Therefore Whereas My Captayne Gaue
Me Charge To Buy Certayne Thynges, As I Was In The Market Place, A
Certayne
Mamaluke knewe me to be a christian, and therefore in his owne
language spake vnto me these woordes, “Inte mename,
” That is, whence art
thou?[FN#46] To whom I answered that I was a Mahumetan. But he sayde,
Thou sayest not truely. I sayde agayne, by the head of Mahumet I am a
Mahumetan. Then he sayde agayne, Come home to my house, I folowed hym
willingly. When we were there, he began to speake to me in the Italian
tongue, and asked me agayne from whence I was, affyrming that he knewe
me, and that I was no Mahumetan: also that he had been sometyme in
Genua and Venice. And that his woordes myght be better beleeued, he
rehearsed many thinges which testified that he sayed trueth. When I
vnderstoode this, I confessed freely, that I was a Romane, but
professed to the fayth of Mahumet in the citie of Babylon, and there
made one of the Mamalukes; whereof he seemed greatly to reioyce and
therefore vsed me honourably. But because my desyre was yet to goe
further, I asked the Mahumetan whether that citie of Mecha was so
famous as all the world spake of it: and inquired of him where was the
great aboundaunce of pearles, precious stones, spices, and other rich
merchandies that the bruite went of to be in that citie. And all my
talke was to the ende
[p.354] to grope the mynde of the Mahumetan, that I might know the
cause why such thinges were not brought thyther as in tyme paste.
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