Chapter XXIX

There are good reasons for surmising that the voyage was performed in a Venetian vessel which touched at Salonica. This town, given up in 1403 by Souleiman, son of Bajazet, to the Greeks, was by them sold, in 1423, to the Venetians, who would undoubtedly have taken all necessary measures for putting it into a state of defence and supplying it with provisions, including salted fish from the Sea of Azoff. Another reason for the supposition that Schiltberger’s journey into Egypt could not have taken place earlier than 1423, is to be found in the fact that, from Egypt he passed over into Arabia, on a pilgrimage to the holy places of the Mahomedans, having, as it would seem, turned Mussulman through compulsion; and if he has avoided all reference to the journey, it was out of a natural desire not to be reminded of the painful circumstance of his apostacy.—Bruun.

(4A.) The church at Ephesus, erected over the tomb of St. John the Evangelist, was enlarged by Justinian, and afterwards turned into a mosque (Ibn Batouta). Here, also, as at the grave of St. Demetrius at Salonica, the mortal remains were invested with miraculous powders, for a peculiar kind of dust, in substance like flour, and compared by St. George of Tours to manna, worked its way out of the sepulchre, and being taken about, effected many marvellous cures (Baillet, Vie des Saints, viii, 624).—Ed.

Smyrna, a possession of the knights of Rhodes, was taken by Timour towards the close of the year 1402 (Hammer, Hist. de l’E. O., ii, 116), upon which occasion Schiltberger must have visited it, without, however, having been afforded the opportunity of seeing the picturesque valley where Fellows, in 1838 (Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, etc.), discovered the imposing ruins of Myra, or Demir, so called by the Turks. It is recorded that in 1087, the relics of St. Nicholas were removed to Bari, and the church in which they were originally laid having fallen to ruins, a small chapel was erected on the site. The restoration of the sacred edifice, completed in 1874 at a cost of 10,000 roubles, was commenced on the initiative of M. Mouravieff.—Bruun.