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



379 



a few handfuls of earth brought them from the mountains, at once 

 on seeing it they know if it is of rubies or of any other stones, and 

 where it comes from. And the king sends them to look there, and 

 after they have brought them he orders to be set aside each kind and 

 pick out the good ones, and he has them worked to have them sold 

 when cut, which he does himself to foreigners ; and the other 



inferior ones he sells at once to the country merchants The 



king has a great treasure of these jewels, for whenever he meets 

 with any very good stone he puts it in his treasury. 21 



Close to this island of Ceylam in the sea there is a sand-bank 

 covered with ten or fifteen fathoms of water, in which a very great 

 quantity of very fine seed pearls are found, small and great, and a 

 few pearls : 22 and the Moors and Gentiles go there from a city which 

 is called Sael, 23 belonging to the king of Coulam, to fish for this 

 seed pearl, twice a year by custom, and they find them in some 

 small oysters, smoother than those of our ports. And the men 

 plunging under the water, where they remain a considerable time s 

 pick them up : and the seed pearl is for those who gather them, 

 and the large pearls are for the king, who keeps his overseer there, 

 and besides that they give him certain duties upon the seed pearl. 24 



The Bang of Ceylan is always in a place called Columbo, which 

 is a river with a very good port, 25 at which every year many 

 ships touch from various parts to take on board cinnamon and 

 elephants. And they bring gold and silver, cotton and silk stuffs 

 from Cambay, 26 and many other goods which are saffron, coral, 

 quicksilver, vermilion, which here is worth a great deal ; and there 

 is much profit on the gold and silver , because it is worth more than 

 in other parts. And there come likewise many ships from Bengal 

 and Cholmendel, and some from Malaca for elephants, cinnamon, 

 and precious stones. In this island of Ceylam there are four or 

 five other harbours and places of trade which are governed by 

 other lords, nephews of the king of Ceylam, to whom they pay 



obedience, except that sometimes they revolt 27 The said 



island of Ceylam is very near the mainland, and between it and 

 the continent are some banks which have got a channel in the 

 midst, which the Indians call Chylam, 28 by which all the Malabar 

 sambuks pass to Cholmendel. And every year many are lost upon 

 these banks because the channel is very narrow, 29 and in the 

 year that the Admiral of Portugal went the second time to 

 India, 30 so many ships and sambuks of Malabar were lost 

 in those shallows, that twelve thousand Indians were drowned 

 there, who were coming with provisions, and were determined on 

 driving the Portuguese fleet away from India, without allowing it 

 to take any cargo. 



1 This first appeared in print in the form of a defective Italian 

 translation in vol. i. of Ramusio's Navigationi et Viaggi (1550). The 

 passages here given are taken from Stanley's translation of a Spanish 

 version of Barbosa's work, issued by the Hakluyt Society in 1866. 

 That the work was finished in 1516, as stated in the preface to the 

 Lisbon edition, seems evident from the fact that it records no events 

 of later date than 1515. This description of Ceylon is the earliest I 



h 36-07 



