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In the year 1583, I Ralph Fitch of London, merchant, being desirous to see the countries of the Eastern India, went in company with Mr John Newbery, merchant, who had been once before at Ormus, together with William Leedes, jeweller, and James Story, painter; being chiefly set forth by the right worshipful Sir Edward Osburn, knight, and Mr Richard Staper, citizens and merchants of London. We shipped ourselves in a ship called the Tiger of London, in which we went to Tripoly in Syria, whence we went with the caravan to Aleppo in seven days. Finding good company at Aleppo, we went from thence to Birra [Bir], which is two days and a half journey with camels.
Bir is a small town, but abounding in provisions, near which runs the river Euphrates. We here purchased a boat, and agreed with a master and boatmen to carry us to Babylon [Bagdat]. These boats serve only for one voyage, as the stream is so rapid that they cannot return. They carry passengers to a town called Felugia [Feluchia], where the boat has to be sold for very little money, what cost fifty pieces at Bir bringing only seven or eight at that place. From Bir to Feluchia is a journey of sixteen days; but it is not good for one boat to go alone, as if it should chance to break, it would be difficult to save the goods from the Arabs, who are always robbing thereabouts, and it is necessary to keep good watch in the night, when the boat is made fast, as the Arabs are great thieves, and will swim on board to steal your goods, and then flee away. Against them a musket is a good weapon, as they are much afraid of fire-arms. Between Bir and Feluchia, there are certain places on the Euphrates where you have to pay custom, being so many medins for a some or camels load, together with certain quantities of raisins and soap, which are for the sons of Aborise, who is lord of the Arabs and of that great desert, and hath some villages on the river. Feluchia, where the goods coming from Bir are unladed, is a small village, from whence you go to Bagdat in one day.
Babylon, or Bagdat, is not a very large town, but is very populous, and much frequented by strangers, being the centre of intercourse between Persia, Turkey, and Arabia, caravans going frequently from it to these and other countries. It is well supplied with provisions, which are brought from Armenia down the river Tigris, upon rafts made of goat skin bags blown full of wind, over which boards are laid, on which the goods are loaded. When these are discharged, the skin bags are opened and emptied of air, and are then carried back to Armenia on camels to serve again. Bagdat belonged formerly to Persia, but is now subject to the Turks. Over against Bagdat, on the other side of the Tigris, is a very fair village, to which there is a passage across from Bagdat by a long bridge of boats, connected by a vast iron chain made fast at each side of the river. When any boats have to pass up or down the river, a passage is made for them by removing some of the boats of this bridge.
The Tower of Babel is on this side of the Tigris towards Arabia, about seven or eight miles from Bagdat, being now ruined on all sides, and with the ruins thereof hath made a little mountain, so that no shape or form of a tower remains. It was built of bricks dried in the sun, having canes and leaves of the palm-tree laid between the courses of bricks. It stands in a great plain between the Tigris and Euphrates, and no entrance can be any where seen for going into it.
Near the river Euphrates, two days journey from Bagdat, in a field near a place called Ait, there is a hole in the ground which continually throws out boiling pitch accompanied by a filthy smoke, the pitch flowing into a great field which is always full of it. The Moors call this opening the mouth of hell; and on account of the great abundance of the pitch, the people of the country daub all their boats two or three inches thick with it on the outside, so that no water can enter them. These boats are called danec. When there is plenty of water in the Tigris, the boats may go down from Bagdat to Basora in eight or nine days; but when the water is low it requires a longer time.
In times past, Basora belonged to the Arabs, but is now subject to the Turks. Yet there are some Arabs that the Turks cannot subdue, as they occupy certain islands in the great river Euphrates, which the Turks have never been able to conquer. These Arabs are all thieves, and have no settled dwelling, but remove from place to place with their camels, horses, goats, wives, children, and household goods. They wear large blue gowns; their wives having their ears and noses full of copper and silver rings, and wear copper rings on their legs. Basora is near the head of the gulf of Persia, and drives a great trade in spiceries and drugs, which come from Ormus. The country round produces abundance of white rice and dates, with which they supply Bagdat and all the country, sending likewise to Ormus and India. I went from Basora to Ormus, down the gulf of Persia, in a ship made of boards sewed together with cayro, which is a thread made of the husks of coco-nuts, and having certain canes, or leaves, or straw, sewed upon the seams between the boards, so that these vessels leak very much. Having Persia on our left hand, and Arabia on our right, we passed many islands, and among others the famous isle of Baharin, or Bahrain, from which come the best and roundest orient pearls.
Ormus is an island about 25 or 30 miles in circuit, which is perhaps the most arid and barren island in the world, as it produces nothing but salt, all its water, wood, provisions, and every other necessary, coming from Persia, which is about 12 miles distant; but all the other islands thereabout are very fertile, and from them provisions are sent to Ormus. The Portuguese have here a castle near the sea, with a captain and a competent garrison, part of which dwell in the castle and part In the town; in which likewise dwell merchants from all nations, together with many Moors and Gentiles. This place has a great trade in spices, drugs, silk, cloth of silk, fine tapestry of Persia, great store of pearls from Bahrain, which are the best of all pearls, and many horses from Persia which supply all India. Their king is a Moor, or Mahomedan, who is chosen by the Portuguese, and is entirely under subjection to them. Their women are very strangely attired, wearing many rings set with jewels on their ears, noses, necks, arms, and legs, and locks of gold and silver in their ears, and a long bar of gold upon the sides of their noses. The holes in their ears are worn so wide with the weight of their jewels, that one may thrust three fingers into them.
Very shortly after our arrival at Ormus we were put into prison, by order of Don Mathias de Albuquerque, the governor of the castle, and had part of our goods taken from us; and on the 11th October, he shipped us from thence, sending us to the viceroy at Goa, who at that time was Don Francisco de Mascarenhas. The ship in which we were embarked belonged to the captain, who carried in it 124 horses for sale. All goods carried to Goa in a ship wherein there are horses pay no duties; but if there are no horses, you then pay eight in the hundred for your goods. The first city of India at which we arrived on the 5th November, after passing the coast of Zindi, [Sindi] was named Diu, which stands in an island on the coast of the kingdom of Cambaia, or Gujrat, and is the strongest town belonging to the Portuguese in those parts. It is but small, yet abounds in merchandise, as they here load many ships with different kinds of goods for the straits of Mecca or the Red Sea, Ormus, and other places; these ships belong both to Christians and Moors, but the latter are not permitted to pass unless they have a Portuguese licence. Cambaietta, or Cambay, is the chief city of that province, being great and populous and well built for a city of the gentiles. When there happens a famine the natives sell their children for a low price. The last king of Cambaia was sultan Badur, who was slain at the siege of Diu, and shortly after the capital city was reduced by the great Mogor, [Mogul] who is king of Agra and Delhi, forty days journey from thence. Here the women wear upon their arms, a vast number of ivory rings, in which they take so much pride that they would rather go without their meat than want their bracelets.