_ 141 _ was possible that on one day one person would die in each street, but more would be born. It is said that the city is so populous that the Turks have a proverb that if everyone in Cairo died, the world could not replenish it. Item: Outside the city, two leagues to the west, is the Lions’ Well(A), where the prophet Daniel was. On the second day after I arrived here, I went to the consul and caused him to take from a Venetian who was travelling with me the jewels he had taken from the mother superior to deliver them to the Guardian of Jerusalem. This detained me in Aleppo for twenty-five days, but I was able to leave on the following day in a caravan which was going to Tripoli. I was in time to embark in a French galleon which was bound for Marseille, in which I had a very rapid voyage. I dared not go through Constantinople for fear of being recognized and because of the letters I was carrying from India. Item: Having said farewell to the consul, I left for Tripoli in a caravan of Venetian merchants. Up to this point, I had always had with me a dark-skinned Indian slave who served me. I wished him to stay and take him with me. All the merchants, who were my friends and (A) The well of the lions of the prophet Daniel.
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