WORKS ISSUED BY
The Hakluyt Society
__________
THE TRAVELS OF
LUDOVICO DI VARTHEMA
M.DCCC.LXIII.
WORKS ISSUED BY
The Hakluyt Society
__________
THE TRAVELS OF
LUDOVICO DI VARTHEMA
M.DCCC.LXIII.
THE TRAVELS
OF
LUDOVICO DI VARTHEMA
IN
EGYPT, SYRIA, ARABIA DESERTA AND ARABIA FELIX,
IN PERSIA, INDIA, AND ETHIOPIA,
A. D. 1503 TO 1508.
Translated
FROM THE ORIGINAL ITALIAN EDITION OF 1510,
WITH A PREFACE,
BY
JOHN WINTER JONES, Esq., F.S.A.,
And Edited
WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
GEORGE PERCY BADGER,
LATE GOVERNMENT CHAPLAIN IN THE PRESIDENCY OF BOMBAY,
AUTHOR OF "THE NESTORIANS AND THEIR RITUALS,"
ETC., ETC., ETC.
____
WITH A MAP.
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LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
M.DCCC.LXIII.
LONDON: T. RICHARDS. 37, GREAT QUEEN STREET.
TO THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE
SIR CHARLES WOOD, BART., G.C.B.,
HER MAJESTY'S SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA,
THIS EDITION
OF THE EASTERN TRAVELS OF
LUDOVICO DI VARTHEMA,
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY,
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY THE EDITOR,
COUNCIL
OF
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
_________
SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, G.C.St.S., F.R.S., D.C.L., Corr. Mem. Inst. F.,
Hon. Mem. Imp. Acad. Sc. St. Petersburg, etc., etc., PRESIDENT.
R EAR -A DMIRAL C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B.
THE RT. HON. SIR DAVID DUNDAS, M.P. } VICE-PRESIDENTS.
J. BARROW, Esq., F.R.S.
RT. HON. LORD BROUGHTON.
CAPTAIN CRACROFT, R.N.
SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S.
JOHN FORSTER, Esq.
R. W. GREY, Esq, M.P.
T. HODGKIN, Esq., M.D.
JOHN WINTER JONES, Esq., F.S.A.
HIS EXCELLENCY THE COUNT DE LAVRADIO.
R. H. MAJOR, Esq., F.S.A.
SIR CHARLES NICHOLSON, BART.
SIR ERSKINE PERRY.
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HENRY C. RAWLINSON, K.C.B.
WILLIAM STIRLING, Esq., M.P.
CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, Esq., HONORARY SECRETARY
DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.
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Map of Varthema's route . . . . . . to face title-page.
Section from Gastaldi's Map . . . . . „ page cxx.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
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PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
This translation made from the first Italian edition of 1510; truthful-
ness of Varthema's narrative, and simplicity of his style; later- editions more or less faulty; the present version intended to be a faithful representative of the original text; Varthema's work imme- diately attracted attention, i-iii. Different editions and translations enumerated: Italian; Latin; German; Spanish; French; Dutch; English, iii-xvi.
INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR.
Deficiency of all the authorities as to Varthema's antecedents, xvii; not
supplied by allusions in his dedication, xix; notice of the Lady Agnesina, Duchess of Albi and Tagliacozzo, to whom he dedicates, xix; Ramusio's preface has no information, and his edition a third-hand version, xxi; particulars derivable with more or less certainty from the narrative itself, xxii; his motives for travelling, xxiii ; character of his narrative, xxiii; scanty recompense, xxiv.
Date of his leaving Europe, xxv; remarks on his notices of Cairo and
Egypt under the Mamlûks, ib; Syria and Damascus, xxvi; his enrol- ment as a Mamluk, and reserve as to his profession of Islâm, his Mus- sulman name (Yûnas or Jonah), and his knowledge of Muhammedanism, xxvi; remarks on such conformity to Islâmism, xxvii; he joins the Hajj Caravan from Damascus, ib.; the only European who has reached Meccah by that route, xxvii; his sketches of the desert and Bedawin, xxviii; his notice of a colony of Jews near El-Medinah, and the fact authenticated, ib.; his description of El-Medinah and correction of fables about Mukam- med's coffin, xxix; his journey on to Meccah, xxx; his notice of the politics of the time confirmed by Arabic authorities, the Kurrat El- Ayun and Ruah er-Ruah, xxx-xxxv; his account of Meccah, its visitors, holy places, and ceremonies, xxxv; wonderful truth of his descriptions, as confirmed incidentally by Burckhardt and expressly by Burton, xxxvi.
Varthema escapes to Juddah from the Caravan, xxxvi-vii; his voyage down
the Red Sea and arrival at Aden, xxxviii; suspected as a Christian spy and imprisoned, and sent to the Sultan of southern Yemen at Radâä, xxxix; corroboration of a part of Varthema's story here from the nar- ratives of Portuguese acts of piracy at this time, xxxix—xli; outline of the contemporary politics of Yemen from Arabic authorities, xli—xliv, and incidental corroboration of Varthema's narrative, xliv; intervention of one of the Sultan's wives in Varthema's favour, and his pretended madness, xlv; morality of the harim, ib.; Varthema obtains leave to visit Aden, where he engages a passage to India, and spends the interval before its departure on an excursion through Yemen, xlvi ; he is the first European traveller who has described that country, and scarcely any but
a
TABLE