 "Then", he says, "I passed over the Euphrates and went into Mesopotamia, Abraham's country, whither I am intending to send our catechism in Turkish to some of their bishops".This was in 1652; he spent the winter of 1652–3 at Aleppo.In the spring of 1653 he went from Aleppo to Constantinople by land, a distance of about 600 miles, unaccompanied by any one who could speak any European language.