seeing myself in such danger. At length we found a parao which carried us to Canonor. We arrived at Canonor on Saturday evening, and I immediately carried a letter which my companion had written for me to a merchant his friend; the tenor of which letter stated that he should do as much for me as for his own person until he came; and he told him about my being a saint, and of the relationship there was between him and me. The merchant, as soon as he had read the letter, laid it on his head and said, that he would answer for me with his head; and immediately had an excellent supper prepared, with many chickens and pigeons. When the two Persians saw the chickens come, they exclaimed: "Alas, what do you do?" Colli tinu ille,” that is, "This man does not eat flesh;" and other things came immediately. When we had finished eating, the said Persians said to me: "Let us go a little to the sea to amuse ourselves;" and so we went where the Portuguese fleet was. Imagine, O reader, the joy I felt. Going a little farther, I saw before a certain low house three empty casks, from which I imagined that the factory of the Christians was there. Then, being somewhat cheered up, I felt a desire to escape within the said gate; but I considered that, if I did so in their presence, the whole country would be in an uproar. And I, not being able to fly in safety, noted the place where the castle of the Christians was being made, and determined to wait until the following day.

THE CHAPTER SHOWING HOW I ESCAPED FROM CANONOR TO THE PORTUGUESE.

On Sunday morning I rose early, and said that I would go to amuse myself a little. My companions answered: "Go where you please;" and so I took my way according to my fancy, and went where the castle of the Christians was being

built; and when I was a little distant from my companions, coming to the sea-shore I met two Portuguese Christians, and said to them: "O sirs, where is the fortress of the Portuguese?" These two Christians said: "Are you a Christian?" I answered; "Yes, sir, praised be God." And they said to me: "Where do you come from." I answered them: "I come from Calicut." Then said the one to the other of the two companions: "Go you to the factory, and I will take this man to Don Lorenzo," that is, the son of the Viceroy. And so he conducted me to the said castle, which is distant from the beach half a mile. And when we arrived at the said castle, the Señor Don Lorenzo was at breakfast. I immediately fell on my knees at the feet of his lordship and said: "Sir, I commend myself to you to save me, for I am a Christian." At this juncture, we heard a great uproar in the neighbourhood because I had escaped. The bombardiers were immediately summoned, who loaded all the artillery, fearing that those of the city might come to the castle to fight. Then the captain, seeing that those of the place did not do any harm, took me by the hand and conducted me into a chamber to interrogate me concerning the affairs of Calicut, and kept me three days to talk with me; and I, being desirous of the victory of the Christians, gave them all the particulars about the fleet. preparing in Calicut. These conversations being concluded,

1 After garrisoning the new fort at Cannonore, Don Francisco de Almeyda proceeded to Cochin, but hearing there that the factor at Quilon and all his men had been murdered by the Mussulmans, "he sent his son Don Lorenzo with three ships and three caravels, with orders to procure lading, without taking notice of what had passed, but in case of denial, to avenge the slaughter. The messenger was received with a shower of arrows, and twenty-four ships of Calicut and other places prepared to receive ours. Don Lorenzo, after pouring in his shot liberally, burnt them all, only a few of the Moors were saved by swimming. Don Lorenzo then went to load in another port." (Portuguese Asia, vol. i. p. 102.) I presume that it was about this time that Varthema met the Viceroy's son at Cannanore.

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he sent me with a galley to the Viceroy his father in Cuccin,1 of which a knight named Joan Sarrano was captain. The Viceroy was exceedingly pleased when I arrived, and showed me great distinction, because I had informed him of all that was doing in Calicut; and I also said, that if his lordship would pardon Ioan-Maria and Piero Antonio, who made artillery in Calicut, and assure me of their safety, that I would induce them to return, and that they would not do that injury to Christians which they had done, although against their will, and that they were afraid to return without a safe conduct. The Viceroy was extremely pleased and much satisfied, and gave me the safe conduct; and the captains of our ships and our vicar promised for the Viceroy; and at the end of three days he sent me back with the said galley to Canonor, and gave me a letter which he addressed to his son, that he should give me as much money as I required for payment of the spies to be sent to Calicut. When we had arrived at Canonor, I found a Pagan, who gave me his wife and children as a pledge, and I sent him with my letters to Calicut, to Ioan-Maria and Piero Antonio, by which I advised them how the Viceroy had pardoned them, and that they might come in safety. You must know that I sent the spy five times backwards and forwards, and that I always wrote to them that they should be on their guard, and should not trust their wives or their slave; for each of them had a wife, and Ioan-Maria had a son and a slave. They always wrote to me that they would come willingly. In the last letter they said to me thus: "Lodovico, we have given all our goods to this spy; come on such a night with a galley or brigantine where the fishermen are, because there is no watch in that part, and, if it please God,

1 Cochin.

This João Serrão subsequently accompanied the expedition under D. Antão de Noronha to El-Catîf and the island of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. See DE COUTO, Decadas, vol. iii. pp. 247, 439.

we will both come with all our party." You must know that I wrote to them that they should come alone, and that they should leave their wives, their son, their goods, and the slave, and that they should only bring their jewels and money. And you must know that they had a diamond which weighed thirty-two carats, which they said was worth thirty-five thousand ducats; and they had a pearl which weighed twenty-four carats; and they had two thousand rubies, which weighed a carat and a carat and a half each; and they had sixty-four rings with set jewels; and they had one thousand four hundred pardai; and they also wished to save seven spingarde and three apes, and two civet-cats, and the wheel for repairing jewels; so that their avarice caused their death. Their slave, who was of Calicut, saw that they wanted to escape, and immediately went to the king and told him everything. The king did not believe him. Nevertheless, he sent five Naeri to their house to remain in their company. The slave, seeing that the king would not put them to death, went to the Cadi of the faith of the Moors, and repeated to him those same words which he had said to the king, and, moreover, he told him that they informed the Christians of all that was done in Calicut. The Moorish Cadi held a council with all the Moorish merchants, amongst whom were collected one hundred ducats, which they carried to the king of the Gioghi, who was at that time in Calicut with three thousand Gioghi, to whom the said Moors said: "Sir, thou knowest that in other years when thou hast come here we have shown thee much kindness, and more honour than we show thee now; the reason is this: there are here two Christians who are enemies of our faith and yours, who inform the Portuguese of all that is done in this country; wherefore, we beseech thee to kill. them, and to take these hundred ducats." The king of the Gioghi immediately sent two hundred men to kill the said.

1 See note 1 on p. 111, and note 3 on p. 112 ante.

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two Christians, and when they went to their house, they began by tens to sound their horns and demand alms. And when the Christians saw so many people increasing they said: "These want something else besides alms;" and began to fight, so that these two killed six of them, and wounded more than forty. At last, these Gioghi cast at them certain pieces of iron which are made round like a wheel, and they threw them with a sling, and struck IoanMaria on the head and Pietro Antonio on the head, so that they fell to the ground; and then they ran upon them and cut open the veins of their throats, and with their hands they drank their blood. The wife of Ioan-Maria escaped with her son to Canonor, and I purchased the son for eight ducats of gold, and had him baptized on St. Lawrence's day, and gave him the name of Lorenzo, because I baptized him on that same day, and at the end of a year on that same day he died of the French disease. You must know that I have seen this disease three thousand miles beyond Calicut, and it is called pua,1 and they say that it is about seventeen years since it began, and it is much worse than ours.

THE CHAPTER CONCERNING THE FLEET OF CALICUT.

On the twelfth of March 1506,2 this news of the Christians being killed arrived. On this same day the immense fleet

Probably from the Sanscrit pūya, matter from an ulcer. Varthema's remark on the recent appearance of the disease would imply that it was introduced into India by the Portuguese.

2 The year 1506 here given is somewhat perplexing. In Greene's Collection the fleet under Don Francisco de Almeyda is made to leave Lisbon on the 25th of March 1507, whereas the Modern Universal History, after Maffei, starts them from that port on the 25th of March 1505, which I take to be the correct date. On the 11th of April following, De Almeyda reached the Cape Verd Islands, from whence he proceeded to the east coast of Africa, and after taking Quiloa (Kilwah) and