7 6 



A Relation of the Chap. XV. 



Thi Grand 

 Seignor's 



Amurath's 



Belve.itn. 



Tut Excellent: 

 W inn of 1c- 

 nedos. 



Between the Chamber, where thefe noble Relicks are to be fecn, and that of the 

 Forty Pages, of which I have given an account at the beginning of this Chapter, you 

 have the Profpedt, of a treble portal of Porphyry, that is, three doors at a fmall di- 

 itancc one from the other, whereof that in the middle gives entrance into the Grand 

 Seignor's Appartment. The two others lead to the Lodgings of the Cbokadar-Aga,znd 

 the Riquabdar-Aga, and thofe Lodgings are very dark, becaufc they are not in a place 

 where light can be brought into them, and that at the hilt building thereof,they could 

 afford each of them but one little Window. But, abating that inconvenience, they are 

 well enough furnifiYd, according to the mode cf the Cuuntry, you tread on nothing 

 but Silken Carpets > there's no want of Brokado-Culhicns, and emboyder'd ones, and 

 the Walls, which are all of White Marble, entertain the Eye with pots of Flowers 

 plainly painted, at certain equal diftances, about which there has been an ingenious 

 application of Gold and Azure. 



The Grand Seignor's Quarter begins with a Hall, which is fpacious enough, and 

 the cmbelli(hments of the in-iide of it are correfpondent to thofe of the out-fide. It 

 is an incruftation of Marble, of feveral colours, and the Floor of it is cover'd only 

 with the large Woollen Carpets, which are brought out of Perfia, but fuch as are 

 more fumptuous, and much more highly efteem'd, than tho r e which are made of Silk. 

 All about the Hall, for the (pace of Five foot, there arc fpread Coverlets of Silk, of a 

 light colour, fome Tufted, fome Embroydef d, and upon the Coverlets there are fe- 

 veral forts of Rich Cufhions, four foot in length, and between two and three, in 

 breadth. 



Of the two Doors, which are within the Hall, one goes to the Appartment of the 

 Fa<res, the other to the Quarter of the Sultanejjes, and as you go out by this laft 

 mentioned, you enter into a Flower-Garden, in the midft whereof: there is a Bafm 

 with its water-work. From one of the ends of the Garden you pafs to the 'Revan- 

 Koucbkj, that is to fay, a Chamber fupported by Pillars. It is a Belvedere, or fpacious 

 Room, having a delightful Profpecl: of all tides, which the Sultan Amuratb caus'd to 

 be built, at his return from the Pcrf.an War, after he had taken the City of Babylon 

 from Sbacly-Sefi, the King of that Kingdom, ruin'd the Province of Tauris, and added 

 that ofErivan to his Conquefis, by the perlidiouinefs of the Governour. I (hall give 

 you an account anon, how he was jufily puniftYd, for that act of TrcaJiery, and I 

 rcfervc the compkat hiitory of his bafenefs, for the Relations of my Travels. 



This Room, or Arbour, which we call die Belvedere, from the deli ghtfulnefs of its 

 Profped, is built in an Eminent place, upon a fteepy Rock. It is a noble Arched 

 Roof, and the Walls, which are rais'd no higher then that a man may reft his Elbow 

 on them, are all of White Marble, with fome Arabian Verfes thereon, cut, and gilt. 

 It is open of all fides, and the Lattices, all about it, hinder thofe that are within it from 

 being feen by fuch as are on the out-fide, and afford them withal one of the moft deli- 

 cate Profpecls in the World. For, from that Room, they have the fight of all Galata 

 and Per a, all that pleafant Landskip of Ajta, about Scutaret, and Chalcedon, the Port 

 of Constantinople, one of the noblelt of all Europe, and the Channel of the Blacky Sea> 

 which, at the point of the Seraglio, is intermixt with the Waters of the Mediterranean y 

 where there is obfervable in the midft, as it were, a white foamy ftreak, which feems 

 naturally to denote the Confines of Europe and Afia. 



'Twas in this pleafant Arbour, that Amurath was often wont to divert himfelf, with 

 that Governour of Erivan, who had taught him to drink Wine, whereto he had fo 

 eafily accultom'd himfelf, that, many times, he fpent three days together, in a continu'd 

 debauch. The only Wine he drunk was that of the Illand otTenedos, the moft excel- 

 lent of any of the lilands of the Arcbiphelago, and the lealt intoxicating j "and he foon 

 became as good a proficient in the drinking of it, as the Matter, who had taught him to 

 do it. This Perfian Governour was a man extreamly inclin'd to debauchery, infomuch 

 that before his perfidious delivery of the place to Amurath, as I pafsM through Envan y 

 in one of my Voyages to Perfia, he intreated me to make my abode there for the fpace 

 of fifteen days, and, to humour him, there was a neccflity of (pending whole nights in 

 drinking, fo that I faw him not all the day long, which I queitiou not but he employ'd 

 in the management of his affairs, and taking his repofe. But, 



