Hamilton’s account of the east indies. 373

good all that he had promifed before, if I would continue in his country. I returnedhis compliment in the propereft terms I could, and told him, I came to kifs his hand,and to buy his new flap, if he and I could agree. He told me, that I Ihould haveher at a very reafoirable price, but that his religion forbid him to fell any fhip that heeither built or bought, till he had firft employed her in one voyage himfelf. I ftayedfeven days in his country, and he treated me after the fame manner as if I had beenan ambalfador, in defraying all my charges, and allowing his own fervants to attendme.

When I went to his palace the firft time, I was innocently guilty of ill manners;for, walking with him near his lodgings, I chanced to touch the thatch with my hat,which polluted it fo much, that, as foon as I went away, he ftript it of its covering,becaul'e religion forbad him to fleep under it when it was thus polluted; but it wasfoon re-fanctified by a new thatching. If any of his own fubjedts had been guilty ofthe fame fault, they might have run in danger of lofing their lives for the offence.

I daily received for my table fix hens, two pounds of butter, five and twenty poundsweight of rice, a quarter of a pound of pepper, and fome fait, fome bettle leaves, andgreen arecka, with twenty young, and ten old cocoa-nuts, but no fifh, which was afavourite difh of mine. I fent my own fervants to the fifhing-boats, when they camefrom fifhing, to buy fome ; but the poor fellows durft not take a penny of money, yetfupplied me with what fifh I wanted, and my fervants took their opportunity to pay forthem, when none of the prince’s fervants were prefent.

When I took leave to depart, he feemed to be forry that I ftayed fo fhort a timewith him, and ordered two days’ provifions to be put into my boat, and I prefentedthe officer that waited on me to the fea fide with five zequeens for a feaft of bettle tohim and his companions. I do not certainly know how far foutherly this prince’sdominions reach along the fea-coaft, but I believe to Tecorie, about 12 miles fromMealie, and the half way is Cottica, which was famous formerly for privateering onall lhips and veffels that traded without their lord’s pafs.

There is a rock lies off Cottica about eight miles in the fea, which bears the nameof Sacrifice Rock. There are no dangers near it for fhips to be afraid of. How itcame by its name is uncertain; but common tradition tells us, that when the Portu-guefe fettled firft at Calecut , which lies about feven leagues fouth-eaft of this rock,the Cottica cruizers furprifed a Portuguefe veffel, and facrificed all their prifoners onthat rock, which gave name to it. It is obfervable, that though the Protuguefe gotfooting in all the dominions of the princes whofe lands reach to the fea-fhore ofMalabar, yet they never could get a foot of ground in the Balanores country, thoughmany trials have been made, and fair means ufed to effedt it.

Chap. XXV. — Obfervaiions on the Samorin and his Country, their Religion, Laws ,and Cajloms ; Product of the Country and its Commerce ; an Account of their Warwith the Dutch , begun in Anno 1708: and the Confequences of it.

THE Samorin ’s country reaches along the fea-coaft from Ticori to Chitwa, about22 leagues. His chief city (if it may be called one) is Calecut , where he generally re-fides. His place is built of ftone, and there is fome faint refemblance of grandeur tobe feen about his court. He is reckoned the moft powerful king on the fea-coaft ofMalabar, and has the beft trade in his country, which makes both himfelf and peoplericher than their neighbours. The Englilh had a fadtory there many years, but

now