The fruitfulness of the Soil And this fair Country which the Blacks inhabit is blest with a Soil as pregnant as the Days are pleasant and prepar'd for any Improvements Beeves and Sheep Hogs and Goats feed here upon the Herbage of the Field which makes them flesht and very well tasted And all those sorts of Grain which are proper for Food or for making strong Drink thrive here and grow in that plenty that no part of Europe can abound with them more Which is all to be ascrib'd to the indefatigable Diligence and Industry of the Dutch who being forc'd to a good Husbandry of the Ground by the scantiness which they live upon at home continue their thrifty Cultivating humour when they are remov'd to a Soil where they may Cultivate what quantity they please for they are a People remarkable for Improvements for their commendable Pains and Care where ever they Inhabit But here grows the fruitful Vine as well as the Wheat and the Barley and the Dutch delight themselves in the double variety both of French and English Liquors of Beer and Wine of their own growth with the sprightly Juice of the one and the healing Oily quality of the other The Rivers and Ponds are full of Fish of great variety and very delicate The Country is cover'd with Woods and Forests which abound with store of Beasts and Fowls as Deer Antilopes Baboons Foxes c. Ostriches whose Eggs are transported to various Countries Herons Partridges Feasants Pelicans Geese Ducks Tygers and Lions are very numerous and so bold that they range sometimes within Gun-shot of the Fort and for that reason seldom return back and do often prey upon the Cattle for which cause they are kept within shelter in the Night Two French Ships taken at the Cape Two French Ships returning from the Indies in A. 1689 with very rich Cargoes were invited to touch at the Cape by the store of delicate Provisions which they heard were there But the taste of that fresh Mutton cost them both their Ships and Men. For the speedy Intelligence which the active Dutch had sent abroad of the Eruption of the War that Year arriving at the Cape before any News could reach the French betray'd them to the vigilance of the Hollanders who seized their Ships as soon as they were well Moored in the Bay The Ancient Inhabitants of this Cape The next description which I come to Secondly is of the Ancient Inhabitants of this Promontory in what relates to their Nature and Customs They retain the vulgar name of Hotantots The reason of their Name because of their constant repetition of that word in their hobling Dances There is a vast difference between the nature of these People that dwell upon this place and the Country they Inhabit for of all parts this affords a Dwelling most neat and pleasant and of all People they are the most Bestial and sordid They are the very Reverse of Human kind The Bestial nature of the Hotantots Cousin Germans to the Halalchors only meaner and more filthy so that if there 's any medium between a Rational Animal and a Beast the Hotontot lays the fairest Claim to that Species They are sunk even below Idolatry are destitute both of Priest and Temple and saving a little show of rejoicing which is made at the Full and the New Moon have lost all kind of Religious Devotion Nature has so richly provided for their convenience in this Life that they have drown'd all sense of the God of it and are grown quite careless of the next They are more Tawny than the Indians Their outward form and in Colour and Features come nearest the Negroes of any People only they are not quite so Black nor is their Cottony Hair so Crisp nor their Noses altogether so flat For Nature pleases her self as well in the variety of Individuals of the same kind as in a great number of Species of all sorts of Animals A Discourse concerning the Negroes blackness It might seem here a rational Conjecture for the reason of the Negroes Blackness that they are burnt by the Sun's Beams which we experimentally find tinctures the fairest Complexions when it comes near them which recover again by withdrawing to a cooler Air. And therefore that those who are most expos'd to the Sun's Heat should always be the Blackest For Blackness and Whiteness are not suppos'd natural to any People whatever 't is presum'd to be the effect of the Climate because those that are Fair by living a long time under or near the Line shall in two or three Generations as 't is affirm'd become tawny and Black tho' they Marry only with fair People But methinks there is something in Nature which seems to thwart this current Opinion For under the same Parallels are People of quite different Colours as for instance the Hotantots who live between thirty four and thirty five Degrees are Black the Inhabitants of Candie who are under the same Elevation of the Pole are White The People of England are white and the Natives near Hudson's Bay which is as Cold and Northerly a Climate are Black And neither the Colony of the English near Hudson's Bay nor the Dutch at Cape Bone Esperanse receive any alteration in their Colour but are fresh and fair as in Europe and yet the Natives in both parts are Olive-colour'd Some are apt to ascribe this to the Air and Climate or Earth which in some places produces Patagons who are Giants as in other Pygmies but this seems weak and unaccountable Others resolve much of it into the effect of Food and Diet which I believe may be of some power and efficacy in this matter upon this Account Because at Suratt I observ'd a young Indian very Black taken into the English Service who by tasting Wine and Eating Flesh grew paler sensibly than he was before The strong Aliment by a frequent mixture of its lively Juyces with the Blood and Spirits which for a long time had been kept low by a Phlegmatick Nourishment did actuate and purify them by degrees and thereby shew'd in sometime the effect of their fermentation by a faint Varnish upon the Face Besides it is a Remark of the Ancients but not methinks very sound whereby they took notice that 't is the Humidity of the Elements which defends the Indians against that Action of the Sun which burns the Complexion of the Negroes and makes their Hair grow like Cotton whereas some of the Indians whose Hair is long and uncurled live as near the Aequator and endure as intense a Heat as the Hotantots and several Negroes of Africa whose Hair is crisp and frizl'd And therefore something must be added besides the Sun's Heat for distinction of Complexion and of Hair under the same Parallels Lewenhoock observes that the Blood of the Negroes is of a different Contexture from ours And Malpighi observ'd a small Membrane not transparent between the Cutis and Cuticula
him in the Hospital where he is rescued from any other Death but what is due to Nature and is there attended and fed 'till he spins out the appointâ—d customary term of Life This Chaerity which they extend to Beasts is accounted by them an act of great Reputation and Virtue nor can they be reconcil'd to that inhuman Cruelty which destroys those Creatures which are the Nurses of our Lives and by whose labour we live at Ease Near this Hospital is another built for the preservation of Buggs Fleas and other Vermin A Hospital for Buggs Fleas c. which suck the Blood of Men and therefore to maintain them with that choice Diet to which they are used and to feed them with their proper Fare a poor Man is hired now and then to rest all Night upon the Cot or Bed where the Vermin are put and fasten'd upon it lest the stinging of them might force him to take his flight before the Morning and so they nourish themselves by sucking his Blood and feed-in on his Carcass Once a Year the charitable Bannian prepares a set Banquet for all the Flies that are in his House A Feast for Flies and sets down before them upon the Floor or Table large shallow Dishes of sweet Milk and Sugar mixt together the most delicious Fare of that liquorish little Creature At other times he extends his Liberality to the Pismires Their Charity to the Pismires and walks with a Bag of Rice under his Arm two or three Miles forward into the Country and stops as he proceeds at each Ant-Hill that he meets with to leave behind him his Benevolence a handful or two of Rice straw'd upon the Ground which is the beloved Dainty on which the hungry Pismires feed and their best reserve and store in time of need Therefore they never taste the flesh of any thing that has breath'd the common Air nor pollute themselves with feeding on any thing endued with Life and are struck with astonishment at the voratious Appetites of the Christians who heap whole Bisks of Fish upon their Tables and sacrifice whole Hecatombs of Animals to their Gluttony They cannot be tempted either by the delicacy of the Food No tasting of Flesh or for prevention of either Sickness or Death to so enormous an Offence as the tasting of Flesh Vegetable products and the Milk of Cattle Rice and other sorts of Grane which Nature affords in plenty and they with Innocence can enjoy is the lawful Nourishment they delight in nor will they be induced by the meer indulgence of their Appetites to make their Tables Altars of Luxury and Excesses no more than the original Inhabitants of the World whom Antiquity supposes not to have been Carnivorous nor to have tasted Flesh in those first Ages but only to have fed upon Fruits and Herbs The Prohibition of Flesh being eaten with the Blood was an ancient Sanction of the East and is very universal to this day It was forbidden by Moses because he plac'd the Life in it nor is it dispens'd with by the Mahometans Some ancient Philosophers as Empedocles plac'd the seat of the Soul in the Blood and Democritus assign'd it the whole Body And tho' the Bannians are under restraint from the Blood of either Animal or that of the Grape yet will they freely taste the Grapes themselves and entertain themselves Luxuriously with their Juice while it is innocent and harmless We have Grapes brought to Suratt The Season of Grapes from the middle of February 'till towards the end of March some from Amadavad some from a Village called Naapoure four days Journey distant from Suratt They feed likewise upon Pine-Apples Custard-Apples so called because they resemble a Custard in Colour and Taste and many other sorts of Fruit unknown to Europe But the Mangoes are of principal esteem and the most common Fruit of India Mangoes much eaten They have a Stone in the middle by which and their outward shape they come nearest to the form of our long Plums of any Fruit only they are generally much larger they attribute many medicinal qualities to this sort of Fruit and ascribe to it those Virtues which free them from all Diseases incident to that Season of the Year and sometimes those Chronical Distempers they labour under They are of exquisite Taste when they come to Maturity and are Eaten then in vast quantities by the Indians and Europeans as well for the Security of their Health as for pleasure and delight When they are Green they are Pickl'd there and sent abroad and make that Mango Achar which we taste in England Cucumbers much eaten The cold quality of the Cucumber is here so prepar'd and digested by the Sun's Heat that the Bannians without endangering their Health will feed upon them as plentifully as we do upon Apples And the Water-Melons are very large delicious and easily purchas'd and very refreshing cooling Fruit in the warmer Season But the Musk-Melons from Amadavad highly deserve that fragrant Name The delicacy of the Musk-Melons being inriched both with a flavour and a taste superiour to any of that kind in the World The Bannians are not restrain'd from the liberal Draughts of Tea and Coffee Tea and Coffee drunk by them to revive their wasted Spirits any part of the Day but in those they may Revel uncensur'd as long as they please and have there more inviting Temptations to drink them plentifully than with us For the Coffee Great Art in making Coffee when it it truly boiled and prepared carries a kind of yellow Oil upon the head of it by which it acquires a soft pleasant Relish and requires so much Art in bringing it to this Perfection that it ingages some who affect this sort of Liquor in the expence of a skilful Peon on purpose to look after it in the Preparation This Berry is of very common growth in Arabia especially about Mocha and from thence is transported to the remotest Regions of the East or West Coffee is said to be good for Cleansing the Blood for helping Digestion and quickening the Spirits Tea likewise is a common Drink with all the Inhabitants of India as well Europeans as Natives and by the Dutcb is used as such a standing Entertainment that the Tea-pot's seldom off the Fire Tea healthful in India or unimploy'd This hot Liquor it may be suppos'd might not seem so proper and agreeable to so hot an Air and yet we find is very convenient for our Health and agreeable to the Habits of our Bodies And even all the Arak Punch which is dunk there is seldom toucht 'till by a heated Iron or Wedge of Gold it is made luke warm This both supplies the Vapours which are continually exhal'd from the Body and helps the prevention of Fevers by keeping the Pores open Tea with some hot Spice intermixt and boiled in the Water has the Repute of prevailing against the Head-ach Gravel and Griping
the Day and when the Sun is in the Zenith will be half Roasted in a little time by the Heat Rains fall seldom It rains here but seldom and in some places of Arabia not above twice or thrice in two or three Years but the abundance of Dew which falls at Night refreshes the Ground supplies the Herbs with Moisture and makes the Fruits excellent The Muscatters for the most part are lean and of a middle Stature The nature of the Inhabitants very swarthy in their Complexion and not of very strong Voice They are stout and manly and expert at the Bow and Dart and since their ingagement in the War with the Portuguese are excellent Marks-men and very dexterous and ready in the exercise of Fire-Arms in which they Employ always some part of the Day The Ground yields them variety of excellent Fruits as Oranges Lemons Citrons Grapes Apricocks and Peaches and most sorts of Roots and green Herbs But the Staple Commodity of the Country is Dates Dates the chief Commodity of which there are whole Orchards for some Miles together They have so much plenty of this Fruit for which they have so ready a vent in India that several Ships are sent thither loaded from hence without any other Cargo The Hills are bare The Hills are generally all steril and bare and he that takes only a prospect of them would conclude the Land quite uninhabitable and unable to afford either sustenance for Man or nourishment for Beast For the Soil there languishes for want of Moisture and the ground is dried up like a barren Wilderness The Valleys fruitful the Earth brings forth neither Grass nor Flowers nor Trees with either Leaves or Fruit. But casting his Eyes down into the Valleys he sees them all flourishing and green and cover'd with Vegetables fit for the Pleasure and Refreshment of Animals and very Beautiful to Admiration There are Arable Fields and green Pastures Fruit-Trees that look neither wither'd nor faded nothing there is Barren or Unprofitable but bountiful Nature compensates with the fruitfulness of the Valleys for the nakedness of the Hills so that here if upon their Tops a Man would be apt to think himself among the Lybian Wastes yet let him but descend lower The Watering their Trees and he would fancy himself in the pleasant Fields of Tempe All this is due to the Industry of the People who for want of Rains are forc'd to water their Gardens every Morning and Evening by the labour of the Ox who draws the Water twice a day to the Root of every Tree in their Gardens There are several Channels cut out in the ground for the Water to run thro' and at the Banks of these Canals the Trees are Planted near the Water for the Moisture and Nourishment of the Roots which together with the Mists that descend in the Night time preserve them fresh and green and very Fruitful Having spoke thus much of Arabia in general of the Extent and Situation of Muscatt and the quality of its Climate of the Stature and Complexion of the Inhabitants and nature of the Soil thereabouts I will now relate one thing observable concerning the Food of their Cattle and will then proceed to an Account of the Temperance and Justice of the Arabians of Muscatt for which two things they are more remarkable than any other Nation this day in the World Their Cattle here are fed with Fish Fish the Food of their Cattle which is a sort of Food that seems as Unnatural for them as for Fish to live upon Grass which is the proper Meat for Cattle But the Fish which they eat is not fresh and just taken out of the Sea but when a great quantity of it is caught the Muscatrers dig a large Hole in the Ground wherein they put it 'till it remains so long that it rotts and comes to a kind of Earth After this it is taken up and boil'd with Water in great Earthen Pots which makes a kind of thick Broth and standing 'till it is cool it is then given to the Cattle by which they grow extreme Fat and yet their Flesh is very savory not tainted with either an ill Taste or Smell The Food of the Natives The Inhabitants of Muscatt feed promiscuously upon either Fish or Flesh they eat Beef Mutton Goat and Deer and the Flesh of Camels is admir'd by them and is in repute for a Healthful sort of Meat But they are very nice and curious in killing those Animals on which they feed and which they refuse to taste 'till the Meat is cleans'd and washt from the Blood They abound too in many sorts of Fish and are scrupulous in Eating of some kinds of them such especially as have no Scales from which they totally refrain and esteem the Food of such as well as of Blood an Abomination The Soil affords abundance of Wheat which might be properly made use of for their Bread but the Dates are so plentiful so pleasant and admir'd that they mix them with all their Food and eat them instead of Bread through all these parts of Arabia both with their Fish and Flesh But of all the Followers of Mahomet and zealous Admirers of his four principal Doctors Abu Becre Osman Omar and Hali none are so rigidly Abstemious as the Arabians of Muscatt The great Abstinence of the Natives as well from the Juice of the Grape as other more common and innocent Liquors For Tea and Coffee which are judg'd the privileg'd Liquors of all the Mahometans as well Turks as those of Persia India and other parts of Arabia are condemn'd by them as unlawful Refreshments and abominated as Bug-bear Liquors as well as Wine He that would turn Advocate for any of these sorts of Drink and commend the Use of them as convenient for their Stomachs as fit to chear their Hearts and chase away Melancholy from their Spirits would be look'd upon as a vile Contemner of their Law and an Encourager of Libertinism and Intemperance They abhor likewise the smoaking of Tobacco and the warm intoxicating Fumes of that Indian Weed and constantly burn all that they can find brought into their Country Sugar Water and Orange mixt together which they call Sherbet is their only Drink such is their Antipathy to all Liquors that are warm and strong that in perfect Indignation they rased a Jews House to the ground that had only made some strong Waters Therefore they call themselves the strict Arabs the Chaste Mahometans the only true Professors of the Mussulman-Law and genuine followers of the Prophet To this degree of Abstinence they are all bred up who are Natives of this Region hereabouts thus they abstain from all those sensible gratifications of their Palates which may any way inebriate their Faculties and render the Mind dull and unactive and shun the Taste of any thing that may disturb their Person or raise up in them any irregular Appetites Nor is the
Bird or Fish as you please for it lives in the Ocean like a Fish it feeds upon Grass on Shoar as an Ox and lays Eggs as a Bird sometimes the quantity of a Bushel The two Fins of it placed before are in the shape of Wings those two behind are broad and long like Feet and its Head and Eyes which it opens and shuts resemble those of a Hawk so that both in its shape and other qualities the Body of it is divided among those Creatures whose proper Elements are Land Water and Air. The flesh of it is White and Eats beyond any Veal and admirably contributes to the Cure of the Scurvey and as it 's commonly affirmed the Impure Disease But the Dutch notwithstanding the delicacy will not touch it and the Barbarity of the French after they have been satiated with their Plenty expose them to starve and stink above Ground by leaving many of them turn'd upon their Backs upon their departure from the Island The English treat none cruelly but turn only such as are necessary for their Refreshment being loath to express a severity to the very Beasts especially such whose Deaths contribute so considerably to the Health and support of their own Lives Great plenty of these Shel-Fish are found in the West Indies the Genitals of which dried and drunk in Wine are prescribed as singular Dissolvers of the Stone The store of them upon this Island where so little Herbage grows seems to supply the Necessity of green Herbs for Curing the Scorbutick Humours in the Marriners to which nothing does contribute more as we happily experimented in the Voyage For three or four French Vineroons designed for St. Helena were so lamentably over-run with the Scurvey after we had spent two or three Months at Sea The Scurvey Cur'd by Eating green herbs that they were unable either to walk or stand upright and yet three days eating of Purslain and other Herbs after we were landed in Africa rectifyed the ill Humours in the Blood restor'd their Limbs and recover'd their Stomachs and lost Health again And were those made more frequently the Diet of these that live on Land as they are sometimes of those at Sea I doubt not but the Scorbutick Humours and all that Train of Diseases that follows them would be less numerous and prevailing than they are Upon this Island is a certain place nam'd the Post-Office The Post-Office from the Letters left there by the last Commander that came thither giving an Account of the time he came there when he departed from the Island and what other News of moment he thinks convenient The Letter is commonly thrust into a Bottle corked close which the succeeding Commander breaks in pieces to come to it and leaves another in its stead But I will leave this Barren Island and proceed on the Voyage A day set apart for the invoking a Blessing upon the Voyage About the middle of our Passage from the Cape to Europe the Captain Commandant of the Fleet called a Council of all the Commanders and then enjoyn'd a particular Day to be set apart by every Ship as a publick Thanksgiving for our past safety and for imploring the Favour and Benediction of Heaven upon the Fleet for the rest of the Voyage and desir'd from me a Form of Prayer which was translated into Dutch for that purpose This was a pitch of Piety which well became his Care and Station but was far beyond the common strain of a Sailer's Devotion A great Storm I doubt not but it was very Instrumental in our avoiding those threatning Dangers that incompassed us in our Voyage and from which we had a very Fortunate Deliverance to Europe For besides the Storm which increas'd to such a Rage and on a sudden grew so insupportable and Fierce that it separated the whole Fleet and every Ship was forc'd to make the best of her way for her own safety the Benjamin besides this had another Deliverance as happy which was in her Escape from two French Privateers The Stratagem our Captain used to make his Escape from two French Privateers the one a Head the other a Stern by the Commander Captain Leonard Brown's prudent Management of himself in that juncture For having formerly shorten'd Sail in hopes that one of them might be our Friend as soon as ever he discern'd they were the Enemy he order'd all Hands aloft and commanded the Sails to be spread in a trice by which he made them suppose that our Ship was very well Man'd and that we must therefore needs be a Man of War This stratagem had its desired effect for upon it they both left us tho' the next Day following they took a stout Fourth Rate the Diamond Frigat On September the 18th 1693 Our Arrival in Ireland we came into Kingsale in Ireland where as a Testimony of our Gratitude to our great Deliverer in the Voyage the Captain Officers and Sailers The Officers and Sailers Charity after the Voyage contributed amongst them betwixt twenty and thirty Pounds part of which about four Pounds was design'd as a small Oblation to the Minister and the rest was given to the Poor of the place Which was to be Recorded by a publick Inscription in the Church as an Encouragement to others to imitate the Precedent that was given them The kindness and civility of the English in Ireland The English welcom'd us on Shoar with many generous Civilities and shew'd to us the Ancient Temper of the English Nation in their frank Hospitality and the Spirit of liberal Entertainments Tho' they lately smarted with intestine Broils yet now they were at Peace were unanimously Loyal and universally Kind not sowr'd with Faction nor grown sordid by Covetousness but here we found that Love and Allegiance which seem'd indeed to be the Genius of all the Protestants of that Kingdom After we had stay'd here five Weeks for want of a Convoy we at last set Sail and on the 5th of December arriv'd safe at Gravesend FINIS AN APPENDIX CONTAINING I. The History of a late Revolution in the Kingdom of GOLCONDA II. A short Description of the Kingdom of ARRACAN and PEGU III. A Collection of Coyns now Currant in the Kingdoms of INDOSTON PERSIA GOLCONDA c. AND IV. Observations concerning the Nature of the Silk-Worms LONDON Printed for Jacob Tonson at the Judges Head in Fleet-street 16â—6 THE HISTORY OF A Late Revolution IN THE KINGDOM OF GOLCONDA THE Account of this Revolution and those other matters which are discours'd of in this Appendix might have fallen in very luckily in some part of the preceding Voyage had I been so fortunate as to have had the perusal of the Papers while the Book was a finishing but not coming to my Hands 'till it was Printed I thought it best to affix them to it as both agreeable to the Subject and containing things in them very remarkable and New And must needs own the peculiar Obligation