THE , 



Authors Defign. 



IQueftion not but that feveral Relations of the Grand 

 Seignor's Seraglio have been ^ublifh'd ; but lamto 

 acknowledge withal, that I have riot had the leifure 

 to read any one of them. I haVe' traveled Six feve- 

 ral times, by Land, into the fiaft, and by 'ififfererit 

 Roads, during the fpace of Forty Years ; and moft Petfons 

 know, that my Employments were fuch, as would not allow 

 me much time for the reading of Books! But when my Af- 

 fairs afforded me any remifsion, I wholly employed thofe 

 fpare hours, in the collection of things tile moft worthy to be 

 remarked, whether the Scene lay in Turkey ; or in Perfia, or 

 in the Indies, on this, or the other 1 fide of the River Ganges, or 

 in the Diamond-Mines, which are in the! Territories of divers 

 Princes. While I am bufied in putting into order thofe Me-- 

 moires,which I conceive my lelf obliged to- gratify the Publick 

 withall, I make it aPrefent of this Ration of the Seraglio, 

 attended with fome Obfervations fuffkiently remarkable, 

 which, haply, will not be unpleafant. 



The Ottoman Court , which 'makes fo much, noife in the 

 World, has not, to my thinking, been yet fufficiently well 

 known, if I may judge of it, by what I have feen thereof my 

 felf, and have beard from feveral Perfons. I do he^re com- 

 municate a faithful and ample defcription thereof: which I 

 have extracted, as well out of what I had obferv'dmy (elf^n 

 the feveral Voyages I made to Conftantinople,as out of the infor- 

 mations I receiv'd from two intelligent Perfons,who hadfpent 

 many years in the Seraglio,m very confiderable Employments. 

 One of whom was a Sicilian, advanced r.o the Charge ofCbdfc 

 nadar-hachi, or chief Officer belonging to the Treafury ; and 

 after Five and Fifty Years Service in the Seraglio, was., for lome 

 flight mifcarriage committed by him, banilli'd to a place neer 

 Bur/a, in Natolia, from whence he made his efcap^ into the 

 Indies. The other, a Tarifian-boxn, named De Pknne, had 

 been one of the Pages of the Treafury. In rfis Return from 

 the Jubilee at ^pme, in the Year M.DC.L. being aboard a 

 Brigantine bound from Chita Vecchia to Marfcillcs , he was 



( A 2 ) taken 



