ns; whence some have
inferred that they are some remnant of the disciples of St. Thomas,
though mixed with many errors. They wear yellow cassocks and cloaks,
with hats of oiled paper. The whole natives of these countries are
white, and their women very beautiful; but their bodies are all over
wrought with blue figures down to the knees made with hot irons. In
their manners they are very uncivilized and even brutal.

CHAPTER II.

PARTICULAR RELATION OF THE EXPEDITION OF SOLYMAN PACHA FROM SUEZ TO
INDIA AGAINST THE PORTUGUESE AT DIU, WRITTEN BY A VENETIAN OFFICER WHO
WAS PRESSED INTO THE TURKISH SERVICE ON THAT OCCASION [210].

INTRODUCTION.

Following the PORTUGUESE ASIA of _Manuel de Faria y Sousa_, we have
given an account of the Portuguese transactions in India in the
preceding chapter, from the year 1505 to 1539. We might have extended
this article to a much greater length from the same source, as De Faria
continues this history to the year 1640; but his work after the year
1539 is generally filled with an infinite multiplicity of uninteresting
events, petty wars, arrivals and dispatch of trading ships, and such
minute matters, unconnected and tending to no useful information. We now
take up an original document of much interest, and most directly
connected with the object of our collection, as an actual journal of a
voyage. In a separate future division of our arrangement, we propose to
give an abridged extract from De Faria of every thing his work contains
worthy of notice, as tending to discovery, but leaving out all
uninteresting details.

[Footnote 210: Astleys Collection of Voyages and Travels, I. 88.]

There are two published copies of the voyage which constitutes the
essence of our present chapter. The earliest of these was published by
_Aldus_ at Venice in 1540, along with other tracts of a similar nature,
under the name of _A Voyage from Alexandria to India_[211]. The other
was given by _Ramusio_ in the first Volume of his Collection, under the
title of _A Voyage written by a Venetian officer_[212] of the _Gallies,
who was carried prisoner from Alexandria to Diu in India, &c_. These
copies differ in several respects besides the title. That by Ramusio is
altered in several places both in the substance and diction, which in
many parts of that edited by Aldus is obscure. Yet that edition is of
use to correct some errors of the press in Ramusio. Our translation is
from the text of Aldus, but we h