captives which were going
with them unto Constantinople, being in number about 150, to kill the
king's son and all the Turks which were aboard of the galley, and
privily the said Englishmen conveyed unto the said Christian captives
weapons for that purpose. And when they came into the main sea,
towards Constantinople (upon the faithful promise of the said Christian
captives) these four Englishmen leapt suddenly into the crossia--that
is, into the middest of the galley, where the cannon lieth--and with
their swords drawn, did fight against all the foresaid Turks, and for
want of help of the said Christian captives, who falsely brake their
promises, the said Master Blonket's boy was killed and the said James
Smith, and our purser Richard Burges, and the other Englishmen were
taken and bound into chains, to be hanged at their arrival in
Constantinople. And, as the Lord's will was, about two days after,
passing through the Gulf of Venice, at an island called Cephalonia,
they met with two of the Duke of Venice, his galleys, which took that
galley, and killed the king's son and his mother, and all the Turks
that were there, in number 150, and they saved the Christian captives;
and would have killed the two Englishmen, because they were circumcised
and become Turks, had not the other Christian captives excused them,
saying that they were enforced to be Turks by the king's son, and
showed the Venetians how they did enterprise at sea to fight against
all the Turks, and that their two fellows were slain in that fight.
Then the Venetians saved them, and they, with all the residue of the
said captives, had their liberty, which were in number 150 or
thereabouts, and the said galley and all the Turks' treasure was
confiscated to the use of the State of Venice. And from thence our two
Englishmen travelled homeward by land, and in this meantime we had one
more of our company which died in Zante, and afterwards the other eight
shipped themselves at Zante in a ship of the said Marcus Segoorus which
was bound for England. And before we departed thence, there arrived
the Ascension and the George Bonaventure of London, in Cephalonia, in a
harbour there called Arrogostoria, whose merchants agreed with the
merchants of our ship, and so laded all the merchandise of our ship
into the said ships of London, who took us eight also in as passengers,
and so we came home. And within two months after our arrival at London
our said purser Richard B