joined ourselves to the Archbishop of Mentz. The whole being assembled, the
company of this archbishop amounted to seven thousand persons, all properly
provided for the expedition; and we travelled prosperously through many
provinces, arriving at length at the city of Constantinople. We there did
reverence to the Emperor Alexius, visited the church, of Sancta Sophia, and
devoutly kissed many sacred relics.

Departing from Constantinople, we travelled through Lycia, where we fell
into the hands of Arabian thieves; and after we had been robbed of infinite
sums of money, and had lost many of our people, we escaped with extreme
peril of our lives, and at length entered joyfully into the most anxiously
wished-for city of Jerusalem. We were there received by the most reverend,
aged, and holy patriarch Sophronius, with a great melody of cymbals by
torch-light, and were conveyed in solemn procession, by a great company of
Syrians and Latins, to the church of the Most Holy Sepulchre of our blessed
Saviour. Here, how many prayers we uttered, what abundance of tears we
shed, what deep sighs we breathed forth, is only known to our Lord Jesus
Christ. From the most glorious sepulchre of Christ, we were conducted to
visit the other sacred monuments of the holy city; and saw, with weeping
eyes, a great number of holy churches and oratories, which Achius the
Soldan of Egypt had lately destroyed. And, having deeply bewailed all the
ruins of that most holy city, both within and without its walls, and having
bestowed money for the re-edifying of some of these, we expressed the most
ardent desire to go forth into the country, that we might wash ourselves in
the sacred river Jordan, and that we might visit and kiss all the holy
footsteps of the blessed Redeemer. But the Arabian robbers, who lurked in
every part of the country, would not suffer us to travel far from the city,
on account of their numbers and savage manners.

About the spring of the year, there arrived a fleet of ships from, Genoa,