CHAP IX. Early Voyages of the English to the East Indies, before the
establishment of an exclusive company.
SECT. I. Voyage to Goa in 1579, in the Portuguese fleet, by Thomas
Stevens.
Introduction.
II. Journey to India over-land, by Ralph Fitch, Merchant of London, and
others, in 1583.
III. Supplement to the Journey of Fitch No. 1. - Letter from Mr John
Newbery to Mr Richard Hakluyt of Oxford, Author of the Voyages, &c.
No. 2, - Letter from Mr John Newbery to Mr Leonard Poore of London.
3. - Letter from Mr John Newbery to the same.
4. - Letter from John Newbery to Messrs John Eldred and William Scales at
Basora.
5. - Letter from Mr John Newbery to Messrs Eldred and Scales.
6. - Letter from Mr Newbery to Mr Leonard Poore.
7. - Letter from Mr Ralph Fitch to Mr Leonard Poore.
8. - The Report of John Huighen, &c.
A
GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION
OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
* * * * *
PART II. BOOK III. CONTINUED.
* * * * *
CONTINUATION OF THE DISCOVERIES AND CONQUESTS OF THE PORTUGUESE IN THE
EAST; TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY VOYAGES Of OTHER EUROPEAN
NATIONS TO INDIA.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IV. CONTINUED.
CONTINUATION OF THE PORTUGUESE TRANSACTIONS IN INDIA, AFTER THE RETURN
OF DON STEPHANO DE GAMA FROM SUEZ IN 1541, TO THE REDUCTION OF PORTUGAL
UNDER THE DOMINION OF SPAIN IN 1581.
SECTION XIII.
_Account of an Expedition of the Portuguese from India to Madagascar in
1613._
Being anxious to find out a considerable number of Portuguese who were
reported to exist in the island of St. Lawrence or Madagascar, having
been cast away at different times on that island, and also desirous of
propagating the ever blessed gospel among its inhabitants, and to
exclude the Hollanders from that island by establishing a friendly
correspondence with the native princes, the viceroy Don Jerome de
Azevedo sent thither, in 1613, a caravel from Goa commanded by Paul
Rodrigues de Costa, accompanied by two Jesuits, some interpreters, and a
competent number of soldiers. This island is about 260 leagues in length
and 600 in circumference[1], its greatest extent being from N.N.E. to
S.S.W. It is 80 leagues from E. to W. where widest, but considerably
less towards the north, where it ends in a point named St Ignatius which
is about 15 leagues from east to west[2]. It may be considered as
divided into three parts. The first or northern portion is divided from
the other two by an imaginary line from east to west at Cape St
Andrew[3]. The other two divisions are formed by a chain of mountains
running nearly south from this line to Cape St Romanus, otherwise Cape
St Mary, but much nearer the east coast than the west. The island is
divided into a great number of kingdoms, but so confusedly and
ill-defined, that it were endless to enumerate them. It is very
populous, the inhabitants having many cities and towns of different
extent and grandeur[4]. The country is fertile and well watered, and
everywhere diversified with mountains, vallies, rivers, bays, and ports.
The natives have no general name for the island, and are entirely
ignorant of those of Madagascar and St Lawrence, which are given to it
by strangers. The general population of the island consists of a nation
called _Buques_, who have no religion and consequently no priests or
places of worship, yet all their youth are circumcised at six or seven
years old, any one performing the operation. The natives are not all of
one colour; some being quite black with crisp or curled hair like
negroes; others not quite so black with lank hair; others again
resembling mulatoes; while some that live in the interior are almost
white, yet have hair of both kinds. They are of large stature, strong
and well made, of clear judgment, and apt to learn. Every man has as
many wives as he pleases or can maintain, turning them off at pleasure,
when they are sure to find other husbands, all of whom buy their wives
from their fathers, by way of repaying the expence of their maintenance
before marriage. Their funeral obsequies consist chiefly in feasting the
guests; and their mourning in laying aside all appearance of joy, and
cutting off their hair or daubing their faces and bodies with clay.
Their government is monarchical, their kings or chiefs being called
_Andias_, _Anrias_, and _Dias_, all independent of each other and almost
continually engaged in war, more for the purpose of plunder than
slaughter or conquest. On the Portuguese going among them, no arms were
found in their possession except a few guns they had procured from the
Moors and Hollanders, which they knew not how to use, and were even
fearful of handling. They have excellent amber[5], white sandal,
tortoises, ebony, sweet woods of various kinds, and abundance of slaves,
with plenty of cattle of all kinds, the flesh of their goats being as
sweet as mutton. The island likewise produces abundance of sea cows,
sea-horses, monkeys, and some say tigers, with a great many snakes which
are not very venomous. It has no elephants, horses, asses, lions, bears,
deer, foxes, nor hares.
[Footnote 1: Madagascar, between the latitudes of 12 deg. 30' and 35 deg. 45' S.
and the longitudes of 44 deg. and 53 deg. W. from Greenwich, rather exceeds 1000
statute miles from N.N.W to S.S.E. and is about 220 miles in mean width
from east to west. This island therefore, in a fine climate, capable of
growing all the tropical productions in perfection, and excellently
situated for trade, extends to about 200,000 square miles, or 128
millions of acres, yet is abandoned entirely to ignorant
barbarians. - E.]
[Footnote 2: The north end of Madagascar, called the point of St
Ignatius, is 70 miles from east to west, the eastern headland being Cape
Natal or de Ambro, and the western Cape St Sebastian.
