Antonio De Saldanna Arrived In India In 1517 With Six Ships.
In this
fleet one Alcacova came out as surveyor of the king's revenue, invested
with such power as greatly curtailed the influence of Soarez, and having
the inclination to encroach still farther on his authority than he was
warranted.
This occasioned great dissensions between the governor and
surveyor; who finding himself unable to prevail, returned into Portugal
where he made loud complaints against the administration of affairs in
India. Hence began the practice of listening to complaints at home
against the governors and commanders employed in India; and hence many
took more care in the sequel to amass riches than to acquire honour,
knowing that money is a never-failing protection from crimes. Soarez
sent Juan de Sylveira to the Maldive islands, Alexius de Menezes to
Malacca, Manuel de la Cerda to Diu, and Antonio de Saldanna with six
ships to the coast of Arabia by orders from the king. The only exploit
performed by Saldanna was the capture and destruction of Barbora, a town
near Zeyla but much smaller, whence the inhabitants fled. Saldanna then
returned to India, where he found Soarez about to sail for the island of
Ceylon.
The island of Ceylon, the southernmost land in India, is to the east of
Cape Comorin. It is sixteen leagues distant from the continent[139], to
which some imagine that it was formerly joined. This island is about 80
leagues from north to south, and about 45 leagues from east to
west[140]. The most southerly point, or Dondra Head, is in lat. 5 deg. 52' N.
The most northerly, or Point Pedro, in 9 deg. 48'. In the sea belonging to
this island there is a fishery of the most precious pearls. By the
Persians and Arabs it is called Serendib[141]. It took the name of
Ceylon from the sea by which it is surrounded, owing to the loss of a
great fleet of the Chinese, who therefore named that sea Chilam,
signifying danger, somewhat resembling Scylla; and this word was
corrupted to Ceylon. This island was the Taprobana of the ancients,
and not Sumatra as some have imagined. Its productions are numerous and
valuable: Cinnamon of greatly finer quality than in any other place;
rubies, sapphires, and other precious stones; much pepper and cardamoms,
Brazil wood, and other dyes, great woods of palm-trees, numbers of
elephants which are more docile than those of other countries, and
abundance of cattle. It has many good ports, and several rivers of
excellent water. The mountains are covered with pleasant woods. One of
these mountains, which rises for the space of seven leagues, has a
circular plain on the top of about thirty paces diameter, in the middle
of which is a smooth rock about six spans high, upon which is the print
of a man's foot about two spans in length. This footstep is held in
great veneration, being supposed to have been impressed there by a holy
man from Delhi, who lived many years on that mountain, teaching the
inhabitants the belief in the one only God.
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