A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 8 | Page 6

who was Mr John Story,
painter, became a religious in the college of St Paul, at Goa, as we were
informed by letters from that place.
[Footnote 4: Akbar Shah, padishah or emperor of the Moguls in
India.--E.]
Having completed all our business at Basora, I and my companion,
William Shales, embarked in company with seventy barks, all laden
with merchandize; every bark having fourteen men to drag it up the
river, like our west country barges on the river Thames; and we were
forty-four days in going up against the stream to Bagdat. We there,
after paying our custom, joined with other merchants, to form a caravan,
bought camels, and hired men to load and drive them, furnished
ourselves with rice, butter, dates, honey made of dates, and onions;
besides which, every merchant bought a certain number of live sheep,
and hired certain shepherds to drive them along with us. We also
bought tents to lie in, and to put our goods under; and in this caravan of
ours there were four thousand camels laden with spices and other rich
goods. These camels can subsist very well for two or three days
without water, feeding on thistles, wormwood, magdalene, and other
coarse weeds they find by the way. The government of the caravans,
the deciding of all quarrels that occur, and the apportionment of all
duties to be paid, are committed to the care of some one rich and
experienced merchant in the company, whose honour and honesty can
best be confided in. We spent forty days in our journey from Bagdat to
Aleppo, travelling at the rate of from twenty to twenty-four miles a-day,
resting ourselves commonly from two in the afternoon till three next
morning, at which time we usually began our journey.
Eight days journey from Bagdat, near to a town called Heit, where we
cross the Euphrates in boats, and about three miles from that place,
there is a valley in which are many mouths, or holes, continually
throwing out, in great abundance, a black kind of substance like tar,
which serves all this country for paying their boats and barks. Every

one of these springs makes a noise like a smith's forge, continually
puffing and blowing; and the noise is so loud, that it may be heard a
mile off. This vale swalloweth up all heavy things that are thrown into
it. The people of the country call it _Bab-el-gehenam_, or the gate of
hell. In passing through these deserts we saw certain wild beasts, such
as asses, all white, roebucks, leopards, foxes, and many hares, a
considerable number of which last we chaced and killed. Aborise, the
king of the wandering Arabs in these deserts, receives a duty of 40
shillings value for every loaded camel, which he sends his officers to
receive from the caravans; and, in consideration of this, he engages to
convoy the caravans in safety, if need be, and to defend them against
the prowling thieves.
I and my companion, William Shales, came to Aleppo on the 11th June,
1584, being joyfully welcomed at twenty miles distance by Mr William
Barret, our consul, accompanied by his people and janisaries. He fell
sick immediately after, and departed this life in eight days illness,
having nominated, before he died, Mr Anthony Bate to succeed him as
consul for the English nation, who laudably executed the office for
three years. In the mean time, I made two other journeys to Bagdat and
Basora, returning in the same manner through the desert. Being
afterwards desirous to see other parts of the country, I went from
Aleppo to Antioch, which is 60 miles, and from thence to Tripoli,
where, going on board a small vessel, I arrived at Joppa, and travelled
by land to Rama, Lycia, Gaza, Jerusalem, Bethlem, the river Jordan,
and the sea of Sodom, and returned to Joppa, from whence I went back
to Tripoli; but as many others have published large discourses of these
places, I think it unnecessary to write of them here. Within a few days
after my return to Tripoli, I embarked in the Hercules of London, on the
22d December, 1587, and arrived safe, by the blessing of God, in the
Thames, with divers other English merchants, on the 26th March, 1588;
our ship being the richest in merchant goods that ever was known to
arrive in this realm.
SECTION V.
_Of the Monsoons, or Periodical Winds, with which Ships depart from
Place to Place in India. By William Barret._[5]
It is to be noted, that the city of Goa is the principal place of all the
oriental India, and that the winter begins there on the 15th of May, with

very great rain, and so continues till the 1st of August; during which
time no ship can