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CHAP. IX.

off Bijapur terri

The country intervening between Goa and Kanara belonged to the Muhammadan Sultan of Bíjápur. Coasting voyage The journey between the two territories might thus tory. have been made by land, but the Sultan's officers were not always courteous to the Portuguese. It was therefore resolved to send the embassy by sea. The Brahman, Vitula Sinay, went in one ship, and the Portuguese ambassador and Della Valle went in another. Three other ships carried the baggage, as well as horses and other presents for Venk-tapa Naik. The whole were accompanied by a convoy of Portuguese war-frigates under the command of a Portuguese admiral.

Malabar pirates.

The fleet sailed from Goa to the Portuguese port want of seamen. of Onore, a distance of eighteen leagues.19 The voyage was marked by incidents peculiar to the seventeenth century. There was a difficulty about seamen. Goa was on the decline, and the Sultan of Bíjápur would not permit the Portuguese ships to enter his ports and engage mariners. Next there was a bootless chase of Malabar corsairs; but, after some delay, the fleet arrived at Onore.

at Onore.

The port of Onore was a fair specimen of a Portu- Portuguese fort guese settlement. There was a large fort with a commandant. Most of the married Portuguese lived within the fort in separate houses, having wells and gardens. The streets within the fort were large and fair, and there was also a piazza which would hold all the inhabitants in the event of a siege. There were two churches, but only one priest, who was the vicar of the Archbishop of Goa.

Within this secluded fort there had been an ex- Scandal at Onore. citing scandal. The wife of the commandant was

19 Onore appears on modern maps under the name of Hunahwar.

CHAP. IX. very jealous. She had banished a servant who was supposed to have carried messages from the commandant to other ladies. The vicar had interfered, and there had been a grand quarrel between the commandant and the vicar. The ambassador had

Story of Venktapa Naik and his Muham

madan mistress.

Venk-tapa Naik perplexed at the Portuguese ambassador.

He

been ordered to make peace between the two.
was said to have succeeded as far as outward appear-
ances were concerned, but it was only a forced recon-
ciliation.

Della Valle and the embassy were delayed some
days at Onore. The kingdom of Venk-tapa Naik
bordered on Onore;20 but the Raja had lost a beloved
wife, and would not see any one. A curious story
was told of this queen. Both she and her husband
were Hindus of the caste and religion of the Linga-
vants.21
After many years of married life, the queen
discovered that her husband kept a Muhammadan
mistress. She would have overlooked the affront
had her rival been a pure Hindu, but the woman
was a Muhammadan, and an eater of flesh meat, and
the connection was regarded as impure. Accordingly
the Hindu queen vowed that she would never more
live with Venk-tapa excepting as his daughter.
The Raja implored her to change her mind, and
offered to pay a large sum for the redemption of her
vow, but she remained obdurate until death.

But Venk-tapa had other reasons, besides grief for

20 The Raj of Kanara under Venk-tapa Naik extended from Onore to Mangalore, and included the Raj of Karnata. At Mangalore the country to the southward was known as Malabar, and formed the dominion of the Zamorin. Mangalore was, in fact, the boundary between Kanara and Malabar. At a later period Cannanore became the frontier.

21 The Lingavants were worshippers of the linga or phallus as an emblem of the Supreme Being and Creator of the universe. This strange faith was not incompatible with morals, as the symbol is said to be devoid of all grossness in the minds of the worshippers.

the loss of his queen, for not wishing to see the Por-
tuguese ambassador. He suspected that the am-
bassador would demand the restoration of Banghel.
He was angry with the Portuguese for not having
paid for last year's pepper, and he was troubled about
the sale of the pepper for the current year.
He saw
that the fortunes of the Portuguese were on the
decline, and he was inclined to take advantage of
their weakness, and carry matters with a high hand.

CHAP. IX.

and the Queen of

At last the embassy set out from Onore to go to Story of Garsopa the city of Ikkeri, the capital of Venk-tapa's king- Pepper. dom of Kanara. Some difficulties were felt in the way of provisions and coolies; but the Brahman envoy made excuses for all shortcomings, and did his best to smooth matters. Three leagues to the south of Onore was the city of Garsopa, which had been ruined by Venk-tapa Naik. In former years there had been a queen of Garsopa, who was known to the Portuguese as the Queen of Pepper. In that country the queens took as many lovers or husbands as they pleased, but the queen of Garsopa chose a mean man and a stranger, who at last took possession of her kingdom. The queen appealed to the Portuguese for help against the traitor, who in his turn applied for help to Venk-tapa Naik. In the end, Venk-tapa Naik invaded Garsopa, put the traitor to death, took possession of the country, destroyed the city and palace, and carried off the queen as his prisoner. When Della Valle visited the spot, the city was covered with jungle; trees were growing above the ruins of the houses; and four cottages of peasants were all that remained of a populous city.

the Ghats.

After leaving Garsopa, Della Valle and his party Journey over began to climb the Ghát. The mountain was not so

CHAP. IX. high as the Apennines, but the ascent was easier, the woods were more beautiful and dense, and the water was quite as clear.

Muhammadan commandant.

Temple of Hanuman, the monkey god: division of offerings.

Pilgrimage of
Hanuman to
the coast of
Coromandel.

On the top of the Ghát there was a fortress, together with a native village and a temple of Hanuman, the monkey god who helped Ráma in his wars against Rávana. In the evening the captain of the fortress sent a present of sugar-canes and other refreshments to the Portuguese ambassador. He was a Muhammadan from the Dekhan. He had formerly been in the service of the Sultan of Bíjápur, but had been taken prisoner by Venk-tapa Naik, and entered the service of his Hindu conqueror. He had now been twenty-five years in the service of the Hindu Raja without changing his religion.

Della Valle was very much interested in the temple of Hanuman. He saw the statue of the monkey god set up in the temple, with lights burning before it. A silver hand had been hung up on the wall by some devout person, probably as a votive offering for the cure of some disease of the hand. Many people came to offer fruit and other edibles to the idol. One of the priests presented the offerings, murmuring his orisons. Half of the offerings was reserved for the servants of the temple, and the other half was returned to the worshipper. If it was but a cocoa-nut, the priest split it in two before the idol, and then gave back one-half to the man who offered it. The worshipper took his half of the cocoa-nut with great reverence, and would afterwards eat it as sacred food that had been tasted by the idol.

At night there was barbarous music at the gate of the temple. Della Valle was told that Hanuman was about to go on pilgrimage to a place of devotion near

the Portuguese city of St. Thomé on the coast of Coromandel. 22 The idol was to be carried in a palanquin, accompanied by a great crowd of men and women, with music and songs, much in the same manner that the bodies or images of the saints were carried in procession or pilgrimage to Loretto or Rome in the Holy Year.

CHAP. IX.

saint.

Amongst others who assisted at the service of the Hindu female idol was a woman who was held to be a saint. It was said that she took no food, not even rice, and that the idol delighted to sleep with her. The people often asked her about future events, and when she had consulted the idol, she gave them their answer.

Muhammadan

The sights on the top of the Ghát were many and visit of the various. The captain of the fortress paid a visit to commandant the Portuguese ambassador. He was accompanied by a number of soldiers with various kinds of weapons. Most of them had pikes, lances like half-pikes, and swords. Two of the soldiers had swords and bucklers, and appeared in front of the captain, dancing and skirmishing after their manner, as if they fought together.

learning

In the afternoon, whilst standing in the porch of Hindu boys the temple, Della Valle saw four little boys learning arithmetic. arithmetic by writing out their lessons with their fingers on a sanded pavement. The first boy sung his lesson, such as two and two make four; and the other boys sung and wrote after him in like manner. When the pavement was full of figures, it was wiped clean and strewed with fresh sand.

22 The place of pilgrimage was probably Trivalore, three or four miles from Madras; or it may have been Ramisseram, at the extreme south of the Indian peninsula.

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