It might have been imputed as a Piece of great Neglect in me, not to have visited the Euxine, especially as I had an Opportunity of sailing thither; seeing the Ancients used to account it as great a Piece of Curiosity to see Pontus, as to visit Corinth. Thither, therefore, I sailed with a prosperous Gale, and had the Privilege to be admitted into some of the Pleasure-Houses of the Grand Seignior.
In the Valves of one of them, I beheld the famous Fight of Selimus with Ishmael King of the Persians, excellently described in Checker-Work. I had also the View of many of the Orchards and Groves of the Turkish Emperor, which were seated in most pleasant Vallies. This I may say of them, That they ow'd little to Art, but almost all to Nature; so that I could not chuse but entertain such Epiphonema's as these in my Thoughts, O most pleasant Houses for Nymphs! O choise Seats for the Muses! O Retirements fit for the Learned! To deal plainly with you (as I told you before) they seemed to me, as it were, sensibly to bewail their present Posture, and to cry aloud to Christians for their better Cultivation; and not they only, but much more Constantinople itself, yea, and all Greece too; which being, heretofore, the most flourishing Country in the World, is now wofully enslaved by Barbarians. Formerly it was the Mother and Nurse of all good Arts and liberal Sciences, but now, alas! it seems to call for that Culture and Humanity which once it delivered down to us; and, by Way of Requital, claims the Redemption of our common Religion from that Scythian Barbarism under which it groans; and call it may long enough, for (with Grief may we speak it) Christian Princes, now a-days, are otherwise employed; so that the Turks do not more domineer
