'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.' [‎44] (715/1024)

The Hifiory of the Empire
m ; a W f aY a Father had fold rue his Son. The ficond, becaufe I found that Murat, as
well as the Mahutnetan, had obliged themfelves to Attren&rZebe that they would em
ploy their intereft with their King, that he might permit in to rebuild an old
Mofauee ruined in the time of the Portugals, and which had been built tor a Tomb of a
er eat Vervich which went from Mecha into Ethiopia, for the propagation of Mabumeta-
nifm, and there made great progrefs. They receiv’d of Aureng-Zebe two thoufcndtf*-
ties for this Engagement. This Mojquee had been pulled down by the P^g 4 /, when
they came with their Succors into Ethiopia, which the then King, who turn’d Catho-
lick had asked of them againft a Mabumetan Prince, invading his Kingdom. The
third becaufe they detired Aureng-Zebe, in the name of their King, t© give them an
i/cif and eight other %oks,which I well remember, were of themoft reputed
in the Mahumetan Religion : Which proceeding feemed to me very unworthy of a Cbri-
(tian Embaffador, and Gbriftiau King, and conhrmed to me what 1 had been told at Mo-
ka that the Chrijlianhfy of Ethiopia muft needs be fome odd thing ? that it favors much
of Mahumetanifmfind that the Mahumetant increafe exceedingly in that Empire, efpe-
cially fince the fortugals, that came ia there for the Reafon lately expreffed,were either
killed, upon the death of the King, by the Cabal of the Queen-Mother, or expell’d to
gether, with the Patriarch Jefuite, whom they had brought along from Goa.
During the time that the Ambaffadors were at Vebli, my Agah, who is more than
ordinary curious, made them often come to him, when I was prefent, to inform him-
felf of the State and Government of their Countrey,and principally to learn fomething
of the fource of the Nile, which they call Ababile, of which they difcourfed to us as a
thing fo well known, that no body doubted of it. Murat himfelf, and a Mogol, who
was returned out of Ethiopia with him, bad been there, and told us very near the fame
Particulars with thofe I had received of it at Moika, viz. That the Nth had its Origine
in the Countrey of Agaw > that it ilfued out of the Earth by two Springs bubling up,
near to one another, which did form a little Lake of about thirty or forty paces long i
that coming put of this Lake, it did make a confiderable River: and that from fpace
to fpace, it receiv’d fmallRivers increafing it. They added, that it went on circling,
and making as ’twere a great Ifle ? and that afterwards it tumbled down from fteep
Rocks into a great Lake, in which there were divers fruitful Hies, bore of Crocodiles,
and ( which would be remarkable enough, if true ) abundance of Sea-Calves, that
have no other vent for their Excrements than that, by which they take in their foodi
this Lake being in the Countrey of Vambea, three fmall days journey from Gondar, and
four or five days journey from the fource of the Nile. And laftly, that this River did
break out of this Lake, being augmented with many River-waters, and with feveral
Torrentsfalling into it, efpecially in the rainy Seafon, (which do regularly begin there,
as in the Indies about July, which is very confiderable and convincing for the inunda
tion of the Nile) and fo runs away through Sonnar, the capital City of the King ot
Emgi, Tributary to the King of Ethiopia, and from thence paffeth to the Plains ot
Mefre, which is Egypt. r u anf
The Ambafladors were not wanting to fay more than was liked on the iuDject ex
their King’s Greatnefs, and of the ftrength of his Army, but the Mogolian did not
ovcrrmuch agree with them in it ? and in their abfence reprefented to us this Army,
which he had feen twice in the Field, with the Ethiopian King on the head of it, as the
moft wretched thing in the world.
They alfo related to us divers Particulars of that Countrey, which I have put m my
Journal, one day perhaps to be digefted and copied: In the mean time I (hall infert
here three or four things which Murat told me, becaufe l efteem them very extrava
gant for a Chilian Kingdom. He faid then, that there were few men in
whobefides their lawful Wife, had not many others, and himfelf owned that he had
two, without reckoning her which he had kfr at Aleppo: That the Ethiopian Women
did not fo hide themfelves, as they do in the Indies among the Mahumetans, nor even
as among the Gentiles: Fhat thofe of the meaner fort- of People, Maids, or marrie
Women, Slaves or Free, were often together pell-mell, night and day, in
Chamber, without thofe jealoufies fo common in other Countries: That the worn
of Lords did not flick much to go into the houfe of a Ample Cavalier, whom t ey
knew to be a Man of Execution: fhat if I had gone into Ethiopia,thty would loon nav
obliged me to marry, as they had done, a few years fince, to a certain