taken by the Pirates of Tn^o/*,and the Baflâ finding that young 

 Lad well ftiap'd, and looking like one that promised much, 

 fent him, as a Prefent, to the Grand Seignor. He was alio 

 pack'd away out of the Seraglio, after Fifteen Years Service, 

 only upon this (core, that there was fome difcovery made, of 

 his holding a fecret correfpondence with the difgrac'd Sicilian, 

 who had heretofore (hewn him much kindnels, and indeed it 

 was by his credit that the Tarijtan was fîrffc advaned tdthe 

 Chamber of the Treafury. 



From thofe two men, who were in a fair capacity to make 

 exact Obfèrvations of things, have I extracted the better part 

 of this { î{elatio}u Though they had been forc'd to embrace 

 the erroneous perfwafion of JMahomet^ yet were there foirns 

 Relicks of the good fentiments of Çhriftianity : And whereas 

 there was not the leafb hope of recovering the honours, where- 

 in they pride themfelves who are exalted to Charges in the 

 Seraglio, it is not to be imagined, that they could have any 

 defign to difguife things to me. They themfelves thought it 

 a certain pleafure to defcend to a greater familiarity of Dlf- 

 courfè, and to fpecifie even the leaft circumftances : but I am 

 to difcover withal, that having had their education amongft 

 the Turks , and learnt of them, to love Mony, it muft have 

 been fo much the greater charge to me, to give them content, 

 I have kept them for a considerable fpace of time, at my own 

 charge, and that in feveral places, one at IJpahan in Terfia, and 

 the other in the Indies, where they had made their residences, 

 and the Mémoires which they fupply'd me withal were per* 

 fectly concordant. 



To the Inftruclions, which I made a ftiift to get from thofè 

 two men, and to what difcoveries I may have made my ielf, 

 of the prefent flate of the Grand Seignor's Palace, I mail add 

 fome neceflary Obfervations of the Manners and Cuftomes of 

 lèverai Provinces of the Ottoman Empire, flightly paffing over 

 thofe things, which, in all probability, are generally known. 

 But that the Reader may with greater eafe comprehend the 

 matters I treat of, and that the Difcourfe may not be inter- 

 rupted, by the necelTary explication of the feveral names of 

 Charges and Dignities, I have thought it fie, in the firft, place, 

 to give a fhort Lift of them, after which fhall follow another, 

 of the diffèrent Species of Mony, which are current all over 

 the Turkijh Empire. 



A 



