All other ways being lost, by reason of the wars of the Turks, the spiceries of the Indian Islands, particularly of Java, Sumatra, and the city of Malacca, were carried up the river Ganges, in Bengal, to the city of Agra; thence they were carried by land to another city near the Indus, named Boghar, where they were discharged, because the city of Cabor, or Laor, the principal city of the Mogores, stands too far within the land. From thence they were carried to the great city of Samarcand in Bactria, in which the merchants of India, Persia, and Turkey met together with their several commodities, as cloth of gold, velvets, camblets, scarlet and woollen cloths, which were carried to Cathay and the great kingdom of China; whence they brought back gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, silk, musk, rhubarb, and many other things of great value.
In after times these merchandizes, drugs, and spiceries, were carried in ships from India to the Straits of Ormus, and the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and were unladen at the city of Basora; from whence they were carried overland to Aleppo, Damascus, and Barutti; and there the Venetian galliasses, which transported pilgrims to the Holy Land, came and received the goods.
In the year 1153, in the time of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, it is said there came to the city of Lubeck, in Germany, a canoe like a long barge, with certain Indians, who were supposed to have come from the coast of Baccalaos[44], which is in the same latitude with Lubeck. The Germans greatly wondered to see such a boat and strange people, not knowing whence they came, nor being able to understand their language, especially as there was then no knowledge of their country. Although the boat was small in comparison with the seas it had to cross, it is yet possible that it might have been conveyed by the winds and waves; for in our days the almadias of the negroes, which are very small boats, venture to navigate from Quiloa, Mosambique, and Sofala, around the Cape of Good Hope, even to the island of St Helena, a very small spot in the ocean, at a great distance from land.
[44] Newfoundland?
In the year 1300 after Christ, the great soldan of Cairo restored the trade of spiceries, drugs, and merchandize from India, by the Red Sea; at which time they unloaded the goods at the port of Judea[45], and carried them to Mecca; whence they were distributed by the Mahometan pilgrims[46], so that each prince endeavoured to increase the honour and profit of his own country. The soldans translated this trade to their own city of Cairo; whence the goods were carried to the countries of Egypt, Lybia, Africa, Tunis, Tremessen, Fez, Morocco, and Suz; and some of them were carried beyond the mountains of Atlas, to the city of Tombuto, and the kingdom of the Jalophos; till afterwards the Portuguese brought the Indian trade round the Cape of Good Hope to Lisbon, as we propose to shew more at large in a convenient place.
[45] Jidda.
[46] Leo Afric. Ramus. v. 1. f. 373.
A.D. 1344, Peter IV. reigned in Arragon, and the chronicles of his reign report that Don Lewis de Cerda, grandson of Don John de Corda, requested his aid to go and conquer the Canary Islands, which had been gifted to him by Pope Clement VI. a Frenchman. About this time, too, the island of Madeira is said to have been discovered by an Englishman named Macham; who, sailing from England into Spain with a lady whom he loved, was driven out of his course by a tempest, and arrived in a harbour of that island, now called Machico, after his name. The lady being oppressed with seasickness, Macham landed with her on the island, accompanied by some of his people; but in the mean time the ship weighed anchor and stood to sea, leaving them behind. On this the lady died of grief, and Macham, who was passionately fond of her, erected a chapel or hermitage on the island, which he named the chapel of Jesus, and there deposited her remains, engraving both their names and the cause of their coming to this place on a monumental stone. After this, he and his companions made a boat or canoe out of a large tree, and putting to sea without sails or oars, got over to the coast of Africa. The Moors among whom he arrived, considering their passage as miraculous, sent him to their king, who transmitted both him and his company to the king of Castile.
In 1395, while Henry III. reigned in Castile, in consequence of information given by Macham respecting this island, many persons of France and Castile were induced to attempt its discovery, and that of the Grand Canary. Those who went on this expedition were principally from Andalusia, Biscay, and Guipuscoa, who carried thither many men and horses; but I know not whether this was done at their own charge, or that of the king. But however that might be, these people seem to have been the first discoverers of the Canaries; where they took 150 of the islanders prisoners. There is some difference among authors respecting the time of this discovery, as some affirm that it did not take place till the year 1405.
SECTION II.