[171] This was done to afford shelter until the rain should have ceased.
[172] It is still the practice in Calecut to ride horses without a saddle, and no slight seems therefore to have been intended.
[173] According to G. Correa’s not very credible narrative, the captain slept at the factory, which had been established previously to the audience of which an account has just been given.
[174] Lambel, striped cloth, see p. [41], note 3.
[175] As a matter of fact, Vasco da Gama was very poorly provided with suitable merchandise, as may be seen from the king’s letter printed in the Appendix.
[176] Barros writes Çamorij; Correa, Samori and Çamorin, and others Zamorin. It is a title; according to some a corrupt reading of Tamuri Rajah, Tamuri being the name of the most exalted family of the Nair caste, whilst others derive it from “Samudriya Rajah”, that is, “King of the Coast” (see G. P. Badger’s Varthema, pp. lxii and I, 37).
[177] Whom others call his “veador”, that is butler or comptroller of the household.
[178] That is, a man of Guzerat.
[179] “Bisarma” in the original. Herculano accepts the definition of Spelmann ([v]. Ducange, sub bisarma).
[180] These men were Diogo Dias, as factor, and Alvaro de Braga as his assistant (Castanheda, I, 74.)