Therefore, That The World May Be Benefited By My Experience, I
Have Caused My Voyages And Travels To Be Printed, Which I Now Present To
You, Gentle And Loving Readers, In Hopes That The Variety Of Things
Contained In This Book May Give You Delight.
SECTION I.
_Voyage from Venice to Bir in Asia Minor._
In the year 1563, while residing at Venice, being desirous to see the
eastern parts of the world, I embarked in a ship called the _Gradaige_
of Venice, commanded by Jacomo Vatica, bound for Cyprus, taking with
me certain merchandise. On arriving at Cyprus, I left that ship, and
went in a lesser to Tripoli in Syria, where I made a short stay. I then
travelled by land to Aleppo, where I became acquainted with some
Armenian and Moorish merchants, and agreed to accompany them to Ormuz.
We accordingly departed together from Aleppo, and came to the city of
_Bir_ in two days journey and a-half.
Bir is a small city in which provisions are very scarce, situated in
Asia Minor, [in lat. 37 deg. 5' N. long. 38 deg. E. from Greenwich], the river
Euphrates running near its walls. In this city, the merchants who intend
to descend the Euphrates form themselves into companies or associations,
according to the quantities of merchandise they possess, and either
build or buy a boat to carry themselves and their goods down the
Euphrates to Babylon[121], under the care of a master and mariners hired
to conduct the boat. These boats are almost flat-bottomed and very
strong, yet serve only for one voyage, as it is impossible to navigate
them upwards. They are fitted for the shallowness of the river, which in
many places is full of great stones which greatly obstruct the
navigation. At _Feluchia_ a small city on the Euphrates, the merchants
pull their boats to pieces or sell them for a small price; as a boat
that cost forty or fifty chequins at Bir sells only at Feluchia for
seven or eight chequins. When the merchants return back from Babylon, if
they have merchandise or goods that pay custom, they travel through the
wilderness in forty days, passing that way at much less expence than the
other. If they have no such merchandise, they then go by the way of
Mosul in Mesopotamia, which is attended with great charges both for the
caravan and company. From Bir to _Feluchia_. on the Euphrates, over
against Babylon, which is on the Tigris, if the river have sufficient
water, the voyage down the river may be made in fifteen or eighteen
days; but when the water is low in consequence of long previous drought,
the voyage is attended with much trouble, and will sometimes require
forty or fifty days to get down. In this case the boats often strike on
the stones in the river, when it becomes necessary to unlade and repair
them, which is attended with much trouble and delay; and on this account
the merchants have always one or two spare boats, that if one happen to
split or be lost by striking on the shoals, they may have another ready
to take in their goods till they have repaired the broken boat If they
were to draw the broken boat on the land for repair, it would be
difficult to defend it in the night from the great numbers of Arabs that
would come to rob and plunder them.
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