[3] See Satow’s Voyage of Capt. John Saris, ut supra, pp. 224, 225, 228, 229, for names and prices of various kinds of silks.
[4] Cuarto: a copper coin worth four maravedis.
[5] Saris (Voyage, pp. 216, 225) mentions the following Chinese goods: “Veluet Hangings imbroydered with gold, eighteene Rialls; vpon Sattins, fourteene Rials.” “Imbrodered Hangings, called Poey, the best ten Rials the piece.”
[6] Spanish, palo de China; also known as “China root;” the root of Smilax china. It is not now used, but formerly had great repute for the cure of venereal diseases as well as for gout. Linschoten has a long account of its virtues and mode of use, in Voyage (Hakluyt Society’s edition), ii, pp. 107–112; see also i, p. 239. Cf. Pyrard de Laval’s Voyage, i, p. 182.
[7] The cruzado was an old coin of Castilla and Portugal. The Castilian coin was of gold, silver, or copper, and of different values. The Portuguese coin, evidently the one of our text, was worth ten reals de vellon in Spain. See Dicc. nacional ... de la lengua Española (Madrid, 1878).
[8] So in the copy which we follow. Literally translated this is “butter,” which causes doubt as to the correctness of the copy.
[9] The larin was a silver coin that takes its name from the city of Lar in Persia. It has been current in a number of eastern countries and districts, among them Persia, the Maldives, Goa, and the Malabar coast, Ceylon, and Kandy. It has gone out of circulation, although the name is preserved in certain copper coins at the Maldives. The ancient coin was of various shapes, that of the Maldives being about as long as the finger and double, having Arabic characters stamped on it; that of Ceylon resembled a fishhook: those of Kandy are described as a piece of silver wire rolled up like a wax taper. When a person wishes to make a purchase, he cuts off as much of this silver as is equal in value to the price of the article. Its probably first mention by an European writer occurs in the Lembranças das Cousas de India (Subsidios iii, 53), in 1525, where the following table is given: 2 fules = 1 dinar; 12 dinars = 1 tanga; 3 tangas 10 dinars = 1 new larin; 3 tangas 9 dinars = 1 old larin. At Cambaye (p. 38) 1 tanga larin = 60 reis, and 45 larins weighed 1 Portuguese marco, or 50 grammes. Antonio Nunes (1554) in his Livro dos Pesos, says: “At the port of Bengala, 80 couries = 1 pone; 48 pones = 1 larin. The Portuguese marco of the time of João III, being equivalent to 2,500 reis, would make the larin worth 51,012 reis.” Davy says that the larin of Kandy was worth about 7d. in English currency. For detailed information about the larin, see Voyage of Pyrard de Laval, ut supra, i, p. 232 and note 2; and ii, p. 68.
[10] “Next, many watered camlets of Persia and Ormus, of all colours, made of the wool of large sheep that have not curled fleeces like ours. Of it they make also good store of cloaks and capes, called by the Indians Mansans, and by the Portuguese ‘Ormus cambalis;’ they are made of the same wool, in bands of different colours, each four inches wide. Everyone takes these to sea for a protection from the rain. The tissue is the same as of cloth.” It was called “camlet,” because made originally of camel’s hair. See ut supra, ii, p. 240.
[11] The Venetian sequin, worth about 50 sols, which was silver money and circulated at Goa. See ut supra, ii, p. 69.
[12] Crawfurd (Dict. Indian Islands) says that this is the eagle-wood of commerce. Its name in Malay and Javanese is kalambak or kalambah, but it is also known in these languages by that of gahru, or kayu-gahru, gahru-wood, a corruption of the Sanscrit Agharu. This sweet-scented wood has been used immemorially as an incense throughout eastern countries, and was early introduced into Europe by the Portuguese. The perfumed wood is evidently the result of a disease in the tree, produced by the thickening of the sap into a gum or resin. The tree is confused with the aloes, but properly speaking has no connection with that tree; and the word agila has been wrongly translated into “eagle” [see above “aguila”]. The tree probably belongs to the order of Leguminosæ. The best perfumed or diseased wood is found in the mountainous country to the east of the Gulf of Siam, including Camboja and Cochinchina. Castenheda says that at Campar, on the eastern side of Sumatra, are “forests which yield aloes-wood, called in India Calambuco (kalambak). The trees which produce it are large, and when they are old they are cut down and the aloes-wood taken from them, which is the heart of the tree, and the outer part is agila. Both these woods are of great price, but especially the Calambuco, which is rubbed in the hands, yielding an agreeable fragrance; the agila does so when burned.” See Crawfurd, ut supra, pp. 6, 7, and Yule’s Cathay, ii, p. 472, note 1.