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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

JÉRÔME XAVIER, MATTED RICCI AND TRIGAULT.   159

in a mission to the viceroy at Goa. Here he was found to be the right man for the commission of discovering Cathay.

The famous Father MATTEO RICCI who had got news of the intentions of his

brothers in Goa, wrote to them, before the departure of Goës, that Cathay was the same as China, and Kambalu was Peking, so called by the Mohammedans. The story about innumerable Christians was a fable. His arguments, however, were not regarded as convincing, and Goës got the extraordinary commission to discover China.

From information which Father Xavier had obtained from merchants he first decided to send Goës via Tibet. Already in a letter of 1598 he wrote I that a traveller from Lahore should first arrive in Cachimir, which still belongs to Akbar's empire. »From there one travels directly to the Kingdom of Tebat, 2 the King of which is a great friend of Akbar, and from where one arrives, provided with letters from this prince, easily to Caygar (Kashgar). From here it is only a few leagues to the first town in Chatai, which is inhabited by Christians.»

The Fathers at Goa had, in this case, as BRUCKER believes, been misled by Ortelius' maps and the reports of Jenkinson. However, the route of Kabul was finally chosen, and Goës left Agra on October 2nd 1602, and Lahore on February I 5th, 1603, disguised as an Armenian, and under the name of Abdullah Isaï. He was accompanied by two Greeks and an Armenian, ISAAK.

Referring to the Himalaya he simply uses the expression »the Mountains covered with snow». The Indus was crossed at Attock, which he calls Athec. Then he passed Passaùr (Peshawer), Ghideli and Cabul. From the road over the Hindu-kush three names are mentioned by TRIGAULT: 3 Ciaracar, Paruàm, which is said to be the last town of Mogor, and, after 20 days through the highest mountains, a region called Aingharàn.4 Thence he travelled 15 days to Calcià, I o days to Gialalabath, 15 days to Talhan, 8 days of difficult journey to Tengi Badascian, 5 and finally Ciarciunar. Father Ricci who after Goës' death first tried to save as much as possible of the information gathered on the journey, has obviously confounded some places, which, in the latter part of the itinerary, is easier to see. Gialalabath, for instance, is Jallalabad between Peshawer and Kabul. From Ciarciunar, perhaps Chahrchinar or the »Four Plane-trees», he had I o days to Serpanil, 6 Ser-i-Pamir, and further, after passing the steep mountain Sacrithma, 20 days to Sarcil, which Brucker identifies with Sarikol. Two

I Quoted by Brucker, p. I I, from Father Jean Hay.

2 I. e. Ladak.

3 Op. supra cit.

4 Brucker identifies these places with the Charekar, Parwan, and I-angheran, visited by Wood in November 1837.

5 Teng-i-Badakshan.

6 Or as Trigault has it: Hinc post dies decem in Serpanil deuenerunt, sed desertus locus erat, mortalibus omnique comitatu destitutus; in arduum montem conscensum, cui Sacrithma nomen est, in hunc montem euadere non nisi robustiores equi potuere, reliqui longiore sed faciliore itinere perrexerût. Op. cit. p. 55o.