Prayers of the Hermites who at that time lived by it and chiefly of St. Macharius because the Pirats of that Sea much infested them Bahr el Malame it is called Bahr el Malame that is to say Mare Convicii There you may find a great many petrifications of Wood and some Bones converted into Stone which are pretty curious On the side of that Sea to the West The Mountain of Eagles Stones Dgebel el Masque is the Mountain of Eagles Stones called Dgebel el Masque where digging in the Earth and especially in time of heat and drought they find several Eagles Stones of different bigness so called because the Eagles carry them to their Nests to preserve their young ones from Serpents they have many Vertues and the Monks say that there are commonly many Eagles to be seen there You must make as short a stay there as you can for fear of the Arabs From the Mountain of Eagles Stones you go making a Triangle to the fourth Monastery and all the Journey from Ambabichoye to this Monastery Dir el Saydet is performed in one day This Monastery is called Dir el Saydet that is to say the Monastery of our Lady it is very spacious but a little ruinous It hath a fair Church and Garden but the Water is brackish and nevertheless there are more Monks in this Monastery than in the other three because the Revenue of it is greater and they have some Relicks also From this Monastery you go to the Lake of Natron Birquet el Natroun called Birquet el Natroun only two Leagues distant from it this Lake is worth ones Curiosity to see and it looks like a large Pond frozen over upon the Ice whereof a little Snow had fallen It is divided into two the more Northern is made by a Spring that rises out of the Ground though the place of it cannot be observed and the Southern proceeds from a great bubbling Spring the Water being at least a Knee deep which immediately as it springs out of the Earth congeals and makes as it were great pieces of Ice and generally the Natron is made and perfected in a Year by that Water which is reddish There is a red Salt upon it six or seven Fingers thick Natron then a black Natron which is made use of in Aegypt for Lye and last is the Natron much like the first Salt but more solid Higher up there is a little Well of Fresh-water which is called Aain el Goz and a great many Camels come dayly to the Lake to be loaded with that Natron From this Lake you go to another where there is Salt at Whitsontide made in form of a Pyramide Pyramidal Salt. Melhel Mactaoum and therefore is called Pyramidal Salt and in Arabick Melh el Mactaoum From the said Lake you return and Lodge in one of the Monasteries and next day come back to the Nile where you must stay for a passage to Caire or Rossetto if you have not retained the Boat that brought you CHAP. LXXII Of Aegypt the Nile Crocodiles and Sea-Horses AEGypt called by the Hebrews Mis Raim Aegypt Masr and by the Arabs at present Masr and in Turkish Misr is bounded on the East by the Red Sea and the Desarts of Arabia on the South by the Kingdoms of Bugia and Nubia The borders of Aegypt on the West by the Desarts of Lybia and on the North by the Mediterranean Sea. This Country lies so low that the Land cannot be seen till one be just upon it and therefore those that sail to it ought to be upon their Guard. Aegypt has no Ports on the Mediteranean fit for Ships except Alexandria and the Bouquer which is rather a Road than a Port The course of the Nile in Aegypt The River of Nile runs through the length of it and having its Course from South to North discharges it self into the Mediterranean by two mouths upon the sides of which stand two fair Towns to wit Rossetto to the West and Damiette to the East two miles below which it mingles its Waters with the Sea and by that division makes a Triangular Isle in Aegypt This Triangular Island was by the ancient Greeks called Delta because in Figure it resembles the Character Δ. The Delta of Aegypt One side of that Triangle is beat by the Mediterranean Sea on the North and the other two are bounded by the two branches of the Nile which divide at the point of this Triangle so that the three points or angles of this Triangle are the first at the place where the Nile divides it self into two the second at Rossetto and the third at Damiette The first Angle is at an equal distance from the other two to wit from Rossetto and Damiette and from that Angle it is five or six Leagues to Caire so that the Nile has only those two mouths which are Navigable for great Vessels for though there be some others yet they are no more but Rivulets The breadth of the Nile This River is broader than the broadest part of the Seine but it is not very Rapid unless it be at its Cataracts where it falls from so great a height that as they say the noise of it is heard at a very great distance When it overflows it seems to be a little Sea. The water of it is very thick and muddy but they have an Invention to clarifie it For in that Country An invention for clarifying the water of the Nile they make use of great Vessels of white Earth holding about four Buckets full of Water when they are full of Water they rub the inside of the Vessels with three or four Almonds at most until they be dissolved and in the space of a quarter of an Hour the Water becomes very clear and for that end most of those who bring Water to Houses have a Paste of Almonds wherewith they rub the Vessels as I have said After all this Water is so wholesome that it never does any harm though one drink never so much of it because it comes a great way over Land to wit from Ethiopia So that in so long a course and through so hot a Country the Sun has time to Correct it and cleanse it from all Crudities and indeed it is sweated out as fast as one drinks it In short The number of Villages upon the Banks of the Nile they have no other Water to drink in Aegypt and therefore most of the Cities Towns and Villages are upon the sides of the River and there are so many Villages that you no sooner leave one but you find another and all the Houses in them are built of Earth This River abounds not much in Fish and we had but one good Fish of the Nile at Caire which they call Variole and that is rare too Variole Crocodiles but there are a vast number of Crocodiles in it which perhaps is the cause of the scarcity of the
full of very white Salt Salt of Rain-water and they assured us that that Salt was made only by the Rain-water the sand of that place having such vertue as being without doubt very Salt and the like is to be seen in Alexandria Birlab We came to Birlab about ten a Clock at night which is a Desart without any Hibitation but hath three wells of Salt-water We set out from thence next day Tuesday the second of April about ten a Clock in the morning and about noon came to a well of good fresh water lately made by a Sangiac of Aegypt for all Travellers Bi r Acat About six a clock at night we arrived at a place called Bi r Acat which is also in the Desart having neither habitation nor water to water Beasts and all these ways are full of Quick-Sands We lay there and parted on Wednesday the third of April about six a clock in the Morning and about one of the clock at noon we found a Well called Sibil el bar Acat newly made by an Aga who passed that way a little before on his Journey to Constantinople Sibil signifies a place where all may have water for God's sake This Well is covered with a Dome supported by four walls of free-stone built square the entry into it is by two Doors over against one another but one must first ascend four or five steps The Cistern is covered all over with free-stone except in two round places big enough to let a Bucket down by which the water is drawn that rises pretty high half a fathom of Rope being sufficient to reach it This Aga left a fond to maintain some Arabs who daily bring thither so many Camels laded with fresh Water which they take at a place near the Sea. Having there made a provision of Water we entered again into the Quick-Sands Riche which lasted as far as Riche where we arrived about four in the Afternoon A quarter of an hour before we got there we were overtaken by a Storm which lasted above thirty hours Riche is a Village not far distant from the Sea it hath a Castle well built of little Rock-Stones as all the Houses are and the Cachef of it as well as he of Zaka depends on the Cachef of Catie Zaka They have so many lovely ancient Marble-Pillars at Riche that their Coffee-Houses and wells are made of them and so are their Burying-places full We parted from Riche Thursday the fourth of April about one a clock at noon having eight Turks with us who guarded us to Cauniones Cauniones for fear of the Arabs An hour after we parted from Riche we found a Sibil of Salt Water We still travelled on through Quick-Sands though it blew very hard Rained Thundered and Lightened and about midnight came to Zaka which is in the Desart without any Habitation but has only three Wells of bad Water and yet the Corsairs come often there to take in fresh Water Friday the fifth of April the Wind after a great deal of Rain calming we parted from Zaka about nine a Clock in the Morning and travelled in good way a little after twelve of the Clock we found three fair Marble-Pillars two standing and one lying along upon the ground and a little after a large Well of good Water where there are Sakis there we began to see a very pleasant Countrey and some corn-Corn-Land sometime after we found a Sibil of bitter Water which is close by Cauniones where we arrived about three in the Afternoon they have so many Marble-Pillars there also that their Coffe-Houses stand all upon such There we began to see abundance of Trees and a great deal of good Meadow ground and indeed both the Cattel and Inhabitants of that Place from the biggest to the least are extreamly Fat. There is a very fair Castle there with a large open place in it The Turks lodge in the Castle where there is a Saki of very good Water and the Moors and Felas live in the Houses without This Castle is commanded by a Muteferaca who has but a small number of Soldiers with him in it he depends immediately on Caire from whence he has his pay and his Soldiers are payed by the Cachef of Catie Cauniones is in Aegypt which here ends We parted from Cauniones on Saturday the sixth of April before five in the Morning guarded by seven or eight Turks of the Place who went with us to Gaza for fear of the Arabs About six a clock we found a Sibil of bitter Water and about seven another better a little after we discovered the Town of Gaza half an hour after eight we found a Bridge under which runs the water of the Meadows which are very spacious and at the end of that Bridge there is a well of good Water the Countrey abounds in fair Cattle and all sorts of Fruit-Trees about an hour after we found two Sibils not far distant from one another and about half an hour after ten we arrived at Gaza where we Encamped near the Castle in a little Burying-place walled about CHAP. XXXVI Of the Cities of Gaza and Rama and our arrival at Jerusalem Gaza THE City of Gaza is about two miles from the Sea and was anciently very Illustrious as may be seen by its Ruines for you have Marble-Pillars every where and I have seen Burying-places there where the Tombs were wholly made of Marble among others there is one enclosed with a wall which belongs to some particular Turkish Family and is full of lovely Sepulchres made of large pieces of excellent Marble which are the remains and evidences of the ancient splendour of that Town It was one of the five Lordships of the Philistins Lordships of the Philistins to which Samson did so much hurt nay and one day carried away upon his Shoulders the Gates of this City and left them upon a little hill at a miles distance The Castle is near the Town and is round with a Tower at each corner four in all it is kept in good order and has but a small circumference but two Iron-Gates Hard by this Castle is the Serraglio of the Basha's Wives and joining to it above some pieces of old wall of a matter so compact that it cannot be broken with a Hammer it is the ruines of the Castle of the Romans The Town is but very little it hath a Bezestein in very good order and a pretty large Greek Church whereof the arched Roof in the middle is supported by two great Pillars of Marble with their Corinshes of the Corinthian order they say that our Lady was three days there when she fled into Aegypt The Armenians have a Church there also Near to the Castle of Gaza behind the Burying-place where we Encamped is the place where the Palace of the Philistins stood which Samson pulled down Smothering himself and all that were within it it is now no more but a heap of
Tyrannie of the Turks made them abandon it Among the ruines of the Town and even within the Precincts of it a great many Palm-Trees grow within this last Precinct there is a Castle upon the Sea-side which seems to have been a strong place A hundred paces from thence within the said Precinct we saw a Church five and twenty paces in length and fifteen broad dedicated to St. Peter which is still entire They say that St. Helen caused it to be built in the place where our Lord said to St. Peter Mat. c. 16. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church c. There we had that Gospel read to us Others say it is the place where our Lord eat Fish with his Apostles after his Resurrection when He appeared unto them upon the side of this Sea. We Dined in that place and then washed our selves in the Lake the Water whereof is fresh very good to Drink and full of Fish It is about twelve or fifteen Miles long and five or six over It was heretofore called the Sea of Galilee Lake of Genezareth Capernaum Mat. 9. Mat. 8. John 4. or Lake of Genezareth From thence on the left hand upon the side of that Sea we saw the ruines of the Town of Capernaum where St. Matthew left the Custom-House to follow our Lord and where our Saviour Cured the Centurion's Servant and the Son of the Nobleman and raised a Maid from the Dead About an hundred paces from the Precinct of the Town of Tiberias close by the Sea-side there is a natural Bath of hot Waters to which they go down by some steps The ancient Walls of Tiberias reached as far as this Bath We parted from Tiberias about two in the Afternoon and about seven a Clock at Night arrived at a Village called Sabbato near to which we lay abroad in the open Fields Aain Ettudgiar for our Monks would by no means have us to Lodge at the usual place which is at the Castle called Aain Ettudgiar that is to say the Merchants Well as being afraid of some Avanie Next day Saturday the eleventh of May we left that bad Inn about five a Clock in the Morning and half an hour after came to a Castle called Eunegiar which is square having a Tower at each Corner close by it there is a Han which appears to be pretty enough The place where Joseph was sold and is also square It was at this Castle as they say that Joseph was by his Brethren sold to an Ishmaelite Merchant the Pit or Well whereunto they had put him first is still to be seen but we went not to it because it was quite out of our Road. This Castle is commanded by a Sous-Basha and there we payed a Piastre of Caffare a piece of which one half goes to the Sous-Basha and the other to the Arabs From thence we went towards Mount Tabor Mount Tabor or Gabeltour by the Arabs called Gebeltour and came an hour after to the foot of it where alighting from our Horses though one may ride up on Horse-back as some of our Company did we got up to the top about nine a Clock It is easie to be mounted seeing one may go up on Horse-back but it is also very high being almost half a League from the bottom to the top Having taken a little breath we entred by a low Door into a little Grott where we found on the left hand a Chappel built in memory of the place where our Lord was Transfigured and of what St. Peter said It is good for us to be here let us make three Tabernacles c. This Chappel is made up of four Arches cross-ways one of them is the entry of the Chappel that which is opposite to it is the place where our Lord was when he was Transfigured that which is on the right hand of it but on the left hand of those that enter into the Chappel is the place where Moses was because in holy Scripture Moses is mentioned before Elias The fourth which is over against that of Moses is the place where Elias was and a Monk read to us there the Gospel of the Transfiguration Near to this place there is a little Plain and a Cistern of excellent Water This Mount is shaped like a Sugar-Loaf and is covered all over with Trees for most part hard Oaks After we had eaten in that place we came down about ten a Clock in the Morning and took our way towards the Convent of Nazareth where we arrived about one of the Clock In the Evening we went to see the House and Shop of St. Joseph very near to the Convent there is an old ruinous building there which appears to have been a Church wherein were three Altars The House and Shop of St. Joseph built by St. Helen and a few steps farther we saw the Synagogue where our Lord taught the Jews when they had a mind to precipitate him CHAP. LVI The way by Land from Jerusalem to Nazareth ONE may Travel by Land from Jerusalem to Nazareth The way by Land from Jerusalem to Nazareth and besides avoiding the dangers that offer by Sea see a great many other curious places but as I have already said the Arabs exact such unreasonable Caffares upon the Road that few go that way at present however I shall set it down in this Place Parting from Jerusalem after Dinner you come to Lodge at Elbir Elbir there there is a very curious Village standing upon a height and Inhabited by a few People There is also a Church half ruined which was heretofore a fair Fabrick The Walls that yet stand are of great Flints They say that this was the place where the blessed Virgin lost her dear Son Jesus and therefore returned to Jerusalem where she found him in the Temple Disputing with the Doctors Next day you Lodge at Naplouse Travelling all the way over Hills and Dales Naplouse which are nevertheless Fruitful and in many places bear plenty of Olive-Trees Naplouse is the Town which in holy Scripture is called Sichim Sichem near to which Jacob and his Family most frequently Lived it stands partly on the side and partly at the foot of a Hill. The Soil about it is fertile and yields Olives in abundance The Gardens are full of Orange and Citron-Trees watered by a River and sundry Brooks About one hundred paces from the Town towards the East there is a spring under a Vault which discharges its water into a reservatory of one entire piece of Marble ten spans long five broad and as much in height in the front there are some Foliages and Roses cut in Relief upon the Marble About half a quarter of a League from thence upon the Road from Jerusalem is the Well of the Samaritan The Well of the Samaritane as the Christians of the Country say who keep it covered with great Stones least the Turks should fill it up
about it all the while with West-north-west and North-winds Our Mates told us that they were always a long time in doubling that Cape and sometimes spent three Weeks about it About five a Clock in the Evening we Sailed betwixt the Isle of Zimbre and an Isle or Rock that is almost mid-way betwixt the Main-land and Zimbre Zimbre Zimbre is Inhabited has convenient Anchorage by it and good Water in it From Zimbre it is but forty Miles to Goletta Having passed Zimbre we stood off from Land intending not to enter Goletta till next day because of the many Flats that are on that Coast Friday night and Saturday morning the eighth of March we had greater gusts of Wind and Rain than before and if we had not doubled the Cape we must have been a long time still before we could have done it considering the Weather that happened afterward During these storms a Moor on board of us died who had been ill of a Bloody Flux almost ever since the beginning of our Voyage and next morning he was thrown over-board At length on Saturday the eighth of March about seven a Clock in the Morning we came into the Port or rather the Road of Goletta for it is not a Harbour but a Road that lies open to the South east Wind and in all Barbary there are but two good Ports to wit Porto Farina Porto Farina Porto Stera Biserta Vtica and Porto Stera The Harbour for the Galleys of Tunis is Biserta a little Town threescore Miles from Tunis Biserta was formerly called Vtica and here it was that Cato killed himself wherefore he was called Cato Vticensis We came to an Anchor near a Point of Land where the Sepulchre of Dido is The Sepulchre of Dido Marabout and a Marabout or Sheick is Interred there So soon as we had dropt Anchor Don Philippo sent ashoar one of his Men who having informed a poor Moor whom he met that Don Philippo was arrived the poor Man ran with all the speed he could to the Town to carry the news to Don Philippo's Mother who was overjoyed thereat and gave him twenty Crowns for a Reward he was no more expected at Tunis and it was thought he was gone back again into Christendom having been absent almost two Years Sunday the ninth of March we went ashoar and when Don Philippo left the Ship they fired fifteen Guns He found several Men on Horse-back and amongst them all his Brothers who were come out to receive him CHAP. LXXXIX Of Goletta and our Arrival at Tunis Goletta GOletta is no more but two Castles whereof the one was built by the Emperour Charles the fifth and the other by Ahmet Dey the Father of Don Philippo who perceiving that the Galleys of Malta came and took ships in the Road without any damage from the Guns of the Castle built this last which is very low and has seven or eight great Gun-holes two foot above the Water by which the Guns play level with the surface of it This Castle is round on the side next the Sea and that of Charles the fifth is almost square Between these two Castles there are three Houses one belonging to the Family of Don Philippo the other to the Bey and the other to Schelebi the Son of Hisouf Dey who is called barely Schelebi because he was Born during the time his Father Reigned When we had refreshed our selves a little in the House of Don Philippo we took Boat and went to Tunis by the Canal or rather Lake which in the beginning is very narrow there being many Canes fixed all round in the bottom of the Water for catching of Fish afterwards it grows very wide It is not commonly above five span deep in Water then it was very shallow and had many dry places in it which with the least Wind are quickly covered and that very high with Water Don Philippo went by Land with his company mounted on a stately Horse that was brought him The first thing we saw upon that Water was a Hill to the left hand very near the Sea-side where there are natural Baths of Water almost boyling hot There is a Bagnio built there and it is called Hamarmulf Hamarmulf Zagouam then a little further on upon the same side they shewed us a high Hill called Zagouam which is a great way from this Lake and a days Journey distant from Tunis there there is a little Town of Tagarins or Andalaous called also Zagouam When the Christians possessed that Countrey there were Aqueducts that brought Water from thence to the City of Carthage at present they are broken but some Arches with the Fountains and Cisterns still remain to be seen As we came near to Tunis we saw a great many Olive-Trees and abundance of other Trees which denote a good Countrey In four hours time we arrived at Tunis though with a little wind they go it many times in two hours but we were many times imbayed By Land it is eighteen miles from Goletta to Tunis If they pleased they might make a good Port at Tunis but then the Town would not be so strong or at least not so secure From the place where you Land it is a mile still to the Town where being arrived we went to lodge at the House of Monsieur Le Vacher a Perisian Priest and Father of the Mission who was then Consul for the French and he received us very Affectionately CHAP. XC Of the Countrey-Houses and other places that are to be seen about Tunis TWO days after our arrival Don Philippo sent for us to shew us a Countrey-House he had half a League from the Town The Countrey about Tunis is full of these Countrey Houses which are built like the Bastides about Marseilles Don Philippo's is very pretty it is built in form of a square Tower and higher than any about it from the Hall to the top of the Tower there are an hundred and eleven steps up and from thence there is an excellent Prospect which discovers on all hands a lovely Plain reaching out of sight full of Olive-Trees In it there is a great Hall open above with covered Galleries round it which have the Roof supported by several Pillars In the middle of this open place there is a great reservatory of Water which serves for several Water-works All this place is adorned with Marble as also all the Halls and Chambers which are beautified with Gold and Azure and very pleasant Plaister-work there being Fountains every where that play when one pleases One should also see the Bardes which are three Houses built by the Bey for his three Sons a League from Tunis This Bey is as it were the Basha's Farmer to whom he gives so much of the Revenue due to the Grand Signior in the Countrey which he gathers and the rest he keeps to himself He was not at that time Bey but Basha and his eldest Son was Bey In these Houses
the other we lodged in the greater which is all built of great thick Flints of several colours cemented with good Plaister and the Vaults are of Brick the different colours of these Flints make a pretty pleasant Mosaick Work. The Water thereabouts is good for nothing and therefore there is no habitation there We parted from thence the same day at seven a Clock at Night and on Thursday the first of October one thousand six hundred sixty and four about two a Clock in the Morning arrived at Ispahan where I went and lodged with the reverend Fathers Capucins The Reverend Father Raphael of Mans a person of extraordinary vertue and capacity and of a most exemplary life was their Guardian Arrival at Ispahan he had two Religious with him to wit the reverend Father Valentine of Anger 's and the reverend Father John Baptista of Loche CHAP. III. Of Persia in General BEfore I enter into the description of what I have observed at Ispahan I think it will not be impertinent to give the Reader a general notion of Persia which is a Kingdom onely strong because environed with Mountains and barren Desarts that defend it against the attempts of its most powerfull Enemies And indeed the forces that are entertained therein of whom I shall speak in the Chapter of the Court or if you will the Armies that have been raised there in our days are so inconsiderable in respect of so vast a Countrey that the Persians are not to be reckoned amongst formidable Powers The cause of that weakness is the scarcity of money in those Countreys which cannot suffice to set on foot great Armies and far less to maintain them this want of money proceeds from the small trade the Persians drive having but few Goods amongst them proper to be exported to wit some Silk which is made in the Gheilan and Mazendaran Carpets and wrought Stuffs and hardly any thing else considerable In so much that it may be said of Persia that it is as a Kervanserai that serves for passage to the money that goes out of Europe and Turkey to the Indies and to the Stuffs and Spices that come from the Indies into Turkey and Europe whereof it makes some small profit in the passage The soyl of the bordering Countreys speaking generally is very bad The soil of Persia in general not onely by reason of the many Mountains but also of the want of water and wood in most places thereof there being no other Trees but fruit-Trees that are enclosed within Gardens for there are none to be found in the Fields though the Countrey People seem to be carefull and diligent enough in cultivating sowing and planting all the Land that is good It is true the great pains they take in making Gardens and cultivating them for the benefit they make of the Fruit which are exceedingly much eaten in Persia makes them a little neglect the rest of their grounds for after we had past Curdistan I saw in several places very good Land and Hills which in my opinion would be very fruitfull if they were well cultivated and manured Nay in many of these places there is plenty of excellent good water wherewith in my Judgment they might water their grounds by making Ditches through them as they do in other parts And nevertheless I cannot tell why they are desart and full of Liquorice or such like shrubs and no Trees growing in them There are so many Brooks in several Countreys of Persia that I believe the ways are very bad to travel in in the Winter-time for though we were about the end of Summer yet we passed some which were full of thick mud at the bottom The Mazandaran indeed is a very lovely Countrey Mazandaran abounding with Plants Fruit and Wood as well as Europe and good reason why for it is watered by many Springs and Rivers which having run through the Countrey fall into the Caspian Sea that is near it The chief Town of that Countrey is called Eschref Eschref and in it there is a Royal Palace where one may have all imaginable Recreations Lovely Gardens Large Gardens full of flowers with many Ponds and Fountains in these Gardens lovely Houses and artificial Mounts for taking the fresh Air all covered with Flowers with little Buildings on the top to repose in In a word it is a very pleasant place And indeed this is the onely lovely Province of all Persia and yet it hath its inconveniences The Air of Mazandaran for in Winter it is very cold there and the ways very bad In the Summer the Air is so malignant that most of the Inhabitants are obliged to remove to other Places and all the People of that Countrey look yellowish and tawny Venomous Creatures The cause of that bad Air is the vast number of Serpents and other insects that swarm there which in the Summer-time dying for want of water because most Springs in that Season are dried up cause a corruption and infection which fills the Air with contagious Vapours CHAP. IV. Of what hath been observed in Ispahan Ispahan ISpahan is the Capital City of the Province of Irac which is part of the ancient Parthia and generally of the whole Kingdom of Persia for in this Town the King holds his ordinary residence The Air of it is extremely dry therefore what the Earth produces for the food of man is easily preserved there all the year round I cannot tell but it may be attributed to this disposition of the Air what commonly happens that all the Bodies whether of Men or Beasts an hour after they are dead swell extremely which may be occasioned by this so dry an Air that penetrating into the Bodies drives out the humidity which being extravasated betwixt the Flesh and Skin endeavours to break out and so puffs them up until it hath found an Issue when the parts of it have been sufficiently subtilized The hands and feet likewise swell at the end of all Sicknesses which continues some weeks before the cause of it be discussed Nevertheless in time of Rain there are great damps so that the effects of the humidity are to be seen on all things not onely at Ispahan but also all over Persia in so much that all Instruments of Iron rust where ever they may be kept even keys in ones Pocket as I several times found by experience The truth is it rains there very seldom unless it be in Winter And whilst I was there the first Rain that fell was on the eleventh of December But likewise when it rains the Houses crumble and fall away in pieces and the Snow rots the Terrasses if they be not paved with Bricks and seeing most of them are of Earth the Snow must be thrown off assoon as it falls upon them In the year one thousand six hundred sixty and five there was a great Rain in all that extent of Countrey which reaches from Bender Abassi and Bender Cougo
as well as those of Keuschkzer by Schah Abbas who took their Country and gave them good Lands to Cultivate in this place they make Wine but their Grapes come from Maain We parted from thence Wednesday the fourth of March half an hour after five in the morning and at our setting out saw on our right hand two good Fields watered with several Brooks that come from Springs which are plentiful in that Country where the people live in Villages We marched on through a Plain in good way until Noon when having passed over a Bridge of seven Arches under which a River runs Oudgioun we came to a Village called Oudgioun four Agatsch from Asoupas we found a Kervanserai there but it stank so by reason of the great quantity of Carrion and filth that was in it that we could not Lodge therein so that we were fain to encamp hard by under Carpets which we pitched instead of Tents A River fix or seven Fathom over runs through this Village the water of it is very muddy and has a Bridge of seven small Arches over there is Wine also in this place and the Grapes are brought from Maain Within a Mosque there lyes Enterred the Son of a King Schah-Zadeh-Imam-Dgiafer called Scbah Zadeh-Imam-Dgiafer whom they reckon a Saint the Dome is rough cast over before the Mosque there is a Court well Planted with many high Plane-Trees on which we saw a great many Storks that haunt thereabout all the year round We parted from Oudgioun Thursday the fifth of March half an hour after two in the Morning and having advanced a quarter of an hour through Grounds full of water we had the way good till half an hour after Four that we went up an extraordinary high and uneasie Hill because of the stones that lay in the way it is called Chotal-Imam-Zadeh-Ismael Chotal-Imam-Zadeh-Ismael that is to say the Hill of Ismael the Son of an Imam and we were above an hour in mounting it We found on the top a great many Camels coming from Schiras loaded with Tabacco which is brought from Beban after that for above two hours we went down Hill in pretty good way save that here and there we met with some stones one would have thought that we had changed the Climate when we came to the top of the Hill for the side by which we came up was all covered with Snow and on this side there was none at all on the contrary it was full of wild Almond-Trees that bear a bitter Fruit and other Trees which with their Verdure delighted the sight When we were a good way down we came to a Mosque where that Ismael the Son of Imam who gives the name to the Hill is Enterred The outside of that place looks like a Castle with a round Tower at each corner within there is a Court at one end of which is the Mosque whose Frontispiece is a Portico six Arches in length and in the middle of the Mosque there is a Dome rough cast close by it is a Village with a great many Gardens watered by a lovely Brook that runs hard by We then continued our Journy in stony way till Eleven a Clock that we found a River about a Fathom and a half over which divides it self into many Rivulets that water all the Grounds thereabout being very good Land and all sowed The water of that River is very clear and has many Trees growing on the sides of it which render it a very pleasant place The River of Main or Bendemir or Kur it is called the River of Main because it runs by Main but it is the Bendemir and I was told that its right name was Kur from which the Son of Cyrus who there was exposed took his name Bendemir signifies the Princes Dyke and it is so called because of a Dyke or Bank that a Prince made there consult as to that the Geography of Diagiaib Makhlouear This River is the second Araxes of Quintus Curtius Diodorus Siculus and Strabo We kept along the side of it and crossed many of its Canals until about one of the Clock we arrived at a large Village called Main fix Agatsch from Oudgioun Main We Lodged in a good Kervanserai where we found some men who accompanied to Mecha the body of a Lady who had desired to be buried there There are many Gardens all round this Village full of Vines that bear good Grapes and abounding also in Pear-Trees Peach-Trees Walnuts and other Fruit-Trees with water-Melons and other Melons We parted from Main Friday the sixth of March half an hour after two in the Morning and presently left the High-way striking to the left over Sowed Ground till we got near to the River we were obliged to do so because the High-way would have led us to a place where the River was not Foardable and they take not that way but when it may be Foarded over the other way leads to a Bridge we followed the current of the River which is the same that runs by Main until half an hour after Three that we crossed over the Bridge consisting of three Arches but the middlemost a very large one under which the water is very rapid a quarter of an hour after we found a great Brook that falling from the Hill discharges it self in the River a little farther on we saw upon the River a Bridge broken down and a quarter of an hour after the ruins of another Bridge in this place there are a great many small Brooks that lose themselves in the River we then went forwards in good Way till day that we began to ascend a little In these Quarters is the Hill which Alexander the Great made himself Master of by stratagem sending Soldiers by a compass about to surprise the Enemies on their back whilst he Attacked them on the Front as Quintus Curtius relates it a Franck shewed me one separated from the rest which he said was the very same but there was little probability in that because there are a great many such thereabouts and it is very difficult to pitch upon the right besides I did not see how it could command the Passage which is too wide in that place to be Locked in by Mountains About Eight of the Clock we came to a Bridge built over the River of Main or Bendemir which at that place is at least nine or ten Fathom broad This is a rapid River and seems to be deep the water of it is thick and swells high in Winter for they assured me that then it swelled up as high as the Bridge which consists of five Arches but somewhat ruinous nevertheless it is called Pouli-Now Pouli-Now New-Bridge that is to say the New Bridge having passed it and left a way on our Right Hand we took to the Left and having Travelled on an hour and a half more in a Plain till about half an hour after nine we Encamped near to a Kervanserai
midnight we had a fresh Gale from North-West Monday Morning the twelfth of October the Wind slackned very much but changed not and therefore we weighed Anchor at half an hour after eight and standing away South-West we were soon after becalmed Towards Noon we Rowed a little and half an hour after had a breeze from South-West with which we bore away North-West till three in the Afternoon when we entered into the River Caron that comes from the Hills above the Town Souster Caron Souster Khusistan Susa Ahasuerus Coaspes Choasp Tiripari Zeimare which is the Capital Town of Khusistan and was in ancient times the Town of Susa where Ahasuerus held his Court. This River of Caron must be the Coaspes of the Ancients nay they assured me that there is still at present near to the Town of Souster a Hill called Choasp where the River of Caron which Sanson calls Tiripari Tiritiri and Zeimare hath its source but what reason he has for these names I cannot tell since no body could give me any account of them though I have enquired of many who all told me they knew of no such thing On the Right Hand to the West there is an Isle called Dorghestan and on the Left or towards the East Dorghestan Gheban is the Island of Gheban the point whereof is called Mouele and Gheban because all that Country is called Gheban and is the limits of the Kingdom of Bassora on that side In that place to the Left Hand there is a piece of of Palm-Tree-Wood fixed in the Ground to serve for a signal when it his high water not to go beyond it and they call that signal Dgioudoh The Land here on both sides depends on the Basha of Bassora The usual way to Bassora is by Sea to the mouth of Schat-el-Aarab The way to Bassora which they enter and go by water to Bassora but we put in to the River because our Sea-men who had nothing to do at Bassora being only come to take in Dates imposed upon us telling us that we must go to Gheban to take in fresh water and wood which we wanted and that it was also the shortest cut to Bassora but that great Barks went not that way because it was not deep enough which we too easily believed So soon as we were got into the River we came to Anchor in a Fathom water At low water the River at that place is but very little salt and a little higher it is fresh even when it is Flood Being Flood about midnight our men fell to their Oars but Rowed not above an hour and then came to an Anchor The Country about seems to be very good Land it is low even and green on all Hands and we saw many Cows there feeding in the Meadows which look much like the Meadows of Holland Tuesday the thirteenth of October about ten a Clock in the Morning our Sea-men went a shoar and Towed us up till one of the Clock when being over against a Village where there are a great many Palm-Trees we hoisted Sail with a North-West Wind that lasted not long and so came to an Anchor again Our men went a shoar to hear News as they said of Bassora and coming back in the Evening told us that all things were in confusion at Bassora that the Basha was marched with his whole Army towards Bagdad and that all Barks were taken up for Transporting of Soldiers and that therefore they durst go no farther but were resolved to return empty to Bender-Rik This was all false A cheat of the Sea-men and the truth was they had no mind to go any farther designing to take in their Cargoe at the place we were at where there is plenty of Dates and that was the reason they had brought us that way Nevertheless we must pretend to believe all the Knaves told us and try to find another Bark to carry us to Bassora We sent then a servant next day to look for one and he brought us a small thing wherein the men promised in four and twenty hours to carry us to the Town for six Abassis which we gave them These Barks are flat bottomed about a Fathom high one and a half broad and about five Fathom long The Stern is very low but the Head is as high again and draws into a sharp point as the Gondolos of Venice Barks on the River of Caron These Barks are not Caulked but only Pitched over on the outside which they do in the manner following When they are to Pitch a Daneg for so they call that sort of Bark in Arabick ten or twelve paces from the Daneg they make a Furnace of Earth the upper part whereof is made like a Cauldron into that they put the Pitch and the fire underneath and when the Pitch is almost melted but not altogether liquid a man comes with a little wet Shovel in his Hand and another lays some of this Pitch upon it The Pitching of a Daneg and then puts water upon the Pitch which the first carrying to the Daneg and stirring the Pitch with a piece of Wood to which it does not stick he that is working at the Daneg takes the Pitch in his Hand and dawbs it as one would do Plaster upon the Daneg and then with a Rowler which is not altogether round he spreads it upon the Vessel and in that manner Pitches it all over on the outside These Barks are made very strong the sides being about a Foot thick and all the Planks are Nailed with great Nails such as are driven into Gates in France they have likewise a Mast of an indifferent bigness Indeed these Barks make but heavy way especially in the middle of the water where they cannot use a Sail if they have not the Wind in Poop and nevertheless they load them so deep that they are not above half a Foot above water We embarked in one of these Boats about half an hour after three in the Afternoon it was full of a kind of very long green Rushes that have a great point at the end whereof they make very fine mats Our Crew consisted of two Sea-men and a Master the two men Towed us on Land till half an hour after six that we came before a Village to the Left Hand there we cast Anchor our Men unloaded all the Rushes and going afterwards to the Village we we saw no more of them till next day This is a great Village and has a square Castle with eight Towers to wit one at each corner and one in the middle of each side but they are all of Earth and so thin that a double Musket could batter them all down This place is called Koutmian Koutmian that is to say Castle Mian and they make many Danegs there The Country of Gheban reaches from thence to the mouth of the River of Caron and in all that space the Land on both sides the River is called Gheban it
is very good Soil and if Cultivated would produce any thing but is is neglected through the Laziness of the Inhabitants who content themselves with their Dates there being in that Country vast Woods of Palm-Trees We parted from Koutmian Thursday the fifteenth of October half an hour after eight in the Morning and at first put over to the other side of the River where our Men went a shoar to Towe us our course being due North-West At that place the River grows pretty broad and I think is as broad as the River of Seine at Paris and yet is very deep and makes many Islands About Eleven a Clock we stopt at a Village to the Left Hand on the water side from whence we parted at one of the Clock About half an hour after nine at night we saw to our Right Hand the end of the Isle Dorghestan Dorghestan Koutschemal which from thence reaches to the Sea. We stopped before a Castle called Koutschemal which stands on the main Land near the end of that Island and on the same Hand This is a very large Castle and the Basha of Bassora has a Palace in it which as I was told is very beautiful and as some say he keeps his Treasure there Over against this Castle but a little higher on the other side of the water there is another square Castle with a Tower at each Angle We parted from that place Friday the sixteenth of October at six of the Clock and having the Wind at South we made Sail and stood away North-West A quarter after eleven Kout-Muethel we passed by a square Castle called Kout-Muethel which was on our Left Hand and is flanked with eight Towers one at every corner and one in the middle of each side and near to it there is a little Canal A little farther we saw a Straw-House where Officers of the Customs live who did not visit us but only ordered our Master to carry us to the Custom House of Bassora Leaving then the River of Caron we entered into a Canal called Haffar Haffar which was to our Left Hand or to the South-West of us at that place it is not two Fathom over in other places it is less but towards the middle is very broad it hath been made for a Communication betwixt the River of Schat-El-Aarab and the Caron there is good Land on each side of that Canal but it is not Cultivated and bears only plenty of Date-Trees The Canal makes many turnings it is very deep and our Men shoved the Bark forwards with Poles Three quarters of an hour after Noon we saw a Canal to the Right Hand which loses it self in the Fields and a little after another to the Left that runs into the Caron near to Kout-Mnuethel as I said before and then our Men went on shoar to Towe us There the Canal of Haffar grows very broad and at the end is above seven or eight Fathom over About four a Clock we saw a Canal that spends it self in the Fields Half an hour after we passed betwixt two square Castles each of which have a Tower at every Angle and one in the middle of each side they are called Kout-Haffar Kout-Haffar because they lye at the end of the Canal Haffar that has its mouth to the South it is about six French Leagues from thence to Bassora and about twelve to the Sea. We then entered into the River made up of the Tygris and Euphrates joyned into one the Arabs call it Schat-El Aarab that is to say the River of Aarabs We turned then to the Right Hand and stood away North-West having to our Left the Isle Dgezirak-Chader Dgezirak-Chader and seeing we had a breeze of Wind from the South we spread our Sail. Half an hour after five in the Evening we saw to our Left the end of the Isle called Dgezirak-Chader which reaches from the Canal by which they go to Bahrem to the mouth of Schat-El-Aarab there are Palm-Trees yet their Soil is not good but from the Canal of Bahrem till over against or a little above the Canal Haffar for from thence to the Sea the Land is barren perhaps because it being very low the Sea overflows it at high water Next to the Islle Chader we saw on our Left Hand the Canal by which they go to Port Calif and Bahrem it runs towards the South and passes betwixt the Isle Chader and the main Land of Bassora it is very broad and has above eight Fathom water but there are great stones in some places of it From thence to Bassora the River is above twice and a half as broad as the Seine is at Paris and yet is very deep all over Three quarters after six we saw on our Right Hand the beginning of a long Island called Dgezirat-el-Bouarin and a little after we had on the same hand the Isle El-Bochasi Dgezirat-el-Bouarin El-Bochasi El-Fayadi and not long after the Isle El-Fayadi to the Left Hand These are all great Islands full of Palm-Trees and nevertheless the Channel is every where very deep and broad The Wind slackened so at this place that we scarcely made any way at all however we drew near to the shoar on the Left Hand or West side and about half an hour after eight our Men took their Oars and Rowed till three quarters after ten at night when we stopt close by the shoar before a Castle of the Bashas that seems to be very lovely it has many Pavillions all made into Windows and Porticos for taking the fresh Air in the Summer-time and indeed these Castles are only for pleasure for they could make no great defence We parted from that place Saturday the seventeenth of October at six a Clock in the Morning half an hour after we entered into a Canal to the Left Hand which runs South-West we had on our Left Hand a very spacious Castle pretty entire on the side of the Canal but all ruinous towards the Sea-side This Canal at high water is as broad as one half of the Seine but when the Tide is out it is but a sorry Brook full of Mud. The Town of Bassora lies on the two sides of this Canal though along the sides of it there be nothing to be seen but Gardens the Houses being backwards We came along that Canal till eight a Clock in the Morning when we arrived at the Custom-House which is almost at the bottom of it and having had our Goods viewed we went to Lodge with the Reverend Fathers the bare-footed Carmelites which is not far distant at that time there was but one Religious Italian there Arrival at Bassora called Father Severin With a good Wind they come often from Bender-Rik to Bassora in a days time From Bender-Rik to Bassora in a day though sometimes it makes a Voyage of three weeks We found no preparations for War at Bassora only the Basha of the place finding that the Basha of Bagdad suffered
it than indeed they were Next morning we saw two Snakes upon the water Snakes upon the water are a sign of the nearness of Land. which occasioned great joy in the Ship for when they begin to see Snakes it is an infallible mark that they are not above forty Leagues off the Land of the Indies wherefore one may boldly come to sounding and indeed when at nine a Clock we heaved out the Lead we found fifty three Fathom water At noon by the Gunners Observation we were in one and twenty degrees thirty three minutes Latitude having in the last twenty four hours run five and twenty Leagues and a half we sounded a second time and had forty Fathom water whereupon we stood away South-East and by East that we might not run upon the Land of Diu where we had nothing to do and which is the Rendez-vous of the Malabar Corsairs and the Zinganes Half an hour after five in the evening we had but thirty five Fathom water and then we saw upon the water a great many little yellow Snakes a Foot long and as big as ones little Finger which made us know that we were near the Coast of Diu along which the Snakes are small for from thence forwards along the Coast of the Indies they are big That we might not then run within Land we stood away South-East About six a Clock we began to see some Excrements of the Sea which the Provensals call Carnasse the Italians Potta-Marina Carnasse or Potta Marina or Alfareca and the Portuguese call Alfareca I fancy that I have seen the figure and description of them by the name of Potta-Marina in a Treatise of Fabius Columna de Conchis which is at the end of the Treatise de Plantis of the same Author Our Ships Company told me it was like a frothy Flesh which the Fish eat and when it touches a Mans Flesh it sticks to it like Glew and puts him to hot stinging pains This puts me in mind that heretofore being at Calais a Gentleman of Honour told me that in the Sea of Calais there were some certain Sea-Excrements which stung and occasioned such burning pains when they touched a Mans Flesh that he had seen some Soldiers of the Garison run about the streets roaring and crying out like Mad-men through the violence of the pain they suffered by these Excrements which had touched their Flesh when they washed themselves in the Harbour and that this pain lasted two or three days In all probability those Excrements he spoke to me of were Carnasses If the Translatour be not mistaken the English call that Excrement a Carvel We saw so great a quantity of them all the evening that sometimes they made the Sea look all white and they lay as it were in veins so that to judge by the sight one would have taken them for great Banks of Sand but of a very white Sand or else for Rivers of Milk and certainly a Man that had never seen them nor been told what they were would think himself to be upon a Bank of Sand. No sooner was one of these veins past but we saw another a coming and each of them was above five hundred paces in length and proportionably broad Those that floated along the Ships side lookt like so many very clear Stars and at first I took them for sparks that are many times seen to flash out of the Sea when the water is very rough but having observed that they lost not their splendour as commonly that sort of sparks does which disappear as soon as they are seen I took notice of them to the Captain and the rest that were upon the Quarter Deck and asked them what they were they all told me they were Carnasses and they knew by that that we were near Land for these Excrements are not commonly seen but very near the shoar and are the fore runners of a Gale of Wind but when the Captain considered them and saw them coming in so great a quantity he acknowledged to me that he had never seen so many of them together and about eight a Clock the Lead being heaved out we found thirty Fathom water After eight a Clock we saw no more Carnasses A little after eight the Wind blew very fresh which made us take in the Main-Top-Sail At the same time we perceived to the Windward at East North-East a great light which all presently knew to be some great fire a shoar and we saw many such until midnight which confirmed us in the opinion that we were very near the Land of Diu. Wherefore we Steered on our Course South-East bearing rather to South than East About eleven a Clock the Wind slackened much Thursday the last day of the year one thousand six hundred sixty five about three a Clock in the morning the Wind turned North-East and we still Steered our Course South-East About break of day we made to the Leeward South of us a great Ship with all Sails abroad even their Top-Gallant-Sails though it was no good weather for carrying such Sails which made us conclude it was the Masulipatan which put out from Congo the same day that we did in the morning and which we thought had been at Comoron In all appearance he took our Ship for an English man for the Captain of the Masulipatan was a Hollander and therefore he had put out his Top-Gallant-Sails to run for it and the truth is he made so good way that in an hours time he was got almost out of fight Half an hour after six we cast out the Lead and had thirty five Fathom water According to the Gunners Observation at noon we were in twenty degrees forty minutes Latitude and in four and twenty hours time we had made seven and twenty Leagues and a half We were then becalmed and half an hour after five we had thirty three Fathom water At eight of the Clock at night we had a small Gale from North-East which made us Steer away East South-East At midnight having sounded we found still thirty three Fathom water Friday New-years-day one thousand six hundred sixty and six at five a Clock in the morning we had twenty six Fathom water At break of day we made to the Leeward South South-East of us the same Ship which we saw the day before but somewhat nearer to us We also made Land which was known to be the Point of main Land Point of Diu. The Isle of Diu belonging to the Portuguese Alambater called the Point of Diu and immediately after we made the Island which bears the same name and is near the main Land of the Country of Cambaya This Island was anciently called I think Alambater lyes in the Latitude of twenty degrees forty minutes or one and twenty degrees the Portuguese are masters of it and have a Town there of the same name with the Island and a Fort which is thought to be impregnable being surrounded with two Ditches filled with the
W Faithorne sc Monsieur de Thevenot THE TRAVELS OF Monsieur de Thevenot INTO THE LEVANT In Three Parts VIZ. Into I. TURKEY II. PERSIA III. The EAST-INDIES Newly done out of French. Licensed Decemb. 2. 1686. RO. L'ESTRANGE LONDON Printed by H. Clark for H. Faithorne J. Adamson C. Skegnes and T. Newborough Booksellers in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII THE PREFACE IT would be needless without doubt by any Preliminary Discourse to recommend the Relations of TRAVELS to publick Perusal since the universal Approbation they meet with in the World and the eagerness wherewith they are sought after by all People is an Argument convincing enough that they are Delightful at least if not also Profitable However seeing the Credit of Books of this Nature depends chiefly on the Places and Things that are described and the Genius and capacity of the Traveller who observes them As the Title Page gives a general account of the first so for the second the Translator hath borrowed a few Paragraphs concerning the Illustrious Author from the Gentleman who compiled and published the two last Parts of these Relations in Execution of the last Will of him that made them who Dying abroad in his Travels bequeathed them in Legacy to his care and these the Translator doth premise by way of Preface to prepare but not forestal the Readers acceptance and by such a short view and glance of the worthy Traveller who ended his Days in endeavouring to promote Knowledge and improve Learning to shew how great his Abilities were in this kind Monsieur de Thevenot the Renowned Author of these Travels was a Gentleman of a good Family Born the seventh of June 1633. At Eighteen Years of Age he had accomplish'd his Studies in the College of Navarre in the University of Paris and then applied himself to those Exercises which in the breeding of Youth commonly succede to their School Education till having both a desire and liberty to Travel On the Eighteenth of December 1652. he parted from Paris for England He made no long stay in this Country but took the first occasion of Sailing over to Holland where he remained longer His next remove was to Colen and from Colen to Franckfort and Ratisbone that he might see an Imperial Diet there He afterwards crossed the remaining part of Germany and entering Italy by the Mountains of Tirol went first to Verona from thence to Venice from Venice to Loretto and from thence to Rome He stayed a considerable time there because when he was just upon parting Pope Innocent the Tenth Died so that he resolved to tarry a little longer that he might see the Ceremonies and all that happens on such Occasions during a Conclave and at the Coronation of a Pope He left not Rome then till after the Creation of Alexander the Seventh The first part of his Travels over most part of Turkey Egypt the Holy Land c. which he himself put to the Press is an Account of what he had seen in that time until he came back again to Legorn from whence he made another Journey in Italy that he might see all the other Places which he had not visited the time before and made some stay at the Court of Savoy before he returned into France Our Author hath published nothing of these Travels not but that he made a Relation of them which he was at the pains to write out fair But as he was a modest Man and distrustful of his own performances he would not give it to be printed with the first part of his Travels which he himself handed to the Press thinking these were Countreys sufficiently known already It is indeed but his first Essay yet perhaps not inferior to the exactness of more mature time He therein gives you a succinct Account of all that is Curious in every place and a character of the several People In short he says enough to give one a reasonable information of those Countreys and not too much to cloy the Reader with the repetition of what he hath seen before The Publisher of the two last Parts of these Travels has that Relation by him but has as yet taken no resolution what to do with it Our Illustrious Traveller had not been long at home after his first Travels before the same Motives of Curiosity and Learning put him upon preparing for a second Expedition so that privately he withdrew himself from his Friends without taking leave in order to travel over Persia and the Indies which are the Subjects of the two last Parts of his Relations and of the last part of his days for as he was returning again through Persia into Europe he Died at Miana a little place about thirty Leagues from Tauris the twenty eighth of November 1667. his Observations ending but a few days before his Life whose Death not only his Relations to whom he was very dear but even the publick hath reason to bewail as having lost in him an Example of Piety a Model of Vertue and a Treasury of Knowledge Nay Reader you also have cause to Lament this Loss in relation to that Satisfaction you might have had from the last two Parts of his Relations which would have been doubtless Augmented if Providence had granted him longer Life For Monsieur de Thevenot was not only exact in the daily Memoires he made in Travelling of all things he observed in the Countreys he passed through but being a person very inquisitive after the Truth and who would not rest satisfied with every slight Information he address'd himself to as many and as often as possibly he could the better to find out the truth of what he desired to know and dispersed the notices he had given him here and there confusedly among his Memoires so that the Publisher who imployed all imaginable care and pains in compiling them is nevertheless forced to complain of the great Fatigue he underwent in putting them together in the order they should be and are in However it is not to be thought that there is any thing supposititious or altered in these two last Parts no they are only not so full as they would have been had the Author lived to decipher the Short Notes which were clear enough to him though not altogether so intelligible to others And the truth is the ingenious Publisher is so far from Alterations that he would not so much as change that forreign Air and Dress they brought with them from Abroad chusing rather to let them speak in the naked and plain strain of the Author than in the more elaborate Language of the Court and Town which would chiefly be believed for their words-sake And indeed he had reason so to do for a genuine and simple style such as can raise a distinct Idea in the mind of the Reader is the proper style for particular and exact Relations of things and that was the Character of Monsieur de Thevenot in the first Part of his Travels which hath been
Conventual Cordeliers and their Church is called St. Francis of the Jacobins who have St. Peters Church of the Jesuits who have St. Benet's Church and of the Capucius who have the Church of St. George By the Sea-side there is the finest Fish-market in the World it is a Street with Fish-mongers shops on both sides who have so great quantity of Fish upon their Stalls that it would surprise a man to see it There one may find all sorts of fresh Fish and at a very cheap rate The Greeks keep many Taverns or Publick Houses in Galata which draw thither many of the Rabble from Constantinople who are very insolent in their drink and very dangerous to be met with Going up from Galata you come to Pera which is likewise separated from Galata by Burying-places it is a kind of a Town where Christian Ambassadors dwell only the Ambassadors of the Emperor King of Poland and Republick of Ragousa having their residence in Constantinople The French Ambassador is very commodiously lodged in Pera having a fair large Palace which is called the Kings House and has on all hands a good Prospect looking one way towards the Serraglio of the Grand Signior over against which it stands upon a higher ground than the Serraglio Pera lying very high The Houses of Pera are handsome and hardly any body lives there but Greeks of Quality From Pera to Tophana there is a great descent and Tophana lies upon the Rivers side over against the Serraglio It is called Tophana that is to say the House of Cannon because it is the place where Guns and other Pieces of Artillery are cast and that gives the name to all that Quarter which is a kind of little Town The Houses of Galata Pera and Tophana are built in so good order that as these places stand some higher and some lower they represent a kind of Amphitheater from whence with ease and pleasure the Port and Sea may be seen CHAP. XXI Of Leander's Tower Scudaret the Princes Isle and the Black Sea. THough the Countrey about Constantinople be not so delightful nor so well peopled Iscodar as in France yet it is not without pleasant Walks you must take a Caique and go to Scudaret called in Turkish Iscodar and it is a good mile over to it You pass by the Tower of Leander which stands betwixt the Serraglio and Scudaret and you may go into it if you please This Tower is built upon a Rock in the Sea and is pretty strong there are several great Guns mounted in it which may batter the Port of Constantinople and the two mouths of the Bosphorus of Thrace and of the Propontis or as they say of the Black and White Seas there is a Well of excellent good fresh Water in this Tower but I cannot tell why they call it Leander's Tower. From thence you go to Scudaret which is a Village in Asia upon the Sea-side over against the Serraglio of Constantinople where the Grand Signior hath a sttately Serraglio and very lovely Gardens A little lower on the same side over against the seven Towers stands Chalcedon a Town anciently Famous and celebrated by the Fourth general Council that was held there but at present it is no more but a pitiful Village The Princes Isle which is four hours going from Constantinople is another Walk where the Air is excellently good though this Isle be not great yet it is very pleasant and contains two little Towns of Greeks The Chanel of the Black Sea is a rare place to take the Air upon this is the Bosphorus of Thrace which coming from the Black Sea to Constantinople enters into the Propontis and mingles its Waters with the White Sea at the broadest place it is about a mile over and is twelve miles in length Going from Tophana towards this Chanel you see to the left-hand on the side of Europe a great many lovely Houses and Gardens when you have entered into the Chanel you have on both sides the most charming and delightful Prospect in the World nothing offering to your view but stately Houses and Gardens full of all sorts of excellent Fruits Upon the side in Asia I saw a very pretty Castle where Sultan Ibrahim the Father of Sultan Mahomet who Reigns at present was hid for the space of twenty years to avoid the Death which Sultan Amurath put his other Brothers to This Castle is covered with many very high Trees that hinder it from being seen which is the reason as those who live there told us that few come to see it Along both the shores there are also a great many good Villages where one may have whatsoever is needful They take in this Chanel great quantities of good Fish of several sorts especially Sword-fish Sword-fish which are great and so called because on their Snout they have a long broad bone like a Sword or rather a Saw there are many Dolphins to be seen there which follow Boats playing and leaping out of the Water Six miles from Constantinople there are two Forts on this Sea the one in Europe and the other in Asia which serve for Prisons for Persons of quality and were built to put a stop to the Cosacks who were it not for that would often come and make Booty even in Constantinople seeing notwithstanding these Forts they sometimes give the alarm to that City In three or four hours time one comes to the end of the Chanel or Bosphorus of Thrace where the Black Sea begins In the middle of this mouth which is very narrow there is a little Isle or rather Rock distant on each hand from the main Land about fifty paces where being come you may go up to the top of it and there see a Pillar of white Marble which is called the Pillar of Pompey because they say it was raised by Pompey in memory of his Victory after that he had overcome Mithridates Close by this Rock and round it there are several others scattered here and there in the Water which many take to be the Cyanean Isles or Symplegades On the main Land of Europe side over against the Rock of Pompey's Pillar there is a Village on the Water-side with a Tower on the top whereof there is a Light for the convenience of Vessels that by mistake they may not run foul of the Rocks and be cast away for that 's a very dangerous Sea and many shipwrecks are made in it every year so that the Greeks call it Maurothalassa that is to say the Black Sea Maurothalassa not because the Waters of it are black but because Storms and Tempests rise on it so suddenly that they cause many losses and though the Weather be never so fair yet Vessels are often surprised there in a moment for besides that this Sea is not very broad there are several Currents in it caused by the Danube Boristhenes Tanais and many other smaller Rivers that discharge their Waters into it which occasion so many Eddies
shall not speak of them I will only tell what I had from an Itchoglan newly come out of the Serraglio that the Grand Signior is served at his Meals in China which is more valuable then Purcelane or Terra Sigillata that is reckoned to be good against Poyson The Grand Signior's Dishes He hath also a great many covered dishes of beaten Gold each dish with its cover weighing twelve or thirteen Marks These Dishes were presented to him by Kilidge Hali Basha a Renegado native of Messina after the Pillage and Robberies that he committed in Calabria where he took great Booty Now though with them it be a sin to eat in Gold or Silver yet he makes use of both and the Queen Mother of the Grand Signior is served in forty Silver plate dishes But at extraordinary Feasts which are kept in the Gardens or Summer-Houses they are served in Basons of Purcelane or Terra Sigillata as the Ambassadours are also when they are feasted in the Hall of the Divan before they have their Audience of the Grand Signior When he eats he speaks to no body The Grand Signior never speaks at Dinner but makes himself be understood by Signs to the mute Buffoons who are very expert at that having a very singular method in it and there is nothing but what they can express by Signs These Buffoons are always playing some foolish Tricks amongst themselves to make him Laugh He never beats his Brains about Business Care of Affairs but refers the whole management of Affairs to his Ministers who give him a Summary Account of them on certain days of the Week Not but that there have been some who have taken the Care upon themselves ordering their Ministers to act according to their Directions Sultan Amurat though a very debauched Prince always minded his Affairs and Sultan Mahomet who Reigns at present and traces the Footsteps of his Uncle Amurat loves Business very well too When the Grand Signior is weary of staying in his Serraglio he goes and takes the Air upon the Water and sometimes by Land but not often because his Ministers do what they can to hinder him from that least Petitions may be presented to the Grand Signior against them For such as cannot have Justice of them expect till the Grand Signior be abroad in the Streets and when he passes by they put their Petition on the end of a Cane which they hold up as high as they can which the Grand Signior perceiving sends for it and has it brought to him The truth is the Ministers are not well pleased he should be informed of Affairs by any but themselves I have several times seen the present Grand Signior abroad but the first time that I saw him I was told that for at least a Year before he had not been out of his Serraglio The Grand Signior's going abroad out of the Serraglio When he goes abroad by Land it is either with small Attendance or in Pomp I have seen both as I shall afterwards relate When he goes by Water he has always few Attendance his Galiotte comes to the Kieusk of the Serraglio which is on the Water-side over against Galata and entring with a very small Retinue he goes to Scudaret or the Black-Sea to take the Air. This is a most rich Galiotte guilt all over and adorned with many counterfeit Stones It hath four and twenty Benches that is to say four and twenty Oars on each side Bostangis Rowers each rowed by two Bostangis who have only a Shirt over their Breeches or rather Drawers they have scarlet Caps shaped like a Sugar-Loaf such as all the Bostangis wear being half an Ell high and they who serve on this occasion are the Favorites of the Bostangi Basha The advantage of the Rowers Those that Row on the right side are all the Sons of Christians made Turks who may arise to the dignity of Bostangi Basha to which Office those that Row on the left hand who are the Sons of Turks and commonly of Asia can never aspire And the greatest reward that they can hope for when they come out of the Serraglio is to have fourscore Aspres a day in Pay whereas those on the right side after they have discharged the Office of Bostangi Basha may be Agas of the Janizaries nay even Bashas or Governours of Provinces If any of these Bostangis chance to break an Oar in Rowing the Grand Signior gives him according to his Liberality a handful of Aspres or a handful of Chequins as an encouragement for plying his Business with so much strength In the time of Sultan Solyman three Chequins was the ordinary reward but at present it is not limited However it is not by strength but rather slight that they break their Oars and many times they break them half off before the Grand Signior come on board his Galiotte and then easily do the rest as they Row. The Bostangi Basha sits at the Helm and steers the Galiotte and at that time has opportunity enough to discourse with the Grand Signior at his ease The Grand Signior goes through the City in Disguise Besides these ways of going Abroad the Grand Signior goes sometimes through the City in Disguise and without Attendance as a private Man to see if his Orders be punctually observed And he at present who seems in all his Actions to imitate his Uncle Sultan Amurat went abroad almost every day in Disguise whilst I was at Constantinople having however some Men following him at a little distance and amongst the rest an Executioner And by the way he caused many Heads to flie off both in Constantinople and Galata which kept all things in better order The Christians were very glad that he Disguised himself so for that was the cause that no body durst molest or abuse them Sometimes he would go to a Bakers Shop and buy Bread and sometimes to a Butchers for a little Meat And one day a Butcher offering to sell him Meat above the rate which he had set he made a sign to the Executioner who presently cut off the Butchers Head. Prohibition of Tobacco But it was chiefly for Tobacco that he made many Heads to flie He caused two Men in one day to be Beheaded in the Streets of Constantinople because they were smoaking Tobacco He had prohibited it some days before because as it was said when he was passing along the Street where Turks were smoaking Tobacco the smoak had got up into his Nose But I rather think that it was in imitation of his Uncle Sultan Amurat who did all he could to hinder it so long as he lived He caused some to be Hanged with a Pipe through their Nose others with Tobacco hanging about their Neck and never pardoned any for that I believe that the chief reason why Sultan Amurath prohibited Tobacco was because of the Fires that do so much mischief in Constantinople when they happen which most commonly are
the Modern Greeks Kissaros when the Goats feed on that Herb a certain viscous Dew that is upon it sticks to their Beards and there congeals into a kind of Gum of a very good smell which they Ladanum and Vulgarly Laudanum and cannot be gathered without cutting off of the Goats Beards As you go to the Town there is a Castle upon a very high Hill which commands all the Villages of Darmilla Near the Town upon a Rock called heretofore Strongyle is the Palace of the God Bacchus so called in ancient Times it is an hundred Foot in length and fifty in breadth and built of very white Marble each Stone being sixteen hands long and seven hands thick which were all fastened together with Iron and Lead The Gate is thirty two hands high and sixteen wide its lintel is of four pieces There is no Inscription to be seen upon it they being all eaten out by the Sea and Weather but there are two Cisterns close by it The Turks and others carry away Marble daily from that Palace for making of Gates Windows Mortars Chests and such like things nay and Turbans also to be put at the ends of Graves according to the custome of the Turks The same Bacchus as the Inhabitants say made an Aqueduct that brought Water from a very distant Spring but having carried it on as far as the Shoar he Died and that so it was never perfected however the Chanels of it are to be seen Bacchus was the God of Wine and therefore the Inhabitants of Nixia are so great Drunkards It was in this Island that the perfidious wretch Theseus abandoned the poor Ariadne The place where Theseus forsook Ariadne who had delivered him out of the Labyrinth and Bacchus finding her forsaken and forlorn took her for his Wife The Tower and Ducal Palace are still in being in the Town There are two Arch-Bishops in this Town a Latin and a Greek The Cathedral Church of the Latin Arch-Bishops is dedicated to the assumption of our Lady and is very handsome it hath a Steeple with three Bells in it several Relicks of Saints are kept in the Church and it is served by six Canons and seven other Priests and Clerks who are very diligent at their duty in the Quire but their Revenue is very Inconsiderable and the Arch-Bishop himself has no more than two hundred Piastres of yearly Rent He hath a seat in the country with a Church it is a very delightful place and called San Mamma the Church is neat Paved with Marble and the Walls lined with the same but kept in bad repair Besides the Cathedral Church the Jesuits have also a sorry House in the Castle and the Greeks have a Chappel that belonged to the Dukes formerly Without the Town there are Recollets and Capuchins who make many Proselytes there to the Catholick Faith. The Inhabitants of Nixia have great fewds among themselves so that they speak not to one another as long as they live but the Women are more obstinate than the Men and are very great medlers in other Peoples Business These Women wear more than ten Coats one over another so that they have much adoe to go and their Shoes are so streight that they can hardly thrust their Feet into them but they are pretty Honest and Chast This Island raises its Tribute by the sale of Wine Cheese and Silk CHAP. LXVII Of the Isles of Paro Delos Mycone Tine and Nio. ABout fix miles from Nixia is the Isle of Paro heretofore Paros Paro which hath three Castles several Villages a good harbour for all sorts of Vessels fair Churches and many Greek Priests and Monks being fifty miles in compass and containing about six thousand Souls There were several Statues Marble-Chests and other Antiquities found in this Island which have been carried away by an English Gentleman who brought off all he could find not only there but in the other Isles also and chiefly in Delos Delos or Sdrille called at present Sdrille heretofore so famous for the Oracle of Apollo and where in ancient times there were so many Statues of the Gods at present there is no more but a Statue lying along upon the Ground representing a Woman which is so great that sitting upon the Shoulders one cannot reach the Head with the Hand and there is nothing of it broken off but one Arm. This Isle is fourteen miles in Circuit There are many Ports about these little Islands inhabited only by Coneys where the Corsars commonly go a little farther off is the Island of Mycone heretofore Myconus which was well Peopled Mycone but at present is almost forsaken because of the rigorous Persecution of the Turks it is thirty miles in Circuit Over against this Island is the Isle of Tine in Ancient times Tenes which belongs to the Venetians it is well Peopled Tine and hath a very strong Castle built upon a high Rock and the Houses stand one over another This Isle is forty miles in Compass it is plentiful in Provisions and Silk but so over stocked with People that many are obliged to go ad live elsewhere as at Smyrna and Chio. There is a Latin Bishop in it and the Women are handsome and Courteous enough In going to Santorini one must pass by the Isle of Nio called heretofore Oliarus Nio. Oliarus which was not long since Inhabited by the Albanians a Barbarous and Warlike People who go all night long Armed by the Sea-side Their Fields are fruitful in all things and they have very thick Woods of Oakes and other Trees which they cut down and sell to several Places and particularly to the Inhabitants of Santorini who stand in need of it as we shall say hereafter There is a good Harbour in this Island CHAP. LXVIII Of the Isle of Santorini Santorini or Therasia THE Isle of Santorini whose ancient name was Therasia is thirty six miles round and is threescore miles from Candie from whence the Land of it may be seen There are several Castles in this Isle and first the Castle of St. Nicholas standing on a point of the Island This is a frightful place for besides that it is very high the Houses of it are built upon the hanging sides of black and burn'd Rocks A Greek Bishop has his residence there and a matter of five hundred Souls about him but most of them live in Caves that they have made under Ground which is very light and easie to be Dug being all Pumice-stone and it is very pleasant to see Plowed Lands and People living underneath them so that the Men come creeping out like Coneys But Scaro is a Castle far more Gastly than that of St. Nicholas Scaro not only for the height but solitude of the Place and those that go up to it must climb with Hands and Feet and have a special care too least some great Stone fall from on high and knock them down for one cannot shun it by turning back
made now a days as I have seen and have by me so that the Engravers of those times must have been excellent Artists nay it seems to me a doubt whether they might not have had the art of casting or at least softning the Stones for some of them are so little that one has much adoe to finger them and nevertheless they are Engraved to perfection When it rains the Moors search for them among the Ruines and never fail to find some then they come and sell them for a small matter to the Franks Good Asses in Aegypt Christians in Aegypt cannot ride on Horse back through Towns. Asses stand ready in the streets of the Towns of Aegypt but of late they hold them a little dearer because of the emulation of the Franks who come and out bid one another When Strangers go to see these Antiquities they take little Asses which goe very fast and stumble not nay will Gallop too if they be put to it for Christians whether Franks or not cannot ride on Horses through the Towns but in the Country they may if they please The Asses stand ready in the Streets and one has no more to do but to get up they pay no more for a whole Afternoons use of them but seven or eight Pence a piece to wit one half for the Ass and as much for a Moor who follows on Foot and beats and pricks on the Ass now and then to make him go A farther Description of Alexandria the Reader will find in the Second Part. CHAP. III. Of Rossetto AFter I had seen what I thought fit in Alexandria I resolved to go to Rossetto and parted from Alexandria on Saturday Morning the sixth of January with a Janizary whom the French Vice-Consul had given me to accompany me thither Bouquier we passed by Bouquier twenty short miles from Alexandria which is a Castle that defends a Road that is near to it and lodged that night at the Maadie of Alexandria Till you come to the Maadie there is no place to rest in being all a Desart of Sand. This place is called Maadie that is to say Passage because there is a Lake there to be crossed over in a Ferry-Boat with a Rope fastened to both sides of the Water The Maadie is thirty long miles from Alexandria This water is very full of Fish which renders a great Revenue to the Grand Signior There is a little Kervanserai on the other side of this Water where Travellers have a House over head for nothing and may eat and drink if they have brought Provisions along with them There we ate and drank and lay upon the Field-beds that we carried with us Next day being Sunday we set out in the Morning and about noon came to Rossetto Rossetto threescore miles from Alexandria but the miles indeed are short and all along the Sea-side On our way we saw the place where the River of Nile discharges it self into the Sea which is a very dangerous passage for Barks and Saiques Tht mouth of the Nile at Rossetto and close by shoar we saw the wrack of that Saique which stranded the same day that the great Gallion was cast away in the Port of Alexandria as I hinted at before The danger is when the Sea is rough for then it occasions an Eddy with the waters of the River that turns the Vessel round and casts it on shoar where it is sure to be split and none can save themselves by Swimming because of the force of the Waves but the wise make the best shift they can in their Caiques Rossetto Rossetto anciently called Canopus lyes upon a branch of the Nile which falls into the Sea five miles below the Town next to Caire it is reckoned the neatest Town of Aegypt not only because of the lovely Piazza's but also the many fair Hans it contains and yet they daily build new ones there for indeed it is a Town of great Trafick and very pleasant as being all encompassed with lovely Gardens The Houses of Rossetto are all high and well Built it is good living there as in all other places of Aegypt where Victuals are very cheap and wild-fowl especially Water-fowl very plentiful which they catch several ways but the Town hath this Inconvenience that in the Months of July and August they drink no other water but what they have gathered before into fair Cisterns Leaded and made for that purpose because during that time the Sea flows so high that it mingles with the water of the Nile and renders it Brackish The branch of the Nile that runs by this Town makes a Port for Saiques but great Ships cannot come up to it this port is always full of Saiques which come from the Archipelago to Trade in Aegypt The Town is very carefully kept by the Sous-Basha from all Disorders that might happen but besides that Guard there are threescore Men that in the Night-time march up and down to catch Robbers The cunning of the Arabs who rob in Rossetto who are Arabs of the Desarts These Villains strip themselves stark-naked then rub their Bodies over with Oyle that one may not take fast hold of them and in that manner come to the Town where they Steal what they can find and when they are pursued cast themselves into the River and swim over to the other side I made no long stay at Rossetto but knowing that every Tuesday and Friday Barks go off from Rossetto to Caire I waited for the first opportunity that I might go in company with several Barks which is the way to be safe from the Pirates of the Nile and having hired a little Boat only for myself and my Servant that I might be at more ease I parted from Rossetto Friday the nineteenth of January about Noon These Barks are Caiques or ordinary Boats and I had a Tilt or Covering made of Matts in the Stern to keep me from the Sun and the Dew which on the Nile is very cold and piercing It was very bad weather that day however we went on and Wednesday the twenty fourth of January passed the place where the Chanel divides it self into two Branches of which one goes to Rossetto and the other to Damiette The same day in the Evening we came to Boulac which is the Port of Caire though it be half a League from it Boulac Boulac is a pretty big long and narrow Town built upon the side of the Nile and has many Gardens and country Houses about it At Boulac we paid a Piastre a piece to some Jews it being the custome that every Frank the first time he comes to Caire pays a Piastre at Boulac In my Voyage from Rossetto to Caire I observed that all the land upon the Nile sides is excellently good and really Aegypt may be said to be an Earthly Paradise but Inhabited by Devils not only because the Inhabitants are Tawny but also very Vicious great Robbers especially and such as
that go to other places that so they may avoid the heat which is almost insupportable and when the Moon does not shine there are Men who carry Links before the Caravan In all Caravans the Camels are tied tail to tail so that let them but go and there is no trouble of leading them Here I 'll give the Reader an account how many Stages there are betwixt Caire and Mecha how many days they stay in them how many hours travelling there is betwixt them and at what Stages the Waters are sweet or bitter all along the way This little Itinerary I had from a Prince of Tunis An Itinerary from Caire to Mecha who made that Journey whilst I was at Caire From Caire to the Birque it is reckoned four hours Journey there is fresh water there From the Birque to Misana that is to say Cistern ten hours no water there Misana Kalaat Aadgeroud Navatir Raftagara Kalaat el Nahhal Abiar Alaina Sath el Akaba Kalaat el Akaba Dar elHhamar Scharafe Benigateie Magare Chouaib Eyoun el Kaseb Kalaat el Moilah Castel Kalaat Ezlem Istanbel Antir Kalaat el Voudge Ekre Hank Krue Hhawre Nabte Nabathean Arabs Hazire Yanbouh Soucaife Beder Hunein Sibil el Mouhsin Rabij Haramein From Misana to Kalaat Aadgeroud which is to say the Castle of Sand-Pits twelve hours and an half there is bitter water there From the Castle of Aadgeroud to Navatir seven hours and an half no water there From Navatir to Rastagara ten hours no water there and the way bad From Rastagara to Kalaat el Nahhal that is to say the Castle of Palmes fifteen hours there they stay a day and have fresh water From the Castle of Nahhal to Abiar Alaina fourteen hours only bâ—tter water there From Abiar Alaina to Sath el Akaba that is to say the Plain of the Hill fifteen hours no water there From Sath el Akaba to Kalaat el Akaba that is to say the Castle of the Hill that 's upon the side of the Red-Sea sixteen hours there they stay two days and an half the way is very bad but they have fresh water From the Castle el Akaba to Darel Hhamar six hours and an half no water there Dar el Hhamar signifies Asses Back and it is like the Mountain in Italy where there is an Inn called Scarga l'asino From Dar el Hhamar to Scharafe Benigateie fourteen hours no water there From Scharafe Benigateie to Magare Chouaib that is to say the Grott of Jethro fourteeen hours fresh water there that is the Countrey of the Midionites From Magare Chouaib to Eyoun el Kaseb fourteen hours and an half fresh water there It was in that place where Jethro's Daughters going to water their Cattel and the Shepherds offering to hinder them Moses protected and defended them against those who would have hindred them to draw water From Eyoun el Kaseb to Kalaat el Moilah which is by the Sea-side fifteen hours there they rest two days and an half and have fresh water From Kalaat el Moilah to Castel eleven hours bitter water there From Castel to Kalaat Ezlem fifteen hours and an half bitter water there From Kalaat Ezlem to Istanbel antir fourteen hours fresh water there From Istanbel antir to Kalaat el Voudge that is to say the Castle of the Face thirteen hours and an half fresh water there From Kalaat el Voudge to Ekre sixteen hours no water there but what is bitter From Ekre to Hank Krue that is to say Gulf twelve hours and an half no water there From Hank Krue going to Hhawre they enter into the Territory of Mecha to Hhawre it is thirteen hours only bitter water there From Hhawre to Nabte fifteen hours fresh water there From thence come the Nabathean Arabs Eurus ad auroram Nabathaeaque regna recessit From Nabte to Hazire thirteen hours and an half no water there From Hazire to Yanbouh that is to say Fountain fourteen hours and an half there they stay two days and an half and have fresh water From Yanbouh to Soucaife thirteen hours no water there From Soucaife to Beder Hunein that is to say the Moon of Hunein eight hours fresh water there Hunein was a Man that shew'd the Moon in his Well From Beder Hunein to Sibil el Mouhsin that is to say the way of Benefaction or Benefit fourteen hours fresh water there From Sibil el Mouhsin to Rabij seventeen hours fresh water there Rabij is a Sacred Place that is to say not to be entered into without being well prepared and purged from all sin Hence it is that there are two places which are called Haramein Sacred Places to wit Mecha and Medina that is to say which are two Holy Places where one should take heed not to set his foot Kawdire Bi r el fan Vadi Fatima Mecha unless he be well washed from all Sin. From Rabij to Kawdire fifteen hours no Water there From Kawdire to Bi r el fan fourteen hours fresh water there From Bi r el fan to Vadi Fatima fourteen hours fresh water there From Vadi Fatima to Mecha six hours CHAP. XVIII Of Mecha THE Musulmans have so great a veneration for Mecha not only because Mahomet was Born there but more especially for the Temple called Kiaabe that is to say square house that they think all who are not Musulmans are unworthy to come there and therefore they suffer them not so much as to come within some days journey of it and if a Christian or any other who were not Mahometan should be apprehended in that Holy Land he would be burned without mercy I never made the journey then but seeing in the conferences that I have had with a great many who have made it I have learned some things relating thereunto I think I may tell what I know especially since no man that I know of hath as yet given us any true relation of it A description of Mecha Kiaabe Mecha is an ancient Town scituated among the Mountains and built all of Stone and Morter in the middle of this Town is the Kiaabe which is a square House surrounded with a wall that hinders people from approaching it there being a void space betwixt the House and the Wall the House is covered with a Dome Within it there is a well of indifferent good Water at least in respect of the other Waters of Mecha which are so bitter that one can hardly drink of them There is besides on the right hand near the door as they enter into that House a black stone as big as a mans Head which they say came down from Heaven A black stone come down from Heaven and that heretofore it was white but that through the Sins of men it became black as it is at present He that first can kiss it at the time when they give one another the Selam after the Prayer of Kouschlouk A great happiness for him that
in the House of Judas They say that the Turks have several times attempted to build a Mosque over that Grott but that all that they had built in the day-time was in the Evening thrown down in an instant You may also go to a little Hermitage two miles from the City where Dervishes live it stands upon a little Hill above a great Village called Salahia Salahia The Cave of the seven Sleepers There you may see the Cave where the seven Sleepers hid themselves when they were Persecuted by Decius who would have made them renounce the Christian Faith and where they slept till the time of Theodosius the Younger This is a very pleasant place and the more that from thence one may see all the Countrey about Damascus Three Leagues from thence towards the way of Baal bel The place where Cain slew his Brother Abel Jobar Elias's Grott is the place where they say Cain slew his Brother Abel and where also they Sacrificed You must also go to a Village called Jobar half a League from the City inhabited only by Jews who have a Synagogue there at the end of which on the right side there is a Grott four paces square with a hole and seven steps cut in the Rock to go down to it They say that this is the place where the Prophet Elias hid himself when he fled from the Persecution of Queen Jezabel The hole by which the Ravens brought him Victuals for the space of forty days The place where Abraham Fought is still to be seen there There are three little Presses in this Grott serving to set three Lamps in A League and a half from thence is the place where as they say the Patriarch Abraham gave Battel to the five Kings who carried away his Nephew Lot Cham. and overcame them Damascus which the Turks call Cham is very well situated seven Rivers run by it and it is encompassed all round almost with two Walls and little Ditches The Houses are not handsome on the out-side being built of Brick and Earth but within they are most Beautiful and have all generally Fountains The Mosques Bagnio's and Coffee-Houses are very fair and well Built But let us return to Nazareth which I passed not hoping to see Damascus by another way as I shall relate hereafter The Reader may find a more ample description of Damascus in the Second Part Of these TRAVELS CHAP. LIX Our return to Acre A Description of Mount Carmel AFter we had seen Nazareth and all that is to be seen about it we took leave of the Father Guardian of Nazareth and parted on Sunday the twelfth of May about two a Clock in the Afternoon Monday the thirteenth of May we parted from Acre about four a Clock in the Evening in a small Bark to go to Mount Carmel ten miles from Acre we had a fair Wind but so high that our Rudder broke which being quickly mended again with some Nails we sailed only with a fore Sail and about six a Clock at night arrived at the Village of Cayphas The Village of Cayphas before which we were taken by the Corsair mentioned before This Village which was formerly a Town stands at the foot of Mount Carmel we went up the Mount and about seven a Clock came to the Convent which is held by barefooted Carmelites The Convent on Mount Carmel There we found two French Fathers and an Italian Brother who had been twenty years there They observe a very severe Rule for beside that they are removed from all Worldly Conversation they neither eat Flesh nor drink Wine and if they need it they must go to another place as the Superiour at that time did for being asthmatick and pining away daily he was forced to go to Acre there to recruit himself for some days Nor do they suffer Pilgrims to eat Flesh in their Convent only they allow them to drink Wine This Convent is not on the top of the Mount where they had a lovely one before the Christians lost the Holy Land the ruines whereof are still to be seen but is a very little one somewhat lower and needs no more but three Monks to fill it who would have much adoe to subsist if they had not some Alms given them by the French Merchants of Acre that go often thither to their Devotions They have possessed this place thirty years since the time they were driven out of it after that the Christians lost the Holy Land it is the place where the Prophet Elias lived and their Church is the very Grott where sometimes he abode which is very neatly cut out of the Rock From this Convent they have an excellent Prospect especially upon the Sea where there is no bounds to their sight About their Convent they have a pretty Hermitage very well Cultivated by the Italian Brother who hath brought all the Earth that is in it thither and indeed it is very pleasant to see Flowers and Fruits growing upon a Hill that is nothing but Rock These good Monks gave us a very neat Collation of nine or ten Dishes of Fruit and then we went to rest in the apartment of the Pilgrims for though it be a very little place yet they have made a small commodious and very neat Lodging for Pilgrims but they must not exceed the number of six Next day the fourteenth of May we performed our Devotions in that holy place and then left the Convent about eight a Clock in the morning that we might go visit the places of Devotion about it Our guide was one of the French Fathers who fearing we might be Robbed by the Arabs made us carry upon our shoulders sticks in the manner of Musquets At a good Leagues distance from the Convent we saw a Well that the Prophet Elias made to spring out of the Ground and a little over it another no less miraculous the waters of both are very pleasant and good The Arabs say that all the while the Monks were absent after they had been Banished from thence they yielded no Water Close by this last Fountain are stately ruines of the Convent of St. Brocard who was sent thither by St. Albert Patriarch of Jerusalem to Reform the Hermites that lived there without rule or community Stone-Melons it hath been a lovely Convent Not far from thence is the Garden of the Stone-Melons and they say that Elias passing that way demanded in Charity a Melon from a man that was gathering some who in contempt answered Elias that they were Stones and not Melons whereupon all the Melons were immediately turned into Stones when I prayed them to conduct me to that Garden They made me answer that they knew not the way but after that they told me privately that they were unwilling to carry me thither because we were too many in company and that there being but few of these Melons there at present if every one took what he listed no more would remain
The Sepulchre of St. Julian The fifth Church is called St. Merlian alias St. Julian the People of the Countrey say that his Body is there in a Sepulchre of most excellent Marble standing behind the Altar made like a Beer or Coffin with a high ridged cover At the four Corners there are four Balls of the same Marble and twelve Crosses round it in Demy Relief This Sepulchre is ten Spans long five broad and as much in height seeming to be all of one entire piece The Sepulchre of Caius Caesar the Nephew of Augustus Six hundred paces West-ward from the Gate called Bab Jeoundy that is to say the Jews Gate there is a Pretty big Pyramid wherein the People of the Countrey believe that Caius Caesar the Nephew of Augustus is buried Upon a Hill to the South of the Town there is a Castle built like that of Ama which I mentioned in the foregoing Chapter but it is not so ruinous though it be uninhabited as well as the other They say that heretofore both of them were held by the Christians who endured long and hard Sieges before they surrendred them to the Turks and that 's the reason that the Grand Signior has commanded that they should not be Repaired nor Inhabited The Han where Travellers lodge is fifteen paces without the Walls of the Town on the North-side from Hemps The next Lodging is at Ama. About half way there is a little Oratory which they say was built by the Franks it is at present Inhabited by a Moorish Scheik A little further there is a ruined Village upon a Hill. Near to that is the Han where Travellers that have a mind to stop there may Lodge After that you pass over a Bridge of ten Arches called Dgeser Rustan that is to say Rustans Bridge which is very neat and has the River Assi running underneath it I have said enough of Ama in the Chapter before The Country of Job Betwixt Hemps and Ama is the Countrey which the People that live there say was inhabited by Job and his Family but half of it is not Cultivated The day following you Lodge at Scheicon Han that is to say the Han Scheick it is a very old Han having on the Gate a Marble-Stone six spans long and four spans broad upon which are engraven six lines in Arabick Characters and on the two sides there are also two round stones of Marble Scheicon Hani upon each whereof there is a Chalice with its Paten very well Engraven From Scheicon Hani you go to Marra of which I have spoken in the preceeding Chapter Next day you go to Han Serakib Upon the Road you see some ruinous Villages whereof that which is most entire is called Han Mercy built in form of a Castle having four Towers in the four Corners three square and one round this Han is four Hours going from Marra and about twenty paces short of it on the left hand you see five great Sepulchres in one whereof a Basha is Interred having his Turban cut in Marble at one end of his Tomb. In an old Building fifteen paces distant from the Gate of that Han Serakib there is a Well almost square which is two and forty Fathom deep before you come at the Water as well as that of Marra about fourscore paces from thence there is a pitiful Village little Inhabited though there be good Land about it Han Touman Sermin From Han Serakib you have a days Journey to Han Touman Upon the Road to the left hand you see a pretty handsome Town called Sermin and three or four ruinous Villages having been forsaken because of the Robberies of the Arabs About forty Years since Han Touman was rebuilt by a Basha of Aleppo called Hisouf Basha who put into it an Aga with fifty Soldiers and ten little Culverines Singa to keep it against the Arabs who formerly committed frequent Robberies thereabouts The River of Aleppo called Singa runs hard by it and turns two Mills not far from thence From Han Touman you go to Aleppo in three or four Hours time CHAP. LXII Our setting out from Acre to Damiette and our meeting with Italian Corsairs From Acre to Damiette WE staid at Acre four days expecting a passage for Damiette but at length finding two Sanbiquers of Cyprus which were both bound for Damiette we resolved to go along with them and having sent for the Reys of that Sanbiquer that was a Greek Monsieur de Bricard the Consul took the pains to make a Bargain for us Sanbiquer and recommended us to him Sanbiquers are Vessels made like Galliotts but longer the Stern and Stem of them are made much alike only in the Poop there is a broad Room under Deck there are several Banks for Rowers according to the length of the Sanbiquer and each Oar is managed by two Men. Ours had twelve Oars on each side but besides it had a great Mast with a very large Sail so that being light Loaded no Galley could be too hard for one of them if their Oars were long enough but they have them very short The Wind offering fair for us we took our Provisions and went on board our Sanbiquer Sunday the nineteenth of May about three a Clock in the Afternoon the other Sanbiquer being in company with us We were much afraid of Corsairs still and especially of him who had taken us before not only because his Men had said That if they had killed us they would not have been obliged to make Restitution of any thing but also least they might have accused us of being the cause that the Turks had come out against them and so used us the worse for that However we met with nothing considerable till next day being Monday the twentieth of May that about Sun-setting we passed by a Tower about twelve Miles from Jaffa when we were come near to that Tower they fired some great and Small shot at us which much surprised us but more when we saw that they made great Fires all along the Coast and especially upon the Towers We knew not the cause of this which I shall tell hereafter only we concluded that they took us for Pirats When we came near to Jaffa we perceived a great Fire upon the Tower and then about nine a Clock at Night offering to put into the Harbour to take in Wood and Water they fired at us both great and small Shot Then our Reys went upon the Poop and called out as loud as he could that he was such a Man Reys of a Sanbiquer calling by Name those whom he knew at Jaffa but we had no other answer from within but Alarga that is to say that we should stand off and with that another Volley of great and small Shot When this Musick had lasted about an Hour they continually Firing and our Reys calling to them and making a heavy Noise the other Sanbiquer stood in nearer than we and
cry any more though it should encrease as sometimes it does till October and it is to be observed that it decreases gently and much in the same manner as it encreased until the Month of May following CHAP. LXVI Of the Ceremonies and Publick Rejoycings at the Opening of the Khalis WEdnesday the fourteenth of August Ceremonies and publick rejoycings at the opening of the Khalis he that daily measures the encrease of the Nile receives a Caftan from the Basha because the Water was risen 16. Pics and Thursday the fifteenth of August we went to Boulac to see the preparations that were making for the cutting of the Khalis there we saw all the Acabas ranked in order Acaba they call great Barges or Barks Acaba in the stern whereof they make a Hall or Divan of Timber Painted Gilt and contrived like the Rooms of their Houses This Hall may be fourteen or fifteen good Paces broad and about the same in length with Rails and Balisters of Joyners Work all round them all this is Gilt and full of Arabick Characters in Gold and within they have several lovely Carpets and Cushions after their way Embroidered with Gold and a Lanthorn but in the Basha's there are three Lanthorns Besides that they make a large Blaze or Flame aloft upon the Yard and in the Head have several pieces of Cannon upon the Basha's there were ten and on the Snout of the stem there is a Wooden Figure of some Animal Gilt as a Lyon Tygre Eagle or the like on the Basha's there was a Hydra All the several Beys the Sousbasha and many other Officers have also each of them one besides several other smaller made like Galliots About seven or eight a Clock in the Morning the Basha arrived with the usual Cavalcade When he goes to any such Solemnity he is mounted on a stately Horse in rich Trappings and at this time he wore on his Head a lovely Flower of Diamonds As he passed they killed Sheep in three or four places and when he was about to enter into his Bark three or four more were killed upon the River-side Being with all the Beys entred into his Barge or Acaba he went towards old Caire and then all the Acabas saluted him with their Guns and followed him in order The Basha's Acaba besides that it was Towed by three Barges spread a Sail of many Colours with a set of five great Red-Roses upon it and after it came a little Galliot all covered over with Flags and Streamers wherein were several Drums Flutes Trumpets and such like Instruments many others also had the like Galliots full of Musicians And in short all that Fleet together made a very pleasant shew for it was a delightful sight to see upon the Nile all these Acabas which were above forty in number and all these pretty party-coloured Sails with their sets of Flowers all the Flags and streaming Flames which look'd very fine Nor did the noise of Cannon the sound of infinite numbers of Instruments and the shouts and acclamations of the People contribute a little to the Magnificence of the Solemnity In this manner they went gently along firing now and then their Guns till they came to the Bank which keeps out the Water from the Khalis We could not see the opening made because of the great crowd and confusion but it signifies no great matter for all that is to be seen is a vast number of Rabble who wait till the Basha pass and on each side of the Dyke a Paper-Tower with Walls of the same reaching to the Dyke and stuck full of Squibs and Serpents which as soon as the Basha passes are fired and set one another on fire whilst the People break down the Dyke with Pick-axes Shovels and such like Instruments and removing the Earth make way for the Water There are Boats loaded with Fruit and Sweet-meats such as they make which are thrown among the People and one may have the pleasure to see them jump in and swim for a share In the mean time the Basha goes forward to his Serraglio which is in the middle of the Nile hard by and over against old Caire and there stays during the three days that the Bonfires last So soon as they have begun to break down the Bank the Sousbasha or his Lieutenant as it happened this Year comes on Horse-back along the Khalis and about eleven a Clock in the Forenoon stops before the House of the French Consul where he orders two Rockets to be played and the Consul gives him five or six Piastres which are his due every Year at that Ceremony the like he does to all the other Consuls About Noon the Water passes by the Quarters of the French and advances with pretty much Rapidity being full of Rabble As I related in the Description of the opening of the Khalis the Year before Much about the same time the Khalis of Alexandria that fills the Cisterns of that Town and all the other Khalis are opened The same day in the Evening we took a Cayque and went to old Caire and as soon as we came near it we began to see on all hands a shoar and upon the Water a vast number of large Figures made of Lamps placed in such and such order as of Crosses Mosques Stars Crosses of Malta Trees and an infinite number of the like from one end of old Caire to the other There were two Statues of Fire representing a Man and a Woman which at the farther distance they were seen the more lovely they appeared These Figures were two square Machines of Wood two Pikes length high each in a Boat and both were placed before the Palace where they measure the Water and where the Basha tarries during the three days of Rejoycing One of them is on the one side of the Water and the other on the other side each ten paces from Land leaving a broad passage betwixt them for Boats and Barges These Machines are filled with Lamps from top to bottom which are lighted as soon as it is Night In each of these Figures there are above two thousand Lamps which are so placed that on all sides you see a Man and a Woman of Fire Besides that all the Acabas or Barks of the Basha and Beys are also full of Lamps and their Musick of Trumpets Flutes and Drums which keep almost a continual Noise mingled with that of Squibs Crackers Fire-Lances great and small Shot so that the vast number of Lamps with the cracking of the Gun-powder and noise of Musick make a kind of agreeable Confusion that without doubt chears up the most Dejected and Melancholick This lasts till Midnight and then all retire the Lamps burning all Night unless they be put out by the Wind and Squibs This Solemnity continues for three Nights The custome of the ancient Aegyptians at the opening of the Khalis The opening of the Khalis hath in all times been very famous even among the Ancient Egyptians as being
relating to the Kingdom of Aethiopia which I shall here give the Reader an account of CHAP. LXIX Of Aethiopia Aethiopia AEThiopia or the Countrey of the Abyssins called in Arabick Abesch from whence comes the word Abyssin is a great Empire being above seven months travel in Circuit on the East-side it is bordered by the Red-Sea and Zanguebar on the South with Zeila Avousa Naria c. On the West by the Countrey of the Negros and Nubia and on the North with the Countrey of Nubia and Bugia Greyn Mahomet because to come from Aethiopia into Aegypt one must cross Nubia down the Nile About an hundred years ago Greyn Mahomet King of Zeila of which the Inhabitants are all Moors Invaded Aethiopia and forced the King to save himself on a Mountain from whence he sent to demand assistance of the King of Portugal The King of Portugal assists the King of Aethiopia who immediately sent it him but hardly was he who commanded these Auxiliaries entered the Countrey when he resolved to return back again finding that they ate raw Flesh there However his brother Don Christopher had more Courage and would not return without doing some Exploit he marched up into the Countrey with about three hundred Musqueteers Fought Vanquished and killed the Moorish King and then Re-established the lawful King of Aethiopia For reward of which Service the king of Aethiopia gave Lands and Estates to all the Portuguese that stayed within his Dominions and their Off-spring are still in that Countrey The Father of this present King was a good Catholick but he dying some thirty odd years agoe the Queen his Wife who was a great Enemy to the Jesuits and no Catholick and who suffered impatiently that they should govern as they pleased the late King her Husband wrought upon her Son that succeeded him A persecution of the Roman Catholicks in Aethiopia to Persecute all the Roman Catholicks in such a manner that the Jesuits were obliged to make their Escape and he put to Death all the Capucins whom he found Since that time three Capucins more were put to Death at Schouaken for the King of Aethiopia knowing that they had a mind to come into his Kingdom sent to the Governour of Schouaken praying him to put to death those three Religious Franks The Governour of Schouaken caused their Heads to be immediately struck off and sent them to the King of Aethiopia who as a reward made him a Present of three Bags of Gold-Dust promising him as many Baggs of Gold-Dust as he should send him Heads of Franks and fifteen or sixteen years since two others have been put to Death in the Province of Oinadaga whose names were Father Fioravanti and Father Francesco In short this King is a declared Enemy to all Franks whom he accuses of being Hereticks and of having conspired to put the Crown upon the Head of one of his Enemies so that a Frank who would go into that Countrey The belief of the Aethiopians must pass for an Armenian or Cophte for the King and all his People are of the Cophtish Religion They believe but one Nature in Jesus Christ At the end of eight days they Circumcise as the Jews do and Baptise a Fortnight after Before the Jesuits went thither they Baptised none before they were thirty or forty years of Age. They say Mass as the Cophtes do but their Church-Books are in the Aethiopick Language The Patriarch of Aethiopia depends on the Patriarch of Alexandria Their Patriarch depends on the Patriarch of Alexandria and when the Patriarch of the Abyssins dies they send Deputies to Alexandria to entreat the Patriarch to send them another and he Convocating his Clergy chuses out the fittest among them whom he sends but is never any more heard of in Aegypt till he be Dead After all the Ambassadour told us that most of the People of the Countrey are Catholicks in their Heart Sennar Naria There are four Kings that pay Tribute to the King of Aethiopia to wit The King of Sennar who pays his Tribute in Horses Sennar is a very hot Countrey The King of Naria who pays his Tribute in Gold. The King of Bugia and King of Dangala Naria is a good Countrey and in that Countrey are the Mines out of which they have the Gold that passes on the Coasts of Soffala and Guiney These Mines are not deep as in many other Countreys From that Countrey also comes the Civet I think it will not be amiss here to say somewhat of Civets which are so rare in our Countrey as that they deserve to be taken notice of where one can find them They are called Civet-Cats come from Naria as I just now said and are taken in Snares The Jews in Caire keep many of them in their Houses where for buying a few drachms of Civet one may see them It is a Beast almost as big as a good Dog Civet it hath a sharp Snout small Eyes little Ears and mustachios like a Cat the Skin of it is all spotted black and white with some â—â—â—…wish specks and hath a long bushy Tail almost like a Fox It is a very wild Creature and I believe the bite of it would put a body to no small pain The Jews keep them in great square wooden Cages where they feed them with raw Mutton and Beaf cut into small Pieces The way of getting Civet When they would get from them that which is called Civet and is the Sweat of this Beast that smells so sweet they make him go back with a stick which they thrust in betwixt the Bars of the Cage and catch hold of his Tail when they have that fast they take hold also of his two hind Legs pulling him half out of the Cage by the Door which falls down upon his Back and keeps him fast there then another opens a certain Cod of Flesh that these Beasts have which is shaped like a split Gyserne and with an Iron-Spatula scrapes all the Sweat off of it within The Males have that piece of Flesh betwixt their Stones and Yard which is like a Cats The Females have it betwixt their Fundament and Privities and it is emptied of the Sweat but twice a Week each Beast yielding about a drachm at a time by what I could discern When that Sweat or Excrement is taken out it is of a whitish grey but by little and little in some short space it turns to a very brown colour It smells very sweet at a distance but near hand it stinks and causes a Head-ach There are as many kinds of Civet-Sweat as there are of Civet-Cats for it is more whitish greyish or yellowish and dryer in some than in others and yet they mingle all together There is no pure Civet to be had After all it is in vain to think to have pure Civet for the Jews falsifie it and if a Man imagine it to be pure because he has seen it
Fish Crocodiles are Amphibious Animals for they live both in the Water and upon Land They have a Head flat above and below the Eyes indifferently big and very darkish which has made many say that they always weep after once they are taken but it is a fable They have a long sharp Snout full of long and sharp Teeth but no Tongue The Body is large and all of a bigness the Back covered with high Scales like the heads of the Nails in a Court-Gate of a greenish Colour and so hard that they are proof against a Halbard they have a long Tail covered over with Scales like the Body their Belly below is white and pretty tender They have four short thick Legs there being five Claws in each of the Fore-feet and only four in the Hind-feet In a word a Crocodile resembles very much a Lizard and grows as long as it lives some of them are above twenty Foot in length but I have seen little ones half a Foot long This and the Hippopotamus are the only Animals who in eating move the upper Jaw and move not at all the under The Crocodile is very strong and one day as I caused one of them which was eight Foot long to be skinned four Men stood upon it whilst they were slitting up his Belly but it stirred and strugled with so much force that it threw them all four off it is also very strong liv'd for when they skin it after they have cut the Throat and opened the Belly of it if it catch hold of any thing in its mouth it will never part from it As it happened once to a Moor whom I knew who having skinned one for a French-man who had a mind to keep the Skin and cutting the Throat had separated the Head from the Body so that there remained no more but the Head sticking to the Skin all the flesh being taken out he untied the Snout but immediately thereupon the Jaws opening caught hold of one of his Fingers which with its Teeth it cut clear off The flesh of a Crocodile is not bad but it is somewhat insipid and not at all poysonous as many believe for I have tasted of it and found it to be good the Barbarians eat heartily and make a great Feast of it These Creatures are great lovers of Mens flesh and therefore they are very terrible all along the Nile not only to little Boys whom they frequently devour when they come to the River-side to do their Needs for these cunning creatures hide themselves but also to Men whom they surprise sometimes in their Boats. For in the Night-time they rise upright and thrusting their Snout into the Boat endeavour to catch hold of a Man and if they can but pull him into the Water they quickly master him and that is the reason that no Body will willingly venture to Swim in the Nile It is another most erroneous fable also that a Crocodile will weep like a young Child to draw People about it whom it may devour How Crocodiles are taken it is a thing altogether unknown in that Country To catch these Creatures they make a great many Pits by the River-side which they cover over with Sticks and such other things and so when they come to pass over these Ditches especially when the Water encreases which is the time when most of them are taken because then they venture farthest out they fall into them and cannot get out again They let them fast there for several days then let down some Gins with running Nooses wherewith they muzzle their Snout and so pull them up and carry them to the Quarters of the Franks The Moors say That at old Caire there is a Talisman against the Crocodiles which makes that they never pass beyond old Caire but that is false for there are of them at Rossetto and Damiette and they are to be seen upon the way to Caire not indeed in any great number because commonly they keep off from the Sea but there some at least to be found there They never come into the Khalis because as I think it is narrow but if they did they might do a great deal of mischief for when the Water runs in it it is full of Swimmers Hippopotamus There are Hippopotamuses or Sea-Horses also in this River and there was one taken at Girge in the Year 1658. which was immediately brought to Caire where I saw it in the Month of February the same Year This Creature was of a kind of Tawny Colour the hinder part of it was much like to a Buffler however its Legs were shorter and bigger it was about the bigness of a Camel and had a Muzzle like an Ox. The Head of it is like to a Horses and very great but its Eyes small It had a very thick Neck a little Ear wide and open Nostrils thick large Feet and almost round with four Toes in each like a Crocodile a little Tail like an Elephant and little or no Hair upon the Skin no more than an Elephant In the lower Jaw it had four great Teeth half a Foot long two whereof were crooked and as big as the Horns of an Ox and one on each side of the Jaw the other two were streight and of the same bigness as the crooked but standing out in length Many said at first that it was a Sea-Buffler but some others and I knew it to be a Sea-Horse because of the description that is given of it by Writers It was brought Dead to Caire by some Janizaries who shot it on Land where it was come to feed they fired several shot at it before it fell for the Bullets hardly pierced through its Skin as I observed but they fired one shot which hit it on the Jaw and made it fall For many years before such an Animal had not been seen at Caire But to return to the Nile this River causes all the fruitfulness of Aegypt and if it failed to overflow one year there would be a Famine in the Land nay if it did not rise sixteen foot there would be great Scarcity as also if it grew four and twenty foot it would likewise occasion a Dear 〈◊〉 because the water covering all the Land too long Seed-time would be lost when it ebbs off it leaves a fat nitrous slime upon the ground which so fattens the Land that it would produce nothing through too much Fatness if they did not sow Sand upon it before they plant or sow any thing therein so that they are at the same pains to put Sand on their Land to unfatten it as we are to Dung ours Not that it never rains there as many Dreamers would have us believe in Christendom squeezing their Brains to give a reason for that which is not in Nature for it rains much at Alexandria and Rossetto also but at Caire which stands higher it rains less and yet I have seen it rain very hard every year for two days together in the
consisted not in Hair and that therefore he should suffer it to be cut off Then he sent for his Wife to Tunis she being with Child but he had much ado to preserve his Servants liberty for the Dey and Aga of the Divan would have had them made Slaves nevertheless they retained both their Liberty and Religion Two years after he would have sent his Wife back again into Christendom but they would not suffer him however after many difficulties she went away attended by a Servant of the Princes leaving a Son behind her and came to Genoa where she put her self into a Nunnery and hath since continued Now Don Philippo having been Disinherited by his Father had nothing to Live on but what he had from his Mother who is very fond of him Nor is he put into any Place because they still believe him to be a Christian there being none great nor small in Tunis but knew him by the name of Don Philippo for my part the first time I went to his House when I was at Tunis having asked for the House of Don Philippo every body told me the way to it Now to dispossess them of the belief they have that he is still a Christian at Heart he resolved some years after his return to undertake the Pilgrimage of Mecha and so wheadled a Brother of his own that he engaged him in the Journey who bore Don Philippo's Charges and his Sons whom he took with him So soon as he came to Caire he made acquaintance with the Franks and then hired a House in the quarter of the French where he came two or three times a week to drink Wine and make merry with the Franks and the time being come that the Caravan parts for Mecha he travelled thither in company of the Megrebins and upon his return the occasion of this English Ship presenting he resolved to return by Sea to Tunis This Prince is a tall and handsome well shaped Man and was not then above thirty years of Age he has a great deal of wit and speaks Italian and Spanish naturally well He is a lover of Musick and therefore has several Slaves who played some on the Harp others on the Flute and Lute His Son was then a little Boy about seven years old handsome and witty like his Father This same Don Philippo for all he is so poor makes his Brothers so stand in fear of him that there is none of them dares to look him in the Face CHAP. LXXXIV Our Voyage from Caire to Alexandria What the Hhouames are FRiday the third of January 1659. I parted from Caire and embarking at the Gissiere which is a pleasant place upon the side of the Nile where many go to divert themselves and where our Boat stayed for us with a fair wind we sailed as far as Tono which is half way from Caire to Rossetto Some hours after we parted from Caire we met the Boat of Don Philippo which we Saluted with some Volleys of our Fowling-pieces We arrived at Tono Saturday the fourth of January after Midnight Tono but there the Wind turned contrary which put us to a great deal of trouble and a main Rope of our Tackle breaking we had almost been cast away Boat and all but having quickly recovered it out of the Water and re-fitted it with all haste we continued our course making still a little way though the wind was full against us at length perceiving that the Wind was like to continue so we put a-shoar at Derout Tuesday morning the seventh of January and went by Land to Rossetto six hours Journey distant from Derout Derout we arrived the same day Tuesday the seventh of January at Rossetto Upon the way from Caire to Rossetto there are some pretty Towns which I had not observed as I went from Rossetto to Caire as Foa Sewdion Derout Foa Sewdion and some others We stayed for our Boat wherein our luggage was at Rossetto where it arrived on Wednesday morning the eighth of January and Thursday the ninth we parted from Rossetto about two a Clock in the Morning Betwixt Rossetto and the Sea-side there are eleven Pillars fixed in the Ground and a Palm-Tree at some hundreds of Paces distant one from another they are put there to mark the way because it is a Desart and besides the ways most commonly are covered with Rain-water and if a Man should miss his way in that Desart it would take him above a day to find it again We followed then these marks by Moon-light and being got to the Sea-side came to Casa Rossa Casa Rossa Media which is half way betwixt Rossetto and Media where we arrived about three hours after day Media is above half way from Rossetto to Alexandria Having rested there about an hour we crossed over in the Ferry-boat paying a Maidin for our House-room and passage and after we had travelled a good way about two a clock in the Afternoon we came to Alexandria twelve hours Journey distant from Rossetto betwixt which two Towns there is no other Inn but Media where you have nothing but Water and House-room so that what you eat and drink you must carry with you From Caire to Alexandria it is about an hundred and fifty miles by Land which is commonly travelled in three days because they travel day and night resting a little in the Morning and Afternoon I saw nothing in Alexandria but what I had seen the time before when I was there only they shewed me a Hhouame Hhouames and told me that these Hhouames are a sort of Vagabond People among the Arabs who lodge as they do under Tents but have a certain particular Law to themselves for every night they perform their Prayers and Ceremonies under a Tent without any Light and then lye with the first they meet whether it be Father Mother Sister or Brother and this is far worse than the Religion of the Adamites These People though sculk and keep private in the City for if they be known to be Hhouames they are Burned Alive CHAP. LXXXV Our arrival at Bouquer a Ship cast away in the Port of Alexandria A description of Bouquer I Stayed at Alexandria till the Ship was ready whereof the Purser having given us notice we sent away our Goods and Provisions which we had prepared before hand for one must not delay those preparations till the Ship be just ready to sail When a man is alone it is no bad way to agree with the Captain for Diet especially with the English who treat well but besides that one must still have some small provision for himself in private For our parts being five in company to wit three Marseillese my self and my man we provided all things for ourselves We took Boat then on Thursday the thirtieth of January to go on board the Ship which was at Bouquer but not before we and our Goods had been searched at the Custome-house where we were encompassed
themselves insupportable to all People forcing all the Women and Boys they meet with so that if a Dey would have his Son to succeed him he must get him made Dey in his own Life-time The Aga of the Customes at Tunis Gillet They have at Tunis also an Aga of the Customes who has a vast Revenue and is a man of great Authority The Moors of Barbary are not altogether Apparrelled like the Turks for instead of a Doliman and a Vest they wear a Wastecoat which they call Gillet and over it a Justacors which reaches down to the knee girt about with a large Girdle on their head they wear a Fez-cap shaped like a Bell and a thick Turban round it They are all Apparrelled after this manner except some Officers as for instance there are six Chiaoux's of Justice who wear a sharp pointed Cap with a Turban about it and a kind of Hanging-sleeve that is interlaced with it behind their back the Oda Bashas go much after the same manner but there is this difference that their Hanging-sleeve ends as it were in a pair of Horns They have no Janizaries but men of pay and generally all Renegadoes so that Italian is very commonly spoken at Tunis and if a Christian would say any thing that he would not have known he should not speak French neither for he might easily be understood and pay dear for it CHAP. LXXXXIII Of the Punishments which are in Vse at Tunis THE Punishments used at Tunis differ according to the quality of the Persons When a Turk in pay deserves Death he is Executed in a Chamber and not Publickly They make him sit down in a Chair and two Christian Slaves pulling each an end of a Cord that is put about his Neck quickly strangle him The Turks of mean condition or Moors are Hanged upon the outside of the Walls they set them upon the Wall put about their Neck a Halter made fast in a hole purposely made in the Wall and then pushing them down they are also soon dispatched As for Maids or Women that have deserved Death they choak them in the Oaze by the Sea-side putting their Head into it and a Man setting his Foot upon their Neck They have other very cruel Punishments for the Renegadoes that turn Christians again They wrap them up in Pitched Cloth put a Cap of the same upon their Head and then make a Fire round them Or otherwise they put them to a crueller Death For they wall them up so that there is nothing but their Head without the Wall and having rubbed over their Head and Face with Honey leave them so exposed for three days and as many nights to the discretion of the Flies which pain them to Death within less time The Slaves are punished with Bastonadoes or they cut off their Ears or Nose according to the quality of the Offence But if a Slave kill his Master or any other Turk they break his Legs and Arms then tie him to a Horses Tail and after they have dragged him so about the Town strangle him giving the Body to the Franks to be Buried but most commonly the Boys take him from the Executioner as they did a French Man a little before I came to Tunis for there are no wickeder Boys in the World than in that Town They snatcht that dead Body out of the Executioners hands in spight of the Mezoar Mezoar who is the Officer whom in Turky they call the Sous-basha and having dragged him about for some time longer they Roasted him a little with Straw which they kindled under him and then threw him into the Ditch out of which the French afterwards took him and buried him in their Burying Place called St. Anthony for the English have one by themselves When I was at Tunis the Franks lived severally in the Houses which they Hired but they were a Building a pretty commodious Oquele where they must all Lodge with their Consuls as in other places of the Levant CHAP. LXXXXIV Our Departure from Goletta and the Continuation of our Voyage AT length our Captain having done all his Business and the Wind offering fair it was time for us to leave Tunis We parted from thence on Wednesday the six and twentieth of March Carthage about eleven a Clock in the Morning and went by Land on Horse-back that we might see somewhat of Carthage We went close by the Ruines of it which are above three Leagues from Tunis and there saw the remains of stately Aqueducts which conveyed water from Zagouan to Carthage many of the Arches whereof are still standin the Road to the Cantre as we said before The Ruines of Carthage signifie but little being only heaps of Stones and some places under Ground where there are great Cisterns nay from these Ruines they daily carry away Marble and other Stones for their Buildings in Tunis and the Country Houses about We came to the Sea-side about three a Clock in the Afternoon and being got on board we stayed still there all that day because our Captain had some Business to do with him that Commanded at Goletta concerning the dues that he is to have from every Ship. Next morning Thursday the seven and twentieth of March we set sail with a good South-east Wind steering away North-north-west but about Noon the Wind slackened a little and the night following it turned Northerly which made us put back again to the Road of Goletta where we arrived on Friday the twenty eighth of March about ten a Clock in the morning Saturday the nine and twentieth of March the Wind veered about to North-east and the night following we had all sorts of Winds At length Sunday the thirtieth of March we had a gentle Gale from South-west and an hour after day we set sail steering our course North but about ten a Clock we were becalmed and about Noon it blew a breez from North which within an hour after changed to North-east and an hour after that to East so that we still kept on our Course Two hours within Night the Wind turned South-south-west and we stood away North-north-east Monday morning the one and thirtieth of March we were becalmed and continued so till Tuesday the first of April when about ten a Clock in the Morning we had a small Gale from North-west and we steered away West towards Sardinia In the Evening two hours after Sun-set the Wind turned Easterly and we stood our Course again North-north-east in the night-time we had a calm which lasted all next day Wednesday the second of April However it always blew a little breez sometimes one way sometimes another though the Sea was still smooth and calm In the Evening from the Maintop head we made a Sail off of Sardinia which followed its Course as we did ours Northward with a gentle Gale from East We were becalmed in the night-time and continued so till next day the third of April when about nine in the morning it blew a
day time had been very rough and high Tuesday morning the twelfth of February we perceived the Sea very white about us and he that looked out cryed Land some thought it to be Damiette and others Bouquer In the mean time that we might not fall to the Lee ward we continued our course South-West About eight of the Clock we tacked and stood North East and a quarter of an hour after the Wind turning North-West we bore away West-South-West after an hours sailing we found the Water to be so little brackish that it was almost fresh and he that looked out thought he made Rossetto Wherefore thinking that we knew where we were we tacked about and stood away North-North-East About Noon the Wind freshened and at Night turned Northerly but was very gentle about ten of the Clock at Night we tacked and bore away West Wednesday about four in the morning we tacked and steered our course East-North-East and two hours after the Wind blowing fresher we tacked again and stood West-South-West About seven a Clock in the Morning we saw to the Lar-board land very near us which we all took to be the Land betwixt Bouquer and Rossetto so that we continued our course hoping quickly to see the Bouquer and that till eleven in the Forenoon when having discovered the Masts of several Saicks we thought our selves to be off and on with Rossetto and so we found our selves far out in our account wherefore having tacked about we bore away East-North-East about ten of the Clock at Night we tacked again and stood West-South-West and after midnight we had several Flurries Thursday morning the fourteenth of February the Wind slackened a little but we had several gusts till Noon about eleven in the Morning he that looked out made the Bouquer Bouquer and an hour after we easily saw it upon the Deck a little after we made the Farillon or Light-house of Alexandria where we arrived about three in the Afternoon when we entered the Haven by the South CHAP. II. Of some Curiosities observed during the Voyage and in Alexandria IN this Voyage I was convinced of one thing which I had read in the Travels of Monsieur de Breves but could hardly believe it because I had never heard it mentioned by any but him and that is that when sounding upon the Coast of Egypt one has onely forty fathom water it is certain he is just forty miles from land Marks for knowing how near one is to Land upon the Coast of Egypt the depth of the water from forty fathom downwards to one marking exactly the number of miles from the place where one sounds to the Land But under the name of the Coast of Egypt we are onely to understand the Land from Damiette to Rossetto betwixt the two Branches of the Nile for this rule is onely for that extent of Land. Besides the Murenes I mentioned before we took two other fish in our Voyage Porpess to wit a Porpess which was taken with a Fish-gig above Malta over against Cape Passaro Cape Passaro it was about five foot long and almost as big as a man without scales blackish in the back and white in the belly the head of it was about a foot and a half long and a large foot over its eyes as large as a mans and betwixt the two eyes it hath a hole like the mould in the head of a man by which it sucks in and spouts out the Water making it look like a Crown it hath two Cheeks which are onely of fat two Inches thick they begin at the eyes of it and end almost round at the snout which from the Cheeks to the point is about five Inches long and is shaped much like the beak of a Goose the Tongue of it is white a finger thick and two fingers broad it had an hundred threescore and sixteen Teeth all very small Its tail stands another way than the Tails of other fish which are forked upwards and downwards answering to their back and belly for the Tail of this is forked cross ways parallel to its two sides it hath the Yard and Testicles as big and long as those of a Boar and its Entrals wholly resembling those of Swine its skin is all fat a finger thick of which Lamp-oyl is made the flesh of it is like to that of an Oxe and very good I have tasted it and by the sight and taste one would always take it for Beef it hath onely great Bones and no small ones abounds with bloud which is as hot as that of a Beast it moans and sighs like a man and dies not presently when it is out of the Water but beats furiously with the Tail wherein its greatest strength lies A Fish called Fanfre The other Fish which was also taken with a Fish-gig is by the Provincials called Fanfre and is probably the same which the English call the Pilot-Fish there was two of them then together but one escaped the stroak This Fish is shaped like a Mackerel and is of the same length and bigness I found nothing singular in it all the back of it is begirt with streaks two fingers broad the one of a dark purple almost black and the other blew which interchangeably reach from the head to the Tail and the belly of it is white The Seamen say that this Fish coming once up with a Ship never leaves following till the ship come to harbour another being taken two days after they all assured me that it was the companion of the first which had not left off following the Vessel After all to my taste it is an excellent Fish and so it seemed to all those who had eaten of them formerly and also tasted these Seeing there are but few things in Alexandria which I did not observe in my former Travels I gave my self no great trouble to charge my Memoires with them at this time This Town lies exactly in the one and thirtieth degree of latitude and Rossetto is one and thirty and a half at least a Dutch Captain who had taken the height of them assured me of it The most considerable piece of antiquity that still remains there The Pillar of Pompey is that famous Pillar of Pompey whereof as I remember I have already written Nevertheless as I took pleasure to view it over and over again so possibly the Curious will not take it ill that I impart to them my observations I measured the shadow of it at the time when shadows are equal to the bodies which cause them and I found the body of it to be threescore and fifteen foot high without reckoning the Pedestal and Cornish but the shadow was upon a very declining ground Another day when the shadows were the double of the Bodies I found near an hundred and threescore foot onely of the body of it and eight foot of diameter or breadth and I observed that the Pedestal is near twelve foot high All
we travelled all day long mounting through very good Corn-fields and the rest of the ground by the road that was not sowed was covered over with Daffadils and Furzes in the blossom Daffadils and Furzes with other like shrubs that yielded a very pleasant prospect So soon as we were arrived a Tchorbadgi of Damascus encamping hard by under a Tent being informed of the Moucre that there was a Franck there sent for me and having treated me with Coffee asked me if I had any relation to Monsieur Bermond a Chirurgeon of Marseilles who negotiated some Affairs at Damascus for the Merchants of Saide I told him I was without mentioning in what degree for our Kindred is onely derived from the Patriarch Noah He told me that he was his friend and made me to understand several times that if I had a mind to buy ashes he would be my merchant but all my answer was that I was too poor to be a Merchant and that my business was to go to my Kinsman Labatia is a miserable little Village where we could not find lodging Labatia and the best accommodation we had to lie in was a little place at the end whereof there was a pane of a Wall our Mules were made fast hard by and we posted our selves near the Wall in the open Air. Next day being Wednesday the twenty sixth of March we parted about five in the Morning the ground being frozen with a sharp cold Wind. Our way was bad and still upwards and we soon came in sight of a Castle upon a high hill before us The Castle of Skheip Sefet a Town which is called Skheip and is pretty large and square it depends on Sefet which is but two days Journey from it That Castle is strong by scituation for it is inaccessible but yet was inhabited VVe left it to the right and went a great way to find out a descent into a place from whence we saw a very deep Valley where a River runs which they call Leitani Leitani a River that makes many turnings and windings it is at least five fathom broad and very rapid During a quarter of an hour we descended by a very dangerous way for the least false step was enough to make one tumble down into the River and that from a great height too Being come down we kept along that VVater following the current and a little from thence crossed it upon a stone-Bridge of two Arches about three fathom high which is called Hardala A Caffare at Hardala There Passengers pay a Piastre and a half a head I mean the Christians for Turks do not pay so much Having passed the Bridge we stood off a little from the VVater still ascending and had in view the Hill that we had left on the other side which appeared pleasanter unto us than when we were upon it for it was very high and streight and all covered over with Trees After we had travelled about half an hour in ways where it would have been very dangerous to fall we came just over against the Castle of Skheip which is upon a very high and steep Hill Some time after we came into a Plain and an hour after to another far larger but uncultivated and full of stones as the former was though both looked very green In this Plain we met a Caravan of Camels loaded each with a Mill-stone I was told that these stones came from Oran Oran which is five days Journey from thence and that they carried them to Saide to be transported into Egypt Having past that Plain we came over bad way to a stone Bridge of three Arches lying over a Brook four or five fathom broad when we had crossed it we mounted by a worse way full of stones bad enough to make Mules that were not loaded to break their Necks and that lasted till we came to our Lodging at Banias where we arrived two hours after during all that way besides stones we had a great many torrents and such dirty deep ground that the Mules often stuck Banias This Village of Banias is very inconsiderable nevertheless when heretofore the Christians were Masters of it it was a good Town it lies at the foot of a Hill on the top whereof there is a great Castle uninhabited this place depends on the Basha of Damascus VVe found no better Lodging here than the Night before for having crossed a square Court we entered under a Vault two foot deep of Horse-dung and dust mingled together our Lodging was appointed us in that place and seeing the Court was vaulted all round under which they had put the Mules and a Caravan of Asses we were so incommoded there that so soon as the Beasts began to stir they raised a dust that spoilt all the Victuals we had prepared to eat all the pleasure we had came from a little door that opened towards the side of a River that runs by it and which is at least three fathom broad but very shallow though it be rapid it is called the River of Banias Next morning about five a Clock we left that nasty Lodging and after about an hours mounting upwards turning by very bad ways though the Land about was sowed we found ourselves just opposite to our Lodging having betwixt us and it a very deep Valley agreeable by its verdure and the many Trees it is filled with which are watered by a River that runs through it A little after we saw the Castle of Banias in its full extent which is large and strong VVe still mounted during the space of an hour by ways that were better than the former but we had the lovely Valley always in sight and on the road there were a great many Trees which by their verdure and shade lessened somewhat of the fatigue The truth is there was no false step to be made there because the way being very smooth and slopeing to the very bottom of the Valley one could not stop before he came to the bottom By the way we found many wild Chestnut-trees withered and without leaves and yet bearing their fruit Having descended a little we entered into a large Plain and having passed it and mounted a little amongst Trees we found stony Plains where it behoved us to march on untill about three of the Clock after Noon in the worst way imaginable for they were all great stones amongst which there was no place for a Mule to set his foot After Noon it was a little better but we saw no sowed Land all the ground about being still full of a prodigious number of stones Nevertheless our Monkires would needs have me believe that heretofore Vines had grown there Indeed in several places there are still to be seen some Hovels like to Hen-houses made of stones piled one upon another where it might be thought that they who dressed the Vines retired but since that time some Medusa's head must needs have past over these grounds or
where one may take the Air under the shade of Orange-Trees which are prodigiously big and bear much Fruit. There they have plenty also of Limon Pomegranate Date and other Fruit-Trees of all sorts nay and Vines also and the River runs in a bottom by the back of the Village in short it is a very agreeable place especially to those who have Travelled over large barren and dry Countries this Village is three Agatsch from Paira We left that pleasant Quarter Friday the Twentieth of March half an hour after one a Clock in the morning keeping still South-Eastwards in our way but a little toward the South in a fair even and smooth Road about four of the Clock we crossed a large Brook of running water which comes from the River of Paira below Chafer and a little after we crossed a Canal of running water over a little Bridge We afterwards crossed several other little Brooks having always to our Right Hand a great many Villages about break of day it behoved us to pass one large Brook more and about six a Clock in the Morning we found a little House where Rahdars lived about two or three Musket-shot from thence at the foot of a Hill Tadivan there is a Village call Tadivan where the River of Paira loses it self and ends Families of Arabs Upon that Road we met several Arabs with their Wives and Children on Camels which carried all their baggage also they were driving their Flocks of Sheep and Goats Since our departure from Schiras we dayly met such and they came from about Gomron and Lar. These Arabs Lodge under black Tents and have vast Flocks wherein consists the greatest part of their substance and that is partly the reason that they have no fixed Habitation and that they even remove from one Country into another in the different seasons of the Year just as some Birds doe For in the Spring they leave the Country of Lar and other places thereabout where the Heat is too great and packing up bag and baggage betake themselves with their whole Families towards Couchouzer which is a Village I have mentioned with very good Land about it and when Winter begins to draw nigh they pack up their Houses again and with their Flocks return towards Lar and Gomron where it is never Cold. It is not only the Heat that in the Summer-time drives them out of the hot Countrys but also the scarcity of water for they need a great deal for their Flocks They are almost all Black both men and women have long black Hair and cover not their Faces About Nine a Clock in the Morning we entered into stony way where we kept marching till half an hour after Ten that we arrived at a little Kervanseray called Mouchek Mouchek standing by it self and built in stony ground surrounded with Hills about some hundred paces behind this Kervanseray there is a great round Cistern four or five Fathom in Diametre and is very deep it is covered with a great Dome of rough stone that hath six Entries by so many Doors that are round it by which they go in to draw water which in the Spring-time is so high that it comes almost up to the Doors swelling so high by the Rain-water in the Winter-time by means of a Trench that comes from a neighbouring Hill at each Door there are steps to go down to the bottom when the water is low for there is no other water in that place They make Cisterns besides in those Quarters Cisterns after another manner they are of an Oblong Square covered with a long Convex Vault shaped much like the Roof of a Coach with a Door at each end and one of these ways are all the Cisterns from that place to Bender built We parted from that Kervanseray which is six Agatsch distant from Chafer Saturday the one and twentieth of May half an hour after Two a Clock in the Morning and had stony way till about Four after that we found a good Road which led us full South about half an hour after Five we past by the Walls of a ruinated Kervanseray with a Cistern adjoyning it about Seven a Clock we found some Brooks and then Travelled amongst good Corn-Fields until half an hour after Ten when having passed by a great many Gardens we arrived at a large Kervanseray Dgiaroun which is about an hundred paces from a little Town called Dgiaroun and is hardly worth a good Village however there is a fair Bazar in it This Town is on all Hands encompassed with Gardens full of Palm-Trees which there are so numerous and grow so near one another that they make a great Forrest and to say the truth I never saw so many together in one place Tamarisks besides the Tamarisks which are likewise plentiful in that place They have many Wells there and draw their water with Oxen as in all the rest of Persia in the manner I have described when I treated of Mosul There is a Cistern near the Kervanseray like to that of Mouchek but it is bigger having at least seven or eight Fathom in it Diametre it has a little house belonging to it which consists of a Kitchin and a Lodging-Room for the use of such as will not Lodge in the Kervanseray or cannot when it is full this place is five Agatsch distant from Mouchek there we began to feel the heat though in the Mornings a little before Sun rising we had pretty cold Winds before the Gate of the Kervanseray there is one of those Ox Wells with a great trough for watering the Horses but it is not good for men who in the Town drink running-water We stayed there all that day and the following and departed Monday the three and twentieth of March half an hour after midnight we took our way Westward by a very stony Road about an hour after we found a Cistern covered with a steep Roof half an hour after two we began to ascend the Hill of Dgiaroun The Hill of Dgiaroun to the South it is very high and the ascent not difficult save only that the way is full of stones but the higher one goes the worse it is and besides there is danger from Precipices that are on one side of it the truth is they have built little breast-walls about two foot high in some places to keep the Mules from falling down there one may see wild bitter Almond-Trees and other Trees of the Mountains We went up three or four times and down as often and the Sun found us in this exercise about five a Clock we came to a Cistern covered with a Dome and an hour after to another with a steep Roof Half an hour after seven we were passed our up Hills and down Hills but the way was still stony and bad at length about nine of the Clock we came to a little Kervanseray standing all alone near to which are two Cisterns the one covered with
rest and which is proportioned to the breadth of the Stairs you continue to go up by the upper part of the Stair-Case which goes contrary to the lower part my meaning is that the upper part of the Stair-Case above the Landing place goes North whereas the lower went Southward and the upper part of the other side which went North below goes Southward above so that these two Stair-Cases which bore off from one another in their first part draw near again in the second and Land in on the same place above and that upper part of the Stair-Case has forty six steps Being come to the top of the Stair-Case you find a Walk and traceing it Eastwards you see two great Pilasters in Front which bear nothing at present but seem to make the two sides of an Entry they appear to be but of one single stone apiece though they be very high On the inside of each of these Pilasters you see the Figure of a Beast cut in Demi-relief but it is hard to tell whether it be a Horse or an Elephant and I should rather take it to be the latter at least it seems to me to resemble that more however it be these Figures are about three Fathom high and are as I said in half body along the inside of the Pilaster one opposite to another the Head turned towards the Terrass-Walk and Stair-Case or if you will towards the Plain Beyond these two Pilasters there are two great Chamfered Pillars in front and which in all appearance are what remains of four in Square Then you find two other Pilasters like to the first with each a Figure on them of an Animal in Demi-relief of the same height and opposite to one another on the inside but the Figures of these seem to be Griffons and they are Back to Back with the Elephants looking Eastward to the Hill whereas the Elephants look Westward to the Plain these four Pilasters with the Pillars seem to have made a Portico Advancing a little forward you find on the Right Hand a great Oblong Square Bason A great Bason two Fathom and a half in length almost as much in breadth and about three Foot deep it is all of a greyish stone Turning from thence to the Right Hand and going about twenty steps Southward you find a second Terrass higher which hath a jutting out in the middle with a Stair-Case on each side there are two others at the two ends of the Terrass but these four Stair-Cases are almost buried under Ground nevertheless one may still see several Figures upon so much of the Terrass-Walls as are above Ground At the least which is as I said by the jutting out in the middle you see a Lion devouring a Bull which is often repeated By the other there are three Ranges of Bas-reliefs representing as I take it Sacrifices Bas-reliefs representing Sacrifices for many persons are there represented as going in Procession one after another and Armed some only with Swords and Daggers others with Swords Bows and Arrows and others again seem to be carrying Vessels There you see also several kinds of Beasts as Sheep Oxen Dromadaries and other Animals When you are at the top of these Stairs you come upon a Platform where there are a great many Pillars some buried under Ground and others broken A place full of Pillars and you only see the Bases of most of them nevertheless there are seventeen still standing and these with the others whereof nothing but the Bases are to be seen make according to my account twelve Ranges from East to West and from South to North in breadth consist of nine Pillars a piece they are about seven Fathom high and at three Fathom distance one from another all Chamfered and some with double Capitals they are all of an extraordinary Order which yet hath great affinity to the Dorick It appears by what remains upon some that all of them have supported Statues or perhaps Idols and at present they serve the Storks to build their Nests on Going on Southward from thence you see a square Building A square building much adorned with Bas-reliefs and part of the Walls thereof still standing It is pierced on all sides with Doors and Windows which are embellished with many Demi-reliefs especially the sides of the Doors which are of big greyish stones as the rest of the Edifice is Upon these sides of the Doors the Figures are much the same as on the rest of the Building and opposite to one another there you see an old Man followed by two Servants one of them holding in both his Hands a great Staff with seven branches at the end of it which uphold an Umbrello just over the Head of his Master the other holds a Manipule in one Hand and in the other a Crosier or crooked Staff liker to Cricket-sticks than the Crosiers carried by Bishops nevertheless by the way of holding it one may judge that it is something resembling a Bishops Crosier for the Crook is carried up over the Masters Head. In some of these Doors there is but one Servant as in the one he only who carries the Manipule and the Crosier and in the others he that holds the Umbrello The Doors of the other two Faces are almost a like and at the side of each Door on the inside you see a Man fighting with a Beast that is erected against him with the Left Hand he holds a short Club over the Head of it and with the Right sheaths a Dagger in its Belly all these are to the natural bigness nay some of them are bigger Next to this Building you see the ruins of a like Fabrick Buildings but hardly any thing standing on the sides of the Doors within there are still to be seen two men each holding a Pike as if they Guarded these Doors along the two sides of these Buildings there is a little Walk about a Fathom and a half broad that runs betwixt the Building and a Wall at the end of this last which is so ruinous you find a double Stair-Case cut in the Rock but it is almost hid under the ruins as well as the Wall betwixt the two which supports the Earth and is full of Demi-reliefs whereof there is no more but the Heads to be seen A little beyond that there is square Terrass not much raised from the Ground A square Terrass and supported by a Wall which is also embellished by several Figures in Demi-relief that are half covered under Ground and in this place there remain many round Bases beyond that Terrass that buts upon a large open places which reaches length from West to East as far as the Hill and fronts towards the South there is no more now remaining one comes down from thence by a pair of Stairs which turning to the Left you find at the side of the Terrass and are made in the Rock it self that in this place supports the Earth Returning back
good very pleasant Destberm Half an hour after five we came to a Lodge of Rahdars which is at the end of the Plain and is called Destberm commonly they make it a Menzil or days Journy from Chadgegih to Destberm because of the trouble of climbing over the Mountain which extreamly tires the Mules There being no water in that place but what is taken out of a beastly open Cistern we gave the Rahdars some Casbeghis and so went on A quarter of an hour after we found a Sepulchre in form of a square Chappel covered with a Dome and pretty near it two Cisterns We went downwards afterwards Chotal Ouscheneck by a very rugged descent called Chotal Ouscheneck in former times it was more rugged and I believe that neither Men nor Beasts could pass it but the Mother of Imam-Couli-Chan Governour of Schiras called Voli Naamet caused the passage to be made as now it is The Rock in many places is cut in the fashion of steps in other places it is Paved and all over where the way is so narrow that Beasts making a false step were in danger of tumbling into a Precipice there is a Parapet made of stone about a Foot and a half high and a Foot thick so that now it is passable though a great way of it one must alight and lead being come to the bottom of that descent for near three quarters of an hour we had very stony way and then came to a lovely Spring of water which spreads so over the Country that with its waters it covers a very large Plain it is called Abghine We saw that water the day before Abghine from Mount Andgira though there be a great Hill betwixt them We passed it at a narrow place upon a Bridge of two Arches which is all ruinous and is called Poul-Abghine Poul-Abghine Having Travelled on two hours and a half more over a barren Plain about half an hour after ten we came to Karzerum six Parasanges and a half from the last Stage Karzerum Karzerum is a Town of many Houses but all so miserable that in our Country the greatest Compliment that could be put upon it would be to call it Bourg or Village because it has a Market-place it depends on the Vizir of Schiras and is Commanded by a Kelonter there are two or three good Kervanserays it it and the water they drink there is brought above half a League from the Town but both in it and the Kervanserays there is water good enough for Beasts and the Kitchin. Here they would have seized our Mules to carry Provisions for the King to Ispahan but the Reverend Father Provincial going to wait upon the Kelonter to represent to him that we were Franks so soon as the Kelonter saw him he ordered that our Mules should not be taken because we were strangers They have a great many Grapes and Melons here and make Wine that may be made use of We parted from Karzerum Friday the second of October at two of the Clock in the Morning and Travelled on still Westwards in very good way Half an hour after four we passed by a sorry Village called Dris Dris where they have no water to drink but what is taken out of a little Lake About six a Clock we passed by a little River that runs in a bottom and there is a way along the side of it we took not that way but leaving both it and the River struck off to the Left Hand by a very stony way about seven a Clock we began to go up Hill in bad way and a quarter of an hour after found a Lodge of Rahdars to whom we made a Present of some Casbeghis and kept on mounting upwards till about eight a Clock and then having descended a little we came into a very even Plain but which produces nothing though there be not one stone in it Having Travelled therein an hour we passed by a Village called Kangh Turkon Kangh Turkon Kamaredge and still kept on in the same Plain till we came to a Village called Kamaredge at the farther end of it This Village is six Parasanges from Karzerum we arrived there half an hour after nine and Lodged in a House that was lent us for some small Gratuity the water we drank there is taken out of a Well close by We parted from that Village Saturday the third of October half an hour after three a Clock in the Morning A little after we passed by a Kervanseray called Kervanseray Khodgia Belfet it is not opened but in the Winter-time Khodgia Belfet when it Rains or Snows the rest of the Year it is shut and no body Lodges in it We continued going Westward but the way was very bad about four a Clock the way was so narrow that only one Mule could pass at a time it lyes betwixt two Hills that are very near one another but it is not above an hundred paces long immediately after we entered into another narrow pass among the Hills where the way is no broader and we went down Hill in very bad way until three quarters of an hour after four there we found a Caravan of several Mules and Camels which were coming from Bender Rik and we met with several others afterward every day Then we went up Hill for about a quarter of an hour and afterwards went down Hill again till six of the Clock in very irksome way and amongst dreadful Precipices being steep black Rocks where one is often forced to alight for fear of tumbling headlong After that we had good way but still amongst Hills until half an hour after six that we found a great broad and deep River Roudchone Bouschavir called Roudchone Bouschavir the water of which tasts a little sweetish the source of it is near the Town called Scheleston Scheleston which is a days Journy from Karzerum Northwards and it loses it self in the Sea towards Bender-Rik we Coasted along it at first in a Plain for the space of an hour and after that mounting during a quarter of an hour we continued our Journy by a flat way for another quarter and then lost fight of the River for the space of half an hour going up Hill all the while until about half an hour after nine we joyned it again and Travelled on along the sides of it an hour and a half in very good way There are many Villages thereabouts and much Cultivated Land some of which bears Tobacco I also saw in several places that fatal Shrub Kerzebreh About ten a Clock we Foarded over a large Brook that falls into the River of Bouschavir Bouschavir Sirt This may very well be the River which Sanson marks in his Map by the name of Sirt we Foarded it again a quarter of an hour after and then five times an end so that in less than half an hours time we crossed it six times having the water always up
holes which press the little Cords very hard besides they put in the inside at the joyning of the Planks a twist or double of these small Lines about three Fingers thick which is fastened to the two Planks by other little Lines and of these there is one at each seam or joyning of the Planks from the upper side of the Bark down to the Keel and over and above that there is a Girdle also on the inside which goes all round her all these Cords are made of Palm-Tree and that they may not be damaged by the water nor the Bark leak they cover all over with Pitch In short They have no Sea-Compass a Compass would be of great use to one of these Barks but they use none for they commonly keep within fight of Land and in the night-time are guided by the Stars Nevertheless the Sea-men of our Bark told me that she had cost twenty Tomans which is not to be thought strange seeing Timber is dear at Bender-Rik and Bassora They also told me that the usual burden of such a Bark was four hundred Bales of Dates each Bale being commonly twelve Man 's of Tauris so that these Barks carry according to that account four thousand eight hundred common Mans of Persia which make twenty eight thousand eight hundred weight Thursday the eighth of October they gave us notice to go on board and we went on Foot along the water-side to our Bark which was half a Farsakh distant that is to say about half a French League Farsakh for Farsakh Farfange and Parasange signifie one and the same thing and we went on board at Noon seeing she was empty as being sent only to bring Dates from Bassora we had room enough though I believe Passengers are much streightned in these Barks when they are loaded for they must lie upon the Goods as high as the side of the Bark We had eight Sea-men on board besides the Master and we put off as soon as we were on board by the help of two of the Company who wading up to the Belly in the water Towed us whilst the rest Rowed three hours after we stopt near the shoar on our Right Hand to take in Sand for Ballast they took in fifty Couffes or Basketfuls on Head and as much a Stern and then raised their Mast and fitted all their Tackle by the time they had put all in order it was six of the Clock at Night and then we set Sail with an Easterly Wind and standing away South-West we presently got out of that long Channel the mouth of it bearing South-West and keeping on the same course we lost sight of Land on the Starboard side but saw Land to the Larboard as long as we had day-light all night long we bore away sometimes South-West sometimes North-West beating too and again with the same Wind but so small that it was almost a Calm Friday the ninth of October at break of day we saw the Land near to us on the Right Hand and we were becalmed till about ten a Clock in the Morning when we had an easie South-West Gale with which we stood off a little from the shoar bearing away North-West we made so good way with this Gale that at one of the Clock after Noon Bender-Delem we were off and on with Bender-Delem and about six a Clock in the Evening we weathered a little point of Land which they say is half way from Bender-Rik to Bassora but about half an hour afrer seven the Wind all of a sudden shifted about to the North-West and therefore we Furled our Sail and came to an Anchor We were a little tossed during the whole night Next day being Saturday the tenth of October half an hour after six in the Morning we weighed Anchor and made Sail though the Wind was still at North-West and we stood away South-West About eight a Clock perceiving the Sea to be all over white I asked the reason of it and our Sea-men told me it was because the water was shallow and indeed we had no more but five foot water though we were at a pretty good distance from Land but some time after when I found that they had four Fathom water and that the water was still white I asked them again the reason of it and they could tell me no other but that it was always so in that place The North-West Wind blowing still they cast Anchor for it was contrary to us because in that place the Land bears Northward and then turns again towards Bassora making a kind of Semicircular Bay. From the place where we were at Anchor we made Land but so obscurely that it appeared only to be Clouds After much enquiry and many questions I got it out of our Patron at length that we were off and on with the mouth of a River which as he said was called Endian Endian and runs by a Village of the same name where there are many Houses but not contiguous there being twenty in one place thirty in another and all upon the Banks of the River that from Bender-Delem to the Village of Endian it is three days Journy that the Village of Endian depends on the Governour of Schiras and that it is five or six hours Travelling from the Sea being near the River Endian which is half as broad as the Tygris at Bassora This was all I could get out of that Man and that was not a little for it required time to pump so much from him whence one may judge how difficult a thing it is to get an exact knowledge of these Countries and it is not to be thought strange that the ways we have of them are full of errours most of them being made upon the relation of people who not understanding the Language can hardly inform themselves of the people of the Country otherwise than by signs and some words which here and there they understand and so are apt to take one thing for another Half an hour after seven at night we weighed Anchor and kept upon Tacks sometimes South-West sometimes North-East but the Wind blowing fresh about midnight we furled Sail and came to Anchor in six Fathom and a half water We were extreamly tossed all night long and I wondered that the Bark sprang not a Leak being so beaten by the waves Next day being Sunday the eleventh of October we weighed about seven a Clock and kept beating upon a Wind from South-West to North-East until Noon that we had calm weather at length about half an hour after two we had a breeze from South-West which made us weigh Anchor in good earnest and stand away North West It is to be observed that in all that Voyage we had not above two three four or six Fathom water at most though we were so far out at Sea that we could not discover the Land but like Clouds About six a Clock at night we were becalmed and came to an Anchor About
Captain making use of the occasion failed not to tell the Merchants who waited for our Ship that she would not come this year which they believed to be true and went aboard with their mony on his Ship. All this proceeded from the fault of the Vikil that stayed behind at Bassora who detained the Ship in the Harbour a Fortnight longer than he should have done to get on Board some Goods which payed not above an hundred Piastres Freight and in the mean while he lost the Freight of a great deal of Goods and Mony and of many Passengers that were at Carek Congo and Comoron who embarked in the Ships which touched at these Ports before us When we had put a shoar all the Goods and the Man who was to take care of them we weighed Anchor three quarters of an hour after seven making all the Sail we could and Steering away South South-East with a very easie Wind about ten a Clock we were becalmed till midnight when there blew a little Gale at East but as easie as the former and with it we bore away South Next day about two or three a Clock in the morning we Sailed by the Isle of Rischer which was to our Larboard This Island is very near the main Land and makes a little Port which is called Bender-Rischer a days Journy from Bender-Regh and there is a Fort on it which belonged formerly to the Portuguese At break of day we made two Ships on Head of us one of which had put out from Carek five days before us Half an hour after seven we were off of the Isle of Coucher Coucher that was to our Larboard and is a pretty big Island At eight a Clock we got a Head of one of the Ships that had been before us the other which was at some distance put us into some apprehension for a few hours time for by his manner of working he gave us cause to think that he had a mind to be up with us and we were affraid he might be a Corsair but at length he Steered the same Course that we did About ten a Clock we were becalmed Three quarters after twelve the Wind being Southerly we Steered away East A quarter after two we Steered South-East Three quarters after three a Clock the Wind chopping about to South-West we stood away South South-East And thus the Wind being but very easie did nothing but chop and change until the evening that we were becalmed Wednesday the eighteenth of November towards day having an easie Gale from East South-East we Steered our Course South South-West about half an hour after nine it blowing hard from South we bore away West South-West About three quarters of an hour after ten the Wind turned South South-East and we Steered East Half an hour after noon the Wind slackened much and about five a Clock in the evening we were becalmed About half an hour after nine we made a Sail to the Windward of us and another on Head but a great way before us we cast the Lead and found seventeen Fathom water At ten a Clock at night the Wind turned East South-East and blew pretty hard and we Steered away South South-West finding only thirteen Fathom water when we heaved the Lead After midnight we past Cape Verdestan which was to our Larboard This is a very dangerous Cape and one night several Portuguese Ships being Land-lockt there when they thought themselves far enough off of it were cast away We Sailed within three or four Leagues of it and when it was day saw it a Stern of us About half an hour after nine the Wind turned South South-East and we Steered East About noon we saw several Taranquins Half an hour after one the Wind turned South South-West and we bore away South-East We were then off and on Cape Naban to our Larboard Cape Naban and made it but very dimly but coming up more and more towards it we made it very plain and saw along the Sea-side Rocky Hills which seemed to be very steep and at the foot of them a great many Palm-Trees We continued our Course off and on with these Rocks till five a Clock that we saw the end of them at least in this place they run far up into the Land and leave a very level Coast in this low Country is the Village called Naban which gives the name to the Cape Here we cast the Lead and found only seven Fathom water there is but little water all along that Coast and therefore we presently tackt and stood off to the West about ten a Clock at night the Wind turned North-East and we Steered away South South-East Friday the twentieth of November by break of day we made the three Ships that put out the same day with us from Bassora two of which were at a pretty good distance to the Starboard and the other very near a Head of us it was this last which some days before we had taken for a Corsair we made also to our Larboard the Land of Persia but at a great distance A quarter after nine a Clock in the morning having a very easie Gale from North North-West we put out our Main and Fore-Top-Galant-Sail and kept on our Course South South-East in a short time we left all the other Ships a Stern About noon the Wind blew much fresher and about three a Clock we stood away East South-East about five a Clock we took in our Top-Galant-Sails the Mizan and Mizan-Top-Sails because it would have been dangerous to have made so much way in the night-time that was now coming on for we might have run within Land considering that the Wind freshened more and more and we bore away South South-East that we might keep without the Isle of Lara If it had been day we would have Steered our Course betwixt the main Land and that Island but we durst not venture it in the night-time being safer to leave it to the Larboard we made account to have Sailed by that Island about midnight but we saw it not though we had all along light enough to discern a little of the main Land near to which it lyes We concluded then that we had past that Isle of Lara in the night-time but next day we found that we were out in our reckoning Nevertheless seeing we did not find out our mistake till after noon about six a Clock in the morning we Steered away East bearing in towards the Land for fear we might be cast too far to the Leeward of Congo About half an hour after six our Long-Boat that was fastened to the Stern filled full of water and sunk under the surface of the Sea we presently furled all Sails but the Sprit-Sail and three Seamen swam to the Boat to fasten another Rope to it which they held by the end then they went into it and we halled it to the Leeward side of the Ship and took out a little Anchor that was in her this being done our
hour after eight we had seven Fathom water About ten a Clock seven Fathom a Foot less About half an hour after eleven seven Fathom and then we set the Ships Head East South East but at midnight held our Course South Next morning half an hour after five we had thirteen Fathom water and were almost at an equal distance from the Isle of Queschimo which was to the North-East of us the Isle of Nabdgion or Pitombo South South-West of us and the Isle of Tonbo South East from us and we bore away East Queschimo is a great Isle but low Land though it hath several Hillocks Queschimo yet they are all so low that Sailing along this Island on any side you may see the Mountains of the main Land over it It lyes in length East and West is not very broad but twenty Leagues long it is to the East of Congo and West South-West from Comoron it is a fruitful and well inhabited Island the West end of it not being above a good League and a half from Congo and the East end about a League from Bender-Abassi On the East part of this Island there is a Fort before which Ships may come to an Anchor in six Fathom water to take in fresh water which is very good in this place The Portuguese formerly held this Fort and it may be worth the observing that though the Island be very near the main Land yet Barks and Galliots pass betwixt the two Nabdgion or Pitombo is a little low Desart Island lying South Nabgion or Pitombo Tonbo South-East from Queschimo Tonbo is another little low flat Island and Desart affoarding only a great many Antelopes and Conys It lyes to the East of Nabdgion or Pitombo and South from Congo from which it is but four Leagues distant Manuel Mendez who had much experience in those Seas being very young when he came into that Country where he hath during the space of many years made several Voyages made me observe that if any one should build a Fort on that Island and keep some Men of War there he might easily raise a Toll upon all the Ships that Trade in those Seas for they must of necessity Sail near to that Island on the one side or other Towards the South-East it has fifteen or twenty Wells of good water but especially one that is excellent and a good Road before it When the Portuguese were possessed of Mascate they came every year with some Galliots to the Isle of Tonbo to receive the Tribute that was paid them in all the Ports of those Seas and brought thither by those who were obliged to pay it The yearly Tribute they had from the Isle of Queschimo consisted of five Persian Horses and two Falcons Congo payed four hundred Tomans Bahrem sixteen thousand Abassis and Catif the half of the yearly profits of its Customs as for Bassora there was a Portuguese Agent that resided there who received a Chequin a day of the Basha and as often as the General came to that Town the Basha made him a Present This Island is encompassed all round with Banks under water nevertheless there is almost every where four six eight nay in some places nine Fathom water About half an hour after seven the Wind slackened much and we Steered South South East about eleven a Clock we found nine Fathom water and seeing we were almost becalmed and the Tide cast us to the Westward we were obliged to drop an Anchor half an hour after one a Clock at noon We were some three Leagues off of Sannas which was to the West North-West of us to the North-West and by West it makes a Peak but the Hill is higher than the Peak we went thither to take in water for the water is very good there though it be about two Leagues from the West point of Queschimo which was to the North-West of us About four a Clock we had a Breeze from South South-West which made us Steer our Course South-East About six a Clock we had twenty Fathom water Half an hour after seven the Wind turned North-West and we bore away East at eight a Clock we found eighteen Fathom water half an hour after that eighteen and a half and we stood away East and by North. About nine a Clock the Wind freshened a little and we had twenty Fathom water at ten a Clock we had one and twenty and about half an hour after ten we Steered our Course East Wednesday the ninth of December about day break the Wind ceased and we Steered still East the Isle of Angom was to the North-East of us and not far off and on the other side to the South-East we had a Port of Arabia Foelix called Julfar which is a good Harbour where many Indian Barks carrying mony come to buy Dates Julfar Pearl-Fishing and Pearls which are Fished all along that Coast from Mascat to Bahrem there is a good Castle at Julfar From that Port to the Cape of Mosandon the Coast of Arabia the Happy is all Mountanous bearing South-West and North-East and runs so near the Persian shoar that there is but five Leagues betwixt the main Land of Mosandon and the Isle of Lareca which is close by Comoron Betwixt Julfar and Mosandon Good Ports in the Gulf which are not set down in the Maps there are a great many good Ports that are not set down in the Maps where notwithstanding several Ships may safely Winter secure from all Winds and there is every where very good water About half an hour after seven in the morning the Wind turned North-East and we Steered our Course East South-East We were then off and on with the Point of Angom which bears West North-West Angom Angom is a little low Island to the South of Queschimo and reaches along Queschimo from West North-West to East South-East no body lives in it but two or three Fishermen who keep some Goats which they sell to Ships that come there to take in fresh water where it is very good Though this Island be very near to Queschimo yet Ships may pass betwixt them and all that take in water there shoot the Streight About noon we bore away South-East and at one a Clock having cast the Lead we had eight and thirty Fathom water we were then becalmed and made no way but by the Tide of Ebb which cast us upon Arabia so that we were obliged to stand off of it as far as we could to turn the Ships Head East North-East nevertheless towards the evening we were got very near the Mountains of Arabia wherefore to keep off of that shoar as much we could we Steered away North-East and by East and the Tide of floud did us some service About seven a Clock the Wind seemed as if it would get in to North but it blew so gentlely that it hardly curled the water Thursday the tenth of December about half an hour after four in the morning we
slackened much and we let loose the Main-Sail though we had still several gusts of Wind and Rain we had besides the Currents to struggle with which turned the Ships Head towards the Coast of Arabia with so much force that it was sometimes above a quarter of an hour before the Ship could be brought about again to our right Course of South and by East The Sea became smoother in the night-time though the Wind freshened a little Wednesday the sixteenth of December about break of day we made on Head six of the Ships which we left at Congo that were not to set out till some days after us during the late storms they had kept at Anchor at the Isle of Angom and the Wind being good this last night they had set Sail and coasted along Arabia and when we made them they were Steering away South-East to double Cape Jasques Half an hour after nine we set our Main-Top-Galant-Sail About a quarter after four a Clock we were got within a League and a half of the shoar of Persia off and on with a place where there are high white Hills a little up on the Land which with a blackish Rock that ranges all along the Sea-side makes a very pleasant prospect for seeing at a distance over that black a great many pieces of white Rock that rise in various figures one would take it to be a City and to the South of that imaginary Town upon the same Hill there is a piece of whiteish Rock broken off from the rest which looks like a Tower or Pillar upon a high Pedestal from thence it is but a League to Bombareca Bombareca Half an hour after five we were off of Bombareca which is only a very high square white Rock and flat on the top it seems to be very steep and at a distance one would take it for a square Fort this Rock is very near the Land and it is dangerous to approach it because it is surrounded with a Bank of Sand. A little after we came up with the Ships that were on Head of us and after the Selame or mutual Hailing they told us that it was but six days since they parted from Congo they had all signed Indentures to go in Consort and not to leave one another till they came to Surrat nevertheless one of them Hailed us and told us that if we would go in Consort with him he would leave the rest and our Captain and the Mate whose Brother was Mate of the other Ship having made answer that they were content he packt on all the Sail he could and followed us About six a Clock we got a Head of the Headmost of all the Ships and our Men handed the Main-Top-Galant-Sail and would have furled the Main-Sail to stay for our Consort who was a Stern of us but the Captain would first have the consent of the Souhreseart who was not of the same mind saying it was better to make the best of our way whilst the Wind was good so that we only took in our Main-Top-Galant-Sail and Steered our Course South-East and by South The Sea-men in the mean time kept a heavy muttering that we should leave the other Ship after we had promised to stay for her and occasioned her leaving of the rest but the clutter was far greater when our Mate who had turned in came out after an hours sleep and not seeing our Consort would needs spare Sail for when he was told what resolution had been taken he made a fearful noise complaining of our breach of promise but after all he was fain to have patience CHAP. IV. Of the rest of the Voyage to the Indies An Invention for Reckoning the Ships way WEdnesday about Sun set we began to keep reckoning of our way which is done in this manner At the Stern of the Ship they heave out a little piece of board about half a Foot long four Inches broad and very thin and smooth which is fastened to a Line at the same time they turn a minute Sand-Glass which is the sixtieth part of an hour and so long as this minute is running they veer off the Line but stop it so soon as the the Glass is out and when they have pulled it up they reckon how many Fathom have run off in that minutes time allowing for every seven Fathom a Miles running in an hour But it is to be observed that before the Glass be turned they let off with the Log fourteen Fathom of the Line and these fourteen Fathom are not accounted in the reckoning for they reckon none but those that run off whilst the Glass is running and therefore there is a mark to distinguish the beginning from the end of the first fourteen and at the instant that that mark begins to go off they turn the minute Glass This reckoning is found by experience to be pretty just and thereupon I told our Captain that I had seen the English do the same thing in the Mediterranean save that they did not allow those fourteen first Fathom and that they used but half a minute Glass or the hundred and twentieth part of an hour and that nevertheless they reckoned seven Fathom of the Line that run off during that minute for a Mile an hour of the Ships way that according to that reckoning he ought to allow fourteen Fathom for an hour his being a minute Glass and cut off these first fourteen He made me no other answer but that the Currents of the Ocean were stronger than those of the Mediterranean nevertheless one would think that since they reckon not those fourteen Fathom and turn not the Glass till they be run out they are altogether useless unless it be perhaps that they let them run off to the end that when those which they reckon begin to run the Log may be so far off that the Sea which beats against the Ship may not drive it neither forwards nor backwards and indeed before the Glass be turned they take notice whether or not the Log runs streight in the Ships wake and there is a red mark at the place where they begin to reckon to prevent their being mistaken otherwise if they should reckon as soon as they heaved out the Log the Ship runs some times so fast that they would not have time to consider whether or not the Log weâ—t streight in the Ships way Once an hour they heave that Log and then mark down every time how many knots or Fathoms of the Line has run out and every day at noon they cast up the account of their running so that they reckon by this means how many Miles the Ship has run in four and twenty hours that is to say from noon of the preceeding to noon of the present day and this they set off with a Compass upon the Sea Chart that they may know where the Ship is Though this be a very useful invention yet it is not too much to be relyed upon else
At two a Clock we had a breeze from North-West and we bore away South-East and by East About six a Clock the Wind slackened much About seven a Clock our Ships Head stood South-East Friday the five and twentieth of December at six a Clock in the morning it blew a West North-West Wind and we steered on our Course still South-East About seven a Clock the Sky was overcast with Clouds which brought Rain with them and we saw some more Spouts at a pretty good distance and a Weather-Gall this Weather-Gall was like a Segment of a Rain-Bow rising from the Horizon about three degrees or if you will it seemed to be three Foot high Sometimes they appear over a Ship and that is commonly a presage of a Tempest and the Portuguese call this Phenomenon an Oxes Eye About eight a Clock it blew a pretty fresh Gale from North but immediately it veered about to North-East and became very weak At noon we were by our Observations in three and twenty degrees two and fifty minutes Latitude and had made from noon to noon thirteen Leagues Then the Captain and Mate made account that we were eight or ten Leagues off of the Land of Sindy and about five and twenty Leagues from Jaquelte for my part by what I could make out by my Map we were twenty Leagues off Malan and to the Southward of Malan and forty Leagues from Sindy and near threescore Leagues from Jaquelte and this agreed with the Gunners Observation but he durst not say any thing for fear of quarelling with the Captain who thought every body ignorant in respect of himself and nevertheless it was found afterwards that he and the Mate were in the mistake About four a Clock the Wind turned East South-East and we Steered North-East About five a Clock we had a great shower of Rain from a thick Cloud over head which being past we had the Wind at South-East and bore away North-East Half an hour after six we had Rain again with Lightning but we were becalmed and turned the Ships Head North-East At seven a Clock the Wind turned South and by East and we bore away East and by South Half an hour after ten we were becalmed but about eleven a Clock had a great flurry which made much noise at first and this made us furl all our Sails but a great shower of Rain soon carried it off and the Sea being smooth we Steered away South-East and by South At midnight we cast the Lead but though they veered out sixty Fathom of Rope yet we had no ground which was like to have made the Captain mad for shame for he believed us to be very near Land and he fell into a Passion with the Mate saying that he had not left importuning him for two days to heave out the Lead We were all night becalmed though at times we had several showers of Rain Saturday the six and twentieth of December about seven a Clock there blew a gentle Gale from East North-East which made us Steer away South-East and by South About half an hour after nine the Wind being all Easterly we stood away South-East then master Manuel Mendez who perceived very well that no body knew where we were advised the Captain to stand in to Land and gratifie the Pilot which highly offended him saying that since they took him for an ignorant blockhead for the future he would only sleep and take his rest and let the Ship go which way she pleased and that to content us he would put back and make the Land at Jasques however this went no farther About ten a Clock the Wind turned East North-East and we stood away South-East At noon the Gunner found by his Observations that we were in twenty three degrees forty five minutes the Captain in twenty three degrees five minutes and the Mate in twenty three fifteen minutes and in four and twenty hours we had only made about six Leagues That day we began to see of those Birds which the Portuguese call Rabo de Junco Rabo de Junco a Fowl. and are a kind of Sea-Mews only they are bigger and have the Tail all of a piece and pointed like a Rush wherefore they are called Rush Tails and they keep upon the water as the Sea-Mews do At one a Clock the Wind slackened and chopped into the East and we Steered South and by East About four a Clock we tackt and stood away North. About half an hour after five the Wind having veered about to East North-East we Steered South-East About half an hour after seven the Wind turned North-East and by East About ten a Clock it was full North-East and we bore away East South-East Sunday morning the seven and twentieth of December at five of the Clock the Wind turned East and by North and we Steered our Course South-East and by South About nine a Clock we bore away South-East because the Wind was at East North-East and blew pretty fresh Our Officers took an Observation at noon and were again of different opinions the Captain had two and twenty degrees fifty two minutes the Mate twenty three and the Gunner three and twenty degrees and two minutes and in twenty four hours we had made fourteen Leagues In the Evening a flying Fish leaped into our Ship. The Wind freshened so much in the night-time that we were obliged to furl our Top Sails Monday noon the twenty eighth of December the Captain found out by his Observation that we were in the Latitude of twenty two degrees eight minutes and the Gunner in twenty two degrees eighteen minutes in four and twenty hours we had made fourteen Leagues That day we saw a great many Weeds or Herbs floating upon the water which the Portuguese call Sargaso Herb Sargaso and that is one sign of being near the Land of the Indies many such are also to be seen towards Brasil The stalk of that Herb is small blackish and as supple as a hair the Leaves of it are long and narrow and a little jagged besides the Leaves it hath a great many small clear and transparent Berries as soft as little Goosberries that stick to the stalk This Herb grows upon the Rocks in the Sea and being torn off by storm it floats upon the water till it be cast a shoar About two in the afternoon the Wind slackened much and therefore we spread our Main-Top and Fore-Top-Sails the Sea which had been very high before growing calm and smooth within a few hours Tuesday morning the nine and twentieth of December about seven a Clock the Wind was at North North-East and we Steered our Course East At noon the Gunner found that we were in one and twenty degrees forty four minutes Latitude and that in the space of twenty four hours we had made thirteen Leagues and a half at midnight we Steered East and by South that we might keep off of the Banks that are towards Diu our Company thinking themselves nearer to
Wind in Poop and a fresh Gale from South for those that go upon a Wind against Tide are driven back instead of going forward the Tides running very strong on that Coast and South Winds being rare Half an hour after eight at night we weighed Anchor and stood away North and by West the Wind being then North-East and by East Wednesday the sixth of January at two a Clock in the morning we came to an Anchor in seventeen Fathom water Having weighed again about nine a Clock we steered North North-East the Wind was then at East a little to the Southward but so weak that at ten a Clock it left us becalmed About three a Clock we had a Gale from West when we least expected it for it seldom blows on that Coast that was the reason we came not to an Anchor though it began to Ebb and we stood away North and by East Half an hour after five we had twenty Fathom water and at six a Clock we were becalmed Half an hour after eight we had the Wind at East North-East which made us steer away South-East but at ten a Clock the Tide of Flood beginning to make it behoved us to tack and stand away North and by East Thursday the seventh of January about four a Clock in the morning we came to an Anchor in ninteen Fathom water About nine a Clock a small Gale blowing from South-East we weighed though it was above an hour and a half to Flood and bore away East North-East but seeing the Wind did not last about half an hour after eleven we came to an Anchor again in seven Fathom water though it was Flood then but it did us no kindness because it carried us to Surrat and we were bound for Daman being so near it that some of the Ship discovered the Steeple of a Church in the Town Half an hour after one of the Clock we had a small Gale from North-East which made us presently weigh and bear away South-East and sounding every quarter of an hour we found first fifteen Fathom water then twelve after that ten and at least nine About four a Clock we steered away East South-East about five a Clock South South-East a little after we were becalmed and having cast out the Lead found eight Fathom water About six a Clock we turned the Ships Head East and by South half an hour after North-East and by East About seven a Clock we came to an Anchor in eight Fathom water and about a good League and a half from Land because there was no Wind and the Tide of Ebb cast us toward the South-West Next morning about nine a Clock we weighed though it was still low water only we had a Gale from South-East we steered East North-East that we might stand in to shoar and about half an hour after eleven we came to an Anchor a League off of the Town of Daman and Westward from it I did not go a shoar because the Captain told me that I could not stay there above an hour or two having ordered the Boat that carried a shoar Master Manuel Mendez to return immediately and being resolved so soon as he had unloaded his Goods to weigh Anchor and wait for no body I did not think going a shoar to be worth the pains of running the risk of being taken for there are Malabar Barks commonly upon the scout especially in the evening skulking behind some Points of Land and when they perceive any small Vessel make up to it and carry it away Daman is a Town belonging to the Portuguese who have made it very strong Daman Latitude of Daman and have a good Fort in it It lyes in the twentieth degree of North Latititude and is fifteen Leagues distant from Bassaim and forty from Diu. They have most delicate Bread at Daman and drink only water of a Tanquier but which they say is very good From Daman to Cape Comorin Cape Comorin a range of very high Hills runs along the Coast This Town has no other Harbour but a little Canal or Cut which is full at high water and remains dry when the Tide is out small Barks come into it but Ships ride out in the Road. Ours stayed there a little more than four and twenty hours for the Boats that were to come for the Goods of Master Manuel Mendez came not a Board of us till the next day which was Saturday it was noon before we had loaded them and it behoved us afterwards to stay till two a Clock for our Boat though we had fired a Gun in the morning as a signal for them to put off but the Sea-men being got drunk made never the more haste for that we did not weigh Anchor then till three a Clock in the afternoon and we stood away North the Wind being then at West North-West About seven a Clock we were forced to come to an Anchor because the Wind was down and the Tide of Ebb made us lose way About nine a Clock with a little Gale at East we weighed again and bore away North in five Fathom and a half water and for above an hour we had no more Next day being Sunday the tenth of January by break of day we were got within a Cannon shot of Land which was to our Starboard and to the Larboard we saw two great Ships at Anchor they were presently known to be Ships belonging to the King of Mogul which Trade to Moca Ships of the King of Mogul whither they carry at every Voyage above two Millions We saw many other Ships on Head some at Anchor and others under Sail amongst these there were two Dutch Ships who failed not to send off their Boats to know who we were taking us to have been an English Ship. At length half an hour after ten we came to an Anchor at the Bar of Surrat The Bar of Surrat in six Fathom and a half water and presently a Custom-House Waiter came on Board of us being there accidentally for commonly they come not till after the Captain be gone a shoar Next day Monday the eleventh of January several of the Custom-House Boats came on Board of us to take in all the Passengers and their Goods we went down into them and they put off from the Ship about half an hour after two at first we made towards shoar apace the Wind being good but it being low water an hour after we stuck a ground and it behoved us to stay for Flood to get off again which was not till half an hour after three when we weighed again the Anchor which we had dropped We went on then with the Tide for the Wind was contrary and within half an hour after ran a ground again where we were another half hour before we could get off having afterwards advanced a little farther we saw a small Isle to our Right Hand and from thence the Channel grows narrower and narrower About eight a Clock we passed by the
The Porters of Palanquins These Machines are commonly very dear and the Pambou alone of some of them costs above an hundred Crowns but to make a-mends for that they have Porters at a very easie rate for they have but nine or ten Livres a piece by the Month and are obliged to Diet themselves It requires four Men to carry a Palanquin because each end of the Pambou rests upon the Shoulders of two Men and when the Journey is long some follow after to take their turn and ease the others when they are weary The yearly Revenue of the Province of Sinde Sinde of which we have been speaking yields not the Great Mogul above three Million four hundred thousand French Livres a Year CHAP. XXXII Of the Province of Multan MUltan which comprehends Bucor Multan has to the South the Province of Sinde and to the North the Province of Caboul as it hath Persia to the West and the Province of Lahors to the East It is watered with many Rivers that make it Fertile The Capital Town which is also called Multan was heretofore a place of very great Trade because it is not far from the River Indus but seeing at present Vessels cannot go up so far because the Chanel of that River is spoilt in some places and the Mouth of it full of shelves the Traffick is much lessened What Multan produces by reason that the charge of Land-carriage is too great However the Province yields plenty of Cotton of which vast numbers of Cloaths are made It yields also Sugar Opium Brimstone Galls and store of Camels which are transported into Persia by Gazna and Candabar or into the Indies themselves by Lahors but whereas the Commodities went heretofore down the Indus at small Charges to Tatta where the Merchants of several Countries came and bought them up they must now be carried by Land as far as Surrat if they expect a considerable price for them The Town of Multan is by some Geographers attributed to Sinde The Town of Multan Cozdar or Cordar Candavil Sandur Towns. though it make a Province by it self It lies in twenty nine Degrees forty Minutes North Latitude and hath many good Towns in its dependance as Cozdar or Cordar Candavil Sandur and others It furnishes Indostan with the finest Bows that are to be seen in it and the nimblest Dancers The Commanders and Officers of these Towns are Mahometans and by consequence it may be said that most part of the Inhabitants are of the same Religion But it contains a great many Banians also Banians for Multan is their chief Rendezvous for Trading into Persia where they do what the Jews do in other places but they are far more cunning for nothing escapes them and they let slip no occasion of getting the penny how small soever it be The Tribe of these Banians is the fourth in dignity amongst the Castes Tribes or Sects of the Gentiles of whom we shall treat in the sequel of this Relation They are all Merchants and Broakers and are so expert in business that hardly any body can be without them The Banians useful They give them Commissions of all kinds though it be known that they make their profit of every thing yet Men chuse rather to make use of them than to do their business themselves and I found often by experience that I had what they bought for me much cheaper than what I bought my self or made my servants buy They are of a pleasing humour for they reject no service whether honourable or base and are always ready to satisfie those who employ them and therefore every one hath his Banian in the Indies and some persons of Quality intrust them with all they have though they be not ignorant of their Hypocrisie and Avarice The richest Merchants of the Indies are of them and such I have met with in all places where I have been in that Country They are commonly very Jealous of their Wives who at Multan are fairer than the Men but still of a very brown complexion and love to Paint At Multan there is another sort of Gentiles whom they call Catry Catry That Town is properly their Country and from thence they spread all over the Indies but we shall treat of them when we come to speak of the other Sects both the two have in Multan a Pagod of great consideration The Pagod of Multan because of the affluence of People that came there to perform their Devotion after their way and from all places of Multan Labors and other Countries they come thither in Pilgrimage I know not the name of the Idol that is Worshipped there The Idol of Multan the Face of it is black and it is cloathed in red Leather It hath two Pearls in place of Eyes and the Emir or Governour of the Countrey takes the Offerings that are presented to it To conclude The Town of Multan is but of small extent for a Capital but it is pretty well Fortifi'd and is very considerable to the Mogul when the Persians are Masters of Candabar as they are at present The yearly Revenue of Multan What the Great Mogul receives yearly from this Province amounts to Seventeen millions Five hundred thousand Livres CHAP. XXXIII Of the Province of Candahar The Province of Candahar BEfore I speak of the Eastern Provinces of the Indies I shall proceed to treat of those which are to the West of the Indus or towards the Rivers that make part of it Candahar is one of them tho' the chief Town of it belong at present to the King of Persia who took it from Cha-Gehan contrary to the will of his Grand-mother which cost her her Life It is said That that Lady got Money from the Great Mogul to hinder the Siege of this Town Her Grand-son being ready to march she made him a thousand Entreaties to divert him from the expedition and finding that she could gain nothing of him by fair means she fell into a passion and upbraided him that he was going to squander away the Estate of Orphans This Discourse so offended the King that having asked her if that Estate belonged to any but to him The King of Persia kills his Grand-mother He cut her over the head with an Axe that he held in his hand of which she died This Province hath to the North the Country of Balc whereof an Usbec Prince is Sovereign To the East it hath the Province of Caboul to the South that of Bucor The bounds of Candahar which belongs to Multan and part of Sigestan which is of the Kingdom of Persia and to the West other Countries of the King of Persia The Province is very moutainous and Candahar its chief Town lies in the twenty third degree of Latitude though some Travellers have placed it in the four and thirtieth That Countrey produces abundantly all sorts of Provisions that are necessary for the subsistence of its
Inhabitants unless it be on that side which lies towards Persia where it is very barren Every thing is dear in the chief Town because of the multitude of Forreign Merchants that resort thither and it wants good Water The Town of Candahar is considerable by its Situation and every one knows that the Persian and Mogul both pretend to it The former has in it at present a Garrison of nine or ten thousand Men least it should be surprized by the Mogul and being besides a Town of great importance Two Citadels at Candahar it is fortified with good Walls and hath two Citadels Candahar a rich Town The Trade that it hath with Persia the Country of the Uzbecs and Indies makes it very rich and for all the Province is so little it heretofore yielded the Mogul betwixt fourteen and fifteen Millions a year The yearly Revenue of the Mogul from Candahar There is no Province in Indostan where there are fewer Gentiles The Inhabitants are great lovers of Wine but they are prohibited to drink any and if a Moor who hath drank Wine commit any Scandal he is set upon an Ass with his Face to the Tail Wine-drinkers punished and led about the Town attended by the Officers of the Cotoual who beat a little Drum and they are followed by all the Children who hooop and hallow after them Though there be no Province of Indostan where there are fewer Gentiles yet there are Banians there because of Traffick but they have no publick Pagod And their Assemblies for Religion are kept in a Private House under the direction of a Bramen whom they entertain for performing their Ceremonies The King of Persia suffers not the Gentiles Wives there to burn themselves when their Husbands are dead The Wives are not burnt at Candahar There are a great many Parsis or Guebres there but they are poor and the Mahometans employ them in the meanest and most servile drudgeries They perform the Ceremonies of their Religion on a Mountain not far distant from the Town where they have a place wherein they preserve the Fire which they worship I have spoken of these People in my Book of Persia The same Officers are in Candahar as in the Towns of the Kingdom of Persia and do the same Duties but above all things they have special Orders to treat the People gently because of the proximity of the Moguls and if they oppress them in the least they are severely punished for it There are some small Rajas in the Mountains who are suffered to live in liberty paying some easie Tributes And these Gentlemen have always stuck to the strongest side when the Country came to change its Master There is also a little Countrey in the Mountains which is called Peria Peria that 's to say fairy-Fairy-Land where Father Ambrose a Capucin spent a Lent upon the mission in two Bourgs whereof the one is named Cheboular and the other Cosne And he told me That that Country is pleasant enough and full of good honest People but that the Christians who are there have but slight tinctures of Religion CHAP. XXXIV Of the Province of Caboul or Caboulistan Province of Caboul CAboulistan is limited to the North by Tartary Caboulistan from which it is separated by Mount Caucasus which the Orientals call Caf-Dagai Cachmire lies to the East of it It hath to the West Zabulistan and part of Candahar Zabulistan and to the South the Countrey of Multan Two of the Rivers that run into the Indies have their source in the Mountains thereof from whence they water the Province and for all that render it nothing the more fruitful for the Countrey being very cold is not fertile unless in those places that are sheltered by Mountains Nevertheless it is very rich because it hath a very great Trade with Tartary the Countrey of the Usbecs Persia and the Indies The Usbecs alone sell yearly above threescore thousand Horses there and that Province lies so conveniently for Traffick that what is wanting in it is brought from all Parts and things are very cheap there The chief Town of the Province is called Caboul Caboul a Town a very large place with two good Castles And seeing Kings have held their Courts there and many Princes successively have had it for their Portion there are a great many Palaces in it It lies in thirty three degrees and a half North Latitude Mirabolans grow in the Mountains of it Mirabolans and that 's the reason why the Orientals call it Cabuly There are many other sorts of Drugs gathered there and besides that they are full of aromatick Trees which turn to good account to the Inhabitants as also do the Mines of a certain iron which is fit for all uses From this Province especially come the Canes of which they make Halbards and Lances and they have many Grounds planted with them Caboulistan is full of small Towns Burroughs and Villages most of the Inhabitants are heathen and therefore there are a great many Pagods there They reckon their months by Moons and with great Devotion celebrate their Feast called Houly which lasts two days Houly a Feast At that time their Temples are filled with People who came to Pray and make their Oblations there the rest of the Celebration consists in Dancing by companies in the Streets to the sound of Trumpets At this Feast they are cloathed in a dark Red and many go to visit their Friends in Masquarade Those of the same Tribe eat together and at night they make Bonefires in the Streets That Feast is Celebrated yearly at the Full Moon in February and ends by the destruction of the Figure of a Giant against which a little Child shoots Arrows to represent what the People are made to believe God under the name of Cruchman to wit That God coming into the World under the name of Cruchman he appeared in shape of a Child that a great Giant that feared to be undone by him endeavoured to ruin him But that that Child hit him so dexterously with an Arrow A Giant killed by Cruchman that he laid him dead upon the ground These people seem heretofore to have been Christians but if they have had any Tincture of it it is much corrupted by the Fables and strange Tales that have been told them concerning the same to which they conform their Lives and Religion The Charity of the Indians of Caboul Their chief Charity consists in digging a great many Wells and in raising several Houses at certain distances upon the High-ways for the convenience of Travellers And by these little Houses there is always a place fit for those who are weary and heavy Loaded to rest in so that they can put off or take up their Burden without any bodies help Physicians of the Indies This Countrey supplies the rest of the Indies with many Physicians who are all of the caste of Banians Nay and
with Colours as they do their Pagods They drink not commonly the Tapty Water at Brampour because it is very brackish but they are supplied from a large square Bason that is in the Meidan the Water whereof comes from a distant Spring and before it fills that Bason passes by the Carvansera for Strangers which it furnishes it then runs under ground to the great Bason in the place which many times is empty at night because of the great quantity of Water which they fetch thence all day long but it fills again in the night-time and so they seldom have any want There are a great many Houses also on the other side of the River and they may be said to be a second Town The great Trade of the Province is in Cotton-cloath and there is as much Traffick at Brampour as in any place of the Indies Painted Cloaths are sold there as every where else but the white are particularly esteeemed because of the lovely mixture of Gold and Silver that is in them whereof the rich make Veils White Cloaths mingled with Gold and Silver at Brampour Indigo at Brampour Scarfs Handkerchiefs and Coverings but the white Cloaths so Adorned are dear In short I do not think that any Countrey of Indostan abounds so much in Cotton as this do's which bears also plenty of Rice and Indigo The same Trade is driven at Orixa Beâ—ar and other Towns of this Province CHAP. XLIII Of the Province of Balagate The Province of Balagate The yearly Revenue of Balagate BAlagate is one of the Great Moguls rich Provinces for it yields him Five and twenty Millions a year it lies to the South of Candich To go from Surrat to Aurangeabad which is the Capital Town of Balagate one must from Daman-Gate hold streight East and soon after turning towards the South-East cross some Countries of the Provinces of Benganala and Telenga Part of Balagate I saw as I went to Golconda for this Journey I hired two Chariots one for my self and another for my Man and Baggage I payed about Seventeen Crowns a month for each Chariot and I entertained two Pions in my Service The Pay of Pions to whom I gave two Crowns a piece by the month and two pence half penny a day for Board-wages as the custom is these Men are always by the sides of their Masters Chariot or Waggon that they may hold it up in bad way if it heel'd The Pions do all things except Kitchin-work when one comes to any place to bait at they 'll do any thing out of the Kitchin but they will not venture to dress Meat which those of their Sect would not eat In short They are in all things else very serviceable they 'll buy what is necessary look after their Masters things exactly The Pions Arms. and stand sentinel all night long they are Armed with Sword and Dagger and have besides the Bow Musket or Lance and are always ready to fight against all sorts of Enemies There are of them both Moors and Gentiles of the Tribe of the Raspoutes The Heathen Pions are better than the Moors I took Raspoutes because I knew they served better than the Moors who are proud and will not be complained of whatsoever foppery or cheat they may be guilty of I made this Journey in company of Monsieur Bazou a French Merchant a very civil and witty Man who had with him ten Waggons or Chariots and fourteen Pions for himself his Servants and Goods we were eight Franks in company and in all Five and forty Men. We parted from Surrat in the Evening and encamped near the Queens Garden which is without Daman-Gate so soon as we were got thither Journey from Surrat to Aurangeabad we sent to the Town for what Provisions we wanted for else we must have fared hard during our Journey The Gentiles who sell Provisions will neither furnish Travellers with Eggs nor Pullets and instead of ordinary Bread there is nothing to be got but ill baked Buns or Cakes so that one must not fail to make Provision of Bisket at Surrat Trees Wars Manguiers Mahova Quiesou Caboul Querzeheray second Vol. Merons wlld Cows The Countrey from Surrat to Anrangeabad is extreamly diversified there are in it a great many Wars Manguiers Mahova Quiesou Caboul and other sorts of Trees and I saw the Querzeheray there also which I have described in my Book of Persia There are vast numbers of Antelopes Hairs and Partridges here and there in that Countrey and towards the Mountains Merons or wild Cows most part of the Land is arable Ground and the Rice wherewith the Fields are covered is the best in all the Indies especially towards Naopoura Places of Camping on the Road from Surrat to Aurangeabad Barnoly a Bourg five Leagues from Surrat Balor a Village 4 Leag from Barnoly Biaraa Village 3 Leag and a half from Balor Charca a Village 2 Leag and a half from Biara Naopoura a Town 6 Leag from Charca Quanapour a Village 6 Leag from Naopoura Pipelnar a Town 6 Leag from Quanapour Tarabat a Village 4 Leag from Pipelnar Setana a Bourg 4 Leag and a half from Tarabat Omrana a Village 5 Leag and a half from Setana Enquitenqui 6 Leag from Omrana Deotcham a Town 6 Leag from Enquitenqui The Sour a Town 6 Leag from Deotcham Aurangeabad 8 Leag from the Sour where it has an odoriferous Taste which that of other Countries has not Cotton abounds there also and in many places they have Sugar-Canes with Mills to bruise the Canes and Furnaces to boyl the Sugar Now and then one meets with Hills that are hard to be crossed over but there are lovely Plains also watered with many Rivers and Brooks In this Road there are four Towns and four or five and thirty Bourgs and Villages pretty well Peopled Tchoguis or Guards of the High-ways are often to be met with here who ask Money of Travellers though it be not their due we gave to some and refused others but that signifies no great matter in the whole In most places Inhabited there are Pagods and every now and then we met with Waggons full of Gentiles who were coming to perform their Devotions in them The first Pagod I saw was by the side of a great War and before the Door of it there was an Ox of Stone which a Gentile who spake Persian told me was the Figure of the Ox An Ox that carried the God Ram. which served to carry their God Ram. We found besides many other Pagods like to that but we saw others which consisted of one single Stone about six Foot high on which the Figure of a Man is cut in relief There are also a great many Reservatories and Carvanseras upon the Road but we chose rather to Encamp than Lodg in them because of their nastiness As we were encamped near the Bourg Setana under Manguiers Setana a Burg. not far distant from a small
River which is also called Setana almost mid way betwixt Surrat and Aurangeabad we met the Bishop of Heliopolis The Bishop of Heliopolis so much esteemed in the Indies for his Piety and Zeal he had in company with him Monsieur Champson and a Spanish Cordelier Bishop of Barut who had left the Bishop of Barut with several other Church-men who laboured in converting the Gentiles at Siam That Bishop was going to Surrat in order to return to France from whence he hoped to bring back new Missionaries with him and the Cordelier came from China where he had lived fourteen Years we continually met Caravans of Oxen and Camels upon our Road Caravans of above a 1000 Oxen. Aurangeabad the Capital of Balagate and some I saw that came from Agra consisting of more than a thousand Oxen loaded with Cotton-Cloath At length the eleventh of March we arrived at Aurangeabad threescore and fifteen Leagues from Surrat which we Travelled in a fortnight This great Town the Capital of the Province has no Walls the Governour who is commonly a Prince has his Residence there and King Auran-Zeb commanded there as long as he did at Candich in the Reign of his Father His first Wife whom he loved dearly died in this Town as a Monument to her he erected a lovely Mosque covered with a Dome and beautified with four Minarets or Steeples The Sepulchre of Auran Zeb's first Wife It is built of a white polished Stone and many take it for Marble though it come short of that both in hardness and lustre There are several other pretty fair Mosques in this Town and it is not destitute of publick places Carvanseras and Baguios The buildings are for the most part of Free-stone and petty high before the Doors there are a great many Trees growing in the Streets and the Gardens are pleasant and well cultivated affording the refreshment of Fruit Grapes and Grass-plats Sheep that are Saddled and Bridled They have Sheep there without Horns that are so strong as that being Bridled and Saddled they 'll carry Children of ten years of Age up and down wheresoever they please This is a Trading Town and well Peopled with excellent Ground about it Though it was but in the beginning of March Extraordinay Apes we found all the Corn cut down I saw some Apes much esteemed there which a Man had brought from Ceilan They valued them because they were no bigger than ones Fist and differed in kind from the common Monkeys they have a flat Forehead big round Eyes which are yellow and clear like the Eyes of some Cats their Snout is very sharp and the inside of their Ears yellow they have no Tail and their Hair is like to that of other Apes When I looked upon them they stood upon their hind Feet and embraced one another often eying the People stedfastly without being scared their Master called them wild Men. CHAP. XLIV Of the Pagods of Elora The Pagods of Elora AT Surrat I was told great matters of the Pagods of Elora and therefore I had a mind to see them so that so soon as I came to Aurangeabad I sought out for an Interpreter to go along with me but it being impossible for me to find one I resolved to take my Servants with me and make that little Journey alone And because my Oxen were weary I hired a little Waggon to carry me thither and took two Pions more besides those I had I gave all the four half a Crown Piece and leaving my Man to look after my Baggage I parted about nine of the Clock at Night They told me that there was some danger of meeting Robbers but being well Armed as my Men also were I was not much concerned and I chose rather to run some little risk than to miss an oppertunity of seeing those Pagods which are so renowned all over the Indies We marched softly because of the unevenness of the Country and about two of the Clock in the Morning came near to Doltabad where we rested till five We had a rugged Mountain to ascend and very hard for the Oxen to climb up though the way cut out of the Rock be almost every where as smooth A lovely way in a Mountain as if it were Paved with Free-stone It had on the side a Wall three Foot thick and four Foot high to hinder the Waggons and Chariots from falling down into the Plain if they chanced to be overthrown My Pious thrust forward the Waggon with all their force and contributed as much as the Oxen to get it up to the top of the Hill. When I arrived there I discovered a spacious Plain of well cultivated Land with a great many Villages and Bourgs amidst Gardens plenty of Fruit-trees and Woods We Travelled at least for the space of an hour over Plow'd Land where I saw very fair Tombs several stories high and covered with domes built of large grayish Stones Fair Tombs at Elora and about half an hour after seven having passed by a great Tanquie I alighted near a large Court paved with the same Stones I went in A large Court in Elora where one must put off his Shoes but was obliged to put off my Shoes at first I found a little Mosque where I saw the â—ismillah of the Mahometans writ over the Door the signification of that Inscription is In the Name of God. There was no light into the Mosque but what entered by that Door but there were many Lamps burning in it and several old Men that were there invited me to come in which I did I saw nothing rare in it but two Tombs covered with Carpet And I was extreamly troubled for want of an Interpreter for else I had known a great many particulars that I could not be informed of A little farther Westward my Pions and I were above half an hour clambering down a Rock into another very low Plain The first thing I saw were very high Chappels and I entered into a Porch cut out of the Rock which is of a dark grayish Stone and on each side of that Porch there is a Gigantick figure of a Man cut out of the natural Rock Gigantick Figures of Men cut in the Rock and the Walls are covered all over with other figures in relief cut in the same manner Having passed that Porch I found a Square Court an hundred paces every way The Walls are the natural Rock which in that place is six Fathom high Perpendicular to the Ground-plat and cut as smooth and even as if it were Plaster smoothed with a Trewel Before all things I resolved to view the outside of that Court and I perceived that these Walls or rather the Rock hangs and that it is hollowed underneath A Gallery in the Rock so that the void space makes a Gallery almost two Fathom high and four or five broad It hath the Rock for Ground Pillars cut in the Rock and is
Friends pour odoriferous Oyles into it and in a short time both the Bodies are consumed In other places the Bodies are carried to the River-side in a covered Liter and being washed they are put into a hutt full of odoriferous Wood if they who are dead have left enough to defray the Charges When the Wife who is to be burnt hath taken leave of her kindred and by such Galantries as may convince the Assembly which many times consists of the whole Caste that she is not at all afraid of dying A Woman that endeavours to shew a fearlesness before she is burnt Pits wherein the Bodies of the Husband and Wife are burnt she takes her place in the Hutt under the head of her Husband which she holds upon her knees and at the same time recommending her self to the Prayers of the Bramen she presses him to set fire to the Pile which he fails not to do Elsewhere they make wide and deep Pits which they fill with all sorts of combustible Matter they throw the Body of the deceased into it and then the Bramens push in the Wife after she hath Sung and Danced to shew the firmness of her resolution and sometimes it happens that Maid-Slaves throw themselves into the same Pit after their Mistresses to shew the love they bore to them and the Ashes of the burnt Bodies are afterwards scattered in the River In the other places Interment of Bodies the Bodies of the dead are interred with their Legs a cross their Wives are put into the same Grave alive and when the Earth is filled up to their neck they are strangled by the Bramens There are several other kinds of Funerals among the Gentiles of the Indies but the madness of the Women in being burnt with their Husbands is so horrid that I desire to be excused that I write no more of it To conclude Mahometanisme in the Indies is a happiness for the Women The Women are happy that the Mahometans are become the Masters in the Indies to deliver them from the tyranny of the Bramens who always desire their death because these Ladies being never burnt without all their Ornaments of Gold and Silver about them and none but they having power to touch their Ashes they fail not to pick up all that is pretious from amongst them However the Great Mogul and other Mahometan Princes having ordered their Governours to employ all their care in suppressing that abuse as much as lies in their power The Mahometan Governors endeavour to hinder the burning of the Indian Women it requires at present great Solicitations and considerable Presents for obtaining the permission of being burnt so that the difficulty they meet with in this secures a great many Women from the infamy they would incur in their Caste if they were not forced to live by a Superiour Power The end of Mogolistan THE THIRD PART OF THE TRAVELS OF Mr. de Thevenot BOOK II. Of the INDIES CHAP. I. Of Decan and Malabar DEcan was heretofore a most powerful Kingdom Decan hath been a great Kingdom if one may believe the Indians it consisted of all the Countries that are in that great Tongue of Land which is betwixt the Gulfs of Cambaye and Bengala all obeyed the same King nay and the Provinces of Balagate Telenga and Baglana which are towards the North were comprehended within it so that it may be said that at that time there was no King in the Indies more powerful than the King of Decan but that Kingdom in process of time hath been often dismembred The Arrival of the Portuguese in the Indies and in the beginning of the last Age when the Portuguese made Conquests therein it was divided into many Provinces for they found there the Kings of Calecut Cochin Cananor and Coulam upon the Coast of Malabar Another King Reigned at Narsingue there were some Common-wealths in it also and the Dominions of him who was called King of Decan reached no further than from the limits of the Kingdom of Cambaye or Guzerat to the borders of the principality of Goa which did not belong to him neither Calecut was the first place of the Indies Calecut which the Portuguese discovered in the year One thousand four hundred and ninety eight under the conduct of Vasco de Gama The King of Calecut who at first received them friendly would at length have destroyed them at the instigation of Arabian Merchants and the greatest Wars they had in the Indies was against that King. The King of Cochin made Alliance with them and the Kings of Cananor and Coulam invited them to come and Trade with them Malabar Malabar which is the Countrey of all these Kings begins at Cananor and ends at Cape Comory the most powerful of all these Princes was the King of Calecut Samorin or Emperour who took the Quality of Samorin or Emperour The Port of Calecut lying in the Latitude of eleven degrees twenty two minutes is at some distance from the Town before the coming of the Portuguese it was the most considerable Port of the Indies for Commerce and Ships came thither from all parts The Town has no VValls because there is no ground for laying a Foundation upon for water appears as soon as they begin to digg There are no good Buildings in Calecut The Town of Calecut but the Kings Palace and some Pagods the Houses joyn not they have lovely Gardens and of all things necessary for life there is plenty in that Town Cochin King of Cochin The King of Cochin was a most faithful Friend to the Portuguese for for their sake he was deprived of his Kingdom by the King of Calecut but they restored him and gained so much upon him that he gave them leave to build a Fort in that part of the Town which is called Lower-Cochin upon the Sea side The Fort of Cochin taken from the Portuguese by the Dutch. to distinguish it from the Higher-Cochin where the King resides and from which it is distant a quarter of a League The Portuguese have held that Fort a long time but three or four years since it was taken from them by the Dutch. The Port of Cochin The Port of Cochin is very good there is six Fathom water close by the Shoar and upon a Planc one may easily come from on Board the Vessels The Town of Cochin is about thirty six Leagues from Calecut it is watered by a River Abundance of Pepper at Cochin A Man with a leg like an Elephant and there is plenty of Pepper in the Countrey about it which is fruitful in nothing else There are People in that Countrey who have Legs like an Elephant and I saw a Man at Cochin with such a Leg the Son Inherits not after his Father because a Woman is allowed by the custom to lye with several Men so that it cannot be known who is the Father of the Child she brings forth
served in his Conquests by some Mahometan Captains whom he much esteemed for their Valour he contracted with his Successour that he should leave them in the Governments of the Countries where he had placed them The truth is The new King not only confirmed them therein but that he might please Chahalem the more augmented their Governments and honoured them with a particular confidence These Captains maintained splendidly the power of their Master as long as Chahalem lived but after his death which happened in the Year One thousand five hundred and fifty his Successour having been defeated by the Mogul Humayon who returned into the Indies with the assistance that Chah-Tahmas King of Persia gave him at the Sollicitation of his Sister these Traitors instead of owning their Benefactor as they ought to have done by their Loyalty combined against him and killed all his faithful Friends A great Treason they seized his own person and having shut him up in the Castle of Beder kept him there till he died under the strickt Guard of one of the Conspirators they next invaded his Countreys divided amongst themselves his Provinces and formed them into Kingdoms The three chief Conspirators were Nizam-Cha Coth-Cha and Adil-Cha these three Usurpers made themselves Kings The Usurpers of Decan The settlement of three Kingdoms and established the Kingdoms of Viziapour Bisnagar or Carnates and Golconda Viziapour fell to the share of Nizam-Cha who is said to have been an Indian and of the Royal Blood Bisnagar to Adil-Cha and Golconda to Cobt-cha and the Successours of these several Kings have since continued to take the name of their Founders As many other Captains were concerned in the Conspiracy so were other Principalities erected in Decan but most of them fell under the power of the first three or of their Successours These three Princes possessed their Kingdoms without trouble so long as they lived together in good Intelligence and they defeated the Army of the Mogul in a famous Battel but they fell a clashing amongst themselves about the end of their Reigns and their Children succeeded to their Misunderstandings as well as to their Dominions to which the cunning of the Moguls did not a little contribute These have by degrees taken from them the Provinces of Balagate Telenga and Baglana or at least the greatest part of them Auran-Zeb and Auran-Zeb seized of a great many good Towns in Viziapour when he was no more as yet but the Governour of a Province which would not have happened if the King of Bisnagar had assisted his Neighbour as he ought to have done The want of assistance on that Kings part so exasperated the King of Viziapour that he no sooner made peace with the Mogul in the year One thousand six hundred and fifty but he made a League with the King of Golconda against the King of Bisnagar and entered into a War with him they handled him so very roughly that at length they stript him of his Dominions The King of Golconda seized those of the coast of Coromandel which lay conveniently for him and the King of Viziapour having taken what lay next to him pursued his Conquest as far as the Cape of Negapatan so that Adil-Cha was left without a Kingdom and constrained to flie into the Mountains where he still lives deprived of his Territories His chief Town was Velour Velour five days Journey from St. Thomas but that Town at present belongs to the King of Viziapour as well as Gengi and several others of Carnates Gengi Carnates Bisnagar This Kingdom of Carnates or Bisnagar which was formerly called Narsingue began three days Journey from Golconda towards the South it had many Towns and the Provinces thereof crossed from the coast of Coromandel to the coast of Malabar reaching a great way towards the Cape of Comory it had Viziapour and the Sea of Cambaye to the West and the Sea of Bengala to the East what of it belongs to the King of Viziapour is at present governed by an Enuch of Threescore and ten years of Age Raja Couli called Raja-Couli who conquered it with extraordinary expedition That Raja to whom the King gave the surname of Niecnam-Can which is as much as to say Lord of good renown is the richest Subject of the Indies Whil'st I was in Carnate the Kings of Viziapour and Golconda attacked a certain Raja who had a Fort whither he retreated betwixt the two Kingdoms there he committed an infinite number of Robberies and in the last War that the Great Mogul made in Viziapour that Raja set on by the Mogul made considerable incursions into the Countreys of the two Kings which made them force him to the utmost extremity so that they took his Fort made him Prisoner and seized all his Riches Viziapour The Kingdom of Viziapour is bounded to the East by Carnates and the Mountain of Balagate to the West by the Lands of the Portuguese to the North by Guzerat and the Province of Balagate and to the South by the Countrey of the Naique of Madura whose Territories reach to the Cape Comory This Naique is tributary to the King of Viziapour as well as the Naique of Tanjahor to whom belonged the Towns of Negapatan Trangabar and some others towards the coast of Coromandel when the King of Viziapour took them Negapatan fell since into the hands of the Portuguese but the Dutch took it from them and are at present Masters of it The Danes have also seized a place where they have built a Fort towards Trangabar which is distant from St. Thomas five days Journey of a Foot-post which they call Patamar The Pagod of Trapety As to the famous Pagod of Trapety which is not far from Cape Comory it depends on the Naique of Madura it consists of a great Temple and of many little Pagods about it and there are so many Lodgings for the Bramens and the Servants of the Temple that it looks like a Town There is a great deal of Riches in that Pagod The King of Viziapour The King of Viziapour is the most potent Prince of all those of Decan and therefore he is often called King of Decan His chief City is Viziapour which hath given the name to the Kingdom and he hath many other considerable Towns in his Provinces with three or four Ports to wit Carapatan Dabul Raja-pour and Vingourla but I am informed that Raja Sivagy hath seized some of them not long since The Town of Viziapour The Town of Viziapour is above four or five Leagues in circumference it is fortified with a double Wall with many great Guns mounted and a flat bottomed Ditch The Kings Palace is in the middle of the Town and is likewise encompassed with a Ditch full of water wherein there are some Crocodiles This Town hath several large Suburbs full of Goldsmiths and Jewellers Shops yet after all there is but little Trade and not many things remarkable in it