Chapter XXV: Concerning the Kingdom of Melibar

Melibar is a great kingdom lying towards the west. The people are Idolaters; they have a language of their own, and a king of their own, and pay tribute to nobody.{1}

In this country you see more of the North Star, for it shows two cubits above the water. And you must know that from this kingdom of Melibar, and from another near it called Gozurat, there go forth every year more than a hundred corsair vessels on cruize. These pirates take with them their wives and children, and stay out the whole summer. Their method is to join in fleets of 20 or 30 of these pirate vessels together, and then they form what they call a sea cordon,{2} that is, they drop off till there is an interval of 5 or 6 miles between ship and ship, so that they cover something like an hundred miles of sea, and no merchant ship can escape them. For when any one corsair sights a vessel a signal is made by fire or smoke, and then the whole of them make for this, and seize the merchants and plunder them. After they have plundered them they let them go, saying: “Go along with you and get more gain, and that mayhap will fall to us also!” But now the merchants are aware of this, and go so well manned and armed, and with such great ships, that they don’t fear the corsairs. Still mishaps do befall them at times.{3}

There is in this kingdom a great quantity of pepper, and ginger, and cinnamon, and turbit, and of nuts of India.{4} They also manufacture very delicate and beautiful buckrams. The ships that come from the east bring copper in ballast. They also bring hither cloths of silk and gold, and sendels; also gold and silver, cloves and spikenard, and other fine spices for which there is a demand here, and exchange them for the products of these countries.

Ships come hither from many quarters, but especially from the great province of Manzi.{5} Coarse spices are exported hence both to Manzi and to the west, and that which is carried by the merchants to Aden goes on to Alexandria, but the ships that go in the latter direction are not one to ten of those that go to the eastward; a very notable fact that I have mentioned before.

Now I have told you about the kingdom of Melibar; we shall now proceed and tell you of the kingdom of Gozurat. And you must understand that in speaking of these kingdoms we note only the capitals; there are great numbers of other cities and towns of which we shall say nothing, because it would make too long a story to speak of all.

NOTE 1.—Here is another instance of that confusion which dislocates
Polo’s descriptions of the Indian coast; we shall recur to it under
ch. xxx.

Malabar is a name given by the Arabs, and varies in its form:
Ibn Batuta and Kazwini write it المليبار, _al-Malíbár_, Edrisi
and Abulfeda المنيبار, _al-Maníbár_, etc., and like variations
occur among the old European travellers. The country so-called
corresponded to the _Kerala_ of the Brahmans, which in its very
widest sense extended from about lat. 15° to Cape Comorin. This,
too, seems to be the extension which Abulfeda gives to Malabar,
viz., from Hunáwar to Kumhári; Rashiduddin includes Sindábúr,
_i.e._ Goa. But at a later date a point between Mt. d’Ely and
Mangalore on the north, and Kaulam on the south, were the limits
usually assigned to Malabar.

NOTE 2.—“_Il font_ eschiel _en la mer_” (G. T.). _Eschiel_ is
the equivalent of the Italian _schera_ or _schiera_, a troop or
squadron, and thence applied to order of battle, whether by land or
sea.

NOTE 3.—The northern part of Malabar, Canara, and the Konkan, have
been nests of pirates from the time of the ancients to a very
recent date. Padre Paolino specifies the vicinity of Mt. d’Ely as a
special haunt of them in his day, the latter half of last century.
Somewhat further north Ibn Batuta fell into their hands, and was
stripped to his drawers.

NOTE 4.—There is something to be said about these Malabar spices.
The cinnamon of Malabar is what we call cassia, the _canella
grossa_ of Conti, the _canela brava_ of the Portuguese. Notices
of it will be found in _Rheede_ (I. 107) and in _Garcia_ (f.
26 _seqq._). The latter says the Ceylon cinnamon exceeded it in
value as 4:1. Uzzano discriminates _canella_ lunga, _Salami_, and
_Mabari_. The _Salami_, I have no doubt, is _Sailani_, Ceylonese;
and as we do not hear of any cassia from Mabar, probably the last
was _Malabar_ cinnamon.

_Turbit: Radex Turpethi_ is still known in pharmacy, at least
in some parts of the Continent and in India, though in England
obsolete. It is mentioned in the _Pharmacopœia of India_ (1868) as
derived from _Ipomœa Turpethum_.

But it is worthy of note that Ramusio has _cubebs_ instead of
_turbit_. The former does not seem now to be a product of Western
India, though Garcia says that a small quantity grew there, and
a Dutch report of 1675 in Valentyn also mentions it as an export
of Malabar. (_V., Ceylon_, p. 243.) There is some ambiguity in
statements about it, because its popular name _Kábab-chíní_ seems
to be also applied to the cassia bud. Cubeb pepper was much used in
the Middle Ages as a spice, and imported into Europe as such. But
the importation had long practically ceased, when its medical uses
became known during the British occupation of Java, and the demand
was renewed.

Budaeus and Salmasius have identified this drug with the
κώμακον, which Theophrastus joins with cinnamomum and cassia as
an ingredient in aromatic confections. The inducement to this
identification was no doubt the singular resemblance which the word
bears to the Javanese name of cubeb pepper, viz., _Kumukus_. If
the foundation were a little firmer this would be curious evidence
of intercourse and trade with Java in a time earlier than that of
Theophrastus, viz., the 4th century B.C.

In the detail of 3 cargoes from Malabar that arrived at Lisbon in
September 1504 we find the following proportions: Pepper, 10,000
_cantars_; cinnamon, 500; cloves, 450; zz. (_i.e._ _zenzaro_,
ginger), 130; lac and brazil, 750; camphor, 7; cubebs, 191; mace,
2½; spikenard, 3; lign-aloes, 1⅓.

(_Buchanan’s Mysore_, II. 31, III. 193, and App. p. v.; _Garcia_,
Ital. version, 1576, f. 39–40; _Salmas. Exerc. Plin._ p. 923; _Bud.
on Theoph._ 1004 and 1010; _Archiv. St. Ital._, Append. II. p. 19.)

NOTE 5.—We see that Marco speaks of the merchants and ships of
Manzi, or Southern China, as frequenting Kaulam, Hili, and now
Malabar, of which Calicut was the chief port. This quite coincides
with Ibn Batuta, who says those were the three ports of India which
the Chinese junks frequented, adding Fandaraina (_i.e._ Pandarani,
or Pantaláni, 16 miles north of Calicut), as a port where they
used to moor for the winter when they spent that season in India.
By the winter he means the rainy season, as Portuguese writers
on India do by the same expression (IV. 81, 88, 96). I have been
unable to find anything definite as to the date of the cessation
of this Chinese navigation to Malabar, but I believe it may be
placed about the beginning of the 15th century. The most distinct
allusion to it that I am aware of is in the information of Joseph
of Cranganore, in the _Novus Orbis_ (Ed. of 1555, p. 208). He says:
“These people of Cathay are men of remarkable energy, and formerly
drove a first-rate trade at the city of Calicut. But the King of
Calicut having treated them badly, they quitted that city, and
returning shortly after inflicted no small slaughter on the people
of Calicut, and after that returned no more. After that they began
to frequent Mailapetam, a city subject to the king of Narsingha; a
region towards the East, ... and there they now drive their trade.”
There is also in Gaspar Correa’s account of the Voyages of Da Gama
a curious record of a tradition of the arrival in Malabar more than
four centuries before of a vast merchant fleet “from the parts
of Malacca, and China, and the Lequeos” (Lewchew); many from the
company on board had settled in the country and left descendants.
In the space of a hundred years none of these remained; but their
sumptuous idol temples were still to be seen. (_Stanley’s Transl.,
Hak. Soc._, p. 147.)[1] It is probable that both these stories
must be referred to those extensive expeditions to the western
countries with the object of restoring Chinese influence which
were despatched by the Ming Emperor Ch’êng-Tsu (or Yung-lo), about
1406, and one of which seems actually to have brought _Ceylon_
under a partial subjection to China, which endured half a century.
(See _Tennent_, I. 623 _seqq._; and _Letter of P. Gaubil_ in _J.
A._ sér. II. tom. x. pp. 327–328.) [“So that at this day there is
great memory of them in the ilands Philippinas, and on the cost
of Coromande, which is the cost against the kingdome of Norsinga
towards the sea of Cengala: whereas is a towne called unto this
day the soile of the Chinos, for that they did reedifie and make
the same. The like notice and memory is there in the kingdom of
Calicut, whereas be many trees and fruits, that the naturals of
that countrie do say, were brought thither by the Chinos, when
that they were lords and gouernours of that countrie.” (_Mendoza,
Parke’s transl._ p. 71.)] De Barros says that the famous city of
Diu was built by one of the Kings of Guzerat whom he calls in
one place _Dariar Khan_, and in another _Peruxiah_, in memory of
victory in a sea-fight with the Chinese who then frequented the
Indian shores. It is difficult to identify this King, though he is
represented as the father of the famous toxicophagous Sultan Mahmúd
Begara (1459–1511). De Barros has many other allusions to Chinese
settlements and conquests in India which it is not very easy to
account for. Whatever basis of facts there is must probably refer
to the expeditions of Ch’êng-Tsu, but not a little probably grew
out of the confusion of _Jainas_ and _Chinas_ already alluded to;
and to this I incline to refer Correa’s “sumptuous idol-temples.”

There must have been some revival of Chinese trade in the last
century, if P. Paolino is correct in speaking of Chinese vessels
frequenting Travancore ports for pepper. (_De Barros_, Dec. II.
Liv. ii. cap. 9, and Dec. IV. Liv. v. cap. 3; _Paolino_, p. 74.)

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[1] It appears from a paper in the Mackenzie MSS. that down to Colonel
Mackenzie’s time there was a tribe in Calicut whose ancestors were
believed to have been Chinese. (See _Taylor’s Catal. Raisonné_,
III. 664.) And there is a notable passage in Abdurrazzák which
says the seafaring population of Calicut were nicknamed _Chíní
bachagán_, “China boys.” (_India in XVth Cent._ p. 19.)