of the 17 Provinces And although as I have alreadie said Amsterdam may Justly be taken for the second or third citie after London and Paris yet it hath neither Courtnor Vniversitie as they have And now in treating of all the excellencies and virtues of Amsterdam I shal not hyperbolise or flatter for before I have don you shal see I shal also faithfully declaime against the evils mistakes and vices in it Amsterdam stands upon a thousand Morgans of Land encompassed with a verie strong wal and Bastions most pleasant to behold with a verie large Burgaval or Gracht as they cal it for the defence of three parts of the citie the fourth being secured by the sea or Ty. There are 13 Churches in this citie for those of the reformed religion called dutch Presbiterians to meet and worship in with two Frencb one Highdutch and one English all Presbiterian Churches who onely are alowed Bels and whose Ministers are maintayned by the Magistrate All these Churches or congregations make up onely a third part of the Inhabitants of the citie The Papists who have eightie five howses or Chappels to meet in for their worship make another third part and have a long square of howses for their Nuns to live in who are not shut up in Cloysters as in Papists countries they are wont to doe but may goe in and out at their pleasure yea and marrie also if they grow wearie of a Nunnish life These Churches of the Papists have no bels allowed them beeing lookt upon as conventicles and are many times shut up and again opened at the Scouts pleasure The other third part of the citie is made up by Jewes Lutherans Arminians Brownists or English Independents Anabaptists and the Quakers None of which as was also said of the Papists have bels allowed them but are accounted Conventicles and all that marie amongst them must first be maried by the Magistrate and then if they pease among themselves in their own assemblies neyther are any of them admitted unto any Office in the Government but onely such as are of the reformed or Presbiterian profession The Jewes who are verie considerable in the trade of this citie have two Synagogues one whereof is the Largest in Christendom and as some say in the world sure I am it far exceeds those in Rome venice and all other places where I have bin Within the Court yard where their Synagogue stands they have severaâ— Roomes or schooles where their children are taught Hebrew and verie carefully to the shame of Christians negligence brought up and instruckted in the Jewish principles Amsterdam for the wise Statesmen it hath produced is said to be a second Athens others make it the Storehowse or Magasin of Europe for that it hath such great store of Corne wherewith it furnishes many other nations And secondly for the exceeding great Magasin of Spices which in antient times the Venetians brought by land furnishing all parts of Europe but now is don by the East-Indie Companie which not onely supplyes Europe therewith but many places in the Indies also Thirdly it hath inconceivable store of al manner of provisions for war In so much that England and divers other nations send to Amsterdam to buy Arms Bufcoats Belts Match c yea here are several Shopkeepers who can deliver Armes for 4000 or 5000 men and at a cheaper rate then can be got any where else and this they can doe by reason of their great Industry in the Ingrossing most of the Iron workes on the Rhine and other Rivers which run into Holland Forthly Amsterdam hath more store of sawed and prepared Tymber for shipping then can be found in any one Nation in the world and this is the reason why her Neighbour town Sardam is made capable of Building ships 20 per cent cheaper then they can doe in England or France So that both France and Spaine do many times buy them in Holland as lately the King of Spaine bought 10 Capital Ships of the two Brothers the Melts Merchants in this citie Fifthly Amsterdam is the staple where the Emperor sels his Quicksilver not only to the Spaniard to use in his mines in the Indies but for the making of Cinoprium or Vermillion with which Amstrerdam furnisheth not only Europe but many places in the Indies Sixtly Amsterdam is the Market where the French King bought his Marble for Versellis Louvre and other of his Palaces in France There are such Vast Magasins in Amsterdam that a man would think that sees them there were Quaries of Marble neare the City Gates Seaventhly Amsterdam hath the most considerable Bank that now is in the whole World I have compared the Bank of Venice with that of Genua and both their Banks write not of so much money in two dayes as Amsterdam doth in one further I have compared the Bank of Venice with Hamburg and find both those Banks fall very much short with the bank of Amsterdam There are many other particulars I could name as Arguments to prove the great Riches Trade of Amsterdam as those vast Quantities of Wynes Brandewynes they sell in the North Eastseas those vast Countryes adjoyning thereunto from whence they bring Hemp Pitch Tar furnish France Italy Spain with the same they likewise have much Ingrossed the Copper Iron of Sweedland I will say no more of her stores Magazins but shall in the next place say some thing of her Churches Charitie to the Poore I will not speake much of her Churches but only that they are in General large and well built In one of them the States have Spared no cost to exceed the whole world in 3 things Viz an Organ with sets of Pipes that counterfit a Corus of Voyces it hath 52 whole stops besides halfe stops hath 2 rowes of Keyes for the feet and three rowes of Keyes for the Hands I have had people of Quality to heare it play who could not believe but that there were men or Women above singing in the Organ untill they were convinced by goeing up into the Organ Roome The second is such a large Carved Pulpet Canapie as cannot be found elsewhere in the world The third is a Screene of brasse The Stathouse in this Citty is a wonderfull superb Building on the uppermost part of which is a large Magazin of Armes The Copper Statues that stand on top of the Stathouse are very large peeces Exellently cast Especially that called Atlas who hath a Globe of the world on his back that will hold 30 Barels of water for me to speake of the several rarityes of Pictures Carved works marble in this Stathouse of the Globes Celestiall Terrestriall that are on the floor of the great Hall would make Booke of it selfe I therefore will speake of their Almeshouses of the Government of the poore of their Prisons houses of Correction This Citty is said to have 20000 poore Every day at Bed
contemptible that the libraries of many Grammar Schools and of privat men in England or Holland are far better stored with books then it is Upon viewing of it and that of the Kings Palace I called to mind the saying of a French man upon the like occasion That Swedland came behind France and England in the knowledge of men and things at least 800 yeares yet some Swedes have been so conceited of the antiquity of their Countrey as to bragg that Paradice was seated in Sweden that the Countrey was turned into such heaps of rocks for the rebellion of our first parents and that Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel in a Countrey three Swedish miles distant from Vpsall A French man standing by and hearing this Romantick story as I was told fitted him with the like telling him that when the world was made in six days at the end of the creation all the Rubbish that remained was throw'n together into a corner which made up Sweden and Norway And indeed the French seeme to have no great likeing to the Countrey what ever kindness they may have for the people for a French Ambassadour as an author of that Countrey relates being by order of Queen Christina treated in a Countrey house 4 Swedish miles from Stockholme and upon the rode goeing and comeing with all the varieties and pleasures that the Countrey could affoard on purpose to make him have a good opinion of the same made answere to the Queen who asked him upon his return what he thought of Sweden that were he master of the whole Countrey he would presently sell it buy a farme in France or England which under favour I think was a litle tart and sawcy Having stayed a considerable time in Swedland and most part at Stockholme I set out from thence to goe to Elsenbourg by land and went a litle out of my way to see a small city called Eubrone famous for a coat of Arms which it got in this manner A certain Masculine Queen of Denmark who had conquered a great part of Sweden comeing to this city asked the Magistrates what was the Arms of their city who having told her that they had none she plucked up her coats and squatting upon the Snow bid them take the marke she left there for their Arms It 's pity she did not give them a suitable motto to it also What that figure is called in blazonerie I know not but to this day the city uses it in their Armes and for marking their commodities This Queen came purposely into Sweden to pay a visit to a brave woman that opposed a King of Swedland who in a time of famine would have put to death all the men and women in his Countrey above sixty years of age The Countrey all the way I travelled in Swedland is much of the same qualitie of the land about Stockholme untill I came neare the Province of Schonen which is called the store house and Kitchin of Sweden where the Countrey is far better It was formerly very dangerous to travell in this Province of Schonen becaus of the Snaphances who were a kind of bloody robbers now utterly destroyed by the King so that it is safe enough travelling there Entering into Schonen I saw twenty nine of these rogues upon wheeles and elsewhere in the Countrey ten and twenty at severall places The King used great severitie in destroying of them some he caused to be broken upon the wheele others speeted in at the fundament and out at the shoulders many had the flesh pinched off of there breasts and so were fastened to stakes till they died and others again had their noses and both hands cut off and being seared with a hot Iron were let goe to acquaint their camerades how they had been served The King is very severe against Highway-men and duellers In above a hundred miles travelling wee found not a house where there was either French wine or brandie which made mee tell a Swede of our Company who was travelling to Denmark that I would undertake to shew any man 500 houses wherein a traveller might have wine and other good accommodation in the space of an hundred miles upon any rode from London There are severall small towns and fertile land in this Countrey of Schonen lying upon the Sound at the narrowest part whereof lies Elsenbourg burnt down by the Danes in the last war Here I crost over to Elsenore the passage being but a league broad The King of Denmark has a castle at Elsenore which commands the narrow passage of the Sound where all Ships that enter into or come out of the Baltick sea must pay toll Having visited this castle and stai'd about a fortnight with the English Consul and Sr. John Paul late resident at the Court of Swedland I went to the danish Court at Coppenhaguen Copenhaguen is the capitall city of Zeeland Jutland or Denmark and place of residence of the King It stands on a flat encompassed with a pleasant and delightfull Countrey much resembling England The streets of the city are kept very neat and cleane with lights in the night time for the convenience and safetie of those who are then abroad a custome not as yet introduced into Stockholme where it is dangerous to be abroad when it is dark The Kings men of war lye here very conveniently being orderly ranged betwixt Booms after the manner of Amsterdam and neare the Admiralty house which is a large pile of building well furnished with stores and Magazines secured by a citadell that not onely commands the city but also the Haven and entrey into it The Court of Denmark is splendid and makes a far greater figure in the world then that of Sweden tho not many yeares agoe in the time of Carolus Gustaphus the father of the present King of Swedland it was almost reduced to its last when the walls of Copenhagen saved that Crown and Kingdome That siege was famous caried on with great vigour by the Swede and as bravely maintained by the Danes The monuments whereof are to be seen in the canon bullets gilt that still remain in the walls of some houses and in the steeple of the great Church of the town The Royall palace in Copenhaguen is but small and a very ancient building but his Majesties house Fredenburg is a stately fabrick of Modern Architecture and very richly furnished Denmark is at present a flourishing Kingdome and the King who hath now made it hereditary surpasses most of his predecessours in power and wealth He hath much enlarged his dominions aswell as Authority and by his personall and Royall virtues no less then the eminent qualities of a great many able ministers of State he hath gained the universall love of his subjects and the esteeme of all forreigne Princes and States The Court if much frequented every day but especially on Sundays where about eleven of the clock in the morning the Nobility forreigne Ministers and Officers of the Army
Roade from whence they were constrained by the season of the yeare to retire home and such were the sudden great showers of raine that the Bisshop of Munster was forced in disorder to raise his siege at Groeningen and the French to quit Gorcom I could ad many more observations of the Providences of God to these people as the preserveing the Prince of Orange from the many treacherous designes contrived against him from his Cradel but Moses must be preserved to goe in and out before his people certainely never young Prince Indured so many fatigues as did his Highnes in his tender yeares of which I was an eye witnes and had his Highnes had the yeares and Experience and such a good disciplinde Armie as now he hath in the yeare 1671 when the French Entered the Country his Highnes had given them as good a welcome as he did at Bergen I will say no more of this subject only this that the peace at Nimwegen was also a very wonderful thing for that not above 8 dayes before the peace was signed most of the Plenipotentiaries did believe the war would have continued another yeare first because the King of Denmark and Duke of Brandenburg prospered Exceedingly against Sweedland and totally refused the propositions of France and secondly because the French King writ such Bitter letters against the States Generall yet 8 dayes after drest a letter unto the States in which he calles them his good friends and old Allyes offering them not only Mastricht but every foot of ground they could lay claime to in the world also giveing them new Termes and Conditions as to their priviledges in France by way of Trade Neither can I forget how speedilie and as strangly the mighty French King did quit his Conquered Townes after the Valiant Prince of Orange took Naerden which was the first step to the Frenchs ruine in the States Dominions I come now according to promess in the beginning of this book to give the reader some Remarkes I made in other Countries where I have been during my sixteen years travels To give a full account of all that might be observed in so many Countries is not a taske for one man nor a subject for so small a book I shall onely therefore briefely take notice of some remarkable matters which may in some measure satisfie the curiositie of my Country men who have not been in the said places and convince if possible all of them that no Countrey that ever I was in afords so great conveniencies for the generalitie of people to live in as the Kingdome of England doth Though I have twice made the grand tour of Germany Hungary Italy and France and after my return back to England travelled a third time through Holland as for as Strasbourg and so back by Francfort to Denmark and Sweden yet the reader is not to expect I should follow a Geographicall method and order in speaking of the places I have been in that is to be lookt for in the map and not in travels but onely that I mention places as I found them on my rode according as busines or curiositie led mee to travel The first considerable place I then met with after I was out of the dominions of the States General was Cleave the capital citie of the Province so called a fair and lovely citie standing upon the Rhine and the rivers Wall and Leâ—k This Province much resembles England in rich soyl and pleasantness of its rivers The inhabitants of the Countrey would have mee beleeve that they were originally descended of those Saxons who made a descent in to England and conquered it and to convince the truth of this they shew'd mee a cloyster standing on a hill called Eltham from which they say our Eltham in Kent had its name I was made to observe also two places standing upon the Rhine neare Emmerick called Doadford and Gronâ—wich which according to them gave the names to Dedford and Greenwich in England but many such analogies and similitudes of names are to be found in other places of Germany but especially in uper Saxony and Denmark The greatest part of this Province of Cleave and part of the duchy's of Julieres and Berg and of the Provinces of Marke and Ravensbourg belongs to the Elector of Brandenbourg the rest belonging to the Duke of Newbourg now Elector Palatine and the Elector of Cologne The inhabitants are partly Roman Catholicks partly Lutherans and partly Calvinists who all live promiscuously and peaceably together both in city and Countrey The citie of Cleave is the out most limit of the territories of the Elector of Brandenbourg on this side of Germany from whence his Electorall Highness can travel two hundred dutch miles out right in his own Dominions and never sleep out of his own Countrey but one night in the territories of the Bishop of Osnabrug From Cleave I went to a small town called Rhinberg but a very strong fortification belonging to the Elector of Cologne which dies at two miles distance from the citie of Wesel that belongs to the Elector of Brandenbourg Through Disseldorpe scituated on the Rhine and the Residence of the duke of Newbourg I went next to Cologne a very large city called by the Romans Colonia Agrippina and the French Rome d'Allemagne Cologne is an Imperial citie and a Republick though for some things it does Homage to the Elector of that name and receives an oath from him It is much decayed within these hundred years having been much priest ridden a misfortune that hath undone many other great cities The Jesuits have had so great influence upon the Magistrats that they prevailed with them to banish all Protestants who removed to Hambourg and Amsterdam so that Cologne is become so dispeopled that the houses dayly fall to ruine for want of inhabitants and a great deal of corn and wine now grows within the walls upon ground where houses formerly stood I dare be bold to affirm that there is twice the number of inhabitants in the parish of St. Martins in the fields then there is in Cologne and yet it contains as many parish churches monasteries and chappels as there are days in the year The streets are very large and so are the houses also in many of which one may drive a Coach or waggon into the first room from the streets but the streets are so thin of people that one may pass some of them and not meet ten men or women unless it be Church men or Religious sisters The most considerable inhabitants of the citie are Protestant Merchants tho but few in number and they not allowed a Church neither but a place called Woullin a mile without the citie the rest of the inhabitants who are lay men are miserably poor There are no less than 3000 Students in Cologne taught by the Jesuits gratis who have the priviledge to beg in musicall notes in the day time and take to them selves the liberty of borrowing hats
keepe in his house a hand Mil althought it be but to grind Mustard or Coffy I remember one Mis Guyn a Coffy woman at Rotterdam had like to have been ruined for grinding hir owne Coffy had not Sir Lyonel Jenkins employed his Secretary Doctor Wyn to intreat the States on her behalfe and it was reckoned a grand favor that shee was only find and not banished the City and forfiture made of all her Goods I remember also a Landlord of mine in Layden bought a live Pig in the market and Innocently brough it home and Kild it for which he had like to have been ruinated because he did not frist send to the accisemen to accise it and also let the Visitors see that the Pig was free from deseases At an other time a wyne Merchant comeing to give me a Visit tould me that he had the rarest Rhinish in the City and that if I would send my maid to his Cellar with six Bottels they should be fild whereupon I sent the maid only with two bottels and charged her to hide them under her apron but such was her misfortune that the Scouts Dienaers met her and seized her and her bottels and caryed her to Prison which cost the Wyne Merchant 1500 Gilders and had it not bin for the strongest solicitations made by us he had bin ruined so sacred are Taxes here and must so exactly be payd And were they not here so precise it were Impossible for so smal a Country to subsist And therefore you may heare the Inhabitants generally say that what they suffer is for their Vaderland hence the meanest among them are content to pay what is layd on them for they say all what is the Vaderlands is ours the men of war are theirs the sumptuous Magazins Bridges and every thing what is the Vaderlands And indeed in a sense it is so for they have this to Comfort them that if it please God to Visit them with Poverty they and their Children have the publick purse to maintaine them and this is one maine reason why they so willingly pay their Taxes as they doe for there 's not a soule borne in the States Dominions that wants warme Cloathes and Dyet and good lodging if they make their case knowne to the Magistrates and for the Vagabonds that rove up and downe the streets they are either Walons or other strangers as pretend to have bin ruinated by the late wars I shall now in the next place let you know how Exellently the laws are here executed against Fraud and periury and the Intention of Murders which lawes were once much used in England as you shall heare hereafter when I speake of the Duke of Brandenburgs Court. I shall here Instance a few particullars that hapened in my tyme There was a Spark that made false assignments on the Admiralty who tho related to many of the Magistrates of Amsterdam had his head cut of and another who was a Clark in the Merchants bank who made false posts in their Bookes and had his head also cut of and all the Portions he had given with his Daughters the Husbands were forced to pay back and all his houses and Goods were sould at his dore in the open streets I knew a french Marquis who swore his Regiment was Compleat and when the States knew that he had not halfe his Regiment he likewise had his head cut of in the Prison in the Hague I also knew a french Paedagogue a Runagado Monk who designed to have murdred his master Major Cavellio and his two pupils young Children of the Majors and afterward to set the house a fire to couler the murder he had his head Cut of and set upon a Post with his body on a Wheele neare the Hague I could name you two others Cheaters who were severely whipt under the Gallowes and two under Farmers who designed to run away with the States money The Cheat of breakeing with a full hand is not so frequent in Holland as in England wheresome use it as a way to Slip out of Business and then to live conveniently afterward upon the Estates of other men because in Holland they are more severely punished when discovered then in England as on the contraty those that fall to decay throw losses and unavoidable accidents which they could not prevent find a more speedy and easie way of Compounding and finishing matters with their Creditours if they be over strickt then the Custome or law of England doth aford for the suing out of Statuts of Bankrupts in England doth prouve many tymes so pernitious both to Creditour and Debtor throw the tediousnes of the proceedings and the expensivenes of Executing the Commissions that what by Commissioners fees Treatises and other incident charges the Creditours are put to such Expences as to be uterly disappointed of their Debt and the Poore Debtors for ever ruinated and undone I shall therefore in this place give a short relation of the method used in Amsterdam in the case of Bankrupts which perhaps may be taken notice of by our King and Parlement for the preventing disorders and sad abuses that dayly hapen in Executing the Statutes of Bankrupts The Magistrates of Amsterdam everie yeare name Commissioners for Bankrupts out of those that make up a Judicature like to our courts of Aldermen in London These meet certaine dayes in the weeke in a distinct Chamber in the Stathouse over whose doore is cut in marble the Emblem of Fortune flying away with wings and round chests turnd up side down with mice and Ratts eateing the money Baggs Pens Inkhornes and Paperbookes There they receive Petitions from Debtors and Creditours and as occasion requireth summon the partyes to appeare before them and to lay open the true State of the matter This done they either by authoritie seaze the Bankrupts Books and Effects or Else without any stir and noise leave all remaining in the Debtors houses and send thither two Committes to examine the Bookes and make an inventorie of the Estate with power to compose the matter without giveing much trouble to the parties If the Comissioners find that the Debtor is come to decay by unexpected losses and unavoidable accidents to which he did not at all contribute it is their usuall way to propose to the Creditour such amicable and easy termes as the poore man may be able to performe alotting some tymes the halse of the Estate left to the Debtor some tymes a third part and some tymes perswading the Crediteurs to advance to the poore man a sum of mony to help him up againe in Trade upon condition that he do oblige himselfe to pay the Creditours all he oweth them when God shall be pleased to make him able but on the Contrary if the Commissioners find that a Trader hath dealt Knavishly and broaken with a designe to defraud and cheat his Creditours as if it appeare that a Bankrupt hath kept false bookes and counterfitted bills of Exchange Bills of Loading or
wonders now and than Here lyes a Lawyer an honestman And trully old Ben was in the right for in my tyme I have observed some Gentlemen of that profession that have not Acted like St. Evona or Justice Randal I wil say no more of them but wish them as great fees and as much encouragement as the Lawyers have in Switserland I now come to speake some thing of the three Taxes I mentioned in the former part of my remarques on Taxes of which the first ought rather to be called an usefull and publique invention like to that of the Insurance Office in London then a publick Tax seeing no man needs contribute to it unless they please and find his profit by it but the other may be called Taxes because the subjects are obliged to submit to them but then they are so easy that what the Publick gets thereby not only lessons Extraordinary subsidies which many tymes occasions clamour when because of their raritie and the urgencie of occasions they must needs be great Yet it is sufficently compensated by the advantage and securitie in the Estates which private persons who are obliged to pay it reape thereby dayly I am confident that if the King and Parlement thought fit to introduce some or all three of these taxes into England the publick charge of Goverment might be defrayed with more ease and with less repining and clamour then when it must be done by new and high Impositions how ever our Governers are the proper Judges of that The first then is an House called the merchants Bank which is governed by diverse Commissioners Clarks and Booke keepers likewise a Essaymaster who Judgeth of the Gould and Silver that at any tyme is brought into the Bank uncoyned the security given for preservation thereof are the States and Magistrates of Amsterdam Now if you have a mind to put money into the Bank suppose a 1000 L. less or more you must goe to the Clarks and ask a folio for your name and then pay in your money at three or foure per cent according as the rate of the Bank money is high or low or you may buy it of those called Cashiers or Broakers then get the Clarks to set downe in the folio what you bring in haveing done so you may draw this summe or sell it in what parcels you please but then if you let your money lye seven yeares in the Bank you receive no Intrest for the same If you aske where then is the advantage for the Merchants I answer first you have your money ready at all tymes for answering bills of Exchange and making other payments you are at no charge for baggs or portage at no loss by false tale or bad money in no danger of Thieves or unfaithfull servants or fire and above all you have the accounts of your cash most punctually and Justly kept without any trouble or runing the risk of Gouldsmith or Cashieres breaking in your Debt for such is their care that twice a yeare or some tymes oftner they shut up the Bank for 14 dayes and then all that have concerns therein must bring in their accounts to the Clarkes who a few dayes after haveing viewed the Bookes aquaint such as have brought in wrong accounts with their mistakes desiring them to returne to their bookes and rectifie their Error not telling them wherein the mistake lyes so that I have knowne Merchants in my tyme sent back three or foure tymes with their wrong accounts but if they begin to grow Impatient and say that they will stand to their accounts then they pay a mulct to the Clarkes upon their Covincing them of their mistakes either by chargeing to much upon the Bank or forgetting or omitting what was their due I knew two Merchants who haveing forgott the one 750 L. and the other 220 L. in their accounts were honestly rectified by the Clarkes so that they susstained no loss besides this care of the Clarkes in keeping and Stating the accounts the bank is obliged for five L. a yeare to send to every Merchant that desires it their accounts every morning before Exchange tyme of the moneyes written of by them in the Bank the day before upon any Merchants account and what summes are written of by others upon their accounts so that the Merchants may compare the Banks notes with their bookes and so save much of the charges of Booke kee Now if it be objected that though this be an advantage to the Merchants yet what can the Publick gaine thereby seeing the Charges of paying Officers Clarks c. must needs be very considerable I answer that indeed it is a mystery to those who understand not the thing but if it were once known and practised the advantage of it would appeare For among other things which might be said The Magistrates of the Citty take out of the Merchants Bank a Sufficent stock of money to supply the Lumbert a Banck that Lends out money and is Governed by 4 Commissioners chosen out of the Magistrates who sitt in Court every day in the Lumbert which is a large pile of Building 300 foot long containing several Chambers and magazines under one Roof in these several Chambers the Commissioners have Officers sitting tolend money upon all sorts of Goods even from a paires of shooes to the richest Jewell c. This is a great convenicence for Poore people yea for Merchants also who some tymes may want money to pay a bill of Exchange and prevents the Cheatting and Extraordinary Extortion used by the Pawne brokers in England France and other Countryes And besides the Poore have their Pawns safely and well preserved neither are they punctually sould when the yeare is out or denied under the pretext of being mislaid as the Poore are often tymes served by the wicked Pawn broakers There is also another convenience in this Lumbert viz an Exellent way they have of discovering Thieves and the stollen goods They publish two generall open sales of the Goods pawnd twice a yeare that such as will may redeeme their goods and paying the Intrest may have them although the time be relapsed Thus much as to the Lumbert I was once according to my duty to waite upon our present King at the Bank of Merchants where shewing his Majestie the way of keeping the Journall Book of the Bank which is of a prodigious bigness his Majestie was Extreamly pleased with the Contrivance of preserveing it from fire saying that the course they tooke might be of great use for the preserving Patents and the deeds of Noblemens Estates This contrivance which perhaps may be thought usefull or imitable I shall therefore discribe it It is a large firestone shaped like a Chest and set upright in a stone wall having a large brass doore of a Vast thicknes with flops to fall over and Cover the Lock and Hinges into this chest the Booke is drawn upon Rouls it being of such a Bulk and waight as cannot be handed in by a
live me viz that if ever this great Prince come to be King of England he will alter all the Measures of Europe and possible become the Arbiter thereof After which discourse the Burgemaster said let me now present you mijn Heer Consul with a Glasse of Rhenith wyne to his Highnes health and pray when you have an Opportunitie to speake with his Highnes assure him that he 〈◊〉 in Amsterdam a true and faithfull freind and moreover he said when I speake next with our Statholder the Prince of Orange and our Pensionarie Fagel I will doe his Highnes Justice and thus wee parted but the civil deportment of this Burgamaster was not all for other great ones of the Citty did their part also as Vice-Admiral de Ruiter with at least 30 Captains of the Admiralty Chamber of Amsterdam attended his Highnes to shew him the Men of warr and Magazins of the Admiralty likewise Sir Dirick Tulp and the Heer Peter van Dan◠and others the Bewinthebbers of the East-India Company attended his Highnes to the East-Indie House where was spread a Banquet of Sweetmeats and rich Wines and they offered his Highnes a present but his highnes would not accept of any only two large Bookes in which were Painted all the Beasts Fishes and Foules and likewise all the Plants Flowers and Fruites of the East-Indies and because his Highnes had tasted the Mum in the East-Indie Magazine and liked it the Company caused twelve Caskes to be neatly hoopt and gave me them to be sent after his Highnes to Brussels And I know it was the resolution of the Bewinthebbers to have spared no cost if his Highnes would have accepted of a Treat in their house by all which you see that the Magistrates and chiefe men in Amsterdam were not guilty of Rudenes to his Highnes but it was the Canalie And now haveing said so much good of the States Government and of Amsterdam in particular it will not be amisse to take notice of some Bad customes and practises now in vogue in Holland and leave it to the reader to Judge what they may portend There are tollerated in the Citty of Amsterdam amongst other abuses at least 50 Musick houses where lewd Persons of both sexs meet and practise their villanies There is also a place called the Longseller a Tollerated Exchange or publick meeting house for whores and Rogues to Rendevous in and make their filthy Bargains This Exchange is open from six a clock afterdinner untill nine at night Every whore must pay three stivers at the dore for her entrance or admission I confess the Ministers preach and exclaim from the pulpit against this horrible abuse but who they be that Protect them I know not yet I have heard some plead for the tolleration of these wicked meetings upon pretext that when the East-India fleets come home the Seamen are so mad for women that if they had not such houses to bait in they would force the verie Cittyzens wives and Daughters but it is well known that as money does countenance so Discipline might suppress that abuse The ould severe and frugall way of Liveing is now allmost quite out of Date in Holland there is very littell to be seene of that sober modestie in Apparell Diet and habitations as formerly In stead of Convenient Dwellings the Hollandtrs now build Stately palaces have their delightfull Gardens and houses of pleasure keep Coaches waggons and sleas have very rich furniture for their horses with Trappings-adorned with silver Bells I have seen the Vanitie of a Vintners sonne who had the bosses of the bit and Trapping of his horse of pure silver his footman and Coachman having silver fringd Gloves yea so much is the humour of the women altered and of their Children also that no Apparel can now serve them but the best and richest that France and other Countryes affoards and their sonns are so much adicted to play that many families in Amsterdam are ruined by it not that England is lesse Extravagant then the Duch who as I said before got such great Estates by their frugalitie whilest they were not addicted to such prodigalitie and wantonesse as the English are whose excesse I can not excuse neverthelesse the grave and sober people of Holland are very sensible of the great alteration that now is in their Country and as they say Paracelsus used to cure his patients of their disease with a full belly so a good Burgemaster desirous to convince his Amsterdammers of their dissolute kind of lif◠invited the Thirty six Magistrates and their wives to a feast who being come and the Ladyes big with Expectation of some rare and Extraordinary Entertainment sat down at table where the first course was Buttermilk boild with Appells Stockfish Buttered Turnips and Carrots lettice Salade and red Herrings only smale beare without any Wyne At this the Ladies startled and began to whisper to their husbands that they Expected no such Entertainement but upon removing of the Dishes and plates they found underneath printed verses Importing that after that manner of liveing they began to thrive had inlarged their Citty The second course consisted of Bocke de kooks quarters of Lamb rosted Rabits and a sort of pudding they cal a Brother here they had Dorts and English beare with French wyne yet all this did not please the dainty Dames but upon removing away the plates another Dish of poetrie appeared which acquainted them that after that modest and sober way of Liveing they might keep what they had gott and lay up some thing for their Children Then comes in the third course made up of all the rarities of the season as Patridges Pheseants and all sorts of foule and English pasties with plenty of Rinish and other sorts of wyne to moisten them this put the ladyes in a frolick and Jolly humour but under their plates was found the use and Application in verses telling them that to feed after that manner was Voluptuous and Luxurious and would Impaire their health and wast their Estates make them neglect their Trade and so in Tyme reduce their Stately and new built flourishing Citty to their ould fishing towne againe After this was brought in a Banquet of all sorts of sweet meats piled up in piramides and delicate fruite with plenty of delitious wynes and to conclude all a set of Musick and maskers who danced with the young Ladyes but at parting like the hand writing to Belteshazzar upon the wall every one had a printed paper of moralities put into their hand shewing them the causes of the ruine of the Roman Commonwealth according to that of the Poët Nullum crimen abest facinusque libidinis ex quo Paupertas Roman a perit with an Excellent aduice to them that if they did not quit the Buffoneries and apish modes of the French and returne to the Simplicitie plaineness and modestie of their Ancestors and founders their Common-wealth could not long last but all the thanks the good
fifty yards in the length and but fifteen in breadth over it there is a Roome where the skins of five Lions which the Burghers killed at the city gates in the year 1252 are kept stuft The great market place is very large where a monumentall stone is to be seen on which one of their Burgemasters was beheaded for running away without fighting in a sea engagement The people here spend much time in their Churches at devotion which consists chiefely in singing The women are beautifull but disfigured with a kind of Antick dress they wearing cloaks like men It is cheap living in this town for one may hire a palace for a matter of 20 〈◊〉 a year and have provisions at very reasonable rates besides the air and water is very good the city being supplied with fountains of Excellent fresh water which Hambourg wants and good ground for cellerage there being cellars here fourty or fifty foot deep I had the curiosity to goe from Lubeck to see the Ancient city of Magdeburg but found it so ruined and decayed by the Swedish war that I had no encouragement to stay there I therefore hastened to Berlin the chiefe residence of the Elector of Brandenbourg at whose Court I mett with a very Ingenuous French Merchant who tould me that he and divers other Merchants were designed to have lived in England but were discouraged by a letter sent from London by a French man that was removeing from thence to Amsterdam for these following reason which I coppied out of his Letter First because the Reformed Religion is persecuted in England as it is in France the which I tould him was a great untruth for it is apparent that they have been all along graciously admitted and received into his Majesties Dominions without interruption allowed the free exercise of their owne forme of worship according to the Doctrine discipline of the Churches of France nor can they who converse with the French Ministers either in France or Holland be Ignorant that the chiefest part if not all those Ministers are willing to complye with the Church of England and it is Evident that most of the Dutch and French Protestants so called in Holland make use of Organs in their Churches A second thing was that both the bank of London and the Bankers Gouldsmiths were all broak the which I tould this Frenchman was not true altogether for there are many able Bankers whome I named as Alderman Fowles Alderman Hornbey Alderman Duncomb Alderman Founs Mr. Thomas Cook Mr. Rob Vyner Mr. Childe Mr. Endes Mr. Evans and others well known to the world by their solid dealling neyther was the Bank as he called the Chamber of London broak only it had been under the management of a bad Person whose designe was to bring it into disgrace besides there is the East-India Company an unquestionable securitie for those as have money to dispose of together with another undeniable securitie which is Land. Thirdly he saith that in England there is no Register and therefore many frauds in purchases morgages which begett teadious suites and renders both dangerous to trust Fourtly that if a man would purchase land he cannot being an Alien untill Naturalized Fiftly that in England there are so many plots and Confusions in Government that the Kingdome is hardly quiet twenty yeares together Sixtly that false wittnesses were so common in England and the crime of perjury so slightly punished that no man could be safe in life or Estate if he chanced to be in trouble Lastly he said that the English are so restless and quarrelesome that they not only foment and cherish Animosities amongst one another but are Every foot contriving and plotting against their lawfull soveraign and the Government By such surmises and insinuations as these the French and Germans are scared from trusting themselves and fortunes in England and therefore settle in Amsterdam Hamburg and other Cittyes where there are Banks and Registers This I say is one cause why there are now to be seene at Amsterdam such vast numbers of French and Germans who have much inriched that Citty and raised the rents of the houses 20 parcent and the silkeweavers grow also verie rich keeping so many Almes Children to doe their work and having all their labour without any charge only for the teaching them their trades which hath lessened the revenues of the French crown and will in tyme greately increase the number of the States subjects and advance ther publick Incomes To say the truth the inconstancy and wantonnesse of the English nation especially of late tymes when no other cause could be given for it but to much ease and plenty is not only wondered at but reflected upon by foreigners yet I am morally certaine that could the people of England be once againe united in love and affection as they are bound to be in duty and Interest and would they be as willing to contribute to their own hapines as heaven hath been kind and liberal in bestowing the meanes of it with a good and gratious Prince solicitous for preserveing the same to them could wee be so blest as wee have great reason to Expect wee may under the Auspicious reigne of him whose royall Virtues are dreaded by none either at home or a broad but such as are the disturbers of publick and lawfull Authoritie Having made this digression I return to Berlin It is a city lately enlarged with fair streets and palaces The Magistrates of the place are Lutherans which is the publick established Religion in all the Electors dominions though he himself and his Children be Calvinists He is lookt upon to be so true to that persuasion that he is reckoned the Protector of the Calvinists and indeed he sollicited the Emperour very hard for a toleration of the Protestants in Hungary His chaplains as most of the Lutheran ministers also endeavour to imitate the English in their way of preaching and his highness is so much taken with English divinity that he entertains divines for translating English books into the German tongue as the whole duty of man and severall others He has a large and Srately palace at Berlin and therein a copious library enriched with many manuscripts medalls and rarities of Antiquity He may compare with most Princes for handsome guards being all of them proper well bodied men and most part Officers who ride in his guards of horse As he is know'n in the world to be a valiant and warlick Prince so he maintains in pay an Army of 36000 men besides five or six thousand horsmen who in time of war are modelled into troopes with which body during the late war with Sweden his highness in Person beat the Swedes out of his Countrey Hee keeps his forces in strickt Discipline obliging all the Officers if Protestants on Sundays and holy days to march their severall Companies in order to Church but if a superiour Officer be of a contrary persuasion then the next in commission supplies