"

 "The most adventurous and daring of historians "

...PRESENTING....LUDOVICO DE VARTHEMA

While the Portuguese potentates of the 15th century were in feverish excitement to get to the land of pepper by sea, individual adventurers and historians of other countries sailed forth from the Mediterranean ports and though many of them were never heard of, a few lucky ones returned to give the world a detailed account of their travels. Ludovico de Varthema an Italian was one of them. Born at Boulogne which had been vying with Venice and Genoa in sending out navigators who seldom had the opportunity of venturing out from their Sea, Varthema was bent upon reaching India, not for trade of evangelization, but for pure adventure with a view to writing a long and lasting history that would perpetuate his memory in aeternam.

When the whole of Europe was startled by the revelation that Vasco da Gama had reached the land of pepper, Varthema who was still in his teens, stole out from Venice and boarded a vessel bound for Egypt. On foot he traversed from Alexandria to Cairo noting down the customs and manners of the people, learning assiduously the Egyptian tongue which helped him in his sojourn in Syria. At Damascus he stopped for a month when he mastered Arabic which he was able to speak as fluently as Egyptian.

As a Christian he had to surmount many obstacles to move about freely and hence he decided to escape from Damascus in the guise of an Arab under the name of Yunus. He joined a company of pilgrims to Mecca as a guard. He talked, acted and prayed exactly as a Muslim Fakir would do and hence he was respected and obeyed by all the rest. As there were thousands of pilgrims, there was a body of sixty guards of whom Varthema was the chief, besides being the chief priest too. Thus it is no wonder that among the illiterates he posed himself as a demigod, though he recklessly risked his life in the most perilous of ventures which no Christian had ever dared before.

The journey from Damascus to Mecca lay through the land of Bedouins who were marauders and plunderers. They attacked the pilgrims and Varthema at the head of the body - guards, had a hard time for two days and nights to exterminated the looters.

It was again at the risk of his life that the Italian in the garb of an Arab proceeded to Mecca. But his ambition to publish a book of his travels pushed him on to the religious capital of the Muslims. His close observation of the pilgrims and of all the structures at Mecca finds a prominent place in his writings.

From Mecca he decided not to go back to Syria as he feared he might be detected by his former acquaintances. His desire was to go to India and see how the Portuguese fared in Kerala. At the time of departure he pretended to be ill with small - pox and took refuge in a mosque. The moment the pilgrims started their homeward march, Yunus gave the slip and got into an Arab ship and bound for India. Unfortunately the ship touched at Aden where his uncircumcised state was accidentally detected and he was caught. The sailors, declaring that he was not a Muslim but a Christian and a spy too, bound him hand and foot and took him to the Sultan of Aden.