The Government Of The Caravans, The Deciding Of All Quarrels That
Occur, And The Apportionment Of All Duties To Be Paid, Are Committed To
The Care Of Some One Rich And Experienced Merchant In The Company, Whose
Honour And Honesty Can Best Be Confided In.
We spent forty days in our
journey from Bagdat to Aleppo, travelling at the rate of from twenty to
twenty-four miles a-day, resting ourselves commonly from two in the
afternoon till three next morning, at which time we usually began our
journey.
Eight days journey from Bagdat, near to a town called Heit, where we
cross the Euphrates in boats, and about three miles from that place,
there is a valley in which are many mouths, or holes, continually
throwing out, in great abundance, a black kind of substance like tar,
which serves all this country for paying their boats and barks. Every
one of these springs makes a noise like a smith's forge, continually
puffing and blowing; and the noise is so loud, that it may be heard a
mile off. This vale swalloweth up all heavy things that are thrown into
it. The people of the country call it Bab-el-gehenam, or the gate of
hell. In passing through these deserts we saw certain wild beasts, such
as asses, all white, roebucks, leopards, foxes, and many hares, a
considerable number of which last we chaced and killed. Aborise, the
king of the wandering Arabs in these deserts, receives a duty of 40
shillings value for every loaded camel, which he sends his officers to
receive from the caravans; and, in consideration of this, he engages to
convoy the caravans in safety, if need be, and to defend them against
the prowling thieves.
I and my companion, William Shales, came to Aleppo on the 11th June,
1584, being joyfully welcomed at twenty miles distance by Mr William
Barret, our consul, accompanied by his people and janisaries. He fell
sick immediately after, and departed this life in eight days illness,
having nominated, before he died, Mr Anthony Bate to succeed him as
consul for the English nation, who laudably executed the office for
three years. In the mean time, I made two other journeys to Bagdat and
Basora, returning in the same manner through the desert. Being
afterwards desirous to see other parts of the country, I went from
Aleppo to Antioch, which is 60 miles, and from thence to Tripoli, where,
going on board a small vessel, I arrived at Joppa, and travelled by land
to Rama, Lycia, Gaza, Jerusalem, Bethlem, the river Jordan, and the sea
of Sodom, and returned to Joppa, from whence I went back to Tripoli; but
as many others have published large discourses of these places, I think
it unnecessary to write of them here. Within a few days after my return
to Tripoli, I embarked in the Hercules of London, on the 22d December,
1587, and arrived safe, by the blessing of God, in the Thames, with
divers other English merchants, on the 26th March, 1588; our ship being
the richest in merchant goods that ever was known to arrive in this
realm.
SECTION V.
Of the Monsoons, or Periodical Winds, with which Ships depart from
Place to Place in India. By William Barret.[5]
It is to be noted, that the city of Goa is the principal place of all
the oriental India, and that the winter begins there on the 15th of May,
with very great rain, and so continues till the 1st of August; during
which time no ship can pass the bar of Goa, as, by these continual
rains, all the sands join together hear a mountain called Oghane, and
run into the shoals of the bar and port of Goa, having no other issue,
and remain there, so that the port is shut up till the 1st of August;
but it opens again on the 10th of August, as the rains are then ceased,
and the sea thus scours away the sand.
[Footnote 5: Hakluyt, II. 413.
It appears, from the journal of John Eldred, in the preceding section,
that William Barret was English consul at Aleppo, and died in 1584.
In the immediately preceding article in Hakluyt, vol. II. p. 406, et
seq., is a curious account of the money weights and measures of Bagdat,
Basora, Ormus, Goa, Cochin, and Malacca, which we wished to have
inserted, but found no sufficient data by which to institute a
comparison with the money weights and measures of England, without which
they would have been entirely useless.
In the present article, the dates are certainly of the old stile, and,
to accommodate these to the present new stile, it may be perhaps right
to add nine days to each for the sixteenth century, or twelve days to
reduce them to corresponding dates of the present nineteenth
century. - E.]
To the northward, as Chaul, Diu, Cambay, Damaun, Basseen, and other
places, the ships depart from Goa between the 10th and 24th of August;
and ships may sail to these places at all times of the year, except in
winter, as already described.
Ships depart for Goa from Chaul, Diu, Cambay, and other parts to the
northward, betwixt the 8th and 15th of January, and come to Goa about
the end of February.
From Diu ships depart for the straits of Mecca, or the Red-Sea, about
the 15th of January, and return from thence to Diu in the month of
August. They likewise depart from Din for the Red-Sea in the second
monsoon, betwixt the 25th of August and 25th of September, and return
to Diu between the 1st and 15th of May following.
From Socotora, which hath only few ships, they depart for Ormus about
the 10th of August.
About the 15th of September the Moors of the firm land begin to come to
Goa from all parts, as from Balagnete, Bezenegar, Sudalcan, and other
places; and they depart from Goa betwixt the 10th and 15th of November.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 5 of 218
Words from 4090 to 5096
of 221842
