great!  God is great!  God was!  God is!  Mahomet, the messenger of God, shall arise!” They even invited me to the mosque, and desired me to pray to God for the Mahometans; and this I did outwardly, but with quite a different meaning from them.  They have certain daily and stated prayers as we have, in which they call upon God as their father, and they even vouchsafe to name the blessed Virgin Mary; but they always wash before prayers.  Standing all in order, after the priest has prayed, the whole people pray in their own language.

At this time I feigned myself sick, and finding some occasion or pretext for going to Cananore, I advertised my companion thereof, who gave me his consent, saying that he would shortly follow me to that place, and in the meantime gave me letters recommending me to a friend and countryman of his, a rich merchant at that place, desiring him to give me kind entertainment for his sake.  The day before my departure, I made the before-mentioned Milanese Christians privy to my intentions, and my companion made me join company with two other Persian merchants who were going to Cananore, as there were then in Calicut many merchants of Persia, Syria, and Turkey.  Therefore, on the 1st of December, having hired a light bark, I and my two companions set sail; but had hardly got from shore an arrow-flight, when four of the nairs of the king’s guard called to the pilot of our vessel, and ordered him, in the king’s name, to come to land.  When the nairs understood who we were, they asked the Persians why they carried me along with them, without licence from the king?  Then the Persians said, that this was a holy man, who meant to accompany them to Cananore.  The nairs answered, that they knew I was a person who had wrought miracles; but as I could speak the language of the Portuguese, it was to be feared that I might betray their secrets to the enemy, and give them notice of the navy and army which had been prepared at Calicut against them, and therefore they strictly enjoined the pilot to carry us no farther.  He accordingly obeyed their orders, and left us on the shore.  It was then proposed by one of the Persians that we should return to Calicut, on which I advised him to take heed how he did so, as he would be in danger of losing all his silks, if it should be discovered that he had not paid the king’s custom.  Then he asked my advice as to what I thought was best for us to do in the present exigency, and I advised that we should travel along the shore, in hopes of finding some other bark for our purpose.  They agreed to this proposal, and we accordingly travelled twelve miles along the shore, our slaves carrying our baggage; and I leave any judicious person to conceive the terror I was in, during this time, of being stopt by the servants of the king of Calicut.  At length, by good providence, we found a poor fisherman, who agreed to carry us in his boat to Cananore, where we arrived in safety late at night.  We went immediately