27 often warring with the people from the mainland, at other times they are at peace and they trade with them in return for a good deal of honey; beeswax and ivory. By not wanting to obey the orders of Our Lord and King out of pride, the king lost this city and it was taken fromhimby force bywe Portuguese. Hefled from it and they killed a lot of people and also captured many of his men and women, meaning that the city was destroyed and pillaged and burned. A great booty was taken here, of much gold and silver, anklets; bracelets; earrings; and gold beads, and much copper; and many other veryfine goods. The town was left in ruins. Malindi Heading further on towards India and leaving Mombasa behind, not very far along the coast from there there is a beautiful town built on the mainland, along a beach called Malindi, which belongs to Mouros; they have their own Mouros king; this place has many very beautiful stone and mortar houses, with many storeys and windows, like we have, and the town is well planned. Its people are white and black, they go naked, covering only their pudenda with cotton and silk cloths, and others drape cloths over their shoulders, like cloaks; they also often wear turbans and headscarves made fromfine cloths on their heads. There are principal merchants [1] who trade in cloths; gold; ivory and many other sorts of goods with the Mouros and gentiles from the great kingdom of Cambay. Many ships laden with goods come to this very port each year and leave with large quantities of gold; ivory, and beeswax which the merchants from Cambay find most profitable, and thus both of them earn a lot of money. There are many provisions and fruits of all kinds in this city, because there are plenty of orchards and 1. Tranlsator's note: There are frequent references in the text to grosos mercadores , who were merchants dealing in large quantities, often directly with the ships, almost like wholesalers. We have chosen to call them “principal merchants”.
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