Some years ago I was in prison for six months, with all my crew, in Azoff.

It was the work of those rascally Genoese, who are always doing us a bad turn when they have the chance, even when we are at peace with them.

They set the mind of the native khan--that is the prince of the country--against us by some lying stories that we had been engaged in smuggling goods in at another port.

And suddenly, in the middle of the night, in marched his soldiers on board my ship, and two other Venetian craft lying in the harbour, and took possession of them, and shut us all up in prison.
There we were till Messer Polani got news, and sent out another ship to pay the fine demanded.

That was no joke, I can tell you, for the prison was so hot and crowded, and the food so bad, that we got fever, and pretty near half of us died before our ransom came.