ad. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1594. 



marble of admirable heigth and bignesse, which stand 

 upon great round feet of brasse, much greater then the 

 pillars, and of a great heigth, some ten yards distant from 

 the wall : from which unto these pillars is a great gallery- 

 built, which goeth round about the church ; and upon 

 the outside of the gallery stand 66 marble pillars which 

 beare up the round roofe being the top of the church : 

 it hath three pulpits or preaching places, and about 2000 

 lampes brought in by the Turke. Likewise upon one 

 side in the top is the picture of Christ with the 12 

 Apostles, but their faces are defaced, with two or three 

 ancient tombs of Christians : to the West sticketh an 

 arrow in the toppe of the church, which, as the Turks 

 report, Sultan Mahomet shot when he first tooke the 

 city. Neere adjoyning be two chapels of marble, where 

 lie buried most of the emperours with their children & 

 sultanas. The 1 6 of July, accompanied with some other 

 of our nation we went by water to the Blacke sea, being 

 16 miles distant from Constantinople, the sea al the way 

 thither being little broader then the Thames ; both sides 

 of the shore are beautified with faire & goodly buildings. 

 At the mouth of this Bosphorus lieth a rocke some foure- 

 score yards from the maine land, whereupon standeth 

 Pompeys pillar a white marble pillar called Pompeys pillar, the shadow 

 whereof was 23 foote long at nine of the clocke in the 

 forenoone : over against it is a turret of stone upon the 

 maine land 120 steps high, having a great glasse-lanthorne 

 in the toppe foure yards in diamiter and three in heigth, 

 with a great copper pan in the midst to holde oile, with 

 twenty lights in it, and it serveth to give passage into 

 this straight in the night to such ships as come from all 

 parts of those seas to Constantinople : it is continually 

 kept by a Turke, who to y l end hath pay of the grand 

 Signior. And thus having spent eleven moneths in 

 Constantinople, accompanied with a chause, & carying 

 certaine mandates from the grand Signior to the Bassa 

 of Aleppo for the kinde usage of our nation in those 

 parts, the 30 of July I tooke passage in a Turkish car- 



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