A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 8 | Page 5

blown up with wind like bladders. When the goods are discharged, the rafts are sold for fuel, and letting the wind out of the goat skins, they carry them home again upon asses, to serve for other voyages down the river.
[Footnote 3: It may be proper to remark, as not very distinctly marked here, though expressed afterwards in the text, that Bagdat is on the east side of the Tigris, whereas the plain, or desert of ancient Babylon, is on the west, between that river and the Euphrates.--E.]
The buildings here are mostly of brick, dried in the sun, as little or no stone is to be found, and their houses are all low and flat-roofed. They have no rain for eight months together, and hardly any clouds in the sky by day or night. Their winter is in November, December, January, and February, which is almost as warm as our summer in England. I know this well by experience, having resided, at different times, in this city for at least the space of two years. On coming into the city from Feluchia, we have to pass across the river Tigris on a great bridge of boats, which are held together by two mighty chains of iron.
From this place we departed in flat-bottomed boats, which were larger and more strongly built than those on the Euphrates. We were twenty-eight days also in going down this river to Basora, though we might have gone in eighteen days, or less, if the water had been higher. By the side of the river there stand several towns, the names of which resemble those of the prophets of the Old Testament. The first of these towns is called Ozeah, and another Zecchiah. One day's journey before we came to Basora, the two rivers unite, and there stands, at the junction, a castle belonging to the Turks, called Curna, where all merchants have to pay a small custom. Where the two rivers join, their united waters are eight or nine miles broad; and here also the river begins to ebb and flow, the overflowing of the water rendering all the country round about very fertile in corn, rice, pulse, and dates.
The town of Basora is a mile and a half in circuit; all the houses, with the castle and the walls, being of brick dried in the sun. The Grand Turk has here five hundred janisaries always in garrison, besides other soldiers; but his chief force consists in twenty-five or thirty fine gallies, well furnished with good ordnance. To this port of Basora there come every month divers ships from Ormus, laden with all sorts of Indian goods, as spices, drugs, indigo, and calico cloth. These ships are from forty to sixty tons burden, having their planks sewed together with twine made of the bark of the date-palm; and, instead of oakum, their seams are filled with slips of the same bark, of which also their tackle is made. In these vessels they have no kind of iron-work whatever, except their anchors. In six days sail down the Gulf of Persia, they go to an island called. Bahrein, midway to Ormus, where they fish for pearls during the four months of June, July, August, and September.
I remained six months at Basora, in which time I received several letters from Mr John Newberry, then at Ormus, who, as he passed that way, proceeded with letters, from her majesty to Zelabdim Echebar, king of Cambaia,[4] and to the mighty Emperor of China, was treacherously there arrested, with all his company, by the Portuguese, and afterwards sent prisoner to Goa, where, after a long and cruel imprisonment, he and his companions were released, upon giving surety not to depart from thence without leave, at the instance of one Father Thomas Stevens, an English priest, whom they found there. Shortly afterwards three of them made their escape, of whom Mr Ralph Fitch is since come to England. The fourth, 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