A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 01
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Title: A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 01
Author: Robert Kerr
Release date: January 1, 2004 [eBook #10600]
Most recently updated: October 28, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS — VOLUME 01 ***
* * * * *
GENERAL PLAN OF KERR'S COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS--Taken from Volume 18.
PART I.
Voyages and Travels of Discovery in the middle ages; from the era of Alfred
King of England, in the ninth century, to that of Don Henry of Portugal, at
the commencement of the fifteenth century.
PART II.
General Voyages and Travels, chiefly of Discovery; from the era of Don
Henry in 1412, to that of George III. in 1760.
PART III.
General Voyages and Travels of Discovery during the era of George III.,
which were conducted upon scientific principles, and by which the Geography
of the globe has been nearly perfected.
PART IV.
Historical Deduction of the Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and
Commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest times to the present period.
TABULAR VIEW OF THE CONTENTS OF THE SEVENTEEN VOLUMES.
* * * * *
VOLUME I.
Discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians.
Voyages of Ohthere to the White Sea and the Baltic.
Remarks on the situation of Sciringe-heal and Haethum, by J.R. Forster.
Voyage of Wulfstein in the Baltic.
---- of Sighelm to India.
Travels of John Erigena to Athens.
Geography of the known world as described by King Alfred.
Travels of Andrew Leucander.
Voyage of Swanus to Jerusalem.
---- of three ambassadors from England to Constantinople.
Pilgrimage of Alured to Jerusalem.
---- of Ingulphus.
Original discovery of Greenland by the Icelanders in the ninth century.
Early discovery of America by ditto, in 1001.
Travels of two Mahometans into India and China, in the ninth century.
---- of Rabbi Benjamin from Spain to China, in the twelfth century.
---- of an Englishman in Tartary, in 1243.
Sketch of the Revolutions in Tartary.
Travels of Carpina to the Moguls, &c. in 1246.
---- of Rubruquis into Tartary about 1253.
---- of Haitho, in 1254.
---- of Marco Polo into China, &c. from 1260 to 1295.
---- of Oderic, in 1318.
---- of Sir John Mandeville, in 1322.
Itinerary of Pegoletti between Asofand China, in 1355.
Voyages, of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, in 1380.
Travels of Schiltberger into Tartary, in 1394.
---- of the Ambassadors of Shah Rokh, in China, in 1419.
Voyage and Shipwreck of Quirini, in 1431.
Travels of Josaphat Barbaro from Venice to Tanna (now Asof), in 1436.
VOLUME II.
Various early pilgrimages from England to the Holy Land, between 1097 and
1107.
Discovery of Madeira.
Discovery and conquest of the Canary Islands.
Discoveries along the coast of Africa; and conquests in India, from 1412 to
1505.
Discoveries of the world, from their commencement to 1555,
by Antonio Galvano.
Journey of Contarini into Persia, in 1473-6.
Voyages of discovery by the Portuguese along the western coast of Africa,
during the life of Don Henry.
Original journals of the Voyages of Cada Mosto, and Pedro de Cintra, to the
coast of Africa, from 1455.
Voyages of discovery by the Portuguese along the coast of Africa, from the
death of Don Henry, in 1463, to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in
1486.
History of the discovery and conquest of India by the Portuguese, between
1497 and 1505, by Herman Lopes de Castanecla.
Letters from Lisbon in the beginning of the 16th century, respecting the
discovery of the route by sea to India, &c.
VOLUME III.
History of the discovery of America, and of some of the early conquests in
the New World.
Discovery of America, by Columbus, written by his son Don Ferdinand
Columbus.
---- written by Antonio de Herrera.
An account of the Voyages of Americus Vespucius to the New World, written
by himself.
Discoveries and settlements of the Spaniards in the West Indies, from the
death of Columbus, to the expedition of Hernando Cortes against Mexico.
History of the discovery and conquest of Mexico, written in 1568, by
Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of the conquerors.
VOLUME IV.
History of the discovery and conquest of Peru, written by Augustus Zarate.
VOLUME V.
Continuation of the history of Peru, extracted from the Commentaries of
Garcilosso de la Vega.
History of the discovery and conquest of Chili, taken from various sources.
Discovery of Florida, and ineffectual attempts to conquer that country by
the Spaniards,--from the General History of America, by Herrera.
VOLUME VI.
Early English Voyages of discovery to America.
Voyages of Jacques Cartier, from St. Maloes to Newfoundland and Canada, in
1534-5.
Continuation of the discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese in the
East; with some account of the early Voyages of other European nations to
India.
Discoveries, &c. &c. from 1505 to 1539.
A particular relation of the expedition of Solyman Pacha, from Suez to
India, against the Portuguese; written by a Venetian officer in the Turkish
service on that occasion.
Account of the Voyage of Don Stefano de Gama, from Goa to Suez, in 1540;
written by Don Juan de Castro.
Continuation of the account of the Portuguese transactions in India, from
1541 to the middle of the 17th century; from De Faria's Asia.
VOLUME VII.
Voyages and Travels in Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, and India, by Ludovico
Verthema, in 1503-8.
---- in India, &c. by Cesar Frederic, in 1563-81.
Second Voyage to Barbary, in 1552, by Captain Thomas Windham.
Voyages to Guinea and Benin, in 1553, by Captain Windham and Antonio Anes
Pinteado.
---- in 1554, by Captain John Lok.
---- in 1555, by William Towerson, merchant, of London.
Second Voyage to Guinea, in 1556, by William Towerson, merchant, of London.
Third, in 1558.
Instructions for an intended Voyage to Guinea, in 1561.
Voyage to Guinea, in 1562; written by William Rutter.
Supplementary account of the foregoing Voyage.
Voyage to Guinea, in 1563, by Robert Baker.
---- in 1564, by Captain David Carlet.
---- and to the Cape de Verd Islands, in 1566, by George Fenner.
Account of the embassy of Mr. Edmund Hogan to Morocco, in 1577; by himself.
Account of the embassy of Mr. Henry Roberts from Queen Elizabeth to
Morocco, in 1585; by himself.
Voyage to Benin, beyond Guinea, in 1588, by James Welsh.
Supplement to the foregoing.
Second Voyage of ditto in 1590.
Voyage of Richard Rainolds and Thomas Dassel to the Senegal and Gambia, in
1591.
Some miscellaneous early Voyages of the English.
Voyage to Goa, in 1579, in the Portuguese fleet, by Thomas Stevens.
Journey over-land to India, by Ralph Fitch.
Supplement to ditto.
VOLUME VIII.
Voyage of Mr. John Eldred to Tripoli, and thence by land and river to
Bagdat and Basorah, in 1583.
Account of the Monsoons in India, by William Barret.
First Voyage of the English to India in 1591, by Captain Geo. Raymond and
James Lancaster.
Supplement to ditto, by John May.
Voyage of Captain Benj. Wood towards the East Indies, in 1596.
---- of Captain John Davis to the East Indies, in 1598.
---- of William Adams to Japan, in 1598.
---- of Sir Edward Michelburne to India, in 1604.
First Voyage of the English East India Company in 1601, under Captain James
Lancaster.
Account of Java and of the English at Bantam, from 1603 to 1605.
Second Voyage of the Company, in 1604, under Captain Henry Middleton.
Third Voyage of the Company, in 1607, under Captain William Keeling.
Narrative by William Hawkins during his residence in the dominions of the
Great Mogul.
Observations of William Finch, who accompanied Hawkins.
Voyage of Captain David Middleton, in 1607, to Bantam and the Moluccas.
Fourth Voyage of the Company, in 1608, under Captain Alexander Sharpey.
Voyage of Captain Richard Rowles.
Fifth Voyage of the Company, in 1609, under Captain David Middleton.
Sixth Voyage of the Company, in 1610, under Sir Henry Middleton.
Journal of the same, by Nicholas Downton.
Seventh Voyage of the Company, in 1611, under Captain Anthony Hippou.
Notices of the same, by Peter Floris.
Eighth Voyage of the Company, in 1611, under Captain John Saris.
VOLUME IX.
Ninth Voyage of the Company, in 1612, under Captain Edward Marlow.
Tenth Voyage of the Company, in 1612, by Mr. Thomas Best.
Observations made on the foregoing by different persons.
Eleventh Voyage of the Company, in 1612, in the Salomon.
Twelfth Voyage of the Company, in 1613, under Captain Christopher Newport.
Voyage of Captain Downton to India, in 1614.
Supplement to ditto.
Journey of Richard Steel and John Crowther, from Agimere to Ispahan, in
1615-16.
Voyage of Captain Peyton to India, in 1615.
Proceedings of the factory at Cranganore, by Roger Hawes.
Journal of Sir Thomas Roe, ambassador from James I. to the Emperor of
Hindoostan.
Voyage to India, in 1616, by Mr. Edward Terry.
Journey of Thomas Coryat from Jerusalem to the Court of the Great Mogul.
Wrongs done the English at Banda by the Dutch, in 1617-18.
Fifth Voyage of the Joint-Stock by the Company, in 1617, under Captain
Pring.
Voyage of the Ann-Royal from Surat to Mokha, in 1618.
Voyage to Surat and Jasques, in 1620.
War of Ormus, and capture of that place by the English and Persians, in
1622.
Massacre of the English at Amboyna, in 1623.
Observations during a residence in the island of Chusan, in 1701, by Dr.
James Cunningham.
VOLUME X.
Historical account of early circumnavigations;
of Magellan, in 1519-22.
of Sir Francis Drake, in 1577-80.
of Sir Thomas Cnmlish, in 1586-8.
of Van Noort, in 1598-1601.
of George Spilbergen, in 1614-17.
of Schouten and Le Maire, by Cape Horn, in 1615-17.
of the Nassau fleet under Jacques Le Hermit, in 1623-6.
of Captain John Cooke, accompanied by Captains Cowley and Dampier, in
1683-91.
in 1703-6, by William Funnell.
in 1708-11, by Captain Woods Rogers and Stephen Courtney.
in 1719-22, by Captain John Clipperton.
in 1719-22, by Captain George Shelvocke.
VOLUME XI.
Voyage round the world, in 1721-3, by Commodore Roggewein.
---- in 1740-4, by Lord Anson.
VOLUME XII.
Commodore Byron's Voyage, in 1764-6.
Captain Wallis's Voyage, in 1766-8.
Captain Carteret's Voyage, in 1766-9.
Captain Cook's first Voyage, in 1768-70.
VOLUME XIII.
Captain Cook's first Voyage continued and concluded..
Abstract of Bougainville's Voyage, in 1766-9.
VOLUME XIV.
Captain Cook's second Voyage towards the S. Pole, in 1772-5.
VOLUME XV.
Captain Cook's second Voyage concluded.
Captain Cook's third Voyage, in 1776-80.
VOLUME XVI.
Captain Cook's third Voyage continued.
VOLUME XVII.
Captain Cook's third Voyage concluded.
Commodore Byron's narrative of his shipwreck, &c.; written by himself.
Bulkeley's narrative of the same.
* * * * *
GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS,
ARRANGED IN SYSTEMATIC ORDER:
FORMING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION,
DISCOVERY, AND COMMERCE, BY SEA AND LAND, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE
PRESENT TIME.
BY
ROBERT KERR, F.R.S. & F.A.S. EDIN.
ILLUSTRATED BY MAPS AND CHARTS.
VOL. I.
TO
HIS EXCELLENCY, THE HONOURABLE
SIR ALEXANDER COCHRANE, K.B.
VICE-ADMIRAL OF THE WHITE,
LATE COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF HIS MAJESTY'S NAVAL FORCES ON THE LEEWARD
ISLAND STATION,
NOW
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE ISLAND OF GUADALOUPE, &C. &C. &C.
Dear Sir,
Unused to the adulatory language of dedications, I am well aware that
any such mode of address would offend your delicacy. While, therefore, I
gratify my own feelings by inscribing this work with your valued name, I
only use the freedom to assure your Excellency, that I have the honour
to be, with the warmest sentiments of respectful esteem and sincere
regard,
Dear Sir,
Your affectionate friend,
and gratefully devoted servant,
ROBERT KERR.
Edinburgh, 1st March 1811.
PREFACE.
In this enlightened age, when every department of science and literature is
making rapid progress, and knowledge of every kind excites uncommon
interest, and is widely diffused, this attempt to call the attention of the
public to a Systematic Arrangement of Voyages and Travels, from the
earliest period of authentic history to the present time, ought scarcely to
require any apology. Yet, on appearing before the tribunal of public
opinion, every author who has not cherished an unreasonable estimate of his
own qualifications, must necessarily be impressed with considerable anxiety
respecting the probable reception of his work; and may be expected to offer
some account of the plan and motives of what he proposes to lay before the
public.
The present work is the first of the kind that has ever been attempted in
Scotland: and though, as already avowed in the Prospectus, the Editor has
no wish to detract from the merits of similar publications, it might appear
an overstrained instance of false delicacy to decline a statement of the
circumstances which, he presumes to hope, will give some prospect of the
work being received with attention and indulgence, perhaps with favour. It
certainly is the _only_ General History and Collection of Voyages and
Travels that has been hitherto attempted in the English language, upon any
arrangement that merits the appellation of a _systematic plan_. And
hence, should the plan adopted be found only comparatively good, in so far
the system of arrangement must be pronounced the best that has been as yet
devised. If this be conceded, and the fact is too obvious to require
extended proof or minute elucidation, the Editor shall not feel mortified
even if his arrangement may be considerably improved hereafter.
The only work on the subject that has the smallest pretensions to system,
and that is fanciful, involved, irregular, abrupt, and obscure, is PURCHAS
HIS PILGRIMS. Even admitting the plan of that work to be in itself
excellent; although it may be a _General History_, so far as it
extends, it certainly is in no respect a _Complete Collection_ of
Voyages and Travels. In a very large proportion of that curious work, it is
the _author_ who speaks to the reader, and not the _traveller_.
In the present work, wherever that could possibly be accomplished, it has
uniformly been the anxious desire of the Editor that the voyagers and
travellers should tell their own story: In that department of his labour,
his only object has been to assume the character of _interpreter_
between them and the readers, by translating foreign or antiquated language
into modern English. Sometimes, indeed, where no record remains of
particular voyages and travels, as written by the persons who performed
them, the Editor has necessarily had recourse to their historians. But, on
every such occasion, the most ancient and most authentic accessible sources
have been anxiously sought after and employed. In every extensive work, it
is of the utmost consequence that its various parts should be arranged upon
a comprehensive and perspicuously systematic plan. This has been
accordingly aimed at with the utmost solicitude in the present undertaking;
and the order of its arrangement was adopted after much deliberation, and
from a very attentive consideration of every general work of the same
nature that could be procured. If, therefore, the systematic order on which
it is conducted shall appear well adapted to the subject, after an
attentive perusal and candid investigation, the Editor confidently hopes
that his labours may bear a fair comparison with any similar publication
that has yet been brought forward.
In the short Prospectus of this work, formerly submitted to the public, a
very general enunciation only, of the heads of the intended plan, was
attempted; as that was then deemed sufficient to convey a distinct idea of
the nature, arrangement, and distribution of the proposed work. Unavoidable
circumstances still necessarily preclude the possibility, or the propriety
rather, of attempting to give a more full and complete developement of the
divisions and subdivisions of the systematic arrangement which is to be
pursued, and which circumstances may require some elucidation.
An extensive and minutely arranged plan was carefully devised and extended
by the Editor, before one word of the work was written or compiled, after
an attentive examination of every accessible former collection; That plan
has been since anxiously reconsidered, corrected, altered, and extended, in
the progress of the work, as additional materials occurred: yet the Editor
considers that the final and public adoption of his plan, in a positively
fixed and pledged systematic form, any farther than has been already
conveyed in the Prospectus, would have the effect to preclude the availment
of those new views of the subject which are continually afforded by
additional materials, in every progressive step of preparation for the
press. The number of books of voyages and travels, as well general as
particular, is extremely great; and, even if the whole were at once before
the Editor, it would too much distract his attention from the division or
department in which he is engaged for the time, to attempt studying and
abstracting every subdivision at once. The grand divisions, however, which
have been already indicated in the Prospectus, and the general principles
of the plan, which are there explained, are intended to be adhered to; as
no reasons have been discovered, after the most attentive consideration,
for any deviation from that carefully adopted arrangement, the heads of
which are here repeated.
GENERAL PLAN OF THE WORK.
PART I.
_Voyages and Travels of Discovery in the middle ages; from the era of
Alfred, King of England, in the ninth century to that of Don Henry of
Portugal at the commencement of the fourteenth century_.
PART II.
_General Voyages and Travels chiefly of Discovery; from the era of Don
Henry, in_ 1412, _to that of George III. in_ 1760.
PART III.
_Particular Voyages and Travels arranged in systematic order,
Geographical and Chronological.
Note.--This part will be divided into five books, comprehending, I.
Europe.--II. Asia.--III. Africa.--IV. America.--V. Australia and
Polynesia; or the prodigious multitude of islands in the, great: Pacific
Ocean. And all these will be further subdivided into particular chapters or
sections correspondent to the geographical arrangements of these several
portions of the globe_.
PART IV.
_General Voyages and Travels of Discovery during the era of George III.
which were conducted upon scientific principles, and by which the Geography
of the globe has been nearly perfected_. .
PART V.
_Historical Deduction of the Progress of Navigation Discovery and
Commerce by sea and land, from the earliest times to the present
period_.
In the deliberate construction of this systematic plan, it has been a
leading object of anxious consideration, to reduce the extensive and
interesting materials of which the work is composed under a clear,
intelligible, and comprehensive arrangement, so combined in a geographical
and chronological series, that each successive division and subdivision,
throughout the whole work, may prepare the mind of the reader for that
which is to follow, and may assist the memory in the recollection of what
has gone before. By these means, an attentive perusal of this work must
necessarily be of material usefulness, in fixing distinct and just ideas of
geography, history, and chronology in the minds of its readers; besides the
important information and rational amusement which it will afford, by the
frequent description of manners, customs, laws, governments, and many other
circumstances, of all the countries and nations of the world.
In determining upon an era for the commencement of this work, the Editor
was naturally led, from a consideration of the accidental discovery of
Iceland by the Norwegians in the _ninth_ century, as coincident with
the reign of the great ALFRED, who ascended the throne of England in 872,
to adopt that period as the beginning of the series, both because the
commencement of modern maritime discovery took place during the reign of a
British sovereign, and because we derive the earliest written accounts of
any of these discoveries from the pen of that excellent prince. It is true
that the first accidental discovery of Iceland appears to have been made in
861, eleven years before the accession of Alfred to the throne; yet, as the
actual colonization of that island did not take place till the year 878,
the seventh of his glorious reign, we have been induced to distinguish the
actual commencement of maritime discovery by the modern European nations as
coinciding with his era.
From that time, till the year 1412, when Don Henry, Prince of Portugal,
first began to prosecute a consecutive series of maritime discoveries along
the western coast of Africa, during which a long inactive period of 551
years had elapsed, the only maritime incident connected with our subject,
was the accidental re-discovery of the Canary or Fortunate Islands, by a
nameless Frenchman, about the year 1330, though they were not attempted to
be taken possession of till 1400. This long interval, between the eras of
King Alfred and Don Henry, constitutes the _first_ Part, or grand
division of our work, in the course of which, a considerable number of
adventurous travellers penetrated into the almost unknown regions of
Tartary and the East, and considerable notices of the empire of China, and
even of Japan, and of the coast and islands of India and north-eastern
Africa, were communicated to the Europeans by the Polos and others.
In separating Part IV. from Part II. the General Voyages and Travels of
Discovery which have been undertaken during the long and busy reign of our
present venerable Sovereign, from those of a similar nature which succeeded
the discovery of the new world, and of the route by sea to India, the
Editor only pays a just tribute to the enlightened spirit of the age, under
the munificent and enlightened patronage of the beloved Monarch of a free
and happy people. Those former voyages of Part II. were mostly undertaken
from mere interested views of direct or expected commercial benefit; while
these of the era of George III. originated in the grand principles of
endeavouring to extend the bounds of science and human happiness.
Perhaps it may occur to some readers, that PART V. the last in order of the
general heads of our plan, ought to have formed PART I. as partaking of the
nature of an introduction to the subject, and forming a summary of the
whole work. Upon even a very slight consideration, however, it must be
obvious, that it is impossible to compose that proposed deduction in any
adequate manner, until the whole mass of selected materials is possessed by
the Editor, and definitively arranged. It may likewise be known to many,
that introductions and prefaces, though usually placed at the beginning of
books, are uniformly and necessarily last composed, and usually last
printed, except in new editions.
A great variety of Collections of Voyages and Travels have been published
at different periods, many of which are inaccessible from their scarcity,
or from being in foreign languages: And such great numbers of Voyages and
Travels to particular regions and countries have been printed, as to be
Altogether unattainable by the generality of readers. Every thing, however,
which could contribute to the perfection of this work has been collected,
or will be carefully procured during its progress; and no pains or expense
shall be withheld which, can contribute to render it as complete and
comprehensive as possible. In the employment of the vast variety and extent
of excellent materials, great care shall be taken to insert every useful
and curious information, reduced, where necessary, to modern language; and
nothing shall be omitted which is conducive to valuable information and
rational amusement.
In our approach towards the present times, the multitude of particular
Voyages and Travels increases prodigiously; and, in employing these, it
becomes peculiarly necessary to make a selection of the best in every
period, and especially of those best adapted for conveying just ideas of
each geographical division and subdivision of the world; while those of
less merit, but which contain useful notices of the regions and countries
of which they treat, shall be carefully epitomized in illustration of the
different subjects. Without the employment of discriminate selection and
occasional abridgement, this work must have extended to an inconvenient and
consequently expensive size, or must have been left unfinished and abrupt
in some of its parts: _But abridgement shall be very seldom employed and
never without acknowledgment_. Indeed, the grand object of the present
work is to bring together a more complete and entire collection of Voyages
and Travels, than has hitherto appeared in any language.
From the nature of the plan, it is utterly impossible to ascertain, with
any precision, the exact length to which it may extend; but, so far as can
be judged of at present, it is not expected to exceed eighteen or twenty
volumes. Throughout the whole work, a series of Maps and Charts will be
inserted in their proper places, carefully selected and constructed for the
purpose of illustrating the various Voyages and Travels. At the close of
the whole, a complete Index will be given to the entire series of volumes,
so arranged as to form a regular _Gazetteer_ of the whole world. In
every article which has been adopted into this work, the original and
accessory sources of all the materials shall be distinctly indicated.
Notes of explanation will be given, wherever necessary; and, as many of
these are drawn from various sources, the names of the authors from whom
they are adopted shall always be acknowledged: Such notes as are marked by
the letter E. are by the Editor of the work.
Owing to the indispensable nature of this work, it makes no positive claim
to the character of an original composition, in the strict acceptation of
that term; and he, therefore, who has undertaken the care of its
collection and arrangement, assumes no higher title than that of
_Editor_. In the discharge of that duty, however, the labour which he
has necessarily bestowed, though always pleasing, has often been
considerable, and sometimes arduous; and he trusts that the plan of the
work, which is altogether original, will be found appropriately adapted to
the end in view, and that the execution may appear not inadequate to the
high importance of the subject. Without imputation of arrogance, he may be
permitted to assert, that he has exerted the most unremitting attention and
industry, in the collection, selection, and preparation of the several
portions of the whole work, and in the arrangement and distribution of its
parts. He has the satisfaction to add, that all his efforts have been
seconded with the utmost readiness and liberality by the _Proprietor_
of the work, who has spared no trouble, and withheld no expense, in
procuring and supplying the necessary materials.
It is with much grateful satisfaction, that the Editor has to acknowledge
his high obligations to the Curators and Librarians of the Edinburgh public
libraries, belonging to the Faculty of Advocates, the University, and the
Writers to his Majesty's Signet, for the communication of many valuable and
scarce materials. Nor ought he to withhold his tribute of gratitude, on
this occasion, from the liberal spirit of a private individual, the
Reverend Henry White of Lichfield, who has most obligingly offered the use
of his valuable Collection of Voyages and Travels, and other curious and
scarce works connected with the subject, for assisting towards the
perfection of this publication.
Having thus briefly announced the nature, plan, and object of the present
work, of which this _first_ Volume is now before the public, it only
remains to say, that the Editor and Proprietor, each in his particular
department, are resolved to exert their utmost endeavours, that nothing may
be omitted which can contribute to render the work deserving of public
approbation and extensive patronage.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
PART I.
Voyages and Travels of Discovery, from the Era of Alfred, King of England,
in the Ninth Century, to the Era of Don Henry, Prince of Portugal, at the
commencement of the Fifteenth Century.
CHAP.
I. Discoveries in the time of Alfred, King of England, in the Ninth
Century of the Christian Era.
SECT.
I. Discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians, in the Ninth Century
II. Voyages of Ohthere to the White Sea and the Baltic, in the Ninth
Century
III. Remarks on the situation of Sciringes-heal and Haethum, by J. R.
Forster
IV. Voyage of Wulfstein in the Baltic, as related to King Alfred
IV[1]. Voyage of Sighelm to India, in the reign of Alfred, King of
V. Travels of John Erigena to Athens, in the Ninth-Century
VI. Geography of the known World, in the Ninth Century, as described by
King Alfred
VII. Travels of Andrew Leucander, in the Eleventh Century
VIII. Voyage of Swanus to Jerusalem, in 1052
IX. Voyage of three Ambassadors from England to Constantinople, about
1056
X. Pilgrimage of Alured to Jerusalem, in 1058
XI. Pilgrimage of Ingulphus to Jerusalem, in 1064
II. Original Discovery of Greenland by the Icelanders, in the Ninth Century
III. Early Discovery of Winland, or America, by the Icelanders, about the
year 1001
IV. Travels of two Mahometans into India and China, in the Ninth Century
V. Travels of Rabbi Benjamin from Spain to China, in the Twelfth Century
VI. Travels of an Englishman in Tartary, in 1243
VII. Sketch of the Revolutions in Tartary
VIII. Travels of John de Piano Carpini, in 1246
IX. Travels of W. de Rubruquis, about 1253
X. Travels of Haitho, Prince of Armenia, in 1254
XI. Travels of Marco Polo into China and the East; from A.D. 1260 to 1295
XII. Travels of Oderic of Portenau, in 1318
XIII. Travels of Sir John Mandeville, in 1322
XIV. Itinerary of Pegoletti, between Asof and China, in 1355
XV. Voyages of Nicolo and Antonio Zeno, in 1380
XVI. Travels of Schildtberger, in 1394
XVII. Travels of the Ambassadors of Shah Rokh, in 1419
XVIII. Voyage and Shipwreck of Quirini, in 1431
XIX. Travels of Josaphat Barbaro, in 1436
[1] By error of the press, Sect, IV. has been numerically repeated.
* * * * *
[Transcriber's note: The following errata have been applied to the text.]
ERRATA.
Page 8, line 26, _for_ insulated _read_ inhabited
51, 21, _for_ phenomena _read_ phenomenon
62, 41, _after_ each _insert_ of the
118 33, _after_ thirteenth _insert_ century
165, note 7, _for_ Keander _read_ Theander.
A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
PART I.
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS OF DISCOVERY, FROM THE ERA OF ALFRED, KING OF ENGLAND,
IN THE NINTH CENTURY; TO THE ERA OF DON HENRY, PRINCE OF PORTUGAL, AT THE
COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
PART I.
_Voyages and Travels of Discovery, from the era of Alfred, King of
England, in the ninth century; to the era of Don Henry, Prince of Portugal,
at the commencement of the fifteenth century._
CHAP. I.
_Discoveries in the time of Alfred King of England, in the ninth century
of the Christian era._
INTRODUCTION.
In the midst of the profound ignorance and barbarism which overspread the
nations of Western Europe, after the dissolution of the Roman empire in the
West, a transient ray of knowledge and good government was elicited by the
singular genius of the great Alfred, a hero, legislator, and philosopher,
among a people nearly barbarous. Not satisfied with having delivered his
oppressed and nearly ruined kingdom from the ravages of the almost savage
Danes and Nordmen, and the little less injurious state of anarchy and
disorganization into which the weakness of the vaunted Anglo-Saxon system
of government had plunged England, he for a time restored the wholesome
dominion of the laws, and even endeavoured to illuminate his ignorant
people by the introduction of useful learning. In the prosecution of these
patriotic views, and for his own amusement and instruction, besides other
literary performances, he made a translation of the historical work of
Orosius into his native Anglo-Saxon dialect; into which he interwove the
relations of Ohthere and Wulfstan, of which hereafter, and such other
information as he could collect respecting the three grand divisions of the
world then known; insomuch, that his account of Europe especially differs
very materially from that of Orosius, of which he only professed to make a
translation.
Although Alfred only mounted the throne of England in 872, it has been
deemed proper to commence the series of this work with the discovery of
Iceland by the Nordmen or Norwegians, about the year 861, as intimately
connected with the era which has been deliberately chosen as the best
landmark of our proposed systematic History and Collection of Voyages and
Travels. That entirely accidental incident is the earliest geographical
discovery made by the modern nations, of which any authentic record now
remains, and was almost the only instance of the kind which occurred, from
the commencement of the decline of the Roman power, soon after the
Christian era, for nearly fourteen centuries. And as the colonization of
Iceland did not begin till A.D. 878, the insertion of this circumstance in
the present place, can hardly be considered as at all deviating from the
most rigid principles of our plan.
SECTION I
_Discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians in the Ninth Century_[1].
It were foreign to our present object to attempt any delineation of the
piratical, and even frequently conquering expeditions of the various
nations of Scandinavia, who, under the names of Angles, Saxons, Jutes,
Danes, and Normans, so long harassed the fragments of the Roman empire.
About the year 861, one Naddod, a Nordman or Norwegian vikingr, or chief of
a band of freebooters, who, during a voyage to the Faro islands, was thrown
by a storm upon the eastern coast of an unknown country, considerably
beyond the ordinary course of navigation, to which he gave the significant
name of Snio-land, or Snow-land, from the immense quantities of snow which
every where covered its numerous lofty mountains, even in the height of
summer, and filled its many valleys during a long and dreary winter. As
Naddod gave a rather favourable account of his discovery on his return to
Norway, one Gardar Suafarson, of Swedish origin, who was settled in Norway,
determined upon making an expedition to Snow-land in 864; and having
circumnavigated the whole extent of this new discovery, he named it from
himself, Gardars-holm, or Gardars-island.
Gardar employed so long a time in this expedition, that, not deeming it
safe to navigate the northern ocean during the storms of winter, he
remained on the island until the ensuing spring, when he sailed for Norway.
He there reported, that though the island was entirely covered with wood,
it was, in other respects, a fine country. From the favourable nature of
this report, one Flocke, the son of Vigvardar, who had acquired great
reputation among the Nordmen or Normans, as an experienced and intrepid
vikingr or pirate, resolved to visit the newly-discovered island. Flocke
likewise wintered in the northern part of the island, where he met with
immense quantities of drift ice, from which circumstance he chose to give
it the name of Iceland, which it still bears. He was by no means pleased
with the country, influenced, no doubt, by the unfavourable impression he
had imbibed by spending a long protracted winter on the dreary northern
shore, amid almost ever-during arctic ice, and surrounded by the most
unpromising sterility; and though some of his companions represented the
land as pleasing and fertile, the desire of visiting Iceland seems, for
some time, to have lain dormant among the adventurous Norwegian navigators;
probably because neither fame nor riches could be acquired, either by
traffic or depredation, in a country which was utterly destitute of
inhabitants.
At length, in 874, two friends, Ingolf and Lief, repaired to Iceland, and
were so much satisfied with its appearance, that they formed a resolution
of attempting to make a settlement in the country; induced, doubtless, by a
desire to withdraw from the continual wars and revolutions which then
harassed the north of Europe, and to escape from the thraldom which the
incipient monarchies of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, were then imposing
upon the independent chiefs or vikingr of the Normans. In pursuance of this
determination, Ingolf transported some people to Iceland, about the year
878, with several cattle, and all kinds of implements, to enable him to
commence a colony. At this period his friend Lief was absent in the English
wars; but went soon afterwards into Iceland, to which he carried the booty
which he had acquired in England.
The first discoverers of Iceland are said to have found some Irish books,
bells, and croziers on the coast; whence it has been imagined, that some
people from Ireland had resided there previous to its discovery and
settlement by the Normans. But it seems a more probable supposition, to
account for these articles having been seen, that a party of Norman pirates
or vikingr, who had previously landed in Ireland, or perhaps on Icolmkil,
and had carried away the plunder of some abbey or monastery, had been
driven to Iceland by a storm, and wrecked upon the coast, where these
articles might have been washed on shore: Or they may have attributed the
storm, by which they were driven so far beyond their knowledge, to the
anger of the God of the Christians, for their sacrilegious robbery of a
holy institution, and may have left these articles behind, in hopes of
propitiating a more favourable termination to their voyage. The first
settlers found extensive forests in the valleys of Iceland; and we know,
from authentic documents, that corn was formerly cultivated with decent
success in that northern region; whereas, in the present day, not a tree is
to be found in the whole island, except some stunted birches, and very low
bushes or underwood, in the most sheltered situations, and no corn will now
ripen, even in the most favourable years. But the roots and stumps of large
firs are still to be seen in various parts; and the injurious alteration of
its climate is known to have been occasioned by the straits between
_old_ Greenland and Iceland having been many years choked up with ice,
which the short summers of that high latitude are not sufficiently powerful
to dissolve.
About the present period, Harold Harfagr, or the fair-haired, one of the
petty sovereigns or vikingr of Norway, began to subjugate the other
chieftains of the country under his paramount authority, and was so
successful as to establish the Norwegian monarchy in 875. Gorm, likewise,
about the same time, united the petty states of Jutland and the Danish
islands into one kingdom, as Ingiald Illrode had done long before in
Sweden. Such independent spirits as found themselves dissatisfied with this
new order of affairs, found a sure asylum in Iceland; and the emigrations
to this new country became so numerous, that Harold at length deemed it
expedient to impose a tax of half a mark of silver, equal to five pounds of
our modern money, on every one of his subjects who were desirous of going
to settle in that island.
[1] Fragm. Vet. Islandic. ap. Langebeck, II. 31.--Forster, Hist. of Voy.
and Disc. in the North, p. 50.
SECTION II.
_Voyages of Ohthere to the White Sea and the Baltic, in the Ninth
Century._[1]
Some of the Norwegian chieftains, who were dissatisfied with the usurpation
of supreme authority by Harold, took refuge in England, where Alfred had
recently settled many of the vanquished Danes and Nordmen in the northern
part of his dominions, which had been almost entirely depopulated and laid
waste, by their long-continued and destructive ravages. Among these was one
Ohthere, who had made himself famous by his voyages to unknown parts of the
north, and who was invited to court by Alfred, to give an account of the
discoveries and observations he had made during his unusual expeditions.
This person had been a chief of some note in his own country, and dwelt at
a place which he called Halgoland, supposed by some to have been in
Numadalen, while others say in Nordland, the most northerly p province of
Norway proper. In the succeeding paragraph, he is said to have dwelt
opposite to the _West Sea,_ and as Alfred only uses the word sea to
denote a confined expanse or narrow channel, while he calls the ocean
Garsecg, it seems highly probable, that, by the West Sea, the _west
ford_ was intended,--a channel or strait which divides the Luffoden
islands from the coast of Nordland, which would clearly place the residence
of Ohthere in this northern province. The account which he gave of his
voyages to his royal patron, is as follows.
Ohthere told his lord King Alfred, that lie lived to the north of all the
Nordmen or Norwegians; and that he dwelt in that land to the northward,
opposite to the west sea; and that all the land to the north of that sea is
waste and uninhabited except in a few places, to which the Finans[2] or
Fins repair in winter for hunting and fowling, and for fishing in the
summer. Being desirous to ascertain how far this country extended towards
the north, and whether there were any inhabitants beyond these wastes, he
proceeded by sea due north from his own habitation, leaving the desert land
all the way on the starboard or right-hand, and the wide sea on the
larboard or left-hand of his course. After three days sail, he was as far
north as the whale-hunters ever go[3]; and then proceeded in his course due
north for other three days, when he found the land, instead of stretching
due north, as hitherto[4], to trend from thence towards the east. Whether
the sea there lies within the land, he knew not[5], as he only waited for a
west wind, and then sailed near that land eastwards, as far as he could, in
four days; as he found the direction of the coast then to change to due
south, he waited for a north wind, and then sailed due south as far as be
could in five days.
In this land he found a large river, at the mouth of which he lay to, as he
could not proceed much farther, on account of the inhabitants being
hostile. All the land on one side of this river was inhabited, and
tolerably well cultivated, but he had not met with any inhabitants till
now, since he left his own country; the whole land on his right being a
desert, and without inhabitants, except the fishers, fowlers, and hunters,
before-mentioned, who were all Fins; and the open sea lay on his left hand
during his whole voyage. The Beormas [6], indeed, had well peopled their
country, for which reason he did not venture to enter upon it; and the land
of the Terfenna [7], which he had passed hitherto, was all a desert, with
the exception of the hunters and fishers already mentioned.
The Beormas told him many particulars about their land, and of the
neighbouring countries; but he could not rely on their accounts, as he had
no opportunity of seeing with his own eyes, but it seemed to him that the
Beormas and Fins spoke the same language [8]. Ohthere stated, that his
motive for this expedition, besides some little curiosity to explore these
countries, which were unknown to his countrymen, was principally in pursuit
of horse-whales [9], which are valuable, because their tusks are excellent
ivory, some of which he brought to the king, and because their hides serve
for making into ropes for ships. This species of the whale is much smaller
than the other kind, being seldom more than seven ells in length; while the
other species is often forty-eight ells long, and sometimes even fifty. In
this country was the best whale-fishing that Ohthere had ever seen, the
whales being so numerous, that he was one of six who killed threescore in
three days[10].
Ohthere was a very rich man in those things which are considered as
valuable in his country, and possessed, at the time when he came to the
king, six hundred tame deer, none of which he had bought; besides which, he
had six decoy deer, which are much in request among the Fins, as by means
of them, they are enabled to catch wild deer. Yet, though one of the
richest men in these parts, he had only twenty head of cattle, twenty
sheep, and twenty swine; and what little land he had in tillage was
ploughed by horses. The principal wealth of the Norman chiefs in that
country consisted in tribute exacted from the Fins; being paid in skins of
wild beasts, feathers, whalebone, cables and ropes for ships, made from the
hides of whales or seals. Every one pays in proportion to his substance:
the wealthiest paying the skins of fifteen martins, five rein-deer skins,
and one bear-skin, a coat or cloak made of bear-skin or otters skins, and
two cables or ship ropes of sixty ells long each, one of which is made of
whale hide, and the other from the skins of seals.
According to the description given to the king by Ohthere, Northmanna-land,
or Norway, is very long and narrow, all the land which is fit for pasture
or tillage being on the seacoast, which is very rocky in some places. To
the east of this, and parallel to the cultivated land, there are wild and
huge mountains and moors, which are inhabited by the Fins. The cultivated
land is broadest in the south[11], where it is sixty miles broad, and in
some places more; about the middle of the country, it is perhaps thirty
miles broad, or somewhat more; and where it is narrowest in the north, it
is hardly more than three miles from the sea to the moors. In some places,
the moors are so extensive that a man can hardly travel across them in a
fortnight, and in other places perhaps in six days.
Opposite to the south part of this country is Sueoland[12], or Sweden, on
the other side of the moors, and opposite to its northern part is Cwenland.
The Cwens sometimes pass the moors and mountains to invade and plunder the
country of the Normans; who likewise sometimes retaliate, by crossing over
to spoil their land. In these moors, there are some very large _meres_
or lakes of fresh water, and the Cwenas[13] sometimes carry their small
light ships over land into these lakes, and employ them to facilitate their
depredations on the Nordmen. Ohthere says, that the shire or district which
he inhabited is called Halgoland, and that there were no inhabitants beyond
him to the north. There is likewise a port in the southern land, which is
called Sciringes-heal[14], which no one could reach in a month's sailing,
even with a fair wind, at least if he lay to at night. During this voyage,
the navigator must sail near the land, or make a coasting voyage along the
coast of Norway towards the south, having _Iraland_[15], and the islands
which are between that country and Norway, on his right hand; for this
country continues all the way on the left hand of the navigator, from
Halgoland to Sciringes-heal. As he proceeds again to the northward, a great
sea to the south of Sciringes-heal runs up into this land, and that sea is
so wide, that a person cannot see across it. Gotland[16] is opposite on the
other side, or right-hand; and afterwards the sea of Sillende[17] lies many
miles up in that country.
Ohthere farther says, that he sailed in five days from Sciringes-heal to
that port which is called Haethum [18], which lies between Winedum, Seaxun,
and Anglen, and makes part of Dene. When he sailed to this place from
Sciringes-heal, Dene, or Denmark, was on his left, and on his right was a
wide sea for three days; as were also on his right, two days before he came
to Haethum, Gotland, Sillende, and many other islands, which were inhabited
by the Angles before they came to Britain; and during these two days, the
islands belonging to Denmark were on his left hand.
[1] Anglo-Saxon Version of Orosius, by Alfred the Great, translated by
Daines Barrington, p. 9.--Langebeck, Script. Dan. II. 106-118.--
Forster, Voy. and Disc. in the North, p. 53.
[2] Ohthere here calls the inhabitants of the desert Fins, and it would
appear that the Laplanders are actually Fins, or Finlanders; the name
of Laps or Laplanders being of modern origin, and the Danes and
Norwegians still call this country Finmark.--Forst
[3] In former translations of Alfred, this passage is rendered as follows:
"He was within three days sail of being as far north as the
whale-hunters ever go." This expression is vague and ambiguous, and
rather means that the residence from whence he set out was within
three days sail, &c.; whereas the next member of the same sentence
distinctly indicates a preceding three days sail, as in the adopted
translation.--E.
[4] This is not quite accurate, as the coast of Norway, in the course of
Ohthere, stretches N.N.E. He was now arrived at the North Cape, whence
the coast towards the White Sea trends E. and by N.--E.
[5] This doubt, of whether the sea lies within the land or not, probably
refers to the numerous inlets or fiords along the whole coast of
Norway and Finmark, and may mean, that he did not examine whether the
land might not be parcelled out into innumerable islands.--E.
[6] The Beormas are the Biarmians or Permians of the northern writers; and
Perm or Permia is still mentioned among the numerous titles of the
emperors of Russia.--Forat.
[7] The Terfennas are mentioned as different from the Scrite-fennas. These
were distinguished by Guido, the geographer of Ravenna, in the seventh
century, into Rerefinni and Scritifinni. The latter lived entirely
by hunting, and wore snow-shoes in winter, called Schrit. The former
subsisted on their herds of rein-deer, and perhaps ought to have been
therefore called Rene-finni. The name in the text ought perhaps to
have been Rhane-fenna, as he tells us they had rein-deer, and employed
decoy deer to catch the wild. Perhaps Fer-fenna, from their
travelling in sledges; from farra, to travel in a carriage.--Forst.
[8] It is highly probable, from this remark, in which Ohthere could not be
mistaken, as it will appear in the sequel that he must have been
perfectly well acquainted with the Fins, that the Biarmians were a
branch of the great Finnish stock. The principal difference seems to
have been, that the Fins continued to be wandering hunters and
herdsmen, while the Beormas or Biarmians had advanced to the state of
fixed cultivators of the soil. They had likewise an idol called
Jomala, which is still the name of one of the deities of the
Finlanders.--Forst.
[9] The morse is here named horse-whale by king Alfred, with infinitely
greater propriety than the appellation of sea-horse, which long
prevailed in our language. The tusks of this animal are still
considered as excellent ivory, and are peculiarly valuable for the
construction of false teeth; and leather made from the hide is still
used in Russia for coach-harness, but stretches more when wet than any
other leather.--Forst.
[10] It would appear, from the vast number killed, that this successful
fishing must refer to the morse or horse-whale, not to the ordinary
large whale.--E.
[11] In the original, the broad and comparatively fertile part of Norway
is said to be in the _east_: the correction adopted in the text
is obvious and necessary.--E.
[12] In former translations, this passage is: "opposite to this land,
_to_ the south, is Sueoland." The alteration in the text removes
the ambiguity--E.
[13] Cwenland and the Cwenas appear to refer to Lapmark, and its
inhabitants, the Finlanders.--Forst.
[14] See Sect. iii. p. 12, in which this place is supposed by Mr J. R.
Forster to have been where Stockholm now is.
[15] Iraland obviously here means Scotland, with the Faro, Shetland, and
Orkney islands.--E.
[16] This is plainly the isle of Gothland.--E.
[17] Apparently the Baltic proper is here called the sea of Sillende, and
may have been named from the isle of Zeeland. Yet in this passage it
seems to refer to the gulf of Bothnia, as running far up into the
country.--E.
[18] See Sect. iii. p. 14, in which Forster endeavours to fix this place at
Aarhuus in Jutland.
SECTION III.
_Remarks by J. M. Forster, respecting the situation of Sciringes-heal and
Haethum_[1].
The name of this place, Sciringes-heal, has given a great deal of trouble
to former commentators on Alfred; viz. Sir John Spelman, Bussaeus, Somner,
John Philip Murray, and Langebeck, who have all chosen spots totally
different, in which to place Sciringes-heal. Spelman, and others, look for
this place near Dantzic, where, in their opinion, the Scyres formerly
resided. But, first, the spot where the Scyres lived, is by no means
satisfactorily determined; and, next, it is evident that Ohthere went
continually along the coast from Halgoland to Sciringes-heal, and that this
coast was on his left-hand during the whole course of his navigation. The
late Mr Murray placed Sciringes-heal at Skanor, in the southern extremity
of Sweden; but I cannot think that this place could be five days sail from
Haethum in Jutland, as it is expressly declared to have been by Ohthere.
Langebeck is for carrying Sciringes-heal to Konga-hella, on the Guatelf,
near Marstrand; and insists, that the name, in Alfred's account of the
voyage, ought to have been written Cyninges-heal instead of Sciringes-heal.
If the word had only once occurred, I might have allowed Langebeck to be
right; but we meet with it five times in the space of a few lines, and
always without the slightest variation in orthography. 2dly, The voyage
from Halgoland to Konga-hella is not of sufficient extent to have employed
a month in the passage. 3dly, Konga-hella is too near Jutland to have
required five days for the voyage between it and Haethum.
Having demonstrated the insufficiency of these conjectures, we shall now
endeavour to point out where Sciringes-heal was really situated. Paul
Warenfried, in his Historia Longobardorum, Lib. i, cap. 7. and 10. makes
mention of a district, named Scorunga, in which the Winili, or Lombards
resided, for some time before they removed to Mairinga and from thence,
farther on to Gotland, Anthabet, Bethaib, and Purgendaid. This Scorunga was
not far from Gotland, and consequently in Sweden; and seems to have been
the district in which Sciringes-heal was situated. Add to this, that
Ohthere, after having described Sueoland, or Sweden, as being to the
southwards of his habitation, immediately says, "there is a port in this
southern land which is called Sciringes-heal." By this, he seems plainly to
indicate, that this place certainly was in Sweden; and all this will
appear, still more evidently, if we carefully follow the course of the
voyage which he describes. First of all, he has Scotland, called Iraland,
evidently by mistake, and the Orkney and Shetland islands, which lie
between Scotland and Halgoland, on his right hand; and the continent is
continually on his left hand, all the way, until he arrive at Sciringes-
heal. But farther, a large bay stretches to the northward, deep into the
country, along the coast of which he had been continually sailing; and this
bay commences quite to the southward of Sciringes-heal, and is so broad
that a man cannot see across, and Gotland is directly opposite to this
bay[2]. But the sea, which extended from Zeeland to this spot, goes many
hundred miles up into the country to the eastwards.
From Sciringes-heal, Ohthere could sail in five days to Haethum, which lies
between the Wends Saxons and Angles. Now, by this voyage, we are enabled to
determine, with still greater exactness, the situation of this place which
we are searching for. In order to get to Haethum, he left Gotland on the
right[3], and soon afterwards Zeeland likewise, together with the other
islands which had been the habitation of the Angles before they went to
England, while those which belonged to Denmark were on his left for two
days. Sciringes-heal, therefore, is consequently in Sweden, at the entrance
of the Gulf of Bothnia, which runs up into the land northwards, just on
that spot where the Baltic, after having passed Zeeland, spreads into a
wide gulf, extending several hundred miles into the land. Just in this
place I find the Svia-Sciaeren, or Swedish Scares, a cluster of little
islands, surrounded by rocks. Heal, in the northern languages, signifies a
port, as in such places a ship might be kept in safety. Sciringes-heal,
therefore, was "the harbour of the Scares," and was probably at the
entrance of the gulf of Bothnia, and consequently where Stockholm now is;
and the tract of land where these Scares lay, towards the sea, was the
Scarunga of Paul Warenfried.
The port of Hasthum has occasioned much difficulty to the commentators, as
well as that of Sciringes-heal; but all have agreed that it must be
Sleswic, as this latter is called Haitha by Ethelwerd the Anglo-Saxon. A
Norwegian poet gives it the name of Heythabae, others call it Heydaboe, and
Adam of Bremen Heidaba; and this, in their opinion, is precisely the same
with Haethum. It appears to me, however, that the difference between the
words Haethaby and Hasthum, are by no means so inconsiderable. And I think
the situation of Sleswic does not at all accord with the descriptions which
are given of Haethum by Ohthere and Wulfstan. Indeed, if Sleswic be
Haethum, I must confess, that I cannot in the least comprehend the course
of the voyages of these ancient navigators. Ohthere tells us, that in
sailing from Sciringes-heal to Haethum, he had Denmark to the left, and the
open sea, for the space of three days, to the right; but that, for two days
before he reached Haethum, he had Gotland and Zeeland to the right, and the
islands which belong to Denmark to the left. If he had gone to Sleswic, he
must have found all the Danish islands on his right hand, and not one
besides Femeren on his left. This being considered, I ask how it is
possible, consistent with his own description of the voyage, that the
situation of Sleswic can be made to correspond with Haethum? As, in the
district of Aarhuus in Jutland, there is an extensive track of land called
Alheide, which is in fact a heath, I shall take the liberty to suppose,
that the town, in the ninth century, lay higher up towards Al-heide, or
All-heath; for the town of Aar-huus is new, and its name signifies in
English Oar-house. The old town, therefore, may have been called
Al-haethum, or Haethum; so, that if Ohthere set out from Stockholm for this
place, Gotland was on his right hand[4], and so was Zealand. And as he
sailed between Zealand and Funen, or Fyen, all the Danish islands were on
his left hand, and he had the wide sea, that is, the Schager-rack, and
Cattegat to the right. Farther, when Wulfsten went from Haethum, or Aarhuus
to Truso, he had Weonothland, that is Funen, Fionia, or Fyen to his right;
and to the left were, Langeland, Laeland, Falster, and Sconeg; together
with Bornholm, Bleking, Moehre, Oeland, and Gotland. But Wendenland
remained on his right, all the way to the mouth of the Vistula.
[1] Forst. Voy. and Disc. 67.
[2] It appears to me, that the description given by Ohthere, implies,
that Gotland was directly opposite to Sciringes-heal, or to the east.
--E.
[3] Not surely on going southwards, but after he had again turned to the
northwards, after doubling the southern point of Sweden.--E.
[4] This is certainly true during the latter part of his voyage, after
turning round the south end of Sweden, and standing again to the
northward, between Zealand and Fyen; but in coasting down the shore of
Sweden to the south, he must have left Gotland to the left,--E.
SECTION IV.
_Voyage of Wulfstan in the Baltic as related to Alfred_[1].
Wulfstan said that he sailed from Haethum to Truso[2] in seven days and
nights, the ship being under sail all the time. Weonothland[3] was on his
right; but Langaland, Laeland, Falster, and Sconeg, were on the left, all
of which belong to Dene-mearkan[4]. Burgendaland[5] also, which has a king
of its own, was on the left. After leaving Burgendaland, the islands of
Becinga-eg, Meore, Eowland, and Gotland, were on the left, all of which
belong to Sueon[6], and Weonodland[7] was all the way on the right to the
mouth of the Wisle[8]. This is a very large river, and near it Witland[9],
and Weonodland are situated; the former of which belongs to Estum, and the
Wisle does not run through Weonodland, but through Estmere[10], which lake
is fifteen miles broad. Then runs the Ilfing[11] from the eastwards into
Est-mere, on the banks of which is Truso. The Ilfing flows from Est-land
into the Est-mere from the east, and the Wisle through Weonodland from the
south. The Ilfing, having joined the Wisle, takes its name, and runs to the
west of Estmere, and northward into the sea, where it is called
Wisle-mouth[12].
Est-land is a large track of country, having many towns, in each of which
there is a king. It produces a great quantity of honey, and has abundance
of fish. The kings, and other rich men, drink mares milk, while the poor
people and slaves use only mead[13]. They have many contests among
themselves; and the people of Estum brew no ale, as they have mead in
profusion[14]. There is also a particular custom observed by this nation;
that, when any one dies, the body remains unburnt, with the relations and
friends, for a month or two; and the bodies of kings and nobles remain
longer, according to their respective wealth, sometimes for half a year,
during all which time it is kept in the house, and drinking and sports
continue until the body is consumed[15]. When the body is carried to the
funeral pile, the substance of the deceased, which yet remains, after the
sports and drinking bouts, is divided into five or six heaps, or more,
according to its value. These heaps are placed at the distance of a mile
from each other; the largest heap at the greatest distance from the town,
and the lesser heaps gradually diminishing, so that the smallest heap is
nearest to the town where the dead body lies. Then all are summoned who
have fleet horses, within the distance of five or six miles around, and
they all strive for the substance of the dead person. He who has the
swiftest horse, gains the most distant and largest heap, and the others, in
just proportion, till the whole is won; then every one takes away his
share, as his own property: and owing to this custom, swift horses are in
great request, and extremely dear. When the wealth of the deceased has been
thus exhausted, the body is taken from the house and burnt, together with
the dead man's weapons and clothes; and generally, they expend the whole
wealth of the deceased, by keeping the body so long in the house before it
is burnt, and by these heaps which are carried off by strangers. It is the
custom with the Estum to burn the bodies of all the inhabitants; and if any
one can find a single bone unconsumed, it is a cause of great offence.
These people, also, have the means of producing a very severe cold; by
which, the dead body continues so long above ground without putrefying; and
by means of which, if any one sets a vessel of ale or water in the place,
they contrive that the liquor shall be frozen either in winter or
summer[16].
[1] Alfred's Orosius, by Barrington, p. 16. Langebeck, Scrip. Dan. II. 118-
123. Wulfstan appears to have been a Dane, who had probably become
acquainted with Ohthere, during his maritime expeditions, and had gone
with him to reside in England.--Forst.
[2] There is a lake still called Truso or Drausen, between Elbing and
Prussian Holland, from which, probably, the town here mentioned, which
stood on the Frisch-haf, took its name.--Forst.
[3] It is necessary to distinguish accurately between Weonothland, which is
probably Fuehnen, Funen, or Fionio, now called Fyen; and Weonodland or
Winodland, afterwards Wendenland.--Forst.
[4] Denmark obviously, called simply Dene, in the voyages of Ohthere.--E.
[5] Probably Bornholm.--E.
[6] Called Sueoland in the voyages of Ohthere, is assuredly Sweden, to
which all these islands belong. Becinga-eg, is certainly Bleking; the
_l_ being omitted in transcription, called an island by mistake.
Meore is indisputably the upper and lower Moehre in Smoland; Eowland
is Oeland; and Gotland is doubtless the modern isle of that name.
--Forst.
[7] Weonodland, or Winodland, extends to the mouth of the Vistula; and is
obviously a peculiar and independent country, totally different from
Weonothland, belonging to Denmark.--Forst.
[8] Wisle, or Wisla, is the Sclavonian orthography for the Vistula, called
Weichsel by the Germans, and Weissel by the Prussians.--Forst.
[9] Witland is a district of Samland in Prussia. It had this name of
Witland at the time of the crusades of the Germans against Prussia.
The word Wit-land, is a translation of the native term Baltikka, or
the white land, now applied to the Baltic Sea.--Forst.
[10] Est-mere, a lake of fresh water, into which the Elbing and Vistula
empty themselves; now called Frisch-haf, or the fresh water sea.
--Forst.
[11] This is undoubtedly the Elbing which flows from lake Drausen, or
Truso, and joins, by one of its branches, that arm of the Vistula
which is called Neugat or Nogat.--Forst.
[12] The Ilfing, or Elbing, comes out of Esthonia, yet not from the east,
as here said by Alfred, but from the south; except, indeed, he mean
that arm of the Elbing which runs into the Nogat, or eastern arm of
the Vistula. But the Vistula comes out of Wendenland, called
Weonodland in the text, from the south; and the two rivers discharge
themselves into the Frisch-haf, which stretches from west to north, or
in a north-east direction; and at Pilau, goes northwards into the sea.
It is certainly possible that this entrance may have been formerly
called Wisle-mund, or the mouth of the Vistula, as well as the western
mouth of that river.--Forst.
This concession is not necessary to the truth of Wulfstan and Alfred.
There is a cross branch from Elbing, which joins the Nogat and Vistula
proper; and which is probably meant in the text, where the Ilfing and
Wisle, united, are said to run to the west of Est-mere, or the haf,
and then north, into the sea at Wisle-mund.--E.
[13] This circumstance is singular; yet may be explained from the custom of
the Tartars. The mares milk, drank by the kings and rich men, was
certainly prepared into cosmos, or kumyss, the favourite beverage of
the great; while mead, a much inferior liquor in their estimation, was
left to the lower orders.--E.
[14] Mead was called Medo in Anglo-Saxon, in Lithuanian Middus, in Polish
Miod, in Russian Méd, in German Meth, in old English Metheglin:
perhaps all these are from the Greek verb [Greek: methuo], to
intoxicate. Alfred naturally observes, that these drinking-bouts
produced many frays; and notices the reason of the Estum or Esthonians
brewing no ale, because they had abundance of mead.--Forst.
[15] In a treaty between the Teutonic knights, and the newly converted
Prussians, the latter engaged never to burn their dead, nor to bury
them with their horses, arms, clothes, and valuables.--Forst.
[16] This power of producing cold in summer, so much admired by Wulfstan
and Alfred, was probably the effect of a good ice-cellar, which every
Prussian of condition had in, or near his house.--Forst.
SECTION IV.
_Voyage of Sighelm and Athelstan to India, in the reign of Alfred King of
England, in 883_[1].
Though containing no important information, it were unpardonable in an
English collection of voyages and travels, to omit the scanty notice which
remains on record, respecting a voyage by two Englishmen to India, at so
early a period. All that is said of this singular incident in the Saxon
Chronicle, is[2], "In the year 883, Alfred sent Sighelm and Athelstan to
Rome, and likewise _to the shrine_ of Saints Thomas and Bartholomew,
in India, with the alms which he had vowed." [Bartholomew was the messenger
of Christ in India, the extremity of the whole earth.]--The words printed
in _Italics_ are added in translating, by the present editor, to
complete the obvious sense. Those within brackets, are contained in one MS.
Codex of the Saxon Chronicle, in addition to what was considered the most
authentic text by Bishop Gibson, and are obviously a note or commentary,
afterwards adopted into the text in transcription.
This short, yet clear declaration, of the actual voyage, has been extended
by succeeding writers, who attribute the whole merit to Sighelm, omitting
all mention of Athelstan, his co-adjutor in the holy mission. The first
member of the subsequent paraphrase of the Saxon Chronicle, by Harris,
though unauthorized, is yet necessarily true, as Alfred could not have sent
messengers to a shrine, of which he did not know the existence. For the
success of the voyage, the safe return, the promotion of Sighelm, and his
bequest, the original record gives no authority, although that is the
obvious foundation of the story, to which Aserus has no allusion in his
life of Alfred.
"In the year 883, Alfred, King of England, hearing that there existed a
Christian church in the Indies, dedicated to the memory of St Thomas and St
Bartholomew, dispatched one Sighelm, or Sithelm, a favourite ecclesiastic
of his court, to carry his royal alms to that distant shrine. Sighelm
successfully executed the honourable commission with which he had been
entrusted, and returned in safety into England. After his return, he was
promoted to the bishoprick of Sherburn, or Shireburn, in Dorsetshire; and
it is recorded, that he left at his decease, in the treasury of that
church, sundry spices and jewels, which he had brought with him from the
Indies."
Of this voyage, William of Malmsbury makes twice mention; once in the
fourth chapter of his second book, De Gestis Regum Anglorum; and secondly,
in the second book of his work; entitled, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum;
and in the chapter devoted to the Bishops of Shireburn, Salisbury, and
Winchester, both of which are here added, although the only authority for
the story is contained in what has been already given from the Saxon
Chronicle[3].
"King Alfred being addicted to giving of alms, confirmed the privileges
which his father had granted to the churches, and sent many gifts beyond
seas, to Rome, and to St Thomas in India. His messenger in this business
was Sighelm, bishop of Sherburn, who, with great prosperity, which is much
to be wondered at in this age, penetrated into India; whence he brought on
his return, splendid exotic gems, and aromatic liquors, of which the soil
of that region is prolific."
"Sighelm having gone beyond seas, charged with alms from the king, even
penetrated, with wonderful prosperity, to Saint Thomas in India, a thing
much to be admired in this age; and brought thence, on his return, certain
foreign kinds of precious stones which abound in that region; some of which
are yet to be seen in the monuments of his church."
In the foregoing accounts of the voyage of Sighelm, from the first notice
in the Saxon Chronicle, through the additions of Malmsbury, and the
amplified paraphrase by Harris, we have an instance of the manner in which
ingenious men permit themselves to blend their own imaginations with
original record, superadding utterly groundless circumstances, and fancied
conceptions, to the plain historical facts. Thus a motely rhetorical tissue
of real incident and downright fable is imposed upon the world, which each
successive author continually improves into deeper falsehood. We have here
likewise an instance of the way in which ancient manuscripts, first
illustrated by commentaries, became interpolated, by successive
transcribers adopting those illustrations into the text; and how many
fabricators of story, first misled by these additaments, and afterwards
misleading the public through a vain desire of producing a morsel of
eloquence, although continually quoting original and contemporary
authorities, have acquired the undeserved fame of excellent historians,
while a multitude of the incidents, which they relate, have no foundations
whatever in the truth of record. He only, who has diligently and faithfully
laboured through original records, and contemporary writers, honestly
endeavouring to compose the authentic history of an interesting period, and
has carefully compared, in his progress, the flippant worse than
inaccuracies of writers he has been taught to consider as masterly
historians, can form an adequate estimate of the enormity and frequency of
this tendency to romance. The immediate subject of these observations is
slight and trivial; but the evil itself is wide-spread and important, and
deserves severe reprehension, as many portions of our national history have
been strangely disfigured by such indefensible practices.
[1] Harris, I. 873. Hakluyt, V. II. 38.
[2] Chron. Sax. Ed. Gibson, p. 86.
[3] Hakluyt, II. 88.
SECTION V.
_Travels of John Erigena to Athens, in the Ninth Century_[1].
John Erigena, of the British Nation, descended from noble progenitors, and
born in the town of St. Davids in Wales; while the English were oppressed
by the cruel wars and ravages of the Danes, and the whole land was in
confusion, undertook a long journey to Athens, and there spent many years
in the study of the Grecian, Chaldean, and Arabian literature. He there
frequented all the places and schools of the philosophers, and even visited
the oracle of the sun, which Esculapius had constructed for himself. Having
accomplished the object of his travels, he returned through Italy and
France; where, for his extraordinary learning, he was much favoured by
Charles the Bald, and afterwards by Lewis the Stammerer. He translated into
Latin, in 858, the books of Dionysius the Areopagite, concerning the
Heavenly Hierarchy, then sent from Constantinople. Going afterwards into
Britain, he became preceptor to Alfred, King of England, and his children;
and, at the request of that prince, he employed his leisure in translating
the Morals of Aristotle, and his book called the Secret of Secrets, or of
the Right Government of Princes, into Chaldaic, Arabic, and Latin;
certainly a most exquisite undertaking. At last, being in the abbey of
Malmsbury, where he had gone for his recreation, in the year 884, and
reading to certain evil-disposed disciples, they put him to death.
[1] Hakluyt, II. 38.
SECTION VI.
_Geography of the Known World, in the Ninth Century as described by King
Alfred_[1].
INTRODUCTION.
Though not strictly conformable to our plan, as being neither a journey or
voyage, it yet seemed incumbent to present our readers with this curious
British production of the great Alfred King of England, which gives a
singular record of the geographical knowledge of the world in the ninth
century. It was originally written by Orosius, a Spanish Christian, who
flourished in the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century, and
who published a kind of History of the World, down to A. D. 416, which
remained in good repute among the learned till about an hundred years ago,
but is now much neglected. Near a thousand years ago, the work of Orosius
was translated into Anglo-Saxon, by Alfred King of England, but, with great
freedom and much licence, often using his author merely as a foundation for
a paraphrase; omitting most of the introductory chapters to each book,
sometimes leaving out considerable passages, and often inserting new
matter. This is peculiarly the case with the first chapter of the first
book, containing the whole of the geography, and which is all that has any
reference to the nature of our work.
The Honourable Daines Barrington, who published the Anglo-Saxon version,
with an English translation, informs us that the original MS. is in the
Cotton Library, _Tiberius_ I., and is supposed to have been written in
the ninth or tenth century; but that, in making his translation, he used a
transcript, made by Mr Elstob, occasionally collated with the Cotton MS.
and with some other transcripts. But, before publishing a work of such
curiosity and interest, he ought to have made sure of possessing a perfect
copy, by the most scrupulous comparison of his transcript with the original
MS.
In the following republication of the geographical chapter, much care has
been taken to correct errors, chiefly in regard to direction, as east,
west, north, and south, are often used interchangeably in the translation
by Mr Barrington. Most of the notes are from that edition, or from J.R.
Forster, who reprinted so much of this chapter as referred to northern
geography, and who appears to have studied that part of the subject with
great care.
As a specimen of the Anglo-Saxon, or the language of England near a
thousand years ago, we have given the first sentence of this geographical
chapter in the ordinary Roman letters, with a literal translation.
_Anglo-Saxon_.
Ure yldran calne thysne ymbhwyrft
thyses middangeardes, cwaeth
Orosius, swa swa Oceanus ymbligeth
utan, wone man garsecg hatath, on
threo todaeldon.
_Literal Translation_
Our elders have divided all of
this middle-earth, quoth Orosius,
which Oceanus surrounds, which
men calleth _garsecg_ into three
deals.
_Geography of Alfred_.
§ 1. According to Orosius, our ancestors divided the whole world which is
surrounded by the ocean, which we call _garsecg_[2], into three parts,
and they named these divisions Asia, Europe, and Africa; though some
authors only admit of two parts, Asia and Europe. Asia is bounded to the
southward, northward, and eastward by the ocean, and thus divides all our
part of this earth from that which is to the east. On the north, Europe and
Asia are separated by the Tanais or Don; and in the south, after passing
the Mediterranean[3] sea, Asia and Africa join to the westward of
Alexandria[4].
§ 2. Europe begins, as I have said before, at the Tanais, which has its
source in the northern parts of the Riphean mountains[5], which are near
the Sarmatic[6] ocean; and this river then runs directly south, on the west
side of Alexander's temples, to the nation of the Russians[7], where it
runs into the fen called Maeotis, and thence it issues eastwards with a
great stream, near the town called Theodosia, into the Euxine. Then
becoming narrow for a considerable track, it passes by Constantinople, and
thence into the Wendel sea, or Mediterranean. The south-west end of Europe
is in Ispania or Spain, where it is bounded by the ocean; but the
Mediterranean almost closes at the _islands_ called Gades, where stand
the pillars of Hercules. To the westward of this same Mediterranean is
_Scotland_[8].
§ 3. Asia and Africa are divided by Alexandria, a city of Egypt; and that
country is bounded on the west by the river Nile, and then by Ethiopia to
the south, which reaches quite to the southern ocean. The northern boundary
of Africa is the Mediterranean sea all the way westwards, to where it is
divided from the ocean by the pillars of Hercules; and the true western
boundaries of Africa are the mountains called Atlas and the Fortunate
Islands. Having thus shortly mentioned the three divisions of this earth, I
shall now state how those are bounded by land and water.
§ 4. Opposite to the middle of the eastern part of Asia, the river Ganges
empties itself into the sea, whilst the Indian ocean is to the southwards,
in which is the port of Caligardamana. To the south-east of that port is
the island of Deprobane[9]. To the north of the mouths of the Ganges, where
mount Caucasus ends, is the port of Samera; and to the north of this port
are the mouths of the river called Corogorre, in the ocean called Sericus.
Now, these are the boundaries of India: Mount Caucasus is to the north, the
river Indus to the west, the Red Sea[10] to the south, and the ocean to the
east. In this land of India there are forty-four nations, besides the
island of Taprobana or Ceylon, in which there are ten _boroughs_; and
also many others which are situated on the banks of the Indus, and lie all
to the westward of India. Betwixt this river Indus, and another to the west
called Tigris, both of which empty themselves into the Red Sea[11], are the
countries of Orocassia, Parthia, Asilia, Pasitha, and Media, though some
writers call the whole of this land Media or Assyria[12]. The fields are
much parched by the sun[13], and the roads are very hard and stony. The
northern boundary of this land is Mount Caucasus, and the southern is the
Red Sea. In this land there are two great rivers, the Hystaspes and Arbis,
and twenty-two nations, though the whole has the general name of Parthia.
To the westwards, Babilonia, Chaldea, and Mesopotamia are between the
rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Within this country there are twenty-eight
nations, the northern boundary being Mount Caucasus, and the Red Sea to the
south. Along the Red Sea, and at its northern angle, are Arabia, Sabaea,
and Eudomane, or Idumea. Beyond the river Euphrates, quite westward to the
Mediterranean, and northward to Mount Taurus, even into Armenia, and
southward to near Egypt, are many countries, namely Comagene, Phenicia,
Damascena, Coelle, Moab, Ammon, Idumea, Judea, Palestine, and Sarracene,
all of which are comprehended under the general name of Syria. To the north
of Syria are the hills called Taurus, and to the north of these are
Capadocia and Armenia, the former being to the westward of the latter; and
to the westward of Capadocia is the country called the lesser Asia. To the
north of Capadocia is the plain called Temisere, and betwixt Capadocia and
lesser Asia are Cilicia and Isauria. Lesser Asia is entirely surrounded by
salt water, except to the eastward; having the Euxine on the north, the
Propontis and Hellespont on the west, and the Mediterranean on the south.
In it is the high mountain of Olympus.
§ 5. To the northward of _hither_ Egypt is Palestine, to the eastwards
the land of the Sarracens, to the west is Libia, and to the south the
mountain called Climax. The head of the Nile is near the _cliffs_ of
the Red Sea, though some say it is in the western part of Africa, near
Mount Atlas, whence it flows over a large track of land, till it sinks;
after which, it proceeds in its course, till it becomes a great sea, or
wide river[14]. The spot where the river takes its rise is called by some
Nuchal, and by others Dara. Hence, for some distance from the wider part,
_before_[l5] it rises from the sand, it runs westward to Ethiopia,
where it is called Jon, till it reaches the eastern part, where it becomes
a wide river[16], and then it sinks again into the earth; after which it
appears again opposite to the cliffs of the Red Sea, as I mentioned before,
and from this place it is called the Nile. Then running from thence
westwards, it divides its stream round an island called Meroe[17]; then
running to the northward, it empties itself into the Mediterranean. There,
in the winter season, the current at its mouth is opposed by the north
winds, so that the river is spread all over the land of Egypt;[l8] and by
the rich earth which it deposits, it fertilizes the whole country. The
_farther_ Egypt lies along the southern part of the Red Sea, and to
the east is the ocean. To the west is the _hither_ Egypt, and in the
two Egypts there are twenty-four nations.
§ 6. Having before given an account of the north part of Asia, I shall now
speak of its southern parts. I have before mentioned that Mount Caucasus is
to the north of India, beginning eastwards on the ocean, and running due
west, till it join the Armenian mountains, which the inhabitants call
Parcoatrae, from which the Euphrates takes its rise; and from the
Parcoatrian mountains mount Taurus runs due west, quite to Cilicia. To the
north of these mountains, quite to the ocean which environs the north east
end of the earth, where the river Bore empties itself into the ocean, and
from thence westwards to the Caspian sea, which extends to Mount Caucasus,
all the land is called Old Scythia, or Hircania. In this country there are
forty-three nations, all situate at great distances from each other, on
account of the barrenness of the soil[19]. Then to the westward of the
Caspian unto the Tanais or Don, and the Palus Maeotis, thence south to
Mount Taurus[20], and north to the ocean, is all Scythia, and is divided
among thirty-two nations. The country on the east side of the Tanais is
inhabited by a nation called the Alboari in the Latin tongue, which we now
call Liobene. Thus have I shortly stated the boundaries of Asia, and shall
now state those of Europe, as far as we are informed concerning them.
§ 7. From the Tanais westwards to the Rhine, which takes its rise in the
Alps, and runs northward, till it falls into that branch of the ocean which
surrounds Bryttannia, and southward from the Tanais to the Donua or Danube,
whose source is near that of the Rhine, and which runs to the northward of
Greece, till it empties itself into the Euxine[21], and north even to that
part of the ocean which is called the _Cwen_ sea[22], there are many
nations; and the whole of this extensive country is called Germany. Hence
to the north of the source of the Danube, and to the east of the Rhine are
the people called eastern Franks[23]. To the south of them are the
_Swaepas_[24]. On the opposite banks of the Danube, and to the south
and east, are the people called _Baegth-ware_[25], in that part which
is called _Regnes-burh_[26]. Due east from them are the Beme[27]. To
the north-east the Thyringas[28]. To the north of these are the Old
Seaxan[29]. To the north-west of these are the Frysan[30]; and to the west
of _Old_ Saxony is the mouth of the _Aelfe_ or Elbe, as also
_Frysan_ or Friesland. Prom hence to the north-west is that land which
is called _Angle_, with _Sellinde_, and some other parts of
Dene[31]. To the north is _Apdrede_[32], and to the north-east the
_Wolds_[33], which are called AEfeldan[34]. From hence eastwards is
Wineda-land[35], otherwise called Sysyle[36]. To the south-west, at some
distance, is the Macroaro[37], and these have to the west the Thyringas and
Behemas, as also part of the Baegthware, all of whom have been already
mentioned. And to the south, on the other side of the Donua or Danube, is
the country called Carendrae[38].
§ 8. Southwards, towards and along the mountains which are called the Alps,
are the boundaries of the Baegthware and of the Swaefas already mentioned;
and then to the eastwards of the Carendrae country, and beyond the
Waste[39], is Pulgara-land or Bulgaria[40]. To the east is Greca-land[41]
or Greece; and to the east of the Moroaro or Moravians, is Wisle-land[42];
and to the east of that is Datia, though it formerly belonged to the
Gottan[43] or Goths. To the north-east of the Moroara or Moravians, are the
Delamensen[44]. East of the Delamensen are the Horithi[45]; and north of
the Delamensen are the Surpe[46]; to the west also are the Syssele[47]. To
the north of the Horithi is Maegtha-land[48], and north of Maegtha-land is
Sermende[49], quite to the Riffin[50], or the Riphean mountains.
§ 9. To the south-west of Dene or Denmark, formerly mentioned, is that arm
of the ocean which surrounds Brittania, and to the north is that arm which
is called the _Ostsea_[51] or East sea; to the east and north are the
north Dene[52], or North Danes, both on the continent and on the islands.
To the east are the Afdrede[53]. To the south is the mouth of the AElfe or
Elbe, and some part of _Old Seaxna_[54] or Old Saxony. The North Dene
have to the north that arm of the sea which is called the East sea, and to
the east is the nation of the Osti[55], and the Afdrede, or Obotrites, to
the south. The Osti have to the north of them that same arm of the sea, or
the Baltic, and so have the Winedas and the Burgendas[56]. Still more to
the south is Haefeldan[57]. The Burgendas have this same arm of the sea to
the west, and the Sweon[58] to the north. To the east are the Sermende, to
the south the Surfe[59]. The Sweons have to the south the arm of the sea
called _Ost_, and to the north, over the wastes, is Cwenland[60], to
the north-west are the Scride-finnas[61], and the North-men[62] are to the
west[63].
§ 10. We shall now speak of Greca-land or Greece, which lies south of the
Danube. The Proponditis, or sea called Propontis, is _eastward_ of
Constantinople; to the north of that city, an arm of the sea issues from
the Euxine, and flows _westwards_; to the _north-west_ the mouths
of the Danube empty themselves into the south-east part of the Euxine[64].
To the south and west of these mouths are the Maesi, a Greek nation; to the
west are the Traci or Thracians, and to the east the Macedonians. To the
south, on the southern arm of the Egean sea, are Athens and Corinth, and to
the south-west of Corinth is Achaia, near the Mediterranean. All these
countries are inhabited by the Greeks. To the west of Achaia is Dalmatia,
along the Mediterranean; and on the north side of that sea, to the north of
Dalmatia, is Bulgaria and Istria. To the south of Istria is the Adriatic,
to the west the Alps, and to the north, that desert which is between
Carendan[65] and Bulgaria.
§ 11. Italy is of a great length from the north-west to the south-east and
is surrounded by the Mediterranean on every side, except the north-west. At
that end of it are the Alps, which begin from the Mediterranean, in the
Narbonese country, and end in Dalmatia, to the east of the Adriatic sea.
Opposite to the Alps, _on the north_, is Gallia-belgica, near which is
the river Rhine, which discharges itself into the Britanisca sea, and to
the north, on the other side of this sea, is Brittannia[66]. The land to
the west of _Ligore_, Liguria, is AEquitania; to the south of which is
some part of Narbonense, to the south-west is Spain. To the south of
Narbonense is the Mediterranean, where the Rhone empties itself into that
sea, to the north of the Profent[67] sea. Opposite to the wastes is the
_nearer_[68] part of Spain, to the northwest Aquitania, and the
Wascan[69] to the north. The Profent[67] sea hath to the north the Alps, to
the south the Mediterranean, to the north-east the Burgundians, and to the
West the Wascans or Gascons.
$ 12. Spain is triangular, being surrounded by the sea on three sides. The
boundary to the south-west is opposite to the island of Gades, Cadiz; that
to the east is opposite to the Narbonense, and the third, to the north-
west, is opposite to Brigantia, a town of Gallia, as also to Scotland[70],
over an arm of the sea, and opposite to the mouth of the Scene or Seine. As
for that division of Spain which is _farthest_[71] from us, it has to
the west the ocean, and the Mediterranean to the north, the south, and the
east. This division of Spain has to the north Aquitania, to the north-east
Narbonense, and to the south the Mediterranean.
§ 13. The island of Brittannia extends 800 miles in length to the
north-east, and is 200 miles broad. To the south of it, on the other side
of an arm of the sea, is Gallia-belgica. To the west of it, on the other
side of another arm of the sea, is Ibernia or Ireland, and to the north
Orcadus[72]. Igbernia, Ibernia, Hibernia, or Ireland, _which we call
Scotland_, is surrounded on every side by the ocean; and because it is
nearer the setting sun, the weather is milder than it is in Britain. To the
north-west of Igbernia is the utmost land called _Thila_[73], which is
known to few, on account of its very great distance.
§ 14. Having mentioned the boundaries of Europe, I now proceed to state
those of Africa. Our ancestors considered this as a third part of the
world; not indeed that it contains so much land as the others, because the
Mediterranean cuts it, as it were, in two, breaking in more upon the south
part than on the north[74]. And because the heat is more intense in the
south, than the cold in the north, and because every _wight_ thrives
better in cold than in heat, therefore is Africa inferior to Europe, both
in the number of its people, and in the extent of its land[75]. The eastern
part of Africa, as I said before, begins in the west of Egypt, at the river
Nile, and the most eastern country of this continent is Lybia.
Ciramacia[76] is to the west of lower Egypt, having the Mediterranean on
the north, Libia Ethiopica to the south, and Syrtes Major to the west. To
the east of Libia Ethiopica is the farther Egypt, and the sea called
Ethiopicum[77]. To the west of Rogathitus[78] is the nation called
Tribulitania[79], and the nation called Syrtes Minores, to the north of
whom is that part of the Mediterranean called the Hadriatic. To the west
again of Bizantium, quite to the salt _mere_ of the Arzuges[80]; this
nation has to the east the Syrtes Majores, with the land of Rogathite; and
to the south the Natabres, Geothulas, and Garamantes[81], quite to the sea
of Bizantium. The sea ports of these nations are Adrumetis and Zuges, and
their largest town is Catharina. The country of Numidia has to the east the
Syrtes Minores and the salt _mere_ formerly mentioned, to the north
the Mediterranean, to the west Mauritania, and to the south the hills of
Uzera, and the mountains which extend to Ethiopia, one way, and the
Mauritanian sea on the other side. To the east is Numidia, to the north the
Mediterranean, to the west the river Malvarius, to the south Astryx, near
the mountains which divide the fruitful country from the wild and barren
sands which lie southwards towards the Mauritanian sea, by others called
the Tingitanean. To the east is the river Malon[82], to the north the hills
of Abbenas and Calpri. Another mountain also closes the end of the
Mediterranean sea, between the two hills to the west, where stand the
pillars of Ercoles or Hercules. To the west again is Mount Atlas, quite to
the sea; to the south the hills called AEsperos, and to the south again the
nation called Ausolum[83], which inhabits quite to the sea.
$ 15. Having thus stated the boundaries of Africa, we shall now speak of
the islands in the Mediterranean: Cyprus lies opposite to Cilicia, and
Isauria on that arm of the sea called Mesicos, being 170 miles long, and
122 miles broad. The island of Crete is opposite to the sea called
Artatium, northwest is the sea of Crete, and west is the Sicilian or
Adriatic sea. It is 100 miles long, and 150 miles broad. There are
fifty-three of the islands called the Cyclades. To the east of them is the
Risca Sea, to the south the Cretisca or Cretan, to the north the Egisca or
Egean, and to the west the Adriatic. The island of Sicily is triangular,
and at each end there are towns. The northern is Petores[84], near which is
the town of Messina; the south angle is Lilitem[85], near which is a town
of the same name. The island is 157 miles long from east to west, and 70
broad to the eastward. To the north-east is that part of the Mediterranean
called the Adriatic, to the south the Apiscan sea, to the west the Tyrrhene
sea, and to the north the [86] sea, all of which are narrow and liable to
storms. Opposite to Italy, a small arm of the sea divides Sardinia from
Corsica, which strait is twenty-two miles broad. To the east of it is that
part of the Mediterranean called the Tyrrhenian sea, into which the river
Tiber empties itself. To the south is the sea which lies opposite to
Numidia. To the west the Balearic islands, and to the north Corsica. The
island of Corsica lies directly west from the city of Rome. To the south of
Corsica is Sardinia, and Tuscany is to the north. It is sixteen miles long,
and nine broad[87]. Africa is to the south of the Balearic islands, Gades
to the west, and Spain to the north. Thus I have shortly described the
situation of the islands in the Mediterranean.
[1] Anglo-Saxon version from Orosius, by AElfred the Great, with an English
translation, by Daines Barrington, 8vo. London, 1773. Discoveries in
the North, 54.
[2] This word is always employed by Alfred to denote the ocean, while
smaller portions are uniformly called _sae_ in the singular,
_saes_ in the plural.--Barr
[3] Called Wenadel sea in the Anglo-Saxon original; probably because it
had been crossed by the Vandals or Wends, in going from Spain to the
conquest of Africa.--E.
[4] In the translation by Barrington, this sentence is quite
unintelligible. "All to the northward is Asia, and to the southward
Europe and Asia are separated by the Tanais; then south of this same
river (along the Mediterranean, and west of Alexandria) Europe and
Asia join."--E.
[5] Riffing, in the Anglo-Saxon.--E.
[6] Sermondisc in the Anglo-Saxon, Sarmaticus in Orosius.--E.
[7] Rochouasco in Anglo-Saxon, Roxolani in Orosius.--E.
[8] Certainly here put for Ireland.--E.
[9] Taprobana, Serendib, or Ceylon.--E.
[10] By the Red Sea must be here meant that which extends between the
peninsula of India and Africa, called the Erithrean Sea in the
Periplus of Nearchus.--E.
[11] The Persian gulf is here assumed as a part of the Red Sea.--E.
[12] He is here obviously enumerating the divisions of the latter Persian
empire. Orocassia is certainly the Arachosia of the ancients; Asilia
and Pasitha may be Assyria and proper Persia.--E.
[13] The Saxon word is _beorhta_ or bright, which I have ventured to
translate _parched by the sun_, as this signification agrees well
with the context.--Barr.
[14] The true Niger, running from the westwards till it loses itself in the
sands of Wangara, seems here alluded to; and the Bahr el Abiad, or
Western Nile, is supposed to be its continuation, rising again out of
the sand.--E.
[15] This ought certainly to be _after_, and seems to allude to the
Bahr el Abiad.--E.
[16] Literally _a great sea_.--Barr.
[17] This is a mistake, as it only takes a wide turn to the west in
Dongola, around what has been falsely called the Isle of Meroe. The
cliffs of the Red Sea seem to imply the mountains of Nubia, and the
wide sea may be the lake of Dembea.--E.
[18] A strange attempt to account for the regular overflow of the Nile.--E.
[19] This account of the boundaries of Old Scythia is extremely vague. It
seems to imply an eastern boundary by an imaginary river Bore, that
the Caspian is the western, the northern ocean on the north, and Mount
Caucasus on the south.--E.
[20] In the translation by Barrington, this portion of Scythia is strangely
said to extend south to the Mediterranean; the interpolation surely of
some ignorant transcriber, who perhaps changed the Euxine or Caspian
sea into the Mediterranean.--E.
[21] Called by mistake, or erroneous transcription, Wendel sea, or
Mediterranean in the text and translation.--E.
[22] The Cwen sea is the White sea, or sea of Archangel. The Kwen or Cwen
nation, was that now called Finlanders, from whom that sea received
this ancient appellation.--Forst.
[23] East Francan in the original. The eastern Franks dwelt in that part of
Germany between the Rhine and the Sala, in the north reaching to the
Ruhre and Cassel, and in the south, almost to the Necker; according to
Eginhard, inhabiting from Saxony to the Danube. They were called east
Franks to distinguish them from that other part of the nation which
inhabited ancient Gaul, and Franconia continues to preserve their
name.--Forst.
[24] Swaepas, or Suevae, who formed part of the Allemanic confederacy, and
afterwards gave their name of Swabes to an extensive nation, in whose
bounds modern Swabia is still situated.--Forst.
[25] The Bavarians, who were the remnant of the Boii or Baeghten, who
escaped from the exterminating sword of the Suevi.--Forst.
[26] This may have been the province in which Regens-bergh or Ratisbon is
still situated.--Forst.
[27] These were undoubtedly the Bohemians, called afterwards Behemas by our
royal geographer. They had their appellation from Boier-heim, or the
dwelling place of the Boii, who were exterminated by the Suevi.
--Forst.
[28] The Thuringians, at one time so powerful, that their king was able to
engage in war against the king of the Franks. Thuringia is still a
well known district in Germany.--Forst.
[29] The Old Saxons inhabited the country still called Old Sassen, or Old
Saxony, Halsatia in Latin, which has degenerated into Holstein.
--Forst.
[30] These Frysae were afterwards confined by Charlemain to the country
between the Weser and Elbe, to which they gave the name of Friesland.
--Forst.
[31] That is to the north-east of Old Saxony, where the Angles,
confederates of the Saxon conquerors of Britain, and who gave their
name to the English nation, and England or Angle-land, formerly
resided. But they likewise appear to have occupied some of the islands
in the Baltic. Sillend is certainly the Danish island of Zeeland. Dene
is Denmark in its most limited sense.--Forst.
[32] These are the Obotrites, a Venedic nation, settled in Mecklenburgh,
who are called, a little farther on, the _Afdrede_. They were
not, however, to the north-east of Old Saxony, but rather to the
eastwards. Perhaps the copyist inserted north instead of east, or
rather we ought to read thus: "To the north-east is Apdrede, and to
the north the Wolds."--Forst.
[33] The word here translated _Wolds_ on the authority of Daines
Barrington, is in the original, _Wylte_; but whether it refers to
the _wild_ or barren state of the country, or the name of a
people, it is difficult to say. There were a people named Wilzi in
those parts, but J. R. Forster is disposed to believe, that Alfred
refers here to the Wends or Vandals, who lived on the Havel, and were
called Hevelli. But if they are meant, we must correct the text from
north-east to south-east, for such is the situation of Havel-land,
with respect to Old Saxony.--Forst.
[34] AEfeldan are, as King Alfred calls them, Wolds or Wilds; as there
still are in the middle of Jutland, large high moors, covered only
with heath.--Forst.
[35] Wineda-land, the land of the Wends, Vandals, or Wendian Scalvi in
Mecklenburg and Pomerania; so called from _Wanda_ or _Woda_,
signifying the sea or water. They were likewise called Pomeranians for
the same reason, from _po moriu_, or the people by the sea side.
--Forst.
[36] In this Alfred seems to have committed a mistake, or to have made too
great a leap. There is a Syssel, however, in the country of the Wends,
on the Baltic, which connects them with the Moravians, or rather with
the Delamensan, of whom mention is made afterwards.--Forst.
[57] The Moravians, so called from the river Morava, at that time a
powerful kingdom, governed by Swatopluk, and of much greater extent
than modern Moravia.--Forst.
[38] Carendre must be Carinthia, or the country of the Carenders or
Centani, which then included Austria and Styria.--Forst.
[39] Barrington has erroneously translated this, "to the eastward of
Carendre country, and beyond the _west_ part is Bulgaria." But in
the original Anglo-Saxon, it is _beyond the wastes_, or desert,
which had been occasioned by the devastations of Charlemain in the
country of the Avari.--Forst.
[40] This is the extensive kingdom of Bulgaria of these times, comprising
modern Bulgaria and Wallachia, with part of Moldavia and Bessarabia.
The Bulgarians were probably a Turkish tribe, dwelling beyond the
Wolga, in the country now called Casan, deriving their name from
Bolgar, their capital.--Forst.
Forster ought to have added, that the latter country was long called
_greater_ Bulgaria, and the former, or the Pulgara-land of the text,
_lesser_ Bulgaria.--E.
[41] The Greek empire of Constantinople.--E.
[42] The country on the Wisle or Vistula, being great and little Poland.
--Forst.
[43] These for some time inhabited Dacia, and, being famous in history,
Alfred was willing at least to mention one of their residences.
--Forst.
[44] The Delamensen, or Daleminzen of the middle age writers, sometimes
called Dalmatians by mistake, or to shew their erudition, were
situated near Lommatsch, or around Meissen or Misnia, on both sides of
the Elbe.--Forst.
[45] These must have been a Scalvonian people or tribe, now unknown, and
perhaps inhabited near Gorlitz, or near Quarlitz, not far from great
Glogau--Forst.
[46] The Sorbi, Sirbi, and Serbii, of old writers, are the Sorbian
Sclavons; and the modern Wends or Vandals of Lusatia, still call
themselves Sserbs or Ssorbs.--Forst.
[47] These must have been another tribe of Sclavons about Seuselig, to the
westward of the Sorbs of lower Lusatia.--Forst.
[48] Perhaps the duchy of Mazovia, called Magaw or Mazaw-land in ancient
writers. Or perhaps it is wrong spelt for _Wastaland_ or the
Waste.--Forst.
[49] Sermende is the mutilated and disguised name of Sarmatia, which did
not exist under that name in the time of Alfred, but which he inserted
on the authority of his original author Orosius.--Forst.
[50] A mere corruption of the montes Riphaei or Riphean mountains of
Orosius; and Alfred seems here to have got beyond his knowledge,
copying merely from Orosius.--Forst.
[51] The Ost sea of Alfred comprehends what are now called the Scaggerrack,
Catte-gatt, the Sound, the two Belts, and the Baltic, which our
mariners still call the East Sea.--Forst.
[52] That is, both inhabiting North Jutland and the islands of Funen,
Zeeland, Langland, Laland, and Falster.--Forst.
[53] Formerly called Apdrede, and explained to be the Obotrites.--E.
[54] Alluding, doubtless, to the country from whence the Saxons who
inhabited England had come of old.--E.
[55] This is the same nation called Estum in the voyage of Wulfstan, who
lived east of the mouth of the Wisle or Vistula, along the Baltic, and
who are mentioned by Tacitus under the name of Estii. When the
Hanseatic league existed, they were called Osterlings or Easterlings,
or Ost-men, and their country Est-land, Ostland, or Eastland, which
still adheres to the northernmost part of Livonia, now called
Est-land.--Forst.
[56] The Burgendas certainly inhabited the island of Born-holm, called from
them Borgenda-holm, or island of the Borgendas, gradually corrupted to
Borgend-holm, Bergen-holm, Born-holm. In the voyage of Wulfstan they
are plainly described as occupying this situation.--Forst.
[57] Called formerly AEfelden, a nation who lived on the Havel, and were,
therefore, named Hevelli or Haeveldi, and were a Wendick or Vandal
tribe.--Forst.
[58] These are the Sviones of Tacitus. Jornandes calls them Swethans, and
they are certainly the ancestors of the Swedes.--Forst.
[59] This short passage in the original Anglo-Saxon is entirely omitted by
Barrington. Though Forster has inserted these Surfe in his map,
somewhere about the duchy of Magdeburg, he gives no explanation or
illustration of them in his numerous and learned notes on our royal
geographer.--E.
[60] Already explained to be Finland on the White sea.--E.
[61] This is the same nation with the Finnas or Laplanders, mentioned in
the voyage of Ohthere, so named because using _scriden_,
schreiten, or snowshoes. The Finnas or Laplanders were distinguished
by the geographer of Ravenna into Scerde-fenos, and Rede-fenos, the
Scride-finnas, and Ter-finnas of Alfred. So late as 1556, Richard
Johnson, Hakluyt, ed. 1809. I. 316. mentions the Scrick-finnes as a
wild people near Wardhus.--E.
[62] The North-men or Normans, are the Norwegians or inhabitants of
Nor-land, Nord-land, or North-mana-land.--E.
[63] At this place Alfred introduces the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan,
already given separately, in Sect. ii. and iii, of this chapter.--E.
[64] Either the original or the translation is here erroneous; it ought to
run thus: "The Propontis is _westward_ of Constantinople; to the
north-east of that city, the arm of the sea issues from the Euxine,
and flows _south-west_; to the _north_ the mouths of the
Danube empty themselves into the _north-west_ parts of the
Euxine."--E.
[65] Carinthia. The desert has been formerly mentioned as occasioned by the
almost utter extirpation of the Avari by Charlemain, and was
afterwards occupied by the Madschiari or Magiars, the ancestors of the
present Hungarians.--Forst.
[66] Very considerable freedoms have been taken with this sentence; as in
Barrington's translation it is quite unintelligible.--E.
[67] Profent and Profent sea, from the Provincia Gallica, now Provence.
--Forst.
[68] Probably in relation to Rome, the residence of Orosius.--E.
[69] Gascony, called Wascan in the Teutonic or Saxon orthography and
pronunciation. Thus the Saxons changed Gauls to Wales, and the Gauls
changed War-men into Guer-men, hence our modern English, Germans.
--Forst.
[70] Scotland is here assuredly used to denote Ireland.--E.
[71] Probably in relation to Rome, the residence of Orosius.--E.
[72] Alfred includes the whole island, now called Great Britain, under one
denomination of Brittannia, taking no notice whatever of any of its
divisions. Orcadus is unquestionably Orcades, or the islands of Orkney
and Shetland.--E.
[73] The Thila or Thule of Alfred, from its direction in respect of
Ireland, and its great distance, is obviously Iceland.--E.
[74] This seems to have some obscure reference to an idea, that the sea had
disjoined Europe and Africa. But the sense is extremely perplexed and
even unintelligible.--E.
[75] It must be noticed, that Alfred was unacquainted with any more of
Africa than its northern coast, along the Mediterranean, which
explains this erroneous idea of its size being inferior to Europe.--E.
[76] Syrenaica.--E.
[77] The Red Sea, or Ethiopic Gulf. In this part of the geography of
Alfred, his translator has left the sense often obscure or
contradictory, especially in the directions, which, in this version,
have been attempted to be corrected. This may have been owing to
errors in the Anglo-Saxon MS. which Barrington professes to have
translated literally, and he disclaims any responsibility for the
errors of his author.--E.
[78] Probably some corruption of Syrtes Majores, or of Syrenaica.--E.
[79] Tripolitana, now Tripoli.--E.
[80] I can make nothing of this salt lake of the Arzuges, unless it be the
lake of Lawdeah, between Tunis and Tripoli. The Getulians and
Garamantes are well known ancient inhabitants of the interior of
northern Africa; the Natabres are unknown.--E.
[81] The Garamantes are a well known people of the interior of Africa, in
ancient geography; of the Natabres I can make nothing; the Geothulas
are evidently the Getulians.--E.
[82] Probably the same called just before the Malvarius, and now the Malul.
But the geographical description of Africa by Alfred, is so desultory
and unarranged as to defy criticism.--E.
[83] Alfred may possibly have heard of the Monselmines who inhabit the
north-western extremity of the Sahara, or great African desert, and
extend to the Atlantic.--E
[84] Faro.
[85] Lillibeum.
[86] The name of this sea is omitted in the MS.--Barr.
[87] These measures are incorrigibly erroneous, or must have been
transposed from some other place, having no possible reference to
Corsica.--E.
* * * * *
Note.--The subsequent sections of this chapter, although not of much
importance in themselves, and some of them possessing rather doubtful
authenticity, are inserted in this place on the authority of Hakluyt. In an
English general collection of voyages and travels, it would have been
improper to have omitted these early specimens, some of which are
considerably interesting and curious. In some measure these sections do not
strictly belong to the present chapter, as limited to the reign of Alfred,
and the ninth century; but as they contain isolated circumstances, which do
not otherwise properly arrange themselves into the order of our plan, they
may be considered as forming a kind of appendix to the era of Alfred. The
number of these might have been considerably increased from different
sources, chiefly from Hakluyt, who collected them from the ancient
historians; but as they contain hardly any information, except historical,
which does not enter into our plan, the selection here given has been
deemed quite sufficient for this work.
SECTION VII
_The Travels of Andrew Leucander, or Whiteman, in the Eleventh Century_[1].
Andrew Leucander, or Whiteman, as his Latinized name is explained by Leland
the antiquary, was an English monk, and third abbot of the monastery of
Ramsay, who was much addicted to the study of the liberal sciences,
devoting incredible exertions, both by day and night, to their cultivation,
in which he profited exceedingly. Having a most ardent desire to visit
those places where Christ our Saviour had perfected all the mysteries of
our redemption, of which he only knew the names in the course of studying
the Scriptures, he went from England to the holy city of Jerusalem, where
he visited all the places which had been illustrated by the miracles,
preaching, and passion of Christ; and on his return to the monastery he was
elected abbot. He flourished in the year of our redemption, 1020, under
Canute the Dane.
[1] Hakluyt, II. 39.
SECTION VIII.
_The Voyage of Swanus to Jerusalem in 1052_[1].
Swanus or Sweno, one of the sons of Earl Godwin, being of a perverse
disposition, and faithless to the king, often quarrelled with his father
and his brother Harold; and, becoming a pirate, he disgraced the virtues of
his ancestors, by his robberies on the seas. At length, being guilty of the
murder of his kinsman Bruno, and, as some report, of his own brother, he
made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and on his return towards England, he was
intercepted by the Saracens, by whom he was slain.
SECTION IX.
_A Voyage of three Ambassadors from England to Constantinople and the
East, about the year 1056_[2].
Upon the holy festival of Easter, King Edward the Confessor, wearing his
royal crown, sat at dinner in his palace of Westminster, surrounded by many
of his nobles. While others, after the long abstinence of the lent season,
refreshed themselves with dainty viands, on which they fed with much
earnestness, he, raising his mind above earthly enjoyments, and meditating
on divine things, broke out into excessive laughter, to the great
astonishment of his guests. But no one presuming to inquire into the cause
of his mirth, all kept silence till dinner was ended. After dinner, when
the king had retired to his bed-chamber, to divest himself of his robes,
three of his nobles, Earl Harold, an abbot, and a bishop, who were more
familiar with him than any of the other courtiers, followed him into the
chamber, and boldly asked the reason of his mirth, as it had appeared
strange to the whole court that his majesty should break out into unseemly
laughter on so solemn a day, while all others were silent. "I saw," said
he, "most wonderful things, and therefore did I not laugh without cause."
And they, as is customary with all men, became therefore the more anxious
to learn the occasion of his mirth, and humbly beseeched him to impart the
reason to them. After musing for some time, he at length informed them,
that seven sleepers had rested during two hundred years on Mount Ceelius,
lying always hitherto on their right sides; but that, in the very moment of
his laughter, they had turned themselves over to their left sides, in which
posture they should continue asleep for other seventy-four years, being a
dire omen of future misery to mankind. For all those things which our
Saviour had foretold to his disciples, that were to be fulfilled about the
end of the world, should come to pass within those seventy-four years. That
nation should rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and
there would be in many places earthquakes, pestilence, and famine, and
terrible apparitions in the heavens, and great signs, with great
alterations of dominion; wars of the infidels against the Christians, and
victories gained by the Christians over the unbelievers. And, as they
wondered at these things, the king explained to them the passion of the
seven sleepers, with the shape and proportion of each of their bodies,
which wonderful things no man had hitherto committed to writing; and all
this in so plain and distinct a manner, as if he had always dwelt along
with them.
In consequence of this discourse, the earl sent a knight, the bishop a
clerk, and the abbot a monk, as ambassadors to Maniches the emperor of
Constantinople, carrying letters and presents from the king. The emperor
received them very graciously; and after a friendly entertainment, sent
them to the bishop of Ephesus with letters, which they name sacred,
commanding him to admit the English ambassadors to see the seven sleepers.
And it came to pass, that the prophetic vision of King Edward was approved
by all the Greeks, who protested that they were assured by their fathers,
that the seven sleepers had always before that time reposed on their right
sides; but, upon the entry of the Englishmen into the cave where they lay,
their bodies confirmed the truth of the foreign vision and prophecy to
their countrymen. Neither were the calamities long delayed, which had been
foretold by the king. For the Agareni, Arabians, and Turks, enemies of the
people of Christ, invading the country of the Christians, spoiled and
destroyed many cities of Syria, Lycia, and the lesser and greater Asias,
and, among the rest, depopulated Ephesus, and even the holy city of
Jerusalem.
[1] Hakluyt, II. 39. Malmsb. Lib. II. ch. xiii.
[2] Hakluyt, II, 40. Malmsb II. xiii.
SECTION X.
_Pilgrimage of Alured, Bishop of Worcester, to Jerusalem, in_ 1058[1].
In the year of our Lord 1058, Alured, bishop of Worcester, dedicated, with
much solemnity, to the honour of St Peter, the prince of the apostles, a
church which he had built and endowed in the city of Gloucester; and
afterwards having received the royal licence, he ordained Wolstan, a monk
of Worcester, to be abbot of this new church. He then left the bishoprick
which had been committed to his government, resigning the same to Herman,
and, crossing the seas, travelled in pilgrimage through Hungary and other
countries, to Jerusalem.
[1] Hakluyt, II. 41. R. Hoveden, fo, 255. line l5.
SECTION XI.
_Pilgrimage of Ingulphus Abbot of Croyland, to Jerusalem, in 1064_[1].
I, Ingulphus, an humble minister of St Guthlae, in his monastery of
Croyland, born of English parents, in the most beautiful city of London,
was, in, my early youth, placed for my education first at Westminster, and
afterwards prosecuted my studies at Oxford. Having excelled many of my
fellow students in learning Aristotle, I entered upon the study of the
first and second rhetoric of Tully. As I grew up towards manhood, I
disdained the low estate of my parents, and quitting the dwelling of my
father, I much affected to visit the courts of kings, delighting in fine
garments and costly attire, And behold William, now our renewed sovereign,
then only Earl of Normandy, came, with a splendid retinue to London, to
confer with King Edward his kinsman. Intruding myself into his company, I
proffered my services for the performance of any speedy or important
affairs; and accordingly having executed many commissions with good
success, I became known to and much beloved by the illustrious earl, and
sailed with him to Normandy. Being there appointed his secretary, I
governed his court at my pleasure, though envied by several, abasing whom I
thought fit, and preferring others at my will. But, prompted by youthful
pride, I began even to be wearied of this place, in which I was advanced so
far beyond my birth; and, with an inconstant and over-ambitious mind, I
vehemently aspired, on all occasions, to climb to higher elevation.
About this time there spread a report through Normandy, that several
archbishops of the empire, and some even of the secular princes, were
desirous, for the salvation of their souls, to go in pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, there to pay their devotions at the Holy Sepulchre. Upon this,
several of us, who were of the household of our lord, the earl, both
gentlemen and clerks, of whom I was the principal person, having received
permission from the earl, addressed ourselves for the voyage; and, being
together thirty horsemen or more, in company, we went into Germany, and
joined ourselves to the Archbishop of Mentz. The whole being assembled, the
company of this archbishop amounted to seven thousand persons, all properly
provided for the expedition; and we travelled prosperously through many
provinces, arriving at length at the city of Constantinople. We there did
reverence to the Emperor Alexius, visited the church, of Sancta Sophia, and
devoutly kissed many sacred relics.
Departing from Constantinople, we travelled through Lycia, where we fell
into the hands of Arabian thieves; and after we had been robbed of infinite
sums of money, and had lost many of our people, we escaped with extreme
peril of our lives, and at length entered joyfully into the most anxiously
wished-for city of Jerusalem. We were there received by the most reverend,
aged, and holy patriarch Sophronius, with a great melody of cymbals by
torch-light, and were conveyed in solemn procession, by a great company of
Syrians and Latins, to the church of the Most Holy Sepulchre of our blessed
Saviour. Here, how many prayers we uttered, what abundance of tears we
shed, what deep sighs we breathed forth, is only known to our Lord Jesus
Christ. From the most glorious sepulchre of Christ, we were conducted to
visit the other sacred monuments of the holy city; and saw, with weeping
eyes, a great number of holy churches and oratories, which Achius the
Soldan of Egypt had lately destroyed. And, having deeply bewailed all the
ruins of that most holy city, both within and without its walls, and having
bestowed money for the re-edifying of some of these, we expressed the most
ardent desire to go forth into the country, that we might wash ourselves in
the sacred river Jordan, and that we might visit and kiss all the holy
footsteps of the blessed Redeemer. But the Arabian robbers, who lurked in
every part of the country, would not suffer us to travel far from the city,
on account of their numbers and savage manners.
About the spring of the year, there arrived a fleet of ships from, Genoa,
at the port of Joppa; and when the Christian merchants had exchanged all
their commodities in the towns upon the coast, and had likewise visited the
holy places, we all embarked. After being tossed about upon the seas by
many storms and tempests, we landed at Brundusium; whence, with a
prosperous journey, we travelled through Apulia to Rome, where we visited
the habitations of the holy apostles St Peter and St Paul, and performed
our devotions at various monuments of the holy, martyrs in different parts
of the city. From thence, the archbishops and other princes of the empire
Journeyed towards the right hand for Germany, while we declined to the left
hand into France, taking our leaves of each other with indescribable
courtesey and kindly greeting. And at length, of thirty horsemen of us who
went from Normandy fat and lusty, scarce twenty poor pilgrims returned, all
on foot, and reduced almost to skeletons with fatigue and hardships.
[1] Hakluyt, II. 41. Ingulph. Ab. Croyl. apud finem.
CHAP. II.
_Original Discovery of Greenland by the Icelanders_.[1]
Although the discoveries contained in this and the next subsequent chapter
were certainty preceded, in point of time, by the voyages of the two
Mahomedans, in Chap. IV. and the insertion of these two chapters, II. and
III. in this place may therefore be considered as a deviation from the
chronological order of our plan; it seemed proper and even necessary, that
they should be both introduced here, as presenting an unbroken series of
the discoveries of the Norwegians, and as fully authorized by the
geographical principles of our arrangement.
Among the many petty sovereigns, vikingr or chieftans of Norway, who had
been reduced to subjection by Harold Harfagr, or the fair-haired, was one
named Thorer. Thorwald, the relative of this person, had lived at the court
of Earl Hayne, whence he had been obliged to fly, on account of having
committed a murder, and went to Iceland, where he settled a considerable
track of country with a new colony. Eric-raude, or red-head, the son of
Thorwald, was long persecuted by a powerful neighbour named Eyolf Saur,
because Eric had killed some of Eyolf's servants; and at length Eric killed
Eyolf likewise. For this and other crimes he was condemned to go into
banishment for three years; and knowing that a man named Gunbiorn had
previously discovered certain banks to the west of Iceland, named from him
Gunbiorn's Schieran, or Gunbar banks, and likewise a country of
considerable extent still farther to the westwards, he determined on making
a voyage of discovery to that country. Setting sail therefore from Iceland,
he soon fell in with a point of land called Hirjalfs-ness; and continuing
his voyage to the south-west he entered a large inlet, to which he gave the
name of Erics-sound, and passed the winter on a pleasant island in that
neighbourhood. In the following year he explored the continent; and
returning to Iceland in the third year, he represented his new discovery in
the fairest light, bestowing lavish praises on the rich meadows, fine
woods, and plentiful fisheries of the country, which he called Greenland,
that he might induce a considerable number of people to join with him in
colonizing this new country. Accordingly, there set out for this place
twenty-five vessels, carrying people of both sexes, household furniture,
implements of all kinds, and cattle for breeding, of which only fourteen
vessels arrived in safety. These first colonists were soon followed by many
more, both from Iceland and Norway; and in a few years their number is said
to have increased so much, as to occupy both the eastern and western coasts
of Greenland.
This is the ordinary and best authenticated account of the discovery and
settlement of _Old_ Greenland, which rests on the credit of the great
northern historian, Snorro Sturleson, judge of Iceland, who wrote in the
year 1215. Yet others assert that Greenland had been known long before, and
ground their assertion on letters-patent from the Emperor Lewis the Pious
in 834, and a bull of Gregory IV. in 835, in which permission is given to
Archbishop Ansgar to convert the Sueones, Danes, Sclavonians; and it is
added, the Norwaehers, Farriers, Greenlanders, Halsingalanders, Icelanders,
and Scridevinds. Even allowing both charter and bull to be genuine, it is
probable that the copy which has come down to our time is interpolated, and
that for Gronlandon and Islandon, we ought to read Quenlandon and
Hitlandon, meaning the Finlanders and Hitlanders: Quenland being the old
name of Finland, and Hitland or Hialtaland the Norwegian name of the
Shetland islands. It is even not improbable that all the names in these
ancient deeds after the Sueones, Danes, and Sclavonians, had been
interpolated in a later period; as St Rembert, the immediate successor of
Ansgar, and who wrote his life, only mentions the Sueones, Danes, and
Sclavonians, together with other nations in the north; and even Adam of
Bremen only mentions these three, and other neighbouring and surrounding
nations[2]. Hence the authority of St Rembert and Snorro Sturleson remains
firm and unshaken, in spite of these falsified copies of the papal bull and
imperial patent; and we may rest assured that Iceland was not discovered
before 861, nor inhabited before 874; and that Greenland could hardly have
been discovered previous to 982, or 983, and was not inhabited before 985
or 986.--_Forst_.
[1] Forster, Voy. and Disc. 79.
[2] Vit. S. Anscharii, ap. Langeb. Script. Dan. I. 451. Ad.
Brem. Hist. Eccles. Lib. I. cap. 17.
CHAP. III.
_Early Discovery of Winland by the Icelanders, about A.D. 1001_.[1]
The passion which the Nordmen or Normans had always manifested for maritime
expeditions, still prevailed among them in the cold and inhospitable
regions of Iceland and Greenland. An Icelander, named Herjolf, was
accustomed to make a trading voyage every year to different countries, in
which latterly he was accompanied by his son, Biorn. About the year 1001,
their ships were separated by a storm, and Biorn learned on his arrival in
Norway that his father had sailed for Greenland, to which place he resolved
to follow his father; but another storm drove him a great way to the
south-west of his intended course, and he fell in with an extensive flat
country covered all over with thick woods; and just as he set out on his
return, he discovered an island on the coast. He made no stay at either of
these places; but the wind being now fallen, he made all the haste he could
to return by a north-east course to Greenland, where he reported the
discovery which he had made.
Lief, the son of Eric-raude, who inherited from his father an inordinate
desire of distinguishing himself by making discoveries and planting
colonies, immediately fitted out a vessel carrying thirty-five men; and
taking Biorn along with him, set sail in quest of this newly discovered
country. The first land discovered in this voyage was barren and rocky, on
which account Lief gave it the name of Helleland, or Rockland. Proceeding
farther, they came to a low coast having a sandy soil, which was overgrown
with wood, for which reason it was called Mark-land, or the Woody-land. Two
days after this they again saw land, having an island lying opposite to its
northern coast; and on the mainland they discovered the mouth of a river,
up which they sailed. The bushes on the banks of this river bore sweet
berries; the temperature of the air was mild, the soil fertile[2], and the
river abounded in fish, particularly in excellent salmon. Continuing to
sail up the river, they came to a lake, out of which the river took its
rise; and here they passed the winter. In the shortest day of winter, the
sun remained eight hours above the horizon; and consequently the longest
day, exclusive of the dawn and twilight, must have been sixteen hours. From
this circumstance it follows, that the place in which they were was in
about 49° of north latitude; and as they arrived by a south-westerly course
from Old Greenland, after having cleared Cape Farewell, it must either have
been the river Gander or the Bay of Exploits, in the island now called
Newfoundland. It could not be on the northern coast of the Gulf of St
Lawrence; as in that case, they must have navigated through the straits of
Belleisle, which could not have escaped their notice. In this place they
erected several huts for their accommodation during winter; and they one
day found in the thickets a German named Tyrker, one of their own people,
who had wandered among the woods and been missing for some time. While
absent, he had subsisted upon wild grapes, from which he told them that in
his country they used to make wine; and from this circumstance Lief called
the country _Winland det gode_, or Wine-land the good[3].
In the following spring they returned to Greenland; and Thorwald, Lief's
maternal grandfather, made a trip with the same crew that had attended his
grandson, in order to make farther advances in this new discovery; and it
is not at all to be wondered at, if people of every rank were eager to
discover a better habitation than the miserable coast of Greenland, and the
little less dreary island of Iceland. In this voyage the coast of the newly
discovered land was examined towards the west, or rather the north-west.
Next summer Lief sailed again to Winland, and explored the coast to the
east or south-east. The coast was so much covered with wood and beset with
islands, that they could not perceive a human creature, or animals of any
kind. In the third summer they examined the islands on the coast of
Winland, and so damaged their ship that they found it necessary to build a
new one, laying up their old vessel on a promontory, to which they gave the
name of Kiaeler-ness. In their new vessel they proceeded to examine the
eastern or south-eastern shore of Winland, and in their progress they fell
in with three boats covered with hides, having three men in each. These
they seized, but one man found means to escape from them, and they wantonly
butchered all the rest. Soon after this they were attacked by a great
number of the natives, armed with bows and arrows, from which they screened
themselves in their ship with a fence of planks; and they defended
themselves with so much spirit that their enemies were forced to retire,
after giving them battle for an hour. Thorwald received a severe wound from
an arrow in this skirmish, of which he died; and over his grave, on a cape
or promontory, two crosses were erected at his request; from which the cape
was called Krossa-ness, or Cross Point.
To the natives of Winland, the Icelanders gave the name of Skraellinger,
signifying cuttings or dwarfs, on account of their being of very low
stature. These were probably the ancestors of the present Eskimaux, who are
the same people with the Greenlanders, and are called Eskimantsik in the
language of the Abenaki, on account of their eating raw fish; in the same
manner as the Russians, in their official state papers, call the Samojeds
Sirojed'zi, because they also eat raw and frozen fish and flesh.
In the same year Thorstein, the third son of Eric-raude, set sail for
Winland, taking with him his wife, Gudridthe daughter of Thorbern, with his
children and servants, amounting in all to twenty-five persons; but they
were forced by a storm on the western coast of Greenland, where they were
obliged to spend the winter, and where Thorstein died, with a large
proportion of his retinue, probably of the scurvy. Next spring Gudrid took
the dead body of her husband home; and Thorfin, surnamed Kallsefner, an
Icelander of some consequence, descended from King Regner-Lodbrok, married
the widow of Thorstein, from which he considered himself entitled to the
possession of the newly discovered country. He accordingly sailed for
Winland with a vast quantity of household furniture, implements of all
kinds, and several cattle, and accompanied by sixty-five men and five
women, with whom he began to establish a regular colony. He was immediately
visited by the Skraellingers, who bartered with him, giving the most
valuable furs for such wares as the Icelanders had to give in exchange. The
natives would willingly have purchased the weapons of the Icelanders, but
this was expressly and judiciously forbidden by Thorfin. Yet one of them
found means to steal a battle-ax, of which he immediately made a trial on
one of his countrymen, whom he killed with one blow; on which a third
person seized the mischievous weapon and threw it into the sea. During a
stay of three years, Thorfin acquired a large stock of rich furs and other
merchandize, with which he returned to Greenland; and at length removing to
Iceland, he purchased an estate in the northern part of Syssel, and built a
very elegant house which he called Glaumba. After his death, his widow
Gudrid made a pilgrimage to Rome, whence she returned, and ended her days
in a nunnery in Iceland, which was built for her by her son Snorro, who was
born in Winland.
Sometime afterwards, Finbog and Helgo, two Icelanders, fitted out two
ships, carrying thirty men, with which they made a voyage to Winland. In
this expedition they were accompanied by Freidis, the daughter of
Eric-raude; but by the turbulence of her disposition, she occasioned many
divisions and quarrels in the infant colony, in one of which Finbog and
Helgo were both killed, together with thirty of their followers. Upon this
Freidis returned to Greenland, where she lived for some time universally
detested and despised, and died in the utmost misery. The remaining
colonists were dispersed, and nothing farther that can be depended on
remains on record concerning them. Even the Icelandic colony in Greenland
has disappeared, and the eastern coast, on which especially it was settled,
has become long inaccessible, in consequence of the immense accumulation of
ice in the straits between it and Iceland. To this it may be added, that,
in the beginning of the fifteenth century, a prodigious number of people
were carried off in Norway and Iceland by a disease or pestilence called
the _Black Death_; probably the scurvy in its worst state, occasioned by a
succession of inclement seasons and extreme scarcity, impelling the
famished people to satisfy the craving of hunger upon unwholesome food.
Deprived of all assistance from Iceland and Norway, the colonists of
Greenland and Winland were in all probability extirpated by the continual
hostilities of the Skraellingers, or Eskimaux; and the fabulous idea of any
remnant of those in Winland having still an existence in the interior of
Newfoundland, is entirely unworthy of any consideration.
[1] Forster, Hist. of Disc. in the North, 82.
[2] Every quality must be judged of by comparison; and, contrasted
with the inhospitable regions of Iceland and Greenland, in lat. 65°,
this country, which was as far south as even beyond the south of
England, must have appeared admirable.--E.
[3] It is true that grapes grow wild in Canada which are very good
to eat, yet no one has ever been able to make good wine from their
juice. Whether these wild grapes are found in Newfoundland I know not.
The species of vines which grow in North America, are named by
Linnaeus, Vitis labrusca, vulpina, and arborea.--Forst.
The propriety of the names imposed by the Norwegians on their new
discoveries is admirable. Iceland, Greenland, Helleland, Markland,
Winland, and many others; which are perfectly philosophical,
excellently systematic, and infinitely preferable to the modern clumsy
appellations, New Britain, New France, New England, New Holland,
Sandwich Islands, Society islands, and a multitude of much worse
names.--E.
CHAP. IV.
_Travels of two Mahomedans in India and China, in the Ninth Century._[1]
INTRODUCTION.
This curious remnant of antiquity was translated from the Arabic, and
published in 1718, by Eusebius Renaudot, a learned Member of the French
Academy, and of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. It is not
known by whom the travels were actually performed, neither can their exact
date be ascertained, as the commencement of the MS. which was translated by
Renaudot was imperfect; but it appears to have been written in the 237th
year of the Hegira, or in the year 851 of the Christian era. Though
entitled the travels of _two_ Mahomedans, the travels seem to have been
mostly performed by one person only; the latter portion being chiefly a
commentary upon the former, and appears to have been the work of one Abu
Zeid al Hasan of Siraf, and to have been written about the 803d year of the
Hegira, or A.D. 915. In this commentary, indeed, some report is given of
the travels of another Mahomedan into China. The MS. employed by Renaudot
belonged to the library of the Count de Seignelay, and appears to have been
written in the year 619 of the Hegira, or A.D. 1173. The great value of
this work is, that it contains the very earliest account of China, penned
above four hundred years earlier than the travels of Marco Polo, who was
esteemed the first author on the subject before this publication appeared.
There are many curious and remarkable passages in these travels, which
convey information respecting customs and events that are nowhere else to
be found; and though some of these carry a fabulous appearance, the
greatest part of them have been confirmed and justified by the best writers
in succeeding ages. The first portion, or the actual narrative, begins
abruptly, on account of some portion of the original manuscript being lost,
which would probably have given the name and country of the author, and the
date and occasion of his voyage.
In the accompanying commentary by Abu Zeid, we are informed that the date
of the narrative was of the Hegira 237, A.D. 851, which circumstance was
probably contained in the missing part of the manuscript; but though
written then, it is probable that the first journey of the author was
undertaken at least twenty years before that date, or in 831, as he
observes, that he made a second journey into the same countries sixteen
years afterwards, and we may allow four years for the time spent in the two
journies, and the intervening space, besides the delay of composition after
his last return. Though not mentioned, it is probable his travels were
undertaken for the purpose of trade, as we can hardly suppose him to have
twice visited those distant countries merely for the satisfaction of
curiosity.
With regard to the second treatise or commentary, it seems probable, that
when the affairs of China became better known, some prince or person of
distinction had desired Abu Zeid to examine the former relation, and to
inform him how far the facts of the original work were confirmed by
succeeding accounts. The date of the commentary is not certainly
ascertainable; yet it appears, that Eben Wahab travelled into China A.H.
285. A.D. 898, and that Abu Zeid had conversed with this man after his
return, and had received from him the facts which are inserted in his
discourse, which therefore is probably only sixty or seventy years
posterior to the actual treatise of the nameless traveller.
[1] Translation from Renaudot, 8vo. Lond. 1733. See likewise Harris, I.
522.
SECTION I.
_Original Account of India and China, by a Mahomedan Traveller of the Ninth
Century_.
The _third_ of the seas we have to mention is that of Herkend[1]. Between
this sea and that of Delarowi there are many islands, said to be in number
1900, which divide those two seas from each other[2], and are governed by a
queen[3]. Among these islands they find ambergris in lumps of extraordinary
bigness, and also in smaller pieces, which resemble plants torn up. This
amber is produced at the bottom of the sea, in the same manner as plants
are produced upon the earth; and when the sea is tempestuous, it is torn up
from the bottom by the violence of the waves, and washed to the shore in
the form of a mushroom or truffle. These islands are full of that species
of palm tree which bears the cocoa nuts, and they are from one to four
leagues distant from each other, all inhabited. The wealth of the
inhabitants consists in shells, of which even the royal treasury is full.
The workmen in these islands are exceedingly expert, and make shirts and
vests, or tunics, all of one piece, of the fibres of the cocoa nut. Of the
same tree they build ships and houses, and they are skilful in all other
workmanships. Their shells they have from the sea at certain times, when
they rise up to the surface, and the inhabitants throw branches of the
cocoa nut tree into the water, to which the shells stick. These shells they
call Kaptaje.
Beyond these islands, and in the sea of Herkend, is Serendib[4] or Ceylon,
the chief of all these islands, which are called Dobijat. It is entirely
surrounded by the sea, and on its coast they fish for pearls. In this
country there is a mountain called Rahun, to the top of which Adam is said
to have ascended, where he left the print of his foot, seventy cubits long,
on a rock, and they say his other foot stood in the sea at the same time.
About this mountain there are mines of rubies, opals, and amethysts. This
island is of great extent, and has two kings; and it produces aloes wood,
gold, precious stones, and pearls, which last are fished for on the coast;
and there are also found a kind of large shells, which are used for
trumpets, and much esteemed. In the same sea, towards Serendib, there are
other islands, not so many in number as those formerly mentioned, but of
vast extent, and unknown. One of these is called Ramni, which is divided
among a number of princes, and in it is found plenty of gold. The
inhabitants have cocoa nut trees, which supply them with food, and with
which also they paint their bodies, and oil themselves. The custom of the
country is, that no man can marry till he has killed an enemy, and brought
off his head. If he has killed two he claims two wives, and if he has slain
fifty he may have fifty wives. This custom proceeds from the number of
enemies with which they are surrounded, so that he who kills the greatest
number is the most considered. These islands of Ramni abound with
elephants, red-wood, and trees called Chairzan, and the inhabitants eat
human flesh.
These islands separate the sea of Herkend from the sea of Shelabet, and
beyond them are others called Najabalus, which are pretty well peopled,
both men and women going naked, except that the women wear aprons made of
leaves. When shipping goes among these islands, the inhabitants come off in
boats, bringing with them ambergris and cocoa nuts, which they barter for
iron; for, being free from the inconveniencies either of extreme heat or
cold they want no clothing. Beyond these two islands is the sea of Andaman.
The people on this coast eat human flesh quite raw; their complexion is
black, with frizzled hair, their countenance and eyes frightful, their feet
very large, almost a cubit in length, and they go quite naked. They have no
sort of barks or other vessels, or they would seize and devour all the
passengers they could lay their hands upon. When ships have been kept back
by contrary winds, and are obliged to anchor on this barbarous coast, for
procuring water, they commonly lose some of their men.
Beyond this there is an inhabited mountainous island, which is said to
contain mines of silver; but as it does not lie in the usual track of
shipping, many have searched for it in vain, though remarkable for a very
lofty mountain called Kashenai. A ship, sailing in its latitude, once got
sight of this mountain, and steered for the coast, where some people were
sent on shore to cut wood: The men kindled a fire, from which there ran out
some melted silver, on which they concluded that there must have been a
silver mine in the place, and they shipped a considerable quantity of the
earth or ore; but they encountered a terrible storm on their voyage back,
and were forced to throw all their ore overboard to lighten the vessel.
Since that time the mountain has been several times carefully sought for,
but no one has ever been able to find it again. There are many such islands
in those seas, more in number than can be reckoned; some inaccessible by
seamen, and some unknown to them.
It often happens in these seas that a whitish cloud suddenly appears
over-head, which lets down a long thin tongue or spout, quite to the
surface of the water, which is then turned swiftly round as if by a
whirlwind, and if a vessel happens to be in the way, she is immediately
swallowed up in the vortex. At length this cloud mounts up again and
discharges itself in prodigious rain; but it is not known whether this
water is sucked up by the cloud, or how this phenomenon comes to pass. All
these seas are subject to prodigious storms, which make them boil up like
water over a fire; at which times the waves dash the ships against the
islands with unspeakable violence, to their utter destruction; and even
fish; of all sizes are thrown dead on shore, against the rocks, by the
extreme agitation of the sea. The wind which commonly blows upon the sea of
Herkend is from a different quarter, or from the N.W.; but this sea is
likewise subject to as violent agitations as those just mentioned, and
there ambergris is torn up from the bottom, particularly where it is very
deep; and the deeper the sea so much the more valuable is the ambergris
which it produces. It is likewise observed, that when this sea is tossed by
tempestuous winds it sparkles like fire; and it is infested with a certain
kind of fish called Lockham, which frequently preys upon men[5].
* * * * *
Among other circumstances, the fires which frequently happen at Canfu are
not the least remarkable. Canfu is the port of all the ships of the Arabs
who trade to China, and fires are there very frequent, because all the
houses are of wood or of split canes; besides, ships are often lost in
going and coming, or they are plundered, or obliged to make too long a stay
in harbours, or to sell their goods out of the country subject to the
Arabs, and there to make up their cargoes. In short, ships are under a
necessity of wasting much time in refitting, and many other causes of
delay. Soliman[6] the merchant, writes, that at Canfu, which is a principal
staple of merchants, there is a Mahomedan judge appointed by the emperor of
China, who is authorized to judge in every cause which arises among the
Mahomedans who resort to these parts. Upon festival days he performs the
public services of religion to the Mahomedans, and pronounces the usual
sermon or _Kotbat_, which he concludes with the usual form of prayers for
the sultan of the Moslems. The merchants of Irak or Persia, who trade to
Canfu, are no way dissatisfied with the conduct of this judge in the
administration of his office, because his decisions are just and equitable,
and conformable to the Koran.
Respecting the places whence ships depart and those they touch at, many
persons affirm that the navigation is performed in the following order:
Most of the Chinese ships take in their cargoes at Siraff[7], where also
they ship their goods which come from Basra, Oman, and other ports; and
this is done because there are frequent storms and many shallows in those
seas. From Basra to Siraff is an hundred and twenty leagues; and when ships
have loaded at this latter place they take in water there also. From thence
they sail to a place called Mascat, in the extremity of the province of
Oman, which is about two hundred leagues from Siraff. On the east coast of
this sea, between Siraff and Mascat, is a place called Nasir Bani al
Sasack, and an island called Ebn Kahowan, and in this sea there are rocks
called Oman, and a narrow strait called Dordur between two rocks, through
which ships often venture to pass, but the Chinese snips dare not. There
are also two rocks called Kossir and Howare, which scarce appear above the
water's edge. After they are clear of these rocks, they steer to a place
called Shitu Oman, and take in water at Muscat, which is drawn up from
wells, and are here also supplied with cattle from the province of Oman.
From Mascat the ships take their departure for India, and first touch at
Kaucammali, which is a month's sail from Mascat with a fair wind. This is a
frontier place, and the chief arsenal in the province of that name; and
here the Chinese ships put in and are in safety, and procure fresh water.
The Chinese ships pay here a thousand drams for duties, whereas others pay
only from one dinar to ten. From thence they begin to enter the sea of
Herkend, and having sailed through it, they touch at a place called
Lajabalus, where the inhabitants do not understand Arabic, or any other
language in use among merchants. They wear no clothes, are white, and weak
in their feet. It is said their women are not to be seen, and that the men
leave the island in canoes, hollowed out of one piece, to go in quest of
them, and carry them cocoa nuts, mousa, and palm wine. This last liquor is
white, and when drank fresh is sweet like honey, and has the taste of cocoa
nut milk; if kept some time, it becomes as strong as wine, but after some
days changes to vinegar. These people give this wine, and the small
quantities of amber which is thrown up on their coasts, for bits of iron,
the bargains being made by signs; but they are extremely alert, and are
very apt to carry off iron from the merchants without making any return.
From Lajabalus the ships steer for Calabar, the name of a kingdom on the
right hand beyond the Indies, which depends on the kingdom of Zabage, _bar_
signifying a coast in the language of the country. The inhabitants are
dressed in those sorts of striped garments which the Arabs call Fauta, and
they commonly wear only one at a time, which fashion is common to people of
all ranks. At this place they take in water, which is drawn from wells that
are fed by springs, and which is preferred to that which is procured from
cisterns or tanks. Calabar is about a month's voyage from a place called
Kaukam, which is almost upon the skirts of the sea of Herkend. In ten days
after this, ships reach Betuma, from whence, in ten days more, they come to
Kadrange. In all the islands and peninsulas of the Indies, water is to be
found by digging. In this last mentioned place there is a very lofty
mountain, which is entirely inhabited by slaves and fugitives. From thence,
in ten days, they arrive at Senef, where is fresh water, and from whence
comes the aromatic wood which we call Hud al Senefi. Here is a king; the
inhabitants are black, and they wear two striped garments. Having watered
at this place, it is ten days passage to Sanderfulat, an island which has
fresh water. They then steer through the sea of Sanji, and so to the gates
of China; for so they call certain rocks and shallows which form a narrow
strait in that sea, through which the ships are obliged to pass. It
requires a month to sail from Sanderfulat to China, and it takes eight
whole days to steer through among the rocks and shoals.
When a ship has got through the before mentioned gates, she goes with the
flood tide into a fresh water gulf, and drops anchor in the chief port of
China, which is called Canfu[8], where they have fresh water, both from
springs and rivers, as also in most of the other cities of China. The city
is adorned with large squares, and is supplied with every thing necessary
for defence against an enemy, and in most of the other provinces of the
empire there are cities of strength similarly fortified. In this port the
tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours; but, whereas from Basra to
the island of Bani Kahouan it flows when the moon is at full, and ebbs when
she rises and when she sets; from near Bani Kahouan quite to the coast of
China it is flood tide when the moon rises, and ebb when she is at her
height; and so on the contrary, when she sets, it is flowing water, and
when she is quite hidden under the horizon, the tide falls.
They say, that in the island of Muljan, between Serendib and Cala, on the
eastern shore of the Indies, there are negroes who go quite naked; and when
they meet a stranger they hang him up by the heels and slice him into
pieces, which they eat quite raw. These negroes, who have no king, feed
chiefly on fish, mousa, cocoa nuts, and sugar canes. It is reported, that
in some parts of this sea, there is a small kind of fish which flies above
the water, and is called the sea locust; that in another part, there is a
fish which, leaving the sea, gets up into the cocoa nut trees, and having
drained them of their juices, returns to the sea; and it is added, that
there is a fish like a lobster or crab, which petrifies as soon as it is
taken out of its element, and that when pulverized it is a good remedy for
several diseases of the eyes. They say also, that near Zabage there is a
volcanic mountain which cannot be approached, which sends forth a thick
smoke by day, and throws out flames at night; at the foot of which are two
springs of fresh water, one hot and the other cold.
The Chinese are dressed in silk garments, both in summer and winter, and
this dress is common both to the prince and peasant. In winter, they wear
drawers of a particular make, which reach to their feet, and of these, they
put on two, three, four, five, or more, one over the other, if they can
afford it; and are very careful to be covered quite down to their feet,
because of the damps, which are very great, and of which they are extremely
apprehensive. In summer they only wear a single garment of silk, or some
such light dress, but they have no turbans. Their common food is rice,
which they eat frequently with a broth made of meat or fish, like that used
by the Arabs, and which they pour upon the rice. Their kings eat wheaten
bread, and the flesh of all kinds of animals, not excepting swine, and some
others not used by us. They have several sorts of fruits, as apples,
lemons, quinces, moulats, sugar canes, citruls, figs, grapes, cucumbers of
two sorts, trees, which produce a substance like meal, walnuts, almonds,
filberts, pistachios, plumbs, apricots, services, and cocoa nuts, but no
store of palms, of which they have only a few about private houses. Their
drink is a kind of wine made of rice, having no other wine in the country,
neither is any other imported by them. They do not even know what wine is,
nor will they drink of it. They have vinegar also, and a kind of comfit,
like that called _Natef_ by the Arabs and some others.
The Chinese are by no means nice in point of cleanliness, not washing with
water when they ease nature but only wiping with paper. They do not scruple
to eat of animals which have died, and they practise many other things like
the Magians[9]; and in truth, the two religions are much similar. Their
women appear uncovered, and adorn their heads with many small ivory combs,
of which they wear sometimes a score at one time. The heads of the men are
covered by a cap, of a particular make. Thieves are put to death as soon as
caught.
The Indians and Chinese agree that there are four great or principal kings
in the world, all of them allowing that the king of the Arabs is the first
and most powerful of kings, the most wealthy, and the most excellent every
way, because he is the prince and head of a great religion, and because no
other surpasses him. The Emperor of China reckons himself next after the
king of the Arabs, after him the king of the Greeks, and lastly the
Balhara[10], or king of the Moharmi al Adon, or people who have their ears
bored. The Balhara is the most illustrious sovereign in all the Indies, and
though all the other kings in India are masters and independent each in
their own dominions, they thus so far acknowledge his preeminence, that
when he sends ambassadors to the other princes, they are received with
extraordinary honours. This king makes magnificent presents after the
manner of the Arabs, and has vast numbers of horses and elephants, and
great treasures in money. His silver coin is what we call Thartarian drams,
being equal to one and a half of the Arabian dram. They are coined with the
die of the prince, and bear the year of his reign, counting from the last
year of the reign of his predecessor. They compute not their years from the
era of Mahomed, like the Arabs, but only by the years of their successive
kings. Most of these princes live a long time, many of them having reigned
above fifty years; and those of the country believe that the length of
their lives and reigns is granted in recompence of their kindness to the
Arabs; for there are no princes more heartily affectionate to the Arabs,
and their subjects profess the same kindness for us. Balhara is not a
proper name, but an appellative, common to all those kings, like Cosroes
and some others. The country under the dominion of the prince begins on the
coast of the province called Kamcam, and reaches by land to the confines of
China. He is surrounded by the dominions of many kings, who are at war with
him, yet he never marches against them.
One of these is the king of Harez, who has very numerous forces, and is
stronger in cavalry than all the other princes of the Indies. He is an
enemy to the Arabs, neither is there any prince in India who has a greater
aversion to the Mahomedans; though he confesses their king to be the
greatest of princes. His dominions are on a promontory, where are much
riches, many camels, and abundance of other cattle. The inhabitants traffic
for silver, and they say there are mines of that metal on the continent.
There are no robbers in this country, nor in the rest of the Indies. On one
side of this country is that of Tafek, which is not of very great extent.
This king has the finest white women in all the Indies; but he is awed by
the kings about him, as his army is very small. He has a great affection
for the Arabs as well as the Balhara. These kingdoms border upon the lands
of a king called Rami, who is at war with the king of Harez, and with the
Balhara likewise. This prince is not much considered, either for the
dignity of his birth or the antiquity of his kingdom; but his forces are
more numerous than those of the Balhara, and even than those of the kings
of Harez and Tafek. It is said that he appears in the field at the head of
fifty thousand elephants, and commonly marches in the rainy season, because
his elephants cannot move at any other time, as they are unable to bear
thirst. His army is said commonly to contain from ten to fifteen thousand
tents. In this country they make cotton garments of such extraordinary
fineness and perfection, as is to be seen nowhere else. These garments are
mostly round, and are wove so extremely fine, that they may be drawn
through a moderately sized ring. Shells are current in this country as
small money; and they have abundance of gold and silver, aloes wood, and
sable skins, of which they make their horse-furniture.
In this country is the famous Karkandan, that is the rhinoceros, or
unicorn, which has but one horn on his forehead, on which there is a round
spot with the representation of a man; the whole horn being black, except
the spot in the middle which is white. The rhinoceros is much smaller than
the elephant, and resembles the buffalo from the neck downwards, and excels
all other creatures in extraordinary strength. His leg is all one
thickness, from the shoulder to the foot, and the hoof is not cloven. The
elephant flies from the rhinoceros, whose lowing is like that of an ox,
with something of the cry of the camel. His flesh is not forbidden, and we
have eaten of it; There are great numbers of this creature in the fens of
this country, as also in all the other provinces of India; but the horns of
these are most esteemed, having generally upon them the figures of men,
peacocks, fishes and other resemblances. The Chinese adorn their girdles
with these sorts of figures, so that some of their girdles are worth two or
three thousand pieces of gold in China, and sometimes more, the price
augmenting with the beauty of the figures. All these things are to be
purchased in the kingdom of Rahmi, for shells, which are the current money
of the country.
After this country, there is an inland state distant from the coast, and
called Kaschbin, of which the inhabitants are white, and bore their ears.
They have camels, and their country is for the most part desert, and full
of mountains. Farther on the coast, there is a small kingdom called
Hitrange, which is very poor; but in its bay, the sea throws up great
quantities of ambergris, and they have elephants teeth and pepper; but the
inhabitants eat this last green, because of the small quantity they gather.
Beyond these, there are other kingdoms, but their numbers and names are
unknown. Among these is one named Mujet, the inhabitants of which are white
and dress after the Chinese manner; their country is full of mountains,
having white tops, and of very great extent, in which there are great
quantities of musk; esteemed the most exquisite of any in the world. They
have continual war with all the surrounding kingdoms; The kingdom of Mabet
is beyond that of Mujet, wherein are many cities, and the inhabitants have
even a greater resemblance to the Chinese than those of Mujet; for they
have officers or eunuchs like those who govern the cities among the
Chinese. The country of Mabet borders upon China, and is at peace with the
emperor, but not subject to him. The king of Mabet sends ambassadors every
year with presents to the emperor of China, who in return sends ambassadors
and presents to Mabet. But when the ambassadors of Mabet enter China, they
are very carefully watched, lest they should survey the country, and form
designs of conquest; which would be no difficult matter, as their country
is very extensive, and extremely populous, and as they are only divided
from China by rocks and mountains.
It is said that, in the country of China, there are above two hundred
cities having jurisdiction over others, each of which has a governor and an
eunuch or lieutenant. Canfu is one of these cities, being the port for all
shipping, and has jurisdiction over twenty towns. A town is raised, to the
dignity of a city, by the grant of certain large trumpets. These are three
or four cubits in length, and as large about as can be grasped by both
hands, growing smaller towards the end which is fitted to the mouth. On the
outside, they are adorned with Chinese ink, and may be heard at the
distance of a mile. Each city has four gates, at each of which five of
these trumpets are stationed, which are sounded at certain hours of the day
and night. There are also ten drums in each city, which are beaten at the
same times; and this is done as a public token of obedience to the emperor,
and to point out the hours of the day and night to the inhabitants; and for
ascertaining the time; they have sun dials, and clocks with weights[11].
In China they use a great quantity of copper money, like that named falus
by the Arabians, which is the only sort of small money, and is current all
over the country, and is indeed the only current coin. Yet their emperor
has treasures like other kings, containing abundance of gold and silver,
with jewels, pearls, silk, and vast quantities of rich stuffs of all kinds,
which are only considered as moveables or merchandize; and from foreign
commerce they derive ivory, frankincense, copper in bars, tortoise shell,
and unicorns horns, with which they adorn their girdles. Of animals they
have abundance, particularly of beasts of burden; such as oxen, horses,
asses, and camels; but they have no Arabian horses. They have an excellent
kind of earth, of which they make a species of ware equal in fineness to
glass, and almost equally transparent. When merchants arrive at Canfu, the
Chinese seize their cargoes, which they convey to warehouses, where the
goods are detained six months, until the last merchant ship of the season
has arrived; they then detain three parts in ten of every species of
commodity, or thirty per cent as duty, and return the rest to the
merchants. Besides which, if the emperor has a mind for any particular
article, his officers have a right of taking it in preference to any other
person, paying for it, however, to the utmost value; and they dispatch this
business with great expedition, and without the least injustice. They
commonly take the whole importation of camphor, on the account of the
emperor, and pay for it at the rate of fifty _fakuges_ per _man_, each
fakuge being worth a thousand _falus_, or pieces of copper coin. When it
happens that the emperor does not take the camphor, it sells for half as
much again.
The Chinese do not bury their dead till the day twelve months after their
decease; but keep them all this time in coffins in some part of their
houses, having previously dried them by means of quicklime. The bodies of
their kings are embalmed with aloes and camphor. They mourn during three
whole years, and whoever transgresses this law is punished with the bamboo,
a chastisement to which both men and women are subjected, and are at the
same time reproached for not shewing concern for the death of their
parents. They bury their dead in deep pits, much like those in use among
the Arabs. During all the time that the dead body is preserved in the
house, meat and drink are regularly set before it every evening; and if
they find these gone in the morning, they imagine that the dead have
consumed all; and all this time they cease not from bewailing their loss,
insomuch, that their expences upon these occasions, in paying the last
duties to their deceased relations, are exorbitant, and often consume their
wealth and estates, to the utter ruin of the living. In former times, they
buried very rich apparel, and those expensive girdles already mentioned,
with the bodies of their kings, and others of the blood royal; but this
custom is now discontinued, because it has happened that the bodies have
been dug up from their graves by thieves, for the sake of what was buried
with them. The whole nation, great and small, rich and poor, are taught to
read and write. The titles of their viceroys or governors, are varied
according to the dignity and rank of the cities under their government.
Those of the smaller cities are called _Tusing_, which signifies the
governor of a town. Those of the greater cities, such as Canfu, are stiled
_Difu_, and the eunuch or lieutenant is stiled _Tukam_. These lieutenants
are selected from among the inhabitants of the cities. There is also a
supreme judge called _Lakshima-makvan_, and they have other names for other
officers, which we do not know how properly to express.
A person is never raised to the dignity of a prince, or governor of a city,
until he has attained to his fortieth year; for then they say he has
acquired experience. When one of these princes or viceroys holds his court,
in the city of his residence, he is seated on a tribunal, in great state,
and receives the petitions or complaints of the people; having an officer
called _Lieu_, who stands behind the tribunal, and indorses an answer upon
the petition, according to the order of the viceroy; for they null no
applications but what are in writing, and give all their decisions in the
same manner. Before parties can present their petitions to the viceroy,
they must be submitted to the proper officer for examination, who sends
them back if he discovers any error; and no person may draw up any of those
writings which are to be presented to the viceroy, except a clerk versant
in business, who must mark at the bottom that it is written by such a man,
the son of such a man: And if the clerk is guilty of any error or mistake,
he is punished with the bamboo. The viceroy never seats himself on his
tribunal until he has eaten and drank, lest he should be mistaken in some
things; and he receives his subsistence from the public treasury of the
city over which he presides. The emperor, who is above all these princes or
petty kings, never appears in public but once in ten months, under the idea
that the people would lose their veneration for him if he shewed himself
oftener; for they hold it as a maxim, that government can only subsist by
means of force, as the people are ignorant of the principles of justice,
and that constraint and violence are necessary to maintain among them the
majesty of empire.
There are no taxes imposed upon the lands, but all the men of the country
are subject to a poll-tax in proportion to their substance. When any
failure of crops makes necessaries dear, the king opens his store-houses to
the people, and soils all sorts of necessaries at much cheaper rates than
they can be had in the markets; by which means famine is prevented, and no
dearth is of any long continuance. The sums that are gathered by this
capitation tax are laid up in the public treasury, and I believe, that from
this tax, fifty thousand dinars are paid every day into the null of Canfu
alone, although that city is not one of the largest. The emperor reserves
to himself the revenues which arise from the salt mines, and those which
are derived from impositions upon a certain herb called _Tcha_, which they
drink with hot water, and of which vast quantities are sold in all the
cities in China. This is produced from a shrub more bushy than the
pomegranate tree, and of a more pleasant smell, but having a kind of a
bitterish taste. The way of using this herb is to pour boiling water upon
the leaves, and the infusion cures all diseases. Whatever sums come into
the public treasury arise from the capitation tax, the duties upon salt,
and the tax upon this leaf.
In every city there is a small bell hung to the wall, immediately over the
head of the viceroy or governor, which may be rung by a string which
reaches about three miles, and crosses the high way, on purpose that all
the people may have access to it; und whenever the string is pulled, and
the bell strikes, the person who thus demands justice is immediately
commanded to be brought into the presence, where he sets forth his case in
person. If any person inclines to travel from one part of the country to
another, he must have two passes along with him, one from the governor, and
the other from the lieutenant. The governor's pass permits him to set out
on his journey, and specifies the name of the traveller, and of all that
are in his company, with their names and ages; for every person in China,
whether native, Arab, or other foreigner, is obliged to make a full
declaration of every thing he knows about himself. The lieutenant's pass
specifies the exact quantities of goods and money which the traveller and
his company take along with them, and this is done for the information of
the frontier places, where both passes are regularly examined; for whenever
a person arrives at any of these places, it is entered in the register that
such a one, the son of such a one, of such a family, passed through the
place, in such a month, day, and year, and in such company. By this means
they prevent any one from carrying off the money or effects of others, or
the loss of their own goods in case of accident; so that if any thing has
been taken away unjustly, or if the traveller should die on the road, it
may be immediately known where the things are to be found, that they may be
restored to the claimants, or to the heirs of the deceased.
The Chinese administer justice with great strictness, in all their
tribunals. When any person commences a suit against another, he sets down
his claim in writing, and the defendant writes down his defence, which he
signs, and holds between his fingers. These two writings are delivered in
at the same time; and being examined, sentence is pronounced in writing,
each of the parties having his papers returned to him, the defendant having
his delivered first. When one party denies what the other affirms, he is
ordered to return his writing; and if the defendant thinks he may do it
safely, and delivers in his papers a second time, those of the plaintiff
are likewise called for; and he who denies the affirmation of the other, is
warned, that if he does not make out what he denies, he shall undergo
twenty strokes of the bamboo on his buttocks, and shall pay a fine of
twenty _fakuges_, which amount to about two hundred dinars. And the
punishment of the bamboo is so severe, that the criminal can hardly
survive, and no person in all China is permitted to inflict it upon another
by his own authority, on pain of death, and confiscation of his goods; so
that no one is ever so hardy as to expose himself to such certain danger,
by which means justice is well administered to all. No witnesses are
required, neither do they put the parties upon oath.
When any person becomes bankrupt, he is immediately committed to prison in
the governor's palace, and is called upon for a declaration of his effects.
After he has remained a month in prison, he is liberated by the governor's
order, and a proclamation is made, that such a person, the son of such a
one, has consumed the goods of such a one, and that if any person possesses
any effects, whatever belonging to the bankrupt, a full discovery must be
made within one month. If any discovery is made of effects belonging to the
bankrupt, which he had omitted to declare, he suffers the punishment of the
bamboo, and is upbraided with having remained a month in prison, eating and
drinking, although he has wherewithal to satisfy his creditors. He is
reproached for having fraudulently procured and embezzled the property of
others, and is chastised for stripping other people of their substance. But
if, after every inquiry, the debtor does not appear to have been guilty of
any fraud, and if it is proved to the satisfaction of the magistrate, that
he has nothing in the world, the creditors are called in, and receive a
part of their claims from the treasury of the Bagbun. This is the ordinary
title of the emperor of China, and signifies the Son of Heaven, which we
ordinarily pronounce Magbun. After this, it is publickly forbidden to buy
of or sell to the bankrupt, that he may not again have an opportunity of
defrauding his creditors, by concealing their money or effects. If it be
discovered that the bankrupt has any money or effects in the hands of
another, and that person makes no disclosure within the time limited, the
person guilty of this concealment is bambooed to death, and the value
discovered is divided among the creditors; but the debtor or bankrupt must
never more concern himself with trade.
Upon a stone ten cubits high, erected in the public squares of all the
cities, the names of all sorts of medicines, with the exact prices of each,
are engraven; and when the poor stand in need of relief from physic, they
receive, at the treasury, the price that each medicine is rated at. In
China there is no tax upon land, but every male subject pays a rateable
capitation in proportion to his wealth and possessions. When a male child
is born, his name is immediately entered in a public register, and when he
has attained his eighteenth year he begins to pay the poll-tax; but when
once a man has reached his eightieth year, he not only ceases to
contribute, but even receives a pension from the treasury, as a provision
for old age, and in acknowledgment of what he paid during his youth. There
are schools, maintained at the public charge, in every town, where the
children of the poor are taught to read and write. The women wear nothing
on their heads besides their hair, but the men are covered. In China there
is a certain town called _Tayu_, having a castle, advantageously situated
on a hill, and all the fortresses in the kingdom are called by the same
name. The Chinese are generally handsome, of comely stature, and of fair
complexions, and by no means addicted to excess in wine. Their hair is
blacker than that of any other nation in the world, and the Chinese women
wear it curled.
In the Indies, when one man accuses another of a capital crime, it is usual
to ask the accused if he is willing to undergo the trial by fire, and if he
consents, the ceremony is conducted in the following manner: A piece of
iron is heated red hot, and the accused is desired to stretch out his hand,
on which they put seven leaves of a certain tree, and above these the red
hot iron is placed. In this condition he walks backwards and forwards for
some time, and then throws off the iron. Immediately after this his hand is
covered with a leathern bag, which is sealed with the prince's signet; and
if at the end of three days he appears and declares that he has suffered no
hurt, they order him to take out his hand, and if no sign of fire is
visible, he is declared innocent of the crime laid to his charge, and the
accuser is condemned to pay a fine of a _man_ of gold to the prince.
Sometimes they boil water in a caldron, till it is so hot that no one can
touch it; they then throw in an iron ring, and the accused is commanded to
thrust down his hand to bring up the ring. I saw one who did this and
received no manner of harm. In this case, likewise, if the accused remain
unhurt, the accuser pays a fine of a _man_ of gold.
When a king dies in the island of Serendib, which is the last of the
islands of the Indies, his body is laid in an open chariot, in such a
posture, that his head hangs backward, almost touching the ground, with his
hair trailing on the earth; and the chariot is followed by a woman, who
sweeps the dust on the face of the deceased, while she proclaims with a
loud voice: "O man! behold your king! He was yesterday your master, but now
the dominion which he exercised over you is at an end. He is reduced to the
state you now see, having left the world; and the arbiter of life and death
hath withdrawn his soul. Count not, therefore, O man! upon the uncertain
hopes of this life." This or a similar proclamation is continued for three
days; after which the body is embalmed with sandal wood, camphor, and
saffron, and is then burned, and the ashes are scattered to the winds. When
they burn the body of a king, it is usual for his wives to jump into the
fire and burn along with him; but this they are not constrained to do. The
same custom of burning the bodies of the dead prevails over all the Indies.
In the Indies there are men who devote themselves to live in the woods and
mountains, professing to despise what other men most value, abstaining from
every thing but such wild herbs and fruits as are to be found in the woods,
and they affix an iron buckle to their genitals in such a manner as to
interdict all commerce with woman. Some of these go quite naked, or have
only the skin of a leopard thrown over them, and keep perpetually standing
with their faces to the sun. I formerly saw one in that posture; and on my
return to the Indies, sixteen years afterwards, I found him in the very
same attitude, it being astonishing that he had not lost his sight by the
heat and glare of the sun. In all these kingdoms the sovereign power
resides in the royal family, without ever departing from it, and the heirs
of the family follow each other in regular succession. In like manner,
there are families of learned men, of physicians, and of all the artificers
concerned in the various arts; and none of these are ever mixed with the
family of a different profession. The several states of the Indies are not
subject to one king, but each province has its own; though the Balhara is
considered in the Indies as king of kings. The Chinese are fond of gaming
and all manner of diversions; but the Indians condemn them, and have no
pleasure in such employments. They drink no wine, neither do they use
vinegar, because it is made from wine; although this abstinence does not
proceed from any religious duty: but they allege that a king given to wine
is not worthy of being a king; for how should a drunkard be able to manage
the affairs of a kingdom, especially as wars are so frequent between the
neighbouring states? Their wars are not usually undertaken to possess
themselves of the dominions of others, and I never heard of any except the
people bordering on the pepper country that seized the dominions of their
neighbours after victory. When a prince masters the dominions of a
neighbour, he confers the sovereignty upon some person of the royal family
of the conquered country, and thus retains it in dependence upon himself,
under the conviction that the natives would never submit to be otherwise
governed.
When any one of the princes or governors of cities in China is guilty of a
crime, he is put to death and eaten; and in general, it may be said that
the Chinese eat all those who are put to death. When the Indians and
Chinese are about to marry and the parties are agreed, presents are
interchanged, and the marriage ceremony is solemnized amidst the noise of
drums and various sorts of instruments. The presents consist in money, and
all the relatives and friends contribute as much as they can afford. If any
man in the Indies runs away with a woman and abuses her, both are put to
death; unless it is proved that force has been used against the woman, in
which case the man only is punished. Theft is always punished capitally,
both in India and China, whether the theft be considerable or trifling; but
more particularly so in the Indies, where, if a thief have stolen even the
value of a small piece of money, he is impaled alive. The Chinese are much
addicted to the abominable vice of pederasty, which they even number among
the strange acts they perform in honour of their idols. The Chinese
buildings are of wood, with stone and plaster, or bricks and mortar. The
Chinese and Indians are not satisfied with one wife, but both nations marry
as many as they please, or can maintain. Rice is the common food of the
Indians, who eat no wheat; but the Chinese use both indifferently.
Circumcision is not practised either by the Chinese or Indians. The Chinese
worship idols, before whom, they fall down and make prayers, and they have
books which explain the articles of their religion. The Indians suffer
their beards to grow, but have no whiskers, and I have seen one with a
beard three cubits long; but the Chinese, for the most part, wear no
beards. Upon the death of a relation, the Indians shave both head and face.
When any man in the Indies is thrown into prison, he is allowed neither
victuals nor drink for seven days together; and this with them answers the
end of other tortures for extorting from the criminal a confession of his
guilt. The Chinese and Indians have judges besides the governors, who
decide in causes between the subjects. Both in India and China there are
leopards and wolves, but no lions. Highway robbers are punished with death.
Both the Indians and Chinese imagine that the idols which they worship
speak to them, and give them answers. Neither of them kill their meat by
cutting the throat, as is done by the Mahomedans, but by beating them on
the head till they die. They wash not with well water, and the Chinese wipe
themselves with paper, whereas the Indians wash every day before eating.
The Indians wash not only the mouth, but the whole body before they eat,
but this is not done by the Chinese. The Indies is larger in extent by a
half than China, and has a great many more kingdoms, but China is more
populous. It is not usual to see palm trees either in the Indies or in
China, but they have many other sorts of trees and fruits which we have
not. The Indians have no grapes, and the Chinese have not many, but both
abound in other fruits, though the pomegranate thrives better in India than
in China.
The Chinese have no sciences, and their religion and most of their laws are
derived from the Indians. They even believe that the Indians taught them
their worship of idols. Both nations believe the Metempsycosis, though they
differ in many of the precepts and ceremonies of their religion. Physic and
philosophy are cultivated among the Indians, and the Chinese have some
skill in medicine; but that almost entirely consists in the art of applying
hot irons or cauteries. They have some smattering of astronomy; but in this
likewise the Indians surpass the Chinese. I know not that even so much as
one man of either nation has embraced Mahomedism, or has learned to speak
the Arabic language. The Indians have few horses, and there are more in
China; but the Chinese have no elephants, and cannot endure to have them in
their country. The Indian dominions furnish a great number of soldiers, who
are not paid by their kings, but, when called out to war, have to take the
field and serve entirely at their own expense; but the Chinese allow their
soldiers much the same pay as is done by the Arabs.
China is a pleasant and fruitful country, having numerous extensive and
well fortified cities, with a more wholesome climate and less fenny country
than India, in which most of the provinces have no cities. The air in China
likewise is much better than in India, and there are scarcely any blind
persons, or who are subject to diseases of the eyes; and similar advantages
are enjoyed by several of the provinces of India. The rivers of both
countries are large, and surpass our greatest rivers, and much rain falls
in both countries. In the ladies there are many desert tracks, but China is
inhabited and cultivated through its whole extent. The Chinese are
handsomer than the Indians, and come nearer to the Arabs in countenance and
dress, in their manners, in the way of riding, and in their ceremonies,
wearing long garments and girdles in the manner of belts; while the Indians
wear two short vests, and both men and women wear golden bracelets, adorned
with precious stones.
Beyond the kingdom of China, there is a country called _Tagazgaz_, taking
its name from a nation of Turks by which it is inhabited, and also the
country of Kakhan which borders on the Turks. The islands of Sila are
inhabited by white people, who send presents to the Emperor of China, and
who are persuaded that if they were to neglect this the rain of heaven
would not fall upon their country. In that country there are white falcons;
but none of our people have been there to give us any particular
information concerning them.
[1] This is probably the sea about the Maldives, which, according to the
eastern geographers, divides that part of the Indian Ocean from the
sea of Delarowi, or the Magnus Sinus of the ancients. The eastern
writers often speak of the Seven Seas, which seems rather a proverbial
phrase, than a geographical definition. These are the seas of China,
India, Persia, Kolzoum, or the Red Sea, of Rum or Greece, which is the
Mediterranean, Alehozar or the Caspian, Pont or the Euxine. The sea of
India is often called the Green Sea, and the Persian Gulf the sea of
Bassora. The Ocean is called Bahr Mahit.--Harris
[2] Male-dive signifies, in the Malabar language, a thousand isles.--E.
[3] The subsequent accounts of these islands do not justify this particular
sentence, if the author meant that they were always governed by a
queen. It might be so in this time by accident, and one queen might
have succeeded another, as Queen Elizabeth did Queen Mary.--Harris.
[4] This is the Taprobana of the ancients, and has received many names. In
Cosmas Indicopleustes, it is called Sielendiba, which is merely a
Grecian corruption of Sielea-dive, or Sielen island; whence the modern
name of Ceylon.--E.
[5] This is probably the shark, which is common on all the coasts of India.
There was a portion of the MS. wanting at this place; wherein the
author treated of the trade to China as it was carried on in his time,
and of the causes which had brought it into a declining condition.
--Renaud.
[6] Perhaps some account of this Soliman might be contained in the lost
pages: But the circumstance of a Mahomedan judge or consul at Canfu is
a circumstance worthy of notice, and shews that the Mahomedans had
carried on a regular and settled trade with China for a considerable
time, and were in high estimation in that country.--Renaud.
[7] It is difficult at this distance of time to ascertain the rout laid
down by this author, on account of the changes of names. This mart of
Siraff is not to be met with in any of our maps; but it is said by the
Arabian geographers to have been in the gulf of Persia, about sixty
leagues from Shiraz; and that on its decay, the trade was transferred
to Ormuz.--Renaud.
[8] It is probable, or rather certain, that Canton is here meant.--E.
[9] Meaning the Parsees or Guebres, the fire-worshippers of Persia.--E.
[10] It is probable that this Balhara, or king of the people with bored
ears, which plainly means the Indians, was the Zamorin or Emperor of
Calicut; who, according to the reports of the most ancient Portuguese
writers concerning India, was acknowledged as a kind of emperor in the
Indies, six hundred years before they discovered the route to India by
the Cape of Good Hope.--Harris.
The original editor of this voyage in English, Harris, is certainly
mistaken in this point. The Balhara was the sovereign of Southern
Seindetic India; of which dominion Guzerat was the principal
province.--E.
[11] This is a very early notice of the construction and use of clocks, or
machinery to indicate divisions of time, by means of weights.--E.
SECTION II.
_Commentary upon the foregoing Account, by Abu Zeid al Hasan of Siraff_.
Having very carefully examined the book I was desired to peruse, that I
might confirm what the author relates so far as he agrees with what I have
learnt concerning the affairs of navigation, the kingdoms on the coast, and
the state of the countries of which he treats, and that I might add what I
have elsewhere collected concerning these matters: I find that this book
was composed in the year of the Hegira 237, and that the accounts given by
the author are conformable with what I have heard from merchants who have
sailed from _Irak_ or Persia, through these seas. I find also all that the
author has written to be agreeable to truth, except some few passages, in
which he has been misinformed. Speaking of the custom, of the Chinese in
setting meat before their dead, and believing that the dead had eaten, we
had been told the same thing, and once believed it; but have since learnt,
from a person of undoubted credit, that this notion is entirely groundless,
as well as that the idolaters believe their idols speak to them. From that
creditable person we have likewise been informed, that the affairs of China
wear quite a different aspect since those days: and since much has been
related to explain why our voyages to China have been interrupted, and how
the country has been ruined, many customs abolished, and the empire
divided, I shall here declare what I know of that revolution.
The great troubles which have embroiled the affairs of this empire, putting
a stop to the justice and righteousness there formerly practised, and
interrupting the ordinary navigation from Siraff to China, was occasioned
by the revolt of an officer named Baichu, in high employment, though not of
the royal family. He began by gathering together a number of vagabonds, and
disorderly people, whom he won to his party by his liberalities, and formed
into a considerable body of troops. With these he committed hostilities in
many parts of the country, to the great loss of the inhabitants; and having
greatly increased his army, and put himself into a condition to attempt
greater things, he began to entertain a design of subduing the whole
empire, and marched direct for Canfu, one of the most noted cities in
China, and at that time the great port for our Arabian commerce. This city
stands upon a great river, some days sail from the sea, so that the water
there is fresh. The citizens shut their gates against him, and he was
obliged to besiege it a great while; but at length he became master of the
city, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. There are persons fully
acquainted with the affairs of China, who assure us, that besides the
Chinese who were massacred upon this occasion, there perished one hundred
and twenty thousand Mahomedans, Jews, Christians, and Parsees, who were
there on account of traffic; and as the Chinese are exceedingly nice in the
registers they keep of foreigners dwelling among them, this number may be
considered as authentic. This took place in the year of the hegira 264, or
of Christ 877. He also cut down the mulberry trees, which are carefully
cultivated by the Chinese for their leaves, on which the silk worms are
fed; and owing to this, the trade of silk has tailed, and that manufacture,
which used to be much prosecuted in all the countries under the Arabian
government, is quite at a stand.
Having sacked and destroyed Canfu, he possessed himself of many other
cities, which he demolished, having first slain most of the inhabitants, in
the hope that he might involve all the members of the royal family in this
general massacre, that no one might remain to dispute with him for the
empire. He then advanced to Cumdan[1], the capital city, whence the emperor
was obliged to make a precipitate retreat to the city of Hamdu, on the
frontiers towards Thibet. Puffed up with these great successes, Baichu made
himself master of almost the whole country, there being no one able to
dispute his authority. At length the emperor wrote to the king of the
Tagazgaz in Turkestan, with whom he was in some degree allied by marriage,
imploring his assistance to subdue the rebellion. The king of the Tagazgaz
dispatched his son, at the head of a very numerous army, into China, and
after a long and arduous contest, and many battles, Baichu was utterly
defeated, and it was never known afterwards what became of him; some
believing that he fell in the last battle, while others supposed that he
ended his days in a different manner. The emperor of China now returned to
his capital, much weakened and dispirited in consequence of the
embezzlement of his treasures, and the loss of the best of his officers and
troops, and the horrible devastations, calamities, and losses which his
empire had sustained; yet he made himself master of all the provinces which
had revolted from his authority. He would not, however, lay his hands upon
the goods of his subjects, notwithstanding the exhausted state of his
finances, but satisfied himself with what was still left in his coffers,
and the small remains of the public money that was to be found, requiring
nothing from his subjects, but what they were willing to give, and only
demanding obedience to the laws and to his authority, considering that they
had been already severely oppressed in consequence of th
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