ARCHIPELAGO OF ISLES.
Opposite this country of Malabar, forty leagues to the west in the sea, there is an archipelago of isles, which the Indians say amount to twelve thousand; and they begin in front of the mountain Dely, and extend southwards. The first are four small flat islands, which are called Malandiva; they are inhabited by Malabar Moors, and they say that they are from the kingdom of Cananor. Nothing grows in them, except palm trees (cocoa-nut), with the fruit of which and rice brought them from Malabar, they maintain themselves. These islands make much cordage of palm trees, which they call cayro (coir).
ISLANDS OF PALANDIVA.
Over against Panam, Cochin, and Coulam, to the west and south-west, at a distance of seventy-five leagues are other islands, of which ten or twelve are inhabited by Moors, brown and small in stature, who have a separate language and a Moorish king who resides in an island called Mahaldiu.[268] And they call all these islands Palandiva. The inhabitants are ill-formed and weak, but are very ingenious and charming. Their king is elected by some Moorish merchants, inhabitants of Cananor, and they change him when they please. These persons receive tribute of him every year in cordage and other produce of the country. They go there to load their ships without money, because the people of the country, with or against their will, have to give these said Moors whatever they wish. There is much fish in these islands, of which they prepare much dried,[269] which is a great article of trade. And as ballast for the ships which take on board these things, they carry away sea-snails, which are worth a good deal in many parts, and in some, especially Cambay, they serve as small change. Many fine cotton cloths are manufactured in these islands, and others of silk and gold, which are worth a good deal amongst the Moors. They gather much amber in these islands, of a good quality and in large pieces, white, grey, and brown; and I asked several of these Moors various times how the amber was produced: they hold that it is the droppings of birds, and say that in this archipelago in the uninhabited islands there are some large birds which perch on the rocks near the sea, and there void that amber, which becomes refined by exposure to the air, the sun and the rain, until some storms arise and gales of wind, which drive the sea waves over the rocks, and this bird-dung is torn off the rocks in large and small pieces, and so carried out to sea, where it floats till they meet with it, or it is cast up on some beach, or that some whales swallow it. And they say that what is found of a white colour, and which they call ponabar, has been in the sea only for a short time, and this they value most highly amongst themselves; and that the other which is found of a greyish colour, and which they name puambar, has been, they say, in the sea for a long time, and has taken that colour from floating about in the water; this also is very good, but not equal to the white; and what they find of a brown colour and bruised, has been swallowed, they say, by whales, and turned brown in their bodies, and that it has such a quality that the whale cannot digest it, and they eject it whole just as they swallowed it; this they call minabar, and it is that which among them has least value. In these isles of Maldiva they construct many large ships of palm tree, sewn together with matting, for there is no other wood there. Some of these sail to the mainland, and are ships with keels and of much tonnage; they also construct there other small rowing vessels, like brigantines and fustas, very pretty and good for rowing, which they use to go from one island to another; and they likewise cross over to the Malabar country. Many Moorish ships touch at these islands from China, Malacojana, Malaca, Samatra, Bengala, Ceylan, and Peygu, on their passage to the Red Sea: and there they take in water and refreshments for their voyage. Sometimes they arrive so shattered that they unload their cargo there, and they let it be lost. Many of these ships get lost amongst these islands because they do not venture to come to the Malabar coast from fear of the Portuguese.
ISLAND OF CEYLAM.
Leaving these islands of Mahaldiva further on towards the east, where the cape of Comory is doubled, at thirty-eight leagues from the cape itself, there is a very large and beautiful island which the Moors, Arabs, Persians, and our people call Ceylam,[270] and the Indians call it Ylinarim. It is a rich and luxuriant land, inhabited by Gentiles, and ruled by a Gentile king. Many Moors live in the sea-ports of this island in large quarters, and all the inhabitants are great merchants. There are fifty leagues of channel towards the north-east from the said cape until passing the island of Maylepur.[271] Both Moors and Gentiles are well-made men, and almost white, and for the most part stout, with large stomachs, and luxurious. They do not understand, nor possess arms, they are all given to trade and to good living. They go bare from the waist upwards, and below that cover themselves with good cloths of silk and cotton, caps on their heads, and the ears pierced with large holes in which they wear many gold rings and jewellery, so much that their very ears reach to their shoulders: and many rings and precious jewels on their fingers; they wear belts of gold richly adorned with precious stones. Their language is partly Malabar and partly of Cholmendel, and many Malabar Moors come to live in this island on account of its being so luxuriant, abundant, and very healthy. Men live longer here than in other parts of India. They have a great deal of very good fruit; and the mountains are full of sweet and sour oranges of three or four kinds, and plenty of lemons and citrons, and many other very good fruits which do not exist in our parts, and they last all the year. And there is plenty of meat and fish, little rice, for most of it comes from Cholmendel, and it is their chief food; much good honey and sugar brought from Bengal, and butter of the country. All the good cinnamon grows in this island upon the mountains, on trees which are like laurels. And the king of the country orders it to be cut in small sticks, and has the bark stripped off in certain months of the year, and sells it himself to the merchants who go there to buy it, because no one can gather it except the king. There are likewise in this island many wild elephants which the king orders to be caught and tamed; and they sell them to merchants of Cholmendel, Narsynga, and Malabar, and those of the kingdoms of Decam and Cambay go to those places to buy them. These elephants are caught in this manner: it must be known that they have got other elephants with which they manage it, and they fasten them with chains in the mountains and woods where they are bred; and at the foot and all round a tree near the elephant they make three or four very large pits, covered over with slender poles, and they strew earth on the top, so that nothing appears: and the wild elephants seeing the female come to her, and fall into these pits, where they keep them seven or eight days half-dead of hunger, and so many men watch them by day and night, always speaking to them so as not to let them sleep, until they tame and render them domestic, giving them their food with their hands. And after they have got them broken in and tame, they take them with strong chains, and by degrees throw so much earth and branches into the pit that the elephant gradually rises until he comes out of the pit, and then they tie him to some tree and keep him some days watching, with fire, and men who always talk to him, and give him food in moderation until they make him domestic and obedient. And in this way they catch them male and female, great and small, and sometimes two at once in one pit. They make great merchandise of them, and they are worth much, because they are much valued by the kings of India for war and for labour, and they become as domestic and quick at understanding as men. The very good ones are worth in the Malabar country and in Cholmendel from a thousand to one thousand five hundred ducats, and the others from four to six hundred ducats according as they may be, but in the island they are to be had for a small price. And all have to be brought and presented to the king. There are also many jewels in this island, rubies which they call manica, sapphires, jacinths, topazes jagonzas,[272] chrysoliths, and cat's eyes, which are as much esteemed amongst the Indians as rubies. And all these stones are all gathered in by the king, and sold by himself. And he has men who go and dig for them in the mountains and shores of the rivers, who are great lapidaries and who are good judges in those matters: so much so that if they have a few handfuls of earth brought them from the mountain, at once on seeing it they know if it is of rubies or of any other stones, and where it comes from. And the king sends them to look there, and after they have brought them he orders to set aside each kind, and pick out the good ones, and he has them worked to have them sold when cut, which he does himself to foreigners; and the other inferior ones he sells at once to the country merchants. These rubies which grow here, for the most part, are not of so brilliant a colour as these which grow in Ava and Capelam, of which mention will be made further on; and some which come out perfect in colour are much more highly prized by the Indians than those of Paygu, because they say that they are stronger. And in order to make them of a deeper colour they put them into the fire. These lapidaries whom the king has near him, on seeing a stone before it is cut, say: this ruby will endure so many hours of fire, and will remain very good. And the king risks it, and orders it to be put in a very strong charcoal fire for that space of time which the lapidary has mentioned to him: and if it endures it without danger, it comes out more perfect in colour, and is worth very much. And all the other stones are found and worked in the same manner: and some stones are found which are half ruby and half sapphire, and others half topaze and half sapphires, and also cat's eyes. The king has a great treasure of these jewels, for whenever he meets with any very good stone he puts it in his treasury.
Close to this island of Ceylam in the sea there is a sand-bank covered with ten or fifteen fathoms of water, in which a very great quantity of very fine seed pearls are found, small and great, and a few pearls: and the Moors and Gentiles go there from a city which is called Sael, belonging to the King of Coulam, to fish for this seed pearl, twice a year by custom, and they find them in some small oysters, smoother than those of our parts. And the men plunging under the water, where they remain a considerable time, pick them up: and the seed pearl is for those who gather them, and the large pearls are for the king, who keeps his overseer there, and besides that they give him certain duties upon the seed-pearl.
The King of Ceylan is always in a place called Columbo, which is a river with a very good port, at which every year many ships touch from various parts to take on board cinnamon and elephants. And they bring gold and silver, cotton and silk stuffs from Cambay, and many other goods which are saffron, coral, quicksilver, vermilion which here is worth a great deal; and there is much profit on the gold and silver, because it is worth more than in other parts. And there come likewise many ships from Bengal and Cholmendel, and some from Malaca for elephants, cinnamon and precious stones. In this island of Ceylan there are four or five other harbours and places of trade which are governed by other lords, nephews of the King of Ceylan, to whom they pay obedience, except that sometimes they revolt. In the middle of this island is a very lofty mountain range in which is a very high stone peak, and upon it a pool of spring water, and on this stone there is the form of a man's foot,[273] which the Indians say is the footmark of father Adam, whom they call Adam Baba. And from all those parts and kingdoms the Moors come in pilgrimage, saying that father Adam went up from there to heaven, and they go in the habit of pilgrims, with chains of iron, and clothed with skins of leopards, lions, and other wild animals, and on their arms and legs they inflict wounds continually along the road to keep up open sores, saying that they do that for the service of God, and honour of Mahomed and Adam Baba. And some of them go well provided with money which they carry hidden to spend it on the jewels of Ceylon. Before they arrive at this mountain where Adam's footstep is, they go through swampy land, through valleys full of water, and by the banks of water, and they have five or six leagues to go with water to the waist, and all carry knives in their hands to rid themselves of the leeches which fasten on their legs, and which are innumerable. And on arriving at the mountain they make the ascent of it, and they cannot mount up to the pinnacle except by ladders of iron chains,[274] which it has put round it, of a great thickness. And on the top of it they wash with the water of that pool, and perform their prayer: and they say that with that they remain free and pure of all sin. The said island of Ceylon is very near the mainland, and between it and the continent are some banks which have got a channel in the midst, which the Indians call Chylam,[275] by which all the Malabar sambuks pass to Cholmendel. And every year many are lost upon these banks because the channel is very narrow: and in the year that the Admiral of Portugal went the second time to India, so many ships and sambuks of Malabar were lost in those shallows, that twelve thousand Indians were drowned there, who were coming with provisions, and were determined on driving the Portuguese fleet away from India, without allowing it to take any cargo.