information, whereof they could not otherwise have apt pretext, without care of what become of the suit when that turn is served: nay, some undertake suits with a full purpose to let them fall, to the end to gratify the adverse party or competitor. Surely there is in sort a right in every suit, either a right of equity, if it be a suit of controversy; or a right of desert, if it be a suit of petition. If affection lead a man to favour the wrong side, in justice rather let him use his countenance to compound the matter than to carry it: if affection lead a man to favour the less worthy in desert, let him do without depraving or disabling the better deserver. In suits which a man doth not understand, it is good to refer them to some friend of his, of trust and judgment, that may report whether he may deal in them with honour. Suitors are so distasted with delays and abuses, that plain dealing in denying to deal in suits at first, and reporting the success barely, and in challenging no more thanks than one hath deserved, is grown not only honourable, but also gracious. In suits of favour the first coming ought to take but little place, so farfoorth consideration may be had of his trust, that if intelligence of the matter could not otherwise have been had but by him, advantage be not taken of the note. To be ignorant of the value of a suit is simplicity, as well as to be ignorant of the right thereof is want of conscience. Secrecy in suits is a great mean of obtaining: for voicing them to be in forwardness may discourage some kind of suitors, but doth quicken and awake others. But timing of suits is the principal: timing, I say, not only in respect of the person that should grant it, but in respect of those which are like to cross it. Nothing is thought so easy a request to a great man as his letter, and yet not in an ill cause, it is so much out of his reputation.

Of Expense.

Riches are for spending, and spending for honour and good actions: therefore extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion: for voluntary undoing may be as well for a man's country as for the kingdom of heaven; but ordinary expense ought to be limited by a man's estate, and governed with such regard as it be within his compass, and not subject to deceit, and abuse of servants, and ordered by the best show, that the bills may be less than the estimation abroad. It is no baseness for the greatest to descend and look into their own estate: some forbear it not of negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken: but wounds cannot be cured without searching. He that cannot look into his own estate, had need both choose well those whom he employeth, and change them often, for new men are more timorous and less subtle. In clearing of a man's estate he may as well hurt himself in being too sudden, as in letting it run out too long; for hasty selling is commonly as disadvantageable as interest. He that hath a state to repair may not despise small things: and commonly it is less dishonour to abridge petty charges, than to stoop to petty gettings. A man ought warily to begin charges which begun must continue, but in matters that return not he may be more liberal.

Of Regimen of Health.

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of physic; a man's own observation, what he finds good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic to preserve health, but it is a safer conclusion to say, this agreeth well with me, therefore I will continue it: I find no offence of this, therefore I may use it: for strength of nature in youth passeth over many excesses, which are owing a man till his age. Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still:

beware of any sudden change in any great point of diet, and if necessity enforce it, fit the rest to it. To be freeminded and cheerfully disposed, at hours of meat, and of sleep, and of exercise, is the best precept of long lasting. If you fly physic in health altogether, it will be too strong for your body when you shall need it: if you make it too familiar it will work no extraordinary effect when sickness cometh. Despise no new accident in the body, but ask opinion of it. In sickness principally respect health, and in health action, for those that put their bodies to endure in health, may in most sickness which are not very sharp, be cured only with diet, and good tending. Physicians are, some of them, so pleasing to the humours of the patient, that they press not the true cure of the disease; and some others so regular in proceeding according to art for the disease, as they respect not sufficiently the condition of the patient. Take one of a mild temper, and forget not to call as well the best acquainted with your body, as the best reputed of for his faculty.

Of Honour and Reputation.

The winning of honour is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth without disadvantage; for some in their actions do affect honour and reputation, which sort of men are much talked of, but inwardly little admired; and some darken their virtue in the show of it, so that they be undervalued in opinion. If a man perform that which hath not been attempted before, or attempted and given over, or hath been achieved, but not with so good circumstance, he shall purchase more honour than by effecting a matter of greater difficulty wherein he is but a follower. If a man so temper his actions, as in some of them he do content every faction, the music will be the fuller. A man is an ill husband of his honour that entereth into any action the failing wherein may disgrace him more than the carrying it through can honour him. Discreet followers help much to reputation. Envy, which is the canker of honour, is best extinguished by declaring a man's self in his ends, rather to seek merit than fame, and by attributing a man's success rather to providence, and felicity, than to his own virtue and policy. The true marshalling of the degrees of sovereign honour are these: in the first place, conditores,' founders of states. In the second place are legislatores, lawgivers, which are also called second founders, or perpetui principes, because they govern by their ordinances after they are gone. In the third place are liberatores, such as compound the long miseries of civil wars, or deliver their country from the servitude of strangers or tyrants. In the fourth place are propagatores, or propugnatores imperii, such as in honourable wars enlarge their territories, or make noble defence against the invaders. And in the last place are patriæ patres, which reign justly, and make the times good wherein they live. Degrees of honour in subjects are, first, participes curarum, those upon whom princes do discharge the greatest weight of their affairs, their right hands as we call them; the next are duces belli, great leaders, such as are princes' lieutenants, and do them notable service in the wars; the third are gratiosi, favorites, such as exceed not this scantling to be solace to their sovereign and harmless to the people; and the fourth are called negotiis pares, such as have great places under princes, and execute their places with sufficiency.

1 Conditores, builders. Perpetui principes, perpetual chiefs. Bacon added in 1625 to conditores, the word imperiorum, builders of empires. Propagatores, enlargers. Propugnatores, combatants for.

2 Patria patres, fathers of their country. Participes curarum, sharers of cares. Duces belli, leaders of war. Negotiis pares, peers in public business.

Of Faction.

Many have a new wisdom, otherwise called a fond opinion, that for a prince to govern his estate, or for a great person to govern his proceedings according to the respect of faction is the principal part of policy: whereas, contrariwise, the chiefest wisdom is either in ordering those things which are general, and wherein men of several factions do nevertheless agree; or in dealing with corresponding persons one by one. But I say not that the consideration of factions is to be neglected mean men must adhere, but great men that have strength in themselves were better to maintain themselves indifferent and neutral: yet even in beginners to adhere so moderately as he be a man of the one faction, which is passablest with the other, commonly giveth best way. The lower and weaker faction is the firmer in condition. one of the faction is extinguished, the remaining subdivideth, which is good for a second. It is commonly seen that men once placed take in with the contrary faction to that by which they enter. The traitor in factions lightly goeth away with it, for when matters have stuck long in balancing, the winning of some one man casteth them, and he getteth all the thanks.

Of Negotiating.

When

It is better generally to deal by speech than by letters, and by the mediation of a third than by oneself. Letters are good, when a man would draw an answer by letter back again, or when it may serve for a man's justification afterwards to produce his own letter. To deal in person is good, where a man's face breeds regard, as commonly with inferiors. In choice of instruments it is better to choose men of a plainer sort, that are likely to do that which is committed unto them, and to report back again faithfully the success; than they that are cunning to contrive out of other men's business somewhat to grace themselves, and will help the matter in report for satisfaction's sake. It is better to sound a person with whom one dealeth, afar off, than to fall upon the point at first, except you mean to surprise him by some short question. It is better dealing with men of appetite than with those who are where they would be. If a man deal with another upon conditions, the start, or first performance is all, which a man cannot reasonably demand except either the nature of the thing be such which must go before, or else a man can persuade the other party that he shall need him in some other thing, or else that he be counted the honester man. All practice is to discover, or to make men discover themselves in trust, in passion, at unawares, and of necessity, where they would have somewhat done, and cannot find an apt pretext. If you would work any man, you must

either know his nature and fashions, and so lead him; or his ends, and so win him; or his weaknesses or disadvantages, and so awe him; or those that have interest in him, and so govern him. In dealing with cunning persons we must ever consider their ends, to interpret their speeches, and it is good to say little unto them, and that which they least look for.

The worldly wisdom in these counsels is not everywhere of the truest temper. In their whole tone we feel a habit of thought occupied upon the spirit of man with the same sort of analysis that may be applied justly to the outer works of nature. Life, in Bacon's "Essays," even at their maturest, shrewdly thoughtful as they are and enforced with a rare weight of expression, seems too much to consist There of cool experiment towards material success. is no place in his "Essays"'-as there seems also to have been no place in his life-for the just play of emotion. When the young Earl of Essex, who had been his generous friend, was rashly imperilling himself, Bacon fell from him. When he had ruined himself, Bacon turned against him, accepted a brief against him at his trial, and endeavoured to win back Elizabeth's favour to himself by showing zeal against his former friend. It is true that Bacon had taken standing in 1596 as Queen's Counsel, and it might be argued either that he could not refuse the brief against one accused of treason, or that, if he could, he might have been both kind and wise in accepting it, because he would thus occupy the place of one who might have less wish to deal generously with the accused. But twice in the course of the trial Bacon, who was no leading counsel, volunteered speech for the purpose of bringing back the brunt of the battle from side questions favourable to the accused into the main line of attack upon his life; and in one of these uncalled-for exhibitions of prudential loyalty he compared Essex with Cain. Elizabeth, old as she was, had warmth of feeling beyond reach of Bacon's calculations. Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, was beheaded on the 25th of February, 1601; and although Bacon gave the force of his pen to the drawing up of an official "Declaration touching the Treason of the late Earl of Essex and his Complices," which was sent to press on the 14th of April, he got nothing from Elizabeth during the time that remained before her death on the 24th of March, 1603.

1

THE largest English prose work published in the first year of the reign of James the First, was a folio of more than 1,300 pages, Richard Knolles's "General Historie of the Turkes." Appended to it was "A briefe discourse of the greatnesse of the Turkish Empire." Richard Knolles's great book was in high repute in James's reign, and has in after years been saved from neglect by the praises of more than one man of genius. Its author, who was of the family of his name living at Cold Ashby, in Northamptonshire, graduated at Oxford in 1564, and then obtained a Fellowship at Lincoln College. At Oxford he was aspiring to serve God and his country with some large work of the pen, when he was invited to Sandwich by Sir Roger Manwood. Sandwich, in ancient days the most famous English port, though now the sea is two miles distant from it, had ceased to be a port, and then decayed so rapidly that in Edward the Sixth's time there were but two hundred houses where there had been nine hundred. But in Elizabeth's reign four hundred Protestant Walloons, driven from their own country by religious persecution, settled in Sandwich, bringing with them their industries as workers in serge baize and flannel, and turning waste ground into market gardens, that became famous especially for celery. In this reviving town Roger Manwood was born in 1525, a draper's son who made law his profession. He was a Serjeant in 1567, a Justice of Common Pleas in 1672, a knight and Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1578. He grew rich, and was liberal. He began to raise in his native town, as early as 1563, a high gabled building to be used as a school for the education of the children of townspeople, who were to be "freely taught without anything taken but of benevolence, at the end of every quarter, towards buying books for the common use of the scholars."

1 Samuel Johnson in a paper of his Rambler (No. 122) on the writing of History, gave the first place among Englishmen as an historian to Richard Knolles. "None of our writers," he said, "can, in my opinion, justly contest the superiority of Knolles, who in his History of the Turks has displayed all the excellencies that narrative can admit. His style, though somewhat obscured by time, and sometimes vitiated by false wit, is pure, nervous, elevated and clear, &c., &c. Nothing could have sunk this author in obscurity but the remoteness and barbarity of the people whose story he relates. It seldom happens that all circumstances concur to happiness or fame. The nation which produced this great historian, has the grief of seeing his genius employed upon a foreign and uninteresting subject; and that writer, who might have secured perpetuity to his name by a history of his own country, has exposed himself to the danger of oblivion, by recounting enterprizes and revolutions of which none desire to be informed." Lord Byron had read Knolles, when he wrote "The Giaour," and a few weeks before his death, he said at Missolonghi, "Old Knolles was one of the first books that gave me pleasure when a child; and I believe it had much influence on my future wishes to visit the Levant, and gave, perhaps, the Oriental colouring which is observed in my poetry." He gave his old friend a corner in the fifth canto of "Don Juan," where it is said of a Sultan:

"He was as good a sovereign of the sort
As any mentioned in the histories
Of Cantemir or Knolles, where few shine
Save Solyman, the glory of their line."

The foundation of the Free School was completed in 1566, and Roger Manwood himself drew up its rules. The books to be used were "the Dialogs of Castilio, the Exercises of Apthomius, Virgill's Eglog's, or some chaste poet, Tully, Cæsar, and Livie." To the head-mastership of this school, Richard Knolles was invited. He was the third who occupied that office, and the first who abided in it long. He spent the rest of his life among his boys and his books, with the hearty friendship and encouragement of Sir Roger Manwood, whose chief house was at St. Stephen's, near Canterbury, and to whose munificence it is probable that the greatest of our dramatists before Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, son of a Canterbury shoemaker, owed his Cambridge education. After Sir Roger's death in 1592, his son Peter, who was knighted at the coronation of James I., remained Knolles's friend, and encouraged him to work at his great History. Richard Knolles was in repute as a schoolmaster who sent many well-trained youths to the University; he wrote a Compendium of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Grammar, in which attention was paid to the roots of words, and died in 1610, the year of the issue of the second edition of his "General Historie of the Turkes," first published in 1603.

When Knolles chose the subject for the main work of his life outside the schoolroom, there was danger to Christendom from the power of the Turk; the danger now is from his weakness, and the day has come to which Knolles looked forward for reading again, at least, his "Brief Discourse of the greatness of the Turkish Empire" written, as he said, for this among other reasons, "that they which come hereafter, may, by comparing of that which is here written with the state that then shall be, see how much this great Empire in the meantime increaseth or diminisheth." I will leave here the old spelling.

A BRIEFE DISCOURSE OF THE GREATNESSE OF THE

TURKISH EMPIRE:

As also wherein the greatest strength thereof consisteth, and of what power the bordering Princes, as well Mahometanes as Christians, are in comparison of it.

The Historie of the Turks (being indeed nothing else but the true record of the wofull ruines of the greater part of the Christian commonweale) thus as before passed through, and at length brought to an end; and their empire (of all others now vpon earth farre the greatest) as a proud champion still standing vp as it were in defiance of the whole world: I thought it good for the conclusion of this my labour, to propose vnto the view of the zealous Christian, the greatnesse thereof; and so neere as I could to set down the bounds and limits within the which it is (by the goodnesse of God) as yet contained, together with the strength and power thereof, as also in what regard it hath the neighbor princes bordering or confining vpon it, with some other particularities tending vnto the same purpose. All or most part whereof, although it be by the considerat well to be gathered out of the whole course of the Historie before going, yet shall it more plainely

here together in the full thereof appeare, than by the long and particular consideration of the rising and encrease thereof be perceived: not much vnlike the ouergrowne tree, at the greatnesse whereof euerie man wondereth, no man in the meane time either perceiuing or marking how by little and little in tract of time it grew vp to that bignesse, as now to ouertop all the rest of the wood. The imperiall seat of this so great and dreadfull an empire, is the most famous citie of CONSTANTINOPLE, sometime the glorie of the Greek empire, but now the place where Achmat the first of that name, and fourteenth of the Othoman emperours, acknowledging no man like vnto himselfe, triumpheth ouer many nations: a citie fatally founded to commaund, and by the great conquerour Tamerlan of all others thought to be the best seated for the empire of the world. In which citie (taken from the Christians by Mahomet the second, by the Turkes surnamed the Great, and the Greeke empire by him subuerted) as the Othoman emperours haue euer since seated themselues, so haue they wonderfully euen to the astonishment of the world, out of the ruines of that so glorious a State encreased both their strength and empire, almost altogether fixed euen in the selfesame kingdomes, countries, and regions, as was sometimes that; though not as yet (God be thanked) able to attaine to the vttermost bounds that that empire sometimes had, especially in EVROPE; albeit that it haue oftentimes in pride thereof most mightily swolne, and in some few places thereof somewhat also exceeded the same. Amongst the rest of the Othoman emperours, this great Monarch of whom we speake (namely Achmat the first, which now raigneth in that most stately and imperiall citie) hath at this present vnder his commaund and empire, the chiefe and most fruitfull parts of the three first knowne parts of the world: onely AMERICA remaining free from him, not more happie with the rich mines thereof, than in that it is so farre from out of his reach. For in EVROPE he hath all the sea coast from the confines of EPIDAVRVS (the vttermost bound of his empire in EVROPE Westward) vnto the mouth of the riuer TANAIS, now called DON, with whatsoeuer lieth betwixt BVDA in HVNGARIE, and the imperial citie of CONSTANTINOPLE: in which space is comprehended the better part of HVNGARIE, all BOSNA, SERVIA, BVLGARIA, with a great part of DALMATIA, EPIRVs, MaceDONIA, GRÆCIA, PELOPONESVS, THRACIA, the ARCHIPELAGO, with the rich islands contained therein. In AFRICA he possesseth all the sea coast from VELEZ (or as some call it BELIS) DE GOMERA, or more truely to say, from the riuer MVLVIA (the bounder of the kingdome of FEZ) euen vnto the ARABIAN gulfe or red sea Eastward, except some few places vpon the riuage of the sea, holden by the king of SPAINE, viz. MERSALCABIR, MELILLA, ORAN, and PENNON : and from ALEXANDRIA Northward vnto the citie of ASNA, called of old SIENE, Southward: in which space are contained the famous kingdomes of TREMIZEN, ALGIERS, TVNES, and Ægypt, with diuers other great cities and prouinces. In ASIA all is his from the straits of HELLESPONTVS Westward, vnto the great citie of TAVRIS Eastward: and from DERBENT neere vnto the Caspian sea Northward, vnto ADENA vpon the Gulfe of ARABIA Southward. The greatnesse of this his empire may the better be conceiued by the greatnesse of some parts thereof the meere of MEOTIS, which is all at the Turkish emperours commaund, being in compasse a thousand miles; and the Euxine or Blacke sea in circuit two thousand and seuen hundred; and the Mediterranean coast which is subject vnto him, containing in compasse about eight thousand miles. But to speake of his whole territorie together, he goeth in his owne dominion from TAVRIS to BVDA, about three thousand two hundred miles. The like distance is from DERBENT vnto ADENA. From BALSERA vpon the Persian gulfe vnto

TREMISENA in BARBARIE, are accounted little lesse than four thousand miles. He hath also in the sea, the most noble islands of CYPRVS, EVBEA, RHODVS, SAMOS, CHIOS, LESBOS, and others of the ARCHIPELAGO. In this so large and spacious an empire are contained many great and large countries, sometime most famous kingdomes, abounding with all manner of worldly blessings and natures store: for what kingdome or countrey is more fruitfull than ÆGYPT, SYRIA, and a great part of ASIA? What countrey more wealthie or more plentifull of all good things than was sometime HVNGARIE, GRÆCIA, and THRACIA? In which countries he hath also many rich and famous cities, but especially foure, which be of greatest wealth and trade: namely CONSTANTINOPLE, Caire, Aleppo, and TAVRIS. CONSTANTINOPLE for multitude of people exceedeth all the cities of EVROPE; wherein are deemed to be aboue seuen hundred thousand men: which if it be so, is almost equall to two such cities as PARIS in FRANCE. ALEPPO is the greatest citie of SYRIA, and as it were the centre whereunto all the merchandise of ASIA repaire. TAVRIS of late the roiall seat of the Persian kings, and one of the greatest cities of that kingdome, from whom it was in this our age taken by Amurath the third, hath in it aboue two hundred thousand men. CAIRE amongst all the cities of AFRICA is the chiefe, leauing all others farre behind it (although that some make the citie CANO equall vnto it in greatnesse) being as it were the storehouse not of EGYPT onely, and of a great part of AFRICA, but of INDIA also; the riches whereof being brought by the red sea to SVES, and from thence vpon cammels to CAIRE, and so down the riuer NILVS to ALEXANDRIA, are thence dispersed into all these Westerne parts: albeit that this rich trade hath of late time been much impaired, and so like more to be, the Christians (especially the Portugals) trafficking into the East Indies, and by the vast Ocean transporting the rich commodities of those Easterne countries into the West, to the great hindrance of the Grand Seignior his customes in CAIRE.

The Othoman gouernment in this his so great an empire, is altogether like the gouernment of the master ouer his slaue, and indeed meere tyrannical: for the great Sultan is so absolute a lord of all things within the compasse of his empire, that all his subjects and people, be they neuer so great, do call themselues his slaues, and not his subjects: neither hath any man power ouer himselfe, much lesse is he lord of the house wherein he dwelleth, or of the land which he tilleth, except some few families in CONSTANTINOPLE, vnto whom some few such things were by way of reward and vpon speciall fauour giuen by Mahomet the second, at such time as he woon the same. Neither is any man in that empire so great or yet so far in favour with the great Sultan, as that he can assure himselfe of his life, much lesse of his present fortune or state, longer than it pleaseth the grand seignior. In which so absolute a soueraignty (by any free born people not to be endured) the tyrant preserueth himselfe by two most especial means: first, by taking of all armes from his naturall subjects; and then by putting the same and all things else concerning the state and the gouernment therof into the hands of the Apostata or renegate Christians, whom for most part euery third, fourth, or fift yere (or oftener if his need so require) he taketh in their childhood from their miserable parents, ag his tenthes or tribute children. Whereby he gaineth two great commodities: first, for that in so doing he spoyleth the prouinces he most feareth, of the flower, sinewes, and strength of the people, choice being still made of the strongest youthes, and fittest for warre: then, for that with these as with his own creatures he armeth himselfe, and by them assureth his state for they in their childhood taken from their parents laps, and deliuered in charge to one or other appointed to that

purpose, quickly and before they be aware become Mahometans; and so, no more acknowledging father or mother, depend wholly of the great Sultan, who to make vse of them, both feeds them and fosters them, at whose hands onely they looke for all things, and whom alone they thanke for all. Of which frie so taken from their Christian parents (the onely seminarie of his warres) some become horsemen, some footmen, and so in time the greatest commaunders of his state and empire next vnto himselfe, the naturall Turkes in the meane time giuing themselues wholly vnto the trade of merchandise and other their mechanicall occupations: or else vnto the feeding of cattell, their most auntient and naturall vocation, not intermedling at all with matters of gouernment or state. So that if vnto these his souldiours, all of the Christian race, you joyne also his fleet and money, you haue as it were the whole strength of his empire: for in these foure, his horsemen, footmen, his fleet, and money, especially consisteth his great force and power: whereof to speake more particularly, and first concerning his money, it is commonly thought, that his ordinarie reuenew exceedeth not eight millions of gold. And albeit that it might seeme, that he might of so large an empire receiue a far greater reuenew, yet doth he not, for that both he and his men of warre (in whose power all things are) haue their greatest and almost onely care vpon arms, fitter by nature to wast and destroy countries, than to preserue and enrich them: insomuch, that for the preseruation of their armies, and furtherance of their expeditions (euerie yeare to doe) they most greuiously spoyle euen their owne people and prouinces whereby they passe, scarce leauing them necessaries wherewith to liue; so that the subjects despairing to enjoy the fruits of the earth, much lesse the riches which by their industrie and labour they might get vnto themselues, doe now no further endeauour themselues either to husbandrie or traffique than they must needs, yea than verie necessitie it selfe enforceth them: For to what end auaileth it to sow that another man must reap? or to reape that which another man is readie to deuour? Whereupon it commeth that in the territories of the Othoman empire, yea euen in the most fruitfull countries of MACEDONIA and GREECE are seene great forests, all euerie where wast, few cities well peopled, and the greatest part of those countries lying desolate and desart; so that husbandrie (in all well ordered commonweales the princes greatest store) decaying, the earth neither yeeldeth her encrease vnto the painfull husbandman, neither he matter vnto the artificer, neither the artificer wares to furnish the merchant with, all together with the plough running into ruine & decay. As for the trade of merchandise, it is almost all in the hands of the Iews, or the Christians of EVROPE, viz. the Ragusians, Venetians, Genowaies, French, or English; the naturall Turkes hauing therein the least to doe, holding in that their so large an empire no other famous cities for trade, more than the foure aboue named, viz. CONSTANTINOPLE, TAVRIS, ALEPPO, and CAIRE: whereunto may be added CAFFA and THESSALONICA in EVROPE, DAMASCVS, TRIPOLIS, and ADEN, in ASIA: ALEXANDRIA and ALGIERS in AFRICKE. In our countries here in this West part of EVROPE, of the abundance of people oftentimes ariseth dearth; but in many parts of the Turks dominions, for want of men to manure the ground: most part of the poore countrey people drawne from their owne dwellings, being enforced with victuals and other necessaries to follow their great armies in their long expeditions, of whom scarcely one of ten euer returne home to their dwellings againe, there by the way perishing, if not by the enemies sword, yet by the wants, the intemperatenesse of the aire, or immoderat paines taking. But to come neerer vnto our purpose, although the great Turks ordinary reuenewes be

no greater than is aforesaid, yet are his extraordinarie escheats to be greatly accounted of, especially his confiscations, forfeitures, fines, amerciaments (which are right many) his tributes, customes, tithes and tenthes of all preyes taken by sea or land, with diuers other such like, far exceeding his standing and certaine reuenew: his Bassaes and other his great officers, like rauening Harpies as it were sucking out the bloud of his poore subjects, & heaping vp inestimable treasures, which for the most part fall againe into the grand Seignior his coffers. Ibrahim the Visier Bassa (who liued not long since) is supposed to haue brought with him from CAIRE to the value of six millions: & Mahomet another of the Visiers was thought to haue had a far greater summe. His presents also amount vnto a great matter: for no embassadour can come before him without gifts, no man is to hope for any commodious office or preferment without money, no man may with emptie hands come vnto the presence of him so great a prince, either from the prouence he had the charge of, or from any great expedition he was sent vpon; neither vnto so great and mighty a prince are trifles presented. The Vayuods of MOLDAVIA, VALACHIA, and TRANSYLVANIA (before their late reuolt) by gifts preserved themselues in their principalities, being almost daily changed, especially in VALACHIA and MOLDAVIA: for those honours were by the grand Seigniour still giuen to them that would giue most; who to performe what they had offered, miserably oppressed the people, and brought their prouinces into great pouertie. In briefe, an easie thing it is for the great tyrant to find occasion for him at his pleasure to take away any mans life, together with his wealth, be it neuer so great: so that he cannot well be said to lacke money, so long as any of his subjects hath it. Neuerthelesse, the late Persian warre so emptied the most couetous Sultan Amurath his coffers, and exhausted his treasures, that all ouer his empire the value of his gold was beyond all credit enhaunsed, insomuch, that a Checcine was twice so much worth as before: beside that, the mettall whereof his gold and siluer was made, was so embased, that it gaue occasion vnto the Ianizaries to set fire vpon the citie of CONSTANTINOPLE, to the great terrour not of the vulgar sort onely, but of the grand Seignior himselfe also. And in the citie of ALEPPO onely were in the name of the great Sultan 60000 Checcines taken vp in prest of the merchants there, which how well they were repaied, we leaue for them to report.

Now albeit that the Turks reuenews be not so great as the largenesse of his empire and the fruitfulnesse of his countries might seeme to affoord, all the soile being his owne; yet hath he in his dominion a commoditie of greater value and vse than are the reuenewes themselues: which is the multitude of the Timariots, or pentioners, which are all horsemen, so called of Timaro, that is a stipend which they haue of the great Sultan, viz. the possession of certain villages and townes, which they hold during their life, and for which they stand bound for euery threescore duckats they haue of yearely reuenew to maintain one horseman, either with bow and arrowes, or els with targuet and launce; and that as well in time of peace as warre: for the Othoman emperours take vnto themselues all such lands as they by the sword win from their enemies, as well Mahometanes as Christians, all which they diuide into Timars, or as we may call them Commendams, which they giue vnto their souldiors of good desert for tearme of life, vpon condition, that they shall (as is aforesaid) according to the proportion thereof keepe certaine men and horses fit for seruice alwaies readie whensoeuer they shall be called vpon. Wherein consisteth the greatest policie of the Turks, and the surest meane for the preseruation of their empire. For if by this meanes the care of manuring the ground were not committed vnto the souldiors, for the profit