The
Inhabitants Of This City Are Idolaters, But It Is Frequented By Many
Merchants From Different Places, As Its District Produces Excellent
Pepper.
At this place we found certain merchants who were Christians,
calling themselves followers of the apostle St Thomas.
They observe
lent, or the fast of forty days, as we do, and believe in the death and
resurrection of Christ, so that they celebrate Easter after our manner,
and observe the other solemnities of the Christian religion after the
manner of the Greeks. They are commonly named John, James, Matthew,
Thomas, and so forth, after the names of the apostles. Departing thence,
after three days journey we came to another city named _Coulan_, about
twenty leagues from _Caicolon_. The king of this place is an idolater,
and has an army of 20,000 men always on foot. Coulan has an excellent
harbour, and the surrounding country produces plenty of pepper, but no
corn. By reason of the wars, we made no stay here, and on our way
farther we saw people fishing for pearls, in the manner already
mentioned when treating of Ormuz.
[Footnote 83: From the distance and direction of the journey or voyage,
this name may possibly be an error or corruption for Cranganore. - E.]
The _city of Coromandel_ on the sea coast, is seven days sail from
Coulan. It is very large, but without walls, and is subject to the king
of Narsinga, being within sight of the island of Ceylon[84]. After
passing the southern point of Cape Comorin, the eastern coast of India
produces abundance of rice.
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