Selected quad for the lemma: war_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
war_n	castille_n	king_n	portugal_n	4,412	5	11.2766	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51181	Essays of Michael, seigneur de Montaigne in three books, with marginal notes and quotations of the cited authors, and an account of the author's life / new rendered into English by Charles Cotton, Esq.; Essais. English	Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592.; Cotton, Charles, 1630-1687.	1685 (1685)	Wing M2479; ESTC R2740	998,422	2,006

those of Persia. What a World of people do we see in the Wars betwixt the Turks and the Greeks rather embrace a cruel death than to uncircumcise themselves to admit of Baptism An example of which no sort of Religion is incapable The Kings of Castile having Banisht the Jews out of their Dominions John King of Portugal in consideration of eight Crowns a Head sold them a retirement into his for a certain limited time upon condition that the time perfixt coming to expire they should be gone and he to furnish them with Shipping to transport them into Affrick The limited day came which once laps'd they were given to understand that such as were afterwards found in the Kingdom should remain Slaves Vessels were very slenderly provided and those who embarkt in them were rudely and villanously used by the Seamen who besides other indignities kept them cruising upon the Sea one while forwards and another backwards till they had spent all their provisions and were constrain'd to buy of them at so dear rates and so long withal that they set them not on Shoar till they were all stript to the very Shirts The news of this inhumane usage being brought to those who remained behind the greater part of them resolved upon Slavery and some made a shew of changing Religion Emanuel the successor for of John being come to the Crown first set them at liberty and afterwards altering his mind order'd them to depart his Country assigning three Ports for their passage Hoping says the Bishop Osorius no contemptible Latin Historian of these later times that the favour of the liberty he had given them having fail'd of convert●ng them to Christianity yet the difficulty of committing themselves to the mercy of the Mariners and of abandoning a Country they were now habituated to and were grown very rich in to go and expose themselves in strange and unknown Regions would certainly do it But finding himself deceiv'd in his expectation and that they were all resolved upon the Voyage he cut-off two of the three Ports he had promised them to the end that the length and incommodity of the passage might reduce some or that he might have opportunity by crouding them all into one place the more conveniently to execute what he had designed which was to force all the Children under fourteen years of Age from the Arms of their Fathers and Mothers to transport them from their sight and conversation into a place where they might be instructed and brought up in our Religion He says that this produc'd a most horrid Spectacle The natural affection betwixt the Parents and their Children and moreover their Zeal to their ancient Belief contending against this violent Decree Fathers and Mothers were commonly seen making themselves away and by a yet much more Rigorous Example precipitating out of Love and Compassion their young Children into Wells and Pits to avoid the Severity of this Law As to the remainder of them the time that had been prefix'd being expir'd for want of means to transport them they again return'd into Slavery Some also turn'd Christians upon whose Faith as also that of their Posterity even to this Day which is a Hundred Years since few Portuguese can yet relie or believe them to be real Converts though Custom and length of time are much more powerful Counsellors in such Changes than all other Constraints whatever In the Town of Castlenau-Darry Fifty Hereticks Albegeois at one time suffer'd themselves to be Burnt alive in one Fire rather than they would renounce their Opinions Quoties non modo ductores nostri dit Cicero sed universi etiam exercitus ad non dubiam mortem concurrerunt How oft have not only our Leaders but whole Armies run to a certain and apparent Death I have seen an intimate Friend of mine run headlong upon Death with a real affection and that was rooted in his heart by divers plausible Arguments which he would never permit me to dispossess him of upon the first Honourable occasion that offer'd it self to him to precipitate himself into it without any manner of visible reason with an obstinate and ardent desire of Dying We have several Examples of our own times of those even so much as to little Children who for fear of a Whipping or some such little thing have dispatch'd themselves And what shall we not fear says one of the Ancients to that purpose if we dread that which Cowardize it self has chosen for its Refuge Should I here produce a tedious Catalogue of those of all Sexes and Conditions and of all sorts even in the most happy Ages who have either with great Constancy look'd Death in the Face or voluntarily sought it and sought it not only to avoid the Evils of this Life but some purely to avoid the Saciety of Living and others for the hope of a better Condition elsewhere I should never have done Nay the Number is so infinite that in truth I should have a better Bargain on 't to reckon up those who have fear'd it This one therefore shall serve for all Pyrrho the Philosopher being one Day in a Boat in a very great Tempest shew'd to those he saw the most Affrighted about him and encourag'd them by the Example of a Hog that was there nothing at all concern'd at the Storm Shall we then dare to say that this advantage of Reason of which we so much Boast and upon the account of which we think our selves Masters and Emperours over the rest of the Creatures was given us for a Torment To what end serves the Knowledg of things if it renders us more Unmanly If we lose the Tranquility and Repose we should enjoy without it And if it put us into a worse Condition than Pyrrho's Hog Shall we employ the Understanding that was conferr'd upon us for our greatest Good to our own Ruine Setting our selves against the design of Nature and the universal Order of things which intend that every one should make use of the Faculties Members and Means he has to his own best Advantage But it may peradventure be Objected against me Your Rule is true enough as to what concerns Death But what will you say of Necessity What will you moreover say of Pain that Aristippus Hieronimus and almost all the Wise Men have reputed the worst of Evils And those who have deny'd it by word of Mouth did however confess it in Effects Possidonius being extreamly Tormented with a sharp and painful Disease Pompeius came to Visit him excusing himself that he had taken so unseasonable a time to come to hear him discourse of Philosophy God forbid said Possidonius to him again that Pain should ever have the power to hinder me from talking and thereupon fell imediately upon a discourse of the Contempt of Pain But in the mean time his own Infirmity was playing its part and plagu'd him to the purpose to which he Cry'd out thou may'st work thy Will Pain and Torment me with all

the Principality of the Indies That if they would become Tributaries to him they should be very gently and courteously us'd at the same time requiring of them Victuals for their Nourishment and Gold whereof to make some pretended Medicine They moreover remonstrated to them the belief of the only God and the Truth of our Religion which they advis'd them to embrace to which they also added some Threats To which they receiv'd this Answer That as to their being peaceable they did not seem to be such if they were so As to their King he seem'd to be neccesitous and poor because he ask'd and he who had given him that divident a man that lov'd dissention to go give away that to another which was none of his own to bring it into dispute against the ancient Possessors As to Victuals they would supply them that of Gold they had little it being a thing they had in very small esteem as being of no use to the service of Life whereas their Care was only bent to pass it over happily and pleasantly but that what they could find excepting what was employ'd in the Service of their Gods they might freely take As to one only God the Proposition had pleas'd them well but that they would not change their Religion both because they had so happily liv'd in it and that they were not wont to take advice of any but their Friends and those they knew As to their Menaces it was a sign of want of Judgment to threaten those whose Nature and Power was to them unknown That therefore they were to make haste to avoid their Coast for they were not us'd to take the Civilities and Remonstrances of arm'd Men and Strangers in good part otherwise they should do by them as they had done by those others shewing them the Heads of several executed men round the Walls of their City A fair Example of the gibberish and beginning to speak of this Infancy But so it is that the Spaniards did neither in this nor several other places where they did not find the Merchandize they sought for make any stay or any attempt whatever other Conveniencies were there to be had Witness the Cannibals Of two the most puissant Monarchs of that World and peradventure of this Kings of so many Kings and the last they exterminated that of Peru having been taken in a Battel and put to so excessive a ransom as exceeds all belief and it being faithfully paid and that he had by his Conversation given manifest signs of a franck liberal and constant Spirit and of a clear and setled Understanding the Conquerours had a mind after having exacted a million three hundred twenty five thousand and five hundred weight of Gold besides Silver and other things which amounted to no less so that their Horses were shod with Massie Gold yet to see at the price of what Disloyalty and Injustice whatever what the remainder of the Treasures of this King might be and to possess themselves of that also To which end a false Accusation was preferr'd against him and false Witnesses brought in to prove that he went about to raise an Insurrection in his Provinces by that means to procure his own Liberty Whereupon by the virtuous Sentence of those very men who had by this Treachery conspir'd his ruine he was condemn'd to be publickly hang'd after having made him buy off the Torment of being burnt alive by the Baptism they gave him immediately before Execution A horrid and unheard of Barbarity which nevertheless he underwent without going less either in Word or Look with a truly grave and royal Behaviour After which to calm and appease the People daunted and astonished at so strange a thing they counterfeited great Sorrow for his Death and appointed most sumptuous Funerals The other King of Mexico after a long time defended his beleaguer'd City and having in this Siege manifested the utmost of what Suffering and Perseveration can do if ever Prince and People did and his Misfortune having deliver'd him alive into his Enemies hands upon Articles of being treated like a King neither did he in his Captivity discover any thing unworthy of that Title His Enemies after their Victory not finding so much Gold as they expected when they had search'd and rifled with their utmost Diligence they went about to procure Discoveries by the most cruel Torments they could invent upon the Prisoners they had taken but having profited nothing that way their Courages being greater than their Torments they arriv'd at last to such a degree of Fury as contrary to their Faith and the Law of Nations to condemn the King himself and one of the principal Noble-men of his Court to the Wrack in the Presence of one another This Lord finding himself overcome with Pain being environ'd with burning Coals pittifully turn'd his dying Eyes towards his Master as it were to ask him pardon that he was able to endure no more whereat the King darting at him a fierce and severe look as reproaching his Cowardize and Pusillanimity with a rude and constant Voice said to him thus only And what dost thou think I suffer said he am I in a Bath am I more at ease than thou Whereupon the other immediately quail'd under the Torment and died upon the Place The King half roasted was carried thence not so much out of pity for what compassion ever touch'd so barbarous Souls who upon the doubtful information of some Vessel of Gold to be made a Prey of caus'd not only a Man but a King so great in Fortune and Desert to be broil'd before their Eyes but because his Constancy rendred their Cruelty still more shameful They afterward hang'd him for having nobly attempted to deliver himself by Arms from so long a Captivity where he dyed with a Courage becoming so Magnanimous a Prince Another time they burnt in the same fire four hundred and sixty men alive at once the four hundred of the common People the sixty the principal Lords of a Province no other but meer Prisoners of War We have these Narratives from themselves for they do not only own it but boast of it Could it be for a testimony of their Justice or their Zeal to Religion Doubtless these are ways too differing and contrary to so holy an end Had they propos'd to themselves to extend our Faith they would have considered that it does not amplifie in the possession of Territories but in the gaining of men and would have more than satisfied themselves with the slaughters occasion'd by the necessity of War without indifferently mixing a Massacre as upon wild Beasts as universal as Fire and Sword could make it having only by their good will sav'd so many as they intended to make miserable Slaves of for the Work and Service of their Mines So that many of the Captains were put to death upon the place of Conquest by order of the King of Castile justly

offended with the horror of their Deportments and almost all of them hated and disesteem'd God did meritoriously permit that all this great Plunder should be swallow'd up by the Sea in Transportation or by Civil Wars wherewith they devoured one another and the greatest part was buried upon the Place with out any fruit of their Victory As to what concerns the Revenue that being in the hands of so parcimonious and so prudent a Prince it so little answers the expectation was given to his Predecessors of it and that first abundance of Riches which was found at the first Landing in those new discovered Countreys for tho' a great deal be fetch'd from thence yet we see 't is nothing in comparison of that ought to be expected it is that the use of Coin was there utterly unknown and that consequently their Gold was found all hoarded together being of no other use but for Ornament and Shew as a Furniture reserv'd from Father to Son by many puissant Kings who always drain'd their Mines to make this vast heap of Vessels and Statues for the decoration of their Palaces and Temples whereas our Gold is always in motion and Traffick We cut ours into a thousand small pieces and cast it into a thousand Forms and scatter and disperse it a thousand ways But suppose our Kings should thus hoard up all the Gold they could get in several Ages and let it lye idle by them Those of the Kingdom of Mexico were in some sort more civiliz'd and greater Artists than the other Nations that were beyond them Therefore did they judge as we do that the World was near its period and look'd upon the Desolation we brought amongst them for a certain Sign of it They believ'd that the Existence of the World was divided into five Ages and the Life of five successive Suns of which four had already ended their time and that that which gave them Light was the fifth The first perish'd with all other Creatures by an universal Inundation of Water The second by the Heavens falling upon us which suffocated every living Thing to which Age they assign the Giants and shew'd bones to the Spaniards according to the proportion of which the Stature of men amounted to twenty hands high The third by Fire which burnt and consum'd all The fourth by an Emotion of the Air and Wind which came with such violence as to beat down even many Mountains wherein the men dyed not but were turned into Baboons what impressions will not the weakness of human Belief admit After the death of this fourth Sun the World was twenty five years in perpetual darkness in the fifteenth of which a Man and a Woman were created that restored human Race ten years after upon a certain Day the Sun appeared newly created and since the account of their years take beginning from that day The third day after his Creation the ancient Gods dyed and the new ones are since born daily After what manner they think this last Sun shall perish my Author knows not But their number of this fourth Change agrees with the great Conjunction of Stars that eight hundred and odd years ago as Astrologers suppose produc'd great Alterations and Novelties in the World As to Pomp and Magnificence upon the account of which I am engag'd in this Discourse neither Greece Rome nor Aegypt whether for utility difficulty or state compare any of their Works with the way to be seen in Peru made by the Kings of the Countrey from the City of Quito to that of Cusco three hundred Leagues straight even five and twenty Paces wide pav'd and enclos'd on both sides with high and beautiful Walls and close by them on the inside two clear Rivolets border'd with a beautiful sort of a Tree which they call Molly in which Work where they met with Rocks and Mountains they cut them through and made them even and fill'd up Pits and Valleys with Lime and Stone to make them level At the end of every days Journey are beautiful Palaces furnish'd with Provisions Vestments and Arms as well for Travellers as for the Armys that are to pass that way In the estimate of this Work I have reckon'd the difficulty which is particularly considerable in that Place They did not build with any Stones less than ten foot square and had no other conveniency of carriage but by drawing their load themselves by force of Arms and knew not so much as the Art of Scaffolding nor any other way of standing to their Work but by throwing up Earth against the Building as it rose higher taking it away again when they had done Let us here return to our Coaches instead of which and of all other sorts of Carriages they caus'd themselves to be carried by men and upon their Shoulders This last King of Peru the day that he was taken was thus carried betwixt two upon staves of Gold and set in a Chair of Gold in the middle of his Battel As many of these Sedan-men as were kill'd to make him fall for they would take him alive so many others and they contended for it took the place of those that were slain so that they could never beat him down what slaughter soever they made of those People till a Light horse-man seizing upon him brought him down CHAP. VII Of the inconvenience of Greatness SInce we cannot attain unto it let us revenge our selves by railing at it and yet it is not absolutely railing against any thing to proclaim its defects because they are in all things to be found how beautiful or how much to be coveted however It has in general this manifest advantage that it can go less when it pleases and has very near the absolute choice of both the one and the other Condition For a man does not fall from all heights there are several from which one may descend without falling down It does indeed appear to me that we value it at too high a rate and also over value the resolution of those whom we have either seen or heard have contemn'd it or displac'd themselves of their own accord It s Essence is not so evidently commodious that a man may not without a miracle refuse it I find it a very hard thing to undergo Misfortunes but to be content with a competent measure of Fortune and to avoid Greatness I think a very easie matter 'T is methinks a Virtue to which I who am none of the nicest could without any great endeavour arrive What then is to be expected from them that would yet put into Consideration the glory attending this refusal wherein there may lurk worse Ambition than even in the desire it self and Fruition of Greatness Forasmuch as Ambition never comports it self better according to it self than when it proceeds by obscure and unfrequented wayes I incite my Courage to Patience but I rein it as much as I can towards desire I have as much to wish for as another and allow my