flagellation—poor Webbe spent five misrable
years. Finding means eventuallyto communicate
with his relatives, he was ransomed for
three hundred crowns of "vij. s. vj. d. a piece,
of English money," which is equivalent to a
very considerable sum in our day, and shows
that Webbe's family was in affluent circumstan
ces. His hard servitude with the Tartars
appears to have dulled his powers of observation,
for his sole remark regarding them is,
"Among that people called ye Tartarians I
noted especially this one thing, that their
children, being new borne, do never open their
eyes untill they be ix. dayes and ix. nights olde"
With all respect for Mr. Webbe's veracity, and
carefulness in "noting," only what he "saw,"
it must be admitted that he seems to be pulling
the long bow in attributing to the Tartar infants
a peculiarity of puppies. On returning to
England, he "staied some smal time" to recruit, it
may be assumed, after his sufferings in slavery.

Undeterred by the memory of past
misfortune, Webbe sailed again for Russia—this
time with the trading fleet but—in what capacity
he does not mention. On the voyage the ships,
which were convoyed by a man-of-war,
encountered a squadron of five Danish pirates,
which they attacked and captured, carrying the
vessels into Narva, whither the fleet was bound.
"There," Webbe writes in his pithy way, "the
men [the pirates] ware massacred in this manner
by the Russians: first great stakes driven into
the grounde, and they spitted vppon Powles, as
a man woulde put a pig vpon a spitte, and so
vij. score were handled in that manner in very
tyranous sort." Webbe was still haunted by
misfortune. Twelve miles out of port, on the
voyage home, his ship was wrecked, and he lost
all he had. His reverse did not affect him seriously,
for he says quite simply that he "came
againe into Englande and gathered a new
stocke."

Once more Webbe tempted fate upon the
ocean, sailing, as master gunner of the Henry,
of London, on a trading cruise up the Mediterranean.
In this sea, the greatest mishap of
his life befel the adventurous but unfortunate
voyager. He narrates the event as follows:
"But heere fortune began to lowre on me
againe, and turne her wheele in such sort
against me, as that I was soone after brought
to liue in greater slauerie than ever I did
before; for we, hauing saflie arriued at Alex-
andria, dischardged our burthen, and fraughted
our ship with great store of that cuntrey
commodities, and returning back to Legorne,
suddainly in the way we met with fiftie saile of
the Turkes gallies, with which gallies we
fought two dayes and two nights, and made
great slaughter amongst their men, we being
in all but three score men, very weake for such
a multytude, and having lost fifty of sixty
men, faintnes constrayned vs for to yeeld vnto
them, by reason we wanted winde to helpe our
selues withall; and the calme was so great a
helpe vnto them as there was no way for vs to
escape." Webbe, as modest as he was brave,
relates this gallant action without the slightest
trace of pride in its daring obstinacy of resistance
to an overwhelming force. Indeed he is
rather apologetic than otherwise for the ship
having been taken at all, notwithstanding the
odds against which she fought. The Turks had
not the generosity to treat their brave enemies
with humanity. Luckless Webbe and nine
shipmates, who were found living when the
Henry was boarded, were soundly bastinadoed.
The prisoners were despatched to Constantinople,
where, as was the custom with Christian
captives, they were sent to the galleys and
barbarously treated. Loaded with chains, half
starved, and cruelly beaten, Webbe passed six
years at the oar. But on the outbreak of war
between Turkey and Persia, his knowledge of
gunnery stood him in good stead, and he was
attached to the artillery of the Sultan's army.
His notes regarding the places he visited at
this time, give one an amusing idea of
"travellers' wonders" three hundred years ago.

Cairo, he states, " is threescore miles in compasse,
and is the greatest cittie in the world.
It standeth upon the riuer of Nilo, and in the
said cittie there is twelve thousand churches,
which they tearme muscots. . . . The houses
are of a very olde building, all of lyme and
stone, and in most of the houses the roofes are
couered with fine gold in a very workemanly
sort." The phenomenon of the inundation of
the Nile of course attracted his notice; but
not being well up in hydrostatics, he describes
it rather oddly as a "swelling of the water
vpright without any stay at all, on the one
side thereof it is to ye height of a huge
mountain!" It is difficult to recognise the crocodile
in the following description: "In the river of
Nilo there is long fishes that are of tenne or
twelve foote long, which swimmeth neere the
shore; they are called the fishes of King Pharao,
they are like vnto a dolphin. These fishes are
so subtile, that swimming neere the shore side
they will pull men or women sodeinly into the
river and devoure them." Webbe is at no
loss whatever in solving the problem of the
Pyramids, though his solution differs materially
from that attained by Professor Piazzi
Smith. He says, "Moreover, in the land of
Egipt, neere to the river of Nilo, within sixe
miles of the Gran Caer, there are seauen
mountaines builded on the out side like vnto
ye point of a diamond, which mountaines were
builded in King Pharoes time for to keepe
corne in, and they are mountaines of great
strength. It is also saide, that they were
builded about that time when loseph did lade
home his brethrens asses with corne, in the
time of the great dearth mentioned in the
Scripture: at which time all their corne lay in
those mountaines."

From Egypt the captive gunner passed to
Syria, where he relates, "There is a river that
no Iew can catch any fish in at all, and yet in
the same river there is great store of fish like
vnto samon trouts. But let a Christian or a
Turke come thither and fish for them, and
eyther of them shall catch them in great
aboundance, if they do but put their hande
into the water with a little bread and an hundred
will be about his hande." This is rather