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Updated: May 28, 2025
The mouth of this branch runs into the sea in lat. 18° 25' S. In his passage from the Terra de Natal, or Christmas Land, so named from having been discovered on Christmas day, and named, in this account of De Gamas voyage, the Land of Good People, De Gama missed Cape Corientes, forming the S.W. point of the channel of Mozambique, or Inner Passage, as it is now called, and overshot Sofala, the southern extremity of Covilhams discoveries, at which he was probably directed to touch, as Covilhams chart might have been of some use to direct his farther progress to Aden, and thence to Calicut or Cananor, on the Malabar coast.
Standing along the coast, the ships passed close to the town of Cananor, which, being a mean place, greatly disappointed Vasco da Gama, as he supposed that it was Calecut; but the pilots set him right, and conducted him twelve leagues farther on, when the anchors were dropped off the town of Capocate, two leagues from the large city of Celecut, situated in a bay.
All these matters being properly arranged, De Gama departed from Cananor for Portugal on the 20th December 1502 ; with thirteen ships richly laden, three of which had taken in their cargoes at Cananor, and the other ten at Cochin. The whole fleet arrived in safety at Mozambique, where the ship commanded by Stephen de Gama having sprung a great leak, was unladen and laid on shore to be repaired.
At this time Alonso de Albuquerque returned from Coulan, and joined Francisco at Cananor; and a letter was brought from Rodrigo Reynel, giving information that the zamorin was certainly resolved to attempt the conquest of Cochin, as soon as the Portuguese ships should leave the coast; and that his only intention in making an offer of pepper was with a view to prevent them from burning the ships which were then in the harbour of Calicut.
Is the year 1503, supposing that the admiral Don Vasco de Gama had quietly settled factories in Cochin and Cananor, the king of Portugal did not consider it necessary to send any great fleet to India. He therefore determined to send only six ships in two separate squadrons, under separate generals.
Of these, the rajah of Tanor had 4000 naires; the rajahs of Bybur and Curran, whose countries lay near the mountains of Narsinga, had 12,000 naires; the rajah of Cotogataco, which is between Cochin and Cananor close beside the mountains, had 18,000 naires; the rajah of Curia, which is between Paniani and Cranganor, had 3000 naires.
This prince, in the language of the country, was styled the Zamorin, or Samoryn, which signifies Emperor; as he was supreme over the other two kings of Malabar, the king of Coulan and the king of Cananor. There were indeed other princes in this country, who were called kings, but were not so.
On his way between Cananor and Cochin, Nueva took a ship belonging to some of the Moorish merchants at Calicut, after a vigorous resistance, and set it on fire.
Immediately on his approach, the troops of Calicut who guarded the entrenchments thrown up by the zamorin, abandoned their posts in the island of Cochin and fled to Cranganor, according to orders to that effect from the zamorin, who had received notice of the arrival of our fleet at Cananor.
According to what was known later, there had been in this country of Cananor a diviner so diabolical, in whom they believed so much, that they wrote down all that he said, and preserved it like prophecies which would come to pass.
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