We also saw rubies found there, at a distance of two miles from the sea shore, where there is an extremely large and very long mountain, at the foot of which the said rubies are found. And when a merchant wishes to find these jewels, he is obliged first to speak to the king and to purchase a braza of the said land in every direction, (which braza is called a molan,) and to purchase it for five ducats. And then when he digs the said land, a man always remains there on the part of the king. And if any jewel be found which exceeds ten carats, the king claims it for himself, and leaves all the rest free. There is also produced near to the said mountain, where there is a very large river, a great quantity of garnets, sapphires, jacinths, and topazes. In this island there grow the best fruits I have ever seen, and especially certain artichokes (carzofoli) better than ours." Sweet oranges, (melangoli,) the best, I believe, in the world, and many other fruits like those of Calicut, but much superior.

"The extent to which gems are still found is sufficient to account for the early traditions of their splendour and profusion, and fabulous as the story of the ruby of the Khandyan king may be, [which according to Marco Polo was a span in length, and without a flaw,] the abundance of gems in Saffragam has given the capital of the district the name of Ratnapoora, which means literally the City of Rubies. They are not, however, confined to this quarter alone, but quantities are still found on the western plains, between Adam's Peak and the sea." Id. p. 33.

2 Perhaps for Ammonan, which according to Pridham was equal to square roods, 37 square inches. Ceylon and its Dependencies,

2 acres,

vol. ii. p. 853.

3 This was most probably the Kalané-ganga, which Pridham describes as “the chief river of the island in importance...It is formed by the union of several torrents which have their source in the western division of the mountainous range of Saffragam, connected with Adam's Peak... It debouches at Modera, about four miles to the north of the fort of Colombo." (Id. p. 635.) The river is navigable for a considerable distance from its mouth.

These and many other precious stones are enumerated and described in TENNENT's Ceylon, vol. i. pp. 33-38.

5 Probably the Custard Apple, which in outer form is not unlike an artichoke.

THE CHAPTER CONCERNING THE TREE OF THE CANELLA.

The tree of the Canella is the same as the laurel, especially the leaves; and it produces some berries like the laurel, but they are smaller and more white. The said Canella, or Cinnamon, is the bark of the said tree, in this wise: Every three years they cut the branches of the said tree, and then take off the bark of them; but they do not cut the stem on any account There are great numbers of these trees. When they collect that cinnamon it has not the excellence which it possesses a month afterwards.1 A Moorish merchant told me that at the top of that very large mountain there is a cavern to which the men of that country go once in the year to pray, because, as they say, Adam was up there praying and doing penance, and that the impressions of his feet are seen to this day, and that they are about two spans long." Rice does not

1 If this is true, the cultivation and preparation of cinnamon must have been very backward in Varthema's time, as at present it appears to be gathered twice a-year.-"The best cinnamon is obtained from the twigs or shoots, which spring almost perpendicularly from the roots after the parent bush or tree has been cut down; but great care is requisite both as to the exact size and age...The rods cut for peeling are of varirous sizes and lengths, depending on the texture of the bark: these are first peeled, then scraped on the outside, and while drying cut up into long narrow rolls called quills, then stuck into one another, so as to form pipes about three feet long, which are then made up in round bundles. There are two regular seasons for taking cinnamon, one from April to August, another from to November to January; but considerable quantities are gathered at other times as the spice attains maturity." PRIDHAM, Ceylon and its Dependencies, p. 387.

2 "Adam's Peak is 7,420 feet above the level of the sea, and its summit, of an elliptic form, 72 feet in length by 34 in breadth, is surrounded by a wall five feet high. Immediately within this, a level space of irregular breadth runs all the way round, and the centre is occupied by the apex of the mountain, a solid granite rock about nine feet high at the highest part. On this is the Sree Pada, or Sacred Footstep. Whether this much cherished memorial is rightfully attached to Saman by a prior claim (whence Samanala, Hamallel, or Samantakuta,) the Sree Pada is now

grow in this country, but it comes there from the main land. The kings of this island are tributaries of the king of Narsinga, on account of the rice which comes there from the main land. The air in this island is extremely good, and

held by the Buddhists to be a memorial of Gautama Buddha; by the Mohammedans it is claimed for Adam, and called Baba-Aadamlai; and the Malabars and other Hindoos maintain that it was Siva who left the impression of a monster footstep, and call it Sivanolipadam." Id., ii. p. 614-5.

Sale has the following respecting the Mussulman tradition above alluded to "The Mohamedans say, that when they were cast down from paradise, Adam fell on the island of Ceylon, or Serindîb, and Eve near Juddah, the port of Meccah, in Arabia; and that after a separation of two hundred years, Adam was, on his repentance, conducted by the angel Gabriel to a mountain near Mekkah, where he found and knew his wife, the mountain being thence named Arafât; and that he afterwards retired with her to Ceylon, where they continued to propagate their species.

"It may not be improper here to mention another tradition concerning the gigantic stature of our first parents. Their prophet, they say, affirmed Adam to be as tall as a high palm-tree; but this would be too much in proportion, if that were really the print of his foot, which is pretended to be such, on the top of a mountain in the isle of Ceylon, thence named Pico di Adam, and by the Arab writers Rahûn, being somewhat about two spans long; though others say it is seventy cubits long, and that when Adam set one foot here, he had the other in the sea ;-and too little, if Eve were of so enormous a size, that when her head lay on one hill near Meccah, her knees rested on two others in the plain, about two musket-shots asunder." Note on chapter ii. of the Korán.

Ibn Batuta mentions "a cave known by the name of Istâ Mahmûd," also " a place called the seven caves," and again "the ridge of Alexander, in which is a cave and a well of water," on his pious pilgrimage to Adam's Foot, (LEE's Translation, p. 187-9 ;) but I find no mention of any locality corresponding with Varthema's " cavern" in the modern descriptions of the route up to the Peak.

1 On this statement Sir J. E. Tennent remarks:-" There can be little doubt that it applied chiefly to the southern parts of the island, and that the north was still able to produce food sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants." Rice appears to have been extensively cultivated in many parts of Ceylon, but probably not in the maritime district visited by Varthema. "The soil near the coast is light and sandy, but in the great central districts of Neuera-kalawa and the Wanny, there is found

And here it is

the people are of a dark tawny colour. neither too hot nor too cold. Their dress is alla apostolica; they wear certain stuffs of cotton or silk, and go bare-footed. This island is placed under the equinoctial line, and the inhabitants of it are not very warlike. Artillery is not used here; but they have some lances and swords, which lances are of cane, and with these they fight amongst each other; but they do not kill each other overmuch, because they are cowardly fellows. Here there are roses and flowers of every kind, and the people live longer than we do. Being in our ship one evening, a man came on the part of the king to in the midst of the forests a dark vegetable mould, in which in former times rice was abundantly grown by the aid of prodigious artificial works for irrigation, the ruins of which still form one of the wonders of the island. Even after centuries of neglect, the beds of many of these tanks cover areas of from ten to fifteen miles in circumference. They are now generally broken and decayed; the waters which would fertilise a province are allowed to waste themselves in the sands, and hundreds of square miles capable of furnishing food for all the inhabitants of Ceylon are abandoned to solitude and malaria, whilst rice for the support of the non-agricultural population is annually imported from the opposite coast of India." Ceylon, vol. i. pp. 27, 639.

1 Fire-arms appear to have been unknown in Ceylon at this period. Referring to the introduction of them into the island by the Portuguese, Sir J. E. Tennent quotes the following passage from the Rajavali :-" And now it came to pass that in the Christian year 1522 [1507 ?], a ship from Portugal arrived at Colombo, and information was brought to the king, that there were in the harbour a race of very white and beautiful people who wear boots and shoes, and never stop in any place. They eat a sort of white stone, and drink blood; and if they get a fish they give two or three ride in gold for it; and, besides, they have guns with a noise like thunder, and a ball shot from one of them, after traversing a league, will break a castle of marble." (Ceylon, vol. i. p. 418.) Marco Polo says of the Singhalese: "the men are unfit for soldiers, and hire others when they have occasion." PINKERTON, vol. vii. p. 162.

2 "The indigenous phænogamic plants described up to August 1856 was 26,700...When it is considered that this is nearly double the indigenous flora of England, and little under one-thirtieth of the entire number of plants hitherto described over the world, the botanical richness of Ceylon, in proportion to its area, must be regarded as equal to that of any portion of the globe." TENNENT's Ceylon, vol. i. p. 83 n.

my companion, and told him that he should carry to him his corals and saffron; for he had a great quantity of both. A merchant of the said island, who was a Moor, hearing these words, said to him secretly: "Do not go to the king, for he will pay you for your goods after his own fashion." And this he said out of cunning, in order that my companion might go away, because he himself had the same kind of merchandize. However, answer was given to the message of the king, that on the following day he would go to his lord. And when morning came, he took a vessel and rowed over to the mainland.

THE CHAPTER CONCERNING PALEACHET, A COUNTRY OF

INDIA.

We arrived in the course of three days at a place which is called Paleachet,' which is subject to the king of Narsinga.

1 Pulicat: "a town in the British district of Chingleput, about twenty-two miles north of Madras, situated on an extensive inlet of the sea, or salt water lake, of the same name...From one to two miles off shore is the road called Pulicat Anchorage, where there are six or seven fathoms water." (THORNTON'S Gazetteer.) Pulicat appears to have been a place of considerable trade at this period. Barbosa describes it a few years after Varthema as having a good port, which was frequented by 'an infinite number" of Moorish vessels from all quarters. In his time it was governed by a deputy appointed by the Narsinga, or Rajah of Bijayanagar, who appears to have retained possession of a great part of the sea-coast for more than half a century after the destruction of his capital by the confederate Mussulman kings of the Deccan in 1565; for in 1611, when Pulicat was visited by Captain Anthony Hippon, being the seventh voyage set forth by the East India Company, the administration was in the hands of "the Governess Konda Maa, on the part of Wankapati Raja, king of Narsinga." (GREENE's Collection, vol. i. p. 436.) But the coast to the north of Pulicat, including Masulipatam, became tributary to Bîjapûr during the reign of Muhammed Shah Bhamâni, about A.D. 1480, and formed subsequently a part of the kingdom of Golconda, including Telingana, which in Fitch's time, 1583-91, was ruled by "Cutub de lashah," (Muhammed Kûli Kutb Shah,) who