The Author, As On Many Other
Occasions, Gives The Name Of The Country To The Capital.
As to being in
sight of Ceylon, this may be an error in transcription, and we ought to
read that on the voyage between Coulan and the city of Coromandel; the
author passed in sight of Ceylon.
- E.]
This island of Ceylon is 1000 miles in circumference, and is divided
among four powerful kings; and because of the wars which then raged
among them we could not remain long there to acquire any minute
knowledge of the country and manners of its inhabitants. It contains
many elephants. At the foot of a very long and high mountain there are
found many precious stones called _piropi_ or rubies, which are got in
the following manner. The adventurers purchase from the king a certain
measure of the ground where these rubies are found, being about a cubit
square, for which they pay five pieces of gold, yet under the condition
that there shall always be an officer belonging to the king present
while they are digging, that if any stone be found beyond the weight of
ten carats it may be reserved for the king, all under that weight
belonging to the adventurer. Not far from that mountain they find other
precious stones, as jacinths, sapphires, and topazes, besides others.
The soil of Ceylon produces the sweetest fruits I ever saw, especially
_cloves_[85] and Assyrian apples of wonderful sweetness, and its other
productions are similar to those of Calicut.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 174 of 842
Words from 46781 to 47034
of 230997
