Translation, pages 5-6
Likewise it is also made a matter of public information that news has recently reached Lisbon that the Venetians are intending to send many people to Mellacka in Arabia via Alexandria to offer assistance to the Sultan.1 These men are to serve as carpenters and other skilled craftsmen which are required there in order to build ships. And they intend to make galleys and have in mind to do great harm to the Portuguese in India. For the large fleet which as come from India has burned, to be sure, fourteen large ships intended for the King of Calicut. These were laden with spices, and the same spices would all have come to the Venetians. Therefore the latter do not wish to tarry, and want to aid the Sultan to build other ships.
But the Portuguese have little faith in this venture, since Arabia and the coast of that side of Africa have little or no wood. It is all sandy desert, and as one report goes, they will be unable to accomplish anything in the way of shipping by sea, for there is no wood available.2 It is also to be observed how all spices grow in India. Pepper grows like grapes in clusters, just as do elderberries. At times they bring to Lisbon green peppers just as they come from the tree. Cinnamon quills come also from large trees resembling the willow tree growing here. They have leaves which are broader than those of the willow tree, and when the time comes the sinnamon bark is peeled off and is dried. That is cinnamon bark, and afterwards the tree must stand two years until it grows a new bark again. This is the characteristic of cinnamon.
Likewise, the greatest part of ginger is found to grow at Kandinor (Cananor), not far from Calicut. This is at times also imported to Lisbon; it consists of roots, and has leaves like wide-bladed grass. I have seen it, to be sure.
Also, the buds of cloves and nutmeg blossoms are obtained from Mellacka which is located 700 miles beyond Calicut. How this spice grows even they do not know. From there is also obtained the largest supply of drugs and precious gems. Pearls are also sought in an island located in the Persian Gulf. It is called Armasa (Ormuz). They are also sought at a place called Kayl (Caell) located on the continent.3 From there they bring many strange things, such as oriental rugs, also dogs and cats which have under their tails aromatic organs. If one seeks to extract these from them, then one must make them angry.4 Also large cocoa nuts are imported from there; they are called metzen and are good to eat.5 Several cats have also come with the large fleet. They are called cats of Alcady,6 from which is extracted under their tails a pleasant smelling substance called zedoary.7
Notes:
1. Mellacka here must refer to Mecca. The Portuguese success in India aroused the Sultan of Egypt, with Venetian assistance, to build a flet with which to contest Portuguese supremacy in Indian waters. This fellt was readied at Jidda, the port city for Mecca, under the command of Egyptian Admiral Mir Hussein.
2. This Portuguese complacency was somewhat premature, since the Sultan was able in 1508 to send a fleet to Chaul where a three-day battle took place with the Portuguese fleet commanded by Lorenco de Almeida, the viceroy's son. The battle was indecisive, but the Portuguese retired to Cochin after Almeida was mortally wounded.
3. The word droperey, if taken literally, might be understood to mean "pearls." It would then be related to the N. H. G. Tropfen, English "drop," and suggest the droplike shape of pearls. However, and this may be more likely, should this be a misprint for a more appropriate spelling of drogerery, meaning of "drugs" is apparent.
Ptolemy and Pliny noted the Persian Gulf as a great source of pearls, and subsequent travelers such as Benjamin of Tudela, Ibn Battuta, and Ludovico Varthema described Ormuz as the location of an important pearl fishery. Throughout history it has been the world's most valuable source of pearls.
Caell, with various spellings, was an important source of pearls, as it was located on the Indian mainland opposite Ceylon's great pearl fishery in the Gulf of Manaar.
4. These "dogs and cats" are a reference to the musk deer, an animal native to Tibet, the Himalayan region, Siberia, and western China. This animal is about twenty inches high and from the standpoint of size, could be confused with a dog or cat. Its distinguishing feature is a sac on its abdomen, containing a gland which secretes a substance with an odor more persistent and more penetrating than any other known substance. This secretion was much sought after for medicinal uses and for perfumery. (See also civet cat, note 6 below.)
5. The word metze, meaning "coconut," as is obviously intendedin the present context, cannot be verified in any currently available German dictionary. Etymologically this word may plausibly be related to the English word meat in the meaning of food in general, especially solid food, hence as here the edible part of a coconut. However, in an old German dictionary, published in Nuremberg in 1482, is found the word mozza, meaning in German "Muskatnuss" (nutmeg), a word presumabley taken over a currently familiar Portuguese word which appears in modern Portuguese as noz moscada (both words ultimately derived from Latin: nux, nucis; muscum, meaning fruit of the tree miristica). Metze could accordingly be derived from mozza.
6. Of all the unusual words encountered in this newsletter, Alcaldy has been the most elusive and puzzling. No dictionary or geographical gazetteer revealed any clue. The translator suggests as a possible, perhaps plausible, explanation that Alcaldy may be of Arabic origin, comosed of the definite article al and Kaldu, referring to Chaldaea, or Mesopotamia, and ultimately to Arabia. Hence we may be justified in interpreting "cats of Alcaldy" as civet cats coming from Chaldaea or possibly from Arabia, either country being well within the geographical province of our text. The civet cat, like the musk deer, secretes a substance useful for perfumery. (Cf Encyclopedia Britannica, fourteenth edition, Vol. V, pp. 194-95.) Among the Portuguese this animal was referred to as "kato de Agali." (Cf. Zedlers Lexicon vol. 62.) In the same lexicon by Zedler (vol. 1) Alcaladie is identified as a province in Fez in Morocco. Since civet cats are found also in the area of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, it may be assumed that this term was applied to the same animals found in Asia.
7. In this the author is badly misinformed. Zedoary is not an animal product, but the product of a plant native to India and China whose rootstocks were used in medicine.