The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 56

Indeed the name of Marabia or _Marawi_ is still preserved in _Madavi_ or Madai, corruptly termed _Maudoy_ in some of our maps, a township upor the river which enters the bay about 7 or 8 miles south-east of Mt. d'Ely, and which is called by De Barros the _Rio Marabia_. Mr. Ballard informs me that he never heard of ruins of importance at Madai, but there is a place on the river just mentioned, and within the Madai township, called _Payangadi_ ("Old Town"), which has the remains of an old fort of the Kolastri (or Kolatiri) Rajas. A _palace_ at Madai (perhaps this fort) is alluded to by Dr. Gundert in the _Madras Journal_, and a Buddhist Vihara is spoken of in an old Malayalim poem as having existed at the same place.

The same paper speaks of "the famous emporium of Cachilpatnam near Mt.

d'Ely," which may have been our city of Hili, as the cities Hili and Marawi were apparently separate though near.[2]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mount d'Ely, from the Sea, in last century.]

The state of _Hili-Marawi_ is also mentioned in the Arabic work on the early history of the Mahomedans in Malabar, called _Tuhfat-al-Mujahidin_, and translated by Rowlandson; and as the Prince is there called _Kolturee_, this would seem to identify him either in family or person with the Raja of Cananor, for that old dynasty always bore the name of _Kolatiri_.[3]

The Ramusian version of Barbosa is very defective here, but in Stanley's version (Hak. Soc. _East African and Malabar Coasts_, p. 149) we find the topography in a pa.s.sage from a Munich MS. clear enough: "After pa.s.sing this place" (the river of Nirapura or Nileshwaram) "along the coast is the mountain Dely (of Ely) on the edge of the sea; it is a round mountain, very lofty, in the midst of low land; all the ships of the Moors and Gentiles that navigate in this sea of India sight this mountain when coming from without, and make their reckoning by it; ... after this, at the foot of the mountain to the south, is a town called _Marave_, very ancient and well off, in which live Moors and Gentiles and Jews; these Jews are of the language of the country; it is a long time that they have dwelt in this place."

(_Stanley's Correa_, Hak. Soc. pp. 145, 312-313; _Gildem._ p. 185; _Elliot_, I. 68; _I.B._ IV. 81; _Conti_, p. 6; _Madras Journal_, XIII.

No. 31, pp. 14, 99, 102, 104; _De Barros_, III. 9, cap. 6, and IV. 2, cap.

13; _De Couto_, IV. 5, cap. 4.)

NOTE 2.--This is from Pauthier's text, and the map with ch. xxi.

ill.u.s.trates the fact of the many wide rivers. The G.T. has "a good river with a very good estuary" or mouth. The latter word is in the G.T.

_faces_, afterwards more correctly _foces_, equivalent to _fauces_. We have seen that Ibn Batuta also speaks of the estuary or inlet at Hili. It may have been either that immediately east of Mount d'Ely, communicating with Kavvayi and the Nileshwaram River, or the Madai River. Neither could be entered by vessels now, but there have been great littoral changes. The land joining Mt. d'Ely to the main is mere alluvium.

NOTE 3.--Barbosa says that throughout the kingdom of Cananor the pepper was of excellent quality, though not in great quant.i.ty. There was much ginger, not first-rate, which was called _Hely_ from its growing about Mount d'Ely, with cardamoms (names of which, _Ela_ in Sanskrit, _Hel_ Persian, I have thought might be connected with that of the hill), mirobolans, ca.s.sia fistula, zerumbet, and zedoary. The two last items are two species of _curc.u.ma_, formerly in much demand as aromatics; the last is, I believe, the _setewale_ of Chaucer:--

"There was eke wexing many a spice, As clowe gilofre and Licorice, Ginger and grein de Paradis, Canell and setewale of pris, And many a spice delitable To eaten when men rise from table."--_R. of the Rose_.

The Hely ginger is also mentioned by Conti.

NOTE 4.--This piratical practice is noted by Abdurrazzak also: "In other parts (than Calicut) a strange practice is adopted. When a vessel sets sail for a certain point, and suddenly is driven by a decree of Divine Providence into another roadstead, the inhabitants, under the pretext that the wind has driven it thither, plunder the ship. But at Calicut every ship, whatever place it comes from, or wherever it may be bound, when it puts into this port, is treated like other vessels, and has no trouble of any kind to put up with" (p. 14). In 1673 Sivaji replied to the pleadings of an English emba.s.sy, that it was "against the Laws of Conchon"

(Ptolemy's _Pirate Coast!_) "to restore any ships or goods that were driven ash.o.r.e." (_Fryer_, p. 261.)

NOTE 5.--With regard to the anchors, Pauthier's text has just the opposite of the G.T. which we have preferred: "_Les nefs du Manzi portent si grans ancres de fust_, que il seuffrent moult _de grans fortunes aus plajes_" De Mailla says the Chinese consider their ironwood anchors to be much better than those of iron, because the latter are subject to strain. (_Lett.

Edif._ XIV. 10.) Capt. Owen has a good word for wooden anchors. (_Narr. of Voyages_, etc., I. 385.)

[1] The Town of Monte d'Ely appears (_Monte Dil_) in Coronelli's Atlas (1690) from some older source. Mr. Burnell thinks Baliapatan (properly _Valarpattanam_) which is still a prosperous Mappila town, on a broad and deep river, must be Hili. I see a little difficulty in this.

[Marabia at Monte Dely is often mentioned in _Correa_, as one of the ports of the Kingdom of Cananor.]

[2] Mr. Burnell thinks _Kachchil_pattanam must be an error (easy in Malayalim) for _Kavvil_pattanam, i.e. Kavvayi (Kanwai in our map).

[3] As _printed_ by Rowlandson, the name is corrupt (like many others in the book), being given as _Hubaee Murawee_. But suspecting what this pointed to, I examined the MS. in the R.A. Society's Library. The knowledge of the Arabic _character_ was quite sufficient to enable me to trace the name as [Arabic], _Hili Marawi_. (See _Rowlandson_, pp.

54, 58-59, and MS. pp. 23 and 26, also _Indian Antiquary_, III. p.

213.)

CHAPTER XXV.

CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF MELIBAR.

Melibar is a great kingdom lying towards the west. The people are Idolaters; they have a language of their own, and a king of their own, and pay tribute to n.o.body.[NOTE 1]

In this country you see more of the North Star, for it shows two cubits above the water. And you must know that from this kingdom of Melibar, and from another near it called Gozurat, there go forth every year more than a hundred corsair vessels on cruize. These pirates take with them their wives and children, and stay out the whole summer. Their method is to join in fleets of 20 or 30 of these pirate vessels together, and then they form what they call a sea cordon,[NOTE 2] that is, they drop off till there is an interval of 5 or 6 miles between ship and ship, so that they cover something like an hundred miles of sea, and no merchant ship can escape them. For when any one corsair sights a vessel a signal is made by fire or smoke, and then the whole of them make for this, and seize the merchants and plunder them. After they have plundered them they let them go, saying: "Go along with you and get more gain, and that mayhap will fall to us also!" But now the merchants are aware of this, and go so well manned and armed, and with such great ships, that they don't fear the corsairs. Still mishaps do befall them at times.[NOTE 3]

There is in this kingdom a great quant.i.ty of pepper, and ginger, and cinnamon, and turbit, and of nuts of India.[NOTE 4] They also manufacture very delicate and beautiful buckrams. The ships that come from the east bring copper in ballast. They also bring hither cloths of silk and gold, and sendels; also gold and silver, cloves and spikenard, and other fine spices for which there is a demand here, and exchange them for the products of these countries.

Ships come hither from many quarters, but especially from the great province of Manzi.[NOTE 5] Coa.r.s.e spices are exported hence both to Manzi and to the west, and that which is carried by the merchants to Aden goes on to Alexandria, but the ships that go in the latter direction are not one to ten of those that go to the eastward; a very notable fact that I have mentioned before.

Now I have told you about the kingdom of Melibar; we shall now proceed and tell you of the kingdom of Gozurat. And you must understand that in speaking of these kingdoms we note only the capitals; there are great numbers of other cities and towns of which we shall say nothing, because it would make too long a story to speak of all.

NOTE 1.--Here is another instance of that confusion which dislocates Polo's descriptions of the Indian coast; we shall recur to it under ch.

x.x.x.

Malabar is a name given by the Arabs, and varies in its form: Ibn Batuta and Kazwini write it [Arabic], _al-Malibar_, Edrisi and Abulfeda [Arabic], _al-Manibar_, etc., and like variations occur among the old European travellers. The country so-called corresponded to the _Kerala_ of the Brahmans, which in its very widest sense extended from about lat. 15 to Cape Comorin. This, too, seems to be the extension which Abulfeda gives to Malabar, viz., from Hunawar to k.u.mhari; Rashiduddin includes Sindabur, i.e. Goa. But at a later date a point between Mt. d'Ely and Mangalore on the north, and Kaulam on the south, were the limits usually a.s.signed to Malabar.

NOTE 2.--"_Il font_ eschiel _en la mer_" (G.T.). _Eschiel_ is the equivalent of the Italian _schera_ or _schiera_, a troop or squadron, and thence applied to order of battle, whether by land or sea.

NOTE 3.--The northern part of Malabar, Canara, and the Konkan, have been nests of pirates from the time of the ancients to a very recent date.

Padre Paolino specifies the vicinity of Mt. d'Ely as a special haunt of them in his day, the latter half of last century. Somewhat further north Ibn Batuta fell into their hands, and was stripped to his drawers.

NOTE 4.--There is something to be said about these Malabar spices. The cinnamon of Malabar is what we call ca.s.sia, the _canella grossa_ of Conti, the _canela brava_ of the Portuguese. Notices of it will be found in _Rheede_ (I. 107) and in _Garcia_ (f. 26 seqq.). The latter says the Ceylon cinnamon exceeded it in value as 4:1. Uzzano discriminates _canella_ lunga, _Salami_, and _Mabari_. The _Salami_, I have no doubt, is _Sailani_, Ceylonese; and as we do not hear of any ca.s.sia from Mabar, probably the last was _Malabar_ cinnamon.

_Turbit: Radex Turpethi_ is still known in pharmacy, at least in some parts of the Continent and in India, though in England obsolete. It is mentioned in the _Pharmacopoeia of India_ (1868) as derived from _Ipomoea Turpethum_.

But it is worthy of note that Ramusio has _cubebs_ instead of _turbit_.

The former does not seem now to be a product of Western India, though Garcia says that a small quant.i.ty grew there, and a Dutch report of 1675 in Valentyn also mentions it as an export of Malabar. (_V., Ceylon_, p.

243.) There is some ambiguity in statements about it, because its popular name _Kabab-chini_ seems to be also applied to the ca.s.sia bud. Cubeb pepper was much used in the Middle Ages as a spice, and imported into Europe as such. But the importation had long practically ceased, when its medical uses became known during the British occupation of Java, and the demand was renewed.

Budaeus and Salmasius have identified this drug with the [Greek: komakon], which Theophrastus joins with cinnamomum and ca.s.sia as an ingredient in aromatic confections. The inducement to this identification was no doubt the singular resemblance which the word bears to the Javanese name of cubeb pepper, viz., _k.u.mukus_. If the foundation were a little firmer this would be curious evidence of intercourse and trade with Java in a time earlier than that of Theophrastus, viz., the 4th century B.C.

In the detail of 3 cargoes from Malabar that arrived at Lisbon in September 1504 we find the following proportions: Pepper, 10,000 _cantars_; cinnamon, 500; cloves, 450; _zz._ (i.e. _zenzaro_, ginger), 130; lac and brazil, 750; camphor, 7; cubebs, 191; mace, 2-1/2; spikenard, 3; lign-aloes, 1-1/3.

(_Buchanan's Mysore_, II. 31, III. 193, and App. p. v.; _Garcia_, Ital.

version, 1576, f. 39-40; _Salmas. Exerc. Plin._ p. 923; _Bud. on Theoph._ 1004 and 1010; _Archiv. St. Ital._, Append. II. p. 19.)

NOTE 5.--We see that Marco speaks of the merchants and ships of Manzi, or Southern China, as frequenting Kaulam, Hili, and now Malabar, of which Calicut was the chief port. This quite coincides with Ibn Batuta, who says those were the three ports of India which the Chinese junks frequented, adding Fandaraina (i.e. Pandarani, or Pantalani, 16 miles north of Calicut), as a port where they used to moor for the winter when they spent that season in India. By the winter he means the rainy season, as Portuguese writers on India do by the same expression (IV. 81, 88, 96). I have been unable to find anything definite as to the date of the cessation of this Chinese navigation to Malabar, but I believe it may be placed about the beginning of the 15th century. The most distinct allusion to it that I am aware of is in the information of Joseph of Cranganore, in the _Novus...o...b..s_ (Ed. of 1555, p. 208). He says: "These people of Cathay are men of remarkable energy, and formerly drove a first-rate trade at the city of Calicut. But the King of Calicut having treated them badly, they quitted that city, and returning shortly after inflicted no small slaughter on the people of Calicut, and after that returned no more. After that they began to frequent Mailapetam, a city subject to the king of Narsingha; a region towards the East, ... and there they now drive their trade." There is also in Caspar Correa's account of the Voyages of Da Gama a curious record of a tradition of the arrival in Malabar more than four centuries before of a vast merchant fleet "from the parts of Malacca, and China, and the Lequeos" (Lewchew); many from the company on board had settled in the country and left descendants. In the s.p.a.ce of a hundred years none of these remained; but their sumptuous idol temples were still to be seen. (_Stanley's Transl., Hak. Soc._, p. 147.)[1] It is probable that both these stories must be referred to those extensive expeditions to the western countries with the object of restoring Chinese influence which were despatched by the Ming Emperor Ch'eng-Tsu (or Yung-lo), about 1406, and one of which seems actually to have brought _Ceylon_ under a partial subjection to China, which endured half a century. (See _Tennent_, I. 623 seqq.; and _Letter of P. Gaubil_ in _J.A._ ser. II. tom. x. pp. 327-328.) ["So that at this day there is great memory of them in the ilands Philippinas, and on the cost of Coromande, which is the cost against the kingdome of Norsinga towards the sea of Cengala: whereas is a towne called unto this day the soile of the Chinos, for that they did reedifie and make the same. The like notice and memory is there in the kingdom of Calicut, whereas be many trees and fruits, that the naturals of that countrie do say, were brought thither by the Chinos, when that they were lords and gouernours of that countrie." (_Mendoza, Parke's transl._ p. 71.)] De Barros says that the famous city of Diu was built by one of the Kings of Guzerat whom he calls in one place _Dariar Khan_, and in another _Peruxiah_, in memory of victory in a sea-fight with the Chinese who then frequented the Indian sh.o.r.es. It is difficult to identify this King, though he is represented as the father of the famous toxicophagous Sultan Mahmud Begara (1459-1511). De Barros has many other allusions to Chinese settlements and conquests in India which it is not very easy to account for. Whatever basis of facts there is must probably refer to the expeditions of Ch'eng-Tsu, but not a little probably grew out of the confusion of _Jainas_ and _Chinas_ already alluded to; and to this I incline to refer Correa's "sumptuous idol-temples."

There must have been some revival of Chinese trade in the last century, if P. Paolino is correct in speaking of Chinese vessels frequenting Travancore ports for pepper. (_De Barros_, Dec. II. Liv. ii. cap. 9, and Dec. IV. Liv. v. cap. 3; _Paolino_, p. 74.)

[1] It appears from a paper in the Mackenzie MSS. that down to Colonel Mackenzie's time there was a tribe in Calicut whose ancestors were believed to have been Chinese. (See _Taylor's Catal. Raisonne_, III. 664.) And there is a notable pa.s.sage in Abdurrazzak which says the seafaring population of Calicut were nicknamed _Chini bachagan_, "China boys." (_India in XVth Cent._ p. 19.)

CHAPTER XXVI.

CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOZURAT.

Gozurat is a great kingdom. The people are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and a king of their own, and are tributary to no one. It lies towards the west, and the North Star is here still more conspicuous, showing itself at an alt.i.tude of about 6 cubits.[NOTE 1]