or cluster of hills, forming a promontory some 16 miles
north of Cananore, the first Indian land seen by Vasco da Gama, on that
memorable August morning in 1498, and formerly very well known to
navigators, though it has been allowed to drop out of some of our most
ambitious modern maps. Abulfeda describes it as "a great mountain
projecting into the sea, and descried from a great distance, called _Ras
Haili_"; and it appears in Fra Mauro's map as _Cavo de Eli_.

Rashiduddin mentions "the country of Hili," between _Manjarur_ (Mangalore)
and Fandaraina (miswritten in Elliot's copy _Sadarsa_). Ibn Batuta speaks
of Hili, which he reached on leaving Manjarur, as "a great and well-built
city, situated on a large estuary accessible to great ships. The vessels
of China come hither; this, Kaulam, and Kalikut, are the only ports that
they enter." From Hili he proceeds 12 miles further down the coast to
_Jor-fattan_, which probably corresponds to Baliapatan. ELLY appears in
the Carta Catalana, and is marked as a Christian city. Nicolo Conti is the
last to speak distinctly of the city. Sailing from Cambay, in 20 days he
arrived at two cities on the sea-shore, _Pacamuria_ (_Faknur_, of Rashid
and Firishta, _Baccanor_ of old books, and now _Barkur_, the Malayalim
_Vakkanur_) and HELLI. But we read that in 1527 Simon de Melo was sent to
burn ships in the River of _Marabia_ and at _Monte d'Elli_.[1] When Da
Gama on his second voyage was on his way from Baticala (in Canara) to
Cananor, a squall having sprung his mainmast just before reaching Mt.
d'Ely, "the captain-major anchored in the Bay of Marabia, because he saw
there several Moorish ships, in order to get a mast from them." It seems
clear that this was the bay just behind Mt. d'Ely.

Indeed the name of Marabia or _Marawi_ is still preserved in _Madavi_ or
Madai, corruptly termed _Maudoy_ in some of our maps, a township upor the
river which enters the bay about 7 or 8 miles south-east of Mt. d'Ely, and
which is called by De Barros the _Rio Marabia_. Mr. Ballard informs me
that he never heard of ruins of importance at Madai, but there is a place
on the river just mentioned, and within the Madai township, called
_Payangadi_ ("Old Town"), which has the remains of an old fort of the
Kolastri (or Kolatiri) Rajas. A _palace_ at Madai (perhaps this fort) is
alluded to by Dr. Gundert in the _Madras Journal_, and a Buddhist Vihara
is spoken of in an old Malayalim poem as having existed at th