m to Sumatra, where he
stayed a year, and of whose cruel, brutal, cannibal natives he gained a
pretty full knowledge, as of the camphor, pepper and gold of this
"Taprobana." From Sumatra a stormy voyage of sixteen days brought him to
Tenasserim, near the head of the Malay Peninsula. We then find him at
the mouth of the Ganges, and trace him ascending and descending that
river (a journey of several months), visiting Burdwan and Aracan,
penetrating into Burma, and navigating the Irawadi to Ava. He appears to
have spent some time in Pegu, from which he again plunged into the Malay
Archipelago, and visited Java, his farthest point. Here he remained nine
months, and then began his return by way of _Ciampa_ (usually
Cochin-China in later medieval European literature, but here perhaps
some more westerly portion of Indo-China); a month's voyage from Ciampa
brought him to _Coloen_, doubtless Kulam or Quilon, in the extreme
south-west of India. Thence he continued his homeward route, touching at
Cochin, Calicut and Cambay, to Sokotra, which he describes as still
mainly inhabited by Nestorian Christians; to the "rich city" of Aden,
"remarkable for its buildings"; to _Gidda_ or Jidda, the port of Mecca;
over the desert to _Carras_ or Cairo; and so to Venice, where he arrived
in 1444.

As a penance for his (compulsory) renunciation of the Christian faith
during his wanderings, Eugenius IV. ordered him to relate his history to
Poggio Bracciolini, the papal secretary. The narrative closes with
Conti's elaborate replies to Poggio's question on Indian life, social
classes, religion, fashions, manners, customs and peculiarities of
various kinds. Following a prevalent fashion, the Venetian divides his
Indies into three parts, the first extending from Persia to the Indus;
the second from the Indus to the Ganges; the third including all beyond
the Ganges; this last he considered to excel the others in wealth,
culture and magnificence, and to be abreast of Italy in civilization. We
may note, moreover, Conti's account of the bamboo in the Ganges valley;
of the catching, taming and rearing of elephants in Burma and other
regions; of Indian tattooing and the use of leaves for writing; of
various Indian fruits, especially the jack and mango; of the polyandry
of Malabar; of the cockfighting of Java; of what is apparently the bird
of Paradise; of Indian funeral ceremonies, and especially _suttee_; of
the self-mutilation and immolation of Indian fa