cloth sewed together Tritis pilea suta de lacernis the Kings differing from the common sort because his ascended strait with a sharp top not bowed any way to the other Persians it was deadly to weare a Tiara except the top bowed in token of subiection to their forehead Only the posteritie of those which with Darius Histaspis slew the vsurping Magus might weare them bending to the middle of their head and not hanging downe to their browes as the other The Kings Tiara was properly called Cidaris and was set on by the Surena which was an hereditarie dignitie next to the King About this Cidaris hee wore a Diadem which some Authors confound and make to be the same others otherwise it was a purple band or of blew colour distinguished with white which was wreathed about the Tiara The right or strait Tiara with that purple and white band was the note of royaltie as the Crowne in these parts The Diadem in other Countries was a white band wreathed about the forehead The new King was placed also in a golden Throne and if hee pleased changed his former name as Codomannus to Darius His subiects adored him as a god so did the Greekes interprete it and Mordecas which refused this ceremonie to Haman prostrating themselues on the ground with a kinde of veneration turning their hands behind their backe if they had any sute to the King Sperchies and Bulis Lacedemonians and Conon the Athenian refused this Rite Ismenias the Theban dissembled it with taking vp his ring which for that purpose hee lot flip from his finger when hee came before the King Timagoras was put to death by the Athenians for doing it In the time of Apollonius none might come to the presence of the King which had not before done the like adoration to his Image They also when they came into the presence of the King held their hands within their sleeues for default herein Cyrus Iunior slew Antosaces and Mitraeus as Xenophon writeth Likewise for the greater Maiestie they seldome were seene of the people and then neuer on foot neither might any enter the Palace without licence of the King signifying his attendance first by a messenger this honour was reserued to the Princes which slew Smerdis which might enter at all times but when the King was in bed with his wife which Intaphernes one of the seuen transgressing therefore lost his head Yea the Scripture noteth the danger hereof in Haman the Kings greatest fauourite and Ester the Queene neither of which had libertie of entrance without the Kings call or admission It was a capitall offence to sit on the Kings Throne to weare the Kings garment or in hunting to strike any beast before the King had stricken The King as before is noted of Cambyses was not subiect to any law the people were held in much slauery if that may be so called which is voluntarie In this affection they which were scourged at the Kings command were thankefull to him for that they were had in remembrance with him Their obedience appeared when Xerxes being in a ship in danger many at his word leaped into the Sea to lighten the ship Yea they would be their owne executioners when they had offended the King None might salute him without a present His birth-day was obserued a sacred and solemne festiuall His death was bewailed with a silence of lawes and sutes fiue daies and with extinguishing that Fire which euery one obserued in his house as his household deitie The Kings abode was according to the season seuen moneths saith Zonaras in Babylon three in Susa and two in Ecbatana Aelian therefore compares them to Cranes and Aristides to the Scythian Nomades alway by this shifting enioying a temperate season Susa or Shushan was so called of the abundance of Lillies which in that language are so named saith Stephanus a Region so defended by high mountaines from the Northerne blasts that in the Summer the vehement heat parched their Barly it is Straboes report and therefore they couered the roofes of their houses with earth two cubits deepe and it killed the snakes as they crossed the wayes It was situate on Choaspes and entertained the Kings Court in Winter as Ecbatana in Summer the chiefe Citie of the Medes Sometimes it also remoued to Pasargadae and sometimes to Persepolis the richest Citie if Diodorus bee beleeued vnder the Sunne wherein was a Tower enuironed with a three-fold wall the first of which was sixteene cubits high and made with battlements the second twice as much the third square and sixtie cubits in height of hard stone with brazen gates on the East thereof was a Hill of foure acres wherein were the Sepulchres of the Kings Alexander in reuenge of the burning of Athens and by instigation of wine and Thais his Concubine Mars Bacchus Venus three heauy vnruly tyrannicall enemies conspiring burned this sometime Treasure-house of Persia The Persian Court or Palace had many Gates and Guards which took turnes by lot you reade the words of Aristotle in his booke de Mundo hereby manifested to bee his or at least as ancient in that he writeth of the Persian State flourishing before Alexander in his time had subuerted it some hee saith were called the Kings eares others his eyes and others had other offices by which the King learned whatsoeuer was any where done and therefore holden as a God And besides his Posts which brought newes by Fires or Beacons he might in one day learne the State of that huge Empire extended from the Hellespont to India The Palace-roofe admirably shined with the brightnesse of Iuorie Siluer Amber and Gold His Throne was of Gold borne vp with foure Pillars beset with gemmes His bed was also of Gold which was propounded the reward to Zorobabel and his companions Ezra 3.3 yea Herodotus tells of a Tabernacle of Gold of a Plane tree and a Vine of Gold giuen to Darius by Pithius the Bythinian This Vine Athenaeus reporteth was adorned with iewels and hung ouer the Kings bed the Grape-clusters being all precious stones in a Parlour at his beds feet were three thousand Talents of Gold in another at the head called the Kings bolster were fiue thousand Talents Gardens were adioyning which they called Paradises some very large wherein were kept wild beasts as Lions Beares Bores for the Kings game with spacious Woods and Plaines inclosed in wall Tully out of Xenophon relateth the industrie of Cyrus which with his owne hand had measured planted ordered and husbanded one of those pleasant Paradises Alexander enriched them with Trees and Plants out of Greece The Persian Kings dranke the water of Choaspes onely which to that purpose was boyled and carried with them in Siluer vessells wheresoeuer they went The Parthian Kings dranke of this and of the Riuer Eulaeus a Riuer rising in Media which after it hath buried it selfe againe recouering
except one Suburb in the Peninsula to which men passe by a bridge of boats euery night dissolued for feare of the Arabs or stormes whence through the bountie of an Italian Merchant Sir Victorio Speciero they escaped for they were not vnsuspected with a Carauan of Persian Pilgrims wich came from Mecca Thirtie dayes they were on the way to the Confines and fifteene from thence to Casbin where they staied a moneth attending the Kings arriuall being in the meane time well vsed vpon conceit that the King would like well of their comming the people otherwise are ill in themselues and onely good by example of their King and strict obedience to him For of the ancient Persians there are few these being the posteritie of those which haue been here seated by the transplantations of Tamerlane and Ismael not to mention any more ancient out of other Countries The King himselfe by our Authors Relation in his vertues and gouernment is as if some Philosopher should discourse of what should be rather then an Historian declare what is as did Xenophon sometimes in his Cyrus Of those imputations of Paricide and ambition not a word His order of attaining the Crowne is thus reported The Persian custome being that onely the elder brother ruleth the rest are made blinde by burning basons hauing otherwise all contentments fit for Princes children when Xa-Tamas was dead without issue his brother so hee calleth him contrary to our former relations and to that of Mirkond the Persian which I more maruell at Xa-Codabent was called Blind to the Kingdome He had issue Sultan Hamzire Mirza the eldest who succeeded him and this present King called Abas The eldest in his fathers life time administred all things which blindnesse made the other vnfit for but Abas at twelue yeeres of age vnder the gouernment of Tutors held the Prouince of Yasde where the loue of the people made him suspected to his Father who secretly resolued his death Abas by his friends hearing it fled to Corasan a Tartar people on the East of Persia both by their religion and dependance Turkish and of themselues otherwise vnquiet and addicted to spoyle This King honoured Abas as his sonne His father soone after dying Sultan Hamzire succeeded who was forced to renew his truce with the Turk by reason of the rebellion of the Turcomans whom by force he subdued beheaded their Princes for his securitie slew twentie thousand of the ablest amongst them for the wars And then wholly bending his thoughts against the Turk was by treason slaine by his Barber His Princes Authors of this fact shared his State amongst them euery one making himselfe Lord of that Prouince which he gouerned vniting their resolutions against Abas whom also the Turke which had his hand in the businesse had vndertaken should bee kept still in Corazan Abas neuerthelesse so wrought that the King of Corazan dismissed him with three thousand horsemen to winne possession of that State which since hath deuoured the Tartars and is growne terrible to the Turke being no lesse in Extent then the Turke hath in Asia and better both peopled gouerned and deuoted to their Soueraigne But it was not easily atchieued In Sistane one of the neerest Prouinces hee was encountred with twenty thousand his troupes cut in pieces himselfe forced to flee to the mountaines where he liued three moneths vnknowen amongst the heardmen flitting vp and downe with tenne or twelue followers Wearie of this life hee determined to shew himselfe in Yasd his quondam Prouince which so well succeeded that numbers come flocking to him and Ferrat Can also a great Prince discontent with the present State no part of which had falne to him hauing at that time no Prouince in his gouernement when the King was slaine resorted to him with his brother and tenne thousand followers They were welcome but hee much more as a great Souldier and a wise Prince With these forces hee ouerthrew his neerest enemies which caused those of Shyras Asphaan Cassan assisted by the Kings of Gheylan and Mazandran to gather mighty forces In the meane time the Turkes armed at Tauris and the Prince of Hamadan hauing called in a strength of the Courdines was marching towards Casbin Thus beset with Armies hee leaueth Ferrat Can with Zulpher his brother and fiue thousand men in Casbin himselfe with the rest of his power marched towards the Can of Hamadan Now did Ferrat Can according to former agreement betweene the King and him professe himselfe altered from the Kings part and writeth to the Rebells offering to ioyne his strength with theirs and to mutinie the Kings Armie also which was lodged in the Mountaynes in shew to keepe the straits indeede to expect the euent Thus the Cans assembled at Casbin and after long deliberation concluded that it was needelesse and not safe to call in the Turkes forces and dispatched a messenger and present to the Bassa of Tauris to reserue his fauour till a time more needfull Hereof Ferrat sent word closely to the King and of a banquet which should bee at his house a few nights after where the Principalls of the Army should meet Hither Abas bid himselfe a guest posting thither with fiue thousand of his best horse which he disposed in the mountaine couered with Ferrats troupe expecting the appointed signe which being giuen late in the night when the whole company was heauie with wine and sleepe the King was receiued into the house with three hundred men where without any vprore he slew seuentie And at the breake of the day the Kings people made as great shouts noyse as if all the Army had bin there whereat the Alarme being giuen all betooke them to their armes repairing to Ferrats lodging to their Princes whose heads laced vpon a string were there presented to them out of a Tarras vpon which the King presently shewed himselfe with Ferrat Can Zulpher hauing his fiue thousand men ready in a troupe in the great place All these things together so amazed them that they thought the Kings pardon a high preferment which he freely granted both them and the succours sent thither by the Kings of Cheylan and Mazandran The reports hereof made Hamadans Armie to vanish and the King tooke order presently by new Cans for the gouernment of those parts Hee led his souldiers to Hisphaan giuing out that the treasures of the Kingdome were there layd vp by the Rebels a good policie to winne it which with as much pretended indignation he rased for fayling of his seeming hopes To satisfie his Souldiers better he led them against the Kings of Gheylan and Mazandran where the entrances by Nature difficult thorow the vnpassable woods and hilles were made easie by the reuolt of those to whom the charge of keeping the Straits was giuen whose liues Abas had before spared at Casbin The successe was the two Kings were slaine and the souldiers enriched with the spoyle of a Countrey exceeding fertile thus subdued
neuer quite subiected to forraine Soueraightie till the Tartarian Conquest vnder one Tiemor so the Chinois call that great Chan which so continued till the yeere 1368. When one of their Chieftaynes whom they called of the euent Hum-vu that is a floud of weapons expelled the Tartars compelled the Chinois to his subiection The Kingdome passeth by inheritance Some ancient Kings are yet commended for commending the Kingdome to the vertuous succession of some rarer men then their kindred yeelded and sometimes the people rebelling haue dispossessed one and substituted another In this kingdome are no ancient Lawes But the first of any Family which obtayneth the Soueraigntie makes new Lawes at his pleasure which his Successors in that family doe not easily alter That Hum-vu the Conqueror is the founder of their present Lawes either enacting new or confirming the old as he saw good From ignorance of Geographie they esteemed their King Lord of the World and therefore call him Thiencu the sonne of Heauen for they esteeme Heauen the greatest God Yet commonly the people call him Hoamsi that is the greatest Monarch Hum-vu was a great both Warrior and Polititian He ordayned that none of the Kings children should deale in publike functions or affayres of state yet hee made them seeming amends with assignation of most ample reuenues and the title of Guam a Prince or petty King Their reuenue is paid out of the Exchequer to preuent Clients and dependance of Tenants Much complement of reuerence is done them by the Magistrates but no subiection Their Children and Nephewes are honored also but their titles and reuenues still decreasing as they descend further from the Royall stemme till at last no more bee allowed them then may supply their necessitie without trade or worke Like care is had of the Royall daughters marriage and maintenance The Commanders which assisted him in the Conquest hee vouchsafed honourable titles militarie prefectures with other immunities and reuenues still descending to their posteritie who are subiect neuerthelesse to the Citie Magistrates One strange priuiledge of theirs is this The exploits of the head of their family vnder Hum-vu are grauen in an yron plate This continueth with the first borne of that family who thereby may challenge pardon for any man in any crime three sundrie times if hee offer the same to the King Only treason is vnpardonable which depriueth the Traytor and all his posteritie for euer of all dignitie Like honors doe the Kings sonnes or fathers in law enioy and some others who haue well deserued of the State Only the Doctors and Licentiates are admitted to offices of gouernment not preferred by fauour of others or the King himselfe but by the Law and his merits All Magistrates are called Quonfu that is Presidents and as an honourable title Lau ye or Lau sie a Lord or Father The Portugalls stile them Mandarines And although these Magistrates can finish nothing till by Petition they obtayne the Kings confirmation yet he enacteth nothing which they doe not first sollicite And if any priuate man preferre a Petition to the King which seldome happens because there is an Officer appointed to examine them before the King sees them yet the King referres them to that Tribunall whereto they belong This I haue diligently searched and found for certaine that the King himselfe may not giue a summe of money or office to any man vnlesse hee bee first petitioned by some of the Magistrates except in his owne houshold for those gifts are not taken out of the publike treasure but the priuie purse His Customes and Tributes which exceede without controuersie a hundred and fiftie millions yeerely euery house not priuiledged paying tribute are not brought into the Treasurie of the Palace nor may the King spend them after his pleasure but all the money and prouision is brought into the publike Treasuries and Store-houses which are through the Kingdome Out of these a certaine allowance is appointed by Law and nothing more or lesse for the Kings expences his Wiues Children Eunuchs and Family Thence the Magistrates and Souldiers stipends and other officers through the Kingdom are discharged Thence also the publike Edifices of the Palaces of the King and his kinsemen Cities Walls Forts and all prouisions of Warre are mentioned And some yeeres it happens that this huge reuenue will not serue for necessary expences but they are forced to new impositions The ordinary Census or poll-money is three Mazes or halfe Duckets besides the profits of the earth and handicrafts The rest are Customes which in Canton one of the least Prouinces are neere eight millions Vanlie that is now King hath raigned fortie yeeres a man of great wisedome but vicious and tyrannicall Hee vseth his sonne and apparant Heire very hardly and hath indeuoured to make a second sonne which he had by a more beloued wife his successor but was gaine-said by all the Magistrates in the Kingdome those of the Court resigning their robes and hanging them on the Palace walls so that hee was forced to proclaime the eldest Whose mother lately lying on her death-bed the Prince could hardly obtaine his fathers licence to visit her and then attended with two Eunuchs the mother comforted her sonne saying It neuer yet happened that the heire of the kingdome dyed of hunger For the King scarse allowes him necessaries none else daring for feare The King forbad mourning and publike pompe vnto her funeralls The King respects beautie only in choice of his wiues as doe all of the Royall bloud nor doe the great men care to preferre their daughters to the Royall bed For it is little they can doe and much they must suffer euer inclosed in the Palace neuer admitted the sight of their friends who also are not thereby aduanced to further preferments The King hath Officers which make choice of women for him One wife is chiefe and is as it were legitimate the King and Heire apparant marry other nine a little inferior and after them sixe and thirtie others all which enioy the title of wiues to which are added many more Concubines not entituled Wiues or Queenes Those which bring the King sonnes proue most gracious especially the mother of the eldest sonne howsoeuer it fared otherwise in this before mentioned This King was not the sonne of the first wife nor is his Heire The Chinois are a deceitfull and trecherous people and therefore the Kings in this age come not abroad in publike and when in times past they did it they obserued a thousand cautels for safetie the Palace and the streets being all in armes for his guard nor was he scene when thus hee was seene nor the seat knowne in which he was carryed many other being then carryed to preuent intelligence And when hee came into the Tribunall hee appeared from a high window couering his face with an Iuory table in his hand and hauing another table on his head a cubit long halfe so broad so behanged with
in pompous Processions through the streets which the chiefe Inhabitants at certaine times obserue at the common cost of the Neighbours all about This Sect hath a Prelate called Ciam which dignitie these thousand yeeres together hath descended by inheritance and seemes to haue receiued originall from a Southsayer which liued in a Caue in the Prouince of Quiamsi where his posteritie still continue and with them his iuggling sorceries This their Prelate liue for the most part at Paquin in estimation with the King being admitted into the Palace for hallowings and chasing away ill spirits Hee is carryed through the Citie in a chayre otherwise accomplished as the chiefe Magistrates and receiues a large salarie of the King I haue heard that in these times the Prelates are so ignorant that they know not their owne Deuillish charmes and rites This Prelate hath no iurisdiction ouer any but those of his profession Many of these doe worke by Alchimy to obtaine the Precepts of longer liuing of both which their Saints they say left certaine rules There are the three Sects of the Chinois which are since by their vaine Sectaries so diuersifyed that they may seeme rather three hundred Hum-vu that raised his now raigning Family to the Scepter was himselfe professed Religious in one of these Sects and authorised all three Sects admitting onely the first to the Gouernment Hence it is that One seekes not the ruine of the Other Sect and the Kings themselues foster all as they see occasion building and repairing their Temples The Queenes are more prone to the Idoll Sects and bestow much almes on the Priests maintaining whole Monasteries to be helped by their prayers The multitude of Idols is seene not onely in the Temples but in priuate houses in a place appointed after the fashion of the Countrey in the Market-place in Streets Ships publike Palaces and yet it is certaine that few beleeue their Legends but thinke if these things do them no good they yet will doe them no harme The wisest in these times thinke that all these three Sects may concurre and bee all obserued together and esteeme varietie most acceptable From this hotchpotch vniting and separating perhaps haue risen those confused and various reports of these confusions and varieties of rites wherin if any haue like pleasure in varietie and be wearie of hearing Ricius and Trigautius the latest spectators I will not defraud them of those things which out of former Authors I had more confusedly before gathered They haue if Mendoza be not mendar many Monasteries of foure differing orders of Religion distinguished by the seuerall colours of their habit black yellow white and russet These foure Orders are said to haue their Generalls whom they call Tricon which reside in Paquin These ordaine Prouincials who againe haue subordinated to them the Priors of seuerall Houses or Colledges in those their houses acknowledged chiefe The Generall is clothed with silke in his owne colour and is carryed on mens shoulders in an Iuorie chaire by foure or six men of his habit They liue partly of reuenues giuen them by the King partly by begging which when they do they carry in their hands a certaine thing wherein are prayers written whereon the almes are laid and the giuer thereby cleered of his money I should haue said of his sinne They are shauen vse beades eate together and haue their Cells assist at burialls arise two houres before day to pray vnto the Heauen and Sinquian who they say was the inuenter of that their manner of life and became a Saint in which their deuotion they continue vntill breake of day singing and ringing of bells They may not marry in the time of their Monkish deuotion but they may acquainting the Generalls therewith at there pleasure relinquish their vow The eldest sonnes may not enter into Religion because they are bound to sustaine their aged Parents At the admittance of any is a great feast made by their friends At the lanching of any ship they dedicate the same to the Moone or some Idoll and besides there resort thither these Monkes to make sacrifices in the poope and reuerence the Deuill whom they paint in the fore-castle that he may doe them no harme Else would shee make an vnfortunate voyage The people weare long haire in combing whereof they are womanishly curious these hoping by their locks to be carryed into Heauen the other professing a state of greater perfection refuse any such helpe There be of their religious more austere which liue in desarts and solitary places the liues of Hermites with great abstinence and austeritie of life Nancan is a Citie at the foot of Mount Liu on which are many Anchorets which haue each a house by himselfe and there exercise themselues in voluntary chastisements There are said to be as many of those houses on this Hill as are dayes in the yeere they obserue it as a prodigie that when it is elsewhere cleere sun-shine there it is cloudie and mystie alway so that the Hill cannot be seene from a Lake neere it which Lake also deserues mention being great and as farre as the eye can discerne crowned with innumerable Townes Castles and Habitations They haue Hils consecrated to Idols whither they resort in heapes on pilgrimage hoping hereby to merit pardon of their sinnes and that after their death they shall be borne againe more noble and wealthy Some of these will not kill any liuing creatures especially such as are tame in regard of this their Pythagorean opinion of the transanimation or passage of soules into beasts The Iesuites conuerted one man neere vnto Nanquin which had thirtie yeeres together obserued a fast not strange among the Chinois neuer eating flesh or fish and on other things feeding temperately Vsurers are punished in China with the losse of that money so imployed Their fast is not a totall abstinence but from flesh and fish Of their Priests is before shewed that they haue both secular and regular the one weareth long hayre and black clothes and hath priuate habitation the other liue in Couents and are shauen Neither may marrie though both doe and not here alone farre worse They much commend in their bookes the consideration and examination of a mans selfe and therefore doe esteeme highly of them which sequester themselues from humane societie to diuine contemplation that as they say they may restore themselues to themselues and to that pristine state wherein the Heauen created them And therefore haue not onely Colledges of learned men who leauing the affaires of state and secular distractions doe in priuate Villages liue together obseruing these contemplations with mutuall conferences but euen women also haue their Nunneries liue a Monastical life vnder their Abbesses after their manner although euen such as are marryed liue closely enough their feet to this end so straitly swadled in their infancie that they grow but little and to haue little feet is with them great
hee appointeth with twentie thousand Horse and two hundred and fiftie thousand Foot The Country is compassed with the high Hills of Iangoma Brema or Brama and Aua and is it selfe plaine in situation and fertilitie caused by inundation like to Egypt The Lai are tributaries to Siam for feare of the Gueoni Caniballs and Man-eaters liuing in the Mountaines adiacent against whom the Siamite defendeth them and inuaded those Gueoni one time with twentie thousand Horse two hundred and fiftie thousand Footmen and ten thousand Elephants for Carriages and Warre Caesar Frederike reporteth That in the yeere 1567. the King of Pegu besieged the King of Siam his chiefe Citie with an Armie of one million and foure hundred thousand men and lay before it one and twentie moneths and had fiue hundred thousand fresh Souldiers sent him in supply end yet had not preuailed if treason had not more furthered his designes then force The gates were one night set open and the Peguans entred which when the Siamite perceiued hee poysoned himselfe leauing his children and Kingdome a prey to the Conquerer whose triumphall returne Fredericke then in Pegu beheld Since that time the Kings of Siam haue been tributaries to Pegu After this Peguan had reigned seuen and thirtie yeeres he left his Kingdomes but not his fortunes to his sonne who taking displeasure against the Siamite his vassall sent for him to come to him which hee refused And therevpon he entred into his Country with nine hundred thousand men and besieged him in his chiefe Citie which hee seeking politike delayes made semblance still to deliuer vntill in the third moneth after which was March the Riuer ouerflowed the Countrey sixe score miles about after his yeerely custome and partly drowned partly committed to the Siamites attending in Boats for this booty to be slaughtered that huge Army of which scarce threescore and ten thousand returned to Martavan and those without Elephants and Horses And when the King of Pegu proceeded in his attempts with like successe the Siamite at last besieged him in Pegu his royall Citie Ann. 1596. But hearing a rumor of the Portugals comming to helpe him hee raised his siege These are the reports of Franciscus Fernandes a Iesuite Of the Peguan we shall speake more in the next Chapter Peter Williamson Floris a Dutchman which liued long in the East Indies employed first by his Countrey-men afterwards by the English hath giuen vs the latest intelligence of these parts When Siam saith he was tributarie to Pegu the two brothers sonnes to the King of Siam brought vp in the Court of Pegu made an escape home Where the eldest called in the Malaya tongue Raia Api that is fierie King by others the blacke King had such successe against Pegu as yee haue heard and Pegu falling raised himselfe to high fortunes subiecting the Kingdomes of Camboia Laniangh Lugor Patane Tenesary and diuers others This victorious King deceased Ann. 1605. and dying without issue left the Throne to his brother which was termed the White King of peaceable and milde disposition He lying on his death-bed Anno 1610. by the instigation of Iockrommeway one of his principall Lords who sought to deriue the succession vpon himselfe caused his eldest sonne to be slaine being a young man of great hope Yet his brother the second son succeeded and gaue Iockrommeway his desert This man had besides other slaues two hundred eightie Iapanders which to reuenge their masters death ran in ioynt furie to the Court and possessed themselues of the young King whom they compelled to commit vnto their massacring hands foure chiefe men as the authors of their masters death and after many other abuses forced Him to subscribe to a composition of their owne making and to giue them some of the chiefe Palapos or Priests for hostages and so departed with a great treasure vsing much violence at their departure the Siamites as meere spectators daring nothing to the contrary The King of Siam sent to the Iapanian Emperour to complaine of this insolence who promised to send these Iapanians to Him there to receiue their due punishment Generall Saris then in Iapan saw the men going to the Court as hee came from thence Vpon this newes the Kingdomes of Camboya and Laniangh rebelled and also one Banga de laa a Peguer who in the yeere 1613. reuolted to the King of Aua and came to him with fifty thousand of his country-men before subiect to the King of Siam The King of Laniangh made also an Expedition into Siam within three dayes iourney of Oudija hoping to find the Countrey still intangled with the Iaponian slaues but was met by the King of Siam and forced to retire But the report was saith hee that the two Kings had combined in league against the Siamite to dispossesse him being then of two and twentie yeeres which yet without intestine rebellion they are not able to effect On August the fourth 1612. the English arriued at Siam the town being thirty leagues vp the riuer Septemb. seuenteenth they had audience of the King who granted them free trade and a faire house The Country at this time of raining was couered with water October the twentie six they had such a storme that old folkes had not seene the like which besides other harmes blew downe the Kings fathers faire Monument Their ship was neere a wrack but by great care and paines was saued fiue of the company being drowned of which they supposed one to be deuoured of a Whale The Kings in the Indies are all Merchants none at Siam might buy any commodities till the King had first serued his owne turne §. III. Of the Kingdome of Malacca MAlacca is now subiect to the Portugals if not since our last intelligence taken from them by the Kings of Achin and Ior who held it in siege as the same went conquered by Alphonsus Albuquerke or Albiecher so King Emanuel in his Letter to Pope Leo containing all this exploit termeth him who was their greatest Conquerour in the Indies subduing more to that scepter then all before him or since Iohn de Barros relates at large the founding and proceeding of this City who writes that some two hundred and fiftie yeeres before the Portugals arriuall in the Indies it was first founded Anciently Cingapura was the chiefe place of trade habitation in all that coast which lies in the most Southerly point of all Asia about halfe a degree North from the Aequinoctiall then resorted to by the Merchants of China Camboia and the rest of the continent many Ilands to the East and West which they called Dibananguin and Atazanguin that is Leuant and Ponent or vnder the winds West and beyond the winds East all the Nauigation in those parts being by the Monsons or certaine winds which obserue their set seasons of the yeere In those times reigned in Cingapura one Sangesinga and in the neighbouring parts of Iaua one Paraerisae who dying left to
the care of his brother his two sonnes which slaying the eldest making himselfe King by his tyrannies caused diuers of the Iauan Nobilitie to forsake their Country Amongst the rest Paramisora fled to Cingapura who with his many followers was entertained kindly by Sangesinga whom not long after he vngratefully slew and by the helpe of his Iauans possessed himselfe of the state The King of Siam whose tributary and son-in-law Sangesinga had bin forced him to leaue his ill gotten throne and to seek new habitation one hundred and fortie miles thence where he settled himselfe at the riuer Muar with two thousand followers some of which were called Cellati men that liued on the Sea by fishing and pyracie these he would not receiue into his new fortresse of Pago as not well trusting them though before they had made him lord of Cingapura These therefore seated themselues fifteene miles from Muar in the place neere which Malaca now standeth ioyning with the Natiues halfe Sauages whose language is called Malayan The place growing strait they remoued three miles vp the riuer where was a Hill called Beitan with a large plaine the commodiousnesse whereof inuited Paramisora to leaue Pago and to ioyne with them in this new foundation which was after called Malaca signifying a banished man in remembrance of this Iauans exile In succeeding times the merchandize and Merchants too remoued from Cingapura to Malaca Saquem Darsa then succeeding his father Paramisora who subiected himselfe as vassal to the King of Siam which assigned to his obedience all the Country from Cingapura on the East to Pulo Zambilan which is to the West of Malaca one hundred and twentie miles all which space of coast is two hundred seuentie miles by Sea The Monsons or winds in these parts continue West and Northwest from the end of August to the end of October Nouember begins Northerly winds and Northeasterly which blow till the beginning of April From May till the end of August the South and Southwest beare sway according to which the Mariner must direct his course and take his proper season The situation of Malaca is vnwholsome by reason of the marishes and neerenesse to the line little aboue two degrees to the North else it would haue bin the most populous Citie in the Indies The successors of Saquen Darsa by little and little eased their shoulders of the Siam subiection especially after the Moores Persians and Guzurats had conuerted them to Mahomets sect and at last vsurped absolute Souereigntie But the King of Siam nine yeeres before the Portugall conquest sent a Fleet of two hundred saile and therein sixe thousand men against Mahumet King of Malaca the General of which Fleet was Poioan his Vice-roy of Lugor to whom the Gouernours of Patane Calantan Pan and other Coast-cities were to pay their tributes for the King of Siam From Lugor to Malaca is six hundred miles saile alongst the coast much subiect to tempestuous weather which diuided this Fleet some of which fell into Mahumets hand by treachery to the ouerthrow of the rest The Siamite in reuenge prepared a great Armie by Land and Armada by Sea foure hundred Elephants and thirtie thousand men but without expected euent by the insolencie of some of his Souldiers in Rapes and Robberies which raised the Country against them whiles Poioan was in the siege of Pan or Pam another Citie in rebellion The King of Siam further enraged sent two Armadas one by the way of Calantan the other by the way of Tenaz-zary one on the East side the other on the West of this long tract of land but before Mahumet could be punished by the Siamite the Portugall had preuailed against him King Emanuel had sent Diego Lopes de Sequeira from Lisbone Anno 1508. who came the next yeere to Malaca and there vnder faire colours of traffique Himselfe and his whole Fleet were in danger of betraying and murthering by this perfidious King and his Bendara or chiefe Iustice This ruled all cases Ciuill the Lacsamaua or Admirall all Marine and the Tamungo or Treasurer all the Reuenue and these three the whole gouernment which treachery in the yeere 1511. was requited by Albuquerke who by his proper valour and wonted Fortunes with secret intelligence amongst the Malayans conquered the Citie expelled the King who in few dayes vomited His soule after this pill and built there a Fortresse and a Church establishing the Portugall Lawes but so as both the Ethnikes and the Moores had their owne Magistrates appeale reserued to the highest The most remarkable things in this exploit were the Chaine which one Naodobeguea one of the principall conspirers against Sequeira now encountred in a Sea-fight by Albuquerke in his voyage to Malaca ware on his arme with a bone of a Iauan beast called Cabal therein by vertue whereof notwithstanding many and wide wounds he lost not one drop of blood till that Chaine being taken off his veines suddenly and at once emptied themselues of blood and life the store of artillery of which they tooke three thousand Peeces of eight thousand which the Portugals affirmed had beene there their venomed Arrowes and Calthrops strowed in the way the poyson whereof once touching the blood made them mad with other symptomes as in the biting of a mad dog which they learned after to heale by chewing the leafe of a certaine hearbe growing in the Countrey the vndermining the street of the Citie to blow it vp together with the Portugals the disaduantage of the fight with Elephants which being here enraged with wounds would not be ruled but brake the ranks of their owne side the treacherie of this people first to the Portugals then to their King after that to the Portugals againe the prey and spolle besides all that the King and they which fled carried away and all the Gold Siluer prouision of warre and concealements excepted amounted to two hundred thousand duckets for the Kings due which was the fifth part Alodinus the sonne of King Mahomet busily bestirred himselfe but in vaine to recouer his lost Patrimonie neither the I le Bintam which he fortified as he did also Pagus nor force nor fraud being able to defend him from his fathers fates and fortunes The Moores haue enuyed this successe to the Portugals and often haue attempted to depriue them of Malaca The Hollanders also vnder Cornelius Mateliuius Anno 1608. laid siege thereto whiles the Portugall was seeking new conquests at Achen who in their returne might easily haue defeated them had they not beene unadvised in too long aduising When the Portugals went to Malaca the King of Pans marriage with the daughter of Mahomet was to bee solemnized a banquetting house of timber couered with silke sumptuously prepared to this purpose on thirtie wheeles to be drawne with Elephants the Principals of the Citie being therein But this Kings affection was soone cooled by these disasters From Cingapura to Pulo Cambilan there is no other habitation of any
one they prouoke him to fight Whiles these are fastned in the encounter by the teeth or tuskes each striuing to ouerthrow the other some come behinde the wilde Elephant and fasten his hinder feet and so either kill him for his teeth or by famine tame him Anno 1612. Iune the two and twentieth Some of the English came to Patane with a Letter from His Maiestie to the Queene accompanied with a present from the Merchants of six hundred Rialls of Eight This Letter was deliuered in great pompe being laid in a bason of Gold carried on an Elephant furnished with many little Flags Launces and Minstrels The Queenes Court also being sumptuously prepared to this businesse They obtained grant of a Trade on like conditions to the Hollanders who had their Factory their ten yeeres before that time and their House in that space twice burned The Iaponites had twice destroyed Patane by fire in fiue or sixe yeeres space The Countrey adioyning was also full of warres the King of Ior ouer-runne and burned in September that yeere all the Suburbes of Paan those of Camboya Laniam and Iagoman ioyning their force against the King of Siam On the one and thirtieth of December the Queene of Pantanie went to sport Her selfe accompanied with sixe hundred Prawes where wee saith Floris saluted Her being a comely old woman about sixtie tall and full of Maiestie such as they had seene few in the Indies Shee had in company Her sister which is Heire apparant commonly called the young Queene vnmarried and about fortie sixe yeeres of age The Queene had not beene forth of her house in seuen yeeres before and now intended to hunt wild Bulls and Buffes of which there is great abundance The waters this yeere were extraordinarily high carrying away many houses The Queenes younger sister was married to the King of Pahan whom Shee had not seene in twentie eight yeeres notwithstanding Her often Embassies to that purpose At last prouoked with the Kings dallying and delaying to send Her Shee sent out a Fleet of seuentie Sayle with foure thousand men to Pahan to bring her Sister by force in April 1613. Hee being distressed by warres which the King of Ior had made on him burning his Houses Barnes and prouisions and the Queene of Patanie making stay of all Iunkes of Rice laden for Pahan arriued there Iuly the twelfth with the Queenes Sister and her two sonnes and all the Dogs were for his sake killed because he can indure none August the second hee was entertained with a feast at which the English were inuited guests where they saw a Comedie played all by women after the manner of Iaua with antique apparell very pleasant to behold Once before in the Queenes presence they had seene twelue women and children dance very well after them the Gentlemen and last of all the Hollanders and the English were requested to doe it This Queene is well monyed both the English and Dutch tooke vp money of Her at vse this and merchandise being in the Indies the practice of Kings On the first of October there happened a lamentable Fire on a strange occasion Two great men Datoe Besar and Datoe Laxmanna dwelling neere together both rich in Slaues it fell out that Besar hearing that his Iauan Slaues had treatned to kill him with Laxmanna and others caused two of his most suspected Slaues to be bound which the Ponyonla of the Slaues would not suffer and thereupon was stabbed by him with his Creese His Iauan Slaues seeing this would haue taken him but by rescue of his other Slaues hee escaped They neuerthelesse slew all that came in their way and presently set the houses on fire Laxmannas Iauan Slaues could not by any threats be detained from ioyning with them and set all on fire as they went so that the whole Town except the Queenes Court the Meskit and some few houses were burned The Iauans tooke such Bond-women as they best liked away with them and fled into the Countrey Few of them could be taken Iohor or Ior in this yeere 1613. was taken by the forces of the King of Achen after twentie nine dayes siege The Hope a Holland ship of sixe hundred Tun which set saile from Bantam in March with eightie men twentie foure Peeces and seuentie thousand Rials of Eight in Siluer and the worth of ten or twelue thousand in Cloth had the ill hap to come to this Riuer of Iohor and some went vp to the Towne but before they could returne the Achin Armada came to this Siege so that twenty three of their men were taken The rest came October the one and twentieth to Patanie Master Copland then at Achin with Generall Best writes that the Kings Armada returning arriued Iuly the third Gallies and Frigats a hundred and twenty or more with which Laxaman the Generall had subdued the Kingdomes of Ioar and Siak bringing with him both the Kings and two of their brethren which he saith were honourably sent backe and remained tributaries to Achin The Hollanders haue had much trading at Patane and the King of Iohar or Ior moued with their good successe against the Portugals ioyned his Nauie to theirs to chase them out of those parts Yea they haue braued the Portugals euen before Goa the Seat of their Vice-Roy and in Nouember 1604. at Calecut entred into solemne league with the Samaryn at least offered it Iarric denies the acceptation against them and the next yeere they wonne from the Portugals the Castles of Amboyne and Tidore not to mention many other Prizes taken from them by the Hollanders at Macao one ship worth a Million at Sincapura c. at sundry times In the yeere 1605. Cornelius Mateliuius was sent to the Indies with twelue Ships and the next yeare after Paulus à Caerden with twelue more And Mateliue besieged Malaca as before is said But in this attempt they had not successe answerable to their desire and yet not so ill as was likely For the Portugals vpon this newes returning from Achin vpon espiall of a Flemish Saile called a Counsell and made it the next day before they came vp in which space the Hollander had leisure to bring all his Ordnance then on shore for battery aboord his Ships and to prepare himselfe for fight which he held two dayes with the Portugall with two Ships losse on each side the Portugall giuing way So little counsell is sometimes in consultation and easily is opportunity lost in the very seeking Iarric writeth that the Hollanders hauing taken the Fortresses of Amboin and Tidor entred League with ten neighbour Kings enemies to the Portugals and with eleuen Ships seuen Barkes came before Malaca in the end of Aprill 1606. The Kings Confederate had of all sorts of Shipping three hundred twentie seauen with foure thousand men The Iapanders which were then in Malaca vpon affaires of Merchandize did performe good seruice for the distressed Portugal The Siege continued almost
more vnhappy tense when they were there was a Citie great strong and very faire with walls of Stone and great Ditches round about it with many Crocodiles in them There are two Townes the old in which the Merchants abide and the houses are made of Canes called Bambos and the new for the King and his Nobilitie the Citie is so subiect to fire that euery day Proclamation is made to take heed to their fire The Citie is square with faire walls hauing in each Square fiue Gates besides many Turrets for Centinels to watch made of wood and gilded very faire The Streets are strait as a line from one Gate to another and so broad that ten or twelue men may ride a-front through them On both sides at euery mans doore is set a Coco-tree yeelding a faire shew and comfortable shaddow that a man might walke in the shade all day The houses are made of Wood and couered with Tiles The Kings house is in the midst walled and ditched about and the houses within of Wood sumptuously wrought and guilded And the house wherein his Pagode or Idoll standeth is couered with Tiles of Siluer and all the walls are guilded with Gold Within the first gate of the Kings house was a large roome on both sides whereof were houses made for the Kings Elephants Among the rest hee had foure white Elephants a thing rare in Nature but more precious in his estimation For this is part of his Royall Title The King of the white Elephants And if any other hath any he will seeke by fauour or force to haue the same which some say was the cause of the quarrell betwixt him and the King of Siam Great seruice was done vnto them Euery one of these white Elephants stood in an house guilded with Gold and were fed in vessels of Siluer gilt One of them as hee went euery day to the Riuer to bee washed passed vnder a Canopie of Cloth of Gold or Silke carried by sixe or eight men as many going before playing on Drums or other Instruments At his comming out of the Riuer a Gentleman washed his feet in a Siluer Bason There were of blacke Elephants nine Cubits high The King was said to haue aboue fiue thousand Elephants of Warre There was about a mile from Pegu a place builded with a faire Court in it to take wilde Elephants in a Groue which they doe by the female Elephants trained to this purpose and anointed with a certaine Oyle which causeth the wilde Elephant to follow her When the Hunts-men haue brought the Elephant neere to the Citie they send word thereof and many Horse-men and Foot-men come out and cause the female to take a streight way which leadeth to the place where shee entereth and hee after her for it is like a Wood. When they are in the gate is shut and they get out the female The wilde one seeing himselfe alone weepeth and runneth against the walles which are made of strong trees some of them breake their teeth therewith Then they pricke him with sharpe Canes and cause him to goe into a strait house and there fasten him with a rope and let him fast three or foure dayes and then bring a femall to him with meat and drinke within few dayes taming him When they goe into the Warres they set a frame of wood vpon their backes bound with great Cordes wherein sit foure or six men which fight with Guns Darts Arrowes and other weapons All Authors agree that no beast commeth so neere the reason of a man as the Elephant yea they seeme to goe before some men in conceit haughtinesse desire of glory thankefulnesse c. The Peguans are beardlesse and carrie pinsers about them to plucke out the hayres if any grow They blacke their teeth for they say a Dogge hath white teeth The men of Pegu Aua Iangoma and Brama weare balls in their yards which they put in the skinne being cut and weare for euery childe one till they haue three and may take them out at pleasure the least as bigge as any Wall-nut the biggest as bigge as a little Hennes Egge They were inuented to preuent Sodomie which they vse more then any people in the world Abusing the Male-Sexe causeth the women also to weare scant clothes that as they goe their thigh is seene bare to prouoke men to lust Both these were ordained by a certaine Queene for those causes and are still obserued If the King giue any one of his Balles it is a great Iewell accounted they heale the place in sixe or eight dayes The Bramans that are of the Kings bloud pricke some part of their skinne and put therein a blacke colour which lasteth alway If any Merchant resort thither hee shall haue many maydes saith Linschoten offered him by their parents to take his choyse and hauing agreed with their parents hee may for the time of his abode vse her as his slaue or his Concubine without any discredit to her Yea if hee come againe after shee is marryed hee may for the time hee stayeth there demaund her in like sort to his vse And when a man marrieth hee will request some of his friends to lye the first night with his Bride There are also among them that sow vp the priuie part of their Daughters leauing onely passage for Vrine which when they marry passe vnder the Surgeons hand for remedie Gasper Balby and Got. Arthus tell of another custome of their Virgins if that name may bee giuen them For saith hee Virgines in hoc regno omnino nullas reperire licet Puellae enim omnes statim à pueritia sua medicamentum quoddam vsurpant quo muliebria distenduntur aperta continentur idque propter globulos quos in virgis viri gestant illis enim admittendis virgines arctiores nullo modo sufficerunt Their money is called Ganza and is made of Copper and Leade which euery man may stampe that will Gold and Siluer is merchandise and not money The tides of the Sea betweene Martauan and Pegu by Caesor Fredricke are reputed the greatest wonder which hee saw in his trauels being so violent that the ayre is filled with noyse and the earth quaketh at the approach of this watery element shooting the Boats that passe therewith as arrowes which at a high water they suffer not to anchor in the Channell which would betray them to the deuouring iawes of the returning tide but draw them toward some Banke where they rest in the ebbe on dry land as high vpon the Channels bottome as any house top And if they arriue not at their certaine stations they must backe againe whence they came no place else being able to secure them And when it encreaseth againe it giueth them their calls or salutations the first waue washeth ouer the Barke from stemme to sterne the second is not so furious the third raiseth the Anchor In Negrais in Pegu diuers people dwell in Boates which they call
their books that there had beene in these parts foure Lawes or Sects three of which the Bramenes still obserued to wit of Vesmu of Brama of Rubren the fourth meerely spirituall partly mixed with others and partly lost tending to the saluation of the Soule which he said that He brought now vnto them their Almes and Bodily chastisements without this not being effectuall to their saluation Any might learne and choose a Doctor for any of the other three but none was able to teach this When they become Schollers to such Doctors they doe a triple reuerence vnto the ground lifting vp their hands aloft then letting them downe to their heads and must like the Pythagoreans of old which was learned of the Indians rest satisfied with his Masters bare Assertion without questioning or further disputing He was once brought before a Consistorie of the Bramenes and accused for his new Doctrine Some Articles were That he should affirme that the washing in Remanancor and Ganges were to no effect That the Bramenes are inferior to the Raij or Princes That they should be all damned notwithstanding there were of them many Nhanisij and Sanasses the Nhanisij also vow chastitie and to forsake the World The President of this Councell cleered the Iesuite vpon the Apologie of another Bramene For that of Remanancor it is a corner of the Fishing Region wherein is a Temple famous through all the East which hee that shall visit and wash himselfe in the Sea iust by shall bee cleered from all his sinnes aswell as if it were done in Ganges Id Madura and the Territorie thereof are numbred a hundred thousand Bramenes the chiefe of which is Chocanada as their Bishop or Pope He would haue this Iesuite expelled the Countrie for that this Franke so euer since the Expedition to Ierusalem vnder Duke Godfrey of Bullen all Westerne Christians are called in all the East a name it seemes which the Saracens communicated to the Ethnikes had eaten with another Franke. Hee meant Fernandes another Iesuite that had not thus acted the Sanasse and Gurupi amongst them He alleadged also that His Temple was built in the ground of His Pagode But this Iesuite with Gold stopped this Bramenes mouth and had the soyle of the Church granted him in peace with promise of all fauour One thing that holds them intangled in this errour is that they hold it vnlawfull to copie out their Lawes and Religion in writing so that they which wil learne them must like the Druydes from their youth learne them of some Doctour and commit them to memorie in which they spend tenne yeeres and more And if any should write them they would pull out his eyes Emanuel Leitanus another Iesuite comming to Madura in the like Sanassian Habit obserued the Gorupian order and fell downe before Sforce to the ground Hee sitting in a Chaire couered with red because some of the Madurians were present The Bramenes in the Kingdome of Bisnaga are of such power that nothing is done without them and of the fiue Counsellours of State foure are Bramenes yea with their face to the earth all men and the King himselfe adore the Bramen-Pope nor doth the King admit any to conference in the morning before hee hath seene two Bramenes In Chandegrin is a Clocke that strikes not foure and twentie houres but sixtie and foure according to their diuision of the Night and Day each into foure parts and those subdiuided into eight The Iesuites conceiue that thefe Bramenes are of the dispersion of the Israelites and their Bookes called Sameseretan doe somewhat agree with the Scriptures but that they vnderstand them not They haue some propheticall phrases and some of them affirme that God made Adam the first man and being pressed acknowledge one God The King and his Nobles speak the learned and sacred tongue of the Bramenes Anno 1609. One of his Great men rebelling against him and fortifying the Castle of Vellur the King besieged him and on his submission pardoned him but so as hee turned his Fort which had stood the Rebell in an hundred thousand Crownes into a Palace besides twentie Fannes each worth an hundred thousand * Pardowes and innumerable Horses and Elephants The same yeere did the King write to the King of Spaine in commendation of the Iesuites with promise to assist the Vice-roy against the Moores and Hollanders which had obtained to build a Fortresse of the Naichus of Tanauapatan desiring the same friendship that since the King of Narsing as dayes had beene betwixt both their Ancestors subscribed King Ventacaxa Thus you see the same King diversly entituled according to the Citie Royall yea I finde him called of the castle before named King of Vellur so Floris stiles him saying that in Iune 1614. He granted trade to the English as likewise did Obiana Queene of Paleacatte One of his Wiue's which it seemes gouerned that Citie On Iuly the nine and twentieth his Abeskian was sent being a white cloth where his owne hand is printed in Sandall or Saffron and another the like from the Queene of Paleacatte The Kings Letter was written vpon a leafe of Gold wherein hee made excuse of former wrongs gaue them libertie to build a House or Fort with other priuiledges He gaue Floris the English Merchant a Towne of foure hundred Pardawes yeerely reuenue notwithstanding the Hollanders his Countrimen did what they could to hinder it Wângalâ Floris his man had beene in the Kings presence who laid his hand vpon his head But on the eight and twentieth of October following newes came that this King was dead hauing raigned aboue fiftie yeeres His three wiues of which Obiana Queene of Paleacatte was one burned themselues with his corpse and great troubles were expected The Hollanders had presented this King with two Elephants of Seilan Cotabaxa the King of Badaya and Lellengana his Neighbour died not long before Mahmoud Vmin Cotabaxa his Brothers Sonne succeeded Musulipatan is in his Dominion Golconda is the Metropolitan Citie But hee is a Moore of the Sophi his Sect Golconda is the Citie Royall With the Naicho or King of Gingi vassall to the King or Emperour of Bisnagar the Iesuites found good entertainment Heere some of the Iogues distributed the water of Ganges out of certaine vessels couered with foule and filthie clothes which yet the people for deuotion kissed These Iogues with admirable patience endured the Sunnes heate and one among the rest enclosed himselfe in an Iron Cage with his head feet onely out of the Cage that he could neither sit nor lie downe at any time and on the Cage were hanged an hundred Lampes which foure other Iogues his companions lighted at certaine times And thus walked he in this his perpetuall Prison as a Light vnto the World in his vaine glorious opinion They reasoned with certaine Bramenes some of which held the Sunne for God and yet sometime to haue beene a man and for his merits so
by an Officer with a gilded staffe or dagger To his Palace they passe through seuen Gates one after another guarded with Women expert at their Weapon and vsing both Peeces and Swords He hath none other Guard for his person In saluting the King they lay their hands folded on their head which in other salutations they lay on the forhead Sultan Aladin the King was as Cornelius Houtman reporteth first a Fisher-man and growing famous for his exploits by Sea was preferred to the marriage of the Kings kinswoman and the Office of Admirall Afterwards he became Protector of the young King the former being dead but proued his murtherer and sent a thousand of the chiefe men to follow him into the other world ennobling base fellowes of his Conspiracie and vsurped the State to himselfe He was supposed an hundred yeeres old so old that his eldest Son whom he kept at home with him hauing made his younger King of Pedir imprisoned him alledging that he was too old for Gouernment warred on his Brother Our English first had Trade here in the last times of Queene Elizabeth whose name was then famous in those parts for her Exploits against the Spaniards The Queenes Letters directed to this King were receiued with great State First he entertained the Messenger with a Banquet gaue him a Robe and a piece of Calico wrought with gold and offered Pledges for the Generals safetie for whom he sent six Elephants with Drums Trumpets Streamers and much people The greatest Elephant being thirteene or foureteene foot high and a small Castle like a Coach couered with Veluet on his backe in the midst whereof was a great Bason of Gold with a rich Couering of Silke wherein the Letter was put The Generall was mounted on another Elephant but was staid at the Court-gate till the Kings pleasure and license was againe sent The King made him a Feast the dishes were of Gold or Tambayck which is mixed of Gold and Brasse their Wine is of Rice in which the King dranke to the Generall out of his Gallery a fathom higher then where they sate it is as strong as Aqua vita After the Feast the Kings Damosels made Musick and Dances which was a great fauour for they are not commonly seene The chiefe Prelate was appointed one of the Commissioners for Articles of League which were concluded They tooke a Prize of 9. hundred Tuns and were like to be taken themselues by a strange Spout as they call it which fell not farre from them as in one whole drop enough to haue sunke any ship and sometimes continueth a quarter of an houre together as powred out of a vessell the Sea boyling therewith The King sent a Letter and a Present to the Queene and at their departure asked if they had the Psalmes of Dauid and caused them to sing one which he and his Nobles seconded with a Psalme as he said for their prosperitie The Court hath three Guards betweene each of which is a great Greene The King may see all that come himselfe vnseene The walls of his house are hanged sometimes with Cloth of Gold Veluet or Damaske He sits crosse-legged with foure Crisses two before and two behind very rich Fortie Women attend him with Fannes Cloathes Singing and other Offices Hee eateth and drinketh all day or chewing Betele and Arecca talking of Venerie and Cock-fighting When they would doe reuerence which we vse to performe by vncouering the head they put off their hose and shooes holding the palmes of the hands together and lifting them aboue the head with bending of the body and saying Doulat They vse not to put malefactors to death but cut off their hands and feet and banish them to the I le Polowey and if they execute them it is by Elephants tearing them or thrusting a stake in their fundament This King had an hundred Gallies of which some will carry foure hundred men open without decke their Oares like shouels foure foot long rowed with one hand A woman was Admirall he not daring through selfe-guiltinesse to trust men They had many differing Dignities and Degrees for their Clergie vsed to pray with Beads had Schooles they had one Prophet disguised in his apparell whom they much honoured They bury their Dead in the fields with their head towards Mecca laying a free stone at the head and another at the feet with signification what the deceased had beene The Kings haue them not of Stone but of Gold and this King had two made for him each weighing a thousand pound enriched with Stones They haue a tradition that Achen is Ophir Once euery yeere they obserue a solemne ceremonie of going to Church to see if Mahomet bee come Then are there fortie Elephants richly couered and on them the Nobles one spare for the Prophet and another whereon the King rideth with much pompe When they haue looked into the Moskee and not seene their Mahomet the King returnes on that spare Elephant Pider Manaucabo and Aru are tributaries to Achen Anno 1613. Aprill twelfth Captayne Best anchored in the Rode of Achin and was kindly entertayned The King sent an Arancaia riding in a Tent on an Elephants backe attended with two or three of the Kings boyes for Hee is attended by Boyes abroad and by Women within to receiue His Majesties Letter which was thus carried in a Bason of Gold the Generall following with fortie or fiftie Men. After this Letter and a Present deliuered the King told them they should see some of his pastime which was first Cock-fighting next that the fight of Rammes then his tame Elephants after them his Buffoloes all as they succeeded exceeding the former in fiercenesse lastly the Antilopes which the Generall had giuen Him All this while did the King take Tobacco in a Siluer pipe giuen him by his Women standing in a close roome behind This done Supper was serued in by young Boyes of foureteene or fifteene yeeres old in Swaffe which is a mettall halfe Copper halfe Gold and continued from seuen of the clocke till almost twelue in which were serued in foure hundred Dishes besides Hot drinkes The next day the King sent the Generall an Elephant to ride on otherwise none might doe it and appointed One of his chiefe Arancaias alway to attend Him free accesse was likewise granted at all times which none else may doe without the Kings Creese or Dagger there vsed as a Scepter and the Articles agreed on betweene Sir Iames Lancaster and his predecessour were promised to be ratified On the second of May all Strangers were inuited to a Feast kept at the Spring of the Riuer in the water sixe miles from the Citie Two Elephants were sent for the Generall The dishes were serued in by Boyes swimming with one hand and holding the Dish or strong drinke in the other Of all these drinkes they must taste and then throw the rest into the water This continued from one till fiue they
lothsomenesse the prize of Beautie The Kingdome of Brocall extends to Gambea which Riuer is so great deepe and strong that the Sea in thirtie leagues from the mouth which opens it selfe fiue leagues in disgorging his full stomacke can scarcely subdue it vnto his salt qualitie Some thinke it proceedes from the same Fountayne with Niger whence these peoples are called Negros some that this and Zanaga proceed from the same head Midway betwixt both is the Greene Cape Alongst both sides of this Riuer dwell the Mandingae a perfidious and Idolatrous Nation which haue certaine Inchanters called Bexerini to performe their Priestly Holies The Riuer is sayled vp a hundred and threescore Leagues horrible Precipices and Cataracts forbidding further passage by water they call this fall a Bow for the obliquitie of the fall suffering men to passe vnder without wetting Many fertile and pleasant Ilands are contayned in the diuided armes of this streame The Inhabitants haue Shippes of good âignesse and strength Not farre hence to the South is Cape Saint Marie from which to the Riuer of Dominico is thirtie leagues peopled by the Arriari and Falopi Here is also the Riuer Casamanqua inhabited on the North by the Iabundi on the South the Benhuni to whom on the East adioyne the Casangae the King is subiect to the King of Iarem and hee to another more within Land and so in degrees vnto the Monarch of Mandinga whose chiefe Citie is Songus aboue a hundred leagues Eastward from the Cape of Palmes to this King the most of the former are subiect The Casangae worship an Idoll called China which is nothing else but a bundle of staues or poles pitched into the ground and fastened together with paste made of the meale of Rice and Millet which they sprinkle with the bloud of sacrificed Kine and Goates Some hang on the top thereof two or three skuls of Dogges The Temple to this goodly Deitie is some shadie Tree and there they offer also Millet and the Wine of Palmes To secure their Seede they sticke one of these poles in the ground The Portugals buy slaues in these parts sold by reason of the Kings vnreasonable tyrannie The Burami adioyne to the Casangae on both sides the Riuer Iarim or Dominico as farre as Rio Grand Here also they buy slaues The men and women file their teeth the women to keepe their tongues in order euery morning take a draught of water into their mouthes and there hold it till Dinner or Breakfast time meane-while doing their houshold businesse not spitting eating or talking The chiefe Towne of the Burami is eight leagues from the Hauen where the chiefe King to whom the rest are subiect resides Their Houses are of Earth couered with leaues The Bijags inhabit neere the great Riuer a fierce warlike robbing people possessing also seuenteene Iles the Portugals haue there the Towne of the Crosse The Beafares also in these parts are dispersed of whom the King of Guinala carrieth the greatest state and pompe at whose death all his Wiues and Seruants and dearest Clients and the Kings Horse are slaine and intombed with him to serue him in the other life The like vsage is in very many of these Guinean Kingdomes to which they adde further cruelty in the manner for they cut off their toes and fingers and beate their bones as it were in a Morter three houres longer then which they could not out-liue this torture and then in the sight of those which were to vndergo the like fate thrust them into the neck with a sharpe stake so finishing their blinde Martyrdome On the other side the Riuer is Biguba a Portugall Towne the best they haue in these parts the Natiues are Beafares whose King being dead the strongest is his Heire the cause of much Warre Betweene this and Cape Sierra Liona so called of the Lyon-like roring made there by the waues if not of the Thunders and dreadfull storme are the Mallusians Bagasians and Cozolines In these parts Grapes and Sugar-canes grow wilde store also of Cotton Brasill Wood of seuen colours Graines called Malegetta of the name of the Region long Pepper Millet besides Waxe and Iuory Out of their Palmes they draw Wine and Oyle and a certaine excellent Sope forbidden as is also the long Pepper for the excellence to bee carried into Portugall They haue Apes called Baris exceeding great and so industrious that being brought vp in the house they supply the roome of a seruant going on their hinder feete beating things in the Morter fetching water home in Vessels which yet if none bee ready to take from them they will cast downe and breake and then howle Heere is store of Iron better then ours but their best Commoditie is Gold but no Forreiners know the Mines whence they haue it The Portugals called their Castle here built Saint George of the Mine in the fift degree of Northerly latitude In Sierra Liona are thirteene Riuers which fall into the Sea On the Riuer Das Piedrus the Portugals haue a Towne Capor and Tambassire two other Riuers fall from the Hils Machamala in which is a great Rocke of most pure Chrystall Two of these Riuers Tagaris on the North and Bangua on the South of this Lion-hill make it a Peninsula in some places so neere that they carry their Boates by Land from one to the other The Inhabitants are the Cumbae and the Natiues called Capi these more ingenious then other Guineans They haue their Kings which administer Law hauing to that purpose round Galleries not farre from their Palaces called Funkes where is a high Throne for the King and lower Seates on both sides for his Counsellors called Solatequis Their Lawyers or Aduocates they call Troens which weare parti-coloured garments wouen with feathers hold staues in their hands whereon they leane whiles they pleade and haue Vizors to hide their blushing if any such cause happen in the Kings presence who hauing heard the pleading of these and the aduice of the Counsellors pronounceth sentence In the Creation of a Solatequis the rite obserued is this they place the person to be created in a faire seate of wood and then the King strikes his face with the inwards of a Goat that the bloud and filth runnes downe his brest then sprinkles him with meale and after puts a Cap on his head When the King dies his Sonne Brother or next Kinsman succeeds but before his full Regalitie they bind him at his house and lead him bound to the Palace there whip him after this they loosen him attire and leade him to the Iudgement Seat where the eldest Counsellor makes an Oration concerning his right and dutie which ended he puts a Hatchet into his hand which they vse in Executions and after this all acknowledge subiection No lesse strange is their custome for their Maydens In euery City or Village they haue a house seuered like a Monasticall Cloyster from the rest
making a noyse downward that they worship the Deuill vnder them There is no flesh or fish which they find dead smel it neuer so filthily but they wil eat it without any other dressing Their Deere haue skins like Asses and feet large like Oxen which were measured 7. or 8. inches in breadth There are no Riuers or running Springs but such as the Sun causeth to come of snow Sometimes they will perboyle their meate a little in kettles made of beasts skins with the bloud water which they drinke lick the bloudy knife with their tongues This licking is the medicine also for their wounds They seeme to haue traffike with other Nations from whom they a small quantity of Iron Their fire they make of heath mosse In their leather Boats they row with one oare faster then we can in our Boats with all our oares §. IIII. Discoueries by IOHN DAVIS GEORGE WEYMOVTH and IAMES HALL to the North-West MAster Iohn Dauis in the yeere 1585. made his first voyage for the North-west discouery and in 64. degrees and 15. minutes they came on shore on an Iland where they had sight of the Sauages which seemed to worship the Sunne For pointing vp to the Sunne with their hands they would strike their breasts hard with their hands which being answered with like action of the English was taken for a confirmed league and they became very familiar They first leaped and danced with a kind of Timbrel which they strucke with a sticke Their apparell was of beasts and birds skins buskins hose gloues c. Some leather they had which was dressed like the Glouers leather The 6. of August they discouered land in 66. deg. 40. min.. They killed white Beares one of whose fore-feet was fourteene inches broad so fat that they were forced to cast it away It seemed they fed on the grasse by their dung which was like to Horse-dung they heard Dogs howle on the shore which were tame They killed one with a Collar about his necke hee had a bone in his pisle these it seemed were vsed to the Sled for they found two Sleds The next yeere he made his second voyage wherein hee found the Sauage people tractable They are great Idolaters and Witches They haue many Images which they weare about them and in their Boats They found a graue wherein were many buried couered with Seales skinnes and a Crosse laid ouer them One of them made a fire of Turfs kindled with the motion of a sticke in a piece of a boord which had a hole halfe thorow into which hee put many things with diuers words and strange gestures our men supposed it to be a sacrifice They would haue had one of the English to stand in the smoke which themselues were bidden to doe and would not by any meanes whereupon one of them was thrust in and the fire put out by our men They are very theeuish They eate raw Fish grasse and Ice and drinke salt-water Heere they saw a whirlewinde take vp the water in great quantitie furiously mounting it vp into the ayre three houres together with little intermission They found in 63. degrees 8. minutes a strange quantitie of Ice in one entire masse so bigge that they knew not the limits thereof very high in forme of land with Bayes and Capes like high-cliffe-land they sent their Pinnasse to discouer it which returned with information that it was onely Ice This was the 17. of Iuly 1586. and they coasted it till the thirtieth of Iuly In the 66. deg. 33. min.. they found it very hot and were much troubled with a stinging Fly called Muskito All the Lands they saw seemed to bee broken and Ilands which they coasted Southwards till they were in foure and fifty and a halfe and there found hope of a passage In the same voyage he had sent the Sun-shine from him in 60. degrees which went to Iseland and on the seuenth of Iuly had sight of the Gronland and were hindered from harbour by the Ice They coasted it till the last of Iuly Their houses neere the Sea-side were made with pieces of wood crossed ouer with poles and couered with earth Our men played at foot-ball with them of the Iland The third voyage was performed the next yeere 1587. wherein Mr Dauis discouered to the 73. degree finding the Sea all open and forty leagues betweene land and land hauing Groenland which hath an Iland neere it to the West for the loathsome view of the shore couered with snow without wood earth or grasse to be seene and the irkesome noise of the Ice called Desolation in 59. on the East and America on the West The Spanish Fleet and the vntimely death of Master Secretarie Walsingham the Epitome and summary of Humane worthinesse hindered the prosecution of these intended Discoueries In the yeere 1602. Captain George Weymouth made a voyage of Discouery to the Northwest with two Fly-boats set forth by the Muscouy Company saw the South part of Gronland and had water in 120. fadome blacke as thick as puddle and in a little space cleere with many such enterchanges The breach of the Ice made a noise as a thunder-clap and ouerturning had sunke both their Vessels if they had not with great diligence preuented it They had store of Fogges some freezing as they fell In 68 deg. 53. min.. they encountred an Inlet forty leagues broad and sailed West and by South in the same 100. leagues Iames Hall An. 1605. sailed to Groenland from Denmarke and had like encounters of Ice yeelding in the breach no lesse noise then if fiue Canons had beene discharged with people also like those which in Frobishers Voyage are mentioned they make sailes of guts sowed together for their fishing Boats and deceiued the Seales with Seales-skin garments Groenland is high Mountainous full of broken Ilands alongst the Coasts Riuers nauigable and good Bayes full of fish Betweene the Mountaines are pleasant Plaines and Vallies such as a man would scarce beleeue He saw store of Fowle no beasts but blacke Foxes and Deere The people seemed a kind of Samoydes wandering in Summer by companies for Hunting and Fishing and remouing from place to place with their Tents and Baggage they are of reasonable stature browne actiue warlike eate raw meat or a little perboyled with bloud Oyle or a little water which they drinke their apparell beasts of fowles skinnes the hairy or feathered side outward in Summer in the Winter inward their arrowes and darts with two feathers and a bone-head they haue no wood but drift they worship the Sunne Anno 1606. He made a second Voyage thither found their Winter houses built with Whales bones couered with Earth and Vaults two yards deepe vnder the Earth square They call Groenland in their language Secanunga Vp within the Land they haue a King carried on mens shoulders The next yeere he sailed thither the third time and in a fourth Voyage 1612. was slaine
whiles others attended and at last led him with a firebrand in stead of a Torch to his lodging When they intend any wars the Weroances or Kings consult first with the Priests and Coniurers And no people haue there beene found so sauage which haue not their Priests Gods and Religion All things that are able to hurt them beyond their preuention they after their sort adore as the Fire Water Lightning Thunder our Ordnance Peeces Horses Yea I haue heard Captaine Smith say that they seeing one of the English Bores in the way were striken with awfull feare because he brisled vp himselfe and gnashed his teeth and took him for the god of the Swine which was offended with them The chiefe god they worship is the Diuell which they call Okee They haue conference with him and fashion themselues vnto his shape In their Temples they haue his Image ill-fauouredly made painted adorned with Chaines Copper and Beads and couered with a skinne By him is commonly the Sepulchre of their Kings whose bodies are first bowelled then dryed on a hurdle and haue about the ioynts chaines of Copper Beads and other like trash then lapped in white skinnes and rowled in mats and orderly entombed in arches made of mats the remnant of their wealth being set at their feet These Temples and Bodies are kept by their Priests For their ordinarie burials they digge a deepe hole in the earth with sharpe stakes and the corps being wrapped in skins and mats with their iewels they lay them vpon sticks in the ground and couer them with earth The buriall ended the women hauing their faces painted with blacke coale and oyle sit foure and twenty houres in the houses mourning and lamenting by turnes with yellings and howlings Euery Territory of a Weroance hath their Temples and Priests Their principall Temple is at Vttamussack in Pamaunk where Powhatan hath a house vpon the top of certaine sandie hils in the woods There are three great houses filled with Images of their Kings and Diuels and Tombes of their Predecessors Those houses are neere threescore foot long built after their fashion Arbour-wise This place is in such estimation of holinesse that none but the Priests and Kings dare enter yea the Sauages dare not passe by in Boats without casting Copper Beads or somewhat into the Riuer Heere are commonly resident seuen Priests the chiefe differed from the rest in his ornaments the other can hardly be knowne from the common people but that they haue not so many holes at their eares to hang their Iewels at The High-Priests head-tire is thus made They take a great many Snakes skinnes stuffed with Mosse as also of Weasils and other vermines skins which they tye by their tayles so that all the tayles meet on the top of their head like a great tassell The faces of their Priests are painted as vgly as they can deuise in their hands they haue Rattles some Base some Treble Their deuotion is most in songs which the chiefe Priest beginneth the rest following sometime he maketh inuocations with broken sentences by starts and strange passions and at euery pause the other giue a short grone It cannot be perceiued that they haue any set Holy-dayes onely in some great distresse of want feare of enemies times of triumph and of gathering their fruits the whole Countrey Men Women and Children assemble to their solemnities The manner of their deuotion is somtimes to make a great fire all singing and dancing about the same with Rattles and shouts foure or fiue houres sometime they set a man in the middest and dance and sing about him he all the while clapping his hands as if he would keepe time after this they goe to their Feasts They haue certaine Altar-stones which they call Powcorances standing from their Temples some by their houses others in the woods and wildernesses vpon which they offer bloud Deere-suet and Tobacco This they doe when they returne from the warres from their huntings and on other occasions When the waters are rough in stormes their coniurers runne to the waters sides or passe in their boats and after many hellish out-cries and inuocations cast Tobacco Copper Pocones or such trash into the water to pacifie that god whom they thinke to be very angry in those stormes Before their dinners and suppers the better sort will take the first bit and cast it into the fire which is all the grane they are knowne to vse In some part of the Countrey they are said which since is found false to haue yeerely a sacrifice of children such a one was performed at Quiyoughcohanock some ten miles from Iames Towne in this manner Rapahannock Werowance made a Feast in the woods the people were so painted that a Painter with his pensill could not haue done better Some of them were blacke like Diuels with hornes and loose haire some of diuers colours They continued two dayes dancing in a circle of a quarter of a mile in two companies with antick tricks foure in a ranke the Werowance leading the dance they had Rattles in their hands all in the middest had black hornes on their heâds and greene boughes in their hands next them were foure or fiue principall men diuersly painted which with bastinadoes beat forward such as tired in the dance Thus they made themselues scarce able to goe or stand When they met together they made a hellish noise and euery one flinging away his bough ranne clapping their hands vp into a tree and tare it to the ground and fell into their order againe thus they did twice Fourteene well-fauoured children or if you had rather heare Captaine Smith fifteene of the properest yong Boyes betweene ten and fifteene yeeres of age they painted white H uing brought them forth the people saith he spent the forenoone in dancing and singing about them with Rattles in the afternoone they put these children to the root of a tree all the men standing to guard them each with a Bastinado of Reeds bound together in his hand Then doe they make a lane betweene them all along thorow which there were appointed fiue yong men White cals them Priests to fetch these children Each of these fetched a child the guard laying on with their Bastinadoes while they with their naked bodies defend the children to their great smart All this time the women weepe and cry out very passionately prouiding mosse skinnes mats and dry wood vnknowne to what purpose When the children are in this manner fetched away the guard teares downe trees branches and boughes making wreathes for their heads or bedecking their haire with the leaues What else was done with the children was not seene but they were all cast on a heape in a Valley as dead where was made a great feast for all the company William White relating this Rite saith That they remoued them from tree to tree three times and at last carried them into a Valley where the King sate where
would eate them The seuerall peoples by him reckoned would heere be tedious to name which we may say of the like made by Godoy and Aluarado Of the customes of the Ancient Mexicanes one of Cortes his Gentlemen hath written a Treatise extant in Ramusius wherein are described their Citie Temples Rites of Sacrifice and the like as after followeth out of him and others CHAP. X. Of the ancient Inhabitants of New-Spaine and the Historie of their Kings §. I. The Mexican Exodus and first founding HAuing now declared the subuersion of this State and Kingdome by the Spaniards I hold it not amisse to looke backe vpon the first people which heere inhabited with the beginnings and proceedings of the Mexican Empire The first Inhabitants of New-Spaine were very barbarous and sauage which liued onely by Hunting and for this reason were called Chichemecas They liued naked solitary in the Mountaines without Tillage Policie or any religious Ceremonies their wiues followed the same Hunting exercise leauing their children tied in a Panier of Reeds to the boughs of some tree They did eat what they got in hunting raw They ate also Snakes and Lizards which they offered likewise in sacrifice to the Sunne whom onely they worshipped and that without any Image they offered to him Fowles from the Butter-fly to the Eagle And some remnants of the like beastly men as is said before are yet found which doe great hurt and will not by either cunning or force of the Spaniards be reduced to any other course They seeme to haue learned the Sauage nature of the wilde Beasts of whom and with whom they liue By this meanes it came to passe that this wilde Mountainous people left the best and most fertile part of the Country vnpeopled which certaine remote Nations possessed whom they called Nauatalcas for their ciuilitie These came from those Northerne parts which now they call new Mexico The Nauatalcas paint their beginning and first Territorie in maner of Caues because of their seuen Tribes and men comming out of them By the supputation of their Bookes this departure was aboue eight hundred yeeres since and by reducing to our account about the yeere of our Lord 720. Fourescore yeeres they stayed on the way the cause whereof they ascribe to their Gods which spake visibly to them and bade them seek new Lands that had such signes as they notified Thus they proceeded in seeking those signes and peopled the best parts still remouing their habitations as they found more fertile Countries leauing onely the aged sicke and weary with a few others to remaine in the former And by these leisurely proceedings they entred the land of Mexico about the yeere 902. after our account Those seuen Nations came not all at once but first the Suchimilcos next the Chalcas and thirdly the Tepanetans fourthly those of Tescuco after them the Tlalluicans the sixt were the Tlascaltecans which helped the Spaniards to conquer Mexico and therefore are exempted from tribute to this day These expelled as their Histories say certaine Gyants whom in pretence of Friendship they had inuited to a banquet and in their drunkennes stole away their weapons and slew them Neither doth this seeme a fable for at this day are found dead mens bones of incredible bignesse I saw a tooth saith Acosta at Mexico in the yeere 1586. as bigge as the fist of a man and according to this all the rest was proportionable Three hundred and two yeeres after the first transmigration those of the seuenth Caue or Line arriued which is the Mexican Nation they worshipped the Idoll Vitzliputzli and the Diuel spake gouerned this Nation He promised to make them Lords ouer all which the other six Nations possessed and to giue them a Land plentifull in riches whereupon they went forth carrying their Idoll with them in a Coffer of Reeds supported by foure of their principall Priests with whom he talked and communicated his Oracles and Directions He likewise gaue them Lawes and taught them the Ceremonies and Sacrifices they should obserue And euen as the pillar of Cloud and Fire conducted the Israelites in their passage thorow the Wildernesse so this apish Diuell gaue them notice when to aduance forwards and when to stay The first thing they did wheresoeuer they came was to build a house or Tabernacle for their Vitzliputzli which they set alway in the middest of their Campe and there placed the Arke in the middest of the Altar This done they sowed the Land and if their God commanded to gather they did so and if to raise their Campe they obeyed leauing the aged sicke and weary to gather their fruits and to dwell there The chiefe Captaine whom they followed was called Mexi whence came the name of their City and Nation Their Idoll perswaded them when some were bathing themselues in certaine Lakes to remoue the Campe closely and steale away their clothes whereat they which were thus forsaken changed their language and manner of life retayning alway their hatred to the Mexicans They peopled the Prouince Mechouacan from hence to Mexico is fifty leagues and vpon the way is Malinalco which they say was peopled by a Witch and her familie whom by the commandement of their God they left behinde closly remouing the armie by night They stayed in a place called Tuta where by stopping a Riuer they drowned a Plaine and planted it round with Willowes and other trees and many liking the place talked of staying there whereat their God offended threatned the Priests and in the night slew those which had consulted of staying Their hearts were found pulled out and their stomackes opened which after that they obserued in their Sacrifices The Mexicans by the aduice of their Idoll proceeded and by force made way thorow the Chalcas and sent to the Lord of Culbuacan who granted them the place of Ticaapan to dwell in which was full of Snakes and venemous Beasts which by the helpe of their God they tamed He would not suffer them to stay there but commanded them to proceed and to seeke forth a Woman whom they should name the Goddesse of Discord Whereupon they sent to the King of Culhuacan to demand his Daughter to bee Queene of the Mexicans and Mother of their God who easily condescended and sent his daughter gorgeously attired The same night she arriued by order of their God shee was murthered and flayed and a yong man was couered with her skin with her apparell thereon and being placed neere the Idoll she was consecrated a Goddesse and Mother of their God they euer after worshipping the same making an Idol which they call Toccy that is Our Grand-mother The King of Culhuacan hereupon warred against them and chased them out of those parts by which meanes they came to the place where Mexico now is Heere certaine old Priests or Sorcerers entring into a place full of Water-Lillies they met with a very faire and cleare current of Water with Trees
drunke largely thereof the liquid pitch floateth on the top of the water like clouted Creame to vse his owne phrase The Countrie of Babylonia hath beene the most fruitfull in the world yeelding ordinarily two hundred and in some places three hundred increase the blades of the Wheat and Barley about foure fingers broad Plinie somewhat otherwise They cut saith he or mow their corne twice and seed it a third time in Babylonia otherwise it would be nothing but blade and yet so their barrener laud yeeldeth fiftie their best an hundred increase Tygris and Euphrates ouerflow it but bring not fatnesse to the soyle as Nilus in Egypt but rather cleanse that superfluous fatnesse which naturally it hath The soyle is of a rosennie clay sayth master Allen and would still retaine in likelyhood his ancient fertility if it were watered with like diligent husbandrie In digging it yeeldeth corrupt waters fauouring of that pitchie slime In the Citie anciently it seemeth that in euery Garden of any Citizen of sort were rils made out of the Riuer The ruines from the Tower aforesaid to Bagdat which some call Babylon and beyond on the other side of the Riuer containe twentie two miles yet to be seene which happily are the ruines not of old Babylon so much as of the Neighbour townes here built Seleucia Vologesocerta and Ctesiphon which I rather thinke because they reach beyond Tygris as well as on this side To returne to the religious places in Babylon Caelius Rhodiginas tels that in the Temple of Apollo was found a golden chest of great antiquitie which being broken by some accident thence issued a pestilent vapour that infected not those alone which were present but the neighbouring Nations as farre as Parthia Ammianus Marcellinus hath the like Historie of the Image of Apollo Chomeus at Seleucia which was brought to Rome and there placed by the Priests in the Temple of Apollo Palatinus and when as a certaine hole which the Chaldaean Wise-men had by Art stopped through the couetousnesse of certaine Souldiers breaking in thither for spoyle was broken vp the world was thence poysoned with a contagion from Persia as farre as France Philostratus reporteth but who will beleeue his reports of Apollonius that he saw at Babylon such stately Palaces as scarce agree with the state of Babylon in the time of Apollonius which was while Domician raigned amongst other things hee saw Galleries full of Greeke Images as of Orpheus Andromeda c. He came also into a Gallerie the roofe whereof was made bowing like the heauens and couered with Saphire so to resemble Heauen and the Images of their gods made of gold were there son From the roofe there hanged foure birds of gold representing the goddesse of Reuenge which they called the tongues of the gods I know not by what art or mysterie admonishing the King not to exalt himselfe CHAP. XII Of the Priests Sacrifices religious Rites and customes of the Babylonians THe Chaldeans saith Diodorus were of reputation in Babylon as the Priests in Egypt Chaldaean being a name sometime applyed to the whole Nation sometime appropriated to the Priests who spent their whole time in religious Seruices and in Astrologie Many of them by diuination foretold things to come as wee haue shewed before in the Historie of Alexander and the booke of Daniel witnesseth this their profession By their auguries or diuination by birds by sacrifices and enchantments they were accounted to doe good or harme to mankind They were most expert in their sacred Rites in the knowledge whereof they were brought vp from their child-hood and continued in that course of learning all their liues the child being instructed in his Fathers science They professed the interpretation of dreames and prodigious accidents in Nature Their opinions were That the world is eternall without beginning and end the order and furniture of all was done by diuine prouidence all heauenly things were perfected not by chance of their owne accord but by the determinate and firme decree of the gods By long obseruation searching the course and nature of the starres they foretold things to come But the greatest power they attributed to the fiue Planets and especially to Saturne They call them Mercuries because when others are fixed these haue their proper motion and shew future things as the Interpreters of the gods by their rising setting and colour Vnder their course they giue the title of gods to thirty other starres the one halfe aboue the other vnder the earth beholding all accidents And in tenne dayes one of the higher is sent to the lower as an Angell or Messenger of the Starres and one from them to the higher And this course they take eternally They hold twelue principall gods each of which hath his peculiar moneth and his signe in the Zodiake by which the Sunne and Moone and fiue Planets haue their motion These Planets they esteeme to conferre much good or euill in the generation of men and by their nature and aspect things to come may be foreknown Many things they foretold to Alexander Nicanor Antigonus Seleucus and to priuate men beyond the reach of men They number foure and twenty constellations without the Zodiake twelue towards the North and as many towards the South These Northernly are seene which they attribute to the liuing those Southernly are hidden and present they thinke to the dead which they hold the Iudges of all Concerning the site motion and Eclipse of the Moone they hold as the Greekes but of the Sunnes Eclipse they haue diuers opinions and dares not vtter their opinion thereof nor foretell the time The earth they conceiued to bee hollow like a boate R. Moses Ben Maimon out of a booke intituled de Aagricultura Aegyptiorum attributeth like things vnto them that they beleeued the Starres were gods and that the Sunne was the chiefe God and next to him the Moone that the Sunne ruleth the superiour and inferiour world And concerning Abraham that he was borne in a land which worshipped the fire which when he reproued and his Countrimen obiected the operations of the Sunne hee answered that the Sun was as the Axe in the hand of the Carpenter But at last the King cast Abraham into prison and when as there hee still continued the same disputes and opinions the King fearing hurt to his people banished him into the vtmost bounds of Chanaan hauing first spoyled him of all his good This contradicteth the Historie of Moses and of the old and new Testament which commend Abrahams faith in voluntary forsaking of his country at the commaund of GOD and not by compulsion of man although it reacheth not to the former absurbitie which ascribeth this to the time of Nimrod And whether Abraham was an Idolater before that his calling is handled else where But to returne to our Rabbine highly admired by a most admired Author he saith that hence Abraham grew renowmed through the
that egge R. Papa answereth that he would neuer haue beleeued it but that hee saw it I hope they will pardon vs if wee be of the same minde But would you not faine heare of a man holding like proportion then let R. Saul tell you of his aduentures in the burying of a dead corps where hee encountred with a bone of a man into which there flew a Rauen and the Rabbi would needs follow after to see what became of her and so he went he went three leagues in the hollow of the same bone and could find no end therof and therfore returned so he perceiued it was one of the bones of Og the Giant whom Moses had slaine Perhaps you will maruell how Moses could atchieue such an exploit Forsooth you must vnderstand that Moses was ten cubits high and had an Axe ten cubits long and leaped other ten cubits in the ayre and so gaue the deadly blow to Og who it seemes was layde along in some deepe Trench or else you will thinke the Rabbine lyed Tush your incredulitie makes you vnworthy to heare their storie of R. Osua who beguiled the Angell of Death of whom when hee came to smite him hee would in kindnesse needs learne his future place in Paradise wherewith the deadly Angell was content and went with him yea for his securitie at his request resigned his deadly weapon into his hands Thus at last they came at Paradise where hee shewed him his place which he desirous to take better view of required his helpe to lift him higher and then with a quicke deliuerie leapt into Paradise Thus did the poore coozened Angell misse his prey and was glad with much a-doe to recouer his sword from the Rabbine And that you might see their skill no lesse in Cosmographie then Theologie Another was carryed to the place where Heauen and Earth meete and kisse each other where whiles hee might take the more diligent view in obseruing those parts which the Frier of Oxford neuer saw nor Faustus with his Mephostophilos hee hanged his Cloake on a window in Heauen and suddenly it was conueyed out of sight Hereat amazed that there should bee theeues in Heauen a voyce told him it was the heauens motion and at such an houre the next day he might attend and againe obtaine his Cloake which hee did accordingly But to take view of other strange creatures make roome I pray for another Rabbi with his Bird and a great deale of roome you will say is requisite Rabbi Kimchi on the 50. Psalme auerreth out of Rabbi Iehudah that Ziz is a bird so great that with spreading abroad his wings hee hideth the Sunne and darkneth all the world And to leape backe into the Talmud a certaine Rabbi sayling on the Sea saw a bird in the middle of the sea so high that the water reached but to her knees whereupon he wished his companions there to wash because it was shallow Doe it not saith a voyce from heauen for it is seuen yeeres space since a Hatchet by chance falling out of a mans hand in this place and alwaies descending is not yet come at the bottome I perceiue by your incredulous smiles you will scarce beleeue that a Lyon in the wood Ela roared suddenly that all the women in Rome foure hundred miles from thence for very horror proued abortiue and when he came an hundred miles neerer his terrible noyse shooke the teeth out of all the Romans heads and the Emperour himselfe that caused the Rabbi to obtaine of GOD by his prayer to make this triall of the Lion fell downe from his Throne halfe dead and with much importunity requested his helpe to cause him retire to his denne But this roaring hath al most marred our Feast §. III. Their Messias his Feast OVr Wine you haue heard of fetched out of Adams Celler Esay 27.2.3 and Psal. 75.9 Before the Feast Messias will cause these prety creatures Behemoth and Leuiathan to play together and make them sport but when they haue wearied themselues in the fight Messias with his sword shall kill them both Esa 27.1 Then followeth the Feast and afterwards his Marriage Kings Daughters shall bee among thine honourable women at thy right hand standeth the Queene in the golde of Ophir Amongst the Messias his excellent women Rabbi Kimchi expoundeth shall bee Kings Daughters for euery King shall repute it to his owne glory to bestow a daughter on the Messias But the true Queene shall bee one of the fairest Israelites daughters and shall continually conuerse with him whereas the others must come onely at call He shall thus beget children which shall raigne after him Esay 53.10 when he is dead Now the state of the Iewes in his time shall be such that the Christians shall freely build them houses and Cities and till their grounds and bestow on them their goods yea Princes shall serue them and they shall walke in faire garments Esa 60.10 11 12. and Esa 61.5 6. The ayre also shall be new and wholesome Esa 65.17 by the benefit whereof they shall abide sound and liue long and in their age bee as fresh as if they were yong Psal. 92.14.15 The Wheat once sowne shall alway grow vp of it selfe no otherwise then the Vines Hosea 14.8 And if any shall desire any raine for his field or garden or one hearb by it selfe he shall haue it Zach. 10.11 Then shall be peace among men and beasts Hos 2.19 Esa 11.7 If there arise any warre among the Gentiles the Messias shall accord them Esa 2.4 They shall liue in great felicitie full of the knowledge and praise of GOD The earth shall be full hereof c. The Talmud also speaketh of a thousand yeeres wherein the world shall be renewed somewhat like the opinion of some Ancients in the Primitiue Church in which time the iust shall haue wings giuen them like Eagles whereby they may flie ouer the face of the waters But the bodies of the iust which shall rise againe shall neuer returne to dust Ricius in this and many other of their absurdities seekes to giue an allegoricall interpretation but which of the Heathen haue not so patronized their superstitions and Idolatries as appeareth in the Poets Philosophers Chaldaean and Egyptian Priests whose mysticall learning cannot free their religions from being mysteries of iniquitie Sixe thousand yeeres the world endureth saith R. Katina and a thousand yeere shall be a desolation and GOD onely shall be exalted in that day for one thousand yeeres is one day of the Lord as it is written A thousand yeeres in thy sight are as yesterday and this is a Sabbath wherein shall be the feastings aboue mentioned And thus did Elias affirme as is said two thousand yeeres the world was emptie two thousand the Law and two thousand Messias but for the sins of men that is wanting which we see wanting This last clause Ricius saith is added by the Talmudists which
raigned and after another of the same name and the Saracens were diuided Tebid Dadac and Zulciminius challenged each to himselfe the Soueraigntie and when all these were ouerthrowne and slaine Asmulinus amongst the Persians raised vp the seruants to murther their masters and with them he ouerthrew Iblinus with one hundred thousand Saracens and after Maruan himselfe with three hundred thousand who fleeing into Egypt was there also vanquished and slaine in a Temple This murther grew through the faction of the Abasian stocke who conspired against him because he had slaine one of their kindred Abulabas the chiefe of this conspiracie succeeded him in the yeere 749. and remoued the Chaliphate to that family from the Maraunians in the yeere of their Hegeira 132. after the Arabian computation as wee follow Scaliger herein and he the Chronicle which Abraham Zacuthi gathered out of the Monuments of the Ismaelites In the former relations we haue principally followed Curio his Saracenicall History though by the way we haue borrowed of others also §. III. Of the Abasian Chalifaes their Citie Bagadet with many Persian Indian and other occurrences vnder them TARIK MIRKOND writes that the family of Abas had still from the first challenge continued their quarrell and that Oelid to satisfie them had caused the sonnes of Abdala one of the Abasians to be proclaimed his successours one of which Safa in this warre against Maruuan forced him to flee to Mesera or Cairo in Aegypt where hee was taken and put to death and with him eightie persons of the family of Ben Humia They did also breake open their Sepulchers and burnt the bones sparing onely one of that liue Hamarben Abdala Azis Safa was sonne of Abdala the sonne of Aly whose father was Abdula the sonne of Abas Hee had for Wazir or Vesir which I mention to shew the antiquitie of this custome in the Saracenicall regiment still obserued by the Turkes and Persians as chiefe Counsellour and swayer of the State Abuzalemah whom for conspiracie hee put to death placing in his roome Kaleb Barmaqui He made his three Vncles chiefe Gouernours of the Prouinces Dauid or Daud of Medina and Mecca Abdula of Syria Aegypt and Africke and Safa hee sent to Korosan the chiefe Citie whereof is called Mechad whereas Ismael Sophi and his successours are interred This Citie is fortified with three hundred Towers each from other a Musket shot distant Thus Mirkond This Safa or as Curio calls him Abulabas being dead Abugephar Elmantzar succeeded Hee imprisoned the twelue sonnes of Hasin the sonne of Ali where they perished He began first to build the Citie of Bagded Mirkond saith that in the 145. yeere of the Heg. hauing finished a warre against some Rebels in Arabia parting from Cufa hee crossed Mesopotamia and comming to the bankes of Tygris the bountie of the soyle and commodious scituation for the visiting of his Prouinces caused him to build this Citie which by reason of many pleasant and delightfull Gardens which are in that Countrey the people called Bagadad of Baga a Persian word which signifies a Garden Hee dyed vpon the way to Mecca A. Heg. 759. or after Zacuth 758. Iohn di Barros ascribeth this Citie to the same Bugiafar also for so hee calleth him but Curio to one Muamat long after Scaliger thinketh this to bee Seleucia a Citie built nigh vnto Babylon by Seleucus neere the meeting and mixing of Euphrates and Tygris of which see our Babylonian Historie in the first booke Mahdi his sonne succeeded A. H. 165. Mirkond calls him Mahadi Bila In his time Akemben Ocem sometime Secretarie to Abusalem Gouernour of Karason slaine by Abuiafar reuolted from his subiection and Religion Hee had but one eye and was of terrible aspect hee not onely sought to bee acknowledged for King but would bee worshipped as a God couering his face with a vaile saying That men were vnworthy to see his face and many Prouinces receiued him for King But Mahadi sending a strong power against him his partakers poysoned him and then gaue out that hee was ascended into Heauen But as many of his kindred and followers as were taken were burned and the Countries subdued A. Heg. 169. To Mahadi succeeded Elida Bila Musa which after fifteene moneths dyed and Arachid Bila Harun his brother succeeded Against him rebelled Rafh Eben Nacer of Samarkand who entituled himselfe King in expedition against whom Arachid dyed A. H. 193. Mahamid Amin was his successour to whom hee gaue all he held in Alep and thence Westward to Mahamun another sonne hee had giuen Persia and Karason to Racem the third Aderbaion and Diarbek This diuision caused another in which the Chalife seeking to dispossesse Mahamun by force was ouerthrowne Bagadet whither hee was pursued taken and himselfe slaine A. 198. Mahamun or Mamon was the next Chalife against whom the Gouernours of Aderbaion and Karason rebelled which hee pacified as he could Hee spent much to haue all the bookes of Phylosophie the Mathematikes and Physike which hee could get to bee translated out of the Greeke He dyed A. H. 210. Abu Ezach Matacon or Mutetzam the fourth sonne of Harun succeeded Hee built Samarrah on Tygris Northwards from Bagdet which soone after was ruined Sistom a Prouince neere the Persian Gulfe rebelled and long warres continued in Persia This Matacon wanne much from the Grecian Emperour Hee dyed after he had raigned eight yeeres leauing behind him eight Sonnes and eight Daughters with eight thousand Slaues Hee had taken eight Cities the chiefe of eight Realmes and put to death the eight Kings thereof Hee left eight millions also of Treasure hauing liued to make vp eight eights fortie and eight yeeres Wacek succeeded in whose time by a three yeeres famine Karason was almost dispeopled Afterwards they returned and warred against the Mayusi Heathenish people in Persia whereof saith Mirkond there are great numbers at this day which worship the fire of whom they made a great massacre Methucal or Almoto Wakel Bila Iafar succeeded A. 222. in whose raigne the descendants of Aly did rise for that he sought all meanes to hinder their pilgrimage to his Sepulchre breaking the bankes of Euphrates with the inundation thereof into the desart stopping their passage Montacer sonne of this Chalife murthered him by his slaues A.H. 234. but dyed himselfe within sixe moneths after Abul Abas Hamed his next heyre after fiue yeeres rule was cast into Prison by his Souldiers and there famished In Persia the Deputies or Gouernours had vnder many Chalifes succeeded by a kinde of inheritance the Chalife confirming the succession to the heyre But in these dayes arose one Acem Ben Zeyd Alauuy that is Sent of God hee entred into Persia and tooke diuers Cities and Prouinces thereof Mostahhin the next Chalife enioyed the seate but sixteen moneths He dyed A.H. 242. Almatez Bila followed the thirtie three in order of their Chalifes He sent Mesa Ben Buka against Acem Ben Zeyd and recouered much from him which he
the light compasseth the Tower of Susa and the religious Temple of Diana Daniel calls it Vlay it seemeth to be or to become the same with Choaspes and so doth Ptolomey confound them they dranke also onely Chalybonian wine made at Damascus in Syria and their bread was made of the wheat of Assos in Phrygia Their sumptuous feasting appeareth in the Scripture beyond what is read in any storie of any King in which was somewhat of euery Nation subiect to him set before him his Salt was brought out of Egypt Amongst the baggage and stuffe of Darius which Parmenio tooke at Damascus were found two hundred seuentie seuen Cookes nine and twentie Scullians thirteene which had charge of white-meates seuenteene which were to minister water seuentie which belonged to the wine-celler fortie which looked to the oyntments and sixtie sixe which made Crownes How many may we thinke were there in his setled Court His dining-roome was full of musicall women whereof one began the song the rest followed three hundred of these creatures singing playing dancing spent the night in his bed-chamber Hee which could deuise any new pleasure was highly rewarded for which purpose Xerxes promised largely to such Epicurean-Masters by an open Proclamation The King vsually sate alone sometimes his mother and wife were admitted other guests sate where hee might see but not be seene of them yea they had slauish sauce to their sweet meates being narrowly watched by the Eunuches whether they cast any liberall lookes towards any of the Kings women Yet the Parthian guests had more seruile entertainment as euen now wee shewed Concerning the multitudes of their women and curiositie of their lusts the booke of Ester yeelds ample testimonie Cicero addeth that they bestowed for the maintenance of their wiues robes and dresses one Citie for their haire another for their necke yea the reuenues of whole countries on such excesse Socrates in Platoes Alcibiades telleth of an Embassador into Persia which was almost a whole day in trauelling through a Region called the Queenes Girdle another called the Queenes Head-tire and so for euery other part of her Wardrobe The Kings children especially the eldest sonne were presently after their birth committed to Eunuches which beside education did compose and order their lims at seuen yeeres of age they learned to ride and hunt hauing skilfull instructers for that purpose at foureteene yeeres they were committed to the discipline of the Royall Masters which were foure choisely learned the first in Prudence which taught the Magia of Zoroastres and the institution of a King the second in Iustice who taught to speake and deale truly the third in Temperance wherein hee instructed his new disciple as the fourth in Fortitude The Persian King had one whose office was to salute the King with these words Arise O King and thinke on such things as Mesoromasdes would haue thee Almost euery day hee performed his holy Rites for which cause were slaine euery day one thousand sacrifices amongst which were Oxen Asses Harts the Magi being present Before their sacrifices they discoursed of pietie and when they went to this their deuotion there were men on both sides the way set in rankes with officers called Mastigophori who suffered none but great personages to enter First were led Bulls foure and foure together which were sacrificed to Iupiter After them were led Horses to bee offered to the Sunne Then followed a Chariot drawne with white Horses hauing a golden beame and crowned sacred to Iupiter after that the Chariot of the Sunne like the former Then a third Chariot the Horses couered with Scarlet after which followed men carrying fire and next the King in his Chariot before which went foure thousand Target men and two thousand Speare-men about it There followed three hundred with Darts on horse-backe two hundred horses with golden bridles and after them three thousand Persians and in the last place the Medes Armenians Hireans Xenophon indeed which writes this in his Institution of Cyrus intends rather the frame of a iust Empire then the truth of History yet professeth to relate no other Rites and Customes then which the Persians embraced neither doth hee in these things disagree from Herodotus and Curtius The Kings Chariot was drawne with white horses the drowning of one of which was the cause of drying the Riuer Gyndes For Cyrus enraged for the losse of his white Palfrey diuided the riuer by force of men into three hundred and twentie rills so that it wilderd and lost it selfe in those many by-wayes an argument what Diuision can doe These horses were of the Nisaean race in Media When the King descended from his Chariot a golden stoole was set him to step on one alway attending his Chariot with such a stoole While hee rode in his Chariot hee spent the time in whitling with a knife not in reading or any graue meditation and therefore was vnlearned When hee went on progresse into Media he enioyned the Countrey to spend three dayes before to hunt Scorpions which there abounded allowing rewards therefore They vsed by themselues or their Legats to visite their officers in the Prouinces and to punish or preferre them according to their merits In iudgements they not onely considered the crimes and accusations but the counterpoise also of their vertues and the clemencie of Artaxerxes in their irreuocable law appeared in cutting off the Tyarae of condemned persons in stead of their heads As often as the King entred into Persepolis euery Matron was to haue a piece of gold giuen her the men also were rewarded which multiplied children but especiall rewards were bestowed on them which were called Orosange which had deserued well of the King whose names and facts were therefore recorded as we reade of Mordecai and his recompence Themistocles receiued of the Kings bountie the Citie Magnesia to finde him bread which Region was worth fiftie Talents yeerely Lampsacum for wine Myus for cates The chiefe gift giuen to any was a mill of gold The Kings birth-day was a solemne feast called Tycta that is perfect for the magnificence thereof in which hee gaue gifts to the people yea hee might not denie any petition then made to him The King nourished so many Indian dogs for hunting that foure great villages in the plaine of Babylon were assigned to their sustenance Artaxerxes caused Megabyzus as Ctesias writeth to bee beheaded for striking a Lyon with his dart which was readie to assault the King because he therein transgressed the Law and preuented the Kings triall of his valour The reuenues of the tributes were 14560. Euboike Talents the siluer and gold were melted and kept in earthen vessels which were broken when they came to vse the same Besides this the subiect prouinces yeelded to the maintenance of the King other things as Armenia horses Babylonia foure moneths victuals and the rest of Asia the other eight and other Regions their peculiar commodities The
to the youths men of riper age as masters of Manners The children come not in the Fathers sight till fiue yeeres of age or as Valerius Maximus hath till seuen and especially learne truth they were taught by these Prefects the rules of Iustice not by bare rules but by examples for which cause also Augustus would haue the Senators children present in the Court Yea a good part of the day was to this end spent by those Prefects in hearing and deciding such cases as fell out amongst these their schollers about thefts reproaches or other wrongs Next to Truth and Iustice they learned Sobrietie Abstinence Continence and Temperance wherein they were well furthered by the examples of their Masters neither might they eat but in their presence and with their leaue and that not of the choisest fare but bread and cresses whereto they added drinke from the next riuer They planted in them a hatred of vices especially of lying and in the next place of debt which cannot but bee attended with much disquiet and therefore wisely did Augustus command to buy him the pillow of a Roman Gentleman that died incredibly indebted as if there had therein rested some sleeping power whereon one so much indebted could take any rest Ingratitude was as little gratefull as the former and by the Persian lawes ingratefull persons were subiect to accusation and punishment as not Xenophon onely but Marcellinus also hath marked howsoeuer Seneca findes such a law onely amongst the Macedonians which perhaps was hence borrowed They hated such as forsooke their friends and country-men in need Their awfull respect to their parents was such that they might not sit in the mothers presence without her leaue the father had tyrannicall power ouer his children for life and death That which was vnto them vnlawfull in deed was not permitted in obscene and filthy words to bee spoken Thus were the Noble-mens children brought vp neere the Palace gates and in the Prouinces neere the gates of the Deputies or Gouernours For bodily exercise they learned to shoot to cast darts to ride and manage vnruly horses and to fight on horse-backe And this was their education till seuenteene yeeres of age at which time they were of the second ranke of Springals and youths and for ten yeeres after did not repaire home at nights but lay and abode in this Court or Colledge When the King went on hunting halfe of them attended him in armour Their dyet was the same but somewhat larger as is before related of the children and in hunting if it continued two dayes had but one dayes allowance They vsed to run long races of thirtie or fortie furlongs they exercised the sling leaping and wrestling the King propounding rewards to the Victor The helpe of these were vsed by the Magistrates against robbers murtherers and the like wicked persons as also of the Men which was the third order the Seminary of Magistrates and Souldierie of the Persians till they were fiftie yeeres old or somewhat more at which age they were freed from musters and forraine employments but at home were employed in publike and priuate iudgements None might attaine this honour in Age but by those degrees before expressed nor might any haue that education but the children of the rich which were able to beare the charge It was vnlawfull amongst the Persians to laugh in loud manner openly or openly or by the way to doe the easements of nature by siege vrine or vomit or to make water standing §. V. Of the Persian Luxurie and Marriages Funerals c. BVt this ancient Persian discipline and sobrietie with wealth and loosenesse were afterwards corrupted especially in drinking to represse which the Kings made an order Est. 1. that none should bee compelled to forget their health in remembring of healths or other Bacchanal deuices whereof would GOD wee had lesse cause to complaine The vse of Harlots were also added to their drinkings which when the Embassadors sent to Amyntas King of Macedon to demand Earth and Water which was the Persian custome when they exacted full subiection and possession extended to Matrons Alexander his sonne sent young men armed in womens habite amongst them which quenched their hot flames of lust with their bloud Hence haply it was that Assuerus would needes make shew of Vashti the Queene in his magnificent Feast which occasioned her depriuation and Esters succession Amidst their cups they consulted of warre and weightie affaires but some say they decreed not till afterwards The Persians vsed banquettings vnder Arras hangings before the time of Attalus from whom the Romans first borrowed the vse of them of his aula or hall hanged therewith calling them aulaea But the wals of the richer Persians were hanged with them the floures spread with costly carpets their cupboards furnished with rich plate their bodies shining with curious costly ointments their kitchin stored with garlick as a preseruatiue against serpents and venemous creatures their chambers swarmimg with Concubines yea mothers daughters and sisters wedded and bedded with them their second seruices celled in Scripture The banquet of wine when after the belly full farced with meats with which they dranke water they had other tables set with wine on which they gaue a new onset as a fresh enemy these and the like excesses would glut our Reader Loth were I to bring him to their mourning rites in which they shaued themselues their Horses and Mules they vsed sackcloth and entred not the Court they couered the face of such as incurred the Kings anger as we reade of Haman Their executions were flaying crucifying burning burying aliue stoning cutting asunder c. This pertaineth to their religion their diuination by lots as before Haman they perhaps the Magi cast Phur that is a lot from day to day and from month to month to see which would be the most lucky and fatall time for his mischieuous plot against the Iewes Their mariages they celebrated in the Spring and on their mariage day the husbands eate nothing but an Apple or the marrow of a Camel The Persians are accounted authors of making Eunuches which Petronius Arbiter and M. Seneca impute to the curiositie of their lust which might thus be longer serued of them They vsed in salutation to vncouer or put off the Tiara Here I might lade you with the Persian wardrobe the length and varietie of their garments and I might tell you of their earings and Iewels painting of their faces long haire of their kissing salutations if they were equall and of the knee of the superiour by the inferiour and adoration of the chiefe of their womans womanly detestation in the eagerest degree of hatred and indignation the fingering of wooll of their inhumane crueltie to the kindred of those which had committed some grieuous crime to punish all for the offence of one The Persians made banquets to their gods and gaue them the first fruits thereof
afraid the most will deeme too much let him resort to the large reports of Vincentius in his three last Bookes an Author I confesse otherwise fabulous and monkish but herein to be beleeued as receiuing his Reports from the eye-witnesses CHAP. XIIII Of the festiuall Solemnities and of the Magnificence of the Grand Can. WEe haue alreadie spoken of the solemne sacrifice obserued on the eight and twentieth day of August we reade in our Author Marcus Paulus an eye-witnesse of these his Relations of other the Grand Cans grand solemnities Of which two are principall one on his birth-day which in Cublai Cans time was the eight twentieth of September On which himselfe was royally clothed in cloth of gold and twentie thousand of his Barons Souldiers were all apparelled in one colour and like excepting the price to himself euery one hauing a girdle wrought of gold and siluer and a paire of shooes some of their garments richly set with pearles and jewels which they weare on the thirteene solemnities according to the thirteene Moones of the yeere On this day all the Tartars and seuerall Princes subiect present him with rich gifts and all sects of Religions pray vnto their gods for his health and long life But their chiefe feast is on the first day of their yeere which they begin in February celebrated by the Grand Can and all the Countries subiect to him in which they are all arrayed in white a colour in their estimation portending good lucke And then he is presented with many Clothes and Horses of white colour and other rich presents in the same religiously obseruing the number of nine as nine times nine Horses if they bee able and so of pieces of Gold Cloth and the rest Then also the Elephants which are aboue fiue thousand are brought forth in sumptuous furniture and Camels couered with Silke And in the morning they present themselues in the Hall as many as can the rest standing without in their due order First those of the Imperiall progenie next the Kings Dukes and others in their due place Then commeth forth a great man or Prelate which cryeth out with a loud voyce Bow downe your selues and worship which they presently doe with their faces to the earth This Prelate addeth GOD saue and preserue our Lord long to liue with ioy and gladnesse They all answere GOD grant it The Prelate againe GOD increase his Dominion and preserue in peace all his subiects prosper all things in all his Countries Whervnto they answere as before Thus doe they worship foure times After this the said Prelate goeth to an Altar there richly adorned on which is a Red Table with the name of the Great Can written in it and a Censer with Incense which he incenseth in stead of them all with great reuerence performed vnto the Table This done they returne to their places and present their gifts and after are feasted When Cublai had ouerthrowne Naiam his vncle as before is said vnderstanding that the Christians obserued their yeerely solemnitie of Easter hee caused them all to come vnto him and to bring the Booke of the foure Gospels which he incensed often with great Ceremonies deuoutly kissing it and caused his Barons to doe the like And this he obserueth alway in the principall Feasts of the Christians as Christmasse and Easter The like he did in the chiefe Feasts of the Saracens Iewes and Idolaters The cause he said was because of those foure Prophets to which all the world doth reuerence IESVS of the Christians Mahomet of the Saracens Moses of the Iewes and Sogomambar Can the first Idoll of the Pagans and I saith he doe honour to them all and pray him which is the greatest in Heauen and truest to helpe me Yet hee had best opinion of the Christian Faith because it contained nothing but goodnesse and would not suffer the Christians to carrie before them the Crosse on which so great a man as Christ was crucified Hee also sent Nicolo and Maffio the Father and Vncle of Marco Paulo our Author in Embassage to the Pope to send him a hundred wise men which might conuince the Idolaters that boasted of those there Magical wonders whereas the Christians that were there were but simple men not able to answere them which if it had beene effected he and his Barons would haue beene baptized Thomas à Iesu a Iesuite in his second booke of Procuring the conuersion of all Nations reporteth that Clement the fifth ordained Iohn à Monte Coruino a Minorite Archbishop of Cambalu and nine other of the same Order he consecrated Bishops and tooke order for the successour of the Archbishop when he died Whether these went or no is vncertaine Great pitie it is that the Iesuites men of so refined wits and such mightie miracle-mongers our world must witnesse the one and the East and West the other were but of yesterdaies hatching and that Ignatius had not broken his legge before those times These had been if they then had been the onely men to haue remoued those obiected scandals of the simplicitie of Christians and to haue confronted these Magicall Montebankes as the Can here required But these were reserued to times more fatall to the Pope to helpe at a dead list by peruertings here and conuertings there to hold vp the supposed sanctitie of the triple Diademe But looke wee to our Tartars Odoricus saith that in his time the Can celebrated besides the former the Feasts of his Circumcision Marriage and Coronation But before the Conquest of Cathay they obserued not any day at all with festiuall solemnities Cublai Can was of meane stature of countenance white red and beautifull He had foure wiues which kept seuerall Courts the least of which contained at least ten thousand persons He had many Concubines euery second yeere hauing a new choice of the fairest Maidens in the Prouince of Vngut most fertile belike of that commoditie which passe a second election at the Court and the fairest and fittest of them are committed to Ladies to proue and to instruct them Their parents hold it a great grace so to haue bestowed their children and if any of them proue not they impute it to their disastrous planet They hold it for a great beautie to haue their noses flat betweene the eyes In December Ianuary and February hee abideth at Cambalu in the North-East part of the Prouince of Cathay in a Palace neere to the Citie builded on this manner There is a circuit walled in foure square each square containing eight miles hauing about them a deepe ditch and in the middle a gate A mile inwards is another wall which hath sixe miles in each square and in the South side three gates and as many on the North. Betwixt those wals are Souldiers In euery corner of this wall and in the middest is a stately Palace eight in all wherein are kept his Munitions There is a third wall within this containing foure miles square
eares but no rings on their fingers Both men and women weare long garments with wide sleeues The men weare shooes of silke with curious workes and knots none weares of leather but the basest yea their soles they make of cloth The learned men weare square caps or hats others round They bestow long time euery morning in trimming their haire They vse no shirts but weare their inmost garment of white cloth and vse often washing They haue visants or vmbrellas to keepe off the sunne or raine borne ouer them by their seruants the poorer carrie them of lesse forme themselues The generall colour of the Chinois is white more or lesse according to the climate Their beard is thin long before it comes of a few staring haires in some none noses little scarse standing forth eyes prominent blacke little of egge-fashion many dreames they had of Pantogia's eyes of a darke gray colour as if iewels and precious things might thereby be knowne where they were hidden their eares are small If they would paint a deformed man they giue him a short garment great eyes and beard with a long nose like to vs Their custome of names is very strange The surname is ancient vnchangeable and significant of which there are not a thousand in all China The name is also significant and arbitrary at the fathers pleasure if a sonne For daughters haue no names besides the surname but are called after their age and order the sonnes also are so called by others first second or otherwise with their surname the parents onely and ancestors calling them by their names and themselues in their writings It would bee accounted an iniurie if any other should call them thereby or if he should call his father or kinsman by his name When first a childe betakes himselfe to studie his Master giues him another name which hee and his schoole-fellowes may call him by and no man else When he puts on his Mans hat and marries a wife some chiefe man giues him another name more honorable by which all men may call him but his seruants or such as are subiect to him This they call the Letter Lastly when he is of full ripe age some graue man giues him his most honorable name which they call Great and by this any one may stile him which yet his parents and elders doe not but onely by the Letter If any make profession of Religion in any of their Sects his ghostly Father or Authour of his profession giues him a new name which they call of Religion When one visits another if hee doe not write in his letter of which afterwards his honorable name or surname the Visitee askes him of it that he may call him thereby without iniurie And the Iesuites did also take to themselues in China-fashion such honorable names They are studious of Antiquities Pictures artificially drawne with inke without other colours they haue in highest price the characters also and writings of the Ancients with their Seales annexed For many will seeke to gull men with counterfeits All Magistrates haue the Seale of their office deliuered to them by Humvu which if they lose they are both depriued and punished most diligently therefore preserued carrying it with them to all places and laying it vnder their heads at night Men of good sort goe not in the streets on foot but are carried in a close chaire by foure men the curtens drawne on all parts but before to distinguish them from Magistrates whose chaires are euery way open The Matrons are also carried in chaires closed euery way by the forme easily knowne from those of Men. Coaches and Chariots the law forbids Dice and Cards are common playes in China Chesse also somewhat vnlike ours for the King goes not out of foure places next him and the two Bishops haue their Queenes two men also goe before the Knights besides the ordinary pawnes They haue another play which makes the skilfull therein well esteemed though he can doe nothing else with two hundred men some white some blacke on a table of three hundred diuisions This is vsed by the Magistrates Women goe not abroad except seldome to see their neerest kindred or some of basest condition In their offices of vrbanitie and courtesie they goe beyond all others haue many bookes thereof and reckon it one of those fiue vertues which they call Cardinall I feare to be in the relation as they in action tedious and will but salute their salutations They vncouer not the head to any nor stirre the knee or foot or vse embraces or kissing the hand Their hands are hid and ioyned in their wide sleeues except they doe some worke or with a fanne coole themselues and in salutations first lift vp both sleeues and hands aloft in a modest manner and then let them fall againe standing face to face and saying Zin Zin which word is a rituall interiection without any signification When one visits another or when friends meet in the streets they doe thus bowing also their bodies with their heads almost to the ground they call this Zo ye the inferiour placing the superiour and the visited the visitor on the right hand in the Northerne Prouinces on the left and then turne themselues both to the North. In solemner salutations on high dayes or after long absence after the first bowing they kneele and touch the ground with their forehead and then rise and doe it againe three or foure times ouer In visitations after other officious ceremonies they offer him Chia to drinke of which we haue spoken with other iunkets Except there bee great familiarity he which will salute a friend must at the doore deliuer to the seruant a letter before for his harbenger to signifie his name in modest termes and affection towards him with termes answerable to his estate He is hereby warned to prepare himselfe for entertainment clothing himselfe with apparell for that purpose as must the guest also If they were vnknowne to each other they prostrate themselues and knocke the ground diuers times with their foreheads If they send a Present they send withall a Letter contayning the Inuentorie of the things sent with termes very complementall which he must answere with another Letter of thankes and a Present of like or greater value besides a recompence to the messenger Their parting 's from each other are as full of ceremonie In their feasts they set each guest to tables one furnished with flesh and fish the other with fruits and iunkets They send a Paitre or Letter the day and sometime fiue or sixe dayes before to inuite them and he which cannot come with another Letter must excuse himselfe On the day with the first light he sends new inuitations and againe a little before the time or else his guests will not come Much curtesie is in the meeting exceeding much strayning and striuing about the place of sitting as much solemne ceremonie in eating as if they were bidden to be witnesses of their
made them distastfull and this also which the Learned often obiect to these Sectaries that the King and Princes which first gaue way hereto died violently and miserably and fell into publike calamities Yet hath it euen to these times in diuers vicissitudes encreased and decreased and many Bookes haue beene thereof written which contayne many difficulties inextricable to themselues Their Temples are many and sumptuous in which huge monstrous Idols of Brasse Marble Wood and Earth are to be seene with Steeples adioyning of stone or timber and therein exceeding great Bells and other ornaments of great price Their Priests are called Osciami They continually shaue their heads and beards contrary to the Countrey custome Some of them goe on Pilgrimages others liue an austere life on Hills or in Caues and the most of them which amount to two or three millions liue in Cloysters of their reuenues and almes and somewhat also of their owne industrie These Priests are accounted the most vile and vicious in the Kingdome being of the baser raskalitie sold when they are children by their parents to the elder Priests of slaues made Disciples and succeeding their Masters in Sect and Stipend few voluntarily adioyning themselues to these Cloysterers Neither doe they affect more liberall learning nor abstayne but perforce from disauowed Luxurie Their Monasteries are diuided into diuers Stations according to their greatnesse in euery Station is one perpetuall Administrator with his slaue-Disciples which succeed him therein Superiour in the Monasterie they acknowledge none but euery one builds as many Cells or Chambers as he is able which they let out to strangers for great gaine that their Monasteries may be esteemed publike Innes wherein men may quietly lodge or follow their businesse without any explication of their Sects They are hired also by many to Funerall Solemnities and to other Rites in which wilde Beasts Birds or Fishes are made free and let loose the seuerer Sectaries buying them to this meritorious purpose In our times this Sect much flourisheth and hath many Temples erected and repaired many Eunuches women and of the rude vulgar embracing the same There are some Professors called Ciaicum that is Fasters which liue in their owne houses all their life abstayning from Fish and Flesh and with certaine set prayers worship a multitude of Idols at home but not hard to be hired to these deuotions at other mens houses In these Monasteries women also doe liue separated from men which shaue their heads and reiect Marriage These Nunnes are there called Nicu. But these are but few in comparison of the men One of the learned Sect famous in the Court relinquished his place in the Colledge and shaued his haire wrote many Bookes against the Confutians but being complayned of the King commanded hee should be punished which hee punished further on himselfe with cutting his owne throat Whereupon a Libell or Petition was put vp to the King against the Magistrates which relinquished Confutius and became of this Sect the King notwithstanding all the Queenes Eunuches and his Kindred are of this Sect made answere That such should goe into the Desarts and might bee ashamed of their Robes Hence followed orders That whosoeuer in his Writings mentioned an Idoll except by way of Confutation should be vncapable of degrees in Learning which caused much alteration in Religion for many of this Sect had preuayled much in Court and elsewhere Amongst the rest one Thacon was so honoured of the chiefe Queene that shee worshipped daily his garment because it was not lawfull for himselfe to enter the Palace but dealt by Eunuches One libelled to the King against him but had no answere which is the Kings fashion when he denies or disallowes it which made him more insolent But being suspected for a Libell made against the King and some writings in zeale of his Idols against the King being found he was beaten to death howling in his torments which before had vanted a Stoicall Apathie The other Sect-masters were banished the Court §. V. Of the third Sect Lauzu THeir third Sect is named Lauzu of a certaine Philosopher which liued in the same age with Confutius They fable that he was fourescore yeeres in his mothers wombe before his birth and therefore call him Lauzu that is old Philosopher He left no booke written of his Sect nor seemes to haue intended any such institution But his Sectaries called him after his death Tausa and haue fathered on him their opinions whereof they haue written many elegant bookes These also liue single in their Monasteries buying Disciples liuing as vile and vicious as the former They shaue not their haire but weare it like the Lay-men sauing that they haue a Hat or Cap of wood There are others married which at their owne houses professe greater austeritie and recite ouer set prayers They affirme That amongst other Idols they also worship the God of Heauen but corporeall and to whom their Legends tell that many indignities haue happened The King of Heauen which now raigneth they call Ciam he which raigned before was Leu who on a time came riding to the Earth on a white Dragon Him did Ciam who was a Diuinor giue entertainment and whiles Leu was at his good cheere mounted vp his Dragon which carried him to heauen there seized on the heauenly Royaltie and shut out Leu who yet at last was admitted to the Lordship of a certaine Mountaine in that Kingdom Thus they professe their god to bee a coozener and vsurper Besides this King of Heauen they faine another threefold Deitie one of which they say was the head of their Lauzu sect They promise to theirs Paradise which they shall enioy both in bodie and soule and in their Temples haue pictures of such as haue the Images of such Saints To obtaine this they prescribe certaine exercises which consist in diuers postures of sitting certaine prayers and medicines by which they promise to the obseruers through their gods fauour an immortall life in Heauen at least a longer mortall in the bodie The Priests of this Sect haue a peculiar Office of casting out Deuils which they do by two meanes one is to paint horrible shapes of Deuill in yellow paper with inke to be fastned on the walls and then fill the house with such sauage clamors that themselues might be thought to be Deuils the other is by certaine prayers or coniurations They professe also a power of faire weather and soule and other priuate and publike misfortunes : and some of them seeme to be Witches These Priests reside in the Kings Temples of Heauen and Earth and assist at the Kings sacrifices whether by himselfe performed or his Deputie Magistrates and thereby acquire great authoritie At these sacrifices they make musicke of all sorts which China yeeldeth harshed Europaean eares They are called likewise to Funeralls to which they come in precious Vestments playing on Musical Instruments They assist also at the consecrations of new Churches and
little themselues neuer returning without losse of halfe their Armie of his own Son in the last inuasion slain with a shot Relentlesse he inflamed rather with his losses determined another Expedition in his owne person and therefore laid vp store of prouision in Barnes at Martauan Murmulan Tauay and Tanassarin three yeeres together purposing then to employ all the Peguans in this enterprise But they weary of forreine calamities hid themselues in Woods and Wildernesses and some turned Talopoyes so they call their Religious persons Many sold themselues slaues The King persisting in his Person gaue order to his Vncle Ximibogus to take a muster of all the People and to entertaine halfe of them for the warres But he missing so many which had by those new courses preuented this seruice acquainted the King therewith who enioyneth the late professed Talopoyes to resigne their habit the young-men to be compelled to warfare the old men to be exiled to the Bramans where after he caused them to be exchanged for horses He caused all the Peguans also to bee branded in the right hand that they might be knowne This made them entertaine thoughts of Rebellion which was first practised by the Cosmians who set a new King ouer them The Peguan sent an Armie against them with charge to burne or bring away all they could find amongst them which they did together with many of the People of both sexes which he after his manner setting wood about them burned And when the rest not able to warre against their King and Famine at once submitted themselues with exquisite torments he ssue them all He then sent to his Son the King of Aua to transplant those People of euery Age and Sexe to people these forlorne desolations of Pegu They vnacquainted with this ayre brake forth in diseases wherwith they infected also the naturall Inhabitants which plague made such hauoke that many in impatience cast themselues into the Riuer The Murmulans with helpe of the Siamites seised on their Castle whom the King besieged a yeere together and then was forced from thence by the Siamites sudden irruption with losse of the most of his People the Horses Elephants and Country it selfe remaining their recompence And the Peguan Captaines also fearing their Masters tyrannie became subiects to the Siamite whose whole Families this tyrant with Fire and Water destroyed so that all the Tract from Pegu to Martaua and Murmulan was made a Wildernesse These things done hee sent for his younger Sonne the King of Prom and commanded him to the siege of Murmulan who vtterly misliking the attempt conueyed himselfe in the night homewards with purpose of rebellion The King of Siam not ignorant of this Peguan estate inuaded the country in Haruest-time and therefore that which they could they conueyed into Barnes the rest was fired Hee proceeded and laid siege to Pegu in which at that time was a hundred and fiftie thousand Men and three thousand Peeces of Ordnance a thousand whereof were Brasse but as is said for feare of the Portugalls which were reported to haue entred into Siam by the way of Camboia hee departed leauing Famine behind as Lieutenant of his Warres which caused the Forreigners then in Pegu for the defence thereof to get them to their owne homes Those few which remained liued with prouision from Tangu The King sent to his Deputie in Tangu to come to him with all the Inhabitants of the Countrey and their store leauing his Wife and some few to guard the Citie He answered That he would send halfe and to demand all were vnreasonable The King sends foure Noble-men with Souldiers to force him hereunto But he slayeth the Leaders and seizeth on their Followers Thus the Famine encreasing and the People eating one another the King numbreth the Citizens among whom hee findeth seuen thousand Siamites whom he commanded to bee slaine not leauing aboue thirtie thousand of all sorts in the Citie His sonne the King of Prom which had now stood out three yeeres began to relent and sue for pardon with promise to bring the Promans to the number of fiftie thousand to the Citie whereat his Father reioyced and sealed his pardon which hee sent him with many gifts But his chiefe Counsellor Author of this Rebellion fearing all the blame would be laid on him poysoned the Prince himselfe aspiring to the Kingdome was within one weeke destroyed and the Nobles euery man seeking to seize the State to himselfe caused that of those fiftie thousand within two moneths space whiles euery weeke they had a new Prince scarce remained fiftie men fit for Warre which departed to Pegu three or foure in a ship leauing their Countrey to the habitation of wild Beasts The Natiues of Pegu are not quite extinct but many of them are fled into other Kingdomes of whom and of the Bramans Iangoma numbreth a hundred and twentie thousand Oracan twentie thousand Siam a hundred thousand and the King of Iangoma is able they say to arme a million of Men. The Talapoyes perswaded the Iangoman to depose his brother of Pegu Hee alledged his Oath vnto his Father while he liued They reply That no Oath might prohibite if hee placed his brother in a Vahat or golden Throne to be adored for a god And partly with this I may not call it Reason and partly as Xerxes alledged for himselfe because that his elder Brother was borne before his Father was King and because his Mother was the former King of Pegu's Daughter hee perswaded himselfe that it was lawfull And thus was the State of this mightie Kingdome in the yeere 1598. brought to one Citie which also was now become a withered carkasse and well-neere the Sepulchre of it selfe and as mischiefe come not alone besieged by Mogus King of Orracan Andreas Boues in his Letters the eight and twentieth of March 1600. thus finisheth this Tragedie When the King of Pegu saw himselfe in such straits besieged by the King of Orracan or Arracan and Tangu in his Castle of Macao in Decemb. 1599. hee yeelded himselfe to the King of Tangu ; who dealt treacherously with him and cut off his head as he did to the Queene likewise and the Prince He then hasted to the Tower of Pegu where he found as much Gold and Iewels as laded six hundred Elephants and as many Horses besides Siluer and other Metalls of smaller price which he left behinde The King of Arracan then absent and angrie that the King of Tangu contrary to promise had seized all the treasure to himselfe purposed to inuade his Kingdome and to that intent had the ayde of many Portugalls amongst whom this Iesuite was one who saw the wayes and fields lately so fertile now full strewed with Dead mens bones and skulls and in the Riuers all passage of Ships hindered by the carkasses of Men. The King of Arracan found in the Towne aforesaid three millions of Siluer with two and thirtie hundred Peeces of Ordnance and
then remained Lord of Pegu But the Kings of Siam and Iangoma preuented his enterprise for Tangu which they inuaded to depriue him of his Treasures The King of Siam twice assailed Martauan with repulse whereupon hee caused two of his cowardly Captaines to bee cast into Cauldrons of scalding Oyle and the third time conquered that Kingdome Peter Williamson Floris hath giuen vs later relations Hee reports that the King of Pegu had in his flourishing greatnesse twentie Kings subiect to him which fell to the Siamite Raia Api before mentioned Hee besieged Vnxa or Pegu two Moneths without effect Dearth and death made Pegu resigne himselfe to the King of Tangu that so he might also preuent the King of Arracan who comming with his power tooke the Citie and the Countrey The King of Tangu agreed with him to restore certaine Treasures the white Elephant and the Kings daughter both which I saw saith Floris in Arracan Anno 1608. and the King of Pegu or else that he himselfe would kil him which he afterwards did with a pilon wherewith they stampe their Rice as being free I know not by what Art against any stabbing Thus came this Empire after the destruction of many millions of Peguans to desolation that at this day there is no remembrance of it The King of Arracan gaue the Towne or Fort of Siriangh on the Riuer of Pegu to the Portugals in keeping especially to Philip de Britto de Nicote whom hee stiled Xenga that is honest who scarcely so proued for three or foure yeeres after taking this Kings sonne prisoner hee made him ransome him at 110000. Tangans and ten Galeas of Rice after that growing insolent and caring for no bodie But in March 1613. the King of Aua tooke Siriangh and slew all the Portugals and spitted or otherwise tortured as the Fame went this Philip de Britto This King gaue order for the building vp againe of the old Towne and called together the Peguers making them many faire promises and so went forward to Tenesseryn where Banya came to him with fiftie thousand Peguans before subiect to Siam Thus farre Floris Some tell of this white Elephant for so they speake as if there were but one whereas Fitz Balbi and Frederike saw foure but it seemes one was of principall estimation that it was obserued with no lesse honour then the King and came not abroad without great pompe It hath beene a dismall and disastrous Beast to fiue or six Kings which had the possession thereof all hauing Tragicall ends The King of Arracan Anno 1599. returned home in triumph this white Elephant richly adorned going before the Brother and two Sonnes of the King of Pegu following Iarric writes that the King of Pegu yeelded himselfe his Wife and thirteene children three other the King of Arracan had two sonnes in hostage and a daughter in marriage to his sisters husband the King of Tangu trusting the rather to his fidelitie because when his eldest Sonne had forsaken him and gone to Tangu in hope of the Queene his Aunts fauour Shee caused his losse of loyaltie to be punished with the losse of his head Tangu killed all this royall Family Martauan before mentioned was a goodly Peguan Kingdome but by wars was brought into like miseries The Region was so fertile that it yeelded three Haruests in a yeere and sent yeerely fifteene Ships to Malaca as many to Cochin laden with Rice the Woods abounded with excellent fruits the Hearbes and shrubs were generally odoriferous or medicinall diuers kindes there grew of Rices not like to ours store of Pines and Tecam a Wood not subiect to rottennesse A Countrey rich in Mines of Iron Lead Steele Brasse Siluer Gold and Rubies Springs and Riuers Indian Palmes and Sugar-Canes The Forrests had Buffolos Harts Boares wild the Hauen open at all times of the yeere and not choaked with sand as vsually in the Indian Winter The Citie stands in 16. degrees of great trading a temperate ayre the Megrim is vnknowne nor Physicions The King Bannalaius ninetie nine yeeres of age who with his Heire apparant were chased out of the Kingdome and hid themselues in the Forrests as before that time aboue two hundred thousand of their Subiects had done onely three thousand staying with the King Thus haue you heard of the power and subuersion of this great Monarchie so much the more lamentable because their fall was from such a height The Countrey is so fertile that at what time soeuer corne be put into the ground the payment is good with increase I haue seene with mine eyes saith Caesar Fredericke that they haue eaten Serpents Scorpions all manner of hearbes and grasse Such fertility and such stomackes as they make credible the reports of their huge Armies so doe they make more terrible the reports of their desolations This that I speake of their dyet I vnderstand not of their extreamitie and famine but ordinarily Master Fitch saith the same that they eate Roots Hearbs Leaues Dogs Cats Rats and Snakes they refuse almost nothing §. III. Of the Peguan Rites and Customes IT is aboue a hundred yeeres since Vertomannus was there who in company of a Persian Merchant went to visit the King who then had wars in Aua. They went in a Boat all of one piece of wood fifteene or sixteene paces long The Oares were Canes and the Mast was one Cane as big as a Herring Barrell The King wore as many Iewels as were worth a great Citie which made him in the night time to shine as the Sunne Hee had a sacrifice to doe to the Deuill and the next day the Persian presented him with rich Corralls which hee tooke in so good worth that he gaue him as many Rubies as were worth a hundred thousand Duckets Some yeeres before Hieronymo de Sancto Stephano found him in the same warres with Aua and saith of him that hee had ten thousand Elephants and bred or brought vp euery yeere fiue hundred The King that liued when M. Fitch was there Sonne to the Conqueror had one Wife and three hundred Concubines of whom hee was said to haue fourescore and ten Children He sate in iudgement almost euery day They vse no speech in their Sutes but giue vp their Supplications written in the leaues of a tree with the point of an yron bigger then a bodkin These leaues are of an Ell long and two Inches broad they are also double Hee which giueth in his Supplication standeth a little off with a present which if the King granteth his request he accepteth if not he returneth with his present They kneele downe thrice lifting vp their hands and kisse the ground thrice this they doe foure times before they come where the King sits who speakes by an Interpreter and not immediatly to the Suppliant who with these Rombees so they call these kneelings present their gifts ouer their heads His Guard lies prostrate to the earth Pegu is or at least in a
World to bee a Tallipoy In few dayes after he is carried vpon a Thing like an Horse-litter which they call a Serion vpon ten or twelue mens shoulders in apparrell of a Tallipoy with Pipes and Drums and many Tallipoys with him and all his friends which accompany him to his House standing without the Towne and there leaue him Euery one of them hath his House which is very little set vpon sixe or eight Posts to which they ascend on a Ladder of twelue or fourteene steps These Houses are commonly by the High-wayes side and among the Trees and in the Woods They goe strangely apparrelled with one Camboline or thin Cloth next to their bodie of a browne colour another of yellow doubled many times vpon their shoulders These two bee girded to them with a broad Girdle and they haue a Skin of Leather hanging on a string about their neckes whereon they sit bare-headed and bare-footed with their right armes bare and a broad Sombrero or shadow in their hands to defend them in Summer from the Sunne and in Winter from the raine They are shauen on their heads beards and all their bodies They obserue perpetuall Chastitie and are modest in their going When one of them dies his body is kept many dayes with Feasts and after is set on a high Scaffold many Tallapoys feasting about it Thus it is carried to the place of burning by a great number of people where it is consumed with sweet Woods to the bones these buried neere their Houses and the ashes cast into the water Balby resembles them in Habite and Ceremonies to their Friers They goe with a great Pot made of Wood or fine Earth and couered tyed with a broad Girdle vpon their shoulders which commeth vnder their arme wherewith they goe to beg their Victuals which they eate which is Rice Fish and Hearbs They demand nothing but come to the doore and the people presently doe giue them one thing or other which they put together in their Pot. They keepe their Feasts by the Moone and at a new Moone is their most solemne Feast and then the people send Rice and other things to that Kiack or Church of which they be and there all the Tallipoys of that Church meet and ate that which is sent them They Preach against all abuses and many resort vnto them When they enter into their Kiack at the doore their is a great Iarre of Water with a Cocke or a Ladle in it and there they wash their feet and then enter in lifting vp their hands to their heads first to their Preacher then to the Sun and so sit downe When the Tallipoys preach many of the people carry them gifts vnto the Pulpit where they sit and preach And there is one that sitteth by them to take that which the people bring which is diuided among them They haue none other Ceremonies nor Seruice that I could see but onely Preaching Bomferrus a Franciscan and after him Boterus say That they hold an innumerable multitude of Worlds from all eternitie succeeding one after another and also an innumerable number of Gods but not all at once They imagine that fiue haue gouerned this present World whereof foure are passed aboue 2090. yeeres agoe Now they are without a God and expect the fifth many Ages hereafter after whose death they conceiue that the World shall perish by fire and then another World shall follow and others Gods to rule it They recken likewise in the number of their Gods certaine Men which yet haue first passed into Fishes Beasts and Birds of all sorts After death they beleeue three Places one of Pleasure Scuum like the Mahumetane Paradise another of Torment Naxac the third of Annihilation which they call Niba The Soules after their phantasie abide in the two former places whence they returne so often into this life till at last they be holden worthy that Niba Hee addeth that they haue Couents or Colledges of Priests which liue three hundred together or more in one place haue no vse of Women are harbourers of Strangers and liue some of Almes some of Rents They haue like Nunneries also for the Women There is supposed to be in one Idol-Sanctuary whereof they haue many 120000. Idols They fast thirtie dayes in the yeere in which they eat nothing till night They are of opinion That he which in this world robbeth another man shall in the next world bee his seruant for recompence They hold it a sin also to kill a liuing creature although this be not strictly obserued amongst them Some Iewes are of opinion That this people descended of those Israelites which Salomon sent to Ophir which they place in this Kingdome But the Peguans themselues ascribe their Religion to a Dog and a China woman which escaped shipwracke The Deuill is highly worshipped of these Pegusians to whom they erect a stately Altar and adorne it with varietie of Flowers and Meates of all sorts so to fee and feede him that hee should not hurt them This is principally done when they are sicke for then they make Vowes and build Altars which they couer with Clothes and Flowers They entertaine him also with diuersitie of Musicke and appoint him a Priest whom they call the Deuils Father which procureth his Rites and Musicke Some as soone as they rise from their beds bring a basket of Rice and meates and a burning Torch in their hands running vp and downe in the streets openly professing to feede the Deuill to preuent harme from them that day And if Dogs follow them they hold them to be sent of the Deuill to deuoure those meates in his name Some will not eate till they haue first cast something behinde their backes to the Deuill And in the Country Villages some of the richer inhabitants leaue their houses furnished with store of food three moneths space to bee inhabited of him keeping meane while in the fields that so the other nine moneths they may bee out of his danger And howsoeuer the Tallipoys preach against this deuillish deuotion yet they cannot reclaim the people The Tallipoys euery Munday arise early and by the ringing of a Bason call together the people to their Sermons which are of Iustice to man but nothing of Religion to God They wash themselues once a yeere and the water wherewith they are washed the people account holy and reserue it for their drinke as a holy potion They hold that all which doe well of whatsoeuer Religion shall be saued and therefore care not as Balby affirmeth if any of their Nation turne Christian They haue many Feasts very solemnly obserued One Feast called Sapan Giachie is kept twelue leagues from the Citie whither the King rides in a triumphall Chariot with his Queene in exceeding pompe so adorned with Iewels that the eye cannot endure their shining his Nobles attending Another is kept in Pegu against which day all the Courtiers prouide them certaine Pillars or Images
of diuers formes kept closely that none may see what others haue prouided till the Day These are made of Indian Reedes carued and gilded and on the Festiuall presented to the King who praiseth the most artificiall of them All that night huge lights of Waxe are burnt in honor of their Idoll whose Feast it is that all may see to haue accesse to him to which end the Citie gates are lest open But none may approach vnto him emptie-handed They haue a Feast of Watering celebrated in the old Citie where the King Queene and his Children with Rose-water sprinkle one another And all the Captaines likewise besprinkle each other that they seeme as wet as if they came out of a Riuer It is said of the last Kings Father that when the people were thus washing he would send amongst them an Elephant which slew many of them whereat he laughed the people lamented Another Feast they haue wherein they haue a triall of their Ships which can saile best this Feast lasteth a moneth A fifth Feast is called Giaitnosegienon in honor of a certaine Idoll They haue many other Feasts but these the most solemne Antony Correa a Portugall concluding a league with the King of Pegu the Kings Deputie caused the Articles of accord written in Portugall and Pegu-languages with golden Letters to bee read aloud and then rent the scrole and with a few leaues of an odoriferous tree caused the same to bee burned to ashes vpon which hee laid both hands of the Priest who in the Name of the King sware to those Articles These things being done with great attention and silence Correa loth in a superstitious fancie to defile Holy Writ with confirmation of an Oath to a Gentile sware on a Booke of amarous Sonnets to keepe inuiolable the said Articles In the yeere of our Lord 1585. the King of Aua rebelling as is before shewed the King of Pegu by single combate slew the Traytor The fight was on Elephants in which the Pegusians Elephant and the Auan Prince died The liuing Elephant was preferred to the place of the former but in fifteene dayes space let the beastlinesse of Men imitate the humanitie of a beast hee sorrowed so for his Master that nothing might comfort him And although hee had continually two seruants attending him and telling him of his amended estate vnder a mightier Master yet would he scarce cease to weepe or begin to eate till his fifteene dayes exequies were finished Bomferrus a Franciscan spent three yeeres in learning the Pegu's Language and Mysteries that hee might preach the Christian Religion amongst them but was soone forced to giue ouer and returne into India For they could not endure to heare any better Knowledge then they had This was Anno 1557. Crocodiles and Apes are accounted holy and sacred creatures for which cause Apes multiply exceedingly none taking them except for the vse of their Varelles or Temples where they tye them and keepe them with diligent respect And though the Crocodiles in the Town-ditch deuoure men daily yet in a blind zeale they will drinke no other water accounting this holy and account their soules certainly saued whose bodies are thus certainly lost and deuoured of those Beasts which sometimes are thirtie foot in length one of which Balby saw draw in a woman and not a day but some were said to be deuoured till the King caused one of those which was obserued to be most manslaying to be slaine The Kings subiect to the King of Pegu did their homage and presented themselues before him kneeling yea they not only kneeled to him but to his white Elephants also When the King dyeth they make two Ships with golden couers and betwixt them erect a golden Theatre in which they place the corpes applying thereto Musk and the most sweet Woods with other things and so set forth the same to Sea setting that Theatre or Pageant on fire In one of the Ships or Tallapois which sing till they thinke the bodie to bee consumed to ashes Then doe they make a masse or lumpe of these ashes and milke and commit the same to Sea in the Hauen of Sirian at an ebbing water The bones which remaine they carrie to another place and there erecting a Chappell doe burie the same therein After this they returne to the Palace and according to the accustomed Rites inaugurate the new King The father of that King whose Tragedie yee haue heard had his bones buried in Dogon In Iamahey or Iangoma fiue and twentie dayes iourney from Pegu when the people be sicke they make a vow to offer meat vnto the Deuil if they escape and when they be recouered they make a Banquet with many Pipes and Drummes and many other Instruments and dancing all the night Their friends bring them presents Cocos Figges Arreoues and other Fruits and with great dancing and reioycing they offer to the Deuill and say They giue the Deuill to eate and driue him out and to this end in their dancing they crie and hallow very loud Likewise when they be sicke a Tallipoy or two euery night doth sit by them and sing to please the Deuill that hee should not hurt them When one is dead hee is carryed vpon a great Frame as is said before of the Tallipoys made like a Tower with a couering all gilded made of Canes carried by fourteene or sixteene men with great Minstrelsie to a place out of the Towne and there is burned He is accompanied with all his friends and neighbours all Men and they giue to the Tallipoys or Priests many Matts and Cloth and then returne to the house where they feast it two dayes which being expired the Women accompanie the wife to the place where hee was burned and there spend a while in mourning Then doe they gather the pieces of bones which bee left vnburned and burie them and then returne to their houses The neere of kindred doe also shaue their heads both men and women CHAP. VI. Of Bengala and the parts adioyning and of the holy Riuer Ganges §. I. Of Bengala THe Kingdome of Bengala is very large and hath of Coast one hundred and twentie leagues and as much within Land Francis Fernandes measureth it from the Confines of the Kingdome of Ramu or Porto Grande to Palmerine ninetie miles beyond Porto Pequene in all six hundred miles long The Riuer Chaberis which some call Guenga and thinke to bee the ancient Ganges watereth it it is plentifull in Rice Wheat Sugar Ginger Long-pepper Cotton and Silke and enioyeth a very wholsome ayre The Inhabitants neere the shoare are for the most part Mahumetans and so also was the King before the Great Magore one likewise of his owne Sect conquered Him Gouro the seat Royall and Bengala are faire Cities Of this the Gulfe sometimes called Gangeticus now beareth name Golfo di Bengala Chatigan is also reckoned amongst their Cities They are a most subtile and wicked people and are
fiue and fiftie pound weight English these are rough and of all sorts and sizes but none lesse then two Carrets and an halfe Of Ballase Rubies two thousand Of Pearles twelue Batmans Of Rubies of all sorts two Batmans Of Emeralds of all sorts fiue Batmans Of Eshime which stone comes from Cataya one Batman Of stones of Emen a kinde of red stone fiue thousand Of all other sorts as Corall Topazes c. the number is innumerable Of Iewels wrought in Gold two thousand and two hundred Swords the Hilts and Scabberds set with rich stones two thousand Ponyards Of Saddle Drums of Gold set with stones vsed in Hawking fiue hundred Of rich brooches for their heads in which their feathers are set two thousand Of Saddles of Gold and Siluer set with stones one thousand Of Tuikes fiue and twentie This is a great Launce couered with gold and the fluke set with stones and are carried when the King goeth to warres in stead of colours Of Kitta-soles of State to shadow him twentie None else in his Empire may haue any of any sort carried for his shadow Of Chaires of State fiue and of other sorts which are of siluer and gold one hundred Of rich glasses two hundred Of Vases for Wine set with Iewels one hundred Of drinking Cups fiue hundred of which are fiftie very rich as of one stone c. Of Chaines of Pearle and other Chaines of Rings with Iewels c. are infinite which the Keeper onely knowes Of all sorts of Plate wrought as Dishes Cups Basons c. Two thousand Batmans Of gold wrought a thousand Batmans Of Beasts twelue thousand Horses as many Elephants fiue thousand with teeth the rest female and young Camels twentie thousand of Oxen for seruice ten thousand Of Moyles a thousand Of Deere for game three thousand Ounces for game foure hundred Hunting-Dogs foure hundred Lyons tame an hundred Buffles fiue hundred Hawkes foure thousand Pigeons for sport ten thousand Singing-Birds foure thousand Hee hath also Armour to arme fiue and twentie thousand men at an houres warning All this concerning his Treasure expences and monethly pay is in his Court or Castle of Agra and euery one of the Castles aboue named hath a seuerall treasure and so hath Lahor also which was not mentioned And if any censure this Story for want of truth and Mee for want of iudgement in relating such fulnesse so fully for it I must leaue it to the Authors credit for my selfe I was induced by the raritie of the subiect not easie in this distance to be knowne nor by Trauellers except such as this Author whose Embassage and exceeding grace with the King for the greatest part of his residence might further his Intelligence herein besides the rarenesse of the Copie whereof I know but one and that written by himselfe Time may make further triall Nor may any measure those parts of the Indies for wealth in these kindes with our Europaean or any other and that which so many Kings and States had in many ages stored together by the euent of warre became Ecbars the father of this Selim of which you haue heard of the incredible wealth of the King of Cambaia alone Besides if you obserue his customes it makes it so much neerer credite For when any Noble-man dies all deuolueth to him and well is it with the wife and children if he bestoweth the Land and what he pleaseth on them and the fathers Title on the eldest sonne One dyed in my time saith our Author named Raga Gaginat on whose goods the King seized which besides Iewels and other treasure amounted to threescore Maunes in gold euery Maune is fiue and fiftie pound weight None likewise may come before the King with any Petition emptie-handed and on certaine Festiuall dayes they bring him rich Presents as before is said India besides Mines must needes be rich in money for all Nations bring it and carrie commodities for it so that once in twentie yeeres it commeth to the King All Lands in his Monarchy are his giuen and taken at his pleasure Escheats are many by reason of his seueritie And of those lands which hee giueth in Fee the third part still remaines to the King and of the Crowne Lands two thirds the rest to the Occupiers For Presents and Mortuaries wee haue before giuen diuers instances And my iealousie hath made mee verie inquisitiue of such as haue liued there in the Ministerie Factorie Souldiorie all which affirme that Captaine Hawkins hath written with the least Of all sorts of his wealth except Coyne is brought daily a certaine quantitie before him for which purpose his Beasts and all things of value are diuided into three hundred and threescore parts so that the same things come but once in the yeere to his view Hee hath three hundred Elephants royall for himselfe to ride on which are brought with pompe richly couered twentie or thirtie men going before with Streamers his female with her yongling or yonglings following besides foure or fiue other yong ones attending as Pages These are dispersed amongst the great ones to ouer-see them the King allowing them for it but scarcely sufficient and they dare not make shew of them in euill plight One of them eats ten Ropias euery day in Butter Graine Sugar Sugar-canes c. they are very tame I saw one take vp the Kings owne son by his appointment being a child of seuen yeeres There are thought to be in this Empire fortie thousand Elephants of his and his Nobles of which twentie thousand are trained for warre When the King rides in progresse his Tents are in compasse about as large as London two hundred thousand people vsually following his Campe This King is esteemed the greatest Emperour in the East Hee hath many Dromedaries whose swiftnesse auailed his Father much in his sudden Expedition of warre Those valiant Captaines which Ecbar had Selim hath by tyranny much diminished Fiue times a weeke hee commands his Elephants to fight before him which often in their comming in or going out kill many if any be but wounded and might escape yet hee commands him to bee cast into the Riuer saying Hee will curse him as long as he liues and therefore best to dispatch him Hee delights to see men executed and torne with Elephants Of these tyrannies he reckons many particulars which he saw and some for no fault but for his lust set to fight with the Lyon and one valiant man to buffet with a very fierce Lyon without any weapon offensiue or defensiue If any of his subiects haue any precious stone of value and make not him the offer of it it is death to him hee must haue the refusall of all and yet giues not the worth by a third part That Iewell hee weareth this day is not worne againe till that day twelue-month all his Iewels being proportioned to such a course All his seueritie and tyranny cannot cleere perhaps this causeth them his Countrey of Out-lawes There
Richard a small Pinnasse of about twentie Tuns which tooke a Portugall Ship supposed of two hundred and fiftie that hauing about fourteene men and boyes this two hundred and fiftie These and other fights with them and more vnfortunate with the Dutch in those parts I haue deliuered at large in my Pilgrims or Bookes of Voyages which now together with this commeth to the publike view of the World §. V. Of the Trauels of diuers English-men in the Mogols Dominions OF the Trauells of Master Fitch in these parts wee haue alreadie spoken and of Captaine Hawkins In the yeere 1609. the Ascension by wilfulnesse of the Master as is reported foundred in the Sea twentie leagues from shoare which yet they attained being fiue and fiftie persons in the Riuer of Gandeuee from whence they trauelled twelue Course or eighteene Miles to Sabay and twelue Course more to Surrat from thence to Daytaotote which Citie hee saith could not bee conquered by the Mogol and yeelded vpon composition hauing still a Banyan King Sixe and twentie Course further is Netherbery a great Basar or Market of Brazen wares Armour and Beasts Eight and twentie Course beyond is the Towne Saddisee on the Riuer Tyndee which runs to Surrat and diuideth the Bannians and Guzurats Thence they trauelled twelue Course to a Monasterie and the next day came to Bramport where the Great Generall called Can Cannawe liueth who on the twelfth of October returned from the Warres with fifteene hundred Elephants thirtie thousand Horses ten thousand Camels three thousand Dromedaries This Citie is farre bigger then London of great Trade and faire From hence they went fifteene Courses to Caddor fourteene to Sawbon and thence with the Carauan many daies leauing which they ioyned with a Can of the Countrey bound for Agra trauelling sixe daies through a Desart wherein are store of wild Elephants Lions Tygres Cat of Mountaines Porpentines and other wild Beasts innumerable but these they saw and were forced to make fires in the nights about their Tents to guard them These Desarts are a hundred Course long each Course being a mile and halfe They had in their way after they were past this Desart the Citie Handee where the King hath a Castle and House cut out of the maine Rock and wrought with carued worke round about in it fiftie Peeces of Ordnance a Fort impregnable and made a Prison for great Men. Heere were also two Hospitals for Captaines maymed in the Warres The next day they came to Tamlico which runneth into Indus and two daies after to Agra He tells of Elephants fighting before the Mogol parted with Rackets of wilde fire made round like hoopes which they runne in their faces some fight with wild Horses sixe Horses to an Elephant which he kills with clasping his trunke about their necks and pulling them to him breakes their necks with his teeth Hee hath also Deere Rams Veruathoes or Bezors Lyons Leopards Wolues that fight before him Condemned persons may craue the combate with the Lyon one he saw that at the first encounter felled the Lyon with his Fist but was soone torne in pieces before the King Hee saw also Allegators or Crocodiles kept in Ponds for like purpose one of which killed two stoned Horses at one time There are foure great Markets euery day where things are very cheape a Hen for two pence a Sheepe for two shillings a good Hog sold by the Bannians for two shillings and other things proportionable They craued the Kings Passe for England who granting it vnder his Hand and Seale the Secretary went with them to the Third Queene of which he is said to haue ten and a thousand Concubines and two hundred Eunuchs which was Keeper of the Great Seale Hence they passed fiue in number to Fetterbarre twelue Course and twelue more to Bianie which is the chiefe Place for Indico in all the Indies where are twelue Indico Mills Indico growes on small bushes like Goose-berry bushes and beares a seed like a Cabadge-seed and being cut downe lies on heapes for halfe a yeere to rot and then brought into a Vault to bee trodden with Oxen from the stalkes and so is grownd fine at the Mils and lastly boyled in Fornaces refined and sorted the best there worth eight pence a pound Thence they passed to Hendown fiue and twentie Course an ancient faire Citie to Mogol a small Market Towne fourteene to Halstot twelue to Chatsoe twelue to Ladanna twelue to Mosabad eight to Bandason twelue Thence to Paddar a Riuer that runnes into the Persian Gulfe and parts the Indostans and Hendownes Twentie Course beyond Roree Buckar and Suckar in the Riuer of Damiadee which runnes into the same Sea At Buckar lyes Allee Can Vice-Roy of the Bulloches a stubborne People this Towne stands like an Iland in the Riuer Sucker is a clothing Towne the first of the Bulloches and Roree the last of the Moltans which are Mahumetans Here they staid foure and twentie daies for a Califa or Carauan a great company of Merchants trauelling together because the Countrey was full of Theeues Seuenteene Course from Sucker is Gorra a Towne of the Bullochees which he saith worship the Sunne and are Man-eaters of Gyant-like proportion Notry ten Course the last Towne of the Bullochees the next Puttans Here for their entertainment Aprill the first 1610. they were beset with Theeues twelue Fiddlers first meeting them but their Musicke cost deere by bribes and composition the Mogols passe hindering further outrage Seuenteene Course they trauelled to Daddor foure and thirtie ouer the Mountaines to Vachesto from thence seuen and fiftie ouer the Mountaines to Candahar a great Citie of the Puttans where Sauder Can resided as Vice-Roy where are continually seuen or eight thousand Camels occupied in Trade to and fro The Gouernour hath fortie thousand Horses in redinesse for Warre Richard Still and Iohn Crowther were lately sent from Azmere Asimere or Agimere where the Mogoll now resides to Spahan in Persia to obtaine Trade for the English by Sir Robert Sherlies meanes which was effected They passed by the way of Lahore and therefore I would desire You to beare Them company for better knowledge of the Countrey Their way was first towards Agra and Fetipore which is a faire Citie and hath in it a goodly House of the Kings built by Echebar with many spacious Gardens now it goes to ruine much of the stone carried to Agra much ground sowne within the Wals April the ninth 1614. they came to Dillee a very great and ancient Citie where many Kings lye buried and as some say the Rites of Coronation are still solemnized many Nobles and Captaines haue their Houses of Pleasure and their Sepulchres the vulgar sort beggarly most Banians On the seuenteenth they came to Sinan an ancient Citie On the one and twentieth to the old Citie Sultan poare Sixe Courses from it they passed a Riuer as broad as the Thames called Viau which runnes West into Sinda
Moores traded there and still enioy many possessions These marry one Wife and their Children inherit and they may touch the Nayro's The Cagianem are a Sect of the Nayros hauing a Law and Idols by themselues which they may neuer alter They make Tiles to couer the Temples and the Kings Palace The Nayro's may be with their women but must wash themselues before they goe home Another Sect is called Manantamar which are Landerers nor may they or their Posteritie be of other function nor may they mingle themselues with any other Generation They haue Idol ceremonies and Temples by themselues The Nayros may vse their Wiues or Women rather Their Brethren or Nephewes are their Heires The Calton are Weauers and haue a distinct Idolatrous Sect otherwise are as the former Besides these of better condition there are of baser sort eleuen Sects which may not marrie nor meddle with others The first of these are called Tiberi Husbandmen the second Moger and are Mariners both hauing their proper Superstitions and vse their women in common the third are Astrologers whom they call Canius Great men aske their counsell but may not touch their persons The Aggeri are Masons and Workers in Metals The Muchoa or Machoe are Fishers dwelling in Villages by themselues the men Theeues the women Harlots with whom they please The Betua are Salt-makers the Paerun are Iugglers Inchanters and Physicians if such damnable Deuillish practices may deserue so honourable Name which when any are sicke and require their helpe vse Coniuration to cause the Deuill to enter into some of them and then by his suggestion declare the euent of the Disease and what Sacrifices or other things are to be performed They may not touch or bee touched of other men The Reuolat are a baser sort of Gentiles which carry wood into the Citie to sell and herbs The Puler are as excommunicate persons and liue in Desarts where the Nayros haue no occasion to passe and when they goe neere any of these Nayros or any of the better sort they cry as lowd as they can as the Lepers among the Iewes that others may auoid them For if any touch them their Kindred may for such action or passion stay them and as many of these Puler also as may make satisfaction for such disparagement Some nights they wil go of purpose seeking to touch some of the Nayro women with hand sticke or hurling of a stone which if they effect there is no remedie for the woman but to get her forth and liue with these Villaines or to be sold to escape killing by the hands of her Kindred These Puler are Theeues and Sorcerers The Pareas are of worse esteeme and liue in Desarts without commerce of any reputed worse then the Deuill These ten sorts or eleuen if you reckon two sorts of the Tiberi as our Author doth whereof one are Warriors distinguished by a certaine cudgell which they must carry in their hands from the Nayros are as well differing in Religions matters of common life though for their seuerall Rites it were wrong to the Reader at large to recite them if we had the particulars to deliuer But this is common in India that each Trade and Tribe distinguish a new Sect There are besides these Gentiles Naturall of Malabar many strangers of Indians Moores and Christians But in other Kingdomes of Malabar the Heathenish Religion is little differing from that in Calicut Cranganor is a small Kingdome the Inhabitants of the Citie which giueth name to the Region are Christians of Saint Thomas profession about seuentie thousand in number Cochin is now growne great by the Portugals traffique and friendship Of the rest there is not much worth the recitall The Papall honour among the Bramenes was by ordination of Perimal which placed there the Supremacie of the Bramens because He to whom he gaue Coulam was a greater Man then the rest This Papall title was Cobritin a dignity which the King of Cochin still retayneth to be supreme Head of the Bramenes For the ancient Kings of Coulan remooued their seate to Cochin which was then in their Territories But Warres haue since much altered the face of things in those parts In these parts are now many Christian Proselites of the Iesuites Conuersion besides many of the olde Thomas Christians Both Men and Women in Cochin account it a great Gallantry to haue wide Eares which therefore they stretch by Art hanging Waights on them till they reach to their shoulders Porca is a Kingdome Southwards from Cochin but little we can say of it In Trauancor betweene Coulan and the Cape were many Christians if they may be so called which want Sacraments For in fifty yeeres together they had not seene a Priest only they had the priuiledges and name of Thomaean-Christians These Thomaeans are now as the Iesuites report reduced to their Catholicisme The King of Trauancors Dominion stretcheth beyond the Cape Comori where Malabar endeth on the East-side fourescore and ten miles as farre as Cael which diuers great Lords hold vnder him Among the rest is the Signiory of Quilacare In the City of Quilacare is an Idoll of high account to which they solemnize a Feast euery twelfth yeere where the Gentiles resort as the Popish Christians in the Romish Iubilee The Temple sacred to this Idoll hath exceeding great reuenue The King for so he is called at this Feast erecteth a Scaffold couered with silke and hauing washed himselfe with great solemnity he prayeth before this Idoll and then ascendeth the Scaffold and there in presence of all the people cutteth off his Nose and after that his Eares Lips and other parts which he casts towards the Idoll and at last he cutteth his throate making a butcherly sacrifice of himselfe to his Idoll He that is to be his Successor must be present hereat for he must vndergoe the same Martyrdome when his twelue yeeres Iubilee is come Along this Coast dwell the Paraui simple people and Christians which liue by fishing of Pearles The Nayros make such holes in their Eares that Caesar Fredericke sayth hee thrust his arme vp to the shoulders in one of them They are prodigal of their liues in the honour of their King Osorius telleth of some which like the renowmed Decij had vowed themselues to death and not to returne from the enemy without victory Aloisius Goueanus numbreth in the Sea Coast of Coulam three and twenty townes of which nineteene had Christian Churches The Malabars are generally of one Language and one kind of writing This their writing was in leaues of Palme which they call Olla two fingers broad and long as the matter they intended written on both sides with a stile of Iron which they binde vp in Bookes betweene two boords in greater or lesser forme as they please Their writing is from the left hand to the right They reckoned their times before the Portugals came into the Indies from the departure of
then they goe out of the Citie passing by the Riuers side to the burning-place where is prepared a great square Caue full of Wood. Here is made a great Banquet the woman eating with ioy as if it were her wedding-day and after they sing and daunce till the woman bid to kindle the fire in the Caue then she leaueth the Feast and taketh her husbands neerest kinsman by the hand and goeth with him to the banke of the Riuer where she strippeth her of her cloathes and iewels bestowing them at her pleasure and couering herselfe with a cloth throweth herselfe into the Riuer saying O wretches wash away your sinnes Comming out of the Water shee rowleth herselfe into a yellow cloth and againe taking her husbands kinsman by the hand goeth to the said Caue by which is erected a little Pinnacle on which she mounteth and there recommendeth her children and kindred to the people After this another woman taketh a pot with oyle and sprinkleth it ouer her head and therewith annoynteth all her bodie and then throweth it into the Furnace the woman going together with the same Presently after the woman the people throw great pieces of Wood into the Caue so that with those blowes and the fire she is quickly dead and their great mirth is on a suddaine turned into great lamentation and howling When a Great man dyeth all the women of his house both his wife and slaues with whom hee hath had carnall copulation burne themselues together with him Amongst the baser sort I haue seene saith Master Frederike the dead man carried to the place of buriall and there set vpright the woman comming before him on her knees casteth her armes about his necke while a Mason maketh a wall round about them and when the wall is as high as their neckes one comming behind the woman strangleth her the workeman presently finishing the wall ouer them and this is their buriall Ludouicus Vertomannus relateth the same Funerall Rites of Tarnasseri as in other parts of India sauing that there fifteene or twentie men in their idolatrous habit like Diuels doe attend on the fire wherein the husband is burned all the Musicians of the Citie solemnizing the Funerall pompe and fifteene dayes after they haue the like solemnitie at the burning of the woman those diuellish fellowes holding fire in their mouthes and sacrificing to Deumo and are her intercessors to that Diuell for her good entertainment The cause of burning their wiues is by some ascribed to their wonted poysonings of their husbands before this Law by others that the husband might haue her helpe and comfort in the other world Odoricus telleth of a strange and vncouth Idoll as bigge as Saint Christopher of pure Gold with a new band about the necke full of precious stones some one whereof was of value if he valued iustly more then a whole Kingdome The roofe pauement and seeling of the walls within and without the Temple was all Gold The Indians went thither on pilgrimage some with halters about their neckes some with their hands bound behind them some with kniues sticking on their armes and legges and if after their pilgrimage the wounded flesh festered they esteemed that limbe holy and a signe of their Gods fauour Neere to the Temple was a Lake where-into the Pilgrims cast Gold Siluer and Gemmes for honour of the Idoll and reparation of his Temple At euery yearely Feast the King and Queene with the Pilgrims and People assembling placed the said Idoll in a rich Chariot and with a solemne procession of Virgins two and two in a ranke singing before him and with Musicall Instruments carrie him forth Many Pilgrims put themselues vnder the Chariot wheeles where they are crushed in pieces More then fiue hundred persons vsed thus to doe whose carkasses were burned and ashes kept for holy Reliques Otherwise also they will deuote themselues to such a martyrdome in this manner The parents and friends assemble and make a Feast to this Votarie and after that hang fiue sharpe kniues about his necke and so carrie him before the Idoll where he taketh one of his kniues and cryeth For the worship of my God I cut this my flesh and cutting a piece casteth it at the face of the Idoll and so proceeding at the last sayth Now doe I yeeld my selfe to death in the behalfe of my God and being dead is burned as before Our Country-man Sir Iohn Mandeuile reporteth the same Historie of their Idoll-Procession and the ashes of those voluntary Martyrs which they keepe to defend them against tempests and misfortunes He also sayth That some Pilgrims in all their peregrinations not once lifted vp their eye-lids some at euery third or fourth pace fell downe on their knees to worship some whipped others wounded themselues yea killed themselues as is before said Nicolo di Conti reporteth the same in his time Neither is this bloudy custome yet left as Linschoten affirmeth by report of one of his chamber-fellowes that had seene it They haue sayth he a Waggon or Cart so heauie that three or foure Elephants can hardly draw it which is brought forth at Faires Feasts and Processions At this Cart hang many Cables or Ropes whereat all the people hale and pull of deuotion In the vpper part of the Cart standeth a Tabernacle and therein the Idoll vnder it sit the Kings wiues playing on Instruments And while the Procession passeth some cut pieces of their flesh and throwe at the Pagode some lay themselues vnder the wheeles of the Cart with such euent as you haue heard Gasparo Balby relateth the same and addeth That the Priests which haue care of this Idoll and certaine women are consecrated to these deuotions from their Cradles by their Zeale-blind parents And the women prostitute their bodies to gaine for the Idoll whatsoeuer they can get ouer and aboue their owne maintenance This filleth the Citie with Strumpets there being of this Sacred you may interpret it Cursed crue foure hundred in one place of the Citie These haue their place in the Idoll-procession some of them in the Chariot which is drawne by men euery one accounting himselfe happy that can touch or draw the same This he sayth was at Negapaton He further affirmeth That not farre from the Citie of Saint Thomas is the Towne Casta where the the Wife is not burned as at Negapatan but a great Graue being made for the deceased Husband they place the liuing Wife by the dead corps and their neerest kindred cast earth vpon them both and stampe thereon They which marry wed in their owne degree as a Smith to a Smiths daughter and they powre out their prayers at the Image of some Kow or a Serpent called Bittia di Capella Their Bramenes burne Kowes dung and if they intend any warres with other Nations they anoint their Nose and Forehead with those ashes not washing themselues till the euening They which sacrifice themselues to the Pagode
are men come to the shore and leaue each a paire of shooes with her marke which who so taketh vp is her Paramour These are seconded by the Ilands of China which doe as it were hedge and fence it in of which there is little in Authors worthy mentioning In Macao or Amacao the Portugals haue a Colonie but the chiefe Iland of China is Anian in the Gulfe of Cauchin-China Further from the Continent from Iapan Southwards are many Ilands called by the names of Lequio the greater and the lesse rich in Gold nigh to the same is Hermosa and next to these the Philippinae so called of Philip the second King of Shaine by whose charge and charges they were discouered in the yeere 1564. long after that Magellanus had lost his life in the discouerie of these parts Some make this name hold some proportion to the Spanish Ambition calling all the Ilands Philippinae which are betweene New Spaine and the Gulfe of Bengala in all after their account eleuen thousand whereof onely thirtie are subiect to the Spaniard as Thomas à Iesu hath obserued But of all these afterwards for here wee but mention them They begin their reckoning at Noua Guinaea where first wee see Cainam The next Banda which name is proper to an Iland so called and common also to her neighbours Rosolarguin Ay Rom Neyra in foure degrees to the South which alone in the world are said by some to bring foorth Nutmegs and Mace The men heere are Merchants the women attend to Husbandrie The Ilands del Moro abound with Rice and Sagu the pith of a Tree which yeeldeth Meale where are wild Hennes which sit not on their Egges but burie them a good depth vnder the sand where the Sunne hatcheth them They haue no Kine but a Fish of like lineaments which they take in their Nets Gilolo hath a Mahumetane Prince and is a great Iland the people are Men-eaters Amboyno is the name of many Ilands rude both in soyle and people which eate their owne Parents when they are old Dauid Middleton in a written Discourse of one of his Indian Voyages mentioneth an Iland amongst or neere these of Amboyno called Bangaia the King whereof is a Gentile A Hollander heere obtayned such sway that none durst displease him Hee had two houses full of the Daughters of the Inhabitants which best liked him besides many Slaues of both sexes His life is meerely Epicurean hee will dance and sing and be drunke two dayes together nor will hee be commanded by any of his Countrey-men Hee is Collector or Treasurer to the King of Ternate in those parts and sends him what hee can spare At Banda the Hollanders would not suffer the English to trade and euery where else both East and West and North and South as may be instanced in the particulars if force or fraud by slaunders raysed on our people can effect it they testifie that gaine is more precious to them then the loue of our Nation Neere to the Ilands last mentioned are the Moluccae fiue in number others reckon more Ternate Tidor Motir Macbian and Bachian famous through the world as being Natures Store-house of Cloues Their worship is directed to the Sunne Moone and other heauenly and earthly Creatures The King of Tidores chiefe Priest came aboord the Consent of which Ship Dauid Middleton was chiefe In the Moluccas are found those admirable Birds of Paradise or as the Portugals call them fowles of the Sunne The Selebes abound with Gold abandoned of goodnesse peopled with Idolaters and Men-eaters The Ilands of Moratay are more Northerly where Battata-roots is their Bread their neighbours fare in the Ilands of Tarrao Sanguin Solor and others In those Ilands which more properly beare the Philippine title Mindanao is of very large circuit and hath diuers famous Cities Tendaia for her excellence was by the first Discouerers called the Philippina Luzzon incompasseth a thousand miles in which the Spaniards haue built a Towne called Manilla and haue thither carried Cattle for breed This Citie standeth in fourteene degrees and a quarter Borneo is reputed as bigge as Spaine richly attended with many Ilands of smaller circuit It hath a Citie of the same name founded on Piles in the salt water with sumptuous buildings of hewed stone couered with Coco leaues The King is a Mahumetan At Sagadana in this Iland there is an English Factorie The greater Iaua is by Scaliger called an Epitome of Summe of the world rich in many commodities The Cabal is a wilde beast in this Iland whose bones doe restraine the bloud from issuing in wounded parties The South part is Gentiles as the countries within the land but towards the shore they are Mahumetans Touching the lesser Iaua there is some controuersie which should be it The Straits of Sincopura are dangerous not aboue a Musket shot ouer there are two ledges of Rocks on either side at the entrance and within sunken rocks Betwixt Malacca and Samatra Nature hath as it were sowed that Field of waters with Ilands the principall of which is Bintam Samatra within the Countrey is Ethnikes towards the Coast are Moores an Iland large rich and populous diuided into many Kingdomes The Gulfe of Bengala is as it were guarded with a double ranke of Ilands which Neptune hath set as Garrisons of those Seas But these all are not worthy the honour due to Zeilan called in old times Taprobana which name others apply to Samatra From thence alongst the coast of India are seene few Ilands of any greatnesse but further into the Sea are the Maldiua so called of Maldiua one of their number whose name signifieth a thousand Ilands Hieronymo de Sancto Stephano numbreth them betweene seuen and eight thousand some of which are diuided by larger Seas some by smaller armes the Ocean somewhere with his greatnesse threatning to swallow them and in other places as curious of his delightfull search stealing rather then forcing a separation prouoking the passengers to communicate in his sports who sometimes helped with some ouer-growing Tree can leape from one Iland to another Yet hath not Nature thus diuersifying their situation yeelded them diuersitie of her riches sauing that it seemeth here shee hath chosen her chamber for the Palme or Coquo-nuts which in other places shee hath in comparison but scattered here stored that by this store the people might supply all their other wants Yea besides the Land-Coquo there groweth another vnder the water bigger then the former a speciall Antidote for poyson The Inhabitants are addicted to subtletie and sorcerie and in the Ilands next to the Continent Moores beare sway in the rest Pagans Other Ilands of smaller reckoning we reckon not Diu hath long beene famous for the warres therein vainly attempted by the Turke and Indians against the Fortresse of the Portugals §. II. The Persian Gulfe and of the Passage downe Euphrates thither the Sabbaticall streame and
and in the dayes of Moses their Priests Wisemen and Southsayers confirming their deuotions with lying Miracles as the Scriptures testifie of Iannes and Iambres and Hermes Trismegistus of his Grandfather and himselfe The Grecians ascribe these deuotions to Osiris and Isis of whom the Historie and Mysterie is so confused that Typhon neuer hewed Osiris into so many pieces as these vaine Theologians and Mythologians haue done They are forsooth in the Egyptian throne King and Queene in the Heauens the Sunne and Moone beneath these the Elements after Herodotus they are Bacchus and Ceres Diodorus maketh Osiris the same with the Sunne Serapis Dionysius Pluto Ammon Iupiter Isis the Moone Ceres and Iuno Appollodorus makes her Ceres and Io. Antonius and Cleopatra stiled and figured themselues the one Osiris and the other Isis In Macrobius and Seruius she is the nature of things He Adonis and Atis Plutarch addeth to these Interpretations Oceanus and Sirius as to Isis Minerua Proserpina Thetis And if you haue not enough Apuleius will helpe you with Venus Diana Bellona Hecate Rhamnusia and Heliodorus neerer home maketh Osiris to be Nilus the Earth Isis So true it is that An Idoll is nothing in the world and Idolaters worship they know not what Stampellus interpreteth Osiris to be Abraham and Isis to bee Sazeb whom Moses calleth also Ischa Orus Apollo or Horapollo saith Isis is the Starre called of the Egyptians Sothis which is the Dog-starre therefore called Isis because at the first rising of that Starre they prognosticated what should happen the yeere following The like was in vse amongst the Cilicians who obserued the first rising of that starre from the top of Taurus and thence saith Manilius Euentus frugum varios tempora dicunt Quaque valitudo veniat concordia quanta c. Thence they foretell what store of fruits or want What times what health what concord they descant Tully in the first Booke of his Diuination reciteth the same out of Heraclides Ponticus of the Cei But the Egyptians had more cause to obserue that Starre because Nilus doth then begin to encrease And therefore from thence they began to reckon their Tekuphas or quarters of their yeere as the Iewes from Nisan But to search this Fountaine further you may read the Egyptian opinion in Diodorus how that the World being framed out of that Chaos or first matter the lighter things ascending the heauier descending the Earth yet imperfect was heated and hardened by the Sunne whose violent heat begate of her slimie softnesse certaine putride swellings couered with a thinne filme which being by the same heat ripened brought forth all manner of creatures This muddie generation was say they first in Egypt most fit in respect of the strong soyle temperate ayre Nilus ouerflowing and exposed to the Sunne to beget and nourish them and still retayning some such vertue at the new slaking of the Riuer the Sunne then more desirous as it were of this Egyptian Concubine whom the waters had so long detained from his sight ingendring in that lustfull fit many Creatures as Mice and others whose fore-parts are seene mouing before the hinder are formed These new-hatched people could not but ascribe Diuinitie to the Author of their Humanitie by the names of Osiris and Isis worshipping the Sunne and Moone accounting them to be gods and euerlasting adding in the same Catalogue vnder disguised names of Iupiter Vulcan Minerua Oceanus and Ceres the fiue Elements of the World Spirit Fire Ayre Water and Earth These Eternall Gods begot others whom not Nature but their owne proper Merit made immortall which reigned in Egypt and bare the names of those coelestiall Deities Their Legend of Osiris is that he hauing set Egypt in order leauing Isis his wife Gouernour appointing Mercurie her Counsellour the inuenter of Arithmeticke Musicke Physicke and of their superstition made an Expedition into farre Countries hauing Hercules for his Generall with Apollo his brother Anubis and Macedon his sonnes whose Ensignes were a Dog and a Wolfe creatures after for this cause honoured and their counterfeits worshipped Pan Maron and Triptolemus and the nine Muses attending with the Satyres Thus did hee inuade the world rather with Arts then Armes teaching men Husbandry in many parts of Asia and Europe and where Vines would not grow to make drinke of Barley At his returne his brother Typhon slew him rewarded with like death by the reuenging hand of Isis and her sonne Orus The dispersed pieces into which Typhon had cut him shee gathered and committed to the Priests with injunction to worship him with dedication vnto him of what beast they best liked which also should be obserued with much ceremonie both aliue and dead in memorie of Osiris In which respect also they obserued solemnely to make a lamentable search for Osiris with many teares making semblance of like ioy at his pretended finding whereof Lucan singeth Nunquamque satis quaesitus Osiris alway seeking saith Lanctantius and alway finding To establish this Osirian Religion she consecrated a third part of the Land in Egypt for maintenance of these superstitious rites and persons the other two parts appropriated to the King and his Souldiers This Isis after her death was also deified in a higher degree of adoration then Osiris selfe One thing is lacking to our tale which was also lacking a long time to Isis in her search For when shee had with the helpe of waxe made vp of sixe and twentie parts which she found so many Images of Osiris all buried in seuerall places his priuities which Typhon had drowned in Nilus were not without much labor found and with more solemnitie interred And that the Deuill might shew how farre hee can besot men the Image hereof was made and worshipped the light of this darkenesse shining as farre as Greece whose Phallus Phallogogia Ithiphalli Phallophoria and Phallaphori issued out of this sincke together with their Membrous monster Priapus Yea the Egyptians hauing lost their owne eyes in this filthy superstition bestowed them on the Image of Osiris his stones which they pourtrayed with an eye Athenaeus telleth of Ptol. Philadelphus in a solemnitie wherein hee listed to shew to the world his madnesse or as it was then esteemed his magnificence a place worth the reading to them who are not heere glutted with out tedious Egyptian Banquet He among many sumptuous spectacles presented a Phallus of gold painted with golden crownes of an hundred and twentie cubits length hauing a golden starre on the toppe whose circumference was sixe cubites This was carried in a Chariot as in others the Image of Priapus and other Idols Of Typhon the Poets fable that after the Gods by the helpe of mortall men had slaine the Giants the Earth in indignation for rhe losse of that her Giantly brood lying with Tartarus brought forth Typhon which exceeded all the former for his height surmounted the Mountaines his head reached to the Starres one
Nation being the scumme and dregs of other Nations disguised by a deuised tongue and habit called in some Countries Cingari their life resembling much the Beduini or Rezuini roguish Arabians wandring in Syria and other parts Bellonius saith That these wander through all the Turkish Empire and are no lesse strangers in Egypt then other places They are cunning in Iron-worke and cheating Fortune-tellers some esteeme them Walachians But least I should also impose too cruell a taske on my more willing Readers I will proceed to other obseruations I haue heere in this Egyptian relation of their Rites Manners and Mysteries beene the larger both because Authors are herein plentifull and especially because Egypt hath beene an olde storer and treasurer of these mysticall Rites for that later vpstart the Mysticall Babylon in the West which as shee is spiritually called Sodome and Aegypt so like that Strumpet mentioned by Salomon hath not a little decked her bed with the Ornaments Carpets and Laces of Aegypt Wiser were the Romanes of olde which made diuers Lawes to expell the Aegyptian Rites out of their Citie which the later Popes entertaine CHAP. V. Of the manifold alterations of State and Religion in Aegypt by the Persians Grecians Romans Christians Saracens and Turkes §. I. Of the Persians and Graecians acts in Aegypt and the famous Vniuersitie and Librarie at Alexandria THe last Egyptian Pharao was Psammenitus vanquished by Cambyses sonne of Cyrus the Persian who quite extinguished that Egyptian Gouernment and much eclipsed their superstitious solemnities For Cambyses proclaimed defiance not to the persons onely of the Egyptians but to their Gods also yea hee set their sacred Beasts in the fore-front of his battell that being thus shielded by their owne deuotion hee might easily ruinate the Kingdome Such a disaduantage is Superstition to her followers being indeed but a life-lesse carkasse of true Religion which alway breedeth true Fortitude as Ptolomey and the Romanes vsed the like stratageme against the Iewes on their Sabbath which in it selfe a diuine Commandement they construed to a superstitious Rest a Sacrifice without Mercie wherein they might helpe their beasts but suffer themselues like beasts to be ledde to the slaughter Cambyses hauing pulled downe their Temples in Egypt intended as much to the Oracle of Iupiter Ammon in which exploit hee imployed fiftie thousand men which as the Ammonians report were ouer-whelmed with a tempest of Sand Other newes of them was neuer heard Himselfe meane-while meanely prouided of victuall for such an enterprise made an Expedition against the Ethiopians in which Famine making her selfe Purueyour for the Armie fedde them with the flesh of each other euery tenth man being allotted to this bloodie seruice Thus with a double discomfiture altogether discomforted hee retireth to Memphis where hee found them obseruing their festiuall solemnitie of the New-found Apis and interpreting this ioy to haue proceeded from his losse hee slew the Magistrate whipped the Priests commanded to kill the Citizens that were found feasting and wounded their Apis with his sword vnto death Hee practised no lesse hostilitie vpon their Obeliskes Sepulchres and Temples The Sepulchers they esteemed Sacred as their eternall Habitations and no greater securitie could any Egyptian giue vnto his Creditor then the dead bodies of their Parents The Temples euery where accounted holy heere were many and those magnificent At Memphis they had the Temples of Serapis Apis Venus and the most ancient of them all of Vulcan with the Pigmey-Image of Vulcan in it which Cambyses derided of Serapis at Canopus where Pilgrimes by dreames receiued Oracles at Heraclium Sai and Butis to Latona at Mendes to Pan at Momemphis to Venus a Necropolis Nicopolis and other places to other supposed Deities Cambyses also burned the Images of the Cabyrians and the Temple of Anubis at Heliopilis whose stately building and spacious circuit Strabo describeth as likewise at Thebes They write that after as hee was taking Horse his sword falling out of the Scabberd wounded him in the thigh where hee before had wounded Apis and slew him In the time while the Persians enioyed Egypt the Athenians by instigation of Inarus King of Libya inuaded Egypt wonne Nilus and Memphis but after sixe yeeres lost all againe Ochas one of his Successours called of the Aegyptians Asse killed their Apis and placed an Asse in his roome which kindled such indignation in Bagoas an Egyptian one of his Eunuches that hee murthered Ochus whom hee hurled to bee rent and torne of Cats that this Beast sacred to Isis might reuenge the indignitie offred to Apis. But this Eclipse of the Egyptian superstition caused by this Persian imposition had an end together with that Monarchie For Alexander did not only leaue them to their wonted Rites himselfe sacrificing to their Apis and solemnizing Games in his honor but added further glory to their Countrey by erection of that famous Citie named of himselfe Alexandria wheras some thinke the Citie No had before stood destroyed by Nabuchodonoser second in reputation to Rome the receptacle of Iewish Grecian and Egyptian Religions adorned with many Temples and Palaces his Successours Ptolomaeus Lagi of whom the following Kings were all called Ptolomaei and Lagidae Philadelphus Euergetes Philopator Epiphanes Philomator Euergetes the second Physcon Lathurus Auletes the Father of Cleopatra whom Iulius Caesar made Queene of Aegypt the price of her honestie and Anthonie his wife whom together with her selfe her ambition ouerthrew adding to the greatnesse of Alexandria Platoes Phylosophie was not onely first borrowed of the Egyptians but was publikely read at Alexandria as well as at Athens which continued many ages Sixe hundred yeeres after his death Ammonius surnamed of his former occupation being a Porter Saccus seemed to haue lighted on the bookes of Hermes and thence learned the Doctrine of the Trinitie of whom his Disciples Plotinus and Aurelius write and after them their Schollers Porphyrie and Theodorus Asinaeus and their Auditors Iamblichus and Syrianus to this last succeeded at Athens Proclus Lycius and after him the last of the greatest Platonikes Damascius which haue written many things of the three beginnings The same Ammonius with like Philosophicall happinesse are said to haue found the Oracles of Zoroaster which the two Iulians the Father and the Sonne Chaldaeans translated out of their tongue into Greeke in the time of M. Aurelius the Philosopher Pythagoras had before learned it of Zabratus in Assiria which it seemeth Plato heard of the younger Architas and dispersed closely the seedes thereof in his Bookes so that the elder Interpreters conceiued him not till the time of this Ammonius the Porter from whom heere as from Socrates a Statuarie in Athens flowed this Diuine wisedome Hee taught at Alexandria in the dayes of Clemens Alexandrinus about two hundred yeeres after Christ Origen was his hearer Iamblichus comprehended these Oracles of Zoroaster in thirtie Bookes or thereabouts for Damascius citeth the
weapon then a sword in that case Scarce in seuenteene yeeres could Italy shake off this burthen till Scipio by new policie warred against Hannibal not in Italy where he was but in Africke and Carthage whence his force was thereby procuring Annibals returne as the outward members are forced to yeeld their bloud to succour any sudden oppression of the heart But how is my heart oppressed with sudden passion thus to transport the Reader with my selfe from Africke into Spaine France Italy there to behold this Tragedie Let the matter it selfe answere and now we are returned to Carthage and finde the Tragedie heere For in the third Punike warre the Romans sayth Florus rather fought with the Citie it selfe then with Men. And alas what could that Hermophrodite-armie doe wherein were fiue and twentie thousand armed Women Yet had women then the greater courage Hasdrubal the King yeelded His wife with her two children and much people burned themselues in the Temple of Aesculapius that could not cure this disease of his Citie and suppliants the like fate befalling the first and last Queenes of Carthage Seuenteene dayes together did Carthage burne seuen hundred yeeres after the first building In this last warre after they had deliuered vp their Nauie and weapons being commanded to remoue ten miles from thence Anger kindled new forces and taught them to supply the want of Iron with Siluer and Gold in making weapons with pulling downe their houses to build a Nauie the Matrons giuing their haire the feminine Ornament to make bands for their manly and warlike Engines their priuate glory for publike necessitie all which serued but to augment the pompe of this funerall of Carthage Caesar did after restore it with a Ronian Colonie neuer attayning the Tyrian glory afflicted with Vandals and Gothes and by the Saracens made desolate vntill the time of Elmahdi an hereticall Calipha who procured the inhabiting hereof But not aboue the twentieth part was inhabited The rest remayneth as scattered ruines dispersed bones of the carkasse of old Carthage Master Pountesse a friend of mine told me That hee hath beene rowed in his Boat ouer the walls of Carthage or their ruines the Sea hauing made the last conquest by eating into the Land The Conduits are whole saith Leo which bring water from a Hill thirtie miles from Carthage twelue miles vnder the Earth the rest aboue And now saith he are not aboue fiue and twentie shops and fiue hundred houses therein one faire Temple one Colledge but without Schollers the inhabitants poore proud and superstitious Master Euesham saith That this Citie is now ruinated and destroyed Hee mentioneth those Arches wherein water was hither conueyed and one street three miles long As for the Sea-discoueries attempted by the Carthaginians Hanno compassed all Africa from the Spanish to the Arabian Straits and committed his discoueries to writing Himilco at the same time was employed in the search of Europe Diodorus Siculus writeth a whole Chapter of their discouery of a pleasant and fertile Iland Westward in the Ocean which cannot more fitly agree with any other Region then some part of the West-Indies as may seeme at the first view But a man shall haue much to doe to finde that Iland a harder discouery now then it was then to the finders at least as the Storie lies And some thinke that the Indians of America were a Colonie of the Carthaginians Aristotle hath also the like Relation in his Booke De admirandis Auditionib In the beginning of the Warre they had three hundred Cities in Libya and seuen hundred thousand persons in their Citie The Carthaginians as all acknowledged and their very name Paeni doth prooue were Phaenicians which Countrey wee haue before shewed to bee famous as for many other things so for the first letters and the first that is the Hebrew language The letters which the Hebrewes since the Babilonian Captiuitie haue vsed Postellus would haue to bee the first but secret till those times and then by Ezra made common but others more probably hold the Phoenician or Samaritan the first and that the present Hebrew were the Assyrian or Chaldaean Characters which the Iewes brought thence with them Now for proofe that their ancient Language was Phoenician and consequently Hebrew Dido is but the feminine saith Scaliger to Dauid and Elisa is the Hebrew Elisha Iosephus relateth out of Theophrastus that the Tyrians and Sydonians might not vse other but their owne Countrey oathes of which hee reckoneth Corban which the Scriptures also mention And Scaliger saith that the Punike Scene in Plantus his Penolus although they had then much declined from the Hebrew puritie is neerer the Hebrew then the Syriake and that hee could for the most part restore it to the right Punike which also hath happily beene attempted by Master Selden in his Dis Syris and by Bernardo Aldrete a Spaniard in his Varias Antiquedades de EspauÌa Africa YOtras prouincias lib. 2. cap. 2. Where he in a large Catalogue compareth the Hebrew Syriake Phoenician and Punike termes together Of their Baalsamen and other notes of this language we haue spoken before in our first Booke The name Carthago as Genebrard and Aldrete obserue in Syriake signifies the middle Citie Kartha a Citie Go , middle Solinus saith New Citie Wee haue alledged the testimonie of Procopius for the Chanaanites fleeing before Ioshua and the Punikes sayth Augustine called themselues euen in his time Chanani Salust ascribeth to the Phaenicians Hippo Hadrumetus Leptis and other Cities on the Sea-coast besides Carthage which they built either to enlarge their Empire or to preuent a fulnesse at home Concerning the Religion of the Africans in Ancient times Leo saith That they worshipped the Fire and the Sunne as did the Persians erecting in honour of each of these faire and sumptuous Temples in which the Fire was continually kept burning as in the Temple of Vesta at Rome The Numidians and Libyans sacrificed to the Planets And some of the Negroes worshipped Guighimo which signifieth the LORD of Heauen These afterward hee sayth were of the Iewish Religion and after that of the Christian till the 268. yeere of the Hegira that some Negro Kingdomes became Mahumetane although there remaine some Christians to this day those which were Iewish both by the Christians and Mahumetanes were vtterly destroyed But those of Barbarie whereof wee especially entreat remained saith hee Idolaters till two hundred and fiftie yeeres before Mahomets birth when they became Christians This must be interpreted of the vniuersall and publike profession about the time of Constantine For otherwise Africke had in it Christians before Dorothaeus in Synopsi saith That Epaeneius one of the seuentie Disciples was a Bishop of Carthage and that Simon the Apostle preached in Mauritania and among the Africans as Matthias also in Aethiopia But the Gothes soone corrupted Christian Religion with Arrianisme the forerunner of Mahumetanisme
diuers places His Nobles about him neuer looke him in the face but sit cowring vpon their buttockes with their elbowes vpon their knees and their hands before their faces not looking vp till the King command them And when they depart out of his presence they turne not their backes vpon him Such reuerend regard doth that Negro King receiue of them The next yeere Master Iohn Lock went for Captaine into those parts to trade for Gold Graines and Elephants teeth And after that diuers Voyages were thither made by William Towerson who obserued at the Riuer of Saint Vincent strange trees with great leaues like great Dockes longer then that a man could reach the top of them and a kind of Pease by the Sea-side growing on the Sands like trees with stalkes seuen and twentie paces long Diuers of the women had brests exeeding long At the Cape Tres puntas they made him sweare by the water of the Sea that hee would not hurt them before they would trade with him King Abaan a Negro entertained our men kindly hee caused to bee brought a pot of Wine of Palme or Coco which they draw forth of trees as we haue elsewhere obserued but their Ceremonies in drinking are thus First they bring forth their pot of drinke and then make a hole in the ground and put some of the drinke into it and after that cast in the Earth againe and thereon set their pot and with a little thing made of a Gourd take out of the same drinke and put it vpon the ground in three places and in diuers places they haue certaine bunches of the pils of Palme-trees set in the ground before them and there they put in some drinke doing great reuerence in all places to the same Palme-trees All these Ceremonies done the King tooke a cup of Gold in which they put Wine and whiles hee dranke all the people cryed Abaan Abaan with certaine other words and then they gaue drinke to euery one The like Ceremonies they vse in all the Countrey In Benin the people goe naked till they be married and then are clothed from the waste to the knees Their bread is a kind of Rootes called Inamia which when it is well sodden may be preferred before ours They haue here great spouts of water falling out of the Aire which if they light on a ship doe endanger the same They fall like the pillars of Churches As for those Voyages to those parts made by Rutter Fenner Ingram or others I referre them to Master Hackluyts Collections One writeth That the King of Benin hath sixe hundred Wiues with all which twice a yeere he goeth in pompe the Gentlemen haue some of them fourescore some fourescore and ten the meanest ten or twelue At Cape de Lope Gonsalues some pray to the Sunne others to the Moone or to certaine trees or to the Earth esteeming it a great sinne to spit vpon it from whence they receiue their food Men and women inke their bodies putting thereon grease mixed with colour They will not drinke before they put out some and drinke not when they eate They offer their wiues to strangers The King keepeth his Daughters when they are growne for Wiues and the Queenes with like incestuous abomination vse their Sonnes They paint their bodies red vse Bananas dried in stead of bread and lay all their meates in a dish together About the Castle of Mina they are subiect to such Wormes as Master Ienkinson hath obserued to grow vpon men at Bognar in Bactria by drinking the water of the Riuer there which are an Ell long and must be pulled out by degrees euery day a little if they breake by the way it is very dangerous The torture they cause is vnspeakeable they breed in the armes and legges yea sometimes in the yard and cod one man hath had ten of them at one time The Inhabitants of Benin obserue Circumcision and some other Superstitions which may seeme Mahumetan but are more likely to bee ancient Ethnike Rites For many Countreyes of Africa admit Circumcision and yet know not or acknowlege not Mahumetisme but are either Christians as the Cophti Abassines or Gentiles they cut or rase the skinne with three lines drawne to their Nauell esteeming it necessary to saluation They will not easily doe iniury to any especially a stranger They haue Birds in such respect that it is deadly to any that shall hurt them And some are appointed to haue a peculiar care of them and to prouide them food which they doe in high Mountaynes where they lay meate for them which they come and eate Arthus writes That the Inhabitants of Guinea giue Religious respect vnto certaine trees And in the yeere one thousand fiue hundred ninetie eight certaine Hollanders cutting them and not ceasing at the perswasion of Negro's whose Superstitions in that case they derided it passed from words to blowes betwixt them the Dutchmen were forced to get them to their ships one of their company being slaine in the chase But the Murtherer was offered to the Hollanders to be punished which they refusing his Countrimen cut off his head and quartered his bodie bestowing the one as a monument of reuenge ouer the slaine parties graue the other on the Fowles vnburied Their trees are alway greene some haue leaues twice a yeere They seldome see the Sunne either rising or going downe by the space of halfe of an houre Their Winter beginneth in Aprill which yet is their time of Haruest Mays was brought thither out of America In Aprill May and Iune they haue much raine and the same very dangerous to the bodie and rotting the clothes if it bee not presently dryed It is often as warme as if it were sodden They haue some Snakes thirty foot long as much as sixe men can carrie they haue also a beast like a Crocodile called Lanhadi we haue spoken of the like about Pegu and Bengala which neuer goeth into the water Spiders as bigge as the Palme of ones hand which doe not spinne store of Cameleons Dogges woolly with sharpe snouts of diuers colours which cannot barke driuen to the Market as sheepe tied one to another blue Parrets many sorts of Apes blacke Flyes which seeme to burne In Senega some Snakes haue mouthes so wide that they swallo a whole sheepe without tearing they haue winged Dragons with tayles and long mouthes with many teeth being blue and greene which some Negros worship They boare a hole in the Palme-wine tree whence issueth a white iuyce first sweete and after by standing it becomes sowre and after by standing it becomes sowre It is somewhat like the Coco-tree The Palmita is without branches the fruit growes on the top which within is like Pomegranates full of graines without of a golden colour They buy Gentilitie with gifts a Dog a Sheepe a Cow in their creation is obserued much solemnitie They know not how to number their yeeres but seeme
they take not the Tunie at all the Sword-fish they take but eate not till his sword bee cut off which is dryed and holden in great veneration The Mountaines would bend their sullen browes if they should not haue some redde letters in their Kalender to which their toppes aspire threatning to scale Heauen or ouer-whelme the Earth if the Fetissan portion did not pacifie their angry moode by daily presents of meate and drinke set thereon Neither can Nature alone vsurpe this Prauilege but Art in other things her emulous corriuall and farre vnequall competitor in this matter of God-making commonly gets the vpper hand And therefore they with their ceremonious Art can make them Fetissos ' or Gods at pleasure Principally in their Funerals they obserue it for when one is dead they make a new Fetisso or Ring of Straw and pray it to beare the dead partie companie and protect him in his journey into the other World They lay the dead body on a Matte on the ground wind it in a Wollen cloath set a stoole vnder the head which is couered with a Goates skinne the body is strawed ouer with ashes his armes layd by his sides his eyes open and so continueth halfe a day his best-beloued wife sitting by as the Husband doth also at the death of his wife crying Aury and wiping her face with a wispe of straw Women goe round about the house singing and beating on Basons and about the corpse likewise and then againe about the house The eldest Morimi or Gentlemen goe about from house to house with a Bason wherein each puts the value of twelue-pence in Gold with which they buy a Cow with whose bloud the Fetissero appeaseth the Fetisso The friends and kinsfolkes assembling prepare a Henne and then setting themselues in a corner of the dead mans house they place all his Fetisso's on a row the greatest in the middest adorning the same with Garlands of Pease and Beanes like to the Popish praying-Beads Then they sprinkle the same with the bloud of the Henne and hang a chaine or Garland of herbes about their neckes After this the women set the Hen now sodden in the middest of the Fetisso's and the Fetissera takes water in his mouth which amidst his Exorcismes and Charmes he spoutes on those Fetisso's and taking two or three herbes from his necke he rols the same in forme of a ball which after certaine ceremonies he layeth downe and so doth till all his Herb-garland bee spent and then makes them all into one great ball and therewith besmeareth his face and thus is it made a Fetisso and the partie deceased is now at rest In the meane time the dearest of his Wiues filleth all the house with mourning the neighbours and friends with Songs and Musicke such as they haue and Dances And at last they take vp the Corps and carrie it to the Graue which is foure foot deepe and couer it with stakes that nothing may fall therein The Women creeping about the Sepulchre expostulate with him Why hee would leaue them Then doe they hurle on earth so that none can get in to the Corpes for hee hath with him his Houshold Armour and whatsoeuer he vsed in his life time Wine also if before he loued it to drinke in the other World Lastly they couer the Sepulchre with a Roofe to defend all from Raine If the King dies not onely greater solemnitie is vsed but the Nobles thinking it necessarie for so great a Personage to haue attendents offer vnto him one a Seruant another a Wife a third his Sonne or Daughter till there be many of both Sexes in that other life to attend him All which are suddenly slaine at vnawares and their bloudie carkasses buried together with the King Yea the Kings wiues which loued him best refuse not this last and euerlasting seruice as they suppose but yeeld themselues to die that they may liue with him The heads of all these thus slaine are set vpon poles round about the Sepulchre Meate Drinke Rayment Armes and other Vtensils are added for their vse and buried with them After the buriall they goe to the Sea or Riuer and there obserue other Rites some washing while others play on Basons and Instruments The Widow or Widower is layd backward on the water with diuers wordes of complaint At last they cloath them returne to the dead-mans house make great cheere and drinke themselues drunke They in vncertaintie of criminall accusations as of Adulterie Murther and such like haue a certaine water offered them to drinke by the Fetissero made of those Herbes whereof their Bal Fetisso is made and in effect like the cursed water Numb 5. none daring to drinke for feare of sudden death thereby if hee be guilty They dare not come out of their houses in Thunder for then they say many of them are carried away by the Deuill and throwne dead on the ground When they pray for Raine they wash themselues and cast Water ouer their heads with diuers words and spitting in the water Their Kings are Electiue and must be liberall or else are expelled Once a yeere he makes a great feast for the common people buying to that end all the Palme-wine and many Kine the heads of which are painted and hanged in the Kings chamber in testimonie of his bounty Hee inuiteth also his neighbour-Kings Captaines and Gentlemen and then prayeth and sacrificeth to his Fetisso which is the highest Tree in the Towne The men with Fencing Drumming Singing Leaping the Women with Dances honour this feast Euery King holdeth his feast apart one soone after another in the Summer-time The King comes little abroad In the Morning and Euening his Slaues blow or sound certaine Trumpets made of Elephants teeth his Wiues doe then wash and anoynt his body He hath also his Guard Hee sits in state on a stoole holding in his hands the tayle of a Horse or Elephant to driue away Flies gallantly adorned with Rings of Gold on his Armes and legges and necke with corall Beads also wherwith likewise he maketh diuers knots on his beard His Children if they will haue any thing when they are of age must get it the common people would not like that he should maintaine them idle Onely he bestowes on them their marriage gift and a Slaue They chuse by most voyces a successour in another kindred who inheriteth the treasure of the dead King and not his owne Children Controuersies are tried by the Fetisseros Pot as is said if it be for Murther hee may redeeme his life with money one moity to the King the other to the Courtiers if he cannot the Executioner bindes his hands behind him couers his face leades him to a place alone and causing him to kneele downe thrusts him through and then for before they thinke him not dead cuts off his head and quartering the body leaues it to the Fowles ond Beasts His head is boyled by his
to be a Iewish Fable thinking thereby to credit their Law-giuer then agreeing to Moses the Truth and Scripture and might haply arise from that speech That Moses his wife was an Aethiopian of which wee haue spoken alreadie Neyther is it likely that Moses would accept of Treason for the dowry with his wife sealed with the bloud and ouerthrow of her Countrey and Citizens And yet from hence doe some deriue the originall of their Nation After the Father of this supposed Tharbis Derianus is said to raigne who valiantly withstood Bacchus which is thought to be Osiris the Egyptian King and after their God when he inuaded Egypt with in Army Diodorus mentioneth Actisanes a King of Aethiopia Cepheus also is numbred in that Royall Catalogue but of all Ganges was most famous who with his Aethiopian Armie passed into Asia and conquered all as farre as the Riuer Ganges to which hee left that name being before called Chliaros Hee conquered as farre also to the West vnto the Atlantike Ocean gaue name to the Country of Guinea which name some say is corrupted of Gangina the name it had receiued of Ganges These things are written by some I wil not swear for the truth as safely we may do for that which the Scripture meÌtioneth of some of their Kings in the dayes of Asa and Hezekiah Kings of Iuda whose puissance then was such that Zerah brought into the field a Million of men and Tirrhaca was Corriuall vnto proude and blasphemous Sennacherib in sute for the Monarchy of the World But whether he came out of this Aethiopia or any other parts of Asia or Africke is not very certaine Before that time the Aethiopians had warred vnder Shishak King of Egypt whom some take for Sesostris The Babylonians in Nabuchodonosors time conquered Egypt and Aethiopia as some expound the Prophesie of Ezechiel And the Persian Empire extended from India to Aethiopia Agatharchides writeth that the Inhabitants on both sides the Riuer Astabara liue on Roots dryed in the Sunne they are much infested with Lions and not lesse with a lesse creature but greater Enemy the Gnats which driue them to hide themselues in the waters from their fury when the Dogge-starre ariseth which with these his Armies of Gnats bayteth the Lions also whom their buzzing and humming noyse chase out of the Country He speaketh of other their Neighbours which feed on the tops of twigs running and leaping on the trees and from bough to bough with incredible agility others dwell on trees for feare of wild beasts on whose flesh and in want thereof on their hides they liue as Ostriches Elephants Grashoppers are the daily dyet to others to which he addes the Cynamolgi which are nourished with the Milke of Bitches of which they haue great Heards which perhaps our Reader will nor beleeue neyther can I force him CHAP. II. A continuation of the Aethiopian Antiquities and of the Queene of Saba HEliodorus in his Historie which although for the substance it be fayned as a loue Discourse yet must hold resemblance with things done and for the variety and conceit thereof commended by that learned German Philip and by our English Philip the Prince of Potsie imitated in his Arcadia telleth of Hydaspes his Ethiopian King that after his victory at Syene and hauing there performed his deuotions and seene their Niloscopium like to that at Memphis and now at Cairo and enquired the originals of their Feasts and holy rites done in honour of that Riuer when he came to the Cataracts hee sacrificed to Nilus and the Gods of the Borders He then sent Messengers to the Wisemen whom hee calleth Gymnosophistes which are the Kings Counsellers at Meroe to certifie them of his victory and to call a publike Assembly wherein to gratifie the Gods for the same with Sacrifices and solemne pompes in the field consecrated to the Sunne the Moone and Bacchus Persina the Queene deliuered those Letters to the Gymnosophistes who dwelt by themselues in a Groue consecrated to Pan and before they would giue answere consulted with the Gods by prayer and then Sisimitres the chiefe of them promised all should bee fulfilled The Sacrifices were to be done to the Sunne and Moone and therefore except Persina the Queene which was Luna's Priest no woman for feare of contaminating the Holies of those Pure and Bright Deities might be present Hydaspes was Priest of the Sunne Much preparation was made of Beasts for their Hecatombe's and much concourse of people crossing the Riuer in those Boats of Canes or Reeds There were presented the Images of their Gods Memnon Perseus and Andromeda and nigh to them sate the Gymnosophista Three Altars were erected two ioyntly to the Sunne and Moone a third to Bacchus by himselfe to him they offered all sorts of Beasts to Sol white Chariot-horses to the Moone a yoke of Oxen. And when al things were ready the people with shouts demanded the Sacrifice which vsually was accustomed for the health of their Nation That was some of the strangers taken in the wars to be offered First triall was made by Spits of Gold heated with fire brought out of the Temple whether the Captiues had euer knowne carnall copulation for treading on the same with their bare feete such as were pure Virgins receiued no harme others were scorched These were offered in Sacrifice to Bacchus the other to those purer Deities These things haue I here inserted not as done but as like to such things which among the Meroites were vsed to be done and agreeing with the generall deuotions of those Aethiopians Philostratus reporteth like matters of their Gymnosophists and of the Groue where they kept their generall consultations otherwise each of them by themselues apart obseruing their studies and holies They worshipped Nilus intending in their mysticall interpretation the Earth and the Water They entertayned strangers in the open Ayre Thesphesion was then in Apollonius his time chiefe of their societie At his command an Elme did speake They held the Immortality of the soule The Aethiopians sacrificed to Memnon and to the Sunne Lucian after his scoffing manner gratulates the Aethiopians that fauour which Iupiter vouchsafed them in going on feasting accompanied with the rest of the Gods and that twelue dayes together if Homer reckoned truly But more seriously elsewhere hee vnfoldeth that Mystery shewing that the Aethiopians were Inuenters of Astrologie helped therein by the cleerenesse of the Skie in that Region and like temperature of the seasons Of them the Egyptians learned and furthered that Science In his Treatise of Dancing he affirmeth that the Aethiopians vsed their haire in stead of a Quiuer and neuer drew Arrow from thence to shoot in battle but with a dancing gesture Diodorus Siculus telleth that the Aethiopians were accounted most ancient of all other men and that not onely Humanitie but Diuinity was borne and bred amongst them
after and Abram a slaue vsurped the State He had beene seruant to a Romane at Adulis a Citie of Ethiopia worthy mention especially in this matter for the ominous prosperitie of seruants For the Citie it selfe was built by fugitiue seruants which ranne from their Egyptian Masters and this Abram a seruant there obtayned to be a King neither could the Ethiopian with all his might depose him The like ambassage to Archetas King of Ethiopia was sent by Iustinus for and against the Persian both which I mention to shew the greatnesse at that time of his State nothing comparable notwithstanding to that which after befell them Among the Ethiopian Antiquities Plato testifies as Orosius cites him that many plagues and vncouth diseases infested and almost altogether destroyed Ethiopia about that time that Bacchus inuaded India If any delight himselfe in such Legendarie drosse as the counterfeit Abdias set forth by Wolfgangus Lazius hath in it touching the Magicians and Enchantments and some other ceremonies of Ethiopia I am loth to blot my paper with them not because we are not certaine of the truth for in others we may be deceiued but because wee are certaine of the errors so grosse that they may be seene and felt Maruell that Lazius an Historian would with his Notes illustrate such a hotchpotch of darknesse And yet our Countriman Harding leauing the cleare waters of Truth hath swallowed the same swill as the Iewell of our Church hath taught him The Eunuch of Candace was the first Ethiopian Christian as Luke Act. 8. and Eusebius doe shew But before we come to their Christian conuersion wee are first to declare their conuersion to Iudaisme if it bee true which the Ethiopians write in the time of Salomon The Ethiopians hauing liued before a vagrant life like the Nomades of old and the Arabians and other Libyan Nations not farre from them in Asia and Africa at this day Aruc the Ethiopian King first fixed a settled abode at Axuma and made it the Royall Citie after whom followed Agab and in the third place Ghedur or Sabanut which subdued all Ethiopia and left the Kingdome to his daughter Makeda that reigned eightie yeeres Anno 50. of her reigne shee visited Salomon After her they reckon these Kings till Christs time Melic Andedo Auda Gigasio Zangua Guasio Antet Bahara Cauada Chanze Endur Guaza Endrath Chaales Setija Aglaba Anscua Breguas Guase Beseclugna Baazena in whose time they say Christ was borne Genebrard sets downe the times of their Reigne which hee confesseth and it selfe conuinceth to be false This Queene of Saba before mentioned in our discourse of Arabia of which Countrie I thinke shee then was and these Abassens since that time thence descended and transplanted is by Iosephus called Nicaule the Queene saith he of Ethiopia and Egypt But Zaga Zabo in the Ethiopian Historie which hee wrote and caused to be done into Latine by Damianus a Goes calls her Maqueda whose Historie the Ethiopians haue written in a Booke as bigge as all Pauls Epistles The summe of his report is this Shee was a worshipper of Idolls as her Ancestors had beene when as fame filled her eares with the renowme of Salomons name and then sent a messenger to Ierusalem to learne the truth who at his returne confirming those former reports shee went her selfe to visit him Of him besides many other things shee learned the Law and the Prophets By him shee conceiued also a sonne of whom shee was deliuered in her iourney homewards and named him Meilech After twentie yeeres education in Ethiopia shee sent him to Salomon his father to be instructed of him in wisdome desiring him to consecrate her sonne King of Ethiopia before the Arke of the Couenant shee ordayned also that women should not henceforth inherit as before had bin accustomed Salomon did this and changed his name to Dauid and after long instruction sent him back to his mother attended with many noble companions among whom was Azarias the sonne of Zadok the Priest This Azarias caused Tables to be made like to those in the Arke and pretending to sacrifice for the good successe of his iourney went in and stole the Tables of the Law leauing in their roome these later counterfeits which he reuealed not to any till he came to the borders of Ethiopia Then Dauid being made acquainted with the fact danced for ioy as his Grandfather Dauid had done before the Arke wherein the Tables were inclosed his people making great ioy His Mother resigned to him the Empire and from that time to this the Kingdome hath passed in a right Line from male to male Circumcision also with the Law of Moses hath beene obserued The Officers which Salomon appointed his Sonne are still continued in the same Families and order nor may the Emperour chuse them out of any other stocke then those of the Iewes This long Legend I report not for the truth but for that Religious conceit wherewith it is accepted in Ethiopia for who knowes not that none but the High Priest and that but once a yeere entred into that holy place where the Arke was that I speake not of Nadabs and Abihu's fire with other diuine Iudgements Vzzahs touching and the Bethshemites viewing the Arke at so deere a rate could but make dreadfull so damnable an attempt Besides wee should haue looked for our blessed Sauiour out of Ethiopia where Salomons Heires still reigne if these say true and not goe to Salathiel and Zorobabel descended of another brother and therefore further off from the throne of their Father Dauid on which Christ was to fit and to which he was borne next and apparant Heire euen according to the flesh And yet doth Genebrard credit these reports and Baronius also in part as Luys de Vrreta reporteth This Luys hath written three large Bookes in Spanish collected as he sayth out of Don Iuan de Baltasar an Ethiopian of great account who had beene Embassadour from his Master Alexander the Third the great Negus into Persia and other places and came into Spaine with his licence to imprint his Ethiopian History Out of him Luys reporteth that the former Booke whence Zago Zabo the Bishop Embassadour to the King of Portugall had taken those things is Apocrypha yet so as that it is true concerning that report of Maquedas conception and the Royall Discent from thence till these times The stealing of the Tables hee denieth and affirmeth that the truth was that Salomon had bestowed on the Queene of Saba a fragment of the Tables which Moses brake in his zeale for the Israelites Idolatrie with the Golden Calfe For that conception by Salomon hee proueth it by the Ethiopian Records the title of their King and his Armes which are the same which the Tribe of Iuda gaue viz. a Lion rampant crowned in a field Or with this Inscription The Lion of the Tribe of Iuda hath ouercome Since they were Christians they
maruell if in India there were some great Christian Prince able to make a head against the Tartars in those times For euen in Cranganor are yet supposed to hee threescore and ten thousand Christians besides a great number in Negapatan and in Malipur and very many in Angamale and fifteene thousand on the North of Cochin where the Archbishop that dependeth on the Patriarke of Babylon or Mosul resided All which haue no communion with the Greeke Roman or Ethiopian Churches And for the Ethiopian names or crosses either their Merchants when their state was great or slaues which taken from them are euen in these times sold dearest of any other and mount to great preferments of warre vnder these Lords might leaue such impressions or some other which as they professed one Christ so might haue some wordes and ceremonies common with the Ethiopian although I must needes acknowledge that many of those crosses haue not crossed my way nor any other Ethiopian foot prints Pardon me gentle Reader if I seeme tedious in this dispute seeing it is necessarie both for the vnderstanding of the extent of the Power and Religion of this Precious or Priest Iohn and Scaliger hauing ascribed such large bounds to his Empire I could not but examine the same otherwise professing my selfe si non magis amica veritas euen willing if I must needs erre to erre with him who hath in many tongues and arts shewed himselfe perhaps the worthiest Generall and generallest Worthy against Error that euer wee haue had the Alpha of learned men in our Age as our learned Marton testifieth of him and a great light of learning acknowledged by Royall testimonie His authoritie I would not seeme to contemne and therefore haue entred this long search But Scaliger himselfe hath since altered his opinion in the last Edition of his Emendation in which these later Editions of this worke might haue excluded also this long dispute but that it may serue to illustrate both this and other parts of our Historie and therefore doe still suffer it to remayne HONDIVS his Map of the Abissine Empire ABISSINORUM REGNUÌ CHAP. IIII. Relations of the Aethiopian Empire collected out of ALVARES BERMVDESIVS and other Authors TO come now to the Aethiopian Greatnesse of this great Aethiopian his Title would be a sufficient Text for a more sufficient glosse then we can giue In a Letter to King Emanuel after diuers words concerning the Trinitie follow These Letters sendeth Atani Tinghill that is the Frankincense of the Virgin which was his name in Baptisme but at the beginning of his Raigne hee tooke to name Dauid the beloued of GOD Pillar of the Faith descended of the Tribe of Iuda Sonne of Dauid Sonne of Salomon Sonne of the Pillar of Sion Sonne of the seed of Iacob Sonne of the hand of Marie Sonne of Nahu according to the flesh Emperour of the Greater and Higher Aethiopia and of most large Kingdomes Territories and Iurisdictions the King of Xoa Caffate Fatigar Angote Baru Baaliganze Adea Vangue and Goiame where Nilus springeth Of Damaraa Vaguemedri Ambeaa Vagne Tigri-Mahon Of Sabaym the Countrey of the Queene of Saba of Barnagasso and Lord as farre as Nubia which confineth vpon Aegypt Heere are names enough to skarre a weake braine a great part whereof are now his as some say in Title onely For at this present if Barros and Botero bee beleeued his Neighbours haue much encroched vpon him as a little before we haue shewed a thing wholly denied by the later Relations of Frier Luys de Vrreta Yet seeing we are to trauell through all these Countreys we will leaue the question of dominion to him and his neighbours to try it with the sword Our pen shall peaceably point out the places and after that the conditions Barnagasso is the nighest to vs at least by the neere situation of the red Sea nighest to our knowledge It stretcheth from Suachen almost to the mouth of the Streyt and hath Abagni or Astapus on the South It hath no other Port on the red Sea but Ercocco Neither hath the Prete any other Port but this in all his Dominion being Land-locked on all sides Anno 1558. The Turks committed heere great spoile They haue since taken from the Prete all on the Sea side and specially that Port of Ercocco and the other of Suachen or Suaquem and forced the Gouernour or vnder-King of this Prouince to compound for a yeerely summe of a thousand ounces of Gold besides his Tribute to the Ethiopian To him are also subiect the Gouernmenrs of Dafila and Canfila And the Turke hath a Basla at Suaquem called by Ptolomey Sebasticum Tigri-Mahon lyeth betweene Nilus Marabo two Riuers Angote and the Sea Tigrai hath in it Cazumo which is supposed the Seat-Royall of that great Queen which visited Salomon Angote is between Tigre-Mahon Amara Heere in Amara is a steepe Hil dilating it selfe in a round forme many dayes iourny in compasse enuironing with the steepe sides and impassible tops thereof many fruitfull and pleasant Vallies wherein the kindred of the Prete are surely kept for the auoiding of all tumults and seditions Xoa hath store of corne and cattell Goiame hath plenty of Gold as Baguamedri hath siluer In Fatigar is a Lake on the top of a high mountaine twelue miles compasse abounding with great varietie of fish and thence runne many Riuers stored with the same fish Damne is ennobled with slauerie For the slaues that are hence caried captiues in Arabia Persia and Egypt proue good souldiers The greater part of this Kingdome are Gentiles and the residue Christians The Oxen as Bermudez relateth are almost as great as Elephants their hornes very great and serue for vessels to carie and keepe Wine and Water as Barrels or Tankerds There is found also a kinde of Vnicorne wilde and fierce fashioned like a horse of the bignesse of an Asse Neere hereunto he addeth a Prouince of Amazons whose Queene knoweth no man and is honoured as a goddesse they say they were first instituted by the Queene of Saba both like true as that which followeth of Griffons the Phoenix and fowles so bigge that they make a shaddow like a cloud Couche is subiect to Damur they are Gentiles The Prince called Axgugce that is Lord of riches he shewed vs saith Bermudez a Mountaine glistering in some places like the Sun saying all that was gold More gold is said there to be then in Peru or in these parts iron The head of the Monasteries of Amara Christned him Gradeus the Emperour being his God-father and named him Andrew Gueguere was sometimes called Meroe the Inhabitants are confederate with the Turkes and Moores against the Abissines Dancali and Dobas are neere the red Sea inhabited with Moores Many of these Countreys are diuersly placed by diuers through ignorance of the exact situations which Aluarez in his so many yeares trauell in those parts might well haue
acquainted vs with if he had first acquainted himselfe with rules of Art to haue obserued by Instruments the true site and distances In the Kingdome of Angole iron and salt is currant money The Moores of Dobas haue a Law prohibiting marriage to any that hath not first slaine twelue Christians The diuorces and marrying the wiues of their brethren deceased is heere in vse much like as with the Iewes In Bernagasso Aluarez and his company in their trauell were encountred with many great Apes as bigge as Weathers their fore-parts hairie like Lions which went not lesse then two or three hundred in a company they would climbe any Rocke they digged the earth that it seemed as it had been tilled In the Countrey of the Giannamori as they trauelled they crossed a certaine brooke or Riuer that came downe from the Mountaines and finding a pleasant place shaded with the Sallowes there they reposed themselues at noone the water of the brooke was not sufficient to driue a Mill. And whiles the company stood some on one side the brooke some on the other they heard a thunder which seemed a farre off but saw no likelihood of raine or winde when the thunder was done they put their stuffe in order to be gone and had taken vp the Tent in which they dined when one of the company going by the brooke about his businesse suddenly cried out Looke to your selues whereupon turning about they saw the water come downe a speares depth with great furie which caried away part of their stuffe and had they not by good hap taken vp their Tent they together with it had beene carried away with the streame Many of them were forced to climbe vp the Sallowes Such was the noise of water and the rattling of stones which came tumbling downe the Mountaines together that the earth trembled and the sky seemed to threaten a down-fall Suddenly it came and suddenly it passed For the same day they passed ouer and saw very many and great stones ioyned to those which they had seen there before In the Kingdome of Goyame the Riuer Nilus springeth it is there called Gion and comes from two Lakes which for their greatnesse may seeme to bee Seas in which report goeth that Mermaydes Tritons or Men-fishes are seene and some haue told me saith Aluarez that they haue seene it Peter Couillian a Portugall which had liued a great part of his life in those parts told me that he had been in that Kingdome by order from Queene Helena to build there an Altar in a Church built by her where she was buried Beyond that Kingdome I was told there were Iewes Don Iohn de Castro mentions a high Hill inhabited of Iewes in these parts which came no man knowes from whence but they defended the Prete against the Moores Of the fals in Goyame before is related out of Berumdez that they make a noyse like thunder He saith saith that in Dembia Nilus runneth within thirty or fortie leagues of the Red-Sea to which the Emperour purposed to cut a passage as his Predecessor had begun There is a great Lake thirtie leagues long and twenty broad with many Ilands inhabited onely of Religious men Agao is possessed of Moores and Gentiles mixed He speakes of the Kingdom of Oghy seuen or eight dayes iourney from Doato vnder which is a Prouince of Gentiles called Gorague bordering with Quiloa and Mongalo which are great Witches and obserue the entrails of sacrificed Beasts They kill an Oxe with certaine Ceremonies and anointing themselues with the tallow thereof make a great fire seeming to goe into it and to sit down in a chaire therein thence giuing Diuinations and answers without burning Their Tribute is two Lyons three Whelpes an Ounce of Gold molten with certaine Hens and Chickens of the same metall Sixe Buffes laden with Siluer a thousand Beeues and the skinnes of Lyons Ounces and Elkes The Goffates are vulgarly reported to haue beene Iewes they are hated in other Prouinces The houses of the Ethiopians are round all of Earth flat roofed couered with thatch compassed with yards They sleepe vpon Oxe-hides They haue neither Tables nor Table-cloathes but haue their meat serued in on plaine woodden Platters Some eate flesh raw others broyle it Artillery they had not vntill they bought some of the Turkes Writing is little and scarce a little vsed amongst them the Officers dispatch matters of Iustice by Messengers and word of mouth There is no wine made of the Grape but by stealth except at the Pretes and Abunas Others vse Wine made of Raisins steeped ten dayes in water and strained which is cordiall and strong They haue plenty and want of Metals Gold Siluer c. the soyle yeeldeth but they haue not Art to take it They haue no coine of Gold or Siluer Salt is the most currant money Sugar canes they haue but want skill to vse them The Mountaines and Woods are full of Basill and other odoriferous plants They haue store of Bees and Honey but their hiues are placed in Chambers where making a little hole in the wall the Bees goe in and out There are some places very cold The Commons are miserably oppressed by their superiours No man may kill an Oxe though it be his owne without licence from the Gouernours there were no Shambles but at the Court The common people seldome speake truth no not vpon an oath except they are compelled to sweare by the head of the King they exceedingly feare excommunication Their oathes are in this sort The partie to bee deposed goeth with two Priests carrying with them fire and incense to the Church-dore whereon he layeth his hand Then the Priest adiures him saying If thou shalt sweare falsely as the Lyon deuoureth the beasts of the Forrest so let the Diuell deuoure thy soule and as corne is ground vnder the Milstone so let him grinde thy bones and as the fire burneth vp the wood so let thy soule burne in Hell the party answereth to euery or these clauses Amen But if thou speake truth let thy life bee prolonged with honour and let thy soule enter into Paradise with the Blessed Amen Then doth he giue his testimonie They haue Bookes written in Parchment Let vs now come vnto the Court of their Emperour which was alway mouing and yet the greatest Town that his whole Empire containes For there are few which haue in them one thousand and sixe hundred Families whereas this moueable Citie hath fiue thousand or sixe thousand Tents and Mules for carriage about fifty thousand In his march from one place to another if they passe by a Church he and all his company alight and walke on foot till they be past There is also carried before him a consecrated stone or Altar vpon the shoulders of certaine Priests appointed to that office They call him Acegue which signifieth Emperour and Negus that is King By commandement of the Queene Maqueda which visited Salomon women are say they
friendship or subiection this Alebech with Turkish Gallies infested these Seas and made diuers of the Portugall vassals to wauer in their fidelitie being of the Saracenicall faith or religion wherevpon the Vice-roy sent forth a Nauie vnder the command of Thomas aforesaid his brother which arriued first at Braua and thence passed alongst the shore to Ampaza still continuing almost desolate thence to Lamus by the helpe of the tyde passing vp the Riuer full of dangerous sholds thence they came to Melinde and after that to Mombaza This is a small Iland of a league circuit the Citie then compassed with a wall The Mahumetans bad built a Castle on the Riuer which entreth the Citie which was taken by the Portugals and soone after fiue Gallies which Alibech the Turke had there at that time not without rich spoile Here the Turkes and the Mombazan Inhabitants were now in a double distresse by the Portugall forces from the Sea and a more terrible enemie from the Land These were the Imbij impious and barbarous monsters bred not farre from the Cape of Good Hope tall square and strong men addicted alwayes to warre and rapine and feeding on the flesh both of their captiued enemies and of their owne people in time of sicknesse hastening their death for the shambles The skulls of men serue them for drinking pots Their weapons are poysoned arrowes and poles burned at the ends their shields are little of wood couered with a skin They are supposed destitute of Religion giuen to Incantations and Sorceries and adoring their King with diuine honor thinking him to be Lord of the whole Land and the Portugals of the Sea Such is his arrogance that hee threatneth the destruction of all men yea shootes his arrowes against the heauens if wet or heate offend him Some 80000. followed him in his warres destroying Townes Cities and Beasts together with the Men in his march driuing many troopes of beasts before him so to breake the assault of the enemie and hauing fire carried before him as menacing to boyle or rost and eate all such as he shall take It seemes that they are either the same or of like condition to the Gallae which intest the Abassines and the Iagges in other parts of Africk which also by a neere name call themselues Imbangolas compounded of Imbij and Gallae a terrible rod of Gods anger whereby he plagues and whips the barbarous Africans with the worst of African barbarians These Imbians had at this time approched to Mombaza and the Turks with their Gallies did their best to hinder their entrance the water encompassing quenching the violence of that fire which the Imbian beares before him wherewith he had now burned a great wood In this warre were the Mombazans and Turkes entangled when the Portugals fleet came vpon them those that escaped by flight the Portugals furie falling into the bellies of the Imbians which caused many to yeeld themselues voluntarily to the Portugall as seeming the lesse of two euils Many Turkes were slaine others captiued Christian Gally-slaues freed three and twentie greater and as many smaller peeces of Ordnance taken the Citie narrow built that scarcely two could goe together in the streets the houses of bricke built high but with small lights both to defend them against the Sunne fired the walls and Moschees razed and the Nauie being readie to depart they were haled by some Turkes on shore and earnestly desired to admit them into their ships as slaues and captiues Alebech himselfe being one with thirtie others besides two hundred Mombazans hauing scarcely escaped the deuouring mawes of the Imbians which had euen then buried the King and the chiefe Magistrate of Mombaza in their bowels and taken innumerable captiues destined to the like Caniball disaster The King of Lamus called Panebaxira the Portugals imprisoned and executed for betraying some of theirs to the Turkes and conuented the neighbouring kings of Sian Patus Ampaza before them they razed Mondra and after other things set in order returned to Goa They which haue desire to acquaint themselues with what Antiquitie hath deliuered of these parts may resort to Arrianus his Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and the labours of Stuckius and Ortelius For vs to name you the Townes of ancient Trading as Aualites Malao Mundi Mosyllum Apocopon Opone Rhapta which hee reckons on the African shore with other Riuers and Promontories would not much further vs in this our Pilgrimage-Mart of Religions §. III. Of Quiloa Sofala and Ophir QViloa stands nine degrees to the South of the Line the name of a City and Iland which is a Kingdome of the Moores and extendeth her Dominion farre in the Coast It was built as Marmolius affirmeth about the foure hundreth yeere of the Hirara so he nameth it by one Ali Sonne of Sultan Hoscen who not agreeing with his other brethren by reason their Mothers were Persian and his an Abissine sought new Aduentures in these parts and bought this Iland the History of whom and of his Successours you may find in that Author The King grew mighty by the Trade of Sofala but it was made tributary to Portugall by Vascui Gamma Anno 1500. In the yeere 1505. the Portugals for denyall of that Tribute depriued Abraham the Arabian King of his Scepter and built a Fort there which the Moores soone after destroyed together with the new King made by the Portugals The people are whitish their women comely rich in attire their houses faire built and richly furnished Betweene Coaua and Cuama two Riuers which spring out of the same Lake with Nilus are the Kingdomes of Mombaza Mozimba Macuas Embeoe and against them the Promontory Prassum Heere is Mosambique by which name is signified a Kingdome in the Continent and an Iland also with a safe Harbour which with two other Ilands are in the mouth of the Riuer Moghincats in fifteene degrees South Mosambique is inhabited by Portugals which haue there a strong Castle here the Portugals Shippes winter In this Iland are Sheepe with tayles of fiue and twenty pound weight a beast common in Africa Hens blacke both in feathers flesh and bone and sodden looke like Inke yet sweeter then other in taste Porke very good but for the deare sawce There are some Mahumetans as they were all before the Portugals arriuall there They haue trade in the Continent in Sena Macurua Sofala Cuama a people for the most part differing in speech and behauiour each Village fighting with her Neighbour captiuing them and some as at Macurua eate them Their chiefest liuing is by hunting and by flesh of Elephants In euery Village is a new King The Captaine of Mosambique in his three yeeres gouernment maketh three hundred thousand Duckets gaine especially by Gold from Sofala Vp further within Land the people goe almost naked and were so simple when first the Portugals traded thither that Ludouico Barthema or Vertomannus for his Shirt and another for a Razor and
principall although she be inferiour in bloud and her sonne succeeds And in seed-time and haruest the Queene goeth to the field and ouerseeth the stuffe esteeming it a great honour Thus farre out of Barrius Iohannes Boterus tels that his chiefe warriours are women namely certaine Amazones which seare off their left paps as Odoardo d Lopez reporteth lest they should hinder their shooting after the manner of the ancient Amazones they are quick bold couragious and constant in battaile and most constant in inconstancie for when they make shew of flight they will returne espying their aduantage with the greatest fury They dwell in certaine Countries by themselues and at certaine times haue men to accompany with them for generation to whom they send their Males reseruing all the Female Children which they haue Thus we find Amazons which the Ancients reported in Asia and Diodorus in Libya now in these times if this report bee true in Aethiopia and Huldericus Shmidel hath told of the like in America Others deny it and none hath yet written of them from his owne sight For my part no Amazonian hath yet conquered my credit In the yeere 1560. Consaluus Silueria with two other Iesuites went from Goa to the Kingdomes of Inhamban and Monomotapa and comming to Inhamban they went to Yonge the City Royall where they baptized the King and all his people in a short space naming the King Constantine the Queene Mary Thence went Consaluus to Monomotapa and so preuailed with his Images Preaching and contempt of the World that he wanne the King and his Mother with multitudes of others to Baptisme But soone after the King by suggestion of the Moores slue him Sebastian in reuenge raysed an Armie of sixteene hundred most of them being Gentlemen which he sent vnder the conduct of Francis Barretto The Benomotapa fearing the Portugals forces offered reasonable conditions which Barretto refusing was discomfited not by the Negro but by the Ayre the malignity whereof the sowre sauce of all these Golden Countryes in Africa consumed his people There are other Kingdomes adioyning to Monomotapa and the Mountaynes of the Moone Matana Melemba Quinbebe Berteca Bauagul of which I can giue you but the names §. II. Of Caphraria the Cape of Good Hope and Soldania CAphraria or the Land of the Caphars is next to bee considered which Maginus boundeth betweene Rio di Spirito Sancto and Cape Negro extending to the Cape of Good Hope Southwards Why hee should call this part the Caphars I know not for the Arabians of whom this word is borrowed giue that name to all the Heathen people in Africa yea both the Arabians and all of their Religion call all such as receiue not that Superstition Caphars euen Christians also as Master Ienkinson long since told vs And for the Heathens in Africa Barrius affirmeth that it is by the Moores giuen to them all signifying Without Law or lawlesse people Zanguebar is in this respect called Cafraria It should seeme it is appropriated to these the Southerliest Nations of Africa for want of other the more true proper names which were vnknowne With the names of the Capes and other places of note Master Pory hath already acquainted his English Reader Onely that notable and famous Cape of Good Hope so named by Iohn the Second King of Portugall for that hope which he conceiued of a way to the Indies when it was first discouered deserueth some mention It hath three head-lands the Westermost beareth name of Good Hope the middlemost Cabo Falso because they haue sometimes in their returne from the Indies mistaken this for the former betweene which two Capes runneth into the Sea a mighty Riuer called by the Portugals Rio dulce which springs out of a Lake called Gale situate among the Mountaynes of the Moone so much celebrated by the ancient Geographers The third and Eastermost is that of Agulhas or Needles about fiue and twenty leagues from the first both which seeme as two hornes wherewith it threatens the Ocean which in these parts is found oftentimes tempestuous and when it cannot preuayle against this rough-faced and horned Promontory it wrekes the whole malice vpon the ships whose ribs in the enraged fits it would breake if they were of Iron as Linschoten testifieth of his owne experience True it is that sometimes it is passed with more ease but not so vsually and Linschoten tels that at his returne from India the Saint Thomas a new Carricke was heere cast away and their ship wherein he sayled in such danger that one while they prayed another while murmured another time would returne backe and the Captaine professed no small maruell why our Lord suffered such good Catholikes to indure such torments and the English Heretickes and Blasphemers to passe so easily The waues there sayth hee strike against a ship as if they strucke against a Hill that if it were of stone it would at last be broken Capaine Lancaster traded with the people neere these parts and for two Kniues bought an Oxe for one a Sheepe c. in good quantity Their Sheepe are great with great tailes but hairy not woolled Their Oxen great not fat but well fleshed The Captaine killed there an Antelope as bigge as a Colt There were diuers great beasts vnknowne to them When they had passed this Cape they lost their Admirall Captaine Raimond and neuer saw them or heard of them more And foure dayes after they found as terrible an Enemy from aboue and encountred with a Thunder clap which slue foure of their men out-right their neckes being wrung asunder And of fourescore and fourteene men there was not one vntouched but some were blind others bruised in their legs and armes or brests others drawne out as if they had beene racked which all yet God be thanked did after recouer The same Sir Iames Lancaster was after this sent Generall for the East India Company which hauing made a stocke of threescore and twelue thousand pound bought the Dragon of sixe hundred tunnes the Hector of three hundred the Ascension of two hundred fourescore the Susan of two hundred and threescore and sent in them in Merchandize and Spanish Money to the value of seuen and twenty thousand pound The Scorbute so weakened their men that they were not able to hoyse out their Boates except in the Generals ship whose men drinking euery morning three spoonefuls of the juyce of Limons were healthfull He bought a thousand sheepe in Soldania and forty two Oxen as bigge as ours the sheepe greater but hairy and might haue bought more for old Iron The people he sayth are tawny Cornelius Houtman sayth Oliue blacke blacker then the Brasilians their haire curled and blacke as in Angola not circumcised clocke like a brood-hen in speaking paint their faces with diuers colours strong actiue swift subiect to Monomotapa they slue some Flemings for wrongs which made the English warie in trading with them
reports For he being a Mariner vsed to the Sea from his youth and sayling from Cales to Portugall obserued that at certaine seasons of the yeere the windes vsed to blow from the West which continued in that manner a long time together And deeming that they came from some coast beyond the Sea he busied his minde so much herewith that he resolued to make some triall and proofe thereof When he was now forty yeeres old hee propounded his purpose to the Senate of Genua vndertaking if they would lend him ships he would find a way by the West vnto the Ilands of Spices But they reiected it as a dreame Columbus frustrate of his hopes at Genua yet leaues not his resolution but goeth to Portugall and communicates this matter with Iohn the second King of Portugall but finding no entertainment to his suites sendeth his brother Bartholomew Columbus to King Henry the seuenth of England to sollicite him in the matter whiles himselfe passed into Spaine to implore the aide of the Castilians herein Bartholomew vnhappily lighted on Pirats by the way which robbed him and his company forced him to sustayne himselfe with making of Sea-cards And hauing gotten somewhat about him presents a Map of the World to King Henry with his Brothers offer of Discouerie which the King gladly accepted and sent to call him into England But hee had sped of his suite before in Spaine and by the King and Queene was employed according to his request For comming from Lisbone to Palos di Moguer and there conferring with Martin Alonso Pinzon an expert Pilot and Fryer Io. Perez a good Cosmographer hee was counselled to acquaint with those his proiects the Dukes of Medina Sidonia and of Medina Caeli which yeelding him no credit the Fryer counselled him to goe the Court and wrote in his behalfe to Fryer Fernand di Telauera the Queenes Confessor Christopher Columbus came to the Court of Castile Anno 1486 and found cold welcome to his suite at the hands of the King and Queene then busied with hot warres in Granada whence they expelled the Moores And thus remayned hee in contempt as a man meanely clothed without other Patron then a poore Fryer saue that Alonso di Quintaniglia gaue him his Dyet who also at last procured him audience with the Archbishop of Toledo by whose mediation he was brought before the King and Queene who gaue him fauourable countenance and promised to dispatch him when they had ended the warres of Granada which also they performed Thus Columbus is set forth with three Caruels at the Kings charges who because his treasure was then spent in the warres borrowed sixteene thousand Duckets of Lewes de Sanct Angelo and on Friday the third of August in the yeere of our Lord 1492. in a Vessell called the Gallega accompanyed with the Pinta and Ninna in which the Pinzons Brethren went as Pilots with the number of an hundred and twenty persons or thereabouts set sayle for Gomera one of the Canary Ilands and hauing there refreshed himselfe followed his Discouery After many dayes hee encountred with that Hearbie Sea whereof before we haue spoken which not a little amated and amazed the Spaniards and had caused their returne had not the sight of some Birds promised him land not farre off He also first taught the Spaniards to obserue the Sunne and Pole in their Nauigations which till his Voyage they had not vsed nor knowne But the Spaniards after three and thirty dayes sayling desperate of successe mutined and threatned to cast Columbus into the Sea disdayning much that a stranger a Genuois had so abused them But he pacified their enraged courages with milde speeches and gentle promises On the eleuenth day of October one Rodorigo di Triana espyed and cryed Land Land the best Musicke that might be especially to Columbus who to satisfie the Spaniards importunity had promised the day before that if no Land appeared in three dayes hee would returne One the night before had descryed fire which kindled in him some hope of great reward at the Kings hand when hee returned into Spaine but beeing heerein frustrate hee burnt into such a flame as that it consumed both Humanitie and Christianitie in him and in the agony of indignation made him leaue his Countrey and Faith and reuolt to the Moores But thee Columbus how can I but remember but loue but admire Sweetly may those bones rest sometimes the Pillars of that Temple where so diuine a Spirit resided which neyther want of former example nor publike discouragements of domesticall and forren States nor priuate insultations of proud Spaniards nor length of time which vsually deuoureth the best resolutions nor the vnequall Plaines of huge vnknowne Seas nor grassie fields in Neptunes lap nor importunate whisperings murmurings threatnings of inraged companions could daunt O name Colon worthy to be named vnto the Worlds end which to the Worlds end hast conducted Colonies or may I call thee Colombo for thy Doue-like simplicitie and patience the true Colonna or Pillar whereon our knowledge of this New World is founded the true Christopher which with more then Giant-like force and fortitude hast carried Christ his Name and Religion through vnknowne Seas to vnknowne Lands which we hope and pray that it may be more refined and reformed then Popish superstition and Spanish pride will yet suffer Now let the Ancients no longer mention Neptune or Minos or Erythras or Danaus to all which diuers authors diuersly ascribe the inuention of nauigation Mysians Troyans Tyrians vaile your bonnets strike your top-sayles to this Indian-Admirall that deserueth the top-saile indeed by aspiring to the top that sayling could ayme at in discouering another World Let Spaniards French English and Dutch resound thy name or His Name rather whose Name who can tell that would acquaint Thee and the World by thee with newes of a New-World But lest we drowne our selues in this Sea of Extasie and Admiration let vs goe on shoare with Columbus in his new discouered Iland And first mee thinkes I see the Spaniards yesterday in mutinie now as farre distracted in contrary passions some gazing with greedie eyes on the desired Land some with teares of ioy not able to see that which the ioy of seeing made them not to see others embracing and almost adoring Columbus who brought them to that sight some also with secret repinings enuying that glory to a stranger but byting in their byting enuie and making shew of glee gladnesse all new awaked out of a long trance into which that Step-mother-Ocean with dangers doubts dreads despaires had deiected them reuiued now by the sight of their mother-earth from whom in vnknowne armes they had beene so long weaned and detayned On shoare they goe and felling a tree make a Crosse thereof which there they erected and tooke possession of that New World in the name of the Catholike Kings This was done on the eleuenth of October Anno 1492.
in the Iland Guanahani one of the Lucai which Columbo named San Saluatore from whence hee sayled to Baracoa a Hauen on the North side of the I le Cuba where hee went on Land and asked of the Inhabitants for Cipango so doth Paulus call Iapan They vnderstanding him of Cibao where are the richest Mynes of Hispaniola signed him that it was in Haiti so was the Iland then called and some of them went with him thither What worldly ioy is not mixed with some disaster Their Admirall heere splitteth on a Rocke but the men are saued by the helpe of the other ships This fell out in the North part of Hispaniola so named by them where they had sight of Inhabitants which seeing these strangers ranne all away into the Mountaynes One woman the Spaniards got whom they vsed kindly and gaue her meate drinke and clothes and so let her goe She declaring to her people the liberalitie of this new people easily perswaded them to come in troupes to the ships thinking the Spaniards to be some Diuine Nation sent thither from Heauen They had before taken them for the Caribes which are certaine Canibals which vsed inhumane huntings for humane game to take men for to eate them Children likewise which they gelded to haue them more fat and then to deuoure them the women they are not but vsed them for procreation and if they were old for other seruices The Ilanders had no othe defence against them but the wooddy Hils and swiftest heeles to which they betooke them at the Spaniards arriuall thinking them as is said to be Canibals And such haue they since proued in effect not leauing of three Millions of people which heere they found 200. persons and that long since The Deuill had forewarned them of this by Oracle that a bearded Nation should spoyle their Images and spill the bloud of their children as wee shall see in the particular Tractate of Hispaniola Nothing more pleased the Spaniards then the Gold which the naked Inhabitants exchanged with them for Bels Glasses Points and other trifles Columbus obtained leaue of Guacanarillus the Cacike or King to build a Fort in which he left eight and thirty Spaniards and taking with him sixe Indians returned to Spaine where he was highly welcomed of the King and Queene Some controuersie fell out betweene Columbus and one of the Pinzons Master of one of the Caruels about leauing these men behind but Columbus sent a Letter to reduce him vnto peace by the Indians who held the Letter in almost religious regard thinking it had some Spirit or Deitie by which they could vnderstand one another being absent The Pope then a Spaniard Alexander the Sixt hearing of this diuided the World by his Bull betwixt the Portugals and Spaniards bearing date the fourth of May Anno 1493. drawing a Line a hundred leagues beyond the Ilands of Azores and Capt Verde this Alexander giuing more then Great Alexander could conquer the East to the one and West to the other The Bull is become an Vnicorne and his two hornes are now growne into one in the vniting of those two States Columbus graced with the the title of Admirall enriched with the tenths of the Spanish gaines in the Indies is sent a second time with his brother Bartholomeus who was made Adelantado or Deputie of Hispaniola They had allowed them for this Expedition small and great seuenteene Sayle and fifteene hundred men The first Iland hee espyed in his second Nauigation he called Desseada or Desired because he had longed to see land Arriuing in Hispaniola he found the Spaniards which he had left there that they were now not left nor any where to be found The Indians had murdered them and laid the blame on the Spanish insolencies Hee now built and peopled the Towne of Isabella which was their chiefe place of Residence and gouernment which is in the yeere a thousand foure hundred ninetie eight were remoued to the City of San Dominico They built also the Fort of S. Thomas but both in the one and the other the Spaniards died of famine through the Indians wilfulnesse who vnwilling to haue such Neighbours would not plant their Maiz and Iucca and so starued both themselues and their guests As for the Pockes the Spaniards in this Voyage got them of the Indian women and brought them into Spaine as Ouiedo of his owne knowledge reporteth of his owne Country-men and they after paid the Indians in recompence with a disease as deadly and infectious to them which consumed thousands and was neuer before knowne amongst them I meane the small Pocks The other were improperly named of the French or of Naples seeing that in those wars of Naples which the Spaniards mayntayned against the French some carryed this disease with them thither out of Spaine and communicated the same both to the French and Neapolitans hauing beene vsuall and easily curable in the Indies Another Disease also assaulted them of a little kinde of Fleas called Niguas which would eate into and breed in the flesh and haue made many lose their toes Columbus at this time discouered Cuba and Iamaica with the Neighbour-Iles Returning to Hispaniola he found his Brother and the Spaniards in dissention and separation and punishing the Au hours of sedition returned home In the yeere of our Lord 1497. hee made his third Voyage and then touched on the Continent discouered Cubagua Paria and Cumana But Roldanus Ximenius raysing a Rebellion and accusing the Columbi to the King effected that Bouadilla was sent Gouernour into Hispaniola who sent the two Brethren bound as Prisoners to Spaine vnworthy recompence of the worthy attempts of these Worthies The King freeth them and employeth Christopher in a fourth Voyage Anno 1502. in which Oxandus the Gouernour forbade Columbus the first finder to land on Hispaniola Hee then discouered Guanaxa Higuera Fondura Veragua Vraba and learned newes as some say of the South Sea He stayed at Iamaica to repaire his Fleete where some of his men were sicke and they which were sound in body were more then sicke froward and tumultuous in behauiour and many left him Vpon this occasion the Ilanders also forsooke him and brought in no victuall Herewith Columbus neyther able to abide nor depart was driuen to his shifts no lesse admirable for subtlety then resolution He told the Ilanders that if they did not bring him in prouision the Diuine Anger would consume them a signe whereof they should see in the darkened face of the Moone within two dayes At that time hee knew the Moone would bee eclipsed which the simple Islanders seeing with feare and griefe humbled themselues to him and offered themselues readie to all kinde and dutifull Offices At last returning into Spaine hee there dyed Anno 1506. His body was buried at Siuill in the Temple of the Carthusians This was the end if euer there can bee end of Columbus Pinzonus one
apprehended at Sea by a mighty and tedious storme wherewith after many dayes they were brought to Estotiland aboue a thousand miles West from Frisland vpon which one of the Boats was cast away and sixe men that were in it were taken and brought to a populous Citie where one that spake Latine and had beene cast by chance vpon that Iland in the name of the King asked them what Country-men they were and vnderstanding their case he acquainted the King there with They dwelt there fiue yeeres and found it to bee an Iland very rich being little lesse then Iseland farre more fruitfull One of them said he saw Latine Bookes in the Kings Librarie which they at this present doe not vnderstand They haue a peculiar Language and Letters or Characters to themselues They haue Mines of Gold and other Metals and haue trade with Engroneland They sow Corne and make Beere and Ale They build Barks but know not the vse of the Compasse and haue many Cities and Castles The King sent these Fisher-men with twelue Barkes Southwards to a Countrey which they call Drogio in which Voyage escaping dreadfull Tempests at Sea they encountred with Canibals at Land which deuoured many of them These Fishers shewing them the manner of taking Fish with Nets escaped and for the presents which they made of their fish to the chiefe men of the Countrey were beloued and honoured One of these more expert it seemeth then the rest was holden in such account that a great Lord made warre with their Lord to obtayne him and so preuayled that he and his company were sent vnto him And in this order was he sent to fiue and twenty Lords which had warred one with another to get him in thirteene yeeres space whereby hee came to know almost all those parts which hee said was a great Country and as it were a New World The people are all rude and void of goodnesse they goe naked neyther haue they wit to couer their bodies with the Beasts skins which they take in hunting from the vehement cold They are fierce and eat their Enemies hauing diuers Lawes and Gouernours Their liuing is by hunting Further to the Southwest they are more ciuill and haue a more temperate Ayre They haue Cities and Temples dedicated to Idols where they sacrifice men and after eate them and haue also some vse of Gold and Siluer He fled away secretly and conueying himselfe from one Lord to another came at length to Drogio where hee dwelt three yeeres After this time finding there certaine Boates of Estotiland he went thither with them and growing there very rich furnished a Barke of his owne and returned into Frisland where hee made report vnto his Lord of that wealthy Countrey Zichumi prepared to send thither but three dayes before they set forth this Fisherman dyed Yet taking some of the Mariners which came with him in his stead they prosecuted the Voyage and encountred after many dayes an Iland where ten men of diuers Languages were brought vnto them of which they could vnderstand none but one of Island He told them That the Iland was called Icaria and the Knights thereof called Icari descended of the ancient pedigree of Dodalus King of Scots who conquering that Iland left his Sonne there for King and left them those Lawes which to that present they retayned And that they might keepe their Lawes inuiolate they would receiue no stranger Onely they were contented to receiue one of our men in regard of the Language as they had done those ten Interpreters Zichumi sayling hence in foure dayes descried Land where they found abundance of Fowle and Birds Egges for their refreshing The Hauen they called Cape Trinity There was a Hill which burning cast out smoake where was a Spring from which issued a certaine water like Pitch which ranne into the Sea The people of small stature wilde and fearefull hid themselues in Caues Zichumi built there a Citie and determining to inhabit sent Antonio backe againe with the most of his people to Frisland This History I haue thus inserted at large which perhaps not without cause in some thinges may seeme fabulous not in the Zeni which thus writ but in the Relations which they receiued from others Howsoeuer the best Geographers are beholden to these Brethren for that little knowledge they haue of these parts of which none before had written nor since haue there beene any great in-land Discoueries §. II. Discoueries made by SEBASTIAN CABOT CORTREGALIS GOMES with some notes of Groenland SOmewhat since there hath beene discouered by Gasper Corteregale a Portugall Stephen Gomes a Spaniard and Sebastian Cabot and more by later Pilots of our Nation but little of the disposition of the In-land people Yea it was thought to be all broken Ilands and not inhabited but at certayne seasons frequented by some Saluages which come thither to fish Such as we can in due order we here bestow Sebastian Cabot reported to Ramusio that in the yeere 1497. at the charge of King Henry the Seuenth he discouered to the 67. degree and a halfe of Northerly latitude minding to haue proceeded for the search of Cathay but by the mutiny of the Mariners was forced to returne The Map of Sebastian Cabot cut by Clement Adams relateth That Iohn Cabot a Venetian and his Sonne Sebastian set out from Bristoll discouering the Land called it Prima Vista and the Iland before it Saint Iohns The Inhabitants weare beasts skinnes There were white Beares and Stags farre greater then ours There were plenty of Seales and Soles aboue a yard long He named sayth Peter Martyr certaine Ilands Boccalaos of the store of those fish which the Inhabitants called by that name which with their multitudes sometimes stayed his ships The Beares caught these fish with their clawes and drew them to land and ate them In the time of Henry the Seuenth William Purchas being then Maior of London were brought vnto the King three men taken in the New-found Iland these were clothed in beasts skins and did eate raw flesh But Cabot discouered all along the Coast to that which since is called Florida and returning found great preparations for wars in Scotland by reason whereof no more consideration was had to this Voyage Whereupon he went into Spaine and being entertayned by the King and Queene was sent to discouer the Coasts of Brasill and sayled vp into the Riuer of Plate more then six score leagues He was a made Pilot Maior of Spaine and after that Anno 1549. was constituted Grand Pilot of England by King Edward the Sixt with the yeerely Pension of an hundred threescore and sixe pounds thirteene shillings foure pence Where in the yeere 1553. hee was chiefe dealer and procurer of the Discouery of Russia and the North-east Voyages made by Sir Hugh Willoughby R. Chancelour Stephen Burrough and prosecuted by Pet Iackman and others towards Noua Zemla Persia Tartaria as in Master Hakluits first
wee haue banished together out of our Coasts euery one distrusting or defrauding others whiles eyther by miserable keeping or luxurious spending he which is bad to all is worst to himselfe To this Barne they bring at a certaine time of the yeere all the Venison Fish and Crocodiles dryed before in the smoke for the better preseruation which they meddle not with til need forceth them and then they signifie the same to each other The King may take thereof as much as he will This prouision is sent in baskets on the shoulders of their Hermaphrodites which weare long haire and are their Porters for all burthens They hunt Harts after a strange manner for they will put on a Harts skinne with the legges and head on so that the same shall serue them to stalke with and they will looke thorow the eye and the holes of the Hide as if it were a Vizor thereby deceiuing their Game which they shoot and kill especially at the places where they come to drinke Their Crocodiles they take in a strange manner They are so plagued with these beast that they keepe continuall watch and ward against them as other-where against their Enemies For this purpose they haue a watch-house by the Riuers side and when hunger driues the beast on shore for his prey the Watchmen call to men appointed they come tenne or twelue of them bearing a beame or tree the smaller end whereof they thrust into the mouth of the Crocodile comming vpon them gaping for his prey which being sharpe and rough cannot be got out and therewith they ouer-turne him and then being laid on his backe easily kill him The flesh tasteth like Veale and would be sauoury meate if it did not sauour so much of a Muskie sent Their sobrietie lengtheneth their liues in such sort that one of their Kings told me saith Morgues that he was three hundred yeeres old and his Father which there he shewed me aliue was fiftie yeeres elder then himselfe when I saw him mee thought I saw nothing but bones couered with skinne His sinewes veines and arteries sayth Laudonniere in description of the same man his bones and other parts appeared so cleerely thorow his skinne that a man might easily tell them and discerne the one from the other He could not see nor yet speake without great paine Monsieur de Ottigni demanding of their age the younger of these two called a company of Indians and striking twice on his thigh laid his hands on two of them hee shewed that they were his Sonnes and striking on their thighes he shewed others which were their Sonnes and so continued till the fift generation And yet it was told them that the eldest of them both might by the course of Nature liue thirtie or fortie yeeres more They haue a diuellish custome to offer the first-borne male-children to the King for a sacrifice The day of this dismall Rite being notified to the King he goeth to the place appointed and sits downe Before him is a blocke two foot high and as much thicke before which the mother of the child sitting on her heeles and couering her face with her hands deploreth the death of her sonne One of her friends offereth the child to the King and then the women which accompanied the mother place themselues in a Ring dancing and singing and shee that brought the child stands in the mids of them with the child in her hands singing somewhat in the Kings commendation Sixe Indians stand apart and with them the Priest with a Club wherewith after these ceremonies he killeth the child on that blocke which was once done in our presence Another religious Rite they obserue about the end of Februarie they take the hide of the greatest Hart they can get the hornes being on and fill the same with the best hearbs which grow amongst them hanging about the hornes necke and bodie as it were Garlands of their choisest fruits Hauing thus sowed and trimmed it they bring the same with songs and pipes and set it on a high tree with the head turned toward the East with prayers to the Sunne that hee would cause the same good things to grow againe in their land The King and his Magician stand neerest the tree and begin all the people following with their Responds This done they goe their wayes leauing it there till the next yeere and then renue the same ceremonie Ribault at his first comming had two of the Floridians aboord with him certaine dayes who when they offered them meat refused it giuing them to vnderstand that they were accustomed to wash their face and to stay till sun-set before they did eate which is a ceremonie common in all those parts They obserue a certaine Feast called Toya with great solemnitie The place where it is kept is a great circuit of ground swept and made neat by the women the day before and on the Feast day they which are appointed to celebrate this Feast come painted and trimmed with feathers and set themselues in order Three others in differing painting and gestures follow with Tabrets dancing and singing in a lamentable tune others answering them After that they haue sung danced and turned three times they fall to running like vnbrideled Horses through the midst of the thicke Woods the Indian Women continuing all the day in weeping and teares cutting the armes of the yong Girles with Muskle-shels with hurling the blood into the Ayre crying out three times He Toya Those that ranne through the Woods returne two dayes after and then dance in the midst of the place and cheere vp those which were not called to the Feast Their dances ended they deuoure the meat for they had not eate in three dayes before The Frenchmen learned of a boy that in this meane-while the Iawas had made inuocation to Toya and by Magicall Characters had made him come that he might speake with him and demand diuers strange things of him which for feare of the Iawas he durst not vtter To prouoke them vnto reuenge against their enemies they in their Feasts haue this custome There is a Dagger in the roome which one taketh and striketh therewith one that is thereunto appointed and then places the Dagger where he had it and anon renueth the stroke till the Indian falling downe the women Girles Boyes come about him and make great lamentation the men meane-while drinking Cassine but with such silence that not one word is heard afterwards they apply Mosse warmed to his side to heale him Thus doe they call to minde the death of their Ancestors slaine by their enemies especially when they haue inuaded and returne out of their enemies Countrey without the heads of any of them or without any Captiues §. III. Of the more In-land parts of Florida discouered by NVNEZ BVt let vs take view of the more Southerly and Westerly parts of Florida beyond the point Of Pamphilo Naruaes his vnfortunate Expedition
weapons and sometimes separate themselues and their families till time waste away their indignation and then returne yet are the fierce and politike in warre These Nations and the Susolas Comos Camoles Quitones and other Names of Barbarisme vse Tobacco and a drinke made of the leaues of certaine trees boiled with water and put vp into certaine vessels which they drinke as hot as they can endure crying meane-while Who will drinke And when the women heare this cry they suddenly stand still without stirring any way although they be laden they beleeuing that if any woman should then moue her selfe some euill thing would enter into the drinke whereof they must die soone after and therefore if any such accident happen they cast all away and likewise if a woman passe by whiles they are brewing it if the vessell be vncouered When the women haue their naturall fluxe they must be their owne Cookes but for no body else They haue some Men married to other Men being attired in habit of Women and performing onely womanly offices In some places as they passed their Physicians which commonly are in sauage Nations Magicians and Priests had rattles of Gourds which they suppose to come from heauen and to haue great vertue none other daring to touch them Some vsed for boiling wild Gourds not by putting fire vnder but by heating stones continually in the fire and putting them into the liquor till it seethe Some people on the Mountaines for a third part of the yeere eate nothing but a powder made of straw In some places were trees of such venemous qualitie that the leaues thereof in standing waters would poison whatsoeuer dranke thereof Some acknowledged a certaine man in heauen called Aguar who gaue them raine and all good things All these people as he passed with a Negro and two others after he had escaped some of his first Masters which held him in hard slauerie held them for children of the Sunne and therefore receiued them with great reuerence and festiuall pompe and conueyed them still to the next nation Westward towards the South Sea till they came to Spaniards alwayes vsing to rob those people to whom they deliuered them of their little wealth which departed from the same with the greater content because they serued the next people and so successiuely with like sawce They found some rich Sables of muskie sent and Emeralds They were out in this Expedition and captiuity ten yeeres before they could recouer Spaine from 1527. to 1537. §. IIII. Other Obseruations of Florida THese things following Ortelius saith he had from his Nephew Caelius Ortelius by the relation of an eye-witnesse The King giueth or selleth rather to euery man his wife If a woman commit adulterie she is bound to a tree her armes and legges stretched out all day and sometimes whipped A woman three houres after she is deliuered of a child carries the Infant to the Riuer to wash it They obserue no discipline in their families with their children They haue fleas which bite so eagerly that they leaue a great deformitie like a leprie after They haue winged Serpents one of which I saw saith Nicolaus Challusius the wings whereof seemed to enable it to fly a little height from the ground The Inhabitants were very carefull to get the head thereof as was thought for some superstition Botero saith that they haue three sorts of Harts and of one of them make the same commodities which we doe of our Kine keeping them tame and milking them The Spaniard hath three Garrisons on the coast of Florida S. Iacomo S. Agostino and S. Philippo They are much addicted to venery and yet abstaine from their wiues after conception knowne When Ferdinando Soto entred Florida he there found amongst the Indians one Iohn Ortiz a Spaniard which by the subtiltie of the people vnder colour of deliuering a Letter which they had fastened to a cleft Cane was taken and liued twelue yeeres with them Vcita the Lord of the place made him his Temple-keeper because that by night the wolues came and carried away the dead corps Hee reported that these people are worshippers of the Deuill and vse to offer vnto him the life and bloud of their Indians or of any people that they can come by and when he will haue them doe that sacrifice vnto him hee speaketh vnto them and tels them that he is a thirst and enioynes them this sacrifice They haue a Prophecie That a white people should subdue them wherein the French and Spanish haue hitherto failed in their attempts Soto hauing in his greedy hopes neglected the many commodities he might haue enioyed to finde greater was brought to such dumps that hee thereon sickened and after died But before he tooke his bed he sent to the Cacique of Quigalta to tell him that he was the Child of the Sunne and therefore would haue him repaire to him he answered That if he would dry vp the Riuer he would beleeue him And when he was dead because he made the Indians beleeue that the Christians were immortall the Spaniards sought to conceale his death But the Cacique of Guachoya busily enquiring for him they answered that he was gone to heauen as many times he did and had left another in his place The Cacique thinking he was dead commanded two yong and well proportioned Indians to be brought thither saying it was their custome to kill men when any Lord died to wait on him by the way which their cruell courtesie the Spaniards refused denying that their Lord was dead One Cacique asked Soto what he was and why hee came thither He answered that he was the sonne of God and came to teach them knowledge of the Law Not so saith the Cacique if God bids thee thus to kill steale and worke all kind of mischiefe For their credulitie in like case Laudonniere telleth that a strange and vnheard-of lightening hapned within a league of their Fort which consumed in an instant 500. acres of meadow being then greene and halfe couered with water together with the foules that were therein It continued burning three dayes together and made the Frenchmen thinke that for their sakes the Indians had set fire on their dwellings and were gone to some other place But a certaine Paracoussy which is one of their petty Kings or Caciques sent to him a Present beseeching him to command his men that they should shoot no more towards his dwelling thinking that the Ordinance had caused all this which occasion he vsed to his owne good by arrogating that to himselfe which he saw their simplicitie conceiued of him Within two dayes after this accident fell such an heat that the Riuer I thinke was ready to seethe and in the mouth of the Riuer were found dead therewith fishes enow to haue laden fifty Carts whereof issued by putrifacton much sicknesse Calos is neere the Cape of Florida The King thereof made his subiects beleeue that his Sorceries and
at mans estate they cut bigger with a Cane and weare therein a greene stone otherwise they esteeme a man no Gallant but a Pesant They haue no Religion vse Polygamie but the women are tied to one husband except hee giue her publike leaue When they goe to warre the wiues carrie all the prouision That wife whom hee giueth his hunted prey is his bed-fellow that night and she goeth to the water and washeth her selfe after which she lyeth downe in the net and commandeth all the rest to attend on her for that day When they are in trauell they goe to the doore and being deliuered the father lyeth downe and is visited as before is said No Indian will kill any female creature whiles his wife is with childe thinking that would be the death of his childe They trauell with great store of Tobacco and haue continually a leafe thereof along the mouth betweene the lip and teeth the rheume running out at the lip-hole They war against the Portugals and all others eating all and take so many new names as prisoners They thinke mans flesh makes them valiant Their houses are two hundred yards long without partition they hang their nets on beames wash euery morning both men women and children they part their grounds They haue Serpents amongst them with bodies like trees which strike two fins out of their fore-quarters that kill whatsoeuer they call them d Iaboya They haue foure legs and a taile like an Aligator or Crocodile which they hide when they lye in the woods for their prey They haue Monkies as big as a water-dog faced like a man with long broad beards which goe twentie together on a tree and one of them will alway walke vp and downe with his hand on his beard making a great noyse the rest harkening still an houres space The Maraquites are betweene Fernambuc and Baya other Indians call them Tapoyes that is wilde men which name all but these and the Vaanasses which are like them account a disgrace The men are of good stature the women very proper and fight with their bowes as well as the men They haue no dwelling Religion nor friendship with any Nation yet he left them in peace with the Portugals They haue holes in their lips but carue not their bodies vse Polygamie are swift neuer come into the field to fight but keepe in the Mountaines they eate mans flesh without ceremonies The Topimambazes inhabite from R. de S. Franc. to Baya de todos Sanctos they are and speake like the Petowares but the women are of better complexion The men let their beards grow long From Baya to Eleoos are the Waymoores men of great stature and swift as a Horse fiue or sixe of them will set on a Sugar-house with an hundred therein I haue seene one saith our Author take a man aliue and defend himselfe with this his prisoner as it were with a Target They haue long haire are without Townes or Houses and care not where they come presuming of their swiftnesse They are greedie Man-eaters and are alwaies foule with durt and dust by lying on the ground and ashes Iarric writes that they are without Gouernours euery one doing what seemes good in his owne eyes only he is accounted most Noble that hath slaine most enemies with whom for any of them to speake is punished with death They roue vp and downe in vncertaine dwellings and therefore cannot by warre be conquered This wandring is common to many of these Brasilian Saluages The Tomomymenos dwell at Spirito Sancto haue settled Townes with great stones set about like pales of a good height and within walls of clay and stone they make the sides of their houses with loope-holss to shoot out at They deck their bodies with feathers and paint themselues blacke and red One of these tooke the Portugall Captaine Martin de Sa and in spite of all his company carried him a stones cast and threw him into a Riuer but hee was rescued by Petummyen another Sauage The Portugals tooke sixteene thousand slew the tenth parf and parted the rest destroying the Country downe the Riuer Paraeyua The Waytaquazes dwell on the North and South sides of Cape Frio They are of greater stature then the Waymoores we took thirteene of them and whiles we searched for more they burnt their cords from their hands and fled Their women warre with bowes and arrowes They lye on the ground like Hogs with a fire in the midst hold no peace with any but eate all they can get Heere the mountaines were full of Crablice which sticked so fast on their skins that they were faine to take dry straw to singe themselues Abausanga-retam was Captaine of a kinde of Tamoyes an hundred and twenty yeeres old which being taken ranne amongst the enemies where being shot in one and twenty places he fell then desired Baptisme after which within foure houres he died his haughtie courage could not brooke captiuitie The Wayanasses keepe at Ila Grande they are low great bellied cowards not carued glory not to eate mans flesh the Women vgly with bigge bodies and are well faced painted red with Vrucu which growes in a cod like a Beane the crownes of both Sexes are shauen like Friers the rest of their haire long The Topinaques haue their dwelling at Saint Vincents are of good stature and complexion the women painted with diuers colours eate mans flesh adore nothing onely when they kill a man paint themselues with a fruit called Ianipano and with feathers on their heads great stones in their lips Rattles in their hands dance three dayes together drinking a filthy liquor whereto they said Tobacco made them fresh Among them is great store of Gold in many hils by the Sea The Pories dwell an hundred miles within Land are low like the Wayanasses liue on Pine-nuts and small Cocos as big as Apples with shels like Wall-nuts but harder they call them Eyrires they warre with none eate not mans flesh if they haue other meat lye in nets of barke haue no houses but two or three boughs tyed together couered with Palme-leaues for a knife or combe they will giue fiue or sixe gallons of Balsame-oyle The Molopaques inhabite heere the Riuer Paradiua are like Dutchmen in bignesse faire of complexion bearded ciuill couer their priuities their Towns circled with wals of earth and great logges haue a King called Moriuishann which had thirteene wiues They haue store of Gold which they esteeme not nor vse it but to tye on their fishing lines this is in the Riuer Para fourescore leagues beyond Paraeyua They take none but what the rayne washeth from the Mountaines which are of blacke earth without Trees The Women are goodly and faire like English women modest neuer seene to laugh and of good capacitie They tye their haire about their middle with barke and couer therewith their nakednesse their haire also is of diuers colours and
Pits with sharpe stakes set vp in them couered with stickes and earth these they made for the Spaniards but in a confused flight fell therein themselues Here the Spaniards built the Towne of Assumption which Herera saith hath foure hundred Spanish housholds and three thousand Mestizas The King of the Scherues attended with twelue thousand men met the Spaniards and gaue them friendly entertainment with dancing musick and feasting The women goe naked and paint themselues as artificially as any of our Painters could doe they weare Carpets of Cotton with the figures of Indian beasts The King asked the Spaniards What they sought who answered Siluer and Gold He then gaue them a siluer Crowne which hee said he had taken in the warres which hee had waged with the Amazones that dwelt two moneths iourney thence Of these Amazones the Indians told the same things that Orellana told of neere that Riuer which hath receiued name of this supposition The Spaniards with some of the Scherues for their Guides set forth for this Amazonian Discouery but were encountred by the way with hote waters in which they waded vp to the waste and so continued diuers dayes till they came to a Nation called Orthuesen who were then infected with a Pestilence caused by famine which famine the Grashoppers had effected two yeeres together eating vp all the fruits which nature or husbandry had prouided for their sustinance Thus these Martiall and Venerean warres of the Spaniards wanted food to hold out further toward the Amazons if there were any such people and that they were not as before I said the warre-like Wiues or haply some gallant Viragoes that by themselues would let the World see what women could doe but yet I cannot subscribe to the rest of their storie But I am wearie of leading you any further in this Discouerie of this great Riuer and the neere Inhabitants seeing little is obserued in our Authour of their Religions Some of these barbarous Nations he sayth hanged vp the hairie skin of their slaine Enemies in their Temples or Houses of deuotion this people is called Iepori To giue you a Catalogue of the names of the Indian Nations that inhabited these parts would be but tedious These Iournies of the Spaniards were to see what Gold and not what Gods the Indians had They passed vp through the Land into Peru Betweene Peru and these more Easterly parts are the Hils Andi or Andes which lift vp their snowie tops vnto the cloudes and reach vnto the Magellane Straits In them inhabit many fierce Nations bordering vpon the Nations of Brasill and Plata The Ciraguans the Viracans the Toui the Varai These last exercise their children vnto Armes betimes vnto them they commit their Captiues for triall of their bloudy forwardnesse and he which at one blow can kill a Captiue is of the greatest hopes and rewarded for his encouragement To this end they name their children Tygre Lion that their names might teach them the like beastly furie At the new full Moone they wound themselues with sharpe bones to inure themselues to things of war They weepe in the entertainment of a friend as the Brasilians doe In seuenteene degrees stands the Spanish Citie of Holy Crosse of the Mountaine The Riuer Vapai in those Valleyes riseth and falleth as Nilus doth There is a Brooke at Holy Crosse of a wonderfull nature it is but little aboue two yards broad and shallow withall not running aboue a league but is drunke vp of the thirstie sands Yet doth this Brooke prouide the Citie water and three sorts of good fish and that in great plenty from the end of February to the end of May. At other times there are few They vse diuers meanes of shauing their heads which they say they learned of one Paicume In the womens lying in the man keeps his bed as is said of the Brasilians More towards the East dwell the Itatini people which call themselues Garay that is Warriours and others Tapuis or Slaues The language of the Varrai is common to all these Nations with the Brasilians that as in the other World Latine Sclauon and Arabike so in that New World the Varay Cuscan and Mexican Language will generally serue a mans turne The Kingdome of Tucuma stretcheth two hundred leagues betweene Chili Brasill Holy Crosse and Paraguay The Spaniards haue therein fiue Colonies It is a plaine Country The Paraguay inhabit along the Riuer so called whereof they take name From Plata Southwards is the great Region of Chica washed on the South East and West by the Sea The Inhabitants are called Patagones §. II. Of Giants and other Nations neere the Straits THe Spaniards which with Magellane first discouered the Straits saw Giants on this Coast of which he carried away one with him to Sea where after for want of sufficient food he died Edward Cliffe that wrote Master Winters Voyage who first of all others returned out of the Straits by the same way homewards because he saw on this Coast men of common stature excepteth against that report of Giants as a Giant-like report exceeding the stature and measure of Truth But besides that some of our owne at another time measured the print of mens feete eighteene inches in the Sands Oliuer Noort in his World compassing Voyage had three of his men slaine by men of admirable stature with long haire not farre from Port Desire about seuen and forty degrees of Southerly latitude and after in the Magellane Straits discomfited a band of Sauages which neither would yeeld nor flee from their wiues and children which were in a Caue iust by till euery man was slaine Foure Boyes the Hollanders carried away one of which learning their Language told them of three Families or Tribes in those parts of ordinary stature and of a fourth which were Giants ten or eleuen foote high which warred vpon the former Sebalt de Weert being detayned fiue moneths in the Straits by foule weather sent his men to fish for their prouision which exceedingly failed them who there were suddenly assayled by seuen Canoas of Giants which they guessed to be so high as is mentioned who being put to flight by their Peeces fled to land and plucked vp Trees in their rude manner barricadoing and fortifying themselues against the further pursuite of the Hollanders who were no lesse glad that they were rid of such company These men both Giants and others went either wholly naked or so clothed as they seemed not to dread the cold which is yet there so violent that besides the Mountaintops alway couered with Snow their very Summer in the middest thereof freeth them not from Ice Yea at that time of the yeere those Hollanders encountred an Iland of Ice in the Sea which the cold Aire had there mounted and maintained in despight of Neptunes rage or the Sunnes volley of shot in his neerest approach The Trees in these parts and the men it seemeth are naturally fortified
brood hath taught especially the Spaniards whose they are and whom they serue a better Catholicisme let Arnauldus tell you he sayth that they haue indeed wrought Miracles amongst Indians among which he reckoneth conuerting the Pagans by butcherly subuerting and rooting them out In Hispaniola by keeping the husbands and wiues in diuers workes asunder the old generation being thus worne out and a new preuented In Peru they had publike places of torture within the Marches wherein they might put a thousand at once by tortures to draw forth confessions of their hidden treasures such as escaped hanged themselues in the Mountaynes and their wiues by them with their children at their feete By their Dogs at land they worried them and in their Pearle-fishing exposed them to the rauening Sharkes themselues more dogged and sharking then the brute creatures by fire and Sword consuming 20. Millions of the people I would giue the Deuill his due and therefore would not ascribe all this to those later Locusts the Iesuits who are yet accounted the most cunning and zealous Architects in setting vp the roofe of that aspiring Spanish Monarchie these and the like bloudie foundations notwithstanding and therefore may be called Accessories after As for the Spaniards we see them by testimonie of their owne accused of the same things And how the Ignatians wash their hands not from but in bloud our Europe can testifie What Deuill brought into America the Inquisition his faire Daughter much resembling his accursed presence I know not our Countrimen Philips Hortop and others knew it to their cost But what should we speake of the Spanish crueltie to others Looke on their dealing with each other in ciuill broyles thus dealt they with Columbus rewarding him with Chaines and sending him Prisoner to Spaine by that way which he first of all and for Spaine had discouered What Roldanus and his rebellious faction did in Hispaniola and Vaschus in the Continent Martyr relateth But the bloudiest butcheries passed in Peru where Couetousnesse which before had ioyned now diuorced the hearts of Pizarro and Almagro and after that that neerer coniunction of the head and body of Almagro reuenged in the persons of all the Pizarri which againe retorted the like vengeance vpon the Almagrists their Ghosts seeming or some hellish furies rather to be loosed on that Peruuian stage and to haue brought like mischiefes to the beholders and actors in this Tragedie Vengeance seemed to haue broken forth of Atabalibas Tombe armed with Sword fire halters chaines yea the Spaniards themselues offered themselues her officious Vassals to become cruell Executors of her bloudy Will in mutuall executions vpon themselues The awfull names of Vice-royes Gouernours and Captaines were no lesse subiected to imprisonment and death then the poorest Souldier But for these ciuill vnciuill cruelties amongst themselues they require a good Orator to describe them and those former tyrannies vpon the Indians are beyond all Oratory and description Thunders from Heauen had need be the voice to vtter such Hellish and vnheard-of Massacres Deuils from Hell were fittest Scribes with the fierie Characters of their infernall work-houses to register them the reading whereof might astonish the sense of the Reader amaze his reason exceed his faith and fill his heart with horrour and vncouth passions For mee I want fit words to paint them in their blacke colours my Hand with reluctation trembleth at the writing my Tongue faltereth in the speaking and wholly I seeme to my selfe surprized with distraction and not to bee my selfe whiles the view of this Spanish Medusa transformeth mee into a stone the rather when I thinke such should our English Conuersion haue beene if in that dismall yeere 1588. England had as well succeeded to them as the Indies or if since our Catholike Preachers had preuayled in their Powder-proiects in the yeere 1605. Who for a Temple chose a Vault that their workes of darknesse might be done in the darke and their Work-house might be neerer to Hell thence to borrow at hand supplies of Deuillish deuices and in neerer familiaritie to consult with the Deuill For words they had prepared a Sulphurous breath the smoke whereof might darken the Heauens the fire might rent the trembling and ashonished Earth the noyse might make the hearers past hearing and being together Once those Hellish Cerberi by such preaching had intended there to haue opened the mouth of Hell vpon vs which should haue swallowed our Lawes our Religion our Sun Moone and Morning Star the King Queene and Prince Our fairest Skie of fixed and well ordered lights then shining in their greatest splendour of Parliament-brightnesse The Giants of old were said to bee the sonnes of the Earth but these as they were engendred of Earth so had they incestuously violated that their Mother whether you vnderstand it in a literall or mysticall sense and begotten in her wombe this Hel-monster of their bloudie Catholicisme they had designed the time of her Trauell and themselues would haue beene the Mid-wiues the Deuils had bidden themselues as Gossips and at that opening of the Earths wombe in her fierie trauell would haue sent that way into the World to attend the Babe all the black-guard of Hell Treason Superstition Atheisme Ignorance Fire Sword and all confusion in a reuolution of a worse Chaos then that b Tohu and Bohu of old could haue effected Then should it haue beene no maruell if Rome France Spaine or any other had exercised tyrannie or crueltie seeing all must haue come short of the first crueltie which our English Catholikes had executed to open the floudgates of bloud vnto them And all this was the Catholike cause and these the Preachers or the Vshers rather to the Preachers for the Iesuits will bee angry if wee take from them their bloudie priuiledge of this new Catholicisme which the Deuill till now he is an older and cunninger Serpent had neuer learned himselfe nor could learne others before he had gotten Ignatian Vshers in his Hellish Schoole But whither is your Pilgrime transported Friend I draw neere my Port and leauing America behind mee still red with this bloud now also hauing England in sight which as from a greater height was neere to a more dangerous fall and in this subiect which is of the Spanish cruelties not written in hatred of their Nation because they are Spaniards but of their Pseudo-catholike Religion vnder shew whereof they there did and heere would haue executed those butcheries and for thankfulnesse to God for our later deliuerance of which the time when I relate these things being the returne of that very Day wherein those things should haue beene effected iustly demandeth my testimony I haue thus told out my Storie And now me thinkes I see the shoares of England from which my lingring Pilgrimage hath long detayned me I heare the Bels and see the Bon-fires with publike acclamations of thankfulnesse for that Deliuerance all singing their Hallelu-iahs and saying This is
and established a new King or Emperour named Char Spinon Sonne to the Emperour of Cafan transferring on him his stile and Crowne with the authority incident but crowning him without any solemnitie or consent of Peeres Hee causeth his Subiects to addresse their persons sutes and affaires to him in his name all Priuiledges Charters and Writings to be called in and new to be granted in this Emperours Name and vnder his Seale in his name are all Court pleadings Coynes Customes Fines Reuenues for the maintenance of his House Officers and Seruants Hee sits in Maiesty and is lyable to all debts and matters concerning his Treasury The old Emperour and his Sonnes prostrate themselues and his Bishops Nobility and Officers are caused to do the like Embassadors also to resort to him which some refused and he further married him to the Daughter of a Prime Prince of the bloud Royall named Kneaz Misthisloskoie Now would the old Emperour take no notice of debts owing in his time Letters Patents and Priuiledges of Townes and Monasteries are made voyd States of Inheritance for want of confirmation and other things are at a stand His Clergy Nobility and Commons for remedy hereof after a yeeres discontinuance must petition Iuan Vassilewich that hee will bee pleased to resume the Crowne and Gouernment vpon many conditions and authenticall instruments confirmed by Act of Parliament in a very solemne new Inauguration Hee being content infinite Gifts and Presents of worth were sought to bestow on him his old debts and former incumbrances discharged Now he is againe inuested in statu quo prius regrants Priuiledges to Townes Monasteries Noblemen and Merchants vpon new compositions whence a portion is made for his Neece daughter to Knez Andrew his late Brother who in iealousie as was thought of the peoples loue to him was made away in pledging the Emperour in a Cup of Mead which he had drunke to him This his daughter was married to Hartique Magnus Brother to Frederike King of Denmarke borne before his Father Christianus Duke of Holst was elected King of that Countrey To pacifie dissention betwixt them King Frederike was content to exchange for the Dukedome of Holst all his Townes Castles and Lands during his life which hee had in Liesland This Emperour makes vp the Match and marries them in Mosco giues him in dowre with his Neece Elona all the interest he had in the Townes and Castles conquered by him in Liuonia establishing him therein and stiling him Corall that is King Magnus giues him a hundred good Horse well furnished 200000. Robles in Gold Siluer Plate Iewels and rich apparell with liberall gifts to all his Followers sends 2000. horse to see this King and Queene setled in their estates at the City of Dorp But in steed of expected amity wars follow from Denmarke and Swethia those two Kings ioyning with Stephanus that valiant King of Poland who not long after got from him the Narue and besieged Plescoue The Dane and Swethen are also competitors with him in certaine Territorites on the North Coast Wardhouse Cola Sollauersca Vârsague c. Put him from his Customes and Trafficke there offering also to debarre the English Merchants in their passage for fishing on those Coasts and trading with them at Saint Nicholas and Colmogro The Emperour notwithstanding these incursions sends for all his Nobles and Gentlemens fairest daughters Virgins thorow his Kingdome out of whom hee chuseth a wife for himselfe and another for his eldest Sonne Charewich Iuane Her name was Nastacia daughter to Iuan Sherimitten a Viouod of a good Family The Emperour liueth in feare daily discouers Treasons and spends much time in torturing and execution One Knez Pheodor Curakin Gouernour of Wendon in Liuonia when King Stephanus came to besiege it and found drunke as was pretended was stripped naked layd in a Cart whipped thorow the Musco with sixe whips of Wire which cut his backe belly and bowels to death Iuan Chiglicone was hanged naked by the heeles on a Gibbet the skin and flesh of his body from top to toe cut off and minced with Kniues by small gobbets Foure Pallarinkes were Executioners one of which thrusting his Knife too farre it seemes purposing to dispatch him was presently had to a blocke and that hand cut off whereof not well seared he dyed the next day Many other were knocked on the head and cast into the Pooles and Lakes at Slobida their flesh fed on by ouer-growne Carpes Pikes other fish whose fat was such that hardly any thing else could be seene on them Knez Boris Telupa a great Fauourite was set on a long sharpe stake entring at his fundament and comming out at his necke on which he languished fifteene houres and spake vnto his Mother the Dutchesse which was brought to behold that wofull spectacle after which sight she was giuen to a hundred Gunners of his Guard which one after another defiled her to death Her body swolne and lying naked in the field open to the view of all which passed by hee commanded his Huntsmen to bring their hungry Hounds to deuoure her flesh and bones dragged vp and downe The Emperour at this fight said such as I fauour I haue honoured and to such as bee Traytors I will doe thus I could enumerate many more like Obiects but I forbeare his chiefe exercise being to deuise and execute new torture especially on his Nobility best beloued of his Subiects But his estate still growing daily more dangerous he enquired of Elizius Bomelius Doctor of Physicke a rare Mathematician or Magician and of others of Queene Elizabeths yeeres and what hopes there might be if he should be a Suter vnto her for himselfe notwithstanding that he had three wiues then liuing and many Kings could not preuaile in that Sute Presently he puts his last wife into a Nunnery and thinking to make England in case of extremitie his safest refuge built and prepared many goodly Barkes large Boats or Barges at Vologda and brought his richest Treasure thither to be embarked in the same to passe downe the Riuer Dwina and so into England by the English ships vpon a sudden leauing his eldest Sonne Charrewich Iuan to gouerne and pacifie his so troubled estate To this purpose hee experimented a rare proiect which increased his treasure and hatred together He cals for the principall Priors Abbats Archimandrites and Egomens of the richest Monasteries of his Kingdome which were very many and told them that what he had to say was best knowne vnto themselues He had spent the most part of his time wits vigor and youth in warfaring for their wealth and safetie who had receiued increase by that which had exhausted his treasure and safetie by his danger from forreine Enemies and disloyall practisers nor could hee or they longer subsist without assistance Their Prayers preuailed not whether for his their or his peoples sinnes supply out of their infinite abundance must bee the
where I with others saw him and he espying me called vpon Christ They threw him into a Dungeon where hee miserably ended his life He had liued in pompe and beene Authour of much mischiefe had conuayed much treasure out of the Countrey by way of England to Wesell in Westphalia where hee was borne though brought vp in Cambridge an Enemy alway to our Nation Hee had deluded the Emperour with tales of Queene Elizabeths youth and hopes by his Calculations of obtayning her But the Emperour out of hope hereof heard that there was a young Lady of the bloud Royall the Lady Mary Hastings daughter to the Earle of Huntington whom he now affected The Bishop of Nouogrod was condemned of coyning and sending money to Swethen and Poland of keeping Witches buggering Boyes and Beasts confederating with Bomelius c. All his goods were confiscated and himselfe throwne into a Dungeon with Irons on his head and legges where he made painted Images Combes and Beads liued with bread and water Eleuen of his confederate Seruants were hanged in his Palace gate at Mosco and his women Witches shamefully dismembred and burnt The Emperour passed ouer those which had beene accused and now consulted about marrying his second Sonne Chariwich Theodor being of great simplicitie the eldest hauing no issue But hauing his Prelates and Nobles together could not but euaporate some of his conceits from the former confessions of their Treasons being Ascension day on which before Musco had beene burned He spent some houres in Rhetoricall enlarging the dismalnesse of that day with great eloquence darting still with his eye at many Confederates in the late Conspiracie protesting to leaue them a naked disloyall and distressed people and a reproch to all Nations of the World The Enemies are at hand God and his prodigious creatures in the Heauens fight against vs Scarcity and Famine witnesse it and yet no Iudgements moue remorse in you The Originall is too long to recite Little was done but all prostrating themselues to his Maiesty and mercy desired God to blesse his holy purpose for the marriage of his Sonne for whom he chose Irenia daughter of Theodor Iuanowich Godonoue and after the solemnization of the marriage with great Feast dismissed the Nobles and Prelates with better words and countenance which was taken for a reconciliation But the Nuptials could not be performed by vsuall cohabitation which much distempered the King it is not decent to write the courses taken therein The Emperous Letters Instructions were ready himselfe his chiefe Secretarie Sauelly Frowlow whiles I was present closed them vp in one of the false sides of a woodden Bottle filled with Aquanitae to hang vnder my Horse-mayne not worth one penny appointed me foure hundred Hungarian Duckets in Gold to be sowed in my boots and quilted in some of my worst garments He said he forbare to tell me of some secrets of his peasure fearing left I passing thorow his Enemies Country might bee inforced to discouer what hee would not haue knowne The Bottle you carry with you shall declare what you shall say to Queene Elizabeth my louing Sister of which you must haue care as of your life vntill you come in safe place to open it In meane while and alway bee thou my sweet Sunshine Eremiska trusty and faithfull and thy reward shall be my goodnesse and grace from me hereafter I fell prostrate layd my head on his foot with a heauy heart to bee thus exposed to vnauoydable danger Doeafie Vlanon a Gentleman of good ranke and daily Wayter on the King attended me my Sled and Horse and twenty Seruants were ready at the posterne gate I posted that night to Otuer ninety miles where victuals and fresh Horses were prepared and so to Nouogrod and Plesco 600. miles in three dayes where entring into Liuonia my Gentleman and Seruants tooke their leaues and desired some token to the Emperour of my safe comming thither They left me with a poore guide only Within three houres after the Centinell tooke me vpon the borders and brought me to New house into the Castle before the State-holder or Lieutenant who straitly examined and searched me suspecting me as one comming from their enemies Country I said I was glad to come into their hands out of the vaile of misery the Moscouites Country not without losse On the third day vpon some mediation they appointed mee a Guide and suffered mee to passe The Guard expected gratuitie but I excused as pinched by the Russe I passed three dayes by Land and frozen Meares to Ossell in Liefland an Iland large and spacious vnder the King of Denmarke Raggamuffin Souldiers tooke me and vsed me roughly and carried me to Sowen Burgh and so to Orent Burgh the chiefe Townes and Castles in those parts and there deliuered me to the State-holders Lieutenant I attended his pleasure kept hardly as a Spie the Snakes creeping in my Lodging on Bed and board and Milke pans the soyle was such they did no harme I was called before the chiefe Gouernour a graue Gentleman in good fauour with the King many Halberds attending who examined me with many questions I answered I was a Subiect of the Queene of England who had peace with all Christian Kings specially with the King of Denmarke but was committed againe to custody whence hauing dismissed his company he sent for me againe by his Sonne and being priuate holding a Letter in his hand said I haue receiued sundry Letters from my friends and one of late from my daughter captiue in Mosco which sheweth of much friendship shee hath found at an English Gentlemans hand which negociates in that Court for the Queen of England My Lord said I is your daughter called Magdalen Vrkil yea Sir said he I answered I was the man that within these ten dayes she was well He sayd he could not procure her ransome and clasps me about the neck crying as did his Sonne likewise Gods Angell hath brought your goodnesse thus to me how euer disguised in this turbulent time that I might render you thankes and furtherance I desired free passe and safe conduct He feasted me ioyfully and made ready his Letters and Pasports to Captaines of Townes and Castles gaue mee a faire German striking Clocke offered his Sonne and Seruants armed to guard me out of danger which I could not accept of and commended his daughter to me I passed on to Pilton a strong Castle where King Magnus lay who vsed mee roughly because I could not drinke with him excessiuely Hee had riotously spent and giuen most of his Townes and Castles Iewels Plate c. to his followers and adopted daughters which hee receiued in Dowre with the Emperours Neece and not long after dyed miserably leauing his Queene and only daughter in very poore estate I roade thorow the Duke of Curlands Country and Prussia to Konninsburgh Meluin and Danzike in Polond Pomerania and Mickelburgh to Lubeck where I was
knowne and honourably entertayned I had now gotten foure or fiue Seruants Dutch and English The Burgomasters sent mee a Present of Fish Flesh and Wines taking notice of the fauours I had done to them and theirs diuers came with thankfull acknowledgement of their Redemption by my meanes and Purse from Moscouite and Tartarian Captiuity and presented me with a Boll couer guilt in it Ricks Dollers and Hungarian Duckets which Coyne I returned againe They brought mee their Towne Booke and prayed mee to write my Name and place of Birth and abode that they and their Posteritie might honour my Name in Record for euer At Hamburgh likewise they for like cause presented me their thankes and Present and the Burgomasters feasted me I landed at Harwich opened my Aquauitae Bottle which had beene girt close vnder my Caffocke by day and my best Pillow by night and tooke thence the Emperours Letters which I sweetned aswell as I could But yet the Queene smelt the Aquauitae-sauour I had accesse three or foure seuerall times and some discourse by meanes of my Lord Treasurer Sir Francis Walsingham and some honourable countenance of my Lord of Leister by Sir Edward Horsey my Kinsman his meanes I was well entertayned by the Muscouie Company to whom the Queene had giuen command to prepare those things for which the Emperour had giuen directions With which and her Maiesties Letters gracious fauour sworne her Seruant Esquire of the Body giuing me her Picture Hand to kisse I departed in company of twelue tall Ships Wee met with the King of Denmarke his Fleet of Shippes and Gallies neere the North Cape fought with them and put them to the worst and after arriued at S. Nicolas I posted ouer Vaga and came to Slobida Alexandrisca where I deliuered the Queenes Letters to the Emperour with her pleasure by word of mouth short of his expectation He commanded my silence commended my speed and businesse done for him gaue me allowanances and promised his goodnesse for recompence of my seruice He commanded also that those Commodities should be brought vp to the Musco and receiued into his Treasury viz. Copper Lead Powder Salt-peeter Brimstone c. to the value of 9000. pounds and ready mony payd for them He came to the Citie of Musco and cast his displeasure vpon some Grandes hee sent a Parasite of his with 200. Gunners to rob his Brother in Law Mekita Romanowich our next Neighbour which tooke from him all his Armour Horses Plate Mony Lands and Goods to the value of 100000. Marks sterling He sent the next day to the English House for as much course Cotton as would make himselfe and his children Gownes to couer them The Emperour sent likewise Simon Nagoy another of his Instruments to squeeze or spunge Andrew Shalkan a great bribing Officer who brought his faire young Wife Solumaneda out of her Chamber defiled her cut and gashed her naked backe with his Cemitar killed his trusty Seruant Iuan Lottish tooke all his Horses Goods and Lands and beat out of his shinnes 10000. Robles or Markes sterling in mony At that time did the Emperour also conceiue displeasure against the Dutchmen and Liuonians before mentioned to whom a Church and libertie of Religion had beene giuen by my meanes and appointed certaine Captaines with 2000. Gunners in the night to take the spoile of all they had who stripped them naked rauished and defloured the women and virgins carrying away diuers of the youngest and fairest to serue their lusts Some escaping came to the English house where they were cloathed and relieued not without danger of displeasure amongst whom was that daughter of the Gouernour of Osell in Liefland commended to my fauour whose freedome I also afterwards procured and conueyed her to her father His crueltie grew now ripe for vengeance and hee not long after falling out with his eldest Sonne for his commiseration to those distressed Christians and for greeuing at his Vnkles wrongs iealous also of the peoples affection to him gaue him a boxe on the eare as it was tearmed which he tooke so tenderly that hee fell into a burning Feuer and in three dayes departed this life Whereat the Emperour tore his haire and beard like a mad man lamenting too late for that irrecouerable losse not to himselfe so much as to the Empire whose hopes were buried with him being a wise milde and worthy Prince of three and twenty yeeres Hee was buried in Michala Archangell Church in the Musco with Iewels and Riches put in his Tombe valued at 50000. pounds watched after by twelue Citizens in course euery night deuoted to his Saint Iohn and Michael to keepe both body and Treasure till his Resurrection Now was the Emperour more earnest to send into England about his long conceited match his second Sonne being weake of wit and body without hope of ability for gouernment and the third not only young but disallowed in Sanctitie and according to the fundamentall Lawes illegitimate borne out of Wedlocke of the fift vnlawfull Wife not solemnised with the Rites of their Church but in the Church-yard by a depriued and excommunicated Prelate in which respect neyther she nor her Issue were capeable of the Crowne The Emperour peruseth the Queenes last Letters and addresseth one of his trustiest Seruants in Embassage Theodore Pissempskeie a wise Nobleman about the Lady Mary Hastings aforesaid and that her Maiesty would bee pleased to send some Noble Embassadour to treate with him therein This Embassadour tooke shipping at Saint Nicolas and arriuing in England was magnificently entertayned and admitted audience Her Maiesty caused that Lady to bee attended with diuers Ladies and young Noblemen that so the Embassadour might haue a sight of her which was accomplished in Yorke House Garden There was he attended also with diuers men of quality brought before her and casting downe his countenance fell prostrate before her and rising ranne backe with his face still towards her The Lady with the rest admiring at this strange salutation hee sayd by an Interpreter it sufficed him to behold the Angelicall presence of her which hee hoped should bee his Masters Spouse and Empresse seeming rauished with her Angelicall countenance state and beauty Shee was after that by her familiar friends in Court called Empresse of Mosconia Sir William Russell third Sonne to the Earle of Bedford a wise and comely Gentleman was appointed her Maiesties Ambassadour to the Moscoune but hee and his Friends considering of the businesse and not so forward thereto the Company of Merchants intreated for Sir Ierome Bowes mooued theretowith his presence and tall person He was well set forth most at their charge and with the Russian Embassadour arriued at S. Nicolas The Emperours Ambassadour posted ouer land and deliuered his Letters with the accounts of his Embassage which was ioyfully accepted Sir I. B. passed slowly vp the Dwina 1000. miles to Vologda The Emperour sends a Pensioner Michael Preterpopoue
well attended to meet him and make his prouisions At Yeraslaue another Querry of the Stable met him At Musco hee was honourably entertayned Knez Iuan Suetzcoie attended with 300. Horse brought him to his lodging Sauelle Frolloue the Secretary was sent to congratulate his welcome with many dishes of dressed meate and promise of best accommodating The next day the Emperour sent a Noble man Ignatie Tatishoue to visit him with faire words and promise of speediest audience which was on Satturday following About nine of the clocke the streets were filled with people and a thousand Gunners attired in yellow and blue Garments set in rankes by the Captaines on Horsebacke with bright Harquebuses in their hands from the Ambassadours doore to the Emperours Palace Knez Iuan Sitzcoie attended him mounted on a faire Gennet richly bedecked with a faire Gelding well furnished for the Embassadour attended with three hundred Gentlemen gallantly adorned The Embassadour being displeased that the Dukes Horse was better then his mounted on his owne Horse and with his thirty men liveried in Stamell Clokes well set forth each hauing a part of his Present being most Plate marched onward to the Kings Palace where another Duke met him and told him that the Emperour stayed for him He answered that hee came as fast as he could By the way the people ghessing at the vnpleasingnesse of his message cryed Carenke that is Cranes-legs in mockage of him whereat hee stormed much The passage stayres and Roomes thorow which hee was conducted were all beset with Merchants and Gentlemen in Golden Coats His men entred before him with their Presents into the Roome where the Emperour sate in his Robes and Maiesty with his three Crownes before him foure young Noble men called Ryndes shining in their Cloth of beaten Siluer with foure Scepters or bright Siluer Hatchets in their hands on each side of him the Prince and other his great Dukes and Nobles in rankes sitting round about him The Emperour stood vp and the Embassadour making his courtesies deliuers the Queenes Letters which hee receiued and put off his Imperiall Cap asking how his louing Sister Queene Elizabeth did His answere made he sate downe on a side forme couered with a Carpet and after some little pause and mutuall view was dismissed in manner as hee came and his Dinner of two hundred dishes of dressed meats sent after him by a Gentleman of qualitie I was forewarned by my secret and best friends not to intermeddle in those businesses Some secret and publike conferences passed but good note was taken that none of the great Family of the Godonoues were consulted with therein The King feasts the Embassadour grants great allowance of daily prouision and nothing would please him yea he made great complaints about friuolous matters The Merchants and the Emperours Officers were reconciled in their accounts grieuances remedied Priuiledges granted and an Embassadour to the Queene resolued on if Sir I. B. could haue conformed himselfe to the time any thing might haue beene yeelded yea he promised that if his Marriage with the Queenes Kinswoman tooke effect her issue should inherit the Crowne for assurance whereof he had a masse of ready treasure presently to be transported with his Embassadour vnto Queene Elizabeths trust The Clergy and Noblity especially the neerest allied to the old Empresse the Princes wife and her Family of the Godonoues found meanes to crosse all these Designes The King much distracted in fury caused many Witches Magicians or Wors presently to be sent for out of the North where there are many betweene Colmogro and Lappia Threescore of them were brought post to Musco where they were guarded dyeted and daily visited by the Emperours great Fauourite Bodan Belscoy to receiue from them their Diuinations or Oracles on the Subiects giuen them in charge by the Emperour Note that a great blasing Star and other prodigious sights were seene a moneth together euery night ouer Musco that yeere This Fauorite now sought to serue the turne of the rising Sunne wearied with the wicked disposition of the Emperour The Sooth-sayers tell him that the heauenly Planets and Constellations would produce the Emperours death by such a day But he not daring to tell the Emperour so much said to them that on that day they should be all burned The Emperour began grieuously to swell in his Cods wherewith he had offended so long boasting that he had deflowred thousands of Virgins and a thousand children of his begetting destroyed was carried euery day in his Chaire into his Treasury One day two dayes before the Emperour his death the Prince beckoned to me to follow and I aduenturously stood among the rest and heard him call for his Precious Stones and Iewels He then held discourse to the Nobles about him directing his eye and speech most to Boris Godouona of the nature and properties of his Gemmes of the World compassing Load-stone causing the Wayters to make a Chaine of Needles therewith touched of the Corall also and Turkesse whose beautifull colours sayd he layd on my arme poysoned with inflammation you see are turned pale and declare my death Reach out my Staffe Royall an Vnicornes Horne garnished with very faite Diamonds Rubies Saphires Emeralds and other Precious Stones it cost 70000. Markes sterling bought of Dauid Gowell of the Fulkers of Ausburge seeke out some Spiders caused his Physician Iohannes Eiloff to scrape a Circle thereof vpon the Table and put within it one Spider and after another which burst presently others without the Circle running away from it aliue It is too late it will not preserue me Behold these Precious Stones the Diamond most precious of all other I neuer affected it it restraines Fury and Luxury the powder is poyson Then he points to the Rubie this comforts the Braine and Memory clarifieth congealed bloud That Emerald of the nature of the Rainbow is enemy to all vncleanenesse and though a man cohabit in Lust with his owne Wife this Stone being about them will burst at the spending of Nature The Saphyre I greatly delight in it preserueth and increaseth Nature and Courage reioyceth the heart is pleasing to all the vitall Senses souereigne to the Eyes strengthens the Muscles Hee takes the Onyx in hand c. All these are Gods wonderfull gifts secrets in Nature reuealed to mans vse and contemplation as friends to grace and vertue and Enemies to vice I faint carry me away till another time In the afternoone he peruseth ouer his Will and yet thinkes not to dye His Ghostly Father dares not put him in minde of annointing in holy forme Hee hath beene witched in that place and often vnwitched againe He commands the Master of the Apotheke and the Physicians to prepare a Bath for his solace enquires the goodnesse of the Signe sends his Fauourite to his Witches to know their Calculations Hee tels them the Emperour will bury or burne them all quicke for their Illusions and Lyes the day is comne he is
as heart-whole as euer he was Sir they answered bee not so wrathfull you know the day is comne and you know it ends with the Sun-setting He hasts him to the Emperour made preparation for his Bath about the third houre of the day The Emperour therein solaced himselfe and made merry with pleasant Songs after his vse came out about the seuenth houre well refreshed sate downe vpon his Bed cals Rodouone Birken a Fauourite of his to bring the Chesse-board sets his men his chiefe Fauourite and others with Boris Federowich Godonoue being then about him He in his loose Gowne Shirt and Linnen Hose faints and fals backward Great was the stirre and out-cry one sends for Aquauitae another to the Apotheke for Vineger and Rose-water with other things and to call the Physicians Meane time he was strangled and starke dead Some shew of hope was made of his recouery to still the out-cry Bodan Belscoy and Boris to whom the dead Emperour had bequeathed as the first of foure Princes to take charge of his Sonne and Kingdome being Brother to the Successors Wife goe out on the Terras accompanied with so many of the Nobility his familiar friends as was strange so suddenly to behold They called out to the Captaines and Gunnera to keepe their Guards strong and the Gates sure with their Peeces and Matches light wherevpon the Gates of the great Castle were presently shut with watch and ward I offered my Selfe my Men Powder and Pistols to attend the Prince Protector Hee accepted mee among his Familiars and Seruants passing by with a cheereful countenance towards me speaking aloud Be faithfull and faint not Eremiesca The Metropolitans Bishops and Nobility flocked into the inner Castle holding it a day of Iubilee for their redemption pressing who could first to the Booke and Crosse to sweare to the new Emperour Feodor Iuanowich It was admirable what dispatch there was in sixe or seuen houres The Treasury sealed vp and new Officers added to the old twelue thousand Gunners with their Captaines set for a Garrison about the Wals of the great Citie of Musco A Guard was giuen mee to keepe the English House The Embassadour S. I. B. trembled and expected hourely nothing but death from the rage of the Nobilitie and people His gates windowes and Seruants were shut vp his former plentifull allowance taken away Boris and three others of the greatest Peeres ioyned assistance with him in the Emperours Will for the Gouernment of the Kingdome viz. Knez Misthisloskie Knez Iuan Suskoy and Mekita Romanowich began to mannage and dispose of all affaires they proclayme the Emperour Feodore in his late Fathers stile thorow all the Kingdome take Inuentories of all the Treasure euery where Gold Siluer Iewels which was infinite make a suruay of all the Officers and Bookes of the Crowne Reuenues New Treasurers Counsellors and Officers in all Courts of Iustice are made new Lieutenants also Captaines and Garisons in all places of charge and importance most out of the Family of the Godonoues best to be trusted for attendance and seruice about the King and Queene by which meanes the Protector became strong He was with great obseruation magnified of all and so be haued himselfe to the Princes Nobility and people as he increased their loue After some pause I was sent for and asked what they should doe with S. I. B. his businesse being at an end he was not now said they to be reputed an Ambassadour I answered it stood with the honour of the King and Kingdome to dismisse him with honour and safely according to the Law of Nations otherwise the Queene whose Seruant hee was would take it ill c. They shooke their heads reuiled him saying he had deserued death by the Law of Nations practising so much mischiefe in a State They would haue sent a message to him by me to prepare his present dispatch with some other terrible words of displeasure I be sought that I might not be the messenger which somewhat offended them The Lord Protector sent for mee at Euening whom I found playing at the Chesse with Knez Iuan Gemskoy a Prince of the bloud and taking mee aside said I wish you to speake little in defence of Bowes the Lords take it ill Go shew your selfe from me and pacifie such and such Your answer was well considered of but many perswade reuenge vpon him for his ill behauiour I hope said I your greatnesse and wisdome will pacifie their furies I 'le do my best he sayd to make all well and so tell him from me I went to those Noblemen accordingly which complayning of their sufferings for his arrogance willed me to be quiet in the businesse Yet did not I leaue to deale effectually vnder hand for him intreating he might be sent for and dispatched beeing cooped vp and kept close as a prisoner and allowances taken from him At last he was sent for attended but with a meane messenger lead into a with drawing Roome where the Lords vsed him with no respect charged him with haynous matter practised against the Crowne and State would not spend time to heare his answere rayled on him especially the two Shalkans great Officers and some others who had suffered displeasure beatings from the Emperour through his complaints saying it were requisite to make him an example cutting off his Crane-legges and casting his withered carkasse into the Riuer pointing out of the window vnder him but God hath now giuen vs a more mercifull Emperour whose eyes he should see for Queene Elizabeths sake But put off your Sword which hee refused to doe saying it was against his Order and Oath they would inforce him else comming into the presence of so peaceable a Prince whose soule being clothed with mourning was not prepared for the sight of Armes And so hee put on patience and was brought single to the presence of the Emperour who by the mouth of his Chancelour commended him to Queene Elizabeth Wherewith Sir Ierome Bowes was conuayed to his Lodgings three dayes giuen for his departure out of Musco perhaps hee should haue a Letter sent after him He had now little meanes lesse money and none to supply him but my selfe who made meanes to get him thirty Carts to conuay his and his Seruants Stuffe and as many Post-horse for he could be allowed none of the Emperours charge I asked leaue of the Lord Protector to speake with him and to bring him out of the City Watch and ward was appointed in the streets that the people should not stirre at him A meane Sinoboarscoie was appointed to conduct him who vsed him with small humanity and much against the height of his mind to endure I with my Seruants and good friends accompanied him wel mounted out of Musco caused my Pauillion to be pitched by a Riuers side ten miles off and with my prouisions of Wines and Mead tooke leaue of him and his company He sadly prayed me to haue an eye an
eare to his safety doubting of some trechery much perplexed with feare as were the Gentlemen with him I procured the Lord Protector to send his Letters after him to the Queene a Tunber of Sables a gift from himselfe When he came to Saint Nicolas aboard the Ship he vsed intemperate words to the Gentleman that conducted him for him to telle be Emperour and his Counsell cut his Letters and Sables in pieces c. The Nobility hearing hereof after he was gone laid much blame on me especially the Shalkans Now was the Gouernment much altered hauing put on a new face Iustice administred and euery man liuing in peace Mans capacitie cannot comprehend how the infinite treasure which the former Emperour left behind him could be gotten together and much lesse how it should be so soone consumed and this Kingdome Princes and people so ruined His standing Reuenewes and my Collections out of their owne Records in my Description of the Russe Common-wealth may bee worth reading The traffique attracting many Nations Persians Armenians Turkes Italians Germanes French Dutch English Polonians which bring store of Gold and Siluer Coyne Precious Stones Iewels and Pearles which are taken into his Treasury for the Commodities of that Countrey by him taken from his Subiects to serue his turne at easie rates leauing them their traffique besides for Cloth Silkes Veluets Ounce-gold Tissue Cloth of Gold and Siluer Wines Fruits Spices Sugar Copper Lead Tinne Paper Indico Brasill Calicoes c. which that Countrey most needs This course of traffique and treasure with the surplusage of his Reuenues amounting yeerely vnto 1300000. Markes sterling besides all charges for his house and ordinary Salaries of his Souldiers This hath he continued to lay vp neere sixty yeeres besides the great treasures left him by his Predecessors neuer exhausted nor diminished My selfe haue seene many thousand bags rotten of old Siluer and Gold Coyne and Plate in great barred Chests piled vp in many Vaults Sellers and Stone Houses and many trustie Merchants continually weighing numbring and new bagging vp the same so that I am confident hauing conuersed much and many yeeres with those Nations that all the Kings in Christendome haue not like Riches and quantity of treasure Now to adde some thing of his Acts Conquests and conditions Hee conquered Casan Astracan the Nagaies and Chorcas Tartars and many others of that kind inhabiting aboue two thousand mules on both sides the Volga Southward to the Caspian Sea He freed himselfe from Tartacian homage Hee conquered Pollotzka Smolensca and many Townes and Castles seuen hundred miles Southwest from Mosco into the Countries of Bela Russia Lituania c. belonging to the Crowne of Poland as much and as many Townes and Castles Eastward in Linonia and the parts belonging to Swethan and Poland the Kingdome of Siberia also bringing away the King whom I saw in Musco and the adiacent Countries Northward 1500. miles He reduced the Ambiguities and vncertayne Rules of their Lawes and pleadings into a more perspicuous and plaine forme of a written Law for euery man to vnderstand and plead his owne cause without any Aduocate and to challenge vnder great penalty and mulct to the Crowne iudgement without delay He established and published one vniforme confession of Faith Doctrine and Discipline consonant to the three Symbols or Creeds professing the Religion of the Greeke Church deriuing their antiquitie from their Apostle Saint Andrew and their Patron Saint Nicolas and in regard of later dissentions in doctrine and Ceremony in that Church he hath acquitted the See of Musco from that Society and the Synodals and Oblations heretofore contributed to that Church the Patriarch Ieremy resigning the Patriarchship of Constantinople to the Metropolitan of Musco Hee vtterly disclaymes the doctrine of the Pope holding it the most erronious maruelling that any Christian Prince would yeeld him any Secular authoritie which hee caused his Clergie to declare to Fryer Anthonie Posseuinus the Popes Nuncio at the Church doore at Prechesta Hee hath built in his time fortie faire stone Churches richly adorned within and the Turrets all gilded with fine pure Gold without He hath built and dedicated aboue sixty Monasteries and Nunneries and endowed them with Bels Ornaments and mayntenance to pray for his Soule He built a goodly steeple of hewne stone in the inner Castle of Musco called Blanasenia Collacalitza with twenty greatsweet sounding Bels in it which serue to all the Cathedrall Churches standing about it ringing all together euery Festiuall day which are many and euery midnight Prayers One deed of his Charity I may not omit A great Famine followed the Pestilence of the better sort of people The Townes streets wayes were pestered with Rogues idle Beggers and counterfeit Cripples nor could any riddance be made of them Proclamation was made that they should resort to Slobida Alexandrisca to receiue the Emperours great almes on such a day Out of some thousands that came seuen hundred of the vilest and most counterfeit Rogues were all knocked on the head and cast into the great Lake for the fish to receiue the dole of their carkasses the rest were dispersed to Monasteries and Hospitals to be relieued He built aboue 100. Castles in his time in diuers parts of his Kingdome and planted them with Ordenance and Garisons He built 200. Townes in wast and dishabited places thorow his Kingdome to replenish those parts being a mile or two miles in length called Yams giuing euery Inhabitant a portion of Land and Money to keepe so many speedy Horses for his vse and for Posts He built a goodly strong stone Wal about the Citie of Musco and planted it with Ordenance and Garisons He was a goodly man of presence well fauoured of a high fore-head and shrill voyce a right Scythian full of readie wit and wisdome cruell and mercilesse his owne experience ruled State causes and affaires publike Hee was sumptuously entombed in Michael Archangell Church where his memory is still dreadfull though guarded day and night they which passe by or heare his name crossing and blessing themselues from his Resurrection againe The Empresse Anna fifth wife to the late Emperour with her young Sonne Chariwich Demetrius and their Family Nagais were confined to Onglets to reside in that Castle at the Emperours pleasure with Royall allowance for their mayntenance New Embassadors were chosen by Boris the Protector such as he best affected to illustrate his greatnesse to bee sent from the new Emperour to all Kings and. Princes his Allies The Coronation was first solemnized whereof I was an eye and eare witnesse as Master Hakluyts and Doctor Fletchers Discourses in this and other Relations of that State and Common-wealth procured at my hands declare My selfe was nominated to bee sent to Queene Elizabeth The substance of our Embassies was much alike to make knowne that by the Prouidence of God Feodore Iuanowich was crowned and setled in the Imperiall Throne
of his late Father Iuan Vasilowich of famous memory who thought good out of his tender care of peace to make knowne to their Princely wisdomes how desirous he was of their aliance and brotherly amity promising all correspondence trade and commerce with them and theirs Letters also and Commissions to treate of such other matters as fell properly in question for the good of both sides I was dispatched with extraordinary grace termes and titles from the Emperour but especially from the Protector in priuate and publike and with Instructions and Commissions apart Hauing taken my leaue of the principall Princes and Officers I set forth well attended and accommodated in the reputation of an Embassadour wheresoeuer I came My iourney was ouer-land from Musco the twentieth of August sixe hundred miles to Vobsee and thence to Dorp in Liefland Perno Libo Wendon in Curland and so to Riga chiefe Citie of that Prouince where my Commission was to treat with Queene Magnus the next heire to the Russian Crowne she being now in great distresse and hauing small allowance issuing from the Crowne treasure of Poland She was kept in the Castle of Riga whereby leaue of the Cardinall Ragauile very hardly obtayned I spake with her found her dressing her daughters head both of them in old Garments of cloth of Siluer I told her her Brother so Cousin Germans call the Emperour Feodor had taken notice of the distresse wherein she and her daughter liued and desired her returne into her natiue Countrey there to hold her estate according to her birth And the Lord Protector Boris Fedorowich with due remembrance of his seruice doth vow the performance of the same I was interrupted and hasted away by the Lieutenant and got leaue a second time Shee complained of her small allowance not a thousand Dollers a yeere which I said she might remedy if she pleased Shee said she had no meanes to escape the King and State minding to make vse of her birth and bloud knowing their fashion in Russia she had small hope there to be otherwise dealt with then they vse to doe with their Queene Widowes which is to shut them vp in a Hellish Cloyster to which I preferre death I answered her case was different and times had altered that course none that hath a child being thereunto enforced After other words and promise of meanes to effect her escape within two moneths I left with her a hundred Hungarian Duckets and your Grace said I shall receiue foure hundred more this day seuen weekes or thereabout Her Highnesse receiued them very thankfully and her daughter then ten yeeres old twenty more and I tooke my leaue The next day as I passed out of the Towne Gates a Gentlewomanlike Mayden in her pleyted haire presented me a curious white wrought Handkerchiefe in the corner whereof was a little Hoop-ring set with Rubies but told mee not from whom I hied out of the Cardinals iurisdiction thorow Curland Prussia Meluin Danzike whence I sent one of my Seruants to the Narue with my Letters Handkerchiefe and Relation to the Emperour and Protector all sewed vp in his quilt doublet He past so speedily and safely that this Queene and her daughter were sent for stolne away very secretly and posted with thorow Liuonia before she was missing The Lieutenant sent diuers Horsemen after her but too late and was therefore displaced At her first comming as I learned after my returne she was much esteemed by the Empresse and Ladies had her Officers Lands and allowances appointed according to her state but not long after shee and her daughter were disposed into Maydes Monastery within two miles of Musco among the rest of the Queenes wherevpon she exclaymed that she was betrayed and that shee had giuen faith to me But neyther could I be permitted to see her or shee mee This piece of Seruice was very acceptable whereof I much repent me From Danzike I passed Cassubla Pomorenia Statine Meckelburgh Rostok Wismar where I escaped death miraculously Lubek where I had honourable entertaynment againe and from Hamborough arriued in England had gracious accesse to the Queene at Richmond her Maiesty professing much ioy that a Subiect of hers had attained to knowledge trust and abilitie for so waighty employment from so great a Prince I after translated the Letters and Master Secretary read them to the Queene I was well housed attended prouided and feasted by the Musconie Company was called againe to Greenwich and deliuered to her Maiesty what I was to say and what it pleased her to enquire of me In fine shee sayd well Ierome we haue lost a faire time and a great deale of treasure that our Realme might very opportunely haue beene possessed of harshly censuring Bowes his want of temperance c. Such was the Lord Treasurers good husbandry answerable to Her Maiesties frugality that though this businesse had beene kept ten yeeres a foot and the Emperour still vpheld in hope yet all the charge of Ambassadors and Messengers were layd on the Merchants both for entertainments and gifts giuen and sent of which the Queene bare the name and countenance receiuing thence many and rich Presents for that which at times cost the Company 20000. pounds The imputations and aspersions cast on me by false suggestions and subornations of Finch a hang-by of Sir Ierome Bowes who first faltered and after the other being remooued out of presence confessed that he was set on by him I omit so repaying the courtesie in releasing him when he had beene taken as a Spie c. With much helpe of friends Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir George Barnes prouision was made of Lions Buls Dogs gilt Halbords Pistols Peeces curious Armour Wynes Drugs of all sorts Organs Virginals Musicians Scarlets Pearles curious Plate and other things of good value according to my Commissions I tooke my leaue of the Queene receiued her Highnesse Letters to the Emperour and Protector with Letters Patents of grace and title for my passage with many good words and gracious promises Instructions also from the Lords and the Company with some recompence for fauour already done for them in the Emperours Court I departed well accommodated in company of tenne good ships arriued at Saint Nicolas posted twelue hundred miles to the Musco came to the Lord Protector now stiled Prince of the Prouince of Vaga who receiued me gladly sends for me againe the next day tels me of many strange alterations since I had gone from thence practises of the Mother of Demetrius and that Family discontents twixt him and his ioynt Commissioners for the Gouernment by the Emperours will Hee was now loth to haue any Competitor you shall heare much said he beleeue little more then I tell you On the other side I heard much discontent of the Nobility dissembling working on the aduantage c. I was brought before the Emperour the Counsell sitting in State and deliuered the accounts of my employment as did other his Embassadours
the Emperours only Vnkle trusted in the third place for the gouernment in the old Emperours Will with Boris who could indure no Competitor two prime Princes made away was bewitched his speech taken suddenly from him I came to visit him hee set pen to paper and writ that hee was bewitched and by whom and should not liue The Protector told me also that Mekita Romanowich was not like to disturbe him long He dyed soone after and the silly Emperour his Nephew fearing his turne next desired he might be shorne a Fryer That Nobleman left three Sonnes of great hope Feodor the eldest for whom I had made aswell as I could a kind of Latine Grammer in the Sclauonian Tongue and Letters He was now enforced to marry and had a Sonne The Protector being iealous of him hee also not long after his Fathers death was made dead to the World and shorne a Fryer made Archbishop of Rostoua His next Brother of no lesse generous spirit not able to dissemble his discontents longer tooke opportunitie to stab the Protector though not so dangerously as hee intended and escaped into Poland where hee and Bodan Belscoy and others at home practised the vtter ruine of Boris and all his Family Meane while I procured many Priuiledges for the English Merchants with Releases Payments Ratifications c. The Protector iealous and fearefull sends Treasure Siluer and Gold Coyne to Sollauetzca Monastery on the Sea side neere the Davish and Swethen Confines that it might be ready as himselfe told me to transport into England holding that his surest refuge in case of necessity It was of infinite value and not pertayning to the Crowne I was now suspected by the discontented Nobility who shewed me not wonted countenance which caused mee to haste away hauing speeded my businesse and Instructions from the Counsell and Merchants Rich Presents were sent from the Emperour for the Queene and Boris sent with secret messages a curious Robe for me of Cloth of Siluer wrought without seame made in Persia with a faire imbroydered Tent wrought Handkerchiefes Shires Towels c. brought by his neere Kinsman I intreatell two fauours for a farwell the freedome of the Liuonian men women and children sent before to Nonogrod in displeasure a Catalogue of their names were taken and they freed by the Letter of Irenia the Empresse the other was the liberty of a Noblemans Sonne of Gilderland Here Sacarius Gilfenberg which neyther the King of Denmarks nor States Letters could before procure which his Mother well recompensed After rich allowance by the way honourably attended and ample prouisions added at Saint Nicolas I was shipped in the Centurion and after fiue weekes arriued in England at Pâeâimond had audience of the Queene deliuered the Emperours Letters and Merchants Priuiledges with Golden Spread-eagle Seales at them and account of my whole employment to her good satisfaction and approbation of me Shee obserued the Characters by the affinitie they had with the Greeke and asked if they had not such and such significations said shee could quickly learne it and bade my Lord of Ess learne it When the Ships with the Presents were comne I had a second audience her Maiestie much liking to handle the Presents After this I weary of Court Holy-water was willing to retire my selfe to a priuate life but by reason of my skill in those Languages a more dangerous employment was committed to me Frederike King of Denmarke had embarqued the English Merchants Ships in the Sound about Customes and they sued to the Queene for redresse likewise diuers in Poland which there had obtayned Priuiledges and Protection had refused to pay Debts to the English Merchants c. I was appointed to take Collen in the way where the Imperiall Dyee was appointed thither to accompany Sir Heratio Palauicine the Queenes Embassadour and Monsieur de Freze the French Kings Embassadour and thence I to the Dane and the Pole I came to Copenhagen had accesse to the King of Denmarke deliuered the Queenes Letters and after had audience and propounded what was giuen me in Commission The King of Denmarke answered with a sad countenance Our Sister the Queenes Maiestie of England requires at our hands too great a losse wee are possessed of forty thousand pounds and twenty tall Ships forfeited to our Crowne by the treachery and falshood of her Subiects c. But in fine he made his minde knowne to the Queene by his Letters requiring an exchange of certayne Ships of the Easterlings embarked in England for the freedome of the English Ships and goods This was beyond my Commission to conclude And I hasted away hauing dined with the King who bestowed on mee a Gold Chaine I returned to Lubek and thence to Danzik where Master Barker Deputy and other substantiall Merchants inuited my way by Meluin where they resided But I tooke my way by Torne and came to Warsonia where Sigismundus King of Poland then held his Court and after some disgusts at last obtained the Merchants Suite against diuers Debters which had their sought protection The great Chancelor Zameitscoy the principall Statesman of that Kingdome sent vnto me a friendly message offering also for my solace his Hounds Hawkes or any other pastimes for recreation I was inuited and dined with the King receiued his Letters Patents and Dismission and after feasted by the Lord High Chamberlaine Pan Lucas Obrosemone I also had sight of Queene Anne daughter to Sigismund the Third and Wife to King Stephen Batore but priuately hauing to that end put on one of my Seruants Liueries which notwithstanding I was discouered and had conference with the Queene who seemed much to magnifie Queene Marie and no lesse disaffected to Queene Elizabeth for the death of Storie Campion c. which I sayd had beene vnnaturall Subiects and practisers of Rebellion Shee then obiected But how could she spill the bloud of the Lords Anoynted a better Queene c. which I answered was done by the Parliament without her Royall consent She shooke her head with dislike and would haue replyed had not Posseuine the Popes Legate as they termed him whose skirts I had before pressed in Musco being there the Popes Nuncio comne in wherevpon I with a Glasse of Hungarian Wine which I refused till she had taken the same into her owne hand was dismissed On that Euening in which I departed from Warsonia I passed ouer a Riuer by the side whereof there lay a dead Serpent like a Crocodile with foure feet hard skales and in length about six or seuen foot which my men brake with Boare-speares the stench whereof so poysoned me that I lay sicke many dayes in the next Village When I came to Vilna the chiefe Citie in Lituania I presented my selfe and my Letters Patents from the Queene which declared my employment vnto the Great Duke Ragauil a powerfull Prince and Religious Protestant Hee gaue me great respect and sayd Though I had
vsuall in gouernment but thou beggest helpe of him who giueth all of mercie If thou punishest thou shalt haue example but if thou sparest thou shalt be good beyond example Hee gaue him ten thousand pieces of Gold and dismissed him in Peace An. 212. Almamon published the speech according to the forme of the Alcoran and the correcting of Ali Sonne of Abutalib which had bettered the forme after the messenger of God An. 213. hee gaue to Abbas Mutasim and Abdalla fiue hundred thousand pieces of Gold to each in one day An. 215. and 216. he inuaded the Romans An. 217. One of the children of Ommia writ to him that Merwan had treasures hidden in Hebron where some chists were found and amongst other things ten thousand shirts with foule sleeues the reason whereof being asked Asmagaeus sayd that he was a Glutton and when a rosted sheepe was set before him he vsed to thrust in his hand sleeue and all for the Kidneyes as before is said and then to haue put on another garment Almamon gaue to Asmagaeus those shirts which he sold for so many pieces of Gold An. 218. Almamon tryed the People in the forme of the Alcoran grieuously punishing those which would not vtter it Hee dyed hauing reigned twenty yeeres fiue moneths and thirteene dayes None of the Abbasians were more learned He was skilfull in Astronomy and the winds and one wind beareth name of him His Seale was inscribed Aske of God and he will giue thee Muhammed Mutasim Billa Abuishac his brother was created Chalifa on the day of his brothers death An. 218. The Horrimaeans a vile and hereticall Nation made insurrection lead by Babec But Mutasim sent an Army against them which killed sixty thousand of them and the rest fled to the Roman Dominions An. 219. Muhammed Sonne of Casim Sonne of Omar Sonne of Ali Sonne of Husein Sonne of Ali had many followers made many battels but at last was taken An. 220. the children of Babec lost aboue a hundred thousand in battell in Arsaw and Babec fled to Badwa which Citie Asfin besieged and tooke and gaue security to Babec but killed him notwithstanding An. 223. Ammoria was taken and great spoyle made in the Roman Regions An. 224. Barabas Sonne of Caran made insurrection and after many battels was taken by Abdalla Sonne of Taher who sent him to Mutasim which beate him to death and then crucified him besides Babec An. 226. Asfin was added to them for in his house were found Idols and wicked Bookes neither had he altered his Paganisme An. 227. Mutasim dyed at Samarra Hee was strong able to carry certaine paces a thousand pound weight Bagdad was not able to containe his Souldiers and therefore he built Samarra and placed his Souldiers there And Samarra remayned the Seat of the Chalifas till Mutadid reigned which remooued to Bagdad as the after Chalifas also did Mutisim was vnlettered and could not write He was called Octauian for that the number of eight agreed to him eleuen wayes he was the eight Chalifa of the Abbasians created An. 218. reigned eight yeeres eight moneths and eight dayes aged forty eight yeeres borne also in the eight moneth of the yeere his Fathers eight Son left eight Sons and eight Daughters fought eight battels and left eight Millions of Gold in his Treasury and eighty thousand Staters He dyed in the yeere of the Sunne 6333. and a hundred and thirty dayes compleate An. 223. and of Dioclesian 547. Abuna Ioseph was made Patriarch of Alexandria In his time Iacob a Bishop in Aethiopia when the King was abroad in Warre was displaced by the Queene and another substituted in his place But Drought and Pestilence followed and the King sent to the Patriarch to send backe the Bishop which hee did and hee was receiued with great ioy Hee sent also Bishops into Africa to Pentapolis and Cairawan Haron Wacic Billa Abugiafar was the ninth of the Abasians and 30. King of the Muslims created on the day of his Fathers death at Samarra An. 227. And An. 228. hee remooued his Iudges and Scribes and tooke of them much money A. 230. Abdalla Son of Taher deceassed an honorable and valiant man which had bin Gouernour of Chorasan Egypt and Syria to whom was great resort of learned men and Poets to whom he was very bountifull Wacic seeking to increase his abilitie for lust was aduised to eate Lions flesh boyled in red Vineger and to take three drammes thereof but he dyed soone after he had vsed it Stretching his sicke body on a Carpet he said O thou whose kingdome passeth not haue mercy on him whose Kingdome passeth away He loued and rewarded Poesie Hee propounded to men the forme of the Alcoran as Almamon had done and alienated mens minds from him He reigned fiue yeeres nine moneths and sixe dayes Giafar Abufadl Mutewakkel Aballa Wacics brother succeeded An. 231. They first put on the Chalifate Robes on Muhammed Sonne of Wacic but then contemning his childhood the Iudge Ahmed sent for Giafar Sonne of Mutasim and clothed him with a long garment and kissed him betwixt both his eyes saluting him Emperour of the faithfull and surnaming him Mutewakkel He imprisoned Muhammed his Counsellor and appointed one to keepe him waking and after some dayes watching permitted him to sleepe which he did a day and a night and then put him into a hot Iron Ouen hauing nayles within and there tortured him to death He was a Grammarian and Poet but proud shamelesse couetous and mercilesse being accustomed to say that Mercy was a certaine imbecilitie in nature and that Liberalitie was foolishnesse An. 235. Mutewakkel appointed his Sonne Mustansir Billa his Successor after him Mutaz Billa after that Muaijad Billa giuing to each two Banners one black which was the Banner of the league or couenant the otherwhite of their place of gouernment assigning to Mustansir Africa and all the West from Egypt also Kinnasrin Awasim Syria Mesopotamia Diarbecr Diarebia Mausil Habeb Aiat Chabur Karkisia Tecrit the Region of Tigris Mecca and Medina Aliaman Hadramat Iamam Bahrain Sindia and adioyning thereto Ahwaz Sacalas Samarra Cufa Maseidan Hazran Siahruzar Comma Casan and Giebel To Mutaz hee assigned Chorasan Tabristan Raija Persia Armenia and Aderbigian the Mints also and his name to be stamped in all Comes To Muaijâd hee assigned the Prouinces of Damascus Emessa Iardan and Palaestina A. 238. Abdurrahman King of Spaine died his Son Muhammed succeeded In the yeere 241. and 242. the Romans inuaded and carried away Muslims captiues This yeere were terrible Earthquakes which oppressed forty fiue thousand men most of them in Damijs In Persia also Chorasan and Syria Earthquakes and vnusuall sounds happened and in Aliaman with great destruction An. 245. also were terrible Earthquakes and the Springs of Mecca failed so that a bottle of water was sold for a hundred Staters Many were oppressed with an Earthquake at Antiochia and fifteene hundred houses and ninetie
and Turkes ibid. Aeolis how situate 335 Aesculapius or Physicke God 81 Aethiopia why and what Countries so called 725. 726. Aethiopian Antiquities 726. Their Kings 731. The legend of the Q. of Saba 732. 733. 753. The truth of it ibid. Of Presbyter Iohn 734. Of the Aethiopian Empire 738. seq Fals and flouds 739. Romish Patriarks 740. Offers to the Portugall ibid. Their strict Lent Marriages teÌpests ibid. Their houses rites Abuna oaths c. 740 Aethiopians branded why 742 the rarites of the hill Amara in Aegypt 743. The Library Treasure safe-keeping of the Princes there 744. 745. The election of the Emperor his title mariage iustice 745. 746. Their Schooles Vniuersities Physicians Mummia stewes 747. Their cities 748 The seuerall Countries 749. seq Their ReligioÌs Riuers Lakes ibid. Commodities of the Country 750. Strange fishes originall of Nilus ibid. Priuate and publike customes 751. Luys his lies 752 Their estimation of Blacke and White ibid. Aethiopia Superior 725. seq Aethiopia Exterior 754 Africa why so termed 619. by some esteemed of Europe ibid. Diuision therof 620. The Giraffa Camels 621. Horse Dant Adimmain Sheep Asses Lions 622. the Crocodile Basiliske Ostrich Grashoppers 623. 624. Hippopotamus Mermaids 625. 626. The inhabitants and their conditions 626 Little of it Christian ibid. Africa in great part subiect to the Turk 701. Religion and customes of the Africans 671. seq 704 Africanus his opinion of 72. lang Agao the inhabitants thereof 740 Age 413. The extraordinary age of a man in Bengala 508. The like of a Bramene 548 Aggees Prophesie of the second Temple interpreted 103 Agmet a town in Barbary 700. 701 Agra the situation and description thereof 533 Agwans or Puttans 37 Ahabs sicknesse and Iesabels Physicke 115. Ahabs Palace 137 Aitonus or Anthony the Armenian Writer 343. Aitonus K. of Armenia his requests to Mangu Can 345 Akiba a Iewish Rabbine 132. K. of Ala 721. his ditch of secrecy ib. Alarbes and Brebers 703. 704 Alcoran or Alfurcan 248. What it signifieth ibid the stile not in metre ibid. The composition and Azoaras of Chapters thereof 249 The agreement of copies translators therof 250. An Epitome of the Alcoran in heads or common places 251. 252. Their opinions of it and of the reward to the diligent Reader 253. 254. Expositions CoÌmentaries on it 255. the Saracens opinion of their AlcoraÌ 258 Aladine King of Acem 613. His receiuing Queene Elizabeths Letter and Feast to Sir Iames Lancaster 614. 615 Albania the situation and description thereof 346. 347 Aloadine or the Old man of the Mountayne 219 Alchimy twofold and who the best Alchimist 301. Accounted an art of Naturall Magicke 347 Alexander Magnus 50. 59. 227 Mahomets Saint 255. 318 His Empire diuided 72. His Expedition 332. His ambition of Diuinitie 227. His acts 333 334. 337. 338. 348. 350. 359. 366. 399. 404. 482. 538. 590. 612. 614. 681. What he gained by the Persian conquest 102. 701. Hee is worshipped by Augustus 695. By the Saracens 708. And by the Cyrenians ibid. Alexandria the Mother Citie of the Grecian Iewes 124. The reputation thereof 648. The Schooles Wealth Religion 649 The present stase of Alexandria 656. The Patriarkes of Alexandria 659. A counterfeit Gabriel ibid. Aleppo the chiefe Citie of Syria 75. called Haleb 147 Alfurcan vid. Alcoran Ali Hali or Halli the designed Successor of Mahomet 232. seq 249. 274. 275. 276. 381. He was author of the Sect Imemia 275. 391. A Cimiterre painted and hung vp in memory of Haly who with his Sword is reported to cut the Rocks in sunder 315. The place of Ali his buriall and the Ceremony there vsed 378. The deuotions of Ali the Persian Prophet forbidden 386. The preheminence of the children of Ali aboue all Prophets 391. The house of Ali 64 Algier the description thereof 676 seq The receptacle of Pirats 677. 678 Alilat of the Arabians 78. 227 231 Allen a Greenland greedy fowle 815 Almagro his acts 921 Almes to Beasts Birds Ants 302 The almes of a Mahumetan at Mecca 268. Of Tartars 419 Of Farfar King of Mangi 460 Of Gedacham 509. At Cambaya 540. 541. Of the King of Narsinga 552. Publike and priuate Almes of the Turkes 298 Almohades certaine Sectaries so called 689 Aladules his Paradise 64. 218 283. The like in Persia 380 Aladine the Turke 279 Allegories ouerthrow truth 16 Allegorical Theology of the Phoenicians 77. 78 Allech an Idoll 229 Alitta a Persian Deitie 370 Aloes Socotrina how made and where plenty 779 Alumut King of Persia 383. 384 Al-Mutsal how situate 147 Amalekites 85 Amasia how situate 326. 327 Amanus a God of the Persians 374 Amanus a Mount or Hill 37. 67 223 Amasis King of Aegypt 584 Amazons 37. 327. 399. Riuer of Amazons 327. Ilands of Amazons 578 Amara the admirable Hill in Aethiopia 743. The History and description thereof 743. 744. The Temples Monasteries Library ibidem The inestimable treasure and incomparable Iewell and the Princes kept there as Luys sayth 745. 746 Amber what it is 532 Ambition the nature thereof 74 Ambize or Hogge-fish in Congo 767. 668 Amboino Ilands 578. The commodities of Amboina 606 Americus Vesputius 791 America why so called 791. The nature of Heate Raines Winds there 792. 793. Of Mettals 795. 796. How rich it is to the Spaniard 796. Whether knowne to the Ancients 798. How men came first thither 799. How beasts 800. The beasts therein 804 Fowles 805. Plants ibid. Their bread 806. Comparison of our World the new World together 807. Discouery of the North parts of America 807. 808. Diuision of America 807 The Southerne America 891 Seas and Ilands adioyning to America 950 Amen the Iewish conceit thereof 187. Not to be said by a Iew at a Samaritans blessing 136 Amera and Amera-ship 702. 703 Amida a Iaponian Idoll 598 601 Amiogli why so called 221 Ammonites circumcised 86 Iupiter Ammon Amuz 37. 114 657. The History of that Oracle at large 657. 658. seq Ammonian women 658 Ammonius the Philosopher 648 Amoraim whence so called 165 Amorites 86. 87 Amphisbena described 624 Amouchi their bloudy custom 521 Amurath the first 282. 283 Amurath the second 283. seq Amurath the third 285. 286 Anacharsis his trauels and death 398 Anaitis a Geddesse 345 Anakims 85 Ananas an Indian fruit described 567 Anathema a kind of Excommunication or Curse 101. 137 Anatomy of Iewes 178 Anastasius the Patriarch cruelly murthered 215 Ananas are Indian fruit 563 Anchiale built by Sardanapalus 62 Anchorets in China 466 Andromeda freed by Perseus 81 Angels why not mentioned in the Creation 6. Why with fixe wings 3. Dreames of Angels 31. 177. 179. 188. 189. 191. 196. 197. 224. 225. sequitur Names obserued by the Essees 131. By Iewes and Christians 161. Their orders ibid. Their kinds 369. Mahometicall fancies of Angels 224. 225. 226. 259. 260. 261. 302 Angell of death 207. 210. Mahometicall Dreames of the Angell Gabriel 242. 243.
the East Ens. l. 2 He called it also Ophir thinking it to bee that whence Salomon had his Gold Mart. Dec. 3. l. 7 Dec. 7. 8. q Dec. l. 4. L. 6. C. 12. r R. Tomson ap Hak. tom 3. Å¿ Mart. dec. 7. 9. Ouied. l. 15. c. 8. Encrease of Kine Dogs Ants hurtfull Ouied. l. 5. c. 1. 1 t Mar. dec. 1. l. 9 Ouied. gen hist lib. 5. u Non solamente cosa sana ma santo ancho x Mart. ibid. y They worshipped the Sunne and prayed to it at Sun-rising a Mart. Dec. 2. lib. 6. b Dec. 7. 10. Sacrifices c Ouied. gen hist l 5. c. 3. d Ouiedo lib. 2. del Hist Ind. e Botero f Iob Hortop ap Hak. g Henry May ap Hak. tom 3. h Syl. Iourdan W. Strachie i My friend Master Barkley a Merchant reports better of the Bermudas seasonablenesse c. and the Plantation it selfe testifieth the health and wealth thereof k He continued there til the Colonie was planted l Anno 1614. m Newes from Bermudas or Sommer Ilande There is report of some English this Winter come home which came from Bermuda to Ireland in a little Boat c. which I write not for want of certaine intelligence neither for that cause of the present state of the Colonie which some say are neere 701. English c. a Alan Cop. vel potius N. Harpsfield Dialogi vt testatur Io. Hart. b Bellar. de Not. Ecclesia lib. 4. Costeri Enchirid.. Posseuin Apparat l. 16. c. 6. Hill Reason 5. Archbishop Abbot c Acosta l. 4. de procurand Ind. salute c. 3. d And. Vega de f. operibus quast 3. * Ed. Brerewood of Religion and Lang. c. 10 lit Mart. de Valentia N. di G. ap Râv 3. Ouied. lib. 17 c. 9 e F. Damiano Fonseca del giusto scacciamento de Moreschi da Spagna which are also expressed in the Kings Proclamation to be Heresie Apostasie Treason conspiring with the Turk c. f Bar. Cas Hispan Crudelitat g P. Mart. mentioneth this graine of Gold and likewise the Spanish cruelties though not so largely as Casas h Marke this way of conuerting Infidels i P. Mart. dec. 3 l. 2. Cortes accustomed himselfe to haue 4. Kings attend on him Dec. 8. lib. 3. He burned 60. Kings their heires looking on k Nulla fidei pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur Lucan l Acost de proc. Ind. sal l. 4. c. 4. m Io. Metall Seq praefat in Osor n Exod. 5.8.17 o Benzo l. 2. c. 16 p Viracochie q Cap. 18. r Vid. ap Hak. Å¿ 2. Cor. 10.4 t Zanch. de Op. Dei p. 1. u Ap. Ramus vol. 3. x F. Ã Vic Rel. 5 De Indis y Arnauld against the Iesuits z Miles Phil. Ioh. Hort. ap Hak. a See Gomara Apollonius Benzo c. of these ciuill warres in Peru Powder-treason The words of Moses Gen. 1. interpreted without forme and void c Nouember 5. on this day this in the first Impression came in due order without any special appointment to the Presse d Psal. 118.24 e Matth. 17.4 See my Pilgrimes Part. 3. l. 4. c. 9. See Purchas his Pilgrims Part. 3. l. 3. c. 1. Large extent of the Sclauonian tongue Russian Chronicles Vasily or Basilius great Duke of Russia His two Sons Iuan Andrew Iuan succeedeth Entituled Emperour Nastacia the Empresse made a Saint Second Wife a Tartar Narue Castle Architect blinded that hee might not doe the like to others Crueltie Ice-fortification Plesco by a Magician deliuered Nouogrod spoiled with horrible crueltie 700000. slaine Another crueltie added The Crimme inuadeth Russia Iuans third Wife 1571. * D. Fletcher expresseth this number to bee 800000. which may seeme credible not only by the multitudes of Inhabitants at that time but also the Neigbour Villages and Countries fleeing thither for refuge Musco neuer recouered that losse Simon Monasts A strange Embassador from the Crim. The Tartars haue no Cities c. Stone wall about Musco Vologda on Dwina Bomelius Rapacitie Strange policy to frustrate debts by resigning his Empire Emperours Brother made away King Magnus A Roble is about a Marke English three Dollers His fourth Wife * Necesse est multos timeat quem mu'ti timent I saw it Fish fed sat on mans flesh Abhominable execution His purposes for England New Policy * Ant. Posseuinas Execution by Beares The Frier killeth the Beare with his Spear and is killed by her Iuans fifth wife mother of Demetrius Liuonia commended English Scots Capt. Silke of Bristow M. T. Glouer father to Sir Th. Glouer the Embassadour into Turkie Daniel Syluester sent from Q. Elizabeth hee could well speake the Language His death Iuly 15. 1575. Iuans discourse with the Author Sir Ierom Horsey sent from the Emperour to Q. Elizabeth Bomelius rosted I beheld all this Theodore marrieth Irenia sister to Boris whose Storie followeth Bewitched Letters sent to the Queene inclosed in a Bottle by Sir Ieroma Horseâ Eremiska is their name for Ierome By miles vnderstand Russian miles which are about three quarters of ours Osell an Iland in the Baltike Sea in 59. deg. Pilton Gratitude Sir Ier. Horseys returne into Russia The Emperors excesses This Mekita was Brother to Nastacia the Emperours first Wife and Grandfather to the present Emperour The Emperour striketh his Sonne some say with his staffe on his head Death and buriall of yong Iuan. So sayth the Originall Embassadour to the Queene for Lady Mary daughter to the Earle of Huntingdon Sir Ier. Bowes Embassadour into Russia You haue his Voyage c. in M. Hakluyt But England was not so happie Iuan consulteth with Witches Bodan Belscoy the Emperours Minion 1584. Vasiliwich his discourse of Gemmes An Vnicornes Horne cost 70000. Marks Iuan Vasiliwich his death * Supposed the act of Belskoy and Boris Theodore or Feodore Emperour Boris Protector The Protector and Chiefeâ Commissioners course of gouernment Russian gouernment vnder Theodore The great treasure which Basiiwich gathered See Doctor Fletchers Tract in my Third Part l. 3. c. 1. Iuan Bas his Conquestâ His Acts for Iustice His Acts Ecclesiasticall for Religion * Twelue thousand Robles annually 1582. His charitie 1575. His Castles Colonies His person described His buriall Sir I. Horsey sent Embassadour from the Emperour to Q. Elizabeth 1584. King Magnus his Widow seduced by Boris his policie One was committed to the Marshall the other forbidden her Maiesties presence Boris his bloudy staires to the Throne Publike audience to Sir I. Horsey Hee is now their Patriarch Sir I. Horsey is sent againe for England He is againe employed to the Kings of Denmarke and Poland and to Russia c. An. 1589. * These ships were of Lubek Danzik Stetine Meluin Quinborough loaden with munition for the Queenes enemies and therefore stayed c. * Master William Cockayne since Lord Maior of London A Popish Queene distaste Queene Elizabeth A kind of Crocodile Vilna A Protestant Prince magnifies Queene Elizabeth The
stones that they hid his face The Kings colour is yellow his garment being embroidered with golden Dragons These also are painted or carued in all the Palace Plate and houshold furniture the tiles also being yellow and set forth with Dragons This hath caused some to thinke them to be of gold or brasse whereas they are of earth as I haue often felt and yellow greater then ours and fastned on the roofe with nailes the heads whereof are guilded If any priuate man should vse the yellow colour or Dragons in priuate vse except of the Kings bloud it were high treason in him These of Royall posteritie being now aboue 60000. all maintained at publike charge and daily encreasing are a great burthen to the common-wealth being idle and as occasion is offered licentious on whom the King hath continuall spies None of them without the Kings leaue may goe out of the Citie appointed him vnder grieuous punishments nor may any of them reside in the Royall Cities Pequin or Nanquin The Kings Palace hath foure opposite gates by which whosoeuer passeth they alight off their horses or seates in which they are carryed and passe by on foot which is also obserued at Nanquin The South side hath three gates both within and without by the middle of which the King passeth in or out and is neuer else open others at the right or left hand No man speakes to the King but the Eunuchs and the rest of his Family others of all sorts speake to him only by Petition and those so full of complement that euery learned man cannot make them besides peculiar Magistrates are as it were Masters of Requests to examine all Petitions to bee exhibited At the beginning of euery yeere which is at the new Moone which next goeth before or followes the Nones of February the beginning of their Spring a Legate is sent out of euery Prouince to the King which is done with more formall solemnity euery third yeere And in euery Citie euery new-Moone-day all the Magistrates assemble to a place in the Citie where is the Kings Throne and his Armes gilded Dragons and doe worship on their knees before the same praying ten thousand yeares of life to the King The same is done yearely on the Kings Birth-day on which day the Magistrates of Pequin and other Legats out of the Prouinces and all his kindred come to the Court with gratulations and presents All others that haue obtained preferments by the Kings nomination are to goe before day and with appointed Rites to doe veneration to the Kings Throne hauing on a Vest of purple siluer and gilt head-tyres for that purpose The kingdomes adiacent are willingly refused of this King whose predecessors sometime possessed after freed them as bringing more burthen then profit which of late appeared in Corea which the Iaponites inuaded the Chinois defended as a butting on the frontiers but when the enemy left inuading the defender soone after voluntarily relinquished these new subiects Yet these Couchin-China Sian and other adioyning pay a tribute rather voluntarie for hope of protection or gayne then required exacted or by the Chinois regarded Fiue Prouinces Chiansi Cechian Nanchin Vquam and Sciantum pay their tributes in Rice and Wheat which are carried in the Kings Vessels and Ships thereto appointed which are before related to bee more then ten thousand belonging to these fiue Prouinces besides those belonging to Magistrates and Merchants insomuch that Merchants that dwell Southwards from it are forbidden to enter those streames lest the multitude of vessels should cloy vp the passage or endammage the King and yet they are so many that sometimes they are forced to stay many daies especially in drier seasons notwithstanding floud-gates made against Bridges wherewith they stay and heighten the waters which being full are opened and sometimes in the Cataract Vessels drowned as they goe out or in the King being at a million of gold yeerely charge to make one Streame called the yellow Streame of the muddle colour nauigable and safe for his ships which are drawne against the Streame by thousands of men Neither dare they aduenture passage by Sea for feare both of Pyrates and of the Sea it selfe which would bee farre more speedle and lesse costly The other tenne Prouinces pay their Tributes in Siluer His Courtiers are Eunuchs whom their poorer parents haue gelded in their youth in hope of this Court-preferment where after they are admitted by that Manderine appointed to this Office they are trained vp vnder elder Eunuchs to bee made seruiceable Of this drosse of mankind are in the Court ten thousand Pantogia supposeth sixteene thousand This King is esteemed more tyrannicall then his predecessors neither doth hee euer come abroad as they were wont once in the yeare to sacrifice in the Temple sacred to Heauen and Earth His Palace is farre more spacious but not equall in workemanship to those in Europe It is compassed with a triple wall the first wherof might enuiron a large Towne Herein besides the many lodgings of the Eunuchs are Hills Groues Streames and other things of pleasure The Iesuite our Author saith That he passed eight huge Palaces before became to the lodgings of those Eunuchs which were appointed to learne how to order their Clockes or Watches wherewith they had presented the King and there were as many beyond And ascending vp a Tower hee saw Trees Gardens Houses exceeding all that euer he had seene in Europe who yet had beene in many the most sumptuous buildings therein Within the third wall is the King with his women children and such seruants as are thither admitted When the heire apparant is proclaymed all his other sonnes are sent away soone after and confined to certaine Cities where they nothing participate in affaires of State otherwise are honoured as the Kings kindred liuing in pleasure in their Palace prisons vnto the third and fourth generation Neither is any meanes of greatnesse left to any the Royall kindred not dealing with affaires of Gouernment the Gouernours neither inheriting their Offices nor leauing either place or name of Gentrie to their Families And those which haue command of the Souldiers pay not their wages nor haue their Treasurers command of their persons and their imployments are out of their natiue in some remoter Prouince Vpon occasion of the warres against the Iaponites in Corea which much terrified this vnwarlike Nation the Royall Treasure being exhaust tyrannicall meanes were vsed to supply them There is report of many Gold and Siluer Mynes in China which the ancient Kings vpon some policies shut vp and this now commanded to bee opened Hee exacted also an imposition of two in the hundreth on all goods that were sold in the Kingdome which had beene tolerable if the Magistrates had beene employed but hee vsed his Eunuchs a proud shamelesse slauish and imperious Nation which in stead of searching for Mynes vsed their Commission in wealthy Cities where euery rich mans house was a Myne and
neere the Cape of Good-hope the Aethiopians haue no hope or hap of good colour whereas the hotter Countreys of Libya and in manner all America notwithstanding the Sunnes strait looking and neerenesse not allowing them a shaddow to attend them in the greatest height of his bounty know not this blacke tincture in the Naturals thereof But to returne and who will not returne to the Mines There are other Mines in the Prouinces of Boro and Quiticui in which and in the Riuers is found Gold not so pure The people are carelesse and negligent to get and the Moores which traded with them were faine to giue their wares in trust with promise by such a time to pay them in Gold and the people would not faile in their word Other Mynes are in Toroa wherein are those buildings which Barrius attributeth to some forren Prince and I for the reasons before alledged to Salomon It is a square Fortresse of stone the stones of maruellous greatnesse without any signe of morter or other matter to ioyne them The wall fiue and twenty spannes thicke the height not holding proportion Ouer the gate are letters which learned Moores could neither reade nor know what letters they were There are other buildings besides of like fashion The people call them the Court for an Officer keepes it for the Benomotapa and hath charge of some of his women that are there kept They esteeme them beyond humane power to build and therefore account them the workes of Deuils and the Moores which saw them said the Portugals Castles were no way to bee compared to them They are fiue hundred and ten miles from Sofala Westward in one and twenty degrees of Southerly Latitude in all which space is not found one building ancient or later the people are rude and dwell in Cottages of Timber All the people of this Region is of curled hayre and more ingenious then those which are against Mosambique Quiloa and Melinde among whom are many that eate mans flesh and let their Kine blood to satisfie their thirst These seeme prone to receiue the Faith for they beleeue in One GOD whom they call Mozimo and haue no Idols nor worship other thing They punish nothing more seuerely then Witchcraft whereunto other Negros are exceedingly addicted no such person escapeth death The like detestation they conceiue against Adultery and Theft Euery one may haue as many wiues as they will but the first is principall the other serue her and her children are heires A woman is not mariageable with them till her naturall purgation testifie for her abilitie to Conception and therefore they entertaine the first fluxe thereof with a great Feast In two things they are Religious in obseruation of dayes and Rites concerning their dead Of dayes they obserued the first day of the Moone the sixt the seuenth the eleuenth the sixteenth the seuenteenth the twentieth and the eight and twentieth because in that day their King was borne The Religion is in the first sixt and seuenth all the rest are repetitions aboue ten When any is dead after his bodie is eaten his neere kindred or his wife which hath had most children by him keepe the bones with some signes whereby to know whose they were and euery seuenth day they obserue Exequies in the same place where they are kept They spreade many clothes and set thereon tables furnished with bread and sodden flesh which they offer to the dead with prayers and supplications And the principall thing they request of them is the good successe of their Kings affaires These prayers they make being cloathed in white garments after which the good man and his family eate their offerings The Benomotapa must weare cloathes of the same Country for feare of infection others may weare forren cloth He is serued on the knee and when he drinketh or cougheth all they which are about him make a shout that all the Towne may know None may cough in his presence also euery one must sit in token of reuerence to stand is a signe of dignity which he affordeth the Portugals and Moores and is the chiefe honour can bee yeelded any The second honour is to sit on a cloth in his house the third that a man may haue a doore in his house which is the dignity of great Lords For meaner persons they need not feare to haue any thing stolne out of their open houses seeing the seuerity of Iustice doth secure them Doores are not for necessity but for honour Their houses are of pyramidall or steeple forme all the timbers meeting in the middest at the top couered with earth and straw Some of them are made of timbers as long and as bigge as a great ships mast the greater they are the more honorable The Benomotapa hath musicke whithersoeuer he goeth with singers and more then fiue hundred iesters which haue their Captain or Master of Reuels The royall Ensigne is a little plow-share with an Iuory point which he carrieth alway at his girdle by which is signified peace and husbanding of the ground He beareth likewise one or two swords in token of Iustice and defence of his people The Country is free and giues him no other payments but presents when they come to speake with him and certaine dayes seruice No inferiour comes before his superiour without some present in token of obedience and courtesie The Captaines of warre with all theirs bestow seuen dayes in thirty in his husbandry or other businesse Hee must confirme all sentences of Iudgement in his owne person there needs no Prison for matters are presently dispatched according to the allegations and testimonies that are brought And if there bee not sufficient testimonies then the matter is tryed by oath in this manner They beat the barke of a certaine tree and cast the powder thereof in water which the party drinketh and if he doe not vomit he is cleared if he vomit he is condemned And if the accuser when the accused party vomiteth not will drinke of the same and doth not vomit he is then acquitted and the matter dispatched If any sue to him he speedeth not but by mediation of a third person which also sets down the summe that the King must haue somtime at so deare a rate that the suter rather refuseth the Kings grant They haue no Horse and therefore warre on foot the spoyles are generally shared amongst all When he marcheth in the place where he is to lodge they make a new house of wood and therein must continuall fire be kept without euer going out saying that in the ashes might be wrought some witcheries to the indamagement of his person And when they goe to the warres they neuer wash their hands nor faces till they haue obtained victory They haue their wiues with them which are so loued and respected that if the Kings sonne meet with one of them in the street hee giues her way Benomotapa hath more then a thousand women but the first is