Sunday the 26 of August we set sayle from Graues-end , and with various windes , some large and some scarce , we happily past the seas , and sayled vp the riuer of Maze , by the Brill , and on the wednesday following I ariued at Roterdam in Holland , at which time the worthy regiment of the right honorable Colonell Sir Horace Veare , and the two noble Earles , of Essex , and Oxford departed from thence in Martiall Equipage toward the Pallatinate Country , whose Heroick and Magnanimous endeauors , I beseech the Lord of hosts , and God of battells to direct and blesse .

The same day , I went to the Hage , and from thence to Leyden , where I lodged all night , and the morrow being thurseday the 30 of August , I sayled from Leyden , to Amsterdam , where I saw many things worthy the noting , but because they are so neere and frequent to many of our Nation , I omit to relate them , to auoid teadiousnes : but on the friday at night I got passage from thence towards Hambrogh , in a small hoy , in the which wee were weather-beaten at sea three dayes and nights before wee ariued there .

Saterday the eight of September I left Hambrogh , and being carried day and night in waggons , on the munday night following I came to an ancient towne called Heldesheim , it standeth in Brunswick land , and yet it belongeth to the Bishop of Collin , where I did obserue in their Doome Kirke , or Cathedrall Church , a crowne of siluer 80 foote in compasse , hanged vp in the body of the Church , in the circuit of which crowne were placed 160 wax candles , the which on festiuall dayes , or at the celebration of some high ceremonies are lighted to lighten their darknesse , or their ignorance , chuse yee whether .

Moreouer there I saw a siluer bell in their steeple , of six hundred and 30 l. weight , and the Leades of their steeple , shining and sparkling with the Sun beames , they did affirme to mee to bee gold , the truth of which I am doubtfull of .

In this towne I stayed foure dayes , and on friday the 14 of September , I went six dutch miles to the strong towne of Brunswick , where by reason of my short stay , which was but two houres , I obserued nothing worthy of memory , but their triple walls , and double ditches , their artillery and fortifications , which they thinke to be impregnable ; besides , there I saw an old house of the Duke of Brunswicke , with the statue of a golden lyon , of a great bignesse , standing aloft vpon a piller , with the broken walls , and houses , which the Dukes Cannon hath left there six yeares since , as tokens and badges of his fury , and their rebellion .

From thence on the morrow I went one dutch mile further , to an ancient towne called Wolfunbuttle , where the Duke of Brunswick keepes his Court , in the which I and my fellow could get no further admittance , then ouer a bridge into his outtermost , or base court ; for his souldiers , seeing vs with swords and pistolls , were fearefull , belike , that wee would haue taken the fortresse from them , and therefore though wee were but two Englishmen , yet they durst not let vs enter ; which made men call to remembrance the frequent , and dayly Egresse and Regresse , that all people and nations haue to his Maiesty royal Court of great Brittaine , where none that are of any good fashion or aspect are debar'd entrance : when those inferiour Princes houses are garded with hungry Halberdiers , and reuerend rufty bil-men , with a brace or two of hot shots , so that their pallaces are more like prisons , then the free & noble courts of commanding potentates .

After two dayes entertainment at Wolfunbuttle , with an English Merchant residing there , of good fame and credit , named Maister Thomas Sackuille , I wish my brother , my fellow Tilbery , and another man in my company departed from thence on foote , onward on our iourny towards Bohemia , in which trauell , what occurrences hapned , and what things of note I saw , were as followeth .

Passing with many weary steps , through the townes of Rosondink , Remling , Soolem , Hessen Darsam , and Haluerstade , ( which is all in Brunswick land , ) But this towne of Haluerstade belongs to a Bishop so stiled , who is Duke Christian brother to the now Duke of Brunswick , a long dutch mile ( or almost six English ) is a small towne or a Bleck called Groning belonging to the Duke , in the which place I obserued two things worthy of remembrance .

First a most stately Pallace built with a beautiful Chappell , so adorned with the images and formes of Angells , and Cherubins , with such exquisitenes of arts best industry of caruing , grauing , guilding , painting , glasing , and pauing , with such superexcellent workmanship of organes , pulpit and font , that for curiosity and admirable rarenesse , all the buildings , and fabricks that euer I beheld , must giue it preheminence . I confesse that Henry the seuenths Chappell at Westminster , Kings Colledge Chappell in Cambridge , and Christs Church in Canterbury , are beyond it in height and workmanship of stone : for indeed this Chappell is most of wood gipps , and plaster of Parris ; but it is so guilded as if it had bin made in the golden age , when gold was esteemed as drosse , so that a man had need to weare a vaile ouer his dazeling eyes , or else he can hardly looke vpon it .

The caruing and painting seeme to outgo the arts of Pigmalion , Apelles , or Praxiteles ; the pauing of chequered blacke and white marble , and the windowes glassed with Christall : but all this great cost and shew is very little to the honor of God , or the propagation of the Ghospel , the edification of the ignorant . For in this Chappell of ease , there is no Seruice . If the painted pulpit could preach , the dumbe images might ( perhaps ) haue a sermon now and then ; for scarce at any time there comes any body into the Chappell , but a fellow that shewes the beauty of it for two pence or three pence a piece .

In the same house , in a place or celler built of purpose , is a great tonne or vessell of wood , that was 7 yeares in making , and hath vsed to be filled with Rhenish wine : it is sayd to bee twice as bigge as the vessell at Heidelberg , and the hoopes of it are twelue inches thick , and the staues or bordes of it being as much : I went vp to the top of it , with a ladder of 18 stepps , hee that keepes it saith it will hold 160 tonnes . My fellow Tilbery did creepe in at the tap hole ; it is in length 32 foote , and in breadth acrosse 19 , and verily I thinke that bable cost more mony the making , then would haue built a good ship , or founded an almes house for 6 poore people .

From Groning wee trauelled to a towne called Ashers Leauen , to Ashleauen , to Kinderne , to Hall , and so to Leipzig , which is one of the chiefest townes in Saxony , being famous for a yearely Mart that is yearely held there , whereto Merchants and other people from the most part of Christendom haue annual concourse : in this towne we stayd two dayes , and taking our leaue then of some English Merchants , who vsed vs kindly , we there would haue hired a coach or waggon to Prague ; but all the Saxon coach-men and carters were afraid to looke vpon any part of Bohemia , because their Duke is a profest enemy in armes against the King of Beame , so that we were forced to hire a fellow with a wheelebarrow two dayes to carry our cloakes , swords , guns , pistolls , and other apparell and luggage which were our necessaries , to a towne called Boorne , to Froburge , and so to another towne called Penigh , where wee cashierd our one-wheel'd coach , and hired a cart with two , which carried both vs and our baggage to Chemnizt another towne in Saxony , from whence to a place called Shop , wee were faine to bee our owne sumpter horses , walking on foote to the last towne in Saxony , called Marienberg . From thence passing vp and downe inaccessable mountaines , we came to a wood , which parts Bohemia from Saxony on the west , which wood is called by the people of those parts the Beamer Wolts or Wolt , and is in breadth to English miles , and in length further then I know how to describe truely : but this much of it I dare affirme , that it is a naturall impregnable wall to the kingdome of Bohem , which kingdome is all incompast round with woods and mountaines , so that there is no passage on that side of it , for any army to enter into it with munition and artillery , all the wayes being vneuen , and the mountaine tops all boggs , mosses , and quagmires , that great ordnance or any heauy cariage either of horse , cart or waggon , will sinke and be lost . Besides , there are numbers past numbring of Firre trees , many standing , and such store fallen of themselues , that any passage might easily be stopped by laying them crosse the way . And of all my iourny , the trauell through that dismall wood was the most heauy vnto mee , for the trees grew so thicke , and so high , that the sunne was obscured , and the day seemed night ; in some places , the way paued with swimming trees 2 miles together on the tops of hills , which now and then I slipping besides , sunke to the middle in a quagmire .

When wee had thus footed it , and trauelled past the hills and woods , ( being at the least 4 houres toyle ) and that wee might looke downe the mountaines into the fruitfull land of Bohem , neuer did sight more reioyce vs , the lower hills being all full of Vineyards , and the vallies , corne and pasture ; not an English mile distance , but a village euery way ; and twenty , thirty , or forty reekes or stacks of corne which their barnes cannot hold , in the space of euery houres iourny : in a word , euery thing that belonged to the vse and commodity of man was and is there , and al the delightfull obiects to satisfie euery sence is there abundantly , so that nature seemed to make that Country her storehouse or granary , for there is nothing wanting except mens gratitude to God for such blessings .

The first night we lodged there at a pretty towne called Comoda , which towne by negligence and occasion of fire had fifty houses burnt two dayes before our comming thither , it being eleuen dutch miles from Prague . There we hired a wagon 7 dutch miles to a towne called Slowne , from whence we walked on foote a long 16 English miles to Prague , which long looked for the Citty wee could not see vntill we came within an houres trauell of it : within halfe a dutch mile is a fearefull place , being frequented with inhumaine and barbarous murderers , that assault trauellers , first shooting and murdring them , and after searching their pockets , where if they haue mony or not , all is one , it is but so many slaine : for these villaines haue a wood , and a deepe valley to shelter themselues in , that they are hardly taken afterwards ; but if they chance at any time to be but apprehended , they are racked and tortured to make them confesse , and afterwards their executions are very terrible . But ( I thanke God ) wee past that place , and many other as dangerous as that , where some were robbed and murdered ( as report told vs ) both before vs , behind vs , and on each side : and we saw in our iourny aboue seauen score gallowses and wheeles , where thieues were hanged some fresh , and some halfe rotten , and the carkases of murtherers , broken limb after limb on the wheeles ; and yet it was our happines onely to see the dead villaines , and escape the liuing .

I came into Prague on thurseday the seauenth of September , whither if I had come but the friday before , I had seene a most fearefull execution of two notorious offenders ; the manner how , with their faults , as it was truely related to me by English Gentlemen that saw it , I thinke it not much impertinent to relate .

The one of them being taken , apprehended and racked , for ripping vp aliue a woman with child , and for taking the infant out of her body , did sowe a liuing puppy into her belly ; all which hee confessed hee did to make properties for wichcraft : and beeing further tortured , hee confessed when and where hee had committed 35. murthers more : the other in respect of him was but a petty offender , for he in all his life time had murthered but 14. For the which execrable facts , their deserued executions were as followeth : First , they were brought out of the Iayle naked from the girdle vpward ; and so being bound fast on high in a cart , that the spectators might see them ; then the Hangman hauing a panne of coales neere him , with red hot pincers nip'd off the nipple of one brest ; then he tooke a knife and giues him a slash or cut downe the backe on one side , from the shoulder to the waste ; and presently gaue him such another slash , three inches from the first ; then on the top he cut the slashes into one ; , and presently taking pincers , tooke hold of the crosse cut , and tore him downe like a Girse below the middle , letting it hang downe behind him like a belt : after which he tooke his burning pincers , and pluck'd off the tops of his fingers of one hand : then passing to another place of the Towne , his other nipple was plucked off , the other side of his back so cut and mangled , ( which they call by the name of rimming , ( if it had beene riming , I would neuer haue written but in prose ) his other fingers nip'd off ; then passing further , all his toes were nip'd off with the burning pincers : after which he was enforced to come out of the cart , and goe on foote vp a steepe hill to the Gallowes , where he was broken with a wheele , aliue , one bone after another , beginning at his legs and ending with his neck , and last of all quartered and layd on the wheele , on a high post , till Crowes , Rauens , or consuming time consume him .

This was the manner of both their executions , but I speake but of the greatest murtherer particularly , because it is reported , that all these torments neuer made him once to change countenance , or to make any signe or action of griefe , to call to God for mercy , or to entreate the people to pray for him ; but as if he had beene a senselesse stocke or stone , he did most scornefully , and as it were in disdaine abide it : whilst the other villaine did crye , rore , and make lamentation , calling vpon God often ; the difference was not much in their liues , and manner of their deaths , but I am perswaded the odds was great in their dying .

The City of Prague is almost circular or round , being diuided in the middle by the riuer of Moldoue , ouer which is a faire stone Bridge , of 600. paces ouer , and at each end a strong gate of stone : there is said to be in it of Churches and Chappels , 150. for there are great numbers of Catholiques , who haue many Chappels dedicated to sundry Saints , and I was there at foure seueral sorts of diuine exercises ; viz. at good sermons with the Protestants , at Masse with the Papists , at a Lutherans preaching , and at the Iewes Synagog ; three of which I saw and heard for curiosity , and the other for edification .

The Iewes in Prague are in such great numbers , that they are thought to be of men , women and children , betwixt 50. or 60000. who doe all liue by brocage and vsury vpon the Christians , and are very rich in money and Iewels , so that a man may see tenne or twelue togither of them , that are accounted worth 20. 30. or 40000. l. apiece ; and yet the slaues goe so miserably attired , that 15. of them are not worth the hanging for their whole wardrobes .

The Castle where the King and Queene doe keepe their Court , is magnificent and sumptuous in building , strongly situated and fortified by nature and art , being founded on a high hill , so that at pleasure it keepes the towne in command , and it is much more spacious in roomes for receipt in gardens and orchards , then the Towre of London . I was in it dayly the space of 20 dayes , and saw it royally graced with the presence of a gracious King & Queen , who were honorably attended by a gallant courtly traine of Lords and Ladies , and Gentles , of the high Dutch and Bohemians , and where was free & bountiful entertainment to strangers in abundance : I must euer humbly and thankfully acknowledge the Queenes Maiesties goodnesse towards mee , whose vndeserued fauours were helpful vnto me both there , and in my tedious iorny home-ward . Moreouer there I saw ( and had in mine armes ) the King and Queenes yongest son , Prince Robert , who was borne there on the 16 of December last : a goodly child as euer I saw of that age , whom with the rest I pray God to blesse ; to his glory and his Parents ioy and comfort .

The citty of Prague , hath in it ( by reason of the wars ) thrice the number of it's owne inhabitants , and yet for all that , victuals is in such great plenty , that 6 men cannot eate three halfe penny worth of bread , and I did buy in the market a fat goose well roast for the vallew of nine pence English , and I and my brother haue dined there at a Cookes with good roasted meate , bread and beere , so that we haue bin satisfied and left , for the vallew of fiue pence : a good turky there may bee bought for two shillings , and for fresh fish I neuer saw such store , for in one market day I haue knowne in Prague 2000 carps , besides other fishes , which carps in London are fiue shillings a piece , and there they were for eight pence , or ten pence at the most , so that one of their fresh fish markets heere were worth at the least 5 or 600 pounds , and as for all other manner of wild foule , they are there in satiety , besides their fruites are in such abundance that I boght a basket of grapes of the quantity of halfe a pecke for a penny & farthing , & a hat-ful of faire peaches for as much , pickled cowcumbers I haue bought a pecke for three pence , and muskmellons , there hath bin cast fiue or six carts load of them in one day to their hoggs .

As concerning the dyet that is in the Kings armies , I could neuer yet heare any man complaine of want , but that it is more plentifull then in the citty , the greatest scarcity hath bin to some sicke souldiers , who being not able to march with the leaguers ( by reason of their weakenes ) they haue bin left amongst the Boores , or husbandmen in the next villages , where their languages not vnderstood , their succour hath bin but small , but for all this in the campe hath euer bin a continuall cheapnes of all things , the King most duely paying his souldiers at the end of euery month , hauing in his great leguer , vnder the conduct of the Princes of Hollock and Anhalt , of foote and horse 43000 , and at the least of carts and waggons to carry prouision , and baggage for the army , to the number of 18000. In his little leaguer vnder the leading of Count Mansfelt there are of foote and horse 7000 , besides carrs and waggons for carriage , and yet for these great numbers of men and beastes , there is food in all abundance .

In the campe with Graue Mansfelt is the Brittane regiment vnder their Colonel Sir Andrew Gray Knight , and in Prague I met with many worthy Gentlemen and souldiers , which were there sicke , as the worthy Captaine Bushell , Lieutenaut Grimes , Lieuetenant Langworth , Ancient Galbreath , Ancient Vandenbrooke , Maister Whitney , Maister Blundell and others , all which did most courteously entertaine me , vnto whom I must euer rest thankful , and they do affirme that now it hath pleased God to grant their souldiers recouery , that they do hope euery Brittaine souldier doth retaine more good spirit , then 3 enemies of what nation soeuer .

Thus hauing shewed part of the best things in Bohemia , the Court and Citty of Prague , it shall not be amisse if I relate a little merily , of some things there tolerable , some intollerable , some naught and some worse then naught ; for as euery rose hath a prickle , and euery Bee a sting , so no earthly kingdome hath such persection of goodnesse , but it may be iustly taxed with imperfections .