The Relation Of Captain Coverte Is Not Inserted In The Pilgrims Of
Purchas, Who Omitted It, Because, As He Tells Us, It Was Already In
Print.
Its title runs thus:
A true and almost incredible Report of an
Englishman, that, being cast away in the good Ship called the Ascension,
in Cambaya, the furthest Part of the East Indies, travelled by Land
through many unknown Kingdoms and great Cities. With a particular
Description of all these Kingdoms, Cities, and People. As also a
Relation of their Commodities and Manner of Traffic, &c. With the
Discovery of a great Empire, called the Great Mogul, a Prince not till
now known to the English Nation. By Captain Coverte. London, printed by
William Hall, for Thomas Archer and Richard Redmer, 1612.
The circumstance of this narrative having been before printed, is a
very insufficient reason for its omission, since Purchas inserted many
others which were before in print, and few tracts had a better title for
insertion, than this of Coverte. De Bry, however, knew its value, and
gave a translation of it with cuts, in his Ind. Orient. part xi. p.
11. but divided into chapters, the original being in one continued
narrative. It is true that Purchas has given an extract from it in his
Pilgrimage, book V. chap. vii. sect. 5. a work on general geography
entirely different from his Pilgrims, or Collection of Voyages and
Travels; but this is very imperfect, and only refers to his land
journey.
This voyage of Coverte contains sixty-eight pages in quarto, black
letter, besides the dedication and title, which occupy four pages more.
It is dedicated to Robert Earl of Salisbury, Lord High Treasurer of
England; but there is nothing in the dedication worth notice, except
that he says, after the wreck of the Ascension, and getting on shore
with seventy-four others, he was the only one among them who would
venture upon so desperate an undertaking as to travel home by land. He
likewise asserts that every thing he relates is true, protesting that he
speaks of nothing but what he had seen and suffered.
In this place, we shall only abstract the author's voyage to Cambaya;
and, instead of his journey home through India, Persia, and Turkey,
[which will be inserted among the Travels,[271]] shall give the account
of Jones of his own return from Cambaya by sea to England. This voyage
lays claim to two discoveries, that of the Moguls country, as appears in
the tide, though Captain Hawkins had got the start of him there; and the
discovery of the Bed Sea by the Ascension, as mentioned in the title of
the relation by Jones in Purchas. - Astley.
[Footnote 271: This promise is not however performed in Astley's
Collection. In the Pilgrims, I. 235, Purchas has inserted the
peregrination of Mr Joseph Salbank through India, Persia, part of
Turkey, the Persian Gulf, and Arabia, in 1609, written to Sir Thomas
Smith; and tells us in a sidenote, that Robert Coverte was his companion
in the journey all the way through India and Persia, to Bagdat.
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