The Neighbourhood Produces Hardly Any More
Pepper Than Is Necessary For Its Own Consumpt; But Has Plenty Of Ginger,
Cardamoms, Tamarinds, Mirabolans, Cassia-Fistula[33], And Other Drugs.
In
several pools of water near this city there are many very large
alligators[34], similar to the crocodiles of the Nile, which devour men
when they come in their way.
They have very large heads with two rows of
teeth, and their breath smells like musk, their bodies being covered all
over with hard scales like shells. In the bushes near this city there are
many large and very venomous serpents, which destroy men by means of
their breath. There are bats likewise as large as kites, which have heads
like a fox and similar teeth, and the natives often eat these animals.
The city of Cananore abounds in fish, flesh, and fruits, but has to
import rice from other places. The king or rajah is a bramin, being one
of the three kings of Malabar, but is not so rich and powerful as the
zamorin, or even as the rajah of Coulan. The general came to anchor at
this port, both because he had been invited by the rajah, and because he
wished to take on board some cinnamon, of which commodity he had not as
yet any on board. He accordingly purchased 400 quintals, and might have
had more if he would, but refused it; on which the people of the place
concluded that he had no more money.
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