1. Mutfili (_Telingana_) 1. Mutfili
MAABAR, / 2. St. Thomas's (_Madras_). 2. St. Thomas's
including | 3. Maabar Proper, Kingdom of (Lar, west of do.).
| Sonder Bandi (_Tanjore_) 3. Maabar proper, or Soli.
\ 4. Cail (_Tinnevelly_). 4. Cail.
5. Comari (_C. Comorin_). 5. Coilum.
MELIBAR, / 6. Coilum (_Travancore_). 6. Comari.
including \ 7. Eli (_Cananore_). 7. Eli.
GUZERAT, / 8. Tana (_Bombay_). 8. (MELIBAR).
or LAR, | 9. Canbaet (_Cambay_). 9. (GOZURAT).
including | 10. Semenat (_Somnath_). 10. Tana.
\ 11. Kesmacoran (_Mekran_). 11. Canbaet.
12. Semenat.
13. Kesmacoran.
It is difficult to suppose that the fleet carrying the bride of Arghun
went out of its way to Maabar, St. Thomas's, and Telingana. And on the
other hand, what is said in chapter xxiii. on Comari, about the North Star
not having been visible since they approached the Lesser Java, would have
been grossly inaccurate if in the interval the travellers had been north
as far as Madras and Motupalle. That passage suggests to me strongly that
Comari was the first Indian land made by the fleet on arriving from the
Archipelago (exclusive _perhaps_ of Ceylon). Note then that the position
of Eli is marked by its distance of 300 miles from Comari, evidently
indicating that this was a run made by the traveller _on some occasion_
without an intermediate stoppage. Tana, Cambay, Somnath, would follow
naturally as points of call.
In Polo's order, again, the positions of Comari and Coilum are transposed,
whilst Melibar is introduced as if it were a country _westward_ (as Polo
views it, northward we should say)[1] of Coilum and Eli, instead of
including them, and Gozurat is introduced as a country lying _eastward_
(or southward, as we should say) of Tana, Cambaet, and Semenat, instead of
including them, or at least the two latter. Moreover, he names no cities
in connection with those two countries.
The following hypothesis, really not a complex one, is the most probable
that I can suggest to account for these confusions.
I conceive, then, that Cape Comorin (Comari) was the first Indian land
made by the fleet on the homeward voyage, and that Hili, Tana, Cambay,
Somnath, were touched at successively as it proceeded towards Pe
|