Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Journey of Symon Semeonis from Ireland to the Holy Land (Author: Symon Semeonis (Simon FitzSimon))
Section 24
Leaving this city [Candia] on Monday within the octave of St. Francis [10 October 1323], we sailed past the island of Scarpanto and reached the very famous city of Alexandria, beloved by all classes of traders, on the feast of St. Calixtus [14 October]. This city is in the land of Egypt and is distant 500 miles from Candia.59 One mile outside the city is the spot where Mark the evangelist and patron-saint of Venice was martyred. Within it is the site of the martyrdom of the glorious virgin Katherine, where there are now two large and tall columns of red
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stone between which runs the public highway. The place is held in no honour. The saint's body was carried off by angelic hands to Mount Sinai, which, according to the inhabitants, is distant a journey of thirteen long days from the city of Alexandria. On our arrival in the port, the vessel, as is the custom, was immediately boarded by a number of Saracen harbour officials, who hauled down the sail, and wrote down the names of everybody on board. Having examined all the merchandise and goods in the ship, and having made a careful list of everything, they returned to the city taking the passengers with them, and leaving two guards on board to investigate. They quartered us within the first and second gates, and went off to report what they had done to the Admiral of the city, without whose presence and permission no foreigner is allowed either to enter or leave the city, and no goods can be imported. The above-mentioned guards did not leave the ship until it had been entirely unloaded. The officials act thus in the case of every ship in order to discover any goods that might not have been written down in the first inventory. For the Admiral receives a fixed tribute on all that is found in the ship and entered in the inventory, and has finally to render an account of it to the Sultan.