After
That They Began To Frequent Mailapetam, A City Subject To The King Of
Narsingha; A Region Towards The East, ...
And there they now drive their
trade." There is also in Caspar Correa's account of the Voyages of Da Gama
A curious record of a tradition of the arrival in Malabar more than four
centuries before of a vast merchant fleet "from the parts of Malacca, and
China, and the Lequeos" (Lewchew); many from the company on board had
settled in the country and left descendants. In the space of a hundred
years none of these remained; but their sumptuous idol temples were still
to be seen. (Stanley's Transl., Hak. Soc., p. 147.)[1] It is probable
that both these stories must be referred to those extensive expeditions to
the western countries with the object of restoring Chinese influence which
were despatched by the Ming Emperor Ch'eng-Tsu (or Yung-lo), about 1406,
and one of which seems actually to have brought Ceylon under a partial
subjection to China, which endured half a century. (See Tennent, I. 623
seqq.; and Letter of P. Gaubil in J.A. ser. II. tom. x. pp. 327-328.)
["So that at this day there is great memory of them in the ilands
Philippinas, and on the cost of Coromande, which is the cost against the
kingdome of Norsinga towards the sea of Cengala: whereas is a towne called
unto this day the soile of the Chinos, for that they did reedifie and make
the same. The like notice and memory is there in the kingdom of Calicut,
whereas be many trees and fruits, that the naturals of that countrie do
say, were brought thither by the Chinos, when that they were lords and
gouernours of that countrie." (Mendoza, Parke's transl. p. 71.)] De
Barros says that the famous city of Diu was built by one of the Kings of
Guzerat whom he calls in one place Dariar Khan, and in another
Peruxiah, in memory of victory in a sea-fight with the Chinese who then
frequented the Indian shores. It is difficult to identify this King, though
he is represented as the father of the famous toxicophagous Sultan Mahmud
Begara (1459-1511). De Barros has many other allusions to Chinese
settlements and conquests in India which it is not very easy to account
for. Whatever basis of facts there is must probably refer to the
expeditions of Ch'eng-Tsu, but not a little probably grew out of the
confusion of Jainas and Chinas already alluded to; and to this I
incline to refer Correa's "sumptuous idol-temples."
There must have been some revival of Chinese trade in the last century, if
P. Paolino is correct in speaking of Chinese vessels frequenting
Travancore ports for pepper. (De Barros, Dec. II. Liv. ii. cap. 9, and
Dec. IV. Liv. v. cap. 3; Paolino, p. 74.)
[1] It appears from a paper in the Mackenzie MSS. that down to Colonel
Mackenzie's time there was a tribe in Calicut whose ancestors were
believed to have been Chinese.
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