ons, and suche other parteyning to the
science of Astrologie: whych certeynely we doe not contempne, but
greatly prayse. But measuryng vs with our owne foote, we will leaue that
heauie burden of heauven to the strong shoulders of Atlas and Hercules:
and only creepyng vpon the earth, in our owne person beholde the
situations of landes and regions, with the maners and customes of men,
and variable fourmes, shapes, natures, and properties of beastes,
fruites, and trees, especially suche as are among the Arabians,
Persians, Indians, Ethiopians. And whereas in the searchyng of these
thynges we have [thanked be God], satisfied our desire, we thinke
neuerthelesse that we haue done little, excepte we should communicate to
other, such thynges as we haue seene and had experience of, that they
lykewyse by the readyng therof may take pleasure, for whose sakes we
have written this long and dangerous discourse, of thynges whych we haue
seene in dyvers regions and sectes of men, desiryng nothyng more then
that the trueth may be knowen to them that desyre the same. But what
incommodities and troubles chaunced vnto me in these vyages, as hunger,
thirst, colde, heate, warres, captiuitie, terrours, and dyuers other
suche daungers, I will declare by the way in theyr due places.

SECTION I.

_Of the Navigation from Venice to Alexandria in Egypt, and from thence
to Damascus in Syria_[34].

Should any one wish to know the cause of my engaging in this voyage, I
can give no better reason than the ardent desire of knowledge, which
hath moved me and many others to see the world and the wonders of
creation which it exhibits. And, as other known parts of the world had
been already sufficiently travelled over by others, I was determined to
wait and describe such parts as were not sufficiently known. For which
reason, with the grace of God, and calling upon his holy name to prosper
our enterprise, we departed from Venice, and with prosperous winds we
arrived in few days at the city of Alexandria in Egypt. The desire we
had to know things more strange and farther off, did not permit us to
remain long at that place; wherefore, sailing up the river Nile, we came
to the city of new Babylon, commonly called _Cayrus_ or _Akayr_, _Cairo_
or _Al-cahira_, called also _Memphis_ in ancient times.

[Footnote 34: To accommodate this curious article to our mode of
arrangement, we have made a slight alteration of the nomenclature of its
subdivisions; callin