peace with them. They set the mind
of the native khan--that is the prince of the country--against us by
some lying stories that we had been engaged in smuggling goods in at
another port. And suddenly, in the middle of the night, in marched his
soldiers on board my ship, and two other Venetian craft lying in the
harbour, and took possession of them, and shut us all up in prison.
There we were till Messer Polani got news, and sent out another ship to
pay the fine demanded. That was no joke, I can tell you, for the prison
was so hot and crowded, and the food so bad, that we got fever, and
pretty near half of us died before our ransom came. Then at
Constantinople the Genoese stirred the people up against us once or
twice, and all the sailors ashore had to fight for their lives. Those
Genoese are always doing us mischief."

"But I suppose you do them mischief sometimes, captain. I imagine it
isn't all one side."

"Of course, we pay them out when we get a chance," the captain replied.
"It isn't likely we are going to stand being always put upon, and not
take our chance when it comes. We only want fair trade and no favour,
while those rascals want it all to themselves. They know they have no
chance with us when it comes to fair trading."

"You know, captain, that the Genoese say just the same things about the
Venetians, that the Venetians do about them. So I expect that there are
faults on both sides."

The captain laughed.

"I suppose each want to have matters their own way, Messer Hammond, but
I don't consider the Genoese have any right to come interfering with
us, to the eastward of Italy. They have got France and Spain to trade
with, and all the western parts of Italy. Why don't they keep there?
Besides, I look upon them as landsmen. Why, we can always lick them at
sea in a fair fight."

"Generally, captain. I admit you generally thrash them. Still, you know
they have sometimes got the better of you, even when the force was
equal."

The captain grunted. He could not deny the fact.

"Sometimes our captains don't do their duty," he said. "They put a lot
of young patricians in command of the galleys, men that don't know one
end of a ship from the other, and then, of course, we get the worst of
it. But I maintain that, properly fought, a Venetian ship is always
more than a match for a Genoese."

"I think she generally is, captain, and I hope it will always prove so
in the future. You see, though I am English, I hav