Parte III
, _Fonti italiane_, vol. i, p. 215; vol. ii, p. 113.
[280] _Delle Navigationi e Viaggi_, i, Venice, 1550.
[281] _Vita e lettere d’ Amerigo Vespucci_, Firenze, 1745, p. L.
[282] Roteiro, 2º ed., pp. 124-7.
[283] Markham, _The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci_. London (Hakluyt Society), 1894, p. x.
[284] _Il Milione di Marco Polo_, Firenze, 1828, i, p. liii.
[285] _Sechs-und-zwanzigster Jahresbericht des historichen Kreisvereins von Schwaben_, Augsburg, 1861, pp. 113-170.
[286] Peutinger studied at Padua and other cities of Italy, 1483-6. He is supposed to have paid a flying visit to Rome early in the sixteenth century. His brother-in-law, Christopher Welser, was at that time resident there, and perhaps the abstract was made by him.
[287] Sailing vessels going from the Cape Verde Islands to Lisbon frequently shape their course by the Azores. See p. 94.
[288] Translated from Codex 1910 in the Riccardian Library at Florence.
[289] Literally, “whalers”, or “vessels having the shape of a whale”, called “barinels” by the Portuguese, and not caravels.
[290] According to the _Paesi novamente retrovati_ and Ramusio, there were 180, but Peutinger says there were 118, of whom 55 died and 60 came back.
[291] According to the _Paesi_, etc., July 11th.
[292] This was the vessel commanded by Nicolau Coelho.
[293] “_Molto amalado_”. The _Paesi_ says “amallato a morte”, sick unto death, the very expression used by Peutinger.
[294] Ramusio says 1,300 leagues, but even this is a gross exaggeration. If we allow 17½ leagues to a degree, the new land actually discovered beyond the Rio de Infante amounted to 860 leagues, viz., 800 leagues along the African coast and 60 leagues in India.
[295] From the Cape to the Rio dos Bons Signaes is only 460 leagues.
[296] The Rio dos Bons Signaes, or Kiliman River.
[297] Peutinger says: “if they would stay till new moon, when the waters would grow small, they would give them gold in plenty in exchange for their money or merchandise.”
The Zambezi begins to subside in the beginning of April. Vasco da Gama left on February 25th. This is a very satisfactory confirmation of the writer’s information.
[298] From the Kiliman River (Zambezi) to Melinde is 330 leagues.
[299] The writer must have misunderstood his informants. Gaspar da Gama is evidently referred to. See Appendix E.
[300] From Melinde to Calecut is about 2,340 miles, or 682 leagues.
[301] This sentence is omitted by Ramusio.
[302] The “Bab el mandeb”.
[303] The Strait of Romania is the Bosporus, ancient cartographers (Ortelius and others) very properly writing “Romania” for the Turkish “Rum-ili”, instead of the corrupt “Roumelia” of most modern authors.
[304] The “Sinus Arabicus” of Pliny (vi, 28) is a gulf of the Erythrean, identical with our Red Sea.
[305] Peutinger adds that the people of Calecut were neither black nor white; and that they were Christians, although bad ones.
[306] Peutinger says: “churches and convents.”
[307] Peutinger’s version of this sentence is as follows: “Large and small are baptized in a state of nudity, once every three years, in a river near the town.”
[308] The writer evidently refers to the roads in Portugal, but Ramusio says “as in Italy”.
[309] Ramusio: “Esquires, doorkeepers and chamberlains.”
[310] Ramusio and Peutinger say: “by about fifty persons.”
[311] Peutinger says the couch “was hung round (umhangen) with blackish-green velvet, and had a white coverlet, all worked with gold, and above it a sumptuous curtain. The walls were hung with fine velvet of various colours.”
[312] Peutinger: “the king had the captain asked what he wanted or sought.”
[313] Ramusio: “carried on in their vessels.”
[314] Peutinger translates: “Irrkirche,” _i.e._, heterodox church.
[315] Industria: The word in Peutinger’s letter, “gescheidigkeit”, or intelligence, seems more appropriate.
[316] Ramusio adds here “partly”. The island is Ceylon.
[317] Ramusio adds: “and not by Christians, and the Moors are the masters (signori).”
[318] The Italian original has “stapola”.
[319] Babylonia of Egypt. Ramusio omits “Babylonia”. Peutinger has Alkeiro (Cairo).
[320] The xerafins of Portuguese authors, worth about 7_s._ 10_d._ (at Calecut).
[321] The _Paesi_ and Ramusio add “zetanini velutati”; and Ramusio introduces also “damasked Lucca cloth”, in place of “scarlet cloth”. Prof. Dalla Vedova suggests that “cetanini” may stand for “setini”, a silken stuff of narrow width used in decorating the columns of churches. Bandini says it means “zendado, a kind of cloth”. Lucca was famous in the sixteenth century for its silks and woollen cloths.
[322] Tin, from Malacca.
[323] The _Paesi_, Ramusio, and Peutinger say May 19. According to the “Roteiro”, Vasco da Gama anchored off Capua on May 20.
[324] Ramusio says 200 tons; Peutinger 1,200.
[325] This sentence is omitted by Ramusio; but Peutinger says “many of these vessels are drowned in the sea”.
[326] Ramusio says: “are of curious build”.
[327] Ramusio adds: “but with wooden bolts”, but omits the allusion to the loadstone.
Peutinger locates the “calamito or loadstone” near Ceylon. The myth of magnetic mountains and islands originated in India or China, and was widely credited during the Middle Ages. It was believed that the magnet pulled out the iron bolts and nails of passing ships, which then fell to pieces and were lost.]
[328] Ramusio adds: “The sea rises and falls alternately every six hours, as elsewhere, and sometimes between 500 and 700 vessels may be seen there—a great sight”.
[329] Peutinger adds that the cantar is equal to 250 pounds, when in fact it is only a hundredweight. Five cantars were equal to 1 bahar = 208 kilo = 460 pounds.
[330] Ramusio and Peutinger say that ginger is worth only one half. They say nothing about cinnamon.
[331] Ramusio says nothing about “calking”. The writer seems to look upon “ballasting” and “calking” as identical operations. Or has he made use of a Portuguese term (alastrar), the meaning of which he did not know? Or are we to understand that lac was employed as a substitute for pitch?
[332] Ramusio and Peutinger say that they also take corals in payment, and this seems more probable.
[333] “Balasci” are the pink rubies named after the country of their origin, Badakhshi, which was usually known, according to Ibn Batuta, as Al-balaksh (Yule’s _Marco Polo_, I, p. 169; Heyd, _Geschichte des Levante-Handels_, 1879, I, p. 582). Badakhshi is Badakhshan, and not a kingdom near Pegu and Bengal, as supposed by Duarte Barbosa (Hakluyt Society’s edition, 1866, p. 212).
[334] The latter part of this sentence is omitted by Ramusio.
[335] Bab el Mandeb.
[336] The Rio dos Bons Signaes, or Zambezi.
[337] Malvasia (Malmsey) is a luscious Greek wine, named after the town of Napoli di Malvasia, in Laconia. The vines were transplanted to Crete, Madeira, and other places.
[338] Ramusio says: “they had a beard between the nose and the mouth, such as is worn by the courtiers at Constantinople, who call it a moustache.”
[339] Ramusio adds: “of Melinde”. The “pilot” here referred to was Gaspar da Gama. See Appendix E.
[340] This information was apparently never asked for. The “strangers” were undoubtedly Chinese. Marco Polo (_Yule_, I, p. lxvi, and II, pp. 197, 327) already mentions their four-masted vessels. In his time, Chinese vessels regularly visited the west coast of India. The vizor in the guise of a mask, distinctly points to the Chinese, and the sword attached to a spear is a Chinese weapon. Up to the introduction of pig-tails by the Manju, in 1644, the Chinese wore their hair long. A punitive fleet of sixty-two Chinese vessels was sent to Ceylon in 1401. In 1417 an embassy was sent from Mu-ku-tu-su (Magadoxo) to China (Bretschneider, _On the Knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs_, London, 1871), and in 1431 Chinese junks might be seen at Jedda (Hirth, _Verhandlungen_, Berlin Geographical Society, 1889, p. 46).
During the second half of the fifteenth century the intercourse between China and Malabar seems to have become rare, until at last it ceased altogether (Richthofen, _China_, I, p. 10, 5).
Ramusio contemptuously suppresses the writer’s speculations about these curious strangers being Germans or Russians.
[341] Less than a penny.
[342] “di mezo sapore”. Ramusio has “tutte dolci”.
[343] “Poponi”: Ramusio says “pomi”, apples.
[344] Or rather Buddha.
[345] Ramusio has suppressed this passage.
[346] Ramusio adds: “And bread made of corn and other things of the kind”.
[347] Professor Dalla Vedova suggests that the “pescotto” of the original may be the “Pesce persico” (_Perca fluviatilis_), or perch. Ramusio, in his edition of 1563, however, has “pescietti”, which means “small fishes” (sardines).
[348] Lenguazzi: perhaps the modern “linguattole”, or sole.
[349] Bisuccho, in Portuguese Besugo, the sea-bream (_Sparus cantabricus_).
[350] The words within brackets are only to be found in the _Paesi_.
[351] Ramusio adds: “There are also horses as with us, and they are highly valued by Christians and Moors alike”. Peutinger and the _Paesi_ say the same.
[352] Ramusio says: “silk-stuffs and bocassins”. He does not mention the colours.
[353] Peutinger adds: “They are decent, quiet (fromm) people at his court, and dress according to their condition and rank (adel)”.
[354] _Jubbi_ (Arabic) is a long coat or caftan; the _balandrau_ (Portuguese) is a surtout worn by the Brothers of Mercy in Portugal. Ramusio calls the latter garments _palascani_.
[355] The actual distance is about 10,500 nautical miles, or 3,060 Portuguese leagues.
[356] In his second letter the writer recurs to this subject.
[357] These are the Laccadive islands, fourteen in number: but, as their name implies (Laksha Dwipa = the Hundred Thousand Islands), supposed to be much more numerous. Mr. Sneyd’s _Codex_ says there were 11,000 of these islands. The Maldives were known as Narikela Dwipa.
[358] That is the West Indies!
[359] Ramusio adds: “through vessels which go to Mecca”.
[360] Ramusio adds: “benzoin”.
[361] It should be 160.
[362] Ramusio adds: “many sapphires and other jewels”. He then says: “Pepper and ginger grow around the said city of Calicut”. The paragraph is worded obscurely, but my version seems to be preferable. Sapphires are mentioned at the end of the letter.
[363] Ramusio does not mention almonds, nor does Peutinger.
[364] This expression proves that the letter was not written at one sitting, but by degrees.
[365] Ramusio has much condensed the whole of this paragraph, and seems to have misunderstood the writer. The statement that provisions were sent from Melinde to Calecut can hardly be accepted, and it was perhaps for this reason that Ramusio suppressed the name of that town. The country around Calecut is certainly sandy, but it is not as sterile as the bald statement of the writer would lead one to believe, for the city lies in the midst of extensive groves of palm, mango, and jack trees.
Peutinger thus summarises this passage: “The country around Kalekut is mostly sand, and neither corn nor any other fruit grows there. These are imported by sea.”
[366] Should be Chalechut, as Bandini prints it.
[367] The last two paragraphs have been omitted by Ramusio.
[368] Translated from the _Paesi novamente retrovati_, Vicenza, 1507.
[369] The true history of the Jewish colony in Malabar has been written by Claudius Buchanan (_Christian Researches in Asia_, Edinburgh, 1812). Ritter (_Erdkunde_, v, pp. 595-601) gives an excellent summary.
[370] Gaspar da Gama was quite right. There were no Christians at Calecut when Vasco da Gama first visited that town, nor are there many now. Cochin, and not Calecut, was the chief seat of the Syrian Christians of Malabar. They were an offshoot of the church of Persia, which recognised the Nestorian patriarch of Babylon (Mosul). After the condemnation of their dogmas by the Council of Ephesus (431) they sought a refuge in distant countries. After 1599 many of them recognised the Pope, but after the ascendency of the Dutch (since 1653) some turned Protestants, whilst others recognised the Jacobite bishop of Antioch as their head. Popularly they are known as S. Thomas Christians, although there exists not the slightest evidence of that Apostle ever having visited India. Their worship is of a simple nature: they admit no images to their churches, reject the doctrine of transubstantiation, and allow their priests to marry (G. Milne Rae, _The Syrian Church in India_, 1892; Percy Badger, _The Nestorians and their Ritual_, 1852; German, _Die Kirche der Thomaschristen_, 1877).
[371] Ramusio says: “excepting those called Jacobites and those of Prester John.”
[372] Ramusio says forty days.
[373] Ramusio adds: “towards the Gulf of Persia”.
[374] Ramusio says 300 leagues. The real distance of Bahrein is about 550 leagues. There may be some confusion with the Manar pearl fishery.
[375] Varthema (p. 95) and Duarte Barbosa (p. 37) refer to the pearl fishery of the Bahrein islands. They both describe the islanders as Mohammedans. Mr. Bent (_Journal Royal Geographical Society_, xii, 1890) visited the islands in 1889, and states that there is a good supply of water. Indeed, a river such as is described in the letter only exists some 250 miles away.
[376] King Manuel was better advised (see p. 115, note).
[377] Ramusio says: “is frightened”.
[378] These “anchors”, according to Varthema (p. 153), consist of a block of marble, which has two ropes attached to it. On the African coast a box fitted with stones is used for the same purpose.
[379] The next expedition was that sent out under Pedralvarez Cabral, who left Lisbon in March, 1500, with thirteen vessels.
[380] In