Cochin, next to Goa, is the chief place in India belonging to the Portuguese, and has a great trade in spices, drugs, and all other kinds of merchandise for Portugal. Inland from that place is the pepper country, which pepper is loaded by the Portuguese in bulk not in sacks. The pepper which is sent to Portugal is not so good as that which goes up the Red Sea; because in times past the officers of the king of Portugal made a contract with the king of Cochin for all the pepper, to be delivered at a fixed price, which is very low; and for which reason the country people deliver it to the Portuguese unripe and full of dirt. As the Moors of Mecca give a better price, they get it clean and dry and in much better condition; but all the spices and drugs which they carry to Mecca and the Red Sea are contraband and stolen or smuggled. There are two cities at Cochin, one of which belongs to the Portuguese and the other to the native king; that of the Portuguese being nearer the sea, while the native city is a mile and a half farther up the same river. They are both on the banks of the same large river, which comes from the mountains in the pepper country144, in which are many Christians of the order of St Thomas. The king of Cochin is a Gentile and a steadfast friend to the king of Portugal, and to all the Portuguese who are married and have become citizens of Cochin. By the name of Portuguese, all the Christians are known in India who come from Europe, whether they be Italians, Frenchmen, or Germans. All those who marry and settle at Cochin get some office according to the trades they are off, by which they have great privileges. The two principal commodities in which they deal are silk which comes in great quantities from China, and large quantities of sugar, which comes from Bengal. The married citizens pay no customs for these two commodities; but pay 4s. per centum for all other goods to the king of Cochin, rating their own goods almost at their own valuation. Those who are not married pay to the king of Portugal 8s. per centum for all kinds of commodities. While I was in Cochin, the viceroy used his endeavours to break the privileges of these married citizens, that they might pay the same rates of customs with others. On this occasion the citizens were glad to weigh their pepper in the night to evade the customs. When this came to the knowledge of the king of Cochin, he put a stop to the delivery of pepper, so that the viceroy was glad to allow the merchants to do as formerly. The king of Cochin has small power in comparison with the other sovereigns of India as he is unable to send above 70,000 men into the field. He has a great number of gentlemen, some of whom are called Amochi145 and others Nairs. These two sorts of men do not value their lives in any thing which tends to the honour of their king, and will run freely into any danger in his service, even if sure to lose their lives in the attempt. These men go naked from the waist upwards, and barefooted, having only a cloth wrapped about their thighs. Their hair is long and rolled up on the top of their heads, and they go always armed, carrying bucklers and naked swords. The Nairs have their wives in common among themselves, and when any of them goes into the house of one of these women, he leaves his sword and buckler at the door, and while he is within no other dare enter the house. The king's children never inherit the kingdom after their fathers, lest perchance they may have been begotten by some other man; wherefore the son of the king's sisters, or of some female of the royal-blood succeeds, that they may be sure of having a king of the royal family. Those Naires and their wives have great holes in their ears by way of ornament, so large and wide as is hardly credible, holding that the larger these holes are, so much the more noble are they. I had leave from one of them to measure the circumference of the hole in one of his ears with a thread; and within that circumference I put my arm up to the shoulder with my clothes on, so that in fact they are monstrously large. This is begun when they are very young, at which time a hole is made in each ear, to which they hang a piece of gold or a lump of lead, putting a certain leaf into the hole which causes the hole to increase prodigiously. They load ships at Cochin both for Portugal and Ormuz: but all the pepper that is carried to Ormuz is smuggled. Cinnamon and all other spices and drugs are permitted to be exported to Ormuz or Cambaia, as likewise all other kinds of merchandise from other parts of India. From Cochin there are sent yearly to Portugal great quantities of pepper, dry and preserved ginger, wild cinnamon, areka nuts and large store of cordage made of cayro, that is from the bark of the cocoa-nut tree, which is reckoned better than that made of hemp. The ships for Portugal depart every season between the 5th of December and the 5th of January. From Cochin I went to Coulan, at which is a small fort belonging to the Portuguese, 72 miles from Cochin. This is a place of small trade, as every year a ship gets only half a lading of pepper here, and then goes to Cochin to be filled up. From Cochin to Cape Comorin is 72 miles, and here ends the Indian coast. Along this coast, and also at Cape Comorin, and down to the low lands of Chialon146, which is about 200 miles, there are great numbers of the natives converted to the Christian faith, and among them are many churches of the order of St Paul, the friars of which order do much good in these places, and take great pains to instruct the natives in the Christian faith.SECTION IX. Of Cochin