Chapter I: Front Matter

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