Cii.vr. lY.] CEYLOX AS KXOWX TO VENETIANS. 



639 



The sixteenth century was prohfic in navigators, the 

 accounts of Avhose adventures served to diffuse tlirough- 

 out Em"ope a general knowledge of Ceylon, at least as 

 it was known superficially before the arrival of the 

 Portuguese. Ludovico Barthema, or Varthema, a 

 Bolognese ^, remained at a port on the west coast ^ for 

 some days in 1506. The four kings of the island being 

 busily engaged in civil war^, he found it difficult to 

 land, but he learned that permission to search for 

 jewels at the foot of Adam's Peak might be obtained 

 by the payment of five ducats, and restoring as a 

 royalty all gems over ten carats. Fruit was dehcious 

 and abundant, especially artichokes and oranges^, but 

 rice was so insufficiently cultivated that the sovereigns 

 of the island were dependent for their supphes upon 

 the King of Narsingha, on the continent of India. ^ 

 This statement of Barthema is without quahfication; 

 there can be httle doubt that it applied chiefly to the 

 southern parts of the island, and that the north was 

 still able to produce food sufficient for the wants of the 

 inhabitants. 



Barthema found the suj^ply of cinnamon small, and 

 so precarious that the cuttmg took place but once in three 

 years. The Singhalese were at that time ignorant of 



at Ceylon ; one a " Gentleman of 

 Floeexce," whose story is printed 

 by Raniusio (but ■ndtliout tlie autlior's 

 name), wlio accompanied Vasco de 

 Gama, in the year 1479, in his voyage 

 to Calicut, and who speaks of the 

 trees '' che fanno la caneUa in molta 

 perfettione."— Vol. i. p. 120. The 

 other isGinoLAMO di Saxxo Stefano, 

 a Genoese, who, in pursuit of com- 

 merce, made a journey to India which 

 he described on his return in 1499, 

 in a letter inserted by Eamusio in his 

 collection of voyages. He stayed but 

 one day in the island, and saw only 

 its coco-nuts, jewels, and cinnamon. 

 — Vol. i. p. 345. 



^ Itinerario de Ltjdovico de 

 VABinEMA, Bolognese, no lo Egypto, 



ne la Suna, ne la Arabia Deseiia e 

 Felice, ne la Persia, ne la India, e 

 ne la ^Ethiopia — la fede el vivere e 

 costume de tutte le prefatte provincie. 

 Roma, loll, a. D. 



^ Probably Colombo. 



^ These conflicts and the actors in 

 them are described in the Rajavali, 

 p. 274. 



■* '^ Carzofoli megliori che li nosti-i, 

 melangoli dolci, li megliori credo, 

 che siano nel mondo." — Varthema, 

 pt. xxvii. 



^ " In questo paese non nasce 

 riso ; ma ne li -viene da teiTa ferma. 

 Li re de quella isola sono tributarii 

 d'il re de Narsinga per repetto del 

 riso." — Itin., pt. xxvii. See also 

 Baebosa, in Eamusio, vol. i. p. 312. 



