The ofspring of the house of Ottomanno and officers pertaining to the greate Turkes court. Whereunto is added Bartholomeus Georgieuiz Epitome, of the customes rytes, ceremonies, and religion of the Turkes: with the miserbale affliction of those Christians, whiche liue vnder their captiuitie and bondage. In the ende also is adioyned the maner hovv Mustapha, oldest sonne of Soltan Soliman, twelfth Emperour of the Turkes, was murthered by his father, in the yere of our Lorde 1553. al Englished by Hugh Goughe.

☞ Bartholomeus Georgieuiz the author wishethe vnto the godly and Christian reader perfecte felicitie

THe ciuill discention, deadly discorde and contentious warres of our Princes, most christiā reader, haue procured me thys, that (beinge spoiled of all my goodes, bound with cheines, ledde to be solde as a beast, throughe townes, villages, stretes, and the moste daungerous and slippery places of Thrace and the les∣ser Asia), seuen times I haue ben sold vnto most peineful and manifolde kin∣des of husbandry: and there constrai∣ned vnder the turkish rustical whippe and sharpe ordinances, in hungar and

thirst, in colde and nakednes, lying a brode out of house, to kepe horses, and fede flockes of sheepe and ••eardes, to learne the arte of warrefare, and ex∣ercise tylling of ground, From whence taking flight, and lyuinge by the mast of Okes, by wilde herbes, and ther bit∣ter rootes sprinkeled with a litle salte, and wandring in desertes, beholdinge the north pole as my guide, I haue bene enuironed with moste rauenous wilde beastes, I haue moreouer, on plankes of timber, bound together with a corde, endeuored to passe ouer the sea Hel∣lesponte: but beinge taken at length, brought back againe vnto my master, bound hand and foote, cast prostrat on the earthe, and greuosly beaten with roddes, I was after cast of vnto the vn¦mercifull regraters of mankinde, and

slaughterous boutchers to be solde: so that tossed with the fluddes of aduer∣sitie by the space of thirtene yeares, I haue bene forced to suffer and susteine manye miseries, afflictions, calamities and persecutions, throughe y^e loue that I bare vnto oure holye and catholyke faith, But when I could not escape by that more nere way, which is throughe Thrace suche tirannye, greuous bon∣dage, and cruell affliction of the Infi∣delles, flying by an other way, whyche is to wit, towardes the pole Antartike, throught the most daungerous places, and desartes of Caramania and Siria.

Throughe soudrie perilles on the lande And daungers straung bi seas and sande.

At length I came into the holy lande, vnto the Fryars of Saincte Frances, by Ierusalem, dwelling in the mounte

Sion. From whence after the course of ••ne yere, raised (by goddes prouidence) ••s it were from the dead, taken out of the mouth and iawes of that rauenous and insatiable dragon, and deliuered from his rackinges and tormentes, I came vnto my brethren the christians ••as an vndouted messanger of their pu∣••nishementes, that they may do worthy ••penance for ther errors and offences, lest thei com into that place of tormēts and affliction: that they may vnder∣stande also in what hatred thei ought to be, whiche hinder from that moste holy and longe desired expedition the christian sworde, in time to come, to be the reuenger of our miseries, foreshe∣wed so many yeres sence, as well by the propheticall mouthe of trewe beleuers as infidelles, and predestinated to de∣stroye

and vterly subuert that kinge¦dome of Sathan, when therfore after my pergerinatiō throuh the holi land and visitinge of certayne places in the w••ste partes, I had briefly noted the tragidyes of theyr crueltye, and cer∣tayne other thynges whych by remay∣ninge in the court and warrefare of of the Turkish emperour, I had lear∣ned, eyther by daily conuersation long vse, and experience, or suche as I had hearde the learned and wiser sorte of the same, to rearde and rexearse, or (in time past mencioned and readen) vnderstode to be questioned by their sagest coūcellours, and committed thē to memory: all, in fewe wordes and fai∣thefully written, at sondry places and diuers times, by peece meale, I had pu∣blished, after with publishing, when by

certayne learned and well disposed men, I had found them made commō, dispersed into diuers languages, and perceyued that they woulde be profita∣ble, expediente, and after a sorte ne∣cessarie vnto the readers, I gathe∣red the whole into this one bondell, and nowe brought & reduced it vn∣to a more compendious order. I of∣fer them, moste gentile and Christian reder, of thee to be redden. Thou ther¦fore by the example of oure sauiour Christ (which preferred the litle gifte offred by a poore widoishe woman, be∣fore the riche presentes of so many Princes) vouchesafe to take and accepte in good parte this sim∣ple gifte of a poore af∣flicted Pilgrime. ❀