Although, In The Present Version, We Have Strictly Adhered
To The Sense Of That Published By Eden 236 Years Ago, It Has Appeared
More Useful, And More Consonant To The Plan Of Our Work, To Render The
Antiquated Language Into Modern English:
Yet, as on similar occasions,
we leave the _Preface of the Author_ exactly in the language and
orthography of Eden, the original translator.
[Footnote 33: Hakluyt, iv. App. pp. 547 - 612. Ed. Lond. 1810-11.]
The itinerary is vaguely dated in the title as of the year 1503, but we
learn from the text, that Verthema set out upon the pilgrimage of Mecca
from Damascus in the beginning of April 1503, after having resided a
considerable time at Damascus to acquire the language, probably Arabic;
and he appears to have left India on his return to Europe, by way of the
Cape of Good Hope and Lisbon, in the end of 1508. From some
circumstances in the text, but which do not agree with the
commencement, it would appear that Verthema had been taken prisoner by
the Mamelukes, when fifteen years of age, and was admitted into that
celebrated military band at Cairo, after making profession of the
Mahometan religion. He went afterwards on pilgrimage to Mecca, from
Damascus in Syria, then under the dominion of the Mameluke Soldan of
Egypt, and contrived to escape or desert from Mecca. By some unexplained
means, he appears to have become the servant or slave of a Persian
merchant, though he calls himself his companion, and along with whom he
made various extensive peregrinations in India.
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