hundred in Number all in good Order every one with a large Musquet on his Shoulder well Gilt nay some of them carried Blunderbusses as big as little Faulcons with their Shables by their side After them came six led Horses as if it had been before the Basha himself then many of the Chiaoux of Caire Agas and Janizaries all with their Caps of Ceremony then the two Pages of the said Bey of Girge and the eight of the Basha with their Gilt Silver-Cap and lovely Plumes of Feathers and at length came the Bey of Girge He was a Man of good presence about forty Years of Age after him came his Household to the number of three hundred Men all in good Order The ten first were cloathed in Green Velvet with a large Collar of the same Stuff covered over with Plates of Gold having neat Bows and Quivers full of pretty Arrows with Shables by their sides The ten that came next were Apparelled in Yellow Satin carrying each a Pike a Shield and a Shable The rest were all well Cloathed too every one carrying a Carbine and Shable and in the Rear of them ten played on Timbrels and as many on Trumpets and Flutes besides all these there were above sixty Men playing on Timbrels every one mounted on a Camel who being dispersed here and there through the Cavalcade made a great Noise They drew all up in the Cara Meidan but though it be a large place yet it could not contain both them and the Militia of Caire so that a good many of them were forced to March out into the Romeille to make room for the rest When the Bey came near the Kieusk he alighted from his Horse and went unto it where the Basha expected him and treated him with Coffee Sorbet and a Perfume presenting him and every one of his Officers with a Caftan a piece Whilst he was there I went to a narrow Avenue at the end of the Romeille through which he was to pass soon after we saw him and all his Men pass that way in File I reckoned all those of his Retinue who had Caftans and found them to be an hundred and eight and they marched in the same Order as they came The Kiaya of the Basha waited upon the Bey back to his House which was not far distant However that was a thing extraordinary for it is not the custome for the Kiaya of a Basha to wait upon a Bey he saluted all the People on both hands as he went who all shouted and wished him a thousand Blessings The Turks and People of the Country were much surprised to see so many Men saying That there was no King so powerful as he The truth is the Bey of Girge is a very mighty Prince when he is beloved of his Subjects who are all Warlike so that when he is at Girge he values not the Grand Signior himself And nevertheless a Year after this solemn entry the Basha of Caire having made War with him who seemed to be very well beloved of his Subjects he took him and caused him immediately to be Strangled His Arabs who were his greatest strength and in whom he put most Confidence having forsaken him but it was thought they were corrupted by the Basha This Bey kept in his House about him a Guard of Two thousand Men and the rest of his Forces returned to Bezeten and the Rode which is a Country-house belonging to him over against old Caire but they came daily to the City to know how the Affaires of their Master stood because he mistrusted some bad design against him and therefore when he went abroad in the Town he took always Three thousand Horse along with him This Bey presented the Basha in Money and Horses to the value of eighty Purses and it was judged that that Journey would cost him Three hundred Purses and indeed he had brought Two thousand Purses with him which amount to fifty Millions of Maidins or a Hundred and fifteen thousand an hundred and one Piastres seventeen Maidins When this Bey was at Girge they killed an hundred and fifty Sheep a day for his Family CHAP. LXVIII The arrival of an Ambassadour of Aethiopia at Caire With the Presents he brought for the Grand Signior IN the month of October an Ambassadour of Aethiopia came to Caire The arrival of an Ambassadour of Aethiopia at Caire An Ass of extraordinary Beauty with several Presents for the Grand Signior and among others an Ass that had a most delicate Skin if it was Natural for I will not vouch for that since I did not examine it This Ass had a black List down the Back and the rest of its Body was all begirt with White and Tawny streaks a finger broad a piece the Head of it was extraordinarily long striped and partly coloured as the rest of the Body its Ears like a Buffles were very wide at the end and black yellow and white its Legs streaked just like the Body not long ways but round the Leg in fashion of a Garter down to the Foot and all in so good proportion and Symmetry that no Lynx could be more exactly spotted nor any Skin of a Tygre so pretty The Ambassadour had two more such Asses which died by the way but he brought their Skins with him to be presented to the Grand Signior with the live one He had also several little black Slaves of Nubia and other Countreys confining on Aethiopia Civet and other costly things for his Present These little Blacks as I said before serve to look after the Women in the Serraglio after that they are Gelded The Ambassadour was an Old Man and had the end of his Nose part of the upper and under Lip cut off but was otherwise a shapely Man and of a very good Presence He was Cloathed after the Cophtish fashion wearing a Turban like them and spoke very good Italian which gave me the opportunity of conversing with him He told me his name was Michael that he was a Native of Tripoly in Syria and that he had made three or four Voyages into Christendom he even confessed to me that he was a Roman Catholick but that he durst not make profession of it in Aethiopia but only of the Abyssin that is to say the Religion of the Cophtes That eighteen months before he had parted from Gontar the Capital City of Aethiopia and was so long retarded by the way because of the contrary Winds he met with on the Red Sea by which he came That of an hundred Persons whom he had brought with him of his own Servants and the Slaves he was to present to the Grand Signior thirty or forty were Dead If he had come by Land he had not been so long by the way for from Gontar to Schouaquen it is about six weeks Journey Gontar and from Schouaquen to Caire forty or fifty days by Camels but he could not take that way because of his Train He told me many things
slackened much and we let loose the Main-Sail though we had still several gusts of Wind and Rain we had besides the Currents to struggle with which turned the Ships Head towards the Coast of Arabia with so much force that it was sometimes above a quarter of an hour before the Ship could be brought about again to our right Course of South and by East The Sea became smoother in the night-time though the Wind freshened a little Wednesday the sixteenth of December about break of day we made on Head six of the Ships which we left at Congo that were not to set out till some days after us during the late storms they had kept at Anchor at the Isle of Angom and the Wind being good this last night they had set Sail and coasted along Arabia and when we made them they were Steering away South-East to double Cape Jasques Half an hour after nine we set our Main-Top-Galant-Sail About a quarter after four a Clock we were got within a League and a half of the shoar of Persia off and on with a place where there are high white Hills a little up on the Land which with a blackish Rock that ranges all along the Sea-side makes a very pleasant prospect for seeing at a distance over that black a great many pieces of white Rock that rise in various figures one would take it to be a City and to the South of that imaginary Town upon the same Hill there is a piece of whiteish Rock broken off from the rest which looks like a Tower or Pillar upon a high Pedestal from thence it is but a League to Bombareca Bombareca Half an hour after five we were off of Bombareca which is only a very high square white Rock and flat on the top it seems to be very steep and at a distance one would take it for a square Fort this Rock is very near the Land and it is dangerous to approach it because it is surrounded with a Bank of Sand. A little after we came up with the Ships that were on Head of us and after the Selame or mutual Hailing they told us that it was but six days since they parted from Congo they had all signed Indentures to go in Consort and not to leave one another till they came to Surrat nevertheless one of them Hailed us and told us that if we would go in Consort with him he would leave the rest and our Captain and the Mate whose Brother was Mate of the other Ship having made answer that they were content he packt on all the Sail he could and followed us About six a Clock we got a Head of the Headmost of all the Ships and our Men handed the Main-Top-Galant-Sail and would have furled the Main-Sail to stay for our Consort who was a Stern of us but the Captain would first have the consent of the Souhreseart who was not of the same mind saying it was better to make the best of our way whilst the Wind was good so that we only took in our Main-Top-Galant-Sail and Steered our Course South-East and by South The Sea-men in the mean time kept a heavy muttering that we should leave the other Ship after we had promised to stay for her and occasioned her leaving of the rest but the clutter was far greater when our Mate who had turned in came out after an hours sleep and not seeing our Consort would needs spare Sail for when he was told what resolution had been taken he made a fearful noise complaining of our breach of promise but after all he was fain to have patience CHAP. IV. Of the rest of the Voyage to the Indies An Invention for Reckoning the Ships way WEdnesday about Sun set we began to keep reckoning of our way which is done in this manner At the Stern of the Ship they heave out a little piece of board about half a Foot long four Inches broad and very thin and smooth which is fastened to a Line at the same time they turn a minute Sand-Glass which is the sixtieth part of an hour and so long as this minute is running they veer off the Line but stop it so soon as the the Glass is out and when they have pulled it up they reckon how many Fathom have run off in that minutes time allowing for every seven Fathom a Miles running in an hour But it is to be observed that before the Glass be turned they let off with the Log fourteen Fathom of the Line and these fourteen Fathom are not accounted in the reckoning for they reckon none but those that run off whilst the Glass is running and therefore there is a mark to distinguish the beginning from the end of the first fourteen and at the instant that that mark begins to go off they turn the minute Glass This reckoning is found by experience to be pretty just and thereupon I told our Captain that I had seen the English do the same thing in the Mediterranean save that they did not allow those fourteen first Fathom and that they used but half a minute Glass or the hundred and twentieth part of an hour and that nevertheless they reckoned seven Fathom of the Line that run off during that minute for a Mile an hour of the Ships way that according to that reckoning he ought to allow fourteen Fathom for an hour his being a minute Glass and cut off these first fourteen He made me no other answer but that the Currents of the Ocean were stronger than those of the Mediterranean nevertheless one would think that since they reckon not those fourteen Fathom and turn not the Glass till they be run out they are altogether useless unless it be perhaps that they let them run off to the end that when those which they reckon begin to run the Log may be so far off that the Sea which beats against the Ship may not drive it neither forwards nor backwards and indeed before the Glass be turned they take notice whether or not the Log runs streight in the Ships wake and there is a red mark at the place where they begin to reckon to prevent their being mistaken otherwise if they should reckon as soon as they heaved out the Log the Ship runs some times so fast that they would not have time to consider whether or not the Log weâ—t streight in the Ships way Once an hour they heave that Log and then mark down every time how many knots or Fathoms of the Line has run out and every day at noon they cast up the account of their running so that they reckon by this means how many Miles the Ship has run in four and twenty hours that is to say from noon of the preceeding to noon of the present day and this they set off with a Compass upon the Sea Chart that they may know where the Ship is Though this be a very useful invention yet it is not too much to be relyed upon else
thirty Marble Pillars The Dome is full of Pictures in Mosaick work and the Church is kept in so good repair that it seems to be new built Behind the High Altar is that miraculous Image of the Virgin painted on wood and the place where the Tree that carried it was planted that place being taken into the Church They tell of many Miracles wrought in that Church and of these I shall only relate one which is represented on the Altar-piece of the Altar before which it was wrought They say that one day when they were celebrating the Festival of that Church and all the Altars were deck'd as well as possibly they could be some Moors came in and would have robb'd the Ornaments of one Altar who going to it at a time when there was no body there one of them dropt something of iron which striking against the pavement made so great a fire that it burnt them to ashes in the same place and in the floor they shew a little hole which they say was made by the same iron St. John Baptist's Thumb They shew'd me a Thumb of St. John Baptist which seems to be of the same Hand that is kept in Malta And then a piece of the true Cross These Reliques are richly enchased The Convent of Niamoni rich Having taken a full view of the Church I went into the Convent which is very spacious and built in form of a Castle no Women ever enter it There are commonly two hundred Calloyers in that Convent governed by an Abbat and they never exceed that number When there are any vacant Places such as would supply them and be Calloyers pay an hundred Piastres and carry with them what Estate they have which they enjoy during life but after their death it belongs to the Convent and they cannot dispose in favour of a Relation or any body else but of a third of their Estates and that too upon condition that the Heir make himself a Calloyer in the same Convent and so they lose nothing of the Stock The Convent gives to every Calloyer daily black Bread Wine that is none of the best and rotten Cheese for the rest they must provide themselves as well as they can Such of them as are rich make good chear and live well at their own charges nay there are some that have good Horses to ride about on and take the air when they have a mind and the rest must make a shift with their commons yet they eat all together in their Refectory on Sundays and great Festivals When they die they are carried in their habit to a Church dedicated to St. Luke which is without the Convent where they lay them on an Iron-Grate and if any of the dead Bodies do not corrupt the rest of the Calloyers say it is a sign that they are excomunicated This Convent pays to the Grand Signior Five hundred Piastres a Year but it has above Threescore thousand Piastres of yearly Revenue and they have a Treasury where they keep above a Million of Gold They confessed to me themselves that almost two Thirds of the Island belonged to them for most People that die leave them some Houses some Lands and some Money which shews that it is not only among Roman Catholicks that Monks enjoy the Estates of several Houses and Families Bells at Niamoni and in other places of the Isle They have two great Bells in this Convent which pleased me a little when I heard them Ring because for a long time I had not heard the sound of any the Turks allowing them to Christians no where else but in the Island of Chio where there are little ones in every Village Without the Convent there is an Aqueduct of very good Water for the use of the Caloyers After I had sufficiently Reposed my self in that Convent I took my way to the Town and a little wide of the way to the Right Hand I saw the Church called the Incoronata which belongs to the Dominicans Another day I went to see Homer's School which is by the Sea-side Homer's School about a Mile from Chio it is a Rock somewhat rising and thereon as it were a square Altar about three Foot every way cut out of the same Rock and round it there are some Beasts represented in relief I observed an Ox a Wolf and such others and that is it they call the School of Homer Not far from thence there is Village called Ananato where they make Charcole and Pitch it contains about an Hundred and fifty Inhabitants and those of Chio say that Homer was born there Near to it there is a Vineyard that produces very good Wine which is commonly called Homer's Vineyard though there are others who say that it is near a Village called Cardamila ten Miles distant from the other and two Miles from the Sea where there is a good Harbour CHAP. LXIII Of some Villages of the Isle of Chio. HEre I shall mention the chief Villages of the Isle of Chio which I did not see but according as a Manuscript Relation that came to my Hands Written by one who lived several Years in that Island has informed me The Village of Cardamila which we just now mentioned Cardamila contains about Five hundred Inhabitants the Country about it is beautified by many fair Water Springs and is very Fertile yielding Yearly about an Hundred and sixty or seventy Tuns of Wine Some years ago several pieces of Gold Silver and Copper Money of the Emperour Constantine were found there Five Miles from that Village there is a lovely Valley half a Mile long A lovely Valley in the Isle of Chio. and therein a Spring of Water to which one goes down by a Stair-case of thirty lovely Marble steps At the farther end of this Valley there was a Temple built all of pieces of Ash-coloured Marble eight Hands breadth long and six broad which were well fastned together with Iron and Lead but the Country People have broken these fine Stones to get out the Mettal That place is called Naos that is to say Temple Naos Vichi the Gentlemen of Chio go commonly there for their Diversion Beyond that there is a Village called Vichi inhabited by Three hundred Souls and hath a Church dedicated to the Virgin. Farther on is Cambia containing an hundred Inhabitants Cambia this place lies amongst Rocks Hills and Woods of wild Pine-trees and there it is that they Fell the Timber for Building of Galleys there are several Churches here and there among the Mountains Below this Village is a Valley where there is a little Castle built upon a Rock that is almost Inaccessible The Inhabitants of the place say that formerly there was a Dragon found under that Castle The Mount of St. Elias Over against that place is the Mount of St. Elias which is the highest place of all the Island and may even be seen from Tenedo which is many Miles more than an
Frontispiece there is Table of Bas-reliefs reaching down to the Ground whereon Men are represented Fighting on Horse-back but it is somewhat defaced Two steps from thence there is another Table of Bas-reliefs two Foot from the Ground about a Fathom and a half high and three Fathom broad where you see a Gigantick Horse-man Armed Capapie having a Crown on his Head with a Globe upon it his Left Hand is upon the Handle of his Sword and with the Right he lifts up a Woman whom he holds by the Arm near to whom there is a Man kneeling and in supplicant manner streatching forth his Hands The people of the Country say that this Horse-man is Rustan who would carry away his own Daughter and that his Son the Maids Brother beseeches him to let her alone Behind the Horse-man there is another great Figure standing upright but much defaced it hath a long Cap round at the top this Figure is all over full of Inscriptions which seem to be Greek but so worn out that it cannot be Read four steps from thence there is another Frontispiece like the other two at the bottom whereof there is a Bas-relief but all defaced Twenty paces from thence there is a fourth Frontispiece more of the same likeness with a Bas-relief underneath representing men a fighting but it is a little ruinated Opposite to this place at a few paces distance from the Hill there is a square Building A square Building in fashion of a Tower three Fathom broad and four high with a Terrass over on the top there is a kind of Architrave of the Dorick Order all of a white shining stone like Marble though it be not all the stones are three Foot high or thereabouts and three Fathom long so that there is but one in each Lay of the front The Gate of this Building looks to the Hill and is three Fathom high and one Fathom wide it is above half filled up with large stones that have been put into it In the Lintel of the Gate there are two great round holes into which went the ends of the shutting Gates that served for Hinges On each of the other three faces there are six inches and two other square ones over them but less they are all of greyish and black stone and sixty paces from thence there is a round piece of Bas-relief An Altar An hundred paces more foreward there is a kind of a round Altar cut in the Rock two Fathom from the Ground at the bottom of which there is a Man with a Head-piece on his Head his two Hands rest upon his Sword which stands before him with the point downwards he is accompanied with five Men on his Right Hand and four on his Left all with Head-pieces on their Heads but of these five there is no more to be seen but the Bust all the rest from the Feet up to the Breast being as it were behind a stone or Parapet which is on each side none but he in the middle is seen all over all of them have their Hair and Beards made up in Tresses Bas-relief six paces from thence there is a piece in Bas-relief a Fathom from the Ground one Fathom and a half high and four Fathom broad representing two Gigantick Horse-men facing one another so that their Horses Heads touch one of the Horse-men hath a long Cap round at the top with a brim four Fingers broad in his Left Hand he holds a great Truncheon in manner of a Scepter and with his Righ the pulls a Ring which the other pulls also with his Right Hand and hath a Globe on his Head if we may believe the people of the Country these two Horse-men are Rustan Sal and Rustan Colades behind this latter there is a great Figure of a Man or Woman somewhat defaced streatching forth the Hand to hinder as it were the Globe which is on his Head from falling to the side of each Horse there is a Vessel for holding of water fastened with Chains and shaped like a Pine-Apple after the manner of the Levantines who carry always a Mataras full of water A Pillar upon a Rock Some paces from thence upon a rising Rock there is a Pillar four Foot high a little farther likewise upon a rising Rock there are two Pedestals by one another and besides there are other Pillars scattered up and down here and there The people of the Country believe that all these things have been made by Dgius or Spirits Dgius or Spirits whom as they say Solomon who had power over them commanded to Build them The truth is whoever were the Work-men they have been Artists for they are well done and of curious design The good people say more that in the Chamber of the first Frontispiece there is a Treasure but that one cannot come at it because one must go over a Wheel of stone that is in the Chamber and that a Man having once attempted it the Wheel turned and crushed him to pieces they may say what they please as to that because to get up to it there is need of such long Ladders that few would be at the pains to attempt it They say also that on another neighbouring Hill beyond this there was a Gate of a City which they call the City of Solomon another at that Pillar I mentioned The Town of Solomon which is to be seen on the Right Hand as you come from Mirchas-Chan and a third on the other side of Tschehel-minar if so that Town must have had above eight Agatsch in Circumference As for Tschehel-minar many are of Opinion that it was the Palace of the Kings of Persia who held their usual Residence in Persepolis which Alexander the Great being Drunk Burnt at the instigation of a Miss but besides that this place is too little for the compass of a Palace that might answer the magnificence of the Kings of Persia in those days the Tombs that are in the Hill shew the contrary moreover since these places seem never to have been covered I had rather think that it hath been some Temple and that is probable enough because of the Pillars on which were Idols and all know that the Temples of the Ancient Persians were uncovered These Buildings have been spoilt not only by the weather but also by Men especially by a Governour of Schiras whom covetousness prompted to make great havock of them because he was obliged to defray the charges of all whom Curiosity brought thither to see them which was like to have cost him his Head the King having been extreamly displeased at so unworthy an action At Nakschi Rustan and Tschehel-minar there are Birds as big as Black-Birds which have the Beak of the same bigness and length but both it and the rest of their body is of a Flesh-colour so that one would think at first fight that these Birds had no Feathers unless on the Head Wings and Tail which are black they are