good Fortifications which afforded its Inhabitants the means of repulsing the Suedes in the late Wars It has also one of the finest Arsenals of Europe wherein is kept a Celestial Globe of six foot Diameter made by Tycho-Brahe the famous Mathematician who made curious observations in the Castle of Vranibourg in the Isle of Vren Vranibourg is really the pleasantest Situated in the World Besides the Prospect they have from thence of the Royal-City of the two Coasts of Zealand and of Schonen they have a full view of all the Ships which pass and repass the Sound from the one Sea to the other Roskild is the Mausoleum of the Kings Elsenour is near the strong Castle of Cronembourg whose Fortifications have lately been augmented The Isle of Fionia is the Appennage of the Prince of Denmark It s City of Ottensec was the place of holding the General Assemblies of the Kingdom which since the Year 1660. are to be held at Copenhagen The Isle of Bornholm was yielded to the Crown of Sueden by the last Treaty of Peace since which the Danes have given in Exchange of that Island an equivalent by the Propriety of several Lords in Schonen Norway possesses the Western part of the great Peninsula of Scandinovia whereof Sueden makes the Eastern A long ledg of Hills which divide 'em into two leaving Norway towards the Ocean Sueden towards the Baltick-Sea From hence they Transport Whale-Oyl dry'd Fish called Stock-Fish abundance of Timber for the building of Ships for the making of Masts and Sail-Yards It s Coast though of a vast extent has few good Harbours by reason of the small Islands Rocks and Shelves wherewith they are environed The Gulph of Maclstroon is also said to swallow up the Ships which approach it What is towards the Pole is full of Forests and of Mountains which have some Mines of Iron and of Copper In the Year 1646. near Opslo was a Mine of Gold discovered which gave the Inhabitants occasion to Publish abroad That they had the Northern-Indies this advantage lasted but as long as the Mine which was afterwards quickly at an end by over-much working This Kingdom has five Governments with as many Castles Bahus Aggerhus Barghenhus Dronthem Vardhus That of Bahus with a Castle of the same Name upon a Rock was yielded to the Suedes by the late Peace Berghen is the best City the Residence of the Vice-roy with the new Fortress Bourg and a Sea-Port where the Ships do easily touch and are safe from all Winds by the means of high Mountains wherewith it is surrounded The Merchants of the Anseatick Towns have their Magazines Dronthem the abode of the ancient Kings of Norway is very much decayed It has still the Title of an Arch-Bisho prick with the remains of one of the Finest and most Magnificent Churches in the North. Ships are secure in that Harbour but have occasion for good Pilots to bring 'em in The other Principal Havens of this Kingdom are in the Western part In some Countries of this Region is Bread made of the flower of Barley and Oats which they bake between two hollow Flints this Bread will keep as they say thirty or forty years The Norwegians are little subject to discourses of such a constitution that when they are in a Feaver a slice of a Gammon of Bacon does 'em more good than a new-laid Egg the inclination of several of them to Sorcery makes 'em have the reputation of selling Winds to Saylors Finmarck which makes part of Lapland advances into the cold Zone so as the day and night last there seven Months together The Inhabitants of this Country have nothing in property they accomodate themselves with the first place they like now in one place to morrow in another They live on their Fishing and their Hunting and only pay the Tribute of some Skins to the King of Denmark they carry their Fish to sell at Berg. The Castle of Wardhus with a Burough of three hundred Houses the most Northern of all our Continent is in the midst of a small Island where it serves to exact some Customs from those who go to Trade by the Ocean at Arch-Angel in Muscovy It s Port is in the Western part of the Island which is separated from the Continent by a Streight of a quarter of a League in breadth where there is passage for Ships It s Neighbourhood is not subject to Ice so as are the other parts of that Sea Of Sueden THe Monarchy of Sueden is the most ancient of Europe if it be true that it has had above a hundred and fifty Kings and that the first of 'em was the Son of Japhet one of the Sons of Noah Upon this foundation perhaps it was that in the Council of Basle a Bishop of Sueden demanded of the Presidents of the Assembly the Precedence for his King over other Christian Princes The most authentick Historians begin the enumeration of the Kings of Sueden at Biorno who was Crowned towards the year eight hundred and shew that the Kingdome was Elective til the Reign of Gustavus de Vaga who rendred it Hereditary in his Family in the year 1544. and who at the same time abolished there the Roman Catholick Religion to follow the Sect of Luther This pretext of Religion did likewise very much serve his Son Charles the 9th called of Sudermania when he deprived his Nephew Sigismond of the Crown who had been Elected King of Poland the third of that name and whose Successors unto Casimir the third did keep the Title of Sueden The King of Sueden stiles himself King of the Suedes of the Goths and Vandals Great Prince of Finland Duke of Schonen Estonia Livonia Carelia Bremen Verden Stein Pomerania Gassubia Vandalia Prince and Lord of Ingria He bears in his Arms three Crowns which sometimes have been Contested with him by the Kings of Denmark the present King is Charles the 11th of the Palatine House of Deux Ponts or Twee-brugge The Goths and Vandales are noted in History for their Conquests the modern Suedes for the Valour of their late Kings and for their acquisitions over their Neighbours which render 'em very Potent on the Baltick Sea where they have more Coasts than all the Princes together who confine upon it The Peace of Bromsbroo in the year 1645. obliges the King of Denmark to restore Jempterland and Herendal to Sueden to yield to it the Isles of Gotland and of Oeland to perpetuity with the Province of Halland for thirty years The Peace of Rotschil in the year 1658. does entirely cede to Sueden Halland Schonen wherein Landscroon is become a very considerable Town Bleking wherein is the new Port of Carlscroon the Isle of Bornholme which is since returned to Denmark by the exchange of other Lands the Fortress of Bahus and the Bayliwick of Dronthem That of Copenhagen in the year 1660. confirms the Treaty of Roschild with reserve of the Bayliwick of Drontheim and purchases the Isle of Ween The
Sorbet which is very delicious to drink their Coffee warms and fortifies the Stomack When they make their greatest Regale they give Coffee Sorbet and Perfumes It is the custom of presenting the Person they go to see this custom is practised almost through all the Levant their Zizi or Purses are each worth eight hundred Piasters The Grand Seignior takes a Pride in cloathing those who come near his Person to whom they are led by holding them under the Arms since the assassination of Amurath the 1. The Arabick and Persian Tongues are there in esteem though the Turks hold it for an Honour to understand no other than their own All Turkey contains thirty Beglierbyats which are as many general Governments on which depend several Sangiacats or particular Governments with several Castles Natolea at Chioutaie Caramania at Cogni Diarbekir Damaseus Sivas at Amasie Erzerum Van Tehilder Scheherezul Aleppo Maras Cyprus Tripoli of Souria Trebizonde Kars Mosul or Ninevah Rika all this in Asia In Europe there is Rumeli at Sophia that of the Sea at Gallipoli Budah Temesvar Bosna Caffa Candia Each Beglerbyat has its Revenue affected upon its Government Those of Kairo of Bagdat of Lazac of Yaman or of Aden of Abex of Bassora have theirs out of the Grand Seigniors fund those three last Governments have been taken from the Turks Most of the Governours are called Bashaws that is to say Chiefs They have Rank according to the ancientness of the Conquests and of the places whereof they are Governours A Beglierbey has three Tougs a Toug is a Horses Tail at the end of a half Pike that is carryed before Him A Bashaw has two and a Sangiac has but one Besides the Prime Visier who is all mighty there be five Visiers or Chancellours of State those of Natolia of Bagdad of Cairo of Rumeli and of Buda The Grand Seignior gives no considerable Government to his eldest Son for fear it should prove of ill consequence as it has done to some of his Predecessours The coming of him to the Empire is often the Sentence of Death to the other Brothers who are in the mean time kept like poor Victims in the Seraglio It has been observed in this Family of the Ottomans that the youngest Brothers have often attained to the Empire to the exclusion of their Eldest when the Grand Seignior means to humble any of his Bashaws he makes him marry one of his Sisters or some other of his Relations The Court of the Prince is called the Port because all must dance attendance at the door the Rank of the left hand which is the side of the Sword is in Turkey the most honourable whether in Councel or in the march of Armies Such Turks as are learned say that they imitate Grand Cyrus herein I say the Learned Turks for some of them are so little vers'd in Histories and Chronology that they say Job was the Judge of the Court of King Solomon that Alexander the Great was General of the Armies of the same King The People of the Law esteem the Right Side which is willingly granted them by the Soldiers The Forces of the Turks are great but his Neighbours are puissant and in possession of doing him a great deal of mischief The House of Austria the King of Poland the Great Duke of Muscovy the Republick of Venice are the most considerable of them in Europe The King of Persia in Asia As the Interests of these Princes are divers and that they have not any great Correspondence with one another it comes to pass that the Grand Seignior enlarges the bounds of his Empire to their cost As concerning Forces by Sea the Turks have none that are considerable and they have a saying that if the Sea be for the Christians the Land is for them The Turkish Armies are well disciplin'd the belief of Predestination besides the use of Opium renders them capable of all manner of attempts Their principal Forces consist in the Janizaries who compose the Infantry the Horsemen are known under the Name of Spahis These Spahis have Lands called Timars and furnish as many men as their Revenue has six and twenty Livers a year To avoid the hurry and trouble of Moveables they eat on the ground on a Leathern Carpet a piece of Tapistry which they carry upon the Crupper of their Horse serves them for quilt or mattress for Bolster or for Cloak They laugh at the Franks who are used to walk alone in Rooms and go very fast in the Street On the contrary to this they repose in their Houses on Velvet Cusheons and when they walk they still keep up their gravity The Officers and the Guards being in the Court of the Divan which is the Councel are such observers of Silence that not so much as one word is to be heard though there be often above eight thousand together When the Souldiers are punish'd for any Crimes they give 'em several blows with a Cudgel to the Janizaries upon their Buttocks to the Spahies under the Sole of the Foot The Principal Maxims of the Turks are to give Offices to Persons of Merit not to consider their Birth to ruine most of the Cities for the sparing the charge of a Garrison and to keep only as long as they please Treaties made in other Tongues than their own not to restore the good places they have once taken no longer to make their Armies so numerous that they may the better subsist not to allow of Gentlemen nor suffer Mahometan to remain Slaves to make use of the Tartars in their greatest expeditions for the better harassing and laying wast their Enemies Countryes to render the Insularies responsible for the Turks they give them for Governours to give Military Offices to Children who are born Christians and those of the Law to natural Turks Of Turkey in Europe THis Turkey consists in three sorts of Countreys those which the Grand-Seignior shares in with Christian Princes Hungary Sclavonia Croatia Dalmatia those which his Highness possesses entirely on the South of the Danube Bosnia Servia Bulgaria Romania those which were formerly known under the name of Greece Hungary is a considerable Kingdom and likely to be the Stage of the greatest War that has been for some Ages and has a peculiar discourse in the following Leaves Sclavonia properly taken is between the Drave and the Save sometimes most of those Countreys are attributed to it which are on the South of the Danube The Sclavonians have such a passion to be thought Warriours that they beg of God in their Prayers to dye armed in War and that their Enemies may dye in their Beds Croatia is the Countrey of the Croats where there be Horses of a mean size but very fleet Dabnatia is along the Gulph of Venice where the Turk possesses little besides some part of the Inlands of the Countrey He possesses only Narenca upon the Coast which place formerly pretended to the Dominion of the Neighbouring Sea Zara the best
Tubal so strongly affirming what they said that they obtained belief And the Duke shortly after went with a parcel of Musketeers and subdued them easily they having no offensive Weapons but only Slings They Worshiped the Son and Moon fed upon nothing that had life but had good store of excellent Fruits Roots and Springs of Water wherewith Nature was well contented And though their Language was not altogether understood yet many of their Words were purely Basquish Reduced in this Discovery to Christianity but easily discernable from all other Spaniards by their tawny Complexions occasioned by the reverberation of the Sun-beams from the Rocky Mountains wherewith on all sides they are encompassed The People must necessarily have been some remnant of the ancient Spaniards who hid themselves amongst the Mountains for fear of the Romans Their Language and Idolatry speak them to be such For had they either fled from the Goths or Moors there had been found some Cross or other Monument of Christianity as in other places or some such mixture in their Speech as would have savoured somewhat of the ancient Romans The Duke of Alva by whose means this Valley was discover'd was the same who out of Vanity had himself call'd an whole Army composed of one sole Person The other States of the King of Spain are near France part of Flanders In Italy the Dutchy of Milan Final Orbitelle the protection of Piombin of Portolongon The Kingdoms of Naples of Sicily of Sardinia Oran Marsalquivir Melille Pennon de Velez Ceuta along the Coasts of Barbary upon the Mediterranean the Isle of Pantaralee The greatest part of America Several Islands and Places in the East and West-Indies Portugal POrtugal is a Kingdom ancient for above five hundred years in the Western part of Spain where was formerly Lusitania In all probability this Name of Portugal came from that of Porto a Town considerable for its Commerce and from that of Cale a small Place near it It is from the South to the North about a hundred and twenty Leagues in length in breadth five and twenty thirty and sometimes fifty It s Situation upon the Ocean and the experience of its Inhabitants in point of Navigation has given occasion to them to make Conquests in the four parts of the World and principally in the East-Indies Their Conquests have been in above five thousand Leagues of Coast in Brasil in Africa and Asia All their Places were near the Sea for they had no other design than that of rendring themselves Masters of Commerce True it is that during the War they were oblig'd to sustain against Spain for eight and twenty years together and by reason of the great Garrisons they were oblig'd to keep in those parts against the Hollanders whom they have nevertheless drove entirely out of Brasil they made but small profit and this moved them to give some places to the English by the Marriage of the Infanta of Portugal with Charles the Second King of England The Portugal Provinces have all their peculiar Commodities they afford among other things Lemons and excellent Oranges They have Mines the Greeks and Romans went to seek in Portugal the Gold which the Portuguese go to seek in the Indies They are so populous principally towards the Sea as that there are reckoned above six hundred Cities or priviledged Burroughs and above four thousand Parishes The Roman Catholick Religion is only receiv'd in this Kingdom those who are of the Jewish Race have been constrained to be baptized and are now known under the Name of New Christians There are three Arch-bishopricks Lisbon Braga and Evora ten Bishopricks The Arch-bishopricks of Lisbon and Evora have each of 'em full two hundred thousand Livers yearly Income Inquisitions are at Lisbon at Coimbre at Evora the Assembly of the Cortes or Parliaments at Lisbon at Porto Twenty seven Places have Generalities which they call Comarques and Almoxarifats The Order of Christ which resides at Tomar is the most considerable of the Kingdom the Kings are the Masters and Heads of it for on this Order depend all the Foreign Conquests Its Knights wear the Red and White Cross in the Middle whereas those of Avis wear it green those of St. James red These have their Residence at Palmella near Setuval The Revenue of the Kingdom without reckoning that of the Indies is said to exceed ten Millions of Livers I can hardly believe what the Portugals say that their King Don Sebastian was at the Charge of a Million of Gold upon the Harness of a Horse that the Trappings of the European Ladies were only the remains of those of Portugal In the Year 1640. this Kingdom withdrew it self from its Obedience to the King of Spain Then was admired the Great Secresie that was kept in that Affair among above two hundred persons for above a Year together The principal Motives of this Resolution were the Permission which his Catholick Majesty gave to others than to the Portugals of trading to the East-Indies the Tribute of the fifth that was proclaim'd in the Year 1636. by which the Government exacted five in the hundred of all the Revenues and Merchandizes in the Kingdom The Duke of Braganza was proclaimed King under the Name of John the Fourth This Prince reigned sixteen Years and had for his Successour Alphonso the Sixth who was deposed in 1667. His Marriage having been declared null Pedro his Brother married the Queen was made Regent of the Kingdom and made Peace with Spain The Conspiracy in the Year 1673. against this Prince obliged him to have the King fetch'd back from the Terzera and put into the Fortress of Sintra near Lisbon About two Years since a Marriage was concerted betwixt the Infanta and Victor Ame Duke of Savoy but that Match is now wholly broke off and a new Treaty now on foot for the same purpose with the Prince of Tuscany This Kingdom contains six Provinces which are as many general Governments Entre Doaro and Minho Tralos-Montes Beyra Estremadura Alen-Teyo and Algarve Entre Douro and Minho is the most delicious and so populous that in the space of eighteen Leagues in length and twelve in breadth it has above a hundred and thirty Monasteries well rented fourteen hundred and sixteen Parishes five thousand Fountains of Spring-Water two hundred Bridges of Stone and six Sea-Ports Some call it the Marrow and the Delight of Spain Porto a City of four thousand Housholds drives a great Trade Bragra is renowned for the holding of several Councils by the Pretension of its Archbishop who styles himself Primate of the Spains Tralos-Montes has Minerals with the City of Braganza the Capital of a Dutchy of forty thousand Ducates Revenue wherein there are full fifty small Cities and other Lands which make the Duke of Braganza thrice Marquis seven times a Count and several times a Lord. The Princes of that Name now in possession of the Crown remain'd commonly at Villa Viciosa and had the Prerogative to the Exclusion of
Neuchatel Wallangery Biel Geneva Mulhausen Rotweil The six first Protestants and Rotweil Catholick Geneva is the best Fortified of all the Burghers or Citizens keep a very exact Guard for the preservation of their Liberty and that of Religion which is Reformed In the Year 1663. the French King obtain'd freedom for the Catholicks to say Mass in that Town where it had not been Celebrated in this Age. The Lake of Geneva is crossed by the Rhosne which mixeth not with its Waters there sometimes arise Tempests even in clear fair Weather because it abutts at the foot of the Mountains In the Country it s said that Julius Caesar caused his Treasures to be cast into this Lake when he was pursued by the Switzers hitherto they have been sought for to no purpose Savoy THis Country formerly the abode of the Allobroges is said to have been called Savoy after one of its Princes had drove away the Robbers It is full of Mountains which we generally call the Alpes tho' several Branches there have their peculiar Names Mount Cenis and the lesser St. Bernard make the two principal Passages for Italy 'T is very cold in these parts the Inhabitants by reason of their drinking the Snow-water are subject to the Goitre which is a swelling of the Throat proceeding from the crudity of that Water Nevertheless there are several Places in this Country both very pleasant and very fertile The Mountains have Marmotes which are seldom seen elsewhere they are great Rats who have short Legs rugged Hair the Mouth and Ears of a Squirrel four Teeth long and cutting they sleep full six Months of the Year without taking in any Food or Nourishment Savoy is reckon'd for the Principal and most Noble Dutchy of Christendom It 's certain that its Dukes have had Alliances with all that 's Royal in Europe After the Houses of England and France that of Savoy is one of the most ancient Ame the eighth had reason to say that he had Princes to his Vassals Most of the Gentlemen of his Dominions come from the Emperours of the East and West from the Kings of Italy from the Princes of Morea from the Counts of Geneva The Power of the Dukes of Savoy is so much the more considerable in that they are Masters of several Passages from France into Italy by the possession of Piedmont of the County of Niece and other Seigneuries Under Savoy is comprehended Genevois Choblais Faussigni Tarentaise Maurienne part of Bugey Chambri is the Capital of the Dutchy and the Seat of a Parliament Montmelion is the strongest in it with a Cittadel which covers the head of almost an inaccessible Mountain where the Keys of Savoy are said to be kept Anneci is the Residence of the Bishop of Geneva Ripaille was the retreat of Felix the Fourth before and after his Pontificate This Prince liv'd there with his Friends in such a disapplication from Affairs that since People say Faire Ripaille when they are merry and without disquiet Italy AMong the Authors who have written concerning Italy few there are but represent it as the most beautiful best and most delicious Country in the World Its situation towards the midst of the temperate Zone affords it all these advantages It is commonly compared to a Boot the figure whereof it does really resemble lying between the Mediterranean-Sea and the Gulph of Venice The Alpes which Livy calls the Walls of Italy and Rome are at those places where it touches France Savoy Suisserland Germany the Appennine Mountain runs quite through it The Po Adige Tiber and Arne are the greatest Rivers of this Country There is not one in the World observ'd in so short a course to have so much encrease as the Po and which is so inconvenient by its over-flowings notwithstanding the Dikes that have been raised for prevention The People of Italy are polite dextrous subtile and prudent extream in their Manners they were formerly Masters of the most considerable Empire that has been seen since the Creation of the World And now stand possess'd of the chiefest Dignity of the Roman-Catholick Church They obey divers Princes who are all Papists but very different in Power and Interests We are oblig'd to the Italians for the Discovery of the New World Columbus was a Genouese Americus Vespucius a Florentine The Cities of Italy are so much the more beautiful and better built in that the Nobility have commonly their abode in ' em Their Churches and other Edifices are adorned with excellent Pictures for which reason the Men and Houses are said to be all painted The Italian Tongue is deriv'd from the Latin Tuscan is received in the Court of Rome and amongst the well-bred people Their way of reckoning the Hours is very different from ours they regulating it according to the Sun 's setting then they count four and twenty Hours and at the entrance of the Night they begin to reckon the Hours of a New Day Insomuch that the number of the Hours at Noon rises and falls according to the Seasons tho' there are always four and twenty Hours for the Civil Day that is for the Day and Night together For Example On the twelfth day of August at Noon which we reckon twelve a Clock the Italians reckon seventeen and so what remains to finish the Civil Day of four and twenty Hours comprehends seven Hours which make up just the time which the Sun employs that day the twelfth of August since the Hour of Noon unto its setting The Sovereign Princes of Italy are the Pope the King of Spain who possess almost half of it the Duke of Savoy the great Duke of Florence the Republick of Genoa the Duke of Mantua the Duke of Modena the Duke of Parma the Bishop of Trent the Republick of Lucca The other Princes are call'd Petty by reason of the small extent of their Dominions The Republick of Venice is independent most of the other States depend either on the Church or the Empire for some Fiefs The Quality of Duke is in Italy more considerable than of Prince bating in the Territories of the King of Spain There are so many Archbishopricks and Bishopricks that the Kingdom of Naples alone has more than all France hath the truth is most of 'em have not so good a Revenue as our Country Curates Italy is divided into three great parts the High which may be called Lombardy the Middle and the Low According to this division there is found in the High Piemont Montferrat Milantz the Coast of Genoa Parmezan Modenois Mantouan the Domain of Venice Trentin The State of the Church Tuscany Lucquois are in the Middle the Kingdom of Naples possesses the rest There is a fourth part if we may add the Isles thereto Piemont according to the saying of a Piemontin is a City of three hundred Miles in compass One and the same Land produces Corn Wine and Fruits Turin the abode of the Dukes of Savoy is a lovely Town accompanied with a strong Cittadel It
Revenue It is now an Elective Empire wherein is a vast number of Sovereign States of which the Emperour is the chief The Laws of this Empire do allow of three Religions the Roman Catholick the Lutheran and Evangelical and the Calvinist or Reformed Nevertheless there be several other Sects tho' the Germans do almost all follow the belief of their Princes Germany has this advantage that it is in the midst of Europe and serves for the Seat of the Empire the Emperor governs it by the means of Diets which are much like Parliaments The principal Articles of the Government are contained in the Golden Bull which treats of the Election of the King of the Romans of the Duty of Electors of their Priviledges of the Authority of the Emperor of the means of preserving the Repose and Peace in the Empire This Bull is a small Book whose Original written in Parchment contains four and twenty Leaves and thirty Chapters It has a great round Seal of pure Gold fasten'd to strings of yellow and red Silk It has on the one side the Portrait of Charles the Fourth on the other a Castle with two Towers with these Words Aurea Roma The Election of the Emperor ought to be made at Francfort upon the Mein but this was not observed in the late Elections Besides the Assemblies which concern the Affairs of the Empire in general there be three sorts of 'em those of the Electors for the chusing of the Emperor those of the Deputies whereto the Emperor sends his Commissioner those of the Circles like to the Assemblies of the States of our great Provinces There be ten Circles in the Empire those of Austria of Bavaria of Suabia of Alsatia or of the High Rhine the Electoral or of the Low Rhine of Westphalia of High Saxony of Low Saxony of Franconia of Burgundy this last is no longer Convened Each Circle has an Ecclesiastick and a Secular Director who preside together in the Assemblies two or three Circles may assemble when one of 'em is attacked from abroad or disturbed with intestine troubles The Empire is much the same with that of the Romans tho' it does not comprehend so great an extent of Land the Princes or States whereof it is composed are of five forts the Emperor now of the House of Austria the Electors the Ecclesiastick Princes the Secular Princes and the Free Towns In the General Dyets there be three Bodies that of the Electors that of the Princes that of the Imperial Cities There are reckoned to be above three hundred Sovereignties in Germany who acknowledge the Emperor no farther than homage and in Resort The Dominions of the House of Austria be of three sorts those of Austria which are Hereditary to it those of Bohemia where it has the same Right those of Hungary which it has by Election The Emperor does commonly obtain either his Son or his Brother or his nearest Relation to be chosen King of Hungary in his Life-time afterwards has him Crowned King of Bohemia and if he finds any disposition has him Elected King of the Romans that is to say his perpetual Vicar and presumptive Successor to the Empire Without the Revenue of his Hereditary Countries the Emperor would not have wherewith to maintain a very considerable Train he does not possess any Land under the Title of Imperial Majesty His Principal Rights are the Erection and Investiture of Fiefs the granting of Priviledges the Right of Legitimation He may make Laws give Safe-Guards establish Posts make Parliaments compose Universities erect Burroughs into Cities create Offices puts Towns into the Ban of the Empire In short he may make Kings Dukes Marquesses and has the Superiority over all the Princes of the Empire who upon this account pay him a great respect The Electors are to the number of eight the Arch-Bishop of Mayence the Arch-Bishop of Treves the Arch-Bishop of Cologne the King of Bohemia the Duke of Bavaria the Duke of Saxony the Marquess of Brandenbourg the Prince Palatine These Electors Chuse and Crown the Emperor the Pope confirms this Election and Coronation Four Voices are sufficient to raise any one to the Imperial Dignity and at present the King of Bohemia has only his Session in the Election The Secular Electors may nominate themselves The Lands or their Electorates cannot be dismembred In the House of Saxony the Electorate is for the eldest alone who shares the other Seigniories with his Brothers The Elector of Brandenboug is the most Potent and possesses the most Land of all those Princes his States are above two hundred German Leagues in length for the most part separated from one another yet a Courier may go from one end to another and always lye upon this Electors Land The Ecclesiastick Princes are of several sorts the Arch-Bishop of Salzbourg the Grand Master of the Teutonick Order several Bishops and other great Prelates Abbots Abbesses who have no Voice but in Body These Princes are almost all absolute over the Temporality of their Benefices and Christendom has no Prelates so Potent as they are The Election of most of their Dignities belongs to the Chapters without the Popes or Emperors being to concern themselves therein As Germany is divided for Religion there remain some Lutheran Bishops who have the Title of Bishops until that they have Contracted Marriage and when they are Married they are called Administrators Among the secular Princes are the Arch-Duke of Austria the Princes of the Electoral Houses some Dukes Marquesses and Land-Graves There be also Counts and Barons who differ little but in Name and who have immediate Dependency on the Empire They have Session in Body which has four Voices in the States of the Empire they have each their own in their particular Assemblies several amongst them Coin Monies Nobles there be in Suevia or Schwaben in Franconia in the Land of the Rhine who are absolute over their Lands as the greatest Lords of the Empire are over theirs Several Principalities of Germany are often possess'd by one sole Prince and sometimes one Principality alone belongs there to several The youngest Brothers have almost the same Titles with the eldest The Free Towns which are as many small Republicks be principally of two sorts Imperial and Anseatick The Imperial have the Eagle of the Empire in their Arms either whole or divided have Right to send to the Diet where their Body has two Voices they are considered upon the Bank of Suevia and upon the Bank of the Rhine Thus are they divided by reason of the Benches where the Deputies of those Cities have their Seats The Deputy of the City of Cologne holds the first Rank of the Bench of the Rhine that of Ratisbon has the first place of that of Suevia Some have Noble Families by which they are Governed others have a Popular Government The Hans-Towns are Confederated together for the mutually succouring one another upon occasion against their Enemies for maintaining the Liberty of the Commerce for
acquisitions of Sueden over the Empire by the Peace of Osnabrug are the Dutchy of Pomerania Citerior and in the Ulterior Stetin Gartz Dam Golnau The Isle and Principality of Rugen the Isles and the Mouths of the Oder the Dutchies of Bremen and of Verden the City the Seigniory and the Port of Wismar Wildhusen in Westphalia certain Customs in the Rest of Pomerania and in the new Marquisate of Brandenbourg The War declared in the year 1675 by the King of Denmark and several Princes of the Empire deprived Sueden of many of these acquisitions which it was restored to by the Peace of Nimeguen in the year 1679. The Treaty of Oliva in the year 1660. was so advantageous to Sueden that the King of Poland did there make renunciation of the Title of King of Sueden for the future reserving only to himself the Title during his life to other Princes and likewise consented that Lifeland should henceforward be Hereditary to the Crown of Sueden This is to be understood of Lifeland on the North of the Duna where the only place of Dunembourg was reserved to the Crown of Poland conformable to the Truce made at Stumsdorf for twenty six years in the year 1635. The Peace with the Muscovites procured restitution to Sueden of all the Grand Duke or Zar had taken in Lifeland The King of Sueden has lately very much augmented his Revenue by the re-union to his Demesne of several Lands which had been Alienated from it He pretends to the Succession of Gleves and of Juliers by the means of his great Grandfather John Duke of Deux-Ponts who married Magdelain the third Sister of the Duke of John William In the States of the Kingdom the Peasants make a Body as well as the other Orders Sueden possesses part of Scandinavia which is the best of it as being towards the East The Cold is somewhat long in this Country often very sharp to provide themselves against it the Inhabitants do not make use of Furres as they do in Germany they have only Night-Caps Gloves of Wool Waist-Coats and make great Fires of the Fewel they have plenty of They have so few sick People in their Countrey that the Physitians and Apothecaries have hardly practice among 'em whereas Barbers are there in great request The Ministers and Officers of Justice do there keep Inns. The Inhabitants of this Province are all equally rich their greatest Revenues consist in Mines of Copper from whence most of the Europeans are furnish'd wherewith to make money their Canons and their Bells The City of Stockholme alone has in its Castle above a hundred pieces of great Artillery and there are held to be above eight Thousand in the Kingdom In the review of the Militia which was made in the year 1661. there were reckoned above Fourscore Thousand Men in Arms. This Countrey being full of Woods and Mountains affords very little Corn in time of scarcity the Poor eat often very bad Bread It furnishes Butter Suet Hides Skins Pitch Rosin Masts Posts and Planks The Towns are subject to Fire the Houses being only built of Wood. The Lakes and Gulphs are there more considerable than the Rivers Trade being only drove upon the Coasts neither dare the Ships venture upon that without a Pylot by reason of the number of Rockswith which it is beset The Ice is here so strong and firm in Winter that when it is but two Inches thick it is said to be able to bear a Man on Foot Waggons go on it with safety when it is half a foot thick The Snow does there afford the means of travelling in Sledges The Horses in this Countrey are proper for War they are very easily reared and rarely sick they see as well almost by night as by day they carry their man swimming with ease they leap great Ditches they have so much courage and agility that they attack with their Feet and Teeth the Enemies of those who mount them Six great Regions are principally known under the name of Sueden Gotia Sueden Lapland Finland Ingria Lifeland the three former towards the West the three other towards the East the Gulph of Finland between both and besides these the modern acquisitions before specified Gotia is divided into Ostro-Gotia and Westro-Gotia this last towards the Ocean the former upon the Baltick Sea According to the like division the Goths who subdued Italy were called Ostro-Goths and those who rendred themselves Masters of Spain Visi-Goths Calmar is a strong Town and the place where the Suedes until now did embark for Germany It s Cittadel was esteemed in the Northern Countreys as much as that of Milan in Italy Norkoping has works and forges of Copper which afford the Europeans the conveniency of coming to load Cannon there Lindkoping the Countrey of the Historian Olaus-Magnus is remarkable for the Victory of Charles of Sudermania since King of Sueden There be several Cities in these parts whose names be thus terminated in Koping which signifies the places where the market is kept Gottembourg a new Town and has its Sea-Port upon the Ocean Sueden properly taken communicates its name to the other Provinces of this State Stockholme is the Capital City of all the Kingdom accompanied with a Royal Castle and a Sea-Port at the disgorging of the Lake of Meler whereof was formerly the conjunction proposed with that of Wener for the communicating the Ocean and Baltick Seas and thus be exempted from the passage of the Sound This Town is now better built and much richer than it was before the War of the Suedes in Germany In the year 1641. they began to make the Streets in Right Lines and to build their Houses of one and the same Structure It is a safe Harbour for Ships which may ride there in security without Anchor There be three Channels which lead thither between several Isles and Rocks The Kings Ships remain at Elsnappen The Country round about is beautify'd with several fine Houses which the Soveraigns and most of the Senators have caus'd to be built Upsal accompanied with a great Castle is the Metropolitan and formerly the place of the Coronation of their Kings whose abode it formerly was When in Sueden were several Kingdoms that of Upsal was ever the most considerable of 'em This City has an University and the most renowned Fairs of all those parts It s principall Church was a stately Building and is said to have been embelish'd and wainscoted with Gold now it is covered with Copper Lapland has no Towns only some Habitations divided into five Countries which bear the name of their Rivers The Laplanders are very low of Stature the tallest among them not exceeding four Foot in height They have no other Cloaths than of Skins and when they are young they are so hardned to the cold that they afterwards undergo it with ease when without habilliments They have neither Wool nor Flax nor Hemp they have blades of Copper which they call Cipons which they exchange for
what they stand in need of they have neither Bread nor Corn nor Fruits nor Herbs nor Wines nor Beer nor Cattle nor Eggs nor Milk nor any other Commodity but they do not want Water and they have Rain-Deers which are a kind of a Stag extraordinary swift whose flesh is their Food and whom they also make use of in their Travels The great and swift Journies they go by their means having given occasion to the believing them Witches But to proceed there is one part of Lapland belonging to the Crown of Denmark and another to the Muscovite Mount Enarby has three Lodges for the Deputies of the three Nations and there the Suedes administer Instice Finland is a Dutchy which some Kings of Sueden have given for Appanage for their Brothers The principal Towns are Abbo and Nibourg There is in this Province a place near Ratzebourg where Needles toucht with the Loadstone are said to turn continually Ingria was taken from the Muscovites by a Treaty in the Year 1617. It is small but considerable for the hunting of Elks and for the Scituation of the Fortress of Notebourg in the midst of a great River and at the disgorging of the Lake Ladoga This Fortress was taken miraculously by the Suede all the Muscovite Garrison except two Persons having been swept away by a Disease which took them in the Mouth and hindred them from eating Lifeland was ceded entirely by Poland as we have said except Dunembourg It was formerly the order of the Knights Sword-Bearers but under Pope Gregory the 9th this Order was united to that of the Teutons or Cross-Bearers The Polanders and Muscovites had it afterwards in possession The Dutchy of Courland has its Duke of the Family of Ketler who does Homage to Poland It is a remnant of the great Mastership of the above mentioned order Riga is the Capital Town of Lifeland The Germans English and Hollanders trade much to that Town in Summer-time while the Sea is navigable In the Winter its Inhabitants traffick into Muscovy by means of their tâ—aineaux It is in a Plain upon the River de Dune which in that place is a quarter of a League in breadth Its Fortifications consist in six regular Bastions in several half Moons freezed and in Counterscarps pallisadoed The Dune has so rapid a Stream and often whirles along so much Ice that it sometimes changes its course from Riga as far as Dunemund In the Year 1656. I saw an Army of an hundred thousand Muscovites wast and moulder away before that Town which gloriously repulsed their efforts Revel has the Direction of the Commerce from Lifeland unto Muscovy Nerva is a strong place which bestows its Name upon a neighbouring River wherein the brave Pontus de la Gardie was drowned after Sueden was obliged to him for many of its best Conquests By the late Treaties between the Crowns of Sueden and of Poland the exercise of both the Catholique and Protestant Religion is allowed of in Lifeland as well as in Curland and Prussia The Isle of Gotland the greatest of the Isles of the Baltick Sea accompanied with five or six Havens belongs to the Crown of Sueden Several of its Rocks have ancient Gothick Characters It s City of Wisby still preserves Marbles and Houses which have Doors of Iron and Brass either washt with Silver or guilt with Gold which speaks its ancient Grandure This Town did formerly establish Laws for the Navigation of the Baltick Sea and gave beginning to Sea Maps Of Poland POland which was formerly but a part of Sarmatia is now the Kingdom of Europe of the greatest extent It is in length comprehending therein Lithuania above three hundred Leagues and almost as large in breadth It is fertile in Rye Wax and Honey rich in Furrs whereof the finest are brought thither from Hungary They digg salt near Cracow in famous salt-Pits which form under ground a kind of City They bake it in little Russia and the Sun makes it in Podolia This Kingdom has the conveniency both of the Baltick and Black Sea but the neighbouring Princes hinder the Polanders from making use of them to any great purpose The Rivers of Vistula Niemen and Dune fall into the Baltick Sea the Boristenes the Bog the Niester into the Black Sea The Vistula passes by the noblest City of this Kingdom The Mouths of the Boristhenes are possessed by the Turk who in the Year 1672 received the Ukrain into his protection after having subdued Podolia by the sacking of Caminiec The Kingdom of Poland is Elective the only one of Europe where the Inhabitants have kept the right of choosing a Prince The government is that of an Aristocratical Monarchy wherein the Senators have so much Authority that when they mention the State they say the Kingdom and Republick of Poland The Senate is composed of Archbishhops Bishops Pallatines Principal Castellins and the great Officers of the Kingdom The King like that of Bees can do no mischief to his Subjects that is to say he cannot in any wise act against any of the Nobility without the consent of the Senators and he can do 'em a great deal of good on his own part by bestowing on them vacant places His Person and his Dignity are so considered that it has not been known that ever any attempt was made upon any Kings Life of his Predecessors Before the Emperor Otho the 3d. there were only Princes in this State that Emperour recalled the Tribute which Poland paid the Empire Warsaw is the usual place of election and of the general Dyets Cracow that of the Coronation of the Kings The Archbishop of Gnesne Primate of the Kingdom performs this Coronation and has almost the whole Authority during the Interregnum for then he presides in the Senate and gives Audience to Embassadors He contests the Presidence with Cardinals for which reason there are three Orders the Church the Nobility and the third Estate which comprehends all those which are not Noble The Nobility is so numerous in this Realm that Poland is called the Kingdom of the Nobles In the Dyets the Nuncio's who are the Deputies of the lesser Nobility or Gentry of the Provinces do often oversway the rest of the Dyet But one amongst 'em has sometimes the Authority to cause a whole general Dyet to be broke up by a Protestation As the Catholick Religion is observed in this Realm so the Bishops have the first rank after the King then the Palatines and the Castellains The Castellains of Cracow is above the Palaine of the same name because that formerly the Chastellain behaved himself more valiantly than did the Palatine in defence of the Kingdom also does he wear a Royal Crown at the anointing of his Majesty at which Ceremony he precedes all the other Secular Senators The Palatine of Cracow carries the Scepter The Archbishop of Gnesne and of Leopold have under them sixteen or seventeeen Bishops as well within as without the Kingdom There be three other
Schismaticks in black Russia who first of all acknowledge him of Kiou and then the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople There is in this State several other Sects Here Gentlemen are equall the distinction and precedence proceeding only from the publick Offices they stand possess'd of they serve at their own costs in time of Wars but do not stay long in the Campagne Their infantry is commonly compos'd of Forreigners The Garments of the Polanders are long have their Beards shaved off their Chins only one Tuff of Hair upon their Heads upon the occasion of Casimir the first one of their Kings whom they took out of a Cloister he was in in France to place him upon their Throne They are almost all handsome well shaped well proportioned knowing for the most part the Latin Tongue The use of Spices is very common and with them in great request they misuse their Peasants in consequence of the absolute Power they have over them which certainly did occasion the revolt of the Cossaques and afterwards all the disorders of the Kingdom Their Cavalary is so considerable that if they were well united they might bring into the Field a hundred thousand Horse The confidence they have therein and the fear of rendring a King or Citizens too powerful have inclined them in all times to neglect their Fortresses Their usual Arms are their Cimiter the Sword the Battel Ax Carabine and Arrows The Cossaques have ever formed a Militia and not a particular Nation At the first they were Volunteers making incursions upon the Turks and the lesser Tartars these last call them by the Name of Roux because their Country makes a part of Russia King Battori reduced them into a Body and joyned thereto two thousand Horse to whom he appointed the fourth part of the Revenue of his Demesne for which reasons they were called Quartians They have power of choosing and of deposing their General who takes an Oath of Fidelity to their King Their number was first of all six thousand afterwards forty thoufull sand and now since twenty thousand Their abode is in the lower parts of Volhinia and of Podolia which is called Ukrain that is to say Frontier This Country is by much the most fertile and the best inhabited of all Poland so many fortified Buroughs have been there made since the beginning of this Age and so full is it of Inhabitants that in the late Wars there were reckoned at the same time two hundred thousand Cossaques besides a hundred and fourscore thousand Tartars and as many Polanders in Arms. There be Cossaques who have their retreats in some Isles of the Boristhenes which is not Navigable by reason of the Cataracts or falls which they call Porowis Their Custom was formerly to put to Sea with several light Ships and to go plunder the Coasts of the Grand Seignior upon the Black Sea Since they confederated with the lesser Tartars and have likewise courted the Protection of the Muscovite and that of the Grand Seignior who gave them in his name a Prince for the Ukrain insomuch that we may say that the Felony of the Cossaques the Irruption of the Suedes under Carolus Gustavus the Tumults and Irresoluon of the Muscovites the continual harassings of the lesser Tartars the Invasion of Ragotski Prince of Transilvania the defection of several Provinces the Insurrections of the whole Armies of Poland and Lithuania the different Factions of the Kingdom and the Caballs of the Neighbouring Nations to have a King Elected have given a rude shock to this Crown And this was what really moved the Grand Seignior to make war upon this Realm after the taking of Candia Poland has ten great parts four towards the West upon the Vistula Poland Mazovia Gujavia Royal Prussia six towards the East on the West of the Boristhenes Lithuania Samogitia Polachia Lesser Russia Volhinia Podolia These Provinces have been acquired for the most part either by Arms or Allyances They are divided into Palatinates the Palatinates into Chastellenies the Chastellenies into Capitanies The Government of the Places are called Starostyes Besides these Provinces there is a part of Muscovy which has been yielded to Poland in the year 1634. after that King Ladislaus the 4th being yet but Prince had the year foregoing gloriously relieved the City of Smolensko and reduced to extremity an Army of an hundred thousand Muscovites who were all constrained to ask his pardon as their Prince to save their Lives This Treaty which is called of Viasma acquired to Poland Smolensko Novogrodeck Sovierski Gzernihou and other places and by that same Treaty the King of Poland renounced his pretensions upon Muscovy The Truce of 13 years concluded on the 14th of February in the year 1667. left the Grand Duke of Muscovy in possession of Smolensko until a certain term as well as in part of the Ukrain on the East of the Boristhenes and procured the restoration of Dunembourg Polosk and Vitepski to the Crown of Poland Poland the most populous of all the Provinces is divided into High and Low In the former is Cracow where the Coronations of the Kings and Queens are performed and where is a great number of Germans Italians and Jews Of Cracow was the Popish Bishop St. Stanislaus who was killed by order of King Bogislaus Upon the Confines of Silesia stands the City of Czentochow with the Cloister of our Lady of Clermount a place extraordinary strong which the Suedes did twice besiege in vain in the year 1655 and 1656. Low Poland though much smaller than the Higher is called Great because it makes part of the Kingdom rather than the other It s City of Gnesne is ancient the abode of the first Princes It was so called upon the account of an Eagles Nest that was there found when it was built and which gave occasion to the Arms of Poland which art Gules an Eagle-Argent Crowned beaked and Armed Or bound under the Wings with a Ribbon of the same The Province of Mazovia alone has full thirty thousand Gentlemen Narsan is the Capital thereof and of all the Kingdom too with a Castle the Kings usual abode Gujavia has the City of Uladislau where the Houses are built of Brick which is somewhat extraordinary in Poland It has also the Lake of Goblo from whence issued the Rats that eat King Popiel Prussia which is of two sorts Regal and Ducal has a great number of Cities which were built by the Knights of the Teutonique Order Its Lakes and Sea Coast furnish abundance of Amber Nariembourg is strong Toren the Birthplace of the Copernicus drives a great Trade with a fine Bridge of Wood over the Vistule Dantzick one of the four Capital Hanse-Towns drives all the Trade of Poland and has not its like upon all the Baltick Sea It is free and has right of sending to the States of the Kingdom The King of Poland has there some Rights The City of Elbiens disputes with it the Precedence in the States of Prussia The generous
resolution of its Citizens to maintain the Authority of their King against the Suedes without being prevail'd with to accept the Neutrality was the cause of the preservation of the whole Realm under King Gasimir Lithuania is the greatest Province of those which compose the States of the Crown of Poland It has the title of the Great Dutchy wherein there is still at this day as many Chief Officers as in the Kingdom of Poland and of three General Dyets of the States one is to be held in Lithuania This Countrey is so full of Marshes and of Boggs that there is no travelling there but in Winter and that by means of the Ice Vilna its Capital City contains so many sorts of Religions that there is not a City in the World where God is praised in more several manners There be reckoned three Sabbaths that of ours that of the Turks which is Friday that of the Jews which is Saturday Samogitia is a Country where the Inhabitants live very poorly Polachia communicates its name to the Polanders who call themselves Polaques as being descended from Lechus their first Prince Lesser Russia has several other names It is called Black by reason of its Woods Red by reason of the Colour of its Earth Southern by reason of its scituation towards the South Leopold which put a stop to the progresses of the Turks is the principal City thereof Samoski the strongest Volhinia has for its Capital Kiou an ancient City upon the Boristhenes where the Cossaques have had often their Retreats It is now in the hands of the Muscovite who makes a scruple of restoring it to the Polanders Podolia has Gaminiec a Fortress which formerly resisted the Armies of the Turks of the lesser Tartars of the Transilvanians of the Walachians and which at length submitted to the Armies of the Grand Seignior in the year 1672. Ducal Prussia wherein stands Konigsberg belongs to the Elector of Brandenburg who now possesses its Soveraignty and independantly on Poland This City is so much the greater in that it contains two others in one and the same compass of Walls Pilau and Memel are two Maritime Fortresses the most important of this State There it was the Elector caused Frigats four years ago to be fitted out which have very much incommoded the Commerce of the Subjects of Spain Gourland is a Dutchy whose Duke of the House of Ketler does Homage to the Crown of Poland His Residence is at Mitaw Of Muscovy THis is the vastest Country of all Europe stiled formerly Sarmatia now Muscovy It is called Great and White Russia from the name of the ancient Roxolan People and upon the account of its great extent and of the Snow which so covers the Ground near two thirds of the year that to Travel there at that time one would have occasion to veil ones Eyes with black Crape so as formerly Xenophon made his Souldiers do in the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks The Soyl of Muscovy is cold humid full of Woods and Bogs which make it little inhabited What makes it believed that it is better populated than it really is is that the Country People by express order go to the avenues of the Citties through which the Embassadours of forreign Princes pass The cold there does often hinder the Corn from coming to its perfection It is there sometimes so violent that the Earth is wholly opened by it the Inhabitants find it no extraordinary matter to see their Nose Ears and Feet frozen they only sow in them parts in the Month of June the heats of July and of August do visibly forward the Harvest The Muscovites do not willingly afford the entrance of their Countrey to other Nations they care not to know any other Tongues than their own they only have their Children taught to write and read that is sufficient to be a Doctor They take for their Sirname the proper Name of their Father they write upon Roles of Paper cut into Welts and glued together to the length of twenty or five and twenty Yards they reckon the first day of the Month of September for the first of the Year they wear long Garments and put their Girdle below their Belly Their Collations are performed with the Bread of Spices of Brandy and of Honey The Peasants have recourse to somewhat an extraordinary means for the securing themselves from the quartering of Souldiers they provoke and set upon them their Bees The Office of Executioner is not dishonourable amongst the Muscovites od â—ir Armies are offten of a hundred and two hundred thousand Men. They are divided into five Bodies as ours are into three Boris Foederowits Great Duke of Muscovy towards the beginning of this age saw himself in the Head of an Army of three hundred thousand Men. Alexis Michaelowits after the defeat of Stepan Radzin had no less considerable Army when the Desiign was to hinder the Progress of the Turks The Infantry is there in more esteem than the Cavalry It sustains well a Siege and suffers patiently all imaginable hardship rather than yield which it did in our time in the Castle of Vilna and in the Fortress of Noteburg As for besieging of a Town the Muscovites understand nothing at all of that Art which they have made evident before Smolensko in 1633. before Riga in the year 1656. before Azac in the year 1673. Their Forts are commonly of Wood and of Earth upon the sinuosities of Rivers or else in Lakes The greatest strength of the State consists in forreign Troops and good pay and Pensions are given to the Officers when they have occasion for them The Prince has the Title of the Great Duke says he is discended from Augustus stiles himself Grand Tzaar or Gzar that is to say Gaesar and Emperour The Habiliments he is bound to wear make him appear like a Prelate When the Ministers of Forreign Princes are to treat with his Embassadours they have all the pain imaginable to agree upon his Titles by reason of his extraordinary Pretensions In the year 1654. for the making war in Poland and for supporting the Rebel Gosaques thener at Duke took for Pretext that some Polisheek â—ords had not given him his due Titles and that they had caused to be printed in Poland Books to his disadvantage One of the two present Zars Predecessours was so cruel as to cause an Italian Embassadours Hat to be nailed to his Head for that he had put it on in his Presence His Government is Despotick the Muscovites call themselves Slaves and he calls them out of conrempt by a diminutive Name little John little Peter his will alone is the Rule of his Subjects who hold themselves certain that the will of God and of the Grand Duke are immutable The Zarrs Treasures are said to be great he shuts up the most he can of Gold and Silver in his Fortresses of Bioliczero and Vologde and only makes his Presents and his Payments in Skins and Fish or in giving
in lesser Tartary The Isle of Gandia Waradin in Transilvania The Scituations of these Countreys and places is to be seen in the Map to know the importance of them Transilvania Valachia Moldavia lesser Tartary the Republick of Ragusa the Corsairs of Barbary and others hold of the Turks Of Hungary Hungary seems to have been so called from the Huns a People noted for the Devastations they have made in several Regions of Europe principally under Attila one of their Kings Most of the Towns of this Country have Names that have very little affinity one with another because the Nations who gave them at their setling themselves there had very different Tongues Hungary is commonly divided into High and Low the last towards the South is almost wholly in possession of the Turks the former towards the North for the most part in the hands of the House of Austria unless it be such places as have been lately seized or revolted with Count Teckley Two parts of it have been sometimes made separated from one another by the Danube the one to the West known under the Name of Pannonia the other to the East making part of ancient Dacia There be several Countreys the enumeration whereof is not here very material The House of Austria has there four General Ships the Turks four Bachalics or great Governments When the Realm of Hungary was in its Splendour it extended to the very Adriatick Sea as far as Greece and comprehended Transilvania Walachia and Moldavia from whence it came that the Emperour as King of Hungary pretends that the Princes of those three States be allowed of by him The Grand Seignior has maintained his pretension better in that point The Soyl of Hungary is fertile the Plains are beautiful and afford plenty of Corn the Hills Wine which is transported into Poland and other places where it is accounted excellent that of Tokay is in most esteem It also affords Salt and other Conveniencies of Life Several Great Rivers contribute to this abundance the Danube Drave Save which have their Sources in Germany the Teyss which is entirely Hungarian The Danube leads its Waters from the West to the East through the midst of the Countrey with less swiftnes towards Noon than towards the Evening and the Morning after a course of above six hundred Leagues it falls into the Black Sea by several Mouths The Teyss can carry Boats four Leagues from its Source It abounds so in Fish that they are said to make the third part of its Bed for which reason it often casts abundance of them upon the Neighbouring Plains and that in the publick Markets of the Towns those who retire into the Countrey have order to take them away Formerly the Hungarians put the Figure of the above mentioned Rivers in their Ensigns or Colours and since they have carryed the Cross therein having embrac'd Christianity under their Prince Esthienne who for that consideration obtained of Pope Silvester the 2d the Title of King and was crowned in the year 1001. The highest Mountains of Hungary are towards Poland and Transilvania the Richest between Buda and Strigonia The Hungarians are Warlike neither their Garments nor their Manners be very different from those of the Turks Their Tongues is almost wholly peculiar to themselves and nevertheless the Latine Sclavonian German and Turkish are in use among them The Emperour Ferdinand the 2d allowed the liberty of Religion in this Realm in the year 1622. The Revocation of that Toleration has occasioned perpetual Revolts and is the source of that great War it is now the Scene of This Realm has two Archbishopricks Strigonia or Gran and â—oloâ—â—a with ten Bishopricks the half of which is in the Infidels hands Four orders of Persons have Sessions in the States the Prelates the Barons the Nobles and the Burgesses of Free and Royal Cities The Dignity of Palatine is there the most considerable after that of King who if he acts in any wise against their Priviledges may be opposed by force if the Palatine consent thereto The Hungarians will not suffer to have any Palatines but of their own Nation The Archbishop of Strigonia is Prince and perpetual Chancellour of the Kingdom he Crowns the King after his election These two Officers have almost all the Authority Hungary has had eight Kings of the House of Austria from Ferdinand the â— Brother of the Emperour Charles the 5th unto Leopold-Ignace Though the Hungarian Nobility do not love the Germans yet they have not opposed this Election for the sheltering themselves against the oppression of the Turks who respect a Peasant as much as they do a Gentleman The greatest strength of the Countrey consists in light Horse the Troopers be called Hussars the Foot Soldiers Heidukes Besides extraordinaries the Emperour draws from what he possesses in Hungary about a million of Livers every year He raises this Money from the Mines by an imposition on each Horse and by the exportation of Cattle The Grand Seignior has there his Caraz which is four Livers a Head of those under his Sway This is so small a matter for either of those Princes that for the preservation of what they hold there they are obliged to employ their other Revenues The Turk pretends to all Hungary and the States which depend thereon by virtue of a Cession which was made thereof to Soliman the 2d by John Sigismond Son of King John Count de Cepuse and by the Queen his Mother In Upper Hungary there be several Free Towns which form thirteen Communities The King of Poland holds half of Cepuse with a dozen of Cities Most of the Frontiers are untilled and overgrown with Shrubs and Weeds Tho there be a Truce between the Austrians and the Ottomans yet they fail not of making incursions upon one another In the year 1642. the Truce was made between the two Empires for twenty-years In the year 1664. after two years War it was renewed the Turk remaining Master of the Fortress of Waradin and Newheusel this last in the very middle of all Europe The most considerable Cities of Hungary are Presbourg Cassovia Esperies Buda Agria Temesvar Kanise Presbourg is the Capital of all the House of Austria possesses in this Realm Since the loss of Albe Royale it has been the place of Election and Coronation of their Kings Cassovia is towards the Mountains with the finest Arcenal of the Country Esperies has Fairs which render it very populous The strongest places of the House of Austria are Javarin and Komorra the Bulwarks of Christendom Javarin is in a vast Plain environed with the Danube and the Raab which sometimes gives it its Name defended with several Bastions faced with Brick with Ravelins between both Having formerly been taken by the Turks it was petarded and retaken with as much happiness as boldness by a French Gentleman called Vaubecour Komorra has the Danube for its Moat or Ditch and cannot be besieged but by three Bodies of Armies The Isle of the
as now Languedoc comprehended Cevenes The other great Governments are not subdivided into great Provinces Now follow the capital Cities according to that distribution Amiens Rouen Paris Troyes Rennes Mans No-gent-le-Retrou Orleans Nevers Tours Anger 's Poictiers Angoulesme Bourges Dijon Bourg-en-Bresse Lyon Clermont Moulins Gueret Pau Auch Bourdeaux Saintes Perigueux Limoges Cahors Rodes Toulouse Viviers Grenoble and Aix Spain SPain is a Great Peninsula two hundred Leagues in length and the same in breadth in the most Western part of Europe betwixt the ninth and twenty fourth Degree of Longitude and between thirty five Degrees and a half and forty Degrees and a half of Northern Latitude This Peninsula is upon the Ocean and upon the Mediterranean-Sea towards the North-East it borders upon France for the space of above a hundred Leagues the Pyrenean Mountains between both Several things concur to the making Spain thinly inhabited its Fertility Mountains the barrenness of its Women the banishment of the Moors of whom above eight hundred thousand were constrain'd to depart thence in the Year 1610 the great number of persons that are sent to Colonies and the Wars abroad From whence it proceeds that never above seven thousand natural Spaniards were ever seen together in any Army The Heat reigns there more than the Cold those Provinces which lye South-East are more fertile than the rest The Mountains without Trees and the mighty Rocks are there called Sierra This Country has but scarcity of Corn but abounds with the strongest Wines the most delicious Fruits and the sweetest Oyls of Europe The Gold and Silver which is brought into Spain from America is very capable of purchasing it all the other Conveniencies of Life In the Year 1618. it was verified that since the first discovery of this New World by Columbus the Spaniards had drawn from thence above fifteen hundred thirty six Millions of Gold These are immense Sums but as the Traders of Europe have the best share in them they have not enrich'd Spain proportionably to what it has been weakned by the Colonies that have been sent thither Moreover the necessity of having foreign Commodities drains and exhausts the better part of those Riches This made Henry the Fourth of France say That the Spanish Pistolls spoke their Riches in their own Dominions but carried elsewhere did but shew their Poverty Mines there are of Copper Quick-silver Lead Iron and Salt in Spain those of Gold and Silver have been spared since they have had the conveniency of those of America The Horses of this Region are generally in esteem those of Andalousia above all others yet they travel commonly in this Countrey upon Mules and Asses by reason of the Mountains No Prince whatsoever has so much Land as the King of Spain He may with justice style himself the greatest Territorian of the Universe if I may use that Term. True it is that his Dominions lye separated from one another and dispers'd in the four parts of the World Some of his Predecessours have boasted that the Sun never set in their Dominions and that the extent of their Territories was only to be measured by the Course of that Planet In some Letters which the Kings of Persia have address'd to them in the foregoing Age there is To the King who has the Sun for a Hat Among other Titles they wear that of Catholick particularly since Ferdinand the Fifth and that of the King of Spains they have taken up this last but of late years These following are those which Philip the Fourth took in the Pleinpouvoir which he gave in the Year 1659 to Don Lewis de Haro for the treating of a Peace between France and Spain Dom Philip by the Grace of God King of Castile Leon Arragon the two Sicilies Jerusalem Portugal this Title was left out in the Plein-pouvoirs of the Peace of Nimmeghen Navarre Grenada Toledo Valencia Galicia Maillorca Seville Sardaigna Cordova Corsica Murcia Jaen the Algarbes Algezire Gibraltar the Canary Islands the East and West-Indies the Islands and Terra firma of the Ocean-Sea Arch-Duke of Austria Duke of Burgundy which is no longer allow'd him by the French King since the Cession of the Franche Compte Brabant Milan Count of Hapsbourg Flanders Tirol Barcellonna Lord of Biscay and Malines The principal Order of Knighthood in Spain is that of the Golden Fleece the others are those of St. James of Calatrava of Alcantara and Montese the Kings of Spain have attributed to themselves great Masterships and Jurisdictions of 'em under the Name of Perpetual Administrators There are moreover above fourscore Grandees who are much the same with the Dukes and Peers of England this Dignity of Grandee is setled upon Lands and falls to Females The Spaniards esteem Arts as disnonourable upon which account most of their Artificers are strangers They have always maintain'd the reputation of being Faithful and Loyal to their Prince they are slow in their Resolutions and their Tediousness and Procrastination makes them often lose good Occasions Some of 'em have the vanity to say That their Country furnishes the World with Generals of Armies That God spoke to Moses upon Mount Sinai in the Castillian Tongue That the Lord of the Universe must be a Spaniard born and other such great Words Spain sometimes called Iberia Hesperia Mus-Arabia was subject to strangers during a long while the Celtae Rhodiots Phenicians Carthaginians Romans Vandals Swabians Goths and the Moors have commanded and domineer'd there over all or in some parts Its first Division was into two parts the one on this side the other on that side the Ebre which then bounded the Empires of Rome and Carthage since what has been called Vlterior Hispania has only comprehended Betica and Lusitania In each part the Romans establish'd fourteen Convents or Benches of Justice During the decay and fall of the Domination of the Moors there arose five Kingdoms Leon with Castile Aragon Navarre Portugal and Grenada After which the whole Country fell under the sway of the King of Castile the King of Portugal and the King of Arragon It is principally by these three Titles that the King of Spain has possess'd all his States wherein are eight Vice-Roy-ships In our time the King of Castile has been a peaceable Possessour of all these Kingdoms tho' that since Pelagius the Succession of these Kingdoms has fallen ten times upon Females In the Year 1640 Portugal proclaim'd the Duke of Braganza King The principal Rivers of Spain are the Douere abounding in Fish the Tagus renowned for its golden Sands Guadiana which is said to run under Ground Guadalquiber is the deepest Iberus famous for its Name All of them have their Source in Castile and are not Navigable like many Rivers in other Countreys Guadiana has given the Spaniards occasion to say That their Land affords the richest Bridge upon Earth that it daily feeds above ten thousand Cattel and that a great Army may march over it in Battalia the Ancients seem
the Flemmings wedded to Commerce to Manufacture and Navigation Both People are industrious in making Handy-craft-Works They have two sorts of Tongues the Walloon which is a corrupted French and which becomes purer since the French King's Conquests and the Flemming or Low Dutch The first is particularly in Artois in French-Flanders and in Haynault The Vnited Provinces and the Provinces of the King of Spain were in War until the Year 1609. when they made a Truce of Twelve Years His Catholick Majesty did then treat with the States General of the Vnited Provinces in quality and as holding them for Free-Countrys Provinces and States to whom he had no Pretension In the Year 1648. the Peace was made there before that of the Empire which was concluded at Munster in the same Year And since the Spaniards of Flanders and the Hollanders have thought fit to live neighbourly and in good intelligence nay to confederate together for their mutual defence The War having been declared by the French King upon the Hollanders in the Year 1672. the Spaniards fail'd not to take part in it for the traversing the Conquests of his Christian Majesty which cost them very considerable Cities and Provinces whereas the Hollanders recover'd what they had lost The Princes of Orange of the House of Nassau have almost ever had the Military and Civil Government in the Vnited Provinces The Vnited Provinces of the Low-Countries THe Vnited Provinces are so call'd from their Union at Vtrecht in the Year 1579. They are commonly called Holland that being the richest most populous Province of 'em all Their situation is towards the end of the Rivers Rhine and Meuse in the Northern part of the Low Countries between the Dominions of the King of Spain in Flanders England which is separated from 'em by the Sea and several Principalities of the Empire The Princes of the Empire who are their Neighbours are the Duke of Newbourg in his Dutchy of Juliers and his Barony of Ravestein the Elector of Brandenbourg in his Dutchy of Cleves the Elector of Cologn the Bishop of Munster the Count de Bentheim the Prince of East-Friesland in the Territories of the same Name The Vnited Provinces which before owed subjection to the King of Spain have since been independent of one another or to say rather as many Republicks which altogether make now but one under the Name of the States General of the Vnited Provinces of the Low Countries The Dignity of this State residing in the States General the Absolute authority over things reserved by reason of the alliance has remained in the States of each Province The Seal of the Republick is a Lion holding a Bundle of Seven bound Arrows with allusion to as many confederated Provinces these Provinces as the Politicians say have not always been so well united but that they resembled a Body which has several Heads some of which would draw it on one side while the others endeavour to tug it on the other There is no State in the World of so small an Extent which has so great a number of Fortresses and which seems better defended by the Nature of the Places than this It has the See and several Rivers which defend it the Rhine the Meuse the Waal the Issel Notwithstanding all these Defences the French King made surprising Conquests in the Year 1672. by the reduction of three Provinces and sixty considerable Towns which proceeded from raw unexpert meer Citizens sons being imploid in the Soldiery Besides the Vnited Previnces and the Places that are in them the States General have in Flanders the Cities of Sluyce Middlebourg Ardembourg Sasvan Gaunt Axel Hulst in Brabant Lisle Bergen-ap-Zoom Breda Boisleduc Grave and they have Maestricht in the Bishoprick of Liege Dalem Fauquemont Bolduc in the Land of Outre Meuse These Places were taken by the French King but restor'd to them by his Majesty in consideration of the Peace of 1678. In Germany they had upon the Rhine Orsoy Wesel Reez Emerik Genep in the Dutchy of Cleves Rhineberg in the Electorate of Cologn these are return'd into the hands of its true Masters in consideration of the aforesaid Peace Towards Westphalia the States General have Garrisons in the City of Embden in the Forts of Eideler and Leer-ort which belong to the Prince of East-Friesland There are in Holland two Companies of Merchants the one for the East-Indies the other for the West The first of these Companies seems it self to be a Potent Republick It boasts of having subdued more Leagues of Country than there are Acres of Land in all Holland Of having fourteen or fifteen thousand Soldiers and a Number of Ships in its Service Of employing commonly above fourscore thousand Men. It had long since above twenty very considerable Fortresses as many Magazines upon the Coasts of the Indian-Sea where it has endeavour'd to constrain several Petty Kings not to receive into their States any other Nations of Europe than their own The West-India Company is weak and feeble in respect of the other whether that the Portugals have had more right and more strength than the Hollanders in Brazil Or the term of the Concession of Priviledg obtained by these from their Sovereign be expired Or in short that the Company of the East-Indies has us'd all its efforts to ruin the other The Hollanders have hitherto been Powerful at Sea have often beaten the French the Spanish Fleets nay made Head against the English who are Sovereigns of the Sea The Number of their Ships is so great that if we may believe their Partizans it equals that of the rest of Europe They have always in their own Country wherewith to Equip a great Number tho' their Land neither produces Wood nor other things necessary for that purpose They are able to Arm out above a hundred to Sea if they had but the Mariners and Soldiers they had formerly At their first Establishment they only pretended to Fishing and Trading from Port to Port since they have drove the richest Commerce that is carried on at Sea Amongst the Vnited-Provinces there are four towards the West Holland Zealand Vtrecht Guelderland Four towards the East Zutphen Over-Yssel or Trans-Isalane Friesland Groninghen Those who reckon but seven make but one of that of Guelderland and Zutphen In the Assemblies these Provinces have ever given their Votes in the following Order Guelderland with Zutphen first of all then Holland Zealand Vtrecht Friesland Over-Yssel finally Groninghen with the Ommelands Each of 'em sends its Deputies to the Hague where are form'd three Colledges or Assemblies of them the States-General the Council of State and the Chamber of Accounts In the Assembly of the States-General all the Provinces above-mention'd must consent in General and in Particular to the Resolutions that are taken therein and do not follow the plurality of Voices Each Province may send thither one two three four or five Deputies but all these Deputies have together but one Voice and have right to
the midst of the Low Countries has four Cities the Capitals of as many Quarters Bruxels Louvain Breda Boisleduc Bruxels is very populous the abode of a Prince or Governour whose Palace is very spacious Its Chanel which leads to Antwerp is one of the finest Works of the Country with prodigious Sluces which have cost immens Sums As well as at Avignon some of its Publick Edifices are to the number of seven The Church of St. Gudule is one of the finest of the Country The Neighbourhood of the Forest of Soignes furnishes its Inhabitants with Game for hunting Louvain which some make to pass for the Capital of Brabant is one of the greatest Cities of Europe with a famous University which gives occasion to the By-word That it is a City of Scholars as Bruxels is a City of Courtiers Antwerp a City of Merchants Mechelin a City of Advocates and Lawyers by reason of its Parliament Tillemont was taken by force in the Year 1655. by the French and Hollanders Breda belongs to the Prince of Orange and Hertoghen-Bosch or Bois-le-Duc to the States General of the Vnited Provinces as do also Berghen-op-Zoom and the Grave All these Places are well fortified Bois-le-Duc is so extraordinary strong by reason of its Marshes that it pass'd for Impregnable before it was taken upon which account they were us'd to say in Holland out of Raillery I will pay you when Bois-le-Duc is became a Beggar that is to say never The Brabanzon pretends the Priviledge of deliberating nothing out of the Limits of their Country The Marquisate of the Holy Empire has this Name from its Site upon the ancient bounds of France and the Empire whither the Emperour sent Governours who were call'd Marquesses There is only the City of Antwerp one of the best and most pleasant of the Netherlands the Emperour Charles the Fifth call'd it his Sunday or Holy-day Town the importance of its Situation has occasioned the making sumptuous Fortifications which consist of ten great Bastions and one of the strongest Cittadels of Europe flank'd with five regular Bastions fac'd with Brick and hewed Stones This Cittadel was built towards the higher part of the River rather than towards the lower that it might command the Town and receive Succours from the Country subject to its Prince the Duke of Alva who had made it plac'd his Statue therein which has since been taken away The Jesuits in Antwerp have a Church all of Marble look'd upon as one of the finest in the World Formerly above two hundred thousand persons were reckoned in this Town and about two thousand five hundred Ships upon the Scheld But the Inhabitants of this place do not now drive that great Trade they did since the Hollanders have seiz'd upon the Avenues of their River The City of Mechelin is the Residence of the States or Parliament of the Catholick Provinces of the King of Spain It s Barony is very small the Women of Mechlin being ready to lye in are said to cause themselves to be carried upon the Lands of Brabant that so their Children may enjoy the Priviledge of the Brabantins Namur is a Town of importance by reason of its passage over the Meuse at the place where it receives the Sambre from hence they transport Marble Ardoise Pit-Coal Charle-Roy upon the Sambre is one of the best Fortresses in the Netherlands Limbourg has only the Town of the same Name which is in any consideration with a strong Castle upon a Rock The French King made the Conquest of it in the Year 1675. but was bound to restore it to the King of Spain by the Peace of Nimmeghen The Bishoprick of Liege owes subjection to its Bishop as well in Spirituals as Temporals the Inhabitants gave it formerly the Name of Grace He is Elected by the Chapter his Residence was formerly at Tongres and Mastricht This Country is of a great Extent with several places lying within the Marches of the neighbouring Provinces Liege is a trading Town and as they say the Paradise of the Ecclesiasticks It was observ'd in the Year 1131. that there were amongst the Canons of its Cathedral Church nine Sons of Kings fourteen Sons of Dukes nine and twenty Sons of Counts and seven Sons of Barons 'T is very populous notwithstanding it was ruin'd by the last Duke of Burgundy When the ancient Priviledges subsisted there it had thirty two Trades and a Body of two and twenty Burgesses composed of Ecclesiasticks of Nobles and of the third Estate or Commonalty these twenty two were call'd most Honoured Lords and had the principal direction of Affairs The Elector of Cologn its Prince caus'd a Cittadel to be built here which was demolish'd by the French in the time of the late Wars The Town of Spa is known to us for its Medicinal Water Mastricht for its Fortifications and for the famous Sieges it has sustain'd It is made up of two Towns Mastricht reckoned to belong to the Duke of Brabant Wick of the Appurtenances to the Bishoprick of Liege The Peace of Nimmeghen has resetled the Hollanders in possession of Mastricht Cambresis is near France The City of Cambray has a good Cittadel the guard whereof was only confided to natural Spaniards when their King was Master thereof It has a Clock singularly wrought by the hand of a Shepherd and furnishes extraordinary fine Linnen or Cambrick Since the Year 1595. the Kings of Spain have attributed to themselves the Tempoporal Jurisdiction of Cambray the Emperours did not contradict them in this matter because they are of the same Family and the Arch-bishops had to no purpose solicited the re-establishment of their Right those Prelates style themselves Arch bishops and Dukes of Cambray Counts of Cambresis Princes of the Holy Empire tho' commonly they have neither Session nor Voice in the Diets In the Year 1677. the French King commanding his Army in person made himself Master of the Town and Cittadel of Cambray which were confirm'd to him by the Peace of Nimmeghen Lorrain LOrrain is a Country with the Title of Dutchy considerable for several advantages particularly for its situation between Champagne French-Luxembourg the Palatinate of the Rhine Franche-Comte all these Provinces are possess'd by the French except the Palatinate It brings forth plentifully all the Conveniencies of Life unless it be Oyl It has Jasper and stuff for the making of Drinking and Looking-glasses The Lorrainers are bigotted Catholicks There are reckoned three Bailiwicks that of Nancy Vaudrevange and Vauge where is Mirecourt Under the general Name of Lorrain may be comprehended the Dutchy of Bar which is of a double kind there is Barrois Royal on this side the Meuse and Barrois Ducal beyond the same River several Territories adjacent the Bishopricks of Metz Toul Verdun formerly Principalities of the Empire Imperial Towns of the same Name which since the Reign of French Henry the Second have own'd Subjection to the Crown of France It is to be noted that these Bishops are
only Temporal Princes and that the Diocesses of the same Name which acknowledge their Bishop for Spirituals have very different bounds In the Year 1680. several places depending on these Bishopricks and which had been dismembred from 'em at diverse times have been adjoyned to the Crown of France The Rivers of Meuse Moselle Saone and Sare have their beginning in Lorrain Under the Emperour Nero they had a design of communicating the Ocean and the Mediterranean-Sea by a Chanel drawn from the Moselle into the Soan which is but very little distant from it and which falls into the Rhosne The Sare is navigable and gives its Name to several places by and through which it passes The French King has caused Sar-Louis and other Fortresses to be built there for the securing the Frontiers of his Dominions Nancy the Capital of the whole Dutchy has had the best Fortifications and Works that were ever seen in Europe Without all these Defences it did gloriously resist Charles Duke of Burgundy who lost the Battel and his Life near the Walls in the Year 1477. In the Battel of Morat in the Year 1476. which followed that of Granson and preceded that of Nancy the Diamond of this warlike and unfortunate Prince fell into the hands of a Suiss who thought himself well payed in having for it a Florin of Gold tho' this Diamond was one of the finest things of the kind in Europe Another Suiss was so lucky in the same Battel as to find the Collar of the Golden Fleece of an inestimable value which the Duke of Burgundy was wont to wear and contented himself with two Crowns that were given him for it in Milan whither he went to sell it at the dearest rate he could Now Nancy is in possession of the French King who offers to yield up Toul to the Duke of Lorrain in case he will sign the Treaty of Nimmeghen The Burrough of St. Nicholas keeps the Relick of its Patron which occasions a great concourse of people to that Town as well as its Fair. Rozieres and Dieuse have Salt-Pits of a great Revenue as have also Marsal Chasteau-Salins and Moyenvik The Annual Revenue of the Salt-Pits of Marsal has commonly been three hundred thousand Livres Luneville has a fine House Remiremont a famous Abby of Ladies Plombieres which is not wall'd is known for its Baths The Dutchy of Barr has the Cities of Barleduc St. Mihel and Pont-a-Mousson Vaucouleurs one of the adjacent Territories is noted for the Birth of the Maid of Orleans in a neighbouring Burrough called Arques Mets Toul and Verdun have been more strictly united to the Crown of France by the Treaty of Munster by that of the Pyrences and by good Cittadels Metz had formerly the Title of a Kingdom which was that of Austrasia with the right of coining Money it is now the Residence of a Parliament 'T is of a large circuit and nevertheless in the Year 1552. it gloriously repuls'd the Emperour Charles the Fifth who besieg'd it with an Army of a hundred thousand men from thence came the Proverb amongst those of the Country when any one undertakes any difficult matter they say He will do e'en as much as the Emperour before Metz. This Disgrace stuck so sensibly close to that glorious Prince's heart that there happening presently after the insult he receiv'd from Duke Maurice of Saxony it 's said to have obliged him to resign his Dominions to his Son and his Brother and make the retreat he did in the Monastery of St. Just in Castille to the amazement of the whole World The Dukes of Lorrain have hitherto styled themselves Princes of the Empire and the Empire has pretended Right of Sovereignty over their Dutchy of Lorrain Nevertheless they pretend to be exempted from the Jurisdiction of the Imperial Chamber of Spire and from all the Contributions by the Empire They have neglected to assist at the Dyets of the Empire that so they might not be bound to give place to such Princes as they esteemed less than themselves The Dutchy of Barr is a Fief depending on the Crown of France and chiefly what is on this side the Meuse as for what is beyond it he pretends its dependence on him under the Title of Marquisate of Pont or Ponta-Mousson From whence it comes that the Inhabitants Barrois are esteemed Natural Frenchmen Anthony Francis Charles the Third Dukes of Lorrain did Homage for it to the French Kings The War of Lorrain which followed that of Italy was made upon the account of this Homage not being paid The Dutchy of Barr was afterwards united to the Crown of France Since which there have been several Treaties between the French Kings and the Dukes of Lorrain The Franche-County THis Country which made part of Great-Burgundy is known under the Name of High-Burgundy by reason of the Course of its Rivers and under that of Franche-Comte by reason its Inhabitants have pretended several exemptions and that in possessing those Lands they might dispose of them without having any regard to Wife Children or any other Relatiions It is a Province very Populous and wholly Roman-Catholick whereof most of the Inhabitants are very rich by reason of Corn Wine and particularly by Salt which made them formely be called The Salted or Pickled Burgundians The Woods raise 'em also a good Revenue and we may say That their Land is no less good now than in the time of Julius Caesar In the Year 1668. the French King pretending the Right of the Queen his Wife made the Conquest with a surprizing Success it being then under the Protection of the Crown of Spain but was bound to restore this Province in consideration of the Peace of Aix la Chapelle The Spaniards kept it until the Year 1674. when having declar'd War upon France the French rendred themselves Masters of it again and were confirm'd in their possession of it by the Peace of Nimmeghen This Province is divided into three parts the High-County of Amont the Middle one of Dole and the Lower one of Aval Grey is in the Upper part Dole or Besanzon is in the Middle Salins in the Nether Grey is very strong upon the River Saon Dole was the Capital of all the County the Seat of a Parliament wherefore the Emperor Charles the Fifth made it be Fortified with seven Bastions Besanzon is both ancient and strong now with a Cittadel The Fertility of the Lands about it have given occasion to the calling it the Granary of the Country It s Archbishop styles himself a Prince of the Holy-Empire but the Germans do not grant him Session in the Imperial Diets The City was Imperial unto the Year 1652. when it became Spanish in exchange for the City of Frankendael which the Spaniards restored in executing the Treaty of Munster the French King has caused the Parliament of the Province to be transferred thither Salins so called from its Salt-Pits is defended by two Castles Its Salt-Garner is a very remarkable
keeps in its Metropolitan Church call'd the Dome the Relick of St. Suaire wherein the Face of our Lord is imprinted with most of his Body It boasts of having of all the Cities of Italy brought the Press into use Nice near the Sea has several Roman Antiquities and a Cittadel which seems inaccessible by reason of its situation upon a Rock Montferrat has most of its Towns upon Hills very fertile in Corn and Wine By the Peace of Quieras a part of that Country was yielded to the Duke of Savoy the other remaining the Duke of Mantua's who possesses Casal near the Po. This Town is fortified with several Bulwarks and Half-moons with a Castle and a strong Cittadel composed of six great Bastions The Land of Milan is the most beautiful Country of all Lombardy and the finest Dutchy of Christendom now possess'd by the King of Spain The Ways are pleasant almost all in a direct line with Chanels of Spring-Water on both sides and rows and plantations of Trees which make them resemble Alleys and Walks The Champain of Milan is so fertile that there is not an Inch of Land but brings forth twice a Year The Nobility as well as in the Kingdom of Naples does not meddle with Commerce as does that of the other neighbouring States The City of Milan is called Great because it is full ten Miles in compass wherein it contains above two hundred and thirty Churches ninety six Parishes as many Convents and above a hundred Fraternities It is a general Mart of the Merchandizes of France of Spain of Italy of Germany so great a number of Artizans it has of all sorts that the Italians have it for a Proverb That Milan must be ruin'd if they would accommodate Italy with them It has ever passed for a second Rome tho' it has been besieged forty times and taken two and twenty Its strength consists rather in its Men than in its Walls it being reckoned to contain above three hundred thousand persons It s Castle is one of the finest Fortresses of Europe of six great Bastions Royal invested with Brick with Grafts and Ditches full of running Water The Coast of Genoa formerly called Liguria produces Muscate-Wines Olives in abundance all manner of good Fruits the Western part particularly is full of Lemmon Orange Fig Palm and Cedar-trees the Inland of the Country is mountainous full of Woods which furnish Materials for the making of Ships and Galleys The Situation of Genoa is upon the Sea-shore part in Plains part in Hills The City is full five Miles round and has Fortifications which are yet much greater in circuit for which reason it is the greatest the most trading and the most important of all Italy towards the West The Buildings and Structures of this Town are so magnificent and so beautiful that it is called the Stately tho' very much endamag'd by the late Batteries of the French One of the principal Revenues of its Inhabitants consists in the transportation of Silk-stuffs Parma the Capital of Parmezan is the common abode of the Duke of that Name of the House of the Farnezes a Feudatory of the Church It has a Cittadel whereon Money has not been sparing for the rendring it good and a fair Palace for its Princes dwelling Modena is the Capital of the Dutchy of the same Name fortified with Bulwarks after the ancient manner inhabited by above thirty five thousand Souls In Modena it was that Brutus was in vain besieged by Mark Anthony after the Murder of Julius Caesar Octavius having happily defeated the Army of him who would by this Siege have renewed the Civil Wars Mantua is seated in the Waters of a Lake of twenty Miles in circuit which only affords entrance by Causeys into the Town Its Mills do raise a good Revenue to this Duke the Jews who are there very numerous pay him a great Tribute The Ducal Palace is one of the finest and best furnish'd in all Italy The Demesn of Venice has so many Rivers Canals and Navigable Lakes that Merchandizes are easily conveyed into all its places The Republick is independent above twelve hundred Years standing the Bulwark of Christendom against the Turks The City of Venice is one of the greatest of Europe so populous that there are reckoned above three hundred thousand persons Those who have seen it may boast of having seen one of the Wonders of the World It s Arcenal is the finest the greatest and the best furnished upon Earth The Isles whereof the City is composed are separated from one another by Chanels wherein there be above fifteen thousand Boats which they call Gondoles The Church and Palace of St. Mark are very fine Structures the Treasury of St. Mark contains immense Riches The Bishoprick of Trent which belongs to its Bishop is under the Protection of the House of Austria The City of Trent is ancient inhabited both by Italians and Germans renowned for-holding the last General Council The state of the Church is look'd upon as so much the more considerable in that the Pope who is the Temporal and Spiritual Prince of it pretends to be the Chief and Soveraign Pontife of all Christendom the Patriarch of Rome and of the West Primate and Exarch of Italy Metropolitan of the Suffragan Bishops of Rome Bishop of St. John de Lateran Rome formerly the Capital of the finest greatest and most considerable Empire of the Universe was once the Mistress of the better part of the World famous for excellent Men who have surpassed others in Valour in Piety in Justice and Temperance It has had in its beginning Kings Consuls and Emperours the Papists call it Rome the Holy by reason of the Residence of the Popes We may say it has few Equals if we consider its Antiquities Churches Palaces and Curiosities Tuscany has three principal Cities Florence Siena Pisa formerly as many Republicks Florence the Capital of this State renowned upon the account of its Beauty is large and very populous The Palace of the Great Duke has fine Pictures Jewels of great value several Rarities Lucca fortified with eleven regular Bastions is famous for its Silks and Olives The Head of this Republick is a Gonfalonier or Chief-Standard-Bearer whose Charge lasts but two Months The Kingdom of Naples is the greatest State of Italy it belongs to the King of Spain who pays for it every Year a white Hobbey to the Pope with seven thousand Ducats The Spring is there so long and so full of Flowers the Autumn so loaded with Fruits that it is esteemed a Paradise The City of Naples is the abode of several Gentlemen which makes it be called the Gentile It is situated so advantagiously that it seems an abridgment of all the Beauties of Italy There are few Cities in Europe who have so many Churches and so many Cittadels as has Naples Germany GErmany has very fertile Provinces and a great number of fine Cities The Corn Fruits Salt and other Commodities afford a very considerable
same Name otherwise called of Schut where the Turks were routed by the Imperialists in a late Action to the loss of many of their Men has above three hundred Villages or Boroughs above fifteen thousand Inhabitants with the convenience of hunting and fishing Leopolstad Fillek Tokay Zatmar and Kalo have likewise been fortified by order from the Emperour Buda is divided into High and Low Town the Germans call it Offen that is to say Court because it was the abode of the Kings and the Capital of all the Kingdom it has the most honourable Beglerbyat of all Turkey though it be not the most gainful its Bashaw has more Authority than others Its usual Garrison is of eight or ten thousand Men. Agria Temesvar Kanisa have in like manner Bashaws as being upon the Frontier The Turks call Temesvar the invincible The Emperour Ferdinand the 2d besieged Kanise being then but Arch-Duke and could not take it Leopold-Ignace was not more happy in the year 1664. The Retreat from Kanise by the Duke of Mercoeur is one of the the finest Actions of our Age. People also esteem that from Mayence by the Cardinal de la Valette that from Torgow by the Suedish General Banier that from Dundee by the Marquiss of Montross Five Churches is the place where Solyman the Great dyed during the Siege he laid to Zygeth in the year 1566. Mogacz is noted for the defeat of the Christians in the year 1526. The Bridge of Esseck for the exploit of Count Peter de Serin who burnt it in sight of the Turks Armies Of Transilvania Walaciha and Moldavia TRansilvania is so called because it is seated beyond the Woods which separate it from Hungary It is sometimes called Sevenburgen because of the Cities which the Saxons built therein to the number of seven Hermanstat Cronstat Nosenstat Medwish Scespurg Clausembourg Weissembourg The People of this State are of three sorts Cicules or Zeckels Saxons Hungarians who give each different Names to each City of the Countrey The Zeckels are come from Tartary or rather are the remains of the Huns who laid aside their Name that they might not be odious to their Neighbours They have setled themselves principally in seven places at Sepsi at Orbay at Kisdi at Czick at Girgio at Marcos at Aranias their Capital City is Newmark The Saxons are Originaries of Germany the Hungarians stile themselves the Nobles of the Country Hermanstad the residence of the Prince is a strong Town Waradin was fortifyed by the Turks who usurped it in the year 1660. One of the Principal Revenues of Transilvania consists in Salt which is principally got at Torda it is sent into Hungary by the River of Marish There be Mines of Gold and Silver and sometimes Pieces of pure Gold are found in the Rivers which weigh above half a pound So as the Hungarians being Masters of Transilvania called it their Treasure There be several sorts of Religion the Catholicks Lutherans Calvinists have had there the free exercise of theirs towards the beginning of this Age. The Families of Bathori and of Ragotski have bestowed several Princes upon this Countrey which was made a Soveraignty in the year 1512. for John Zapolia upon condition of holding of Hungary The last Ragotski who was killed in Battel against the Turks in the year 1659. was the fourteenth Prince thereof he stiled himself By the Grace of God Prince of the Kingdom of Transilvania Lord of a part of Hungary and Count of the Siculi He paid the Grand Seignior annually a Tribute of fifty thousand Livers the Ministers of the Port have made it mount to a hundred thousand Rixdollers The Emperour as King of Hungary pretends to have right to the installation of the Prince of Transilvania the Emperour Rodolphus II. having establisht there Botskai upon condition of Return upon the Males failing Walachia which offers it self on the North East of Transilvania along and on the North of the Danube was called petty and Transalpina for the distinguishing it from Moldavia It is watred with a great number of Rivers some of its Mountains have great Mines of Gold its Horses are by many accounted the best in Europe It s Prince called Hospodar sometimes Vaivode that is to say Head of the Troops resides at Tergowis and pays the Grand Seignior a hundred and twenty thousand Livers of annual Tribute Moldavia has been sometimes known under the Name of Great Walachia and of Walachia Cis-Alpina It is rich in Wax and in Honey out of which it raises every year about 2 hundred thousand Crowns only for the tenths of the Prince There are several Heaps of Stones which are said to have been set up by order of Darius King of Persia who made war upon the Scithians It s capital Cities are Yasi and Sockou Choczin near the Niester is the place where a Polish Army was defeated under King Sigismond-Augustus and where King John Sobieski a little before his election gained over the Turks a Victory the most memorable of our age The Eastern part called Bessarabia butts upon the Black Sea and belongs to the Grand Seignior who is Master of the Mouths of the Danube and of the Niester and who takes all possible means to subdue those of the Nieper and subject entirely the rich Province of the Ukrain The Champaign of Budziac is twelve Leagues in length ten in breadth is possessed by the Dobruck Tartars who are the greatest Robbers of all those parts They are said to amount to above 15000. They inhabit the Country round about Bialigrod About the year 1500. a Governour of Moldavia called Estienne rendred himself the Soveraign thereof and at several times vanquished the Turks the Lesser Tartars and the Polanders His Successours have played there as it were at Bo-peep and several of them have been massacred by their Subjects upon the account of their Cruelties Of a score of its Princes which be there called Waivodes not two of them succeeded their Fathers They did for sometime hold of Poland now of the Turk at disposal The ordinary Tribute was a hundred and fourscore thousand Livers The Port augments from time to time the Tribute of the Moldavians as well as that of the Walachians for the rendring them poor and obedient if it protects in appearance their Princes who are commonly of low Birth it imitates those who defend Sheep and suffer Bees to live upon the account of the Wool and the Honey they afford Of Lesser Tartary LEsser Tartary which lies in Europe is so called for distinction sake from the Great which makes part of Asia It is also named Percopense and Crimee from its principal Cities scituated in the Peninsula called formerly Taurica The Nogay Tartars may be there comprehended between the Tanais and the Boristhenes the Tartars of Ocziakou between the Mouths of the Boristhenes and the Niester and also the Tartars of Budziack above mentioned on the East of Moldavia between the Mouths of the Niester and of the Danube Besides all