CHAPTER XVIII

Brusa.—Pera.—Departure from Constantinople.—Tafur rescues some
Christian slaves and is zvounded.—Mytilene,—Salonica,—A great
Storm.—Ragusa.—Ancona.—Spalato,—A sea monSler.

The next day I asked a friend of mine, a Genoese, who
had a house in a city of Turkey which they call Brusa,^
at the extremity of the Gulf of Nicomedia, to take me
with him, and he did so. We went by sea, and I
saw the city, which is unwalled, but greater and better
than any in Turkey. There are some 4000 inhabitants,
and but for the gulf it would be of little value, for by
it the merchants have communication with the city.
They bring there many things by land from Persia.
It is situated very close to Greece, and since the Turks
have owned it they have much improved the place,
for it is a ftepping-ftone for the Turks from Greece
to their own country. They have placed great ftores
there, for they use the city as a half-way port. I believe
that in the whole of Turkey to-day there is no other
place so large, nor so well peopled, nor so rich. From
there I returned to Conftantinople and Pera, whence
I had set out.

The city of Pera^ has about 2000 inhabitants. It
is very well walled and has a good ditch and rampart.
The churches and monafteries are excellent, and there
is a fine exchange, well built and enclosed. The
buildings are notable and lofty, as in Genoa. The
common people are Greeks, but they are governed by
the Genoese who hold all the offices. It is a place of
much traffic in goods brought from the Black Sea,
as well as from the Weft, and from Syria and Egypt,
and the merchants are all wealthy. Pera was formerly
called Galata.

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