SPICES 105 



and finally the most valuable sort of produce, viz. those 

 aromatic and pungent vegetable substances of the east, which 

 we now call spices. 



Arabia was always regarded as the land of perfumes and 

 romance, the land where the coveted spices came from ; 

 but as a matter of fact very few ever came from there, the 

 bulk of them being products of Southern India and the 

 islands of the east. But it was Arab merchants who brought 

 them to Europe, and they were careful to keep the origin of 

 their wares shrouded in mystery. 



After the Crusades the people of Western Europe became 

 eager purchasers of these eastern treasures, for they gave 

 a flavour to their insipid salt meat in winter, and to their 

 still more insipid salt fish in Lent, so that we are not surprised 

 to read that the seat of honour at an English feast was by the 

 spice box. 



They were brought with other merchandise by sea from 

 India and the east to Aden, and thence to Alexandria, which 

 became a great collecting place for all sorts of commodities, 

 so that, as Benjamin of Tudela, who visited it in 1172, tells us, 

 ' it was full of bustle, and every nation had its own fonteccho 

 (hostelry) there '. 



Of all these many nations the Italians were the busiest, 

 and the spices were brought by them to Venice, and thence 

 sent overland to Augsburg and Nurnberg, to Bruges and 

 Antwerp, and so to the western nations. 



By this eastern trade the Venetians became enormously 

 wealthy, and much of the beauty and glory of their city is 

 due to the generous spending of this wealth in the building 

 of stately palaces and churches, wherein were collected all the 

 wonders of art and industry. 



Later on this lucrative trade passed into the hands of the 

 Portuguese, and the fortunes of Venice declined. When 

 Vasco da Gama, in 1499, rounded the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and visited Calicut, the first blow was struck at the 

 Venetian trade, and we read : ' When this news reached 



