[114] The Swahili “dress” their vessels at the feast that follows the Ramadan month (Sir J. Kirk), but Ramadan, of the year of the Hejra 903, began on April 23, 1498, and the Bairam therefore lasted from May 22-24. These dates are according to the Old Style.
[115] Alcaide, from the Arabic Alkadi, the Judge.
[116] Burton (Camoens, iv, p. 241) suggests that this picture of the Holy Ghost may have been a figure of Kapot-eshwar, the Hindu pigeon-god and goddess, an incarnation of Shiva and his wife, the third person of the Hindu Triad.
[117] Trigo tremez, corn that ripens in three months. This, according to a note furnished by Sir John Kirk, would be sorghum (the “matama” of the Swahili), which is sent in shiploads to Arabia and the Persian Gulf.
[118] These two “Moors” were undoubtedly two of the four men whom Paulo da Gama had captured at Moçambique, but whom the author previously described as “Negroes”. Of the two pilots who escaped, one had been given them by the Sultan of Moçambique, the other must have been the old Moor who came on board voluntarily, unless one of the men taken by Paulo was a pilot. (See note 1, p. 31).
[119] Barros (Dec. I, liv. 8, c. 7) says erroneously that this fort was built after Vasco da Gama’s visit. When the vessel of Sancho de Toar, of the armada of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, was lost near Mombaça, the Moors succeeded in fishing up seven or eight of her guns. These they placed in this fort, in the vain hope of being thus enabled to resist the attack of D. Francisco d’Almeida in 1505.—Kopke.
[120] Castanheda (I, c. 10, p. 35) says they waited two days in the hope of being able to secure a pilot to take them to Calecut. On crossing the bar they were unable to heave up one of the anchors. The Moors subsequently fished it up and placed it near the royal palace, where D. Francisco d’Almeida found it when he took the town in 1505.
[121] The author spells Milinde, Milynde, Milingue.
[122] Sir J. Kirk suggests to me that these places are Mtwapa, Takaungu and Kilifi, distorted into Benapa, Toca-nuguo and Quioniete. “Kioni” is the native name of the village usually called Kilifi.
[123] The ruins of the ancient town of Malindi lie to the south of the modern village of that name, and are of great extent. They include the remains of a town wall. Persian and Arabic inscriptions have been discovered, but, with the exception of Vasco da Gama’s pillar, no traces of occupation by the Portuguese. Malindi Road, or Port Melinda of the Admiralty chart, lies about three miles to the south of the town, but Vasco da Gama anchored off the town, and not in this sheltered road. The anchorage is less than half a mile from the town in four fathoms and a half. Comp. Lord Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 109.