the navigation and voyages of ludovicus vertomannus, gentleman of rome. a.d. 1503.

the first of the pilgrims to meccah and al-madinah who has left an authentic account of the holy cities is “lewes wertomannus (lodovico bartema), gentelman of the citie of rome.1” if any man,” says this aucthor, “shall demand of me the cause of this my voyage, certeynely i can shewe no better reason than is the ardent desire of knowledge, which hath moved many other to see the world and the miracles of god therein.” in the year of our lord 1503 he departed from venice “with prosperous wynds,” arrived at alexandria and visited babylon of egypt, berynto, tripoli, antioch, and damascus. he started from the latter place on the 8th of april, 1503, “in familiaritie and friendshyppe with a certayne captayne mameluke” (which term he applies to “al such christians as have forsaken theyr fayth, to serve the mahumetans and turks”), and in the garb of a “mamaluchi renegado.” he estimates the damascus caravan to consist of 40,000 men and 35,000 camels, nearly six times its present number.2 on the way they were “enforced to conflict with a great multitude of the arabians:” but the three score mamluks composing their escort were more than a match for 50,000 badawin. on one occasion the caravan, attacked by 24,000 arabians, slew 1500 of the enemies, losing in the conflict only a man and a woman.3 this “marveyle”— which is probably not without some exaggeration — he explains by the “strength and valiantness of the mamalukes,” by the practice (still popular) of using the “camells in the steede of a bulwarke, and placing the merchaunts in the myddest of the army (that is), in the myddest of the camelles, whyle the pilgrims fought manfully on every side;” and, finally, by the circumstance that the arabs were unarmed, and “weare only a thynne loose vesture, and are besyde almost naked: theyr horses also beyng euyll furnished, and without saddles or other furniture.” the hijazi badawi of this day is a much more dangerous enemy; the matchlock and musket have made him so; and the only means of crippling him is to prevent the importation of firearms and lead, and by slow degrees to disarm the population. after performing the ceremonies of pilgrimage at al-madinah and meccah, he escaped to zida or gida (jeddah), “despite the trumpetter of the caravana giving warning to all the mamalukes to make readie their horses, to direct their journey toward syria, with proclamation of death to all that should refuse so to doe,” and embarked for persia upon the red sea. he touched at certain ports of al-yaman, and got into trouble at aden, “where the mahumetans took him,” and “put shackles on his legges, which came by occasion of a certayne idolatour, who cryed after him, saying, o, christian dogge, borne of dogges.4” the lieutenant of the sultan “assembled his council,” consulted them about putting the traveller to death as a “spye of portugales,” and threw him ironed into a dungeon. on being carried shackled into the presence of the sultan, bartema said that he was a “roman, professed a mamaluke in babylon of alcayr;” but when told to utter the formula of the moslem faith, he held his tongue, “eyther that it pleased not god, or that for feare and scruple of conscience he durst not.” for which offence he was again “deprived of ye fruition of heaven.”

but, happily for bartema, in those days the women of arabia were “greatly in love with whyte men.” before escaping from meccah, he lay hid in the house of a mohammedan, and could not express his gratitude for the good wife’s care; “also,” he says, “this furthered my good enterteynement, that there was in the house a fayre young mayde, the niese of the mahumetan, who was greatly in loue with me.” at aden he was equally fortunate. one of the sultan’s three wives, on the departure of her lord and master, bestowed her heart upon the traveller. she was “very faire and comely, after theyr maner, and of colour inclynyng to blacke:” she would spend the whole day in beholding bartema, who wandered about simulating madness,5 and “in the meane season, divers tymes, sent him secretly muche good meate by her maydens.” he seems to have played his part to some purpose, under the colour of madness, converting a “great fatt shepe” to mohammedanism, killing an ass because he refused to be a proselyte, and, finally, he “handeled a jewe so euyll that he had almost killed hym.” after sundry adventures and a trip to sanaa, he started for persia with the indian fleet, in which, by means of fair promises, he had made friendship with a certain captain. he visited zayla and berberah in the somali country, and at last reached hormuz. the 3rd book “entreateth of persia,” the 4th of “india, and of the cities and other notable thynges seene there.” the 8th book contains the “voyage of india,” in which he includes pegu, sumatra, borneo, and java, where, “abhorryng the beastly maners” of a cannibal population, he made but a short stay. returning to calicut, he used “great subtiltie,” escaped to the “portugales,” and was well received by the viceroy. after describing in his 7th book the “viage or navigation of ethiopia, melinda, mombaza, mozambrich (mozambique), and zaphala (sofala),” he passed the cape called “caput bonæ spei, and repaired to the goodly citie of luxburne (lisbon),” where he had the honour of kissing hands. the king confirmed with his great seal the “letters patentes,” whereby his lieutenant the viceroy of india had given the pilgrim the order of knighthood. “and thus,” says bartema by way of conclusion, “departing from thence with the kyngs pasporte and safe conducte, at the length after these my long and great trauayles and dangers, i came to my long desyred native countrey, the citie of rome, by the grace of god, to whom be all honour and glory.”

this old traveller’s pages abound with the information to be collected in a fresh field by an unscrupulous and hard-headed observer. they are of course disfigured with a little romancing. his jews at khaybor, near al-madinah, were five or six spans long. at meccah he saw two unicorns, the younger “at the age of one yeare, and lyke a young coolte; the horne of this is of the length of four handfuls.6” and so credulous is he about anthropophagi, that he relates of mahumet (son to the sultan of sanaa) how he “by a certayne naturall tyrannye and madnesse delyteth to eate man’s fleeshe, and therefore secretly kylleth many to eate them.7” but all things well considered, lodovico bartema, for correctness of observation and readiness of wit, stands in the foremost rank of the old oriental travellers.

i proceed to quote, and to illustrate with notes, the few chapters devoted in the 1st volume of this little-known work to meccah and al-madinah.