VARTHEMA (BARTHEMA, VERTOMANNUS, etc.), LUDO VICO DI, of Bologna (fl. 1502-1510), Italian traveller and writer, left Europe near the end of 1502; early in 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo. From Egypt he sailed to Beirut and thence travelled to Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where he managed to get himself enrolled, under the name of Yunas (Jonah), in the Mameluke garrison—doubtless after adopt ing Islam. From Damascus he made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina as one of the Mameluke escort of the Hajj caravan (April–June 1503) ; he describes the sacred cities of Islam and the chief pilgrim sites and ceremonies with remarkable accuracy, almost all his details being confirmed by later writers. With the view of reaching India, he embarked at Jidda and sailed down the Red sea and through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to Aden, where he was arrested and imprisoned as a Christian spy. He gained his liberty—after imprisonment both at Aden and Radaa —through the partiality of one of the sultanas of Yemen, made an extensive tour in south-west Arabia (visiting Sana, etc.), and took ship at Aden for the Persian Gulf and India. On the way he touched at Zaila and Berbera in Somaliland; he then (early in 1504?) ran across to the Indian port of Diu in Gujarat, after wards famous as a Portuguese fortress. From Diu he sailed up the Gulf of Cambay to Gogo, and thence turning back towards the Persian Gulf made Julfar (just within the entrance of the gulf), Muscat and Ormuz. From Ormuz he seems to have jour neyed across Persia to Herat, returning thence south-west to Shiraz, where he entered into partnership with a Persian merchant, who accompanied him during nearly all his travels in South Asia.
After an unsuccessful attempt to reach Samarkand, the two returned to Shiraz, came down to Ormuz, and took ship for India. From the mouth of the Indus Varthema coasted down the whole west coast of India, touching at Cambay and Chaul ; at Goa, whence he made an excursion inland to Bijapur; at Cannanore, from which he again struck into the interior to visit Vijayanagar on the Tungabudra; and Calicut (1505?), where he stopped to describe the society, customs and institutions of Malabar, as well as the topography and trade of the city. Passing on by the "backwater of Cochin," and calling at Kulam (Quilon), he rounded Cape Comorin, and passed over to Ceylon (1506?). Though his stay here was brief (at Colombo?), he learnt a good deal about the island, from which he sailed to Pulicat, slightly north of Madras, then subject to Vijayanagar. Thence he crossed
over to Tenasserim in the Malay peninsula, to Banghella, perhaps near Chittagong, at the head of the Bay of Bengal, and to Pegu, in the company of his Persian friend and of two Chinese Chris tians (Nestorians?) whom he met at Banghella. After some suc cessful trading with the king of Pegu, Varthema and his party sailed on to Malacca, crossed over to Pider (Pedir) in Sumatra, and thence proceeded to Bandan (Banda).
From the Moluccas he returned westward, touched at Borneo, and there chartered a vessel for Java, the "largest of islands," as his Christian companions reckoned it. He notes the use of com pass and chart by the native captain on the transit from Borneo to Java, and preserves a curious, more than half-mythical, refer ence to supposed Far Southern lands. From Java he crossed over to Malacca, where he and his Persian ally parted from the Chinese Christians; from Malacca he returned to the Coromandel coast.
Varthema was now anxious to resume Christianity and return to Europe; after some time he succeeded in deserting to the Portuguese garrison at Cannanore (early in 1506?). He fought for the Portuguese in various engagements, and was knighted by the viceroy Francisco d'Almeida, the navigator Tristan da Cunha being his "sponsor." For a year and a half he acted as Portu guese factor at Cochin, and in i5o7 (?) he finally left India for Europe by the Cape route. Sailing from Cannanore, Var thema apparently struck Africa about Malindi, and (probably) coasting by Mombasa and Kilwa arrived at Mozambique, where he notices the Portuguese fortress then building, and describes the negroes of the mainland. He finally arrived safely in Lisbon.