A much-travelled Spanish visitor amazes an English audience with his tales of wonder overseas, until he is brought up short by his servant.
As a young man, James Howell (?1594-1666) had toured extensively abroad and studied several foreign languages. In 1642, his lavish tastes landed him in the Fleet prison for debt, and there he began to write professionally; that same year, he published a handbook on travel, in which he made a little digression on the subject of the tales travellers tell on their return.