The Ocean is called Bahr Mahit. - Harris
[2] Male-dive signifies, in the Malabar language, a thousand isles. - E.
[3] The subsequent accounts of these islands do not justify this particular
sentence, if the author meant that they were always governed by a
queen. It might be so in this time by accident, and one queen might
have succeeded another, as Queen Elizabeth did Queen Mary. - Harris.
[4] This is the Taprobana of the ancients, and has received many names. In
Cosmas Indicopleustes, it is called Sielendiba, which is merely a
Grecian corruption of Sielea-dive, or Sielen island; whence the modern
name of Ceylon. - E.
[5] This is probably the shark, which is common on all the coasts of India.
There was a portion of the MS. wanting at this place; wherein the
author treated of the trade to China as it was carried on in his time,
and of the causes which had brought it into a declining condition.
- Renaud.
[6] Perhaps some account of this Soliman might be contained in the lost
pages: But the circumstance of a Mahomedan judge or consul at Canfu is
a circumstance worthy of notice, and shews that the Mahomedans had
carried on a regular and settled trade with China for a considerable
time, and were in high estimation in that country. - Renaud.
[7] It is difficult at this distance of time to ascertain the rout laid
down by this author, on account of the changes of names. This mart of
Siraff is not to be met with in any of our maps; but it is said by the
Arabian geographers to have been in the gulf of Persia, about sixty
leagues from Shiraz; and that on its decay, the trade was transferred
to Ormuz. - Renaud.
[8] It is probable, or rather certain, that Canton is here meant. - E.
[9] Meaning the Parsees or Guebres, the fire-worshippers of Persia. - E.
[10] It is probable that this Balhara, or king of the people with bored
ears, which plainly means the Indians, was the Zamorin or Emperor of
Calicut; who, according to the reports of the most ancient Portuguese
writers concerning India, was acknowledged as a kind of emperor in the
Indies, six hundred years before they discovered the route to India by
the Cape of Good Hope. - Harris.
The original editor of this voyage in English, Harris, is certainly
mistaken in this point. The Balhara was the sovereign of Southern
Seindetic India; of which dominion Guzerat was the principal
province. - E.
[11] This is a very early notice of the construction and use of clocks, or
machinery to indicate divisions of time, by means of weights. - E.
SECTION II.
Commentary upon the foregoing Account, by Abu Zeid al Hasan of Siraff.
