write it Gamrou others Gomrow and other-some Cummeroon The Artique pole mounts here to seven and twenty degrees and nine minutes A Towne it is of no Antiquity rising daily out of the ruines of late glorious now most wretched Ormus an houres journey thence I was told that it had not twelve houses twelfve yeares ago at this day encreased to a thousand but how can I credit it since one Newbery our country-man entitles it a Town at his being here which was in the yeare 1581. Yet old it cannot be since all agree the Portugals first founded it after Ormous doubtlesse and where the Castle was begun but in Anno 1513 by Albuquerq ' the Portugall Gumbroon is from Ormus nine english myles it also viewes Arabia about sixteene leagues west for there the Gulph is narrowest It was forced from the Portugall in the yeare 1612 by Ally-Reec the Shyrazian and is now compleatly governed by the Persian It is in compasse about two myles the earth is sandy without gardens springs or grasse from March to October so hot as the Natives flie away to Larr and other Townes where Date trees shadow them against the ever burning Sunne and ground or sand that scalds like hottest embers a great Mountayne reckned twenty miles distant but by its height seemes not eight anticipates the coole North-wind which to other parts breaths sweetly and refreshes them The houses are of Sunne-dried bricks thick sollid within are without much furniture without simple to look upon The windowes are large and trellised made to open when any Favonius murmurs among them The tops are tarrassed made both to walk sleep upon so Carpets be spred to soften them In the Summer season when few ships ride here they sleep in troughs or beds fild with water The Buzzar is very ordinary t is covered atop to keep out the searching beames of the scortching Sunne where under is sold Wine Arack Sherbet Thlummery and many other things to the eye and belly necessary The entrance into the Sultans house is at the East side of the Market place His the Shabanders English and Duch distinguisht by their Flags or Ensignes displayed by Aeolus atop their houses are all are worth the entring in or my noting of best note are two Castles at the North and South ends of the Towne spatious and defensive adorn'd with good Battlements and Platformes to play their uselesse Cannons on Fourescore brasse Peeces are planted here and are part of those they got from Ormus Anno 1622 two hundred more being sent up to Larr Spahawn and Babylon of small terrour if no better Gunners exercise them Whiles ships ride here Gumbroon is a garrison foure hundred horse and foot attend their Generall but dare not fight against the Sonne all summer billeting where they can find food and shelter In winter you may find here Merchants of sundry Nations English Ducth Persians Indians Arabs Armenians Turks Iewes and others The most common commodities here are belly food Wine Rack Sherbet Rosewater Sugar Almonds Dates Pomgranats Figs Currans Orenges Lemmons Pomecitrons Mirabolans Apples Peares Quinces and Flowers in great variety As also Goates Hens egges two yeare old Ryce c. most of which are sold by the crafty faire spoken Bannyans who swarme through all parts of Asia They will readily trade or prattle with Christian Turk Iew or Gentile but have no good fellowship for they hate to eat or drink with any save of their owne casts and religion rice plaintains and some fruits they eat drink water or sherbet which is faire water rose-rosewater sugar and juyce of Lemons put together but for flesh eggs or such roots as raddish and the like resembling blood or wine not one bitt would they eat though you would give the poorest knave amongst them a thousand pound they are troubled with Pythagoras dreames doubting thereby they might eat up the soules of their friends or parents which transmigration of soules Tibullus elegantly thus detects to his Mistresse Quin etiam mea tunc Tumulus cum texerit ossa Seu matura dies sato properat mihi mortem Longa manet seu vita tamen mutata figura Seu me fingit equum rigidos percurrere campos Doctum seu cardi pecoris sing loria Taurus Sive ego per liquidum volucris vehar aëra pennis In quemcunque hominem me longa receperit aetas Inceptis de te subtexam carmina chartis When furthermore the grave my bones shal hide Or ripened dayes to swift foot death shall glide Or lengthned life remains in shape exchangde Making me horse well managed to range The fields or Bull the glory of the heard Or through the liquid Ayre I flie a Bird. Into what man soere long tyme me makes These works begun of thee fresh verses takes Some Sudatories cald here Hummums some Mosques some Synagogues and Sanhedrins are here but those so obscure that the eye can scarce direct us to them Most remarkable is the great Banayan Tree a league East from the Towne and opposite to Ormus Castle a Tree or rather twenty Trees the boughs rooting and springing up a whole aker together rounded within and shaded in forme of a Theater two hundred and nine paces about as I measured and wherein or under may ambush very secretly three hundred horse some call it the arched Fig tree some Arbor de Rays a tree of Roots others de Goa namd by us the Bannyan Tree from their adorning and adoring it with ribbons and streamers of varicoloured Taffata a goodly Diety such a one as Pliny observd long since in his Travayles amongst ' em Haec fuere Numinûm Templa priscoque ritu etiam nunc simplicia rura Deo praecellentem Arborem dicant Here under also they have a temple supported on one side by the body of the tree unseen to such as are without the branches in which for I adventured in are three of the most deformed Pagods or Idols imaginable invocated by the Bannyan in memoriall of Cuttery shuddery and Wyse their three deified predecessors kept by an old doting Braminy who for above threescore yeeres in this irreligious place has most wickedly sacrifizd his soule to Belzebub for many yeeres hee had all the Pagods offerings part being the virginity of the Brides at ten yeeres commonly which since he cannot actuate he is not asham'd as I was told to contract with Travellers who in an infernall disguise reap the unripe and unholy Holocausts A Persian Man Woman neer the Gulph To concomitate those carrion women take notice of those troopes of Jackalls which here more than any other where rally themselves not only each night committing burglary in the Town but commonly they teare the dead out of their graves and with a vulture appetite devoure their carcasses all the while ululating and in offensive noises barking and ecchoing out their sacriledge Wee made good sport to hunt them with doggs and swords but they are too many to be banisht too unruly to be conquered I
either to collogue with Jewes or that his owne pallat detested them Camells flesh they sell commonly in the Buzzars roasted upon scuets or cut in mammocks and carbonadode three or foure spits valuing two pence Bad pastery men they are they put a lamb whole into a kinde of oven and take it out as black as a cole they say I dare not second it it tasts curiously it may bee so but I feare scarce well well it may bee to a famisht martialist not so in banquets The poore are not so voluptuous they content themselves with drie ryce herbs roots fruit lentills and a meat resembling thlummery Dates also preserved in sirrup commixt with butter-milk is pretious food and physicall But to memorize their Cheese and Butter will make your mouths water at it I ironize in good earnest the cheese is the worst any ever tasted of both that it wants Art and materialls t is drie and blew and hard ill to the eye bad to the taste naught for digestion of an unsaporie taste rough and in a month shewes no moysture the worst is towards the Gulph the best in Mozendram neither of them praise worthie Will you taste their butter first Butter inquire how they make it I enquired of some there they say they sometimes take what is generated in the Guspans or sheeps tailes it saves them churning others boyle the cream soundly in a raw skin'd leather-bag full of hayres and unsalted this sort will keep fresh sweet I say not six months in that poynt commendable but when wee drew our knives thorow it a thousand sluts haires were then discovered therein abominable yet they commend it we no way condiscended their liquour may perhaps better delight you t is faire water sugar rose-rose-water Drink and juyce of Lemons mixt call'd Sherbets or Zerbet wholsome and potable they drink wine coloured like a pale Claret Arac or Aquavitae Tobacco suckt through water that it inebriate not by long canes or pipes issuing from a round vessell and above all the rest Coho or Copha by Turk and Arab calld Caphe and Cahua a drink imitating that in the Stigian lake black thick and better destrain'd from Bunchy Bunnu or Bay berries wholsome they say if hot for it expells melancholy purges choler begets mirth and an excellent concoction but not so much regarded for those good properties as from a Romance that it was invented brew'd by Gabriel what Gab. we despute not of to restore the decayed radical moysture of kind hearted Mahomet who as he speaks himselfe to his inimitable glory never drunk it but immediatly by vertue thereof made it a matter of nothing to unhorse forty men and in Venus Camp with more than a Herculean fortitude to bring under forty women Opium the juyce of Poppie is of epidemick use there also good if taken moderatly bad nay mortall if beyond measure they chaw it much it helps catarrhs cowardise and the epilepsie strengthens Venus and which is admirable the Foot-posts by continuall chawing it runne sleeping day and night in a constant dreame or giddinesse seeing but not knowing whom they meet though well acquainted and misse not their intended places by a strange efficacie expulsing the tedious thoughts of travell and rarely deceiving the poore body of its seasonable rest and lodging I have deviated this was discourse at dinner not yet ended Meales They commonly eat in earth or porceline not valuing silver the King by such an Article of of their Faith the neatlier attracting it to his own Table they have another reason very ridiculous that Mahomet at his stealing into hell discovered the Devills at dinner and served in silver earthen ware was holier and therefore better for all kind of Mussulmen In feeding they use not knives nor count they it luckie to imploy but one finger or two three or foure is injoyned them from tradition Nor do they cut their bread but break or rend it equally fictitious the storie lying thus that Ozman in his parody assures them The Devil Shitan they call him ever diets so a palinody they might sing knew they how Ozman borrow'd it from the Jewes who ever us'd to break their bread and from Xenophon in his description of the Persians but they owe all to miracle deriding Historie At meales they are the merriest men that may be no people in the world have better stomacks drinke more or more affect voracity yet are harmlesly merry a mixture of meat and drink and mirth excellently becomming them Qui canit arte canit qui bibit arte bibat and then are joviall in a high degree Complement when women Curtezans I meane custome anticipates the honest sort accompany them They admire their breeding to us they seemed barbarous especially when in an exact complement out of squallid wantonnesse they would overcharge their wide mouthes with pelo or other meat and by an affected laughter take occasion to exonerate their chaps and throw the overplus into the dish againe whence first they had it and as a symbol of intire good will sir reverence offer you to eat what they had chewed formerly to make an end having soak't their hussinees or water baggs the wine bottles are then emptied they sit long and drink soundly Drink condemning that precept in the Alcoran as an idle toy a lie invented by Osman That it is Giants blood yea of those we call Theomachi or who fought against the Gods the Turks forbeare to drink it from that prohibition the Persians laugh them to scorne and by this have brought them to a favourable opinion of grapes and wine But the Persians in this are commendable they never quarell in their cups yet such usually irritates nor compell they any to sit longer than hee please arising without any excuse nor drink they one unto another a prejudicat conceit t is in any man to think all brains alike in such more than beastly exercises a base custome too much abus'd in this Age of corruption forgetting that Minos an old Heathen strictly forbad it the Cretans as Plato warrants in his Dialogues But these compar'd with those of old are without resemblance These are homely those full of excesse and braverie Dyon and Ctesias assure us that in old times the Persian Monarchs made many feasts Feasts usually invited fifteen thousand men in every entertainment expending foure hundred Talents amounting in our money to two hundred and forty thousand crownes at private feasts when forty or fifty were received and no more as Ephipius Olynthius records each supper stood him in a hundred Mynaes of gold each mina or dina in our money valuing six and twenty shillings and eight pence pretty in that juvenility of time for we say plures opes nunc sunt c yet credible when we consider the vast revenue of the Persian Empire in those dayes extracting Tribute from many Nations For what accrued out of those twentie Provinces was not lesse than forty thousand
dumb signes in most things adore toward the Sunne honor Angels observe a Munday Sabbath abstaine from second marriages some from the first affect white garments loath coughing spitting and the like forbeare swearing and blasphemy shun pleasures drink water beleeve the transmigration of mens soules into beasts offer inanimate sacrifices deny the bodies resurrectiō hate to touch a pot or cup with their mouth but rather powre the liquor in at a good distance reverence Elders eat nor drink with men of other religions use washings much touch no uncleane thing and many other in nothing differing with the Pithagoreans as may be gathered out of Iosephus Suydas Philo Laertius and other writers Having tyred out your patience with this Sect for variety sake turne wee to another sort of Gentiles in Surrat Guzzurat the Persees a people descended out of Persia banisht hither to avoid Mahomitry circumcision upon the death of valiant Iezdgird the Persian King Anno Dom. 635. or thereabouts whose life and doctrine as it is gathered from the Daroo or Priests of this sect by Master Lord a worthy Minister for some yeeres resident in the Factory of Surat I will epitomize that we may move after this repose onward in our travailes Religion of the Persaes Into India I say these Persees came such time as Omar the second Chaliph after Mabumet had subjected Persia in 5 Iuncks from Iasquez sayling to Surrat where after some treaty with the Raieas and Bannyans they got entertainment and leave to exercise their owne religion A religion deduced from the raigne of Gustaph King of Persia Anno Mundi 3500 and before our Saviours Incarnation 500 yeeres written in their Zundavastaw or law Booke in this manner Such time as Gustasp the 14 King of Persia from Kuyomarraz by some thought Naah swayed the Imperiall Scepter of that famous Monarchy It chanced that Espintaman and Dodoo two poore people man and wife Chynaes by nation lived long together in a good report but without Fortunes blessings in estate or children howbeit at Dodooes earnest request a sonne was given her who in his conception promised by some rare and fearfull dreames the mother hatched great matters not only to the astonishment of his simple parents but amazement of the China King who out of jealousie and disposition to credit any report sought to prevent all events by killing or poysoning him but to shew a superior power swayes us and never misses to accomplish its designes tho by man never so much oppugned nothing could do him harme for fearing his parents ruine and to ease the King of his feares they all consent to give China a farewell and seek a securer abode in a region more remote and where they might more freely meditate Farre they travelled saw many rare things past over many great rivers on foot for Zertoost so was this young prophet named turned them by a trick that he had into solid Ice and after thawed them at his pleasure and many rare adventures found all which are to be left out in that religion is the marke we shoot at not staying long in any place till they arrived in Persia where they rested and intended to settle Zertoost as all good men use to doe spent most of his time in meditation and on a time especially observing the disorder of mens living sorrow overcame him and a desire to reforme them totally possessed him but finding the place he was in not solitary enough or fit for revelations away he goes not resting till he came into a dark valley surrounded and obscured by two lofty mountaines there he ingeminates his silent murmures with dejected eyes erected hands and knees bended when loe a glorious Angell whose face was more coruscant than the Sunne salutes him thus Hayle Zertoost a man of God what wouldst thou he strait answers The presence of God to receive his will to instruct my nation his prayer is granted his body purged his eyes sealed till being past the Element of fire and higher orbes he is presented afore the supreame Majesty arrayed with such refulgent glory that till he had Angells eyes put into his head he could not gaze on such a daz'ling excellency there he received his lawes no place but heaven will serve to fetch Philosophy as Laertius writes of Socrates uttered by the Almighty whose words were incompast with flames of fire such lawes such secrets as some of them are not fit to be promulgated Being upon his departure he desires of God that he might live so long as the world indured that in that protract hee might the easier make all people on the earth imbrace his doctrine God pitties his simplicity and in a mirrour shewes him the alteration of times the villany of Lucifer the misery of man and many other rarities such as quite altred his first desires so that when he had worshipped he takes his Zundavastaw or Book in 's left hand and some celestiall Fire in 's right and by Bahaman Vmshauspan the foresaid Angell who cleft the Ayre with his golden wings is set downe in that same valley where the spirit found him Zertoost by this time a man of great experience armes himselfe against all disasters and temptations and bidding his Hermitage farewell travells homeward to publish his law and joy his too long afflicted parents Satan who all this while lookt asquint at Zertoosts determinations intends to seduce him and after a short excuse for his rude intrusion protests himselfe his unfained friend assuring him the Angell had deluded him that God hated his novell indeavors that if he had loved him he had not so soone so willingly parted with him that his denying him to live till the day of doome argued Gods neglect of him that his travaile to reclaime the world was in vaine mens minds so doated upon freedome and vanity that his booke was stuft with lies and in publishing it great shame and perill should betide him that his fire was a mercilesse Element rediculous and of small use in those hot regions And in conclusion if he would reject these and depend on him hee would furnish him with all delights honours and pleasures possible give him power to do strange things whereby hee should bee worshipped for a God which if he refused he was a foole and unworthy his charity Zertoost soone saw that tempter was no better nor worse than Lucifer he bad him avoid and call to mind to his addition of terror how by his ambitious impiety he had lost heaven and how meere malice made him desirous to draw all other into like damnation he also told him how that booke he so scoft at should condemne him that fire torture him and all such black mouth'd lyers and detracters as himselfe whereat the Fiend was horribly affrighted and left him the divell is no sooner gone but on goes Zertoost and at length arrived where he found his parents who you doubt not of received him gladly to whom he imparted his passed
secret 13. That the Pyree or holy fires that which Zertoost brought from heaven be ever kindled yea never extinguish till fire destroy the world And that he pray to and over it This is the true contents of the Zundavast which holy Zertoost brought from heaven Declare we now their Feasts Fasts Weddings and Burialls They are tollerated all sorts of meat but in obedience to the Mahomitan and Bannyan ' mongst whom they live refraine Beefe and Hog flesh they seldome feed together lest they might participate one anothers impurity each has his owne cap and if any of his owne Cast chance to use it hee washes it three times and forbeares it a good while after they observe six solemne Festivalls annually the first call'd Meduserum kept the 15 of Fere or February 2. Petusahan on the 26 of Sheruar or Aprill 3. Yatrum on the 26 of Mahar or May 4. Medearum on the 16 of Deh or August 5. Homespetamadum on the 30 of Spindamud or October 6. Medusan on the 11 of Adebese or December all of them in memory of the Creation and monethly benefits After each of these Feasts they eat but one small meale a day for five dayes after and whensoe're that lay men eat any flesh they bring part to their Eggaree or Temple to pacifie the Lord in that for their sustenance the lives of those good creatures are annihilated Now concerning the Fire they adore t is in memory of that Zertoost brought from heaven wherein they memorize the vestalls or rather in an apish imitation of the Jewish law the devill as neere as may be desiring to counterfeit the Law of God in the 6. of Levit. 13. where t is commanded that the fire that came from heaven should be ever burning upon the Altar and never goe out In Persia they had many Pyree of this vestall fire most of which were destroyed by Heraclius the Romane Emperour in his Warres with Kozchoes at that time Mahomet serving in his Army Some to this day are remaining having the Idolatrous Fire from 1000 yeares unextinguished In Indya also these banisht Persee have their Eggarees or Temples one of which is at Nuncery not farre from Surratt whose Fire has continued without fomenting this 200 yeares where note that this their God-fire is not composed of common combustibles as wood straw coales slates c. nor blowne by any bellowes breath of man wafting or like prophane things No t is compounded of sparks flying from a hot burning temper'd steele and kindled either by lightning from heaven by an ignis fatuus the beames from a burning glasse or such like for but such onely is proper for that their Antisbeheraun or Idoll fire But if it chance the fire have need of cherishing the Distoore and other Lay-men at 12 foot distance surround the holy Diety and after some gestures the Priests adds fewell and returning to the other people altogether worship it beseeching it that they may not onely give it due reverence but also honour solemnly all other things that resemble it as Sunne Moon Starrs and common fire which also they so divinely estimate that they hold it a most ungodly part to spet in it throw water into it or put it to any vile or unnecessary imployment but reverence wood and such things as it receives life and vigour from The Baptisme of these Heathen Idolaters is of this nature so soone as it is borne the Daroo is call'd upon who delayes not but being instructed in the precise time of his Nativity calculates his fortunes the Daroo invents the name the mother imposes it this done they all together haste to the Eggaree or Temple where the Priest puts a little pure water into the barque of a holy tree the name is Holme the place it growes in Yezd a Citie in Persia not farre from Spahawn where at this day are many of this religion who upon the mountaine Albors have a Pyree wherein is a Fire-god which has never beene extinguished they say from Gustasps time contempory with Abraham a tree Zertoost blessed and in this more memorable that it never admits of any shadow the water out of this holy rind is powred upon the Infant and a prayer made that it may be clensed from all impurity at seven yeares age it is confirmed by the Daroo and made to say his prayers o're the fire but with a cloath fastned about his head which covers his mouth and nostrils lest his sinfull breath might taint the holy Fire drinks a little water chaw's a Pomgranat leafe washes in a Tanck cloathes his naked body with a fine Shuddero or linnen reaching to his wast tyes a zone or girdle of Cushee or Camells haire about his loynes woven with Inkle of the Herboods making which hee weares ever after and after a short prayer that he may never prove an Apostate or prophane wretch but continue a Fire-worshipper eating no mans meat nor drinking no mans drink but his owne he is then blessed and held a Persee most warrantable Their Marriages in briefe are thus distinguisht into five orders 1. Shaulan or a marrying of two young children agreed on by each parents but unknown to the children the vertue being that if either die they goe to heaven 2. Chockerson a second marriage 3. Codesherahasan when the woman is her owne chooser 4. Ecksan when a dead body not being married before is married 5. Ceterson when having no sonnes he adopts his daughters son c. the Coremony this at midnight the Daroo or Priest enters the house they wed not in Churches finds the two parties to be married upon a bed together opposite to each other stands two Churchmen with Ryce in their hands the Emblem of fruitfulnesse then first one laying his fore-finger on the Brides forehead he asks if she be willing to take that man to be her Husband who saying yea the like rite and question is by the other Priest done to the man the Bridegroome makes a promise to infeoff her in a certaine number of Dynaes she replyes she and all she has is his the Priests then scatter the Ryce upon their heads and pray that they may multiply as Ryce the womans parents give the Dowry and eight dayes are spent in joviality and complement Their Funeralls are these They put the dead body into a winding sheet all the way his kindred beat themselves but in great silence till they come within 50 or 100 paces of the buriall place where the Herbood or Priest meets them observing ten foot distance attired in a yellow scarfe and a thin Turbant the Necesselars or bearers carry the corps upon an iron Beere wood is forbidden in that it is sacred to the fire to a little Shed or Furnace where so soone as some mistique Antiques are acted they hoyse it up to the top of a round stone building twelve foot high and 80 in circuit the entrance is only at the N. E. side where through a small grate or hole they
his desteny and chardges so furiously and so close that in despight he mounts the wall and is so bravely backt by his owne regiment that in small tyme he takes the principall cittadell or fortresse and on many parts of the wall florisht his colours in signe of victory and as a call to Abdulchan to to second him but Abdul poysoned with envy to see a Merchants sonne possessor of so much glory forbeares to succor him so that this heroick Captaine too farre ingaged is assayled by Rustan Atset-chan and fresh troopes so long and with such egernesse that all his company are cut in peeces and Mahomet struck dangerously in his eye yea after as much proofe of dexterity and valour as was possible is taken and imprisoned In this base sort the second tyme has Abdul-chan forfetted Curroon the victory yet keepes the knowledge in his owne breast and goes unpunished whiles Sultan Perwees and Mahobet-chan continue their quest and receiving notice of the siege of Brampore they hast thither with chan Alen Radjea Stertsing and a great Army of Rashpoots but Curroon premonished seeing no good likely to bee done arises and falls towards Bellaguate in the way attempting vainely Hasser but missing it redelivers Rantas also into his enemies hands and once more visits Melec Amber at Rerki in Decan cloathed in his old sad habit of misfortune Hasser five courses from Brampore as you passe to Agray the strongest and in all advantages the best defended Castle through Chandis is built upon the top of a most high and precipitious Mountaine wall'd by Nature and capable to feed and lodge forty thousand horse within are springs of wholsome water by vertue whereof the people are infinitly inriched the earth also is excellently fruitfull in hearbs and corne and what else is requirable for defence or pleasure upon all sides are mounted great Ordinance of brasse about six hundred here placed by the last King of Gusurat but one discommodity is commixed making all the other delights relish unseasonably Wormes ingendring in the legges and thighs of such as drinke the water but lately noted and which only gave Ecbar conquest of this Castle otherwise inexpugnable Iangheer the great Mogul rejoyces at the severall victories his son Perwees and Mahobet-cawn are crowned with and to expresse how well hee took it observing the valour loyalty of Ganna-zied-cawn lately made Viceroy of Kabul calls him to Court expresses his good will in variety of complements and more then so addes five thousand horse to his command and under seale makes him Governour of Bengala of all the Provinces of Indostan most famous rich and populous Bengala is a Province in India spacious noble and fruitfull peopled with Mahometans and Idolaters addict to Mars and Merchandize reasonable in shape and colour well cloathed extreamly lustfull jealous crafty and suspicious the ground is redundant in good Townes Castles fruits flowers corn c. mellowed by Ganges which in two great branches flowes thorow her and 200 miles asunder at 23 degrees commixes with the Ocean Normal and Assaph-cawn cast a squint eye upon Ganna-zied-cawns new glory wishing fit occasion to eclipse it and only for that he was son to Mahobet no other reason caused it they are no trewands in the schoole of mischiefe and in the first place to plot more mischievously and affront Mahobet whose miseries are now broaching they get the old Mogul to command Mahobet without delay to send Ganganna the Captaine unto Agra Meza-Arebdestoa-cawn one of Normals creatures delivers the message and Mahobet loth to shew any example of disobedience though he knew langheer abused and this a meere plot of his confusion lets him go who forth with begins to chatter and spit his utmost malice against Mahobet exhibiting many false complaints and incensing as much as possible the old Mogul against his innocent Champion that hee had most unjustly put to death his sonne and others of his kindred out of malice yea after he had voluntarily left Curroon to serve in the Kings Armie These accusations wrought somewhat in the credulous jealousie and weaknesse of the old Mogul but more when from the seeds of haste and distrust sown by Ganna in the heart of Perwee by his letter he intreats his Father to call Mahobet a detractor of his glory and ambtious to ingulph the Monarchy This so confirmes the Mogul that without more dispute or memory of his former services he beleeves Gangannas reports no longer malicious but presently condemnes him of pride and ingratitude gives his command to Cawn Iehan and commands him home to receive his deservings Frau de perit virtus Mahobet admires the villany of Ganganna and Noormall and thinkes by the purity of his owne conscience it is impossible his Master should really beleeve such imputations till remembring his dotage upon Normal and her inveterate spleen hee grants it but resolves to take another course till time might delucidate his innocency and therefore as his love and dutie bound him hee goes to Prince Perwees to bid farewell but when hee perceived him so strangely altered so coy and stately it welnigh struck him dead with sorrow and amazement an excellent sympathy and union till Ganganna dissolv'd it having beene till then betwixt 'em so that with a sad heart and tormented eyes he leaves the Camp but carries along with him the hearts and courages of all the Army From Brampore hee goes many guesse but none no not himselfe knowes whither his fortune led him at length by advice of his best friends that assured him if hee went to Court hee should at least bee branded with the name of Traytor hee travels to his Castle of Rantampore resolving to purge his honour by letter and proofe to Iangheer and to safegard himselfe from the spite of Normal and all his enemies The discord of Peiwees Mahobet and Normal sounds sweetly in Curroons eares hoping by the confusion of them all to ground stedfastly his owne ambitious practises and perceiving his old Father so taken with fantasmes and apparitions of love he resolves to practise deceit and in the Moguls weaknesse to fix the strength of his conspiracies he presents him by Godgee Iehan a crafty man and Tutor to his two sonnes a letter neatly pend but dictating nothing save hypocrisie and submission hee knew also the greedy appetite of his Father after gold and rarities and therefore addes a pishcash of rare coignes a hundred choise Elephants and some portraits hee borrowed from the Portugals They are all well taken his sonnes respected and word is sent him from Assaph-cawn of hopes to re-ingraft him In the meane time Madoffer-cawn at Lahore receives the government or Provostship of Agra from Cassem-cawns pride who was placed there upon his marriage which Movissan-begem sister to the Queen but is so impatiently digested by that ambitious woman that shee ceast not till she had got him re-established Six yeares past viz. 1618. and of the Heg 998. I told you how Iangheer
985. of ours 1605 by a stratagem Emangoli-cawn Duke of Shyraz overthrew him by to satiate the hungry ambition of Abbas his Master and which is rare considering the great poverty of his Country for the Kings part loaded away with treasure seven hundred Cammells The captiv'd King Ebrahim had his life and a noble pension promist him hee enjoyed them but awhile an unexpected sword of death betraying his hopes without which the Dyadem sat not right upon the head of Shaw-Abbas the soveraigne Nine dayes we staid in Larr a shame it were if in so long time we had noted nothing Lar is from Gumbroon seven small dayes riding from Shyraz foureteene from Babylon twenty a very poore Towne it is as being parcht with the scalding Sun defaced by rage of warre and thrown down by many fearfull Earth-quakes Anno Domini 1400 it shook terribly and made five hundred houses prostrate to its Tiranny Anno 1593. of their account 973. she boasted of five thousand houses but see how vain is the pride of man that very yeere the earth sweld with such a dreadfull tympany that in venting it selfe it made all Larr to quake and in fine would not be supprest but by the weight of three thousand houses turned topsi-turvie quashing to death three thousand men in their destruction The old Castle also on the East side of the Towne it owes its foundation to Georgean Melec though built atop a solid rock groand in a like affrighting downfall and to me it seemed strange a City so strongly so surely founded should be so subject to such unnaturall commotions Whither it be as Democritus dreamt from the gaping Sun-torne earth quaffing in too greedily too much water and like a glutted drunkard overcharging her caverns vomits it up in a forcible and discontented motion or whether as Aristotle teaches from vapors ingendred in the bowels of the earth and loth to bee imprisoned in a wrong orb rends its passage by a viperous horrid motion or whether from subterranean fires the ayre inflamed upon sulphur or such exuberances of nature I dare not conclude but leave such theories to those that study Meteors Let us therefore see what Larr now is Larr the Metropolis of this Province is not wald about in that Art is needlesse the lofty rocks on East and North so naturally defend her besides a brave Castle at the North quarter mounted upon an imperious hill not only threatens an enemy but awes the Towne in a frownig posture the ascent is narrow and steep the Castle of good stone the walls are furnisht with usefull battlements whereon are mounted twelve brasse cannon pedroes and two basilisks the spoiles of Ormus within the Castle wall are raisd a hundred houses stored with men most part soldatts who have there a gallant Armory able to furnish with Lance Bow and Gun three thousand men it is a fort without of a stately frame within is no lesse commendable the Buzzar is also a gallant fabrick the materiall is good chalkie stone long strong and beautifull a quadrant I cannot call it the sides are so unequall t is cover'd atop archt and in piazza sort a kinde of Burse wherein each shop showes ware of severall qualities the Alley from North to South is 170 of my paces from East to West a hundred and sixty the ovall in center is about a hundred and ninty a building to speak of the Asiaticks in some hundreds of miles scarce to be parrelled Neere this Buzzar are coyned the Larrees a famous sort of money shap'd like a long Date stone the Kings name stampt upon pure silver in our money valuing ten pence The Mosques here bee not many one especiall Mosque or Deer it has round either shadowing out Aeternity or from a patterne of the Alcaba the holy Temple in Mecca whose shape they say Abraham had from heaven in some part varnisht with Arabick letters and painted knots garnisht in other parts with Mosaick fancies t is low and without glasse windowes wodden trellizes excellently cut after their invention supplying them the entrance is through a brazen gate neer which is hung a Mirrour whether to admire their tallow faces in or internal deformities I know not some lamps it also has for use and ornament some Prophets rest their bones here take one for all Emeer-Ally-zedday-ameer a long-namd-long-bon'd if his grave bee right long since rotten Prophet the older Prophet the fresher profit zeale and charity oft times worship antiquity but how can I credit them that he was a Mahometan they say if that will not please they sweare hee died a thousand five hundred yeeres ago six hundred yeeres before Mahomet and yet a Mussulman their faith admits no questions nor answers or if it did wee will not trouble it For I see variety of good fruit close by to which I have a better appetite here are the fairest Dates Dactills in Latin from their finger like shape Orenges Lemons Pomcitrons you find in Persia if those will not please you buy here at easie rates Goats Hens Rice Rach and Aquavitae but for their water wee drest our meat with it the people drink it they call it Ob-baroon which in the language of Persia signifies rain-rain-water but with farre more reason I may call it Aqua-Mortis death seeming to bubble in it A base qualified water it is whether that their Tancks or Magazeens are ill made or nastily kept and by that the water is corrupted or whether the raine of it selfe is insalubrious and loathsome I cannot tell but both it may bee makes it so bad as it is so unsapory so ill to the gust as worse water for taste and especially for property can scarce be relished as little of it came in my belly as could be borrowed from extremity of thirst and I suppose I had good reason to forbeare it for it causes Catarrhs breeds sore eyes ulcerates the guts and which is more terrible than the raest it ingenders small long worms in the legges of such as use to drink it and which sort of vermin is not more loathsome to look upon than painfull to the itching disease of them that breed 'em by no potion no unguent to bee remedied they have no other way to destroy them save by rowling them about a pin or peg not unlike the treble of a Theorbo the most danger being this that if in the screwing the worme chance to break it makes them very dolefull Musick for it endangers the leg apt to gangreen and but by lancing hardly curable The water is the naturall cause of this strange malady and seemes to mee to bring the venome from the region where t is generated for commonly the clouds here at Larr are undigested as in the Tornadoes I have formerly spoken of and unagitated by the wind Nor do the clouds distill their raine in drops as is usuall in colder regions but in whole and violent irruptions dangerous both in the fall and no lesse hurtfull in the using
quam parvo liceat producere vitam Et quantum Natura petat Non Auto Mirrhaque bibunt sed gurgite puro Vita redit satis est populis fluviusque Ceresque Base luxurie wherein so much is spent Learne with how little Nature is content In Gold and Mirrh these drink not but are best In health when bread and water is their feast To returne so soone as Phoebus had runne thrice fifteene degrees in our Hemisphere we mounted our melancholly Mules and made our next Manzeel at Berry Nothing was observable in the way save a huge thick wall of great length and height cut by infinite toyle out of the sollid rock to safeguard the Larians from the Shyrazians Larr in that place terminating Berry is a small Village it promises much at distance but when there deludes the expectation yet is it famous through the Persian Territories both from the prerogatives an ancient learned Syet endued it with confirmed by all succeeding Princes and from an Arabick Schoole distinguisht into classes of the civill Law Astrologie Physick and such as leads to Mecca commendable in their Pythagorean silence learning to discourse by wincks nods and such dumb notions for babling is in all Arabick Schooles wonderously hated they also observe two rules especially obedience and moving the body too fro in reading adjoyning this Schoole is a Deer or Mosquit a venerable place chiefly by being a Dormitory to their greatest Doctor Emawm-zeddey-a meer-a maddy-Ally a Prophets sonne and allyed to holy Ally in this grave enjoying say they eight hundred yeeres rest a great antiquity His Tomb is rais'd foure foot from the pavement is eight foot long covered with a white fine linnen cloth the Tomb-stones are carved and painted with knots and poesies of Arabick neere him are fixt two Lances to memorize his quondam profession and some Ensignes not of ordinarie invention Vpon his Coffin lie a set of goodly Beads to help his devout memorie and which to this day retaine their Masters vertue of working miracles Atop the Chappell is a globe or steele mirrour pendant wherein these Linx-eyed people view the deformity of their sinnes They also shewed us a square stone pearced and hung neere the wall a rare stone a relique most notorious the Prophet used to burthen the backs of impenitent sinners with it telling them their impiety made it seeme heavie a waight so ponderous as made them take the right path to be quit of it A little pot comes next to our description holding a soveraigne unguent made eight hundred yeeres since oft us'd and never exhausted and is not only good to help sore eyes but a Panacea against all diseases to crowne all his booke no Alfurcan of devotion is layd upon his carcasse any body is suffered to see it a far off but to touch it is counted a presumption the impure breath of man peradventure infecting it in stormes and crosses they finde remedy with only naming it the Church is neatly matted a Mosque of so much holinesse that none must enter with boots or shooes on such as want issues I meane not in their leggs health wealth friends or the like upon their offring shall have satisfaction The Oracle the Priest never cheats them Sed non ego credulus illis and with that I bid Berry farewell Next night wee got to Bannarow The last Towne feasted us with Traditions this with good cheare musick three kettle drummes and six dumb Musquets The ruines of an ancient Castle demolisht lately by the Persian shewes its ribs through which the coole ayre blowes seldome failing from the top of that stupendious Mountaine one side of the Castle wall is anatomized to the Town the other to the stony Desart Next night we lay in Goyeme bragging in a thousand rotten houses After we had repos'd an houre a Hocus-pocus affronted us and performed rare tricks of Activity I remember some of them He trod upon two slicing hooked Semiters with his bare feet then layd his naked back upon them suffering a heavie Anvill to be layd on his belly and two men to hammer out foure horshooes on it very forceably That trick ended he thrust his armes and thighes thorow with many Arrowes and Lances then by meere strength of his block-head he lift up a yard from the ground a great stone weighing six hundred pound and as if hee had done nothing knit his haire to an old Goats head and with a scornfull pull tore it asunder at that crying out Allough-whoddaw i.e. God help him the standers by with a loud yell applauded him we gave him particular thanks and told him he was a prettie fellow But what was hee to speake of Marius one of the thirty Tyrants who with one of his fingers could overthrow a loaded Wayne or of Polydamas who with one hand would hold a wild Bull by his hinder legg and in despight of his best force stop him as Cael. Rhod. and Treb. Pollio have it But in remembring these I had almost forgot to tell you that in Goyeom is fairely intombed one Melec Mahomet famous for fomenting the authority of his Master Mahomet when the Saracens begun to canvasse it Next night we lost one another by a carelesse associating and had a miserable lodging in that vast and barren wildernesse affording no grasse no trees no water but stones and sand in great abundance Ostriches Storks and Pellicans her sole Inhabitants I beleeve the earth has worne Flora's livery but by the parching rage of Warre or continued heat of the flaming Sunne becomes thus miserably desart or rather from the just wrath of Almighty God who as King David sings makes a fruitfull land barren for the ungodlinesse of them that dwell therein Next day wee quested in search of our Carravan and with much trouble recovered it that night also pitching in the Desart were welcom'd by such a sudden storm of rain thunder and lightning as made our cheare more wretched imprisoning us also in our Tents Next day wee had the weather comfortable the sight of a few Date and Mastick tree refreshing us confuting Coriats conceit that Mastick is found no where but in Syo By the way we tooke notice of an od-devis'd Tomb it inhum'd a harmlesse Shepheard hung to and fro with threds tripartite it may be shadowing out the Trinity each thred beautified with party-coloured wooll at each end a Puppet to protect it some Cypresses were added to condecorate and to revive the old Idoll ceremony Stant manibus Arae Caetuleis maestae vittis atraque Cupresso Altars their ghosts to please Trim'd with blew fillets and sad Cypresses The next the two and twenty of February by the way we had some sport in dislodging a wild Bore but neither shot nor dogs reaching him we made Cut-bobbo our manzeil Mohack our next in which are buried Mahomet Hodge Izmael and Ally foure great Mussulmannish Doctors intombd here 400 yeares ago resorted to with no small reverence Next day to Coughton to Vnghea next
or Nursery it has foure unequall angles two sides are sixtie the other two seventy of my largest paces From that we issued into a fourth roome two sides are twenty the other two thirty paces The walls are very eminent in this chamber of black shining Marble in many places so bright and jetty as we could easily view our reflex no steel mirror comparing with it In most parts the walls are cut into Gygantive Images illustrated with Gold to this day permanent Somewhat further over heaps of stones of valewable portraictures we mount towards the most lofty part of this Pallace where we saw the resemblances of a devout King adoring his three Dietyes the Sunne the Fire a Serpent all which are cut upon the perpendicular Mountaine The other side of this high hill is a precipice downe which is no descending But whether this Fabrick was Ionick Dorick or Corinthiack in the perfection I cannot determine the ruines forbid a positive judgement But such at this day it is that a ready Lymmer in three moneths space can hardly to do it well depict out all her excellencies Pitty it is it is not done the barbarous people every day defacing it and cleaving it asunder for grave-stones and benches to sit upon Five miles West from Chehel-manor is also a gallant Monument a Giant cut into a monstruous proportion whom the illiterate Persians say was Rustan and from him cald Nocta-Rustan I rather judge it the Image of great Alexander who had a desire that after ages might think him more than a man and his men more than Monsters as appeared in his conceit to make many Armors bigg enough for three men and scatter them in India that the people might not dare to rebell lest those Poliphems came to lash them Neere Chilmanor is Mardash corruptly by the Spaniard cald Margatean a Towne of two hundred houses the people so superstitious that such houses as we came in they perfumd and ayr'd some were happily fired for that we were not Mussulmen From this place to Sheraz are ten farsangs interposd by some craggy hills and a pleasant river Rhogomana of old over which is a bridge the best till then we saw in Persia This river is by Quintus Curtius lib. 5. and Strabo lib. 15. named Araxis Cho-Araxes is a fitter name streaming sayes he twentie furlongs from Persepolis Another of that name so often mentioned by Ptol. Mela Plutarch and Lucan is in Armenia and indeed divides it from Medya at this day cald Arash and very famous After two dayes stay in view of old Persepolis the eight and twentieth day we took horse and that night rid foure and twentie miles to a Town cald Moy own in midway twixt which two Townes we noted a high impregnable mount at whose top stood desperately a Castle so fortified by Nature and industrie as may be thought impregnable A late rebellious Sultan weary of slavery man'd it against his Prince victorious Abbas who to terrifie others by his example came in person to chastise him But such was the precipitious height where the Castle stood and the narrow entrance so bravely defended that in six moneths siege hee could see no signe of victory Loth he is to leave it so and what stratagem to take cannot imagin A great reward he promises to any would effect it Valour is invalidable Art Magique perpetrates it An old wizard covetous of so much money promises the Divells best and accordingly by his infernall spells so possest with threats and phantasmaes the wretched Sultan that upon the witches assurance of pardon he descends the block rewards him But Abbas acknowledges the Inchanter had merited his price and grudgingly gave it him The foolish man so doates upon his gold that he sees not danger The King repents the losse of it and knowes no way to recover it but by sending him to Satan without his head the reason of his Justice was for his Sorcery A quality at other times he commended deeply but now abhorred it a pretty pollicy To returne Moyown is delightfully seated enricht with sweet water excellent Wine much wood and Natures Carpets It properly belongs to the highly reverenced Prophet Izmael whose tombe Emoom-Izmael is here seen by liberality of many Kings and great men not a little honoured towards its maintenance and the Priests the Towne gives yearly twelve thousand mawnd-shaw of Rice and foure thousand of Barley Next night we lodgd slept I cannot say in O-jone a village of thirty Families all of them Prophets or Prophets children We ever found least profit where Prophets dwelt no wine nor grapes allowd to grow amongst them not that wine is bad but out of a Tradition they have that it is the blood of those Gyants that warr'd against the Gods Next day we rode over most craggy steep and terrible high hills and at night made Tartang our Manzeil a small Towne only famous in a high Sepulcher clothd with violet coloured velvet under which is buried a great Uncle of the Kings Next night to Assepose notable only in an old mud Castle sometimes a garrison in and about which are fourty thousand Georgians and Sarcasshes by profession Christians by quality Captives a people much honouring Saint George the Cappadocian Bishop their converter They differ from Mahomitans not in habit but in their gray eyes and long white hayre Albani ab albo crine after the mode of Antick Gallants recorded by Pliny and Lucian tissued with fillets of gold or silver If any of these turne Mahomitan they are preferd beyond vulgar merrit Poore soules hearing that we were Christians they flockt about us yea wept to see us Not much distant hence is Thymar memorable if Byzar erre not in a brave and Antient Monument by some Hebrew characters supposd the buryall place of Bathsheba Mother of King Salomon t is cald Musqued-Zulzimen i.e. Solomons Chappell a place if truly so worthy the seeing Next night we lay in Whoomgesh next in Cuzcuzat next day to Bazeba-chow and next to Degardow eight leagues from which place and neerer Tezdycaus we rode over a steepe Mountaine of black shining Marble and where are Quarries of Serpentine and Porphyre if the earth were lookt into the descent was so percipicious that but by ragged steps and those not a little dangerous was no riding downe howbeit downe we got and that night rode to Gumbazellello famous in a Carvans-raw and the best wheat bread in Persia next night to Yezdecawz a Towne built in the bottome of a valley sunck downe in mid a great plaine whereby it is scarce to be found did not a Castle point it out raisd by Yezdgyrd a Persian King above the Towne and where is a very stately Carravans-raw the best from thence to Bander on the Gulph of Persia Next day through De-Moxalbeg we got to Amno-baut by some cald Boyall a village of thirty families all of them a postat Georgians inclosd to exclude their shame by a high strong round wall raisd with battlements
Villages The Buzzar here is but ordinarie the Mosques are not to be admired the Kings Pallace is vast and notable only in her Gardens the building itselfe is confusedly divided into three or foure Mohols or banquetting houses great and gorgeously painted which were they united might better delight the eye and cause the Architect to be commended I will speak more of it at the Ambassadors audience The pole Artick is here elevated eight and thirty degrees seventeene minutes it is due North from Spahawn as wee observed in our star-light travell for the dayes are raging hot and not to be travell'd in or jeasted with Arcturus was ever just before us from Ormus to this place are a thousand English miles from Spahawn three hundred and fifty or there-abouts as reckoned The Ambassador has Audience But before I give you a survay of Hircania let mee present an essay of my Lord Ambassadours audience and entertainment After foure dayes rest the King or Emperour Potshaw they call him was pleas'd without long warning to assigne him his day of audience It was the five and twentieth of May our Sabbath and the fag-end of their Ramazen or Lent advantageous to the Pot-shaugh for it spared him the charge of a royall Banquet My Lord Ambassadour had Sir Sobert Sherley in his company and seven or eight other English Gentlemen his followers good reason it was some Sultan or other should have convoy'd and shewed him the way the Court being a quarter of a mile distant from our house but it seemes they wanted breeding or that some other mysterie was in it for no other than a footman from Mahomet-Ally-beg proffer'd a complement every way so course that the Ambassador had no patience to digest it save by equall contempt to inculcate in the Persian mode and send him thanklesse back againe To the Court at length wee got no noise no admirers saw wee there neither by which we presumed the Towne knew not of our going thither which I wonder at since Abbas of all sorts of honours counted to have strangers at his Court the highest At our alighting an ordinarie Officer bad us Hosh-galdom and usher'd us into a little Court du guard that stood in the center of a spatious Court in it was no other furniture save a few Persian Carpets spread about a pretty white marble Tanck or Pond fill'd with water here we all stayed and for two houres space junketted upon Pelo and wine nothing so good in taste as the materiall they were served in the flaggons cups dishes plates and covers being of pure beaten gold thence wee were led by many Sultans thorow a spatious and fragrant Garden which was curious to the eye and delicate to the smell to another Summer house rich in gold imbosments and painting but farre more excellent in a free and royall prospect for from the Tarrasses wee viewed the Caspian Sea one way and another way the tops of Taurus The ground chambers were large quadrangular archt and richly guilded above and on t her sides below spread with most valuable Carpets of silk and gold in center were Tancks full of crystallin water an element of no meane account in these torrid habitations round about the Tancks were placed pomparum fercula Goblets Flagons Cesternes and other Standards of pure massie gold some of which were fill'd with Perfumes other some with Rosewater with Wine some and others with choisest flowers and after wee had rested so long as wee might at full feed our hungry eyes with that food of ostentation wee were brought thence into another square large upper Chamber where the roofe was formed into an Artificiall Element many golden Planets attracting the wandring eye to help their motion The ground was cover'd with richer Carpets than the other were the Tanck was larger the materia more rich in Iaspar and porphyr the silver purling streame was forced up into another Region yet seem'd to bubble wantonly here as in her proper center this sea of rich stone so deepe and so capatious seem'd an Ocean rather where the spoiles of shipwracks were conjur'd out to please the appetite of Mydas or god Mammon so much gold in vessels for use and ostentation being set for us to looke upon that some Merchants there adjudg'd it worth twenty millions of pounds sterlin another watery Magazeen there was circled with a wall of gold and richest Iemms no flagons cups nor other there but what were very thick and cover'd with Rubies Diamonds Pearles Emralds Turquoises Iacinths c. The Chamber was gallery wise the seeling garnisht with Poetique fancies gold and choisest colours all which seem'd to strive whether Art or Nature should be to a judicious eye more valuable one Iohn a Dutchman who had long serv'd the King celebrated his skill to the astonishment of the Persians and his owne advantage the ground in this roome also was over-layd with such Carpets as befitted the Monarch of Persia round all the roome were placed tacite Mirzaes Chawns Sultans and Beglerbegs above threescore who like so many inanimate Statues sat crosse-legg'd and joyned their bumms to the ground their backs to the wall their eyes to a constant object not daring to speak one to another sneeze cough spet or the like it being held in the Potshaws presence a sinne of too great presumption In breach of any them fearing his spleen who as Caesar told Metellus could by the fulgur of his eye dart them dead sooner then speak the word to have them killed the Ganimed Boyes in vests of gold rich bespangled Turbants and choise sandalls their curl'd haires dangling about their shoulders rolling eyes and vermillion cheeks with Flagons of most glorious mettall went up and downe and proffered the delight of Bacchus to such would relish it At the upper end and surmounting the rest so much as two or three white silken shags would elevate sat the Pot-shaw or Emperor of Persia Abbas more belov'd at home more famous abroad more formidable to his Enemies than any of his predicessours His Grandeur was this circled with such a world of wealth to cloath himselfe that day in a plaine red callico coat quilted with cotten as if he should have said we might see his dignity consisted in his parts and prudence not furtivis coloribus to steale respect by borrowed colours or rich embroderies crosse-leg'd hee sat his Shash or Turbant was white and bungie his waist was girded with a thong of leather the scaberd of his sword was red the hilt of gold the blade formed like a hemi-cicle and doubtlesse well tempered the Courtiers Regis ad exemplum were but ordinarily attired My Lord Ambassador by his Interpretor or Callimachee as the Persians name it quickly acquainted Shaw Abbas why hee had undertaken so great a journey to congratulate his good successe against the common enemy of Christendome the Turk to agrandize the traffick of raw silke and other Persian staple merchandizes to see Sir Robert Sherley purge his honour
the Citie whose balconyes view whose Gardens extend to the Mare Caspium It has two large Courts comparable to Fountain bleaus either of which expresse an elaborat Art in the skilfull gardiner paild they are in many shapes the ground is forced into pretty knots the spreading Elms Chenores and Sicamores surrounding and commixing so pleasantly so artificially that from each chamber the prospect is amiable the eye and smell contending who should surfet soonest of variety The house is low but each chamber high capacious rich in work cōmendable in uniformity we could not enter with our shooes on a cōmon Assiatick trick at meales houres of devotion the Romans also used it as Terence in his Heautont Accurrunt servi soleas detrahunt c. some are square some gallery-wise but all are arched three were especially rich and lovely whose sides were set with Mirrors or Looking-glasses and whose tops or seeling were gloriously imbost with flaming gold the casements were of large square Muscovian glasse cemented with gold the ground was over-spread with crimson velvet some stuft with Down others with matteresses of azure coloured velvet coverd with Calzoons of bodkin or cloth of beaten gold and in Winter the Pot-shaugh sleepes either in sheets of costly Sables or of delicate shagg or sheep wooll of Corasan in those gallaries of Mirrors the King has sundry representations of venereous gambolls his Concubines studying by amorous postures to illure his favor to glut his fancie the other chambers are richly furnisht the walls varnisht painted in oyle but by an uncivill pencil the genius of some goatish Apelles such Lavaltoes of the Persian Iupiter are there such immodest postures of men and women nay of Paederastyes as makes the modest eye swell with shame the curious smell winde nothing from those artificiall flowers save loathsome invention Let us goe cent the Caspyan ayre and taste the unruly waves compared with the quiet houses sweet and wholsome The first object are those prams or ships wherein the Moscovite sailes downe Volga 70 mouth'd Volga issuing from the Hyperborean and Rhyphaean hills and from Astra-can in six and forty degrees crosse over the Caspian sea and at this Port or Demir-cape in 40 degrees 20 minutes ride at anchor till they have loaded away raw silks exchang'd for Sables usually in March in Iuly returning with a good winde they crosse the sea in 8 dayes though by adverse stormes Sir Anthony Sherley was fourescore these vessells resembling our old Corraghs recorded by Caesar and Lucan are without ordinance the Sea is free of Pyrats they are sowed with hemp and cord made of the husk of Cocoes and have little iron work the Marriners are as meanly furnist with skill or use of Compasse Here also we saw many Canoos of one peece of wood hewd out of some grown Oke Hyrcania has store yet little used capable to receive eight men in faire weather without much danger Foure dayes wee spent in easie journeys upon this remote shoare the first night wee got to Chacoporo a big Towne twelve long miles West from Farrabat and upon which the sea oftentimes beats outragiously a river a stones cast over refreshes her but if they told us the truth is not alwayes potable for one month every yeer it tasts brackish Next night we got to Barfrush de a great Towne well peopled inriched with silk-wormes wood and excellent water and therefore they may the better forbeare wine for the law here forbids the use of it under a grievous penalty This place is from Chacoporo 12 miles many of the men here delight in Archery and have long beene famous'd in that manly exercise the Yew Into Ithyrean Bows is made to bow Ithyreos taxi curvantur in arcus Hyrcania is a continued Forrest and of all the trees I saw none exceeded the Mulberies for numberlesse numbers none more notable for use ten yea thirty miles spreading in them the berries if white refresht our bellies the colour our eyes the leaves our observation In every Village and Cottage wee might behold sheds fild with industrious people and inriching silk-worms seaming the seminary of that valuable Fly so accounted of through all the world so advantageous to the Persian Emperour who from hence besides those many rich Carpets of silk and gold silk silk and silver yeerely woven for their owne uses extracts an annuall quantity of raw silke seven thousand six hundred Batmans or bales I think exported through Turkie into Europe to his great benefit The silk-worme as in quality so in diversity of shape varies from other wormes her first generation arising from a small round black sperme like Gunpowder or Musturd-seed which by moderate heat increases to an inch assuming at first the shape of a palmer worme from which resemblance in six months she two times changes her common food are leaves and boughs of trees but of all other the white Mulbery most delights her strewed dayly all over thier sheds kept sweet and warme and cleanly Having satiated their usefull appetites they forthwith become enemy to idlenesse surcease their creeping and with their excretiated vertue intwine themselves in some sort making their lawne both winding-sheet and Sepulcher The silke co-operates with such colours as be laid afore them white yellow greene and sandy And albeit they be involved yet are they visible to the eye such is the transparency of their excrement Their exterior part is a pale gold commixt with lemon rough and hayry The interior more hard and form ovated the better to inhume th'included Fly Whos 's task being ended the silken cods or balls are straightway spread afore Apolloes corruscant rayes by whose radiant candor the distressed worme is broyld to death not unlike a glorious miser faelicitating his death so it be in contemplation of his rich idolatry And by this expansion the silk becomes much finer and purer than if shee were suffered from her owne notion to issue forth and break her habitacle After this the silke cods are thrown into a large caldron fild with water and made meanly hot then with a penetrated cane the people stir thē about at once drawing the slimy silke from as many as his instrument can lay hold upon or convene in advantage lastly with a wheele they are turned round it attracts the silk and leaves nothing worth the getting indivellicated But that they affoord hony yeeld wax build nests and are a sort of spyder Aristotle and Pliny may conjecture so but experience derides their supposition By this time we are got to Omoall a City as well known as any other in Mozendram OMOALL of old Zarama I imagin is thought to bee that Naborca or Naborea where the Oracle of dreames was so much famoused It is built under the North side of the imperious Mountaine Taurus of such Grandeur that three thousand Families inhabit in her of severall countries and languages Armenians Georgeans Hyrcans Persians Jewes Curdies and Muscovians who make a Babel of seven tongues amongst
his idiom Miramur periisse homines monumenta fatescunt Interitus saxis nominibus que venit Why wonder we that People die since Monuments decay Yea flinty Stones with mens great Names Deaths tyranies obay To see old Shushan is neither unworthy our labour nor out of our way SHVSHAN is every where famoused It was one of the three royall Pallaces the Medyan Monarchs so much gloried in Babylon Shushan and Ecbatan built by Darius sonne of Histaspis Anno Mundi 3444. as Pliny has it in his 6 lib. c. 28. Some say Laomedan built it such time as Thola judged Israel Others make Cyrus Lord of Pisogard from Pison a branch of Hiddekel or Tigris to bee the Architect in memory of his good successe obteyned in that very place against Astiages the Median Emperour It is spoken of in the 1. ch of Hester That there Ahashuerus An. Mun. 3500. feasted his Liefetenants over a hundred twenty and seven Provinces a hundred and eighty dayes with great cost and triumph Nehemiah and Daniel also remember it to bee in Elam Persia and notwithstanding the many mutations and miseries it had from many avaritious Tyrants yet was it able to smile upon Alexander when hee extracted thence to pay his Soldats and fill his bags with fifty thousand Talents in Bullyon and nine Millions in coyned Gold and well may bee since Cassiodore in his 7. lib. 15. Epist reports for truth that Memnon sonne to Tithon and reckned by some first founder so gloried in his work that hee cemented the stones with gold which made Aristagoras cry out to his men of warre that if they could but master it each poore knave there might then compare with Iove for riches and bravery Some wrangle about the name Shushan and its signification Athenaeus interprets it from her plenty in Lillyes but whence hee fetcht it I cannot tell the Arabic nor Persian have no such meaning as well I may say from Suzan or Shuzan in the Persic tongue a needle or a glasse-bottle But such Synonimaes may not carry it I rather beleeve it is derived from Chus Noahs grand-sonne Susiana from him call'd Chusiana and at this day not much discrepant in the name they call it by Chusistan More probable in that Chus Cams sonne planted a Colony here ere hee journeyed into Arabia and Aethiopia a mistake made the Septuagints imagine Nyle one of those foure streaming from Paradise his sonnes also here-abouts inhabiting Nymrod in Chaldaea Seba in Arabia Havilah in Indya Raamah in Carmania c. Let us dow into Shushan At this day t is called Valdac not farre from the Gulph watered by Chozes or Choaspes which arising from the Jaaroonian Mountains streames hither very pleasantly in many meanders circum-giring and not far from Balsorac Doridatis of old participates with the brackish Gulph of Persia where also Euphrates call'd Phrat and Almacher from Libanus some say from Mount Abas in Armenia say others and Tigris now call'd Diglat and Hiddechel from Taurus or Pariedrus rather imbowell themselves A river of such account which the Persian Emperours that no water but Choaspes no bread but from Assos in Phrygia no wine but the Chalyhonian in Syria no salt but what they had from Memphis in Aegipt could please their pallats Daniel calls it Vlai Pliny Eulaeus an anti-stream glides to Persepolis Shushan was in compasse 120 stades or furlongs so Strabo Policletus numbers 200 above twenty miles English The wall about it quadrangular In building walls houses Temples and the like resembling Babylon From whence Ecbatan it had aequidistancie five hundred short miles Valdac had some forme and beauty till Moses sirnamed Askar Omars kinsman Anno Dom. 641. Heg 21 depopulated it It has now a resemblance of Moful or Ninivie nothing but ruines covering her Of which and other such once noble Cities I may say with King David Psalm 46 Come and behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in all the earth And that we are so neere the old locall place of Paradise let me glance a little into it PARADISE or the terrestriall Garden of Eden Hogea-del-Holan the Indians name it Gan-Eden the Hebre wes call it wherein God placed Adam is much controverted and where it was as much doubted of some making it an Allegorie others a locall place Strange it is to confider the variety Some say it was in the middle Region of the ayre whence they will draw the foure great streames that water Paradise Some place it in the mountaines of the Moone in Aethyop whence Nilus springs othersome in the circle of the Moone some others under the circle and that thence the foure rivers flow gliding under many large deepe Seas and so into Paradise Some think the 4 rivers signifie 4 cardinall vertues the word Paradise a metaphor of delight mans fall the banishment the torryd Zone the fierie sword and such other fanatick fancies as made the brain-sick Hermians and Seleucians sweare there never was a Paradise whose phantasmaes I value not in that the more judicious affirme there was varying meerely in the place Some and those well read imagine it was ten miles about the Province Mesopotamia the precise place Eden to this retaining both name and memory St. Augustine judges it was in the happy Arabia Amongst the Tartars dreames Goropius in Holland hee might have said Vnder the N. pole thinks Postellus In Syria Beroaldus Vpon the banks of Tygris sayes Xenophon Every where before Adam sinned thinks Ortelius Some say it comprehended Meso-potamia Armenia Mount Taurus incircling Shynaar holding afterwards Selencia and Babylon Others carry it further as that it included Nilus and Gangas a too great limit for a Garden six thousand miles distant Nyle arising from Zair in Afrique empties it selfe into the mid-land Sea Ganges from Imaus in Scythia into the Gangetick Sine or Bengalan Ocean The Inhabitants in Ceyloon say Paradise was there and shew Adams footsteps Eves teares c. Some say Aegipt Syria and Iudaea that the tree of knowledge grew on Mount Calvary the second Adam suffering in the same place the first Adam had offended Some dreame it is in a mountaine above the skie where none are but Enoch and Elias We can ascend no higher without troubling our understandings The best is this That Nyle nor Ganges had no being there the Septuagints mistake arising from their suppostion that Pison was Ganges and Gihon Nyle Mesopotamia no doubt was East from Arabia where Moses the Prince and first that ever wrote History compleated his Pentateuch And as questionlesse the Garden of Eden was watered with Euphrates and Tygris who in their severall fluxes one from Libanus th' other from Ararat or Taurus part themselves into foure branches Pison one streaming to Piso-gard in Persia Gibon th' other commixing with Choaspes both runne into the Gulph at Balsora For whereas 't is said Pison compasses the land of Hevilah we must not imagine it that Havilah in Indya whither Havilah sonne of Ioctan sonne
with a parti-coloured plad or mantle falling no longer than the knees and are impatient if any offer to touch their heads The ordinary food had here not at easie rates is ryce wheat pinange betele ophium goates egs hens coquos plaintains jacks and rack-a-pee so cald 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which drunck immoderately accilerates Death but temperately exhilirates the heart cures fluxes kill wormes and helps digestion To conclude Whence this great and noble I le is called Iava I confesse my ignorance I dare not say from Iavan Iaphets sonne grandson of Noah in that most agree he planted Greece But by reason his own brother Tharsis peopled these parts why might he not from his brothers name to eternize his memory borrow the denomination Nothing else save Pepper presents itselfe in this I le worthy our nothing Pepper is sowne Pepper and in the growth supported by poles or canes about which it entwines and duplicates with many embraces till by maturity it gets the shape and strength of a bushy round and pleasant tree The pepper hangs foure inches in length and one about in many clusters each yeelding fifty or sixtie cornes full round and fragrant the smooth is best accounted of The Cotton more common in Persia and Guzurat is no lesse memorable and usefull The tree is slender streight a yard high and like a bryer Cotter at the top it expands into many severall branches each charg'd with many balls or cods conteining the Bumbast or Cotton the shape is round and equall in bignesse to a Walnut at maturity the cod opens discloses her treasure but being cropt is put in an entire heap and with flayles or such like usefull though churlish instruments is forced out and by the enriched owner cheerefully gathered The Malayan Tongue sounds well and may prove harmony to the ingenious observer in these parts no lesse musicall epedemic than is with us and others the Latine Arabique and Sclavonian English Malay A King Rutgee a Nobleman Oran-kay a Lord Kay a Priest Cadda a Merchant Phetor an Interpreter Iorbissa a Man Oran a Woman Tadon Paran-poan a Child Buda a Boy Catsion a Youth Monda a Father Babba a Mother Mamma a Brother Addal-Ally a Sister Adda-paparas an Uncle Niana a Friend Marty-lowty a Stranger Oran-Leya a Chirurgian Goething an Iron-Smith Goada An Elephant Catgha an Oxe Cambi Alomba a Goat Carbow a Sheep Domba a Dog Hangbé a Bird Borron a Hen Ayam a Duck Bebeé a Musk-Cat Catto-Dalgalia a Sow Sabi Sieleng a Fish Ican a Water-Pot Laude a Herb Oberbedil Lancuos a Musk-Nut Palla a Ship Capel Iunck a Boat Praw Paca-sura a Coat Nasse a Needle Naroen a Custome Negry a Rope Tali a Stone Batu a Ring Chinsim a Wimble Alforees a Shooe Apon a Sword Ita. Padang a Dagger Cryze a Knife Pieson a Javelin Tomba a Sheild Salvack a Gun Bedyl Pitsil a barrell of a Gun Sombo-bedyl a looking-Glasse Sarmi a Glasse Lora a Lamp Pulita a warme thing Penas a Cap or TurbaÌ„t Caya a marriage maker Coemodo a Command T'suyka a Yeare Tauwa a Day Aris a Book Nimoda Kitab a Bed Bantell a good Day Tabea a Royall of 8 Serpi a Christian Vrangby All Samoanga The Head Capell Coar Hayre Ramboyet Eares Talinga Eyes Martic Eye-broowes Alys Nose Irotdon Neck Goulon Lips Lambider Tongue Ilat Teeth Auton Beard Tianga Back Balacca Shoulder Baon Arme Backeyen Hand Tangan Finger Iary-laree Belly Penot Blood Darno Privie part Perot Tâ—igh Backy Legg Gula Foot Bhackhyé Toe Ghoumo Fire Api Ayre Baya Water Eyer Earth Zam the Sea Chay Gold Maz. Cabo Silver Peca Salorca Brasse Temba Copper Tambagle Lead Tyma Iron Negle Money Sarfi Scarlet Facca lata-miera Death Mattu Merchandise Bayick Dimana Melancholy Chinta Silke Sabuck Paper Cartas Quills Cazamp Inck Mangsi a Book Khytab Nymoda Wine Aracca Vinegar T'suka Strong Water Pinangha Bread Sagu Boyld Ryce Braas Fruit Tacat Drink Larnick Sugar Gula Salt Garram Matary Oyle Nuagia Flesh Lalyer Fish Ivack Crabs Horrae Plates Pienig Pepper Lada Sihang Ginger Alia Mace Bengo Cloves Chocho Sianck Cynomon Cajumayns Aloes Garro Tamarind Assa Ryce Braas Parce Nuts Calappen Palla Sweet Gums Daringo Sweet Spices Dingyn Plantaines Gardang Cocos Calapa Mustard Sajani Egges Teloor Woe Saya Better Parma Great Bazaer Sweet Manys Heavie Brat Strong Cras Needles Calvenetten Baggs Corni Hard Wax Caju-lacca Friendship Pondarra I Manyr Thou Pakanera Hee Itowen Wee Dep Yee Pachaneras They Itowe Shee Dya Sunday Ion-maheet to Day Mari Yesterday Bulmari the other Day Bulmari-dula Early Pagi Night Malam to Morrow Ysouck What say you Abba-catta Is he not here Beef What 's done Bigimana Well done Soosa Where is it Manauten Bring it back Combali Now Bacabaren How much Barappe itu Give place Lalan Require it Minta Regard Nanthy Let passe Ganga Neare hand Gila We will go Maree Leave it Iangemast I have Ada It is found Botonvum It is Dalan I will bring it Addadizano I see Green I thank you Terimacaché I understand not Tan or tyedae-taw I care Tage I have not Tyeda-da I desire not Tyeda-maw I am sick Bite-secata To eat Macan To remember Engat To stretch out Dusta To beat one another Baccalayo To ashame Malon To choose Damare To pay Chiny To give Bering To buy Bilby To live Iagava To poyson Ampo To observe Doduer To be silent Dyem To gaine Menang To destroy Ilan To cover the head Kocodang To arise Passai To burne Baccar To kill Benue To spin Tuedda To sell Iouwall To do Bretcon To sweare Sempa To help Touloug To us Quia-bota To let blood Bewaeng-darner To question Betangia To know Kyunall To dye Bantaren Take it Ambell Not good Tiedae-Bayck Sloth Checo Give thanks Tarima Casse Farewell Tingal One Satu Two Dua Three Tiga Foure Enpat Five Lyma Six Nam Seven Toufiou Eight De lappan Nine Sambalan Ten Sapola Eleven Sabalas Twelve Dua-balas Thirteene Tiga balas Foureteene Enpat-balas Fifteene Lyma balas Sixteene Nam-balas Seventeene Toufiou-balas Eighteene De lappan-balas Nineteene Sambalam-balas Twenty Dua-pola Twenty one Dua-pola-satu Twenty two Dua pola-dua Twenty three Dua pola-tiga Twenty foure Dua pola-enpat Twenty five Dua pola-lyma We must yet to sea and think us not a little happy that we land so safely 〈◊〉 the Celebes not out of our way to our intended places Our course from Iava hither is North-East from Bantam two hundred leagues or thereabouts Of the Celebes CELEBES by some is cald Makasser I le from her best Citie so called a place for quantitie and quality no way despicable stretching from the Equator 6 degrees South ovall formed two hundred miles long at lest well peopled but with bad people no place ingendring greater Demonomists well agreeing with the old name Ptol. gave them Anthropophagorum regio Mahomet is not unknowne among them but by him a malo in pejus for though he teach them there is one and but one God yet seeing Iesus Christ is unknowne there what does this their