Storia do Mogor 265.22.7

265.22.7

On hearing this report, the captain had recourse to the Mandarin, who is the Emperor of China's magistrate. This official reassured him, and said he might keep his mind at rest, pledging his word that no one in his government would dare to interfere with them. After the lapse of some days the captain with the rest of the priests returned to the ship escorted by a company of soldiers sent by the Chinese governor, and in this way they escaped. The Portuguese had tried to do the same at Saõ Thomé, under an order received from Goa, but they could not carry it out, that country and its government belonging to the Mogul king. There can be no doubt that something curious can be written about a tree which generally grows in India near the sea. It is called palm-tree or coco-tree. This tree has many roots about the thickness of the little finger, and it grows to a great height but increases very slowly. When seven years have passed it begins to yield fruit; ordinarily it occupies a circumference of two cubits and three-quarters, there or thereabouts, and it lives for a hundred years. At that age it grows to as much as ten arms' length; the stem is straight like the mast of a ship, with the branches [233] or palm-leaves at the summit about two arms in length. The leaves are two cubits long, lying close to one another like organ-pipes, three inches in breadth. In the middle of the leaf is a rib, of which they make brooms, et cetera.