day of
May, 1584, the king had 300 captives, and before the month was expired
there died of them of the plague 150. And whereas there were twenty-six
men of our company, of whom two were hanged and one died the same
day as we were made bondslaves, that present month there died nine more
of our company of the plague, and other two were forced to turn Turks
as before rehearsed; and on the 4th day of June next following, the
king lost 150 camels which were taken from him by the wild Moors; and
on the 28th day of the said month of June one Geffrey Malteese, a
renegado of Malta, ran away to his country, and stowed a brigantine
which the king had builded for to take the Christians withal, and
carried with him twelve Christians more which were the king's captives.
Afterwards about the 10th day of July next following, the king rode
forth upon the greatest and fairest mare that might be seen, as white
as any swan; he had not ridden forty paces from his house, but on a
sudden the same mare fell down under him stark dead, and I with six
more were commanded to bury her, skin, shoes, and all, which we did.
And about three months after our delivery, Master Barton, with all the
residue of his company, departed from Tripolis to Zante in a vessel
called a settea, of one Marcus Segoorus, who dwelt in Zante; and, after
our arrival at Zante, we remained fifteen days there aboard our vessel,
before we could have Platego (that is, leave to come ashore), because
the plague was in that place from whence we came, and about three days
after we came ashore, thither came another settea of Marseilles, bound
for Constantinople. Then did Master Barton and his company, with two
more of our company, ship themselves as passengers in the same settea
and went to Constantinople. But the other nine of us that remained in
Zante, about three months after, shipped ourselves in a ship of the
said Marcus Segoorus, which came to Zante, and was bound for England.
In which three months the soldiers of Tripolis killed the said king;
and then the king's son, according to the custom there, went to
Constantinople, to surrender up all his father's treasure, goods,
captives, and concubines unto the Great Turk, and took with him our
said purser Richard Burges, and James Smith, and also the other two
Englishmen which he the king's son had enforced to become Turks as is
aforesaid. And they, the said Englishmen, finding now some
opportunity, concluded with the Christian