Mr Thomas Coriat to his friends in England sendeth greeting: From Agra the Capital City of the Dominion of the Great Mogul in the Eastern India, the last of October, 1616.  

Thy Travels and thy Glory to enamel,  
With Fame we mount thee on the lofty Camel;  
But Camels, Elephants, nor Horse nor Ass  
Can bear thy Worth, that worthless dost surpass.  
The World's the beast that must thy Palfrey be,  
Thou rid'st the World, and all the World rides thee.   
At London printed by I. B. 1618.   

Certain Verses in commendations of this mirror of footmanship, this Catholic or universal traveler, this European, Asian, African Pilgrim, this well lettered, well littered discoverer and Cosmographical describer Master Thomas Coriat of Odcombe.  

O Thou whose sharp toes cuts the Globe in quarters,  
'mongst jews & Greeks & tyrannising Tartars:  
Whose glory through the vasty Welkin rumbles,  
And whose great Acts more than nine Muses mumbles,  
Whose rattling Fame Apollo's daughters thunders,  
Midst Africa monsters, and amongst Asian wonders.  
Accept these footed verses I implore thee,  
That here (Great Footman) go on foot before thee:  
To sing thy praise I would my Muse enforce,  
But that (alas) she is both harsh and hoarse:  
And therefore pardon this my loves Epistle,  
For though she cannot sing, I'll make her whistle.    

IN PRAISE OF THE Author Master Thomas Coriat.  

THou that the world with pleasures full haste pleasured,  
And out of measure many kingdoms measured.  
Whilst men (like swine) do in their vices wallow,  
And not one dares for's ears thy steps to follow:  
Not one within the Compass of the Cope,  
Like thee that dar'st survey the Horoscope:  
For who is he that dares call it a lie,  
That thou hast trotted into Italy;  
By th'edge of France, and skirts of Spain thoust rambled,  
Through Belgia and through Germany thoust ambled.  
And, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Austria,  
Pruce, Poland, Hungary, Muscovia,  
With Thracia, and the land of merry greeks,  
All these and more applaud thee, that who seeks  
Upon the top of Mount Olympus front,  
Perhaps may see thy name ensculpt upon't,  
And he that durst detract thy worth in Europe,  
I wish he may be hanged up in a new rope.  
It were a world of business to repeat  
Thy walks through both the Asia's, less and great,  
Whereas (no doubt) but thou hast ta'en survey  
Of China and the kingdom of Catay.  
Th' East Indies, Persia, Parthia, Media,  
Armenia, and the great Ass-iria,  
Caldea, jury, (if we not mistake us)  
Thou hast o'er looked the Sea called Mortuus Lacus.  
And I durst venture somewhat for a wager  
Thou hast seen jonia, Lydia, Misia Maior,  
Old Ilium's Ruins, and the wracks of Priam,  
But of Invention I (alas) so dry am,  
I beat my brains, and with outrageous thumping,  
My lines fall from my pen with extreme pumping.  
Avaunt dull Morpheus, with thy Leaden spirit,  
Can matter want of him that wants no merit?  
As he through Syria and Arabia's coasting,  
My lines from Asia into Africa posting,  
I'll follow him alongst the River Nilus,  
In Egypt, where false Crocodiles beguile us.  
Through Mauritania to the Town of Dido,  
That slew herself by power of god Cupid.  
The Kingdoms unsurveyed he'll not leave one  
From Zona● oride, to the Frozen Zone.  
With Prester john in Aethiopia  
And th'airy Empire of Utopia.    

A LITTLE REMEMBRANCE OF his variety of Tongues, and Politic form of TRAVEL.  

A Very Babel of confused Tongues  
Unto thy little Microcosm belongs,  
That to what place soever thou dost walk,  
Thou wilt lose nothing through the want of talk.  
For thou canst kiss thy hand, and make a leg,  
And wisely canst in any language beg,  
And sure to beg 'tis policy (I note)  
It sometimes saves the cutting of thy throat:  
For the worst thief that ever lived by stealth,  
Will never kill a beggar for his wealth.  
But who is't but thy wisdom doth admire,  
That doth unto such high conceits aspire.  
Thou tak'st the bounty of each bounteous giver,  
And drinkest the liquor of the running river:  
Each Kitchen where thou comest, thou hast a Cook,  
Thou never runnest on score unto the Brook;  
For if thou didst, the Brook and thou wouldst 'gree,  
Thou run'st from it, and it doth run from thee.  
In thy return from Agra and Assmere  
By thy relation following doth appear,  
That thou dost purpose learnedly to fling  
A rare Oration to the Persian King.  
Then let the idle world prate this, and that,  
The Persian King will give thee (God knows what▪)  
And furthermore to me it wondrous strange is,  
How thou dost mean to see the River Ganges,  
With Tigris, Euphrates, and Nimrods' Babel,  
And the unhappy place where Cain slew Abel.  
That if thou were in Hebrew circumcised,  
The rabbis all were wondrous ill advised:  
Nay more, they were all Coxcombs, all stark mad  
To think thou wert of any Tribe but Gad.  
Sure, in thy youth thou eatest much running fare,  
As Trotters, Neates-feetes, and the swift-foot Hare,  
And so by inspiration fed, it bred  
Two going feet to bear one running head.  
Thou fil'st the Printers Press with Grief and mourning,  
Still gaping, and expecting thy returning:  
All Pauls-Church yard is filled with melancholy,  
Not for the want of Books, or wit; but folly.   
 

It is for them, to grieve too much for thee,  
For thou wilt come when thou thy time shalt see.  
But yet at one thing much my Muse doth muse,  
Thou aust so many commendations use  
Unto thy Mother and to divers friends,  
Thou hast ●●membred many kind commends,  
And till the last thou didst forget thy Father,  
I know not why, but this conceit I gather,  
That as men sitting at a feast to eat,  
Begin with Beef, Pork, Mutton, and such meat;  
And when their stomachs are a little cloyed,  
This first course than the voider doth avoid:  
The anger of their hunger being past,  
The Pheasant and the Partridge comes at last.  
This (I imagine) in thy mindedid fail,  
To note thy Father last to close up all.  
First to thy Mother here thou dost commend,  
And lastly to thy Father thou dost send:  
She may command in thee a Filial awe,  
But he is but thy Father by the Law.  
To hear of thee, mirth every heart doth cheer,  
But we should laugh outright to have thee here.  
For who is it that knows thee, but would choose,  
Farther to have thy presence then thy news.  
Thou showest how well thou setst thy wits to work,  
In tickling of a misbelieving Turk:  
He called thee Giaur, but thou so well didst answer  
(Being hot and fiery, like to crabbed Caneer)  
That if he had a Turk of ten pence been,  
Thou told'st him plain the errors he was in;  
His Alcoran, his Moskyes are whim-whams,  
False bugbear babbles, fables all that dams,  
Sleights of the Devil, that brings perpetual woe,  
Thou wast not mealy mouthed to tell him so.  
And when thy talk with him thou didst give over,  
As wise he parted as he was before:  
His ignorance had not the power to see  
Which way or how to edify by thee:  
But with the Turk (thus much I build upon)  
If words could have done good, it had been done.   
  

The superscription, Sent from Azmere, the Court of the great and mightiest Monarch of the East, called the Great MOGUL in the Eastern Jndia: To be conveyed To my dear and loving Mother Mris: Garthered Coriat, at her house in the Town of Evil in Somersetshire.  
I pray you deliver this letter at Gerard's Hall to Christopher Guppie a Carrier, (if he be yet living) or else to some other honest trusty Messenger, to be conveyed with all convenient speed to the place aforesaid.   

❧ Master Thomas coriat's Commendations to his friends in FromAgra the Capital City of the Dominion of the Great Mogul in the Eastern India, the last of October, 1616.  
Most dear and well-beloved Mother,  
THough I have superscribed my letter from Azmere, the Court of the greatest Monarch of the East called the Great Mogul in the Eastern India, which I did to this end, that those that have the charge of conveyance thereof, perceiving such a title, may be the more careful and diligent to convey it safely to your hands: yet in truth the place from which I wrote this letter is Agra, a City in the said Eastern India, which is the Metropolitan of the whole Dominion of the foresaid King Mogol, & 10 days journey from his Court at the said Azmere. Fron the same Azmere I departed the 12 day of September, An. 1616, after my abode there 12 months & 60 days; which though I confess it were a too long time to remain in one and the self-same place, yet for two principal causes it was very requisite for me to remain there some reasonable time: first to learn the languages of those Countries, through which I am to pass betwixt the bounds of the Territories of this Prince and Christendom, namely these three, the Persian, Turkish, and Arab: which I have in some competent measure attained unto by my labour and industry at the said King's Court, matters as available unto me as money in my purse, as being the chiefest or rather only mean to get me money if I should happen to be destitute, a matter very incidental to a poor Footman Pilgrim, as myself in these heathen and Mahometan Countries through which I travel: Secondly, that by the help of one of those languages, I mean the Persian, I might both procure unto myself access unto the King, & be able to express my mind unto him about the matter for the which I should have occasion to discourse with him. These were the reasons that moved me so long to tarry at the Mogols court, during which time I abode in the house of the English Merchants my dear Countrymen, not spending one little piece of money either for diet, washing, lodging▪ or any other thing. And as for the Persian tongue, which I studied very earnestly, I attained to that reasonable skill, and that in a few months, that I made an Oration unto the King before many of his Nobles in that language, and after I had ended the same, discoursed with his Majesty also in that tongue very readily & familiarly; the copy of which speech, though the tongue itself will seem to an Englishman very strange & uncuth, as having no kind of affinity with any of our Christian languages, I have for novelty sake written out in this letter, together with the translation thereof in English, that you may show it to some of my learned friends of the Clergy, and also of the temporalty in Evil, and elswere, who belike, will take some pleasure in reading so rare and unusual a tongue as this is. The Persian is this that followeth.  


¶ The Copy of an Oration that I made in the Persian tongue, to the great Mogul, before divers of his Nobles.  
HAzaret Aallum pennah salamet, fooker Daruces ve tehaungeshta hastamkemta emadam as wellagets door, gan az mulk Inglizan: ke kessanaion pet heen mushacas cardand ke wellagets, mazcoor der acres magrub bood, ke mader hamma rezzaerts dunmast. Sabebbe amadane mari mia boosti char cheez hast auval be dedane mobarreckdeedars. Hazaret ke seete caramat ba hamma Trankestan reeseedast ooba tamam mulk Musulmanan der sheenedan awsaffe. Hazaret daveeda amadam be deedane astawne akdas musharaf geshtam duum bray deedane feelhay Hazaret, kin chunm ianooar der heech mulk ne dedam seu in bray deedane namwer daryaee shumma Gauga, ke Serdare hamma daryaha dumiest. Chaharum e'en hast, keyec fermawne alishaion amayet fermoyand, ke betwanam der wellay●tts Vzbeck raftan ba shahre Samarcand, bray Zeerat cardan cabbre mobarrec Saheb crawncah awsaffe tang oo mosachere oo der tamam aallum meshoor hast belkder wellagette Vzbec eencader meshoor neest chunan che der malc Inglisan as'st digr, bishare eshteeac daram be deedanc mobarrec mesare Saheb crawnca bray een sabeb, che own sama n che focheer de shabr stambol boodam, ycaiaeb cohua amarat deedam dermean yecush bawg nasdec shaht mascoor coia che padshaw Eezawiawn i namesh Manuel bood che Saheb crawnca cush mehmannec aseem carda bood, baad as gristane Sulten Baiasetra as iange aseem che shuda bood nas dec shahre Bursa, coimache Saheb crawn Sultan Baiasetra de Zenicera tellaio bestand, oo der cafes nahadondeen char cheese meera as mulche man ium baneed tamia, as mulc. Room oo Arrac peeada geshta, as door der een mulc reseedam, che char hasar pharsang raw darad, beshare derd oo mohuet casheedam che heech ches der een dunnia een cader mohuet ne casheedast bray deeaune mobarrec dedare Haseretet awn roo i be tacte shaugh ne shaughee m●sharaf fermoodand.   

The English of it is this.  
LOrd 
a This is the ordinary title that is given him by all strangers  Protector of the world all hail to you▪ I am a poor traveler and world seer, which am come hither from a far country, namely England, which ancient Historians thought to have been situated in the farthest bounds of the West, and which is the Queen of all the islands in the world. The cause of my coming hither is for four respects. First to see the blessed face of your Majesty, whose wonderful fame hath resounded over all Europe & the Mahometan Countries. When I heard of the fame of your Majesty, I hastened hither with speed and traveled very cheerfully to see your glorious Court. Secondly, to see your majesties Elephants, which kind of beasts I have not seen in any other country. Thirdly, to see your famous River Ganges, which is the Captain of all the Rieuer of the world. The fourth is this, to entreat your Majesty that you would vouchsafe to grant me your gracious Pass that I may travel into the Country of Tartary to the City of Samarcand, to visit the blessed Sepulchre of the Lord of the Corners (this is a title that is given to Tamburlaine in this Country in that Persian language, and whereas they call him the Lord of the Corners, by that they mean that he was Lord of the corners of the world, that is, the highest and supreme Monarch of the Universe): whose fame by reason of his wars and victories, is published over the whole world: perhaps he is not altogether so famous in his own Country of Tartary, as in England. Moreover, I have a great desire to see the blessed Tomb of the Lord of the Corners for this cause; for that when I was at Constantinople, I saw a notable old building in a pleasant garden near the said City, where the Christian Emperor that was called Emanuel made a sumptuous great Banquet to the Lord of the Corners, after he had taken Sultan Batazet in a great battle that was fought near the City of Bursia, where the Lord of the Corners bound Sultan Batazet in fetters of Gold, and put him in a cage of Iron. These 4 causes moved me to come out of my native Country thus far, having traveled a foot through Turkey and Persia, so far have I traced the world into this Country, that my pilgrimage hath accomplished three thousand miles, wherein I have sustained much labour and toil, the like whereof no mortal man in this World did ever perform to see the blessed face of your Majesty since the first day that you were inaugurated in your glorious Monarchal throne.    
After I had ended my speech, I had some short discourse with him in the Persian tongue who amongst other things told me, that concerning my travel to the City of Samarcand, he was not able to do me any good, because there was no great amity betwixt the Tartarian Princes and himself, so that his commendatory letters would do me no good. Also he added, that the Tartars did so deadly hate all Christians, that they would certainly kill them when they came into their Country. So that he earnestly dissuaded me from the journey, if I loved my life and welfare; at last he concluded his discourse with me by a sum of money that he threw down from a window through which he looked out, into a sheet tied up by the four corners, and hanging very near the ground a hundred pieces of silver, each worth two shillings sterling, which countervailed ten pounds of our English money: this business I carried so secretly by the help of my Persian, that neither our English Ambassador, nor any other of my Countrymen (saving one special, private, & intrinsical friend) had the least inkling of it, till I had thoroughly accomplished my design: for I well knew that our Ambassador▪ would have stopped and Barracadocd all my proceeding therein, if he might have had any notice thereof, as indeed he signified unto me after I had effected my project, alleging this forsooth for his reason why he would have hindered me, because it would redound some what to the dishonour of our Nation, that one of our Country should present himself in that beggarly and poor fashion to the King out of an insinuating humour to crave money of him, but I answered our Ambassador in that stout & resolute manner after I had ended my business, that he was contented to cease nibbling at me, never had I more need of money in all my life then at that time: for in truth I had but twenty shillings sterling left in my purse by reason of a mischance I had in one of the Turks Cities called Emert in the country of Mesopotamia, where a miscreant Turk stripped me of almost all my moneys, according as I wrote unto you in a very large letter the last year, which I sent from the Court of this mighty Monarch by one of my Countrymen that went home by Sea in an English ship laden with the commodities of this India, which letter I hope came to your hands long since. After I had been with the King, I went to a certain noble & generous Christian of the Armenian race, 2 days journey from the Mogols court, to the end to observe certain remarkable matters in the same place, to whom by means of my Persian tongue I was so welcome that he entertained me with very civil and courteous complement, and at my departure gave me very bountifully twenty pieces of such kind of money as the King had done before, countervailing 40 shillings sterling. About ten days after that, I departed from Azmere the court of the mogul Prince, to the end to begin my Pilgrimage after my long rest of fourteen months back again into Persia, at what time our Ambassador gave me a piece of Gold of this Kings Coin worth four and twenty shillings, which I will save (if it be possible) till my arrival in England: so that I have received for benevolences since I came into this country twenty marks sterling saving two shillings eight pence, & by the way upon the confines of Persia a little before I came into this country three and thirty shillings four pence in Persian money of my Lady Shirley: at this present I have in the City of Agra where hence I wrote this letter, about twelve pounds sterling, which according to my manner of living upon the way at twopences sterling a day (for with that proportion I can live pretty well, such is the cheapness of all eatable things in Asia, drinkable things costing nothing, for seldom do I drink in my pilgrimage any other liquor then pure water) will maintain me very competently three years in my travel with meat drink and clothes. Of these gratuities which have been given me willingly, would I send you some part as a demonstration of the filial love and affection which every child bred in civility and humility ought to perform to his loving and good mother: but the distance of space betwixt this place and England, the hazard of men's lives in so long a ioureny, and also the infidelity of many men, who though they live to come home, are unwilling to render an account of the things they have received, do not a little discourage me to send any precious token unto you; but if I live to come one day to Constantinople again (for thither do I resolve to go once more by the grace of Christ, and therehence to take my passage by land into Christendom over renowned Greece) I will make choice of some substantial & faithful Countryman, by whom I will send some pretty token as an expression of my dutiful and obedient respect unto you. I have not had the opportunity to see the King of Persia as yet since I came into this country, but I have resolved to go to him when I come next into his Territories, and to search him out wheresoever I can find him in his Kingdom; for seeing I can discourse with him in his Persian tongue, I doubt not but that going unto him in the form of a Pilgrim, he will not only entertain me with good words, but also bestow some worthy reward upon me beseeming his dignity and person; for which cause I am provided before hand with an excellent thing written in the Persian tongue that I mean to present unto him: and thus I hope to get benevolences of worthy persons to maintain me in a competent manner in my whole pilgrimage till I come into England, which I hold to be as laudable & a more secure course then if I did continually carry store of money about me. In the letter which I wrote unto you by an English ship the last year, I made relation unto you both of my journey from the once holy Jerusalem hither and of the state of this King's Court, and the Customs of this Country, therefore I hold it superfluous to repeat the same things again, but what the countries are, that I mean to see betwixt this and Christendom, and how long time I will spend in each country, I am unwilling to advertise you of at this present, desiring rather to signify that unto you after I have performed my design then before; howbeit in few words, I will tell you of certain Cities of great renown in former times, but now partly ruined, that I resolve (by God's help) to see in Asia, where I now am, namely ancient Babylon & Nymrod's Tower, some few miles from Ninive, & in the same the Sepulchre of the Prophet jonas, spacious & goodly; Cairo in Egypt, heretofore Memphis, upon the famous River Nilus, where Moses, Aron, & the children of Israel lived with king Pharaoh, whose ruined Palace is showed there till this day, & a world of other movable things as memorable as any City of the whole world yieldeth, saving only jerusalem: but in none of these or any other Cities of note do I determine to linger as I have done in other places, as in Constantinople, and Azmere, in this Eastern India, only some few days will I tarry in a principal city of fame, to observe every principal matter there and so be gone. In this City of Agra where I am now, I am to remain about six weeks longer, to the end to expect an excellent opportunity, which then will offer itself unto me to go to the famous River Ganges, about five days journey from this, to see a memorable meeting of the gentle people of this country called Baieans, whereof about four hundred thousand people go thither of purpose to bathe and shave themselves in the River, and to sacrifice a world of gold to the same River, partly in stamped money, & partly in massy great lumps and wedges, throwing it into the River as a sacrifice, and doing other strange Ceremonies most worthy the observation, such a notable spectacle it is, that no part of all Asia, neither this which is called the great Asia, nor the lesser, which is now called Anatolia, the like is to be seen; this show do they make once every year, coming thither from places almost a thousand miles off, and honour their River as their God, Creator, and Saviour; superstition and impiety most abominable in the highest degree of these brutish Ethnics, that are aliens from Christ & the commonwealth of Israel. After I have seen this show, I will with all expedition repair to the city of Lahore, twenty days journey from this and so into Persia by the help of my blessed Christ.  
Thus have I imported unto you some good accidents that happened unto me since I wrote a letter unto you the last year from the King's Court, & some little part of my resolution for the disposing of a part of my time of abode in Asia: Therefore now I will draw to a conclusion; the time I cannot limit when I shall come home, but as my merciful God and Saviour shall dispose of it. A long rabble of commendations like to that which I wrote in my last letter to you I hold not so requisite to make at this present: Therefore with remembrance of some few friends names, I will shut up my present Epistle. I pray you recommend me first in Odcombe to Master Gollop, and every good body of his family, if he liveth yet, to Master Berib, his wife and all his Family, to all the Knights, William Chunt, john Selly, Hugh Donne, and their wives, to Master Atkins & his wife at Norton, I pray commend me in Evil to these, to old Mr Seward if he liveth, his wife and children; the poor Widow Derby, old Master Dyer, and his Son john, Master Ewins old and young with their wives, Master Phelpes and his wife, Master Star and his wife, with the rest of my good friends there, (I had almost forgotten your husband) to him also, to Ned Barber and his wife, to William Ienings: commend me also I pray you, & that with respectful and dutiful terms to the godly and reverent fraternity of Preachers that every second Friday meet at a religious exercise at Evil, at the least if that exercise doth continue, pray read this letter to them, for I think they willbe well pleased with it by reason of the novelties of things. And so finally I commit you and all them to the blessed protection of Almighty God.  
From Agra the Capital of the Dominion of the great Mogul in the Eastern India the last of October 1616. Your dutiful loving and obedient Son, now a desolate Pilgrim in the World. THOMAS CORIAT.   

❧ The Copy of a speech that I made to a Mahometan in the Italian tongue.  
THe Copy of a speech that I made extempore in the Italian tongue to a Mahometan at a City called Moltan in the Eastern India, two days journey beyond the famous River Indus, which I have passed, against Mahomet and his accursed Religion, upon the occasion of a discourtesy offered unto me by the said Mahometan in calling me Gtaur, that is infidel, by reason that I was a Christian: the reason why I spoke to him in Italian, was because he understood it, having been taken slave for many years since by certain Florentines in a Galley wherein he passed from Constantinople towards Alexandra, but being by them interrupted by the way, he was carried to a City called Leghorn in the Duke of Florence's Dominions, where after two years he had learned good Italian, but he was an Indian borne and brought up in the Mahometan Religion. I pronounced the speech before an hundred people, whereof none understood it but himself, but he afterward told the meaning of some part of it as far as he could remember it to some of the others also. If I had spoken thus much in Turkey, or Persia against Mahomet they would have roasted me upon a spit; but in the Mogols Dominions a Christian may speak much more freely than he can in any other Mahometan Country in the world. The speech was this as I afterward translated it into English.  
But I pray thee tell me thou Mahometan, dost thou in sadness call me Giaur? that I do quoth he, than (quoth I) in very sobersadnes I retort that shameful word in thy throat, and tell thee plainly that I am a mussulman and thou art a Giaur: For by that Arab word mussulman thou dost understand that which cannot be properly applied to a Mahometan but only to a Christian, so that I do consequently infer that there are two kinds of Muselmen, the one an Orthomusulman, that is a true mussulman which is a Christian & the other a Pseudo-musulman that is a false mussulman which is a Mahometan. What, thy Mahomet was from whom thou dost derive thy Religion, assure thyself I know better than any one of the Mahometans amongst many millions: yea all the particular circumstances of his life and death, his Nation, his Parentage, his driving Camels through Egypt, iria, and Palestina, the marriage of his Mistress, by whose death he raised himself from a very base and contemptible estate to great honour and riches, his manner of cozening the sottish people of Arabia, partly by a tame Pigeon that did fly to his ear for meat, and partly by a tame Bull that he fed by hand every pay, with the rest of his actions both in peace and war: I know aswell as if I had lived in his time, or had been one of his neighbours in Mecca, the truth whereof if thou didst know aswell, I am persuaded thou wouldst spit in the face of thy Koran, and trample it under thy feet, and bury it under a jaxe, a book of that strange and weak matter, that I myself (as meanly as thou dost see me attired now) have already written two better books (God be thanked) and will hereafter this, (by God's gracious permission) write another better and truer, yea I would have thee know (thou Mahometan) that in that renowned Kingdom of England where I was borne, learning doth so flourish, that there are many thousand boys of sixteen years of age▪ that are able to make a more learned book then thy Koran, neither was it (as thou and the rest of you Mahometans do generally believe) composed wholly by Mahomet, for he was of so dull a wit, as he was not able to make it without the help of another, namely a certain Renegado Monk of Constantinople, called Sergis. So that his Alcoran was like an arrow drawn out of the quiver of another man. I perceive thou dost wonder to see me so much inflamed with anger, but I would have thee consider it is not without great cause I am so moved, for what greater indignity can there be offered to a Christian which is an Arthomusulman, them to be called Giaur by a Giaur: for Christ (whose Religion I profess) is of that incomparable dignity, that as thy Mahomet is not worthy to be named that year wherein my blessed Christ is, so neither is his Alcoron worthy to be named that year wherein the 
* This do all Mahometans call our Gospel or the History of our saviour, written by the four Evangelists.  juieel of my Christ is. I have observed among the Mahometans such a foolish form of prayer ever since my departure from Spahan, (which I confess was no novelty unto me, for that I had observed the like before both in Constantinople and divers other Turkish cities) that what with your vain repetions & divers other profane fooleries contained therein▪ I am certain your prayers do even stink before God, and are of no more force than the cry of thy Camel when thou dost lad or unlade him: But the prayers of Christians have so prevailed with God, that in time of drought they have obtained convenient abundance of rain, and in time of pestilence a sudden cessation from the plague, such an effect of holy and fervent prayer as never did the 
* Words that the Mahometans do often repeat in their prayers.  Scofferalahs, or the Allamissel allow of any Mahometan produce: yet must we, whose prayers like a sweet smelling sacrifice are acceptable to God, be esteemed Giaurs by those whose prayers are odious unto his Divine Majesty: O times! O manners! Now as I have told thee the difference betwixt the effect of our Christian & your Mahometan prayers, so I pray thee observe another difference betwixt you & us, that I will presently intimate unto thee: thou by the observation of the Law of thy ridiculous Koran dost hope for Paradise, wherein thy Master Mahomet hath promised Rivers of Rice, and to Virgins the embracing of Angels under the shadow of spacious Trees, though in truth that Paradise be nothing else then a filthy quagmire so full of stinking dunghills that a man cannot walk two spaces there but he shall stumble at a dunghill and defile himself, but where this Paradise is, not one amongst a thousand of you knoweth, therefore I will tell thee, it standeth in a Country situate betwixt Heaven and Earth called Utopia, whereof there is mention in the third book of thy Koran and in the seven and thirty Asaria, but expressed with those mystical and obscure terms that is very difficult to understand it, for this Utopian Paradise I say as the reward of all your superstitious mumbling in your prayers, and the often ducking down of your heads when you kiss the ground, with such a devout humility forsooth, do you Mahometans hope in another world: But we Christians hope to live with God and his blessed Angels for ever and ever in Heaven, as being a proper and peculiar inheritance purchased unto us by the precious blood of our Christ, yet must we be reputed Giaurs by those that are Giaurs? One thing more will tell thee (O thou Mahometan) and so I will conclude this tedious speech, whereunto thy discourteous calling of me Giaur hath enforced me, and I prithee observe this my conclusion.  
Learning (which is the most precious jewel that man hath in this life, by which he attaineth to the knowledge of divine and human things) cometh to man either by revelation which we otherwise call inspiration, or by industry: Learning by revelation I call that which God doth infuse from above by his special grace, unto those whom he will use as the instruments of his glory, who without labour or travel do aspire to a most eminent degree of knowledge. Learning by industry I call it that which a man doth purchase to himself by continual writing and reading, by practice and meditation: now by neither of these means have the Mahometans acquired any mean, much less any singular learning, for as Mahomet himself was a man of a very superficial and mean learning, so never was there any one of his Disciples in any part of the world that was endued with any profound knowledge▪ but we Christians by the one and the other mean, have attained to the most exquisite science that can be incident to man: 
* I mean the blessed Apostles of our Saviour.  some of our men that never were brought up in Studies having been so expert in a general learning (only by Gods special illumination) as those have spent forty years in the practice thereof, and others by continual practice of writing and reading, have been so excellent, that they became the very Lamps and Stars of the Countries wherein they lived. These things being so, it cannot possible come to pass that the omnipotent God should deal so partially with mankind as to reveal his will to a people altogether misled in ignorance and blindness as you Mahometans are, and conceal it from us Christians that bestow all our life time in the practice of divine and human disciplines, and in the ardent invocation of God's holy name with all sincerity and purity of heart? Go to then thou Pseu-domusulman, that is, thou false-beleever, since by thy injurious imputation laid upon me, in that thou called'st me Giaur, thou hast provoked me to speak thus. I pray thee let this mine answer be a warning for thee not to scandalise me in the like manner any more, for the Christian Religion which I profess, is so dear and tender unto me that neither thou nor any other Mahometan shall scotfree call me Giaur, but that I will quit you with an answer muchto the wonder of those Mahometans▪  
I pray you Mother expect no more letters from me after this till my arrival in Christendom, because I have resolved to write no more while I am in the Mahometans Countries, thinking that it will be a far greater comfort both to you and to all my friends whatsoever, to hear news that I have accomplished my traveles in Mahometism, then that I am coming up and down, to and fro in the same, without any certainty of an issue thereof; therefore I pray have patience for a time: about two years and a half hence I hope to finish these Mahometan traveles, and then either from the City of Raguzi in Sclavonia which is a Christian City and the first we enter into Christendom, from those parts of Turkey by Land near unto the same or, from famous Venice, I will very dutifully remember you again with lines full of filial piety and officious respect. I have written two letters to my Uncle Williams since I came forth of England and no more, whereof one from the Mogols Court the last year, just at the same time that I wrote unto you; and another now, which I sent ●ointly by the same Messenger that carried yours out of India by Sea. Once more I recommend you and all our hearty well-willers & friends to the gracious tuition of the Lord of Hosts; I pray you remember my duty to Master Hancoke that reverend and Apostolical good old man, and his wife, if they are yet living; to their Sons Thomas and john, and their Wives.  
FINIS.   

Master Thomas Coriat.  

SOme may perhaps suppose this Prose is mine,  
But all that know thee will be sworn 'tis thine:  
For (as 'twas said b'a learned Cambridge Scholar)  
(Who knows the style, may smell it by the collar):  
The Prose (I swear) is Coriats, he did make it,  
And who dares claim it from him, let him take it.    

THE AUTHOR OF the Verse, takes leave of the Author of the Prose, desiring rather to see him, then to hear from him.  

THose Rhymes before thy meaning doth unclose,  
Which men perhaps have blundred over in Prose:  
And 'tis a doubt to me, whose pains is more,  
Thou that didst write, or they that read them o'er:  
My Sculler's muse without or Art or skill,  
In humble service (with a Goose's quill)  
Hath ta'en this needles, fruitless pains for thee,  
Not knowing when thou'lt do as much for me.  
But this is not the first, nor shall not be  
The last (I hope) that I shall write for thee.  
For when news thou wast drowned did hither come,  
I wrote a mournful Epicedium.  
And after when I heard it was a lie,  
I wrote of thy surviving presently.  
Laugh and be fat, the Sculler's book, and this  
Shows how my mind to thee addicted is;  
My Love to thee hath ever more been such,  
That in thy praise I near can write too much:  
And much I long to see thee here again,  
That I may welcome thee in such a strain  
That shall even crack my pulsive pi●mater,  
In warbling thy renown by land and water:  
Then shall the Fame which thou hast won on foot  
('mongst Hethens, jews, Turks, Negroes (black as soot)  
Ride on my best Invention like an Ass,  
To the amazement of each Owliglasse.    

In praise of the Author,  

Till when fare well (if thou canst get good fare)  
Contents a feast, although the feast be bare.  
Let Aeolus and Neptune be combined,  
With Sea auspicious, and officious wind;  
In thy return with speed to blow thee back,  
That we may laugh, lie down, and mourn in Sack.   
J. T.