of Hungary this yere were 470000, as by the particulars given by the Admirall to the Ambassadour hereunder doe appeare. Although all these were appointed and supposed to goe, yet the victories which the Christians in the spring had against the Turks strooke such a terrour in many of the Turkish souldiours, as by report divers upon the way thither left their Captaines and stole away.

The number of Turkish souldiers which were appointed to goe into Hungary against the Christian Emperour. May 1594.

SINAN Bassa generall, with the Sanjacke masould, that is, out of office, with the other Sanjacks in office or of degree, 40000.

Achmigi, that is, Adventurers, 50000.

The Agha or Captaine with his Janisaries, and his Giebegies, 20000.

The Beglerbeg of Græcia, with all his Sanjacks, 40000. The company of Spaheis or horsemen, 10000.

The company of Silitari, 6000.

The company of Sagbulve and of Solbulve both together, 8000.

Of Tartars there be about 100000.

Thus you may see that the great Turke maketh warre with no small numbers. And in anno 1597, when Su1tan Mahomet himselfe went in person into Hungary, if a man may beleeve reports, he had an army of 600000.

For the city of Constantinople you shall understand that it is matchable with any city in Europe, aswell in bignesse as for the pleasant situation thereof, and com

modious traffike and bringing of all maner of necessary provision of victuals, and whatsoever els mans life for the sustentation thereof shall require, being seated upon a promontory, looking toward Pontus Euxinus upon the Northeast, and to Propontis on the Southwest, by which two seas by shipping is brought great store of all maner of victuals. The city it selfe in forme representeth a triangular figure, the sea washing the walles upon two sides thereof, the other side faceth the continent of Thracia; the grand Signiors seraglio standeth upon that point which looketh into the sea, being cut off from the city by a wall; so that ye wall of his pallace conteineth in circuit about two English miles: the seven towers spoken of before stand at another corner, & Constantines olde pallace to the North at the third corner. The city hath a threefolde wall about it; the innermost very high, the next lower then that, and the third a countermure, and is in circuit about ten English miles: it hath foure and twenty gates: and when the empire was removed out of the West into the East, it was inriched with many spoiles of olde Rome by Vespasian and other emperours, having many monuments and pillars in it worthy the observation; amongst the rest in the midst of Constantinople standeth one of white marble called Vespasians pillar, of 38 or 40 yards high, which hath from the base to the top proportions of men in armour fighting on horsebacke it is likewise adorned with divers goodly buildings & stately Mesquitas, whereof the biggest is Sultan Solimans a great warriour, which lived in the time of Charles the fifth; but the fairest is Santa Sophia, which in the time of the Christian emperours was the chiefe cathedrall church, and is still in greatest account with the great Turke it is built round like other Greekish churches, the pavements and walles be all of marble, it hath beneath 44 pillars of divers coloured marble of admirable heigth and bignesse, which stand upon great round feet of brasse, much greater then the pillars, and of a great heigth, some ten yards distant from the wall: from which unto these pillars is a great gallery built, which goeth round about the church; and upon the outside of the gallery stand 66 marble pillars which beare up the round roofe being the top of the church: it hath three pulpits or preaching places, and about 2000 lampes brought in by the Turke. Likewise upon one side in the top is the

picture of Christ with the 12 Apostles, but their faces are defaced, with two or three ancient tombs of Christians to the West sticketh an arrow in the toppe of the church, which, as the Turks report, Sultan Mahomet shot when he first tooke the city. Neere adjoyning be two chapels of marble, where lie buried most of the emperours with their children & sultanas. The 16 of July, accompanied with some other of our nation we went by water to the Blacke sea, being 16 miles distant from Constantinople, the sea al the way thither being little broader then the Thames; both sides of the shore are beautified with faire & goodly buildings. At the mouth of this Bosphorus lieth a rocke some fourescore yards from the maine land, whereupon standeth a white marble pillar called Pompeys pillar, the shadow whereof was 23 foote long at nine of the clocke in the forenoone: over against it is a turret of stone upon the maine land 120 steps high, having a great glasse-lanthorne in the toppe foure yards in diamiter and three in heigth, with a great copper pan in the midst to holde oile, with twenty lights in it, and it serveth to give passage into this straight in the night to such ships as come from all parts of those seas to Constantinople: it is continually kept by a Turke, who to yt end hath pay of the grand Signior. And thus having spent eleven moneths in Constantinople, accompanied with a chause, & carying certaine mandates from the grand Signior to the Bassa of Aleppo for the kinde usage of our nation in those parts, the 30 of July I tooke passage in a Turkish carmosale or shippe bound for Sidon; and passing thorow Propontis, having Salimbria with Heraclia most pleasantly situated on the right hand, and Proconesus now called Marmora on the left, we came to Gallipoly, and so by Hellespont, between the two castles before named called Sestos and Abydos, famous for the passages made there both by Xerxes and great Alexander, the one into Thracia, the other into Asia, and so by the Sigean Promontory, now called Cape Janitzary, at the mouth of Hellespont upon Asia side, where Troy stood, where are yet ruines of olde walles to be seene, with two hils rising in a piramidall forme, not unlikely to be the tombs of Achilles and Ajax. From thence we sailed along, having Tenedos and Lemnos on the right hand, and the Trojan fields on the left: at length we came to Mitylen and Sio long time inhabited by the Genoueses,

but now under the Turke. The Iland is beautified with goodly buildings and pleasant gardens, and aboundeth with fruits, wine, and the gum masticke. From thence sailing alongst the gulfe of Ephesus with Nicaria on the right hand, Samos and Smirna on the left, we came to Patmos, where S. John wrote the Revelation. The Iland is but small, not above five miles in compasse: the chiefe thing it yeeldeth is corn: it hath a port for shipping, and in it is a monastery of Greekish Caloieros. From thence by Cos (now called Lango) where Hipocrates was borne: & passing many other Ilands and rocks, we arrived at Rhodes, one of the strongest and fairest cities of the East here we stayed three or foure dayes; and by reason of a By which went in the ship to Paphos in Cyprus, who used me with all kindnesse, I went about the city, and tooke the view of all: which city is still with all the houses and walles thereof maintained in the same order as they tooke it from the Rhodian knights. Over the doores of many of the houses, which be strongly built of stone, do remaine undefaced, the armes of England, France, Spaine, and many other Christian knights, as though the Turkes in the view thereof gloried in the taking of all Christendome, whose armes there they beholde. From thence we sailed to Paphos an olde ruinous towne standing upon the Westerne part of Cyprus, where S. Paul in the Acts converted the governor. Departing hence, we came to Sidon, by the Turks called Saytosa, within tenne or twelve miles of the place where Tirus stood, which now being eaten in by the sea, is, as Ezekiel prophesied, a place for the spreading out of a net. Sidon is situated in a small bay at the foot of mount Libanus, upon the side of an hill looking to the North: it is walled about, with a castle nigh to the sea, and one toward the land which is ruinated, but the walle thereof standeth. Some halfe mile up toward the mountaine be certaine ruines of buildings, with marble pillars, remaining: heere for three dayes we were kindly entertained of the captaine of the castle: and in a small barke we sailed from hence along the shore of Tripoli, & so to Alexandretta, where the 24 of August we arrived. From thence with a Venetian caravan we went by land to Aleppo, passing by Antioch, which is seated upon the side of an hill, whose walles still stand with 360 turrets upon them, and neere a very great plaine which beareth

the name of the city, thorow which runneth the river Orontes, in Scripture called Farfar. In Aleppo I stayed until February following; in this city, as at a mart, meete many nations out of Asia with the people of Europe, having continuall traffike and interchangeable course of marchandise one with another: the state and trade of which place, because it is so well knowen to most of our nation I omitte to write of. The 27 of February I departed from Aleppo, and the fifth of March imbarked my selfe at Alexandretta in a great ship of Venice called the Nana Ferra, to come for England. The 14 we put into Salino in Cyprus, where the ship staying many dayes to lade cotton wooll, and other commodities, in the meane time accompanied with M. William Barret my country man, the master of the ship a Greeke, and others we tooke occasion to see Nicosia, the chiefe city of this Iland, which was some twenty miles from this place, which is situated at the foot of an hill: to the East is a great plaine, extending it selfe in a great length from the North to the South: it is walled about, but of no such strength as Famagusta (another city in this Iland neere the Sea side) whose walles are cut out of the maine rocke. In this city be many sumptuous and goodly buildings of stone, but uninhabited; the cause whereof doth give me just occasion to shew you of a rare judgement of God upon the owners sometime of these houses, as I was credibly informed by a Cipriot a marchant of good wealth in this city. Before it came in subjection to the Turks, while it was under the Venetians, there were many barons and noble men of the Cipriots, who partly by usurping more superiority over the common people then they ought, and partly through their great revenues which yeerely came in by their cotton wooll and wines, grew so insolent and proud, and withall so impiously wicked, as that they would at their pleasure command both the wives and children of their poore tenants to serve their uncleane lusts, & holding them in such slavery as though they had beene no better then dogges, would wage them against a grayhound or spaniell, and he who woon the wager should ever after holde them as his proper goods and chattels, to do with them as he listed, being Christians aswell as themselves, if they may deserve so good a name. As they behaved themselves most unchristianly toward their brethren, so