A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 09: 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 TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 09: 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
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
The 26th September, 1613, we came to anchor right before the mouth of
the river _Sinde_, or Indus, by the directions of a pilot we had from
one of the boats we found fishing at that place. We rode in very good
ground, in a foot less five fathoms, the mouth of the river being E. by
N. being in the latitude of 24° 38' N.[116] That same day, the
ambassador sent two of his people, to confer with the governor about his
coming ashore, and procuring a passage through that country into Persia.
The governor, whose name was _Arah Manewardus_, who was of _Diul_,[117]
was most willing to receive the ambassador, and to shew him every
kindness, both in regard to his entertainment there, and his passage
through his province or jurisdiction. To this intent, he sent a
principal person aboard, attended by five or six more, to welcome his
lordship with many compliments, assuring him of kind entertainment.
Presently after there came boats from _Diul_ for his accommodation, in
which he and all his people and goods went ashore on the 29th September,
all in as good health as when they embarked in our ship from England. At
his departure we saluted him with eleven guns, and our captain entrusted
him with a fine fowling-piece, having two locks, to present to the
governor of Tatta, a great city, a day's journey from Diul,[118] both
cities being in the dominions of the Great Mogul. We also now set ashore
our treacherous _balloche_ pilot, _Sim-sadin_, though he better merited
to have been thrown into the sea, as he endeavoured twice to have cast
us away; once by his own means, as formerly alluded to, and afterwards
by giving devilish council to the pilot we hod from the fisher boat at
this place.
[Footnote 116: The river Indus has many mouths, of which no less than
_seventeen_ are laid down in Arrowsmith's excellent map of Hindoostan,
extending between the latitudes of 24° 45' and 23° 15' both N. and
between the longitudes of 67° 12' and 69° 12' both east. That mouth
where the Expedition now came to anchor, was probably that called the
_Pitty_ river, being the most north-western of the Delta, in lat 24° 45'
N. and long. 67° 12' E. from Greenwich; being the nearest on her way
from Guadal, and that which most directly communicates with Tatta, the
capital of the Delta of the Indus.--E.]
[Footnote 117: Such is the vague mode of expression in the Pilgrims; but
it appears afterwards that he was governor of Diul, at which place Sir
Robert Shirley and his suite were landed. It singularly happens, that
Diul is omitted in all the maps we have been able to consult; but from
the context, it appears to have been near the mouth of the Pitty river,
mentioned in the preceding note. It is afterwards said to have been
fifteen miles up the river, in which case it may possibly be a place
otherwise called _Larry Bunder_, about twenty miles up the Pitty, which
is the port of Tatta.--E.]
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