WILLIAM DI « By these our letters we hasten to inforni your paternity of Α. ο. 1217. the state of that Holy Land which the Lord hath consecrated with his own blood. Know that, at the period of the departure of these letters, an immense number of pilgrims, both knights and foot soldiers, marked with the emblem of the life-giving cross* arrived at Acre from Germany and other parts of Europe. Saphadin, the great sultan of Egypt, hath remained closely within the eonfines of his own dominions, not daring in any way to molest us. The arrival of the king of Hungary, and of the dukes of Austria and Moravia, together with the intelligence just received of the near approach of the fleet of the Friths, has not a little alarmed him. Never do we recollect the power of the Pagans so low as at the present time ; and may the omnipotent God, Ο holy father, make it grow weaker and weaker day by day. But we must inform you that in these parts corn and barley, and all the necessaries of life, have become extraordinarily dear. This year the harvest has utterly disappointed the expectations of onr husbandmen, and has almost totally failed. The natives, indeed, now depend for support altogether upon the corn imported from the West, but as yet very little foreign grain has been received ; and to increase our uneasiness, nearly all our knights are dismounted, and w e cannot procure horses to supply the places of those that have perished. It is therefore of the utmost importance, Ο holy father, to advertise all who design to assume the cross of the above scarcity, that they may furnish themselves with plentiful supplies of grain and horses. *' Before the arrival of the king of Hungary and the duke of Austria, we had eonie to the determination of marching against the city of Naplous, and of bringing the Saracen chief Coradin to an engagement if he would have awaited our attack, but wc have all now determined to undertake an expedition into Egypt