Page:Travels and adventures of William Lithgow.pdf/17

 discerned by the fundamental walls yet extant, about twenty Italian miles, lying along the sea-side, between the three papers of Ida and the furthest end eastward of the river Simois, whose breadth all the way hath not out-stripped the fields above two miles.” This we give as a specimen of his style. On discharging their covenant with the janizary, who was not contented with the former condition, the Frenchman objecting to pay the same that Lithgow did, the Turk belaboured them both with a cudgel till the blood sprang from their heads, and compelled them to double his wages. Such is the extortion of those rascals, who regard Christians no more than dogs; and it is always best for a traveller to content them at first, or he will be forced with blows to pay twice as much. At Sestos and Abydos, so famed for the loves of Hero and Leander, but now called the castles of Gallipoli (at present the Dardanelles,) they arrived in a small frigate, where, two days after, eighty Christian slaves having murdered their captain, and the other Turks, and ran away with the galley, passed the straits at midnight, with little hurt, though the cannon thundered incessantly for two hours; and at last arrived in the road of Zante. Another galley attempting the same the year following, the poor