This passage ought to have stood thus "The fort of
Cananore belonging to the Portuguese, only a musket-shot from the city
of that name, the capital of" &c. - E.]
From Cananore you go Cranganore, which is a small fort of the Portuguese
in the country of the king of Cranganore, another king of the Gentiles.
This is a country of small importance of about a hundred miles extent,
full of thieves, subject to the king of Calicut, who is another king of
the Gentiles and a great enemy to the Portuguese, with whom he is
continually engaged in war. This country is a receptacle of foreign
thieves, and especially of those Moors called _Carposa_, on account of
their wearing long red caps. These thieves divide the spoil they get
with the king of Calicut, who gives them leave to go a-roving; so that
there are so many thieves all along this coast, that there is no sailing
in those seas except in large ships well armed, or under convoy of
Portuguese ships of war. From Cranganore to Cochin is 15 miles[143].
[Footnote 143: The direct distance is twenty geographical miles. - E.]
SECTION IX.
_Of Cochin._
Cochin, next to Goa, is the chief place in India belonging to the
Portuguese, and has a great trade in spices, drugs, and all other kinds
of merchandise for Portugal. Inland from that place is the pepper
country, which pepper is loaded by the Portuguese in bulk not in sacks.
The pepper which is sent to Portugal is not so good as that which goes
up the Red Sea; because in times past the officers of the king of
Portugal made a contract with the king of Cochin for all the pepper, to
be delivered at a fixed price, which is very low; and for which reason
the country people deliver it to the Portuguese unripe and full of dirt.
As the Moors of Mecca give a better price, they get it clean and dry and
in much better condition; but all the spices and drugs which they carry
to Mecca and the Red Sea are contraband and stolen or smuggled.
![South America - A General History And Collection Of Voyages And Travels - Volume 7 - By Robert Kerr
- - E.]
[Footnote 142: This passage ought to have stood thus The fort of
Cananore belonging to the Portuguese, only a - Page 268](../images/travel.jpg)
