There is no port like it in the Black Sea; a kind of pearl was formerly fished for here; the shells still lie on the shore; another reason why the castle is called Kevhergán (jewel-mine). The Russians anchor here every year, without the least apprehension, and fish for pearls. If this castle was put into good condition, with a sufficient garrison and ammunition, it would be easy to keep all Abáza and Circassia in complete obedience. The Noghais also bring merchandise to this port in complete security. While I, poor Evliyá, was remaining at Anapa with the Yenicherí-agassí of Konia, the Imperial fleet made its appearance in the Black Sea, and came to anchor at noon in the port of Anapa. They stayed three days, during which time all the small craft which had been left behind arrived, and took in water. I and the Aghá of Konia waited on the Kaima-kám of the Aghá of the Janissaries with some presents. I then waited on the Lord High Admiral Delí Hossein Páshá, who assigned me a tent and rations, made me his Múezzin and gave me a passage on board the galley of his Kiaya Welí. On the following day the 12th Sha’bán, 1053, the Imperial flag was hoisted, and at noon, the gun for departure being fired, we left Anapa and made sail for Assov. Sultán Murad IV. had planned a great expedition against the Maltese, who alone remained to be subdued after the conquest of Baghdád, when he was removed by death; amongst the fleet fitted out for the purpose there were two immense large ships, called Kara Maona, of three hundred guns. After his death the Infidels everywhere raised their heads against the Ottoman Empire, and the Khán of the Crimea reported to Kara Mustafa Páshá, the great Vezír of Sultán Ibrahím, that the Russians had overran and plundered the districts of Crimea and Assov. At last one hundred thousand Cossacks took the fortress of Assov after a siege of forty days. Eighty thousand Cossacks remained in possession of it, and one hundred and fifty boats, manned by the rest, infested all the shores of the Black sea. This news having spread to Constantinople, Imperial rescripts were sent throughout the whole of Rúmelí. Kojá Gurjí Canaan Páshá, the governor of Ozakov, and the Governor of Rúmelí with twenty-eight sanjak Begs, forty thousand Tátárs of Búják, and forty thousand infidels of Moldavia and Valachia, and twenty thousand Transylvanians, surrounded the fortress of Assov on the land side. On the seaside came the Imperial fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys, as many frigates, two hundred shaikas and karamursal, altogether four hundred ships having forty thousand men on board, which had weighed anchor in the port of Anapa, passed the mouth of the river Kúbán, and the castle of Tamán; on our left hand was the Crimea with the point of Kilissejík, and opposite on the right, the point Chúcka on the peninsula of Tamán. These two points are but a mile distant, and the inside of this strait is called the sea of Assov. We entered it with