XV.

HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF CHIOS.

I have seen an island called Chios, where groweth mastick in very great abundance; nor do those trees when planted anywhere else in the whole world produce mastick. Mastick is the gum of a very noble tree. That island was held by a very noble Genoese, by name Martin Zachary, a most worthy sea captain, who slew or took more than ten thousand Turks. But, alackaday! the rascally emperor of Constantinople, Greek that he was, got possession of the island by treason, a thing most deeply to be lamented; and all the more that the captain was taken in person, and made a prisoner.