observed it to do in other countries under the same line In fine so fertile are these countries that like those water'd by the river Nile they yield two harvests annually and each harvest of sufficiency to furnish the people with provision for five years Whence it comes that storing up their corn in Cavernes under ground which the Moores call Mattamorres calked against moysture with a cement made of Sea-shels where being first dryed in the Sun they keep it what time they please they never think of sowing more while they have any thing to live on so as the land being thus laid up at rest becomes more fertile Their sheep breed twice a year and often two or three lambs at a time The Cape of Palmes is in the territory of Isma towards Guinnee with the Castle of Mina which the Portugues built upon this coast drawing towards the Cape de bona Esperanza the kingdom of Manicongo extends it self from the River Val de Biraco or da Borca as far as the River of S. Paul This River da Borca otherwise called Rio de Los Reyes is a quarter of a dayes journey from that of Agina or Asicera True it is there are Maps which place it near to Biafar though it be distant thence more then five hundred leagues Biafar lying near to Amasan and Medra the cause of this errour is that they take it for the River called the Infanta of Portugal which on the East hath the River Angra which waters the Town of Masire or Maciera directly over against the Isle of S. Thomas and fronts the great kingdome of Damute through the middle whereof passes the River of Bancara Vibris and Vamta with a branch of Noir all which conjoyne in Zaire Zaire overflowes like Nilus and runs through many countries some Mahometan some Pagan who adore the Sun and about the break of day compose themselves on some eminent place to make their Salema that is their prayer at his Rising casting themselves covered with a large cloth a hundred times to the ground and kissing it most devoutly Some say that these two great kingdomes Damute and Monicongo bound upon Goyame or Guiame which by reason of their great distance is most incredible It is rather on one side for on the South and West side Monicongo is divided by the River Bancara which lyes three degrees on the other side the line and two from Cape de Lopo or Loubo at his disgorging near the river Gouan or Gabam not far from the Cape Gonzal and the Cape St Catherine directly opposite to Cape Primaco something near the Torrent of Fremo which the Natives call Gouira The last Cape of Damute is Almada or Almadias into the Gulph whereof one branch of Zaire and the River of Saint Helen issuing forth at the same place do cast themselves having on the North Abidara which joynes it self to the Cataracts On the West the land of Jair and Gubara on the East Cogira where begins the Cape de Corrientes twenty four degrees from the South Next we come to the great Empire of the Abissins containing more then thirty five kingdomes insomuch as some would have it equall with all Europe The people for the greatest part are grosse and bruitish clothed with beasts skins though the country abound with gold which the Rivers wash in with their streams The women carry their Infants at their back in Goat skins and never go into the field without their staffe and victualls and cast their hanging breasts over their shoulders for their children to suck For the generality they are a very wretched people subjects to the great Neguz who Commissions certain Deputies for administration of Justice amongst them But these Deputies finding them so voyd of reason retire themselves to Townes twenty or thirty leagues distant and the others will not afford the paines to go so far so as when any difference happens they entreat the next Passenger to decide it and in case he refuses they way-lay him with bow and arrows and by force oblige him to give sentence which be it good or bad is observed most religiously for recompense presenting him with some beast to carry his baggadge most commonly with a Dent which is much like to a little Mule only it hath a hogs taile and little horns which grow only skin deep which it moves as the eares and is much more swift travelling on the sands his hoof will burn and cleave so as 't is impossible to get him wag a foot then their only way is to make meat of him his flesh being exceeding delicate though without salt not long to be kept from corrupting to worms The greatnesse of this part of the world is particularly seen in that we find within it a hundred and fifty large kingdoms without reckoning many more of lesse quantity which people this vast Peninsula of above two thousand leagues in length and latitude It is water'd with many fair rivers some whereof have their overflowes like the River Nile and as beneficiall others role before them sands of gold besides Lakes Marshes and impenetrable Forests rich gold mines numerous heards of cattle double harvests the horrible monsters the diversity of people some civilized others so bruitish they know neither religion nor articulate language some christians of various Sects others Mahometans and a great part Gentiles and Idolaters under the dominion of several Princes of which the chiefest are the Grand Seigniour who possesses Egypt wholly with great part of the Coast of Barbary The great King of the Abissins who holds almost all the intestine Africa with both the strands of Nile The great Monomotapa Lord of almost all the Southerne Verges even to the Cape de bona Esperanza The potent King of Fez and Marocco and a multitude of other Kings and particular Princes as those of Tombut Ganga Borno who possesse many kingdomes Of this so spacious and populous Africa the Ancients had discovered but some few countries under the name of Egypt Cirenaica Numidia Libia Mauritania Ethiopia Nigrites Garamantes Atlantes and very few more The Arabians at this day make a quadrupart division of it notwithstanding that it is not intirely known by reason of the dismal deserts which shut up passages and deprive us of discovery The first begins at the Cape of Babouchi or Guardafuni where they insert many countries out of Africa taken in by a Prince named Tramurat who subdued Arabia Felix and went in Arms as far as Carmanio to which they call Erac and amongst these are the kingdomes of Macran and Guadel which are contained herein The second called Biledugerid heretofore Numidia terminates Egypt at the Town Eleocat The third is a vast and horrid wildernesse which stretches it self to the bounds of Lible by them called Saria or the Desert because it takes beginning at Nile and ends at the Desert of Saria The fourth begins at the kingdome of Gonaga and ends at the kingdome of Galata Some
of Sodome of the Hills of Sina and Oreb and the three Arabia's AFter some few dayes stay we left Damas and passed through Benin from thence we came to Macharaib or Macherib and Masarib three dayes journey from Damas 't is a small town of Palestina not very pleasant formerly called Misor one of the Levies Cities sometime belonging to King Balsan near the torrent of Arnon in the tribe of Reuben At our arrivall there having discharged our Chioas or guide which cost us six Duckets a man my companion Cassis took a little boy for his guide and brought me first to a fair house in the Turkish quarter and inhabited by a Turk instead of going to the place inhabited by Christians which I not a little wondred at because the difference in Religion breeds a discrepance between them and us as I was entring the house a Turkish Dame well fashioned with a child in her armes briskly asked me in the Syriack tongue Achibi Nazarini che senti achelect Christian what do you here I streight made answer Mnaar Jenesay ana cardas amisi antina that my Camarade was within to speak with some body but she with indignation thrust me out of the Porch young as I was I had the wit to present her with a pair of corall pendants which she liked well and said in her language Thou art a good lad but the other is a knave that gave me nothing and as I was retiring my self she courteously invited me in where I saw my companion take some small things out of his bagge which he presented to several women who had every one of them a sucking child at their brest they wore rings in their ears of twice hand compasse richly set with Diamonds and Pearls every one of them made choice of some Venetian curiosity which though of small value they set great esteem upon as we were thus entertaining these Ladies in came a grave Moore Counpayniors brother who upon notice that two strangers were entered his house came presently home fir'd with jealousie a passion most of them are infected with as was easily seen in the rage and distraction of his countenance but after he perceived his brother he ran to his embraces with many caresses took me by the hand in French said we were most welcome and told us he was the Renegado Murat called Silvester compelled thereto by force but resolved to leave Turkisme and become a Christian again as we were after many complements invited us to eat then a cloth of leather delicately dressed being spread upon the ground they brought in boyled mutton rice and their melted butter called Manteque we made a good dinner drinking Ragui their common drink composed of water figges and Dates and is a sort of strong water for wine they have not any At dinner I seriously observed the Renegado Murat a man of graceful personage well proportioned and taller by the head then my fellow-traveller and nothing like him and I observed women with what content they listened to our manner of discourse At dinner the two brothers discoursed of their affaires and design in Arabick conceiving I understood them not but during my eight moneths residence at the Grand Caire I had learnt enough to understand their discourse and heard my fellow relate this shipwrack and the manner thereof and that he came to crave his assistance to recover his losses the Renegado told him that in few dayes he should take a journey for Meka and that he could procure him so many Cherafs or Duckets by the month and at his returne from that voyage he would give him a summe of money if he returned not himselfe home with him to this my camarade made answar he had undertaken to conduct me to Jerusalem and that it would be a shame to him to leave me so young the Renegado replyed that I should go along with them and that he would furnish me with a Camell for the journey and that coming back we should see Jerusalem All this I understood and though not pleased to see my intention crossed yet I durst not take the least notice for feare they should put some trick upon me considering they might leave me behind or sell me or exchange me for some peeces of wine which in those Countreys is both rare and deare sold onely by the Apothecaries for the sick or by Christian Merchants Thus I heard them advise how to be rid of me but at last pittying my tender age they resolved to know my will and then my Camarade freely spoke his brothers intention and that in that journey we should see the great Desart the Mount Sinai and Oreb the Townes of Medina La Meyur and many other remarkable places and that returning we should see Jerusalem I shewed my selfe most willing to what they should resolve finding no other way to save my selfe and upon my fellowes promise coming back to shew me the place I so much desired Thus resolved they provided six fat sheep prize two ducats together with other meat which they boyled in a great chaldron till the flesh came from the bones then put flesh only with a good proportion of salt butter in the same Chaldron and fryed it well and potted it up for our journey This we loaded upon two Cammells with store of onyons bisket three large bottells of strong water with others full of fresh water and other necessaries and my camarade and self had a camell betwixt us Having staid eight dayes at Macherib we set forth with the Caravane composed of great numbers of Merchants and of above twenty thousand camells loaden with all sorts of wares and commodities reaching two leagues in length The Captain of the Town accompanied us with five hundered horse unto the desert but further he could not go by reason of the heat of the sands that burne their horses hoofes and founder them and besides in the desert there is extreme scarcity of water which we carried along with us in leather vessells to make use of in the desert of Arabia where very scarcely any fresh is found We crost a part of the Holy Land leaving Jerusalem on the right hand with a very sensible regret to be within a dayes journey of that place and not to see the City The nights we rested in our Tents which we pitched with ease fastning wooden poles thorough the middle with ropes which by the helpe of pegs struck into the ground susteined the rest drawing towards the south into some vales in search of fresh water we perceived upon an eminent peece of land the ruines of some Towns and a little lower a Lake called Sodom and Gomorra or the Dead Sea anciently called the Lake Asphaltite which to this day doth witness the just judgement of God we tasted some of this water which although very brackish yet refresht us for the present From thence after seven or eight houres rest we took our way thorough the
living under Tents to the number of ten thousand or more Amongst these there was one covered with white cloth conspicuous above the rest with twelve gates of marvellous largenesse belonging to it We Inn'd in an Abyssins tent who obliged us with curtesies and while meat was making ready they brought us in an oxe horne honied wine whereof we drunk Not long after we perceived upon the way a troop diversly armed with twelve Vgandes or Trumpets before them then came a Prince mounted on a black and white Elephant which is a great rarity accompanied with four Noble-men who bore over him a Canopy of gray damask Being advanced near the Kings tent he dismounted and presently was attended with a numerous and honourable train Next with great submission he suffered his garments to be taken off they were of silk interwoven with gold and embroydered with pearles of exceeding greatnesse He was a potent Prince who having received injury from another King came to seek justice at his Majesties hands 'T was not for want of power to take revenge himself but he would shew this deference to the King who inflicts most severely on all transgressors Now this Prince called Aranuhi stript off his gorgious habilliments cast over him a Lions skin which in the Soveraigns presence all are obliged to weare with a large shirt of silk trailing on the ground Being come before the Palace the Trumpets began in a dolefull sound and the King having notice gave order he should enter for this Prince in times past had done famous military services then casting himself on the ground framed his complaint that the other King his enemy had violently carried away his wife with a daughter which he had heretofore refused him intending to marry her to another a greater Prince then he and had taken besides 40. Quintalls of gold Upon this complaint the Negus immediately dispatched a Calscena to summon the Prince offender whom he met upon the road hasting to Court to clear himself of the accusation Then instantly the Prince complaynant was called aside revested with a rich habit given him by the Negus with a hat of more then usuall largenesse according to the custome When the latter was arrived and disrobed as the former and mantled with a Lions skin he took a stone carried for him by a Gentleman to the Palace gate and having caused the Trumpets sound he could not be admitted but for above two houres waited in this posture taken for a bad omen amongst them till a slave brought orders he should repair to his lodgings and attend there till he were called for Some dayes passed in this manner before any commands came from the Negus then having laid down his apparell and put on the Lions skin he seated himself on the ground with a heavie stone upon his head as a criminall till the Alicassin or Steward of houshold came who caused him to reassume his apparell which put him in some hope of grace This Officer conducting him by the hand brought him before his Majesty in state under a rich Canopy with a Curtain of silk of the same colour as the Canopy screening his face then cryed aloud Most mighty Emperour I bring thee here this Prince thy servant and tributary according to thy command At that time the King was complementing a Princesse wife to the Tigraian King arrived lately at Court in a very plain habit of frized Cottons The Prince no sooner entered but he cast himself on the ground the complainant who was summoned being present of whom the Negus demanded what he had to object against this person the other answered that this Prince of Jauas had stolne away his daughter and a great quantity of fined gold To which the Negus commanded the Defendant to make answer and deliver the very truth who first putting his hand to the ground then laying it on his head with eyes lifted to heaven a sad pale countenance fell on his knees not presuming to turn an eye towards the Kings face who is alwayes screen'd and answered Most excelse and redoubted Sir most true it is I sent to request this Prince for his daughter Adila in mariage and being denied without further instance I desisted content to seek another of my own degree But not long after the Queen her mother accompanied with many of her Alliance brought her to me together with gold which she told me was of her own proper treasury and not her husbands and thereupon gave me both reason and license to marry her and that with her own free mind and consent without the least violence imposed upon her whom I love and honour more then the whole world besides The Negus having then taken the matter into consideration told Prince Aranuhi he found not the other so guilty as was pretended that his sentence was he for his part should repay the gold doubled that the Princesses his wife and daughter should be bor'd through the lips and confin'd during pleasure to what place he should appoint The Prince of Jauas to this sentence durst make no reply further then to desire time for payment two moneths was allowed him and immediately Commissioners were dispatched to see the Arrest of the Court executed nor did either of the Princes quit the Court till the King bad them retire But in this conjuncture the Princesse of Tigremahon moved with compassion for the condemned young Lady casting her selfe at the Negus feet besought him that for a singular grace and favour to her he would vouchsafe the young Lady might continue with her husband and the Queen having applyed her prevalency to Aranubi for his consent by the mediation of these two Ladies all was ended in peace and the two Princes embraced as friends and Allies Mean while the Commissaries ignorant of what had passed had already done execution upon the mother and had likewise on the daughter but that she made a seasonable escape to the joy of the whole Court and the Negus causing them to come to Court would have the Nuptialls solemnized there with all sorts of rejoycing feasts and combats of savage beasts Then certain Lords of the Court with the Kings Sister were sent to the Sea-side to bring the Ladies who being arrived covered with a white linnen cloth and bare-footed cast themselves on the ground before the King and the Father At that time the King wore a Crown of silver for some mystery which I could not learn by any enquiry I could make and the treasure and jewels being brought were distributed by the Father to his two children and the King in token of his favour and indulgement released to Prince Aranubi all rights of Signeurie with letters Patents of free and absolute Principality Amongst the Combats at this solemnity one was of a white shaggie Ape put within an inclosed list with a Serpent that had six wings and was 14. foot in length The Ape was armed with a wooden helmet having a pike on the
which for devotion he sent to take baptization at Jerusalem and twenty years after my own natural brother married one of these daughters called Lucretia by whom he had many children at Marsels We travell'd all Africa to Alexandria in eight moneths Having stayed some dayes in Alxandria we departed for Tripoli in Suria without accomplishing my vow to go to Jerusalem for which I had gone so much ground and there we went aboard the Christina of Marsels and were five monthes intire before we could arrive there for that having touched upon Malta we stayed some time to see the sports of their Carnavalle which stayed us awhile By the way it happened that the Saylers having rifled a little vessell of Greek wine drunk so freely that one of them amongst the rest climbing the Mast to do his office knowing his own condition tyed himself for fear of falling and lay down in the scuttle where he slept two dayes before he waked In the mean time the others calling for him to come to dinner and not hearing any answer they apprehended they had heard something fall into the sea the night before which made a great noyse and that 't was the poor Marriner who was drowned in his drink whereupon the Steward of the ship rung the bell thrice then as the custom is threw a fire-brand into the sea and said aloud Gentlemen Mariners pray to God for the soul of poor Veran that was his name because through Gods mercy he rests with the soules of the faithful Then every one kneeling down prayed for him then presently what goods he had were inventoried and prized But the day following the Master of the ship whose name was Pier de Soulier for discovery of the land like a careful Marriner climbed the Maste himself but he was amazed when he found there the supposed dead man fast tyed and yet in a profound sleep but upon the Masters call he awaked suddenly which made the company very merry That night we lay upon a dangerous sea and feared we were upon the Asquequi or Seques which towards the land is a bad bottome that which made us judge of it was certaine Mosse swimming upon the water which hangs to the rocks which made us very apprehensive In the evening a huge Whale followed us as the Pilot told us who had discovered him and at last minding to leave us as he turned brushed so rudely upon the ship that it shook all over as it had dashed against a rock At the instant every man affrighted cryed out for mercy supposing we were lost for we were in the middle of a vast sea where there was no possibility of safety The Master presently ran to the Hold to see if the ship were founder'd on the other side the Pilot from the Poupe discovered the monstrous fish had left us and was gone with a hideous noyse so as we were safe and by Gods goodnesse freed of a desperate fear After some dayes sayling on we came to touch at Malta and being Shrovetide we resolved to stay awhile to see the celebration of this feast and there we put off some pieces of fine cloth which they call Calicut but the mischief was that the Courtizans of which they have there very subtle ones had good share of them cheating us of some crowns under colour of treating us at our own cost Of this Island I will say no more then that at this day 't is the Residence of the Knights Hospitallers of S. John of Jerusalem instituted in the year 1134. in the time of Baldouin of Bourgos the third French King of Jerusalem for the security of them who went to the Holy-land and in the year 1309. their great Master Villaret took by force of Armes the Isle of Rhodes from the Sarasins who usurpt it from the Greek Empire and there establisht the Residence of his Order and maintained it stoutly against the many attempts of the Soldans of Egypt but in the year 1522. Turk Soliman carried it from the great Master Philip Villers and by the license of Pope Leo the tenth this great Master with his order retired to Viterbo till better times and divers places being propounded for their Residence as Sasda in Candia Serigo Elba and others in conclusion they resolved to petition Charles the fifth for Malta to whom it belonged as dependant on the kingdome of Sicily against the French English and Italians who would have had no such obligation to the Emperour but at length they consented because it had good Havens and was near to Barbary so they got Malta and Goza in the year 1529. without other tribute or condition then a solemne Masse annually and a Falcon every yeare to the Viceroy of Naples but withall that they should have free transport of corne from Sicily This in effect was more advantage to the King of Spain then the other Nations of Christendome the Isle of Malta being a guard to all the Spanish and Italian Coasts under his dominion The Order at first was divided by seven Languages three of France which were France Avernia and Provence then of Italy Germany England and Spain Afterwards an eighth was added Spain being divided into Castile and Portugall and England being left out they took in Aragon Of these eight Languages every one had two Electours for election of the Grand Master These Grand Masters have for the greater part been French and the greatest part of the Order consists of our French Nobility but I shall speak no more of it being a matter so generally known Having left Malta we set sayle for Marsells where we landed within few dayes setting a period to that long voyage which had cost us so much time paines and danger God be glorified who guided us to so safe a Port at the time of the great Commet whose extent was thirty degrees the taile pointing to the West embracing Sagittarius and Capricorne and appeared not in the Sublunary Region but the Celestial so as 't was seen throughout the Indies both East and West But I cannot omit to relate how when I came to my Fathers house who was then sixty five yeares of age he knew me not but thought me dead and had made my funeral six years before so as seeing me in the Greek habit he took me for some stranger and asking me who I was I answered him in language barbarous enough I was a Grecian and 't was but truth I had almost forgot my native language being very young when I left my countrey and for that I had discontinued it so long time Some vulgar Greek I understood which I learnt at Canea in Candia where I staid six or seven moneths after our first shipwâ—ack Then my Father who spoke good Greek having traffick'd a long time in that country asked me what was my businesse and telling him I came to dine with him he told me I was welcome and bad me draw near the fire as I did Then he demanded who and of
stories of the beast and actions worthier a rational then an irrational creature I was told most strange things of the animal That Agarida had five sonnes by him all gallant men without the least shape or resemblance of the beast That they left the woods at ten years of age and built themselves a Cabbin or house to dwell in But one of Agarida's Brothers hunting in the woods kild Sagistan with a dart She enraged with disdain sent her sons to her fathers Palace to revenge him and accordingly they kild their two Uncles Ismahan their Grand-father endeavoring to have them seized on and ignorant who they were was slain also with two of the five brothers The other three escaping made themselves so Formidable that none durst meddle with them and hearing of the King of Bisnagar's wars they offered him their service bearing for arms the figure of Sagistan their father The King informed of their strange birth and adventures gave them great commands in his Army their behaviour shewed their desert for they exploited so high and unconceivable actions that one of them married the Sultane of Bisnegar the other the Sultanes daughter from whence sprung that illustrious family of the Sagistans that hath given the name to that town whereof those two brothers were the first founders This was related me of this history or fable rather held for a verity in those parts to this day all Peoples States Townes and illustrious families have their springs and beginnings fabulous and Romantick I have heard a story affirmed of a Spanish Captains wife caught in adultery with another by her husband for punishment he was satisfied to expose them both into a desert Island the man presently dying the woman was accosted by a great Monkey or Drill by which she had two children and at the three years end a ship sayling by discovered this miserable creature liker a phantasme then a human creature she naked with teares in her eyes begged to be released from this horrid and cruell captivity which they did and reembarking the Monkey perceiving full of rage in her sight tore his whelps in pieces and threw them at her she was carried to Lisbon where the Inquisitors informed of her case caused her to be apprehended and had been proceeded against had not Cardinal Cayetan the then Popes Nuntio taken her cause in hand and setting forth the violent necessity she was forced to to yield to that beast that had found her sustenance for three whole yeares saved her from the execution and she ended her dayes in all holinesse and sanctity of life and repentance There are many ancient and modern histories to this purpose all which I refer to Naturalists and Divines CHAP. XXII Of the kingdome of Bengala and Ternassery of musk some rare remarks of the River Ganges of the Torrid Zone and the conversion of a young Prince Idolater to Christianisme FOllowing the coast of Coromandel and the gulph Bengale you come to Ternassery which is held to be between the Cosamba of Ptolome a kingdom lying between Bengal Narsingue Orixa and the sea the Capital town bearing the same name is scituate upon the side of the sea and a fair River called Zayta making a little Island where stands another town of the same name She hath plenty of all things necessary to life Their cowes are low and their horns grow only skin deep The sheep have neither horns nor wool their skin as smooth as a calves there grows great store of long Pepper called Casay they preserve of it and eat it all the year long with sugar vinegar which gives it a pleasant taste in the middle of the Isle is a Lake that breeds good fish better then any the River affords it is called Ademas It affords you Trouts the most savory fish of the East Pykes and Shads taken in March only are Sea-fish They never eat the head because there is a worm found in it which makes that fish chuse the rapid waters and swim aloft by the streams affording him much refreshment The Town of Ternassery is large and pleasant well built not walled on the River side but strengthned by some Forts well fortified and provided she is scituate in a plain with a Castle on the North with an inclosure or Parke fenced with a great ditch where the Queen keepes a breed of stately Mares given her by her Father who recovered them of an Indian Prince that owed him money which he could no otherwise recover for in that Country horses beare a great value The King of Ternassery is provided with good Cavalry which renders him potent and formidable he is of Person strong and Robuste and wars continually with the King of Narsingue and Bengale The Narsinguer would indamage him much did he joyne with the other but he is so generous he scornes it This King is a Gentill and hath above a thousand Elephants trained up to Warr and of the largest size of the East covered to the very ground with beefes hides and severally trapped those hides are fastned underneath the belly with iron chaines and are hardly got off four men may fight on their backs at a time without the least incumbrance to one another bearing broad bucklers made of Tortoyse shells taken in that River he that rides the trunk to guide the beast is the best Armed of the five because he lies open to the enemy their darts have three very sharp points or heads with a ball of iron upon the middle which serves for counterpoise 'T is a warr-like Nation yet curteous civill and voluptuous they have fair women which they Court and Treat in gardens full of rare fruits They have Cattell Poultry and fowle of all sorts they delight much in perfumes in their meates and dresses and chiefly in Musk called Sagay The best Musk is not drawne from the codd nor blood of the beast but from a certain swelling or rising upon the lower part of his belly at the full of the Moone and that is the sweetest of all for there gather the humors mixt with the blood and Impostume-like rise and break which dryed cast so lively and searching sent that it drawes blood from the very nose The codds and skin with some of the flesh are tyed fast together from which they draw their ordinary Musk mingling therewith a little of the better sort I quartered at a Jewes who confest to me he had drawne thirteen or foureteen codds or bunches from one beast They are of the bignesse of a Goate and have foure teeth bigger then the rest two ascending streight upward and the other two oppositely descending Their childrenweare of those teeth about their necks set in silver gold as in some places of France they wear wolve's Persons of Quality set them in a wood called Betell that hath a strange vertue against poyson called by the Aethiopians Euate whereof they make dishes and trenchers of severall sorts much esteemed and
pepper and ginger bruised together They compound an admirable drink with Areca mingled with the confection of the leaves of Bettel they preserve Tamur which is a sort of palm called Tamarindi myrabolans or plums the roots of a certain Bul-rush Clove Gillyflower tops or buds another root called Cucuma and many others They are of complexion more fair than black their cloathings are stuffs of cotton silk damask satin and velvet Their breeches cassocks or coats are almost of the Italian mode especially when they visit Ladies as at Ormus Their chiefest drink is milk with Sugar and Cinamon they make it of three sorts Sugar and Cinamon are still added and sometimes pepper Durions Mancoustan and Bananes The Banane tree is fifteen handfull high the trunk juycy and covered with a bark and leaves growing like the scales of fish two foot large and five foot long of a light green her root growing in the ground casts out sprouts that in time grow up to trees when this tree is come to full growth she puts forth from the middle of her stock a flower of a reddish colour about the bignesse and shape of an artichoke whence springs a bough hung with fruit to the number of a hundred each a handfull in length and four fingers large and bears but once a year which is held a wonder From incisions made into the tree there flowes good store of juyce or water very pleasant and gustfull in some places of the Indies they are called Masa in others Pican and say 't is the tree that bears the fruit of life In that Country Partridges are all white and bigger than ours there is plenty of all other fowle We went from Bengale in the company of many Merchants to trade at Castigan where were arrived some Portuguese ships and in those meetings much is got by the trade of gold and silver and in the exchange of our own commodities Castigan or Catigan belongs to the kingdom of Bengale which reaches over 400. leagues of land and the Lordship of Aracan a Kingdom between Bengale and Pegu stronger by Sea than land and wages often war with Pegu and some years since they say hath swallowed up Pegu but ruined by neighbours and therefore the King is called King of Aracan Tiparat Chacomas Bengale and Pegu. This King hath entertained the Fathers of the society at Chandecan his Royal Town and his whole state is strangely altered on a suddain as all the East is subject to innovations and changes the strongest still overcomming the weaker Catigan is a good Haven Town in the Mogor or Mogull's Country a great Kingdom and rich in all sorts of cattle in fish rice white and black spices especially pepper myrabolans and ginger which they candy and preserve and is better than any grows at Cananor the Prince of this Town called Banastarin his Son Achamu was converted by the Fathers of the society and obtained leave of the King his father to have a Church built for them he married the Princesse Cassubi a Christian Lady newly baptized he followed herein the advice of those holy Fathers for otherwise he intended to have ended his dayes in Celibat They relate many miracles of him amongst others that the first night they were bedded offering both their prayers to God upon their knees they were suddenly enlightned by a glorious light and smelt many sweet perfumes whereupon they mutually resolved to abstain from enjoyment and dedicate the remainder of their lives to chastity and sanctity He left his kingdom to his Brother Agazima desiring justice might be preserved in his Kingdom and that he would follow the advice of Father Philip of the society Agazima promis'd a performance but those Princes are all so jealous of our religion holding that the Christians adore one God great above the rest that wil not suffer any others disdaining to communicate himself to any and that he sets a greater esteem and value upon innocent poor and simple people then upon the rich Kings and Princes and that Princes had need to preserve to themselves the affections and obedience of their subjects to reign with more ease these were the seeming reasons Agazima offered his Brother and 't is those poor abused creatures ordinary discourse and opinion and the difficulty they find in our religion ignorant of the true and pure grounds thereof that teach subjects their obedience and subjection to their temporall Kings and Princes above all others Of Cassubi or Chasubi subject to Aracan I will hereafter speak In the kingdom of Bengale is the Town of Sartagan or Sartogan scituate upon a River that runs and loses her self in Ganges where the Portuguese have a fort There are great plenty of rice fine linnen cloaths sugar myrabolans and many other drugs The people are Gentils and in their Temples adore many Idols strangely and horridly shap'd others adore the first they meet my Camarade and I being lodg'd at a Brokers house who was happy in a sweet disposition'd a modest wife as we accompanied her one day from the market some of those Idolaters prostrated themselves at our feet and begun to make their prayers to us and were extreamly incensed when they saw we only endeavored to disabuse them and to laugh them out of their fopperies and idolatries they answered they were thus instructed by their parents and therefore thought it just and equitable They told me they were not of the Guzerates religion but were absolutely opposite to Mahometanism They esteem it a happiness to be near the Ganges believing that water purifies them from all filth and sin and therefore are carried thither both in health and sickness some leave orders that after their deaths their bodies may be burnt and their ashes cast therein that so they may go strait to heaven others hold the same of Euphrates and for this reason the Portuguese and other Christians abominate these rivers and never make anyuse of the water but of force and necessity which is a little superstitious on the other side the water of Ganges being the sweetest the wholsomest in the world and many drinking of it have been cured of great paines of the stomach which hardly afforded them any rest before 't is soveraign against many other pains aches and diseases The Indian Priests sing in their Temples from break of day to noon and after dinner they have other prayers which last till night when they hear this service they wash their hands feet and faces then walk barefoot upon stone laid on purpose to the Temple which is matted and there they stand upright without the least motion and after awhile they sit crosse-legged like Taylors There are two Altars one for the rising the other for the setting Sun and so they turn their faces ever to the Sunne They bury their dead in their Churches as we do and maintain women to lament and weep over the dead according to the ancient Roman fashion These
by their enchantments reduce them to such miserable conditions and make many a dainty bit of them being possest of that notorious imposture of the immortality of the soul and that she transmigrates from one body into another and often into strangers and therefore they make very much of them and when one of them dies they either bury him privately or cast him into the sea that he may not be devoured These Canniballs say we are very ignorant to suffer mans flesh that is so sweet and delicious to rot under ground The King keepes his Court in Gazima guarded by women which he trusts rather then such unnaturall and sanguinary men he maintains three or foure score of the handsomest he can pick out armed with Bowes and Arrowes and Cimiteres They are expert Archers he traines them up and sends them to other Maritime Towns as Japatra and others Though these Islanders have many gold and silver mines yet they dare not digg them for going almost naked the stones fall so sharp and keen upon them they are not able to endure it neither do they value that treasure at all being very well stored with flesh fish herbs and fruits all in great abundance but as I have said they are very likorous of mans flesh and of their neerest kin pretending they do it thorough charity as they may not be consumed by the wormes I was informed by a Merchant of an accident happened to two Fathers of the order of S. Francis pushed on with a fervent zeale to endeavour the conversion of that Countrey by the help of the language they had learnt but they got nothing in requital but scorns and jeers of those Barbarians who let them live believing their Idols would revenge them but some of them beginning to taste and disgest their rationall discourses it bred some differences amongst them of which the King being informed and fearing that their instructions might bring prejudice unto his State commanded the good Fathers to be thrown into the Sea those villains unwilling to lose their flesh drained their bloud dry and fed upon it then brought them to the publick place of execution dead and disfigured All those that had tasted of their blood dyed suddenly by the permission or vengeance of God which the King hearing of asked why they were not drowned according to his commands and their false Priests replyed it was not in their power to kill them but the King satisfied of the manner of their death all astonished went to his Temple to ask his Idols forgiveness some fourty Dutchmen having lost their ship upon a shelve saved themselves upon this coast but taken by these Islanders were cruelly murdered and eaten The Inhabitants of Japara a Sea Town adore the Sun and are all flat-nosed have great eyes and are thin bearded like the Chyneses They eat bread made of a root they call Igname or Gouera their complexions the womens especially are rather fair than black they wear nothing on their heads but their naturall hair platted like the Italian Curtizans and if any person offers to cover them with any thing they are in danger of being abused to death Their houses are low being but one story high for they will suffer nothing over their heads they are all Pyrates Thieves and Magicians they are skilfull in Astrology They obey and reverence an old Magician called Manguin as their lawfull Prince when any Pyrates land upon their coast to rob them of their cattle or other commodities the Wizard makes a round hole in the ground and causes some young virgin voted to be sacrificed in their feast of Fotoque to urine therein and at the same time there rises a storm so that the theeves have onely time to save themselves flying to their boats and if any are left behind they are devoured nor do they kill them out-right but prolong their dying pains they pinnacle them and deliver them up to the fury of the children who put them to tedious torments walking them about the Town and expose them to the scoffs and abuses of the multitude some will clap a pompion on their heads hung round with plumes of feathers and every woman and child runs out with their bodkins and aules to prick and torment them then having walked them warm as they do the Buls in Spain to make their flesh tender they cut them in pieces and divide their flesh if there be not enough for them all they play at ball for it and the gainers treat their friends therewith This is the sad fortune travailers are subject to who according to the Spanish proverb Buscan la vida y topan la muerte searching for life they find death 'T is very pretty sport to see them play at that sort of ball or tennis which they call Masiris without ever striking with their armes or hands but with their feet knees head elbows heels and other parts of the body with great dexterity Bantan is the chief Town of the Isle with a good and commodious haven where the Hollanders have a Magazine or Store-house and whither many other people for commerce do resort as Chyneses Guzerates Portuguais Persians Peguans Milacans Turks Arabians and others This Town is of the size of Roan peopled with divers nations the Chineses have a Temple wherein they adore a triple-crown'd Demon offer fruit and other things to him and they say because he is malicious he must be appeased and that the great and good God hath no need of such offerings or adorations They bring into this Town their silks jewels and other rarities here their King resides a Mahometan who governs his own subjects and strangers with great justice allowing all persons free liberty of traffick He is a great Politician well belov'd and honoured by his subjects and observes good orders in commerce wherein consists the glory of his greatness of late the English and Dutch have traded there with good success and very few years since some French have travelled thither and have been courteously received they have a great esteem of the King of France and have permitted Dominicans sent out of France to inhabit there and promise them favour and assistance The commodities that go off best there are iron and steel lead paper and sulphure At Fedeyda a Town in Java is got the best amber-greece of the East that which is found in Aniane an Isle adjacent is equal unto the former in goodnesse Not long since the greatest part of Java and the adjacent Countryes as Bali Madura and others obeyed a potent Prince or Emperour who kept his court in the great town of Demaa and sometimes at Japara he was a Mahometan the Portuguese relate how he had a mind to propagate his law and observing the King of Pasaruan an Idolater to slight it he resolved to invade him with a strong Army made up of his own subjects and the Portuguese of Malaca his greatest
Lances of for Horse-men as the Mores use and of the strongest they make Chests or boxes for they never break of others they make hoops barrels and halfe barrels to keep their drink or water in There are of them of an incredible size In this country as well as throughout the Indies they bear a great respect to the Image of the blessed Virgin and to the memory of Saint Thomas who hath wrought many miracles in the country He raised from death to life a brother of the King of Granganor who became christian thereupon and built a Church upon the side of a little hill near the Sea dedicated to that Saint and left great revenues thereunto which are continued to this day but are very ill deserved They say that the same King of Granganor and another brother named Abanachacon and that the King of Pegu desired S. Thomas to vouchsafe him a visit who promised to become a Christian upon condition he might enjoy all his women which as he alledged he could not live without by the frequent prayers and intercession of this Saint his concupiscence was wholly allayed and asswaged and in a vision this King thought himself dipped in a pond by three celestial vertues to cleanse him of all filth and sensuality from thence lifted up into heaven and made partaker of the heavenly glory and received knowledge of his salvation and was baptized by St. Thomas and by his good prayers obtained of God Almighty that his tomb built of transparent marble should be ever full of that water wherein he was purified that shortly after this King ended his dayes wounded in a battle he fought to assist a Brother of his against King Sangiscan The Bramins who at present have the possession of this Church where stands this Tomb say that his body is covered over with water to this very day which is seen through the transparency of the marble at the light of three bright-burning lamps and that this Tomb is four fathom height raised from the ground This they relate of it And I remember I have seen at Arles in Rolands Chappel in the Church of St. Honoretus an ancient Marble monument replete with water which increases and diminishes according to the motions of the Moon and let the air be never so hot or dry yet at full Moon the Tomb is full of water They relate as much of another in the Church of St. Severinus in the Suburbs of Bourdeaux a German Lord visiting this wonder assured me he had seen the like in Austria as at Verona in St. Zeno's Church the sepulture of Pepin King of Italy Son of Carolus Magnus is seen full of water many things are naturally known to rise and fall according to the course of the Moon as the ebbe and flow of the Sea stones plants and animals They hold that St. Thomas as I have already said was martyred at Granganor by a Huntsman making his offerings to Oysima their three-headed Idol who shot the Saint with an arrow aiming at some wild beast much more they relate of this glorious Saint which they hold by tradition although the ancient testimonies have left us little of his memory The Ecclesiastical History saith that his body was translated from Meliapur or Calamina to Edesse from thence to Ortuna in Pouilla The Christians that are in the Indies who stile themselves of St. Thomas and say they are instructed from Father to Son by that Saint are Nestorians and infected with many more heresies for to this day they are instructed by the Syrian hereticks Those Indian Kings rely much upon Magicians and Conjurers the King of Pegu maintains one in his Court to foretell what he desires to know he was called Bongi or Bonze as their sacrificators are called a bruitish man addicted to all sorts of vices and abominations yet he is the Kings minion He carries ever in his hand a very keen hanger like a Turkish Cymeter onely more bow'd dressed in two Monkeys skins which he wears the one before the other behind hung all over with bells to the weight of fifty pounds which make a hideous noyse upon a time the King taking the air in a chariot spied one of his choicest Ladies at a window he sent for her to take the air upon the lake in a barge or Gondola covered and richly adorned they were no sooner both in but a sudden and dangerous storm arose from the west that overcast and clouded the skies The King presently called to his Bongi to clear the air the Conjurer immediately made a hole in the ground wherein he urined and using strange Conjurations many Devils came forth of the earth making a most horrid and fearfull din and howling scattered the clouds and tempest the King made with all speed to his Palace putting no great confidence in his Duma for fear of being overturned The Enchanter full of mirth and vanity threatned with his Cymiter the tempestuous winds jumping and leaping incessantly he made a confused noyse with his bels and mad-man like ran to the Kings Palace-gate where he skipped and leaped until he frightned and scared away all the birds and tame beasts that were kept in the Park 'T was the same Magician who as I have already said treating of the Maldives undertook to bring birds and beasts out of the inchanted Isle of Pallouis and was soundly beaten for his rash undertaking and brought back onely with life enough to witnesse his shame The great Cham of Tartary entertaines of those Magicians and puts great confidence in them but more of them hereafter As throughout Arabia they obey the Seque or Sequemir in spirituals so do they in the Kingdom of Pegu their Abedale of a Sect called Abedali and there are of them at Malabar They are Santons or Hermites otherwise called Jogues and by the Mahometans Marabouts A people that observe a religious poverty holding property in nothing of austere life and as the Guzarates never feed on any animated creature Though ready to perish with hunger they ask nothing but the people furnish them abundantly with all necessaries If any one have rob'd murther'd or committed other crime he presently repairs to his Charif who supplies the place of principal Abedale confesses entirely what he hath done and the other enjoyns a punishment and penance according to discretion Though he perpetrated all the iniquities on earth if his Superiour give him absolution no man can further question him or call him to account Sometimes they punish with death as it happened to one Vldarin a Native who in a savage quarrel having killed and privately buried his Brother under a tree confessed it to his Charif who caused him to take up the dead body and seeing it so cruelly dealt with condemned him living to be buried together with the dead Another time he caused another to be cast into a pond for that he had denied their Duma These people have abundance of zealous
instruments So soon as any one falls to the ground none but would think the devil enters into him they change the tune and dance with more violence and fury without missing the least point of the cadence But what is most strange of all they say at the same time they see the the devils dance with them and that they easily know them by the agility of their motion for otherwise they are attired like the Priests They observe visibly that they must needs be Demons because only a certain number of Priests mounting the Scaffold when any of them fall you still see the same number dancing without diminution By reason whereof the beholders suffer strange distempers and their hair standing an end I remember that being present on a time for curiosity on the suddain I felt my self seized with a swimming in my head that so inflamed me I was almost suffocated not able to speak a word nor draw my breath and striving to cry out and call for help to my company that was not far off I could not possibly bring forth a word so as being all in a lavour with agony and distresse that held me a quarter of an houre in my heart I made my prayers to Almighty God by whose grace I was deliver'd having never known the like torment in my life-time for I felt I know not what pass betwixt my legges then leapt upon my shoulders the phantasm continually grasping me fast I was so dejected as nothing could be more but my companions reassured me the best they could and as soon as I was gotten away I went to tell it to Father Hipolita of Saint Francis order who assured me 't was a diabolical illusion to have destroyed me had not God with his grace secured me He counselled me to be thankful to Almighty God and come no more where such abominations were the curiosity whereof had cost me so dear for I was a glad man to see it end in a mockery but thenceforward I had a care how I came within their Temples and congregations to see their accursed Idolatries But to end the feast when the ceremonies and dances have lasted four dayes the Nobility makes a feast in some Palace of account where the principal of the city men and women are invited and come most richly apparelled and covered with jewels and rubies sometimes as bigge as a nut blazing like burning coales then after a sacrifice these Nobles command the Musick play some pleasant ayre and one of them takes a dame whom he likes best forth to dance not touching her hand nevertheless but holding by a handcherchief of silk and all the rest do the like till the ball be ended They dance round and 't is prety to see this humble dance artificiall for the many changes are in it This ended the musick changes to a very solemn base as 't were for repose with certain stanzoes sung in praise of their deceased Ancestors celebrating their valours with a thousand encomiums for the most part false Then they sit round discoursing still of the valour of these deceased and the women more tender of heart fall a weeping and amidst their lamentations all cry out they shall never be like their Fathers who did such and such high feats after having invited each other joyntly to complaints at last being tired they take a collation together and so the ceremony ends By what is said 't is plainly seen how strangely superstitious these people are and how serious an honour they bear their gods or demons to which their Priests cease not dayly to excite them more and more and omit not the least diminutive Ceremony for their honour or profit These Priests bear a wonderfull authority over them which as I said before is more remarkable in their wars than in any other thing For these Eastern Princes in raising war differ much from us insomuch as having a considerable war to be commenc'd with their neighbour Princes or others the Priests take upon them authority to arbitrate the matter having such priviledge as freely to remonstrate to their Prince his duty to the people whereupon two Bramins or Priests for both sides without passion confer together of their Princes complaint to find a means to accommodate the matter when they cannot effect it they draw a hundred of the prime horse and as many foot out oâ— their Armies ranked in battalia consisting many times of three or four hundred thousand men rarely ever making war but with equality the stronger still giving law to the weaker And though one Bramin find his party stronger by a hundred thousand he yet makes a conscience to use his advantage as much as may be to prevent combat and if of necessity it must be he uses a thousand protestations to his Prince to hinder it but not effecting it they order the two small parties to joyn giving their benediction to them and exhorting every one to do his best the Victor giving conditions to the other who is compelled to yield and so their wars are concluded for the most part To them who in this action shall have done any thing signall the Prince gives a favour which they keep as sacred though many times 't is but a scarf or silly taffeta ribbon with a certain character or figure in the middle that denotes he hath behav'd himself well in fight for his Princes cause which they wear on festivals in hats or palm bonnets and some there are who have divers of them respective to the occasions they served in For the example I touched upon in the predictions at the marriages of great ones and the fortune of their children 't is thus In the land of Transiane there was a Prince tributary to the King of Pegu and his near Kinsman who married a sister of the Prince Tazatay one of the greatest beauties in the Eastern parts The nuptials were kept with great joy and solemnity amongst other things the Divines were consulted of the successe of the marriage and 't was found that never two persons had loved and should love so well as these two the Prince and Princesse Alfonge and Abelara this hariolation doubled the joy and celebrity and in effect they lived a sweet and a happy life with intire affection and for their greater felicity they had two twin-sons who in their under-growth discovered something of great and lofty and appeared singularly hopefull for the future These Infants having attained their ten yeares age loved so cordially they could not live asunder and the ones desire still met with the others consent in all things but the Devil that enemy of concord inspires a curiosity into the minds of the Father and Mother to know their fates and to their grief were told the time should come when these two brothers that now loved so fondly should cut one anothers throats which much astonished the poor Princes and filled them with fearfull apprehensions The two Princes
they are put to certain wild cowes that are expresly for this purpose kept in the race so as the little cowes the mares and the colts are all together then taking the calves from their dams they put the colts to suck them This course continued for some time makes them more strong and lasting then can be imagined and it is observable their hoofes are more durable then any others All their fault is they are not so sleet as the Persian which horses are most esteemed of all in the Indies and next to them those of Transiana This King hath so great a number of them they render him formidable throughout the Indies he is exceeding peaceful and beloved of his people In the Countrey though it be very fertile and well tilled there are notwithstanding vast and profound forrests stocked with wilde beasts who often intercept the passengers and devoure them as Ounces Lions Tigars beares Wolves and dangerous Boares of an incredible size The King hath huntsmen for the purpose well skill'd in the woodes with little dogs proper for finding out the beasts They have also tame Lions and Hart-Wolves brought up to hunt their own kinde and so animated against their own Species that there are not in the world more cruell enemies as man hath not a more mortall foe then man himselfe and amongst men Renegado Christians more cruell to true Christians then the other Infidels These Lions wolves and other beastes of chase are taught to it when they are young and trained in parkes to hunt others till they are at growth and then they take them abroad to the grand chase armed with caps and pointed collars which with the assistance of the hunters makes them more dangerous so as they make a great slaughter amongst the other beasts There are likewise abundance of harts large as heifers which lie in the fields and will not stir for a passinger When the King goes into the Country he is attended with a thousand horse at least and when he goes to the grand chase he takes along abundance of Pioneers to stop up the Avenues with walls of clay and turf to secure himselfe and his Court. There will be sometimes twelve or fifteen thousand hunters the greater part Lords Persons of Quality and the Kings domesticks who frequently engage themselves there being pleasure without danger Sometimes these beasts come in such heards they are forced to open for their passage and fall upon the last and notwithstanding the walls are strong and high being made of palms and earth mixt with brakes there are beasts so light and nimble they will leap over them and before the souldiers who lie concealed can take them they will do incredible things making such strange assaults and such havock with teeth and nailes but the whole Court with the female guard stands in order upon the curtain and parapet of the walls to attend them at the passage where there is a great slaughter But after this tragicall danger comes a comedy of the Marmosets Apes and Monkeys and others of that kind for the greater part unknown to us The young ones will be there so fastned to the necks of their dams you would think they grew there all together makes a very pleasant prize The hair of these Apes is soft as silk and their genitories violet colour or pale red There are huge Munkeyes white as snow that make a thousand ridiculous faces seeming to crave liberty and they of the guard that know their humour give them a signe to climbe upon a tree and save themselves where of she faile not but then the sport is to see the trees covered over with them with the confused chattering they make one at another For wild swine wild goats harts hindes fallow-Deer and Aloroc with beasts of Beasar there are abundance as also of porcupines the Country yeilding such plenty of grain and wild fruits for their sustenance The boares are very dangerous panching all they meet with their tushes Elephants they hunt but seldom being forfeit of life to kill one They go with such vehemency they break all before them and when by subtlety they are once enclosed they make most horrible cries and roarings for rage breaking all that is near them being tyred they lie along and thrusting their trunk down their throat they fetch up a loathsom water as hot as if it came out of a furnace When all the dangerous beasts are either killed or scaped the King for his pleasure kills the boares the goats and others with the Ront the most assured armes and makes the widest wound Then the hunters all choose their marke taking pleasure in darting their lances taking what serves for provision of the Palace leaving the rest for another time The skins of bears ounces lions leopards serve to Arme the foot and horse and to bard the horses Elephants and other beasts for use in hunting whereof they make them caps that cover so well the head and neck it is not easie for the savage beasts to endanger them there being steel piques that make them loose their hold nor is there great or small who hath not his horse capped with these skins Towns and Villages circumiacent to the hunting come with a thousand presents and rejoycings to the King esteeming themselves much honoured to have any share of the prize wherewith they make a publik feast as of a thing sacred and solemn For their falconry and hawkes the King hath eagles and ravens so well trained both for furr and feather that nothing more Fishing is there likewise much practised As we travailed through the Country we came one day to a mountain of extraordinary height they call the Culma or Columa grown over with all sorts of trees as Sendal Danum Ebony Palmes of all sorts and others All the ground we passed over was full of Rhubarbe with leaves large and very bitter and round the skirt of the mountain Tombes orderly ranged cut in the rock ingenuously carved Maritime windes are frequent there which the Indians call Sourou and other windes exceeding drying which they call the Mounsons and the Portuguese Abrazador which consume even iron These mountains have a reasemblance of the Cordilleras of Peru of a long extent Amongst the rest there is one mountain that rain never falls upon by reason the southern windes which continually blow there force back the cloudes so as the mountain is exceeding barren The mountain of Columa being fanned with the maritime windes on one side preserves and keepes incorruptible all the bodies brought thither The other side towards the North being defended by the heads of trees enjoyes rains in abundance but both the one and the other side are fertilized with large streams that nourish these trees of excellent odour When they will bury a body they wash it and taking out the heart and bowells they burn them with Aromatick woods sacrifising them to their Duma then put the ashes within the
with wooden clappers which yield a very sweet sound They have very little iron and very few fountains I remember not I saw above five or six throughout the countrey where I was Their pictures are very course Statues ill proportioned without any figures of relief There are Monasteries of all sorts more or lesse austere yea they have Religious that marry but no more then once In the Church they never sit down but stand upright leaning at certain times on a kind of Crosiar or Crutch They consecrate the Sacrament in a piece of bread according to the Greek rites and then in imitation of David before the Ark they use a motion in a manner of dancing in time of prayer then bow themselves very low When they go forth of the Church they hang those Crutches out of the Gate in a place covered for that purpose and every one knowes his own again Their Priests live very exemplarly and in great austerity In the Church they never demand any thing every man gives to whom he pleases They have some amongst them who never eat flesh nor drink wine living on nothing but fruits hemp-seed such as we feed birds with here and other seeds unknown to us and on certain roots Others there are of an order not so austere but every one upon pain of most rigorous correction observes the rule he hath made choyce of There are Icronimites who ever go barefoot and bare-headed sleep upon the boards wear hair-cloth never taste wine nor flesh and are as 't were continually in prayer Their Convents are in woods where with leave of superiours they walk at liberty without any communication but at confession Their office holds from Mid-night till an hour before day then it rings to prayer then they repose an hour and return to sing the office of the Church which done they say Masse with extraordinary devotion then take their Sandals and sit down to a very innocent meal They confesse not at all have commonly their eyes fixt on the ground and are much in solitude A man when his wife is departed loses the repute of honesty if he become not religious They rebaptize as often as they please and ever after confessions they go to a Priest in a corner of the Church to be baptized and you shall see those of the greatest age go to the Font like little infants Some have said that they baptize in fire but 't is nothing so for they use water onely as we do though their words are something discrepant They have long precept-fasts and keep lent very strictly dispensation being allowed neither to Soldier nor Infant therefore this is the time the enemy chooses to invade them supposing they shall finde them weak At Easter they communicate after the Greek rites and force the sucking infants to receive it giving them the Teat after it so that the Church is filled with the cries and bawling of children Obstinate Hereticks they condemn to the fire but this hath not often occurred but with Moores who dissembled Christians In summe the Ethiopians though Christians retain many ceremonies superstitions and heresies both of the Jewes and Grecians as Circumcision Purification the Sabbath abstinence from Swines flesh from Hare from blood from all things strangled and from certain fish With the Grecians they deny the Procession of the Holy Ghost the two-fold will of Christ repeat Baptisme condemn the Councel of Calcedon in favour of Eutiches and Dioscorus hold that the soul freed from the body enters not into heaven till the dissolution of the world and many other errours attributed to them denyed by some of them but of this the Modern relations of the Jesuites afford better information who live amongst them and bring in a plentiful harvest to the Church by the conversion of these people to the Catholick and Roman Faith Concerning the Prince he hath divers appellations as Senap and Negus which signify Emperour and King Belulgian or Beldigian that is excellent or precious Lord and with the vulgar the Presteian whether the name came from an ancient Persian word which signifies Apostolical or whether in imitation of a King who sometime raigned in Tartary called the Presteian of India a Nestorian Christian who was vanquished and cast out by the Tartars and had this name from having a Crosse borne before him when he appeared in publick Afterwards the Portuguese by the same name called the King of the Abissins either for a parity or because they apprehended him the Presteian of Asia and India so high in history for these three or four last Ages But of all I have said and of all other particulars of the Empire of the Abissins their Manners Religion Speech and Power I referre my selfe to the more ample discourses of such as have written expressely whose residence and observation was of higher growth then mine content onely to have touched upon that little I observed passing through the Countrey and now I will revert to the Town of Barua which I left for this short digression CHAP. XV. Of the Town of Barua Bagamidri and others Stories of Sorcerers BArua is a Town that for bulk and scituation may stand in Parallell with Samacara in Arabia the happy whereof I spake in the first part It is raised upon a Mountain at the Foot whereof slides a lovely River called the Arabic Arat by the Abissins Morato which yields abundance of fish but chiefly store of Crocodiles which are excellent meat and they eat them chiefly in lent at which season there comes more plenty then at any time of the year besides They come up from Nile and so disperse themselves through all the Rivers of Ethiope that fall upon it This creature lives both on land and water is a great destruction of cattell chiefly of sheep whereof he is very licourous and will devour one at a morsel for want of them will break into gardens and eat the fruits This creature is so subtle that he will hide himself near to houses and vent most heavie sighs to entice people to him and devoure them as it had fortuned to a poor woman at Barua who had been so taken and devoured but for the timely rescue of her husband howsoever was mutilated The like happened to us going by night from Alexandria to Roussete for we saw one which we took for a block and as a servant belonging to the Consul of Alexandria stept before to take it up he was caught by this beast who with his tayle drew him under water and was never seen more In fine having wandered to and fro amongst these townes of Ethiopia selling or trucking our Merchandizes we resolved to fall again upon our way to our country In the company there were some Nubian Merchants of the town of Casas civill persons and good Christians We consulted together of our way if we should take towards the River Falucia or make to Gayuelle along the River Morabon which runs to Barua But our
Isle full of lovely gardens This part may be of eighty or ninety thousand fires inhabited by the wealthiest merchants About two miles from thence there is another part of little lesse extent by the Inhabitants called Mubacar Next is the ancient Town which the Inhabitants call Bezuela whereof we spoke before where there is magnificent and stately edifices and Mosquees and amongst others one very fair hospitall This part consists of about twenty thousand fires stretching it self about half a league towards the West towards the South touches the Palace of the Sultan or Bascha and toward the North a little Suburb which they call Bebesor which runs bending towards the East to another of like greatnesse Jemet Taulon the name of the Soudan who founded it In this part there is a spacious Palace and a sumptuous Colledge well founded whither they resort from all parts to study the sciences About two miles from thence there is another well-built part Carafa The ancient Town Bezuela or Bazieles otherwise called Mifuletif or Mifruletif is that where the famous Sepulcher of their pretended St. Nassisse the neice of Mahomet by his son in law Haly stands On this side lies the garden which bears the plant of the true Balm so much renowned there which they call Almatria and Christians Materea This plant hath a leaf like Lentisk or Mastick tree which they prune every year as a vine as a Gardener told me who kept it 't is but small and there is but little of it Ethiopians say the Queen of Saba carried this plant to Salomon who caused it to be set in the gardens of Jericho and afterwards was transplanted to this place by the Sarazins but others say that 't was first brought from Arabia the happie where all the balm that grows there at this day is of like vertue and quality About the end of May they slit the bark not with iron but something else and the liquor distills out which they receive in a glasse They adde that this plant will prosper with none but Christians and that it dyes in the hands of Infidels In some places of the West Indies in Nova Hispania and Carthagenia there is some of no lesse esteem than this of Egypt it grows in the middle of a fountain which is like a draw-well The Mahometans say when the blessed virgin was in Egypt she rested at this fountain and here washed the linnens of her child Jesus A little on one side is an Island with a fair Palace where the Bascha goes sometimes for recreation 't is called Michial Here lies the head of the Channell or Aqueduct on which there stands a Column to foreknow the fertility or sterility of the year according to the heighth of the inundation of Nile The Part of Caire which lies upon Nile is very large called Boubacon or Bebesoe and Boulac here land the vessels which come from Rosete or Alexandria and other parts In sum this Town consists of many more Towns or Burroughs or Suburbs full of people and I believe in this Town there are as many souls as in all the rest of Egypt throughout and he had need of a good horse that would survey all these habitations in two nay in three dayes The Basha's Palace is the same where the Soudans was and that while the Empire was in glory was one of the most rich and magnificent in the Universe as a French Authour describes it who was there in those times There being many Courts every one with a guard Porches Galleries and Columns of Martle guilt vaults various-coloured pavements of Mosaick work frets carvings and sculptures pleasant large gardens fountains viviaries bird-cages and other singularities All sorts of rich moveables stones gold and silver The Calife or Soudan had a throne of massy gold and rarely was seen to any except Embassadours The Ladies for the greatest part are attired in white with coats and a mask of the same colour a silk smock of diverse colours a little bonnet on their head of some rich stuffe with a band or wreath about it and over all a large vest or huke which covers the whole body Touching the Inundation of the River Nile it advances moderately not doing any dammage and when it comes they make a generall triumph then they run at the vest a certain game of prize amongst them and prepare ditches expresly to receive the water certain persons being substituted of purpose who ascend four or five dayes journey towards the Channell to see if the waters flow with vigour and violence and thence return with poste-haste and acquaint the Basha to what degree and when there is notice that 't is arrived within half a dayes journey the Bascha with the whole Nobility mounts on horseback clothed in their apparell with the robe of Mahomet born by a Marabou in great triumph before them and by the way running the Masse shooting with a Bow at a golden apple upon the end of a Pike First they ride three or four rings then running at high speed in a full career they let fly at the apple and he who do's best bears away the prize And so they solemnize the arrival of the flood every one cleanses and prepares their cesterns to store up water for the whole year for they have neither draw-wells nor fountains that ever I saw and it never rains there only every evening there falls a dew such as if one should sleep abroad he should be as wet as if he came out of the River The like is in Peru where they never have rain But instead thereof they are visited with a wind that fannes and moystens The Paraguary or the River de la Plata at Brazill hath the like inundations as Nile but with more violence and rapidity and lodges full three moneths upon the land it waters whereas Nile comes quietly and retires with the same civility not staying before any town above 15. or 20. dayes They contrive to build their houses upon hills and rising grounds to secure themselves from waters and humidity In the countrey the houses for the greater part are built of loom of beast-dung and earth and there are some which have no other then tents of strong cloth of a reddish colour but they who live near the silver River by reason of the impetuous stream of the water which overturns and carries all before it are constrained to forsake their houses and for a time betake themselves to their Canoes where they lead the Ducks life till the flood retiring within its bounds leaves their dwellings to their possession again But I am not certain if this happen by a constant annual course as in Egypt The custome of triumphs at the arrival of the inundation of Nile we finde to have been amongst the ancient Egyptians amongst others they celebrated the great feast of Niloa towards the Summer-Solstice holding the River for a God whom they worshipped under the names of Osiris and Orus giving him the appellations
Saints and Angels In this manner they expresse all by figure which asks a long time to signifie a matter of importance and sometimes a whole day to draw it Wherefore in all great Towns there are those that sell papers with all necessary and ordinary communications ready delineated Their Records Histories Calendars and Annals were ever expressed in this manner CHAP. IX The Mexican year their Paradise Infernall and their Dances THe Mexican year was divided into eighteen moneths of twenty dayes to a moneth and the five dayes over they set apart for feasts sacrifices and recreations The year began in March with the coming of the leaf each month having a particular pourtraict The Peruians more properly divided their year into 12. months or moons wherein they exquisitely compacted all the dayes of the year which they began in January These months they deciphered by 12. columns in order with names signifying the feasts contained and the seasons to sow reap c. the first was Soucangae the 2. Rayme then Hostinoâ—â—qui Aucayqui Arâ—ucouqui Caualiarqui Jâ—urtaqui Jouapaqui Cayarayme Payconeo Jomarayme Ayamara the twelfth They pourtrayed the Sun and Moon and by certain distinctions knew the full and the qualities of it The Mexicans had a mooving wheel whereon the months feasts and seasons were set with distinct cyphers For the seven dayes are not founded upon the solary or lunary course but with the Hebrewes upon the creation and our number of Planets with the Pagans The years are denoted by severall signes from four to four of thirteen years each division which in 25. years contained the whole period and concluded the circle So the people of Chicora divided their year into twelve Moones in Coluacana they use the Lunary Months and call the Months Books The Moon in their language is Tâ—na the Sun Tanaric I have often enquired of the use of this Mexican wheel but could never understand it it moves very slowly and goes round every Month noting the periods and account of years as to say such a thing was done in such a year deâ—yphered by a Temple a Rose a Rabbet a Stone the four marks of the wheel When a little needle in the middle of the wheel comes to point at the period of fifty years then are they stroken with a strong apprehension believing the world is to be ended and for three or four dayes before lament and make Sacrifices to appease the angry gods but when it arrives at the point they leave their Sacrifices break all their utensils as they were to die at the instant lay themselves on the ground with extream contusion for their bad lives and terrour of approaching torments and having spent a day and night thus dolefully upon appearance of the next day which they never thought to see they go strait to visit the wheel which now hath entered a new circulation then repleat with joy they render a thousand benedictions to the gods for the grace received whereof they thought themselves unworthy with engagements of reformation for the future Then prepare for a solemne fast abstaining till night from all sustenance for three dayes they observe these fasts without company with their wives After this their Priests or Papaes with 12. men and youths in feather garments dancing silently to musick bear the Idol of their God Vriacocha followed with a number of boyes and girls in white decked with flowers and feathers of various colours then the Religious in their proper habits next come 12. sheep for sacrifice then the principal persons with tapers in their hands then follow the whole multitude of men and women with hymns and gratifications up to a Mountain from whence they observantly return to the Temple Amongst them there are some that furiously lash their bare shoulders with thorns of Mangouay so as the Temple runs with bloud wherewith the Priests wash the face of their Idol After this the sheep with their ears peirced and a thousand gayties were dejugulated and with them some Children were sacrificed whilest others dance and sing about them the Priests instructing and encouraging them to it But before the Feast they compound a meat of the flesh of certain venemous Creatures Mace Tobacco and certain roots which the Priests eating a Devil enters their bodies and they fall into a fury then they begin their ball The feast is called Procrayme Every year they have the like Sacrifices beginning with fasts and lamentations They have processions likewise and with dances and songs carry their Idols very solemnly still concluding with bloudy sacrifices When Lords and Masters dye their Servants sacrifice themselves in hope to serve their Masters in the other world and if through indiscretion or want they were not paid and well rewarded in this life suppose it shall be amply done in the next They believe the immortality of the soule felicity for the good and the wicked to be tormented by the Devil whom for this reason they adore wearing his counterfeit in their ears that he may shew them some favour when they come to the Abysse They believe that after death their actions are presented and pleaded before the great God who gives definitive sentence one way or other to eternity They believe no reformation as the Bretellians and others believe no hell but that all go to live merrily with their forefathers In some parts they embalm the Corps and together interr their whole treasure In other parts they lay victuals and drink by them in opinion God sometimes confines their souls to their Sepulchers so as they may want sustenance The Indians when they fall sick present their Priests with divers rarities that they would make prayers for their health But if their disease grow vigorous with Brasile they die a shirt vermillion and send it to be sacrificed for their recovery also they send divers prayers figured in Characters to be burned with shels they call vila coronea Likewise they sacrifice sheep and the rarest of birds nay slaves themselves terming this hurlauical as that of the feasts contauical wherein they mingle odoriferous woods called Jauli resembling the Lemon tree together with ceremonial prayers Against their Enemies they have other Sacrifices as to burn their Effigies with the pictures of severall venemous and mortiferous Creatures the Priest pronouncing So perish the strength of our enemies then they sacrifice a black sheep kept long from food and the Priest cries So let the heart of our enemies be weakned To Rivers they sacrifice the shels that come from them to fountains fruits and vertual herbs holding there is nothing on earth which hath not his like in heaven and that they hold a correspondence and that any thing of good operation on earth is acceptable to their gods in heaven In what condition soever in health or sicknesse peace or war on all occasions they have recourse to prayers and sacrifice even to immolation of their slaves and children The Mexicans dis-avow all peace with their neighbouring
tastes like turned milk but in some places for a dainty the maids chew the root then boyle it and make a most exquisit drink In some parts there is a sort of root called Elcout of the taste of a nut which I hold the best amongst them 't is of great vertues but the excesse dries infused with another called Monqueil it purges without violence they have an herb that growes low with leaves a hand-broad that cures all sorts of soares and wounds of which I had once a triall For falling from a rock I got seven or eight very troublesome hurts and an Indian with this leafe cured me in three dayes I have seen the same in Egypt in Italy also and believe 't is in France Another root they have called a Jehearit that purges like Rhubarbe but more gently I believe 't is the same that comes from new Spain called Mechouacan Another that purges being laid Emplaister-wise on the stomack women lay it on the heads of their daughters to emit their Mestruits making them stand with their feet together upon a stone and a sleight incision to draw that blood without pain Brasilians and chiefly the Toupinaâ—ba are kinde to strangers specially the French and freely part with their victuals to them A woman when she would be kinde or entertain one she seats her self on the ground and weeps as she had been beaten then on a suddain addresses her self with a thousand blandishments inviting him freely to the pleasure of her daughters I have knowne some so base amongst us that buckled with these idolatrous girles a thing most detestable They are absolutely without letters or characters and in pronunciation use not F. L. R. So as we may thence derive they are without Faith without Law and without Royalty They are addicted to Divinations and superstitions and their Priests are sorcerers by an ancient tradition they have some obscure knowledge of the deluge some believe reward and punishment of good and evill after death others not but all believe the immortality of the soule and that they shall remain the same they were in this life and at the houre of their death they interre their dead and for several dayes lay meat in the Sepulcher with a cotton bed they have no King nor superiour to command them every linage living apart in a several valley and change their habitation according to fancy many families living under the same roof great hunters fishers and swimmers exceeding vindicative of a turbulent spirit and inclined to Warre the same in prosperity and adversity endure hunger with patience when they have nothing to eat and when they have they gourmandize and drink drunk after their fashion The good or evill that befalls them some attribute to destiny others to fortune or chance They are divided into several nations and for the most part enemies as the Sourons and the Carmils and the Tapus whom they call Savages who are enemies to all as more wilde and bloody then the rest The Cariges are more soft and humane who inhabit beyond the Winter Tropick two leagues from the Sea they inhabit on high ground and sow the Mandior then there are the Oeuetacas Margaiars Toupinanbas and others these last are those our French have had commerce withall of whom we have ample printed relations and there might have had good plantations had we made use of our time and moderated our passions CHAP. XVII The Isle of S. Thomas according to a description made to the Authour by Sieur de la Courb and Cassis THis Island is under the Equinoctiall between the Isles of Prince and Anchan discovered by the Portuguese in their first navigation to the East The Isle of Saint Thomas hath fifty leagues of sound land was discovered on Saint Thomas day that gave name of it It beares little more then Sugar-Canes planted by the Portuguese but the trees are ever green The Portuguese built here the town Pauoazan The Haven whereof looks towards Ethiopia At first all Nations inhabited there but at present the Portuguese will have none but themselves and the French who are exceedingly beloved for a French Jesuite who propagated Religion exceedingly in this Isle The natives are some white some black and marry still in their own colour The town is pleasant and the whole land is full of Sugar-Canes which fill the Island with flyes as Arabia is infested with the same creatures by reason of the Cassia there Sugar is so cheap that for eight Realls you may have a hundred weight but it has this fault 't will not easily dry in exchange they carry thither Wines Cheese Leather Clothes because neither Vine nor Corne will prosper there Upon a Vine there the grape will be green on one side and ripe on the other and blossoms at the same time Their Gardens produce all sorts of herbes and fruit but stone-fruit but above all Figges and Melons The root Igname growes there in abundance very wholesome boyled or raw Likewise Millet which they call Zaboucou whereof they make excellent things with Sugar the soyle is strong inclining to a yellow and in some parts reddish where the dew of the night tempers it like waxe so as it never comes to dust They bend their Sugar-Canes to the East and say they prosper best then they may have there some seventy Sugar-mills These Engines or Mills resemble the Samaritane at Pont-neuf in Paris easily rising and falling That which displeases is they pour it into great caldrons and it is like honey then they make it in loaves hardly dry you never seeing any so solid from thence as from Madero nor is it worth so much though they use all possible art to refine it They purify it with cindars At the plantations far from water the Blacks fetch water to set the mills at work The sugar being drawn they give the canes to the swine which fattens them and makes the flesh of excellent taste and wholsome from mid-May to mid-August they have Eastern winds wherewith they dry their Sugars without which they could never do it for all other windes are adversaries to them because of the raines they stirr up in the other months The Island is unhealthfull by reason of the corrupted ayr their houses are good built and covered with timber out of the abundance of huge high trees All nations heretofore went thither by reason of franck traffick but now they must pay tribute all but the French who enjoy the same immunities as the Portuguese They have many slaves from Guinea brought by the Corsairs to be sold Captain Ribaut Diepois took a vessell with diverse whole families men women and children whom he set free on land but caused two Blacks to hang the Master and five Marriners 'T is a cruell inhumanity to carry the Father away by violence into perpetuall slavery while his poor family is exposed to misery and starving They marry the slaves amongst themselves for breed like a race of horses who continue slaves by inheritance