The country around the city of Melinde is very fertile, and many of these provisions are shipped from it to Chalichut, for most of the land around the latter is sandy and yields no fruit.[365] [_The Monsoons._] There are only two dominant winds in those parts, namely westerly and easterly winds, and it is winter during the former and summer during the latter. [_Artists._] There are many excellent painters in this city of Ghalinde,[366] of figures as well as of other subjects. [_Architecture._] Neither Ghalinde nor any of the other cities is enclosed within walls or otherwise, but there are many good houses, built in the Moorish style, of stone and mortar, and streets regularly laid out (ordinate).[367] [_Ceylon._] In the island of Zilon, where the cinnamon grows, are found many precious stones and the biggest sapphires. GIROLAMO SERNIGI. Lisbon. GIROLAMO SERNIGI’S SECOND LETTER TO A GENTLEMAN OF FLORENCE.[368] Since I sent you full particulars about India and its discovery there has arrived here the pilot whom they took by force. He appeared to be a Sclavonian and turns out to be a Jew, born at Alexandria, or in those parts, and thence went to India when very young. At Calichut he has a wife and children. He owned a ship and went several times to sea. [_Spices._] This man told wonderful things about those countries, and their wealth in spices. The best and finest cinnamon is procured from another island [Ceylon], about 150 leagues beyond Calichut and very near the mainland. This island is inhabited by Moors. Pepper and cloves come from more distant parts. [_Jews._] He says that there are not many Jews there; and that there is a King of the Jews of the ten tribes of the Jewish people which went out of Egypt.[369] [_Christians._] He says that in those countries there are many gentiles, that is idolaters, and only a few Christians;[370] that the supposed churches and belfries are in reality temples of idolaters, and that the pictures within them are those of idols and not of Saints. To me this seems more probable than saying that there are Christians but no divine administrations, no priests and no sacrificial mass. I do not understand that there are any Christians there to be taken into account,[371] excepting those of Prester John, whose country is far from Calichut, on this [_i.e._, the western] side of the Gulf of Arabia, and borders upon the country of the King of Melinde, and, far in the interior, upon the Ethiopians, that is the black people of Guinea, as also upon Egypt, that is the country of the Sultan of Babylon [Cairo]. This Prester John has priests, who offer sacrifices, respect the Gospels and the Laws of the Church, much as is done by other Christians. [_Trade with Egypt._]