Volume 2 / Part 3 — CHAPTER XXVIII.
Henry Yule translation
Concerning the Kingdom of Cambaet.
Cambaet is a great kingdom lying further west. The people are Idolaters, and have a language of their own, and a king of their own, and are tributary to nobody.{1}
The North Star is here still more clearly visible; and henceforward the further you go west the higher you see it.
There is a great deal of trade in this country. It produces indigo in great abundance; and they also make much fine buckram. There is also a quantity of cotton which is exported hence to many quarters; and there is a great trade in hides, which are very well dressed; with many other kinds of merchandize too tedious to mention. Merchants come here with many ships and cargoes, but what they chiefly bring is gold, silver, copper [and tutia].
There are no pirates from this country; the inhabitants are good people, and live by their trade and manufactures.
The Indigo of Cambay was long a staple export, and is mentioned by Conti, Nikitin, Santo Stefano, Federici, Linschoten, and Abu’l Fazl.
The independence of Cambay ceased a few years after Polo’s visit; for it was taken in the end of the century by the armies of Aláuddín Khilji of Delhi, a king whose name survived in Guzerat down to our own day as Aláuddín Khúní—Bloody Alauddin. (Rás Málá, I. 235.)