dall forme, not
vnlikely to be the tombs of Achilles and Ajax. From thence we sailed along,
hauing Tenedos and Lemnos on the right hand, and the Troian fields on the
left: at length we came to Mitylen and Sio long time inhabited by the
Genoueses, but now vnder the Turke. The Iland is beautified with goodly
buildings and pleasant gardens, and aboundeth with fruits, wine, and the
gum masticke. From thence sailing alongst the gulfe of Ephesus with Nicaria
on the right hand, Samos and Smirna on the left, we came to Patmos, where
S. Iohn wrote the Revelation. The Iland is but small, not aboue five miles
in compasse: the chiefe thing it yeeldeth is corn: it hath a port for
shipping, and in it is a monastery of Greekish Caloieros. From thence by
Cos (now called Lango) where Hipocrates was borne: and passing many other
Ilands and rocks, we arriued at Rhodes, one of the strongest and fairest
cities of the East: here we stayed three or foure dayes; and by reason of a
By which went in the ship to Paphos in Cyprus, who vsed me with all
kindnesse, I went about the city, and tooke the view of all: which city is
still with all the houses and walles thereof maintained in the same order
as they tooke it from the Rhodian knights. Ouer the doores of many of the
houses, which be strongly built of stone, do remaine vndefaced, the armes
of England, France, Spaine, and many other Christian knights, as though the
Turkes in the view thereof gloried in the taking of all Christendome, whose
armes they beholde. From thence we sailed to Paphos an olde ruinous towne
standing vpon the Westerne part of Cyprus, where S. Paul in the Acts
conuerted the gouernor. Departing hence, we came to Sidon, by the Turkes
called Saytosa, within tenne or twelue miles of the place where Tirus
stood, which now being eaten in by the sea, is, as Ezekiel prophesied, a
place for the spreading out of a net. Sidon is situated in a small bay at
the foot of mount Libanus, vpon the side of an hill looking to the North:
it is walled about, with a castle nigh to the sea, and one toward the land
which is ruinated, but the walle thereof standeth. Some halfe mile vp
toward the mountaine be certaine ruines of buildings, with marble pillars,
remaining: heere for three dayes we were kindly entertained of the Captaine
of the castle: and in a small barke we sailed from hence along the shore to
Tripoli, and so to Alexandretta, where the 24 of August we arriued. From
thence with a Venetian ca