The spices and other
productions of India were brought to Europe with vast trouble and at
great expence, so
That they were necessarily sold at very high prices.
The cloves of the Moluccas, the nutmegs and mace of Banda, the
sandal-wood of Timor, the camphor of Borneo, the gold and silver of
Luconia, with all the other and various rich commodities, spices, gums,
perfumes, and curiosities of China, Japan, Siam, and other kingdoms of
the continent and islands of India, were carried to the great mart of
Malacca, a city in the peninsula of that name, which is supposed to have
been the Aurea Chersonesus of the ancients. From that place the
inhabitants of the more western countries between Malacca and the Red
Sea procured all these commodities, dealing by way of barter, no money
being used in this trade, as silver and gold were in much less request
in these eastern parts of India than foreign commodities. By this trade,
Calicut, Cambaya, Ormuz, Aden, and other cities were much enriched. The
merchants of these cities, besides what they procured at Malacca as
before mentioned, brought rubies from Pegu, rich stuffs from Bengal,
pearls from Calicare[67], diamonds from Narsinga[68], cinnamon and
rich rubies from Ceylon, pepper, ginger, and other spices, from the
coast of Malabar and other places where these are produced. From Ormuz
these commodities were conveyed up the Persian gulf to Basorah at the
mouth of the Euphrates, and were thence distributed by caravans through
Armenia, Trebisond, Tartary, Aleppo, and Damascus; and from these latter
cities, by means of the port of Barat in Syria, the Venetians, Genoese,
and Catalonians carried them to their respective countries, and to other
parts of Europe. Such of these commodities as went up the Red Sea, were
landed at Tor or Suez at the bottom of that gulf, whence they were
conveyed over land to Cairo in Egypt, and thence down the Nile to
Alexandria, where they were shipped for Europe.
[Footnote 66: De Faria, Portuguese Asia, I. 82.]
[Footnote 67: Named Kalekare by Astley; and probably alluding to some
place in the neighbourhood of the great pearl fishery in the Gulf of
Manar, between Ceylon and the Carnatic. - E.]
[Footnote 68: Now called Golconda. But the dominions of Narsinga seem
then to have included the whole southern peninsula of India, except the
coasts of Canara and Malabar, from Visiapour and the Deccan to Cape
Comorin. - E.]
Many princes apprehending vast loss to their revenues, by this new
course which the Portuguese had discovered for carrying on a direct
trade by sea between Europe and India, used their endeavours to drive
them from that country. For this purpose, the Soldan of Egypt[69], who
was principally affected by this new trade, gave out that he would
destroy the holy places in Jerusalem, if the Portuguese persisted in
trading to Malabar. Believing him in earnest, Maurus, a monk of Mount
Sinai, went to Rome with a letter from the Soldan to the pope,
signifying his intention to destroy those places, sacred in the
estimation of the Christians, in revenge for the injury done to his
trade by the Portuguese.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 61 of 423
Words from 32114 to 32644
of 221361
