Ralph Fitch's Journey to the East 1583-91 PDF

# Ralph Fitch's Journey to the East, 1583-91 In 1583, a London merchant called Ralph Fitch set off on a journey to India. He was accompanied by two other merchants, John Newberry and John Eldred, a jeweller called William Leedes and James Story, a painter. Of the five men who left England in 1583,...

# Ralph Fitch's Journey to the East, 1583-91 In 1583, a London merchant called Ralph Fitch set off on a journey to India. He was accompanied by two other merchants, John Newberry and John Eldred, a jeweller called William Leedes and James Story, a painter. Of the five men who left England in 1583, only Ralph Fitch would return. Ralph Fitch and the other adventurers had been commissioned by the Turkey Company to find out about the opportunities for trade in India, South East Asia and, if possible, China. They carried letters of introduction from Queen Elizabeth to the Mughal and Chinese emperors. In the 1580s the Mughal Empire and China were the greatest civilisations in the world. The adventurers hoped that the Queen's letters would persuade the emperors to begin trading with England. They also hoped that the Queen's letters would protect them on their long and difficult journey. The adventurers left Falmouth on 11 March 1583 and sailed to the Eastern Mediterranean. They travelled overland from Aleppo in Syria and on to Baghdad, reaching Basra by May 1583. John Eldred stayed behind in Basra to trade. The others sailed down the Persian Gulf to the Portuguese trading station of Hormuz. There they were immediately arrested as spies and were imprisoned. Fitch and the other English adventurers were taken across the Indian Ocean to Goa, the main Portuguese colony in India. The men were eventually released, but James Story chose to remain in Goa, joining the Jesuit College. In April 1584, Fitch, Newberry and Leedes began their journey to the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, in northern India. ## A map of Ralph Fitch's journey, 1583-91 - The map shows the route of Ralph Fitch's journey to the East, from 1583-91. - The journey started in Lisbon and went eastwards with stops in Tripoli, Aleppo, Mosul, Baghdad, Basra, Hormuz, Goa, Cochin, Colombo and Malacca. - The journey then continued eastwards through the Indian Ocean to Agra, the capital of the Mughal Empire. - Ralph Fitch also journeyed through the Ganges to Hooghly, Pegu and Malacca. - He then returned to India, making the journey back to Lisbon via Goa. - The route is plotted on the map in two colours: blue for the outward journey and red for the homeward journey. ## What did the Elizabethan adventurers achieve? - An image of Goa in the sixteenth century. - Goa was a Portuguese trading post from 1510, and was a vital link on the route to the East Indies. - "GOA fortißima Indiæ vrbs in Chris fianorum potestatem anno Saluris 1509. deuenic" - translated from latin, this means "Goa: the strongest city of India, came under Christian rule in the Year of the Lord 1509". - The image shows the fortifications of Old Goa, which was built by the Portuguese. - It is a detailed image showing the buildings, churches, streets, trees and water surrounding the city. - The image makes it clear that Goa, at the time of Ralph Fitch's visit, was a developed and significant city.