Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/fourpilgrims00bouliala FOUR PILGRIMS by WILLIAM BOULTING Author of _Giordano Bruno: his Life, Thought, and Martyrdom_; _Woman in Italy, 1100–1600 A.D._, etc. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. ERRATA. Page 84, Line 2. For “a little before” read “some time after.” CONTENTS I: HIUEN-TSIANG _Master of the Law; and his Perilous Journey to the Sacred Land of Buddha_, A.D. 627–643. CHAP. PAGE I. THE ISOLATION OF CHINA 1 II. BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM 5 III. AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY 9 IV. THROUGH INDIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY 27 V. INDIAN SOCIAL LIFE IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY 47 VI. THE JOURNEY HOME BY A NEW AND PERILOUS ROUTE 55 VII. PEACEFUL DAYS 61 II: SÆWULF, AN ENGLISH PILGRIM TO PALESTINE I. EARLY PILGRIMAGE TO PALESTINE 65 II. “DIEU LE VEULT” 68 III. SÆWULF’S RECORD 72 III: MOHAMMED IBN ABD ALLAH, _Better known as Ibn Batûta, the Greatest of Moslem Travellers_, A.D. 1304–77. I. THE WHIRLWIND FROM ARABIA AND WHAT FOLLOWED 89 II. A RESOLUTE PILGRIM 96 III. A ROUNDABOUT PILGRIMAGE 104 IV. GLIMPSES OF ARABIA, PERSIA AND EAST AFRICA IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 109 V. TO INDIA BY WAY OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE STEPPES 117 VI. AN EASTERN DESPOT 128 VII. PERILS BY LAND AND SEA 137 VIII. OFF TO MALAYSIA AND CATHAY 147 IX. MOORS OF SPAIN AND NEGROES OF TIMBUKTU 158 IV: LUDOVICO VARTHEMA OF BOLOGNA, _Renegade Pilgrim to Mecca, Foremost of Italian Travellers_. I. THE GREAT AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE AND OF DISCOVERY 163 II. FROM VENICE TO DAMASCUS 165 III. OVER THE DESERT TO MECCA 172 IV. THE ESCAPE FROM THE CARAVAN 186 V. CERTAIN ADVENTURES IN ARABIA THE HAPPY 190 VI. EASTWARD HO! 200 VII. THE PAGANS OF NARSINGA 208 VIII. FARTHER INDIA, MALAYSIA AND THE BANDA ISLANDS 221 IX. SOME CUNNING MANOEUVRES 235 X. WAR BY LAND AND SEA 244 XI. THE NEW WAY ROUND THE CAPE 249 PREFACE