'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎130] (801/1024)

A Voyage to Kachemire,
Concerning therefore firft our Voyage, frorn Bember hither, it feem d to me furpriGng
enough, to find my felf From the firft night that we parted from Bember, and entred
into the Mountains, pafs from a Torrid to a Temperate Zone : For, we had no fooner
mounted this dreadful \Vall of tfie ; World, l mean, this, high , ft,eep, black and bald
Mountain, of Bembety but that in defceqding on die; other fide, we found an Air that
was pretty tollerable, ficfti, gentle and temperate. But that which furptifed me more
in thefe Mountains, was, to find my felf, in a trice, tranfported out oi the into
Europe. For, feeing the Earth covered with all our plants and (hrubs, exept IlTop,
Thyme, Marjoram, and Rofemary, I imagined I was in ft)me of our Mountains of
Auvergne, in the midft of a Foreft of all our kinds of Trees, Pines,: Oaks, Elms,
Plane-trees. And I was the more aftoniftfd becaufe in all thofe burning Fields of In-
dcjiatiy whence \ came* I had feen almoit nothing of all that.
Among other things relating to Plants, this furprifed me, that one and a halfdays
joumy from Bember 1 found a Mountain, that was cover’d with them onbothfides, but
with this difference, that on the fide of the Mountain that was Southerly, toward the
Indies, there was a mixture of Indian and European Plants, and on that which was ex-
pofed to the North l cbferv’d none but ones > as iftheformeir had participated
of the Air and temper of Europe and the Indies, and the other had been meetly
European. , . r - ; \ ^
As to the Trees, I admired this natural courfe of Generations and Corruptions:
Below jn thefe bottoms, where perhaps no man ever was, I faw hundreds that were
falling, or fallen, one upon another, dead and half rotten of age i and other young and
verdant ones growing out of .the foot of thofe that were dead : Some of them alfol
faw burnt, whether it was from Lightning, or that in the heat of Summer they had
taken fire by rubbing themfelvcs againftone another, when they were agitated byfomc
hot and impetuous wind i or, as the Country-people fay* that they take fire of them-
fdves, when they are grown okl and dry.
I admired alfo thole natural Cajcatas of water, which we found between thofe
“Rocks. We met, among others, one of them fo wonderful, that doubtlefs, it can
not be parallel’d. One feeth a far off from the fide of an high Mountain, running
down a Torrent of water in a Channel cover’d with Trees, and precipitate it felf in
^ trice to the bottom of a ftjep Rock of a ftupendipus height, with a noife that is
able to ftrike one deaf, dike a Cataraft* There was eredfed near it, a Theatre, upon a
Rock, which Jehan-Guire had caufed purpofely to be made plain, that the Court pafT'
ing, might there.repofe themfelves, and from thence with conveniency beholdthisad-
mirabie W ork-man-lhip of Nature v which as well as thofe old Trees, I was juft now
fpeakingof, feems to refemble fomething of great Antiquity, and of the firli produ-
eftion of the World. -
All thefe divertifements were blended with an odd accident. On the day, that the
Ring went up the Mountain of Pire-penjale, which is the higheft of all, and whence
one begins to difeover a far off the Country of Kacbemire i on that day, I fay, that the
King afeended this Mountain, being followed by a longrowof Elephants, upon which
Fate the Women in Mikdembers, and Embarys , one of. thofe Elephants was frighted by
beholding, as the I/z^ax would have it, fuch a long and fteep afeent, and fell back
upon him that was next , and he upon the next, and fo on to the fifteenth, fo that not
one of them being able to turn in this way, which was extreamly rude and fteep, they
all tumbled into the precipice. It was good fortune for thofe poor Women, that the
precipice it felf was not very fteep, fo that there were but three or four of them kill d >
but the fifteen Elephants remai’nd upon the place. When theft bulky Maffes do once
fall under thofe vaft burthens they are loaden with, they never rife again, though the
way be never fo fair. We faw them two days after, in paffing by, and 1 obferved fome
of them yet ftirring their Trunk. This accident put the whole Army, which had mar
ched four days along the Mountains in file, into greatdiforder, hecaufe to recover thefe
Womenandall that vvreck, a flop was made for the remainder of that day and all the
night, every one being neceflitated to ftop where he was, becaufe it was in many places
impoftibie to advance or go back, and none had near himohofe Porters that carried hb
Tent and Victuals. As for my felf, I was notin the ' worft condition, having fo un
means to creepout of the way, and totake the conveniency of a fmall place to lye down
hi,,/for my felf and my Horfe. And, to my good luck, one of my fervants that o-
low’d me, had a little bread, which we Glared together. I remember, itwas th? re