m 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XIX. 



the nuts were far too bulky a freight, in proportion to value,, 

 to be carried like cinnamom, gems, or silk all the way to 

 Arabia or up the Red Sea for transport overland to Europe. 

 But evidently a market nearer home, in the North-West of 

 India was discovered ; for, although the South of India may 

 have had palms enough of its own* to make Robert Knox 

 (160 years later) speak of the coconut as an Indian rather 

 than Ceylon fruit ; yet further up, beyond Bombay and 

 along the Cambayan coast, the coconut produce of Ceylon 

 found a ready market. This I gather from the very first ex- 

 perience of the Portuguese at Colombo recorded in Gaspar 

 Correa's history of the doings of his countrymen in India 

 and Ceylon during the first half of the 16th century.f 

 For instance, we are told of Dom Lourenco de Almeida's 

 arrival in 1506 — that "as he entered the harbour there 

 were many vessels (Moor) which were loading cinnamon 

 and small elephants, in which there is great traffic to all 

 parts, chiefly Cambaya, and in this port they were also 

 loading green coconuts and dry ones, from which is extracted 

 oil, and much arequa, all of which is much prized in Cam- 

 baya ; also masts, yards, and planks, Ceylon having a great 

 supply of good wood." Then later on we read that the Sin- 

 halese king (then at Kotte) sent the Portuguese Commander 

 " a present of provisions for the whole fleet, consisting of 

 abundance of fowls and figs (really plantains) and coconuts, 

 which are all eaten with the shell on, and sweet oranges and 

 lemons (limes)," And on Lopo Soares' departure in 1518, as 

 a farewell gift, the king sent him " six rings of sapphires 

 (worth 1,000 cruzados) and six small elephants (a fathom in 

 height, easily shipped), with great abundance of eatables 

 for the fleet, and especially so many coconuts that they piled 



* That there were many coconut palms in Malabar when the Portuguese 

 came to India we know from Varthema (1510) and Barbosa (1516), both of 

 whom call the coconut tenga (Malayalam). See Ilobson-Jobson, s.v. " Coco.'' 

 — D. W. F. 



t "Ceylon Literary Kegister/' vol. III., 1889. page 133. 



