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miles between ship and ship, so that they cover something like a hun- dred miles of sea, and no merchant ship can escape them. For when any one corsair sights a vessel a signal is made by fire or smoke, and then the whole of them make for this, and seize the merchants and plunder them. After they have plundered them they let them go, saying, ‘Go along with you and get more gain, and that mayhap will fall to us also ! ’ But now the merchants are aware of this, and go so well manned and armed, and with such great ships, that they don’t fear the corsairs. Still mishaps do befall them at times.” In this same vicinity. Yule observes, Ibn Batuta fell into the pirates’ hands, and was stripped to the drawers. The northern part of Malabar, Kanara, and the Southern Konkan, were a nest of pirates from a very ancient date until well into the 19th century, when their occupation was destroyed by the British arms.
Marco Polo says (III, xxiv) of the kingdom of Ely (near Mangalore), “if any ship enters their estuary and anchors there, having been bound for some other port, they seize her and plunder the cargo. For they say, ‘You were bound for somewhere else, and ’tis God has sent you hither to us, so we have right to all your goods. ’ And they think it is no sin to act thus. And this naughty custom prevails all over the provinces of India, to wit, that if a ship be driven by stress of weather into some other port than that to which it was bound, it was sure to be plundered. But if a ship came bound originally to the place they receive it with all honor and give it due protection. ”
In 1673, Yule notes, Sivajl replied to the pleadings of an Eng- lish embassy, that it was “against the laws of Conchon” (Ptolemy’s Pirate Coast! ) “to restore any ship or goods that were driven ashore.”
Abd-er-Razzak notes the same practices at Calicut.
53. White Island. — This is probably the modern Pigeon Island (14° V N. , 74° 16‘ E. ), also known as Nitran. It lies about 10 miles off the coast, about 300 feet high, and is visible for 25 miles. It abounds in white coral and lime. {Imp. Gaz,., XX, 136.)
This is probably the same as the Nitrias of Pliny (VI, 26), the stronghold of the pirates, who threatened the Roman merchants; and may be the Nitra of Ptolemy.
53. Naura and Tyndis, the first markets of Damirica.
It seems clear that a long stretch of coast on either side of the modern Goa was given a wide berth by foreign merchant-ships because of the piratical habits of its people, and because it produced no cargo of which they were in search.
Like the following ports, Muziris and Nelcynda, these two have
