races who navigate by the said four or five stars opposite to ours." There can be no doubt that the constellation of the Southern Cross is here indicated; but the additional information respecting other races. to the south, "where the day lasted only four hours," which would be about 15° to the southward of Van Diemen's Land, is most interesting. It is highly improbable that the Malay could have guessed at phenomena so true, and yet so different to anything which he himself had experienced; still, from whence did he derive his knowledge, superficial as it was? In a note which Mr. R. H. Major kindly drew up for me on this chapter, he remarks:-"This reference to Australia is the more remarkable, as it precedes, in time, those early indications of the discovery of that country which I have shown to exist in manuscript maps of the first half of the sixteenth century, although the discoverers' names, most probably Portugese, and the date of the discovery, as yet remain a mystery." The mystery of the old Malay's knowledge will never be revealed: Varthema might have aided us in the matter by pursuing his inquiries, but he winds up his record of the skipper's communications with the exquisite peroration: "On hearing this, we were much pleased and satisfied"!

The tedium of the voyage between Borneo and Java was relieved by the anxious inquiries of the Christians respecting their brethren in the far West. On this subject Varthema had much to communicate which would be deeply interesting to them; and when he told them "of the Volto Santo at St. Peter's, and of

the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, and of many other saints," his ingenuous listeners would fain have taken him back with them to their country. It is by no means improbable, that this friendly converse had some influence in determining our traveller to bring his wanderings to a close at the first favourable opportunity. He had slaked his thirst for adventure. by seeing parts of the globe which no other European of his day had yet visited, and the associations of kindred and home, and of the things which he once regarded as sacred, revived as they were by these discussions, made him long to throw off the trammels of a profession which was now becoming a burden to him.

Five days' sail from Borneo brought the vessel to Java, but at what place on the island the party landed is uncertain; doubtless, it was somewhere on the northern coast. The king and all the people were "Pagans," and although one class of the community consisted of "the most trustworthy men in the world," there was another class still so barbarous as to be addicted to the practice of eating human flesh. Mr. Crawfurd ridicules the latter idea, which would perhaps have been preposterous had our travellers touched at one of the more civilized maritime towns; but that, as it appears to me, was not the case: first, from this recorded statement respecting the subsistence of cannibalism, which, as I have shown in my notes, prevailed in other parts of the Archipelago at this period. Secondly, because the inhabitants were all Pagans, whereas most of the

frequented ports contained many Muhammedans who had introduced a superior civilization together with their religion. Thirdly, because in such localities fire-arms were well known, while the natives where our party disembarked were quite ignorant of artillery, their only weapons being bows and darts of cane, and the peculiar Sumpitan, or blow-pipe. And, lastly, these separate considerations receive general confirmation from the absence of all mention in Varthema's narrative that the place which they visited was one of trade,-a circumstance which he never omits to record whenever such was the case.

Before quitting Java, Cazazionor purchased a couple of young children who had undergone the cruel operation regarded as desirable for fitting them to become attendants on a Mussulman harim. The barbarous practice, which also prevailed in different parts of India at this period, was most probably introduced into these countries with Islâm, and many "Moorish merchants" are said to have made a trade of buying and preparing these wretched victims for exportation to foreign markets.

Crossing over to Malacca, steering at first to the eastward to avoid the surrounding islands, our travellers there took leave of the Sarnau Christians, with sincere regret on both sides, and from thence proceeded to "Cioromandel" (Negapatam), where they engaged a sampan to take them to Quilon. At that place Varthema found twenty Portuguese, and would gladly have made his escape to them, "but they were very few," and the eyes of some Mussulmans who knew

h

him to be Hajji were upon him.

At Quilon they embarked on the "river" (see p. lxviii. ante,) and in ten days reached Calicut.

At Calicut, our author met two Milanese, who had deserted from the Portuguese at Cochin, and were there employed in casting artillery for the Zamorin. Varthema concerted with these renegades how to effect their escape, but the attempt was surrounded with difficulties on all sides, and he was obliged to trust to his own resources. Long practice had made him fertile in expedients, and an adept at dissimulation, and on this occasion he set himself up as a Muhammedan santon, affecting abstinence from animal food, (though he clandestinely helped the Milanese to consume two brace of fowls every day,) and a severity of demeanour consistent with his assumed character. As such, he was consulted in the case of a sick friend of Cazazionor, and requested to prescribe for him. The narrative of his mode of treating the patient, as recorded in the chapter entitled "How I made myself a physician in the town of Calicut," is as extravagant as it is ludicrous. Fortunately, the sick man survived the severe treatment to which he was subjected, and the success of his amateur medical practice greatly enhanced our author's repute, insomuch that he was solicited to act the part of Imam, and lead the prayers of the congregation in the mosque. Conceiving that his saintliness was now generally established, he next simulated sickness, and suggested that a change of air might be beneficial. Cazazionor, who appears to have been

wholly blinded by his companion's deceit, readily gave his consent, and furnished him with letters of recommendation to a friend at Cannanore. Varthema narrowly escaped detention by the Zamorin's Nairs at the place of embarkation, but his good star was in the ascendant, and after travelling some distance along the coast, he eventually picked up a boat which carried him to his destination. Under the hospitable roof of Cazazionor's acquaintance, he breathed more freely, and after reconnoitering the spot where the Portuguese fort was in course of erection, he availed himself of the next favourable opportunity to place himself under the protection of the garrison. Lorenzo de Almeyda, the Viceroy's son, who was there at the time, gave a hearty welcome to one who was so well able to describe the warlike preparations which were being made at Calicut to oppose the Portuguese, and after discussing such matters with him for several days, sent him on board a galley to his father at Cochin, who also gave him an honourable reception, and remanded him to Cannanore to use his best endeavours in behalf of the two Milanese at Calicut. His efforts, however, to effect their liberation were unsuccessful. The unfortunate men were betrayed by the spy he employed to communicate with them, and were barbarously murdered by a crowd of infuriated Joghis in their own house at Calicut.

The sequel of our author's Indian career may be told in a few words. He appears to have been present at a great naval engagement between the Por