Chapter XXIV: Concerning the Kingdom of Eli

Eli is a kingdom towards the west, about 300 miles from Comari. The people are Idolaters and have a king, and are tributary to nobody; and have a peculiar language. We will tell you particulars about their manners and their products, and you will better understand things now because we are drawing near to places that are not so outlandish.{1}

There is no proper harbour in the country, but there are many great rivers with good estuaries, wide and deep.{2} Pepper and ginger grow there, and other spices in quantities.{3} The King is rich in treasure, but not very strong in forces. The approach to his kingdom however is so strong by nature that no one can attack him, so he is afraid of nobody.

And you must know that if any ship enters their estuary and anchors there, having been bound for some other port, they seize her and plunder the cargo. For they say, “You were bound for somewhere else, and ’tis God has sent you hither to us, so we have a right to all your goods.” And they think it no sin to act thus. And this naughty custom prevails all over these provinces of India, to wit, that if a ship be driven by stress of weather into some other port than that to which it was bound, it is sure to be plundered. But if a ship come bound originally to the place they receive it with all honour and give it due protection.{4} The ships of Manzi and other countries that come hither in summer lay in their cargoes in 6 or 8 days and depart as fast as possible, because there is no harbour other than the river-mouth, a mere roadstead and sandbanks, so that it is perilous to tarry there. The ships of Manzi indeed are not so much afraid of these roadsteads as others are, because they have such huge wooden anchors which hold in all weather.{5}

There are many lions and other wild beasts here and plenty of game, both beast and bird.

NOTE 1.—No city or district is now known by the name of ELY, but
the name survives in that of Mount _Dely_, properly Monte d’ELY,
the _Yeli-mala_ of the Malabar people, and called also in the
legends of the coast _Sapta-shaila_, or the Seven Hills. This is
the only spur of the Gháts that reaches the sea within the Madras
territory. It is an isolated and very conspicuous hill, or cluster
of hills, forming a promontory some 16 miles north of Cananore, the
first Indian land seen by Vasco da Gama, on that memorable August
morning in 1498, and formerly very well known to navigators, though
it has been allowed to drop out of some of our most ambitious
modern maps. Abulfeda describes it as “a great mountain projecting
into the sea, and descried from a great distance, called _Ras
Haili_”; and it appears in Fra Mauro’s map as _Cavo de Eli_.

Rashiduddin mentions “the country of Hili,” between _Manjarúr_
(Mangalore) and Fandaraina (miswritten in Elliot’s copy _Sadarsa_).
Ibn Batuta speaks of Hili, which he reached on leaving Manjarúr,
as “a great and well-built city, situated on a large estuary
accessible to great ships. The vessels of China come hither; this,
Kaulam, and Kalikut, are the only ports that they enter.” From
Hili he proceeds 12 miles further down the coast to _Jor-fattan_,
which probably corresponds to Baliapatan. ELLY appears in the
Carta Catalana, and is marked as a Christian city. Nicolo Conti
is the last to speak distinctly of the city. Sailing from Cambay,
in 20 days he arrived at two cities on the sea-shore, _Pacamuria_
(_Faknúr_, of Rashid and Firishta, _Baccanor_ of old books, and
now _Bárkúr_, the Malayálim _Vákkanúr_) and HELLI. But we read
that in 1527 Simon de Melo was sent to burn ships in the River of
_Marabia_ and at _Monte d’Elli_.[1] When Da Gama on his second
voyage was on his way from Baticala (in Canara) to Cananor, a
squall having sprung his mainmast just before reaching Mt. d’Ely,
“the captain-major anchored in the Bay of Marabia, because he saw
there several Moorish ships, in order to get a mast from them.” It
seems clear that this was the bay just behind Mt. d’Ely.

Indeed the name of Marabia or _Máráwí_ is still preserved in
_Mádávi_ or Mádái, corruptly termed _Maudoy_ in some of our maps,
a township upon the river which enters the bay about 7 or 8 miles
south-east of Mt. d’Ely, and which is called by De Barros the
_Rio Marabia_. Mr. Ballard informs me that he never heard of
ruins of importance at Madai, but there is a place on the river
just mentioned, and within the Madai township, called _Payangádi_
(“Old Town”), which has the remains of an old fort of the Kolastri
(or Kolatiri) Rajas. A _palace_ at Madai (perhaps this fort) is
alluded to by Dr. Gundert in the _Madras Journal_, and a Buddhist
Vihara is spoken of in an old Malayalim poem as having existed
at the same place. The same paper speaks of “the famous emporium
of Cachilpatnam near Mt. d’Ely,” which may have been our city of
Hili, as the cities Hili and Marawi were apparently separate though
near.[2]

The state of _Hílí-Máráwi_ is also mentioned in the Arabic
work on the early history of the Mahomedans in Malabar, called
_Tuhfat-al-Mujáhidín_, and translated by Rowlandson; and as the
Prince is there called _Kolturee_, this would seem to identify him
either in family or person with the Raja of Cananor, for that old
dynasty always bore the name of _Kolatiri_.[3]

The Ramusian version of Barbosa is very defective here, but in
Stanley’s version (Hak. Soc. _East African and Malabar Coasts_,
p. 149) we find the topography in a passage from a Munich MS.
clear enough: “After passing this place” (the river of Nirapura or
Nileshwaram) “along the coast is the mountain Dely (of Ely) on the
edge of the sea; it is a round mountain, very lofty, in the midst
of low land; all the ships of the Moors and Gentiles that navigate
in this sea of India sight this mountain when coming from without,
and make their reckoning by it; ... after this, at the foot of the
mountain to the south, is a town called _Marave_, very ancient and
well off, in which live Moors and Gentiles and Jews; these Jews are
of the language of the country; it is a long time that they have
dwelt in this place.”

(_Stanley’s Correa_, Hak. Soc. pp. 145, 312–313; _Gildem._ p. 185;
_Elliot_, I. 68; _I. B._ IV. 81; _Conti_, p. 6; _Madras Journal_,
XIII. No. 31, pp. 14, 99, 102, 104; _De Barros_, III. 9, cap. 6,
and IV. 2, cap. 13; _De Couto_, IV. 5, cap. 4.)

NOTE 2.—This is from Pauthier’s text, and the map with ch. xxi.
illustrates the fact of the many wide rivers. The G. T. has “a good
river with a very good estuary” or mouth. The latter word is in the
G. T. _faces_, afterwards more correctly _foces_, equivalent to
_fauces_. We have seen that Ibn Batuta also speaks of the estuary
or inlet at Hili. It may have been either that immediately east of
Mount d’Ely, communicating with Kavváyi and the Nileshwaram River,
or the Madai River. Neither could be entered by vessels now, but
there have been great littoral changes. The land joining Mt. d’Ely
to the main is mere alluvium.

NOTE 3.—Barbosa says that throughout the kingdom of Cananor the
pepper was of excellent quality, though not in great quantity.
There was much ginger, not first-rate, which was called _Hely_ from
its growing about Mount d’Ely, with cardamoms (names of which,
_Elá_ in Sanskrit, _Hel_ in Persian, I have thought might be connected
with that of the hill), mirobolans, cassia fistula, zerumbet, and
zedoary. The two last items are two species of _curcuma_, formerly
in much demand as aromatics; the last is, I believe, the _setewale_
of Chaucer:—

“There was eke wexing many a spice,
As clowe gilofre and Licorice,
Ginger and grein de Paradis,
Canell and setewale of pris,
And many a spice delitable
To eaten when men rise from table.”—_R. of the Rose_.

The Hely ginger is also mentioned by Conti.

NOTE 4.—This piratical practice is noted by Abdurrazzák also: “In
other parts (than Calicut) a strange practice is adopted. When
a vessel sets sail for a certain point, and suddenly is driven
by a decree of Divine Providence into another roadstead, the
inhabitants, under the pretext that the wind has driven it thither,
plunder the ship. But at Calicut every ship, whatever place it
comes from, or wherever it may be bound, when it puts into this
port, is treated like other vessels, and has no trouble of any kind
to put up with” (p. 14). In 1673 Sivaji replied to the pleadings
of an English embassy, that it was “against the Laws of Conchon”
(Ptolemy’s _Pirate Coast_!) “to restore any ships or goods that
were driven ashore.” (_Fryer_, p. 261.)

NOTE 5.—With regard to the anchors, Pauthier’s text has just the
opposite of the G. T. which we have preferred: “_Les nefs du Manzi
portent si grans ancres de fust_, que il seuffrent moult _de grans
fortunes aus plajes_.” De Mailla says the Chinese consider their
ironwood anchors to be much better than those of iron, because the
latter are subject to strain. (_Lett. Edif._ XIV. 10.) Capt. Owen
has a good word for wooden anchors. (_Narr. of Voyages, etc._, I.
385.)

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[1] The Town of Monte d’Ely appears (_Monte Dil_) in Coronelli’s Atlas
(1690) from some older source. Mr. Burnell thinks Baliapatan
(properly _Vaḷarpaṭṭanam_) which is still a prosperous Máppila
town, on a broad and deep river, must be Hili. I see a little
difficulty in this. [Marabia at Monte Dely is often mentioned in
_Correa_, as one of the ports of the Kingdom of Cananor.]

[2] Mr. Burnell thinks _Kachchil_paṭṭanam must be an error (easy in
Malayálim) for _Kavvil_paṭṭanam, _i.e._ Kavváyi (Kanwai in our map).

[3] As _printed_ by Rowlandson, the name is corrupt (like many others
in the book), being given as _Hubaee Murawee_. But suspecting what
this pointed to, I examined the MS. in the R. A. Society’s Library.
The knowledge of the Arabic _character_ was quite sufficient to
enable me to trace the name as هيلي ماراوي, _Hílí Máráwi_. (See
_Rowlandson_, pp. 54, 58–59, and MS. pp. 23 and 26; also _Indian
Antiquary_, III. p. 213.)