be rid of their unruly Children but I never knew any who were thus supposed to be sent thither but they out-lived that Voyage For the young Gentleman I spake of his imployment was to wait upon our Chief Commander in his Cabin who very courteously when he came to Sea turn'd him before the mast amongst the common Saylors a great preferment for a Man of his Birth but for all this he out-liv'd that harsh usage and came safely to East-India and my Lord Ambassadour hearing of him and being well acquainted with his great kindred sent for him up to Court and there entertain'd him as a Companion for a year then giving him all fit accommodations sent him home again as a passenger for England where after he safely arrived But in our way towards that Court it thus happened that this hot-brains being a little behind us commanded him then near him who was the Princes servant before spoken of to hold his horse the man replied that he was none of his servant and would not do it Upon which this most intemperate mad youth who was like Philocles that angry Poet and therefore called Bilis Salsigo Choler and Brine for he was the most hasty and cholerick young man that ever I knew as will appear by his present carriage which was thus first he beat that stranger for refusing to hold his horse with his horse-whip which I must tell you that people cannot endure as if those whips stung worse than Scorpions For of any punishments that carry most disgrace in them as that people think one is to be beaten with that whip wherewithall they strike their beasts the other to be beaten and this they esteem the more disgraceful punishment of the two about the head with shooes But this stranger being whipt as before came up and complained to me but to make him amends that frantick young man mad with rage and he knew not wherefore presently followed him and being come up close to him discharg'd his Pistol laden with a brace of bullets directly at his body which bullets by the special guidance of the hand of God so flew that they did the poor man no great hurt only one of them first tearing his coat bruised all the knuckles of his left hand and the other brake his bow which he carried in the same hand We presently disarmed our young Bedlam till he might return again to his wits But our greatest business was how to pacifie the other man whom he had thus injured I presently gave him a Roopee in our money two shillings and nine pence he thanked me for it and would have taken it with his right but I desired him to take it with his maim'd hand and so he did and could clinch it very well which I was glad of Then we did shew as we had cause all the dislike we could against that desperate act of him from whom he received his hurt telling him that we were all strangers and for our parts had done him no wrong at all and therefore hoped that we should not be made any way to suffer for the faults of another and we further told him that if he would be quiet till we came up to the Court he should have all the satisfaction he could desire He told us that we were good men and had done him no wrong and that he would till then rest contented but he did not so for about two hours after we met with a great man of that Country having a mighty train with him as all the Grandees there have when they travel of whom more after-ward He presently went towards him that to him he might make his complaint and so did telling him that he was the Prince's servant why he came to us and how he had been used by us shewing him his hand and his other breaches The great man replied that it was not well done of us but he had nothing to do with it and so departed on his way That night after we came to a strong large Town and placing our selves on the side of it he did what he could as we imagined to raise up that People against us some of them coming about us to view us as we conceived but putting on the best confidence we could and standing then upon our guard and all of us watching that night but in a special manner by the good providence of God who kept us in all our journey we here felt none of that mischief we feared but early in the morning quietly departed without the least molestation After which with a little money and a great many good words we so quieted this man that we never after heard any more complaining from him So that as before I observed we were not at any time in any dangers of suffering by that people but some of our own Nation were the procuring causes of it Before I observed that for the generality of this people they have very low and timorous spirits but there are some I named in my last Section who are stout daring men as the Baloches Patans and Rashboots who as they have the honour above all the rest of the people in those large Provinces to be accounted valiant so as occasion is offered they will shew themselves so to be and therefore they are much hired as Convoys to secure Mens Persons and Goods from place to place For those Provinces they are not without Mountains of prey and Tabernacles of Robbers as David and Job speak where desperate men keep in some Woods and Deserts which are not far from great road-ways most frequented and used and there like the wild Arabes in Companies meet and spoil and destroy poor Passengers when they expect them not it being the cursed manner of those Spoilers if they prevail against them whom they surprise to kill them before they rifle them and therefore the first thing heard from them is Mor mor mor that is Kill kill kill which they all speak out as loud as they can We were often told of them as we travelled sometimes in the night by reason of the extream heat of the day after we had taken leave of the King and so were journeying towards Surat that we should meet with those cruel villains but through Gods mercy we were never in danger of them but once and that was about midnight neer a large City called Brodera but we being a competent number of English-men together about twenty and all of us resolved to sell our lives at as dear a rate as we could and having twice so many Indian servants with us which are very nimble with their Bows and Arrows we with our Pistols and Carbins which we presently discharged amongst them and our Indians plying them with their Arrows made them suddenly to retreat we receiving little hurt from them but after this we made no more night-marches Those Indians I named before are so faithful to their trusts unto whomsoever they engage to the English
did not so though he had to his good entertainment made for him a Chain of bright Brass an Armour Breast Back and Head-piece with a Buckler all of Brass his beloved Metal yet all this contented him not for never any seemed to be more weary of ill usage than he was of Courtesies none ever more desirous to return home to his Countrey than he For when he had learned a little of our Language he would daily lie upon the ground and cry very often thus in broken English Cooree home go Souldania go home go And not long after when he had his desire and was returned home he had no sooner set footing on his own shore but presently he threw away his Clothes his Linnen with all other Covering and got his sheeps skins upon his back guts about his neck and such a perfum'd Cap as before we named upon his head by whom that Proverb mentioned 2 Pet 2.22 was literally fulfill'd Canis ad vomitum The dog is return'd to his vomit and the swine to his wallowing in the mire After this fellow was returned it made the Natives most shie of us when we arrived there for though they would come about us in great Companies when we were new come thither yet three or four days before they conceiv'd we would depart thence there was not one of them to be seen fearing belike we would have dealt with some more of them as formerly we had done with Cooree But it had been well if he had not seen England for as he discovered nothing to us so certainly when he came home he told his Country-men having doubtless observed so much here that Brass was but a base and cheap commodity in England and happily we had so well stored them with that mettal before that we had never after such a free Exchange of our Brass and Iron for their Cattel It was here that I asked Cooree who was their God he lifting up his hands answered thus in his bad English England God great God Souldania no God In the year 1614. Ten English men having received the sentence of death for their several crimes at the Sessions house in the Old-Baily at London had their Execution respited by the intreaty of the East-India Merchants upon condition that they should be all banished to this place to the end if they could find any peaceable abode there they might discover something advantagious to their Trade And this was accordingly done But two of them when they came thither were taken thence and carried on the Voyage One whose sirname was Duffield by Sir Thomas Row that year sent Embassadour to the Great Mogol that fellow thus redeemed from a most sad Banishment was afterward brought back again into England by that noble Gentleman and here being intrusted by him stole some of his Plate and ran away Another was carried on the Voyage likewise but what became of him afterward I know not So that there remained eight which were there left with some Ammunition and Victual with a small Boat to carry them to and from a very little uninhabited Island lying in the very mouth of that Bay a place for their retreat and safety from the Natives on the Main The Island called Pen-guin Island probably so named at first by some Welsh-man in whose Language Pen-guin signifies a white head and there are many great lazy fowls upon and about this Island with great cole-black bodies and very white heads called Penguins The chief man of the eight there left was sirnamed Cross who took the Name upon him of Captain Cross He was formerly Yeoman of the Guard unto King James but having had his Hand in Blood twice or thrice by men slain by him in several Duels and now being condemned to die with the rest upon very great sute made for him he was hither banished with them whither the Justice of Almighty God was dispatched after him as it were in a Whirlwind and followed him close at the very heels and overtook him and left him not till he had pay'd dear for that blood he had formerly spilt This Cross was a very stout and a very resolute man who quarrelling with and abusing the Natives and engaging himself far amongst them immediately after himself with the rest were left in that place many of these Salvages being got together fell upon him and with their darts thrown and arrows shot at him stuck his body so full of them as if he had been larded with darts and arrows making him look like the figure of the man in the Almanack that seems to be wounded in every part or like that man described by Lucan Totum pro vulnere corpus who was All-wound where blood touched blood The retaliations of the Lord are sure and just He that is Mercy it self abhorrs Cruelty above all other sins He cannot endure that one man should devour another as the Beasts of the Field Birds of the Air Fishes of the Sea do and therefore usually shews exemplary signal revenges for that sin of Blood selling it at a dear rate unto them that shead it Every sin hath a tongue but that of Blood out-cryes and drowns the rest Blood being a clamorous and a restless suter whose mouth will not be stopt till it receive an Answer as it did here The other seven the rest of these miserable Banditi who were there with Cross recovered their Boat and got off the shore without any great hurt and so rowing to their Island the waves running high they split their boat at their landing which engaged them to keep in that place they having now no possible means left to stir thence And which made their condition while they were in it most extremely miserable it is a place wherein grows never a Tree neither for sustenance or shelter or shade nor any thing beside I ever heard of to help sustein Nature a place that hath never a drop of fresh water in it but what the showrs leave in the holes of the rocks And besides all this there are very great number of Snakes in that Island as I have been told by many that have been upon it so many of those venemous worms that a man cannot tread safely in the long grass which grows in it for fear of them And all these put together must needs make that place beyond measure uncomfortable to these most wretched men To this may be added their want of provision having nothing but dry Bisket and no great quantity of that so that they lived with hungry bellies without any place fit for repose without any quiet rest for they could not choose but sleep in fear continually And what outward condition could make men more miserable than this Yet notwithstanding all they suffered these seven vile wretches all liv'd to be made examples afterward of Divine Justice For after they had continued in and endured this sad place for the space of five or six moneths and they were grown all even almost mad
gay and gorgious apparel for the Country is so hot that they cannot endure any thing that is very warm or massie or rich about them The Mogol himself for the most part is covered with a garment as before described made of pure white and fine Callico-laune and so are his Nobles which garments are washed after one days wearing But for the Mogol though his cloathing be not rich and costly yet I believe that there is never a Monarch in the whole world that is daily adorned with so many Jewels as himself is Now they are Jewels which make mens covering most rich such as people in other parts sometimes wear about them that are otherwise most meanly habited To which purpose I was long since told by a Gentleman of honour sent as a Companion to the old Earl of Nottingham when he was imployed as an extraordinary Embassadour by King James to confirm the peace made 'twixt himself and the King of Spain which Embassadour had a very great many Gentlemen in his train in as rich clothing as Velvets and Silks could make but then there did appear many a great Don or Grandee in the Spanish Court in a long black bays Cloak and Cassack which had one Hatband of Diamonds which was of more worth by far than all the bravery of the Ambassadors many Followers But for the Mogol I wonder not at his many Jewels he being as I conceive the greatest and richest Master of precious stones that inhabits the whole earth For Diamonds which of all other are accounted most precious stones they are found in Decan where the Rocks are out of which they are digged the Princes whereof are the next Neighbours and Tributaries to the great Mogol and they pay him as Tribute many Diamonds yearly and further he hath the refusal of all those rich stones they sell he having Gold and Silver in the greatest abundance and that will purchase any thing but heaven he wil part with any mony for any Gems beside that are precious and great whether Rubies or any other stones of value as also for rich Pearls And his Grandees follow him in that fancy for one of his great Lords gave our Merchants there twelve hundred pounds sterling for one Pearl which was brought out of England The Pearl was shaped like a Pear very large beautiful and orient and so its price deserved it should be Now the Mogol having such an abundance of Jewels wears many of them daily enow to exceed those women which Rome was wont to shew in their Star-like dresses who in the height and prosperity of that Empire were said to wear The spoils of Nations in one ear Or Lollia Paulina who was hid with Jewels For the great Mogol the Diamonds and Rubies and Pearls which are very many and daily worn by him are all of an extraordinary greatness and consequently of an exceeding great value And besides those he wears about his Shash or head covering he hath a long Chain of Jewels hanging about his Neck as long as an ordinary Gold-Chain others about his wrists and the Hilts of his Sword and Dagger are most curiously enriched with those precious Stones beside others of very great value which he wears in Rings on his fingers The first of March the Mogol begins a royal Feast like that which Ahasuerus made in the third year of his Reign Esth. 1. wherein he shewed the riches of his glorious Kingdom This feast the Mogol makes is called the Nooroos that signifies Nine-days which time it continues to usher in the new year which begins with the Mahometans there the tenth day of March. Against which Feast the Nobles assemble themselves together at that Court in their greatest Pomp presenting their King with great gifts and he requiting them again with Princely rewards at which time I being in his presence beheld most immense and incredible riches to my amazement in Gold Pearls Precious stones Jewels and many other glittering vanities This Feast is usually kept by the Mogol while he is in his Progress and lodges in Tents Whether his Diet at this time be greater than ordinary I know not for he always eats in private amongst his Women where none but his own Family see him while he is eating which Family of his consists of his Wives and Children and Women and Eunuchs and his Boys and none but these abide and lodge in the Kings Houses or Tents and therefore how his Table is spread I could never know but doubtless he hath of all those varieties that Empire affords if he so please His food they say is served in unto him in Vessels of Gold which covered and brought unto him by his Eunuchs after it is proved by his Tasters he eats not at any set times of the day but he hath provision ready at all times and calls for it when he is hungry and never but then The first of September which was the late Mogol's birth-day he retaining an ancient yearly Custom was in the presence of his chief Grandees weighed in a Balance the Ceremony was performed within his House or Tent in a fair spacious Room whereinto none were admitted but by special leave The Scales in which he was thus weighed were plated with Gold and so the beam on which they hung by great Chains made likewise of that most precious Metal the King sitting in one of them was weighed first against silver Coin which immediately after was distributed among the poor then was he weighed against Gold after that against Jewels as they say but I observed being present there with my Lord Ambassador that he was weighed against three several things laid in silken Bags on the contrary Scale When I saw him in the Balance I thought on Belshazzar who was found too light Dan. 5.27 By his weight of which his Physicians yearly keep an exact account they presume to guess of the present estate of his body of which they speak flatteringly however they think it to be When the Mogol is thus weighed he casts about among the standers by thin pieces of silver and some of Gold made like flowers of that Countrey and some of them are made like Cloves and some like Nutmegs but very thin and hollow Then he drinks to his Nobles in his Royal wine as that of Ahasuerus is called Esth. 1.7 who pledge his health at which solemnity he drank to my Lord Ambassadour in a Cup of Gold most curiously enameled and set all over the outside with stones which were small Rubies Turkesses and Emeralds with a Cover or Plate to set in it in both of pure Gold the brims of which plate and the cover were enameled and set with stones as the other and all these together weighed twenty and four ounces of our English weights which he then gave unto my Lord Ambassadour whom he ever used with very much respect and would moreover often ask him why he did not desire some good and great gifts at his hands be being a
gave it to another probably the principal Secretary without reading or opening it The Ambassador had brought a Letter to him likewise written in the King of Spain's Name but did not present it now because the Portugals say that the first time of going to Audience they are onely to make a Visit and not to treat of business Then they drew forth the Present before the King which was some pieces of cloth within one of those wooden gilt boxes which are us'd in India a Lance of the Moorish shape to wit long and smooth like a Pike the point of Iron gilt and the foot embellish'd with Silver a gallant Target and the Horse above-mention'd cover'd with a silken Horse-cloth which Horse was brought into the Court where the King sate After he had receiv'd and view'd the Present and taken the Iron of the Lance in his hand which the Ambassador said was of Portugal they caus'd the rest of us to sit down near the outer wall of the Porch on the left side upon a rough Carpet strip'd with white and blew of that sort which the Turks and Persians call Kielim spread upon the pavement of the Porch The Ambassador although he sate yet never put on his Hat before the King for so the Portugal Nobles are wont to do before the Vice-Roy namely to sit but not to be cover'd nor did the King speak to him to cover himself but let him continue uncover'd wherein to my thinking he committed an error for going as he did in the name of the State which amongst them is as much as to go in the King of Spain's Name why should he not be cover'd before so small a Prince And the error seem'd the greater because he was the first that went Ambassador to Venk-tapà Naieka in the name of the State and consequently hath made an ill president to such as shall come after him And in introducing such prejudicial customs a publick Minister should have his eyes well open but the truth is the Portugals of India understand little are little Courtiers and less Polititians how exquisite soever they be accounted here as this Sig Gio Fernandez is esteem'd one of the most accomplish'd and I believe not undeservedly At night I could not forbear to advertise some of his Country-men hereof in a handsome way it not seeming fit for me a stranger and the younger man to offer to give him a Lesson However he never put on his Hat and Civility oblig'd us to the same forbearance but indeed it was too much obsequiousness for such a Prince as also for the Ambassador to tell him of the other times that he had been privately at that Court and kiss'd his Highnesse's Feet with other like words little becomming an Ambassador Nevertheless he spoke them professing himself much the servant of Ven-tapà Naieka out of hope that he as Vitulà Sinay had promis'd him at Goa would write to the King of Spain in his favor by which means he should have some remuneration Indeed the Portugals have nothing else in their Heads but Interest and therefore their Government goes as it does As we sate down being four of us that did so besides the Ambassador to wit the Chaplain Caravaglio Montegro and my self I handsomely took the last place because knowing the nature of the Portugals I would not have them think that I a stranger went about to take place and preheminence of them in their solemnities and they conformably to their own humor not onely us'd no Courtesie to me as well-bred Italians would have done by saying to me Amice ascende superiùs but I saw they were greatly pleas'd with my putting my self in the last place Caravaglio taking the first the Chaplain the second and Montegro the third I little caring for this or for shewing and making my self known in the Court of Venk-tapà Naieka laugh'd within my self at their manners and with the observation recreated my Curiosity which alone had brought me into these parts The King's discourse to the Ambassador was distended to divers things and as he was speaking he frequently chaw'd leavs of Betle which a Courtier reach'd to him now and then and when he was minded out a lump of the masticated leaves another held a kind of great Cup to his Mouth for him to spit into The King ask'd concerning the slowness of the Ships this year as that which disgusted him in regard of the Money they were to bring him for Pepper He inquir'd of several things of India and desir'd to know some kind of News The Ambassador told him all the News we had at Onòr which were uncertain being onely the Relations of some vulgar persons and therefore in my judgement too immaturely utter'd affirming for certain the coming of the Fleet with a great Army the Alliance between Spain and England the passage of the Prince of England into Spain and moreover Good God! the reduction of all England to the Catholick Faith by the publick command of that King with other such levities usual to the Portugals who are very ignorant of the affairs of the world and of State The King further spoke long concerning things transacted with him in the War of Banghel particularly of the Peace that concluded it for which probably being disadvantageous to the Portugals he said â—e heard that many blam'd him the Ambassador who negotiated it with his Ministers and that they not onely blam'd him for it but said he would be punish'd by the King of Spain who was offended with it whereat being sorry as his Friend he had sent several times to Goa to inquire tidings concerning him The Ambassador answer'd that 't was true there had been such accusations against him and greater some alledging that his Highness had brib'd him but that they were the words of malevolent persons which he had always laugh'd at knowing he had done his duty and onely what the Vice-Roy had appointed him and that in Spain they give credit to the informations of the Vice-Roy and not to the talk of others as well appear'd by the event Venk-tapà proceeded to say that that Peace was very well made for the Portugals and that much good had follow'd upon it intimating that they would have made it with disadvantage if it had not been concluded in that manner as he concluded it As if he would have said It had been ill for the Portugals with manifest signes of a mind insulting over them and that the business of Banghel was no more to be treated of Then he ask'd the Ambassador How old he was How many Children he had Putting him in mind of his using to come when a very Youth to Ikkerì with his Father to bring Horses and shewing himself very friendly to him Nor did the Ambassadar lose the occasion of desiring him that he would favor him with his Letters to the King of Spain pretending to hope for much upon account of them a thing which I should not commend in an Ambassador because he
business of the Valtolin between France Venice and Savoy but that it will proceed no further because Spain had deposited the Valtolin in the hands of the Pope That the Prince of Vrbin was dead and consequently that State would fall to the Church which is a thing of much importance That at Venice the Doge Pruili was dead and a new Doge already elected one Contarini an eminent Person That there was a great Plague and that the King of France had subdu'd almost all the Garrisons of the Hereticks except Rochel which he also hop'd shortly to reduce to obedience That the Espousals were pass'd between the Infanta of Spain and the King of England's Son with hope that he is already a Catholick That they have given her in dower the pretensions of Holland and Zealand and money on condition that Liberty of Conscience be granted in England and four Churches for Catholicks built in London which was already executed publick Writings thereof going about in print besides divers other Affairs of Europe of less consideration May the nineteenth One Ventura da Costa a Native of Canara was married He was a domestick servant to Sig Alvaro da Costa a Priest and our Friend Lord of a Village near Goa for whose sake who was willing to honour his servant's wedding in his own House I and some other Friends went thither to accompany the Bride and the Bride-groom to the Church of San Blagio a little distant in another Village which was the Parish of the Bride where the Ceremonies were perform'd in the Evening for coolness sake The Company was very numerous consisting of many Portugal Gentlemen such perhaps as few other Canarini have had at their Marriages The Spouses came under Umbrella's of Silk garnish'd with silver in other particulars the Ceremonies were according to the custom of the Portugals onely I observ'd that according to the use of the Country in the Company before the Married Persons there march'd a party of fourteen or sixteen men odly cloth'd after the Indian fashion to wit naked from the girdle upward and their Bodies painted in works with white Sanders and adorn'd with bracelets and necklaces of Gold and Silver and also with flowers and turbants upon their heads in several gallant fashions and streamers of several colours hanging behind them From the girdle downwards over the hose which these Canarini use to wear short like ours they had variously colour'd clothes girt about them with streamers or flying laps hanging down a little below the knee the rest of the leg was naked saving that they had sandals on their feet These fine fellows danc'd all the way both going and returning accompanying their dances with chaunting many Verses in their own Language and beating the little snappers which they carry'd in their hands after the fashion of the Country formerly taken notice of at Ikkerì And indeed the dances of these Canarini are pleasant enough so that in the Festivities made at Goa for the Canonization of the Saints Ignatio and Sciavier though in other things they were most solemn and sumptuous yet in my conceit there was nothing more worthy to be seen for delight then the many pretty and jovial dances which interven'd in the Tragedy The Marry'd Couple being return'd from Church to the Bride's House we were entertain'd with a handsome Collation of Sweet-meats in the yard which was wholly cover'd over with a Tent and adorn'd with Trees and green boughs the Company sitting round and the Marry'd Couple on one side at the upper end upon a great Carpet under a Canopy After which we all return'd home and the Husband stay'd that night to sleep in his Wife's House May the twentieth A Galley of the Fleet expected from Mozambique arriv'd at Goa It brought Sig Don Nugro Alvares sometimes General there and Supream Governour of all that Coast of Cafuria comprising under his Government the Rivers of Coama Mombace and as much of Africk as the Portugals have from Capo di Buono Esperanza to the Stâ—eight of Meka and with him a Jesuit that was a Bishop one of those that were to go into Aethiopia The Patriarch design'd thither being also a Jesuit remain'd behind in another Galeot as likewise did the Ships of the last years Portugal Fleet which came on by little and little 〈◊〉 brought News of the miserable wrack of a Ship call'd San Gâ—â—â—â—nni which two years before set forth from Goa for Portugâ—â—â—â—ry â—â—ry rich and meeting with the Dutch by the way after a long fight being totally shatter'd ran a ground upon the Coast of Cafuria so that saving the people remaining after the fight and the Jewels all was lost Which people after this disaster refusing both the offer of good entertainment made them by the Lord of the place who was a Friend to the Portugals all upon advice sent to Mozambique they might have passage thither and also his counsel to travel far within Land where he said they would have less trouble in passing many Rivers which otherwise they would meet with and find an unarmed and more hospitable people but unadvisedly after the inconsiderate humor of the Portugals resolving to go by land to Mozambique and travel always far from the Sea amongst barbarous inhospitable people who eat humane flesh and with-all not â—ehaving themsâ—lves well with them in their passage but out of a foolish temerity giving many occasions of disgusts they were assaulted in many places by the said Cafiri often spoyl'd and rob'd and many of them kill'd so that of the Women that were with them some were taken others strip'd naked till after a thousand inconveniences and sufferings and as some say about eight moneths travelling on foot during which they were fain to wade through abundance of Rivers at last no more of the company arriv'd at Mozambique but twenty seven persons all the rest being either slain by the way or dead of hardships excepting some few that were kept slaves by the Cafiri amongst which was a Portugal Gentlewoman of quality whom they kept to present to their King without hope I believe of ever being deliver'd A misery indeed worthy of compassion The Jewels sent from Goa to be sold in Portugal were almost all sav'd and deposited at Mozambique in the Misericordia some say to be restor'd to the owners and others say at the instance of the King's Officer who pretends the King 's Right to them as shipwrackt goods yet most conclude that the case will not be so judg'd but that they will be restor'd to the owners upon payment of some small matter to those that sav'd them May the three and twentieth I visited the above-mention'd Bishop now arriv'd in Goa at the Colledge of San Paolo Novo He was call'd Dom Joanno da Rocha and nominated but not consecrated Bishop of Heliopoli On the twenty sixth I visited in the Covent of our Lady della Gratia F. Fra Manoel della Madre di Dio formerly known to me in Persia and now
into Spain in answer to the Embassy of Don Garcia de Silva Figueroa and travailed in the same Ship before it was taken by the Pirats died by the way having first substituted another of his company to perform his charge which other Embassador was taken with the said Ship and carried a slave into Argiers whereof notice being given to the Persian Embassador at Constantinople order was expected from thence what to do with him which not coming before this Gentleman was delivered he could not tell what the issue was but left him still a prisoner in Argiers August the fifth The Indians were to celebrate their solemn Festival of Washing and other Ceremonies accustomed to be performed at Narva and mentioned by me in the last years relation to be celebrated on the seventeenth of the same Month. And because this year the Feast-day fell twelve dayes sooner in our year then in the last I perceived that the Indian year must be Lunar or if it be Solar as I think I have heard it cannot be just or equal but to be adjusted requires some great and extravagant intercalation I went not to Narva to see the Feast because the place lies beyond the River in the Territory of the Moors who at this time stood not upon good Terms with the Portugals Neither did the Gentiles of Goa go thither for the same reason and if I was not mis-enformed they expected a safe conduct from Idal-Sciah from Vidhiapor to go thither another day August the ninth Two hours and forty minutes before Noon if the Calculation and Observation of Christofero Borano or Boro be true the Sun was in the Zenith of Goa and began to decline towards the South August the twenty fourth On which day the Feast of St Bartholomew uses to be celebrated certain Officers deputed for that purpose with other Principal Persons entrusted with the superintendency of the Fields and Agriculture offered to the Cathedral Church and afterwards also to the Vice-roy the first-fruits of the Fields to wit of Rice newly eared which is the most substantial of the fruits of the Territory of Goa I was told likewise that they made a Statue of an Elephant with Rice-straw which I know not whether they carry'd about with them or set up in some Piazza This custom is practis'd annually upon the said day because at that time precisely the said fruit begins to ripen August the twenty seventh One Galeon of four that were coming from Mascat whither they had been sent last April with Provisions arriv'd at Goa they came by the Vice-roy's Order to transport if occasion requir'd new succours to be sent to Ormuz This Ship related that the other three were possibly return'd back again to the streight of Ormuz for fear of some Dutch Vessels which hover'd thereabouts but this being driven out to Sea and having lost its company in the night was forc'd to come directly forwards It related further that Ormuz had been again besieg'd a good while by the Captains of Ruy Freira to wit first by Michel Pereira Boraglio our friend and afterwards by another whom he sent thither by turns because thereby the task would be easier to the besiegers but that at the parting of these Galleys from Mascat Ruy Freira himself was upon the point to go to the said Siege with all the Men and Vessels with oars he had which were about twenty or twenty five Galeots and many less Morisco Vessels call'd Ternata's a small preparation indeed to take Ormuz withall September the second a little before day-light The safe arrival of the annual Portugal Fleet was congratulated by all the Bells of Goa It consisted of two Merchant's Ships lesser and lighter then the Carracks which use to come other years one Galeon laden also with Merchandize and order'd to return with the same Ships in case it should not be necessary at Goa for the war and five other Galeons equip'd for war which were to remain at Goa with all the Soldiery which was numerous and good to be imploy'd as occasion should require The General of this Armada was Sig. Nugno Alvares Botelho the Admiral Sig. Giovan Pereira Cortereal to whose diligence the happy and speedy arrival of this Fleet is attributed the like not having come to pass in many years and that through the fault and greediness both of the Pilots and Merchants for before without keeping order or rule in the voyage or obedience to the General every one endeavor'd to have his Ship arrive first and alone But this Sig. Gio. Pereira Cortereal having written and presented a printed Discourse about this matter to the King his Majesty approv'd the same and gave strict charge that his Prescription should be observ'd with all exactness and hence proceeded the good success of this Voyage This Fleet brought news that the Prince of England was departed from Spain without effecting the marriage between the two Crowns because the Parliament of England would not consent to it which considering all the preceding transactions seems to me a strange case and perhaps the like hath scarce hapned between Princes unless possibly there be some unknown mysterie in the business That the Frosts having obstructed the mouth of a River in Holland had caus'd a great inundation which broke the banks or dikes whereby they keep out the sea and done much damage to the Country That twelve Ships which set forth from thence for India being beset by the Spanish Fleet of Dunkirk were partly sunk and partly shatter'd so that they could not come to India That the Catholicks in August last upon the precise day whereon Vrban VIII was created Pope had obtain'd a signal victory in Germany against the Hereticks That great Fleets were preparing in England Spain and France for unknown designs That the King of Spain was at Sevil and the Queen had brought him forth a Daughter who was dead but the Daughter of the Conte di Vidigueira present Vice-Roy here in India had brought him forth a Son at which the Queen was much displeas'd with the King And that in Portugal it was expected that the Arch-Duke Leopold should go to govern that Kingdom September the fifth the other three Galeons which I said were to come from Mascat arriv'd at Goa The cause of their delay was as was rightly conjectur'd that they had discover'd an English Ship upon those Coasts and spent some time in giving her chase but in vain through the fault perhaps of the Portugal Captain who was loth to fight her for one of them made up to her and fought a while with her Artillery but perceiving her companions came not to do the like gave over and having given and receiv'd many shots let her go without doing her hurt and return'd to her company The English Ship shew'd much bravery for seeing three Vessels coming against her she waited to give them battle without flying The above-said Galeons brought Letters which signifi'd that Mascat was molested with wars by the neighbouring
an hundred of such a number From Sidon they got a passage by Sea unto Alexandretta now called Scanderoon in the extreamest bottom of the Mediterranean Sea which is one of the unwholsomest places in the world where I have often heard that no stranger that was born far from it comes to continue there for the space of one moneth but is sure to meet with a sickness which very often proves mortal At this place his English Companion left him and turned his face towards England and he presently took his way towards Aleppo in Syria about seventy miles or more distant from Scanderoon which is as much renowned for wholsomness as the place before-named for being unwholsome and therefore it is called sweet-air'd Aleppo Here he being kindly received by the English Consul stayed a time to gain the company of a Caravan which consists of a great mixt multitude of people from divers parts which get and keep together travelling those parts for fear of the incursions and violences by Thieves and Murtherers which they would undoubtedly meet withal if they travelled single or but few together With these he after set forwards towards and to that City anciently called Niniveh in Assyria which we find in the Prophesie of Jonah was sometimes a great and excellent City of three dayes journey Jonah 3.3 but now so exceedingly lessen'd and lodg'd in obscurity that passengers cannot say of it This was Niniveh which now hath its old name changed and is called Mozel From hence they journied to Babylon in Chaldea situated upon the River Euphrates once likewise so great that Aristotle called it a Country not a City but now it is very much contracted and 't is called Bagdat From this place they proceeded through both the Armeniaes and either did or else our Traveller was made to believe that he saw the very Mountain Ararat whereon the Ark of Noah rested after the Flood Gen. 8. And from hence they went forward towards the Kingdom of Persia and there to Vzspahan the usual place of Residence for that great King then called Sha Abbas or King Abbas And after they went to Seras anciently called Shushan where the great King Ahasuerus kept his Royal and most Magnificent Court Esth. 1. From hence they journied afterwards to Candahor the first Province North East under the subjection of the Great Moghol and so to Lahore the chiefest City but one belonging to that great Empire a place as I have been often told by Tom Coryat and others of very great trade wealth and delight lying more temperately out of the Parching Sun than any other of his great Cities do And to this City he wanted not Company nor afterwards to Agra the Moghol's Metropolis or chief City And here it is very observable that from Lahore to Agra it is four hundred English miles and that the Country betwixt both these great Cities is rich even pleasant and flat a Campania and the rode-way on both sides all this long distance planted with great Trees which are all the year cloathed with leaves exceeding beneficial unto Travellers for the shade they afford them in those hot Climes This very much extended length of way 'twixt these two places is called by Travellers the Long Walk very full of Villages and Towns for Passengers every where to find Provision At Agra our Traveller made an halt being there lovingly received in the English Factory where he stayd till he had gotten to his Turkish and Morisco or Arabian Languages some good knowledge in the Persian and Indostan Tongues in which study he was alwayes very apt and in little time shewed much proficiency The first of those two the Persian is the more quaint the other the Indian the vulgar Language spoken in East-India In both these he suddenly got such a knowledge and mastery that it did exceedingly afterwards advantage him in his Travels up and down the Mogol's Territory he wearing alwayes the Habit of that Nation and speaking their Language In the first of these the Persian Tongue he made afterwards an Oration to the Great Mogol bringing in that Story of the Queen of Sheba 1 Kings 10. in which parts of that Sacred History the Mahumetans have some knowledge and he told him that as the Queen of Sheba having heard of the Fame of King Solomon came from far to visit him which when she had done she confessed that though she had heard very much of him and many things beyond her belief yet now seeing what she did acknowledged that she had not heard half of that which she now saw concerning the Wisdom and Greatness and Retinue and Riches of Solomon So our Orator told the Mogol that he had heard very much of him before he had the Honour to see him when he was very far off in his own Country but now what he beheld did exceedingly surmount all those former Reports of him which came to his Ears at such a distance from him Then larding his short speech with some other pieces of Flattery which the Mogol liked well concluded And when he had done the Mogol gave him one hundred Roopus which amounts to the value of twelve pounds and ten shillings of our English Money looking upon him as a Derveese Votary or Pilgrim for so he called him and such as bear that name in that Country seem not much to care for money and that was the reason I conceive that he gave him not a more plentiful Reward After this he having got a great mastery likewise in the Indostan or more vulgar Language there was a Woman a Landress belonging to my Lord Embassadors House who had such a freedom and liberty of Speech that she would sometimes scould brawl and rail from the Sun-rising to Sun-set One day he undertook her in her own Language and by eight of the Clock in the Morning so silenced her that she had not one word more to speak I shall have occasion to say more of this man in some passages of this following Discourse and therefore I shall not wrap all I have to speak of him in this although it be a very long digression Yet because I must now shortly bring you to his journies end I shall take the freedom to enlarge my self a little further concerning him here in this place before I leave him for the present and to give thee Reader a piece of his Character it speaks thus That he was a man of a very coveting Eye that could never be satisfied with seeing as Solomon speaks Eccles. 1.8 though he had seen very much and I am perswaded that he took as much content in seeing as many others in the enjoying of Great and Rare things He was a man that had got the mastery of many hard Languages as before I observed to the Latine and Greek he brought forth of England with him in which if he had obtained wisdom to husband and manage them as he had skill to speak them he had deserved more Fame in his
Generation But his knowledge and high attainments in several Languages made him not a little ignorant of himself he being so covetous so ambitious of praise that he would hear and endure more of it than he could in any measure deserve being like a Ship that hath too much Sail and too little Ballast Yet if he had not faln into the smart hands of the Wits of those Times he might have passed better That itch of Fame which engaged this man to the undertakings of those very hard and long and dangerous Travels hath put thousands more and therefore he was not alone in this into strange attempts onely to be talked of Upon a time one Mr Richard Steel a Merchant and servant to the East-India Company came unto us from Surat to Mandoa the place then of the Mogol's Residence of which place somewhat more hereafter at which time Mr Coryat was there with us This Merchant had not long before travelled over-land from East-India through Persia and so to Constantinople and so for England who in his Travel home-ward had met with Tom Coryat as he was journeying towards East-India Mr Steel then told him that when he was in England King James then living enquired after him and when he had certified the King of his meeting him on the way the King replyed Is that Fool yet living which when our Pilgrim heard it seemed to trouble him very much because the King spake no more nor no better of him saying that Kings would speak of poor men what they pleased At another time when he was ready to depart from us my Lord Embassador gave him a Letter and in that a Bill to receive ten pounds at Aleppo when he should return thither The Letter was directed unto Mr Libbaeus Chapman there Consul at that time in which that which concerned our Traveller was thus Mr Chapman when you shall hand these Letters I desire you to receive the Bearer of them Master Thomas Coryat with Courtesie for you shall find him a very honest poor Wretch and further I must entreat you to furnish him with ten pounds which shall be repayed c. Our Pilgrim lik'd the gift well but the Language by which he should have received it did not at all content him telling me That my Lord had even spoyled his Courtesie in the carriage thereof so that if he had been a very Fool indeed he could have said very little less of him than he did Honest poor Wretch And to say no more of him was to say as much as nothing And furthermore he then told me that when he was formerly undertaking his journey to Venice a Person of Honour wrote thus in his behalf unto Sir Henry Wotton then and there Embassador My Lord Good Wine needs no Bush neither a worthy man Letters Commendatory because whithersoever he comes he is his own Epistle c. There said he was some Language on my behalf but now for my Lord to write nothing of me by way of Commendation but Honest poor Wretch is rather to trouble me than to please me with his favour And therefore afterwards his Letter was phras'd up to his mind but he never liv'd to receive the money By which his old acquaintance may see how tender this poor man was to be touched in any thing that might in the least measure disparage him O what pains this poor man took to make himself a Subject for preâ—â—nt and after Discourse being troubled at nothing for the present unless with the fear of not living to reap that fruit he was so ambitious of in all his undertakings And certainly he was surprized with some such thoughts and fears for so he told us afterwards when upon a time he being at Mandoa with us and there standing in a room against a stone Pillar where the Embassador was and my self present with them upon a sudden he fell into such a swoon that we had very much ado to recover him out of it but at last comn to himself he told us that some sad thoughts had immediately before presented themselves to his Fancy which as he conceived put him into that distemper like Fannius in Martial Ne moriare mori to prevent death by dying For he told us that there was great Expectations in England of the large Accounts he should give of his Travels after his return home and that he was now shortly to leave us and he being at present not very well if he should die in the way toward Surat whither he was now intended to go which place he had not yet seen he might be buryed in Obscurity and none of his Friends ever know what became of him he travelling now as he usually did alone Upon which my Lord willed him to stay longer with us but he thankfully refused that offer and turned his face presently after towards Surat which was then about three hundred miles distant from us and he lived to come safely thither but there being over-kindly used by some of the English who gave him Sack which they had brought from England he calling for it as soon as he first heard of it and crying Sack Sack Is there such a thing as Sack I pray you give me some Sack And drinking of it though I conceive moderately for he was a very temperate man it increased his Flux which he had then upon him and this caused him within a few dayes after his very tedious and troublesome Travels for he went most on foot at this place to come to his journeies end for here he overtook Death Decemb. 1617. and was buried as aforesaid under a little Monument like one of those usually made in our Church-yards I now proceed to our former Discourse of the Description of the Great Mogol's Territories Which I shall digest into several Sections SECTION I. Of the several Provinces the chief Cities the Principal Rivers the extent of this vast Empire THe most spacious Monarchy under the subjection of the Great Mogol divides it self into thirty and seven several and large Provinces which anciently were particular Kingdoms whose true Names which we there had out of the Mogol's own Records with their Principal Cities and Rivers their Situation and Borders their Extent in length and breath I shall first set down very briefly beginning at the North-West Yet as I name these several Provinces I shall by the way take notice of some particulars in them which are most Remarkable 1. Candahore the chief City so called it lyes from the heart of the Mogol's Territories North-West it confines with the King of Persia and was anciently a Province belonging to him 2. Cabut the chief City so called the extreamest part North of this Emperours Dominions it confineth with Tartaria the River Nilob hath its beginning in it whose Current is Southerly till it dischargeth it self into Indus 3. Multan the chief City so called it lyeth South from Cabut and Candahore and to the West joynes with Persia. This Province is fam'd for
hearths which they carry with them when they journey from place to place making use of them in their Tents It should seem to be an ancient Custom in the East as may appear by that Precedent of Sarah when she entertained the Angels who found her in her Tent She took fine meal and did knead it and made Cakes thereof upon the hearth Gen. 18.6 To their Bread they have great abundance of all other good Provision as of Butter beating their Cream into a substance like unto a thick Oyl for in that hot Climate they can never make it hard which though soft yet it is very sweet and good They have Cheese likewise in plenty by reason of their great number of Kine and Sheep and Goats Besides they have a Beast very large having a smooth thick skin without hair called a Buffelo which gives good milk the flesh of them is like Beef but neither so toothsom nor wholsom These Buffeloes are much employed in carrying large skins of water for they are very strong Beasts which hang on both sides of them unto Families that want it their Hides make the most firm and excellent Buff. They have no want of Venison of divers kinds as Red-Deer Fallow-Deer Elks which are very large and strong and fierce Creatures Antilops Kids c. but their Deer are no where imparked the whole Empire being as it were a Forrest for them for a man can travel no way but he shall here and there see of them But because they are every man's Game that will make them so they do not multiply to do them much hurt either in their Corn or other places To these they have great store of Hares and they have plenty of Fowls wild and tame as abundance of Hens Geese Ducks Pigeons Turtle-Doves Partridges Peacocks Quails and many other singular good Fowl They have variety of Fish all which by reason of their Plenty and because many of the Natives eat no kind of Flesh at all nor of any thing that hath or may have life and those that feed on such things eat not freely of any of those living Creatures they are all bought there at such easie rates as if they were not worth the valuing They do not cut their Chickens when they be little to make Capons and therefore they have no Creatures of that name but men their Eunuchs called there Cogees or Capons in their Language so made when they be very young and then deprived of all that might after provoke jealousie and therefore they are put to be attendants on their women the great men of that Nation keeping many of them a soft tender people tener Spado as Juvenal cals one of them that never come to have any Hair on their Faces But to return again to their Provisions the Beeves of that Countrey differ from ours in that they are none of them very large and those they have have each of them a great buâ—â—â— of grisly flesh which grows upon the meeting of their shoulders The flesh of their Beeves is much whiter than the flesh of ours and very sweet tender and good Their Sheep differ from ours by their great fleshy Bob-tails which severed from their bodies are very ponderous Their Wool is generally coarse but their flesh is not so Now to season all their good Provisions there is great store of Salt and to sweeten all abundance of Sugar growing in that Countrey which after it is well refined may be there had at a very low rate out of which they make very pure white Sugar-Candy which may be had there at a small easie Price likewise Their Fruits are every way answerable to the rest the Countrey abounding in Musk-Melons very much better because they are better digested there by the heat of the Sun than these with us They have many Water-Melons a very choice good Fruit and some of them as big as our ordinary Pompions and in shape like them the substance within this Fruit is spongy but exceeding tender and well-tasted of a colour within equally mixed with red and white and within that an excellent cooling and pleasing liquor Here are likewise store of Pome-granats Pome-citrons here are Limons and Oranges but I never found any there so good as I have seen elswhere Here are Dates Figs Grapes Prunelloes Almonds Coquer-nuts of which I observed something before and here they have those most excellent Plums called Mirabolans the stone of which Fruit differs very much from others in its shape whereon Nature hath curiously quartered several strakes equally divided very pretty to behold many of which choice Plums they write are very cordial and therefore worth the prizing are there well-preserved and sent for England They have to these another Fruit we English there call a Planten of which many of them grow in Clusters together long they are in shape made like unto slender Cucumbers and very yellow when they are Ripe and then taste like unto a Norwich Pear but much better Another most excellent Fruit they have called a Manggo growing upon Trees as big as our Walnut-trees and as these here so those Trees there will be very full of that most excellent Fruit in shape and colour like unto our Apricocks but much bigger which taken and rolled in a man's hands when they are through ripe the substance within them becomes like the pap of a roasted Apple which then suck'd out from about a large stone they have within them is delicately pleasing unto every Palat that tasts it And to conclude with the best of all other their choice Fruits the Amana's like unto our Pine-Apples which seems to the Taster to be a most pleasing Compound made of Straw-berries Claret-wine Rose-water and Sugar well tempered together In the Northermost pâ—â—ts of this Empire they have variety of Pears and Apples every where good Roots as Carrets Potatoes and others like them They have Onions and Garlick and some Herbs and small Roots for Salads and in the Southernmost parts Ginger growing almost in every place the large races whereof are there very excellently well preserved as we may know by our tasting them in England And all these things I have last named may be there likewise bought at very low rates And lastly some one kind or other of their very good and choice Fruits may be there had at every time or season of the Year And here I cannot chuse but take notice of a very pleasant and clear liquor called Toddie issuing from a Spongie Tree that grows strait and tall without Boughs to the Top and there spreads out in tender branches very like unto those that grow from the Roots of our rank and rich Artichokes but much bigger and longer This Toddie-tree is not so big but that it may be very easily embraced and the nimble people of that Countrey will climb up as fast to the top thereof the stem of the Tree being rough and crusty as if they had the advantage of Ladders to help them up
terrible to those little Birds which make their Nests in those Woods and therefore Nature hath taught them this subtilty to preserve their young ones from those Creatures which would otherwise destroy them to build their Nests in the twigs and the utmost boughs of those Trees where some of them hang like little Purse-nets to which those Apes and Monkeys be they never so little and light cannot come to hurt them Besides their Woods they have great variety of fair goodly Trees that stand here and there single but I never saw any there of those kinds of Trees which England affords They have very many firm and strong Timber-trees for building and other uses but much of their brush or small wood I observed to be very sappy so that when we brake a twig of it there would come a substance out of some of it like unto Milk and the sappiness of that underwood may as I apprehend it be ascribed in part to the fatness of that Soil Some of their Trees have leavs upon them as broad as Bucklers others are parted small like our Fern or Brakes as the Tamerine Tree which bears Cods somewhat like our Beans in which when the Fruit is ripe there is a very well tasted pulp though it be sowr most wholsom to open the body and to cool and cleanse the blood There is one very great and fair Tree growing in that Soil of special observation out of whose Branches or great Arms grow little Sprigs downward till they take Root as they will certainly do if they be let alone and taking Root at length prove strong supporters unto those large Branches that yield them Whence it comes to pass that those Trees in time their strong and far-extended Arms being in many places thus supported grow to a very great height and extend themselves to such an incredible breadth they growing round every way as that hundreds of men may shade themselves under one of them at any time the rather because these as all other Trees in those Southern parts of East-India as particularly I observed before still keep on their green Coats For their Flowers they are for the generality like unto painted Weeds which though their colour be excellent they rather delight the eye than affect the smell for not many of them except Roses and some few kinds more are any whit fragrant Amongst them that are there is one white Flower like to Spanish Jessamin if it be not the same which is exceedingly well sented of which they make a most excellent pure sweet Oil with which they anoint their heads and other parts of their bodies which makes the company of those that do so very savoury and sweet This Empire is watered with many goodly Rivers as they are expressed in the Map the two principal are Indus and Ganges where this thing is very observable for they say there that it is very true that one pint of the water of Ganges weigheth less by one ounce than any other water in that whole great Monarchy And therefore they say that the Mogol wheresoever he is hath water brought him from that River that he may drink thereof by some appointed for that service who are continually either going to it or coming from it The water is brought unto the King in fine Copper Jars excellently well tin'd on the inside and sealed up when they are delivered to the Water-bearers for the King's use two of which Jars every one carries hanging upon Slings fitted for the Porter's shoulders Besides their Rivers they have store of Wells fed with Springs and to these they have many Ponds which they call Tanques some of them exceeding large fill'd with water when that abundance of Rain falls of which more hereafter That most ancient and innocent Drink of the World Water is the common drink of East-India it is far more pleasant and sweet than our water and must needs be so because in all hot Countries it is more rarified better digested and freed from its rawness by the heat of the Sun and therefore in those parts it is more desired of all that come thither though they never made it their drink before than any other liquor and agreeth better with mens bodies Sometimes they boyl the water there with some wholsom Seeds and after drink it cold and then it is by much more cold after an heat Like unto some men who have shewed formerly much zeal and heat for good and afterward become more chil and cold than ever they were before Sometimes we mingle our water there with the juice of Limons and Sugar which makes an exceeding pleasant drink which we call there Sherbet Some small quantity of Wine but not common is made amongst them they call it Raak distilled from Sugar and a spicy rinde of a Tree called Jagra it is very wholsom if taken very moderately Many of the people there who are strict in their Religion drink no Wine at all but they use a Liquor more wholsom than pleasant they call Coffee made by a black Seed boyld in water which turnes it almost into the same colour but doth very little alter the taste of the water notwithstanding it is very good to help Digestion to quicken the Spirits and to cleanse the Blood There is yet another help for those that forbear Wine by an Herb they have called Beetle or Paune in shape somewhat like an Ivy-leaf but more tender they chew it with an hard Nut somewhat like a Nutmeg but not in taste like that and a very little pure white lime amongst the leaves and when they have sucked down the juice put forth the rest It hath as they say and I believe very much of it many rare qualities for it preserves the Teeth strengthens the Stomack comforts the Brain and it cures or prevents a tainted Breath This I am sure of that such is the pleasing smell of this Beetle being chewing in a close room that the breath of him so chewing it fills it with a very pleasing savour This Empire further affords very excellent good Horse curiously made high metl'd and well managed by the Natives Besides their own they have many of the Persian Tartarian and Arabian breed which have the name to be the choise ones of the World But of these more when I come to speak of the Inhabitants Here are a great number of Camels Dromedaries Mules and Asses imployed for the carriage of burthens or the carrying of the people to which use also they employ many of their Oxen and their Buffeloes likewise which before I spake of The Camels as I oft observed there have one strange quality who cry and make a very piteous noyse at night when they take off their burthens but in the morning when they are laid on the poor Creatures are very still and quiet making no noyse at all The Dromedary is called by the Prophet Jeremy Jer. 2.23 the swift Dromedary the reason may be because these like the Camels have
as well as to any other that if they be at any time assaulted they will rather dye in their defence than forsake them at their need So that I am very confident if an English Merchant should travel alone with a very great treasure in Gold and Jewels both or either from Surat to Lahor which is more than one thousand English miles and take those Indian servants only for his company and guard and all they knew what he carried with him He paying them their Wages they would be so far from injuring him of the least peny of his wealth that whosoever besides should attempt his spoiling must make a way through their blood before they should be able to do it Here is a great and good example of faithfulness and it is very true But I much doubt that if a great Indian Merchant I mean a Native of that Countrey should come for England with like treasure with a desire to pass through this whole Nation and should for his more safe passage take a guard of Sword-men here and pay them well for their service they might lye under such a strong tentation as might make them to spoil the Egyptian by shortning his journey dividing his substance and by disposing so of his person that it should never tell tales But for that people as their faithfulness is very remarkable so is their diligence very exemplary likewise for they keep continually within the call of their Masters and will not at any time depart thence without special leave And the plenty of all Provisions being very great throughout the whole Monarchy they serve at very low rates which I never knew them to raise not requiring more than five shillings Sterling every new Moon paid the next day after its Change which is all the recompence they do desire or expect from their Masters to provide themselves with all necessaries quibus hinc Toga Calceus hinc est Et Panis fumusque Domi. Juven Sat. 1. Their coat their shooes their bread their fire And all besides bought with this hire and for this do as good service as if they had ten times as much wages They stand to be hired in the Bazar or Market-place an ancient custom as may appear Mat. 20.3 where some of them may be at all times had But it is their manner when they are hired to receive advance-money that is one moneths pay before hand and to have their pay thus in hand every moneth so long as they serve and so honest they are that if they be bidden to provide themselves of other Masters they will serve out the time for which they have received pay to an hour before they depart Now these who are so exact in performing their duty by their faithfulness and diligence must be exactly paid their Salary at the time they expect it otherwise they will be ready to quit their service as one of them whom we thus hired left us as we were travelling up to the Court the reason because our money was almost quite gone though we were supplied again a day or two after and we could not punctually pay him at his day as we had formerly done This fellow led one of our Camels and had been with us two moneths before but upon this little failing him would needs leave us but before he departed he made a speech to his Camel telling him that he had led him thus long and had during that time lived by him but now our money as he supposed quite failing he told him that he must be gone desiring God to bless him and that he might have some other to lead him that might not be less careful of him than he had been So he took leave of his Camel though not of us and departed All the rest of his company were perswaded to continue with us and had their pay a day or two after and so we proceeded on our journey and so shall I further in this Discourse And now I have spoken somthing of the people I shall speak SECTION IX Of their buildings in Villages Towns and Cities How their Houses are furnished Of their Sarra's or Houses for the entertainment of Passengers Of their Tents Wells and of their places of pleasure c. I Observed before the richness of their Soil and how those Provinces are watered by many goodly Rivers fed with abundance of Springs and how their Fields are clothed with very much plenty of Corn of divers kind sold there at such low rates that every one may there eat bread without scarceness Now I come to take notice of their Buildings and here I must tell my Reader that this People are not much taken or infected with that plague of Building as the Italians call it wishing the love of it as a Curse to possess the thoughts of them they most hate and therefore as the stones in India are not all precious so the Houses there are not at all Palaces the poor there cannot erect for their dwellings fair Piles and the Grandees do not cover their heads under such curious Roofs as many of the Europeans do The reason first because all the great men there live a great part of the year in which their Moneths are more temperate as from the middle of September to the middest of April in Tents Pavilions or moveable habitations which according to their fancies changing they remove from place to place changing their air as often as they please And secondly because all the great men there have their Pensions and whole subsistence from the King which they hold upon very sickle and uncertain terms for as they are setled upon and continued unto them by the King's favour so are they forfeited and lost by his frown Of which more afterward Yet though they make not much use of them they have in plenty excellent good materials for building as Timber Bricks stone and marble of divers kinds and colours of which I have seen some very good Vaults and Arches well wrought as in their Mosquits or Churches so in some of their high-erected Tombs of which more afterward and so in some other places likewise For their buildings in Cities and Towns there are some of them handsom others fair such as are inhabited by Merchants and none of them very despicable They build their houses low not above two stories and many of their tops flat and thick which keep off the violence of the heat and those flat tops supported with strong Timber and coated over with a plaster like that we call plaster of Paris keep them dry in the time of the Rains Those broad Tarrases or flat Roofs some of them lofty are places where many people may stand and so they often do early in the morning and in the evening late like Camelions to draw and drink in fresh air and they are made after this fashion for prospect as well as pleasure Those houses of two stories have many of them very large upper rooms which have many
which they are made put to other uses is well-nigh worth the Silver they are rated at Their Silver Coyn is made either round or square but so thick as that it never breaks nor 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 and 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 mention'd Rev. 9.7 8 10. verses Who had the Faces of Men and the Hair of Women and Crowns as of Gold on their Heads but they had too the Teeth of Lyons and the tayls of Scorpions and there were stings in those tayls 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 Countries are first many harmfull beasts of prey as Lyons Tygers 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 hideous noyse Those most ravenous Creatures will not suffer a Man to rest quietly in his Grave for if his Body be not buryed very deep they will dig him thence and bury as much of him again as they can consume in their hungry bellies In their Rivers are many Crocodiles and Latet anguis in herba on the Land not a few over-grown Snakes with other venemous and pernicious Creatures In our Houses there we often see Lizards 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 hurtful There are many Scorpions to be seen which are oftentimes felt which creep into their houses especially in that time of the Rains 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 sudden and a certain cure But if the man can get the Scorpion that stung him as sometimes they do the oylie substance it affords being beaten in pieces 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 anguish whereof nothing can asswage and cure so well as a serious consideration and a continual application of the thoughts of dying Facilè 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 daily daily in his preparations for death though he dye not presently The Scorpions are in shape like unto our Cra-fishes 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 let out of their bodies as other venemous creatures do but it alwayes appears in their tayls ready to strike it is very sharp and hard and not long but crooked like the talon of an Hawk The abundance of Flyes like those swarms in Egypt Exod. 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 being ready to fly into our Cupps and to cover our Meat as soon 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 kind of ordinary Flyes troubled us so in the night we were likewise very much disquieted with another sort called Musqueetoes like our Gnats but some-what 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 add unto the disquiets I before named there were such an abundance of large hungry Ratts that some of us were bitten in the night as we lay in our beds either on our Toes or Fingers or on the tips of our Ears or on the tops of our Noses or in any part of our Bodies besides which they could get into their Mouths The winds in those parts as I observed before which they call the Mont 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 extremly hot as that the wind when it blows but gently receives such heat from the parched ground that the reflection thereof is ready to blister a Man's 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 wind daily which some-what tempers that hot sulphureous Air there were no living in that Torrid Zone for us English who have been used to breathe in a temperate 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 stir very little in the heat of the day and have cloathing about us as thin as we can make it And no marvel for the coldest day in the whole year at noon unless it be in the time when those Rains fall is hotter there then the hottest day in England Yet I have there observed most strange and sudden changes of heat and cold within few hours as in November and December the most
temperate months of their year as before and then at mid-night 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 we would have been very glad of the warmth of a Rugg upon us and the noon of that following day would be so extream hot as that it was troublesom then to keep on the thinnest cloathing Sometimes there the wind blows very high in those hot and dry seasons not long before the Rain begins to fall raising up into the Air a very great height thick Clouds of Dust and Sand which appear like dark Clouds full of moisture but they deceive like the brook in Job Job 6.15 that hath no water in it These dry showers which Almighty God threatens to send among a people as an heavy judgement Deut. 28.24 When he will make the Rain of a Land powder and dust most grievously annoy all those amongst whom they fall enough to smite them all with a present blindness filling their Eyes Ears Nostrils and their Mouths are not free if they be not also well guarded searching every place as well within as without our Tents or Houses so that there is not a little key-hole of any Trunk or Cabinet if it be not covered but receives some of that dust into it the dust forced to find a lodging any where every where being so driven and forced as it is by the extream violence of the wind But there is no place nor Country under Heaven nor yet ever hath been without some discommodities The Garden of Eden had a Serpent in it Gen. 3. He that made all things by his Absolute Command hath so mixed and tempered and ordered all things here below by his infinite Wisdom that either too much Heat or too much Cold either the barrenness of the Soyl or the unwholsomness of the Air or some thing else ministers matter of exception more or less against every place that the Sons of Men might hence learn that there is no true and perfect content to be found in any Kingdom but in that of Heaven For while we are here trouble and peace mourning and joy comfort and discontent come all of them by courses and succescessions so that there is no weeding up of those Tares no removing of those Annoyances from the Life of Man And so having observed what is Truth and what is enough to be said of the Inconveniences and Annoyances as well as of the Commodities and Contentments which are to be found in those parts I come now to speak of the People that inhabit there And because many particulars will necessarily fall within the compass of this part of my Observations which would more weary my Reader if they should be presented unto him in one continued Discourse I shall therefore as I have begun break this into Sections and proceed to speak SECTION V. Of the Inhabitants of East-India who they are Of their most excellent Ingenuity expressed by their curious Manufactures their Markets at Home to buy and sell in and their Trade abroad THe Inhabitants in general of Indostan were all anciently Gentiles called in general Hindoes belonging to that very great number of those which are called Heathens which take up almost two thirds of the number of the People who inhabit the face of the whole Earth But of this more hereafter There are some Jews but they are not many here and there scattered and lost as it were in those other great numbers of People the greatest company of Jews now to be found together in any one place of the world as I have been made to believe from the observation of others are to be seen at Grand Cairo in Egypt whither they are returned and where setled to take their fill of their fore-Fathers Flesh-pots For the Inhabitants of East-India ever since they were subdued by Tamberlain they have been mixed with Mahumetans which though they be by farr in respect of their number less than those Pagans yet they bear all the sway and command all in those Countries There are besides these now become as it were Natives there a great number of Persians and Tartars who are Mahumetans by Religion that there inhabit very many of which the Mogol keeps for Souldiers to serve on Horse-back called there Haddees There are of both these many daring stout hardy and valiant Men. For the Persians there are many of them comely Persons not so swart as those of East-India But for the Tartars I have there seen and I have seen many of them they are more to be commended for their Valour than Beauty a square stout strong People having platter Faces and flat Noses There are many Armenians and some Abissins amongst them who wear the Livery of Christ in being called Christians the greatest part of whose Christianity lies in their Name Those Armenians there make some wine to sell of Raisons Sugar and other ingredients that is strong and heady and luscious tasted too much by many Christians that come thither as by those too that make it Of the green Grapes there though they have abundance and they great and sweet and good yet they make no Wine at all The Mahumetans in obedience to a Precept of Mahumets which forbids Wine neither make nor drink it and others are not suffered there to make it of those green Grapes for fear as I suppose they should make and drink too much of it To those I have named of other Nations that are to be seen in East-India there are besides some few almost of every people in Asia and many Europeans of divers parts that use to stir from their own fires to be found amongst them and among that great variety of People and Nations there to be observed I have taken special notice of divers Chinesaas and Japanesaas there and those I have seen of them for the generality are a people of no large stature with little eyes and noses somthing flatted de tribus Capillis with a few black hairs that stand scattered on their upper lips which make them as handsome beards as are to be seen on our Hares or Cats There are some Jews here as before I observed whose stubbornness and Rebellion long ago caused Almighty God to threaten them that they should be after sifted and scattered among all the Nations of the World Those ancient Satyrists Persius and Juvenal after that most horrid act committed by them in Crucifying our Blessed Saviour though not in respect unto that most cruel action for they were Heathens yet they call them Verpos that is circumcised Worms vermin Tacitus after gives them a most unsavory Epithete calling them foetentes Judaeos stinking Jews Marcus the Emperour observing them well concluded that they were a generation of men worse than savages or Canibals to be even the worst of men as if they were the very reffuse and dregs of mankind How usual is that Proverb that when men are suspected to do