413.
It appears, from the journal of John Eldred, in the preceding section,
that William Barret was English consul at Aleppo, and died in 1584.
In the immediately preceding article in Hakluyt, vol. II. p. 406, et
seq., is a curious account of the money weights and measures of Bagdat,
Basora, Ormus, Goa, Cochin, and Malacca, which we wished to have
inserted, but found no sufficient data by which to institute a
comparison with the money weights and measures of England, without which
they would have been entirely useless.
In the present article, the dates are certainly of the old stile, and,
to accommodate these to the present new stile, it may be perhaps right
to add nine days to each for the sixteenth century, or twelve days to
reduce them to corresponding dates of the present nineteenth
century. - E.]
To the northward, as Chaul, Diu, Cambay, Damaun, Basseen, and other
places, the ships depart from Goa between the 10th and 24th of August;
and ships may sail to these places at all times of the year, except in
winter, as already described.
Ships depart for Goa from Chaul, Diu, Cambay, and other parts to the
northward, betwixt the 8th and 15th of January, and come to Goa about
the end of February.
From Diu ships depart for the straits of Mecca, or the Red-Sea, about
the 15th of January, and return from thence to Diu in the month of
August. They likewise depart from Din for the Red-Sea in the second
monsoon, betwixt the 25th of August and 25th of September, and return
to Diu between the 1st and 15th of May following.
From Socotora, which hath only few ships, they depart for Ormus about
the 10th of August.
About the 15th of September the Moors of the firm land begin to come to
Goa from all parts, as from Balagnete, Bezenegar, Sudalcan, and other
places; and they depart from Goa betwixt the 10th and 15th of November.
It is to be understood, that, by going to the north, is meant departing
from Goa for Chaul, Diu, Cambay, Damaun, Basseen, and other places as
far as Sinde; and, by the south, is meant departing from Goa for Cochin,
and all that coast, as far as Cape Comorin.
In the first monsoon for Ormus, ships depart from Goa in the month of
October, passing with easterly winds along the coast of Persia. In the
second monsoon, the ships depart from Goa about the 20th of January,
passing by a like course, and with a similar wind; this second monsoon
being called by the Portuguese the entremonson. There is likewise a
third monsoon for going from Goa to Ormus, when ships set out from Goa
betwixt the 25th March and 6th April, having easterly winds, when they
set their course for the coast of Arabia, which they fell in with at
Cape Rasalgate and the Straits of Ormus. This monsoon is the most
troublesome of all, for they make two navigations in the latitude of
Ceylon, somewhat lower than six degrees.[6]
