CHAPTER II.

PARTICULAR RELATION OF THE EXPEDITION OF SOLYMAN PACHA FROM SUEZ TO INDIA AGAINST THE PORTUGUESE AT DIU, WRITTEN BY A VENETIAN OFFICER WHO WAS PRESSED INTO THE TURKISH SERVICE ON THAT OCCASION [210].

INTRODUCTION.

Following the PORTUGUESE ASIA of Manuel de Faria y Sousa, we have given an account of the Portuguese transactions in India in the preceding chapter, from the year 1505 to 1539.  We might have extended this article to a much greater length from the same source, as De Faria continues this history to the year 1640; but his work after the year 1539 is generally filled with an infinite multiplicity of uninteresting events, petty wars, arrivals and dispatch of trading ships, and such minute matters, unconnected and tending to no useful information.  We now take up an original document of much interest, and most directly connected with the object of our collection, as an actual journal of a voyage.  In a separate future division of our arrangement, we propose to give an abridged extract from De Faria of every thing his work contains worthy of notice, as tending to discovery, but leaving out all uninteresting details.

[Footnote 210:  Astleys Collection of Voyages and Travels, I. 88.]

There are two published copies of the voyage which constitutes the essence of our present chapter.  The earliest of these was published by Aldus at Venice in 1540, along with other tracts of a similar nature, under the name of A Voyage from Alexandria to India[211].  The other was given by Ramusio in the first Volume of his Collection, under the title of A Voyage written by a Venetian officer[212] of the Gallies, who was carried prisoner from Alexandria to Diu in India, &c.  These copies differ in several respects besides the title.  That by Ramusio is altered in several places both in the substance and diction, which in many parts of that edited by Aldus is obscure.  Yet that edition is of use to correct some errors of the press in Ramusio.  Our translation is from the text of Aldus, but we have marked the variations in that of Ramusio, and have likewise divided the journal into sections, as done by Ramusio.

[Footnote 211:  The title of the book published by Aldus in which this voyage is contained is Viaggi alla Tana, Persia, India, &c.—­Astley, I. 88. a.]

[Footnote 212:  The word designating the rank of this officer in Ramusio is Comito, signifying Boatswain, or the officer who superintended the galley-slaves.—­Ast.  I. 88. b.]