Some Of These I Have
Seen In Rome Curiously Folded.
What they intend to be lasting is carved
on stone or copper.
In writing they begin at the left hand and write
towards the right, as we do in Europe. Their histories are extremely
fabulous. About 600 years before the arrival of the Portuguese in India,
there reigned in Malabar a powerful monarch, from, whose reign the
people begin their era or historical computations, as they did
afterwards from our arrival. This king was persuaded by the Moors who
traded to his port to turn Mahometan, and gave them liberty to build
houses at Calicut. When he grew old, he divided his kingdom among his
kindred, giving Coulam to the chief, where he placed the principal seat
of his religion of the Bramins, and gave him the title of Cobritim,
which signifies high-priest. To his nephew he gave Calicut, with the
tide of Zamorin, which means emperor. This dignity continues in the
sovereign of Calicut, but the other has been removed to Cochin. Having
disposed of his dominions, he resolved to die at Mecca, but was drowned
by the way. Calicut is a plain country well watered, and abounds in
pepper and ginger; but all the other spices are procured from other
neighbouring countries. The inhabitants are wonderfully superstitious,
and do not suffer those of one trade or profession to marry with those
of a different occupation, or to put their children to learn any other
trade but that of their fathers. The Nayres, who are their nobles, if
they chance to touch any of the common people, purify themselves by
ablution, as was done by the Jews and Samaritans. The women among the
Nayres axe common to all, but chiefly those, of the Bramin cast, so that
no one knows his father, nor is any one bound to maintain the children.
These Nayres are wonderfully expert in the use of their weapons, in
which they begin to exercise themselves at seven years of age. They are
prone to all the ancient superstitions of augury and divination.
SECTION IV.
Continuation of the Portuguese Transactions in India, during the
Viceroyalty of Almeyda.
Besides the forts already erected on the eastern coast of Africa at
Quiloa and Mozambique, and the factory at Melinda, King Manuel
determined to build a fort at Sofala to secure the trade in gold at that
place; for which purpose he sent out Pedro de Annaya with six ships in
the year 1506: three of these ships being destined to remain on the
African coast, and the other three to proceed to India. This fleet was
separated in a storm, during which one of the captains was washed
overboard and drowned, and another lost sixteen men who were slain by
the natives of an island on which they landed. The squadron rejoined in
the port of Sofala, where Annaya found twenty Portuguese mariners in a
miserable condition. The ship to which they had belonged, commanded by
Lope Sanchez, was forced to run on shore at Cape Corientes, being so
leaky as to be in a sinking condition.
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