‘The travels of Sig. Pietro della Valle, a noble Roman, into East-India and Arabia Deserta. In which, the several countries, together with the customs, manners, traffique, and rites both religious and civil, of those Oriental princes and nations, are faithfully described: In familiar letters to his friend Signior Mario Schipano. Whereunto is added a relation of Sir Thomas Roe’s voyage into the East-Indies’ [‎2] (23/508)

they tradcj or by fome other conveyance J I come again to give
you an Account of my Adventures;, and the Curiofities which
have hitherto afforded delicious repaft to my alwayes hungry
Intelled. To begin therefore : Upon thurfdaji the 19 o£ January,
having difpatch'd and taken order for what was needful, a little
before day, after the difcharge of fome Guns,, as 'tis the cuftome
at goitigoff from any Coaft, we began leifurely to difplay our
fails, moving but (lowly, becaufe we waited for the fhip-
/ boat which was ftill atfhore , upon whofe return we unfolded
sf all our Canvafejand though w;th a fmall gale 3 direded our courfe
a . between the Iflands of Ormuz and Kefom, paffing on the outer
^ &rmuZf next drabiat in regard the fhallownefs of the
. 7 ^ fh towards ?tr{ia afforded not water enough for fuch great
| / v Ships as ours. We were in company only two Englifh Ships,
namely, the Whale, which was the Captain-fhip, (in which I
was embarqu'd ) commanded by Captain Nicholas Woodcock^,
and another call'd the Dolphin, which had for Captain , Ma
tter Matthew Willis, At noon j being near Lareck^, and no
wind ftirring , we caft Anchor without falling our fails, and
our Captain fent his long boat aftiore to Lareck^, with two
Grey-hounds which the Englifh of Conthru had given him ? to
catch what game they could light upon. Towards night we
fet fail again 5 but though the wind fomewhat Increas'd, yet
becaufe the^ boat was not return'd we ftruck fail a little, and
ftaid for it, difcharging alfo (everal mufket-fhots, to the end
thofe that were in it might hear and fee where we were : And
becaufe 'twas one a clock in the night, and the Boat was not yet
^ome,we doubted fome difafter might have befaln it,in regard of
M y the multitude of thofe Arabian Thieves call'd Nonteks, which
' u P on ^at Sea 5 and frequently refide in this Ifland of Lareck, :
Yet at length it return'd fafe and found, and brought us abun
dance of Goats ^ whereupon wc again fpread our fails freely to
the wind, which was pretty ftiff, although not much favour-
able to our courfe. However, we went onwards, ph W from
e coafl: Arabia to that otPerJia 5 and on Saturday morning,
as we drew near the Arabian ftiore, we faw three fmall liknds
ntuate near one another, and not far from a certain Cape, the
name of which, and the Iflands, they could not tell me, fo as that
might let it down truly 5 whereby I perceiv'd how it comes to
at . name ?P^ces in thefe parts are very corruptly
^ ln eo 8 ra .pkical Charts 5 for in the Countries themfelves,
i 6 c ° miTle ^ c f 18 had for the moft part with rude and ignorant
P pe, few of them know how to pronounce the fame aright.
Went fr0m our Shi P to recrea te our felves
COI "P a " lon = w here the Captain entertain'd
(Mli J r -f- „ In the lnean tilne we had a good frefli
ioth the ft" 8 f n f ! y in , lhemiddle of the gulf, we beheld
difcern H n f a 0f and in the latter
dMCern d a famous white Rock, which Handing in the midft of a
low
f.Uih
/