called delectable and a fruitful land, that was made moist with the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; which is the same land that our Lord promised us in heritage. And in that land he would die, as seised[285] to leave it to us, his children. Wherefore every good Christian man, that is of power, and hath whereof, should labour with all his strength to conquer our right heritage, and drive out all the unbelieving men. For we are called Christian men, after Christ our father. And if we be right children of Christ, we ought to claim the heritage that our father left us, and take it out of heathen men's hands. But now pride, covetousness, and envy have so inflamed the hearts of worldly lords, that they are busier to disinherit their neighbours than to claim or conquer their right heritage aforesaid. And the common people, that would put their bodies and their goods to conquer our heritage, may not do it without the lords. For an assembly of people without a chieftain, or a chief lord, is as a flock of sheep without a shepherd; the which departeth and disperseth, and know never whither to go. But would God, that the temporal lords and all worldly lords were at good accord, and with the common people would take this holy voyage over the sea! Then I believe confidently, that, within a little time, our right heritage aforesaid should be recovered and put in the hands of the right heirs of Jesus Christ. And forasmuch as it is long time past that there was no general passage or voyage over the sea, and many men desiring to hear speak of the Holy Land, and have thereof great solace and comfort, I, John Maundeville, knight, albeit I be not worthy, who was born in England, in the town of Saint Albans, passed the sea in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1322, on the day of St. Michael; and hitherto have been a long time over the sea, and have seen and gone through many divers lands, and many provinces, and kingdoms, and isles, and have passed through Tartary, Persia, Ermony, (Armenia) the Little and the Great; through Lybia, Chaldea, and a great part of Ethiopia; through Amazonia, India the Less, and the Greater, a great part; and throughout many other isles that are about India; where dwell many divers folks, and of divers manners and laws, and of divers shapes of men. Of which lands and isles I shall speak more plainly hereafter. And I shall devise you some part of things that are there, when time shall be as it may best come to my mind; and especially for them that will and are in purpose to visit the holy city of Jerusalem, and the holy places that are thereabout. And I shall tell the way that they shall hold thither; for I have oftimes passed and ridden the way, with good company of many lords: God be thanked!