l"806.] 



Neglected Biography, hy Dr. IVatkins, 



15 



made hiiu tlieir whctftone, and fo be- 

 came noiiis nimis omiubin:." — [Atlicn. 

 Oxon., vol. 1 ., 422.] 



In the beginning of the year 1G08 he 

 fet out on his travels into IVance, Italy, 

 Germany, &c. Of tliis tour he printed a 

 curious account in 1611, in quarto, writ- 

 ten in a moll affected Ityle, anil vvitli the 

 following whimlicnl title: " Coryat's Cru- 

 dities hallily gobbled up, in Fi\e Months 

 Travels in France, Savoy, Itnly, Rhetia, 

 (commonly called the Grifons Country,) 

 Ilelvetia, (alias Sivitzcrland,) fome Parts 

 of Hig,h Germany^ and the Netherhuuls ; 

 newly digefied m the hungry Air of Od- 

 combe in the County of Soinerfet, and 

 now difperfed to the Noarilhmcnt of the 

 travellin>; Members of this Kingdom.'' 

 In the Dedication to his Hiuhuefs the 

 Prince of Wales he takes noi ice, that the 

 publilhing of his book was cliiefly owing 

 to the importunity of fome of his friends, 

 efpecially Mr. Lionel Craijficld, (after- 

 wards Earl of Middlefex, J.ord Hiijh 

 Treafurcr,) and Mr. Laurence Whitaker, 

 Secretary to Sir Edward Philips, JMafter 

 of the [tolls ; and in the Introduction to 

 the verfes made upon him and his book 

 by mofi of the men of wit and learning 

 of that age, in which they ridicule him in a 

 Ityle of high panegyric, which he does not 

 feem to have been fcnfible of himfelf, he 

 profeffes that the greateft part of thofe 

 verfes were fent to him voluntarily from 

 divers of his friends, from whom he cx- 

 pe6led no fuch courtefv ; and that when 

 He found them fo numerous, he had rc- 

 folved to put a thoufand of them into an 

 Index r.rpurgaloriits. But the Prince, 

 ^yho evidently had fome iliare in the di- 

 veriion which the prepofterous vanity of 

 our author gave to the public, laid upon 

 him a ilritt and exprefs command to print 

 id! thofe verfes which he had read to his 

 Highnefs. 



Among the different writers who con- 

 tributed by their verfes to the fale of this 

 book, were, Ben .Tonfon; Sir .Tohn Har- 

 rington ; Dudley Digges, afterwards Jlaf- 

 ter of the Rolls ; Richard Martin, Recor- 

 der of London ; Laurence Whitaker, af- 

 terwards Clerk of the Privy Council, and 

 a Member of Parliament; Hugh Holland, 

 the traveller ; John Ilofkyns, afterwards 

 Serjeant at Law, and a Welch .Tudge ; 

 Inigo Jones, the architect ; Chriftoph.er 

 Brook, bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and a 

 poet ; Richard Corbet, ailerwards of 

 Norwich ; John Owen, the cpigiamni.a- 

 till; Thomas Farnaby, the celthruled 

 I'choolmafter ; John Donne, Dcau of St. 



Mo.Ni«L\ Mag., No. 110. 



Paul's; Michael Drayton ; Ilenr)- Peacli- 

 am, author of the Complete Gentleman, 

 &c. 



In 1612, after takins leave of his coun- 

 trymen by an oration fpoken attheCrofs 

 in Odcombc, our author Coryat fet out 

 upon a long and hazardous journey, with 

 a fixed rel'olution not to return to his na- 

 tive land under ten years. Taking as di- 

 rect a courfe as he could, he arrived at 

 Conftantiiiople, where lie was well re- 

 ceived and entertained by Sir Paul Pvn- 

 dar, the Englilh Ambaffador. After 

 flaying a fhort time, ;)nd obfei-ving all 

 that was worth notice in that city, he 

 travelled through Greece, and frnin 

 Smyrna took a paflage to Egypt, where 

 he vilited the Pyramids. Returning to 

 Alesaildria, he went by fea to Joppa, 

 and from thence to Jerufalem. After 

 going tlvrough Paleftine and Armenia, he 

 went to Ifpahan, the capital of Pcrfia, 

 and thence to Candahar, from which 

 place he journeyed to .^Vgra, which is four 

 liundred miles diftant. Here he made a 

 halt, being well received by the Engli/h 

 fattory. During his ftay at tliis place he 

 completed his knowledge of the Arabic, 

 Perfran, and Hindooftiuiee languages, ia 

 the two laft of which he acquired fo rea- 

 dy an expreflion, that he made an oration 

 in Perlian to the Great Mogul, and in the 

 Hindoollanee he completely defeated the 

 nioft notorious fcold of the country, to the 

 great diverfio(i of all who were prefent. 

 A tranllation of his fpeech to the Mosul 

 is in Purchas's Pilgrims ; but, though iti.s 

 full of flattery, the Mogul only rewarded 

 him with a hundred rupees; and the rea- 

 lon for his not giving him more is fuppo- 

 fed to have been, that he took Coryat for 

 a Dervife. After vifiting feveral places 

 in that country, and being courteouily 

 treated by Sir Thomas Roe, then ambai- 

 fador there for the King of England, he 

 went to Surat, w here he died of a fever 

 in December, 1617. The greateft part 

 of his joumies were on foot ; and he lays 

 liimfelf, that he walked in his firft tour 

 nine hundred miles w'ith one pair of 

 fliocs, which he got mended at Zurich. 

 He v\ as alfo as frugal in his mode of living 

 as in his apparel ; for in a letter to his 

 mother from, the iMogul's Court, he fays, 

 that in his ten months' travels from Alep- 

 po to that place he fpent no more than 

 three pounds, living "rcafonably well for 

 about two-pt'Pice a-day." 



Fuller, in his Worthi(?S, (p. 31,) gives 



this odd defcription of hisperfon. That 



" his head was niilhapen like that of 



D Theriilei 



