MY duetie and loue premised . I craue your pardon Sir , for not writing you by the last shippes : my much distractednesse with the nouelty of the place , and my new employment , made mee forget almost my selfe , or else surely I should scarce haue forgotten you : to repay that negligence , behold , what I sent , and doe send in parcels to others , I here make vp a compleat body for your viewe , the summary of those few obseruations , which I did take in my iourney , and haue taken of Aleppo .

Hauing past the Flats without danger ( God be thanked , ) we lay wind-bound a fort-night at Deale . At last God sending vs a faire winde we loosed , and sayling pleasantly alongst our owne coast iust afore the winde , neuer did so much as tacke about , or loosen sayle , till for feare of ouershooting the Straights mouth , we were glad to lie a Hull .

The next day , he that hath the windes in his hand , commanded them to follow vs ; and wee finding our selues too farre North , steared our course toward the South : scarce had we kept this course fiue howers , but wee spied land towards the North , it beeing very foggy towards the South , and the Mariners making it , found it to be Ape hill ; That one of Hercules his pillars which standeth on the Affrick shoare , or rather indeed one of the Iawes of that straight mouth which opens into the vaste Mediterranean sea . The other being the high hill of Gibralter on the Spanish coast . Wee entered these Iawes with a prosperous gale , and with the currant wee slid along the Spanish coast , their old and new Gibralter , their Malaga and many other townes , many hundred forts . I meane not to write you a Diarie , but an Epitomie . Your owne skill in Geography can direct you ( I know ) not onely through the Mediterranean , but the World . Where you cannot onely follow vs , but preuent my discourse of this passage .

The first port we made ( after a little tossing in the gulfe of Leons ) was Legorne , in the Dukedome of Florence . There we stayed three weekes . The currences that I then obserued ( beside the historicall , which before this I know you haue heard ) were these .

Legorne is the onely Port-towne of the Florentine : strong in its situation , stronger in its Garrison which is alwayes there resident . The first & last Masse that euer I heard , or hope shal heare , was at a conuent of Capuchins a mile hence . Where one morning , I and others walking to see the conuent , it was our lucke finding their Chappell open to enter it . Where vnexpectedly we found what we little looked for , the Friar at the Masse . Being entred , there was no retiring at the doore , yet we found one into a corner ; Where we beheld with a pleasing detestation , their ridiculous superstition . The Priest he mumbled Latin , and the people as though they had beene his Apes , when hee beat his breast they beat theirs , when hee lifted vp the Hoste , they lifted vp their eyes and hands , when hee kneeled , they did , and yet vnderstood not one word what he said . I pittied them that serued the Lord of Spirits , not in Spirit and Truth , but in a mimicall action ; and yet ( if charitie had not preuailed against reason ) I should and might haue doubted , Ridendi magis essent hi , magis anne dolendi : I cannot but say of theirs what Lactantius saith of the heathenish seruice of the Heathens to their gods . Lactan : lib. 1. Inst: c. 21. Quis non rideat , cum videat homines ea serio facere , quae si quis faciat in Lusu , nimis lascivus et ineptus esse videatur .

Being to stay in Legorne three weekes , I deemed it ( though there bee no Inquisition there ) not safe to stay there all the time , fearing that either by the sight of their abominations , or some attracted notes of me amongst the Italians , I might endanger my selfe : I tooke horse therefore and rid to Pisa , one of the two Vniuersities of the Florentine : Florence being the other . And what I came for there , I had free libertie to obserue , their monuments and their manners ; which in briefe were these .

I saw there first their Church of St. Stephen , and the Colledge of their Knights all going in long blacke cloakes with the party white and red Crosse. In their Church I saw our Ladies Picture more gloriously apparrelled then any of our picture ( I would say painted ) Ladies in England are , when they would seeme most glorious to dazell the eyes of doting Courtiers . Thence I went to see their Schooles built like ours , but the comparison of ours and theirs is like chalke and cheese : they haue onely foure filled with seates like the bodies of our Parish Churches in England , and the Readers pewes standing , some in the midst , some at the end of them .

The next thing was the Hospitall of Bastards , maintained and brought vp , as they are begotten in common : for Stewes beeing heere allowed , all haue free accesse , and if children be begotten it is good reason all should pay for their bringing vp . Here they are put in by the Ouerseers of the Hospitall at a litle Iron grate , none knowing whose they are ; Here they are brought vp neither knowing Father nor Mother , and as they are capable they are bestowed , some to Prent●zes , some to Schooles , some to other things . It being vsuall with the whores their mothers , and the knaues Friers , &c: their Fathers , to set some secret marke vpon them , and so when they come to yeares to know them , whom at their birth they durst not acknowledge . Sure hee was some charitable whoore-master that was the founder of this honest Hospitall . Hauing seene and knowne Italy , I shall neuer wonder nor pitty it , if all our deboyst drunkards and whoore-masters turne Papists : and wish that they onely .

The next thing worthy note , was their great indeed , and stately Church ; whose brazen gates in dumbe pictures speake the history of the Gospell . Beside it , they shewed vs a litle plot of earth , which they say was conueied from Ierusalem , and is able to dissolue a carkasse into dust within the space of foure and twenty houres . In the same Church-yard there is a Belfraye from the very foundation to the top stooping , not through any infirmitie of age but so built . It is a saying among them that the great Duke hath three wonderfull Towers ; one in the water at Legorne , whose foundation is laid in the Sea , and is a Lanthorne or Watch-tower . Another on the land , this at Pisa. The third in the aire at Florence : whose foundation being vpon a wal of three yardes high , and one foot broad , all the body seemeth to hang in the aire , a curious peece of workemanship , they say that haue seene it ; I did not .

But to returne to Pisa : other things worthy the noting there , was their Physitians Gallery furnished with the rarities of nature , diuers Mummies , curious Anatomies , all kind of Minerals , the rarest drugs , bread and cheese conuerted into stone , rare fishes , the skins and feathers of strange birds and beasts , all their medicinable parts ; and as though they would rob nature to make this her treasury , here is ( if you will beleeue them ) the Phoenix his head : But I thinke it is rather a Pelicans , for at Smyrna I did see a liue Pelican with iust such another head . Adioyning to this curious gallery is the garden of Physitians , wherein we being wearied with seeing diuersitie of Simples and Hearbes , for a compendium it was told vs , there were two thousand kinds of Simples in that garden . This garden is of no great extent , but most exceeding pleasant ; curiously diuided into plots according to the nature of the hearbes there planted , the cold by themselues , the hot by themselues , &c. From Pisa we returned to Legorne , and so to Sea ; and sayling along the pleasant coast of Italy , and then Calabria , not alwayes hauing the land in sight , at last we passed by a litle Island some fiue Leagues before we come to Sicilia , which belcheth out continually huge flames of fire . I did see it vomit vp eight times while we sayled in sight of it : the name of this Island is Strumbola . The next morning we discouered Sicilia , and the Calabrian coast , and to the eye were lockt in on euery side with land . At last we opened that ancient and dangerous Gutt that openeth into the Phare of Messina . Here before we durst enter , we expected a Pilot ; this old Scilla and Charibdes , though it bee not so much feared as it was in ancient times , yet it is as dangerous as euer it was : on the Calabrian shoare there are fearefull rockes , and a strong currant , on the Sicilian shoare fearefull sands . The midst the safest , but hard to bee hit when the windes are high , hard to bee kept by reason of the currant . The old towne Scilla standeth still vpon the Calabrian shoare , Statio male fida carinis : whether seldome or neuer any ships but wrackt ones approach : But God bee thankt wee past it without all danger , and sayling in the deepe Phare betwixt the pleasant Sicilia and Calabria wee at last came to an anchor some three miles short of the ancient , still flourishing Messina , a most goodly citie to the eye , ( for we did not goe ashoare , but onely deliuered some goods there ) iust ouer against it on the Calabrian coast standeth the as ancient , but lesse flourishing Rhegium . The same day , to my no little and the rest of the passengers griefe , wee were rauished from Sicilia , which had rauished vs with delight . The Sea which parteth Sicilia from Calabria is three Leagues ouer , but seemeth to the eye scarce three miles . Sayling along here , we ( at last ) espied the scortched toppe of Boiling Aetna , now Monge Bella ; whose Bellowes yet goe , but age hath tamed him , that hee doth not now burst out as he vsed to doe . After this some dayes enterposed wee entered the Archipelagus ▪ now the Arches , and there sayled ouer almost all Homers Iliads ; the litle Ilands of the great Kings that inuaded Troy . The first was now called Seruga ; the whole possessions of Menalaus ; The most famous of them are ●ndria , Negropont , Tenos , Melos , Antimelos , the double Delos now vninhabited , and onely sought vnto for the vaste reliques of Apolloes Temple , enuironed with those Iles which encircle it , and commonly and truely called the Cyclades . These are Surffo , Surffanto , Mycona , &c. At this A●ycona wee stayed three dayes by reason of the extreamitie of weather : A barren Iland of small extent some fifteene miles in compasse , wholly inhabited by poore Greekes , hauing but one , I cannot tell whether to call it , village or towne of the same name with the Iland , subiect to the Dominion and spoile of the Turkes . In all my life I neuer saw a place better peopled with woemen ; their number exceeding the number of men fiue for one : The barrennesse of the I le is much helped with the industry of the people , forcing corne out of the rocky mountaines , scarce passable for men : yet they continue so poore by reason of the Turkes pillages , that vnlesse they were merry Greekes indeed , any would wonder what delight they could take in-liuing , liuing in continuall feare , in continuall and extreame necessitie . Here ( as Trauellers vse to doe ) the first thing I visited was one of their Churches : where by chance I found their Septuagint , and an old man nothing differing in pouerty or habit from the rest , there conning his lesson , I tooke the Bible and red in it ; he stood amazed at it , and offring to kisse my hand spoke to me in the common Greeke , which is so degenerate from the true and ancient , that there is either none or litle affinitie betwixt them . I answered in the learned , but I perceiued he vnderstood me as much as I did him , which was scarce one word . Then I thinking that though hee vnderstood not me he vnderstood the Bible , I spoke my minde to him by pointing out sentences in the Bible , but he vnderstood them as much as hee did me . I wondred at their ignorance , and Gods Iustice : and relating this story to one of the Merchants that had liued some time amongst them at Sio , hee told mee that none of their Colieroes but that read the Bible in the learned Greeke , their Leturgy being in the same , but scarce one of a hundred could vnderstand it . I did not wonder at this , calling to minde the history of our Masse-mumbling Priests in Queene Maries dayes . In all their Churches fairer then their ordinary houses , scarce either fairer or larger then ours , they haue printed , but no carued Images . From hence we loosed , and sayling by the famous Chios now Sios , and Mitelene old Lesbos , mixtly inhabited with Turkes and Greekes , and onely the ruines of what they were , At Port Gabro a part of Mitelene wee parted with our consorts , they towards Constantinople , we to the Bottom .

The next port we made was Smirna , ( that famous primitiue Church ) now not to be found in the now Smirna , all buried vnder the beastly new Turkish Smirna , so that the nouelties haue swalowed vp the antiquities , and the very ruines of old Smirna are ruined : onely there remaineth a deformed forme of the ancient Amphi-theater whose Arena is now seated with Oliue trees ; and Policarpus his Miter in the custody of the Turke : which I rather thinke to haue beene the cappe of some Turkish Santone , for it is all ouer wrought with Turkish letters . Loosing hence wee sailed by Pathmos , Rhodes and Cyprus , who are better described by the learned pennes of many of our English , then they can be by mee , who onely passed by them and had no opportunity to obserue them .

At last ( by Gods fauour ) wee arriued in safety at Alexandretta alias Scanderone , which we found full of the carcases of houses , not one house in it . It hauing beene a litle before sackt by the Turkish Pyrats . The vnwholesomest place in the world to liue in , by reason of the grosse fogges that both discend from the high mountaines , and ascend from the moorish valleys . The hilles about it are so high , that till ten of the clocke in the morning the Sunne seldome or neuer peepeth ouer them . Here wee tooke horse , ( not daring to stay aboue two houres ) for Aleppo , paying two and twenty Dollars for a Ianizarie to be our guide , six Dollars and a halfe a man for our horses , besides halfe a Dollar a day to find our horses meate : our noone and nights lodging were the open fields , our victuals such as wee brought from Scanderone ; our Guide proud and surly , our iourney the most troublesome that any before ( by relation ) euer had . Aleppo is but distant from Alexandretta threescore miles English , yet we made foure dayes iourneys of it : and were ( though others by reason of the extreame heate of the Countrey vse onely to trauell vpon the night ) forced to trauell day and night . We ( but then we knew it not ) were within a flight shot almost of the fort of Christendom , the ancient and famous Antioch : and hauing all the day before ridden along the plaines of Antioche in the scortching of the Sunne , some three houres before night wee crossed the riuer Orontes with no little danger , and brought those very hilles which wee descended in the morning about midnight iust opposite to vs , there beeing not for all that dayes iourney riding , halfe a mile got towards the finishing of our iourney ; it being an vsuall roguery of the Ianizaries to lead the passengers out of their way , that being so much longer on their way , they might get so many moe halfe Dollars . We did see in this iourney the foundations of many large cities , & in one place the steeple of a Church inuironed with the wals of a seeming , decayed , yet large Monasterie ; which we pittying , and enquiring what it had beene : either our Ianizarie through ignorance could not , or through surlinesse would not tell vs . God preserued vs almost to a miracle in helth , and the fourth day about noone , being the twenty sixt of Iune , we arriued at Aleppo : where I found my welcome exceed my hopes : and where euer since , ( the Lord be praised for it ) I enioy as good health as my dearest friend could wish me .

The aire here is most subtile , most pure , so that he which bringeth no diseases with him is troubled with few : from the end of May , till the end of October wee see no cloudes . The heat , though it be great , is more temperate then Spaine , lesse dangerous then Italy ; much amitigated by a Westerly wind which bloweth here all the Summer long ; yet by reason of the heate , as in all hote Countries , men are much subiect to Feauers , which are seldome vehement ; alwayes either soone preuented , or speedily cured . Our countrey men and the nations both obserue , that once in ten yeare the countrey is infected with the Pest , but which is wonderfull , begin when it will , it neuer endureth longer then the Twelfth of Iuly ; so that , though it rage vpon the eleuenth , after the twelfth none are infected ; O the wonderfull workes of God .

The countrey is part of Syria , & aboundeth , as of old , with superfluitie of all necessaries : vnhappy in nothing but the cursed Lords of it , the Turkes : The land cries out on the slothfulnes of the owners ; and the vnhusbanded plaines , for many miles together blame their stupidity . The Lord when it pleaseth him will cast out these vsurpers , ( and as I hope and pray ) restore it to the true owners , the Christians . The City of Aleppo standeth in a valley which seemeth to contend with it selfe whether it should bee more pleasant or fruitfull . It is 〈◊〉 walled about , but weakely in respect of our Cities in Christendome : by reason of the oft change of Lords it hath lost the history of its owne antiquitie : so that both Turkes and Christians , ( the now inhabitants of it ) are ignorant what it was before it was conquered by Selimus the great Turke , and beeing circumcised by him , was called by the Conquerour Alep , which in the Arabick tongue signifieth milke , by reason of the abundance of it hereabout : yet in all probabilitie it was that Zobah mentioned , 2. Sam. 8. Being within twelue miles of the valley of salt where Dauid did fight with Hadedezer King of Zobah , and there being not beside it in all these parts the lest Vestigia of any City . And the Turkes and Iewes both haue a tradition that the Castle was built by Ioab : howsoeuer it was not famous till of late , yet surely it was before .

For the Inhabitants of it , and the concourse of people , it is an Epitome of the whole world . There scarce being a Nation of the old World , ( except that all-hated Spaniard ) who hath not some trading either here or hither . English , French , Dutch , Italian , Iewes , Greekes , Persians , Moores , Indians , & c.. Men of all Countries , of all Religions : Georgians , Nestorians , Cophti , Arminians , Georgians , &c. The description of whose different customes in their conuersation , and tenents in their Religion , deserueth rather a volume then a letter : and a more appropriated obseruer of them , then I can bee . Wherefore omitting them , I will onely acquaint you with some obseruations of not ordinary things that are , and haue happened in and about Aleppo .

About a mile from Aleppo South-west , there is a litle craggy mountaine of Oyster and Cockle shels and fishe bones , though the name of Oyster or Cockle be neuer heard of in Aleppo , The Sea being threescore mile off : vnder this hill is a litle house or caue , wherein in a stone vpon the pauement is the print of a mans hand which the Turkes say was Halies , as much reuerenced by the Persian Mahumetans , ( who maintaine him to be Mahomets successor ) as our Ladies pictures in Spaine or Italy , but with farre lesse pompe , farre lesse superstition , farre lesse Idolatry . Neare this there are Saxa loquacia , Graue stones that being beat vpon , sound like our bels in Europe . About twelue miles East from Aleppo , is the valley of Salt , a great lane , whose extent neither a whole dayes trauell , nor any report , could certifie vs . That which wee saw of it was partly couered with water , part with a short grasse , partly with sands like the sea shore . The water is saltish , and being dried vp by the heate of the sea , the sand that is left , raked together without further helpe either of mans wit or industry , becommeth perfect and fine salt , in such abundance , that it is sufficient not onely to serue Syria , but is transported into Arabia , Persia , and other adiacent countries .

The next obseruable thing is a famous Aquaduct that serueth and sufficeth the whole Citie with water ; a relique either of the Romans curiositie , or the Christians care : now vsefull to those that are most vnworthy of it , the Turkes . The fountaine heads are seuen miles from Aleppo , where many fountaines vent themselues by subterranean passages into 3. little lakes ; whence the waters , ( being drained into a narrow stone chanell of one yard broad & three deepe Hast to Aleppo . And being before they come thither , receiued into wodden pipes , are conueied into the curious cesternes , which are in the Courts of their Mos'kehs or Churches , whence either it is fetched for priuate vses , or forct to wash the stinking feet of the profane Turke before they enter vnto their bawling deuotion .

One strange thing more there is . The rubbish and filth of the City throwen out about the wals in very few yeeres hardeneth it selfe into a rocke .