Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1.: The Exploration of the WorldVerne, Jules
History
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1.: The Exploration of the World
Verne, Jules
Discoveries in geography; Explorers; Voyages and travels
The fleet now returned to Ceylon, where in 1284 Kublai-Khan had sent
an ambassador who had brought him back some pretended relics of Adam,
and among other things two of his molar teeth; for, if we can
believe the Saracen traditions, the tomb of our first father must
have been on the summit of one of the precipitous mountains, which
forms the highest ground in the island. After losing sight of Ceylon,
Marco Polo went to Cail, a port that we do not find marked on any of
the modern maps, but a place where all the vessels touched coming
from Ormuz, Kiss, Aden, and the coasts of Arabia. Thence doubling
Cape Comorin they came to Coilum, now Quilon, which was a very
thriving city in the thirteenth century. It is there that a great
quantity of sandal-wood and indigo is found, and merchants come in
large numbers from the Levant and from the West to trade in both.
The country of Malabar produces a great quantity of rice, and wild
animals are found there, such as leopards, which Marco Polo calls
"black lions," also peacocks of much greater beauty than those of
Europe, as well as different kinds of parroquets.
The fleet, leaving Coilum, and advancing northwards along the
Malabar coast, arrived at the shores of the kingdom of Maundallay,
which derives its name from a mountain situated on the borders of
Kanara and Malabar; here pepper, ginger, saffron, and other spices
abound. To the north of this kingdom extended that country which the
Venetian traveller calls Melibar, and which is situated to the north
of Malabar proper. The vessels of the Mangalore merchants came here
to trade with the natives of this part of India for cargoes of
spices, a fine kind of cloth called buckram and other valuable
wares; but their vessels were frequently attacked, and too often
pillaged by the pirates who infested these seas, and who were justly
regarded as formidable enemies. These pirates principally inhabit
the peninsula of Gohourat, now called Gujerat, where the fleet was
on its way after calling at Tana--a country where is collected the
frankincense--and Canboat, now Kambay, a town where there is a great
trade in leather. Visiting Sumenath, a city of the peninsula, whose
inhabitants are cruel, ferocious, and idolaters, and Kesmacoran, the
modern city of Kedje, the capital of Makran, situated on the Indus
near the sea, and the last town in India on the northwest, Marco
Polo went westward across the sea of Oman, instead of going to
Persia, which was the destination of the princess.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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