Gama, In Going On Board Some Of
The Largest Of Those, Found That They Were Equipped With Charts And
Compasses, And What Are Called Aest Harlab, Probably The Sea Astrolabe,
Already Discovered.
At the town of Mozambique, the Moorish merchants from
the Red Sea and India, met and exchanged the gold of Sofala for their
commodities, and in its warehouses, which, though meanly built, were
numerous, pepper, ginger, cottons, silver, pearls, rubies, velvet, and
other Indian articles were exposed to sale.
At Mombaca, the next place to
which Gama sailed, all the commodities of India were found, and likewise
the citron, lemon, and orange; the houses were built of stone, and the
inhabitants, chiefly Mahomedans, seemed to have acquired wealth by
commerce, as they lived in great splendour and luxury.
On the 17th of March, 1498, Gama reached Melinda, and was consequently
completely within the boundary of the Greek and Roman discovery and
commerce in this part of the world. This city is represented as well built,
and displaying in almost every respect, proofs of the extensive trade the
inhabitants carried on with India, and of the wealth they derived from it.
Here Gama saw, for the first time, Banians, or Indian merchants: from them
he received much important information respecting the commercial cities of
the west coast of India: and at Melinda he took on board pilots, who
conducted his fleet across the Indian Ocean to Calicut on the coast of
Malabar, where he landed on the 22d of May, 1498, ten months and two days
after his departure from Lisbon.
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