[Footnote 125: Formerly noticed as a species of velvet; but the words marsine and versine were inexplicable in the days of Hakluyt, and must so remain.--E.]
[Footnote 126: The velvets and scarlet cloths from Mecca were probably Italian manufactures, brought through Egypt and the Red Sea.--E.].
[Footnote 127: These great nuts must necessarily be the cocoa nuts, and the palmer tree, on which they grow, the cocoa palm.--E.]
[Footnote 128: Possibly molasses are here meant.--E.]
From Chaul, an infinite quantity of goods are exported for other parts of India, Macao, Portugal, the coast of Melinda, Ormuz, and other parts; such as cloth of _bumbast_ or cotton, white, painted, and printed, indigo, opium, silk of all kinds, borax in paste, asafoetida, iron, corn, and other things. Nizam-al-Mulk, the Moorish king, has great power, being able to take the field with 200,000 men, and a great store of artillery, some of which are made in pieces[129], and are so large that they are difficultly removed, yet are they very commodiously used, and discharge enormous stone bullets, some of which have been sent to the king of Portugal as rarities. The city of _Abnezer[130]_, in which Nizam-al-Mulk resides, is seven or eight days journey inland from Chaul. Seventy miles[131] from Chaul toward the Indies, or south, is Dabul, a haven belonging to Nizam-al-Mulk, from whence to Goa is 150 miles[132].
[Footnote 129: Probably meaning that they were formed of bars hooped or welded together, in the way in which the famous _Mons meg_, long in Edinburgh Castle, and now in the tower of London, was certainly made.--E.]
[Footnote 130: Perhaps that now called Assodnagur in the Mahratta country, about 125 miles nearly east from Chaul.--E.]
[Footnote 131: In fact only about half that distance.--E.]
[Footnote 132: About 165 English miles--E.]
Goa, the principal city of the Portuguese in India, in which the viceroy resides with a splendid court, stands in an island about 25 or 30 miles in circuit. The city, with its boroughs or suburbs, is moderately large, and is sufficiently handsome for an Indian city; but the island is very beautiful, being full of fine gardens, and adorned with many trees, among which are the _Palmer_, or cocoa-nut trees, formerly mentioned. Goa trades largely in all kinds of merchandise usual in these parts, and every year five or six large ships come directly thither from Portugal, usually arriving about the 6th or 10th of September. They remain there 40 or 50 days, and go from thence to Cochin, where they finish their lading for Portugal; though they often load one ship at Goa and the other at Cochin for Portugal. Cochin is 420 miles from Goa. The city of Goa stands in the kingdom of _Dial-can_, or Adel Khan, a Moorish or Mahometan king, whose capital, called Bejapour or Visiapour, is eight days journey inland from Goa[133]. This sovereign has great power; for, when I was at Goa in 1570, he came to attack that city, encamping with 200,000 men at a river side in the neighbourhood, where he remained fourteen months, at the end of which a peace was concluded. It was reported in Goa that a great mortality prevailed in his army during the winter, which also killed many of his elephants. When I went in 1567 from Goa to _Bezenegur_ or Bijanagur, the capital city of the kingdom of _Narsinga,_ eight days journey inland from Goa[134], I travelled in company with two other merchants, who carried with them 300 Arabian horses for sale to that king; the horses of the country being of small stature, occasioning Arabian horses to sell at high prices in that part of India. Indeed it is necessary that the merchants should get good prices, as they are at great charges in bringing them from Persia to Ormuz and thence to Goa. At going out of Goa, 42 pagodas are paid of duty for each horse; the pagoda being a small gold coin worth about 6s. 8d. sterling. In the inland country of Narsinga, the Arabian horses sell for 300, 400, and 500 ducats each, and some very superior horses sell as high as 1000 ducats.