CHAP. IV.] CEYLON AS KNOWN TO VENETIANS. 



G39 



The sixteenth century was prolific in navigators, the 

 accounts of whose adventures served to diffuse through- 

 out Europe 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 2 for 

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

 busily engaged in civil war 3 , 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 delicious 

 and abundant, especially " artichokes " and oranges 4 , but 

 rice was so insufficiently cultivated that the sovereigns 

 of the island were dependent for their supplies upon 

 the King of Narsingha, on the continent of India. 5 

 This statement of Barthema is without qualification ; 

 there can be little 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 supply of cinnamon small, and 

 so precarious that the cutting took place but once in three 

 years. The Singhalese were at that time ignorant of 



at Ceylon; one a "GENTLEMAN OF 

 FLORENCE," whose story is printed 

 by Raiuusio (but without the author's 

 name), who accompanied Vasco de 

 Gama, in the year 1479, in his voyage 

 to Calicut, and who speaks of the 

 trees " che fanno la canella in molta 

 perfettione." Vol. i. p. 120. The 

 other is GIROLAMO DI SANTO 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 llamusio 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. 



1 Itinerario de LUDOVICO DE 

 VARTHEMA, Bolognese, no fa Etjypto, 



ne la Suria, ne la Arabia Deserta e 

 Felice, ne la Persia, ne la India, e 

 ne la ^Ethiopia la fede el vivere e 

 costume de tutte le prefatte provincie. 

 Roma. 1511, A. D. 



* Probably Colombo. 



3 These conflicts and the actors in 

 them are described in the Rajavali, 

 p. 274. 



* " Carzofoli megliori che li nostri, 

 melangoli dolci, li megliori credo, 

 che siano nel mondo." Vartlierna, 

 pt. xxvii. 



5 " In questo paese non nasce 

 riso ; ma ne li viene da terra ferma. 

 Li re de quella isola sono tributarii 

 d' il re de Narsinga per repetto del 

 riso." Itin., pt. xxvii. See also 

 BARBOSA, in llamusio, vol. i. p. 312. 



