a courage, and as great abilities in the art and manage ment of war, as the juftly admired Guftavus, entered Poland with his army, and carry'd all before him, seized upon Warsaw, and drove Cafimire out of his kingdom, and had almoft made an entire and abfolute conqueft, only a few places holding out. This alarmed the Grand Signior and the Bafhaws of the Porte, as if the prophecy were then about to be fulfilled, who did not care for the company of fuch troublefome neighbours, who might push on their victories, and joining with the Coffacks, advance their arms farther, and make their country the feat of war, which might draw after it fatal confequences. To prevent which couriers are dispatched from Conftantinople to Ragotzki, Prince of Tranfilvania, then in concert with the Sweeds, to command him to retire with his army out of Poland, as he valued the peace and fafety of his own country, and the friendship of the Grand Signior, whose tributary he was, and by whofe favour he had gained that principality; and the Crim-Tartars, the fworn enemies of the Poles, who at that time lay heavy upon them, were wrought upon by the fame motives and reafons of ftate, to clap up a peace with them, that being freed from these diftractions, they might unite their forces the better together, and make head against the Sweeds. The Embaffadors of Chriftian Princes, when they are admitted by the Grand Signior to an audience, their prefents being then of courfe made, which are look'd upon as due, not to fay as an homage, are dismist in few words, and referred by him to his Wakil or deputy, as he ufually ftiles the chief Vizier, and a small number of their retinue only permitted the honour of kiffing his veft, and then rudely enough fent away. The Grand Signiors keep up the ftate of the old Afiatic Princes; they do not expofe themselves often to the view of the people, unless when they ride in triumph, or upon fome fuch folemn occafion; when they go to the Mofques, or divert themfelves in the fields, either in riding or hunting, they do not love to be ftared upon or approached. It is highly criminal to pry into the fports, fuch an infolent curiofity being often punished with death. The ftory is famous of Morad the third, who baiting a bear in the old palace with a maftiff, and efpying three fellows upon the tower tower of Bajazid's Mofque, who had planted themselves to see the sport, commanded their heads to be ftruck off immediately, and be brought before him, which was done accordingly. Inftances of fuch capricios are frequent in the Turkish history; this following happen'd during my stay at Conftantinople. Upon the return of Vizier Achmet from Candia, after the furrender of that city, and a happy end put by him to that tedious and bloody war, he acquainting the prefent Emperor, then at Adrianople, with the hiftory of that famous fiege at large, made fuch terrible reprefentations of their and the Venetians mining and countermining one another, that the Emperor was refolved out of curiofity to fee the experiment made of a thing that feemed to him almost incredible. A work was foon raifed and undermined, and above thirty murderers and robbers upon the highway, and fuch like villains were put into it, as it were to defend it. The Grand Signior stood upon an eminence at fome confiderable diftance, expecting the iffue of it upon a fignal given, the mine was fprung, and the fort demolish'd, and the poor wretches torn peacemeal, to fatisfaction and amazement. his great The moon is the aufpicious planet of the Turks; according to the courfe of which they celebrate their feftivals. They begin their months from the first appearance of it, at which time they chufe, except a delay brings a great prejudice and inconvenience with it, to begin their great actions. The crefcent is the enfign of the empire, which they paint in their banners, and place upon the fpires of their Mafques. Next to the day of the appearing moon, they pitch upon Friday, to fight upon, to begin a journey, and especially their pilgrimage towards Mecca, or do any thing of great confequence, as very lucky and fortunate. An account of the latitude of Conftantinople and Rhodes; written by the learned Mr John Greaves, fometime profeffor of aftronomy in the univerfity of Oxford, and directed to the most reverend James Ufher, Archbishop of Ardmagh. PON intimation of your Grace's defires, and upon importunity of fome learned men, having finished a table as a key to your Grace's exquifite difquifition, touching Afia, properly fo called; I thought myfelf obliged to give both you and them a reason, why in the fituation of Byzantium, and the ifland Rhodus, (which two eminent places I have made the any pala, and bounds of the chart) I diffent from the traditions of the ancients, and from the tables of our late and beft Geographers, and consequently diffenting in these, have been neceffitated to alter the latitudes, if not lon gitudes, of most of the remarkable cities of this difcourfe. And firft for Byzantium, the received latitude of it by Appianus, Mercator, Ortelius, Maginnus, and fome others, is forty three degrees and five minutes. And this alfo we find in the Bafil edition of Ptolomy's Geography, procured by Erafmus out of a Greek MS. of Pettichius The fame likewife is confirmed by another choice MS. in Greek, of the most learned and judicious Mr Selden, to whom for this favour and feveral others, I ftand obliged. And as much is expreffed in the late edition of Ptolomey by Bertius, compared and corrected by Sylburgius, with a MS. out of the Palatine library. Wherefore it cannot be doubted, having fuch a cloud of witneffes, but that Ptolomy affigned to Byzantium as our beft modern Geographers have done, the latitude of 43. And this will farther appear, not only out of geogra geography, where it is often expreffed, but alfo out of his μεγάλη σαύταξις, or Aimage/t, as the Arabians term it, where, defcribing the parallel paffing a Bula.is, he affigns to it 43° 5. What was the opinion concerning Byzantium of Strabo preceding Ptolomy, or of Hipparchus preceding Strabo, or of Eratosthenes more ancient, and it may be accurater than all of them, (for Strabo (lib. 2.) calls him τελευταίον πραγματα πάμενον Tepi Tйs gewy papías) though Tully (lib. Ep. ad Att.) makes Hipparchus often reprehend Eratosthenes, as Ptolomy after him doth Marinus, their writings not being now extant, (unless thofe of Strabo) cannot be determined by us. But as for Strabo, in our enquiry, we can expect little fatisfaction; for his defcription of places, having more of the Hiftorian and Philofopher, (both which he hath performed with fingular gravity and judgment) than the exactnefs of a Mathematician, who ftrictly refpects the pofition of places, without inquifition after their nature, qualities, and inhabitants, (though the beft geography would be a mixture of them all, as Abulfeda, an Arabian Prince in his Rectification of Countries, above three hundred years fince hath done ;) I fay for thefe reafons, we can expect little fatisfaction from Strabo, and lefs may we hope for from Dionyfius Afer, Arrianus, Stephans Byzantinus, and others. Having next therefore recourfe to the Arabians, who in geography deferve the fecond place after the Grecians, I find in Naffir Eddin the lati=tude of Byzantium, which he terms Buzantiya, and Conftantiniya, to be 45 degrees, and in Ulug Beg's Aftronomical Tables the fame to be exprefled. Abulfeda =chiefly follows four principal authors as his guides, in the compiling of his Geographical Tables, thofe are Alfaras, Albiruny, Hon Saiid Almagraby, laftly, Ptolomy, whofe geography he terms a Defcription of the Quadrant, (or the fourth part of the earth) inhabited; and all thefe, according to his affertion, place Byzantium in 45 degrees of latitude. And here it may justly be wonder'd how this difference fhould arife between the Greek copies of Ptolomy, and thofe tranflated into Arabic by the command of Almamon, the learned Calife of Babylon; for Abulfeda =exprefsly relates, that Ptolomy was firft interpreted in his time, that is, in the computation of Almecinus, in Er Dd 3 fenius's penius's edition, and of Emir Cond, a Perfian Hiftoriographer, more than 800 years fince; concerning which, Abulfeda writes thus, This book (difcourfing of Ptolomy's Geography) was tranflated out of the Grecian language into the Arabic for Almamon: And in this I find, (by three fair MSS. of Abulfeda) Byzantium to be conftantly placed in 45°, and as conftantly in the Greek copies in 43 5'. But in the expor navoves of Chryfecocca, out of the Perfian tables, (made about the year 1346. in Scaliger's calculation) it is placed in 45o. To reconcile the difference between the Greeks and Arabians, may feem impoffible, for the common refuge of flying to the corruption of numbers by tranfcribers, and laying the fault on them, which fometimes is the author's, will not help us in this particular; seeing the Greek copies agree amongst themselves, and the Arabic amongst themselves. The best way to end the dispute, will be, to give credit concerning the latitude of Byzantium, neither to the Greeks nor Arabians. And that I have reafon for this affertion, appears by feveral obfervations of mine at Conftantinople, with a brafs fextant of above four foot ra dius. Where, taking in the fummer folftice, the Meridian altitude of the Sun, without ufing any we aipeas, for the parallax and refraction, (which at that time was not neceffary) I found the latitude to be 41o 6'. And in this latitude in the chart, I have placed Byzantium, and not in that, either of the Greeks or Arabians. From which obfervation, being of fingular ufe in the rectification of geography, it will follow by way of corallary, that all maps for the north-eaft of Europe, and of Afia, adjoining upon the Bofphorus, Thracius, the Pontus Euxinus, and much farther, are to becorrected, and confequently the fituation of moft cities in Afia, properly fo called, are to be brought more foutherly than thofe of Ptolomy, by almoft two entire degrees, and then thofe of the Arabians, by almoft four. Concerning Rhodes, it may be prefumed, that having been the mother and nurse of fo many eminent Mathematicians, and having long flourished in navigation, by the direction of these, and by the vicinity of the Phenicians, they could not be ignorant of the precife lati tu de |