Fitch, Ralph

Ralph Fitch ( eng. Ralph Fitch , 1550 - approx. 1611) - British traveler, a merchant from London , one of the first Englishmen who visited the Middle East , India and Southeast Asia . Describing his travels of 1583-1591, he, on his return to England, became an important consultant to the British East India Company.

There is little biographical information about his early years; presumably born in Derby . It is known that in 1575 he received a two-year loan from the company Worshipful Company of Leathersellers . In February 1583, together with the companions, he bought the Tiger ship and set sail for the Middle East. From Aleppo, he reached the Euphrates, and, passing all the rivers between rivers and visiting Baghdad and Basra , reached the Persian Gulf . In Ormuz, he was arrested by the Portuguese together with his companions, and in the autumn of the same year he was transferred to the Portuguese port of Goa in India. There, thanks to the intercession of the Jesuits, they finally got their freedom. In April 1584, Fitch went to travel around the Mogul Empire , visiting many cities in India, including Allahabad and Benares , then went to Pegu , Burma and Shan , in 1588 reached Malacca . In the autumn of the same year, through Bengal , Goa, Ormuz, Basra, Aleppo, Tripoli and the Mediterranean Sea, they set off on their way back, arriving in London on April 29, 1591, finding on their arrival that they had already declared dead in their homeland. He continued to work in the Leathersellers , in 1608 became part of its leadership.