'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.' [‎143] (814/1024)

The Paradife of Indoftan.
faften’cf, yet notwithltanding all that, the Wind broke our Cable, and was caftine
into the great Channel, where we had infallibly pcnOi’d, if 1 had not, together with
my two Portuguefef, prtfently laid hold on the Branches of fome Trees, where we held
fall for above two hours, whjlft the ftorrae lafted : For there was no afliitance ro be ex-
pcded from my Indian Oar-men, whom fright had made incapable to help us in this
occalion. But, what was moft troublefome and amazing, there fella Rain as ifithad
been pour’d down with buckets, which tilled our Boat, and was accompanied with
liich Lightning and Thunder-claps, very near our head, that every momenf we
thought we (liould fink. ■ ,
The remainder of our Voyage unto the ninth day, when I arriv’d at Omli we
pafed very well and -with pieafure •, dor i could not be fatish’d with behold ingVuch
beautiful Countries: Mean time my Trunk and all my Baggage was we^ mv Pnllprc
dead, myFilh fpoilcd, and all my bifcuit drunk with water.
Aufoer to the Fifth Qwflion, about the Increafe of the Nile.
I do not know, whether I (hall acquit my felf, inrefpedtof this Fifth Queliim, as it
were to be w idl’d : But I (hall faithfully impart to yog what / have fetdownof it
after I had twice obierved the Nile's Increafe, and carefully examined the fame, and’
taken notice withal of fome things in the Indies, which have afforded me greater aids
for it, than that Learned Man could have, that hath fo ingenioufly written of it
though he never fiaw Egypt but in his Study.
I h^ve already faid in another place, that at the time when the two Ambaffadours of
Mthiopia were at Debit, my Jgab Danechmend-han, who is extraordinarily curious, fent
often for them, to inform himfelf, in my prefence, of the Condition and Govern- '
taent of their Country •> and one day, amongti other things, we occafion’d thtm to
difcourfe of the Source of the Nik, which they call Abbabile s whereof they fpake to
us as a thing fo knovyn that no body doubted of it, and where one of thefe Ambaffa
dours, and a Mogoliati, that was return’d with him out of JEthiopia, had been in perfon.
They told us, that it taketh its Origin in the Country of the Agsws, and iffueth out
of the Earth at two big bubling Springs, near one another, which form a final 1 Lake
of about thirty or forty paces long i that at the coming out of this Lake it is then al
ready a pretty River, and. that from place to place it receiveth other Rivers which en
large it. They added, that it runs bending, and forming a great Pen-infule, and that
after feveral Cafcatols from fteep Rocks, it falls into a great Lake, which is not above
four or five days journey from its Source, in the Country of Dumbia ox Dembed, three
little days journey from Gander, the Metropolis of that having traverfed that
hake, it iffueth thence fweU’d with all the waters that fall there, paffeth through Sonnar,
the principal City of the King of Euneys or Barbaris, tributary to the King of Mthiopia,
running on and making the Cataracts, and fo erKring into the Plains of which
is ^ _ / . ' V
After we had learned thefe particularities of the Source aud Courfe of the Nile, I
asked him, (to judge whereabout the Source of the,Nile might be ) towards which part
of the World they believed the Coultrey of wherein is GoWer, to be, inre-
fyedfof Babel-mandel? But they knew not what to anfwer to this, but only, that they
went alwayes Well ward, and efpecially^ the Mahumetdn Ambaffadour, f who was
obliged to know better, and to take more Notice of thePofition ofthe World, than the
CbrijUan, becaufe the Turks are obliged in faying their Prayers to turn th.emfelves towards
Mecca ) did affure me, that l was not at all to doubt thereof: Which did afloniff me ve
ry much, becaufe, according to their Defcription, the Source of the Nile fliould be
much on this fide of the JEquinoclial) whereas allour Maps with Ptolomie place it a good
way. beyond it.
We alfo asked them, at what time it did ufe to rain in JEthiopia, and whether
there were regularSeafons of Rain as in the Indies'? To which they anfwer’d, that it
ni ffd almolt never upon that Coafi of the Red-Sea, from Suaken-Arktko, and the file
Mdfouva to fiabelmandei, no more than it doth at Mol^i, which is on the other fide,
ln Happy Arabia but that in the Heart of the Country, in the Province of
an 4 in that of Dumbia ahd the circumjacent places it rained much for two of the hot-
months of the Summer, and at the fame time when it rain’d in the Indies b which
was alfo, according to my computation, the very time of the IncreaTe of the A/iff in