THE SUCCESSORS OF MARCO POLO 53 



merchant to " explore a good part of the world, in order to 

 see and know many things." They passed to India, where 

 the merchant found business spoiled by the wars that 

 followed the arrival of the Portuguese an event that will 

 become of first-rate importance in the next chapter of our 

 story. Joined now by Christian merchants of India, they 

 made for the Straits of Malacca. " More ships," says Varth- 

 ema, "arrive here than in any other part of the world, especi- 

 ally with spices." The Malaysian pirates, who had their 

 centre of operations at Malacca, are described as " the worst 

 race that was ever created on earth." Then they sailed on to 

 the Spice Islands, and Varthema is first of Europeans to 

 give an entirely trustworthy account of Banda, its nutmegs 

 and mace, and of the Moluccas with their grand monopoly 

 of cloves, which made these tiny specks of islands the most Java "the 

 desired places in the whole world. Thence, still in company i^fnd^n the 

 with his merchant friends, he sailed towards " the beautiful world." 

 island called Java," which is once more described as " the 

 largest island in the world, and the most rich." He gives 

 an account of Java which seems singularly unconvincing. 

 The island, he says, produces silk, gold and the best emeralds 

 in the world. The Javans are " the most trustworthy men 

 in the world." Yet, he adds, " we determined to return, 

 partly through the fear of their cruelty in eating men, 

 partly also through the extreme cold " (!), " and also 

 because there was hardly any other place known to them," 

 i.e., his merchant friends. 1 So he returned to India, where 

 he joined the victorious Portuguese, and told them stories 

 of the Spice Islands, which led to an expedition of great 

 consequence in our story. 



But, at present, the chief interest to us of Varthema's The 

 narrative is the curious remark, which, he says, was made storyof 5 

 by the captain of the boat on which he sailed to Java, inhabited 

 presumably a Malay or an Arab seaman. They noticed 

 that he carried " the compass with the magnet after our 

 manner, and had a chart which was all marked with lines 

 perpendicular and across," an interesting illustration of 

 the scientific methods used in Oriental navigation. They 

 1 Varthema, p. 258. 



