nicety, as all the north-western coast of India has always been
addicted to maritime plunder or piracy.--E.

[8] Socotora is called Scorsia or Scoria in the Trevigi edition.--E.

SECTION XXI.

_Of Madagascar, Ethiopia, Abyssinia, and several other Countries[1]_.

A thousand miles south from Socotora is Magaster[2] or Madagascar, one of
the largest and richest islands in the world[3], 3000 miles in
circumference, which is inhabited by Saracens, and governed by four old
men. The currents of the sea in those parts are of prodigious force. The
people live by merchandize, and sell vast quantifies of elephants teeth
[4]. Mariners report strange stories of a prodigiously large bird like an
eagle, called _Ruch_, said to be found in this country.

Zensibar or Zanguebar, is also said to be of great extent, and inhabited by
a very deformed people; and the country abounds in elephants and antelopes,
and a species of sheep very unlike to ours.

I have heard from mariners and skilful pilots, much versant in the Indian
seas, and have seen in their writings, that these seas contain 12,700
islands, inhabited or desert.

In the Greater India, which is between Moabar or the Coromandel coast on
the east, round to Chesmacoran on the north-west, there are thirteen
kingdoms. India Minor is from Ziambo to Murfili[5], in which are eight
kingdoms and many islands.

The second or Middle India is called Abascia[6], of which the chief king is
a Christian, who has six other kings subject to his authority, three of
whom are Christians and three of them Mahometans; there are also Jews in
his dominions. St Thomas, after preaching in Nubia, came to Abascia, where
he preached for some time, and then went to Moabar or Coromandel. The
Abyssinians are valiant soldiers, always at war with the sultan of Aden and
the people of Nubia. I was told, that in 1288, the great emperor of the
Abyssinians was extremely desirous to have visited Jerusalem; but being
dissuaded from the attempt, on account of the Saracen kingdoms which were
in the way, he sent a pious bishop to perform his devotions for him at the
holy sepulchre. On his return, the bishop was made prisoner by the sultan
of Aden, and circumcised by force. On this affront, the Abyssinian monarch
raised an army, with which he defeated the sultan and two other Saracen
kings, and took and destroyed the city of Aden. Abyssinia is, rich in gold.
Escier, subject to Aden, is forty miles distant to