Volume 2 — VOL. II.

CHAP. I.

Mr Belon’s remarks in the island of Crete or Candy.

The roots of mount Ida, call’d now by the natives Psiloriti, extend to both the shores of the island; when I was at the top, I not only saw under me all Candy, but some adjacent islands, as Milo, Cerigo, &c. The snow lies all the year long on this hill, whilst the plains underneath are extreamly scorch’d, and burnt up; it is so cold, that the shepherds cannot inhabit it in the summer-time, but are forced every night to descend, and leave their flocks of goats and sheep feeding. This mountain on one side, abounds with pleasant springs, woods, many sorts of trees, shrubs, and herbs, as Maples, Ilices or Holm-oaks, Arbutus and Adrachne, Alaterni, Cisti Labdaniferi, Firrs, Cypress, Chamælea, Thymelea, Oxycedrus, Nerion or Oleander with a white flower, Olive-trees, Vines, many Legumes and Pulse.

Near round this famous mountain Ida are found Salvia Pomifera, which is carry’d to all the markets, Caper-shrubs, Mandragora Mas & fœmina, two kinds of Pæony with a white flower, Tragium seu Androsæmum fœtidum, Leontepetalum, Melilotus vera Odorata, Trifolium Mœnianthe (perhaps our Palustre) Heliocryson, which grows so thick as to cover and shelter the hares; Stæchas Citrina, two kinds of Tragacanth, which yield no gum in this island; Staphis agria, common up and down; Coris, a sort of Hypericum, with leaves like Heath or Tamarisks, grows plentifully, the root hath an unpleasant taste, and vomited me. The Anagyris stinks so upon the roads, that it causes the head-ach, and scarce any animal will touch it. Tithymalus Dendroides, Thapsia, Ferula, Libanotis, and Seseli abound. Agriomelea frutex, a sort of Sorbus or Cotonaster; a fourth species of Aristolochia different from those three describ’d by the ancients; it scandent like a Smilax. The Coccus Baphica or Kermes is found plentifully here upon an Ilex, the shepherds and boys gather it in June, separate the red animalcules from the vesicle or excrescence by sieves, and form them into balls very gently for sale, for if they are squeezed or press’d, they dissolve, and the colour perishes. The Dictamnus grows only between the fissures of the rocks, but the Pseudo dictamus in other places. Lotus Arbor, Zizyphus or Jujube, Scolymnus Chrisanthemos, call’d commonly Ascolimbros, whose milky root and young leaves make a common dish, Tithymalus Myrsinites and Paralius in the mountainous and maritime places, as also a Gnaphalium candicans littoream, and a wild Brassica, Chamæsyce and Soldanella, a Dracunculus with an Ivy-leaf; the Halimus makes their common hedges up and down the island, the tops are edulous; Agnus Castus, Sedum fruticescens, Thymum legitimum, which last serves them for common fuel; the Thymbra or Satureia vulgaris, all loaded with Epithymum or Didder; the Tribulus Terrestris is very noxious to their fields, and Pulse; Scammonea or Schammony in hilly places, Sesamum and Xylon, or Cotton, are sown in April; Pitch is boyl’d out of the Pines on the mountains. There is none of our Asparagus, but instead of it two prickly kinds, call’d Corruda and Politricha. Ten varieties of wild Anemone’s. There is a sort of Artichoak, call’d by the shepherds Agriocinara, whose turbinated root is sold by many Druggists for the Costus Indicus, the tops are eaten, the flower is white, sometimes purple. There is a sort of Carline thistle, call’d Chamœlion Albus, whose odorate root sweats out a Gum which the women in Candy chew, as they in Scio do Mastich, or they in Lemnos the Gum of a Condrilla. Two sorts of Acanthus, one soft, the other prickly. The inhabitants have not left off the old manner of preserving the tops of an Anonis, as also the tender shoots of an Eryngium. The island affords three kinds of Origanum, a sort of Squill or Sea-onion, Orobus, Securidaca, and many other legumes. It abounds with Terebinths and Mastich-trees, Laurels, Styrax, and arborescent Ricinus, or Palma-Christi; Aspalathus, and a Genisto spartium call’d Echinopoda.

The Ibex, or Steinbock, a swift nimble animal, whose horns are heavy and long for the bulk of the creature, frequents the rocky mountains; there is also the Strepsiceros, a sort of Gazella.

The bird call’d Merops and Apiastrum, or Beeater, a sort of Woodpecker, is common in the island, catches Bees, and feeds on them in the air. The Attagen and Francolino, as also a white large Partridge, frequent the mountains; Eagles, Vultures, and Falcons build on the rocks.

The fish call’d Scarus, which I never observed in the Euxine, Propontis, or any other part of the Mediterranean-sea, is common on the coasts of Candy, and is generally taken at the same season that the inhabitants rake and gather their sweet Labdanum, or Ladanum; the only bait for this fish is made of the leaves of a Phaseolus, which they swallow very greedily.

I observed only three kinds of Serpents in this island, the first is call’d by the country people Ophis; the second Ochendra; the third Tephloti; but none of these is venemous; I saw one bite and draw blood, but without any harm. Hence the ancients might say, that Crete nourish’d no poisonous animal.

The Phalangium is common up and down; it weaves webbs like other Spiders, to catch it’s prey, as Butterflies and Flies, and other insects. It lays about sixty eggs, carries and hatches them under it’s belly; it fights much with the Ichneumon Wasp.

The stone call’d Dactylus Idæus, or Belemnites, erroneously taken and sold for the Lapis Lyncis, is plentiful on mount Ida.

The Vinum malvaticum, or Pramnium, as also the Moschatell, are made here, and transported up and down.

For a full catalogue of such vegetables as grow in the island of Candy, together with their synonymous names and places, the reader may be pleased to consult Mr Ray’s Collection of Exotic Catalogues, publish’d this year at London, and annex’d to the end of this Second Volume, amongst which the Cretic plants are all drawn together out of Bellonius, Honorio Belli, Alpinus, Pona, &c.

CHAP. II.

A Description of mount Athos, commonly call’d Monte Santo, by Mr Belon.

This famous mountain so celebrated by the ancients, stands in a peninsula or promontory of Macedonia, stretching out into the Ægæan-sea; it’s shadow reaches to Lemnos or Stalamine; it is inhabited only by monks, call’d Caloyers, who never marry, tho’ other priests of the Greek church do. These Caloyers abstain from all flesh, and even from sanguineous fishes in Lent-time; they live very hardly and severely; their ordinary dish is pickled Olives, not green like ours, but black and ripe, dry’d without pickle. There are about six thousand of these Monastics, that inhabit several places of this mountain, on which are seated twenty four large old monastries, encompassed with high and strong walls, for defence against pyrates and other robbers, tho’ they who spare nobody are kind and indulgent to the Caloyers.

In these monastries the ceremonies of the Greek church are most diligently and strictly observed, and these Caloyers or monks are the most reverenced of any belonging to that communion; the Turks themselves will often send them alms, being taken with the sanctity of their lives; and the monks who inhabit mount Sinai, mount Libanos, the desarts of St Anthony, Jerusalem, and other holy places, are always the more valued and respected, if they have lived before on mount Athos, which is in as great esteem and veneration amongst the Greeks as Rome among the Latins. This place is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, who pays about twelve thousand ducats per Anum to the Grand Signior, upon the account of the Europæan Greek church. The Patriarchs of Alexandria, Damascus, Antioch, &c. give also their particular sums to the Turk, who gives liberty of religion to all that pay tribute.

Of these six thousand religious, or Caloyers of mount Athos, none lead idle lives, as most of the monks in other places do, but every one hath his daily employment; some labour with the ax, spade, and sickle, dress their vineyards, cut trees, build fishing-vessels; others carry sacks full of provision, bread, and onions; some spin and weave, their distaff being made of the Arundo Donax, and their spindle of the herb call’d Attractilis; some are Taylors, Bricklayers, and Carpenters; they are generally cloath’d like hermits.

This mountain is about three days journey long, and may be seen about thirty leagues off at sea; the monastries are at some distance; they give such provisions as they have gratis to all travellers whatsoever, as pickled or dry’d olives, raw onions, salted beans, bisket, salted fish, sometimes fresh, for they often go a fishing, their vessels or boats being cut without great difficulty out of the thick trunks of Plane-trees; their nets, for want of Cork, are supported with Gourds, as they are in the Propontis with the bark of Pines. The chief monastry is call’d Ageas Laura, and fronts the isle of Lemnos, it contains about three hundred Caloyers or Greek monks; those that look towards the continent of Macedonia, have all their peculiar names, and contain some two hundred, others one hundred and fifty Caloyers. Formerly there were good Greek manuscripts in these monastries, but now none at all, unless of Theology; no Poets, no Historians, no Philosophers, not one of the monks learned, of six thousand scarce above two or three know how to write or read, so degenerated and depress’d is the Greek nation at present; they use wax candles and lamps in their churches, as also statues, pictures and bells; they have no poultry, pigeons, or any other birds; nor sheep nor cows, nor goats; because they abstain from all flesh; they hunt no game, tho’ there is great variety and plenty, only fish near the shore. I observed abundance of those birds, call’d Molliceps, a sort of Chaffinch, as also of the Torquilla, or Wrynecks. No people have the privilege of living on this mountain but these Caloyers.

Mount Athos abounds with many rare plants, but because many of them are already mentioned to grow near mound Ida in Candia; I shall industriously omit to name such of them in this place. I observed here the Apion (a sort of knobbed Spurge) which the Caloyers themselves know to be purgative. Hippoglossum or Horse-tongue, Veratrum nigrum, or black Hellebore, common in the valleys; Beach, Hornbean, Service, Oleaster, Myrtles, Oleander with a red flower, several Bindweeds running up to the high tops of the Plane-trees, which here vie in height with the Cedars of Libanus, or the Firs of Olympus.

There is a sort of Cantharides on this hill call’d Buprestis, of a yellowish colour, very fœtid, feeding on brambles, succory, nettle, conyza, and other herbs; if any beast swallow this insect, they swell and die. There is a sort of Cray-fish in the fresh rivulets, which the Caloyers eat raw, and I myself found the taste of them very sweet and pleasant; they do not crawl up from the sea, but breed in the streams above. There is a plant in the valleys call’d Elegia, perhaps a species of Arundo, whose branches serve instead of writing-pens, for neither the Turks nor Greeks know the use of quills.

The Caloyers brought us several things to eat, as rocket, roots of smallage, the bulbs of leeks, cucumbers, onions, garlic, which we eat without either oyl or vinegar; black olives, course bisket and wine; they also regaeld us with salted and dry’d fish, Sepia’s, Polypi, and Loligines, Crabbs, and other crustaceous and testaceous animals. These monks had rather die than eat flesh upon any occasion.

We ascended to the very top of mount Athos, where we could not long endure the cold; we saw from thence many adjacent provinces and islands, as Cassandria, Scyton, Lemnos, Thasson, Samothracen, Imbron, &c. In our descent we observed Firrs, and Pitch-trees, which differ’d a little from those of mount Ida, for in these the cones adher’d so close to the branches, they would not separate; besides, these were very smooth, whereas the others were scabrous.

There being no haven under this mountain, the Caloyers are forced to draw their fishing-vessels ashore, and place them behind iron gates, lest the pyrates should set fire to them. They exchange their grapes, olives, figgs, onions, garlic, beans, and legumes with the mariners, who bring them some wheat; they have mills on the streams of the hill. They press an oil out of their Bay-berries, which they send into Wallachia, Bulgaria, and Servia, where it is sold. They take abundance of the long Oyster or Langouste.

The multitude of springs and streams, the variety of herbage and ever-greens, the woods and pleasant shoar, do all render mount Athos one of the most charming places in the world.

CHAP. III.

An account of a journey by land from mount Athos, to Constantinople; wherein the gold and silver mines of Macedonia, together with many antiquities and natural rarieties are described.

Leaving mount Athos, we travelled in two days to Saloniki, formerly called Thessalonica, and in two days more we reached Siderocapsa, the Chrysites of the ancients, where now the Turks, and many other nations work the rich ores, which afford yearly a very considerable treasure, and make the place much frequented and resorted to. ’Tis situated amongst the valleys, at the foot of high mountains, and yields monthly to the Grand Signior, for his share only, above 18000 gold ducats, and sometimes 30000 clear of all disbursements. There are about five or six hundred furnaces dispers’d up and down these mountains, which abound with great varieties of Pyrites, Marchasites, and other ores, which they work in a different manner from the Germans and Spaniards: Their furnaces and work-houses are all placed on the sides of rivulets, for all their bellows play with wheels turn’d by streams of water. The white foot of the chimneys is called Spodus and Pompholix, as it differs in colour, of which above ten pounds may be gathered every week. They separate the lead from the gold and silver by particular fusions, then the silver from the gold by Aqua fortis: Out of the gold, they coin their ducats, which are very flexible, and esteem’d the purest gold in the world, always clean and resplendent.

From these metallic mountains we saw mount Athos, and great part of Macedonia, which appear’d hilly. I observed here two serpents never seen before by me; the Greeks called them Sapidi or Sapiti, which comes near to Seps, or Sips. The inhabitants of Syderocapsa gather abundance of the Rhus or Sumach, which they use in preparing their skins, and tanning their leather, which the Ægyptians do with the pods of their Acacia, the Natolians with the cups of the acorns of a dwarf Oak called Esculus, the Illyrians with a black Myrtle (perhaps the Rhus Myrtifolia), the French with Oak bark, the Lesbians and Phrygians with the bark of the Picea.

The workmen use several machines in working and drawing up the ores, according as the veins lie: These works employ above 6000 men.

In a lake near Syderocapsa, I took notice of several fishes, as one called Laros by the natives (because the Gulls feed much upon it) by the Latins Gania, by the French, Mouatte, by those of Diepe and Newport, Marue. Another called Claria, by those of Lyons, Lotte; by the Parisans, Barbotte. Also the Liparis, the Perch, young Mullets, &c.

In the adjacent country, there are fallow Deer, Buffalo’s, wild Boar, Goats, red Deer, and our roe Deer, Porcupines, Urchins, Wolfs, Foxes, Hares; the Chamois, or Rupicapra; the Tragelaphus different from the Hippelaphus.

Leaving Syderocapsa, we spent two days in getting to Cavalla, anciently called Boucephala, whereas we might have gone by sea in half a day: In this journey we saw the river Strymon, and on it Swans, and other birds like Pelicans: At the mouth of this river, are seen the remains of a place called by the natives Chrysopolis, tho’ Pliny puts it not far from Chalcedon. We saw Ceres the Cranon of the antients; afterwards Tricala, and so by the side of the mountain Despota, thro’ a great plain to Philippi, near which are many villages and several mines. We observed hereabouts Misseltoe on the Oak, as also in many other places of Macedonia, where they make birdlime. The ground is very much over-run with the Paliurus and Rhamnus.

The ruins of Philippi, are about two days journey from Trica or Tricala, and Philippi scarce three more from Philippolis. These were great roads in the time of the Roman empire, now heaps of rubbish, and sepulchres of marble with inscriptions. The isle of Tasso is but six hours distant, and from thence this great quantity of white marble might have easily been fetch’d. The magnificence of Philippi may be guess’d at from the number of these noble monuments and inscriptions, from the fair amphitheatre still entire with it’s marble seats; ’Tis not oval, as those at Otricoli and Rome, but spherical, as those at Verona and Nismes: There are also Doric and Ionic pillars, with many statues belonging to the temple of Divus Claudius. At Cavalla, or Boucephala, there are still great cisterns of hardened Cement (as at Baiæ) and Aquæducts.

Departing from Cavalla, we pass’d by mount Hæmus, over the river Nesus, and came to Bouron on the salt lake of Bisto, near a moist plain, full of Cytisus, Halimus, &c. as about Philippi. Here are taken great quantity of Dace, or Dare, which they pickle as we do Herrings, as also smoak and dry them. The fishing on this lake is very considerable, for from hence they supply many distant places. About six hours from Bouron, we came to Commercina, where they sell great variety of provisions; from thence we went to Cypsella, where they make Alum by gently calcining the stone, and letting it dissolve afterwards in the air by the dews and rains, and then boiling and crystallizing the impregnated water. In this journey we saw many old Roman highways pav’d with great stones. We passed the Marisca, of old Hebrus, in a ferry, and came to Vire; here they wash some gold out of the sand, but are often forced to use Quicksilver in the separation. The water of Hebrus is very cold in the middle of summer, and the banks are set with Tamarisks; King’s-fishers build they nests in holes on the sides, they make them of the bones and scales of little fishes. The natives hereabout often leave their habitations to work in harvest time: Their sickles differ from ours, and their corn is not thresh’d but trodden with cattle. In this journey we found great variety and plenty of Jaspars and Chalcedony.

The Thracians and Macedonians gather all the galls or excrescences on the Turpentine-trees, which they sell at Prusa, for the dying of silks. This country abounds much with Tortoises, for the Greeks never eat nor destroy them, unless they catch them in their gardens or plantations of Cotton and Sesamum.

We left the road of Gallipoli on the right, and came to Rodesto, the old Perinthus, from thence we left Heraclea on the left, and past Selibria, a days journey distant from Constantinople. The honey of Heraclea is said to be pernicious, perhaps because the country abounds with the Chamæleon niger (a sort of Carlina) to whose root adheres a very venomous excrescence called Ixia, which may affect the Bees that feed on that plant.

I found hereabouts a milky plant (perhaps an Apocynum) with the leaves and flower of a Nerion, or the purple Lysimachia.

Thrace is an open country without trees, like Picardy; the great plains are divided here and there with ridges and little hills: About three miles before we came to Constantinople, we pass’d two long wooden bridges that run over the salt marshes, upon which are many boats and mills, with eight wings or arms: On these lakes there is a great fishery, as also on the Propontis, for the Oriental People (as other nations of old) are more delighted with the fish diet than with that of quadrupeds or birds. This may be one reason why the books of the ancients treat more of fish than of fowl, or any other animals.

CHAP. IV.

The ways of fishing on the Propontis, the Bosphorus, and Hellespont; as also of the fishes taken. By M. Belon.

These seas abound extremely with fish that pass between the Euxine and Mediterranean, into which abundance of great fresh rivers empty themselves. The streights and shoars are full of little wood cottages (wherein the Fishermen watch and observe the several shoals) and great variety of nets, both loose and fastened to poles, of several figures, for the taking both of great and small frys: There is also the hook and bait-fishing up and down with long lines; the train and hand-nets, &c.

Besides all these ways, they practise another manner of fishing by lighted torches in dark calm nights, whereby they find the great fishes asleep, and strike them very silently with sharp tridents and hooked engines: This they find the most convenient for taking the greater sorts of fish, which often break their nets and lines.

The common fishes of these Streights are, the Tunny, and the Pelamis, Mackrel, Scads, Giltheads, Mullets, Gurnards, Sheath-fish, Sword-fish, the Dolphin, different from our Porpess, the Wolf-fish, Lampreys, the Muræna, Sphyrena, Melanurus, Salpa, Sargus, Mena, Atherina, Exocætus which serve for baits to catch Congers, Celerinus, Sardina, Polypus, Loligo, Erythrinus, &c.

The Garus, so common in the shops of Constantinople, is prepared here only out of the sanies, or, ichor of the salted intestines of the Mackrel and Scads. The red Cavear is not made of the eggs or roe of the Sturgeon, but out of the Cyprinus. (Q. Whether the author means the Bream or Carp.)

CHAP. V.

Of some Beasts and mechanic trades at Constantinople.

Near the Hippodromus at Constantinople, I observed some rare animals, which the Turkish Emperors are much delighted with, as the Onager, the Hystrix, the Lupus Cervarius, the Lynx, the Ponticus Mus, or Ermine, many rare Weasils and odd Cats.

The Turks not using the Printing Trade, they levigate and polish their writing paper in box frames, by rubbing it with the Chalcedony and Jaspar-stones, put at the end of sticks. They damask their cymeters with a blewish colour, by macerating Sal Armoniac and Verdigrease in vinegar, and steeping the blades in this mixture, often pouring fresh upon them, this acts upon the steel, and renders it of that colour upon polishing. They granulate leather for scabbards. In the Cutlers shops one sees great variety of Horns, Teeth, &c. as of Bufalo’s, Gazels, Morse-teeth, and other Tusks. They colour their linnen with great variety, and with many figures, which they cut in wood and there paint, afterwards stamp and press it upon the linnen, or silk, as in printing upon paper, they first polish their linnen or cottons with pastes of fine flower. The inhabitants on these Streights, gather abundance of a broad leaved Alga, which they mix with a fat earth, and so cover their houses with it: The current running so strong, casts out great variety of marine productions, as Alcyonium, or Arkeilli, Antipathos (a sort of Coralline.)

Mr Francis Vernon’s Letter, written to Mr Oldenburg, Jan. 10. 1675/6, giving a short account of some of his Observations in his travels from Venice through Istria, Dalmatia, Greece, and the Archipelago, to Smyrna, where this letter was written.

SIR,

I must beg your excuse for not having written to you in so long a space: The little rest I have had, and the great unsettledness of my condition is the reason. Neither have I now any great curiosities to impart to you; only some small circumstances of my journey I will run over.

From Venice I set out with those gallies which carried their Embassador that went for the Porte. We touch’d at most of the considerable towns of Istria and Dalmatia by the way. In Istria we saw Pola, an ancient Repuplic. There remains yet an amphitheatre entire; it is of two orders of Tuscan pillars, placed one over another, and the lower pillars stand on pedestals, which is not ordinary; for, commonly they have nothing but their bases to support them. There is, besides a temple dedicated to Rome and Augustus, a triumphal arch, built by a lady of the family of the Sergii, in honour of some of her kindred, which commanded in these countries; besides several inscriptions and ancient monuments, which are in divers parts of the town.

In Dalmatia I saw Zahara, which is now the metropolis of the country. It was anciently called Jadera. It is now very well fortified, being encompassed on three sides with the sea, and that part which is toward the land extremely advantaged by all the contrivances of art, having a castle and a rampart of very lofty bastions to guard it. I found here several ancient inscriptions, by me copied, which will not find room in the compass of a letter. We pass’d in sight of Zebenico, and saw three forts, which belong to the town, St Nicolo, St Gioanni, and la fortezza Vecchia; but we went not ashore. That which is most worth seeing in Dalmatia, is Spalatro, where is Dioclesian’s palace, a vast and stupendious fabric, in which he made his residence when he retreated from the empire; it is as big as the whole town, for the whole town indeed is patch’d up out of it’s ruins, and is said by some to take it’s name from it. The building is massive; there is within it an entire temple of Jupiter, eight square, with noble porphyry pillars, and cornish, worth any body’s admiration. There is a court before it, adorned with Ægyptian pillars of that stone called Pyropoicilos, and a temple under it, now dedicated to St Lucia; and up and down the town several fragments of antiquity, with inscriptions and other things worth taking notice of.

Four miles from Spalatro is Salona, which shews the ruins of a great town. About as much farther from Salona, stands Clissa, upon a rocky hill, an eminent fortress of the Venetians, which is here the frontier against the Turk, from whence they repulsed him in their late wars with great honour. I was at Lesina, where is nothing very remarkable; but Blondi, that hath written our English History, was of it. Trau is ancient, and hath good marks of it’s being so. Here I spoke with Dr Stasileo, who put out that fragment of Petronius Arbiter, and I saw his manuscript.

I was in the Harbour of Ragusi, but not in the town, because we made no stay there. From hence we pass’d the gulph of Budua, and saw the mountains of Antivari, the plain of Durazzo and Apollonia, and came to Sassino a small island, from whence we could see the town of Valona, and the mountains Acroceraunii, which are very near, and are now called mountains of Chimæra.

I staid a fortnight in Corfu, and had time to view all that was considerable in the island, particularly the gardens of Alcinous, that is, the place where they are supposed to have been, now called Chrysida, a most delicious situation: The ancient port, now called Νεκροθάλατσα and several foundations of ancient fabrics. In Zante I was likewise a fortnight, where I saw but little of Antiquity: What is modern is very flourishing, and the island rich and plentiful.

I went from Zante to Patras, a town in Achaja, of good note among the ancients. Near it is a great mountain, mentioned by Homer, by the name of Petra Olenia. In the town are several massive ruins, which few there know how to give any account of. There are the remains of a large church, dedicated to St Andrea, who, they say, was martyr’d there. This is the first town I saw on the continent of Greece. The plain about it is very fruitful, full of springs and rivulets; finely wooded with Olive-trees, Cypresses, Orange and Lemon-trees. The Citrons here are counted among the best of the Turkish empire, and are sent for presents to Constantinople. So are all their fruits in very good esteem.

In Athens I have spent two months. Next to Rome I judge it most worthy to be seen for antiquities of any I have yet been at. The temple of Minerva is as entire as the Rotunda. I was three times in it, and took all the dimentions with what exactness I could; but it is difficult, because the castle of Athens, in which it stands, is a garrison, and the Turks are jealous, and brutishly barbarous, if they take notice that any measures it. The length of the cella or body of the temple without side,

is 168 } Feet English.

The breadth 71 }

The portico of the Doric order, which runs round it, hath eight pillars in front, seventeen on the sides; the length of the portico is 230 feet English. I have taken all the dimensions within, with those of the προναὸς and porticos; but they are too long for a letter. The fuste or shaft of the pillars is 19½ feet in circumference: The intercolumnium 1¼ of the diameter of the pillars. These measures you may rely on as exact to half a foot.

The temple of Theseus is likewise entire, but it is much less, though built after the same model. The length of it’s cella is but 73 feet, the breadth 26. The whole length of the portico, which goes round it 123 feet. ’Tis a Doric building, as is that of Minerva. Both of them are of white marble.

About the cornish on the outside of the temple of Minerva is a basso relievo of men on horseback, others in chariots, and a whole procession of people going to a sacrifice, of very curious sculpture. On the front is the history of the birth of Minerva.

In the temple of Theseus, on the front within side the portico, at the west end, is the battel of the Centauri, and at the east end seems to be a continuation of that history: But there are several figures of women, which seem to be Pirithous’s bride, and those other ladies which were at the wedding. On the outside the portico, in the spaces between the Triglyphi, are several of the prowesses of Theseus, most in wrestling with several persons, in which he excelled: All his postures and looks are expressed with great art. Others are monsters, which he is made encountering with, as the bull of Marathon, the bear of Calydon, &c.

There is a temple of Hercules, a round fabric, only six feet diameter, but neat Architecture. The pillars are of the Corinthian order, which support an urchitrave and frise, wherein are done in relievo the labours of Hercules. The top is but one stone, wrought like a shield, with a flower on the outside, which riseth like a plume of feathers.

There is yet standing the tower of Andronicus Cirrhestes, which is an octogon, with the figures of eight winds, which are large, and of good workmanship; and the names of the winds remain legible in fair Greek characters, where a house, which is built against it on one side, does not hinder, as ἁπηλίωτης, ευρος, βορεας, σκιρων, ζεφυρος· Each wind placed against it’s quarter in the heavens: And the roof is made of little planks of marble, broad at bottom, and which meet all in a point at top, and make an obtuse parymid of 32 or 36 sides.

There is a delicate temple of the Conic order in the castle, whether of Pandrosus, or whom, I cannot tell, but the work was most fine, and all the ornaments most accurately engraven:

The length of this temple was 67 } feet.

The breadth 38 }

These pillars, which remain of a portico of the Emperor Adrian, are very stately and noble: They are of the Corinthian order, and above 52 feet in height, and 19½ in circumference: They are cannellate, and there are now standing seventeen of them, which part of their cornish on the top. The building to which they belonged, I measured the area of, as near as I could conjecture, and found it near a thousand feet in length, and about six hundred and eighty in breadth.

Without the town, the bridge over the Elissus hath three arches of solid stone work; the middlemost is near 20 feet broad. There is the stadium yet to be seen, whose length I measured, and found it 630 feet, near to what the precise measure of a stadium ought to be, viz. 625.

Towards the southern wall of the castle, there are the remains of the theatre of Bacchus, with the portico of Eumenes, which is near it; the semi-diameter, which is the right sine of the demi-circle which makes the theatre, is about 150 feet, the whole body of the scene 256. Monsieur de la Guilliotiere, in that book he hath written of Athens hath made a cut of a theatre, which he calls that of Bacchus, which is a meer fancy and invention of his own, nothing like the natural one, which by the plan he has drawn of the town, I judge he did not know. I give you this one hint, that you may not be deceived by that book, which is wide from truth, as will appear to any body who sees the reality, though to one who hath not seen it, it seems plausibly written. I have dwelt long on Athens, but yet have said nothing. This town alone deserves a whole book to discourse of it well, which now I have neither time nor room to do; but I have memorials by me of all I saw, which one day, if it please God, I may shew you.

Thebes is a large town, but I found few antiquities in it, excepting some inscriptions and fragments of the old wall, and one gate, which, they say, was left by Alexander, when he demolish’d the rest. It is about fifty miles distant from Athens, as I judge.

Corinth is two days journey distant; the castle, or Ἀκροκόρινθος, is standing, which is very large. The main of the town is demolished, and the houses, which now are scatter’d, and a great distance from one another. So is Argos, which to go round would be about four or five miles, as the houses now stand; but if they stood together, they would scarce exceed a good village. Napolo della Rumilia is a large town, and full of inhabitants, and the Bashaw of the Morea resides there: It is but very few leagues distant from Argos.

Sparta is quite forsaken, and Mestra is the town which is inhabited, four miles distant from it: But one sees great ruins thereabout; almost all the walls, several towers and foundations of temples with pillars and chapiters demolished: A theatre pretty entire. It might have been anciently nigh five miles in compass, and about a quarter of a mile distant from the river Eurotus. The plain of Sparta and of Laconia is very fruitful; and long, and well watered. It will be about eighty miles in length, as I judge. The mountains on the west side of it very high, the highest I have yet seen in Greece; the Maniotes inhabit them. But the plain of Calamatta, which anciently was that of Messene, seems rather richer. Corone is very abundant in Olives. Navarrino, which is esteemed the ancient Pylos, hath a very strong castle, fortified by the Turks, and is the best port in all the Morea. Alpheus is much the best river, and the deepest, and with great reason extolled by all the ancient Poets, and chosen for the seat of the Olympic games, for it is very pleasant. The plains of Elis are very fine and large, fit for to breathe horses in, and for hunting, but not so fruitful as that of Argos and Messene, which are all riches. The best woods I saw in Peloponnesus, are those of Achaia, abounding with Pines and wild Pear, the Ilex and Esculus-trees, and, where there runs water with Plane-trees.

Arcadia is a champain fine country, and full of cattle, but is all encompass’d with hills, which are very rough and unhewn. Lepanto is very pleasantly seated on the Gulph, which runs up as far as Corinth; and without the town, is one of the finest fountains I saw in Greece, very rich in veins of water, and shaded with huge Plane-trees, not inferior in any thing to the spring of Castalia on mount Parnassus, which runs through Delphos, except in this, that one was chosen by the Muses, and the other not; and poetical fancies have given immortality to the one, and never mentioned the other.

Delphos itself is very strangely situated on a rugged hill, to which you have an ascent of about two or three leagues, and yet that is not a quarter of the way to come up to the pique of Parnassus, on the side of which hill it stands: It seems very barren to the eye, but the fruits are very good, where there are any. The wines are excellent, and the plants and simples, which are found there, very fragrant, and of great efficacy.

About Lebadia, and all through Bæotia, the plains are very fertile, and make amends for the barrenness of the hills which encompass them: But in winter they are apt to be overflown for that reason, and to be turn’d into lakes, which renders the Bæotian air very thick, and so were their skulls too, if the ancients may be believed concerning them; though Pindar, who was one that sublimated poetry to it’s highest exaltation, and is much fancied and imitated in our age, as he was admired in his own, was born there: And Amphion, who was said to be so divine in his music, that he ravished the very stones, had skill enough to entice them to make up the walls of Thebes: So that not every thing that is born in a dull air is dull. These vales I found much planted with Cotton, Sesamum and Cummin, of which they make great profit, and a great trade at Thebes and Lebadia.

I went from Thebes into the island of Eubæa, or Negropont, and saw the Euripus, which ebbs and flows much after the nature of our tides, only the Moon, and sometimes Winds, make it irregular. The channel, which runs between the town and a castle which stands in an island over against it, is about fifty feet broad; and there are three mills on it, which shew all the changes and varieties that happen in the current. Near the Euripus, and opposite to the town, they shew a port, which they say was Aulis, and it is not improbable, for it must be thereabouts, Between Negropont and Athens, is a high hill, called Ἀγιομακοῦρι, formerly very dangerous, but now guarded by Albaneses. It is part of mount Parnasse, and near it, on the left hand, lies mount Pentelicus, from whence the Athenians anciently fetch’d their stone, and now there is a convent of Caloyers there, one of the richest of all Greece.

In going from Athens by sea, I embarked in a port, which lies just by Munichia. That which they call Porto Pyræo, lies behind it a mile distant, which is a large port able to contain 500 vessels. There are the ruins of the town yet remaining, and of the walls, which joined it to the city of Athens. I sailed by Porto Phalero the ancient haven of Athens, which is rather a road than a port. I saw an island called Φλέβες, where the Athenians had anciently mines. I went ashore on the promontory of Sunium, to view the remains of the temple of Minerva, which stood on it. Hence I sailed among the isles of the Archipelago, Macronesia, Thermea, Serphanto, Siphanto, till I came to Melo. From Melo I sailed through the Cyclades to come hither. I pass’d by Andros, Tenos, Mycone, Delos: Nuxia and Paros I saw at a distance. We sailed near the northern cape of Scio, and the southern of Myteline or Lesbos, and so came into the gulph of Smyrna. Within this gulph stands Burlæ, near some small islands, which is judged to be the ancient, Clazomenæ: Foja, which is same with the ancient Phocæa. Near this, the river Hermus discharges itself into this gulph.

In this my journey, I had some misadventures. My companion, Sir Giles Eastcourt, died by the way. At sea I was plunder’d by the Serphiotes, where I lost all my letters, and yours among the rest, which you sent to my Lord Embassador at Constantinople, and Consul Rycaut, whom I find here a very civil and knowing gentleman, and am much obliged to him for his favours.

I have been as curious as I could in taking the latitudes of some remarkable places: As I find them, I shall give them you.

Gr. M.

Athens 38 5

Corinth 38 14

Sparta 37 10

Corone 37 2

Patras 38 40

Delphos 38 50

Thebes 38 22

Negropont or Chalcis 38 31

I desire you to present my humble services to the gentlemen of the Royal Society.

I am, &c.

Some plants observed by Sir George Wheeler, in his voyage to Greece and Asia minor.

In the Scoglio, or island of St Andre, on the shore of Istria, Scorpioides Limonii foliis, floribus luteis. Limonium reticulatum. Sideritis spinosa. Draba cærulea Cretica. Convolvulus rectus argenteis foliis. Polium Creticum, &c.

On the rocks near Pota in Istria: Cassia Poëtarum. Trifolium Saxatile hirsutissimum. Genista montana arborescens. Tordilium sive Seseli Creticum. Tragoriganum Creticum, vel potius Satureia hyberna nostras. Polium Rorismarini foliis. Salvia fruticosa. Abundance of Samphire, and a curious bulbose plant, crested with little flowers striped with white and cinnamon colour.

Near Mortaro, thirty miles from Zara: Planta lactescens Altheæ foliis; it was not blown, (it might either be a Tithymal, an Apocinum, or Campanula major lactescens Lobel.) Eryngium luteum monspeliense, &c.

On the great rock near Clissa: Aster verbasci foliis. Jacea incana seu argentea Alpin. in Exot. Lotus odoratus. Horminum creticum. Satureia citrii odore. Aster montanus folio odorato, forsan Aster montanus luteus glabro Salicis folio Bauhin. Libanotis Ferulæ facie. Linum flore luteo. Hieracium flore incarnato. Thlaspi Saxatile folio Poëtarum. Caucalis platyphylla Column. Caucalis magno flore & fructu. Planta Equiseti frutescentis facie, on the steeple and hard walls, (perhaps a species of Tithymal) it was without leaves, but full of joints, with abundance of yellow scaly knobs by pairs, between which issue forth three or four little Tetrapetalose flowers. Of this I saw an Arborescent one near Troy.

On the mountain near Lesina, in the island Pharos: Aconitum Lycoctinum flore Delphinii, vel Napelli Species. Aloë in flower. Asphodelus minor Junci folio, fistulosâ non bulbosâ radice. Malva Romana rubra. Juneperus major seu oxycedrus. Genista Spartium Septimo Bauhini simile; the root is hot of a spicy taste. Pilosella major pilosissima, &c.

In the Island of Corfu: Thymus capitatus Dioscoridis. Lysimachia Hysopi folio. Scabiosa caule altissimo, flore nigrescente, fortè peregrina Bauhin. Cyperus grumineus miliaceus. Scammonea. Acarna flore patulo rubente. Centaurium major. album. Centaurium rubens Spicatum. Centaurium ramosum rubens. Centaurium ramosum album. Vitex flore cæruleo & albo. Consolida regalis fœtida. Glicyrrhiza. Pulegii Species erecto caule, latifolia, incana, & hirsuta. With many others mention’d before.

In the island of Zant: The Curran Grape. White and yellow Melons. A large thin-skinn’d Lemon without either seed or stone, as also the Curran Grapes are. Genista seu spartium foliis argenteis. Convolvulus Sagittariæ foliis. Prunella spinosa. Coris Matthioli. Gossipium seu Xylon. Glaux Dioscoridis. Cistus plantaginis folio. Cicer Creticum, &c.

In the isle of Cerigo: Dictamnus falsus. Chamædrys Alpina minima hirsuta. Thymi capitati secunda species foliis minoribus densius Stipatis. Salvia pomifera seu gallifera. Stæchas citrina. That species of Thyme is in Dr Plukenet’s Phytographia, Tab. 116. F. 4.

In the isle of Tenos or Tine: Limonium caule sinuato. Frutex Spinosus Jaceæ albæ capitulis. Stachys parva foliis argenteis. Genista spinosa floribus rubris.

Near the ruins of Troy: Quercus glande majore. Gossipium. Sesamum. Anguria. Tragacantha. Tartonreira Massiliensium seu Thymelæa incana Sericea, longifolia & latifolia. Pastinaca echinifera Colum. Jacea lutea capite spinoso. Papaver corniculatum flore tricolore. Pancratium in flower. Verbascum marinum laciniatis foliis.

Near Constantinople: Abrotanum humile flore Chamæmeli. Serpilli species foliis Satureiæ. Androsamum flore & thecâ omnium maximis. Guaiacum Patavinum.

On mount Olympus, near Bursa or Prusa: Abies conis sursum spectantibus, foliis subtus argenteis. Cistus laurinis foliis. Aster montanus, Linariæ folio, flore flavo. Coris seu Hypericum foliis crispis. Hypericum foliis hirsutis, margine crinifero. Aster Conyzoides Gesn. Astragalus Matthiol. flore cæruleo. Pyrola frutescens Arbuti folio. Gentianella verna. Senecio incana pinguis. Cerinthe minor. Cistus argenteis foliis. Cymbalaria Italica. Calamintha montana præstantior. Elichryson sive Gnaphalium comâ aureâ. Gramen junceum Echinatum. Millefolium nobile odoratum. Hypericum seu Ascyron magno flore. Panax Heracleum. Gnaphalium repens. Herba Tuitia Auriculæ Affinis. Tragacantha. Helleborus niger. Ephedra seu Polygonum Scandens bacciferum; climbing up to the tops of the vast Plane-trees, according to Bellonius.

In our Journey to Mandragorai and Courougouli: Scordium lanuginosum sive Creticum. Alsine Lotoides seu Anthylloides, sive spergulæ facie C. B. Gingidum Hispanicum. Leucoium Alyssoides Clypeatum maj. C. B. Origanum Spicatum Montis Sipyli foliis glabris.

Near Thyatira: Spartium alterum Monospermum, Pseudospartium Hispanicum Aphyllon. A Thapsus minor longifolia; or rather a Sideritis or Stachis foliis Salviæ argenteis pilosis mollibus; which is the Panacea of the country people. Scabiosa argentea min.

About Smyrna: Two kinds of Jujubes or Ziziphus. Turpentine-trees, and Mastich-trees. Smyrnion Creticum. Origanum perenne lignosum odoratissimum. Several sorts of Olive-trees. Tamarisk and Ricinus, or Palma Christi.

Near the gulph of Lepanto: Tithymalus Spinosus. The Fust or yellow wood used to die with, call’d by the Greeks Chrisoxulo. Cedrus Lyciæ. Arisarum angustifolium. Lamium moschatum foliorum margine argentato.

About mount Parnassus, Athens, and other places of Attica or Achaja: Stachys viscoso flore luteo, odore Narcissi juncifolii. Petromarula Cretica or Rapunculus Pyramidalis altera. Sabina. Crocus Albus & Luteus. Poterion Plinii, smaller than Tragacanth. Polium Gnapholoides. Ilex Chermifera. Acacia Secunda Matthioli. Anemones of all colours. Many Asters and Arisarums. Aristolochia Clematitis. Two Asphodils. Brassica frutescens. Borago variegata Cretica. Cneorum Matth. & Clusii, sive Thymelææ affinis facie externâ. Several Cisti. Jacea Moschata, with other knapweeds. Leontopetalum all over the plain of Athens. Oleander. Scilla. Scorzonera Cretica Asphodeli sistulosi facie, Galocorta Græcorum, it is the womens Cosmetic, and Milk-plant. Siliqua Edulis or Carob. Two Thymelæa’s, argentea & tomentosa. Tithymalus Spinosus. Equisetum frutescens Aphyllon (perhaps a sort of Tithymal) Lychnis frutescens: With many more, which we have either mention’d in other places, or else were doubtful of, as a kind of small silver-leaved Scabious, and a Dandelion or Hieracium, with Pilewort or small Colts-foot-leaves, with a root like so many Scorpions following one another. A sort of Medica lunatâ siliqua, or Loto affinis siliquis hirsutis circinatis. Astragalus argenteus or Syriacus.

Near Corinth and the Isthmus, Pinus Maritima with small cones. Cedrus Lycia vel Sabina baccifera. Ceratia or Siliqua Arbor. Lentiscus. Olea Sylv. Scabiosa argentea petræa. Aristolochiæ Clematitis species. Linaria latifolia valentina Clusii, the flowers beautiful with three colours. Androsemum umbelliferum. Scorzonera bulbosa. Arbutus folio non serrato, Comarea Dioscoridis Adrachne Theophrasti.

For these the reader may consult Mr Ray’s Collection of Exotic Catalogues, especially the Oriental one, where the synonymous names are added.

Historical Observations relating to Constantinople. By the reverend and learned Tho. Smith, D. D. Fellow of Magd. Coll. Oxon. and of the Royal Society.

Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, was by Constantine the Great called so after his own Name[6], who being mightily pleased with the beautiful and advantageous situation of the place between two seas, and defended by narrow streights on both sides, removed the seat of the Empire hither, and laid the foundation of it’s future splendor and greatness. It was also by a special Edict or Law of the same Emperor[7], which he caused to be engraven on a marble pillar, placed near his own statue on horseback, in one of the piazza’s of his new-built city called Strategium, where the Souldiers used to muster as in the Campas Martius, called Second or New Rome, in emulation of old Rome, which he designed and endeavoured this should equal in all things. Accordingly he endowed it with the same Privileges and Immunities, and establish’d the same number of Magistrates, and Orders of People, and divided the whole extent of it into fourteen Precincts or Regions[8], according to the division of Rome. And the Greek writers were as elegant and extravagant in their commendations of it; but the usual title in their ordinary discourses and writings, when they had occasion to mention it without any flourish, was ἡ βασιλεύουσα, or ἡ βασιλὶς, that is, the imperial city, to the same sense with that of Sidonius Apollinaris[9].

The country about it was afterwards called Romania in a limitted and restrained sense, (for that Romania was anciently the same with Orbis Romanus, seems clear from Epiphanius[10]) and the people Ῥωμαῖοι. But I suppose this was not done till about the middle times of the empire, when it began to decline. The Greeks still retain this name: For if you ask any of the Greeks born upon the continent of Thrace what countryman he is, he answers forthwith, Ῥωμαῖος, Romios, for so they pronounce it. The Turks in like manner called a Greek Christian Urum Gaour, or the Roman Infidel, as they will call sometimes the Emperor of Germany, Urumler Padisha, or Emperor of the Romans. Hence it was that the latter Græcian Emperors stiled themselves βασιλεῖς Ῥωμαίων, Kings of the Romans, that is, such as were born in Romania, and the other countries, which made up the eastern division of the empire. Though perchance by this flourishing title they pretended a right to the government of the west; upon which vain presumption they assumed also the title of Κοσμοκράτορες, or Emperors of the World, as if they had been true successors of Augustus, and the western Emperors, usurpers; whom they called by way of contempt and indignation, Ῥῆγες, Reges, as Luitprandus[11] informs us in the account of his embassy to Nicephorus Phocas, and afforded the people of Italy no other title than that of Longobards or Lombards[12]. The present Greeks call all the western Christians Λατῖνοι, or Φράγγοι, Latins or Franks, the Turks only making use of the latter, when they speak civilly of us, and calling Christendom Phrenkistan, in the present Greek Φραγγία. The Turks now as proudly call Constantinople, Alempena, or the refuge of the world; where indeed seems to be a medly of all or most nations of three parts of it, and of all religions, which are allowed to be publickly profest and exercised every where throughout the empire, except the Persian. For they look upon it as a corruption of, and deviation from the rules and doctrine of Mahomet, their great false Prophet, and therefore absolutely forbid it, as repugnant to, and destructive of the doctrine of life and salvation, as they speak. And accordingly they condemn with all imaginable fury the professors of it, who pretend to follow Ali, as sectaries and apostates, and entertain worse opinions of them, than of Christians, or Jews, or Infidels. The Persians are not behindhand with them in their hatred and disrespect, deriding them as gross and stupid, and looking upon them as little less than barbarous: Interest and zeal for their several tenents heightening their differences so much, that in time of war they destroy one anothers mosques. I remember, that there was a great discourse in Constantinople among the Turks, concerning an impudent hot-headed Persian, who publickly in the new mosque, built by the mother of the present Emperor, asserted that Ali was equal to Mahomet. But it seems he very luckily made his escape out of their hands, at which the priests and the more zealous Turks were very much scandalized.

The Greeks have twenty six churches within the walls of the city, besides six in Galata, of which I have given an account elsewhere. They have also two churches at Scutari, one at Kadikui or Chalcedon. So at Staurosis, Chingilkui, and several other villages upon the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, as at Beshictash, Ortakui, Chorouch chesme, which church is dedicated to St Michael the Archangel, Jenikui or Neochorion, Therapia, Bujukdere, and other villages on the European side. They have also a church at Haskui, where is their burying-place, and another near the Bagno, dedicated to St Parasceve. And at Tatoula about a mile from Pera, upon a hill, which from the name of the church is thence called by the Greeks and Franks, St Demetrius’s hill. Next to the holy Virgin, St Demetrius and St George have most churches dedicated to them.

The Armenians have not, if I remember aright, above seven churches, they being few in number in companion of the Greeks.

The Jews may have in the city and places adjacent between twenty and thirty synagogues, this being the greatest shelter of that accursed and contemptible people in the Grand Signior’s dominions, next to Caire and Saloniki; and I believe there may be about twenty or thirty thousand families of them. They are of great use and service to the Turks, upon account of their brokage and merchandise, and industry in several mechanical trades. All these I look upon as natives, or slaves rather, each paying money for his head every year. The Jews indeed very wisely collect this tax among themselves, and according to an agreement made with the Tefterdar or Treasurer, pay a certain sum in gross for their whole nation residing there; by which piece of cunning they are great gainers, and spare the poor among them less able to pay, by a contribution of the rich to make up the sum. The English and Dutch Embassadors have their chapels in their palaces common to their respective nations.

The churches and chapels of the western Christians of the Roman communion in Galata, are,

St Peter’s, belonging to the Dominicans, where is the famous piece of Madonna di Constantinopoli, as the Italians call it, or of the Blessed Virgin holding the holy child Jesus in her arms; which they pretend to be drawn by the hand of St Luke, celebrated by some of the later ecclesiastical writers to have been a famous Painter. Out of respect to this idle tradition, the credulous and superstitious Latins and Greeks of the Roman communion shew great veneration to it, which otherwise hath little in it of proportion, art, or beauty to derive any reputation upon the designer, or upon his work.

St Francis, belonging to the Conventuali, Friers of the order of St Francis: The ground of this by the wise conduct and intercession of Cavaliere Molino, the Venetian Bailo, after the surrendry of Candia, upon the peace made by the Republic with the Grand Signior, was procured to be restored, and a handsome church rebuilt, with the large contributions of money sent out of Christendom.

St Benedict, belonging to the Jesuits, where is a rich altar curiously adorn’d with several figures in Mosaic. This convent was purchased for them by their great benefactor, Henry the fourth of France.

St Mary, belonging to the Observantines or Zoccolanti, a branch of the order of St Francis, so called from their going in Zoccoli or wooden clogs.

The Capucines have a little chapel dedicated to St George, hard by the French Embassador’s palace.

St Ann, a chapel frequented by the Petrots.

St Paul and St Anthony were both taken away some years since from the Christians, and turned into mosques. The former of which is now known by the name of Arab Giamesi, or the mosque of the Arabians. Our interpreters mentioned also to me the church of St John, which the Turks have seized upon for their use, St George, which the Jews are possessed of, and St Sebastian, which was used to be visited chiefly on holy-days.

The north wind blows for the most part at Constantinople, which must be ascribed to it’s nearness to the Euxine sea, which bears that point from it. So that for want of a southwardly wind, ships have been forced to lie a month or two sometimes near the mouth of the Hellespont; this was taken notice of long since by Eunapias, in the life of Ædesius who ascribes the seldom blowing of the south wind to the situation of the mountains, whereas it is checked and overpowered by the exuberence of the vapours continually sent forth from the Black and Great Sea, as the Greeks call it in comparison of the Mediterranean. Vide ad finem Codini de Origin. Constantinopol. Edit. Paris. pag. 80.

The Hellespont is about forty miles in length, and at the castles of Sestos and Abydos the streight may be about three quarters of an English mile over, or less.

The length of the Propontis is about a hundred and fifty miles, both shores may be seen in the middle of it. In it are

Cyzicus an island near the Asian shore, to which it is joined by two bridges. It still retains it’s ancient name Κυξικὸ, and is the seat of a Bishop, being inhabited by a considerable number of Greeks.

Proconnesus, not far from the former; now, as for some centuries past, called Marmora, from the excellent quarries of marble there found, the marmor Cyzenicum also being famous in the time of Pliny.

Besbycus, now called by the Greeks καλόλιμνο, or the good haven, not far from the entrance into the bay of Montanea to the north-and-by-east; the Turks call it Imramle.

There are several islands over against the bay of Nicomedia; formerly called Sinus Astacenus, according to Strabo, about six or seven leagues from Constantinople[13].

Prote, so called because they approach first to it, coming from Constantinople, to the south of this Prencipe and Pytis, which I take to be the same with Pyrgos, that lies inmost toward the bay: Chalcitis, in modern Greek, Chalce or Chalcis. Oxia and Platy to the north-west. I have expressed the Turkish names of the lesser and uninhabited islands elsewhere, which perchance were fantastically imposed by some Franks.

The Seraglio is at the extream point of the north-east angle of Constantinople, where formerly stood old Byzantium, within which, towards the haven is a stately Kiosk, or Summer-house, from whence the Grand Signior usually takes barge, when he passes into Asia, or diverts himself upon the Bosphorus, at which time the Bostangibashi, who hath the principal care of the Emperor’s palace, and hath the command of the Bosphorus, sits at the helm and steers.

The seven towers are at the south-east extremity.

The only suburbs are to the north-west, along the haven-side; for above the hill, where the three walls begin, lies an open champaign country, except that here and there at considerable distances farm-houses are Scattered.

The haven runs in from the west, and so opens east.

At the east end of Galata is Tophana, where they cast their great guns.

Pera and Galata have about six gates to the seaward. The whole tract of ground was anciently, before the times of the Emperor Valentinian, who enclosed and fortified Galata with walls and towers, stiled Περαῖα πέραν τῆς πόλεως, on the other side of the city to the north; which is the reason of it’s name, seated on higher hills, and whose ascent is more steep and difficult.

Our modern Geographers, such as Mercator and Ortelius, who herein follow Ptolemy, place Constantinople in the latitude of 43 degrees and 5 minutes: the Arabian and Persian Astronomers, as Abulfeda, Nassir Eddin, Vlugh Beigh, and so the πρόχειροι κανόνες of Chrysococcas, translated out of the Persian tables, place it more northerly in 45°. But by later and better observation it is found, that they have erred in assigning the latitude of this city, as of several other places. To salve these differences, there is no just ground of pretence to say, that the Poles are moveable, and have changed their situation since their time; whereas it may be better imputed to their want of due care, or to their taking things upon trust, from the reports of Travellers and Seamen, not having been upon the places themselves; which certainly is to be said for Ptolemy, whose Observations, as to places more remote from Alexandria, are far from being accurate and true. The learned Mr John Greaves, as I find in a manuscript discourse, very worthy of being printed which he presented to the most reverend and renowned archbishop Usher, took the height of the Pole at Constantinople, with a brass sextant of above 4 feet radius, and found it to be but 41°:6′; but by the observation we made in our court-yard at Pera with a good quadrant, we found but 40°:58′ of north latitude.

There is no place between the Propontis and the walls of the city, except just at the Seraglio point, which may be two hundred paces in length, where they have raised on a platform a battery for great guns; but from the point to the end of the haven west, the space to the gates is unequal in some places about twenty paces broad, in others three or four times as many more.

The distance between Constantinople and Chalcedon, upon the opposite Bithynian shore, may be about three or four miles.

In the walls are engraven the names of several Emperors, who reigned toward the declension of the Græcian empire, as Theophilus, Michael, Basilius Constantinus, Porphyrogenitus, by whose care, and at whose expence the several breaches caused in them, by the sea, or by earth-quakes, were repaired.

Kumkapi, or the sand-gate, lies toward the Propontis; this the Greeks call in their vulgar language Κονδοσκάλι, Contoscalium, or the little scale or landing-place. Here formerly was an Arsenal for gallies and other small vessels it being a convenient passage over sea. Over this gate was anciently engraven a curious inscription, still preserved in that excellent collection publish’d by Gruterus[14].

Jedicula Kapi, or the Gate of the seven towers, so called from it’s nearness to that Acropolis, is that, I guess, which the Greeks formerly called Χρυσῆ or the golden gate, and by some late Latin writers Chrysea, in Luitprandus, Carea, by a mistake either of the Transcriber or Printer, for Aurea, for so certainly it must be mended. Over this gate was this Inscription;

cited by Sirmond, in his notes upon Sidonius[15]. This gate is in the twelfth region, and was also called ὡραῖα from it’s beautiful and curious structure.

The gun-gate, formerly called Roman-gate, not because it leads towards the continent of Romania or Thrace, but from St Romanus[16] where the last Christian Emperor was killed at the assault which the Turks made to force their way into the city by it.

Near Adrianople-gate is a fair large mosque called Alibassa, upon a hill accounted the highest in the city.

The distance between tower and tower in the upper wall to the landward, may be about ninety of my paces; the space between that and the second wall about eighteen paces over.

The place, where the Lyons, Leopards, and such like wild creatures are kept, (where I saw also several Jackals) was formerly, as the Greeks told me, a Christian church dedicated to Παναγία, or the Blessed Virgin, where this verse is still legible:

There is no tide or running back of the water on any side of the Bosphorus, into the Black sea, as[17] some have imagined, whose mistake might possibly arise hence, that the wind being at north, and blowing hard, the current sets more violently at such times against the several headlands, jetting out into the channel, which admits of several turnings, and so the waters are forced back to some little distance: or else because when the south-wind freshens and grows boisterous, it makes a high rolling sea in the Propontis and Bosphorus, and being contrary to the current, gives a check to it, so that it becomes less sensible, and is easily stemmed. Where it is narrowed, the distance seems to the eye to be scarce a mile over from one shore to another; where broadest, not much above a mile and a half, unless where it runs into the deep bays, which by reason of their shallowness only harbour boats.

The channel certainly is natural, and not cut by art, as some have idly fancied, not considering how the Euxine sea should discharge itself otherwise of those great quantities of waters, poured into it by the Ister and Tanais, now called Don, and the other rivers, whereby it becomes less salt, even very sensibly to the taste, than several parts of the Mediterranean.

The fish, by a strange kind of instinct, pass in vast shoals twice a year, autumn and spring, through the Bosphorus, that is, out of one sea into another; of which the Greeks, who live several months of the year upon them, take great numbers, and supply the markets at easie rates; the cormorants and other ravenous water-fowl, which the Turks will not suffer to be destroy’d, or otherwise molested, preying also upon them.

The weather in some months is very inconstant, great heats and colds happenning the same day upon the change of the wind.

The winters at Constantinople are sometimes extraordinary severe. I have heard it related by several old Greeks, as a thing most certain, that the Bosphorus was frozen over in the time of Achmed, and that a Hare was coursed over it. It happened thus; that upon a thaw, huge cakes of ice came floating down the Danube into the Black Sea, and were driven by the current into the Bosphorus, where, upon the return of the frost, they were fixed so hard, that it became passable. In the year 1669, there was ice in the haven, to the great amazement of the Turks; and some were so frighted at this unusual accident, that they look’d upon it as a dismal prodigy, and concluded that the world would be at an end that year. The Aguglia, or Obelisk, in the Hypodrome, is betwixt fifty and sixty foot high.

The historical pillars in basso relievo, raised in honour of the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, may be in height about an hundred and forty seven feet.

Alexus Comnenus, lies buried in the patriarchal church against the wall, and his daughter Anna Comnena, the historian, who lived about the year of Christ 1117. They pretend to shew there, the relics of St Anastasia, who suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Valerianus, and of St Euphemia, virgin and martyr, who lost her life most gloriously for Christ’s holy religion at Chalcedon under Dioclesian.

In Sancta Sophia, there are pillars so great, that a man can scarce fathom them at twice. At the end of the gallery that joins the other two, each about thirty of my paces wide, there is a piece of transparent marble, two or three inches thick. In the north gallery, upon the pavement, is a reddish sort of a marble stone, brought, as the Turks and Christians relate, from Palestine, on which they fable, that the Blessed Virgin used to wash the linnen of our Saviour.

I observed but one step from the body of the church to the Bema, or place where the altar formerly stood.

The great mosque at Chasim-bassa on Pera side to the west, was formerly a church dedicated to St Theodosia.

Gianghir, a mosque so called upon a hill at Fondaclee near Tophana.

In Constantinople there are several narrow streets of trade, closed up with sheds and penthouses, which I suppose were in use before the Greeks lost their empire, and are the same with the σκεπαστοὶ καὶ φρακτοὶ δρόμοι, in Chrysalaloras’s Epistle, p. 119. But besides these places, several trades have their distant quarters. The streets are raised for the most part on each side for the greater convenience.

Not far from Suleimania, is the house of the Aga, or General of the Janizaries, which so often changes it’s masters.

Pompey’s pillar, as the Franks erroneously call it, is of the Corinthian order, curiously wrought, about eighteen foot in height, and three in diameter.

Beshiktash, a village within three or four miles of Constantinople, towards the Bosphorus, where lies buried the famous pirate Ariadin, whom the Christian writers call Barbarossa, who built here a handsome mosque, having two rows of pillars at the entrance. The captain Bashaw usually, before he puts to sea with his Armada of gallies, visits the tomb of this fortunate robber, who had made several thousand Christians slaves, and makes his prayers at the neighbouring church for the good success of his expedition.

They reckon in the city above a hundred public baths, every street almost affording one. They are esteemed works of great piety and charity, there being a continual use of them, not only upon the account of religion, but of health and cleanliness: For their diet being for the most part hot spiced meats in the winter, and crude fruits in the summer; their liquor fountain water or coffee, to which we may add their lazy kind of life (for walking is never used by them for digestion, or otherwise in the way of diversion) frequent bathing becomes necessary.

There are several receptacles of water under ground, and one particularly under the church of Sancta Sophia, as I was informed; but I did not think it worth my curiosity to descend into it. These were of great use to the poor Greeks in the last fatal siege; but the Turks are so secure, that they do not think that they deserve either cost or pains to keep the waters sweet, or the cisterns in repair.

The aqueducts, which answer to those glorious aqueducts near Pyrgos, and convey the water to the great cistern near Sultan Selim’s mosque, are in that part of Constantinople which lies between the mosque of Mahomet the Great and Shazade.

The Turks began to besiege Constantinople on the fifth of April, and took it the twenty-ninth of May, on Whitsun-tuesday morning, 1453, or as the Turks reckon in the year 857, of the Hegira, or flight of Mahomet, the twenty-second day of the first Jomad.

The chapel where Ejub Sultan is interred, at whose head and feet I observed great wax candles, is inclosed with latten wire grates, for the better accommodation of such religious Turks, as come to pay their respect to the memory of this great Musulman Saint. In the middle of the area, there is raised a building sustained by excellent marble pillars, ascended by two several pair of stairs, where the new Emperor is inaugurated, and where he usually goes in Biram time.

An account of the city of Prusa in Bythinia, and a continuation of the historical observations relating to Constantinople; by the reverend and learned Tho. Smith, D. D. fellow of Magd. Coll. Oxon. and of the Royal Society.

Montanea, formerly called Nicopolis, according to Bellonius, or rather Cios, the bay hence called Sinus Cianus, lies in the bottom of a bay about fourscore miles from Constantinople, and is the scale or landing place for Prusa, from which it may be about twelve miles; in the middle way to which, is the village Moussanpoula.

Prusa, now call’d by the Turks Bursia, the chief city of Bythinia, is seated at the foot partly, and partly upon the rising of the mount Olympus, which is one of the highest hills of the lesser Asia. It’s top is covered with snow for nine or ten months of the year, several streams of water flowing down the hill continually, accounted very unwholsome from the snow mixed with it. In the upper part of the city to the north-west, lies the Seraglio, which is walled round; but the Emperors not residing here since their acquists in Thrace, or scarce making visits to this imperial city, and none of their sons living here of late, according to the former policy of the Turkish Emperors, who did not permit their sons, when grown up, to be near them, but sent them to some honourable employment, accompanied with a Bashaw or Cadi, to instruct them in the arts of war and government; it lies now neglected and despoiled of all it’s ornaments.

In this part also are the sepulchres of Osman, the founder of the family which now reigns, and his son Urchan, who took the city, near a mosque, formerly a Christian church dedicated to St John, and where was formerly a convent of religious, built by Constantinus Iconomachus, where I saw the figure of a cross still remaining upon the wall. Here hangs up a great drum of a vast bigness, such as they carry upon the backs of camels, and I suppose is one of those which they used in the taking of the place.

In the lower part, near the bottom of the hill, Norad II. the father of Mahomet the Great, lies buried; near whereunto was formerly the metropolitical church of the holy Apostles. The Bezesten, or exchange, seems to be much better and larger than the great one at Constantinople, as are the several Caravanserais built for the use and accommodation of Merchants and travellers; in one of which, the Rice-chane, I took up my quarters.

Without the city, toward the east, is the mosque and sepulchre of the Emperor Bajazid I. whom the Turks call Jilderim, or lightening, and the Greek writers λαίλαψ. Not far from hence, is the mosque of Mahomet I. and his sepulchre. Toward the west, upon the side of the hill, is the mosque of Morad I. whom they call Gazi, or the Conqueror, near which he lies buried. There are in the whole about 124 mosques, several of which were formerly Christian churches, and between fifty and sixty chanes. The castles built by Osman, when he besieged the city, are slighted and altogether unfortified, the one to the north, the other to the south-west.

At Checkerghe, about a mile and a half out of town, are the hot baths, much frequented both by Christians and Turks. They are made very convenient to bathe in, and are covered over, that they may be used in all weathers. Among others, there is a large round bason, where they usually divert themselves by swimming.

What opinions the Turks have of our Blessed Saviour, and the Christian religion, I shall briefly shew, as they lie dispersed in several chapters of the Koran, according to which they frame their discourse whensoever either zeal or curiosity puts them upon this topic; for Mahomet, upon his setting up to be the author of a new religion, finding such a considerable part of the world professing the doctrine of Christ, with all the mysteries of faith therein contained, was cast upon a necessity of saying something both concerning him and it. By which it will appear how great the power of truth is above imposture and subtility, and that as the devils in the possessed confessed, though against their wills, Christ to be the son of God, so this Dæmoniac, in the midst of all his forgeries and lyes, and ridiculous and childish narratives, not being able to contradict the universal belief of the Christians of that, and the preceeding ages, founded on the history of the Gospel, hath been forced to give testimony to several particulars of it.

They confess then, that Christ was born of a pure spotless Virgin, the Virgin Mary, chosen by God, and sanctified above all the women in the world; and that the angel Gabriel was dispatched out of heaven, to acquaint her with the news of it. That such a kind of miraculous and supernatural birth never happened to any besides, and that Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and that he wrought mighty miracles, for instance, that he cleansed lepers, gave sight to the blind, restored sick persons to their health, and raised the dead.

That he is a great Prophet, sent by God to convert men from the vanity and error of their false worship to the knowledge of the true God, to preach righteousness, and to correct and restore the imperfection and miscarriages of human nature; that he was of a most holy and examplary life; that he was the true Word of God, the Apostle, or Embassador of God; that his Gospel was revealed to him from heaven, and that he is in heaven standing nigh to the throne of God. They blaspheme indeed with a bruitishness and stupidity only befitting Turks, the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, and of the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour, and deny that he was put to death, and say, that another in his shape was crucified by the Jews, and that he himself was assumed into heaven in his body without dying at all, and consequently they will not own, that he satisfied Divine Justice for the sins of the world; so great an affinity is there between the heresy of Socinus and professed Mahometism.

I could never yet see any Turkish translation of the Koran: they cry up the elegance of the stile, which being enthusiastic and high flown, by reason also of the tinkling of the periods, is very delightful to their ears, who seem to be affected with rhime mightily. Though I suppose it is upon a more politic account, that they are so averse, as to the translating it into their vulgar language, not out of respect to the sacredness of the original only, whose full commanding expressions they think cannot be translated without a great diminution to the sense; but to keep it in greater veneration among the people, who might be apt to slight and dis-esteem it, should it become thus common among them. It is enough that the Priests and learned men explain the difficult passages of it to the people, and write commentaries for the use of the more curious and inquisitive. The Persians on the contrary, think it no disparagement to the Arabic, or profanation of the sense, to translate this cursed book into their own language, and copies are frequent among them.

The Grand Signior’s women are usually the choicest beauties of the Christian spoils, presented by the Bashaws or Tartars. The present Sultana, the mother of the young Prince Mustapha, is a Caddiot, the Valide, or the Emperor’s mother, a Russian, the daughter of a poor Priest, who with her relations were seized upon by the Tartars, in an incursion which they made into the Muscovites country. She being received into the Seraglio by her beautiful complexion and cunning behaviour, gain’d the heart and the affection of Sultan Ibrahim, (a man wholly addicted to soft pleasures, and who seldom cared to be long absent from the womens apartment, but chose to spend his time among them.) Having the good fortune to be the mother of the Prince Mahomet, the eldest son of his father, who now reigns, she had all the honours that could possibly be done her, and was the beloved Hazaki, or chief concubine. During this height of splendour and glory, the court removing from Constantinople to Adrianople, distant about an hundred and twenty miles, as she was passing in great state, attended with her guards through the streets of the city, in a coach much like our carriage waggons, but that they are letticed to let in the air, for no one must presume to stare or scarce look upon the women, much less must they themselves suffer their faces to be seen in this jealous country, she out of curiosity looking through the holes, saw a poor Christian slave in a shop where sugar and such like wares were sold. Upon her return she sent one of her Eunuchs to enquire for the person, and to ask him several questions about his country, relations, friends, and the time when and how long he had been a slave; his answers were so particular and satisfactory, that she was soon convinced of the truth and certainty of her apprehensions, when she first cast her eyes upon him, that he was her brother, and accordingly it proved so. Whereupon acquainting the Emperor with it, she immediately redeem’d him from his patron, and having made the poor wretch turn Turk, got him considerably preferr’d.

The Bashaws for the most part are the sons of Christians, taken into the Seraglio, near the Emperor’s person, and so are preferr’d to considerable governments, or else they raise themselves by their conduct and valour. Mahomet Bashaw, in the time of Achmet, whose eldest daughter he marry’d, was the first natural Turk that was made chief Vizier, having before been Captain Bashaw. The chief Vizier Mahomet Cupriuli (who settled the empire in the minority of this Emperor, when it was ready to be shaken into pieces, and dissolved by several powerful factions in the state, and by the mutinies and discontents of Janizaries and Spahis, who drove different ways) was an Albanese by birth, the son of a Greek Priest, whom out of the height of his zeal for Mahomet, he made turn Turk in his old age, and converted the Christian church in the village where he was born into a mosque. This man also forbad the Dervises to dance in a ring and turn round, which before was their solemn practice at set times before the people, which they would do so long, till they were giddy by this swift circular motion, and fell down in a swoon, and then oftentimes upon their recovery from such trances, they pretended to revelation. The church-men are not very kind to his memory, looking upon him as a man of little or no religion; and they give out that if he had lived, he would have forbid their calling to prayers from the spires of their Mosques, and hanging out lamps; both which they look upon as solemn and essential to the exercise of religion; but he as the effect of bigottry and superstition.

They have a mighty honour and esteem for Physicians, for tho’ they are of opinion, that they cannot with all their art prolong life, the period and term of it being fatal, and absolutely determin’d by God, yet they often consult them upon any violent sickness or pain, in order to make the time allotted them in this world more pleasant and easy. It is extraordinary rare, that a natural Turk makes Physic his profession and study. They who practise it among them, when I was in Turkey, were for the most part Greeks and Jews, who know nothing of chymical medicines, but follow the usual methods, which they learn’d in Italy and Spain, the former having study’d in Padua, and the latter in Salamanca, where they pass’d for good Catholics. And I remember I met with a certain Jew Physician, who had been a Capucine in Portugal. During the tedious siege of Candia, the Vizier, what with melancholy, and what with the ill air of the camp, finding himself much indisposed, sent for a Christian Physician, Signior Massalini, a subject of the Republic of Venice, but marry’d to a Greek woman, by whom he had several children, who was our neighbour at Pera, an experienced able man, to come speedily to him, and made him a present of about a thousand dollars, in order to fit himself for the voyage, and bear the expence of it. By this worthy gentleman’s care he recover’d his health, and would not permit him to depart till after the surrender of that city, which might be about seven months after his arrival there, treating him in the mean while with all imaginable respect. During our short stay at Bursia, one of our Janizaries accidentally discoursing with a Turk about us, whom they knew to be Franks, told him that there was a Physician in the company, who had been lately at the Grand Signior’s court at Salonichi with the English Embassador, and was now upon his return from Constantinople to Smyrna, where he lived. This presently took vent, and the Turks thought that they had got a man among them that could cure all diseases infallibly; for several immediately came to find us out in behalf of themselves or their sick friends, and one of the most considerable men upon the place, desired the Doctor to go to his house to visit one of his women sick in bed, who being permitted to feel her naked pulse (for usually they throw a piece of fine silk or curle over their womens wrists at such times) soon discover’d by that and other symptoms and indications of her distemper, that opening a vein would presently give her ease, and recover her; which he did accordingly; for which he received an embroidered handkerchief instead of a fee, and gained the reputation of having done a mighty cure.

They have little of ingenious or solid learning among them; their chief study next to the Koran, being metaphysical niceties about the Attributes of God, or else the maintenance of other odd speculative notions and tenents, derived down to them from some of their famed masters and holy men, whom they pretend to follow. Their knowledge of the motion of the heavens, for which the Arabians and the other eastern nations have been so deservedly famous, as their Astronomical Tables of the Longitude and Latitude of the fixed stars, and of the appulse of the Moon to them, fully evince, is now very mean, and is chiefly studied for the use of Judiciary Astrology. The great instrument they make use of is an Astrolabe, with which they make very imperfect observations, having no such thing as a Quadrant or Sextant, much less a Telescope, or any mechanical engine, to direct and assist them in their calculation. Their skill in Geography is as inconsiderable; I remember I heard the Captain Bashaw, whom they stile Admiral of the Black and White Seas, meaning the Euxine and the Mediterranean, ask this silly question, Whether England were out of the Streights? and another time the Caymacan, or Governor of Constantinople, hearing that England was an island, desired to know how many miles it was about, in order, we supposed, to make an estimate of our King’s greatness and strength, by the extent and compass of it.

One of the great Astrologers of Constantinople, having heard that I had a pair of globes in my chamber, made me a visit on purpose to see their contrivance, being introduced by a worthy gentlemen of our own nation. After the first ceremonies were over, I took my terrestrial globe, and rectify’d it to the position of the place, and pointed to the several circles both without and upon it, and told him in short the several uses of them; then shewed him how Constantinople, beared from Candia, at that time besieged, Cair, Aleppo, Mecca, and other chief places of the empire, with the other parts of the world; at which he was mightily surprized to see the whole earth and sea represented in that figure, and in so narrow, a compass, and pleased himself with turning the globe round several times together. Afterwards I set before him the celestial globe, and rectify’d that, and shew’d him how all the noted constellations were exactly described, and how they moved regularly upon their poles, as in the heavens; some rising, and others setting, some always above the horizon, and others always under, in an oblique sphere, and particularly what stars would rise that night with us at such an hour; the man seem’d to be ravish’d with the curiosity of it, turning this globe also several times together with his finger, and taking a pleasure in viewing the motion of it; and yet this silly animal pass’d for a conjurer among the Turks, and was look’d upon as one that could foretel the events of battels, the fates of empires, and the end of the world.

They have no genious for sea-voyages, and consequently are very raw and unexperienced in the art of navigation, scarce venturing to sail out of sight of land. I speak of the natural Turks, who trade either in the Black Sea or some part of the Morea, or between Constantinople and Alexandria; and not of the pyrates of Barbary, who are for the most part renagado’s, and learnt their skill in Christendom, which they exercise so much to the terrour and damage of it. A Turkish compass consists but of eight points, the four cardinal and four collateral; they being at a mighty loss how to sail by a side-wind; when by hauling their sails sharp they might lie their course, and much more, when they are in the winds eye, not knowing how to make tacks and boards, but chuse rather to make haste into some neighbouring port, till the wind blows fair. An English and Turkish vessel, both bound for the bay of Salonichi, at the time of the Grand Signior’s being there, pass’d together out of the Hellespont, but foul weather happening, the Turk got into Lemnos; while our men kept at sea, and pursued their voyage, and after three weeks stay returned back to us, observing in their way, that the Turks remained in the same place where they left them, for want of a fore-wind to put to sea in.

They trouble not themselves with reading the histories of other nations or of ancient times, much less with the study of chronology, without which history is very lame and imperfect; which is the cause of those ridiculous and childish mistakes, which pass current and uncontradicted among them. For instance, they make Job one of Solomon’s Judges, and (Iscander) Alexander the Great, Captain General of his army. They number Philip of Macedon among the ancestors of our Blessed Saviour, and believe that Sampson, Jonas, and St George were his contemporaries. In this they are more excuseable than their false Prophet Mahomet, who in his Koran has perverted several historical notices in the writings of the Old Testament, and is guilty of vile and absurd Pseudo-chronisms. To remedy this defect, of which he was very conscious, and the better to understand the state of Christendom, and the particular kingdoms and republics of it, the late great and wise Vizier Achmet, made his interpreter Panagiotti, a learned Greek, at leisure hours, even at the siege of Candia, as well as at other times, read several ancient histories to him, and render them extempore into the Turkish language, and particularly Blaeus Atlas, with which he was mightily pleased, and made great use of, and truly gained the reputation of a solid and judicious Statesman, as well as Soldier among the Christian ministers, who in the ordinary course of their negotiations apply’d themselves to him.

Tho’ their year be according to the course of the moon, and so the Turkish months run round the civil year in a circle of thirty three years and a few odd days, yet they celebrate the Neuruz, which signifies in the Persian tongue, the New-year, the twenty first day of March, (on which day the Veneral Equinox was fixed by the Greeks and other Oriental Christians, in the time of the Emperor Constantine, who made no provision for the προήγησις ἰσημερινὴ, or procession, which in process of time the inequality between the civil and astronomical year must necessarily produce) at which time the Cadi’s and other annual magistrates, and farmers of the customs take place, and reckon to that day twelve month again.

In their civil deportment and behaviour one towards another, the left hand is the more worthy and honourable place, except among their Ecclesiastics; and the reason they allege is, because they write from the right hand, and the sword is worn on the left side, and so is more at his disposal, who walks on that hand. The chief Vizier accordingly in the Divan sits at the left hand of the Mufti, each maintaining their right of precedence, according to this way of decision.

In their Mosques they sit without any distinction of degrees.

Some of the more zealous Turks cause to be engraven on their scymeters and bucklers a sentence out of the sixty first Surat, which is concerning fighting or battle-arrey, and contains encouragements to fight in the way and path of God, as the Impostor’s words are; for which he assures them, besides assistance from heaven, to help them to get the victory over their enemies, and that God will pardon their sins, and bring them to Paradise. Thus spirited with zeal, a Turk lays about him with fury, when he is a fighting, and seems ambitious of dying to gain the delights of Paradise, at least indifferent whether he dies or lives.

The Turks are, as to their temper serious, or rather enclining to morosity, seldom laughing, which is accounted an argument of great vanity and lightness. They perform the exercises which they use in the way of diversion, as shooting and hunting, with a great deal of gravity, as if they designed them more for health than for pleasure; and this too but seldom. The better and richer sort who have nothing to do, sitting all day at home, lolling upon a Sofa, or raised place in their rooms, and taking tobacco, which their slaves fill and light for them; and if they retire in the Summer or Autumn for a week or fortnight, to some convenient fountain in a wood, with their women, it is chiefly to enjoy the refreshments of the cool air. In the times of triumph indeed for some great success obtained against the Christians, when the shops are open for three nights together, and hung with lights, as well as the spires of the Mosques in curious figures, they are guilty of extravagant mirth, running up and down the streets in companies, and sometimes singing and dancing after their rude way; but this fit being over, they soon return to their former melancholy. In the coffee-houses where they use to resort to tipple, there is usually one hired by the owners to read either an idle book of tales, which they admire as wit, or filthy obscene stories, with which they seem wonderfully affected and pleased, few of them being able to read. These are the schools which they frequent for their information, tho’ in times of war when things went ill with them, their discourses would be of the ill government; and the Grand Signior himself, and his chief ministers, could not escape their censures, which manifestly tending to sedition, and to the heightning of their discontents by their mutual complaints, and by this free venting of their grievances during the war at Candia, the wise Vizier seeing the evil consequences that would follow, if such meetings and discourses were any longer tolerated, commanded that all the public coffee-houses should be shut up in Constantinople, and several other great cities of the empire, where the malecontents used to rendezvouz themselves, and find fault upon every ill success and miscarriage, with the administration of affairs.

The custom of the Turks to salute the Emperor, or the Vizier Bashaws, with loud acclamations and wishes of health and long life, when they appear first in their houses or any public place, is derived from the Greeks, who took it from the Romans. This was done by them in a kind of singing tone; whence Luitprandus, Bishop of Cremona tells us, that in a certain procession (προέλυσις) at which he was present, they sang to the Emperor Nicephorus πολλὰ ἔτη, that is, Many Years, (which Codinus, who lived just about the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, expresses by τὸ ψάλλειν τὸ πολυχρόνιον, or by τὸ πολυχρόνιζειν, and to wish or salute by πολυχρόνισμα) and at dinner the Greeks then present wish’d with a loud voice to the Emperor and Burdas, Ut Deus annos multiplicet, as he translates the Greek.