A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
Goa is the chief city of the Portuguese in India, in which reside the
viceroy and his court, being many officers of the crown of Portugal.
From Ormuz it is 990 miles to Goa, on which passage the first city you
come to in India is Diu, situated in a small island of the kingdom of
Cambaia; and, though a small city, is the strongest fortified of any of
those possessed by the Portuguese in India, having great trade, and
loading many great ships with merchandise for Ormuz and the Red Sea.
These ships belong both to Moors and Christians; but the Moors can
neither trade nor navigate in these seas, unless they have a pass or
licence from the Portuguese viceroy, without which they we liable to be
captured. The merchandise loaded at Diu comes from _Cambaietta_, a port
in the kingdom of Cambaia, about 180 miles up a strait or gulf called
_Macareo_, which signifies _a race of the tide_, because the water runs
there with immense rapidity, such as is not to be seen anywhere else,
except in the kingdom of Pegu, where there is another _Macareo_ or race
of the tide still more violent. On this account, and because no large
vessels can go to _Cambaietta_ or _Cambay_, by reason of the shallowness
of the water in the gulf for 80 or 100 miles, the principal city of
Cambaia or Guzerat is _Amadaver_ or _Amedabad_, a day and a half
journey from Cambay, being a great and populous city, and for a city of
the Gentiles it is well built with handsome houses and wide streets. In
it there is a fine bason or canul, having many ships, so that it
resembles Cairo, but not so large.
Cambay is situated on the sea at the head of the gulf of the same name,
and is a handsome city. While I was there it was suffering great
calamity, owing to a scarcity, insomuch that the Gentiles offered their
sons and daughters for sale to the Portuguese, and I have seen them sold
for 8 or 10 _larines_ each, which is of our money about 10s. or 13s.
4d.[124]. Yet if I had not actually seen it, I could not have believed
that Cambay had so great a trade. Every new and full moon, when the
tides are at the highest, the small barks that come in and go out are
quite innumerable. These barks are laden with all kinds of spices, with
silks of China, sandal-wood, elephants teeth, velvets of _Vercini_,
great quantities of _Pannina_, which comes from Mecca, _chequins_ or
gold coins worth 7s. each sterling, and various other commodities. These
barks carry out an infinite quantity of cloth of all sorts made of
_bumbast_ or cotton, some white, others stamped or painted; large
quantities of indigo, dried and preserved ginger, dry and confected
myrabolans, _boraso_ or borax in paste, vast quantities of sugar,
cotton, opium, asafoetida, _puchio?_ and many other kinds of drugs,
turbans made at Delhi, great quantities of carnelians, garnets, agates,
jaspers, calcedonies, _hematitis_, or bloodstones, and some natural
diamonds.
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