Note {1} — Chapter XXII

Note 1.—Futile doubts were raised by Baldelli Boni and Hugh Murray as to the position of Coilum, because of Marco’s mentioning it before Comari or Cape Comorin; and they have insisted on finding a Coilum to the east of that promontory. There is, however, in reality, no room for any question on this subject. For ages Coilum, Kaulam, or, as we now write it, Quilon, and properly Kollam, was one of the greatest ports of trade with Western Asia.[1] The earliest mention of it that I can indicate is in a letter written by the Nestorian Patriarch, Jesujabus of Adiabene, who died A.D. 660, to Simon Metropolitan of Fars, blaming his neglect of duty, through which he says, not only is India, “which extends from the coast of the Kingdom of Fars to Colon, a distance of 1200 parasangs, deprived of a regular ministry, but Fars itself is lying in darkness.” (Assem. III. pt. ii. 437.) The same place appears in the earlier part of the Arab Relations (A.D. 851) as Kaulam-Malé, the port of India made by vessels from Maskat, and already frequented by great Chinese Junks.