This Has The Greatest Trade, For An Inland Town, Of Any In All
Those Parts, Being Resorted To By Jews, Tartars, Persians, Armenians,
Egyptians, Indians, And Many Different Kinds Of Christians, All Of Whom
Enjoy Liberty Of Conscience, And Bring Here Many Different Kinds Of
Merchandise.
In the middle of the city there is a goodly castle, raised
on high, having a garrison of four or five hundred janisaries.
Within
four miles round about there are many goodly gardens and vineyards, with
many trees, which bear excellent fruit, near the side of the river,
which is very small. The walls of the city are about three miles in
circuit, but the suburbs are nearly as large as the city, the whole
being very populous.
We departed from Aleppo on the 31st of May, with a caravan of camels,
along with Mr John Newberry, and his company, and came to Birrah,
[Bir] in three days, being a small town on the Euphrates, where that
river first assumes the name, being here collected into one channel,
whereas before it comes down in numerous branches, and is therefore
called by the people of the country by a name which signifies a
thousand heads. We here found abundance of provisions, and furnished
ourselves for a long journey down the river; and, according to the
custom of those who travel on this river, we provided a small bark for
the conveyance of ourselves and our goods. These boats are
flat-bottomed, because the river is shallow in many places; and when
people travel in the months of July, August, and September, the water
being then at the lowest, they have to carry a spare boat or two along
with them, to lighten their own boats in case of grounding on the
shoals. We were twenty-eight days upon the river in going between Bir
and Feluchia, at which last place we disembarked ourselves and our
goods.
During our passage down the Euphrates, we tied our boat to a stake every
night at sun-set, when we went on land and gathered some sticks to make
a fire, on which we set our pot, with rice or bruised wheat; and when
we had supped, the merchants went on board to sleep, while the mariners
lay down for the night on the shore, as near the boats as they could. At
many places on the river side we met with troops of Arabs, of whom we
bought milk, butter, eggs, and lambs, giving them in barter, for they
care not for money, glasses, combs, coral, amber, to hang about their
necks; and for churned milk we gave them bread and pomegranate peels,
with which they tan their goat skins which they use for churns. The
complexion, hair, and apparel of these Arabs, are entirely like to those
vagabond Egyptians who heretofore used to go about in England. All their
women, without one exception, wear a great round ring of gold, silver,
or iron, according to their abilities, in one of their nostrils, and
about their legs they have hoops of gold, silver, or iron. All of them,
men, women, and children, are excellent swimmers, and they often brought
off in this manner vessels with milk on their heads to our barks. They
are very thievish, as I proved to my cost, for they stole a casket
belonging to me, containing things of good value, from under my man's
head as he lay asleep.
At Bir the Euphrates is about as broad as the Thames at Lambeth, in some
places broader, and in others narrower, and it runs very swiftly, almost
as fast as the Trent. It has various kinds of fish, all having scales,
some like our barbels, as large as salmon. We landed at Feluchia on the
28th of June, and had to remain there seven days for want of camels to
carry our goods to Babylon, [Bagdat,] the heat at that season being so
violent that the people were averse from hiring their camels to travel.
Feluchia is a village of some hundred houses, and is the place appointed
for discharging such goods as come down the river, the inhabitants being
all Arabs. Not being able to procure camels, we had to unlade our goods,
and hired an hundred asses to carry our English merchandize to New
Babylon, or Bagdat, across a short desert, which took us eighteen hours
of travelling, mostly in the night and morning, to avoid the great heat
of the day.
In this short desert, between the Euphrates and Tigris, formerly stood
the great and mighty city of ancient Babylon, many of the old ruins of
which are easily to be seen by day-light, as I, John Eldred, have often
beheld at my good leisure, having made three several journeys between
Aleppo and New Babylon. Here also are still to be seen the ruins of the
ancient Tower of Babel, which, being upon plain ground, seems very large
from afar; but the nearer you come towards it, it seems to grow less and
less. I have gone sundry times to see it, and found the remnants still
standing above a quarter of a mile in circuit, and almost as high as the
stone-work of St Paul's steeple in London, but much bigger.[2] The
bricks remaining in this most ancient monument are half a yard thick,
and three quarters long, having been dried in the sun only; and between
every course of bricks there is a course of matts made of canes, which
still remain as sound as if they had only lain one year.
[Footnote 2: It is hardly necessary to observe, that this refers to the
old St Paul's before the great fire, and has no reference to the present
magnificent structure, built long after the date of this journey. - E.]
The new city of Babylon, or Bagdat, joins to the before-mentioned small
desert, in which was the old city, the river Tigris running close under
the walls, so that they might easily open a ditch, and make the waters
of the river, encompass the city.[3] Bagdat is above two English miles
in circumference.
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