Volume 2 — VOL. II. (continued 2)

The Turkish coin in itself is pitiful and inconsiderable, which I ascribe not only to their want of bullion, but to their little skill in matters relating to the mint. Hence it comes to pass, that Zecchines and Hungars for gold, and Spanish Dollars and Zalotts for silver stamped in Christendom pass current among them, most of the great payments being made in them, they not caring either through ignorance or sloth, to follow the example of the Indian or Persian Emperors, who usually melt down the Christian money imported by the Merchants into their several countries, and give it a new stamp. The most usual pieces are the Sheriphi of gold, somewhat less than a Venecian Zecchine, and Aspers, ten of which are equal to six pence English and some few Asper pieces. A Mangur is an old ugly copper piece, eight of which make but one Asper, and is not I think a Turkish coin, but rather Greek. They have no arms upon their coin, only letters embossed on both sides, containing the Emperor’s name, or some short sentence out of the Koran.

The Turks look upon earthquakes as ominous, as the vulgar do upon eclipses, not understanding the philosophy of them. During my stay in Constantinople, which was above two years, there happen’d but one, which was October 26, 1669, about six o’clock in the morning, a stark calm preceding. It lasted very near a minute, and we at Pera and Galata were as sensible of it as those who were on the other side of the water; but, praised be God, nothing fell, and we were soon rid of the fears in which this frightful accident had cast us, being in our beds, and not able, by reason of the surprize, in so little a space to have past thro’ a gallery down a pair of stairs into the court, if we had attempted it. The Turks made direful reflections on it, as if some calamity would inevitably fall upon the empire, quickly forgetting the great triumphings and rejoicings which they exprest but a few days before for the surrender of Candia. In the year 1668, in August, the earth shook more or less for forty seven days together in the lesser Asia at Anguri (Anoyra) and for fifteen at Bacbaser, as we heard from a Scotch Merchant, who lived there; and particularly, that at this latter place, on the second of August, between three and four o’clock in the afternoon it lasted for a quarter of an hour; several houses were overthrown, and some hundred of chimneys fell (it being a very populous town) and yet there were but seven kill’d. The trembling being so violent, both Turks and Christians forsook their houses, and betook themselves to the fields, vineyards and gardens, where they made their abode for several days.

Their punishments are very severe, this being judg’d the most effectual way, to prevent all public disorders and mischiefs. They use no great formality in their processes; if the criminal be taken in the fact, and the witnesses ready and present to attest it, and sometimes if there be but probable circumstances, without full conviction, condemn him; and soon after sentence, sometimes an hour or less, hurry him away to execution. For an ordinary crime, hanging is the usual death; but for robbery and murder committed upon the highway, by such as rob in parties and allarm whole provinces, or for sacrilege, or for any heinous crime against the government, either gaunching or excoriation, or cutting off the legs and arms, and leaving the trunk of the body in the high-way, or empaling, that is, thrusting an iron stake through the body out under the neck or at the mouth; in which extreme torment the miserable wretch may live two or three days, if the guts or the heart happen not to be wounded by the pointed spike in it’s passage. This punishment seems to have been in use among the Romans, Seneca’s Epist. 14. Cogita hoc loco carcerem, & cruces, & eculeos, & uncum, & adactum medium hominem, qui per os emergat, stipitem. And so in his book De Consolatione ad Marciam, cap. 20. Alii capite conversos in terram suspendere; alii per obscena stipitem egerunt, alii brachia patibulo explicuerunt. Murder is seldom pardon’d, and especially if the relations of the murder’d person demand justice.

The Circumcision, though it be a sacred rite, is perform’d in their private houses, and never in the Mosques.

The women colour their eye-brows and lids with an ugly black powder, I suppose, to set off their beauty by such a shadow; and their nails with the powder of Kanna, which gives them a tincture of faint red, like brick, as they do the tails and hoofs of horses, which they look upon as a great ornament. Their great diversion is bathing; sometimes thrice if not four times a week. They do not permit them to go to church in time of prayer, for fear they should spoil their devotion; the Turks being of so brutish a temper, that their lust is raised upon the sight of a fair object. They are call’d oftentimes by the names of flowers and fruits, and sometimes fantastic names are given them, such as Sucar Birpara, or bit of sugar, Dil Ferib, or ravisher of hearts, and the like.

Their skill in agriculture is very mean. In their gardens they have several little trenches to convey water where it may be most necessary for their plants and flowers. They know little or nothing of manuring their grounds; sometimes they burn their fields and vineyards after harvest and vintage, partly to destroy the vermin, and partly to enrich the soil. They tread out their corn with oxen, drawing a square plank board, about a foot and an half or two foot over, studded with flints, and winnow it upon their threshing-floors in the open air, the wind blowing away the chaff. They feed their horses with barley and chopt straw, for I do not remember ever to have seen any oats among them; and they make but little hay.

For draught of great weight in their carts they make use of Buffalo’s.

Camels will travel four days together without water, and will eat tops of thistles, shrubs, or any kind of boughs: They are very sure footed, and kneel when they are loading, and live to a considerable number of years, some even to sixty.

The chief furniture of their houses are carpets, or matts of Grand Cairo, neatly wrought with straw, spread upon the ground; they having no occasion for chairs, couches, stools, or tables, their postures within doors being different from ours. They have no hangings, but their walls are whited and set off with painting, only adorned with a kind of porcelain; no beds closed with curtains.

They seal not with wax, but ink, at the bottom of the paper, the Emperor’s name being usually written with flourishes and in perplex’d characters; nor have they any coats of arms upon their seals, there being no such thing as gentility among them.

Some of them, notwithstanding their zeal for Mahomet and the religion by him establish’d, retain not only a favourable and honourable opinion of our Blessed Saviour, but even place some kind of confidence in the usage of his name, or of the words of the Gospel, though it may seem to be wholly in the way of superstition. Thus in their amulets, which they call Chaimaili, being little bits of paper about two or three fingers breath, rolled up in pieces of silk, containing several short prayers or sentences out of the Koran, with several circles with other figures, they usually inscribe the holy and venerable name of Jesus, or the figure of the cross, or the first words of St John’s Gospel, and the like. They hang them about their necks, or place them under their arm-pits, or in their bosom near their hearts, (being the same with what the Greeks call ἐγκόλπια) and especially when they go to war, as a preservative against the dangers of it; and indeed against any misfortune whatsoever. Some have them sow’d within their caps; and I heard of a Turk who was so superstitious herein, that he always pluck’d it off, and was uncover’d, when he had occasion to make water. Some are such bigots in their religion, and so furious against Christians, that not only they treat them with all imaginable scorn and contempt, but take it ill to be salam’d or saluted by them, as if it were the effect of sawciness and unbecoming familiarity. Their malice against the Christians makes them envy the rich furs they line their vests with, and it is a trouble to these hypocritical zealots to see Franks ride upon their fine Arabian horses.

The respect which they shew the Koran is wonderful, they dare not open the leaves of it with unwashen hands, according to the advice and command written in Arabic upon the cover, Let no one touch this book, but he that is clean. They kiss it, and bend their heads, and touch their eyes with it, both when they open and shut it.

The Janizaries, when they attend upon Christian Embassadors to their audience, seem to appear in their bravery, and in a habit far from that of a soldier, being without either fire-arms or swords, which latter are not worn but in time of service, or when they are upon a march, or embodied, wearing a cap made of camels hair, with a broad flap dangling behind, a gilt embroider’d wreath running round it, and an oblong piece of brass rising up from the middle of their forehead near a foot, with a great club in their hand, like inferior officers of the civil government. But when they are in the camp, they throw off their upper vest and turbants, which they wear at all other usual times, as troublesome, and put on a fez or red cap, which fits close to their head, and tuck up their Duliman or long coat to their girdle, that they may be the more quick and expedite in their charge.

They affect finery and neatness in their cloaths and shashes; not so much as a spot to be seen upon them, and in rainy or suspicious weather are very careful how they go abroad without their Yamurlics, which is a kind of coat they throw over their heads at such times.

Their pans and dishes are for the most part of copper, but so handsomely tinned over, that they look like silver.

There are thousands of Gypsies or Zinganies in Turkey, who live the same idle nasty kind of life as they do in Christendom, and pretend to the same art of telling fortunes; and are look’d upon as the off-scouring of mankind. It is accounted the extremest point of human misery, to be a slave to any of this sort of cattle.

The Haggi or Pilgrims, that have been at Mecca and Medina, forbear to drink wine most religiously, out of a persuasion, that one drop would efface all the merits of that troublesome and expensive journey; and some have been possest with such a mad zeal, that they have blinded themselves after their having been blest with the sight of Mahomet’s sepulchre.

After Jatzah, that is, an hour and an half in the night, throughout the whole year, there is as great a silence in the streets as at midnight. The Emperor Achmet, in the year 1611, having made an order, that no one should presume to be out of his house after that time, which is to this day most punctually observed. The Bostangi bashi, who has the command of all the Agiamoglans in the Seraglio, the Topgibashi, or such great officers, attended with a great train of armed men, walking the rounds, and drubbing such as they find abroad at unseasonable hours, of what nation or quality soever, except Physicians, Chirurgions, and Apothecaries, whom they allow at all times to visit the sick.

The Turkmans, (for so they are peculiarly called, as if they were the true descendents of the old Turks or Scythians, whose wandring kind of life is described by the Poet,

Ἁμαξόβιοι { Nulla domus, plaustris habitant, migrare per arva

{ Mos, atque errantes circumvectare penates.)

have no fix’d residence any where, but travel with their families and cattel from place to place, carrying their wives and children upon camels; they pitch their tents usually near rivers and fountains, for the conveniency of water, and according as their necessities require, make a longer and shorter stay. Their whole estates consists in their numerous flocks and herds, which they sell upon occasion, to supply themselves with what they want, at the towns they pass by. Their only concern is, how to enjoy the benefits and blessings of nature, without the troubles and turmoils and disquiets of life, being contented and happy in one anothers company, void of all ambition and envy, courteous and humane to strangers, that may want their help and assistance, kindly entertaining them with such provision as their folds afford. I have met with some companies of these harmless wanderers in my travels. The country lies open without any enclosures, and the property not being vested in any one, they travel thro’ the plains unmolested, and find excellent pasture every where. The Turks till no more ground than will serve their necessities, being supply’d with corn from Egypt, and from Moldavia and Wallachia, by the way of the Black sea, letting vast traces of ground lie waste and uncultivated; so that their sloth herein sometimes is justly punish’d with dearths.

They have nothing to shew for their houses and possessions, but an Hogiet, or piece of paper subscribed by the Cadi, if they have acquired them by their money, or that they were their father’s before them.

The Dervises generally are melancholy, and place the greatest part of their religion in abstinence and other severities. Some cut their flesh, others vow not to speak for six or seven years, or all their lives long, though never so much provoked or distressed. Their Garments are made of a coarse sort of wool, or goats hair: They are tied up by the vow of their order ever from marrying. Several of this sect, in the height of their religious phrenzy, have attempted upon the lives of the Emperors themselves (at whose government they have taken disgust) as Mahomet II, and Achmet, as if such desperate attempts were fatal to bigots in all religions.

They pay a mighty veneration to any relic of Mahomet, his banner is still preserved in the treasury of the Seraglio, and is looked upon as the greatest security of the empire. They believe that it was sent from Heaven, and conveyed into the hands of Mahomet by the Angel Gabriel, as a pledge and sign of success and victory in his battels against the Christians, and all other enemies of the Musulman faith. It was sent to Candia, to encourage the Soldiers to endure the fatigue of that long and tedious siege; and when it was brought thence after the surrender of that city, to be deposited in it’s usual place, the Vizier gave several Christian slaves, that row’d in the galley that was fraught with this holy ware, their liberty. They pretend to have some rags of Mahomet’s vest, to which they ascribe great virtue. In confidence of which the Emperor Achmet, in the time of a great fire, which raged at Constantinople, when all other means failed, dipt part of them in water to be sprinkled upon the fire to abate the fury of it.

Next to the Mufti or Cadaleskiers are the Mollas, of which these four are the chiefest in dignity. The Molla of Galata, Adrianople, Aleppo, Prusa; and after them are reckoned these eight, Stambol Ephendi, Larissa, Misir or Cairo, Sham or Damuscus, Diarbeker or Mesopotamia, Cutaia, Sophia, Philippi.

The Priests have no habits peculiar to their profession, whereby they are distinguished from others. If they are put from their Mosque for miscarriage or neglect of doing their duty, or if they think fit to resign and be Priests no longer, they may betake themselves without any scandal to secular employments, their former character and quality wholly ceasing. While they remain Priests, they counterfeit a more than ordinary gravity in their discourse and walking: And affect to wear turbants swelling out, and made up with more cross folds; which was all the difference which I could observe by their head-attire, which is various, though I could not find that this was constantly and strictly observed.

In Byram-time, which is the great festival of the year, at which time every one looks cheerfully and merrily. Among other signs of mutual respect, they besprinkle one another with sweet water: They indulge to several sports; and some are mightily pleased with swinging in the open air, the ordinary sort of people especially, paying only a few Aspers for the diversion.

The government is perfectly arbitrary and despotical; the will and pleasure of the Emperor having the force and power of a law, and oftentimes is above it. His bare command, without any process, is enough to take off the head of any person (though never so eminent in dignity; though usually for formality, and to silence the murmurings of the soldiery and people, the sentence is confirmed by the Mufti.) Sometimes Bashaws, who have amassed great treasures in their governments, are cut off in their own houses in the midst of their retinue, the messengers of death producing the Imperial Command, usually sent in a black purse, and not a sword drawn in their defence. Others, if they are obnoxious to the least umbrage or jealousy, though dismist the Seraglio with all possible demonstrations of the Grand Signior’s favour, and with rich presents in order to take possession of places of great command in the empire, before they have got two or three days journey from Constantinople, have been overtaken and strangled. In the army commands are given according to merit; courage and conduct are sure to be rewarded, the way lying open to the meanest soldier to raise himself to be the chief of his order. But other preferments depend upon meer chance, and upon the fancy of the emperor, whether the person be fit or no, and they are as soon lost. The least ill success or miscarriage proves oftentimes fatal, and a more lucky man is put in his place, and he succeeded by a third, if unfortunate in a design, though managed with never so much prudence and valour. They admit of no hereditary honours, and have no respect to descent or blood, except the Ottoman family; he only is great and noble whom the Emperor favours, and while his command lasts. According to a tradition that passes current amongst them, a Bashaw’s son by a Sultana, or a daughter or sister of the Emperor, can rise no higher than to be a Sangiachi, or Governor of some little province, much inferiour to a Bashaw, and under his jurisdiction. Being born of slaves for the most part, they do not pride themselves in their birth, very few among them being scarce able to give any account of their grandfathers. They have no sirnames, but are distinguished by their possessions and places of abode, and enjoying by law a liberty of having what women they please, they have little or no regard to alliance or kindred.

Their empire owes the continuance of it’s being to the severity of the government, which oftentimes takes place without regard either to justice or equity, and to their frequent wars, which prevent all occasions of mutiny and faction among the Soldiers, which happen frequently when unemploy’d. So that tho’ ambition may put a warlike Sultan upon enlarging his territories by new conquests, yet reason of state forces a weak and effeminate Prince, such as was Ibrahim, to make war for his own security. Their politics are not owing to books and study, and the examples of past-times, but to experience, and the plain suggestions of nature and common sense: They have rules of government, which they firmly adhere to, holding the reins streight, especially being cruel and inexorable to criminals of state, who never are to expect any mercy or pity. Their councils formerly were open, and their designs known, and proclaimed before-hand, as if this had been a bravery becoming their greatness, and that they scorned to steal a conquest. But they have learned since the art of dissimulation, and can lye and swear for their interest, and seem excessive in their caresses to the ministers of those countries, which they intend to invade. But their preparations for arming are made with so much noise, that an ordinary jealousy is soon awakened by it to oppose them, in case of an attack. They seldom or never care to have war at both extremes of the empire at the same time, and therefore they are mighty sollicitous to secure a peace with Christendom, when they intend a war upon the Persian; and as much as is possible, they avoid quarrelling with two Christian Princes at once, being usually at league either with Poland and Muscovy, when they war upon Hungary, and so on the contrary; dreading nothing more than a union of the Christian Princes bordering upon them, which would prove so fatal to their Empire, and quickly put a period to their greatness; for hereby they would be put upon a necessity of making a defensive war, to their great loss and disadvantage, and at last either be forced to beg a peace of the Christians, or run the hazard of losing all by a farther prosecution of war.

This they are very sensible of, and therefore as they take all occasion to promote quarrels and dissentions in Hungary and Transilvania, so they greatly rejoice, when the Christian Princes are at war one with another. This is their great time of advantage, and they know, that it is their true interest to pursue it, tho’ they do not always, by reason of the ill condition of their own affairs make use of it. During the civil wars of Germany, the Bashaws and other commanders of the army were very importunate with the Grand Signior, to make a war on that side, and to enlarge his conquests as far as Vienna, no conjuncture having been ever so favourable to consumate such a design, in which Solyman so unhappily miscarry’d. They promised him an easy victory, assuring him, that the animosities of the Princes of the empire were so heightened, that there was no room left for a reconciliation, that he was but to go in the head of an army to take possession, and that Austria would surrender at the first news of his march towards it. The Emperor was not to be moved at that time by these insinuations and plausible discourses; being continually urged, he as often deny’d. One day when they came to renew their advice about the German war, he having given order before, that several dogs should be kept for some days without meat, commanded that they should be brought out, being almost starved, and meat thrown among them; whereupon they snarl’d and bit one another; in the midst of their noise and fighting he caused a bear to be let loose in the same area; the dogs forgetting their meat and leaving off their fighting, ran all upon the bear, ready to pray upon them singly, and at last killed him. This diversion the Emperor gave his Bashaws, and left them to make the application.

A certain prophecy of no small authority runs in the minds of all the people, and has gain’d great credit and belief among them, that their empire shall be ruin’d by a northern nation, which has white and yellowish hair. The interpretation is as various as their fancy. Some fix this character on the Moscovites; and the poor Greeks flatter themselves with foolish hopes, that they are to be their deliverers, and to rescue them from their slavery, chiefly because they are of their communion, and owe their conversion to the Christian faith, to the piety and zeal of the Grecian Bishops formerly. Others look upon the Sweeds as the persons described in the prophecy, whom they are most to fear. The ground and original of this fancy, I suppose, is owing to the great opinion which they have of the valour and courage of that warlike nation. The great victories of the Sweeds in Germany, under Gustavus Adolphus, were loudly proclaim’d at Constantinople, as if there were no withstanding the shock and fury of their arms; and their continued successes confirmed the Turks in their first belief, and their fears and jealousies were augmented afterwards, when Charles Gustave, a Prince of as heroic a courage, and as great abilities in the art and management of war, as the justly admired Gustavus, entered Poland with his army, and carry’d all before him, seized upon Warsaw, and drove Casimire out of his kingdom, and had almost made an entire and absolute conquest, only a few places holding out. This alarmed the Grand Signior and the Bashaws of the Porte, as if the prophecy were then about to be fulfilled, who did not care for the company of such troublesome neighbours, who might push on their victories, and joining with the Cossacks, advance their arms farther, and make their country the seat of war, which might draw after it fatal consequences. To prevent which couriers are dispatched from Constantinople to Ragotzki, Prince of Transilvania, then in concert with the Sweeds, to command him to retire with his army out of Poland, as he valued the peace and safety of his own country, and the friendship of the Grand Signior, whose tributary he was, and by whose favour he had gained that principality; and the Crim-Tartars, the sworn enemies of the Poles, who at that time lay heavy upon them, were wrought upon by the same motives and reasons of state, to clap up a peace with them, that being freed from these distractions, they might unite their forces the better together, and make head against the Sweeds.

The Embassadors of Christian Princes, when they are admitted by the Grand Signior to an audience, their presents being then of course made, which are look’d upon as due, not to say as an homage, are dismist in few words, and referred by him to his Wakil or deputy, as he usually stiles the chief Vizier, and a small number of their retinue only permitted the honour of kissing his vest, and then rudely enough sent away.

The Grand Signiors keep up the state of the old Asiatic Princes; they do not expose themselves often to the view of the people, unless when they ride in triumph, or upon some such solemn occasion; when they go to the Mosques, or divert themselves in the fields, either in riding or hunting, they do not love to be stared upon or approached. It is highly criminal to pry into the sports, such an insolent curiosity being often punished with death. The story is famous of Morad the third, who baiting a bear in the old palace with a mastiff, and espying three fellows upon the tower of Bajazid’s Mosque, who had planted themselves to see the sport, commanded their heads to be struck off immediately and be brought before him, which was done accordingly. Instances of such capricios are frequent in the Turkish history; this following happen’d during my stay at Constantinople.

Upon the return of Vizier Achmet from Candia, after the surrender of that city, and a happy end put by him to that tedious and bloody war, he acquainting the present Emperor, then at Adrianople, with the history of that famous siege at large, made such terrible representations of their and the Venetians mining and countermining one another, that the Emperor was resolved out of curiosity to see the experiment made of a thing that seemed to him almost incredible. A work was soon raised and undermined, and above thirty murderers and robbers upon the highway, and such like villains were put into it, as it were to defend it. The Grand Signior stood upon an eminence at some considerable distance, expecting the issue of it: upon a signal given, the mine was sprung, and the fort demolish’d, and the poor wretches torn peacemeal, to his great satisfaction and amazement.

The moon is the auspicious planet of the Turks; according to the course of which they celebrate their festivals. They begin their months from the first appearance of it, at which time they chuse, except a delay brings a great prejudice and inconvenience with it, to begin their great actions. The crescent is the ensign of the empire, which they paint in their banners, and place upon the spires of their Mosques. Next to the day of the appearing moon, they pitch upon Friday, to fight upon, to begin a journey, and especially their pilgrimage towards Mecca, or do any thing of great consequence, as very lucky and fortunate.

An account of the latitude of Constantinople and Rhodes; written by the learned Mr John Greaves, sometime professor of astronomy in the university of Oxford, and directed to the most reverend James Usher, Archbishop of Ardmagh.

Upon intimation of your Grace’s desires, and upon importunity of some learned men, having finished a table as a key to your Grace’s exquisite disquisition, touching Asia, properly so called; I thought myself obliged to give both you and them a reason, why in the situation of Byzantium, and the island Rhodus, (which two eminent places I have made the παραπήγματα, and bounds of the chart) I dissent from the traditions of the ancients, and from the tables of our late and best Geographers, and consequently dissenting in these, have been necessitated to alter the latitudes, if not longitudes, of most of the remarkable cities of this discourse. And first for Byzantium, the received latitude of it by Appianus, Mercator, Ortelius, Maginnus, and some others, is forty three degrees and five minutes. And this also we find in the Basil edition of Ptolomy’s Geography, procured by Erasmus out of a Greek MS. of Pettichius. The same likewise is confirmed by another choice MS. in Greek, of the most learned and judicious Mr Selden, to whom for this favour and several others, I stand obliged. And as much is expressed in the late edition of Ptolomey by Bertius, compared and corrected by Sylburgius, with a MS. out of the Palatine library. Wherefore it cannot be doubted, having such a cloud of witnesses, but that Ptolomy assigned to Byzantium as our best modern Geographers have done, the latitude of 43° 5′. And this will farther appear, not only out of geography, where it is often expressed, but also out of his μεγάλη σύνταξις, or Almagest, as the Arabians term it, where, describing the parallel passing διὰ Βυζαντίου, he assigns to it 43° 5′. What was the opinion concerning Byzantium of Strabo preceding Ptolomy, or of Hipparchus preceding Strabo, or of Eratosthenes more ancient, and it may be accurater than all of them, (for Strabo (lib. 2.) calls him τελευταῖον πραγματευσάμενον περὶ τῆς γεωγραφίας) though Tully (lib. Ep. ad Att.) makes Hipparchus often reprehend Eratosthenes, as Ptolomy after him doth Marinus, their writings not being now extant, (unless those of Strabo) cannot be determined by us. But as for Strabo, in our enquiry, we can expect little satisfaction; for his description of places, having more of the Historian and Philosopher, (both which he hath performed with singular gravity and judgment) than the exactness of a Mathematician, who strictly respects the position of places, without inquisition after their nature, qualities, and inhabitants, (though the best geography would be a mixture of them all, as Abulfeda, an Arabian Prince in his Rectification of Countries, above three hundred years since hath done;) I say for these reasons, we can expect little satisfaction from Strabo, and less may we hope for from Dionysius Afer, Arrianus, Stephanus Byzantinus, and others. Having next therefore recourse to the Arabians, who in geography deserve the second place after the Grecians, I find in Nassir Eddin the latitude of Byzantium, which he terms Buzantiya, and Constantiniya, to be 45 degrees, and in Ulug Beg’s Astronomical Tables the same to be expressed. Abulfeda chiefly follows four principal authors as his guides, in the compiling of his Geographical Tables, those are Alfaras, Albiruny, Hon Saiid Almagraby, lastly, Ptolomy, whose geography he terms a Description of the Quadrant, (or the fourth part of the earth) inhabited; and all these, according to his assertion, place Byzantium in 45 degrees of latitude. And here it may justly be wonder’d how this difference should arise between the Greek copies of Ptolomy, and those translated into Arabic by the command of Almamon, the learned Calife of Babylon; for Abulfeda expressly relates, that Ptolomy was first interpreted in his time, that is, in the computation of Almecinus, in Erpenius’s edition, and of Emir Cond, a Persian Historiographer, more than 800 years since; concerning which, Abulfeda writes thus, This book (discoursing of Ptolomy’s Geography) was translated out of the Grecian language into the Arabic for Almamon: And, in this I find, (by three fair MSS. of Abulfeda) Byzantium to be constantly placed in 45°, and as constantly in the Greek copies in 43° 5′. But in the πρόχειροι κανόνες of Chrysococca, out of the Persian tables, (made about the year 1346, in Scaliger’s calculation) it is placed in 45°. To reconcile the difference between the Greeks and Arabians, may seem impossible, for the common refuge of flying to the corruption of numbers by transcribers, and laying the fault on them, which sometimes is the author’s, will not help us in this particular; seeing the Greek copies agree amongst themselves, and the Arabic amongst themselves.

The best way to end the dispute, will be, to give credit concerning the latitude of Byzantium, neither to the Greeks nor Arabians. And that I have reason for this assertion, appears by several observations of mine at Constantinople, with a brass sextant of above four foot radius. Where, taking in the summer solstice, the Meridian altitude of the Sun, without using any προσθαφαίρεσις, for the parallax and refraction, (which at that time was not necessary) I found the latitude to be 41° 6′. And in this latitude in the chart, I have placed Byzantium, and not in that, either of the Greeks or Arabians. From which observation, being of singular use in the rectification of geography, it will follow by way of corallary, that all maps for the north-east of Europe, and of Asia, adjoining upon the Bosphorus, Thracius, the Pontus Euxinus, and much farther, are to be corrected, and consequently the situation of most cities in Asia, properly so called, are to be brought more southerly than those of Ptolomy, by almost two entire degrees, and than those of the Arabians, by almost four.

Concerning Rhodes, it may be presumed, that having been the mother and nurse of so many eminent Mathematicians, and having long flourished in navigation, by the direction of these, and by the vicinity of the Phœnicians, they could not be ignorant of the precise latitude of their country, and that from them Ptolomy might receive a true information. Though it cannot be denied, but that Ptolomy, in places remoter from Alexandria, hath much erred. I shall only instance in our own country, where he situates λονδίνιον, that is London, in 54° of latitude, and the περὶ μέσον, or the middle of the Isle of Wight (which in the printed copies is falsly termed οὐίκτησις, but in the MSS. rightly οὐῆκτις) in 52° and 20′ of latitude. Whereas London is certainly known to have for the altitude of the pole, or latitude of the place, only 51° and 32′; and the middle of the Isle of Wight not to exceed 50°, and some minutes.

But in my judgment Ptolomy is very excusable in these and the like errors, of several other places far distant from Alexandria, seeing he must for their position, necessarily have depended either upon relations of travellers, or observations of Mariners, or upon the longitude of the day, measured in those times by Clepsydræ; all which how uncertain they are, and subject unto error, if some celestial observations be not joined with them, and those exactly taken with large instruments, (in which kind the ancients have not many, and our times (excepting Tycho Brayhe, and some of the Arabians) but a few) I say no man, that hath conversed with modern travellers and navigators, can be ignorant. Wherefore to excuse these errors of his (or rather of others fathered by him) with a greater absurdity, by asserting the poles of the world since his time, to have changed their site, and consequently all countries their latitudes, as Mariana, the master of Copernicus, and others after him have imagined; or else to charge Ptolomy, being so excellent an artist, with ignorance, and that even of his own country, as Cluverius hath done, from which my observations at Alexandria and Memphis may vindicate him; the former were too great a stupidity, and the latter too great a presumption. But to return to Rhodes, an island in Eustathius’s Comment upon Dyonisius’s περιήγησις of 920 furlongs circuit, where according to Ptolomy, the parallel passing διὰ ῥόδου, hath 36° of latitude, and so hath Lindus, and Ἰηλυσσός the chief cities of the island; the same is confirmed by the MS. but where the printed copy and Eustathius read Ἰηλυσσὸς, which Mercator renders Talyssus, the MS. renders Ιλισὸς. Abulfeda in some copies, situates the island Rhodes, (for he mentions no cities there) in the latitude of 37° and 40′: And the geography of Said Ibn Aly Algiorgany, commended by Gilbyrtus Gaulmyn, in 37°, if it be not by a transposition in the MS of the numerical letters in Arabic, 37 for 36, which, by reason of their similitude, are often confounded in Arabic MSS. By my observations under the walls of the city Rhodes, with a fair brass Astrolabe of Gemma Frisius, containing 14 inches in the diameter, I found the latitude to be 37° and 50′. A larger instrument I durst not adventure to carry on shore in a place of so much jealousy. And this latitude in the chart, I have assigned to the city Rhodes, from the island so denominated, upon which, on the north-east side, it stands situated, better agreeing with the Arabians than with Ptolomy, whom I know not how to excuse.

CHAP. VI.

Some Observations made in a voyage to Egypt. By M. Belon.

In our sailing between Rhodes and Alexandria, a sort of Falcon came and sate two hours upon our sails. Abundance of Quails flying from the north, southwards, fell into our ship. We observ’d in our sailing many Pelicans, and some unknown birds.

At Alexandria, I observ’d them to burn the Kali for fuel, wood being scarce; they calcine lime with the ashes, then call it Soda, and sell it to the Venetians, who melt it with a particular stone brought from Pavia, by the river Tesino, and so make their famous chrystal glass at Muran; but the French find the sand brought from Estampes to serve as well as the Pavian stone. From this place they send their commodities and merchandize into all parts of the world.

In my passage to and from Grand Cairo, and during my abode there, I observed besides other things, the animals and Plants.

As the Garaffa, or Camelopardalus; the Bubalus of Afric, different from the Buffalo; flocks of the Oryx, and of Gazells which they shoot; the Axis, a most beautiful creature (by the description it may be the Zebra, or Zembra of Afric) great varieties of Monkeys at Cairo; the Hippopotamus about the lakes and rivers; Goats with very long ears hanging down almost to the ground; Sheep with great tails, and vast laps under their chin; the Ichneumon tame in their houses like cats; this animal destroys Rats and Mice like Weasils, hunts Serpents which the people eat, destroys Camelions and other Lizards, it creeps and darts upon it’s prey; ’tis bigger and much stronger than a Cat. I observ’d at Cairo, many Civet-Cats.

Two kinds of Camelions frequently sitting on the Rhamnus, catching of insects with their tongues as they fly by; Crocodiles common in the lakes and rivers; the little Lacerta Chalcidica, hunts insects under the walls; the Stellio or swift Lizard, is common about the Pyramids, and the other Sepulchres, where it runs after Flies; the excrement of this animal is sold up and down for an excellent Cosmetic: I saw also the Serpent call’d Cerastes. The great Bats abound in the caves.

Amongst the Birds, the Ostrich, whose skins and feathers are in use amongst the Turks, the Pelican, with whose bills and bags, the watermen of the Nile throw the water out of their boots; the Vulp-Anser is common in the watery places. I observed also the Crex and the Ibis. The inhabitants never hatch their eggs under hens, but all in ovens or furnaces.

The common trees are the Tamarisk, loaded with galls, or animal excrescencies; the Date-Palm; the Acacia, or Gum-Arabic-tree; the Cassia Solutiva; the Tamarind; the true Sycamore, or Pharaoh’s Fig-tree; the Musa Arbor, or the Plantane; the Siliqua, or Carob; yellow Jessamine, and yellow Roses; Syringa; Alcanna, a sort of Ligustrum, Cotton-trees, &c.

The most remarkable Herbs I took notice of, were the Papyrus Nilotica (a sort of Cyperus out of whose threads, or filaments, the ancients made their paper.) The Colocasia, or great Egyptian Arum, whose root they boil with most of their meats: The Sugar-cane, or Reed, by the fuel whereof they melt their Metals, wood being scarce in Egypt; Hyoscyamus niger, out of whose root they prepare an oil for their lamps and other uses: A milky Convolvulus on the walls (perhaps an Apocynum being podded;) several Phaseoli or Kidney-beans; Gourds, Pumpions, Thorn-apples, Coloquintida; many Ocimums or wild Basils; the Harmala, common about Alexandria (a sort of Rue, with great white flowers) the Abrus, two Senna’s, Bammia, Melochia, Stratiotes, &c.

The Eagle-stone is found up and down Egypt in very great plenty.