THE 



Authors Defign. 



IQueftion not but that feveral Relations of the Grand 

 Seignor's Seraglio have been publifh'd ; but I am to 

 acknowledge withal, that I have not had the leifure 

 to read any one of them. I have travelled Six feve- 

 ral times, by Land, into the Eaft, and by different 

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

 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 employ *d thofe 

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

 remark'd, whether the Scene lay in Turkey ; or in Ter fia, or 

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

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

 Princes. While I am bulled in putting into order thofè Me- 

 moireSjWhich I conceive my fèlf oblig'd to gratify the Publick 

 withall, I make it a Prêtent of this Relation of the Seraglio, 

 attended with fome Obfer vat ions fufficiently remarkable^ 

 which, haply, will not be unpleafànt. < 

 The Ottoman Court , which makes fo much noifè 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 heard from feveral Perlons. I do here com- 

 municate a faithful and ample defcription thereof: which I 

 have extracted, as well out of what I had obferv'd my felf, in 

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

 mations I receiv'd from two intelligent Perfons,who had fpent 

 many years in the Seraglio, in very considerable Employments. 

 One of whom was a Sicilian, advanced to the Charge of Chaf- 

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

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

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

 !Burfa, in Natolia y from whence he made his efcape into the 

 Indies. The other, a Varifian-bom, named De Vienne, had 

 been one of the Pages of the Treafury. Tn his Return from 

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

 Brigantine bound from Civita Vecchia to Marfeilks , he was 



(A 2 ) taken 



