principally I discovered the Situation of the fourteen _Wards_ of the City. The Inhabitants are daily demolishing, effacing, and utterly destroying the small Remains of Antiquity; so that whosoever shall engage himself in the same Enquiries after me, though they may far exceed me in Industry and Application, yet they will not be able to make any farther Discoveries of the _Monuments_ of the fourteen Wards. But it is not my Intention to prefer my self above other Writers; if I can any way be assistant to future Times, my End is answered. I hope I need make no Apology for recording in History such _Monuments_ as are falling into Ruines; and if my Stay at _Constantinople_ was somewhat longer than I intended, I hope it will not be any Imputation upon me, as it was occasioned by the Death of my Royal Master. It was by his Command that I travelled into _Greece_, not with any Design of staying long at _Constantinople_, but to make a Collection of the antient _Greek_ MSS. Not with any Intention of describing only that City; but as a farther Improvement of Human Knowledge, that I might delineate the Situation of several other Places and Cities. Upon the Death of my King, (not having Remittances sufficient) I was forc’d, with a small Competency, to travel thro’ _Asia_, and _Greece_, to this Purpose; and I can assure the Reader, that I did not undertake this Voyage upon any Prospect of sensual Pleasure, any View of worldly Interest, or any Affectation of popular Applause; no, I could have liv’d in Ease, more to my own Advantage; and in a much better State of Health, as to all Appearance, in my own Countrey. Not all the Dangers and Inconveniencies of a long and a laborious Voyage could ever move me to a speedy Return. How I came to engage my self in such unfortunate Travels I know not. I was very apprehensive of the Troubles and Dangers, which I must necessarily undergo, and which indeed have befallen me, before I ventur’d upon such an Undertaking; yet I would willingly persuade my self, that my Resolutions herein were Good, and my Design Honourable; being confirm’d in the Opinion of the _Platonists_, That _we ought to be indefatigable in the Search of Truth_; and, _That ’tis beneath a Man to give over, when his Enquiries are Useful, and Becoming_. [Illustration: Page Decoration] [Illustration: _The_ Thracian Bosporus _with_ Constantinople _divided into Wards_.] [Illustration: CONSTANTINOPOLIS _The_ DELINEATION _of_ CONSTANTINOPLE _as it stood in the Year 1422 before it fell under the Dominion of the Turks_ _From Du Fresne Lib. 1. p. 1._ 1. _Ecclesia Apostolorum._ 2. _Ecclesia Sanctæ Sophiæ._ 3. _S. Joh. de Studio._ 4. _Portus Palatii._ 5. _Hodegetria._ 6. _S. Demetrius._ 7. _Porta Iudæa._ 8. _Porta Piscaria._ 9. _Contoscalium._ _J. Tinney Sculp._] [Illustration: _The Ichnography or Groundplot of the Church of_ Sancta Sophia _from Du Fresne_.