And you must know that it is a most noble and beautiful Island,
and one of the greatest in the world, for it is about 4000 miles in
compass. The people live by trade and handicrafts.
In this Island, and in another beyond it called ZANGHIBAR, about which we
shall tell you afterwards, there are more elephants than in any country in
the world. The amount of traffic in elephants' teeth in these two Islands
is something astonishing.
In this Island they eat no flesh but that of camels; and of these they
kill an incredible number daily. They say it is the best and wholesomest
of all flesh; and so they eat of it all the year round.[NOTE 1]
They have in this Island many trees of red sanders, of excellent quality;
in fact, all their forests consist of it.[NOTE 2] They have also a
quantity of ambergris, for whales are abundant in that sea, and they catch
numbers of them; and so are Oil-heads, which are a huge kind of
fish, which also produce ambergris like the whale.[NOTE 3] There are
numbers of leopards, bears, and lions in the country, and other wild
beasts in abundance. Many traders, and many ships go thither with cloths
of gold and silk, and many other kinds of goods, and drive a profitable
trade.
You must know that this Island lies so far south that ships cannot go
further south or visit other Islands in that direction, except this one,
and that other of which we have to tell you, called Zanghibar.
