The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema: In Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 To 1508. Ludovico di Varthema

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      Though originally bound for the Persian Gulf, the Arab skipper most probably picked up some additional freight at the above-mentioned places for India, between which and the north-east coast of Africa a considerable trade is still carried on, chiefly by Borah merchants of Guzerat and Cutch. This commerce, which in more ancient times appears to have been conducted through the intermediate ports of Hadhramaut on the north-east coast of Arabia, eventually took the more direct route across the Indian ocean and was in full play when the Portuguese first found their way to the Red Sea. The fact of the skipper having made for Zaila proves that the voyage occurred during the northeast monsoon, which is the only season for foreign trade there, the coast being generally dangerous throughout the opposite or south-westerly monsoon.

      In twelve days, the vessel reached the small island of Diu in Guzerat, which Varthema calls “Diu bander-er-rumi,” i.e., Diu the Port of the Rum, and describes with his usual accuracy. The suffix, which I have not met with elsewhere, was probably a conventional designation among the Arabs owing to so many “Turkish merchants,” (more correctly, Circassians, Afghans, and Persians) being resident there. The familiar intercourse which existed between that part of Western India and the opposite coast of Arabia is attested by incidental notices occurring in Arabian chronicles of the time.

      From Diu, the ship proceeded up the Gulf of Cambay to Gogo, and from thence steered across

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      the Indian Ocean, doubling Mussendom, to Julfar, an Arab town on the western side of that pro- montory, which was subsequently occupied by the Portuguese as a station for the pearl-fishery. Here, a retrograde movement was made by redoubling Mussendom in order to reach Maskat, of which place our author barely gives the name, and the next port gained was Hormuz, where he appears to have sojourned for several days.

      The eligibility of that island, situated directly in the line of the Indian trade, via the Persian Gulf, appears to have given it considerable importance as a commercial emporium at a very early period. If it was the Nekrokis of Benjamin of Tudela, which is highly probable though his description of that place is most perplexing, it was largely frequented by traders to and from India in the middle of the twelfth century. A century later, Marco Polo makes it the resort of many merchants who brought thither spices, pearls, precious stones, elephants’ teeth, and all other pre- cious things from India and Abd er-Razzak, sixty years prior to our traveler, says that “he merchants of the seven climates all make their way to this port.” Varthema’s account of the island—its situation near the mainland, its utter barrenness and yet withal its prosperity as “a chief maritime port, where sometimes as many as three hundred vessels are assembled,"—is in perfect accordance with these preceding travelers, and he describes the mode of fishing for pearls just as it exists at the present day.

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      All this is now changed, and Hormuz, like the Tyre of Scripture, is little better than a rock for fishermen to spread their nets on. It was captured by the Portuguese under Albuquerque in 1508, who were in turn expelled in 1662 by the Persians, aided by a British fleet, during the reign of Shah Abbas, who caused the colony to be removed to Gombrim on the opposite mainland, and dignified it with the name of Bander Abbas. The intervention of Great Britain in this affair is thus judiciously commented on by Sir John Malcolm:—

       “If the English ever indulged a hope of deriving permanent benefit from the share they took in this transaction, they were completely disappointed. They had, it is true, revenged themselves upon an enemy they hated, destroyed a flourishing settlement, and brought ruin and misery upon thousands, to gratify the avarice and ambition of a despot, who promised to en- rich them by a favor, which they should have known was not likely to protect them, even during his life, from the violence and injustice of his own officers, much less during that of his successors. The history of the English factory at Gombroon, from this date till it was abandoned, is one series of disgrace, of losses, and of dangers, as that of every such establishment in a country like Persia must be. Had that nation either taken Ormuz for it- self, or made a settlement on a more eligible island in the gulf, it would have carried on its commerce with that quarter to much greater advantage and its political influence, both in Persia and Arabia, would have remained unrivalled.” ¹

      We are now to accompany our traveler through a part of the journey where the landmarks of his route

      ' History of Persia, vol. i. p. 547.

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      are less distinctly traceable. We must, of course, suppose him to have crossed over to the mainland but how far he had penetrated into the interior when he writes: “Departing thence, I passed into Persia, and traveling for twelve days I found a city called Eri,” is not specified. Nevertheless, as I see no cause to question his visit to Eri, the ancient name of Herat, and as it is tolerably certain that he could not have reached that place in the time given, we may reasonably infer either that an error has in this instance crept into the original narrative, or that Varthema dates his departure from a point which he has omitted to record. As far as his rather summary account of Herat goes,—of the city, its pro- ductions, its manufactures, and its population,—his information is perfectly correct and that fact, taken in conjunction with a subsequent avowal that he described Samarcand by report only, may be fairly regarded as a proof of his veracity; for if he was disposed to misrepresent in the one case, there is no reason why he should not have done so in the other.

      Twenty days’ march from Herat brought our traveler to “a large and fine river, called Eufra,” which “on account of its great size” he supposes to be the Euphrates. As he was then three days distant from Shiraz, to which city the onward road lay “to the left hand” of his Eufra, I have supposed him to have struck on the Pulwan at or near Merghab, a little to the south- ward of which town there appears to be a highway, leading by Istakar, to a point below the junction of the Pulwan with the Bendemir, from whence it is