IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
A LETTER FROM FATHER JEROME XAVIER.
49
probably contains several misprints. I have only seen the French edition. The king of Tibet is called Tammiguia and his capital, Babgo. The real names must be Nammiguia and Basgo, and Basgo was indeed the capital of Namgyal who was king of Ladak at the time of d'Almeida's journey.'
Somewhat puzzling are the words: »le susmentionné Diego d'Almeida», for nothing has been said of him before p. 11 of Gouvea's work. They prove, however, that Gouvea knew something more about d'Almeida, though he seems to have forgotten that he has not mentioned him on the first pages of his introduction. Probably nothing more will be heard of him except the short passage quoted above.
Father JEROME XAVIER, who had passed many years in India, had tried to get reliable information about the road to Xatai or Cathay, and he had made systematic inquiries.2 In the collection of letters from early Jesuit missionaries brought together by Father JOHN HAY, some of the results are to be found. The object was to determine and make sure of the road as far as possible, before Goës was sent out on his adventurous enterprise. In one of Xavier's letters, also containing information of no special interest to us and given by »a certain merchant», we
read the following passage : 3
Haec (inquit Xauerius) summa est eorum, quae mihi mercator ille narrauit. Ego verô existimo, omnium esse facillimum. Regis hujus Achebaris opera in hac peregrinatione vti. Nam Lahore proficiscentibus priùs Caximir, eiusdem Achebaris Regnum occurrit. Hinc ad Regnum Rebat, quod Regem habet Achebaris peratnicum, rectà si contendes, eius litteris fretus, facilè ad ciuitatem Caygarem peruenies, inde ad primam ciuitatem Xatai, quae Christianorum est, paucorum milliarium interuallum exstat. Mihi quoque dum in Caximire agebam, nunciatum est, esse in Regno Rebat multos Christianos & Ecclesias cum sacerdotibus & Episcopes. Ad hos ego è Caximire litteras scripsi tribus vifs lingua Lusitana & Persica: cum ills rescribent faciam V. R. certiorem. Lahore, 7. Cal. Augusti, Anno 1598.4
Or, in other words, a traveller from Lahor first comes to Kashmir and then straight on to the kingdom of Rebat or Tebat, Tibet. The king of this country is a great friend of Akbar. From Rebat one easily arrives at Caygar or Kashgar. This is the famous old road across the Kara-korum Mountains, either by the Karakorum Pass or by some of the neighbouring passes. It is clear enough that the
I Cf. further loc. sup. cit. Geogr. Annaler, where I have an article entitled : Early European knowledge of Tibet, p. 304 et seq.
2 The head of the detachment of missionaries which, in 1594, at the request of AKBAR THE GREAT was sent to his court, was JEROME XAVIER. He was accompanied by BENEDICT GOES and EMANUEL PINHEIRO. During his search for information regarding the ways to Cathay Xavier was told by well informed people that »merchants were in the habit of going from Lahore to Kashmir, and thence by the Kingdom of Rebat, the king of which was in alliance with the Mogul, they went straight to Kashgar, from which it was said there was a direct and easy route to the first mercantile city of Cathay ....» Yule, Cathay, IV, p. 172 et seq.
3 Cf. Vol. I, p. 159.
4 De rebus iaponicis, indicis et pervanis, epistolae recentiores. A Ioanne Hayo Daigattiensi Scoto Societatis Iesv .... Antverpiae MDCV, p. 797.
7. VII.
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