ABSTRACT
WE had sojourned in Pera from that Wednesday [the 24th of October] of our arrival to Tuesday the 13th of November, and all this time we had been unable to hear of any ship or carrack bound for Trebizond in which we could take passage. The winter already was coming on, during which season the Black Sea is very dangerous for navigation, and anxious now to avoid further delay on our journey we concluded to charter on our private account a galliot. The master of this vessel was a certain Genoese seaman whose name was Messer Nicolo Socato, who forthwith mustered his crew and we took in the necessary stores for the voyage, whereby on this same Tuesday aforesaid the galliot proceeded to take her way out from the harbour. That day however we were unable to make sail, some of the rowers not having yet come on board, and a quantity of the ship’s stores lacking. The next day Wednesday which was the 14th of November, at the hour of midday mass we at last were ready to sail, and the wind was fair for entering the strait [of the Bosporus] which leads into the Black Sea.
