the commencement of the
sixteenth century, together with the subsequent chapter, containing the
peregrinations of Cesar Frederick, about 80 years later, form an
appropriate supplement to the Portuguese transactions in India, as
furnishing a great number of observations respecting the countries,
people, manners, customs, and commerce of the east at an early period.
We learn from the _Bibliotheque Universelle des Voyages_. I. 264, that
this itinerary was originally published in Italian at Venice, in 1520.
The version followed on the present occasion was republished in old
English, in 1811, in an appendix to a reprint of HAKLUYT'S EARLY
VOYAGES, TRAVELS, AND DISCOVERIES; from which we learn that it was
translated from _Latine into Englishe, by Richarde Eden_, and originally
published in 1576. In both these English versions, the author is named
_Lewes Vertomannus_; but we learn from the _Biol. Univ. des Voy._ that
his real name was _Ludovico Verthema_, which we have accordingly adopted
on the present occasion, in preference to the latinized denomination
used by Eden. Although, in the present version, we have strictly adhered
to the sense of that published by Eden 236 years ago, it has appeared
more useful, and more consonant to the plan of our work, to render the
antiquated language into modern English: Yet, as on similar occasions,
we leave the _Preface of the Author_ exactly in the language and
orthography of Eden, the original translator.

[Footnote 33: Hakluyt, iv. App. pp. 547--612. Ed. Lond. 1810-11.]

The itinerary is vaguely dated in the title as of the year 1503, but we
learn from the text, that Verthema set out upon the pilgrimage of Mecca
from Damascus in the beginning of April 1503, after having resided a
considerable time at Damascus to acquire the language, probably Arabic;
and he appears to have left India on his return to Europe, by way of the
Cape of Good Hope and Lisbon, in the end of 1508. From some
circumstances in the text, but which do not agree with the
commencement, it would appear that Verthema had been taken prisoner by
the Mamelukes, when fifteen years of age, and was admitted into that
celebrated military band at Cairo, after making profession of the
Mahometan religion. He went afterwards on pilgrimage to Mecca, from
Damascus in Syria, then under the dominion of the Mameluke Soldan of
Egypt, and contrived to escape or desert from Mecca. By some unexplained
means, he appears to have become the s