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PIGAFETTA’S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD,

THE FIRST VOTAGE ROUND THE WORLD ,

Effected in the Years 1519, i$2o, 1J21, and 1522,

By the Chevalier PIGAFETTA, on hoard the Squadron of MAGELLAN j

An ExtraA from the Treatise on Navigation, by the fame Author; fome Observationson the Chevalier Martin Behaim, and a Description of his Terrestrial Globe.Paris , An IX. (1800.)

introduction,

By the Ffench Tranjlator, the Editor of the Edition in modern Italian.

L TN the fifteenth century the Italians poffetfed, almoft exclufively, the trade irtthofe articles which Afia furnilhes to Europe , efpecially fpices j that is to fay*pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmegs, &c. vegetable productions, formerly asnow in conftant demand, lefs on account of their agreeable flavour than their intrinficvirtues. Thefe aromatics were brought from fome iflands near the equator, either bythe inhabitants of thofe iflands themfelves, or by their neighbours, to that part of India intermediate between the place of growth and Europe, whither the European merchantswent to purchafe them *. Before the Arabs overran and laid Egypt wafte, commercewith India was carried on by the way of the Re4,Sea, as in the time of the Phoenicians .From the Ihores of this fea the merchandize was tranfported on the backs of camelsto the Nile , after vain attempts to form navigable Canals between that river and theRed Sea. Down the Nile thefe goods were carried in boats to the ports of Egypt ,where they were laden on veflels.belonging to Venice, to Genoa, Amalfi, and Pifa.But, when the Arabs , whether in confequence of religious motives, the policy ofdefpotifm, or that anarchy always favourable to pirates, drove commerce from its chan-nel by the gulf of Arabia, the merchants of India reforted to the Perfian Gulf and

* The Europeans were not accuflortied, at the period adVetted to, to fetch the fpices in which theytraded from any part of India : from that country, either by the Indians themfelves, or by Perfian mer-chants who went to India for the purpofe, thefe valuable commodities were tranfported on the backs ofcamels to the Cafpiah Sea, and were there put on board veffels, navigated indifferently by Indians or Pet-fians, to be landed, part at the mouth of the Kur, Whence overland they were conveyed to the Black Sea ,and there received by the Genoefe and Venetians eftabli/hed in the Crimea ; and part at Aftracan, whence bythe merchants of Novogorod they were conveyed overland to the Baltic, and afterwards diftributed overEurope by the members of the Hanfeatic league connected with the merchants of Novogorod. Eng. Tr-

Indian