Page:The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema (1863).djvu/83

continued to Shirâz. Should this identification be correct, (and I can suggest no other, unless he pur-
sued a route by Neyrîz and Bakhtegân, mistaking the neighbouring lake which goes by those names for a river,) Varthema must unquestionably be charged with exaggeration, as neither the Pulwân nor the Bendemir is entitled to the epithet of "a large and fine river."

Arrived at Shirâz, which our author describes as a great mart for turquoises and Balass rubies, remark-
ing, however, that those stones were not produced there, but came, as was reported, from a city called "Balachsam" (Badakshân,) accident threw him in the way of a Persian merchant called "Cazazionor," by whom he was recognized as a fellow-pilgrim at Meccah, and whose friendly overtures on the occasion were destined to exert a powerful influence in shaping his subsequent course.

We, who carry with us on our travels circular notes or letters of credit negotiable in any part of the globe, can form a very inadequate conception of the difficulties which an adventurer under Varthema's circumstances must have encountered in making his way from one place to another. He never alludes directly to the subject, but his management may be gleaned from incidental passages occurring in his narrative. At the outset, he appears to have had a supply of money, for he bribed the Captain of the Mamlûks to admit him into that corps. While with them, he probably received pay and shared in their exactions, which, with any remains of his original