The Ship In Which We Were Embarked Belonged To
The Captain, Who Carried In It 124 Horses For Sale.
All goods carried to
Goa in a ship wherein there are horses pay no duties; but if there are
no horses, you then pay eight in the hundred for your goods.
The first
city of India at which we arrived on the 5th November, after passing the
coast of _Zindi_, [Sindi] was named Diu, which stands in an island on
the coast of the kingdom of Cambaia, or Gujrat, and is the strongest
town belonging to the Portuguese in those parts. It is but small, yet
abounds in merchandise, as they here load many ships with different
kinds of goods for the straits of Mecca or the Red Sea, Ormus, and other
places; these ships belong both to Christians and Moors, but the latter
are not permitted to pass unless they have a Portuguese licence.
Cambaietta, or Cambay, is the chief city of that province, being great
and populous and well built for a city of the gentiles. When there
happens a famine the natives sell their children for a low price. The
last king of Cambaia was sultan Badur, who was slain at the siege of
Diu, and shortly after the capital city was reduced by the great
_Mogor_, [Mogul] who is king of Agra and Delhi, forty days journey from
thence. Here the women wear upon their arms, a vast number of ivory
rings, in which they take so much pride that they would rather go
without their meat than want their bracelets.
Going from Diu, we came to _Damaun_, the second town of the Portuguese
in the country of Cambaia, forty leagues from Diu. This place, which has
no trade but in corn and rice, has many villages under its jurisdiction,
which the Portuguese possess quietly during peace, but in time of war
they are all occupied by the enemy. From Damaun we passed to _Basaim_,
[Baseen] and from thence to _Tanna_ in the island of Salsette, at both
which places the only trade is in rice and corn. The 10th November we
arrived at _Chaul_ on the firm land, at which place there are two towns,
one belonging to the Portuguese and the other to the Moors. That of the
Portuguese is nearest the sea, commanding the bay, and is walled round;
and a little above it is the Moors town, subject to a king called
_Xa-Maluco_. At this place is a great trade for all Kinds of spices,
drugs, silk, raw and manufactured, sandal-wood, elephants teeth, much
China work, and a great deal of sugar made from the nut called _gagara_,
[coco]. The tree on which it grows is called the _palmer_, and is the
most profitable tree in the world. It always bears fruit, and yields
wine, oil, sugar, vinegar, cordage, coals, or fuel; of the leaves are
made thatch for houses, sails for ships, and mats to sit or lie on; of
the branches are made houses, and brooms wherewith they sweep them; of
the wood ships.
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