Purchas his pilgrimes. part 1 In fiue bookes. The first, contayning the voyages and peregrinations made by ancient kings, patriarkes, apostles, philosophers, and others, to and thorow the remoter parts of the knowne world: enquiries also of languages and religions, especially of the moderne diuersified professions of Christianitie. The second, a description of all the circum-nauigations of the globe. The third, nauigations and voyages of English-men, alongst the coasts of Africa ... The fourth, English voyages beyond the East Indies, to the ilands of Iapan, China, Cauchinchina, the Philippinæ with others ... The fifth, nauigations, voyages, traffiques, discoueries, of the English nation in the easterne parts of the world ... The first part.

CHAP. V. A briefe recitall of the famous expeditions mentioned in ancient Histories, of [ 20] the Assyrians, Aegyptians, Scythians, Aethiopians, Persians, and others.

AS these last haue bin told by Poets as fables, that is truth seeked and wrought vpon by their wits for greater delight; so the stories of the first Assyrian Monarchie and Aegyptian Dynasties haue little more solidity. Ninus by the Greeke and Latine stories is renowned for his ambitious marches,* 1.1 and trauels thorow all Asia from the Red to the Euzine Sea, and thorow Scythia to the Bactrians. Hee conquered (saith Diodorus) the Armenians and their King Barchanes,* 1.2 Pharnus also King of [ 30] Media and all Asia from Tanais to Nilus, the Egyptians, Phaenicians, Syrians, Cilicians, Pamphilia, Lycia,* 1.3 Caria, Phrygia, Misia, Lydia, Troas, Propontis, Bythinia, Cappadocia, the Barbarians vpon Pontus, Cadusians, Tapyrans, Hyrcans, Dranges, Derbici, Carmani, Coronei, Rhomni, Vorcani, Par∣thians, Persians, Susians, Caspians, and many others. Ariaeus the Arabian King was his Collegue in armes in these expeditions. After which he built Ninus or Niniue, the wals one hundred foot high,* 1.4 broade enough for three Carts to passe together on the tops, with 1500. Turrets 200. foote high, the squares vnequall the two longer 150. furlongs, the two shorter 90. Hee made a second expedition against the Bactrians, and then maried Semiramis a Syrian, which he tooke from her husband Menon,* 1.5 who hanged himselfe in foolish griefe.

Semiramis succeeded, and exceeded his exploits: She inuaded Ethiopia, and whereas (if you be∣leeue [ 40] Ctesias) Ninus had with him in his last expedition against Zoroastres the Bactrian 1700000. footmen and 200000. horsemen with 10600. hooked chariots:* 1.6 She builded (as they say) Babylon, with a stupendious Garden in Chaona, and Pallace at Ecbatana, cut out highwaies in Persia, passed thorow Egypt to Libya to the Oracle of Iupiter Ammon, subiected Aethiopia, and made three yeers prouision to inuade Staurobates King of India, slew 300000. Beeues of their Hides to frame coun∣terfeit Elephants, and with 3000000. (••t is Ctesias also which taleth it) of Footmen, and 500000. Horsemen, and 2000. Ships, with Elephantine counterfeits carried on Camels, shee made that Indian inuasion, where Staurobates encountered her with greater numbers, threatning to crucifie her. On Indus was the Nauall fight, wherein the Indians had the worse, and lost 1000. Ships, but in the Field the Assyrian Armie was ouerthrowne. Thus they proceed in the Assy∣rian [ 50] Empire for 1300. yeeres together,* 1.7 and say that at the warres of Troy, Theutamo the twen∣tieth from Ninus relieued Priamus with 20000. Men, and 200. Chariots vnder the conduct of Memnon. As for Sardanapalus the thirtieth and last of them, the truth is, as in the former, a cer∣taine vncertainty. Eusebius reckoneth the time of Semiramis to haue beene the same with A∣braham, so that Moses, whom Iosephus, Clemens, African••••, Tatianus, make to be 850. yeeres be∣fore the Troian warre,* 1.8 is by his more probable reckoning made much later, yet, as hee saith, an∣cienter then the Greekish Antiquities, and their Gods also: being borne, as Scaliger calculateth out of his Positions 394. yeeres before the destruction of Troy. Now what pett••e Kinges the World had in the best peopled parts in Abrahams time, the fourth Chapter of Genesis sheweth, euen of those Regions; which some therefore make but Vice-roys vnder the Assyrian, very da∣ringly. [ 60] Ninue his numbers sauour of Nimrods Babel, which after Ages could make swel with such vanities. It may be a question (I thinke the negatiue out of question) whether the World had then so many soules so soone af••er the Flood,* 1.9 as those Indian and Assyrian Armies are said to containe.

The like may bee said of Vexores the Aegyptian Kings Expedition, which conquered to

Pontus, and Tanaus the Sc••thian, which conquered him and almost all Asia▪ as some say before Ninus. Vexores by Genebrard is supposed to bee Osiris, the first Pharao.* 1.10 And for Sesostris wee haue already in part acknowledged his greatnesse, and withall his latenesse in the time of Re∣hoboam the Sonne of Salomon. He is said to haue had in his Army 600000. Footmen,* 1.11 and 24000. Horse, 8020. Chariots of Warre, in the Red Sea foure hundred Ships. Hee conquered beyond Ganges, the Medes, the Scythians vnto Tanais, and the rest of Asia. Into Europe he passed as farre as Thrace, and left Pillars as Monuments for his victories, engrauen with the representation of a mans Priuities, if they were valiant; of a womans, if effeminate.

Not long after was that Expedition of Zerah the Ethiopian with a million of men,* 1.12 ouer∣throwne by King Asa; as that of the Queene of Sheba (some thinke shee raigned ouer [ 10] Arabia and Aethiopia) to Salomon a little before. Tiglath Pileser King of Assyria tooke Damascus, and Shalmaneser carried away the tenne Tribes into Assyria and Media, and placed Babilonians, Cutheans and others in their roomes. Senacherib soone after inuaded Iudah, but Tirhakah King of Ethiopia came out against him.* 1.13 This Tirhakah is thought to bee that Tearcon, which Strabo mentioneth,* 1.14 where hee denieth that India had beene inuaded by any but Bacchus and Hercules before Alexander, denying that of Semiramis, and al∣leadging Megasthenes both to that purpose, and that Sesostris the Egyptian,* 1.15 and Tearcon the Ethiopian pierced into Europe, yea that Nabucodonosor, or Nanocodrosor (more celebra∣ted by the Chaldaeans then Hercules) came to the Straits or Hercules his Pillars; as did al∣so Tearcon: also that Idanthyrsus the Scythian pierced as farre as Egypt; but none of them [ 20] went (saith hee) to India. Megasthenes acknowledgeth that Cyrus came neere the Indi∣ans, in his Expedition against the Massagets, but not thither. As for Nabucodonosors Asian and Egyptian Expeditions, and his Dominion in manner ouer the World wee haue diuine te∣stimony in Daniells Tree and Golden Image 1 of Cyrus also, whose Conquests are knowne, and large Peregrinations from the West parts of Asia, where hee captiued Croe∣sus and subdued his, with the adioyning Dominions, and all the Regions thence thorow Sy∣ria, Armenia, Media, Persia, to the Massagets and Scythians.* 1.16 His sonne Cambyses added Aegypt, and that foolish Expedition against the Aethiopians. Darius with 800000. men inuaded the Scythians. Xerxes, as Herodotus hath recorded, inuaded Greece with 1700000. [ 30] Footmen, 80000. Horsemen, 20000. Chariot Men, one thousand two hundred and eight saile of Ships. Ctesias (which vseth elsewhere to say the most) hath but 800000. men besides Cha∣riots, and one thousand Ships. As for other Scythian and Amazonian inuasions, with others of other Nations, for their vncertaintie I omit them. The Greeks also had their many, both Expe∣ditions and defensiue Warres against the Persians before Alexanders time. Themistocles, Xeno∣phon, and many others of them are renowmed, tàm marte quam Mercurio. And thus the Persian Empire hath brought vs to Alexander, which succeeded it, of whose Expedition wee shall anon take speciall and more leisurely view.

As for the later Empires of Carthage and Rome, to tell of their Trauellers and Trauells would proue a History of their States, and all their famous Captaines, especially the Romans when they [ 40] began to spread their wings farre from their Italian nest, and flowed out of Europaean Bankes into Africa and Asia. The Scipios in the Carthaginian warres, Lucullus in Africa, and after in the Mi∣thridatike war; Great Pompey in his Europaean, Asian, and fatall African Voyages & Expeditions; Greater Iulius, whose trauels procreated a Monarchy; Couetous Crassus, Cruell Antonius, Flouri∣shing Augustus, Seely Claudius, Triumphant Vespasian, Gentle Titus, Proud Domitian, Glorious Traian, Witty Adrian, & in manner all the rest of their Emperors forced, or forcing on their Fron∣tiers, & whose very Imperial progresse in their own State, were great voyages & peregrinations; yea their Empires (as before * 1.17 is obserued) was called by the ambitious title of the World: For better knowledge whereof I haue here presented the Map thereof. Seuere Seuerus died at Yorke, Christian Constantine arose a bright Sunne to the World out of our North; Apostata Iulian trauel∣led also and brought forth an incarnate Deuill, which after many peregrinations perished in the [ 50] East, and left the Empire to Good Iouian. To set downe the Emperours trauells would be to giue you the Imperiall History from Iulius, till the times that the World fell in trauell with Barbari∣an trauellers, Goths, Vandals, Herules, Hunnes, Auares, Frankes, Saxons, Lumbards, Saracens, which shared amongst them that vast Empire: especially the trauell of the Imperiall Seat from Rome to Constantinople, giuing the occasion both to a mysticall conception of Antichrist (which may seeme borne long after by Phocas midiwifery, and growing vp till Gregory the seuenth, when the Deuill was loosed from the bottomlesse pit, and in Christian names restored in great part the Ethnike Gentilisme) and to those inundations of Barbarians and Barbarisme, which like a smoake from the bottomlesse pit prepared the Papall way. Pipine, and especiall Charles the Great [ 60] were great Trauellers also, and vnwitting much furthered the growth of that Monster, which after swallowed vp the Imperiall Eagle, and left but the feathers and shadow remaining. The Danes and Normanes were vnwelcome Trauellers, which perfected that, which others had be∣gun: especiall the Normanes by their warres and greatnesse in Italy, growing out of the ruines of the Easterne Empire, and by that conspiracy of Vrban and Boamund, which seeking to fish in troubled waters deuised the Expeditions of the Franks to the Hierosolymitan warre, which set the

[illustration]

HONDIVS his Map of the Roman Empire.

world in trauell 200. yeers together, the Mahumetans of the South and East, and the Christians of the North and West making Palestina the stage of fury & slaughter. After these the Tartars filled [ 40] the world with innumerable armies & mischiefes, especially all Asia & one halfe of Europe. But these are later things, and some of them follow in our Relations. For the Parthians, and later Per∣sian Dynasty, and Saracenicall trauells ouer, and both spirituall and temporall conquests thorow the world, and the Ottoman, Sophian, Mogoll, and other branches from that root, I haue bin a large relater in my Pilgrimage.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ninus.
• * 1.2

  P. Oros. l. 1. c. 4.
• * 1.3

  Diod. sic. l. 2.
• * 1.4

  Niniue builded.
• * 1.5

  Semiramis.
• * 1.6

  The Scripture more truly a∣scribeth Baby∣lon to Nimrod, Niniue to Ashur.
• * 1.7

  Theutamo. Memnon.
• * 1.8

  Ios. S••al. Notae ad Euseb. Chron.
• * 1.9

  Vexores the Egyptian. Tanam.
• * 1.10

  Sesostris.
• * 1.11

  Diod. sic. l. 1.
• * 1.12

  Zerah the Aethiopian. 2. Chron. 9.14 2. Kin. 16. & 17.
• * 1.13

  19.
• * 1.14

  Thearcon. Strab. l. 15.
• * 1.15

  Megasthenes his testimony of old Expediti∣ons.

  Nabuchodon••sor. Idanthrysus. Cyrus. Dan. 2. &▪ 4.
• * 1.16

  Cambyses. Darius. Xerxes. Her. l. 7.
• * 1.17

  Sup. c. 2.5.2,