*B6 JOURNAL R. A. S. CEYLON. ['EXTRA N0, 



I next arrived at the island of Molouc* where I found tke 

 ship belonging to the captain Ibrahim in which I had resolved 

 to sail to the Coromandel Coast. That person came to visit me 

 along with his companions, and they entertained me at a fine 

 feast. The Vizier had written in my favor an order requiring 

 them to give me at this island 120 bostoii ( v. s.p. 11) of cowries, 

 20 goblets of athoudn^ or coco-honey, and to add to that every 

 day a certain quantity of betel, arecanuts, and fish. I remained 

 -at -Molouc 70 days, and married two wives there. Molouc is 

 oife f of the fairest islands to see, being verdant and fertile* 

 Among other marvellous things to be seen there, I remarked that 

 a branch cut off one of the trees there, and planted in the ground 

 or on a wall, will cover itself with leaves and become itself a 

 tree. I observed also that the pomegranate tree there ceases 

 not to bear fruit the whole year round. The inhabitants of this 

 island were afraid that the captain Ibrahim was going to harry 

 them at his departure. They therefore wanted to seize the arms 

 which his ship contained, and to keep them until the day of his 

 departure. A dispute arose on this subject, and we returned to 

 Mahal, but did not disembark. I wrote to the Vizier informing 

 him of what had taken place. He sent a written order to the 

 effect that there was no ground for seizing' the arms of the crew. 

 We then returned to Molouc, and left it again in the middle of 

 the month of Rabi the second of the year 745 (26th August A. D e 

 1344), In the month of Shaban of the same year (December^ 

 1344), died the Vizier Djemdl eddin. The Sultana was with 

 child by him and was delivered after his death. The Vizier 

 \Abd- Allah took her'to wife. 



* Molouc Moluk, the chief island of Moluk Atol, is in lat. 2° 57' N. The 

 Admiralty Chart says that it possesses good water. [More probably Fua 

 Mulahu Island, which lies detached a little S. E. of the centre of the Equatorial 

 Channel (lat. ° 17, S.) between Huvadu and Addu Atols. Ibn Batiita had 

 already "sailed through the midst of the islands, from one group to another." — B.J 



X Aihoudn:^ Above at p. 22 coco-honey is called Jcorhdny. In Moura's 

 edition of Ibn Batiita (Lisbon, 1855), the word appears as alatuan. 



