Yet,
Far From Confining Himself To Mere Nautical Remarks, He Has Given An
Account Of All The Places At Which
He touched, together with accounts of
the countries and the inhabitants, so far as he was able to collect from
His own observations, or the accounts of such as he was able to converse
with, particularly the natives. Don John hath gone farther yet, and has
even attempted to draw a parallel between the ancient and modern
geography of this sea. If in all points of this last he may not have
succeeded, the great difficulty of the task, owing to the obscurity of
the subject, is to be considered: most of the ancient places having been
destroyed; the ancient names of others long since out of use and
forgotten; and that very little is known of these coasts by Europeans,
even at this day. For these reasons, as the conjectures of the author
are often erroneous respecting the ancient geography, and as at best
they are very uncertain, we shall for the most part insert them by way
of notes, with our own remarks respecting them[256]. Whether the
altitudes have been taken by Don Juan with that precision which
geography requires, may also be in some measure questioned; since we
find there was a crack in the instrument employed, the size of which
is not mentioned; neither were all the observations repeated. Even if
they had been, it is well known that the observations of those times
were by no means so accurate as those made of late years. After all,
however, the observations in this journal appear to have been made with
a good deal of care, and they cannot fail to be of great service to
geography.
[Footnote 256: In this edition, which has been taken from that by
Purchas, these conjectures of Don Juan de Castro are restored to the
text: but the remarks by the Editor of Astleys Collection are all
retained in notes. - E.]
It is alone by the observations contained in this journal that
geographers are able to determine the extent of the Arabian Gulf or Red
Sea from north to south[257], as well as the situation of its principal
ports on the west side. The latitude of the straits was verified by the
observations of Don Juans pilot. But as most maps and charts give the
situation of Suez, at the northern end of the Red Sea, very different
from that marked in this journal, which is 29 deg. 45' N. it may not be
amiss to examine this point.
[Footnote 257: The modern knowledge of the Red Sea has been much
augmented by the labours of Bruce, Nieubur, Lord Valentia, and others,
which will be given in a future division of our work. - E.]
By several very accurate observations made in 1694, M. Chazelles of the
Royal Academy of Paris found the latitude of Cairo to be 80 deg. 2' 20". The
difference of latitude therefore between Cairo and Suez, will be 17
minutes; which we conceive cannot be very far from the truth, if not
quite exact, since the map published by Dr Pocock makes the difference
about 20 minutes. It is true that in Sicards map of Egypt, and in a
late[258] French chart of the eastern ocean, Suez is placed only two
or three minutes to the southward of Cairo. But as these authors had no
new observations made at Suez to go by, and seem to have been
unacquainted with those of Don Juan de Castro, their authority can weigh
very little against an express observation, and against Dr Pococks map,
which, among other helps, was constructed upon one made by the natives.
Besides this, in his later maps De L'isle regulates the situation of
Suez according to the latitude found by Don Juan. Indeed Sicard places
Suez nearly in that parallel, but egregiously mistakes the latitude of
Cairo, so that he seems to have given it that position more by chance
than design.
[Footnote 258: It is proper to remark here that the collection of Astley
was published in 1745, sixty-seven years ago. - E.]
This may suffice to support the credit of the observations of latitude
as made by Don Juan, till new and better ones can be made, which we are
not to expect in haste, as European ships now seldom sail any farther
into the Red Sea than Mokha or Zabid, for which reason this journal
is the more to be prized. In other respects it is full of variety; and
if some parts of it be dry and unamusing, these make amends by their
usefulness to geographers and navigators, while other parts are
calculated to instruct and give pleasure on other accounts. - Astley.
* * * * *
So far the foregoing introduction is taken from Astleys collection. In
our edition of the Journal of Don Juan de Castro, we have used the
earliest known copy as given by Purchas, Vol. II. p. 1122-1148, under the
title of A Rutter or Journal of Don John of Castro, of the Voyage which
the Portugals made from India to Zoes, &c. and here abbreviated.
The original of which is reported to have been bought by Sir Walter
Raleigh, at sixtie pounds, and by him caused to be done into English
out of the Portugal.
Of this Journal Purchas gives the following account in a marginal note,
which is inserted in his own words: "This voyage being occasioned by
sending the Patriarch Bermudez to Ethiopia, and relating how that
state decayed, invaded by the Moores, and embroiled with civil
discontents, contayning also a more full intelligence of the Red Sea,
than any other Rutter which I have seene, I have here added; and next
to it, Bermudez own report, translated, it seemeth, by the same hand
(not the most refined in his English phrase, which yet I durst not be
too busie with, wanting the original) and reduced to our method; here
and there amending, the English, which yet in part was done, as I
thinke, and many marginall notes added, by Sir Walter Raleigh
himselfe." - In the present edition, while we have adhered closely to
that of Purchas, with the assistance of that in Astleys Collection, we
have endeavoured, little more busy than Purchas, to reduce the
language to a more intelligible modern standard; and have divided it
into Sections, in imitation of the editor of Astleys Collection of
Voyages and Travels.
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