There Is No Proper Harbour In The Country, But There Are Many Great Rivers
With Good Estuaries, Wide And Deep.[NOTE 2] Pepper And Ginger Grow There,
And Other Spices In Quantities.[NOTE 3] The King Is Rich In Treasure, But
Not Very Strong In Forces.
The approach to his kingdom however is so
strong by nature that no one can attack him, so he is afraid of nobody.
And you must know that if any ship enters their estuary and anchors there,
having been bound for some other port, they seize her and plunder the
cargo. For they say, "You were bound for somewhere else, and 'tis God has
sent you hither to us, so we have a right to all your goods." And they
think it no sin to act thus. And this naughty custom prevails all over
these provinces of India, to wit, that if a ship be driven by stress of
weather into some other port than that to which it was bound, it is sure
to be plundered. But if a ship come bound originally to the place they
receive it with all honour and give it due protection.[NOTE 4] The ships
of Manzi and other countries that come hither in summer lay in their
cargoes in 6 or 8 days and depart as fast as possible, because there is no
harbour other than the river-mouth, a mere roadstead and sandbanks, so
that it is perilous to tarry there. The ships of Manzi indeed are not so
much afraid of these roadsteads as others are, because they have such huge
wooden anchors which hold in all weather.[NOTE 5]
There are many lions and other wild beasts here and plenty of game, both
beast and bird.
NOTE 1. - No city or district is now known by the name of ELY, but the name
survives in that of Mount Dely, properly Monte d'ELY, the Yeli-mala of
the Malabar people, and called also in the legends of the coast
Sapta-shaila, or the Seven Hills. This is the only spur of the Ghats that
reaches the sea within the Madras territory. It is an isolated and very
conspicuous hill, or cluster of hills, forming a promontory some 16 miles
north of Cananore, the first Indian land seen by Vasco da Gama, on that
memorable August morning in 1498, and formerly very well known to
navigators, though it has been allowed to drop out of some of our most
ambitious modern maps. Abulfeda describes it as "a great mountain
projecting into the sea, and descried from a great distance, called Ras
Haili"; and it appears in Fra Mauro's map as Cavo de Eli.
Rashiduddin mentions "the country of Hili," between Manjarur (Mangalore)
and Fandaraina (miswritten in Elliot's copy Sadarsa). Ibn Batuta speaks
of Hili, which he reached on leaving Manjarur, as "a great and well-built
city, situated on a large estuary accessible to great ships. The vessels
of China come hither; this, Kaulam, and Kalikut, are the only ports that
they enter." From Hili he proceeds 12 miles further down the coast to
Jor-fattan, which probably corresponds to Baliapatan.
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