146 bernier’s voyage to the east indies.

tion, to prevent their running away, to make them work, and to get what is exactedfrom them, they being fo many defperadoes, for being perpetually under hatches, andfor labouring only for others.

Thence it is alio, that in an important war that may happen (which may be almoft atall times) they mult almoft of neceflity fell the government for ready money and im-menfe fums ; whence chiefly that ruin and defolation comes to pafs which we fee. Forthe governor, which is the buyer, muft not he be reimburfed of all thole great fums ofmoney, which he hath taken up, perhaps the third or fourth part, at high intereft ?Muft not a governor alfo, whether he have bought the government or not, find means,as well as a timariot and a farmer, to make every year great prefents to a vifir, aneunuch, a lady of the feraglio, and to thofe other perfons that fupport him at court ?Muft he not pay to the King his ufual tributes, and withal enrich himfelf, that wretchedHave, half famifhed, and deeply indebted when he firft appeared, without goods, lands,and revenues of houfe ; fuch as they all are ? Do not they ruin all, and lay all waftejI mean, thofe that in the provinces ai-e like fo many tyrants with a boundlefs and un-meafured authority, there being nobody there, as hath been already laid, that can re-ftrain them, or to whom a fubject can have refuge to lave himfelf from their tyranny,and to obtain juftice ?

’Tis true, that in the empire of the Mogul the Vakea-nevis, that is, thofe perfonswhom he fends into the provinces to write to him whatfoever palfeth there, do a littlekeep the officers in awe, provided they do not collude together (as it almoft always hap-pens) to devour all; as alfo that the governments are not there fo often fold, nor foopenly as in Turkey ; I fay, not fo openly (for thofe great prefents, they are from timeto time obliged to make, are almoft equivalent to fales) and that the governors ordi-narily remain longer in their governments ; which maketh them not fo hungry, fobeggarly, andfo deep in debt, as thofe new comers, and that confequently they do notalways tyrannize over the people with fo much cruelty; even apprehending, left theyfhould run away to the Rajas ; which yet falls out very often.

’Tis alfo true, that in Perfia the governments are not fo frequently nor fo publiclyfold as in Turkey ; the fons of the governors alfo fucceeding often enough to theirfathers ; which is alfo the caufe that the people there is often not fo ill treated as inTurkey, and occafions withal, that there is more politenefs, and that even fome thereare that addict themfelves to ftudy. But all that is really but a flight matter; thofe threeftates of Turkey, Perfia, and Indoftan, forafmuch as they have all three taken away theMeum and Tuum as to land and propriety of poifeffions (which is the foundation ofwhatever is good and regular in the world) cannot but very near refemble one another:they have the fame defeft, they muft at laft, fooner or later, needs fall into the fameinconveniences, which are the neceflary confequences of it, viz. tyranny, ruin, anddefolation.

Far be it therefore, that our monarchs of Europe fhould thus be proprietors of allthe lands which their fubjects poflefs. Their kingdoms would be very far from beingfo well cultivated and peopled, fo well built, fo rich, fo polite and flourifliing as we feethem. Our kings are otherwife rich and powerful ; and we muft avow that we aremuch better and more royally ferved. There would be kings of defarts and folitudes,pf beggars and barbarians, fuch as thofe are whom I have been reprefenting ; who, be-caufe they will have all, at laft lofe all; and who, becaufe they will make themfelvestoo rich, at length fmd themfelves without riches, or at leaft, very far from that whichthey covet after, out of their blind ambition and paffion of being more abfolute than thelaws of God and nature do permit. For, where would be thofe princes, thofe prelates,

thofe'