_Of Damann, Bassen, Tana, Chaul, and some other places_.
Leaving Diu, I went on to Damann, the second city belonging to the
Portuguese in the territory of Guzerat, and distant from Diu 120 miles.
This place has no trade of any importance, except in rice and wheat, and
has many dependent villages, where in time of peace the Portuguese enjoy
the pleasure of a country retirement, but in time of war they are all
spoiled and plundered by the enemy, so that then they derive very small
benefit from them. The next place is Bassen, a small dirty place in
comparison with Damann, which supplies Goa with rice and wheat, besides
timber for the construction of ships and gallies. At a small distance
from Bassen is a small island named Tana, well peopled with Portuguese,
Moors, and Gentiles. This place affords nothing but rice, but contains
many manufacturers of _armesies_? and weavers of girdles made of wool
and cotton, black and red like _moocharie_?
Beyond this is Chaul on the continent, where there are two cities, one
belonging to the Portuguese, and the other to the Moors; that which
belongs to the Portuguese is lower than the other, commands the mouth of
the harbour, and is very strongly fortified. About a mile and a half
from this city is that of the Moors, belonging to their king _Zamaluco_,
or Nizam-al-mulk. In time of war no large ships can go to the city of
the Moors, as they must necessarily pass under the guns of the
Portuguese castles, which would sink them. Both cities of Chaul are
sea-ports, and have great trade in all kinds of spices, drugs, raw silk,
manufactures of silk, sandal-wood, _Marsine, Versine_[125], porcelain of
China, velvets and scarlets, both from Portugal and Mecca[126], with
many other valuable commodities. Every year there arrive ten or fifteen
large ships, laden with great nuts called _Giagra_[127], which are cured
or dried, and with sugar made from these nuts. The tree on which these
nuts grow is called the _Palmer_ tree, and is to be found in great
abundance over all India, especially between this place and Goa. This
tree very much resembles that which produces dates, and no tree in the
world is more profitable or more useful to man; no part of it but serves
for some useful purpose, neither is any part of it so worthless as to be
burnt. Of its timber they build ships, and with the leaves they make
sails. Its fruit, or nuts, produce wine, and from the wine they make
sugar and _placetto_[128]. This wine is gathered in the spring of the
year from the middle of the tree, where there is then a continual stream
of clear liquor like water, which they gather in vessels placed on
purpose under each tree, and take them away full every morning and
evening. This liquor being distilled by means of fire, is converted into
a very strong liquor, which is then put into buts with a quantity of
white or black _Zibibs_, and in a short time it becomes a perfect wine.
Of the nuts they make great quantities of oil. The tree is made into
boards and timbers for building houses. Of the bark cables and other
ropes are made for ships which are said to be better than those made of
hemp. The branches are made into bed-steads after the Indian fashion,
and into _Sanasches_? for merchandise. The leaves being cut into thin
slips are woven into sails for all kinds of ships, or into thin mats.
The outer rhind of the nut stamped serves as oakum for caulking ships,
and the hard inner shell serves for spoons and other utensils for
holding food or drink. Thus no portion whatever of this _Palmer_ tree is
so worthless as to be thrown away or cast into the fire. When the nuts
are green, they are full of a sweet water, excellent to drink, and the
liquor contained in one nut is sufficient to satisfy a thirsty person.
As the nut ripens, this liquor turns all into kernel.
[Footnote 125: Formerly noticed as a species of velvet; but the words
marsine and versine were inexplicable in the days of Hakluyt, and must
so remain.--E.]
[Footnote 126: The velvets and scarlet cloths from Mecca were probably
Italian manufactures, brought through Egypt and the Red Sea.--E.].
[Footnote 127: These great nuts must necessarily be the cocoa nuts, and
the palmer tree, on which they grow, the cocoa palm.--E.]
[Footnote 128: Possibly molasses are here meant.--E.]
From Chaul, an infinite quantity of goods are exported for other parts
of India, Macao, Portugal, the coast of Melinda, Ormuz, and other parts;
such as cloth of _bumbast_ or cotton, white, painted, and printed,
indigo, opium, silk of all kinds, borax in paste, asafoetida, iron,
corn, and other things. Nizam-al-Mulk, the Moorish king, has great
power, being able to take the field with 200,000 men, and a great store
of artillery, some of which are made in pieces[129], and are so large
that they are difficultly removed, yet are they very commodiously used,
and discharge enormous stone bullets, some of which have been sent to
the king of Portugal as rarities. The city of _Abnezer[130]_, in which
Nizam-al-Mulk resides, is seven or eight days journey inland from Chaul.
Seventy miles[131] from Chaul toward the Indies, or south, is Dabul, a
haven belonging to Nizam-al-Mulk, from whence to Goa is 150 miles[132].
[Footnote 129: Probably meaning that they were formed of bars hooped or
welded together, in the way in which the famous _Mons meg_, long in
Edinburgh Castle, and now in the tower of London, was certainly
made.--E.]
[Footnote 130: Perhaps that now called Assodnagur in the Mahratta
country, about 125 miles nearly east from Chaul.--E.]
[Footnote 131: In fact only about half that distance.--E.]
[Footnote 132: About 165 English miles--E.]