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atmosphere extremely offensive, if not unwholesome; their putrid 
effluviae generally overpower the aromatic odours, which would 
otherwise be wafted by the morning breeze from groves of cassia, 
sandal, and champach. The sharks' fms are sold at a reasonable 
price; but the newest and most transparent nests of the hirundo, 
are purchased by the Chinese at five or six dollars the pound. 
Those of an older fabric, dry, and less pellucid, are not so va- 
luable. 
A favourable wind carried us quickly from Sacrifice-rock to 
Calicut, in the latitude of 11° 18' north: it is memorable, as being 
the place where Vasco de Gama, and his hardy followers, first 
landed from Europe in 1498; and where the English established 
a factory in l6l6: at present it offers very little to interest a tra- 
veller, being chiefly composed of low huts, shaded by cocoa-nut 
trees, on a sandy shore; amidst an offensive effluvia from sharks’ 
fins, and a variety of fish drying on the beach. In this unpleasant 
situation, the English, French, Danes, and Portugueze, had their 
respective factories, where they hoisted their national flags; and 
purchased pepper, cocoa-nuts, coir-cables and ropes, betel-nuts, 
timber, oil, and other articles. Beyond this sandy tract is a fertile 
plain, extending to the Gaut mountains; which in that part of the 
peninsula are of a stupendous height, and visible at sea seventy 
miles distance. 
Calicut road, where the ships anchor, is deemed unsafe for 
those not well acquainted with the navigation; several vessels have 
been wrecked upon the ruins of the old city, now under water: as 
the mean town just described, formed no part of that emporium 
where de Gama landed: Calicut is said to have been then a large 
