A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Ii Part 3

Pliny[39], on the authority of Cornelius Nepos, says that one Eudoxus, flying from Ptolemy Lathyrus, pa.s.sed by sea through the gulf of Arabia, and sailing along the eastern coast of Africa, doubled the cape of Bona Speranca arrived by the Atlantic at Cadiz; and it would appear that this navigation was as often used in those days as it now is. Caius Caesar, the son of Augustus, going into Arabia, found in the Red Sea certain pieces of the s.h.i.+ps which had gone thither from Spain.

Long after these days it was usual to pa.s.s to India by land. This was done by the kings of the Sogdians, the princes of Bactria, and other famous captains and many merchants, who travelled thither and into Scythia by land. Marcus Paulus Venetus writes largely of these countries; and though his book at first was reckoned fabulous, yet what he and others have reported is now found true, by the experience of travellers, and merchants who have since been to the same parts.

It is reported that the Romans sent an army by sea to India, against the great khan of Cathaia, 200 years before the Incarnation; which, pa.s.sing through the Straits of Gibraltar, and running to the north-west, found ten islands opposite to Cape Finisterre; producing large quant.i.ties of tin, which perhaps may have been those afterwards called the Ca.s.siterides.

Being come to 50 degrees of lat.i.tude, they found a strait pa.s.sing to the west, through which they arrived in India, and gave battle to the king of Cathaia, after which they returned to Rome. Whether this story may appear possible or not, true or false, I can only say that I give it as I found it written in the histories of these times.

In the year 100 after the incarnation of Christ, the emperor Trajan fitted out a fleet on the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, whence he sailed to the islands of Zyzara; and pa.s.sing the straits of Persia, entered into the ocean, by which he sailed along the coast to India, till he came to the place where Alexander had been. He there took some s.h.i.+ps which came from Bengal, and learned the state of the country from the mariners.

But being in years, and weary of the sea, and because he found it difficult to procure necessaries for his army, he returned back to a.s.syria[40].

After the Romans had subdued most part of the world, many notable discoveries were made. But then came the Goths, Moors, and other barbarous nations, who destroyed all A.D. 412, the Goths took the city of Rome. Thereafter the Vandals went out of Spain, and conquered Africa.

In 450, Attila destroyed many cities in Italy, at which time Venice began; and in this age the Franks and Vandals entered into France. In 474, the empire of Rome was lost, and fell from the Romans to the Goths. In 560, the Lombards came into Italy. About this time the sect of the Arians prevailed greatly, and Merlin the English prophet flourished. In 611, the Mahometan sect sprung up, and the Moresco government, which invaded both Africa and Spain. By this it may appear that all the world was in a state of war, and all places so very tumultuous, that traffic and merchandize ceased, no nation daring to trade with another by sea or land; nothing remaining stedfast, neither in kingdoms, signories, religions, laws, arts, sciences, or navigation. Even the records and writings of these things were burnt and destroyed by the barbarous power of the Goths, who proposed to themselves to begin a new world, and to root out the memory and knowledge of all other nations.

Those who succeeded in the government of Europe, perceiving the great losses of the Christian world by want of traffic and the stoppage of navigation, began to devise a way of pa.s.sing into India, quite different from the route of the Nile and the Red Sea, and much longer and more costly[41]. The goods of India were brought up the river Indus as far as it was navigable. They were then carried by land in caravans through the country of Parapomissus into the province of Bactria, and s.h.i.+pped on the river Oxus, which falls into the Caspian, and thence across that sea to the haven of Citracan, or Astracan, on the river Rha, or Volga. Thence up that river, and to the city of Novogrod, in the province of Resan, which now belongs to the great duke of Muscovy, in lat. 54 N. The goods were carried thence overland to the province of Sarmatia and the river Tanais or Don, which is the division between Europe and Asia. Being there loaded in barks, they were carried down the stream of that river into the Paulus Maeotis to the city of Caffa, anciently called Theodosia, which then belonged to the Genoese, who came thither by sea in _gallia.s.ses_, or great s.h.i.+ps, and distributed Indian commodities through Europe.

In the reign of Commodita, emperor of Armenia, a better course was provided for this traffic: The goods being transported by land from the Caspian, through the country of Hiberia, now Georgia, and thence by the Phasis into the Euxine, and to the city of Trebisond, they were thence s.h.i.+pped for the various parts of Europe[42]. It is recorded that Demetrius Nicanor determined, or actually began, to open a ca.n.a.l of above 120 miles in length between the Caspian and Euxine, for the greater convenience of the Indian trade. But he was slain by Ptolemy Ceraunos, and this famous enterprize fell to nothing[43].

All other ways being lost, by reason of the wars of the Turks, the spiceries of the Indian Islands, particularly of Java, Sumatra, and the city of Malacca, were carried up the river Ganges, in Bengal, to the city of Agra; thence they were carried by land to another city near the Indus, named Boghar, where they were discharged, because the city of Cabor, or Laor, the princ.i.p.al city of the Mogores, stands too far within the land.

From thence they were carried to the great city of Samarcand in Bactria, in which the merchants of India, Persia, and Turkey met together with their several commodities, as cloth of gold, velvets, camblets, scarlet and woollen cloths, which were carried to Cathay and the great kingdom of China; whence they brought back gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, silk, musk, rhubarb, and many other things of great value.

In after times these merchandizes, drugs, and spiceries, were carried in s.h.i.+ps from India to the Straits of Ormus, and the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and were unladen at the city of Basora; from whence they were carried overland to Aleppo, Damascus, and Barutti; and there the Venetian gallia.s.ses, which transported pilgrims to the Holy Land, came and received the goods.

In the year 1153, in the time of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, it is said there came to the city of Lubeck, in Germany, a canoe like a long barge, with certain Indians, who were supposed to have come from the coast of Baccalaos[44], which is in the same lat.i.tude with Lubeck. The Germans greatly wondered to see such a boat and strange people, not knowing whence they came, nor being able to understand their language, especially as there was then no knowledge of their country. Although the boat was small in comparison with the seas it had to cross, it is yet possible that it might have been conveyed by the winds and waves; for in our days the _almadias_ of the negroes, which are very small boats, venture to navigate from Quiloa, Mosambique, and Sofala, around the Cape of Good Hope, even to the island of St Helena, a very small spot in the ocean, at a great distance from land.

In the year 1300 after Christ, the great soldan of Cairo restored the trade of spiceries, drugs, and merchandize from India, by the Red Sea; at which time they unloaded the goods at the port of Judea[45], and carried them to Mecca; whence they were distributed by the Mahometan pilgrims[46], so that each prince endeavoured to increase the honour and profit of his own country. The soldans translated this trade to their own city of Cairo; whence the goods were carried to the countries of Egypt, Lybia, Africa, Tunis, Tremessen, Fez, Morocco, and Suz; and some of them were carried beyond the mountains of Atlas, to the city of Tombuto, and the kingdom of the Jalophos; till afterwards the Portuguese brought the Indian trade round the Cape of Good Hope to Lisbon, as we propose to shew more at large in a convenient place.

A.D. 1344, Peter IV. reigned in Arragon, and the chronicles of his reign report that Don Lewis de Cerda, grandson of Don John de Corda, requested his aid to go and conquer the Canary Islands, which had been gifted to him by Pope Clement VI. a Frenchman. About this time, too, the island of Madeira is said to have been discovered by an Englishman named Macham; who, sailing from England into Spain with a lady whom he loved, was driven out of his course by a tempest, and arrived in a harbour of that island, now called Machico, after his name. The lady being oppressed with seasickness, Macham landed with her on the island, accompanied by some of his people; but in the mean time the s.h.i.+p weighed anchor and stood to sea, leaving them behind. On this the lady died of grief, and Macham, who was pa.s.sionately fond of her, erected a chapel or hermitage on the island, which he named the chapel of Jesus, and there deposited her remains, engraving both their names and the cause of their coming to this place on a monumental stone. After this, he and his companions made a boat or canoe out of a large tree, and putting to sea without sails or oars, got over to the coast of Africa. The Moors among whom he arrived, considering their pa.s.sage as miraculous, sent him to their king, who transmitted both him and his company to the king of Castile.

In 1395, while Henry III. reigned in Castile, in consequence of information given by Macham respecting this island, many persons of France and Castile were induced to attempt its discovery, and that of the Grand Canary. Those who went on this expedition were princ.i.p.ally from Andalusia, Biscay, and Guipuscoa, who carried thither many men and horses; but I know not whether this was done at their own charge, or that of the king. But however that might be, these people seem to have been the first discoverers of the Canaries; where they took 150 of the islanders prisoners. There is some difference among authors respecting the time of this discovery, as some affirm that it did not take place till the year 1405.

[1] August. de Civit. Dic. I. 15. c. 20.

[2] The Cape of Good Hope, and the island of Madagascar--E.

[3] Birmahs

[4] Arracan

[5] Pompon. Mela, I. 3. Plin. I. 2. c. 67.

[6] Joseph: Ant. Jud. I. 1. c. 5.

[7] Justin, I. 1.

[8] Berosus.

[9] Diod. Sic. I. 2. c. 5.

[10] Berosus.

[11] Gons. Fern. I. 2. c. 3. Plin. I. 6. c. 31.

[12] Plin. I. 4. c. 22.

[13] Eratosth. ap. Strab. I. 1. p. 26.

[14] Plin. I. 6. c. 29.

[15] The miles here used are three to the league; but the league of the text is nearly equal to four English miles, and the a.s.sumed distance of these two ports 140 of our miles--E.

[16] Strab. I. 17. p. 560.

[17] Plin. I. 6. c. 29.

[18] Diod. Sic. I. 4. c. 4.

[19] Strab. I. 1. p. 26.

[20] Kings, I. 9. Chron. II. 8.

[21] Herodot. I. 4.

[22] Arist. de Mirand.

[23] Gonz. Fern. Ovied. I. 2. c. 3.

[24] Plin. I. 9. c. 58. de Maribus Nili.

[25] Joan. Leo Afric. I. 9. de Nilo.--Our author has got into a strange dilemma, by confounding crocodiles and serpents under one denomination.

--E.

[26] Plin. and Leo, ub. cit.

[27] Plin. I. 2. c. 67.

[28] Plin. I. 6. c. 31. This subject will be discussed in the _Fifth_ Part of our work; being much too extensive to admit of elucidation in a note.--E.

[29] Hasty readers will have the justice to give the honour of this story to Galvano.--E.

[30] This story will be found hereafter very differently related by Cada Mosto himself, but with a sufficient spice of the marvellous.--E.

[31] The Honey-guide, or Cuculus Indicator, will be noticed more particularly in the Travels through the Colony of the Cape.--E.

[32] The Philosophers of the _nineteenth_ century have _fortunately_ rediscovered the _Mermaid_ in the north of Scotland! Hitherto, wonderful things used to be confined to barbarous regions and ignorant ages.--E.

[33] Arist. de Mirand. Strabo, I. 2. p. 68.

[34] Plin. I. 6. c. 29.