any former Decree of their Emperors by a direct Contradiction but study to impugn it some other ways As for Example In Shaw Abas the Great 's time on the days of their Feasts and Jubilees Gladiators were approved and licensed but feeling afterwards the Evils that attended that Liberty which was chiefly used in their Hossy Gossy any private Grudge being then openly revenged it never was forbid but it passed into an Edict by the following King That it should be lawful to kill any found with Naked Swords in that Solemnity And on these substantial grounds this new Order enjoys not only the Name of Suffees but the Emperor himself will be their Captain and suffers none else to head them and thence takes on him the specious Name and Title of Grand Suffee and to perpetuate their Memory has given it indelibly to Spahaun for this reason joined with the former to be called Suffahaun To distinguish these from the others Their Habit and the Persian Standard Red and White who cloathe themselves in Green Attire and forbid it to any else they wear an high Red Velvet Cap plaited at top like a Cap of Maintenance whence on a Wooden Crest they fix a little Brass Ball tied on with three wreathen Chains which they bring down strait to the fore-part of the Bonnet whose lower Brim is bound about with a White Sash and sometimes a Plume of one Feather is set up with the Crest much after the same Fashion the Noble Senators wear in the King's Presence Besides which they have a Surcoat of Scarlet Cloth as it were in defiance to the Grass green of the Siads so much monopolized by them that in Turky if any other wear it he pays dearly for his Folly The Grand Signior's Standard is also of that Colour being called Mahomet's Banner In opposition to whom the Grand Suffee erects a double-pointed Bloody Sword in a White Field and brings it out in honour of Mortis Ally To his adopted Kindred now Regulars under him Their Privileges their Chief are many Privileges granted and by them to be held inviolable They are allowed a peculiar Missa or Service in a Chappel apart in the Alacoppe or place where the Grand Council sit where they attend the King or one in his stead every Friday Night at the Sacrament of Holway or Wafer made up in Sweetmeats in Imitation of the Shew-bread When any one has run into Debt or committed any Capital Crime as Murther Adultery Theft or the like if the one to defraud his Câ—editor and the other to avoid the hands of Justice make their Escape to the Alacoppe the first Gate of the Palace-Royal or to the King's Stables and implore their Protection and they engage for their Refuge it is a Piacular Offence to force them thence nor will they resign them to the Emperor though he command them to be taken from their Sanctuary Nor are they so wholly devoted to compassionate others Afflictions as to defend their own Rights for whosoever's Face the Emperor commands them to cover they are dead in Law nor will they scruple being Executioners no more than the Roman Lictors who bore the Rods and Axes the latter of which are their proper Weapons of War as well as a fit Badge of their Office Their prescribed Number cannot enlarge its self to all of their Sect wherefore they are interspersed among the common People some following Trades and Husbandry and others other Employments retaining always their Habit which none of the Vulgar dare affront or strike however provoked but taking off their Suffean Cap first and kissing it laying it down reverently they will not then be afraid to cuff them or drub them to purpose being careful in the mean while to offer no Indignity to the Order while they revenge themselves on the Persons Besides these there is another Mark of Honour wholly in the King's Power Other Knights and never bestowed but on those of the Prime Nobility and those who have endeared him by some famous Performance for which they are signalized by wearing a small Kettle-drum at the Bow of their Saddles in their Cities which at first was invented for the training of Hawks and to call them to the Lure and is worn in the Fields by all Sportsmen for that end but he who is rewarded with it from the King is a Man of Supreme Dignity and therefore Titulo dignatus equestri Virtutem titulis titulos virtutibus ornans A Knight of high Degree Adorns his Title by his Chivalry And thus having muster'd the Horse The Infantry let us dismount and take an Account of the Foot who are not so formidable for Multitudes as Valour the Infantry are all Gun-men and are better in Garison and under Covert than in open Field fighting Hand to Fist chiefly because having been brought up under that Discipline they are unacquainted with any other way of Engagement But the Georgian Veterans who are in the same nature among the Persians as the Janizaries among the Turks will stand it out either for Victory or Death both Persians and Georgians are thus disposed of in their Ranks The First Order is Cool Their Salary 9 Thomands per An. At the King's Charge for Cloaths and Diet. The Second Order is Corge Their Salary 6 without Charges The Third Jeserve Their Salary 5 all Charges defray'd Which are the King 's own Regiments walking with Feathers in their high Hats armed with Muskets and Axes The Fourth Topangee Their Salary 5 Thomands without Charges defray'd The Fifth Taterdars Their Salary 4 Thomands without Charges defray'd Armed only with Poleaxes and Muskets Of whose certain Number Rumour and common Fame must be believed where no other Notice can be had There are in readiness 40000 Georgians Besides 80000 Stationaries to and again in Garisons All these receive their Pay out of the King's Treasury or from Set Rents To these may be added the Provincial Cohorts as Subsidiary Forces which are reserved for the last Push to succour the declining Army in great Necessity These differ both in the manner of their Function and Pay Otherwise whatever the other foregoing Orders perform to the Emperor these are bound to pay to their respective Cauns receiving their Pensions from the alotted Lands of several Colonies not from the common Bank The lowest Degree of all these are the Watchmen on the Roads The Watchmen maintained at the Charge of the Shawbunder to clear the Ways of Robbers and to demand Custom for which if any are set upon in the King's Highway whatever Loss is sustained the Countrey is at no Charge neither does the Merchant or Traveller suffer the Damage but whatever is entred at the Custom-house the Shawbunder becomes obliged to see safe through the Kingdom and makes full Satisfaction for any Miscarriage of this nature The Men that serve under this Warfare are armed with Halberts Bills and Falchions and are hired by the Day as need requires Now follow the Sons
South So that it may be concluded for the Benefit of an Harbour for the Dispositions of the Natives for a convenient Supply or more truly Abundance of all things for a due imployment of them but above all for the Commodities Exported and the Riches Imported Surat cannot be fellowed in India CHAP. IV. Brings me with a New Deputy-Governor from Surat to Bombaim and sends me to the Mogul's General at Jeneah THE Fourth of April 1675. arriving at Bombaim with Mr. Gyfford he was reinstated Deputy-Governor of that Island Captain Shaxton in this interim having his Sword demanded from him by the Governor and had been under Confinement being bound to answer an Indictment wherein he was accused of Abetting the Mutinous Soldiers For whose Trial Captain Shaxton sent home after a long endeavour to bring him to acknowledgment was erected a select Court of Judicature and an Attorny ordered to impeach him who with some borrowed Rhetorick endeavoured to make him appear a Second Catiline but he cleared himself so handsomely of all Objections being sick at that time the Stirs were and having no reference to him their Complaints being of another nature as the taking Money for more than could be passed current again and other like pretended Exactions that they had no more to answer than that it should be referred to the Company before whom he must personally appear and therefore was ordered home but was prevented by Death at the end of his Voyage Otherwise he would have made it plain Envy had underhand worked what she durst not attempt boldly on a Man of Honour and for no other Reason than that he understood himself as a Soldier and in that point would be known By this Man's Misfortune might have been seen the dislike that the Company 's Servants bear towards any of equal poise with themselves and not of that Rank for thereby they count they are injured having others put over their heads as 't is termed but if by chance they convince them of their Folly it becomes a Crime unpardonable The first ground of this Quarrel being upon unnecessary Appendices to the Fort as Pallisadoes in Mud so contrived that they were rather a means to take than defend it which afterwards were all washed away by the Rains to these some Despight being added he being a Man sharp in his Jests and blunt in Counsel it never ended till it proved as fatal as Remus's leaping over his Brother Romulus his Ditch cast for a Trench about Old Rome Few days had been spent afore a Sea-Tortoise was brought to the Fort A Sea-Tortoise taken in Length Six Feet the content of his Hut near two Bushels reckoning only that part with which his Back is shielded being an huge Shell of a brown Colour never to be made transparent as those come from the South-Seas are nor easily to be crackt by any weight for Experiment I and two more got upon it and the Tortoise unconcerned carried us Its Head is loricated with Scales the Neck reaching as far as the Hut soft and undefensible the Fins are four placed instead of Legs by which it crawls as well as swims the Belly is covered with a Breast-plate called the Callapee soft and whitish in respect of the Back-piece or Callipet its Tail is short and wreathed like a Serpent's altogether it is as lovely as a Toad It sighs like a Woman and weeps like a Child being taken and turned on its back it is shiftless I caused it to be opened The Fable of its having three Hearts confuted and examined its Heart which contrary to the Opinion of the Vulgar is but One they affirming it to be Three grounded on this Mistake the Auricles being larger than in other Creatures equalling almost the Ventricles and whole Body of the Heart which is bigger in proportion than belongs to such an Animal being as large as an Ox's which might be the reason of its Pusilanimity The Veins and Arteries were filled with Currents of cold black Blood It participates more of Flesh than Fish of a viviparous than oviparous Offspring yet lays imperfect Eggs without a Crust only covered with a Membrane being most Yolk buried by it in the Sands to receive from the Sun's heat the perfection of their Hatching as the Eggs of Egypt from Furnaces or others from Dunghills It spawns them as Fish do in huge quantities as much at one time as will more than fill a Seaman's Bonnet every one being as big as an Hen's Egg By them aboard Ship they are ordered like buttered Eggs of a Fowl though nearer akin to a Serpent's hanging together as those do For this end they come ashore and when pursued cast up with their Claws a Cloud of Sand to blind their Enemies when overtaken some are so big four men can hardly turn them It is supposed they feed on the Grass or Oaz on Land or at the bottom of the Ocean and from the Fable of the Three Hearts springs the Conceit of its Tripartite Community of Fish and Flesh and Fowl the outward Covering being Shelly the inner Meat Carnous its way of preserving its kind being by Eggs as the Feathered Fowl do To me it seems though the Flesh be highly extolled for the taste and colour of Veal neither Fish nor Flesh nor good Red Herring It bears the Vogue for altering the Blood The Flesh restorative wherefore good in Scurvies got by bad Air and Diet in long Voyages and for the Running of the Reins by impure Copulation for which 't is used as an undoubted Cure purging by the Genitals an Oily viscous Matter of a Yellow hew if fed upon constantly for thirty days restoring the decayed Vigour of the Body and giving it a grace and lustre as elegant as Viper Wine does Consumptive Persons or worn-out Prostitutes About this time the President put in execution a Project for the advancing the Island Bombaim wherefore an Envoy was sent to explore the Passage through Seva Gi 's Country into the Confines of Duccan but returned with a fruitless Account only making farther work for me One of the Mogul's Generals over Seventeen thousand Horse and Three thousand Foot and Governor of Jeneah the Chief City of that Kingdom having occasion for one of my Function on St. George's Day I was commanded by the Honourable Gerald Aungier with only Oral Instructions to embarque on a Bombaim Boat of Twelve Oars and a Steer's-man waited on by two of the Governor's Servants four Moor Peons a Portuguez my own Servants a Brachmin for Linguist an Horse-keeper eight Coolies to my Palenkeen a dozen Frasses for Lumber and one Horse Thus equipped Take Boat for Duccan I left Bombaim about Three in the Afternoon and the same Night about Nine Anchored on this side Tanaw where in our passage were visible a great way off on the tops of the Mountains several Fortresses of Seva Gi 's only defensible by Nature needing no other Artillery but Stones which they tumble down
on our Pace through Pasture-Grounds such as our Commons where they are down-fed that little more than Green-Sod appears in which were wanton Foles and unback'd Colts with Mares for Breed and unbridled Stallions sporting on the spacious Downs which brought us onwards to Siras Twelve Miles more viz. to the Beggars-Garden but one Pharsang short of the City called Vdgewally Here we had scarcely alighted but the French Agent having notice of our coming beat up our Quarters and broke us of our Sleep By Break of Day the Armenian Christians which are numerous came to congratulate our Arrival and brought Banquets of Wine Fruit and a Cold Treat with Led Horses of State and loud Musick to make our Entry the more Pompous Our Entry into Siras In order whereunto about Eleven in thâ—â— Morning conducted with much Ceremony we approached Siras where we found Spectators answerable to the Novelty of our Appearance and the Greatness of our Train with which we were passing through this City nigh Two Hours before we were enclos'd within the Walls of the English House which is a Noble one in the middle of a stately Garden Hither came the Fathers of all Orders to bid us Welcome that were resident in the several Convents allowed them in this City all which and other Christian Attendants were not dismiss'd till after a Splendid Dinner provided by our Interpreter who makes some Thousands a Year by the License of our Winepress the Profit whereof is wholly his The Wines of the Growth of this Country are esteemed the most Stomachical and Generous in all Persia The Wines of Siras generous and fittest for common drinking when allayed a little with Water otherwise too heady for the Brain and heavy for the Stomach their Passage being retarded for want of that proper Vehicle It is incredible to see what Quantities they drink at a Merry-meeting and how unconcerned the next day they appear and brisk about their Business and will quaff you thus a whole Week together In which Exercise when they engage The People good Companions they observe this Maxim Always to lay in Ballast they eating heartily and all the time that Healths are passing about they have Cucumbers Melons and other Fruits before them which must be acknowledged to receive the most perfect Ripeness and therefore are more innocent here than any where else Tobacco is a general Companion and to give them their due they are Conversable Good-Fellows sparing no one his Bowl in their turn and to be sure none shall escape a Nosegay Orange or some such Mark as passes with every Health so that sometimes when they mind Discourse more than the Business in hand a whole Nest of Posies wait on one Man who must clear himself or disgust those whose Healths remain unpledg'd Having discharg'd the Fatigue of this Day it remained incumbent on our parts to return these Civilities which was to renew the Trouble again each striving to outvye others in their Entertainments In these Courteous Visits we spent a Week nor was that sufficient but we being late in the Year for this Journey to Spahaun our Interpreter excused our Neglect CHAP. IV. Of Siras and the Ancient City Persepolis and our Journying quite through Persia IN our Stay here we had Opportunity to observe Siras not only by Fame but indeed to be second to none except the Royal City in the whole Empire And in this Country the Country which is properly Persia extended from the Gulph to â—â—â—luchos which parts Parthia from it by a great Ditch made for a â—â—ndary on that Side to this Ancient Kingdom it is the principal Metropolis It is delivered as a Tradition Siras the chief City in Persia That it arose from the Ruins of Persepolis Others will have it as old as Cyrus who contend for him to be the Founder for that the nearness of the Name intimates as much But that he should raise it as a Monument seems not so probable who would not permit it at his Death as that these People devoted to his Memory might on the Miscarriage of Persepolis raise this in Honour of him whose Remembrance might at once revive the Glory of the then fallen Monarchy and bury the hated Name of the new Conqueror in Oblivion who had sullied all his Lawrels by hearkning to the unlimited Revenge of a Prostitute to lay the most flourishing Persepolis in Ashes from whence Phoenix like this is supposed to spring And when we enter its Wealthy Markets or Buzzars Basilick Buildings supported by Rows of vast Pillars covered at top of which there are innumerable large and splendid abounding with Rich Merchandize Chap. IV. the stately Palaces of the Caun and other Nobles the pleasant Walks and Gardens Colleges and Temples the Tombs and Water-Courses we may afflict our selves with the Losses magnified by Historians but at the same time do Injustice to so valuable a Reparation which for ought I know exceeds the worth of the other And what adds to its Esteem it is reckoned by the Persians an Holy City wherefore it 's Endowed with Schools and Convents with Allowance for Students nor do they in any place excel for the Concinnity of Harmony in Chorus from the high Towers of their Mosques at their stated Hours for Devotion these sweet Singers of Siras It boasts therefore of its being an University which it truly merits from the confluence of all the Learned Tribe coming hither for Education Their stately Gardens and Summer-Houses are out of the Town Their Gardens whither resort those Invited either by Curiosity or Recreation the most famous of which we Visited under whose shady Bowers we were Feasted from the Heel of every Day till Midnight while we remained here by the interchangeable Solicitations of our Christian Friends Among which The Cypress Trees the bigest in the Universe that honoured with the Royal Claim and therefore stiled the King's Garden deservedly carries the Lustre from the rest and though every one share in some Excellency or other yet this comprehends them all in one being a large Map of the whole Here grow the loftiest Cypress-Trees in the Universe nor do they want Bodies proportionable to their Height one of which is said to be Set by Shaw Abas their Beloved Emperor Measures some Fathoms round So addicted are these People to Loyal Heartedness that what is Great or Magnificent they offer up as a grateful Testimony to perpetuate the Fame of those Princes who have deserved well in their Annals for which reason these Trees keep the Name of Token Cyr even down to this our Age willing thereby to Immortalize the Grand Cyrus transmitting an unalterable Tradition as lasting as Posterity its self These set in Order make Majestick Walks under whose shelter thrive the Underwoods which were they removed from the first Rank of the Quarters whether our Countrymen would allow the rest to be Wilderness Orchard or Garden would be a Question since these with the
Brampore his eldest Son came to Brampore with a mighty Army for all that Seva spoils the Country at his pleasure knowing well the Sultan will not break his Forces to hazard a Battel till he sees how his Father speeds that he may be the better able to promote his own Interest for the Crown On which score it is unhappy both for the Husbandman and Merchant who suffer on all hands being pillaged and plundered without redress This Year hath been filled with Two Portentous Calamities Two Portents the one Inland a Shower of Blood for Twelve Hours the other on the Sea-Coast Mechlapatan being overturned by an Inundation wherein Sixteen thousand Souls perished And this being the sum of this Anniversary I remain Surat December 31. 1679. Tours J. F. LETTER VII CHAP. I. Continues the general Occurrences with Remarks SIR AMidst these Wars and rumours of Wars we quietly lay down our Arms and leave Seva Gi and the Syddy alone to contend for our stony piece of Ground on Henry Kenry The Syddy and Seva left to contend for Henry Kenry how much to our Honour or Reproach may be gathered from the Language we have daily cast in our Teeth Why Vaunts your Nation What Victories have you atchieved What has your Sword done Who ever felt your Power What do you possess We see the Dutch outdo you the Portugals have behaved themselves like Men The English Reproach'd every one runs you down you can scarce keep Bombaim which you got as we know not by your Valour but Compact And will you pretend to be Men of War or Cope with our Princes It 's fitter for you to live on Merchandise and submit to us But for all these Revilings Seva Gi makes them tremble here forgetting that twice their Safety has been owing to us from falling into the hands of that terrible Plunderer For all which the Mogul continues a double Poll on the Heathens this Year The Mogul inflicts a double Poll. and breaks down their Idolatrous Images where-ever he finds them whereupon the Heathens begin to Worship in Dens and Caâ—es and solitary Places being forbidden their open Celebrations In the heat of all these Combustions Seva Gi Dies the Firebrand Seva Gi is called to pay the common Debt to Nature he Expiring June 1. 1680. though after some time his Arms are carried on by his Son Sambu Gi Raja whose first care was to solemnize his Father's Exequies with hellish and cruel Rites after the barbarous Custom of these Princes to Burn all that were grateful to them when living to attend them in the other state of Life doubtless deriving it which is more than alluding to from the ancient Getae their first Parents and not theirs alone but of all the World since the Deluge who as Nich. Damascen reports Tauri gens Scythica una cum Regibus mortuis gratissimos quosque amicorum humare solent and Solinus as well as Pomponius Mela says the same of their Wives Funera Festa sunt veluti sacra cantu lusuque celebrantur ne foeminis quidem segnis est animus super mortuorum virorum corpora interfici simulque sepeliri votum eximium habent quia plures simul singulis nuptoe sunt cujus id sit decus apud judicaturos magno certamine affectant Which here though it be said to be slain and buried with their Husbands Letter VII is the same as to be burned since the Custom of burying also with their Husbands has been before declared and still is maintained to be put in execution among these Heathen Princes Seva Gi while living as he delignted in Fire and Sword so he was sent out of the World with a numerous Company consumed in his Flames Yet not such a Train as Raja Jessinsin had when he died which was far greater being a more Potent though less Barbarous Raja but his Widow now holding out against the Mogul though his Prime Lady being then big with Child was excused and she still is preserved to bring up the Young Prince whom they own for their Raja Thus these two great Rajas being disposed of by Fate Heats about Succession the Gentiles seem to be under hatches the Mogul for the present persecuting them with the utmost severity and hatred and the rather for that the great Ministers of the deceased Seva Gi were at variance about the Promotion of the Successor Anna Gi Pundit Chief Minister of State setting up the Younger Son and Morad Pundit declaring for Sambu Gi the Eldest who after punishing his Opposers was before the time fit for Expedition in the Low Countries proclaimed Maw Raja or the lawful Heir to his Father's Conquests In this Interim the Mogul The Moguls Eldest Son sent to the Post jealous of his Eldest Son had sent him to the Joualar or Post but the next being commanded from their Kingdoms where they were fixed the one Sultan Assum in Bengala the other Sultan Massum in Aurengabad have refused to resign and stand upon defiance if they be farther moved which Resentments the Father must smother a while having been twice out this Year against the Infidels with a numerous Army which have been as often distressed by Famine and forced to return without engaging the Rashpoots leading them into Straits while they shift from Mountain to Mountain and studiously avoid coming to blows The Emperor being returned to Court Withdraws his Army makes much of his youngest Son whom all give out he intends to raise to the Throne after his Death whose Name is Sultan Eckbar but at present being wholly bent on the Ruin and Extirpation of the Gentiles he forbears to nominate him as yet Within the Gate O. O. was Vdepor but the way was so thick of Thorne trees that one man would have kept back a â—00 A A fine Tower of the foot of the Hill B A Garden near the Tower C The first Gate D The Way E Another Gate F A Gate H A Gate I The Walls K Hills Trees and Thorne Woods M A four square Tower 7 Stories high being the entrance into the Pagod N The House of the Ranna in those days there were many brave Pallaces and before the Tower a Rwer with a Bridge of 12 Aâ—ches also many fine Goardens form erly the King had to mâ—ntain it 6000 men in his Court of Guards and in the field 550â—â— men This Truth An Example 〈◊〉 Tâ—eason though he stomach'd he could not but own yet resolved to dissemble it and having seized Letters signed from Cabul Caun to Sultan Massum to begin a Rebellion while his Father was in Asmire against the Ranna which were intercepted by the Advice or Cunning I know not which of Emir Caun he found in what condition he was and that it was time to withhold but for a Reward of the Treason designed he order'd Cabul Caun immediately to be thrown down a steep Rock as a Terror to the Conspirators And now being returned The