146 great quantities that many ships going to other countries take a cargo of it; they also make excellent vinegar from this must and a lot of a very sweet sugar, which is a very good commodity in India. They make mats the entire length of the branch from the leaves of the tree, which they use to cover the tiles, or the houses themselves, for as I have said, only the King’s house and the temples may be covered with tiles, whilst all the others are covered with the palms of the said tree; they also use it as wood for their houses and firewood, and in such abundance that many seagoing ships take a cargo of it. There is another shorter kind of palmtree; the locals use its leaves to write on, as if it were paper. There are some other very tall thin palm-trees, with no branches on their trunks and which produce a small fruit the size of a walnut called an areca, which they chew like betel. It is very popular here, but has a revolting taste. It is so abundant that many ships take cargoes of it to Cambay and Deccan and many other places where it is taken dried. The Kingdom of Kochi Heading further along the coast one comes to the kingdom of Kochi, where there is a great deal of pepper. It grows throughout the country on trees, like ivy does, and it grows on many other trees and palms, and there is a lot of it forming canopies too; the pepper grows in bunches on these trees. A lot offine ginger also grows here, and cardamom; cherry plums; cassiafistulla; turmeric; shampoo ginger, and wild cinnamon. This kingdom also has a fine, broad river which flows into the sea, and which is the point of entry for many Mouros and Christian ships that come to this kingdom to trade. There is also a native Mouros town on the banks of this river, inhabited by many Chettys too, and great merchants. There are many ships here that trade in areca; coconut; silver (sic) [pepper]; cane-sugar; palm-sugar, with Coromandel; the great kingdom of Cambay, Dabhol, and Chaul.
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