NO. 59.— 1907.] PORTUGUESE IN CEYLON. 



325 



he went to Aires Correa, 1 and pretending that in this he was 

 doing him a service, told him that he had had news, that from the 

 port of Coulam 2 had set sail a ship laden with all kinds of spicery, 

 with which he could well load two of our ships, and that it was 

 bound for Mecha, and on the way had to take in some ginger at 



Cananor [Consequently, the Portuguese attacked the ship, 



which showed fight , and took refuge in the bay of Cananor , whence 

 the Portuguese without resistance (the crew having been mostly 

 killen or wounded) brought it to Calecut, where the " common 

 people " of the Portuguese crews regaled themselves with the 

 flesh of one of the elephants, which had been killed in the fight. 

 Discovering how he had been deceived, however, Pedralvares 

 Cabral restored the ship to her captain, with apologies for the 

 damage that had been done. 3 ] 



1 The factor, who, with other Portuguese, was killed soon after- 

 wards. 



2 The edition of 1778 has erroneously " the port of Ceilao." 



3 Castanheda (i. c. xxxvii.) gives a very different account of this 

 affair : according to him, the Samuri, wishing to buy an elephant, 

 asked the Portuguese to intercept the ship. 



A 7. 



Places whence the Spices come. 1 

 [1501 ?] 



Cinnamon comes from Zallon, and there is no cinnamon found 

 except in that place : it is cclx leagues beyond Calichut. 



1 This list is printed in Paesi Novamente Retrovati after a descrip- 

 tion of the voyage of Pedralvares Cabral in 1500, and appears to be 

 compiled from information obtained during that expedition. 



A 8. 



Copy of another Letter, written there [Lisbon], by Lunar do 

 Nardi, dated 20 September [1502]. 1 



In his [the king of Colochut's] country there is nothing but 

 pepper, cinnamon, ginger; and the good cinnamon comes from 

 Sailem, cloves and white and red sandal from another place, 2 

 where, they say, are all the riches of the world. 



1 This is printed in the Diarii di Marino Sanuto (see B 6) iv. 545-47. 

 The writer was a merchant resident in Lisbon. This letter is accom- 

 panied by a shorter one, of the same date, by another Florentine mer- 

 chant, Bortholamio Marchioni ; and both relate to the return to Lisbon, 

 on 12 September 1502, of the four ships under Joao da Nova, which 

 had sailed for India in March 1501. 



2 Sumatra (see A 9 A 10, A 15). 



