the _Black Sea_, but also all Sea Port and Island Towns are obliged to court the Friendship of this City. Besides, ’tis impossible for any Ships to pass or repass, either from _Asia_ or _Europe_, but at her Pleasure, she being as it were the Bridge and Port of both those Worlds; nay, I might call her the Continent that joins them, did not the _Hellespont_ divide them. But this Sea is thought, in many Respects, to be inferior to that of _Constantinople_; first, as it is much larger, and then, as not having a Bay as that has, by which its City might be made a _Peninsula_, and a commodious Port for Ships: And indeed if it had such a Bay, yet could it reap no Advantage of Commerce from the _Black Sea_, but by the Permission of the People of _Constantinople_. _Constantine_ at first began to build a City upon _Sigeum_, a Promontory hanging over the Straits of the _Hellespont_; but quitting that Situation, he afterwards pitch’d upon a Promontory of _Byzantium_. _Troy_, I acknowledge, is a magnificent City, but they were blind, who could not discover the Situation of _Byzantium_; all stark blind, who founded Cities within View of it, either on the Coast of the _Hellespont_, or the _Propontis_; which though they maintain’d their Grandeur for some Time, yet at present are quite in Ruins, or have only a few Streets remaining, and which, if they were all rebuilt, must be in Subjection to _Constantinople_, as being superior in Power to all of them. Wherefore we may justly entitle her the Key, not only of the _Black Sea_, but also of the _Propontis_ and the _Mediterranean Sea_. _Cyzicus_ (now called _Chazico_) is highly in Esteem, for that it joins by two Bridges the Island to the Continent, and unites two opposite Bays, and is, as _Aristides_ informs us, the Bond of the _Black_, and the _Mediterranean Sea_; but any Man, who has his Eyes in his Head, may see, that ’tis but a very weak one. The _Propontis_ flows in a broad Sea, between _Cyzicus_ and _Europe_; by which Means as a Passage is open into both Seas, though the People of _Cyzicus_ should pretend to dispute it; so they on the other hand, should the People of _Hellespont_ or _Constantinople_ contest it with them, could have no Advantage of the Commerce of either of those Seas. I shall say nothing at present of _Heraclea_, _Selymbria_, and _Chalcedon_, seated on the Coast of the _Propontis_, anciently Cities of Renown, both for the Industry of their Inhabitants, and the Agreeableness of their Situation; but they could never share in the principal Commodities of other Towns of Traffick, in the Neighbourhood of the Port of _Constantinople_, which was always look’d upon as impregnable. The Harbours of those Cities have lain for a considerable time all under Water, so that they were not of sufficient Force to sail the _Bosporus_ and the _Hellespont_, without the Permission of the Inhabitants of those Places: But the _Byzantians_ rode Masters of the _Black Sea_, in Defiance of them all.