named St. John and St. Mark 4. Cracovia in Lesser Poland once the Court of the Kings of Poland a wealthy and well-peopled City sited likewise upon the Weysel In it is remarkable an Academy of great Renown founded by King Casimir the First and supplyed at first with Professors from the Sorbonne of Paris 2. The Castle built upon the banks of the River of a great compass and of great state and magnificence although outwardly it appear rough and disproportioned the Cathedral is enclosed within it This City by way of Excellence is called the Rome of Poland and its University the Daughter of that at Paris The City of Casimir is built on the other side the water and will hardly forget the Swedish Arms. The Jews City which is Neighbour to it may for honours sake be called the principal and first Street of Hell it is so filthy c. Not to mention Vilna in Lithuania and Koningburgh in Prussia both Universities Dantzick and Cracow making up four in this Kingdom As for the other Towns as Grandentz Newamburg Culmen and the like they are meer Names of Cities and nothing else Pauperum Tabernae quatuor aut septem si sit latissima villa Seven or Eight Houses make a large Town As to the People and their Manners the Gentlemen are extraordinary large and strong of body and will skilfully manage a Shabel or Scymiter are well skill'd in foreign Languages are liberal Givers good Cavaliers and good Catholiques On the contrary and the reverse of the Medal they are much brutal superstitious fierce and proud and sacrifice to their own approbation of things and acknowledge no Soverain but their Liberty From whence have proceeded those Mischiefs which they have often suffered more mediately from the Tartars and Muscovites and by which means the late King of Sweden brought them to the utmost degree of Extremity followed with no more than 40. thousand men when as the Pole is able to bring a 100000. Horse into the Field This happened by that small power and authority which is allowed the King and that little good intelligence that was maintained between their Generalls and the divisions and revolts of their Troops An Apprentice a Novice will be thought a Master and a simple Gentleman who never saw a Battel The King of Polands Chiefest Praerogative but in picture will not want of confidence and presumption to believe of him self because he is born a Gentleman that he is able at the first Essay to manage and conduct the Forces of an Empire And in effect private Gentlemen are so frequently raised to Places of the greatest Office and Command which is the fairest flower of this Kings Prerogative and is legally vested in him as the Fountain of Honour that every man thinks himself of merit and capacity enough for the greatest Employments Besides they hold themselves all equal in blood and have the same Voices in their Diets and Assemblies the same Priviledges Rights and Franchises their Riches only distinguish them one from the other These Gentlemen for the defence of the Kingdom are bound to serve at their own charge which they do generally on Horseback gallantly furnished and attired in Cassocks and garnished with gold and silver and variety of other Colours they also adorn themselves with Eagles Plumes the Skins of Leopards and Bears with many Banners and parti-coloured Ensignes which distinguish them from the ordinary sort and strike terrour but sometimes covetous desires into their Enemies and most an end they carry like the Philosopher all they have about them It is reckoned that Poland after this manner can raise a 100. Lithuania 70. thousand Horse but not so good as the Poles whose best are very small yet nimble and far more couragious than the Dutch In this Cavalry consisting of Gentlemen and their Servants with their Auxiliaries as the Circassion the Cossacks they are so confident that they slight all Fortifications unless Frontiers And for the Country being all Champian is most and only fit for that service the Foot they have are borrowed of the Hungarians and Germans and for Camp Drudgery as Pioneers c. they use Tartars their Slaves Of Priests there is great store in this Country and they held in good esteem and veneration Of Merchants there are very few scarce worth mentioning But of all men the Boors and Pesants are the most miserable for they possess nor enjoy a Farthing and are meer Vassalls to their Lords which treat and use them with all the rigour and tyranny in the world A Gentleman in a slight matter among his Domestiques and Clowns hath and doth exercise the power of life and death The Government representeth rather an Aristocracy than a Monarchy and is a kind of medium betwixt both or both together It is Monarchical in that it acknowledges one Supremacy and King it is Aristocratical because the King is not an absolute Prince to do what he pleaseth and because the Nobility who have also the greatest Authority in the Diets do Elect Him They have neither Law nor Statute nor Form of Government written but it is all by Tradition as by meer Custom from the Death of one Prince to the Election of another the supreme Authority resides in the Arch-Bishop of Gesne who is alwayes President of the Council appointeth the Diet ruleth the Senate and proclaimeth the new Elected King Before King Stephen's time who erected new Bishops Palatines and Castellanes in Livonia there were but 14. Bishops 28. Palatines and 70. of the chiefest Castellanes that had Voices in the Election of a King who is Rector Senatus sed Regnantis Ruler of a raigning Senate Whereby he is obliged to comport with them in these things following In any Affair of Importance the King by his Chancellour sends Letters to the Arch-Bishops Bishops and Palatines which are called Instruction is Literae Letters of Instruction because they contain the account of that Business which His Majesty will propose to them at the Diet and therein appoints them the time of their meeting These Letters being received every Senator examines the particular quality nature and consequences of the Proposition to which he hath free liberty to answer negatively or affirmatively and as he judgeth best either for the publick good or his particular advantage The King also sends his Letters to the respective Palatinates the Nobility whereof presently assemble together to chuse a Nuncio as they call it that is a Person of merit and sufficiency to be their Speaker and the manner of that Palatinate is to bring things to an universal consent and accommodation For if it should happen that any single Gentleman should dissent from what this Assembly hath concluded there is no further proceeding to be had the Nuncio must not depart to the Diet nor that Province have any Voice or Interest amongst the States General When the Provincial Assemblies are finished by the time appointed by the Kings Majesty the Senators and the Nuncio's come
populous but the liberties of the said two Hanse Towns and the Danish part retrench the estimate of its force It was over-run by the Swedes in 1643. during the residence of this King Frederick the third as Duke thereof to the great surprisal of old King Christiern yet he so notably bestirred himself with the help of the Emperour both against them and the Dutch at Sea and Land that he brought the business to some advantage on his side had not the French King interposed his Authority in the very nick of a decision of it by Battel and did the Swede a notable kindness since when by the marriage of the late King of Sweden with the Daughter of this present Duke who is a lineal Descendant of John the younger Son of Christiern the 3d. King of Denmark it hath suffered in that War from the Dane and his Confaederates what it had formerly underwent by the Swede who to shew his Affection to his Father-in-Law had procured him some Concessions and Assignments by the Roschild Treaty which being afterwards violated by the Swede this Country paid for the Swedes undue courtesie by the forces of the Marquess of Brandenburgh and the Emperour notwithstanding in the last Treaty in the Leagure before Copenhagen it retained thus much that the Jurisdiction of Swabstadt together with half the Chapter of the Dutchy of Sleswick lying in North Jutland together with the soveraignty thereof was assigned and passed over to this Duke for ever So that this Dukes Interest is at present bound up in that of Sweden having countermarched its Ground being formerly more strictly tyed to the Dane but we see what Fate and Revolutions can do As to the Turk being he is exempt from the Decrees and Injunctions of the Empire it is not to be expected he will put himself forward for that he is none of the wealthiest Princes having not one Farthing of Customes by Sea but only his Toll for the 50000. Oxen above mentioned and some Patrimonial Lands belonging to the Dutchy We are now obliged to pass to Oldenburg because it had formerly the same Dependencies and Aspects to Denmark but because I will not trespass too far upon Germany we will leave it to its place there And so we pass by Sea to Holland and the seven United Provinces of the Netherlands THE NETHERLANDS OR The 7. Vnited Provinces OF HOLLAND c. THese Countries are bounded on the North and West with the German Ocean on the East with part of Germany and on the South with Flanders c. They were once under several Lords and State-holders who by the Power and their Interest with the Emperours of Germany made themselves absolute from whom by the Marriage of their Heirs General they devolved at last into the Soveraignty of the Dukes of Burgundy whose Daughter conveyed them to Maximilian Arch-Duke of Austria By his Grand-Son Charles the 5th they were designed to be made with the other ten Provinces one entire Kingdom but the Discrepancy of their Laws and Customes and the irreconcilable Contrariety thereof made him give over that Resolution About the Year of our Lord 1567. at what time the Duke of Alva raged against all these Provinces they shook off the Spanish Yoak and the Government of Philip the 2d Son of Charles the 5 th who setling himself in his Realm of Spain intended to govern them by a Stat-holder That Discontent together with the memory of their former Oppressions the Insolence of their present Governours the Contempt of their Laws and Priviledges together with the Decrees of the Council of Trent the revived Edict of the said Charles against Haeretiques and the Introduction of the Inquisition to which may be added the hated Administration of Perennot the Cardinal of Granvelle the Death of the Counts of Egmond and Horn and the tenth and hundredth Penny taxed by the Duke of Alva and his Cruelties thereafter so animated these People that they entred into a Confaederacy under the Conduct of William Prince of Orange Count of Nassau and in the year 1581. by a publique Instrument declared the said King to have rightfully fallen from the Dominion and Jurisdiction of these Provinces then united under the Profession of the Reformed Religion Nevertheless they are not yet nor are ever like to be an entire Common-Wealth while each retains its Soveraignty distinct and therefore it is a new Module of a Republique without any Pattern viz. Guelderland Holland Freizland Zeland Zutphen the Bishoprick of Utrecht and Groeningen Now the Cement and Principles of these Confaederate States and the Contracts by which they are Combined together and by which they have so gloriously subsisted come next under a brief Consideration The First of them is That they shall continue inseparably united nor shall act distinctly in the common Affairs 2. The Rights Priviledges and Franchises c. of each particular Province shall be continued inviolate 3. They shall strennuously assist one another and if any Difference arise between two Places they shall submit to the ordinary Course of Justice and shall attempt nothing to the prejudice of one another 4. They shall mutually aid and defend one another against the Armes of Spain and shall sympathize with one anothers Losses 5. The new Fortresses shall be made at the common Charge but the Frontiers at the particular Charge of each Province 6. Peace War or Truce not to be made without the common Consent of all the Estates and People 7. Liberty of Conscience shall be allowed 8. All Care shall be used by each particular Province and all of them in general that they give no Cause of Quarrel or Offence whereby they should become engaged in any other War than that of Spain These were the Originalls of this Republique and the Fundamental Laws thereof we will now see the Practice and Execution of them in the Administration and the Policy of the Government 1. Every City of these United Provinces acknowledges its particular Magistrate the Provincial Magistrate and the Colledge of the Lords the States-General By the Magistrate of the City are understood the Councellours whose total number is forty which are paid for their service and hold their Places for life because they may act freely without those resentments of a future private Condition these deliberate of the Affairs of the Province and inspect and choose all other Magistrates and are in effect the Peoples Servants as they will sometimes taunt them the Burgo-Masters and Sheriffs together with a Baily who judgeth absolutely in Criminal Causes but he holds his Place not longer than Durante Placito of the Council of the City The Provincial Magistracy is composed of a Councellour of every City of the Province whose Office is to Conserve its Priviledges and Immunities to this Court there lies an Appeal from the Sentence of the Sheriffs Court The Colledge or Assembly of the Lords States General is constituted of the Deputies of the Provincial Councils these make the Alliances and Treaties or
themselves 2. Lay-men out of the People to be joyned unto every Minister and these were called Elders the Ministers to continue for term of Life in this power but the Elders to be chosen every year which was very grateful to the Burgers who hoped each of them to come to the Administration of the Ecclesiastical Authority these together with other Parish Elders being met together to be called the Presbytery and to have power of Ordination Excommunication and Absolution and whatever else was done by their Bishop in times before whom he made the Genevois utterly to abjure and to receve this Platform as sent from Heaven But Nevertheless the People did not long like it but Calvin by his Authority and the awe of the Canton of Zurich kept it rigidly up during his life time after which the succeeding Ministers allowed the People the use of all manlike Exercises in the Morning and intervalls of Divine Service which something mitigated the Humour and like the Roman Sports took them off from quarrelling with their Ministers What they are like to do against the Turk the Passage above-mentioned declares 't was Luther that gave admittance I mean his Reformation to the Turk to invade Christendom that is to say he took advantage of those Divisions that reigned then and it may be now said that the troubles in the Roman temporal Estate have engaged him which the Romanists lay all upon the Heretique so that it comes to this Door at last or they will leave it there In fine They are able to do nothing and are the only Snayls in Europe They are confederate with the Canton of Bearn but 't is for their security Switzerland IN our passage from Geneva to the Switzers lyeth a Country called Wallisland governed by a Catholick Bishop and leagued with the 7. Catholick Cantons They are divided into 7. Resorts and 2. Districts or Provinces the lower and the upper they lye included betwixt Mountains out of which they seldom issue and therefore we bid adieu to them and make way to their Neighbours SWITZERLAND is bounded on the West with Mount Jour and Lake Leman on the North with Swevia in Germany on the South with Wallisland and the Alps and on the East with the Grisons and part of Tirol in Germany It is reported to stand upon the highest ground in Christendom yet hath it plenty of Rivers which it dispenseth in the greatest Chanels through the mightiest Provinces of Europe It hath many Lakes and abundance of fresh and excellent good Fish by which Lakes and Rivers there is good passage and conveyance there are also Medows as pleasant and as eminent for their fertility as their Mountains are prominent rough and sterile The whole Country contains in length 240. Miles and in bredth 180. The People rude and Military as all Mountainers use to be They were once under the Government of the House of Austria as Earls of Halspurg the Castle whereof is standing in this Country which gave Original and Title to that Family but rising for their Liberty provoked by the Rape of one of their Daughters they by 2. terrible Defeats given the Austrians shook off their Yoak and immediately 3. Cantons combined in a League with which after some Ages or Years all the 13. entred and in which they now continue The first thing they did in the beginning of this Confederacy was to root out all the Gentry and not leave a remain of them as those that were the Instruments of their slavery under the Austrians So that no man there pretends to be gentilely descended for thereby he is made uncapable of any Office in the Common-wealth yet there are some noble Spirits that prefer their blood to such slovenly Magistracies where the Butcher and the Shooe maker takes his turn in the Government and is in his Town the supreme Ruler and to this module they yet keep Their Exemption of themselves in this manner from the House of Austria made them notable in the World which they were not since Julius Caesar but their defeat and slaughter of Charles Duke of Burgundy and their renue for the Duke of Millain against the French made them terrible and famous until finding their own strength they began to play fast and loose with their Confederates and to become open Mercenaries losing Millain which they had preserved and serving the French and Spanish King the Venetian and others at the same time under certain secret Pensions which the chief Counsellours do receive at this day so that all the Honour that is left them which they might have blazoned by many Conquests upon their Neighbours is borrowed from their attendance as Guards to the Person of the French King and Sedan-men or some such Office about the Pope Nevertheless it is to be confessed that they are very good Infantry and will stand a shock firm and in good order which is a main security to the French Foot that can hardly endure an easie impression Their Government at home is divided into 3. Members 1. The 13. Cantons being 7. Roman and 6. Protestant 2. The States and Cities confederate as the Abbot of St. Gall Multiuse a free City c. And lastly The Praefectures or several Lordships and Towns which they possess in the Alps in the Dutchy of Millain c. which are a distinct part of the Common-wealth but are subject to the Cantons and obey their Decrees without any Vote in their Councils as Subjects and of these Towns and Lordships they have some number which yields the best of their Revenue The Regiment or Magistracy is altogether Popular and consists in a Great Council summoned upon any great and emergent Occasion and yet the particular Cities and Resorts or Hundreds in number 148. are governed by one Officer So hath every Canton a supreme Mastistrate called the Ungman or single Person who is assisted with a Council in Cases of Importance The Diets are held commonly at Baden for the beauty and commodiousness of the Place where all things concerning Peace and War Embassies Leagues and the like are alwayes determined Their Revenue is very inconsiderable for having no Commerce with Strangers they have no Customes nor have they any Manufactures Cutlery is a great Trade What they raise is by Impost upon Wine and those Taxes laid upon their Prefectures whom yet they use very tenderly besides the yearly Pensions they receive from the Crowns of France and Spain are brought into the publick Treasury save what comes privately into the hands of the Grandees and those that manage the State one of the greatest blemishes and prejudices to their State but as 't is no shame to be mercenary in the Field so 't is no blame to be a Mercenary in Council As to their Force it far excceds their Revenue for upon occasion they can bring 30. thousand Foot into the Field besides what the confederate Cities will add thereunto As for Horse they are of no use in those hilly Countries nor
Holland Business about the Eyler Sconce nor will the Count of Oldenburg be suffered to be at quiet if it comes once to Armes and Parties However their Interest is to live at Peace and good Correspondence with their Neighbours the best security to small Estates but there are some old Grudges which this Juncture will give vent to And so we leave them and pass to Westphalia This Country is bounded on the North with the Dutchy of Holstein 2. Westphalia and the River Elb on the East and South with Hassia c. and on the West with Colen Cleveland Overryssel and the two Freislands The Country is in most places full of VVoods which bear plenty of Acorns and nourish many herds of Swine which make Bacon of excellent relish and tenderness and in other places as plentiful of Corn. In this Province stands the City and Bishoprick of Munster infamous for the Story of John of Leyden and as famous for the late Treaty and general Pacification in 1648. Since which time this City hath had some Disputes with their Bishop but now composed to a good understanding by the powerful Interest of the Hollander who espoused the Cities quarrel 2. Minden once a Bishoprick now setled upon the Marquess of Brandenburg with the Title of Prince in lieu of what the Swede had of his by the same Treaty He hath likewise here a secular Town and County of Ravensberg in right of his part-inheritance in the Dutchy of Cleve Here is also the Bishoprick of Osnaling the alternate succession to the Profits whereof is given by the Munster Treaty to the Duke of Brunswick for his cession of his Bishoprick of Halberstadt Not to omit the Town and Castle of Aremberg with the ample and goodly Patrimony thereof which gives Title to the noble Family of the Counts of Aremberg eminent for their service done the King of Spain in the Low Countries where as his Subjects they have other Estates Lastly The Bishoprick of Bremen which is the second Division of Westphalia formerly governed by its own Diocesans but of modern times the King of Denmark's Sons enjoyed the Title with the Protection of it till by the late Treaty at Munster it was assigned together with the Bishoprick of Verde to the Swede with condition that the City and Territory should enjoy their antient Privileges and Liberties who with much adoe had Possession delivered to his General Count Coningsmarck It is a rich and fair City and much traffiqued by reason of its situation upon the Weser which dischargeth it self into the Elb and so joyntly into the German Ocean In this Bishoprick stands the City of Stoad famous once and made for ever by the English Staple upon some discontent removed some time agon hither from Hamburgh There are other petty States and Earldomes herein which together with the rest acknowledge the Emperour but it is more in shew than effect although they were scared to some real performances by the Emperours successes in these parts in 1627 when he overcame the Dane The Title hereof as Ducal is used by the Arch-bishop of Colen and the House of Saxon Lunenburg but with the same Profits thence as the Emperour receives notwithstanding in this pressing Condition of the Empire and in all general Taxes they pay their proportion as a Circuit of the Empire So we pass Westward to another Border of the Empire 3. Cleve viz. the Dutchy of Cleveland consisting while it was the entire Patrimony of those Dukes of four Members 1. Cleve 2. Gulick 3. Berg or Mont 4. Marck the two last divided from the other by the Rhine and severally joyned some two Centuries agoe to one another in the Family of Cleve the last Duke whereof John William dying in 1610. without Issue this ample and princely Estate the main whereof had continued 900. Years in this Family came to be divided after mature consideration of the evil of a War equally between the Marquess of Brandenburg and Wolfgang Duke of Newburg a younger Descendant of the House Palatine whose Fathers had married the Sisters of the deceased Duke but Brandenburg the eldest It was first agreed between these two Princes to govern the Estates joyntly but afterwards they fell out by being too familiar insomuch that the Brandenburger at a Treatment made by him gave the other a box of the ear which unseemly injury caused the Palatine of Newburg to call in the Spaniard and the other the States General Of which Story read more in the Duke of Rohans Observations upon this subject Both the Partitions are subject to the Laws of the Empire and are obliged to the proportionable supplyes Adjoyning to this Country are the three Electoral Arch-bishopricks 4. Colen the first whereof is that of Colen a fair and goodly Country bounded every way upon some part of the Dutchy of Cleve but on the South limited by the Land of Triers the present Elector is the Uncle to the Duke of Bavaria and considerable in his Interest as to the Catholick Cause being also Prince and Pastour of the City and Jurisdiction of Leige the Government whereof resides in him and the Canons of that Cathedral who by right elect their Prince or Protector as aforesaid This Arch-bishop is Chancellour of Italy and second in Dignity To this succeeds the Arch-bishoprick of Triers Triers whose Bishop is the Chancellour of France for the Emperour This Country lyes all along South the Moselle on the East lyes Luxemburg on the West Franconia It is a pleasant but not a fruitful Country The Arch-bishop of Mentz Mentz although last mentioned is first in Dignity as being Chancellour of the sacred Empire His Jurisdiction like some of our Diocesses lyes dispersed in several Countries so that his temporal Estate is a great deal less than the other two Nor had any of them enjoyed such secular advantages of Dominion had it not been for that the Empire was made Elective and they set their price often upon the Market Besides there hath happened a dissolution of many great Estates out of which they have carved to themselves what they liked with the Connivence of the Empire and under the specious pretence of Deedands and Bequests to the Church The Interest of these Electors is to defend the Papal Imperial and their own Authority of which they are equally jealous from the Reformed Notwithstanding the Arch-bishop of Triers took part or was a secret friend to France in the late Swedish War which made the French so hot upon the rescue of his Country and so resolute in the freeing of it But in case of danger to the Empire no question is to be made but they will unanimously concurr against it and with themselves they draw all the Ecclesiastical States of Germany And are prone enough to assist the Emperour against the Turk The next Principality or Dutchy we shall treat of is Lorrain 5. Lorrain the Duke whereof is a Prince of the Empire and the Country
Scholar a Book nor a Letter into its Borders upon pain of death were a Wonder but that a mans second thoughts inform him this ignorance contributes so much to the Mahumetan Government that the banishment of Learning is no less a part of its Constitution than the forbidding of Wine Since their suing for Protection in Hungary had almost ruined it since their resignation of themselves into the hands of their several Neighbour Princes as the necessity and occasion of War required proved successless to themselves and fatal to those Neighbours and since the Great Turk finding the entire Conquest of the Country so difficult by reason of the defence Nature had provided with its Rocks Mountains and Precipices cunningly some 30. Years agoe declined any further Enterprize of War undertaking those more subtil of Peace whereby he managed the Intestine Divisions of the Brethren Wladus and Dracula with suggestions and supplyes on either side to such a degree of Devastation and Ruine that his own Auxiliaries there were able to make him acknowledged Lord of the Country under Conditions and Limitations to his absolute Authority as the nearness of a continual Aid from the Christian World adjoyning induced him to Thereunto allow I say the nearness of the Christian Succours which Ragotzi had effectually raised to assist the late Vayvod but that the Fate of Germany had rather undergoe a general Calamity than assist those particular Undertakings as if it were more Eligible to have these Limbs of Europe unnaturally turned against its self than prudently strengthened against its most dreadful and irreconcilable Adversary who I am confident must quit his hold here as soon as ever it pleaseth God to recover the antient and lively Impressions of Christianity which if not defaced would ennoble its Professors with thoughts above their present condition especially if some more civil People were invited thither by their Gold and Silver Mines which they will not yet discover to secure Golatz on the Pruth and Danube surprize the strong Castle of Pralaiba the Inlet into this Coast and furnish Zorza re-incompassed by an Arm of the Danube in which when Sigismund of Transylvania took he found 39. great Ordinances with Armes and Ammunitions enough to furnish a Kingdom Only the mischief of it is RASCIA Which is their Neighbour Country on the East as it is the Hungarians on the West the Transylvanians on the North and the Danubes on the South which indeed with Temes coasts it on three sides is made so desperate by the Oppressions of Servia first and since by the Desolations of Turkey that they care not what they attempt upon this Place by the Authority of their Master the Grand Seigniour under whom they are in better case in times of War than in those of Peace The People hereof being so miserable that they have quitted and forgot their very Names not a man of quality surviving the general depression and escaping the common barbarism Often did they link themselves to their respective Neighbours of Servia and Wallachia with whom they tasted the same fortune but now they own no body but their tyrannical Master to whom they perform excellent service when their natural Courage which like Brutes they retain is emulously provoked by other as barbarous People Yea likewise so farr do they retain their primitive hatred against the Musulmans their cruel Masters that upon all Occasions they have been ready to shew their inclination but to very little purpose more than to shew their more Noble Extract and Ancestry though they have not Colonies to plant there the Mahumetans being not so numerous notwithstanding their Polygamy as they are accounted and their often miscarriages the Country being so desolate that a man cannot find an Inn or an Harbour in a dayes riding having discouraged all Expeditions thither on purpose so that the wretched Inhabitants with a little backing might withdraw their necks from the Mahumetan Yoak and save the 200000 Chequins or 45000 l. Sterling besides the Fees and Presents of the respective Tributaries paid constantly to the Port which is most concerned in the two Kingdoms or Despotical Provinces on the Southern shore of the Danube Servia and Bulgaria 1. SERVIA Which being so happily situated between Bulgaria which lyeth on the East of it Bosnia which boundeth it on the West the Danow that limiteth it on the North and Greece on the South is so rich in Corn and Mines as could not escape the Conquest of the Turks who mastered all those adjacent Regions at first nor their Colonies since The People themselves being so rude that they seem born for servitude and good for nothing but to be commanded abroad and so drunken that it was absolutely impossible they should hold out against the Impressions of so sober a People as the Turks whose abstinence from Wine is as much their Policy as their Religion Though as rude as they were they might have held longer against the Infidels Had not Fate included them within that desperate Folly of Princes to undertake an unjust though advantagious Design upon others while there is a superiour Enemy thereby invited to Umpirage the Quarrel As there was when the ambitious Designes of the Despot of Servia upon Rascias Freedom was punished with their own Slavery which was yet hastened by an Accident as fatal viz. Peter John and Martin the Despot Lazarus his Children flying to the Hungarian Protection and his Brothers taking sanctuary at the Port untill the mighty Power of the Turk swallowed up both their Rights with dread and terrour breaking the stubborn Natives whereof Mahomet the Great Impaled some Gaunched others and Flead a third sort so that they were quickly tamed and made the second Province of the Eastern or Greek Europe Past all recovery since Nyssa the Key of the Country is so strongly garrisoned and fortified and the Frontier Town Novigrad is so impregnable And indeed all the Passages into that Country are inaccessible 1500. being able to keep out Uladislaus with 39000. 1564. And Hunniades had much adoe to pass through the weak Despot complying with the Turk who only reserved him to his last Conquest into 2. BULGARIA Which lyeth Eastward on the Euxine Sea Axinos ille foret Westward towards Servia Northward on the Danow or Ister Under the Turks Dominions ever since the last cowardly Prince Saimenos prostrated himself in a winding before the insolent Tyrant Amurath the First who set in three of the most eminent Provinces viz. Nicopolis Sophia and Silistria three Sanjacks or Major Generals under the command of the Begleberg or Vice-Roy of Greece The Wood of these Provinces affords Constantinople Fuel the Sea Shipping Besides that it is esteemed a very good Defence against any sudden Irruption into the more inward part of Romania as where the Christians under Hunniades had the greatest Loss ever known in the World An Argument urged against the Invasion of the Turk though holding only for Caution which way best to invade him That it