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EMMA. "Yes, dear papa, Maldives and Laccadives are both in the Arabian Sea. The first are small islands, or rocks, just above the water. The Dutch trade with the natives for cowries, little shells used as money on some parts of the coasts of Africa and India.
Ships from India sometimes resort thither to procure sharks' fins for those epicures the Chinese, who consider them an excellent seasoning for soup. "The Laccadives are about five degrees further north, and are in themselves larger islands, but not so numerous as the Maldives. Bombay, which is the central point of communication between India and Europe, is on the Arabian Sea.
In 1607, a fleet was sent to the Maldives by the King of Bengal, in order to carry off the 100 or 120 cannon which the Maldive sovereign owed to the wreck of numerous Portuguese vessels. Pyrard, notwithstanding all the liberty allowed him, and that he had become a landholder, was desirous to behold his beloved Brittany once more.
Far to the south it jumped from India to the Maldives, from the Maldives to the Seychelles and from the Seychelles on to the great island of Madagascar. I hammered the theme of "Time, time" at Miss Francis, but her only response was a helpless sneer at my impatience. At intervals Burlet inquired of me what progress was being made with his plan for cities of refuge.
Ibn Batuta The Nile Gaza, Tyre, Tiberias, Libanus, Baalbec, Damascus, Meshid, Bussorah, Baghdad, Tabriz, Mecca and Medina Yemen Abyssinia The country of the Berbers Zanguebar Ormuz Syria Anatolia Asia Minor Astrakhan Constantinople Turkestan Herat The Indus Delhi Malabar The Maldives Ceylon The Coromandel coast Bengal The Nicobar Islands Sumatra China Africa The Niger Timbuctoo.
Evidently something was coming to visit the atoll; though it was certain nothing could be looking for us, as our capture could not then have been known, and there could have been no communication between the Maldives and Ceylon, or the mainland.
As Sir Edwin Arnold has written: "Here are specimens of every race and nation of the East, Arabs from Muscat, Persians from the Gulf, Afghans from the northern frontier, black shaggy negroes from Zanzibar, islanders from the Maldives and Laccadives; Malays and Chinese throng and jostle with Parsees in their sloping hats, with Jews, Lascars, Rajputs, Fakirs, European Sepoys, and Sahibs."
Six months had elapsed since the first chest of the cargo of Useful Knowledge destined for the fortunate Maldives had been digested by the recluse Popanilla; for a recluse he had now become. Great students are rather dull companions. Our Fantaisian friend, during his first studies, was as moody, absent, and querulous as are most men of genius during that mystical period of life.
An Eastbound traveler during the long run from Aden hears much of the incomparable island of palms, pearls, and elephants; and every waggish shipmate haunts smoke room and ladies' saloon waiting for the opportunity to point out the lighthouse on Minecoy Island in the Maldives as "the Light of Asia." Four hundred miles further and your good ship approaches Colombo.
At the same time the great continent whose position between the tropics has been alluded to, and whose previous existence is still indicated by the Coral islands, the Laccadives, the Maldives, and the Chagos group, underwent simultaneous depression by a counteracting movement.
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