Touring in 1600: A Study in the Development of Travel as a Means of EducationBates, E. S. (Ernest Stuart)
History
Touring in 1600: A Study in the Development of Travel as a Means of Education
Bates, E. S. (Ernest Stuart)
Europe -- Description and travel; Europe -- Social life and customs; Travel -- History
Or again; once, on the way to Constantinople, they were near land and
he made a day's excursion. Returning at evening, he found the captain
lying dripping wet, struggling, it seemed, with death. The crew were
all quarrelling, some on board, some on shore. "Amongst the rest there
was a blind man who had married a young wife that would not let him
lie with her and thereupon had undertaken this journey to complain
unto the Patriarch. He, hearing his brother cry out at the receipt of
a blow, guided to the place by the noise and thinking with his staff
to have struck the striker, laid it on with such force that, meeting
with nothing but air, he fell into the sea, and was with difficulty
preserved from drowning. The clamour increased; and anon the captain,
starting up as if of a sudden restored to life, like a madman skips
into the boat, and drawing a Turkish scimitar, beginneth to lay about
him (thinking that his vessel had been surprised by pirates): whereupon
they all leaped into the sea, and diving under the water ascended
outside the reach of his fury. Leaping ashore, he pursues my Greek
guide, whom fear made too nimble for him, mounting a steep cliff which
at another time he could have hardly ascended. Then turning upon me
(who was only armed with stones) as God would have it, he stumbled,
and there lay like a stone for two hours, that which had made them so
quarrelsome being now the peace-maker. For it being proclaimed death
to bring wine into Constantinople and they loath to pour such good
liquor into the sea, had made their bellies their overcharged vessels."
But it would be doing the Levant injustice to let the last word on
it be an explained miracle, and therefore you may be informed on the
testimony of John Newberie, citizen and merchant of London, who, "being
desirous to see the world," has become enrolled in the band of Purchas,
His Pilgrims, that there was a small isle near Melos, to wit, the Isola
de' Diavoli, uninhabited but by devils; and if any vessels are moored
thereto, as may be done, the water being deep by the shore, the ropes
loose their hold unless the sailors make a cross with every two cables.
And once upon a time, when a Florentine galley was moored there without
a cross, a loud voice was heard warning the sailors to row away.
And lastly, this is what happened when a funeral had to take place at
sea; an inventory of the deceased's goods was made, the ship's bell
was rung twice, a fire-brand thrown into the sea, and the announcement
made: "Gentlemen mariners, pray for the soul of poor —— whereby,
through God's mercy, he may rest with the souls of the faithful." But
it is pleasant to say that on the only occasion this form of burial is
recorded the deceased was alive, if not kicking; he was at his post,
the "look out," curled up asleep, as he had been for forty-eight hours
previously, sleeping off the effects of Greek wine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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