dictionary names them Bachan, Maquien, Moutel, Tidor, Ternate, and
says they were anciently named Seque, Mara, Moutil, Duco, Gape. The
only remaining possession of the Portuguese in the Malay Archipelago
is Dili in the island of Timor.
[337] Nury is the real name of Molucca parrots, which has been
changed to loro and lori. Ramusio calls them mire, and the Lisbon
ed. noire.
[338] This section is not in the Lisbon MS.
[339] The Bugis of Celebes still make the best krises.
[340] Celebes, Ortelius.
[341] This section is not in the Lisbon MS.
[342] Ramusio and the Lisbon ed., Tendaya. Banguey island, north of
Borneo, 7 deg. 13 min. N. lat. and 120 deg. 12 min. E. long.; 6-3/4
leagues long and 3-1/2 broad: it is desert. Geographical Dict.,
Barcelona, 1831.
[343] The island now called Solor is in another direction E. of the
island Flores, 8 deg. 30 min. S. lat. and 126 deg. 52 min. E. long.
[344] Ramusio stops here and says several lines are wanting.
[345] Borneo, Ortelius.
[346] Champa, Ortelius and Homannus, the southern portion of Cochin
China next to Cambodia; it is not an island as here stated.
[347] Ramusio says three hundred maravedis, the Lisbon MS. says
thirty or forty pardoes.
[348] Borceguies--the Turkish mest.
[349] There is a _no_, not, here in the manuscript, which seems to
be put in by mistake; the Spanish idiom does not allow of adding
another negative at the beginning of the sentence; the one negative
alone makes nonsense, and is contrary to what has been said above.
[350] A French missionary, quoted in the "Dictionnaire de la
Conversation," does not believe this story, which he assumes to be
invented for the sake of increasing the value of the porcelain.
[351] The Liu Kiu Islands. Lequio major and minor, Y^{a.} Fermosa,
and Reix magas, form a group in Ortelius: in Homannus Formosa is in
its proper place, and the group is called Lequeyo or Riukiu Islands.
[352] Here the Lisbon edition says that the manuscript of Duarte
Barbosa ends, and that what follows about the precious stones has
been translated from the Italian of Ramusio: this appendix about
precious stones is wanting in the Munich MS. No. 570.
[353] Martin Centurion according to the Munich MS. No. 571, where
the name is given in full.
[354] Fano, fanam, fanao--a weight for weighing rubies, according to
Bluteau = 1 quilat or carat; according to the Dicco. Enciclopedico,
Madrid, 1853, and the Encyclopedie of Diderot and D'Alembert = to 2
carats of Venice. Also a coin equal to two Spanish reals or twenty
Portuguese reis, or ten of which made a cruzado. The author has said
in another place that it is equal to thirty-six maravedis. The
following table of coins will be useful with reference to the prices
named in this work.
Ducado = 375 maravedis.
Dobla = 365 "
Florin = 265 "
Real = 34 "
These maravedis were worth double those of the present time, in
which a real contains 34 maravedis, so that a fanam would be worth 2
reals or half a peseta = 6d. The author of the Escuela de leer
Letras Antiguas, from which these figures are taken, has added lists
of prices at different times as guides to the value of coins.
In 1348, law of Don John I.
Fanega of wheat 15 maravedis.
Ditto barley 10 "
Ditto oats 8 "
Cubit of French cloth 60 "
Ditto Flanders or English cloth 50 "
Day's wages from November to March 3 "
Ditto ditto March to November 4 "
Each yoke for ploughing all day 10 "
A servant by the year 100 "
A maid ditto 50 "
For grinding a fanega of wheat 2 "
A thousand tiles 60 "
Ditto bricks 55 "
A fanega of mortar 6 "
Ditto lime 5 "
An ox 200 "
A calf 180 "
A pound of mutton 2 "
A hare 3 "
A rabbit 2 "
A fowl 4 "
A goose 6 "
A pigeon 3 "
A partridge 5 "
These maravedis were worth 22-1/2 actual maravedis, or about 2d. each.
In 1524 the fanega of wheat was fixed at 70 maravedis.
Ditto ditto of barley " 40 "
These maravedis were worth two of the actual ones.
1865, a fanega of wheat = 50 reals.
[355] A miskal.
[356] A real de plata means two reals vellon, or actual reals of the
present time.
[357] Son bermejos y deslavados, y encarnados.
[358] 65 in Ramusio.
[359] Balassia in Ramusio.
[360] Toque or proof.
[361] Equal to a carat and a third.
[362] These two names must be the same word Kringa-nila; blue stone,
perhaps. In Ramusio, Quiniganilam.
[363] Capucar in Ramusio.
[364] A jour.
[365] Exer in Ramusio.
[366] Kerman. Chiraman, Ortelius.
[367] In the MS. the passage reads _as mina y tierra seca_.
[368] The _Times_ reviewer of Mr. Emmanuel's book _On Precious
Stones_, April 5, 1866, is in error in saying that "the zircon is
known in trade as the jacinth or hyacinth".
The jargon, corindon or circon, which was much used in the xvi^{th}
century, is not held in any estimation at the present time; it has
the merit of possessing the hardness of the sapphire.
[369] Mar Deignan in Ramusio.
[370] I have been informed by Mr. Capt, jeweller, of Geneva, that
the proportions of the prices of precious stones, according to their
weight, are still very exact for uncut stones in the Indian market,
and that the general accuracy of the details given in this MS. is
very great. With respect to the doubts which had been expressed as
to the stones of combined colours, they do exist, but are held in no
estimation in Europe. Experiments have been made in Europe, and
especially in Germany, for the purpose of deepening the colour of
precious stones, particularly rubies, by the process here mentioned;
but success was so hazardous, and so costly, that speculators would
no longer incur the risks of it.
[371] 6562 in Ramusio.
[372] Beledin, of the country, local; Arabic. Ramusio has not
translated it.
[373] xl in Ramusio.
[374] El peso del es el mayor. This may refer to the old and new
weights, or it may mean that this ginger is heavier than the other
ginger.
[375] Syn enbarar.
[376] Faratela, Indian weight equal to seven and a quarter pounds.
Encicloped. Dict., Madrid, 1853.
[377] Atincar, Anglice tincal, when refined, borax.
[378] Calamo aromatico, also called acoro, a kind of aquatic plant
used in medicine.
[379] This may be either incense or wormwood. Incenso in Ramusio.
[380] Lombriguera, southernwood, wormwood: Artemisia abrotanum.
[381] Turbith, Convolvulus turpethum; its root is used as a
purgative, and it comes from India and Ceylon.
[382] Gum from the giant fennel: also called sagapeno, is known in
commerce as yellowish white drops of a strong aromatic smell
something like garlic; is used for diachylum.
[383] Atulia, a sublimate of calamine.
[384] Probably cubebs.
[385] Or four hundredweight English.
[386] Lo al, old Spanish.
[387] This voyage is not in Ramusio nor in the Lisbon edition, and
apparently has been hitherto unpublished. The Munich MS., No. 570,
gives the date 1522, but 1512 is the correct reading.
[388] Leste o este.
[389] Surat glaized cotton stuff.
[390] Sudueste and su sudueste, these terms have not been ever used
in the body of the book.
[391] Norueste.
[392] Singaduras for Singladuras, Portuguese Singradura, derived by
Bluteau from French Cingler, and that from the German Segelen.
[393] Setentrional.
[394] Del sur al sueste.
[395] Or Colayres and giravales according to another reading.
[396] Les nordeste.
[397] This passage important. Los marineros q. tomamos en borney
llevaban carta de marear e trayan una aguja y piedra yman e una
carta en q. trayan muchas rayas e lineas de lo qual nos espantamos
mucho. See the Pillars of Hercules, by D. Urquhart with respect to
the Phenician compass.
[398] Line across the forehead.