a thing of more sad consideration Now to make it appear that the number of people of all sorts is so exceeding great which here get and keep together in the Mogols Leskar or Camp Royal first there are one hundred thousand Souldiers which alwayes wait about that King as before observed and all his Grandees have a very great train of followers and servants to attend them there and so have all other men according to their several qualities and all these carry their Wives and Children and whole family with them which must needs amount to a very exceeding great number And further to demonstrate this when that King removes from one place to another for the space of twelve hours a broad passage is continually fill'd with passengers and Elephants and Horses and Dromedaries and Camels and Coaches and Asses and Oxen on which the meaner sort of men and women with their little Children ride so full as they may well passe one by the other Now in such a broad passage and in such a long time a very great number of people the company continually moving on forward may passe Thus this people moving on from place to place it may be said of them what Salvian speaks of Israel while they were in their journey to the land of promise that it was Ambulans respublica a walking Common-wealth And therefore that ancient people of God were called Hebrews which signified passengers and their dwelling so in Tents signified thus much to all the people of God in all succeeding ages that here they dwell in moveable habitations having no continuing City here but they must look for one and that is above It is observed of Cain that he a wicked man was a tiller of the ground though that calling of it self deserves much commendation or as a man fastned to the earth whereas Abel his brother a man fearing God was a Shepheard which is a moving rouling occupation from one place to another thou tellest my flittings saith David Here we often shift our places and our company and must do so our businesses carrying us up and down to and fro but our felicity hereafter shall consist in rest in not changing for ever after either our company or place but when the Godly man shall accomplish as an hireling his day when his work which God hath appointed him here to do is done and finished he shall lye down in peace and receive his penny and enjoy his reward The Tents pitch'd in that Leskar or Camp Royal are for the most part white like the cloathing of those which own them But the Mogols Tents are red reared up upon Poles higher by much than the other They are placed in the middest of the Camp where they take up a very large compasse of ground and may be seen every way and they must needs be very great to afford room in them for himself his wives children women Eunuchs c. In the sore-front or outward part or Court within his Tent there is a very large room for accesse to him 'twixt seven and nine of the Clock at night which as before is called his Goozulcad His Tents are encompassed round with Canats which are like our Screenes to fold up together those Canats are about ten foot high made of narrow strong Callico and lined with the same stiffened at every breadth with a Cane but they are strongest lined on their outside by a very great company of arm'd Souldiers that keep close about them night and day The Tents of his great men are likewise large placed round about his All of them throughout the whole Leskar reared up in such a due and constant order that when we remove from place to place we can go as directly to those moveable dwellings as if we continued still in fixed and standing habitations taking our direction from several streets and Bazars or Market places every one pitched upon every remove alike upon such or such a side of the Kings Tents as if they had not been at all removed The Mogol which I should have observed before hath so much wealth and consequently so much power by reason of his marvelous great multitudes of fighting men which he alwayes keeps in Arms commanding at all times as many of them as he please that as the Moabites truely said of Israel while they had Almighty God fighting with them and for them so it may be said of him if God restrain him not that his huge Companies are able to lick up all that are round about him as the Oxe licketh up the grasse of the field Numb 22. 4. When that mighty King removes from one place to another he causeth Drums to be beat about midnight which is a signal token of his removing He râ—moves not far at one time sometimes ten miles but usually a lesse distance according to the best convenience he may have for water there being such an infinite Company of men and other Creatures whose drink is water that in a little time it may be as truely said of them as it was of that mighty host of Sennacherib that Assyrian Monarch Es 37. 25. that they are able to drink up Rivers But when the place he removed to afforded plenty of good water he would usually stay there three or four dayes or more and when he thus rested in his Progresse would go abroad to finde out pastimes to which end he alwayes carried with him divers kindes of Halkes and Dogs and Leopards which as before they train up to hunt withall and being thus provided for variety of sports would fly at any thing in the Air or seize on any Creature he desired to take on the Earth The Mogol when he was at Mandoa which was invironed with great Woods as before was observed sometimes with some of his Grandees and a very great company beside of Persian and Tartarian hors-men his Souldiers which are stout daring men would attempt to take some young wilde Elephants found in these Woods which he took in strong toyls made for that purpose which taken were ma 〈…〉 ' d and made fit for his serv 〈…〉 In which hunting they likewise pursued on horse-back Lions and other wilde beasts and kill'd some of them with their Bowes and Carbanes and Launces An Heroick pastime or rather an high and dangerous attempt becoming great personages who if their honour and greatnesse balance will not be taken up with small things Imperia dura tollâ— quid virtus erit things difficult in their doing make them more honourable when done Aquila non capit Muscas Gnats and Flies are not pursued by Eagles In Tauros Lybici râ—unt Leones Non sunt Papilionibus molesti Hor. Thus on chac'd Bulls the Lybian Lion hies But troubles not the painted Butter-flies I waiting upon my Lord Ambassadour two years and part of a third traveling with him in Progresse with that King in the most temperate moneths there 'twixt September April were in one of our Progresses 'twixt
be upon your own heads as if he had said I found you the Children of Death and so I leave you grow in your filthiness and unrighteousnes 〈…〉 you have fullfilled the measure of your Fore-fathers for my own part I wash my hands in innocency I can free my Soul in the sight of God I was carefull â—o apply my Cures unto the hurts of Corinth but they would not be healed Which thing if the Lord in just judgement ever suffer to betall this Land as there are not very many moneths passed since there was a great and strong endeavour by some who fetched their Counsells from the depths of Hell to remove both Candlesticks and Candles cut of it that so the people of this Nation might have returned again to Aegypt and in time become Bruits Atheists and worse than Heathens For if it be tâ—ue of Humane Learning Emollit mores that it softens and sweetens mens Manners it is more true of that Knowledge which is divine and spiritual without whâ—ch people may grow Barbarous as in all probability this whole Nation might have done if the Lord had not appeared in the Mount and by an immediate Providence prevented it I say if any such thing ever happen to this Land they who shall be so unhappy as to live to the fight of that wofull day may borrow those words which that poor distressed woman somtimes uttered in the extream bitterness of her soul saying 1 Sam. 4. 22. The Glory is departed the Ark of God is taken and again the Glory is departed If this I say ever happen to this Land which the Mercy and Goodness of Almighty God forbid it may be then said that Judgment â—ath both begun and made an end with it and that the case of it would be more desperate than if the Ground of this Island had opened her Jaws and in one common Grave buried all her Inhabitants But blessed be God Prophets are yet in England and long may they continue in it the Pearl is yet to be found in our field the Gospell is yet amongst us Oh that as we have the sound thereof daily in our eares the letter of it walking through our lipps so we might see the power thereof more manifested in our lives To speak a few words more of those Indians with reflection still upon our selves let us consider that as the Ground is more or less manured so t is expected it should bring forth fruit accordingly some an hundred and some fifty and some thirty fold some more some less but all some Five Talâ—nts must gaine other five two must return two more and one shall satisfie with less proportion A Child may think and do and speak as becometh a Câ—ild but a Man must behave himself every way as becometh a man An Hebrew must live as an Hebrew not as an Aegyptian A Prophet as a Prophet and not by drudging and digging as an Husbandman A Believer must live as a Believer and not as an Heathen or Infidel A Professor of the Gospell must walke as a Professor of the Gospel not as a Libertine an Epicure or Athiest For a Wilderness to be barren there is no wonder at all in that but if those Trees which have been well husbanded dung'd and dress'd continue still fruitless they deserve cursing Arbori infructuosae debentur duo secur is et ignis Two things belong unto the fruitless tree the Axe to cut it down and the Fire to consume it When I have seriously thought on the many and mighty Nations at this day inhabiting the remote parts of the Earth and how that many of them are people that live in happy and most fruitfull Soils which afford every thing to please deâ—ight and to enrich the Sons of Men in sweet Aires that being most true of the Psalmist The earth hath God given to the Children of men Psal 115. 16. To the Children of men who are meer Aliens and Strangers to God Many of these enjoying as delectable places as the Sun shines on And for the people themselves many of them for flesh and bloud as comely as the Earth bears And further many of them people which are provident to forecast ingenuous to invent and most able and active to perform Concerning whom they who have tryed them may further say surely they are a wise people aâ—d of great understanding but considering again that they enâ—oying every thing want every thing in wanting Christ it makes their condition in all their enjoyments which seeme to make them happy most miserable To which purpose Lactantius speaks well of the Learning of Heathen Philosophers Omnis Doctrina Philosophorum sine capite c. That all their learning was without an head because they knew not God and therefore seeing they were blind and hearing they were deaf and understanding they understood nothing as they ought to have done it So for outvvard things though they have abundance yet they have nothing because they have not God in the right knowledge and understanding of him as he ought to be known in Christ Jesus They want Christ because they are altogether unacquainted with him but if vve who have had such a continuall povver of him and have such advantages to knovv him by hearing him so often teach in our streets if vve vvant him for vvant of closing vvith him and consequently be never a vvhit the better for him it will make our estate by far to be more lamentable than theirs Tyre and Sydoâ— and Gomorrah and Sodome and all the people I have named will speed better at the day of judgement than we shall do These Heathens in East-India as I strongly believe see as far with the eye of Nature as it can possibly reach and nature it self teacheth them and teacheth all the world beside that there is a God but who this God is and how this God is to be worshipped must elsewhere be learn'd Thus nature without Grace being like Sampson when his eyes were out who could not readily find the Pillars of the house wherein he was no more can any man of himself fasten unto any pillar of prop of truth unless the Spirit of God instruct and direct him how to do it Veritatem Philosophia quaerit Theologiâ— invenit Religio possidet saith Mirandula Philosophy seeks truth Divinity finds it but Religion possesseth it not the face or mask or visard or forme but the truth and power of Religion of which something by the way The truth and power of Religion I say for there have been ever many misconceivings about Religion How many stirs and quarrels and Heats have we known about the list and fringe of Christs Garment as one of most high deserving long since observed and these mistakes in Religion have made many to agree no better than the Bricklayers of Babel who when their tongues were divided could not understand one anothers speech but did mistake one thing for another And thus do many now who take nature if but a
Dew during all that time the Heavens there are thus shut up which every night fals and cools and comforts and refresheth the face of the earth Those general Rains begin near the time that the Sun comes to the Northern Tropick and so continue till his return back to the Line These showers at their beginning most extremely violent are usher'd in and usually take their leave with most fearful Tempests of Thunder Lightning more terrible than I can express yet seldome do harm the reason in Nature may be the subtilty of the Air in those parts wherein there are fewer Thunder-stones made than in such Climates where the Air is thick gross and cloudy During those three months it rains usually every day more or less sometimes one whole quarter of the Moon together scarce without any intermission which abundance of moysture with the heat of the Sun doth so enrich their Land which they never force if I observed right by Soyling of it as that like Egypt by the inundation of Nilus it makes it fruitful all the year after When the time of this Rain is passed over the face of the Skye there is presently so serene and clear as that scarcely one Cloud appears in their Hemisphere the nine months after And here a strong Argument that may further and most infallibly shew the goodness of their Soyl shall not escape my Pen most apparent in this That when the Ground there hath been destitute of Rain nine months together and looks all of it like the barren Sands in the Deserts of Arabia where there is not one spire of green Grass to be found within a few daies after those fat enriching showers begin to fall the face of the Earth there as it were by a new Resurrection is so revived and throughout so renewed as that it is presently covered all over with a pure green Mantle And moreover to confirm that which before I observed concerning the goodness of that Soyl amongst many hundred Acres of Corn of divers kinds I have there beheld I never saw any but what was very rich and good standing as thick on the Ground as the Land could well bear it They till their Ground with Oxen and Foot-Ploughs their Seed-time in May and the beginning of June they taking their time to dispatch all that work before that long Rainy season comes and though the Ground then hath been all the time we named before without any sufficient moysture by showers or otherwise to supple and make it more fit for tilliage yet the Soyl there is such a brittle fat mould which they sow year after year as that they can very easily till it Their Harvest is in November and December the most temperate months of all that year Their Ground is not enclosed unless some small quanty near Towns and Villages which stand scattered up and down this vast Empire very thick though for want of the true names not inserted in the Map They mow not their Grass as we to make Hay but cut it off the ground either green or withered as they have occasion to use it They sow Tobacco in abundance and they take it too very much but after a strange way much different from us for first they have little Earthen Pots shaped like our small Flower-pots having a narrow neck and an open round top out of the belly of which comes a small spout to the lower part of which spout they fill the Pot with water then putting their Tobacco loose in the top and a burning coal upon it they having first fastned a very small strait hollow Cane or Reed not bigger than a small Arrow within that spout a yard or ell long the Pot standing on the ground draw that smoak into their mouths which first falls upon the Superficies of the water and much discolours it And this way of taking their Tobacco they believe makes it much more cool and wholsome The Tobacco which grows there is doubtless in the Plant as good as in any other place of the world but they know not how to cure and order it like those in the West-Indies to make it so rich and strong The Countrey is beautified with many Woods and Groves of Trees in which those winged Choristers make sweet Musick In those Woods some excellent Hawks make their nests and there are very often to be seen great flocks of Parakeetoes or little Parrats who have their breeding and lodging amongst those Melancholy Shades And in the number of many other Creatures covered with Feathers there are some very little Birds less than our Wrens who are exceeding pretty for their neat shape and their covering with most curious parti-colour'd Feathers full of variety of little spots I have seen there many of those rare Creatures kept together in large Cages who please the Eye with their curious Colours and the Ear with their variety of pleasant Notes The Woods and Groves in the Southernmost parts of Indostan have great store of wild Apes and Monkeys and Baboons in them some of which I have seen as high as our tallest Greyhounds which live among the Trees and climbe them at pleasure Those Apes c. are very terrible to those little Birds which make their Nests in those Woods and therefore Nature hath taught them this subtilty to preserve their young ones from those Creatures which would otherwise destroy them to build their Nests in the twigs and the utmost boughs of those Trees where some of them hang like little Purse-nets to which those Apes and Monkeys be they never so little and light cannot come to hurt them Besides their Woods they have great variety of fair goodly Trees that stand here and there single but I never saw any there of those kinds of Trees which England affords They have very many firm and strong Timber-trees for building and other uses but much of their brush or small wood I observed to be very sappie so that when we brake a twig of it there would come a substance out of some of it like unto Milk and the sappiness of that underwood may as I apprehend it be ascribed in part to the fatness of that Soyl. Some of their Trees have Leaves upon them broad as Bucklers others are parted small like out Fern or Brakes as the Tamerine Tree which bears Gods somewhat like our Beans in which when the Fruit is ripe there is a very well tasted pulp though it be sowr most wholsome to open the body and to cool and cleanse the blood There is one very great and fair Tree growing in that Soyl of special observation out of whose Branches or great Arms grow little Sprigs downward till they take Root as they will certainly do if they be let alone and taking Root at length prove strong supporters unto those large Branches that yield them Whence it comes to pass that those Trees in time their strong and far-extended Arms being in many places thus supported grow to a very great height and
travel not but sit still a great way I must applaud whither thy choise or lot Which hath beyond their lazie knowledge got Who onely in the Globe do crosse the line There raise the Pole and draw whole Maps in wine Spil'd on the Table measure Seas and Lands By scale of miles wherein their Compasse stands But you the truths eye-witnesse have not been Homer it'â— dark but what you write have seen A rich and absolute Prince whose mighty hand Indus and Ganges solely doth command A numerous people wealthy traffick new Manners and men things wonderfull and true Some Relicks of the ancient Bramins race And what religious follies yet take place Whose pious eirours though they want our sense Have in lesse knowledge more of conscience Who to condemne ouâ— barren light advance A just obedient humble ignorance While vice here seeks a voluntary night As over-glitter'd with to clear a light Neglected love and the fair truths abuse Hath left our guilty blushes no excuse And their blinde zeal ' gainst us a witnesse stands Who having so good eyes have lost our hands This you with pious faithfulnesse declare Nor quit the Preacher for the Traveller And though these leaves nothing to Merchants owe For Spices Cuchineal or Indico Yet all confesse who weigh the gains you brought Your ship was laden with a richer fraught While the glad world by you instructed sings Wisdom's the noblest ware that Travel brings Robert Creswell The Printer to the Reader IF this whole Relation had been brought unto me at first as it is here presented unto thee it should not have been so crouded together as here thou seest it but had found better room where it might have been more decently lodged in a fitter Edition the want of which may make some curious eye behold it as a bundle rather then a book But the Author revising and enlarging some of it while I was printing the rest in conclusion it grew much bigger than either of us supposed it would which hath put me now upon this Apologie who had proceeded so far in the printing thereof as that I thought it great pity to make what I had done waste paper and so wilt thou think now thou hast it all before thee if thou readest it over Fare well The Contents of this following Relation THe beginning of our Voyage our Ships and chief Commander pag. 1. 2. A Tempest pag. 2. 3. The grand Canaries and and Island of Teneriffa p. 3. 4. The Turnadoes or self opposing windes 5. 6. Divers kinde of Fishes 7. c. The Bay of Souldania and Cape of good Hope with the Barbarous people there inhabiting 13. c. The great Island Madagascar and some other parts of Africa 33. 34. A Sea fight with a Portugal Caraque and the issue thereof 35. c. The Island Mohilia 53. 54. The Coquer Nut-tree 55. Our arrive at Swally-Road in East-India 57. Some particulars to revive the memorie of that now almost forgotten English Pilgrim Tom. Coriat 58. c. The large Territories under the subjection of the great Mogol Where Section 1. pag. 78. c. Of the several Provinces the chief Cities the principal Rivers the extent of that vast Empire in its length and breadth Section 2. p. 92. c. Of the Soyl there what it is and what it produceth Section 3. p. 111. c. Of the chief Merchandizes and most staple and other Commodities which are bought in this Empire Section 4. p. 121. c. Of the discommodities inconveniences and annoyances that are to be found or met withall in this Empire Section 5. p. 127. c. Of the Inhabitants of East-India who they are of their most excellent ingenuity expressed by their curious manufactures their Markets at home to buy and sell in and of their trade abroad Section 6. p. 139. c. Of the care skill of this people in keeping and managing their excellent good Horses of their Elephants and the ordering and managing them and how the people ride and are carried up and down from place to place Section 7. p. 158. c. Of their numerous Armies their Ammunition for war how they lade themselves with Weapons how terribly they appear yet how pusill animous and low spirited they are Section 8. p. 170. c. Of our safe and secure living amongst the Natives there if we do not provoke them of their faithfulnesse unto those that entertain them as servants for how little they serve and yet how diligent they are Section 9. p. 187. c. Of their buildings in Villages Towns and Cities How their houses are furnished Of their Sarraes or houses for the entertainment of Passengers Of their Tankes and Wells and of their places of pleasure Section 10. p. 205. c. Of their diet and their Cookery in dressing it Section 11. p. 212. c. Of the civilities of this people Of their compliments and of their habites Section 12. p. 232. c. Of their Language their books their learning Section 13. p. 241. c. Of their Physicians diseases cures when they begin their year and how they measure their time Section 14. p. 248. c. Of the most excellent moralities which are to be observed amongst the people of those Nations Section 15. p. 259. c. Of their Religion their Priests their Detion their Churches Section 16. p. 281. c. Of their Votaries where of the voluntary and sharp penances that people undergo Of their Lent and of their fasts and feasts Section 17. p. 297. c. Of the marriages of the Mahometans and of their Poligamy Section 18. p. 305. c. Of their burials and of their mourning for their dead and their stately Sepulchres and Monuments Section 19. p. 318. c. Of the Hindooes or Heathens which inhabite that Empire Section 20. p. 326 c. Of the tendernesse of that people in preserving the lives of all inferiour creatures Section 21. p. 342. Of strange groundlesse and very grosse opinions proceeding from the blacknesse darkness of ignorance in that people Section 22. p. 363. Of their King the great Mogol his descent c. Section 23. p. 369. c. Of the Mogols policy in his Government exercised by himself and Substitutes Section 24. p. 389. c. Of the Mogol shewing himself three times publickly unto his people every day and in what state and glorie he doth oftentimes appear Section 25. p. 402. c. Of the Mogols pastimes at home and abroad where something of his quality and disposition Section 26. p. 410. c. Of the exceeding great Pensions the Mogol gives unto his subjects how they are raised and how long they are continued Section 27. p. 418. c. Of the Mogols Leskar or Camp Royal. Section 28. p. 426. c. Of the Mogols wives and women where something of his Children Section 29. p. 436. c. Of the manner of the stile or writing of that Court. Section 30. p. 440. c. Of
probaby so named at first by some Welshman in whose language Pen-guin signifies a white head and there are very many great lazy fowls upon and about this Island with great cole-black bodies and very white heads called Pen-guins The chief man of the eight there left was sirnamed Cross who took the Name upon him of Captain Cross He was formerly a Yeoman of the Guard unto King James But having had his hand in blood twice or thrice by men 〈◊〉 by him in severall Duels and now being condemned to die with the rest upon very great fute made for him he was hither Banished with them whither the justice of Almighty God was dispatched after him as it were in a Whirlwind and followed him close at the very heels and overtook him and left him not till he had payd dear for that blood he had formerly spilt This Cross was a very stout and a very resolute man who quarrelling with and abusing the Natives and engaging himself farre amongst them immediatly after himself with the rest were left in that place many of these Salvages being go 〈…〉 together fell upon him and with their Darts thrown and Arrows shot at him stuck his body so full of them as if he had been Larded with Darts and Arrows making him look like the Figure of the man in the Almanack that seems to be wounded in every part or like that man described by Lucan totum pro vulnere corpus Who was all wound where blood touched blood The retaliations of the Lord are sure and just Hee that is mercy it self abhorrs cruelty above all other sins Hee cannot endure that one man should devour another as the Beasts of the field Birds of the ayr Fishes of the Sea doe and therefore usually shewes exemplary signall revenges for that sin of Blood selling it at a dear rate unto them that shed it Every sin hath a tongue but that of blood our-cryes and drowns the rest Blood being a clamorous and a restless suter whose mouth will not be stopt till it receive an answer as it did here The other seven the rest of these miserable Bandiâ—i who were there with Cross recovered their Boat and goâ— off the shore without any great hurt and so rowing to their Island the waves running high they split their boat at their landing which engaged them to keep in that place they having now no possible means left to stirre thence And which made their condition while they were in it most extremely miserable it is a place wherein growes never a tree either for sustenance or shelter or shade nor any thing beside I ever heard of to help sustein nature a place that hath never a drop of fresh water in it but what the showrs leave in the holes of the rocks And besides all this there are a very great number of Snakes in that Island as I have been told by many that have been upon it so many of those venemous worms that a man cannot tread safely in the long grasse which growes in it for fear of them And all these put together must needs make that place beyond measure uncomfortable to these most wretched men To this may be added their want of provision having nothing but dry Bisket and no great quantity of that so that they lived with hungry bellies without any place fit for repose without any quiet rest for they could not choose but sleep in fear continually And what outward condition could make men more miserable than this Yet notwithstanding all they suffered these seven vile wretches all live to be made examples afterward of Divine Justice For after they had continued in and endured this sad place for the space of five or six moneths and they were grown all even almost mad by reason of their several pressing wants and extremities it pleased God by providence to bring an English Ship into that road returning for England four of these 7. men being impatient of anymore hours staythere immediatly after that ship was come in made a float with the ruines of their split boat which they had saved togither and with other wood which they had gotten thither and with raveld and untwisted boat-roapes fastned as well as they could all together for there are no such sudden teachers and instructers as extremities are These four got upon the Float which they had thus prepared and poysing it as well as they could by their severall weight hoped by the benefit of their Oares and strength of the tyde that then ran quick toward the ship newly arrived they might recover it but this their expectation failed them for it being late in the day when they made this attempt and they not discovered by the ship which then road a good way up in the Bay before they could come up neer unto her the tyde return'd and so carried them back into the main Sea where they all perished miserably The day following the ship sent a boat to the Island which took those three yet surviving into her as the other four might have been if they could but have exercised their patience for one night longer these survivers came aboard the ship related all that had befallen to their fellows But these three notwithstanding all their former miseries when they were taken into the ship behaved themselves so lâ—wdly as they returned homewarâ— that they were very often put into the Bilbowes or ship-stocks in the way returning and otherwise many times punished for their great and severall misdemenours at last the ship being safely returned into the Downes she had not been there at an anchor above three hours but these three Willains got on shore and they had not been ashore above three hours but they took a Purse and a very few hours after were apprehended and all taken for that fact and suddenly after that their very foul storie being related to the Lord chief Justice and they looked upon as men altogether incorrigible and uncapable of amendment by lesser corrections by his speciall Warrant were executed upon their former Condemnation for which they were banished not to return hither again but never pardoned neer Sandwich in Kent where they committed the robbery from whose example wee may learn that it is not in the power of any affliction how heavy soever it light and how long soever it lye if it be not sanctified to do any man good That when the rod is upon a man if he be not taught as well as chastned all the stripes bestowed on him are cast away A man might have hoped that these wretched fellowes had been long enough in the fire to have purged away their dross But afflictions like fire harden as well as soften and experience teaches us that the winds and waves though they beat with their greatest violence upon the rocks yet leave them as they found them unmovable It being a most tryed truth recorded by Solomon Prov. 27. 22. That bray or beat a fool in a morter he will not
from Joppa whence they departed together towards Jerusalem and found it a very solitary rocky uncomfortable way full of danger by reason of the wild Arabs who keep about those Passages to make poor Travellers their prey and spoyl But they came safe to Jerusalem now inhabited by Turks and that place called by them Cutts where he told me that himself and his Companion were courteously received by the Father Guardian of the Convent of Franciscan Friars that keep their residence in Jerusalem and by some of them were met at the Gate of the City where they were compelled by the Turkish Souldiers who keep those Gates as all others that bear the names of Christians are at their first coming thither to redeem their heads by paying each of them the value of five shillings before they could have admittance into that place which they had no sooner â—ntâ—â—d but they were presently carried by those Franciscans which met them to their Convent and then the first thing they did to or for them they washed their feet then set some comfortable refection before them and after went in Procession about a little Cloyster they had praising God that he had brought in safety those two Votaries as they called them to visit that Holy Place A day or two after they accompanied them to Bethlehem the place of our Blessed Saviours birth about five English miles distant from Jerusalem and in the way betwixt those two places shewed them a Rock on which as they said the Blessed Virgin sate down as she went on a time betwixt Jerusalem and Bethlehem to give her Babe suck and that the Rock might not feel hard under her it yielded as they told them to her body like a Cushion and that impression made by her so sitting remaineth unto this day and is most devoutly kissed by Votaries as they pass up and down After this they returning back shewed them all that was to be seen in and about Jerusalem Many particulars they told them stories which are there kept by Tradition concerning our Blessed Saviour and his Mother Then they had a sight of as much of Mount Calvarie where our Blessed Saviour suffered as could be shewed them that Hill being now enclosed within the Wals of Jerusalem They undertook to shew them afterwards the place wherein our Blessed Saviour was buried and after that upon Mount Olivet the very place whence he after ascended where upon a Rock there was an impression of the former part of two feet such as is seen in soft earth when a man lifts up his body to leap thence and these Franciscans confidently affirmed and seemed undoubtedly to believe that it was so as they shewed and told them Many other things they affirmed which being but Circumstantials though appertaining to the best of all stories were enough for these Pilgrims to believe and enough to make doubt of At Jerusalem this our Traveller had made upon the Wrists of his left Arm the Arms of Jerusalem a Cross Crossed or Crosslets and on the Wrist of his right a single Cross made like that our Blessed Saviour suffered on and on the sides of the stem or tree of that Cross these words written Via Veritas Vita some of the letters being put on the one side of that stem or tree and some of them on the other and at the foot of that Cross three Nails to signifie those which fastned our Saviour unto it All these impressions were made by sharp Needles bound together that pierced onely the skin and then a black Powder put into the Places so pierced which became presently indelible Characters to continue with him so long as his flesh should be covered with skin And they were done upon his Arms so artificially as if they had been drawn by some accurate Pencil upon Parchment This poor man would pride himself very much in the beholding of those Characters and seeing them would often speak those words of St. Paul written to the Galatians Gal. 6. 17. though far besides the Apostles meaning I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Now after that himself and Camrade had seen what they desired in and about Jerusalem they took their leave of those Franciscans leaving with them money to recompence the curtesy they had received from them the Friars being very poor and consequently unable to entertain them freely without requitals From hence they took their way to take a view of the Dead Sea so called either because the water therein is still and moves not or because no living Creature is in it and nothing thrives on the banks thereof the place where Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim once stood those Cities which Almighty God overthrew in anger and repented not Jer. 20. 16. Hence they went to have a sight of the River Jordan which dischargeth it self into that most uncomfortable Lake and from hence they journied North-east through those ten Tribes which for the sin of Salomon were rent from his son Rehoboam till they came to Mount Libanus Thence back to Sidon which retaineth that name still And here he told me as his last observation made in that Land of Cauaan sometimes like the Garden of the Lord flowing with milk and honey being then enriched with a very great variety and abundance of Gods good Creatures and in the daies of David so populous that there were numbred in it at one time thirteen hundred thousand fighting men 2 Sam. 24. 9. besides Women and Children and others unfit to draw swords which was a most wonderful thing to consider that such a spot of ground in comparison not above one hundred and sixty miles in length from Dan to Beersheba and not above sixty miles in bredth from Joppa to Jordan should be able to bear and feed such a numerous people and now the very self-same tract of Earth either for want of manuring or which is rather to be conceived for the want of the blessing of Almighty God which once shined upon it but now long since withdrawn from it For a fruitful Land the Lord makes barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein Psal 107. 34. is now become unable to sustein one in an hundred of such a number From Sidon they got a passage by Sea unto Alexandretta now called Scanderoon in the extremest bottom of the Mediterranean Sea which is one of the unwholsomest places in the World where I have often heard that no Stranger that was born far from it comes to continue there for the space of one Month but is sure to meet with a sickness which very often proves Mortal At this place his English Companion left him and turned his face towards England and he presently took his way towards Aleppo in Syria about seventy miles or more distant from Scanderoon which is as much renowned for wholsomness as the place before-named for being unwholsome and therfore it is called sweet-air'd Aleppo Here he being kindly received by the English Consul
certain Divinity to Waters but more especially to the Water in the River Ganges And thither our famous Coryat went likewise to view this place 29. Kakares the principal Cities are called Dekalâ—e and Purhola it is a large Province but exceeding mountainous divided it is from Tartaria by the Mountain Caucasus it is the extremest part North under the Mogol's subjection 30. Gor the chief City so called it is full of Mountains the River Sersily a tributary unto Ganges hath its beginning in it 31. Pitan the chief City so called the River Canda waters it and fals into Ganges in the Confines thereof 32. Kanduana the chief City is called Karhakatenka the River Sersily parts it from Pitan This and Gor are the North-east bounds of this Monarchy 33. Patna the chief City so called the River Ganges bounds it on the West Sersily on the East it is a very fertile Province 34. Jesuat the chief City is called Raâ—apore it lyeth East of Patna 35. Mevat the chief City is called Narnol it is very mountainoâ—s 36. Udessa the chief City called Jikanat it is the most remote part East of this Empire 37. Bengala a most spacious and fruitful Province but more properly to be called a Kingdome which hath two very large Provinces within it Purb and Patan the one lying on the East the other on the West-side of the River Ganges It is limited by the Golph of the same name whereinto the River Ganges which at last comes to be divided into four great Currents dischargeth it self after it hath found a way through the Mogol's Territories more than fifteen hundred miles in length The chief Cities in it are Ragamahat and Dekaka It hath many Havens and Ports belonging unto it which are places of very great trade Now these are the several Provinces belonging to the Great Mogol and all of them under his subjection which may be beheld all together at one view in this most exact affixed Map first made by theespecial observation direction of that most able and honourable Gentleman Sir Thomas Row here contracted into a less compass yet large enough to demonstrate that this great Empire is bounded on the East with the Kingdome of Maug West with Persia and with the Main Ocean Southerly North with the Mountain Caucasus and Tartaria South with Decan and the Gulph of Bengala Decan lying in the skirts of Asia is divided betwixt three Mahumeran Princes and some other Indian Rhaiaes which are Princes likewise The length of these Provinces is North-west to South-west more than two thousand English miles North and South the extent thereof is about fourteen hundred miles the Southermost part lying in twenty and the Northernmost in forty and three degrees of North Latitude The breadth of this much enlarged and far extended Empire is North-east to South-west about fifteen hundred of the same miles And here a great errour in Geographers must not escape my notice who in their Globes and Maps make East-India and China near Neighbours when as many large Countries are interposed betwixt them which great distance may appear by the long travel of the Indian Merchants who are usually they going and returning all the way by Land in their journey and return and some stay there two full years from Agra to China Now to give an exact account of all those forenamed Provinces were more than I am able to undertake yet out of that which I have observed in some of them by travelling many miles up into that Countrey and then up and down with my Lord Embassadour unto many places there in progress with that King I shall adventure to ghess at all and think for my particular that the Great Mogol considering his most large Territories his full and great Treasures with the many rich Commodities his Provinces afford is the greatest and richest known King of the East if not of the whole World I shall now therefore fall upon particulars to make that my observation good Where SECTION II. Of the Soyl there what it is and what it produceth c. THis most spacious and fertile Monarchy called by the Inhabitants Indostan so much abounds in all necessaries for the use and service of man to feed and cloath and enrich him as that it is able to subsist and flourish of it self without the least help from any Neighbour-Prince or Nation Here I shall speak first of that which Nature requires most Food which this Empire brings forth in abundance as singular good Wheat Rice Barley with divers more kinds of good Grain to make Bread the staff of life and all these sorts of Corn in their kinds very good and exceeding cheap For their Wheat it is more full and more white than ours of which the Inhabitants make such pure well-relished Bread that I may say of it as one sometimes spake of the Bread made in the Bishoprick of Leige it is Panis Pane melior Bread better than Bread The ordinary sort of people eat Bread made of a coarser Grain but both toothsome and wholsome and hearty they make it up in broad Cakes thick like our Oaten-cakes and then bake it upon small round iron hearths which they carry with them when they journey from place to place making use of them in their Tents It should seem to be an antient Custome in the East as may appear by that president of Sarah when she entertained the Angels who found her in her Tent She took fine meal and did knead it and made Cakes thereof upon the hearth Gen. 18. 6. To their Bread they have great abundance of all other good Provision as of Butter beating their Cream into a substance like unto a thick Oyl for in that hot Climate they can never make it hard which though soft yet it is very sweet and good They have Cheese likewise in plenty by reason of their great number of Kine and Sheep and Goats Besides they have a Beast very large having a smooth thick skin without hair called a Buffelo which gives good milk the flesh of them is like Beef but neither so toothsome nor wholsome These Buffeloes are much employed in carrying large skins of water for they are very strong Beasts which hang on both sides of them unto Families that want it their Hides make the most firm and excellent Buff. They have no want of Venison of divers kinds as Red-Deer Fallow-Deer Elks which are very large and strong and fierce Creatures Antilops Kids c. but their Deer are no where imparked the whole Empire being as it were a Forrest for them for a man can travel no way but he shall here and there see of them But because they are every mans Game that will make them so they do not multiply to do them much hurt either in their Corn or other places To these they have great store of Hares and they have plenty of Fowls wild and tame as abundance of Hens Geese Ducks Pigeons Turtle-Doves Partriches Peacocks Quails and many other
Tamberlane and his successors and the lower we go the greater still they are but the last of them swels biggest of all calling himself amongst other phansies the Conqueror of the world and so he conceits himself to be As they write of Thrasyllus the Athenian who believed that all the ships on the Sea were his own and therefore he would call them my ships when ever he saw them floating on the waters and thus the great Magol imagines all the Kings Nations and people of the world to be his Slaves and Vassals And therefore when the Grand Signiour or great Turks sent an Ambassador to the great Mogol who came unto him attended with a great train and retinue and after when he was ready to take his leave desired of the Mogol to know what he should say to his Master when he was returned tell thy Master said the Mogol that he is my slave for my Ancestor Conquered him The Mogol feeds and feasts himself with this conceit that he is Conqueror of the world and therefore I conceive that he was troubled upon a time when my Lord-Ambassador haveing businesse with him and upon those terms there is no coming unto that King empty handed without some present or other of which more afterward and having at that time nothing left which he thought fit to give him presented him with Mercators great book of Cosmography which the Ambassador had brought thither for his own use telling the Mogol that that book described the four parts of the world and all several Countreys in them contained the Mogol at the first seem'd to be much taken with it desiring presently to see his own Territories which were immediately shewen unto him he asked where were those Countreys about them he was told Tartaria and Persia as the names of the rest which confine with him and then causing the book to be turn'd all over and finding no more to fall to his share but what he first â—aw and he calling himself the Conqueror of the world and having no greater share in it seemed to be a little troubled yet civily told the Ambassadour that neither himself nor any of his people did understand the language in which that book was written and because so he further told him that he would not rob him of such a Jewel and therefore returned it unto him again And the truth is that the great Mogol might very well bring his action against Mercator and others who describe the world but streighten him very much in their Maps not allowing him to be Lord Commander of those Provinces which properly belong unto him But it is true likewise that he who hath the greatest share on the face of the earth if it be compared with the whole world appears not great As it was said of the Lands of Alcibiades that compared with the Glob of the whole earth they did not appear bigger than a small tittle The Mogols Territories are more apparent large and visible as any one may take notice who strictly views this affixed Map wch is a true representation of that great Empire in its large dimensions So that although the Mogol be not master of the whole World yet hath he a great share in it if we consider his very large Territories and his abundant riches as will after more appear whose wealth and strength makes him so potent as that he is able whensoever he pleaseth to make inroades upon and to do much mischief unto any of his Neighbours but I leave that and come now to speak SECT XXIII Of the Mogols policy in his government exercised by himself and substitutes c. ANd it is that indeed which is the worst of â—ll governments called by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arbitrary illimited Tyrannical such as a most severe Master useth to Servants not that which a good King administreth to Subjects Which makes it very uncomfortable for those that live as subjects there under the command of others taller than themselves by their swords length or so to be fixed in any part of the World Where no Laws resist The sword but that it acteth what it lists As in that Empire where the King measureth his power by his sword or Launce in making his will his guide and therefore any thing lawfull that likes him which carriage of his might very well become that Embleme of illâ—mited power which is a sword waved by a strong arm and hand and the word siâ— volo sic jubeo or thus will I have it and if any there be so far discontented as to make any the least question at what he doth he hath a far stronger argument still in readinesse than all the force of Logick can make and that is very many thousands of men that are â—â—ouâ— and able Souldiers whom he keeps continually in arms and pay that can make any thing good which he shall please to command There are no Laws for Government kepâ— in that Empire upon record for ought I could ever learn to regulate Governours there in the administration of Justice but what are written in the breast of that King and his Substitutes and therefore they often take liberty to proceed how they please in punishing the Offender rather than the offence mens persons more than their Crimes aegrotum potius quam morbum Yet ever they pretend to proceed in their wayes of judicature which is the right progresse in judgement secundum allegata probata by proofs and not by presumptions The great Mogol will sit himself as Judge in any matters of consequence that happen nere unto him And there are no Malefactors that lye more than one night in prison and many times not at all for if the party offending be apprehended early in the day he is immediately brought before him that must be his Judge by whom he is presently either acquitted or condemned if he be sentenced to be whipt he hath his payment and that usually with very much severity in the place often where he received that sentence If condemned to dye he is presently which as I apprehend it is a very hard course though used anciently among the Jews carried from his sentence to his execution which is done usally in the Bazar or Market-place And this round and quick Justice keep the people there in such order and awe as that there are not many executions Murder and Theft they punish with death with what kinde of death the Judge pleaseth to impose for some Malefactors are hang'd some beheaded some impaled or put upon sharp stakes a death which hath much cruelty and extream torture and torment in it some are torn in places by wilde Beasts some kill'd by Elephants and others stung to death by Snakes Those which are brought to suffer death by Elephants some of which vast Creatures are train'd up to do execution on Malefactors are thus dealt withall First if that overgrown Beast be commanded by his Rider to diâ—patch that poor trembling Offender presently
should come into the World We said the Mogol are for Mahomet The Persians magnifie Mortis Hale but they are Mahometans for Religion likewise The Hindoos or Heathens there have many whom they highly extol magnifie as Bremaw and Bramon and Ram and Permissar The Parsees are for Zertoâ—st the Jews for Moses the Christians for Christ and he added three more whose names I have not who make up the number of twelve who have all their several followers in that part of the World and then he caused those twelve Names to be written in twelve several Scrolls and put together to see if the Ape could draw out the Name of the true Prophet this done the Ape put his paw amongst them and pull'd forth the Name of Christ The Mogol a second time caused those twelve Names to be written again in twelve other Scrolls and Characters and put together when the Ape as before pull'd forth the name of Christ Then Mahobet-Chan a great Noble man of that Court and in high favour with the King said that it was some imposture of the Christians though there were none that did bear that name there present and desired that he might make a third trial which granted he put but eleven of those names together reserving the name of Christ in his hand the Ape searching as before pull'd forth his paw empty and so twice or thrice together the King demanding a reason for this was answered that happily the thing he looked for was not there he was bid to search for it and then putting out those eleven names one after the other in a seeming indignation rent them then running to Mahobet-Chan caught him by the hand where the Name of Christ was concealed which delivered he opened the Scrolle and so held it up to the King but did not tear it as the former upon which the Mogol took the Ape and gave his Keeper a good Pension for to keep him near about him calling him the Divining Ape and this was all that followed upon this admirable thing except the great wonder and amazement of that people There was one some years since wrote this story but somewhat varied from that I have here related in a little printed Pamphlet and told his Reader that I had often seen that Ape while I lived in those parts which particular he should have left out but for the Relation it self I believe it was so because it hath been often confirmed there in its report unto me by divers persons who knew not one another and were differing in Religion yet all agreed in the story and in all the circumstances thereof This I am sure of that Almighty God who can do what he will do for all things are so far from being impossible to him that nothing is hard can do wonderfull things by the weakest means that the weaker the instruments are the more glory moy be ascribed unto him while he acts by them In the sacred storie Pharoah had no sooner asked who is the Lord Ex. 5. but presently some of the weakest of the Creatures rise up and appear as it were in Arms to tell him who the Lord was so that he who formerly thought that there was no power either in heaven or earth to master or contradict him is presently confuted and conquered by Frogs and Flies and Lice and Caterpillars by those poor infirm silly and most despicable Creatures who when they had entred the lists would not give proud Pharoah over till they had humbled him and magnified their maker virtus Dei in infirmitate Balaams Asse had more discovered unto him than unto his Rider and so had this Ape as it should seem more than to his beholders or to his keeper Now for the disposition of that King it ever seemed unto me to be composed of extreams for sometimes he was barbarously cruel and at other times he would seem to be exceeding fair and gentle For his cruelties he put one of his women to a miserable death one of his women he had formerly touched and kept Company withall but now she was superannuated for neither himself nor Nobles as they say come near their wives or women after they exceed the age of thirty years though they keep them and allow them some maintenance The fault of that woman this the Mogol upon a time found her and one of his Eunuchs kissing one another and for this very thing the King presently gave command that a round hole should be made in the earth and that her body should be put into that hole where she should stand with her head onely above ground and the earth to be put in again unto her close round about her that so she might stand in the parching Sun till the extream hot beams thereof did kill her in which torment she lived one whole day and the night following and almost till the next noon crying out most lamentably while she was able to speak in her language as the Shunamites Childe did in his 2 King 4. Ah my head my head which horrid execution or rather murder was acted near our house where the Eunuch by the command of the said King was brought very near the place where this poor Creature was thus buried alive and there in her sight cut all into pieces That great King would be often overcome by Wine yet as if he meant to appropriate that sin to himself would punish others with very much severity who were thus distempered I have long since heard a story which is somewhat pararel to this that in former times when this land in which we live did not so much stink of that beastly sin of drunkennesse which robs a man of himself and leaves a beast in the skin of a man I say when drunkennesse in England was not so common There was a Justice of Peace in this Nation and I believe that the story is very true which laid a poor Butoher by the heels for presuming to be drunk telling him that he was but a poor beggerly fellow and he presume to be drunk and therefore he would punish him saying further that it was enough for his eldest Son so to be c. but this by the way Sometimes for little or no faults the Mogol would cause men to be most severely whip't till they were almost ready to dye under the rod which after they must kisse in thankfulnesse He caused one of his servants of the higher ranke to be very much whipt for breaking a China Cup he was commanded to keep safe and then sent him into China which is a marvelous distance from thence to buy another Sometimes in other of his mad distempers he would condemne men to servitude or dismember or else put them to death as sacrifices to his will and passion not Justice So that it might be said of him quando male nemo pejus that when he did wickedly none could do worse as if it had been true of him which was spoken of that
monster Nero observed before who was called Lutum sanguine maceratum dirt soaked in bloud For his good actions he did relieve continually many poor people and not seldom would shew many expressions of duty and strong affection to his Mother then living so that he who esteemed the whole World as his Vassals would help to carry her in a Palankee upon his shoulders and in this he did exceedingly differ from that most unnatural and cruel Nero who most barbarously killed his own Mother Agrippina causing as they write that Bed in which he was conceived and from whence born and wherein he took up his first lodging to be ript up and spoiled The Mogol would often visite the cells of those he esteemed religious men whose persons he esteemed sacred as if they had been Demi-gods And he would speak most respectively of our blessed Saviour Christ but his Parentage his poverty and his crosse did so confound his thoughts that he knew not what to think of them As Bernard complained of some in his time that they took offence at the clowts and rags of our blessed Saviour at the humility and meannesse of his birth believing that it could not stand with the Majesty of the Son of God to appear in the World in such meannesse as he did though he had been told that Christ Jesus came into the World in that low condition that he might beat down the pride thereof And that at his first coming he came for sinners and then he came in great humility but at his second coming he shall come against sinners and then will he appear in power great glory Lastly the Mogol is very free and noble unto all those which fall into and abide in his affection which brings me now to speak SECT XXVI Of the exceeding great Pensions the Mogol gives unto his Subjects how they are raised and how long they are continued c. WHich great revenues that many of them do enjoy makes them to live like great Princes rather than other men Now for those Pensions which are so exceeding great the Mogol in his far extended Monarchy allowes yearly pay for one Million of horse and for every horse and man about eighteen pounds sterling per annum which is exactly paid every year raised from Land and other Commodities which that Empire affords and appointed for that purpose Now some of the Mogol's most beloved Nobles have the pay of six thousand horse and there are others at the least twenty in his Empire which have the pay of 5000. horse exceeding large Pensions above the revenue of any other Subjects in the whole World they amounting unto more than one hundred thousand pounds yearly unto a particular man Now others have the pay of four thousand horse others of three or two or one thousand horse and so downward and these by their proportions are appointed to have horses alwayes in readinesse well mann'd and otherwise appointed for the Kings service so that he who hath the pay of five or six thousand must alwayes have one thousand in readinesse or more according to the Kings need of them and so in proportion all the rest which enables them on a sudden to make up the number at the least of two hundred thousand horse of which number they have alwayes at hand one hundred thousand to wait upon the King wheresoever he is There are very many private men in Cities and Towns who are Merchants or Tradesmen that are very rich but it is not safe for them that are so so to appear least that they should be used as fill'd sponges But there is never a Subject in that Empire who hath Land of inheritance which he may call his own but they are all Tenants at the will of their King having no other title to that they enjoy besides the Kings favour which is by far more easily lost than gotten It is true that the King advanceth many there unto many great honours and allows them as before marvelous great revenues but no Son there enjoyes either the Titles or means of his Father that hath had Pensions from that King for the King takes possession of all when they are dead appointing their Children some competent means for their subsistence which they shall not exceed if they fall not into the Kings affection as their Fathers did wherefore many great men in this Empire live up to the height of their means and therefore have a very numerous train a very great retinue to attend upon them which makes them to appear like Princes rather than subjects Yet this their necessary dependance on their King binds them unto such base subjection as that they will yield with readinesse unto any of his unreasonable and wilfull commands As Plutarch writes of the Souldiers of Scipio nulluâ— est horum qui non conscensâ turri semet in mare praecipitaturus si jussero that there was never a one in his Army by his own report that would not for a word of his mouth have gone up into a Tower and cast himself thence head-long into the Sea and thus the people here will do thing the King commands them to do so that if he bid the Faâ—her to lay hands of violence upon his Son or the Son upon his Father they will do it rather than the will of their King should be disobeyed Thus forgetting Nature rather than Subjection And this tye of theirs I say upon the Kings favour makes all his Subjects most servile flatterers for they will commend any of his actions though they be nothing but cruâ—lty so any of his speeches though nothing but folly And when the King sits and speaks to any of his people publickly there is not a word falls from him that is not written by some Scrâ—veners or Scribes that stand round about him In the year 1618. when we lived at that Court there appeared at once in the Moneth of November in their Hemisphear two great Blazing-stars the one of them North the other South which unusual sight appeared there for the space of one Moneth One of those strange Comets in the North appeared like a long blazing Torch or Launce fired at the upper end the other in the South was round like a pot boyling out fire The Mogol consulted with his flattering Astrologers who spake of these Comets unto the King as Daniel sometimes did of Nebuchadnezzars dream Dan. 4. 19. My Lord the dream is to them that hate thee and the interpretation thereof unto thine Enemies For his Astrologers told him that he needed not trouble himself with the thought thereof for it concerned other places and people not him nor his But not long after this their season of Rain before spoken of which was never known to fail till then failed them and this caused such a famine and mortality in the South parts of his Empire that it did very much unpeople it and in the Northern part thereof whether the Mogol then repaired his third Son Sultan
first seasoning while life remaineth That dangerous time of youth by the envy and cunning and help of Satan carries very many young men left too much unto themselves into most shameful courses They being of themselves like a Ship on the maine Ocean that hath neither Helm nor compass and therefore moves it knows not whither Or in this like weak limb'd Children who if they be suffered to go too much and to soon lame themselves for ever Yet many think that in that time of life their youth gives them some liberty and priviledge aliquid aetati juvenum est concedendum they say which words abused make them the Divels dispensation and not Gods though they may fondly and falsly suppose that because they are young they may be borne withall in any thing they do as if Pride Drunkenness Whoredome and the like most fearfull exorbitances were not faults in youth they not considering that want of years and want of judgement which judgement enables to put a right difference 'twixt good and evill usually go together And that youth is like unto green wood which is ever shrinking and warping for as with the antient there is wisdom Job 12. 12. so pampered and ungoverned youth is commonly rash heady insolent wedded to its own will led by humour a rebell to reason a subject to passion fitter to execute than to advise and because youth cannot consider as it should it is no marvell if it so often miscarry The ways of youth being steep and slippery wherein it is very hard to stand as very easy to fall and to run into most fearful exorbitances It being the usual manner of young men so much to intend as they falsly think the love of themselves in the love of their pleasures as that they cannot attend the love of God And therefore that man may much better hope to come safely and happily unto the end of his course who hath passed over his first journey I mean his youth well But which is a very great hinderance unto many young men when they do but begin to enter upon their way there are many Parents which do not desire that their Children should be good betimes they being misled by one of the Devils Proverbs which is a young Saint an old Devill It is true that some who have been wild and wicked in youth have proved good in age But it is a most tryed truth to encourage the groth of early holiness which hath been made good by much experience that a Saint in youth an Angell in age And truly very many Children may thank their Parents for much of the evill that is in them beside their Birth-sin poysoning them as they do by their evill examples Children confidently believing that they may lawfully do any thing they see their Parents do before them hence Juvenal speaks well Maxima debetur pueris reverentia Therefore Parents should take heed what they do or what they speâ—k before their Children As 't is writâ—en of wise Cato though an Heathen that he was wont to carry himself with as much gravâ—ty before his Children as if he had been before the Senate of Rome The neglect of which care shall give Children cause one day to speak that in truth unto their Parents which Zippâ—rah sometimes spâ—ke unadvisedly unto her husband Moses when he had Circumcised her son Ex 4. 25. Surely a bloody Husband art thou unto me so these will say to their Parents that they have been bloody Fathers and bloody Mothers unto them in giving them a Serpent when they should have given them a Fish a stone when they should have given them bread in teaching them to swear when they should have taught them to pray unâ—oing them by their evill when they might have done them much good by their holy and unblameable examples as also by their early instruction and their timely correction which might have prevented through Gods blessing their rushing into the pit of ruin But why Parents thus generally fail in their duties we need not much marvell if we consider the carelesness or rather inability of most Parents to instruct their Children Scilicet expectas ut tradet mater honestes Aut alios mores quam quos habet Ju. No Mother can good precepts give Who hath not learn'd her self to live It is not to be hoped that Parents should give their Children better precepts than they have learn'd themselves But here I must prevent an objection and 't is this That if Parents be not wanting in their duty herein it is not al the care they can possibly have which of it self can make good Children For how many good Children have fall'n from bad Loins And how many gracious Parents to their greatest grief have been the Fathers and Mothers of most untoward Children The reason is because goodness doth not like lands and goods descend from Parents to Children for God will be the free giver and bestower of all his Graces and will have mercy on whom he will have mercy So then if our Children be good we must thank God for that if evill they may thank us and themselves us for their birth-sin and many times for more of their evill then so as before themselves for the improvement of that evill in the ways of wickedness However we may conclude this as a rule that those Children of all others in all probabilities are like to prove best who have been best seasoned in their young years for train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Pr. 22. 6. In the wars 'twixt Syria and Israel there was a little Maid of Israel taken by the Syrians 2 Kings 5. and she was put to wait upon the wife of Naaman the Syrian That Naaman was a great man with his Master the King of Syria and honourable saith the story c. but he was a Leaper and that stain of Leprosie sauced all his greatness so much that the poorest man in Syria would not have changed place with him to have had his skin to boot There is no greatness that can exempt a man from the most loathsome and wearisome conditions doubtless that Leprosie must needs be a grievous burden to that great Peer The Maid of Israel tells her Mistriss would God my Lord were with the Prophet which is in Samaria for he would recover him of his Leprosie Her Mistriss presently tells her Lord who upon this report immediately repayr unto that Prophet and is healed of his disease I report that storie to this end that it is very good for Parents to acquaint their Children while they be young with the knowledge of God and of his Prophets for we do not know what great good they may do by it The generall neglect of which and of many other duties of Parents for the good and welfare of their Children as the great faylings of others I have named in their severall relations are principal and most apparent
to the soul as it is represented to it the time shall came that he which kills you shall think he doth God good service and upon his false ground a man may be never troubled at the acting of the worst things they shall think they do God good service but they do but think so and shall first or last bemade to pay dear for so thinking so doing But however this will be found a truth that conscience is ever marked and observed by her own eye though no other eye perceive her followed she is and chased by her own foot though nothing else pursue her she flyes when no man followes and and hath a thousand witnesses within her own brest when she is free from all the world beside she is a worm that ever gnaweth a fire that ever burneth and though a guilty man could escape the hands of the â—verliving God yet should he find it misery enough and more than he could possibly beare to he under the rack or lash of a never dying conscience the consciences of the wicked being so filled with the guilt of sin that there is no â—oom left for the peace and consolation of God to dwell in them â—ain felt this weight like a Talent of head upon his soul which he thought could never be removed and therefore he 〈…〉 ers a blasph 〈…〉 y against the grace of God never to be pardoned for if he could have been as forward to ask pardon for his sin as he was to seek protection for his body he might have found it But Nemo polluto queat animâ— mederi No cure so difficult as the cleansing and healing of a polluted soul no balme in Gilead no Phisitian there can of himself help it and as all the wealth of the world cannot buy off the guilt so all the waters in the Sea cannot wash off the filth of one Sin Arctoum licèt Moeotis in me gelida transfundat mare Et tota Tethys per meas currat manus Haerebit altum facinus said the guilty man The Northern Sea Though coole Meotis pour on me And th' Ocean through my hands do run Guilt dy'd in grain will yet stick on Oh this fear when it takes its rise from guilt is a most terrible thing It is written of Tiberius the Emperour a very politick and subtile but a most prodigiously wicked man who to compasse his ends the better was summus simulandi dissimulandi artifex A very Master-peece of dissimulation that for a time he seemed to stand in awe of no power either in Heaven or earth but after this monster had retired himself from Rome to Capriâ— for the more free enjoyment of his most noysome lusts in process of time he had such terrors fell upon him and his natural conscience did so perplex him as that he came to be afraid of every thing as of his friends his guard nay he became like Pashur whom the prophet Jeremy calls Magor-missabib a terror to himself like the man in the Tragaedy who would fain have run out of himself saying Me fugio c. I fly from my self-guiltiness would fain keep out of sight and such shall one day be the horror of the damned as that they would hide themselves if it were possible even in hell A wounded spirit who can beare it is written of Cajus Marius and of Mutius Scaevola men famous in the Roman story that the first of them patiently endured the cutting off his flesh the other the burning off his right hand A wounded estate a wounded name a wounded head a wounded body may be indured but a wounded spirit a wounding conscience is unsupportable cannot be born cannot be endured being like unto a gouty joynt â—o sore and tender as that it cannot endure it self the truth of all this being known by sad experience of all those who either have been or for the present are pressed down under the weight thereof I will now draw towards the conclusion of this discourse but shall first make this request unto him that reads it that I may not be mistaken in any partiâ—ulars laid down in my many digressions for my witnesses are in Heaven and in my own bosome too that I desire to be angry and offended at nothing so much as at that which angers and displeaseth Almighty God hating that which is evill in all and as far as I can know my own heart am desirous to do it in my self first and most But the sad consideration of the strange and still increasing wickednesses of this Nation wherein we breath bid me take leave to enlarge my self far in this case and to rebuke sharply or cuttingly to go to the very quick I say the wickednesses of this Nation to whom that of the Prophet Jeremiah may be fitly applyed that we are waxen fat we shine overpassing the deeds of the wicked putting far from us the evill day while we laugh out the good lying under the most heavy weight both of spirituall and other judgments but feele them not having been like Solomons foole that could laugh when he was lashed in many things justifying Turks Pagans Heathen in being corrupted more than they all Our sins being like that tree which Nebuâ—hadnezzar saw in his vision whose top reached up to Heaven and hath spread it self in its branches over all the parts of the earth here below But I shall not lead my Reader into a dark and melancholly cloud and leave him there for notwithstanding all these sad and horrible truths I have named I must say this that if God have a people a Church in any place under Heaven which none but an Atheist or a Divell will make doubt of they may be found in this Nation and in that we may take comfort for they are the righteous that deliver the Island the remnant that keepe it from desolation and were it not for those few whom the very great multitudes amongst whom they are mingled scorn and hate this Nation could not continue which should make the wicked of this land if not out of piety yet if they understood themselves out of policy to love and respect those for whose sake they fare so much the better God hath had a Church long planted in this Nation and I dare say that since the Gospell hath been published to the world it was never preached with more Power than it hath been here in these later times As for our Fore-fathers they instead of the food of life issuing from the two breasts of the Church the Law and the Gospels were made to feed on moudly fennowed Traditions The book of God was sealed up from them in an unknown tongue which they could neither understand nor read but for us at this present day our Temples are open we may come our Bibles are engshed we may read our Pulpits frequented we may heare from these considerations ariseth a great cause both of wonder greife unto every one who loves the glory of