miles. We saw those pearls fished for [here] in the sea, in the same manner as I have already described to you in Ormus.

located at a distance of fifty miles opposite to Colon." Chayl seems, moreover, to be identical with Marco Polo's Cael or Kael, which he mentions before enumerating Coulam and other regions to the westward, and describes as "a great city, governed by Astiar...who is very rich, and uses merchants kindly." (GREENE, vol. iv. p. 616.) Barbosa's account of it is as follows :-" After passing the province of Quilacare, [Killa-. karai of Keith Johnston's Atlas,] onward by the coast, towards the northeast wind, there is another city called Cael, belonging to the king of Coulam, inhabited by Pagans and Moors, who are great merchants, and there is a seaport where many ships from Malabar, Coromandel and Bengala come every year. Here traffic is carried on by all sorts of merchants from every quarter. The people of this city are expert jewellers, who trade in small pearls, for here great quantities thereof are taken; and this fishery belongs to the king of Coulam, and for many years past has been farmed to a very rich Moorish merchant." RAMUSIO, vol. i. p. 313.

I am surprised that Dr. Vincent, who was well acquainted with Ramusio's Collection, has made no reference to this Cael or Coil in his identification of the Kolkhi of the author of the Periplus with the Kôru and Calligicum of Ptolemy and the Kôlis of Dionysius, as the existence of a town of that name, and in the locality occupied by Cael, seems to supply the only desideratum for removing the doubt which attaches to his deductions. I quote his argument in full, leaving the reader to form his own judgment on my suggestion :-" Ptolemy has still another particular which is very remarkable; for as he places the northern point of his Tapróbane opposite to a promontory named Kôru, so he has an island Kôru between the two, and a Tala-Côri on Ceylon; and Kôry, he says, is the same as Calligicum...The expedition of Ram to Ceylon, and his victory over Rhavan or Rhaban, king of that island, is one of the wildest fables of Hindoo mythology, but he passed into the island at the strait, since called, by the Mohamedans, Adam's Bridge. The whole country round, in consequence of this, preserves the memorial of his conquest. There is a Ramanad-buram on the continent close to the bridge; a Rami-Ceram, or country of Ram, the island close to the continent; [Rameswaram, called Rammanana Kojel by Baldæus, and Ra· monan Coil by D'Anville ;] and a Point Rama on the continent. The bridge itself, formed by the shoals between Rami-ceram and Manaar, is Rama's Bridge; and in Rami-ceram is Raman-Koil, the temple of Ram. This Koil or temple [Koil means a temple in Malayalim] is undoubtedly the origin of Kôru; and the repetition of it three times in Ptolemy is in perfect correspondence with the various allusions to Ram at the present

THE CHAPTER CONCERNING CIOROMANDEL, A CITY OF

INDIA.

We then passed further onwards, and arrived at a city which is called Cioromandel,1 which is a marine district, and

day. Kôru is likewise written Kôlis by Dionysius, and the natives called Kôniaki, Koliki, and Koliaki, by different writers. This fluctuation of orthography will naturally suggest a connection with the Kolkhi of Ptolemy and the Periplus, which both of them make the seat of the Pearl Fishery; and if Sosikoorè be Tuta-corin, as D'Anville supposes, the relation of Kolkhi to that place will lead us naturally to the vicinity of Ramana-Koil; for Tuta-corin was the point where the Dutch presided over the fishery while it was in their hands, and maintains the same privilege now under the power of the English. But Koil, whether we consider it, with Ptolemy, as the point of the continent, or seek for it on the island of Ramiseram, is so near, and so intimately connected with Manaar, the principal seat of the fishery, that there can be little hesitation in assigning it to the Kolkhi of the ancients. Whether there be now a town of consequence either on the continent or on the island, I am not informed; but that Koil, and Kôlis, and Kolkhi, and Kalligicum, (for Kállígicum, Salmasius reads Koλakóv,) are related, I have no doubt." Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, vol. ii. pp. 501

503.

1 I am not aware that a city so called has ever existed on the coast referred to, and am therefore led to conclude that in this instance, as in the case of Bîjapûr which Varthema styled "Decan,” he gives to one of the principal towns the name of the district in which it was located. The alleged vicinity of St. Thomas's tomb points to the neighbourhood of Maliapur; but as that position is irreconcileable with the other indications supplied, I am inclined to infer either that our author was misinformed in that particular, or that an error in the numerals recording the distance has crept into the existing versions of his travels. His "Cioromandel" I take to be Negapatam, "a town on the western coast of the Bay of Bengal. Here is a diminutive estuary of the Cauvery, capable of receiving small coasting-vessels, which carry on a considerable trade...The inhabitants have also considerable traffic with Ceylon, and the lands and islands lying eastward." (THORNton's Gazetteer.) It appears to have been the principal town on that part of the coast, for Ralph Fitch nearly a century after Varthema does not mention the name of Coromandel, but describes it as "the mainland of Negapatan." (PINKERTON, vol. ix. p. 424.) Its situation about three hundred miles, by the coast, from Quilon would make the interval be

distant from Colon seven days' journey by sea, more or less, according to the wind. This city is very large, and is not surrounded by walls, and is subject to the king of Narsinga. The said city is situated opposite to the island of Zeilon, when you have passed the Cape of Cumerin. In this district they gather a great quantity of rice, and it is the route to very large countries. There are many Moorish merchants here who go and come for their merchandize. No spices of any description grow here, but plenty of fruits, as at Calicut. I found some Christians in this district who told me that the body of St. Thomas was twelve miles distant from that place, and that it was under the guard of some Christians. They also told me that Christians could not live in that country after the king of Portugal had come there, because the said king had put to death many Moors of that country, which trembled throughout from fear of the Portuguese. And, therefore, the said poor Christians cannot live here any longer, but are driven away and killed secretly, in order that it may not come to the ears of the king of Narsinga, who is a very great friend of the Christians, and especially of the Portuguese. One of these Christians also told me a very great miracle which his priest had told him, that fortyfive years ago the Moors had a dispute with the Christians, and there were wounded on both sides; but one Christian, among the rest, was much wounded in the arm, and he went

to the tomb of St. Thomas and touched the tomb of St. Thomas with that wounded arm, and immediately he was

tween the two places a seven days' voyage 66 more or less, according to the wind ;" and the actual distance which separates it from the nearest point of Ceylon being one degree of latitude, corresponds approximately with the twelve or fifteen leagues which Varthema subsequently places between his Cioromandel and that island. The shoals and rocks in the Palk Strait render navigation difficult at all times, and his notice of them as endangering the passage from the mainland is an additional argument in favour of the foregoing identification, proving, at least, that his Cioromandel was to the northward of Calimere Point.

cured. And that from that time henceforward, the king of Narsinga has always wished well to the Christians. My companion disposed of some of his merchandize here, and inasmuch as they were at war with the king of Tarnassari we remained here only a few days, and then we took a ship with some other merchants, which ships are called Ciampane, for they are flat-bottomed, and require little water and carry much goods. We passed a gulf of twelve or fifteen leagues where we had incurred great peril because there are many shoals and rocks there; however, we arrived at an island called Zailon, which is about 1000 miles in circumference, according to the report of the inhabitants thereof.

3

THE CHAPTER CONCERNING ZAILANI, WHERE JEWELS ARE PRODUCED.

4

In this island of Zailon there are four kings, all Pagans.

1 A very insignificant miracle compared with many others attributed to the sepulchre of St. Thomas. Barbosa piously records a tradition that the right arm of the Apostle protruded from his tomb at Maliapur, and for a long time resisted every attempt to cover it.

2

Sampan, the common name for a canoe or skiff in Malay and Javanese.

3 Ceylon. Our traveller's informants were better acquainted with the extent of the island than Marco Polo, who made it 2,400 miles in circuit, and says that "anciently it was 3,600 miles, as is seen in the maps of the mariners of those places; but the north winds have made a great part of it sea." (PINKERTON, vii. p. 161.) Nicolò de' Conti estimated its circumference at 3,000 miles. "The extreme length of the island is about 270 miles; its breadth varies greatly, but the average is about 100 miles." THORNTON'S Gazetteer.

From the description which Varthema gives of the locality,—the large river, the adjacent mountains, and the cinnamon cultivation,—I conclude that he landed at Colombo on the western coast; for it is by no means a necessary inference that because he mentions the width of the passage between the mainland and the island that the voyage was limited to that extent.

4 Marco Polo gives the same number of kings in his time. Varthema's brief description of the political condition of the island at the period of

I do not describe to you all the things of the said island, because these kings being in fierce war with each other, we could not remain there long, neither could we see or hear the things thereof; however, having remained there some few days, we saw that which you shall hear. And first, an immense quantity of elephants which are produced there.1

his visit is fully confirmed by Sir J. E. Tennent. Writing of A.D. 1505, he says: "The seaports on all parts of the coast were virtually in the hands of the Moors: the north was in the possession of the Malabars, whose seat of government was at Jaffna-patam; and the great central region, (since known as the Wanny,) and Neuera-kalawa, were formed into petty chiefships, each governed by a Wanniya, calling himself a vassal, but virtually uncontrolled by any paramount authority. In the south the nominal sovereign Dharma Prakrama Bahu IX. had his capital at Cotta, near Colombo, whilst minor kings held mimic courts at Badulla, Gampola, Peradenia, Kandy, and Mahagam, and caused repeated commotions by their intrigues and insurrections. The rulers had long ceased to busy themselves with the endowment of temples, and the construction of works for irrigation; so that already in the fourteenth century, Ceylon had become dependent upon India for supplies of food, and annually imported rice from the Dekkan." (Ceylon, vol. ii. p. 7.) The same author, in a note on the above passage from Varthema, remarks :-"These conflicts and the actors in them are described in the Singhalese chronicle called the Rajavali." I could not find Upham's translation of that work in the British Museum; but the following extract from Knighton is, I presume, partly based on its authority:-"We have already explained that on the arrival of Almeida, Ceylon was divided into three distinct principalities, of which Dharma Pakramabahu IX., who then resided at Cotta was king of the larger and more important one, the other two being the territory of the Malabars in the north and the wild Veddahs on the north and east. Europeans have frequently been misled into the idea that the island was divided into a vast number of petty kingdoms, each independent of the other. Such, however, was not the case. Sub-kings, or, as we should call them, lieutenants, subject to the Emperor of Cotta, were appointed in many places, who frequently endeavoured to play upon western visitors, by representing themselves as independent princes." History of Ceylon, pp. 222-3.

1 "The elephant, the lord paramount of the Ceylon forests, is to be met with in every district, on the confines of the woods... In recent years there is reason to believe that their numbers have become considerably reduced." TENNENT'S Ceylon, vol. i. p. 158.