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Richard Hakluyt - Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, 10
bagge wherein was forty thousand veneseanders (ech veneseander being two pardawes) which was when
they were in prison. And that they had alwayes put him in comfort to accomplish his desire: vpon the
which promise he gaue them their money againe, which otherwise they should not so lightly haue come
by, or peraduenture neuer, as he openly sayd: and in the ende he called them hereticks, and spies, with a
thousand other railing speeches, which he vttered against them. The English man that was become a
Iesuite, hearing that his companions were gone, and perceiuing that the Iesuites shewed him not so great
fauour, neither vsed him so well as they did at the first, repented himselfe; and seeing he had not as then
made any solemne promise, and being counselled to leaue the house, and tolde that he could not want a
liuing in the towne, as also that the Iesuites could not keepe him there without he were willing to stay, so
they could not accuse him of any thing, he tolde them flatly that he had no desire to stay within the
Cloister. And although they vsed all the meanes they could to keepe him there, yet he would not stay, but
hired an house without the Cloister, and opened shoppe, where he had good store of worke: and in the
end married a Mestizos daughter of the towne, so that he made his account to stay there while he liued.
By this English man I was instructed of all the wayes, trades, and voyages of the countrey, betweene
Aleppo and Ormus, and of all the ordinances and common customes which they vsually holde during
their voyage ouer the land, as also of the places and townes where they passed. And since those English
mens departures from Goa, there neuer arriued any strangers, either English or others, by land, in the
sayd countreys, but onely Italians which dayly traffique ouer land, and vse continuall trade going and
comming that way.
* * * * *
The voyage of M. Iohn Eldred to Trypolis in Syria by sea, and from thence
by land and riuer to Babylon and Balsara. 1583.
I departed out of London in the ship called the Tiger, in the company of M. Iohn Newbery, M. Ralph
Fitch, and sixe or seuen other honest marchants vpon Shroue munday 1583, and arriued in Tripolis of
Syria the first day of May next insuing: at our landing we went on Maying vpon S. Georges Iland, a place
where Christians dying aboord the ships, are woont to be buried. In this city our English marchants haue
a Consull, and our nation abide together in one house with him, called Fondeghi Ingles, builded of stone,
square, in maner like a Cloister, and euery man hath his seuerall chamber, as it is the vse of all other
Christians of seuerall nations. [the description of Tripolis in Syria.] This towne standeth vnder a part of
the mountaine of Libanus two English miles distant from the port: on the side of which port, trending in
forme of an halfe Moone, stand fiue blocke houses or small forts, wherein is some very good artillery,
and the forts are kept with about an hundred Ianisaries. Right before this towne from the seaward is a
banke of mouing sand, which gathereth and increaseth with the Western winds, in such sort, that,
according to an olde prophesie among them, this banke is like to swallow vp and ouerwhelme the towne:
for euery yere it increaseth and eateth vp many gardens, although they vse all policy to diminish the
same, and to make it firme ground. The city is about the bignesse of Bristow, and walled about, though
the walles be of no great force. The chiefe strength of the place is in a Citadell, which standeth on the
South side within the walles, and ouerlooketh the whole towne, and is strongly kept with two hundred
Ianisaries and good artillery. [Store of white silke.] A riuer passeth thorow the midst of the city,
wherewith they water their gardens and mulbery trees, on which there grow abundance of silke wormes,
wherewith they make great quantity of very white silke, which is the chiefest naturall commodity to be
found in and about this place. This rode is more frequented with Christian marchants, to wit, Venetians,
Genouois, Florentines, Marsilians, Sicilians, Raguses, and lately with English men, then any other port of
the Turks dominions. [The city of Hammah.] From Tripolis I departed the 14 of May with a carauan,
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