A letter from a person of quality on board the William and Mary in the fare of Messina to a friend in London Wherein is set forth the present state and condition of the said city. Also a true account of the French fleet now lying in the port of Messina. To which is added a brief discourse of the island of Sicilia concerning the several alterations of government and conquests made therein. With allowance. T. F. 1676 Approx. 8 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2012-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 2). A41041 Wing F62 ESTC R216391 99828122 99828122 32549

To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.

Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 2, no. A41041) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 32549) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1946:20) A letter from a person of quality on board the William and Mary in the fare of Messina to a friend in London Wherein is set forth the present state and condition of the said city. Also a true account of the French fleet now lying in the port of Messina. To which is added a brief discourse of the island of Sicilia concerning the several alterations of government and conquests made therein. With allowance. T. F. 8 p. [s.n.], London : printed in the year, M DC LXXVI. [1676] Reproduction of the original in the Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) Library.

Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO.

EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org).

The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source.

Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data.

Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so.

Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor.

The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.

Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).

Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site.

eng Messina (Sicily) -- History -- 17th century. 2020-09-21 Content of 'availability' element changed when EEBO Phase 2 texts came into the public domain 2011-09 Assigned for keying and markup 2011-09 Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2011-10 Sampled and proofread 2011-10 Text and markup reviewed and edited 2012-05 Batch review (QC) and XML conversion

A LETTER FROM A Perſon of Quality on Board the William and Mary in the FARE of MESSINA To a Friend in LONDON.

Wherein is ſet forth the preſent State and Condition of the ſaid CITY.

ALSO A true Account of the French FLEET now lying in the Port of Meſſina.

To which is added A Brief Diſcourſe of the Iſland of Sicilia concerning the ſeveral Alterations of Government and Conqueſts made therein.

With Allowance.

LONDON, Printed in the Year, MDCLXXVI.

A LETTER From aboard the William and Mary in the Fare of MESSINA.

IN compliance to your Commands and Advice to me at my departure, to be diligent in obſerving all things that might be worth remark in our Voyage, but moſt eſpecially the ſituation of the principal Cities, the Cuſtomes and Inclinations of the people, And what other Hiſtorical Notions I could gain from the mouths of the Inhabitants; in all which I have been very obſervant hitherto, as will appear by my Journal at my return.

But to gratifie you in the mean time, having the opportunity of a Ship bound for Naples, I have requeſted the Maſter to convey this Letter to you from thence by the Poſt.

About two days ſince we rid at Anchor off Meſſina upon the rear of the French Fleet, our Maſter was invited aboard one of the Ships that was neareſt to us, who did me that Favour as to carry me on board with him: we were there very civilly welcomed and nobly treated. The French Coptain ſpoke Engliſh very well, and entertained us after a Ship Collation with a large Diſcourſe concerning their la e Fight with the Spaniſh and Dutch Fleet, and their Fortunate ſucceſs therein. Firſt in relieving the City Meſſina with timely Proviſions, and coming off with honour in the Engagement.

But, Sir, I ſuppoſe this Diſcour e of the Engagement will be no News to you by that time this Letter comes to your hand, ſince you will have divers Relations and Particulars of the Fight long before.

The number of their Fleet was above Thirty Capitol Ships, beſides their Galleys and ſmall Veſſels, to which number they expected an addition from France to make up about Fifty Sail, which they hoped wouldcome ſpeedily, for they expected a ſecond Engagement within a ſhort time, for they had lately heard that Lieutenant Admiral De Ruyter was returned back and joyned with the Spaniſh Ships and Galleys in order to attaque them again.

The Captain was a Man no leſs a Scholar than a Souldier, and gave us a pithy Hiſtorical Account of the City Meſſina and Sicilia, the Heads of which Diſcourſe, or ſo much of it as may come within the bounds of a Letter, I have here communicated to you, knowing how acceptable ſuch divertiſement hath been alwayes to you.

Meſsina is the Principal City of Sicilia, being ſtrongly ſituated and well accommodated for Trade or Merchandiſe, though Palermo be the Regal Seat and Reſidence of the Vice-Roy. This Meſsina was raiſed out of the ruines of the once Famous City Zanclia, which was deſtroyed by the Saraſens, who over run all Sicilia, and poſſeſſed the Iſland many years; but at length the Saraſens was droven out by the Normans, who quietly poſſeſſed and governed the Iſland above Forty three years; which Governours were ſtiled Counts of Sicilia; but then the Famous Captain Robert Gaſcordo, Brother to the King of Arragon layes claim to Puglia, then poſſeſſed by the Normans, and comes againſt it with a conſiderable Army, and takes it for himſelfe; and then proſecutes the War farther, pretending his Brothers claim to the whole Iſland of Sicilia, and by the aſſiſtance of his Brothers (the King of Arragon) Forces he maintained the claim, and conquered all Sicily, and diſpoſſeſſed the Normans.

To this Robert Gaſcordo Pope Nicholas the Second gave the Title of Duke of Sicily; but the Sicilians were ſoon weary of this Government, and revolted from the Arragonians, and with the conſent of the Pope, called in Carolus de Anjou, Brother to St. Lewis King of France, and inveſted him in the Throne, and ſwore Allegiance to him.

Thus was the Iſland governed by the Anjouans about the ſpace of Forty years, and then Pietro de Arragon contrived and plotted with the Sicilians the Maſſacre of the French throughout all the Iſland; the Day, Time, and manner appointed being come, notice was given by the ringing of the Veſpers Bell, and then this Tragical Plot was put in execution. After which this Pietro de Arragon was elected to the Government of Sicilia. Ʋpon this there followed tedious and terrible Wars between the French and the Arrogenians and Sicilians; but at laſt the Arragonians were conquered and driven out of Sicilia by Carolus the Eighth King of France, and the Sicilians ſubmitted to the French Government, and lived peaceably and quietly under it many years. And in the Reign of Ferando King of Spain Wars happening between the French and the Spaniards, Sicilia was taken by Conſalvo Ferando the Great Captain of Spain, who took Meſsina, and afterwards ſubdued the whole Iſland, and ſetled a Spaniſh Government there. From this Ferando the Iſland of Sicilia came by ſucceſſion to Carolus the Fifth Emperor, and from him to Philip the Second King of Spain; and ſo by ſucceſſion it hath been ſubject to the Crown of Spain to this time. This is a ſhort Accouut of what I intend hereafter to enlarge upon and ſend it to you.

THE City Meſſina is at preſent in pretty good condition, but before the French Fleet arrived to bring them Proviſion, they were reduced to great ſtraits, being forced to eat all manner of Vermin for their ſubſiſtance. We met with a Ship that had put in there about a moneth before the French Fleet arrived, that told us they came aboard them like Bees, to ſearch for Proviſion, and proffered any money for it; one of which offered three Pieces of Eight for a few dryed Skins of Fiſhes, which the Cook had thrown by as uſeleſs. What will not Neceſſity and Hunger drive a man to! We are all very well and merrily ſayling, I hope you are in the like good condition. What further opportunity offers it ſelf to me, I ſhall readily embrace and make uſe of it to acquaint you with the proceedings of our Voyage, and ſubſcribe my ſelf

Your moſt obliged Servant and Nephew. T. F.