A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Vii Part 10

[Footnote 126: The velvets and scarlet cloths from Mecca were probably Italian manufactures, brought through Egypt and the Red Sea.--E.].

[Footnote 127: These great nuts must necessarily be the cocoa nuts, and the palmer tree, on which they grow, the cocoa palm.--E.]

[Footnote 128: Possibly mola.s.ses are here meant.--E.]

From Chaul, an infinite quant.i.ty of goods are exported for other parts of India, Macao, Portugal, the coast of Melinda, Ormuz, and other parts; such as cloth of _b.u.mbast_ or cotton, white, painted, and printed, indigo, opium, silk of all kinds, borax in paste, asafoetida, iron, corn, and other things. Nizam-al-Mulk, the Moorish king, has great power, being able to take the field with 200,000 men, and a great store of artillery, some of which are made in pieces[129], and are so large that they are difficultly removed, yet are they very commodiously used, and discharge enormous stone bullets, some of which have been sent to the king of Portugal as rarities. The city of _Abnezer[130]_, in which Nizam-al-Mulk resides, is seven or eight days journey inland from Chaul.

Seventy miles[131] from Chaul toward the Indies, or south, is Dabul, a haven belonging to Nizam-al-Mulk, from whence to Goa is 150 miles[132].

[Footnote 129: Probably meaning that they were formed of bars hooped or welded together, in the way in which the famous _Mons meg_, long in Edinburgh Castle, and now in the tower of London, was certainly made.--E.]

[Footnote 130: Perhaps that now called a.s.sodnagur in the Mahratta country, about 125 miles nearly east from Chaul.--E.]

[Footnote 131: In fact only about half that distance.--E.]

[Footnote 132: About 165 English miles--E.]

SECTION VII.

_Of Goa._

Goa, the princ.i.p.al city of the Portuguese in India, in which the viceroy resides with a splendid court, stands in an island about 25 or 30 miles in circuit. The city, with its boroughs or suburbs, is moderately large, and is sufficiently handsome for an Indian city; but the island is very beautiful, being full of fine gardens, and adorned with many trees, among which are the _Palmer_, or cocoa-nut trees, formerly mentioned.

Goa trades largely in all kinds of merchandise usual in these parts, and every year five or six large ships come directly thither from Portugal, usually arriving about the 6th or 10th of September. They remain there 40 or 50 days, and go from thence to Cochin, where they finish their lading for Portugal; though they often load one ship at Goa and the other at Cochin for Portugal. Cochin is 420 miles from Goa. The city of Goa stands in the kingdom of _Dial-can_, or Adel Khan, a Moorish or Mahometan king, whose capital, called Bej.a.pour or Visiapour, is eight days journey inland from Goa[133]. This sovereign has great power; for, when I was at Goa in 1570, he came to attack that city, encamping with 200,000 men at a river side in the neighbourhood, where he remained fourteen months, at the end of which a peace was concluded. It was reported in Goa that a great mortality prevailed in his army during the winter, which also killed many of his elephants. When I went in 1567 from Goa to _Bezenegur_ or Bijanagur, the capital city of the kingdom of _Narsinga,_ eight days journey inland from Goa[134], I travelled in company with two other merchants, who carried with them 300 Arabian horses for sale to that king; the horses of the country being of small stature, occasioning Arabian horses to sell at high prices in that part of India. Indeed it is necessary that the merchants should get good prices, as they are at great charges in bringing them from Persia to Ormuz and thence to Goa. At going out of Goa, 42 paG.o.das are paid of duty for each horse; the paG.o.da being a small gold coin worth about 6s.

8d. sterling. In the inland country of Narsinga, the Arabian horses sell for 300, 400, and 500 ducats each, and some very superior horses sell as high as 1000 ducats.

[Footnote 133: About 175, N.E. from Goa. In the original it is called Bisapor.--E.]

[Footnote 134: The ruins of the royal city of Bijanagur are 190 English miles nearly due east from Goa.--E.]

SECTION VIII.

_Of the City of Bijanagur._

In the year 1565, the city of Bijanagur was sacked by four Moorish kings of great power: Adel-Khan, Nizam-al-Mulk, Cotub-al-Mulk, and Viriday-Khan; yet with all their power they were unable to overcome this city and its king but by means of treachery. The king of Bijanagur was a Gentile, and among the captains of his numerous army had two famous Moors, each of whom commanded over seventy or eighty thousand men. These two captains being of the same religion with the four Moorish kings, treacherously combined with them to betray their own sovereign.

Accordingly, when the king of Bijanagur, despising the power of his enemies, boldly faced them in the field, the battle had scarcely lasted four hours, when the two treacherous captains, in the very heat of the battle, turned with their followers against their own sovereign, and threw his army into such disorder that it broke and fled in the utmost confusion.

This kingdom of Bijanagur had been governed for thirty years by the usurpation of three brothers, keeping the lawful king a state prisoner, and ruling according to their own pleasure, shewing the king only once a year to his subjects. They had been princ.i.p.al officers under the father of the king whom they now held a prisoner, who was very young when his father died, and they a.s.sumed the government. The eldest brother was called _Ram rajah_, who sat in the royal throne and was called king; the second was named _Temi rajah_, who held charge of the civil government of the country; and the third, _Bengatre_, was general in chief of the army. In the great battle against the four Mahometan kings all the three brothers were present, but the first and the last were never heard of more, neither dead nor alive. Temi rajah alone escaped from the battle, with the loss of one eye. On the news of this great defeat coming to the city of Bijanagur, the wives and children of the three tyrants fled with the imprisoned king, and the four Mahometan kings entered the city in great triumph, where they remained for six months, searching everywhere for money and valuable effects that had been hidden. After this they departed, being unable to retain possession of so extensive a dominion at such a distance from their own territory[135].

[Footnote 135: The reason in the text for evacuating the kingdom of Narsinga, or Bijanagur, is very unsatisfactory, as it in fact bordered on their dominions. More probably they could not agree on the part.i.tion, each being afraid of the others acquiring an ascendancy, and they satisfied themselves with the enormous spoils of the capital. This event has been before mentioned from De Faria.--E.]

After the retreat of the four kings, Temi rajah returned to Bijanagur, which he repeopled, and sent word to the merchants of Goa to bring all the horses to him that they had for sale, promising good prices; and it was on this occasion that the two merchants went up with their horses, whom I accompanied. This tyrant also issued a proclamation, that if any merchant happened to have any of the horses which were taken in the late battle, even although they happened to have the Bijanagur mark upon them, that he would pay for them their full values, and give safe conduct for all who had such to come to his capital. When by this means he had procured a great number of horses, he put off the merchants with fair promises, till he saw that no more horses were likely to come, and he then ordered the merchants to depart without giving them any thing for the horses. I remained in Bijanagur seven months, though I might have concluded my whole business in one; but it was necessary for me to remain until the ways were cleared of thieves and robbers, who ranged up and down in whole troops.

While I rested there I saw many strange and barbarous deeds done among these Gentiles. When any n.o.ble man or woman dies, the dead body is burned. If a married man die, his widow must burn herself alive for the love of her husband, and along with his body; but she may have the respite of a month, or even of two or three, if she will. When the appointed day arrives on which she is to be burnt, she goeth out from her house very early in the morning, either on horseback or on an elephant, or on a stage carried by eight men, apparelled like a bride, and is carried in triumph all round the city, having her hair hanging down about her shoulders, garnished with jewels and flowers, according to her circ.u.mstances, and seemingly as joyful as a bride in Venice going to her nuptials. On this occasion, she carries a mirror in her left hand, and an arrow in her right, and sings during the procession, saying, that she is going to sleep with her dear husband. In this manner she continues, surrounded by her kindred and friends till about one or two in the afternoon, when the procession goes out of the city to the side of the river called _Nigondin_ or _Toombuddra_, which runs past the walls of the city, to a certain spot where this ceremony is usually performed, where there is prepared a large square pit full of dried wood, having a little pinnacle or scaffold close to one side four or five steps up. On her arrival, a great banquet is prepared, where the victim eats with as much apparent joy as if it were her wedding-day; and at the end of the feast there is dancing and singing so long as she thinks fit. At length she gives orders of her own accord to kindle the dry wood in the square pit; and when told that the fire is kindled, she takes the nearest kinsman of her husband by the hand, who leads her to the bank of the river, where she puts off her jewels and all her clothes, distributing them among her parents or relations; when, putting on a cloth, that she may not be seen naked by the people, she throweth herself into the river, saying, O! wretches wash away your sins. Coming out of the water, she rolls herself up in a yellow cloth, fourteen yards long, and again taking the nearest kinsman of her husband by the hand, they go together to the pinnacle at the funeral pile. From this place she addresses the people, to whom she recommends her children and relations. Before the pinnacle it is usual to place a mat, that she may not see the fierce fire; yet there are many who order this to be removed, as not afraid of the sight. When the silly woman has reasoned with the people for some time, another woman takes a pot of oil, part of which she pours on the head of the devoted victim, anointing also her whole body with the same, and then throws the pot into the fire, which the widow immediately follows, leaping into the fiercest of the fire.

Then those who stand around the pile throw after her many great pieces of wood, by the blows from which, and the fierce fire in which she is enveloped, she quickly dies and is consumed. Immediately the mirth of the people is changed to sorrow and weeping, and such howling and lamentation is set up as one is hardly able to bear. I have seen many burnt in this manner, as my house was near the gate where they go out to the place of burning; and when a great man dies, not only his widow, but all the female slaves with whom he has had connection, are burnt along with his body. Also when the baser sort of people die, I have seen the dead husband carried to the place of sepulchre, where he is placed upright; then cometh his widow, and, placing herself on her knees before him, she clasps her arms about his neck, till the masons have built a wall around both as high us their necks. Then a person from behind strangles the widow, and the workmen finish the building over their heads, and thus they remain immured in one tomb. Inquiring the reason of this barbarous custom, I was told that this law had been established in ancient times as a provision against the slaughters which the women were in use to make of their husbands, poisoning them on every slight cause of displeasure; but that since the promulgation of this law they have been more faithful to their husbands, reckoning their lives as dear to them as their own, because after the death of their husband their own is sure soon to follow. There are many other abominable customs among these people, but of which I have no desire to write.

In consideration of the injury done to Bijanagur by the four Mahometan kings, the king with his court removed from that city in 1567, and went to dwell in a castle named _Penegonde_, eight days journey inland from Bijanagur. Six days journey from Bijanagur is the place where diamonds are got[136]. I was not there, but was told that it is a great place encompa.s.sed by a wall, and that the ground within is sold to the adventurers at so much per square measure, and that they are even limited as to the depth they may dig. All diamonds found of a certain size and above belong to the king, and all below that size to the adventurers. It is a long time since any diamonds have been got there, owing to the troubles that have distracted the kingdom of Narsinga: For the son of Temi rajah having put the imprisoned king to death, the n.o.bles and great men of the kingdom refused to acknowledge authority of the tyrant, so that the kingdom has fallen into anarchy, every one setting up for themselves.

[Footnote 136: The diamond mines of Raolconda are about 90 miles direct north from the ruins of Bijanagur, on the Kisma. The castle of Penegonde is not now to be found in the maps of Indostan; but indeed the names of this ingenious traveller an often unintelligible, and almost always extremely corrupt.--E.]

The city of Bijanagur is not altogether destroyed, as the houses are said to be still standing, but entirely void of population, and become the dwellings of tigers, and other wild beasts. The circuit of this great city is twenty-four miles round the walls, within which are several hills. The ordinary dwellings are of earthen walls, and sufficiently mean, but the three palaces of the tyrant brothers, and the paG.o.das or idol temples, are built of fine marble, cemented with lime. I have seen many kings courts, yet have never seen any thing to compare with the greatness of the royal palace of Bijanagur, which hath nine gates. First, when you go into that part where the king lodged, there are five great gates kept by captains and soldiers: Within these are four lesser gates, which are kept by porters. On the outer side of the first gate is a small porch or lodge, where there is a captain and twenty-five soldiers, who keep watch day and night; and within that another, with a similar guard. Through this you enter into a very fair court, at the end of which is another porch like the first, with a similar guard, and within that another court. Thus the first five gates are each guarded by their respective captains. Then each of the lesser gates within are kept by a separate guard of porters. These gates stand open the greatest part of the night, as it is the custom of the Gentiles to transact business and make their feasts during the night, rather than in the day. This city is very safe from thieves, insomuch that the Portuguese merchants sleep under porches open to the street, and yet never meet with any injury.

At the end of two months, I determined to go for Goa, in company with two Portuguese merchants, who were making ready to depart in two palankins or small litters, which are very convenient vehicles for travelling, being carried by eight _falchines_, or bearers, four at a time, and other four as reliefs. For my own use I bought two bullocks, one to ride upon and the other to carry my provisions. In that country they ride upon bullocks, having pannels fastened with girths, and guide them with bridles. In summer, the journey from Bijanagur to Goa takes only eight days; but we went in July, which is the middle of winter in that country, and were fifteen days in going to _Ancola_, on the sea coast. On the eighth day of the journey I lost both my bullocks. That which carried my provisions was weak, and could not proceed; and on pa.s.sing a river by means of a small foot bridge, I made my other bullock swim across, but he stopt on a small island in the middle of the river where he found pasture, and we could devise no means to get him out. I was under the necessity therefore to leave him, and was forced to go on foot for seven days, during which it rained almost incessantly, and I suffered great fatigue. By good fortune I met some _falchines_[137] by the way, whom I hired to carry my clothes and provisions. In this journey we suffered great troubles, being every day made prisoners, and had every morning at our departure to pay four or five _pagies?_ a man as ransom. Likewise, as we came almost every day into the country of a new governor, though all tributary to the king of Bijanagur, we found that every one of them had their own copper coin, so that the money we got in change one day was not current on the next. At length, by the mercy of G.o.d, we got safe to _Ancola_, which is in the country of the queen of _Gargopam_[138], a tributary to the king of Bijanagur.

[Footnote 137: These _falchines_ of Cesar Frederick are now denominated _coolies_.--E.]

[Footnote 138: These names of Ancola and Gargopam are so unintelligibly corrupted, as not be even conjecturally referable to any places or districts in our best maps.--E.]

The merchandise sent every year from Goa to Bijanagur consists of Arabian horses, velvets, damasks, satins, armoisins of Portugal, porcelain of China, saffron, and scarlet cloth; and at Bijanagur, they received in exchange or barter, jewels and paG.o.das, which are the gold ducats of the country. At Bijanagur, according to the state and condition of the wearers, the apparel is of velvet, satin, damask, scarlet cloth, or white cotton; and they wear long hats on their heads, called _colae_, made of similar materials; having girdles round their bodies of fine cotton cloth. They wear breeches made like those used by the Turks; having on their feet plain high things called _aspergh_. In their ears they wear great quant.i.ties of golden ornaments.

Returning to my journey. When we got to _Ancola_, one of my companions having nothing to lose, took a guide and set out for Goa, which is only at the distance of four days journey; but as the other Portuguese was not inclined to travel any farther at this season, he and I remained there for the winter[139], which beginning on the 15th of May, lasts to the end of October. While we tarried there, another horse-merchant arrived in a palanquin, together with two Portuguese soldiers from Ceylon, and two letter-carriers, who were Christians born in India. All these persons agreed to go in company to Goa, and I resolved to go with them; for which purpose, I got a sorry palanquin made for me of canes, and in the hollow of one of these I concealed all my jewels. According to the usual custom, I hired eight _falchines_ or bearers, and we set off one day about eleven o'clock. About two o'clock the same day, as we were pa.s.sing a mountain which separates the territory of _Ancola_ from that belonging to Abel Khan, and while I was a little way behind the rest of the company, I was a.s.saulted by eight robbers, four of whom were armed with swords and targets, and the others with bows and arrows. My bearers immediately let fall the palanquin and ran off, leaving me alone on the ground wrapped up in my clothes. The robbers instantly came up and rifled me of every thing I had, leaving me stark naked. I pretended to be sick and would not quit the palanquin, in which I had made a kind of bed of my spare clothes. After searching with great industry, the thieves found two purses in which I had tied up some copper money I had got in change for four paG.o.das at Ancola; and thinking this treasure consisted of gold coin, they searched no farther, and went away, throwing all my clothes into a bush. Fortunately at their departure they dropped a handkerchief which I noticed, and getting up I wrapped it up in my palaquin[140]. In this forlorn condition, I had resolved to pluck the hollow cane from my palanquin in which my jewels were hid, and to have endeavoured to make my own way on foot to Goa, using the cane as a walking stick. But my bearers were so faithful that they returned to look for me after the robbers departed, which indeed I did not expect, as they were paid before hand, according to the custom of India. We got to Goa in four days, during which I fared very badly, as the robbers had left me no money of any kind, and all I had to eat was given me by my bearers for G.o.d's sake; but after my arrival in Goa, I paid them royally for what they gave me.

[Footnote 139: This winter of our author, on the coast of Canara, in about the lat. of 15 N. when the sun is nearly vertical, must be understood as the rainy season.--E.]

[Footnote 140: This incident in the text is given as fortunate, and perhaps it ought to have been expressed, "He wrapped it about his loins and returned to his palanquin."--E.]

From Goa I departed for Cochin, a voyage of 300 miles, there being several strong-holds belonging to the Portuguese between these two cities, as Onore, Barcelore, Mangalore, and Cananore. Onore, the first of these, is in the dominions of the queen of _Battacella_, or _Batecolah_, who is tributary to the king of Bijanagur. There is no trade at this place, which is only a military post held by a captain with a company of soldiers. After this you go to another small castle of the Portuguese called Mangalore, in which there is only a small trade in rice. Thence you go to a little fort called Bazelore[141], whence a great deal of rice is transported to Goa. From thence you go to a city named Cananore, which is within a musket-shot of the capital of the king of Cananore who is a Gentile[142]. He and his people are wicked and malicious, delighting in going to war with the Portuguese; yet when at peace they find their interest in trading with them. From this kingdom of Cananore is procured great store of cardomums, pepper, ginger, honey, cocoa-nuts, and _archa_ or _areka_. This is a fruit about the size of a nutmeg, which is chewed in all the Indies, and even beyond them, along with the leaf of a plant resembling ivy called _betel_. The nut is wrapped up in a leaf of the betel along with some lime made of oyster sh.e.l.ls, and through all the Indies they spend a great deal of money; on this composition, which they use daily, a thing I could not have believed if I had not seen it continually practised. A great revenue is drawn from this herb, as it pays custom. When they chew this in their mouths, it makes their spittle as red as blood, and it is said to produce a good appet.i.te and a sweet breath; but in my opinion, they eat it rather to satisfy their filthy l.u.s.ts, for this herb is moist and hot, and causes a strong expulsion.

[Footnote 141: This must be Barcelore, and ought to have been named before Managalore, as above 50 miles to the north, between Goa and Managalore.--E.]

[Footnote 142: This pa.s.sage ought to have stood thus "The fort of Cananore belonging to the Portuguese, only a musket-shot from the city of that name, the capital of" &c.--E.]

From Cananore you go Cranganore, which is a small fort of the Portuguese in the country of the king of Cranganore, another king of the Gentiles.

This is a country of small importance of about a hundred miles extent, full of thieves, subject to the king of Calicut, who is another king of the Gentiles and a great enemy to the Portuguese, with whom he is continually engaged in war. This country is a receptacle of foreign thieves, and especially of those Moors called _Carposa_, on account of their wearing long red caps. These thieves divide the spoil they get with the king of Calicut, who gives them leave to go a-roving; so that there are so many thieves all along this coast, that there is no sailing in those seas except in large ships well armed, or under convoy of Portuguese ships of war. From Cranganore to Cochin is 15 miles[143].

[Footnote 143: The direct distance is twenty geographical miles.--E.]

SECTION IX.

_Of Cochin._

Cochin, next to Goa, is the chief place in India belonging to the Portuguese, and has a great trade in spices, drugs, and all other kinds of merchandise for Portugal. Inland from that place is the pepper country, which pepper is loaded by the Portuguese in bulk not in sacks.

The pepper which is sent to Portugal is not so good as that which goes up the Red Sea; because in times past the officers of the king of Portugal made a contract with the king of Cochin for all the pepper, to be delivered at a fixed price, which is very low; and for which reason the country people deliver it to the Portuguese unripe and full of dirt.

As the Moors of Mecca give a better price, they get it clean and dry and in much better condition; but all the spices and drugs which they carry to Mecca and the Red Sea are contraband and stolen or smuggled. There are two cities at Cochin, one of which belongs to the Portuguese and the other to the native king; that of the Portuguese being nearer the sea, while the native city is a mile and a half farther up the same river.

They are both on the banks of the same large river, which comes from the mountains in the pepper country[144], in which are many Christians of the order of St Thomas. The king of Cochin is a Gentile and a steadfast friend to the king of Portugal, and to all the Portuguese who are married and have become citizens of Cochin. By the name of Portuguese, all the Christians are known in India who come from Europe, whether they be Italians, Frenchmen, or Germans. All those who marry and settle at Cochin get some office according to the trades they are off, by which they have great privileges. The two princ.i.p.al commodities in which they deal are silk which comes in great quant.i.ties from China, and large quant.i.ties of sugar, which comes from Bengal. The married citizens pay no customs for these two commodities; but pay 4s. per centum for all other goods to the king of Cochin, rating their own goods almost at their own valuation. Those who are not married pay to the king of Portugal 8s. per centum for all kinds of commodities. While I was in Cochin, the viceroy used his endeavours to break the privileges of these married citizens, that they might pay the same rates of customs with others. On this occasion the citizens were glad to weigh their pepper in the night to evade the customs. When this came to the knowledge of the king of Cochin, he put a stop to the delivery of pepper, so that the viceroy was glad to allow the merchants to do as formerly.

[Footnote 144: In the version of Cesar Frederick in Hakluyt, it is said "to come from the mountains of the king of the pepper country, who is a Gentile, and in whose dominions there are many Christians," &c. as in the text. This king of the pepper country is probably meant for the rajah of Travancore. The great river of the text is merely a sound, which reaches along the coast from Cochin to beyond Coulan, a distance of above 90 miles, forming a long range of low islands on the sea-coast, and receiving numerous small rivers from the southern gauts.--E.]

The king of Cochin has small power in comparison with the other sovereigns of India as he is unable to send above 70,000 men into the field. He has a great number of gentlemen, some of whom are called _Amochi_[145] and others _Nairs_. These two sorts of men do not value their lives in any thing which tends to the honour of their king, and will run freely into any danger in his service, even if sure to lose their lives in the attempt. These men go naked from the waist upwards, and barefooted, having only a cloth wrapped about their thighs. Their hair is long and rolled up on the top of their heads, and they go always armed, carrying bucklers and naked swords. The Nairs have their wives in common among themselves, and when any of them goes into the house of one of these women, he leaves his sword and buckler at the door, and while he is within no other dare enter the house. The king's children never inherit the kingdom after their fathers, lest perchance they may have been begotten by some other man; wherefore the son of the king's sisters, or of some female of the royal-blood succeeds, that they may be sure of having a king of the royal family. Those Naires and their wives have great holes in their ears by way of ornament, so large and wide as is hardly credible, holding that the larger these holes are, so much the more n.o.ble are they. I had leave from one of them to measure the circ.u.mference of the hole in one of his ears with a thread; and within that circ.u.mference I put my arm up to the shoulder with my clothes on, so that in fact they are monstrously large. This is begun when they are very young, at which time a hole is made in each ear, to which they hang a piece of gold or a lump of lead, putting a certain leaf into the hole which causes the hole to increase prodigiously. They load ships at Cochin both for Portugal and Ormuz: but all the pepper that is carried to Ormuz is smuggled. Cinnamon and all other spices and drugs are permitted to be exported to Ormuz or Cambaia, as likewise all other kinds of merchandise from other parts of India. From Cochin there are sent yearly to Portugal great quant.i.ties of pepper, dry and preserved ginger, wild cinnamon, areka nuts and large store of cordage made of _cayro_, that is from the bark of the cocoa-nut tree, which is reckoned better than that made of hemp. The ships for Portugal depart every season between the 5th of December and the 5th of January.

[Footnote 145: On former occasions these _amochi_ have been explained as devoted naires, under a vow to revenge the death of their sovereign.--E.]

From Cochin I went to Coulan, at which is a small fort belonging to the Portuguese, 72 miles from Cochin. This is a place of small trade, as every year a ship gets only half a lading of pepper here, and then goes to Cochin to be filled up. From Cochin to Cape Comorin is 72 miles, and here ends the Indian coast. Along this coast, and also at Cape Comorin, and down to the low lands of _Chialon_[146], which is about 200 miles, there are great numbers of the natives converted to the Christian faith, and among them are many churches of the order of St Paul, the friars of which order do much good in these places, and take great pains to instruct the natives in the Christian faith.