A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Vii Part 9

In adapting the present chapter to the purposes of our Collection, the only liberty we have taken with the ancient translation exhibited by Hakluyt, has been to employ the modern orthography in the names of places, persons, and things, and to modernise the language throughout.

As in the itinerary of Verthema, to avoid the multiplication of notes unnecessarily we have corrected the frequently vicious orthography of these names as given by Cesar Frederick and his original translator, either by subst.i.tuting the true names or more generally received modern orthography, or by subjoining the right name in the text immediately after that employed by the author. When the names employed in the original translation of this Journal are so corrupt as to be beyond our power to rectify, or where we are doubtful of our correction, we have marked them with a point of interrogation, as doubtful or unknown, as has likewise been done in our version of the Itinerary of Verthema.

These two journals, besides that they coincide with the plan of our arrangement of giving as many appropriate original journals of voyages and travels as we can procure, contain a great number of curious particulars, nowhere else to be met with, respecting the manners and customs of various parts of India, between the years 1503 and 1581, with many intersecting notices respecting its history, production, and trade.

We learn from the following journal, that Cesar Frederick began his peregrination in 1563; and, as he informs us in his preface, that he was continually employed in coasting and travelling for eighteen years, he could not have returned to Venice before the year 1581. In the publication of this journal in the Collection of Hakluyt, it is very irregularly divided into fragments, upon no apparent principles of regular distribution; but on the present occasion it has been arranged in sections, so as to suit the general plan of the present work.--E.

_Cesar Frederick to the Reader._

Having for the s.p.a.ce of eighteen years continually coasted and travelled over almost all the East Indies, and many other countries beyond the Indies, both with good and bad success; and having seen and learned many things worthy of notice, which have never been before communicated to the world; I have thought it right, since the Almighty hath graciously been pleased to return me to my native country, the n.o.ble city of Venice, to write and publish this account of the perils I have encountered during my long and arduous peregrinations by sea and land, together with the many wonderful things I have seen in the Indies; the mighty princes that govern these countries; the religion or faith in which they live; their rites and customs; the various successes I experienced; and which of these countries abound in drugs and jewels: All of which may be profitable to such as desire to make a similar voyage: Therefore, that the world may be benefited by my experience, I have caused my voyages and travels to be printed, which I now present to you, gentle and loving readers, in hopes that the variety of things contained in this book may give you delight.

SECTION I.

_Voyage from Venice to Bir in Asia Minor._

In the year 1563, while residing at Venice, being desirous to see the eastern parts of the world, I embarked in a s.h.i.+p called the _Gradaige_ of Venice, commanded by Jacomo Vatica, bound for Cyprus, taking with me certain merchandise. On arriving at Cyprus, I left that s.h.i.+p, and went in a lesser to Tripoli in Syria, where I made a short stay. I then travelled by land to Aleppo, where I became acquainted with some Armenian and Moorish merchants, and agreed to accompany them to Ormuz.

We accordingly departed together from Aleppo, and came to the city of _Bir_ in two days journey and a-half.

Bir is a small city in which provisions are very scarce, situated in Asia Minor, [in lat. 37 5' N. long. 38 E. from Greenwich], the river Euphrates running near its walls. In this city, the merchants who intend to descend the Euphrates form themselves into companies or a.s.sociations, according to the quant.i.ties of merchandise they possess, and either build or buy a boat to carry themselves and their goods down the Euphrates to Babylon[121], under the care of a master and mariners hired to conduct the boat. These boats are almost flat-bottomed and very strong, yet serve only for one voyage, as it is impossible to navigate them upwards. They are fitted for the shallowness of the river, which in many places is full of great stones which greatly obstruct the navigation. At _Feluchia_ a small city on the Euphrates, the merchants pull their boats to pieces or sell them for a small price; as a boat that cost forty or fifty chequins at Bir sells only at Feluchia for seven or eight chequins. When the merchants return back from Babylon, if they have merchandise or goods that pay custom, they travel through the wilderness in forty days, pa.s.sing that way at much less expence than the other. If they have no such merchandise, they then go by the way of Mosul in Mesopotamia, which is attended with great charges both for the caravan and company. From Bir to _Feluchia_. on the Euphrates, over against Babylon, which is on the Tigris, if the river have sufficient water, the voyage down the river may be made in fifteen or eighteen days; but when the water is low in consequence of long previous drought, the voyage is attended with much trouble, and will sometimes require forty or fifty days to get down. In this case the boats often strike on the stones in the river, when it becomes necessary to unlade and repair them, which is attended with much trouble and delay; and on this account the merchants have always one or two spare boats, that if one happen to split or be lost by striking on the shoals, they may have another ready to take in their goods till they have repaired the broken boat If they were to draw the broken boat on the land for repair, it would be difficult to defend it in the night from the great numbers of Arabs that would come to rob and plunder them. Every night, when it is necessary to make fast the boat to the bank, good watch must be kept against the Arabs, who are great thieves and as numerous as ants; yet are they not given to murder on these occasions, but steal what they can and run away. Arquebuses are excellent weapons for keeping off these Arabs, as they are in great fear of the shot. In pa.s.sing down the river from Bir to Feluchia, there are certain towns and villages on the Euphrates belonging to _the son of Aborise_, king of the Arabs and of the desert, at some of which the merchants have to pay so many _medins_ of custom on each bale.

[Footnote 121: It is obvious that Bagdat is here meant.--E.]

SECTION II.

_Of Feluchia and Babylon._

Feluchia is a village on the Euphrates, where they who come from Bir for Babylon disembark with their goods, and go thence by land to Babylon, a journey of a day and a half. Babylon is no great city, but is very populous and is greatly resorted to by strangers, being the great thoroughfare for Persia, Turkey and Arabia, and from this place there are frequent caravans to different countries. Babylon is abundantly supplied with provisions, which are brought down the river Tigris on certain rafts or _zattores_ called Vtrij, the river Tigris running past the walls of Babylon. The blown-up hides of which these rafts are composed, are bound fast together, on which boards are laid, and on these boards the commodities are loaded. When unladed at Babylon, the air is let out of the skins, which are then laid on the backs of camels and carried back to serve for another voyage. The city of Babylon is properly speaking in the kingdom of Persia, but is now under the dominion of the Turks. On the other side of the river towards Arabia, over against Babylon, there is a handsome town in which is an extensive Bazar for the merchants, with many lodging rooms, in which the greater part of the stranger merchants that go to Babylon expose their goods for sale. The pa.s.sage across the river between Babylon and this town is by a long bridge of boats chained together with great chains: And when the river is swollen by the great rains, this bridge is opened in the middle, one half falling alongside of the walls of Babylon, and the other half along the opposite bank of the borough. So long as the bridge remains open, the people cross from side to side in small boats with much danger, by reason of their smallness, and that they are usually overladen, so that they are very liable to be overset by the swiftness of the current, or to be carried away and wrecked on the banks. In this manner-many people are lost and drowned, as I have often witnessed.

The tower of Nimrod, or Babel, is situated on the Arabian side of the Tigris, in a great plain, seven or eight miles from Babylon. Being ruined on every side, it has formed a great mountain, yet a considerable part of the tower is still standing, compa.s.sed and almost covered up by these ruins. It has been built of square bricks dried in the sun, and constructed in the following manner. In the first place a course of bricks was laid, then a mat made of canes squared like the bricks, and daubed with earth instead of lime mortar; and these mats still remain so strong that it is wonderful considering their great antiquity. I have gone all round it without being able to discover any place where there had been a door or entrance, and in my opinion it may be about a mile in circ.u.mference or rather less. Contrary to all other things, which appear small at a distance and become larger the nearer they are approached, this tower appears largest when seen from afar, and seems less as you come nearer. This may be accounted for, as the tower stands in a very large plain, and with its surrounding ruins forms the only perceptible object; so that from a distance the tower and the mountains formed of its ruins make a greater shew than it is found to be on coming near.

SECTION III.

_Of Basora._

From Babylon I embarked in one of those small vessels which ply upon the Tigris between Babylon and Basora, which are built after the manner of foists or galliots, having a _speron_[122] and a covered p.o.o.p. They use no pumps, being so well daubed with pitch as effectually to exclude the water. This pitch they have from a great plain near the city of _Heit_ on the Euphrates, two days journey from Babylon. This plain full of pitch is marvellous to behold, and a thing almost incredible, as from a hole in the earth the pitch is continually thrown into the air with a constant great smoke; and being hot it falls as it were sprinkled all over the plain, in such abundance that the plain is always full of pitch[123]. The Moors and Arabs of the neighbourhood allege that this hole is the mouth of h.e.l.l; and in truth it is a very memorable object From this native pitch or bitumen the whole people of that country derive great benefit, as with it they pay or serve their barks, which they call _Daneck_ and _Saffin_.

[Footnote 122: In imitation of the original translator Hick.o.c.ke and Hakluyt, this word must be left untranslated and unexplained.--E.]

[Footnote 123: This account of the hole which discharges pitch or native bitumen mixed with water is most true; the water and pitch running into the valley _or island_, where the pitch remains, and the water runs into the Euphrates, when it occasions the water for a long way to have a brackish taste with the smell of pitch and brimstone.--Hakl.]

When the river Tigris is well replenished with water, the pa.s.sage from Babylon or Bagdat to Basora may be made in eight or nine days, less or more according to circ.u.mstances; we were fourteen or fifteen days, because the water was low, and when the waters are at the lowest it requires eighteen days. Having no rocks or shoals in the river, the voyage may be continued day and night. There are some places by the way at which you have to pay so many medins for each bale, as toll or custom. Basora, Bussora, or Busrah, [in lat. 30 20' N. long. 47 40'

E.] is a city on the Arabian side of the united rivers Euphrates and Tigris, which was governed of old by those Arabs called _Zizarij_, but is now under the dominion of the grand Turk, who keeps an army there at great charge. The tribe of Arabs called Zizarij still have possession of a large extent of country, and cannot be overcome by the Turks, as the sea divides their country into islands by many channels, so that the Turks are unable to bring an army against them either by land or sea, and likewise because the inhabitants are brave and warlike. A days sail before coming to Basora, we pa.s.s a small castle or fort called _Corna_, on the point of land where the Euphrates and Tigris join; whence the united waters of these two rivers form a very large river that runs into the gulf of Persia.

Basora is fifty miles from the sea, and it a place of great trade in spices and drugs, which are brought from Ormuz. It is abundantly supplied with corn, rice, and dates, from the surrounding country. At Basora I s.h.i.+pped myself for Ormuz, to which I sailed through the Persian gulf 600 miles, which is the distance between Basora and Ormuz. We sailed in small s.h.i.+ps built of board fastened together with small ropes or cords, and, instead of caulking, a certain kind of straw is laid between the boards at their junctions, and they are sewed together; owing to which imperfect construction, these vessels are very dangerous, and take in much water. On departing from Basora we sailed 200 miles along the left sh.o.r.e of the gulf, having the open sea on our right hand, till we came to an island called _Carichij_ or _Karak_, whence we continued our voyage to Ormuz, always keeping the Persian sh.o.r.e in sight on our left, and seeing many islands on our right hand towards Arabia.

SECTION IV.

_Of Ormuz._

The island of Ormuz is twenty-five or thirty miles in circuit, being the driest and most barren island in the world, producing nothing but salt-water and wood. All things necessary for the life of man are brought here from Persia, which is twelve miles off, and from islands adjoining to Persia, and in such abundance that the city has always a great store of every necessary. Near the sh.o.r.e there stands a fair castle, in which resides the commander appointed by the king of Portugal, with a good band of Portuguese soldiers. The married men belonging to the garrison dwell in the city, in which there are merchants of almost every nation, among whom are many Moors and Gentiles. This city has a vast trade for all kinds of spices, drugs, silk, cloth of silk, brocades, and various kinds of merchandise from Persia. The trade in horses is very great, being transported from hence to India. The island has a Mahometan or Moorish king of the Persian race, who is created and set up by the Portuguese commander in the name of the king of Portugal. Being present on one of these occasions, I shall set down the ceremonies as I saw them.

The old king being dead, the Portuguese commander proceeds with much pomp and ceremony to elect a new one in the castle; and when he is chosen from the blood-royal, the new king is sworn to be true and faithful to the king of Portugal, as his lord-paramount, after which the captain presents him with the royal sceptre. The newly elected king is then conducted in great pomp to the royal palace, amid great feasts and rejoicings, and attended by a numerous and splendid retinue. The king keeps a good train of attendants, and has sufficient revenues to maintain his state and dignity, with very little of the cares of royalty, as the captain of the castle defends the kingdom. When the king and captain ride out together, the king is treated with much ceremony and respect, yet cannot ride abroad with his train without having first received permission of the captain, which precaution is necessary because of the great trade carried on at this place. The native language in this island is the Persian. I embarked at Ormuz for Goa in India, in a s.h.i.+p on board of which were fourscore horses. All merchants proceeding from Ormuz for Goa ought to go in s.h.i.+ps carrying horses, because every s.h.i.+p carrying twenty horses or upwards is privileged from the payment of customs on all their other goods, whereas all s.h.i.+ps having no horses have to pay eight per centum on their goods and commodities.

SECTION V.

_Of Goa, Diu, and Cambaya._

Goa is the chief city of the Portuguese in India, in which reside the viceroy and his court, being many officers of the crown of Portugal.

From Ormuz it is 990 miles to Goa, on which pa.s.sage the first city you come to in India is Diu, situated in a small island of the kingdom of Cambaia; and, though a small city, is the strongest fortified of any of those possessed by the Portuguese in India, having great trade, and loading many great s.h.i.+ps with merchandise for Ormuz and the Red Sea.

These s.h.i.+ps belong both to Moors and Christians; but the Moors can neither trade nor navigate in these seas, unless they have a pa.s.s or licence from the Portuguese viceroy, without which they we liable to be captured. The merchandise loaded at Diu comes from _Cambaietta_, a port in the kingdom of Cambaia, about 180 miles up a strait or gulf called _Macareo_, which signifies _a race of the tide_, because the water runs there with immense rapidity, such as is not to be seen anywhere else, except in the kingdom of Pegu, where there is another _Macareo_ or race of the tide still more violent. On this account, and because no large vessels can go to _Cambaietta_ or _Cambay_, by reason of the shallowness of the water in the gulf for 80 or 100 miles, the princ.i.p.al city of Cambaia or Guzerat is _Amadaver_ or _Amedabad_, a day and a half journey from Cambay, being a great and populous city, and for a city of the Gentiles it is well built with handsome houses and wide streets. In it there is a fine bason or canul, having many s.h.i.+ps, so that it resembles Cairo, but not so large.

Cambay is situated on the sea at the head of the gulf of the same name, and is a handsome city. While I was there it was suffering great calamity, owing to a scarcity, insomuch that the Gentiles offered their sons and daughters for sale to the Portuguese, and I have seen them sold for 8 or 10 _larines_ each, which is of our money about 10s. or 13s.

4d.[124]. Yet if I had not actually seen it, I could not have believed that Cambay had so great a trade. Every new and full moon, when the tides are at the highest, the small barks that come in and go out are quite innumerable. These barks are laden with all kinds of spices, with silks of China, sandal-wood, elephants teeth, velvets of _Vercini_, great quant.i.ties of _Pannina_, which comes from Mecca, _chequins_ or gold coins worth 7s. each sterling, and various other commodities. These barks carry out an infinite quant.i.ty of cloth of all sorts made of _b.u.mbast_ or cotton, some white, others stamped or painted; large quant.i.ties of indigo, dried and preserved ginger, dry and confected myrabolans, _boraso_ or borax in paste, vast quant.i.ties of sugar, cotton, opium, asafoetida, _puchio?_ and many other kinds of drugs, turbans made at Delhi, great quant.i.ties of carnelians, garnets, agates, jaspers, calcedonies, _hemat.i.tis_, or bloodstones, and some natural diamonds.

[Footnote 124: This comparison seems made by the translator between _larines_ and sterling money.--E.]

It is customary at Cambay, though no one is obliged, to employ brokers, of whom there are great numbers at this place, all Gentiles and of great repute, every one of whom keeps fifteen or twenty servants. All the Portuguese, and more other merchants who frequent this place, employ these brokers, who purchase and tell for them; and such as come there for the first time are informed by their friends of this custom, and what broker they ought to employ. Every fifteen days, when the great fleet of barks comes into port, these brokers come to the water side, and the merchants immediately on landing give charge of their cargoes to the broker who transacts their business, with the marks of all their bales and packages. After this the merchant carries on sh.o.r.e all the furniture for his dwelling, it being necessary for every one who trades to India to carry a sufficient provision of household staff for his use, as none such are to be procured. Then the broker who takes charge of his cargo, makes his servants carry the merchant's furniture to some empty house in the city, every broker having several such for the accommodation of their merchants, where there are only bedsteads, tables, chairs, and empty water jars. Then the broker says to the merchant, go and repose yourself and take your rest in the city. The broker remains at the water-side in charge of the cargo, causes all the goods to be discharged from the bark, pays the customs, and causes every thing to be carried to the house in which the merchant has taken up his residence, the merchant having no trouble with any thing. After this, the broker inquires if the merchant is disposed to sell his goods at the rate then current; and if he desires it, the broker sells the goods immediately, and informs the merchant how much money comes to him after payment of all charges. If the merchant is disposed to lay out his money in the purchase of other commodities, the broker informs him at what rate the different articles may be put free on board, all charges paid.

Being thus properly instructed, the merchant makes his calculations, and if he is satisfied to buy or sell at the current prices he directs the broker accordingly; so that if he have even to the value of 20,000 ducats or more, every thing will be sold off or bartered in fifteen days, without giving himself any trouble or concern about the matter.

Should the merchant not be disposed to sell the goods at the then current prices, he may tarry as long as he pleases, but the goods cannot be sold for him by any other person than the broker who has taken them in hand, and has paid the duties. Sometimes, by delaying the sale of their commodities for a time, the merchants make good profit, and at other times they lose; but those articles which do not ordinarily come every fifteen days, frequently produce great profit by delaying to sell till the prices rise.

The barks that lade at Cambay go to Diu to supply the s.h.i.+ps at that port which are taking in goods for the Red Sea and Ormuz, and some go to Chaul and Goa. These s.h.i.+ps are either well armed, or are protected by Portuguese s.h.i.+ps of war, as there are many corsairs or pirates continually cruizing along that coast, robbing and plundering whatever they are able to master. The kingdom of Cambaia or Guzerat has great trade, though it has long been in the hands of tyrants and usurpers, ever since the lawful sovereign, then 75 years of age, named Sultan Badur, was slain, at the a.s.sault of Diu, at which time four or five princ.i.p.al officers of his army divided the kingdom among themselves, all tyrannizing in their several shares as in emulation of each other.

Twelve years before my coming, the great Mogul, who is the Mahometan king of Delhi and Agra, 40 days journey inland from Amedabad, reduced all the provinces of Guzerat under his authority without resistance, his power being so great that none of the usurpers dared to oppose him.

While I dwelt in Cambay, I saw many curious things. There were a prodigious number of artificers who made ivory bracelets called mannij, of, various colours, with which the Gentile women are in use to decorate their arms, some covering their arms entirely over with them. In this single article there are many thousand crowns expended yearly, owing to this singular custom, that, when any of their kindred die, they break all their bracelets in token of grief and mourning, so that they have immediately to purchase new ones, as they would rather go without meat as not have these ornaments.

SECTION VI.

_Of Damann, Ba.s.sen, Tana, Chaul, and some other places_.

Leaving Diu, I went on to Damann, the second city belonging to the Portuguese in the territory of Guzerat, and distant from Diu 120 miles.

This place has no trade of any importance, except in rice and wheat, and has many dependent villages, where in time of peace the Portuguese enjoy the pleasure of a country retirement, but in time of war they are all spoiled and plundered by the enemy, so that then they derive very small benefit from them. The next place is Ba.s.sen, a small dirty place in comparison with Damann, which supplies Goa with rice and wheat, besides timber for the construction of s.h.i.+ps and gallies. At a small distance from Ba.s.sen is a small island named Tana, well peopled with Portuguese, Moors, and Gentiles. This place affords nothing but rice, but contains many manufacturers of _armesies_? and weavers of girdles made of wool and cotton, black and red like _moocharie_?

Beyond this is Chaul on the continent, where there are two cities, one belonging to the Portuguese, and the other to the Moors; that which belongs to the Portuguese is lower than the other, commands the mouth of the harbour, and is very strongly fortified. About a mile and a half from this city is that of the Moors, belonging to their king _Zamaluco_, or Nizam-al-mulk. In time of war no large s.h.i.+ps can go to the city of the Moors, as they must necessarily pa.s.s under the guns of the Portuguese castles, which would sink them. Both cities of Chaul are sea-ports, and have great trade in all kinds of spices, drugs, raw silk, manufactures of silk, sandal-wood, _Marsine, Versine_[125], porcelain of China, velvets and scarlets, both from Portugal and Mecca[126], with many other valuable commodities. Every year there arrive ten or fifteen large s.h.i.+ps, laden with great nuts called _Giagra_[127], which are cured or dried, and with sugar made from these nuts. The tree on which these nuts grow is called the _Palmer_ tree, and is to be found in great abundance over all India, especially between this place and Goa. This tree very much resembles that which produces dates, and no tree in the world is more profitable or more useful to man; no part of it but serves for some useful purpose, neither is any part of it so worthless as to be burnt. Of its timber they build s.h.i.+ps, and with the leaves they make sails. Its fruit, or nuts, produce wine, and from the wine they make sugar and _placetto_[128]. This wine is gathered in the spring of the year from the middle of the tree, where there is then a continual stream of clear liquor like water, which they gather in vessels placed on purpose under each tree, and take them away full every morning and evening. This liquor being distilled by means of fire, is converted into a very strong liquor, which is then put into buts with a quant.i.ty of white or black _Zibibs_, and in a short time it becomes a perfect wine.

Of the nuts they make great quant.i.ties of oil. The tree is made into boards and timbers for building houses. Of the bark cables and other ropes are made for s.h.i.+ps which are said to be better than those made of hemp. The branches are made into bed-steads after the Indian fas.h.i.+on, and into _Sanasches_? for merchandise. The leaves being cut into thin slips are woven into sails for all kinds of s.h.i.+ps, or into thin mats.

The outer rhind of the nut stamped serves as oak.u.m for caulking s.h.i.+ps, and the hard inner sh.e.l.l serves for spoons and other utensils for holding food or drink. Thus no portion whatever of this _Palmer_ tree is so worthless as to be thrown away or cast into the fire. When the nuts are green, they are full of a sweet water, excellent to drink, and the liquor contained in one nut is sufficient to satisfy a thirsty person.

As the nut ripens, this liquor turns all into kernel.

[Footnote 125: Formerly noticed as a species of velvet; but the words marsine and versine were inexplicable in the days of Hakluyt, and must so remain.--E.]