Chapter VI: Part 6

Yet, strange as it may appear, this inhospitable desert is overrun by numerous animals, which, therefore, must either be endued by nature with the power of resisting thirst, or with the instinct to discover springs of water where man fails. Our traveller was very near participating the fate of the merchant above commemorated. Day after day they toiled along the sands without being able to discover one drop of water on their way; so that the small quantity they had brought with them, which was barely sufficient for five days, was compelled to serve them for ten. Twelve miles south of Segelmessa they reached a small castle built in the desert by the Arabs, but found there nothing but heaps of sand and black stones. A few orange or lemon-trees blooming in the waste were the only signs of vegetation which met their eyes until they arrived at Tebelbelt, or Tebelbert, one hundred miles south of Segelmessa, a city thickly inhabited, abounding in water and dates. Here the inhabitants employ themselves greatly in hunting the ostrich, the flesh of which is among them an important article of food.

They now proceeded through a country utterly desolate, where a house or a well of water was not met with above once in a hundred miles, reckoning from the well of Asanad to that of Arsan, about one hundred and fifty miles north of Timbuctoo. In the first part of this journey, through what is called the desert of Zuensiga, numerous bodies of men who had died of thirst on their way were found lying along the sand, and not a single well of water was met with during nine days. It were to be wished that Leo had entered a little more minutely into the description of this part of his travels, but he dismisses it with the remark that it would have taken up a whole year to give a full account of what he saw. However, after a toilsome and dangerous journey, the attempt to achieve which has cost so many European lives, he reached Timbuctoo for the second time, the name of the reigning chief or prince being Abubellr Izchia.

The city of Timbuctoo, the name of which was first given to the kingdom of which it was the capital only about Leo’s time, is said to have been founded in the 610th year of the Hejira, by a certain Meusa Suleyman, about twelve miles from a small arm or branch of the Niger. The houses originally erected here had now dwindled into small huts built with chalk and thatched with straw; but there yet remained a mosque built with stone in an elegant style of architecture, and a palace for which the sovereigns of Central Africa were indebted to the skill of a native of Granada. However, the number of artificers, merchants, and cloth and cotton weavers, who had all their shops in the city, was very considerable. Large quantities of cloth were likewise conveyed thither by the merchants of Barbary. The upper class of women wore veils, but servants, market-women, and others of that description exposed their faces. The citizens were generally very rich, and merchants were so highly esteemed, that the king thought it no derogation to his dignity to give his two daughters in marriage to two men of this rank. Wells were here numerous, the water of which was extremely sweet; and during the inundation, the water of the Niger was introduced into the city by a great number of aqueducts. The country was rich in corn, cattle, and butter; but salt, which was brought from the distance of five hundred miles, was so scarce, that Leo saw one camel-load sold while he was there for eighty pieces of gold. The king was exceedingly rich for those times, and kept up a splendid court. Whenever he went abroad, whether for pleasure or to war, he always rode upon a camel, which some of the principal nobles of his court led by the bridle. His guard consisted entirely of cavalry. When any of his subjects had occasion to address him, he approached the royal presence in the most abject manner, then, falling prostrate on the ground, and sprinkling dust upon his head and shoulders, explained his business; and in this manner even strangers and the ambassadors of foreign princes were compelled to appear before him. His wars were conducted in the most atrocious manner; poisoned arrows being used, and such as escaped those deadly weapons and were made prisoners were sold for slaves in the capital; even such of his own subjects as failed to pay their tribute being treated in the same manner. Horses were extremely rare. The merchants and courtiers made use of little ponies when travelling, the noble animals brought thither from Barbary being chiefly purchased by the king, who generally paid a great price for them. Leo seems to have been astonished at finding no Jews at Timbuctoo; but his majesty was so fierce an enemy to the Hebrew race, that he not only banished them his dominions, but made it a crime punishable with confiscation of property to have any commerce with them. Timbuctoo at this period contained a great number of judges, doctors, priests, and learned men, all of whom were liberally provided for by the prince; and an immense number of manuscripts were annually imported from Barbary, the trade in books being, in fact, the most lucrative branch of commerce. Their gold money, the only kind coined in the country, was without image or superscription; but those small shells, still current on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts, and in the islands of the Indian Ocean, under the name of _cowries_, were used in small transactions, four hundred of them being equivalent to a piece of gold. Of these gold pieces, six and two-thirds weighed an ounce. The inhabitants, a mild and gentle race, spent a large portion of their time in singing, dancing, and festivities, which they were enabled to do by the great number of slaves of both sexes which they maintained. The city was extremely liable to conflagrations, almost one-half of the houses having been burnt down between the first and second visits of our traveller,—a space of not more than eleven or twelve years. Neither gardens nor fruit-trees adorned the environs.

This account of the state of Timbuctoo in the beginning of the sixteenth century I have introduced, that the reader might be able to compare it with the modern descriptions of Major Laing and Caillé, and thus discover the amount of the progress which the Mohammedans of Central Africa have made towards civilization. I suspect, however, that whatever may now be the price of salt, the book trade has not increased; and that whether the natives dance more or less than formerly, they are neither so gentle in their manners nor so wealthy in their possessions.

From Timbuctoo Leo proceeded to the town of Cabra on the Niger, which was then supposed to discharge its waters into the Atlantic; for the merchants going to the coast of Guinea embarked upon the river at this place, whence they dropped down the stream to the seashore. Still travelling southward, he arrived at a large city without walls, which he calls Gajo, four hundred miles from Timbuctoo. Excepting the dwellings of the prince and his courtiers, the houses were mere huts, though many of the merchants are said to have been wealthy, while an immense concourse of Moors and other strangers flocked thither to purchase the cloths and other merchandise of Barbary and Europe. The inhabitants of the villages and the shepherds, by far the greater portion of the population, lived in extreme misery, and, poverty extinguishing all sense of decorum, went so nearly naked, that even the distinctions of sex were scarcely concealed. In winter they wrapped themselves in the skins of animals, and wore a rude kind of sandal manufactured from camel’s hide.

This was the term of Leo’s travels towards the south. He now turned his face towards the rising sun, and proceeding three hundred miles in that direction, amid the dusky and barbarous tribes who crouch beneath the weight of tyranny and ignorance in that part of Africa, arrived in the kingdom of Guber, having on the way crossed a desert of considerable extent, which commences about forty miles beyond the Niger. The whole country was a plain, inundated in the rainy season by the Niger, and surrounded by lofty mountains. Agriculture and the useful arts were here cultivated with activity. Flocks and cattle abounded, but their size was extremely diminutive. The sandal worn by the inhabitants exactly resembled that of the ancient Romans. From hence he proceeded to Agad, a city and country tributary to Timbuctoo, inhabited by the fairest negroes of all Africa. The inhabitants of the towns possessed excellent houses, constructed after the manner of those of Barbary; but the peasants and shepherds of the south were nomadic hordes, living, like the Carir of the Deccan, in large baskets, or portable wicker huts. He next arrived at Kanoo, five hundred miles east of the Niger, a country inhabited by tribes of farmers and herdsmen, and abounding in corn, rice, and cotton. Among the cultivated fields many deserts, however, and wood-covered mountains were interspersed. In these woods the orange and the lemon were found in great plenty. The houses of the town of Kanoo, like those of Timbuctoo, were built of chalk. Proceeding eastward through a country infested by gipsies, occasionally turning aside to visit more obscure regions, he at length arrived at Bornou, a kingdom of great extent, bounded on the north and south by deserts, on the west by Gnagera, and on the east by an immense country, denominated Gaoga by Leo, but known at present by the various names of Kanem, Begharmi, Dar Saley, Darfur, and Kordofan.

The scenery and produce of Bornou were exceedingly various. Mountains, valleys, plains, and deserts alternating with each other composed a prospect of striking aspect; and the population, consisting of wild soldiers, merchants, artisans, farmers, herdsmen, and shepherds, some glittering with arms, or wrapped in ample drapery, others nearly as naked as when they left the womb, appeared no less picturesque or strange. Leo’s stay in this country was short, and the persons from whom he acquired his information must have been either ignorant or credulous; for, according to them, no vestige of religion existed among the people (which is not true of any nation on earth), while the women and children were possessed by all men in common. Proper names were not in use. When persons spoke of their neighbours, they designated them from some corporeal or mental quality, as tallness, fatness, acuteness, bravery, or stupidity. The chief’s revenue consisted of the tenth of the produce of the soil, and of such captives and spoil as he could take in war. Slaves were here so plentiful, and horses so scarce, that twenty men were sometimes given in exchange for one of those animals. The prince then reigning, a narrow-minded and avaricious man, had contrived by various means to amass immense riches; his bits, his spurs, his cups, and vases were all of gold; but whenever he purchased any article from a foreign merchant, he preferred paying with slaves rather than with money.

From Bornou he proceeded through Gaoga towards Nubia, and approached those regions of the Nile where, amid poverty and barbarism, the civilization of the old world has left so many indestructible traces of the gigantic ideas which throw their shadows over the human imagination in the dawn of time. Coming up to the banks of the mysterious river, around the sources of which curiosity has so long flitted in vain, he found the stream so shallow in many places that it could be easily forded; but whether on account of its immense spread in those parts, or the paucity of water, he does not inform us. Dongola, or Dangala, the capital, though consisting of mere chalk huts thatched with straw, contained at that period no less than one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. The people, who were rich and enterprising, held knowledge in the highest esteem. No other city, however, existed in the country; the remainder of the population, chiefly or wholly occupied in the culture of the soil, living in scattered villages or hamlets. Grain was extremely plentiful, as was also the sugarcane, though its use and value were unknown; and immense quantities of ivory and sandal-wood were exported. However, at this period, the most remarkable produce of Nubia was a species of violent poison, the effect of which was little less rapid than that of prussic acid, since the tenth part of a grain would prove mortal to a man in a few minutes, while a grain would cause instantaneous death. The price of an ounce of this deleterious drug, the nature of which is totally unknown, was one hundred pieces of gold; but it was sold to foreigners only, who, when they purchased it, were compelled to make oath that no use should be made of it in Nubia. A sum equal to the price of the article was paid to the sovereign, and to dispose of the smallest quantity without his knowledge was death, if discovered; but whether the motive to this severity was fiscal or moral is not stated. The Nubians were engaged in perpetual hostilities with their neighbours, their principal enemy being a certain Ethiopian nation, whose sovereign, according to Leo, was that Prester John so famous in that and the succeeding ages; a despicable and wretched race, speaking an unknown jargon, and subsisting upon the milk and flesh of camels, and such wild animals as their deserts produced. Leo, however, evidently saw but little of Nubia; for though by no means likely to have passed such things over without notice had they been known to him, he never once alludes to the ruins of Meloë, the temples and pyramids of Mount Barkal, or those enormous statues, obelisks, and other monuments which mark the track of ancient civilization down the course of the Nile, and present to the eye of the traveller one of the earliest cradles of our race.

From this country he proceeded to Egypt, and paused a moment on his journey to contemplate the ruins of Thebes, a city, the founding of which some of his countrymen attributed to the Greeks, others to the Romans. Some fourteen or fifteen hundred peasants were found creeping like pismires at the foot of the gigantic monuments of antiquity. They ate good dates, grapes, and rice, however, and the women, who were lovely and well-formed, rejoiced the streets with their gayety. At Cairo, where he seems to have made a considerable stay, he saw many strange things, all of which he describes with that conciseness and _naïveté_ for which most of our older travellers are distinguished. Walking one day by the door of a public bath, in the market-place of Bain Elcasraim, he observed a lady of distinction, and remarkable for her beauty, walking out into the streets, which she had no sooner done than she was seized and violated before the whole market by one of those naked saints who are so numerous in Egypt and the other parts of Africa. The magistrates of the city, who felt that their own wives might next be insulted, were desirous of inflicting condign punishment upon the wretch, but were deterred by fear of the populace, who held such audacious impostors in veneration. On her way home after this scene, the woman was followed by an immense multitude, who contended with each other for the honour of touching her clothes, as if some peculiar virtue had been communicated to them by the touch of the saint; and even her husband, when informed of what had happened, expressed the greatest joy, and thanking God as if an extraordinary blessing had been conferred upon his family, made a great entertainment and distributed alms to the poor, who were thus taught to look upon such events as highly fortunate.

Upon another occasion Leo, returning from a celebrated mosque in one of the suburbs, beheld another curious scene no less characteristic of the manners of the times. In the area before a palace erected by a Mameluke sultan, an immense populace was assembled, in the midst of whom a troop of strolling players, with dancing camels, asses, and dogs, were exhibiting their tricks, to the great entertainment of the mob, and even of our traveller himself, who thought it a very pleasant spectacle. Having first exhibited his own skill, the principal actor turned round to the ass, and muttering certain words, the animal fell to the ground, turning up his feet, swelling and closing his eyes as if at the last gasp. When he appeared to be completely dead, his master, turning round to the multitude, lamented the loss of his beast, and hoped they would have pity upon his misfortune. When he had collected what money he could,—“You suppose,” says he, “that my ass is dead. Not at all. The poor fellow, well knowing the poverty of his master, has merely been feigning all this while, that I might acquire wherewith to provide provender for him.” Then approaching the ass, he ordered him to rise, but not being obeyed, he seized a stick, and belaboured the poor creature most unmercifully. Still no signs of life appeared. “Well,” said the man, once more addressing the people, “you must know, that the sultan has issued an order that to-morrow by break of day the whole population of Cairo are to march out of the city to behold a grand triumph, the most beautiful women being mounted upon asses, for whom the best oats and Nile water will be provided.” At these words the ass sprang upon his feet with a bound, and exhibiting tokens of extreme joy. “Ah, ha!” continued the mountebank; “I have succeeded, have I? Well, I was about to say that I had hired this delicate animal of mine to the principal magistrate of the city for his little ugly old wife.” The ass, as if possessed of human feelings, now hung his ears, and began to limp about as if lame of one foot. Then the man said, “You imagine, I suppose, that the young women will laugh at you.” The ass bent down his head, as if nodding assent. “Come, cheer up,” exclaimed his master, “and tell me which of all the pretty women now present you like best!” The animal, casting his eyes round the circle, and selecting one of the prettiest, walked up to her, and touched her with his head; at which the delighted multitude with roars of laughter exclaimed, “Behold the ass’s wife!” At these words, the man sprang upon his beast and rode away.

The ladies of Cairo, when they went abroad, affected the most superb dresses, adorning their necks and foreheads with clusters of brilliant gems, and wearing upon their heads lofty hurlets or coifs shaped like a tube, and of the most costly materials. Their cloaks or mantles, exquisitely embroidered, they covered with a piece of beautiful Indian muslin, while a thick black veil, thrown over all, enabled them to see without being seen. These elegant creatures, however, were very bad wives; for, disdaining to pay the slightest attention to domestic affairs, their husbands, like the citizens of modern Paris, were obliged to purchase their dinners ready dressed from restaurateurs. They enjoyed the greatest possible liberty, riding about wherever they pleased upon asses, which they preferred to horses for the easiness of their motions. Here and there among the crowd you heard the strange cry of those old female practitioners who performed the rite which introduced those of their own sex into the Mohammedan church, though their words, as the traveller observes, were not extremely intelligible.

From Egypt Leo travelled into Arabia, Persia, Tartary, and Turkey, but of his adventures in these countries no account remains. On returning from Constantinople, however, by sea, he was taken by Christian corsairs off the island of Zerbi, on the coast of Tripoli, and being carried captive into Italy, was presented to Pope Leo X. at Rome, in 1517. The pope, who, as is well known, entertained the highest respect for every thing which bore the name of learning, no sooner discovered that the Moorish slave was a person of merit and erudition, than he treated him in the most honourable manner, settled upon him a handsome pension, and having caused him to be instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, had him baptized, and bestowed upon him his own name, Leo. Our traveller now resided principally at Rome, occasionally quitting it, however, for Bologna; and having at length acquired a competent knowledge of the Italian language, became professor of Arabic. Here he wrote his famous “Description of Africa,” originally in Arabic, but he afterward either rewrote or translated it into Italian. What became of him or where he resided after the death of his munificient patron is not certainly known.—One of the editions of Ramusio asserts that he died at Rome; but according to Widmanstadt, a learned German orientalist of the sixteenth century, he retired to Tunis, where, as is usual in such cases, he returned to his original faith, which he never seems inwardly to have abandoned. Widmanstadt adds, that had he not been prevented by circumstances which he could not control, he should have undertaken a voyage to Africa expressly for the purpose of conversing with our learned traveller, so great was his admiration of his genius and acquirements.

With respect to the work by which he will be known to posterity, and which has furnished the principal materials for the present life,—his “Description of Africa,”—its extraordinary merit has been generally acknowledged. Eyriès, Hartmann, and Bruns, whose testimony is of considerable weight, speak of it in high terms; and Ramusio, a competent judge, observes, that up to his time no writer had described Africa with so much truth and exactness. In fact, no person can fail, in the perusal of this deeply interesting and curious work, to perceive the intimate knowledge of his subject possessed by the author, or his capacity to describe what he had seen with perspicuity and ease. The best edition of the Latin version, the one I myself have used, and that which is generally quoted or referred to, is the one printed by the Elzevirs, at Leyden, in 1632. It has been translated into English, French, and German, but with what success I am ignorant.

PIETRO DELLA VALLE.

Born 1586.—Died 1652.

Pietro della Valle, who, according to Southey, is “the most romantic in his adventures of all true travellers,” was descended from an ancient and noble family, and born at Rome on the 11th of April, 1586. When his education, which appears to have been carefully conducted and liberal, was completed, he addicted himself, with that passionate ardour which characterized all the actions of his life, to the study of literature, and particularly poetry; but the effervescence of his animal spirits requiring some other vent, he shortly afterward exchanged the closet for the camp, in the hope that the quarrel between the pope and the Venetians, and the troubles which ensued upon the death of Henry IV. of France, would afford him some opportunity of distinguishing himself. His expectations being disappointed, however, he in 1611 embarked on board the Spanish fleet, then about to make a descent on the coast of Barbary; but nothing beyond a few skirmishes taking place, he again beheld his desire of glory frustrated, and returned to Rome.

Here vexations of another kind awaited him. Relinquishing the services of Fame for that of an earthly mistress, he found himself no less unsuccessful, the lady preferring some illustrious unknown, whose name, like her own, is now overwhelmed with “the husks and formless ruin of oblivion.” Pietro, however, severely felt the sting of such a rejection; and in the gloomy meditations which it gave birth to, conceived a plan which, as he foresaw, fulfilled his most ambitious wishes, and attached an imperishable reputation to his name. The idea was no sooner conceived than he proceeded to put it in execution, and taking leave of his friends and of Rome, repaired to Naples, in order to consult with his friend, Mario Schipano, a physician of that city, distinguished for his oriental learning and abilities, concerning the best means of conducting his hazardous enterprise. Fortunately he possessed sufficient wealth to spurn the counsel of sloth and timidity, which, when any act of daring is proposed, are always at hand, disguised as prudence and good sense, to cast a damp upon the springs of energy, or to travesty and misrepresent the purposes of the bold. Pietro, however, was not to be intimidated. The wonders and glories of the East were for ever present to his imagination, and having heard mass, and been solemnly clothed by the priest with the habit of a pilgrim, he proceeded to Venice in order to embark for Constantinople. The ship in which he sailed left the port on the 6th of June, 1614. No event of peculiar interest occurred during the voyage, which, lying along the romantic shores and beautiful islands of Greece, merely served to nourish and strengthen Pietro’s enthusiasm. On drawing near the Dardanelles the sight of the coast of Troy, with its uncertain ruins and heroic tombs, over which poetry has spread an atmosphere brighter than any thing belonging to mere physical nature, awoke all the bright dreams of boyhood, and hurrying on shore, his heart overflowing with rapture, he kissed the earth from which, according to tradition, the Roman race originally sprung.

From the Troad to Constantinople the road lies over a tract hallowed by the footsteps of antiquity, and at every step Pietro felt his imagination excited by some memorial of the great of other days. On arriving at the Ottoman capital, where he purposed making a long stay, one of his first cares was to acquire a competent knowledge of the language of the country, which he did as much for the vanity, as he himself acknowledges, of exhibiting his accomplishments on his return to Italy, where the knowledge of that language was rare, as for the incalculable benefit which must accrue from it during his travels. Here he for the first time tasted coffee, at that time totally unknown in Italy. He was likewise led to entertain hopes of being able to obtain from the sultan’s library a complete copy of the Decades of Livy; but after flitting before him some time like a phantom, the manuscript vanished, and the greater portion of the mighty Paduan remained veiled as before. While he was busily engaged in these researches, the plague broke out, every house in Galata, excepting that of the French ambassador, in which he resided, was infected; corpses and coffins met the sickened eye wherever it turned; the chief of his attendants pined away through terror; and, although at first he affected to laugh and make merry with his fears, they every day fed so abundantly upon horrors and rumours of horrors, that they at length became an overmatch for his philosophy, and startled him with the statement that one hundred and forty thousand victims had already perished, and that peradventure Pietro della Valle might be the next.

This consideration caused him to turn his eye towards Egypt; and although the plague shortly afterward abated, his love of motion having been once more awakened, he bade adieu to Constantinople, and sailed for Alexandria. Arriving in Egypt, he ascended the Nile to Cairo, viewed the pyramids, examined the mummy-pits; and then, with a select number of friends and attendants, departed across the desert to visit Horeb and Sinai, the wells of Moses, and other places celebrated in the Bible. This journey being performed in the heart of winter, he found Mount Sinai covered with snow, which did not, however, prevent his rambling about among its wild ravines, precipices, and chasms; when, his pious curiosity being gratified, he visited Ælau or Ailoth, the modern Akaba, and returned by Suez to Cairo. Among the very extraordinary things he beheld in this country were a man and woman upwards of eight feet in height, natives of Upper Egypt, whom he measured himself: and tortoises as large as the body of a carriage!

His stay in Egypt was not of long continuance, the longing to visit the Holy Land causing him to regard every other country with a kind of disdain; and accordingly, joining a small caravan which was proceeding thither across the desert, he journeyed by El Arish and Gaza to Jerusalem. After witnessing the various mummeries practised in the Holy City at Easter by the Roman Catholics, and making an excursion to the banks of the Jordan, where he saw a number of female pilgrims plunging naked into the sacred stream in the view of an immense multitude, he bent his steps towards Northern Syria, and hurried forward by the way of Damascus to Aleppo. In this city he remained some time, his body requiring some repose, though the ardour and activity of his mind appeared to be every day increasing. The journey which he now meditated across the Arabian Desert into Mesopotamia required considerable preparation. The mode of travelling was new. Horses were to be exchanged for camels; the European dress for that of the East; and instead of the sun, the stars and the moon were to light them over the waste.

He was now unconsciously touching upon the most important point of his career. In the caravan with which he departed from Aleppo, September 16, 1616, there was a young merchant of Bagdad, with whom, during the journey, he formed a close intimacy. This young man was constantly in the habit of entertaining him, as they rode along side by side through the moonlight, or when they sat down in their tent during the heat of the day, with the praises of a young lady of Bagdad, who, according to his description, to every charm of person which could delight the eye united all those qualities of heart and mind which render the conquests of beauty durable. It was clear to Pietro from the beginning that the youthful merchant was in love, and therefore he at first paid but little regard to his extravagant panegyrics; but by degrees the conversations of his companion produced a sensible effect upon his own mind, so that his curiosity to behold the object of so much praise, accompanied, perhaps, by a slight feeling of another kind, at length grew intense, and he every day looked upon the slow march of the camels, and the surface of the boundless plain before him, with more and more impatience. The wandering Turcoman with his flocks and herds, rude tent, and ruder manners, commanded much less attention than he would have done at any other period; and even the Bedouins, whose sharp lances and keen scimitars kept awake the attention of the rest of the caravan, were almost forgotten by Pietro. However, trusting to the information of his interested guide, he represents them as having filled up the greater number of the wells in the desert, so that there remained but a very few open, and these were known to those persons only whose profession it was to pilot caravans across this ocean of sand. The sagacity with which these men performed their duty was wonderful. By night the stars served them for guides; but when these brilliant signals were swallowed up in the light of the sun, they then had recourse to the slight variations in the surface of the plain, imperceptible to other eyes, to the appearance or absence of certain plants, and even to the smell of the soil, by all which signs they always knew exactly where they were.

At length, after a toilsome and dangerous march of fifteen days, they arrived upon the banks of the Euphrates, a little after sunrise, and pitched their tents in the midst of clumps of cypress and small cedar-trees. On the following night, as soon as the moon began to silver over the waters of the Euphrates, the caravan again put itself in motion; and, descending along the course of the stream, in six days arrived at Anah, a city of the Arabs, lying on both sides of the river, whose broad surface is here dotted with numerous small islands covered with fruit-trees. They now crossed the river; and the merchants of the caravan, avoiding the safe and commodious road which lay through towns in which custom-house officers were found, struck off into a desolate and dangerous route, traversing Mesopotamia nearly in a right line, and on the 19th of October reached the banks of the Tigris, a larger and more rapid river than the Euphrates, though on this occasion Pietro thought its current less impetuous. The night before they entered Bagdad the caravan was robbed in a very dexterous manner. Their tents were pitched in the plain, the officers of the custom-house posted around to prevent smuggling; the merchants, congratulating themselves that they had already succeeded in eluding the duties almost to the extent of their desires, had fallen into the sound sleep which attends on a clear conscience; and Pietro, his domestics, and the other inmates of the caravan had followed their example. In the dead of the night the camp was entered by stealth, the tents rummaged, and considerable booty carried off. The banditti, entering Pietro’s tent, and finding all asleep, opened the trunk in which were all the manuscripts, designs, and plans he had made during his travels, carefully packed up, as if for the convenience of robbers, in a small portable escrutoire; but by an instinct which was no less fortunate for them than for the traveller and posterity, since such spoil could have been of no value to them, they rejected the escrutoire, and selected all our traveller’s fine linen, the very articles in which he hoped to have captivated the beauty whose eulogies had so highly inflamed his imagination. A Venetian, who happened to be in the camp, had his arquebuse stolen from under his head, and this little incident, as it tended to show that the robbers had made still more free with others than with him, somewhat consoled Pietro for the loss of his linen. As the traveller does not himself attach any suspicion to the military gentlemen of the custom-house, it might, perhaps, be uncharitable to deposite the burden of this theft upon their shoulders; but in examining all the circumstances of the transaction, I confess the idea that their ingenuity was concerned did present itself to me.

Next morning the beams of the rising sun, gleaming upon a thousand slender minarets and lofty-swelling domes surmounted by gilded crescents, discovered to him the ancient city of the califs stretching away right and left to a vast distance over the plain, while the Tigris, like a huge serpent, rolled along, cutting the city into two parts, and losing itself among the sombre buildings which seemed to tremble over its waters. The camels were once more loaded, and the caravan, stretching itself out into one long, narrow column, toiled along over the plain, and soon entered the dusty, winding streets of Bagdad. Here Pietro, whose coming had been announced the evening before by his young commercial companion, was met by the father of the Assyrian beauty, a fine patriarchal-looking old man, who entreated him to be his guest during his stay in Mesopotamia. This favour Pietro declined, but at the same time he eagerly accepted of the permission to visit at his house; and was no sooner completely established in his own dwelling than he fully availed himself of this permission.

The family to which he became thus suddenly known was originally of Mardin, but about fourteen years previously had been driven from thence by the Kurds, who sacked and plundered the city, and reduced such of the inhabitants as they could capture to slavery. They were Christians of the Nestorian sect; but Della Valle, who was a bigot in his way, seems to have regarded them as aliens from the church of Christ. However, this circumstance did not prevent the image of Sitti Maani, the eldest of the old man’s daughters, and the beauty of whom he had heard so glowing a description in the desert, from finding its way into his heart, though the idea of marrying having occurred to him at Aleppo, he had written home to his relations to provide him with a suitable wife against his return to Italy. Maani was now in her eighteenth year. Her mind had been as highly cultivated as the circumstances of the times and the country would allow; and her understanding enabled her to turn all her accomplishments to advantage. In person, she was a perfect oriental beauty; dark, even in the eyes of an Italian, with hair nearly black, and eyes of the same colour, shaded by lashes of unusual length, she possessed something of an imperial air. Pietro was completely smitten, and for the present every image but that of Maani seemed to be obliterated from his mind.

His knowledge of the Turkish language was now of the greatest service to him; for, possessing but a very few words of Arabic, this was the only medium by which he could make known the colour of his thoughts either to his mistress or her mother. His passion, however, supplied him with eloquence, and by dint of vehement protestations, in this instance the offspring of genuine affection, he at length succeeded in his enterprise, and Maani became his wife. But in the midst of these transactions, when it most imported him to remain at Bagdad, an event occurred in his own house which not only exposed him to the risk of being driven with disgrace from the city, but extremely endangered his life and that of all those who were connected with him. His secretary and valet having for some time entertained a grudge against each other, the former, one day seizing the khanjar, or dagger, of Pietro, stabbed his adversary to the heart, and the poor fellow dropped down dead in the arms of his master. The murderer fled. What course to pursue under such circumstances it was difficult to determine. Should the event come to the knowledge of the pasha, both master and servants might, perhaps, be thought equally guilty, and be impaled alive; or, if matters were not pushed to such extremities, it might at least be pretended that the deceased was the real owner of whatever property they possessed, in order to confiscate the whole for the benefit of the state. As neither of these results was desirable, the safest course appeared to be to prevent, if possible, the knowledge of the tragedy from transpiring; a task of some difficulty, as all the domestics of the household were acquainted with what had passed. The only individual with whom Pietro could safely consult upon this occasion (for he was unwilling to disclose so horrible a transaction to Maani’s relations) was a Maltese renegade, a man of some consideration in the city; and for him, therefore, he immediately despatched a messenger. This man, when he had heard what had happened, was of opinion that the body should be interred in a corner of the house; but Pietro, who had no desire that so bloody a memorial of the Italian temperament should remain in his immediate neighbourhood, and moreover considered it unsafe, thought it would be much better at the bottom of the Tigris. The Maltese, most fortunately, possessed a house and garden on the edge of the river, and thither the body, packed up carefully in a chest, was quickly conveyed, though there was much difficulty in preventing the blood from oozing out, and betraying to its bearers the nature of their burden. When it was dark the chest was put on board a boat, and, dropping down the river, the renegade and two of his soldiers cautiously lowered it into the water; and thus no material proof of the murder remained. The assassin, who had taken refuge at the house of the Maltese, was enabled to return to Italy; and the event, strange to say, was kept secret, though so many persons were privy to it.

When this danger was over, and the beautiful Maani irrevocably his, Pietro began once more to feel the passion of the traveller revive, and commenced those little excursions through Mesopotamia which afterward enabled Gibbon to pronounce him the person who had best observed that province. His first visit, as might be expected, was to the ruins of Babylon. The party with which he left Bagdad consisted of Maani, a Venetian, a Dutch painter, Ibrahim a native of Aleppo, and two Turkish soldiers. For the first time since the commencement of his travels, Pietro now selected the longest and least dangerous road, taking care, moreover, to keep as near as possible to the farms and villages, in order, in case of necessity, to derive provisions and succour from their inhabitants. Maani, who appears to have had a dash of Kurdish blood in her, rode astride like a man, and kept her saddle as firmly as any son of the desert could have done; and Pietro constantly moved along by her side. When they had performed a considerable portion of their journey, and, rejoicing in their good fortune, were already drawing near Babylon, eight or ten horsemen armed with muskets and bows and arrows suddenly appeared in the distance, making towards them with all speed. Pietro imagined that the day for trying his courage was now come; and he and his companions, having cocked their pieces and prepared to offer a desperate resistance, pushed on towards the enemy. However, their chivalric spirit was not doomed to be here put to the test; for, upon drawing near, the horsemen were found to belong to Bagdad, and the adventure concluded in civility and mutual congratulations.

Having carefully examined the ruins of Babylon, the city of Hillah, and the other celebrated spots in that neighbourhood, the party returned to Bagdad, from whence he again departed in a few days for Modain, the site of the ancient Ctesiphon, near which he had the satisfaction of observing the interior of an Arab encampment.

His curiosity respecting Mesopotamia was now satisfied; and as every day’s residence among the Ottomans only seemed more and more to inflame his hatred of that brutal race, he as much as possible hastened his departure from Bagdad, having now conceived the design of serving as a volunteer in the armies of Persia, at that period at war with Turkey, and of thus wreaking his vengeance upon the Osmanlees for the tyranny they exercised on all Christians within their power. Notwithstanding that war between the two countries had long been declared, the Pasha of Bagdad and the Persian authorities on the frontier continued openly to permit the passage of caravans; and thus, were he once safe out of Bagdad with his wife and treasures, there would be no difficulty in entering Persia. To effect this purpose he entered into an arrangement with a Persian muleteer, who was directed to obtain from the pasha a passport for himself and followers, with a charosh to conduct them to the extremity of the Turkish dominions. This being done, the Persian, according to agreement, left the city, and encamped at a short distance from the walls, where, as is the custom, he was visited by the officers of the custom-house; after which, Pietro caused the various individuals of his own small party to issue forth by various streets into the plain, while he himself, dressed as he used to be when riding out for amusement on the banks of the Tigris, quitted the town after sunset, and gained the place of encampment in safety.

When the night had now completely descended upon the earth, and all around was still, the little caravan put itself in motion; and being mounted, some on good sturdy mules, and others on the horses of the country, they advanced at a rapid rate, fearing all the way that the pasha might repent of his civility towards the Persian, and send an order to bring them back to the city. By break of day they arrived on the banks of the Diala, a river which discharges itself into the Tigris; and here, in spite of their impatience, they were detained till noon, there being but one boat at the ferry. In six days they reached the southern branches of the mountains of Kurdistan, and found themselves suddenly in the midst of that wild and hardy race, which, from the remotest ages, has maintained possession of these inexpugnable fastnesses, which harassed the ten thousand in their retreat, and still enact a conspicuous part in all the border wars between the Persians and Turks. Living for the most part in a dangerous independence, fiercely spurning the yoke of its powerful neighbours, though continually embroiled in their interminable quarrels, speaking a distinct language, and having a peculiar system of manners, which does not greatly differ from that of the feudal times, they may justly be regarded as one of the most extraordinary races of the Asiatic continent. Some of them, spellbound by the allurements of wealth and ease, have erected cities and towns, and addicted themselves to agriculture and the gainful arts. Others, preferring that entire liberty which of all earthly blessings is the greatest in the estimation of ardent and haughty minds, and regarding luxury as a species of Circean cup, in its effects debasing and destructive, covet no wealth but their herds and flocks, around which they erect no fortifications but their swords. These are attracted hither and thither over the wilds by the richness of the pasturage, and dwell in tents.

In Kurdistan, as elsewhere, the winning manners of Della Valle procured him a hospitable reception. The presence of Maani, too, whose youth and beauty served as an inviolable wall of protection among brave men, increased his claims to their hospitality; so that these savage mountaineers, upon whom the majority of travellers concur in heaping the most angry maledictions, obtained from the warm-hearted, grateful Pietro the character of a kind and gentle people. On the 20th of January, 1617, he quitted Kurdistan, and entered Persia. The change was striking. A purer atmosphere, a more productive and better-cultivated soil, and a far more dense population than in Turkey, caused him, from the suddenness of the transition, somewhat to exaggerate, perhaps, the advantages of this country. It is certain that the eyes of the traveller, like the fabled gems of antiquity, carry about the light by which he views the objects which come before him; and that the condition of this light is greatly affected by the state of his animal spirits. Pietro was now in that tranquil and serene mode of being consequent upon that enjoyment which conscience approves; and having passed from a place where dangers, real or imaginary, surrounded him, into a country where he at least anticipated safety, if not distinction, it was natural that his fancy should paint the landscape with delusive colours. Besides, many real advantages existed; tents were no longer necessary, there being at every halting-place a spacious caravansary, where the traveller could obtain gratis lodgings for himself and attendants, and shelter for his beasts and baggage. Fruits, likewise, such as pomegranates, apples, and grapes, abounded, though the earth was still deeply covered with snow. If we add to this that the Persians are a people who pique themselves upon their urbanity, and, whatever may be the basis of their character, with which the passing traveller has little to do, really conduct themselves politely towards strangers, it will not appear very surprising that Della Valle, who had just escaped from the boorish Ottomans, should have been charmed with Persia.

Arriving at Ispahan, at that period the capital of the empire, that is, the habitual place of residence of the shah, his first care, of course, was to taste a little repose; after which, he resumed his usual custom of strolling about the city and its environs, observing the manners, and sketching whatever was curious in costume and scenery. Here he remained for several months; but growing tired, as usual, of calm inactivity, the more particularly as the court was absent, he now prepared to present himself before the shah, then in Mazenderan. Accordingly, having provided a splendid litter for his wife and her sister, who, like genuine amazons, determined to accompany him to the wars should he eventually take up arms in the service of Persia, and provided every other necessary for the journey, he quitted Ispahan, and proceeded northward towards the shores of the Caspian Sea. The journey was performed in the most agreeable manner imaginable. Whenever they came up to a pleasant grove, a shady fountain, or any romantic spot where the greensward was sprinkled with flowers or commanded a beautiful prospect, the whole party made a halt; and the ladies, descending from their litter, which was borne by two camels, and Pietro from his barb, they sat down like luxurious gipsies to their breakfast or dinner, while the nightingales in the dusky recesses of the groves served them instead of a musician.

Proceeding slowly, on account of his harem, as he terms it, they arrived in seven days at Cashan, where the imprudence of Maani nearly involved him in a very serious affair. Being insulted on her way to the bezestein by an officer, she gave the signal to her attendants to chastise the drunkard, and, a battle ensuing, the unhappy man lost his life. When the news was brought to Pietro he was considerably alarmed; but on proceeding to the house of the principal magistrate, he very fortunately found that the affair had been properly represented to him, and that his people were not considered to have exceeded their duty. His wife, not reflecting that her masculine habits and fiery temperament were quite sufficient to account for the circumstance, now began to torment both herself and her husband because she had not yet become a mother; and supposing that in such cases wine was a sovereign remedy, she endeavoured to prevail upon Pietro, who was a water-drinker, to have recourse to a more generous beverage, offering to join with him, if he would comply, in the worship of Bacchus. Our traveller, who had already, as he candidly informs us, a small family in Italy, could not be brought to believe that the fault lay in his sober potations, and firmly resisted the temptations of his wife. With friendly arguments upon this and other topics they beguiled the length of the way, and at length arrived in Mazenderan, though Maani’s passion for horsemanship more than once put her neck in jeopardy on the road. The scene which now presented itself was extremely different from that through which they had hitherto generally passed. Instead of the treeless plains or unfertile deserts which they had traversed in the northern parts of Irak, they saw before them a country strongly resembling Europe; mountains, deep well-wooded valleys, or rich green plains rapidly alternating with each other, and the whole, watered by abundant streams and fountains, refreshed and delighted the eye; and he was as yet unconscious of the insalubrity of the atmosphere.

Pietro, who, like Petronius, was an “elegans formarum spectator,” greatly admired the beauty and graceful figures of the women of this province,—a fact which makes strongly against the idea of its being unhealthy; for it may generally be inferred, that wherever the women are handsome the air is good. Here and there they observed, as they moved along, the ruins of castles and fortresses on the acclivities and projections of the mountains, which had formerly served as retreats to numerous chiefs who had there aimed at independence. A grotto, which they discovered in a nearly inaccessible position in the face of a mountain, was pointed out to them as the residence of a virgin of gigantic stature, who, without associates or followers, like the virago who obstructed the passage of Theseus from Trœzene to Athens, formerly ravaged and depopulated that part of the country. This and similar legends of giants, which resemble those which prevail among all rude nations, were related to our traveller, who rejected them with disdain as utterly fabulous and contemptible, though not much more so, perhaps, than some which, as a true son of the Roman church, he no doubt held in reverence.