The flow of pilgrims was naturally influenced by the social and political events of the day. Of those who took the Long Pilgrimage, six,[264] between the years 1331 and 1346, wrote an account of their journey, and made mention of Sinai. After this there was a break, no doubt attributable to the Black Death which swept across Europe in 1348-49, and to the war which Peter, king of Cyprus, waged on Egypt, which led to the sack of Alexandria in 1365. Towards the close of the century pilgrims again became numerous, and six further accounts between the years 1384 and 1397 describe a visit to St. Katherine.[265] Again, during the first half of the fifteenth century visitors to St. Katherine were relatively few, whereas large parties of pilgrims sought the convent between 1460 and 1497, several members of the same party sometimes writing a description of their journey. The pilgrims, for the most part, sailed from a port in Italy, more especially from Genoa or Venice, in galleys, which were timed to meet the caravans which brought the produce of the East to Alexandria and Jaffa. From Alexandria they went to Babylon (Cairo), where they procured a _firmân_ from the Sultan which established their peaceful intentions in the eyes of the Bedawyn (Baldensel, p. 343; Frescobaldo, 1384, p. 99, etc.). Or they went to Jaffa and Jerusalem where those who wished to extend their pilgrimage to Sinai proceeded on mule-back to Gaza, where camels were chartered for crossing the desert. Travel was facilitated at the time by the permanent foothold which the Franciscans, following in the wake of St. Francis himself (1226), had secured at Jerusalem and at Gaza, and by the establishment, in various cities, of consuls whose chief duty it was to befriend and protect the pilgrims. The cities of Florence, Venice, Genoa, and the Catalans each had a consul in Alexandria in 1384 (Frescobaldo, p. 72). Venice had a consul in Jaffa in 1413, and one in Jerusalem in 1415.[266] There was a house or hostel set apart for the use of pilgrims in Cairo in 1384 (Sigoli, p. 16), where food was given to poor pilgrims who were on their way to St. Katherine (Martone, p. 596).