In That Country
They Ride Upon Bullocks, Having Pannels Fastened With Girths, And Guide
Them With Bridles.
In summer, the journey from Bijanagur to Goa takes
only eight days; but we went in July, which is the middle of winter in
that country, and were fifteen days in going to _Ancola_, on the sea
coast.
On the eighth day of the journey I lost both my bullocks. That
which carried my provisions was weak, and could not proceed; and on
passing a river by means of a small foot bridge, I made my other
bullock swim across, but he stopt on a small island in the middle of the
river where he found pasture, and we could devise no means to get him
out. I was under the necessity therefore to leave him, and was forced to
go on foot for seven days, during which it rained almost incessantly,
and I suffered great fatigue. By good fortune I met some
_falchines_[137] by the way, whom I hired to carry my clothes and
provisions. In this journey we suffered great troubles, being every day
made prisoners, and had every morning at our departure to pay four or
five _pagies?_ a man as ransom. Likewise, as we came almost every day
into the country of a new governor, though all tributary to the king of
Bijanagur, we found that every one of them had their own copper coin, so
that the money we got in change one day was not current on the next. At
length, by the mercy of God, we got safe to _Ancola_, which is in the
country of the queen of _Gargopam_[138], a tributary to the king of
Bijanagur.
[Footnote 137: These _falchines_ of Cesar Frederick are now denominated
_coolies_. - E.]
[Footnote 138: These names of Ancola and Gargopam are so unintelligibly
corrupted, as not be even conjecturally referable to any places or
districts in our best maps. - E.]
The merchandise sent every year from Goa to Bijanagur consists of
Arabian horses, velvets, damasks, satins, armoisins of Portugal,
porcelain of China, saffron, and scarlet cloth; and at Bijanagur, they
received in exchange or barter, jewels and pagodas, which are the gold
ducats of the country. At Bijanagur, according to the state and
condition of the wearers, the apparel is of velvet, satin, damask,
scarlet cloth, or white cotton; and they wear long hats on their heads,
called _colae_, made of similar materials; having girdles round their
bodies of fine cotton cloth. They wear breeches made like those used by
the Turks; having on their feet plain high things called _aspergh_. In
their ears they wear great quantities of golden ornaments.
Returning to my journey. When we got to _Ancola_, one of my companions
having nothing to lose, took a guide and set out for Goa, which is only
at the distance of four days journey; but as the other Portuguese was
not inclined to travel any farther at this season, he and I remained
there for the winter[139], which beginning on the 15th of May, lasts to
the end of October.
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