r; and the Arabian merchants received
every encouragement from the Samoories or Zamorins, as they made Calicut
the staple of their Indian trade, and brought large sums of money yearly
to that place, for the purchase of spiceries and other commodities. As
the rajahs of Cochin and other petty sovereignties on the coast, were
exceedingly jealous of the superior riches and power of the zamorins, and
of the monopoly of trade enjoyed by Calicut, they gave every
encouragement to the Portuguese to frequent their ports; from whence
arose a series of warfare by sea and land, which has finally reduced them
all under subjection to the Europeans."

"According to an Arabian author, _Zeirreddien Mukhdom_, who is supposed
to have been sent to assist the zamorins and the Mahomedans in India, in
their wars with the Portuguese, Malabar is then said to have been divided
among a multiplicity of independent princes or rajahs, whom he calls
_Hakims_, some of whom commanded over one or two hundred men, and others
one, ten, fifteen, or even as high as thirty, thousand, or upwards.
The three greatest powers at that time were, the _Colastrian_[53] rajah
to the north, the zamorin of Calicut in the centre, and a rajah in the
south, who ruled from Coulan, Kalum, or Coulim, to Cape Comorin,
comprehending the country now belonging to the rajah of Travancore."

"We now return from this digression, to follow the narrative of the
Portuguese Discovery and Conquest of India, as related by Castaneda."

So great was the trade and population of Calicut and the surrounding
country, and the revenues of its sovereign through these circumstances,
that he was able to raise a force of thirty thousand men in a single day,
and could even bring an hundred thousand men into the field, completely
equipt for war, in three days. This prince, in the language of the
country, was styled the Zamorin, or Samoryn, which signifies Emperor; as
he was supreme over the other two kings of Malabar, the king of Coulan
and the king of Cananor. There were indeed other princes in this country,
who were called kings, but were not so. This zamorin or king of Calicut
was a bramin, as his predecessors had been, the bramins being priests
among the Malabars. It is an ancient rule and custom among these people,
that all their kings must die in a pagoda[54], or temple of their idols;
and that there must always be a king resident in the principal pagoda, to
serve those idols: Wherefore, when the