as he could possibly This is all which the Relation informs us concerning the Tyrant and it makes no farther mention neither concerning his Person Army or prodigious riches It is no small trouble to me that I should have so often occasion to complain of the defect of the Relation But the person who furnished me with the Memorials relating to this part of the History knew no more and satisfied himself with acquainting me that at the time of his Writing all thingâ—â— were in such a confusion in the whole State that he could not possibly clearly inform himself concerning divers Particulars This is most certain that the Tartarâ—â— did in a short time after conquer all the Provinces even that of Xensi whither Ly was retreated but whether or no he was there seized upon by the Tartars or what became either of him his Army or vast Riches is not at all mentioned It is strange they should be so negligent in the Tartarian Court as not more particularly to inform themselves herein For the Relatioâ—â— from the Information of divers persons who came from Pequin since the Coronation of the Cham makes mention of divers Passages less remarkable buâ—â— takes no notice of the last Adventures of the Tyrant That which is most credibly famed is That his Followers when they more seriously reflected upon the Enormity of the Crimes which this execrable Traitor had perpetrated against his own Countrey and the numberless calamities which he had drawn upon that once so flourishing an Empire and after all this that he should be so infamous a Coward as not to dare to oppose the Tartars nor so much as to face them at their first approach when he mighâ—â— more advantageously have fought them having then a very gallant and numerous Army which now every day mouldered away and did not only renounce his Authority but detest his very Person and that he should yet keep to himself those vast Richâ—â—s which they judged to be a Spoil more due to them than to so cowardly a Vagabond They combined together to make away his person and to seize upon those Treasures which he was then possessed of and which the Emperours of China had been many generations collecting And when they had executed their Design and divided the Prey the whole Army disbanded and dispersed themselves up down the other Provinces But should his Souldiers have spared him his Life it would have been very difficult for him to have escaped some disasterous end or other from the rage of the rest of his Countreymen foâ—â— Don Iulian was never more abhorred by the Goths who dwelt in Spain than Ly was generally by all the Chineses But I shall speak no more of him and may what I have now said be sufficient to strike a horrour into all such Villains whose punishment can never adequate their Crimes I shall only add that this Traitor ruined both his Prince and himself buâ—â— the Calamities which he drew upon his Countrey did not expire with him He had advanced himself by the Fall of his Soveraign All that ambitious men can aspire to is only to ascend by the same steps by which others descend but how little do they consider with what peril they advance themselves that by the height of their Fall they may purchase to themselves the greater repentance that they were ever mounted so high If so potent an Emperour could fall so low what could so base a Tyrant expect but quickly to be reduced to that extremity as to search out a Precipice to fling himself down headlong Yet so fatally mischievous was the Destiny of this vile Wretch that he acted these Villanies though he could not but know that the Empire and his Countrey would remain only to those who were the least buried in its Ruines It was at the last manifest to all persons that the Attempt of this perfidious Villain was to ruine the whole State and there was none but abominated both his Person and his Actions But the Mischief was done and his death and punishment would not remedy it So true it is that all things are with no great violence discomposed but not so easily reduced into order again And fâ—â—om hence it is that there is nothing more faulty than to begin a Mischief nor nothing more difficult than to put a period to the progress of it There was now no more mention made of Ly at Pequin Xunchi the young King of the Tartars was absolute Soveraign and so active a Prince was he that after his first Victory he woulâ—â— take no respite or stand still so mucâ—â— as to take breath but resolved witâ—â— all speed to exercise his magnanimouâ—â— Courage in subduing the whole Empire And that he might the morâ—â— successfully begin his Enterprize he considered that the King of Corea waâ—â— his Neighbour and that it would noâ—â— be secure for him to leave one so potent behind him The Kingdom of Corea lies on the East of China and is little less in extent than all Spain It is only separated from China by a great River and was Tributary thereto heretofore when China was in subjection to the Tartars but since the Coreans have refused to submit themselvs to the Dominion of the Chineses and have chosen to themsâ—â—lves a King of their own who only somtimes sent Presents to the Emperours of China the Tartars therefore now laid claim to it by right of their former possession and upon this pretence they marched towards those parts with their whole Army But it was not so easie to conquer the Coreans as to subdue Pequin for they are a more warlike people than the Chineses and have for a long time been engaged in a hereditary War with the Inhabitants of Iapan who are naturally very fierce and much addicted to War and hereby the Coreans have learn'd how to handle their Arms in their own Defence and besides they were not divided either by Faction or Treachery but firmly united in their Councils and stedfastly resolved to defend themselves They were governed by a Prince who was unfeignedly beloved and chearfully obeyed and who led them into the Field himself and for these Reasons they gave a greater check to the victorious progress of the Tartars than â—â—he Chineses could yet do But the Tartars overpowering them in Force and being animated by their success gained great advantages over them in all parts Fortune declared her self so favourable to the Tartar that she did thereby evidence she destined him only for Victory and Triumph But though in a short time he reduced a great part of this Kingdom yet it was not without the loss of his best Souldiers The King of Corea perceiving that his Forces were neither for number nor strength sufficient to oppose so powerful an Enemy thought he should more successfully by submission defend himself There is nothing which Ambition will not do to support it self if it be convenient to do any abject or low action then there is
and caves all their lives were so highly surprised â—â—hat it is not to be expressed for they were so amazed at it that they knâ—â—w not whether they should believe them to be men or women and could never cease to admire them though they were as much afraid of them as of the men Yet for all this we mâ—â—st not suppose that shooting and riding is the sole employment of the Tartarian women But they only use these exercises to shew what by their valour and courage they are able to do if occasion requires it And the truth is they accompany their husbands in the Wars and many times charge wiâ—â—h them into the very midst of the enemies battalion But nothing is more admirable in these women than their dexâ—â—erity in governing and managing their horses which they do so skilfully it is beyond all expression and there is none but understand how to to ride and manage a Horse better than most men in other Countries It is not there as in Spain where only Gentlâ—â—men and Persons of Quality ride on Horse-back All the Tartarian women poor or rich do it daily Their Horses serve them instead of Coaches and Sedans And they have each of them their Horses in particular which they train up and manage so that it would be as great a disparagement to a Woman in Tartary not to know how to ride on Horse-back as in Spain not to know how to go upon Chopino's Doubtless whatever transcends its due bounds and measure is deservedly blameable And as we cannot excuse men who in effeminacy and a sollitous care to trick and trim up themselves exceed even women So neither can we approve that women should surpass men in those Exercises which are more proper for the masculine than feminine Sex But usage and custome may render those things excusable which in themselves are neither contrary to religon or honesty Or at least from the custom and usâ—â— which is made of them we are to pasâ—â— judgment whether the practise of them is to be tollerated or condemned And as for those actions and customs of several people and nations which have regard only to â—â—n outward decency and decorum which serves only to make them be esteemed of by others either more or less civilised or polite these I say depend very much upon opinion As for modes and fashions every maâ—â— passes his censure upon them according to his own vanity and capriciousness Some applaud and approve of that which others dislike and vilifie Something 's are thought very decent and graceful in the opinion and fancy of some persons and yet to hear otheâ—â—s speak of them nothing is more ungraceful or ridiculous Thus men scoff at and deride one another and yet at the same time each man thinks he hath reason on his side But it is certain that though all men are not rational at all times yet the Tartars have reason to love their own Country women the better since they so sympathise with them in their Martial genius and apply themselves to those exercises which suit and agree so well with their inclinations The women there do both spring from and are made of a waâ—â—like bloud and spirit and from their very cradles they both recreate themselves by the practise of those qualiâ—â—ies with which nature hath endued them and in which they have made themselves by habit and custom so expert and likewise hereby they render themselves agreeable to the men And therefore either they are not very blameable to follow those exercises which are not so usual for women in other Countries or if herein they commit a fault it ought to be esteemed a very pardonable one This is all the information I have received concerning those Tartars which have conquered so vast and rich an Empire After I had given you account of their Military power I thought my self obliged to add something concerning their customs and management of civil affairs for seeing they now govern give Laws and introduce what customs they please throughout all that spatious Country we may from thence take some measure of the present state of China under its new masters But that which yet remains the most deplorable is that such an infinite number of people both the conquered and the conquerors should still remain under the tyranny of Infidelity and Impiety There hath been some hope that the Tartars who have not yet shewn themselves so rebellious to the Gospel of Christ as the Chineses were might give freer entrance and a better reception than they did to those to whom it should please God to inspire to go and reveal the glad tidings thereof to them But as yet these are only the desires and wishes of those who dayly pray to God that his Kingdom may come we must therefore all incessantly offer up our prayers and supplications to him that he would shower down his Graces and Benedictions upon the hearts of those Christian Princes who have had or shall have any part in that great work It hath been the glory of the Kings of Spain to have sent over and maintained several Labourers to work in that vast harvest And this great and glorious attempt hath deservedly gained them the title of Apostolick Princes from one of the Soveraign high Priests of the Roman-Catholick Church Gregory XIV FINIS The Booksellers Advertisement LEst the Faults which have escaped the Press might be imputed to the person of Honour who gave himself the trouble of rendring the foregoing History into English I thought my self in gratitude oblig'd to acquaint the Buyer that the worthy Author 's more weighty occasions would not allow him the leisure to revise or correct any part thereof and therefore if some words have been mistaken or omitted I hope they are not so numerous but they may procure pardon from the Candid Reader M. P. These Books are to be sold by Moses Pitt at the White Hart in Little Britain Folio CAssandra the fam'd Romance 1667. Brigg's Logarithms Francisci Suarez Metaphysica Quarto Dr. Iohn Pell's Introduction to Algebra Translated out of High Dutch into English by Thomas Branker M. A. 1668. Nich. Mercatoris Logarithmo-Technia sive Methodus construendi Logarithmos 1668. Iacobi Gregorii Exercitationes Geometricae 1668. Dr. Iohn Wallis Opera Mechanica pars prima secunda 1670. Pars tertia now in the Press Banister's Works of Chyrurgery Hugh Broughton's Consent of Scripture Snellii Typis Batavus Lugd. Bat. 1624. Snellii Observat. Hussiacae Petrus Paaw de Ossibus Amstelreod 1633. Lex Talionis sive Vindiciae Pharmacoâ—â—oeorum Octavo The History of the Heathen Gods 1671. A Discourse of Local Motion undertaking to demonstrate the Laws of Motion and withall to prove that of the seven Rules delivered by Mr. Des-Cartes on this Subject he hath mistaken Six Englished out of French 1671. 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Prodromus to a Dissertation concerning Solids naturally contained within Solids laying a Foundation for the rendring a rational Account both of the Frame and the several Changes of the Mass of the Earth as also the various Productions of the same By Nicholaus Steno 1671. The Second Volume of the History of the Great Mogul by F. Berneire Now in the Press Nicholas Mercators's Tables of Logarithms Now ready for the Press * All Magistrates both Civil and Military are called in the Chinese Tongue Quonfu which signifies men fit for Counsel and for their Quality not Office are stiled Lavie Lavisy or Lavias which signifies Lord or Master But the Portuguezes and in imitation of them all the Europeans call them Mandorins derived as Arnoldus Montanus saith from the Portugueze word Mandarim a Commander or Governour or as Kircher intimates from the Latin word Mandare to Command * The Colao's were superiour to all other Magistrates in the Kingdom and had in a manner a Iurisdiction over them Therefore Semedo calls them the Supreme Presidents in all Councils and of the whole Government and saith they are commonly but four and may never excâ—â—ed the nâ—â—mber of six * Cha is a Plant growing in Japan and China the Leaveâ—â— of which the Japanners grind to Powder and drink it înfused in warm Water But the Chineses iâ—â—fuse the wholâ—â— Leaves in the same manner as they do Theè And the resemblance of the Leaves of these two Plants to each other when they are expanded in warm water makes me question whether Cha is not the tops of Theè â—â—r else some species thereof Though Gaspar Bauhinus places it amongst the Fennels for which he is reproved by the most â—â—earned Botanisâ—â— Dr. Morrison * Wat is the Down which covers the seeds of the Apocynum Syriacum called in English Silk-grass * A Ducat is worth about six shilâ—â—ings eight pence sterling * Chopino's are high Cloggs which the Women use in Spain to make them appear tall
many taxes he would leave his Son a poorer Kingdom than he had received from his Father answer'd Relinquo sed diuturnius that is I shall leave him a more lasting Kingdom Happy had it been for Xunchin the Emperour of China had he been of Theopompus his mind But I must confess though I find him by many Authors branded for his Covetousness yet I am not very apt to suspect him so guilty of that vice as of another usually more fatal to Princes which is a facile Nature easie to be wrought upon by others and too inclinable to favour and indulge themselves and not willing to undergo the weight of affaires From whence it was that though during the Reign of his Brother Thienking who preceded him in the Imperial Throne he so opposed his Darling favourite the Eunuch Guei and all the Eunuchs his Partisans that at last he prevailed with his Brother to banish them all his Court to the great joy and satisfaction of the whole Empire And when his Brother dying without Issue the Imperial Crown fell to him at his first taking poffession thereof he so persecuted the Eunuchs who by abuse of their Authority under his Brother had made themselves abhorr'd by the whole Nation that Guei in despair poisoned himself Yet at last this very Emperour suffered himself by the crafty insinuation of some persons about him contrary to his own judgment to be prevailed with to recall these insolent Extortioners and most imprudentlâ—â— made his incensed enemies his reconciled Confidents And intrusts tâ—â—em with the sole management of all affairs who now conceâ—â—l their malice against him but forgot not to study revenge and being backed with his authority by their extortion they grind the face of the people thereby enrich themselves render their Master odious to his Subjects endeavour by all arts to defraud him keep back the Souldiers pay and provisions thereby to occasion Mutinies hold correspondence with the Rebells not acquaint him with the danger that threatned both him and his Empire and at last admit the whole Army of the Traitors into the very Walls of the City Peking the sad consequences of which the following History very particularly relates Now that I have out of other Authors more fully than Sen̄ór Palafox doth acquainted you with the occasion of those Insurrections which brought that fatal destruction upon Xunchin the Emperour of China and so highly contributed to the advancement of the prosperity of Xunchi Emperour of the Tartars as he was supposed to be by our Authour and most others I must out of Mountanus let you know that he was not the Cham or Emperour of the Tartars but only a petty Prince amongst them whose Grandfather was the first of his Family who was advanced to that dignity by the consent of the inhabitants of his Country which was only a small Province in Tartary called Muncheu I shall now end these observations with a brief Narrative of the famous Acts of Coxinga Son to Ikoan or Iquon as he was called by our Author and all Forrainers but amongst his own Country-men Chanchilung or Chincilung so renowned by his former name in this present History This Coxinga was that Son of Ikoan who was sent by his Father as SenÌ„or Palafox intimates to Iacatra to be instructed by the Hollanders in the exercise of Arms according to the practise of Europe where he so improved himself in the knowledge of their Military discipline that in the year 1661. assisted by those out-lawed Chineses who had served under his Father he took from them the Islands of Formosa and Tayowan for the recovery of which the Hollanders have from their several Plantations in the East Indies put out several considerable Fleets that they might by force of Arms regain those Isles but finding themselves too weak to accomplish their designs they sent divers Embassies to sollicite the assistance of the Tartars but in vain Coxinga keeping possession during his life and since his decease they are delivered up to the Tartars These Embassies are at large treated of by Arnoldus Montanus lately Englished by Mr. Ogilby from whom I have borrowed most of these observations Many other observable remarks might be added but fearing lest I have already transcended the due bounds of an Introduction I shall say no more THE CONTENTS OF THIS HISTORY CHAP. I. THe Beginning of the Troubles of China Two Subjects of the Emperours Rebell They make themselves masters of six Provinces and of the Imperial Court The Resolutions of the Tartars thereupon pag. 1 CHAP. II. The Death of the Emperour Zunchin and of all the Royal Family The Tartar resolves to oppose the Vsurper and to advance his ancient pretensions to the Empire of China pag. 24. CHAP. III. The Tartars enter into China The Tyrant Ly flies The young Xunchi makes his entrance into Pequin and is there crowned Emperour He declares War against the King of Corea and makes his Kingdom tributary p. 59 CHAP. IV. The Tartar pursues his Conquest He reduces five other Provinces bordering upon Pequin His Conduct that thereby â—â—e might illustrate his Victories and the Orders he prescribed to the conquered p. 77 CHAP. V. One of the Vnâ—â—les of Xunchi reduces the City and Province of Nanchin The Flight and Death of a King of China who had been publickly crowned Six of the nine Southern Provinces submit themselves to the Tartar p. 93. CHAP. VI. The Tartars find the greatest resistance in the Conquest of the 3 last Provinces A Chinese Pirate mâ—â—kes himself very potent who this Pyrate was p. 107 CHAP. VII The Pyrate Icoan made a Treaty with the Hollanders His Quarrel with the Portegueses of Macao for refusing to restore him his Daughter which hâ—â— had caused to be educated in the Christian â—â—eligion The Tartar sollicits him to joyn with him His Fidelity to the Princes of China p. 137 CHAP. VIII Icoan demands succour â—â—rom the Emperour of Japan who resuses it him He maintains a War against the Tartars a whole year He is taken-prisoner and presented to the Emperour Xunchi What was the end of this Corsair p. 159 CHAP. IX The Tartars pass into the Province of Canton where a Chinese Prince is crowned Emperour of China They enter the City of Canton finding the Gates open A Chinese Fleet which â—â—ame with relief fires the City The Proclamation which the Tartarian Vice-Roy causes to be published in Canton p. 180 CHAP. X. The Tartars sack the City of Cantonâ—â— The Vice-Roys change the Government The Death of the King of Canton and all his followers The Reduction of several places in the Province p. 200 CHAP. XI At Xaochin the Chinese stand upon their Defence Guequan King of Quansi comes into that City He goes and meets the Tartars he fights and routs them A Division among the Chineses They are defeated in another fight and their City Xaochin taken p. 218 CHAP. XII Disturbances in the Maritine Provinces Some Chinese Princes retire themselves into the Mountains Others
entire possession of the heart of this poor Prince that it had stopped all passages to relief And it waâ—â— requisite for him to retain all his Spirits lest he should expire under the weight of his Afflictions Zunchin was a young Prince endowed with all the qualities that might render him amiable to his people His Royal Spouse the Empress loved him with so tender an affection that to testifie the sincerity of her passion to him she resolved to die either with or before him It could not certainly but be an aggravation to the Afflictions of this distressed Prince to hear the Cries and Acclamations of those who fought for and against him the one side invoking the Emperour the other the Tyrant It was like so many Stabs to his very heart as oft as he heard himself who was descended from sixteen Emperours his Ancestors and Progenitors brought in competition with an infamous Villain These Disgraces pierced the deeper the more he perceived his own party to decline that of the Usurper to be exalted to the very Heavens The Stars of which unfortunate Zunchin execrated that they were so propitious to a perfidious Varlet who so little merited the Fate of a Soveraign And being by his direful Calamaties driven to this Despair and Fury he poured out more bitter Imprecations against those cruel and fatal Stars which presided at his disasterous Birth This Prince being very pensive and solicitous how to prevent greater Disgraces yet went together with those who accompanied him towards a little Grove at the Entrance of which he stopp'd and then the Empress guessing at his Design approached to him and giving him her last Embraces she parted from that person which was the dearest to her of all things upon Earth with all the grief and sorrow that Humane Nature is capable of She left the greatest felicity of this life to go to the greatest of Miseries she quit for ever an Empire and an Emperour an Husband sincerely beloved by her and who was but now entring into the prime of his Age and in whom she solely possessed all that she esteemed or loved upon Earth and she departed from him that she might go and by violence take away her own Life desiring no other satisfaction to her mind but to have in her power the choice of her Death and to die the Murderer of her self Thus she took leave of the Emperour not being able to express the passion of her Soul otherwise than with her Eyes for all Commerce and Communication was ceased between her Heart and Tongue And then she entred all alone into the Grove and with a Cord hanged her self upon one of the Trees A dreadful Spectacle which might make even those who were more senseless than the Trees lament so direful a death of so great an Empress Presently after the Emperour went and placed himself near his Wife whom he saw hanging upon a Tree having finished her Life by a Death as violent as that which he had inflicted upon his Daughter Then poor Prince he asked a little Wine of one of the Lords which attended him not that he was a Lover of Wine for on the contrary he was the most sober and moderate in his pleasures of all the Princes which ever governed that Empire And as for Women he was so chaste towards them that he never frequented his Seralio which gave occasion to all his Subjects to give him a Title which signifies The Chaste Prince or one who never goes to the Seralio It was not therefore for the love he had to Wine that he asked for it but he only desired a little to refresh and revive his Spirits which were sunk and oppressed And doubtless he had need of great Vigour to put in execution the Action he designed When the Wine was presented to him he sipped a little of it and then biting with violence one of his Fingers and squeezing out the Blood he wrote therewith these following Words The Mandorins are all Villains they have perfidiously betrayed their Prince they all deserve to be hanged and it will be a Laudable Act of Iustice to execute this Sentence upon them It is fit they should all suffer Death that thereby they might instruct those who succeed them to serve their Prince more loyally As â—â—or the People they are not Criminal and deserve not to be punished and therefore to use them ill will be Injustice I have lost my Kingdom which I received in inheritance from my Ancestors In me is finished the Royal Line which so many Kings my Progenitors continued down to me with all the Grandeur and Fame sutable to their Majestick Dignity I will therefore for ever close my Eyes that I may not see this Empire descended to me thus ruined and ruled by a Tyrant I will go and deprive my self of that Life for which I can never suffer myself to be indebted â—â—o the basest and vilest of my Subjects I have not the Confidence to appear before them who being born Subjeâ—â—ts are become my Enemies and Traytors It is fit the Prince should die since his whole State is now expiring And how can I endure to live having seen the loss and destruction of that which was dearer to me than Life The Prince after he had thus wrote what his just grief dictated to him he untied his Hair and covering his Face presently with his own hands he hanged himself upon a Tree near to that on which the Empress remain'd strangled This was the Tragical Catastrophe of this unfortunate Monarch The Emperour of China remained thus hanging on a Tree the Prince who was the Idol of his people at the very name of whom Millions of men trembled the Soveraign of above a hundred Millions of Subjects the Monarch of a Kingdom as spatious as all Europe he who counted his Souldiers by Millions and his Tributes by hundred of Millions Finally the potent Emperour of the great Empire of China is hanged upon a Tree and his Royal Consort the Empress upon another near him What a weighty Load did the Trunks of these Trees support But of what weight had it need be to make the great men upon earth duly weigh what is all this terrible and ambitious Grandeur which in so few moments passes from the height of the Felicities of this Life to an Abyss of Misery This unhappy Monarch finished his Reign at the age of 32 years or according as some say at 35. But a few years to have said he lived but fewer to say that he reigned if compared with his Predecessors for his Grandfather Vanliè ruled over China near fifty years and Zunchin lived but thirty five He died very soon but it was his Misfortune he died not sooner For true it is that whoever it be King or Emperour who reckons his years which have been exposed to such direful Tragedies cannot be said to have lived such a number of years but to have undergone a far greater number of miseries and calamities The
like Order for this is the usual practise of the Polititians of China and therefore their Countreymen are the less surprized with it he judged by delay he should endanger his Success and therefore resolved with all expedition to put his Design in execution and at the very instant issued out all convenient Orders to his whole Fleet and immediately went in search of his Enemy Icoan knew that his whole Fortune depended upon the Success of this Expedition therefore he omitted nothing which was expedient to be done After he had visited all his Ships seen that they were very tight and trim his Canons right pointed his men in good order and in general had put all things in a readiness for Battel he went and faced his Enemy who likewise had drawn together all his Force without all doubt upon the same Design but had been more remiss and delatory in making his preparation and yet he fitted himself for fight as well as the diligence and eagerness of his Enemy would give him leisure who pent him in so cloâ—â—e that he would not give him liberty to make out to Sea but charged and assaulted him with all the fierceness and violence imaginable Nothing could be added to the Valour and Conduct with which Icoan managed the whole Battel in which he shewed a Courage and Judgment worthy of an excellent Commander The Victory was long disputed between both parties and with all the Valour and great Exploits which can be imagined and doubtless that which is said of the Combats of Pyrates that they make a great noise with â—â—heir Guns only waste their powder and do no greaâ—â— Execution held not true here foâ—â— most certainly this was a very bloody â—â—ight in which two fierce and stoâ—â— Pyrates did most obstinately resolvâ—â— neither to give nor take Quarter buâ—â— either to conquer or to die but the Success or rather the Courage and Conduct of Icoan quickly gained him the Victory which he secured by leaping into his Enemies Ship and with hiâ—â— own hand killing him and cutting off his head and thereby quickly put an end to the Battel in which the Victor's Ships were so little endammaged oâ—â— disordâ—â—red that they were ready foâ—â— a fresh Fight as for those who had taken part with his Enemy and escaped the Fire and Water they presently struck Sail and submitted to the Victorious Icoan nay they immediately sided with him for they were persons who though they had changed theiâ—â— Master yet they changed neither their Quality nor Condition Thus Icoan encreas'd both the number of his men and Ships and his Fame likewise and thereby became after the victory both much more powerful and formidable Then even presently he issued out fresh Orders to all his men to be iâ—â— a readiness to receive the Kings Fleet should they make any Attempt upon him But this great Success and Conduct of Icoan had frustrated all the Designs of the Chinese Court He was more potent than ever and conâ—â—equently more to be feared He never yet had so gallant an Army nor so numerous a Fleet under his Command So thaâ—â— the Kings Ships which came in search after him wiâ—â—h design to have fought him imagining to have found him half conquered already when they had made up nearer to him and diâ—â—covered in what condition he was in pretended now they came with a quite different Design They came not now to assault Icoan but to congratulate and give him joy of his Victory This subtil Corsair who was perfectly well vers'd in the Art of Dissimulation did conceal his distrust and made no shew as if he had prepared to receive them as his Enemies but made to the Shore and when he was Landed he went and presented to the Viceroy the Kings Letter wherein he gave him assurance of those great Recompences if he freed the State from that Pyrate whom he had defeated and whose Head he then delivered to the Viceroy shewing him the Ships he had taken and the men who had delivered themselves up to his Mercy The Viceroys could not refuse Icoan the Honours and Dignities he laid claim to since he had so express a promise of them from the King their Master He presently therefore took possession of the High Admiralship and being back'd and supported with so many powerful Forces which made him so dreaded he resolves to maintain himself in that Office Thus is the Grandeur and Fortune of this Pirate now firmly established He is now rich and powerful a most Illustrious Person and highly considered of by the people Of a great Thief he is now become the great Mandorin of all China but it is true in that Countrey Thief and Mandorin differ only in Name But he is not now feared as he was before but on the contrary he is loved and honoured by all the Provinces for he promises them in recompense of the Mischiefs he had brought upon them to make them flourish in wealth and prosperity He now begins to make the Seas open and free for Trade and Commerce It was not very difficult for him to scowre the Coasts and to clear the Seas of all Pyrates for which he need only with his Followers quit the Seas and stay ashore for all the Corsairs which used to rove about and ravage those Coasts had listed themselves in his Squadrons and were under his Command but Icoan and his Followers were too much allured with a Pyrates Life not to put out to Sea again with all speed The difference between his former being at Sea and his present is only this that now he robs with the Kings Flag and under the pretext of his Authority There are in all parts of the world honourable Thieves and Robbers who rob and steal with Royal Authority but Icoan robbed the King himself and that with greater audacity than he plundered private persons There were no Vessels which went out of China laden with Merchandizes for the Neighbouring Kingdoms but he made pay their whole Duties to him nay and more than their Duties And as if Icoan had been King the Merchants took all their Pasports from him esteemed of them much more than they did of those from the King Thus the Commerce of China availed this Officer much more than it did the King himself and besides all this he laded several Vessels for Iapan and the Philippines with the richest Merchandizes of all China which he had either plundered or bought at his own price And this Traffick brought him in yearly Millions of Silver so that in his Palaces he had several Halls and other Rooms covered over with Plates of Silver which was become as common with him as the most ordinary Materials The King of China was highly displeased that his design to destroy this Pyrate should succeed so contrary to his expectation for he saw that instead of having ruined and destroyed him he had confirmed him in his authority and made his power more dreaded than ever and therefore now all