Artifice to be satisfied therein she caused one to come as in great hast and to tell Praxiteles That his Shop was on Fire he being startled at the News cryed out Is the picture of Cupid and the Satyr safe By this Subtilty she found out wherein the Artist himself believed he had expressed most skill and thereupon she chose the Cupid Zuinglius's Theatre vol. 3. lib. 3. LXXXVI Dr. Fuller relates this passage in his Holy State That a poor Beggar in Paris being very hungry staid so long in a Cooks Shop who was dishing up his Meat till his Stomach was satisfied only with the smell thereof The Cholerick Cook demanded of him to pay for his Breakfast the poor man denied it and the Controversie was referred to the deciding of the next man who should pass by which chanced to be the most notorious Idiot and Changeling in the whole City He on the Relation of the matter determined That the poor mans Money should be put between two empty dishes and the Cook should be recompenced with the gingling of the poor mans Money as he was satisfied with the smell only of the Cooks meat and this is affirmed by credible Writers as no Fable but an undoubted Truth Fullers Holy State lib. 3. LXXXVII Antiochus the Son of Seleucus daily languished and wasted away under a disease whereof the cause was uncertain to the great Trouble and Affliction of his Father who therefore sent for Erasistratus a famous Physitian to attend the cure of his beloved Son who addressing himself with his utmost dexterity to find out the root of his Infirmity he perceived it was rather from the trouble of his Mind than any effect of his Constitution But when the Prince could not be prevail'd with to make any such acknowledgment by frequent feeling of his pulse he observed it to beat with more Vigor and strength at the naming or presence of Stratonica who was the beloved Concubine of his Father Having made this discovery and knowing the Prince would rather dye than confess so dangerous a Love he took this Course He told Seleucus that his Son was a dead man For saith he he languishes for the love of my Wife And what said Seleucus have I merited so little at thy hands that thou wilt have no respect to the Love of the young man would you said Erasistratus be content to serve the love of another in that manner I would heaven said Seleucus would turn his love toward my dearest Stratonica Well said Erasistratus you are his Father and may be his Physitian he loves none but Stratonica Seleucus immediately gave Stratonica to Antiochus and Threescore Thousand Crowns as a reward to the prudent Physitian Camerarij Horae Sub. ch 1. LXXXVIII Camerarius tells out of Cedrenus how the Queen of Sheba when she saw that Solomon had expounded all her hardest Riddles caused one day certain young Boys and Girls apparelled all alike to be set before the King none being able by their Faces and looks to discern the one Sex from the other to the end that therein she might have further Trial of King Solomons Wisdom He knowing the Queens intent presently made some water to be brought in a great Basin bidding them all to wash their Faces by this device he easily discerned the Males from the Females for the Boyes rubbed their Faces hard and lustily but the Girls being shamefac't did hardly touch theirs with their Fingers ends Camerarii Horae subces Cent 1. Thus we find Quickness of Apprehension and Maturity of Judgement are instead of the Cord and Pulley whereby some men have prevailed to bring Truth to Light when she hath lain reserved and concealed LXXXIX Various have been the means whereby some Persons have arrived to preferment for I find saith Muretus it is related in the Commentaries of the Greeks That Semiramis was the Concubine of one of the King of Assyria's Slaves As soon as Ninus that Great Monarch had taken notice of her he was so surprized with her Beauty and Wit that he siezed her for himself and by degrees she gained such an Empire over him that he could deny her nothing nor was there any thing but she durst ask And when once she had let fall in discourse There was one thing she did earnestly desire and he had bid her freely and openly speak it whatever it was I have desired said she to sit one day in your Throne and to do Justice and that for that whole day all should obey me as they do you The King smiling granted her Request and forthwith sent out his Edict That on such a day all men whatsoever should obey the Commands of Semiramis for such was the Kings pleasure When the day came the Lady ascends the Throne in her Royal Apparel a mighty Concourse there was she at first to try their obedience commands something to be done of no great moment when she perceived she was exactly obeyed in all her Precepts she commands the Guards of the Kings Body that they sieze the King himself It is done the King is brought She orders him to be bound it is performed she commands that they strike off his head she is presently obeyed and though hereby we may observe the great Folly of this Prince and the base Ingratitude of such kind of Cattle she being advanced by him Yet by this means she prolonged the date of her Empire many years which she ruled with great wisdom success and glory Aelian Vari Hist Lib. 7. Ch. 1. XC In the time of William Rufus King of England there was one Roger a poor Priest serving a cure in a Village near Caen in Normandy It chanced that Henry the Kings youngest brother passing that way made some stay in the Village and being desirous to hear Mass this Roger then Curate was the man to say it which he dispatched with such speed and celerity that the Souldiers who commonly love not long prayers commended him for it telling their Lord That there could not be found a fitter Priest for men of War than he Whereupon Henry appointed him to follow him and when he came to be King preferred him to many great places and at last to be Chancellor of England and Bishop of Salisbury When King Stephen came to the Crown he held this man in as great account as his Predecessor King Henry had done and perhaps in greater He arrived to such wealth that he built the Castles of Salisbury the Vies Sherburn Malmsbury and Newark to which there were no structures comparable in the Kingdom He had also Forty Thousand Marks in Money which together with his Castles the King siezed into his own hands upon Displeasure Baker's Chronicle Page 71. XCI There was in the City of Capua saith Sir Walter Rawleigh an ambitious Noble man called Pacuvius Calavius his credit grew and was upheld by furthering all popular desires there was at this time a Plebeian faction in the Town and that so prevalent that all was governed by
Bajazet Emperor of the Turks Inclosed in an Iron Cage by K. Tamerlane Extraordinary ADVENTURES Discoveries And EVENTS By R B. London Printed for Nath Crouch EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES AND DISCOVERIES Of several Famous MEN. With the Strange Events and Signal Mutations and Changes in the Fortunes of many Illustrious Places and Persons in all Ages Being an Account of a Multitude of Stupendious Revolutions Accidents and Observable Matters in many Kingdomes States and Provinces throughout the whole World With divers Remarkable Particulars Lively described in Picture for their better Illustration By R. B. Author of the History of the Wars of Enggland Remarks of London Wonderful Prodigies and Admirable Curiosities c. London Printed by J. Richardson for Nath. Crouch at the Bell in Exchange-Alley next to Kemps Coffee-House over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1683. To the READER IT is a saying That the greatest Divertisement to a Souldier or Traveller is to discourse of their former Dangers and Adventures And if the relating of them be so pleasant certainly the hearing thereof is no less divertive Now in this little Volume you may meet with variety of Accidents of all kinds for here you may see on the one side Pompous Greatness laid as low as Contempt it self and on the other hand Baseness and Obscurity raised up to amazing and Prodigious Heights Here you may find some such noble Spirits that they could not rest satisfied till by their own hazards they had discovered New Worlds and brought one Hemisphere to some Acquaintance with the other Here you may observe That though amongst the Romans the Temple of Honour was so contrived that therein was no Passage to it but through that other of Virtue yet that things are far otherwise than they ought to be and that Virtue is as familiarly persecuted as rewarded nor have Persons of worth been always barely beholden to their Merit for their Preferment but perhaps some petty Accident or inconsiderable Circumstance hath been the occasion of their Advancement Here you may remark That as some men who have received the Sentence of Condemnation in themselves have had unlook'd for Deliverance and have miraculously escaped when in all Humane Reason they might be numbred among the Dead So others have been the hasteners of their own Downfalls and Destruction and have made their own Graves with their own Tongues by their Temerity and rashness in Talking Here lastly we may be seriously inform'd that their is no Creature so small and inconsiderable in our Eyes but if the Almighty please may be able to afflict yea and ruine us when we are in the fulness of our sufficiency These with a multitude of other Instances of various natures and kinds are the subject matter of this small Treatise which being duly contemplated are sufficient proofs to a considering Mind of a Superiour and Divine Power that visibly discovers it self in the Occurrences and Transactions of this lower World and disposes of Men and Things as it pleaseth even beyond either their Hopes or Fears and if the Perusal of these Stupendious Examples produce such a real Belief in the Reader the Publisher will think himself sufficiently recompenced for his Labour and Pains and may conclude with the Poet That Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci He certainly does hit the white Who mingles Profit with Delight And that this may have such a lasting and effectual Impression is the real wish of R. B. Extraordinary Adventures Discoveries and Events THE Surprizing Adventures and Events that daily assail Mankind are so Numerous and Extraordinary that nothing seems more inseparable to our Mortal state than constant and continual Vicissitudes Changes and Alterations But since we find in History that some more Remarkable Accidents have happened to some Places and Persons than to others it must needs be very delightful among such a multitude of Instances to give an Account of the most Considerable Relations I have met with in many credible Writers and that is the design of this small Tract wherein I shall not so much regard the Method Order or other Circumstances of an exact Historian as in the whole to divert the Reader with what may be both pleasant and profitable wherein it may be he may more fully inform himself of several matters which he had formerly heard of but yet did not so cleerly understand This without any further Preface is that which I now aim at wherein I will impose nothing upon any mans belief but leave every one at his full Liberty what degree of Faith he will exercise therein it being sufficient that I have cited my Authors who are generally such as have been accounted Men of Veracity and Honesty in the Accounts they give and may therefore challenge as much Credit as is due to any Humane History I. Strange were the Adventures of Christopher Columbus who discovered a New World in the last Age which is now called America He was born at Nervi in the Seigniory of Genoa who being a man of excellent Abilities and born to undertake great matters could not perswade himself but that considering the Motion of the Sun there must needs be another World to which that Glorious Planet did impart both his Life and Heat when he went from us This World he purposed to seek after and in 1486 he discovered his Design to the State of Genoa who rejecting his Proposals he sent his Brother Bartholomew to King Henry the seventh of England who in his Voyage hither unhappily fell into the hands of Pyrates by whom he was long kept Prisoner but having at last obtained his Liberty he repaired to the Court of England where he found such cheerful entertainment at the hands of that King that Christopher Columbus was sent for to come thither also But Christopher not knowing of his Brothers Imprisonment and not hearing from him conceived the offer of his service to have been neglected and thereupon made his desires known at the Court of Castile where after many delays and six years attendance upon the business he was at last furnished with three ships only and those not for Conquest but Discovery With this small strength he sailed on the Ocean sixty dayes and yet could see no land so that the discontented Spaniards began to Mutiny and refused to move a foot forward Just at which time it hapned that Columbus discerned the Clouds to carry a cleerer colour than they did before and therefore intreated them to expect only three days longer in which time if they saw not land he promised to return Toward the end of the third day one of the Company descried Fire which was an evident token that they drew near to some shore The Place they discovered was an Island on the Coast of Florida called by Columbus St. Salvador Having Landed his Men he caused a Tree to be cut down and made a Cross thereof which he set up neer the place where he came on Land and by that Ceremony took
that the good of his Subjects was his only care called an Assembly of the 3 Estates of the Kingdom who being convened and the King seated in his Royal Throne the Bishop of Elvas made a Speech to them to the following purpose That one of the first Laws of Nature was the uniting men together from whence Cities and Kingdoms had their Original and by which they after defended themselves in War and maintained themselves in Peace That for this cause His Majesty had called this Assembly to consult for the better service of God defence in War and Government in Peace That there could be no service of God without Vnion in Religion no defence without Vnion amongst men no regular Government without Vnion of Councils That His Majesty did expect to be informed by his Loyal Subjects what was for the good of the State That they were to render thanks to the Almighty who had given them a King that would govern them by known Laws That His Majesty did not esteem those Tributes lawful which were paid with Tears and therefore did from that present take off from his Subjects all Taxes that had been imposed by the Kings of Spain because His Majesty was not willing to Reign over their goods nor over their heads nor over their Priviledges but over their hearts hoping that they would find out a sweet expedient to defend their Country against their Potent Enemy who threatned to make them all slaves and to destroy and annihilate their Nation That they would therefore considering his Majesties goodness and their own Honour manifest at once to the world that as never Subjects had such a gracious King so never King had such Loyal Subjects The Bishop having ended his Speech the most ancient Officer of the Chamber of Lisbon stood up and in the name of all the 3 Estates who stood up likewise returned humble thanks to His Majesty for this gracious bounty heartily professing That they did not only offer up their Goods but their Lives to His Majesties service earnestly intreating him to dispose of both as he pleased And to manifest that their Hearts and Mouths agreed in this free offer of themselves to His Majesty they presently voted that two Millions should be immediately raised by this Kingdom But the King wisely and politickly declined the imposing a Tax on his Subjects choosing rather to accept of their Benevolence which made every one strive who should offer most so that instead of the Two Millions there was in short time brought into the Treasury Four Millions of Gold Nor was this Money intended by them nor imployed to any other use then to maintain the Grandeza and Splendor of the K. and Kingdom there being no need of Money for the payment of Souldiers every one offering to serve freely and at their own charge against their vowed enemies the Spaniards Thus was this Kingdom utterly lost to the Spanish Monarchy King Alphonso the 6th lately removed from the Government and his Brother Don Pedro now Reigning and likewise Her Majesty of England Q. Katherine being the Sons and Daughter of this K. John in which Family the Government is like still to continue and never to revert back to the Spaniard who lost at this time not only Portugal but with it all they enjoyed by that Kingdom in the East-Indies the Terceâ—a Islands and other Islands in the Atlantick Sea the Kingdom of Algarve Brazile with all they had in Africa except the Town of Ceuta which was the whole that remained to the Spanish Nation of all those great Dominions Hist Portugal Pag. 61. 104. The remarkable revolutions in the Empire of China and the entire Conquest thereof by the Tartars happened in the same year 1640 As if some fatal influence had inclined most Nations to changes and distractions at that time It cannot therefore be unpleasant to give a brief account thereof The Inhabitants of China enjoyed all the pleasures of peace under the Government of their last Emperour who was the most absolute Monarch that ever ruled those vast Territories when in the year 1640 a year fatal to several States those Clouds began to gather which shortly after produced such a storm as ruined the whole Empire The name of the present Emperour was Zunchin a deceitful and unfortunate name for in the Chinese Language it signifies successful omen or Soveraign Dominion but how false a prognostick this was appeared quickly This Emperor was of a most courteous and good disposition and certainly his Subjects who enjoy'd great Plenty and all the advantages of Peace lived truly happy under so Excellent a Prince But it is not sufficient for a Prince to be Good and to govern mildly and peaceably unless he likewise takes care not to have ill Officers who make use of their Credit under him to gratifie their Private Passions and to extend their Ambition beyond all Bounds and Limits yet some Authors have branded him for Covetousness and that after a great Famine which happened in the Northern Provinces occasioned by an unheard of number of Locusts he imposed upon his Subjects as high Taxes as they paid formerly in fruitful flourishing times the former Money being all mispent and the Souldiers not paid Whereupon the number of the Mutineers daily increased who enriched themselves by Plunder and Rapine For as Semedo in his History of China intimates Rebellion is the usual Effect of Extortion and Tyranny especially where the Prince would have more from the People than they are able to give And therefore Theopompus saith he King of the Lacedemonians when his wife told him that because he had eased the People of many Taxes he would leave his Son a poorer Kingdom than he received from his Father answered Relinquo sed Diuturnius that is I shall leave him a more lasting Kingdom Happy had it been for Zunchin Emperor of China had he been of Theopompus his Mind But saith my Author though I find him charged with Covetousness yet I am not very apt to suspect him so guilty of that Vice as of another usually more fatal to Princes which is a facile Nature easie to be wrought upon by others and too inclinable to favour and indulge themselves and not willing to undergo the weight of Affairs From whence it was that though under the Reign of his Brother Thienking who preceded him in the Imperial Throne Zunchin so opposed his Darling Favourite the Eunuch Guei and all the Eunuchs his Partisans that at last he prevailed with his brother to banish them all his Court to the great Satisfaction of the whole Empire and when his Brother dying without Issue the Imperial Crown fell to him at his first taking possession thereof he so persecuted the Eunuchs who by abuse of their Authority under his Brother had made themselves abhorred by the whole Nation that Guei in despair poysoned himself yet at last this very Emperor suffered himself by the crafty insinuation of some about him contrary to his own Judgment to be