So the English were willing to trade goods of military value with the Ottomans. Definitely keep that in mind as the story of this visit to Chios unfolds. Chios is a major trading destination a couple of miles off the coast of Anatolia. It's now a part of Greece and was almost certainly mostly Greek and character when Hare Brown was hanging out there in early 1581, partying with the French consul, considering a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and deciding he'd change his surname to Harbourn when he got home to make it sound more prestigious. Justica across the water were the ports of Fokia or Fossa and Smyrna or Ismir. It was a good place to be, and undoubtedly a great place to do business. Unfortunately, he was not the only Englishman looking to go about business on the

island at this time. A ship called the Bark Row, owned by the Newcastle-born merchant Roger Row,

had left London in September 1580 bound for the Med. It traded cargo at Livorno, Malta,

and finally Chios. Cargo destined for Catholic ports had been standard English fare. The cargo destined for Ottoman Chios, however, was a shipment of broken lead church bells. On Chios, Harbourn and his Flemish business partner generously hosted the ship's captain at his lodgings with the French consul. The crew remarked on Harburn's wealth and standing, his Janissary Guard, his connection to the French console. One of them even let slip, when later interrogated by the Maltese Inquisition,

that Harburn had been referring to himself as the Queen's

ambassador at the court of the Turk. Harburn was undoubtedly living the life, and he wanted everyone

on Chios to know it and see it. The problem was he had permission to be there and had been appointed

a janissary guard and could do it as he pleased, but the actual English capitulations that had been negotiated were not yet

valid until they had been ratified by Elizabeth I and Sultan Murad the third, and an

ambassador had officially been appointed and presented the Sultan with a gift. So unless the

Barkrow was there under French protection, it was, in fact, trading illegally. Shocker. Hmm. A local official challenged the crew of the bark row when they made to leave the island. Why were they trading under French documentation when there was an English ambassador here? Harburn allowed himself to be duped for the French consul at the consul's suggestion, rather than bringing the French consul down to the port to explain or bribe the official. Harbourn went down and presented his Ottoman copy of not yet validated

English trading privileges. The Barkrow went merrily on its way without having to pay any

French duties or bribes. And so what? Well, Harburn probably would have gotten away with it, too,

if it weren't for those petty and utterly unscrupulous English sailors. So one thing that we have to

understand about the 16th century Mediterranean is that it was both totally wild and that there were

not really fixed sides or identities that couldn't be shifted or changed. Piracy and privateering was

rife and people switched patrons and nationalities, religions, according to who happened to capture

them and when, or whether

it was personally convenient to them. At this time, there were renegades quite literally all

over the place, and it was much easier for male Christian captives to survive and thrive in

Muslim service if they converted and their talents were useful, then vice versa. A prominent English

example was a young man who rose to be the major domo and then treasurer to the Ottoman governor of Algiers. Captured as Samson Rowley by Corsairs while sailing aboard the swallow in 1577, Hassan Ayah was both the son of a Bristol merchant and also a Muslim, unic bureaucrat slave. I mean, listen, that is the most fucking Bristol sentence ever. Like, put him in a pair of Air Jordan high tops and skinny jeans and make him look like a member of Hedukin. And it's like, yeah, this is like, this is fully on brand for Bristol. He started out being the guy running up to you in the street in Bristol asking if you wanted to buy pills. And then 20 years later, he comes back, Fly is how his entourage. And he's the event that everyone's coming and also trying to sell you pills at. It's like the Bristol cycle of Samsar. Yeah, and he's renamed himself Muhammad Al-Gabber or something. I mean, Hassan Ayah is a much doper name than Samson Rowley. And honestly, Samson is a pretty cool name to begin with. So, you know. So the Ottoman Grand Admiral at this time was

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