_ 169 _ appointed by the Seigniory without any soldiers because this is so near to Venice and visited by the galleys of its fleet. It is the principal city of a bishopric. We anchored here, for no carrack can continue towards Venice without a pilot from this place; just as the carracks from India take on a pilot at Cascais on penalty of one hundred escudos. This is because Venice has a muddy, dangerous approach, and it cannot be entered except on favorable easterly winds. On the following day, we anchored four or five miles from the city of Venice in the anchorage of large carracks. Even here the carracks cannot delay long because of the many thunderstorms and tempests. The city is not walled, but it consists of the most magnificent buildings and sumptuous houses I have ever seen. The gentlemen go about dressed in robes of fine black cloth open at the front with sleeves as long as a woman’s skirt, round black caps worn low on the head, and the length of the same cloth thrown over the shoulder like a toga. All the other people go about dressed in the Italian style. The women dress expensively and are much devoted to pearls. They are very beautiful, with very fair hair. Many native and Spanish Jews also live here, and they live in a large enclosure within the city, called Ghetto. The rents of the houses are very high.
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