of the gentiles.  When there happens a famine the natives sell their children for a low price.  The last king of Cambaia was sultan Badur, who was slain at the siege of Diu, and shortly after the capital city was reduced by the great Mogor, [Mogul] who is king of Agra and Delhi, forty days journey from thence.  Here the women wear upon their arms, a vast number of ivory rings, in which they take so much pride that they would rather go without their meat than want their bracelets.

Going from Diu, we came to Damaun, the second town of the Portuguese in the country of Cambaia, forty leagues from Diu.  This place, which has no trade but in corn and rice, has many villages under its jurisdiction, which the Portuguese possess quietly during peace, but in time of war they are all occupied by the enemy.  From Damaun we passed to Basaim, [Baseen] and from thence to Tanna in the island of Salsette, at both which places the only trade is in rice and corn.  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.  At this place is a great trade for all Kinds of spices, drugs, silk, raw and manufactured, sandal-wood, elephants teeth, much China work, and a great deal of sugar made from the nut called gagara, [coco].  The tree on which it grows is called the palmer, and is the most profitable tree in the world.  It always bears fruit, and yields wine, oil, sugar, vinegar, cordage, coals, or fuel; of the leaves are made thatch for houses, sails for ships, and mats to sit or lie on; of the branches are made houses, and brooms wherewith they sweep them; of the wood ships.  The wine issues from the top of the tree, and is procured thus:  They cut a branch, binding it hard, and hang an earthen pot under the cut end, which they empty every evening and morning; and still[403] the juice, putting raisins into it, by which it becometh strong wine in a short time.  Many ships come here from all parts of India, and from Ormus and Mecca, so that there are many Moors and Gentiles at this place.  The natives have a strange superstition, worshipping a cow, and having cows dung in great veneration, insomuch that they paint or daub the walls of their houses with it.  They kill no animal whatever, not so much as a louse, holding it a crime to take away life.  They eat no flesh, living entirely on roots, rice, and milk.  When a man dies, his living wife is burnt along with his body, if she be alive; and if she will not, her head is shaven, and she is ever after held in low esteem.  They consider it a great sin to bury dead bodies, as they would engender many worms and other vermin, and when the bodies were consumed these worms would lack sustenance; wherefore they burn their dead.  In all Guzerat they kill nothing; and in the town of Cambay they have hospitals for lame dogs and cats, and for birds, and they even provide food for the ants.