and in this occupation there are spent euery yeere many thousands of crownes: the reason whereof is this, that when there dieth any whatsoeuer of their kindred, then in signe and token of mourning and sorrow, they breake all their bracelets from their armes, and presently they go and buy new againe, because that they had rather be without their meat then without their bracelets. daman. basan. tana. hauing passed diu, i came to the second city that the portugals haue, called daman, situated in the territory of cambaia, distant from diu an hundred and twenty miles: it is no towne of merchandise, saue rice and corne, and hath many villages vnder it, where in time of peace the portugals take their pleasure, but in time of warre the enemies haue the spoile of them; in such wise that the portugals haue little benefit by them. next vnto daman you shall haue basan, which is a filthy place in respect of daman: in this place is rice, corne, and timber to make shippes and gallies. and a small distance beyond bassan is a little iland called tana, a place very populous with portugals, moores, and gentiles: these haue nothing but rice, there are many makers of armesie, and weauers of girdles of wooll and bumbast blacke and redde like to moocharies. of the cities of chaul, and of the palmer tree. beyond this iland you shall finde chaul in the firme land; and they are two cities, one of the portugals, and the other of the moores: that city which the portugals haue is situate lower then the other, and gouerneth the mouth of the harbour, and is very strongly walled: and as it were a mile and an halfe distant from this is the city of moores, gouerned by their king zamalluco. in the time of warres there cannot any great ships come to the city of the moores, because the portugals with their ordinance will sincke them, for that they must perforce passe by the castles of the portugals: both the cities are ports of the sea, and are great cities, and haue vnto them great traffique and trade of merchandise, of all sorts of spices, drugges, silke, cloth of silke, sandols, marsine, versin, porcelane of china, veluets and scarlets that come from portugall and from meca: with many other sortes of merchandise. there come euery yeere from cochin, and from cananor tenne or fifteene great shippes laden with great nuts cured, and with sugar made of the selfe same nuts called giagra: the tree whereon these nuts doe grow is called the palmer tree: and thorowout all the indies, and especially from this place to goa there is great abundance of them, and it is like to the date tree. in the whole world there is not a tree more profitable and of more goodnesse then this tree is, neither doe men reape so much benefit of any other tree as they doe of this, there is not any part of it but serueth for some vse, and none of it is woorthy to be burnt. with the timber of this tree they make shippes without the mixture of any other tree, and with the leaues thereof they make sailes, and with the fruit thereof, which be a kinde of nuts, they make wine, and of the wine they make sugar and placetto, which wine they gather in the spring of the yeere: out of the middle of the tree where continually there goeth or runneth out white liquour like vnto water, in that time of the yeere they put a vessel vnder euery tree, and euery euening and morning they take it away full, and then distilling it with fire it maketh a very strong liquour: and then they put it into buts, with a quantity of zibibbo, white or blacke and in short time it is made a perfect wine. after this they make of the nuts great store of oile: of the tree they make great quantity of boordes and quarters for buildings. of the barke of this tree they make cables, ropes, and other furniture for shippes, and, as they say, these ropes be better then they that are made of hempe. they make of the bowes, bedsteds, after the indies fashion, and scauasches for merchandise. the leaues they cut very small, and weaue them, and so make sailes of them, for all maner of shipping, or els very fine mats. and then the first rinde of the nut they stampe, and make thereof perfect ockam to calke shippes, great and small: and of the hard barke thereof they make spoones and other vessels for meat, in such wise that there is no part thereof throwen away or cast to the fire. when these mats be greene they are full of an excellent sweet water to drinke: and if a man be thirsty, with the liquour of one of the mats he may satisfie himselfe: and as this nut ripeneth, the liquour thereof turneth all to kernell. there goeth out of chaul for mallaca, for the indies, for macao, for portugall, for the coasts of melinde, for ormus, as it were an infinite number and quantity of goods and merchandise that come out of the kingdome of cambaia, as cloth of bumbast white, painted, printed, great quantity of indico, opium, cotton, silke of euery sort, great store of boraso in paste, great store of fetida, great store of yron, corne, and other merchandise. [sidenote: great ordinance made in pieces, and yet seruiceable.] the moore king zamalluco is of great power, as one that at need may command, and hath in his camp, two hundred thousand men of warre, and hath great store of artillery, some of them made in pieces, which for their greatnesse can not bee carried to and fro: yet although they bee made in pieces, they are so commodious that they worke with them maruellous well, whose shotte is of stone, and there hath bene of that shot sent vnto the king of portugall for the rarenes of the thing. the city where the king zamalluco hath his being, is within the land of chaul seuen or eight dayes iourney, which city is called abneger. three score and tenne miles from chaul, towards the indies, is the port of dabul, an hauen of the king zamalluco: from thence to goa is an hundred and fifty miles. goa. [sidenote: the chiefe place the portugals have in the indies.] goa is the principall city that the portugals haue in the indies, wherein the viceroy with his royall court is resident, and is in an iland which may be in circuit fiue and twenty or thirty miles: and the city with the boroughs is reasonable bigge, and for a citie of the indies it is reasonable faire, but the iland is farre more fairer: for it is as it were full of goodly gardens, replenished with diuers trees and with the palmer trees as is aforesayd. this city is of great trafique for all sorts of marchandise which they trade withall in those parts: and the fleet which commeth euery yeere from portugall, which are fiue or sixe great shippes that come directly for goa, arriue there ordinarily the sixth or tenth of september, and there they remaine forty or fifty dayes, and from thence they goe to cochin, where they lade for portugall, and often times they lade one shippe at goa and the other at cochin for portugall. cochin is distant from goa three hundred miles. the city of goa is situate in the kingdome of dialcan a king of the moores, whose chiefe city is vp in the countrey eight dayes iourney, and is called bisapor: the king is of great power, for when i was in goa in the yeere of our lord 1570, this king came to giue assault to goa, being encamped neere vnto it by a riuer side with an army of two hundred thousand men of warre, and he lay at this siege foureteene moneths in which time there was peace concluded, and as report went amongst his people, there was great calamity and mortality which bred amongst them in the time of winter, and also killed very many elephants. [sidenote: a very good sale for horses.] then in the yeere of our lord 1567, i went from goa to bezeneger the chiefe city of the king dome of narsinga eight dayes iourney from goa, within the land, in the company of two other merchants which carried with them three hundred arabian horses to that king: because the horses of that countrey are of a small stature, and they pay well for the arabian horses: and is requisite that the merchants sell them well, for that they stand them in great charges to bring them out of persia to ormus, and from ormus to goa, where the ship that bringeth twenty horses and vpwards payeth no custome, neither ship nor goods whatsoeuer; whereas if they bring no horses, they pay 8 per cento of all their goods: and at the going out of goa the horses pay custome, two and forty pagodies for euery horse, which pagody may be of sterling money sixe shillings eight pence, they be pieces of golde of that value. so that the arabian horses are of great value in those countreys, as 300, 400, 500 duckets a horse, and to 1000 duckets a horse. bezeneger. the city of bezeneger was sacked in the yeere 1565, by foure kings of the moores, which were of great power and might: the names of these foure kings were these following, the first was called dialcan, the second zamaluc, the third cotamaluc, and the fourth viridy: and yet these foure kings were not able to ouercome the city and the king of bezeneger, but by treason. the king of bezeneger was a gentile, and had, amongst all other of his captaines, two which were notable, and they were moores: and these two captaines had either of them in charge threescore and ten or fourescore thousand men. these two captaines being of one religion with the foure kings which were moores, wrought meanes with them to betray their owne king into their hands. [footnote: a most vnkind and wicked treason against their prince: this they haue for giuing credit to strangers, rather then to their owne natiue people.] the king of bezeneger esteemed not the force of the foure kings his enemies, but went out of his city to wage battell with them in the fieldes; and when the armies were ioyned, the battell lasted but a while not the space of foure houres, because the two traitourous captaines, in the chiefest of the fight, with their companies turned their faces against their king, and made such disorder in his armie, that as astonied they set themselues to flight. thirty yeeres was this kingdome gouerned by three brethren which were tyrants, the which keeping the rightful king in prison, it was their vse euery yeere once to shew him to the people, and they at their pleasures ruled as they listed. these brethren were three captaines belonging to the father of the king they kept in prison, which when he died, left his sonne very yong, and then they tooke the gouernment to themselues. the chiefest of these three was called ramaragio, and sate in the royall throne, and was called the king: the second was called temiragio, and he tooke the gouernment on him: the third was called bengatre, and he was captaine generall of the army. these three brethren were in this battell, in the which the chiefest and the last were neuer heard of quicke nor dead. [sidenote: the sacking of the city.] onely temiragio fled in the battel, hauing lost one of his eyes: when the newes came to the city of the ouerthrow in the battell, the wiues and children of these three tyrants, with their lawfull king (kept prisoner) fled away, spoiled as they were, and the foure kings of the moores entred the city bezeneger with great triumph, and there they remained sixe moneths, searching vnder houses and in all places for money and other things that were hidden, and then they departed to their owne kingdomes because they were not able to maintaine such a kingdome as that was, so farre distant from their owne countrey. when the kings were departed from bezeneger, this temiragio returned to the city, and then beganne for to repopulate it, and sent word to goa to the merchants, if they had any horses, to bring them to him, and he would pay well for them, and for this cause the foresayd two merchants that i went in company withall, carried those horses that they had to bezeneger. [sidenote: an excellent good policy to intrap men.] also this tyrant made an order or lawe, that if any merchant had any of the horses that were taken in the foresayd battell or warres, although they were of his owne marke, that he would giue as much for them as they would: and besides he gaue generall safe conduct to all that should bring them. when by this meanes he saw that there were great store of horses brought thither vnto him, hee gaue the merchants faire wordes, vntill such time as he saw they could bring no more. then he licenced the merchants to depart, without giuing them any thing for their horses, which when the poore men saw, they were desperate, and as it were mad with sorrow and griefe