in the City they had takens In which finding many rich and wealthy Merchants of other Provinces they published a Licence that they might depart with their Goods and withall commanded them speedily to voyd the City Who presently obeying the Order carried away all their Goods and Riches The Tartars perfidiousnes little suspecting the perfideous treachery of the Tartars For they had not gone three miles from the Town but being set upon by the Tartars they were plundred of their Goods and lost all their lives which being done they returned into the fearfull City laden with Riches the Citizens trembling lest they might happily experience the like perfidiousnes But the Tartar considering at how dear a rate he had bought the mastering of that City and fearing also to find the like provision and preparation in other Cities they durst not make any further attempt for they knew well that the Emperour had not only fortified all the antient places but erected also new munititions in the straights of many hard and rude passages And amongst all other strong holds that of Xanghai situated in the Island of Cu was most eminent containing a vast number of men in the Garrison to resist the further progresse of the Tartarian Forces But that which most of all repressed the Tartars was the great valour of the incomparable Commander Maovenlungus who having with his great Fleet taken an Island neer Corea in the mouth of the River Yalo The valiantest Commander of China vexed much their Army in the Rear and was victorious in several Skirmishes against them so that the Tartars bent all their care and thoughts against this their Enemy This renowned person was born in the Province of Evangtung where being near the Portugese of Macao he had much perfected himself in the art of war and he brought with him many great peices of Artillerie which he had recovered from the Shipwrack of a Holland Ship upon the Coasts of that Territorie And because the Emperour of China had declared the City of Ninguyven to be the chief in place of Leaoyang where also he had placed a new Vice-Roy and his Royal Visitor therefore Maovenlungus placed the best part of his Artillarie upon the Walls of this City The Tartars therefore acted nothing till the year 16â—5 and because they resolved to besiege the new Metropolitan City of Ninguyven they first resolved to trie Maovenlungus his fidelitie The faithfulnes of the Commanders in China offering him half of the Empire of China if he would help them to gain it But that noble Soul of his proved as faithfull as valiant by rejecting those Demands with indignation and came presently with his Forces to succour the City Ninguyven which they besieged by which means The overthrow of the Tartars the Tartars having lost ten thousand men were put to the flight and among the rest the King of Tartary's own Sonn was killed Wherefore being furious with anger they passed the frozen Sea and invaded the Island Thaoyven where they killed ten thousand that kept Garrisons there together with all the Inhabitants and by this one Act Their Cruelty having revenged their former discomfiture they returned into Tartary not with a resolution to sit still but with an intention to return with greater Forces By which restraint all things remained quiet till the year 1627. in which the Emperour Thienkius dyed in the flow'r of his age and with him the whole Empire of China seemed to fall to ruin and destruction The Kings of China and Tartary both died and in the same year the King of the Tartars who had cruelly murdered many men himself augmented the number of the dead After Thinkius in the Empire of China succeeded that unhappy Emperour Zungchinius Zungchininius chosen Emperour of China brother to the former of whom more hereafter And after Thienmingus King of Tartary succeeded Thienzungus his Son Thienzungus more milde than his Predecessors who changed the manner of his Fathers Government and by good Counsel began to govern the Chineses in a curteous and sweet manner but though he lived not long yet he served for a good example for his Sonn to Conquer China more by Civilitie and Humanitie than by force of Arms. In this year great Maovenlungus Soldiers being insolent by want of action The Soldiers Insolencies exasperat the Country of Corea grew very troublesom and offensive by their Rapines and Disorders to the Coreans who were friends Allies and particularly they much exasperated the Province of Hienkin insomuch that some of the Inhabitants of that place moved with indignation of several passages secretly treated with the Tartarian King to invade the Chineses Army in the habit and attire of the Inhabitants of Corea from whom they could expect no Treason being leaguerd with them in friendship and amitie promising moreover their best assistance to effect this mischief to him that was a Traitour
both to Country King and the Emperour of China But this Counsel pleased the Tartar and therefore he sent a Vice-Roy with a potent Army The Tartars are brought into Corea to which the Coreans shewed the waies and guided them through all the passages who falling upon the Chineses Armie which suspecting nothing was divided and many stragling up and down the Countrie made a huge Carnage amongst them But when Maovenlungus percieved they were Tartars he presently made head and gathered a Body of an Armie together and vigorously opposed all those sharp assaults But yet at length he was forced to yield the Field and therefore leaving a Regiment or two to hold the Enemie in action whilst his Army retreated he fled to his Ships and to the Island which he had Fortified The Tartars were vexed and grieved both to see their victory so bloody and also that Maovenlungus whom they chiefly aimed at had escaped with most of his Army and therefore enraged with Anger they fell upon the Corean Traitors and killed every man which action the King of Tartary much condemned and then turning their wrath to the four Northern Provinces which border upon Tartary Corea wasted they wasted and destroyed them all in a moment In the mean time the King of Corea gathered an Army to resist the Tartars and Maovenlungus also having recruited his Forces came into Corea to revenge the received loss The victorious Tartars were come within seven Leagues of the principallest City of all Corea But finding the King to have taken the Straights and Passages of the Mountains which lead unto it they desperatly resolved to force their passage The Battel was hardly begun but Maovenlungus after a long march falls in upon their rear and the Tartars finding themselves encompassed before and behind nor any means to escape but by dint of Sword fought most desperatelie sustaining the shock of two Armies And such a Battel was fought as China never saw for it is strange to write yet very true of the three Armies none was victorious but all in a manner destroyed The Fight and slaughter of 3 Armies Of the Tartarian Armie fifty thousand were found wanting The Corean Armie lost seventy thousand and few or none escaped of the Chineses Armie For their Quarter being most commodious for the Tartars flight they there made their most vigorous Charges and so forced their way towards their own Countrie So as none of them all gained the field or could prosecute the course of a Victorie Yet the King of Corea made a shift to rallie so many together again as to take possession of those his Countries which the Tartarians by their flight had left desolate But the Tartars after all the losses ceased not to make frequent inrodes into the Country of Leaotung The Eastern part of Leoatung is under the Tartar and took all the Oriental part of it From thence they made incursions into the other part and carried away great Preys and Booties But they were alwaies so beaten and so defeated as they could never fix a constant habitation For by this time were arrived seven excellent Gunners from the Portugese quarters The Portugese send succour which both by themselves and by teaching the Chineses advanced infinitly the King of China his Affairs especially where that Christian Vice-Roy called Sun Ignatius Commander in chief of whose affairs we shall say somthing hereafter In this conjuncture of affairs the Emperour Zungchinius sent a new Commander called Yvenus into Leaotung A crafty Commander of the China Army with a new Armie and full power to conclude a Peace with the Tartars if they would admit it For the disorders of the times had caused so many needy persons Theevs and Cut-throats that the Emperour grew more anxious how to suppress this great domestick Enemie which seemed to aim at the Kingdoms ruin than he was of the Tartarian Forces This Yvenus was a crafty and subtill wit most eloquent both in speaking and writing who by politick discourses drawn from the nature of this war had wrought so much not only upon the Emperours mind but also upon all the Councill that they esteemed what he concluded as a Law to be observed Wherefore the Chineses put all their confidence in him nor had they been frustrated of their hopes had not this wicked man been more wedded to his own interest and love of Riches than to the publick good fidelitie to his Prince For first he received of the Tartars a vast Summe of gold which wrought so much upon him as that having invited to a Banquet that most Valorous and Faithfull Champion Maovenlungus Maovenlungus poisoned whom the Tartars only feared he there poisoned that great Commander After this he made a most ignominious and shamefull Peace with the Tartars condescending to all that those that fed him with Riches could desire But when the Emperour had perused the Treatie he presently found his Plenipotentiarian had sold him and therefore refused to ratifie or confirm the Articles What should Yvenus act in this exigent That he might force the Emperour to admit them he peswaded the Tartars in the year 1630. to enter China by another Country than that which was committed to his charge promising them for his part he would no way hinder their progresse by his Army The Tartars knew that his avarice had so potent an Ascendent over him as that they need to fear no hurt from him and upon that Confidence admitted of his Counsell Wherefore being secure from all assaults from any Enemie behind them they entered the Province of Peking and besieged the Kings Court The Kings Court besieged Insomuch that his Councel perswaded him to leave the Imperial City and retire to the Southern Provinces but he protested he would rather die than quit the Northern quarters and not only so but he forbid any to depart the Court or Town besieged In the mean time the Tartars make many fierce affaults and as often were valiantly beaten back with great loss and Carnage Yvenus was called to resist the Tartars for as yet his Traiterous Complots were not discovered And lest he should discover his Treason he comes with his Armie neer the very Walls which were of so vast an extent as both the Chinese and Tartars Armie might perfectly be discerned though betwixt them there was a great Intervall But though Yvenus was under the Emperours eye yet he acted little for his only aim was to return home laden with Riches he never desisted to perswade the Emperour to admit his conditions of Peace So that the Emperour finding him evidently to be a Traitor disclosing his intention to none of his Councell nor Governors sends to invite him to a privat Councel of war giving also order that he should be admitted into the Citie by the Walls lest if any Gate should be open the Tartar being so neer might press in upon them but indeed he ordered the business in this manner
Souldiers were either of his affinity or wholy at his Command and Obedience And therefore it is no wonder if he found an easy admittance into the Country of Fokien of which they presently made him King Pingnan as much as to say Pacifier of the South and they added many other Dignities and Offices of trust that they might more speciously illude him for either they knew his aspiring mind The Tartars deceive the Pyrat and take him Prisoner by meer Art or else his great power and authority was suspicious and formidable to them but yet all the while the General of the Tartars remained in Fokien they never expressed the least diffidence in him but both with favours courtesies presents and honours they studied how further to ingage him and promised the Government of many more Provinces He made himself therefore secure of the Government of all the Southern Provinces but all happened quite contrary to his expectation for when this General of the Tartars who was observed as a little King was to depart to Peking the custom was for all the Officers of the Kingdom to conduct him for some part of his journey to give him an honourable farewell which last duty of Civillity Iquon could not handsomely avoid nor indeed had he any reason to be diffident of any distrust in him so as he left his Navy in the Port of Focheu and accompanied the Royolet with great splendor and magnificence But when he came to take leave and demand Licence to return the General of the Tartars invited him a long to Peking where he promised him yet greater honours from the Kings own person to reward his Merits He endeavoured by all imaginable occasions to excuse this journey but nothing was accepted he was forced by their kindness to accompany them to Peking and so he was taken by Art who by Arms seemed Insuperable He yet lives in Prison in Peking because his Brothers and Kindred hearing of his Captivity presently ceased on the Fleet with which they have much infested China as we shall touch hereafter In the mean time the other Army which had passed the Mediterranean Provinces of Huquang The Tartars overthrown Quangsi Kiansi and Quamgtung invaded the Country of Quangsi But here it was that the Arms of the Tartars which hitherto were held invincible were shewed to be weak and where they least expected opposition there they found the greatest destruction It happened that in this Province of Quangsi the Vice-Roy called Khiu Thomas was a Christian and the chief Commander also of all the Militia of that Country was commanded by Ching Lucas whose family for five Genetations has served the Emperours of China with as much constancy and fidelity as they did Christ These two having gathered many together which fled from all parts into Quangsi after the Tartars had taken many places in the Country overthrew the Tartarians in a set Battail and passing into the confining Province of Quamgtung they recovered all the Western part of it After this that they might have a head to fight for and who might command and govern them in all Occurrences and withall to draw the minds and hands of the Chineses to the common defence of the Country knowing that in the City of Queilin Jungley made Emperour of China which is the head City of Quangsi there was one of the Taiminges Family living who was Nephew to the Great Vanleius they elected him Emperour and called by the name of Jungley This Prince fixed his Imperial seat in the noble City of Chatking in the Province of Quamgtung and hitherto has fought several times with the Tartars with good success And in this Princes Court the chief Eunuch called Pang Achilleus is the greatest favourite and a great Servant of Christ whom he hath long professed to serve both by word and deed for to propagate Christianity he has ever mantained a mission of Jesuites about him by whose painful endeavours many have embraced the Faith of Christ And amongst others the very Mother of this Emperour his Wife The Heir to the Empire becomes Christian and his eldest Son Heir of the Empire called Constantin did all imbrace Christianity May this Man by the prayers of all Christians prove another Constantine to the Empire of China The Emperour himself is not averse from Christiany but hitherto he hath deferr'd his Baptism but yet he permitted his Wife to send a Father of the Society to do homage to the Sea Apostolick as all Europe has heard God of his goodness grant him that felicity which may redound to the universal good of China and Gods greater Glory But it was not only in Quangsi that the Chineses began to resume their courage Theeves infest the Province of Fokien but in the Province of Fokien also for no sooner was the Tartarian Army called back to Peking but a petty Heathen Priest broke out of the Mountains of Fokien with a band of seditious fellows and subduing the Tartarian Garrisons he took the fair City of Kienning and many others from their subjection and others which lay lurking in the Mountains following his example recovered also many other Cities about which time also the friends and Kindred of the Captive Iquon did extremely infest the Sea and making descents upon the Land vexed the Province extremely about the Quarters of Siuencheu and Changcheu At this time the Governour of the Province of Chekiang was Vice-Roy of two Provinces who hearing of these commotions came presently by night in great hast with all the force he could make towards the Mountains of Fokien for he with reason feared lest they should take possession of the passages of those places which if they had done the whole Province had been regained But when this Vice-Roy called Changus found the Mountains and passages clear and no opposition made in such difficult places he then proclamed himself victorious and his enemies perfidious Rebels Changus the Commander of the Tartars besieges Kienning in vain wherefore comming without resistance into the Country he besieged the City Kienning which was defended by Vangus This Siege held some weeks but he never could take the place by force and therefore having lost many of his men by assaults he judged it best rather to block up the place a far of than to besiege it so close and neer But yet by this he hindred other forces from joyning with Vangus so that he was not strong enough to sally out upon them When the noyse of these commotions came to Peking It is at length taken and raâ—â—d the Emperour presently sent a new supply to appease these tumults and this fresh Army comming to joyn with the other brought the City to great streights but yet they could not win it till at length they found means by a rare invention to transport their Canons over the Mountains upon Porters Shoulders by which means they dismantled the Town and put all whatsoever to the Sword to the number
shew he feared nothing But for all this the Commander Hous besieges this City a far off which was three Leagues compass and out of the reach of their Artillery and to the end he might make a shew of greater forces than indeed he had he joyned to his Army a Company of dull headed Clowns by which means he made up a Body of thirty thousand men The Governour of the City seeing such an Army as appeared believed them all to be Souldiers and lest his Citizens should joyn with them he thought again of cutting all their throats but his friends ever diverted him from this outragious cruelty and therefore to divert himself from such horrid projects he used to walk upon the Walls and recreate himself in seeing the Chineses under his colours fight so valiantly against Hous for when he saw this he used to cry out in their Language Hoo Manzu as much as to say O good Barbarians for so the Tartars call the Chinaes as conquering Nations use to expose the conquered to scorn and derision and he crowned this scoff with these words Mauzuxa Manzu as much as to say let the barbarous kill the barbarous yet notwithstanding when they returned victorious he did not onely praise them but gave them Mony and other pretious rewards which were exposed to publick view upon the Walls to animate them to high and generous exploits so as Hous finding no Body stir in the City as he expected could do nothing besides their came new succours to the Tartarian Army which when Hous understood by his spys he presently retired But yet this flight did not serve his turn nor could he wholy escape the Tartars hands for the Horsemen pursuing them fell upon the rear and killed many carrying away great store of Riches which the Commander distributed in such proportion as he gave most to such as were wounded what became of Hous after this action is unknown and therefore I conclude that these Northern revolts produced no other effect but the spoyl Rapin and Plunder of all those Quarters as it had produced the like in the Southern parts The Tartars having happily overcome all difficulties hitherto The Tartars insolencies produced great dangers fell into another by their own insolency from the yeare MDCXLIX the Emperour of the Tartars being now grown up to mans Estate desired to Marry the Daughter of the King of Tayngu who is Prince of the Western Tartars hoping by this match to conserve the friendship of him whose Forces he feared for this end he sent his Uncle to him who was King of Pauang This Prince passed by the impregnable City of Taitung which as it is the last City towards the North so also it is the Key and Bulwork of the Province of Xansi against the irruption of the Western Tartars for it commands all the Souldiers which keep the many Fortifications of those Quarters where a fair Level down extending it self beyond that famous Wall I mentioned heretofore gives a fit occasion for the incursion of the Tartars The Women of this City are held the most beautiful of all China and therefore it happened that some of the Embassadours followers did ravish some of them and also carried away by a Rape a Person of quality as she was carried home to her Spouse which was a thing never heard of heretofore amongst the Chinese The people had recourse for these injuries to Kiangus who governed those Quarters for the Tartars who hearing of this gross abuse sent to that petty Prince Pauang to demand the new Married Lady to be restored and to desire him to prevent future disorders in that nature but he gave a very slight Ear to such complants and therefore Kiangus himself went unto him who was not only slighted but even cast out of the Palace His anger was quickly turned into rage Kiangus riseth against the Tartars which made him resolve to revenge that injury by the Tartars bloud he therefore Musters his Souldiers and presently falls on the Tartars kils all he could encounter the Embassadour himself being let down by the Walls of the Town hardly escaped by swift Horses Then Kiangus displayed a Banner wherein he declared himself a Subject to the Empire of China but named no Emperour in particular because perchance he had heard nothing of the Emperour Jungley by reason of so vast a distance Kiangus gathers great Forces But however he invited all the Chineses to the defence of their Country and to expell the Tartars and many Captains as well as Souldiers came in to him yea even the very Western Tartars against whom he had ever Born Arms being promised great rewards sent him the Forces which he demanded This accident extremely troubled the Court for they knew well that the Western Tartars did both aspire to the Empire of China and also were envious at their prosperous course of fortune they also knew that they were more abundant Men and Horses than they were for from hence it is they bought all their best Horses and they feared that now they should have no more and therefore they resolved to send presently a good strong Army against him before he should gather a greater strength But Kiangus who was as valiant as crafty and one who by long experience knew how to deal with the Tartars first feigned to fly with his Army But in the rear he placed very many Carts and Wagons which were all covered very carefully as if they had carried the richest Treasures they possessed but in real truth they carried nothing but many great and lesser pieces of Artillery with their mouths turned upon the Enemy all which the Tartars perceiving presently pursue they fight without any order and fall upon the prey with great Avidity but those that accompanied the Wagons Kiangus overthrows the Tartars by a stratagem firing the Artillery took off the greatest part of the Army and withall Kiangus wheeling about came up upon them and made a strange carnage amongst them and after this he shewed himself no less admirable in Stratagems than in fortitude and courage He beats the Tartars again when he fought a set pitched field with a new recruited Army of the Tartars in which he obtained so noble and renowned a victory that he filled all the Court at Peking with fear and trembling for by this means victorious Kiangus had gathered so vast an Army as he counted no less then a hundred and forty thousand Horse and four hundred thousand foot all men having recourse to him to defend their Country against the Tartarian Army And therefore Amavangus Tutor to the Emperour thinking it not fit to commit this business to any but to himself resolved himself to go against Kiangus and try the last turn of fortune for the Tartars Amavangus himself goes against Kiangus he therefore drew out all the eight Colours that is the whole Forces that were then in Peking for under these eight colours are comprehended all the Forces
done whilst in the mean time these poor victims with lamentable crys which penetrated the very vault of Heaven and might have moved a heart composed of stone or Rock holding up their hands begged of this outragious Tyrant to spare the lives of his innocent people He stood a while Pensive like an astonished and amazed Creature so as it seemed to be an imperfect Crisis wherin humane nature struggled a little with those bowels and that heart which was composed of all cruelty but presently returning to his beastly nature Kill Kill saith he and cut off all these Rebels upon which words they were all massacred in one day out of the City Wals in the presence of this bloody monster Those Religious persons which are there the Fathers of Christianity resolved to make their addresses for the Tyrant to save their innocent servants lives and though all men judged it a desperate attempt yet they obtained the lives of those they claimed So as they distributed themselves at the City Gates and as their Clients passed bound to the Shambles they mercifully unbound their Shakles and rescued them from death By which occasion also they performed another acceptable Sacrifice to God in Baptizing an infinit number of Children Many Children Baptized which the Souldiers willingly permitted so as the horrid and execrable cruelty of this Tyrant proved as advantagious to these little Angels as Herods slaughter did to the Blessed Innocents They write that in this massacre their was so much blood spilt as made the great River of Kiang which runs by the City to increase and swell visibly and the dead Corps being cast into the River and carried downwards to the other Cities did denounce unto them that they were to expect no better Treaty from this Tyrants hands And it quickly proved true for he dispatched his Army to the rest of the Cities and killed all that he could lay hands on and thus this Tyrant did bring that populous Province of Suchuen into a vast wilderness After this he mustered all his Souldiers into a Field which in China is ever deputed for that end and is called by the Natives Kioochang in this place he delivered himself thus unto them I hope by your valour to obtain the Empire of the world when I have expelled the Tartars but I desire to see you yet quicker and nimbler than hitherto you have been you all know to free you from all burdens and heavy luggage how I sunck threescore Ships full of Silver in the River of Kiang which I can easily recover to reward your pains and merits when I shall once have obtained the Empire he had indeed sunk the Ships and killed the Ship-men to conceal the place but there remains yet a greater encumbrance which retards much our journy and all our enterprises which is your Wives which are a heavy burden to you all Therefore put on a generous resolution There will not be wanting other exquisit Women when we are come to possess the Empire and although as Emperour I ought to have some Prerogative and make a difference betwixt you and my Royal person yet I am content in this to give you all a leading example which may serve as a President He kils all the Souldiers Wives After this Speach of three hundred handsome and beautiful Maids which he kept for his voluptuous pleasures he onely reserved twenty to serve his three Queens and commanded all the rest to be killed upon the place The Souldiers presently followed the example and command of their cruell Tyrant and cut off the heads of innumerable innocent Women as if they had been their mortal enemies Having now no more men in the Province of Suchuen to put to death He burned his Palace in the City of Chingtu he turned his fury and hatred against Cities Houses and Palaces for whereas he had built himself a very stately and magnificent Palace in the City of Chingtu he consumed that and with it a great part of that noble City with fire besides he cut down all Trees and Woods that they might profit no man And thus as he said having purged his Army he marched on into the Province of Xensi to meet the Tartars but as he marched if he found any man remaining alive he commanded him to be killed And not content with all this if he espied any Souldier which marched either too far before or too far behind though the fault were never so little he killed him presently He killed all his sick or weak Souldiers that they might be delivered as he said out of so miserable and ruined a Country I suppress many more passages of his cruelty because I will hasten to the Catastrophe of this Tragedy He was no sooner entred into the Province of Xensi but one of the Emperours Uncles meets him with five thousand Tartars and the Body of the Army marched after him five Horsemen run before the Army as usually they do amongst the Tartars who if they be well received of the enemy they retire and take it as a sign of Peace and submission but if they receive any Act of hostility then they march up to fight These Horsemen were espied by the Tyrants Scouts who presently brought him tydings of their approach But he laughed at the news and jestingly asked them If the Tartars had learned to fly He had at that time many persons tyed before him which he intended to massacre and amongst the rest two of the Jesuits for asking leave to return into Suchuen which was the Country they had undertaken to convert to Christianity But the suddain death of this Archbrigand delivered them all from the imminent danger for at the same time came in his chief Commanders assuring him the Tartar was upon him upon which news he being of a bold and couragious humour burst out of his Tent and without either head-piece or brest-Plate snatched up a Lance went out with a few to view the enemy The Tartars presently assaulted the Tyrant and the first discharged Arrow which was as happy to the Tartars The Tyrant is slain as it was to many others peirced the heart of that monster of Cruelty killing that Man who had an intention to make an end of all Men and who from the base condition of a raskally Theef presumed to take the Sacred Title of King and Emperour The head being down the Tartars easily seized on the body of his Army but many of the Souldiers submitted to them others were killed others run away and the poor inhabitants of the Province of Suchuen received the Tartars as their Saviours The Province of Suchuen is made subject to the Tartars By which means this Province which is the most Western in China and borders upon the Kingdom of Tibet became subject to the Tartarian Empire When they had established Garrisons and all their other affairs in that Country they prepared to return to the Royal City of Peking leading with them the two