[426] Spectacles were invented in the thirteenth century; and the credit for the invention is assigned to Alessandro dì Spina, a Florentine monk, or to Roger Bacon.
[427] MS. 5,650 reads: “not to wash the buttocks with the left hand; not to eat with it.”
[428] Stanley (p. 116) omits a portion of this paragraph. He says that had Pigafetta been a Spaniard or Portuguese, he would not have written as he did concerning the Mahometan laws, as he would have been better informed. Notwithstanding the fact that Stanley was a convert to Islamism and a student of that faith, some of these practices may have been introduced into Borneo, as the rites there being far from their center, may have become vitiated or imperfectly learned in the first place. For instance, that the law was not strictly observed there is seen from the fact recorded by Pigafetta that they used the intoxicant arrack.
[429] MS. 5,650 says simply that the camphor exudes in small drops. The Malay camphor tree (dipterocarpus or Dryabalanops camphora) is confined, so far as known, to a few parts of the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, where it is very abundant. The oil (both fluid and solid) is found in the body of the tree where the sap should be, but not in all trees. The Malay name for camphor is a slight corruption of the Sanskrit one “karpura,” and to distinguish it from the camphor of China and Japan, the word Barus is annexed (the name of the seaport of the western coast of Sumatra, whence camphor was chiefly exported from that island). The Malay variety is higher priced than the Chinese. See Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. 81.
[430] MS. 5,650 omits mention of the turnips and cabbages, and adds: “hinds.”
[431] Immediately following this paragraph in the Italian MS. are three charts: 1. On folio 45b, the chart of Burne (q.v., p. 210), at the lower (i.e., northern) end of which is a scroll reading “Here are found the living leaves;” found on folio 60b of MS. 5,650, preceded by the words “Chart of the island of Burne and the place where the living leaves are found.” 2. On folio 46b, the chart of Mindanao, which is divided into the districts of Cippit, Butuam, Maingdanao, Calagan, and Benaiam (q.v., p. 230); found on folio 63a of MS. 5,650, preceded by the words “Chart of five islands—Benaian.” 3. On folio 47a, the chart of the islands of Zzolo [i.e., Joló], Tagima, and Chauit and Subanìn, (q.v., p. 230), accompanied by a scroll reading “Where pearls are produced;” found on folio 63b of MS. 5,650, preceded by the words “Chart of the islands of Zzolo, Cauit, Tagima, and others.”
[432] Cape Sampanmangio (Guillemard, p. 274). See ante, note 418.
[433] MS. 5,650 omits this sentence.
[434] The “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 20) also narrates the capture of this junk.
[435] In Eden: “Cimbubon, beinge. viii. degrees aboue the Equinoctiall lyne. Here they remayned. xl. to calke theyr ſhyppes and furnyſſe them with freſſhe water and fuell.” Cimbonbon is probably Banguey or one of the neighboring islets between Borneo and Palawan. It is called in the “Roteiro” (Stanley, p. 21), port Samta Maria de Agosto, (St. Mary of August) because it was reached on the fifteenth of August, the day of our Lady of August. It is assigned a latitude of fully seven degrees. Herrera says that the ships were overhauled on Borneo itself. Guillemard (p. 274) interprets Pigafetta wrongly by saying that he assigns the careening place as Palawan or Paragua.