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The viceroy is gone to Chaul and Diu as it is said to win a castle of the Moors, and it is thought he will return about Easter; when I trust in God we shall procure our liberty, and have our sureties discharged.

From Ormuz I returned to Chaul, and thence to Cochin, from which place I went again to Pegu. Once more I lost the opportunity of becoming rich, as on this voyage I only took a small quantity of opium, while I might have sold a large quantity to great advantage, being afraid of meeting a similar disappointment with that which happened to me before.

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.

I shipped therefore my three bales of cotton cloth at Chaul, in a vessel bound for Cochin, and went myself to Goa to pay the duty for my opium. From Goa I went to Cochin, in a ship that was bound for Pegu, and intended to winter at San Thome; but on my arrival at Cochin I learnt that the ship with my three bales of cotton cloth was cast away, so that I lost my 800 seraphins or ducats.

From Cochin I went to Goa, which is an hundred leagues; and after remaining three days I went to Chaul, sixty leagues from Goa. I remained twenty-three days at Chaul, making all necessary preparations for the prosecution of my voyage. I then sailed for Ormus, four hundred leagues from Goa, where I had to wait fifty days for a passage to Basora.

In this single article there are many thousand crowns expended yearly, owing to this singular custom, that, when any of their kindred die, they break all their bracelets in token of grief and mourning, so that they have immediately to purchase new ones, as they would rather go without meat as not have these ornaments. Of Damann, Bassen, Tana, Chaul, and some other places.

The 10th November we arrived at Chaul on the firm land, at which place there are two towns, one belonging to the Portuguese and the other to the Moors. That of the Portuguese is nearest the sea, commanding the bay, and is walled round; and a little above it is the Moors town, subject to a king called Xa-Maluco.

This fixes the time of his start so far that it must have taken place subsequent to 1462, and the author of the "Bombay Gazetteer," RE Poonah, assigns the period 1468 to 1474 as that of Nikitin's stay in India. Nikitin first went to Chaul, and thence travelled by land to Junir.

It would almost appear that the author had now gone down the coast of India, and that his Chuwal and Dabuly are Chaul and Dabul on the coast of the Concan.

Passing by Diu and Chaul, at which place we landed on the 20th November, we arrived at Goa on the 29th of that month, where, for our better entertainment, we were committed to a fair strong prison, in which we continued till the 22d of December.