but as they deserve leaving them whole moneths without pay and not looking upon them otherwise than Traitors and infamous men unfit to be trusted after they have so vilely deserted him whose Salt they had eaten so many years After this manner did Chah-hest-kan put an end to this Rabble which as I said have ruined and dispoiled all the lower Bengale Time will shew whether he will be as happy in the remainder of his Enterprize against the King of Rakan The fourth particular is concerning the two Sons of Aureng-Zebe viz. Sultan Mahmoud and Sultan Mazum He still keeps the first of them in Goualeor but if one may believe the common report without making him take the Poust which is the ordinary Drink of those that are put into that place As to the other though he hath alwayes been a pattern of reservedness and moderation yet one knows not whether he was not too forward in making a party when his Father was so extreamly sick or whether Aureng-Zebe have not upon other occasions perceived something that might give him cause of jealousie or whether he had not a mind to make an authentick proof of both his Obedience and Courage However it be one day he commanded him in an unconcerned manner in a full Assembly of the Omrahs to go and kill a Lyon that was come down the Mountains and had made great havock and waste in the Countrey and this he did without giving order to furnish him with those strong and large Nets which they are wont to employ in this dangerous kind of hunting in a real mood telling the great Hunting-Master who presently called for those Nets that when he was Prince he did not look for such Formalities It was the good fortune of Sultan Mazum that he prosper'd in this attempt not losing any more than two or three men and some horses that were wounded although on the other hand the matter went not off so pleasantly the wounded Lyon having leapt up to the head of the Sultan's Elephant Since that time Aureng-Zebe hath not been backward to express much affection to him he hath given him even the Government of Decan though with so little power and treasure that there is no great cause to apprehend any thing upon that account The fifth thing toucheth Mohabet-kan the Governour of Kaboul whom Aureng-Zebe took from his Government and generously pardoned not willing as he said to lose so brave a Captain and that had stuck so close to his Benefactor Chah-Jehan He made him even Governour of Guzuratte in the place of â—essemseignue whom he sent to make War in Decan It may very well be that some considerable Presents he made to Rauchenara-Begum and a good number of excellent Persian Horse and Camels wherewith he presented Aureng-Zebe together with fifteen or sixteen thousand Rupies of Gold did contribute to make his peace On this occasion of mentioning the Government of Kaboul which borders upon the Kingdom of Kandahar which is now in the hands of the Persians I shall here briefly add some particulars that serve to this History and will still more discover that Country and declare the Interests between Indostan and Persia which no body that I know of hath explained hitherto Kandahar that strong and important place which is the Capital and the swaying City of this Noble and Rich Kingdom of the same Name hath in these latter Ages been the subject of grievous Wars between the Mogols and Persians each of them pretending a right thereto Ekbar that great King of the Indies took it by force from the Persians and kept it during his life And Chah-Abbas that famous King of Persia retook it from Jean-Guyre the Son of Ekbar Afterwards it return'd to Chah-Jehan Son of John Guyre not by the Sword but by the means of the Governour Aly-Merdan-kan who surrendred it to him and went over to live at his Court apprehending the Artifices of his Enemies who had brought him into disfavour with the King of Persia that sent for him to make him give an accompt and to deliver up his Government The same City was besieged and retaken afterwards by the Son of Chah-Abbas and since that besieged twice again yet without being taken by Chah-Jehan The first time it was saved from being taken by the ill understanding and jealousie between the Persian Omrahs that are Pensioners of the Great Mogol and the most powerful of his Court as also by the respect they bear to their Natural King For they all behaved themselves very effeminately in the Siege and would not follow the Raja Roup who had already planted his Standards upon the Wall on the side of the Mountain The second time it was saved by the jealousie of Aureng-Zebe who would not fall into the breach of the Wall that our Franguis the English Portugueses Germans and French had made by their Canon though it was a large one being unwilling to have it said that in the time of Dara who was in a manner the first mover of that Enterprise and was then in the City of Caboul with his Father Chah-Jehan the Fortress of Kandahar was taken Chah-Jehan some years before the late trouble was also ready to besiege it the third time had not Emir-Jemla diverted him from it advising him to turn his Forces towards Decan as hath been said with whom Aly-Merdan-kan himself concurred who was so earnest in his disswading him from it as to say to him these words which I shall punctually relate as having something extravagant in them Your Majesty will never take Kandahar unless you had such a Traytor there as my self except you were resolved never to bring a Persian into it and to make the Bazars or Markets wholly free that is to lay no Impost on those that furnish the Army with provision At length Aureng-Zebe like the others had prepared himself in these latter years to besiege it also whether it was that he was offended at the tart Letters written to him by the King of Persia or by reason of the affronts and ill treatment which he had offered to Tarbiet-kan his Ambassador that hearing of the King of Persia's death he turned back saying which yet is not very credible that he would not meddle with a Child a new King although Chah-Soliman who hath succeeded his Father is in my opinion about 25 years of age The sixth particular we purposed to speak of concerns those that have faithfully served Aureng-Z be Those he hath almost all raised to great places For first as we have already related he made Chah-hest-kan his Uncle Governour and General of the Army of Decan and afterwards Governour of Bengale Next he made Mir-kan Governour of Kaboul Then Kalilullah-kan of Lahor and Mirhaba of Elubas and Lasker-kan of Patna The Son of that Allah-Verdi-kan of Sultan Sujah he appointed Governour of Scimdy and Fazel-kan who had considerably served him both by his counsels and dexterity he made Kane-saman that is Great Steward of the House Royal
not to demand any Customs So great was once the power of Emir-Jemla his Father in this Kingdom which time hath not yet been able to root out The fourth is that the Hollanders scruple not to threaten him sometimes to lay an Embargo upon all the Merchants Ships of the Country that are in that Port and not to let them go out untill their demands be granted as also to put in protestations against him which I have seen actually done upon the account of an English Vessel which they had a mind to take by force in the Port of Maslipatan it self the Governour having hindred it by arming the whole Town against them and threatning to put fire to their Factory and to put them all to death A fifth is that the Portugueses as poor and miserable and decayed as they are in the Indies yet stick not to threaten that King also with War and that they will come and sack Maslipatan and all that Coast if he will not render them that place of St. Thomas which some years ago they chose to put into his hands rather than to be constrained to yield it up to the Dutch Yet for all this I have been informed in Golkonda by very intelligent persons that this King is a Prince of very great judgment and that whatever he so does and suffers is only in policy to the end to provoke no body and principally to remove all suspition from Aureng-Zebe and to give him to understand that he hath in a manner no share any more in the Kingdom But that in the mean time a Son of his that is kept hid grows up the Father watching for a fit time to declare him King and so to laugh at the agreement made with Aureng-Zebe Of this time will shew us more in the mean time let us consider somewhat of the Interests of Visapour The Kingdom of Visapour hath also not been wanting to support it self though the Mogol do almost continually make war against it not so much as if he of Visapour were able to bid head to the Mogolian Forces but because there is never any great effort used against him For it is not very frequent there no more than 't is elsewhere for Generals of Armies to desire the end of a War there being nothing so charming as to be in the head of an Army commanding like little Kings remote from the Court It is also grown to a Proverb that Decan is the Bread and Life of the Souldiers of Indostan Besides the Countrey of Visapour is on the side of the Mogol's Dominions of a very difficult access upon the account of the searcity of good Waters Forrage and Victuals and because Visapour the Capital City is very strong and situate in a dry and steril Countrey there being almost no good Water but in the Town And lastly because there are many Fortresses in that Countrey seated on Hills hard to climb Yet notwithstanding all this that State is much shaken if considering that the Mogol hath taken Paranda the Key as 't were of that Kingdom as also that fair and strong Town Bider and some other very important places But principally because the last King of Visapour died without Heirs Males and he that now calls himself King is a Youth whom the Queen Sister of the King of Golkonda hath raised and taken for her Son a favour for which he hath made an ill return having shew'd no esteem for this Queen after her return from Mecca under the pretext of some ill demeanour in her on a Dutch Vessel that carried her to Moka Lastly because that in the disorders of that Kingdom the Heathen Rebel Seva-Gi above discoursed of found means to seize on many strong Holds mostly seated on steep Mountains where he now acteth the King laughing at the Visapour and the Mogol and ravaging the Countrey every where from Suratte even to the gates of Goa This notwithstanding if he wrongs Visapour one way he helps to support it another forasmuch as he is resolutely bent against the Mogol preparing alwayes some Ambush and cutting so much work for his Army that there is no discourse no apprehension but of Seva-Gi insomuch that he hath come and sacked Suratte and pillaged the Isle of Burdes which belongs to the Portuguese and is near the Gates of Goa The seventh particular which I learn'd at Golkonda when I was come away from Dehli is the death of Chah-Jehan and that Aureng-Zebe had been exceedingly affected therewith having discover'd all the marks of grief that a Son can express for the loss of his Father That at the very hour of receiving that news he went towards Agra that Begum-Saheb caused the Mosquee and a certain place where he was at first to stop before he entred the Fortress to be hung with richly embroider'd Tapisseries That at his entring into the Seraglio she presented him with a great Golden Bason wherein were all her Jewels and all those of Chah-Jehan and in short that she knew to receive him with so much Magnificence and to entertain him with that dexterity and craft that she obtained his pardon gain'd his favour and grew very confident with him To conclude I doubt not but most of those who shall have read my History will judge the wayes taken by Aureng-Zebe for getting the Empire very violent and horrid I pretend not at all to plead for him but desire only that before he be altogether condemned reflexion be made on that unhappy custom of this State which leaving the succession of the Crown undecided for want of good Laws setling it as amongst us upon the eldest Son exposeth it to the Con quest of the strongest and the most fortunate subjecting at the same time all the Princes born in the Royal Family by the condition of their Birth to the cruel necessity either to overcome or to reign by destroying all the rest for the assurance of their power and life or to perish themselves for the security of that of others For I am apt to believe that upon this consideration the Reader wil not find Aureng-Zebe's conduct so strange as at first it appear'd However I am perswaded that those who shall a little weigh this whole History will not take Aureng-Zebe for a Barbarian but for a great and rare Genius a Great States-man and a Great King A Letter to the Lord COLBERT of the Extent of Indostan the Circulation of Gold and Silver coming at length to be swallowed up there as in an Abyss the Riches Forces Justice and the principal Cause of the decay of the States of Asia My Lord SInce it is the custom of Asia never to approach Great Persons with empty hands when I had the honour to kiss the Vest of the Great Mogol Aureng-Zebe I presented him with eight Roupies as an expression of respect and the illustrious Fazel-kan the prime Minister of State and he that was to establish my Pension as Physitian with a Case of Knives garnished with Amber
Pearls sweet Essences c. consumed there All these Charges being put together and compared with the Revenues the Mogol may be thought to have it will be easie to judge whether he be indeed so very rich as he is made to be As for me I very well know that it cannot be denied that he hath very great Revenues I believe he hath more alone than the Grand Seignior and the King of Persia both together But then to believe all those extravagant Stories made of the vastness of his Revenues is a thing I could never do And if I should believe the best part of them yet should I not believe him in effect and truly so rich as the World rings of him unless a man would say that a Treasurer who receiveth great sums of Money from one hand at the same time when he is obliged to disburse them to another were therefore truly rich For my part I should count that King rich indeed who without oppressing and impoverishing his People too much should have a Revenue sufficient to keep a Great and Gallant Court after the manner of that of ours or otherwise and a Militia sufficient both to guard his Kingdom and to make an important War for divers years against his Neighbours as also to shew liberality to build some Royal Edifices and to make those other Expences which Kings are wont to make according to their particular Inclinations and who besides all this should be able to put up in his Treasury for a Reserve Sums big enough to undertake and maintain a good War for some years Now I am apt enough to believe that the Great Mogol enjoyeth very near these Advantages but I cannot perswade my self that he hath them in that excess as is thought and pretended Those vast and unevitable Expences that I have taken notice of will certainly incline you to my opinion without any other consideration but you will doubtless be altogether of my mind when I shall have represented to you these two things which I am very well informed of The one is that the Great Mogol now reigning about the end of this last Revolution though the Kingdom was every where in peace except in Bengale where Sultan-Sujah yet held out was much perplexed where to find means for the subsistence of his Armies though they were not so well paid as at other times and the War lasted no longer than five years or thereabout and though also he had laid hold of a good part of the Treasury of his Father Chah-Jehan The other is That all this Treasure of Chah-jehan who was very frugal and had Reigned above forty Years without considerable Wars never mounted to six Kourours of Roupies A Roupy is about twenty nine pence An hundred thousand of them make a Lecque and an hundred Lecques make one Kourour 'T is true I do not comprehend in this great Treasure that great abundance of Gold-smiths work so variously wrought in Gold and Silver nor that vast store of precious Stones and Pearls of a very high value I doubt whether there be any King in the World that hath more The Throne alone cover'd with them is valued at least three Kourours if I remember aright But then it is to be consider'd also that they are the spoils of those ancient Princes the Patans and Rajas gathered and piled up from Immemorial times and still increasing from one King to another by the Presents which the Omrahs are obliged yearly at certain Festival-days to make him and which are esteemed to be the Jewels of the Crown which it would be criminal to touch and upon which a King of Mogol in case of necessity would find it very hard to procure the least Sum. But before I conclude I shall take notice whence it may proceed that though this Empire of Mogol be thus an Abyss of Gold and Silver as hath been said yet notwithstanding there appears no more of it among the People than elsewhere yea rather that the People is there less Monied than in other places The first reason is that much of it is consumed in melting over and over all those Nose and Ear-rings Chains Finger-rings Bracelets of Hands and Feet which the Women wear but chiefly in that incredible quantity of Manufactures wherein so much is spent which is lost as in all those Embroideries Silk-stuffs enterwoven with Gold and Silver Cloath Scarf Turbants c. of the same For generally all that Militia loveth to be guided from the Omrahs to the meanest Souldiers with their Wives and Children though they should starve at home The second That all the Lands of the Kingdom being the Kings propriety they are given either as Benefices which they call Jah-ghirs or as in Turky Timars to men of the Militia for their Pay or Pension as the word Jah-ghir imports Or else they are given to the Governours for their Pension and the entertainment of their Troops on condition that of the surplus of those Land-revenues they give yearly a certain sum to the King as Farmers Or lastly the King reserveth them for himself as a particular Domaine of his House which never or very seldom are given as Jah-ghirs and upon which he keeps Farmers who also must give him a yearly sum which is to say that the Timariots Governours and Farmers have an absolute Authority over the Country-men and even a very great one over the Trades-men and Merchants of the Towns Boroughs and Villages depending from them so that in those parts there are neither great Lords nor Parliaments nor Presidial Courts as amongst us to keep these People in awe nor Kadis or Judges powerful enough to hinder and repress their violence Nor in a word any person to whom a Country-man Trades-man or Merchant can make his complaints to in cases of extortion and tyranny often practised upon them by the Souldiery and Governours who every where do impunely abuse the Authority Royal which they have in hand unless it be perhaps a little in those places that are near to Capital Cities as Dehly and Agra and in great Towns and considerable Sea-ports of the Provinces whence they know that the complaints can be more easily conveyed to the Court. Whence it is that all and every one stand in continual fear of these People especially of the Governours more than any Slave doth of his Master that ordinarily they affect to appear poor and Money-less very mean in their Apparel Lodging Houshold-stuff and yet more in Meat and Drink that often they apprehend even to meddle with Trade lest they should be thought Rich and so fall into the danger of being ruined So that at last they find no other remedy to secure their Wealth than to hide and dig their Money deep under Ground thus getting out of the ordinary commerce of Men and so Dying neither the King nor the State having any benefit by it Which is a thing not only happens among the Peasants and Artizans but which is far more considerable
held impregnable it being situated upon an inaccessible Rock and having within it self good water and provision enough for a Garrison that was not so easie a thing They were too potent already each of them having a Princely Train And again he could not handsomely remove them far off without giving them some Government fit for their Birth wherein he apprehended they would Cantonize themselves and become little independent Kings as actually they afterwards did Nevertheless fearing lest they should cut one anothers Throat before his Eyes if he kept them still at Court he at last concluded to send them away And so he sent Sultan Sujah his second Son into the Kingdom of Bengale his third Aureng-Zebe into Decan and the youngest Morad-Bakche to Guzaratte giving to Dara the eldest Cabal and Multan The three first went away very well content with their Government and there they Acted each the Soveraign and retained all the Revenues of their respective Countries entertaining great Troops under the pretence of bridling their Subjects and Neighbours As to Dara because the eldest and designed to the Crown he stirred not from the Court which that he should not do seemed also to be the intention of Chah-Jehan who entertained him in the hopes of succeeding him after his Death He even permitted then that Orders were issued out by him and that he might sit in a kind of Throne beneath his among the Omrahs so that it seemed as if there were two Kings together But as 't is very difficult for two Soveraigns to agree Chah-Jehan though Dara shew'd him great Observance and Affection always harbour'd some diffidence fearing above all things the Morsel and besides for as much as he knew the parts of Aureng-Zebe and thought him more capable to Reign than any of the rest he had always as they say some particular correspondence with him This it is what I thought fit to premise concerning these four Princes and their Father Chah-Jehan because 't is necessary for the understanding of all that follows I esteem'd also that I was not to forget those two Princesses as having been the most considerable Actors in the Tragedy the Women in the Indies taking very often as well as at Constantinople and in many other places the best part in the most important Transactions though Men take seldom notice of it and trouble their heads of seeking for other Causes But to deliver this History with clearness we must rise somewhat higher and relate what passed some time before the Troubles between Aureng-Zebe the King of Golkonda and his Visier Emir-Jemla because this will discover to us the Character and Temper of Aureng-Zebe who is to be the Heros of this Piece and the King of the Indies Let us then see after what manner Emir-Jemla proceeded to lay the first foundation of the Royalty of Aureng-Zebe During the time that Aureng-Zebe was in Decan the King of Golkonda had for his Visier and General of his Armies this Emir-Jemla who was a Persian by Nation and very famous in the Indies He was not a Man of great Extraction but beaten in Busiuess a person of excellent parts and a great Captain He had the Wit of amassing great Treasures not only by the Administration of the Affairs of this opulent Kingdom but also by Navigation and Trade sending ships into very many parts and causing the Diamond Mines which he alone had farmed under many borrowed names to be wrought with extraordinary diligence So that people discoursed almost of nothing but of the Riches of Emir-Jemla and of the plenty of his Diamonds which were not reckon'd but by Sacks He had also the skill to render himself very potent and considerable entertaining besides the Armies of the King very good Troops for his particular and above all a very good Artillery with abundance of Franguys or Christians to manage it In a word he grew so rich and so puissant especially after he had found a way to enter into the Kingdom of Karnates and to pillage all the ancient Churches of the Idols of that Countrey that the King of Golkonda became jealous of it and prepared himself to unsaddle him and that the more because he could not bear what was reported of him as if he had used too great familiarity with the Queen his Mother that was yet beauteous Yet he discover'd nothing of his Design to any having patience and waiting 'till Emir came to the Court for he was then in the Kingdom of Karnates with his Army But one day when more particular News was brought him of what had passed between his Mother and Him he had not power enough to dissemble any longer but was transported by choler to fall to invectives and menaces Whereof Emir was soon made acquainted having at the Court abundance of his Wives Kindred and all his nearest Relations and best Friends possessing the principal Offices The Kings Mother also who did not hate him had speedy information of the same Which obliged Emir without delay to write to his only Son Mahmet Emir-Kan who then was about the King requiring him to do the best he could to withdraw with all speed from the Court under some pretence of Hunting or the like and to come and joyn with him Mahmet Emir-Kan failed not to attempt divers ways but the King causing him to be narrowly observed none of them all would succeed This very much perplexed Emir and made him take a strange resolution which cast the King in great danger to lose his Crown and Life so true 't is that he who knows not to Dissemble knows not how to Reign He writ to Aureng-Zebe who was then in Daulet-Abad the Capital of Decan about fifteen or sixteen days Journey from Golkonda giving him to understand that the King of Golkonda did intend to ruin him and his Family notwithstanding the signal Services he had done him as all the World knew which was an un-exampled Injustice and Ingratitude that this necessitated him to take his refuge to him and to intreat him that he would receive him into his protection that for the rest if he would follow his advice and confide in him he would so dispose Affairs that he would at once put into his hands both the King and Kingdom of Golkonda This thing he made very easie using the following Discourse You need but take four or five thousand Horse of the best of your Army and to March with Expedition to Golkonda spreading a rumour by the way that 't is an Ambassadour of Chah-Jehan that goes in haste about considerable Matters to speak with the King at Bag-naguer The Dabir who is he that is first to be addressed unto to make any thing known unto the King is allyed to me and my Creature and altogether mine take care of nothing but to March with expedition and I will so order it that without making you known you shall come to the Gates of Bag-naguer and when the King shall come out to receive the Letters
Chah-Jehan and made great noise about them and his Sister Begum failed not to make use of this occasion to animate the King against them But Chah-Jehan was diffident of Dara and fearing to be poysoned gave order that particular care should be had of what was brought to his Table 'T was also said that he wrote to Aureng-Zebe and that Dara being advertised thereof could not forbear to menace and to break into very passionate expressions In the mean time the Distemper of Chah-Jehan lingred and 't was bruited every where that he was dead Whereupon the whole Court was disorder'd the whole Town allarm'd the Shops for many days shut up and the four Sons of the King made openly great Preparations each for himself And to say truth it was not without reason that they all made ready for War for they all very well knew that there was no hopes of quarter that there was no other way than to vanquish or dye to be King or undone and that he that should be Conquerour would rid himself of all the rest as formerly Chah-Jehan had done of his Brothers Sultan Sujah who had heaped up great Treasures in that rich Kingdom of Bengale ruining some of the Rajas or petty Kings that are in those parts and drawing great Sums from others took the Field first of all with a puissant Army and in the confidence he had of all the Persian Omrahs for the Sect of whom he had declared himself he boldly Marched towards Agra giving out openly that Chah-Jehan was dead that Dara had poyson'd him that he would revenge the death of his Father and in a word that he would be King Dara desired Chah-Jehan to write himself to him and to forbid him to advance further which he did assuring him that his sickness was not at all dangerous and that he was already much better But he having Friends at Court who assured him that the sickness of Chah-Jehan was mortal he dissembled and ceased not to advance saying still that he knew very well Chah-Jehan was dead and if he should be alive he was desirous to come and kiss his feet and to receive his Commands Aureng-Zebe immediately after if not at the same time taketh the Field also in Decan maketh a great noise and prepareth to March towards Agra The same prohibition was made to him also as well from Chah-Jehan as from Dara who threaten'd him But he dissembleth for the same reason that Sultan Sujah had done and giveth the like answer Mean time finding that his Treasure was low and his Souldiery very inconsiderable he devised two artifices which succeeded admirably well the one in regard of Morad-Bakche the other in respect of Emir-Jemla To Morad-Bakche he writes with speed a very fair Letter importing that he had always been his true and intimate Friend that as for himself he laid no claim at all to the Crown that he might remember he had all his Life time made profession of a Fakire but that Dara was a person incapable to Govern a Kingdom that he was a Kafer an Idolater and hated of all the greatest Omrahs that Sultan Sujah was a Rafezy an Heretick and by consequence an Enemy to Indostan and unworthy of the Crown So that in a word there was none but he Morad-Bakche that could reasonably pretend to the Succession that the Crown did expect him that the whole Court which was not ignorant of his Valour would be for him and that for his particular if he would promise him that being King he would give him leave to live quietly in some Corner or other of his Empire there to serve God the remainder of his days he was ready to make a conjunction with him to assist him with his Counsel and Friends and to put into his hands his whole Army to fight Dara and Sultan Sujah that in the mean time he sent him an hundred thousand Rupies which make about fifty thousand Crowns of our Money and prayed him to accept thereof as a pledge of his friendship and that he would advise him to come with all possible speed to seize on the Castle of Suratte where he knew to be the Treasure of the Land Morad-Bakche who was neither too rich nor too powerful received with much joy this proposition of Aureng-Zebe and the hundred thousand Rupies sent by him and shew'd Aureng-Zebe's Letter to every body thereby to oblige the Flower of that Countrey to take up Arms for him and the substantial Merchants to lend him the more willingly such Sums of Money as he demanded of them He began in good earnest to Act the King made large promises to all and in short did so well that he set a good Army on foot of whom he singled out some three thousand who under the Conduct of Chah-Abas one of his Eunuchs but a Valiant Man should go to Besiege Suratte Aureng-Zebe sent his Eldest Son Sultan Mahmoud him whom he had Married to the Daughter of the King of Golkonda to Emir-Jemla who was yet employed in the Siege of Kaliane to perswade him to come to him to Daulet-Abad pretending to have matter of the greatest importance to communicate to him Emir who soon suspected his intentions excused himself saying openly that Chah-Jehan was not dead that he had fresh News of his being alive and that besides all his Family being at Agra in the hands of Dara he could by no means assist Aureng-Zebe nor declare himself for him Whereupon Sultan Mahmoud return'd to Daulet-Abad without effecting any thing and very much dissatisfied with Emir But Aureng-Zebe lost no courage for all that but sent the second time to Emir yet not Sultan Mahmoud but Sultan Mazum his Second Son who presented to him his Fathers Letter and handled him with that dexterity sweetness and protestation of friendship that it was not possible to resist him Emir therefore pressed the Siege of Kaliane forced the Besieged to Surrender upon Composition took the choice of his Army and with all diligence went away with Sultan Mazum At his arrival Aureng-Zebe courted him in the highest degree treating him no otherwise than with the Name of Baba and Babagy that is Father Lord-Father and after an hundred embraces he took him somewhat aside and told him according to what I could learn from persons who knew of it That it was not just that having his Family at the Court he should adventure to do any thing in his behalf that might come to be known but that after all there was nothing so difficult but an expedient might be found Give me leave therefore said he to propose to you a Design which at first will possibly surprise you but since you apprehend the danger of your Wife and Children that are in Hostage the best way of providing for their security would be to suffer me to seize on your person and to put you in prison It is out of doubt that all the World will believe it done in earnest For who would imagin that
who had cause to hearken to me as managing all forreign affairs there that Aureng-Zebe gave them Audience received their Letters presented them each with an embroider'd Vest a silken embroider'd Girdle and a Turbant of the same gave order for their entertainment and dispatched them in a little time and that with more honour than there was ground to expect For in dismissing them he presented them each with an other such Vest and with 6000 Rupies for them all which amounteth to about 3000 Crowns of which the Mahumetan had four thousand and Murat because a Christian but two thousand He also gave them for a Present to their Master a very rich Ser-apah or Vest two great silver and guilt Trumpets two silver Tymbals a Poynard cover'd with Jewels and the value of about twenty thousand Francs in Golden and Silver Rupies to let their King see Money coyned as a Rarity he had not in his Countrey But Aureng-Zebe knew very well that these Rupies would not go out of the Kingdom and that they were like to buy commodities for them And it fell out so for they laid them out partly in fine Cotton Cloth to make shirts of for their King Queen and their only lawful Son that is to be the Successor partly in filken stuffs streaked with Gold or Silver to make Vests and Summer-Drawers of partly in English Scarlet to make two Arabian Vests of for their King also and lastly in Spices and in store of courser Cloth for divers Ladies of his Seraglio and for the children he had by them all without paying any duty For all my friendship with Murat there were three things that made me almost repent to have served them The first because Murat having promised me to leave with me for 50 Rupies a little Son of his that was very pretty of a delicate Black and without such a swelled Nose or such thick Lips as commonly the Ethiopians have broke his word with me and let me know that he should take no less for him than 300 Rupies For all this I had thoughts of Buying him for rarities sake and that I might say a Father had sold me his Son The second because I found that Murat as well as the Mahumetan had obliged themselves to Aureng-Zebe that they would employ their interest with their King that he might permit in Ethiopia to rebuild an old Mosquee ruined in the time of the Portugals and which had been Built for a Tomb of a great Dervich which went from Mecha into Ethiopia for the propagation of Mahumetanism and there made great progress They received of Aureng-Zebe two thousand Rupies for this engagement This Mosquee had been pulled down by the Portugals when they came with their succors into Ethiopia which the then King who turn'd Catholick had asked of them against a Mahumetan Prince Invading his Kingdom The third because they desired Aureng-Zebe in the name of their King to give them an Alcoran and eight other Books which I well remember were of the most reputed in the Mahumetan Religion Which proceeding seemed to me very unworthy of a Christian Embassadour and Christian King and confirmed to me what I had been told at Moka that the Christianity of Ethiopia must needs be some odd thing that it savours much of Mahumetanisme and that the Mahumetans increase exceedingly in that Empire especially since the Portugals that came in there for the reason lately expressed were either killed upon the death of the King by the Cabal of the Queen Mother or expelled together with the Patriarch Jesuite whom they had brought along from Goa During the time that the Ambassadors were at Dehli my Agah who is more than ordinary curious made them often come to him when I was present to inform himself of the State and Government of their Country and principally to learn something of the source of the Nile which they call Ababile of which they discoursed to us as a thing so well known that no body doubted of it Murat himself and a Mogol who was returned out of Ethiopia with him had been there and told us very near the same particulars with those I had received of it at Moka viz. That the Nile had its Origine in the Country of Agaus that it issued out of the Earth by two Springs bubling up near to one another which did form a little Lake of about thirty or forty paces long that coming out of this Lake it did make a considerable River and that from space to space it received small Rivers increasing it They added that it went on circling and making as 't were a great Isle and that afterwards it tumbled down from steep Rocks into a great Lake in which there were divers fruitfuls Isles store of Crocodiles and which would be remarkable enough if true abundance of Sea-calves that have no other vent for their Excrements than that by which they take in their food this Lake being in the Country of Dambea three small daies journey from Gondar and four or five dayes journey from the source of the Nile And lastly that this River did break out of this Lake being augmented with many River-waters and with several Torrents falling into it especially in the Rainy Season which do regularly begin there as in the Indies about July which is very considerable and convincing for the inundation of the Nile and so runs away through Sonnar the capital City of the King of Fungi Tributary to the King of Ethiopia and from thence passeth to the Plains of Mesre which is Egypt The Ambassadors were not wanting to say more than was liked on the subject of their Kings Greatness and of the strength of his Army but the Mogolian did not over-much agree with them in it and in their absence represented to us this Army which he had seen twice in the field with the Ethiopian King on the head of it as the most wretched thing in the World They also related to us divers particulars of that Country which I have put in my Journal one day perhaps to be digested and copied In the mean time I shall insert here three or four things which Murat told me because I esteem them very extravagant for a Christian Kingdom He said then that there were few men in Ethiopia who besides their lawful Wife had not many others and himself owned that he had two without reckoning her which he had left at Aleppo That the Ethiopian Women did not so hide themselves as they do in the Indies among the Mahumetans nor even as among the Gentils That those of the meaner sort of People Maids or Married Women Slaves or Free were often together pell-mell night and day in the same Chamber without those jealousies so common in other Countries That the Women of Lords did not stick much to go into the House of a simple Cavalier whom they knew to be a man of Execution That if I had gone into Ethiopia they would soon have obliged me to
to send him an hundred thousand Rupies and to give fifty thousand to her Son giving order at the same time to put her away The old Woman though surprized at this Command and perplext enough that she was so suddenly thrust out without the liberty of speaking yet lost not her judgment but with a loud voice gave out that the had something of moment to discover to his Majesty Whereupon being brought in again she said God save your Majesty I find that my Son hath some reason to demand of me the Goods of his Father as being of his and my flesh and blood and therefore our Heir but I would gladly know what Kindred your Majesty is to my deceased Husband to be his Heir When Chah-Jehan heard so plain a piece of rallery and a discourse of Parentage of the King of the Indies with a she-Banian or Idolatrous she-Merchant he could not hold laughing and commanded she should be gone and that nothing should be asked of her But to return I shall not relate all the other considerable things that have happened since the end of the War that is since 1660 unto my departure which was above six years after though doubtless that would tend much to the design I had in relating the other particulars which is to make known the Genius and Temper of the Mogols and Indians This I may do in another place Here I shall only give an account of five of six particulars which those that shall have read this Relation will doubtless be curious of The first that though Aureng-Zebe made Chah-Jehan his Father to be kept in the Fortress of Agra with all imaginable care and caution yet notwithstanding he still left him in his old Apartment with Begum-Saheb his Eldest Daughter his other Women Singers Dancers Cooks and others nothing of that kind was wanting to him There were also certain Mullahs that were permitted to come and to read the Alceran to him for he was become very devout And when he thought fit there were brought before him brave Horses and tamed Gazelles which is a kind of Goat to make them fight with one another as also divers sorts of Birds of prey and several other rare Animals to divert him as formerly Aureng-Zebe himself used an art to overcome at last his fierceness and obstinacy which he had hitherto kept though a prisoner And this was the effect of the obliging Letters full of respect and submission which he often wrote to his Father consulting him often as his Oracle and expressing a thousand cares for him sending him also uncessantly some pretty Present or other whereby Chah-Jehan was so much gained that he also wrote very often to Aureng-Zebe touching the Government and State-affairs and of his own accord sent him some of those Jewels which before he had told him of that Hummers were ready to beat them to powder the first time he should again ask for them Besides he consented that the Daughter of Dara which he had so peremptorily denied should be deliver'd to him and granted him at length that pardon and paternal blessing which he had so often desired without obtaining it Yet under all this Aureng-Zebe did not alwayes flatter him on the contrary he sometimes return'd sharp answers when he met with strains in his Fathers Letters that were pregnant or expressed something of his former height and authority Of this we may judge by the Letter which I know from a very good hand was once written to him by Aureng-Zebe to this effect Sir You would have me indispensably follow those ancient Customs and make my self Heir to all those that are in my pay with the wonted rigour An Omrah and even a Merchant can no sooner die and sometimes even before his death but we seal up his Trunks and seize on his goods and make a strict enquiry into his Estate imprisoning and ill-treating the Officers of the House to discover to us all he hath even to the least Jewels I will believe that there is some policy in doing so but it cannot be denied that 't is very rigorous and sometimes very unjust and to speak the very truth we may deserve well enough that the same should befal us every day what hapned to you from your Neikman kan and from the Widow of your rich Indian Merchant Moreover said he it seems I am by you reputed proud and haughty now I am King As if you knew not by the experience of more than forty years of your Reign how heavy an Ornament a Crown is and how many sad and restless nights it passeth through as if I could forget that excellent passage of Mir-Timur commonly called Tamberlan which is so seriously delivered to us by that Great Granfather of ours Ekbar to the end that we might the more weigh the importance and value of it and consider whether we have cause to pride our selves so much in a Crown You well know that he said that the same day when Timur took Bajazet he made him come before him and having fixed his eyes on him fell a laughing at which Bajazet being highly offended fiercely said to him Laugh not at my Fortune Timur know that 't is God that is the Dispenser of Kingdoms and Empires and that the same can befal you to morrow that hath befallen me to day Whereupon Timur made this serious and brave Answer I know as well as you Bajazet that 't is God that distributeth Kingdomes and Empires I laugh not at your ill Fortune God forbid I should do so But beholding your face I smiled and had this thought That certainly these Kingdomes and Empires must in themselves be very little and contemptible things in the eyes of God since he giveth them to persons so ill made as You and I both are a deformed one-eyed man as you and a lame wretch as my self You require also that abandoning all my other employments which I believe very necessary for the establishment and happiness of this State I should think on nothing but Conquests and the enlargement of the Empire I must confess that this is indeed the business of a great Monarch and of a Soul truly Royal and that I should not deserve to be of the Blood of the Great Timur if I were not of that mind and had not such inclinations Mean time I think I sit not idle and my Armies are not useless in the Kingdoms of Decan and Bengale But we must also aver that the greatest Conquerors are not alwayes the greatest Kings that we too often see a Barbarian making Conquests and that those great Bodies of Conquests do ordinarily fall of themselves and by their own weight He is a great King that knows to acquit himself worthily of that Great and August Employment and Charge of Kings which is to dispence Justice to their Subjects c. The rest is not come to my hands The second is in regard of the Emir-Jemla It were to injure this great Man to pass by with
And Danechmend-kan Governour of Dehli with this particular grace and priviledge that since he is perpetually employed in studies and forreign affairs he so dispenseth with him for not coming twice a day after the ancient custom to wait on the King in the Assembly as not to retrench any thing of his pension for his absence as he doth to the other Omrahs if they fail He hath given to Dianet-kan the Government of Kachmire aliàs Cassimere that little and in a manner inaccessible Kingdom which Ekbar seized on by craft that Earthly Paradise of the Indies which hath its Histories written in its peculiar Language whereof I have an abridgement in the Persian Tongue made by the command of Jehan Guyre containing a large Catalogue of many very ancient Kings that often were so powerful that they subdued the Indies as far as China 'T is true that Aureng-Zebe dismissed Nejabat-kan who did very well in the two Battels of Samonguer and Kadjoue but then 't is not fit at all that a Subject should ever reproach his King as he did with the services done him As to those infamous men Gion-kan and Nazer 't is known that the former hath been recompenced as he deserved but the other no man knows what is become of him What concerns Jessomseigne and Jesseigne there is something as to them that is intricate which I shall endeavour to unfold There is a certain Heathen revolted from the King of Visapour who knew how to possess himself of many important Fortresses and of some Sea-ports of that King His name is Seva-Gi that is Lord Seva He is a stout man vigilant bold and undertaking in the highest degree who gave Chah-hest-kan more work and trouble in Decan than the King of Visapour with all his forces and all his Raja's joyned with him for their common defence Insomuch that having designed to take away Chah-hest-kan and his Treasures out of the midst of his Army and of the Town Aurenge-Abad he carried on his design so far that he had effected it if he had not been discovered a little too soon for one night accompanied with a number of resolute Fellows he hath about him he was got into the very apartment of Chah-hest-kan where his Son who was forward in the defence was killed and himself grievously wounded Seva-Gi in the mean time getting away as well as he came Who for all this was so far from being daunted that he undertook another very bold and very dangerous enterprise which succeeded much better He took two or three Thousand chosen men of his Army with whom he took the Field without noise spreading a report by the way that it was a Raja going to the Court. When he was near Suratte that Famous and Rich Port of the Indies instead of Marching further as he made the Great Provost of that Country whom he met believe he fell into that Town where he staid about three Dayes cutting off the Arms and Legs of the Inhabitants to make them confess where were the treasures searching digging and loading away or burning what he could not carry with him Which done he returned none opposing his return loaden with millions of Gold Silver Pearls Silken Stuffs Fine Linnen and other rich Merchandise Jessomseigne was suspected to have had since intelligence with this seva-Gi which was the cause that Aureng Zebe called him away from Decan but he instead of going to Dehli went to his own Territory I forgot to mention that in the plunder of Suratte that Ring-leader Seva-Gi like a Saint had so much respect to the House of the Reverend Father Ambrose a Missionary Capucian that he gave order it should not be plundered because said he I know that the Fathers Franguis are good men He had also regard to the House of the Deceased De Lale because he understood that he had been Great Almoner He also consider'd the Houses of the English and Dutch not from Devotino as he did the former but because they were in a good posture of defence especially the English who having had time to send for assistance from some of their ships that lay near the Town behaved themselves gallantly and saved besides their own several other houses near them But a certain Jew of Constantinople who had brought Rubies of a very great value to sell them to Aureng-Zebe carried away the Bell from all by saving himself from the hands of Seva-Gi for rather than to confess that he had any Jewels he was brought thrice upon his knees and the knife held up to cut his throat But it became none save a Jew hardned in avarice to escape in such a manner Touching Jesseigne King Aureng-Zebe made him content to go General of the Army in Decan sending Sultan-Mazum with him without any power He presently and vigorously besieged the principal Fortress of Seva-Gi and knowing more than all the rest in matter of Negotiation and Treaty he so ordered the business that Seva-Gi surrendred rendred before it came to extremity and then he drew him to Aureng-Zebe's party against Visapour King Aureng-Zebe declaring him a Raja taking him under his protection and giving the pension of a very considerable Omrah to his Son Some time after Aureng-Zebe designing to make War against Persia wrote to Seva-Gi such obliging Letters touching his Generosity Ability and Conduct that he made him resolve upon the faith of Jesseigne to come to him to Dehli There a kinswoman of Aureng-Zebe the Wife of Chah-hest-kan who was then at Court by the influence she had upon the spirit of Aureng-Zebe perswaded him to arrest him that had murdered her Son wounded her Husband and sacked Suratte So that one evening Seva-Gi saw his Pavilions beset with three or four Omrahs but he made shift to get away in the night This escape made a great noise at Court every one accusing the Eldest Son of the Raja Jesseigne to have assisted him in it Jesseigne who presently had news that Aureng-Zebe was very angry with him and his Son and was advised no more to go to the Court was day and night upon his guard apprehending lest Aureng-Zebe should take this for a pretence to fall upon his Lands and possess himself of them Whereupon he also soon left Decan to secure his Estate but when he was at Brampour he died Yet notwithstanding Aureng-Zebe was so far from expressing any coldness or resentment to the Son of Jesseigne that he sent to condole with him for the Death of his Father and continued to him his Pension which confirms what many say that it was by the consent of Aureng-Zebe himself that Seva-Gi escaped forasmuch as he could retain him no longer at Court because all the Women there had too great a spleen against him and looked upon him as a man that had embroiled his hands in the blood of his Kinsmen But to return to Decan we are to consider that that is a Kingdom which these forty years hath constantly been the Theater of War and upon
the score whereof the Mogol hath much to do with the Kings of Golkonda and of Visapour and divers little Soveraigns which is not to be understood unless it be known what considerable things have passed in those parts and the condition of the Princes that govern them All this great Peninsule of Indostan cutting it from the Bay of Cambaja unto that of Bengale near Jaganrate and passing thence to Cape Comori was searce two hundred years since entirely some mountanous parts excepted under the Dominion of one only Prince who consequently was a very great and very potent Monarch But now it is divided among many different Soveraigns that are also of different Religions The cause of this division was that the King Ramras the last of those that have possessed this mighty State entirely did imprudently raise three Slaves Gurgis he had about him too high so as to make them all three Governors of places The first of the greatest part of those Countries which at present are possessed by the Mogol in Decan about Daulet-Abad from Bider Paranda Suratte unto Narbadar The second of all the other Lands now comprehended under the Kingdom of Visapour And the third of all that is contained under the Kingdom of Golkonda These three Slaves grew very rich and found themselves supported by a good number of the Mogols that were in the service of Ramras because they were all three Mahumetans of the Sect Chyas like the Persians And at length they all revolted together with one accord killed King Ramras and returned to their Government each taking upon him the Title of Chah or King The Issue of Ramras not finding themselves strong enough for them were content to keep themselves in a Corner viz. in that Countrey which is commonly called Karnatek in our Maps Bisnaguer where they are still Raja's to this very day All the rest of the State was also at the same time divided into all those Rajas Naiques and petty Kings such as we see there These three Slaves and their posterity have alwayes defended themselves very well in their Kingdoms whilst they kept a good mutual correspondence and assisted one another in their grievous wars against the Mogols But when they once came to think every one to defend their Lands apart they soon found the effects of their division For the Mogol so well knew to take his time upon that occasion which is now about thirty five or forty years since that he possessed himself within a little time of all the Countrey of Nejam-Chah or King Nejam the fifth or sixth of the family of the first Slave and at last took him prisoner in Daulet-Abud the Capital where he died After that time the Kings of Golkonda have maintained themselves well enough not as if they could compare with the power of the Mogol but because the Mogol hath alwayes been employed against the two others from whom he was to take Amber Paranda Bider and some other places before he could conveniently march towards Golkonda And because they have always been so politick being very opulent as to furnish under hand the King of Visapour with Money and thereby to help him to maintain a War against the Mogol Besides that they ever have a considerable Army on foot which is alwayes ready and never fails to take the Field and to approach to the Frontiers at the time when there is news that that of the Mogol marches against Visapour to let the Mogol see not only that they are alwayes ready to defend themselves but also that they could easily assist the King of Visapour in case he should be reduced to any extremity Next which is very considerable they know also how to convey Money under hand to the Chieftains of the Mogolian Army who thereupon advise the Court that it is more to purpose to attack Visapour as being nearer to Daulet-Abad Further they send every year very considerable Presents to the Great Mogol by way of Tribute which consist partly in some rare manufactures of the Countrey partly in Elephants which they send for from Pegu Siam and Ceilan partly in fair ready money Lastly the Mogol considers that Kingdom as his own not only because he looks upon the King thereof as his Tributary but chiefly since that agrement heretofore spoken of which the present King made with Aureng-Zebe when he besieged Golkonda and there being also no place able to resist even from Daulet-Abad unto Golkonda he judgeth that when he shall think fit to push for it he may take in the whole Kingdom in one Campagne which in my opinion he would certainly have done if he did not apprehend lest sending his Forces towards Golkonda the King of Visapour should enter into Decan as no doubt he would do knowing it to be very important to his conservation that that Kingdom may alwayes subsist as now it is From all which something may be understood of the Interests and Government of the King of Golkonda with the Mogol and what way he taketh to support himself against him Yet notwithstanding all this I find this state much shaken in regard that the King that now is since that unhappy affair of Aureng-Zebe and Emir-Jemla seems to have lost heart and as 't were abandoned the reins of the Kingdom not daring any more to go forth of this Fortress of Golkonda nor so much as appear in publick to give Audience to his People and to render Justice according to the custom of the Country Which discomposeth things very much and occasions the Grandees to tyrannize over the meaner sort of People and to lose even their respect to the King often slighting his Commands and considering him no more than a Woman and the People weary of the injustice and ill treatment breathing after nothing but Aureng-Zebe 'T is easie to judge of the streights this poor King is in by four or five particulars I am about to relate The first that An. 1667. when I was at Golkonda King Aureng-Zebe having sent an Ambassador Extraordinary to declare War to that King unless he would furnish him with 10000 Horse against Visapour he did extraordinary honour and give excessive presents to that Ambassador as well for him in particular as for Aureng-Zebe and made an agreement with him to send him not 10000 Horse but as much Money as is necessary to maintain so many which was all that Aureng-Zebe looked for The second is that Aureng-Zebe's Ambassador in Ordinary that is constantly at Golkonda commands threatens striketh gives Pass-ports and saith and doth whatsoever he will no man daring with the least word to cross him The third is that Mahmet-Emir-kan the Son of Emir-Jemla though he be no more than a simple Omrah of Aureng-Zebe is yet so much respected through that whole Kingdom and especially in Maslipatan that the Taptata his Commissioner is as 't were Master thereof buying and selling bringing in and sending abroad his Merchants Ships no body daring to contradict him in any thing
sometimes of Gazels Leopards and Lions and making his progress towards Lahor and Kachemire that little paradise of India there to pass the Summer the Army had seventy pieces of Cannon most of them cast not counting the two or three hundred Camels carrying each a small Field-piece of the bigness of a good double Musket fastned to those Animals The other light Artillery is very brave and well order'd consisting of fifty or sixty small Field-pieces all of Brass each mounted on a little Chariot very fine and well painted with a small Coffer before and behind for the Powder drawn by two very fair Horses driven by a Coachman like a Caleche adorned with a number of small red Streamers each having a third Horse led by the Chariot for relief The great Artillery could not alwayes follow the King who often left the High-way and turn'd sometimes to the right sometimes to the left hand crossing the fields to find the true places for Game and to follow the course of the Rivers That therefore was to keep the High way to go the more easily and to avoid the embarasments which it would have met with in the ill passages especially in those Boat-Bridges made to pass Rivers The light Artillery is inseparable from the person of the King it marcheth away in the morning when the King comes out of his Tent and whereas he commonly goes a little aside into the places for game this Artillery passeth on straight with all possible speed to be in time at the Rendez-vous and there to appear before the Kings Tent which is there made ready the day before as are also the Tents of the great Omrahs And this whole Artillery giveth a volley just when the Kihg enters into his Tent thereby to give notice to the Army of his arrival The Militia of the Field is not different from that which is about the King There are every where Omrahs Mansebdars Rousindars simple Horsemen and Foot and Artillery where-ever any War is made The difference is only in the number which is much greater in the Field-Army than in the other For that Army alone which the Mogol is constrained perpetually to maintain in Decan to bridle the potent King of Golkonda and to make War upon the King of Visapour and upon all the Raja's that joyn with him must consist at least of twenty or twenty five thousand Horse sometimes of thirty The Kingdom of Kaboul for its ordinary Guard against the Persians Augans Balouches and I know not how many Mounteniers requireth at least fifteen thousand The Kingdom of Kachmire more than four thousand and the Kingdom of Bengale much more not counting those that are employed in the War which must almost alwayes be maintained on that side nor those which the Governors of the several Provinces do need for their defence according to the particular extent and situation of their Governments which maketh an incredible number Not to mention the Infantry which is inconsiderable I am apt to believe with many others well informed of these matters that the number of the Horse in actual service about the Kings person comprehending the Cavalry of the Raja's and Patans mounteth to thirty five or forty thousand and that this number joyned to those that is abroad in the Field may make two hundred thousand and better I say that the Infantry is inconsiderable for I can hardly believe that in the Army which is about the King comprising the Musquetiers and all the Gunners and their Mates and whatever serves in this Artillery can amount to much more than fifteen thousand whence you may make a near guess what the number of the Foot must be in the Field So that I know not whence to take that prodigious number of Foot which some do reckon in the Armies of the Great Mogol unless it be that with this true Souldiery they confound all the Serving-men and Victualers that follow the Army for in that sence I should easily believe that they had reason to reckon two or three hundred thousand men in that Army alone which is with the King and sometimes more especially when 't is certain that he is to be long absent from the Capital City which will not seem so strange to him that considers the multitude and confusion of Tents Kitchens Baggage Women Elephants Camels Oxen Horses Waiting-men Porters Forragers Victualers Merchants of all sorts that must follow the Army nor to him that knows the State and particular Government of that Countrey wherein the King is the sole proprietor of all the Lands of the Kingdom whence it necessarily follows that a whole Metropolitan City such as Dehly and Agra liveth of almost nothing but of the Souldiery and is consequently obliged to follow the King when he taketh the Field those Towns being nothing less than Paris but indeed no otherwise governed than a Camp of Armies a little better and more conveniently lodged than in the open Field Besides all these things you may also consider if you please that generally all this Militia which I have been representing to you from the greatest Omrah to the meanest Souldier is indispensably paid every two months the Kings pay being its sole refuge and relief nor can its pay be deferred there as 't is sometimes with us where when there are pressing occasions of the State a Gentleman an Officer and even a simple Cavalier can stay a while and maintain himself of his own Stock Rents and the Incomes of his Land But in the Mogol's Countrey all must be paid at the time prefix'd or all disbands and starves after they have sold that little they have as I saw in this last War that many were going to do if it had not soon ceased And this the more because that in all this Militia there is almost no Souldier that hath not wife and children servants and slaves that look for this pay and have no other hope of relief And hence it is that many wonder considering the huge number of persons living of pay which amounts to millions whence such vast Revenues can be had for such excessive Charges Although this need not to be so much wondred at considering the Riches of the Empire the peculiar Government of the State and the said universal propriety of the Sovereign You may add to all this that the Grand Mogol keeps nigh him at Dehly and Agra and thereabout two or three thousand brave Horses to be always ready upon occasion as also eight or nine hundred Elephants and a vast number of Mules Horses and Porters to carry all the great Tents and their Cabinets to carry his Wives Kitchens Houshold-stuff Ganges-Water and all the other Necessaries for the Field which he hath always about him as if he were at home things not absolutely necessary in our Kingdoms To this may be added those incredible Expences upon the Seraglio more indispensable than will be easily believed that vast store of fine Linnen Cloth of Gold Embroideries Silks Musk Amber
such as our Pont-neuf is where hundreds of men are found pel-mel together with their Horses Mules and Camels where one is stifled with heat in Summer and starved of cold in Winter if it were not for the breathing of those Animals that warm the place a little But it will be said we see some States where the Meum and Tuum is not as for example that of the Grand Seignor which we know better than any without going so far as the Indies that do not only subsist but are also very powerful and encrease daily 'T is true that that State of the Grand Seignor of such a prodigious extent as it is having so vast a quantity of Lands the Soil of which is so excellent that it cannot be destroyed but very difficultly and in a long time is yet rich and populous but it is certain also that if it were cultivated and peopled proportionably to ours which it would be if there were propriety among the Subjects throughout it would be a quite different thing it would have people enough to raise such prodigious Armies as in old times and rich enough to maintain them We have travelled through almost all the parts of it we have seen how strangely it is ruin'd and unpeopled and how in the Capital City there now need three whole Months to raise five or six thousand men We know also what it would have come to ere this if it had not been for the great number of Christian Slaves that are brought into it from all parts And no doubt but that if the same Government were continued there for a number of years that State would destroy it self and at last fall by its own weakness as it seems that already it is hardly maintained but only by that means I mean by the frequent change of Governors there being not one Governor nor any one man in the whole Empire that hath a penny to enable him to maintain the least thing or that can almost find any men if he had Money A strange manner to make States to subsist There would need no more for making an end of the Seditions than a Brama of Pegu who killed the half of the Kingdom with hunger and turned it into Forests hindring for some years the Lands from being tilled though yet he hath not succeeded in his Design and the State have afterwards been divided and that even lately Ava the Capital Town was upon the point of being taken by an handful of China-fugitives Mean time we must confess that we are not like to see in our dayes that total ruine and destruction of this Empire we are speaking of if so be we see not something worse because it hath Neighbors that are so far from being able to undertake any thing against him that they are not so much as in a condition to resist him unless it be by those succours of strangers which the remoteness and jealousie would make slow small and suspect But it might be yet further objected that it appears not why such States as these might not have good Laws and why the people in the Provinces might not be enabled to come and make their complaints to a Grand Visir or to the King himself 'T is true that they are not altogether destitute of good Laws and that if those which are amongst them were observed there would be as good living there as in any part of the world But what are those Laws good for if they be not observed and if there be no means to make them to be executed Is it not the Grand Visir or the King that appoints for the people such beggarly Tyrants and that hath no others to set over them Is it not He that sells those governments Hath a poor Peasant or Tradesman means to make great journeys and to come and seek for Justice in the Capital City remote perhaps 150 or 200 Leagues from the place of his abode Will not the Governour cause him to be made away in his journey as it hath often hapned or catch him sooner or later And will he not provide his Friends at Court to support him there and to represent things quite otherwise than they are In a word this Governour hungry as well as the Timariots and Farmers that are all men for drawing Oyl out of Sand as the Persian speaks and for ruining a world with their heap of Women-harpies Children and Slaves this Governor I say is he not the absolute Master the Super-intendant of Justice the Parliament the Receiver and all It may perhaps be added that the Lands which our Kings hold in Domaine are no less well tilled and peopled than other Land But there is a great difference between the having in propriety some Lands here and there in a great Kingdom which changes not the Constitution of the State and Government and the having them all in propriety which would alter it altogether And then we in these parts have Laws so rational which our Kings are willing to be the first to observe and according to which they will that their particular Lands shall be governed as those of their Subjects are so as to give way that Actions of Law may be laid against their own Farmers and Officers so that a Peasant or Tradesman may have means to obtain Justice and to find remedy against the unjust violence of those that would oppress him Whereas in those parts of Asia I see almost not any refuge for those poor people the Cudgel and the Hammer of the Governour being in a manner the only Law that rules and decides all Controversies there Lastly It may be said that 't is at least certain that in such States there is not such a multitude of long-lasting sutes of Law as in these parts nor so many Lawyers of all sorts as amongst us It is in my opinion very true that one cannot too much applaud that old Persian Saing Na-hac Kouta Beter-Ez hac Deraz that is Short Injustice is better than long Justice and that the length of Law-Sutes is unsufferable in a State and that it is the indispensable duty of the Sovereign by all good means to endeavour a remedy against them And 't is certain that by taking away this Meum and Tuum the root would be cut of an infinite number of Law-processes and especially of almost all those that are of importance and long and perplexed and consequently there would not need so great a number of Magistrates which our Sovereigns do employ to administer Justice to their Subjects nor that swarm of men which subsist only by that way But 't is also manifest that the remedy would be an hundred times worse than the Disease considering those great inconveniences that would follow thereupon and that in all probability the Magistrates would become such as those of the Asiatick States who deserve not that Name for in a word our Kings have yet cause to glory upon the account of good Magistracy under them In those parts some Merchants excepted Justice is only among the meanest sort of people that are poor and of an unequal condition who have not the means of corrupting the Judges and to buy false Witnesses that are there in great numbers and very cheap and never punished And this I have learn'd every where by the experience of many years and by my solicitous enquiries made among the people of the Country and our old Merchants that are in those parts as also of Ambassadors Consuls and Interpreters whatever our common Travellers may say who upon their having seen by chance when they passed by two or Porters or others of the like Gang about a Kady quickly dispatching one or other of the parties and sometimes both with some lashes under the sole of their feet or with a Maybalé Baba some mild words when there is no wool to sheer who I say upon sight of this come hither and cry out O the good and short Justice O what honest Judges are those in respect of ours Not considering in the mean time that if one of those wretches that is in the wrong had a couple of Crowns to corrupt the Kady or his Clerks and as much to buy two false witnesses he might either win his process or prolong it as long as he pleased In conclusion to be short I say that the taking away this Propriety of Lands among private men would be infallibly to intoduce at the same time Tyranny Slavery Injustice Beggery Barbarism Desolation and to open a high way for the ruine and destruction of Mankind and even of Kings and States Aud that on the contrary this Meum and Tuum accompanied with the hopes that every one shall keep what he works and labours for for himself and his Children as his own is the main foundation of whatever is regular and good in the World Insomuch that whosoever shall cast his eyes upon the different Countries and Kingdoms and taketh good notice of what follows upon this Propriety of Sovereigns or that of the People will soon find the true source and chief cause of that great difference we see in the several States and Empires of the world and avow that this is in a manner that which changes and diversifieth the Face of the whole Earth FINIS THe Relation of a Voyage into Mauritania in Africk by Roland Frejus of Marseilles by the French King's Order 1666. To Muley Arxid King of Tafiletta c. For the establishment of a Commerce in the Kingdom of Fez and all his other Conquests With a Letter in Answer to divers curious Questions concerning the Religion Manners and Customs of his Countries Also their Trading to Tombutum for Gold and divers other Particulars by one who lived five and twenty years in the Kingdom of Sus and Morocco Printed at Paris 1670. Englished 1671. 8 Price 1 s 6 d. Sold by M. Pitt at the Angel near the Little North-Door of St Paul A Roupy is about half a Crown So that the six Kourours would make about seven Millions and an half English Money
service together with a Model for the sutable Education of a Great Prince prescribed by Aureng-Zebe on this occasion 9. In what credit Judiciary Astrology is over all Asia 10. How the Kings of India make themselves Heirs of all the Estate of those that dye in their service 11. Of the Reciprocal Appearance of Kindnesses between Aureng-Zebe and his Imprison'd Father and Sister 12 What pass'd between Aureng-Zebe and Emir-Jemla who had laid the first Ground-work to Aureng-Zebe's Greatness 13. What in these Revolutions was transacted about the Bay of Bengale and the Heathen Kingdom of Rakan 14. How Aureng-Zebe carried himself towards his two Eldest Sons Sultan Mahmoud and Sultan Mahum And how for a Trial of the Obedience and Courage of the latter he commanded him to kill a certain Lion that did great mischief in the Countrey together with the success thereof 15. Divers Particulars shewing the Interest between Indostan and Persia supposed by this Author to be unknown or at least not well known hitherto 16. How generously Aureng-Zebe recompensed those that had faithfully served him in these Revolutions 17. Some Account of that small Kingdom of Kachimere or Cassimere represented as the Paradice of the Indies concerning which the Author affirms that he hath a particular History of it in the Persian Tongue 18. A considerable Relation of Suratte's being strangely surpriz'd and plunder'd by a stout Rebel of Visapour and how the English and Dutch saved themselves and their Treasure in this bold Enterprize 19. A particular Account both of the former and present State of the whole Peninsule of Indostan the occasion of its Division into divers Sovereignties and the several Arts used to maintain themselves one against another particularly of the present Government and State of the Kingdoms of Golkonda and Visapour and their Interests in reference to the Great Mogol 20. Of the Extent of Indostan and the Trade which the English Portugueses and Hollanders have in that Empire as also of the vast quantities of Gold and Silver circulated through the World and conveyed into Indostan and there swallowed up as in an Abyss 21. Of the many Nations which in that vast Extent of Countrey cannot be well kept in subjection by the Great Mogol 22. Of the Great Mogol's Religion which is Mahumetan of the Turkish not Persian Sect. 23. Of his Militia both in the Field and about his Person and how the same is provided for employed punctually paid and carefully distributed in several places 24. Of the Omrahs that is the Great Lords of Indostan their several Qualities Offices Attendants 25. The Artillery of the Mogol great and small very considerable 26. Of his Stables of Horses Elephants Camels Mules c. 27. Of his Seraglio 28. Of his vast Revenues and Expences 29. What Prince may be said to be truly Rich. 30. An important State-Question Debated viz. Whether it be more expedient for the Prince and People that the Prince be the sole Proprietor of all the Lands of the Countrey over which he Reigns yea or no THE HISTORY OF The Late Revolution OF THE DOMINIONS OF THE GREAT MOGOL THE desire of seeing the World having made me Travel into Palestina and Egypt would not let me stop there it put me upon a resolution to see the Red Sea from one end to the other I went from Grand Cairo after I had staid there above a year and in two and thirty hours going the Caravan pace I arrived at Suez where I embarked in a Galley which in seventeen days carry'd me always in sight of land to the Port of Gidda which is half a days journey from Mecca There I was constrained contrary to my hopes and the promise which the Beig of the Red Sea had made me to go a shore on that pretended Holy Land of Mahomet where a Christian that is not a Slave dares not set his foot I staid there four and thirty days and then I embarked in a small Vessel which in fifteen days carried me along the Coast of Arabia the Happy to Moka near the Streight of Babel-mandel I resolved to pass thence to the Isle of Masowa and Arkiko to get as far as Gouder the Capital Town of the Country of Alebech or the Kingdom of Aethiopia but I received certain information that since the Portugueses had been killed there by the intrigue of the Queen Mother or expelled together with the Jesuit Patriarch whom they had brought thither from Goa the Roman Catholicks were not safe there a poor Capuchin having lost his head at Suaken for having attempted to enter into that Kingdom That indeed by going under the name of a Greek or an Armenian I did not run so great hazard and that even the King himself when he should know that I could do him service would give me Land to Till by Slaves which I might buy if I had money but that undoubtedly they would forthwith oblige me to Marry as they had lately done a certain Frier who had passed there under the name of a Greek Physitian and that they would never suffer me to come away again These considerations among others induced me to change my resolution I went aboard of an Indian Vessel I passed those Streights and in two and twenty days I arrived at Surratte in Indostan the Empire of the Great Mogol in the Year 1655. There I found that he who then Reigned there was call'd Chah-Jehan that is to say King of the World who according to the History of that Countrey was Son of Jehan-Guyre which signifieth Conquerour of the World Grandchild of Ekbar which is Great and that thus ascending by Hohmayons or the Fortunate Father of Ekbar and his other Predecessors he was the Tenth of those that were descended from that Timur-Lengue which signifieth the Lame Prince commonly and corruptly call'd Tamerlan so renowned for his Conquests who Married his near Kinswoman the only Daughter of the Prince of the Nations of Great Tartary call'd Mogols who have left and communicated their Name to the strangers that now Govern Indostan the Countrey of the Indians though those that are employ'd in publick Charges and Offices and even those that are listed in the Militia be not all of the Race of the Mogols but strangers and Nations gather'd out of all Countries most of them Persians some Arabians and some Turks For to be esteem'd a Mogol 't is enough to be a stranger white of Face and a Mahumetan in distinction as well to the Indians who are brown and Pagans as to the Christians of Europe who are call'd Franguis I found also at my arrival that this King of the World Chah-Jehan of above seventy years of Age had four Sons and two Daughters that some years since he had made these four Sons Vice-Kings or Governours of four of his most considerable Provinces or Kingdoms that it was almost a year that he was fallen into a great sickness whence it was believed he would never recover Which had occasioned a great division among
the Woods I have heard the Relation three or four other manner of ways even by those persons that were upon the place Some did assure that he had been found among the dead but was not well known And I have seen a Letter of the Chief of the Dutch Factory confirming this So that 't is difficult enough to know aright what is become of him And this it is which hath administred ground to those so frequent Allarms given us afterwards at Dehli For at one time it was rumored that he was arrived at Maslipatan to joyn with the Kings of Golkonda and Visapour another time it was related for certain that he had passed in sight of Suratte with two Ships bearing the Red Colours which the King of Pegu or the King of Siam had given him by and by that he was in Persia and had been seen in Chiras and soon after in Kandahar ready to enter into the Kingdom of Caboul it self Aureng-Zebe one day said smiling that Sultan Sujah was at last become an Agy or Pilgrim And at this very day there are abundance of petsons who maintain that he is in Persia returned from Constantinople whence he is said to have brought with him much Money But that which confirms more than enough that there is no ground for any of these reports is that Letter of the Hollanders and that an Eunuch of his with whom I travelled from Bengale to Maslipatan as also the Great Master of his Artillery whom I saw in the Service of the King of Golkonda have assured me that he is no more in being though they made difficulty to say any more concerning him as also that our French Merchants that lately came out of Persia and from Hispahan when I was yet at Dehli had in those parts heard no news at all of him besides that I have heard that a while after his Defeat his Sword and Poynard had been found So that 't is credible that if he was not killed upon the place he soon dyed afterwards and was the prey of some Robbers or Tygers or Elephants of which the Forrests of that Countrey are full However it be after this last Action his whole Family was put in Prison Wives and Children where they were treated rudely enough yet some time after they were set at more liberty and they received a milder entertainment And then the King called for the eldest Daughter whom he married Whilst this was doing some Servants of Sultan Banque joyned with divers of those Mahumetans which I have mentioned went to plot another Conspiracy like the first But the day appointed for it being come one of the Conspirators being half drunk began too soon to break out Concerning this also I have heard forty different relations so that 't is very hard to know the truth of it That which is undoubted is this that the King was at length so exasperated against this unfortunate Family of Sujah that he commanded it should be quite rooted out Neither did there remain any one of it that was not put to death save that Daughter which the King had made his Wife Sultan Banque and his Brothers had their Heads cut off with blunt Axes and the Women were mured up where they dyed of hunger and misery And thus endeth this War which the lust of Reigning had kindled among those four Brothers after it had lasted five or six years from 1655 or thereabout to 1660 or 1661 which left Aureng-Zebe in the peaceable possession of this puissant Empire The End of the FIRST TOME PARTICULAR EVENTS OR The most considerable Passages after the War of 5 years or thereabout IN THE EMPIRE OF THE GREAT MOGOL Together with a LETTER CONCERNING The Extent of INDOSTAN the Circulation of the Gold and Silver at last swallow'd up there the Riches Forces Justice and the Principal Cause of the Decay of the STATES of ASIA TOM II. London Printed by William Godbid and are to be Sold by Moses Pitt 1676. PARTICULAR EVENTS OR The most considerable Passages after the War for Five Years or thereabout in the Empire of the GREAT MOGOL THe War being ended the Tartars of Usbec entertained thoughts of sending Ambassadors to Aureng-Zebe They had seen him fight in their Countrey when he was yet a young Prince Chah-Jehan having sent him to command the Succours which the Kan of Samarkand had desired of him against the Kan of Balk They had experienced his Conduct and Valour on many occasions and they consider'd with themselves that he could not but remember the Affront they did him when he was just taking Balk the Capital Town of the Enemy For the two Kans agreed together and obliged him to retreat alledging that they apprehended he might render himself Master of their whole State just as Ekbar had formerly done of the Kingdom of Kachimere Besides they had certain intelligence of all he had done in Indostan of his Battels Fortune and Advantages whence they might sufficiently estimate that though Chah-Jehan was yet living yet Aureng-Zebe was Master and the only Person that was to be owned King of the Indies Whether then they feared his just resentments or whether it was that their inbred avarice and sordidness made them hope for some considerable Present the two Kans sent to him their Ambassadors to offer him their Service and to congratulate him upon the happy beginning of his Reign Aureng-Zebe saw very well that the War being at an end this offer was out of season and that it was nothing but fear or hope as we said that had brought them Yet for all this he received them honourably and since I was present at their Audience I can relate the particulars of it with certainty They made their reverence at a considerable distance from him after the Indian custom putting thrice their hands upon their heads and as often letting them down to the ground Then they approached so near that Aureng-Zebe himself might very well have taken their Letters immediately from their hands but yet it was an Omrah that took and open'd them and gave them to him He forthwith read them with a very grave countenance and afterwards commanded there should be given to each of them an embroider'd Vest a Turbant and a Girdle of Silk in Embroidery which is that which they call Ser-apah that is an Habit from head to foot After this their Presents were call'd for which consisted in some Boxes of choice Lapis Lazulus divers Camels with long hair several gallant Horses some Camel-loads of fresh Fruit as Apples Pears Raisins and Melons for 't is chiefly Usbec that furnishes these sorts of Fruit eaten at Dehli all the Winter long and in many loads of dry Fruit as Prunes of Bokara Aprecocks Raisins without any stones that appeared and two other sorts of Raisins black and white very large and very good Aureng-Zebe was not wanting to declare how much he was satisfied with the Generosity of the Kans and much commended the beauty and rarity of the
trouble them in their Trade thereby letting them know that they had to do with a potent Nation and that hath a door open to address themselves and to complain immediately to the King Their end also was to make it appear what interest the King had in their Commerce and therefore they shew'd long Rolls of Commodities bought up by them through the whole Kingdom and Lists of considerable sums of Gold and Silver every year brought thither by them but saying not a word of those which they draw thence from the Copper Lead Cinamon Cloves Muscadin Pepper Wood of Aloes Elephants and other Commodities which they vend there About this time one of the most considerable Omrah's of Aureng-Zebe addressed himself to him and represented that this multitude and variety of perplexing affairs and this perpetual attention of mind in him might soon cause a great alteration in his temper and a dangerous inconvenience in his health But Aureng-Zebe seeming to take almost no notice of what that Omrah said turn'd himself another way and approaching to another of the prime Omrah's of the Court a person of great knowledge and judgment spoke to him in this purpose as I was informed by the Son of this Lord who was my friend You other Sages are you not all of the mind that there are times and conjunctions so urgent that a King ought to hazard his life for his Subjects and sacrifice himself for their Defence with Arms in his hands And yet this Effeminate Man would disswade me from taking pains and dehort me from watching and sollicitude for the Publick and carry me by pretences of Health to the thoughts of an easie life by abandoning the Government of my People and the management of affairs to some Visir or other Doth he not know that Providence having given me a Royal Extraction and raised me to the Crown of Indostan hath not made me for my self alone but for the good and safety of the Publick and for the procurement of tranquility and happiness to my Subjects as far as that nay be obtained by Justice and Power He seeth not the consequence of his Counsels and what mischiefs do attend Visirships Doth he think it to be without reason what out Grand Sady hath so generously pronounced O Kings cease cease to be Kings or govern your Kingdoms your selves Go tell thy Country-man that I shall well like of the care he is constantly to take of the faithful discharge of his Place but advise him also not any more to run out himself so far as he hath done We have natural inclination enough to a long easie and careless life and there need no Counsellors to shake off business and trouble Our Wives that lye in our bosom do too often besides our own genius incline us that way At the same time there happen'd an accident that made a great noise at Dehli especially in the Seraglio and disabused a great many that could as hardly believe as my self that Eunuchs though they had their Genitals quite cut away could become amorous as other men Didar-kan one of the chief Eunuchs of the Seraglio who had built an house where he came often to divert himself fell in love with a very beautiful Woman the Sister of a Neighbour of his that was an Heathen Scrivener These Amours lasted a good while before any body blamed them since it was but an Eunuch that made them which sort of men have the priviledge to go where they please but the familiarity grew so great and so extraordinary betwixt the two Lovers that the Neighbours began to suspect something and to rally the Scrivener which did so touch him that he threatned both his Sisters and the Eunuch to kill them if they should continue their commerce And soon after finding them in the night lying together he stabbed the Eunuch out-right and left his Sister for dead The whole Seraglio Women and Eunuchs made a league together against him to make him away but Aureng-Zebe dissipated all these machinations and was content to have him turn Mahumetan Mean time 't is thought he cannot long avoid the malice and power of the Eunuchs for 't is not as is the common saying with Men as with Bruits these latter become gentler and more tractable when they are castrated but men more vicious and commonly very insolent though sometimes it turneth to an admirable fidelity and gallantry It was also about the same time that Aureng-Zebe was somewhat discontented with Rauchenara-Begum because she was suspected to have given access to two Young Gallants into the Seraglio who were discover'd and brought before Aureng-Zebe Yet this being but a suspicion he expressed to her no great resentment of it nor did he make use of so great rigour and cruelty against those poor men as Chah-Jehan had done against the person above spoken of The matter was related to me by an old Portuguese Woman that had a long while been slave to the Seraglio and went out and in at pleasure as followeth She told me that Rauchenara-Begum after she had drawn from a young man hidden by her all his abillty deliver'd him to some Women to convey him away in the night thorough some Gardens and so to save him But whether they were discover'd or whether they feared they should be so or what else might be the cause they fled and left him there wandring in the midst of those Gardens not knowing which way to get out And being at last met with and brought before Aureng-Zebe who examined him strictly but could draw nothing else from him than that he was come in over the walls he was commanded to get out the same way by which he entred But it seems the Eunuchs did more than Aureng-Zebe had given order for for they cast him down from the top of the walls to the bottom As for the other Young Gallant this same Woman assured me that he was found wandring in the Garden like the first and having confessed that he was come in by the Gate Aureng-Zebe commanded likewise that he also should pass away again by the same Gate yet reserving to himself a severe chastisement for the Eunuchs since not only the honour of the Royal House but also the safety of the Kings person is herein concerned Some months after there arrived at Dehli several Ambassadours almost at the same time The first was Xerif of Meccha whose Present did consist in some Arabian Horses The second and third Ambassador were he of the King of Hyeman or Happy Arabia and he of the Prince of Bassora who likewise presented Arabian horses The two remaining Ambassadors were sent from the King of Ethiopia To the three first no great regard was given they appear'd in so miserable and confused an Equipage that it was perceived they came only to get some money by the means of their Present and of the many Horses and other Merchandise which under the pretence of Ambassadors entred without paying any duty into the Kingdom
met with To all this were added four Damaskin'd Swords with as many Poynards all cover'd with Jewels as also five or six Harnasses of Horses which were much esteem'd being also very fine and rich the stuff being raised with rich Embroidery set with small Pearls and very fair Turcoises of the old Rock It was observ'd that Aureng-Zebe beheld this Present very attentively that he admired the beanty and rarity of every piece and that several times he extolled the Generosity of the King of Persia assigning to the Ambassador a place among his chief Omrahs And after he had entertained him a while with a discourse about the inconveniencies and hardships of his Voyage he dismist him and made instance that he should come every day to see him During the four or five Months that the Ambassador staid at Dehli he was always splendidly treated at Aureng-Zebe's charge and the greatest Omrahs presented him one after another and at last he was very honourably dismissed For Aureng-Zebe had him apparell'd with another rich Serapah or Vest to which he added considerable presents for himself reserving those he intended for his King 'till he should send an Ambassador expresly which sometime after he did Notwithstanding all these testimonies of honour and respect which Aureng-Zebe had shew'd to this Ambassador the same Persians above-spoken of gave out that their King had sensibly reproached him in his Letters with the Death of Dara and the imprisonment of Chah-Jehan as actions unworthy of a Brother and a Son and a Musulman and that he had also hit him with the word Aâ—m-Guire or Conquerour of the World which Aureng-Zebe had caused to be engraven on his Coyn. But 't is hard to believe that the King of Persia should do any such thing to provoke such a Victorious Prince since Persia is not in a condition to enter into a War with Indostan I am rather apt to believe that Persia hath work enough to keep Kandahar on the side of Indostan and the Frontiers on the side of Turky Its Forces and Riches are known it produceth not always such great Kings as the Chah-Abbas Valiant Intelligent and Politick knowing to make use of every thing and to do much with small expences If it were in a condition of undertaking any thing against Indostan or really sensible of Piety and the Musal-Man Faith why was it that in these last troubles and Civil Wars which continued so long in Indostan the Persians sat still and looked on when Dara Chan-Jehan Sultan Sujah and perhaps the Governour of Caboul desired their assistance and they might with no very great Army nor great expences have seized on the fairest part of India beginning from the Kingdom of Caboul unto the River Indus and beyond it and so made themselves Umpires of all things yet notwithstanding there must needs have been some offensive expressions in those Persian Letters or else the Ambassador must have done or said something that displeased Aureng-Zebe because two or three daies after he had dismissed him he made a rumour to be spread-abroad that the Ambassador had caused the Ham-strings of the presented Horses to be Cut And the Ambassador being yet upon the Frontiers he made him return all the Indian Slaves which he carried along with him of which he had a prodigious number Mean while Aureng-Zebe was not so much concern'd nor troubled himself so much with this Ambassador as Chah-Jehan upon a like occasion did with him that was sent to him from the Great Chah-Abbas When the Persians are in the humor of Rallying against the Indians they relate these three or four little Stories of them They say that Chah-Jehan seeing that the Courtship and promises made to their Ambassador were not able to prevail with him so as to make him perform his salute after the Indian Mode he devised this artifice he commanded to shut the great Gate of the Court of the Am-kas where he was to receive him and to leave only open the Wicket through which one man could not pass but very difficultly by stooping and holding down his Head as the fashion is when one maketh an Indian Reverence to the end that it might be said he had made the Ambassador put himself in a posture which was something lower than the Indian Salam or Salute but that that Ambassador being aware of this trick came in with his Back fore-most And that Chah-Jehan out of indignation to see himself catch'd told him Eh-Bed-bakt Thou Wretch dost thou think thou comest into a Stable of Asses such as thou art And that the Ambassador without any alteration answered Who would not think so seeing such a little Door Another story is this That at a certain time Chah-Jehan taking ill some course and fierce answers return'd to him by the Persian Ambassador could not hold to tell him What hath Chah-Abbas no other men at his Court that he must send to me such a Fool as thy self And that the Ambassador answer'd He hath many better and wiser men than me but to such a King such an Ambassador They add that on a certain day Chah-Jehan who had made the Ambassador to Dine in his Presence and sought some occasion to affront him seeing that he was busie in picking and gnawing of Bones asked him smiling Eh Eltchy-Gi My Lord Ambassador What shall the Dogs eat And that he answer'd readily Kichery that is a dish of Pulse which is the Food of the meaner sort of People and which he saw Chah-Jehan eat because he loved it They say also that Chah-Jehan once asked him What he thought of his new Dehli which he was building in comparison of Hispahan and that he answer'd aloud and with an oath Billah Billah Hispahan doth not come near the dust of Dehli which Chah-Jehan took for a high commendation though the Ambassador mocked him because the dust is so troublesome at Dehli Lastly they relate that Chah-Jehan one day pressing him to tell him What he thought of the Grandeur of the Kings of Indostan compared to that of the Kings of Persia He answer'd That in his opinion one could not better compare the Kings of India than to a large Moon of 15 or 16 daies old and those of Persia to a small Moon of 2 or 3 dayes And that this answer did at first please Chah-Jehan but that soon after he perceived that that comparison did him but little honour the Ambassadors sense being that the Kings of Indostan were decreasing and those of Persia increasing Whether these points are so commendable and such marks of wit every one is free to judge as he seeth cause My opinion is that a discreet and respectful gravity is much more becoming Ambassadors than rallery and roughness especially when they have to do with Kings who will not be rallied with witness an accident that befell this very Ambassador for Chah-Jehan was at length so weary of him and his freedom that he called him no otherwise than Fool and one day gave secret
order that when he should enter into a pretty long and narrow Stree that is near the Fortress to come to the Hall of the Assembly they should let loose upon him an ill-conditioned and fierce Elephant and certainly if the Ambassador had not nimbly lept out of his Paleky and together with his dextrous attendants shot some Arrows into the Trump of the Elephant which forced him to turn back he had been utterly spoiled It was at this time upon the departure of the Persian Ambassador that Aureng-Zebe received with that admirable wisdome his Tutor Mallah-Sale the History of which is rare and considerable This old man who long since had retired himself towards Caboul and setled himself on some Lands which Chah-Jehan had given him had no sooner heard of the great fortune of Aureng-Zebe his Discipline who had overcome Dara and all his other Brothers and was now King of Indostan but he came in hast to the Court swelled with hopes of being presently advanced to no less than the dignity of an Omrah He maketh his Court and endeavours to engage all his friends and Rauchenara-Begum the Kings Sister employs her self for him But yet there pass three whole Months that Aureng-Zebe does not so much as seem to look upon him till at length wearied to have him always at his Elbow and before his Face he sent for him to a plaee apart where there was no body but Hakim-lul-Mouluk Danech-mend-kan and three or four of those Omr ahs that pretend to Science and then spoke to him to this effect as I was informed by my Agah What is it you would have of me Doctor Can you reasonably desire I should make you one of the chief Omrahs of my Court Let me tell you if you had instructed me as you should have done nothing would be more just For I am of this perswasion that a Child well educated and instructed is as much at least obliged to his Master as to his Father But where are those good Documents you have given me In the first place you have taught me that all that Frangistan so it seems they call Europe was nothing but I know not what little Island of which the greatest King was he of Portugal and next to him he of Holland and after him he of England and as to the other Kings as those of France and Andalusia you have represented them to me as our petty Raja's telling me that the Kings of Indostan were far above them all together and that they were the true and only Houmajons the Ekbars the Jehan-Guyres the Chah-Jehans the Fortunate ones the Great ones the Conquerors and Kings of the World and that Persia and Usbec Kach-guer Tatar and Catay Pegu China and Matchina did tremble at the name of the Kings of Indostan Admirable Geography You should rather have taught me exactly to distinguish all those different States of the World and well to understand their strength their way of fighting their Customs Religions Governments Interests and by the perusal of solid History to observe their Rise Progress Decay and whence how and by what accidents and errors those great Changes and Revolutions of Empires and Kingdoms have happened I have scarce learnt of you the name of my Grandsires the famous Founders of this Empire so far were you from having taught me the History of their Life and what course they took to make such great Conquests You had a mind to teach me the Arabian Tongue to read and to write I am much obliged to you forsooth for baving made me lose so much time upon a Language that requires ten or twelve years to attaein to its perfection as if the Son of a King should think it to be an honour to him to be a Grammarian or some Doctor of the Law and to learn other Languages than those of his Neighbors when he cannot well be without them he to whom Time is so precious for so many weighty tbings which he ought by times to learn As if there were any spirit that did not with some reluctancy and even with a kind of debasement employ it self in so sad and dry an exercise so longsom and tedious as is that of learning Words Thus did Aureng-Zebe resent the pedantick Instructions of his Tutor to which 't is affirmed in that Court that after some entertainment which he had with others he further added the following reproof Know you not that Childhood well govern'd being a state which is ordinarily accompanied with an happy memory is capable of thousands of good Preceps and Instructions which remain deeply impressed the whole remainder of a mans life and keep the mind alwayes raised for great actions The Law Prayers and Sciences may they not as well be learned in our Mother-Tongue as in Arabick You told my Father Chah-Jehan that you would teach me Philosophy 'T is true I remember very well that you have entertain'd me for many years with airy Questions of things that afford no satisfaction at all to the mind and are of no use in humane society empty Notions and meer Phancies that have only this in them that they are very hard to understand and very easie to forget which are only capable to tire and spoil a good understanding and to breed an Opinion that is insupportable I still remember that after you had thus amused me I know not how long with your fine Philosophy all I retained of it was a multitude of barbarous and dark words proper to bewilder perplex and tire out the best wits and only invented the better to cover the vanity and ignorance of men like your self that would make us believe that they know all and that under those obscure and ambiguous words are hid great mysteries which they alone are capable to understand If you had season'd me with that Philosophy which formeth the mind to ratiocination and insensibly accustoms it to be satisfied with nothing but solid reasons if you had given me those excellent precepts and doctrines which raise the Soul above the assaults of Fortune and reduce her to an unshakeable and always equal temper and permit her not to be lifted up by prosperity nor debased by adversity if you had taken care to give me the knowledge of what we are and what are the first principles of things and had assisted me in forming in my mind a fit Idea of the greatness of the Universe and of the admirable order and motion of the parts thereof if I say you had instilled into me this kind of Philosophy I should think my self incomparably more obliged to you than Alexander was to his Aristotle and believe it my duty to recompence you otherwise than he did him Should not you instead of your flattery have taught me somewhat of that point so important to a King which is what the reciprocal duties are of a Soveraign to his Subjects and those of Subjects to their Soveraign And ought not you to have consider'd that one day I should be
silence his deportment to Aureng-Zebe after the War and the manner of ending his dayes This eminent person after he had dispatched the Affair of Bengala with Sultan-Sujah the second of these four Brothers not like Gionkan that infamous Patan with Dara nor like the Raja of Serenaguer with Soliman-Chekouh but like a Great Captain and dextrous Polititian pursuing him as far as the Sea-side and necessitating him to fly and to escape out of his hands after I say he had done these things he sent an Eunuch to Aureng-Zebe intreating him that he would give him leave to transport his Family to Bengale that now that the War was at an end and he broken with Age he hoped he would grant him the advantage of ending his life in the company of his Wife and Children But Aureng-Zebe is too sharp-sighted not to pierce into the designs of Emir He seeth him triumphing over Sujah he knows his great credit and reputation and that he hath the esteem of a very wise undertaking valiant and rich man and that the Kingdom of Bengale is not only the best of all Indostan but strong of it self and further that this Emir is in the head of a well disciplin'd Army which both honours and fears him Besides he is not ignorant of his ambition and foreseeth well enough that if he should have with him his Son Mahmet-Emir-kan he would aspire to the Crown and at least take full possession of Bengale if he should not be able to advance vance things further At the same time he is also well aware that there is danger in refusing him and that he may possibly prove such a man as in case of denial may run into some dangerous extream as he had done in Golkonda How then think ye did he carry himself in this conjuncture He sends to him his Wife and Daughter and all the Children of his Son He maketh the Emir a Mir-Ul Omrah which is in that Empire the greatest degree of honour that a Favourite can be raised to And as to Mahmet-Emir-kan he maketh him the Great Bakchis which is a dignity and charge like that of our Great Master of the Horse the second or third Office in the State but such an one as absolutely obligeth the possessor of it to be alwayes at the Court not suffering him but very difficultly to be absent from the person of the King The Emir soon perceived that Aureng-Zebe had skilfully put by the stroke that it would be in vain the second time to ask of him his Son that he could not do it without offending him and that therefore the safest way would be to rest contented with all the testimonies of Friendship and with all the Honours together with the Government of Bengale being in the mean time alwayes upon his guard and in such a posture that since he could attempt nothing against Aureng-Zebe Aureng-Zebe should not be able to attempt any thing against him Thus have we seen these two Great Men carry themselves to one another And in this condition did affairs remain for almost a year till Aureng-Zebe too well knowing that a great Captain cannot be long at rest and that if he be not employed in a Forreign War he will at length raise a Domestick one proposed to him to make War upon that rich and potent Raja of Acham whose Territories are on the North of Dake upon the Gulf of Bengale The Emir who in all appearance had already designed this same thing of himself and who believed that the Conquest of this Countrey would make way for his Immortal Honour and be an occasion of carrying his Arms as far as China declared himself ready for this Enterprize He embarked at Dake with a puissant Army upon a River which comes from those parts upon which having gone about an hundred Leagues North-Eastward he arrived at a Castle called Azo which the Raja of Acham had usurped from the Kingdom of Bengale and possessed for many years He attacked this place and took it by force in less than fifteen dayes thence marching over Land towards Chamdara which is the Inlet into the Countrey of that Raja he entred into it after 26 dayes journey still Northward There a Battel was fought in which the Raja of Acham was worsted and obliged to retreat to Guerguon the Metropolis of his Kingdom four miles distant from Chamdara The Emir pursued him so close that he gave him no time to fortifie himself in Guerguon For he arrived in sight of that Town in five dayes which constrained the Raja seeing the Emir's Army to fly towards the Mountains of the Kingdom of Lassa and to abandon Guerguon which was pillaged as had been Chamdara They found there vast riches it being a great very fair and Merchant-like Town and where the Women are extraordinarily beautiful Mean time the season of the Rains came in sooner than usually and they being excessive in those parts and overflowing all the Countrey except such Villages as stand on raised ground the Emir was much embarassed For the Raja made his people of the Mountains come down from all parts thereabout and to carry away all the provisions of the Field whereby the Emir's Army as rich as 't was before the end of the rains fell into great streights without being able to go forward or backward It could not advance by reason of the Mountains very difficult to pass and continually pester'd with great Rains nor retreat because of the like Rains and deep wayes the Raja also having caused the way to be digged up as far as to Chamdara So that the Emir was forced to remain in that wretched condition during the whole time of the Rain after which when he found his Army distasted tired out and half starved he was necessitated to give over the Design he had of advancing and to return the same way he was come But this Retreat was made with so much pains and so great inconveniencies by reason of the dirt the want of victuals and the pursuit of the Raja falling on the Rear that every body but he that had not known how to remedy the disorder of such a March nor had the patience to be sometimes five or six hours at one passage to make the Souldiery get over it withont confusion would have utterly perish'd himself Army and all yet he notwithstanding all these difficulties and obstacles made a shift to come back with great honour and vast riches He design'd to return thither again the next year and to pursue his undertaking supposing that Azo which he had fortified and where he left a strong Garrison would be able to hold out the rest of the year against the Raja But he was no sooner arrived there but Fluxes began to rage in his Army Neither had himself a body of Steel more than the rest he fell sick and died whereby Fortune ended the just apprehensions of Aureng-Zebe I say the Just apprehensions for there was none of those that knew this great
remained in their houses found means afterwards partly by Friends partly by Money to get many of them away and to have them conveyed to Goa and to other places belonging to the Portugueses They were also the same Pyrates who some time before the desolation of Ogouli offered to the Vice-Roy of Goa to put the whole Kingdom of Rakan into their hands for the King of Portugal but he refused they say this offer out of arrogance and jealousie and would not send the succours which for that end was demanded of him by a certain Bastian Consalve who had made himself head of those people and was become so potent and considerable that he married one of the Kings Daughters being unwilling that it should be said that a man of so mean Extraction as this Bastian was had done such a Master-piece But it may be said on this occasion that this is not much to be wondred at considering that the Portugueses in the Indies by such a conduct have divers times been faulty on the like occasions in Japan in Pegu in Ethiopia and other places not to mention that by this way and that perhaps by a just Divine chastisement as they all frankly confess themselves they are become a prey to their Enemies and fallen so low in the Indies that I know not whether they will ever recover there whereas formerly before they were corrupted by vice and degenerated through pleasure they made all others tremble in those parts forasmuch as then they were brave and generous men zealous for the Christian Religion considerable for gallant exploits and for riches all the Indian Kings seeking their friendship Besides this the same Pyrates seized at that time on the Isle of â—ondiva an advantageous Post to command a part of the Mouth of Ganges In which Isle a cettain Augustin Frier a very famous man acted the King for many years having taken a course God knows how to rid himself of the Commander of that place Moreover the same Robbers took Sultan-Sujah at Daka to carry him away in their Galeasses to Rakan as we related above and found means to open his Coffers and to rob him of good store of Jewels which afterwards were secretly and at a very cheap rate sold in Rakan most of them being fallen into the hands of people that had no skill in them and afterwards into the hands of the Hollanders and others who knew how to buy them up quickly making those fellows believe that they were soft Diamonds and that they would pay them according to the degrees of their hardness Lastly They are they that for many years have given exercise to the Great Mogol in Bengale having obliged him there to keep alwayes Garrisons every where upon the Passes and a great Militia and a Fleet also of Galeasses to oppose their courses and who notwithstanding all this have made shift to make strange devastations and often to enter far into the Country and to laugh at all the Souldiery of the Mogols in regard they were become so bold and so dextrous at their Weapons and so skilful in piloting their Galeasses that four or five of them stuck not to set upon fourteen or fifteen Mogolians which they also actually worsted and took or run aground And upon these Pyrates Chah-hest-kan cast his eyes as soon as he came into Bengale taking a resolution to deliver the Countrey of this plague of people that had so long wasted it and designing afterwards to pass on and to attack the King of Rakan according to the order of Aureng-Zebe who at any price had a mind to revenge the blood of Sultan-Sujah and all his Family that had been so cruelly handled and to teach that Barbarian how the Blood Royal was to be regarded and esteemed on any occasion whatsoever Behold now with what dexterity Chah-hest-kan carrieth on his design Knowing that 't is impossible to pass any Cavalry by Land no not so much as any Infantry from Bengale into Rakan because of the many channels and rivers upon the Frontiers and also that on the other side those Pyrates of Chatigon whom we just now were speaking of would be powerful enough to hinder him from transporting them by Sea he thought upon this experiment viz. to engage the Hollanders in his design He therefore sent a kind of Ambassador to Batavia empowering him to treat upon certain Conditions with the General of that Company joyntly to subdue the whole Kingdom of Rakan as formerly Chah-Abbas subdued that of Ormus in conjunction with the English The General of Batavia seeing the thing to be possible and that it was a means more and more to break the Portugueses in the Indies and that it would turn to a very good account to the Company dispatcht away two Men of War for Bengale to favour the transportation of the Mogolian Troops in spight of those Pyrates But observe what Chah-hest-kan did before these Men of War arrived He equipped a great number of Galeasses and many large Vessels to transport the Army threatned the Pyrates utterly to spoil and ruine them acquainted them with the design of Aureng-Zebe upon Rakan that a potent Army of the Dutch was near that they should think on themselves and their families if they were wise and in a word if they would abandon the service of the King of Rakan and take that of Aureng-Zebe he would procure very good conditions for them distribute amongst them as much Land in Bengale as they desired and pay them the double of what they had now 'T is doubtful whether these Menaces and Promises made impression upon them or whether it was not an accident that moved them they having about that time assassinated one of the chief Officers of the King of Rakan and apprehending a punishment for that crime However it be they were caught and they were one day struck with such a panick terror that they shipp'd themselves all at once in forty or fifty of their Galeasses and wafted over to Bengale to Chah-hest-kan and that with so much precipitation that they hardly took time to embark their Wives and Children and what else was most precious to them Chah-hest-kan received them with open arms courted them exceedingly gave them very considerable pay and without letting them cool made them joyntly with his whole Army to attack and take the Isle of Sondiva which was fallen into the hands of the King of Rakan and thence to pass with all his Horse and Foot to Chatigon About this time the two Holland-Vessels arrived but Chah-hest-kan who thought that henceforth it would be easie for him to compass his design thanked them I saw these Ships in Bengale and their Commanders who were but little contented with such thanks and liberalities of Chah-hest-kan As to the Pyrates since now he holds them fast and hopeless of ever returning to Chatigon and hath no more need of them he makes nothing of all those large promises he made them and treats them not as he should
My Lord though I intend not to introduce new customs in France yet I cannot forget this upon my return from those parts being perswaded that I ought not to appear before the King for whom I have a far deeper veneration than for Aureng-Zebe nor before You My Lord for whom I have a much higher esteem than for Fazel-kan without some little Present to both which is rare at least for its novelty though it be not so upon the account of the presenting hand The Revolution of Indostan by reason of its extraordinary occurrences and events hath to me seemed worthy of the Greatness of our Monarch and this Discourse for the quality of the matters therein contained sutable to the rank you hold in his Counsels to that Conduct which at my return appeared to me so admirable in the Order which I found setled in so many things that I thought incapable of it and to the passion you entertain to make it known to the ends of the Earth what a Monarch we have and that the French are fit to undertake and with honour to atchieve whatsoever you shall have designed for their honour and advantage 'T is in the Indies My Lord whence I am lately return'd after twelve years absence where I learn'd the felicity of France and how much this Kingdom is obliged to your cares and where your Name is so diffused and so well known This were a fair Theme for me to enlarge upon but my Design being no other than to discourse of things New I must forbear to speak of those that are already so notorious to all the world I shall doubtless please you better by endeavouring to give you some Idea of the state of the Indies which I have engaged my self to give you an account of My Lord you may have seen before this by the Maps of Asia how great every way is the extent of the Empire of the Great Mogol which is commonly call'd India or Indostan I have not measur'd it Mathematically but to speak of it according to the ordinary journeys of the Country after the rate of three whole Months March traversing from the Frontiers of the Kingdom of Golkonda as far as beyond Kazni near Kandahar which is the first Town of Persia I cannot perswade my self otherwise but that it is at least five times as far as from Paris to Lyons that is about five hundred common Leagues Next you may please to take notice that of that vast extent of Land there are large Countries that are very fertil and some of them to that degree for example that whole great Kingdom of Bengale that they exceed those of Egypt not only upon the account of the abundance of Rice Corn and all other things necessary for life but also upon the score of all those Commodities so considerable which Egypt is destitute of as Silks Cottons Indigo and so many others sufficiently related by Authors Moreover that of these same Countries there are many that are well enough peopled and cultivated and where Trades-men though naturally very lazy there are not wanting either from necessity or other Causes to apply themselves to work as to Tapisseries Embroideries Cloth of Gold and Silver and to all those kinds of Silk and Cotton Manufactures that are used in the Countrey or transported to other parts You may further observe how that Gold and Silver circulating as it were upon the Earth comes at last in part to be swallowed up in this Indostan For of that which comes out of America and is dispersed through the several Kingdoms of our Europe we know that one part is carried into Turky many wayes for the Commodities drawn thence and that another part is conveyed into Persia by the way of Smyrna for the Silks afforded there That all Turky generally needs Coffee which comes out of Hyeman or Happy Arabia and is the common Drink of the Turks That the same Turky as well as Hyeman and Persia cannot be without the Commodities of India and that thus all those Countries are obliged to carry to Moka over the Red-Sea near Babelmandel and to Bassora the utmost part of the Persian-Gulf and to Bandar-Abbasi or Gomoron near to Ormus a part of that Gold and Silver that had been brought into their Country to be thence transported into Indostan in Vessels that yearly in the season of the Mounsons come purposely to those three famous parts That on the other hand all those Ships of India whether they be Indian ones or Dutch or English or Portuguese that every year Transport Merchandise out of Indostan to Pegu Tanasseri Siam Ceilan Achem Macasser the Maldives Mosambic and other places bring back also much Gold and Silver from all those Countries which meets with the same Destiny that the other doth That of that quantity of Gold and Silver which the Hollanders draw from Japan which is stored with Mines a part also comes to be at length discharged in this Indostan And that lastly what is carried thither directly by Sea whether from Portugal England or France seldom comes back from thence but in Merchandise the rest remaining there as the former I very well know that it may be said that this Indostan needs Copper Cloves Nutmegs Cinamon Elephants and sundry other things which the Hollanders carry thither from Japan the Molucques Ceilan and Europe as also that it hath occasion for Lead which in part it is furnish'd with out of England likewise for Scarlet which it hath from France Moreover that it stands in need of a good number of Horses it being certain that from the side of Usbec it receives yearly more than 2500. That out of Persia also it is furnished with abundance of the same as also out of Ethiopia Arabia the Ports of Moka Bassora and Bander-abbasy Besides that it needs that store of fresh Fruit which comes thither from Samarkand Ball-bocara and Persia as Melons Apples Pears and Grapes that are spent at Dehli and bought at great Rates almost all the Winter long as well as dry Fruit which are had there all the year long and come from the same Countries as Almonds Pistaches Nuts Prunes Abricots Raisins and the like And that lastly it wants those little sea-cockles of the Maldives which serve for common Coyn in Bengale and in some other places as also Ambergriece carried thither from the said Maldives and Mosambic Rhinoceros-horns Elephants-teeth Musk China-dishes Pearls of Baharen and Tutucoury near Ceilan and I know not of how many other things of this kind But all this makes not the Gold and Silver to go out of that Empire because the Merchants at their return freight their ships with the Commodities of the Country finding a better account by so doing than if they should bring back Money so that that hinders not but that Indostan proves as we have said a kind of abyss for a great part of the Gold and Silver of the World which finds many ways to enter there and almost none to issue
to be so rich And if they would where are those Benefices Preferments and Dignities that require knowledge and abilities and that may animate young men to study Thence it is likewise that Traffick languishes in all that Country in comparison of ours For how many are there that care to take pains to run up and down to write much and to run danger for another for a Governour that shall extort if he be not in league with some considerable sword-man whose slave he in a manner is and that makes his own conditions with him It is not there that the Kings find for their service Princes Lords Gentlemen sons of rich and good Families Officers Citizens Merchants and even Trades-men well-born well-educated and well-instructed men of courage that have a true affection and respect for their King that often live a great while at the Court and in the Army at their own expences entertaining themselves with good hopes and content with the favourable aspect of the Prince and who upon occasion fight manfully covetous to uphold the honour of their Ancestors and Families Those Kings I say never see about them but men of nothing Slaves Ignorants Brutes and such Courtizans as are raised from the dust to dignities and that for want of good education and instruction almost always retain somewhat of their off-spring of the temper of beggars enriched proud unsufferable heartless insensible of honour dis-ingenuous and void of affection and regard for the honour of their King Countrey Here it is where those Kings must ruine all to find means to defray all those prodigious Charges which they cannot avoid for entertaining their great Court which hath no other source to subsist but their Coffers and Treasure and for maintaining constantly the vast number of Souldiers necessary for them to keep the People in subjection to prevent their running away to make them work and to get what is exacted from them they being so many Desperado's for being perpetually under hatches and for labouring only for others Thence it is also that in an important War that may happen which may be almost at all times they must almost of necessity sell the Government for ready Money and immense Sums whence chiefly that ruine and desolation comes to pass which we see For the Governour which is the Buyer must not he be re-imbursed of all those great Sums of Money which he hath taken up perhaps the third or fourth part at high interest Must not a Governour also whether he have bought the Government or not find means as well as a Timariot and a Farmer to make every year great Presents to a Visir an Eunuch a Lady of the Seraglio and to those other persons that support him at Court Must he not pay to the King his usual Tributes and withal enrich himself that wretched Slave half famish'd and deeply indebted when he first appeared without Goods Lands and revenues of his House such as they all are Do not they ruin all and lay all waste I mean those that in the Provinces are like so many small Tyrants with a boundless and unmeasured Authority there being no body there as hath been already said that can restrain them or to whom a Subject can have refuge to save himself from their tyranny and to obtain justice 'T is true that in the Empire of the Mogol the Vakea-nevis that is those Persons whom he sends into the Provinces to write to him whatever passeth there do a little keep the Officers in awe provided they do not collude together as it almost always happens to devour all as also that the Governments are not there so often sold nor so openly as in Turky I say not so openly for those great Presents they are from time to time obliged to make are almost equivalent to Sales and that the Governors ordinarily remain longer in their Governments which maketh them not so hungry so beggarly and so deep in debt as those new Comers and that consequently they do not always tyrannize over the people with so much cruelty even apprehending lest they should run away to the Raja's which yet falls out very often 'T is also true that in Persia the Governments are not so frequently nor so publickly sold as in Turky the Sons of the Governors also succeding often enough to their Fathers which is also the cause that the people there is often not so ill treated as in Turky and occasions withal that there is more politeness and that even some there are that addict themselves to study But all that is really but a slight matter those three States of Turky Persia and Indostan forasmuch as they have all three taken away the Meum and Tuum as to Land and Propriety of possessions which is the foundation of whatever is good and regular in the world cannot but very near resemble one another they have the same defect they must at last sooner or later needs fall into the same inconveniencies which are the necessary consequences of it viz Tyranny Ruine and Desolation Far be it therefore that our Monarchs of Europe should thus be proprietors of all the Lands which their Subjects possess Their Kingdoms would be very far from being so well cultivated and peopled so well built so rich so polite and flourishing as we see them Our Kings are otherwise rich and powerful and we must avow that we are much better and more royally served There would be Kings of Desarts and Solitudes of Beggars and Barbarians such as those are whom I have been representing who because they will have all at last lose all and who because they will make themselves too rich at length find themselves without riches or at least very far from that which they covet after out of their blind ambition and passion of being more absolute than the Laws of God and Nature do permit For where would be those Princes those Prelates those Nobles those rich Citizens and great Merchants and those famous Artizans those Towns of Paris Lyons Thoulouse Rouën London and so many others Where would be that infinite number of Burroughs and Villages all those fair Countrey-houses and Fields and Hillocks tilled and maintained with so much industry care and labour And where would consequently be all those vast Revenues drawn thence which at last enrich the Subjects and the Sovereign both We should find the great Cities and the great Burroughs rendred inhabitable because of the ill Air and to fall to ruine without any bodies taking care of repairing them the hillocks abandoned and the fields overspred with the bushes or filled with Pestilential Marishes as hath been already intimated A word to our dear and experienc'd Travellers They would not find those fair conveniencies of travelling they would be obliged to carry all things with them like the Bohemians and all those good Inns for example that are found between Paris and Lyons would be like ten or twelve wretched Caravans-serrahs that is great Barns raised and paved
there to be sold and to buy for the money a quantity of Indian Stuffs and so to return without paying likewise any Impost at all But as to the Ethiopian Embassy that deserves to be otherwise taken notice of the King of Ethiopia having received the news of the Revolution of the Indies had a design to spread his Name in those parts and there to make known his Grandeur and Magnificence by a splendid Embassy or as malice will have it or rather as the very truth is to reap some advantage by a present as well as the rest Behold therefore this great Embassy He chose for his Ambassadors two persons that one would think were the most considerable in his Court and the most capable to make such a design prosper And who were they the one was a Mahumetan Merchant whom I had seen some years ago at Moka when I passed there coming out of Egypt over the Red-Sea where he was to sell some Slaves for that Prince and to buy of the money raised thence some Indian Commodities And this is the fine Trade of that Great Christian King of Africa The other was a Christian Merchant of Armenia born and married in Aleppo known in Ethiopia by the name of Murat I had seen him also at Moka where he had accomodated me with the half of his Chamber and assisted me with very good advice whereof I have spoken in the beginning of this History as a thing taking me off from passing into Ethiopia according to my first design He also came every year to that place in that Kings Name for the same end that the Mahumetan did and brought the Present which the King made every year to the Gentlemen of the English and Dutch Company of the East-Indies and carried away theirs Now the King of Ethiopia sutably to his design and the desire he had of making his Ambassadors appear with great splendour put himself to great expences for this Embassie He gave them thirty two young Slaves of both Sexes to sell them at Moka and thence to make a sum of Money to bear their Charges A wonderful largess Slaves are commonly sold there for twenty five or thirty Crowns a piece one with another A considerable sum Besides he gave them for a Present to the Great Mogol five and twenty choice Slaves among which there were nine or ten very young proper to make Eunuchs of A very worthy Present for a King and he a Christian to a Mahumetan Prince It seems the Christianity of the Ethiopians is very different from ours He added to that Present twelve Horses esteem'd as much as those of Arabia and a kind of little Mule of which I saw the Skin which was a very great Rarity there being no Tyger so handsomely speckled nor Silken Stuff of India so finely so variously and so orderly streaked as that was Moreover there were for a part of the Present two Elephants Teeth so prodigious that they assured it was all that a very able-bodied man could do to lift up one of them from the ground Lastly an Horn of an Oxe full of Civett and so big that the aperture of it being measur'd by me when it came to Dehli it had a Diameter of half a Foot and somewhat better All things being thus prepared the Ambassadors depart from Gondez the Capital of Ethiopia situated in the Province of Dambea and came through a very troublesome Countrey to Beiloul which is a dispeopled Sea-Port over against Moka nigh to Babel-mandel not daring to come for reasons elswhere to be alledged the ordinary way of the Caravans which is made with ease in forty dayes to Arkiko and thence to pass to the Isle of Masoua During their stay at Beiloul and expecting a Bark of Moka to waft over the Red Sea there died some of their Slaves because the Vessel tarried and they found not in that place those refreshments that were necessary for them When they came to Moka they soon sold their Merchandise to raise a stock of Money according to order But they had this ill luck that that year the Slaves were very cheap because the Market was glutted by many other Merchants yet they raised a sum to pursue their Voyage They embark'd upon an Indian Vessel to pass to Suratte Their passage was pretty good they were not above five and twenty daies at Sea but whether it was that they had made no good provision for want of stock or what else the cause might be many of their Slaves and Horses as also the Mule whereof they saved the Skin died They were no sooner arrived at Suratte but a certain Rebel of Visapour called Seva-Gi came and ranscked and burned the Town and in it their house so that they could save nothing but their Letters some Slaves that were sick or which Seva-Gi could not light on their Ethiopian Habits which he cared not for and the Mules Skin and the Oxes Horn which was already emptied of the Civett They did very much exaggerate their misfortune but those malicious Indians that had seen them arrive in such a wretched condition without provisions without habits without money or Bills of Exchange said that they were very happy and should reckon the Plunder of Suratte for a piece of their best Fortune forasmuch as Seva-Gi had saved them the labour of bringing their miserable Present to Dehli and had furnisht them with a very specious pretence for their beggarly condition and for the sale they had made of their Civet and of some of their Slaves and for demanding of the Governour of Suratte provisions for their subsistance as also some Money and Chariots to continue their voyage to Dehli Monsieur Adrican chief of the Dutch Factory my friend had given to the Armenian Murat a Letter of recommendation to me which he deliver'd himself at Dehli not remembring that I had been his Host at Moka It was a very pleasant meeting when we came to know one another after the space of five or six years I embraced him affectionately and promised him that I would serve him in whatever I could but that though I had acquaintance at the Court it was impossible for me to do them any considerable good office there For since they had not brought with them any valuable Present but only the Mules Skin and the empty Oxes Horn and that they were seen going upon the streets without any Paleky or Horses save that of our Father Missionary and mine which they had almost killed cloathed like Beggars and followed with seven or eight Slaves bare-headed and bare-foot having nothing but an ugly Sharse tyed between their Legs with a ragged Cloth over their left Shoulder passing under their left Arm like a Summer-Cloak since I said they were in such a posture whatever I could say for them was insignificant they were taken for Beggars and no body took other notice of them Yet notwithstanding I said so much of the Grandeur of their King to my Agah Danechmendkan