Hauing passed Diu, I came to the second city that the Portugals haue, called Daman, situated in the territory of Cambaia, distant from Diu an hundred and twenty miles: it is no towne of merchandise, saue Rice and corne, and hath many villages vnder it, where in time of peace the Portugals take their pleasure, but in time of warre the enemies haue the spoile of them; in such wise that the Portugals haue little benefit by them. Next vnto Daman you shall haue Basan, which is a filthy place in respect of Daman: in this place is Rice, Corne, and Timber to make shippes and gallies. And a small distance beyond Bassan is a little Iland called Tana, a place very populous with Portugals, Moores, and Gentiles: these haue nothing but Rice, there are many makers of Armesie, and weauers of girdles of wooll and bumbast blacke and redde like to Moocharies.
Of the cities of Chaul, and of the Palmer tree.
Beyond this Iland you shall finde Chaul in the firme land; and they are two cities, one of the Portugals, and the other of the Moores: that city which the Portugals haue is situate lower then the other, and gouerneth the mouth of the harbour, and is very strongly walled: and as it were a mile and an halfe distant from this is the city of Moores, gouerned by their king Zamalluco. In the time of warres there cannot any great ships come to the city of the Moores, because the Portugals with their ordinance will sincke them, for that they must perforce passe by the castles of the Portugals: both the cities are ports of the sea, and are great cities, and haue vnto them great traffique and trade of merchandise, of all sorts of spices, drugges, silke, cloth of silke, Sandols, Marsine, Versin, Porcelane of China, Veluets and Scarlets that come from Portugall and from Meca: with many other sortes of merchandise. There come euery yeere from Cochin, and from Cananor tenne or fifteene great shippes laden with great Nuts cured, and with sugar made of the selfe same Nuts called Giagra: the tree whereon these Nuts doe grow is called the Palmer tree: and thorowout all the Indies, and especially from this place to Goa there is great abundance of them, and it is like to the Date tree. In the whole world there is not a tree more profitable and of more goodnesse then this tree is, neither doe men reape so much benefit of any other tree as they doe of this, there is not any part of it but serueth for some vse, and none of it is woorthy to be burnt. With the timber of this tree they make shippes without the mixture of any other tree, and with the leaues thereof they make sailes, and with the fruit thereof, which be a kinde of Nuts, they make wine, and of the wine they make Sugar and Placetto, which wine they gather in the spring of the yeere: out of the middle of the tree where continually there goeth or runneth out white liquour like vnto water, in that time of the yeere they put a vessel vnder euery tree, and euery euening and morning they take it away full, and then distilling it with fire it maketh a very strong liquour: and then they put it into buts, with a quantity of Zibibbo, white or blacke and in short time it is made a perfect wine. After this they make of the Nuts great store of oile: of the tree they make great quantity of boordes and quarters for buildings. Of the barke of this tree they make cables, ropes, and other furniture for shippes, and, as they say, these ropes be better then they that are made of Hempe. They make of the bowes, bedsteds, after the Indies fashion, and Scauasches for merchandise. The leaues they cut very small, and weaue them, and so make sailes of them, for all maner of shipping, or els very fine mats. And then the first rinde of the Nut they stampe, and make thereof perfect Ockam to calke shippes, great and small: and of the hard barke thereof they make spoones and other vessels for meat, in such wise that there is no part thereof throwen away or cast to the fire. When these Mats be greene they are full of an excellent sweet water to drinke: and if a man be thirsty, with the liquour of one of the Mats he may satisfie himselfe: and as this Nut ripeneth, the liquour thereof turneth all to kernell. There goeth out of Chaul for Mallaca, for the Indies, for Macao, for Portugall, for the coasts of Melinde, for Ormus, as it were an infinite number and quantity of goods and merchandise that come out of the kingdome of Cambaia, as cloth of bumbast white, painted, printed, great quantity of Indico, Opium, Cotton, Silke of euery sort, great store of Boraso in Paste, great store of Fetida, great store of yron, corne, and other merchandise. [Sidenote: Great ordinance made in pieces, and yet seruiceable.] The Moore king Zamalluco is of great power, as one that at need may command, and hath in his camp, two hundred thousand men of warre, and hath great store of artillery, some of them made in pieces, which for their greatnesse can not bee carried to and fro: yet although they bee made in pieces, they are so commodious that they worke with them maruellous well, whose shotte is of stone, and there hath bene of that shot sent vnto the king of Portugall for the rarenes of the thing. The city where the king Zamalluco hath his being, is within the land of Chaul seuen or eight dayes iourney, which city is called Abneger. Three score and tenne miles from Chaul, towards the Indies, is the port of Dabul, an hauen of the king Zamalluco: from thence to Goa is an hundred and fifty miles.
Goa.
[Sidenote: The chiefe place the Portugals have in the Indies.] Goa is the principall city that the Portugals haue in the Indies, wherein the Viceroy with his royall Court is resident, and is in an Iland which may be in circuit fiue and twenty or thirty miles: and the city with the boroughs is reasonable bigge, and for a citie of the Indies it is reasonable faire, but the Iland is farre more fairer: for it is as it were full of goodly gardens, replenished with diuers trees and with the Palmer trees as is aforesayd. This city is of great trafique for all sorts of marchandise which they trade withall in those parts: and the fleet which commeth euery yeere from Portugall, which are fiue or sixe great shippes that come directly for Goa, arriue there ordinarily the sixth or tenth of September, and there they remaine forty or fifty dayes, and from thence they goe to Cochin, where they lade for Portugall, and often times they lade one shippe at Goa and the other at Cochin for Portugall. Cochin is distant from Goa three hundred miles. The city of Goa is situate in the kingdome of Dialcan a king of the Moores, whose chiefe city is vp in the countrey eight dayes iourney, and is called Bisapor: the king is of great power, for when I was in Goa in the yeere of our Lord 1570, this king came to giue assault to Goa, being encamped neere vnto it by a riuer side with an army of two hundred thousand men of warre, and he lay at this siege foureteene moneths in which time there was peace concluded, and as report went amongst his people, there was great calamity and mortality which bred amongst them in the time of Winter, and also killed very many elephants. [Sidenote: A very good sale for horses.] Then in the yeere of our Lord 1567, I went from Goa to Bezeneger the chiefe city of the king dome of Narsinga eight dayes iourney from Goa, within the land, in the company of two other merchants which carried with them three hundred Arabian horses to that king: because the horses of that countrey are of a small stature, and they pay well for the Arabian horses: and is requisite that the merchants sell them well, for that they stand them in great charges to bring them out of Persia to Ormus, and from Ormus to Goa, where the ship that bringeth twenty horses and vpwards payeth no custome, neither ship nor goods whatsoeuer; whereas if they bring no horses, they pay 8 per cento of all their goods: and at the going out of Goa the horses pay custome, two and forty pagodies for euery horse, which pagody may be of sterling money sixe shillings eight pence, they be pieces of golde of that value. So that the Arabian horses are of great value in those countreys, as 300, 400, 500 duckets a horse, and to 1000 duckets a horse.
Bezeneger.
The city of Bezeneger was sacked in the yeere 1565, by foure kings of the Moores, which were of great power and might: the names of these foure kings were these following, the first was called Dialcan, the second Zamaluc, the third Cotamaluc, and the fourth Viridy: and yet these foure kings were not able to ouercome the city and the king of Bezeneger, but by treason. The king of Bezeneger was a Gentile, and had, amongst all other of his captaines, two which were notable, and they were Moores: and these two captaines had either of them in charge threescore and ten or fourescore thousand men. These two captaines being of one religion with the foure kings which were Moores, wrought meanes with them to betray their owne king into their hands. [Footnote: A most vnkind and wicked treason against their prince: this they haue for giuing credit to strangers, rather then to their owne natiue people.] The king of Bezeneger esteemed not the force of the foure kings his enemies, but went out of his city to wage battell with them in the fieldes; and when the armies were ioyned, the battell lasted but a while not the space of foure houres, because the two traitourous captaines, in the chiefest of the fight, with their companies turned their faces against their king, and made such disorder in his armie, that as astonied they set themselues to flight. Thirty yeeres was this kingdome gouerned by three brethren which were tyrants, the which keeping the rightful king in prison, it was their vse euery yeere once to shew him to the people, and they at their pleasures ruled as they listed. These brethren were three captaines belonging to the father of the king they kept in prison, which when he died, left his sonne very yong, and then they tooke the gouernment to themselues. The chiefest of these three was called Ramaragio, and sate in the royall throne, and was called the king: the second was called Temiragio, and he tooke the gouernment on him: the third was called Bengatre, and he was captaine generall of the army. These three brethren were in this battell, in the which the chiefest and the last were neuer heard of quicke nor dead. [Sidenote: The sacking of the city.] Onely Temiragio fled in the battel, hauing lost one of his eyes: when the newes came to the city of the ouerthrow in the battell, the wiues and children of these three tyrants, with their lawfull king (kept prisoner) fled away, spoiled as they were, and the foure kings of the Moores entred the city Bezeneger with great triumph, and there they remained sixe moneths, searching vnder houses and in all places for money and other things that were hidden, and then they departed to their owne kingdomes because they were not able to maintaine such a kingdome as that was, so farre distant from their owne countrey.
When the kings were departed from Bezeneger, this Temiragio returned to the city, and then beganne for to repopulate it, and sent word to Goa to the Merchants, if they had any horses, to bring them to him, and he would pay well for them, and for this cause the foresayd two Merchants that I went in company withall, carried those horses that they had to Bezeneger. [Sidenote: An excellent good policy to intrap men.] Also this Tyrant made an order or lawe, that if any Merchant had any of the horses that were taken in the foresayd battell or warres, although they were of his owne marke, that he would giue as much for them as they would: and besides he gaue generall safe conduct to all that should bring them. When by this meanes he saw that there were great store of horses brought thither vnto him, hee gaue the Merchants faire wordes, vntill such time as he saw they could bring no more. Then he licenced the Merchants to depart, without giuing them any thing for their horses, which when the poore men saw, they were desperate, and as it were mad with sorrow and griefe.
I rested in Bezeneger seuen moneths; although in one moneth I might haue discharged all my businesse, for it was necessary to rest there vntill the wayes were cleere of theeues, which at that time ranged vp and downe. And in the time I rested there, I saw many strange and beastly deeds done by the Gentiles. First, when there is any Noble man or woman dead, they burne their bodies: and if a married man die, his wife must burne herselfe aliue, for the loue of her husband, and with the body of her husband: so that when any man dieth, his wife will take a moneths leaue, two or three, or as shee will, to burne her selfe in, and that day being come, wherein shee ought to be burnt, that morning shee goeth out of her house very earely, either on horsebacke or on an eliphant, or else is borne by eight men on a smal stage: in one of these orders she goeth, being apparelled like to a Bride, carried round about the City, with her haire downe about her shoulders, garnished with iewels and flowers, according to the estate of the party, and they goe with as great ioy as Brides doe in Venice to their nuptials: shee carrieth in her left hand a looking glasse, and in her right hand an arrow, and singeth thorow the City as she passeth, and sayth, that she goeth to sleepe with her deere spowse and husband. [Sidenote: A discription of the burning place.] She is accompanied with her kindred and friends vntill it be one or two of the clocke in the afternoone, then they goe out of the City, and going along the riuers side called Nigondin, which runneth vnder the walles of the City, vntill they come vnto a place where they vse to make this burning of women, being widdowes, there is prepared in this place a great square caue, with a little pinnacle hard by it, foure or fiue steppes vp: the foresayd caue is full of dried wood. [Sidenote: Feasting and dancing when they should mourne.] The woman being come thither, accompanied with a great number of people which come to see the thing, then they make ready a great banquet, and she that shall be burned eateth with as great ioy and gladnesse, as though it were her wedding day: and the feast being ended, then they goe to dancing and singing a certeine time, according as she will. After this, the woman of her owne accord, commandeth them to make the fire in the square caue where the drie wood is, and when it is kindled, they come and certifie her thereof, then presently she leaueth the feast, and taketh the neerest kinseman of her husband by the hand, and they both goe together to the banke of the foresayd riuer, where shee putteth off all her iewels and all her clothes, and giueth them to her parents or kinsefolke and couering herselfe with a cloth, because she will not be seene of the people being naked, she throweth herselfe into the riuer, saying, O wretches, wash away your sinnes. Comming out of the water, she rowleth herselfe into a yellow cloth of fourteene braces long: and againe she taketh her husbands kinseman by the hand, and they go both together vp to the pinnacle of the square caue wherein the fire is made. When she is on the pinnacle, shee talketh and reasoneth with the people, recommending vnto them her children and kindred. Before the pinnacle they vse to set a mat, because they shall not see the fiercenesse of the fire, yet there are many that will haue them plucked away, shewing therein an heart not fearefull, and that they are not affrayd of that sight. When this silly woman hath reasoned with the people a good while to her content, there is another women that taketh a pot with oile, and sprinckleth it ouer her head, and with the same she anoynteth all her body, and afterwards throweth the pot into the fornace, and both the woman and the pot goe together into the fire, and presently the people that are round about the fornace throw after her into the caue great pieces of wood, so by this meanes, with the fire and with the blowes that she hath with the wood throwen after her, she is quickly dead, and after this there groweth such sorrow and such lamentation among the people, that all their mirth is turned into howling and weeping, in such wise, that a man could scarse beare the hearing of it. [Sidenote: Mourning when they should reioice.] I haue seene many burnt in this maner, because my house was neere to the gate where they goe out to the place of burning: and when there dieth any great man, his wife with all his slaues with whom hee hath had carnall copulation, burne themselues together with him. Also in this kingdome I haue seene amongst the base sort of people this vse and order, that the man being dead, he is carried to the place where they will make his sepulchre, and setting him as it were vpright, then commeth his wife before him on her knees, casting her armes about his necke, with imbracing and clasping him, vntill such time as the Masons haue made a wall round about them, and when the wall is as high as their neckes, there commeth a man behinde the women and strangleth her: then when she is dead, the workemen finish the wall ouer their heads, and so they lie buried both together. Besides these, there are an infinite number of beastly qualities amongst them, of which I haue no desire to write. [Sidenote: The cause why the women do so burne themselues.] I was desirous to know the cause why these women would so wilfully burne themselues against nature and law, and it was told mee that this law was of an antient time, to make prouision against the slaughters which women made of their husbands. For in those dayes before this law was made, the women for euery little displeasure that their husbands had done vnto them, would presently poison their husbands, and take other men, and now by reason of this law they are more faithfull vnto their husbands, and count their liues as deare as their owne, because that after his death her owne followeth presently.
In the yeere of our Lord God 1567, for the ille successe that the people of Bezeneger had, in that their City was sacked by the foure kings, the king with his Court went to dwell in a castle eight dayes iourney vp in the land from Bezenger, called Penegonde. Also sixe dayes iourney from Bezenger, is the place where they get Diamants: I was not there, but it was tolde me that it is a great place, compassed with a wall, and that they sell the earth within the wall, for so much a squadron, and the limits are set how deepe or how low they shall digge. Those Diamante that are of a certaine sise and bigger then that sise, are all for the king, it is many yeeres agone, since they got any there, for the troubles that haue bene in that kingdome. The first cause of this trouble was, because the sonne of this Temeragio had put to death the lawfull king which he had in prison, for which cause the Barons and Noblemen in that kingdome would not acknowledge him to be their king, and by this meanes there are many kings, and great diuision in that kingdome, and the city of Bezeneger is not altogether destroyed, yet the houses stand still, but empty, and there is dwelling in them nothing, as is reported, but Tygers and other wilde beasts. The circuit of this city is foure and twentie miles about, and within the walles are certeine mountaines. The houses stand walled with earth, and plaine, all sauing the three palaces of the three tyrant brethren, and the Pagodes which are idole houses: these are made with lime and fine marble. I haue seene many kings Courts, and yet haue I seene none in greatnesse like to this of Bezeneger, I say, for the ordes of his palace, for it hath nine gates or ports. First when you goe into the place where the king did lodge, there are fiue great ports or gates: these are kept with Captaines and souldiers: then within these there are foure lesser gates: which are kept with Porters. Without the first gate there is a little porch, where there is a Captaine with fiue and twentie souldiers, that keepeth watch and ward night and day: and within that another, with the like guard, wherethorow they come to a very faire Court, and at the end of that Court there is another porch as the first, with the like guard, and within that another Court. And in this wise are the first fiue gates guarded and kept with those Captaines: and then the lesser gates within are kept with a guard of Porters: which gates stand open the greatest part of the night, because the custome of the Gentiles is to doe their businesse, and make their feasts in the night, rather then by day. The city is very safe from theeues, for the Portugall merchants sleepe in the streets, or vnder porches, for the great heat which is there, and yet they neuer had any harme in the night. At the end of two monethes, I determined to goe for Goa in the company of two other Portugall Marchants, which were making ready to depart, with two palanchines or little litters, which are very commodious for the way, with eight Falchines which are men hired to cary the palanchines, eight for a palanchine, foure at a time: they carry them as we vse to carry barrowes. [Sidenote: Men ride on bullocks and trauell with them on the way.] And I bought me two bullocks, one of them to ride on, and the other to carry my victuals and prouision, for in that countrey they ride on bullocks with pannels, as we terme them, girts and bridles, and they haue a very good commodious pace. From Bezeneger to Goa in Summer it is eight dayes iourney, but we went in the midst of Winter, in the moneth of Iuly, and were fifteene dayes comming to Ancola on the sea coast, so in eight dayes I had lost my two bullocks: for he that carried my victuals, was weake and could not goe, the other when I came vnto a riuer where was a little bridge to passe ouer, I put my bullocke to swimming, and in the middest of the riuer there was a little Iland, vnto the which my bullocke went, and finding pasture, there he remained still, and in no wise we could come to him: and so perforce, I was forced to leaue him, and at that time there was much raine, and I was forced to go seuen dayes a foot with great paines: and by great chance I met with Falchines by the way, whom I hired to carry my clothes and victuals. We had great trouble in our iourney, for that euery day wee were taken prisoners, by reason of the great dissension in that kingdome: and euery morning at our departure we must pay rescat foure or fiue pagies a man. And another trouble wee had as bad as this, that when as wee came into a new gouernours countrey, as euery day we did, although they were al tributary to the king of Bezeneger, yet euery one of them stamped a seueral coine of Copper, so that the money that we tooke this day would not serue the next: at length, by the helpe of God, we came safe to Ancola, which is a country of the Queene of Gargopam, tributary to the king of Bezeneger. [Sidenote: The marchandise that come in and out to Bezeneger euery yere.] The marchandise that went euery yere from Goa to Bezeneger were Arabian Horses, Veluets, Damasks, and Sattens, Armesine of Portugall, and pieces of China, Saffron, and Skarlets: and from Bezeneger they had in Turky for their commodities, iewels, and Pagodies which be ducats of golde: [Sidenote: the apparell of those people.] the apparell that they vse in Bezeneger is Veluet, Satten, Damaske, Scarlet, or white Bumbast cloth, according, to the estate of the person with long hats on their heads, called Colae, made of Veluet, Satten, Damaske, or Scarlet, girding themselues in stead of girdles with some fine white bombast doth: they haue breeches after the order of the Turks: they weare on their feet plaine high things called of them Aspergh, and at their eares they haue hanging great plenty of golde.