The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier, Baron of Aubonne through Turky, into Persia and the East-Indies, for the space of forty years : giving an account of the present state of those countries, viz. of the religion, government, customs, and commerce of every country, and the figures, weight, and value of the money currant all over Asia : to which is added A new description of the Seraglio / made English by J.P. ; added likewise, A voyage into the Indies, &c. by an English traveller, never before printed ; publish'd by Dr. Daniel Cox

THE Author's Design.

I Question not but that several Relations of the Grand Seignor's Seraglio have been publish'd; but I am to acknowledge withal, that I have not had the leisure to read any one of them. I have travell'd Six seve∣ral times, by Land, into the East, and by different Roads, during the space of Forty Years; and most Persons know, that my Employments were such, as would not allow me much time for the reading of Books. But when my Af∣fairs afforded me any remission, I wholly employ'd those spare hours, in the collection of things the most worthy to be remark'd, whether the Scene lay in Turkey; or in Persia, or in the Indies, on this, or the other side of the River Ganges, or in the Diamond-Mines, which are in the Territories of divers Princes. While I am busied in putting into order those Me∣moires, which I conceive my self oblig'd to gratify the Publick withall, I make it a Present of this Relation of the Seraglio, attended with some Observations sufficiently remarkable, which, haply, will not be unpleasant.

The Ottoman Court, which makes so much noise in the World, has not, to my thinking, been yet sufficiently well known, if I may judge of it, by what I have seen thereof my self, and have heard from several Persons. I do here com∣municate a faithful and ample description thereof: which I have extracted, as well out of what I had observ'd my self, in the several Voyages I made to Constantinople, as out of the infor∣mations I receiv'd from two intelligent Persons, who had spent many years in the Seraglio, in very considerable Employments. One of whom was a Sicilian, advanc'd to the Charge of Chas∣nadar-bachi, or chief Officer belonging to the Treasury; and after Five and Fifty Years Service in the Seraglio, was, for some slight miscarriage committed by him, banish'd to a place neer Bursa, in Natolia, from whence he made his escape into the Indies. The other, a Parisian-born, named De Vienne, had been one of the Pages of the Treasury. In his Return from the Jubilee at Rome, in the Year M. DC. L. being aboard a Brigantine bound from Civita Vecchia to Marseilles, he was

taken by the Pirates of Tripoli, and the Bassa finding that young Lad well shap'd, and looking like one that promis'd much, sent him, as a Present, to the Grand Seignor. He was also pack'd away out of the Seraglio, after Fifteen Years Service, only upon this score, that there was some discovery made, of his holding a secret correspondence with the disgrac'd Sicilian, who had heretofore shewn him much kindness, and indeed it was by his credit that the Parisian was first advanc'd to the Chamber of the Treasury.

From those two men, who were in a fair capacity to make exact Observations of things, have I extracted the better part of this Relation. Though they had been forc'd to embrace the erroneous perswasion of Mahomet, yet were there some Relicks of the good sentiments of Christianity: And whereas there was not the least hope of recovering the honours, where∣in they pride themselves who are exalted to Charges in the Seraglio, it is not to be imagin'd, that they could have any design to disguise things to me. They themselves thought it a certain pleasure to descend to a greater familiarity of Dis∣course, and to specifie even the least circumstances: but I am to discover withal, that having had their education amongst the Turks, and learnt of them, to love Mony, it must have been so much the greater charge to me, to give them content. I have kept them for a considerable space of time, at my own charge, and that in several places, one at Ispahan in Persia, and the other in the Indies, where they had made their residences, and the Memoires which they supply'd me withal were per∣fectly concordant.

To the Instructions, which I made a shift to get from those two men, and to what discoveries I may have made my self, of the present state of the Grand Seignor's Palace, I shall add some necessary Observations of the Manners and Customes of several Provinces of the Ottoman Empire, slightly passing over those things, which, in all probability, are generally known. But that the Reader may with greater ease comprehend the matters I treat of, and that the Discourse may not be inter∣rupted, by the necessary explication of the several names of Charges and Dignities, I have thought it fit, in the first place, to give a short List of them, after which shall follow another, of the different Species of Mony, which are current all over the Turkish Empire.