[Footnote 252: Astley, I. 107. Purchas, II. 1422.]
When Don Garcia de Noronha went viceroy to India, Don John was captain of one of the ships in his fleet; and when about to embark, the king sent him a commission by which he was appointed governor of Ormuz, and a gift of 1000 ducats to bear his charges till he obtained possession. He accepted the latter, because he was poor; but refused the government, saying that he had not yet deserved it. After the expedition to Suez[253], contained in the present chapter, he returned into Portugal, and lived for some time in retirement in a country house near Cintra, giving himself up entirely to study. He was recalled from this retreat by the advice of the infant Don Luys, and sent out governor-general to India in 1545; where he died with the title of viceroy in 1548, when 48 years of age. We shall hereafter have occasion to speak farther of this great man, who made himself illustrious in the second siege of Diu by the forces of the king of Guzerat. In his life, written by Jacinto Freire de Andrada, there is a particular account of this siege, with a map to illustrate its operations. The author also treats of the Discoveries, Government, Commerce, and affairs of the Portuguese in India. This book was translated into English, and published in folio at London in 1664.
[Footnote 253: De Faria in his Portuguese Asia, says that Don Juan went up to Mount Sinai, where his son Don Alvaro was knighted. But this does not appear in his journal.--Astl. I. 107. a.]
Such was the illustrious author of the following journal, which was never published in Portuguese; but having been found, if we are rightly informed, on board a Portuguese ship taken by the English, was afterwards translated and published by Purchas. Purchas tells us that the original was reported to have been purchased by Sir Walter Raleigh for sixty pounds; that Sir Walter got it translated, and afterwards, as he thinks, amended the diction and added many marginal notes. Purchas himself reformed the style, but with caution as he had not the original to consult, and abbreviated the whole, in which we hope he used equal circumspection: For, as it stands in Purchas[254] it still is most intolerably verbose, and at the same time scarcely intelligible in many places; owing, we apprehend, to the translator being not thoroughly acquainted with the meaning of the original, if not to the fault of the abbreviator. These two inconveniences we have endeavoured to remedy the best we could, and though we have not been always able to clear up the sense, we presume to have succeeded for the most part; and by entirely changing the language, except where the places were obscure, we have made the journal more fit for being read, and we hope without doing it any manner of injury[255].
[Footnote 254: Pilgrims, Vol. II. p. 1122, under the title of A Rutter, or Journal, &c. from India to Suez, dedicated to the Infant Don Luys.--Astl. I. 107. b.]
[Footnote 255: On the present occasion we have followed the example of the Editor of Astleys Collection, having employed the original abbreviated translation by Purchas modernized in the language and endeavouring to elucidate obscurities; using as our assistance the version in Astley.--E.]
This expedition was undertaken for two important purposes. One, to carry succours to the emperor of Habash or Abyssinia; and the other, to endeavour to destroy the Turkish ships at Suez. For, soon after the retreat of Solyman Pacha from Diu, it was rumoured that another fleet of the Rumes or Turks was on its way to India; but as Don Stefano de Gama was afterwards informed that the Turks could not set out during the year 1540, he determined to be before hand with them, in some measure to be revenged for the late siege of Diu, and to prevent a second attack by burning the fleet they had prepared for that purpose. The governors liberality brought more men to inlist under his banners than he desired, so that he was enabled to select the best. The fleet consisted of 80 sail of different sorts and sizes, and carried 2000 soldiers besides mariners and rowers. On coming into the Red Sea, he found most of the cities and islands abandoned, the inhabitants having notice of his coming. At Suakem, the sheikh or king, who had retired a league up the country, amused De Gama with pretences of peace, that he might not destroy the town and island. In consequence of this delay, De Gama was prevented from carrying his design into execution of destroying the ships at Suez; as it afforded time for the Turks to receive intelligence of the expedition. This is the account given by De Faria; but Bermudas gives a different reason for the want of success in that design, as De Gama could not get at the ships, which were all drawn up on the land, which we have already seen to have been the case, in the journal of the voyage of Solyman Pacha, in the immediately preceding chapter.
In revenge for the duplicity and delay of the sheikh of Suakem, De Gama marched into the interior with 1000 men, accompanied by his brother Don Christopher, and defeated the sheikh with great slaughter. He then plundered the city of Suakem, where many of the private men got booty to the value of four or five thousand ducats, and then burnt it to the ground. From thence, he went towards Suez with only sixteen, Katurs or Malabar barges, and sent back the fleet to Massua under the command of Lionel de Lima. On this occasion, there was a great dispute, as every one strove to go on this expedition; whence the bay got the name of Angra de los Aggraviadas, or bay of the offended. Many gentlemen went in the barges as private soldiers or volunteers, willing to go in any capacity if only they were admitted. The number of men on this fruitless expedition was 250. They plundered and burnt Cossier or Al Kossir; whence crossing to Tor or Al Tur, they took some vessels belonging to the enemy. At first the Turks opposed their landing; but some of them being slain, the rest abandoned the city, in which nothing was found of value. De Gama did not burn this town, in reverence for the relics of St Catharine and the monastery and religious men there, which he visited at their request. He was the first European commander who had taken that city, where he knighted several of his followers, an honour much prized by those who received it, and which was envied; afterwards even by the emperor Charles V. From thence De Gama proceeded to Suez; and after many brave but fruitless attempts to sound the harbour, De Gama determined to go himself in open day to view the gallies. He accordingly landed and saw the enemies but endeavouring to force his way towards them, the enemies shot poured thick from the town, and 2000 Turkish horse broke out from an ambush, by which the Portuguese were reduced to great straits. Though the Portuguese cannon slew a good many of the enemy, their numbers were so much superior that the Portuguese were obliged to retreat with some loss, and much grieved that the object of their expedition was frustrated. Thus far we have deemed necessary to premise, relative to the design and success of the expedition, from De Faria and other authors; because the journal of Don Juan de Castro is almost entirely confined to observations respecting the places visited in the voyage, and gives little or no information respecting these particulars.
The rutter or journal must be allowed to be very curious.--The author, like an exact and diligent navigator, has not only given the course and distance from one place to another, with the latitudes of the principal ports and head-lands; but has noticed the minute windings of the coast, and the situations of islands, with observations on the tides, currents, shoals, sand-banks, and other particulars respecting the Red Sea. Yet, far from confining himself to mere nautical remarks, he has given an account of all the places at which he touched, together with accounts of the countries and the inhabitants, so far as he was able to collect from his own observations, or the accounts of such as he was able to converse with, particularly the natives. Don John hath gone farther yet, and has even attempted to draw a parallel between the ancient and modern geography of this sea. If in all points of this last he may not have succeeded, the great difficulty of the task, owing to the obscurity of the subject, is to be considered: most of the ancient places having been destroyed; the ancient names of others long since out of use and forgotten; and that very little is known of these coasts by Europeans, even at this day. For these reasons, as the conjectures of the author are often erroneous respecting the ancient geography, and as at best they are very uncertain, we shall for the most part insert them by way of notes, with our own remarks respecting them[256]. Whether the altitudes have been taken by Don Juan with that precision which geography requires, may also be in some measure questioned; since we find there was a crack in the instrument employed, the size of which is not mentioned; neither were all the observations repeated. Even if they had been, it is well known that the observations of those times were by no means so accurate as those made of late years. After all, however, the observations in this journal appear to have been made with a good deal of care, and they cannot fail to be of great service to geography.
[Footnote 256: In this edition, which has been taken from that by Purchas, these conjectures of Don Juan de Castro are restored to the text: but the remarks by the Editor of Astleys Collection are all retained in notes.--E.]