two along with them, to lighten their own boats in case of grounding on the shoals. We were twenty-eight days upon the river in going between Bir and Feluchia, at which last place we disembarked ourselves and our goods.

During our passage down the Euphrates, we tied our boat to a stake every night at sun-set, when we went on land and gathered some sticks to make a fire, on which we set our pot, with rice or bruised wheat; and when we had supped, the merchants went on board to sleep, while the mariners lay down for the night on the shore, as near the boats as they could. At many places on the river side we met with troops of Arabs, of whom we bought milk, butter, eggs, and lambs, giving them in barter, for they care not for money, glasses, combs, coral, amber, to hang about their necks; and for churned milk we gave them bread and pomegranate peels, with which they tan their goat skins which they use for churns. The complexion, hair, and apparel of these Arabs, are entirely like to those vagabond Egyptians who heretofore used to go about in England. All their women, without one exception, wear a great round ring of gold, silver, or iron, according to their abilities, in one of their nostrils, and about their legs they have hoops of gold, silver, or iron. All of them, men, women, and children, are excellent swimmers, and they often brought off in this manner vessels with milk on their heads to our barks. They are very thievish, as I proved to my cost, for they stole a casket belonging to me, containing things of good value, from under my man's head as he lay asleep.

At Bir the Euphrates is about as broad as the Thames at Lambeth, in some places broader, and in others narrower, and it runs very swiftly, almost as fast as the Trent. It has various kinds of fish, all having scales, some like our barbels, as large as salmon. We landed at Feluchia on the 28th of June, and had to remain there seven days for want of camels to carry our goods to Babylon, [Bagdat,] the heat at that season being so violent that the people were averse from hiring their camels to travel. Feluchia is a village of some hundred houses, and is the place appointed for discharging such goods as come down the river, the inhabitants being all Arabs. Not being able to procure camels, we had to unlade our goods, and hired an hundred asses to carry our English merchandize to New Babylon, or Bagdat, across a short desert, which took us eighteen hours of travelling, mostly in the night and morning, to avoid the great heat of the day.

In this short desert, between the Euphrates and Tigris, formerly stood the great and mighty city of ancient Babylon, many of the old ruins of which are easily to be seen by day-light, as I, John Eldred, have often beheld at my good leisure, having made three several journeys between Aleppo and New Babylon. Here also are still to be seen the ruins of the ancient Tower of Babel, which, being upon plain ground, seems very large from afar; but the nearer you come towards it, it seems to grow less and less. I have gone sundry times to see it, and found the remnants still standing above a quarter of a mile in circuit, and almost as high as the stone-work of St Paul's steeple in London, but much bigger.[2] The bricks remaining in this most ancient monument are half a yard thick, and three quarters long, having been dried in the sun only; and between every course of bricks there is a course of matts made of canes, which still remain as sound as if they had only lain one year.

[Footnote 2: It is hardly necessary to observe, that this refers to the old St Paul's before the great fire, and has no reference to the present magnificent structure, built long after the date of this journey.--E.]

The new city of Babylon, or Bagdat, joins to the before-mentioned small desert, in which was the old city, the river Tigris running close under the walls, so that they might easily open a ditch, and make the waters of the river, encompass the city.[3] Bagdat is above two English miles in circumference. The inhabitants, who generally speak three languages, Persian, Arabic, and Turkish, are much of the same complexion with the Spaniards. The women mostly wear, in the gristle of the nose, a ring like a wedding-ring, but rather larger, having a pearl and a turquoise stone set in it; and this however poor they may be. This is a place of great trade, being the thoroughfare from the East Indies to Aleppo. The town is well supplied with provisions, which are brought down the river Tigris from Mosul, in Diarbekir, or Mesopotamia, where stood the ancient city of Nineveh. These provisions, and various other kinds of goods, are brought down the river Tigris on rafts of wood, borne up by a great number of goat-skin bags, 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