| I: HIUEN-TSIANG Master of the Law; and his Perilous Journey to the SacredLand 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 SeventhCentury | [47] |
| VI. | The Journey Home by a New andPerilous 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 MoslemTravellers, A.D. 1304–77. | ||
| I. | The Whirlwind from Arabia and WhatFollowed | [89] |
| II. | A Resolute Pilgrim | [96] |
| III. | A Roundabout Pilgrimage | [104] |
| IV. | Glimpses of Arabia, Persia and EastAfrica in the Fourteenth Century | [109] |
| V. | To India by Way of Constantinople andthe 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 andof 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] |
| VII. | The Pagans of Narsinga | [208] |
| VIII. | Farther India, Malaysia and the BandaIslands | [221] |
| IX. | Some Cunning Manoeuvres | [235] |
| X. | War by Land and Sea | [244] |
| XI. | The New Way Round the Cape | [249] |
PREFACE
Pilgrimage has been popular in all countries and at all times. For what could be happier than an agreeable change which should contribute at once to welfare of soul, refreshment of spirit, and vigour of body? Adventures on the way gave zest to the enterprise. If the more timid or feeble were content to visit neighbouring shrines, those of hardier mould, like the Wife of Bath, took more formidable journeys.
“Thries hadde she been at Jerusalem;
She hadde passed many a straunge strem;
At Rome she hadde been, and at Boloigne,
In Galice at Seint Jame, and at Coloigne,
She koude muchel of wandrynge by the weye.”
Some of the boldest and bravest of ancient travellers were pilgrims, and we have their records of wide wandering. But their style is archaic, has at best little purely literary merit, and is usually forbidding. They are little known, except to the special student.