_Of Cochin._
Cochin, next to Goa, is the chief place in India belonging to the
Portuguese, and has a great trade in spices, drugs, and all other kinds
of merchandise for Portugal. Inland from that place is the pepper
country, which pepper is loaded by the Portuguese in bulk not in sacks.
The pepper which is sent to Portugal is not so good as that which goes
up the Red Sea; because in times past the officers of the king of
Portugal made a contract with the king of Cochin for all the pepper, to
be delivered at a fixed price, which is very low; and for which reason
the country people deliver it to the Portuguese unripe and full of dirt.
As the Moors of Mecca give a better price, they get it clean and dry and
in much better condition; but all the spices and drugs which they carry
to Mecca and the Red Sea are contraband and stolen or smuggled. There
are two cities at Cochin, one of which belongs to the Portuguese and the
other to the native king; that of the Portuguese being nearer the sea,
while the native city is a mile and a half farther up the same river.
They are both on the banks of the same large river, which comes from the
mountains in the pepper country[144], in which are many Christians of
the order of St Thomas. The king of Cochin is a Gentile and a steadfast
friend to the king of Portugal, and to all the Portuguese who are
married and have become citizens of Cochin. By the name of Portuguese,
all the Christians are known in India who come from Europe, whether they
be Italians, Frenchmen, or Germans. All those who marry and settle at
Cochin get some office according to the trades they are off, by which
they have great privileges. The two principal commodities in which they
deal are silk which comes in great quantities from China, and large
quantities of sugar, which comes from Bengal. The married citizens pay
no customs for these two commodities; but pay 4s. per centum for all
other goods to the king of Cochin, rating their own goods almost at
their own valuation. Those who are not married pay to the king of
Portugal 8s. per centum for all kinds of commodities. While I was in
Cochin, the viceroy used his endeavours to break the privileges of these
married citizens, that they might pay the same rates of customs with
others. On this occasion the citizens were glad to weigh their pepper in
the night to evade the customs. When this came to the knowledge of the
king of Cochin, he put a stop to the delivery of pepper, so that the
viceroy was glad to allow the merchants to do as formerly.
[Footnote 144: In the version of Cesar Frederick in Hakluyt, it is said
"to come from the mountains of the king of the pepper country, who is a
Gentile, and in whose dominions there are many Christians," &c. as in
the text. This king of the pepper country is probably meant for the
rajah of Travancore. The great river of the text is merely a sound,
which reaches along the coast from Cochin to beyond Coulan, a distance
of above 90 miles, forming a long range of low islands on the sea-coast,
and receiving numerous small rivers from the southern gauts.--E.]
The king of Cochin has small power in comparison with the other
sovereigns of India as he is unable to send above 70,000 men into the
field. He has a great number of gentlemen, some of whom are called
_Amochi_[145] and others _Nairs_. These two sorts of men do not value
their lives in any thing which tends to the honour of their king, and
will run freely into any danger in his service, even if sure to lose
their lives in the attempt. These men go naked from the waist upwards,
and barefooted, having only a cloth wrapped about their thighs. Their
hair is long and rolled up on the top of their heads, and they go always
armed, carrying bucklers and naked swords. The Nairs have their wives in
common among themselves, and when any of them goes into the house of one
of these women, he leaves his sword and buckler at the door, and while
he is within no other dare enter the house. The king's children never
inherit the kingdom after their fathers, lest perchance they may have
been begotten by some other man; wherefore the son of the king's
sisters, or of some female of the royal-blood succeeds, that they may be
sure of having a king of the royal family. Those Naires and their wives
have great holes in their ears by way of ornament, so large and wide as
is hardly credible, holding that the larger these holes are, so much the
more noble are they. I had leave from one of them to measure the
circumference of the hole in one of his ears with a thread; and within
that circumference I put my arm up to the shoulder with my clothes on,
so that in fact they are monstrously large. This is begun when they are
very young, at which time a hole is made in each ear, to which they hang
a piece of gold or a lump of lead, putting a certain leaf into the hole
which causes the hole to increase prodigiously. They load ships at
Cochin both for Portugal and Ormuz: but all the pepper that is carried
to Ormuz is smuggled. Cinnamon and all other spices and drugs are
permitted to be exported to Ormuz or Cambaia, as likewise all other
kinds of merchandise from other parts of India. From Cochin there are
sent yearly to Portugal great quantities of pepper, dry and preserved
ginger, wild cinnamon, areka nuts and large store of cordage made of
_cayro_, that is from the bark of the cocoa-nut tree, which is reckoned
better than that made of hemp. The ships for Portugal depart every
season between the 5th of December and the 5th of January.
[Footnote 145: On former occasions these _amochi_ have been explained as
devoted naires, under a vow to revenge the death of their
sovereign.--E.]
From Cochin I went to Coulan, at which is a small fort belonging to the
Portuguese, 72 miles from Cochin. This is a place of small trade, as
every year a ship gets only half a lading of pepper here, and then goes
to Cochin to be filled up. From Cochin to Cape Comorin is 72 miles, and
here ends the Indian coast. Along this coast, and also at Cape Comorin,
and down to the low lands of _Chialon_[146], which is about 200 miles,
there are great numbers of the natives converted to the Christian faith,
and among them are many churches of the order of St Paul, the friars of
which order do much good in these places, and take great pains to
instruct the natives in the Christian faith.
[Footnote 146: These geographical notices are inexplicable, unless by
_Chialon_ is meant the low or maritime parts of Ceylon, which Cesar
Frederick afterwards calls Zeilan.--E.]