Yet I give more credit to our Montezinus, being a Portingal, and a Jew of our Order; borne in a City of Portingal, called Villefleur, of honest and known Parents, a man about forty yeares old, honest, and not ambitious. He went to the Indies, where he was put into the Inquisition, as the successor of many who were borne in Portingal, and descended from them, whom the King of Portingal, Don Manuel forced to turne Christians: (O wicked, and unjust action, saith Osorius; and a little after, This was done neither according to Law, nor Religion,) and yet to this day they privately keep their Religion, which they had changed, being forced thereto. He being freed from the Inquisition, very diligently sought out these things, and oft spoke with those men, and then was not quiet till he came hither, and had told us that good newes. He endured much in that journey, and was driven to great want, so that no house would give him food, or give him money for his worke. I my selfe was well acquainted with him for six months together that he lived here; and sometimes I made him take an Oath in the presence of honest men, that what he had told, was true. Then he went to Farnambuc, where two yeares after he dyed, taking the same Oath at his death. Which if it be so, why should not I beleeve a man that was vertuous, and having all that which men call gaine. And who knowes but that shortly the truth of that Prognostick may appeare, which our Montezinus learned from the Mohanes; answerable to that which Jacobus Verus an Astrologer of Prague writ after the apparition of the Comet in Ann. 1618. and dedicated to his Highnesse the Prince Palatine, where he thus discourseth: The Comet going towards the South, doth intimate that the Cities and Provinces which God doth threaten, are those of the West-Indies, which shall revolt from the King of Spaine, who will finde that losse greater then he imagined, not that the Indians rebell against him of themselves, but that they are provoked to it being stirred up by others. Neither did the Comet only fore-tell that, but the eclipse of the Sun, which was in that Country the yeare before. Thus far the Astrologer. Our ancient Rabbins say, though we doe not beleeve the Astrologers in all things, yet we doe not wholly reject them, who sometimes tell truth.
SECT. 14.
Thus farre of the West-Indies, of which Isaiah may be understood (because it lyes in the midst of the Sea, and also hath many Islands) in Isa. 60.9. The isles shall waite for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring their Sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, Jer. 31.10. Heare the Word of the Lord O ye Nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattereth Israel will gather him, Psal. 97.1. The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoyce, and the multitude of isles be glad. Where part of the ten Tribes doe dwell unknown to this day.
SECT. 15.
You must know that all the ten Tribes were not carried away at the same time. Pul the King of Assyria (as I shew in the second part of my Reconciler) conquered, and carried away the Tribes of Reuben, Gad, and halfe Manasseh, in the reigne of Peka, as you may see in 1 Chron. 5.26. and Josephus in li. 9. c. 11. Tiglahpileser eight yeares after took Ijon, Abel-beth-maachah, Hazor-Gilead, Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carryed away all the Captives into Assyria, in 2 King. 15.29. At last Shalmaneser King of Assyria, nine yeares after, in the reign of Hoshea the Son of Elah, besieged Samaria three yeares; which being taken, he carried away. Hoshea, with the rest of the Tribes, in 2 King. 17.6. Of those three times the Prophet Isaiah speakes, Isa. 9.1. saying, the first captivity was gentle, if you compare it with the last, which was grievous, and unsufferable, when the Kingdome and Monarchy of Israel ceased.
SECT. 16.
The ten Tribes being conquered at severall times, we must thinke they were carried into severall places. As we beleeve they went to the West-Indies by the strait of Anian, so we thinke that out of Tartary they went to China, by that famous wall in the confines of both. Our argument to prove it, is taken from the authority of two Jesuites, who erected their Colledges in those Countries. Nicholaus Trigantius a Dutch-man in his discourse of the Christian expedition under-taken by the Jesuites to Sina, saith, We finde that in former time the Jewes came into these Kingdomes. And when that society had for some yeares seated it selfe in the Court of the Pequinenses, a certaine Jew came to P. Matthæus Riccius; he was borne in Chamfamfu the metropolis of the Province Honan, and was surnamed Ogay; and now being licensed to the degree of a Doctor, he went to Pequin. But when he read in a certaine Booke writ by a Doctor of China, concerning the European affaires, That our fathers are not Sarazens, and know no God but the Lord of Heaven and Earth; and would perswade himselfe that ours did professe the Law of Moses, he went into the Church with P. Matthæas Riccius. On an Altar there was the effigies of the Virgin Mary, and the childe Jesus, whom St. John his fore-runner worshipped with bended knees; now that day was the Holy-day of John the Baptist. The Jew thinking it was the effigies of Rebecca, and her two Sons, Jacob and Esau, he bowed also to the Image, but with this Apology, that he worshipped no Images, but that he could not but honour these who were the Parents of our Nation. And he asking if the foure Evangelists on both sides of the Altar, were not foure of the twelve sons of Jacob; the Jesuite answered, Yes, thinking he had asked of the twelve Apostles. But afterward the Jew acknowledged to the Jesuite that he was an Israelite; and he found the Kings Bible, and acknowledged the Hebrew Letters, though he could not read them. By this occasion our people learnt, that ten or twelve families of Israelites were there, and had built a very neat Synagogue which cost ten thousand Crownes, in which they have kept the five Bookes of Moses with great veneration for six hundred yeares. He also affirmed, that in Hamcheu the Metropolis of the Province Chequiona, there are farre more Families, with a Synagogue; and else-where that many Families live without a Synagogue, because that by little and little they are extinguished. He relating many things out of the Old Testament, he differed but little in pronouncing those names. He said, that some among them were not ignorant of the Hebrew Tongue, but that himselfe had neglected it, having studied the China Tongue from a Childe. For which cause he was counted almost unworthy of their society, by the Ruler of the Synagogue. But he chiefly looked after this, that he might get to be Doctor. Three yeares after P. Matthæus Riccius sent one of our brethren to that Metropolis, who found all those things true. He compared the beginnings, and endings of the Bookes which the Jewes keep in their Synagogue, with our Pentateuch, and saw no difference, this only, that those had no pricks. The other Jesuite is Alfonsus Cimedro, who likewise saith, that there is a great number of Jewes in the Province of Oroensis, on the West part of China, who know nothing of the comming, and suffering of Jesus. And he from thence gathers, that they are of the ten Tribes, (which opinion I also am of) because those Chineses observe many Jewish Rites, which you may see in a manuscript, which the noble Jaochimus Wicofortius hath. And why might not some of them saile from China to New-Spaine, through the streight between China, and Anian, and Quivira, which doe border upon New-Spaine; and from thence they went to the Isles of Panama, Peru, and those thereabouts. These in my judgement are those Chineses of whom Isaiah speakes, Chap. 49. vers. 12. (treating about Israels returne to his Country.) Behold, these shall come from afarre, and these from the North, and from the West, and these from the Land of Sinim. And so Ptolomy in lib. 7. c. 3. tab. 11. cals it The country of Sinim, or Sina; and this is the true sense of the words; Aben Ezra therefore is mistaken, who derives it of Sene, a bush or wood, which he placeth in Ægypt.
SECT. 17.
I Could easily beleeve, that the ten Tribes as they increased in number, so they spread into more Provinces before-mentioned, and into Tartary. For Abraham Ortelius in his Geography of the World, and Map of Tartary, he notes the place of the Danites which he cals the Hord, which is the same which the Hebrew Jerida, signifying A descent. And lower, he mentions the Hord of Naphtali, possessed by Peroza in the yeare 476. Schikhardus in his Tarich or series of the Kings of Persia, amplifies the History of this War, where ex lib. 4. of Agathias, he thus saith, A little after, when they were eased of that Plague, (sc. 7. yeares drought) in the time of the Emperour Zeno, Firuz made a double warre with Naphtali, in which at last he was destroyed. For first of all he was brought to the streights of places unknowne; who then sought for peace upon this condition (and obtained it) that he should sweare that he would never after provoke them; and that he should doe reverence to this Conquerour in token of subjection: which afterward by the counsell of the Magicians he performed craftily, for he bowed towards the Eastern Sun, that his owne people might thinke that he bowed rather to the Sun (after his Country custom) then to honour his Enemy. But he did not truly performe that first agreement, though confirmed by Letters Patents; who because he could not digest the disgrace of bowing to his Enemy, he prepared a new Army and went against them; but a second time he being entrapped by the badnesse of the Country, he lost his life; and many with him, in a Gulf which the Naphthalites had prepared for him, having dressed it over with reeds, and some earth throwne a top; they having left in the middle some high grounds, and trees where their Scouts were, that their stratagem might not be found, and that the Persians might more confidently attempt the ditch. Thus a rash King paid for his perfidy, he excelling more in daring, then in counsell, as Agathias saith. The patent by which peace had been agreed, was hung upon a speare, and might be seene of him at distance, that he might remember his Oath, repent, and desist from his enterprise; but he cared little for that. But when by his unexpected fall he saw he should dye, it is said that he pulled off from his right eare a pearle of huge bignesse, and whitenesse, and least any after him should finde it (more likely that his corps should not be knowne) he threw it a great way off. The same Author askes, who those Naphthalites were, and by many arguments he proves that they are the relicks of the Jewes; saith he, I doe wholly thinke that they are the relicks of the Jewes of the Tribe of Naphtali, whom Triglath Pilesser the Assyrian carried into those places, in 2 King. 15.29. For 1. The name, in the best copies of Agathias, which Lewenclavius hath mended, is the same fully; in other Bookes it wants nothing but an (h) now it is scarce possible that in a word of many syllables that should fall out by chance. 2. Their countenance discovers it, for as Procopious I. C. saith, they are not blacke, or foule in their countenance, as the Auns are among whom they live, but the only white men of that Country; that it may evidently appeare that they came from some other place thither. 3. Their manners agree, for the same Author saith, that they are not Nomades, as the Huns who are unconstant in their dwelling, and eate up one place after another; but they inhabite one certaine place. Besides, they observe Law and equity, as the Romans; and have pollicy, being well governed by their Prince: both which is rare among their neighbour Nations. Also they doe not lay abroad their dead, as the Barbarians doe, but they decently cover them with earth. Lastly, their jornalls doe testifie that many Jewes live there, especially in the mountaines, who have searched to the mid-land countries of East-Asia, R. Benjamin, f. 23. From thence (the coast of Persia) is 28. dayes journey to the mountaines Nisebor, which are neare the river Gozan. The Israelites which come from thence into Persia, say, that there in the Cities of Nisebor, are four Tribes (sc. Dan, Zebulon, Asor, Naphtali,) of the first captivity, which Shalmaneser the Assyrian carried thither, as in 2 King. 17.6. he brought them to Habor, and Halah, the river Gozan and the Mountaines of Media. The compasse of that Country is twenty dayes journey; and they possesse Cities, and Castles upon the Mountaines, by one side of which, runs the river Gozan; neither are they subject to the Nations, but have a Governour over them, by name R. Joseph Amarkela a Levite, and there are among them some who study wisdome. They sow, and reap; yea they wage war to the Country of Cuth. In the same place Ortelius adds, in the Country Tabor, or Tibur (which Solinus commends, in c. 49.) they dwell a people, who though they have lost the holy writings, they obey one King, who came into France, in Ann. 1530. and spoke with Francis the first, was burnt at Mantua by the command of the Emperour Charles the fifth, because that he did privately teach Judaism to Christian Princes, and to the Emperour himselfe. Boterus saith the same in his relations of the farthest part of Tartary. But both these were deceived; for Rabbinus Josephus Cohon, a man worthy to be beleeved, relates this more truly in his Chronology, saying, that the Jew who came out of that Country, was the brother of the King of the Israelites, was called David the Reubenite; and having seene India in his passage, he came to Portugal, where he converted the Kings Secretary to Judaism, who fled from thence with him, taking the name of Selomoh Molho; he in short time was so well versed in the Law, yea in the Cabala it selfe, that he made all Italy admire him. The Secretary together with the Reubenite, endevoured to draw the Pope, Charles the fifth, and Francis the first to Judaism. Selomoh Molho was taken at Mantua, and burnt alive, in the yeare 1540. He yet was offered his life, if he would turne Christian. The Reubenite was by Charles the fifth carried prisoner into Spaine, where he shortly after dyed. Abraham Frisol Orchotolam remembers the Reubenite, saying, Forty five years agone David Reubenita, a Prince of the Israelites, came from Tabor, a Province of Tartary, into Europe, who said that two Tribes are there; and other Tribes a little farther, under their Kings, and Princes, and also an unspeakable number of people. Perhaps the Province Tabor is the same that Habor; which is mentioned in 2 King. 17.6. that the ten Tribes were brought by Salmaneser to Habor, and Halah; now the Hebrew letters (h) and (t) are neere in fashion. Eldad Danita of the Tribe of Dan, came out of those Countries five hundred yeares agone (a letter from whom, which we call Sephar Eldad Danita, is kept to this day) and being examined by the Rabbins, was found an approved man. The learned Rabbi David Kimhi, who lived 450. yeares since, in etymol. suo in the word Segiah, he saith, Rabbi Jonah writes of the name of Rabbi Juda Aben Karis, that he heard Eldad Danita say, &c. And so what I said is true, as appeares by the testimonies produced.