A small work entitled Itinerarium Portugallensium, printed at Milan in
1508, after speaking of the island of Sayla, says that to the eastward of
this there is another called Samotra, which we name Taprobane, distant
from the city of Calechut about three months' voyage. The information
appears to have been obtained from an Indian of Cranganore, on the coast
of Malabar, who visited Lisbon in 1501.

LUDOVICO BARTHEMA.

Ludovico Barthema (Vartoma) of Bologna, began his travels in 1503, and in
1505, after visiting Malacca, which he describes as being the resort of a
greater quantity of shipping than any other port in the world, passed
over to Pedir in Sumatra, which he concludes to be Taprobane. The
productions of the island, he says, were chiefly exported to Catai or
China. From Sumatra he proceeded to Banda and the Moluccas, from thence
returned by Java and Malacca to the west of India, and arrived at Lisbon
in 1508.

ODOARDUS BARBOSA.

Odoardus Barbosa, of Lisbon, who concluded the journal of his voyage in
1516, speaks with much precision of Sumatra. He enumerates many places,
both upon the coast and inland, by the names they now bear, among which
he considers Pedir as the principal, distinguishes between the Mahometan
inhabitants of the coast and the Pagans of the inland country; and
mentions the extensive trade carried on by the former with Cambaia in the
west of India.

ANTONIO PIGAFETTA.