owadays
there are rich men there, there was aforetime one, Landolfo Ruffolo by
name, who was exceeding rich and who, his wealth sufficing him not,
came nigh, in seeking to double it, to lose it all and himself withal.
This man, then, having, after the usance of merchants, laid his plans,
bought a great ship and freighting it all of his own monies with
divers merchandise, repaired therewith to Cyprus. There he found
sundry other ships come with the same kind and quality of merchandise
as he had brought, by reason of which not only was he constrained to
make great good cheap of his own venture, but it behoved him, an he
would dispose of his goods, well nigh to throw them away, whereby he
was brought near unto ruin.

Sore chagrined at this mischance and knowing not what to do, seeing
himself thus from a very rich man in brief space grown in a manner
poor, he determined either to die or repair his losses by pillage, so
he might not return thither poor, whence he had departed rich.
Accordingly, having found a purchaser for his great ship, with the
price thereof and that which he had gotten of his wares, he bought a
little vessel, light and apt for cruising and arming and garnishing it
excellent well with everything needful unto such a service, addressed
himself to make his purchase of other men's goods and especially of
those of the Turks. In this trade fortune was far kinder to him than
she had been in that of a merchant, for that, in some year's space,
he plundered and took so many Turkish vessels that he found he had not
only gotten him his own again that he had lost in trade, but had more
than doubled his former substance. Whereupon, schooled by the chagrin
of his former loss and deeming he had enough, he persuaded himself,
rather than risk a second mischance, to rest content with that which
he had, without seeking more. Accordingly he resolved to return
therewith to his own country and being fearful of trade, concerned not
himself to employ his money otherwise, but, thrusting his oars into
the water, set out homeward in that same little vessel wherewith he
had gained it.

He had already reached the Archipelago when there arose one evening a
violent south-east wind, which was not only contrary to his course,
but raised so great a sea that his little vessel could not endure it;
wherefore he took refuge in a bight of the sea, made by a little
island, and there abode sheltered from the wind and purposing there to
await b