A.D. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1330. 



neere unto him, he vailed his hat or bonet being of 

 an inestimable price, doing reverence unto the crosse. 

 And immediatly I put incense into the censer, and our 

 bishop taking the censer perfumed him, and gave him 

 his benediction. Moreover, they that come before the 

 sayd Can do alwayes bring some oblation to present 

 unto him, observing the ancient law : Thou shalt not 

 appeare in my presence with an empty hand. And for 

 that cause we carried apples with us, and offered them 

 in a platter with reverence unto him : and taking out 

 two of them he did eat some part of one. And then 

 he signified unto us, that we should go apart, least 

 the horses comming on might in ought offend us. 

 With that we departed from him, and turned aside, 

 going unto certaine of his barons, which had bene 

 converted to the faith by certaine friers of our order, 

 being at the same time in his army : and we offered 

 unto them of the foresayd apples, who received them 

 at our hands with great joy, seeming unto us to 

 be as glad, as if we had given them some great 



All the premisses abovewritten frier William de 

 Solanga hath put downe in writing even as the fore- 

 sayd frier Odoricus uttered them by word of mouth, 

 in the yeere of our Lord 1330, in the moneth of 

 May, and in the place of S. Anthony of Padua. 

 Neither did he regard to write them in difficult Latine 

 or in an eloquent stile, but even as Odoricus himselfe 

 rehearsed them, to the end that men might the more 

 easily understand the things reported. I frier Odoricus 

 of Friuli, of a certaine territory called Portus Vahonis, 

 and of the order of the minorites, do testifie and beare 

 witnesse unto the reverend father Guidotus minister of 

 the province of S. Anthony, in the marquesate of 

 Treviso (being by him required upon mine obedience 

 so to doe) that all the premisses above written, either 

 I saw with mine owne eyes, or heard the same re- 

 ported by credible and substantial! persons. The 



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