name being lost long since, it is now by some called Dache, by others Candahor, but most commonly
Sublestar.
The Countrey mountainous and hilly, here and there intermixt with Valleys: the Mountains of great
height, and exceeding barren; the Valleys indifferent fruitful, but so over-shadowed with those hills, that
the cleerest day in some places seems but like a twilight. The people as obscure as their Countrey, scarce
known to any of their neighbours in the time of Alexander; the barbarous nations neerest to them esteem∣ing
them unworthy of their acquaintance. Agreste hominum genus, & inter Barbaros maxime incon∣ditum,
as it is in Curtius.
Rivers of most note herein, 1. Oxus, (of which before) which rising out of Mount Caucasus, passeth
Northwards, and afterwards divideth Bactria from Sogdiana. 2. Dargamanis, 3. Coacus, both owing
their original to some of the branches of Mount Taurus. Which chain of hills, beginning hereabouts to draw
towards their end are towards the West called Paroetes, where they give being to the River Dargamanis, be∣fore
named; more Eastward they have the name of Parapomisus; and Caucasus they are properly called
where they are thwarted by Imaus, in the very point, as it were, where Scythia, India, and the Persian
territories do encounter Each other. The hills in that place mounted to so great an height, that from the
tops thereof the Stars appear much greater than in other places: the rising and setting of which are from hence
easily discerned: made memorable by the fable of Promotheus, who is said to have been bound here by
command of Jupiter; on which, vistum Promethea fuisse antiquit as tradit, saith the Historian. Pro∣metheus
is indeed by the Poets feigned to have stoln fire from heaven, and to have made a man of clay: for
which presumptuous fact, Jupiter bound him on the hill Caucasus; where a vulture continually fed on his
his Liver. But according either to the truth of Story, or their guess at least, who make some Story the
ground of Every Fable; Prometheus being a very wise man, instructed the dead and clayie carcasses of o∣thers
with wisedome; and that being very desirous to learn the nature of the starres, (which is the fire he
stole from heaven) he made the highest part of Mount Caucasus his studie, where the inward care he had
to accomplish his desire, might justly have been compared to a Vulture gnawing on his entrails; and of
this opinion is Saint Augustine. But far more memorable is it made for being the resting place of the Ark
of Noah, whereof we have already spoken in our Generall Preface.
Places of most consideration in it, 1. Naulibis, and 2. Ortospana, both named by Ptolomy, and
reckoned by Amminus for the most famous of this Countrey. But in what their same confisted I cannot
find. 3. Parsiana, 4. Gazaca, 5. Doroacana, 6. Bagarda; all named by Ptolomy; but not else
observable. 7. Candihor, now the Metropolis of the Countrey, a Town of great trade, by reason
of the situation of it on the borders of India; in that respect giving to the whole Countrey the nameof Can∣dahor.
By which name reckoned for a Kingdome, and used amongst the many titles in the Stile Imperiall.
Nothing considerable of it in the course of Story, but that being once brought under by the Persian Mo∣narchs,
it followed the fortune of the rest till these latter times; when the Persians being overlaid by the
Tertars, it became subject to some Kings of the race of TamerLane, reigning in this Province, till brought
under by the Kings of Cabul, of the same extraction. Finding those Kings intent on the conquest of India,
they freed themselves from all subjection to that Crown, and had Kings of their own, till the year 1600.
or thereabouts, when the last King, unable to defend himself against Abduxa King of the Usbeques (a
Tartarian people, but subject in some sort to the Crown of Persia) surrendred his Kingdome to Echebar the
Great Mongul (descended from the old Kings of Cabul) whose dominions border close upon it. Reco∣vered
to the Persian Crown by Mirza, the sonne of Abas, and father of Soffie the now Sultan; a Prince of
much gallantry, but of more misfortunes: the Persian Sophies, since that conquest, using the title of Kings of
Candahor, in the Regal stile.