AD. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



'582- 



our people may arise, and a great value in fine Kersies 



and in those knit wares may be couched in a small 

 roome in the ship. And for these things our people 

 are growen apt, and by indevour may be drawen to 

 great trade. 



3 Saffron the best of the universall world groweth in 

 this realme, and forasmuch as it is a thing that requireth 

 much labour in divers sorts, and setteth the people on 

 worke so plentifully, I wish you to see whether you can 

 finde out ample vent for the same, since it is gone out of 

 great use in those parts. It is a spice that is cordiall, and 

 may be used in meats, and that is excellent in dying of 

 yellow silks. This commodity of Saffi"on groweth fifty 

 miles from Tripoli in Syria, on an high hill called in those 

 parts Garian, so as there you may learne at that port of 

 Tripoli the value of the pound, the goodnesse of it, and 

 the places of the vent. But it is sayd that from that hill 

 there passeth yerely of that commodity fifteene moiles 

 laden, and that those regions notwithstanding lacke 

 sufficiencie of that commodity. But if a vent might be 

 found, men would in Essex about Saffronwalden and in 

 Cambridge shire revive the trade for the benefit of the 

 setting of the poore on work. So would they doe in 

 Hereford shire by Wales, where the best of all England 

 is, in which place the soile yeelds the wilde Saffron 

 commonly, which sheweth the naturall inclination of the 

 same soile to the bearing of the right Saffron, if the soile 

 be manured and that way employed. 

 Leo Africanus ^ There is a walled towne not farre from Barbaric, 

 ^^^' ^' called Hubbed, toward the South from the famous towne 



Telensin, about six miles: the inhabitants of which towne 

 [II. i. 165.] in effect be all Diers. And it is sayd that thereabout 

 they have plenty of Anile, & that they occupy that, and 

 also that they use there in their dyings, of the Saffron 

 aforesayd. The trueth whereof, in the Southerly ports 

 This may be q{ xki^ Mediteran sea, is easily learned in your passage to 

 learned at Tripoli, or in returne from thence homeward you may 

 ^^^' understand it. It is reported at Saffronwalden that a 



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