rauan we went by land to Aleppo, passing by
Antioch, which is seated vpon the side of an hill, whose walles still stand
with 360 turrets upon them, and neere a very great plaine which beareth the
name of the city, thorow which runneth the riuer Orontes, in Scripture
called Farfar. In Aleppo I stayed vntill February following; in this city,
as at a mart, meete many nations out of Asia with the people of Europe,
hauing continuall traffike and interchangeable course of marchandise one
with another: the state and trade of which place, because it is so well
knowen to most of our nation I omitte to write of. The 27 of February I
departed from Aleppo, and the fifth of March imbarked my selfe at
Alexandretta in a great ship of Venice called the Nana Ferra, to come to
England. The 14 we put into Salino in Cyprus, where the ship staying many
dayes to lade cotton wool, and other commodities, in the meane time
accompanied with M. William Barret my countrey man, the master of the ship
a Greeke, and others wee tooke occasion to see Nicosia, the chiefe city of
this Iland, which was some twenty miles from this place, which is situated
at the foot of an hill: to the East is a great plaine, extending it selfe
in a great length from the North to the South: it is walled about, but of
no such strength as Famagusta (another city in this Iland neere the Sea
side) whose walles are cut out of the maine rocke. In this city be many
sumptuous and goodly buildings of stone, but vninhabited; the cause whereof
doth giue me iust occasion to shew you of a rare iudgement of God vpon the
owners sometime of these houses, as I was credibly informed by a Cipriot, a
marcham of, great wealth in this city. [Sidenote: A great iudgement of God
vpon the noble men of Cyprus.] Before it came in subiection to the Turks,
while it was vnder the Venetians, there were many barons and noble men of
the Cipriots, who partly by vsurping more superiority ouer the common
people then they ought, and partly through their great reuenues which
yeerly came in by their cotton wooll and wines, grew so insolent and proud,
and withall so impiously wicked, as that they would at their pleasure
command both the wiues and children of their poore tenants to serue their
vncleane lusts, and holding them in such slauery as though they had beene
no better then dogges, would wage them against a grayhound or spaniell, and
he who woon the wager should euer after holde them as his proper goods and
ch