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ANIJ .riliar TAYiOHjprHlK r,OWEH S T-REET .» sjsy ?<■■/ ' 'i . THE CABINET OF GEOGRAPHY. *>^'- ' i CONDUCTED BY THE REV. DIONYSIUS LARDNER, LL.D. F.R.S. L.&E. M.R.I.A. F.L.a F.Z.& Hon.F.CP.S. M.Ait.a &c.ftc. ASSISTED BV EMINENT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN. THE HISTORY OF MARITIME AND INLAND DISCOVERY. 1.A . VOL. L • • • • • • • • J o • » . ^ . . • « o J ■ •• •• ..•• • ••• •, • ' LONDON * • • PRINTBO FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN. PATBRN08TBB.B0W ; AND JOHN TAYLOR, UFPEB OOWBB nSBBT. 1830. t < t • • 4 «• • • •• * • t f % W t > • • • , • > » » » • • • • LONDOH : Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, New-Strect-Squarc. :»J<^ 1'! ^P^ tjif- %• ' 11 '^■ .. : c - - .... 1. • • i . ... • „'«« . • • « • c . . . • • . . < t J t - • / < •«*ii •• ••••••• ••«i.«'- d" CONTENTS. V i BOOK I. OKOORAfHY OF THB ANCIENTS, CHAP. I. Introduction. — Wandering Propensity of primitive Man. — Slow Growth of Geography. — The Hebrews. — The Mosaic Genesis. — Simple Cosmo, logy. — The Phoenicians. — Antiquity of their Navigations. — Their Obscurity. - - - - - Page 1 CHAP. II. THE OBEEKS. -> HOMERIC AGE. The first Navigators Pirates. — Slave Trade in Antiquity. — Homer't Knowledge of Greece.— Of the Scythians. — Of Egypt and the Xthl. opians. —The Ships of the Homeric Age. —The Mythic Regions of the West— Voyage of Ulysses.- The Cyclops. — Isles of Circe and of JEolus. — Ends of the Ocean and Land of Darkness — The wandering Isles.- Scylla, Charybdis, and the Sirens. — Siculi and Sicani. — Tri. nacria. — Homer actually ignorant of the West. — Hesiod. — King Latinus. —The Eridanus. — Argonautic Expedition. — Its Authenticity. — The Euxine known early to the Pelasgians. — The Golden Fleece. ^ Return of Jason variously related. — The Orphic Account — lernis mentioned.— The Cimmerians of the West —Explanation of the My. thology. — Elysium and Happy Islands of the West — Summary. . 10 CHAP. III. OREBKS CONTINUED. -HISTORIC AOB. Systems of early Greek Philosophers. — Herodotus. — His literary Ardour and Success. — His Travels. — Describes the Scythians. — Received In. telligence respecting the Arimasps and Griftbns. — In vain sought the Hyperboreans. — Effect of Climate on the Growth of Horns. — Extent of the Knowledge he acquired from the Scythians. — The Cimmerians of the Bosphorus. —Their Origin conjectured. — The Caspian Sea — Herodotus acquainted with the Bactrians, and with India. — Eastern Ethiopians. — The great Ants of India which guard the Gold. — Egypt — The Auto- moles or Exiles. — Route up the Nile, and to Bornou. — Journey of the Nasamones to the Niger. — Alleged Circumnavigation of Aflrica under King Nechos. — Voyage of Sataspes. — Herodotus ignorant of the West A3 ^. 35778 vl CONTKNTS. — The Itiver Eridanui and the Riphsan MounUini. — Commercial En. tcrpriio of the Orcckt. — Summary. .... Page Sn CHAP. IV. THE UREBKa CONTINUID. Scarcity of Books in Antiquity. — Hcro— Finds the Tin Country. — — Albion and lernc. — Scylax of Cnryanda the first Greix who mentions Rome. — Pytheas of Marseilles. ^ Visits Britain. — Discovert Thulc. — Describes the Amber Coast in the Baltic. ^ Was an acute Observer. — Xcnophon descrities the Retreat of the Ten Thousand. — The Curds. — The Armenian Mountaineers. ^Ctesias.^ Resides in Persia. — Mixes Oriental Fables with his Relations. — Men with the Heads and Tails of Dogs.— The mag'.c Pool of Silas.— Speaks of the Kcrmcs Insect. — Greek Philosophers. — Aristotle. — Mentions the Hercynian Mountains or the Harts.— The Britannic Islands and Taprobane.— Thought that India might be reached by the West . .... 45 ; « CHAP. V. GREEKS CONTINUED. Expedition of Alexander. — Policy of that Conqueror. —Enters India.— Resolves to explore the Persian Gulf. — The March down the Indus. — Nsarchus embarks. — Suffers great Hardships. — Imagines himself at the Equator. — The Greeks dismayed at the Appearance of a Whale. — Famished in the midst of Turtle. — Successf^tl Termination of the Voyage. — Preparations made to explore the Coasts of Arabia. — Arrested by the Death of Alexander. — Grand Views of that Prince. — Remarks of the Macedonians in India. — Division of the People into Castes. — Honey made without Bees. — Elephants. — Use of Umbrellas. — The Banyan Trees. — The Faquirs. — Self-devotion to the Flames. — City of Palibothra. — Its Situation. — Indian Fables. — Respect paid to Mon. keys. —The Greeks distorted foreign Names. — Voyage of Jamboloto Ceylon. — His Remarks on the People. — Taprobane or Ceylon variously described. — Accounts of the Ancients reconciled. —The Names of that Island. — Commerce between Egypt and the East. — Geography flou. rished in the commercial City of Alexandria. — Eratosthenes mentions Thins. ^ Agatharchidcs. ^ Describes Abyssinia.— Wealth of the Sa. bsans. — Eudoxus of Cyzicus. — Sails to India. — Driven to the Coast of Aflrica. — Finds the supposed Wreck of a Ship fVom Gades. — Banished Arom Egypt. — Resolves to reach India by the Ocean. — Sails flrom Gades. — His Misfortunes. — Repeats the Attempt — His Fate and Cha. racter. . ■ . . . . 57 CHAP. VI. THE GREEKS CONTINUED. The Roman Conquests.- Strabo.— His Knowledge of the West. —The Turdetani in Spain. — Anthropophagi in Ireland.— The Sarmatians. — CONTENTS. Vll r^' Tho Sliuls or Indiani on the Bocphorui. — The Slgyni. — The Olptlet. — Indian! In Lyr la. — Nations of the Caucaiui. — The Caipian Sea luppoted to join tho Ocean. — KxiXHiitionit of IL\\\x% Oallut into Arabia ami ^thi< opia. — Habitable and uninhabitable Zonei. — Obstinate Incredulity of Strabo. — Britain vliltcd by Csiar. — Ita Population. —The Ronuina reach the Baltic. — Tho Cimbrl. — Scandinavia and Norway mentioned by Pliny. — Tacltui names the Swede*. — The ArlmphKL — Grand Cha- racterittics of the Northern Nations. — March of Cornelius Balbui Into the Interior of AfVica. — And of Suetonius Paulinus across Mount Atlas. — King Jul)a'8 Account of the Nile and Niger. — The Fortunate Islet.— Various Statements reconciled. .... Page 78 CHAP. VII, DISCOVERY OF TUB MONBOON8. HIppalus. — Increased Trade with India. — Course pursued.— Periplus of Arrlan. — His accurate Account of the Indian Peninsula. - - lOO CHAP. VIII. PTOLEMY. Increased Intercourse of Nations under the Romans. — Advantages enjoyed by Ptolemy Applies the Measures of Longitude and Latitude. — His Errors. — Displays an Acquaintance with the Caspian Steppes. ^ Pro. gress Westward of the Scythian Nations. ^Their Origin. ^ Towns on the River Niger. — Ptolemy's Acquaintance with the East — His frequent Repetitions.— Supposed the Continents of Asia and Aflrica to unite In the Southern Ocean. — The Sins and the Seres must have been the Chinese. — The Silk Trade. — Allusion to the TaUrs. —The Stone Tower in the Bclurtag.— Testimonies of the Chinese Writers. — Roman Embassy to China. —The Name of Silk. — Of China. — Antiquity of the Trode with China. — Merits of Ptolemy. — Conclusion. . . . 105 CHAP. IX. ON THE COMMERCE OF THE ANCIENTS. Connection between Commerce and Geography. —Trode with India In the Hands of the Arabians. — Their Wealth and Luxury. — Cinnamon, i— Ignorance as to the Country which .oduced it. — Known to Moses. ^ Supposed to grow in Arabia and in Africa. — Pliny's Account. — AntU qulty of Trade in the Eastern Seas. — Pirate Nations of the East — Pro. ductions of the Moluccas mentioned by Plautus. — Early Commerce of the Phoenicians examined. — Tin brought to Egypt from India. ^ The Cassiterides ^ Never known. — Direct Trade between Phoenicia and the West improbable. — Carthage. — Never aimed at a distant carrying Trade. — Amber. —Brought to Greece from the Adriatic. — Mythical Connec- tion of the Eridanus and Amber. — Trade In Europe. — ^ Conclusion. 1S3 CHAP. X. MYTHIC OEOORAPHY OF THE HINDOOS, AND ITS CONNECTION WITH GRECIAN MYTHS. Mount Mem. — The Seven Dwipas or Islands. — The Quarters of the Heavens, how named.— The White Island of the West: its triple VUl CONTENTS. Nature. — Onld, Silver, and Iron Mountain!. —The Country of the Sun •nd Moon. — Auspicious Epithets. — Wide DifiUsion of this Belief.^ Numerous White Seas. — White Islands of the Greeks. •— Trinacrias and Islands of the Happy. — Hecate and triple Divinities of the West— Ilet- peria. ^ The Hyperboreans. —Known generally among the Indo-Teutonio Nations. -Tradition of an Atlantis or Western Island. ^ Hindoo Geo- graphy of the East — Lunds of Gold, Silver, and Brass : misled Ptolemy. — Pancnaa— These Legends still preserved in India and in the West —Their Influence. . ^ • - - - Page 138 BOOK II. OCOGRAFHT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. V- CHAP. L THB ARABIANS. ii,j*.t Itineraries of the Romans. — Peutingerian Table. — Cosmas Indicopleustei. —The Words Sint and Hindoo. —The Tsinitzae.— The Arabians. —Their * * Conquests — and Commerce. — Early Travellers into China. — Education of the Chinese. ^Regulations of their Ports. — First Mention made of Tea. — Chinese eat human Flesh. — Strangers in China — Canfti. — Uses of the Cocoa-nut Tree. — Kings of India. — The Unicom. — Sogdiana <— The Alans. — Khazars. — The Fossil Ivory of Bulgar. — Commerce of the Arabians with the North of Europe. — The Interior of Africa colonised by Arabians. — Kingdoms of Ghana and Tocrur.— Lamlara.— The Zinges and Wacwac. — The Perpetual Islands. — Other Islands in the Sea of Darkness.- Voyage of the Almegrurim. ■ . .154 .; CHAP. II. TBAVBLS OP IBN BATUTA. Ibn Batuta sets out on the Pilgrimage. — Ascends the Nile. —■ Returns to Gaza. — The Baths of Tiberias. —The Mosque of the Foot — Miracles at Meshid AIL— Shiraz. —Bagdad. — Mecca — Visits Yemen —and Abyssinia— The Berbers.— The Zunuj. — Zafar. — The Frankincense iTrce. — Ormuz. — Fars. — Second Pilgrimage. — Goes through Upper Egypt to Cairo^ Jerusalem — Anatolia — Th-? Turkomans. — Society called the Brotherhood. ^ Erzerum. — Fall of Aerolites. >— Showers of Fishes. — The Ottoman Princes. — Ibn Batuta goes to Crim. — Desert of Kipjak. — Tatar Camp. —City of Bulgar. — Shortness of the Nights.— Siberian Travelling. — Singular Mode of Traffic. —The Russians. — Ibn Batuta accompanies a Greek Princess to Constantinople, i— The Proces. sion. — His Reception. — Account of that City. —Historical Difficulties. —Greek Customs imitated by the Turks. — Pious Wish of £1 HarawL 174 CHAP. III. ' TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA CONTINUED. Ibn Batuta returns to Tatary. — Proceeds to Chorasm. — Singular Custom. —Bokhara — Its Mosque — Balkh. — Hindoo Cush.- The Father of CONTENTS. IX the Saints. —The Afghans.— Sind. — Ruins near Lahari. ^ Mode of levying Troops. ^ Dehli. — Character of the Emperor. — Ibn Batuta a.^ pointed Judge — Expedient to raise Money. — Narrowly escaiies being put to Death. — ^ Turns Faquir. — Chosen Ambassador to Qiina. — Nego- tiations between the Courts of Pekin and Dehh. — The Embassage sets out — Attacked by Robbers. — Ibn Batuta taken Prisoner. ^ His Sufibr- ings and Escape. — City of Barun infested by Yogees. — The Ooftars. — Ordeals in India. — Journey to Calicut. — Chinese Junks. ^ Imperial Treasures lost by Shipwreck. — Ibn Batuta goes to the Maldives. — Is made Judge. — Marries three Wives. — Proceeds to Ceylon. — Ascends Adam's Peak. — King of the Monkeys. — Embarks at Coulan. — Cap- tured by Pirates. — Returns to the Maldives. —Visits Bengal, Sumatra, Tawalisi. — Arrives in China. — Paper Money. — Gog and Magog. — El Khansa. — Tatar Funeral. — Returns to Persia. — Mecca. — Revisits Tangier. — Travels in Spaia —^ Proceeds t^ Soudan. — Thagari. — Abu Latin. ^ Mali. —The Niger. — Hippopotami. — Cannibals. — Timbuctoo. — Kakaw. — Bardama. — Nakda. — • Returns, and takes up his Residence in Fez. . . . . . ■ Page 190 BOOK III. PROGRESS OF OEOGRAFHT IN THE MIDDLE AGES. CHAP. I. • DISCOVERIES OF TUB NORTHMEN. Antiquity of the Scandinavians. — The Fins. — Northern Crusades. — Turks, Saracens, and Amazons iu the North. -> Voyage of Other. — Whale Fishery. — Walsten describes the Funerals of the Russians. ^The Northmen invade Ireland. — Occupy the Western Isles. ^ The Whiter man's Land. —Voyage of Madoc. —Welsh Indians. — Iceland discovered. — Relics found thera — Greenland discovered and colonised. '-^ Journey of Hollar Gcit. — Old Greenland lost. — Vinland. — Skrslingues or Es- quimaux. — Map of the two Zeni. — Friesland. — Grolandia. — The warm Springs and Houses built of Lava. — Canoes of the Esquimaux.— Estotiland and Droceo. — The New World. — Cannibals.- The precious Metals. ... . . .909 CHAP. 11. MAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. General Ignorance. — Missionaries. — Pilgrims. — Adam of Bremea — Oi- raldus Cambrensis. — Love of the Marvellous. — Icelandic Sagas. — Sur- veys. — Old Maps of the British Islands. — Eflfbcts of the feudal System. ^Doomsday Book. — Maps of the Middle Ajes.- Tables ofCharle. magne ~. Map preserved in Turin. —The Geographer of Ravenna. — Sanudo's Map. — Genoese Navigators. — Isle of In Aerno. — The Madeira Islands and the Azores. — Bianco's Map. — Islands of Stokafixa, Antilia, ' and Maa — Satanaxio. — The Seven Cities. — Benjamin of Tudela.^ Caravan Routes through Armenia and Bokhara. . . SS6 X CONTENTS. CHAP. IIL TOUBNBT OF CARPINI INTO TATART. Rise of the Mongol Empire. — Zingis Klian. — Mongols invade Europe. — Over.run Hungary. —Thought to be Demons.— Their Threats. — At. tack the Saracens. — Mission of Ascelin. — Its ill Success. — Letter to the Pope. — Mission of CarpinL — The Camp of Baatu. — Journey to the Residence of the Grand Khan. — Great Hungary. —The Country of the Alans. — The Kangittac—BistirminL — Election of a Grand Kbaa — The Ceremonies. — The golden Tent — Appearance of the £mpei::or. •« Reception of the Friars. — The Hardships they endured. — Description of the Mongols. — Their Character. — Superstitions. — Worship the Moon. — Tribes of the Mongols. — Climate of Mongolia. — Prodigious Showers of HaiL — Christianity among the Chinese — Prester John.— Combustibles used in War. ..... Page 211 \- ■ . "HAR IV. ,,_ . ;■ TBATELS OF RUBRUQUia. Rumoured Conversion of the Mongol Princes. •> Letter ftom Erkaltay to St. Louis. —The King of France sends holy Relics to the Mongols. .- Despatches Rubruquis to Sartach. ■> Germans dwelling on the Black Sea. ^ Tatar Encampments. — Journey to the Volga.— Desert of Kipjak. — . The Alans.— Court of Sartach.— Houses on Carts. — Sartach not a Chris- tian. — Friars sent forward to Baatu Kiian. — Obliged to proceed to Cara. corum.— The Land of Organuro. — Description of the Yak.-- Canni- balism in Thibet. — The Court of Mangu Khan. — Europeans in Caraco- rum. — The Fountain made by William Bouchier. —Christianity among the Uigurs. — Christian Ceremonies imitated in the F Return Home. ^ Marco Polo travels to China. — His Success.— Favour at Court. —Embassage from Persia. —The Poll per- mitted to leave China. — Navigate the Indian Seas. — ^ Pass through Ar. menia. — Their Arrival at Venice. — Expedient to display their Wealth. — War with Genoa. — Marco Polo taken Prisoner. — Writes his Narra- tive. — Released from Captivity. .» Returns Home. — His Account of Asia. — Balkh. — Balaxia. — Cashmeer. — Sartam. — Desert of Lop. — Haunted by evil Spirits. —Their malicious Arts. .— Tangut. — Manners of the Tatars. — Interment of the Khans. — The Yak. — Pavilion of the Khan. — ' His white Horses. — Splendour of his Court. — City of Cam. balu Its Form and Size.— Palace of the Khan.— Its Parks and Gardens. - . - . . .276 f CONTENTS. XI CHAP. VI. TRAVBU or MABCO POLO COIIT1MU10. Manjl or Southern China. •_ King FanAir. —His Overthrow. — Prediction fulfilled.— Marco Polo made Governor of a City. — Siege of Sa-yan-fii. — Services of the Poli. — Great Trade of Sin.gui.->The River Kiang.— City of Kin-uu. — Its Size. — Marlcets, Canals, and Bridges. — Popula- tion. — Police.— Sale of Children.— Port of Zaitua — Manufacture of Porcelain.- Cannibals in China. — Thilwt — Method of brightening wild Beasts.— I Sorcerers. — Salt used as Money. — Musk Gaiellea.- Description of Crocodiles. — Superstition in Caraxan. — Custom of gilding the Teeth.— Japan famous for its Wealth. —The Tatars fail to conquer it —The Generals punished. — Country of Ciampa. — Greater Java. — Lesser Java. — The Rhinoceros. — Saga — Ceylon. — The King's Ruby. — Manners of the Hindoos. — St Thomas. — Arabian Ports. — Madagas- car. —The Rokh. — Abyssinia. — The North of Europe. — Merits of Marco Polo, — The Missionaries.— John de Montecorviho visits Persia and India. — Proceeds to China. —Thwarted by the Nestorians. — His Success. — Converts a Mongol Prince. — His great Labours. —Created Archbishop of Cambalu. • • ... Page 893 CHAP. VII. . ODBRIC OF POBTENAU. Itinerary of Pegoletti. —Caravan Journeys. — Gintarchan. — Sara. — Sara. canca — Organci. — Oltrarra. — Armalecco. — Camexu. — Gamalecco.— Oderic of Portenau.— Trebizond. — Mount Ararat — Tower of Babel. — Chaldeans. — Martyrdom of four Friars. — Oderic collects their Bones. — Works Miracles. — Forest of Pepper. — Fair of Jaggemaut — Voluntary Tortures.— Cannibals in Lamouri.— Wealth of Java. — Sago Trees.— Amulets found in Canes. — Shoals of Fish. — Characteristics of the Chi. nese. — Mode of fishing in China. — Feasts of the Idols. — Valley of the Pead. —The Grand Lama. — Sir John Mandeville. — His Traveia fabu. lous. — Rivers of Rocks. — Islands of Giants. — Lambs of Tatary. — Growth of Diamonds. — Palace of Prester John. . - 314 CHAP. VIIL EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO. ^ Clavljo appointed Ambassador to the Court of Timur. — Journey through Armenia. — Calmaria — Tebriz. — Destruction of the Palace. — Privi. leges of the Genoese. — Sultania. — i Commercial Route. — Domghaun —Towers built of human Skulls. — Tatar Mode of posting. —^ Ambassa. dors introduced, —The Festivals at Court ^ Samarcand.'— How peopled. — Its Trade. —Departure of the Embassy. —Death of Timur. — ischildt. berger taken Prisoner by the Turks, and subsequently by the Tatars. -> His Wanderings. — Expedition to Issibur. — Shah Rokli sends Ambas. sadors to China. — Journey through the Desert — Civilisation of tlie Chinese. — Telegraphs in China.— Turning Towers.— The Imperial Court— Musical Skill. » Dismissal of the Embassy. . .331 Xll CONTENTS. CHAP. IX. EAKLY DISCOTBRIBS OF THE PORTUOUESE. v\ The Italian Republics.— Their naval Superiority in the Middle Ages. — Improvements in nautical Affkirs. —Mariner's Compass discovered.— The Chinese supposed to have been acquainted with it -~ And the Ara- bians. — First Mention of it by a European. —The Spaniards imbibe a Taste for the Luxuries of the East — Their Wars with the Moors.— Motives to seek a Passage by Sea to India. —The Portuguese commence the Attempt — Don Henry. — Discovery of Puerto Santo and Madeira. —Story of Macham. — The Canary Islands colonised. — Cape Bojador doubled. — Captives ransomed for Gold Dust— Voyages of Cada Mosto. — The native Canarians. — The Moors of the Desert— The Ships be- lieved to be Spirits.— The Salt Trade of the Negroes.— The Senegal — King Budomel. — His religious Opinions. — Description of the Country near Cape Verd. — Death of Don Henry. — His great Merits. Page 345 CHAP. X. "'-' THE PASSAGE BT THE CAPE DISCOVERED. The Portuguese erect a Fort on the Gold Coast — Their Interview with the native Prince. — The Pope's Grant —Voyage of Diego Cam. — Visits Congo. — Brings home Natives. — King of Congo favours the Christian Faith. — The King of Benin desires Missionaries.- Prince Ogane.— Prester John in AMca. — Origin of this Belief explained. -^ New Expedi- tions.- Bartholomew Diaz discovers the Cape of Good Hope. — Covil. bam and Payva despatched to India. — Covilham visits Sofala. — Ascer. tains the Practicability of the Passage. — Detained in Abyssinia. — Vasco de Oama. — Arrival at Mozambique — Quiloa. — Melinda. — In- dian Pilot — Reaches Calicut — The Zamorin.— Arts of the Moors. <— Danger of Gama. — Escapes. — Arrives at Lisboa— His Receptioa 363 .» ' CHAP. XL - . C0LUHBU8. ■ Parentage of Columbus. ^ His Education. — Early Voyages. ^ Settles in Lisbon. —Marries the Daughter of Perestrello. — Considers the Practica. bility of sailing to India by the West — Opinions of his Age. — His Rea- sonings. — Becomes convinced. — Proposes his Plans to Genoa. — Seeks the Patronage of the King of Portugal. -> Flies to Spain. — Applies to the Spanish Court. —Sends his Brother to the Court of England.— His Dis- appointments. — Despairs of Success. — Is favoured by Isabella.— The Expedition resolved on. — Sails Arom Palos. — Particulars of the Voyage. — Land discovered. — Fleet visits Cuba. — St Domingo. — The Ship of Columbus wrecked. — Kindness of the Cacique. — A Fort erected. ^ The Fleet returns homewards. — Dreadflil Storm. — Means taken by Columbus to preserve the Memory of his Discovery. — Arrives in Safety at the Azores. — Reaches Palos. — Received with Enthusiasm.— Pro- ceeds to Court — Honours conferred on him by Ferdinand. • 381 ss Idle Ages, -i- liscovcred. — Lnd the Ara. rds imbibe a lie Moors.— se commence and Madeira. ;ape Bojador ' Cada Mosto. nie Ships be- le Senegal — ^ r the Country A Page 345 THE HISTORY OP MARITIME AND INLAND DISCOVERY. view with the Cam. — Visits the Christian ice Ogane.^ iNewExpedi. ope. — Covil. kla. — Ascer- Abyssinia. — elinda. — In- Ithe Moors. — eption. 363 BOOK I. GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANUIENTS. CHAP. I. IMTRODUCTIOK. WANDERING rROfSNSITT OF PRIMITIVE MAN. ^ SLOW GROWTH OF OEOGRAPHT. THE HEBREWS. THS MOSAIC GENESIS. SIMPLE COSMOLOGY. • — THE PHiENtCIANS. ' ANTIQUITY OF THEIR NAVIGATIONS. — THEIR OBSdURITT. — Settles in (the Practica. — His Rea. |noa. — Seeks .pplies to the — HIsDis. kbella.— The the Voyage. The Ship erected.^ IS taken by res in Safety iasm.— Pro- . 381 Xhe history of the progress of geographical knowledge is calculated more than that of any other branch of learning to illustrate the progressive civilisation of man- kind. It has for its object^ in some measure, the diffu- sion of the species, but is more immediately connected with the advancement of navigation and commercial en- terprise. Instead of confining the attention to the fortunes of a particular community, it carries the eye of the enquirer continually abroad, to survey all the nations of the earth, to mark the knowledge they obtained of one another, and the extent of their mutual acquaintance. The principal charm of savage life arises from the unlimited range which it allows over the face of nature. VOL. I. B ' 4" 6S0ORAPHT OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. Those who have once tasted the pleasure of roving at large through woods and mountains^ can never after- wards feel happy under the restraints of society. Curi- Ofity and the love of action, no less than their wants, must have continually urged the earliest inhabitants of the globe to explore all the varieties of its surface. Pas- toral tribes feel an interest in learning the nature of the country in the vicinity of their encampments, the extent of its pastures, and the rivers which flow through and refresh it. But the observations of a rude age are seldom accumulated beyond the wants of the present moment. The movements by which those nomades acquire the knowledge along with the possession of new regions, generally lead to a total forgetfulness of th^r old habita- tions ; little correspondence is maintained by those who migrate with those who remain behind : so that in a short time the geographical knowledge of migratory nations is reduced to obscure and fading traditions. When men in the progress of their migrations reach the sea coast, the love of gain as well as of adventure soon impels them to launch upon the waves, and direct their ioourse to distant countries. But the complicated art of navigation requires many ages to bring it to per- fection. Science alone can give certainty to the observ- ations of the mariner ; and the discoveries of the early navigators were as perishable as they were vaguely de- scribed. Besides, in proportion as the spirit of adven- ture prevailed among the motives of the earliest expedi- tions, a corresponding desire to indulge in exaggeration and romantic faction disfigured all the relations which remi^n of them. Wonder and credulity, however, are the natural characteristics of an early age, and we must not regard as wholly fabulous those accounts of anti- quity, in which we find a few threads of consistent factj interwoven, wUh much that is absolutely incredible. Geography of the Hdfrewa, The earliest geographical records which vmanan to ua are those of 1^ sacred scriptures. The Heluc9f» th(|iQ« CHAP. !• THE HBBREWg. 8 advm, an inland and pastoral nation^ had probably bnk little direct acquaintance with distant couhtries. For their knowledge of commerce, and of the nations with which it opened a correspondence, they were perhaps chiefly indebted to the Egyptians and Phoenicians : but the account which Moses gives of the first progenitors of mankind, and of the nations which sprung from them, is unquestionably derived from peculiar sources. All the nations of the old world distinctly known to the sacred historian, are reduced by him to the families of Shem, Ham, and Japhet. The children of these pa- triarchs are also enumerated by him, and each of them appears as the founder of a nation ; but in tliose early ages it is impossible to affix with certainty to any region a name which properly belongs to a wandering horde. The Mosaic account (Genesis x.), however, is a precious record of the manner in which the knowledge of the earth was enlarged by the dispersion of the human species. The family of Shem comprised the pastoral nations which were spread over the plains between the Euphrates and the shores of the Mediterranean, from Ararat to Arabia. The Hebrews themselves were of this stock, and the resemblance of their language with the Aramean oar ancient Syriac, and with Arabic, sufficiently proves the identity in race of what are caUed the Semitic na- tions. There is no difficulty in assigning to each of the sons of Shem his proper situation. Elam founded the kingdom of Elymeis, Assur that of Assyria, and Aram the kingdom of Syria or Aramsa, a name still clearly preserved in that of Armenia. From Arphacsad were descended the Hebrews themselves, and the various tribes of Arabia ; and this close affinity of origin was always manifest in the language and in the intimate correspondence of these two nations. Some of the names given by Moses to the children of Shem are still used in Arabia as local designations: thus there w still a district in that country called Hamlah; and Uxal, the •/•(v GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK 1. name given to Sana by the sacred historian, is not yet quite obsolete. The descendants of Ham constituted the most civil- ized and industrious nations of the Mosaic age. The sons of that patriarch were Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan. The name of Ham is identical with that of Cham or Chamia, by which Egypt has in all ages been called by its native inhabitants, and Mixr or Mizraim is the name by which the same country, or more properly the Delta, is known to Turks and Arabians. The land of Phut appears to signify Libya in general; and the name Cush, though sometimes used vaguely, is ob- viously applied to the southern and eastern parts of Arabia. The names of Saba, Sahtah, JRaamahf and Sheba, children of Cush, long survived in the geogra- phy of Arabia. The posterity of Canaan rivalled the children of Miz- raim in the early splendour of arts and cultivation. Though the Canaanites, properly speaking, and the Phoe- nicians were separated from each other by Mount Carmel, yet as the same spirit of industry animated both, they may here, in a general sense, be considered as one people. The Phoenicians possessed the knowledge of the Egyptians, free from the superstitious reluctance of the latter to venture upon the sea. Their local position naturally engaged them in commercial enterprise : -— " and the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou goest to Gerar unto Gaza." Their chief cities. Tyre and SIdon, had reached the highest degree of com- mercial opulence when the first dawn of social polity was only commencing in Greece. Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the world, remains as a monument of the first inhabitants. The great superiority of the people on that coast above the Hebrews in the time of Moses, is clearly shown in the language of holy writ. When Joshua and the other chiefs, who were sent by the pro- phet to observe and report on the land of Canaan, re- turned, they said, " We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely ' it floweth with milk and CHAP. I. THE HEBREWS. honey. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great." In fine, they conclude, " We be not able to go up against tliis people, for they are very great." While the Ca- naanites inhabited walled and populous cities, the Hebrews dwelt in tents like the brethren of Joseph, who declared to Pharaoh, " Thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers." The warlike children of Japhet, the Japetus of the Greeks, have far surpassed the other posterity of Noah in the extent of their possessions. All the Indo-teutonic nations, stretching without interruption from the extre- mity of western Europe thi-ough the peninsula of India to the island of Ceylon, may be considered as derived from this common ancestor. The Turkish nation also,, occupying the elevated countries of central Asia, boast the same descent. Their own traditions accord in this respect with the Mosaic history ; and indeed the affini- ties of language, which are still evident among all the nations of the Japetian family, fully confirm the relation, of the sacred writer. The meaning of Japhet's name in the Sanscrit language, Yapdti, or lord of the earthy bears a sense which is well adapted to the numbers and the eminence of his descendants. - The. eldest of Japhet's sons was Oomer, who, Jose- phus tells us, was the father of the Celts. Magog, we must be contented to suppose, was the founder of some Scythian nation. In Madai we may recognize the an- cestor of the Medes. The posterity of Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras may be traced from Ararat, always called Masts by its inhabitants, through Phrygia into Europe. Tubal and Meshech left their names to the Tibareni and Moschi, Armenian tribes, whose early migrations appear to have extended into Moesia. In like manner tiie Thracians may have owed their origin to Tiras. Ashkenaz, the son of Oomer, is thought to be that 'Ascanius whose name so frequentiy occurs in the ancient (topography of Phrygi^, and from whom, jprobably^ the B 3 oaOOBAPHT or TUB AN0IBNT8. BOOK I. Euxine, at first the Axine tea, derived its appellation. In Togarmah we see the proper ancestor of the Arroe- ilian nations, and it is even asserted of the Turks. ^^.^ Javan was the Ion of the Greeks, the father of the lonians. In the names of his sons we find fresh proofli of the consistency of the Mosaic history. In Elishah we see the origin of Elis or Hellas. The name of Tar* shish is supposed, with little foundation, to refer to Tarsus in Cilicia. Kittim means Cyprus, and Dodanim or Rodanim is understood to apply to the island Bhodes. — " By these were the isles of the Gentilei divided in their lands." It is impossible to read this ethnographi- cal sketch of the sacred historian, who ascends to tilie first origin of mankind, without admiring its comprehensive* BeH and consistency. It is impossible to fix with precision the eastern limit of Moses's geographical knowledge. '' The dwellings of the sons of Joctan," he says, " were from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the East." This Sephar may possibly be the first range of the snowy mountains of Paropamisua, called also Sepyrru* by the ancients. But that the accurate knowledge of Mosea did not extend to the confines of India is evident from the gloss which he adds, "a mountain of the East/' which is, in fact, the signification of the word. Sephar is ap- plied in general to the East, while Ophir, on the other hand, means the West, or Africa. The institutions of the Hebrews were calculated to discourage an intercourse with strangers. The brilliant commercial enterprises in which Solomon engaged were discontinued by his successors, and even the fleets of that prince were navigated by the servants of the king of Tyre. This restricted communication with foreign nations rendered it, of course, impossible to acquire any enlarged or correct knowledge of the earth; and we do not find in the prophetic writings any trace of geo* graphical information much exceeding that which was possessed by Moses. Some, indeed, have imagined Uva Ophir o{ scripture to mean Peru; and the TarshUh trim CHAP. t. TBI HBBRBWf. If IS ap- other gea. was which the fleets of Solomon returned every three yean, " bringing gold, and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks/ has given rise to innumerable learned disquisitioni. Tarsus in Cilicia (which, by the way, was not a seap port), as well as Tartessus in Spain, are out of the question ; for the ships of Solomon were launched from Eziongeber in the Red Sea, and ivory, apes, and peacocks are obviously Indian produce. Many eminent scholars have supposed the word Tanhish to be a Phoenician epithet of the s'» . The trade of thePhoenicians necessarily brought them soon into correspondence with the Greeks who were scattered ov<*r the islands and the shores of the JEgesfi, BOOK I. oiiAP.1* THE GREEKS. 11 iiuciani m tted by the tmids and } gre&tness lommercial :ians have tnemorials. enment of [, from the and it is :e that the i the fabu« abraced as Elomans in - ' ..--.'iM, 'flit IK AVTI« F THE 8CT- B SHIPS or E WEST. — CIKCE AKD DARKNESS. AND THE [OMER AC* INO LATI- ;ON. — ITS \0 THE FE- OF JASON •^ lERNIS EXPLAN- ISLANDS ;ht them ^ho were Their nuHmfactured merchandize, which awakened the admiration of a rude people, was bartered for the na- tural productions of the land, and, perhaps, more fre- quently for slaves. Thus the prophet Ezekiel mentions die blue and purple from the isles of Elisha ; and at the same time he says, " Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were thy merchants : they traded the persons of men and ves- sels of brass in thy market." The nature of the motives which actuated the Greeks in their earliest naval enter- prises is sufficiently manifest from the first paragraph of Herodotus, who ascribes the origin of the wars between the Greeks and barbarians to a series of piratical abduc- tions, lo, daughter of the king of Argus, was carried away by the Phoenicians. Europa was then taken off from Tyre by the Cretans : Jason eloped with Medea ; and when her father, the king of Colchis, demanded compensation, it was refused, says the historian, because the complaints of Inachus, the father of lo, had been neglected by her ravishers. Then followed reprisals and the rape of Helen. War is the only art exercised by fierce and uncivilized nations, and captives are their only merchandize. The Phoenicians, no doubt, fomented the feuds by which their markets were supplied : the morality of their deal- ings sunk to the level of their iniquitous traffic. The love of gain has never been very scrupulous ; and we may safely conclude, that the merchants of Sidon im- posed upon the Greeks by the same fraudulent arts which Christian nations practised so many centuries later upon the simple inhabitants of the new world. Hence it is that Homer, who so often celebrates the ex^ cdlence of Sidonian artists, reproaches the nation in, a strain approaching to acrimony, with insatiable covetous- ness and base dishonesty : he paints them, indeed, as the enemies of the human race, " doing all manner of ini- quity to men." The knowledge of letters, however, which the Greeks received from the Phoenicians, will probably compensate, in the opinion of posterity, for all the ii^uries which r"- GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. may have been committed in the incipient correspond- ence of the two nations. The Greeks possessed a lively ^ curiosity^ a boldness and force of intellect^ well fitted to ,) open all the recesses of unexplored nature. They were equal to other nations of antiquity in the vividness of their imaginations, and w^ere much superior to them in the spirit of philosophical observation. Unlike the Phoenicians, who grudged the world the participation of their knowledge, the Greeks were as communicative as \ they were curious, and preferred fame to the profits of a sordid policy. There was a splendour in the first dawn of Grecian literature which announced the glory of its meridian beams. Homer united all the learning of his time to all the vigour of poetic genius. There is little connected with the manners or enlightenment of his age which may not be learned from his writings ; and he was the firsts to use the weighty testimony of Strabo, who was well versed in geography. The task will be as agreeabl "^ aa it is essential to our purpose, to collect from the pages of the venerable poet the extent of his acquaintance with the surface of the earth. The ocean was regarded by Homer as a great river which visited in its course every portion of the earth. In the centre of the shield made by Vulcan for Achilles was described the habitable earth, and beyond that, along the margin of the disc, ran " the strength of the floods of ocean." Whether Homer beUeved that Greece was in the centre of the earth, is a particular of his cosmos graphy which he has not disclosed to us; but it certainly was not in the centre of the portion which was known to him; -^ In the enumeration of the allied forces assembled be- fore Troy, the poet names aU the states of Greece with interesting minuteness. Thebes, Athens, Corinth, and LacedUemon were already distinguished. He displays a partial knowledge of Macedonia, and a perfect acquaint- ance with the Cyclades and larger islands. The auxi- liaries of the Trojans were the Tribes of the Pelasgiajiii OBAP. II< THB GREEKS. IS the Maonians ; the Cariana, speaking a strange lan- guage ; the Lycians and Solymi, to the south of these ; then the Arimi or Aramsei, stretching from Cilicia into Syria; the Phrygians came from Ascania, an inland district. From the shores of the Black Sea there came to the aid of Priam the Paphlagonians who dwelt on the hanks of the Parthenius, and the Halizonians " from Alyba, afar, where the earth produces silver." These last were the Chalyhes inhabiting the mountains round Trebizond, the mineral riches of which are not yet ex- hausted. The SesamuSy Cromna, and Cytorus of Homer were afterwards included in the territory of Amastris, the modern Amasia ; and the hills of Cytoro, crowned with superb forests, supplied with naval timber the dock- yards of Sinope. On the western side of the Black Sea Homer was acquainted with the Thracians, the Mcesians, and the " Hippomolgiy living on mares' milk, the justest of men, long-lived, and exempt from care." These were the in- habitants of the country afterwards possessed by the Sarmatians. They were evidently nomadic; and it is remarkable, that the reputation of virtue and justice which later writers generally gave the Scythians (as the wandering nations on the shores of the Euxine were long vaguely designated) were already ascribed to them by the oldest of the Greek poets. It might be supposed, indeed, from the hint of spotless innocence, that Homer here touched the verge of his knowledge; but as he is, perhaps, the most carefully minute of all poets, and has usually a reason for every thing he says, it is much more likely that there was something in the religious habits and doctrines cf those Asiatic tribes wliich compelled the veneration of the Greeks. The fame of Egypt offered the poet a fertile theme. He celebrates the wealth of Thebes and its hundred gates, from each of which it could send forth 200 armed men. In a spirit of simplicity he mentions the rankness and aromatic character of Egyptian vegetation ; 4;he skill of the people in the use of drugs ; and the nepenthes, pro- f 14 eaooRApav op tbb akoients. BOOK f . bably opimn, by which they cured even the pains of grief. With the mention of Egypt he couples that of Libya and of the Erentbi, the name of the Arabs ih the East. " In Libya," says the poet, " no man feels want, neither the king nor the shepherd ; sheep yean three times in the year, and the lambs have horns at their birth." These latter facts are correct, as well as the custom of Ae Africans, from which the Lotophagi or lotua-eaters obtained their designation. Though Homer did not know India, locally or by name, yet he seems to have been aware that there were black men to the east of that part of the earth with which he was acquainted. Thus, he says, Neptune visited the Ethiopians, " the farthest of men, who are divided in two, some under the rising and some under the setting sun." When Homer makes Menelaus visit, in the course of his voyage, the Sidonians, Libyans and Erembi, he appears to be ignorant that the Mediterranean and Red Seas are separated from each other by the Isthmus of Suez ; neither was he acquainted with the seven mouths of the Nile. His ignorance «n the /€ points was admitted by his warmest admirers in Micient times. Menelaus, while relating in the Odyssey the history of his voyages, boasts on several occasions of the wealth he accumulated by piratical depredations. Indeed, it is manifest that piracy was a common, perhaps an honour- able, profession in those days. Naval warfare was by no means unknown to the Greeks, as appears by Homer's making mention of boarding pikes. Yet their vessels, such at least as were built by Ulysses at the island of Circe, were nothing more than large boats with one mast and sail, and with a small fore deck on which the cable was coiled : on or below this deck the chief of the crew took his rest when circumstances prevented his landing. These slight vessels of the Homeric age were painted red with minium, procured, most probably, from Sinope. Homer seems to have thought a voyage across the sea from Crete to Egypt a singularly bold adventure. Though the gods of Homer and other early Grecian CHAP. n. THB OAEBX8. Id poets frequently resorted to iEthiopia to celebrate thdr festivities^yet neither the South nor the East can be looked upon as the region of fable in the primitive geography of the Greeks. When we turn to the West and Norths we find a much larger share of mythic story mingling itself with the slender materials of certain information. The straits which separate Italy and Sicily are the portah which conduct Homer to the regions of fable ; all beyond them is marvellous^ and it is in this quarter alone that the pictures of the poet lose the colour of reality. Of Sicily he had some taint knowledge ; the names of the Sicani and Siculi had reached him^ and the account of the Cyclops is too true a picture of savage life to allow us to suppose it a mere sketch of fancy. The picture of men who, '' relying on the gods for subsistence, neither sow nor reap ; who live in caves on the tops of mountains, without laws or a chief, and not carit^fot one another ; and who are ignorant of the use of ships, by which the luxuries of life are diffused ;" such a pic- ture, it is evident, is drawn with fidelity from the rudest condition of savage life. From Sicily Ulysses is conducted by the poet to the isles of iEolus, from whom the hero obtains a bag c(m« taining the winds : with this present he sets sail, and it wafted gently homewards. On the tenth day Ithaca is already in sight, when, overcome with fatigue, he un- luckily falls asleep, and his companions cut the bag, anp- posing it to be filled with treasures. Instantly the winds rush forth, and a hurricane arises, which drives the ship back to the isle of ^olus. The next place which Ulysses reaches is the country of the LcBstrygonSy a race of can- nibals ; and it is historically important to observe, that Homer places these fairly in the region of the miraculous. He next arrives at Mcea, the island of Circe, from which he appears to lose sight altogether of the land of cer- tainty. The hero, receiving the instructions of Circe, crosses the ocean to the shores of Proserpine, to the place where the Acheron, Periphlegethon, and other tributary rivers flow into the Styx. Sailing the whole day, he 16 GEOGRAPHY OF TUB ANCIENTS. BOOK I. vt comes at last to the ends of the ocean^ where the Cim- merians dwell, wrapped in profound gloom ; for they see neither the rising nor the setting sun, but the veil of night is constantly spread above them. Having here visited the infernal regions, he re-embarks, quits the ocean, and reaches the isle of Circe in the smooth sea at the first appearance of Aurora. On his voyage home- ward afterwards he passes the PlancttB, or wandering rocks, escapes the Sirens, with the dangers of Scylla and Charybdi8, and thus returns once more within the circle of probability. It is in vain that commentators and scholiasts have endeavoured to give precision to Homer's geography of the West. In vain they exhaust their learning to prove that Ulysses did not really sail into the Atlantic; yet the poet expressly says that he reached even the utter- most bouncLs of the ocean. P ■*■ what business have chart and compass in the ocean of the early Grecian poets? It is true that Ulysses made but one day's sail from the isle of Circe ; but then it must be observed, that in that island were the choirs of Aurora and the rising of the sun, so that the ends of the ocean could not be far off; besides, it is unreasonable to limit the speed of the mariner who profited from the counsels of a goddess, and who could occasionally freight his ship with the winds of ^olus. Some learned scholars have fixed on the promontory of Circaei, once nearly insulated by the Pontine marshes, as the island of the nymph ; and at a suitable distance they have found the Styx and descent of Avernus. They thus inadvertently bring Cimmeria and its perpetual darkness into the smiling clime of Italy. The same system finds in Strongyle the once wandering rocks, and in Lipari the domain of Eolus. But in fact the old bard's geographical information beyond the nearest shores of Italy is purely Hesperian; that is to say, it is wholly derived, from myths and traditions, without the slightest reference to distance or local details. Homer had heard of the ocean and Cimmeria in the west, but he knew not how far off they were. He CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 17 imeria Italy. Idering jn fact Id the is to itions, letails. In the He never purposely alloys the truth, or postpones it to fiction ; but, on the other hand, he relates mythical traditions as readily as facts ; and we shall find, as we proceed, that the bulk of these traditions always pointed to the West- em Ocean. When the stream of mankind was fiowing constantly towards the West, it is no wonder that the weak reflux of positive information from that quarter should exhibit only the impulses of hope and superstition. Greece was nearly on the western verge of the world, as it was known to Homer, and it was natural for him to give wing to his imagination as he turned towards the dim prospects which spread beyond; but that his fables, far from being arbitrary, were founded on very ancient and widely-diffused myths, will clearly appear when we come to treat of the geography of the Hindoos. Among the strange nations with which Ulysses be- came acquainted in his wanderings, the Pheeacians de- serve a moment's attention. It appears thiit they were much more refined and industrious than the Greeks; that they were better informed in the arts, more skilful navigators, and more addicted to commerce. They inhabited the island of Scheria, supposed to be the same as Corcyra, having been forced to leave their former abode in Hypereia, from the troublesome neighbourhood of the Cyclops. This mention of a retrograde movement from west to east, and of a people more cultivated than the Greeks, is extremeiy remarkable at so early an age. Homer names likewise the Siculi and Sicani, historic names; but yet his island Trinacria is rather mythic than real ; he places in it, with mythical propriety, the flocks and herds of the sun. It is remarkable, too, that he calls it Thrinakia, from which it is manifest that the word was strange to him, and not of Greek derivation. Indeed, it is more probable that Sicily had its name of Trinacria, or three-peaked, from superstition, than from any acquaintance with its figure, which could hardly be k.iown in the infancy of navigation. - vox. T. c ' ^ 18 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BUOK I. Homer's knowledge^ it is evident, hardly extended westward beyond Greece; but Hesiod, who lived per* haps a century later (750 B. C), surprises us by hia mention of " King Latinus, who ruled over all the Tyrseni." His acquaintance with the west, indeed, appears to have reached beyond Italy ; for, in con- junction with the Scythians and Ethiopians, he men- tions the LygurianSy who at that time probably occupied the whole length of coast from Spain to the Alps. Hesiod also names the Ister, or Danube, the Phasia, and the Eridanus, a name, however, which was so vaguely employed by the early Greek writers, that it would be hazardous to suppose it in this instance applied to the river Po. The Nile, known to Homer as the Mgyptus, received from Hesiod its proper designation, along with its seven mouths. Ulysses never boasts of being the first who navigated the Western Ocean ; but he was the first who escaped the danglers of the Planctce, with the exception of Jason, to whom propitious Juno kindly lent* her assistance to guide the Argo through the rocks. This mention of the chief Argonaut by the father of Grecian poetry is calculated to awaken regret at the imperfect accounts which remain of an expedition so important in the his- tory of primitive geography. Many able scholars, in- deed, have assented to the opinion of Gesner, that the poem of the Argonauts which bears the name of Orpheus is at least as ancient as the time of Homer; but a pre- ponderating weight of internal evidence and of authority assigns it to a much later age. It appears, however, to have been really compiled from old current traditions, and may, on that account, be employed to illustrate the primitive geography of the Greeks. ^ ^ Jason and the Argonautic Expedition. '- . ^ Z As to the reality of the Argonautic expedition there cannot be any reasonable doubt. Like all other events CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 19 rity to Ions, the pre knts of remote antiquity, it comes to us mixed with much that is fabulous; but yet the enterprise which forms the basis of the story has nothing in it of an improba- ble character. Ancient writers unanimously state, that Jason built a ship of unusual size; manned a fleet with tlie bravest warriors of Greece ; and directed his course to Colchis in the Euxine Sea. The date usually as- signed to this expedition is the year 1263 before the Christian era. Traditions remain which prove that Jason was not the first Greek who attempted this navi- gation. Sinope is supposed to have been founded by some of the followers of that Apis or £paphus who mi- grated from Argos into Egypt in the year 1 866 B. C. Phryxus and Helle, whose story is almost lost in fable, preceded Jason by perhaps a century. Cytorus, men- tioned by Homer, was founded by the son of Phryxus ; and a temple built by him at Athena, to the east of Trebizond, is said by Pausanias to have served as a model to the Dioscuri, for that which they founded on their return home. T le tradition of Jason's expedi- tion was preserved in Oolchis and Armenia^ where he was said to have founded cities; nay, he was eved thought to have penetrated into Media. The river Par- thenia flowing into the Euxine, and the Halixones who inhabited the shores of that sea, suggest, at once, Boeotia and Samos, where the same names occur. As a general proof, however, of the early acquaintance of the Greeks with the Euxine, it may be suflicient to observe that the Grecian colonies in that sea, which acquired histo- rical importance, preceded, by more than two centuries, those of Sicily and the West. The local traditions regarding Jason, and the monu- ments of his progress along the shores of the Euxine, were too numerous and positive in antiquity to allow of any doubts as to the existence of that hero. All au- thors conduct him to the city of -^etes. That he should carry off the king's daughter is consistent with the manners of the age; that the proposed object of the enterprise should, at this distance of time, be, or G 9. £0 OKOOIIAPIIY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. appear to be, a fable, is not less to be expected. A due mixture of fable, in a case like this, is a proof of ge- nuine antiquity ; yet, as many fables in antiquity un- questionably arose from the ambiguities of language, some attention is due to the ingenious conjecture which supposes that the story of the golden fleece had its origin in a miscomprehension or a play of words : the word which signifies wealth or a treasure in the Phoeni- cian language (malori), resembling that which, in Greek, means a fleece {niallon). Phoenicians probably had a share in the expedition ; and the pilot Ancteus is said to have been of that nation. Of the return of Jason there existed no local tra- ditions or monuments of a permanent nature, and all the accounts remaining to us of his expedition were written many centuries later than the achievements to which they refer. Hence it is that the hero of the Argonauts, like the Ulysses of Homer, is made to ex- plore all the wonders of the poetic world ; and the story of his wanderings becomes the vehicle by which the re- later pours abroad the full measure of his geographic knowledge. The £uxine Sea, as it appears from Mimnermus, was anciently thought to be the ocean; its eastern and northern shores were evidently unknown to Homer. Those who first celebrated the adventures of Jasou, therefore, naturally extended his wanderings into a quarter where the ignorance of the age opposed no 'ob- stacles to' fiction, and succeeding ages were taught to believe that the Argonauts returned to Greece, not by the Hellespont, but through the ocean. As the increase of geographical knowledge, however, gradually disclosed the impossibility of such a voyage, various fictions were added in detail to support the grand outlines of his story. The incongruities which, in the course of cen- turies, were thus heaped together by poetic ingenuity do not in the least affect the authenticity of the Argo- nautic expedition. The author of the Orphic Argonautics appears to have CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 21 had much vague information respecting the nations round the Euxine Sea. In conducting his hero north- wards from Colchis^ he mentions the Tauri, Laliif Nomads, and the Caspian nation ; in the Palus Meeotis he finds, besides the bowed Scythians, the Mceotians, Sauromatians, Getes, Gymni, and the Arimaspes, a people with the deformity of Cyclops, but rich in flocks. The fabulous navigation commences with propriety at the remotest extremity of this inland sea, and at the term of the writer's positive knowledge. The Argonauts, having crossed the Palus Meeotis, enter a great gulf leading into the Cronian Ocean. They row unceas- ingly for nine days and nights, and reach on the tenth the Cronian Sea beyond the Riphaan mountains. Being here in danger, they disembark, by the advice of Anceeus, and haul the ship along the shore with a rope. Continu- ing the voyage for six days, they reach the Macrobiana (so named from their longevity), the People of Dreams, and afterwards the Cimmerians, Our adventurers next approach the Acherontian shores, Hermione, and the dwellings of the justest men, near which is the approach to the infernal regions. Leaving these, they embark on the Western Ocean with the breeze of Zephyr ; but before they proceed far, the ship Argo utters a warning speech, and foretels the punishment of their crimes. With diffi- culty they pass the lemis or the lernides (for the poet at one time employs the singular and at another the plural number), and a storm arises which drives them for eleven days through the wide ocean quite ignorant of their course. At length Ancseus descries the Isle of Ceres, which is known by its tall fir trees; but as it proves in- accessible, he is obliged to steer for the Isle of Circe, which is reached in three days. Thence the Argonauts arrive at the shores of Tartessus and the pillars of Her- cules, cross the Sardonian and Tuscan Seas, and are op- portunely rescued from the flames of -^tna by the aid of Thetis. The mention which occurs in this poem of the Cas- pian nation, of the Getes and of lernis (Hibernia), S «2 OEOORAPHY OF THE ANCIENTi. BOOK I. uhows a considerable store of vague information ; and even the idea, of sailing round Europe from the Euxine, by the Cronian Sea and the land of the Cimmerians, iii of great importance in a historic survey of the progress of geographical discovery. But the Orphean Argonautics, as they are called, are as little distinguished by accuracy as by poetic beauties. The geographical errors of the ancient poets, however, who gleaned their knowledge chiefly from oral traditions, cause us no surprise ; but it is truly astonishing to see how modern critics over- look the rights of ignorance and of the poetic character, and in vain attempt to force their authors into literal precision. The same desire to fill up the vacancies of knowledge, and to exhibit every thing complete, which constantly led astray the writers of antiquity, still actu- ates the scholars who interpret them, to reject every ex- pression as spurious which cannot be forced into a correspoiidence with the knowledge of the present day. The author of the Argonautics makes the T^inais and the Phasia branches of the Araxes ; an error of such magnitude as to show that he had no actual knowledge of the regions he describes. Yet these names are, origi- nally, all general terms meaning a river, and may have often changed their application. Homer places the Cimmerians at the end of the ocean ; in the Argonautics they are situated between the Western Ocean and the Cronian Sea. The old bard mentions in general terms the gloom of the Cimmerian land, which never enjoys the beams of day ; the poet of the Argonauts ventures to explain the cause of this privation, and thus gives an opportunity to learned scholars to examine where the Cimmeria of antiquity was actually situated ; but how is it possible to determine the position of a country which was shaded from the sun by Calpe and the Ripheean Mountains on the east, by Phlegra on the south, and by the Alps on the west ? Such gross errors with regard to distances and positions serve only to show how little the knowledge of the author extended beyond an acquaintance with names alone. cnAP. II. TUB GREEKS. 23 But perhaps it may be asked, who were the Cirri' meriana f to this the answer must be, that they were the inhabitants of Cimmeria; for in truth they make no figure in the poets; they are merely the implied possessors of Cimmeria, the landof darki less, which is the proper sub- ject of the myth. But the early disappearance of this fabu- lous land and of its melancholy occupants from Grecian poetry, immediately suggests that its existence was not vouched by the national mythology. And indeed the Phoenician language explains at once the origin of the legend. The word cimrire, (nnoa) signifying deep dark- ness, occurs in Job, iii. 5. *' Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it ; let a cloud dwell upon it ; let the black- neM of the day terrify it." But why, it may again be asked, did the Phoenicians suppose a land of darkness in the west ? This is a question which admits only of a conjectural solution. They may have confounded legends by the ambiguity of language ; they may have learned from the Indians with whom they traded that the Goddess Caumdri presides over the west ; or they may have been informed from the same source, that the west is the country of the moon, in Arabic Camar. But perhaps the mythical Cimmeria had an origin nearer home ; in Job, xxxviii. 9. we find that a thick darkness was the swaddling band of the ocean. Whatever was the origin of this belief, it is certain, that the Arabs retained it in the middle ages ; and the navigators of that nation, who ventured far into the Atlantic, were generally forced back again, as they reported, by the deep dark- ness which lowered over the West.* Some writers of eminence, finding the western Cim- merians fabulous, have ventured to consider their name- sakes on the Euxine as members of the same spurious family; but these last belong to authentic history: they left monuments behind them, and are doubly precious in the eyes of the enquirer, from the combined circum- stances of their antiquity and their local situation.f 1^,. • Ibn el Vardi, Notices et ExtraiUdes MSS. de la Biblioth^que du Roi, II. f The Acheron, or river that bounds the infernal regions, and the £/y. tium, or abode of gladness, both connected in mythology with the Cinune- 4 24 OEOORAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. It was not without reason that the author of the Orphio Argonautics placed a city called Hermione near the Acherontian shores. The ohscurity of this passage is cleared up on reflecting that at Hermione in ArgoUs was a temple dedicated to the triple Hecate^ or, as it was vulgarly understood, to Juno, Proserpine, and Ceres. Near this temple there was also a fahled descent to Hades. As the voyage of Jason from Colchis to the ocean was always handed down as an essential part of his his- tory, it is no wonder that many should have supposed him to have ascended the Tanais, the sources of which were still unknown. Pindar dares even to transport the Argonauts to the £rythrsean or Southern Ocean ; and as he had no knowledge, probably, of the Arabian Gulf, he lets them reach the Mediterranean by dragging their vessel for twelve days over the Libyan continent. He- catseus thought to improve on this idea, when he sup- posed that Jason sailed through the Phasis into the ocean, and from the ocean into the Nile, thus betraying within what narrow limits his knowledge was bounded on the east. The idea, too, which was entertained of a connection existing between the sources of rivers and ihe ocean shows how little the first principles of physical geography had hitherto engaged the attention of phi- losophers. In. a later age, when the Athenian and Mi- lesian colonies in the Euxine had completely explored its shores, and found no egress to the ocean, the poets who sung the adventures of Jason were obliged to con- duct their hero up the Danube and Save, and overland into the Adriatic ; and industriously laboured to embel- lish and confound the traditions of antiquity. The voyage of a single day, in which Ulysses reached the ends of the ocean ; the intricate circumnavigation of Europe performed by Jason in less than a month, though driven from his course by violent tempests ; the ma- ria, or land of darkness, were also both derived from the same Phoenician source ; Achnron in Hebrew signKving the last diueUing or end i and Aliximt the glad or happy. See ISuch.^ t. These foreign additions to the Felasgian mythology never made a deep impression on the Greeks ; they were soon resided whoUy to the poets. CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 25 iioeuvre of the Argonauts in dragging their ship along the shore with a rope, to avoid the perils of the deep ; and Pindar's account of their crossing the continent of Libya in twelve days, all combine to illustrate the in- adequate ideas entertained by the early Greeks of the magnitude of the earth's surface and of the ocean. The accurate geographical knowledge of the Greeks, in Homer's time and the ages immediately succeeding, may, without much injustice, be stated as not extending far beyond Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the islands. Beyond these limits sJl objects appear in the prismatic hues of wonder and enchantment ; we find nothing but monsters, nations of dreams, and the abodes of bliss. These delusive forms were chiefly gathered in the west- ern or rather north-western quarter of the hemisphere. All the early writers in Greece believed in the existence of certain regions situated in theWest beyond the bounds of their actual knowledge, and, as it appears, of too fugitive a nature to be ever fixed within the circle of authentic geography. Homer describes at the extremity . of the Ocean the Elysian plain, " where, under a serene sky, the favourites of Jove, exempt from the common lot of mortals, enjoy eternal felicity." Hesiod, in like manner, sets the Happy Isles, the abode of departed heroes, beyond the deep ocean. The Hesperia of the Greeks continually fled before them as their knowledge advanced, and they saw the terrestrial paradise still dis- appearing in the West. « 26 GEOGRAPHY OF TUE ANCIENTS. BUCK I. I • .O . ■ CHAP. III. ■ I GREEKS CONTINUED. HISTORIC AGE. SYSTEMS OF EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. <^ HERODOTUS. — HIS LITERARY ARDOUR AND SUCCESS. HIS TRAVELS. DE- SCRIBES THE SCYTHIANS. RECEIVED INTELLIGENCE RC> SPECTIN6 THE ARIMASPS AND GRIFFONS. IN TAIN SOUGHT THE HYPERBOREANS. EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON THE GROWTH OF HORNS. —> EXTENT OF THE KNOWLEDGE HE ACQUIRED FROM THE SCYTHIANS. THE CIMMERIANS OF THE BOS- FHORUS. THEIR ORIGIN CONJECTURED. THE CASPIAN. SEA. — HERODOTUS ACQUAINTED WITH THE BACTRIANS, AND WITH INDIA. EASTERN JETHIOPIANS. THE GREAT ANTS OF - INDIA WHICH GUARD THE GOLD. — EGYPT. — THE AUTO- MOLES OR EXILES. — ROUTE UP THE NILE, AND TO BORNOU. —JOURNEY OF THE NASAMONES TO THE NIGER. ALLEGED CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF AFRICA UNDER KINO NECHOS. -— VOYAGE OF SATASFES. — HERODOTUS IGNORANT OF THE WEST. THE RIVER ERIDANUS AND THE RIPH.SAN MOUNTAINS. — COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE GREEKS. — SUMMARY. While the poets of Greece perpetuated the memory of those happy regions of the West where innoccice and contentment were supposed still to exist unalloyed^ it was the occupation of Grecian philosophers to devise cosmological systems equally remote from truth and reality, and not unfrequently drawn, perhaps, from the same ample stores of Indian mythology. Brilliant fic- tions and daring hypotheses are, perhaps, the natural precursors of successful investigation : they serve at l«ast to awaken curiosity ; and where the freedom of the hu- man mind is not fettered by the arts of an interested priesthood, even the fancies and extravagancies of active intellect make some progress towards the discovery of truth. Thales (600 B. C.) taught the sphericity of the earth ; but Anaximander, his disciple, compared it to a cylinder ; Leucippus gave it the shape of a drum ; others preferred the cubic form ; and some, following Xeno- •\^ CBAP. III. THE GREEKS. J87 phanes and Anaximenes, believed it to be a high moun- tain, the base of which has an infinite extension, while the stars float round its summit. Heraclides, again, dif- fering from the others, taught that the earth has the figure of a ship. These doctrines are all but repetitions of those taught by the different Indian sects, who assign to the earth the figure, or rather figures, of Mount Meru, and that of the mysterious ship Arghe. The Greeks may be excused for believing absurdities taught with so much solemnity, and surrounded with such an apparatus of learning. Intellectual natures are always prone to believe, from the love they bear to knowledge ; but when once stored with ideas, they are sure to exercise an in- dependent judgment. Anaximander is said also to have been the first to draw a map of the world. The maps of Scsostris, and those which the Colchians, instructed by that conqueror, are said to have inscribed on stone pillars, may safely be regarded as fabulous. While science was thus engaged in fixing the know- ledge of the earth, which had been chiefly collected by commercial voyages, there appeared in Greece one of those extraordinary men who, though themselves called forth, perhaps, by the spirit of the age in which they live, seem to be self-created agents of a new order of things. Herodotus read his books, which were named from the Muses, before the senate at Athens, in the year 445 B. C; and the volumes of the Father of History may even at the present day be read with profit and delight. He cannot be too much admired, whether we consider the zeal with which he sought for information, the success which attended his exertions, or the elegance with which he knew how to impart what he had ac- quired. As our knowledge of the globe has increased, the statements of Herodotus have been more and more con- firmed; the wonderful stories which he relates from hearsay have become so many proofs of his veracity ; and if he occasionally betrays a credulity which cannot be justified it must certainly he excused by those wha 28 OEOORAPHT OV THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. consider what a value attached even to fictions in the first days of authentic history. Herodotus was a native of Halicarnassus, a* commer- cial little city in Caria. He appears to have heen of a distinguished family, and probably imbibed the love of learning from his uncle Panyasis, a celebrated epic poet, whom the critics of antiquity ranked next to Homer. His rank, and perhaps some commercial engagements, procured him facility of intercourse with the various nations which he visited in his travels. These extended to every quarter of the then known world. Herodotus penetrated in the West as far as Paonia, the modern Servia ; he visited the Greek colonies in the Euxine, and even travelled over a considerable portion of Southern Russia : in the East his journeys reached as far as Babylon and Susa : Tyre also detained him for a while ; but Egypt, then the seat of arts and learning, was a chief object of his attention ; and the singularly complete description which he has transmitted of that country proves that he resided in it for a longer period. The Greek colonies of Cyrene were also visited by him ; and the vivid pic- tures which he has drawn of the plains of Thessaly and of the pass of Thermopylae prove that he had exairiined in detail the peninsula of Greece. Herodotus first read his histories at the Olympic games, where he received the unbounded applauses of his nation. Twelve years later he read them again (probably enlarged and amended) before the senate at Athens. The gratitude of the Athenians to the father of history was not confined to applauses alone; they even voted him a gift of ten talents. Yet he did not fix his residence in the city of the Muses, but preferred accompanying the Athenian colony which settled a few years afterwards at Thurium, near Sybaris, in the south of Italy ; and there he is sup- posed to have ended his days, at a very advanced age. Herodotus made great accessions to the knowledge of Eastern Europe. The later (Danube) rises, he says, in the country of the Celts, near a place 'sailed Pyrene ; six rivers flow into it from the North, and ten from the OllAP. III. THE GREEKS. 29 ^s^m South. Among these tributaries may be distinguished the Theiss, flowing through the great plain of Hungary. The ancients appear to have long considered the Save as the chief branch of the Danube; and the Pyrene, near ivhich Herodotus says this river rises^ is a general Celtic name for high mountains^ still preserved, with a slight mo- diflcation, in the Brenner Alps, among which the Save has its sources. The Scythians, spread over the country near the Tanais or Don, were attentively surveyed by the inquisitive Grecian. He distinguishes three ^ *eat hordes : viz. the Royal Scythians, who dwelt on the banks of the Tanais ; the Nomadic or wandering Scy- thians, who spread their tents in the great steppes to the north of the Crimea; and the agricultural Scythians, whose possessions extended towards the fertile banks of the Bog and Dnieper. The Scythians, he tells us, origin- ally dwelt on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea. In their migration westward they crossed the great river Araxes ; and arriving in the neighbourhood of the Palus Mteotis, they expelled the Cimmerians from their posses- sions in that country. This event took place, according to Scythian tradition, exactly one thousand years before the time of Darius, or fifteen centuries before the Chris- tian era. The country beyond the Ister, a vast and boundless space, was inhabited, as far as he could learn, by the SigyntB, who reached on the other side to the Veneti, on the Adriatic. The horses of that people were very small, and long haired. They were unable to carry men, but when yoked to carriages were remarkably swift. This answers the description of the Swedish ponies, which are still found wild in the woods of Goth- land. The islands in the Gulf of Venice have also pre- served the same breed. The name of the SigyncB was used by their neighbours as equivalent to merchant. The GetcB are described by Herodotus as the bravest and most upright of the Thracians. " They pretend," he says, " to immortality : whenever any one dies, they believe him to be received into the presence of their god 30 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. Zamolxis. Each man has several wives^ who^ when he dies, are emulous to sacrifice themselves on the tomb of their husband." To the north-east of the Scythians were the Argippai, who shaved their heads. They passed their lives under trees, never took up arms, and being thought sacred characters, suffered no molestation; vegetables and milk, with a beverage called aschy, or asky, were their only nourishment. Here we have a picture of the Indian faquir. To the east of the Argippcei dwelt the Issedones, among whom the women enjoyed more than ordinary consideration. From this people Aristseus the poet had received some intelligence respecting the Arimasps and Griffons, whom Herodotus anxiously wished to see. He learned that the latter possessed golden trea- sures, of which it was the occupation of the former to despoil them. The Hyperboreans also seemed to fly continually before the friendly enquiries of our traveller, who Was at last informed that they dwelt to the north of the Argippmi, and that their possessions extended to the sea. Among the nations dwelling to the north of the Scythians were the Androphagi, and the Melanchlceni or black-mantled, of whom the latter alone were cannibals. A people, called by Herodotus Jyrcee, and situated to the east of the Tanais, have probably left their name to the river Yrgis. The Scythians did not appear to the discriminating Greek as barbarians; on the contrary, he commends them as an upright and civilised nation, though, as he characteristically observes, '' there are none among them of eminent learning or genius." It is not surprising that when Herodotus reached the bounds of authentic information in his enquiries after the Hyperboreans, he should positively afiirm, '* that in the north of Europe there are many wonderful things, and a prodigious quantity of gold." He had heard of the long winters' nights of the North, but could not believe that the people who lived beyond the Massagetts slept six months in the year. The cold of winter, he says, was so severe in the country north of the Euxine^ that the Scythians OHAP. III. THE GREEKS. 31 could cross the Cimmerian Bosphorus with their loaded waggons to the country of the Indians. By these he means the people caUed by Strabo Sindi, and who for- merly occupied the plains at the mouth of the Cuban. Having learned from Homer that lambs in Libya have horns at their birth, and seeing that sheep in Scythia remained hornless all their lives, he concluded that a warm climate is especially favourable to the growth of horns. This was the error of a too narrow experience ; had he seen the four and six>horned sheep of the Baltic, he would have immediately discarded his frail theory. The observation, however, that horses are much better able to endure the rigours of a northern climate than asses, was just and valuable. It is impossible to ascertain, with perfect precision, the regions occupied by the various nations which Hero- dotus enumerates ; and the geographers, who have un- dertaken to expound him, have taken such liberties with the text, that their deductions, however ingenious, can seldom be relied on. In a primitive state of society, nations are usually divided into many different tribes, so that a geographical nomenclature, obtained from a No- madic people, seldom reaches to a great distance. Inter- course, or mutual acquaintance, rarely exists among those simple communities, where there is not some ori- ginal affinity of race and language. How then is it possible to credit the opinion, that the Issedones, with whom terminates the knowledge of Herodotus towards the East, were the inhabitants of Chinese Tartary? How much more probable is it that they were the Asi, or Asiani (perhaps Asi-tani), who descended, a few centuries later, from the northern valleys of the Belurtag, to destroy the Greek kingdom of Bactria, and who are manifestly the Issedones of Ptolemy. The civilisation of the Asij and their respectful demeanour towards fe- males, i? remarked by the early Chinese historians, in language similar to that employed by Herodotus when he speaks of the Issedones. The remnant of the great nation of the Asi, at present inhabiting the Caucasus, are ^ GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. Still called by the Russians Osaetinzi. It is not so sur- prising that the Scythians^ themselves wanderers from the plains of Inner Asia^ should have maintained a con- nection with a nation belonging to the same great family of mankind. But it may be asked, who were the Scythians ? Can the Scythian words preserved by Herodotus, arimasp, one-ey^d, and oiarpata, a man-killer, or Amazon, be now explained from any known language ? * The positive testimony of Herodotus, however, that the Scythians were originally connected with the Sauromates, is quite suf* ficient to overbalance the weight of this objection, and to prove that they belonged to the Indo-Teutonic race. But the Cimmerians of the Bosphorus, that ancient people, some monuments of whom were still visible in the time of Herodotus, and who, unlike the Cimmerians of the ^Vest, gave their name to the country, instead of taking one from it ; how are their race and derivation to be discovered ? In order to investigate this point, on principles drawn from the general experience of history and the philosophy of language, it will be necessary to commence by asking, in what tongue does the name of the Cimmerians signify a man ? for a great majority of the primitive national designations known in history have had originally the simple meaning of men or people.f Now it appears that in the Georgian language kmari signifies a man; and that word hardly differs in sound from the Greek word kimmerioi. Hence it might be concluded that the Cimmerians were a branch of the Georgian nation, who, like other Caucasian tribes, ad- vanced to the Tanais, and were driven back again. The * The learned are disposed to decide this question in the negative ; but it would be disingenuous in me not to confess, that I feel inclined to main- tain the atfirmative. The Scythian word arimasp, formed from aritna, one (or single rather, for it is evidently compound) and spu, an eye, may be trans, lated into Greek by eremopa. The Greek eremos, which passed from the sense of single to that of solitarj/ and wretched (like one, alone, lone), is re- presented in the last signification by the German arm (Wachter's gloss.) The Scythian spu may be the root of the word siy. Oiarpnta, an Amazon, is compounded otoinr, Scyth. a man, eeri. Hung, vir, Lat. Air, Armen. ; and pff/AjScyth. to kill, batten,Got\i. (whence batVtlum), batiuo, Lat. aphatto. Or. f For examples, see Adelung's " Alteste Gesch. der Dcutchen." lOOK I. CHAP. III. THB OREEKt. 83 o sur- from a con- family ? Can imaspf be now lositive IS were te suf^ and to ice. ancient i able in nerians itead of •ivation )int, on history isary to ame of irity of history \eople?C kmari sound ght be of the , ad- The five; but I to main. itna, one I be trans- Ifrom the lie), is re- |-'8 gloss.) Vmazon, len. ; and \atto, Gr. Thracian goddess Cimmeria* might be supposed to be the tutelar deity of the nation ; but th^ coivjectures must not be implicitly adopted. The tribes of the Comari or Comani (for these names are constantly confounded) held a distinguished place among the rest- less warrior tribes of the Indian Caucasus; they also were called SaccBf and might have preceded the Getic Scy- thians of Herodotus in their course to the Tanais, as a foremost wave of the same great tide. The Caumdra and Caumdri, the young man and maiden, or Mars and Bellona of tlie Hindoo pantheon, have found their way into the languages and superstitions of many nations ; and conspicuous names of this sort, when adopted as national designations, are apt to suggest a proximate connection where it never really existed. But in order to estimate fairly the merits of the first conjecture, it must be remembered that the Cimmerisns, when driven by the Scythians from their possessions on the Bosphorus, instead of retiring into Europe, crossed the Euxine into Pontus, whence they afterwards made some formidable irruptions into the neighbouring states ; that the worship of Comana (a variation of Comara), a BeUona, sur- rounded by six thousand priests, appears to have had its origin in Pontus ; and, finally, that the Georgian coun- tries have been always called Comania by the orientals. Herodotus obtained information of a very correct na- ture respecting the Caspian Sea : " The sea," he observes, " which the Greeks navigate (the Mediterranean) ; and that beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which is called the Atlantic ; and the Ery thrsean, are all supposed to be but parts of the same ocean ; but the Caspian is itself a distinct sea : its length is such that a vessel may be rowed from one end to the other in fifteen days ; and in the broadest part the pas- sage may be made in eight." These measures are believed to be perfectly exact. The geographers of a later age, and Strabo among the number, while they drew their maps of the world in conformity with arbitrary hypotheses, rejected the authority of Herodotus, and made the Cas- VOL. I. • Hesychius. 34 OEOORAPHT or TBI ANCIENTS. BOOK I. pian communicate with the northern ocean by a long channel half a mile wide : this fanciAil arrangement was again rejected by Ptolemy, who was constrained, how- ever, by his system to neglect the measures of Herodotus; and it was not tiU the eighteenth century that the Cas- pian Sea resumed in our maps the oblong form which was accurately given to it by the father of history. In Asia, the knowledge of Herodotus reached but a little way, although it extended far beyond that of his countrymen. The country between the Erythrsean, or southern sea, and the Euxine, was divided between four nations, viz. the Persians, Medes, Sapirs, (^Serpars, whoae name remains to Shirwan,) and Colchians. " Tho country beyond these is bounded," he says, " on the east by the Erythroean, and on the north by the Caspian Sea and the Araxes, which flows towards the east. Asia is inhabited as far as India ; but farther to the cast there is nothing but desert, and nobody is acquainted with it." The peninsulas of Asia Minor and Arabia he makes much too narrow ; an error in which he was followed by Pliny, who compares the peninsula of Arabia to that of Italy. Among the tributaries of the Persian empire, Herodotus enumerates the Parthians, Chorasmians, the Utii (CJzes?), and Sogdiana: he also mentions the BaO' trians, the farthest limit of his knowledge in that quarter, and the Massagette to the east of the Caspian, who de- voured their parents worn out with age and infirmity. India was but a recent discovery in the time of Hero- dotus ; it is no wonder, therefore, that his knowledge of it should be extremely limited : indeed, he knew nothing of that country beyond the river Indus. " The greater part of Asia," he tells us, " was discovered by Darius. That prince wishing to know into what part of the sea the river Indus falls (the only river besides the Nile in which crocodiles are found), sent intelligent men to ex- amine its course. They descended the river towards the east, and afterwards, turning to the west, arrived in two years and a half at the same port from which the Phoenicians embarked^ who circumnavigated Libya by BOOK I. a long entwas I, how- DdotuB; le Cas- , which • d but a t of his ■san, or jen four », whose "The the east plan Sea Asia is ast there with it." le makes lowed by ,0 that of empire, ians, the the Bao- quarter, who de- irmity. of Hero- rledge of nothing ,e greater Darius. tf the sea ,e Nile in len to ex- ards the Irrived in hich the .ibya by OBIP. III. THE OREEKI. 35 order of the king of Egypt." When Herodotui speaks of the Indus flowing towards the east, it is evident that his knowledge of that river did not extend beyond the borders of Cashmeer; but respecting the Indians he collected many interesting particulars. The Ethiopians, he informs us, served with the Indians in the . Persian armies : the former (by whom are meant the dark races of the Meckran, as distinguished from the genuine Hindoo) differed from the JBthiopians of Africa by the smoothness of their hair. This distinction of eastern and western Ethiopians, of which some trace is to be found in Homer, was continued till comparatively recent times. Herodotus remarks that the Indians were the most numerous people known; that they wore cotton, and made their bows and arrows of reeds, that is, of bamboo : some tribes of them lived on fish, and constructed boats of reeds, a single joint of the reed being sufficient to make a boat. In the Persian army were Indians who wore the skins of horses' heads for helmets, the ears and mane remaining on as decorations. These appear to be the asva-muchas or horse-faces of the Indian historians. The abstinence of the Hindoos from animal food did not escape the notice of our author, nor the dissolute manners and cruelty into which they are misled in many instances by their wanton superstitions. Herodotus has been cen- sured for credulity and want of science, because he says that the sun is vertical in India before mid-day ; but the passage which has incurred this censure will, if ex- amined liberally, afford new proofs of his well-directed spirit of enquiry. " The Indians," he says, " differ from other nations, inasmuch as their greatest beat is not at raid-day, but in the morning : they have the heat of a vertical sun at the hour when we withdraw from the forum." Here it is evident that he received his intel- ligence from the inhabitants of the coast, where the heat is most intense from sunrise in the morning till the forenoon, when the sea breezes set in. The East is /Sh in fables, and the great wealth of India is the subject of many a strange fiction. Hero- D 2 36 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. cTotUB is the first who reports the tale of the enormous ants, as large as foxes^ that burrow in the golden sands of India. They are supposed to be extremely formida- ble, and it is not without great danger that the soil thrown up from their excavations is collected and car- ried off. This story was afterwards repeated by every Greek who visited the East, and is perhaps a popular Persian tale. The Arabian travellers related it in the eleventh and twelfth centuries ; and even in the sixteenth century, Busbequius, who resided some time at the court of Solyman the Great, enumerates, among the pre- sents sent by the king of Persia to the sultan, " the skins of ants which are said to be as large as dogs." The knowledge which Herodotus acquired of Africa was relatively very great, and along the course of the Nile his information reached as far perhaps as that which we possess at the present day. Egypt he made his particular study ; he examined it in its whole length as far as the cataracts of the Nile, and corrects his countrymen, who gave the name of Egypt to the Delta alone. Although he appears to make Egypt a part of Africa, yet he carefully distinguishes between Africans and Egyptians. What were the physical characteristics of the latter people it is difficult to make out with cer- tainty. The Colchians, it appears, resembled Egyptians by their dark colour and frizzled hair ; yet that these were not negroes may be concluded by the steadiness with which he applies the name of Ethiopian to the latter race. Herodotus describes at great length all the wonders and peculiarities of Egypt, and details the positions which occur in a four months' voyage up the Nile. " In na- vigating this river," he says, " above Elephantina, the current is so strong, that the boat must be drawn along by rQpes from both sides : after voyaging four days in this way a great plain is reached, and an island formed by the branches of the Nile, of which the ^Ethiopians occupy the one half, the Egyptians the other. Near this island, which is called Tachompso*, is a great lake, beyond which the * In Coptic, the island of crocodiles. OUAP. III. THE GREEKS. 37 navigation of the river is so much impeded by sharp rocks, that a journey of forty days by land must be accomplished before the traveller can again embark with safety ; but having gained the deep channel, he arrives in twelve days at Meroey the great capital of Ethiopia. From this place it requires as many days to reach the country of the Automoles as it did to arrive here from Ekphantina, These Automoles are the descendants of Egyptian soldiers^ who left their own country in the reign of Psammetichus, and settled in Ethiopia." It is evident that Herodotus speaks of the true Nile, or Bahr-al-ahiad, which comes from the south-west. The position of Meroe is generally understood to be at the junction of the Tacazze and Blue river, or Nile of Abyssinia : here it was that Bruce saw ruins correspond- ing with the reputed greatness of the ancient capital of Ethiopia. Modem travellers have pushed their enquiries up the river, in the hopes of discovering some traces of the Automoles, and they have found that in the very place indicated by Herodotus there is a people who speak a peculiar language, practise circumcision, have numerous superstitions, and call themselves the Exiles, and who are in all probability an Egyptian colony, although they believe themselves to be descended from the Jews. Among the nations inhabiting the coasts of Libya, as far as the lesser Syrtis, Herodotus found much to engage his curiosity. The Adyrmachide dressed their food in the sand heated by the sun's rays. The Nasamones, when they swore to an engagement, drank water out o^ each other's hands ; a custom still observed by the Al- gerines in their marriage ceremonies. The PsyUi pos- sessed the secret of charming or teaching serpents, an art which survives, though the Psylli appear to be ex- tinct. The Lotophagi lived on the fruit of the lotus shrub, as in the days of Homer. As far westward as the territory of Tripoli his knowledge of the country is tolerably accurate ; but beyond that point some vague mention of Carthage, Mount Atlas, the Pillars of Herm : o 3 . .,..,. 'V. ■• ■ : .(•^ GEOORAPHT OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. cules, and Cape Sokeis, i» all that we have to fill up the outline to the Atlantic. With respect to the route into the interior^ our author collected some interesting particulars from the Egyptian priests. The temple of Jupiter Ammon was situated in an oasis at the distance of ten days' journey to the west of Thebes in Upper Egypt : at an equal distance beyond the temple of Ammon was Augila, another oasis abound- ing in springs and date trees : another journey of ten days brought the traveller to the country of the Gara- mantes^ who^ mounted on chariots^ relendessly pursued the wretched iBthiopians. The oasis of Augila still pre- serves its name and its fertility unchanged after the lapse of so many centuries, and is still the chief halting place for the caravans to Bomou, where a large body of cavalry is constantly employed by the sultan of the coun- try in capturing slaves for the Egyptian market. At the distance of ten days' journey from the Garamantes, Herodotus places the Ataranteg, of whom, he observes, that they were the only people in the world who did not know the use of proper names ; and, in fact, this pecu- liarity is still met with in the interior of Africa. An- other ten days' march brings us to Mount Atlas, beyond which, the ingenuous Grecian confesses that he does not know the names of any nations ; " but I know," he adds, " that the sandy desert extends from Thebes to the pillars of Hercules, and that at the distance of ten days' journey (it is not evident from what point) there is a mine of salt with which the people build their houses." He relates an anecdote to prove that the Nile flows from the west, which derives an interest from its relation to that which has proved the most difficult of all geo- graphical problems. Five young Nasamones, travelling into the interior, arrived first at a country filled with wild beasts ; they then directed their march towards the west, and after wandering a long time through the desert, at length reached a fertile plain, where, while they were engaged in gathering fruits, a party of black men of diminutive stature rushed from their concealment •f. CHAP. lU. THB OBKEKS. 39 and seized them. They were then conducted across a liiarshy country until they at length reached a great city inhabited by blacks : a great river^ in which there were crocodiles, flowed through the city from west to east. There is no reason to doubt that this river was the Niger; but who can suppose, with migor Rennel and others, that the great city to which the Nasamones were conducted was Timbuctoo ? or who will believe that a dty of mud hovels, inhabited by a people who have made Imt little progress in the arts of sociid life, can boast an antiquity of two thousand years ? Herodotus relates that the Carthaginians carried on a trade with an African people beyond the Straits of Gib- raltar, with whom, nevertheless, they had no personal communication. Having arrived at the place, they ar- ranged their goods in a number of small heaps, and retired ; the natives then came forward, and placed op- posite to those heaps the wares which they were willing to give for them in exchange: if the merchant was satisfied with the bargain, he took away the ofiered com- modities, and left his own ; if not, he carried away the latter, and the traffick was, for diat turn, at an end. This singular story, it is remarkable, has been repeated by almost all the Arabian geographers ; only that they remove the scene of this dumb commerce from the coast to the remotest parts of the Interior. At the present day the Moors who trade across the desert give the same relation; and when we consider that a similar mode of dealing existed for ages on the borders of China, the story must not be rejected as altogether incredible. With respect to the southern part of the African con- . tinent, Herodotus informs us that the Ethiopians, at the extremities of the earth, are Macrobii or long-lived, and that they have enormous quantities of gold, inso- much that captives are loaded with fetters made of that precious metal. He does not appear to have believed that Africa stretches as far southward as Arabia, and states explicitly, that it is surrounded by the ocean on aU sides, except at the isthmus of Suez. This persuasion D 4 40 OEOORAPHT OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. was founded ar. barians, i. e. that they cUd not speak the Greek language. For, as he argues, ** the Crestoniates (which some would read Cortoniates) and the Placians, the remnants of that nation, although they speak one and the same language, are not intelligible to those who uve around them." Must it not then be in. ferred that those who lived around them were Greeks, and not Tuscans f It is remarkable that Niebuhr (Rom. Hist I. 29.), who maintains that by Chreston Herodotus meant Cortona, and Mailer (die Etrusker. I. 95.) «rho holds the contrary opinion, have both overlooked the author's aigu. ment, and hare consequently lost the (brce of the passage in dispute. lOOK I. CHAP. III. THE GREEKS. 43 odotus k, that re any indent rwards i their genera], y their 80 fre- confu« iphaan ■red the laUy in B after- Uralian : no ex- itain in Thrace Bice and tries.* lilies^ a before fortunes years, f Italy isula of ipinion lian Hot* hptions at I Sanscrit, I regions : paropa. rare bar. > arguea, kians, the >nguage, ]en beln- ans 9 It I that by I. 950 ir'sargU' The work of Herodotus forms the most precious gift which has ever been conferred on the literature and phi- losophy of any country in their age of adolescence. It embodies a great deal of historical information, with a hiultitude of remarks on manners and natural objects, written with singular liveliness and candour, and col- lected from all the nations with which the Greeks at that time had any acquaintance. The communicative ardour of the father of history was not damped by any sceptical misgivings ; what he had gathered laboriously he poured abroad freely for the consideration of riper ages ; and if he sometimes relates with too much gravity what common sense cannot credit, it must be remembered that the hardihood of credulity is best fitted to pioneer the road of knowledge, and that the cautious tread of critical discrimination can follow only in a beaten path. It is remarkable, that an author whose information reached into the heart of Russia, to the Ural mountains and the sea of Aral, to the confines of Tartary and of India, to the negro nations inhabiting the banks of the Nile, and even to that mysterious river which waters an almost hidden world beyond the great desert, should have scarcely any knowledge of the nations in the west of Europe, and should speak even of the neighbouring peninsula of Italy in obscurer terms than of that of Arabia. But as civilisation advanced towards the West, the train of light which marked its progress still shone in the opposite direction; and the Greeks naturally turned their eyes to that quarter of the globe where the matu- rity of the social state, and the astonishing monuments which existed of human power and ingenuity, offered ah endless source of gratification to their curiosity. In the age of Herodotus the commercial character of the Greeks was already fully developed : they had esta- lilished themselves in all the shores of the Euxine ; they had penetrated even into the country of the Budiniy some hundred miles up the Tanais, where, in the midst of nomad tribes, they had built themselves a great city entirely of wood ; they maintained an occasional inter- 4,4, OEOORAPHT OF TBB ANOIBNTS. BOOK X. I i course with the people bordering on the Caspian ; and passed through so many different nations in tiiese com- mercial risits, that they were obliged to employ^ we are told, no less than seven interpreters in their course. In Persia a colony of Greeks had been established by Xerxes, and was cherished by him as the only fruit of his expedition. In Lower Egypt they were numerous from an early age. Thus the lively and enterprising Spirit of his countrymen offered great facilities to Hero- dotus in pursuing his researches in various quarters: they probably served him as interpreters ; and it is only by supposing the absence of such aids that we can ex- plain his total silence respecting Jerusalem, and the scantiness of his remarks on Tyre and Carthage. The forbidding temper of the Jewish religion, the jealousy of commercial monopoly, and the difficulties of a strange language, could alone have veiled from his view objects 80 W^Il deserving his attention. It is natural that one who sought so zealously for facts should be extremely mistrustful of arbitrary hypo- theses. Herodotus called in question many long-re- ceived opinions. He did not deny that the earth was a sphere, as his commentators have erroneously imagined; but he ridiculed the idea of its being a circular disk, en- compassed by the ocean, as it was described by the geographers of his day. He was persuaded that the earth was not a circle; and as to the existence of " the floods of ocean," he was far from being satisfied with the authority of the poets. He thought the division into three continents extremely unreasonable, and be- lieved that Europe (to which, indeed, he could not affix any limits towards the east), was greater, than the other two continents taken together, being equal to them in length, and much exceeding them in breadth. For this opinion he has been much and undeservedly censured^ for even his mistakes prove the justness and independence of his mind. It was natural for him to magnify that of which he had only an obscfure perception ; but his belief that Africa might be circumnavigated, which had the , > CHAP. IV. THB 0REEK8. 45 effect of diminishing that continent in hiB estimation, and his hesitation to admit snch an outline of £urope as system alone would delineate, are equally to his credit. Into whatever errors Herodotus may have run when he himself ventured to speculate, he was seldom led astray by the theories of others ; and he not only laid before his countrymen the most valuable accumulation of facts which the world had to that age received, but he also taught them the useful les " n h*^' to doubt and dis'- cuss. ^ '' CHAP. IV. ■ ? THE GREEKS CONTINUED. SCARCITT OF BOOKS IK ANTIQUITY. HERODOTUS lOKORAKT OF THE CARTHAGINIAN DISCOVERIES. V07AGE OF HANNO TO THE NEGRO COUNTRY. — SEES CROCODILES AND HIPFOFO- TAMI.— NOCTURNAL FIRES. — GORILLiE, OR OURANO OUTANG8. HIMILCO EXPLORES THE NORTHERN SEAS. — FINDS THE TIN COUNTRY. ALBION AND lERNE. — SCYLAX OF CARYANDA THE FIRST GREEK WHO MENTIONS ROME. PYTHEAS OF MAIU SEILLES. VISITS BRITAIN. — DISCOVERS THULE. — DESCRIBES THE AMBER COAST IN THE BALTIC. — WAS AN ACUTE OB< SERVER. XENOFHON DESCRIBES THE RETREAT OF THE TEN THOUSAND. THE CURDS. — THE ARMENIAN MOUNTAINEERS. CTESIAS. — - RESIDES IN PERSIA. MIXES ORIENTAL FABLES WITH HIS RELATIONS. MEN WITH THE HEADS AND TAILS OF DOGS. — THE MAGIC POOL OF SILAS. '— SPEAKS OF THE KERME3 INSECT. GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. -— ARISTOTLE. — MENTIONS THE HERCYNIAN MOUNTAINS OR THE HARTZ. — THE BRITANNIC ISLANDS AND TAPROBANE. THOUGHT THAT INDIA MIGHT BE REACHED BY THE WEST. The progress of geographical knowledge depends more on the general intercourse subsisting between na- tions than on the exertions of individual travellers. Such an intercourse existed but imperfectly in ancient times ; and this circumstance, together with the scarcity of books- (in consequence of which contemporary au^ors f i 46 OEOORAPHT or TBB ANOIENTf. BOOKZ. ffere often ignorant of one another's labours), prevented the geography of the Greeks from reaching the perfec- tion which might have been expected from the difiVision and enlightenment of that enquiring people. The voy« ages of the Carthaginian admirals, Hanno and fiimilco, in the western ocean, along the coasts of Africa and of Europe, were unknown to Herodotus, although per- formed, apparently, long before his time. Yet among the early attempts at maritime discovery, of which w^ have any authentic accounts, these were, unquestionably^ the most important. Hanno was despatched by the senate of Carthage to establish some colonies on the western coast of Africa. The fleet which he commanded was composed of sixty large vessels, and had on board no less than thirty thou- . sand persons of both sexes. After sailing for two days beyond the columns of Hercules, the fleet anchored op- posite to a great plain, where a town called Thymiate- Hon was built, and a settlement effected. Still sailing westward, the expedition next arrived at the promontory of Soloe (perhaps Cape Cantin), covered with thick woods. Having doubled this cape, they built five otber towns on the sea side, and at no great distance from one aotiother. They continued their southerly course, and at length reached the great river Lixus, flowing from Li- bya: some wandering shepherd \nhes inhabited its banks. Beyond this people, in the interior, Ethiopian (negro) savages inhabited a hilly country, overrun with wild beasts. The Carthaginians, taking with them some of the friendly Lixites as interpreter??, continued their voyage to the south, along a desert shore. Two days' sail brought tliem to an inlet, at the bottom of which was an island about five stadia in circumference, to which they gave the name Cernv: here they calculated the reckonings of their voyage, and found that Ceme was 33 far from the Pillars of Hercules as the latter place was from Carthage. The next remarkable object which occurred was the great river Chretes : this they entered^ and found that it opened within into a wide haven^ con- OUAP. IV. THE GREEKS. 47 taining seyeral large idands. The hills in the neigh- bourhood were inhabited by black savages clothed in thQ skins of wild beasts, who drove away our voyagers with stones and other missiles. Not far from this was an- other great river filled with crocodiles and hippopotami. After sailing twelve days to the south from Ceme, the Carthaginians came to a hilly country, covered with a variety of odoriferous trees and shrubs. The Mthiopiam or negroes of this coast were a timid race, who fled from the strangers, and whose language was quite unin- telligible to the Lixite interpreters. Seven days' sail ■from this coast brought the expedition to a great bay, to which they gave the name of Western Ham. In this bay was an island, on which they landed to repose them- selves for a little after the hardships of the sea. During the day all was calmj but at night strange appearances presented themselves ; the mountains seemed to be all on fire, and the sound of flutes, drums, and cymbals 'was mingled with wild screams and piercing cries. Our voyagers, terrified at what they saw and heard, imme- diately took to flight. As they continued their course to the south, the odoriferous vegetation of the coast per- fumed the air ; but still columns of flame illuminated the midnight sky, and the ground was so hot that it was impossible to walk upon it for a moderate distance. Saving seven days along thi;; coast, they came to a bay, which they called South Horn, and found within it an island with a lake, and in the middle of this lake another island filled with savages of a peculiar description, pro- bably some species of ourang outang. The females were covered with hair, and were called by the interpreters Qorillts. The males fled across the precipices, and de- fended themselves obstinately with stones ; but the Car- thaginians captured three females : these, however, broloe their cords, and fought so furiously with tooth and nail, tliat it was found necessary to kill them ; their skins were 8tu£Ped and brought to Carthage. The want of provi- rions prevented our voyagers from proceeding any far- ther to the south. 4B GEOGRAPHY OF THE AN0IENT8. BOOK I. It is impossible to read the narrative of Hanno's ex- pedition without being struck with the simplicity and genuineness of the relation, or without being astonished at the immutability of manners among savage nations ; for the stillness by day, the nocturnal iires, the clang of musical instruments, and wild merriment in the cool of night, are the same now on the coast of Africa as they were five-and-twenty centuries ago. The imperfect manner in which the details of this voyage, relating to time and distance, have been transmitted to us by the Qreeks, render it impossible to ascertain with precision how far it extended. The wild negroes, the hairy Go- rillee, the great rivers filled with crocodiles, and the fra- grance of the woods, all seem to point out the Senegambia as the country where the progress of the expedition terminated. Some great authorities, indeed, have ex- tended it to Guinea, while others confine it within the limits of Cape Non, on the southern confines of Morocco. Many of these geographers have erred continually in their calculations, by mistaking the meaning of the ex- pression, keras (a horn), which the Greeks generally ap*- plied to inlets of the sea, rather than to promontories. Those who restrict the voyage of Hanno to the coast north of the Senegal, insist on the unlikelihood of his passing such remarkable headlands as Cape Blanco and Cape Verd, without making particular mention of them ; but to this it may be answered, that we do not possess the original journal of the Carthaginian admiral, and that the deficiencies of an extract made from it by a Greek, apparently of a much later age^ ought not to be weighed against the positive indications it contains. "Wliile Hanno explored the coasts of Africa to the south, Himilco held his course in the opposite direction. Unhappily but a few scattered details remain of his dis- coveries. On the coasts of Spain he fouid the Ostrym- niansy who gave their name to a prcmmtory of the mainland, to a bay, and to some islands adjacent, which abounded in tin. These are supposed to be the Cassi' terides. The Ostrymnians were wealthy and industrious; CHAP. IV. THE GREEKS. 49 it appears, therefore, that the tin trade existed on those western shores before they were visited by the Cartha- ginians. Himilco mentioned also the British islands, Al-fionn and the sacred island, leme. It is remarkable, however, that Ireland is never mentioned by the ancients under a native name : the relative designation ler-nye, or Western Isle, was evidently taken from the Celts of Gaul or Britain.* Scylax, of Caryanda, who wrote a few years later than Herodotus, was the first who made known to the Greeks the discoveries of the Carthaginians. The work of his which remains to us describes the coasts of the Euxine, of the Mediterranean, and those of western Africa, as far as the isle of Cerne : he is the earliest Greek writer who mentions the name of Rome. Of the western coasts of the Mediterranean he knew much more than Herodotus, and enumerates many cities, among which Massilia, the modern Marseilles, was already distinguished for its wealth and commerce. This Greek colony must, from its situation, have soon become acquainted vith the maritime enterprises of the Carthaginians; and was, perhaps, as much incited by a spirit of rivalry as by the adventurous disposition nur- tured by commercial pursuits, to engage in the career of discovery. Pytheas of Marseilles was a man eminently qualified, by his courage and scientific acquirements, to open new routes of commerce across unknown seas, and promote the interests of geography. The date of his voyage cannot be fixed with precision, but it is certain that his writings were known in Greece in the time of Alexander the Great ; and as the circulation of books was not very rapid in antiquity, it is likely that he be- longed to the preceding age. Sailing along the coasts of Spain and Gaul, Pytheas reached Great Britain, called Albion, or Al-fionn, that is, the White-land, by the in- * Unless we suppose the Mictis of Timaeus (see Pliny) to mean Ireland, an ancient native appellation of which was Muic. The description of a country situated six days' sail within Albion, suits better wiUi Ireland than with the Scilly islands. As to the account of tin being brought flrom it, it is of little consequence, as the Greeks adopted every supposition that could solve the enigma of the tin islands. VOL. I. B ( i .^^^ 50 OEOORAPUY OF TUB ANOIEKTS. BOOK I. habitants. Here he appears to have followed the southern and eastern shores^ and from the length of those to have calculated the circuit of the island, which he estimates at forty thousand stadia. Of Ireland he makes no mention; but says that steering northward from the coast of Bri- tain, he arrived in six days at TVtule, whose uninviting shores were covered with perpetual fogs, and presented the chaotic appearance of earth, sea, and air, all jumbled together in disorder. Few geographical problems have ever perplexed the learned so much as that of determin- ing the position of Thule. Some suppose that the Greek navigator designed by that name Jutland, where a district at the present day bears the name of Thy-land, and was anciently called Thiu-land; others think it more likely that he reached the coasts of Norway, a portion of which still retains the name of Thelemark; and in the Icelandic Sagas is named Thulemarh. But from this diversity of opinion all we can conclude with certainty is, that the name Thule was of true Scandinavian origin, and that it was applied successively to different places. It is not unlikely, indeed, that the word was originally synony- mous with the epithet Ultimaf which was afterwards attached to it. Pytheas is reported to have said that in Thule at the summer solstice the sun did not set for four-and-twenty hours. As this, however, is not true of any country be- yond the arctic circle, we may, perhaps, b" warranted in suspecting that the Greek navigator picked up some in- formation on the coasts of Britain respecting some country to the north, and that he then ventured to describe that country as exhibiting tlie phenomena, which experience taught him were to be expected on approaching the pole. How naturally the bright nights of a northern summer may have given rise to such an exaggeration, is evident from the language employed by Tacitus some centuries later. '' In the farthest part of Britain," says that writer, " the nights are so clear that you can hardly tell when daylight begins or ends ; and when the sky is not overcast with clouds, you may see all night long the light of the CBAt. IV. TBB OMEKa. 51 «»"'■«> by pyA4 "Ty ;°:^f i,^'^: '""?' -«« were tfter„„d. „;^^' b^lfL""* ""?«« "P^"''^ «"ity : perlwn, the >t.Z«h , B'^K^'Phers of anti. .wbioh oppo«'Jfo„rX, ,:^ -".Ptoty of our tid«. f ci«y of hi8 .ccount He rd.i^ ,! ?'""? *« «»*». ««««,«, and at the di^Tot.^ '• '*•'"'' »«">«' their habitations w». .1,. i i j * ''')'" voywe from i'f H on „hX * haMt^lV'^"-^ »*-" uses : the people used it for S ,W^^ '" 8"*' ^"«n- " '» *«' -eighbours the rlir If ''??d. ""d «,ld that amber was used as fhel Ih. ^'™ J^y**" My» Precious.articlewithje, and Jv ,''"«''" «« "•"found that "-"d-- but the remSe" ofhfa 'S»T-*'i«"''«"« ««"™te. The bay alluded Mi .u-S™ " '"nwliably from Mendaniemu the ftv^^f" *PP«»" to be derived province, Nadr»^,rS7TT^ f ^"-"^. The ' Oum, andtheinhabrants^rfr"'? T "^ ">M dialect. The spot in 8amI»nH f v' '" *« I^thuanian bore formerly L ZmT^tjl^'Y"'^^ mo'tamC amaj. is BamiUe, from «„, ^e ' "' " "*- i^ytheas was not merpiv o k 7i a -an of science and^:;^^ ^i' TT'^'^ "^ ^^^- of his native city iJf«*..//J S In ^^^^ *^ ^^^^^^de been acknowledged by modeTn i? '''"'■^"^ ^^ich has nomena of tides particSarfv ^'^T?^^^^' The phe. he appears to have S ,1^ « ^"^^^ '^^'^ attention • and the influence of Z^oonJr' ^'^^ ^^^"^^ ^^ - ^ -on,ngs hy Which ^^^^^^^^^ 52 OEOORAPHT OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. knew that the pole-star in the tail of the lesser bear did the : pole. It 1 egretted that so little remains to us of the writings of this saga- cious observer : his description of the northern nations at that early period could not fail to be interesting; and that he had formed some acquaintance with them may be concluded from the mention he makes of mead^ their fa- vourite beverage, and other peculiarities of the Gothic life. In the same age with Pytheas, or a little later^ flou- rished Xenophon (400 B.C.), who, if he did not extend the limits of geographical knowledge, at least added to it many valuable details. Retreating with the ten thou- sand Greeks from Cyanaxa on the banks of the Eu- phrates, he traversed a wild and unknown country. The Carduchii harassed the retreating army in the very moun- tains which are now occupied by the Curds. The Taoehi, when pressed by the Greeks, precipitated themselves from the cliffs with their wives and children rather than submit to captivity. The habits of the people in the elevated regions of Armenia have undergone no change from the time of Xenophon to the present day. His accounts of their habitations might be supposed to be taken from a modem book of travels. " Their houses," he says, " are under- ground, with a mouth resembling that of a well. An entrance is dug for the cattle, but the inhabitants descend by ladders. In these houses are goats, sheep, cows, and fowls, all under the same roof with the family." The Greeks encountered numberless hardships from the se- verity of the climate and the incessant attacks of the fierce mountaineers. They at length entered the coun- try of the Scythini, (a wandering tribe, perhaps, like the modern Turcomans,) and there, from a mountain called Thechea (and cjtill named Teke), they, with infinite joy, descried the sea. After halting some time at the friendly city of Tranezus (Trebisond), they continued their route to Cotyora, and saw in their march the Mosynceci, naked savages, whose bodies were tattooed all over, and whose 1 i ,4' OHAP. IV. THE GREEKS. 5» manners, described by Xenophon, suggest a comparison with the most barbarous tribes of North America. A contemporary of Xenophon, named Ctesias, entered into the service of the Persian king, and visited India ; but the accounts which he transmitted to Greece of that rich country were so alloyed with fables, that little regard was eventually paid to the truth which they contained. Yet, though it must be admitted that the early Greek travellers were prone to exaggeration, a candid critic will make large allowances for the romantic fictions so often mingled with their descriptions of the East. It deserves, indeed, to be remarked that whatever accounts we have from ancient writers respecting western nations, are, in general, of a sober and veracious character, while the opposite quarter of the globe is peopled by them with monsters of all descriptions. The fables of the ancients, which related to the West, were chiefly mythological, and had an air of antiquity ; but their eastern fictions were evidently the wild freaks of eastern imagination. The Greeks, we may therefore conclude, were not the authors of those extravagancies, but only related what they heard from the natives; with less caution and discrimination, indeed, than the taste and sentiments of a maturer age would require. If the accounts of Ctesias, then, be interpreted with the same latitude as those of a Hindoo, they will be found to contain not a little information. Thus, in describing the inhabitants of Budtan, he says that they are black, with the head and nails of a dog, and with tails; now they are actually called by the Hindoos Calystiri or Dog-faced, but the tail is certainly a Grecian embellishment. They live, he says, on flesh dried in the sun, and never batbe, but rub their bodies with oil. These practices are still followed in Thibet, only that butter is the unguent used instead of oil. His inform- ation reached as far as Nepaul, which he calls Ottoracora. or the North. Among the wonders related by Ctesias, the fountain Sides, or Silas, in which liquid gold sprung up from a rock of pure iron, deserves to be separated . B 3 ■^ OEOORAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. from the vulgar fictions of pigmies and griffons. ' The iron which formed the hasin was more precious than the gold it contained ; for a sword made of it, if stuck in the ground, had the virtue to avert the wrath of thun- derbolts. Some have been led by this glittering tale to vindicate, for the Persians, the credit of being the earliest electricians. Ctesias gave good descriptions of the mon- keys, parrots, and rich chintzes of India; and what is more remarkable, he appears to have known the lac and kermes insects, and to have confounded them together; for he describes an insect inhabiting the amber which grows on trees (a mode of describing gum lac which pro- bably incurred the censure of fabrication), and yielding a rich scarlet dye used to colour the splendid shawls which were offered as presents to the Idng of Persia. The elegant history which Xenophon wrote of the re- treat of the ten thousand, (a retreat which was conducted, in the latter part of it, by himself ;) and the writings of his celebrated contemporary Hippocrates, who travelled through Scythia, Colchis, Asia Minor, and perhaps Egypt, to study the diversities of climate ; added much to the knowledge both of nature and of human society. The increase of information favoured the speculative temper of the Greek philosophers. Ephorus of Cumee, who flourished about 350 years before our era, appears to have been the first writer who conceived the division of mankind into distinct races. According to him, the Greeks occupied the centre of the earth ; and round them were disposed, in the four quarters, the Indians, MthiO" pians, Celts, and Scythians. The idea that his own country was in the middle was common to Ephorus with the early geographers of many distant nations ; for the Indian Midyama, the Scandinavian Midgard, and the Chinese Chung-quo, all ^iignifying the middle kingdom, have their origin in a similar opinion. But the benefits which accrued to science from the activity of its followers were not confined to the inven- tion of these vague theories. The discoveries and ob- servations of Herodotus, of Scylax, of Hippocrates, and CHAP. IT. THB OREBKS. of Pytheasj were weighed by one of those master minds on whom nature seems to confer the right to theorise ; for Aristotle was among the number of those extraor- dinary men^ who by the strength and universality of their genius are fitted to be the architects rather than the builders of the edifice of knowledge. The boldness and variety of his speculations recommended him to the subtle temper of the Arabians^ b^ whom he was first made known to modem Europe ; and as the features of a deified hero are deformed in the idol fashioned by his rude adorers^ so the fame of Aristotle has hardly yet recovered from the multiplied perversions to which his writings were subjected by the ignorance of past ages. Aristotle possessed a great fund of geographical know- ledge. He maintained that the earth is a sphere^ having a circumference of 400^000 stadia, a calculation which may be correct; but the uncertainty^ as to the stadium employed renders it impossible to appreciate its merit. Reasoning firmly on the hypothesis that the earth is a globe, Aristotle appears to have suggested the voyage across the Atlantic eighteen centuries before Columbus: for he observes, that the coasts of Spain cannot be very far distant from those of India. The happy boldness of this thought was all his own, the errors of calculation belonged to his age. In his nomenclature, too, we see evidence of a juster geographical conception than was possessed by many writers of a much later age. His knowledge of the earth was bounded by the Gallic and Indian gulfs on the West and East, by the Riphaan mountains on the North, and on the South by the great river Cremetes, " which, having its source in the same mountain as the Nile, flows westward into the ocean." This great river must be the Senegal. Aristotle knew but little of the north of Europe, yet he is the first who mentions lihtHeroynian mountains; a designation which, probably, extended over the lofty ranges on the west and north of Bohemia, but which is at present retained only by the insulated mountains of the Hartas. He also makes express mention of two large islands, Albion and £ 4 56 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK X. leme, situated to the north of Celtica (and he is the first writer who mentions them together, and with the common name Brittanicce) ; hut he adds, that they are not hy any means so large as Taprobane beyond India, or Phebol in the Arabian sea. Here we have a proof of his extensive information in this early mention of Taprobane or Ceylon, and Phebol, which is generally supposed to be Madagascar ; but which, as Saibala is an Indian name, ought, perhaps, to be looked for more to- wards the east. Aristotle had many scholars who devoted themselves to geographical studies, and some of whom, as Diceear- chus and Theophrastus, obtained distinction by their writings ; but he had the singular honour of infusing the love of knowledge into the future conqueror of Asia. The spirit of the royal pupil corresponded with the intel- lectual eminence of the great teacher ; and the expedition o^ Alexander produced a greater revolution in the know- ledge of the globe, than almost any other event recorded in ancient hi^ttory ; and more designedly, perhaps, than is generally ims^ned. v>'^-^:^-; CHAP. V. THJi: 0BBEK8. 57 CHAP. V. GREEKS CONTINUED. EXPEDITION OF ALEXANDER. — TOllCY OP THAT COKQUEROR.— ENTERS INDIA. — RESOLVES TO EXPLORE THE PERSIAN GULF. THE MARCH DOWN THE INDUS. NiEAaCHUS EMBARKS.— SUFFERS GREAT HARDSHIPS. IMAGINES HIMSELF AT THE EQUATOR. THE GREEKS DISMAYED AT THE APPEARANCE OF A WHALE FAMISHED IN THE MIDST OF TURTLE. — SUC- CESSFUL TERMINATION OF THE VOYAGE. PREPARATIONS BIADE TO EXPLORE THE COASTS OF ARABIA. ARRESTED BY THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER. GRAND VIEWS OF THAT PRINCE. REMARKS OF THE MACEDONIANS IN INDIA. DIVISION OF THE PEOPLE INTO CASTES. HONEY MADE WITHOUT BEES. ELEPHANTS. USE OF UMBRELLAS. — THE BANYAN TREES. — THE FAQUIRS. — SELF-DEVOTION TO THE FLAMES. CITY OF PALIBOTHRA. — ITS SITUATION. — INDIAN FABLES. ^ RESPECT PAID TO MONKEYS. THE GREEKS DISTORTED FOREIGN NAMES. VOYAGE OF JAMBOLO TO CEYLON. HIS RFMARKS ON THE PEOPLE. TAFROBANE 0& CEYLON VARIOUSLY DESCRIBED. ACCOUNTS OF THE ANCIENTS RECONCILED. THE NAMES OF THAT ISLAND. COMMERCE BETWEEN EGYPT AND THE EAST. GEOGRAPHY FLOURISHED IN THE COMMERCIAL CITY OF ALEXANDRIA. ERATOSTHENES MENTIONS THINJE. — AGATHARCHIDES. DESCRIBES ABYSSINIA. WEALTH OF THE SAB^ANS. EUDOXUS OF CYZICUS. SAILS TO INDIA. DRIVEN TO THE COAST OF AFRICA. FINDS THE SUPPOSED WRECK OF A SHIP FROM GAOES. BANISttED FROM EGYPT. RESOLVES TO REACH IVDIA BY THE OCEAN. SAILS FROM GADES. HIS MISFORTUNES. REPEATS THE ATTEMPT.— HIS FATE AND CHARACTER. The march of Alexander was not attended with the ruin and desolation which usually mark the progress of eastern conquerors : he aimM at estahlishing a dominion permanent as well as universal^ and, consequently, sought to gain this affections of his newly-conquered subjects. The success which attended all his measures was the result of deliberate policy and calculation. The power which waits on knowledge did not escape his notice ; and he led in his train men of science, whose duty it 58 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. was to make themselves acquainted with every thing worthy of notice in the subjugated countries. The fate of Persia being decided by the flight of Dariusj the conqueror conducted his anyy to Bactria and the country on the Oxus ; in short, to the eastern extremity of the world as it was known to Grecian geo- graphers. But he had higher objects in view than the mere glory of subduing barbarous nations: curiosity and ambition both drew his regards to India ; of which He- rodotus had said, " that it was undoubtedly the richest and most populous country in the world." In conse- quence, when he had arranged the government of Persia, he marched into Candahar by the same route which was afterwards followed by the conquering armies of Tamer- lane and Nadir Shah, and which had been long trodden by the Indo-Scythians, or warlike mountain tribes of the Indian frontiers. Crossing the Indus at Taxila (the dty of the Tacs), by some supposed to be the modem Attock, he shortly after entered the country of the Penj-ah, or Five Rivers, so called from the tributary waters which flow through it to the Indus. But on the banks of the first of these rivers, the Hydaspes, he found Poms, an Indian prince, prepared to dispute its passage. The tme name of this chieftain, Puar or Powar, is still preserved among the noble Rajpoots : it is one of the very few noble names which have survived the revolutions to which India has been exposed. The Macedonians, how- ever, were the victors in the engagement which ensued, and continued their march through one of the richest countries in the world ; yet the Penj-ab yields in wealth and fertility to the countries situated on the banks of the Ganges. The fame of this celebrated river must have reached Alexander, and it was unquestionably his inten- tion to embrace it within the boundaries of his empire ; but when he had reached the Hyphasis, and before he had completely crossed the Penj-ab, the discontentment of his troops was so loudly declared, that he was obliged to relinquish the design of proceeding any further; and, indeed, when we remember that he entered India in the CHAP. V. THE GREEKS. m ff rainy season, we can readily conceive the sufferings which checked the ardour and provoked the disobedience of the hardy Macedonians. This important error alone is sufficient to show how Uttle acquaintance the Greeks had with India : but it is also related, that when Alex- ander saw crocodiles in the Indus, he conceived a notion that this river was connected with the Nile, and that its navigation downwards would conduct into Egypt. This anecdote, however, is hardly credible, though frequently repeated. Herodotus long before had expressly stated that the Indus was the only river besides the Nile in which crocodiles were found ; and the general arrange- ment of Alexander's plans, both in Egypt and India, bespeak a share of geographical information totally ir- concileable with such a blunder. It may even be suspected that Alexander contem- plated from the beginning the establishment of a com- mercial intercourse between Egypt and India. The care he took to examine the navigation of the Persian Gulf and of the Induii ; the cities founded by him in com- manding situations on the branches of this river ; the well-chosen site of Alexandria, which afterwards con- tinued for many centuries the centre of the India trade, and his boasting that his fleets should sail round Africa ; all these circumstances unite to point out some plans of more than ordinary magnitude. But whatever may have been the immediate designs of the Macedonian conqueror, it is certain that we may date from his east- em expedition the first growth of that Indian trade, which afterwards enriched for many ages his successors in Egypt, and which continues to this day an object of paramount importance to European nations. The navigation of the Indus and of the coasts west- ward towards Persia being resolved upon, a fleet of eight hundred vessels was collected and entrusted to the com- mand of Naearchus. Niceea, on the Hydaspes, about 800 miles from the sea, was the point from which the expedition departed : the army, divided into two bodies^ marched on both sides of the river to protect the fleets 60 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. and the whole had the lively air of a triumphal pro- cession. The Macedonians entered the country of the Malli (Moultan), and afterwards received the submission of the Oxydracce (people of Outche), who were remark- able then as at present for being divided into cantons. Indeed, the feudal system exists in general on the Indian frontiers. On reaching the mouth of the Indus, Alex- ander, who always set the example of encountering difficulties, undertook himself to examine the eastern side of the Delta, and his vanity even impelled him to sail a short distance from land, that he might boast of being the first who went heyond the Indies. In this ex- cursion, the fleet under his command sustained great damage from the bore, or rushing tide, a phenomenon with which the Greeks were wholly unacquainted, al- though they were not ignorant of the ordinary tides; and which, though common to the mouths of most great ^ rivers, rages with peculiar violence in that of the Indus. Four months had been consumed in the progress down the river, and six or seven more were requisite to survey the Delta, and to complete the preparations for the voyage round the coast. At length, when every thing was ready, Alexander marched with his army towards the country of the Arc^ita, and Nsearchus with the gal- leys dropped down the river to proceed towards the west. The pompous ceremonies which preceded this voyage, and the preparations, inadequately great, which were made for it, instead of provoking ridicule, will enhance its merit in the eyes of the candid critic, since they show the importance attached to an enterprise, at that time considered as one of the most perilous nature, and the resolution with which it was undertaken. Indeed this was the first naval enterprise of any moment, conducted in such a manner as to have permanent and beneficial consequences. Nearchus set sail in October, when the trade winds set in from the north-east. He was aware that the Etesian winds, as he called the monsoons, did not blow, on the coasts of India as in the Mediterranean. But BOOK I. imphal pro- intry of the e submiBftion rere remark- into cantons, n the Indian Indus, Alex- encountering the eastern lelled him to ight boast of In this ex- stained great phenomenon quainted, al- dinary tides; of most great of the Indus, rogress down isite to survey Itions for the every thing irmy towards with the gal- irds the west, this voyage, which were will enhance |ce they show at that time re, and the Indeed this |t, conducted id beneficial trade winds Ire that the id not blow, lean. But CHAP. V. THE GREEKS. 61 §:. though he had learned the periods of those winds, he was not yet practically acquainted with the manner of their variations, and had started in fact a month before the winter monsoon had commenced blowing steadily. In consequence of this mistake he made but little way, accomplishing not more than eighty miles in the first forty days of his voyage. His course, during all this time, lay along the coast of the Arabita, the modem BelootcheSy a fierce and predatory nation. The men were reduced, in the mean time, to the greatest distress for wdXit of water and provisions, being compelled to subsist, in a great measure, on the shell-fish they picked up en the shore. As the eastern monsoon, however, grevr steady, they had the satisfaction of advancing more rapidly along the coast of the Orita, whose name is still preserved in that of Haur, the modern capital of the province. Nsearchus relates, that when in this part of his voyage, he stood out to sea a considerable way to the south, the sun was vertical, and cast no shadow. This was really a fiction, for Nsarchus was never within less than twenty-five degrees of the equator ; but, like the fables of Pytheas, it serves to show how speculation may sometimes outstrip experience in the discovery of truth, since we find that the most striking celestial phenomena of the arctic and equatorial regions were justly described by Grecian navigators, long before they had ever seen them. The Greeks now continued their Voyage along the coast o{ ihelchthyophagi, or Fish-eaters, a tribe sunk in the extreme of savage wretchedness. They were clad in the skins of fish; their huts were built with fish-bones, and covered with large shells ; their bread was made of pounded fish; and even their cattle subsisted on the same food. The barrenness of the land, and the pro- ductiveness of the sea on this coast, being equally ad- verse to industry, have perpetuated the savage condition of the inhabitants to the present day. The natives, paddling in their canoes, appeared to the Macedonians to be digging the water with a spade. But Greek pride OEOORAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. was humbled for a moment by an accident which oc- carred in this part of the voyage : the sea was seen to spout up at no great distance^ and when the pilot was asked to ex[)lain this singular appearance, he ascribed it to the blowing of a whale. The greatest consternation immediately prevailed throughout the whole fleet, at the thought of encountering so formidable a monster ; nor did the alarm cease till the whale, assailed with shouts and the sounds of clashing arms, sunk quietly below the surface. Famine still pressed the expedition : no meat or com was to be procured, and but little water. Fish, indeed, and fine turtle, were in abundance ; but to be reduced to such fare, appeared to the companions of Neearchus a proof of deep distress. The Greeks had no idea of feasting on turtle : they looked iipon it, perhaps, with as much abhorrence as a Virginian does on mutton ,* a camel would have appeared to them preferable food. , It is not wonderful, therefore, that when they reached a little town called Barna, where date-trees covered the shore, and nature wore a more smiling countenance, they should signalise their joy with the characteristic degance of their nation, and weave themselves garlands of flowers. A little farther on, the fleet having doubled Badis, or Cape Jask, anchored at the river Anamis, in the pro- vince of Annozeia, a name which subsequently passed to the little island of Ormuz, at that time called Organa. Here they learned the agreeable intelligence that Alex- ander was encamped with the army at the distance of only five days' journey from the shore. Nsearchus hastened to meet the king, now almost in despair at not having heard any tidings of his fieet. The unexpected arrival of the admiral, whose appearance was so much altered by the hardships of the voyage that he could hardly be recognised, caused Alexander the most lively transports of joy : his glory was untarnished by failure, and an enterprise was accomplished under his au- spices of a bold and original character, and from which he hoped to derive important consequences. The dif- CHAP. V. THE QREfiKS. 63 Acuities of the voyage were now over : the remainder of the navigation to the mouth of the Euphrates lay along the friendly coasts of Carmania and Persis, from which the fleet received supplies in abundance^ and where it was enabled to maintain in its progress a con- stant communication with the army. The voyage from the mouth of the Indus to that of the Euphrates^ which, at the present day, would be per- formed in about three weeks, occupied Nsearchus c e- and-twenty. But we must not undervalue the merit of a first attempt. Great caution was rcqusite at first to prevent discouraging accidents ; but as the Macedonians proceeded in their navigation, their skill as well as cou- rage increased: they weighed anchor at night, took advantage of the land and sea breezes, and employed the services of native pilots. The success of this expe- riment encouraged Alexander to look forward to the completion of his schemes. Arrangements were made for the examination of the southern coasts of the Per- sian Gulf J a detachment of the army was sent forward into Arabia to protect the fleet from insults; and Neearchus was already embarked to commence the en- terprise, when the untimely death of Alexander put a sudden stop to its further prosecution. The career of that g^e it man was arrested while he was engaged in accomplishing those schemes, the mere conception of which alone, perhaps, constitute his chief glory. He opened the world to the knowledge of mankind ; and when we reflect on the enlarged policy which cha- racterised all his measures, and on the advantages which his successors knew how to derive from his expedition to India, it is hard to refuse him the merit of foreseeing all the consequences of an undertaking which he prose- cuted with more than usual ardour. The whole country through which the Macedonian army marched from the Indus to Susiana is said to have been accurately surveyed and measured by Beton and Diognetus ; but the writings of tliese, as well as of the other men of science who accom- panied the expedition, are unfortunately lost ; nothing 64 OEOORAPHY OF THB ANCIENTS. BOOK remaining of the numerous volumes written on that occasion but the journal of Nsearchus and a few frag* ments preserved by later writers. There could not be a stronger proof of the wisdom with which Alexander had arranged the internal govern- ment of his great empire, than the tranquillity with which it submitted to his generals, who partitioned it among them at his death. Seleucus having obtained the portion which was contiguous to India, was under the necessity of keeping up an intercourse with that country ; and about twenty years after the death of Alexander, he led an army to the banks of the Ganges, to punish the hostilities of Sandracotta, king of the Prasii. This ex- pedition appears to have advanced a considerable way, and to have been crowned with complete success, but, unfortu- nately, no accounts of it remain. Seleucus, being obliged to withdraw his army from this field of action, in order to meet Antigonus, a more dangerous enemy, commissioned Megasthenes to negotiate a peace with Sandracotta, and from him the Greeks derived much information relative to the interior of India. No further attempts were made by the Macedonian princes to penetrate into that country; and although the Greek kingdom of Bactria subsisted two centuries longer, and maintained some correspond- ence with the neighbouring states of India, no advantages appear to have accrued to science from the proximity of the Greeks to so interesting a region. Notwithstanding that the writings of all the Greeks (Nsearchus excepted) who accompanied Alexander in India have perished, the fragments which remain are sufficient to convince us that the Macedonians were at- tentive and sagacious observers. Their remarks derive a peculiar interest from the way in which they illustrate how little change the lapse of twenty centuries has wrought on the manners, or even on the languages, of Indian nations. It also deserves to be noticed, that the Greeks soon became acquainted with those articles of pro- duce or manufacture which have ever since continued to be the staple articles of the Indian trade. Nsearchus ¥ flllAP. V. THE OREEKfl. 09 Je fliie-flowered cotton. ri~ j "f »'■" "•™tioncd .Gr«k, became acquS ^ A A. £!''"'" ""=• The he native, arrack. The. Cw i»" '"»?« "'""' <»«<»' by *e river,, and they learn«l.h!l ^^ ""' »"«««l in "•g tl.e elephant. CSt.T""°''''''"''»8 «»<1 '«™- ment ami Liety .vv^r^C^""" ""»*«'' Rovein. ?l«ervation. ThVlCaware^f^J',?" "™«'«1 ^ *^r into c«,te,, that there «lr„„*!'''"''™»''1'«P«>pIe *« "stc,, and ,|,a, tlX deaeenlf ?'"".'«™ '*'''«'• The names of the mm!- . '""'™<'«1 from father to son •ny Greek writer/Cit^t r?""'" '''P-^^yT Arrian, who occu;iri th ' o,.n^ ^ *" ** ^*«<'»- of Khatree,. The pil/au/mM^ft "^'^ '"'^« <>f I^Pk chiefly «„J3^, '"'«d«"^ nc^ on which the «* dymg th, beard, the perfo™C„f ,?'""P«""fc 'W f"», the cotton turbana. the "^ V' *» "<«». V, and banyan or Indian flg-tr« t^ ?^ """"*""' *« g^™' a thousand persons may^'seX t^"""' <^ *»"* to the flames, the dehcateS ' '^^ '''"^'"" »^ "^o". "•tives these, wirf, , „„y"™ «»<» constitution of the ""■used the curious spSt o^fh °r °'^'' Particularities, Phy of the Brahmins and,?, '"''''• ^^ PWW Faqueers or Jogees, Le« tlh "T"' P''«y »f the " they are now. The Z. ""* '^" t^e same then ""y house, and even the ^0^" P"'"'8«' «» «»ter "OK attended by feml, LJL " f apartments ; ,hev P'opriety ,. lived^on "etu^'^»« *e suspicion of iZ objected themselvesTf^^iac^i""''''' '""'y''" tree" ;ng tortures; and when thev h f "l!"' ""I n«»e appetite for pS, troit*?. "' !™gth palled the funeral pile the life i„ XT?u^ abandoned on the flc.e„t,y amict themselv:s'""''T*e2r;''' T '""S^' ™f- «travagances, successfuUv em^ ^ a thousand other --intheadmiration^S^*:-w^^. 66 GEOORAPHT OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. with mingled astonishment and contempt by the com- panions of Alexander. Megasthenes beheld all the riches and magnificence of India at the court of Sandracotta^ or^ as it is written by others^ Sandracoptus^ a corruption of Chandra-Gupta, one of the most distinguished names in Indian history. That prince had awakened a spirit of resistance to foreign «way, and had completely overturned the enfeebled dy- nasty of the Balis or the Palis, in South Bahar, who left, however, their name to the great capital of their dominions. Pliny informs us that the city Palibothra, as he calls it, far exceeded in wealth and magnitude the other great capitals of India, and he adds, that the same name was not only common to the city and the people, but was also given to the prince. This important ob- servation has not met with the attention it deserves. Those who are acquainted with the East will perceive at once that a name borne alike by the city, the natioa, and the ruler, must have been the name of the reigiiing family. The Palibothra then of the Greeko wac ".nquestionably so called from the dynasty of the Pali-putra, that is, the sons or tribe of Bali, whose splendour belongs to the heroic age of India. The city Palibothra was situated, according to some, at the junction of the Soane and the Ganges, while others remove it to the point where the Cusa joins the latter river a little to the east of Boglipur. It was two miles broad, and extended no less than ten miles along the river, according to Megasthenes. Here the Macedonian enjoyed the best opportunities for stu- dying the country and the people ; but, imfortunately, nothing of his has been preserved except his fables, and these are obviously taken from the natives. He repeats the stories of the Cynocephali and of Pygmies, by which, no doubt, we are to understand the monkeys ; for these animals, in some parts of India, frequent the pagodas in great numbers ; and being protected from molestation by the superstitious opinions of the natives, they familiarly exhibit all the liveliness and ingenuity of their nature. It is not surprising that Greeks^ conversing with Hin- \\ OHAP. V. THE GREEKS. 67 doosj should be \&1 into the belief that apes are but an inferior variety of man. The monkey tribe has good reason to complain of being calumniated as well as harshly treated by mankind. Kept in solitary confinement^ to which their passionate and social temper is peculiarly ill adapted ; pining away with grief and malady^ they are accused of being peevish and malevolent^ as if the natural disposition of the animal could be developed in so unna- tural a situation. In the pagodas of Upper India^ however, the monkeys are regarded not merely with indulgence but with respect. Nor is it wonderful that they should be confounded with the human species in a country, the gravest histories of which inform us, that the first great saint converted to Budhism was the king of the monkeys, and that a mimic army, composed of a hundred millions of the same nimble animals, gamboled after the great Ram to the conquest of Ceylon. One fertile source of fable among the Greeks was the liberty they took with foreign words, which they always altered, as the Turks do at present, so as to make them significant in their own language. The significations thus arbitrarily attached to names naturally gave birth to many errors. Thus the Atshami, a powerful tribe on the hills near the Ganges, are called by Megasthenes the Astomif or Mouthless, and then to explain the subsistence of these monsters he is compelled to add that they are nourished by the smell of fragrant flowers. In like manner the Greeks converted the name of Cuta Burraca, a high peak in the Indian Caucasus into Koite Boreou, i. e. the bed of Boreas; and the mountain of Devanishi they sup- posed to be the birth-place of Dionusos the Grecian Bacchus. To Onesicratus, a companion of Megasthenes, was due the first circumstantial account of TaprohaTie, or Ceylon; and the dimensions which he assigned to that island were much nearer the truth than those of Ptolemy, 400 years later, when it was annually visited by fleets from Egypt. He remarked, that it was rich in gold and pearls; that the elephants there were of a superior dc« p 2 68 GEOGRAPHY OP THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. acription, and were trained to war, while those of the continent were employed only in labour ; and that the inhabitants were called Palceogoni. This name, though it appears to mean indigenous, was unquestionably a translation of Pali-putra, the sons of Bali * y for Onesi- cratus, receiving his accounts from the Indians, coidd not fail to have heard of the Prasian emigrations, which took place from the peninsula to Ceylon, not more than a century before his time. Diodorus re'.ates the story of one Jambolo, a Greek merchant, wlio, while trading to Arabia, was taken prisoner by the Ethiopians, and after being stripped by them of all that he possessed, was placed in a boat on the coast of Africa, and turned out to sea. The wind carried him to Taprobane, where he remained seven years. It is impossible to fix the date of Jambolo's ad- venture, which, indeed, is generally looked upon as a fiction ; but it matters not whether his relation be re- garded as a novel or a history j it certainly evinces an acquaintance with the country. Jambolo remarks the slender figure of the natives, and the flexibility of their joints ; their attachment to astronomy ; their worship of the elements, particularly of the sun and moon ; and, above all, he notes the custom of many men having one wife in common, the children being entitied to the bene- fit of the partnership ; a custom still preserved by the Nairs of Malabar, and which, if we may believe the ac- counts of Paolino, existed not long since on the coasts of Ceylon. He further tells us, that the people spoke two languages ; that they wrote perpendicularly, as some tribes in Sumatra do at this day ; and that their written characters were only seven, but might be combined in such a way as to form twenty-eight. From the nature of these observations we are inclined to think, that how- ever fabulous may have been the residence of Jambolo in Ceylon, his information was derived from genuine sources. The chief argument urged against the truth of Jam- * He might have adhered more accurately to the sense as well as sound of the original, by translating it netXau^^r^ti, Paliphetra, the tril^e of Balk li CHAP. V. THE OhG&KS. 69 bolo's statement, that he resided seven years in Ceylon, is that he makes no mention of cinnamon, at present the diief produce of that island. * But with what justice can this objection be made to Jambolo's relation in par- ticular, since all the writers of antiquity are silent on the same head ? and, indeed, there seems good reason to be- lieve, that cinnamon was not grown in Ceylon so earl) as the second century. The island of Taprobane (Ceylon) has been described with so many errors and diversities by ancient authors, that doubts have arisen even as to the country to which that name was applied. Some geographers maintain that the Decan, or southern peninsula of India, which was but little known to the Gangetic nations, was vaguely described to the Greeks as a distant island, and is the true Taprobane. But this monstrous supposition is overturned by the remark, that the Greeks who first vi- sited India, and who derived all their knowledge of the country from the northern nations, er -ed less in th^'^ statements respecting Taprobane, than the geographers who wrote when that island was annually visited by fleets from Egypt. The magnitude of Taprobane was stated with tolerable correctness by Onesicratus ; but his measures were continually increased by every succeeds assadors erhaps a d at the r of the us con- rt of the Tcourse^ tof the i north- e or six ve been 1 Cher- he ex- d on in s at the om the a part igh the :ompa* loticed imisus, d blue ses, on the northern frontiers of India, of those German features, but there is nothing yet known with certainty of the tribe to which they properly belong.* With respect to the ancient names of Ceylon, it ap- pears that the title Sinhala, the land of lions, from which the modern name is der£«red, was known in northern India at least six centuries before our era. f The origin of the name Taprobane is not so evident. In ancient Pali writings, however, the island is called Tdmhapannaya, a word corresponding with the Sanscrit Tdmhaparnaf the betel-leaf; of this last expression the Greeks may possibly have made Taprobane. The next name, in order of time, by which Ceylon was known to the Greeks, was Palcesimundus, which appears to have been in use in the time of Arrian. Ptolemy, however, ven- turing with the shallow expertness of Greek etymologers to interpret the name, has diminished it by two syl- lables : for as the dissyllable Palai is, in Greek, an ad- verb, signifying formerlyy he confidently states that Taprobane (in his time c^ed Salike, an evident approx- imation to Ceylon) was formerly called Simundus. This gross error of the Alexandrian has nevertheless been adopted by some eminent modern writers. | The advantages which Alexander proposed to derive from a communication with India were not lost sight of by his successors in Egypt. The commerce of this country soon began to flourish under the enlightened administration of the Ptolemies : ships, trading with the East, landed their cargoes at the port of Berenice in the Red Sea ; the goods were then transported by caravans to Coptus on the banks of the Nile, whence, by the aid of canals, they arrived at Alexandria, which thus be- came, and continued for ages to be, the centre of a most lucrative trade. The progress of geographical knowledge is intimately * Matth. Riccius, de Christ exped. apud Sinas. Colon. Agripp. 1684. p\,606. f Wilson's Hist, of Cashmeer^ As. Res, %v. t Burnouf. Journ. Asiat. viii. Compare Marcianus Heracleota and Arrian in Hudson. Fliny. The name Palaesimundus admits of a natural, though only coi^ecturai, explanation. F 4 72 GEOGRAPHY OP THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. connected with the interests of commerce. The love of gain can overcome the strongest impediments that exist to the intercourse of nations^ and effects more than con- quering armies can do by the permanence of its oper- ation. The great concourse of strangers who resorted to Alexandria for the sake of traffic^ prompted the study of geography. The great library of that city contained the writings of the Phoenicians^ which had been brought from Tyre, and the journals of the Macedonian officers who accompanied Alexander ; so that it is not surprising that among the men of science of whom the ancient Alex- andria coulil boast, the geographers should have been the most distinguished. The writings, indeed, of very few «f f,hem have been preserved, but the fragments which ic nain are sufficient to prove the unremitting advanoe- rr !'nt of the knowledge of the earth. Eratosthenes, the president of the Alexandrian library, wl.«; died in the year 194 B. C, was honoured by his 'contemporaries with the title of Surveyar of the Earth, and was held in the highest estimation by all succeeding geographers. His knowledge of the Nile reached ^ j far as that of Herodotus, and was much more accurate, for he distinguishes clearly the Bahr al Abiad or true Nile coming from the west, the Astapus or Abawi, which is the Nile of Abyssinia, and the Astaboras or Tacazze. Eratosthenes had collected some information respecting the eastern coast of Africa from one Timosthenus, whose voyages extended as far as Cerne, an island of which it is impossible to fix the position. H6 also mentioned India and Thince, and thought the latter ill placed on former maps. But the great merit of Eratosthenes was that he introduced into geopjraph ;' a uniform system, and the art of fixing positions. He held that the earth was a sphere, and that the great extent of the western ocean alone could hinder ships horn sailing to India by the west. He was the first who used parallels, and fixed the latitude of places in his maps. While Eratosthenes devoted himself to the science of I' : ^ M ;i ! ill CHAP. V. THE GREEKS. 73 geography, Agatharchides (who was about twenty years younger) cultivated with no less success the descriptive department of that branch of knowledge. He also was a president of the Alexandrian library, and knew so well how to employ the rich materials contained in that noble collection, that his writings appear to have been the chief source from which succeeding geographers drew their information till the age of Ptolemy. From Agatharchides we have the first authentic account of the countries to the south of Egypt. He describes the Abyssinian cus- toms of hamstringing wild elephants, and of eating the raw flesh cut from them while alive. He mentions the stinging fly, the scourge of the country ; the locusts used as fc" ', the troglodytes, the rhinoceros, the camelopard^ the hyaena, and a multitude of other particulars which show how little those countries Ijave changed in moral or physical circumstances for the last two thousand years. Agatharchides gives also a curious account of the gold mines worked by the Ptolemies on the coast of the Red Sea ; of the sufferings of the miners, and of the copper tools found in deep galleries supposed to have been opened by the ancient Egyptians. This last circumstance must recall to mind the antiquities found in the mines of Ire- land and Wales, in situations, too, where they were least to be expected, as, for example, in the coal mine of Fair Head, at the north-eastern extremity of Ireland. The trade which Egypt, under the Ptolemies, carried an with Southern Africa was confined to the importation of elephants, and reached but a little way along the coast. The communication with India, on the other hand, was growing every day more frequent and more profitable ; but it appears to have been chiefly carried on by the intervention of the Arabians. Agatharchides paints in glowing colours the wealth and luxury of the Sahceans (the inhabitants of the modern Yemen); and the account which he gives of the riches accruing to them from the carrying trade between Egypt and India is heightened rather than moderated by succeeding ^^?T* 1 Kj^-'-'^ Kl vl B^ JLJai ^«V '^ ; ' S RuH ■ 74 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. I writers. The Arabians sailed in large vessels ; planted colonies in eligible situations for trade^ and fortified their establishments, as was done by the Portugueze many centuries later. The robustness of the Sabeeans is no- ticed by AgatharchideSj who thus justifies that expression of the prophet Isaiah, — " The Sabeeans, men of stature." On the South-eastern coast of Africa the Arabian geo- graphers placed an island called Cerne, just as the Car- thaginians had a Cerne on the western side, and for the same reason, because it was the end (in Phoenician Cher* naa *) of their discoveries. This double island of Cerne was by some thought fabulous, and was instrumental in creating a belief that Africa iiad been circumnavigated. Thus, when Eudoxus was said to have sailed from Gades to Cerne, inattentive observers might have confounded the western with the eastern island of that name, and thus be misled into the opinion tha!Phe had actually reached the eastern seas. + India and Arabia were looked upon by the ancients as countries overflowing with riches.;|; The only communi- cation with those happy regions was through Alexandria, which was become the seat of learning as well as the centre of a great commnce ; so that every enterprising spirit, all, in short, who longed for adventure or for gain, natu- rally resorted to the capital of the Ptolemies. Nor in the midst of the activity created by the eastern trade was the circumnavigation of Africa wholly forgotten* The traditions which attested that achievement were still believed by many, notwithstanding that the men of science and systematic geographers smiled at the cre- dulity of those who thought it possible to approach the burning regions of the torrid zone. Strabo, who believed that the equator was unapproachable, from its excessive heat, while citing the arguments of Posidonius of Rhodes, an advocate of the contrary opinion, relates, from thai • Bochart , f Pliny. Mela. t Intactis opulentior Thesauris Arabum et divitis Indiae. Horace, Lib. iii. Od. xxiv. Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides gazu. Id. Lib. L Od. xxix. CHAP. V. THE GREEKS. 78 ancients as writer, the courageous efforts of an adventurer of no ordinary stamp. Eudoxus of Cyzicus, a man of some learning, and enthusiastically devoted to geographical researches^ visited £gypt in the reign of Euergetes II. (146 — 1 17 B. C), and had some conferences with that prince and his ministers respecting the navigation of the Nile t<^ wards its source. It happened, ahout the same time, that an Indian was found expiring with hunger in a boat on the shores of the Red Sea : he was brought to court and carefully treated ; and, having learned a little Greek, he related how he had set sail from India, lost sight of land, and not knowing whither the wind was driving him, arrived at last at the spot where he had been found, after all his companions had perished with famine. He also promised, if a vessel were equipped to carry him back to India, to pilot it himself, and to teach the course to persons appointed for that purpose. The ofi^r was accepted: — Eudoxus was one of those appointed to receive ^e instructions of the Indian pilot; and he managed matters so well that he returned to Egypt with a rich cargo of spices and precious stones : all which, however, the king seized, not from an unjust caprice, apparently, but as the legal monopoliser of the eastern trade. The successor of Euergetes despatched Eudoxus on a second adventure with a freight of valuable commodities. On his return, he was forced by the winds to the coast of JSthiopia, where he found on the shore, among other fragments of ship-timber brought together by the waves, the prow of a vessel with the figure of a horse, carved as a cutwater, upon it j this he took with him as a curio- sity, believing it to have come from the West. On his arrival in Egypt, Eudoxus was again stripped of all his gains , and what was worse, he was utterly dis- graced, being convicted of an attempt to convert to his own profit tbi merchandise committed to his chargeu The ship-timbers found on the coast of j^thiopia were exposed in the market-place of Alexandria, and were 76 OeoORAPIIY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. 'ii \$ ' recognised by the pilots collected there as belonginj?: to a vessel fi m Gadcs. The great merchants of thai ciiv had large ships, but the poorer sort had small barks which they called horses, from the fi^nire of a horse carved upon the prow : these were employed in the fish- eries along the coasts of M-mritania as far as the river Lixus. Some of the pilots even thought that they could recognise in those fragments the remains of a particular vessel, which having ventured beyond the Lixus was never afterwards heard of. Eudoxus concluded, from all these circumstances, that it \ -as possible to make the circuit of Africa by sea ; but having no further iiope of finding encouragement at the court of Alexandria, he embarked with all that he possessed ; visiting all the towns on the coasts of the Mediterranean, from Dicearchia near Naples to Mar- seilles, and thence to Gades, proclaiming every where his project of sailing to India by the ocean, and collect- ing money or associates among those whose imagina- tions were captivated by the boldness of the enterprise. Having at lengt'u succeeded in equipping three vessels, one large and two of smaller size, and in embarking a large conijiauy, comprising slaves skilled in music, physi- cians, and artisuns of every description, he set sail for India with favoarable winds. But he had not sailed f:ir before his companions grew weary of the sea, and forced him to run ashore. Here the accident occurred which Eudoxus had foreseen : the large vessel was left aground when the tide retired, and in such a situation as to sus- tain irreparable injury : the cargo, however, was saved, and with the timbers of ilie wreck they built a third bark as large as a fifty-oared galley. Eudoxus then resumed his course, and came at length to a coast, the inhabitants of which appeared to him to speak the same language as the Ethiopians on the eastern side of Africa. Renouncing for this time his intention of reaching India, he returned to Mauritania, sold his vessels and repaired to the court of king Bocchus, whom he wished to prevail upon to send a fleet to the countries of the eiiAP. V. THE OHEEKS. ^ n southern iEtliiopians. But that prince prudently de- clined cultivating the acquaintance of barbarous nations, whose neighbourhood might prove troublesome if they once found their way into his dominions. Eudoxus having learned, luoreover, that it was the design of the Mauiitanians, under the pretence of enter- ing into his plan, to leave him to perish on some desert island, made his escape into the Roman proviti < lience he returned to Spain. Here he contrived tit out another armament consisting of two vessels, t' h ftjr oars, the other smaller and flat-bottomed to r ihe shores. He embarked instruments of agricuitmc, seeds and grain of various kinds, and once more put to sea, resolved to winter on some island along the coast, sow the grain, and having gathered the harvest, to pursue hia voyage till he reached India. This is all that Posidoniua could learn of the adventures of Eudoxus, who probably perished the victim of his hardihood ; for as to his sail- ing round Africa from the Arabian Gulf to Gades, as related by Mela, this is obviously a fiction. Some of the learned refuse to give any credit to the voyages of Eudoxus : they regard him as a madman and an impostor, and appeal, rather unadvisedly, in support of their opinion, to the authority of Strabo and other ancient writers, who looked upon the circumnavigation of Africa as absolutely impossible. There are some, on the other hand, who magnify his merits with as little re- serve : they affect to consider him as a philosopher and hero, struggling against the rapacity of kings, the pre- judices of his age, and the obstacles opposed by nature to the extension of knowledge. But, perhaps, the just estimation of his character lies between those extremes. He was evidently a man who possessed more courage than probity, and little scrupulous as to the manner in which he was embarked in the enterprises tovrards which he was impelled by the restless activity of his spirit. He had tasted the advantages of the tiade with India, and when forced to leave Egypt, in consequence of his mis- conduct, he resolved to attain his ends without the con- ^ \^ 1^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 1 1.25 mm ISO "^™ m 14.0 ■2.5 2.0 III U III 1.6 P» <% 4VV ^ ■^ Photographic Sciences Corporation \ iv O rv 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 87!i-4S03 tB OBOORAPHlkOr THE ANCIENTS. BOOXL sent of the Ptolemies, and to arrive at the East by die drcumnavigation of Africa. When in the fifteenth century the communication vrith India throv^h the Levant was interrupted by the Turks, European nations repeated the efforts of Eudoxus under the influence of similar motives ; and adventurers, not inferior to the Greek in levity and boldness, sported in die same man- ner with the avidity of human nature, and equipped new expeditions at the expense of the credulous in search of western Eldorados. CHAP. VI. CONQUESTS OF THE ROMANS. THB WtUAH COMQUXSTS. — STRABa — HIS KNOWLEDGE OF THE WEST. THE TURDKTAMI IN SFAIM. AMTBBOFOFHAGI IN IRELAND. THE SARMATIANS. THE SINDS OR INDIANS ON THE BOSFHOaUS. THE SIGTNI. — THE GIFSIES. INDIANS IN LTCIA. NATIONS OF THE CAUCASUS. THE CA8FIAN SEA SUF> POSED TO JOIN THE OCEAN. — EXFEDITION8 OF JBLIUS OALLUS INTO ARABIA AND JBTHIOPIA. HABITABLE AND UNINHABIT- ABLE ZONES. OBSTINATE INCREDULITY OF STRABO. BRITAIN VISITED BT CJBSAR. — ITS FOFULATION. THE ROMANS REACH THB BALTIC. THE CIMBRI. SCANDINAVIA AKD NORWAT MENTIONED BT FLINT. TACITUS NAMES THB SWEDES. THB ARIMFHiBL GRAND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NORTHERN NATIONS. MARCH OF CORNELIUS BALBU8 INTO THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA. — AND OF SUETONIUS PAULINUS ACROSS MOUNT ATLAS.— KING JUBA*S ACCOUNT OF THE NILE AND NIGER. — THE FORTUNATE ISLES. •» VARIOUS STATEMENTS RECONCILED. But the schemes of Eudox^is might have been renewed ; the monopoly enjoyed by Egypt might have incited cities and not individuals to attempt opening the passage through the ocean to the East ; and the discovery of Vasco de Gama might have been anticipated many cen- turies before by some citizen of Gades, if the course of political events had not put an end to all clashing of interests among the civilised states of the western world. The conquests of the Romans extended nearly over OHAP. n. THE ROMANS. 79 every country of which they had any knowledge: — from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, from Britain to Egypt^ no sway was acknowledged hut that of the imperial city. The jealousies engendered hy separate interests were soon forgotten in the security of the empire ; and the active cares of an enlightened government left the pro- vinces little room to regret their turbulent independence. Egyptj the seat of the rich India trade, was made an imperial province ; that is to say, it was administered under the immediate control of the emperor, without whose permission no Roman was allowed to enter that country, to hold property in laud within it, or in any way to interfere with the rights of the natives. This cautious system saved that rich country from the spoli- ations to be apprehended from a succession of greedy governors, and from disturbances which might have 'diverted into other channels the trade with India. The monopoly, so carefully guarded by the emperors, was the more easily acquiesced in by the Roman world, as it was freed from the capricious vexationsofdel^ated power. If the magnitude of Roman dominion, absorbing within its vortex all national rivalries, tended, in some measure, to repress the spirit of maritime enterprise; the armies of Rome, on the other hand, often opened coun- tries to the knowledge of the geographer, which the un- protected merchant could hardly have dared to penetrate. The campaigns of the Scipios and of Scaurus, in Spain and in Numidia ; the expeditions of iBlius Gallus into Arabia and Ethiopia; the war with Mithridates, in which Pompey led die Roman legions to the Caspian Sea, and ascended, we are told, the very summit of the Cau- casus, which had witnessed the punishment of Prome- theus ; these expeditions led to an intimate acquaintance with countries previously but litUe known. But the most important accessions made by the Romans to geo- graphy were in the North: Julius Ceesar totally subdued Gaul, advanced a considerable way into Britain, and wrote a perspicuous account of those countries, which has for- tunately remained to posterity. ao OEOORAPHY OF TRE ANCIENTS. BQOKI. Yetj although some progress was certainly made in exploring this quarter of the world (for neither Gaol nor Britain appear to have heen known to Herodotus), geography gained more in certainty than extent from the victories of the Romans. The limits which (Sr- cumscribed the obscure indications of early writeis were examined and freed from fable, but little advance- ment was made beyond them. The cautious temper re- sulting from the rapid influx of accurate information is strikingly manifest in the Roman writers. To Strabo wie are indebted for a work which enables us to appreciate the geography of the Augus! in age: a brief review of that work will suffice to show how little the knowlec^e of the earth had been improved by the most polished nations of antiquity in the course of four hundred years. Strabo supposed the Pyrennees to run north and south, and the coast of Spain, commencing at Cape St. Vincent, to form nearly a right line with that of Gaul. From this latter country he cut off the projecting pro- vince of Britanny, so as to diminish the whole by at least one third of its just dimensions. Britain is described by him as a triangle, one angle of which approaches Gaul> while another points towards Spain. This account of Britain is borrowed from Csesar ; but it is not easy to explain why Strabo should reject the same excellent au* thority in speaking of Ireland, which he places not to the west but to the north of Britain. The Cassiterides, or tin islands, he says, are in the sea to the north of the Arta^ bri, that is, of the western Galicians. There is reason to suspect that Strabo, whose nationality is * ^ tnt, waa disposed to under-rate the value of Latin v.. . is; how could he otherwise have described Britain as not wortI| the conquest, and Ireland as a barren country, wrapped iii eternal snows, and inhabited by Anthropophagi. His account of the Turti or Turdetani, tihe ancient in- habitants of Andalusia, in the souUi of Spain, is in the highest degree curious and instructive: they were truly the Tartessian people ; for the territorial name Tartessus was evidently of older date than the settlements of the Car- OBAV. VI. THS noUANS, 81 thaginians on the coasts of Spain. %Vhen first visited by this latter people, their wealth was so. great that even their conunonest utensils were said to be made of silver. In die time of Strabo, the Turdetani were a polished people: they had generally adopted the Latin tongue; and their own language, in which they possessed not only some literature, but a^so a code of laws written in verse, and said to be 6000 years old, was gradually falling into oblivion.* The religious opinions of the Turdetani ap- pear to have diflTered essentially from those of the Greeks and Romans ; for we are informed by an old writer that the inhabitants, although educated like the Greeks, yet differed from all other men in r^;arding life as a cala* mity, and rejoicing in death as the termination of a trial. This character of their superstition may very naturally suggest an eastern origin t ; an opinion which is also supported by the historical tradition of the Carthagi- nians, that Modes, Persians, and Armenians (a general mode, perhaps, of describing the race of mankind that dwdt beyond Assyria,) had been conducted into Spain by Hercules, whence some of ihem ^oassed over to the ndgh- bouring continent of Africa.^ Ireknd is die most northern country in Strabo's m&p of the world. His information on the continent of Eu- rope appears to terminate at the Elbe : the countries to the norUi of that river -are not noticed by him. As he approaches the civilised nations in the south of Europe, his details become more accurate and more interesting ; yet it is ridiculous to find in the midst of much historical and antiquarian learning some discussions as to whether Italy be a square or a triangle. Greece, he takes occa- sion to tell us, was in his time comparatively a waste : yet much wealth and magnificence still existed among the Greek cities of Asia Minor; in the description of • Strabo^ 157. f PhUottratiu in Photint, t The Baron W. von Humboldt, in hit etiay on the original inhabitants of Spain, maintains that the Turdetani were an Iberiad people, and that their langiuge was the same as that of the other inhabitants of the penin- sula. Inthfs h6 is contradicted by Strabo, who says that their Uuwuage was distinct If the names HitpaUt and Munda he correctly translated In the modem names Se-viOe and iZonda la veja, it would seem mote brobaUe that the language of the Turdetani belonged to the Japhetian fandly. . VOL. I. O 82 OZOORAPHT OF THB ANCIENTS. BOOK I. these, and particularly of his native city Amasiai he is learnedly and laudably copious. J.n Strabo's account of eastern Europe we see the fruits of past and seed of future revolutions. Imme- diately to the north of Hsemus were the Thracians and the Celts. Beyond these, spreading from Germany to the Tanais, were the Bastama (including the JRoxani) to the nordi and east ; the Luii or Lygii, probably the LieeheB or Poles of modem Europe ; the Cret€e or Iktvi, another Sclavonian tribe ; and, lastly, the Sarmatiant, who had crossed the Tanais at the instigation of Mithri- dates, and totally destroyed or dispersed the Scythians who were settled found the Crimea in the time of Herodotus. The population round the Patua Maotia (or Maietis, u Herodotus more accurately writes it, the moiher of the Pontus,) described by ancient geographers, ofifbrs a field of curious and interesting discussion. Herodotus, it has been seen, related that the Scythians, when the Cimme^ lian Bosphorus was frozen oyer in severe winters, used to cross it on the ice with their loaded waggons to the country of the Indiana. These Indi of the old historian are mentioned by later writers under the name of Sinti, or Sindi.* In vain have the commentators, startled at 4his mention of Indiana settled on the frontiers of Eu- rope, endeavoured to get rid altogether of the obnoxious expresraon. The names Sindua and Indua (Sind andlndoo), though, perhaps, radically distinct, are yet, in point of fact, very intimately connected in geography ; and no difficulty is removed by the substitution of the one term for the other. Besides, it is expressly affirmed by a wdl-informed writer, that the Sindi were an Indian na- tion, f But even if no such direct testimony had been ^ven, the hints that remain to us concerning their cha- racter and manners, the peculiar object of their worship, and their dissolute religious rites, would leave no doubt as to the country from which they were derived.;}: * Scylax peripLin Hudaoa ApoUoniui Rhodius. Straba f Hesychius. X Steph. Bya. %• CUAP. VI. THB ROMANS. 8S The territory occupied by those Sinih or Indians WM the fertile country round the moiuth of the Cuban; a name which, originating in a harsh pronunciation of the Indian expression Hypania, bears testimony to the ex- istence of those ancient colonists. That the Sindi inha- bited the country of die Hypanis, and that this river could be no other than the Cuban, is all rendered mani- fest by the evidence of Strabo. But the Hypanis of Herodotus (who makes no mention of the modem Cuban) was much farther to the westward : it Was a western tributary of the river Dnieper ; and a third river of tbe same name flowed into the Euxine not far from the Crimea.* The fourth Hypanis is better known in an- cient geography : it is the Biah of our present maps ; one of the great rivers of the Penj-ah (five rivers) which flow into the Indus on the western frontiers of India. The chief town of the Sindi was Phanagoria, on the principal branch of the river. The haven, or Sindioa portua, is now called Sin^jik, not far from Anapa, t But as a Hypanis, a true Indian name, occurs also in ancient geography to the westward of the Borysthenes, it is requisite to examine whether there be any traces of the Sindi or a kindred tribe having spread thembclves in that direction. It is impossible, in pursuing this en»> quiry, to avoid throwing a momentary glance on the Sigyna of Herodotus, '' a people resembling the Medea in apparel, and inhabiting a wild, uncultivated country to the north of the Danube. They are the only inha- bitants," he continues, " of whom I have been able to receive any intelligence. Theu: territories extend as far as the Feneti on die Adriatic. It is said that they are the descendants of the Medes, which I cannot compre- hend, although every thing is possible in the lapse of tivie. By the word Sigyna, the Lygurians understand • Pliny. t Hnpm^ sienifles lacred river. The modem name Biah or Bea meant •acred. The Persians also used to prefix to their names of riven the syU ubie ivA, which had the same signification : hence the Oxus was called veh. The Hy.pMJM of the Pei^-ab was also called Hy.phasU ( Arrian). The words pawtue and jihasu or pojA^e, both signifying rtwrr, are ttiU in UK amoDg the Gipsies ftod Uiqdoov, lOarsden. ArchaBor.viL o 2 - 84 OEOGRAPHT OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. a travelling merchant." * The supposed descent of this people from the Medes is, in some measure, explained by the appearance of a people named Sigynnii, inhabit- ing the mountains of Hyrcania near th6 Caspian Sea.t Sigynna are also placed in the kingdom of Pontus, and at the mouth of the Danube. | That those travelling merchants, the SigyiUB of Herodotus, maintained an in- tercourse with the tribes on the Meotis, may be safely concluded from the circumstance that he could trace them westward much beyond the other neighbours of the Scythians ; and such an intercourse affords a fair pre- sumption of original affinity. All that remains of the Sindi in history, or in local namds, proves them to have been of Indian origin. It is impossible, however, to view in conjunction the names of Sihdi and Sigyns without recalling to mind that extraordinary people, who, under the two general denominations of Sints and Zigani, (the former used in Lithuania, the other in Poland, aild with slight varia- tions in all the neighbouring countries,) constitute so numerous a body in the eastern states of £urope. The Gipsies, in short, whose derivation from Western India is now no longer disputed, and whose language, cor- rupted as it is, and alloyed with foreign admixture, would still be not wholly unintelligible in somie provinces of Hindostan. The Persians also name them Sisech Hindoo, or Black Indians. It is impossible, indeed, to connect this people, historically, with the ancient Indian colony of the Mseotis. Their own traditions (which are indeed of little value), and the late date of their appear- ance in Europe, are both repugnant to such an affiliation. But while mystery still enwraps the problem of their ori- gin, it is allowable to canvass every means of its solution. It may, however, be affirmed with confidence, that the /n- dian merchants who were shipwrecked in the Baltic, and presented by the king of the Suevi to Q. MetCeler, the proconsul of Gaul, were not carried round from India to the north of Europe by the ocean, as the ancients * Herod, f Straba t Apoll. Rhod. Argon, ir. Orph. Argoa7M> i + « OBAF. VZ. THB BOMANS. 85 imagined, but were voyagers from the Mcotian co- lony.* Wliether the Sind* or Indians of the Bosphorus ever advanced southwards a^ong the Euzine is a question im- possible to determine. There yrere'Sints and a Sintio region in Macedonia, and Sintian men, speaking a strange language, who inhabited Lemnos in the time of Homer. But, except their addiction to the labours of the smithy (for Lemnos was sacred to Vulcan), there is not any positive indication remaining by which they can be connected with the Sint* of LithuaUia. But in examin- ing round the shores of the Euxine those most durable* and veracious monuments of ancient history, the rem- nants of language preserved in local nnmes, the Phaaig, or as it is at present called, the Fash, must necessarily arrest the attention. This river, famous for its con- nection with Grecian fable and traditionary golden sands, flowed through the country of the Cokki, The word Phoiiij signifying a river, and the name Colchi, are both properly of Indian origin, and stand at no great distance from eaeh other in Ptolemy's map of India. When a Greek poet describes the Colchian Phasis as mixing its waters with the Tanais, it is evident at once that the Hypanis or some other river in that quarter may have been also called Phasis by the Sinds of the Maotis, so that we here again detect that grand source of geogra- phical errors, the employment of general terms.t The Colchians were supposed by the Greeks to be a colony o£ Egyptians. They practised rites, and possessed arts, which, unavoidably, led a people unacquainted with the interior of Asia to arrive at that conclusion. Their dark complexion, also, which is noticed by Pindar, seemed to lend confirmation to the popular belief. But though the fiction of a colony planted by Sesostris on the shores of the Euxine was readily countenanced by the Egyptian priests, it is contradicted by traditions of equivalent au- thority. The religion of the Colchians, besides, does not seem to have been Egyptian. Their superiority above • Mda, lil and PUa U. f Orph. Aigon. o 3 86 OCOQRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOXX. the Greeks in civilisation in the time of the Argonauts and the poetic age is evinced hy the reputation they en- joyed as magicians. In the manufacture of fine linen they far surpassed the Egyptians ; and we know that fh>m them the Greeks derived their names of linen cloths in commerce^ Sardoniaru and Sindont* That a colony of Hindoos (of profligate manners^ and, perhaps, ignohle caste,) was setUed on the Cimmerian Bosphorus in the age of Herodotus, appears incontestahly flstahlfshed ; when, or how, they were dispersed, it is not so easy to coi\jecture. That the Gipsies^are descended from Uiem is a conclusion resting wholly on naked pro- babilities. But whence hare these wandering outcasts the tradition that they have come from Egypt? Is it not possible that the ancient Colchians, who, there is good reason to believe, were them; elves from the west of India t, assented at length to the general opinion of antiquity respecting their Egyptian origin, and when driven, perhaps, from their ancient possessions by the Iberian tribes, spread abroad among their swarthy br^ thren of the North the same erroneous belief? Beyond the territory of the Sinds, on the Bosphorus, extended the Asian country, properly so called, inha- bited by the Aspurgitani, or people of As-purg, and from this litde Asia (which extended, perhaps, from the Cuban to the Don,) the modem name of Asoph is supposed to be derived. Besides these Hindoos of the North, (who, it is said, are distinctly mentioned by the Armenian historians,) there appears to have been also a tribe of the same overflowing nation established in Asia Minor. Xenophon is the earliest writer who makes any allusion to them; but Pliny, who says that the river Indus descends from the mountains of the Cihyrata alone afibrds any means of determining their exact position. They occu- pied a district in Lycia, apparently at no great distancs from the banks of Uie Xanthus.;): The Caucasian isthmus appears to have been the * HesychiiM. Sardonkm quaai Sertndion. f Hitter's Vorhalle Europ. Gesch. X Compare 1 Maccabees, viii. 8. Xenoph. Cyrop. ▼. U. iiL PUny t. cnAP. VI. THE ROUANS* 87 .receptacle from the earliest times of many mingled nations. The great tide of migration westward flowed through it along the shores of the Caspian Sea; and as the stragglers of the wandering hordes coveted the pos- session of the rich vallies near the plains^ the old pos- sessors of them were forced to retire farther into the recesses of the mountains. Hence it is that few moun- tain ranges can vie with the Caucasus in the number, and none in the motley character of its population. The Mithridatic war brought the Roman legions into the neighbourhood of these wild tribes, and from the officers of Pompey, Strabo probably procured his abun- dant information. The Zyge» of Strabo are supposed to be the JiM of the present day; but as the word Zyg signifies a man in the language of the Cherke* or Cir^ cassians, it is possible that they may have been a tribe of that nation whom he appears to dc«ign also by the name of CerkettB. The Soanet are the Tson (or mountaineers), a wretched people inhabiting the highest vallies of Elbruz. The Iberiam, divided into castes, possessed the modern Georgia; and their mountain neighbours, the fierce Le^a^ resembled in manners, as much as in name and situation, the Leagm of the present day. . Strabo supposes the Caspian Sea to join the northern ocean by a narrow channel; and this error seems the more unaccountable since the armies of Alexander and of Pompey had reached the shores of that sea, and might have added much information to the ccrrect aecount already given of it by Herodotus. In the age of Strabo, also, there was a great trade in peltry carried on by the Romans with the nations inhabiting the Cas- pian Steppes. But though it is impossible to vindicate Strabo's opinion, we are justified in suspecting that the correctness of the measures assigned by Herodotus to the Casjgian (which are not far from the truth at the present day) is, in a great measure, accidental ; for it is the opinion of the ablest geographers that that sea is tinkihg jrapidly ; that it was formerly united to lake Aral (which the ancients are commonly supposed to o 4 fi D8 OBOORAPUV OF TBI INOIBIVTS. BOOK r. have confounded with it), tnd that it may have ex- tended to the north aboye 125 leagaea beyond iti preaent limita. The greatest length of Asia^ according to Strabo, is 45,000 stadia, measnred from Ekodet to Thina, the remotest point known to him in the East But he ap- pears to have known nothing of It but the name. If we make the most indulgent allowances to the length of his stadium, the measure which he assigns to Asia will not yet lead us beyond the comm.ncement of the desert of Gobi, or half way across the oontin^t. His inform- ation with regard to India was deriTed whi^y from the writings of Nearchus, Onesicratus, and other Mace^ donians of Alexander's age. He does not even appeal^ to have seen the history of Sdeucus's expedition into the country of the Ganges. The attempt made by JElius Oallus, in the reign of Augustus, to penetrate into the peninsula of Arabia, and to reduce its wandering tribes td bbedienoe, contributed nothing to geography. That ill-devised and ill-executed enterprise terminated in a disgraceM retreat, in which the greater part of the Rcmian army perished^ not by the sword, but by the hardships of the desert. The same general, who was ail intimate friend of Strabo, also SMit an army into JEthio- pia, but no detailed account of its marches Or proceed- ingis remains to us. The knowledge of the interior of Africa had not increased since the tiine of Herodotus ) at least Strabo observes that the Romans pbsiessed nearly all of that continent that was not either desert or unin- habitable by reason of the excessive heat. ' Thus it appears that Strabo disbelieved the relation^ of Pytheas, Hanno, and Eudoxus, and rejected in a great measure the authority of Herodotus. He remained consequently in wilfrd ignorance of the countries neat the Baltic ; of the western coast of Africa, beyond tho Lixus, where his information terminates; and of the in- terior of the same continent Nor was this wary mis- trust of preceding writers so much the result of k cautious spirit as of an attachment to system. Strabo was one of those who maintained that Uie earth was OUAP.VI. TH> ROMANf. 89 difided into five lonet, of which the torrid sone, placed under the equator i^id extending on both aides to the tropica, waa burned up by unremitting heata, iniupport- able to the human conatitution. The frigid lonea, aituated near the polea, were equally desolate, from the opposite extreme of cold ; in the temperate sones alone, occupying the space between the fHgid sones and the tropics, were the ardours of summer and chills of winter sufficiently mitigated or blended, to admit of the existence of man and the grateftd luxuriance of y^etation. With- in the temperate zone, therefore, the attention of the rational geographer was confined by the laws of nature. Though thia aystem presented itself naturally enough to the Greek or Italian who saw on one hand the per- petual snows of Hsemus and the Alps, and on the other the burning sands of Libya, yet those limits once passed, it was obviously untenable ; nor must we suppose that a doctrine so ill founded ever obtained such a currency in antiquity aa to operate in repressing the spirit of enquiry, however it might be favoured by those weak and timid spirits, who labour unceasingly to fix limits to legitimate curiosity. The extent of the earth embraced in the geography of Strabo does not materially exceed that which was known to Herodotus four centuries earlier. In some quarters, as in Africa and beyond the Caspian, ihe early Greek historian is superior ; but in the minuteness of his de- tails the writer of the Augustan age has greatly the advantage. The Roman power had opened the way into countries hitherto Inaccessible. But this partial im- provement cannot prevent our surprise when we con- trast the geography of that age with its literary culti- vation, or compare the polish and fine taste of Horace and Virgil with their ignorance of the earth. The for- mer of these speaks of Britain and of the Tanais as of the ends of the earth; but the learned Virgil * commits a more positive error, when he supposes the Nile to flow from India. When the literary cultivation of Rome • Vii^g. Georg. It. 89S. ** Usque coloratU amnU devexus ab IndU." 8m •180 Lucan j. f. ftdi. f ? 90 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. was at its greatest height, it was thought to constitute a right to fame to have travelled to the remote boundaries of the empire. But the increased intercourse of the Romans, under the first Cesars, with the nations of the North, opened to view a new and attractive spectacle. The antiquarian humour of Strabo, minute in treating of monuments, and superficial when he spoke of nations, gave way to minds of a grandeur better proportioned to the objects of consideration. The writings of Dionysius Periegetes, and of Pomponius Mela, who both flourished in the first century of our era, may be passed in silence,: they copied from others, and added notiiing new to the information alr^dy possessed. The learning of Pliny and the philosophy of Tacitus are more wortiiy -of our attention. The expedition of Julius Cssar had made known only the extremity of Britain. Under the emperor Claudius that island was effectually subdued by the legions which, at first, reluctantly permitted themselves to be led to what they designated a new world. Thirty years later, Pliny was acquainted with the Ebudes, or western isles of Scotland, and even with the names of several of the group. At length Agricola extended the "Roman con- quests to the Grampian hills, and a fleet, by his orders, sailed northwards, to discover how far the land extended in that direction. "This fleet," says Tacitus, "first ascertained that Britain is an island ; it discovered also and subjected the Orcades, a cluster of islands not known before, and saw Thule, hitherto concealed by snow and winter." The Romans regarded Britain as we do New Holland ; its remoteness, its immense size, so far ex- ceeding that of any island with ^vhich they were dis- tinctly acquainted, and the great ocean which washed its shores, forcibly struck their imaginations. They had, however, a very inaccurate idea of its geographical posi« tion. Tacitus, the son-in-law of Agricola, describes it as having Germany oii the east, Gaul on the south, and Spain on the west. Ireland is placed, by the same writer, midway between Spain and Britain. Agricola OfiAP. VI. THE BOHANS. 91 .* was preparing to invade that island^ which some of the natives assured him might be effectually subdued with a single legion^ when the je&lousy of Domitian arrested his' operations j and IreUnd was unfortunately rescued from the civilising yoke of Roman dominion. When Julius Ceesar first visited Britain^ he found the maritime provinces possessed by a people of Germanic race, whom he supposed, and, perhaps, not without rea- son, to be Belgians. The population was remarkably dense ; the dwellings of the people were strewed thickly over the face of the country, and cattle were abundant. Merchants in numbers visited the island ; but so great, in those days was insular jealousy in Britain, that strangers durst not venture thither who had not evi- dently the excuse of traffic. The Gauls, it appears, had but little acquaintance with the island ; whence it may be concluded that the merchants were chiefly of the Belgian or Grerman race. To the inaccuracy of reports, in the dictation of which the superstition of the Gauls may have had some share, ought, perhaps, ^o be attri- buted the error of Csesar in describing Great Britain as an island of a triangular form. Tacitus remarked the close resemblance that existed between the dialect of the Estiones on the shore of the Baltic and that of the British islanders. The Caledonians also were known to be of German descent, by their great size, their florid complexions, and keen grey eyes. The same vigilant observer remarked, that the inhabitants of the south- western angle of the island (the SUurei) had dark, adust visages, with curled hair ; but instead of concluding that the emigration of a stronger race from the £ast had forced the prior inhabitants of the island into the recesses Of its western mountains, he adopted the weak hypo- thesis, so often repeated since by modem writers upon Ireland, of a colony direct from Spain. From Tacitus also we learn that merchants fre- quented the ports of Ireland, the superiority of which was already known. But with whom did the merchants carry on a trade ? Was the Celtic population sufficiently 92 QBOOBAPHT OF THB ANCIENTS. BOOK I. civilised to feel the wants and benefits of commerce? This is hardly credible ; but when the historian proceeds to observe that Hibeniia differs but little from Britain in soU or population, the inference is natural, that long before his time a colony of the German race had also forced its way into that island. There is not, however, any direct evidence to support this conjecture, besides that of the native historians. Ptolemy, it is true, about half a century later, places a Belgian colony (the Menapit) in Ireland ; but the statement of the geographer affords, no means of ascertaining the date of their arrival. Thus much, however, may be affirmed with safety, that so far back as authentic lidstory lends its light, the Germanic race has predominated in the British islands.* The journey of ihe Roman knight Julianus from Pan- nonia to the country of the yellow amber made known to the Romans the coasts of the Baltic, in the neighbourhood of the Vistula, while they as yet remained in ignorance of the Oder and other rivers westward as far as the £lbe. The Guttalus of Pliny appears to be the Pregel, and took its name probably from the Guddai, the ancient inhabitants of Prussia, and the Guddones of Pytheas. Beyond this Tacitus places the Fenni, who are also mentioned by Strabo under the name of Zoumi; a name not differing much from that of Suome, which the Fens give themselves. The philosophic historian describes with brevity, but emphatically, the utter barbarism of this people, " without arms, without horses, and without housdiold gods; their food, herbs; skins, their clothing; their bed, the ground : men and women alike supported by the chase; the children, for shelter and security, hidden in the boughs of trees ; which are at once the cradle of the young and the resting-place of the old." On tlie eastern shore of the Baltic Sea were the Matyi, * If the Belgians translated (as it is natural to suppose they did) the Albion or AMoim of the Celts ; if, in short, the B'Itmvwxs} of the Greeks be the BreMan-egge at Brektan-^, Bright itlandi.o{ the German colonists, then there is reason to conclude that the connection <^ the Belgians with the British islands ascends to the time of Aristotle, or the author of the book De Mundo, ascribed to him, in which that name for the first time occurs. BritannitB, in the plural, as used by Catullus, would, if this ety, niology be adopted, be the mbre correct expression. Pliny also (iv. 16.) inl timates as much. I -4. maBstamm 8. GHAP. VI. THE ROMANS. 9'i BOOK I. Df commerce;? orian proceeds rom Britain in ralj that long race had also not, however, cture, besides is true, about 'HheMempii) rapher affords, rrival. Thus y, that so far ^e Grermanic s.* us from Pan- ide known to iighbourhood in ignorance r as the Elbe. Pregel, and the ancient of Pytheas. tio are also »tV a name :h the Fens n describes irbarism of nd without ir clothing; supported security, once the the old." lie JEsipi, ley did) the r the Greeks lan colonists, lelffians with luthorofthe he first time if this ety. • (iv. 16.) in. /^ in manners like the Gc xns, but speaking a language resembling that of Britrisi : they worshipped the mother of the gods, in honour of whom Uiey carried on their per- sons the image of a boar ; a symbol so much respected as to insure the safety of its wearer, even among hostile tribes. In this account it appears that Freya, the Scan- dinavian Venus, to whom the boar (in Sanscrit Var&ha) was dedicated, is confounded with Frigga, the mo- ther of the gods, in the same mythology ; or, perhaps, the authority of Tacitus may serve to prove that those divinities were originally the same. The Mstyi collected amber, to which they gave the name of glesum (the shining), but of which, barbarian like, observes the phi- losophic Roman, they were unable to explain the origin. With more poetic fancy than knowledge of nature, he supposes that precious substance to exude from trees in remote western islands, being liquefied by excessive heat in the immediate vicinity of the setting sun. The Ctm&rt, established in Jutland, or the Cimbrian peninsula, were reduced to a very inconsiderable tribe in the age of Tacitus, who recdls With enthusiasm the memory of their ancient victories; l)ut they still retained their martial fame, and prided themselves in the monuments Df their former glory. The name Cimber, we are in- formed, signified a warrior,* The country which these warriors occupied was called by them Cartris, On the western coast of Jutland was an island called Gleasaria, or the amber island; whence it may be inferred that the Romans obtained some supplies of that precious com- modity from the shores of the Cimbrian peninsula. Pliny is the first writer who mentions Scandinavia : it appeared to him to be an island of unknown extent. The arm of the sea which separates that country from the Cimbrian peninsula, and which resembles '' a great river divided into many branches," was named by him * Plutarch and Festus. iMtronea, that is to say, Moss-troopers, or in the Scottish dialect, Caimper. In the modern Danish, Kiemper means a warrior. The word Cimber, there is reason to believe, was originally Cimmer. The Cimmerians of the Bosphorus, by a natural incorrectness of pronunciation, were also called Cimbrian^ t i 94 OBOORAPHY OF THB ANOIBNTS. BOOKX. I SI ! I I! j Sinus Codanut, that it, the gulf of the Ooth-dane, or Goths of the plain. The island Latrii appears to have been the modem Zealand, where Lethra was the ancient seat of the Danish kings. The mountain called ^etM> by Pliny, and which marked the entrance of the Sintu Codanus, opposite to the promontory of the Cimbri, is easily recognised in Mount Sevo near Gottenburgh. But when we cross the gulf, the knowledge of the Roman author, though it reaches a considerable way, is extremely inaccurate and indistinct. When he tells us that the HeUemoneSy a Scandinavian nation, considered their country as a separate quarter of the globe, we recognise the authenticity of his information in the coincidence of thii* anecdote with the language of the Icelandic sagas, vdiich frequently call Sweden the northern half of the world. But when he enumerates the four islands of Scandia, Dumnos, Bergi, and Nerigon, we are no longer able to distinguish objects so vaguely described. It may be safely concluded, however, that by Ner^on^ ** a great island, the inhabitants of which sailed as far as Thule," we are to understand the modem Norway ; and this is the northern limit of Pliny's geographical knowledge. Tacitus, however, who studied rather the moral cha- racteristics of nations than their local situations, men- tions the Svionee (Sea-men) (a name preserved by the Swedes till the middle ages) as a nation in the ocean, strong by sea as well as by land, comparatively rich, and obeying an absolute monarch. He idso takes notice of the peculiar form of their boats, resembling the northern yawls of the present day, sharp at both ends, and so light as to be easily impelled through the waves by a single pair of oars. Beyond the Sviones, he tells us, is another sea, languid and nearly motionless; and, that it embraces the earth may be collected from the circum- stance that the light of the setting sun continues till the dawn of day with a lustre that eclipses all the stars. Moreover it is said that the noise of that luminary in its path below the ocean can be heard, and that the figures 1 m i i&M OBAP. VI. THB B0MAN8. 95 of the gods can be distinguished, crowned with beams of light. These poetical relations of Tacitus are no ambi^ guous notices of the frozen ocean, and the most striking phenomena of the Aurora Borealis. The Arimphai of Pliny, a tribe inhabiting the Ural mountains, devoted to religious austerities, and looked ttpon as sacred by their neighbours, are evidently the Argippai of Herodotus. They agree also in every cir- cumstance of character with the Agrispai, a people dwelling in Persia, according to Ctesias ; nor is there any difference in the names reported by the two Greek writers, but that required by the analogy of Greek and Persian forms. Whenever the Scythians are mentioned in the pages of an ancient writer, they are sure to be celebrated tax their singular piety as much as for their numbers and martial disposition. The purity of their lives, their frequent fastings, and their tenderness towards tbe lower animals, were all observed with attention and respect.* The frequent occurrence of religious cdibacy among the OettB could' hardly find credit among those Grecians who believed that religious practices are seldom culti- vated without the encouragement of the female sex, and that these are not likely to recommend a life of single* ness to the males, f The Scythians asserted the immor- tality of the soul, not as a philosophical speculation, but as a fundamental doctrine of religion. These grand traits of national character distinguished ihe population of the North from that of Greece and Italy, and proved the primitive integrity of its constitution. For the fer- tile stems of Greek and Roman civilisation sprung from the ruins of ancient systems. This characteristic piety of the Scythians is as old as Grecian history. It is loudly extolled by later writers ; it is implied in the his- tory of the Scythian Zamolxis, the friend and companion of Pythagoras ; it is alluded to by Homer ; and it comes forward to explain, in some measure, the character of the thrice-born Aristsus, who stands on the threshold of • Scymni Chii. fragm. t Strabo. Iil (^ OEOORAPHY OF THB ANCIENTS. BOOK I.. the age of fabte. The praise of exemplary piety, uni- formly bestowed by the Greek writers, from the remotest •ages, on all the wandering tribes to which they gave the name of Scythians, serves to prove the original relation- ship of tho&e nomad nations, and to carry back their di^sation, the simple and stationary civility, indeed, of patriarchal society, to an age anterior to that of Greece. The Scythians were also remarked by the Greeks for the fineness of their habiliments, for their loose robes, either figured or pure white, and their ornaments of gold and silver. The knowledge of the ancients never reached suffi- ciently far in the North to enable them to correct thdr erroneous supposition regarding the insularity of Scan- dinavia. Ptolemy, who wrote a century later than Pliny, appears to describe the north of Europe from sources anterior to the latter writer, and makes lio men- tion either of the Sviones or of the island of Nerigon. Tlie acquaintance, however, of the Romans with the numerous tribes of the Grerman nation, was daily growing more intimate : they learned to respect the determined valour of those whom they regarded as barbarians; and from the contemplation of a social system, diflfering widely from their own, they derived lessons far more .important than mere geographical details. To become acquainted with the earth is to open a volume of varied instruction. The Greeks, in the flourishing period of their republics, contrasted with their own vigour the impotent magnificence of the Persian king : the Romans, on the other hand, when their liberty was gone, when their annals were stained by repeated examples of im- perial cruelty and excess, viewed with eager admiration the uncorrupted manners of a free people. The grand features which distinguished the character and constitu- tion of the German nation are delineated by Tacitus with the hand of a master ; but these details lie beyond the compass of the present work. All the important acquisitions made to geography by the Rpman arms were in the North; their victorious ti OH A p. VX. THE ROMANS. 9t generals, indeed, penetrated in other directions beyond die boundaries of the empire ; but the accounts ivhich remain to us of those expeditions contain but a barren catalogue of names, or descriptions totally devoid of moral interest. Of this nature is the account trans- mitted to us by Pliny of the march of Cornelius Balbus into the interior of Africa, an enterprise so bold and hazardous in itself, as to awaken our regret that our only knowledge of it should be derived from so inade* quate a notice. That general appears to have commenced his march from the territory of Tripoli ; directing his course south- ward, he crossed the desert into Phazania, the modem Fezzan. " We have subdued," says Pliny, " Phaxania and its two cities Alele and Cillaba (Selbat), as well as Cydamua (Gadamis). From Cydamuij a chain of moun- tains runs eastward, called the Black Mountains : be- yond these are deserts, and afterwards MatelgcB or Taiga, a town of the Garamantes; the celebrated fountain Debris, and Qarama the capital of the nation. All these countries have been conquered by the Roman armies : Cornelius Balbus triumphed over them." The Garama of the Romans is evidently Germa to the south-east of Fezzan, and Alele probably occupied the same site as Morzouk at the present day. The Tabidium of Balbus, his Tapsagum and Disceri, all coincide nearly with the Taboo or Tibedoo, the Tagazi and Djezr of modem travellers. The village of Negligemela, in which the houses were built of salt, was probably in the salt desert of Bilma ; the name itself is evidently the Arabic ex- pression Nedged-al-maila, or country of salt. In the same manner the river Nafhabur of tfie Romans may be supposed to have been the Nar'Thabou, or river of Ta- boo. Having crossed the Black Mountains, at present called the Mountains of Tibesti, Balbus entered the coun« try of Thube or Tibboo. Farther on, the names otBoin and Dannagi seem to surest to us (but with very faint probability) the countries of Bomou and Dongola. On the western confines of these countries terminated VOL. I. H i !']l OIOORIPHT or TBI AN0XBNT8. aooBL the discoveries of Cornelius Balbus^ who, it is evident, never crossed the desert which separates the Tibboos from the country of the Niger. Pliny also briefly alludes to the expedition of Suetonius PaiUinus, who, setting out from Lixus, the limit of the Roman empire on the western coast of Africa, reached Mount Atlas in ten days' march, and advancing a few miles beyond it, in a desert of dark-coloured sand met a river which he sup- posed to be the Niger. This river was, probably, the Gyr of Segelmessa; but so great was the ignorance of. the ancients with regard to the true dimensions of Africa, that they could easily suppose a connection between the Niger and the streams running southwards from Mount Atlas, which were separated from, that river by the whole breadth of the Great Desert. The very unsatisfactory account which Pliny, on the authority of king Juba, gives of the courses of the Nile and Niger, makes us regret that we do not possess the 'original volume of that learned Mauritanian, or rather those valuable documents from which he professed to derive his information, the Carthaginian annals. But the errors of the Roman author are not without instruc- tion: for when Pliny informs us that the lake NiliB, abounding in crocodiles like the Nile, is situated not far from the Western Ocean ; that the river flowing from it towards the east sinks into the desert, and runs for many days' journey under ground ; that after emerging, and hiding itself a second time in a subterranean course, it rises at length from the source called NigriSj and di« viding Africa from Ethiopia, takes the name of Astaptte, one of the chief branches of the Nile : when he makes this ill-arranged statement, it is easy to perceive that the relations of the Carthaginians, who probably maintained some correspondence with the nations inhabiting the country of the Niger, were perverted by those who had no such authentic sources of information. The rivers of the interior were known to Pliny from the Cartha- ginian writers ; but the violent hypotheses which con- nected them with the Nile were evidently the fruits of OBAT. VI. TBB ROMAXS. 99 a later age^ when theoretical speculations predominated^ and direct intercourse with the interior was at an end. It is obviously an error, therefore, to suppose with many writers, that the Roman armies penetrated to the Niger, or that they ever advanced so far southwards as the sources of the Aataput, or Nile of Abyssinia, which Pliny, by a sin- gular mistake, connects wiUi the rivers of western Africa. It was not till a comparatively late period that the Roman geographers obtained any certain know- ledge of islands in the Atlantic. Sertorius, while an exile in Spain, received an account of two islands to the west of Libya, of great fertility, and formed by na- ture to be the refuge of die unfortunate. In the dis- tressful situation of his affairs such a belief was easily entertained. About twenty years later. Statins Sebosus collected at Gades all the information he could obtain respecting those western isles. King Juba, also, made enquiries respecting them, and learned the names of six. It is, at first sight, difficult to reconcile the accounts of the Roman and the Mauritanian with one another, or with that of Ptolemy; but there is still such a trace of agreement between them in their mode of arranging the islands, as leads to a complete explanation of all diffi- culties. The concurrence of their statements may be seen in the following table, in which the names of the islands are arranged in the order observed by the re- spective authors : ~ Sebosus. Junonia PlutaUa JvBA. Ptolemy. Modern Name. — — — Aprositos Junonia parva Junonia Ombrias Pluitalia Junonia . Capraria Casperia Allegranza Clara Lancerote Lobo Forteventura. " there Capraria "Beyond the Fortunate Isles" says Pliny, are others;" and of these he mentions two, Nivaria and Canaria, Teneriffe and Canary, which had been pre- viously named by Juba, and were doubtless the Convallis and P/any/8a»o/»S§bosaR.^,^ ' - <•;''' .'.r ;'• (' I I i »s' • • • C I* J i ■ * * "a a ', ,. 100 OEOGRAPHT OF THB ANCIENTS. BOOK I. Thus it appears that the Hesperides, or Fortunate Isles, of the ancient geographers, were the most easterly of the group now called the Canaries. They are ranged in a line running parallel to the coast of Africa, and are situated about half way between the continent and the great islands, Canary and Teneriffe, which, although named, were probably never visited by the ancients. CHAP. VII. DISCOVERY OF THE MONSOONS. III?PALUS.— INCREASED TRADE WITH INDIA. — COURSE PUR- SUED. — PERIPLUS OF ARRIAM. —HIS ACCURATE ACCOUMT OF I THE INDIAN PENINSULA. But, towards the East, a discovery was made in the age of Pliny, by an obscure individual, of far greater importance to geography and commerce than the tern-' porary routes laid open into barbaroui: countries by the hardihood and ambition of the Roman generals. The regularity of the monsoons, or periodical winds, which, in the seas between Africa and India blow during pne half of the year from the south-west, and during the other from the south-east, with little deviation, could not have long escaped the attention of the Arabian navi- gators. No advantage, however, was taken of this striking phenomenon ; for among an uncultivated people time operates slowly in maturing the details of partial experience into acknowledged principles. The Greeks, however, soon learned to estimate its importance. We have seen that the voyage of £udoxus to India ori- ginated in the circumstance of an Indian vessel being driven upon the coast of Africa by the prevalence of the easterly monsoon: Eudoxus himself, on his return to Egyp^ij was forced *tpo, far to the,"• < « '} U I or Fortunate most easterly ey are ranged frica, and are inent and the ich, although ancients. CnAP. VII. DISCOVERY OF THB MONSOONS. 101 -COURSC PUR" B ACCOUNT OF nade in the F far greater an the tern-' itries by the lerals. The inds, which, during pne during the ition, could rabian navi- ren of this ^ated people s of partial ^he Greeks, ance. We India ori- essel being ence of the return to the same wind. Jambolo, on the other hand, was said to have been carried by the westerly monsoon from Africa to Ceylon ; and again in the reign of the emperor Claudius, a freed-man of Annius Plocamus, employed in collecting the revenues of Arabia, was driven in like manner to the same island. It appears to have been about the same time, or perhaps a little later (A.D. 50), that Hippalus, an enlightened navigator, considering the steadiness of the periodical wind to be an invariable law of nature^ ventured boldly to quit sight of land, to track an un- known course across the ocean, and confide in the stead- fast favour of a rude and proverbially fickle element. The success of this experiment soon effected a complete revolution in the course of the Indian trade, which Pliny assures us was only in its infancy in his time. Vessels from Berenice, in the Re I Sea, now reached Cana, on the southern coast of Arabia, in thirty days ; and then steering across the ocean, in forty days more arrived at Muziris, or some other port of India, whence they set sail to return as soon as ^e wind shifted, so as to com- plete the voyage to India and back again within the twelvemonth. The gratitude of the Greeks, by a judi- cious compliment, gave the name of Hippalus to the summer, or south-western, monsoon. The particulars of the trade with the East, and the course followed by the vessels engaged in it, are pre- served to us in a short but valuable work, the Periplus of the firythrean sea, written by one Arrian, supposed to have been a merchant of Alexandria. The age of tliis work cannot be positively fixed; but some of the ablest scholars are inclined to consider Arrian as a con- temporary of Pliny; the Periplus, therefore, on this supposition, must be assigned to the second half of the first century of our era. The fleets bound to India from Egypt, having passed the straits of Babelmandel, first touched at Aden, a place of commercial importance from the earliest ages. They then coasted Arabia Felix, as far as Canay the position of which is fixed by D'Anville, merely from resemblance H 3 103 oioonAFBT or thb avcbk,^ boMp«J«aon. likely tJh«*l!r.V'"^,?r ^"^' • «• «".ch .t once ,c™« r "'*''"'''^»«'n«rin" «nanie given by the oieei. 5^ •v**,-°f«'». •'*«,«,) doe. not .ppe„ ^ h»TiZ TLT" '^ ** ^"''". "■e tinie of Ale«nder UH^ 2^ ^ ««»««» W enew : but the Greek, were-.n'"" "' *« P<>«<»- nch .nd populou. "untrirto f, ".""S'""^ "'* ** They knew 4he Gulf of S^cl« r* "^ *«riT«- C««oh ; U,e 8«„cri, woS ^L^'' «'"?«« the bay of Pre-sion cutcA, both ri^M,^'!''^ *« modem «. chief emporia fenlioZZ^^- ^mong .he (Baroatch), in the Gulf rf cLiJ^™V. "«« ifarwxwa Ougein, in Malwa; Td ^l™"^?' °*'»*' "<"' c»Iled near those of EUore,^*!-^^' ** ™*"' "^ "Weh are dem Aurungab^i. :Se fln^^ ' r°" «"» '^ *e mo! ^oyam we4 conveyS^ %* * ?"*"' »»^ <*in««e. of 2"""^ (« P'^ent^^t^JehV "STk"' **" "^J'- «» days more, to a,;^,,^ ?f ^'i "d *ence, in twenty" •nd lofty mountrins. i^'ft^^™!' f"?*' »"" '*4 '0^ we have a di.ti„c^noaceT^B^*'~ "•"'"^ Proceeding to the «r..Vrt. a • * **•«««»«.. other placea.'Wi^. Tt i^?" T^'"""' "»ong but a few centuries agi was 1 l^,f '(.Bombay, which t? 4e «,uA, a,e X of S„^ *''""'• farther V"^S and this lM«l chfJT*- "" "''«"ed with changed, f^n, the tiCof fe'*?,f 1 """tinued un- I«t century, when Ae extend™ „f .f^"^*"-"* '^ the ^ong the coasts of MdaW^„Lw,?** *'*"* I"''^ those mnitime depredaUoM 7nT^ ?"' » ^d u, Greek, place Pala^n^'or rT ?* '''?'* «»"t the or town of BaB. ^ „me o^^ *? «^"<"^. which are stiU Preserved. ^*?^'^' ** ""'es of icwirw, the great mart to OIIAP. VII. DISCOVERY OP THE MONSOONS. 103 which the Greek fleets steered direct from Cape Garde- fUi, is supposed by some to have occupied the site of the modem Mangalore, while others {i^ce it at Miz;isouh. The name of the Aii, the ancient inhabitants of Malabar, is still preserved in that of Aycotto, near Cranganoor. Pliny places on this coast the mountain Maleut; hence it might be concluded that the indigenous race were named Mal-ayet, or Mountaineers, in ancient times^ as they are at the present day. At Muziris the Greek merchants met the traders Arom the East, and not having any occasion to proceed further along the coast, the minute accuracy of their information terminates at this point. Yet some may have occasionally ventured to navigate the seas to the eastward of the peninsula ; and the reports of these, added to the rela« tions of the natives, extended the geography of the Greeks as far as commercial intercourse existed in the East, that is, to China ; for the error of those commentators must be careAiIly avoided, who studiously confine the know- ledge of the Greeks to the countries which they actually visited, and make no allowances for hearsay information. Yet their picture of the East grows gradually more vague and imperfect as we advance from Muziris, until it at length terminates in names of places obviously learned at second-hand, and accompanied with such palpably erroneous indications of position as do not merit the slightest attention. Arrian mentions Cape Comar (Comorin), so called from Caumari, the Virgin, and beyond it were the Colchi, or Coliaci. As these occupied a coast rendered im- portant by the pearl-fishery, it is evident that they were situated near Ramana-Koil, or the temple of Ram, where the richest pearl-fishery in the world is carried on. Taprobane, or Ceylon, is described by our author as being at a distance of six days' sail from the main- land ; an error which proves how little that island was resorted to by the Greeks. Following the coast of Coromandel, we find obscurity increasing at every step ; yet the Greeks were acquainted B 4 lillHli I I 104 OBOORAPHT OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK!. with the river Chabaris,t)ieCa\ery of Uie present day^ and the M(B8olu», or Kistnah, the ancient name of which is still preserved in that of Masulipatam, a town situated at its mouth. Farther to the north were the Hippiaprosopoi, orhorse>faced people (the i^«u;a-mtic'Aa« of the Hindoos), the Macrocephali and other monsters : these occupied the coai t of Orissa, which has been in all ages the least civilisen' part of India. The Ganges, the greatest riv«r of India, is next mentioned, and the Indian name Patala, or, r ~. Ptolemy writes it, Passah, that is, the lower re- gion, is correctly applied to the country round its mouth. Beyond this point Arrian gives no topographical details; but we are not justified on that account in limiting the stretch of his hearsay information. Arrian always speaks like a merchant, and carefully notes an island, situated beyond the golden Chersonese, under the rising sun, and pitducing the finest tortoise-shdil in the world. His account of the trade with the Chinese will be related farther on. H. titf*>. ii\ii- ;-4 »i .. ..' > \ i CHAP. vni. PTOLEMY. 105 CHAP. VIII. PTOLEMY. INCBKASED IKTERCOITRSE OF NATIONS UNDER THE ROMANS. •— ABVANTAOES ENJOYED BT FTOLEMT. AFFLIES THE MEASURES OF LONGITUDE AND LATITUDE. — HIS ERRORS. DISPLAYS AN ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE CASPIAN STEFFES. PROGRESS WESTWARD OF THE SCYTHIAN NATIONS. THEIR ORIGIN. — TOWNS ON THE RIVER NIGER. — PTOLEMY's ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE EAST. HIS FREQUENT REPETITIONS. SUPPOSED THE CONTINENTS OF ASIA AND AFRICA TO UNITE IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN. — THE SINJE AND THE SERES MUST HAVE BEEN THE CHINESE. -^ THE SILK TRADE. ALLUSION TO THE TATARS. THE STONE TOWER IN THE BELURTAG. TESTIMONIES OF THE CHINESE WRITERS. — ROMAN EMBASSY TO CHINA. ^ THE NAME OF SILK. — OF CHINA. -^ ANTI- QUITY OF THE TRADE WITH CHINA. — MERITS OF PTOLEMY. — CONCLUSION. The victories of the Romans achieved the grand project which had been first conceived by the genius of Alex- ander. The numerous and distant nations compre- hended within tlie wide limits of the Roman empire communicated together as members of the same great body, and learned to estimate the advantages of mutual intercourse. The work of union was promoted by the cares of a vigilant and liberal administration. Great roads were constructed traversing the empire in all di- rections ; a common language was difAised ; and, in short> the chief obstacles, both natural and moral, to the easy and intimate correspondence of foreign nations, wer# either totally brcken down or rendered much less insurtri mountable. How far the growth of the imperial power and the gradual extinction of liberty in the Roman world, was connected with the decline of literature and the arts, or whether the extension of the Roman power was conducive to the civilisation of mankind, are ques- tions which lie beyond the compass of this work. But certain it is that the causes, whatever they were, to which. Vie must ascribe the general declension of taste^ did not 106 OEOORAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK X. at all impede the progress of geography. This science^ depending for its growth almost wholly on the accu- mulation of facts, continually profited from experience, unaffected by the sinister influence of political corrup- tion ; and its progress appears to have been particularly rapid between the Augustan age, when Strabo wrote, and that of the Antoninus, in which Ptolemy flourished, and when the Roman empire was already on the verge of decay. Ptolemy was bom at Pelusium in Egypt in the seven- tieth year of the Christian era, and lived till the middle of the following century : his residence in Alexandria, at that time the centre of an immense commerce, contri- buted, with the other circumstances of his age, to procure him that abundance of topographical information which is so conspicuous in his writings. He professes to de- rive his details chiefly from the itineraries of merchants; but it is difficult at the present day to form an adequate idea of the copiousness of his materials from the few geographical treatises which have escaped the wreck of antiquity. The Romans were by no means remiss in ac- quiring a local knowledge or in profiting from the trade of their subject nations. It is an error to believe that that haughty people were averse to mercantile pursuits. The Latin classics make frequent allusion to the enor- mous wealth of the Roman merchants, and history bears testimony to their spirit of adventure. The midtitude of Romans, or Italici generis homines, taken by Jugurtha in Zama ; the hundred thousand put. to death by Mithri- dates in Asia Minor; and the Italian merchants massacred in Gaul at Genabtm (Orleans) a few years later, evince that the Romans were impelled abroad by the love of gain as well as of conquest. The opportunities thus ofiered of acquiring geogra- phical information were zealously cultivated by the learned of the age; and many valuable works were con- sulted by Ptolemy of which we must deplore the loss. A complete survey of the Roman empire was executed by order of Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus. Pliny OHAP. VIII. PTOLEMT. 107 wrote a history of Germany; Seneca an account of India, in which (if we may judge of it from the fragments pre- served in Pliny) he entered into very minute statistical details. The writings of king Juba also appear to have been rich in the fruits of geographical as well as anti- quarian research. But the course of events continually opened the world more and more to examination : the wars of Trajan with the Daci ; his expeditions into Parthia and Arabia, were all attended with the explor- ation of countries hut little known before. Then the peace- ful reigns of Adrian and of the Antonines, whose wise administrations reaped all the benefits of Trajan's activity. Ptolemy, whose manhood commenced with the reign of this great prince, and whose life closed in the tenth year of Antoninus Pius, had the good fortune to live in that age, which, if we were to confine our attention to the general spread of information and the activity of com- merce, might, perhaps, be deemed the most prosperous and flourishing of Roman history. It is no wonder, therefore, that his geographical writings should bear abundant evidence of a more intimate acquaintance with foreign countries. Yet it is not to his more perfect acquaintance with the earth that Ptolemy owes his reputation as a geogra- pher, so much as to his having been the first to adopt a general system of fixing the position of places. He in- troduced the measures of longitude and latitude, or at ' least he was the first to give them celebrity and univer- sal application. By thus fixing the multitudinous and unconnected details of geography on the basis of mathe- matics, he gave to the former science a unity and a solidity which it was incapable of ever attaining with- out that fortunate alliance. But his invention (if, to avoid discussion, we aUow it to have been his,) was not one o»f those which startle mankind by its boldness, or which seem to anticipate the ordinary progress of ages to come. On the contrary, it was, perhaps in a higher degree than any other valuable discovery, the fruit of long experience, gathered with little effort, at the last stage of a lingering 108 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. maturity, protracted far beyond what might have been expected from the vigour of its first bloom. The scarcity of books in ancient times presented a great impediment to the advancement of science. The accumulation of knowledge was far more difficult then than at the present day. Contemporary authors were often ignorant of one another's labours, and this observation applies even to the Augustan age, and to the Alexandrian writers. Hence the extremely slow developement, or the suspended vitality, as it were, so often observable in the germs of important truths among the ancients. Thales taught the sphericity of the earth, yet centuries elapsed before Eratosthenes thought of determining the relative situation of places by means of latitudes ; and after that step was gained, three centuries more passed over, centuries of cultivation and general improvement, before Ptolemy made the obvious mid the requisite addition of measures of longitude. The geography of Ptolemy contains only an enumer- ation or catalogue of places, with the longitudes and latitudes affixed : some observations on his general me- thod, and on the sources of his information, precede the work. Thus he furnishes materials for the construction of a map, which deserves a critical examination, not more on account of its intrinsic merits, than for the great authority it enjoyed during a long succession of ages. ' As Ptolemy derived his information with respect to dis- tances chiefly from itinerary measures, and as these from obvious causes usually exceed the truth, it is no wondeK that his map of the world should exhibit enormous errors, swelling into disproportionate dimensions as we advance . to the north, the south, and particularly the east. The general shape of shores is in like manner but imperfectly known to coasting navigators. The mariner who steers by the land pays little attention to the heavens : the num- ber of curves and sinuosities which he servilely follows bewilder his calculationB ; and he judges of the general contour of the coast only by the relative position of the two points which mark the beginning and termination of his voyage. Hence the flatness and compression of >m i\ CHAP. VIII. PTOLEMY. 1Q9 the coasts in the ancient maps^ the reduction of project- ing landsj and the corresponding gulfs; and this circum- stance^ as it extended into a straight line the measures of a winding course^ contributed in like manner to lengthen hydrographical distances. Ptolemy was misled^ therefore, by fallacies inherent in the nature of his in- formation; and it is not necessary to suppose, with some of the learned, in order to explain his errors, that he copied maps constructed on principles of projection .which he did not understand. Indeed it is hard to con- ceive how projected maps could be drawn without the use of parallels and meridians ; and if these were em- ployed, then there was no possibility of his committing such gross mistakes. These observations on the general character of Ptole- my's geography will supersede the necessity of examin- ing his details at any great length. It will suffice^ in order to estimate the progress of the science, to cast a summary glance over his map, to mark the extent of his information and the magnitude of his errors. Beginning at the north-west, we find Great Britain extended by Ptolemy three degrees too far to the north, althcrugh Scotland is depressed in his map, so as to run from west to east in a direction parallel with the coast of Ger- many, But a great number of places are laid down by him in the British islands with a tolerable relative cor- rectness. The principal towns, the chief rivers and headlands, are almost all mentioned l)y their true indige- nous appellations. In the north of Europe the knowledge of Ptolemy does not extend beyond that of his predecessors ; it ap- pears even to have been wholly derived from authorities anterior to the times of Tacitus and Pliny. He does not mention the Sviones or Swedes; but to the east of Jutland, or the Cimbrian Chersonese^ he places four islands, the largest and most remote of which, called Scania, is evidently intended to represent Sweden ; but his particulars are as usual abundant. He mentions the Danes by the name of Daukiones, softened from their no GEOOBirar OF TBS ANCIENTS. BOOK I. !■ ! ancient appeDation of Daunshir or Daunskion, . He is also the first ancient writer who names the Saxons. The course of the Bha or Volga is described by Pto- lemy with remarkable precision. The windings of the TanaiSj also^ a river which Strabo supposed to flow from north to south, were well understood by the Alexandrian geographer. By correcting the erroneous opinion which supposed a communication between the ocean and the Caspian Sea, he offers another proof of the progress of geography; but instead of following Herodotus in giving this sea its greatest dimensions, from north to south, he lengthens it from west to east ; and this error, together with that of removing it several degrees too far to the eastward, remained on our maps till the beginning of the last century. From the map of Ptolemy we learn the westward m^ch of those great nations, inaccurately combined under the general name of Scythians. The Scythians of Herodotus were driven from the field of history ; and the Sarmatians, (noble Medes, or Men,^ who dwelt, in his time, to the east of the Tanais, now stretched, in sway and name at least, from that river to the Car- pathian mountains. The Alanni inhabited the northern ahores of the Euxine. These were a branch of the Asi, called also Ariani, who descended from the northern valleys of the Belurtag to overturn the Greek kingdom of Bactria, and some centuries later pressed onwards to the north. The Geta, and the DaJuie or Davi, occupied the country on the lower Danube. The original seats of these latter nations were the confines of Persia, and the high lands of Bokhara. In the maps of Ptolemy iheir names are found to the south-eastward of the Caspian Sea. In Europe, they have disappeared in the collective body of the Sclavonian nations. Nor in the most an- cient accounts of the Scythian emigrations does there appear the name of a single tribe entitled, on valid grounds, to rank as the ancestors of the Germans. The Alanni may indeed have had an original affinity with that race, but only a small portion of them penetrated into CHAP. vni. PTOLEMT. Ill Europe beyond the Borysthenes. The Agathyrai, alao, who inhabited the mountains of Transylvania in the time of Herodotus, and who are distirguished by him for their light hair, blue eyes, and apparently for their wealth, seem properly to belong to the German family; and the colonies of Saxon miners, which have been successively planted in the Carpathian mountains by the Sclavonian and Hun- garian possessors of the country, favour the conjecture diat the difficult and ingenious labour of mining had been always carried on there by a German people. But the Sclavonians have always regarded the German nations as forming an allied, though separate, branch of the same great family. If, thei;efore, the Sclavonian tribes have flowed from the country beyond the Oxus, whence have proceeded theii' masculine precursors? Must their origin be sought farther back in situation as in time ? Were they branches of the Comari and Co- mani, the Warriors and Men of the Indian Caucasus, who, together with the Catti, one of the six-and-thirty royal tribes of the Hindoos, have descended from, their original mountain dwellings, and still preserve their ancient Scythian habits in the peninsula of Cattiwar? Were they the Asif that giant nation of antiquity, whose dim shade seems to reach from Ceylon to Scandinavia ? Were they the SacoB, in fine, or the Jits or FuteSy those nomad soldiers of the Tridian frontiers, whose names are equally familiar in the East and West ? * To affirm these hypothetical conjectures would be as presumptuous as to deny them. The general resem- blance of language among what are called the Indo- teutonic nations, the identity of the feudal system, as it existed in its elemental freedom among the Germans and the military mountain tribes of India, the chivalrous respect shown to the female sex, a leading characteristic of the German nation, which now disting-uishes the noble Rajpoots in the East t,—- these and other resemblances * Klaproth (Tabl. Hist, de I'Asie) seems disposed to believe that the an. caters of the Germans were situated farther to the east, in the country af. terwards occupied by the Mongols. t Tod's Hist, of Rahjistan. // I\ lis OEOORAPHY OF THS ANCIENTS. BOOK I. in sentiments and constitution naturally induce the. sup- position that the Germans were originally numbered among the Indo-Scythians^ or warrior tribes of the Hin« doos, at a time, perhaps, when the ruling castes of this great nation had not yet descended from their mountam dwellings to the Ganges. But can the researches of the learned establish, on a historic basis, a relationship ob- scured by the lapse of three thousand years? The kindred origin of the Germans and noble tribes of India neither is nor is likely to be authenticated : but a sup- posed affinity, recalling to mind the indelible nature of some social impressions, which seem, by their resem- blance, to link together nations so widely separated in space and time, is in itself an instructive and agreeable contemplation. Some particulars of the interior of Africa were dis- tinctly known to Ptolemy : he is the first of the ancients who announces with certainty the existence of the river Niger. On the banks of this river, which he describes as flowing from west to east till it terminates in a lake, he places the towns of Tucahathy Nigira, Gana, and jt'anagra : these two appear to be the Ganah and Wan- gara of modem travellers : the claims of the two former to be Timbuctoo and Cashnah are much more ques- tionable. The northern coast of Africa is represented by Pto- lemy nearly as a straight line ; the Gulfs of the Great and Lesser Syrtis almost totally disappearing in his map. This arose from the imperfect nature of observations made by coasting navigators alluded to above. Another more important error, proceeding from the same cause, was the lengthening the Mediterranean Sea no less than twenty degrees beyond its true measure ; and it deserves to be remarked, that this gross incorrectness also re- mained in all our maps till the middle of the last cen- tury. But Ptolemy's longitudinal measures continually stretched out into egregious excess in advancing towards the East, so that he places the mouth of the Ganges forty-six degrees to the eastward of its true position, ^nd CHAP. VIII. PTOLBBfY. lis thus commits an error of distance amounting to more than a thousand leagues, or the eighth part of the cir* cumference of the glohe. A voyage to India was con- sidered by him in no other sense than as a voyage to the East ; and he appears to have thought that a ship, sailing from the Indus to Cape Comorin, and thence to the Ganges, held a uniform easterly course. Hence the error of removing the mouth of the Ganges so far from its true place was naturally accompanied by the other error of totally suppressing the Indian peninsula; in place of which we find, in the map of Ptolemy, a line of coast running nearly west and east, and sufficiently indented to afford room for the indication of the numerous local positions with which he was provided. But the most remarkable portion of Ptolemy's geo- graphy is that which treats of the countries lying to the east of the Ganges. He gives, as usual, a copious list of towns, rivers, and headlands ; but it would be tedious to repeat after him the names of places, of whose position we are unable to offer a satisfactory explanation. His Crolden Chersonese stretches to the equator; and the pirate country, which he places there, as well as the city of Malayucolonf (or Western Malays, in the modem Ian- guage of the Indian seas,) render it probable that he intended to represent by it the island of Sumatra, the southern portion of which is the original country of that maritime people. Beyond this golden country he places the Magnus Sinus, or Great Gulf, which ascends as high as the latitude of the Ganges. On the eastern side of this gulf he fixes the city of Thince, immediately uiider the equator, and 180 degrees to the east of the Fortunate Isles : Cattigara, the port of Thinee, situated eight de- grees to the south of the equator, is tb ^ limit of his knowledge in this quarter ; but he supposed the land to run still further to the south, and then turning westward to form a junction with the African continent, so that the known world of Ptolemy terminated towards the east and south in a terra incognita of indefinite extent. This idea of uniting Africa with the remote part of Asia VOL. I. I 114 GEOGRAPHY OP THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. appears to have been borrowed from Indian geopp'aphers, who are fertile in absurdities ; and the name Hippado», by which Ptolemy designates the sea thus inclosed^ is apparently the Indian expression Up'abdhi, the inferior or inner sea. But, notwithstanding the grossness of his errors, the '< \ reputation of Ptolemy as a geographer is vindicated by the abundance and general correctness of his particulars. ' It is quite astonishing, indeed, what a multitude of places he was acquainted with in every part of the world, and (what is more important, as indicating the sources of his* information, and the brisk communication existing be- tween foreign nations in his time,) with what accuracy he was enabled to report in general the native nanies : his improvement in this respect, as far as regards the names in Indian geography, is very remarkable. Thus, for example, the rivers of the Penjab, called by Arrian the Hyphasis and Hydaspes, are changed by Ptolemy into Bipasis and Bidaspes, so as to resemble more closely the Sanscrit names Beypasha and Bidasta. The Hy- draotes and Saranges of other Greek writers he alters into Rhuadis and Zadadrus, in Sanscrit Irawutti and Shatooder, Similar corrections are manifest in his no- menclature of the interior and even on the coast, where, for example, he changes the Palaipatmai of Arrian into Batepatna, a true Indian name. Yet it is evident that for information respecting the shores and islands, he sometimes relied too exclusively on the loc^ knowledge of Arabian mariners. Thus, the mountain Galihi in Taprobane, like the Calpe of the West, may be suspected of being a general expression (^Gebel, a mountain, in Arabic,) not properly applied to any mountain in parti- cular. The Sabadim also are obviously eastern islands^ of which it is impossible to determine the precise situation. The Jabadiim, however, can hardly be any other than Java: his islands of satyrs and of anthropophagi merit little attention ; but the precision with which he affects to fix the number of the Maldives and Laccadives at 1378 deserves to be remarked. The copious materials oiiAP. vin. PTOLEMY. 115 which he appears to have possessed for the geography of the Indian seas, contrasted with his grossly erroneous delineation of that quarter of the globe, illustrate the activity of commerce and navigation in tlie East, as com- pared with the progress of geographical science in the western world. It must be admitted that the geographical work of Ptolemy, notwithstanding the reputation it eiyoyed for centuries, bears few marks of ability : it is, in fact, an extremely full compilation, evidently made from authentic sources, and collecting in one view the experience of ages ; but the want of acuteness in the compiler, or his disin- genuous desire to hide his ignorance at the expense of truth, is discoverable in the frequent repetitions of which he is guilty. Thus, by mentioning many places twice over, he appears to be acquainted with a great extent of country on the western coast of Africa. The nations of Numidiay in like manner, all re-appear on the banks of the Niger: many of the Scythian nations, as the Massa- get€B, Comari or Comani, Tapuri, &c. appear double in his map ; and in the Indian seas we find his silver and golden regions, or peninsulas, accompanied by silver and golden islands, so as to satisfy in the fullest manner the ambiguous Arabic expression, (for Gezirah, in Arabic, sig- nifies both a peninsula and an island,) through which he probably received his information. By the side of his Tricadiba, or Trinity island, he places a Tricanesia, which is but a translation of the former ; and, in general, his Greek names, when found beyond the just domains of the Greek language, must be looked upon with sus- picion as unnecessary intruders. The least defensible portion of Ptolemy's geography is that which relates to the south-eastern extremity ot Asia; yet it is the portion which modern learning and ingenuity have been at most pains to justify and apply. He placed Thince, as w^e have seen, at the borders of his hemisphere, 180 degrees from the Fortunate Islands, and immediately under the equator; the port Cattigara, or : r^'.lVi, I 2 J16 OEOORAPHT or TBB ANCIENTS. BOOK I. Caita-ghur*f lay eight degrees farther to the south. If those positions be sought in our maps^ they will be found in the Pacific Ocean, near the group called Solomon's Islands. Yet it has been maintained, that by Thina we are to understand Tenaserim, according to some, or Siam, according to others. Mergui, the most northern port of the Malayan peninsula, is, at the same time, supposed to be the Cattigara of Ptolemy. The eminent geo* graphers t who thus labour to contract the knowledge of Ptolemy within a narrow compass, and to cut him off from any acquaintance with the Chinese in the souths also endeavour to prove that the Seret of the north, from whose country silk was procured, were the inhabitigits of Thibet. The excuse offered for his error in making Africa unite with eastern Asia, that his information ter- minated at points where these continents had a direction towards each other, is too frivolous to deserve attention. Ptolemy was evidently imbued with the love of system : like ingenious modems, he was unable to leave any ques- tion undecided, and found it easier to adopt a Hindoo dogma than to confess his ignorance. A review of the geographical writers who preceded Ptolemy, and of the events of his age, will clearly evince that he must have been acquainted with the Chinese, and that we must recognise as such the Seres and the Sinect to tin, the question is simple as far as relates to atmber. This article, in the time of Pliny, was brought from the Baltic to Italy, through Pannonia. It was extremely common in the north of Italy, where the women wore it in necklaces as an amulet to prevent goitres. It was also collected on the western shores of Jutland, and carried to Italy, probably through Gaul. Now there is reason to believe that it reached the south of Europe by the same routes at least six centuries be- fore the time of Pliny. The existence of a trade across Europe at a very early age is attested by the tradition of a sacred road over the Alps, leading from Italy through Celtica and Celto- Liguria. There was also a tradition, supported by many collateral indications, of a trade between the Adriatic and Ei.xir pej>.s. We know from Greek writers that there was <. i^ e road from Illyria into Italy. The fabulous Cv r,..cotion of electron, or amber, with the river Eridanus occurs at an early age in Grecian poetry : whe- ther that stream be transferred by JEschylus to Gaul or Iberia, or be conducted by Euripides into the Adriatic, tlie Heliades, weeping for the lost Phaeton, still shed tears of amber on its billows. Whence, then, this poetic connection of amber with the river Po ? It admits of an easy and natural explanation. Eridanus, it has been seen, was a general term signifying, very probably, the distant river, or river beyond. Herodotus had heard that it flowed into the northern ocean. The Veneti dwelt not far from this northern Eridanus, which is by some supposed, on slender grounds however, to be the Rhadune that flows near Riga. The amber collected near the mouth of this river was carried by those Veneti to the Veneti of the Adriatic, from whom it passed forward to the Greeks. These, therefore, considered the country of the latter people to be that which produced the amber; and having connected the name of that article, electron, with the name Eridanus, they consequently conferred tliis foreign title on the Po. As far back, then, as the legendary connection between the Eridan' s and the K 4 -*.- 136 GEOORAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. sisters of Phaeton^ we may conclude that the amber trade was carried on through the head of the Adriatic. Hence the early geographers of Greece placed the Electndes, or amber islands, at the mouth of the Po ; that the road through Liguria reached Marseilles^ and diverted from it a portion of the tin trade also^ may be collected from the tradition which placed a Cassiteris, or tin island, among v the amber islands of the Po. The share which the Li- gurians had in the amber trade may be coi\)ectured from the name Lyncurion borne by that substance. Theo- phrastus related that Lyncurion, or amber^ was dug from the earth in Liguria ; and observed that it attracted not merely light bodies but even brass and iron. The Ro- mans first explored the route over-land from Pannonia to the Baltic in the reign of Nero ; but the amber trade had evidently long before that time flowed through re- gular channels. The Germans^ who collected the amber, told the Roman merchants that the Gr<;eks esteemed' most highly the kind called Macatos, by which we are probably to understand that they valued it for its sixe, in Greek, megathos. Pytheas, about four centuries be- fore Pliny, bears testimony to the existence of an amber trade in the Baltic ; and as he was said to have extended his voyage eastward to the Tanais, it is not unreasonable to suppose that a communication was opened in his time with the north by the Greek settlers in the Euxine, who in the days of Herodotus had already penetrated a long way into the interior. But this great historian himself gives weighty evidence in favour of the land-trade of Europe, when he tells us expressly that tin and amber are brought from the remotest countries of the north, while at the same time he questions *the existence of a western ocean, and emphatically declares that he never met with a person who had seen it. * Hence it appears that commerce and geography are much less indebted to the Phoenicians than is generally imagined : the navigators of that nation are looked upon as forming in early times the only bands of communica- • Herod. Hi. c. 115. -1 CHAP. IX. THE COMMERCE OF THE ANCIENTS. 137 tion in Europe, and as the authors of every ancient geographical tradition. But although the Phoenicians long preceded the Greeks in the arts of navigation and in com- mercial enterprise, yet their system of trade must have been necessarily moulded by those circumstances of the times ivhich even in later ages, when comparative security existed, checked the long voyages of coasting navigators. The richly-laden merchant ships of the Homeric age must have met with Cyclops and Leestrygons at every anchor- age. The adventurous spirit of a nation of mariners soon carried the Phoenicians abroad through the West ; but it would be hazardous to maintain that the colonies settled by them ever formed the links of a continuous chain of correspondence. It is possible that they may have stimulated the trade of the West ; but there is no reason to believe them its creators or sole upholders. In fine, the existence of a direct trade between Phoenicia and the western shores of Europe is not only without historical evidence, but when examined narrowly is also without likelihood. Yet few opinions so intrinsically weak have been so generally and so fully adopted as that of a great trade once carried on by the Phoenicians in the Western Ocean. The want of evidence is supposed to be explained by the jealousy with which that people concealed the state secret of their navigations, as if it were not as difficult to conceal the truth as to discover it. The favour which this opi- nion enjoys is not hard to be accounted for : the inter- position of a nation so mysterious in their movements is often usefid to solve the difficulties and to fill up the chasms of historical information. Besides, all seems dark in antiquity beyond the circle partially illumined by the light of letters ; and the agency of a trading people like the Phoenicians was naturally magnified, be- cause it was supposed to operate singly anu unassisted. The supposition of some traffic and communication between the various tribes scattered over Europe in the earliest ages, however natural and even inevitable such in- tercourse may have been, is too little imposing and too C 138 OEOORAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. purely rational to contend with the hypothesis of early proficiency in the Phoenicians. The human mind pre- fers the contemplation of visible agents associated with the ideas of power^ magnitude^ and antiquity^ to the belief of obscure movements^ detected only by the scrutiny of reason. v.- II CHAP. X. MTTHXO OEOORAPHY OF THE HINDOOS^ AND ITS CON- NECTION WITH GRECIAN MYTHS. MOUNT MBRU.^ THE SEVEN BWIPAS OR ISLANDS. — THE QUAR- TERS OF THE HEAVENS, HOW NAMED. THE WHITE ISLAND OF THE WEST : ITS TRIFLE NATURE. GOLD, SILVER, AND IR^N MOUNTAINS. —THE COUNTRT OF THE SUN AND MOON. AUSPICIOUS EPITHETS. •— WIDE DIFFUSION OF THIS BELIEF.— NUMEROUS WHITE SEAS. — WHITE ISLANDS OF THE OREEKf* TRINACRIAS AND ISLANDS OF THE HAPPT. — HECATE AND TRIPLE DIVINITIES OF THE WEST. — HESPERIA. THE HT- PERBOREANS KNOWN GENERALLY AMONG THE INDO-TEU- TONIC NATIONS. — TRADITION OF AN ATLANTIS OR VirESTERN ISLAND. HINDOO GE0GRAPH7 OF THE EAST. — LANDS OF GOLD, SILVER, AND BRASS : MISLED PTOLEMT. — FANCHAA. —-THESE LEGENDS STILL PRESERVED IN INDIA AND IN THE WEST. THEIR INFLUENCE. Though the Hindoos possess some treatises on geo- graphy, yet their language^ it is said^ does not possess a term to express that useful branch of knowledge. The temper of the Brahminical religion is opposed to every kind of mental acquirement of too practical a character to be wholly appropriated by the religious caste. In the PurandSj or Hindoo sacred poems, there occur many wild systems of cosmology mingled with partial notices of neighbouring nations, alike intrinsically worthless: for what instruction can be derived, in the history of geography, from systems which represent the earth as a lotus flower floating on the surface of the ocean, with Mount Meru rising from the centre as an umbel ; or ^from those which describe it as composed of seven, eight. OHAP. X. HTTHIO 0&6(3BAPBT OF THB HUCOOOS. 159 geo- Isess a The ivery •acter the lany Kices less: jy 0^ las a nth or or nine concentric circles (for these diflfer in number in the doctrines of different sects) placed round that holy mountain, while the sea between them^ mysteriously connected, flows in a spiral line, like the Styx of Grecian mythology ? But among those extr.' w^ar- of sup^^titious far^v. some occasional gleams ^i an ai;> intance with Eurc^ 'j and still further, numerous allusions to an abode of bliss or imaginary land of peace and happiness, deserve a moment's attention. That myths of this kind should be common to India with Greece and other western na- tions will not surprise those who reflect on the affinity existing between the languages of India and those of Europe. A derivation from a common stock, no matter how remote, will suffice to explain a resemblance between the most widely separated nations in matters so adhesive as the legends of superstition. But independent of all the evidence which may be collected by the philologer and antiquarian to illustrate the migrations which have taken place from Asia into Europe, it is obvious that the commerce carried on from the earliest ages between Eu- rope and the East would be necessarily attended with an influx of myths from India, a country as prolific of religious reveries as it is overflowing with riches and population. All the Hindoo geographical systems place Mount Mem in the centre of the ear^ : this wonderful moun- tain is described to be 84,000 yojans high, 32,000 wide at the top, and only 1 6,000 at the bottom. Some sects, however, believe it to resemble an erect pyramid j some make it cubical, and others drum-shaped. At equal disr tances from Mount Meru, to the north and south, are usually ranged chains of mountains (from seven to nine in number) all glittering with the gorgeous embellish- ments of Indian fancy; some are of gold; others of precious gems, and shining like 10,000 suns. But these descriptions belong only to the central portion of the earth which is surrounded by the salt sea. The Dwipas or islands (literally between two waters'), which lie beyond 140 OEOGRAPHT OF TUfi ANCIENTS. BOOK I. the salt sea^ are not formally recognised as habitable by the human species. But as consistency is not to be expected in theories of so fanciful a nature^ the seas interposed between those concentric islands are often overlooked^ and the historical legends relating to distant countries appear frequently jumbled with the cosmolo> gical system of the Dwipas. These must now be enumerated. I. Jamba-dwipa, or the island of Jamba, is the central portion of the earth, containing Mount Meru. It is India, in short, and in ordinary language (when the absurd system of the Dwipas is forgotten), the whole of the old world. It is also called the Isle of the Virgin, //a, Idttj or the earth, Jambu-dwipa is surrounded by the tolt sea ; for the framers of the system found it im- possible to depart from sober reality, while so near to home. II. CusU'dwipa is so called from the Custtj or grass, bearing fruit like a great melon. It is surrounded by the sea of Syra, or intoxicating liquors. This Dwipa is supposed to have relation to the country extending from India to the Caspian Sea. III. Next comes the dwipa of Placshu, or the fig-tree, bounded by the sea of Icshu, or juice of the sugar-cane. IV. Salmali-dwipa, or the island of the willow, stands next in order, girt by the sea of Sarpi Ghrita, or clarified butter. V. Crauncha-dwipa, with the Dad'hi Sagara, or sea of curds. VI. Saca-dwipa, with the Cshirahd'hi, sea of milk, or white sea ; called also Amritabd'hi, the sea of Amrita or Ambrosia. VII. Pushcara, beyond which is the sea Swaduda, or of fresh water, completes the system. Pushcara is expressly declared to be at the furthest extremity of the West, and in the same climate with Uttaracuru, or the country immediately adjoining the northern ocean ; so it would appear that the Brahminists aimed more par- ticularly at representing the regions of the north-west ; hence those who have succeeded to them in the practice CHAP. X. MYTHIC GEOGRAPHY OF THE HINDOOS. 141 sea of uda, or cava is of the or the ; so it par- -west ; ractice e of building theories have endeavoured to prove, that by the dwipas of Cusa, Placshu, Salmali, Crauncha, Saca, and Pushcara respectively, we are to understand the country from India to the Caspian, Asia Minor, the country between the Euxine and the Baltic, Germany, the British islands, and Iceland. That they had some positive knowledge of the countries in that direction is manifest from numerous passages in the Purdnds. " What lies between Pushcara and Maha Megha moun-* tains, about 100 yojans long and 60 broad, is as flat as the palm of the hand. The soil is hard and tenacious, without any grass : there are few living creatures, and the inhabitants have no fixed dwellings. This desert is so dreary as to make the traveller's hair stand up ; the whole country is called Cdnana or Cdnan. There are several large lakes, great trees and groves called Cdntd. The smaller lakes, pools, trees and orchards producing delightful juices, are innumerable. There are caves also in the mountains, most dreary, dark, and difiicult of access. In this country are Sidd'has or prophets with the gifts of miracles, learned and famous Brahmins, bright like fire ; thousands of them are in this country." This land of Canana appears to be Syria taken in its widest signification; and the mention of the Sidd'has or saints indicates an acquaintance with the Jewish people. In designating the points of the compass the Hindoos suppose themselves standing so as to face the rising sun, and then name the quarters of the heavens from their relative position. Thus the east is called in Sanscrit para or pra, before; and the west, in like manner, is called apara, or that which is behind. Among the deriv- atives from the latter expression in old dialects are the words apareya and aprica, the latter of which is still used in Ceylon to signify western j and may be regarded, with some probability, as the identical word from which the continent of Africa derived its name. The south being on the right hand is called dacshina (the Greek dexion), whence the peninsula of India still retains the name of Decan, the right hand, or south, originally given U2 OEOORAPHT OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. to it by the Gangetic nations. The nortli is denomi- nated in Sanscrit uduc or uttara, but as the holy moun- tain Meru is supposed to be to the north of India, that quarter of the heavens receives also the respectful titles of Senis-tiram or AraS'tiram, the quarter of Senis, or of Arah. But independent of the dwipas or islands which are the mere offspring of system, the Puranic legends make con- stant allusion to a sort of fairy land, an imaginary abode of happiness and joy, floating as free as the hopes to which it owes its creation. This is the Sweta-dwipa, or white island of the west, situated beyond the Cdlodahd'hi or sea of Cala, the black, or Pluto. Hither the Divs and Devas, the multiform deities of the Hindoo pantheon, resort as to a more genial dwelling, from the state and splendour of Meru. Here, by the authority of all the legends, is the Isd-pura or la'pura, the abode of the gods ; perhaps the Hesperia of the western classics. The Per- sians adopted the same belief, and the same mode of expression. In their romancer the hero Cai-caus goes to the mountain Az-burj, at the foot of which the sun sets, to fight the Dio Sefid, or wliite devil, whose dwelling is on the seventh stage of the world. The Germanic nations, whose languages present so many resemblances with the ancient languages of India and of Persia, had a^ o their Ashurg or Asgard (for tliese terms are equivalent) ; but as no terrestrial paradise was met with by those nations in their progress towards the west, they very wisely transferred to the heavens the true Asgard, or abode of the gods in Scandinavian mythology. As Mount Meru has three peaks of gold, silver, and iron, which are the seats respectively of Bramah, Siva, and Vishnu, the Hindoo trinity, so the White Island has the same merit of being a trikhetra, tiiat is, of hav- ing three peaks, or els** it may be considered as of a triple nature, and composed of three islands. These are Hiranya or Suvarnya, the golden, Arydt4ya the silver, and Ayeya, the iron island. The first of these peaks or islands is also called Suryacanta, the mountain CkHAF. X. MYTHIC OEOORAPHY OF THE HINDOOS. 143 of the sun ; the silver mountain is entitled Chandra canta, the mountain of the moon. In the Cum&rica Chanda, the zone from east to west, forming an arch round Mount Mem, is divided into nine parts, of which that forming the western extremity (the Aparantica, or end of the west,) is declared to be the cduntry of the moon. The White Island of the west, the land of the sun, the paradise of the moon, is lavishly decked in the Hindoo legends with all the propitiatory epitliets of a copious lan- guage. That blessed land enjoys the Su-bhranau, or mild beams of ten thousand moons. It is named not on?y Sweta, the white, but also Ghrita, the bright ; Teja, the splendid ; Canta, the brilliant; Cirna, the effidgent ; Cahira, the milk white ; Padma, the flower, &c. These appellations of the happy island in the West bear a strong resemblance to the names of the islands in the Grecian Archipelago ; and if the active philological researches of the present age E^all succeed in throwing any new light on primitive Greece, that resemblance may be proved to be not merely the result of accident. The Chinese philosopher, Confucius, taught that paradise is in the West ; the same belief prevails in Thibet and in all the countries professing the religion of Buddha or Fo.' The Jews expected from the West the establishment of their new kingdom ; it is not extraor- dinary, therefore, that the nations of Europe, whose lan- guages bear positive evidence of a derivation from tlie same family of mankind as the Hindoos, should retain in popular superstition the same opinion, couched uni- formly in similar expressions. Wherever the Indo- Teutonic nations, as they are called, have fixed them- selves, we find white islands still looming in the West, and surrounded by white seas. Thus, to the westward of the Samoyeds, adjoining the Northern Ocean, is a white sea, so named, perhaps, in the first instance, by the Jots, a race of giants, as tradition testifies, of kindred origin with the Scandinavian Asi. They were totally exterminated by pestilence and famine. The Caspian has been always called the White Sea by the nations in- I U4 OEOOnAPHY OF TUE ANCIENTS. BOOK I, habiting its eastern shores, and it bears among them at present the Turkish name AkdingU, which has that auspicious signification. The Turks also, from their first entrance into Asia Minor, gave the name of White Sea to the iEgean. The ivoni Baltic, likewise, in the Lithuanian tongue, signifies the white sea; and it deserves to be remarked, that the Sarmatian nations, while occu- pying a position between it and the Euxine, gave to the latter the natural correlative name of Mor-mori, or the Black Sea. This designation has been subsequently translated and adopted by other European nations, as weU as by the Turks, the original Sclavonian expression being at present confined to the Propontis, or, as it is corruptly called, the Sea of Marmara. The names of Wittland and o£ Helgoland, the white and Ao/^ land, were profusely spread through the north-west of Europe. Holy islands were numerous in the German Seas. Britain was Al-fionn, or the white island ; and the ancient name of Ireland, Muic-inis, according to the soberest critics, bears the same interpretation. Our antiquaries have all observed (and those who turn with contempt from fables graced with the style of history by blind national attach- ment have acknowledged themselves unable to explain the circumstance), that Ireland enjoyed the reputation of sanctity at a very early age.* Yet, as far back as history throws a transient light on the internal condition of that country, it appears to have been always the seat of anarchy and barbarism.t But does not the remote geographical position of Ireland with respect to Europe {lerniSy emphatically the Western Isle,) sufficiently account for its mythical reputation ? and indeed Banue, or th& Happy Island, a title which it could have derived from superstition alone, is one of its most ancient appel- lations. The consolatory tale of a land of happiness unalloyed ♦ Sharon Turner's Hist of Engl. vol. il. f The learning of Ireland in the ninth and tenth centuries was an exotic of unstable growth. It belonged not to the people, but to the monasteries ; ' and as soon as these were destroyed by the invasion of the Danes, every symptom of cultiTation immediately vanished, and Ireland was again barbarous. OHAP. X. MYTHIC OEOORAPUY OF THB HINDOOl. 145 fouml its way also at a ver> early period into the mytlio- logy of Greece. The first white island of the Greeks or Pelasgians was probably Crete, called in remote ages the Island of the Happy, an expression which later writerl vainly endeavoured to Justify by the riches and salubrity of that island. We may rest satisfied, however^ that Crete nursed the Idaean Jove, and was the habitation of the blessed, long before it could boast the wealth ar 1 population of its hundred cities. When that island was unfitted by the multiplication of men to be any longer the abode of deities, it was still remembered in myd^c story, that the true birth-place of Jupiter was not the locality of Mount Ida, but in those wandering dwelling! of the ocean, the islands of the happy.* In like manner, although Delos, that is, the bright island, was honoured as the abode of Latona and birth-place of Apollo, yet the original intention of the myth to which it owed its cde- brity was still preserved, and the homes of those deities were always acknowledged to be in the West. Delos was said to have originally floated, a legend in strict conformity with the myth. It is possible that tales were fabricated in later ages to maintain its reputation. Lucian derides the belief that Delos was a piece broken ofi* from Sicily ; but by using the word SicUy, he confounds the real with the mythical Trinacria, firom which Delos might have been said to be detached.t The tiiquciri;! nature of the white island is its essential characterktic. Hence the Trinacria of Homer, or Thrinakia, as he calls it, (for the word was strange to him, and not of Ionian growth,) in which he, very properly, places the herds and flocks of the sun. His Leucas petra also, or white rocky which he places beyond the ocean, in the same line with his Hades and Ciiumeria, is a remark- able instance of his mythological exactness. The island Rhodes bore also in ancient times the titles of Triquetra and Macaria, or the happy. Leuce, the white island of the Euxine, was in like manner believed to be triangular. • Lycophron. VOL. I. f Lucian. Dialog MarinL 146 OBOORAPHT OF THB AN0IENT8. BOOK I. Many other instances could be added of this prevalent superstition. It is needless to mention the Gorgons^ the Hesperides, the triple Hecate^ the three-headed Cerberus, with nu- merous other tenants of the mythic West, ranged by the poets in triple order, and placed beyond that mysterious flood, the ocean. Nor is it necessary to examine the Trophonian visions of Timarchus, who saw the islands of the departed in the eighth division of the ocean, that is, beyond the Dwipas. In the ocean, it is evident, the early Grecian poets placed their Trinacria, and their Leuce, or white island : their Ogygia, JScea, Erytheia, Scheria, and other oceanic islands, were probably, at first, but epithets of those, and afterwards obtained a separate existence from the same causes which have created so much confusion in every part of the Greek mythology. * In Hesperia, or the West, was the peacefid reign of Saturn, the Elysian Fields of Homer, and the Happy Isles of Hesiod. A minute examination of classical mythology would furnish innumerable proofs, that popu- lar belief among the Greeks placed paradise beyond the Western Ocean, and that those fabled regions of bliss did not owe their creation to the glow and fertility of Grecian imagination. The myth of a land of hap- pineb^ in the West was evidently one of the fragments originally gathered into the jumbled mass of Grecian mythology. Geographers might, therefore, have spared themselves the trouble of fixing the locality of the Fortunate Isles : to apply epithets of this kind is to per- vert them, &^d to suppose them originating in the dis- coveries of the Phoenicians is to mistake their nature : the tradition created the island, and not the island the tradition. i. . .-. ' • The word Ogygia itself seeivs to mean oceanic. From (^ha, Sansc. water, WM derived Oganut, the god of the waters, whence the Greeks formed their Oceanus. The Pelas jian yeovd'aigeon (a word still used in Iceland), the collection of waters rr sea, was soon forgotten in Greece in its general sense, though it enters into the composition of many Greek wordn. The con* nection of Ogyges with the deluge is manifest in his name ; ojr, in other words, it is evident that the name was made for the legend. O&AP. X. MYTHIC OEOORAPHT OF THE HINDOOS. 14? per- (lis- water, d their 1), the ■enae, e con< other > The site of the mysterious people called Hyperboreans, who were supposed to be the tenants of a sort of earthly paradise (and their name apparently implies as much)^ puzzled the geographers of antiquity, no less than the poisition of those coy fugitives, the Happy Islands. The great majority, indeed, of ancient writers, agree in placing the Hyperboreans to the north or north-west ; in that direction, therefore, we ought probably to look for a people who cultivated religious reveries more earnestly than the Greeks, and who were naturally sup- posed to possess the happiness they preached ; just as Arabia was thought to be the native country of the spices which she exported. Mention is made of the Hyperboreans in the Homeric hymns, as well as in Pin- dar, and in both cases they figure as a people beyond the ocean. Hecatsus, who wrote their history, says " that they inhabit a great island in the sea, opposite to Gaul, and under the north pole. The climate of that arctic island is delicious. Latona was born there; and the people consider themselves as Apollo's priests. The Hyper- boreans use their own language, but arc friendly to the Greeks, especially to Delos and to Athens. Greeks had passed over to them, and left some monuments in their country; and Abaris, the Hyperborean priest, on the other hand, had travelled into Greece, to make a league with the Delians. Indeed it appears that offerings of the Hyperboreans were frequency transmitted to Delos from the Adriatic, and through Epirus." In this relation of Hecateus, and these friendly mis- sions from tiie West, so fondly ascribed to a sacred people, it is easy to discern the wide extension of the myth, and the usual error of endeavouring to convert it into reality. Herodotus sought in vain, among the Scythians, some tidings of that happy and long-lived nation ; but in order to supply the deficiency of his own investigations, he informs us, that Aristeus the poet, who was convoyed by Apollo to the country of the Isse- dones, received there the intelligence that the Hyper- boreans dwelt on the Northern Ocean, beyond the L 2 148 OEOOXtAPHT OF THE ANCIENTS. \ BOOK I. Arimasps. This Aristseus is a most important persona^^e in the history of early Grecian civilisation : he is said to have been Homer's instructor: he visited the coun- tries beyond the Euxine; and with the doctrine of trans- migration (for he himself was bom three times)^ he probably introduced into Greece many an Oriental le- gend. But although Herodotus fruitlessly enquired among the Scythians for some account of a people much happier than themselves^ the Greeks who visited India met with more success. Onesicratus related that concerning the Hyperboreans^ who live 1000 years^ the Indians repeated precisely the same stories as Simonides and Pindar. Ind^d their Sidd'hapooTj or country of saints, " in which men falling from heaven are bom again, and live 1300 or 1500 years," is placed, in all their systems, at the extremity of the North. " But some affirm," says the author of the Ayeen Akbary, " that beyond the ocean there is a blessed land of gold inhabited by mortals, who invariably live 1000 years, and never suffer by sickness or by sorrow." The Hindoos placed the Hy- perboreans in Uttara-Curu, that is, the North, an expres- sion which was understood in too confined a sense by Ptolemy and other ancient geographers. Pliny con- founds them with the Attacori, from the resemblance of this word, perhaps, to Attaracori, the inhabitants of Uttara-Curu: but as the Attacori (the Etha-Guri of Ptolemy, from At-Ghur, the eight forts or rajaships,) were also to the north of the Ganges, the error is not very material, The accounts received from the Indians, and from the Issedones by Aristseus, induced the later Roman and Greek writers to waver in assigning the position of the Hyperboreans, or to prefer fixing them in the north- eastern or central regions of Asia. Nevertheless, when all the statements respecting this fabulous people are candidly compared, they will be found to differ but little from each other ; for the informants, in every case, placed the Hyperboreans in the North ; and when thiti OHAF. X. MYTHIC OEOORAPHT OF THE HINDOOS. 149 expression was interpreted in the narrow sense of local description^ it only shared in the fate of every myth which fell into the hands of the geographers. Thus it is evident that the story of the Hyperboreans (fundament- ally the same with the Millenarian legends of the pre- sent day), as well as that of tne White or Happy Islands of the West, was not a dream of Grecian poets, but a primitive myth of very extensive diffusion ; and it is in- teresting to observe how zealously the Greeks, among whom the speculative doctrines of religion remained only in the faint shadows of tradition, sought to collect from the original sources some corroboration of a belief so gratifying to the aspirations of human nature. It is likewise worthy of remark, that the Cimmeria, the Acheron f and Elysium of the early Greeks, which appear to have been borrowed from Phoenician sources, were almost wholly yielded up to the poets as ornaments of their compositions, while the belief in Hyperboreans and oceanic i^ands of contentment, supported by national traditions, seems to have suffered no decay from literary cultivation. The division of the earth into seven dwipaa, or islands, was made, according to the Hindoo system, by Priyauratta, who at first intended to share his dominions among his ten sons, but three of these retired from the world. The Puranas also speak of deluges which de- stroyed all the dwipas but that of Jamboo. These l^ends accord sufficiently well with the stories of Atlas and of his seven daughters, or ten sons, according to others. But the relation of Marcellus is more to the purpose ; for, according to him, there existed in early times seven islands (the dwipas) in the Atlantic Ocean, sacred to Proserpine, together with three others (the tri-cutadri) of an immense magnitude, sacred to Pluto, to Ammon, and to Neptune. Plato's account, also, of an Atlantic island bears ^ the internal marks, not, indeed, of a historical tradition, but of a genuine primitive legend. The search for the extremity of the west was natural in those who imagined that paradise was situ- L 3 150 OEOORAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I. ated in that quarter of the globe; and when the expected island was not found, it was easier to believe it swallowed up by the sea than to admit that it never had any but a fabled existence. «.) In the accounts which the writings of the Hindooi give of the Indian seas, the same tendency to dispose every thing according to the symmetry of a religious system prevails over the simplicity of truth. In this quarter, also, there is a tra-nate, or group of three islands, composed respectively of gold, silver, and iron. Co-existing with these, there is a mysterious assemblage of seven i'ilands; and when Jambolo stated that the Indian islands were seven in number, he only repeated the language of the natives; for the expression Tail LanofUy or the seven lancas, is still in use at the present day. It is obvious that these legends were all understood literally by the Greek geographers, and particularly by Ptolemy, who derived an unusually large share of in- formation from India, and was careful to turn every atom of it to account. Accordingly, we find in his map a Heptanesia nesoSj or Septuple island, which it is im- possible to assign to any known position; and also a Tricadiba, or Trinity island, with a Tricanesia nesos, or translation of the former name, after his custom. His islands of satyrs, of monkeys, &c. all stand ranged in triple order. Then the countries of gold, of silver, and of brass, (this last being substituted for iron, according to the Greek notions of precedence among metals,) all belong evidently to the domains of fable, althou^ posterity, always credulous when gold is in question, has never ventured to dispute the reality of their exist* ence. But Ptolemy committed a graver error when he adopted the opinion of Hindoo geography, which unites the eastern peninsula of India with the African con- tinent. Arrian, the author of the Periplus, although he believed it possible to sail round Africa into the Atlantic, was yet evidently impressed with the Hindoo notions, for he says, " it is believed that Taprobane approaches CnAP. X. MYTHIC OEOOBAPHV OF THE HINDOOS. 151 very close to the colast of Africa." The south-eastern coast of Africa is named in Hindoo writings Sanc'ha- dwipa (Zanguebar), that is, the island of shells, au expression equivalent to the country of the Troglo- dytes ; and as this Troglodytic region is supposed to extend round to the south-eastern extremity of India, many errors arose from the use of this equivocal lan- guage, which have found their way into the writings of the Greek and Latin geographers. With Anga-dwipa, or China, the ancient writings of the Hindoos show but little acquaintance. " No great men, famous and learned among Bipeds, ever visited the island called Bhadrdsv^ where there is a wondrous Canadab tree, with flowers like great water-pots." Yet silk, the peculiar production of China, found its way into India at a very early period. Silken garments worn by the queens at a time of festal display, are mentioned in the Ramdyuna, of Valmeeki, a poem written one thousand years at least before the com- mencement of our era. There still remains a story transmitted to us by a Greek writer, which, from the indulgence shown to it by some eminent modern geographers, deserves to be com- pared with the legends of the Hindoos. Evemerus, a Macedonian, is said to have discovered, to the south of Arabia, a group of islands, three in number.* The largest of them, called Panchaa, was inhabited by four nations, one of which was ruled by three kings, who were nevertheless controlled by the college of priests. A magnificent temple there was covered with Egyptian hieroglyphs and inscriptions. Three cities adorned this terrestrial paradise. One of the lesser islands produced frankincense enough to supply the altars of all the gods in the world. In fine, Panchcea was the country of thr Phoenix,'' and the island of the Triphyllian Jove. It is obvious that Evemerus derived this relation from the Egyptian priests, who debased the mythic tri-cuta of the Hindoos by attempting to unite it to facts. Just as Hecatsus placed the Hyperboreans in Britain (an island • Diodonu. ■ \y . L 4 152 OBOORAPHT OF THB AKOIKNTS. BOOK I. opposite to Gaul) amidst memorials of the Greeks^ so the Egyptians appear to have fixed the wandering islands of the Eastj and to have added to the general principle of a triple Elysium the hieroglyphs and other particu- larities derived from their peculiar modes of thinking. There seems but little reason^ therefore^ to hope^ as some of the learned have done*^ that these bUssful islands may be again discovered on the coasts' of Africa or Arabia. The persuasion that the dwelling-place of happiness is in the West, may have exercised an important influ- ence on the early migrations of mankind. The existence and the wide cQfiusion of such an opinion are clearly established; nor is there any reason to believe that it was grounded in positive tradition. But then it will be asked^ why was Paradise supposed to be in the West ? An answer to this question may be found in the consti- tution of the human being, who is always more disposed to receive profound impressions at the hour when the natural day is coming to a close, and contemplates with the finest sensibilities that most glorious of celestial phe- nomena, ^e setting sun. t The Hindoos retain to the present day their old belief. The chalk with which the Brahmins mark their foreheads is from the West : they even pretend that it is brought over land from Britain. Yogees, followed by their trains of pilgrims, have at- tempted in modem times to reach the Hyperborean regions across Europe, and have even advanced as far as Russia ; but the importunate curiosity by which they were assailed etrectuaUy subdued in every instance their piety and courage. In the West the primitive tradition is still remem- bered. The lakes and seas of Scotland and of Ireland have all their floating and holy islands. The Inis Wen, or white island of the Gaels, and the Ynys y Cedeim, or island of the mighty ones of the Welsh, are stiU objects of hope and veneration. The most westerly group of the • Malte-Brun, Geogy- "^^ »• Gosselin. f The fint hints on the natural principles of mythology are to be found in Heyne'ti Opuscula Academica, i CHAP. X. MYTHIC OEOOBAPHY OF THE HINDOOS. 15^ Hebrides, the Flannan islands^ which are devoutly be- lieved to be seven in number, and are even laid down as seven in our maps, though only six are visible to the eyes of the sceptical *, are said to have the virtue of disposing to prayer and religious meditation all who land upon them, t The Arran islands, on the west of Ireland, are entitled the isles of the living, that is to say, of those who have returned to life ; but the language of this general superstition was carried far beyond the shores of Europe. It is found among the Indians of North America, who. fervently believe in the existence of a land of happiness in the West beyond the ocean ; but whether this tradi- tion belongs to them originally, or was introduced among them by the Scandinavian adventurers of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it is impossible to determine. * MaccuUoch's Western Isles. f Martin's account of the Hebrides. t( ,. l:\"- ' •• 'It ,;, r ' \.*^> »t BOOK II. t OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AOES. CHAP. I. THE ARABIANS. ITIKERARIES OF THE ROMANS. FEUTINGERIAK TABLE. — C08MAS INDICOPLEUSTES. — THE WORDS SINT AND HINDOO. — THE TSINITZJB. — THE ARABIANS. — THEIR CONQUESTS. — AND COMMERCE.— EARtT TRAVELLERS INTO CHINA.— EDUCATION OF THE CHINESE. —REGULATIONS OF THEIR FORTS. — FIRST MENTION MADE OF TEA. ^ CHINESE EAT HUMAN FLESH. STRANGERS IN CHINA. •— CANFU. — USES OF THE COCOA-NUT TR4E. — KINGS OF INDIA.— -THE UNICORN. — SOGDIANA. ^THB ALANS. KHAZARS. — THE FOSSIL IVORT OF BULOAR. -—COM- MERCE OF THE ARABIANS WITH THE NORTH OF EUROPE.-— THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA COLONISED BT ARABIANS. — KINGDOMS OF GHANA AND TOCRUR.— LAM.LAM. THE ZINGES AND WAC- WAC. — THE PERPETUAL ISLANDS. — OTHER ISLANDS IN THE SEA OF DARKNESS. VOYAGE OF THE ALMEGRURIM. The geography of the ancients may be considered as having attained its greatest accuracy and comprehensive- ness in the age of Ptolemy. The disorders which soon after followed in the Roman empire, the frequent mi- grations of the northern nations, and the invasions of the Goths and Huns, completely changed the geography of Europe, and rendered it difficult to procure any posi- tive details amidst the disorders of so many revolutions. Yet geography was still cultivated in the Roman world, and several treatises and itineraries remain, inter- esting to the critic, but of little importance in a general view. Of the itineraries the Romans had two kinds, the Picta and Annotata, or the drawn and written : the latter contained the names of the stations and chief places, with their distances from one another, without entering into any detail. In the Itineraria Picta, which were much more complete, all the great roads were drawn, the name and extent of the different provinces added, with OHAP. I. THB ARABIANS. 155 -.'■V le 3S. the number of the inhabitants, the mountains^ riversj and neighbouring seas. But in all those monuments of Roman industry there is no trace of mathematical geogpraphy; no scientific measurement; the distances of places were ascertained merely by itinerary mea* surusj or occasionally by observations of latitude. Pliny complains bitterly of the inaccuracy of those measures. Of the former kind of itinerary the most remarkable that remain to us are that called the Itinerary of Anto- nine, the age of which it is difficult to ascertain ; and the Itinerary of Jerusalem, a fragment which points out in great detail the whole route from Bourdeaux to that city. . Of the painted itineraries, a fine specimen is still pre« served in the imperial library of Vienna, and has been engraved and published under the name of the Tabula Peutingeriana. Some have assigned its composition to the end of the fourth century; while others, with per- haps a preponderance of argument, have endeavoured to demonstrate that its origin ascends to the time of the emperor Severus, in the year 230 A. D. It is probable that it was frequently published with changes and addi- tions, so that it cannot be correctly assumed to represent the geography of any one age. The copy which at pre- sent exists is thought to be the work of a monk of the thirteenth century: it owes its name to Conrad Peutinger, a citizen of Augsburg, to whom it formerly belonged, and by whom it was illustrated in a learned commentary. The commencement of the Tabula Peutingeriana has been lost ; in consequence, Portugal, Spain, and the western part of Africa are wanting, and only the south- eastern comer of England remains : in recompense, it contains Asia and the East as far as the knowledge of the Romans extended in that quarter. The country of the Seres, the mouth of the Ganges, the island of Ceylon, lengthened from west to east, according to the ancient opinion, are all depicted in it, with the roads traced even in the heart of India. But the countries marked on this map are not placed in it according to their geographical position, their respective limits, and their real size; they 156 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLB AOES. DOOK II. are ranged arbitrarily, one after the other from west to east, without any regard to the figure, or the^r longitude and latitude, as determined by geographical writers. This table or picture is about twenty-two feet long, and only one broad. Besides the roads, which appear to have been the principal objects of the author's industry, he has also marked the gieat mountains, the course of the chief rivers, the lakes, the outline of the coasts, the names of the provinces, and those of the principal nations. The increase of commerce must necessarily produce a more active navigation. The luxury and profusion of the Romans continued to augment long after political decay was manifest in the empire, and, in consequence, their acquaintance with India, whence the most pre- caots articles were imported, was every year enlarged. This is manifest from the Topography of the Christian World, written in the beginning of the sixth century by Gosmas, an Egyptian monk, whose work has procured him the surname of Indicopleustes, or the voyager in India, though it is much doubted whether he ever ac- tually made the journey. Cosmas wrote principally with a view to refute the im- pious doctrines (as he deemed them) of those who taught that the earth was a globe. According to him, it is a plain oblong, surrounded by an immense wall, which supports the firmament or azure vault of heaven : the succession of day and night is the effect of a great mountain in the northern part of the earth, behind which the sun con- oeals itself every evening. In support of these opinions Cosmas, like other framers of systems, is able to bring forward an abundance of authority, and fairly demon- strates that his system alone is reconcilable with the lan- guage of the sacred Scriptures, or of the old Greek poets. From the details of the Egyptian monk, it may be collected that in his time these voyages of the Romans, or of the Greek merchants, extended beyond the coast of Malabar. Ceylon was called by the Indians Sieladiba, or the island of Siela, — a close approach to the name which it bears at the present day. '' India," he says. onAP. I. THE ABABIAN8. 157 " is divided from Persia by the river Indus or Phison." This latter name he may have borrowed from the Ara- bians, who apply it to rivers in general; but it is originally Indian, and the same as Phasig, or Fash, a river, which we find occurring in Ceylon, in Colchis, in Armenia, and in the country of the Gihon or <^xus. The river Indus, it may be proper to observe, is called by the Hindoos the Sint, which also signifies the river; Sindia, the name of the country round the mouths of the ^nt or Indus, signifies, in like manner, the Delta, or river country. The accidental resemblance between the name of the river Sint and that of the Hindoos led to a corruption of the former name, which has occasionally given birth to errors in historical investigations. The Hindoos or Indoos derive their national designation from the word indoo, the mooUy as if they were descended from that heavenly body : however singular such a designation as that of the people of the moon may seem in the present age, it was anciently assumed not only by the Hindoos but by aU the principal nations of central Asia. The Panc^us (the Pandions of the Roman writers) and Cho.tdras, who were among the most ancient and distin- guished of the Indian dynasties, were respectively, as their names imply, the children of the sun and moon. Cosmas observes that Hindostan was peopled by two races ; that of the north being comparatively fair complexioned : but instead of calling the darker race iEthiopians, as was generally done, he gives to the fair- complexioned and ruling nation in the north the name of Hunniy an expression for which it is not easy to find a satisfactory explanation. Among other proofs which he furnishes of an extended navigation in the East, is his mention of the Tainitxce or Chinese, whose country, at the extremity of the East, was as far by sea from Ceylon as this island was from Egypt. But the commerce of the Romans or Egyptian Greeks with India did not long continue : a power arose in the seventh century which cut oft* the nations of Europe from all direct communication with the East ; the successors 158 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDDB AGES. BOOK II. of Mahomet extended their religion and their sway over as wide a portion of the globe as that embraced by the Roman empire in its modt prosperous period, and even made themselves sole masters of almost all the civili- sation that remained. Geography naturally becomes a fashionable study under an extensive empire ; and was cultivated accord- ingly with uncommon ardour by the Arabians. The conquests of that people extended at one time from Spain to India ; and from the interior of Africa to the shores of the Caspian Sea. The pilgrimage to Mecca, prescribed by their religion, gave an impulse to the love of travel, which they had in common with all mankind. Their supe^ority in arms and civilisation during some centuries, united to the wide extension of their empire, rendered them masters of an immense trade. But their navigation appears to have been generally timid, and their voyages were confined to the coasts. Maritime commerce among the Arabians was far from possessing the same import- ance as that which was carried on by caravans over-land. The grand branches of this land-trade were those com- municating with the interior of Africa, from Egypt and from Barbary across the Great Desert : slaves, ivory, and gold dust were purchased from the negroes, with a profit equivalent to the perils of the journey ; other caravan routes led through Persia to Cashmeer and India; or over the great steppes of Tartary to the borders of China: a third principal channel directed its course northwards, and passing from Armenia, by Derbend and the western shores of the Caspian Sea, conducted to Astracan and the countries of the Bulgarians, Russians, and other na- tions of the north of Europe. The geographical writings of the Arabians betray the same want of masculine taste and philosophic spirit which characterises in so singular a manner all the other productions of a people, who for some centuries ardently devoted themselves to the cultivation of letters. Massudi, who wrote, in the year 9^7, a general history, with the title of The Golden Meadows and the Mines of Precious f^^t CHAP. I. THE ARABIANI. 159 na- ntly udi, the Mous Stonetf commences with comparing the earth to a bird^ of which Mecca and Medina form the head, Persia and India the right wing, the land of Gog the left wing, and Africa the tail. He supposes the existence of an earth anterior to this, and situated elsewhere ; he believes also that the earth which we now inhabit has been succes- sively covered with waters, which have passed off some- times on the one side, sometimes on the other. The geography of the Arabians cannot be traced with the same degree of precision as that of which the Greek and Roman writers is susceptible : the singular inco- herence of the oriental manner of writing, and the predilection of the Arabians to works in the form of dictionaries, to which they generally consigned their geo- graphical details, render it extremely difficult to give a chronological history of their knowledge. The object, therefore, of this chapter must be, to give a general out- line of the geographical knowledge of a people, who for some centuries were the chief agents of that intercourse between distant nations, which, however it may occa- sionally escape the notice of history, never ceases to oper- ate important political effects. The most eminent of the Arabian geographers is Edrisi, or Eldrisi, an individual, every circumstance of whose life is a subject of controversy to the learned. At the court of Roger the First, king of Sicily, in 1 153, he composed his work, which he entitled, " The going abroad of a curious Man to explore all the Wonders of the World." An imperfect translation of it exists under the name of Geographia NuMensis. The work of Edrisi contains a full description of the whole world, as far as it was known to the author, with its countries, cities, and all its features, physical and political. These are arranged, not according to any of the methods to which we are accustomed, but in a manner peculiar to itself. The world is divided into seven climates, commencing at the equinoctial line, and extending northwards to the limit at which the earth is supposed to be rendered un- inhabitable by the cold. Each climate is then divided 16'0 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE AOES. BOOK tl. by perpendicular lines into eleven equal parts, beginning with the western coast of Africa, and ending with the eastern coast of Asia. The whole world is thus divided into seventy-seven equal square compartments, resem- bling those upon a chess-board, or those formed upon a plain map, by the intersecting lines of longitude and la- titude. The geographer begins with the first part of the first climate, including the western part of central Africa, and proceeds eastward through the different divisions oip this climate, till he finds its termination in the sea of China. He then returns to the first part of the se- cond climate, and so proceeds till he reaches the eleventh part of the seventh climate, which terminates in the north-eastern extremity of Asia. The inconvenience of such an arri»ngement must be abundantly obvious. Instead of each country, or at least each region of similar physical character, being described by itself, it is severed by these mechanical sec- tions into fragments, which are described in different and distant parts of the work, and no connected view is given of any great country. In drawing the general outlines of cosmography, Edrisi describes the earth as globular, the regularity of that figure being interrupted only by the variety of mountains and vallies on its surface. He adheres to the doctrine of those ancient schools which supposed an uninhabited torrid zone ; but as his knowledge extended to populous countries south of the tropic, he placed the commence- ment of this zone, with very little propriety, at the equinoctial line. " Beyond this,*' he says, " there are neither plants nor animals, all being uninhabitable on account of the heat." Again, the habitable world ex- tends, according to him, only to the sixty-fourth degree of north latitude, beyond which all is frozen with ice and perpetual winter. The circumference of the earth he estimates at 1 1,000 leagues, and he refers also to a measurement made by Hermes, which found it to be 12,000. He divides the CHAP. I. the: ARABIANS. 161 whole according to the established system into 360 de- grees ; observing, however, that in consequence of the impossibility of passing the equinoctial line, the known world consists only of one hemisphere ; of this one half is land and the other sea, which last consists chiefly of the great ambient sea, surrounding the earth in a con- tinued circuit like a zone, and in which the earth " floats Uke an egg in a basin of water." The only portion of it concerning which any thing was known was the Atlantic Ocean, called " the Sea of Darkness." That part which rolled along the north-eastern extremity of Asia was named *' the Sea of Pitchy Darkness," the gloom of the climate here increasing the obscurity which the Arabians thought to be connected with the ocean. Besides the great sea or ocean, Edrisi reckons seven smaller ones, viz. the Red Sea or Arabian Gulf, the Green Sea or Persian Gulf, the sea of Damascus or the Mediterranean, the sea of the Venetians or the Adriatic, the sea of Pontus or the Black Sea, and the sea of Georgian or Dailem, by which he meant the Caspian. The Arabians have the merit of preserving some precious fragments of the ancients : the following passage in Caswini contains an allusion to a universal principle of attraction, which, though not the gravitation of New- ton, must be considered as a fortunate as well as bold step in speculative philosophy. Among the ancients, he says, some of the disciples of Pythagoras maintained that it was the earth that turned unceasingly, and that the movement of the stars was but apparent, and pro- duced only by the rotation of the globe ; others supposed that the earth was suspended in the universe equally distant from all points, and that the firmament attracted it on all sides so as to maintain it in a perfect equi- librium ; and that in the same manner as the magnet has naturally the powey of attracting iron, so the firma- ment has the property, of attracting the terrestrial globe, which being thus acted on by equivalent attractive forces in every direction, remains suspended in the centre. It is strange that the Arabians, who read with interest VOL. I. M 162 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK li. speculations of this kind, made themselves but little progress in philosophic reasoning. China was visited by Arabian merchants and ambas- sadors at an early age. Already, in the reign of Walid (704) — 715), Arabian envoys, bearing rich presents, arrived in China, through Cashgar and the plains of Tartary. After that time, the route from Samarcand to the city of Canj:'u was much frequented; but in the ninth century, China was visited by two travellers, whose narratives merit a particular consideration. These adventurers were Wahab and Abuzaid, the former of whom wrote the account of his travels, in 851. Abuzaid appears to have been about thirty years younger. * These travellers represent the Chinese as a remark- ably handsome people, superior in beauty to the Indians, with fine dark hair, regular features, and very like the Arabians. They observe, that the Chinese wear silk garments in winter and summer. Among other particu- larities noted by Wahab is the general education of the Chinese, who, whatever be their condition of life, he as- sures us, learn to read and write. Schools for this pur- pose are maintained at the public charge. Yet he also affirms, that the Chinese had no sciences ; that their religion, and even their laws, were derived from the Indians; nay, he says, they are of opinion that they learned the worship of idols from the Indians, whom they look upon as a most religious nation. The regulations of the ports appeared to our Maho- metans a singular novelty. When .merchants entered China by sea, their cargoes were seized, and conveyed to warehouses, where the imperial officers deducted a cer- tain per centage off the goods ; this transaction, which resembles so closely the arrangements of our custom- houses, was never attended with injustice. * It is assumed that Abuzaid visited China in the ninth century : the date 877 occurring in his narrative is thought to mark the time of the author's journey. (See Renaudot Relation de deux Voyageurs, &c. and Sprengel. Ent- deckuiigen, p. 146.) But is there not reason to believe that Abuzaid is the same as the Abuyczid mentioned by Massudi (not. and extr. p. S9.), and who went to China in 915 ? The name Abuyezid occurs in De Guignd's extract, very near the mention of that massacre in Canfu which is relateci more at length by the Abuzaid of Renaudot. ^ CHAP. I. THJS ARABIANS. 163 f The emperor reserved to himself the revenues arising from the salt mines^ and from a certain herb, which the people drank with hot water, and of which such quanti- ties were sold in all the cities as produced enormous sums. This shrub, called Sah by the Chinese, was more bushy than the pomegranate tree, and of a more agree- able perfume. The people poured boiling water on the leaf of the Sah, and drank the decoction, which was thought to be efficacious in curing all sorts of diseases. Here we have a distinct notice of the use of tea. It is remarkable, that these old Mahometan travellers agree in stating that the Chinese were in the habit of eating all criminals who were put to death. Their can- nibalism, indeed, does not seem to have resembled that of savage nations, who devour their enemies in order to gratify revenge, or to indulge in the excesses of ferocity; among the Chinese, apparently, the bodies of those who were publicly executed were left to 1 e eaten by the tioor and hungry. However incredible this account may appear, the Chinese annals lend it some confirmation; for they state, that when famines have occurred in that kingdom, human flesh has been sold in the markets ; and that it was dangerous at those periods to go abroar^ ^fter sunset, men being constantly on the watch to seiz,; and butcher all whom they could lay their hands upon. The Arabians, while they relate without a censure this barbarous practice, are loud in extolling the solemn and impartial administration of justice in China. A Mahometan cadi resided in Canfu, whence we might be. justified in concluding, that the Arabian mercliants, even so early as the ninth century, formed a pretty numerous community in that city. But this fact is fully established by a very remarkable passage in the narrative of Abu- zaid ; from which we learn, that when a rebel chiertain besieged and took Canfu, in the year of our era 877, he put to death, along with the rest of the inhabitants, one hundred and twenty thousand Mahometans, Jews, Christians, and Parsees, who resided there for the sake of traffic. Our traveller likewise adds, that " the num- M 2 1(54 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLF AGES. BOOK II. Tber of the professors of these four religions is exactly known ; because the Chinese are extremely nice in the accounts they kv^^ep of strangers." The Christians men- tioned here are generally supposed to have been derived from what are called the Christians of St. Thomas, settled on the coast of Malabar; but there is good reason to believe, that the first Christians known in China were Nestorians, who reached that country through Persia and the desert. The Canfu of the Arabian and Chinese writers was formerly one of the greatest foreign ports of China ; it is situated on the north side of a bay or basin at the mouth of the Che Kiang. It has long since lost its commercial importance, on account of its harbour being choked up by sand. The iearly Arabian voyagers mention the Andaman islands and their savage inhabitants, who devoured hu- man flesh quite raw. They also describe Sumatra, it is supposed, under the names of Lamery and Ramni. The same island is called Soborma by Edrisi, whose isle of Malai is probably the peninsula of Malacca. Al Jauahj or Java, was known for its valuable spices- s,.iu iox its volcanoes, which, after a quiescence of many ages, broke out afresh in the middle of the last century. Serendih, or Ceylon, was known more famiharly: the Arabian travellers of the ninth century enlarge on its mines of precious stones, on the idols of solid gold, on t!ie assem- blies of learned men occupied in writing the lives of their prophets, and expositions of the sacred laws. A great number of Jews and Manichseans resided at that time in Ceylon. " Here," says Abuzaid, " travellers stay two months, allured by the beauty of the country, which is decked with trees and verdure, water and meads, and blessed with wholesome air. Here you may buy a sheep for half a drachm, and for the same money, as much drink as will suffice for many persons. This drink is made of palm honey, boiled and prepared with the tari (toddy), or juice which runs from the tree." The same writer adverts, in simple but accurate Ian- ? CHAP. I. THE ARABIANS. 165 1 f ?i guage^ to the variety of uses to which that invaluable gift of nature^ the cocoa-nut tree, is converted in the In- dian Archipelago. " There are people," he says, " at Oman, who cross over to the islands (the Laccadives), that produce the cocoa-nut, carrying with them carpen- ters' and all such tools ; and having felled as much wood as they want, they let it dry, strip oflf* the leaves, and with the bark of the tree they spin a yarn, wherewith they sew the planks together, and so build a ship. Of the same wood they cut and round away a mast ; of the leaves they weave their sails, and the bark they work into cordage. Having thus completed their vessel, they load her with cocoa-nuts, which they bring and sell at Oman. Thus from the cocoa-nut tree alone so many articles are convertible to use as suffice not only to build and rig out a vessel, but to load her when she is com-, pleted and in trim to sail." Among the kingdoms of India enumerated by the early Arabian geographers, the most remarkable was that of the Balhara, or Great Lord : the other Indian princes acknowledged, we are told, the pre-eminence of the Bal- hara. The dominions of the dynasty which bore this title appears to have been on the western side of the peninsula, embracing the countries of the Nizam and of Guzerat. Yet the territories of the king of kings, as the Balhara was also styled, are said to have extended from Kamkam (Concan), as far as the frontiers of China. He was surpassed, nevertheless, in military strength, by the king of Burat (Behar), who kept on foot four armies, each of 700,000 men; and by the king of Rahmi, who could take the field at the head of 50,000 elephants. These calculations are evidently exaggerated. The apparently hyperbolical praises bestowed on the fine fabrics of India rest on a better foundation. Cotton stuffs were manufactured there of such exquisite delicacy, that a garment made of them could be easily drawn through a ring of moderate size. But among all the curiosities of India, none seized more firmly on the imagination of the Arabians than M 3 I6'6' GEOGRAPHY OF THE SIIDDLE AGES. BOCK lib " the famous Kardandan, or unicorn, which has hut one horn on his forehead^ and thereon a round spot with the representation of a man." This wondrous animal is de- scribed by them as less than the elephant, and resem- bling the buffalo from the neck downwards. ''His hoof," says Wahab, "is not cloven, and from his hoof to his shoulder he is all of a piece. His flesh is not for- bidden, and we have eaten of it : on the horns are seen the f' giires of men, peacocks, fishes, and other resemblances. The Chinese adorn their girdles with those figures ; so that soiipie of those girdles are worth two or three thousand pier . of gold in China, or even more, the price augment- ing with the beauty of the figure." Such is the appa- rent];, veracious account given of an animal which has never vet been seen by an intelligent European, but the exi r.vice of which is still said to be afiirmedin India. The descriptions which are transmitted to us by the Arabian geographers of the states of central Asia are still in many respects the most complete accounts which we possess of those interesting countries. Mawarelnahr, or the country of the great waters, was the most northern province subdued by the successors of Mahomet. It comprised the countries which are watered by the Sihon and Gihon, or Oxus and Jaxartes, and is described by all the writers of the East as an earthly paradise ; surpas- sing every other country on earth in beauty and fertility, in the density of its population, and the salubrity of its climate. " You may travel in Al Sogd," says Ibn Haukal, " and find the country presenting for eight days together the appearance of ono del*' tous garden : on all sides are villages, ri>h field i of corn, orchards loaded with fruit ; meadows and clear streams ; ' .th canals and reservoirs, which compiute the picture of industry and happiness." That country, acording to the same writer, is as remarkable for the hospitality of its inhabit- ants as for its natural attractions. In every town, and even in every little village, were inns and caravansaries^ provided with all that is necesssary for the accommoda- tion of travellers. ^ > i I ■ L CHAP. I. THE ARABIANS. 167 M The Arabians very soon extended their conquests to the Caucasus; and although at first they mingled a large share of fable with their accounts of that region, where nature seems to rear such formidable obstacles to the progress of man, yet they soon learned to carry on a very extensive commerce with the nations to the west and north of the Caspian Sea. Caswini says that the Caucasian isthmus contained 800 districts, in each of which the inhabitants spoke a different language. The country of the Alans he describes as extensive and sin- gularly fertile : it was covered with gardens and villages : figs, dates, and chestnuts grew there in incredible profu- sion, and were transported to all parts of the world. The Alans were not governed by a national chief or king; but every little tribe had its own ruler. Abuzaid, who travelled into China in the ninth century, seems to have believed that the Caspian Sea was united on the one side with the Northern Ocean, and on the other with the Mediterranean ; but Caswini knew that it was an inland sea, supplied, as he says, by great rivers which never decrease. He reports at the same time the common opinion, that it has a subterranean communi- cation with the Black Sea. ^' The Atel or Volga," says Yacout, '^ comes from the extremities of the North : it crosses Bulgaria, Russia, Khazaria, and flows into the sea of Merghan. Merchants ascend it as far as Wa'isou (the White Sea), whence they bring back the skins of martens and ermines and other valuable furs." The country round the Volga was called by the Ara- bians Khazaria, from the Khazars who dwelt in the great plains to the north of the Caucasus and Caspian Sea, and who had reached the height of their power in the ninth century. Although a formidable nation they had not emerged from the rude simplicity of the nomadic state. They dwelt in tents covered with felt, like the TsLiatic hordes who inhabit at the present day the southern provinces of Russia. The house in which their king resided was, according to Bacui, the only stone edifice in the country. M 4 u / , 168 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK II, To the east of the Khazars dwelt the Ghuz or Uzeo^ and beyond these again were a people called Alodcosh, who are described as having broad faces, small eyes^ and bushy hair. To the north of the Khazars were the Bulgars, or Bulgarians. This people inhabited the country between the Don and Volga, where these rivers approach to within a little distance of one anotlier: their capital, called Bulgar, was on the left bank of the Volga: its ruins, consisting of towers, mosques, and other monuments, are still visible at a Uttle distance from the modern Simbirsk. " The country of the Bul- garians," says Caswini, " extends very far towards the north : the winter's day is but five hours long : some say that it is not long enough to admit of the four regular prayers,,and the ceremonies which attend them." Yacout describes the city of Bulgar as built of fir, the external walls alone being of oak : it was a journey of two months from Constantinople. The country was excessively cold, and covered with snow during the whole winter. Tusks, like those of the elephant, were found in the ground, and were as white as ivory. Thus it appears that the fossil ivory of Siberia was an article of trade many cen- turies ago. The Russians are described by the Arabian geogra- phers as an abominably filthy people : they bathed them- selves every morning in the dirtiest water they could find. They were addicted to drunkenness : spent whole days and nights in carousing and drinking wine ; and not unfrequently died with the cups in their hands, from excess and intoxication. They always burned their dead; and at the funeral of a man of rank one of his favourite women was sacrificed on his tomb. The Arabians had some knowledge of the northern kingdoms of Europe : they speak of England (Antharcat), Ireland, Danmark, and other countries of the North, in brief but correct terms ; but they appear to have had a more intimate acquaintance with the Sclavonian nations. They describe the country of the Sclavonians as rich and populous, filled with numerous and commercial towns. It is remark- CHAP. I. THE ARABIANS. 16*9 I able, also, that the Arabian geographers mention the Bohemians and Hungarians by their proper appellations, Czechs and Madgyars, From these circumstances it may be conjectured, that the Sclavonians maintained some commercial correspondence with the Arabians in the east of £urope, and bartered with them the produc- tions of the North. There is no doubt that Arabians frequented in great numbers the cities of Bulgar and Atel, or Astrachan : their own accounts tend to confirm the proofs afforded by the ancient monuments of those cities. There is reason to believe also that their commerce extended across Russia to the Baltic, and to Scandinavia: they exchanged the rich productions of the East for the fish and peltry of the North. Arabian coins are found in many parts of Russia, along the Volga, and northwards even as far as the White Sea ; but in no part of £urope have they been met with in such abundance as in Prussia, Pomerania, and the other countries near the Baltic. And what is more remarkable, all the Arabian coins found in the North are of a date anterior to 1010, and belong to the califs of Bagdad, to Irak, or Khorasan, or to the countries of Balkh, Bokhara, Samarcand, or some other of the rich commercial countries of Inner Asia. Not a single coin has been found near the Baltic belonging to Palestine, Egypt, Barbary, or any other country from which the crusaders might have brought them.* It is, therefore, highly probable that the nations of the north of Europe carried on, during the middle ages, a consi- derable commerce with the Arabs in the East, through . the agency of the Sclavonians. The successors of Mahomet soon extended theii domi- nion over Africa : they over-ran that continent as far as Sofala, on the south-eastern coast, and to the Niger in the interior. Along the western shore their knowledge extended not far beyond Cape Boyador. The rich country of the interior attracted a multitude of settlers : perhaps, from the remoteness of its situation, cut off as Rasmussen. Journ, Asiat. vi. % (f^ 170 OEOCn VPIIY OF THE MIDDLE AOES. BOOK Ia. it is from an easy access by the surrounding deserts, it seemed to offer a secure retreat to all who had any thing to fear from political convulsions ; and it probably re- ceived all those who fled from the intestine divisions of the Chalifate. Certain it is, ho \n ever, that l)efore the eleventh century several kingdoms were erected on the . banks of the Niger, in which Mahometans formed a numerous and the ruling part of the ]iopulation. The greatest of all these kingdoms was that of Ghana, situ- ated on he eastern part of the Niger, or, as the Arabians call it, the Nile of the negr( es. The Idng was absolute over his own subjects, though he acknowledged the su- premacy of the Abasside calif. The magnificence of this sovereign's court, the num- ber 0^ tame elephants, and camelopards, which formed part of his train, and the masses of native gold which adorned his throne, are all mentioned by the Arabian writers in terms of admiration. But this splendour seems to have belong<^^?d wholly to the prince ; and the Arabian population, tha mass of the people, were still clad in the ^kins of boasts, and possessed neither in- dustry noi civilisation. To the king of Ghana belonged also Wangara, or the land of gold. To the west of Ghana was situated the kingdom of Tocrur, in which was a city of the same name, together with those of Sala and Berissa. The Nile* of the Negroes flowed also through Tocrur, and at a distance of sixteen days' journey from Sala fell into the sea. At some distance from the shore was the island of Ulil, from which the states of Nigritia were supplied with salt. The king- dom of Tocrur, which appears to have been situated near the gulf of Benin, though enriched by an active commerce, was yet considered inferior to that of Ghana. The kingdom of Timbuctoo is of comparatively recent origin. To the south of these kingdoms lay the extensive country called Lamlam, the savage inhabitants of which were hunted by the nations on the Niger, and sold to the slave merchants of Barbary and Egypt. The same ' OHAP. I. THE ARABIANS. 171 practice still continues : slaves are a staple merchandise of central Africa; and the defenceless negroes are pur- sued as unrelentingly at present as in the days of He- rodotus. Beyond Lamlam the Arabians had no know- ledge of any inhabited countries ; and influenced by the usual pride of science, they doubted, in con- nuence, whether any existed. They were acquaints nowever, with the kingdoms of Zaghara, Kanem, A iku, which are probably comprised in the Bonu odem travellers. The king of Kuku kept a spieiiuiu courts and maintained a numerous, well-appointed army: the merchants and nobility wore superb dresses, with orna- ments of gold ; but the lower orders Were as poor and ill clad as in the other negro states. The Arabians had but a limited acquaintance with Nubia and Abyssinia, in which the Christian religion firmly resisted the doctrines of IVIahomet ; the necessities of trade, however, induced the merchants of both regions to acquiesce in respecting a neutral frontier, and they met accordingly, near the cataracts of Syene, for the purpose of exchanging their commodities. Eastern Africa, from Egypt to Cape Corientes, Was frequented by the Arabians in the tenth century: they soon established, in that quarter, their faith and their dominion. The names which they gave to the nations of that country are retaiifed at the present day. The cities of Melinda, Mombaza, and Sofala, were already flourishing in the twelfth century. The country in which these cities were situated was called Zanguebar, or the country of the Zinges. The Arabian geographers also placed in the peninsula of India a people called Zinges, who were distinguished from the Hindoos by the darkness of their complexion. Thus the Zinges of the Arabians correspond with the ^Ethiopians of the Greeks, as well as with the Sanchas, or Troglodytes, of the Hindoo geographers. Like these latter also, the Arabians believed that the continents of Africa and Asia were united in the Southern Ocean. Madagascar, there is reason to believe, was known and even colonised IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 ^^ tii u^ iiii 12.2 1.1 lit ■u u iS. 12.0 M: i m Im 11^ Ii4 Photographic Sdences Corporation ^ \ ^ ^ ^ O ;\ «■ 23 WIST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N,Y. 14580 (716)t7!l-4S03 ^ 172 OEOOBAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK IT. by the Arabians in an early age. To the south of Zan- guebar was the country called Wa^'VoaCf which seems to be the Mdkooa count: y of modern maps. In the West the knowledge of the Arabian geo- graphers was^ perhaps^ as extensive, if not so correct, as those of the Romans. The Fortunate Ihlands were known to them hy the name of Chaledatf or the Per- petual Islands. On these islands were said to be colos- sal statues, pointing towards the West, so as to indicate to mariners the danger or impossibility of continuing the voyage in that direction. The erection of these fltatues was attributed to Dhou'lkara'in, or the Two- homed, as Alexander the Great is called in the East. He is adopted by Oriental writers, as Hercules, Bacchud, and S^sostris were adopted by the Greeks, as the founder cf every monument, the origin of which is not histori- cally known. The Atlantic, or the Sea of Darkness, as the ocean is generally called by them, was but little known to the Arabians. Much fable is mixed with all that they relate concerning it. The island of Mustak- kin, filled with serpents, recalls to mind the Ophiusa of the Carthaginians; and perhaps it owed its existence to an ancient tradition, like the Cimmerian darkness of the ocean. The inhabitants of the isle of Kulkan had the heads of marine monsters. iMka abounded with odori- ferQus woods. The Arabians, in omitting to state dis- tances, have left an open field for conjectures ; and there have not been Wanting some who maintain, that by those lands of monsters and of perfumes we ought to understand the continent of America, or at least the islands of the West Indies. There is very little reason, however, to believe that the Arabians were accustomed to make distant voyages on the ocean or Sea of Darkness, The only evidence that they ever attempted such a navigation is found in the remarkable story of the Almagrurim related in nearlv the same words by Ibn el Vardi and Edrisi. The former of these writers, after describing Lisbon, adds, that eight persons from that city, curious to know what was CHAP. I. THE ARABIANS. 173 beyond the sea^ equipped a ^ressel nvith all necessary provisions for a long voyage, and swore not to retiirn till they had found the end of the sea and the land at the west. They advanced eleven days in the open sea, and then twelve days more in a sea of unfathomable depth with immense waves. The winds carried them to the south, and they at last arrived at an island to which they gave the name of Gananiy or the island of sheep ; but the flesh of the sheep which they found there was too bitter to be eaten. They took water, however, and continuing their voyage towards the south, on the twelfth day discovered an inhabited island. The men were large and red. At the end of three days an Arabian interpreter came to them in order to learn the purpose of their voyage. The king being made acquainted with their intentions, told them that he had sent persons to explore the ocean, who, having sailed westward for a month, were surprised with a thick darkness and forced to return. The adventurers from Lisbon, hearing that they were a month's sail from home. Hastened to return ; and in memory of that event a quarter of the city re>- ceived the name of Almagrurim, the Wanderers, a name which it retained in the time of Ibn el Vardi, who died in 1358. This attempt to reach the end of the ocean was made in 1147, and was probably not the only en- terprise of the kind : in 1291 a similar attempt was made by two Genoese, of whose fate or success, however, no account remains. Some have supposed, and De Guignes among the rest, that the red men mentioned in this account must have been Americans ; but it is much more likely that they were Norman», who are not unfrequently called red men in the East. As there was an Arabian interpreter on the island, and the distance from Lisbon was known, the coast of Africa was probably not far off; and in fine, the Almagrurim seem not to have sailed beyond the Canary islands. 174 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BQOK^II. CHAP. II. TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA. IBK BATUTA SETS OUT ON THE FILGRIMAOE. — ASCENDS THE NILE. RETURNS TO GAZA. — THE BATHS OF TIBERIAS. — THE MOSQUK OF THE FOOT. MIRACLES AT MESHID ALL SHIRAZ. — BAGDAD. MECCA. — VISITS YEMEN — AND ABTSSINIA. — THE BERBERS. — THE ZUNUJ. — ZAFAR. —THE FRANKINCENSK TREE. ORMUZ. FARS. — SECOND FILGRIMAOE. — > GOBS THROUGH UFPER EGYFT TO CAIRO JERUSALEM ANATOLIA. THE TURKOMANS. — SOCIETY CALLED THE BROTHERHOOD. ERZERUM. — FALL OF AEROLITES. — SHOWERS OF FISHES.— r THE OTTOMAN FRINCES. — UN BATUTA GOES TO CRIM. — DESERT OF KIFJAK. — TATAR CAMF. CITY OF BULGAR.— - SHORTNESS OF THE NIGHTS. SIBERIAN TRAVELLING. SIN- GULAR MODE OF TRAFFIC. — THE RUSSIANS. ■— IBN BATUTA ACCOMPANIES A GREEK PRINCESS TO CONSTANTINOPLE.— THE PROCESSION. HIS RECEPTION.— ACCOUNT OF THAT CITY.— HIS- TORICAL DIFFICULTIES. — GREEK CUSTOMS IMITATED BY THE TURKS.— PIOUS WISH OF EL HABAWI. Although^ as has been already observed^ the jgreater part of the geographical works transmitted to us by the Arabians are quite divested of the interest of a personal narrative^ yet a few volumes of Arabian travels have been preserved^ which are worthy objects of curious attention^ if it were merely for the strong contrast they exhibit between the Oriental nn," he Is, hy te,the ifitsit world, is, the Ts also Sindia vaters; anges),' >8, and L when Iso the , in the y, upon Peldn,) sa, and . ourse of trary to Igypt to existed journey ile, and traham, learned ^ose pa- loes any king ac- [hut the jderfully Iter, he Uhed to springs ohjects CHAP. II. TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA. 177 of his curiosity, are described at greater length by £1 Harawi : — "The baths of Tiberias," says this writer, '* which are accounted among the wondors of the world, are not those situated near the gates of Tiberias and upon the side of the lake, for many such as these are to be seen elsewhere ; but the wonderful baths are in a valley to the east of the city called £1 Hosainiya. The struc- ture in which they are embraced is evidently of great antiquity, and is said to have been built by Solomon. It consists of a pile of building, from the front of which issues water. The water came formerly from twelve places, each of which -was appropriated to the cure of some disease ; so that when any one thus afflicted wash- ed himself, he was cured by divine permission. This water is excessively hot, and is very pure and sweet, both to the taste and smeU. The fountains run into a large and handsome reservoir, in which the people bathe. The advantages of these baths are evident, nor have we elsewhere seen any thing like them, except the ThemuBy which are in the neighbourhood of Constantinople." Our traveller next proceeded through the fortresses of the Fidawia or Ismailiah, who are more commonly known by the name of the Assassins ; then to Mount Libanus. the most fruitful mountain in the world, abounding with various fruits, with springs of water and leafy shades, and covered with the cells of hermits retired from the world ; from this place he went by Baalbeck to Damascus, but unfortunately his epitomater has refused us a circum- stantial account of those remarkable cities. The anec- dotes of saints, however, and of holy relics, are carefully preserved. Among these the following is singular : — " Outside of Damascus," says Ibn Batuta, *' on the way of the pilgrimage, is the Mosque qf the Foot, which is held in great estimation, and in which is preserved a stone, having upon it the print of the foot of Moses. In this mosque they offer up prayers in times of distress. I myself was present at this mosque in the year 746 (A. D. 1345), when the people were assembled for the purpose of prayer against the plague^ which ceased oc vou I. N 17« OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE A0E8. B001( II. thAt very day. The number that died daily in Damasw^ cut had been two thousand ; but the whole daily num- ber when I was present amounted to twenty-four thou- sand. After prayers, however, the plague entirely ceased." The mortality here mentioned is, perhaps, less credible than the miracle. But the stone bearing the impression of a foot merits some consideration. Monu- ments of this kind are generally supposed to be remains of BuddhaYsin, yet it is possible, although they seem at present to belong properly to that religion, that they may have claims to a much higher antiquity. The mark of a foot, seen by Herodotus near the river Tyras, was ascribed to Hercules. A similar impression in Ceylon,- or among the Burmese, would be called the footk)f Buddha : in Damascus it was thought to be the foot of Moses. The great distance between the coun- tries in which this singular sort of monument has hem found, and its existence at Damascus, tend equally to prove its great antiquity. It is remarkable that those druidical monuments, as they are commonly thought to be, which are called Cairns, are to be found in Judea, and at no great distance from Jerusalem. From Damascus, Ibn Batuta set out on his pilgrim- age to the tomb of the prophet at Medina. On his way he passed through the town of Meslied Ali; a place rendered opulent by the offerings of pilgrims. In this resort of enthusiasts miracles were common. " On the 17th of the month Rajab,'' says our traveUer, " cripples came from the countries of Fars, Room, Khorasan, and Irak, and assembled in partiea of from twenty to diirty in number. They are placed over the grave of Ali soon after sunset. People then, some praying, some reciting the Koran, and others prostrating themselves, wait ex- pecting their recovery, and rising when about night, they aJl get up sound and well. This is a matter well known among them: I heard it from creditable persons." This miracle is called in the East " the night of re- vival. " Our traveller appears to have, for this time, abandoned OOK II> ' num- thou- tntirely p8,let8 ing the Mona- remaint ty seem lat they r. The pTyras, ition in lied the o be the Le coun- laa been [jually to Lat those lought to n Judea> pilgrim- i his way a place In this On the cripples isan, and thirty Alisoon reciting Iwait ex- t night, Ater well tersons." it of re- )andoned OUAP. II. TRAVZLB OF IBN BATVTA. 179 ( his intention of visiting Medina. He went to Basra or Bassorah, and then made the tour of Irak ; in which country he was treated with honour, receiving from the prince a present of money to defray his travelling ex» penses for himself and his companions. The restless Musulman, " having finished the districts belonging to the king of Irak on the tenth day/' entered those of Is- pahan. Respecting this city or Shiraz, which he next arrived at, he states no particulars. He avows, indeed, that his sole object in visiting the latter was to see the sheikh Magd Oddin— the paragon of saints and worker of miracles. In Shirnz, also, was the tomb of the ImAm Abu Abd Allah, respecting whom our author remarks, that he was the person who made known the way from India to the mountain of Serendib, and who wandered about the mountains in the island of Ceylon. By this we are perhaps to imderstand that it was he who first brought that pilgrimage into vogue among the Mahometans. While the Imdm wandered throu^ the mountains of Ceylon, in company with about thirty faquirs, his com- panions, suffering exceedingly from hunger, ventured, contrary to his advice, to kill and eat an elephant. When they had all gone to deep, the elephants came in a body, and smelling one of them, put him to death ; then they came to the sheikh, but, having smelled him, :L:'y did him no injury. One of them, however, took km up with his truidc, and carried him to some houses, where he laid him down gently, and then marched off. This affiur procured the sheildi great honour among the peo- ple of Ceylon. Ibn Batuta went next to Bagdad, wMch, notwithstanding all the injuries it had lately sustained, was stiU a city of the first importance. From that place he paid a visit to Tebriz> travelled among the Curds, and immediately afterwards set out for Medina and Mecca, where he remained three years. From Mecca our unwearied traveller set out with the m^chants who were going to Yemen : here he visited all the chi^ cities, and then crossed from Aden to Zaila, a port of Abyssinia. " This," he says, " is a city of the N 2 180 OBOORAPHT OF TBB MIDDLE A0E8. BOOK II. Berbers, a people of Soudan, of the Shafia sect : their country is a desert of two months' extent. The first part is called Zaila, the last Makdcuhu." This is the Mo" gadocia of the Portuguese. The food of the people was camel's flesh and fish : the stench of the country was in- supportable, from the smell of the fish and the blood of the camels slaughtered in the streets. At Makdashu or Magadocia, fifteen days' sail from Zaila, the luxuries of the table appear to have been in abundance ; and oar author speaks in complacent terms of the Elkushan, or fricassee, the plantains boiled in new milk, the preserved lemon, pepper-pods, and green ginger : these delicacies were not touched till the unrefined cravings of hunger were subdued, and moderated by a meal of rijce. ** The peopte of Makdashu," he observes, "are very corpulent: they are enormous eaters ; one of them eating as much as a congregation ought to do." From Makdashu he proceeded by sea to the country of the Zanuj (the Zinges or inhabitants of Zanguebar), thence to the island of Mambaaa or Mombas, and re- turning to Kulwa on the coast of the Zuniy, he sailed from that place to Zafar, ** the farthest city of Yemen, and situated on the shore of the Indian sea :" he found it to be a filthy though a much frequented place, and full of flies, on account of the great quantity of fish and dates exposed there for sale. The people fed their cattle and flocks also with fish, a custom which he observed no where else. From Zafar horses were exported to India, and with a fair wind the passage was made in a month : in the present day it would hardly occupy ten days. Half a day's journey beyond Zafar he found the city of El Ahkaf, in the neighbourhood of which were rich gardens, crowned with the luxuriance of Indian vege- tation ; the betel-tree twining round the stem of the cocoa-nut. Proceeding along the Arabian coast towards Amman or Oman, he first saw the incense-tree at Hasik: when this tree is scarified, a fluid like milk runs from it, which hardens in a short time, and is then called kiban, or frankincense. The houses here were. built of the CHAP. II. TRAVKLS OB IBN BATVTA. 181 le bones of fish, and covered with the sldns of camels. In the cities of Oman the flesh of the domestic ass was eaten, and sold in the streets as lawful food. From Arabia our traveller crossed to Hormux, or Or- muz, a city on the sea-shore ; '' but opposite to this," he adds, " is new Hormuz, an island, the capital of which is called Harauna." Thus it appears that the island called Organa by the ancients received a colony from Ormua or Armozeia, and gradually changed its name. Here Ibn Batuta saw the strangest sight he had ever beheld ; this was the head of a fish, " that might be compared to a hill : its eyes were like two doors, so that people could go in at one eye and out at the other." This is a moderate statement when compared with that of the Greeks under Nsearchus ; who, towards the end of their voyage up the Persian Gulf, had an opportunity of mea- suring a whale that had gone aground near Meaambria, perhaps on the strands at Rohilla point. Those of the party who approached near enough to examine the monster reported it to be fifty cubits long, with a hide a cubit in diickness ; beset with shell-fish, bamades, and sea-weeds, and attended by dolphins larger than those seen in the Mediterranean. From the reports of ancient writers it would appear that the whale was formerly a frequent visitor of Uie Persian GnTf. Leaving Ormuz, Ibn Batuta spent some time in the Persian- province of Fars, and visited the pearl fisheries; passed from Siraf, one of the chief shipping ports of the Persian Gulf, to Bahrein, where the houses are often overwhelmed with the sand of the desert; then to Kotaif, where dates are so abundant as to constitute die chief food of the cattle ; and shortly after set out on a second pilgrimage to Mecca^ where he arrived in the year 733 of the Hegira (A. D. 1332), three years after his former visit. The pilgrimage being performed, our traveller again set forward, and directed his way to Judda, intending to cross the sea from Yemen to India ; but unfavourable winds forced him back to a port called Ras Dawair; and V 3 1B2 OCOORAPRT OF THB MWDLV AGES. BOOK H. M it appears to have been of little moment with him in what direction ids journey lay, he Joined the company of some Bedoween Arabs, and crossing a desert Ailed with ostriches and gaaelles, passed into Upper Egypt, and so on to Cairo. After resting a few days at Cairo, he hastened forwards to Syria, Jerusalem, Tripoli, and so on by sea to the country of jRoom, and the district of Anatolia. Among the Turkomans in Anatolia there appears to have existed a form of primitive hospitality which our Moorish traveller did not perfectly understand ; for such a practice as the following can hardly have arisen in the East firom voluntary association: — " In all the Turkoman towns," he relates, " there is a Brotherhood qf Youth* , one of wllom in particular is styled, my Brother, No people are more courteous to strangers, more readily supply them with food and other necessaries, or are more op- posed to oppressors than they are. The person styled the Brother is one about whom individuals of the same oc- cupation, or even friendless strangers, collect and con- stitute him their president. He then builds a cell, and puts into it a horse, saddle, and whatever else may be necessary ; he also attends on his companions, and in the evening they all meet together, bringing whatever they may have collected for the use of the cell. Should a stranger arrive among them, they cheerfully maintain him till he leaves the country. The members of this association are styled the Youths, and the president the Brother." Ibn Batuta experienced the kindness of this society as soon as he arrived in Anatolia. A man came to him, in order to invite him and his companions to a feast. Our* traveller was astonished that one who looked so poor should think of feasting so many ; but was in- formed, that this man was one of the brotherhood, a company of two hundred silk merchants, who had a cell of their own ; he therefore consented, and witnessed their extraordinary kindness and liberality. Scenes of this kind occurred to him frequently among the Turkomans. On one occasion, when entering a town, he found himself .V" V' ^ » ^ i'% t, - CHAP. n. TBAVBLI or XBN BATUTA. IbH suddenly turrounded by a number of penoni, who leiied the reini of hit hone, and caused bin great alarm ; but some one, who could speak Arabic, coming up, said that they were contending as to who should entertain him, as they belonged to the Society of Youths. Upon this he felt safe : the young men cast lots ; and Ibn Batuta with his party proceeded to the mandon of the winners. Visiting all the chief cities of Anatolia or Asia Minor, he at length came to Erzeroum. There the king enquired of him one day whether he had ever seen a stone that had fallen from heaven ; he answered in the negative. Such a stone, continued the king, has fallen in the en- virons of our city ; he then ordered some men to bring it in : it was a black, shining, and exceedingly hard sub- stance, not yielding to the hammer, and weighing above a talent. This is not the only mention of the fall of erolites which occurs in Arabian writers. They tell of a shower of stones, which fell in the province of Africa Proper, and killed all who were beneaUi it. They also relate ^at a stone was one day brought to the Calif Motawekkel, which had fallen from the air in Tabaris- tan ; it weighed 840 rotl *: the noise it made in falling was heard at a distance of four parasangs in all directions, and it buried itself in the ground five cubits deep. Many other similar instances are mentioned by them ; an(^ the observations of modem philosophers leaves no room to doubt the correctness of their accounts. But Jahedh relates a meteoric phenomenon of a much more extraordinary kind. At Aidha4jj a city between Ispahan and Kuzistan^ as he narrates it, there was seen a dense, black doud, so close to the earth that it might be almost touched with the head : there issued from it noises like the cries of a male camel. The cloud at last broke, and there fell from it so terrible a rain, that it seemed as if the earth were about to suffer from a second deluge. After this the cloud threw forth frogs and shabbuts (a sort pf fish) of great size These were eaten by the .,. . *G901lM.aTOlidupoii. N 4j 1S4 OEOGRAPHT OF THB MIDDXJB AOEg. BOMtU. people, or laid up in store. It is an incontestable fiact thit the volcanoes of the Cordilleras 4irow up inunense quantities of fish; and although a i&ower of fish is not ▼ery easily explained without the agency of a volcano, yet nature is so full of wonders, that even in the present enlarged state of knowledge, it would be perhaps pre- sumptuous to doiy the fact altogether. Ibn Batuta appears to have visited all the principal towns and Turkish rulers in Anatolia ; and it is to be regretted that he has left us so brief a notice of one of the ablest and most successful princes of the Ottoman family, which in his time was rapidly rising into ascend- ency. " I went," he says, '' to the city of Brusa, which is a luge place, and governed by Ikhtiyar Oddin Urkhan B^, ton of Othman Juk. This is one of the greatest, richest^ and most extensive in rule, and commanding the greatest army of all the Turkoman kings : his prac- tice is to be constantly visiting his fortresses and districts, and to be enquiring into their circumstances. It is said that he never rraiains a month in any one place.'* -^ From Castemooni Batuta crossed the Black Sea to Crim. The desert of Kipjak he describes as green and productive, but without tree, moimtain, hiU, or wood in it. It was usually travelled over in a sort of cart called ariba, the journey being one of six months. Our traveller hired one of these carts to proceed to the city of £1 Kafa, which belonged to Mohammed Uzbek Khan. The khan was at that time encamped widi his retinue in a place called JBiah Tag, or Five Mountains, where Batuta arrived on the first of the month Ramadan. He was struck with the spectacle of a moving city presented by the camp with its mosques and cooking-houses, the smoke from which trained behind as they moved along. The sultan received him graciously, and sent him a sheep, a horse, and a leathern bag of koomis, or mares' milk, the favourite Tatar beverage. •'■^ Batuta had heard of the city of Bulgar, and had coni> ceived a strong desire to see it, in order that he might have an opportunity of observing how far the reported L CHAP. II. THAYBLS OF IBN BATVTA. 185 ea to and lod in sailed veller : El The in a tuta seyerity of its climate, and the inequality of its nights and days, were truth or fiction. It was situated at a distance of ten days' journey from the Tatar camp. He set out with a guide appointed by the sultan, and found (Ml his arrival that the accounts of former travellers were perfectly correct. It was summer-time when he visited Bulgar; and the nights were then so short, that before he had finidied the prayer of sunset, the time of even- ing prayer came on, which he hastily ran over ; he then said the prayer of midnight, and that called £1 Witr; but before he had ended he was overtaken by the dawn. " In Bulgar," says Batuta, *' I was told of the land of darkness, and certainly had a great dedre to go to it from that place. The distance was a journey of forty days. I was diverted, therefore, from the undertaking, both on account of its great danger and the little good to be derived from it. I was told that there was no travelling thither except upon little Jedges, which are drawn by large dogs ; and that during the whole of the journey the roads are covered with ice, upon which nei^er the feet of man nor the hoofs of beasts can take any hold. These dogs, however, have nails by which their feet take firm hold on the ice. No one enters these parts except powierful merchants, each of whom has, perhaps, a hun- dred such sledges as these, which they load with provi- sions, drinks, and wood ; for ndther trees, stones, nor houses are met with there. The guide in this country is the dog, who has gone the journey several times, the price of which will amoimt to about a thousand dinars. The sledge is harnessed to his neck, and with him three other dogs are joined, he, however, being the leader. The others then follow him with the sledge, and when he stops they stop. The master never strikes or repri- mands this dog ; and when he proceeds to take his meals the dogs are fed first ; for if this were not done they would become enraged, and perhaps run away, and leave their master to perish. When the travellers have com- pleted thdr forty days or stages through this desert, they arrive at the land of darkness^ and each man leaving 166 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDOLB AGES. BOOK U.) what he has brought with him^ goes back to his appointed station. On the morrow they return to look for thdr goods, and find, instead of them, sable, ermine, and the fur of the sinjab. If, then, the merchant likes what he finds, he takes it away ; if not, he leaves it, and more is added to it. Upon some occasions, however, these people will take back their own goods, and leave those of ^e merchants. In this way is their buying and selling car- ried on ; for the merchants know not whether it is with mankind or demons that they have to do, not a soul be- ing seen during the transaction. It is one of the proper- ties of these furs that no vermin ever enters them." He returned from this tour to the camp of the sultan, whom he accompanied to Astrachan, situated on the Athti, or Volga, one of the greatest rivers of the world. Here the sultan always resided during the veiy cdd weather ; and when the Volga and acyoining riven were frozen over, the Tatars spread some ^ousand bundles of hay upon the ice, and on this they travelled. It appears that one of the wives of the Tatar khan was a daughter of the emperor of Constantinople: this princess obtained leave to pay a visit to her father, and our author also was permitted to accompany her. The queen, who is here named Bailun, was attended in her journey by five thousand of the khan's army, about five hundred of whom were cavalry. " At the distance of one day from £1 Sarai," says our author, '' are the mountains of the Russians, who are Christians, with red hair and blue eyes, an ugly and perfidious people. They have mines of silver; and from their country are the suwam or pieces of silver bullion brought, each piece weighing five ounces." When the cavalcade reached the fortress of Mahtuli, on the frontiers of the empire, (which still extended, as it appears, a distance of two-and-twenty days' journey to the north,) the emperor, attended by the ladies of his court, set out with a large army to meet the princess. 8he had brought with her a mosque, which she set up at every stage during the former part of her journey ; but CHAP. II. TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA. 187 piece she left it behind at Mahtuli, the office of muezzim ceased, she drank wine, and ate swine's flesh ; in short, she returned to Christianity, as soon as she entered her father's territories. She carefully enjoined, however, the officers who came out to meet her, to pay every at<* tention to our learned theologian. r When the princess approached Constantinople, the greatest part of its inhabitants, men, women, and chil- dren, came out, attired in their finest clothes, either walking or riding, beating drums and shouting as they proceeded. When the parties mixed the pressure was so great, that it was at the peril of his life, our traveller declares, that he caught a glimse of the meeting of the princess and her relations. They entered Constantinople about sunset, and the bells were then ringing at such a rate, " that the very horizon shook with the noise." Soon after the arrival of the princess at Constanti- nople, Ibn Batuta, who appears to have already excited some interest as a remarkable traveller, was introduced at court : but his relation, which, though probably cor- rect, yet presents some historic difficulties, shall be given jn his own words. " On the fourth day after our ar- rival," he says, '' I wc« introduced to the sultan Takfur, -son of George king of Constantinople. His father, George, was still living, but had retired from the world, become a monk, and given up the kingdom to his son. When I arrived at the fifth gate of the palace, which was guarded by soldiers, I was searched, lest I should carry any weapon with me; which is submitted to 1^ every citizen as well as stranger, who wishes to be introduced to the king. The same is observed by the emperors of India. I was introduced, therefore, and did h(nnage. The emperor was sitting upon his throne, with his queen and daughter, our mistress ; her brothers were seated beneath the throne. I was kindly received, and asked as to my circumstances and arrival; also ibput Jerusalem, the Temple of the Resurrection, the cradle of Jesus, Bethlehem, and the city of Abraham (or Hebron), then of Damascus, Egypt, Irak, and the 188 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE A«IES. BOOK U. country of Room ; to all of which I gave suitable re- plies. A Jew was our interpreter. The king was much surprised at my tale Qrdating to the extent of his travels perhaps^, and said to his sons, ' Let this man be treated honourably, and give him a letter of safe con- duct.' He then put a dress of honour on n^e, and ordered a saddled horse to be given me, with one of his own umbrellas, which with them is a mark of protec- tion. I then requested that he would appoint some one to ride with me through the different quarters of the dty, that I might see them. He made the appointment accordingly, and I rode about with the officer for some days, witnessing the wonders of the place. Its largest dhurch is that of Sancta Sophia : I saw its outside only. Its ihterior I could not see, because just within the door there was a cross which every one who entered was obliged to worship. It is said that this church is one of the foundations of Asaf, the son of Barachias, and nephew of Solomon. The churches, monasteries, and other places of worship within the city, are innumer- able." It is not easy to explain why our traveller should ^ve the name of Tt^fur to the emperor Andronicus II. who was at ibis time (between 1332 and 1341) on the throne of Constantinople.* His assertion that the father of that prince was stiU living in retirement is also at variance with other accounts. That the Byzantine his- torians should pass over in silence those humiliating alliances of marriage between the imperial house and the Tatar princes is not very extraordinary, but it is known that Andronicus the elder offered his daughter in mar- riage, in 1302, to the Grand Khan of the Moguls; and many indications occur, in the early travellers, of a much more intimate correspondence existing between the courts of Constantinople and of the £ast than is manifested in the page of Idstory. * Some copies instead of Takftir read NakAir, which night be luppoted to mean Nicephorus. But this adds fresh chronolocical difllcultiea. The elder Andronicus died in 13S8, according to (^bbon, the year in which Ilm Batuta performed his first pilgrimage to Meeca. See the Traveb of Ibn Batuta, translated by professor Lee, 1889* P> 8S: i "i i . i i !i ii i OVAP. XI* TBAYSLS OF IBN BATVTA. 189 The Turks^ when they became masters of Constanti- nople, borrowed from the Greeks many of their customs and formalities^ and even the fashion of their dress. The pomp of the Ottoman court was arranged, in a great measure, in imitation of that of the Greek em- perors; and it is curious to observe, that the odious custom of searching the persons of those who are admitted to the imperial presence (a custom still partially retained at the Porte, even in the case of am- bassadors,) appears to be among those which the Turks have only copied from the Greeks. It is also singular, tliat in the fourteenth century the popular belief of the Greeks should refer the foundation of their principal church to Asaf, the nephew of Solomon. As the brief mention which Ibn Batuta makes of the church of Sancta Sophia is confined merely to its exterior, it may not be unacceptable to the reader to hear the account which is given of it by another Arabian vriter. £1 Ha- rawi, who visited Constantinople in the thirteenth cen- tury, writes as follows: — '' In this place are statues of brass and marble, pillars, wonderful talismans, and other monuments of greatness, to which no equal can be found in the habitable world. Here is also Ayia (Sancta) So- phia, the greatest church they have. I was told by Ya- kut Ibn Abd Allah, that he had entered it, and that it was just as I had described it. Within it are 360 doors, and they say that one of the angels resides there. Round about his place they have made fences of gold ; and the story which they rdate of him is very strange." El Ha-" rawi then promises to speak, in another place, '" of the ar- rangement of this church, its size, height, doors, and the pillars that are in it ; also of the wonders of the city, its order, the sort of fish found in it, the gai;e of gold, the towers of marble, the brazen elephants, and all its monu- ments and wonders." And in conclusion, he exclaims, " This city, which is greater than its fame, may God of his bounty and grace make the capital of Islamismf" ' 190 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDUB AOES. BOOK II* CHAP. III. TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA CONTINUED. IHV BATUTA RETURNS TO TATARY. — FROCBEDS TO CHORASli. '— SINGULAR CUSTOM. BOKHARA. — ITS MOSQUE. BALKM* — HINDOO CUSH. — THE FATHER OF THE SAINTS. •'THE AFGHANS. SINI). RUINS NEAR tAHARI. —MODE OF LEVYING TROOPS. — DEHLI. — CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. — ■ IBN BATUTA AF- rOINTED JUDGE. —EXPEDIENT TO RAISE MONEY. NARROWLY ESCAPES BEING PUT TO DEATH. — TURNS FAQUIR. CHOSEN AMBASSADOR TO CHINA.— NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE COURTS OF PEKIN AND DEHLI.— THE EMBASSAGE SETS OUT.— ATTACKED BY ROBBERS. — IBN BATUTA TAKEN FKISONER. HIS SUFFER* Itfbs AND ESCAPE. — CITY OF BARUN INFESTED BY YOOBE8. — THE GOFTARS.— ORDEALS IN INDIA. — JOURNEY TO CALICUT.— CHINESE JUNKS. IMPERIAL TREASURES LOST BY SHIPWRECK. ' IBN BATUTA GOES TO THE MALDIVES. IS MADE JUDGE. — ' MARRIES THREE WIVES. PROCEEDS TO CEYLON. ASCENDS ADAM's PEAK.— KING OF THE MONKEYS.— EMBARKS AT COULAN. — CAPTURED BY PIRATES. — RETURNS TO THE MALDIVES.-^ VISITS BENGAL, SUMATRA, TAWALISI. -.- ARRIVES IN CHINA. — PAPER MONEY. GOO AND MAGOG. EL KHANSA. — TATAR FUNERAL.— RETURNS TO PERSIA. MECCA. REVISITS TANGIER. — TRAVELS IN SPAIN. PROCEEDS TO SOUDAN. THAGARI.— —ABU LATIN.— MALI.— THE NIGER. — HIPPOPOTAML CANNI* BALS.— TIMBUCTOO. — KAKAW. — BARDAMA. — NAKDA.— RE- TURNS) AND TAKES UP HIS RESIDENCE IN FEE. After a stay of one month and six days in Constanti- nople, Ibn Batuta returned to Astrachan, where he re- mained a little time. Leaving Tatary he now pursued his journey into Khavaresm or Chorasm, through a desert iU supplied with herbage or water. But in this part of his narrative there is such a deficiency of detail, either from the haste of the traveller himself, or the fault of his abbreviator, that no interest can be found in tracing his route, except that which is excited by his indefatigable love of locomotion. Chorasm was a p<^u- lous city, and appeared to him to be the largest in the possession of the Turks. The people were polite and hospitable. One singular custom, however, prevailed CHAP. in. TRAVELS OF IB)f BATUTA. 191 among them ; those who absented themseives from puUic worship were flogged by the priest in presence of the con- gregation^ and fined, moreover, in a sum of five dinars. A whip was hung up in every mosque for the punish- ment of the neglectfiU. This custom is still retained in Bokhara, where the people are driven to worship with the whip. The most numerous sect in Chorasm were the Schismatics, or those who rejected predestination ; but they did not care to spread abroad their heresy. From Chorasm, Batuta went to Bokhara, which he found but imperfectly restored from the desolation poured upon it by Jengis Khan. He proceeded next to Samar- cand, a rich and beautiful city, sanctified, in the devout theologian's eyes, by the tombs of numerous saints which it contained. Crossing the Gihon, he entered Khorasan, and travelling a day and night, tlurough a desert without a habitation, arrived at Balkh, once a great city, but now in ruins. Jengis Khan had so totally destroyed it, that though the site of the town was evident enough, it was impossible to trace the ar- rangement of its buildings. The mosque, the Mahome- tan affirms, was one of the greatest in the world ; its pillars were incomparable. But these were destroyed by the barbarian conqueror, in consequence of a popular belief, that a great treasure was buried beneath them for the repair of the edifice. From Balkh, the journey lay for seven days through the ^mountains of Kuhistan. This hilly country was thickly strewed with villages. Ibn Batuta came ne::t to Herat, the largest city in Khorasan after the ravages of Jengis Khan. Thence to Barwan ; " in the road to which is a high mountain covered with snow, called llindoo Cush," that is, as our author whimsically trans- lates it, " the Hindoo slayer, because most of the slaves brought thither from India die from the intenseness of the cold." In the mountain called Bashai was a cell inhabited by an old man, called Ata Bvlia, that is, the Father of the Saints. He was said to be three hundred and fifty years old. To Batuta, indeed, he did not ap- ■Twr 14^ oBooRArar o# fn inDi>M aam. bookh. pear to be tbove fifty. He 'Mid Ihit everj hundredth year he had a new groffth of jMdr and teeth, and that he had been once the R^jah ;^W Rahim Raton of India, who had been buried at Multan, in the province of Sin- dia. Theae tales and reveriei, however, found little to encourage them in the superstition of the Musulman, who proved rather sceptical on this occasion : he wanted ihe boldness of Hindoo credulity. Candahar and Cabul were both in a ruined state when visited by our traveller. " This last is inhabited/' he says, " by a people from Persia, whom they call Af- ghans." His testimony here, with respect to the descent of t^s people, is of some importance. The Afghans themselves pretend that they are descended from the Jews; and although all that is known in Europe respect- ing their language contradicts their assertion, yet there are learned Orientalists who are stiU willing to submit to the authority of the Afghan historieJb. These histories, however, have so little of intrin^c merit, and are of ao modem a date, that the asseveration of a well-informed Oriental traveller of the fourteentt; century preponderates against them. Batuta describes them as a violent and powerftil people, exercising, in geileral, the profession of •highway robbery. Our indefatigable traveller now embarked on the Sind, whidi he calls the greatest river in the world, and de- scended to Lahari (perhaps Larry Bunder), a town ntu- ated at its mouth. At the distance of a few miles from this dty were the ruins of another, in which stones in tlbe shape of men and beasts, almost innumerable, were to be found. It was the general opinion of the country, that a great city formerly stood there, but that the in- habitants of it became so utterly lost to all piety and virtue, that God transformed them, their beaits, their herbs, and even their very seeds, into stones. He tra- velled next to Multan, the capital of Sindia, where he witnessed the Indian mode of levying soldiers. On the day of the levy or review, the emir had a number of bows of various sizes placed before him, and '^i idth the idia, an- te to man, uited tfaAi>, XIX. TBAVEXiS or XBN BATUTA. 193 "when ," he II Af- .escent Fghans m the espect- t there bmit to istoricB, reef «o iformed [iderates ent and tssion of heSind, and de- wn dtu- les from ■^tones in >le, vrere country, . the in- |iety and Its, their He tra- rhere he ir had a im, and when any one offered himself, to enlist as a bowman, he was obliged to draw one of ^ese bows with all hit might; a rank was then asd^ed him proportioned to his strength. In Uke manner those who presented themselves as horsemen ran their horses at full speed towards a drum which was suspended as a mark, and according to the effect done by their spears was their place decided. Dehli he describes as the greatest city of Islamism in the East, combining at once both beauty and strength : it was composed, indeed, of four cities, which becoming contiguous, formed one; yet he observes that the greatest city in the world had the fewest inhabitants. Dehli, when he entered it, was a desert : the inhabitants had fled from their houses to escape the cruelty of the emperor, nor could the encouragement which was held out to new settlers restore its population. This terrific ruler was the emperor Mohammed, son of Ghiath Oddin Toglik, descended of the Turks who were settled in the mountains of Sindia. " This em- peror," according to our author, " was one of the most bountiful and splendidly munificent men where he took, but in other cases one of the most impetuous and inexorable, and very seldom indtod did it happen that pardon followed bis anger." This was a dargeroun kind of patron to approach ; but the learned theologian^ Ibn Batuta, was received with singular favour, reaped the benefits of the emperor's generosity, Mid fortunately escaped from his displeasure. When he was called in to the imperial presence, and had done homage, the vizier said to him, ' The lord of the world appoints you to the office of judge in Dehli; he gives you, at the same time, a dress of honour, with a saddled horse and also twelve thousand dinars for your present support; he has, moreover, appointed you a yearly salary of twelve thousand dinars, and a portion of lands in the villages which will produce annually an equal sum.' The tra- veller, on receiving this unexpected appointment, did homage according to custom, and withdrew '^ But the VOL. I. . , ft; 194 OEOCntAPHY OF THB MIDDLE A0K8. BOOK II. emperor's munificence did not stop here. The newly- appointed judge of Dehli received another present of twelve thousand dinars, and a ceU, or endowed mansion, was likewise placed at his command. Yet so great were the expenses incurred by his following the court in the expeditions of the emperor, that he shortly found himself involved in debts to the amount of fifty-five thousand dinars. This embarrassment he contrived to get rid of by an Oriental artifice. '' About this time," he says, " I composed in Arabic a panegyric in praise of the emperor, and read it to him. He translated it for himself, and was wonderfully pleased with it; for the Indians are fond of Arabian poetry, and are very glad to be recorded in it. I then informed him of the debt) I had incurred, which he ordered to be discharged from his own treasiiry, and added, ' Take care in future not to exceed the extent of your income.' " Shortly after this, our traveller and judge experienced the anxiety of depending on the patronage of a capricious tyrant. A sheikh who had been honoured with the confidence of the emperor, for some unknown cause, had incurred his displeasure ; enquiries were then made as to those who had kept company with the obnoxious individual. The judge Ibn Batuta was among the num- ber informed against. For four days together the ac- cused attended at the gate of the palace, while a council within sat deliberating on their fate. This was a painful situation for our judge, who had seen the victims of the emperor's suspicion shot from balistee, and trodden upon by elephants whose feet were cased with knives. He betook himself, however, to continued fasting, and tasted nothing but water. On the first day he repeated the sentence, " God is our support, and the most excellent patron," three-and-thirty diousand times, and after the fourth day he was delivered ', but the sheikh and all the others who had visited him were put to death. Terror-struck at this stern act of despotism, Ibn Batuta resigned the office of judge, gave all he possessed to the faquirs, and putting on the tvnic of that order. KlI' CHAP. III. TRAVBLl OF IBN BATVTA. 195 wly- it of •ion, great court ;ound y-flve ed to ime," praise ited it V t; for e very of the barged future rienced pricious ith the lae, had nade as noxious le num- the ac- council punfiil Bof the en upon He d tasted ted the xcellent ter the and ail iS passed the various grades of mystical probation till he was able to keep a continued fast of five days; he then breakfasted on a little rice. After this he was sent for by the emperor, and> going to the palace in his coarse tunic, was received more gradoudy than ever. Mohammed said to him, " I wish to send you as ambassador to the emperor of China, for I know you love travelling in foreign countries." To this proposition he gladly consented ; and dresses of honour, horses, money, and every thing necessary, were immediatdy supplied him for the journey. The emperor of China, it appears, had at this time sent iHrescnts of great value to the sultan, and requested from him permission to rebuild an idol temple in the country about the mountain of Kora, on ^e inac- cessible heighta of which there was said to be a plain of three months' journey in extent. " Here," says our author, " there resided many infidel Hindoo kings. The extremities of these parts extend to the mountains of Thibeti where the musk gazelles are found. There are also mines of gold on these mountains, and poisonous grass growing, such that when the rains fall upon it and run in torrents to the neighbouring rivers, no one dares to drink of the water during the time of their rising ; should any one drink of it, he dies immediately. The idol temple was caUed JBurKhana (Buddh Khana): it stood at the foot of the mountain, and was destroyed by the Mahometans, who at the same time made them- selves masters of the level country. But as the people of the mountains depended wholly for subsistence on the possession of the plain, they procured the Emperor of China to intercede in their favour with the king of India. Besides, the people of China were accustomed to make pilgrimages to this idol temple, which was situated in a place called Semhal." It is easy to un- derstand that the idol temple, or Budkhana here referred to, was situated on the frontiers of Budtan, the pes- tiferous air of which country, arising from the rankness o 2 1. 19i) OBOOBAPHY OP THB MIDDLB AOE8. BOOK II. and tuperabundance of iti vegetation, might easily give birth to the atory of poisonoua riven. To thia requeat the emperor of Dehli replied, that no church whatsoever could be permitted to exist in a country sut^ject to Mahometans, unless where tribute was paid ; on this condition only could the temple be rebuilt. Ibn Batuta was appointed ambassador to carry this harsh answer ; at the same time presents also of great value were prepared and entrusted to two favour- ites of the emperor. A body of a thousand cavalry attended the embassage to conduct it to the place of shipping. The expedition, while proceeding towards the coast, passed through a country which was in a very disturbed state ;, they met with and totally routed a party of the insurgents, but one of the officers who had charge of the presents lost his life in the conflict. A few days after, the alarm was given that the Hindoos were at- tacking a Mahometan village in the neighbourhood ; and Ibn Batuta and his friends immediately rode off to defend the Moslems. The Hindoos were put to flight at the first onset ; but afterwards perceiving our luckless ambassador left behind with only five companions, they returned to the charge, and succeeded completely in cutting off his retreat. He fled as fast as his horse could carry him ; but finding himself at length in a valley closely interwoven with trees, and from which there was no escape, he alighted, from his horse and gave himself up as a prisoner. The robbers then stripped him of every thing he had, bound him, and carried him with them for two days, intending to kill him. Of their language he was quite ignorant. They at length let him go, and he directed his course he knew not whither. Fearing that they might change their purpose and return to take his life, he hid himself in a forest thickly interwoven with trees and thorns, and there remained some time in close con- cealment. Whenever he ventiired upon the roads, they seemed to lead him either to the villages of the Hindoos or !U_ CHAP. III. TKA\k:IM OP IBM BATUTA* 197 had, days, quite rected they \b life, trees con- they loos or to melancholy rui ns : he was always, therefore, under the necessity of returning ,* and thus he patied seven whole days in a state of the greatest horror. His food was the fhiit and leayes of the mountain trees. At length, on the seventh day, he caught sight of a black man, who had with him a small water-vessel, and a walking staff shod with iron. After mutual salutations, the black man enquired his name. He answered, Mo- hammed. To a similar interrogation, the black man replied. El Kalb £1 Karih (the wounded heart). He then gave our wretched traveller some pulse and some water to drink, and asked him to accompany him on his journey. Ibn Batuta made the effort, but found him- self unable to move, and sunk on the earth. The black man then took him on his shoulders, and as he Wi4ked along his exhausted companion fell asleep. About dawn next morning Ibn Batuta awoke, and found himself at the emperor's palace gate. A courier had fdready brought to Dehli an ac- count of all that had happened. The emperor endea- voured to repair with kindness the misfortunes of his ambassador : he gave him twelve thousand dinars ; ap- pointed another officer to take charge of the presents in the room of him who had been killed, and shortly after the expedition again set forward. They passed by Kul, where so many accidents had previously taken place, to Kanoge, Merwa, and Gwalior, a fortress of India, re- markable in all ages, and of which our author gives an entertaining history ; thence they came to the city of Barun. In the neighbourhood of Barun (a small city inha- bited by Moslems) were infidel districts, infested by wild beasts, which frequently entered the town and tore the inhabitants. It was reported, nevertheless, that such as entered the streets of the town were not really wild beasts, but some of those magicians called yogees, who have the power of assuming what shapes they please. Ibn Batuta repeats the story told by Ctesias seventeen centuries before, when he affirms that the S . ipSi OEOOBAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK iV.- ybgees are able to abstain totally from food for many months together. " Many of them/' he says, " dig houses for themselves under ground, over -which any one may build, leaving them only a place for the air to pass through. In this the yogee will reside for months with- out eating or drinking any thing. I have heard of one who remained thus for a whole year. They have also the power of foretelling events." Among other miraculous qualities ascribed to these yogees by our author, is that of being able to kill a man with a look. This power, however, was more fre- quently possessed by women, who were in that case called goftars. The cruelties practised in India upon those wretches who had the misfortune to become the object^ of superstitious apprehension, were precisely the same as the ordeals of European witches. While Ba- tuta was judge of Dehli, a supposed goftar was brought before him, charged with having killed a child by her looks. The judge sent her to the vizier, who ordered her to be thrown into the river Jumna, with four large water-vessels tied to her. She floated nevertheless, and accordingly the vizier ordered her to be burnt. The people distributed her ashes among them, believing that whoever fumigated himself with them would be secure from the fascinations of a goftar for the following year. The Arabian travellers of the ninth century, Wahab and Abuzaid, also remarked, in the north of India, the or- deal by fire, practised precisely in the same manner as in Europe. The accused person carried a bar of heated iron a certain distance : his hand was then bound up, and the covering was scaled by the magistrate. If at the expiration of a few days the marks of the fire had disappeared, the accused was declared innocent ; if not^ his guilt was considered as established. Our traveller's route was now directed towards the country of Malabar. The whole of the way by land lay under the shade of trees; and at the distance of every half mile was a house made of wood, with chambers fitted up for the reception of the wayfaring* CHAP. III. TBAVELS OF IBN BATUTA. 199 these ds the land stance with aring. In the city of Menjarun, he found four thousand Maho- metan merchants. In Pattan, on the contrary^ inha- bited by Brahmins, there was not a single Mahometan. Having arrived at Calicut^ a great port frequented by wealthy merchants. from all parts, Batuta waited three months for the season to set sail for China. He gives an accurate description of the great Chinese ships called junks : — " The sails of these vessels are made of cane reeds, woven together like a mat ; which, when they put into port, they leave standing in the wind. In some of these vessels there will be a thousand men, six hundred of them sailors, and the remainder soldiers. Each of the larger vessels is followed by three others of infe- rior sizes. These vessels are no where built except in the farthest ports of China. They are rowed with large oars, which may be compared to great masts, over some of which five and twenty men will be stationed, who work standing. The commander of each vessel is a great emir. In the large ships, too, they sow garden herbs and ginger, which they cultivate in cisterns ranged along the side. In these also are houses constructed of wood, in which the higher officers reside with their wives: every vessel is, therefore, like an independent city. Of such ships as these Chinese individuals will sometimes have large numbers, and, generally speaking, the Chinese are the richest people in the world." - The time of the voyage at length arrived. There were thirteen large junks in the port, and one of these was appointed for the reception of the embassage. The imperial presents were already embarked ; and Batuta, who preferred the accommodation of one of the smaller vessels, had sent all his property on board, remaining himself on shore to attend prayers in the mosque. The fleet was to set sail on the morrow; but during the night a violent hurricane came on, the sea rose and destroyed most of the great vessels in the harbour, among others, the junk containing the treasure : the crew and imperial officers all perished, and the wealth was lost. The ship iu which Batuta had embarked his efiPects had succeeded o 4 800 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOKtI. in getting off to sea. Nothing remained to him now but his prostration carpet and ten dinars which were given him by some holy men. After this misfortune our traveller was afraid to re- turn to the court of Dehli ; he sought^ therefore, and obtained the protection of the king of Hinaur, with whom he remained for a little time, and then proceeded ■to the Maldive islands. '' These islands/' he says, " are about two thousand in number, and constitute one of the wonders of the world." He describes the people as extremely neat, but weak and delicate in their persons. The principal islands were governed by a woman ; a remark made also by the Arabian travellers of the ninth century. Their diief trade consisted in a sort of thread made of the fibres of the cocoa-nut : the nut is macerated in water, and afterwards beaten with a mallet till it grows quite soft ; the fibre is then spun out and twisted into ropes. This thread is used to sew together the ships of Yemen and of India. Ibn Batuta rose into great consideration in the island of Mohl, from the name of which he supposes the whole of the cluster to have been called the Maldives.* He accepted the office of judge, married three wives, and rode on horseback ; an honour which he alone was al- lowed to share with the vizier. But this great personage, who was also the queen's husband, at length grew jealous of his increasing influence ; Batuta in consequence, who was, perhaps, tired also of remaining so long in one place, thought it prudent to retire from the island, and having divorced two of his wives he set sail for Maabar, a name which the Arabians give to the southern portion of the Camatic and Coromandel coast : it must not, therefore^ 1)0 confounded with Malabar, to which it bears so close a resemblance. The wind shifted in the commencement of the voy- age, rose to a dangerous d^ee of violence, and forced the * But there ia more likelihood in the conjecture of thoae who suppose the name of the Maldives as well as that of the Laccadives to signify the thou, sand islet ; the word Mat^ in the dialects, and Lacca, in the Sanscrit, both ^gnifjiing a thousand. DiA or Dtpa is an island. >OK^I> CHAP. III. TRAVELS OF IBN -BATUTA. 201 [>wbut given to re- re^ and ', with 4 iceeded i says, istitute yea the in their I by a aveUers ed in a at: the with a pun out to sew le island whole * He and ras al- voy- the [>se the \ thou. it, both vessel to Ceylon. The great mountain Serendib^ our author affirms, was visible at a distance of nine days' sail : it looked like a pillar of smoke, the clouds rolling at its feet. When the ship entered the harbour, it was not without difficulty that the Mahometans were per- mitted to land ; but as Ibn Batuta represented himself to be related to the king of Maabar, he was treated with respect. When admitted to the king's presence, he stated the object of his coming to the island to be, " to visit the blessed footstep of our forefather Adam." To this pilgrimage the king gave his permission ; appointed yogeesand Brahmins to accompany the Mahometan, with servants to carry provisions. The mountain of Serendib, or Adam's Peak, might be ascended by two roads: the one, called by the natives " the way of Baba" or Adam ; the other, "the way of Mama" or Eve. The latter was much the more practicable of the two ; but the merit of the pilgrimage wfts enhanced by the roughness of the road : the way of Baba was accordingly preferred. The precipice immediately below the sacred summit is climbed by means of iron chains, fixed to pins driven in the rock. Of these chains there are ten in number, one above the other ; the last of them is called the " chain of witness," because those who have arrived at it and look down are seized with a strong apprehension that they shall faU. At the tenth chain is the cave of Khizr, a spacious cavern in which pilgrims leave their provisions, and then ascend about two miles to the top of the moun- tain to the rock on which is the impression, called the " foot of Buddha" by the Hindoos, and "Adam's foot" by Mahometans. *' The length of this impression," says Batuta, *' is eleven spans. The Chinese came here at some former time and cut out from this stone the place of the great toe, together with the stone about it, and placed it in a temple in the city of Zaitun. Pilgrim- ages are made to it from the most distant parts of China. In the rock containing the impression have been cut nine small excavations, into which infidel pilgripis put gold, rubies, and other jewels : hence you will see the 203 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK II. faquirs, who have come as pilgrims to the cave of Kliizr, racing to get first to these excavations, in order to secure whatever may he in them." In one particular the account which Ibn Batuta gives of '' Adam's foot" differs essentially from that of Wahab in the ninth cen- tury, who had not made the pilgrimage himself, but received the description, perhaps, only from the natives. Wahab says, that the print of the foot is not nine q>ans, but seventy cubits in length ; and he adds the jcurious circumstance, that while Adam placed one foot on the mountain he stood with the other in the sea. In the woods round the foot of Adam's Peak he saw great multitudes of monkeys, of a dark colour, and with beards like men. Like the Greeks of antiquity, he ap- peari' to have been nearly forced into a belief that these animals are but a variety of the human species. The sheikh Othman and his son, two ^ ious and credible per- sons, assured him that the monkeys have a chief, whom they treat as if he were a king: he wears on his head a tur- ban composed of the leaves of trees : four monkeys, with rods in dieir hands, constantly wait upon him and sup- ply his table with nuts, lemons, and other mountain fruit. Our traveller saw here a white elephant in the possession of the king. From Ceylon the restless Mahometan set sail for the coast of Coromandel. In the middle of the voyage a violent tempest came on, and the vessel was nearly lost. JFrom Coromandel he crossed through the interior to Malabar ; and after a little time embarked at Coulan to return to Hinaur. New calamities beset him ; the ship in which he sailed was captured by pirates : he was robbed of all that he possessed, and put ashore stripped nearly naked. In this plight he arrived at Calicut, where he took refuge in a mosque, till some of the mer- i^ants who had known him in Dehli learned his situation Mid came to his relief. Having again visited the Mal- dive islands, he proceeded, to Bengal, which appeared to him the cheapest and most plentiful country he had ever seen. His chief object in coming hither was to visit a i. CHAP. III. TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA. 203 great saint who dwelt in the mountains of Kamru, which a4join the mountains of Thibet, and are frequented by the musk gazelles. The sheikh Jalal Oddin^ the saint in question, treated our pilgrim with attention, and placed on him at parting the fine goats' hair garment which he wore himself. Returning to the sea-side, Batuta found a junk pre- paring to set sail for Sumatra. Unable to resist the temptation of the voyage, he accordingly embarked, and after a voyage of fifty days, arrived at the country of Barahnakar (apparently one of the Nicobar islands), where the men have mouths like dogs. Their houses were made of reeds along the shore. In fifteen days he arrived at the island of Sumatra, the king of which at that time was a generous prince, and a great lover of the professors of Mahometan law. Ibn Batuta, in con- sequence, met with a kind reception at his court. He remained here but fifteen days; and the king fitted him out for his voyage to China with provisions, fruit, and money. After a voyage of four and thirty days, he came into what is called " the Calm Sea." This sea has a red colour, and is without either wind, wave, or motion. The Chinese junks, when they arrive in it, are obliged to be towed by the smaller vessels. After navigating for seven and thirty days these tran- qiul waters, which resemble, in some measure, that por- tion of the Atlantic called '' the Lady's Bay," our traveller arrived at a country named from its Idng Ta- walisi, and of whose situation it is impossible to form any probable conjecture. The king, he says, was suf- ficiently powerful to oppose the emperor of China. The people were idolaters, handsome in appearance, and re- sembling Turks : they were of a copper colour, possess- ing great strength and bravery. The women rode on horseback, excelled in throwing the javelin, and fought like men in battle. One of the chief towns, Kailuka, the port at which the ship put in, was governed by the king's daughter. She sent for our traveller, welcomed him politely in Turkish, and calling for ink and paper. 204 OBOORAPHT OF TBB MIDDLE AOES. BOOk II. i wrote the bismillah in his presence. Leaving this coun- try, Batuta arrived in seven days at the first of the Chinese provinces. He describes in terms of high admiration the industry, wealth, cultivation, and good order of China. He also observes that the dealings of the Chinese are carried on with paper. They do not buy or seU, he says, either with the dirhem or the dinar ; but should any one get these coins into his possession he would melt them down immediately. As to the paper, every piece of it is in extent about the measure of the palm of the hand, and is marked with the king's stamp. AVlien these papers happen to '" ^orn or worn out with use, they are carried to a house which is just like the mint with us, and new ones are given in place of them by the king. This is done without interest, the profit arising from their cir- culation accruing to the king. The people of China were in his estimation the most ddlfiil artificers on the face of the earth. In painting none came near them. In proof ,of this he relates a pleasant anecdote: — "I one day entered into one of their cities for a moment ; some time after I had occa- sion again to visit it, and what should I see upon its walls, and upon papers stuck up in its streets, but pic- tures of myself and my companions ! This is constantly done with all who pass through their towns. And should a stranger do any tiling to make a fiight neces- sary, they would send out his picture to all the provinces, and he would be in consequence detected." The first city he came to in China was £1 Zaitun.* The port appeared to him to be the finest in the world. He saw in it about a hundred of the largest sized junks ; the small vessels were innumerable. The Mahometan merchants here were numerous and wealthy : and when * The Arabians supposed that Zaitunyraa so named frobi the word which, in their language, signifies an oUve, although they at the same time re> marked with surprise that no olives grew there. This city, by man^ con. ddered to be the same as Canton, is the Thgiuan cheu fa of the Chinese, and is situated above a huudred and twenty leagues to the north-west of that city, and a little to the north of Nankin. It was formerly called Twt iAung, of which the Arabians made Zaitun and Marco Polo Zaithoum. — Klaproth, Joum. Aaiat. vol. v« p. 41. CHAP. ni. TRAVELS OF IBS BATUTA. 205 any stranger o' thpii. ««« * ^^' rive. Wtr^tJZaZal'^r"^ '"•?»«• *o „. -^"^^rC^-l:-* -^ or ..en.,. pk-"*- Here also he fouid " ml ■^"""i" >■> J« of 9°K »<• Magog there is 1 J '"'' ** «'»«™ction of the men they can ovw^C'"?**"' *" P"*" «" «11 f«» to thosi parts." X to „^!r '! " t^at no one M^og, it has been snppl^^."'"*" f »» »f Gog and t«e great waU ; but ai B^» ?, *" to understand that he had nei'ther s^n^iJ'TJ^'' ~" •» "'■''™ «» «•«« of it fo,„ , one wno^5 T '"^""^ "• «- he doubted the truth of 5u?,^!j k" f^' J^ely that P«;Uanfurhemeta„acqni„E'f'V»"rf'orn,ation. I„ , of Ceuta. This man h^ Z, u^i"' ^""th, a najiTe Hwe of Dehli, but TonZ t^u?''' !" '^'^ i" «he ««« wealth. IbnCS''re^»^"'^'»<''™««ed brother of the same peZ.^^«^-' *t' '« »« the fnd exclaims, « What T * . T" "^ ■» Soudan • brothers!" But i^lbl B»t!r* '»"'««'' these t^o ■"erchants appear J ha«W ""T ** M«homet«^ negotiations t^m China t^'^tlZti^c """"''^ *«« A nver navigation nf * ? Atlantic. »"t to El «MZZ:LT^r-^""^' '^ ««vdler « the largest city oS ft.S^™")' «««h he describes houseissurro.mdedbya^l!^?%°«*- As every ^^nds a journey o? dSf ^' ** ''"f^ "^ the ci^ Khansa was divided into rfT J.'^ T^^ "ty of H surrounded by a waU iT A !f' *** "^ ^^e being twelve thousan'd in^tuber t ,1."' '''™ *' 8"««^^ -the most beautiiUl^T^sidStr^^SisS^^ 206 OEOORAPHT OF THIS MIDDLE AGES. BOOK II. and Turks, who adored the sun : the Christians men- tioned here were prohably some Nestorians, who pene- trated into China either through Persia or from the Christians of St. Thomas, in Malahar. The third divi- sion was chiefly occupied hy the officers of government. The fourth appears to have been the quarter of the wealthy. The fifth and largest city was inhabited by the common Chinese people. Among the curious manu- factures which Batuta saw in this place he mentions particularly the dishes composed of reeds, glued t(^;ether and painted over with brilliant and permanent colours. The population of the sixth city was composed of sailors, fishermen, ship caulkers, and carpenters. Some troubles at this time broke out among the mem- berslof the reigning family, which led to a civil war and the death of ttie khan. The deceased monarch was buried with great pomp, after the Tatar custom. A large excavation was dug in the earth, in which a beau- tiful couch was spread, and the khan with his arms and rich apparel were laid upon it. All the gold and silver vessels of his house, four female slaves, and six of his favourite Mamelukes, were buried with him. The earth was then heaped upon them to the height of a large hill, and on this hOl four horses were impaled. In conse- quence of the disturbances, Batuta hastened to quit the country. From £1 Zaitun he sailed to Sumatra, and thence to Calicut and Ormuz. He then made the tour of Persia and Syria, and at length made the pilgrimage of Mecca for the third time, in the year 74^9 (A.D. 1348). He returned to Tangier the following year, and visited his native country. But his passion for travelling was not yet subdued. He set out soon after for Spain; and after wandering through the southern portion of that country, he returned to Morocco, on his way to Soudan, or the country of the Niger. After leaving Segelmcssa, a journey of five and twenty days brought him toThagari, " a village in which," he observes, '' there is nothing good; for its houses and mosques are built with stones of <»AP. III. T«AVEM OF ,BK BATUTA. - —" "AXUTA. OAT 8«t, and covered with ♦ho u-^ - ' wh^h with Aem p^Z moiey '"*" "«"'•' """^^ beautiful. « ^o one W - u "*"/ ''*''^"^' extremely ^ter his father but after S„ .' '^'''^"«^ " « named one of those trees he ™^ *°" ■" "» J>e Passed bv in fte hoUow oTfto't^Jri' ST' ^"*"8 «Km' meet the kj„g „„^ d« .,, ^2^^^* "'""* »' ««« to "I have travefled the wnrf/ ' ''* "^ "P »nd said, tim; and now I have^^ r;"' »<1 have seen iS 'ones, but no pre,ent*7r e^n t "■"""" '» *y 'erri- yet reached me : no^ ZZjuT""' ^"^ *ee ha. »t«.ogated o„ this^b^et Wte' "^"' ***' ""■» of this remonstrance, the sX^l • ^" eoneequence W.A suitable provisions " *''•*'»'«' """ "house Batu^r^^t/i":?? """" ^ -«» *e Nile, number of HippopoTam, HeC f '^ ?' '»^« « P-e* n some parts of Souda?^?„ J^' '''" inftnned, A.t they eat none but blacks ,h!«t' ^' "«"; hut that unwholesome, because „ot™„^^ "^ '""'« ™« b^ng .fewdayshearriveS'^VrmtoS''''"""^- After f 'dates no p«ticul.rs T^^T^J'J'H^''^ ""^'^ he ^^ thought to be the mMt W«/ ?•'*"'' ''"^er on, r^ *en to BmC""' "^T"^ '" Soudan. He hand«)mo town built^'th^L '^'"^« '» ^akda, a oopper mine, were fa iTsl„ J ?' '.■•«' ™lour. Web !*«» he returned to Fez Xfb /r""^- ^""^ *is in the year 754 (AD m^ H *?»'' "P his residence KA.V. 1S53), eight and twenty years SOS OBOORAPUY OP THE MIDDLS AOBI. BOOK III. after he had first set out upon his travels. He had in the mean time dii?charged ill the obligations which he had imposed upon himself in the course of his wander- ings : he had visited the three brothers of the sheikh Borhan Oddin £1 Aar%}, who respectively resided in Persia^ in India, and in China ; and to the brother of the sheikh Kawam Oddin, whom he had met in the last named country, he brought tidings of his relative in the heart of Soudan. :'i ■. 'M «U^ -"" . '" '-i '*>'•-■■?■ BOOK III. PROGBESS OF OCOORAPHT IN THE UII>DLB A0E8. .■:;/■• CHAP. I. DISCOVERIES OF TUB NORTHMEN. AKTIQUITT or THE SCANDINAVIANS. — THS FINS. — NORTRXIIN CRUSADX8. — TUBK8, SARACXN8, AND AMAZONS IN THX MOnTH. VOTAGE Or OTHIB.-^ WHALE FISHBRi;. — WALSTEN DESCRIBES THE FUNERALS OF THE RUSSIANS. •— THE NORTH- MEN INVADE IRELAND. — OCCUrr THE WESTERN ISLES. — THE WHITEMAN's land. — VOTAOE of MADOC. —welsh INDIANS. ICELAND DISCOVERED. RELICS FOUND THERE.—* GREENLAND DISCOVERZP AND COLONISED.— JOURNET OF HOLLAR GEIT.— ' OLD GREENLAND LOST. — VINLAND.— 8KRJBLIN0UES OR ES- QUIMAUX. — MAF OF THX TWO ZBNI. FRIB8LAND. — ORO- LANDIA. — THE WARM SFRINGS AND HOUSES BUILT OF LAVA. — CANOES OF THX X8QUIMAUZ. XSTOTILAND AND DROCXa<^ , THX NXW WORLD. —CANNIBALS. -THX FRXCIOUS MXTALS. , The nations of the Norths however rude and bar* barous they might appear in the eyes of the luxurious Romans, were yet raised far above the abject condition of an utter indifference to knowledge. The kindred races of the German and Sclavonian nations were very extensively diffiised : their free polity and restiess dispo- sition maintained a perpetual intercourse between them ; and even the nature of the country which they occupied seems to warrant the conclusion^ that the geographical knowledge possessed by the nortiiem nations was never circumscribed within such narrow limits as those which confined the views of the early inhabitants of Greece and Italy. In all the accounts that remain to ns of Scandi- navia^ from the age of Pytheas to that of Alfred, we vol. I. p il- f I 210 OEOORAPnT OF THE UIDOLB AOEI. BOOK III. meet with none but Gothic names. Again^ the Scandi- navian mythology preserved in the £dda presents only those physical traits which properly belong to northern climates^ and those usages which are found only among a warlike and a maritime people. Thus^ a northern god invents the art of skating, and the mortal remains of t deified hero are consumed on a vessel launched out to sea. Even in Valhalla, the clashing of arms is heard amid the festivities, and mead takes the place of nectar at the table of Odin. All these circumstances, poetical, geographical, and mythological, combine to prove that from the remotest times Scandinavia, properly so called, has been in the occupation of a single people. But to the east of these hereditary possessions of the Goths wandered the nomad tribes of Scythians and Sar* matianis. Much information respecting these resulted from the Scandinavian expeditions of the tenth and twelfth centuries. Till the year 11 57 Finland was the resort of savages, who lived by piracy, and who were known by the names of Fins and Kyrials. The Fins who in the first century, as it appears from the descrip- tion of Tacitus, were established in the north of Poland, had fixed themselves before the sixteenth century in the country which at present bears their name. It appears, indeed, that colonies of that people penetrated even into some districts of Scandinavia. In the tenth and eleventh centuries the Gulf of Finland was called Kyriala Bctn : it was a principal theatre of action to the Scandinavian pirates. The Swedes, being converted to Christianity, turned their arms in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries against the inhabitants of Finland and the north of Russia. These zealous crusaders, by a blunder suited to the ig- norance of the age, gave to the savages, who were the objects of their warfare, the name of Saracens. Conrad, duke of Masovia, in a letter written in 12S9> f^ummoned the German knights to war s^ainst his pagan neighbours, whom he calls the Prussians and other Saracens. This name occurs a^ain, torn completely from the claims of CHAP. 1. DIRCOVEniEl OF THE KORTHMBN. 211 geography, in an old romance on the birth imd adven- tures of the enchanter Merlin, in which ^veh the Anglo« Saxons are called Saracens.* It appears to have been during this period that the city of Abo was founded in the middle of Finland : it was called in Finnish Turku, from the Swedish word torg, which signifies a market* place. The sound of this name misled Adam of Bremen into the belief that there were Turks in Finland. The intrepid seamen of the North, harassed by their piracies the shores of Armorica, and defied the power of the Roman empire. The earUest account of the ser- vices rendered to geography by those hardy adventurers has been preserved to us by king Alfred, whose reign ex« tended from 872 to 901. That great prince translated into the Anglo-Saxon tongue the geography of Orosius, a Spanish monk who flourished in the banning of the fifth century ; but Alf^, in order that the work might be more complete, added to the translation the narratives of two contemporary travellers in the north of Europe. ^ One of these was Other, a Norwegian nobleman, who sought a refuge at the court of Alfred from the civil wars and disturbances of his native country : he was esteemed in his own country a man of great wealth, and possessed six hundred tame deer, besides six decoy deer, and twenty head of cattle. He also received an annual tribute from the Fins, which was paid in valuable fiirs, feathers, whale- bone, and ship cables made of the skins of seals. Thus it appears that the manners of the North were nearly the same a thousand years ago as they are at present. Other dwelt m^H OKOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGK8. BOOK III. tion of the north of Scotland; and their monuments are still among the most conspicuous in the highlands of that kingdom. The Northmen made the conquest of the Hebrides, in the year 893, and gave them the name of the Suder' Eyer or Southern Isles, in relation to the Orkneys. The Suder-Eyer were united with the Isle of Man in the same kingdom, and under the same ecclesiastical authority ; hence the bishopric of Sodor has been since always nominally united with that of Man. All these conquests made among the British islands remained dependent on the kingdom of Norway tUl the latter half of the thirteenth century. But the old Icelandic chronicles relate, moreover, that the Northmen discovered in the ninth century, to the west of Ireland, a great country, to which they gave the name 6f Crreat Ireland, or the WhitemarCa Land, This alleged discovery is generally ranged by critics among fabulous traditions. But diese surprising accounts of the early Scandinavian voyages have, after all, so little poetic decoration in their circumstances, they are so perfectly free in their gener J design from any admixture of the monstrous or absurd, that it is much more easy to believe the reality of the achievement than the inven«^ tion of the story. It is not the character or the taste of a rude age to compose fictions with the air of truth. In the Landnama Sok, one of the oldest of die Icelandic histories, occurs the following sober reference to this great discovery in the West : — " Ari was the son of Mar of Reikholar, and of Thor- katla, daughter of Hergils Hrappson. He was cast on the shore of the Whiteman's Land, which others call the Great Ireland. It is situated in the Western Ocean, near the good Vinland. Here Ari, not being permitted to return, was detained and baptized. This was related by Rafn, the Limerick merchant, who had resided many years in Limerick; and besides this, Thorkil Geetson said he had heard several Icelanders relate the '^f^me, who had been present when Thorfin, earl of Orkneys, assert- H'- CHAP. I. DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTHMEN. 215 ed, that Ari had been seen in the Whiteman's Land ; and although he did not get leave to return, was very much esteemed." Thus it appears that the Northmen carried on a trade with the west of Ireland, which will appear less surprising when it is considered that they were in possession of all the islands on that coast. Of the same doubtful character, but of a later age, is the voyage of the "Welsh prince Madoc, the son of Owen Gwynedd, who is stated in the Triads to have gone to sea, in ten ships, with three hundred men, to avoid the dissensions of his brothers respecting the suc- cession to the throne. This expedition was planned by Madoc and his brother Rhiryd, in consequence of a prior one in 1170, wherein he discovered land in the ocean a great way to the west. No tidings were ever afterwards received of him ; and this expedition was in consequence united in Welsh story with the voyages of Gaoran and Merddin, under the title of the Three Disap- pearances, The Merddin named here belonged to the fifth century. He went to sea in a house of glass, as tradition states it, accompanied by nine Welsh bards. It can hardly be credited that 'Madoc should have sailed, in the twelfth century, across the widest part of the At- lantic (for he left Ireland to the north). Yet Mr. Owen, the biographer of Wales, affirms, " that' he has collected a multitude of evidences, to prove that Madoc must have actually reached the American continent, for the de- scendants of that prince and his followers exist there as a nation to this day ; and their present dwelling is on the southern branches of the Missouri river, where they are known under the appellations of Padoucas, white Indians, civilised Indians, and Welsh Indians f" This last name, it may be presumed, they have received from the Cambrian antiquarians. About the year 86l, accident conducted some Scandi- navian pirates to the Feroe islands ; and immediately afterwards some adventurers of the same nation, while endeavouring to make their way to this newly discovered country, were thrown by a tempest on the eastern coast p 4 2l6 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AOES. BOOK HI. of Iceland^ or as it was at first called^ SniO'land. In 864 one Gardar circtunnavigated the island^ to which> - in order to commemorate his labour^ he gave the name of Gardaraholm. He stated with perfect correctness; that it had a circumference of about 670 nautical miles. A few years later Floke^ a Norwegian, vm- ^ tured to winter on the northern coast, where he remained two years. This experiment led to the colonisation of Iceland, to which the political troubles of Norway at that time furnished additional motives ; and Ingolph, one of the discontented party at home, set sail with a nume- rous retinue in 874, and settled in one of the green valleys on the south-western coast of that island. The first settlers in Iceland found extensive districts of that dreary country covered with forests of birch and fir. J They were also able, notwithstanding the severity of the climate, to cultivate some barley and other grain* At present the whole island is a naked desert, the na- tive woods having totally disappeared ; and the Iceland- ers have long since relinquished, for good reasons it may be presumed, the practice of growing com : but it is not manifest whether these changes are to be ascribed to an alteration in the climate, or whether they ought not rather to be considered as the natural consequences of the multiplication of cattle. One of the most remarkable circumstances attending the discovery of Iceland, is, that relics were found there, which showed that it had been previously inhabited^ '■ The nature of these relics, which consisted of bells, wooden crosses, and books in die Irish character, induced the Norwegians to believe, that those prior visitants were Christians, either from Scotland or firom Ireland. Many authors have endeavoured to throw discredit on this ac- count, influenced, perhaps, by the ordinary unwillingness of men to admit facts which they are unable to explain. There is not any inherent improbability in the opinion, ~: that the Scandinavians, and the inhabitants of the British ' islands, navigated the northern seas for ages before their proceedings were known to history. But the most an- CHAP. I. DISCOVERIES OF THE NORTBMEN. 217 cient of the Icelandic chronicles are not contented with mentioning the vestiges of former inhabitants^ they dis-* tinctly state that there were actual settlements on the island previous to the Norwegian emigration. They name Kirkiubuij one of the wanS and fertile valleys that occur on the southern coasts as the residence of those pap€Bf as they call the strangers, who deserted the island, it is added, from their aversion to the pagan co- lonists.* The colonisation of Iceland, by the bold and adven- turous Northmen, was soon foUowed by further discover- ies in the West. One Eric Rauda, or red head, the son of Thorwald, a Norwegian noble, quarrelled with, and killed his neighbour Eyolf. For this and other offences he was condemned to a banishment of three years. He knew that a man, named Gunbiom, had previously dis- covered some banks to the west of Iceland, from him called Cfunbiom's schieran, or Gunbiom's banks, and likewise a country of great extent still farther to the west : he determined to employ the time of his exile in making a voyage of discovery to that country. Setting sail, therefore, from Tceland, he soon fell in with a point of land, which he called Hirjalfs-ness, and continuing his voyage to the south-west, he entered a deep inlet, to which he gave the name of Erics-sund, and passe .' the winter on a pleasant island in the neighbourhood. In the following year he explored the continent, and re- turning to Iceland in the third year, he represented his new discovery in the most favourable light, enlarging in his praises of its fine woods, rich meadows, and abundant fisheries; and the better to confirm the im- pression made by these embellished accounts, he gave to the newly discovered country the alluring name of Greenland. By these arts he contrived to draw together a considerable company, who embarked under his guid- ance, carrying with thein household furniture, imple- ments of all kinds, cattle for breeding, and whatever else is necessary for the establishment of a colony. But ,»- ... * Landnama Bok, lib. iv. c. 11. Hafli. 1774. * -'<-r - 218 OEOORAPHY OF THE MmOLE A0E9. BOOK HI. of twenty-five ships which set sail, not more than four- teen arrived in safety. These first adventurers were soon followed by many more from Iceland and Norway. Greenland, according to most of the Icelandic hia* tones, was discovered iu 9^2, and peopled four years later. Some, however, carry back the discovery to 932. Nay, there exists letters patent of Lewis the Debon- naire in 834, and a bull of Gregory IV. in 835, which confer on the church of Hamburgh, among other privi* leges, that of converting the heathen in Iceland and in Greenland.* Are we to suppose, then, that the en- terprising mariners of Hamburgh had ahready, in the beginning of the ninth century, scoured the northern ocean, but that their discoveries, which held out but little temptation to the merchant, soon fell into oblivion ? Oi^ is it not likely that they still frequented the fisheries o£ those seas, but that the Icelanders, who cultivated literature in peace, and preserved the history of their settlements, appear from this circimistance alone as the principal discoverers in the North ? Many, it is true, consider the patents of the church of Hamburgh to be either forged or interpolated; but when criticism as- sumes so arbitrary a character, it cannot escape the sus- picion of injustice. The new settlers in Greenland had their bishops froni Europe, and continued their intercourse with the parent state of Norway till the year 1418. The colony paid to the pope an annual tribute of 2600 pounds' weight of walrus teeth, as tithe and Peter's pence. There were two towns, Garda and Hrattalidy yet the whole community did not equal the number of the smallest parish in Norway. The voyage to Greenland and back again sometimes occupied no less than five years. In the year 1383, a ship arrived in Norway, bringing the first intelligence of the death of the bishop oi Greenland, which had taken place six years before. Thus it ap- pears, that however intrepid the northern seamen may have been, they were still but very imperfectly skilled in " * J A ians in to the ,rned of :eoftke led from gny in seemed refused urcard, rder at monks sought it ap- didnot of the a little nd the ises of edthe sn (Ges. ihe south Ihe fault piugny. , CHAP. II. MAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 227 descriptions of some countries whether neighbouring or remote. The chronicle of Emon, abbot of Werum, in Groningen, contains on the subject of a crusade (A. D. 1217) a detailed account of the whole march, with a description of all the countries between Palestine and Holland. But still greater benefits resulted from the labours of the missionaries, who carried the faith to pagan nations, and traveUed through countries but little known. Saint Boniface preached to the Sclavonians^ and obeyed the injunctions of the pope in giving >: written description of those barbarous nations. It was probably from his accounts that king Alfred derived his knowledge of that part of £urope. Saint Otho, bibhop of Bamberg, preached to the pagans on the coasts of Stettin, Belgard, and Col- berg, and tried even to instruct them in the cultivation of the vine : those savages used at that time to drive away strangers from their shores^ just as the inhabitants of New Zealand would do at the present day. Before he made this journey, Otho, the bishop of Bam- berg, had never heard of the Baltic Sea ! He was sur- prised beyond measure at finding It so broad, that from ^ the middle of it the opposite shores seemed just likei clouds in the horizon. In the reign of Louis the De«- bonnaire a monk of Corvay, named Anscaire, filled with the same pious resolution, ventured even into the country of the formidable Northmen, and travelled over the kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark, at that time but little known. The journal of this monk, which during the middle ages was the chief source of information respecting the northern nations, is not at present known to exist. ■' ■ ■ ' ' ' f": The pilgrimages also of the Christians began already in the seventh century to awaken a spirit of observation. Adaman, abbot of lona, wrote a description of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the oral narrative of Saint Arculf. Willibald, the first bishop of Eichstadt, has left us a detailed account of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 730 : his route lay through Italy and the island of Cy- Q 2 Z2B GEOOAAPfiY OP THE tttDDLE AGES. BOOK III. prus. These pilgrims, who frequently had commercial speculations in view as well as the atonement of their sins, generallybroughthack with them from Palestine some account of India and the other countries of the infidels. Adam of Bremen, who lived two centuries later than Anscaire, drew from his work, and followed his example in giving a detailed description of the kingdoms of the North. He treats of Jutland with great minuteness, and names many islands in the Baltic which had escaped the notice of his predecessors. He is also the first to describe the interior of Sweden as well as Russia, of which nothing was as yet kno^vn beside the name. When Adam of Bremen speaks of the British islands, which he had never visited, he adopts, without hesitation> all the fables of antiquity. But the propensity to relate the marvellous, which characterises the writers of the middle ages, ought not, perhaps, to be ascribed so much • to the credulity of the writer as to the want of a culti- vated taste. As the marvellous generally gives pleasure, - it easily comes to be looked upon as a rhetorical orna- ment in a rude age ; and this vein was often indulged ' in by authors who possessed the soundest and most pierc- ing understandings. Giraldus Cambrensis was one of those whose writings furnish an illustration of the. above remark. In his accounts of Ireland and Wales, there are abundant proofs of an independent spirit not prone to credulity, yet he has carefully collected in his pages every wonder that could amuse his readers. That his work was composed in a style well suited to the taste of the age, is evident from the enthusiasm with which it was received. Three days running he was obliged to read in public, at Oxford, his description of Ireland. , The first day he read to the poor ; the second, to the doctors, clerks, and students ; and the third day, to the citizens. - , . . Indeed, during the middle ages the term geography almost wholly gave way to what was deemed an equiva- lent expression, the wonders of the world. Nearly all the early narratives of travels and geographical relations hold, GHAP. II. HAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 229 out, in their titles, the promise of something marvellous. Among the regulations made by William of Wickham, for the regulation of the College which he had just founded at Oxford, is the following provision : — " When, in the winter, on the occasion of any holyday, a fire is lighted for the fellows in the great hall, the fellows and the scholars may, after their dinner or their supper, amuse themselves in a suitable manner, in the great hall, with singing or reciting poetry, or with the chronicles of different kingdoms, and the wonders of the worldj and every thing that befits the character of the clergy." But the Scandinavians and the Arabians are, perhaps, the only people among whom the reading or recital of histories ever became the ordinary amusement. The Icelandic sagas were, in the middle ages, familiar to the memories of the Northmen. They were recited at every festival, and read aloud in private : they beguiled the tedious length of northern evenings. The most ancient of these historic tales are supposed to have been written in the eleventh century ; but a candid and discerning criticism can trace in them traditions, apparently vera- cious, as far back as the third century before the Christian era. The custom of repeating the sagas is still retained in Iceland. In the remoter vallies of that island, and wherever the manners of the people have not been conta- minated by an association with the Danes, the evening amusements of the assembled family are the reading of their histories or the recital of their poems. In the pre- ceding chapter it has been seen what valuable materials the Icelandic sagas can furnish to the history of geogra- phical discoveries. Some princes of the middle ages knew the value of a science which enables sovereigns to estimate the strength of their dominions. Had the Scandinavian princes been acquainted with the mariner's compass they would soon have made the circuit of the earth. In 1231, Wal- demar II. King of Denmark, had a general survey made of his dominions, and a topographical table framed ac- « 3 250 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. cordingly: a wonderful work for the thirteenth cen- tury. The kings of England were animated with the same spi- rit, and have left behind still more striking proofs of their attention to statistics. Notwithstanding the general de- struction of the ancient monastic collections in the reign of Henry VIII. there still remain several maps of the British islands made in the course of the twelfth century^ and which serve, in no small degree, to illustrate the old historians. In some of these maps, which are very rude in design as well as execution, Scotland is represented as an island, separated from England by an arm of the sea. Ireland is also divided in two by the river Boyne, which is represented as a canal connecting the Irish channel with the Atlantic* The towns are drawn in thbm of a disproportionate size; and the abbeys, with their wdls, gates, and belfrys, occupy so great a space, as to leave little room for the rivers, boundary lines, or places of less seeming importance. In the East, where the revenues of the provinces are generally farmed out, or bestowed on the favourites at court, and where the coffers of the prince are usually replenished by confiscations and other acts of despotism^ the head of the empire has no immediate interest in the condition of the countries which acknowledge his au- thority. The feudal system, on the other hand, as it was developed in Europe in the middle ages, created such a multiplicity of rights, and departed so widely from the simple mechanism of despotic governments, that the monarch, in order to enjoy all the fiscal prerogatives of his crown, was obliged to be well acquainted with the local particulars of his dominions. The tendency of the feudal system to bring about the collection of statistical details, was manifested in Eng- land on the first introduction of the Norman law. Wil- liam the Conqueror caused surveys to be made of the several counties, in which were marked the waste and the cultivated lands ; the villages, with the numbers of their • Gough'8 Brit. Top. I. CHAP. II. MAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 231 inhabitants^ and the amount of the taxes which they paid. This is the work known by the name of Dooms- day-bookj begun iQ 1080, and finished in lOSf)^ and containing a circumstantiid description of all England, with the exception of the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham. The lands in tiUage, the waste and inhabited districts, the popula- tion both free and in villanage, with the nature of the services in which these last were bound ; every circum- stance, in short, even the number of the cattle, and the bee-hives in each county, is detailed in Doomsday-book with scrupulous exactness. ^, A survey of a kingdom, executed in detail during the deventh century, is evidently an event of great import- ance in the history of geography. It set an example of accuracy, suggested many observations, and created an interest in territorial details, which could not fail to exert an influence beyond the limits in which they first had birth. There exists a similar geographical record with respect to a part of Germany : this is a de- scription, in Latin, of the March of Brandenburg, made on die plan of Doomsday-book, and executed in 1377 » by order of the emperor Charles IV. Maps do not appear to have been very uncommon even in the darkest ages : however erroneous they may have been in their construction, they are often referred to by the monkish writers. Saint Gal, the founder of the celebrated abbey which bears his name (a name which haa been subsequently transmitted to a Swiss canton), and who lived in the seventh century, possessed a map which is said, by the historian of that abbey, to have been of ''curious workmanship." Charlemagne had three tables of silver, on which were severally repre- sented the earth, the cities of Rome and Constantinople. His grandson Lothaire, in the war which he waged with the other Carlovingian princes, broke the first of these tables in pieces, and distributed the fragments among his soldiers. But the most curious geographical monument of the Q 4 dSS OEOGllAPHY OF Tllfi MIDDLE AGES. BOOK Ilf. |i!l ill mi! ^1 middle ages is a map preserved in the library of Turin> attached to a manuscript commentary on the Apocalypse^ which was written in the year 787* It represents the earth as a plane bounded by a circular line^ and divided into three unequal parts. To the south, Africa is separated by the ocean from a land called the fourth division of the world, where the antipodes dwell, and which the excessive ■ heat of the torrid zone has hitherto prevented from being • visited. At the four sides of the world are represented the ' figures of the four winds, each astride upon a paii of bel- lows, which he labours, and at the same time has a conch shdU applied to his mouth, from which he blows hur- ricanes, as may be conjectured from his distended cheeks. At the top of the map (which is the East) are Adam iqid Eve, the serpent, and the tree of forbidden fruit. At their right hand is Asia, with two high mountains, and the words Mount Caucasus and Armenia. From these mountains descends the river Eusis, (Phasis ?) and falls into a sea which unites with the ocean, and separates ■Europe from Asia. Thus the author returned, in this part of his map, to the geography of the primitive Greeks. In the middle of the map is Mount Carmel, Mount Sinai, Judea, and some other names belonging to the Holy Land. Near a river, which seems intended to represent the Euphrates, are the words Abicusia, Ti- misci, fixi compi de Sera. In India are the islands Criza and Algure, the Chryse and Argurea, or gold and silver islands of the ancients. The Nile is also represented, and a note appended to intimate that it flows from lis- tant mountains, and over sands of gold. Thus the ob- scurity which involves the origin of the Nile has been in all ages a subject of observation and source of fable. .To the north of this map is the island Tile. In fine, beyond Africa, to the south, are written these words, — " Besides these three parts of the world, there is beyond the ocean a fourth, which the extreme heat of the sun prohibits our being acquainted with, and on the confines of which is the country of the fabulous antipodes." . ^.This map may have been useful to illustrate a work igiijuj_Ji_*tj-.j-a CHAP. II. MAPS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 233 Ti- Crixa silver ? mted; ; lis- . le ob- 5 been v fable. fine, v' jyoud ; sun ,^- Ifines i rork of the same age, and of considerable merit, written by some Goth, whose name is unknown, but who is com- monly styled the Geographer of Ravenna. It is sur- prising what a number of geographers this writer cites, whose names, but for him, would have shared the fate of their writings, and remained totally unknown. He .refers o C rius and Lollianus, ""-nan geographers; . Hylasi and lonius, Greeks ; .^phrodisianus and Arsatius, Persians, who had written in Greek a Picture of the World; Cyachoris and Blantasis, Egyptians, who had travelled to the south of their native country ; . Probus and Melitianus, Africans; Aithanarid, Marcomir, and Edelwald, Goths. The maps of the middle ages erred as often from the love of systematical arrangement as from the want of information. They may be generally divided into two classes ; one, in which the ideas of Ptolemy and other ancient writers were implicitly followed, and the other in which were inserted newly discovered lands, or those of which the existence was either suspected or popularly believed. Many maps of the first class exist in which the old world is represented as one great island, Africa being terminated to the north of the equator. This opinion of Strabo and Eratosthenes very naturally found more favour with the enquiring than Ptolemy's doctrine of an indefinite extent of terra incognita ; a doctrine which, as it has the internal characteristics of fiction, could not fail to excite suspicion. Among the geographers who adopted this opinion, was Martino Sanudo, who endea- voured, about the year 1321, to excite a new crusade for the purpose of taking from the sultans of Egypt the trade with India, and accompanied his project with a map of those countries towards which he invited the attention of Europe. All the nations of Europe are marked in his map ; but the Scandinavian kingdoms are joined to Russia by a narrow tongue of land inhabited by the Carelians (Dalecarlians), a pagan nation. The south of Africa is open to navigation, but the interior of 234 OEOORAPHir OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK HI. that continent is still represented as uninhabitable from the excessive heat. Sanudo was wholly unacquainted with the figure of Asia and of the Indian isles : like the Arabians, he places Gog and Magog in the north-east of Asia ; the Tatars occupy the northern regions of that continent. Among the maps of the second class, the most re- markable are those which seem to point out some im- portant discoveries to the west of Europe and of Africa, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries). The Scandi- navians, it has been seen, were acquainted with, or even settled in Newfoundland, or some part of the continent of North America, as early as the eleventh century. But these navigations in the north-west were little thought f his re- e was a ho came ticularly m to re- troy the gracious by their CHAP. in. JOURNEY OF CARPINI INTO TATABY. 247 astonishment at the figure of the barefooted friars. They next demanded, according to the Eastern custom, what presents the legates brought from the pope to the khan, their master. The friars, filled with ill-timed zeal, and ignorant of the forms which courtesy requires in the East, replied, " that the pope was accustomed to receive pre- sents from all men, but never to give any to his best friends, far less to strangers and infidels." This insult- ing language was patiently listened to by the Tatars ; who informed our legates that they might have an audi- ence, provided they would conform to the usual ceremo- nies, and make three profound genuflexions, when admitted into the presence of the khan. The friars, after carefully deliberating on this offer, came to a de- cision that it would be a shame to themselves, and a scandal to all Christendom, if they were to perform such an act of idolatry to the heathen ; they declared, how- ever, that if the khan and his subjects would become Christians, and acknowledge the supremacy of the pope, they would willingly make the required genuflexions, for the honour of the church." The Tatars were naturally enraged at this proposition : they called out that the Christians were dogs ; nay, they proceeded to the impious length of calling the pope himself a dog ; and the horror-struck ambassadors were overwhelmed with threats and reproaches. But the rudeness of their behaviour had nearly incurred worse consequences than the menaces of the vulgar. It was seriously deliberated in the Tatar council, whether they ought not to be put to death : some advised that the friars should be flayed alive, and that their skins, stuffed with hay, should be sent to the pope ; but the fear of reprisals, and the timely interposition of Baiothnoy's mother, finally prevented the perpetration of these inhumanities. The unhappy ambas- sadors, however, were treated with every indignity and mark of contempt: they were taunted with kneeling be- fore the crucifix, and worshipping wood and stone, while they refused to bow to the Son of Heaven and ruler of mankind. They were supplied with provisions of the B 4 I 2^8 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. coarsest quality^ and in such small quantities as barely sufficed for the support of nature ; and to complete the measure of their annoyances^ they were frequency inter- rogated respecting the military prowess of the pope, his armies, victories, and conquests, and insultingly asked, how one who possessed but a spiritual dominion (the nature of which the Tatars could hardly comprehend) could dare to send ambassadors to the Grand Khan, whose victorious armies had subdued aU the kingdoms of the earth from East to West. At length Baiothnoy Khan consented to dismiss the friars ; and a letter was given them to deliver to the pope, which contained the following unceremonious lan- guage : — " Know, Pope, that your messengers have come to us, and have delivered your letters, and have uttered the strangest discourses that were ever heard. We know not whether you gave them authority to speak as they have done ; but we send you the firm commandment and ordinance of God, which is, that if you wish to remain seated in your land and heritage, you. Pope, must come to us in your proper person, and do homage to him who holds just sway over the whole earth. And if you do not obey this firm command of God and of him who holds just sway over the whole earth, God only knows what may be the consequence." With this haughty message, the ambassadors got permission to depart, and were glad to escape from the Tatar camp. They has- tened to the nearest port of Syria, whence they imme- diately embarked for France. While Ascelin travelled into Persia, another mission was despatched to the Mongol princes in the north-east, at the head of which was John de Piano Carpini, a Minorite friar. Setting forward on their journey to the Tatars, as they call the Mongolian tribes, " lest there might arise some danger from their proximity to the church of God," our holy envoys passed through Bohemia, Silesia, and Poland, in their way to Kiow, at that time the capital of Russia. They were treated with much attention in all the Christian states through which OUAP. III. JOURNEY OF OARPINI INTO TATABY. 249 llDl, a ^ey to " lest lity to rough )w, at with Iwhich they passed, the nations of eastern Europe being deeply interested in the success of their embassage. Skins and furs to be distributed in presents to the Mongol chiefs were given them by the duchess and nobility of Cracow. They were advised also not to take thi^ir European horses into Tatary, as they would inevitably perish by the way, not being used to dig under the snow in search of grass like the Tatar horses ; and hay, straw, or other provender never being stored in that country to meet the exigencies of winter. When the friars approached the frontiers of the Ta- tars, the purpose of their journey was demanded : they replied, " that they were messengers from their lord the pope to the emperor of the Tatar nation, to desire peace and friendship between the Tatars and Christians. Their lord the pope admonished the Tatars to embrace the faith of Christ, without which they could not be saved : he was astonished to hear of their monstrous and guilty slaughter of mankind, particularly of the Hun- garians, Mountaineers, and Polanders, who were his subjects, and who had neither injured nor attempted to injure the Tatars ; and as God is sore offended at such proceedings, the pope admonished them to refrain in future, and to repent of what they had done ; and he requested an answer as to their future intentions." After making this declaration, the monks found means to pro- ceed to the duke Corrensa, a Mongolian general, who was stationed with an army of 60,000 men on the banks of the Dnieper. Being arrived, they were con- ducted to the ordtty horde or tent of this chieftain, in- structed to bend the left knee thrice before his door, and carefully to avoid setting their feet on the threshold. These ceremonies being performed, post horses and an escort of Tatars were immediately appointed to conduct them to Baatu Khan, a prince of the imperial blood. When the monks arrived at the residence of Baatu, in the land of Comania, or the country beyond the Cuban, they were commanded to pitch their tent a full league from his station ; and they received, moreover, the fear- 250 QKOORAPUY OF THE MIDDLE A0E8. BOOK III. ful intimation, timt before their introduction at his court it would be ncccasary to pass between two fires. Thi» precautionary ordeal, however, which wt^s intended to diarm or nullify their evil intuntions, was gone through without any disagreeable consequences. They were presented, made the usual obeisances, and delivered the letters to Baatu, who read them with great attention. This prince carried himself with much magnificence ; had a court arranged like that of the emperor ; and when he gave audience sat on an elevated throne along with one of his wives. He had some beautiful and large linen tents which formerly belonged to the king of Hun- gary. VV^hen he rode abroad, a small tent, as Carpini calls it, or umbrella, was carried above his head on the pointj of a spear. It appears to be the ordinary policy in the East, and particularly among what are vaguely styled the Tatar nations, to parade foreign ambassadors about until they have seen all the strength and magnificence of the state. In conformity with this custom, the envoys of the pope were ordered to proceed from the court of Baatu to that of the emperor or Grand Khan of the Monguls. The monks, however, had hardly strength or spirit enough remaining to enable them to encounter the fatigues of this new journey ; for they had observed a strict fast during Lent, their only food being millet boiled in water, and their only drink melted snow. The geographical notices which occur in this part of Carpini's narrative do not all admit of an easy inter- pretation. On the north of Comania, immediately be- yond Russia, were a people called Morduyin-Byleri, in Great Bulgaria, and the Bastard (Bashkirs) in Great Hungary, that is, in the country between the Volga and the Jenisei. Beyond these were the Parositae and the SamogetfB (Samoyeds) ; and beyond these last, he says, on the desert shores of the ocean were a people sdd to have the faces of dogs. On the south of Comania were the Asi, as Carpini justly calls the Alans, although many of his interpreters have wished to alter the expression ; CHAP. III. JOURNEY OP CARPINI INTO TATARY. 251 art of Jinter- |ly be- \ri, in \Great |a and Id the sayS; id to were iraany )sion ; the KergUy Cherkes or Circassians ; the Catti, perhaps the Georgians of the province Kachetia, with other tribes whose names are not so easily explained. From Comania the monks entered the country of the Knngitta', who seem to be the Pechenegues of Russian history. This region, which was i)robably the desert to the east of the Caspian, had but f( ' inhabitants, owing to the great scarcity of water. But human bones and skulls in large heaps were scattered through the plains, the awful inon^imcnts of Tatarian warfare. The Coma- nians and Kangitta were pagans^ dwelling in tents, sub- sisting on the produce of their flocks and herds, and totally unacquainted with the arts of tillage. From the country of the Kangitts, Carpini entered tliat of the Bisermini, who spoke the Comanian language, and observed the laws of Mahomet. This country, which comprised the northern portion of Sogdiana, pre- sented a melancholy picture of ruined castles and deso- lated lands. A portion of that fine country, which is described by Oriental writers as a terrestrial paradise, was reduced to utter desolation by the victorious inarch of Zingis Khan. When our ambassadors arrived at the residence of tl'ic Great Khan they were provided with a tent, and were treated with more kindness and attention than they seem to have hitherto experienced. Their arrival at this post happened at a very singular and interesting conjuncture. Ajuk Khan, or Cuyne as they call him, had not yet been formally elected and invested with the insignia of em- pire, so that our travellers had an opportunity of witness- ing the state and magnificence of thvit great national ceremony. They saw an immense tent, large enough, as they imagined, to contain two thousand men, and round it was an enclosure of wooden boards, painted with a variety of devices. All the Tfi' ar nobility were assembled, with their retinues, near tins inclosure, and amused themselves in galloping their horses over the hills and valleys. On the first day they were all clad in white ; on the second, when Cuyne came to the great S^2 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BGJK 111. tent, they were dressed in scarlet ; on the third day they appeared in blue, and on the fourth they wore rich robes of Baldachin, or figured clotli of Bagdad. In the wooden enclosure encircling the great tent there were two gates, through one of which the emperor alone was allowed to enter. At the other gate were guards, who discharged their arrows at those who pre- sumed to pass the proper limits. The saddles, bridles, and other trappings of the horses, were decked with pre« douB stones and ornaments of massive gold. The Tatar nobles at length assembled in the great tent, as if to consult respecting tlie election of an em- peror. The rest of the people collected outside began to drink koomis or mare's milk in amazing quantities ; Caruini and his companions were kindly entertained and treated with ale, as they were unable to drink koomis. At the outside of the tent were standing, Jeroslaus duke of Susdal in Russia ; a great many princes of the Kithayans and Solangi ; the two sons of the king of Georgia ; the envoy of the calif of Bagdad, himself a sultan, and above ten other Mahometan princes. Our ambassadors were informed that there were above four thousand messengers present, some bearing tribute and some presents from the neighbouring states; others were sent to offer submission, or to represent the gover- nors and chief authorities of the distant provinces. All these envoys were placed round the enclosure of the great tent, and supplied with drink. After remaining in this place about a month, the whole assemblage moved to a fine plain a few miles distant, where another tent was erected, called the Golden Orda, or horde. This tent was erected on pillars covered with plates of gold, and the cross-beams were joined to the pillars with golden nails ; the whole was superbly covered over with bsddachin, having rich cloth hanging down on the outside. The close of the ceremonies at length ar- rived: on a certain day all the people assembled, stand- ing with their faces to the south. Some, at a little distance from the rest of the multitude, were continuaUy OIIAP. III. JOURNET OF OARPINI INTO TATARY. 253 whole listant, Orda, jclwith Ito the >vered m on Ith ar- stand- little lually employed in making prayers and genuflexions, from which the catholic monks concluded that they were practising incantations. After these formalities had been continued some time, the nobles returned to the tent, and Cuyne was at length placed on the imperial tlirone. The grandees immediately fell on their knees before him, and the multitude outside followed their ex- ample. Soon after his inauguration the newly elected em- peror gave an audience to all the strangers assembled at his court. All who approached his throne bore him some costly presents: jewels, purple garments, em- broidered stufib, horses richly caparisoned and armed, with other oflferings, were heaped round the tent. At length our poor ambassadors from the pope, after being first carefully examined lest they might carry some weapons concealed about their persons, were brought into the imperial presence : on being asked what gifts they had to oflfer, they humbly replied that their whole substance was already consumed. Their appearance, no doubt, sufficiently declared their poverty, and the Tatars overlooked their omission of the most firmly established of Eastern usages, that of offer- ing presents to the throne. At no great distance from the great tent there stood in sight above five hundred carts filled with gold, silver, and silken garments: these riches were divided between the emperor and the grandees, who again distributed them among their se- veral followers. From tlie grave and imposing demeanour of the newly-elected emperor, who was never known to laugh, Carpini was inclined to believe him a Christian in his heart : several Christian priests resided at his court, and were permitted to strike the hours on bells and to prac- tise other religious observances, which arc contrary to the usages of the East; but the emperor, with all this toleration, never intimated any desire to change his faith. After some time the legates were again called in to de- liver their messages : they were asked if thcsre was any 25 i> GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK lit* one at the papal court who understood the Russian^; Arabic, or Tatarian languages. Being unable to an- swer positively in the affirmative, the letter of the emperor to the pope was explained to them, and they were made to translate it into Latin : great pains were taken by the Tatar officers to ascertain the fidelity of the translation. They then received their pass- ports and a letter sealed with the imperial seal. The mother of the emperor gave each of them a linen gar- ment and a pelisse of foxes' skins with the hair outwards, and so tliey departed. Their journey homeward was performed amidst all the rigours of a Siberian winter. In the steppes or desert they often slept all night on the snow, unless where they could clear a piece of ground with their feet ; and frequently they found themselves in the morning quite covered with snow which had drifted on them duiing the night. Through all these hardships they at length reached Kiow, where the people came out joyfully to receive them, congratulating them as men who had returned from death to life. Carpini had the merit of being the first to publish in Europs a rational description of the Mongol nation : though ignorant, bigoted, and credulous, he was not altogether destitute of talent and observation ; and his prudent deportment procured him opportunities which the mo- nastic austerity of Ascelin and his companions could never have expected. The Mongols, or Tatars, he observes, differ totally in appearance from all other nations, being much broader between the eyes and cheeks: they have prominent cheek- bones, with small flat noses, and small eyes, the upper (^elids being opened up to the eyebrows. The crowns of their heads are shaven on each side in the manner of priests, some hair being allowed to grow long in the middle, and the remainder twisted into two tails or locks, which are tied together behind their ears. • In speaking of their character, he candidly weighs their good qualities against their bad ones. They are more obedient to their lords, he says, than any other tally lader eek- Ipper )wns the )cks, ^ighs are khcr CHAP. III. JOURNEY OF CARPINI INTO TATARY. 255 people, giving them vast reverence, and never deceiving them if. word or action. They seldom quarrel ; and brawls., wcunds, or manslaughter, hardly ever occur. Thieves and robbers are no where found, so that their houses and waggons, in wliich all their treasure is kept, are never locked or barred. If any animal go astray, the finder either leaves it or drives it to those who are ap- pointed to seek for strays, and the owner gets it back without difficulty. They are very courteous ; and though victuals are scarce among them,^they communi- cate freely to each other. They are patient under pri- vations ; and though they may have fasted for a day or two, will sing and make merry as if they were perfectly satisfied. In journeying, they bear heat and cold with great fortitude. They never fall out ; and though often drunk, never quarrel in their cups. No individual despises another ; but every one assists his neighbour to the utmost. * Having seen here the favourable side of their cha- racter, it will be necessary now to consider the reverse. The Tatars, says Carpini, are proud and overbearing to all other people, looking upon foreigners, however noble, with contempt. They are irritable and disdainful towards strangers, and deceitful beyond belief, always speaking frir at first, but afterwards stinging like scor- pions. They are crafty and fraudulent, and cheat all men if they can. Drunkenness is honourable among them : they are filthy in their n;eat and drink, and in all their actions. They are importunate beggars, niggardly givers; and, finally, they consider the slaughter of other people as nothing. In consequence of their superstitious traditions, many actions in themselves innocent were accounted criminal, and punished accordingly. To touch or even to ap- proach the fire with a knife or any instrument made of iron, to lean upon a whip, to strike a horse with a bridle, to kill young birds, or to break one bone upon another, were all considered actions of a most unlucky nature. If any one had the misfortune to tread inadvertently on 2rS GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. \r-t. I'll i| the threshold of one of the great men's houses^ he was punished with death. But while they are so scrupulous, observes our friar, with respect to actions in themselves indifferent, they do not consider it a crime to slay men, to invade the territories of others, to take away their goods, and to act contrary to the commands of God : they know nothing of the life to cdme, or of eternal damnation. " Yet," he adds, " that they believe in a future state, in which they shall tend flocks, eat, drink, and do the very same things which employ them in this life. They begin every great enterprise at new moon, or when the moon is full : they call the moon the great emperor, and worship that luminary on their Knees;" indeed, it is conjectured that Ay, the great ancestor of the ^Mongol nations, is the same with Ayou the moon. . The information which Carpini's journal contains re- lative to the tribes of the Mongols is far from being as complete as his description of their character and cus- toms. He says, that the land of Mongolia was formerly divided among four different tribes or nations. One of these was the Yeka-Mongol, or the Great Mongols ; the second was the tribe of the Su-Mongol, or Water Mon- gols, who called themselves also Tatars from a river of that name in their territories; the third was named Merkaty and the fourth Metrit. All these resembled each other in figure and complexion, but were divided into distinct provinces under separate princes. The names which Carpini mentions here were evidently not arbitrary inventions ; but he appears to have mistaken some petty hordes for the principal tribes of the nation. The enumerations of the Mongolian tribes which occur in the travels of Haitho and of Marco Polo neither agree with one another nor with that offered by our friar. The geographical knowledge of Carpini appears to have been extremely limited, and his descriptions of the countries through which he passed are much involved in error and obscurity. He sometimes even confounds the Black Sea with the Caspian. " The land of Mongolia or Tatary is in the east part of the world," such is his ! i ! CHAP. III. JOURNEY OP CARPINI INTO TATABY. 257 [r agree lr. ;ar3 to of the Ived in ids the mgolia is his vague language, '^ where the east and north are believed to unite : it has the country of Cathay and the people called Solangi on the east ; on the south the country of the Saracens ; the land of the Huini on the south-east ; the province of Maimani on the west, and the ocean on the north. In some parts it is full of mountains, in others quite plain, but every where interspersed with sandy deserts, not a hundredth part of the whole being fertile, as it cannot be cultivated except where it is wa- tered by rivers, which are very rare. Hence there are no towns or cities except one named Cracurim (Cara- corum), which is said to be tolerably good ; we did not see that place, although within half a day's journey of it when we were at the horde of the Syra, or court of the Great Emperor." To the south of Cara Cathay (the Black Desert), and south-west of Mongolia, Carpini says there is a vast desert, in which there are said to be certain wild men who are unable to sptak, and have P' pints in their legs ; yet they have ingenuity enough to make felt of camels' hair for garments to protect themselves from the weather. The climate of Mongolia is described by him as un- equal and tempestuous in the extreme. In the middle of summer terrible storms of thundrr and lightning occur, by which numbers of people are kili,:'i, and even in that season there are occasionally heav;i falls of snow, and cold northern winds blow with such violence that a man can hardly sit on horseback. During these gales great clouds of sand are whirled through the atmosphere ; and Carpini relates, that one of these storms coming on sud- denly at the time of the grand ceremonies at the Syra Horde, he and his companions were obliged to throw themselves prostrate on the ground, every object around them being concealed by the prodigious dust. It never rains in winter, but frequently in sun.mer; yet "o gently as scarcely to lay the dust, or to moisten the roots of the parched herbage : but prc'iigious showers of hail not unfrequently fall, of the violence of which so-^ie estimation may be formed from the fact alleged by our VOL. I. i 258 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE AOES. BOOK III. author, that while he was at the imperial court, at the time when the emperor elect was ahout to be placed on the imperial throne^ above a hundred and sixty persons were drowned by the sudden melting of one of these showers, and many habitations and much property were swept away. In summer, sudden and intolerable heats are quickly followed by intense cold. Caipini uas almost induced to believe that the Chi- nese wore Christians : he mixed together and confounded, perhap'j, the exaggerated statements of the Nestorians and the information which he received concerning the doctrines and rites of Shamanism as it exists in China. " The people of Cathay," he says, " are pagans, hav- ing a peculiar mode of writing, in which they are re- ported to possess the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. They have also Lives of the Fathers, and houses in which they pray at stated times, uuilt exactly like churches ; they are even said to have saints, to wor- ship one God, to venerate the Lord Jesus Christ, and to believe in eternal life ; but then they are not baptized : they have no beards, and much resemble the Mongolf in features." It is singular that Carpini, while he listened with such easy credulity to the accounts of Christianity in China, should have gathered such an erroneous and im- perfect history of the celebrated Christian potentate, Prester John; whose dominions, as far is history can trace them out, were at no great distance from the country which our friar visited. He transports that doubtful character into India, and unites to his mention of him some other singular circumstances. ** When Zingis Khan, he relates, " had finished the conquest of Cathay or China, he sent one of his sons with an army into India ; that prince subdued the people of Lesser India, who are black Saracens, and are also called ^Ethiopians. The Mongol army then marched against the Christians dwelling in the Greater India ; and the king of that country, known by the name oi Prester John, came forth with his armv to meet them. This Prester 1 * ' *p- CHAP. IV. TRAVELS OF RUBRUQUIS. 259 John caused a number of hollow copper figures to be made, resembling men, which were stiitFed with com- bustibles and set upon horses, each having a man be- hind on the horse with a pair of bellows to stir up the fire. At the first onset of the battle^ these mounted figures were sent forward to the charge ; the men who rode behind them set fire to the combustibles and then blew strongly with the bellows ; immediately the Mongol men and horses were burnt with wild-fire, and the air was darkened with smoke. Then the Indians fell upon the Mongols, who were thrown into confusion by this new mode of warfare, and routed them with great slaughter." It is impossible to find the origin of a tale which supposed the existence of a Christian prince in India ; but the story related by Carpini, as it will be seen further on, may have been productive of very im- portant consequences. CHAP. IV. TRAVELS OF RUBRUQUIS. RUMOURED CONVERSION OF THE MONGOL PRINCES. LETTER FRO>f ERKALTAY TO ST. LOUIS. THE KINO OF FRANCE SENDS HOLV RELICS TO THE MONGOLS. DESPATCHES RUBRUQUIS TO SARTACH. GERMANS DWELLING ON THE BLACK SEA TATAR ENCAMP- MENTS. JOURNEY TO THE VOLGA. — DESERT OF KIPJACK — THE ALANS. COURT OF SARTACH. HOUSES ON CARTS.— SARTACH NOT A CHRISTIAN. FRIARS SENT FORWARD TO BAATU KHAN. OBLIGED TO PROCEED TO CARACORUM.-— THE LAND OF ORGA • NUM. DESCRIPTION OF THE YAK. CANNIBALISM IN THIBET. THE COURT OF MANGU KHAN. EUROPEANS IN CARACORUM. THE FOUNTAIN MADE BY WILLIAM BOUCHIER CHRISTI- ANITY AMONG THE UIGURS. CHRISTIAN CEREMONIES IMI- TATED IN THE EAST. CHINESE WRITING. ISLANDS IN THE KASTERN SEA. — PRESTER JOHN. — KNOWLEDGE OF TATARY. — BKIDANDS IN THE CAUCASUS. JOURNEY HOME. HAITHO THE ARMENIAN. THE TARS.E. TRIBES OF THE MONGOLS. The papal missions to the Tatars failed wholly in pro- ducing the effects expected from them ; but they brouglu s 2 260 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. DOOK III. '^^ home some valuable information ; and by making the European nations better acquainted witli the character of the Mongols, tended, perhaps, not a Uttle to moderate the apprehensions entertained of those formidable in- vaders. Although the austere and narrow-minded eccle- siastics, selected for those embassies, were little qualified by the habits of monastic life to succeed in such delicate negotiations, it would yet, perhaps, have been difficult to find persons better fitted by their zeal, fidelity, and pa- tient resolution to break first the path of communication between the Christians and the Tatar conquerors : their sacred character met also with some respect, and served undoubtedly to protect them from the violent treat- ment to which, from their stubborn inattention to Eastern usages, they were frequently exposed. The successors of Zingis Klian were remarkable for the indifference they manifested to religious creeds : they entertained the national belief in the existence of one God ; but were wholly unaqquainted with any colla- teral doctrines or ceremonies of religion. Yet they were not exempt from superstitious weakness, and gave a fa- vourable reception to priests of every sect and persuasion, in order that by engaging in their interest every so- lemn rite and every mode of prayer, they might more surely propitiate the will of heaven. Among other ministers of religion who flocked about them were many Nestorian Christians, who, willing to magnify their own efficiency and importance, and unable to comprehend the light in which they we'^ considered by the Mongol prince??, spread abroad the rumour that these latter were actuaily becv;me converts to Christianity. This was more ilistinctly anncv -ced with respect to Sartach, a prince of the royal family, and son of Baatu Khan, who commanded the Tatar armies to the north of the Caspian. It happened at the very time when this rumour pre- vailed, and while Saint Louis was engaged in his 6rusade against the Saracens in Syria, that Erkaltay, the Mongol prince who was attacking the same power from WfVT >-■• -'■ rj>A. ... from -fi> CHAP. IV. TRAVELS OF RUBRUQUIS. 261 the side of Persia, sent an embassage to the French king, in order to cement more closely an alliance founded in common interest. The tenour of his letter is variously reported : according to some, the ambassadors declared that the khan had embraced Christianity, and made war with no other intention than that of spreading abroad the true faith ; but it is certain that they went to mass and conformed to all the catholic ceremonies. In conse- quence Saint Louis sent an embassy to Erkaltay, with a present consisting of a portion of the wood of the true cross, and bearing a letter in which he invited the khan to embrace the true faith, and acknowledge the spiritual supremacy of the pope. The answer given to this letter, which must have caused not a little surprise at the court of Caracorum, is not known. At the same time a deputation was sent to Sartach, whose territories were between the Don and the Volga, in order to con- firm and instruct him in his newly-adopted faith. At the head of this mission was William de Rubruquis, or, more properly. Van Ruysbroeck, a Minorite friar, from a village of that name near Brussels. He was charged, among other things, to observe narrowly what was the religion of the Tatar prince ; from which circumstance it may be concluded that the king of France did not give implicit credit to the stories that were circulated respecting Sartach's conversion. Our friar and his companions set out in June, 1253, on their journey towards the Don. " Towards the mouth of this river," observes Rubruquis, " there are many lofty promontories ; and between Kersova and Soldaia (Sudak) there are forty castles, at almost each of which a distinct language is spoken : in this place are many Goths, who speak the Teutonic language." These were the descend- ants of the German tribes who migrated towards the shores of the Black Sea in the fourth century, and who still preserved their language in the middle of the six- teenth century, when Busbequius conversed with several of them in Constantinople. As soon as the friars came among the Tatars they s 3 26g OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE A0E8. BOOK (H- I • I' i were placed under *' the shade of certain hlack carts/' and surrounded by a number of horsemen. Their wine and provisions were taken from them ; and they were kept in continual alarm by the rude menaces of the fierce Mahometans. At length, having showed some letters which they bore to one Zagathai, a nobleman in that province, who was related to the khan, they were fur- nished with horses and oxen to enable them to proceed to their destination. Next morning our travellers met the carts of Zagathai laden with houses ; " and I thought/' says Rubruquis, " a great city was travelling towards us. I was asto- nished at the prodigious droves of oxen and horses, and the immense flocks of sheep, though I saw very few men to guide them, which made me enquire how many men he had under his command, and I was informed that he had not five hundred in aU, half of whom had passed on to another station." In the course of the day they were introduced to Zagathai, who asked them if they would drink cosmos, (koomis, a drink made of mares' milk,) to which they gave an evasive answer ; for it appears that the Greek, Russian, and other Christians, who mixed with the Tatars, made it a point to abstain from drink- ing that infidel beverage. They do not appear to have experienced here a very generous hospitality, or perhaps their stomachs were not yet reconciled to Tatar fare : so that, " if it had not been for the grace of God," says the pious friar, " and the biscuit which we brought with us, we had surely perished." They remained in the horde of Zagathai for ten days, and then set out on their journey, traveUing due north till they reached the head of the Sea of Asoph ; they then turned towards the east, having the sea on their right hand and a vast desert on the left, which, they were told, was in some places twenty days in breadth, without mountain, tree, or even stones. In this great plain the Comani, called Capchat (Kipjak), fed their cattle. The region be- yond the Don appeared to Rubruquis extremely beauti- ful, especially towards the north, where there were great ■ \ CHAP. IV. TRAVEIiS OF RUBRUQVI8. 263 rivers and extensive forests. '' In the course of our journey," says he, " we left to the south certain great mountains, on whose side, towards the desert, dwell the Cergis (Cherkes or Circassians), and the Alani or AcaSj who are Christians, and still carry on war with the Tatars." These Alans, or Acas, were the ancestors of the Ossi, who at present inhabit the broad valleys of the Caucasus. After a painful journey of two months, during all which time he never once enjoyed the shelter of a house or tent, but was obliged to pass the nights in his cart in the open air, he reached the encampments of Sariach Khan upon the Volga. This prince maintained a splendid court. He had six wives, and each of these ladies had a great house besides smaller ones of the ordinary kind, and a train of two hundred travelling carts. ** Their houses," says our traveller, " are made of wickers, plaited together and placed on carts, some of which are so large, that measuring once the breadth between the wheel-ruts of one of their carts, I found it to be twenty feet across, and when the house was upon the cart it reached over the wheels on each side five feet at least. I reckoned twenty-two oxen in one team, drawing a house upon a cart, eleven abreast. The axle of the cart was of a huge bigness, like the mast of a ship. The men that drove the cart stood before the door of the house. They go at a slow rate ; and when they come to any place where they intend to make some stay, they take down the houses from the carts, turning the door to- wards the south, and placing the master's bed at the north end of the house." When the friars were introduced to Sartach, Rubru- quis commenced an apology for appearing in his pre- sence empty handed, and excused hims&lf on account of the poverty of his order : to this the Mongol politely answered, that it was creditable in a monk to observe his vow ; that he himself did not need the gift of any one, but was willing to give his visiters whatever they might need. He then made the monks recite a bene- s 4 h e^' 264> OEOGRAPnr OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. % I J diction for him^ and asked some qurnfions respecting the king of France. In the morning our travellers were ordered to Appear at court with the king's Iciters, and with all their books vestments, and other curiosities. " We were com- manded," says Rubruquis, '' to array ourselves in our sacred vestments to appear in them 'before the prince. Putting on, therefore, our most precious ornaments, I took a rich cushion in my arms, together with the Bible which I had from ihe king of P'rance, and the beautiful Psalter, ornamented with fine paintings, which the queen bestowed upon me ; my companion at the same time carried the missal and a crucifix ; and the clerk, clothed in his surplice, bore a censer in his hand. In this order we presented ourselves ; and the felt hanging before the lord's door being withdrawn, we appeared in his pre- sence. Then the clerk and interpreter were ordered to make three genuflexions, a humiliation from which we were exempted ; but they admonished us to be exceed- in'^ly careful not to touch the threshold of the door ; we were desired also to sing a benediction or prayer for the lord, and so we entered in singing the Salve Regina." -After Sartach and his wives had regaled their eyes with tt.is strange spectacle, they narrowly examined the censer. Psalter, and Bible ; and after a little time the friars were dismissed; the prince graciously permitting them to carry back their books and sacred vestments, which were coveted exceedingly by the attendants. The curiosity of Sartach being sufficiently gratified, Rubruquis and his companions received orders to pro- ceed to the court of Baatu Khan ; their mission being considered one of such importance, that the prince dared not determine respecting it without the advice and con- sent of the khan his father. When Rubruquis ventured to make enquiries respecting the religious conversion of Sartach, he was warned to be careful what language he used on that subject, and told in angry terms that the prince was not a Christian but a Mongol. This em- ployment of the word Christian, as a mere national BOOK III. CHAP. IV. TRAVELS OF RUDRUQVIS. Q65 were corn- designation, must have disconcerted not a little our zealous Minorites. In the deserts between the Don and Volga were a pagan people, to whom he gives the name of Moxels ; and beyond them were the Merdus or Merduas, a Mahometan tribe, whose possessions extended to the Volga. These latter w • .idently the Cheremisses, who call themselves il/ ai d the others were the Morduans, who are nam their own language Mocsha. When the friars reach( the Volga, they were cii^ua Mcampment of Baatu on obli-ed to display all the pomp of their religious habiliments, to gratify the curio- sity of the Mongols. — "We entered the tent bare- footed," says Rubruquis, " and with our heads uncovered, forming a strange spectacle in their eyes ; for though friar John de Piano Carpini had been there before me, yet, being a messenger from the pope, he changed his habit, that he might not be despised. We were brought forward into the middle of the tent, without being obliged to bow the knee, as is the case with other mes- sengers. Baatu was seated on a broad couch like a bed, gilt all over j one of his ladies sat beside him." Silence was kept for some time, " while one might rehearse the Miserere." The friars were then com- manded to kneel ; and having declared the friendly pur- pose of their mission, were treated with koomis, and dismissed. They shortly after received orders to pro- ceed to the court of Mangu Khan at Caracorum. In the course of this journey, Rubruquis crossed the Jaik, or Aral, and the country of the Bashkirs, whom he calls Pascatirs, and who spoke, as he affirms, the same lan- guage as the Hungarians. Farther on, he reached the city of Kenchat, in the neighbourhood of which were vineyards, and crossed a great river, the name of which he was unable to learn, or that of the country through which it flowed. At the city of Talach, which next occurred, he found a number of Germans dwelling amongst the Mongols. After enduring unspeakable fa- tigues, he arrived at the city of Equius, the inhabitants rMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 4% 1.0 Ui|2j8 |Z5 us IM 12.2 ^ |||M |||U^ Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 145S0 (716)87!}-4S03 v!!? V <^ 4 C\ '^ ) ^^ .\ % ^ 2()6 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. of which spoke the Persian language^ though so far re- moved from Persia. The great river was probably the 8irr, or Jaxartes^ and the city called Talach may have been some place on the river Talas ; but geographers have never been able to discover the situation of the city Equius. He says, that the inhabitants spoke Persian ; and if he had a smattering of that tongue, it is possible that he may have ventured to translate the name of their city, which was probably an Ispahan, Ispake, or some similar name, in which the word asp, a horse, is the principal root. The ambassadors advanced next to Cailac, a commer- cial city in the land of Organum, a country rich in pas- turage and cattle, and contaiiung a lake of fifteen days' journev in circumference. This country took its name, accortung to Rubruquis, from the skill of the inhabitants in playing on the organ ; but it is more probable that he ought to have written Irgonekon, tlie name of a fertile valley, not far from lake Balkash. The next nation among whom he arrived were the Uigurs, iii whose country was the city of Caracorum. This city was enclosed with mud walls ; had four gates, two mosques, and one church for Christians, though most of the in- habitants were Tuinians or idolaters. The Chinese inhabited a street to themselves. This was the termin- ation of the journey. The city of Caracorum, according to Rubruquis, is situated on the confines of the Jugurs, or Uigurs, whose territories extend to the north and west. The Tanguts occupied the mountains to the east of them. " Among the Tanguts," he says, " there are oxen of great strength, having flowing tails like horses, and their backs and bellies covered with long hair. They are shorter legged than other oxen, but much fiercer, having long, straight, and sharp-pointed horns. They are much used for drawing the great houses of the Moals ; but they will not allow themselves to be yoked unless they are sung to at the same time." This is a correct description of the Sarluk, or Tatarian ox, better known by the Thibetian name of Yak. CHAP. IV. TBAVBLS OF RVBRVQVIS. 267 \. Beyond these people, to the east, lay Great Cathaya, the inhabitants of which our traveller asserts are the Seres of the ancients. He was told that in that country there was a town, the walls of which were made of ailver, and the towers of gdd. The inhabitants of Thibet, ac- cording to Rubruquis, had once the habit of eating the dead bodies of their parents, from a motive of piety, believing that to be the most honourable sepulture; but in his time they had abandoned that custom, which was looked upon as abominable by all other nations. They still, however, continued to make handsome drinking- cups of the skulls of their parents, that they might call them to remembrance even in their mirth. This is pre- cisely what Herodotus relates of the Massagete, and does not di£Per materially from what he states respecting the Padceiy who were probably the Thibetian followers of Bauddhttf or Buddha, in Thibet. The same custom of putting the aged and infirm to death exists at the present day among the Battas in Sumatra ; who, like the Massagetes and Thibetians of old, act under the influence of religious opinions, and deem a man guilty of die basest dereliction of filial duty who refuses to eat his father. From Caracorum the travellers were conducted some days' journey over the mountains towards the north to the residence of Mangu Khan. The day after their arrival there they went to court barefooted, an ad- herence to the strict rules of their order which did not serve to exalt them in the eyes of the people ; but their toes were so severely frostbitten on the following day, that they were obliged to abandon their pious resolution. People from the court compassionately brought them ram-skin coats and other warm clothing. Soon after- wards they were admitted into the imperial presence. They found the Grand Khan, " a flat-nosed man, of middle stature, sitting on a couch, covered with a shining spotted fur, like seal-skin : " one of his wives, a pretty young woman, sat beside him ; one of his daughters, named Cerina, " a hard-featured young woman," sgt 268 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MiDDLE AGES. BOOK III. on another couch at a little distance. The strangers were politely asked whether they would drink taraeina, a punch or liquor made of arrack ; or caracosmos, that is, clarified koomis; or ball, a sort of mead made of honey. They answered that they had no pleasure in drink; but yet they tasted the taracinoj which they found agreeable. The Grand Khan of the Mongols^ in the mean time^ was amusing himself with his falcons and other birds. At last the monks were commanded to speak ; but after the conversation had been continued for some time, Rubrunuis perceived that his interpreter, who had been gradually growing more and more inar- ticulate, was now quite drunk, and no longer able to utter a perfect sentence : he also began to suspect that the khan himself was not perfectly sober ; he therefore kept kilence, and was soon permitted to retire. Our travellers found a great multitude of German, French, and other European prisoners residing at the court of the Grand Khan : they were employed to ma- nufacture arms, and as artisans in a variety of ways ; but particularly to work the mines at a place called Bocol, two months* journey to the east of Caracorum. These men, who appeared to Rubruquis to prosper ex- ceedingly in their new situation, must have had a con- siderable influence on the arts and civilisation of Inner Asia. One of these ingenious strangers was a Parisian goldsmith, named William Bouchier, whose skill and industry found abundant employment in the service of the Mongol emperor. In the neighbourhood of Carac;> Mangu Khan had a great palace in the middle of a court surrounded by a brick wall. In that place he celebrated festivals twice a year, at Easter and in the summer season, when all the nobility of the nation assembled about him; he then distributed garments among them, and displayed all the magnificence of his rank. " Near this palace," says Rubruquis, " are a great many buildings like our barns, in which the victuals and treasures belonging to the khan are stored. But as CHAP. IV. TRAVELS OF RUBRUQUIi). 26'9 I [great Ituals Kit as it was unbecoming to have flagons going about the hall of the palace, as in a tavern, William Bouchier, the goldsmith, planned and executed a great silver tree, just without the middle entrance of the great hall, at the root of which are four silver lions, having pipes discharging pure cows' milk. Four pipes are con- veyed up the body of the tree to its top, which spreads out into four great boughs, hanging downwards: on each of these boughs is a golden serpent, the tail of which twines round the body of the tree ; and each of these serpents forms a pipe, one discharging wine, a second caracosmos, another mead, and the fourth tara- cina, or a drink made of arrack : belonging to each pipe is a vessel or reservoir. On the top, between the four pipes, there stands the figure of an angel with a trumpet, and under the tree is a vault in which a man lies concealed, from whom a pipe ascends to the angel : on a signal given by the butler, he blows with all his might, and the trumpet sounds. In a building without the palace the liquor is stored, and poured by servants into pipes communicating with the tree ; from which it is discharged into appropriate vessels, and distributed by the" butler to the company. The palace is like a church having a middle aisle and two side ones, with two rows of pillars. Three gates open into it on the south, and before the middle one stands the silver tree : the khan sits at the north end, on an elevated place, that he may be seen by all ; and there arc two flights of steps ascending to him, by one of which his cup-bearer ascends, and comes down by the other. The men sit on the right hand of the khan, and the women on the left." In this description, drawn from a court in the heart of Asia, there is not a little" which may recall to mind the man- ners of European nations in early ages. The figure of the hall of meeting, the dais, or elevated place on which the khan was seated, and the rude conviviality of an assembly of nobles, all employed in drinking, are striking traits of national resemblance. After several interviews with Mangu Khan, who appears to have been at a loss 2Z0 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK lit. to comprehend the object of his. mission, Rubruquis re- ceived permission to depart, and was entrusted with a letter from the khan to the king of France. The account which Rubruquis gives of the multitude of Nestorian Christians mingled with the Uigurs deserves the careful consideration of those who would examine the striking similarity that exists between Shamanism, or the religion of the Dalai Lama, and those of some Christian sects. The Nestorian clergy living among the Mongols were ignorant and worthless characters: their bishop visited them hardly once in fifty years ; and whenever he came he caused all their male children to be made priests, even the infants in the cradle. They all indulged in polygamy like the Mongols, antl shared with them in eyery vulgar superstition. There is reason to believe that the Nesforians had penetrated into China as early as the sixth or seventh century, and carried into that kingdom the civilisation of the Bactrian Greeks. Rubruquis says, that in his time they inhabited fifteen cities in Cathay : their bishop resided at Segin, probably Sigan-Fu, in Western China, where monuments have been seen attesting the former existence of Christian establishments. The Nestorians of Tatary had imbibed the specious doctrine of the transmigration of souls : — " Even the wisest of them," says the French monk, " asked me if brutes could fly to any place after death where they should not be compelled to labour :" nay, the ingenious French goldsmith appears to have given way to the popular belief ; for he assured Rubruquis, that the Tuinians, or Shamanists, had brought a person from Cathay, who, by the size and shape of his body, appeared to be but three years old ; yet he was capable of reasoning, knew how to write, and positively affirmed that he had passed through three several bodies. This miraculous personage, it is easy to perceive, was a newly elected Dalai Lama. On the other hand, as parade and glittering ceremo- nials are sure to attract the weak and ignorant, it is not unlikely that the Shamanists borrowed without scruple I CHAP. IV. TRAVELS OF RUBRVQUI8. 271 easy remo- is not cniple ( from the Nestorian Christians the pompous externals of their worship ; and that the resemblance between their rites and those of the catholic church is to be chiefly ascribed to an actual correspondence with the Christians of Central Asia ; a correspondence which^ although attend- ed with important effects, has, as in many similar in- stanceSj almost escaped the notice of history. When Rubruquis entered one of the idol temples at Coilac, " for the purpose," as he tells us, " of observing their folly," he was so far misled by appearances, as to con- clude that the people were actually Christians, and that they omitted the cross and image merely from want of instruction. Behind a certain chest which they used as an altar, and on which they placed candles and oblations, he saw an image with wings like that of St. Michael, and others with their hands stretched out, as if blessing the specta- tors. Their priests shaved their heads and beards, and were dressed in yellow, resembling French friars in their general appearance: they wore also a cloak on their left shoulder, flowing loosely before and behind, but leaving the right arm free ; " somewhat like a dea- con carrying the pix in Lent." They carried with them, wherever they went, a string of one or two hundred nut- shells, like a rosary, and while telling these they kept constantly muttering some pious sentences. Rubruquis, it has been remarked, found strangers from many different nations collected in Caracorum. French, Germans, Persians, and Chinese, with people from Thibet and India, were brought together in that place, either by the vicissitudes of war or the induce- ments of traffic ; and here is a striking instance of a truth which has been frequently illustrated in the course of the preceding pages, that the nations of the earth were never so wholly unknown to each other as might be collected from the silence of history as to the inter- course between them. Our inteUigent monk had an opportunity of learning many peculiarities of the Chinese. " They write," he observes, " with a pencil, like that 272 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AOES. BOOK III. used by painters, and in a single figure they compre- hend many letters forming one word. The ordinary money of Cathay is of paper made like pasteboani, about the size of the hand, and with lines printed on it like the seal of Mangu Khan. The people of Thibet write as we do, and their characters," he continues, " are very like our own. The Uigurs write in descending columns, and the Thibetians, like the Arabs, from right to left." He also learned from the French goldsmith at Caraco- rum, that there was a nation called Tante or Mante, inhabiting certain islands in the East, the sea round which was frozen in the winter, so that the Tatars could cross over on the ice and invade them ; and that these people sent ambassadors to the khan offering a tribute of 2000 jascots yearly, or about 20,000 marks, as the price of his favour and protection. These islands must be sought on the north-eastern shores of Siberia, that being the direction in which warlike excursions on the ice were most likely to be extended. Rubruquis, as well as Carpini, speaks of a Christian prince called Prester John, and gives this name to a brother of Unckhan, a Mongol prince of the Nestorian sect of Christians who reigned over the tribes of the Merkit and Kerait to the west of the Jugurs, and pe- rished in 1203 in the wars with Zingis Khan, about half a century before the time of Rubruquis. Carpini believed that Prester John was an Indian monarch ; but Rubruquis appears to have ascertained with correctness the true situation of that prince, whose name a little afterwards acquired such a fabulous importance. " Ten times more," says our traveller, " is reported about him than is true, for the Nestorians are apt to raise great stories on slight foundations : when I travelled through the territories of Prester John, no one there knew any thing about him except a few Nestorians." Unckhan, whom our author names also Vut (perhaps Buddh) Khan, abandoned the Christian worship, and established idolatry, " retaining priests to his idols who are all sorcerers and worshippers of devils." '< ..•vlti 1 OHAP. I\r. TRAVELS OF RUBtlVQVIS. ^.fH It is remarkable that Rubruquis says he had been informed by Baldwin de Hainault at Constantinople, what he afterwards found true by experience, that the whole way eastwards (to Tatary) was a continual ascent, all the great rivers running from east to west, with little deviation. This observation shows that Baldwin had a very just idea of the physical character of central Asia. Our traveller learned that Cathay or China was distant twenty days' journey from the encampment of Mangu Khan ; at the distance of ten days' journey due east was Oman Kurula, the original seat of Zingis Khan and the Mongols. Farther to the north there were no cities, but poor pastoral tribes called Kerkis or Kirguees : be- yond them dwelt the Orangei, who bound smooth bones under their feet, and with these glided with such velocity over the ice and snow as to overtake wild beasts in the chase. Rubruquis returned from Caracorum to the Volga by the same route which he travelled over before, but from Astrachan he turned towards the south, and passed through the Caucasian isthmus into Syria. From the town of Sara'i on the eastern side of the Volga, perhaps not far from the modern Zarewpod, they travelled fif- teen days without finding an inhabited place, except a little village where one of the sons of Sartach resiled with a train of falconers. They were severely distr n^'^d also for want of water. At length they reached t.ie mountains of the Alani or Ossi, who, along with the Lesghis, another tribe of mountaineers a little farther to the south, still defied the power of the Tatars, and pil- laged all who entered within their territories. A guard of twenty men was, therefore, ordered to conduct our travellers as far as Derbend or the Iron Gate. The Lesghis, Ossi, and other Caucasian nations, at this da continue to exercise the profession of robbers, and looj upon the sale of slaves and ransom of captives as the chief sources of wealth. The Russians, though nomi- nally masters of th6 country, are still obliged to escort their mails to Tiflis with a guard of^wo hundred men. VOL. I. T S7A OEOORAPHT OF THE UIDDLB AGES. BOOK III. From Derbend Rubraqtiis crossed the river Km, from which he says the country was named Kurgia or Georgia, to the great plain of Moan or Moghan, in which the march of the Roman army under Pompey is said to have been arrested by the multitude of serpents that burrowed in the gaps of that parched desert. He then passed by Naxvan or Nakshivan, Erzerum, Siwas^ and Csesarea, till he reached Iconium : here he found many Franks established; and informs us that Italian merchants had farmed from the sultan of the Ottomans the monopoly of those alum works from which all Eu- rope was supplied till the fifteenth century. From Iconium he went to the port of Curch^ where he em- barked to return home. To this account of the mission of Rubruquis it may not 1>e improper to append a short notice of the travels of his contemporary^ Haitho^ the eldest son of Leon II., king of Armenia. During the reign of his father in 1254j that prince, accompanied by his wife and child, travelled to the court of Mangu Khan, the great sove- reign of the Mongols, for the purpose of obtaining an abatement of the tribute imposed by the conquerors on his country, and it is supposed that he was successM in his negotiations. His journey to Caracorum took place in the same year in which Rubruquis returned ; and while at the court of Sartach he was of material service to some of the attendants of Rubruquis who had been left at that station, and who, but for his inter- ference, must have perished by famine, or been perhaps reduced to slavery. The narrative of his journey is by no means interesting, but a few geographical particulars may be collected from it. The empire of Cathay, . he says, is one of the most extensive, opulent, and populous in the world, and is situated entirely on the sea coast. The inhabitants have a high idea of their own superior intelligence, which they express by saying, that they alone of all the people on earth have two eyes : to the Latins they allow one, and consider all other nations as blind. To the west OHAP. IV. TRAVELS OF RUBRUQUIt. %7S in the empire of Cathay is bounded, he says, by that of the Tarsa (infidels), to the north by the desert of Bel<* gian, and to the south by the uea, in which there are innumerable islands. The empire of Tarsn is divided into three provinces, each of which has a sbvereign who assumes the title of king : the inhabitants are called Jugurs or Uigurs. They are divided into many tribes, ten of whom are Christians, and the remainder heathens. They abstain from every article of food which has ever had life, and drink no wine. Their towns are agreeable, and contain a great number of idol temples. They are not inclined to war, but learn all arts and sciences with great facility ; and have a particular manner of writing, which is adopted by aU the neighbouring nations. To the east this coun- try is bounded by Cathay, to the west by Turkestan, to the north by an extensive desert, and to the south by a very extensive desert named Sym, or Pym, in which dia- monds are found, and which is situated between Cathay and India. The enumeration of the Mongol tribes made by Haitho has no resemblance with that of Carpini. He divides them into seven nations; viz. Tatars, Tangut, Kunat, Jalair, Soniah, Monghi, and Taboth. His descriptions of Turkestan, Khorasan^ and Cumania^ offer nothing new or important. r ■'.-' t 2 276 OEOORAPHT or THB MIDDLE AOES. fiOOK III. 'i,.-. CHAP. V. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. THE TWO FOLI VISIT BOLOAR. — GO TO BOKHARA. — rBOClID TO THE COURT Of THE GRAl 1 KHAN. — RETURN HOME. — MARCO rOLO TRAVELS TO CHINA. HIS SUCCESS. FAVOUH AT COURT. EMBASSAGE FROM PERSIA. -« THE rOLI PER- MITTED TO LEAVE CHINA. — NAVIGATE THE INDIAN SEAS. — PASS THROUGH ARMENIA. — THEIR ARRIVAL AT VENICE. — EXPEDIENT TO DISPLAY THEIR WEALTH. WAR WITH GENOA. — MARCO POLO TAKEN PRISONER. WRITES HIS NARRATIVE. — RELEASED PROM CAPTIVITY. — RETURNS HOME. — HIS AC- COUNT OF ASIA. BALKH. — BALAXIA. — CASHMEER. — SAR- TAM. — DESERT OF LOP. HAUNTED BY EVIL SPIRITS. THEIR MALICIOUS ARTS. — TANGUT. — MANNERS OF THB TATARS.— INTERMENT OF THE KHANS. THE YAK. PAVILION OF THB KHAN. — HIS WHITE HOHSES. — • SPLENDOUR OF HIS COURT. — CITY OF CAMBALU. ITS FORM AND SIZE. PALACE OF THE KHAN — ITS PARKS AND GARDENS. While the most powerful kingdoms in Europe trembled at the dangerous proximity of the Tatar hordes which were now firmly established in the east of Europe^ the merchants of Genoa and Venice felt not a little satisfac- tion, perhaps, at the prospect of new and ample markets being thus opened for the commodities of the West. The character of a merchant is held in much respect by East- em nations : pomp and profusion are reckoned by them among the virtues of a prince ; the simplicity of the Tatars and their ignorance of Europe promised ample profits to those who first ventured to open a correspond- ence with them. The valuable productions of the East had so firmly associated the idea of wealth with that quarter of the world, that it would be matter of surprise if the enterprising merchants of the Italian states had neglected to try their fortunes at the courts of the Tatarian princes. Two noble Venetians, named Maffio and Nicolo Polo, were among the first to make the experiment. After )K III. CHAP. v. TRAVBLt OP UAHOO POLO. «77 ROCSID Ml. -^ rATOUR ,1 PER- JEAS. — JICE. — OEMOA. HATIVR* HIS AC- — SAR- —THEIR ,TAR8.— or THE )URT, — or THE Polo, After diipofiing of a large stock of merchandiie at Constanti* nople, they conaidered how they might employ their capital to the best advantage, and resolved on a trading visit to the Tatars, who had now resumed the occupa- tions of peace in the plains around the Volga. They accordingly purchased a stock of jewels, and crossed the Black Sea in 1254, to the camp of Barkah, brother or son of Baatu, whose usual residence was at Bolgar or Sara'i. On their arrival, they placed all their merchan- dise at his disposal, and he repaid their confidence with princely generosity. They were now ready to depart, when a war broke out between Bareka or Barkah Khan, and his cousin Hulagu, which rendered it unsafe for them to return by the same road by which they had arrived ; they turned, in consequence, towards the east, orossed the rivers Jaik and Sihon, and arrived at length at the great city of Bokhara. They met here with a Tatar nobleman who took much pleasure in their varied and instructive conversation, and prevailed on them to accompany him to the resi- dence of the Grand Khan. They consequently set out, and after a journey of twelve months, reached the im- perial residence, at what they considered the extremity of the East. Their reception at court was extremely favourable; and when it appeared, from their manners and discourse, that they were persons of respectability, the khan resolved to send them back, accompanied by one of his own officers, as ambassador to the pope. They had not proceeded far, however, on their return, when the Tatar fell sick and was left behind ; but having the imperial passport, they continued their journey, and at the expiration of three years, employed in crossing the continent of Asia, arrived at Acre in the year 1269* When our travellers reached Venice, after an absence Arom home of fifteen years, Nicolo Polo found that his wife, whom he had left with child, was dead after pro- ducing a son, to whom she gave the name of Marco, and who was now approaching the age of manhood. Ac- eompanied by this young man, the two merchants again T 3 278 OEOGRAPHT OF THB MIDDLE AOES. BOOK III. set forward on their Journey to the interior of Asia in the year 19,71, with letters to the Grand Khan from Gre- gory X. the newly-elected pope. In Badakshan, among the sources of the Oxus, our travellers remained a whole year, in consequence of the illness of young Marco, who profited, nevertheless, from the delay in acquiring a knowledge of the surrounding countries. They then' proceeded directly to Khotan, crossed the great desert of 'Gobi, in a tedious journey of thirty days, entered the country of Tangut, and arrived at the city of Kan-cheu, where they again halted for a considerable time. As soon as the Grand Khan, who at that time had his principal winter residence at Tai-yueu-fu, heard of their arrival in his dominions, he sent forward messengers a disti^ce of forty days' journey to conduct them to his presence. He received them with honour ; and paying especial attention to young Marco, he took him under his protection, and made him an officer of his household. In this situation Marco Polo had an opportunity of dis- playing his abilities : he adopted the dress and customs of the country, and made himself master of the four principal languages then in use, which were probably the Mongol, the Turkish, the Manchu of eastern Tatary, and the Chinese. By his talents and the variety of his ac- complishments, he soon acquired a great degree of influ- ence at court, was employed on missions to the most distant provinces of the empire, and even held for the usual period of three years the high rank of governor of the city Yang-cheu-fu, in the province of Kiang Nang. After the three Poll had resided about seventeen years in the dominions of the Grand Khan, enjoying in the highest degree his confidence and favour, they began to feel the natural wish to return to their native country. But the emperor, who had conceived an attachment to them all, and particularly valued the abilities of Marco, heard with much dissatisfaction of their desire to leave him : he reproached them with ingratitude, and declared that if gain was the object of their pursuit, he was willing to gratify their utmost wishes ; but he positively tOOK III. ia in the )m Gre- f among a whole CO, who liring a ey then it desert sred the m-cheu, ) had his of their lengers a a to his paying n under »usehold. f of dis- customs the four )ably the ary, and ' his ac- of influ- he most for the emor of I Nang. len years ; in the )egan to country, ment to Marco, to leave declared he was ositiyely CHAP. V. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 279 refused to permit their departure. At this conjuncture an accident occurred which most unexpectedly relieved them from their disagreeable situation. An embassy arrived from Arghun, a Mongol prince who ruled in Persia, and grand nephew of Kublai, to solicit in mar- riage a princess of the royal blood. The Great Khan complied with the request, and a princess was accord- ingly selected from among his grand-daughters, and accepted by the ambassadors in the name of their master. The betrothed queen soon after, with a nu- merous train of attendants, set out on her journey to Per- sia ; but, after travelling for some months, it was found dangerous to attempt proceeding over-land, from the disturbed state of the country, and the party were com- pelled to retrace their steps to the capital. It happened that at this very time Marco Polo, who had been engaged in some expedition in the Indian islands, came into port, and soon after gave to the em- peror an account of the safe and e'lsy navigation of those seas. This circumstance coming to the knowledge of the ambassadors of the king of Persia, they sought the acquaintance of the Polo family, and finding that these also longed for an opportunity of making their escape, it was arranged between them how the matter was to be compassed. The ambassadors represented to the khan the necessity of their hastening back to Persia with the princess committed to their charge, and the expediency of their employing for that purpose the nautical experi- ence of the Christians. The khan was unable to refuse his assent to so reasonable a proposal. Preparations were made on a great scale for this important expedition. Fourteen ships of four masts, and some of them with crews of two hundred and fifty men, were provisioned for two years. When the Polo family came to take leave of their friend and benefactor, the aged prince could hardly bear the thought of parting with them, entreated them to return to him after having visited their families, empower- ed them to act as his ambassadors with European princes, and loaded them with jewels and other valuable presents. T 4 280 OEOORAPHY of the MiDDLG AOES. BOOK III. ' The fleet arrived safely in Ormuz after a voyage of eighteen months, touching, on the way, at the principal ports of the Indian islands. When the expedition ar- rived in Persia it was found that Arghun, to whom the young princess was betrothed, had died some time before, and that the country was distracted by the struggle between the usurper, who actually filled the throne, and Ghazan, the son of the deceased monarch. Of the sub« sequent fortunes of the princess history is silent. The Venetians, protected by the letters of the Great Khan^ hastened to quit this theatre of intestine war, and pass* ing through Armenia to Trebizond, and thence to Con- Btantinpple and Euboea, arrived in Venice in the year 1295, after an absence of four-and-twenty years. When they arrived in their native city, they could hardly ^be recognised by even their nearest relations. The effects of time and climate on their figure and com- plexion; their foreign pronunciation, for they had almost forgotten their native language ; their Tatarian air and demeanour, and the coarseness of their garments, com- pletely disguised them from their kindred. The opinicHX had also long prevailed that they wea'e dead. Some members of their family had taken possession of their dwelling-house ; and when they sought to be admitted* it was with difficulty they could bring the inmates of the house to understand diat they were its lawful pro- prietors. Soon after they adopted a singular expedient to make their fellow-citizens acqusdnted with their return, and with the rich fruit of their distant journeys. They iQvited all their friends and connections to a splendid entertainment; when the company was assembled, the three travellers entered richly clad in robes of crimson satin ; at the commencement of the feast they changed these vestments for similar ones of crin^son damask, di- viding the first among the attendants. Again, at the removal of the first course, they put on dresses of crim- son velvet, the damask robes being in like manner dis- tributed ; and at the conclusion of the feast they again changed those spleadid habiliments for plain robes, such CHAP. V. ;.iAVEIiS OF MARCO POLO. 281 ' as were worn by their guests. The company wondered what all this meant. At lengthy when the cloth was re- movedj and the servants withdrawn^ Marco Polo went into an adjoining chamber and brought forth the three coarse garments in which they had returned from their travels. They then began to rip open the seams and linings with which those patched and apparently worth- less rags were doubled^ and quickly brought to view a quantity of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and other pre- cious stones, which had been carefully sewn up so as to escape observation. When the company saw such a countless treasure, and revealed in a manner so unex- pected, they were struck with amazement as if they had witnessed a miracle ; but when they had recovered from their ecstasy of delight and astonishment, they were lavish of congratulations and civilities to their hosts, of whose wealth and nobility they had no longer any doubt. They had not been long in Venice when news was brought that a Genoese fleet, under the command of Lampa Doria, had made its appearance in the Adriatic^ and in consequence, a Venetian fleet, superior in number^ immediately put to sea under the orders of Andrea Dan- dolo. Marco Polo, as an officer of experience, was ap- pointed to the command of one of the gallies. In the engagement which ensued the Venetians were totally defeated, and oiur traveller, whose vessel was foremost in the attack, was wounded and forced to surrender. From his prison in Genoa the fame of Marco Polo's great persond qualities, and the singular adventures of his life were soon spread abroad through the city ; and he was visited by all the chief inhabitants, who endea- voured, as far as it was in their power, to mitigate the rigours of his captivity : he w^is called on continually to narrate the history of his travels, and to describe the court of the Grand Khan. His surprising relations were listened to with eagerness ; but he was so often soli- cited to repeat them, that he at length thought of com- plying with the advice which was generally given him, to commit his narrative to writing. With that view #■ 282 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. I ! fii he procured from Venice the notes which he had left in the possession of his father, and assisted by a fellow- prisoner, one Rustigielo of Pisa, he at length completed the history of his travels ; but it is not perfectly ascer- tained whether the account which we now possess be a copy or only an abridgment of the original manuscript, which was first circulated, it is supposed, in 1298. The merits and accomplishments of Marco Polo pro- cured him so many friends among the principal citizens of Genoa, that after a captivity of four years he was at length released from prison. He married on his return to Venice, but very little is known of his subsequent life. Although a very remarkable character in his age and city, it is not quite certain that any monument was erecte^ to his memory ; many doubting the accuracy of Sansovino's statement, who says, that " under the passage to the church of S. Lorenzo, which stands on one' of the islets named Gemelle, lies buried Marco Polo, surnamed Milione, who wrote the account of travels in the new worldj and was the first before Columbus who discovered new countries." It is difficult at the present day to estimate the im- pression which the account given of the £ast by Marco Polo must have produced on his contemporaries. The immense wealth, population, and industry of China; the Tatar magnificence of Kubla'i Khan, the countless hordes who yielded obedience to him; the numerous great islands in the Indian seas, rich in natural produc- tions, though hitherto but little known ; and those other islands in the East beyond China under the rising sun ; a new world, in fact, was at once disclosed to view, and not by a superficial or casual observer, but by one in- timately acquainted with most of the countries which he described, and who had enjoyed the favourable oppor- tunities of official rank. Although many accused Marco Polo of falsehood or exaggeration, yet his volume was at all times a favourite study ; and as the progress of discovery, so far from disproving his statements, contin- ually tended to confirm them, his authority, instead of TM «i CHAP. V. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 283 falling into neglect, was daily looked up to with more deference and attention. Of China and the court of Kubla'i Khan our traveller treats with the greatest copiousness, not more, perhaps, from their intrinsic interest than because they were the subjects on which he was most frequently interrogated by all who sought the pleasure of his conversation. Yet in the course of the numerous missions on which he was employed, he had acquired a complete acquaintance with central Asia, and for many of those districts his descrip- tions are still the best that we possess. The city of Balkh, which has been the emporium of a great caravan trade from the earliest ages, was in his time hardly recovered from the ruin which every where attended the march of Ziugis Khan. In the lofty moun- tains to the south, there are, he says, great beds of rock- salt, to procure which, the people come from a distance of thirty days' journey all round. " It is of most ex- cellent quality, and in such amazing quantities, that the whole world might be supplied from these mines." Six days' journey from Balkh was the country which he caUs Balaxia or Balascia, supposed to be Badakshan. The people spoke a peculiar language, and their kings pretended to be descended from Alexander the Great; they consequently called themselves Dalcarlen, or Alex- andrians. * The royal family also possessed a breed of horses said to be derived from Bucephalus, and marked in the forehead exactly as he was. The province of Chesmeer or Cashmeer was seventeen days' journey to the sou^h of Balaxia. The inhabitants had also a peculiar language, were remarkably addicted to idolatry and enchantments, *^ forcing their idols to speak, and darkening the day." In passing from Ba- laxia into Great Bokhara, he came to a great mountain which was said to be the highest in the world ; a great uninhabited plain next occurred, twelve days' journey in lengtii. Here Marco Polo relates an observation, which * From Dou'lkarnain, the two-horned, the common title of Alexander the Great 284 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK II(. shows that the mountaineers of Asia had already ob- served the difficulty of supporting combustion in high situations and a rarefied atmosphere. " This plain/' he says, " is so high and cold, that no birds are to be found on it ; and it is even asserted, that fires do not burn so bright in this place, and do not so effectually boil or dress victuals as elsewhere." Samarcand, Khotan, and Cashgar, are all described by our traveller ; with the country of Sartam, in which the people, when the harvest was reaped, used to carry all the corn into the desert and bury it in pits, carefully obliterating, all traces of their footsteps. Beyond these places was the city of Lop, on the borders of the great wilderness of the same name. It required, he says, a month'^ journey to cross this desert from north to south, but to go through it from west to east would require a year at least. Those who prepared to travel in it re« mained some time at Lop, in order to make suitable preparations, as no provisions of any kind were to be found in it for a month. These stores, along with the merchandise, were loaded on asses and camels; and if the provisions fell short on the way, the travellers were obliged to kill their beasts of burden, generally sacrificing the asses in that case, as the camels were better fitted to encounter the hardships of the desert. The journey lay entirely through sands and barren mountains ; and in some places the water was so scarce as hardly to suf- fice for a small caravan of fifty or a hundred personst " In the whole of this journey," says our traveller^ " there are no birds or beasts to be seen. It is reported that many evil spirits reside in the wilderness, and prac« tise wonderful illusions on travellers who happen to lag behind their companions, calling them by their right names, and in accustomed tones of voice ; thus causing them to stray further from the right course, and to lose their way and perish in the sands. In the night«time, also, travellers are often persuaded that they hear the march of a large cavalcade on the one side or the other of the road, and concluding the noise to be that of the footsteps CHAP. v. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. S83 of their party, they turn tovrards the quarter ivhence it seems to proceed ; but upon the breaking of day, find they have been misled and drawn into a situation of danger. It is said also, that some persons in their course across the desert have seen what appeared to them to be a body of armed men advancing towards them, and apprehensive of being attacked and plundered have taken to flight; losing, by this means, the right path, and ignorant of the direction they should take to regain it, they have perished miserably of hunger. Marvellous, indeed, and almost passing belief, are the stories related of those spirits of the desert, which are said at times to fill the air with the sound of all kinds of musical instru- ments, and also of drums and the clash of arms, obliging the travellers to close their line of march and to proceed in more compact order. They find it necessary also to take the precaution, before they repose for the night, to fix an advanced signal, pointing out the course they are afterwards to hold, as well as to attach a bell to each of the beasts of burden, for the purpose of their being more easily kept from straggling. Such are the excessive troubles and dangers that must unavoidably be encoun* tered in the passage of this desert." These wonders, related by our author respecting the desert of Lop, are generally believed in China and Tatary. Beyond the desert of Lop, according to Marco Polo, is the city of Sachion, or Sha-cheu, in the great coun^ try of Tangut : the people are little addicted to merchan- dise and manufactures, and live wholly from the produce of the soil. In the country of Tangut, likewise, is the province of Kamul, the inhabitants of which appear to live only for amusement : they devote their whole time to singing, dancing, and sports, to playing on instru- ments of music, and writing after l^eir fashion. Be- yond the country of Tangut is the great desert of Shamo, which is forty days* journey in extent towards the north. The first place which occurs after crossing this desert is the city of Caracorum, three miles in cir« pumference, and strongly fortified with an earthen ram* 286 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III < part. Near the city is a great castle^ with a superb palace, in which the governor resides. Such is Marco Polo's description of the capital city of the Mongols ; but Rubruquis, on the other hand> declared that it was inferior to St. Denis. The Venetian traveller gives an accurate and lively description of the Tatar nations, their manners, character, and constitution. They feed great herds of cattle, and numerous flocks of sheep, and multitudes of camels and horses. During the summer they remain with these in the pastures of the mountains and colder regions of the north, where they find abundance of grass and wood; but in winter they remove into the warmer regions of the south, in search of pasture ; and in these migrations they frequently march a distance of two or three months' journey. Their houses are formed of slender rods covered with felt, mostly of a round form, and are car- ried along with them on carts or waggons with four wheels, the doors of these movable houses being always placed fronting the south. They have also carts covered so closely with felt, that the rain cannot penetrate, and in these their wives, children, and household goods are con-> veyed from place to place. It has been an invariable custom, says Marco Polo, that all the grand khans and chiefs of the race of Zingis Khan shoiild be carried for interment to a cer- tain lofty mountain, named Altai; and in whatever place they may chance to die, although it should be at the distance of a hundred days' journey, they are never- theless conveyed thither. It is likewise the custom, during the progress of removing the bodies of those princes, to sacrifice such persons as they happen to meet on the road ; saying to them, '' Depart for the next world, and there attend on your deceased master ;" being impressed with the belief that all whom they thus slay do actually become his servants in the next life. They do the same with respect to horses, killing the best of the stud, in order that he may have the use of them. When the corpse of -Mangu Khan was transported to this moun- ' CHAP. V. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 287 tain, the horsemen who accompanied it, having this blind and horrible persuasion, slew upwards of ten thousand persons who fell in their way. In the south-east of Tangut the Yak, or Tatarian ox, first occurred to our traveller's notice. He says, there are certain wild cattle in this country, nearly as large as elephants, with black and white hair, which is short all over the body, but three spans long on the shoulders, of a pure white colour, exceedingly fine, and in many re- spects more beautiful than silk. Many of these oxen are tamed and trained to labour, for which they are better adapted by their strength than any other animal. The finest musk in the world also is found in this province : it is procured from a beautiful animal the size of a goat, with hair like a stag, feet and tail resembling those of an antelope, but without horns. It has two teeth projecting from the upper jaw, about three inches long, and as white as the finest ivory. Near the city of Ciondu, or Chang-tu, in Tangut, was a magnificent palace, erected by Kubla'i Khan, of marvellous art and beauty, ornamented with marble and a variety of rare stones. On one side of this building was a great enclosed park, sixteen miles in circuit, into which no one could enter but through the palace. In this enclosure were meadows, groves, and rivers, and the whole was well stocked with red and fallow deer, and other animals. In the middle of the woods included in this park, the khan had a superb kiosk, or summer- house, built of wood, on pillars richly gilt and varnished. Round each pillar a dragon, likewise gilt, entwined its tail, while its head sustained the projection of the roof, and its talons or claws extended to the right and left along the entablature. The roof was formed of bamboo cane, likewise gilt, and so well varnished that no wet could injure it. The bamboos used for this purpose were three palms in circumference, and sixty feet long, and, being cut at the joints, were slit into two equal parts, so as to form gutters; with these the pavilion was covered. The building was supported on every side ■ r 29s OEOQRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AOES. BOOK III. like a tent, by more than two hundred strong silken cords ; as othenvise, from the lightness of the material, it would be liable to be overset from the violence of high winds. The whole was constructed with so much in- genuity, that all the parts might be taken asunder, removed, and set up again, in a very short time, at the command of the emperor. The Grand Khan had a stud of horses and mares, all pure white, nearly ten thousand in number : of the milk of these none were permitted to drink but the descend- ants of Zingis Khan, with the exception of one family named Boriat, on whom this privilege was conferred by Zingis on account of their valour and achievements. So great was the reverence shown to these white horses, that) while they were at pasture in the royal meadows or forests, no one dared to place himself before them, or otherwise to disturb their movements. The reverence paid to the white horse is said to have at present much declined among the Mongols. In the time of Rubru- quis the Tatars collected together all the white mares, on the ninth day of the May-moon, in order to conse- crate them ; the Christian priests were also obliged oti Jjhat occasion to attend with their censers and assist in the ceremonies ; fresh koomis was , poured upon the ground, and a great festival celebrated. The power and magnificence of Kubla'i Khan are treated of copiously in Marco Polo's narrative. These were the subjects respecting which he was most fre« quently interrogated; and perhaps, besides the impression made on his youthful imagination by the grandeur that surrounded the Mongol emperor, he still retained an affectionate regard for the master from whom he expe- rienced so many flattering distinctions. " Kubla'i Khan," he says, " was of a middle stature, well formed, and of a fair complexion. He had four wives of the first rank, each of whom bore the title of empress, and had a separ- ate court. None of them had fewer than three hundred female attendants of great beauty, together with a mul- ^tude of pages and ladies of the bed-chamber ; so that OK III* ouAP. y. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 889 Bilken iterial, if high ch in- under, at the reSj all lemilk jscend- family rred by ts. So horsed, lows or lem, or verence it much Rubru- mares, > conse- iged oti issist in on the lan are These )st fre- )ression mr that bned an le expe- iKhan," and of Ist rank, |a separ- lundred a mul- 80 that the whole number of persons belonging to their respective courts amounted to no less than ten thousand." Besides these four wives, the emperor had a number of concubines, chiefly drawn from a province of Tatary named Ungut, in which was a city of the same name, distinguished for the fair complexion and handsome fea- tures of its inhabitants. There is little doubt that this province called Ungut was the country of the Uigurs, who have been always considered as superior to the other nations of Tatary, both in respect of person and acquire- ments. Every second year, or oftener, according to cir- cumstances, the imperial officers visited that country, for the purpose of collecting four or five hundred of the handsomest young women, according to certain princi- ples of taste communicated to them in their instructions. During the winter months Kubla'i Khan always re- sided at Cambalu {khan balikh), or the royal residence, on the north-eastern border of Cathay. This is the Pekin of the present day. But the emperor having imbibed an opinion from the astrologers that this city was des- tined to become rebellious to his authority, resolved to build a new city on the opposite or southern side of the river. The new-built city received the name of Taid% (Ta-tu or great court), and all the Chinese inhabitants were obliged to evacuate the old city, and to take up their abode in the new one. The halves into which Pekin is divided by the river are still caUed respectively the Chinese and Tatar cities. The new city, or Taidu, was of a form perfectly square, and twenty-four miles in circumference, each side being neither more nor less than six miles long. The Chinese and Tatar towns are all originally square ; a preference being given to that figure, it has been sup- posed, frpm principles of castrametation ; but it is pos- sible that the superstitious attachment of the Mongols to the number four, may also have contributed to determine that choice. The whole city was encompassed with walls of earth, ten paces thick at the base, but diminish- ing towards, the top. It was regularly laid out by line ; VOL. I. u r 290 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. and the streets were, consequently, so straight, that a per- son looking from one gate might see the gate that cor- responded to it on the opposite side of the city. On each of the sides were three principal gates, twelve in aU, a sumptuous palace heing built over each ; and at each corner of the wall wan a barrack built for the city guards, which amounted to one thousand men for each gate. Outside of the city were twelve large suburbs, extend- ing three or four miles in length from each gate, and containing a much greater number of inhabitants than the city within the walls. In each of the suburbs were numerous hotels or caravanserais, in which foreign mer- chants took up their abode, and to each nation a separate quiirter was assigned. But these great suburbs described by Marco Polo appear to have dwindled away very much since his time. According to the account of Sir G. Staunton it employed only fifteen minutes to traverse one of the eastern suburbs, by which the English embassy approached the capital in 179^^ and twenty minutes to traverse that on the western side, by which it departed. On the southern side of the new city was the grand palace of Kublai Khan, the faithful description of which may have formerly brought on Marco Polo the charge of exaggeration, so far does the state and profusion of a Tatar emperor surpass not only the power of European princes, but even the easy grasp of European imagin- ation. The palace stood within a vast square enclosure, the wall of which on each side was eight miles long : this wall was surrounded externally by a deep ditch, and a great gate was in the middle of each side. Within this outer wall there was another, exactly a mile distant from it; each side of the square which it formed being six miles in length : the space between these two walls was allotted to the sddiers to exercise and perform their evolutions. This inner square had three gates on the north side, and as many on the south : the middle gate on both sides was much larger and more magnificent than the others, being appropriated solely to the use of the khan; through OOK HI* t aper- lat cor- y. On reive in ; and at the city *or each extend- ate, and Its than rbs were ,gn mer- geparate [escribed ry much f Sir G. verse one embassy inutes to parted, he grand of which le charge sion of a luropean imagin- n closure, es long: itch, and ithin this tant from six miles allotted iTolutions. side^ and [)th sides Le others, ; through OBAP. V. TRAVELS OP MARCO POT.O. 291 the others any one who pleased might nter. This cus- tom of reserving separate doors for the sole use of royalty prevails generally among the Tatar nations. Within the second wall there was a third, also at a considerable distance, enclosing a square mile. The interval between these two walls formed a park, adorned with a great variety of trees, and well stocked with deer and every other description of game : at the angles and middle points of the interior wall were eight great build- ings, which served as storehouses and magazines for the retinue of the khan. Within this central or third enclosure was the palace of the khan, which extended the whole way from the northern to the southern wall, and was consequently a mile in length : sufficient space was left round it for the passage of the officers and sol- diers attending the court. The palace, as Marco Polo describes it, was very lofty, but had no upper story ; a circumstance that diminishes the apparent improbability of its great extent. The whole line of building was surrounded by a marble wall two paces wide, resembling a terrace. The insides of the great halls and the apart- ments were ornamented with dragons in carved work and gilt, figures of warriors, of birds and beasts, with repre- sentations of battles. The inside of the roof was so richly ornamented, that nothing was to be seen but splendid gold and imagery. The exterior of the roof was adorned with a variety of colours, red, green, azure, and violet ; and the covering was of so strong a nature as to last for many years. At the present day, the Chinese palaces are always covered with highly-varnished yellow tiles. The glazing of the windows in the imperial palace, our traveller says, was so delicate and finely wrought as to have the transparency of crystal. It must not be sup- posed, however, that the Chinese of those days were acquainted With the art of making glass : the transparent windows of the palace were probably made either with talc or of some species of shell. Not far from the palace was an artificial mound of earth, a hundred paces high, and about a mile in circuit u 2 ■■■>-«^ 292 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. at the base : it was clothed with the most beautiful ever- green trees ; for whenever the emperor received intelli- gence of a handsome tree growing in any place^ he -s^,^ immediately caused it to be dug up' and transported, with all its roots and the earth about it, on the backs of elephants, to this mount, which, from its perpetual verdure, received the appellation of the Green Mount. Within the same enclosure was a running stream, an aqueduct, and a pond, ^ stored with a variety of ex- cellent fish, and stocked also with swans and other aquatic birds. " The view of this altogether," says the Venetian, " the mount itself, the trees, and the buUding, form a delightful and at the same time a wonderful scene." These hills are noticed in terms of equal admir- atioVi in the account of Lord Macartney's embassy. " A halt," says Sir G. Staunton, " was made opposite the treble gates, which are nearly in the centre of this northern side of the palace wall : it appeared to enclose a large quantity of ground. It was not level, like all the lands without the wall ; some of it was raised into hiUs of steep ascent ; the earth taken to form them left deep hollows now filled with water. Out of these arti- ficial lakes, of which the margins were diversified and irregular, small islands rose with a variety of fancifid edifices interspersed with trees. On the hills of different heights the principal palaces of the emperor were erected. On the summit of the loftiest eminences were tall trees surrounding summer-houses, and cabinets contrived for retreat or pleasure. The whole had somewhat the ap- pearance of enchantment." , , • r;t \V ■..!■* f BOOK III. fill ever- 1 intelli- lace^ he isported, he backs perpetual i Mount. reaiUj an ;y of ex- nd other says the buUding, wonderful al admir- embassy. s opposite :e of this to enclose 1, Uke aU lised into them left hese arti- lified and fanciful ■ different •e erected. tall trees trived for It the ap- -.t^^ f §' GHAP. VI. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 29^ CHAP. VI. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO CONTINUED. MAXJI OR SOUTHERN CHINA. ^ KINO FANFUR. — HIS OVER- THROW. — FREPICTIQN FULFILLED. MARCO FOLO MADE GOVERiyOR OF A CITY. — SIEGE OF SATANFU. SERVICES OF ' THE FOLI. GREAT TRADE OF SIN-GUI. THE RIVER KIANO. • — CITY OF KIN-SAI. ITS SIZE. MARKETS, CANALS, AND ; BRIDGES. — rOFULATION. — POLICE. — SALE OF CHILDREN. — FORT OF ZAITUN. — MANUFACTURE OF PORCELAIN. CANNI- (- BALS IN CHINA. THIBET.— METHOD OF FRIGHTENING WILD ' BEASTS. SORCERERS. SALT USED AS MONEY. — MUSK GAZELLES. DESCRIPTION OF CROCODILES. — SUPERSTITION IN CARAZAK. CUSTOM OF GILDING THE TEETH. — JAPAN FAMOUS FOR ITS WEALTH. THE TATARS FAIL TO CONQUER IT. THE GENERALS PUNISHED. — COUNTRY OF CIAMFA. — GREATER JAVA. LESSER JAVA. THE RHINOCEROS. SAGO. • ^-CEYLON. THE KINg's RUBY. — MANNERS OP THE HINDOOS. — ST. THOMAS. ARABIAN FORTS. MADAGASCAR. — THE ROKH. ABYSSINIA. THE NORTH OF EUROPE. MERITS OF MARCO POLO. THE MISSIONARIES. JOHN DE MONTECOR- ' VINO VISITS PERSIA AND INDIA. PROCEEDS TO CHINA. — ■ THWARTED BY THE NESTORIANS. — HIS SUCCESS. CONVERTS ' A MONGOL PRINCE. HIS GREAT LABOURS. — CREATED ARCH- t BISHOP OF CAMBALU. Marco Polo was the first European who visited China ; and certainly none of those who have succeeded him ever enjoyed equal opportunities of acquiring a per- fect knowledge of that country. The account^ however, which he published of his travels was adapted to the taste and sentiments of the age in which he lived ; and much of his valuable information was probably with- held, from a fear that it might not prove generally inter- esting. The splendour and state of the imperial court, the manners and military organisation of the Tatars, occupy a comparatively larger portion of his volume than the character, commerce, and industry of the Chinese ; and yet it is quite evident that these had sufficiently en- gaged his attention ; and in proportion as he advances iu the course of his description from the frontiers of Tatary V 3 >'^ 294 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. towards the south of China, he speaks in terms of conti- nually increasing admiration of the arts, wealth, and population of the country. To the northern part of China, or all that lay to the north of the Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, he gives the name of Khatai or Cathay ; the coxmtry south of that river he calls the province of Manji. This province, he says, is the most magnificent and richest that is known in the Eastern world. About the year 1269 it was subject to a prince styled Fanfur, who surprissed in wealth and power all who had' reigned in that country for a century before him. He was of a benevolent temper and pacific disposition. So much was he beloved by his peoj^le, and such was the natural strength of his king- dom, enclosed by rivers of the largest size, that his being molested by any foreign power was regarded as an im- possible event. In consequence of this persuasion he neglected to encourage a military temper among his people, nor did he even maintain a body of cavalry in his kingdom, not being apprehensive of any attack. Among other instances of this prince's charitable dispo- sition, Marco Polo observes, that he caused the children whom their wretched mothers exposed in consequence of their inability to maintain them to be saved and taken care of, to the number of twenty thousand annu- ally. The existence of this inhuman custom of exposing children to death, or interring them alive, was a long time doubted, but the accuracy of our author's statement is fully vindicated by the testimony of an intelligent mo- dern traveller, who calculates that about nine thousand children are in this manner annually put to death in the city of Pekin alone.* Very different from the luxurious and pacific habits of Fanfur were those of Kublai' Khan, emperor of the Tatars, whose whole pleasure consisted in warlike enter- prises, and the extension of his dominions. Having subdued all the provinces to the north, he now turned his eyes on the rich country of Manji, and for this pur- * Barrow, Travels in China, p.lGS. I! I Mw BOOK III. of conti- Ithj and y to the ives the of that )rovince, that is 1269 it >assed in country t temper d by his is king- lis being an im- ision he ong his vab-y in ' attack. [e dispo- children sequence red and d annu- ixposiug a loiig latcment ;ent mo- housand h in the labits of • of the e enter- Having turned lis pur- CBAP. VI. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 295 pose assembled a numerous army of horse and foot^ the command of which he gave to a general named Chin-san Ba-yan, which signifies *' the hundr«?d-eyed." This general soon struck terror into the Chinese by the boldness of his movements^ and by the severity of his executions when he met with resistance. He advanced^ at length, against the royal city of Kin-sai, the residence of Fan- fur, who felt all the dread and indecision of a person unused to war. Alarmed for the safety of his person, he made his escape to a fleet of ships that lay in readi- ness for the purpose, and embarking all his treasure and valuable effects, left the charge of the city to his queen, with directions for its being defended to the utmost; feeling assured that her sex would be a protection to her in the event of her falling into the hands of the enemy. He then proceeded to sea, and reaching certain islands, in which were some strongly fortified posts, he continued there till his death. After the queen had been thus left behind to defend the city, it came to her knowledge that &e king had been told by the astrologers, that he could never be deprived of his sovereignty by any other than a chief who should have a hundred eyes. On the strength of this declaration, which contained a condition that did not seem likely to be realised, she felt confident that the city could not be lost, although it was daily becoming more and more distressed. Enquiring, however, one day the name of the general who commanded the enemy's troops, and being told that it was Chin-san Ba-yan, or the hundred'eyed, she was suddenly struck with horror at hearing it pronounced, as she felt a conviction that this must be the person who, according to the prediction of the astrologers, was to drive her husband from the throne. Overcome by superstitious fear, she no longer at- tempted to make resistance, but immediately surrendered. Being thus in possession of the capital, the Tatars soon subdued the remainder of the provinces. The captive queen was honourably received by Kublai Khan, and an allowance was assigned her, suitable to the dignity of her former rank. 206 OEOORAPHY of' THE MIDDLE AOEC|. BOOK III. The Venetian traveller describes, in order^ all the chief places that occurred to him in a journey from the Hoang-ho to the south of China, their industry, popu- lation, and manufactories of salt, from which the khan raised revenues to an incredible amount. There is one of these cities, the mention of which in his narrative is connected with an interesting anecdote relating to him- self. " Proceeding," he says, " in a south-easterly direc- tion from Chin-gvi, you come to the important city of Yan-gui, which, having twenty-seven towns under its jurisdiction, must be considered as a place of first-rate consequence. It belongs to the dominion of the Grand Khan. The people are idolaters, and subsist by trade and manual arts. They manufacture arms and sdl sorts of wiirlike accoutrements, in consequence of which many troops are stationed in this part of the country. The city is the place of residence of one of t] ,e twelve nobles, who are appointed by his majesty to the government of the provinces ; and in the room of one of these Marco Polo, by special order of his majesty, acted as governor of this city during the space of three years." Such is the modest incidental mention which he makes of the great honour conferred upon him ; an honour which, according to the existing forms and etiquette of the Chinese government, could hardly be enjoyed at present by any foreigner ; but Kublai Khan, though he gene- rally respected the usages of the conquered people, yet frequently ventured to confer high offices on meritorious strangers. - There is another anecdote in our author's narrative, in which his father and his uncle are made to cut a conspicuous figure. The city of Sa-yan-fu in the pro- vince of Manji^ a place of great strength and importance, was enabled by the advantages of its position to hold out against the Tatars for the space of three years. The besieging army could approach it only on the northern side ; the others being surrounded by water, by means of which the place continually received supplies which no vigilance of the besiegers could prevent. The khan GHAP. VI. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 297 rative, cut a le pro- |tance, hold The rthern leans irhich khan was deeply vexed at the check which his victorious arms received at this place. This circumstance coming to the knowledge of the brothers Nicolo and Maffio Polo, they proposed to construct machines, such as were made use of in the West, capable of throwing stones of three hundred pounds' weight, by which the walls and defences of the city might be soon broken down and destroyed. Their offer was gladly accepted ; some Nestorian Chris- tians, who were found to be the most skilful artisans, were placed under their direction ; the catapultee were speedily finished, and employed against the besieged town with such effect, that it was soon compelled to surrender. This signal service, rendered by the Polo family to the emperor, contributed much to increase their reputation and their credit at court. At the distance of fifteen days' journey to the south- east of Sa-yan-fu is the city of Sin-gui, which, though not large, carries on an immense commerce. " The number of vessels that belong to it," says our author, " is prodigious, in consequence of its being situated near the Kiang, which is the largest river in the world, its width being in some places six, in others eight, and in others ten miles. Its length to the place where it discharges itself into the sea is upwards of one hundred days' journey. It is indebted for its great size to the vast number of other navigable rivers that empty their waters into it, which have their sources in distant coun- tries. A great many cities and large towns are situated upon its banks, and more than two hundred, with six- teen provinces, partake of the advantages of its naviga- tion, by which the transport of merchandise is carried on to an extent that might appear incredible to those who have not had an opportunity of witnessing it. When we consider, indeed, the length of its course, and the* multitude of rivers that communicate with it, it is not surprising that the quantity and value of articles for so many places, lying in aU directions, should be incalculable." Yet he observes that the principal com*, modity transported by this internal navigation was salt^ ,4^^ 298 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOift lU. which was not only conveyed by the Kiang and the rivers flowing into it to the towns upon their banks, but afterwards from these towns to all places in the in- terior of Dhe country. He affirms that he once saw at the city of Sin-gui not fewer than five thousand vessels, while there were several other towns on the river where the number was still more considerable. All these ves- sels were covered with a kind of deck, and had a mast vrith one sail; their burden was from four to twelve thousMid cantari of Venice, or from two to six hundred tons. They had no hempen cordage except in the run- ning rigging ; the hawsers or towing-ropes were made of cane or bambor «nlit in their whole length into thin piepes, and twisted or plaited together in such a way as to form strong ropes three hundred paces long. By these ropes the vessels were tracked along the rivers ; each vessel having ten or twelve horses for that purpose. On the banks of the great river Kiang was a continual succession of villages or inhabited places ; numerous hills and rocky eminences overhung the water, on the top of which were erected idol temples and other hand- some edifices. But our author's admiration and astonishment at the . dense population and inland trade of China are chiefly manifested in his description of Kin-sai. This city, which was iSMniierly the capital of Southern China, is properly ci^ed Hang-cheUj but Marco Polo seems to have mis- taken its ordinary epithet for its name. " At the end of three days' journey from Fa-gin," he says, " you reach the noble and magnificent city of Kin-sai ; a name that signifies the celestial city, and which it merits from its pre-eminence above all others in the world, in point of grandeur and beauty, as well as from its abimdant delights, which might lead an inhabitant to imagint" him- self in paradise." He declared that he frequently visited this city, diligently enquired into every circumstance respecting it, and oarefuUy noted down his observations. Yet it is impossible to give credit to his assertion, that according to common estimation the city of Kin-sai was BOO^ lU. and the r banks, 1 the in- !e saw at d vessels, er where hese ves- 1 a mast to twelve hundred the run- e made of into thin ch a way ong. By le rivers ; t purpose, continual numerous er, on the her hand- Lent at the ire chiefly lity, which B properly have mis- it the end ays, " you li ; a name lerits from I, in point abundant agin^" bvm- ntly visited cumstance jservations. ertion, that Lin-sai was OMAP. VI. TRAVKr<8 OF MARCO POLO. 299 a hundred miles in circuit. The circumference of Hang- cheu at present is £upposed by travellers to be eighteen or twenty miles ; in most other particulars his account is confirmed by the descriptions of modern travellers. On one side of the city is a lake remarkable for the clearness of its water, and the picturesque scenery that surroimds it : on the other is a river, four miles wide, and bordered towards the sea by a fine strand as far as the eye can reach. Innumerable canals intersect the city in every direction, and appear, in the time of our traveller, to have formed some navigable communications between the river and the lake. He says, that the num- ber of bridges were generally supposed to amount to twelve thousand. Those thrown over the principal canals, and connected with the main streets, had arches so lofty, and so weU constructed^ that vessels could pass under them, while at the same time carts and horses were paissing over their heads. In almost every thing that he relates respecting the size of Kin-sai or Hang-cheu, he goes very far beyond the calculations of modern tra- vellers ; but as that city was formerly the royal residence and capital of the empire, it is possible that it may at one time have very much exceeded its present dimeno sions. He says, that it contained ten principal squares or market-places, each half a mile in length, and that these were at the distance of four miles from each other. In each of the market-places, three days in every week there assembled forty or fifty thousand persons, brought together for the purposes of traffic. Great canals were constructed, conducting from the river to these markets ; and on the sides of these were great edifices of stone, which served as warehouses for the merchants from India and other distant countries. In his description of Kin-sai, he enters into many par- ticulars respecting the manners of the Chinese, and the police of their cities. He observes, that the people of the lower orders do not scruple to eat every kind of flesh, however unclean, without any discrimination ; a nationtd trait which has caught the attention of travellers at all 300 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOKJII. ages. The Chinese devours with equal appetite the flesh of an ox or a camel, a sheep or an ass. But qua- drupeds that And their subsistence in the neighbourhood of dwelling-houses, such as hogs and dogs, are the most common animal food, and are sold publicly in all the markets. Marco Polo happened to be at Kin-sai at the time of making the annual report to government of the amount of the revenue, and the number of inhabitants, and had thus an opportunity of learning that the latter were re- gistered at a hundred and sixty tomans of fire-place ; and as a toman is ten thousand, it follows that the whole dty must have contained one million six hundred thou- sand families ; among which multitude of people there was^ but one church of Nestorian Christians. This statement of the number of families in a single city ap- pears to be excessive ; but it must be remembered that the population of an ancient Chinese capital cannot be correctly measured by the standard of a modem city. The population of Kin-sai or Hang-cheu is said to be still immense, and not much inferior to that of Pekin. The population of this latter city, which is neither a port uor a place of inland trade or manufacture, nor even a resort for pleasure and dissipation, is computed to be above three millions. Every father of a family, or housekeeper, is required to affix a writing to the door of bis house, specifying the name of every individual of his family, whether male or female, as well as the num- ber of his horses : by this regulation the public officers were always well acquainted with the population and re- sources of the country within their several jurisdictions. Our traveller likewise remarked, that it was a prevalent custom among the indigent class of the people, who were unable to support their families, to sell their children to the rich, in order that they might be fed and brought up in a better manner than their own poverty would admit. Five-and-twenty miles from Kin-sai, at the mouth of the river which flowed through it, was the great port of Oanpu or Canfu, supposed by some to be the modern )OKJII. Lte the It qua- urhood le most all the time of amount md had ^ere re- ;-place ; 16 whole id thou- (le there . This city ap- sred that annot he em city, aid to he f Pekin. ler a port r even a ed to he mily, or B door of ridual of he num- officers n and re- idictions. )revalent vho were ildren to DUght up d admit, thof the port of modem CHAP. VI. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 301 Ning-poj one of the three Chinese ports which carry on a foreign trade. Of the great commercial city of Zaitun^ he ohserves that the quantity of pepper imported into it was so greats that what was carried to Alexandria to supply the de- mands of the Western parts of the world was trifling in comparison, perhaps not exceeding the hundredth part. Respecting the enormous quantities of this article con- sumed hy the Chinese, he relates that the nuantity re- quired for the city of Kin-sai alone amounted to above two thousand tons yearly ; but it is thought that in this instance he confounded the whole quantity imported with that which was consumed. The city of Zaitun stood upon a branch of the river which flowed through Kin-sai, and at the point where the two branches separ- ated was the city of Tingui, distinguished for its manu- factures of flne porcelain ware. Great quantities of porcelain earth were here collected into heaps, and in this way exposed to the action of the atmosphere for thirty or forty years, during which time it was never disturbed. By this process it became refined, and fitted for the manufacture. The heaps of earth thus lying in a state of preparation were frequently transmitted as fortunes to children and grandchildren. This is the only notice which Marco Polo takes of one of the most remarkable of the Chinese manufactures ; but it may be supposed that having lived so long in China he had ceased to regard fine porcelain as a curiosity, and was, in consequence, satisfied to make this brief allusion to it, in the summary account which he published of his travels. The same excuse, though it must be confessed it is not quite adequate, must be offered for his silence with respect to the use of tea ; which, both as a grand source of revenue, and as a remarkable national custom, could not possibly have escaped his attention. This omission has always furnished a principal argument tc thos'e who deny the genuineness of our author's narrative and tha reality of his travels in China. But his general veracity is so fully established in the eyes of the ablest 802 OBOQRAPBY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. critics that his silence with respect to the use of tea must be accounted for from the imperfection of his notes, and from the disagreeable circumstances under which he hastily prepared his narrative for publication. I| Adjoining the viceroyalty of Kin-sai^ according to our author, was the province of Koncha, the capital city of which was Fu-giu. This country was rich and populous, producing saffron and ginger in great abundance. But respecting the inhabitants, he speaks in singular termtt : — " The people in this part of the country," he says, ** are addicted to eating human flesh, esteeming it more delicate than any other ; provided the death of the per- son has not been occasioned by disease. When iKey advance to combat, they throw their hair loose about thdir ears, and paint their faces of a bright blue colour. They are a most savage race of men, insomuch, that when they slay their enemies in battle, they greedily drink their blood, and afterwards devour their flesh." This, it must be confessed, does not seem to be a de- scription of the effeminate Chinese; r,n(\ it has been conjectured that the author has in thio place inadver- tently introduced his description of the Battas, a fierce tribe who inhabit Sumatra. But whence came this confusion ? Does it not appear as if he really intended to accuse the Chinese of eating human flesh, and thus came to picture in his mind the warlike and painted cannibals of Sumatra ? The Arabian travellers of the ^ ninth century, it has been seen, cast the same imputa- tion on the people of China. — Marco Polo seems to have travelled through the provinces in the western frontier of China, with which no other European has ever had the opportunity of becoming acquainted. In the high plains of Thibet were deserts of twenty days' journey in extent, over-run by lions and other wild beasts. Canes of a great size (perhaps bamboos) grew in abundance in every part of the country ; and whenever travellers halted to rest at night, they made a great fire of these canes and of green reeds, which made so loud a crackling in the fiames as to be heard for miles around^ and to lOK III. of tea I notes, lich he I to our city of pulous, . But terms : e says, it more he per- m ihey ; about colour, h, that greedily • flesh." le a tie- as been nadver- a fierce me this ntended nd thus painted of the imputa- to have frontier ver had he high irney in Canes undance avellers }f these rackling and to CHAP. VI. TRAVELS OP MARCO POLO. 303 terrify the wild beasts. The people of Thibet were said to be the most skilfid necromancers in the world. They could cause tempests to arise, accompanied with flashes of lightning and thunderbolts, and produce many other miraculous effects. In the province of Kaindu, conti- guous to Thibet, was a mine of turquoises, and a salt- water lake producing abundance of pearls. The usual money of the country was salt made into little cakes, worth about two-pence each. The hills of all this region were frequented by the musk gazelles in such numbers, that the air was perfumed from them at the distance of many miles. The province of Carazan was infested by crocodiles or alligators, of which our author gives a singularly dis- torted account, " Here," he says, " are huge serpents, ten paces long and ten spans wide round the body : at the fore-part, near the head, they have two short legs, having three claws like those of a tiger, with eyes larger than a fourpenny loaf and very glaring : the jaws are wide enough to swallow a man ; the teeth are large and very sharp ; and their whole appearance is so formidable, that neither man nor any kind of animal can approach them without terror." Before the inhabitants of Cara- zan were made subject to the Tatar emperor, they had the custom of murdering every stranger who came among them possessing any superior qualities of mind or body, in hopes that Lis spirit,endowed with all its intelligence, would remain in the family. In the province of Kankandan, both the men and women had the custom of covering their teeth with thin plates of gold : they were also punctured or tattooed on the arms and legs. The practice of gilding the teeth or of dyeing them black seems to belong properly to the Malay nations. In Kankandan, when a woman was' delivered of a child, the husband immediately went to bed, where he remained like an invalid for forty days, receiving the congratulations of his friends and relations. This singular custom was observed also among the Tiba- reni in the mountains of Armenia. 304 OKOORAPHY OF TUB MIDDLE A0E8. BOOK UI. Marco Polo was the first who made fiurojieans ac- quainted with the islands of Japan; and his distinct announcement of lands situated so far to the East had an important influence, it will be seen, on the maritime enterprises of the fifteenth century. " Zipangu" he says, " is an island situated at the distance of about fifteen hundred miles from the main land or coast of Manji." The name Zipangu is evidently the Chinese expression Ge-pen~kue, or the kingdom of Japan. " The people," he says, " are fair complexioned, well made, and civilised in their manners : they possess the precious me- tals in extraordinary abundance. The roof of the king's palace is covered with a plating of gold, just as we cover houses, or more properly churches, with lead. The ceil- ings of the halls are of the same precious metal : many of the apartments have small tables of pure gold, and of considerable thickness ; and the windows also are loaded with golden ornaments." The fame of Japan and of its incalculable riches in- duced the Tatar emperor Kubla'i Khan to attempt its conquest, iu order to annex it to his dominions. The expedition reached the island in safety, and carried by assault a fortress, the garrison of which refused to sur- render. Directions were of course given for putting the whole to the sword ; and thereupon the heads of all were struck off, excepting of eight persons, who by the efficacy of a charm, consisting of a jewel or amulet, introduced into the right arm between the skin and flesh, were ren- dered secure from the effects of iron either to kill or wound ; when this was discovered they were beaten to death with heavy wooden clubs. Presently after a great gale came on which destroyed a great part of the Tatar fleet ; the commanders returned homeward, and the sol- diers, who for want of shipping to transport them were left upon the island, were in a short time obliged to sur- render to the natives. When the Grand Khan learned, some years later, that the unfortunate issue of this ex- pedition was to be ascribed to the dissensions between the two commanders, he caused the head of one of them 1 1 mt ac- distinct ast had laritime gu," he f about coast of Chinese . "The ade, and ious me- le king's we cover rhe ceil- l: many 1, and of re loaded iches in- tempt its IS. The arried by d to Bur- itting the ,f all were le efficacy itroduced ere ren- ;o kill or [beaten to cr a great Ithe Tatar Id the sol- lem were id to 8ur- iearnedj tliis e.x- between le of them OHAP. VI. TRAVE7iS or MARCO POLO. 305 to be cut off ; the other he sent to the savage island of Zorza, whore state criminals are executed in the follow- ing manner: —They are wrapped round both arms in the fresh hide of a buffalo, which is sewn tight; when this dries, it compresses the body to such a degree that the sufferer is unable to make the least movement, and thus perishes by a lingering and painful death. The attempt of the Tatars on Japan was made in 126'4, not many years before Marco Polo went to the court of the Grand Khan. To the hostility with which the Tatars viewed the Japanese, it may, perhaps, be attributed that the Venetian should accuse the latter of being cannibals, though he elsewhere calls them a civilised people. " The reader ought to be informed," he says, " that the idol- atrous inhabitants of these islands, when they seize the person of an enemy who has not the means of effecting his ransom for money, invite to their house all their relations and friends, and putting their prisoner to death, dress and eat the body in a convivial manner, asserting that human flesh surpasses every other in the excellence of its flavour." To the south of Japan extended the sea of Chin, or Chinese sea, in which, according to the information col- lected by our traveller, there were seven thousand four hundred and forty islands, the greater part of them in- habited, producing spices in abundance, and carrying on a great trade among themselves. Sailing fifteen hundred miles to the south-west, across the gulf of Yunan, he arrived at the province of Ziamba, or Ciampa, to the south of Cochin China, which paid to the Grand Khan a iiribute of elephants and aloes wood. Marco Polo says that he visited this country in 1280, at which time the king had three hundred and twenty-five children, male and female. At the distance of fifteen hundred miles, in a south-west direction from Ciampa, our author places the island of Java, which he visited, and which, he says, is supposed to be the largest island in the world, having a circumference of three thousand miles. The particulars which he relates of this island render it dif- VOL. I. X Ii I ill S06 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOSMIl. ficult to determine whether it was Borneo or the island to which the name of Java is at the present day con- fined. It is still more difficult to divine the islands to which he gives the names of Sondur, Condur, and Boeach or Loeach. The island of Lesser Java^ on which he resided for five months^ was unquestionably Sumatra. It was divided, he says, into eight kingdoms, six of which he visited himself. One of these was Samara or Samatra, from which the whole island has taken its name ; another was the kingdom of Lambri, the Lamery of Arabian geographers. Among the curiosities of this country he mentions the rhinoceros, to which, however, he gives the name of unicorn. They are much less, he says, than elephants, having feet like that animal, and hair like that of the buffalo. He erroneously supposes that the horn of the rhinoceros is in the middle of the forehead. " The head of this animal," he continues, " is like that of a wild boar, and is generally carried hanging down upon the ground. They are filthy beasts, that love to stand and wallow in the mire, and do not in the least resemble those unicorns which are said to be found in some other parts of the world, and which allow themselves to be taken by maidens." In the kingdom of Fanfur, in Sumatra, a sort of meal was made from trees of a great size, by the following process: — the thin bark being taken ofi^, and the trunk split up, the pith was taken out and steeped in water; after this preparation it was made into cakes, and afterwards broken into meal. " Some of this," says our traveller, " I brought home with me to Venice, and it tastes not much unlike barley bread." Thus Marco Polo was the first who brought sago into Europe, for that is evidently the production of which he speaks. / ter mentioning the Nicobar and Andaman islands, he proceeds next to Ceylon, " which, for its size," he says, '' is better circumstanced than any other island in the world." It was two thousand four hundred miles in circumference, but was said to have been half as large M BOOSMIl* LC island lay con- ilands to lur, and m which Sumatra. 18, six of Samara taken its e Lamery mentions B name of elephants, lat of the )m of the I. " The ,t of a wild upon the stand and i resemhle in some mselves to Fanfur, in of a great )eing taken sn out and was made " Some of ivith me to ey hread." sago into of which an islands, size," he tr island in d miles in if as large CHAP. VI. TRAVELS OF MABOO POLO. 307 again in ancient times ; for the northern gales, according to the popular belief, corroded the mountains, which sunk, accordingly, in the sea. Marco Polo repeats the story of the great ruby in the possession of the king : it was reported to be a span long, and the thickness of a man's arm, brilliant beyond description, and without a single flaw. Kubla'i Khan offered for this ruby the value of a city, but the king of Candy refused on any terms to part with so valuable a jewel handed down to him from his predecessors. From Ceylon Marco Polo went to the peninsula of India, but his knowledge of that country evidently did not reach far beyond the coasts. He dilates at some length on the wonders of that country. The Brahmins, or Ahrajamin, are described by him not merely as the rdigious caste of the nation, but also as the wise men and the sorcerers ; without their assistance it was im- possible to fish successfully for pearls, they alone having the power to control the monsters of the deep. Horses were rare in this part of India: they were imported from Arabia and Persia in the thirteenth century, in the same manner as at the present day ; from the want of herbage they were fed with boiled rice, or even with meat. These statements of Marco Polo have been con- firmed by modern travellers. In some parts of India, it is not uncommon to see horses fed with garlic, butter, and boiled sheep's heads. The veneration with which the Hindoos regard the oow did not escape the notice of the Venetian. The inhabitants of Maabar thought it a sin to eat beef, and many other kinds of flesh. Some tribes, however, named Craui (cow-men), were privileged to eat the flesh of kine that died naturally, but they dared not put those animals to death. He also speaks of the palanquins in which the people of rank were carried about at their ease from one place to another. He likewise learned that St. Thomas the apostle had preached Christianity in India ; that he lay interred in the city of Meliapoor, to the north of Maabar, and that miracles were per- !'i 308 GEOGRAPHV OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. I : formed at his tomb. The dissolute manners of the Hindoos, displayed more openly in the neighbourhood of the pagodas, their abstinence from wine, and their aversion to the sea, all existed in the time of Marco Polo, just as they are at the present day. After the description of India, follows that of the principal cities of Persia and Arabia, as well as of a part of eastern Africa ; and, finally, that of the deserts of northern Asia, wrapped up in fable. The port of Aden was a great market, whence horses were exported to India, and to which was brought the greater part of the spices and other Indian produce destined for the ports of Europe. From Aden these goods were sent in small vessels to Suez, whence they were transported overland to Alexandria. To the north of Aden, on the western side of the Persian Gulf, was Escier, at present Adsjar, the neighbourhood of which produced a great quantity of frankincense. Marco Polo speaks also of the celebrated island of Ormuz, of its great commerce, and of its frail vessels sewed together with the twisted fibre of the cocoa-nut. He appears also to have visited Bassora ; at least he knew that the best dates grow there ; and he remarks that it is situated on one of the grand commercial routes between India and Europe. At Bagdad, seventeen days' journey from the sea, all the merchandise was packed on camels : this city was the market for all the pearls that were sent to Europe, i Of eastern Africa, our traveller mentions in the first place Majastar or Madagascar: it exported a great quan- tity of ivory. Mariners, he says, told strange stories respecting a great bird called Rokh, said to bs found in these countries. This is the bird of which the Arabians relate, that it is able to carry off an elephant. From the same sources, perhaps, Marco Polo derived his inform- ation respecting the islands inhabited, some by men exclusively, and others by females. Of the African continent he mentions but two countries: Zaiiguebar, inhabited by negroes, and stocked with sheep very un- like those of Europe, and Abyssinia^ to which he gives OOKIIX* of the aurhood id their ■ Marco t of the as of a e deserts J port of . exported T part of I for the re sent in ansported n, on the it present d a great :s also of ;ommerce, le twisted ive visited ates grow )ne of the Europe, le sea, all 3 city was Europe, n the first reat quan- ige stories 2 found in Arabians From the lis inform- by men le African lai^guebar, very un- he gives CHAP. VI. TRAVELS OF MARCO PULO. sog the Arabic name of Abascia or Habesh. He also calls it Middle India. The sovereign of this country, who was a Christian, ruled also over Mahometans. Gold was abundant in his dominions. From these southern climes our author proceeds to describe the regions of northern Asia. They abounded, he relates, in the most valuable furs ; but the country was a succession of marshes, frozen over and covered with snow the greater part of the year. The islands in the Sea of Darkness abounded in birds of the falcon species. The inhabitants made use of sledges drawn by dogs. The sun never appeared during the winter months ; and in these long nights the Tatars often invaded the country and carried off the furs. He concludes with observing, that in this part of the world is Ruzie, an empire of immense extent, and tributary to the Mongols. Marco Polo has been justly styled the creator of the modern geography of Asia. Of all the travellers who visited the East previous to the fifteenth century, he is by far the most celebrated and esteemed. His repu- tation, instead of declining, as positive knowledge is increased, rises from the numberless instances of his exactness and veracity which are brought to light, in proportion as the countries which he has described are more narrowly examined. His contemporaries imputed exaggeration to his accounts of the power and civilisa- tion of an empire situated at the end of the earth. But time, and an enlarged acquaintance with the East, have shown that his scrupulosity was equal to his credulity ; that he has not invented a single one of the fables which have a place in his narrative ; but, like Herodotus, has related with the same fidelity what he saw himself and what he heard from others. The greater number of the small states into which Tatary was divided under Zingis Khan have disap- peared; many of the cities have changed their names;, and not a few have been totally destroyed in the course of the wars, which, for two hundred years, were un- ceasingly carried on by the tribes or nations which had X 3 310 OEOORAPHY OF THE MkDDLE AGES. BOOK im IF:!! jii I l< ii ! , ; I iim ii ' : H i been comprised in the great empire of the Mongols. There are but a few principal points in the geography of central Asia in which the authentic information of the present day coincides exactly with the statements of the Venetian traveller. The unfortunate circumstances which prevented his publishing a more methodical account of his travels have cast a shade over his fame^ and have deprived the scientific world of a part of the labours of this great man. The kind treatment which the first catholic mission- aries in China experienced from the Mongol emperors may possibly have been^ in some measure^ due to the respect entertained for the memory of Marco Polo, who had left that country but a very short time before the missionaries arrived in it. The humble labours of these pious men exhibit, occasionally, a degree of patience and persevering industry which are quite as astonishing as the brilliant success and activity of Marco Polo. The missionary who first reached Cambalu or Pekin was, perhaps, the most remarkable of the whole series. John de Montecorvino, a Minorite friar, was de- spatched by pope Nicholas IV., in 1288, to preach the fpHh in the East. He first visited the Persian court bearing a letter to kin^ Argun from the sovereign pon- tiff. He then went to India, where he remained thirteen months in company with a merchant named Leucolongo, and one Nicolas de Pistoia, a monk of the order of preachers : this last died there, and was buried in one of the churches of St. Thomas. In India Montecorvino baptized about a hundred persons ; then continuing his journey to the East, with his companion, the merchant Leucolongo, he came to Cathay, that is to say, to northern China, and delivered to the sovereign of the Tatars the letters of the pope inviting him to embrace Christianity. But that prince paid no attention to the disinterested counsel of the pon- tiff^ although at the same time he manifested indulgence, or even partiality, to Christians, and particularly to the Nestorians, who had multiplied exceedingly in his M > lOOK IXI^ fongols. raphy of I of the ts of the es which count of md have ibours of misnon* emperors le to the •olo, who efore the s of these ience and lishing as do. The ;kin was, es. was de- reach the dan court eign pon- d thirteen lucolongo; order of in one of hundred Cast; with came to delivered the pope lat prince ' the pon- dulgence, sularly to ;ly in his cnAP. VI. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. Sll ireign, and who persecuted with the utmost rancour every Christian sect that differed from their own. The Italian friar suffered much from their opposition, and on several occasions very narrowly escaped being made the victim of their animosity. Eleven years he carried on alone this unequal struggle : at the end of that time he was joined by one Arnold, a Franciscan from Cologne. Montecorvino had spent six years in building a church in the city of Cambalu. He had sl needed in erecting a steeple or belfry, furnished with three bells, which were rung every hour to summon the Neophytes to prayer. He had baptized about six thousand persons, and might have converted thirty thousand if he had not been so much thwarted by the Nestorians. He had, moreover, purchased a hundred and fifty children under eleven years of age, and who were still without religion ; in- structed them in the Christian faith ; taught them Greek and Latin ; and composed for their use books of prayers, hymns, and other religious effusions.* Montecorvino expected to derive still greater advantages from having converted a Mongol prince of the tribe of Kerai'tes, whom he called George, and to whom the rela- tions of the middle age sometimes apply the name of Pres- ter John. A great number of the vassals of this prince, hitherto attached to Nestorianism, followed his example. They embraced the catholic faith, and remained steadily attached to it till the death of George, which took place in 1299 ; hut on this event they yielded to the seduc- tions of their countrymen who had adhered to the Nestorian sect ; and Montecorvino obliged to remain near the grand khan, was unable to make any effectual effort to prevent their defection. A grand source of affliction to our indefatigable monk was the want of assistance in his apostolic labours, and his not having received for twelve years any authentic intelligence respecting the court of Rome ; concerning which an Italian surgeon, who arrived in Tatary about * Abel Remusat. Nouv. MeL ii. 193. X 4 '/ 3\2 GEOGRAPHY OF THE AlIDDIiE AGES. BOUKIlf« lit I !^ lii I m :i!'i i 1303, had spread abroad the most singular rumours. in consequence of this desertion John wrote a letter in 1305, dated from Khan-balikh, and addressed to the religious of his order, in which he entreated them to send him, among other assistance, choir books, psalters, and legends of the saints. In this letter *, John de Montecorvino says that he had made himself complete master of the Tatar language^ ' meaning the Mongol ; that he had translated into that tongue the Psalms and the New Testament; he had caused them to be carefully transcribed in the proper character of that language ; he read, wrote^ and preached in the Mongol tongue ; and if king George had lived a little longer, a complete translation of the Latin office wou^d have been diffused through all the dominions of the Grand Khan. In another letter, written the following year, John mentions the kindness with which he was treated by the Grand Khan ; the honours done to him as the envoy of the pope ; and of a new instance of imperial favour^ in the permission he received to build a second churchy not a stone's throw from the palace, and so near even to the chamber of the khan, that that prince could distinctly hear the voices of those who celebrated the service. Doubts might be raised with respect to the veracity of these assertions^ if the Chinese historians did not all agree as to the favourable reception given by the Mongol emperors to priests of every persuasion; their courts being filled at all times with shamanists from India and * lamas from Thibet ; with whom the Nestorian Chris- ' tians, and, perhaps, even the catholics themselves^ ap- • pear to have been frequently confounded. Even his account of the conversion of the Kerai'te prince might be considered as a fiction calculated to enhance the merit of his services ; but it is perfectly in accordance with ? the relations of Oriental writers, who state, in fact, that ^ there were many Christians among the Keraites^ and ^' * Wadding. Annal. Script. Min. Ti. p. 6% OUK Uts [imoura. Btter in to the 1 to send ers, and that he inguage, nto that he had e proper preached 1 lived a tin office inions of ar, John sd by the envoy of I favour, I church, r even to istinctly service, sracity of not all Mongol ir courts India and Chris- [ves, ap- Iven his fce might ihe merit ice with [act, that Ites, and GIIAP. VI. TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 315 name several princesses of that nation who openly pro- fessed the Christian religion. At the end of some years, John at length received the reward of his long services. In 1314 pope Clement V. erected in his favour the archiepiscopal see of Khan-ba- likh, or Pekin, and sent to his assistance Andrew of Pe- rugia and some others, whom he created bishops and the suffragans of Khan-balikh. Great prerogatives were accorded to that see, as well on account of the great in- fluence it might have in extending the Christian religion through the remotest countries of the £ast, as from the great merit of the person who was first installed in the dignity. John received, for himself and his successors, the right to create bishoprics, to govern all the churches of Tatary, under the single condition of acknowledging the spiritual supremacy of the popes, and to receive from tliem the pallium, or archiepiscopal vestment. The pontifical decree which contains these regulations incloses also a recommendation to the new archbishop to have the mysteries of the Old and New Testament painted in all his churches, so as to captivate the eyes of the barbarians, and thus lead them to the worship of the true God. This was said in allusion to a passage of one of John's letters, in which he mentioned his having caused the stories of the Scriptures to be painted for the instruction of the simple, with explanations written be- neath them in Latin, Tarsic, and Persian letters, so that all the world might read them. By Tarsic characters he means those of the Uigur, whose country was at that time frequently called Tarse, from a Tatar word signify- ing infidel, and which appears to have been successively applied m Tatary to the followers of Zoroaster and to the Nestorian Christians. John de Montecorvino died about 1330, and was succeeded in the archbishopric of Khan-balikh by a Franciscan named Nicholas. But from accident or. other causes, the sees of Clement V. were soon entirely forgotten. J|iM 11) M ill' , till m'\ l! : .1^]4 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK HI. CHAP. VII. ODERIO OF POHTENAU. ITINERARY OF FEaOLETTI. CARAVAN JOURNEYS. GINTARCHAW. —SARA. — SARACANCO. OROANCI. — OLTRARRA. — ARMALBCCO. CAMEXU. OAMALECCO. ODEKIC OF FORTENAU. TREBIZOND. —MOUNT ARARAT. TOWER OF BABEL. CHALDEANS. MAR- TYRDOM OF FOUR FRIARS. ODEKIC COLLECTS THEIR BONIS. — WORKS MIRACLES. FOREST OF PEPPER. FAIR OF JAO- OERNAUT. VOLUNTARY TORTURES.— CANNIBALS IN LAMOURI. WEALTH OF JAVA. SAGO TREES. AMULETS FOUND IN CANES. SHOALS OF FISH. CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CHI- . NESK. MODE OF FISHING IN CHINA. FEASTS OF THK I^LS. — VALLEY OF THE DEAD. — THE GRAND LAMA. — 8ia JOHN MANDEVILLE. HIS TRAVELS FABULOUS. — RIVERS OF ROCKS. — ISLANDS OF GIANTS. LAMBS OF TATARY. — GROWTH OF DIAMONDS. PALACE OF PRESTER JOHN. Policy, co m merce, and religion, — those three great in- centives to all bold enterprises,— .continued during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to direct the eyes of Europeans towards the centre of Asia. The victories of Tamerlane, who checked for a moment the formidable progress of the Ottoman Turks, fixed the attention and the hopes of the Christian world. The caravan routes over Asia appear to have been much more frequented in those ages than is commonly supposed. The new chan- nels of commerce through Egypt, and afterwards by the Cape of Good Hope, caused those routes to be gradually abandoned, and at last to be almost forgotten. A brief account of the course usually pursued by the merchants is preserved to us in the Itinerary of Francisco Balducd Pegoletti, an Italian merchant who travelled in Asia in 1335. The only portion of his work which has a direct connection with the history of geography is the chapter entitled " A Guide for the Route from Tana to Cathay with Merchandise, and back again." " In the first place," says Pegoletti, '■ from Tana or Aso]^h,to Gintarchan or Astracan, is five-and-twenty days' BOOS II1> CHAP. VII. OOBRIO OP PORTENAV. 31, rARCHAN. MALKCCO. REBIZOND. S. MAR- IR BOMK8« , or JAO> LAMOURI. FOUND IN THE CHI- S OF THB MA. — 81» RIVERS or — GROWTH great in- luring the e eyes of victories ormidable ntion and ran routes uented in lew chan- ds by the gradually A brief nerchants Balducct n Asia in ,s a direct le chapter to Catfiay Tana or entydays* journey^ with waggons dr?^ n by oxen ; but it may be accomplished in ten or twelve days if the waggons be drawn by horses. On the road^ one meets with a great number of armed Moccols or Mongols. From Gintar- chan to Sara or Saraij by the river, it is only one day's sail ; but from Sara to Saracanco it takes eight days by water : one may, however, travel either by land or water, whichever is most agreeable, but it costs much less money to go with merchandise by water. From Sara* canco to Organci or Urgenz, is a journey of twenty days with loaded camels ; and whoever travels with merchan- dise will do well to go to Organci, as it is a very con- venient place for the expeditious sale of goods. From Organci to Oltrarra it is thirty-five or forty days' journey with camels; but in going direct from Saracanco to Oltrarra, it takes fifty days ; and if one has no mer- chandise it is a better way than to go by Organci, From Oltrarra to Armalecco it is forty-five days' jour- ney with loaded asses, and in this road one meets every day with Mongols. From Armalecco to Camexu it is seventy days' journey on asses, and from Camexu to a river called the Cara Morin it is fifty days' journey on horses. From this river the traveller may go to Casaai to dispose of his silver there, as it is an excellent station for the expeditious sale of merchandise : and from Casaai he may go in thirty days to Gamalecco, the capital of China. The current money there is made of paper, and is called BabisH : four of these babissi are equal to one silver Soumo." The merchants who made this journey were obliged to let their beards grow, and to take with them a good interpreter and attendants acquainted with the Tatar languages. The value of the merchandise and money which a single merchant usually brought with him amounted altogether to about twenty-five thousand golden ducats. The whole expense of the journey to Pekin, including the wages of the attendants, amounted only to three hundred or three hundred and fifty ducats. These ipinute details are sufficient to make it evident that the 316 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. journey over Asia to Pekin was much more easy in the fourteenth century than at the present day, and that it was not by any means a thing uncommon. In conse- quence, the knowledge of those countries was in many respects more perfect in that age than it is at present ; but, unfortunately, the want of astronomical observations renders the details furnished by the itineraries of the early merchants too inexact to be of much value to geography. Some of the places, however, which are named by Pegoletti, may be determined with tolerable certainty. Gintarchan is our Astracan. Josephat Barbaro, who travelled from Tana into Persia in the fifteenth century, calls it by that name. Spices and silk arrived there, to be afterwards transported to Tana. It was also called Citracan. Both these names seem to be formed by cor- ruption from the Arabic name Hadgi Tarkan. Sartty the second station of our traveller, was Sara'i, the chief town of the territories of the khan of Kipjack. It was built in 1266 by the khan Baraka, and was situated on the river Actuba, that falls into the Volga above Astracan. It was destroyed by Tamerlane in 1403. In the seventeenth century, the stones found strewed in the ruins of Sarai were made use of to fortify the rising city of Astracan. Saracano or Sarachick is also in ruins. In 1238^ when it was visited by the Franciscan monk Paschalis, it was a flourishing city. It was still existing in 1558, when Jenkinson traveUed from Astracan to Bokhara : he reckoned its distance from the former city to be a journey of ten days. It was at that time frequented by the caravans going from Astracan to China. This city of the Nogais Tatars, formerly rich and populous^ stretched along the borders of the river Jaik, where the ruins or traces of its old fortifications are still to be seen extending several miles. r' Organci or Urgenz, the capital of Chowaresm or Chorasm, was about half a mile distant from the river Gihon : Orientals call it also Jorzanyah and Gurgandxi, lOOK II T> y in the that it n consc- n many present ; jrvations s of the value to hich are tolerable laro, who ^ century, there, to Iso called d by Cor- as Sarai, Kipjack. and was the Volga erlane in les found to fortify [n 1238, 'aschalis, in 1558,' (okhara:- ly to be a lented by- 'his city )opulous, /here the to be seen laresm or I the river hirgandxi. OUAP. VII. ODERIC OV PORTENAU. 317 li- ' This very ancient city suffered severely from an earth- quake which took place in the year 818, and which de- stroyed many other towns situated near the Gihon. In 1558, Jenkinson, after leaving Sarachick, passed through Urgenz, which was at that time a miserable little place : the route to China still lay through it ; but it had been sacked and ruined four times in the course of seven years. Two English travellers visited it again in 1740; but of the ancient city there existed then but a single mosque, and savage Tatars were turning over the ruins in search of hidden treasures. From Urgenz the travellers turned northward to arrive at Oltrarra or Otrar, which bears also the name of Farab : it is said by Mandeville to be the best city in Turkestan. Here the Itinerary of Pegoletti leaves us in the dark with respect to the countries which are the least known in Asia, as he conducts us at once across Turke.tan to Armalecco or Almalech, a city situated in the country of the Igur, on the river Ab-£ile or 111, between Dashcand and the river Irtish. It was taken by Tamerlane in 1400. Paschalis, who resided in it in 1338, calls it the capital of the Medes. Again, the Itinerary makes a rapid step, and conducts us directly to Camexu in Tangut, not far from the great wall of China. Some suppose this place to be the city of Kan- cheu, through which the ambassadors of shah Rokh passed in 1419> on their journey from Herat to Pekin. But it would agree better with the distances assigned, to suppose Camexu to be the city of Hami or Cami, on the northern frontiers of Tangut. It is still more difficult to ascertain the position of the city called Cassai by Pegoletti : it is generally sup- posed to be some Kin-sai or celestial city, of which, probably, there were many within the limits of the Chinese empire. The city of Gamalecco, which occurs next in the Itinerary, is undoubtedly Khan-balikh or Pekin, the word being modified to suit the genius of Italian pronunciation. All the early travellers in China, and even the Arabians m : 918 OEOORAPUY OP THB MIDDLB AOBI. BOOK HI. who visited that country in the ninth century, take notice of the paper money that circulated there. Marco Polo describes minutely the appearance of these notes, which were made of the fine baric of the mulberry. They are called by Pegoletti halissi : Oderic of Portenau names them balia ; and they are called faliu by the early Arabian travellers. So many independent and concurring testimonies establish beyond a doubt the ancient employment of paper money in China, which has been strenuously denied, however, by some w^- instructed moderns. The abuses likely to follow the adoption of such a currency under a despotic government, probably caused it to be occasionally discontinued, and at length forgot len. Among those who were impelled by religion to travel in the East was a Minorite friar, Oderic, of Portenau in the Friul, who passed through every country of Asia, from the shores of the Black Sea to the extremities of China. He is supposed to have set out on his travels in IS 18, and to have returned to Italy in 1330, when he dictated his narrative to William de Solana at Padua, without any order or arrangement, but just as it occurred to his memory. He died in 1S31 ; and having wrought miracles in his life-time (at least he himself said so), he was canonized in the beginning of the last century. Oderic added but little to the knowledge obtained by his predecessors in the East. His relations are wonder- fully confused and obscure; and although he may not have intended to impose on the world with deliberate fictions, yet the extraordinary credulity and superstitious weakness apparent in his character render it impossible to place much confidence in what he says. It is not worth while to examine into the veracity of one who is so often the dupe of his own misconceptions. From Constantinople friar Oderic went to Trebizond, where " he saw a strange spectacle with great delight." A man led about with him more than four thousand partridges. As he walked along the partridges flew about him in the air, and followed him wherever he went. BOOK III. ry, take Marco le notes, nulberry. Portenau 8 by the lent and oubt the la, which me w^- oUow the rernment, lued, and to travel >rtenau in ' of Asia, emities of travels in . when he at Padua, t occurred ; wrought id so), he tury. >tained by B wonder- ; may not deliberate )er8titiou8 mpossible It is not le who is rebizond, delight." thousand flew about he went. CHAP. VII. ODBRIO OP PORTEKAV. S\9 They were so tame, that when he lay down to rest they all came flocking about him like so many chickens. Oderic then proceeded to Azaron or Erzerum, a remark- ably cold place, he observes, and said to be situated at a greater elevation than any other city in the world. He passed by Mount Ararat, and was extremely desirous to climb its summit in order to view the traces of Noah's ark remaining there; but his companions prevented him, alleging the impossibility of his succeeding in the at- tempt. Tauris or Tebriz appeared to him to be a com- mercial city of the first importance. Near to it was a hill of salt, from which any one might take as much as he pleased without paying any tax or duty. It was said that the king of Persia derived as much revenue from this city alone as the king of France from his whole dominions. The road to India lay through Cassan or Casbin, the city of the three wise men. The city of Yezd abounded in every luxury : grapes, figs, and raisins, appeared to be more plentiful there than in any other part of the world j but the Saracens affirmed that no Christian could live there above a year. Our monk passed, he says, " beside the Tower of Babel," but he omits to give any account of that re- markable structure. The men of Chaldea had their hair nicely braided and trimmed like the women of Italy, wearing turbans richly omamentet' ^^ ith gold and pearls, and were a fine looking people ; but the women were ugly and deformed, clad in coarse linen shifts reach- ing only as far as the knees, with long sleeves I'anging down to the ground, and trowsers which likewise reached the ground, but their feet were bare. They wore no head-dresses, and their hair hung loose and dishevelled about their ears. At the time when Oderic reached what he calls Lower India, or the southern provinces of Persia, that country had been just over-run and laid waste by the Tatars ; yet still the productions of nature were in abundance. The people subsisted chiefly on dates, of which forty-two pounds' weight might be purchased for less than a Venetian (]:roat. From Ormuz he embarked for 820 GEOGBAPUY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. Thanay perhaps Tatta, at the mouth of the Indus^ where some heavy calamities befell him. /' In this counivy/' he says, " every one has a bundle of great boughs of trees as large as a pillar, standing in a pot of water be- fore his door; and there are many other strange and wonderful novelties, a relation of which would be ex« ceedingly delightful." In Thana, a little before Oderic's arrival there, four .Minorite friars had suffered martyrdom. Being summoned as witnesses before the cadi, they commenced a dis- putation with the Mahometans upon the true faith; and friar Thomas being urged to declare freely his opinion concerning Mahomet, replied in plain language, " I must declare that your Mahomet is the son of perdition, and is in hell with his father, the devil." When the Sara- cens heard this insulting blasphemy, they insisted on putting the infidels to death. They seized upon the friars and exposed them to the burning sun, in order that they might perish by a lingering torture; but they " remained hale and joyful from the third to the ninth hour of the day." The Saracens, astonished at this, kindled a great fire in the public square of the city, into which tliey threw one of the friars, but when the flames had died away, he was seen standing in the embers un- hurt and joyful, with his hands extended in the form of a cross, and calling on the glorious Virgin. Notwith- standing this manifest miracle, the Saracens remained unshaken in their purpose; and the cadi said that the friar's tunic, which was made from the wool of the land of Habrah, having protected him, it would be necessary to throw him naked into the fire. Brother James, there- fore, upon whom the previous experiment had been made so unsuccessfully, was stript quite naked, anointed abun- dantly with oil, and thrown a second time into the flames : but he again came forth from them unharmed ; whereupon the friars were liberated, to appease the peo- ple. At night, however, the Saracens, more inexorable than the flames, came privately to their lodgings, and cut off their heads. '' In the moment of the martyrdom of these BOQKUX. US, where country," i)oughs of water be- ange and id be ex- lere, four ummoned ;ed a dis- faith; and is opinion , « I must lition, and the Sara- isisted on upon the order that but they I the ninth d at this, I city, into the flames mbers un- le form of Notwith- remained that the he land of icessary to aes, there- )een made ited abun« into the inharmed ; }e the pco- inexorable 8, and cut )m of these he took one of the bones> and going t0 VOL. I. . ¥ 522 OEOORAPJBT OF THE MII>DU!: AGES. BOOK HI* II the head of the ship he cast it into the sea : a fine breeze immediately sprang up^ and continued to the end of the voyage. The idolaters afterward8> according to their custom^ searched the whole diip in wder to throw over- board all the bones of dead animals before they entered the harbour ; but though they frequently approached and even touched the bones of the martyrs^ their eyes were always deluded : the relics were thus saved from the un- fathomed depths of the ocean^ to work healing mirades on land ; for a small quantity of the dust of these bones mixed with water was^ as Oderic affirms^ a sovereign remedy for every disease. Notwithstanding all the miracles which he performed on the way^ our traveller merits Uttle attention previous to< his arrival at the coast of Malabar^ which he calls Minibar, He also mentions two cities in this country^ Flandrina and Cyncilin, of which no notice occurs in any other writer. In the country of M alabar^ according to his description^ -pepper grows abundantly in a forest that extends eighteen days' journey in circuit. The plant producing the pepper is set near tihe large trees^ as vines are planted in Italy : it grows with numerous and bright- coloured leaves^ and climbs up the trees^ the pepper-pods hanging down in great clusters like grapes. Crocodiles and huge serpents infest this forest ; and in the season for gathering the pepper^ the people are obliged to make large fires of straw and other dry fuel to drive away these noxious animals. At one extremity of this forest was situated the city of Polumbrum. Oderic givesj in many respects^ a more full and ac- curate account of the singular superstitions of the Hin- doos than any traveller who had preceded him. He observed the veneration in which the ox is held^ which is made to labour in husbandry for six years^ and in the seventh is consecrated as holy^ and worshipped as a god; the custom of ^widows burning themselves along with the dead bodies of their husbands ; and the abstinence of the male sex from wine. The general infatuation of self-sacrifice and the ceremonies of the Jaggemaut aro looKin* e breeze d of the to their )w over- entered ched and yes were 1 theiin- iniracles ese bones Bovereign i' 1 >erformed I previous I he calls i country^ occurs in according n a forest The plant pSj as vines id bright- tpper-pods Crocodiles the season to make rive away this forest U and ac- the Hin- nim. He eld, which and in the lasa god; long with abstinence tuation of ;maut are CHAP. vn. ODEBIO OF FOBTENAU. 323 described by him with the vividness of an eye-witness. " In the kingdom of Moabar" (the Camatic), he says, " there is a wonderfid idol^ in the shape of a man, all of pure and polished gold, as lai^e as our image of Saint Christopher, and there hangs about its neck a string of most rich and precious stones, some of which are singly more valuable than the riches of an entire kingdom. The whole house in which this idol is preserved is all of beaten gold ; even the roof, the pavement, and the lining of the walls both within and without. The Indians go on pilgrimages to this idol, just as we do to the image of Saint Peter ; some having halters round their necks, some with their hands bound behind their backs, and others with knives sticking in various parts of their legs and arms ; and if the flesh of their wounded ¥mt should corrupt owing to these wounds, they beii lat their god is well pleased with them, and eve. : wur esteem the diseased limb as sacred. Near this idol temple there is an artificial lake of water in an open place, into which the pilgrims and devotees cast gold and silver and precious stones in honour of the idol, and as a fund for repairing the temple ; and when any new ornament is to be made, or any repairs required, the priests take what is wanted f^om the oblations thrown into this lake. ''At each annual festival of this idol, the king and queen of the country, with all the pilgrims and the whole multitude of the people, assemble at the temple ; and placing the idol on a rich and splendid chariot, they carry it to the temple with songs and all kinds of mu- sical instruments, having a great company of young women, who walk in procession two and two, singing before the idol. Many of Xhe pilgrims throw themselves under the chariot wheels, that they may be crushed to death in honour of their god ; and the bodies of these devotees are afterwards burned, and their ashes collected, as if they were holy martyrs. In this manner above five hundred persons annually devote themselves to death. Sometimes a man deliberately devotes himself to die in Y 2 824, OEOOnAPHY OF THE MIOOUB AOES. BOOK III. honour of this ahominable idol : on which occasion, ac- companied by his relations and friends, and a great company of musicians, he makes a solemn feast ; after nrhich he hangs five sharp knives round his neck, and goes in solemn procession before the idol ; he then takes four of the knives successively, and with each of them cuts off a piece of his own flesh, which he throws to the idol, saying that for the worship of his god he thus cuts himself. Then taking the fifth knife, he de- clares aloud that he is going to put himself to death in honour of the god, in uttering which he gives the fatal stroke. His body is then burned with great solemnity, and he is ever after esteemed a holy person." Travelling from Moabar fifty days towards the south, alpng the ocean, our friar came to a country called La- mouri, in which all the people went naked, pleading in excuse the example of Adam and Eve. This country is supposed to be the soutxierii part of the peninsula near Cape Comorin ; but in truth there is much reason to suspect that the monk's memory failed him, and that he confounded the south of India with Lamri, in Sumatra. " Human flesh," he says, " is commonly used in. this country as beef is with us; and though the manners ^nd customs of the people are most abominable, the country is excellent, and abounds in flesh and com, gold and silver, aloes wood and camphor, and many other precious commodities. Merchants who trade to this country usually bring with them fat men among their other commodities, which they sell to the natives as we do hogs, and these are immediately slain and devoured.* To the south of Lamouri, Oderic places the island of kingdom of Symolora, by which he appears to mean ^imoltra or Sumatra. In this place the people were accustomed to mark their faces widi hot irons. He then visited the island of Java, which he says is considered one of the largest islands in the world, and that it i^unds in cloves, nutmegs, and other kinds of spices. The king of Java, he moreover affirms, had the most sumptuous and lofty palace in the worlds with broad BOOK III* tsion, ac- . a great at; after leck, and he then I each of [le throws is god he :e, he de- > death in > the fatal solemnity, the southj called ixz- leading in country is Qsula near reason to nd that he 1 Sumatra. ;ed in. this e manners nahle, ^^ com^gold lany other de to this long their ives as we devoured.* le island or s to mean eople were He then considered nd that it of spices. the most irith broad CHAP. VII. ODERIC OF PORTENAU. 325 / Stairs conducting to the upper apartments^ all the steps being alternately of gold and silver. The whole interior was lined with plates of beaten gold, on which were earved the figures of warriors, each having above his head a coronet of beaten gold ; the roof of the palace likewise was of pure gold, and the lower apartments were all paved with alternate squares of gold and silver. When the credulous friar makes statements of this sort, he usually conlBrms his relation with an oath, and adds that he omits to speak of things far more wonderful, but which could hardly be credited by those who had not seen them. The great khan or emperor of China, he says, had often made war upon the king of Java, but had always been defeated and beaten back. It seems probable that Oderic mixed with his account of Java the stories which he had heard regarding the wars and prodigious riches of Japan. Our friar took notice of the trees producing meal, or the sago palms ; he mentions likewise another particular relating to the vegetable kingdom, which, however it may have the air of improbability, is nevertheless true. In the Indian seas, he relates, there grow canes of in- credible size, some of them running up sixty paces or more in height. There are also small canes called caS" iatif which spread over the earth like grass to the extent of a mile or more, sending up branches from every knot ; and in these canes are found c^tain stones of a wonder- ful virtue, insomuch that whoever carries one of them about him cannot be wounded with an iron weapon. The people cause the arms of their children to be cut open when young, and put one of these stones into the wound, which they heal with the powder of a certain fish. By means of these wonderfU stones, continues our friar, the natives are always victorious in their battles. Now it is unquestionably true, that stone? formed of pure silex op flint are often found secreted near the joints of canes ; and as the ignorant are always disposed to view with ve« neration every thing anomalous in nature, these Btones are generally believed to possess extraordinary virtues. Y 3 iS26 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AOES. BOOK lU. Of the seas in those climates^ he relates that they ahound so much in fish that nothing can be seen to some distance from the shore but the backs of fishes. The fish come themselves upon the shore, and for three days allow the people to take as many of them as they please. At the end of those three days this shofd returns to sea, and a different kind comes to the spot in the same manner and for an equal time. This happens, he says, once every year ; and the people pretend that the fish are taught by nature to do this in token of homage to the emperor. This account is in all material points perfectly true : the seas of the Indian Archipelago abound more in fish than any other part of the world ; and it is said that the inhabitants of Java have the art of taming them to such a degree, that they come to the shore in obedience to a call or whistle. The pious Oderic proceeded next to China ; a country containing, as he heard, more than two thousand great cities. The people, he was surprised to find, were all artificer:: or merchants, and never thought of begging alms, however great might be their poverty, so long as they could help themselves with their hands. The men were of a fair and comely appearance, though somewhat pale; but the women appeared to him to be the most beautiful under the sun. It is remarkable that all the early travellers agree in praising the beauty of the Chinese, and but seldom notice even the peculiarities of the Mongolian features. Oderic is the first who points out two very distinguishing characteristics of Chinese beauty. " It is accounted," he says, " a great grace for the men of this country to have long nails upon their fingers, which they fold about their hands : but the grace and beauty of their women is to have small and slender feet; and therefore the mothers, when the daughters are young, do bind up their feet that they may not grow large." He also gives a description of a mode of fishing practised in China, which is but little known in other parts of the world. In a city where he lodged for a short time, his host, willing to amuse him^ conducted BOOK lU. hat they } seen to of fishes, for three n as they liis shoal le spot in I happens^ ;tend that token of 1 material rchipelago ' orld; and the art of me to the a country sand great I, were all f begging so long as The men somewhat the most lat all the ty of the liarities of points out 2se beauty, he men of ers, which nd beauty feet; and are young, large." of fishing a in other ged for a conducted OBAP.vn. ODBRIO OF PORTSNAV. 327 him to the river side. This man took with him also three large baskets, and a number of diving birds tied to poles. He b^an his preparations by fastening a thread round the throats of the birds, lest they might swallow the fish which they caught: he then loosed them from the poles ; and in less than an hour they caught as mu' fish filled the three baskets. In the dtj of Zti i the Minorites ]^ <.,i^sed two monasteries ; and in one of these Oderic deposited the bones of the friars who had suffered martynlom in India. Zaitun appeared to him to be twice as large as Bologna : it contained numerous monasteries or religious houses belonging to the worshippers of idols. The religious inhabitants of those establishments £pd their idols daily, serving up before them sumptuous banquets smoking hot : the gods were permitted to regale themselves with the steam of the savoury viands, which were afterwards carried away and eaten by the priests. Friar Oderic resided three years in Pekin, where the Minorite friars had a monastery depending on the court. He was frequently present at the royal banquets ; the Christian priests, as well as those of the heathen, being obliged, on those occasions, to pronounce benedictions on the emperor according to their peculiar forms. His account of the magnificence of the court of Cambalu does not in any respect fall short of the more authentic narrative of Marco Polo. The friars in those parts were endowed with special gifts; they cast out evil spirits, and could even exorcise the idols themselves : they at first failed in the latter experiment ; but as soon as they sprinkled the fire with holy water, the idols were consumed, and the devils fled away in the likeness of black smoke, crying out aloud, " Behold how I am expelled from my habitation ! " But among the fables which our worthy friar has incorporated with his narrative, that of the valley of the dead is perhaps the most curious and ori- ginal, and may be safely looked upon as the corrupted version of a popular Chinese tale. " Passing by a certain valley," says Oderic, '' near a pleasant river, I Y 4 328 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLH AGES. BOOK UX. saw many dead bodies therein, and I heard issuing therefrom many sweet and harmomous musical aounds, especially of lutes, insomuch that I was much amazed. The valley is at least eight miles long ; and whoever enters into it is sure to die immediately; for which reason all who travel that way carefully avoid the val« ley. But I was curious to go in, that I might see what it contained. Making, therefore, my prayers^ and recommending myself to God, I entered in, and saw such quantities of dead bodies as no one would believe unless he had seen it with his own eyes. At one side of the valley I saw the visage of a man upon a stone, which stared at me with such a hideous aspect, that I thought I should have died upon the spot : but I ceased not to sign myself with the sign of the cross, crying continually, ' The word became flesh, and dwelt widi us.' I then saw the lutes on every side, which do sound of themselves in a wonderful manner without the aid of any musician. Thus much have I related, which I cer- tainly saw with my own eyes; but many wonderful things have I purposely omitted, because those who had not seen them would refuse to believe my testimony." For stories such as this Oderic was canonized in the eighteenth century. After leaving China, he visited Thibet, and is the first yrriter who alludes to the grand lama, >— " the pope of the East, and spiritual head of all the idolaters." To this great prince of the Buddhists he gives the name of Abassi. Like almost all the early travellers, he mentions the cannibalism of the Thibetians^ which he regards as a superstitious usage. The ignorance of his age and the credulity of his profession betrayed Oderic into the relation of many incredible stories; but that he actually visited the countries which he describes may be proved incontest^ ibly from many passages in his narrative. The same cannot be said of a contemporary traveller of much greater pretensions, and at one time much more generally read, — the celebrated Sir John Mandeville, the author dT the most unblushing volume of lies, perhaps, that was looKin* issuing sounds, amazed, whoever r which the val- ight see prayers, in, and le would yes. At n upon s pect, that \ I ceased 8, crying urelt with do sound the aid of ich I cer- uronderful who had Btimony.** id in the le visited te grand ^ead of an luddhists the early Ihihetians, [ty of his of many sited the incontest^ ^he same I of much generafiy author of that was CHAP. VII. ODERIO OF PORTENAU. 329 ever offered to the world. Sir John was bom at St. Alban's ; and after laying in a large store of theological and medical knowledge, set forth on his peregrinations in 1332. He spent ^rty-four years in wandering through the East, as he affirms, visiting every country that had any claims on the wonder or curiosity of man« kind. He died at Liege in the year 1372, where a laudatory inscription was placed upon his tomb, and the boots and spurs with which he rode through the world were long carefully preserved. A rebel to the laws of true chivalry, which commanded the worthy knight to wage war with the infidels. Sir J. Mandeville served first in the armies of the sultan of Egypt, and afterwards under the banners of the grand khan of Cathay in his wars with the kings of Manji. Such, at least, is his own account, which, however, ap- pears not to deserve the slightest credit. He may possiUy have travelled in Palestine and Syria, but his work offers abundant proofs that he never penetrated farther into Asia. He avows himself that he borrowed much from old cbronides and romances of chivalry, and he copies 'whole pages without acknowledgment from friar Oderic and Haitho the Armenian : but he seldom relates the fabulous tales af his predecessors without giving to them some additional embellishments j and whenever he affects extreme accuracy, he is sure to expose the grossest ig- norance. Thus he says that India is fifty days' journey beyond Pekin, and laments that the journey to that country should be so long and difficult compared with that to China. Oderic of Portenau spoke of a sea of sand, — no unfit expression to describe the sandy deserts on the borders of Persia ; but Sir John Mandeville, not satisfied with a sea of sand, describes also a river of rocks flowing into it ; and he even ventures to assert that this wondrous sea abounds in excellent fish. He alone actually travelled through the country of the Pigmies, who all came dancing to see him. He also visited two islands in the centre of Asia, one of which was inhabited by giants thirty feet in height. ^30 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK 111. "while the elder branches of the family dwelling on the other island were twenty feet higher. In India he places two islands, called respectively Brahmin and Gymnosophist. He is the first who writes of the fa- mous lamb of Tatary, that grows inside a gourd or melon. *' When the fruit is ripe," says the worthy knight, " it opens in the middle, and in the interior is seen the little animal, with flesh, bones, and blood. It is like a lamb without the wool, and is eaten with the fruit." In the course of his travels he saw many cu- riosities of the same kind, and among others, shells of BO vast a size as to afford habitations for many persons. He also learned from that diamonds, if experience, wetted with May-dew, will, in the course of years, grow to an indefinite magnitude. The hints which he bor- rowed from romances of chivalry are scattered through his volume with little art or discrimination ; and it was on the walls of the king's palace in Java that he saw painted the exploits of duke Oger the Dane. Early travellers hxA. spread abroad some indistinct rumours of Prester John, a Christian prince supposed to reign somewhere in the heart of Asia ; but Mandeville alone had the happiness to see him seated on his throne, surrounded by twelve archbishops'; and two hundred and twenty bishops. The empire of this prince was in India, " a land divided into many islands by the rivers descending from paradise." The gates of his palace were made of sardonyx, the bars of ivory, the windows of rouk crystal, and the tables of emeralds ; radiant carbuncles, too, each a foot in length, served instead of lamps to illuminate the palace by night. Such were the tales which pleased our ancestors of the fourteenth cen- tury. Mandeville also confirms the popular belief that Jerusalem is in the middle o ' the world ; for sticking his spear upright in the ground, he found that at mid- day, at the time of the equinoxes, it cast no shadow. *. ■••••4 5.; ■i^r BOOK III* OHAP. VUI. SMBAS8T OF CLAVIJO. SSi g on the [ndia he inin and if the fa- gourd or e worthy interior is )lood. It 1 with the many cu- , shdls of y persons, .mondsj if ears, grow ;h he hor- >d through and it was lat he saw indistinct lupposed to Mandeville his throne, kindred and iCe was in f the rivers his palace le windows U; radiant instead of :h were the teenth cen- helief that ■or sticking hat at niid- shadow. CHAP. VIII. EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO. CLAVUO AFPOINTZD AMBASSADOR TO THE COURT OV TIMOR. — JOURNEY THROUQH ARMENIA. CALMARIN. — TEBRIZ. — DESTRUCTION OF THE PALACE. — VRIVILEOES OF THE OBN- OEse. SULTANIA. COMMERCIAL ROUTE.— OOMOHAUN. '— TOWERS BUILT OF HUMAN SKULLS. — TATAR MODE OF POST- ING. «— AMBASSADORS INTRODUCED. THE FESTIVALS AT COURT. SAMARCAND. — HOW PEOPLED. — ITS TRADE. — DEPARTURE OF THE EMBASST. — ■ DEATH OF TIMUR. SCHILDT- BERQER TAKEN PRISONER BT THE TURKS, AND SUBSEQUENTLY BY THE TATARS. — HIS WANDERINGS. — EXPEDITION TO IS- 8IBUR. SHAH ROKH SENDS AMBASSADORS TO CHINA. ^ JOURNEY THROUGH THE DESERT. CIVILISATION OF THB CHINESE. TELEGRAPHS IN CHINA. — TURNING TOWERS. — '" «HE IMPERIAL COURT. — MUSICAL SKILL. — DISMISSAL OF > TUB EMBASSY. A DISPOSITION to indulge in the marvdlous is conspi- cuous in the narratives of all the earliest travellers ; but already in the beginning of the fifteenth century a better taste began to appear. Among the well-informed and veracious travellers of this period, the Spaniard, Ruy- Gonzales de Clavijo is the most distinguished. The fame of Timur's conquests being spread abroad through every part of Europe, induced Henry III. king of Cas- tile to send ambassadors to the khan, with instructions to pay their respects to him in the heart of his domin- ions. The real object of the embassy, however, was to learn the manners and the strength of the nations in- habiting the interior of Asia, to observe the situation of the conquered, and the character of the conqueror. In consequence of this determination, two noblemen of the court, Pelajo de Sotomayor and Ferdinand de Pa- lazuelas, set out for the Levant in 1 39d> arrived at the camp of Timur before his victory over Bigazet, and witnessed the total overthrow of the Turldsh army. The conqueror dismissed the Spaniards loaded with 332 OEOORAPHY OF TRK MIDDLE A0E8. BOOK III. f presents, and sent an embassage along with them as an additional honour to the king of Castile. The success of this first step towards a correspondence encouraged Henry to send a second embassy to Tamer- lane in 1403 ; at the head of this was Clav^'o, who re- turned to Spain in 1 106, and wrote an account of the re- ception he had met with at Samarcand, and of all that he observed in the various countries through which he passed. He remained some time at Constantinople, which he describes as being still a great city eight miles in cir- cumference ; it was not, however, by any means popu- lous. It contained, he says, three thousand churches, all rich in the relics of saints and martyrs. After a tedious voyage in the Black Sea, he arrived in 1404 at Trebizond, where the Genoese and Venetians occupied each a fort or castle. The embassy crossed Armenia, the north of Persia, and Khorasan : it often passed the night in the midst of deserts, or else in the tents of a wandering horde called by Clavijo Chacatais. At Arsigna, or Erzerum, the embassy was received with the highest honours ; and after being feasted for several days, was provided with every thing necessary to complete the journey. Proceeding eastward they crossed the river Corras ; and within seven or eight leagues of Mount Ararat they reached Calmarin, a great and fortified city, which the Spanish ambassadors were taught to believe was the first city founded after the flood. At Hoy, or Choi, on the borders of Persia and Armenia^ Clavgo met the ambassador of the sultan of Bagdad, also on his way to the court of Timur, and who carried with him a variety of curious and valuable presents : among these was a beast which filled the Spaniards with admiration and surprise; it had the body of a horse, and the head of a Btag ; but it was chiefly remarkable for the extraordinary length of its fore legs and of its neck, each of which measured sixteen palms ; so that when it carried its head erect it was quite a prodigy : it could with the greatest ease browse on the leaves of the loftiest trees. This animal Clavijo calls a,jornufa; and his description points OHAP. VIII. EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO. 335 BOOK III. >m as an )ondence Tamer- who rc- >f the re- 1 that he te passed, which he es in cir- ins popu- , churches. After a [ 1404 at occupied Armeniaj passed the tents of a it Arsigna, \e highest days, was nplete the the river of Mount ified city, to helieve Armenia, jdad, also Irried with |s: among idmiration head of a raordinary of which Id its head Le greatest [es. This kon points out distinctly the giraffe or camelopard, an inhabitant of central Africa, and consequently a curiosity in the centre of Asia. Tauris or Tebriz is described by Clavgo as a great commercial city, containing no less than two hundred thousand houses, although in a state of decline. It con- tained many superb edifices; and a little before his arrival it boasted of one of the most splendid palaces of the East, which was said to have contained twenty thousand apartments ; but this was now in rui s. Timur had entrusted the government of this part of Persia to his eldest son, Miassa Miraxa, a weak and headstrong prince, who knew no other mode of distinguishing him • self but by destroying what it had been the ambition of others to erect. He consequently levelled aU the fine palaces that were in the countries subjected to his authf^- rity, and had just completed the work of destruction in Tebriz, having reduced to ruins the vast edifice abo^e alluded to, when he learned that Timur was marching rapidly towards him to put him to death. Knowing that escape was impossible, he hastened to meet his enraged father and to beg forgiveness at his feet : at the entreaty of his friends his life was spared ; but Timur stripped him of all rank and authority, and compelled him to live in a private station. In Tauris the Genoese ei\joyed great commercial privileges : they were, in fact, established there as a commercial colony that directed the trade ^;tween Eu- rope and tlie Indies with all the advantagt» j£ an inter- mediate position. The Genoese, it appears, had once obtained permission to build a castle here ; but the king soon after repented of his concession, and represented to them that he deemed it inconsistent with the character of merchants to erect fortifications or to assume in any way a military posture. \V1ien his remonstrances failed to move them^ he declared that if they persisted in their attempt he would cut off their heads ; an argument of so cogent a nature, that the merchants immediately aban- doned thejr design. ^ . 384 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOKUX. From Tauris Clavijo proceeded to Sultania^ which> though inferior to the former city in size and popu« lation, carried on a still more lively trade. Every year, between the months of June and August, caravans arrived here from India ; others came from Yezd and Serpi ; and cotton stuffs of all colours were brought hither from Khorasan. Pearls and precious stones came a journey of sixty days from Ormuz, to which place, according to Clavijo, the merchants of Cathay brought fine rubies and jewels of various descriptions. The caravans from India were laden with valuable spices, cloves, mace, and nutmegs, the best market for which was atSultania. Clavijo is the first, or perhaps the only writer, who points out this line of communication b^ twaen India and Europe. It was not followed, probably, until after the destruction of Bagdad by the Mongols ; and it would appear that Sultania did not continue the seat of this flourishing trade long after the time of* Clavijo ; for the travellers who passed through that city towards the end of the fifteenth century observed that it had nothing remarkable but the minarets of a mosque, which were made of metal, and wrought with much curious delicacy of workmanship. Passing through the north of Persia, the embassy at length arrived at Damogen, or Domghaun, at that time the military capital of the kingdom. Here they saw a monument of a new and terrific character : the market- place was ornamented with four great towers, each a stone's throw in height, and built entirely of human skulls, the interstices being filled up with mud. To erect this edifice Timur had massacred sixty thousand Turkomans, or white Tatars, as they were called, who, after )eing vanquished in the field, were cruelly hunted down and nearly exterminated by the relentless victor. After leaving this place, the ambassadors experienced i le distressing effects of the hot winds of the desert ; and on arriving at a city caUed Vascal they were not allowed a moment's respite to refresh themselves, but were obliged to proceed immediately on their journey; such being the will of the dreaded Timur. looK in. , which, i popu« iry year, caravans ezd and brought nes came ;h place, brought B. The e spices, or which the only ation be- probably, Mongols ; itinue the ) time of" that city >rved that 9. mosque, Lth much nbassy at that time ley saw a market- each a >f human md. To thousand led, who, y hunted ss victor, perienced e desert; were not ;lves, but journey; OBAP. vni. EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO. 335 At a place called Jagero, a little farther on, they had an opportunity of observing the system of posts as estab* lished by Timur. At the distance of a day's journey from each other were erected caravanserais large enough to contain from one to two hundred horses : here the couriers employed in the service of the emperor left their own horses and were supplied with fresh ones. They were invested with full powers to seize the horses of aU whom they met, and to use all coercive measures that tended in die slightest degree to hasten their despatch. > Having at length reached Samarcand, Clavijo^ after some ceremonious delay^ was admitted to the presence of the emperor. He found Timur seated on cushions of embroidered silk^ with his elbows supported by pillows^ and a fountain of water playing before him : the Spanish ambassador was led in by nobles of the court, who instructed him how to bend the knee and perform the other requisite obeisances. As often as they kneeled, they approached still closer to the emperor, who obliged Clavijo and his companions to come in this way within a very short distance of him, apparently from a desire to gratify his curiosity with a near view of the Spaniards, for his eyes were now nearly closed, and his eye-lashes had fallen off from age. The embassy was well received, and Clavijo had an opportunity of witnessing the rude profusion of Tatar hospitality : he describes^ indeed, with an admiration that runs too often into a tedious prolixity, the festivals celebrated on his account at the imperial court. The guests, on those occasions, were sumptuously regaled with horse-flesh boiled and roasted^ with mutton and rice dressed in a variety of ways. The roasted carcasses of sheep and horses were carried from the kitchens on the backs of camels to those whose duty it was to carve them : the boiled meat wa» in immense leathern bags, which were dragged with great labour into the banquet- ting rooms; the bags were then ripped upland the viands soon cut to pieces by the attendants. All that was served on the tables was supposed to belong to the guests. 336 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. ■whose servants were accordingly at liberty to carry oflP whatever remained; and the supplies were so inordi- nately copious^ that if the servants of Clavijo had thought fit to make use of their privilege, they might have gathered from the relics of a single feast sufficient pro- vision for half a year. "Wine was produced only on rare occasions, and by the express permission of the emperor ; it was then supplied in abundance ; and it appears to have been considered a proof of loyalty as well as of good breeding to drink it as freely as it was served. Servants were in attendance, whose sole business it was to fill the cups ; and those who pretended to drink in honour of the emperor were expected to drain off their bumpers at a single draught. Clavijo was present at feasts given byUwo ladies, the principal wife and the daughter-in- law of the emperor ; and on these occasions the wine was poured forth with unusual spirit, the ladies themselves setting the example of Bacchanalian conviviality, and repeatedly emptying their cups in honour of their gviests. He who could drink most at those feasts was honoured with the title of Bdhidar, Timur changed his residence frequently while the embassy was at his court; and every new palace visited by Clavijo surpassed in magnificence the preceding one. But the most imposing display of the imperial grandeur was made at the orda, horde or tent, when Timur and his nobility pitched their tents in a vast plain to the number of twenty thousand. Some of these tents were hung with silk and with gold tissues, adorned with pearls, rubies, and precious stones. In those of the emperor were tables made of gold; and aU the utensils were made of gold, silver, or the finest porcelain. Samarcand appeared to Clavijo to be not much greater than Seville, but infinitely more populous : its suburbs, including many gardens and large vineyards, extended a great distance in every direction. Timur had brought thither by force a hundred and fifty thousand souls from the conquered countries, selecting always the most skilful artisans of every description: he issued commands^ BOOK III* carry ofF ) inordi- l thought ;ht have Lent pro- y on rare emperor ; ppears to IS of good Servants to fill the lonour of impers at ists given ighter-in- » wine wa» ;hemselve» iality, and eir gvxests. honoured while the ace visited eding one. grandeur imur and ain to the tents were med with )se of the le utensils tin. ch greater s suburbs, extended d brought ouls from lost skilful ommands. CHAP. viir. EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO. 337 moreover, to all his officers to seize all destitute and houseless persons, and to send them to his capital, which he intended to make the greatest city of the £ast. The houses of Samarcand were so inadequate to lodge the immense population collected by these despotic measures, that many of the poorer sort were obliged to find a shelter in caves or temporary huts among the suburbs. But as the wretched people who had been thus com- pelled by the tyrant to leave- their homes, and take up their abode in Samarcand, were repeatedly making efforts to escape^ the passes of the river Gihon, or Oxus, were all strictly guarded, and no one was allowed to cross the great bridge of boats without the permission of the emperor. ; ; ;.'i » A great trade was still carried on at Samarcand not- withstanding the wars and revolutions which had lately desolated the surrounding country. The Tatars and Russians brought thither skins, furs, and cloth ; silk stuffs, musk, pearls, precious stones, and rhubarb, came -from China. It was- a six months' journey from Sa- marcand to Cambalu or Pekin, two whole months being employed in crossing the deserts. Caravans from India also arrived there, bringing the fine spices, such as cloves, mace, and nutmeg ; and Clavijo here repeats an observ- ation which he had made before at Sultania, that spices of this description were not to be found in the markets of Alexandria. After several months spent in festivities in Samarcand, a day was at length appointed by Timur, on which the ambassadors were to receive their answer and per- mission to depart. When the day came, however, they were informed that the emperor was unwell, and unable to receive them ; on a second visit they met with a similar intimation; when they made the third attempt to gain an audience, they were told by the officers of the court that the time was come for their departure, and that the preparations for their journey were completed. Clavijo, however, determined not to quit Samarcand before he had taken leave with the usual formalities ; VOL. I. z S38 OEOORAFHY OF TBE MIDDDE AGES. BOOK III. nor^ although assured that the emperor was on the point of death; could the punctilious Spaniard he brought to change his resolution until he received from the prin- cipal officers an order to depart, couched in such per- emptory language as left no room for deliberation. He accordingly set out; and on his arrival at Tebriz learned that Timur was dead, and that his children and grand- children were furiously contending with one another for the possession of the empire. He himself experienced here the sad consequences of this distracted state of affairs, being robbed of all his effects, and kept for »ome months in close confinement. At length Omar Miraz, a grandson of Timur, obtaining the government of Persia, liberated the ambassadors, restored them their prdperty, and gave them passports, with which they reached Europe in safety* Among those who travelled over Asia in the fifteenth century was a German soldier, named Schildtberger, who is much more distinguished for the variety of his for- tunes than for the knowledge which he acquired during his residence in the East. He enlisted, when young, in the army of Sigismund, king of Hungary, and in 1395 was taken prisoner by the Turks : he saw some thou- sands of his fellow-prisoners butchered before his eyes in the Turkish camp, and was himself about to be decapitated, when his youthful appearance, and the fortunate circum- stance of his being left among the last, when the con- queror's thirst for blood was nearly sated, combined to save his life. He afterwards accompanied the army of Bajazet into Asia ; and in the great battle in which that sultan was defeated and taken captive by Timur, Schildt- berger also fell into the hands of the victor. The young German attended his new master in all his expeditions, and on the death of Timur, engaged in the service of his son Shah Rokh. He subsequently experienced many changes of this sort, and among his numerous journeys he once followed into Great Tatary a prince named Ze- gra, who was invited by Idaker Khan to assume the sDvereignty of that country. BOOK in. the point rought to the prin- mch per- ion. He iz learned id grand- lother for perienced state of kept for jth Omar ►vemment hem their [lich they B fifteenth erger, who f his for- ced during young, in i in 1395 Dme thou- lis eyes in ^capitated, ;e circum- I the con- [nbined to s army of rhich that Schildt- 'he young peditions, service of iced many journeys amed Ze- sume the CUAP. VIII. EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO. SS9 The Tatar prince set out attended by Schildtberger and four others. Their route lay through Georgia and the other Caucasian nations, the names of which are reported by the unlettered German in so corrupted a form as to be scarcely recognisable. They at length reached Great Tatary, and the camp of Idaker Khan, who was preparing to march with all his forces into the land of Bissibur or Issibur (Siberia). In this expedi- tion they marched forward continually for two months ; and in the mean time they crossed a range of mountains thirty-two days' journey in length; and at their extre- mity, according to Schildtberger, there is a desert which is the end of the world, and which is uninhabitable from the number of serpents and wild beasts with which it is infested. '' These mountains," he says, " are inhabited by roaming savages, who are covered all over with hair, except on their hands and faces, and who subsist on green leaves and roots, or whatever they can procure. In this country also are found wild asses, as large as horses. The inhabitants employ dogs, as large as asses, to draw carts and sledges, and sometimes feed upon them. They are Christians, and bury their young people who die in celibacy with music and rejoicing, eating and drinking at their graves." Having made a conquest of Bissibur. the Tatars marched into Walpr or Bulgar, which they also subdued, and then returned to Kipjack. His master Zegra being dead, Schildtberger wandered into Mingrelia, and there learning that the Black Sea was distant but a three days' journey, he contrived, without a guide, to reach the shore. After wandering here four days, he at length saw a European ship about three leagues off from the land. By fires and other expedients, he contrived to attract its attention, and a boat was sent ashore. Thirty years of captivity among the Turks and Tatars had so completely deprived him of his European aspect, that the mariners were slow to believe his story ; and it was not until he had rehearsed the Lord's prayer, the Ave Maria, and the Creed, that z 2 340 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. I ti his claims were admitted^ and he was taken on board. From Constantinople^ whither this ship conveyed him, he returned to his native city, Munich^ after an absence from home of two-and-thirty years. In the year 1419 ambassadors were sent to China by Mirza Shah Rokh, who on the death of his father Ti- mur had succeeded to the throne of Persia. At the head of this mission was an officer named Shadi Khoja ; but in the train of the ambassadors were painters and persons instructed to keep an exact journal of their travels, and to take notice of all that was remarkable in every city and country they passed through, carefully observing the nature of the roads, the police and customs of the people, and the magnificence and mode of government of the various sovereigns. The narrative of this em- bassy, written by the celebrated Persian historian Emir Khond, is not so rich in geographical details as might have been expected from a mission that had so much in view the acquisition of knowledge ; but a brief review of it will contribute to illustrate or complete the descrip- tions of China and its inhabitants^ which have occurred in the preceding pages. . v. The ambassadors commenced their journey from He- rat, the residence of Shah Rokh ; and at Samarcand were joined by ambassadors from Khorasan and the surround- ing provinces. Having passed through the cities of Tashkendy Sayram, and Ash, they entered the country of the Mongols. They afterwards passed a river called Kenker, and came into the country of Ilduz, possessed by the tribe of Jel. This land of Ilduz must be the high table-land of little Bokhara ; for although the sun was then in the summer solstice, our ambassadors were often astonished at finding ice two inches thick in this vast desert. Hastening through the defiles of some snowy mountains, which were probably the Alaktag, they arrived at Tarkan, where they saw a great temple, con- taining an idol of huge dimensions, said by the idolatrous inhabitants to be the image of Shakmonnu This name, as weU as that of the idol Sagomon, observed by Marco Wrrtr. BOOK III. CHAP. V in. CMBASSY OF CLAVIJO. 341 tn board, yed him, 1 absence China by ather Ti- ; the head oja; but d persons Lvels, and jvery city observing [ns of the vernment this em- ian Emir as might > much in ef review le descrip- ! occurred from He- cand were surround- cities of ; country ver called possessed St be the h the sun iors were ck in this of some ctag, they iple, con- idolatrous his name, by Marco Polo in Ceylon, is but a corruption of Sakya Mooni, the ordinary Indian epithet of Buddha. While the ambas- sadors passed through the desert of Gobi, they saw mul- titudes of oxen, lions, and other wild beasts. The wild oxen which they saw, called gau cottahs, are of great size, and so strong that they can easily toss a man and horse into the air. Their tails are long and bushy, and are held in great estimation through all the East, where they are often carried on long poles by way of ornament or else for the purpose of driving away flies. When the ambas£:adors and their train had arrived within fourteen days' journey of Socheu, the first town in China, the Cathayans or Chinese came out daily to meet them, erecting in the desert for their accommo- dation tents or huts adorned with green boughs, and supplying them abundantly with fowls, fruits, and other provisions, all served on porcelain or China dishes, to- gether with a variety of strong liquors ; and from that time forward they were as splendidly regaled in the desert as they could have been in the richest cities of Cathay. Before the expedition entered within the boundaries of China, a list was made of all the individuals who composed it : they were found to amount in all to eight hundred and sixty persons. In this number were in- cluded several merchants, who represented themselves as belonging to the retinue of the ambassadors, and were afterwards obliged, in consequence, to perform the ser- vices which fell to their lot according as they were registered. In taking this list the Chinese ofiicers made the ambassadors swear that there were no other persons in their train besides those whose names were returned, and warned them that they would be despised if they did not tell the truth. ^ At Socheu the members of the embassy were lodged in a public building over the gate of the city, where they were amply provided with every necessary and conve- nience, and even the servants had mattresses and cover- lets allowed for their beds. This latter circumstance z 3 342 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. appeared to the Persians a very striking novelty ; for China is perhaps the only country of the East in which a stranger can be sure of finding a comfortable lodging. ^Vhen they walked through the city, they saw at each step fresh proofs of the superior civilisation of the coun- try. In several of the streets were covered galleries or halls, having shops at both sides, with a handsome saloon at the entrance adorned with pictures. The temples, too, were kept in the neatest order, their brick pavements being polished like glass. But the Mahometans also remarked that hogs were kept in every house, and what shocked them still more, that the butchers hung their pork in the same shambles with the mutton. The Persians, as well as all the European travellers wHo have ever visited China, note with expressions of lively admiration the great population, industry, good order, and strict police of that extraordinary country. From Socheu to Cambalu is a ninety-five days' journey, the whole way leading through a populous country, inso- much, says the narrative, that travellers always lodge at night in a large town. Throughout the whole way there are many structures named Kargu and Kidifu. The former are a species of guard-house, sixty cubits high, erected within sight of each other, in which persons, relieved every ten days, are always on the watch They are intended to communicate alarms speedily to the seat of government, which they do by means of fires ; and intelligence can be sent in this manner, in the space of a day and night, from a distance of three months' jour- ney. The Kidifus are a kind of post-houses, built at intervals of about seven miles from each other. The extensive scale on which these Chinese post-houses were supported may be conjectured from the circum- stance, that at each of them our ambassadors were fur- nished with four hundred and fifty horses, mules, and asses, together with fifty-six chariots or waggons. The Kargu, or watch-towers, it is evident, closely resemble in principle the supposed modern invention of a chain of telegraphs. BOOK III. relty ; for in which e lodging. Mr at each the coun- alleries or me saloon npleSj too, lavements etans also and what ung their travellers •essions of 5try, good ' country. i' journey, itry, inso- s lodge at way there ifu. The bits high, persons, ch They the seat ires; and e space of iths' jour- s, built at ler. The }st-houses ; circum- were fur- lules, and ns. The resemble 1 chain of OUAP. VIII. EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO. 343 In Kancheu the Persians viewed with astonishment an idol fifty feet in length, lying in a sleeping posture ; its hands and feet were nine feet long, and the head measured twenty-one feet round. Behind this great idol, which was gilt all over, there were a multitude of smaller ones, so well sculptured and in such natural attitudes that they seemed to be alive. In whatever direction the ambassadors turned, their eyes were sure to be attracted by a new exhibition of Chinese art and neatness. All round the great temple were numerous recesses, or smal! chapels, like the chambers in caravanserais, fur- nisned with curtains of tapestry or brocade, with gilded easy chairs or stools, chandeliers, and ornamental vases. There were ten other temples in Kancheu like the one described ; but the object which occasioned the Persians most surprise was the turning tower, a sort of edifice which is frequently represented in Chinese paintings, and of which our travellers were the first to give a description. This great tower was an octagon, twenty cubits in circumference, and fifteen stories high : each story was twelve cubits high, so that the height of the tower must have been a hundred and eighty cubits. All the chambers were finely varnished, and adorned with paintings. In a vault below the edifice was an iron axis, resting on a metal plate, and reaching from the bottom to the top of the tower : " the whole so in- geniously contrived," says the Persian narrative, " that it could be easily turned round on this axis, in so sur- prising a manner, that all the smiths, carpenters, and painters of the world ought to go there to learn the secrets of their respective trades." The Persians at length reached Cambalu, and were conducted to the court : they reckoned that above three hundred thousand persons were assembled round the imperial palace, of which about two thousand were mu- sicians employed in chaunting hymns for the prosperity of the emperor. The pavilions round the palace were hung with yellow satin, decked with gilt figures, and paintings of the simorg, or royal bird of the Chinese. z 4 344 GEOGRAPHY OP THE MIDDLE AQE8. BOOK III. li 11,; I The imperial throne was made of massy gold. The mandarins ranged round the apartments held tablets in their hands^ which they kept their eyes fixed upon with wonderful gravity, maintaining all the time a profound silence. At length the emperor made his appearance, and ascended his throne by nine steps of silver : beautiful young females were stationed on each side of the throne, with pen and ink in their hands to write down whatever was spoken by the emperor. When the emperor had taken his seat, the seven am- bassadors were brought forward, and at the same time were presented about seven hundred criminals : some of these had chains round their necks^ but the greater num- ber had their head and hands enclosed in a board, six being frequently fastened together in the same frame. After the prisoners were dismissed, the ambassadors were led to the steps of the throne ; and an officer on his knees read aloud a paper declaring the purport of the embassy, and adding, that they had brought rarities as presents to his majesty, and had come to knock their heads in the dust before him. Upon this, the ambas- sadors bowed after the Persian fashion, and the letters of Shah Rokh, wrapped in yellow satin, were presented to the emperor. The ceremonies being concluded, the ambassadors were conducted to the lodging provided for them, and were treated with the generous hospitality which distinguishes the Chinese court. The daily ration allowed for six persons consisted of a sheep, a goose, and two fowls, besides a great quantity of vegetables and various fruits. At some entertainments which were afterwards given by the emperor, the ambassadors had an opportunity of witnessing the surprising skill of the Chinese jugglers and dancers. They also remarked a whimsical exhibition of dexterity in the case of two musicians, who played to- gether the same air, each having one hand on his own flute and the other on that of his companion. Among the presents sent by Shah Rokh to the emperor of China, was one of his favourite horses j but the aged I CHAP. IX. DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTVQUESE. 345 emperor was unable to manage this spirited animal, and received in consequence at one of his hunting parties a severe fall. His displeasure at the accident was so ex- tremely violent, that the ambassadors had nearly atoned for it with their lives: through the solicitations, how- ever, of the chief officers of the court, they were par- doned, and received permission to return liume. In the narrative of this embassy mention occurs of a silver currency, called halishi, the name formerly given, ' as it has been seen, to the paper money of China ; it may, therefore, be concluded that this latter had ceased to circiUate before the commencement of the fifteenth century. The ambassadors also enumerate tea among the luxuries with which they were regaled j but, like Marco Polo, they are totally silent with respect to the great wall of China. CHAP. IX. EARLY DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. own THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS. THEia NAVAL SUPERIORITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES. IMPROVEMENTS IN NAUTICAL AFFAIRS. MA- RINEr's COMPASS DISCOVERED. THE CHINESE SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN ACQUAINTED WITH IT. AND THE ARABIANS., — FIRST MENTION OF IT BY A EUROPEAN. THE SPANIARDS IM- BIBE A TASTE FOR THE LUXURIES OF THE EAST. THEIR WARS WITH THE MOORS. MOTIVES TO SEEK A PASSAGE BY SEA TO INDIA. THE PORTUGUESE COMMENCE THE ATTEMPT. UOH HENRY. DISCOVERY OF PUERTO SANTO AND MADEIRA, STORY OF MACIIAM. ^ — THE CANARY ISLANDS COLO'ISED. CAPE BOJADOR DOUBLED; CAPTIVES RANSOMED FOR COLD BUST. VOYAGES OF CADA MOSTO. THE NATIVE CAN AUIANS. THE MOORS OF THE DESERT. THE SHIPS BELIEVED TO BR SPIRITS. THE SALT TRADE OF THE NEGROES. THE SENE- GAL. KING BUDOMEL.-.— HIS RELIGIOUS OPINION,'. DE- SCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY NEAR CAPE TERD. IfATII OF SON HENRY. HIS GREAT MERITS. A CONTINUED series of events during the middle ages kept the attention of European nations directed towards S4() OEOORAPnV OF THE 5IIDDLE A0E8. B'WK 111. f li the East. In Greece and Italy the advantages of the Indian trade were never totdly lost sight of. The crusades, though they could not fail to create at first much anarchy and distress in the countries whence they emanated, must have had an amazing influence in en- larging the minds of men, and diffusing an acquaintance with the luxuries of the East. The ill effects of those expeditions against the Saracens, in exhausting the resources and retarding the internal developement of European nations, were remotely counterbalanced by the relations to which they gave birth between countries widely separated from one another. The infatuation which led the princes of the West to spend their treasure in the attempt to rescue the Holy Land from the hands of infidels, redounded much to the profit of the Venetians and other maritime states of Italy, who could alone transport tlie troops or supply them with the provisions which were necessary to enable them to carry on their operations. This influx of wealth into the chief Italian republics gave fresh stimulus and an advantageous direc- tion to their mercantile activity, and contributed to raise them to that degree of maritime prosperity which was destined, at no distant period, to attract the attention and awaken the rivalry of powerful kingdoms. The wars which the rival states of Genoa and Venice continually waged with one another, however they may have interrupted the operations of commerce, were yet in- cidentally productive of important general benefits. The revolutions which seem most charged with ruin to man- kind, the zeal of war, however destructive in its direct exertions, whatever, in short, exhibits a new train of objects^ and prompts the human being to a more in- tense consideration of what is before his eyes, affords, in almost every instance, to the active mind of man, an opportunity of learning from it something advan- tageous to compensate its immediate evil. During the struggle for naval superiority between the principal states of Italy, the art of ship-building was considerably advanced^ and the improvements that were first started CHAP. IX. DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTVOVKfiE. 347 in the Adriatic were speedily conveyed to the remotest shores of western Europe. In a country like Italy, where the avocations of trade were pursued even by the nobility, and where the arts of navigation were held in the highest esteem, it is natural to expect that those contrivances which assist the mariner in his path should have been first invented or brought to practical perfection. Among the remarkable events of this period of improvement must be reckoned the discovery of the mariner's compass, which is generally supposed to have been made about the year 1302, by one Flavio Gioja, a native of Amalfi^ a place of some commercial importance in the territory of Naples. The particulars of Gioja's life, or the circumstances which led to and attended on his discovery, are not disclosed to us by the meagre and imperfect historians of those times. That Gioja possessed conspicuous merit is evident from the circumstance that his name has been preserved as the author of an instrument which at that time held but a comparatively humble rank in the list of useful inven- tions ; but he cannot, with strict accuracy, be styled the discoverer of the mariner's compass, which was known, more or- less completely, at least a century before. . That wonderful property of the magnet, by which it attracts iron, did not escape the observation of the ear- liest philosophers of Greece ; some of whom, unable to explain from mechanical influence this inscrutable mys- tery of nature, ventured to conclude that the magnet has a soul, a hypothesis evidently resting on the belief that a spiritual being alone can operate at a distance and without the necessity of contact. The polarity of the magnet, or its property of pointing when freely sus- pended, towards the poles of the earth, was not known or taken advantage of by the ancients. The Chinese, it is said, were acquainted with the compass at a very early age, many centuries indeed be- fore the Christian era ; but this opinion does not rest on the familiarity of the Chinese with that instrument : its only support is derived from the obscure indications of 348 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. sbme ancient Chinese writings. Now the Chinese never made any proficiency in the arts of navigation ; and if they had at any time an acquaintance with the properties of the magnet; and the uses to which they might be made subservient, yet^ as they never learned the habitual ap- plication of the mariner's compass, they cannot without the fullest proof be admitted as its inventors. The steps by which man ascends to important disco- veries are so gradual and successive, that when he has once gained the eminence, and views retrospectively how short a distance he has travelled, he feels strongly in- clined to believe that those who have advanced some way must surely achieve the whole ; yet tlie history of art sufficiently proves how wide an interval there is between the first rudiments of a useful discovery and its ulti- mate perfection. The Arabians, like th( Chinese, are said to have employed the compass to guide them through the track- less sands of the desert, or to enable them at the hours of prayer to direct their faces with precision towards the city of Mecca and the tomb of the prophet. Yet the navigations of the Arabians were as timid and as linger- ing as those of other nations, and never acquired that bold- ness and enterprise which among a seafaring people must have inevitably resulted from so fortunate a discovery. In the sixteenth century, moreover, when the Portuguese first visited the Indian seas, they found that the Arabians, the chief navigators of those seas, steered wholly by the stars or by the land, quite ignorant of the compass. Some affirm, that king Solomon and the Hebrews were acquainted with the compass, while others say as much for the Hindoos. But setting aside these ill-supported pretensions, it may in general be admitted, that the germs of this as well as of many other useful inventions may have long lingered in the East, without arriving at that stage of mature perfection, without which it con- tinued practically worthless. The phenomena of nature are as frequent and as obvious in China as in Italy^ and the seeds of art and knowledge were widely scattered on CHAP. IX. DISCCVERIES OF THE PORTUOUESE. 349 the lap of human nature^ before they were called into life by the fructifying genius of the West. Although the claims of the Arabians to the merit of being the discoverers of the comppss cannot be fully ad- mittedj yet there is strong reason to believe that they were familiarly acquainted with the rudiments of the invention. The earliest mention made of the mariner's compass by a European writer occurs in the works of Guiot de Provins, a troubadour or Provencal poet, who spent some time at the court of Frederic Barbarossa, in 1181. The poet here not only mentions the magnet, its property of turning to the pole, and its being sus- pended, but he also adds that it is useful to direct the mariner through the ocean.^ It is again expressly no- ticed by the cardinal de Vitry in 1204, as the well- known guide of seamen. Already in the middle of the thirteenth century the mariner's compass was in general use among the Spanish navigators t : now the learning and poetic vein of the troubadours, and every proficiency in art of the Spanish nation in the thirteenth century, were unquestionably derived from the civilisation of the Moors; ancl it may therefore be presumed that this people were not ignorant of the compass. In a letter written by Peter Adsiger, a German phy- sician, and dated in 1269, the writer gives a minute and elaborate account of the construction of the mariner's compass ; and it is worthy of notice, that he also points out the declination of the needle, or the inexplicable cir- cumstance of its deviating more or less m its direction from the true north. Thus it is evident, that Gioja can- not be considered as the first inventor of the mariner's compass, but merely as its improver, or the person who showed all the advantages that might be expected from its adoption. Yet the change which the employment of this instrument was destined to produce in the character of navigation was not instantaneous;— mariners at first adopted the compass as a useful companion, and not as the sole guide. <' Claude Fauchct, Recueil de I'Orig. de la iliang. Frang. p. 55.5. + Capmanjr, Quest. Crit. Quest. 11. I 350 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. ' The compass, it has been seen from the narrative of the Zeni; was employed by the Scandinavian mariners in their voyages to the western seas in the fourteenth cen- tury. The great fisheries of the northern seas were in former ages, as well as at present, the chief school of expert and hardy seamen ; and they also gave rise to a close correspondence between the Hanse Towns and the commercial repubhcs of Italy. It is not at all surpris- ing, therefore, that every improvement made by the Italians in the arts of ship-building and navigation were immediately communicated to the North, or that ships were constructed in the fifteenth century in the ports of England, equalling in size and solidity the celebrated carracks of Venice. Among the events which had an important influence in directing the energies of western Europe, the wars between the Spaniards and the Moors must not be over- looked. The Arabians had carried with them into Spain their Oriental customs and their magnificence ; and their mercantile operations extended, it has been seen, quite across the old world, from the Atlantic to China, and from the interior of Africa to the heart of Siberia. In Spain the luxury of the Moorish princes was carried to the highest pitch. In that country all the austere pre- cepts of the Koran appear to have been relaxed, and religion caused little restriction on the wants arising from refinement. The great trade of the Arabians filled Spain with the productions of the East. The Spanish nation could not f&il to receive the contagion of luxury even from enemies ; buttheir intercourse with the Moors was not always hostile, and the manners of the polished courts of Seville and Grenada were naturally imitated by the Christian princes of Arragon and Castile. The degree in which the Moors retained the sumptu- ous habits of the East, and how well they supplied their wants by their trade with the Levant, are manifested in one remarkable event. After the great victory obtained by the Christians in 1340, near Tarifa, over the com- bined forces of the kings of Grenada and Morocco, an 1 : 4>^ OHAP. IX. mSCOVEBIES OF THE P0BTUQUE8E. 351 • ICO, immense booty w^as found in the camp of the vanquished. Independent of the silks, the cloth of gold, and precious stones, divided by the conquerors, the quantity of gold and silver, both coined and in ingots, "was so great, that the value of those precious metals is said to have fallen one sixth part in consequence, throughout the dominions both of Spain and France. In the same age the Spa- niards had acquired the taste for all the rare productions of the East. MTien Alphonso XI. entered Seville in 1334, the streets through which he lode were hung with silk and cloth of gold, and the richest perfumes were burned in all the houses. The sumptuary laws enacted by the same monarch were unable to prevent even the men from decking their clothes with pearls. The. c' can be little doubt that the pearls, perfumes, and other commodities of Eastern luxury were brought into Spain chiefly by the Moors ; and that as the hosti- lities between this people and the Spaniards became daily more ^.nbittered and implacable, the supply of the luxu- ries now come into vogue grew continually lesp adequate to the demand. The markets of Venice ana Genoa could hardly have been so copiously stocked or so advan- tageous to the Spanish merchants as those offered by the Moors. It appears, therefore, that the expulsion of the Moors from the peninsula of Spain may be reckoned among the motives for seeking a new course to India by the ocean. But the Portuguese were the first to feel the whole force of this incentive : they were the first to drive the Moors completely from their dominions j and not con- tented with gaining this advantage, they pursued the fugitives to the shores of Africa. John I., king of Portugal, attended by his sons and principal nobility, made a descent on Africa in 1415, and took the city of Ceuta from the Moors. On his return he conferred on his fifth son, Don Henry, the dukedom of Vi-seo, and appointed him governor of the recent conquests as the reward of his valour and ability. Don Henry was an able and active-minded prince, who united the accom- 352 GEOGRAPHY OF TUE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. ■1 I plishments of the scholar to those of the cavalier^ and was well versed in all the learning of the day. He appears to have early contracted a passion for maritime enter- prise; and the political situation of Portugal left no choice as to the quarter towards which his energy should be directed. While residing in Africa he received much information from the Moors, respecting the populous nations of the interior of Africa and of the Jalofs bor- dering on the coast of Guinea : he justly concluded that these might be arrived at by the ocean, and resolved to overcome by perseverance the difficulties of the navi- gation. In 1412, or three years before the reduction of Ceuta, Don Henry had sent a vessel to explore the coast of Africa. This expedition, which was not attended with any signal success, deserves notice, as being the first voykge of discovery undertaken by the Portuguese. The prince despatched a vessel every year with orders to pro- ceed as far as possible along the African coast ; and, animated by the example of his zeal, the mariners soon doubled Cape Non, which, as its name implies, had hitherto been the impassable boundary of their navigations. But beyond this a still more formidable obstacle arose before their eyes : the bold projection of Cape Bojador, with its violent currents and raging breakers running for miles out to sea, seemed a barrier which could not be even approached with safety by seamen steering near the shore. In 1418, John Gonzales Zarco and Tristram Vaz Texeira, gentlemen of Don Henry's household, perceiv- ing the anxiety of the prince to prosecute the discovery of the co^st of Africa, volunteered their services in an expedition to double Cape Bojador and sail beyond it towards the south. They steered, according to the usual custom, along the coast, and must have failed in the proper object of their voyage, but accident compens- ated their want of skill or courage : a violent gale arose which drove them far out to sea ; they had completely lost sight of land, and thought their fate inevitable, when, as the wind fell and the stonn abated during the night. t OBAP. IX. DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 353 pcovery in an ^ond it I to the liled in ipens- arose Ipletely when, 1 night. they saw at hreak of day an island at a little distance from them. To this island, from the circumstance of their fortunate escape, they gave the name of Puerto Santo. Overjoyed at their discovery, they hastened back to Portugal, a,nd related to the prince all the incidents of their voyage. They described the genial soil and cl:mate of the newly-discovered island, the simplicity and inof- fensive manners of its inhabitants ; and requested per- mission to make a settlement upon it. Don Henry, willing to reward their success, and deeming the situation of the island advantageous for the prosecution of his schemes, immediately yielded to their desires. A new expedition was fitted out, consisting of three vessels, which were respectively commanded by Zarco, Vaz, and Bartholomew Perestrello, a nobleman of the prince's household. These commanders were ordered to plant a colony in Puerto Santo, and were provided with all the seeds and implements which were necessary for their purpose. They also carried with them, unfortunj^tely, some rabbits, which being turned loose upon the island, multiplied with such astonishing rapidity, that in two years' time they were numerous enough to destroy all the vegetation of the island, and to cause it to be aban • doned by the infant colony. As soon as the settlement was effected, Perestrello returned to Portugal to make his report to the prince. Vaz and Zarco remained upon the island : while staying there, they observed from time to time a dark spot in the horizon, which, though it varied occasionally in distinctness, never changed its position with regard to Puerto Santo. They embarked, sailed towards this dim object, and found an island of considerable size, of most enchanting appearance, quite uninhabited, but covered with immense woods; and from this latter circumstance they gave it the name of Madeira. Having carefully examined the island, our voyagers returned to Portugal with the welcome intelligence of their discovery ; and described in such glowing terms the superiority of this new island above all that had been hitherto found, that VOL. I. A A S54i GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. I i :■! don Henry resolved to establish a colony on it^andjudi* ciously selected the vine and sugar-cane as the proper ol\jects of its cultivation But the Portuguese adventurers Vaz and Zarco can only be allowed the merit of re-discovering the island of Madeira, which, it is probable, was obscurely known to seamen in the middle of the fourteenth century. It is said, that about the year 1344, an Englishman named Macham, flying with the fair Anne Dorset from the persecutions to which he was exposed from the anger of her relations, sought through the ocean some place of tranquil security, and was driven by a tempest to the shores of Madeira. Here he landed with his friends, to rest a little from the fatigues of the voyage; but the vessel in which he had arrived put to sea again without his Knowledge, deserting him and his companions. The lady died of grief, and Macham, unable to bear this last calamity, expired on her grave five days afterwards. The survivors of the company fixed a large wooden cross with a rude inscription over the common grave of the unfortunite lovers; and constructing a canoe, found means to reach Morocco, whence they were sent into Spain. Wliatever doubts may be raised with respect to the truth of this romantic story, it is evident that it betrays some acquaintance with the island of Madeira, which Portuguese writers agree to make the scene of the adventure. They add, that the port and district of Machico take their name from the inscription found there on the tomb of Macham. About the year 1 395, some adventurers of Andalus.' ',, Biscay, and Guipuscoa, formed an association at Seville, and, with the p^ vmis :«on of king Henry III. of Castile, equipped a sqiicdron of five v ^sels, with which they visited the Canary islands, plundering all the popidous districts, and carrying off, as captives, the king and queen of Lancerote with about seventy of the inhabitants. After they had loaded their vessels with wax and the. skins of animals, the chief productions of these islands, tliey returned to Seville, where they realised a large pro- . OIIAP. IX. DI8C0VEEIES OF THE PORTUOUESE. 35.5 :| fit by the adventure. They informed the king of the facility with which the conquest of those islands might be effected, and thus inflamed the avidity of the enter- prising and needy. A few years later the dominion of the Canary islands, together with the title of king, was granted by the king of Castile to a Norman baron, John de Betancourt, who renewed his oath and homage on account of this estate to John II. in 1412. It does not appear that the Norman baron ever completed the con- quest of those islands ; and his successors, a little after, sold the Canaries to don Henry of Portugal for an estate in the island of Madeira. It is remarkable, that previous to this enterprise of John de Betancourt, Norman adventurers had explored tlie western shores of Africa even as far as Sierra Leone; and the baron, before he had completely fixed himself in his insular dominion, ran along the coast from Cape Cantin to the Rio do Ouro, which is beyond Cape Boja- dor, made some captives, gathered information respect- ing the harbours, and even projected the erection of a fort to lay the country under contribution. But so unequal and imperfect was the diffusion of knowledge in those ages, that the Portuguese navigators, prompted by the instructions and encouraged by the patronage of an enlightened prince, long despaired of accomplishing what had already been achieved by the Norman pirates. At length in 1433 one Gilianez, a na- tive of Lagos, succeeded in making the passage round Cape Bojador; and on his return reported, contrary to the prevailing opinion, that the sea beyond that formi- dable cape was perfectly susceptible of navigation, and that the soil and climate were equally excellent. A little before this time don Henry had succeeded in procuring from the pope, Martin V., a grant, which at the present day would seem equally extravagant in itp terms and in the authority whence it issued. The sovereign pontiff" made a perpetual donation to the crown of Portugal of all lands or Islands which had been, or might be, disco- vered between Cape Bojador and the East Indies, and A A 2 ,A' 856 OBOORAPHY OF THE MIDOLS AGES. BOOK III. granted at the same time a plenary indulgence for the iouls of all who might perish in the prosecution of an enterprise calculated to rescue those extensive regions from the hands of infidels and pagans. Thus prince Henry enlisted in his favour that religious enthusiasm which was among the most powerful principles of ac- tion in his age, and obtained a title to the exclusive pos- session of his discoveries, the validity of which was fbr a long time acknowledged by the courts of Europe. In 1441 don Henry sent Antonio Gonzales and Nuno Tristan to continue the discoveries. The latter of these advanced as far as Cape Blanco, about a hun- dred and fifty leagues beyond Cape Bojador. They captured ten or a dozen Moors in this expedition ; some of whom were persons of rank and opulence, who pro- mised a handsome price for their liberation, if allowed to return to their native country. Gonzales was therefore despatched the following year, with instructions to land the Moors on the spot where they had been found. As soon as the vessel arrived on the coast, and it was known that the captives were on board, their friends assembled and paid their ransom in gold dust and negro slaves, — both, objects of curiosity and admiration to the Portuguese. From the circumstance of receiving the gold dust here, Gonzales gave the name of Rio do Ouro, or Gold River, to the arm of the sea in which his ship was anchored. The negroes, about thirty in number, were carried to Lisbon, where they caused the most lively astonishment among the people. It is supposed that Tristan in this last voyage discovered the island of Arguin, some of the Cape Verd islands, and examined the coast as far as Sierra Leone. The small quantity of gold dust brought home from the Rio do Ouro inflamed to a wonderful degree the spirit of adventure. The negroes called attention to a new world; and to have reached the countries which they inhabited was a striking proof of the progress of Portu- guese navigation. At first, when the Portuguese endea- voured to advance beyond Cape Non, they found bare OHAP. IX. DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 357 deserts extending to the shore, uncheered by vegetation or the abodes of men ; and they had some reason to fear that the opinion of those who thought the regions of the torrid zone to be uninhabitable might finally prove true: but when they reached the fertile countries near the Senegal, and found the country grow more populous as they proceeded farther south, their confidence revived, and they felt assured that nature placed no such insuper- able barriers to their progress. Don Henry, seeing that his labours now began to turn to some account, listened to the proposals of some inha- bitants of Lagos, who, actuated by views of interest, equipped in 1444 six caravels, with which they sailed towards the coast of Guinea. Want of provisions com- pelled them to return before they had fulfilled their inten- tions; but they brought back a considerable number of negroes whom they had captured during the voyage. The rumour of these discoveries, and of the great profit resulting from them, drew into Portugal a multitude of strangers, particularly Italians, who were then reckoned among the most skilful and experienced seamen. The prince received favourably all who were recommended to him by their superior knowledge of astronomy and navigation, and gladly availed himself of their talents and acquirements. In 1444 he sent Vicente de Lagos and Aloisio de Cada Mosto, the latter a Venetian gen- tleman, to examine the African seas. After visiting the Canary and Madeira islands, these navigators directed their course to Cape Blanco and the Gambia, where they found Antonio di Nola, a Genoese, examining that coast by the orders of the prince. They then joined company and returned home. Cada Mosto made a second voyage in 1446, and afterwards published an account of his voyages, which was read with great interest, and procured him deservedly a very high reputation. He makes us acquainted with the great success which attended at the outset the colonies of Madeira and the Canary islands. The soil yielded seventy for one; and the vineyards and sugar-plantations of Madeira had AA 3 i .^58 OEOORAPIIY OF TUB MIDDLB A0E8. BOOK III. M already become in the highest degree productive. Orr^hil for dyeing, and fine goat-skins were exported from Ca- nary The native Canarians were surpriumfrly agile, being accustomed to traverse the cliffs of thei' rugged mountains. They could skip from rock to rock like goats, and sometimes took leaps of surprising extent and dan- ger. They threw stones with great strength and wonderftil exactness, so as to hit whatever they aimed at with al- most perfect certainty, and nearly with the force of a musket-ball. The Canaries were tolerably populous previous to the arrival of Mi e Portuguese; the Ouanches or native inhabitants of the Great Canary being estimated at nine, and those of Teneriffe at fifteen thousand. Respecting th( Moors who inhabit the deserts oppo- site the island of Arguin, Cada Mosto relates that they frequent the country of the negroes, and also visit that sid^ of Barbary which is next the Mediterranean. On these expeditions they travel in numerous caravans, with great trains of camels, carrying silver, brass, and other articles, to Timbuctoo and the country of the negroes, whence they bring back gold and melhegatte or cardauium seeds. The Arabs of the coast had also many Uarhavy horses, which they brought to the country of the negroes, and bartered with the great men for slaves ; i-eceiving from ten to eighteen men for each horse^ according to their qualities. Some of these slaves were sold in Tunis and other places on the coast of Barbary ; and the rest were brought to Arguin, and disposed of to the licensed Portuguese traders, who purchased between seven and eight hundred every vsar, and sent them for sale into Portugal. Before the establishment of this trade at Arguin, the Portuguese used to send every year four or more caravels to the bay of Arguin, the crews of which, landing well armed in the night, used to sur- prise the fishing villages and carry off the inhabitants into slavery. They even penetrated sometimes a consi- derable way into the interior, and carried off the Arabs of both sexes, whom they sold as slaves in Portugal. . I'he wandering Arabs to the north of the Senegal are called, by Cada Mosto, A«anhaji, or wanderers of the BOOK III. ve. Drf'hil I from Ca- njrly agile, lei; rugged like goats, t and dan- wonderfbl at with al- force of a populous Ouanches ; estimated sand. erts oppo* I that thej > visit that lean. On caravans, brass, and try of the relhegatte had also it country men for ach horse^ aves were Barbary ; >8ed of to between them for :his trade year four crews of to sur- habitants a consi- he Arabs tugal. negal are rs of the CHAP. IX. DI8C0VERI1S8 OP THE PORTVOVE8E. 359 desert. They had a singular custom of folding a hand- ■ kerchief round their heads in such a manner that a ■part of it concealed the nose and mouth ; for they deemed it improper to let their mouths be seen, except when eating. The Tuaricks, who inhabit the oases of the Great Desert, have tlie same custom, wrapping up their faces in such a manner as to conceal every feature but the eyes. Many of the Azanhiyi informed our Venetian traveller, that when they first saw ^^ ipg under sail, they took them for large birds wit I wiiite wings that had come from foreign countries w en the sails were furled, they conjectured, froi ^reat length, and from their swimming on the wau.^ tiiat they must be great fishes. Others again believed that they were spirits that wandered about by night, because they were seen at anchor in the evening at one place, and would be seen next morning a hundred miles off, either pro- ceeding along the coast towards the south, or putting back according to the wind, or other circumstances. They could not conceive how any thing human could travel more in one night than they themselves were able to perform in three days ; by which consideration they were confirmed in the belief that the ships were spirits. Cada Mosto was informed that there was a place called Tegazxa, about six days' journey from Hoden, where large quantities of salt were dug up every year and carried on camels to Timbuctoo, and thence to the empire of Melli belonging to the negroes. On arriving there the merchants disposed of their salt in the course of eight days, and then returned with their gold. He was assured, that in the countries under the equator certain seasons of the year were so excessively hot, that the blood of the inhabitants would putrefy if it were not for the salt, and they would all die. From Melli the salt was carried on men's heads to the border of a certain water, — whether sea, lake, or river, Cada Mosto was unable to ascertain. When arrived at the water- side, the proprietors of the salt placed their shares in heaps in a row at small distances, setting each a parti- AA 4) ■ ^, w IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I I 125 l^iai 125 IS 1^ 12.0 u u i. lUUU Ui Ui |2.2 HI i 11^ I 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 87^-4503 $60 OaoOBAPHT or THIS MIDDLE AQE8. BOOKiA c^lar mark on his own heap; and thia being done, the whole company retired half a day's journey from the place. Then the other negroes, who were the pur- chaseis of the salt, and who seemed to be the inhabit- ants of certain islands, but who would not on any ac- count allow themselves to be seen or spoken to, came in boats to the place where the heaps of salt were placed ; and, after laying a sum of gold on each h&Kp as its pric^ retired in their turn. When they were gone, the ownen of the salt came back ; and if the quantity on the heaps was satisfactory to them, they took it away and left the salt ; if not, diey left both and witb.drew again. " lu this manner," says Cada Mosto, " they carry on thdir traffic, without seeing or speaking to each other; and this custom is very ancient among them, as has been affirmed to me for truth by several merchants of the desm, both Moors and Azaoihaji, aiid other creditaUe persons." On approaching the Senegal, our voyager was aslo« nished to find how abrupt a change appeared in the face of nature on passing from one side of tnat river to the other ; '' for on the south side of the river," he ob- serves, " the inhabitants are aU exceedingly black, tall, lobust, and well-proportioned ; and the country is all clothed in fine verdure and full of fruit-trees; whereas on the north side of the river the men are tawny, meagre> and of small stature, and the country is all dry and barren. This river," he adds, '' is, in the Ofnnion of the learned, a branch of the Gihon, which flows from the Terrestrial Paradise, and was named the Niger by the ancients, and which, running through the whole of Ethiopia, divides into many branches as it approaches the ocean in the West. The Nile, which is anotheir branch of the Gihon, flows into the Mediterranean." This belief, that the chief rivers of Africa and Asia flowed from common sources in some distant Ethiopian |and^ aeems to have suffered little change from the days iif Lucan and Virgil to those of Cada Mosto. About ei^ty miles beyond the Senegal our voyagwf OHAP. IX. DISOdVERIES OF THE PORTVOVESE. S6l •itived at the territory of a chief called Budomel, who appears to have been well known to the Portuguese as a great purchaser of European commodities. He received Cada Mosto with civility and attention ; and the Vene- tian lived for four weeks on the hospitality of the ne- groes. The table of Budomel, according to the custom of the country, was supplied by his wives, each of whom sent him a certain number of dishes every day. He and his nobles ate on the ground without any r^ularity or social forms. Cada Mosto once ventured to declare to him, in the presence of all his doctors, that the religion of Mahomet was false, and the Romish the only true faith : at this the Arabs were exceedingly enraged ; but king Budomel only laughed, and observed, " that the re- ligion of the Christians was unquestionably good, as none but God could have gifted them with so much riches and understanding ; " but yet he added, with some diow of reason, '' that inasmuch as God is just, and the Christians possess aU the good things of this life^ the n^roes have a better chance of inheriting the heavenly paradise." The women of this country appeared to the Venetian extremely pleasant and merry, especially the young ones : they delighted in singing and dancing by moonlight. Quitting the country of king Budomel^ Cada Mosto doubled Cape Verd, and sailed to the south along the coast. '^ The land/' he says, '' is here all low, and full of fine large trees, which are continually green, as the new leaves are grown before the old cnet) fall off, and they never wither like the trees in E'jjrope; they grow also so near the shore, that ihey seem to drink^ as it were, the water of the sea. The coast is most beautiful, insomuch that I never saw any thing compa- rable to it, though I have sailed much in the Levant and in the western parts of Europe. It is well watted every where by small riv«%, which are useless for trade^ however, as they do not admit vessels of any size." The narrative of Cada Mosto is in itself extremely entertain- ing ; and it also shows the complete success that attended the exertions of the Portuguese prince^ who Uved to re<» S62 OBOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AOE8. BOOK III. c^ve from his own servants an accurate account of the n^ro countries, and to see a considerable trade and flourishing colonies, the worthy progeny of his en- lightened labours. In the year 1449 l^ing Alphonso granted a license to his uncle don Henry to colonise the Azores, which had been discovered by the Flemings and the Portuguese some years before. The settlements made on the Cape Verd, the Madeira, and Canary islands, formed so many schools of seamen, and afforded numerous inci- dental opportunities for the promotion of maritime disco- veries. Every year new expeditions were fitted out, and the limit of navigation to the south was uniformly though but slowly receding. Don Henry had resided for many years at Sagres on Cape St. Vincent, where the Atlan- tic, spread before his eyes, continually called up to his contemplation his favourite schemes of ge<^raphical dis- covery. In this favourite retreat he expired in 1463, in the sixty-seventh year of his age ; and the activity of maritime enterprise was in consequence suspended for some years. During a long period of fifty-two years this patriotic prince devoted almost his whole attention, and the am- ple revenues which he enjoyed as duke of Viseo and grand master of the military order of Christ, to his fa- vourite scheme of extending the maritime knowledge of bis country and promoting the discovery of the coasts of Africa. No very brilliant success, indeed, at any time rewarded his perseverance or the courage of his servants ; but he laid an indestructible fou> on of useful know- ledge, too solid to give way to « ignorant prejudices of the age ; and he united so many plans of immediate utility with his great project of discovery, as prevented the latter from ever falling into oblivion. The labours of his life had succeeded only in discovering about fifteen hundred miles of coast, for none of his servants had reached before his death within six or eight degrees of the equator; but the numerous successive efforts made under his commands, prove his solid conviction of the N OOK III. eHAP. Z. PAWAOE BY THE CAPE DISCOVERED. 36$ of the \de find tiis en- :ense to ich had tuguese le Cape tned so us inci- e disco- mtj and though , »r many ! Adan- to his ical dis- [463, in ivity of ded for )atriotic the am- leo and his Pl- edge of coasts ny time nrants ; know- ijudices nediate svented lahours ; fifteen Its had Tees of made of the possibility of extending the limits of navigation towards the south, and his unwearied perseverance in com- bating the obstacles that prevented the completion of his schemes. «!l CHAP. X. THE PASSAOE BY THE CAPE DISCOVERED. TH£ PORTDGUS8K ERKCT A TORT ON THK GOLD COAST. TtOUK INTERVIEW WtTH THE NATIVE FHINCE. THE POPe's GRANT. — VOYAGE OF DIVGO CAM. — VISITS CONGO. BRINGS HOME .. NATIVES. KINO OF CONGO FAVOURS THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. '—THE KING OF BENIN DESIRES MISSIONARIES. FRINCB OOANE. — PRESTER JOHN IN AFRICA. ORIGIN OF THIS BELIEF EXPLAINED. NEW EXPEDITIONS. BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ DIS> COVERS THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. COVILHAM AND PATVA DESPATCHED TO INDIA. —COVILHAM VISITS SOFALA. ASCEft" TAINS THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE PASSAGE. DETAINED IN ABYSSINIA. VASCO DE GAHA. ARRIVAL AT MOZAMBIQUE. — QUILOA. — MELIND\. INDIAN FILOT.^REACHES CALICUT. — 'THE ZAMOUIN. ARTS OF THE MOORS. -DANGER OF QAMA. — . ESCAPES. — ARRIVES AT LISBON. — HIS RECEPTION. After the decease of don Henry, the illustrious pro- moter of maritime discovery, the progress of the Por- tuguese along the coast of Africa received a considerable check, as the attention of Alphonso V. was wholly en- grossed by his quarrels with the court of Castile. Ever since the year 1453 considerable importations of gold had been made to Portugal from the coast of Africa, but the efforts to extend discoveries farther to the south appear to have been remitted about the same time. In 1469 a merchant named Fernando Gomez farmed the Guinea trade from king Alphonso for the yearly rent of five hundred ducats, and bound himself at die same time to extend the discovery of the coast five hundred leagues to the south during the period of his exclusive privilege. During this time were discovered the islands of Fernando Po, Prince's Isle, St. Thomas, and Ad- 564 OB06RAPHT OF THB MIDDLB AGES. BOOK III. nobon : the last and a half of the ng within a d^ equator. No detailed relations remain of the several yoyages in which these discoveries were effected ; but it appears that during the period which elapsed between the death of don Henry in 1463 and that of king Alphonso, which took place in 1481, the navigations of the Por- tuguese along the coast of Africa had made a great ad- vancement; comprehending the whole coast of Guinea^ with its gulfs named the Bights of Benin and Biafra^ the adjacent islands, and the shore extending southwarde to the northern frontier of the kingdom of Congo. On the accession of John II. to the throne of Por- tugal in 1481, the discoveries along the coast of Africa were resumed with fresh spirit. The revenues of John, while he was infante or hereditary "orince, flowed prin- cipally from the profits of the Guinea trade or the im- portation of gold from the haven of Mina ; and among the first measures of his reign, he turned his attention to the improvement and extension of that valuable branch of commerce. For this purpose he gave orders to construct a fortress and church at the port of Mina. All the requisite materials were shipped from Lisbon in a' squadron of ten caravels and two transports, with 500 soldiers and 200 labourers or workmen of various kinds. The expedition was placed under the command of don Diego d'Azambuja, a brave and experienced officer. As soon as the armament reached the coast of Guinea, Azambuja sent forward a person well acquainted with the country to apprize Camaran9a, the negro chief of the district, of their arrival, and to desire a conference with him. Early next morning the Portuguese disem- barked, carrying their arms concealed upon their persons, lest they might unexpectedly meet with hostilities from the natives. They then marched forward in pompous array to a great tree not far from the negro village of Aldea, and •where a spot had been selected as a convenient situation CHAP. X. PABSAOB BY THI OAPB DIMOVBRBD. 86S I from y to a i&f and aUon for the intended fortress. A flag bearing the /oyal arms of Portugal was immediately displayed upon the tree^ and an altar was placed under the shade of its boughs, at which the whole company assisted in cele- brating mass and offering up their prayers for the speedy conversion of the natives and the prosperity of the church which was to be erected on this spot. No sooner was this religious ceremony finished than Camaran9a was seen approaching with a numerous re- tinue. Azambuja, sumptuously dressed, and orna- mented with a rich golden collar, prepared to receive the negro chief with the most imposing solemnity : he seated himself on an elevated chair like a throne, hav«* ing all his train arranged before him so as to form an avenue. The negroes were armed with spears, shields, bows, and arrows, and wore a kind of helmet made of skin thickly studded with fish teeth, which gave them a very martial appearance. The subordinate chiefs were distinguished by chains of gold hanging from their necks, and had various golden ornaments on their heads, and even on their beards. After the exchange of pre- sents and other tokens of mutual respect and confidence, Azambuja addressed a speech to Camaranfa through the medium of an interpreter, in which he explained the purpose of his embassy and expedition ; and used every argument he could think of to conciliate the friendship of the negro chief, to make him fully sensible of the power of the king of Portugal, and to reconcile him to the permanent establishment which was meditated on the coast. Camaran9a listened to the harangue and the explanation of it by the interpreter in respectful silence, keeping his eyes steadily fixed on the counte- nance of Azambi^ja. After which, casting his eyes for some time on the ground as if profoundly meditating what course he ought to pursue, he made the following guarded and judicious answer : — <' I am fuUy sensible of the high honour done me on this occasion by your sovereign. I have always endea- voured to deserve his friendship, by dealing justly with 866 GKOORAPHY or TMU MIDDLE AOEl. BOOK UK hU Bubjecta; and by conitantly exerting myself to pro« cure immediate ladings for their ships. Hitherto the Portuguese who have visited these shores v ere meanly dressed and easily satisfied with the commodities we had to give them ; and so far from desiring to remain here^ were always anxious to complete their cargoes and to return to the country whence they came. But this day I observe a wonderful difference. A multitude of per-* sons richly dressed eagerly demand permission to - build themselves houses and to remain among us. ^ Assuredly persons of such rank would never be able to endure the hardships of our climate ; and they could not procure in this country the luxuries to which they have been accustomed in their own. Those passions , which are common to all men will certainly produce ^^ disputes between us; and it were much better that we ' should continue on the same footing as hitherto, allow- ing your ships to come and go as they have always done heretofore; in which case, the desire of seeing each other occasionally, and the mutual advantages of trade, : will preserve peace between us. The sea and the land, : which are neighbours, are always at variance, each con- - tending for the mastery ; the sea violently endeavoprs to subdue the land, which with equal obstinacy defends itself against the encroachments of the sea." The jealousy and distrust displayed on this occasion by Camaran9a surprised and perplexed the Portuguese commander ; and it required the exercise of much ad- dress on his part to prevail on the negro chief to allow .\ the fulfilment of his orders, and to prevent the necessity of resorting to measures of compulsion. When the workmen were next day making preparations to lay the foundations of the intended fortress on the coast, they observed a large rock which was commodiously situated to serve them as a quarry, and accordingly proceeded to work it for that purpose. It happened, however, un- fortunately, to be an object of veneration to the n^roes, who immediately flew to arms to oppose the impious violation of the sacred stone, and severed of the workmen OUAP. X. PASBAOB BY THE CAPK DI800VEBBD. 367 were wounded before the irritated natives could be ap- peased by presents and excuses. At length, after the constant labour of twenty days, the fort began to assume a formidable appearance, and received, when completed,' the name of Fort St. George of Mina. In a church consecrated within its walls a solemn mass was ap- pointed to be celebrated annually in honour of the illus- trious Don Henry, to whom the Portuguese owed their acquaintance with this country. Azambuja continued governor of this place during two years and seven months, and was honoured, on his return to Portugal, with par- ticular marks of royal favour. Deeply impressed with the important consequences that might be derived fro;n the prosecution of discovery along the coasts of Africa, and especially of opening a passage by sea to India, of which he now had sanguine hopes, the king of Portugal, who had lately added to his other titles that of Lord qf Guinea, applied to the pope for a confirmation of those grants which had been already conceded in the lifetime of don Henry. The sovereign pontiff^, proud of an opportunity of exercising his high prerogatives, by which he pretended to dispose of king- doms and define the rights of the greatest princes, strictly prohibited all Christian powers from intruding within those prodigious and indefinite bounds which he had bestowed upon the crown of Portugal. A few years afterwards, when it was rumoured that some £i>^:;hh-' men were preparing to make a voyage to Guinea, the king of Portugal sent an ambassador to Edward IV. of England, to explain to him the tenour of the pope's grant, and to induce him to prevent his subjects from navigating to the coasts of Africa. The king of Eng- land admitted the justice of the argument, and granted the request. Hitherto the Portuguese navigators, in the course of their voyages along the shores of western Africa, had been accustomed to erect wooden crosses as indi- cations of their respective discoveries ; but the king now ordered that they should erect stone crosses, about six feet high, inscribed with the arms of Portugal, the name S68 OKOORAPHT or THB MIDDLE AGBt. BOOK lit. of the reigning sovereign, that of the navigator, and the date of the discovery. In the year 1484 Diego Cam or Cano advanced be- yond Cape dt. Catherine, the last discovery made in the reign of king Alphonso, and reached the mouth of a considerable river called Zayre by t* e natives, but after- wards named the Congo. Diego proceeded a little distance up this river, till he met with some of the natives ; but he was unable to procure any satisfactory intelligence firom them, their language not being understood by the negro interpreters on board his ship. By msans of signs^ however, he learned that the country was under the dominion of a king who resided at a considerable dis- tance from the coast, in a town or city called Banza, since named San Salvador by the Portuguese ; on which he sent a party of his crew, conducted by the natives^ with a considefable present to the king, intending at the same time to await their return. As they, however, were detained by unavoidable circumstances far beyond the period that was expected, Diego resolved to proceed to Portugal with an account of his discovery ; and having gained the confidence of the natives, he prevailed on four of them to embark with him, that they might be in- structed in the Portuguese language to serve as inter- preters in the future intercourse with this newly discovered region ; and he made the people understand by means of signs that in fifteen moons the persons whom he carried away should be returned in safety. These Africans were men of some consequence in their own country, and were endowed with such natural quick- ness of understanding, that they acquired during the voy- age to Lisbon a sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language to be able to give a competent account of their own country and of the kingdoms or regions beyond it towards the south. The king of Portugal was exceedingly gratified by this discovery, and treated the Africans brought over by Diego with much kindness and munificence. Next year Diego Cam returned to the river Zayre or Congo, where he landed the four natives, who were CHAP. X. PAMAOB BY TRB CAPS DItOOVBRBD. 369 charged with numerous presents from king John tp their own sovereign, and with messages inviting him to embrace the Christian faith. When Diego had landed the AfHcans, and received back his own men whom he had left here on his former voyage, he proceeded to examine the coast to the south of the river Congo. How far he advanced in this voy- age of discovery, is not distinctly mentioned by the Por- tuguese historians. But it appears that either from want of provisions, or from the desire to form a friendly connection with die king of Congo, Diego measured back his way to the river Zayre, where he was received with great distinction by the sovereign of the country. The reports of the negroes who had just returned from Portugal, and the liberal presents which they had brought to him from king John, had made a deep impression on the mind of the African monarch. He made many enquiries respecting the Christian religion ; and being gratified with what he heard of its doctrines and solem- nities, he appointed one of his principal officers, named Cazuta, to accompany Diego Cam as ambassador to king John ; earnestly requesting the king of Portugal to allow this chieftain to be bapitized, and to send some mi- nisters of his holy religion to convert the Africans from their idolatrous errors. Diego Cam arrived safely in Portugal with Cazuta, who was soon afterwards bap- tized by the name of John Silva; the king and queen of Portugal condescending to be his spr ksors at die holy font : this ceremony was closed with the baptism of his sable attendants. A sliort time previous to this event, Alphonso de Aviero had brought to Portugal an ambas- sador from the king of Benin, who requested that some missionaries might be sent for the conversion of his subjects. This request was immediately complied with; and although tlie fickle and designing African prince thwarted the missionaries in every possible way^ yet a great many negroes of that country were actually converted. From the negro ambassador the king of Portugal VOL. I. B D ' H70 OBOORAPHY OF THB MIDDLB AOWM. BOOK III. received the following curious intelligence : — Twenty moons (which according to their rate of travelling might be about two hundred and fifty leagues) to the east of Benin there was a powerful king, called Ogani, who was held by the pagan chiefs of that country in the same veneration that Uie sovereign pontiff was held in by the kings of Europe. According to long established custom, at the death of the kinr; of Benin, his successor sent am- bassadors to Ogand with a large present, entreating to be confirmed in the territory of which he was now the rightful heir. Prince Ogand gave him in return a staff and a covering for the head, similar to a Spanish helmet, all of glittering brass, to represent a sceptre and a crown : he idso sent a cross of the same metal, to be worn on the neck, similar to those worn by the com- manders of the order of Saint John. Without these eqsigns the people did not conceive they had a rightful king, or one that was properly a king at all. During the whole stay of the ambassadors Ogane himself re- mained concealed from human eyes, and was never seen by any one, a silk curtain being always drawn before him : only at the time when the ambassador took leave, a foot appeared from behind the curtain j ** to which foot they did homage as to a holy thing." The ambas- sadors were then presented with small crosses similar to those which were sent for the use of the king. On receiving these details, and consulting all his cosmographers, the king of Spain had no doubt that this Ogane must be Prester John, the Christian monarch of the £ast, so long sought in vain. This curious error is not whoUy incapable of explanation ; for there are few fables that have not some share of historical found- ation. It has been seen that Rubruquis, in the thirteenth century, spoke of Prester John as a Mongolian prince, said by the Nestorians to have been converted to Chris- tianity, and whose history in the course of half a cen- tury after his death had become so obscure, that the intelligent monk was unable to learn the particulars of his life. The historians of the East, however, are not lOOK Itl< Twenty J might eist of n^i who he same 1 by the custom, lentam- ng tobe low the etum a Spanish iptre and al, tobe he com- ui; these rightfttl During nself re- ever seen n before ok leave, to which e ambas- imilar to all his lubt that monarch us error lere are il found- hirteenth Q prince, to Chris- If a cen- that the culars of are not CHAP. X. PASSAOB BY THB OAPB DISOOVBRBD. S71 quite silent respecting him. It appears that the Mon« golian tribe, called Keraltes, had embraced Christianity in the beginning of the eleventh century. Their princes were dependent on the Chinese empire, and affixed to their title of Kohan or Khan, king, the Chinese word Wang, which has the same signification: this is the origin of the name Ung Khan or Wang Kohan, which they usually bore. The Syrians in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were scattered all over Asia, and traded from the Mediter^ ranean even as far as China : it may naturally be sup- posed that they were numerous among the Mongolian Christians : now the title Wang Kohan, which was borne by the prince of the Keraites, differs but little in sound from the Syrian expression signifying John the Priest; and by this appellation accordingly Europeans were made acquainted with the Christian potentate of central Asia.* The earliest mention of Prester John occurs in a writer of the twelfth century, who derived his information from the bishop of Gabala in Syria, t AU the early travellers agree in giving the title of Prester John to a prince named Ung or Unc Khan. Rubruquis, indeed, supposed Prester John to be a brother of this prince, hoping, perhaps, to get rid in this way of the confusion of names. The dominions, also, of the Christian monarch were at first unanimously placed in Tatary ; but when Togrul Unc Khan was put to death by his relative Zingis Khan, in 1202, and the religion as well as the kingdom of the Kera'ite princes disap- peared 'n the revolutions which subsequently took place in Asia, European travellers transferred Prester John to any part of the East in which they could find a trace of Christianity. Carpini and many others place this fa- bulous monarch in India, all receiving their inform- ation from those, perhaps, who were but imperfectly acquainted with the solemnities of Christian worship. * Marco Polo observes that " the name Un Khan is thought by some to have the same signification in the Tatar language as tester John in ours." Marsden's Marco Folo, p. 190. The some to whom he alludes were of course Syrians. t Otho of Freysingen. Hist, of Frederic Barbarossa. BB 2 372 OEOaBAPHT OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK in. It was usual in the middle ages to give the name of India to all the distant countries of Asia, whether to the east or south. The ancients confounded^ under the general name of JEthiopiOf or sometimes under that of India^ all the countries, whether in Asia or Africa, which are washed by the Indian ocean. The Arabian, Persian, and Turkish geographers, in like manner, give the name of India to Yemen, and all the southern parts of Arabia near the Indian seas. When the intercourse between Europe and the East was interrupted by the expulsion of the Franks from Syria, and the opportunity no longer existed of enquiring into the history of Prester John, the vague notions entertained respecting that mys- terious personage became still more indistinct from the want of communication with Asia : it was oiily remem- bered that his dominions were situated somewhere in India. The maritime enterprises of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century had the passage to India for their principal object: the route to India at tiiat time lay through Egypt ; and it is not at all extraordinary that travellers passing through that country should suppose the first Christian sovereign they met with to be iS'ester John. Besides, Abyssinia was sometimes called Middle IndiUj as Marco Polo testifies ; and the sovereigns of that country frequently united in their persons the pontifical with the r^al character; it was not, therefore, a capricious error which translated Prester John from Tatary to Abys- sinia, nor did it originate altogether with the Portuguese. In 1444, don Pedro, the regent of Portugal, had pro- posed to his council to send persons in search of the kingdom of Prester John, to solicit his friendship and alliance. The design was approved of, but unfortunate circumstances prevented its execution. When, however, the progress of maritime discovery along the coast of Africa increased the expectation of effecting die passage to India, the expediency of making an alliance with Prester John again came under consideration ; and the ihtelligence received from the negro ambassador respect- ing the prince called Ogane decided the resolution of the tooK in. name of >r to the der the that of Africa^ Irahian, ler, give !m parts tercourse I by the >ortunity f Prester hat mys- From the remem- where in iguese in for their time lay lary that '. suppose e Prester i Middle as of that pontifical apricious to Abys- rtuguese. had pro- ch of the Iship and fortunate however, coast of passage nee with and the respect- on of the CHAP. X. PASBAOB BT THB, OAPB DISCOVERED. 373 Portuguese council. With the double purpose, there- fore, of procuring some information respecting the ports of India, by a journey over-land, and of finding Prester John, the king of Portugal despatched a Franciscan ,friar, named Antonio de Lisboa, with instructions to penetrate into India through Palestine and Egypt ; but being ignorant of the Arabic language, the friar was un- able to proceed beyond Jerusalem, whence he returned to Portugal. Though the king was disappointed in this attempt by the ignorance or want of enterprise of his agent, his resolution was not to be subdued by difficul- ties, and he immediately prepared to make fresh exer- tions both by sea and land for the attainment of his objects. For this purpose he sent Covilham and Payva to attempt the passage to India over-land, and fitted out a small squadron, consisting of two caravels of fifty tons each, and a small store-ship, to prosecute the discoveries by sea. This fleet was placed under the command of Bartholomew Diaz, a knight of the royal household. The preparations being completed, he saUed in the end of August, I486. Having arrived at Sierra Parda, about two degrees beyond the southern tropic, and a hundred and twenty leagues beyond the furthest point visited by preceding navigators, Diaz erected a cross bearing tlie arms of Portugal ; then, with a resolution worthy of the great object which he had in view, he steered due south through the open sea, and lost all sight of land. Forced at length to the east by heavy gales, he approached a bay which he named Dos Vaqueros, or the Shepherds', from the numerous flocks of sheep with their keepers which he descried upon the coast. He was now forty leagues to the east of the Cape, which he had doubled unawares. Continuing his course to the east, he reached an island to which he gave the name of Santa Cruz, because he there erected a second cross. From time to time he sent ashore negroes whom he brought from Portugal, and who were well apparelled, iii order that they might attract the respect of the natives : he also B B 3 f i .. ^74 wjSOORAPHT of the MIDDLB AOEg. BOOK III. gave them merchandise of various kinds to exchange for the produce of the country, and instructed them especially to make enquiries respecting Prester John; hut the na- tives were so savage and so timid that nothing whatever could be learned from them. When the fleet, now reduced to two vessels, reached the bay of Lagoa, the discontentment of the crews broke out into loud mur- murs, insisting on their return. The stock of provisions was exhausted : the small vessel containing the stores had disappeared in the gales. Diaz, ignorant that he had already doubled that Cape which was the object of his search, entreated them to continue the voyage flve- and-twenty leagues farther, representing to them how disgraceful it would be to return without success. The direction of the coast was now due east. The Portu- guese at length arrived at the mouth of a river, which th^y called the Rio do Infantej at present the Great Fish River. But what was the joy and surprise of Diaz abd his companions, when, on their return along the coast, they descried, in the midst of their vexation and disap- pointment, the very promontory which they had so long been seeking in vain. They planted another cross, and dedicated the place to St. Philip. To complete their satisfaction, they fell in with their store ship, which had now only four men remaining of its crew, the remainder having been massacred by the savages on the coast. Diaz, after determining well the position of the Cape, returned to Lisbon, where he arrived in De- cember, 1487} after having discovered above three hun- dred leagues of coast. On account of the violent tempests which he had encountered near the southern promontory, he gave it the name of Cabo Tormentoso, or the Stormy Cape ; but the king, unwilling to deter seamen by such a sinister appellation, and auguring great advantages from this new discovery, gave it the name which it still retainsj — The Cape of Good Hope, Pedro de Covilham had served when young in the wars of Castile, and afterwards, like many noblonen in that age, engaged in commercial pursuits* During his BOOK III. shange for especially It the na- whatever 9eet^ now lagoa, the oud mur- provisions the stores tt that he ! object of yage five- them how ess. The he Portu- 'er, which Treat Fish Diaz abd the coast, tnd disap- id so long ;ross, and lete their p, which crew, the ;es on the on of the in De- iree hun- ; tempests imontory, e Stormy 1 by such Ivantages ch it still ig in the lonen in tiring his OUAP. X. PJ^fiAOE BY THE CAPE niSCOVERED. 375 residence iu > rica he had been employed by his sove' reign to negotiate some treaties with the Moorish kings, and acquired a great reputation for his knowledge and address. King John, who had made him an officer of his household, now selected him as a fit person to go in aeardi of Ogand, or Prester John, whose dominions the Portuguese were led to believe were situated in Abyssinia. Covilham was instructed also to make enquiry whether it was possible to sail to the Indies from the Cape of Good Hope, which Diaz had recently discovered. AI- phonso de Payva was appointed to accompany him; and the two travellers being provided by Calsadilla, bishop of Viseo, with a map in which Africa was described as being bounded on the south by a navigable sea, they took their departure from Lisbon in May, 1487. Their intention was to pass through Egypt. Covilham, who spoke the Arabic language fluently, joined a caravan of Arab merchants from Fez and Tremisen, who conducted him and his companion to Tor, at the foot of Mount Sinai, in Arabia Petraea, where they received some valuable information respecting the trade of Calicut. The two travellers separated at the Arabian sea-port of Aden. Payva passed over into Abyssinia ; and Covilham pro- ceeded to India, to ascertain the truth of the accounts which he had received from the Arab merchants. He was the first Portuguese who explored the seas of India preparatory to the great commercial revolutions that were to follow. Covilham visited Calicut, Cananor, and Goa. He then crossed over to Sofala, on the coast of Africa, in order to examine the celebrated gold mines of that country : there he obtained the first distinct account of the island of the Moon, or Madagascar, as it has been st^sequently caUed. Satisfied vrith what he had disco- vered, he intended returning back to Portugal, when he learned at Cairo the death of Payva, who had been treacherously murdered there. Two Jews had been despatched from Portugal to bring him the intelligence. He immediately resolved to go hims^ in search of Erester John ; with this intention he sent back pne of B8 4 3tS OEOOHAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AOES. BOOK III.' the Jews to Portugal with the notes and itinerary ot his jbumey> accompanied by a map which had been given him by a Moor ; and, attended by the other, he directed his steps to Abyssinia : here he met with the most ho-^ nourable reception from the N^us or king, who derived so much advantage from his superior knowle()ge and intel- ligence, that he obliged him, whether by force or by per- suasion it is not evident, to spend the remainder of his days in Abyssinia. Covilham married a wife, ei\joyed a great fortune, and held the highest offices of the state. In the year 1525, when Rodriguez de Lima went as ambassador to Abyssinia, Covilham was still alive, though now at a great age, having been three-and-thirty years in that country. The old man wept for joy at the sight of his countrymen, who in vain begged permission to take him with them at their departure. ^rom Abyssinia Covilham frequently sent letters to the king of Portugal, who was glad to maintain so in- structive and valuable ft correspondence. He stated, among other things, that there was no doubt as to the possibility of sailing to India from the Cape of Qood Hope, and affirmed that the Cape was well known to Indian and Arabian navigators. Thus the theoretical discovery of the passage by the Cape may be justly attributed to Covilham, as the merit of the practical dis- covery belongs to Vasco de Grama. It was now generally believed that there did not exist any obstacle of importance to prevent the voyage round Amca to the Indian seas. But enterprises of a bold character remain often suspended until some man appears who is fitted to carry them into execution. Five years had elapsed since the discovery of the New World, and ten since that of the Cape of Good Hope, before Ema- nuel, king of Portugal, came to the resolution to send a fleet to India. The person chosen to command it was Vasco de Gama, a gentleman of the court, well known for his prudence, courage, and skill in navigation. Three vessels, carrying in all about sixty men, were fitted out for this greit expedition. Vasco de Gama set sail the CUAP. X. PASSAGE BY THE CAPE DISOOVEREO. 377 ) -'<--••• eighth of July^ 1497 : he steered direct for the Cape Verd isles ; and having cleared them^ directed his course to the south till he came to anchor in the bay of Saint Helena^ on the western coast of Africa^ a little to the north of the Cape of Good Hope. Leaving this bay he arrived in two days at the southern extremity of Africa ; but in his attempt to sail towards the east he had to struggle with the strong south-east winds which blow there continually during the summer season. His crews* disheartened by this unfavourable circumstance, wished to force him to return ; but he found means to soothe their impatience, and by his firmness and address overcame every obstacle. Steering to the east, along the southern shore of Africa, he anchored in the bay of St. Blaise, and arrived a little after at the islet of La Cruz, where the discoveries of Diaz had terminated. Here the coast of Africa be- gins to turn towards the north, and the Portuguese en- tered, for the first time, the Indian seas. Vasco de Gama, whose intention it was to find the countries which Covilham had visited, was careful never to lose sight of land ; and wherever the country seemed to be inhabited he always sent some persons on shore to make enquiries^ or even went himself when he saw symptoms of a greater population; but not receiving any intelligence of im- portance from the natives of the coast, he continued his course, and even passed by the country of Sofala, where he supposed that Covilham might be, without seeing any thing worthy of fixing his attention. At length, in the beginning of March, 1498, he cast anchor before the city of Mozambique, inhabited at that time by Moors or Ma- hometan Arabs, who lived under the government of a prince of their own religion, and carried on a great trade with the Red Sea and the Indies. The hope of traffic with the strangers procured the Portuguese at first a fa- vourable reception ; but as soon as it was known that they were Christians, every stratagem that could be de- vised was resorted to in order to destroy them. Gfima, obliged to fly from their snares and treachery, directed 378 OEOORAPHT OF THE MIDDLE A0E8. BOOK III. his course northwards for Quiloa, guided by a pilot of Mozambique, whom he had taken with him ; but having approached the shore to the north of that place, the cur- rent prevented him from returning along the coast, and in consequence he steered for Mombasa. This city, better built than Mozambique, and carrying on a stU) greater trade, was in like manner inhabited by Maho- metans, who treated the Portuguese with the same artful hostility. Gama departed without obtaining any in^ formation or assistance, and advancing eighteen leagues, arrived at Melinda, where he was more fortunate. Al- though the inhabitants of this city were also Mahome- tans, it would appear that commerce had softened and refined their manners. The sovereign of the country received Gama with every expression of favour : he went on board the Portuguese fleet, and invited Gama to re- turi^ his visit ; but the Portuguese commander, instructed by the past, was unwilling to expose himself to the bigotry of the people, and declined accepting the invi- tation; he sent, however, some of his officers in his steady who were treated with honour and cordiality. There were at the same time several ships from India in the harbour of Melinda, and even some Christians of that country, who warned Gama to be upon his guard, and gave him some information which proved eventually of great importance. Malemo Cana, an Indian of Gu- zerat, whom the king of Melinda had given to Gama as his pilot, was one of the most experienced navigators of those seas. It is said that he expressed no sunrise when he saw the astrolabe with which the Portuguese observed the meridian altitude of the sun : he said that the pilots of the Red Sea made use of instruments of similar construction. The fleet of Gama went from Melinda to Calicut in three-and-twenty days : this city, at that time the richest and most commercial of all India, was governed by a prihce who bore the title of Zamorin. The messengers of Gama found means to be introduced to the ministers of this prince. The first negotiations were so successful OIIAP. X. PASSAGE BY THE OAPB DISCOVERED. 379 that the Portuguese were immediately permitted to enter the port ; and the zamorin consented to receive Gama with the same honours which were usually shown to the am- bassadors of the greatest monarchs. But the perfidious conduct of the Mahometans had rendered the Portuguese so suspicious and mistrustful, that the officers of the fleet solicited Gama to abandon his intention of going ashore and intrusting his person to the natives. In a council which was held on the occasion, his bro- ther Paul de Gama represented to him, in the strongest light, the dangers to which he was exposed ; but Vasoo was immovable : he declared his intention of landing on the following day, and ijrd^i^ his brother to command the fleet in his absence : his spirit was exalted above the contemplation of danger, and the glory of his country engrossed all his thoughts. He advised his brother, in case the accidents which were predicted sho^ild take place, not to avenge his death, but to depart with the fleet without loss of time, to announce to the king the discovery of India, and his unhappy fate. Next morning Vasco de Gama went on land, accom- panied by twelve resolute men whom he had chosen to attend him. He was received with great pomp ; and as he had to go five or six miles beyond Calicut to the country-house of the zamorin, he crossed the city through the midst of an immense multitude, who viewed the strangers with an admiration, which was heightened, no doubt, by the singularity of their costume, so unlike any that had hitherto been seen in India. The Portuguese admiral arrived next day at the zambrin's country house : the reception which he experienced at his first audience was favourable in the extreme; and Gama fiattered him- self that he should obtain for his country the privilege of carrying on an advantageous trade with Calicut. But circumstances soon occurred to thwart his expectations. The animosity of the Mahometans had nearly proved fatal to him: at Mozambique and Mombasa they looked upon the Portuguese as dangerous rivals in their trade, and were resolved to ruin them if possible. Thtpy ■ 380 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III* represented to the zamorin that these strangers were pirates^ who found their way into the Indian seas solely in order to disturb the tranquillity of his states, and to carry on their usual avocation of pillage. These insinu- ations produced the desired effect. Gama had forgotten to bring with him a present worthy of a great prince : the few articles which he offered to the ministers ap- peared to them of so' little value that they were rejected with contempt. This first disagreement was followed by a multitude of others; and at length the dissatisfac- tion of both sides had increased to such a degree, that Gama feared either that he should be detained as a pri- soner, or perhaps put to death along with his com- panions. He received private information that under pretence of a reconciliation it was intended to draw the fleet into such a situation that it might be easily de- stroy^ : he communicated this intelligence to his bro- ther, by whose prudent measures the schemes of the Moors were completely frustrated. Vasco, on the other side, succeeded by his firmness and address in gaining the respect of the Indian prince and his ministers; and the negotiations being renewed, he convinced them of the advantages that were to be derived from an alliance with the Portuguese: while thus favourably disposed, they allowed him to return to his vessel. As soon as Vasco de Gama got on board his fleet, he sailed without loss of time; and having repaired his ships at the Angedive islands, a little to the north of Calicut^ he steered direct for Europe, to give an account of his discovery. In passing Melinda he took on board an ambassador from, the king of that country, the only friend whom the Portuguese had found in the course of their voyage. He doubled the Cape of Good Hope in March, 1499> &nd arrived in Lisbon in September of the same year, that is to say, about two years after his de- parture. King Emanuel received Vasco de Gama with studious magnificence, celebrated hii^ safe return with festivals, bestowed on him titles of nobility, and created him admiral of the Indies. OHAP. XI. COLUMBUS. 881 CHAP. XI. COLUMBUS. PAREMTAGK OF COLUMBUS. — HIS IDUCATIOK. — XARLT VOT> AGES. — SITTLK8 IN U8BON. •— MARRIES THE DAUGHTER Of PERESTRELLO. — COKSIBERS THE rRACTICABILITT OF SAIUMO TO INDIA BY THE WEST. — OPINIONS OF HIS AGE. — HIS REA- SONINGS. BECOMES CONVINCED. — PROPOSES HIS PLANS TO GENOA.—- SEEKS THE PATRONAGE OF THE KING OF PORTUGAL.— FLIES TO SPAIN. — APPLIES TO THE SPANISH COURT. SENDS HIS BROTHER TO THE COURT OF ENGLAND. — HIS DISAPPOINT- MENTS. — DESPAIRS OF SUCCESS. — IS FAVOURED BY ISABELLA.^ THE EXPEDITION RESOLVED ON. SAILS FROM PALOS. PARTI- CULARS OF THE VOYAGE. — LAND DISCOVERED. FLEET VISITS CUBA. — - ST. DOMINGO. ^ THd SHIP OF COLUMBUS WRECKED. — KINDNESS OF THE CACIQUE. — A FORT ERECTED. — THE FLEET RETURNS HOMEWARDS. — DREADFUL STORM. MEANS TAKEN BY COLUMBUS TO PRESERVE THE MEMORY OF HIS DIS- COVERY. ARRIVES IN SAFETY AT THE AZORES. •— REACHES FALOS. RECEIVED WITH ENTHUSIASM. PROCEEDS TO COURT. — HONOURS CONFERRED ON HIM BY FERDINAND. The discovery made by Vasco de Gama of a passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope had been preceded a few years by one of a far more novel and brilliant description in the opposite hemisphere. The Portu- guese navigator had crowned by his success the perse- vering efforts of his nation, unremittingly continued during the course of seventy years : he had found out a new communication with that be. Co- V the just I opposite ilo, that is countries rhe maps 1 Behaim Africa, the ig a sixth ime maps )angu and istance of some great been seen, ere drawn Ltic Ocean, same kind appear to } one great ruth, as is often the case, by fortunate errors or inventions. The inlmbitants of M«ideira and Puerto Santo tliought they sa^y at certain times, and in cltur wc-ather, land appear- ing in their western liorizon, and always in the same .direction. This persuasion of the islanders continues perhaps to the present day. In the middle of the last century the visionary land was seen so distinctly that a vessel actually sailed to discover it, but on that, as on every previous attempt, it faded before research. The name of St. Brandon, a Scottish saint, given to this western land, suggests that the first account of it was carried to the Madeira islands by the Northmen, among whom the belief of western lands was supported by very ancient traditions. At the present day, the inhabitants of the Arran islands, on the western coast of Ireland, who are descended from the Northmen, believe that from time to time they see the shores of a happy island tIbp above the waves ; and they say that Ireland was formerly united to that land, until, for the sins of its inhabitants, the greater part of it was engulfed in the ocean.* But Columbus received information of a character still more likely to influence his judgment. Pedro Torrea, his wife's relation, had found on the coast of Puerto Santo pieces of carved wood evidently not cut with a knife, and which had been carried diither by strong westerly winds : other navigators had picked up in the Atlantic canes of an extraordinary size, and many plants apparently not belonging to the Old World. The bodies of men were found thrown by the waves on the shore of one of the Azores, who had features differing essentially from those of Africans or Europeans, and who had evidently come from the West. The fables respecting the island of St. Brandon, the Seven Cities, Antilia, and other supposed regions of the West, did not perhaps weigh much with the judgment of Columbus, yet neither is it likely that one of his enthu- siastic temper should absolutely reject them ; but, at all events, these popular tales had the effect of recalling, his • Reilly, Trans. Roy. Irish Acad, xv, VOL. I. CO 386 OEOORAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AOES. BOOK III. favourite project continually to his view^ and of inflam* ing his desire to carry it into execution. But his reason* ings on the authorities and authentic facts stated above produced on his mind a thorough conviction that he should find Zipangu or some other land by sailing to the West. He now prepared to effectuate his schemes : his pri- vate fortune was too moderate to allow him to fit out an expedition at his own expense. In the ardour of patriot- ism^ therefore, he proposed his plans of discovery to the government of his native city ; but he had been long absent from Genoa; his merit was unknown, and his proposals were rejected with contempt. Columbus next addressed himself to the king of Portugal, who directed that his proposals should be examined. The merit of His plans was fully appreciated, but, by a shameful breach of good faith, the king resolved to execute them secretly without the knowledge of their author. The pilot selected for the attempt, however, wanted the ability to realise the designs of Columbus. Unable to direct his vessel when out of sight of land, he was tossed for a long time, quite ignorant of his course, and with difficulty regained the port. To justify his failure, he represented Columbus as a visionary; and this great man, shocked at the base injustice with which he had been treated, resolved to abandon Portugal for ever. To obviate a similar breach of confidence for the future, Columbus now resolved to make overtures at the same time to the kings of Spain and England. He sent his brother Bartholomew to London, where he was well received ; but his negotiations were interrupted by the engagements which were in the mean time entered into with the court of Spain. Christopher Columbus left Lisbon secretly in the end of the year 1484, and arrived at the port of Palos. Here he experienced the fate of all who are superior to their age, and failed to make himself understood by his contemporaries: he had to struggle with the weakest and most narrow-minded pre- judices. Five whole years he remained at the court oi BOOK III. r inflam- i reason- ed above that he ng to the his pri- fit out an f patriot- !ry to the )een long , and his ibus next ) directed ; merit of shameful cute them lor. The mted the Unable 1, he was )urse, and lis failure, this great ;h he had ever. ;e for the ires at the He sent } was well ed by the itered into mbus left iid arrived he fate of I to make he had to inded pre- court of CHAP. XI. COLUMBUS. 387 Spain without finding any encouragement. The tender intimacy which he contracted with donna Beatrix £n- riquez of Cordova, by whom he had a son, Fernando, who afterwards wrote the history of his life, may have been the chief cause of his continuing so long in a country, where his abilities procured him so little con- sideration. In a fit of grief and dejection, caused by this unreasonable neglect, he determined on applying to the king of France. But at the moment when he was pre- paring to quit Spain, one of his friends, named Marchena, who enjoyed some credit with queen Isabella, procured him the patronage of that princess. The negotiations were accordingly resumed, but they again terminated- without success. On this occasion, however, justice was done to the superiority of his views ; only the re- ward which he stipulated for himself in die event of his success appeared to the court to be excessive. Columbus, deeply dejected at the annihilation of all his hopes, and mortified at the distrust and coldness with which his grand projects and soUd reasonings were received, determined to abandon the country in which he had met with so many disappointments; but the queen, in the mean time, who was brought to perceive the great importance of the discoveries promised by Co- lumbus, and the dangers of abandoning those advantages to another power, consented to defray from her private purse the charges of the expedition. A courier was sent after Columbus : he was overtaken at the distance of two leagues from the camp of Santa Fe, where the court then resided : he returned immediately with the messenger, the fear of disappointment still agitating his breast. At length, after eight years spent in fruitless solicitations, with numberless anxieties and disappoint- ments, he succeeded in his purpose ; and the court of Spain resolved to send him with an expedition in search of the New World. On the 19th of April, 1492, were signed the articles of the agreement by which Christopher Columbus received from the crown of Spain the hereditary titles of c c 2 388 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOR III* admiral apd viceroy in all the seas, lands, and islands which he should discover. On the 12th of May he proceeded to the port of Falos, where the armament was fitting out. Three vessels were chosen for the voyage : that of Columbus was called the Santa Maria ; the second, commanded by Alonzo Pinzon, was named the Pinta ; and the third, under the command of Yanez Pin< zon, the brother of the preceding, the Nina. Martin Pinzon, the youngest of the three brothers, was the pilot of the Pinta. The total number of men embarked in the three vessels was ninety, according to some, or a hundred and twenty, according to others. On Friday, the third of August, 1492, the expedition sailed. They directed their course to the Canary islands, where they remained a little time. On the sixth of Sep- tember they left those islands; and that day may be regard- ed as the first day of the most meinorable voyage which has ever been undertaken. The winds at first were light, there was sometimes a dead calm, and little way was made: the second day the fleet lost sight of land. The companions of Columbus, who were now advancing over the ocean, imable to conjecture the termination of their voyage, be- gan to feel astonished at the boldness of the enterprise. Many of them sighed, and gave way to tears, believing that they should never return. Columbus consoled them and inspired them with new courage. On the eleventh of September, when they were a hundred and fifty leagues from the island of Ferro, they found the mast of a ship, which seemed to have been brought there by the current. Colum- bus made daily observations on the meridian altitude of the sun : he marked the declination of the needle, and noted carefully the aspect of the heavens, and all the pheno- mena of the ocean. On the fifteenth, three hundred leagues from the isle of Ferro, during a dead calm, they saw a fire-ball strike the sea, about five leagues ahead of the fleet. During the nine days that they had been sailing without seeing any thing but the ocean and the sky, the winds had blown constantly from tiie east. The seamen, who had never before ventured so far from land, BOOK III. (1 islands May he raent was J voyage : iria ; the amed the anez Pin- Martin 3 the pilot barked in •me, or a jxpedition ry islands, th of Sep- be regard- age which i^ere light, was made: ^mpanions the ocean, oyage, he- enterprise. , believing soled them ileventh of ■ty leagues ship,which t. Colum- tudeofthe and noted ;he pheno- } hundred calm, they pies ahead r had been m and the icast. The from land, CHAP Xt. COLVMBVS. ssy finding that the wind continued unfavourable for their return, thought that it would be impossible for them to reach Spain again. On the following day they saw some birds, which revived their hopes, as they were thought to be of a species which never went more than twenty leagues from land. The sea soon after seemed covered with marine plants, which had the appearance of being recently detached from the rocks on which they had grown; and the men were convinced that land could not be far off. On the eighteenth Alonzo Pinzon, who sailed ahead, told Columbus that he had seen a multi- tude of birds in the west, and that he thought he had discerned land towards the north : he wished to go in search of it ; but Columbus, convinced that he was mis- taken, ordered him to hold on his course. They sounded here with a hundred fathoms, and found no bottom. The sailors, finding that their hopes of seeing land had not been realised, began to feel discouraged, and to complain of being thus exposed in the midst of the wide ocean far from every help. On the twentieth they saw birds coming from the West, and a whale : the sea was thickly covered with floating weeds : these indications of land repressed their murmurs for a time. On the twenty-first, the wind, v^rhich had hitherto been favourable, turned to the south- west, and blew against them. The men, long since secretly disposed for revolt, now cried out that the wind was favourable to return to Europe, and that it ought to be taken advantage of. Columbus tried to appease them, telling them that these were only light breezes, which indicated the proximity of some land ; but the discontentment increased, notwithstanding his arguments and remonstrances, — - and the men at last threw off all subordination. They blamed the king who had ordered the voyage, and persisted in their wish to return. Co- lumbus conducted himself with unconimon prudence: he encouraged some with assurances that land was not far distant, and threatened others with the anger of the king. But the foul winds grew more violent : the sea c c 3 590 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. became boisterous ; and it was impossible to make way to the "West : this delay, in accordance with their wishes, again appeased them. Birds were now seen every day, and some crabs were taken on the weeds that floated on the surface of the sea. While the minds of his crew were in some degree tranquillised by these appearances, the admiral seized the opportunity of resuming his course towards the West. But the tranquillity was only apparent ; the murmurs commenced again, and in more threatening tones. The men collected into groups, and declared loudly that they had already done their duty, in advancing further in the ocean than any one had done before ; that Columbus wished to make them the victims of his ambition ; and while he procured distinc- tion for himself, cared little about the destruction he entailed on others. Some even went so far as to propose tnrowing him into the sea and then returning. Colum- bus knew tl)e dangers of his si'^uation : he tried every means of removing the discontentments of the men : he represented to them the consequences of their disobedience if they should prevent him from executing the commands of the king : he tried every argument of persuasion : he enumerated to them all the indications that occurred of land, and assured them that ere long they should find the object of their search. The violence of the dis- content was gradually appeased ; but their disquietude and anxiety were never wholly dissipated. On the twenty-fifth of September, jUst as the sun was setting, while Columbus was engaged in conversation with Yanez Pinzon, a voice cried out " Land, land ! " He who gave the cry pointed out a dark mass in the south-west like an island, about twenty-five leagues dis- tant. All were overjoyed : the men returned thanks to God, and congratulated Columbus. He immediately changed his course tOAvards this appearance of land, and sailed all night in the same direction. At day all eyes were turned to that quarter ; but the land which had caused so much joy had disappeared, and they found that clouds had cheated them with the delusive vision. BOOK III. nake way Ar wishes, ivery day, floated on his crew pearances. Lining his was only d in more oups, and leir duty, r one had them the id distinc- -action he to propose Colum- ried every men: he sobedience commands asion : he ccurred of tiould find ' the dis- isquietude le sun was nversation d, land ! " ass in the agues dis- thanks to mediately land, and y all eyes vhich had liey found ,ve vision. CHAP. XI. COLUMBUS. ai The course towards the West was again resumed to the general regret. Some suppose that Columbus contrived this stratagem to revive the sinking spirits of the men ; but they soon relapsed into their despondency. Never- theless, the multitude of birds which they saw during the day, the pieces of wood which they picked up, and many other symptoms of land, prevented them from giving themselves up wholly to despair. Columbus, in the midst of so much imeasiness and dejection, preserved his usual serenity On the first of October he calculated that he was seven hundred and seven leagues to the west of the Canaries. The following day hopes were kept alive by the increasing number of birds ; and the vessels were surrounded with fishes. On the third nothing was seen, and the sailors began to imagine that they had passed some island. They thought that the birds which on the preceding day had crossed their course must have been passing from one island to another; and they wished to turn either to the right or to the left, to find the shores which they supposed to lie in those directions. But Columbus remained immovable, and held his course uniformly to the West : he Was aware that nothing had appeared which could determine with cer- tainty in what direction he should find land. His firm- ness excited among the men a spirit of revolt more formidable than ever; in short, the time was now come when he was no longer master. But Providence interposed in his behalf. On the following day, the fourth of Oc- tober, the symptoms of land increased, the birds flew 60 near the ships that a seaman killed one with a stone : hopes again revived. On the seventh, they thought that land was visible on board the Santa Maria, but it seemed covered with clouds ; and after past disappoint- ments there was no sanguine expectation. The Nina, which was ahead, believed it to be really land, fired her guns, and hoisted her fiags. The joy and excite- ment was extreme in the whole fleet ; but as they ad- vanced, the supposed land gradually grew less, and at c c 4 392 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. last totally disappeared from their view : their grief and despondency now returned. Yet immense flocks of birds continually hovered over their heads. Columbus said that he could discern some species that never fly far from land; and as he remarked that these all turned towards the south-west^ he resolved to follow the same direction. He told his crew that he had never expected to flnd land before he had made seven hundred and fifty leagues; and announced to them that the time was come when they should arrive at the object of their wishes. On the eighth, the men caught about a dozen of birds of diflerent colours. During the night they saw numbers of them, small as well as large, all passing from north to south. * * day-break the flights were increased, and always in the same direction. The air was much cooler thton it had been in the preceding part of the voyage, and wafted the vegetable smell by which seamen can distinguish land at a considerable distance. The men had been so often cheated with false appearances that they were now become insensible to every thing that could animate their courage. Columbus, by his flrmness and address, had suppressed their revolts, but he had never been able to silence their murmurs, and was still afraid of new discontents. On the eleventh of October the indications of land became more and more certain. A reed quite green floated by the vessel ; and a little after some kind of flsh were seen, which were known to abound in the vicinity of rocks. The Pinta picked up the trunk of a bamboo and a plank rudely carved. The Nina saw a branch of a tree with berries on it. They sounded at sunset and found bottom. The wind was now unequal; and this last circumstance completely satisfied the mind of Columbus that land was not far off. The, crew assembled as usual for evening prayer. As soon as the service wap cou-iiluded, Columbus desired his people to return thanks lo God for having preserved them In so long and dangerous a voy- age, and assured them that the indications of land were lOOK III. ir grief locks of >lumbuB r fly far turned le same jxpected red and ime was of their of birds numbers m north isedj and ch cooler voyage, men can rhe men pees that ing that irmness he had vras still of land te green d of fish vicinity bamboo nch of a iset and this last olumbus as usual luded, God for s a voy- nd were CHAP. XI. COLUMBUS. S93 now too certain to be doubted. He recommended them to look out carefully during the night, for that they should surely discover land before the morning ; and he pro- mised a suit of velvet to whoever first descried it, inde- pendent of the pension of ten thousand maravedis which he was to receive from the king. About ten o'clock at night, while Columbus was sitting at the stern of his vessel, he saw a light, and pointed it out to Pedro Gutieres : they both called Sanchez de Segovia, the ar- mourer, but before he came it had disappeared : they saw it, nevertheless, return twice afterwards. At two o'clock after midnight, the Pinta, which was ahead, made the signal of land. It was in the night of the eleventh of October, 1492, after a voyage of thirty-five days, that the New World was discovered. The men longed impa- tiently for day : they wished to feast their eyes with the sight of that land for which they had sighed so long, and which the majority of them had despaired of ever seeing. At length day broke, and they enjoyed the prospect of hills and valleys clad in delicious verdure. The three vessels steered towards it at sunrise. The tjrew of the Pinta, which preceded, commenced chanting the Te Deum ; and all sincerely thanked Heaven for the success of their voyage. They saw as they approached a number of men collected on the shore. Columbus em- barked in his cutter, with Alonzo and Yanez Pinzon, carrying the royal standard in his hand. The moment he and aU his crew set foot on land, they erected a crucifix, and prostrating themselves before it, with tears in their eyes thanked God for the goodness he had manifested to- wards them. When Columbus rose he named the island San Salvador, and took possession of it in the name of the king of Spain, in the midst of the astonished natives, who surrounded and surveyed him in silence. Imme- diately the Castilians proclaimed him admiral and vice- roy of the Indies, and swore obedience to him. The sense of the glory which they had acquired recalled them to their duty, and they begged pardon of the admiral for all the vexations they had caused him. S94 GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. BOOK III. The island which the Spaniards had discovered was called by the natives Guanahani ; but it has since pre- served the name of San Salvador given to it by Colum- bus. The natives appeared simple and inoffensive. At first they were astonished beyond measure at the fair complexion of the Spaniards^ at their beards, and their apparel ; but in a short time they approached them with confidence, and were highly gratified at receiving caps of different colours, beads, and other trifles. When the admiral returned to his vessel some of them swam after him, others paddled in their canoes, and the sloop was quite surrounded with them. Both men and women were entirely naked. They were ignorant of the use of iron, and catching hold of the Spanish swords by the blades, many of them received slight wounds. On the moi;row they came off to the fleet to exchange cotton for beads and little trinkets. They had appended to their ears little plates of gold, which soon caught the attention of the Spaniards. They were asked where they got the gold; and they replied by signs and gestures, stretching out their arms towards the south, to signify that it came from a country lying in that direction. Columbus de- termined to go in search of that country ; but before he left Guanahani he ascertained, by careful examina- tion, that the islands offered no advantages for establish- ing a colony : he kept on board seven of the natives to serve as interpreters. The fleet holding its course towards the south, dis- covered Conception island, the islands of Ferdinand and Isabella, and many others in succession. The farther they advanced the more information they received re- specting the country abounding in gold. They learned, also, that it was called Cvba. Still continuing its course to the south, the fleet passed between the little islands called Los Arenas and Los Miraporos, and descried on the twenty-seventh of October the coast of Cuba. The Spaniards sailed along the eastern half of the north coast of that island to its very extremity, but wherever they at- tempted to land the natives took to flight; and it was with BOOK HI* ered was nee pre- r Colum- isive. At the fair and their lem yfith iring caps V^hen the tram after sloop was lI women the use of Is hy the On the cotton for d to their attention jy got the stretching It it came mhus de- ut before examina- establish- latives to mth, dis- nand and le farther eived re- learned, ts course e islands cried on )a. The >rth coast r they at- was with CHAP. XI. COLUMBUS. 3b- great difficulty that the Indian interpreters brought from Guanahani found means at length to converse with them, and moderate their fears. The interpreters learned that some gold was found in Cuba, but that it was much more abundant in another country farther to the east. The unbounded riches which the Spaniards imagined to be concealed in the newly-discovered countries in- flamed their cupidity to such a degree, that they were no longer under the influence of any sentiment but that of gain. Alonzo Pinzon, the commander of the Pinta, which was the best sailer of the fleet, wishing to arrive flrst at the land of gold, crowded all sail, and was soon lost sight of. On the flfth of December Columbus, hav- ing now only two ships left, sailed from the eastern point of Cuba, and soon arrived at that rich country of which he had received such encouraging accounts. It was called by the natives Haiti ; Columbus gave it the name of Hispaniola; but the appellation of St. Domingo has Anally prevailed. The ships anchored at first in port St. Nicholas ; but finding the country but thinly peopled, they proceeded along the northern coast, and at length cast anchor at a little distance from the place where the town of Cape Fran9ois was subsequently built. The Spaniards found it extremely difficult to communicate with the natives, who took to flight, like those of Cuba, at the first appearance of the ships ; but a lucky accident suddenly changed their dispositions. The Spaniards saved an Indian whose canoe was upset, and who, but for their assistance, must inevitably have been drowned. He was taken on board, treated with the greatest kindness and attention, and then sent ashore. This man immediately acquainted his countrymen with the treatment he had received; confidence was soon established, and the people flocked in numbers to the ships with fruits and other provisions. They exchanged their gold for bits of porcelain and glittering baubles of little or no value. The prince of the country, or Cacique, as he was called by his people, longed to see the strangers of whom he had received such favourable accounts. 896 GEOGRAPHY OF THE UIDDLE AOES. BOOK III. Polumbus treated him with distinction. This prince was named Guacanagari : he was loaded with ornaments of gold, and informed the Spaniards that the metal which they admired so much was found in a country situated farther to the east, called Cibao. Columbus> deceived by some resemblance of the names, believed at first that it was Zipangu ; but he afterwards learned that Cibao was the name of a great mountain in the centre of the island, which towered above all the rest. Columbus visited the residence of the cacique : he was treated with every mark of honour, and contracted with the native prince a friendship which continued ever afterwards un- diminished. The fleet now proceeded towards the east, for the purpose of approaching the gold mines of Cibao. On the twenty-fourth of December, about eleven o'clock at night, just after Columbus had retired to rest, his vessel struck upon a reef, and notwithstanding all his efforts to get her off, she went over, and opened soon after- wards. He escaped with all his crew on board the Nina. The cacique immediately sent off boats to assist the Spaniards, ordered his subjects ti> aid them in saving their effects, and marked out a place in which they should be deposited. No theft was committed by the natives, who laboured with the greatest cheerfulness in carrying ashore whatever could be saved from the wreck. Gua- canagari himself came to console the admiral. He told him in the course of his conversation that his subjects suffered much from the invasions of the Caribs, a fierce and strong people, who came by sea, and that the natives of Haiti had fled from the Spaniards at first, because they supposed that these strangers were as dangerous as the Caribs. The admiral promised to defend him against his enemies, and took this opportunity of ask- ing permission to make a settlement on the island. To this proposal the cacique willingly consented, and a fort was immediately constructed of the timbers of the wreck. Columbus chose thirty-eight men to remain here, under the orders of Diego d' Arena. The fort. OK III. prince iinents metal ountry imbus, jved at ed that mtre of lumbus ed with native rds un- i'oT the w- On plock at s vessel \ efforts 1 after- ard the ;o assist I saving r should natives, arrying Qua- le told lubjects a fierce natives )ecause rous as id him of ask- d. To L a fort of the remain le fort. CHAP. XI. COLUMBUS. 397 which received the name of La Navidad, was about tliree leagues to the east of the site where Cape Town was afterwards founded, on the borders of a creek called at present the bay of Caracole. Tlie admiral left provisions in the fort, articles to barter with the natives, and what- ever was necessary for its defence. He then took leave of the friendly cacique, with the promise to return soon. On the fourth of January, 1493, Columbus set sail, proceeding a little to the east in order to complete the examination of the north coast of the island, and on his way met the Pinta near Monte Christo. He affected to be satisfied with the excuses made by Alonzo Pinzon to explain his parting company. At length, on the sixteenth of January, 1493, the two ships directed their course for Spain. The weather was remarkably favourable at the commencement of the voyage ; but heavy gales came on when the ships were near the Azores, and the Pinta was a second time lost sight of. The admiral's little vessel was in the most imminent danger : the gale grew so violent that Columbus himself now despaired of ever reaching land : that which affected him most was the thought that his discovery should be buried with him in the ocean : he adopted the only means that remained to preserve the memory of it : he wrote a brief account of his voyage on two leaves of parchment, and put each of these leaves into a cask that was carefully closed so as to be impervious to the water: one of these casks was thrown overboard immediately, the other was allowed to remain on the deck to await the foundering of the vessel. But Providence interposed to save the life of this great man ; the wind fell, and danger disappeared. On the fifteenth of February the Azores were in sight, and soon after the vessel came to anchor at Saint Mary's, and was refitted. After leaving the Azores another storm drove Columbus into the Tagus ; and it was not till the fifteenth of March that he reached the port of Palos, from which he had taken his departure seven months and a half before, having in the mean time made a voyage which will render his name immortal. Alonzo Pinzon arrived about the same time at a northern |iort of Spain^ and died a few days after. 598 OCOOBAFHT OV TBI MUmLB AOM. lOOKUI. Columbua «ru received at Palot with enthtuiMtieJoy. The helli rang, and the magiitratei, accompanied by all the retpectable inhaUtanta, came down to the thore to receive him on landing: they repeatedly teatifled their admiration at hit having lucceiafUlly achieved what all the world believed to be impoaiible. His jour* ney to court was a new triumph : people ran together Arom all parts to see the man who had accomplished such extraordinary things. He made a public entry into Barcelona : the whole city came out to meet him in pro* cession. He walked in the midst of the Indians whom he had brought with him, and who were decked out in the fashion of their country. The fragments of gold and rarities which he had collected were carried b^ore him in open baskets : in this way he proceeded through ail immense crowd to the palace. Ferdinand and IsabejLt were seated on their throne awaiting his arrival : as soon as he appeared with his train they rose up. Columbus threw himself on his knees ; but they commanded him to be seated in their presence. He then proceeded, with the modesty and frankness of conscious merit, to give an account of his voyage, and of the discoveries he had made : he showed the Indians who attended him, and the precious articles which he had brought. Ferdinand, delighted beyond measure at the success of the grand enterprise to which he had so slowly yielded his nssent, confirmed to Columbus all his privUeges, and permitted him to join to the arms of his own family those of the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, with the emblems of his discoveries, and of the dignities resulting from them. Preparations were then ordered to be made for a second expedition, to complete so auspicious a commencement. £ND OP THE FIRST VOLUMD^ London: rrinted by A. & R. Spot tit woode, New-Street-Squarc.