He Also Added, That The
Tartars Bore So Deadly A Hate Against All Christians, That They Would
Certainly Kill Any Who Might Venture Into Their Country, Wherefore He
Earnestly Dissuaded Me From This Proposed Journey, As I Valued My Life
And Welfare.
At last, he concluded his discourse by throwing down to me,
from a window in which he stood, that looked into the street, an hundred
pieces of silver, worth two shillings each or ten pounds in all, which
were thrown into a sheet hanging by the four corners.
I had conducted this affair so secretly, by the help of the Persian
which I had learnt, that neither our English ambassador, nor any other
of my countrymen, excepting one special and private friend, knew any
thing at all about the matter till I had thoroughly accomplished my
design. For I well knew, if the ambassador had got the smallest notice
of my purpose, that he would have counteracted me, as indeed he
signified to me after I had effected my purpose, alledging that this
might redound to the discredit of our nation, for one of our country to
present himself in that poor and beggarly manner before the king, to
crave money from him by flattery. But I answered our ambassador so
resolutely, that he was glad to let me alone. Indeed, I never had more
need of money in all my life than at this time, having only to the value
of twenty shillings remaining, owing to my having been stripped of
almost all my money by a miscreant Turk, in a city called Imaret, in
Mesopotamia.
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