(Buchanan's Mysore, II. 31, III. 193, and App. p. v.; Garcia, Ital.
version, 1576, f. 39-40; Salmas. Exerc. Plin. p. 923; Bud. on Theoph.
1004 and 1010; Archiv. St. Ital., Append. II. p. 19.)
NOTE 5. - We see that Marco speaks of the merchants and ships of Manzi, or
Southern China, as frequenting Kaulam, Hili, and now Malabar, of which
Calicut was the chief port. This quite coincides with Ibn Batuta, who says
those were the three ports of India which the Chinese junks frequented,
adding Fandaraina (i.e. Pandarani, or Pantalani, 16 miles north of
Calicut), as a port where they used to moor for the winter when they spent
that season in India. By the winter he means the rainy season, as
Portuguese writers on India do by the same expression (IV. 81, 88, 96). I
have been unable to find anything definite as to the date of the cessation
of this Chinese navigation to Malabar, but I believe it may be placed
about the beginning of the 15th century. The most distinct allusion to it
that I am aware of is in the information of Joseph of Cranganore, in the
Novus Orbis (Ed. of 1555, p. 208). He says: "These people of Cathay are
men of remarkable energy, and formerly drove a first-rate trade at the
city of Calicut.
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