The Book of Duarte Barbosa. Edited by Manse' Longworth Dames.
Vol. IL (Hakluyt Society : issued to members.)— Barbosa was a Portuguese traveller who visited India in the early years of the sixteenth century, probably before 1518, and also went to Ceylon and Malacca. He described what he saw in an interesting fashion, and he was, it seems, uncommonly accurate. This second volume, admirably translated and annotated by Mr. Longworth Dames, opens with a lengthy section on Malabar, where " there are Moors in great numbers who speak the same tongue as the heathen of the land and go naked like the Nayres, but as a token of distinction from the heathen they wear little round caps on their heads and long beards." These are the Mappillas or Moplahs who have lately risen in revolt. Barbosa thought that " this evil generation " formed a fifth part of the population of Malabar, but the editor says that they now form nearly a third. They are a mixed race, descended from Arab settlers who married Hindu women. The Portuguese disliked the Moplahs as trade rivals. Barbosa's book, as elucidated by Mr. Longworth Dames, is well worth reading.
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