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In Guzerat there is great abundance of cotton, which grows on trees six fathoms high, that last for twenty years; but after twelve years old, the cotton of these trees is not good for spinning; and is only fit for making quilts. Canhau is a great city, having plenty of frankincense, and carrying on a great trade in horses. In Cambaia is much indigo, buckram, and cotton.
If his application is to be complied with, his present is accepted and his request granted; but if his suit be denied he returns home with his present. There are few commodities in India which serve for trade at Pegu, except opium of Cambaia, painted cottons from San Thome or Masulipatam, and white cloth of Bengal, vast quantities of which are sold here.
Hakluyt gives the following descriptive title of this uncommonly curious and interesting narrative: "The voyage of Mr Ralph Fitch, merchant of London, by the way of Tripolis in Syria to Ormus, and so to Goa in the East India, to Cambaia, and all the kingdom, of Zelabdim Echebar the great Mogor, to the mighty river Ganges, and down to Bengala, to Bacola and Chonderi, to Pegu, to Imahay in the kingdom of Siam, and back to Pegu, and from thence to Malacca, Zeilan, Cochin, and all the coast of the East India; begun in the year of our Lord 1583, and ended in 1591: wherein the strange rites, manners, and customs of those people, and the exceeding rich trade and commodities of those countries, are faithfully set down and diligently described, by the foresaid Mr Ralph Fitch."
The last king of Cambaia was Sultan Badu, which was killed at the seige of Diu, and shortly after his citie was taken by the great Mogor, which is the king of Agra and of Delli, which are fortie dayes iourney from the country of Cambaia.
From Ormuz it is 990 miles to Goa, on which passage the first city you come to in India is Diu, situated in a small island of the kingdom of Cambaia; and, though a small city, is the strongest fortified of any of those possessed by the Portuguese in India, having great trade, and loading many great ships with merchandise for Ormuz and the Red Sea.
Here the women weare vpon their armes infinite numbers of rings made of Elephants teeth, wherein they take so much delight, that they had rather be without their meate then without their bracelets. Going from Diu we come to Daman the second towne of the Portugales in the countrey of Cambaia which is distant from Diu fortie leagues. Here is no trade but of corne and rice.
Spodium and many other drugs come from Cambaia or Gujrat, commonly called Guzerat. Supplement to the Journey of Fitch . In Hakluyt's collection, p. 235 376, are given letters from queen Elizabeth to Akbar Shah, Mogul emperor of Hindostan, called there Zelabdim Echebar, king of Cambaia, and to the king or emperor of China, dated 1583.
The best pearles come from the Iland of Baharim in the Persian sea, the woorser from the Piscaria neere the Isle of Ceylon, and from Aynam a great Iland on the Southermost coast of China. Spodium and many other kindes of drugs come from Cambaia.
But this king did not enjoy his acquisitions long, being soon conquered by another tyrant, who was the great Mogul of Delhi, Agra, and Cambaia, against whom the king of Patane made very little resistance. Departing from Orissa I went to the harbour of Piqueno in Bengal, 170 miles to the east from Orissa. We went in the first place along the coast for 54 miles when we entered the river Ganges.
The same day on which he fell in with Cape Espiritu Santo, 14th of January, 1588, Candish entered in the evening into the straits of San Bernardino, between Samar or Cambaia, and the island of Luzon. The 15th he fell in with the island of Capul, passing a very narrow strait between that island and another, in which the current of the tide was considerable.
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