The population of Venice is estimated to be three hundred thousand, and it is divided into three classes. Those of the first are called Patricii, and correspond to our _Meshaiékh_. To these belong the management of the state, and the affairs of government. Their principal is called _Doge_, which signifies Duke. He enters into all questions of law, but has not power to act until he has the voice of the people. Amongst the Christians a Duke corresponds to the _Begler Beg_ of the Mussulmans, except that the former has his own coin. Those constituting the second order are called _Istadinū_,[5] and to them are committed civil affairs, customs, and education. The third class is composed of merchants and artisans. In former times the power of this people was vested in a consul, but in the year 555 from the birth of Christ (upon whom be peace!) it was committed to a tribune or chief of a tribe; and this government continued two hundred and fifty-two years, till, in A. D. 707, it became a dukedom: so that from the commencement of the dukedom to the time of the writing of this book, which is A. H. 1067 (A. D. 1656), is a period of nine hundred and fifty years. To proceed: Mercator, the author of the Atlas, describing this city, speaks very highly of it, and says that it is the most celebrated city in the world; and being the common port of the universe, merchants of all sorts, and from the most distant countries, trade in it. The number of its inhabitants, and the extent of their wealth, are beyond conception. On this account the Christians call it the Paradise of the Earth: for although during a period of one thousand years it suffered much, yet it never was under a foreign power. For this reason the Venetians represent their city by the figure of a virgin holding a sword; and this figure they place in all their offices: for they state that her still holding the sword, signifies her having continued a virgin down to the present time. The above-mentioned book, which is an European work, in describing this city, gives the following statement: “that the first founding of Venice was, according to several historians, in A. D. 421, when the inhabitants of Patavia, being attacked by the Hungarians, left that town, and settling on these islands, commenced the building of Venice.” Several rivers from the territory of Lombardy fall into the Gulf near it; and the greatest part of the provisions consumed in the city are brought down these rivers. Here terminates the description as given in European books; but Piri Reis in his Bahria says, that ships bound for Venice first touch at Parenza, which is a fort in the territory of Istria, and distant about one hundred miles from Venice. They cannot proceed without a pilot on account of the shallows; they therefore engage one to conduct them from this place. They then proceed till they come in sight of Iskandil and Marco-chaklik: the latter is a high castle, which appears first, and