Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 2Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Islamic
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 2
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Arabian Peninsula -- Description and travel
[p.335] 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.[FN#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
wifes 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 Sultans 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
[p.336] would spend the whole day in beholding Bartema, who wandered
about simulating madness,[FN#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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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