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.
c 2
lii INTRODUCTION.
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
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continued to Shiraz. Should this identification be correct (and I can suggest no other, unless he pursued a route by Neyriz and Bakhtegan, mistaking the neighboring lake which goes by those names for a river) Varthema must unquestionably be charged with exaggeration, as neither the Fulwan nor the Bendemir is entitled to the epithet of “a large and fine river.”
Arrived at Shiraz, which our author describes as a great mart for turquoises and Balass rubies, remarking, however, that those stones were not produced there, but came, as was reported, from a city called “Bal- achsam” (Badakshan) accident threw him in the way of a Persian merchant called "Cazazionor," by whom he was recognized as a fellow-pilgrim at Meccah, and whose friendly overtures on the occasion were destined to exert a powerful influence in shaping his subsequent course.
We, who carry with us on our travels circular notes or letters of credit negotiable in any part of the globe, which can form a very inadequate conception of the difficulties an adventurer under Varthema’s circumstances must have encountered in making his way from one place to another. He never alludes directly to the subject, but his management may be gleaned from incidental passages occurring in his narrative. At the outset, he appears to have had a supply of money, for he bribed the Captain of the Mamluks to admit him into that corps. While with them, he probably received pay and shared in their exactions, which, with any remains of his original
liv INTRODUCTION.
funds, sufficed to take him to Aden. From thence, he was sent into the interior, as the saying is, at Government expense, and the liberality of the Arabian sultana furnished his viaticum as far as Shiraz for, it may be remarked, that there is not the slightest evidence to prove his having engaged in any commercial transactions up to that period, and, if he did so subsequently, it was merely as sleeping partner to his Persian benefactor. Be that as it may, his encounter with the latter was a piece of good fortune, without which it may fairly be questioned whether he would have been able to ex- tend his travels as far as he did. On the other hand, the Persian merchant, who appears to have been a wealthy trader in jewels, was evidently glad to secure an intelligent companion in the projected journey, and his oriental hospitality looked for no other recompense. Instances of such generosity are not as uncommon in the East as in the West, and the experience of Varthema in this respect forms a striking contrast to that of Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman in the course of his European travels during the same century. 1
The first place for which our travelers started in company was Samarcand, whether with the intention of limiting the trip to that city, or of making their way from thence to India, does not appear. However, they had not proceeded far when they were obliged to return, because “the Soffi was going through this country putting every thing to fire and
1 HAKLUYT SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS, The Life and Acts of Don Alonzo de Guzman, translated and edited by C. 11. Markham.
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Flame; and especially he put to the sword all those who believed in Bubachar and Othman and Aumar, who are all companions of Mahomet but he leaves unmolested those who believe in Mahomet and Ali.” Here, we have another undesigned coincidence with contemporary Persian history which deserves special no- tice. Ismail es-Sufi, the first of the Sufawian dynasty, was the son of the fa- mous
