Corps as many Servants Women and Horses with Bows and Arrows as may fit to atend and serve them in the next life Though now since they conquered China they have left off this barbarous custome being reprehended and corrected for it by the Chineses themselves After this superstitious Vow advancing his revenging Arms he besieged Leaotung The chiefe City of Leaoyang besieged and taken which was the chief City of the Province of Leaoyang with 50000 men But the City was defended by exceeding many men who generally were all armed with musquets The Tartars had nothing but their Scymetars with Bows and Arrows which they discharge with strange dexterity Art But because they chiefly feared the musquet bullets they resolved by a Stratagem to make that unknown Instrument less hurtfull to them than their Enemies did imagin A Stratagem against musquets For the Tartarian King commanded such as made the first onset to carry a thick hard board for their Shield which was as good to them as a wooden Wall these men were seconded by other Companies who carried Ladders to climb up the Walls and the Horse came up in the Rear In this manner he set upon the City in four quarters and received the discharge of their Musquets against his Wooden wall Then in a moment the scaling ladders being applied before they could charge again they were upon the Walls and enterd the City for such is the quickness and nimbleness of the Tartars in which they excel all Nations and in which also they place their chief art that in a trice they either prevail in their Designs or retire and the little skill the Chineses had in the use of Musquets was no small hinderance to the War For the Tartars quickness and nimblenes not giving them time to charge again being astonished with the suddain inundation of armed men they presently fled which way soever they could but being pursued by the swift Tartarian Horse most of them perished in the taking of this great City This City being taken the Tartar like a Torrent over-run many others of less note Many other Cities taken but amongst others he took that noble City Evamgning and over-runing most speedily the whole Country of Leaotung he entred the Province of Pekin and coming within seven Leagues of the very Imperial City He durst not advance fearing the Enemy might compas or surround him because he heard that a world of men came in to help their distressed Prince But the Tartar struck such a terrour into the hearts of all the Countries he had passed as both Souldier and Citizen leaving their Houses left the empty walls to the Tartarians possession knowing the Tartar to have that custom and practice to destroy and put all to fire and sword that did resist and only pillage the Cities that submitted How the Tartars used their conquered Towns leaving the Citizens alive and under a milder Government By which means having collected a world of Riches he returned to Leaotung victorious And because his Southsayers had perswaded him that the standing of the old Walls were unfortunate he beat them down and compassed them about with new fortifying them with new Munitions and there proclamed himself Emperour of China The Tartar calls himself Emperour of China An. 1618. For although as yet he had taken nothing of China but only the skirts of the Eastern Country of the Province of Leaotung yet in his hopes and aspiring thoughts he had devoured the whole Kingdom wherefore he was called in the China language Theienmingus in the third year of his Reign which was in that of one thousand six hundred and eighteen In this year some in authority about the Emperour Vanley demanded the banishment of the Priests who did then preach the Christian Religion to that Nation But the Emperour who in his heart loved Christianity and those particularly that first planted that Religion amongst them gave no ear for a long while to their Demands But at length overcome by the importunity of a chief Commander who had ever been a sore Enemy to Christian Religion and was called Xinchio it was ordeined and proclamed that all those Fathers that did propagate Christian Religion should be banished the Kingdom Upon which some of them were secretly concealed in several Provinces by some Christian Governours God punished China for their persecution of Christians others being taken were carried in great Cages to Macao where being shut up day and night suffered extremely whilst others also be-being whipt out of the Country rejoyced to suffer somthing for his sake whose name they bore and that which added more affliction to all these miseries was the Emperour Vanley's Prohibition to all his to profess Christian Religion But upon this occasion the Christians of China who from the horrid wilderness of Infidelity had been brought to the pleasant Pastures of Christianity gave illustrious examples of their Faith Constancy but the longer Narration of this glorious persecution is reserved for another place I only touch it here to admire the Divine Providence of God who raised so sharp War against China when they neglected Christian Peace and permited at the same time these Tartars to take so deep a root in this Empire of China as afterward grew to that height as both to extirpate the Royal Family of the Taiminges together with the Kingdom at the very same time they went about utterly to destroy all Christianity But it happened in this as ordinarily it doth for by this very persecution Christian Religion grew to that height and greatness that the Church glories to behold and unless God vouchsafe to lend a potent helping hand the vast Kingdome of China is utterly overthrown In the mean time the Chineses were very solicitous to expell this Enemy from the bowells of their Country and first they selected very chief and eminent men for Commanders and Governours then they gathered an Army of six hundred thousand choise Soldiers The King of Corea also sent to the Emperour of China twelve thousand with this potent Army therefore they went out in the begining of March MDCXIX to give Battail to the Enemy The Tartars resolved to meet them with an undanted courage and for a good while the event and victory was very doubtfull but in the end the Army of China was wholly routed and their chief Commanders with fifty thousand men were all slain The Tartars according to their custome prosecute the victory with all quickness and diligence for the same day they took and sacked two Cities which they burned After this they over-run that whole Country and came to the very Walls of Pekin the Emperours Court but durst not venture to besiege it because they knew besides the infinite number of Canons it contained there was lodged fourscore thousand Souldiers in it But the Chineses confess that there was such a fear and consternation in the City that the King thought to have left that City and gone into the Southern
of the Kingdom of China whether they be Natives or Tartars the first of which is White called the Imperial Banner the second is Red the third is Black the fourth is Yellow and these three last are governed and Commanded by the Uncle of the Emperour but the first is immediatly subject to the Emperour of these four colours by several mixtures they frame four more so as every Souldier knows his own colours and to what part of the City to repair where they have ever their Arms and Horses ready for any expedition The Tartars Banners so as in one half hour they all are ready for they blow a Horn just in the fashion of that which we appropriate usually to our Tritons and by the manner of winding it they presently know what Companies and Captains must march so as they are ready in a moment to follow their Ensign which a Horse-man carries tyed behind him though commonly none but the Commander and Ensign knows whether they go this profound secrecy in their exercise of War has often astonished the Chineses for many times when they thought to oppose them in one part they presently heard they were in another Quarter and it is no wonder they are so quick for they never carry with them any Baggage nor do they take care for Provision for they fill themselves with what they find yet commonly they eat Flesh though half rosted or half boyled if they find none then they devour their Horses or Camels but ever when they have leasure they go a hunting all manner of wild Beasts either by some excellent Dogs and Vultures which they bring up for that end or else by incompassing a whole Mountain The Tartars delight in hunting or large Field they beat up all the wild Beasts into a Circle and drive them into so narrow a Compass as that they can take as many as they please and dismiss the rest The earth covered with their Horse-cloath is their Bed for they care not for Houses and Chambers but if they be forced to dwell in Houses their Horses must lodge with them and they must have many holes beaten in the Walls but yet their Tents are most beautiful which they fix and remove with such Art and dexterity as they never retard the speedy march of an Army Thus the Tartars train their Souldiers to hardness for War Out of all these Ensigns Amavangus chose the choicest men to accompany his person And besides he took part of those which he had deputed to follow the three Royalets which he dispatched to the South ordering them to take as many out of the several Garrisons through which they passed as might supply this defect But yet although Amavangus had so gallant and such a flourishing Army yet he never durst give Battail to Kiangus lest he might seem to expose the whole Empire of the Tartars to the fortune of one Battail Amavangus durst not fight with Kiangus So that although Kiangus did frequently offer him Battail yet he ever refused to fight expecting still to hear what reply the Western Tartars would make to his Proposition of his Nephews Marriage for he had sent a Legate to that Tartarian King with pretious gifts as well to demand his Daughter for the Emperour of China as to desire him to afford no succour to the Rebel Kiangus The pretious gifts of Gold of Silk of Silver and of Women obtained whatsoever he demanded and therefore Kiangus seeing himself deserted of the Tartars that he might provide as well as he could for his own affairs he returned to the City Taitung of which he soon repented himself when it was too late for Amavangus calling in an innnumerable number of Pezants in the space of three days with an incredible diligence cast up a Trench of ten Leagues coÌ„pass which he so fortified with Bulworks and Ramparts that in a trice he blocked up that City Then did Kiangus see his errour in granting them leasure to draw their Trench which he knew would debar him from all manner of Provision And therefore being inraged with anger as he was a man full of metal and a great Souldier turning himself to his Souldiers he said If I must dye I had rather dye by the Sword than by Famin and upon this marched out presently to the Enemies Trench with his whole Army Here it was that both the parties fought most obstinately the one to seek his passage the other to hinder his advance so as the fortune was various and the victory doubtful untill an unlucky Arrow transpeirc'd Kiangus and in him all the hope of China perished Kiangus is killed His Souldiers seeing him dead partly run away and partly submitted to the Tartars who received them with all courtesy and humanity for they had cause enough of joy to see they had escaped the danger of losing the Empire and that they had conquered so formidable a Commander But yet they Plundered the City â—aitung and burned the City of Pucheu where the Church of the Christians also perished From hence the Tartars returned to Peking where I saw them enter overloaden with Riches and triumphant Laurels But Amavangus pursued his journey to the Western Tartars where he ratified his Nephew Xunchius his Marriage Xunchius the Emperour Marrys and brought back with him an infinit Company of Horse from the Tartars of the Kingdom of Tanyu In the mean time the three Royalets which went to the Southern Kingdoms to pacify those unquiet Provinces passed their journey by the descent of the River Guei and when they passed through that Province which the Emperour had given the Tartars to inhabit and cultivate after he had expelled the Chineses for their Rebellion most of these Pezants being wholy ignorant of tilling and manuring the ground as having never been used to mannage a Spade or a Plough but their Swords these men I say desired earnestly these Princes that they might accompany them in these Wars and in their expeditions Two of these Princes rejected their Petitions but the third called Kengus without any consent or order from the Emperour listed them amongst his own Troups upon which they joyfully changed their rustical instruments into weapons for War when the Emperour heard of this proceeding he sent word to Kengus to dismiss them but he pretended various excuses and did neglect the Emperours orders He therefore commanded the supreme Governour of all the Southern Quarters who resides ever at Nanking to take Kengus either alive or produce him dead He presently cast about how to compass the Emperours command with all secrecy and received the three Royolets with all sorts of divertisements of Comedies Banquets and the like pleasures as if he had received no distastfull order from the Emperour And when the day was come that they resolved to prosecute their journey by the great River of Kiang the said Governour contrived his business so as he met them again in the River and under pretence of taking his last
parts of the Kingdom which he had effectually performed had not some Commanders suggested that his flight would give courage to the Victorious and breed trouble and confusion in the whole Empire being that to fly is nothing elfs but to yield up the Land to the Enemy Nay more they say the disorders were such in the City that if the Tartar had come on he infallibly had made himself Master of it But the Enemy was more greedy of Prey and therefore like a Lightening they over-run all spoiling and burning all Towns and Cities and killing and destroying an immense company of Chineses in a most cruell manner The Tartars return with great Riches and leaving all these places dismantled and without Garisons laden with infinite Riches they returned victorious to Leaotung where they had their first footing After these things had passed that renouned emperour of China call'd Vanley died The Emperour Vanleâ— dies Taichangus succeeds and dyes and left his Son Taichangus to succeed him who begun to gather a new Army against the Tartars but after four moneths reign he also died To him succeeded Theinkius Theinkius is chosen who as soon as he assumed the Crown sent an Embassadour with many magnificent Presents and worthy of the China Monarchy to the King of Corea The end of this Embassage was to thank him for the Auxiliary forces sent to his Grandfather as also to comfort him for the loss he had received in the late service of China and finally to solicite and presse for further succours For it seems those of Corea Those of Corea more valiant than the Chineses as they are nearer to Japony so they participate more of that warlike Spirit and Fortitude than those of China doe Besides that he might more effectually divert the imminent danger of his Kingdoms ruin New preparations against the Tartars he leavied new Forces throughout all the Kingdom which he sent into the Country of Leaotung to hinder the irruption of the Tartars any further into the Country And for their better supply with necessary Provision he maintained a great Navy in the Haven of Thiencin to carry Corn and other necessaries for their maintenance This Port of Thiencin The Port of Thiencin very commodious is a Station to which an incredible number of ships resort both by Sea and River from all parts of China So as by this means by a very short and compendious way they were easily provided with all necessaries For all the whole Country of Leaotung is almost invironed with the Sea and the furthest part is but two daies distant by water from this Port of Thiencin but by land far more time is necessary Amongst other Commanders which came with succours to their Prince The valiant Amazon of China there was one Heroick Lady whom we may well call the Amazon or Penthesilean of China She brought along with her three thousand from the remote Province of Suchuen carrying all not only Masculine minds but mens habits also and assumed Titles more becoming men than women This noble and generous Lady gave many rare proofs of her courage and valour not only against these Tartars but also against the Rebells which afterwards riss against their Lord and Emperour But now she came in this War to supply her Sons place whom she left at home in his own Kingdome as being yet a Child and not able to perform that Homage and Duty to which he was obliged For in the mountains of the Country of Suchuen there is a King not subject to him of China but an absolute Prince yet so as he receives the Honor and Title of a King from the Emperour of China after which Investiture his Subjects only obey him and pay Tribute But because they surpass all others in Valour and Courage therefore they are used by the Kings of China in warlick Affairs By occasion of this war the two noble Christian Doctors The first invention of the Christians to advance Christianity Paul and Michael found means to perswade the Emperour to demand of the Portugeses of Macao some greater Pieces and also some Gunnes and Gunners hoping by this means also to restore the banished Fathers of Christianity as also the Religion it self And their Proposition took effect for both the one and the other were sent for and the Fathers publickly admitted a-again and many new Souldiers of Portugal came to help the Army But God did most abundantly recompence this favour done to Christianity For before the Portugese arrived his Army had cast the Tartars out of the Country of Leaotung by means of the Inhabitants of that Country who being much exasperated by the Tartarians cruelty The Tartars are cast out opened their City Gates as soon as the King of China's Army appeared and rising against their Garison gave entrance to the Army Insomuch as they recovered the Metropolitan Town of Leaotung For the King of Tartary being diverted by other Wars at home could not come soon enough to relieve it So as by this means the affairs of China began to recover Life and Strength and the Tartars seemed wholly restrained But though Fortune seemed to shew a smiling face for China The Tartars make war again yet as her custome is she stood not long constant and stable For the Tartarian King having dispatched his affairs in Tartary sent presently sixty thousand Horse to besiege Leaoyang again promising that himself in person would follow with greater Forces They beseige Leaoyang and take it And this Army took that strong City in the space of forty hours both parties fighting with such vigour and fierceness that thirty thousand of the Garison were killed and the Tartars lost about twenty thousand of theirs Nay the Chineses affirm that they had never woon the City had not the Governor been corrupted by great promises of reward to open them one of the Gates of the Town But be it as it will the Tartars woon the Town The Vice-Roy hanged himself for grief But the Kings Visitor judging it unworthy to bestow the Title of a King upon the Barbarian Constancy rewarded by the Enemy In admiration and reward of his Constancy and Fidelity obtained life and freedom but he knowing that according to the custom of China he was guilty of death because he had fought unluckily more cruel to himself than the barbarous Enemy hanged himself in his own Garters The Tartars having taken the City proclamed by Edict that they should kill none if they would cut their hair and use the Tartarians Habit. The Tartars Habits and Manners For the Tartars that I may say something of their Manners as my subject gives me occasion doe shave both the Head and Beard reserving only the Mustachoes which they extend to a great length and in the hinder part of their heads they leave a Tuff which being curiously woven and plated they let hang down carelesly below their shoulders they have a round and
lest he should bring his Armie into the City with him Yvenus therfore knowing he had many chief men about the Emperours person who were both his favourites and friends and that none of them gave him the least sign of any distast the Emperor might conceive against him he boldly and securely presented himself at Court and as soon as he appeared he was presently arrested and after some few questions the Emperour commanded him to be kil'd The perfidious General killed The Tartars hearing of his death before the China Armie had a new General assigned ransack all the Country round about and after they had made excursions to the next bordering Province of Xantung The Tartars forrage all the Country of Peking and depart richly laden with all manner of Spoiles they returned to their first residence in Leaotung And from these times till the year 1636. the event of their Warrs was very various but in general we observe that the Tartars could never fix a foot in China The King of Tartary dies another succeeds but they were presently beaten out again In this same year Thienzungus King of the Tartars died after whom succeeded his Son Zungteus father to him that now governs China of whom we now must begin to Treat This Prince before his Reign expressed much judgement in severall Occurrences Zungteus the new King of Tartary prudent milde surpassing all the Kings of Tartary in Humanity and obliging curtesie For when he was young he was sent by his Father into China where he lived secretly and learned the China's Manners Doctrine and Language and when he came to be Emperour of China he changed and far surpassed all the Examples of his Predecessors For having observed that their too hard and cruel usage of the Chineses had been the principal obstacle of their advancement to the end he might conquer that Empire he so much thirsted after as well by love as by Arms he curteously entertained and cherished all those of China which came unto him Mildeness and Gentleness to be used in Conquering Nations using all Prisoners with great sweetnes and invited them either to submit freely to his Government or take their course with full freedom The fame of his humanity was spred far and neer which induced many Commanders and chief Officers to fly unto him by whose means and help he became Emperour of that spacious and florishing Country For experience shews us that Love and Humanity doe work more upon mens hearts in conquering and conserving Kingdomes than Arms and cruelty of the Conquerors hath lost that which strength of Arms had happily subdued Wherefore when the Chineses came to understand that the King of Tartary did not only afford them a Sanctuary but a favourable Haven many great persons flying the Indignation of the King of China sheltered themselves under the Tartars protection For in respect of the China's Avarice and perfidiousness it 's a necessary but a most inhumane Maxim A barbarous Principle of the Chineses that those Officers perish who have managed the Kingdomes Affairs with less success For they easily are brought to believe that such unhappy events do not proceed so much from the frown of a scornfull Goddess called Fortune as it doth from the perfidy and negligence of the Commanders So as if any fought unhappily or if he lost the Country committed to his charge if any Sedition or Rebellion happened the Governors hardly ever escaped alive Seeing therefore they found so much Humanity in the Tartar and so much Inhumanity in the Emperor they rather chose to fly to the former By this occasion give me leave to relate what happened to that incomparable Commander renouned both for Fidelity and Fortitude called Ignatius Ignatius the chief Commander of the Christians unjustly killed This Heroick mind preferd his fidelitie to his Prince before his life before the Tartarian's protection yea even before the strength of his formidable Army and chose rather with his unparallel'd Fidelity to submit his head to a Block by an unjust sentence than to abandon his Country or once accuse the least default in his Sovereign's judgment Ignatius his fidelity though prevented by very unjust impressions He might perchance have swayed the Sovereign Scepter of China if he would have hearkened to his Souldiers but he rather chose to die gloriously than to be branded with the name of a Traitor in posterity This man therefore after he had gained several Victories against the Tartars and recovered many Cities from their possession so as he hoped shortly wholy to extirpate them out of China His Souldiers being long without pay seditiously plundred and pillaged a Town which had ever been faithfull to the K. Ignatius by several petitions and Remonstrances to the Emperour had declared his wants of mony and their want of Pay but because he fed not those venal souls that managed the business with mony and presents they alwaies suppressed his humble addresses for relief Besides this man being a very pious Christian he did nothing in his government Ignatius his Piety but what was conform to Reason and Justice which was the cause he incurred the hatred of all the antient Prefects who usually receiving Bribes from the contesting parties demanded favour of Ignatius for their Clients But it was in vain to intercede for any unless the justness of the cause did also ballance their Petitions And these men attributing this proceeding not to vertue but to his Pride thinking themselves undervalued by him dealt under-hand with the Prefects in the Court to stop the Armies pay that so they might destroy this innocent man Moreover he was envied the Commāders in the very Court because he came to this eminent dignitie by his own valour and industrie which they imagined was only to be given to Doctors and Ignatius was but a Batchelor as if the most learned must needs be also the most valorous In this conjuncture of affairs the Souldiers not contented with the seditious pillage seeing the most imminent danger hanging over their most esteemed and beloved Governour by reason of their folly they go about to perswade him to make himself King of that Country nay more to take the whole Empire to himself as a thing due to his Prowess and Merits promising their whole strength to effect the business and also to extirpate those men about the Emperour that aimed more to compass their malicious ends than to promote the general affairs of the Empire But Ignatius by pious admonitions staved them off from further violence made them obedient and quiet commanded all to stand faithfull to the Emperour of China and punished the chief of that fedition This Supreme act of fidelity deserved a better esteem and acceptance than that which was framed by the Emperour and his Court who slighting this his allegeance sent another Vice-Roy in his place and commanded him to appear in Court He then perceived they aimed at his life and the
advance the publique good yet both parties pretended the general good but both neglected it Every party endeavouring to extoll and exalt his own Creatures into places of trust and power All which when Zunchinius the Emperour went about to redresse he exasperated the minds of many of the Commanders against him for as soon as he came to the Crown he cruelly persecuted all that favoured the Eunuch and in fine killed this very Eunuch which had been his Predecessors Favourite together with many more of his kind of which Tragedy I will only relate the Catastrophe The Emperour Zungchinius resolving to destroy both the Eunuch and all his power sent him an order to go visit the Tombs of his Ancestors to consider if any of those antient Monuments wanted reparation the Eunuch could not refuse so honorable an imployment which seemed rather an addition to all his honours but he had not gone far upon his journey but there was presented to him from the Emperour a Box of silver gilt with a Halter of Silk folded up in it by which he understood he was to hang himself by the Emperors order which he could not refuse being that kind of death amongst the Chineses is counted honourable when it is accompanied with such formalities But by this occasion the Emperour raised new Factions and more Traitors which held secret correspondence with the Theeves Army Hence it came to pass that no Army was sent to oppose them or if any went they did no manner of action being alwaies hindered by the emulation of others nay it happened often that when they might have taken great advantages yet the occasion was neglected lest the Commanders should increase their Power and Credit by their Victories with the Emperour These Dissentions and Emulations happened so seasonably to the Roving Army of Theeves as that to come to see and conquer was to them one and the self-same thing as I shall declare unto you Whilest these transactions passed in the Court The Theevs take the Province of Xensi Licungzus Conductor of the Theeves having setled all things in the Country of Xensi passed to the East and coming to the famous great River of Croceus finding on body to defend it he passed over with as much facility as it might have been maintained with ease if there had been placed but a handfull of Souldiers For this River runns with a violent rapid course and with as vast a Sea of waters from West to East but being there was no man to defend it they passing it easily presently seizd upon the chief and richest Citie in all those quarters called Kaiangcheu which is situated neer the South bankside of that River and being carried on with a strong gale of Fortune he seized upon all other Cities every one desiring either to free themselves from further vexation or blindly and fondly submitting themselves to any new change of Government For we commonly delight in varieties and novelties and hoping for better we find worse Only the City of Thaiyven made some resistance but being presently subdued was fined with great vast summes of mony for their temerity The Emperour Zungchinius hearing the Theeves had passed the River Croceus and were advanced to the very Confines of Xensi which borders upon the Province where he had placed his Throne Royall Seat he sent an Army under the Lord Marshal of China to hold them at least in play if he could not overthrow them But this Army did just nothing nay most of the Souldiers ran to the Thieving party in so much as the Lord Marshal himself called Colaus Lius seeing Affairs grew so desperate Hang'd himself for fear of further shame and dishonour The Emperour of China is troubled The Emperour hearing of the ill success of his Affairs began to think of leaving the Northern parts where his Royal City of Peking is situated and to pass to Nankuing which is far more Southward but he was disswaded from this intended course as well by his loyal as disloyal Subjects by these that they might give him up more speedily into the enemies hands before their treachery was discovered and by the others lest his flight might trouble the Kingdom more and discourage all his Subjects from giving their best assistance for they thought the City impregnable being fortified with so strong a Garrison nor did they doubt that the Kings presence would draw the forces of the whole Kingdom to him And their Counsel had been good if the Court had been purged of Traytors The Stratagem of the Theef In the mean time the Theeves Conductor who was no less quick and nimble in execution than witty in invention sowing a Fox his tayl to the Lions skin caused many of his Souldiers in a disguised habit to creep into that Princely City and gave them mony to trade in trifling ware till he assaulted the Wals with the body of his Army for then they had order to raise sedition and tumult in the City and considering they were a Company of desperate Fellons of a very low base fortune it is stupendious to think how they could keep so profound secrecy in a matter of so high concernment But to this mine which was prepared in the bowels of the City he held a secret train of Intelligence with the Lieutenant of the City who seeing the Emperours Affairs desperate is said to have dealt with the Conductor of these Brigants about giving up the City unto their power But however it was these Pilferers came in a short time to besiege the Royal City of Peking There was in that City a vast Garrison and as great a quantity of Artillery but on the Quarters upon which the enemy made there assault there was none charged with Bullets but only with Powder Wherefore being secure from any annoy from that side The Royal City of Peking is taken in the year MDCXLIV before the rising of the Sun they entred the Metropolitan City of all China by one of the Gates which was opened to them nor was there any long resistance made even by those that were faithful to their Prince for the Souldiers of the Theef which lay lurking in the City made such a tumult and confusion as none knew whom to oppose in which respect they made a great slaughter so as Licungzus in this Babylonian confusion marched victorious through the City till he came to the very Emperours Pallace where though he found some resistance from the faithfullest Eunuchs yet notwithstanding he presently entred that famous and renowned Palace And that which exceeds all admiration the enemy had passed the first Wall and Precinct and yet the Emperour being alive knew nothing of so strange a passage for the Traiterous Eunuchs which were of most Authority fearing he might escape by flight deferd to admonish him of his own danger or of the taking of the City till they saw he could not possibly evade Who hearing this doleful news he first demanded if
King Lovangus his heart not able to bear such a desolation of the Citie of his people and Subjects as he foresaw King Loving as love to his Subjects gave such an example of his Humanity and Piety as Europ never saw for he mounted upon the City Walls and calling upon his Knees to the Tartarian Captains he begged the life of his Subjects Spare not me quoth he I will willingly be my Subjects victime and having denounced this unto them he presently went out to the Tartars Army where he was taken This Illustrious testimony of his love to his Subjects had not wanted a reward to Crown so Heroick an Action if it met with a generous Soul like that of Alexander or of Caesar VVhen they had the King Prisoner they commanded the Citizens to shut the Gates and keep the VVals least either their own or the Kings Souldiers should enter the City and presently they fell upon the Kings men whom they butchered in a most cruel manne but yet the water destroyed more then there Swords or Arrows for many cast themselves headlong into the great River of Cianthang which is a Liege brood and runs neer the City others leaping and overcharging the Boats in the River were presently sunck Many of the Kings Souldiers drowned oothers flying away full of fear and confusion thrust one another at the River side into that unmerciful Element and by all these many thousands perished The Tartars wanting boats to pass this River having thus expelled or killed the Souldiery they returned Triumphant to the City Hangcheu is taken where they used neither force nor violence by which means this noble City was conserved whose beauty greatness and riches I hope to describe elsewhere not by hear-say but by what I saw the three years space I lived in it and what I found when lately I came from it into Europ This City of Hangcheu hath an Artificial Channel or Dick to pass by water to the Northern parts of China This Chanel is onely separated by the high part of the way like a Cause way from the River which as I said runs on the South part of the City The Tartars therefore drew many Boats out of this Chanel over the Causeway into the River Cienthang and with the help of these Boats they pass the River without resistance and found the fairest City in all China called Xaoking prone enough to submit to their victorious Arms. This City in bigness yields to many others but in cleaness and comeliness it surpasses all it is so invironed with sweet waters as a man may contemplate its beauty by rounding it in a Boat it hath large and fair Streets paved on both sides with white square stones and in the middle of them all runs a Navigable Chanel whose sides are garnished with the like ornament and of the same stone there are also built many fair Bridges and Triumphant Arches the Houses also which I observe no where else in China are built of the same square stone so as in a word I saw nothing neater in all China They took this Town without any resistance and so they might have done all the rest of the Southern Towns of this Province of Chekiang But when they commanded all by Proclamation to cut off their Hair then both Souldier and Citizen took up Arms and fought more desperately for their Hair of their Heads The Chineses defend their Hair than they did for King or Kingdom and beat the Tartars not only out of their City but repulst them to the River Cienthang nay forced them to pass the River killing very many of them In truth had they past the River they might have recovered the Metropolis with the other Towns But they pursued their victory no further being sufficiently contented that they had preserved their Hair resisting them only on the South side of the shore and there fortifying themselves By this means the conquering Arms of the Tartars were repressed for a whole year But the Chinois that they might have a Head chose Lu Regulus of the Taimingian Family for their Emperour who would not accept thereof but would be only stiled the restorer of the Empire In the mean time the Tartars had sent for new forces out of Peking with which they left nere a Stone unturned that they might get over the River Cienthang but all was in vain The drooping Affairs therefore of the Chinois had a breathing nay having gathered together more Forces they promised hemselves greater victories But a desire and emulation of ruling frustrated all their hopes For the Commanders and Presidents which fled the Province of Chekian into the Country of Fokien carried with them one of Taimingas Family called Thangus and this man they chose King in the Country of Fokien which confines with Chekiang This Prince pretended that the K. called Lu. should yield up his right to him both because he had but a few Cities under him and also because he was further removed from the Imperial race then he was But King Lu pretended he was Proclamed by the Army before him and wanted not to set forth his victories over the Tartars By which two contentions the Tartars came to the Crown for these two Royalets would never yield to one another nor so unite their Armies as joyntly to repress the Tartars Since therefore this petty King Lu had onely eight Cities under his cōmand whose Contributions were not able to maintain the necessary pay of his Army he never durst venture to pass over the River but endeavoured only to defend himself But the Tartars sought all means possibly to get over this River yet they durst not venture to pass in Boats because King Lu had many Ships and good store of Artillery which he had caused to come from Sea But the Tartars felicity and prosperous fortune overcame this difficulty for as it happened that year being dryer then ordinary this River towards the South where it runs betwixt high Mountains which break the ebbing and flowing of the Sea had lost much water and of depth and here the Tartars Horse found it passable and because the rudeness of those Mountains The Tartars pass the River and recover the City Xaoking seemed a sufficient Guard to the Country they found no Souldiers to resist but as soon as the Clowns espied twenty of their Horse to have passed the River they presently advertised the Army and they all betook themselves to flight King Lu himself left the City Xaoking and not daring to trust himself to the Continent he took Ship and sayled to the Island called Cheuxan which lyes opposit to the City of Nimpus where he remains to this day safe and keeps still his Regal dignity which Island being heretofore only a retreit for Fishermen and some Clowns now is become a potent Kingdom by reason that many fly from China to this King Lu as to there sanctuary to conserve the liberty of their Hair The Island
from any but from the young installd Emperour Xunchius To which Constancy the King Kuintus Uncle to the Emperour prudently yielded lest he should exasperate the minds of many and raise greater troubles in the Empire than would advance his Family But I cannot doubt but the death of Amavangus must needs trouble the Tartarian Empire and bring all their affairs into great disturbance for they will hardly find a Man so beloved feared and expert in all Military Discipline and Government as he in effect shewed himself to be but time will teach us what will become of all for since his death we have no certainty of any relation now let us turn the threed of our discourse as I promised here above and consider the fortune and success of the other Great Brigand called Changhienchungus to let the Reader understand how the Tartars did invade not onely the Mediterranean and Oriental parts but also the Occidental Quarters of that vast Kingdom But before I begin to speak of this monster of nature Changhienchungus a cruel Tyrant I must ingenuously confess I am both ashamed and also touched with a kind of horrour to declare his villanies both in respect they seem to exceed all belief and therefore I may perchance be held to write Fables as also it is not handsome to make reflections on such Subjects yet I may sincerely protest that I have in my hands a long relation of all his Acts written by two Religious persons who were then in the Province of Suchuen to exercise their Functions which Country was the Theater of all his Brutalities which I shall relate and because I judge these two persons to be of an incorrupted a Faith I judge therefore that a mortal Man might arrive to this pitch of wickedness and inhuman Cruelty I therefore gathered out of that relation what I here relate which is nothing else but a vast Mass of such abhominable Cruelty as I doubt not even the most mildest Reader will take the Authour to be no Man but some horrid wild Beast or rather if no more execrable name occurs some Devill transvested in our humane Nature This monster like a wild Bear entred into divers Provinces filling all with Rapin Death Fire and Sword with all other imaginable miseries for he had a mind to destroy all that so he might have no enemies or leave any alive that might revolt from him but onely content himself with his own Souldiers and often times he spared not these But the Province of Suchuen where he usurped the Title of a King was the chief Theater of his barbarous Cruelty for after he had afflicted and vexed the Provinces of Huquang and Honan and part of that of Nanking and Kiangsi he entred the Province of Suchuen in the year MDCXLIV and having taken the principal City called Chingtu in the heat of his fury he killed a King of the Tamingian race which here had established his Court as he hath done also to seveâ— other Grandees of the same Family He kils divers Princes These were the Preludes of the Tragical Acts whose Scenses I go about briefly to describe that so Europe may see what a horrid and execrable thing an unbridled and armed cruelty appears to be when it furiously rageth in the darkness of Infidelity This Brigand had certain violent and suddain buttads of furious cruelty and maxims drawn from the very bowels of vengeance it self for if he were never so little offended by another or suspected another to be offended with him he presently commanded such to be massacred and having nothing in his mouth but murder and death he often for one single Mans fault destroy'd all the Family respecting neither Children For one offending he puts to death nor Women with Child nay many times he cut off the whole Street where the offender dwelled involving in the Slaughter as well the innocents as nocents It happened once he sent a Man Post into the Country of Xensi who being glad he was got out of the Tyrants hands would not return to revenge this imaginary injury he destroyed all the Quarter of the City in which he dwelt and thought he much bridled his fierceness that he did not wholy extinguish all the City To this I adde another unhumane Act about his Hangman whom it seems he loved above the rest because he was Crueller than the rest when this Man was dead of his Disease he caused the Physician who had given him Physick to be killed and not content with this he Sacrifised one hundred more of that Profession to the Ghost of his deceased Officer He was affable and sweet towards his Souldiers he played banquetted and feasted with them conversing familiarly with them and when they had performed any Military Action with honour and valour he gave them precious gifts of Silks and moneys but yet many times he commanded some of them to be cruelly put to death before him especially such as were of the Province of Suchuen where he reigned whom he intirely hated them because he thought they did not rejoyce in his Royal dignity Insomuch as he hardly ever did any publick Action His hatred to the people of Suchuen which though it begun like a Comedy yet had not in fine the sad Catastrophie of a Tragedy for if walking out he did but espie a Souldier ill clad or whose manner of Gate or walking was not so vigorous or Masculine as he desired he presently commanded him to be killed He once gave a Souldier a piece of Silk who complained to his fellows of the pooreness of the piece and being over-heard by a spye of which he had a great number who presently acquainted him with what was said he presently commanded him He cuts off a Legion for one Mans fault and this whole Legion which were of two thousand Men to be all Massacred He had in his Royal City some six hundred Prefects or Judges He kils many City Officers and men belonging to the Law and such as managed the principal Offices and in three years space there was hardly twenty left having put all the rest to several deaths for very slight causes He caused a Sergeant Major which the Chineses call Pingpu to be flead alive for having granted leave to a China Philosopher without special order to retire a little to his Country House And whereas he had five hundred Eunuchs taken from the Princes of the Tamingean Family And he killed also the Eunuchs after he had put their Lords to death he commanded all these to be cruelly put to death onely because one of them had presumed to stile him not by the Title of a King but by the bare name of the Theef Changhienchungus as if he then were no Theef Nor did he spare the Heathenish Priests who sacrifised to their Idols These sort of men before he came into this Country having feigned many crimes against the Priests which Preached the Faith of Christ had raised a bitter
of Cheuxan becomes a Kingdom In this Island they are now found threescore and ten Cities with a strong and formidable Army which hitherto hath contemned all the Tartarian Power and Forces and watch for some happy occasion to advance again their Kingdom in China But by this means the Tartars took all the Cities and Towns of the County of Chekiang into their Dominion One only City of Kinhoa whose President was aswel a Native of the place as also the Commander in Chief and my very singular friend sustained the Tartars assaults for some months But to the end the resistance of this City should not be a hinderance to the course of their victories the Tartars divided their Army into three parts The first part marched towards Kiucheu by the Mountains the second went by the City Vencheu and the Sea shore The City of Kinhoa is taken and destroyed into the Province of Fokien and the third obstinately besieged the City of Kinhoa In this Siege the Tartars by reason of great Guns which continually played upon them and by the wise Conduct and courage of their noble Commander suffered many and great losses insomuch as he forced them to pitch their Camp further from the City But at length they also brought Artillery from the chief City by which they made so many breaches in the Walls as being in a manner dismantled they found entrance and burned and sacked it with all imaginable Hostility The Governour blew up himself and all his Family with a Barrel of Gunpowder in his own Pallace least he or his should fall into the Enemies hands The Province of Fokien is invironed with the bordering Countries of Quamgtung Kiansi and Chekiang from all which it is separated by a continual Chain of Mountains which are even in breadth of three days journey to pass over and withall so full of ragged and ruggy Clifts and obscure Vallys as they make the very Paths horrid dark and obscure at Noon day The Tartars take in Fok en very easily Insomuch as without any exaggeration they may well be paralelled either to the Grecian Straits of Thermopolis or to the Asian ruggy and strait passage of Taurus These places might have been easily defended if they had but placed a few Clowns to repel the Enemy or overthawrted the ways by any incumbrances but the very imagination of a Tartar was grown so terrible to them as they fled at the very sight of their Horses leaving therefore these Mountains wholy ungarnished the Tartars found a passage but so very painful and full of difficulties as they were forced to leave much of their Bagage behind them and lost many of their Horses in those fearful precipices but by this means they took the Province of Fokien with as much ease as it might have been defended for they hardly spent as much time in taking it as a man would do to walk the extent of it The King himself whom I named Lunguus as signifying a Warlike Dragon shewed himself a fearful Sheep flying away with a good Army of men if that word of good can be applyed to a numerous multitude that had no hearts King Lunguus slain but his flight served him for nothing for the Tartars following him with their swift and nimbâ—e Horses shot all this heard of silly Sheep to death with Arrows It is thought the King himself was involved in this Massacre for he never appeared nor was heard of afterwards Now because the whole Province submitted it self voluntarily unto him without any resistance it did not only suffer little from the Tartars but he may choose and select Souldiers out of it and having thus again recruited his Army he made another irruption into the Country of Quamgtung and its worth remarking that the other Tartarian Commander who when the Army was divided as I related before had order to subdue the Mediterranean Countries The Provinces of Quantung is taken this man with some felicity and expedition passing victorious through the Provinces of Huquang and Kiangsi entred also on one side of this Country of Quamgtung whilst the other came in by Fokien and because the Town of Nankiung resolved to fight it out they consumed it all by fire and sword So the poor Country of Quamtung oppressed by a double victorious Army was quickly over-run and subdued After the Glorious Trophies one of these victorious Armies enriched with all the rarites of China was called back to Peking but yet they left a Garrison in every City assigning in the name of the King of Tartars both Civil and Martial Officers for the Countries Government The happy success in taking the impregnable Province of Fokien is attributed by wise men to whose judgement I also submit to a more remote and hidden cause which I will briefly relate There was at this time a famous and renowned Pyrat called Chinchilungus this man was born in the Province of Fokien of which we are treating he first served the Porteguise in Macao then he served the Hollander in the Island called Formosa A famous Pyrate in China where he was known to all strangers by the name of Iquon After this he became a Pyrat but being of quick and nimble wit he grew from this small and slender fortune to such a height and power as he was held either Superiour or equal to the Emperour of China for he had the Trade of India in his hand and he dealt with the Portugise in Macao with the Spaniards in the Phillippins with the Hollanders in the Island Formosa and new Holland with the Japonians and with all the Kings and Princes of the Eastern parts in all manner of rich commodities He permitted none to transport the Wares of China but himself or his to whom he brought back the riches and the Silver of Europ and Indies for after he once rather extorted then obtained pardon of the King of China for his Pyracies he became so formidable as that he had no less than three thousand Ships of which he was Lord and Master Nor was he contented with this fortune but aspired privatly to no less than to the Empire But because he knew he never should be accepted of the prefects people as long as there was any of the Emperial Family of the Taiminges alive he hoped by the Tartars means to extinguish them wholy and after this was done then he resolved to display his Banners and Ensigns in so pious a cause as the driving out the common Enemy from the bowels of the Kingdom and no doubt but under this pretext they would all have followed helped and even adored him as their Saviour It was therefore evident that he had secret correspondence with the Tartars and that he favoured them for his own profit And that which made the business more suspicious was that at that time when the Tartars made their irruption into Fokien he was then declared Lord Marshal of the Kingdom and all the Generals Commanders and
Souldiers were either of his affinity or wholy at his Command and Obedience And therefore it is no wonder if he found an easy admittance into the Country of Fokien of which they presently made him King Pingnan as much as to say Pacifier of the South and they added many other Dignities and Offices of trust that they might more speciously illude him for either they knew his aspiring mind The Tartars deceive the Pyrat and take him Prisoner by meer Art or else his great power and authority was suspicious and formidable to them but yet all the while the General of the Tartars remained in Fokien they never expressed the least diffidence in him but both with favours courtesies presents and honours they studied how further to ingage him and promised the Government of many more Provinces He made himself therefore secure of the Government of all the Southern Provinces but all happened quite contrary to his expectation for when this General of the Tartars who was observed as a little King was to depart to Peking the custom was for all the Officers of the Kingdom to conduct him for some part of his journey to give him an honourable farewell which last duty of Civillity Iquon could not handsomely avoid nor indeed had he any reason to be diffident of any distrust in him so as he left his Navy in the Port of Focheu and accompanied the Royolet with great splendor and magnificence But when he came to take leave and demand Licence to return the General of the Tartars invited him a long to Peking where he promised him yet greater honours from the Kings own person to reward his Merits He endeavoured by all imaginable occasions to excuse this journey but nothing was accepted he was forced by their kindness to accompany them to Peking and so he was taken by Art who by Arms seemed Insuperable He yet lives in Prison in Peking because his Brothers and Kindred hearing of his Captivity presently ceased on the Fleet with which they have much infested China as we shall touch hereafter In the mean time the other Army which had passed the Mediterranean Provinces of Huquang The Tartars overthrown Quangsi Kiansi and Quamgtung invaded the Country of Quangsi But here it was that the Arms of the Tartars which hitherto were held invincible were shewed to be weak and where they least expected opposition there they found the greatest destruction It happened that in this Province of Quangsi the Vice-Roy called Khiu Thomas was a Christian and the chief Commander also of all the Militia of that Country was commanded by Ching Lucas whose family for five Genetations has served the Emperours of China with as much constancy and fidelity as they did Christ These two having gathered many together which fled from all parts into Quangsi after the Tartars had taken many places in the Country overthrew the Tartarians in a set Battail and passing into the confining Province of Quamgtung they recovered all the Western part of it After this that they might have a head to fight for and who might command and govern them in all Occurrences and withall to draw the minds and hands of the Chineses to the common defence of the Country knowing that in the City of Queilin Jungley made Emperour of China which is the head City of Quangsi there was one of the Taiminges Family living who was Nephew to the Great Vanleius they elected him Emperour and called by the name of Jungley This Prince fixed his Imperial seat in the noble City of Chatking in the Province of Quamgtung and hitherto has fought several times with the Tartars with good success And in this Princes Court the chief Eunuch called Pang Achilleus is the greatest favourite and a great Servant of Christ whom he hath long professed to serve both by word and deed for to propagate Christianity he has ever mantained a mission of Jesuites about him by whose painful endeavours many have embraced the Faith of Christ And amongst others the very Mother of this Emperour his Wife The Heir to the Empire becomes Christian and his eldest Son Heir of the Empire called Constantin did all imbrace Christianity May this Man by the prayers of all Christians prove another Constantine to the Empire of China The Emperour himself is not averse from Christiany but hitherto he hath deferr'd his Baptism but yet he permitted his Wife to send a Father of the Society to do homage to the Sea Apostolick as all Europe has heard God of his goodness grant him that felicity which may redound to the universal good of China and Gods greater Glory But it was not only in Quangsi that the Chineses began to resume their courage Theeves infest the Province of Fokien but in the Province of Fokien also for no sooner was the Tartarian Army called back to Peking but a petty Heathen Priest broke out of the Mountains of Fokien with a band of seditious fellows and subduing the Tartarian Garrisons he took the fair City of Kienning and many others from their subjection and others which lay lurking in the Mountains following his example recovered also many other Cities about which time also the friends and Kindred of the Captive Iquon did extremely infest the Sea and making descents upon the Land vexed the Province extremely about the Quarters of Siuencheu and Changcheu At this time the Governour of the Province of Chekiang was Vice-Roy of two Provinces who hearing of these commotions came presently by night in great hast with all the force he could make towards the Mountains of Fokien for he with reason feared lest they should take possession of the passages of those places which if they had done the whole Province had been regained But when this Vice-Roy called Changus found the Mountains and passages clear and no opposition made in such difficult places he then proclamed himself victorious and his enemies perfidious Rebels Changus the Commander of the Tartars besieges Kienning in vain wherefore comming without resistance into the Country he besieged the City Kienning which was defended by Vangus This Siege held some weeks but he never could take the place by force and therefore having lost many of his men by assaults he judged it best rather to block up the place a far of than to besiege it so close and neer But yet by this he hindred other forces from joyning with Vangus so that he was not strong enough to sally out upon them When the noyse of these commotions came to Peking It is at length taken and raâ—â—d the Emperour presently sent a new supply to appease these tumults and this fresh Army comming to joyn with the other brought the City to great streights but yet they could not win it till at length they found means by a rare invention to transport their Canons over the Mountains upon Porters Shoulders by which means they dismantled the Town and put all whatsoever to the Sword to the number
farewell he intertained them nobly with a Royal feast and in as Royal a Junck which in China are so magnificent as they resemble rather some gilded Palaces than floating Vessels In this Princely Ship he entertained these Princes in all jollity and mirth untill their Army had advanced a good way before and then he declared to Kengus the Emperours order who presently promised all submission and to return to Nanking with him if he would onely permit him to go to his Ship which expected him in the River to order some little affairs of his own which being granted he no sooner got into his Ship but knowing he could not avoid death by another mans hand Kengus hangs himself he chose rather to be his own executioner and hanged himself Yet for all this the supreme Governour in the Emperours name granted to this Mans Son the same Dignity and Province which had been conferred upon the Father and thus the three Royalets joyning again having passed Nanking and Kiangsi came at length into the Province of Quamgtung to carry on the War against the Emperour Jungley and at their first entrance they took many Cities which were loath to oppose the strength of their Armies onely the City of Quangcheu resolved to try its fortune and strength This City of Quangcheu is a most rich and beautiful place environed with large waters and is the onely Southern Port within the Land to which Boats may have access In this Town was the Son of the Captive Iquon whom I mentioned before besides there was a strong Garrison to defend it and amongst others many fugitives from Macao who were content to serve the Emperour Jungly for great stipends and by reason the Tartars had neither Ships nor skill to govern them and that the Town had both the one and the other it is no wonder if they endured almost a whole years Siege having the Sea open for their relief But they made many assaults in which they lost many men and were ever beaten back and vigorously repelled This courage of theirs made the Tartars fall upon a resolution of beating down the Town Walls by their great Canon which took such effect as in fine they took it the 24. of November MDCL and because it was remarked that they gave to one of the Prefects of the Town the same Office he had before it was suspected it was delivered by Treason The City of Quangcheu is taken and Pillaged The next day after they began to Plunder the City and the sackage endured from the 24. of November till the 5. of December in which they never spared Man Woman or Child but all whosoever were cruelly put to the Sword nor was their heard any other Speech But Kill Kill these barbarous Rebels yet they spared some artificers to conserve the necessary Arts as also some strong and lusty men such as they saw able to carry away the Pillage of the City but finally the 6. day of December came out an Edict which forbad all further vexation after they had killed a hundred thousand men besides all those that perished severall ways during the Siege After this bloody Tragedy all the Neighbouring Provinces sent voluntarily their Legats to submit demanding onely mercy which they obtained by the many rich presents which were offered After this the Royalet marched with his Army against the City Chaoking where the Emperour Jungley held his Court but he knowing himself far inferiour in Forces and unable to resist fled away with his whole Army and Family The Emperour Jungly flyâ— leaving the City to the Tartars mercy But whither this Emperour fled is yet wholy unknown to me for at this time I took Shipping in Fokien to the Philippines and from thence I was commanded to go for Europe by those to whom I consecrate my self and all my labours But I make no doubt but the Emperour retired into the adjoyning Province called Quangsi Now to give the Reader a little touch how the Tartars stand affected to Christianity it deserves to be reflected on that in the Metropolitan City of Quangcheu which as I now related was utterly destroyed there was a venerable person who had the care and superintendency of all the Christians whose name was Alvarus Semedo a Jesuit this Man they took and tyed hand and foot for many days and threatned to kill him every hower unless he would deliver the Christians Treasures but the poor Man had no Treasure to produce so as he suffered much till at length the King hearing of his case took pitty of his venerable gray Heirs and comely person and gave him not onely his life and liberty but a Bible and Breviary The Tartars offer a Church to Christians which is their Prayer Book together with a good sum of Mony for an Alms and finally a House to build a Church for Christians and this is less to be wondred at from him who heretofore was a Souldier under that famous Sun Ignatius whom I mentioned before where he knew what belonged to Christianity and also had seen the Jesuits in the Camp from whence he fled to the Tartars Nor is it onely this Tartar that loves us Christians but in a manner all the rest do love honour and esteem those Fathers The Tartars embrace Christians and many have imbraced our Religion nor do we doubt but many more would follow their example if we could enter Tartary as now it is projecting where doubtless many great things might be performed for the reducing of that Nation to the Faith of Christ and perchance God has opened away to the Tartars to enter China to give Christianity a passage into Tartary which hitherto to us have been unknown and inaccessible About this time also they made War against the Kingdom of Corea Corea revolted from the Tartars for of late years they became also Tributary to the Tartars upon condition that they should still conserve their Hair and habits but now the Tartars would needs constrain them to conform themselves to the Tartarian fashion and therefore all that Kingdom revolted from the Tartars but my departure hindred me from knowing since what has passed But all these glorious victories were much Eclipsed Amavangus dyeth by the sorrowful death of Amavangus which happened in the beginning of the year MDCLI He was a Man to whom the Tartars owe their Empire in China and such an one as whom both Tartars and Chineses loved and feared for his prudence Justice humanity and skill in Martial affairs The death of this Potentate did much trouble the Court for the Brother to this Man called Quingtus would needs pretend to the Government of the Empire and of the young Emperour Xunchius but both the Tartars and the Chineses resisted his clame alleging that being of sixteen year old he was able to govern the Kingdom himself and in conformity to this opinion all the Presidents deposed the Ensigns of their Offices refusing ever to receive them