who lies prostrate before him he will with his broad round foot immediately presse him to death but if that wretched Creature be condemn'd it 〈…〉 mori ut se mori sentiat so to dye as that he may feel tortures and torments in dying which are as so many several deaths The Elephant will break his bones by degrees as men are broken upon the wheel as first his Legs then his Thighs after that the bones in both his Arms this done his wretched Spirit is left to breath its last out of the middest of those broken bones But it is a very sad thing and very much unbeseeming a man as he is a man to seem to take pleasure in executing of punishment as those appear to do who make it their businesse to study and invent tortures to inflict on others Thus those Monsters of men did in the primitive times of Christianity devise new torments for the exercise of the Faith and patience of Christians which in their relations are extream hard and sad to read of much more in their suffering of them were they to be endured Yet almighty God did then so support his people in the middest of all those grievous extremities they were made to suffer that their Tormentors were more troubled to invent then they were to endure tortures so that they overcame while they were overcome and were not more than men but morâ— thaâ— Conquerors over those who seemed to conquer them I cannot deny but that the strength of pride may carry men very far the strength of delâ—sion much further as we may observe from the examples of the ancient Stoicks and since them from others whose Frantick opinions have made so prodigal of their limbs and lives as that they would seem very little to regard extreamity of tortures and sufferings yea death it self When one told Theodorus Seneca the Philosopher reports the stories that he would hang him up alive in the Air he answered thus minitare istud purpuratis tuis c. threaten this to thy Carpet Knights Theodoruâ— cares not whither his body rot in the Air or in the Earth and that when others were upon the Rack they would cry ô quam suave c. Oh what pleasure is there in racking Now what pity wrought in others pride and delusion wrought in these The truth is non p 〈…〉 a sed â—ausa facit Martyrâ—m it is not a mans suffering but the reason of it which made a Martyr and therefore however others bear things ouâ— they and they onely to whom it is given not onely to believe but also to suffer can behold their sufferings so with a clear eye of Faith that though they be intolerable in themselves and seem so to others yet are they made easie to them Ignatius came to the stake and kissed it at which he was presently burnt Others have inimbraced those flames which immediately afâ—â—r â—â—â—n'd them into ashes whence Tyrants persecutors have often served though much against their wills to build and enlarge the Church of Christ As the persecution of Stephen served to spread the Doctrine of salvation in the Countreys thereabouts and to raise up a number of Churches that happening to persecutors which might happen to a man who to put out a quick fire of burning Coals should scatter them all over his Chamber and so set on fire his whole House The Church of Christ hath ever gained in persecution what it hath lost in prosperity Therefore those Christians in the primitive Church when they were tortured would not except of deliverance Heb. 11. 35. that is aâ—â—â—pt of it upon any sinfull terms and in the 138. of the same Chapter they received or took possession of the promises which they had onely in hope a far off and embraced them as if they had had them in hand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hug'd them they kiss'd them as resting abundantly satisfied with the hope and expectation of them If in thiâ— life onely the people of God had hope then were they of all mâ—n most miserable for they are here as some chief tender plants of another Countrey who have much ado to live and grow whereas the wicked like weeds thâ—ive without watering The Devil is called the Prince of the World and therefore it would be very strange if any of Gods people should finde very much content where Satan hath so much to do Here in this World optimi pissimâ— agunt the best usually fare worst the righteous have most wrong But it will not alwayes be thus a time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and then all tears shall be wiped from his peoples eyes and all sadnesse shall be removed from their Spirits Nec Malleus Tyrannorum nec secur is pâ—rsecutionis and as one of the ancients sweetly comforts when the Hammer of Tyranny cannot touch nor the Ax of persecution hurt them for they shall be out of the reach of all fears troubles annoyances which make their lives here sometimes for the present seem bitter unto them Without doubt the services of Gods people would be very ill rewarded if they should continue here in this life still But God who lends them to the world â—owes them a far better turn than the whole earth can pay them and therefore when he sees good removes them hence because it is for their preferment in the mean time though the miseries of Gods people be great their dayes are short And although Almighty God do not say it vocally yet secretly he speaks to all his people as sometimes he did to Moses after he had done all the words which he appointed him to do here he bids him go up to Mount Nebo and dye there Deut. 32. 50. go up and dye as if he had said go up and eat So Joseph before him said unto his brethren I dye Gen. 50. 24. as if he had said I eat I drink I sleep It is neither news or strange for any dear servant of God to think of dying because he knows that he shall part with nothing by death but what is a burden to him his sin loose nothing by dying but what he would fain be rid of his corruption Hence the ancient Fathers naming the death of the faithfull their birth and the day of their Martyrdom the day of their Nativity shewed what great satisfaction and content they had in the thought and hope of the life to come In the mean time they beheld their sufferings whatsoever they were so with the eye of Faith as before that it made them easie to be endured while they looked not at things which were seen or did not much regard them but at the things which were not seen for the things they saw or felt here how bitter or sharp soever they were were temporal transient would have an end but the things they saw not but assuredly expected were eternal where they should finde weight of glorie for lightnesse of affliction 2 Cor.
small one had Great Pompey none When Iulius Caesar had vanquished Ptolomey and the distressed King hoped to preserve his life by flying into a Boat there were so many of his Souldiers which followed him that they lost their lives by that very means they hoped to preserve them for their too much weight sunk the Boat and they all with their most unhappy King drown'd together Concerning whom I have what here follows but a little varied thus observed to my hand Mixt with Plebeians there a Monarch lies The last o' th race of Egypts Ptolomeys Under no covert but his Niles cold waves No Pyramids nor rich Mansolian graves Nor Arched vaults whose structures do excell As his forefathers Ashes proudly dwell And dead as living do their wealth expresse In sumptuous Tombes or gorgious Palaces This was the Fate of that last Egyptian Monarch and it is sad to consider that an Egyptian Monarch should be buried under water and mudd and a Roman Barber covered with Marble The like hath been the condition of many others who have deserved in their generation lasting remembrances in this kinde but have not found them when others who have merited nothing at all have had much said and in that respect much done for them after death And therefore one of this age very eminent for great parts writing of a great man by place and deserts but obscurely buried and observing rich Monuments set off with large and undeserved Encomiums for others which deserved them not first blames The flattering stone Which oft belies the dead when he is gone And after writes further in relation to him before mentioned thus Let such as fear their rising purchase vaulâ—s And statues onely to excuse their faults While thou shalt rise thorough thy easie dust At the last day these would not but they must And truly if we consider and impartially read many Hyperbolical expressions engraven upon some Monuments we may make a pause at the two first words which are commonly these Here lies and write them thus hear lies and there make a stop because little or nothing that follows hath any truth in it And therefore though many great and rich men have their bodies after death covered with stately Piles which hold forth many and high commendations of them yet these cannot keep their names from putrifying and rotting as much above ground as their bodies do under it The name of the wicked shall rot Prov. 10. 17. His remembrance shall perish from the earth and he shall have no name in the street Job 18. 17. or if their names survive and be remembred they shall but continue their shame as here lies or there dwelt such an oppressor such a cruel or such a covetous Muck-worm or such a filthy or such a prophane ungodly person or such an intemperate drunken sot whom many times such an inscription would fit if it were written over their doors as Diogenes sometimes caused to be written upon the door of a like intemperate person who had written before that his house was to be sold under which that Cynick wrote thus I thought this house would surfet so long that it would spue out its master for God shall take such away and pluck them out of their dwelling places and root them out of the land of the living or as the Prophet Jeremiah speaks their dwellings shall cast them out But however they which deserve true honour should have it both alive and dead The memory of the just shall be blessed Abel was the first that ever tasted death and he died by violence he died for Religion Oh how early did Martyrdom creep into the world yet Abol who hath been so long dead yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. or the Testimony which Almighty God gave of that righteous Abel is yet spoken of and so shall be till eternity hath swallowed up time The remembrance of Josiah is like a composition of the perfume that is made by the art of the Apothecary sweet in all mouths c. and so shall remain when stately Monuments erected to preserve the memorie of others shall be so defaced that it will not appear where they once were In a word all Kings and Potentates of the earth of what Nation soever they be must first or last lay down their swords and Scepters and Trophies at the gates of death No earthly King shall ever carry his Crown further than Simon the Cyrenian did the Crosse to Golgotha to the grave which narrow compasse of earth shall at last put a confinement to all their great thoughts who have believed as Alexander sometime did the whole world by much to little to bound their desires Unus Pellaeo juveni non sufficit Orbis Aestuat infelix angusto limite mundi Ut Gyarae clausus scopulis parvaque Seripho CuÌ„ tamen a figulis munitam intraverit urbem Sarcophago contentus erat Mors sola fatetur Quantula sint hominuÌ„ corpuscula Ju. Sat. 10. One world the youth of Pella cannot hold He sweats as crouded in this narrow mold To close Seriph's and Gyara's Rocks consin'd But when into the Towns with brick-walls lin'd He entered once there must he rest content In a straight Coffin and slight Monument For death alone is that which will confesse Though great mens mindes their bodies littlenesse Ecce vix totam Hercules implevit urnam Behold great and victorious Hercules the subduer of the Monsters of the World when he was dead and his body resolved into aslies scarcely fill'd one earthen Pitcher Death is the great Loveller which cuts down and then layes all people flat before God Oh if sicknesse and death could be brib'd how rich they would be this death makes all men to appear as they are men upon even â—erms in the sight of God The great men there shall not be offered a Chair and Cushion to sit down while others stand and wait I saw the dead both small and great stand before God Rev. 21. 12. The small and the great are there and the servant is free from his master Job 3. 19. The distinction then in that day shall not be 't wixt poor and rich 'twixt mean and mighty 'twixt them that are nobly born and those of low parentage But good and bad shall be the onely Terms to distinguish one man from another before that great Tribunal when every one of what degree or condition soever he hath been shall receive from the hands of God according to that which he hath done in the flesh be it good or evil When the two Cups the two rewardâ— the two recompences shall be impartially distributed and none but those which shall be found in Christ accepted rewarded in the mean time as it is in natural rest it is much better to lodge in a very poor base and mean cottage upon an hard open pallat and there to have sweet and quiet sleep than in a most sumptuous Palace upon a bed of down enclosed with the richest Curtains that cost
Caroom raised and kept together very great forces and stood upon his guard and would not disband till his Father had delivered his eldest Son Sultan Coobseroo into his hands and how when he had him in his power he used him you shall after hear In the mean time take one admirable example of a very grosse flatterer but a great favourite of that King who was noted above others of that Nation to be a great neglecter of God believing it Religion enough to please the Mogol his Master This man was a Souldier of an approved valour But upon a time he sitting in dalliance with one of his Women she pluckt an hair from his breast which grew about his Nipple in wantonnesse without the least thought of doing him hurt But the little wound that small and unparalel'd instrument of death made presently began to fester and in short time after became a Canker incureable in fine when he saw that he must needs dye he uttered these words which are worth the remembring of all that shall ever hear them saying VVho would not have thought but that I who have been so long bred a Souldier should have dyed in the face of mine Enemy either by a sword or a Launce or an Arrow or a Bullet or by some such instrument of death But now though too late I am forc'd to confesse that there is a great God above whose Majesty I have ever despised that needs no bigger Launce than an hair to kill an Atheist or a despiser of his Majesty and so desiring that those his last words might be told unto the King his Master died Till sin into the world had made a breach Death was not heard of ever since in each Poor creature may it doth it couchant lye The kernel of a Grape kills one a fly Another choaks by a câ—rrupted breath Of air one dies and others have found death In a small bit of meat or by a Corn Too closely cut or by a prick of Thorn When death comes arm'd with Gods imperial word An hair can pierce as deep as sharpest sword The Mogol never advanceth any but he gives him a new name and these of some pretty signification as Pharoah did unto Joseph when he made him great in his Court Gen. 41. 45. the new names I say that the Mogol gives unto those he advanceth and favours are significant As Asaph Chan the gathering or rich Lord whose sister the Mogol married and she was his most beloved wife and her brothers marvelous great riches answered his name for he died worth many Millions as I have been credibly informed the greatest subject I believe for wealth that ever the world had so another of the Mogols Grandees was called Mahobet-Chan the beloved Lord. Another Chan-Jahan the Lord of my heart Another Chan-Allaam the Lord of the world Another Chan-Channa the Lord of Lords He called his chief Physician Mocrob-Chan the Lord of my health and many other names like these his Grandees had which at my being there belonged to his most numerous Court And further for their Titles of honour there all the Kings Children are called Sultans or Princes his daughters Sultanaus or Princesses the next title is Nabob equivalent to a Duke the next Channa a double Lord or Earle The next Chan a Lord. So Meirsa signifies a Knight that hath been a General or Commander in the Wars Umbra a Captain Haddee a Cavalier or Souldier on horse-back who have all allowed them means by the King as before proportionable for the supports of their Honours and Titles and Names His Officers of State are his Treasurers which receive his revenues in his several Provinces and take care for the payment of his great Pensions which when they are due are paid without any delay There his chief Eunuchs which command the rest of them take care for the ordering of his house and are Stewards and Controulers of it his Secretaries the Masters of his Elephants and the Masters of his Tents are other of his great Officers and so are the keepers of his Ward-robe who are entrusted with his Plate and Jewels To these I may add those which take care of his Customs for goods brought into his Empire as for commodities carried thence But these are not many because his Sea-ports are but few The Customs payd in his Ports are not high that strangers of all Nations may have the greater encouragement to Trade there with him but as he expects money from all strangers that Trade there So it is a fault he will not pardon as before for any to carry any quantity of silver thence He hath other Officers that spread over his Empire to exact monies out of all the labours of that people who make the curious manufactures So that like a great Tree he receives nourishment from every even the least Roots that grow under his shadow and therefore though his Pensions are exceeding great as before they are nothing comparable to his enuch greater revenues By reason of that Countries immoderate heat our English Cloath is not fit to make Habits for that people that of it which is sold there is most of it for colour Red this they imploy for the most part to make coverings for their Elephants and Horses to cover their Coaches the King himself taking a very great part thereof whose payments are very good onely the Merchant must get the hands of some of his chief Officers to his bill appointed for such dispatches which are obtained as soon as desired And this the King doth to prevent the abuses of particular and single persons And now that I may present my Reader with the further glory of this great King I shall lead him where he may take a view SECT XXVII Of the Mogols Leskar or Camp Royal c. WHich indeed is very glorious as all must confesse who have seen the infinite number of Tents or Pavilions there pitched together which in a plain make a shew equal to a most spacious and glorious Citie These Tents I say when they are altogether cover such a great quantity of ground that I believe it is five English miles at the least from one side of them to the other very beautifull to behold from some Hill where they may be all seen at once They write of Zerxes that when from such a place he took a view of his very numerous Army consisting at the least of three hundred thousand men he wept saying that in less than the compasse of one hundred years not one of that great mighty Host would be alive And to see such company then together of all sorts of people and I shall give a good reason presently why I believe that mixt company of men women and children may make up such an huge number as before I named if not exceed it and to consider that death will seize upon them all within such a space of time and that the second death hath such a power over them is
unto me and I never went abroad amongst that people but those that met me upon this consideration that I was a Padrae for so they call'd me a Father or Minister they would manifest in their behaviour towards me much esteem unto me But for the Jesuits there There was one of that order in Goa a City of the Portugals lying in the skirts of India of very much fame and renown called Jeronymo Xauere sent for by Achabar Sha the late Kings Father in the year 1596. to argue before him the doctrine of Christianity there being alwaies present a Moolaa or Mahometan Priest and a third person who followed no precise rule but what the light of nature meerly led him to and these two were to object what they could against his reasoning The Jesuit in the Mogols own language which was a great advantage to him began to speak first of the Creation and then of the fall of man in which the Mahometans agree with us Then he layd down divers grounds to bottom his reasonings on That man by Creation was made a most excellent Creature indued with the light of reason which no other sublunary Creature besides himself had then That man thus endued must have some rule or Law to walk by which he could not prescribe unto himself and therefore it must be given him from above That this Law was first given unto man from God and afterward confirmed by Prophets sent into the world in divers ages from God That this Law thus delivered must needs be one Law in all things agreeing in it self And so did not the Law of Mahomet That this thus delivered was most conformable to right reason And so was not the Law of Mahomet That man fall'n from God by Sin was not able to recover himself from that fall and therefore it was necessary that there should be one more than a man to do it for him and that that one could not be Mahomet That this one was Christ God as well as man God to satisfie the Mahometans themselves confessing that Christ was the breath of God and man to suffer death as he did That Christ the Son of God coming into the world about that great work of satisfying Gods anger against man for sin it was necessary that he should live a poor and laborious life here on Earth at which the Mahometans much stumble and not a life that was full of pomp and pleasure and delicacie That the Gospel of Christ and other holy Books of Scripture which the Christians retain and walk by contain nothing in them that is corrupt and depraved But there is very much to be found in their Alcaron which is so That the great worth and worthiness shining in the person of Christ was by far more excellent than any thing observable in Mahomet for they themselves confess that Christ lived without sin when Mahomet himself acknowledgeth that he had been a filthy person That the feigned and foolish and ridiculous miracles which they say were done by Mahomet were nothing comparable to the miracles done by Christ who as the Mahometans confess did greater miracles than ever were done before or since him That there was a great deal of difference in the manner of promulgating the Gospel of Christ into the world and the introducing of the Laws of Mahomet That Christ hath purchased Heaven for all that beleeve in him and that Hell is prepared for all others that do not rely on him and on him alone for Salvation There were many more particulars besides these which that Jeronymo Xaucere laid down before the Mogol to ground his arguments on which that King heard patiently at severall times during the space of one year and half but at last he sent him away back again to Goa honourably with some good gifts bestowed on him telling him as Felix did after he had reasoned before him that he would call for him again when he had a convenient time Acts 24. 25. Which time or season neither of them both ever found afterward These particulars which I have here inserted with many more I might have added to them upon all which that Jeronymo Xaucere enlarged himself before the Mogol in his arguings before him were given unto me in Latine by Francisco Corsi another Jesuit resident at that Court while I was there and long before that time And further I have been there told bâ— other people professing Christianity in that Empire that there was such a dispute there held and for my part do beleeve it For that Francisco Corsi he was a Florentine by birth aged about fifty years who if he were indeed what he seemed to be was a man of a severe life yet of a fair and an affable disposition He lived at that Court as an Agent for the Portugals and had not onely free access unto that King but also encouragement and help by gifts which he sometimes bestowed on him When this Jesuit came first to be acquainted with my Lord Ambassadour he told him that they were both by profession Christians though there was a vast difference betwixt them in their professing of it And as he should not go about to reconcile the Ambassadour to them So he told him that it would be labour in vain if he should attempt to reconcile him to us Onely he desired that there might be a fair correspondency betwixt them but no disputes And further his desire was that those wide differences 'twixt the Church of Rome and us might not be made there to appear that Christ might not seem by those differences to be divided amongst men professing Christianity which might be a very main obstacle and hinderance unto his great design and endeavour for which he was sent thither to convent people unto Christianity there Telling my Lord Ambassadour further that he should be ready to do for him all good offices of love and service there and so he was After his first acquaintance he visited us often usually once a week And as those of that society in other parts of the world are very great intelligencers so was he there knowing all news which was stirring and might be had which he communicated unto us And he would tell us many stories beside one of which if true is very remarkeable And it was thus there are a race of people in East India the men of which race have if he told us true their right legges extraordinary great and mishapen their left legges are like other mens Now he told us that they were the posterity of those who stamped St. Thomas the Apostle to death come thither to Preach the Gospel and that ever since the men of thaâ— race have and onely they of that Nation that great deformity upon them Some few people I have there seen of whom this story is told but whither that deformity be like Gehiza's leprosie hereditary and if so whither it fell upon that people upon the occasion before named I am yet to learn The
exposed when we were there who by his pittifull cryes was discovered by our Court of Guard there on shore and not far off from him and by them relieved and delivered for that present time out of the jawes of Death And wee asking Coorce one of the Natives whose story you shall have by and by why they did so he told us it was their custome when their people had lived so long that they knew not what to doe with them thus to be rid of them Wee saw in this Bay of Souldania many Whales and about the shore divers party-coloured Fowles And here are Ostriches to be seen For the soyl about the Bay it seems to be very good but the Sun shines not upon a people in the whole world more barbarous than those which possesse it Beasts in the skins of men rather than men in the skins of beasts as may appear by their ignorance habit language diet with other things which make them most brutish First for God the great God of Heaven and Earth whom generally all the people in the world Heathen as well as Christians doe confess they as this Cooree told us acknowledge none For their speech it seemed to us inarticulate noyse rather than Language like the clucking of Hens or gabling of Turkeys and thus making a very strange confused noyse when they walk here or there if there be two or three or five or ten or twenty or very many more in company it is their manner to walk in rank one after the other in small paths they have made by their thus walking as Kine in Summer many times doe when they come home to the Payl or as wild-geese who fly in ranks and as they fly make a noyse so these walking together thus gabble from the first to the last in company as if all spake but none answered Their Habits are their sheeps skins undrest thonged together which cover their bodies to the middle with a little flap of the same skin tyed before them being naked downward and when t is cold keep the woolly when hotter weather the fleshy side of those skins next to their bodies Their ornaments and Jewels Bullocks or sheeps-guts full of excrement about their necks and therefore when we bought their Cattell they would take and we were content they should their skins guts and garbage which plentifully furnished them with that rich attire and gay ornaments and when they were hungry they would sit down upon some hillock first shaking out some of that filthy pudding out of the guts they wore about their necks then bowing and bringing their mouths to their hands almost as low as their knees like hungry doggs would gnaw and eat the raw guts when you may conceive their mouths full of sweet green sawce The women as the men are thus adorned thus habited and thus dieted only they wear more about their lower parts than the men And by the way these carry their sucking infants under their skins upon their backs and their brests hanging down like Bag-pipes they put up with their hands to their children that they may suck them over their shoulders Both sexes make coverings for their heads like to skull caps with Cow-dung and such like filth mingled with a little stinking grease with which they likewise besmear their faces which makes their company unsufferable if they get the wind of you I observed that some of the rest of their dyet was agreeable to the former for they would eat any refuse thing as rotten and mouldy Biskets which we have given them fit indeed for nothing but to be cast away yea they will eat that which a ravenous dog in England will refuse I once tooke notice of a Couple of them who had found on the neighbouring shore a large piece of a dead fish the Sea had cast up which did most sufficiently stink they presently made a little fire with dry Cow-dung and with this they warm'd it and then they eat it with as much seeming appetite as an hungry man with us would feed upon a very choyse and savoury dish which makes me almost to believe that those wretched creatures have but three senses wanting the benefit both of Smelling and Tasting They lodge upon the earth in Hovels so ill covered that they keep not out the weather made like to those we call Summer-houses with Boughs and sticks Et pecus Dominus communi clauditur umbrâ The beast and 's master under one shade dwell But which the veriest beast is hard to tell These Brutes devote themselves to idlenesse for they neither dig nor spin For their stature and making they are very streight and well lim'd though not very tall but in their faces very ill-favoured for the noses of most of them are flat They have little or no beard the hair on their heads short black and curled their skins very tawny swift they are of foot and will throw Darts and shoot Arrows which are their weapons very dangerously Me thinks when I have seriously considered the Dresses the Habitations and the Diet of this people with other things and how these beasts of Mankind live all like Brutes nay worse I have thought that if they had the accommodations wee enjoy to make our lives more comfortable by good dwelling warm clothing sweet lodging and wholsome food they would be abundantly pleased with such a change of their condition For as Love proceeds from Knowledge and liking and we can neither love nor like any thing we cannot know so when we come to a sensible understanding of things wee knew not before when the Belly teaches and the Back instructs a man would believe that these should work some strong convictions But I shall here insert a short story About three years before I went to India it happened that one of the Companie ships returning thence and arriving at this barbour after a little stay when she was ready to set sayl for England and having then two of these Salvages aboard her Commander resolv'd to bring them both home with him thinking that when they had got some English here they might discover something of their Country which we could not know before These poor wretches being thus brought away very much against both their minds one of them meerly out of extreme sullenness though he was very well used died shortly after they put to Sea the other who call'd himself Cooree whom I mentioned before lived and was brought to London and there kept for the space of six moneths in Sir Smith's house then Governour of the East-India Company where he had good diet good clothes good lodging with all other fitting accommodations now one would think that this wretch might have conceived his present compared with his former condition an Heaven upon earth but he did not so though he had to his good entertainment made for him a Chain of bright Brasse an Armour Brest Back and Head-piece with a Buckler all of Brasse his beloved Metall yet
wears out They have pure Gold Coyn likewise some pieces of great value but these are not very ordinarily seen amongst them I have now done with this Section wherein I have related much of the Commodities Riches as before of the Provisions and Pleasures which are to be found in that vast Monarchy and I conceive nothing but what Truth will justifie And now lest that place I have describ'd should seem to be an Earthly Paradise I must acquaint my Reader that the Contents there found by such as have lived in those parts are sour'd and sauc'd with many unpleasing things which he must needs know when he takes notice SECTION IV. Of the discommodities inconveniences and annoyances that are to be found or met withall in this Empire AS the Poets feigned that the Garden of the Hesperides wherein were Trees that bare Golden apples was guarded by a Serpent so there are stings here as well as fruits all considered together may not unfitly be resembled by those Locusts mentioned Re. 9. 7 8 10. verses who had the Faces of men and the haire of women and Crowns as of Gold on their heads but they had too the teeth of Lyons and the tayles of Scorpions and there were stings in those tayles Here are many things to content and please the enjoyers of them to make their life more comfortable but withall here are Teeth to tear and stings to Kill All put together are nothing but a mixture made up as indeed all earthly things are of good and bad of bitter and sweet of what contents and of what contents not The annoyances of these Countryes are first many harmfull beasts of prey as Lions Tygres Wolves Jackalls with others those Jackalls seem to be wild Doggs who in great companies run up and down in the silent night much disquieting the peace thereof by their most hidious noyse Those most raâ—enous creatures will not suffer a man to rest quietly in his grave for if his body be not buried very deep they will dig him thence and bury as much of him again as they can consume in their hungâ—y bellyes In their Rivers are many Crocodiles and Latet anguis in herbâ on the land not a few overgrown snakes with other veneâ—â—ous and pernicious creatures In our houses there we often see Lyzards shaped like unto Crocodiles of a sad green colour and but little creatures the fear of whom presents its self most to the eye for I do not know that they are hurtfull There are many Scorpions to be seen which are oftentimes felt which creep into their houses especially in that time of the raines whose stinging is most sensible and deadly if the patient have not presently some oyl that is made of Scorpions to annoint the part affected which is a suddain and a certain cure But if the man can get the Scorpion that stung him as sometimes they do the oyly substance it affords being beaten in peeces suddenly applyed is a present help The sting of the Scorpion may be a very fit resemblance of the sting of Death the bitterness and anguâ—sh whereof nothing can asswage and cure so well as a serious consideration and a continuall application of the thoughts of Dying Facile contemnit omnia qui cogitat se semper moriturum that man may trample upon every thing whose meditations are taken up with the thoughts of his change He cannot dye but well who dyes dayly dayly in his preparations for death though he dye not presently The Scorpions are in shape like unto our Crafishes and not bigger and look black like them before they are boyled they have a little round tayl which turns up and lyes usually upon their backs at the end whereof is their sting which they do not put in and lâ—t out of their bodyes as other venemous creatures doe but it alwayes appeares in their tayles ready to strake it is very sharp and hard and not long but crooked like the talon of an Hawk The aboundance of Flyes like those swarmes in Egypt Ex. 8. 21. in those parts did likewise very much annoy us for in the heat of the day their numberless number was such as that we could not be quiet in any place for them they beeing ready to fly into our cupps and to cover our meat assoon as it was placed on the table and therefore we had alwayes some of the Natives we kept there who were our servants to stand round about us on purpose while we were eating with Napkins to fright them away And as in the day one kinde of ordinary flyes troubled us so in the night we were likewise very much disquieted with another sort called Musquâ—etoes like our Gnatts but somewhat less and in that season we were very much troubled with Chinches another sort of little troublesome and offensive creatures like little Tikes and these annoyed us two wayes as first by their biting and stinging and then by their stink From all which we were by far more free when we lodged in tents as there we did much than when we abode in houses where in great cities and towns to adde unto the disquiets I before named there were such an aboundance of large hungry Ratts that some of us were bitten in the night as we lay in our bedds either on our toes or fingers or on the tipps of our eares or on the tops of our noses or in any part of our bodies besides they could get into their mouths The winds in those parts as I observed before which they call the Moâ—t soone blow constantly one way altering but few points six months Southerly and six months Northerly The months of April May and the beginning of June till the rain falls are so extremely hot as that the winde when it blowes but gently receives such heat from the parched ground that the reflection thereof is ready to blister a mans face that receives the breath of it And if God did not provide for those parts by sending a breeze or breath or small gale of winde daily which somewhat tempers that hot sulphureous air there were no living in that Torrid Zone for us English who have been used to breath in a teÌ„perate climate and notwithstanding that benefit the air in that place is so hot to us English that we should be every day stewed in our own moisture but that we stirre very little in the heat of the day and have cloathing about us as thin as we can make it And no marvail for the coldest day in the whole year at noon unless it be in the time when those raines fall is hotter there than the hottest day in England Yet I have there observed most strange and suddaine changes of heat and cold within few houres as in November and December the most temperate months of their year as before and then at midnight the air was so exceeding fresh and cold that it would produce a thin Ice on the water and then as we lay in our Tents
carryes death with it At those times to prevent mischief they are kept apart from Company fetterd with strong chaines unto trees but if by chance in their phrensie they get loose as sometimes they do they will make after every thing they see stir in which case they have no means to stop them in their violent course but by firing of Crackers made of Gunpowder whose sparkling and noyse makes them to stand still and tremble When those creatures are in that mad distemper they sweat much which makes their savour exceeding rank and filthy like that ill smel of a Boaâ— when he is fatting in his Stye but by much more strong and more offensive than that An English Merchant there of good credit upon his own knowledge reported this thing which followes and is very observable of an Elephant in Adsmeer the place then of the Mogols residence who being brought often through the Bazar or Market place a woman who usually sat there to sell herbs was wont to give this great Elephant an handfull as he many times passed by this Elephant after being mad brake his fetters and took his way through that Bazar the people being all of them much affrighted made hast to secure themselves by getting out of his way amongst whom was this herb-woman who for fear and hast forgot her little Child which she had brought thither the Elephant came to the place where this woman usually sate stopt and seeing a little Child lying there about her herbs took it up gently with his Trunk not doing it the least harm and presently after layd it down upon the stall of an house that was hard by and then proceeded on in his furious course Acosta a Jesuit relates the like of an Elephant in Goa from his own experience The Elephant though he be vast and terrible yea and cruell too when he is set to do mischief or when he is mad yet otherwise is a tame gentle Creature so that the dread of this huge beast most appears to the eyes But notwithstanding his terribleness I once there saw a Creature compared with an Elephant not much bigger than a small Fish compared with a Whale boldly to encounter one of them The occasion by which this so came to pass offers it self thus that year I went for East-India the Merchants here as from the King of England in whose name they sent all their presents amongst many other things then sent the Mogol some great English Mastives and some large Irish Greyhounds in all to the number of eight dispersed in our severall ships one of those high spirited Mastives in our voyage thither upon a day seeing a great Shoale or company of Porpisces before described mounting up above the waves and coming toward that ship wherein he was suddenly lept over-board to encounter with them before any did take notice of that fierce creature to prevent that engagement wherein he was irrecoverably lost the ship then having such a fresh gale of winde that she could not suddenly slack her course whereby that poor creature might have been preserved Another one of the Irish Greyhounds had his head shot off in our fight The Mange was the destruction of four more of them only two of the Mastives came alive to East-India and they were carried up each of them drawn in a little Coach when I went up to the Embassador that he might present them to the Mogol The fiercest of these two in our way thither upon a time breaking loose fell upon a very large Elephant that was hard by us fastning his teeth in the Elephants Trunk and kept his hold there a good while which made that huge beast extremely to roare and though the Elephant did swing the Mastive up and down above ground many times as not feeling his weight that he might throw him off yet he could not suddenly do it but at last freeing himself from the dog by throwing him a good space from him theâ—e came a Mungrill Curr of that Countrey towards our Mastive who then lost this his most unequal match fell upon that dog and kild him by which means we recovered our Mastive again into our custody he having not received any apparent hurts by which we may see how much Courage and Mettle there is in those right fierce Mastives This storie pleased the Mogol very much when the dogs were presented to him and he allowed each of them four attendants of those Natives to wait upon them who by turnes two and two together carried them up and down with him in Palankees after described to which they were tyed and the other two went by them fanning the flyes from off them and the King caused a pair of silver â—ongs to be made on purpose that with them when he pleased he might feed those dogs with his own hand But this story by the way The Mogol hath many of his great Elephants train'd up for the war who carry each of them one iron gun about five foot long lying upon a strong frame of wood made square that is fitted to a thick broad Pannel fastned about him with very strong and broad Girses or Girts The gun like an Harquebush hath a peece of iron like a Musket-rest fastned on the sides thereof made loose to play up and down The bottome of that Iron Rest so fixed is long to be let through that frame of wood on the foreside and so to be keyed in at the bottom At the four corners of this frame are small flags of silk with sundry devices painted on them put upon little neat coloured staves upon the neck of the Elephant sits a man to guide him and within the frame a Gunner to make his shot as he finds occasion The peece thus mounted carrves a bullet about the bigness of a Tennis Ball. Some Elephants the King keeps for the execution of Malefactors the manner how followes in Section 23. And some he keeps to carry himself and women and some Elephants are kept for State of which more when I shall come to speak more particularly of the great Mogol Other Elephants are there imployed for the carrying of burdens their strength being so great as that they will bear a marvailous weight The Elephants are all governed with a small rod of steel about half a yard long made sharp on the lower end and towards that end there is an hook returned life a fish-hook that is very sharp likewise by which their Riders sitting on their necks pull them back or prick them forward at their pleasure These vast Creatures though the Countrey be exceeding fruitfull and all provisions in it cheap yet by reason of their huge bulk if they be well kept and fed are very chargeable in keeping they are kept usually under the shade of great trees where by a strong chain of iron upon one of their hinde leggs they fasten them And as they stand the abundance of flyes vex them and therefore with their fore-feet they make dust the
Act. 9. 37. They lay up none of the bodies of their dead in their Misquits or Churches as before but in some open place in a grave which they dig very deep and wide a Jewish custom likewise to carry the bodies of their dead to bury them out of their Cities and Towns Luke 7. 12. Their mourning over their dead is most immoderate for besides that day of general lamentation at the end of their Ram-Jan or Lent before mentioned they houl and cry many whole dayes for their friends departed immediately after they have left the world and after that time is passed over many foolish women so long as they survive very often in the year observe set dayes to renue their mourning for their deceased friends and as a people without hope bedew the graves of their husbands as of other their near relations with abundance of seemingly affectionate tears as if they were like those mourning women mentioned Jer. 9. 17. who seemed to have tears at command and therefore were hired to mourn and weep in their solemne lamentations And when they thus lament over their dead they will often put this question to their deaf and dead Carkasses why they would die They having such loving wives such loving friends and many other comforts as if it had been in their power to have rescued themselves from that most impartial wounding hand of death Which carriage of theirs deserves nothing but censure and pity though if it be not Theatrical we may much wonder at it and say of it as it was said of the mourning in the floor of Atad Gen. 50. 11. that it is a grievous mourning or as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon Zech. 12. 11. if we take those lamentations onely in a literal sence But to speak unto this as a Christian certainly the Apostle who forbids immoderate mourning for friends departed 1 shef 4. 13. imployes and allows of that mourning which is moderate To behold a great Funeral where there are abundance of mourning garments and no weeping eyes is not a good sight for a man to die as Jehojakim a very bad Son of an excellent good Father of whom it was sadly prophesied that he should die without lamentation non plangent eum Eheu frater they shall not lament for him saying Ah my brother his Ashes should not be moistned with one tear and to be buried as Jehojakim was with the burial of an Asse Jer. 2. 18 19. is very sad And doubtlesse it had been better for a man never to have been born than to live undesired and to die unlamented For a man to run a long race through the world and to leave no token of good behinde him but to be like an Arrow shot by a strong arm up into the aire wherein it flies a great circuit yet immediately after it is fal'n it cannot be discern'd that it was ever there I may say of such a one that he was born out of due time or rather that it had been good for him if he had not been born at all But now further concerning their places of Burial many Mahometans of the greatest qualitie in their life time provide fair Sepulchres for themselves and nearests friends compassing with a firm wall a good circuit of ground near some Tank before spoken of about which they delight to Burie their dead or else they close in a place for this use near springs of water that may make pleasant fountains near which they erect little Misquits or Churches near them Tombs built round or four square or in six or eight squares with round vaults or Canopies of stone over head all which are excellently well wrought and erected upon Pâ—llars or else made close to be entered by doors every way under which the bodies of their dead lie interred the rest of that ground thus circled in they plant with fruit Trees and further set therein all their choisest flowers as if they would make Elysian fields such as the Poets dream'd of wherein their Souls might take repose Thus to bury as it should seem was an ancient custom for it is written of Manasseh King of Judah that he was buried in the garden of his own house so of his Son Amon that he was buried in that garden likewise 2 King 21. 18. and 26. verses thus I seph of Arimathea had his Sepulchre in his garden and it was well placed there that when he was in the place of his greatest delight his meditations might be seasoned with the thoughts of his death There are many goodly Monuments which are richly adorned built as before was observed to the memory of such as they have esteemed Paeres or Saints of whom they have a large Kalender in which are Lamps continually burning attended by votaries unto whom they allow Pensions for the maintaining of those lights and many transported there with wilde devotion dayly resort to those monuments there to contemplate the happinesse those Paeres as they imagine now enjoy And certainly of all the places that Empire affords there are none that minister more delight than some of their burying places do neither do they bestow so much cost nor shew so much skill in Architecture in any other structures as in these Now amongst many very fair Piles there dedicated to the remembrance of their dead the most famous one is at Secandra a Village three miles from Agra it was begun by Achabar-sha the late Mogols Father who there lies buried and finished by his Son who since was laid up beside him The materials of that most stately Sepulchre are Marble of divers colours the stones so closely cemented together that it appears to be but one continued stone built high like a Pyramis with many curiosities about it and a fair Misquit by it the Garden wherein it stands very large planted as before and compassed about with a Wall of Marble this most sumptuous Pile of all the structures that vast Monarchy affords is most admired by strangers Tom. Corâ—at had a most exact view thereof and so have many other English men had all which have spoken very great things of it And if we here step aside to look into other Countreys and stories we may observe much to this purpose though none that I have ever heard of like that I last named where many whose foregoing lives have little deserved those following remembrances yet after death have had their bodies lodged in rich Monuments when others of great worthâ— and most deserved memory have been very obscurely buried Varro writes of Licinius or Licinus but a Barber to Augustus Caefar who getting wealth was after his death honoured with a fair Monument of Marble when grave and wise Cato had but a small meer stone to cover him and renowned Pompey had in this kinde no remembrance at all of all whom Varro briefly writes thus Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet at Cato parvo Pompeius nullo Licinus entomb'd under rich Marble stone Cato a
will eat fish but of no living thing else The Rashboots will eat Swines flesh which is most hatefull to the Mahometans some will eat one kinde of flesh some of another of all very sparingly but all the Hindâ—os in general abstain from Beef out of an high and over-excellent esteem they have of Kine and therefore give the Mogol yearly besides his other eâ—actions great sums of money as a ransom for â—hose Creatures whence it comes to passe that amongst other good provisions we meet there but with little Beef As the Mahometans Burie â—o the Hindoos in general not believing the resurrection of the flesh burn the bodies of their dead near some Rivers if they may with convenience wherein they sow their ashes And there are another Sect or sort of Heathens living amongst them called Persees which do neither of these of whom and how they bestow the bodies of their dead you shall hear afterward The Widows of these Hindoos first mentioned such as have lived to keep company with their Husbands for as before there is usually a good space of time 'twixt their wedding and bedding The Widows I say who have their Husbands separated from them by death when they are very young marry not again but whither or no this be generally observed by them all I know not but this I am sure of that immediately after their Husbands are dead they cut their Hair and spend all their life following as Creatures neglected both by themselves and others whence to be free from shame some of them are ambitious to die with Honour as they esteem it when their fiery love carries them to the flames as they think of Martyrdom most willingly following the dead bodies of their Husbands unto the fire and there imbracing are burnt with them A better agreement in death than that of Eteocles and Polynices the two Theban brothers of whom it is said that they were such deadly enemies while they were alive that after when both their bodies were burnt together in the same fiery Pile the flame parted and would not mix in one of which Statius thus Nec furiis post fata modus flammaeque rebelles Seditione Rogi Whose rage not death could end rebellious ire Inflam'd to civil War their funeral fire Nec mors mihi finiit iras Mine anger with my body shall not die But with thy Ghost my Ghost shall battel trie But those which before I named agree so well in life that they will not be divided by death where their flames unite together And although the Woman who thus burns with her Husband doth this voluntarily not by any compulsion for the love of every Widow there is not thus fired and though the poor Creature who thus dies may return and live if she please even then when she comes to the Pile which immediately after turns her into ashes yet she who is once thus resolved never starts back from hir first firm and setled resolution but goes on singing to her death having taken some intoxicating thing to turn or disturb her brains and then come to the place where she will needs die she settles her self presently in the middest of that combustable substance provided to dispatch her which fuel is placed in a round shallow trench about two foot deep made for that purpose near some River or other water as before and though she have no bonds but her own strong affections to tie her unto those flames yet she never offers to stir out of them But Her breathlesse Husband then she takes In foulded arms this done she makes Her humble sute to ' th flames to give Her quick dispatch she cannot live Her honour dead Her friends there come Look on as if 't were Martyrdom And with content are hit her led As once to view her marriage bed And thus she being joyfully accompanied unto the place of her dying by her Parents and other friends and when all is fitted for this hellish Sacrifice and the fire begins to burn all which are there present shout and make a continued noise so long as they observe her to stir that the screeches of that poor tortured Creature may not be heard Not much unlike the custom of the Ammonites who when they made their Children passe through the fire to Molech caused certain Tabrets or Drums to sound that their cries might not be heard whence the place was called Tophet 2 King 23. 10. which signifies a Drum or Tabret Now after their bodies are quite consumed and lie mixed together in ashes and those ashes begin to grow cold some of them are gathered up by their nearest friends and kept by them as choise Relicks the rest are immediately sowen by the standers by upon the adjacent River or water Alas poor wretches what a hard Master do they serve who puts them upon such unreasonable services in the flower of their youth and strength thus to become their own executioners to burn their own bones when they are full of marrow and to waste their own breasts when they are full of milk Now Almighty God requires no such thing at his peoples hands therefore it is by far the more strange to consider that the Devil should have such an abundance of servants in the World and God so few But for those poor silly Souls who sing themselves into the extremity of misery thus madly go out of the World through one fire into another through flames that will not last long into everlasting burnings and do it not out of necessity but choise led hereunto by their tempter and murderer and consequently become so injurious and mercilesse to themselves certainly they deserve much pity from others who know not how to pity themselves For nemo miserius misero non miserants scipsum There are none so cruel as those which are cruel and pitilesse to themselves But though I say there are some which thus throw away their own lives yet if we consider those Hindoos in general we may further take notice SECT XX. Of the tendernesse of that people in preserving the lives of all other inferiour Creatures c. FOr they will not if they can help it by any means take but on the contrary do what they can to preserve the lives of all inferiour Creatures whence as before I told you they give large money to preserve the lives of their Kine a reason for this you shall have afterward and I have often observed that when our English boyes there have out of wantonnesse been killing of Flies there swarming in abundance they would be very much troubled at it and if they could not perswade them to suffer those poor Creatures to live they would give them mony or something else to forbear that as they conceived cruelty As for themselves I mean a very great number of them they will not deprive the most uselesse and most offensive Creatures of life not Snakes and other venomous things that may kill them saying that it is their
nature to do hurts and they cannot help it but as for themselves they further say that God hath given them reason to shun those Creaturâ—s but not liberty to destroy them And in order to this their conceit the Banians who are the most tender hearted in this case of all that people have Spittles as they say on purpose to recover lame birds beasts Some ground for this their tendernesse happily proceeds from this consideration that they cannot give life to the meanest of the sensible Creatures and therefore think that they may not take the lives of any of them for the poorest worm which crawleth upon the face of the earth tam vita vivit quam Angelus as one of the ancients speaks live for the present as much as the Angels and cannot be willing to part with that life and therefore they imagine that it is most injurious by violence to take it But as I conceive the most principal cause why they thus forbear to take the lives of inferiour Creatures proceeds from their obedience unto a precept given them by one of their principal and most highly esteemed Prophets and Law-givers they call Bremaw others they have in very high esteem and the name of one of them is Ram of another Permissar I am ignorant of the names of others and I conceive that my Reader will not much care to know them But for him they call Bremaw they have received as they say many precepts which they are carefull to observe and the first of them This Thou shalt not kill any living Creature whatsoever it be having life in the same for thou art a Creature and so is it thou art indued with life and so is it thou shalt not therefore spil the life of any of thy fellow-Creatures that live Other precepts they say were delivered unto them by their Law-giver about their devotions in their washings and worshippings where they are commanded To observe times for fasting and hours for watching that they may be the better fitted for them Other directions they have about their festivals wherein they are required To take their food moderately in not pampering their bodies Concerning Charity they are further commanded To help the poor as far as they are possibly able Other precepts they say were given them likewise in charge as Not to tell false tales nor to utter any thing that is untrue Not to steal any thing from others be it never so little Not to defraud any by their cunning in bargains or contracts Not to oppresse any when they have power to do it Now all those particulars are observed by them with much strictnesse and some of them are very good having the impression of God upon them but that scruple they make in forbearing the lives of the Creatures made for mens use shews how that they have their dweling in the dark which makes them by reason of their blindnesse to deny unto themselves that liberty and Soveraignty which Almighty God hath given unto man over the beasts of the field the fowles of the Air and the fishes of the Sea appointed for his food given unto him for his service and sustenance to serve him and to seed him but not to make havock and spoil of them However the tendernesse of that people over inferiour Creatures shall one day rise up in judgement against all those who make no scruple at all in taking the lives not of sensible Creatures but men not legally to satisfie good and known Laws but violently to please their cruel and barbarous lusts Histories are fill'd with many inhumane and strange examples of this kinde Valerius writes of Lucius Sylla whose cruelty and thirst after bloud made him a Monster of mankinde a very Prodigy of Nature that when he had caused some thousands of men to be put to death or more properly to be murdered in one day he presently gave command that this monstrous fact of his should be recorded least the memory of so honourable an action for so he call'd in might be forgotten He kill'd a Gentleman of Rome at the same time for not enduring the sight of an innocent man of quality whom he saw causelesly murdered Never saith the Author was it heard of before that pity should be punished and that it should be thought a Capital offence to behold a Murder with grief For that Sylla it might have been said of him as it was afterward of Nero that he was a Creature made up of dirt and bloud a Monster set upon mischief who had so much malice and cruelty in his Nature as any other may have left in his bloud that Valerius writes thus further of him ut in dubio esset Syllâ—ne prior an iracundia Syllâ— sit extinctâ— that it was a question whither himself or anger were first extinguished most strange and turbulent perturbations and storms o anger and malice and mischief quando ir a mortalium debet esse mortalis as Lactantius well spake when the anger of mortal men should be mortal like themselves And so most barbarous and cruel are all they whatsoever they be who have their hearts so bound and confirm'd as it were with sinews of iron that they delight in nothing so much as in the slaughter of men whatsoever they be whither strangers or brethren and then make their boasts and brags I have knockt so many on the head saith one and I have kill'd so many saith another and I so many saith a third and others so many and so many which clearly shews that they are Children of their Father the Devil who was a murderer from the beginning for his language is ever in their mouths ure seca occide burn cut kill do execution and take no pity spare not sparo none whether strangers or known persons old or young men women children brethren or whosoever else comes and crosseth them in their way as it was in the dayes of that monstrous Sylla before named when Gray-heads young Orphans Virgins pregnant wives All died 't was crime enough that they had lives That Empresse was of a far better minde who wisely advertised her husband sitting and playing at Tables minding his Game more than the Prisoners before him on whom he pronounced the sentence of death his wife I say thus spake unto him as Aelian reports non est vita hominum talorum ludus c. the life of man is not as a Game at Tables where a woodden-man is taken away by a blot and thrown aside and after taken again into the play and there is no hurt done but the life of a living man once lost is irrecoverable When Vedius Pollio a Roman at a Supper provided for Augustus the Emperour would have drown'd his servant because he had broken a cup of Christal the Emperour though an Heathen withheld him and controuled him in these words as Plutarch reports saying Homo cujuscunque conditionis quatenus homo c. a man of what condition so ever he be if for no
4. 17 18. And therefore said the same Apostle Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared unto the glorie which shall be revealed I reckon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a Metaphor either taken from accountants that put many particulars into one entire summe or else from Logicians who draw certain or infallable conclusions from foregoing premises Thus I reckon or I conclude when I compare profit and losse together as what I shall certainly gain and what I may happily loose by the profession of the Gospel when I have put all crosses and incumbrances in the one Scale and the recompence of the reward in the other it amounts all to this that the eternal wâ—ight of the Crown doth exceedingly outweigh the momentary weight of the Crosse Thus it is with all men who in their greatest pressures can see further than earth as that first Martyr professing the Gospel Stephen did who died not upon a bed of Down but under a shower of stones yet could out of that terrible and thick storm look into Heaven and so do others who can behold whatsoever they feel with the eye of Faith and this is like that Tree which Moses cast into the bitter waters of Marah and it made them sweet Exod. 15. But as for others I have named and shall further name to behold their sufferings and torments onely with the eye of sense it must needs make their tortures however they bear them out out of measure to torment I have been told by some who were eye-witnesses whom I dare credite and therefore I dare relate it of strange kindes of death executed by the command of the King of Japan upon his subjects where some are Crucified or nailed to a Crosse Others rather roasted than burnt to death Thus there is a stake set up and a Circle of fire at a pretty distance made round about it the condemned person being naked is so fastned to that stake as that he may move round about it and so doth as long as he is able to stir till his flesh begins to blister then he falls down and there lyes roaring till the fire made about him puts him to silenâ—e by taking away both his voice and life Now they say that one great reason why they put men there unto such exquisite torments is because they hold it a thing of the greatest dishonour there for any man to dye by the hand of an Executioner therefore they are usually commanded when they are sentenced to dye to rip up or cut open their own bellies and those who will not so do are tormented in dying Hence most of that people when as they have received that hard command to prevent death by dying call for their friends about them eat and seem to be merry with them then in the close of the meal and in their presence commit this sad slaughter upon themselves as first those poor wretches make themselves naked to the middle he or they who are to dye then the most wretched self-murderer who is to act that bloudy part strikes a sharp Knife into the bottom of his belly then rips himself up and after gives himself one other cut cross his belly and when he hath done both these if after he can but wipe his bloudy knife upon a white paper or Napkin that is laid by him he is believed to part with his life with a very great deal of honour and immediately as he is made to believe goes to Fakaman whom they say is the God of War So much power the Devil hath in those dark places of the World to make the people there do what he please Oh 't is a misery of all miseries here to be a drudge a bond-man a slave to the Devil as those and so infinite multitudes more professing Christ are by obeying Satan in his most unreasonable commands and yet will not be made sensible of that their basest bondage But to return again to the place froÌ„ whence I have made some excursion when I was in India there was one sentenced by the Mogol himself for killing his own father to dye thus first he commanded that this Paricide should be bound alive by his heels fastned to a small iron Chain which was tied to the hinde leg of a great Elephant and then that this Elephant should drag him after him one whole remove of that King from one place to another which was about ten miles distant that so all his flesh might be worne off his bones and so it was when we saw him in the way following that King in his progresse for he appeared then to us a skeliton rather than a body There was another condemned to dye by the Mogol himself while we were at Amadavar for killing his own Mother and at this the King was much troubled to think of death suitable for so horrid a crime but upon a little pause he adjudged him to be stung to death by Snakes which was accordingly done I told you before that there are some Mountebanks there which keep great Snakes to shew tricks with them one of those fellows was presently called for to bring his Snakes to do that execution who came to the place where that wretched Creature was appoinâ—ed to dye and found him there all naked except a little covering before and trembling Then suddenly the Mountebank having first angred and provoked the venomous Creatures put one of them to his Thigh which presently twin'd it self about that part till it came near his Groin and there bit him till bloud followed the other was fastned to the outside of his other Thigh twining about it for those Snakes thus kept are long and slender and there bit him likewise notwithstanding the wretch kept upon his feet nere a quarter of an hour before which time the Snakes were taken from him But he complained exceedingly of a fire that with much torment had possessed all his Limbs and his whole body began to swell exceedingly like Nasidius bit by a Lybian Serpent called a Prester of whom Mr. May in his Translation of Lucan the ninth Book thus writes His face and cheeks a sudden fire did rost His flesh and skin were stretch'd his shape was lost His swelling body is distended far Past humane growth and undistinguish'd are His limbs all parts the poyson doth confound And he lies hid in his own body drown'd Now much after this manner did the stinging of those Snakes work upon that wretch about half an hour after they were taken from him the Soul of that unnatural Monster left his growing Carkasse and so went to its place And certainly both those I last named so sentenced and so executed most justly deserved to be handled with all severity for taking away the lives of those from whom they had receiv'd their own Some of our family did behold the execution done upon the later who related all the passages of it and for
Mandoa and Amadavaz nineteen dayes making but short journeys in a Wildernesse where by a very great company sent before us to make those passages and places fit to receive us a way was cut out and made even broad enough for our convenient passage and in the places where we pitche 〈…〉 â—ur Tents a great compasse of ground rid and made plain for them by grubbing up a number of trees and bushes yet there we went as readily to our Tents the same order being still observed in the pitching of them as we did when they were set up in the plains But that which here seemed unto me to be most strange was that notwithstanding our marvelous great company of men women and children there together that must all be fed and the very great number of other Creatures which did eat Corn as we never there wanted water so we had so many victualers with us and so much provision continually brought in unto us that we never felt there the want of any thing beside but had it at as low rates as in other places The Mogols wives and women when as they are removed from place to place are carried in Coaches such as were before described made up close or in Palankeâ—s on mens shoulders or else on Elephants in pretty receptacles surrounded with curtains which stand up like low and little Turrets on their backs and some of the meaner sort ride in Cradles hanging on the sides of Dromedaries all covered close and attended by Eunuchs who have many Souldiers which go before them to clear the way as they passe they taking it very ill if any though they cannot see them presume so much as to look towards them and therefore though I could never see any of them I shall here take the liberty to speak somewhat I have heard and do believe SECT XXVIII Of the Mogols wives and women where something of his Children c. WHom I conceive to be Women of good feature though for their colour very swart which that people may call beauty it being the complexion of them all as the Crow thinks his bird fairest but as before I never observed any crooked or deform'd person of either sex amongst them For the honesty of those great mens Wives and Women there is such a quick eye of jealousie continually over them that they are made so by force though as they say they are never much regarded by those great ones after the very first and prime of their youth is past For that great Monarch the Mogol in the choise of his Wives and Women he was guided more by his eye and fansie than by any respect had to his honour for he took not the daughters of neighbouring Princes but of his own subjects and there preferr'd that which he looked upon as beauty before any thing else He was married to four Wives and had Concubines and Women beside all which were at his command enough to make up their number a full thousand as they there confidently affirm'd And that he might raise up his beastly and unnatural lusts even to the very height he kept boyes as before c. His most beloved wife when I lived at his Court he called Noor-Mahal which signified the light of the Court and to the other of his Wives and Women which he most loved he gave new names unto them and such names as he most fancied For his Wife I first named he took her out of the dust from a very mean family but however she made such a through conquest on his affections that she engrossed almost all his love did what she pleased in the Government of that Empire where she advanced her brother Asaph-Chan and other her nearest relations to the greatest places of Command and Honour and profit in that vast Monarchy Her brother Asaph-Chan was presently made one of the Starres of the first Magnitude that shined in that Indian Court and when he had once gotten so kept the Mogols favour by the assistance of his sister Noor-Mahal that by the Pensions given and many Offices bestowed on him he heaped up a Masse of Treasure above all belief as before and married his daughter unto Sultan Caroom who is now King The Mogol of all his so many Wives and Concubines had but six Children five Sons and one Daughter The names he gave his Children and others were names that proceeded from Counsel as he imagined rather than chance His eldest Son was called Sultan Coobsurroo which signified the Prince with the good face his person and beauty answered his name for he was a Prince of a very lovely presence His second Son he called Sultan Perum Prince of the Pleiades or of the sweet influences of the Pleiades His third Son now King though that great dignity was never intended to him by his Father was called Sultan Caroom or the Prince of bounty His fourth Sultan Shahar or the Prince of fame His fift and last Son was called by him Sultan Tauct Tauct in the Persian tongue signifies a Throne and he was named so by the King his Father because the first hour he sat peaceably on his Throne there was news brought him of that Sons birth The first Son of that King which he hath by any of his married wives by prerogative of birth inherits that Empire the eldest Son of every man as before called there the great brother And he that inherits that Monarchy doth not openly slaughter his younger brothers as the Turks do yet it is observed that few younger brothers of those Indostan Kings have long survived their Fathers Yet notwithstanding that long continued custom there for the eldest Son to succeed the Father in that great Empire Achabar Sha Father of that late King upon high just displeasure taken against his Son for climbing up unto the bed of Anarkelee his Fathers most beloved Wife whose name signified the Kernel of a Pomegranate and for other base actions of his which stirred up his Fathers high displeasure against him resolved to break that ancient custom and therefore often in his life time protested that not he but his Grand-childe Sultan Coobsurroo whom he always kept in his Court should succeed him in that Empire And now by the way the manner of that Achabar Sha his death as they report it in India is worthy observation That wicked King was wont often to give unto some of his Nobles whom upon secret displeasure he meant to destroy Pills prepared with Poison that should presently put them into incurable diseases But the last time he went about to practise that bloudy treachery he died himself by his own instrument of death for then having two Pills in his hand the one very like the other the one Cordâ—â—ll for himself the other Corrasive for one of his Grandeeâ— he meant to purge and flattering him with many proffers of courtesie before he gave him the Pâ—ll that he might swallow it down the better at last haveing held them both in