‘The travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508’ [‎100] (265/492)

100
THE TRAVELS OF
u
ill
zani, which would be the same as to say " The llomagna."
The king of Corazani dwells in this city, where there is
great plenty, and an abundance of stuffs, and especially
of silk, so that in one day you can purchase here three thou
sand or four thousand camel loads of silk, ihe distiict is
most abundant in articles of food, 1 and there is also a great
market for rhubarb. 2 I have seen it purchased at six pounds
Samarcand in a subsequent chapter, wherein he repeatedly states that
his information is based on hearsay and the authority of others.
The only difficulty is the time occupied by our traveller in performing
the journey. The distance between the coast opposite Hormuz and
Herat is about six hundred miles, and, according to Abd-er-Razzak s
itinerary, he was twenty-two days on the road. True, Varthema says
distinctly, that, after travelling twelve days, he reached En ; but it is by
no means clear that Hormuz or Bunder Abbas was his starting -point, for
he first " passed into Persia," from which we may infer that he had pene
trated some way into the country before setting out lor Herat.
In the following chapter Varthema gives an account of his route from
Herat to Shiraz, which he accomplished in twenty or twenty-three days,
the usual length of the caravan journey between the two places. That
coincidence may be fairly considered as a corroborative proof of our
traveller's personal visit to Herat. ^ * mv.
1 " Herat is the most fertile country in the whole of Khorassan. The
suburbs are covered with rich and green orchards, producing consider
able quantities of fruits. Silk is a native production of Herat. It is
produced in great quantities, and is exported to many countries. The
wheat is of many kinds....Cotton is abundantly cultivated in Herat, and
sometimes is sent to Mashad. Mash, adas, nakhud, lemghash or muth,
shamled or halbah, jawari and lobia, are also among its productions.
Sebist and shaftal grow exuberantly, and are given to horses. Opium is
much grown here, and is transported to Bokhara and other places.
M ohun B all's Travels, pp. 272 -275.
2 Her&,t is styled by the natives the key of the commerce between
Turkestan, Afghanistan, Persia, and India. It is much less so now
than it was formerly. At the time of Varthema's visit it is high y
probable that it was the principal highway between Mongolia and
Thibet, the chief rhubarb-growing countries, and the West. That fact
would account for the abundance of the drug found in the^ market ot
Her£it. Tavernier mentions a northern road between Bhutan or Lassa
and Cabul; and Bernier, writing in 1655, says : " It is not yet twenty
years that there went caravans every year from Cashmere, which crosse
all those mountains of the great Tibet, and arrived in about three