indeed, we found here a junk which had come from Lozon[1] to trade in sandal wood; for white sandal wood only grows in this country.
These people are Gentiles; we were told that when they go to cut sandal wood, the devil appears to them in various forms, and tells them that if they want anything they should ask him for it; but this apparition frightens them so much, that they are ill of it for some days.[2] The sandal wood is cut at a certain phase of the moon, and it is asserted that if cut at another time it would not be good. The merchandise most fitting for bartering here for sandal wood is red cloth, linen, hatchets, iron, and nails.
This island is entirely inhabited. It extends a long way from east to west, and little from north to south. Its south latitude is in 10 deg., and the longitude 174 deg. 30 min. from the line of demarcation.
In all these islands that we visited in this archipelago, the evil of Saint Job prevailed, and more here than in any other place, where they call it "for franki", that is to say, Portuguese illness.[3]
We were told that at a day's voyage, west-north-west from Timor, there was an island in which much cinnamon grows, called Ende;[4] its inhabitants are Gentiles, and have no king. Near this are many others forming a series of islands as far as Java Major, and the Cape of Malacca. The names of these islands are Ende, Tanabuton, Crenochile, Bimacore, Azanaran, Main, Zubava, Lombok, Chorum, and Java Major, which by the inhabitants is not called Java but Jaoa.
- ↑ Luzon.
- ↑ Bomare says that those who cut sandal wood fall ill from the miasma exhaled by the wood. Note, Milan edition.
- ↑ A note to the Milan edition suggests that it was too early in the century for this to be the Frank disease, and that it must have been leprosy. This is more probable.
- ↑ Ende, or Flores.
