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rounded with ditches, and very well defended by two ftrong citadels, that lie on each fide thereof, fo that it is as it were, a key and doorway into the kingdom of Perfia, to which it doth alfo belong, as others not far from thence, viz. Orthox, Laigen, which lie on the road towards Media; and alfo Goa, which lieth a league and an a half at the other fide of the Tygris, and Axt, two leagues farther ftill, in the way to Perfia.

The next day, being the 25th of October, we fpent in befpeaking of camels and affes to load our goods upon, and after we were quite ready, we broke up the day following early in the morning with the whole caravan, to travel to Bagdat. In the beginning the ways were very rough, by the ftones and ruins that lie ftill from thence difperfed. But after we were paffed the castle and also the town of Daniel, the dry defarts began again, where nothing was to be feen but thorns, neither men nor beafts, neither caves nor tents, fo that a man that knoweth the ways never fo well, hath enough to do to find them through it, which I did often obferve in our guide or Caliphi, who did feveral times, becaufe there was neither way nor mark neither of men nor beasts to be found, very much doubt which way to turn himself, and fo he did more than once turn fometimes toward one, than towards the other fide the whole caravan. By the way we faw in the plain many large, ancient, high, and ftately buildings, arches, and turrets ftanding in the fand, which is very fine, and lieth clofe together, as you find it in the valleys, here and there, whereof many were decay'd and lay in ruins; fome to look upon were pretty entire, very ftrong, adorn'd with artificial works, fo that they were very well worth being more rowly look'd into. Thus they ftand folitary and defolated, fave only the fteeple of Daniel, which is intire, built of black ftones, and is inhabited still unto this day; this is in height and building fomething like unto our fteeple of the Holy Cross church, or of St Maurice in Augsburg; on which as it ftands by itself, you may fee all the ruins of the old Babylonian tower, the caftle-hill, together with the ftately buildings, and the whole fituation of the old town very exactly.

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After

After we had travell'd for twelve hours through defolate places, very hard, fo that our camels and affes began to be tired under their heavy burdens, we refted and lodged ourselves near to an afcent, we and our beasts, to refresh ourfelves, and fo to stay there till night, and to break up again in the middle thereof, that we might come to Bagdat before fun-rifing. The mean while, when we were lodged there, I confider'd and view'd this afcent, and found that there was two behind one another, distinguifh'd by a ditch, and extending themselves like unto two parallel walls a great way about, and that they were open in fome places, where one might go through like gates; wherefore I believe that they were the walls of the old town, whereof Pliny fays that they were two hundred foot high, and fifty broad, that went about there, and that the places where they were open, have been anciently the gates of that town, whereof there were a hundred iron ones; and this the rather, because I faw in fome places under the fand, wherewith the two afcents were almoft cover'd, the old wall plainly appear. So we found ourfelves to be juft lodged without the walls of that formerly fo famous kingly city, which now with it's magnificent and glorious buildings, is quite defolated and lieth in the duft, so that every one that paffeth through it, in regard of them, hath great reafon to admire with aftonishment, when he confiders, that this city, which hath been fo glorious an one, and in which the greatest monarchs and kings that ever were (Nimrod, Belus, and after him King Merodach and his pofterity to Balthafar the laft) have had their feats and habitations, is now reduced to fuch a defolation and wildernefs, that the very fhepherds cannot abide to fix their tents there to inhabit it. So that here is a moft terrible example to all impious and haughty tyrants, shewn in Babylon, which may be fure, that if they do not give over in time, and leave their tyranny, ceafing to perfecute the innocent with war, fword, prifon, and all other cruel and inhuman plagues, as thefe did the people of God the Ifraelites, that God the Almighty will alfo come upon them, and for their tranfgreffions punish them in his anger, for God is a jealous God, that at long run, will not endure the pride of tyrants,

nor

nor leave unpunifh'd the potentates that afflict his people; wherefore be fure, he will alfo in them verify the prophecies which he had utter'd by the Prophet Ifaiah, in his thirteenth chapter, and Jeremiah in the fifty first, against those infolent and haughty Babylo

nians.

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As I paffed by, I found fome thorns growing in the fand, viz. the Acacia, call'd Agul, whereon, chiefly in Perfia, the Manna falls, whereof I have made mention before Above all I found in great plenty fome strange kinds of Cali of Serapio, of Coloquints. When evening fell in, and the night did approach, our mockeries that drove the affes, made themfelves ready again for our journey; who kept every thing together, in good order, and were fo quick in loading and unloading, that they were ready in less than a quarter of an hour. By the way I faw again feveral antiquities, but the night falling in I loft them; fo we went on a-pace in darkness, so that we did arrive at Bagdat, by fome call'd Baldac, two hours before day. In the morning, which was the twenty seventh of October, I and one of my comrades took our lodging at an eminent Merchant's houfe, that belonged to Aleppo, and was lately come from the Indies; he received us kindly, and very readily, and kept us for four days, when we took a shop in the great camp of the Turkish Bafhaw, in the other town, on the other fide of the Tygris, which we went into.

CHAP.

CHA P. VIII.

Of the famous city of Bagdat, called Baldac; of it's fituation, ftrange plants, great traffic, and Merchants of feveral nations that live there, together with feveral other things I faw and did learn at my departing.

T

HE town Bagdat, belonging to the Turkish Emperor, is fituated on the moft easterly part of his dominions, on the rapid river Tygris, and the confines of Perfia, in a large plain, almost like unto Bafiel on the Rhine, it is divided into two parts, which are rather bigger than Bafiel, but nothing near so pleasant, nor fo well built, for the streets thereof are pretty narrow, and many houses fo miferably built that fome of them are down to the firft ftory, and others lie quite in ruins. The cafe is the fame with the churches, which for age look black, and are fo much decay'd, that you shall hardly find a whole one; whereon are ftill feveral old Arabian, or rather Chaldean infcriptions to be feen, cut out in ftone, by the means whereof many antiquities of the town might have been truly explain'd, but I could not only not read them, but could get no body that could interpret them to me. There are fome buildings that are worth seeing, as the cmp of the Turkish Bashaw, and the great Batzar or Exchange beyond the river in the other town, and the Baths which are not to be compared with thofe of Aleppo and Tripoli, for they are at the bottom and on the walls done over with pitch, which maketh them fo black and dark, that even in the day time, you have but little light. There being two towns, one of them which lieth on this fide is quite open, fo that you may go in and out by night without any moleftation; wherefore it should rather be call'd a village great than a

town;

town; but the other that lieth towards Perfia on the confines of Affyria, is very well fortifieth with walls and ditches, chiefly towards the Tygris, where there are alío fome towers, two whereof are within by the gates that lead towards the water fide, to guard them, and between them are the old high walls of the town, whereon on the top are stately writings, with golden letters, cach whereof is about a foot long, to be feen; the true meaning thereof I would fain have learned, but for want of understanding and interpreters, I could not obtain it, but was forced to go without it. Near unto it there is a bridge made of boats, that reacheth over the Tygris into the other town, which in that place is about as broad as the Rhine is at Strasburg, and because of it's rapid ftream fo dark and dull, that it is a difinal fight to look upon it, and may eafily turn a man's head and make him giddy. This river runneth not much below the town into the Euphrates, and fo they run mixt together into the Perfian gulf, by the town Balfara, which is fix days journey diftance from thence eastwards. Thefe two towns as is faid, at the river Tygris, were many years agone built out of the ruinated city of Babylon, whereof the one on the other fide of the river is accounted to be the town of Seleucia of Babylon, and that on this fide, which is more like unto an open village, is believed to be the town Ctefiphonta. Strabo, in book XV, doth teftify this, when he writes thus of them: That Babylon hath formerly been the metropolis of Affyria, and that after it's devaftation, the town of Seleucia, fituated upon the Tygris, near which was a great village, wherein the king of the Parthians did keep his refidence for the winter. Pliny maketh alfo mention thereof in his fixth book, and in the twenty fixth and twenty feventh chapter, viz. That the two towns of Seleucia of Babylon, and Ctesiphonta, were built out of the ruins of the old city, and that the river Tygris runs between them. In the town Seleucia, ftands in a large place, the caftie, which is without guarded neither with walls nor ditches, nor is quite finifh'd within. Before it lie fome pieces of ordnance in the road, which are fo daubed with dirt, that they are almoft quite covered. In it dwel

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