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. This person returned
afterwards to his own country, whence he sent one of his teeth to the
king of the island as a token of remembrance, and it is still preserved
as a holy relick, on which they repose much confidence in time of
danger, and many pilgrims resort thither from places a thousand miles
distant. The island is divided into nine kingdoms, Columbo on the west
being the chief of these. The others are Gale on the south, Jaula,
Tanavaca, Cande, Batecalon, Vilacem, Trinquinimale, and
Jafanapatam[142].
[Footnote 139: The distance between Ceylon and the Carnatic across Palks
Bay is about 63 English miles; but at Jafnapatnam and Ramiseram, this
distance is lessened to 43, by two capes, at the former projecting from
the island, and at the latter from the continent. - E.]
[Footnote 140: From Point Pedro in the north to Dondra Head in the south
are 265 miles, and its widest part from Negombo in the west to Poukiri
Chene in the east is 143 statute miles. - E.]
[Footnote 141: More properly Selan-dib, or the Isle of Selan. The
derivation of the name of Ceylon in the text does not admit of
commentary. - E.]
[Footnote 142: All of these except Cande, Candi, or Kandi, the
central mountainous region, still occupied by the native Hindoo race,
appear to have been small sovereignties of the Moors or Malays; and have
been long under European rule, having been conquered by the Portuguese,
Dutch; and British in succession. The topography of Ceylon will be
illustrated hereafter, and does not admit of being explained in the
compass of a note - E.]
Albuquerque had established a treaty of amity and commerce with the king
of Columbo, who furnished the Portuguese with cinnamon; and Soarez went
thither at this time, by order of the king of Portugal, to construct a
fort at Columbo, and to reduce the prince of that country to pay
tribute. On this occasion his fleet consisted of seven gallies, two
ships, and eight small vessels, carrying materials and workmen for
building the fort, and 700 Portuguese soldiers. At first the king
consented to have the fort built, but changed his mind at the
instigation of the Moors, and put Soarez to considerable difficulty; but
in the end the Moors were put to flight, the fort built, and the king
constrained to become a tributary vassal of Portugal, by the yearly
payment of 1200 quintals of cinnamon, twelve rings of rubies and
sapphires, and six elephants.
At this time Juan de Sylveira returned from the Maldives, where he had
taken two ships belonging to Cambaya, and had got permission of the king
of the Maldives to erect a fort at the principal harbour. Sylveira went
upon a similar mission to Bengal, where he was in great danger; as a
young man of Bengal who sailed there with him, gave notice of his having
taken these two ships, so that he was considered as a pirate. He had
fared worse than he did, but for the arrival of Juan Coello from Pisang,
sent by Andrada to the king of Bengal. After passing the winter in
Bengal with great difficulty on account of famine, Sylveira set sail,
being invited by the king of Aracan to come to his port of Chittagon by
a messenger who brought him a valuable present; but all this kindness
was only intended to decoy him to his ruin, at the instigation of the
king of Bengal. He escaped however from the snare, and arrived at Ceylon
as Soarez had finished the fort of Columbo, of which he appointed
Sylveira to the command, leaving Azevedo with four ships to guard the
sea in that neighbourhood.
About the same time Menezes secured the safety of Malacca, as mentioned
before, by supplying it with men and ammunition, and appointed Alfonso
Lopez de Costa to the government, in place of Brito who was dying.
Duarte de Melo was left there with a naval force; and Duarte Coello was
sent with an embassy and present to the King of Siam, to confirm a
treaty of peace and amity, and to request of him to send a colony of his
subjects to inhabit the city of Malacca, so that the Moors whom he hated
as much as the Portuguese, might be for ever excluded from that place.
All this was agreed to, and as a testimonial of his friendship to the
Christians, he caused a great cross, ornamented with the arms of
Portugal, to be erected in a conspicuous part of the city of Hudia,
where he then resided. Having thus succeeded in his mission, Coello was
forced by stress of weather upon the coast of Pahang, where he was
received in a friendly manner by the king, who voluntarily submitted to
become a vassal to the crown of Portugal, and to pay a cup of gold as an
annual tribute. This was done more from hatred to the king of Bintang,
than from love to the Portuguese.
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