‘The travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508’ [‎215] (380/492)

LUDOVICO
VARTHEMA.
THE CHAPTER CONCERNING PEGO, 1 A CITY OF INDIA.
The city of Pcgo is on the mainland, and is near to the
sea. On the left hand of this, that is, towards the east, there
1 In chapter viii. of his Narrative of a Mission to the Court of Ava,
Colonel Yule has arranged in chronological order a valuable collection
of Notes on the Intercourse of the Burmese countries with Western nations
up to the peace of Yandabo, comprising all the information available re
specting Pegu and the adjacent kingdoms at this period. These notes,
with his own interspersed commentary, form the most authentic history of
those kingdoms extant, and the four sketch maps representing the his
torical geography of the Burmese countries at several epochs, convey at
a glance the principal political and territorial changes which have suc
cessively taken place in that empire since a.d . 1500. With regard to
the map illustrative of that date, I perceive that Tavoy is apparently
described as an independent state embracing the entire seabord between
the tenth and fifteenth degrees of latitude, whereas in a preceding note
on pp. 197-8, I have implied that Tenasserim, which is included within
those limits, was the principal kingdom on that part of the coast at
the period indicated, but subordinate, nevertheless, to the suzerainty of
Siam. (Towards the end of that century Tenasserim became tributary
to Pegu, and a few years later, dr. a .d . 1619, judging from the extract
quoted from Master William Methold's Relations of the King dome of
Golchonda, and other Neighbouring Nations within the Gulf of Bengale,
in the note last referred to, it appears to have reverted, for a time at
least, to the authority of Siam.) I notice this discrepancy rather by
way of suggesting a doubt as to the correctness ot my own interence,
than with the idea of questioning the accuracy of my learned Iriend
Colonel Yule.
The following chapter from the Geography of Patavino, evidently
compiled from the travels of Nicolo de' Conti, Varthema, Cfesar I rede-
ricke, and the best authorities who succeeded them, contains so admira
ble an account of Pegu at the date when the work was published (1597),
and when the kingdom was at the zenith of its glory, that I deem it
worthy of quotation in full;—" PEGU regnum occupat littoris spatium
300 milliarium iuxta Occidentalem oram sinus Bengalici, ah urbe scilicet
Tauay ad caput usque Nigraes ; in Mediterraneis verd valdti extenditur.
Optimos habet portus, ex quibus prsocipuus est Martabane, in quo one-
rantur circiter 40 naues ex oryza, quee in insulam Sumatram compor-
tantur. Ager huius regni pinguis ac fertilissimus est, et rei frumentaries
ut plurimum admodum accommodus ; animalia innumera nutrit, inter