A History of Agriculture in India v2.c61.s3.2

v2.c61.s3.2

The first European to describe pepper was John of Marignola, who travelled by the land route to China in A.D. 1338 as emissary of Pope Benedict XII. He returned by the sea route, and landed at Quilon or Columbum, as he calls it. He thus describes a visit to a pepper garden. 'On Palm Sunday A.D. 1357 I entered Columbum, the most famous city in the whole of India, where all the pepper in the world grows. It grows on creepers, which are planted exactly like vines and first produce wild grapes of a green colour. Thereupon a kind of grape forms containing red wine, which I have squeezed out on to the plate with my own hand as a condiment. Thereafter they ripen and dry on the trees. And when the immoderate heat of the sun has dried them hard, they are struck down with staves and collected on linen clothes spread out beneath. This I have seen with my own eyes and felt with my own hands throughout fourteen months.