CHAPTER XI.

THE NEW WAY ROUND THE CAPE.

The home-bound fleet was now loading. Varthema had given the Portuguese a year and a half of faithful service; he tells us that he was anxious to return to Europe; he had had fully five years of perilous wanderings through Moslem and Pagan lands to where no European foot hitherto had pressed the soil; and he was urged “by the affection and kindly feeling I bore my country, and my desire to carry thither and place upon record news concerning a great part of the world.” The grace demanded was freely given to one who had worked and fought so well; and on December 6th, 1506, a fortnight after the last great fight, he went on board, and the San Vicenzo and other great ships set sail.

A long voyage across the ocean brought the fleet to the coast of what is British East Africa to-day. Malinda, Mombasa and the island of Pemba were touched at during the voyage along the eastern coast; then, Kiloa, the extreme limit of Ibn Batûta’s voyage, a German port not so long ago; then, the Comoro islands, together with several other trading-places which the Portuguese had seized and fortified. All this part of the “Dark Continent” had been long peacefully penetrated by Arab traders and had profited by commercial intercourse with them; and the natives were incited to expel the intruder. The appearance of a rival had infuriated the Moslem trader, and the natives caught something of his spirit in resisting the new comers. They were now beginning to experience the tender mercies of the Christian. The Portuguese spread their faith among the palm groves of the South after the fashion of the Teutonic knights over the heaths of Prussia. They used the sword mercilessly; they burned towns and wrought every horror that can be inflicted by the passions of men released from discipline and from the restraints of a long voyage—men stimulating each other to brutality by mutual example, and infected with that mad fury which is apt to possess any excited gang. But Varthema tells us of the pleasure he felt at the successes of the Portuguese and the spread of Catholic truth. He found Pagans were baptized daily in Africa, as in India. “From what I have seen of India and Ethiopia,” he writes, “methinks the King of Portugal, should it please God, and his victories go on, will become the richest King on earth ... he is the means whereby the Christian faith is spread daily; wherefore it may be credited that God hath given him victory and will continue to prosper him.”

We must not accuse our whilom Mameluke of any grave insincerity in writing thus. No doubt he had an eye to the good will of Julius II., and the Catholic public; but every son of the church was expected to express himself in this way, and every son of the Renaissance was ready to do so. As has been said, the Italian of the age was not burthened by any undue sense of sin or overvexed about religion. These high matters were the care of a special profession—the clergy—and of an organized institution—the Church. The direst lapses into iniquity were “bad shots,” as sins were called by the Greeks—mere unfortunate glancings aside from the bull’s eye—and absolution was easily obtained. The main thing was to aim at making life a full, rich, and splendid success. None the less, the Rock of St. Peter was at once the emblem of European Civilization and the foundation on which in theory it rested: The Church and European civilization must be spread, to put an end to Mohammedanism, that enduring peril, and the Paganism from which it drew its recruits and no small measure of its wealth and power. This is what lies at the bottom of Varthema’s mind. The King of Portugal is destined to become the wealthiest and most powerful of rulers; and the possession of wealth and the unrestricted exercise of power of every kind, mental and moral and physical was the ideal of the age and the reward of its _virtu_.

At Moçambique, an island off what is still Portuguese East Africa, the fleet remained fifteen days to take in provisions, and Varthema crossed to the mainland. He tells us of the blackness of the natives; of their woolly hair, thick lips, and “teeth white as snow”; of how the men wore bark and the women leaves as a loin-cloth; and of the clicking of their speech, like the noises, made by tongue and palate, with which the muleteers of Sicily urge on their steeds. (So probably at some time Varthema had visited Sicily). Finding these negroes “few and vile,” he and five or six others armed themselves, engaged a guide, and went on an excursion. They saw great herds of elephants roaming about; but by collecting dry wood, and setting fire to it, they scared the great beasts away. Yet, in the end, they were chased by three she-elephants who had their calves with them, and had to make for a hill in all haste. They escaped with difficulty, and doubtless had not done so but for the mothers of the herd being hampered by the calves they found themselves called upon to protect. The party crossed some ten miles over the ridge and came to cave-dwellers, of whom they purchased fifteen cows for a little rubbish of European manufacture. When on the way back to the ship, they heard a great uproar. It came from the caves, and greatly alarmed them, until they understood from the signs made by two negroes, who were driving the cows, that they need have no fear; and their guide assured them that these people were only quarrelling as to which of them should be the possessor of that rare treasure, a little bell.

Sailing from Moçambique between the mainland and San Lorenzo (as Madagascar was then called), our traveller remarks that in his belief “the King of Portugal will soon be lord thereof; for two places there have already been seized and put to fire and flame.” After the Cape was rounded the fleet encountered terrific storms. The ships were dispersed by their violence, nor did they sight each other again during the remainder of the voyage.

Off St. Helena, the voyagers on Varthema’s ship were scared by the appearance of whales. “We saw two fishes, each as great as a great house, which, when on the surface, raise a kind of vizor, I should say of the width of three strides, and let it down when they go under again. We were so alarmed at the power of these fishes in swimming that we let off all our artillery.” He next describes the boobies of Ascension: birds “so simple and foolish that they let themselves be caught by the hand ... and, before they Were caught, they looked on us as at a miracle.... On this island are only water and fish and these birds.” A few days later, they saw the North Star on the horizon. They touched at the Azores, and at last reached the beautiful estuary of the Tagus, and anchored off the “noble city of Lisbon.”

And now we find our traveller, of whom it might, by the alteration of a pronoun be said as of the Egyptian Queen: “Nought could excel his infinite variety,” turned courtier. Don Emanuel, “the Fortunate,” was staying at his palace opposite the city, and Varthema crossed the Tagus to kiss the royal hand. So interesting a traveller with so much to relate was most graciously received and kept at court for some days. When he conceived himself to be sufficiently established there, he seized an opportune moment, presented the patent of Knighthood which the Viceroy had given him, and asked the monarch to confirm it. It was his majesty’s pleasure to order a diploma of knighthood to be drawn up on parchment, and then to sign it with his august hand. This document was impressed with the royal seal, and Varthema having seen it registered, took his leave, returned to Italy, and “came to the city of Rome.”

Julius II. sat on the throne of the Fisherman. That old warrior was the very man to appreciate the resolution, the resourcefulness, and the exploit of Varthema. _Papa plusquam Papa_, he had been a mighty man of valour from his youth upwards; his will of iron was unbroken, and he retained in full the ardour of earlier years. A man of _virtu_, he aspired to control and guide the restive Powers of Europe to his own ends; and to make Rome the centre of the Arts, as well as the political Mistress of the Western World. If he was Head-bishop of the Western Church, claiming supreme authority over the Christian world, he was also a Temporal Prince, a patron of letters and enlightenment. At this very time, Michael Angelo was busy, by Papal command, adorning the Sistine Chapel with stupendous fresco and endowing sculpture with all his own redundant energy and life. Raphael was employed in painting delicate poems on the walls of the Papal _Stanze_. It was intended that Rome should become the world’s magnificent capital—a temple to strike awe and submission into the beholder; its only defect, that perchance it might shelter an empty shrine. There was as yet little hint of the terrific revolt of priest and scholar, _lanzknecht_ and trader, which was preparing beyond the Alps; a revolt which tore away half the Empire of the Papacy. Little did Theodosius dream of the overthrow of the sacred city, “urbs æquæva polo,” as Claudian sings by the barbarians of the North; and as little did Julius deem that it was destined soon to be sacked by the same rude race. It was nothing to Julius that Varthema had posed as a renegade: here was a man after his own heart. Nor were most of the Cardinals indifferent to the discovery of memorable matters. If an alien faith had been successfully professed for a laudable purpose so full of commercial possibilities, a few aves and paternosters, or a slight penance, made amends in that lax age. Julius gave mandate by word of mouth that Varthema’s account of his adventures should be duly licensed, and Raphael, Cardinal of St. George, “Chamberlain of our Most Holy Lord the Pope of the Holy Roman Church,” “being advised thereto by many other Most Reverend Cardinals of the Apostolic See,” gave the necessary licence. “Holding the work worthy, not only of commendation, but of ample reward,” he granted that the author and his heirs should hold copyright for a space of ten years. The Cardinal did this on the ground, as he explicitly states that Varthema had, in his seven years of travel, corrected many of the errors of ancient geographers, and that the “public use and study” of his volume would be of service. Such a decision had been impossible after the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Council of Trent. It were hard, even in our days of more single purpose, severely to censure the sanction to publish the work of a Christian who had posed as a Mohammedan only to “promote,” as the cardinal says, “such studies as have always been held in the highest honour.” Varthema had fully described the products of the East and the localities whence they came; and such information was not only to the advancement of knowledge but to the commercial advantage of his time. Had the Papal Court decided otherwise, the world had lost a priceless record of virile purpose fulfilled and of remote regions hitherto hardly known or wholly unknown. The world is indebted to Julius II. and his Cardinals for their action, whether it be called broad-minded toleration or latitudinarian indifference. Probably the copyright was no unimportant matter to the returned wanderer. As has been remarked, we hear nothing of his having made money by trade in the countries he visited. He was no vulgar gainer of gold, but one who set out to behold the splendour of God on the earth and the amazing manners of that prodigy, man. He dedicated his _Itinerario_ to Agnesina Colonna, a daughter of the illustrious house of Montefeltro, mother of that Vittoria Colonna whom Michael Angelo and her own pen have made famous, and the fourth of five distinguished women in whom learning and ability descended from mother to daughter. It appeared in 1510.[21] The Dedication informs us that I, Varthema, “having gone over some parts of the countries and islands of the east, south and west, am of fixed mind, should it please God, to make enquiry into those of the north. And so, since I do not perceive that I am fitted for any other undertaking, to employ what remains to me of my fleeting days in this honourable task.” Clearly, seven years of peril by land and sea, the greater part of the time being spent in tropical heat, had not satiated the curiosity or abated the audacity of the born-traveller. But no new _Itinerario_ came to tell us of Laps driving their teams of rein-deer, of the splendours of the Northern Lights, or of the marvel of the Midnight Sun.

The _Itinerario_ of 1510 was reprinted more than once in Rome, Venice and Milan during the following fifty years. In 1515 it was translated into German; in 1520, it appeared in Spanish; in 1556, in French; and in 1563, in Dutch. In 1577, Richard Eden gave a truncated and corrupt form of the work, which he had translated from a Latin version into English. It was incorporated with his “History of Travayle in the West and East Indies,” and reprinted for private circulation by the Aungerville Society in 1884. But twenty-one years before this last date, the Hakluyt Society had printed a translation from the original Italian edition by the Rev. Geo. Percy Badger. The modern translation is faithful and eminently readable; Mr. Badger’s annotations are invaluable; and John Winter Jones supplied a preface which is a bibliography. But Richard Eden’s imperfect work necessarily conveys more of the vigorous diction and quaint archaicisms of the original because the English style of Elizabeth’s time more closely resembled that of ordinary Italian prose in the days of Julius II. Yet, readable and delightful as Mr. Badger’s translation is, Varthema remains known only to the specialized student; to the general reader, together with many another ancient worthy of heroic mould, he is unknown, even by name.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales_, par Hiouen-Thoang, tr. du chinois par S. Julien, 2 t., 1857–8.

_Si-yu-ki._ Tr. from the Chinese of Hieuen Tsiang by S. Beal. 2 v. (Trübners Oriental Series) 1884.

_Hist. de la vie de Hiouen Thsang et de ses voyages dans l’Inde_ A.D. 629–45, par Hoei-Li et Yen-Thsong. Tr. du Chinois par S. Julien. Imprim. Impér. 1853.

_The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang._ Tr. by S. Beal. (Trübner’s Oriental Series) 1878.

The spelling of Oriental names of persons and places varies widely in English, as well as in other European languages, according to the system of transliteration employed.

[2] The Author possesses a picture of the source of the Ganges, painted on panel, on the spot, by the late W. Simpson. Fakirs, at least in his time, were wont, when the end of life drew near, to ascend the glacier, and terminate the illusions of existence on the snow-mountains above it. Simpson saw a Fakir climbing up a snow-slope for this purpose. Now, as well as one can judge from this panel, the lower end of the glacier from which the infant Ganges is seen flowing would be about as broad as Hiuen-Tsiang states the source of the river to be.

[3] Beal’s translation of _Si-yu-ki_ vol. i., p. 70.

[4] J. Talboy Wheeler, “_History of India_,” London, 1874, vol. iii, p. 261.

[5] W. H. Johnson, who was the first European to visit Khotan for 260 years, heard of these cities buried in the sand (1865).

[6] For recent travels in Eastern Turkestan, see Prjevalsky, N. _From Kulja across the Thian Shan to Lob-Nor_, tr. E. D. Morgan, 1879.

[7] A measure which varies in different provinces. It is the Chinese foot-measure, always shorter than ours.

[8] The Latin text is printed with a translation by Brownlow, by the Palestine Pilgrims Text Society. 1892.

[9] _Memoirs of the Emperor Johangueir_, by himself. Tr. from Persian by D. Price. Oriental Translation Fund. 1829. pp. 96–104.

[10] Chaucer, _Man of Lawe’s Tale. Part I., st. i, l. 4_. The derivation of Satin is obvious.

[11] Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. iv. p. 405.

[12] P’u Sung-ling finished his work A.D. 1679, and saw the trick when he was a boy.

[13] Part of the illusion described by Ibn Batûta, known as the Indian Rope Trick, was seen by the late Professor Middleton, of the South Kensington Museum, in Morocco, and is fully described by Wilfred Scawen Blount’s _Diaries_, 1888–1900, p. 86, sqq. The trick has been much discussed during the last few years, and conjurers confess that it perplexes them. (“_Baffled magicians_,” _Times_, Feb. 6th, 1919). Mr. C. R. Sanderson, Librarian to the National Liberal Club, kindly drew my attention to certain articles and correspondence in popular journals (_Strand Magazine_, April, 1919; _Daily Mail_, Jan. 7th, 1913, and a discussion in the same newspaper, beginning Jan. 8th, 1919, and ending Feb. 19th, 1919). It is a common belief among English residents in India that some of these illusions are due to hypnotism; but, as a rule, only people who are capable of great concentration of mind, or who are in the habit of obeying commands are readily hypnotized, and then only by direct suggestion, and not, so say the best authorities, by will-power. Cases of hypnosis at a distance have been recorded; but the subjects had already been hypnotized by the operator; and, if these accounts should be proved veridical, telepathy might possibly explain them. The instance photographed by Lieut. F. W. Holmes, V.C., is a degenerate form of the trick. If a cinematograph record of a really fine exhibition of this illusion could be taken, probably the problem would be solved conclusively.

[14] A translation of an abbreviated copy of Batûta’s travels was made by the Revd. S. Lee, and published by the Oriental Translation Fund in 1829. Since that date the French advance in Algeria led to the discovery of several copies of the unabridged work; and the “_Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah_,” translated into French by C. Defrémery and Dr. B. R. Sanguinette, with the original Arabic text under the translation, appeared in Paris in 1853, at the hands of the _Société Asiatique_. There are several examples of the original MS. extant, which slightly vary from each other, and often differ considerably from the abbreviation as to matter of fact.

[15] B and V are to be found controvertible both in old Italian and in old Spanish. Bartema instead of Varthema is on the title page of more than one edition of the _Itinerario_.

[16] Dante, Inferno, ix, 76, 77.

[17] Varthema gives all the words of the queen in Arabic, phonetically written, followed by a rendering in Italian. He had learned to speak Arabic, none too perfectly, but not to write it.

[18]

“High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormuz and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat.”—_Paradise Lost_, ii. 1–5.

[19] Giosafat Barbaro & A. Contarini. Travels to Tana and Persia. Tr. by W. Thomas, Clerk of the Council to Edward VI., and by S. A. Roy. 8vo. 1873.

[20] Should not Varthema have written milk?

[21] A copy, rebound in red velvet, is one of the treasures of the Library in the British Museum.

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