VARTHEMA. Ludovico di Varthema, a Bolog nese, travelled in India and the Eastern Seas from A.D. 1503 to 1508. First he sailed to Alexandria, and, entering on the Nile, arrived at Cairo. Then, returning to Alexandria, he took ship to Baruti (Beyrut), and travelled by Tripoli to Aleppo. From Aleppo he went southward by Aman (Hamath) and Menin (near Helbon) to Damascus. On the 8th of April 1503, he set out from Damascus with the Haj caravan to Medina and Mecca, and he is the only Christian to this day who' ever succeeded in reaching these holy places by that route. There he heard of the arrival of the Portuguese by the Cape of Good Hope, in the east, from a Moor who traded with Venice and Genoa, and who complained bitterly to him that articles of merchandise were not arriving at Mecca as usual, and of the king of Portugal as the cause. From Zida (Jiddah), the port of Mecca, he:took ship and went on- to Chameram, Gezan, and Aden, the strongest city that was ever seen on the level ground. It has walls on two sides, and on the other sides there are very large moun tains. On these mountains there are five castles, and the city contained about five or six thousand families. Here some Moors who had escaped the barbarities of the Portuguese denounced Vartherna as a spy. But he was sent to the Sultan at Rhada,
who ultimately released hitn, aud he re-embarked at Aden for Diu Bandar in the l'ersian Gulf and Diu in India. Ile visited Goa (Gogo?), and thence returned to Gulfar in the Persian Gulf, and onwards to 3fuscat and Ormuz. Ile visited Eri tinder the ruler of Khorasan, and returned via Shiraz to Ormuz. Failing to reach Sainarcand he sailed frorn Ormuz to Cambay, and visited Chaul, Dabul, Gogo, Ilijapur, and ell tlio ports on the west coast, then up along the Coromandel coast to Covelong and Coromandel, anti S. to Ceylon, and again N. to Pulicat aud Bengal, Pegu, 3falacca, Siani, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, and the Moluccas, and returned to Negapatam on the Coromandel coast, where ho met twenty - two Portug,uese. Ile went to Quilon and Calicut and Cannanore, where he entered the service of the Portuguese, and was present in their great sea fight in 150G with the Zamorin fleets. Finally, lie returned via the Cape of Good Hope to Lisbon, where he was warmly welcomed by Don Emanuel, king of Portug,al.