Seer aenmerkelyke reys-beschryving na Constantinopolen, en Egypten, gedaan in het jaar 1605, en vervolgen...

1606.

A piece of cannon the length of 20 feet.

In the middle of the market of the city of Rhodis lies a piece of cannon, with a length of 20 feet. This cannon is surrounded by twenty strong iron rings to make it last longer; in the mouth sticks a cannonball, in memory of a strange story. The citizens then related that when the city of Rhodis was besieged by the Turks, this cannon, firing a full mile into the Turkish army, had caused such damage to the Turks that they despaired of being able to win the city. Upon this came a sorcerer who bewitched the cannon, so that the ball, even though the cannon was loaded with the greatest care, never went further than the mouth of the cannon. Whatever the truth of it may be, I could not well believe it. The citizens of Rhodis further told me that their city and island would have received their name from a bud of a rose found while digging up the earth.

The island Rhodis delivered from a great dragon.

The citizens of the city of Rhodis told me yet more, that about two hundred and fifty years ago, a terrible and venomous dragon, doing great damage to humans and beasts, had stayed on the island. Upon this, a noble knight from France, by the name of Fr. Theodanus Cossano, had come, who, well-armed and having with him two strong bloodhounds, had attacked this dragon on horseback and, after long fighting, overcame and killed it. And in eternal memory of that heroic deed, the head of the dragon is still preserved under the gate through which one goes to the harbor; this dragon head still hangs to this day on a large iron chain.

Flying fish by the island Rhodis.

We also saw here, about a mile out to sea, many flying fish, the size of a herring, which come rushing up quickly from the sea, fly as far as one could reach with a musket bullet, and then suddenly fall back into the water.