The Inhabitants, Who Generally Speak Three Languages,
Persian, Arabic, And Turkish, Are Much Of The Same Complexion With The
Spaniards.
The women mostly wear, in the gristle of the nose, a ring
like a wedding-ring, but rather larger, having a pearl and a turquoise
stone set in it; and this however poor they may be.
This is a place of
great trade, being the thoroughfare from the East Indies to Aleppo. The
town is well supplied with provisions, which are brought down the river
Tigris from Mosul, in Diarbekir, or Mesopotamia, where stood the ancient
city of Nineveh. These provisions, and various other kinds of goods, are
brought down the river Tigris on rafts of wood, borne up by a great
number of goat-skin bags, blown up with wind like bladders. When the
goods are discharged, the rafts are sold for fuel, and letting the wind
out of the goat skins, they carry them home again upon asses, to serve
for other voyages down the river.
[Footnote 3: It may be proper to remark, as not very distinctly marked
here, though expressed afterwards in the text, that Bagdat is on the
east side of the Tigris, whereas the plain, or desert of ancient
Babylon, is on the west, between that river and the Euphrates. - E.]
The buildings here are mostly of brick, dried in the sun, as little or
no stone is to be found, and their houses are all low and flat-roofed.
They have no rain for eight months together, and hardly any clouds in
the sky by day or night. Their winter is in November, December, January,
and February, which is almost as warm as our summer in England. I know
this well by experience, having resided, at different times, in this
city for at least the space of two years. On coming into the city from
Feluchia, we have to pass across the river Tigris on a great bridge of
boats, which are held together by two mighty chains of iron.
From this place we departed in flat-bottomed boats, which were larger
and more strongly built than those on the Euphrates. We were
twenty-eight days also in going down this river to Basora, though we
might have gone in eighteen days, or less, if the water had been higher.
By the side of the river there stand several towns, the names of which
resemble those of the prophets of the Old Testament. The first of these
towns is called Ozeah, and another Zecchiah. One day's journey
before we came to Basora, the two rivers unite, and there stands, at the
junction, a castle belonging to the Turks, called Curna, where all
merchants have to pay a small custom. Where the two rivers join, their
united waters are eight or nine miles broad; and here also the river
begins to ebb and flow, the overflowing of the water rendering all the
country round about very fertile in corn, rice, pulse, and dates.
The town of Basora is a mile and a half in circuit; all the houses, with
the castle and the walls, being of brick dried in the sun. The Grand
Turk has here five hundred janisaries always in garrison, besides other
soldiers; but his chief force consists in twenty-five or thirty fine
gallies, well furnished with good ordnance. To this port of Basora there
come every month divers ships from Ormus, laden with all sorts of Indian
goods, as spices, drugs, indigo, and calico cloth. These ships are from
forty to sixty tons burden, having their planks sewed together with
twine made of the bark of the date-palm; and, instead of oakum, their
seams are filled with slips of the same bark, of which also their tackle
is made. In these vessels they have no kind of iron-work whatever,
except their anchors. In six days sail down the Gulf of Persia, they go
to an island called. Bahrein, midway to Ormus, where they fish for
pearls during the four months of June, July, August, and September.
I remained six months at Basora, in which time I received several
letters from Mr John Newberry, then at Ormus, who, as he passed that
way, proceeded with letters, from her majesty to Zelabdim Echebar, king
of Cambaia,[4] and to the mighty Emperor of China, was treacherously
there arrested, with all his company, by the Portuguese, and afterwards
sent prisoner to Goa, where, after a long and cruel imprisonment, he and
his companions were released, upon giving surety not to depart from
thence without leave, at the instance of one Father Thomas Stevens, an
English priest, whom they found there. Shortly afterwards three of them
made their escape, of whom Mr Ralph Fitch is since come to England. The
fourth, who was Mr John Story, painter, became a religious in the
college of St Paul, at Goa, as we were informed by letters from that
place.
[Footnote 4: Akbar Shah, padishah or emperor of the Moguls in
India. - E.]
Having completed all our business at Basora, I and my companion, William
Shales, embarked in company with seventy barks, all laden with
merchandize; every bark having fourteen men to drag it up the river,
like our west country barges on the river Thames; and we were forty-four
days in going up against the stream to Bagdat. We there, after paying
our custom, joined with other merchants, to form a caravan, bought
camels, and hired men to load and drive them, furnished ourselves with
rice, butter, dates, honey made of dates, and onions; besides which,
every merchant bought a certain number of live sheep, and hired certain
shepherds to drive them along with us. We also bought tents to lie in,
and to put our goods under; and in this caravan of ours there were four
thousand camels laden with spices and other rich goods. These camels can
subsist very well for two or three days without water, feeding on
thistles, wormwood, magdalene, and other coarse weeds they find by the
way.
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