FITCH, Ralph, English merchant and voy ager of the 16th century. He dealt in Eastern goods, and, excited by the narratives of . Drake and other voyagers, persuaded John Newberie and others to join him in an expedition to the East by way of the Mediterranean. The ad venturers set sail in January 1583, landed in Syria, went to Aleppo, and traversing Mesopo tamia reached Bagdad. From that city they sailed down the Tigris and through the Persian Gulf to Ormus, where they began a profitable traffic. But their success roused the jealousy of other European merchants in those parts, one of whom denounced them as heretics to the Portuguese inquisition. The Englishmen were thrown into prison at Goa, but finally released, and seeing reason to apprehend further injus tice, they secretly escaped. After passing through Golconda, they traveled north through the Deccan, and visited successively Burham poor, Mandoo, Agra, Allahabad, Benares, Patna, Tanda in Bengal, and a country called by Fitch. Couche, which appears to be at the foot of the mountains of Bootan. In Septem ber 1585 Newberie left to return to England, but was never again heard of. Fitch continued
his journey and traveled south to Hoogly and through Orissa, passing by a port called An gell, which he described as the seat of a great trade. It cannot now be identified. Returning to the Ganges, he saw Serampore and other towns on its lower branches, made an excursion into Tipperah, and took passage in a vessel to Negrais, in Pegu. He visited Malacca, went back to Bengal, shipped for Ceylon, and thence doubling Cape Comorin sailed to Cochim and Goa, and returned to England in 1591, by the same route he had come, after having per formed the most extensive journey'that had yet been made by any European in India. Fitch's narrative of his travels, which may be found in Hakluyt (Vol. II, pt. 1, pp. 245-271, London 1599), is exceedingly interesting not less for its quaint style than for the mass of information which it contains. Consult Ryley, J. H., 'Ralph Fitch, etc.) (London 1899), which also contains the greater part of his' narrative.